Starry Night

Chapter 4: Eyes

A/N: If you are unfamiliar with Kuchiki Hisana and/or the rescue of Rukia from her execution, I suggest that you do not read this chapter. Also, this chapter does not contain Seiki's point of view. The first part is in Rukia's point of view and the second is in Byakuya's , to get this clear. Happy reading!

I was going to talk to Byakuya Nii-sama about the chances of getting Seiki into the Kuchiki family.

She was probably going to become a powerful shinigami one day, judging by her reiatsu, which was growing ever so quickly ever since I had found her in Rukongai…

That seemed liked ages ago now.

Seiki was someone different, like no other shinigami I had ever seen before. She had caused me to reminiscence so much about Kaien-dono, yet Ichigo hadn't caused me to think half as much about Kaien-dono and many people who had seen him while he was trying to save me from being executed said that his resemblance to Kaien-dono was outstanding…

Seiki had shaken me to the core. I mean, look at me now – I'm walking towards Nii-sama's office with the ultimate goal of getting Seiki into the Kuchiki family…

It was possible, right? Nii-sama cared, even if he didn't show it on the outside…

I knocked on the door and hoped that I wouldn't get into trouble.

"Rukia," he called out my name without turning around.

"Nii-sama," I bowed to him. "I need to talk to you."

"What is it?" He asked, still facing away from me.

"Nii-sama, what are the chances of there being another shinigami from Rukongai to be adopted into the Kuchiki family?"

"Zero," he replied in his cold, emotionless tone.

"I understand, Nii-sama. But what if there was an incredibly talented shinigami out there?"

Byakuya got up from his seat and walked – no, it was more like gliding, he was so graceful - over to his bookshelf and picked out a book.

After dusting it, he opened the book to a seemingly random page. His eyes scanned through it quickly.

"It has been extremely rare, but the rules have been bent before and there have been shinigami adopted into the Kuchiki family based on their talent. This was before the Shino Academy was formed, so we cannot compare their standards to those of prodigies such as the late Kaien Shiba," - there was his name again – "Ichimaru Gin, or Hitsugaya-taicho. However, all of them never achieved prominent positions. They then renounced their titles as a Kuchiki and brought shame to our noble house." He snapped the book shut.

"Whatever you may be thinking, Rukia, I will not risk the pride of this house to let another commoner from Rukongai into the Kuchiki clan." He returned the book to the shelf and returned to his seat.

"I understand, Nii-sama, I was just curious. Nii-sama, there is someone I want you to meet. Will you please follow me outside?" I hoped with all my heart that he would follow me. I needed him to see Seiki, to see how he reacted to her, even though he kept his emotions very well-hidden.

To my immense surprise, Nii-sama got up again. "Only for a while, Rukia, I have paperwork to complete." His tone was as calm and cool as usual.

"H-hai, Nii-sama," I hurriedly got up from my kneeling position and walked towards where Seiki was, praying that nothing would go wrong and ruin Nii-sama's impression of Seiki for a long time.

She was still watching the huge koi, her eyes glued to the specks of gold which were reflected off of their scales, making them look as if they were shimmering.

I walked towards her, but she didn't notice me until I tapped her on the shoulder.

"Seiki, this is Kuchiki Byakuya Nii-sama," I looked into her eyes – her eyes, not Kaien-dono's – meaningfully, trying to tell her that she shouldn't make a bad impression.

She got up from where she was sitting immediately and faced Nii-sama.

"It's an honour to meet you, Byakuya-sama." She bowed down towards him.

"Seiki," he acknowledged her.

Seiki straightened. "You have an amazing sister, Byakuya-sama," she told him, her eyes shining.

I could have sworn that I had seen it. The moment Seiki and Nii-sama made eye contact, I saw that ever-present calm in his eyes crack, for just a moment. But the crack came and gone so quickly that I couldn't be sure that it had even been there in the first place.

Seiki – she shocked Nii-sama?

I stared at her. She was looking at Nii-sama earnestly, wanting to convey her thanks to him. I would have blushed, but I was too confused.

Was it the exact replica of Kaien-dono's eyes that had shocked Nii-sama?

Or something else altogether…

I was in my office at the Kuchiki Manor when I sensed Rukia's reiatsu, along with someone else's. That reiatsu felt different, somehow. I assumed she had brought over one of Ichigo's friends from the real world – those who had special powers.

I had never felt this particular reiatsu before, but I didn't think much of it. With Ichigo's immense reiatsu, yet another human manifesting their own powers was quite a plausible situation.

I felt Rukia coming towards my room and silently wondered what she wanted – she very rarely talked to me.

There was a knock on my door, which was always left open, since there was hardly anyone in the Kuchiki Manor.

"Rukia," I called out to her, putting my paperwork down.

"Nii-sama," she knelt into a bowing position at the door as an act of respect. "I need to talk to you."

She had never said that to me before.

"What is it?" I asked her, not turning away from my work to look at her.

"Nii-sama, what are the chances of there being another shinigami from Rukongai to be adopted into the Kuchiki family?"

Why was she asking me this? It seemed completely random, and very unlike Rukia. Whatever it was, the chances of adopting another shinigami from Rukongai… I had only adopted Rukia in because of my promise to Hisana. I had sworn on my parents' graves never to break the rules again, but I had.

Either way, I was trying to not break the rules any more, I had done enough.

"Zero," I replied in my usual tone.

"I understand, Nii-sama. But what if there was an incredibly talented shinigami out there?" she asked me. She was trying to hide it, but her voice betrayed her thought that there was a shinigami worthy of being adopted into our house.

Then that shinigami would have to be amazingly talented, enough to shock the whole of Soul Society. Such shinigami were very rare, and were incredible prodigies.

I got up from my seat and went over to my bookshelf. I immediately picked out a book that I knew would contain the information I needed to confirm again.

I brushed away the layer of dust that had accumulated on the book after it not being in use for such a long time and flipped to a familiar page that I had looked at before, when others had questioned if it really was right for me to adopt Rukia into the family

"It has been extremely rare, but the rules have been bent before and there have been shinigami adopted into the Kuchiki family based on their talent. This was before the Shino Academy was formed, so we cannot compare their standards to those of prodigies such as the late Kaien Shiba, Ichimaru Gin, or Hitsugaya-taicho. However, all of them never achieved prominent positions. They then renounced their titles as a Kuchiki and brought shame to our noble house." He snapped the book shut.

That had not been exactly true. They were forced to renounce their titles as a Kuchiki because they abused the power that the name gave them. They never achieved prominent positions because they were shamed before they could reach any position above a third-seat. Commoners were not allowed into the Kuchiki house because their position made them giddy with unwanted ambition and they eventually soiled our reputation over and over, causing us to banish them and build up our reputation again.

"Whatever you may be thinking, Rukia, I will not risk the pride of this house to let another commoner from Rukongai into the Kuchiki clan." I returned the book to the bookshelf and returned to my seat.

"I understand, Nii-sama, I was just curious." I doubted that she was just curious. "Nii-sama, there is someone I want you to meet. Will you please follow me outside?" I sensed that Rukia wanted me to meet someone very much.

What harm could it do? And I was actually slightly curious. Rukia had not introduced me to any of her human friends. Of course, they probably thought that I had a bad impression of them because they had broken the rules to save Rukia from being executed, but still, that had been a long while ago and many things had happened since then. This strange reiatsu, combined with Rukia's wanting to show her to me, had made me want to know what was going on.

I got up, and sensed that Rukia was shocked that I had done so. "Only for a while, Rukia, I have paperwork to complete." I kept my tone the same as before.

"H-hai, Nii-sama," She hurriedly got herself together and led me to whoever she wanted me to meet.

The person of interest was staring at my recently-disappearing koi, facing away from us. She was not a shinigami, she did not wear the same clothes as us, but she did not seem to be from the human world, either. Her clothes had faded and were slightly dirty. Usually visitors from the real world were dressed pretty respectably.

Rukia walked towards her. She did not notice her approaching until she was tapped on the shoulder.

"Seiki, this is Kuchiki Byakuya Nii-sama," she said to her, introducing me.

She got up from her seat and faced me immediately.

"It's an honour to meet you, Byakuya-sama." Well, at least she was more polite than that Kurosaki Ichigo, who still refuses to address me with the proper honorifics.

"Seiki," I acknowledged her.

She stood straight again. "You have an amazing sister, Byakuya-sama," she told me, making eye contact.

Her eyes, they dug up so many memories, they were…

They were the same as Rukia's, but they reminded me more of someone else…

Seiki's eyes – they were Hisana's eyes.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated! Also, Merry Christmas!