Chapter 4: Rukia.
Rukia rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer it. The night air was cool and crisp, just the way she liked it. The dark sky was clear so she had a wonderful view of the stars; they twinkled brightly from their positions above like diamonds resting on dark velvet. She was glad to finally be back in the World of the Living to see her friends and return to the mission; it was good experience, plus she needed to prove to her brother that she could handle herself against powerful opponents and then maybe he'd let her go for a lieutenant's position.
Yuzu was the one who eventually answered the door. Upon seeing her, Yuzu broke into a large smiled and hugged her.
"Rukia, you're back!" She exclaimed excitedly, "How was your camping trip with Orihime?"
"Hi Yuzu. Camping trip?" She looked at the girl questioningly, but quickly realised that this was the cover story Ichigo must have created to explain her absence, "Oh that trip! It was really good!"
Yuzu lead her inside the warm family home. Karin was on the couch watching TV and gave a lazy wave when she saw Rukia enter.
"Dad has already gone to bed," Yuzu informed her, "Will you be staying with us again?"
"Yes please, if that is okay? I'm still having trouble at home," Rukia asked, putting on her best innocent face and sad puppy dog eyes.
"Oh yes, of course!" Yuzu answered happily, "Oh, Ichigo and dad will be so happy to see you!"
Rukia saw Karin roll her eyes, but whether it was because of her blatant lie or her sister's overly keen hospitality, she wasn't sure.
"Thank you, Yuzu. Is Ichigo home? I'd like to see him before I go to bed."
"Yes, yes, he is in his room! Goodnight Rukia!"
Rukia hurried up the stairs to see one of her two best friends. Barging into his room, the orange-haired substitute did not seem surprised to see her, but rather annoyed she had once again forgotten to knock. Whoops.
"Dammit, Rukia! Knock first, remember!" Ichigo exclaimed from his desk as he did his homework.
"Is that how you greet your friend that you haven't seen in weeks?" Rukia retorted, walking over to take a seat on his bed, crushing a certain perverted mod soul plushie along the way. Same old Kon, She thought.
Ichigo sighed, swivelling around in his desk chair to face her and ignoring the pained groan emanating from the toy lion, "Sorry, Rukia. How did your training with Orihime go?"
Rukia informed him of Orihime's developing strength, and of her fighting potential. In truth, the girl had come a long way, with plenty of room still to grow, although Rukia doubted she would be able to hold her own against an arrancar just yet. She was excited to see how Orihime's powers would mature throughout the coming war.
When she asked Ichigo what had been going on in Karakura Town these last few weeks, she'd seen a mixture of emotions flitter across his face; happiness and excitement, followed by anger and unease.
"It's been okay, I guess" he began, seemingly deep in thought, "Everyone here is fine, but Aizen keeps sending arrancar after arrancar. No Espada have come since Grimmjow last month, but every day we're attacked. Usually it's only one or two arrancars at a time, so Toshiro and the others have been handling them fine without needing my help."
A beat passed before Ichigo added begrudgingly, "Kinda sucks, I haven't been able to fight in ages…didn't think I'd miss it, but I do."
Rukia thought about the update Ichigo had given her. It didn't make sense for Aizen to be sending his lowly arrancars into battle instead of the ten, so-far unbeatable, Espadas at his disposal. He would have known that it was straight out murder what he was doing every day to his arrancars, so what was his play?
"Do you know why Aizen is sending so many?" She queried, "It doesn't seem like he wants to kill anyone if he is only sending two arrancar at most when there is a captain, two lieutenants, two high ranked officers from the Eleventh and you…not to mention the four bankais in that mix."
Ichigo nodded his head in agreement, "Toshiro seems to think he might be trying to wear us down or simply observe our fighting styles and attacks. He reckons Aizen could be getting ready to launch a bigger attack on us."
Rukia sighed, slowly thinking it through. That did seem plausible, and Captain Hitsugaya had a reputation for being right about these sorts of things being the child prodigy and boy-genius that he was.
"Captain Hitsugaya is probably right," She concluded, "In that case, I'm glad I spent the last three weeks training."
Ichigo agreed solemnly.
… … …
The next morning, Rukia dressed for school and headed down to the kitchen for breakfast.
She had called Captain Hitsugaya earlier that morning for orders since he was her commanding officer on this mission. He recommended she return to Ichigo's school, suggesting she partner with the strawberry while the looming threat of a larger attack hung over their heads. The other soul reapers had opted out of returning to school since the chaos of the first day, leaving Ichigo alone and without back-up if something were to go wrong. Captain Hitsugaya had Rangiku, Ikkaku had Yumichika and Renji had Urahara's gang for protection, but Ichigo was left without anyone. Rukia thought it was a good idea, although a little taken aback by the apparent concern shown by the stoic captain; Hitsugaya has always been known as 'the Cold Captain'.
Coming back to reality, something caught her ears as she descended down the stairs; something that stopped her in her tracks.
"I can't believe Ichigo has a boyfriend!"
It was Isshin's way too lively voice floating out from the kitchen. Rukia thought that it was incredible how cheerful that man could be first thing in the morning. Wait…Did he say Ichigo had a boyfriend?
"Shut up, Dad!" came the growling baritone voice of the man in question, "You guys are the only ones who know so please keep it to yourself until I say so."
Intrigued, Rukia listened on from the shadowed steps.
"Oh Ichigo, we can't help it!" Yuzu's perky voice sang out, "It's just so wonderful to see you smile again!"
"YUZU!"
A minute of silence past, and Rukia realised nothing more would be said on the matter, so she wandered down the last few steps and announced her presence to the Kurosaki family.
During breakfast, Rukia watched as Yuzu and her father grinned at Ichigo, while said strawberry glared back at them. Karin, as usual, paid no heed to her family's silent argument as she flipped through her soccer magazine.
This was very interesting, Rukia thought, just what had she missed this last three weeks?
… … …
After school, Rukia visited Renji at Urahara's shop. They shared afternoon tea as they caught up on each other's last few weeks. The red pineapple swept the shop front while listening to her stories from the Soul Society and giving his confirmation on Ichigo's update regarding the arrancar problem.
When Renji did not mention anything about Ichigo's blooming love-life, Rukia decided to drop the bomb on her childhood friend and long-time crush.
"So do you know anything about Ichigo's new boyfriend?" Rukia asked out of the blue. She doubted he did know though, surely he would have told her by now. Renji never kept secrets from her.
"WHAT?!" Renji spluttered, head whipping around to stare at Rukia. She giggled at his expression; his eyes wide open and his jaw agape. He still had all the class of a street rat from Hanging Dog, apparently.
"Yeah, I overheard him talking to his family about it this morning," She explained, "But apparently no one knows about it except for them."
"That's crazy, are you sure?" Renji asked, "We are his best friends! He would have told us if he was seeing someone!"
"Well apparently not," Rukia sighed.
"That bastard! I'm going to punch his stupid face in when I see him next!" the redhead growled, coming dangerously close to snapping the broomstick with his bare hands.
"Don't Renji!" Rukia warned, "I'm sure he will tell us soon enough."
She went on to explain her day at school. She told him that Ichigo did indeed look much happier than she'd ever seen him. She had been watching him all day, keeping a keen look out for any guy that could be this mysterious new lover of Ichigo's, but he'd only talked to her, Orihime, Tatsuki and Chad. Uryu had been too busy with his sewing to join them at lunch.
Rukia had noted the way Ichigo smiled, realising it was one of the first times she'd ever seen him do so, which was a real shame as he had such a beautiful smile. She watched the way he laughed at Orihime's antics and played light-heartedly with Tatsuki. He hadn't even punched Keigo in the face when the annoying teen had dropped in. It was honestly like meeting a new Ichigo; underneath he was still the same guy but now he was more bubbly and cheery, despite the whole Aizen situation.
Renji had stopped sweeping and was leaning with his back against the shop wall, broom hanging loosely in his hand.
"Who do you think it is?" He asked after some thought.
"I don't know," Rukia sighed, "I don't think it's anyone in his class, unless they've agreed to avoid each other at school."
Renji hummed in agreement before his eye's suddenly lit up like the street lights at dusk, "You know who we should ask? Rangiku! She'd know for sure, or if not, she'd be able to find out within five minutes of being alone with him!"
Rukia knew Renji was right about that, Lieutenant Matsumoto knew everything about everyone; there were no secrets around her. She also treasured a good gossip, so Rukia had no doubt she would love to get involved in Ichigo's romantic affairs.
"I don't think we should go behind Ichigo's back, Renji," She advised softly, "He obviously hasn't told us for a reason and he'll probably never trust us again if we snuck around."
"That's true," Renji sighed, discouraged, "Fine, but the next time I see him, I am asking him straight out."
Rukia agreed, "You're going to have to get in line, Pineapple."
… … …
Well, that's it for chapter 4! Sorry it seemed like a bit of a filler chapter, but understanding how both Rukia and Renji feel about it will be important in future chapters.
PLEASE REVIEW, otherwise I'll probably get discouraged, and I really would like to finish this story. Don't you just hate it when someone writes half a story and then never updates and you have to sit at home never knowing how it was going to end...?