One dollar is about 103.5 yen (in this story). Since I have a bit of reference to money, dollar quotes are in parentheses (since ff . net won't let me use brackets...>:-/ )

"hime," "hime-sama": both mean "princess," and is the pet name Ishida uses towards Orihime (in this story) as well as the pet name Chizuru uses (in the anime).

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.

kaerichi
Chapter 19

"Ichigo…"

He let out a sleepy grunt, but otherwise remained the same.

"Ichigo, come on!" Rukia said with a laugh in her voice, and she pushed against him so that he would wake up. Her hands gently swept up his stomach, and when he stretched, she could see every one of his ribs straining against his skin.

"Good morning, you," she said. "Someone was sleeping well."

"Have you been awake long?"

"No. I was just watching you." She sat up, pulling up the bedsheet as well to preserve her modesty. After their rather…passionate…night in the foyer, they'd finally made it to the real bed to fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the sheets. Actually, her bed was just a thick mattress on the floor. Since there was no headboard or anything of the sort, Ichigo sat up against the wall. The bedsheet pooled around his waist and Rukia tried not to let her eyes linger lower. Ichigo noticed, and he smirked.

"See something you like?"

"Oh, shut up," she said, acting mildly miffed, and it wasn't until Ichigo pulled her to him that she relented. She came, pulling the bedsheet as weak sunlight streamed in from the high window next to the bed.

"So."

"So…" she repeated. "I guess this is where we talk?"

"Better now than later," Ichigo shrugged. "I'm actually surprised we had a peaceful night. We've got both sides of powerful organizations after us with extreme amounts of resources. Seems kind of unreal, huh? I guess when you look at it that way, it looks pretty hopeless."

"We could always leave Japan."

"We could."

"But they'd probably be watching the docks and airports."

"Yeah…and…"

She blinked up at him, at his sudden regretful face. "Ichigo?"

"I don't know, it's stupid, but…" he mussed his hair, and turned his eyes from her, "I just think that I'm leaving my family somehow. I know I am, and I don't regret it, but I just wish this all could've happened without hurting my family, y'know?"

"I know how much you love your sisters," she said, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, but they know me better than anyone…I just hope they don't worry much."

She was quiet.

"What are we going to do, Ichigo?"

"Do? I don't know," he said. He sighed into her hair, the dark strands silky soft under his mouth. "For one thing, is it even safe to go out yet?"

"But weren't the hunters learning to track an aura? If they are, we're dead if we stay here."

"You're right…they were. That's how we found out that international meeting of vampires that night," Ichigo reminisced, "you remember…oh."

"Yes, I remember," she said, smiling a little ruefully at his tact. "How could I forget that night? The hunters killed so many international vampires, and then Hitsugaya was almost killed, and that was the first night I met you…"

"…"

"…so where should we go? We can't got anywhere…unless maybe you could return to the hunter's base…"

"Rukia, no. I'm not leaving."

"…all right…thank you…" she said, feeling touched. "But we should have a plan of action for living and moving around, if we want to stay alive. Things might die down after a while. We won't know until then."

"What about money?" Ichigo suddenly asked. "I'm not asking to be petty, but I don't think I'll be able to gain any access to my money. The base will probably be watching all of my savings and other earnings, if I try to withdraw it all."

"No, that's okay. How much did you get paid as a hunter?"

"All captains are paid a salary of 160,000 yen ($1,540) every two weeks, plus bonuses for each successful mission and for each successful challenge."

"Challenge?"

"When I fight a vampire one-on-one and I win. The vampire's abilities are later judged by these people in the hunter's base, and depending on what level they judge the vamp to be, that's how much we get paid in the bonus. Remember when I told you about Yamamoto, that vamp that gave me a lot of trouble to kill because of his instant-movement ability, or something?"

She nodded.

"That bonus was huge – almost 2,000,000 yen ($19,300)."

"2,000,000 yen? Really? You get paid that much?"

"Yeah."

"How can the hunters afford it?"

"We have rich…patrons, so to speak, who have it in their interest to see vampires defeated. They give monthly donations. And also, all the lower-level hunters have day jobs as well as night jobs, and they have to give most of their earnings to base."

"Why?"

"Because they live in the building, so they get free housing, free food, they get trained, and if their families are into it, there's free schooling."

"Oh…I see."

"And that's why we're able to finance a very well-equipped research station as well." Ichigo sighed, and looked up at the wall. "But we captains are the only ones who get paid from base. After all, fuck it, we risk our lives every goddamn night, plus think up the night's strategies and keep our unit functional…we should get paid."

"Hn."

"What about the vampires?"

Rukia shrugged. "You're a vampire, you have a long life. There's no set process of finances like with your hunters…we don't get paid for being rank-level. That's just prestige everyone wants. But when you have eternity ahead of you, coupled with supernatural abilities, the things you can do to get money are pretty vast."

"Like what? Rob a bank?"

"Well, those are only the desperate ones, and normally either the elder or leader council will punish those who try that. After all, we're for trying to upkeep the human peace, too, you know."

Ichigo let out something that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a snort.

"But as for our finances, right now, we should be okay. All my liquid assets are worth about 4.7 billion yen ($45,410,000)," she said, ignoring Ichigo's sudden exclamation. "…that should be enough to keep us going for a while. I earn money from them monthly, and since other vampires don't meddle with my money, I don't think they'd be able to track us via my finances."

"But…but…" Ichigo sputtered, "4.7 billion yen?"

"Yes. That's another thing about defeating a vampire of the leader council. Since they're defeated – dead, meaning – and have no relatives, you get to claim all their property and assets – unless there's a will around somewhere, which of course there wasn't. Kaien, I swear, he must've been around since goddamn creation with all the things he owned. I gave some of his things to Hitsugaya and Renji, just because it was too much."

"Really? What did he own?"

"Several mansions and apartment complexes in America, several houses in Japan, a few buildings around France and London, a China-based taxi service, and a mansion or two up in Quebec and Montreal. I don't know exactly what all of it is, but that should be the most of it. And of course, I gave a lot away. At the time I won his position, I was living low-key, and having so much money all at once made me…uncomfortable."

Ichigo leaned forward to brush his lips with her cheek. "I didn't know you were worth so much, Rukia."

"Does it make a difference?"

"No."

Silence.

"Is that all we had to talk about?"

"Guess so, eh?"

"No, it isn't…we still didn't talk about what we're going to do."

"Live?"

"Besides that, Ichigo."

"Try to get on the best we can, and try to avoid vampires and hunters alike."

"You make it sound so easy," Rukia grumbled lightly. "It's like, 'Oh, the hunters are after us, let's run this way' and then 'Oh, the vampires are after us now. We're dead.' It won't be that simple, you know."

He let out a wry smile at her words and leaned forward. "You have this incredible ability to overcomplicate things further than how they should be regarded," he said. "I know we're in a dire situation…but like I said before, what good will come out of worrying?" He brushed his nose against hers as he said so.

"Well, nothing, I guess," she admitted grudgingly, "it's just that I always want to be prepared in case anything happens…"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Just remember what I said, Rukia. One step at a time, nah? Gotta learn to walk before you can run."

She nodded slowly.

"And now that that's all over with…want to take a shower first?"

"Oh…sure, I suppose."

They sat there, and she huffed.

"Well, could you at least pretend to look away?"

"Why?" he smirked.

"Ichigo!" Rukia threw her pillow at him.

"All right, all right, I can take a hint," he said, dodging the pillow. However, when he looked back up, she was already gone.

Ishida's head was buzzing as he left the meeting room. Similarly, Orihime, walking next to him, was equally silent. He took her hand, and led her up to the roof of the hunter's building, where the bright sunshine contrasted horribly with his current bleakness of thought.

Orihime was the first to speak.

"I wonder…who ever thought it would come to this?"

"I didn't," Ishida shook his head. "I thought that Kurosaki would work it out somehow, be able to satisfy himself with it being a secret…the idiot. What the hell was he thinking, bringing his relationship with that vampire into the light?"

"Kurosaki-kun couldn't help it," Orihime defended him. "I mean, he was going to be executed! What else could he do but embrace back the one person who stood up for him? And besides, he was in love with her too!"

"I know, hime-sama, but…to end up where they are now…"

She fell silent at that.

"I never would have believed the words 'Kurosaki' and 'traitor' would ever be synonymous in the same sentence," Ishida said in a hollow voice. However, Shihouin Yoruichi's voice came floating back to him, the works unmistakable in her previous speech.

That had been a welcoming meeting for the five new appointed captains…as well as briefing for the situation dealing with Kurosaki Ichigo-taichou. Ishida had stood up for his friend. They couldn't judge just by one embrace, he'd argued. That went against morals and the principle of faith!

The only principle at work here is seeing is believing, Yoruichi had told him quietly.

The rest of the captains seemed to side with her. Only three others sided with him: his girlfriend and new captain of the twelfth unit division, Inoue Orihime (a fact for which Ishida had mixed feelings), Kyouraku Shunsui, captain of the first unit division, and last of all, newly-instated captain of the ninth unit division, Aizen Sousuke, a soft-spoken man of character. Ishida had immediately liked him.

However, four captains against nine others, plus Yoruichi and Ichimaru, had not been enough to change anybody's mind.

"But still…to think that they're going to track down Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime broke into his thought. "I…I don't want him to get hurt."

"Hime-sama…Kurosaki is too good at this game already to get hurt."

"You think so?"

"I was his best friend for years. I know."

"But being in love is the most wonderful feeling in the world, and I should know something about that," she said, looking very seriously at him only a foot away. "No one should ruin that for anyone. Does it matter who falls in love with who? In the end, you still have the same feelings for the person, right?"

"Hime…Kuchiki's a vampire."

"I know! And I used to hate vampires too, for what they did my brother…but Kuchiki-san can't be all that bad if Kurosaki-kun fell in love with her!"

"I know, hime-sama," he said, and pulled her close as he leaned against the balcony railing. From this height, more than fifty-two stories up, the walk below was so small that the individual people moving looked smaller than ants. "But just because we've come to a newer understanding of vampires in no way means that the same has come for other hunters. After all, you and I both hated vampires with good reasons."

"I know, but Uryuu…"

"I guess it doesn't really matter," he said, stroking her arm softly. Orihime wasn't going to take this well, he knew, just because she worried about everyone too much…and Kurosaki was one of her best friends. "She's a vampire. The most we can hope for is that they'll be able to escape beyond detection, or that something more urgent comes up that needs the base's attention…though for the life of me, I don't know what that would be."

Orihime was silent for a second. "Uryuu…do you think we'll ever see them again?"

"We can hope for the right situation, hime, we can hope." He turned his face back to the wind. Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn't Kurosaki have found himself a nice hunter girl to settle down with, have a family, and raise hunter kids? Why did it have to be a vampire? Why had Ishida somehow always known that Kurosaki was a paradox in all meanings of the word?

He sighed. These thoughts were taking him nowhere, and in addition, they were causing him and his girlfriend severe depression.

"Oh, by the way, hime-sama…I never did get to say congratulations properly."

"Thank you, Uryuu," she smiled up at him. "You were the one who helped me train for the position, so of course anyone would get it if you were helping them."

Shaking his head, he buried his nose in her hair. "Just don't die, all right?"

The words were not hers exclusively. Instinctively, she understood this…and whispered out to the sky:

"…please, whatever you do, please don't die."

"You mean your leader flat-out told you all of this?"

Rukia nodded slowly. "That's just Urahara-san's way of doing things. He doesn't beat around the bush like other people I know…straight to the point, that's how he is. It's the most probable reason why he has the top seat in Japan right now."

"But this is life-changing shit and all!"

"I always knew there had to be a reason why I wasn't like other vampires," Rukia shrugged, eyes faintly recalling a memory. "I finally know the reason now, and I guess it's better than being naïve about it. Urahara-san told me the same thing."

Ichigo kissed her before replying. "Well, I definitely know how you feel. Learning that I had – Kaien's – soul as part of mine wasn't exactly old information." He looked uncomfortable at the mention of the name.

"Don't worry, you can say his name without hesitating. I'm okay with it now."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, if you say so."

"But back to what you were saying…I know, I didn't even have an inkling of thought about that. And I suspect that I would've never known if you hadn't been in base that day, waiting to be executed."

"You mean, if you hadn't protected me."

She nodded, and put her hand against the side of the boat to lean on. Ichigo had rented them a boat in the park, and was currently rowing with slow, lazy strokes on the placid lake. A little ways away, a few fish jumped out of the water with a splash.

"Are these things detectable by blood?"

"What, a vampire's soul?" Rukia asked.

"Yeah."

"Of course, because there's a special aura in your blood that allows you to be comfortable with your reflexes and heal as fast as you do. You're just like me – you have a special aura, different from anyone else's. Hm. I always wondered why I could sense you the easiest out of all the other hunters…"

Ichigo had gone rigid across from her, stopping all movement. The boat glided forward a few paces before gently coming to a stop. Rukia turned her eyes to him, worry evident. "Ichigo? Something the matter?"

"You said these things – the aura – is detectable by blood, right?"

"Yes. Most definitely." The look on his face was beginning to scare her…

"You're sure."

"Yes. That's why when I was rescued from the hunter base, Urahara-san had to go and find the sample of my blood that you took, and he destroyed it. Since your soul is the assimilation of both a vampire and a human's, I'd say that your aura is clearly disgintuishable, moreso than even a vampire's. In that aspect, you're a liability. Both halves of your soul are so distinct that it's easy to separate them."

"Aw…fuck." Ichigo swore loudly. "Rukia, we have to go back to the hunter base."

"What? Why?"

"All hunters, upon assignment to any unit division or captain's title, are required to give blood just as part of the determining process. This blood is kept for a while because if you're a good hunter, chances are the lab people will try to mix genes and produce test-tube babies, all of which will have "superior," specially chosen genes."

"You're making test-tube babies?" Rukia asked him, with a horrified look on her face.

"That's what the Development Department does, among other things. They make weapons and mess around with the true workings of humankind. But anyway," he said, waving a hand absently, "that's not what I'm talking about! What I'm saying is that they have my blood! If they study it, wouldn't they be able to decode it just like they were trying to with yours?"

"Your blood, the aura…" Rukia whispered. "…if they were able to distinguish the aura, then all of the aura-seeking weapons that the hunters use against the vampires…"

"…would be even more efficient, towards our individual auras especially," Ichigo finished her thought.

They sat in dismal silence.

"But…we don't owe it to anyone to save the vampires, or the hunters…" Rukia then said softly. "I…I might not want my friends to die, but I don't have an obligation to risk my own life for them, either. I guess if you look at it that way, we don't have to go back to your base…"

"Rukia, right now, they don't care about them. Right now, they want you. I might be a traitor but the hunters probably think that it was you who led me astray, and if anything, they'll want revenge." He shook his head slowly. "They'll use the aura to come after you, and then they could use it to even come after me…Rukia, I don't want that to happen to you."

"But Ichigo, what can we do?" Why was this happening? If they didn't have enough things to deal with, now this…?

"It would be impossible to attack the base just by ourselves. And we have no allies. Even though we're strong I doubt both of us, together, would be able to stand a chance of getting in and out of the hunter base alive."

"My friends did it!"

"Well, yes, they did, but those were very high-level vampires, and even they had to bring a horde in order to make it past the first floor. They used massive numbers. If we do go in, we'll need stealth."

His eyes met hers.

"...we have to, don't we." Rukia asked him.

She sounded weary, defeated.

"Yeah."

"No other choice?"

"Yeah."

"…plan of attack?"

"I'll make one."

Rukia nodded, and Ichigo motioned for her to come to the middle of the boat, where he wrapped his arms around her in a strong embrace. Her eyes closed against his shoulder as his lips kissed her hair, her ear, her cheek…all very slowly, very gently, in a reassuring sort of manner.

"Ichigo…"

"Hn?"

"We have to do this, right? It's our last loose end."

He nodded. "The hunters will have no other samples of aura – our aura – if we do."

"Yes…we have to."

That was what she said, but why did she suddenly feel as if she had just signed her death warrant?

"So, if all goes according to this plan, then we should be able to have a ten-minute interval in which we can both search. You take this corridor and I'll take this one." Ichigo pointed to some random place on the crude map he'd drawn, and since Rukia had never physically seen the place before, she'd just have to rely on memory.

"So…down this corridor," Rukia drew with her finger, "then a left, then up, and you say I'd have to go through the ventilation shaft in this room?"

"Yeah. And you'll have to rely on your memory for that. Not even I know the entire layout of the system."

Rukia nodded, eyes scanning the map once more. Time was of the essence here – since the hunters already knew that Ichigo had a vampire's soul, they wouldn't waste any time in trying to study his blood. For Rukia's sake, and for the sake of all the vampires in the world, they had to stop it before things grew too out of hand.

Later in the day they took a taxi by the hunter base. It was one of the tallest buildings in the district, and from the outside it was all mirror plates and steel – a business building. The "businesses," however, were few, and almost the entire thing was a farce just to disguise their base.

Ichigo spoke to her in low tones, gesturing; she listened and nodded. The scenes flashed before her eyes.

"Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

"You aren't going to die on me?"

He blinked. That had come out of nowhere, but he supposed it was a genuine concern of hers. Leaning back against the taxi, his arm came out to slip around her. She was warm, and just touching her reminded Ichigo of the reason why he was all doing this – and it forever validated it, for him.

"Of course not. We're both gonna be fine."

"What if they catch us?"

"Then we go together."

"What if they catch just one of us? You can't win against everybody."

"Rukia, stop thinking. You're on that same self-destructive thought path that never does you any good," Ichigo said. His fingers gently closed her lips when she opened them in some kind of retaliation. "Seriously. No more talk about things like that."

She looked up at him with her impossibly clear violet eyes, the bearer of excessive heartache and sorrow, and something in him softened at the sight. There was only so much pain from her that he could take without a reaction, and this was well over his limit. Ichigo bent his head until his forehead touched hers.

"Rukia…don't worry. No matter what, I'll protect you."

And when she shifted up to touch her lips to his, he knew that he'd done enough to stymie her fears for now.

"…thank you, Ichigo…"

tsuzuku