Reason- Looky what I have here. ANOTHER UPDATE! See I just got a laptop, its old and crappy but it works for typing so I get a bunch more of it in cause I can type during tv time. that and I really wanted to write this chapter because hey, Ichigo and Rukia meet! fun fun. Right and since I didn't get as many reviews for Chapter 3 as I did for two, I'm doing individual reviewer response thingies cause sometimes I have fun doing that too.
amwong88 - Here ya go, they acctually meet. No Ichigo isn't deform he just has the mask, its part of a curse but I'll explain that later... I really just came up with it like an hour or so ago so I still gotta work out some details. And is this update soon enough?
een nihc - I'm glad you like it and think its fun. And yes, Aizen did deserve it, he deserves any mean thing anyone can dish out. Oh how I loath him
Motokonobaka - I will keep it going (I couldn't think of anything else to say ' (thats a sweat drop)))
KittyShampoo - The meeting has arrived. Two of my favourite things to. I can quote the Disney Beauty and the Beast pretty much word for word... same with some Bleach scenes
rukiaprincess - It is fabulous work isn't it? (most modest person in the world, oh yeah!)
ice illuser - I've been trying not to imitate the Disney version too much... but that's not working, so I hope to make it less kiddy like. I wanted to put Gin and Aizen in and those roles fit them best. Hopefully I'll get chapters out faster with the laptop.
Disclaimer - I don't own Bleach
Beauty and the Beast
Chapter 4 - Beauty Meets Beast
It was cold inside. Not necessarily the cold you feel on your skin, from snow or ice, but it was cold. She had left Senbon outside, though he didn't seem to want to remain there and it took some effort to get him to remain there. Now Rukia walked the halls of the massive castle, her footsteps echoing as they hit the stone floor.
"Hello?" She called out. She thought it was abandoned at first until she noticed the candles burning in the halls and now she just wanted to talk to someone. It would be so much easier to ask someone if they had seen her brother than to actually go looking for him. Unfortunately for her no one answered and she was left to wander the halls alone. It was just about as creep inside as it was out; the only thing that wasn't inside was the sound of the animals.
It seemed like it was bigger on the inside than it had appeared outside and Rukia quickly became hopelessly lost. The turns of the corridors she couldn't understand how anyone could live in a place like this and be able to get between rooms in a reasonable amount of time and to actually not get lost. Wandering around for a little while she decided maybe it was a good idea to check out the second floor of the castle, just because she had found nothing on the first floor.
When Rukia found the next set of stairs however it was leading down. She didn't really think anyone would be down there, after all the basements were dungeons weren't they? Why would anyone spend their time in a dank place like that? However she had an urge to descend the stairs. It was like something was calling. She also noted that there was light coming from down there and why would it be like that if someone had not been down there recently. So she took the stairs heading down. It was dark down there; even with the candles it seemed terribly dark.
"Hello? Anyone here?" she called out once more as she walked through what she was now sure was a dungeon. This time was different from the first however this time there was a groan in reply. "Hello?" she asked once more moving towards the sound.
"R-rukia?" a verbal reply came, and she knew who it was. Byakuya, however his voice was shaky and he seemed to be a little out of it.
"Byakuya!" she said, happy to his voice again and then she moved to where she heard him and found his cell.
"Rukia, what the hell are you doing here?" He said, sitting up slowly, for he had been lying on the stone floor. He rubbed his head and looked at her, his eyes a little bleary and she notice there was a bit of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.
"Byakuya, what happened to you?" she asked grabbing onto the bars of the cell and pushing against them to be closer to him. "You've been gone for a week, what happened? What are you doing here?"
"Not important. You need to leave," He said as he got up to his feet and moved to the bars.
"No, I have to get you out of here. I'm not leaving you here in a dungeon!" Rukia was practically yelling at him, how could he even think about leaving him there. There was no way she could do it.
"Just leave, you don't want to stay. I don't want you to stay and even if you did get me out of here there is no way he will let us get out of here," He said and grabbed her hand, in an attempt to get her to listen to her. He didn't want her to get trapped here as well, not with that monster.
"You're cold," Rukia looked down at their hands. He has freezing, she could not leave him hear. She let go and went to the door of the cell tugging on the bars there. It did nothing; she wasn't very strong after all. "Key... do you know where the keys are?"
"No," Byakuya replied simply. He did know where they were of course; he had seen them on that beast's belt. She couldn't get them and he didn't even want her to try.
Rukia bit her lip and looked around frantically. She needed to find something, anything to get him out of there. There had to something she could use to open the cell or bust the bars or something like that. There had to be! Byakuya just sighed, wondering why Rukia had to be so difficult, why couldn't she just listen to him and leave him there.
Then Byakuya realized it was all too late. It was there, that beast, that monster, whatever the hell it was. They had been talking and Rukia was practically yelling and they hadn't heard him come down the stairs, and was now standing in shadows. It would seem they hadn't even noticed him put out of couple of candles.
"Rukia leave now! Run!" Byakuya said with all the urgency he could muster. She couldn't get out, but if she ran maybe just maybe she would stand a chance. God he hoped so.
"What? I told you I'm not leav-"
"You have to! Please, run!" he cut her off. Why wouldn't she just listen to him?
Then it filled the air. The chilling laughter Byakuya first heard in that clearing and had heard a number of times since. Rukia had no idea that there had been another person in the room and jump quite a bit when the sound started. She turned quickly to look where it had come from but she saw nothing, only dark.
"You know its pointless," the voice that belonged to the chilling laughter said, "might as well kill her now. It would be much easier on her and you would have a show too."
"You so much as lay a hand on my sister and I'll gut you where you stand," Byakuya growled, a fierce look in his eyes.
"Haha, don't make me laugh. You haven't been able to stop me so far, what makes you think you stand a chance against me now?" the voice said with an evil little giggle.
Byakuya growled further but that thing had a point. He had lost their first fight because of trickery and every time it had tried to pick on him further, he had been too weak to prevent it. He was having some trouble standing now, a large bump on his head from their last little brawl and he knew he could not protect his sister. "Just let her go then, kill me if you feel blood thirsty," He said dropping his head, feeling rather defeated.
"What? No! I'm not going to let him kill you!" Rukia said rather loudly. She had remained quiet for some time but she felt she had to interject now.
"Haha, you see that, she wants to die," more laughter and then the sound of a sword leaving its sheath.
"No, I won't let you," they were words Rukia expected to come from her brother's mouth but that is not where they came from. Yet another voice had filled the air hiding in the shadows along with the one who had threatened them.
"You, damn you and your interfering! Stay out of this, they are my prisoners!" the evil voice spoke practically hissing at the other.
"This is my castle and I will not let you kill her, not if..." said the one that Rukia had deemed the good voice.
"Oh, heh, I see what you're getting at, that's why you don't want her dead." There was something going on between the two voices that the brother and sister did not understand. It unnerved Byakuya a little. "Girl," the evil voice said, "So you want your brother to be let go?"
It was a situation on which the like of her brother life and her's rested, but she couldn't help to get annoyed. "No not at all, that's just why I told you to let him go a minute ago," she replied with plenty of sarcasm to go around.
"Heh heh, then I'll make you a you a deal, if that's what you really want," the evil one spoke.
"No, no she won't make any sort of deal with you!" Byakuya said suddenly, and in a very forceful tone of voice and grabbed a hold of his sister's arm, as it to hold her back from the villainous thing that was speaking to them.
She pulled away from him though, he still held her but she was no longer right against the bars. "What kind of deal? What do you want me to do?"
"Rukia no! I will not let you stay here!" Byakuya snapped at her, pulling her back.
"No! I won't let you decide this for me Byakuya, not now," she snapped back at him, but she dropped her voice to a softer tone "I don't want you to stay here, and if this is the only way..."
"It's her choice, let the girl decide," the evil one said with a evil snicker, "all that we're asking is a trade. We'll let him go if you stay here, we'll even throw a more comfortable room into the deal."
Rukia bit her lip. Had she not just made a big fuss about leaving home when Byakuya had mentioned it. She didn't want to go but her brother's freedom was at stake. There was something else to it as well, for some reason she couldn't help but think it was something she had done that had gotten her brother into this mess and it was a matter of fact that she was the only who could get him out of it, or at least that's the way it seemed right now. While her brother pleaded with her quietly she made up her mind.
"Alright, I'll stay, but my brother has to get back to our home unharmed," Rukia said looking up into the darkness that was inhabitant by the good and evil voices.
"No, Rukia..." Byakuya said sort of helplessly. He had pleaded and demanded and she just wouldn't listen. He could think of nothing else to convince her and now that she had made her choice there was nothing he could do.
There was more laughing, a fair deal of it actually. "Alright then, its a deal."
She saw him for the first time then as he stepped out of the shadow. It was his hair she saw first, bright orange hair; his cloths were all black and hard to distinguish from the darkness. Then she noticed the mask and his eye. The chilling white mask was taking up a little more than half his face. His eyes were bizarre, they were yellow in colour but instead of having whites, they were black. He looked at her with a smirk, looked her over and then turned to go up the stairs.
Rukia was taken aback. She let out a gasp and took a step back and bumped into the bars of her brother's cell. He hugged her through the bars, holding onto her tightly as if to protect her though it was impossible.
Rukia didn't remain stunned forever however; she looked to the man who was to be her captor, his back to her now. "What about my brother!" she called to him.
He seemingly ignored her, however he reached up to his face and as he dropped the arm again Rukia noticed the mask in his hand. Then he crushed it scattering pieces of it all over the floor and kept walking. She called to him again, but still he walked, then he paused at the base of the stairs.
"Inoue! Chad! I know you were listening... take care of these two," he said, his voice had however changed. It was the nice voice, the one that had prevented the evil one from killing her.
Rukia was very confused. She had heard both voices come from him, or at least a bit of the laughter and the kind voice. They seemed to belong to completely different people, but there he was, one person, with what seemed to be multiple personalities.
Then there were more people in the dungeon, two of them. One of them was a girl with rather long hair of a redish-orange, maybe even brown; it was hard to tell in that light. Rukia couldn't help notice she was also very well endowed, how could she not notice something that size. The other was a man, no a giant, he towered over the other two, he was also rather bulky. He made messy hair, very messy had that hung in his face and was brown in colour.
Rukia's captor hand the giant a set of keys before brushing by them and heading up the stairs. The other two came forward and stopped in front of the door. The girl was smiling; a bright smile at both brother and sister while the other seemed to be rather emotionless.
"Excuse me," the giant said holding up to keys to show why he needed to her by.
Byakuya let go of his sister and took a step back and Rukia also stepped out of the way. The giant bent of over the lock and unlocked the cell, pushing in the door so Byakuya could at last be free. He walked outside of the cell he had been trapped in for days and the first thing he did was embrace his sister.
"You are really stupid," He muttered as he held onto her tightly, "you should have just left me."
"I couldn't do that," she replied and buried her face into his chest. She was scared now, what she had done was sinking in and she realized she would probably never see him again. With a lack of anything else to say to him, she added, "Senbon, he is outside."
A large had was then placed on Byakuya's should and the giant informed him that it was time for him to go. Byakuya let go very reluctantly, he didn't want to but he knew he was weak now and didn't really wish to fight with someone who was easily a foot taller than him. So with a quiet good bye the two of them left, leaving the dungeon and the girls to themselves.
They stood there quietly for a moment, Rukia's eyes on the ground and a terrible feeling of loneliness inside. Then the other girl started to hum and look around, tapping her foot, showing she was a little bored.
Eventually the other good could take the silence any longer, "Hello, I'm Inoue Orihime." She was beaming and held out her hand to Rukia, acting as if they weren't in a dank dungeon.
"Uh... Kuchiki Rukia," said slowly shaking her hand looking at her with a sceptical look.
"Well I guess I should show you to your room shouldn't I?" Inoue said and without letting go of Rukia's hand started to walk towards the stairs and up them.
Once again on the second floor, Inoue at least knew where she was going. They went through the halls quickly and at last came to a large staircase leading up to the second floor. Rukia allowed herself to be dragged by the hand, not wanting to really think on her own, she was sort of on autopilot. That was until she noticed something hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs.
It was a picture, a large picture of what seemed to be a family portrait. There was a man with short black and spiky hair, two young girls, one with black hair and the other with brown. There was a woman too, a beautiful woman with hair that looked orange and brown. Then on the one side, there was another person but long slash marks making it hard to tell anything about them except that he was a boy and not all the orange hair had been removed.
"That's... him isn't it?" Rukia said stopping to look up at the picture.
"Yes, Lord Kurosaki, oh I guess you wouldn't know his name yet, Lord Kurosaki Ichigo. The rest or his family," Inoue explained with a smile but then her face fell, "They... they all passed a away some time ago. Come on we should keep going, you can explore later on."
Rukia nodded and they kept going. She didn't pay much more attention to the walls or any other part of her surroundings. Before she knew it they stopped in front of a door, which Inoue opened to reveal a rather large room, and she led them Rukia inside.
"Here we go, I thought this room would be good for you. I always loved this room but it would take to much to move and I don't know if Lord Kurosaki would want me to," Inoue said as she moved about the room and then flung open the wardrobe. "There are some cloths here but if you want your own we have a wonderful tailor and I could send him up to see you some time."
"Hmm..." was the only reply Rukia gave and made a line right to the bed where she flopped down, burying her face in the pillows and blankets. She wasn't that tired but she didn't feel like talking so she thought it would be best to pretend she was sleepy.
"Oh, all right. I'll leave you be, " Inoue said politely and went out the door and closed it behind her. A moment later it opened again and Inoue stuck her head back in, "I'll bring you up some food later, have a good rest." Yet again she was gone and Rukia was left to herself.
She lay there for a long while, not moving not really thinking either. The fluffiness of the pillows was enough to distract her. When she did move she simply curled up without anything else to do. Eventually she started to think of what her life there would be like in that place. She wouldn't be happy, she knew that, but she wondered if she would be completely unhappy. Inoue seemed to be a little nice at least, even if it was a hyper happy.
She wasn't sure how much time passed before the door opened again. She figured it was Inoue coming back to bring food as she said she would but when Rukia rolled over to look she saw the long black robes of the lord of the castle. She rolled back so that her back was to him.
"I wanted to um talk to you... sort of a formal introduction," He said and Rukia could hear him shift around. Was he nervous?
"Your Ichigo, Inoue told me," Rukia said, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Lord Kurosaki," He said giving her an annoyed look.
"I don't see why I would have to call you that. What kind of prisoner gives their captor any sort of respect?" She asked, though it was rhetorical question.
He narrowed his eyes, he was annoyed, "I'm still a lord!" he snapped. "Anyways... I wanted to say you can go anywhere on the grounds. There is a stable and kitchen all the crap like that. My room is off limits though."
"Then that's the first place I'll visit," she smiled as she spoke. Sure she had been afraid of him earlier, but now out of the dark and in a girl's room, her room now, he seemed out of his element.
"Be like that, but if I find you in there, you'll regret it," he turned in a huff, oh how she was getting on his nerves.
He was out the door and then Rukia heard another little voice. Rather little, it was on the deep side, but it was low to the ground. "You're not going to introduce me. Your so rude!"
"Not now Kon!" he grumbled, he kicked something out of her view and there was a loud yell that got further and further away. He turned to look back at her for a moment, and said with a bit of sarcasm, "Enjoy your stay." He started to walk away and closed the door behind him.
Rukia gaped at him for a moment. Had he just kicked a child?
"She is annoying! I don't know why I asked her to stay," Ichigo said as he paced back and forth in his room.
"Because it's growing more and more each day, you know what will happen when it takes you completely," said another voice in the room. It belonged to an old man, a shady looking old man who sat on his bed, long shaggy black hair and tattered robes.
"I'd rather have that happen than get along with her!" Ichigo snapped.
"You know very well that you don't want that to happen. You care about the people hear even if you say you don't," the old man said, and then glanced out the window, "It appears as if it is going to rain."
"I hate rain..." Ichigo muttered.
He walked to a table that occupied the centre of his room. On it sat two of his most prized possessions, when he despised and one he didn't love but it was still important. The white mask, the one that appeared on his face when 'it' took over, but it was full, in one piece as it rested on the table. No matter how many times he had broken it always showed up whole again there. The other was his black blade. He had owned it as long as the mask and with it came the old man. The one who gave him advice about everything, the one who trained him, the soul of his sword, old man Zengetsu.
"I hate it too," Zengetsu said.
"You really think she'll work?" Ichigo asked looking up from the table.
"We can only hope Ichigo."
Author's Note - ZENGETSU! I'm a huge fan of the sword, he is like one o the best so I had to put him in and I thought of something sort of logical... at least in my mind it works. Kon too, what is a Bleach fanfic without Kon.
Right so I have a request I want to put as many of the shinigami in without making it ludicris. I have Orihime, Chad and Ishida in there (I said they had an amazing tailor after all) and I have a spot for Renji and Hitsugaya, but I wanted to know, who else would people like to see and... who could I make the cook?
Next Chapter - Out and About