OMG I got 27 reviews for the last chap! Thank you SO SO much!
But now I'm also feeling bad that I made you wait 3 weeks again – I apologize especially to those whom I told I'd update within 2 weeks. I'm the first one to get annoyed when Ichigo and Rukia are jumping around in my head but I can't find those few hours required to sit down and write their story! At least this chap is REALLY long, I think the longest yet!
Anyway, since I'm going away for two weeks next Saturday, I'll do my best to post a shorter chap within next Friday.
As always, DeviantHollow 23 beta-ed the chap!
.
§I§
Change of POV
§I§
/ / /
flashback
/ / /
.
PREVIOUSLY…
But that wouldn't have been so bad, if a girl on his right wasn't having so much troubles, to cause Rukia to be there, like, every five freakingseconds, and every time the midget came to stand beside him, Ichigo felt the hair on his nape stand up and the reiatsu in his hand waver.
And in the end, of course, she noticed.
Shit.
She turned to him. "Kasshoku-san, right?"
CHAPTER 9
How the hell does she already remember my name? "Yes, Kuchiki-sensei," he mumbled, staring at his feet – as per Golden Rule N.2.
"You shouldn't be so tense when casting a Kido," Rukia explained with a warm smile, hoping to ease her student's nerves, "you see, it upsets the flow of your spiritual energy."
Really now? I hadn't noticed, he felt the sarcastic reply pushing out of his mouth, but bit his tongue. "Thank you for the suggestion, Kuchiki-sensei," he mumbled instead.
Rukia took a step back, stopping two feet behind Ichigo's right shoulder, while he raised his hand in preparation for a 'Hado N.2: Soushou'.(1)
He paused for a couple seconds, waiting for her to go away, but she didn't seem to want to move.
He started having this, not so subtle, urge to growl. What now? Don't tell me she even wants to check if I'm doing it better!
But did he have a say in the matter? Nope. So, even though he was so tense he was getting cramps in his arm, he bravely started murmuring the incantation and pumping reiatsu towards his twitching fingers.
§I§
Rukia stood behind her student, observing his Kido casting with a frown. He was still too nervous and she could already tell his Hado wasn't going to end well, but she didn't dare stop him in the middle of his incantation to avoid any dangerous explosions.
However the other half of her mind was stuck analyzing a much more puzzling fact.
She knew him.
Before it had been just a feeling, but now, standing this close to him, she was sure.
Perhaps I met him in Rukongai? It's possible, after all his file says he's from Inuzuri like me, but then he's been dead for just about fifteen years…hmm…
Her musings were cut short by the expected crash and an incensed female student yelling at Kasshoku for destroying her target with the second blow of the spell.(1)
Rukia felt like rolling her eyes, but since she was supposed to be the teacher here… "Now now, there's no need to get so upset, Okabe-san, you can get another dummy inside. Now Kasshoku-san –," she turned back to the culprit, who suddenly stopped glaring at his classmate and dropped his eyes to his feet.
What is it with him? Is he that shy?
Shaking her head, Rukia reached out to grab his hand in order to show him the proper finger movements to avoid any more such disasters, but the moment her fingers brushed his skin…
…an overwhelming sense of familiarity swept over her.
She inhaled sharply.
His reiatsu…
A split second later the connection was broken as he crouched down at the speed of light yelling about an ant and checking his foot.
She blinked, looking down. An ant? What ant?
§I§
Tessai had warned him, hadn't he?
/ / /
"This concealing Bakudo is so hard to detect because, to maintain itself, it slowly feeds off your own reiatsu, so even the most skilled Kido practitioner will be hard pressed to find anything strange when analyzing your spiritual pressure.
"On the downside, this also means that the energy flowing under your skin isn't affected by the Bakudo, so somebody very well attuned to your reiatsu may perceive its real quality if they touch you."
/ / /
So, why was it that he still found himself crouched at Rukia's feet, rubbing his big toe and bitching about the bite of a non-existent ant among the snickers of his classmates?
– Damn you Rukia! –
She always managed to make him look like a fool, even without trying! And all this only because he wanted to keep her out of that mess for as long as possible!
And of course Mr. Inner Hollow couldn't stop himself from opening his big fat mouth to mock him for his slip up - Oi King, watch out! I think I've just seen a ladybug flying by! – followed by a burst of raucous laughter, to which Ichigo's response was a threatening 'You and me are gonna have a very long 'chat' this weekend'.
At this point the following thought was due: Was it possible for a spirit to get a coronary?
XXX
Ichigo sat in the Academy's refectory frowning into his Miso soup, not paying attention to either Hideki or Takeshi who where also sitting at his table and chatting about the upcoming Zanjutsu lesson.
Sure, he'd worked out some of his frustrations during the weekend in the cave under the Soukyoku Hill (2) against his loud mouthed Hollow, but the fact remained that Rukia's Sherlock routine was getting annoying to the point where he was starting to consider whether he should just murder her and be done with it.
She was worse than a dog on a hot trail. She'd sniffed something odd about him that first day, and had been keeping an eye on him ever since – which surely didn't help keeping his stress-levels in check.
Just today, after the end of the Kido lesson she'd ambushed him with questions about his life in Inuzuri, and he'd barely managed to stutter a semi-coherent reply before running away as if Kenpachi was chasing after him.
He sighed. Running in front of the midget, how undignified…
On the other hand, he wouldn't have expected anything less of her – after all, she was as much of a persistent bitch as he was stubborn. Plus there was a part of him – a part that was getting harder and harder to ignore – that would've been really disappointed if she hadn't noticed anything strange about 'Kasshoku Kaito'.
"Hey Kaito, why so moody today?" Hideki's voice broke into his train of thoughts. "You haven't spoken a word since the beginning of lunch."
"Ah, unrequited love would do that to you," Takeshi explained with an expert tone, "even a tough guy like our Kaito here isn't immune to such things," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, patting Ichigo's shoulder.
Ichigo glanced at his room-mate with a look that clearly said, 'are you nuts?'
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Aw, come on," Takeshi grinned, "to me it's clear as day that you have the hots for Kuchiki-sensei!"
"WHAAT?" Ichigo screeched feeling his whole face getting hot – he didn't know himself, if it was from anger or embarrassment.
"Isn't she one of your Kido teachers?" Hideki asked, after sipping some more of his own soup.
"Yep," Takeshi nodded, "but she's more than that! She's also 13th Division's fukutaicho and a princess of the Kuchiki Noble House, not to mention she looks like one of those porcelain dolls with big violet eyes! Isn't that right Kaito?" He finished, peering at Ichigo to see his reaction.
"I wouldn't know," Ichigo growled. Hearing a guy talking about Rukia like that just rubbed him the wrong way.
The young Shihouin grinned knowingly. "You should see him, Hideki. He spends all the time looking at Kuchiki-sensei from the corner of his eye, but every time she happens to look at him or comes too close, he turns into a stuttering fool, averting his eyes and blowing up all his Kido!" He snickered.
Ichigo's face turned downright stormy - Damn that observant Takeshi! – but it wasn't like he could explain the real reasons behind his behavior, so denial was the way to go.
"There's clearly something toxic in your soup, because you're seeing things," he said icily.
"Don't be so shy," the young Shihouin continued, clearly enjoying himself immensely, "you can talk freely here, you're among friends!"
"Yes," Hideki added his two cents, "I too had a crush on a girl once, she had these beautif–," but Ichigo's murderous glare shut him up immediately, while Takeshi kept on snickering.
Thank god, in that moment three older students approached their table, creating a much needed distraction. They stopped a couple feet from them, crossing their arms, probably under the impression that this way they looked more intimidating.
"Are you Kasshoku, Kaito?" the bigger and badder looking one of the three addressed Ichigo with a cocky grin.
Ichigo looked at the three with practiced disinterest, then nodded shortly. "Who wants to know?"
"I'm Tendo, Daijiro," the big one replied puffing out his chest, clearly expecting Ichigo to recognize his name. When there was no reaction, his grin turned into a frown, but he went on in the same arrogant way. "I've heard you fancy yourself to be the new Academy prodigy, especially in Hoho and Hakuda."
"Nah, not really, I just punch hard and can run really fast," Ichigo smirked.
Daijiro's eyes narrowed dangerously at Ichigo's mocking. "Care to defend that statement on Sunday afternoon at 4 in the Zanjutsu training area?"
"Sure," Ichigo shrugged with nonchalance.
Daijiro just nodded, then turned, thus signaling his two companions it was time to go.
When they were out of ear-shot, Takeshi turned to Ichigo with a half worried half curious face. "Do you have any idea whose challenge you've just accepted?"
"Um,…no?" Ichigo replied airily, but he'd actually sensed that the guy's reiatsu was high, probably around that of a fifth seat – which of course constituted barely a blip on his radar.
"That big guy is in the 4th year. He's one of the Academy's best students and he's also rumored to be a member of the Four Sakura Leaves," Takeshi informed him, waiting to see his reaction to the mess he'd just gotten himself into.
"Really now?" Ichigo's lips stretched in a feral smirk, eerily similar to that of his Hollow counterpart. Looks like I've just found my entrance ticket to that Club!
Takeshi and Hideki looked at each other in bewilderment. Was their friend stupid or simply overconfident?
"This is serious, Kaito," Hideki leaned towards Ichigo, feeling it was his turn to try to explain the situation. "Takeshi told me how good you are at Hoho and Hakuda, but this won't be a specialty fight.
"Your Kido may be good enough, but I've seen for myself you're still just average in Zanjutsu (3), while Tendo-san already possesses his shikai!" Then he added with a frown, "And I've heard he's not the type to hold back just because his adversary is inferior".
Ichigo waved his hand in dismissal. "Both of you worry too much," and picked up his still untouched soup, his mood somehow lightened by this new development.
Both Hideki and Takeshi stared at him for a second longer then exchanged another glance, wondering what the hell their friend had in mind.
XXX
It was Sunday afternoon and the weather was particularly hot for it being the beginning of autumn. That's also why the 13th Division's training area was deserted, except for a lone shinigami that kept thrusting and swinging her katana in intricate patterns at an imagined adversary, while jumping and twisting in the air as if she was avoiding its counterattacks.
Droplets of sweat rolled slowly down her forehead, her hair was plastered to her cheeks the same way her shihakushou clung to her overheated body, but Rukia ignored her discomfort, concentrating only on her training.
She had a goal in mind, something that up to a year ago had seemed a fantasy, but was now slowly becoming a possibility :
Bankai.
The first time that thought had crossed her mind, she had scoffed at herself, but then she had made the mistake – a mistake that in hindsight was nothing but – to mention this to her best friend who, in his very personal way, made her understand she really could do this.
/ / /
Rukia was lying on Ichigo's bed staring at the ceiling, her manga forgotten by her side, as Urahara's words kept running on repeat through her mind.
Of course she'd noticed the increase in her power in the last year and a half – it's hard to miss when your attack doubles in size in a matter of months when it's stayed the same for over thirty years – but she'd thought it was just the consequence of the hard times they'd all gone through. After all, Ichigo's powers too had developed at a scary rate, but he was hardly the best point of comparison.
But then, some days ago, Urahara had explained to her it was all tied to the Hogyoku. For as long as it had stayed inside her soul, a great part of her reiatsu was needed to keep it hidden and in turn to protect herself from its influence, but after it came out, and she had had the time to heal, her reiatsu could finally develop properly.
'Think of it as a growth spurt', he says, but then he's not able to tell me how long this 'growth spurt' is gonna last, she thought crinkling her nose in irritation and turned on her side, could it be enough to…to… she swallowed. No, she was getting ahead of herself.
Say it Rukia, believe in yourself and say it, Sode No Shirayuki's gentle voice resounded in her mind.
Shirayuki? Rukia smiled. Lately she'd been hearing more and more from her Zanpakuto.
I know how much your heart desires to be strong enough to protect your friends, to protect the ones you care for the same way he protects you, the ice-spirit continued.
Rukia's cheeks colored slightly, as she tried to ignore the last part of Shirayuki's sentence and instead focused on the first. Yes, I want to be able to have the strength to protect my friends, I don't want them to be injured trying to save me… but Bankai? She said this last part with uncertainty coating her words.
Ah Rukia – a hint of exasperation showed in Shirayuki's voice, but any following words would have had to wait because in that moment Ichigo entered the room.
He stopped in front of the bed, with his arms folded, observing Rukia with a frown for a couple seconds, then spoke with a firm voice. "Get off my bed."
As an answer Rukia burrowed her face even deeper into his pillow, secretly enjoying his unique scent that lingered on the sheets.
Ichigo scowled. "How many times have I told you not to lie on my bed?" In truth, he didn't mind all that much, but seeing as she did that just to annoy him, it was only logical to respond, right?
"Not like you need it yet, unless you need to take a nap after lunch like an old lady," came the smartass remark muffled by his pillow.
Ichigo's eyes narrowed and he took a step closer. "Move it," he ordered.
A defiant violet eye peered up at him, only to close a moment later in dismissal of his threatening voice.
Ichigo's right eye twitched in annoyance. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her by force, deftly avoiding her kick to his gut, but he didn't make it in time to avoid the second kick that caught his hip causing him to fall at the foot of the bed, narrowly avoiding her other slightly bent leg.
He cursed, but didn't grimace in pain, not wanting to give her the satisfaction. As he raised his head back up, ready to yell at her, his eyes caught a flash of pink under her dark blue dress. Is she wearing pink panties? the thought flew unbidden through his mind.
He shook his head sharply, trying to clear the image from his mind, then finally raised himself enough to look her in the face, his own flushed in anger – yeah, right – "You bitc-" but stopped in his tracks when he noticed that her gaze was lost on something outside the window.
He frowned. Come to think of it, she'd been spacing out a lot in the past few days.
"What's wrong Rukia?" Ichigo asked while finally settling on his bed with his legs crossed.
She looked back at him and blinked. "Huh? Nothing. Nothing's wrong."
"Bullshit," he replied in a matter-of-fact voice, "something's been bugging you and I want to know what it is."
She rolled her eyes. "It's none of your business."
"The hell it isn't," Ichigo growled, "If a hollow's mouth starts to water for a midget-sized snack, and said midget is admiring the clouds instead of paying attention, it's me who's gonna have to go and save her ass," he said logically.
"I'll have you know, I've grown two inches in the last year!" Rukia yelled at him.
"And that changes your midget status how?" Ichigo shot back.
"And I can take care of myself, thank you very much!" She finished her mini-rant getting in his face.
He opened his mouth for another smartass remark but thought better of it. Something told him she was just trying to avoid the real conversation, but he wanted answers. Time to switch tactics.
"I know you can," Ichigo replied with a calm voice, "but I never said I minded looking after you, did I?" He finished with a little smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
Rukia had already opened her mouth to retort but Ichigo's sudden changecaught her totally off-guard. And those words? They did something strange to her stomach. She felt an unexpected warmth creeping up her neck and had to look to the side for a moment to avoid his eyes. They were too close, too intense.
"So?" The uncharacteristic gentleness in his voice surprised her even more, so much so that she found the words flowing out of her mouth before she'd even given them a conscious command.
"Some days ago Urahara made a comment on the size of my White Moon, so we sorta ended up talking about my powers," she started, still looking out of the window.
"I had to literally 'extract' it out of him, but it seems that the Hogyoku's presence inside of my soul was responsible for the slow growth of my spiritual pressure. So now that it's out, my reiatsu is developing at a much faster rate. You could say it's even trying to make up for the lost time."
"Well, this is great news, not something you should be moping over," Ichigo looked at her as if she was an idiot.
And he's back to his usual self. "I haven't finished yet," she hissed. "It's just that…," she trailed off.
"Just spit it out," he huffed.
She glared at him, but then took a breath and, with much seriousness, said the word.
"Bankai."
"What about it?"
"Me achieving Bankai," she clarified with a somehow defensive tone. She half expected him to start mocking her for even thinking about it.
He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Still can't see the problem."
"But I'm not even a seated officer!" She spluttered exasperated.
"Your point being…?"
She flapped her mouth ready to present him more arguments, but suddenly found none. She blinked. Huh?
"Very well," he gave her a satisfied smirk, "we're starting your Bankai training tomorrow."
"What -, we?"
"Well," he scratched the back of his head, "Urahara certainly has more experience, but I'm sure I won't have any problems beating you into the ground."
"As if you really could," she scoffed, to prevent her mouth from widening into that large grin that was threatening to escape at any second. For him it was just that obvious: She could do it.
/ / /
Rukia stopped for a moment to calm her harsh breathing. After three hours of intense training under the hot sun she was starting to feel light-headed, but she wasn't giving up. She had this feeling that Ichigo was going to need her strength in the near future.
She had faith in him, but he had a tendency to get into big messes, which is why she needed to be ready.
She knew he would find a way around Central 46's orders. That last time she had seen him, her gut instinct had told her he still remembered her, at least in some way. That meant things couldn't stay like this for too long, right? Ichigo was too impulsive to wait too long, but…
- she pressed her lips together -
…but it's already been three months, three whole months!
Doubt started creeping upon her. What if I was wrong? What if something happened to that idiot?
She decided then and there she would ask her Captain to send her on a new mission to the World of the Living.
"Hey, Rukia!"
Renji's voice snapped her out of her musings and, as she looked up, she wiped her face of any lingering trace of her worries. "Hey! What's up?"
"I should be the one asking you! Look at you!" He waved his hand pointing at her form drenched in sweat. "Are you crazy? Training on a day like this?"
"I had training scheduled for this afternoon," Rukia replied haughtily.
"Come on, relax already! The war is over!" Renji rolled his eyes.
"You're free to grow weak, but I don't intend to," she told him in a superior voice.
"Hey! I could beat you with my pinkie!" The fellow Fuku-taicho replied outraged.
"Prove it," she readily raised her katana giving him a challenging smile.
Renji contemplated the offer for all of two seconds then, "Nah, it's too hot."
She frowned. If it had been Ikkaku or Ichigo he'd have already released his Shikai, but for some reason he didn't seem to want to take her seriously as a warrior. In his eyes she was still little Rukia from Rukongai, or the shinigami with average powers.
Of course she could insult him and call him a pussy, a fool-proof way to compel him into a fight, but today she really didn't feel like dealing with him. He had a tendency to gloat to much during their fights. – Ichigo on the other hand… she'd been surprised how seriously he'd taken their training sessions.
"Whatever," she shrugged and turned back to her exercises.
Renji blinked, puzzled, but since Rukia was ignoring him he turned his back with a sarcastic "Have fun!" and walked away.
As soon as he turned the corner, she let her tough façade drop. She was tired, but more than that she was worried.
Are you alright, you idiot?
§I§
An Academy student with brown curly hear sat in a tree, that gave a wonderful view of the 13th Divisions training grounds, observing the lone figure practicing her fighting skills.
Her movements were precise and elegant, like always, but he detected that the actual strength behind them had increased since the last time he's seen her training.
You've gotten better, midget.
He felt something suspiciously resembling pride stir inside him.
For a moment there Ichigo got lost following the ripples of her black shihakushou as she moved quickly through the air and the white flashes of her katana under the scalding sun.
When she stopped to catch her breath, he noticed how her focused expression gave way to sort of a spaced out look. He frowned. He knew that kind of look when Rukia 'spaced out': something was bothering her.
Then Renji suddenly appeared and he thought the pineapple would notice something was off - Rukia needed someone to snap her out of it, whatever that 'it' was – but after blabbing something about the weather – from that distance Ichigo could hear just one word every three – the red-head walked off.
What the hell Renji?
He had half a mind to jump down and go to the midget, totally forgetting that he had a disguise on and that he was supposed to stay 'undercover', but an approaching familiar reiatsu made him pause.
Hey, isn't that Hideki?
Then it hit him: his fight with Tendo, what's-his-name, was supposed to start in ten minutes and Hideki was probably looking for him.
With a last glance at Rukia, he jumped off the tree on the other side of the wall and sped towards his friend.
XXX TBC XXX
So I promised IchiRuki goodness and I hope I didn't disappoint (since this was my first time writing so much Ichigo-Rukia interaction)! It became so long that I had to move all the fighting to the 10th chap, which means…
NEXT CHAPTER: Action! – and nope, I'm not talking simply about some scuffle with an annoying Academy student! ^_-
NOTES:
(1) "Hado N.2: Soushou" is a Kido I made up, 'cause I needed something slightly more difficult than a "Hado N.1: Shou". 'Soshou' means simply 'double shou', that is 'double hit/thrust', where the caster shots two little energy blasts from his hand, one after the other in quick sequence. The correct Japanese translation was kindly provided by Blusake. Thank you dear!
(2) That's the cave where Ichi trained for his Bankai.
(3) In Canon, the Academy students get either into the normal or the advanced class based – I suppose – on their reiatsu, but I think a freshman that has a high reiatsu, but doesn't know the first thing about, say, Kido, should be put in the normal class until he learns the basics, then moved to the advanced one. This way, in my story, a student can attend advanced classes in some subjects and normal classes in others. Also, if a student shows great improvement in a subject, he can be moved from the normal to the advanced class.
So, in my story, both Ichi and Takeshi are in all the advanced classes, while Hideki is in the Zanjutsu advanced class, but in the normal classes in the other subjects.