Everything Is Different Upon Review: 5
Between Division interviews and Division assignment was a two week break. Ichigo and Rukia spoke of going to find Renji and friends, but a student's stipend was tiny, so they would wait until their six-months leave. Since they both planned to be seated on arrival, they should have plenty of money by then.
So instead, they did what they'd done on all their school breaks. Rukia went to stay with Hisana, and Ichigo, feeling like an imposition, was dragged along.
The shop was just as it had been, though closed when they arrived. Rukia could feel Hisana in her workshop, and she was pleased to detect that her elder sister's reiatsu had grown a little from when she'd last seen her 6 months ago. She'd been doing the exercises.
Rukia tugged Ichigo away from the shop. They would let Hisana work.
Ichigo spent a large portion of his saved up student stipend to buy high quality groceries as a hostess gift. Rukia bought flowers and an expensive jar of tea leaves for the same reason.
They walked the neighborhood together, seeing all the ways it had and hadn't changed since they'd last been through it. They paid a teenage girl with a large human world camera to take a picture of them beneath the giant wood chicken, Rukia much more enthused than Ichigo. It seemed to be the girl's job, but Rukia still had no idea of why there was a giant chicken.
The sun was setting when Rukia checked and sensed that Hisana was still in the workshop. That wasn't unusual. Hisana was a workaholic. But Hisana knew they were coming. Before, she'd always been eager to greet them.
Uneasy, Rukia walked around the back and pushed open the bare wooden door to the workshop. It was extremely tidy, with a place for everything and everything in its place, but not clean, with paint spattered across the floor. Hisana was securing a screen to its frame.
Rukia cleared her throat.
Hisana continued working.
Rukia said, "Hisana nee-san?"
Hisana jerked up, looking at them with surprise. "It was today?" said Hisana, eyes widening. "It was today. I'm sorry. Come in. I don't have anything ready." She looked embarrassed yet distracted, as if she were still having difficulty emerging fully from her thoughts.
Rukia took the groceries from Ichigo and said, "Ichigo, go buy dinner. I'm in the mood for yakisoba.
"You'll eat what I buy," said Ichigo, and he actually shunpoed out the door.
"Just a moment," said Hisana, putting her tools away. "So, how was school? Did you graduate like you wanted too?"
Rukia said, "Ichigo and I both graduated."
"Only two years," said Hisana, looking down. "Kuchiki-sama says that's very impressive."
"It's unusual," Rukia allowed. "But not unprecedented."
"And you did your Division interviews? How was that?"
Rukia was only halfway through describing her interview with Captain Ukitake when Ichigo arrived with three bowls of yakisoba. He must've shunpoed all the way to the shop and back.
Hisana led them up to the apartment. All through dinner, even as she asked the appropriate questions of Rukia and Ichigo, she still had an air of preoccupation. Rukia kept reminding her to eat.
When Ichigo said that Division 6 was his first choice and he thought the interview had gone alright, she froze.
Hisana said, "Was your interview with Kuchiki-sama?"
"Nah. His Lieutenant. Suzuki."
Hisana's eyes flew to Rukia. "I suppose I should tell you. Something unexpected has happened."
Rukia nodded, worried.
Hisana said, "You know that Kuchiki-sama was promoted to Captain of Division 6 only a few weeks ago? His grandfather retired, you see. Kuchiki-sama passed the Captain exam to take his place. It's a great point of pride to House Kuchiki that they're replacing one Captain Kuchiki with another."
"Yes..." said Rukia, wondering where Hisana was going with that.
"He was very busy, at first, with his new Division. But last week, he found time to come here. He asked me again to call him by his name, and he asked me to marry him."
Rukia wasn't surprised, but she couldn't help being shocked. Seeing it in real time, the specter of Captain Kuchiki Byakuya proposing to an Outer-Rukongai Konsoed brat with an art shop was incomprehensible. It simply wasn't done, even for the minor nobility.
Hisana continued, "Kuchiki-sama said that in making Captain, he had pleased his family, and could do as he liked."
Rukia groaned softly.
Hisana said, "He's the head of one of the Four Great Noble families. I'm a Konsoed spirit from Outer-Rukongai. What success I've gained as a screen maker is nothing to them. His family would always hate me."
"Perhaps not always," said Rukia. From how some of the extended family members had spoken of Hisana, Rukia knew that Hisana had at least partially won over some of them. "Your Reiryoku has increased a little. That will help, and I can spend these two weeks tutoring you. Nobles respect strength. If you could get to the level of an unseated officer eventually… I'll tutor you these two weeks. We'll make some progress."
Hisana laughed helplessly. "A mound of sand before the onrushing tide."
"I expect I will be seated 10th or so on my arrival in my Division. Having such a sister will help you. It will assure them that your children are likely to be talented.
Ichigo opened and closed his mouth like a fish. They'd agreed on aiming for the 18th Seat, or thereabout. But he said nothing.
"Children," said Hisana, bitterly. "I abandoned you as a baby."
Rukia didn't know what to say.
Ichigo piped up, "Somehow I doubt you'll have trouble getting enough food in Kuchiki Estate."
Hisana said, "You both speak as if I'll say yes."
That surprised Rukia. "Don't you love him?"
"I do," said Hisana, with reluctance, as if the words were too large to fit through her throat.
"And he loves you, and respects you?"
"I believe so."
"Then go to his world, and carve out a place in it. You were reincarnated in District 78, and now you're a successful artist in District 4. I know that wasn't easy. You can do this, too, if you think he's worth it."
Ichigo said, "It's your decision. Rukia's a bossy little bitch, but don't let her push you into it."
Rukia rounded on him, ready to kick him to death and remonstrate him for interfering, but his eyes met hers, calm and clear, and Rukia understood. Marrying Byakuya would bring struggles. If Hisana felt she hadn't done it on her own volition, it would be harder to take.
Rukia said, "Do whatever will make you happy. That's all." She picked up her half-finished bowl of yakisoba. I'll… leave you to think about it."
Ichigo followed her, but stopped in the doorway. He said, "And don't do it for Rukia either, because you feel guilty and think having a Captain for a brother-in-law would help her out. If you do, she'll feel guilty that you married for her, then you'll feel guilty for making her feel guilty, and it'll spiral on forever."
Rukia dragged him out of the room.
They finished their dinner on the roof, then lay back on it to observe the stars, letting the drama of the day fade.
"This is sooner than I expected," said Rukia. "By about three years."
Ichigo tapped the roof tiles in thought. "If you weren't here, I bet there's no chance she'd say yes. She'd still feel too guilty. I bet she'd think she didn't deserve happiness. If he really loved her, he'd have to be persistent. He'd have to ask her again and again."
Rukia's eyes were shadowed. "The Head of House Kuchiki and an Outer-Rukongai brat. I thought their relationship would be romantic. But it's more than that. And less."
"It's real," said Ichigo, and they remained on the roof until their eyelids grew heavy.
#
#
After three full days with Hisana, who had made no decision but was more present after the first night, Rukia and Ichigo went on a trip.
Sentan Hakuja brought them to the mountains, crossing vast distance in a momentary whirling of white cloth and Kido energy. Shunpo took them to a bare, shadowed valley, and more shunpo took them to a bare valley yet more remote.
Finding a place to train in secret was critical. They weren't willing to trust themselves to Yoruichi and Urahara's secret training area under Sokyouku hill. Aizen had had too many decades to find it.
Ichigo helped with the various security Kido, but it was still mostly on Rukia. Her Kido skills, always advanced, had sharpened in the last few years. Obscuring mist surrounded them, and Ichigo relaxed.
Still, even with the Kido, they were depending on security through obscurity, though low odds that Aizen would have this valley in particular under surveillance.
He drew his zanpakutou. "Protect, Zangetsu."
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki," said Rukia, and they began, facing away from each other.
#
#
Rukia again examined her shikai. It was not quite the same as it had been before she'd returned to the past.
The blade and ribbon were each two inches longer. The hilt, which had been unusually long, hadn't changed its dimensions at all, from what she could tell, yet the balance point was at just the same place as before, so something else she couldn't pick out had changed.
The changes to her shikai's power were more significant than the changes to its form.
There was no longer any reason to call out the number of the dance. Tsukishiro was simply Tsukishiro, Hakuren was simply Hakuren, and the motions to activate them had gotten quicker. For Tsukishiro, the vertical tunnel of ice, she stabbed the zanpakutou. up or down, then swung it in a half circle horizontally. Hardly any difference to its activation. But for Hakuren, the horizontal tunnel of ice, she swung her zanpakutou in a half circle vertically, then turned the zanpakutou horizontally. And the respective tunnels moved more quickly than before.
Not the greatest changes, in the end. Speed added to abilities that had already been beautiful and powerful. But speed was no small matter.
Tsukishiro and Hakuren she would keep secret. Shirafuni, which extended her zanpakutou, and juhaku, a trail of freezing that could spread through any solid surface toward her target, would be public abilities. Juhaku, nearly twice as fast as before, would seem sufficient as her shikai's main power. Add to that that it had become much easier to contact freeze whatever she touched with her zanpakutou, and her shikai would seem impressive even with her hiding its two greatest powers.
Going all out, she thought she could make most Captains consider whether to release their bankai.
It was not a power she deserved. She hadn't earned it and wasn't born to it. The improvement to her talent was a result merging with her younger self. A result of the Hougyoku's actions. Not completely unlike what had happened to Inoue and Chad, and, she suspected, to Ichigo.
Just as they had, she would use it.
"Well?" she said to Ichigo, who was working with his own shikai.
Ichigo said, "Haven't found any attacks but Getsuga Tenshou. But I'm getting better with it. Making it curve. Making it corkscrew. Keeping it inside the blade when I attack. And I'm getting better at controlling the ribbon." He'd already told her that it could wrap around his body like spotty cloth armor, and it automatically bandaged itself around his wounds.
"Sparring?" said Rukia.
Ichigo nodded, returning Zangetsu to its sealed state. An odachi the same size as they knew his bankai to be. Sparring with shikai was dangerous, and he'd refused to do so until, he, like her, was competent with healing Kido.
He shunpoed behind, and her turn was shunpo. Around them, boulders shattered and the sparse trees fell as they flickered around the valley, a constant dance of shunpo, both of them going full bore, aside from the lack of shikai and killing intent.
Fully incorporating Shunpo into her fighting style, rather than using it simply for traveling and dodging and the occasional attempt to take an opponent from behind, was one of Rukia's principle training goals. She'd made progress since returning to the past, but it still wasn't as fluid as she'd like. Not as fluid as Ichigo's shunpo.
Still, her advantage in Kido was much, much larger. Ichigo tried Sokatsui, and Rukia deflected it with an angled shield, replied with Rikujokoro, then Hianawa, the chain latching about just one arm as Ichigo tried to avoid. She followed that up with a Sokatsui of her own.
Ichigo came out of it with his hair frizzed and a few light burns, his eyes dazzled by the light of the fiery explosion.
Rukia had saved her own vision by shutting her eyes.
She shunpoed behind him, and, poor of seeing, Ichigo block was too high. She pushed his blade high and rested her own edge on his chest.
"Tch," said Ichigo.
Rukia said, "That's nine for me and seven for you." She glanced up at the dark, purpling sky. In the valley, sunset had come and gone, and dusk reigned. The stars would be coming out soon. But as soon as they came out of the valley, returning to the higher point, the sun would appear above the horizon again. It was probably yet half an hour until sunset in District 4. "Time to go," she said.
"Quitting while you're ahead?" said Ichigo, even as he prepared the cloth for Sentan Hakuja.
"Quitting before you're embarrassingly far behind," she corrected. When they'd first come to the past, her power had exceeded his substantially. He had finally, later than she'd expected, caught up to her. Shortly, he would surpass her. So she'd best savor what victories she could get.
She'd never admit it out loud, but she thought in a real fight, he'd already win nine times out of ten. Ichigo had an absurd track-record of winning fights he'd had no chance in.
After using Sentan Hakuja to get back within 40 miles of their destination, they shunpoed the rest of the way back, chasing the sunset. They reached Hisana's shop just as dusk did, and two figures were outlined in the doorway.
While they'd been gone, Byakuya had come.
Ichigo wanted to hang back, giving the couple their privacy, but Rukia shushed him and pulled him forward while cupping one hand around an ear, moving with all the stealth she'd learned in forty plus years as a shinigami, and time before that as a Rukongai brat. Though Ichigo was annoyed at her nosiness, went with all the stealth he could as well, until they were peeking around the corner of the house, within twenty feet. The air was still, and the District surprisingly quiet.
Hisana and Byakuya stood close to one another, but there was no touching. No speaking. Their eyes communicated everything. Ichigo felt voyeuristic just from witnessing the eye contact. It wasn't natural to stare into each other's eyes for that long. Didn't they get uncomfortable? Didn't they blink?
Hisana said, "Until next time, Byakuya-sama."
Byakuya inclined his head, made some low-voiced goodbye Ichigo didn't catch, and was abruptly gone.
Next to Ichigo, Rukia was squeezing his hand so tight his bones were grinding together. "They're getting married," she whispered.
Ichigo didn't get how Rukia knew, but he'd trust her on that.
#
#
Kaien looked well. No different than Rukia remembered. Dark hair, sea green eyes, a ready smile. Ichigo's face, nearly, with different coloring.
The last two times she'd seen him, she'd killed him.
She was in Division 13's central square, standing at the back of the gaggle of new recruits, watching as Kaien tested them one by one. She kept herself focused in the same way she would in battle. In war. Hyperventilating could wait until later.
When he at last got to her, waving others out of the way, Kaien said, "Kotsuki Rukia, what do you have to show us?"
Rukia bowed, shunpoed away with her head still bowed, and struck a practice target with a quick and chantless Sokatsui, the concussive blue fire destroying the wooden board.
She shunpoed throughout the practice area, using a number of low to mid Kido. She didn't attempt her most difficult feats, but she didn't hide her skills either. Didn't introduce any artificial clumsiness. Kotsuki Rukia would have a reputation as a technician whose raw power lagged. A stereotype for female shinigami.
Only the restriction to her power and her slightly labored breathing were faked.
The various Division members who'd come to spectate and cast bets about the new recruits were watching with a great deal more interest than before. Casting chantless Kido between rapid shunpoes was something only a few of the Division's top Seats could do.
Kaien called out the Division's resident hand-to-hand expert, just as he had for the others. The man was an eighth Seat, and Rukia had always prioritized Hakuda below everything else. Against him, she got thrown around, but thought she gave a decent accounting of herself in the end.
Kaien said, "You have shikai, correct?"
"I do." She could refuse to show it publicly. That was common. A holdover of long bygone days before the creation of the Gotei 13, when Shinigami had killed each other more than they'd purified Hollows. Though Rukia knew those days weren't as dead as most people thought.
She could, she was sure, get up to at least 4th Seat even without using Shikai, but the goal was to hide her true level. She had to appear to be going all out when she lost to the 10 Seat or so.
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki." Her zanpakutou. turned white, a long white ribbon grew from the end of the hilt, and the temperature dropped 10 degrees.
It would've been 25 or 30, but she'd restrained herself. Still, there was a murmur from the watching shinigami.
Kaien said, "16th Seat Nodaka Lin, step up."
Nodaka Lin was a tall woman with brown hair. Made cautious by Rukia's reputation and performance, she went to Shikai right away. Her shikai was a glaive, and Rukia didn't remember her at all, which might mean that she'd died, transferred to a different Division, or any of half a dozen less likely explanations.
The first pass was exploratory. Lin hit hard and fast, and the glaive's length was a real problem, but Lin didn't use any special ability. Did it not have one, or was Lin holding it in reserve?
A second exchange, longer, and when they parted, the blade of Lin's glaive was coated in a heavy layer of ice, and frost was on her fingertips.
One strike, a second, and the glaive was knocked out of Lin's trembling hands. Rukia put the edge of her sword to the 16th Seat's neck.
"Called," said Lieutenant Kaien. "13th Seat Rumopaga, you're up."
That was harder. Her reiryoku control was more of a restriction, biting into her like clamps, fighting against the instinct to raise her reiatsu. But she won that fight as well. Then narrowly beat one 10th Seat, and lost narrowly to another.
Captain Kaien conferred with 3rd Seat Seya Miyako and Captain Ukitake.
Rukia watched. 3rd Seat Miyako had been nearly as important to her as Kaien had been. She'd idolized her, dreamed of becoming like her. And Miyako, too, had died on that horrible night.
The three officers proceeded to test the next recruit.
When the nine of them had all been tested, Kaien approached her and said, "You'll be one of our 10th Seats, Kotsuki-chan. Be sure to take advice from the other 10th seats, and from the lower seats and unseated officers too. Just because you're good in a fight doesn't mean you know anything about fighting Hollows or running a Division."
10th Seat. She'd never been Seated, and now she was Seated on arrival. She'd known it would happen, but it didn't feel real. "Yes, Lieutenant Shiba."
"Remember you're on probation for the first half-year. Don't mess it up."
Left unspoken was that, while rare, Seated non-officers existed. Powerful shinigami who'd proven themselves completely unsuited to command. Not that it was likely to happen to her. Plenty of shinigami who were completely unsuited to command – Captain Korutsuchi, for example – had never received the designation.
The new recruits were brought into the formal dining hall a dinner with the Division's top officers, Captain Ukitake, who looked well by his standards, presiding over it all. As only one other recruit had been seated, and that at 20, Rukia was getting the lion's share of attention from the Officers.
"...Don't get too cocky… ...your first Hollow… ...you'll be fine, just be careful… ...leadership is key… ...don't try to lead until you know what you're doing… ...focus on your zanpakutou… ...focus on Kido… …focus on shunpo… …focus on your strengths… ...focus on your weaknesses… ...focus on your biggest weakness and your biggest strength…"
Whatever piece of advice she might care for, she got. It would've been bewildering if she were the rookie they thought she was. As it was, she nodded solemnly and thanked each one for their advice.
3rd Seat Miyako was very warm to her and said her office was always open. "Us girls have to stick together. And if you have any girl problems, be sure to come to me right away."
Rukia nodded. It was much what she remembered Miyako saying the first time around, and it made her feel warm and nostalgic.
Lieutenant Kaien only sized her up and said, "If you have any questions, ask me."
Captain Ukitake took her aside and said, "You must feel as if you're under pressure, receiving the heavy expectations of so many. But you are only a rookie Shinigami of my Division." He smiled gently. "Don't worry about what they think. Work hard, but at your own pace, in your own way."
"Thank you for your wisdom, Captain Ukitake," she said, bowing.
Captain Ukitake accepted her formality. She knew he wouldn't start urging his subordinates to be more familiar with him until they'd had a few weeks to get comfortable. "Just be sure you're trying to become the best version of yourself, not someone else," said Captain Ukitake, as he released her.
Rukia thought it was the best advice she'd gotten, vague or not, except for the 14th Seat who'd told her it was a thousand times better to use shikai and discover you didn't need it than to not use shikai and realize you should've as your guts spilled out.
She could attest to that herself.
When the dinner had concluded, she found her apartment. #117. It already held the three boxes that contained her possessions, plus the minimal furnishings she'd spoken to the Quartermaster about.
As a Seated Officer, her apartment was decently sized. A front room, a kitchen next to a small formal dining room, two bedrooms, two closets, and a bathroom with a shower but no tub. If she wanted a real bath, she'd have to go to the Division's public baths. A male section, a female section, and a co-ed section, which Rukia, as a Kuchiki, had never entered.
Rukia locked the door and closed the blinds before collapsing on the tatami mats and letting herself feel. Letting herself know that Kaien was alive, and Miyako too and none of the worst events of in her life had happened yet. But also she wasn't special to most of the people special to her, and it was better that way.
She cried, but when she was done, pretended she hadn't, wiping the floor dry with her sleeve.
She decided to turn the spare room into a combination library, study and drawing studio.
She began organizing her things. Two of her three boxes contained art from Hisana. She was putting it on the walls when a familiar presence appeared at her door. No doubt he'd followed her reiatsu to find her. He could do that, she'd noticed. Up close, his sensitivity was still poor, but at distance he was a bloodhound.
Making sure that she was entirely composed, without any sign of mental perturbation, she let Ichigo in, and, daring him to say anything about it, handed him a painting Hisana had made for her. The sun rising over a forest in winter. She wanted it higher than she could reach.
He helped her hang that, then another picture, then a third, which was a picture of a bunny that looked like a bison eating out of a porcelain bowl, and when Ichigo didn't make any comment about that, Rukia started to freak out. There had never been a better opportunity to make fun of her size or her artistic taste, and he was ignoring both.
Rukia said, "Is something wrong?"
"Hmm?"
"You're acting weird."
He was silent, hanging the last picture. When he finally spoke, it wasn't a direct explanation.
Ichigo said, "I'm 9th Seat of Division 6."
"So?"
"It's odd, but Byakuya seems to like me."
"He'll grow out of it," said Rukia, but Ichigo didn't scowl. He was still serious and distracted.
Ichigo said, "I think I'll like it. Being a Seated Officer. Nice routine. Doing something that matters. My apartment is a lot like yours. A little nicer. Kuchiki and all."
"Okay..." said Rukia.
"Once the problem is fixed, I should be pretty comfortable."
Rukia frowned. "Don't get too comfortable. Remember that you don't belong here."
Ichigo stared at her. His eyes were heavy, full of sorrow but not despair. And a smidge of indignation. "Where the hell do I belong then?"
And Rukia understood. Allowed herself to see what he'd finally confronted. Maybe he'd been born human, or half human, at least, but that was in a different timeline, and if they understood reincarnation right, Kurosaki Ichigo would never be born, because his soul was already in Soul Society. What could Ichigo do, go to the human world, fake papers so he could attend a college, and spend the rest of his life in a gigai working a nine to five? That would be pretending to be something he wasn't. That would be living a lie in a place he didn't belong.
Horror overtook her features. "I'm so sorry."
"For what? None of this is your fault. It was my fight too, from the very beginning, even if we didn't know it."
His mother, killed by the Grand Fisher, one of Aizen's experiments. His father, a shinigami himself. The struggle against Aizen had been his as well long before he'd known Hollow or Shinigami existed.
She wondered if she should comfort him. They'd always dealt with heart sickness briskly, like a strong, cold wind ripping apart banks of fog. But perhaps he needed warmth. A smile. A touch. A bar of chocolate.
But if she smiled, he would see it was fake. They never touched except for bickering and physical convenience. And she had no chocolate to offer.
Rukia said, "It's too late to go back to Division 6."
It wasn't, and even if it were, the dark held few fears for Ichigo. But he said, "Got a place to sleep?"
She pulled the spare futon from the closet. Even as she'd gotten it from the quartermaster, she'd thought of it as Ichigo's. She was glad he was staying the night.
They lay in their futons a few feet from each other. Rukia was almost asleep when it occurred to her that really, Ichigo ought to be sleeping in the other room. But she was used to his breathing lulling her to sleep. She'd laid his futon next to hers without a second thought.
Once upon a time, he'd insisted on leaving his room when she changed, even when she changed in his closet.
Rukia said, "Ichigo, you will never stop missing those who are lost to you. They will always have a place in your heart. But in time, you will find new precious people. People who love you, and who you love. It will never be what it should've been. But one day, you will wake up and realize that you are no longer lonely."
He was silent. She wondered if she had offended him. If he had fallen asleep. If she were asleep and had only dreamed of saying all that.
Minutes had passed when he mumbled, just loud enough to hear. "Idiot. How could I be lonely? I've got you."
By the thin, silver light of the moon creeping through a blind, she watched him turn over, burying his head in the futon, pulling the blanket up over his hair. They did not speak again until morning.
:::
If Ichigo had had a release command for Zangetsu, it woulda been 'Protect,' right? That's fanon for me, so I'll always do that.
Judging from my description of the sunset, Soul Society has timezones, and the simplest explanation for that is that Soul Society is round.
I don't want to make Rukia into super Rukia, but there should be some impacts from merging with her past self.
I'm dissatisfied with the relationship between Hisana and Byakuya. I have a fic on my computer called 'Hisana Lives' where Byakuya is as reserved and inexpressive as in canon, and Hisana humanizes him for others. Their relationship makes sense. But I've made this Byakuya young and happy, and I'm not feeling the chemistry.