Here it is, the chapter we've been waiting for!


Renji figured that the lesson was over with and was about to wrap it up and thank Rukia for being a good sport but she seemed to think there was more.

With a sinking feeling, Renji read her look and realized what she was going to expect him to do next.

"Aw c'mon!' he said, trying not to sound like he was begging her. "Not that!"

"They should know it Renji," she said firmly. "The women especially. And since you brought it up anyway..."

"But--" he protested, unable to finish his protest without sounding a little like a wimp.

:But it's embarrassing!:

"Look at it this way," she coaxed. "Think how bad you'd feel if it turned out later they needed to know it, and you didn't teach it to them. Now get over here."

Trying not to look like he was sulking about it, Renji obeyed.

"Next we'll be teaching you how to defend against attacks when your attacker has you prone," Rukia said, her tone businesslike. Renji wasn't fooled for a minute, her eyes were laughing. She knew damned well how uncomfortable this made him and she was enjoying it!

"Part of it will be in how to break a prone choke-hold," she continued. "But the other part will detail what to do when his intent isn't to kill you."

Renji flushed a little and looked uncomfortably off in the other direction. He shoulda remembered the first rule of the Soul Reaper Academy; never, ever volunteer! The atmosphere was made worse by some of the heckles and cat-calls from his audience and he was seriously considering stomping off in a strategic retreat, but Rukia knew him too well and pulled him down by the ear. The comedy of a woman half his size bullying him around (when he very much outranked her) seemed to be breaking up some of the tension that came when dealing with an uncomfortable subject.

"Ow!" he grumbled, glaring over at her.

"You'll start out with one of your pair on their back," Rukia instructed, lying down on the ground. "While the other one straddles him over the waist."

Renji wasn't moving. No way, absolutely not. Rukia wasn't letting it go at that, and she called out merrily

"I'm waaaiting!"

This of course unleashed a whole chorus of teasing cat-calls (especially from the women) like "he's shy, that's so cuuute!" and "Aww, look at him blush!" Which of course only made it worse. He glared at his erstwhile partner, but it wasn't nearly as effective when his cheeks were almost as red as his hair. She just smiled back up at himand crooked a finger saying

"We don't have all night, I promise I'll be gentle."

He just glared harder around his embarrassment, which only seemed to make her even more amused.

Renji stood over her and lowered himself to straddle her waist on his knees. This time it was the guys making cat calls. Rukia wasn't helping with her commentary about his wanting to be on top. The smart-ass. He was nearly tempted to throttle her for real when he wrapped his hands gently around her throat. She often had that effect on him.

"If your arms are free," Rukia said, actually aiding in continuing the lesson so that he could get out of the embarrassing position. "You can break the choke-hold the same way you did previously, or you can go for more vital spots."

She demonstrated by touching her fingers to his solar-plexus, his ribs, the sides of his kidneys and so on.

"You can also catch him off balance by bringing your knees up suddenly," she said next. "Then you can butt him in the head to give him something else to think about. If you're lucky you'll get him in the nose or the chin."

She demonstrated this by snapping her knees up quickly, which caused him to move suddenly forward and she jerked her head up, butting it into his own forehead. It didn't tickle that was for certain.

"Oww!" they both said in unison, rubbing their foreheads.

"Well it wasn't supposed to actually hit him, but you get the point...' Rukia rubbed at her own forehead. "Did any of his paint wear off on me?"

Renji glared at her for the tatoo comment.

"They're permanent," he growled, sensitive about his artwork.

"My mistake," she grinned at him impishly.

"Funny girl," he grumbled. "C'n we git this over with already?" He wanted to be about anywhere but there right then.

The grin widened, and he glared harder. He could see on her face what she was too ladylike to tease him about out loud. The rest of the class was not so inhibited by an aristocratic background, much to his dismay. The heckling ranged from "done already?" to "not all women like quickies."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he muttered.

"There will be times when your assailant wants to hedge his bets," Rukia continued, taking mercy on him.

"So chances are he'll have your arms pinned in some way. Now, you can execute a move that'll knock him off balance and give you the leverage to gain the upper hand. When he's trying to gather up your wrists so he can pin them, spread your arms as far apart to the sides as you can but do it quickly. At the same time, snap your knees up. Both of these moves have to be done quickly and at the same time, because it'll pull him forward enough to get him off balance."

Rukia demonstrated the simultaneous snapping motions with arms and legs and Renji was bumped forward. He already knew what was coming next and sure enough not a half a heartbeat later Rukia levered up with her hips and twisted her tiny frame, pushing him to one side and gripping with her thighs as she rolled with him so that he was the one pinned on his back and she had the upper hand. It was one of her favorite maneuvers. There were catcalls from the side of course, the pose and the maneuver were just simply too suggestive to let pass unremarked. No point in not having a little fun with it.

"Now who has to be on top?" he grinned up at her. She grinned back, teasing

"You like it."

"Ya got me," he said lazily, looking like he was just gonna lay out and surrender. Rukia wore her usual smug little smirk... right up until he levered her right off him and planted her on her butt on his right side.

"Looks like we're done here," he said with relief, making to go.

"Not quite, I have one more I want to show them all and then you can go," Rukia said, rolling back out to a prone position.

"I'm startin' ta think ya like this," he teased her dryly.

Rukia, genetically unable to resist teasing him, replied in a commanding tone

"Assume the position."

That, of course, got a couple of laughs and some unsolicited advice from some of the nurses about proper procedures for that kind of thing. Renji rolled his eyes and resumed his role as the attacker. He kept his head firmly in the game because if he paused for a minute to think about their relative positions to one another, he just knew his body was going to react and that would be beyond embarrassing. Not to mention how much worse it would be if she noticed it; Rukia didn't strike him as the type to take that sort of thing in stride. They'd only just gotten their friendship back and he was not going to lose it because he couldn't control himself.

:Unsexy thoughts. Unsexy thoughts... Old Man Yama in a body stocking.:

That would kill any erection dead before it started.

"Now, one thing you want to remember girls is that if you're being attacked and he's not holding your throat, scream as loud as you can and make as much noise as you can."

She demonstrated her point by letting out a very authentic-sounding scream and thrashing under him. Continuing to play his part, Renji continued trying to pin her arms so she couldn't move.

Naturally it was at that exact moment when her Elder Brother walked in through the front gate of Fourth to see him straddling his screaming kicking little sister.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura!"

"Shit!" Renji snapped rolling off her in a blink and to his feet to face his very very pissed off Captain. He knew he wouldn't have time to explain before his life was ended, so Renji only spent the single breath he had on saying

"Roar, Zabimaru!"

His sword was out and extended, blocking the first scattering of cutting flower-petals before they could go to work on him. Renji was already moving before the blossom cloud could swing around for another pass.

"Brother!" Rukia called, rolling quickly to her feet. "It's not--"

Her brother was unheeding of her attempt, already intent of dealing the finishing blow to Renji. He couldn't even blink before the Captain was right next to him. Renji moved with a theif's automatic self-preservation reflexes when Byakuya moved to end his life with a strike to the solar plexus. Renji slid low and whipped Zabimaru around and in, forcing his Captain to temporarily abort his attack.

"Dance! Sode No Shiraiyuki!" he dimly heard Rukia call in the back ground.

Renji didn't have time to do more than note it vaguely, he was already moving, desperate to keep his boss from killing him just long enough for him to explain what was really going on. All of this was happening in the space of a few desperate heartbeats, before anyone had even a chance to register what was going on and react. He somehow doubted that the Healers were going to be able to do much for him, except maybe try to piece back together what tiny shreds were left of him after Captain Kuchiki was done.

Renji used his momentum from his slide, kicked his feet up and launched himself into the air by his left hand, sending a quick downward slash Kuchiki's way, more as a distraction than because he thought he'd actually land a hit. The Kuchiki was too good for that. The soon-to-be former Lieutenant Abarai could all but sense the deadly blossom petals gathering for another strike above him.

"Tsugi No Mai... Hakuren!" Rukia called.

On instinct, Renji dodged out of the way, crashing to the ground and rolling to his feet crouched in a defensive formation in front of Rukia, just as they once had as children. Even though Renji was the one who needed saving this time.

A white ripple of Kido-fed ice flew in a shower of silver, sweeping out in a wave at where her brothers petal-blades had gathered for another attack. The blossoms were enveloped in a sheet of ice and frozen solid into a lump.

"Brother it's not what y-" Rukia tried again.

But Renji, knowing his Captain all too well, was already moving to avoid his next attack. He ducked behind Rukia to buy himself a precious second as he brought Zabimaru into blade-rest to prepare for another round of attacks. He shot his blade out at the lump that was already forming cracks in the ice in preparation to shatter it completely. Zabimaru sprang full force at the block, shattering it, but Renji whipped the chain-blade to one side, scattering the peices before Byakuya could regain control of them completely.

"Not gonna listen!" Renji advised her shortly as he dodged to the right, darting inside a small window between Rukia's body and the place where the petals had been scattered so that the Elder Kuchiki couldn't immediately attack him.

Rukia stood with her blade held in ready formation, clearly torn between whether or not she should be attacking her precious Elder Brother to defend Renji.

"Little help!" Renji prompted, dodging again to one side and sending a full-force slash to meet her brother's newly released flower blossom petals.

He'd discovered that the centrifugal wind created when he twisted Zabimaru's extended blade onto a spiral and released a small flare of kido along its length could deflect the main brunt of an attack by the Senbonzakura. Renji ducked and dropped a shoulder to just take the rest of the slice as it hit him.

Renji only had to keep Byakuya's attention focused on him long enough for Rukia to make her move. Byakuya would never physically hurt his own little sister so once she made her point that she wanted him disarmed, he'd stop attacking Renji. Hopefully.

He pushed his blade out and around in a loose spiral. The attack wouldn't distract him for more than a few seconds but that might be all he needed. Renji pushed his Kido out along his flying spiralled blade and called out

"Higa Zekko!"

The individual serrated fangs began to separate from each other with a flare of reddish colored reiatsu and pointed inwards, focused on the Sixth Squad Captain. Renji knew that he wasn't going to actually land a hit, and as predicted Byakuya was well out of harms way before even the bonds that tied all of Zabimaru's fangs together could dissolve into reiatsu, but fortunately at that moment he felt (rather than saw) Rukia move.

She slid in low, feet first, in a move that he knew so very well. They'd pulled this maneuver together so often when they'd been kids, rescuing one of their littles from the much larger adults, that Renji didn't even have to think about what he was going to do next. As perfectly choreographed as though they were two figures in a dance, Renji, following her lead, came in from the side, his hands caught up the arms of his Captain while Rukia knocked his feet out from under him. Renji pushed forward and down, bringing Byakuyas wrists together and jerking upwards behind the mans back. The Captain's chin hit the dirt and the Lieutenant winced internally. Rukia, already down low, brought her sword point-down into the dirt right next to her brothers throat.

"Freeze already!" Rukia hissed, bringing her head down by his ear, her tone a mixture of annoyance and exasperation. The cloud of sword-petals, which had been about to descend on him again, abated, even as Renji continued to hold his own Captains arms up behind him in a firm hold.

"Renji wasn't attacking me Brother," she said quietly, in irritation. "We were just putting on a demonstration."

Byakuya seemed to become aware of his wide-eyed staring audience the same instant Renji and Rukia remembered they were there.

:If he loses face, I'm going to be cleaning latrines for the rest of my career: Renji thought in a panic.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen,"

Renji said, smiling his overly-bright lying-Lieutenant smile. "Is how an effective buddy system can use teamwork to bring down an opponent much stronger than they are."

The lie escaped his lips in a rush as he very quickly let the Captain go and brushed him off. The fourth squad nurses in his class were exchanging dubious looks, as though uncertain whether they should buy it or not. Renji pressed on without missing a beat.

"We'd like to thank Captain Kuchiki here for coming out and being such a good sport about it. Poor guy, he'd do anything to humor his dear sister, isn't that sweet? Okay, class dismissed!"

He tried not to show his relief when one by one, they shrugged, slowly buying to lie. A few even commented on how sweet it was that her older brother would volunteer to help out his little sister. Just a little longer and he could make his escape and put the mess behind him for good!

:Geeze, I nearly bought the farm back there thanks to Rukia's twisted sense of humor!: Renji thought, heart still pounding in his chest. She got him into more trouble than anyone else he knew!

"Thank you very much for your hard work Lieutenant Abarai," the sweet, caring voice of Captain Unohana interrupted from behind them all, nearly scaring another few decades off his already shortened afterlife.

"I'm sure the class appreciates it too," she said with one of her bright, motherly smiles. "I look forward to seeing the two of you back here again next week to help the class work on their technique. It really is very generous of you to spend your time helping the members of Fourth gain a new set of skills for the field."

Let it not be said that the Captain of Fourth was a foolish woman, She'd seen a way to both help the Lieutenant out and secure his aid and gratitude for the foreseeable future. There was a definite aura of amusement about her that said she saw all of the advantages to her intercession.

"S-sure, anything to help out the Fourth Squad," he agreed.

She had him and they both knew it. He'd be teaching lessons there for the foreseeable future.

"I imagine all the rest of you have your own duties to be about by now, those bandages don't roll themselves," Unohana prompted, smiles all motherly concern. Fourth Squad obediently cleared the courtyard, though not without a great many dubious looks that said they were wondering if it was such a good idea to leave them alone out there or if it might be a better one to remove their two temporary instructors in the interests of not having to do clean-up on the mess later.

Kuchiki the Elder gave both him and Rukia a long searching look and then pivoted on his heel, apparently forgetting, in the intense bruising of his dignity, whatever it was that had brought him there in the first place. Renji turned to Rukia, pleading look on his face.

"I'm so gonna get it later. Rukia, put in a good word for me. He's yer brother right? He listens to you, right?"

"Not a bit," Rukia said, patting his hand in mock-sympathy.

"I'll have a nice clean bed all ready for you Lieutenant," Unohana said, unexpectedly joining in the fun. She meant a nice clean hospital bed waiting for when they deposited his beaten body after the Captain was done with him.

"Make sure you send some nice flowers to my funeral," he muttered as she exited the courtyard to return to her head-quaters.

The late evening was bathed in a sudden silence as it was only just the two of them. The fight had happened so fast, mere heartbeats in length, from the time that Byakuya Kuchiki had walked through the gate into the courtyard to the time they managed to subdue him and make him see reason. Abruptly, Renji smiled.

"What's that look about?" Rukia asked.

"Even though it was a team effort and not on my own, and even though we kinda cheated because he'd never attack you, Rukia... we just made Byakuya Kuchiki eat dirt!"

Renji chuckled to himself, a wide grin stretching its pleased way across his face. He let out a triumphant whoop. It wasn't as great a victory as beating him the guy with Zabimaru, but he'd still take it.

"Older brother..." Rukia said in dawning dismay. She'd just attacked her older brother, in public, in front of witnesses! Rukia suddenly looked like she might be ill.

"He's not going to be happy," she thought, stomach clenching.

"It was a misunderstanding, he'll cool off," Renji assured her. Or tried to, he knew Rukia was safe enough but Renji had the sneaking thought that the next few weeks were not going to be fun ones for him. Still, always best tryo try to see the bright side of things, that memory of Kuchiki's chin hitting hte ground was going to be one he would savor for a very long time to come.

"Good teamwork there," Renji congratulated her. "Just like old times huh?"

It had been just like old times, when it was them against the world. There was nothing to feel nostalgic about in the hard life in the lower Districts of the Rukongai, always hungry, always cold (except when it was hot), always dodging angry merchants of fighting with people to keep what little they'd managed to steal. But even so, there was a bond there, forged in times of hardship and suffering that for all of their mistakes and misunderstandings, had never truly been severed. Renji hoped he wasn't the only one that treasured their connection. he also hoped he wasn't the only one who had noticed how easily they had gotten it back, the smooth way they worked together.

Rukia blinked up at him and suddenly seemed unable to keep from laughing. Renji joined her and it felt good.

"Yeah, just like old times."

END

That's it, final chapter of this thing. I wrote it just to be a quickie cuz I kinda had this scene in my head. I might have to write a follow-up epilogue though, just so we can see scrawney little Hanatarou put theory into practice. I kinda like that idea. Anyway, please leave a contribution in the little box (reveiw).