Chapter XII

Ikkaku scooped up the weapons they had been practicing with and stowed them back into the closet while Tatsuki grabbed the towels and water bottles. His phone rang halfway up the steps and Ikkaku had finished a quick conversation by the time Tatsuki reached the top of the steps.

"It's Yumichika."

"You gotta go? See you around."

His reply was almost resigned. "Yeah, I'll run into you whether I like it or not."

"Yeah, what's with that?"

"Luck?"

"Luck? Really?"

"Bad luck," Ikkaku teased.

"Well, I don't mind so much."

Ikkaku knew a loaded sentence when he heard one (Yumichika had trained him well), but Tatsuki was either oblivious or messing with him. Or completely honest in the blunt sort of way he'd come to expect, which he figured must be it.

"Huh?"

"We always end up doing something fun. So it's still kinda weird running into you all over the place, but I don't mind."

"Oh. Well, if your definition of fun is fightin' all the time, sure."

"Well, so's yours. I'm getting stronger, too." Tatsuki grinned and threw a short punch at his shoulder when they reached the door. Most people would've thought she was messing around, but Ikkaku had learned the hard way to reflexively move aside.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Hold still and I'll show you."

"Think I'll pass."

"Wuss."

"Next time, maybe."

Tatsuki smiled (or at least, showed her teeth), and chirped, "Don't do anything stupid until then."

Ikkaku raised an eyebrow, dragged her into a vicious headlock and rubbed his knuckles into her scalp while she punched at his kidneys. "Like I need to hear that from you!"

By the time Tatsuki managed to squirm out of his grip, her face was flushed from the effort and her hair was a mess. Not that it really mattered, but she punched him in the ribs in retaliation anyway. "Hey, you have a phone, right? Give me your number."

Ikkaku handed over his soul phone. "I dunno if it works like yours."

Tatsuki fiddled around with it a bit and then handed it back. "It does. You've already got Asano's number, too."

"Yumichika did that."

"I thought guys were supposed to be good at this stuff. If you see Orihime, tell her that we're s'posed to get ramen today?"

Ikkaku nodded absently, breezed past Tatsuki out the door as his phone went off again, half-jogged down the steps and turned around at the bottom to flash her a grimace mid-conversation. Tatsuki rolled her eyes, smiled back, and shut the door.

"Yo, Vice-Cap--"

Yachiru latched like some sort of mutant squid onto Ikkaku's face as soon as they stepped through the gate and gave his ears a few hard tugs.

"-- tain."

Yumichika lured her away with a package of brightly-colored material world candies and beamed at Captain Zaraki as he turned the corner, then both he and Ikkaku ducked their heads in snappy, formal bows. Yachiru scrambled back up Ikkaku to sit on his shoulders and kick at his jaw.

"Big-Boobies'n Byakushi's sister came by!"

"... isn't Matsumoto in Karaku--?"

Rukia and Orihime turned the corner. Ikkaku cut himself off, teeth narrowly missing his tongue. Yumichika snickered, then composed himself.

Orihime waved cheerfully and smiled. Kenpachi rolled his eyes when Rukia approached and formally thanked them both for helping out Orihime during Ichigo's invasion and apologized for any inconvenience and injuries the big idiot (Ichigo, not Orihime) had inflicted on them.

"It was our pleasure. Really."

"Don't worry about it, Rukia-chan. It was fun."

"Told you," Kenpachi grunted. "Waste of time."

"Orihime-chan, Arisawa says not ta forget that you're--"

"Getting ramen with Tatsuki-chan!"

"Yeah."

Kenpachi and Rukia both raised an eyebrow.

Yachiru craned her head around to get a better look at Ikkaku's face. "Who's that, Baldie?"

"Who's who, brat?"

Kenpachi cocked his head to the side and smirked. "Who's Tatsuki, Ikkaku."

"Oh. Uh."

Rukia bit her lip and decided that she didn't know Ikkaku nearly enough to join in on the interrogation, fun as it looked. But he was one of Renji's close friends, and Renji wouldn't forgive her if she left him out to dry. "She's one of Inoue's and Ichigo's classmates. We were friendly before I returned to Soul Society."

Orihime smiled and added, "Tatsuki-chan likes martial arts films and long fight shounen and she's really strong, too!"

Yachiru seemed disappointed about missing a chance to make Ikkaku squirm, so she chewed thoughtfully on his head while he briefly entertained the thought of scraping her off on the nearest wall. "So how come ya know her so well?"

"'Cause she puts up a good fight when I'm in the fake body."

"Could she beat Ken-chan?"

"No one can beat Captain."

Kenpachi rolled his eyes again and Yachiru slapped Ikkaku's shoulder in agreement. Yumichika sighed.

Rukia tried not to laugh and awkwardly cleared her throat. "I just came by to see Inoue off."

"It was nice seeing everyone again!"

Yumichika playfully flipped a strand of Orihime's hair, then beamed at her. "There's a hole right in front of the gate in Urahara-san's shop. Watch your step when you go through."

"I'll be careful! Thank you."

"Renji's gonna be fightin' that Yasutora boy. He's a dumbass, so try not ta get in their way."

"I won't!"

"Alright, get goin'."

Orihime smiled again, bowed and disappeared into the gate. Ikkaku and Yumichika turned as one to see Rukia trying (and mostly failing) to suppress her laughter.

"Something funny?"

"It's just reassuring to know that the Zaraki Division is looking out for Inoue. Thank you."

Kenpachi dismissed her with a wave and turned on Ikkaku and Yumichika. "The hell're you two doing back, anyway?"

"Ikkaku was putting off having those two teeth he lost replaced. We're doing it today."

"Lost?"

"Against the arrancar."

Ikkaku pulled the base of Hoozukimaru's hilt out with his teeth and tipped it so Kenpachi could see it was mostly empty. "Almost out of the stuff in Hoozukimaru's hilt, too. Droppin' by fourth."

Yumichika handed Kenpachi a big envelope full of reports. "It's all in here. If you have time to read it, it just details our activities in the living world. Though it's not very interesting."

Kenpachi opened it, flipped through the pages and then handed them back. "Don't have time for that. Tell me about the arrancar."

Ikkaku cut Yumichika off before he could give an actual report. "They're strong. You'd like 'em."

"I could give you all the details."

"Nah. Just wanted to know if they're strong."

Yumichika sighed at Ikkaku's smug look and tucked the envelope under his arm. "I'll just go drop these off, then."

Captain Unohana barely looked up from a patient's file as the commotion from down the hall streamed past her office and faded at the other end of the corridor, then wrapped back around the quad. She could hear strains of Don't need a goddamn physical and Do we even have temperatures? and the familiar chatter of a few of the young healers.

Unohana stood up and met Ikkaku at the door. She noted a slight limp, his favoring his right arm, some bruises on his forearms-- and sighed.

At the sound, Ikkaku turned around like he'd been electrocuted and bowed. He'd been planning on harassing a few of the lower seats and then clearing out, but talking Captain Unohana into letting him go with all his bruises and cuts and scrapes couldn't be too hard-- he'd done it before. Though it had only been in emergency situations.

"Madarame-kun."

"Yes, Captain Unohana?"

"If you're uncomfortable letting my subordinates conduct your physical, I would gladly do it myself."

"Wouldn't want you to go out of your way, Capta--"

"Oh, I insist."

Ikkaku couldn't squash the feeling that he was receiving a very polite threat of extreme violence. While he normally would've jumped at the chance, every nerve in his body screamed that even if he ran, she would hunt him down and kill him and then bring him back just to heal him and that he didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. It wasn't an outright challenge, though.

His sense of self-preservation strongly encouraged him to take the easy way out and he couldn't really argue with staying alive.

"Right. So I'm supposed to brief you two before you go back." Kenpachi sifted through a few papers on his desk, picked up a packet and slid it across his desk to Yumichika. "There's some classified stuff on that. I don't care if you read it."

Ikkaku waited patiently for Yumichika to finish reading, and then summarize it so he wouldn't have to look through it himself.

"It says that Aizen needs to destroy Karakura town for... something. You three won't care. There will be pillars. Ikkaku and I will be assigned with Vice-Captains Hisagi and Kira to protect them--"

"Aizen'll be in Karakura?"

"Well, that's the thing. They're transporting Karakura to Soul Society and constructing a fake Karakura. Everyone will be meeting Aizen there."

"Hm."

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Captain will be with us. That's all. Commander Yamamoto does expect unforeseen circumstances, though. Progress on fake Karakura has been coming along faster than expected, so we'll be called back again in as little as a week from today."

"A week? Thought we'd be there 'til winter."

"I know you're disappointed, Ikkaku~"

Ikkaku elbowed him in the shoulder. "Who's disappointed? I can't fuckin' wait. Is Iba-san going?"

Yumichika flipped through a few papers to check. "Yes."

"I'm gonna drop by the 7th, then we go back to Karakura. Gimme an hour."

Kenpachi nodded once, and Ikkaku took off.

"He brought back a pair of material world shades for Tetsu-san," Yumichika clarified.

Yachiru settled on her captain's back and munched on a piece of candy they had brought back for her. "Are ya gonna do boring stuff or play with me until Baldie gets back? 'Cause Byakushi says I'm not allowed ta bother him if he gives me candy. An' he did this morning."

"I'm sure we'll find something suitably destructive to do until Ikkaku comes back, Vice-Captain."

Kenpachi smirked as Yachiru launched herself off his shoulder and joined Yumichika in front of his desk. "Get outta my office."

Ikkaku met Yumichika at the gate. He had a few scrapes across his face, some cuts on his forearm and probably just as many bruises and cuts under his uniform. If he didn't look so satisfied, Yumichika would've assumed that he had lost a fight against a meat grinder. Iba probably looked worse.

"You had fun?"

"Yep."

"You know, there's a word for people who seem to like getting hurt as much as you do."

"You played with Vice-Captain?"

"And you just got healed up-- is it that obvious?"

Ikkaku tugged on a bit of hair sticking out from the back of Yumichika's head, then raked his fingers through it to try and flatten it out. "Pretty obvious."

"You're making it worse!"

"Personally? I don't think it could get any-- oh."

"It'll flatten out, I suppose. What?"

Ikkaku pulled a piece of candy out of Yumichika's hair and popped it into his mouth. "Found the problem."

"Oh. My. God. Ican'tbelieveyoujustatethat--"

"Wasting food."

Yumichika threw his hands up in defeat as Ikkaku dragged him through the gate.

Tatsuki watched Orihime pour sugar into her ramen bowl with the sort of horror she usually reserved for really weird things getting dragged out of the guys' changing room, noodles halfway to her mouth, trying not to gag. Or judge too hard.

"Orihime? Ramen is salty for a reason."

"I like sweet things, so I think ramen would taste better if it was a little bit sweet! Don't you think so, Tatsuki-chan?"

"... as long as you like it, I guess."

They ate in silence for a few more minutes. The taste of Orihime's ramen didn't deter her one bit from finishing every last bit and the soup and it had been a large order, too. Tatsuki could eat as much as Orihime, but purposely went for the smaller order; had to keep in shape for the next tournament, after all.

Where Orihime would normally be chatting about her day, Tatsuki was pretty sure that everything she did today was supposed to be completely under wraps because of some interdimensional world-hopping. That was okay. She could deal with that. Especially since it was Orihime. Orihime wouldn't make sense if she tried to explain anyway.

"Tatsuki-chan, what did you do today?"

Tatsuki lifted the bowl up to finish off the rest of her soup, plopped it back down on the counter and waved for the check. "Nothin' much. How about you?"

"Oh... me neither." Orihime looked at Tatsuki, and Tatsuki cracked a smile back.

"Orihime."

"Tatsuki-chan?"

"Nothing. Be careful, okay?"

"I'm always careful!"

"Orihime--"

"I'm still here, right? Tatsuki-chan doesn't have to worry about me."

"Okay."

"Okay!"

Tatsuki slid off the seat and grabbed her bag, then started out the door. Orihime linked her arm through Tatsuki's, leaned on her shoulder and dragged her off for crêpes. Or juice. Or some odd combination of the two. And possibly something salty besides.

A few hours later, back in her own room, Tatsuki frowned, pursed her lips and shifted the pillow under her head a bit. She was on the floor, both feet propped up on the bed with a workbook open next to her head. The desk light was on, but studying was such a chore and she'd been doing it since she dropped Orihime off at home. After they very awkwardly didn't talk about much at all. Even after ramen, and snacks, and juice, and Orihime had invited her in to sit around and talk, but...

There was nothing to talk about that wouldn't have ended up with Orihime frantically trying to think up some lie to keep her from worrying. Tatsuki had declined cheerfully. Said she was tired, and had to study, and Orihime was busy all morning so she was probably tired, too.

Still.

She hadn't lied. And Orihime did look kinda worn out.

Tatsuki tilted her phone to get rid of the glare on the screen, entered a message, deleted it, entered another one. She scrolled down her contacts list, pausing briefly on Ichigo and Orihime's names as they passed, then skipping over them to stop at Ikkaku and send it before she lost her nerve.

Hey, you busy?