A/N: Hello again! I'm glad you all liked the battle last chapter, and thanks for your reviews! I'm sorry if I didn't get to responding, but it's been another busy week for me.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, only the things I make them do.
Chapter 12: Critical Conversations
I'm going to fucking kill them. They will all die a slow painful death. What exactly did I tell them before I left? 'You're not coming with me?' Why didn't they get the fucking picture? These thoughts and some very similar ones ran through Ichigo's head as he stomped over to try and locate his leeches-in-the-guise-of-friends. It was an extremely fortunate thing that Renji decided to accompany Rukia, because if they had heard the plans that the two dimensional travelers were originally going to discuss...while Ichigo had no doubt that Rukia would have sensed them as she did today, they would probably have discovered something about the 'prodigy's' true origin.
Ichigo growled as he peeked around another rock, only to discover that he had mistaken the energy signatures and they were actually coming from the next spire. "That's it! Enough games, get out here you three!"
Ichigo waited another ten seconds, impatiently tapping his foot. He was about to yell out again when three figures stepped out of the shadows. Ichigo was a bit pleased to see Choshi looking sheepish, but Terada was projecting her usual half-amused look and Minobe had a scowl on her face that he was sure matched his own. Ichigo stared at all three for a little bit before he couldn't contain himself anymore. "What the fuck did I say about following me!? Why the hell did you come here!? Do you enjoy intruding on people's lives!?"
Normally Ichigo would've taken this kind of thing in a stride, but seeing Renji again and coming so close to revealing his and Rukia's secret sent him over the edge, not to mention that he was still jumpy from when Aizen visited. Minobe's scowl got fiercer as he continued ranting before she hurled her fist at him. Ichigo caught it and flung her arm away from him. "No, you listen to me! I don't know what you find so amusing about shadowing me, but you've all made fools of yourselves in front of a noble and a future Vice-Captain!" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Terada look at him in surprise, then turn away with a pensive look on her face.
Choshi stepped to the front of the girls and looked down at Ichigo. "Please Kurosaki-san, Minobe-san has a proposal to make, now that my suspicions were proven true." He put a hand on the small girl's shoulder, almost willing her to calm down, before he stepped back towards Terada who was still lost in thought.
Minobe sighed. "Right. Choshi mentioned to me in passing that you might not be very good at controlling your spiritual energy, so I wanted to prove it. Since you couldn't notice or find us, you obviously are seriously lacking in that department."
Ichigo scowled in annoyance and rolled his eyes. "Great, let's all follow Ichigo so we can mock him for something he already knows. What fun."
"The thing is," she continued, pretending she didn't hear him, "we're your friends. I have no idea why, but we are. And I don't know if you've realized this, but Choshi here is the best spiritual signature reader Soul Society's seen in centuries." He looked away in embarrassment. "I'm positive you didn't notice this as well, but I have very little spiritual energy. I'm the first person to ever be let into the First Class with only Level Three energy. That's about 15th seat." Minobe smirked. "Do you know why they let me in? I don't mean to brag, but I'm the expert in spiritual energy manipulation and using mine to its maximum capacity."
Terada finally came out her self-induced trance and pushed her friend away, speaking up for herself. "What Chatty is trying to say here is that we'll help you learn how to manipulate your energy in ways our own professors haven't thought of." Ichigo looked at each of them in shock. "The only thing you have to do, Ichigo-san, is tutor us in the fighting arts."
"W-wait...what? You stalk me and then expect me to teach you how to fight? You guys couldn't kill a hollow-salamander. I've got far more important things to worry about then a bunch of little kids that don't think a professor is good enough for them." He turned and started walking towards the exit before Minobe grabbed his arm. He turned sharply and pulled her towards him, looking her in the eyes. "Don't try to understand us. You have no idea what we've been through." Ichigo shunpoed out of Yoruichi's hideout as fast as he could, leaving three pale-faced figures behind him.
What the hell was that?
"Sorry King, I didn't mean it. I just got angry, you know? My control slipped."
...what the hell did that bastard do to us?
--
"No, I swear it's true! Why won't you believe me!?"
"Maybe Ichigo-san has a strange health problem? He certainly seems to be suffering from high blood pressure." Minobe, Terada, and Choshi were walking to the food hall and comparing notes on what happened the previous day.
"It wasn't blood! It was like part of his eye turned black, then went back to normal! And for a second I swear I could hear two voices talking, not just Kurosaki-kun."
"I thought I was imagining that, Minobe-san, but it seems that he was talking with two voices, if only for a moment..." He trailed off, wishing he was alone so he could write down the new information in his notebook.
Terada ran in front of the two and blocked their path. "M-maybe it's just a family trait, you know, like some older nobles have? I heard that the Shihouin family can turn into cats!" She gazed of into the distance and then turned to Minobe. "Didn't you tell me that Ichigo was a noble?"
The other girl looked thoughtful. "Yeah, Choshi-kun could tell from Kurosaki-kun's energy signature...but why did he tell us a story about when he was human?" Minobe hit her own head a few times. "Kurosaki-kun is so confusing! Maybe we should just leave his past alone. He's our friend, right? And he needs our help!" She ran past Terada and motioned for the other two to follow.
--
Minobe found Ichigo exactly as she expected him to be: sleeping in his breakfast. She swiftly walked over to him and gave him a good kick in the shin. To her great surprise, Ichigo didn't even stir. She kicked him on his other leg, but he was still fast asleep, or at least pretending. Minobe was not by any means a patient girl, so after thinking for a few seconds she walked the Ichigo's head and pressed his head further down into the rice. Choshi fidgeted nervously and Terada studied her nails as Minobe pressed Ichigo's head as far into his bowl as it could go. After a few seconds she finally got her response, but instead of flailing around and hitting her as she expected him to, his hand groggily reached up and started searching for the thing that was holding him down.
With a sigh Minobe stopped her death grip on Ichigo's head and stood back, crossing her arms. The small prodigy slowly rose from his breakfast, blearily wiping the rice from his face. He then looked at his legs, as if confused why they were throbbing in pain. Ichigo scratched his head and looked towards the trio.
Minobe had the grace to look slightly guilty. Her jerk of a friend looked like he hadn't slept for a month and couldn't seem to focus his eyes on anything. Terada stepped forward and grabbed Ichigo's arm, literally dragging him out of the food hall before Choshi and Minobe could say anything. They blinked and looked at each other before quickly following. Choshi was able to track Terada to the secretary's office, where she had just started a conversation with the woman stationed there.
"Good morning Hirano-san. I was hoping you could excuse Kurosaki Ichigo-san from all his classes today. I would tell him to ask himself, but he seems pretty out of it right now."
The secretary looked at Ichigo, taking in his pale complexion and eyes that stared straight ahead, not seeming to see anything. "Oh dear, I'll excuse him, but just make sure you get him straight to his dorm room." She grabbed a scroll and scratched something out before attaching it to a Hell Butterfly. "Kurosaki Ichigo...he's the freshman prodigy, right? You might want to let him know that the Fifth Division Captain and his Vice-Captain are very intent on getting him a good position." Hirano winked before she waved them off and went back to sending out scrolls.
As the trio brought Ichigo back to his room Minobe and Terada chatted amiably and Choshi fell back, intently studying Ichigo, then looking at the rooftops. After a few seconds he opened his mouth to say something but decided against it, instead playing along with what the prodigy and his friend had set up.
--
It was true, Ichigo had gotten very little sleep the previous night. However, he wasn't being dragged by his unsuspecting (as far as he knew) friends. Ichigo was instead back at Yoruichi's Hideout, waiting for Rukia to show up. She had woken him up early in the morning and told him to run over to Yoruichi's Hideout while she catches up. Now it was quite a few hours later and Ichigo found himself bored out of his mind.
He had walked, jogged, and shunpoed the perimeter of the cave forty-two times. He did all of his morning warm-ups 4 times. He climbed up every spire worth climbing five times each. He had even soaked in the hot spring that Yoruichi had shown him for an hour. And Rukia still wasn't there. Of course, one of the few times his hollow could actually be of use and keep him occupied, the jerk complained of a headache and left him alone.
Ichigo was just thinking of what he could do next when Rukia finally walked through the opening. "Finally! What the hell could take you six hours to do!? Do you have any idea how boring it is in here!?"
Rukia just took her time walking to him before punching Ichigo in the head. "Be grateful, stupid. I just did a high-level kidou to get you out of classes, and waited around to make sure that your friends bought it. Is you falling asleep in your breakfast really a normal thing?"
Ichigo glared at her and rubbed his throbbing nose. "Well, did it work?"
"Yeah...but one of the kids seemed a bit suspicious of it, and he kept looking up at where I was hiding and watching..."
Ichigo sighed. "Was he a little shorter than I used to be, with short-cut black hair?" She nodded. "Then that's Choshi. They've been going on about he's the best signature-reader or whatever."
Rukia stared at him for a second. "I can trust you to keep the situation under control, right? You remember what Urahara said?" Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Good. Now, we've got a lot of things to discuss. I'm sure you've noticed, but Urahara sent us to the past of an alternate dimension, not our own past."
"WHAT!? How the hell did you figure that out!?"
Rukia rolled her eyes and smacked him upside the head. "We arrived in the past six years ago. It's been a year since then." Ichigo was surprised, thinking he had only been in the past for about two weeks. "Clearly the timeline diverged where your mother couldn't save you, and the hollow changed you into one of it's own. You roamed as a hollow for two years before being purified and sent to Soul Society, but in the middle of those two years you were merged with your past self. You know what happened from there. What the hell did you think happened to you?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. I figured I managed to mess something up and decided to meet up with you before I really gave the subject any thought. So what are we going to do?"
"Unfortunately all the plans I made last year were made useless when I discovered your hollow eradication form...we're going blind from here on out."
"Damn it...why the hell didn't Urahara come with us? He would've had this all figured out five years ago!"
Rukia chuckled. "Exactly. Although I have no idea what the future will bring, I've been coming up with a shaky plan to get things back on track."
Ichigo jumped in the air and pumped his fist. "Yeah!" He gave her a thumbs up and a fake smile. "I had almost begun to doubt you, Rukia, but it turns out you really are good for something!" She swept his legs out from under him and punched him in the stomach.
"You're going to spend a year in the Academy and join a Division. If you can keep your temper then you should probably join Three or Five. Tousen was too good at hiding his intentions to reveal anything useful to us. You're going to stay away from any missions in the real world while building up your old relationships. Then, when I'm assigned to Karakura Town, I'll request to bring you with me to give you some real world experience and for safety, since I heard somewhere that Karakura Town had some pretty strong hollows." Rukia sat back and looked extremely satisfied with herself.
"No."
She jumped up. "What do you mean, 'no'!? It's perfect!"
Ichigo looked away. "You said I was killed that night, right? That means I'm the one...I'm the one that tore the family apart, for real this time. I won't be able to look at Dad, or Yuzu and Karin...and what about Tatsuki? I can't just waltz in like nothing happened..."
Rukia looked at him sadly. "It's better than them being dead, Ichigo."
"No! They are dead, and nothing can bring them back! We're not in the past, we're in a different dimension! These aren't the same people anymore, we have no connection to them, and there's nothing we can do to bring our real friends back." Ichigo stood up and walked away, leaving Rukia to realize the implications of what Urahara had done. Their friends had died and there was nothing they could do to change their horrible fate.
Rukia stood up and ran towards Ichigo, finding him standing in the wide open with his fists clenched. "Ichigo! Control yourself!" He started and the blue energy that had been spinning wildly around him disappeared. She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You're right, there's nothing we can do to save our friends and family. But, if we hadn't come here we would have died as well. Now, we're here in this dimension. We can make a difference here and save these people, even if they're not exactly like remember." She smiled softly. "We failed to save our friends the first time, but now we have a second chance. We can do it this time and save Renji, nii-sama, Captian Ukitake, Orihime, Sado, Ishida, and everyone else! We've got to, because if we don't, Aizen will win again!"
Ichigo remained still for a moment, then turned towards her and nodded. If there was any hope, he would cling to it, Rukia thought as she grinned, because that's the kind of person Ichigo is.
They both sat back down and Ichigo motioned for her to continue with her plan, not trusting himself to speak. "No matter what we feel we must go to the real world and re-establish relationship with our allies. Without Orihime, Sado, and Ishida on our side there's almost no hope of winning the war. I know you're not going to like this, but we've got to tell Urahara everything."
To her surprise, Ichigo nodded. "No, that's a good idea. He can help us figure this mess out." A devious smile crossed his face. "Plus, we can get him to take out the Hougyoku! That should give that bastard a nasty surprise if he ever tries to get his hands on you!"
"I have a better idea, but there's no way I'm telling you. You'd never agree."
Ichigo crossed his arms. "Well now you have to tell me."
Rukia shook her head vigorously, then sat up straight and looked off into the distance. "My kidou is starting to fade, Ichigo. We'll have to talk another time. Run back before anyone notices!" Ichigo sighed before getting up and waving to Rukia. That was awfully convenient...he shunpoed as fast as he could on the rooftops of buildings, trying to take in everything Rukia told him. He had been so happy about being a real shinigami and being accepted into the academy that he'd completely forgotten that he was supposed to be with his friends and family in the human world. It made Ichigo want to kill something when he thought about how devastated his family must be right now. He couldn't even bring himself to wonder his mother was still alive, since there was almost no chance...
Ichiog jumped through the conveniently open window in his dorm room just in time to find a sleeping version of himself sat down on his bed and stared out the window. There was so much more I needed to talk to her about... He thought about writing down a list of topics, but then realized that it would be disasterous if anyone saw it. He decided it was better to just let the information sink in before acting on it and lay down on his bed, closing his eyes even though he knew no sleep would come.
--
"Yo, Abarai." Renji turned to see Ikkaku strolling down to meet him.
"Hey Ikkaku-san. What're you doing here?"
Ikkaku made a face. "New recruits don't seem to get the concept of work, so I figured it was high time to beat some sense into 'em. Wanna come?"
Renji stood up and brushed himself off. "Sure, I've got nothing better to do. Where are we going?"
The bald shinigami looked around. "We've gotta track down the little bastards first. Come on!" He took off around a corner and Renji followed closely behind.
They were almost down when Ikkaku decided to pursue a topic that Renji definitely didn't want to discuss. "So Abarai, where were you yesterday? Yachiru said she didn't see you at dinner."
Renji looked away nervously. "Uh...Rukia wanted me to help her with something, but it ended up taking all day. No big deal."
"Yeah sure, now tell me what really happened, and why you didn't invite me."
Renji sighed. "Rukia has a friend in the freshman class that she wanted to meet with, so I decided to tag along."
Ikkaku laughed. "Yeah, right, more like you wanted to beat some respect into his sorry ass. What'd you do to him?" Renji was silent. "Wow, he must've really sucked if you hurt him that bad. Is that why Kuchiki didn't come around today?"
"No. I told her she wasn't allowed to go near me until she calmed down..."
Ikkaku stared at him. "You didn't...you didn't lose, right?" Renji was silent again. "N-NO WAY!!" Ikkaku started laughing hysterically before falling off the rooftop they'd been on and landing flat on his face. Not missing a beat, he rolled on the floor for a few minutes, alternating between laughing and groaning in pain. He then stood up and ran off laughing in the opposite direction they'd been going. Renji knew that by the end of the day everyone in Soul Society would know that Abarai Renji, Fouth Seat of the Eleventh Division, got his ass handed to him by a freshman in the Shinigami Academy.
Renji sighed before racing off to that cave Rukia showed him yesterday, knowing that he wouldn't be able to come out for about a year.
A/N: Poor Renji and Ichigo...sorry this chapter has so much dialogue, but it had to be done. It was a real pain trudging through this chapter, and you can see that it's still a little late.
On a different note, I've just finished a pic of Minobe if anyone if curious to see what I think she looks like. Just go to my profile and there's a link to my deviantART there. Thanks for reading!
