Hello my lovely people!! Thankyou heaps to all the people that added me to their favourites, story alerts and fave author lists, it means heaps to me. Also, thanks to the new reviews!
Sorry it took me so long to write this one. It's the last few days of school for me and I've been sooo busy being totally psyched for the holidays!
Gomen Nasai if you don't like it.
Disclaimer: *defeated sigh*
"Ichigo!" Came a feminine voice. "Wake up, Ichi-san!"
Ichigo groaned. "What are you even doing in my house this early?......Don't answer that. Just go away, Megumi. Its too early to get up."
Silence.
Ichigo peeked from under his eyelids to see if she had left him, but unfortunately, he ended up staring into a pair of big grey eyes. He groaned again, but this time rolled out of bed. She smiled brightly at him.
"Wait here while I go and have a shower, and I mean it. Seriously. Wait. Here." He said, hoping she wouldn't wonder off to his family.
She nodded frantically, while he grabbed his towel and headed for the bathroom. Half an hour later, he come back to find his room empty.
He sighed exasperated, but went down stairs to look for her. Sure enough, there she was, sitting with his family; listening to a dream Yuzu had the night before. He watched silently as his sister drew invisible pictures in the air with her hands to illustrate her story. Karin, Isshin and Megumi all sat, watching with their undivided attention.
He took his place opposite Megumi, glaring daggers at her. Her wavy, brown hair fell to her shoulders, parted and pinned to one side. Ichigo could only glare some more when she turned to him and said "Good Morning!" like they hadn't even seen each other until just then.
He frowned at her, while she just smiled. "C'mon Ichigo. It's too early to be angry at someone."
"Yeah, it's too early for a lot of things." He murmured grudgingly.
She just laughed, making him angrier. They would've started a serious argument, but Yuzu cleared her throat, getting both their attentions. "Ichi-nii, where's Rukia-san?"
Megumi's smile faltered, while Ichigo scowled slightly. "She's….away."
"Ukitake taicho, you didn't have to call me, but thankyou." Rukia said to the screen that occupied the whole back wall of the second guest bedroom.
"Nonsense, Rukia-san. I always wonder how you are. I'm just glad I can contact you easier." He paused to cough lightly. "How have you been?"
She thought about asking him the same thing, but knew how he didn't like people worrying about him. "I've been fine, sir. Just settling into the new apartment."
"Oh? Why do you have a new apartment? What happened to your staying at the Kurosaki's residence?" he asked, confused and concerned at the same time.
"I'm no longer….with Ichigo, taicho. I'm….." she trailed off, not really wanting to talk about it, but still wanting to explain it to him.
He let a knowing smile form on his lips. "Well I hope the place is a nice one. I take it Urahara was the one who found it for you?"
"Yes he did. It's a nice place. A bit big, though." She said looking around the room.
He chuckled, but then turned serious when he felt a familiar reiatsu approaching his room. "Rukia, your brother wants to talk to you. He's coming right now."
Rukia's eyes widened. Nii-sama wanted to talk to her? She tucked her feet under her, sitting on her heels and straightened the creases in her dress.
Ukiatake looked to a door on his left and watched it slide open. Standing there was Byakuya in all his glory, looking as noble as ever. "Good Morni—"
He stopped short when he realized that the thirteenth division captain was talking to Rukia. Ukitake smiled at him, waving him over to stand next to him.
Byakuya had no idea that Rukia was communicating with her captain, but walked over to Ukitake, standing by his side. "Hello, Rukia."
"Hello, nii-sama." She greeted back, her tone full of respect.
"How have you been?" he asked, trying to hide his concern.
"Fine thankyou, nii-sama. I plan to visit Sereitei soon." She reported. "Are you well?"
"Yes thankyou."
Ukitake smiled throughout out the exchange of words. He sighed. They are always so formal with each other. It's gotten better since the winter war, though….
There was a bang of a door from Rukia's end and Renji stalked into the room. "Oi, Rukia. I thought you would be at—" Renji's eyes widened before he bowed. "Hello Ukitake-taicho and Kuchiki-taicho."
Ukitake smiled widely. "Abarai-san! How nice to see you."
"Renji." Byakuya greeted with a curt nod.
Renji straightened up. "Maybe I should come back late—"
"Nonsense, Abarai-san. I was just leaving." Ukitake said.
"Oh. I guess I'll talk to you later, Ukitake-taicho." Rukia said, happy that she could just 'talk to him later' (thanks to the device from Urahara).
"I will leave also." Byakuya said and Rukia thought he almost sounded like he didn't actually want to go.
"Alright, nii-sama. I will see you soon." She said hopefully.
He nodded, then the screen went blank, but not before two things happened; Ukitake waved childishly at the two, and Byakuya and Renji exchanged meaningful glances.
A few seconds ticked by. "Aww, I'm sorry, Rukia." Renji said ruefully.
"For what?" She replied, honestly not knowing why he was apologising.
"For ruining your conversation. It would have gone on for longer if I hadn't—"
"Shut up Renji. Just shut up." She smiled at him shaking her head. "You did nothing wrong. The conversation was going nowhere anyway"
She got up off the floor and headed out of the room. "Hungry?"
"Nope." He replied curtly.
She looked back at him, not convinced. "Really?"
"Nope." He said, and then smiled. "Starving, actually."
"Don't they feed you at Urahara's?" she asked, after chuckling.
He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, but I gotta work for it. Like seriously; work. Like scrubbing the toilets and unclogging the pipes. Not just any pipes; toilet pipes. It's bad enough that I have to deal with Urahara's normal crap; then I would have to deal with his actual crap." He shuddered at the thought.
"So?"
He looked at her like she was crazy. "I don't have time to be doing chores for meals. I gotta be ready to help these rookie sixth divisioners that are on a training mission here in the real world."
"Yeah. Well, you better do something or you'll be the one to single-handedly empty my astonishingly full fridge."
She went to the fridge and pulled out a tray of already made sandwiches. They were cut into little triangles and varied from ham and cheese to grilled cheese to cheese and bacon. Renji didn't miss the large amounts of cheese.
He raised an eyebrow. "What up with all the cheese?"
She shrugged her shoulders, taking a bite out of one. "Urahara likes cheese and thought I did too. I was hoping you would come around and finish it all. Guess I was in luck."
He gave her a blank look. "So I'm your rubbish bin now, huh."
"It's not like you don't like it. Besides, where else are you gonna get free food from? Answer: nowhere. So just shut up and enjoy the cheesiness."
Renji gulped. He mumbled something along the lines of "Bossy boot" then proceeded to finish the whole tray. He sighed, content. "Thanks Rukia. That was—"
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, both he and Rukia's hollow detectors cried.
The both took it out pressed a button to make them stop the beeping.
Rukia's face had gone serious. "West Karakura."
"Let's go." Renji said, already out of his gigai.
Rukia popped the mod soul in her mouth and then they were off.
The two hollows were not that big, but difficult to get rid of. As Rukia chanted the release of Sode no Shirayuki to one of the hollow, Zambimaru made its way towards the other.
Rukia's hollow threw its foot at her, but she managed freeze off the perpetrating foot. Renji landed on the ground after slicing away an arm off of his hollow; he jumped off the ground and into a nearby tree, and then dove Zambimaru first at the hollow.
Surprisingly, it didn't take much at all to finish off the hollow. Zambimaru sliced the hollow cleanly and it disappeared into nothingness. He wondered to himself why it became so easy to kill the hollow toward the end.
"Renji! Behind you!!" Rukia suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs.
Renji whirled around, and at that moment, Rukia's hollow shot out two tentacles. One wrapped around Renji's head and the other wrapped itself around his chest. The tentacles then began to glow
Renji's eyes widened, then his jaw went slack. His eyes went dull and then closed completely.
"…Hakuren."
The moment the word left Rukia's mouth, the hollow was frozen solid. Shattereing into a million piecaes, it then disintegrated.
Renji crumpled to the ground and didn't move at all after that. Rukia ran to Renji's side; he was alive but not alive. His heart was beating and he was breathing, but he eyes were as if he were dead; they were cold and looking at nothing in particular.
She frantically pulled Renji into her arms. "Renji...Renji...RENJIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!"
Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged him close to her. She blinked them away quickly, getting up.
Renji was way taller and bigger than she was (not to mention heavier), but with her resolve formed, nothing was going to stop her.
She slid her arms under the small of his back and under his knees, then picked him up (bridal style…eheheh). She struggled under his weight and was about to shunpo off when she noticed Sode no Shirayuki and Zambimaru lying on the ground.
She muttered a curse under her breath, trying to figure out how she was going to retrieve the Zanpaktos.
"Rukia?" s feminine voice called out.
Rukia swivelled around to see a familiar brunette girl in a blue dress. "Oh, hi, Megumi." She said less than enthusiastically.
Megumi walked closer and picked up the two Zanpaktos. She held them out to Rukia. "Here."
Rukia frowned. Couldn't she see her hands were full? "Uhh, just put them on top of Renji."
Megumi's eyes widened in sudden realization as she did what Rukia said. "W-What happened to Renji?"
Rukia's voice went quiet. "I…don't know. But I have to go."
Megumi nodded. "Bye, Rukia. It was nice seeing you again."
Rukia sighed. "Yeah." Was all she could say. She turned and shunpoed away, towards the Urahara Store.
Megumi watched her disappear. I'm so sorry, Rukia. I'm so sorry.
"Urahara! Urahara, help!" Rukia called, as she entered the store.
Urahara rushed into the room with an unusually serious face on. "Tessai."
Tessai came around the corner and took Renji from Rukia's hands. They headed for the enormous basement beneath the store, as Rukia told them about the glowing tentacles.
They nodded in unison, not saying anything.
"We'll find out what happened to him, Rukia-san." Urahara assured.
"Please, please do." she pleaded.
"We will, Rukia-san. We will."
Ta-da! I hope you liked it. I got a bit lazy toward the end, in case you thought the ending sucked. Please review? I need it.
Are you guessing what Megumi's part in this story is?? Hehehe
Until next time…
~Sewa-san~