Everything is Different Upon Review: 2
Rukia was a good (if volatile) instructor in the arts of reiatsu control and basic Kido drills. Ichigo wished she'd instructed him on it back when it was just the two of them hunting Hollows in Karakura, but she'd been preoccupied with keeping him alive and hadn't been aiming to make him anymore of a shinigami than he'd needed to be.
Since then, there'd always been something more pressing than teaching him the basics he'd missed out on. Like suppressing his Inner Hollow.
Sitting on a rock by the 'base,' in the shade of a dry, scraggly tree, Ichigo maintained a volleyball-sized sphere of blue reiatsu in his right hand. He was keeping it stable, mostly.
Next to him, Renji had a smaller and less dense flickering ball of red reiatsu.
Rukia was shamelessly showing off her skills as an experienced shinigami, with a little white ball of reiatsu at the tip of each finger of her right hand.
Renji scowled. "You've gotten better."
She flipped her hair. "My natural talent finally showing through."
"Show off," said Ichigo.
"If you don't like it, catch up to me."
He formed a reiatsu ball in his left hand, but the one in his right flickered and went out.
"Keep doing one until maintaining it is second nature, I said, before you advance to two."
He rolled his eyes but returned to doing just one. He would've preferred to learn actual Kido, but Rukia said they had no justifiable way of knowing any actual Kido spells, whereas the exercises Rukia had shown him were plausibly derived from a mixture of common knowledge and personal experimentation.
Renji's ball of reiatsu fizzled, then exploded as he overcompensated.
It wasn't a big explosion. It didn't even singe his eyebrows. The only consequence should be a mild stinging on face. But Renji cursed and snapped a stick with a stomp. "This is stupid. What can we even do with this?"
Rukia said, "It's practice to prepare us to do other things."
"Yeah, I'd rather do those other things."
"This is what we've got, so buck up and stop complaining."
Renji snorted and stalked away, loosely swinging his favorite stick. Ichigo supposed he was off to beat up an unoffending tree. With he and Rukia being such efficient hunters, Renji had a lot of free time, he spent a lot of it on that pursuit.
Watching Renji walk away, Rukia said, "What crawled up his butt and died?"
"He's competitive."
Rukia said, "I've always been better than him at this sort of thing. It didn't bother him so much before."
That wasn't what Ichigo had meant, but he let it pass. Renji's confidence was way, way down Ichigo's list of concerns. The pineapple would just have to get used to it.
Ichigo said, "How are we on funds?" Rukia was a master haggler, so he let her sell their surplus catches.
She frowned. "At this rate, it'll be years until we have enough money. Bribes aren't cheap. I'm considering more aggressive action."
"Like what?" said Ichigo.
#
#
On a cool fall day, Abarai Renji pushed off against the ground, lunged into the air, and hit the ground.
"Shit," said Renji, spitting out dirt.
Ichigo said, "I already told you that have to increase your reiryoku before you can even think of doing shunpo." He was holding a thick stick, a staff, standing casually in a shaft of sunlight.
"Rukia learned it quick," said Renji, coming back to his feet and angrily brushing twigs out of his hair.
"She has way more reiryoku than you do."
"And so do you," said Renji bitterly.
"True. But not as much as Rukia."
"Really?" Renji looked surprised.
"Sure. I guess she always has, maybe, and now that she's learning to use it, she could probably kick your ass and mine together. And anyone else in the District, maybe." And she wasn't letting him forget it, the bitch. He was sure he'd shoot back ahead of her as soon as he fetched Zangetsu from his soul, but that was for later, and for the moment her Lieutenant level self, minus her zanpakutou, shoved back into her old form surpassed his 13 year-old self by an irritating amount.
Whenever they slipped away to practice hiding their reiryoku and reiatsu, she smugly pointed out that she had more and was showing less.
Ichigo said, "I've told you that you should do Rukia's exercises, instead of wasting your time on shunpo when your reiryoku isn't even high enough. I'm going hunting."
"Don't give that excuse," said Renji. "You're always gone for hours. The whole day even. But you could catch enough food for the day in 20 minutes."
"Maybe," said Ichigo. "See ya." And he shunpoed away.
#
#
Ichigo met Rukia on a hill, overlooking a small walled complex.
What was inside was just a gang. Nothing special. No greater tie in. The local protection racket. The only purpose of observing them had been to confirm that they didn't include any of Rukia's 'criminals strong enough to make you wish you had your zanpakutou.' And also to confirm that they were really, truly horrible people, rather than a proto-government.
Observing their treatment of young woman in the area had ended all reservations. The gang was only a cash machine, and they could rob it without any guilt.
So they did. Ichigo and Rukia ghosted into their base one morning – it was a real, proper base, with guards and a wall, though the guards weren't many and the wall was just a double-layer of brick, too narrow to stand on.
Ichigo and Rukia were masked, and Ichigo had a rabbit skin cap on his head, hiding his orange hair. No reason to get stories started. They both held nice, solid, wooden sticks, carefully fire hardened. A homemade bouken for Rukia, and a staff for Ichigo, as long as his shikai had been.
He rammed one end of his staff into a man's chest, heard ribs crack as the man left his feet, and continued on. A single shunpo took him directly inside the guard of an especially big looking man, and a palm strike to the chin took care of that.
The men were big, and they had swords, and a lot of them had some reiryoku, but fighting them wasn't anything.
Rukia casually brushed a man's sword aside, moved forward, and tapped the man's head. The man hit the ground, unconscious.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. She hadn't hit hard at all. She'd just used the skin contact to channel reiatsu into the guy. A tai-chi strike, basically. Ichigo supposed it wouldn't work well against anyone close to you in level, but it was a nice, gentle way to put down the local thugs.
"Hado 4: Byakurai!"
Ichigo's eyes widened. A man dressed more nicely than most, was pointing at him the blueish-white streak of the laser-like Hado headed straight toward them. Ichigo raised a hand, pushing reiatsu out into it, and the Byakurai fizzled away into nothing as it struck his palm.
The man's eyes widened. Ichigo shunpoed forwards and tapped the man on the chest, trying to copy what Rukia had just done.
It didn't work. It just threw the man through the air so hard that when he struck the wall of the big house they were all coming out of, the wall cracked.
The man had more reiryoku than anyone else they'd encountered, so he should live.
Rukia went immediately to his recumbent form and rummaged through his clothing.
"What are you doing?" said Ichigo, even as he took care of two more with his stick.
Hah!" Rukia said, pulling out a book. Ichigo recognized the Kanji for Kido on its cover.
Ichigo focused on fighting. It was nice how he could move his hands all along the length of his stick, and he began taking advantage of that, using it more like a staff rather than a big sword.
Another man entered the fray. The previous swords had only left scratches on the stick, but the new sword was different. It took a big chunk out of the stick, and the second swing sheared straight through it. Ichigo shunpoed behind him, knocked him on the head, and very nearly got slashed on the arm as the man withstood the hit and counter-attacked. Ichigo grabbed hold his arm, and they grappled briefly. Rukia hit him on the head as well and his eyes rolled back.
Ichigo took the sword. Wielding it in one hand, beating people with its flat, and wielding the broken stick in the other, he finished off their remaining antagonists.
Ichigo and Rukia entered the house that the toughs had swarmed out of. It was largely empty. A woman and a boy fled from the invaders, and they continued on.
The safe was easy to find. A man in fine furs was in the process of opening it. Rukia knocked him out with an overly forceful kick to the face (they'd seen him taking away a teenage girl to pay her family's debts) and Rukia and Ichigo approached the safe.
Rukia gestured to the sword Ichigo held. "That's an asauchi. An empty zanpakutou. He must've gotten it black market. Only shinigami and nobles are allowed to have them. It should go through normal steel."
Ichigo put two hands on the asauchi's hilt and cut straight through the safe's door. Five swipes, and the door hit the floor with a clang.
Inside was plenty of Kan, Soul Society's money, but also gold and precious jewelry, and even tablets of salt.
Rukia and Ichigo shoveled the riches into burlap bags and left before any trouble could come.
#
#
Kids who survived District 78 for any length of time were invariably tough and clever. So when Rukia burst into the 'base' and declared it was time to leave, there hadn't been any unnecessary delay. And only Renji had grumbled about being ferried along with shunpo.
They reached their first planned stopping place before night fell, and set up the tent they'd acquired. A rolled grass mat, tightly woven canvas, and six wooden posts. The canvas could be oiled in case of rain.
The Districts were an array of wide, concentric circles. Whenever Ichigo tried to estimate how many people lived within, the resulting numbers were impressively large.
Even ferrying people along with shunpo, it took a day and half to get into District 77. Rukia had explained that Shinigami used Sentan Hakuja, the teleportation Kido, to help them navigate Rukongai, but that option was not available to them. Special materials and network access were required.
At their stop on the third day, an abandoned old hut with a good view of the land around, Rukia demanded that their third stop over be extended. She copied out the quarter of the Kido manual, a process that took most of the day and left her hand cramped.
She gave Renji the copy and instructed him and Ichigo both in Kido basics. She'd already had them doing as many drills as an Outer-Rukongai brat could conceivably know, but now that they had the book, they could justify attempting the simplest Kido.
Renji was frustrated at how quickly she learned it, and Ichigo was frustrated by how slowly he was learning it compared to how quickly he'd learned most other things.
After two days, they moved on, continuing through the Districts, stopping not infrequently. Even with money and the ability to ferry the others along via shunpo, it took weeks to get to District 65, and weeks more, plus a bribe, to get everyone a decent apartment and decent jobs working on a Kuchiki-owned farm.
By then, Rukia had learned the first 45 Kido, Ichigo had learned the first few, and Renji had stopped keeping count of how many times he'd burned his eyebrows off.
#
#
The apartment was small, and not exactly nice, but it was warmer and a little larger than their old base. And they had a water faucet. The water that came out of it was drinkable, though some people advised boiling it first, just to be safe. They had a low table to eat at, and they all had blankets and simple futons.
Tokihiro was making tea, as he often was. Not tea that he'd bought, simply steeping some leaves he knew to be edible. He poured tea all around, and Rukia, without hesitation, reached the topic of the meeting.
Rukia said, "I'm going to become a shinigami."
No one looked surprised. Nobu was concerned, and Renji looked sour, but Tokihiro and Subaru only nodded.
Ichigo said, "I'm also going to become a shinigami."
Nobu said, "Are you sure you shouldn't wait until you're older? I hear lots of shinigami are killed by Hollows."
"We're not sure," said Rukia. "But the stronger we become, the more attractive we are to Hollows. So not becoming Shinigami as soon as possible is also dangerous." Dangerous to those around them.
Nobu nodded.
Rukia said, "Once I'm a shinigami and I'm making some money, I'll come back here to check on you guys. But..."
"But this is goodbye," said Tokihiro.
"Not forever," said Rukia.
Tokihiro smiled sadly. "You will succeed. You will become an important shinigami. I believe it. The three of us, me, Subaru, Nobu, if we're very, very lucky, will rise to the middle-class. Someday, we will be strangers to you, connected only by hazy, long ago memories."
Rukia said, "We could never be strangers."
Tokihiro said, "I'm the oldest one here, so listen to me. We encounter each other. In good ways and bad. Sometimes we continue on with each other for a while. But unless you both do nothing, there are very few people you can continue on with for your whole life. The time has come for us to part. If hope this part of your journey has been better for my being a part of it. Mine has been better for you being a part of it." He bowed. "It has been an honor, Rukia. It has been an honor, Ichigo."
"Yes," said Rukia, eyes moist as she bowed in return, "it has been an honor."
Ichigo bowed as well. He couldn't not, when Takahiro had been so formal. "It's been an honor," he repeated, mouth dry.
Tokihiro turned his eyes to Renji, all the others following his gaze.
Rukia said, "Renji, Ichigo and I aren't waiting for the next evaluation in this District. It could be years. We're going to shunpo to Seireitei and do the evaluation there. No waiting. Renji, we'd be happy to bring-"
"No," said Renji. "I'll become a shinigami too, but later. In my own time."
"You're sure? If you're worried about shunpo, Ichigo and I can carry you."
"Very." He looked around the room. "I'm not ready to say goodbye yet."
Nobu patted Renji on the shoulder. Subaru said, "When are you two leaving?"
"The day after tomorrow," said Rukia. "We didn't want to drag it out."
Later that night, as Rukia and Ichigo were taking their normal time to 'practice shunpo,' together, racing through the village beneath the stars, Ichigo said, "It's a shame Tokihiro doesn't have reiryoku. He'd be a good one."
"Yes."
"He deserves it. Someone like Tokihiro shouldn't be helpless just because he wasn't blessed with a particular talent."
"We'll have to make sure he isn't then. That the laws apply to everyone, strong and weak alike."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Her execution was quite a thing to joke about. "And make sure they're good laws too."
#
#
Without anyone else to worry about, they made much faster time than had been possible before, and they hardly bothered to go around potentially dangerous areas. What before had taken a day could be crossed in an hour, and what had taken a week before could be crossed in a day, and they had money enough to sleep in hostels rather than going to the trouble of making camp.
A good thing too, since the Districts got a bit thicker closer in. And richer and more densely populated too.
They bought nicer yukata in District 46 and continued on.
After a few days of travel, they were nearly to Seireitei, at the edge of District 4, when Rukia slowed to a walk.
Ichigo didn't think anything of that. It wasn't like they shunpoed constantly. They stopped for food, for interesting sights, and for breathers, and the part of District 4 they were in was interesting.
There were a lot of little shops full of various types of art. Paintings. Calligraphy. Ceramics. Jewelers.
Ichigo got them onigiri at a little shop and was happy to walk around the area with her.
At first.
When they'd been wandering the same area for nearly two hours, Ichigo said, ""You're lost again."
"No."
We're going in circles."
Rukia said, "I'm looking for something?"
"And you're not gonna tell me what it is?" Normally, he would start a fight with her, but they'd made a tacit agreement to never speak of their future knowledge, even in private, because you never knew who might be listening. So too often, when they should be yelling at each other, he was hanging on her every word, trying to figure out what she meant.
"I'm looking for the arts area."
"We're in the arts area."
Rukia said, "I just want to see all of it. And if I don't find it here, we'll see if District 4 has a different arts area."
"Alright..." said Ichigo, uncertain. She was the one who knew stuff. He'd go along with her.
Rukia had recently told him to keep an eye out for a mapmaker's shop when a woman called out behind them. "Hisana-san! Hisana-san!"
Rukia turned, and Ichigo with her.
The woman yelling 'Hisana,' was middle-aged, black, and wearing a lot of expensive yet frumpy clothing. She stopped, obviously confused when she got a better look at Rukia. "You're not Hisana," she said.
"No," said Rukia. "I'm not. Who's Hisana?"
Ichigo, who'd heard the outlines of the story, fought to school his expression into one of mild confusion and interest, but he wasn't a practiced enough actor. He scowled instead. Scowling he could do, any time, any place.
Rukia though… Rukia was on point. He'd always thought her 'gentle high school girl,' act was shit, but it'd fooled everyone else, so credit where credit was due. Not that he'd ever say it. Presently, she looked exactly as if she were being told by a random woman off the street that there was a local screen maker who looked just like her.
"And then I turn right?" said Rukia, repeating the directions in a mildly inquisitive tone.
"Right. You can't miss it. Kotsuki paper screens. It's right between the jewelers and the giant chicken."
"Thank you," said Rukia. "We'll check it out." She looked like any Outer-Rukongai brat suppressing the wild hope that maybe she had family after all. And as they followed the lady's directions, Ichigo couldn't quite believe that the complicated, subtle emotions running across her face was the result of acting. Rukia wasn't like him. She hadn't been cleanly sent back in time. In her own words, she'd merged with her younger self. With an Outer-Rukongai brat who had probably grown up suppressing the wild hope that somewhere out there she had family.
The giant chicken was thirty feet tall, made of wood, and detailed. Disturbingly lifelike. It wasn't an advertisement for anything. It was just there.
Ichigo doubted that Rukia saw it. Her eyes were fixed on Kotsuki Screens.
#
#
The shop was a traditional building, but with wide glass windows. Some of the screens within were paper, and some were silk. Most of the art on them were nature scenes. Trees, waterfalls and the like.
Elegant and clean. Simple, until you looked more closely. Traditional, with a slight, indescribable modern feel. The aesthetic reminded her of Nii-sama, and Rukia wondered what that meant. Had they been drawn together in part by a similar aesthetic, or had his aesthetic been an homage to her?
There were dashes of whimsy hidden in the formalism. A ladybug nestled among the cherry blossoms. A tiny child playing among immense trees, hard to see. A boulder that, on closer inspection, was hiding a smile.
And there were other subjects. A giant skeleton. People dancing amid the snow. Even a bear quailing before a 30-foot chicken.
Her eyes passed over all of it, hungry, skipping over and over the woman inside. She couldn't move.
Ichigo clapped her on the shoulder. "You gonna go in, or are you gonna stand out here till we get arrested for loitering without enough money?"
Rukia took a deep breath and opened the door.
It jingled. The woman looked up from the papers strewn across her desk.
It wasn't like looking into a mirror, but it was close.
"Rukia?" breathed the woman.
Rukia couldn't speak.
Ichigo said, "That's her name."
From the table in front of her, the woman took a smooth, pinkish stone, and held onto it as if for dear life.
Rukia was squeezing Ichigo's hand so hard it ached, but he said nothing.
"Hello Rukia," said the woman. "My name is Hisana. I'm your older sister." And she knelt in dogeza.
#
#
Ichigo couldn't have imagined a more awkward start than dogeza, the ultimate prostration of apology, but the sisters were dealing with it well. They'd even progressed to tea. There was a lot of crying going on, but only metaphorically. This was Rukia, after all, so whatever salt water was squeezing out of her pinched tear ducts was staying firmly on her glistening eyes. Hisana, unexpectedly, seemed to be cut of a similar cloth.
"You were young," Hisana was saying. "Old enough to speak a little, and to toddle. Even to run, though you'd fall after a few steps. Then you'd try again. I kept trying to get us into District 77. I thought everything would be better there, but it was very hard to get past the border gangs, and I..." She touched her cheek in a way that made Ichigo wonder if she were remembering a broken jaw. "It was difficult. In my own weakness, I abandoned you. When I regained my senses and came back, you weren't where I'd left you. I thought you'd wandered off. But however I looked, I couldn't find you. After just a few days, I called it fate and gave up." Her voice turned yet more bitter. "I shouldn't have."
"It's not your fault," said Rukia.
"It's obviously my fault."
"You were in an impossible situation."
"No, only a difficult one," Hisana declared.
"If I'd been a less troublesome baby, crying less, less demanding, I'm sure you wouldn't have been pushed so far."
Hisana said, "That's no excuse. And if I'd taken better care of you, you would've been less trouble. Not that you were any trouble."
"If I'd stayed where you left me, you would've reclaimed me."
"I abandoned you in 78 North. You didn't get to 78 West on your own. Someone took you."
Rukia said, "Surely after I wandered off, someone viewed me as a lost child in need of water. If I had only stayed put-"
Ichigo smacked his fist onto her desk, hard enough to make both women jump and the tea cups rattle. "This is not a competition!" Ichigo yelled. "You don't need to argue over who's the worse person. You're both fine. Just cry and hug or something." He crossed his arms over his chest and turned awkwardly away.
#
#
Ichigo hung around on the roof as Rukia and Hisana spoke for hours. He practiced a few Kido exercises, re-read through some of the Kido book, which he'd nabbed from Rukia before heading to the roof, making sure he'd memorized the spells, but he couldn't train all the time.
He would've liked something fun to do, a manga maybe, but he was restricted to watching people move about the streets and mulling over the past and future.
It wasn't one that should matter much, but Rukia meeting Hisana was the first real change they'd brought about. They'd intended from the beginning to change things. Trying to keep everything exactly the same so that Aizen would take action in the exact same way and they could trap him was stupid. They couldn't help changing some things, and if Aizen changed his plans enough, they'd be pantsed.
So the only sensible thing was to make as many positive changes as possible and trust that positivity usually led to more positivity.
Hisana and Rukia meeting was surely good for both of them, but it shouldn't matter in the larger scheme of things. Unless it did. Unless changing Hisana changed Byakuya and changing Byakuya changed everything. No way to know.
He felt more clueless about the future than he ever had before he'd known it.
Rukia said that time was springy. Ichigo didn't know if that reassured or frightened him.
When he was called in for dinner, the sisters seemed far more relaxed. Not tear-streaked, which was no surprise, but they'd had their heart to heart.
Hisana lead them up a narrow staircase to the second story, where she had a materials room and her living quarters. Not large. A well-kept sitting room where she also slept, a kitchen, and a restroom with indoor plumbing but no bath or shower.
Rukia said, "The shop seemed large."
Hisana explained, "There's another living quarters on the second floor. Two young woman who are attending the University. One is studying engineering, and the other fine arts."
University. Ichigo hadn't realized Soul Society had any sort of higher education beyond what was offered in Seireitei itself. But of course it did. No society could be so large and rich otherwise. Who had he supposed had been designing all those bridges and tall buildings? But it probably wasn't a modern sort of university.
Hisana said, "I will prepare dinner for the three of us."
Rukia said, "I'll help."
Ichigo said, "You have tasted your cooking, haven't you?"
She kicked him. "I can learn from Hisana nee-san."
"Another time," said Hisana. "This time, I would like to cook for you."
As Hisana was in the kitchen, pots clattering, appetizing smells spreading through the apartment, Ichigo and Rukia poked around. There was art on the walls. Some hers, some not. A large closet held clothing and two futons. One of the futons looked much newer than the other. Ichigo guessed than when she'd bought the new one, she simply hadn't discarded her old one.
The materials room held the expected silk, paper, paint, and brushes, but also wood, glue, small screws, and various astringent chemicals that he didn't have names for.
They circled back to the main room and examined the narrow black bookcase. It was about half art, a quarter history, and a quarter romance. Ichigo was most interested in the art books, but he made himself skim a history book instead.
Rukia kicked back and read a romance, the bitch. No doubt she'd spend the next year freely spouting every historical nugget she'd learned in 40 plus years of being a shinigami, and she'd attribute her knowledge to her big sister's library despite not reading a single page of any of the histories. And when Ichigo didn't know as much, she'd scold him for not being diligent. He could see it as surely as if he'd traveled back in time.
He slapped her stomach, and the brief tussle concluded with them leaning against each other as they read.
Hisana called them in for a meal, at a low, traditional table without any chairs. A paper lamp hanging from the ceiling over the table had a black dragon painted all the way around it, casting a draconic shadow on the walls.
The meal was Toshikoshi Soba. A celebratory food associated with New Years. Some of the best soba he'd ever had. Certainly the best meal he'd had since coming to Soul Society. He had to fight for every scrap of table manners. Had to fight to keep himself from eating so quickly he made himself sick.
"A second bowl?" said Hisana.
"That'd be great," said Ichigo, wiping his chin clean.
As their stomachs filled, conversation sprouted. Rukia wanted to know more about how Hisana had gotten from District 78 to District 4. It was quite the saga, and Ichigo suspected she was leaving the more graphic incidents out. It had all clearly gotten a lot less life threatening once she'd gotten herself apprenticed to a screen maker in district 61.
Rukia said, "Where did you learn to paint?"
Hisana said, "When I appeared in District 78, I remembered little of my human life, but I knew how to draw, sew, read, write, and do arithmetic. Not the most practical of skills, there. Only the sewing was any use, at first."
Hisana said, "From what you said, the two of you got here easily. I still don't understand how."
Ichigo said, "We're quick, and we're good at not being noticed.
Hisana said, "You both have more reiatsu than I do, I think. And you know how to control it, don't you?"
Hisana's spiritual pressure was tiny. Like Renji's. Smaller even, despite her being older. She was Rukia's sister, and so she had some talent, but not a lot, Ichigo thought.
Rukia said, "We're here to take Shino Academy's entrance exam and become shinigami. So we practice every day. You should practice with us tomorrow. Increasing and mastering your reiryoku will extend your lifespan, make you much less likely to die in an accident, and a little less likely to die of illness. You should absolutely work on it. I'll help you."
Hisana said, "Perhaps. But I have no intention of ever being a shinigami." She made eye contact with Rukia. "It's very dangerous, I'm told. You don't have to do it. You can stay with me. Your friend too. I'll teach you, and help you find jobs. Anything."
"Thank you," Rukia said, voice rough. "But Ichigo and I will become shinigami. We've seen Hollows. We've seen them eat people. People we knew. And so we want to fight them. To protect people."
Hisana said, "Stay with me until the exams, at least."
"We would be happy to," said Rukia.
#
#
Ichigo enjoyed the bathhouse. After months in Outer-Rukongai, cleaning himself in water that was itself clean was an even bigger luxury than the water being hot, and in District 4 he didn't have to worry about being jumped by his fellow bathers.
He dried himself with a fluffy towel, supplied by the bathhouse and put on his own yukata, which they'd cleaned for small charge. He cleaned his teeth with one of the first Kido Rukia had taught him, a minty blue aura of light that surrounded one index finger and gently got all the gunk off. It was one of the large class of 'daily' Kido that were neither Bakudo nor Hado.
The day he'd learned it had been a good one. Priorly, he'd been reduced to scraping a fingernail over his teeth to get the yellowy film off.
Freshening his breath was almost a pity. Hisana hadn't made the red bean pastries she'd served, buying them from a confectioner instead, but they'd been every bit as good as her soba.
He met the sisters in the lobby, and they rushed back to Hisana's place, skin goosebumping in the chill evening air.
Hisana's apartment was only a little warmer. She started the furnace, but it was small, and Ichigo supposed the night would be cool, which was fine. He was used to roughing it outside. Hisana laid out the two futons, frowning at the small space between them.
Ichigo read the indecision in Hisana's eyes. In Outer-Rukongai, you slept in one room and huddled for warmth except on warm summer nights. It'd taken getting used to, but after most of a year, Ichigo didn't think twice about Rukia nestled into his chest and someone else pushing against his back.
But a proper lady of Inner-Rukongai, which Hisana was clearly trying to be, didn't sleep alongside a pubescent boy she hardly knew.
Ichigo walked straight over and scooped up the older futon. He was tempted to take it into the materials room, but, unlike the main room, it had no hearth.
He dragged it instead to the opposite wall, saying, "You got a blanket or two?" Cold wasn't a real problem for him. He could keep himself warm by leaking reiatsu in the right way. But doing that prevented his sleep from being truly restful, so he'd rather not.
Rukia threw two blankets at him, and a wool hat that was only a little scratchy. She turned her attention to Hisana.
Hisana scooted to one side of the futon, motioning for Rukia to take the place next to her.
The smaller girl slipped in.
Hisana said, "I'll buy a third futon tomorrow," and she closed her eyes, pulling the blankets up past her chin.
Ichigo put on the wool hat and lay his yukata and blankets over himself. His breathing evened, but he found it hard to sleep. His mind was full, and he wasn't used to sleeping so far from Rukia. Not that they cuddled. They didn't sleep under the same blankets except on the chilliest of nights. It was a step too far. They tended to roll themselves up in their own blankets and then press against each other, each of them breathing in the other's reiatsu.
The temperature was dropping, the blankets were still cool, and Ichigo got up, moving his futon closer to the furnace, and so a little closer to the two sisters, who were visible in its dim orange glow.
They did look similar, it was true, but Ichigo could never mistake one for the other. Rukia's features were sharper, spikier, not so gently rounded. The sisters clutched each other in sleep, arm in arm, Rukia more relaxed than he had ever seen her, and Ichigo knew that what he was seeing should've happened the first time around.
:::
Hmm. Rukia and Ichigo aren't arguing very much. But I feel like in this situation they wouldn't? Their arguments were usually superficial, and so far I'm mostly skipping slice of life stuff. And they're not in the human world for Rukia to do things wrong in.
People often underestimate how strong wood is. Most armies throughout history fought with polearms, like spears, swords being only sidearms. Those that did use swords as their main weapons usually used them alongside shields, which are primarily made of wood as well. That an asauchi can shear straight through a staff is an example of asauchi being magic.
Obviously, Hisana appears so briefly even in flashbacks that I have a lot of freedom with her character. People often make her fragile or timid, partially because she died of illness, but, ya know, that doesn't make people fragile or timid? Just sick. She should be someone who meshes with Byakuya and keeps on calling him Byakuya-sama even after they're married (which probably makes a lot more sense to Japanese people.)
She survived District 78 and somehow rose to become the wife of one of the most influential men in Soul Society. She was presumably tough as nails.