Rest. Rukia queried herself as to the reasons for it. She had been admitted as vaguely underweight with a few contusions resulting from her solitary battle in the living world.
She wasn't malnourished with what Ulquiorra had brought her during those years.
She was glad when Unohana had dismissed the notion that she was unwell to resume her previous duties. Nii-sama had said nothing then, merely seeing the Fourth company Captain out then issuing orders to the servants not to let her leave the premises.
What was going on..? And she had disliked the way he had questioned her the night before.
"Ul..quiorra? Pray tell who is this-Ulquiorra, Rukia? It is a Hollow, is it not?"
Why had Nii-sama taken such an interest in it? She had hated the way he had sounded. Suspicious.
"None of your concern." she had replied coldly then. Looking back on it as she did, she realized how she must've sounded. Ungrateful. Rude even to a man whom had given her everything worldly. What was so wrong with it after all...? Her eyes closed as the sliding doors to her rooms were locked with a soft click from the outside.
"I see...speak not a word of this."
Why had Nii-sama seemed so disturbed at the thought that...a Hollow had saved her?
Her hands fisted. She wished that they had never found her.
Maybe Ulquiorra wouldn't have left her then...
(*)*)*)Las Noches Palace(*)*)*)
"Where's my Zanpaku-to?" Stark surveyed the ensemble, boredom in the slouched hesitance in reaching for the black kimono first. Szayel disapprovingly tapped his hand making the Primera drawback, staring with a -What-is-it-now- expression.
"Tell me how it fits first, if you don't mind." The scientist was plenty proud of his creations, in particular mimicking the Shinigami way of temporary bodies.
The Primera frowned, reaching up an unmarked hand to scratch at his faint goatee. "..Fine, I guess. If you don't mind being squished into a meat-suit."
Szayel rolled his pinkish-colored eyes behind the bone frames. "Come now, it's merely a temporary situation, the least you can do is appear...alert!"
Stark started awake at the Octava's exclamation. Waving his hand in a shooing gesture, he muttered, "yeah-yeah. I know the drill. Watch how others are, mimic the actions-and most of all, do not eye the Shinigami as food."
"Precisely!" Szayel said with a flourish, turning to one his Fraccion waddling up happily.
"Lord Szayel! Los Lobos is ready!"
"Indeed, indeed." The Octava preened, carefully taking the long scabbard from the Arrancar. "That'll be all, Verona."
"Los...Lobos?" It being the exact name of his resurrección, Stark hadn't trouble recognizing the yellow hilt however he knew for sure that Lilinette had stayed sulking in the pillows in their shared domain. Not wanting to say goodbye to her other half. Had she changed her mind?
He tried seeking her consciousness within the static form, scowling at his fellow Espada when he couldn't find it. "This is a fake." Stark said flatly, already disliking the way the black robes hung from his body.
Szayel shook his head quickly, scandalized. "Of course it is, silly! You could not go around the Shinigami with Lilinette-chan sealed as your sword!"
"Why not?" Stark thought it ridiculous that he could be expected to carry something that was obviously such an imposter compared to his true Zanpaku-to. He was loath to accept the hilt Szayel brandished to him.
The scientist matched his scowl. "Here! Take it. As much as the idea disdains you for carrying something other than Lilinette-chan, you haven't a choice in the matter. It was Lord Aizen's will."
The Primera sighed, his fingers wrapping around the hilt, feeling none of the welcoming power mirrored back to him. "All..for Lord Aizen." True. He was doing it all for the Shinigami merely indebted for everything he had. Stark slid the scabbard through his sash, glancing once more to Szayel. "Anything else?" As much as the idea that he would be losing valuable time that could've been spent slumbering, he had the faintest spark of...curiosity. Unusual for an Arrancar since as evolved Hollows, they lacked real emotion of any kind.
Yet. Stark didn't know what to call it except...curiosity. He wanted to interact with the petite Shinigami that had so entranced the stoic green-eyed Cuatro. Maybe see...what Ulquiorra saw in her.
"No," the Octava was busy looking over a clipboard, checking off written instructions.
And for that he needed to travel to Soul Society.
"Remember," the pink-haired scientist finally looked up with a serious expression on his face. "You aren't going for a position of power, merely to..blend in. Get a scope of things. Your reiatsu is nearly suppressed completely, however I advise strict caution around the Shinigami Captains."
Stark had heard it all before. "I know that already..." he covered his mouth with his hand stifling the quiet yawn. "Can I go now?"
Szayel frowned at his lecture being cut off so soon. "I suppose." The scientist sounded vaguely sulky, his gaze wandering around the large lab- one in a massive complex of many within Las Noches palace. "I am curious- from a scientific point, how Ulquiorra could gain a semblance of human emotion...lacking the organ known as the heart."
So, he wasn't the only one...
"Who knows?" The Primera rolled his shoulders, retrieving a small inter-dimensional cube from within the Kosode. "It isn't my task to learn just how Ulquiorra thinks." He stared at the tiny innocuous-seeming item for a long time. It had been built for the singular purpose for opening a portal into the Rukongai.
"That's true." Szayel sighed, looking a little disappointedly down at his clipboard again. "You will...tell me, won't you?"
The cube he had crushed between his index and thumb began expanding in a shallow diaphanous sort of light. Stark understood without more being spoken. "Of course."
Szayel nodded once, using Sonido to cross the room to safety. Calling only once in a fussy manner that was trademark to the resident weaponry expert. "..And don't fall asleep!"
Stark rolled his eyes, giving a backward hand wave. Yeah-yeah..
Within moments the light from the cube had encompassed his entire being.
(*)*)*)Two weeks later, Seireitei(*)*)*)
She berated herself.
Of course she did. For that strange little flitter-flutter in her chest.
Dark... She did her best to pay attention to what Kiyone said; filling her in on everything that had happened in her long absence.
Black hair.
From a distance any male fitting the slightest characteristic of him, made her search.
Eyes pick apart the crowd. Hands sweat. Pulse race.
But, she was always disappointed. Rukia kept her smile pasted on, pretending to find delight in Kiyone's kind re-acquaintance with her and Seireitei. Rukia's heart just wasn't in it.
Of course, he wouldn't..be there.
"I'm..feeling a little tired." she turned to the short blonde. Despising the way she so eagerly grasped at the chance to be alone. To use weakness as an escape.
"Oh, of course, Rukia!" Kiyone's smile was so sweetly understanding that Rukia felt more than the usual amount of guilt beset her. "-here I am blathering away and I'm exhausting you!"
Everything was. "It's..okay." her return smile was weak at best. A tremulous version of reality behind the mask of normalcy she desperately affected. Everything...was just so..wrong.
"-If you need anything-"
"I'll know where to go." she hushed aside the other girl's friendly concern. Was it so difficult to slip back into routine once she had let go of it for a nomadic existence? She watched the third seat head back to their Captain's side.
Kiyone...only wanted to be her friend. Rukia began walking the opposite way. Hadn't she wanted..that? She knew better than to start running until she had cleared the garden compound. Back after leaving the academy, after her adoption into the Kuchiki clan? Cleared the walls. Hadn't she longed for another- a confidante in which she could talk to- share her thoughts and fears with?
After losing Renji...yes.
She couldn't understand when it all had changed.
Running and running without purpose or mind on where to go; she went far. Her mind in a torrent of half-realization, part confusion. Acceptance was a long way far from where she was.
Why do I feel this way..? Part of her was angry. Upset that what she had wanted for so long was within her grasp. Friendship. Camaraderie with her fellow Shinigami. Why can't I accept it? Rukia felt she was made up of a thousand different pieces. Unfitting. Lacking the necessary element to bind them together.
But, what was the element..?
She was afraid of the answer.
At length her pace began to roughen. Her slender legs unused the hard exertion trembling. They gave out just as she had reached a place from long ago in her memory. The lake... panting heavily, she collapsed uncaring of getting grass stains on her shihakusho.
"Whoa there...where's the fire?"
The voice made her eyes snap open, her body jerk quickly into an upright position, a retort on her hot in her throat about people who sneak up on other people. Then, she saw it was a fellow Shinigami. A male around her Nii-sama's age. He had wavy dark brown hair ending chin-length, faint stubble like shadow on the strong chin. The high cheek-bones were clean-shaven. The mouth that had spoken suddenly creased into a confused yet good-natured grin.
"Um-this is a little embarrassing..but, I'm uh-lost." His eyes passed over the scenery in meaning. "This place, Seireitei is so large...I'm a new recruit by the way."
That explained why he didn't look familiar. Rukia blinked to herself then scrambled up realizing how she must've looked barreling through the forest like that. "Oh, yes it is. I know what you mean." she dusted off the front of her kimono, hearing the crinkled of paper. The stranger held a sheaf of parchment in one large, tendony hand.
"Which Company?"
"Oh- um..." he consulted the paper again. "..I was recommended by C-Captain Aizen of Fifth, to Captain Ukitake of Thirteenth?"
He looked so bewildered for a moment that she chuckled softly, surprising herself with the sound. "Don't look like that! Thirteenth's a good Company and my Captain is the nicest of them all! - I'm part of Thirteenth myself." She held a hand to her chest, "Kuchiki Rukia and you are?"
The stranger fumbled some, seemingly unsure of the proper gesture to make. In the end he stuck his hand out in an entirely foreign manner. Rukia decided he must've been from another place. But, she laid her small hand in his, allowing him to close it. Shaking her hand briskly yet gently as if he were afraid to crush it.
" Gingerback Stark." he said perfectly seriously.
"Stark?" Rukia repeated to herself.
He looked a little self-conscious. "A nickname from the Rukongai. It just..sort of stuck, you know."
Rukia knew what it was like. "I..understand. Come on, I know the way." Then, she smiled a little to reassure him. Stark returned it with the slightest lift of the corner of his mouth. "Alright."
She didn't know why, even though they had just met. Rukia felt a sense of ease in his presence. Like he would understand anything...
(*)*)*)Living world(*)*)*)
What kind of price was that..?
Isshin ignored the tea offered. Pacing every so often like a caged wild beast in the small room in the back of the Shoten. The very artifact that had condemned the other in Soul Society's eyes forever...hidden within the Konpaku of his son?
But, it was exactly what he should've expected from the man.
Always a price...always a cost for everything. Sometimes it was higher.
Awakening Ichigo's latent spiritual powers had been the only alternative to complete death. The Doctor's eyes slid shut, seemingly to pray for patience. A Gigai to mask his true demise and for a time his son could 'live'.
"I also wish to train him."
Isshin growled in frustration at being forced to play right into the man's hands.
Using the Grand Fisher as an excuse. A pretext to hone his son's raw power.
In time, he settled down. Lapsing into glowering silence. The little girl whom was one of Urahara's assistants peered in nervously from the cracked open door.
Now all he could was wait.
Wait until his son was reborn as a Shinigami.
-TBC...
AN: thanks for reading :) it had taken moi a while to figure out where I wanted to take the story. Sorry for such a late update. Yes, Ichi-berry died- and the little deviant ball called the Hogyoku was hidden inside of him. ;) Rukia's upset because Ulquiorra isn't there. Never fear, Ulqui will come back probably next chapter.
No flames-haters-stupid comments!
Please review :)