Chapter 6


Riruka opened her drawers and started to take out all of her old earphones and chargers, she frowned at how messy everything was. She would have to put everything in its respective place again, still she didn't give up and once she found what she was looking for she smiled and took it out.

It would be the perfect gift.


Ichigo and Rukia were standing side by side while looking at Kaien who was smiling widely at them.

"Cousin!" Kaien said happily "I'm so glad! I'm so relieved!"

Ichigo glared at him.

"About what? Shouldn't you be apologizing for getting into my room without knocking?!"

Kaien shook his head.

"I knew you weren't gay! I've been trying to convince Uncle Isshin for years and now I finally have some proof!" he said while hugging Ichigo "he is going to have grandchildren in the future! He'll be so happy!"

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily.

"Get off me, idiot" he said coldly without hugging his cousin back "before I break your fucking nose."

Kaien nodded and looked at Rukia.

"Nice to meet you" he said offering his hand "my name is Shiba Kaien and I'm this idiot's cousin."

Rukia smiled and took his hand.

"My name's Rukia" she said politely "nice to meet you too."

Kaien's eyes widened.

"Oh, you're the new student" he said surprised "a few boys at school were talking about you."

Rukia blinked.

"Really?" she asked startled, she hadn't met any boys from school yet. She only knew Ichigo and Renji.

"Yes" Kaien said smirking "well, they mostly talked about how pretty you are."

Ichigo frowned at Rukia's blushing face.

"Hey, idiot" Ichigo said coldly to Kaien "unless you want me to tell your girlfriend how you're flirting with the new girl…"

"Don't threaten me, cousin" Kaien said quickly "you know how much I love my girlfriend! I just came to beg for food, my sister left for a trip and my fridge is empty."

"So?" Ichigo asked, not caring about his cousin's hunger.

"So I called sweet Yuzu and I asked her if I could have dinner here" he explained casually "she said that it was okay, although I never expected you to have a guest."

Ichigo sighed heavily and looked at Rukia.

She nodded seriously back at him, she didn't know if she could trust Ichigo's cousin so it was up to him to decide what to tell him. While she knew that Ichigo, Renji and Riruka knew mostly everything she didn't want anyone else to know about the convent, it was quite embarrassing. She looked at Ichigo hoping that he would understand and much to her surprise he apparently did.

"Listen, Kaien" Ichigo said with a serious tone "no one knows Rukia is here, no one has to know, she's running away from her house and looking for a life on her own. I'm just helping her."

Kaien's eyes widened as he looked at Rukia.

"Really?" he asked.

Rukia nodded.

"Can you keep the secret? Please?" she asked shyly.

Kaien crossed his arms and looked at Ichigo.

"You're not telling me everything" he said accusingly.

"Obviously" Ichigo said and Kaien sighed heavily.

"Well" Kaien said "I do owe you a couple of favors, dear cousin."

There was a silence of a few seconds in which Kaien closed his eyes as if contemplating the whole thing. Ichigo groaned inwardly, he knew how much of a drama queen Kaien was, so he was obviously simply playing with them. Unfortunately, Rukia didn't know him that much so she bit her lower lip nervously while waiting for his answer, Ichigo promised himself to punch Kaien at some point for worrying the midget.

"Fine" he said finally smiling widely at Rukia "your secret is safe with me, I just have one condition!"

"Condition?" Rukia asked carefully.

Kaien nodded enthusiastically.

"You have to come to my beach party" he said "is in two weeks and I always invite some people from the school."

Rukia smiled at that.

"Deal!" she said, she had never been to a beach party before.

"What the fuck?" Ichigo asked angrily "why the beach party?"

Kaien smiled devilishly at his cousin.

"Because you never go" he said as a matter of fact "but something tells me that you will not refuse this year."

Rukia tilted her head confused as Ichigo glared at his cousin.

He was right, after all there was no way he was going to let Rukia go on her own to one of Kaien's parties.

Ichigo felt the sudden need to tell Yuzu to poison Kaien's food.


Byakuya parked outside the store and sighed.

He didn't want to do this, he didn't want to give explanations and he knew deep down that the woman inside the store would make him feel as if he had committed a crime. According to his grandfather he had committed an unforgivable mistake by leaving his young daughter under the care of nuns but he had already admitted that, so why was he still suffering the consequences? He didn't want to answer that to himself.

With resignation he stepped into the store and thanked the Gods the decision of coming alone.

"Oh my" someone said "am I dreaming? Or the Kuchiki heir himself has decided to pay my humble store a visit?"

Byakuya looked at the counter and there she was, Yoruichi Shihouin. She had a cat like grin, dark skin, purple hair and she was smoking a cigarette without a care in the world.

"I have a question" Byakuya said without hesitation "just answer me and then I'll be on my way."

Yoruichi laughed.

"You haven't changed Byakuya-boo!" she said and then smiled knowingly "I knew you would come, it was a matter of time."

Byakuya sneered.

"Oh, come on!" Yoruichi said "don't look at me like that, your current predicament is not my fault. You haven't found her, right?"

Byakuya shook his head in negative.

"Figures" she said proudly "she's a clever one, she's your daughter after all."

"How did you know it was her?" Byakuya asked coldly "you never met her."

Yoruichi chuckled.

"But I was a close friend of sweet Hisana" she said "don't act like you don't know that, they are almost identical, it was hard for me to hide my surprise when I saw sweet Rukia stepping into my store without a care in the world."

"Did she tell you anything?" Byakuya asked "we've been looking for her but…"

"But you won't find her" Yoruichi said coldly "and I won't tell you anything."

Byakuya glared at the dark skinned woman in front of him.

"She's my daughter!" he said angrily "I have the right to know!"

"Oh, go fuck yourself" Yoruichi said without reservations "I was proud of you Byakuya-boo, when I saw you at my wedding holding Hisana's hand I thought that you had finally come out of your fucking bubble!" she chuckled darkly "Hisana said that you made her the happiest and both of you were blessed with a daughter."

"Go straight to your point" he said crossly.

"After Hisana's funeral you disappeared with your family and moved to Tokyo" she continued "Ginrei-sama said that you were being an attentive, loving father and I was still proud of you."

Byakuya looked aside pretending to be interested in the store's products.

"But you fucked up everything" she said finally "what the hell possessed you to send your only daughter to a convent? Not only that, but you actually managed to avoid her for a whole year, she begged you for years to go back home, what the hell is your problem?!"

Byakuya clenched his fists and scowled at Yoruichi.

"How do you know all of this?" he asked finally "my family matters are none of your business, my daughter was here, I know that. What did she tell you?"

Yoruichi shrugged.

"Byakuya-boo" she said smiling darkly "did you forget? I was a noble young lady, just like your daughter, and like her I also escaped."

Byakuya frowned.

"So, I'm picking a side in this little battle of yours" Yoruichi said finally "I'm taking your daughter's side, I know that Hisana would've supported me."

"I knew I shouldn't have come" Byakuya said finally.

"I can ask Kisuke" Yoruichi said "he would find her in a matter of days."

Byakuya raise an eyebrow.

"Your husband doesn't need to know about my family affairs" he said and then something clicked on his head "but you already asked him to investigate."

Yoruichi nodded.

"I was curious" she explained "that's how I knew about the convent and your daughter begging to go back, I was pretty disappointed."

Byakuya sighed.

"I loved Hisana as a sister" Yoruichi said "it pains me to think that her sweet daughter is alone in this city without her father's aid, why would you abandon Rukia like that?"

Byakuya looked at Yoruichi darkly.

"To protect her" he said finally "I never intended for her to be alone for so long, it just took a lot of time to make sure that she wouldn't be in danger in the outside world."

Yoruichi frowned.

"Protect her from what exactly?" she asked confused.

"You were Hisana's best friend" Byakuya said "why don't you draw your own conclusions?"

Yoruichi's eyes widened.

"Byakuya" she said worriedly "don't tell me that…"

"Since you're not going to give me information this conversation is over" he said and left the store without looking back.


Rukia listened to Ichigo preparing dinner with his family and sighed. It sounded fun and she found herself longing to be part of something like that. She lay down on Ichigo's bed and frowned at the ceiling. She wondered how her family was.

"Granddaddy sounded worried when I called them" she said aloud "but daddy didn't sound happy to hear me."

She covered her face with Ichigo's pillow and groaned.

She missed her family like crazy but she couldn't risk going back, what if they take her back to the convent? She wouldn't be lucky enough to escape a second time. Besides, her father would probably send Ichigo to jail for helping her and that was one of the main reasons why she didn't want Ichigo to find out that she was a Kuchiki. Her father was sort of famous in the business world, well most of her family was, so she didn't want to scare Ichigo by telling him her true identity.

She shook her head.

"He would probably panic" she reasoned aloud "is not worth the risk."

She didn't know why but she wanted to enjoy Ichigo's company a little bit more, she wanted to keep living in the closet and she wanted to get to know him better. She turned on the bed to face the window, the night was starting to fall and she was tired. Her eyes were starting to close when she heard a little noise against the window, like tapping, it happened again a few times and Rukia stood up to see what was it about.

She opened the window and her eyes widened when she saw Riruka holding some little rocks on her hand.

"Finally" Riruka said smiling "loser, can you come down? I have something for you."

Rukia nodded and stepped out the window, the process of going from the roof towards the street was quite tricky but she had always loved high places so it was entertaining for her. Once she was on the street Riruka approached her smiling.

"What's up?" Rukia asked "I thought your mom was quite strict with your curfew."

Riruka shrugged.

"She won't find out about this" she explained "anyway, this is quite new for me."

Rukia noticed how Riruka looked a little awkward.

"What's new for you?" Rukia asked confused.

Riruka rolled her eyes.

"This whole friendship thing" she said "listen, after what you told me about escaping the convent I figured out that perhaps the girls in there gave you a hard time."

Rukia nodded sadly. She hadn't told anyone about the treatments inside the convent, it was in the past so she didn't want to touch the subject, but Riruka was right. The girls were a huge part of the reason why she escaped.

"Well" Riruka said "this might come as a surprise for you, or perhaps not, but we have that in common."

Rukia's eyes widened.

"You'll see, loser" Riruka continued, ignoring her surprised face "the reason why I chose a school full of boys to study is because I had quite a few misunderstandings with a bitch from the other school. Long story short, she was my best friend and she betrayed the hell out of me, after that my life at school became quite unbearable."

"Did she bully you?" Rukia asked.

Riruka nodded.

"Yeah, her name's Senna" she said "I'm not an easy person to mess up with but she succeeded at that, anyway that's in the past and you're here now, and you didn't judge me for liking Chappy and you, like me, don't have female friends."

Rukia smiled at that.

"I have you now" she said "I told you, we're friends."

Riruka nodded.

"Exactly" she said "that's why I brought you something."

Rukia shook her head.

"You don't need to give me anything" she said "seriously."

Riruka ignored her.

"I was thinking" she said while rummaging her backpack "if you were to use the card again you might get into trouble but you also need some essential things that are not exactly cheap so I remembered I had this old thing."

Rukia observed how Riruka took out a smartphone of her backpack and handed it to her.

"It's old but it works well" she said "it still has my old number so there's no need to worry about going to a store, you have all the applications so you can also have a life on social media, although we should be careful in case your dad finds you on the internet and…" she paused after seeing Rukia's widened eyes looking at the phone "let me guess, nuns didn't have smartphones? Anyway, do you like it? It's not the latest model but…"

Riruka couldn't keep talking, Rukia had thrown herself at her and hugged her with all her might.

"Thank you!" she said happily and Riruka nodded.

"Anytime" she said "now let go off me, we're friends but I'm straight."

Rukia laughed and let go off Riruka.

"But if you're into girls I won't judge you" Riruka added "this is the twenty first century after all and being locked up with so many girls can do that to a person, I guess."

Rukia laughed harder and it was contagious so Riruka ended up laughing too.

Rukia was looking forward to go to classes tomorrow.


Byakuya stepped into the girly, pinky store and sneered.

It never occurred to him that Rukia would find the Chappy store so easily so he never thought about putting someone to watch it, although he considered it a waste of resources because it wasn't as if they could just approach Rukia out of nowhere. Sighing he looked around and wondered if Rukia inherited her love for cute things from Hisana, he couldn't remember his wife loving this kind of stuff.

"Now, Byakuya" Ginrei said "try to smile, we're a step closer of finding Rukia."

Byakuya and Soujun exchanged a wary look, he had insisted on coming to this store alone but Ginrei had already sent Kurosaki Ichigo towards his home and he wanted to go out and help to find Rukia.

Ever since Ginrei was informed that Rukia was in Karakura he had been chirpy and content he, for some strange reason, thought that Rukia wouldn't hesitate to come back if they were to find her. Byakuya knew deep down that Rukia loved Ginrei but he also knew about the iron will that Rukia possessed so he doubted that his daughter would simply agree to her granddaddy's wishes, she was his daughter after all.

The boy in charge of the store happened to be quite stupid, much to the Kuchikis disappointment. He was a teenager with glasses, braces and a disgusting beard attempt that Byakuya fought the urge to criticize aloud, this boy could have some information about his daughter so he would have to be patient with him.

"Hello" the boy said confused after seeing the men stepping into the store "how can I help you?"

Soujun sighed, perhaps they were an unusual sight inside the place. The boy was obviously used to seeing young girls into the store, not grown up men in suits.

Ginrei smiled kindly at the teenager.

"We're looking for information" he said "may we ask you a few questions?"

The boy hesitated a few seconds before nodding.

"I was about to close" he said "so I don't have much time."

"Then we'll make it quick" Soujun said coldly.

Byakuya noticed proudly how the boy recoiled with fear at his father's voice.

"Okay" the boy said nodding "what are you looking for? A new product?"

Byakuya shook his head.

"No" he said "we just want to see the footage of today's security cameras."

The boy clicked his tongue.

"I cannot help you" he said smoothly "you'll see, we don't have security cameras."

"What?" Soujun asked "what kind of store does not have security cameras?"

"Well" the boy said scratching the back of his head "they fired the previous employee because he would watch the footage just to, you know, watch the teenage girls around the store."

Byakuya, Ginrei and Soujun frowned at that.

"But it's okay now!" the boy said quickly "there are no cameras or perverted employees anymore."

Byakuya sighed.

"There was a girl in here today" he said in an all business manner "she bought a limited edition Chappy plushie and we're looking for her, can you give us any information?"

The boy crossed his arms, clearly frustrated.

"Sir" he said "do you have any idea about how many girls come around this store and buy plushies? Even if it was a limited edition it doesn't matter, those sell like candies. Girls are crazy about this rabbit for some reason."

Soujun fought the urge to yell at the boy in front of him and, without hesitation, took out his wallet and before anyone could ask what he was doing he showed the boy a picture of Rukia.

"There" Soujun said "perhaps this will help you to remember."

The boy frowned as he took the picture.

"Perhaps you'll need to be a little more…" he made a pause "convincing, Sir."

Byakuya glared at the boy who was looking not at the picture but a Soujun's wallet. The cards and money were evident so of course the boy thought he had hit the jackpot.

"Listen" Byakuya started to say threateningly but Soujun stopped him.

"Fine" he said taking a load of cash from his wallet and showing it to the boy "you tell me all the details you remember and this is yours."

The boy gulped and nodded.

"She was here with another girl" he explained quickly "they were both hard to ignore. The girl you're looking for has the most amazing eyes I've ever seen, she has creamy white skin and the legs are…"

"We already know about her physical appearance, boy" Byakuya said angrily "tell us something we don't know."

The boy seemed to ponder for a second.

"Well, she spent quite a while deciding what to buy" he said "she was with a pink haired girl, they were both speaking about what things to buy and where to eat later. When the raven haired one saw the plushie she hesitated a lot, I suppose that the price scared her."

Ginrei shook his head. No, the price didn't scare her. The fact that they could trace the card did, but the boy in front of him didn't need to know that.

"She surprised me when she paid with a card" he continued "then they left the store, that's all."

"That's all?" Soujun asked "what else can you tell us about the pink haired one? Is she a regular costumer?"

The boy frowned.

"Sir" he said "I don't get paid to remember all the girls that come around the store, I'm telling you, this is the only Chappy store in all Karakura, hundreds of girls come regularly."

Byakuya pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is taking us nowhere" he said "perhaps this was a mistake."

Soujun nodded.

"Come on, boy" Ginrei said while taking out his wallet and smiling at the boy "give us a relevant detail, just one."

The boy gulped as his eyes widened at the prospect of getting more money.

"They were both wearing the uniform of Seireitei High School" he said quickly and Byakuya's eyes widened.

"Are you completely sure?" he asked bewildered "one hundred percent sure?"

The boy nodded.

"They even bought pencils and some school stuff" he said looking hungrily at the money "that's the most relevant information I can give you."

The Kuchiki men exchanged some looks and nodded. For now, it was enough, they gave the boy the money and they were about to leave when Ginrei stopped them.

"I think" he said "that since we're here we should buy a few things for Rukia, don't you think?"

Byakuya fought the urge to groan as Soujun nodded and started to pick things for Rukia's bedroom.


When dinner was over and Kaien had gone home Ichigo decided to wash the dishes. Since his father hadn't been able to get home early Ichigo left his dinner on the fridge so he could reheated later, then he prepared another dish and took it upstairs with him after saying goodnight to his sisters.

He wasn't ready to find Rukia already asleep on his bed of all places, she was hugging Kon. He thought that was weird, why wasn't she hugging the expensive looking rabbit? Sighing he put the food on his desk and took a seat next to her on the bed.

"Okay, midget" he said shaking her lightly "you need to have dinner and then you can sleep."

She mumbled something and hugged Kon tighter.

"Damn" Ichigo said "you're a heavy sleeper, aren't you?"

He noticed then how peaceful Rukia looked asleep. She was really pretty and, since the moonlight was the only thing that was illuminating the room at the moment, he couldn't help but think that she was as pretty as the moon. He chuckled at that thought, since when was he a sappy teenager? He stood up and took his phone of his pocket and took a picture of Rukia.

"Well" he said while taking a seat on his desk chair "I'll let you rest for a little while more, okay?"

Rukia mumbled something again and Ichigo sighed.


The next day Byakuya woke up earlier than usual and made his way towards his car, his father was already there and without saying anything else Byakuya started to drive towards their destination. They didn't talk until they arrived at Seireitei High School.

"I still think that perhaps the boy made a mistake" Soujun said as Byakuya parked outside the school "this is Ukitake's school, he would've informed you about Rukia's whereabouts if she had come here."

Byakuya frowned.

"That's a possibility" he agreed "but Ukitake has a soft spot for children."

Soujun looked at his son.

"Do you think Rukia convinced him not to tell you anything?" he asked "I don't think that's the case, he knows how much we love her."

Byakuya shook his head and got down of the car.

"We're getting answers today" he said "we might even go back home with Rukia."

Soujun nodded.

"Hopefully" he said and then frowned "doesn't Kurosaki Ichigo study here?"

"He does" Byakuya said "why?"

Soujun shrugged.

"We could always ask him" he said.

Byakuya scowled at that.

"Kurosaki Ichigo is unaware about Rukia's existence" he said "I won't let him know anything about our family affairs."


Riruka observed as Rukia groaned in front of the bathroom mirror, they were at the school bathroom waiting for the bell to ring.

"You look like shit" Riruka commented "what happened?"

Rukia groaned.

"This is all Ichigo's fault" she said as she tried to comb her hair "I was sleeping so well so I didn't hear the alarm and he didn't hear it either because he slept horribly."

Riruka scoffed.

"That sentence didn't make sense" she said "tell me everything again."

Rukia was in cloud nine, she was feeling pure bliss as she was sleeping. It had been years since she had sleep in such a comfortable bed. She even thought about waking up late just to enjoy it a little bit more, she yawned and opened her eyes a little and the first thing he saw was Ichigo, he had fallen asleep on his desk.

Her eyes widened as she saw his awkward position.

"Ichigo" she said approaching him and shaking him a little "wake up, carrot top. You neck will hurt like that."

Ichigo opened his eyes slowly and looked at Rukia.

"Midget?" he asked with a hoarse voice and sleepy eyes that made Rukia blush.

"Yeah, are you okay?" she asked "we both fell asleep with our uniforms on."

Ichigo nodded tiredly and rubbed his eyes.

"I didn't want to wake you up last night" he explained and then looked at his clock.

"Thank you but…"

"Never mind that, midget!" he interrupted her and stood up "we won't arrive on time to school, put on your socks and shoes!"

Rukia blinked.

"Uh?" she asked as she saw Ichigo running around his room, picking his school things.

"If we're late we'll have detention" he said "if I get detention I'll be late to work and if I'm late to work Bya…"

"Yeah" Rukia interrupted him as she started to run around the room too "your boss will kill you."

Ichigo nodded.

"Wait for me at the front of the house" he said "I don't have the motorcycle, we'll go in my boss's car."

Rukia nodded and jumped through the window.

"Oh" Riruka said smirking "that's why you have bed hair and a wrinkled uniform, you spent your night sleeping on Kurosaki Ichigo's bed."

Rukia frowned.

"Why do I get the impression you're enjoying this?" she asked.

"I'm not" Riruka said sincerely "but I would love to see the fangirls if they were to find out."

"What fangirls?" Rukia asked but she never got her answer because the bell rang.

Riruka and Rukia left the bathroom to go to class when they heard something that made them both freeze on their steps.

"Kuchiki-sama" a woman said "please, Ukitake-sama is barely starting to work, perhaps you could come another time?"

Riruka looked around the corner carefully and her eyes widened as she saw the Principal's secretary walking along with Kuchiki Byakuya and his father. These were bad news.

"Your father is here" she whispered to Rukia and the raven haired girl paled immediately.

"I have to leave the school" Rukia said "he cannot see me."

Riruka shook her head.

"You're not leaving me here alone" she said "the only one who needs to leave is your father. Follow me, I have a plan."

Rukia nodded and ran towards the opposite direction.

"What are we going to do?" Rukia asked.

"We'll make sure the Principal doesn't betray you and we'll ruin your father's day" Riruka said smirking.

Rukia smirked back and proud herself at choosing Riruka as a friend.


You might be wondering why I updated so fast. Well, I'm procrastinating, I have to study A LOT but instead this chapter came out! I hope you liked it!

Now, to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter:

Haru000: Thank you so much for your review! Kaien's role won't be that important but I like him as a character, I hope you liked this chapter! Let me know, kisses!

Jobananasan: Thank you for your review! I hope I was able to explain why Rukia couldn't tell Ichigo everything yet, trust me it'll be huge when he finds out! I hope you liked this chapter, I'll be waiting for your review! Thanks again, take care!

Achalida: Thank you so much for your review! Byakuya will have to wait a little bit longer to get to Rukia! Let me know if you liked this chapter, kisses!

RukiYuki: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! Thank you so much for your review! Let me know if you liked this one! Take care!

Inverse L. Reena: Muchas gracias por tu review, ¡me alegra mucho que te esté gustando la historia! Déjame saber si también te gusto este último capítulo, espero tu review. Besos y cuídate.

Nejes: Oh don't worry, that won't happen. This is an Ichiruki fanfic one hundred percent. Thank you so much for your review! I hope you liked this chapter, let me know. Kisses!

Scarease: Thank you so much for your review! Let me know if you liked this chapter, kisses!

Hikari Rhonda: I loved your review! I'm so happy you like the story! I hope you liked this chapter, let me know, okay? Take care and kisses!

Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes.