I swear, I laughed at this personal review someone sent me: "Hrm...my only compliant is that I can't see two top hunters, two top BADASS hunters drinking long island iced teas. As much as I'd hate to say it...and granted I'm sure it comes off as a bit...sexist...but that is a girley drink. You don't talk over a long island iced tea, you talk over something straight...you are diluting your pleasures after all." You know who you are ;-p
I know about the "girley" drink. Its purpose was trying to flesh out more of Ishida's character, where he's not so rough and masculine on the inside as most others - including Ichigo. However, upon review, I supposed that it was better to make him appear more "manly," and thus, if you check back two chapters, you'll see I've changed it :-)
This fic is rated R because of language, violence, and sensuality. If any of the aforementioned offends you, please do not read.
Review if you like. No flames, please.
A/N added 07/05/05: I'm going to be away for two months vacationing in Japan; I don't know if I'll have computer access...hopefully so, but if not, no new chapters til the beginning of September.
kaerichi
Chapter 13
"BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP!"
Quicker than a flash, Ichigo and Rukia separated, each looking around each other for the source of the obvious alarm. If one couldn't hear the sound, you couldn't miss the red searchlights that were currently whirring about in the room, like the lights of an emergency ambulance, cutting glaringly across the room.
Rukia wondered if someone had caught them, well, snuggling, but then suspected that this was something bigger going on…
"Sorry Rukia I gotta go! That's the invasion alarm! I think something's going on!" Ichigo said without even a backward glance, leaping out of the cell like a shot and quickly closing the door. "I'll find out what's wrong and be back in a sec!" he said over his shoulder.
"Sure…" she said, watching his orange hair disappear behind the sliding metal door. The day had been so peaceful, too, until the alarm had gone off…and even though the intimacy between her and Ichigo was rising to a level she considered dangerous, she just couldn't break it off…
Caught up in her thoughts, she noticed the door slide open. And because she trusted Ichigo's words, she said, "Oh, back already, Ichigo…?" before what was before her eyes registered before her brain.
"Who the fuck is Ichigo?" a very familiar red-haired man said, one eyebrow raised in his severe face.
Her tongue died. For a moment, that is.
"Re – Renji!"
"In the flesh," he stated proudly, thumping himself on the chest like his presence was something to be honored and worshipped. "Anyway, we've come to save you, Rukia. I hope you know what a pain in the ass you've been for us to even try this!"
"Wh – What? Come to…save me?" The words were foreign in her throat; it took a while for her to register that she had even repeated him.
"Yeah, come to save you!" There was a frustrated squabble at the controls, while Hitsugaya and Renji messed around with it, trying to decide how it worked while Hitsugaya tried to see if using his special vision would work. Nope.
"Oh, move over, you two, and let me try."
Hinamori pushed past Renji to take the head of the controls, studying the multitude of buttons and keypad controls available in front of her. Suddenly, her eyes closed, then opened; but now there was a strange light to her eyes, and Rukia knew that Hinamori was using her own special ability.
"There's one main password to open the cell, other than hitting the F2 key first, hitting the number 8 after the password and then enter. The password changes every hour, and right now it is…" she trailed off, and her eyes were moving back and forth furiously, "…SHIROI37531BIRU, I think…the password's going to change in another 11 minutes, 27 seconds." She entered the password slowly, carefully. "And the funny thing is that there's no katakana or kanji…it's all in hiragana…"
She pressed the red button, the same red button that Rukia had always seen Ichigo press, and the door opened softly. She stared at it. It was such a simple action, but yet, it mystified her with the mixed feelings it now brought. A month ago, she would have been ecstatic, leaping out with no hesitation and already planning her revenge against those who held her.
Yet so much had changed since then.
And that was why, silently, she just watched the door open in front of her.
"Well, come on, Rukia!" Renji impatiently held out his hand for her to grab, helping herself down from the slight platform her cell was on. As he grabbed her wrist, though, sudden sparks of blue lightning emitted from the four aura-restricting bracelets she still wore, and they both let out a yelp of pain as it singed both skins. Renji started to heal immediately; Rukia, not nearly so fast.
"What the fuck are those?" Renji yelled as he massaged his burnt arm.
"They're aura-restrictors," Rukia explained. "It's how they keep captured vampires from breaking out, because it restricts their aura."
"You mean…you haven't been able to use your aura all this time?"
"Don't sound so shocked, Renji. We knew the hunters probably had some kind of technology like this," Hitsugaya said. "The only question is, how do we get it off without hurting Rukia?"
"The hunters were always the ones who took them off," Rukia said. "I think it works on the assumption of blood – humans have human blood, and a human aura…we have a vampiric aura, and these things are probably made to recognize that and separate it. Pretty advanced, for the hunters."
"Sounds plausible," Hitsugaya nodded.
"Had a lot of time to think."
"That still doesn't answer the question of how we're getting out!" Renji yelled. "Our plan for getting her out didn't include having to drag her like human baggage out of here! We thought she'd be able to use her aura! Now what?"
"We ask a human to take it off; it's as simple as that," Hitsugaya said. And he opened his mouth to say something else, but another voice interrupted that.
"Sorry…but you need to handle those bracelets in a special way, otherwise they'll just shoot off more sparks. You didn't really think we were going to let our vampire go without a fight, did you?"
Renji cursed. Standing in the door was not only Ichigo, but also Ishida, and a whole lot of other hunters whom Rukia had never seen before. And they were all holding advanced weaponry, pointed straight at them, lethal-looking things well oiled and well practiced.
"Step away from her," Ichigo indicated with his gun. "You, the one with the red hair."
Renji cast a glance at her, and then at Hitsugaya. And Rukia knew she hadn't missed the obvious understanding between them. Shit. All hell was going to break loose in another minute or two, she was sure of it.
And she was right.
Faster than the eye could see, Byakuya and Ukitake, who had infiltrated the hunter base first, struck out at their "comrades," clothed in hunter uniform, so that no one (at first) could tell what was happening and to whom. Second, Hitsugaya and Hinamori used their shunpa to speed their way into the fray, and last of all, Renji picked Rukia up like a sack of potatoes and used his still-developing shunpa to try and race past the fiasco.
There was a sudden explosion that rocked the building, and Rukia twisted herself around in Renji's grasp to see what it had been. However, she could see no visible damage, so that meant something had gone off somewhere else…
Suddenly they were out, out into the corridor, and Rukia could still hear the battle going on behind them…and there were more hunters, shooting at them, and Renji hissed and Rukia knew he was hit, but it couldn't be too bad because he never wavered in his step…
Ichigo…please, Ichigo, don't die… Rukia thought, as she saw the distance between her and the pursuing hunters grow larger. Please, Ichigo, do anything else – fight, kill, injure, but please don't die…
Renji seemed to have this building well-mapped out, for he made twists and turns around corners without hesitation, and it was a few moments shorter than what Rukia would've expected before they were near the exit, a plain door with steel bolting and code security, leading to the fire escape stairs. Hitsugaya, Hinamori, and Byakuya were already there.
"The others?" Renji practically yelled, breathless from having run so fast and having poured so much of his aura into his not-quite-yet-perfect shunpa.
"They went another direction and escaped already. Rukia still alive?"
"Shut up, Hitsugaya."
He smirked. "Just a simple question."
They unlocked the door, again with Hinamori's special ability, and they were almost all through before Rukia saw an orange head shoot past, and then stop, before running down the corridor towards them . Her insides squeezed; Ichigo was still alive, but if her friends caught him…!
Too late. Renji, having recognized the orange-haired captain from the night of the fire, whipped around the door and stood behind the hunter, whipping out a small dagger from a side pocket as he did so. And now he stood, the knife a hair's breadth away from the hunter's jugular vein. And of course, being a vampire, Renji could detect it easily.
"Look, fucker," he growled lowly, "I remember you from the fire. Who I am doesn't matter, and if you don't want your blood splattered across the walls, I suggest you follow my commands."
Ichigo seethed but kept still.
"Now, I want you to take off the bands on my friend's wrists. Go on. You yourself said only a hunter could do it," he said, and there was a smirk in his voice. Carefully, they walked forward. Ichigo caught her eye, and she tried to make hers tell him not to do anything stupid.
Pinching the ends of the bands together, Ichigo took them off, one by one. And as the last silver one finally came off, a resurgence of her aura surged back to her limbs, as physically as if she had submerged herself in water. It was something that she had not felt in weeks. Oh, her aura…!
Some of her delight must have shown on her face, because Renji smiled a little before his face turned furious again, noticing who it was that he held. And even Ichigo was looking at her strangely; he did not look angry at all. Rather, he appeared tired. Defeated, maybe.
Renji's hand tightened on the dagger. Again, Rukia's insides squeezed…but now she had her aura, and it suddenly thrust itself at Renji without her really meaning to. Surprised at the prickly feeling of an offensive aura, Renji let his hand drop. "…Rukia?"
"No! No, don't," she said, sounding a little more frantic than she would have liked. "This hunter has been good to me…he was the only one who was kind to me, so leave him, Renji, let him live…he might even be killed for taking off the aura-restricting bands, so leave him…a life debt for a life debt."
His hand tightened around the dagger even more, she noticed out of the corner of her eye. Ichigo was still standing motionless, and even though she had been speaking to Renji, her eyes never left Ichigo's.
Finally Renji let out an angry sigh, sidestepping the two to move out past the door. He knew how closely Rukia followed the respects of life debts. The rest of the vampires had already escaped, as Renji had told them to.
"Hurry up, Rukia," he said, without looking at her. "We don't have all fucking night."
And Rukia made to leave, watching Ichigo's eyes follow her, and Renji was already running up the stairwell, several floors up. Suddenly: "Wait, Renji, go on without me, I'll be there in a second!"
And before he could reply, she dashed back out and pulled Ichigo inside the stairwell, grasping the front of his shirt, using his tilted balance to smash his lips to hers in a demanding, smothering kiss. The stairwell was dark and quiet, and there were no cameras.
It was Rukia who pulled away. "Ichigo…Ichigo, I…I'm going to leave now," she said, her breath very warm against his lips, "but…I…" She cast a look upward, where Renji was calling out for her. "Meet me," she whispered swiftly, "Meet me at the pastry café in the Goukai Central building in Shinjuku, three days from now, at one p.m." Again, she cast a look up the winding stairs, and then reached up to place a soft, hasty kiss on his lips. "All right?"
"All right," he said. "Now…go. Go, Rukia."
And he pushed her away, and she ran up the stairs, and she smiled.
Once they were out of the building, getting back to the vampire main building was no problem. No one was following them, but that didn't stop their hasty departure by van. Wheels skidded across the asphalt, a few humans cursed what appeared to be "teenage foolishness," and they were out of there faster than anyone could blink.
Rukia, watching the flashing scenery, then turned forward. They were in two vans , all the main vampires behind her rescue in one, and she in another, plus one: Urahara.
"All right," she began, calmly, "now that everything has been said and done, I want you to tell me this, Urahara-san: just what the fuck is all this about?"
"Ah, dear Kuchiki-san, everything might be done but most definitely everything is not said," Urahara replied, smiling over to her. It was that I-know-something-you-don't smile that unnerved her sometimes. "I should have suspected your brilliant mind would figure in a suspicion among our pure intentions."
"Urahara-san…please. Don't give me bullshit."
"Very well, Kuchiki-san…" Urahara drew himself up. He folded his hand into his oversized sleeves, and his wide-brimmed hat suddenly blanketed his eyes in darkness. "I suppose now is as good a time as any."
Rukia wondered who was driving; but then she figured it didn't matter much anyway, since , strangely, there was an opaque glass barrier between the back and driver's seat. She didn't concentrate on the matter long. Urahara had started to speak.
"You, of course, Kuchiki-san, know that you were born sometime in the 1800s. At the time, Japan did not have the current year standard that the world now follows, so you have never known the exact year. However, that is something that I do know: it was 1854, and American Commodore Matthew Perry had just landed ashore."
"What does this have to do with my rescue?" she asked him, half bored, half curious.
"That's coming, coming…anyway, another thing you have never known is who your father was. I do not know that either. All I know is that the reason you are part white is because your mother, a Japanese citizen, was attacked and raped by a sailor aboard one of Commodore Perry's ships, and she became pregnant from it. That child was you."
"What?" Rukia was horrified. "You…you mean…"
"Yes."
"But my…my mother never said anything about that! She said…" Now that Rukia thought about it, she had never heard a word about her father from her mother, back when she'd been a real human…her beloved mother, Kuchiki Hisana, would just smile slowly and painfully and make whispered excuses. Now…it made perfect sense.
"Yes, your father was American, hence your eyes."
"But…"
"However, that is not all. In an ironic twist of fate, your mother attracted another person to her: she must have, but this person I have never known either. To be honest, all that we know about this nameless person is that he, or she, was a vampire, and that he or she turned your mother. Turned your mother when she was pregnant with you."
"When she was…with me? But…but…wouldn't I have died?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Something like this did happen a second time, and the fetus was born dead, as one would expect. But you survived. I haven't a clue why. Who know, it could have been just luck. But you survived, and you were born of two races, of two worlds, born of the living and of the dead…" he paused. " You seemed human at birth , but when you were turned by Kaien , your power came to light...and this is why I think you have a special kind of power, one that no other vampire has."
"You mean…"
"I mean your wings, your aura. Yourself, Kuchiki Rukia."
Rukia sat there in shocked silence, letting Urahara's words wash over her, water in a sea in which she couldn't swim. All the holes in her life, the gaps, they'd all been filled, but if she had thought they would one day bring happy memories, all Rukia felt now was an emotionless vacuum. Her mother, raped and turned, she, born of both the living and dead, a living memory of the two most painful times in her mother's life, and then spending how many years under constant torture by her "Master" Kaien…her life and that preceding it was nothing short of fodder for suicide.
"And of course, your mother was immortal too, but unfortunately she was killed and we shall never know who originally turned her," Urahara said. He folded his fingers together, watching her carefully under the brim of his hat. It annoyed her. What, did he think she was going to go ballistic on him or something? "I know this must come as a shock, Kuchiki-san, but it's the honest truth."
"…and how do you know all this, anyway?"
"I've been around. I know everything that happened in Japan from before it even had a name," Urahara said.
Rukia nodded mutely.
"And since the hunters took some blood from you with intent of studying it, during your rescue mission, I could not be there with you because I had to destroy that sample. Can you imagine it, Kuchiki-san? Can you imagine what would happen if the hunters ever figured out the circumstances of your birth?"
She shook her head. "The hunters never took blood from me."
"They did. Maybe when you were unconscious, but they did."
"…what for?"
"If they ever decoded your blood, so to speak, they might be able to breed super-hunters. I'm sure they were highly interested in the fact that you're very different from the rest of us. They probably wanted all the information they could from you. It's not enough that they're already meddling with auras and such. The hunters would be able to breed super-hunters for their side, and if they all had special, heightened abilities like yours…you can imagine what would happen to the vampires in a short period of time."
"But they would be born human…they would have to be turned into vampires to be useful," Rukia said in a hollow voice. The words "They probably wanted all the information they could from you…" was ringing in her head… that, and the thought of her hunter friend, her only hunter friend, Kurosaki Ichigo…
"Like you, you mean. Perhaps not necessarily. In any case, I'm glad that we no longer have to worry about finding out." He stopped talking.
Rukia didn't feel like talking, either.
An old wound was beginning to burn in her heart, and if she started speaking, the wound would overflow her words and betray just how shattered her perspective really had become.
"Kuchiki-san…I know it's too much. But you're well over a hundred years old – young by our standards, but old by others'. And it would have been crueler to keep you naïve then to give you the truth," Urahara said quietly. "You'll understand, someday."
She nodded. "I do…" she all but whispered. "…thank you."
The scenery flashed past, and just now the sky was beginning to darken…but all the beauty of the long-unseen sky was lost to her eyes. Urahara didn't say anything further, but sat watching her for a long time. He was trying to pry past whatever layer he knew she'd put up, but she would never allow him the option of hurting her – of devastating her faith – any more than he already had.
They finally reached the main building the vampires used as command center.
The room she was left alone in was small and silent.
Rukia was the only vampire in the world with the ability to cry, to shed real tears.
She allowed herself the luxury.
tsuzuku