Sorry that I missed updating last week! I'm writing for camp nano at the same time as this, and so it's been a little bit of a race to do this fic AND meet my daily word count for my original content, haha. So short chapter this week. Next week will be considerably longer; they'll finally be entering soul society. Thanks for reading, and as always, thank you for all the comments and kudos! I know there's lots of mistakes, and I got several messages saying I misspelled Kaien (LOL I haven't fixed that yet...) but I'll get around to fixing such things later. Thanks!
Chapter 6: And all the harm I've ever done
She woke to the feeling of Renji's spiritual pressure spilling into the atmosphere. Rising, she dressed quickly in a cotton sundress and sandals, pulled on a jacket, and took off into the night. Kuchiki was masking his pressure, but he was likely to be around as well. She was careful as she tracked Renji's movements as he moved about. His senses, as well as those of his tools, were being jammed by Ichigo's leaking spiritual pressure. He wouldn't find Rukia until later that night.
The sun had barely begun to rise, but Orihime walked with confidence until she finally spotted a flash of red hair. Renji was painstakingly checking for Rukia's signature-which he wouldn't find, considering her powers were disguised by the gigia. The original gigia had been engineered with a dampener on it to keep Rukia's powers from returning and to keep the hogyoku hidden, but Orihime had broken it when removing the hogyoku from the gigia's chest. Rukia didn't know it, but the minute she shed her false skin, her powers would be returned to her.
Rukia approached Renji. Byakuya had not come yet, and the lieutenant was alone.
"Hello."
He looked at her for a second before looking away. "Crazy human," he muttered.
"That's not very nice," she pouted.
He glanced her way again, then back to his work.
She sighed. "I'm talking to you, you know." She walked up to him and poked him firmly in the shoulder. "It's rude not to look at someone when they're speaking."
He reared away from her, eyes wide. "How?" He spluttered. "You're just a human. You shouldn't be able to see me!"
She shook her head. "You think you know everything, don't you?"
He said, "Be gone from me. You don't know what you're messing with."
"No, you don't know what you're messing with." She leaned in close, scrutinizing him. "I've got a serious bone to pick with you, Abarai Renji."
"Y-you know my name? How!?"
"Listen up. I know you're here for Rukia, and I know you're going to be an asshole to her. That's right, I said it. An asshole! I know you like her, Abarai, and I know you're just mad about being left behind. You might think you're doing the right thing, dragging her back home to face jail time, but you're just being a jerk! If you love her, and if you see her as an equal, you should be kinder to her! You know Rukia. You know she wouldn't break the law without reason. So why haven't you stopped to consider that there might be something bigger going on here?"
He gaped at her, mouth hanging open uselessly. "I… what?"
"Rukia never wanted to leave you," she said. "You're friends! Do friends turn on each other, just because there feelings are hurt? If you were the one down here, and you broke the law, she wouldn't come to kick you while you were down. She'd be here to help you in a heartbeat! So what is it you think you're doing?"
He scowled. "You don't know what you're talking about. I haven't talked to her in almost fifty years. She's no friend of mine."
"Isn't she?" Orihime insisted. She stepped closer. "Who protected you both, when you were children? Who helped you in the academy? Who was your friend when you needed one most? Even if she did choose to discard your friendship, does that make everything else obsolete? Didn't it happen? Didn't you love her, Renji?"
Renji shook his head at her, listeless, lost. "You don't-"
"You're going to have to face this all some day. Sure, she's part of the Kuchiki clan, so they don't want a scandal. But doesn't it seem odd to you that so many resources have already been expended for her capture? Don't you find it strange that they sent not only a lieutenant, but a captain to take her into custody? Most of all, two people she would never fight back against? People she loves, and knows? She's not even a seated officer."
"But she's strong enough to be."
"Strong enough to need a Captain, her own brother, to hunt her down?"
Renji paused. "Who are you?" he asked. "Why do you know all this?"
"That's my little secret," she said. "You'll find her tomorrow night, and if you're as kind as I've known you to be, you'll reconsider what you're going to do."
"Never," he huffed. "She broke the law, she has to pay."
"And why would she break the law, anyway?"
Renji looked away from her.
"Think about it," Orihime said, and then turned and left, not sparing so much as a glance back.
~(o0o)~
Orihime endured the lunch beneath the tree, with her friends from class, that afternoon. Rukia was bombarded by inquiries into her relationship with Ichigo. In that regard, not much had changed. It was always those to, assumed to be lovers, and their rigid insistence that they were friends. More than friends, less than lovers. Bullshit, all of it. Orihime could not believe the lengths the two would go to to save their reputation. They really were perfect for each other.
Orihime had been worrying about the night all day. Ever since she'd seen Renji, she was worried that perhaps he would somehow speed up the timeline and attack before Rukia ran from the clinic, and she'd been on high alert because of it. So she wasn't startled when she started to class, only to be pulled behind some bushes by Rukia. She was, however, surprised.
"Rukia?"
"I'm leaving," Rukia blurted.
Orihime blinked.
"I'm transferring back to my old school."
Orihime said, "The shinigami school?"
"What? No the-I mean." She sighed, and looked away. "Yes. The shinigami school It's… very far away." She frowned, rubbing her shoe into the ground. "It was stupid of me to get close to anyone here. I knew I'd leave eventually. This was all pointless. Forget I said anything. You'll forget about me soon anyway."
Orihime reached out and grabbed her arm before she could walk away. "I don't think it's pointless," she said, honestly. "Even if I don't remember you, my soul will. The connections that we've made to one another can't be broken, even if my memories are stolen from me. This friendship will always be here, Rukia. Even if you never see me again, I'll still hold you dear in my heart."
Rukia stared at her.
"I'm glad I got to meet you," Orihime said. "Truly, I am. So thank you." She bowed. "Thank you for taking the time to know me. And thank you for saying goodbye this time. It means everything to me."
She swallowed.
"Rukia." Orihime tilted her head up. "It's going to be alright. I promise."
"You can't know that." Rukia stepped away from her. "I can't even say goodbye to Ichigo. Not really. He'll come after me, and then he'll…" she trailed off. "I don't want it to be like I was never here, like nothing ever happened. But it's better this way. If no one knows me, that means no one can get hurt because of me."
"If no one knew you, we'd all be worse off," Orihime insisted.
"You can't possibly know that," Rukia said.
Orihime remembered the twins, and their plan to erase Rukia from history. "I can," she said, solemnly. Eesh, they were going to have to deal with that again too, weren't they? She wished she could fast-forward through certain parts of her life.
Rukia shook her head. Her eyes were teary. "I have to go," she said, quickly. She licked her lips. "Thank you, Inoue. For trying to teach me what it means to be human."
"Orihime," she insisted. "And I didn't teach you anything. You already knew, Rukia."
She shook her head. "Goodbye," she said, and kissed Orihime quickly before she sprinted away, wiping her face the whole while.
Orihime remained rooted in place for a moment before she sighed and went back into the school building. She gathered her things and set a course for home, knowing that soon the battle would take place, and Rukia would be taken back to soul society, by force, or otherwise, she had yet to see.
~(o0o)~
She'd nearly made it to her apartment when her path was interrupted by Kisuke Urahara.
"Orihime Inoue," he said.
"Kisuke Urahara." She'd not realized how distasteful she found him until he started appearing with regularity. He thought he could meddle with other people's lives, and he didn't mind who got hurt along the way. She'd been his amusement too many times, and even if he did mean well in the end, she was annoyed by his persistence. Was she doing the same thing as him? Sure. But she felt her intentions were less… gray.
"Have time for a chat?"
"No, actually. I have a lot of homework." She tried to step around him, but he moved swiftly into her path, smiling amicably. She frowned at him. "This is harassment."
"This will only take a moment," he said. He looked back to hr building and then to her. "Might I come up?"
"No," she said.
"I don't think you want to have this conversation where anyone could hear."
"My apartment is bugged, so either way." She shrugged.
"Ah. So you noticed." He scratched at his chin. "It's about the hogyoku."
"..." She sighed. "Alright, fine. You can come up. But don't expect me to make tea and snacks."
"Of course not," He drawled. Stepping aside, he allowed her to lead them to her apartment which, to her annoyance, was already unlocked. It looked like he had been there while she was away, and when she stepped inside, she could tell someone had gone through her things. Everything was put away, but just off enough to alert her. She turned to glare at him. "Really?"
He smiled at her, closing the door behind him as he discarded his sandals at the door. "You find lost things in the most unusual places."
She looked him up and down, as if she could find some sort of hint to his intentions on his body. She found none, of course, and begrudgingly said, "Please, sit," and gestured to her table.
They took seats opposed to each other, Orihime with the apartment at her back, Kisuke with the door at his.
Orhime folded her hands on the table and said, "Alright, Urahara-san. What's this about?"
"As you may know, Rukia Kuchiki is going to be arrested later this evening."
She schooled her features. "Why would I know that?"
He went on without explaining. "Because of this, I wanted to run a last-minute check to be sure everything was in place. Especially with you around, a real wild card, even compared to Ichigo. It was going to be a pain to block you from an attempt to stop Abarai and Kuchiki-sama from taking Rukia back to Soul Society, but I had a few ideas."
"And?"
"None of those are important." He waved his hand in the air between them. "What is important was the… oddity I noticed, in Rukia's body. You see, I hid something in her, and when I went to check and be sure she still had it, I found that it was missing."
Orihime felt herself begin to sweat. "How does this affect me in any way?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," he said. "As you can imagine, when I discovered the hogyoku was missing, I was alarmed. I thought, at first, that Aizen had managed to outsmart me. That's ridiculous, of course, I'm far smarter than him."
Orihime rolled her eyes.
"If Aizen had the hogyoku, he would have revealed himself by now. Because after a further inspection, I found that it's been missing from Rukia for months now. So if Aizen didn't take it, who did? I went digging a little further and found that someone had erased a small portion of my memory. Times like these makes me think I should be keeping a backup of my memory like my old pal Miyuri. Seeing that I didn't have any indication of the events missing in my mind, I decided to check the shop's security feed. Now, I thought that would be fairly useless, considering any decent cover-up would go for cameras straight away. While the footage shorts out before I can really see anything, you'll never guess who I saw on tape, sneaking into the shop, just before the tapes are cut and my memory runs out."
Shit. She looked sharply away from him.
"Orihime," he said, and leaned up over the table. "Where's the hogyoku?"
"You really think I could hide it from you? Me, the idiot who forgot about the security cameras?" She stared hard at the table, forcing herself not to give anything away with her face or body language.
"I don't," he said, easily. "Which is why I'm surprised that I can't find it. You're a sweet girl, Orihime. I'd hate for things between us to get sour."
She looked up at him, letting out a long breath. "Okay," she said. "Fine. The truth is that I destroyed the hogyoku."
"Impossible," he said.
"Just because you couldn't do it doesn't mean that it's not possible."
He made a face at her.
"You guessed my powers were healing," she said. "You're wrong. It's the negation of events. The manipulation of time and space and reality."
"Such a power," he said, "Would trespass in god's domain."
"I'll tell god 'hi' for you then," she muttered.
He regarded her a moment longer. "If you destroyed it, what comes next?"
She blinked at him. "What?"
"When Aizen discovers that the hogyoku is missing, what do you think will happen?"
"He won't know it's destroyed," she said. "You weren't supposed to know. No one was. He wouldn't know where it was, and neither would you, and without it, he would have to use his version and would never make a completed hogyoku."
"So he would continue to kill thousands of souls to feed its power," Kisuke said.
"No," Orihime said. "When Rukia is taken to soul society, Ichigo will want to rescue her. We all will. We'll break into the gotei thirteen and fight to reach her, and with Aizen trying to stage his own death, and all that complications, I'll find a way to access Aizen's hogyoku."
"If you destroy it and he gets away, he will only make another one."
"I'm not stupid, thank you." She sighed. "I'm going to heal his. With its full power restored, Aizen will make the final espada army. I think he'll use them to try to find yours. And when he doesn't, he'll find me instead."
"How do you know all of this?" Kisuke finally asked. "About Aizen, about us. Everything. No one's found out in the hundreds of years this has been going on, and you… a young human girl. It doesn't make sense." His eyes widened. "Power over time."
She looked away from him.
"This isn't your first time doing this," he realized. His eyes narrowed. "Did we lose?"
"No. But I'm going to make sure that the war doesn't happen this time." She shook her head. "I doesn't matter that we won. It was at to high a cost, and everything that happened afterwards was just more pain. I know these things rarely work, but I've thought this all through. I'm going to save everyone a lot of pain and heartache."
"Tell me what happens, and what you're going to do."
She fixed her eyes on him, cold. "You're half the reason everything is messed up!"
"But if I just knew a little more-"
"No! You think you know best, but you don't. You're a genius, I'll give you that. A brilliant strategist. But I'm not here to talk strategy, Kisuke. I'm here to fix things, and I've already decided how. And-" she spoke over him as he opened his mouth to argue- "I've decided that means, especially, excluding you. You keep your plans on track just like before, alright? Everything I've planned works around them. I don't approve of your methods, but I'm not here to take you out of the picture."
"You mean kill me."
She looked back up at him. "Yes."
He nodded, leaning back on his hands. "I see." After a moment, he said, "So that's the deal, then? I act like nothing's changed, and what? You don't erase my existence?"
"Something like that," she whispered.
He scratched at his stubble. "Can't say I like it."
"I didn't like the way you used and manipulated me, the first time, either. It's uncomfortable, isn't it?" She stared him down without pity. "I'm sure Rukia wouldn't like it if she knew what you have planned for her, either. You want to know why Rukia got caught so fast? Despite everything you did to try to turn her into a human, to absorb the hogyoku, against her will?" When he didn't answer, she went on. "Aizen knows you , Kisuke. Far too well. He sent Rukia here to begin with. It was all a trap to get the hogyoku, because he knew what sort of thing you'd do. That's why it's up to me to know what happens, and you have to stay in the dark. You're too predictable to a man with a like-mind."
He sat quietly for a minute.
"He'll kill her, now," he said, quietly. "To get the hogyoku without revealing himself. Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow, he'll have her soul incinerated. I never wanted this."
"I know." She stood and made her way to the door. "You'd better get going. Ichigo will be losing to Byakuya any second now, and you'll need to bring him back to the shop so I can heal his wounds. I'll let you give him back his shinigami powers, instead of healing them. I know you've got a few tricks up your sleeve."
"I always do," he said. He put his sandals back on and started out into the night. It was going to rain. "If things start to get wildly out of hand, I'll know who to blame."
She smiled at him, the first genuine smile she had gifted him this timeline. "You say that like I wouldn't go back in time the second things started to go south." In truth, she wasn't entirely certain she could, but it wasn't like she couldn't try.
Kisuke laughed. "Fair enough, Miss Inoue. Fair enough. Goodbye for now, then. I'll see you back at my shop."
"That you will," she said. She closed the door and took a deep breath in, steadying herself.
She turned, surveying her riffled-through apartment, and then shook her head. In twenty days, they'd start for soul society. She had a lot to do before then. Namely, schoolwork. She hadn't been lying when she told Kisuke she had homework to do.
Stuffing her backpack with a change of clothes, she started back out into the night, heading for the shop. Across town, she could feel a senkiamon open. She ignored the churning in her gut and hurried her pace. Ichigo was dying, but then, this wouldn't be the first time, now, would it?
~(o0o)~
When she got to the shop, she found that she had three people to heal, instead of two. There was Uryuu, sliced to the bone, Ichigo, a mess of bloody ribbons, and most surprising of all, Renji, blood trickling steadily from his mouth.
So things were already getting a little out of hand. This would be her first casualty. Renji had gotten hurt, and this was because of her. She healed him first, pushing the hair out of his forehead while he slept. She worked, next, on Uryuu, and finally, Ichigo. They all slept, still and silent on a line of futons in the front of the shop.
Renji was the first to wake.
"I'm… alive?"
"What happened?" She urged him.
"It's you," he realized. "My fairy-godmother."
She blinked at him. "Your. What?"
He shook his head, blushing. "Ah. Never mind. What are you doing here? Am I dead? Again?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I healed you. You're going to be alright."
He tried to sit up, but she pressed a hand to his chest, keeping him down.
"What happened?" She repeated.
"..." He sighed, closing his eyes. "I thought about what you said. It. It made sense. Nothing going on seemed right. I cornered Rukia and talked to her and… and it made sense. She never intended to abandon us, or break the law. She was just doing her job. And so, when Byakuya showed up, I tried to talk him into going back on orders. I wanted to bring the human back alive, and Rukia agreed with me. If she could testify, we could have the process reversed, and everything would go back to normal. But he wouldn't listen. He wanted to take Rukia in and kill the human. She wouldn't let him. So he was going to force her. And then he showed up. The orange haired shinigami. Rukia begged me to stop her brother and I… I tried." He scowled, gaze darkening. "Byakuya has no need for a rebellious subordinate, I guess."
"I'm sorry," she said, softly. "I had no idea this would happen…"
"They're going to put her on trail. But she fought against him, resisted arrest and orders from a captain. Our orders were to bring her back, dead or alive. It doesn't look good, and you're right. It doesn't make sense that it turned out this way."
She licked her lips. "We… we'll get her back. I promise."
"How?" Renji asked. "You saw what Byakuya did to us. There's no way we could face soul society, we'd be killed instantly. The human lost his powers, I got my ass kicked, and even I could have taken out the quincy if I wanted to. There's just no way."
"I'm getting my powers back."
Orihime and Renji jumped. Behind them, Ichigo's eyes were open, and he was staring up at the ceiling with determination blazing in his eyes. "They're not going to lay a finger on her. Rukia saved me. Saved my whole family. She changed my world. I'm getting my powers back, and then I'm going to save her."
Renji sat up. "Are you nuts? Byakuya almost killed you in three seconds flat! If Rukia had interiened, you'd be dead for sure right now!"
Ichigo continued to stare up at the ceiling, determined. "I'm going to save her," he repeated.
"Me too." Ishida said. "I'm coming with you, Kurosaki."
"You don't even know Rukia!" Ichigo protested. "This is my battle. I'll-"
"Who said I was doing this for Rukia?" Ishida scoffed. "I just don't like shinigami. Anything to get under their skin."
Orihime stifled a laugh. Turning, she looked down at Renji. "And I'm sure you want in, too?"
"This is a suicide mission," he said, gravely. "But it's not like I have much choice. I'd rather die in battle than rot away in the human world. So, what. The three of us storm in there, kick ass, and haul her back here?"
"You think I'm not coming?" Orihime said. "Without me, you three would still be bleeding out on the floor."
"The four of us, then."
Orihime shook her head. Holding up her hand, she said, "Five."
"Five?" The three boys choroused.
"You've been so busy with your feuds you haven't stopped to notice that Chad has powers, too."
"Chad?" Ichigo gasped.
She nodded. "And he's Rukia's friend, too."
Urahara appeared, then, Yoruichi winding about his heels as he slid the door open and took into the room. "You'll be needing your powers back, first, though, won't you?"
"Hat and clogs!"
"And the rest of you will need to train," Yoruichi said.
They stared at her.
"Is that. A human-world thing?" Renji squeaked. "Do cats talk here?"
"I must have hit my head harder than I thought," Uryuu muttered.
"Shut your mouths," Yoruichi snapped. "Show some respect. If you want to stand a chance out there, you'll take advice from me. Your bodies need to rest and heal, but after that, we're going to train like there's no tomorrow."
"R-right," they chorused.
"Until then," Urahara unclasped a fan and waved himself, just barely concealing a grin. "Ichigo. You have one more day of school to finish. I think you should go."
"What? No way! This is way more important than that."
"You never know," Urahara said. "This may be the last time any of your friends see you alive."
"R… right."
"So it's settled," he said. "Humans, say goodbye to this world. Renji… I suppose you can stay with us until then." He smiled. "For a price."
"Oh great," Renji rolled his eyes. "Who are you again?"
"Kisuke Urahara," he said. "Nice to meet you."
Renji's eyes widened in recognition. "R-right."
Feeling like she was finally back to where she needed to be, for the first time since becoming a teen again, Orihime smiled. "I suppose I better get you boys home, then. We've all got school in a few hours."
They groaned.
Orihime just laughed. She could feel Urahara's eyes on her, calculating, but it didn't bother her. Despite Renji getting hurt, this was probably a good thing. Having him from the beginning might make exposing Aizen that much easier. She turned to look at him and smiled.
All according to plan.