Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.
Gin quickened his steps, heading towards the throne room with his characteristic grin on his face, though this time it was because he was truly happy. He pushed open the doors grandly, striding inside to find Aizen sitting on his throne, smirking down at him.
"Am I to assume you have good news?" he drawled.
"Ya even have'ta ask?" Gin answered slyly. Placing his hand into his over sized sleeve, he pulled out a thick scroll. Untying the ribbon holding it shut, he read aloud, "Earth. Planet of humans. Weak, corrupt, clueless – easy win."
"And the pseudo message our 'team of Leoan soldiers' intercepted?"
Reaching into his other sleeve, Gin pulled out yet another scroll, waving it in the air gleefully as an answer.
"Excellent," Aizen said, pushing himself off his royal seat. He wandered to the large windows, peaking out towards the kingdom he could see through the glass. "My kingdom will soon reach far beyond such the corners of our galaxy. I do think I'll make an excellent king of the universe. Wouldn't you agree, Gin?"
Gin chuckled, leaning against the window beside him. He smirked as he looked out at the busy villagers rushing to and fro, as well as the palace staff down below in the gardens. They all lived such mundane lives. Taking over this 'Earth' was definitely the perfect way to introduce some zest to these boring, insignificant people.
"What 'bout the brat?" he asked, raising an eyebrow over at his king. Aizen smiled with mirth.
"He doesn't know much to begin with, does he? Ever since his weakling of a mother died, he's been just a useless little lump. I was hoping after all these years he might have shown some potential to become a competent heir, but I certainly haven't witnessed much progress. It's best to keep him out."
Gin chuckled under his breath. He'd seen the young prince wandering throughout the palace from time to time. Each time, he'd looked like a puppet – dead on the inside and only going through the motions of living. It'd been worse three years ago, when the death of his mother had been a fresh wound, and now he was simply just a...living thing.
"You have Kira-san and his men prepared?" Aizen asked abruptly. Gin nodded happily.
"Ready ta set out in the morn'," he replied. "The other troops'll follow."
"Excellent, excellent," the king muttered, sweeping some hair out of his face. "Once they initiate invasion and combat, I can finally speak to these pathetic Leoans about this war. They're all too idiotic to question my word any farther, so we are sure to have an easy victory, especially if this Earth is as insufferable as I hear."
"We gotta question, though?" Gin said suddenly. "Ulquiorra-san's wantin' ta know what ta do with the Earthlin's?"
"Capture them," Aizen sneered. His eyes were cruel. "After all, what good is dominating a planet if I can't take its people as my slaves?"
.. ღ ..
The green-eyed soldier sighs at the end of yet another hard day. He'd had to listen to the orange haired woman complain and whine about this and that all throughout the day, bound to being present by his duty. And the human hadn't been much better. She, he has noticed, is a rather dense woman, always giggling stupidly when she makes idiotic comments. Moreover, she drifts off into space far too much to be considered sane.
Now, he watches her silently, firmly planted on his seat in the high tree branch on one of the many trees in the palace's gardens. Down below, she is engaged seriously in the bow and arrow in her hand, concentrating with a childish ferocity.
One of the many tutors in the palace – Ishida Uryu, or something or other, he barely remembers – had offered to teach her the art of archery. And she had agreed excitedly, because she is hardly allowed to do anything so interestingly, especially with her restrictions of staying in the palace. Idiot. If she hurts herself, the queen will have his head, and he would rather she simply head back to her room and retire for the night, to make his job easier. But, no, Ishida just had to catch her just before she had made that decision, offering to fill her empty evening with perhaps the most dangerous sport on the planet. Well, for her and her clumsiness, at least.
With an almost irritated twitch to his eyebrows, he watches as she softly tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear, which had come loose from her long ponytail. Her dainty ears hardly seem enough to hold back all her locks, but there is none in her eyes any longer – all because Ishida had somehow managed to procure just the cutest scrunchy in the shape of a panda, earning the human's affections, and all because he had made it yourself? How marvelous, Ishida-san. You're so talented! Her words ring through his mind, as well as the way she had beamed at the man so affectionately, accepting his gift.
It might just be his imagination, but it feels as if his eyebrow is twitching even more now. Probably because she seems ready to string her bow.
He watches with a detached indifference as she eyes the string with fearfully wide eyes and a sort of awe, too. Ishida chuckles at her actions, reassuring her that there is nothing to worry about. He shouldn't be telling her such lies; she would let her guard down, and hurt herself, and bleed, and cry out in pain...
And the queen would come find him.
With an agitated shuffling, he rearranges himself in his seat, gazing down at the scene.
"No, no, Miss Orihime," Ishida says. "You hold it like this." And he takes her hand in his own and gets really close and shows her the proper way. And she bobs her head and blushes – whether because of her mistake or him, he does not know.
He helps her pull on the bow as far back as she can, but when he steps away, her arms start wobbling.
"Ishida-san!" she cries out in dismay. He chuckles and grabs her again. Ulquiorra looks away, gazing up at the clear sky, already turning gray from the approach of night. A few ravens fly by, but otherwise, the heavenly roof is empty.
A sudden whoosh sounds through the air, followed by sounds of rustling leaves and cracking twigs. When he looks back at the two down below, he finds a pouting Orihime. Ishida seems as if he is trying not to laugh.
"That was very good for your first try," he attempts to placate her.
"No, it wasn't!" she insists. "I completely missed the target. And I lost the arrow."
She needlessly waves her arm in the direction of the woods, which the arrow had launched into.
"How about we try again?" Ishida asks. She nods, still looking miffed, even when the bespectacled tutor wraps his hands around hers.
He looks away again.
.. ღ ..
He pats Karin's hands gently, bringing one to his lips for a light kiss. She fidgets with the sudden contact but still keeps her head laid out atop his chest.
"Everything will be fine," he murmurs next to her ear.
"No, it will not!" she argues, craning her neck to look up at him hopelessly.
"Miss Orihime is happy here," he reminds her. She shakes her head.
"That will not matter to her brother – I just know it," she answers sadly. "We haven't heard from any of our human contacts about the peace treaty. That's not a good sign."
"We knew that when we took her in," he replies. "But there is nothing more we can do. If they deny us...then, we need only to come up with another plan."
"You make it sound too simple," she mumbles, burying her head in the crook of his neck. "We both know how difficult it is to decide on new ideas, and even more to put them into action. Now, with all of our soldiers out of the area, we have no way of receiving direct news. We can only rely on any information our soldiers stationed in other countries can pick up."
He runs his fingers through her hair. "Is there nothing I can say to ease your worries?"
"No," she answers promptly.
His face darkens and he presses his lips together. She feels guilty at his sorrow, but she knows there is nothing that could really stop her foul mood now. They have not held another war meeting since the last because no one has discovered an efficient way to handle Orihime's problems, and it makes her more and more antsy as more days go by.
What they need, she cannot help but think, is someone cunning and daring, someone who can think of bold plans without a conscience and present them just as easily. No one has yet dared to push any limits, and though she tries, there is always the constant fear of harming Miss Orihime present in the back of her mind.
She snuggles in deeper with her husband, fluttering her eyes shut for sleep. A yawn breaks out across her lips, and through it, she mumbles, "It's times like these that one wishes most for Urahara Kisuke."
.. ღ ..
Urahara Kisuke had a premonition that morning. Well, really, he had been feeling angsty since the very start of this suspicious war, but that morning the feeling was stronger than it had ever been. Something climactic was going to happen today – he could feel it in his bones. Now, he was just waiting for it to happen. And happen it did.
He had been lounging around in his quaint little candy shop, warding off the summer's heat with his handy little fan when he was distracted by a door sliding open and then closed.
"Welcome, welcome!" he called cheerily, bouncing to the front to greet his first customer for the day. So imagine his surprise (not that much of a surprise since he'd had a premonition, but even he wasn't blessed enough with a sixth sense that told him exactly when something major would occur) when he saw the form of Kurosaki Karin instead. If memory served, her twin Yuzu had been in only yesterday. Surely they hadn't consumed all of their candy already in such a short time?
Of course, being blessed with the intelligence of a genius meant he knew from taking one look at her panicked eyes but determined set of the jaw that she most definitely wasn't here for candy. But he still couldn't resist teasing her a bit.
"Is this some new way you youngsters have decided to protest against the draft?" he questioned playfully, opening his fan and covering his wide grin with it. "You take our fathers, we rot our teeth?"
"That's shitty advertisement for your store," she quipped back. "If I was here as a customer, you would have lost out on some good money."
"Oh? And am I to infer that you could possibly have some other reason for coming to my humble candy shop than as a customer?"
She grit her teeth, and he could tell from the twitch of annoyance in her eyebrow that she was debating whether she should give a witty remark or just get on with her business. Oh, this was so much fun! Finally, she simply shoved her hand out to him, and he saw with interest that she was clenching a piece of paper in her fist.
"What's this?" he asked, gasping for the effect. "A love letter, perhaps? Well, I'm flattered, and if I didn't have such a frightening wife and a complete lack of a loli-shota complex -"
"You are so full of it!" she growled, her cheeks reddening and her eyebrow twitching even more compulsively. "Just read the damn thing."
He chuckled as he took it from her, finally snapping his fan shut to get a better view. He could see from the large typed paragraphs and government seals and signatures on the bottom that it was an official document.
'To: Kurosaki Ichigo-san.
As you must be aware, our mother Earth is presently engaged in a vicious was against a foreign planet we have come to learn is referred to as Serra Leoa. As we know close to nothing about this new race, our battles have been fought without any hindsight. We regret to inform you that as a result of this hindrance, many efficient soldiers have been lost to the enemy. Years in the past, the draft our government instituted was diminished because of our many wins in our battles. However, as the Serra Leoans' numbers and strengths escalate, we find ourselves in need of soldiers once again. To placate this problem, a second draft is being issued hereon.
It has come to our recent attention that a Kurosaki Ichigo-san housed in the town of Karakura came of age only a few years in the past, soon after the end of our first draft. As we find ourselves entering this new stage of war, the Japanese Army hereby orders Kurosaki Ichigo-san to immediately apply to enlist in our services and secure his country.
You have been assigned number 13410. A ticket has been enclosed for a train departing the following week, which will lead all eligible soldiers to a central location. Upon arrival, please present this draft letter to a government issued military officer, who will then direct you to the train that will lead you to the specific camp you have been assigned to be trained in.'
"Well, that was a fun read," Urahara cried, grinning as he opened his fan yet again. Karin looked at him incredulously.
"Fun read?" she scoffed. "My brother's being forced into going into a fucking war!"
"Yes, I inferred that much from the letter myself." Urahara fanned himself. "Well, thanks for stopping by and bringing me the news."
It was fun to see her face turn red in anger or to see her fists clench, as if she was resisting the urge to punch him – as if she could.
"Damn it, Urahara," she managed through her gritted teeth. "Can't you be fucking serious for one damn minute? Ichi-nii could die!"
"Hmm, I think not. He's the most stubborn man I have ever met – if he wants to live, he will." The shopkeeper paused, grinning slyly though he was looking at her suspiciously. "How does Ichigo feel about this, anyway?"
This time, the flush on her face was from embarrassment. She looked a little nervous as she fiddled with her hands a bit, ducking her head under her cap.
"He, uh, doesn't know," she admitted sheepishly. He didn't look surprised – he had expected as much. "I didn't have soccer practice today, so I got home before he did and saw this sitting in the mail, so I just...took it."
He gasped dramatically again.
"Why, I'm shocked, Kurosaki-chan," he cried, fanning himself furiously. "Opening someone else's mail is a federal crime. And, oh, you've made me an accomplice!"
"Would you just..." Karin breathed deeply, attempting to calm herself as Urahara looked on in amusement. "Anyway, I need your help."
"With what?" She glared at him.
"Well, I obviously can't let Ichi-nii just go off to war. Not with Otou-san gone, too. It would crush Yuzu."
"What exactly are you proposing?" The shopkeeper eyed her with interest, though he had an inkling that he knew what she wanted.
She straightened immediately, baring her shoulders and lifting her head higher, looking at him from under her cap confidently.
"I want to go in his place."
It took all but two seconds for him to clap a hand over his mouth and hide his face behind his fan, hunching over as his body shook. Any idiot could tell he was stifling laughter.
'Bastard,' Karin thought, though she had expected this.
"I'm serious, Urahara," she said, firmly. He shook even harder and she felt her blood boil. "Are you going to fucking help me or not?"
"Kurosaki-chan," he replied, sobering up and straightening in an instant, "what exactly do you want me to do?"
"Oh, don't give me that crap," she hissed, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms defiantly. "Everyone in my family knows the kind of shady dealings you do behind the scenes – fake identities and forged papers. You can't pull one over my eyes."
Urahara was strongly tempted to grab the rim of her cap and pull it down over her eyes, just to prove her wrong. But he resisted.
"Alright," he said instead. "What exactly did you have in mind?"
Karin blinked rapidly, as if she hadn't expected him to relent so easily.
"Oh, um, I wanted you to create a new identity for me. Someone old enough to be a part of the draft," she explained. "The military won't bother looking too closely at one of their soldiers as long as they get someone to fight." The disgust in her voice was prominent.
"Boy or girl?" he asked, jokingly.
"Boy," she answered without hesitation. He raised his eyebrows. "It'll be easier to keep my true identity a secret if I change as much as possible," she explained her reasoning hastily, avoiding his gaze. He smirked.
"Right. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that your father was put in charge of an all-boys training camp." He whistled innocently when she glared over at him. "You do realize there will be complications? I mean, you're a sixteen year old girl..."
"Why don't you let me handle that?" Karin said, blushing. "I just need you to help me with the technical stuff, okay?"
"Fine, fine. Why don't we step into the back room?" he suggested. "We can hardly talk about this standing by the front door of my wonderful store."
"What's the point? It's not like you get any customers," he heard her mumble, though she followed him nonetheless. He pretended he hadn't heard her, instead humming very loudly as he skipped to one of the many rooms in the back of the shop.
He plopped himself down on the mats and she reluctantly did the same, eyeing him suspiciously. With a small, secret chuckle, he reached into the folds of his kimono and pulled out a black notebook, hardly bigger than his palm, and from his hat he pulled out a pen. Karin gazed at him incredulously as he flipped to a fresh page.
"Let's begin, shall we?" he said.
She looked up at him in disguised shock. She had expected more questions, more interrogation. But, then again, this was Urahara. He was different from most.
"What are we doing back here, anyway?" she asked him curiously, again gazing at the notebook.
"Well, you can't just expect me to whip up a whole new identity out of thin air, can you?" he shot right back. "Silly Kurosaki. Just like your brother."
"Can we just get on with this?" she cut through harshly, feeling her cheeks flame. Why was this man so good at making everyone feel like an idiot?
"Right-o," he retorted. "Now, I'm assuming you just want me to create you a draft letter, correct?"
She nodded. "One just like Ichi-nii's, except not his name."
He nodded, enthusiastically taking notes. "And same issued number..." he mumbled. When she gave him a confused look, he grinned cheerfully. "And just what do you think's going to happen when "your brother" – more like "his number" – doesn't show up for his duty? We don't really want the army making a spectacle at the Kurosaki home, now do we? It might scare the neighbors a bit."
"Right." She nodded seriously. Thank Kami this man was smarter than he looked or acted.
"Age..." He eyed her closely, then scribbled. "18 is all we're going to be able to get away with. Even that is stretching it a bit far. Thankfully, your birthday passed before the draft ended, too, so that story will match up."
"We're keeping the same birthday?" she asked.
He looked up in surprise. "Is there any reason to change it? No one is going to know who you are or were, anyway. And you can't expect Ichigo to be smart enough to check the army for his runaway sister."
She cringed at the word "runaway," but nodded.
"What name?" he finally asked her. She paused, pondering it; the first thought that entered her mind was her newest little cousin, now several years old and adorable.
"...Hikaru," she found herself saying. "Kurosaki Hikaru." There was no need to change her family name. Besides, no matter what she said, she was proud of it.
He raised an eyebrow but nodded and jotted it down anyway. Then, with a grin, he snapped his little notebook shut.
"Okay," he sang. "That should do it! Leave the rest to me, Kurosaki-kun." He gazed down at her meaningfully, his lips quirked in an amused smirk. "Tessai will enter your new files into the government's database – birth certificate, citizenship, medical records. I'll have this done by next Sunday. Come around then."
.. ღ ..
She came next Saturday. Just as she had expected, he was already done.
'Bastard,' she thought angrily as she left his shop that afternoon, stuffing the files under her jacket.
"Good luck, Kurosaki-san!" he called out cheerfully from his porch behind her. When she turned back to glare, he only grinned and waved his fan at her.
'I'm not gonna let him get to me,' she thought determinedly. With a huff, she whipped her head back around and kept on walking.
With surprising ease, she smuggled the papers into the house. Ichigo was out and Yuzu was distracted in the kitchen, meaning she easily flew up the stairs and into her room without being stopped and questioned. With a relieved sigh, she slipped the files under her mattress, anticipating the day she would need them.
Following her scheming, the days dragged on, trudging by more slowly every day she had to keep the secret from her family. Her throat constricted every time Yuzu sent her one of her famous, innocent smiles, or whenever Ichigo ruffled her hair affectionately.
'I'm doing this for them,' she had to remind herself constantly. 'It's okay if they lose me, as long as they still have each other.'
With that mindset, she made it through the torture,ready to face anything to protect her family and her planet. And when the day arrived that she had to leave, she did so with a fiery determination.
That morning, Yuzu left the house to go grocery shopping, and Ichigo had left early to go to work. When she heard the front door snap shut behind her twin sister, Karin leaped off the couch and bounded upstairs. She extracted an old suitcase from her closet – something she had buried under piles and piles of clothes to hide from Yuzu. She pulled it open on her bed and half-heartedly threw in any clothes she could get her hands on. Over the years she had accumulated a fair amount of men's clothing, and she could only huff in relief when she gazed briefly at her packed things and found to her satisfaction that it truly looked like a young, male recruit's suitcase.
With her luggage and papers in hand, she stomped down the stairs, dropping everything in the living room. There was just one thing left to do.
Her steps echoed as she scurried into the empty clinic attached to her home. Ever since her father had left, it had been out of business. She and Yuzu helped others when they could, but they were not fully qualified to operate a medical clinic.
Her hands brushed the shelves, patting at the boards as she searched. Her fingers collided with a tough plastic, and with a smirk, she pulled down a small box, filled to the brim with bandages. She discarded her shirt and unrolled one. After a brief pause, she swiftly and expertly rolled it around her already flat chest. When one roll ran out, she reached for another, and soon, she had applied enough to give her body the appearance of a smooth log. She examined herself in a nearby mirror with her shirt back on and smirked in satisfaction.
'Just like a boy.'
Hastily, she grabbed as many rolls of bandages as she could carry in her arms to the living room, where she threw them into her suitcase, completing her packing. She zipped it up and left behind her note.
And then, suddenly, she was ready to go.
'This is it...'
The single thought ran through her head as she looked around her living room – the room she had grown up in, was so familiar with, and had never thought she would ever have to leave. She was finally leaving.
To her complete humiliation, she felt her eyes sting.
"No!" she said aloud, taking a shuddering breath and pursing her lips together. "You can't!" With that demand, she rubbed at her eyes with her arm. "You can do this," she commanded herself.
With one last shaky breath, she scurried out, her belongings clutched tightly in her hands. She wouldn't look back as she left. She wouldn't be able to handle it. Closing the door shut behind her, she strode forward, feeling herself getting farther away from her home but refusing to turn around and acknowledge it. Which was why, while her childhood sanctuary disappeared from behind, all she did was run a hand through her unruly hair.
'I need to go get a haircut.'
.. ღ ..
She gingerly stepped off the train until both her feet were planted firmly on the platform. With a tug, she dragged the luggage off beside her; it skipped over the height and landed on the concrete with a thud. The bustling travelers all around her scurried this way and that, but her eyes searched for someone a little more cleanly dressed and strict looking; a man dressed in a pressed suit stood off to the side of the ticket booth. Inhaling a deep breath for reassurance, she wandered over to him.
"You the guy from the army?" she asked him. It was lucky for her that she had always been teased by all the girls in her school for having such a rough and low voice, because the way he looked down at her with a raised eyebrow told her it was the only thing saving her from being found out.
"New recruit?" he grunted, and she held out her draft letter in response. He only took one look at it, grazing his eyes over the stamps and signatures, before he clumsily flipped through a thick notebook resting on the booth beside him.
"Number 13410, eh?" he grumbled, consulting her letter, and with a dainty pen that seemed if it might snap under the heavy weight of his beefy hand, he crossed it off the list. "All right. Present and accounted for." He thrust the letter back into her hands. "Says here you were assigned to Ryou's camp." With an amused smirk, he jerked his thumb behind him, towards the gate. "Go through there. Your train is the one arriving in ten minutes. It'll take you where you need to go."
With a shrug, she strode past him, her bag clutched in her hand. While she'd been speaking with the official, a line of other recruits had gathered behind her, but she ignored them as she followed the path she was directed to. The area beyond the gate was the same as the one she had just left behind, except that it was almost deserted – no train had arrived yet. She took a seat on one of the benches and kept an eye on the clock hanging from the wall.
As she waited, other young men wandered in, looking excited or nervous as they seated themselves. She took note of a few women, as well, whose determined expressions made it clear they were there to prove themselves. She felt a sudden rush of respect for them.
One such woman plopped down into the seat next to her.
"Would you be one of the recruits, also?" the woman questioned her suddenly, inclining her head slightly.
She blinked, not having expected such an abrupt conversation. Not to mention, the girl spoke in a strangely formal manner.
"Um, yeah," she answered, clearing her throat in an effort to hide its feminine quality.
"I, as well," the stranger replied, nodding. She held out her hand. "I'm Kuchiki Rukia," she introduced herself, smiling.
"Kurosaki Hikaru." She grabbed Rukia's hand and the two shook.
"So, where are you headed off to?" Rukia wanted to know. Hikaru shrugged.
"Don't know. The military man said I'm off to 'Ryou's camp.'"
Rukia smirked. "Ah, Ryou. Well, you'll certainly never have a dull moment there, I can assure you."
"What, you know him?" Hikaru cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes." She chuckled. "Not well, per say. But I've had my fair share of conversations with him, and he's certainly an interesting character." She pursed her lips in thought. "Though I never quite understood his joining the army."
"Why is that? He a wuss, or something?"
Rukia laughed and shook her head. "Quite the opposite, actually. You'll understand when you meet him."
Hikaru shrugged, letting the matter drop. "Well, how do you know this...Ryou?" she wanted to know.
Her new friend flashed her a sad smile. "Family connections. Being a drafted soldier, I'd assumed you hadn't heard of the Kuchiki family before."
"What, you guys famous?" She scrutinized her, trying to remember if she'd ever seen this person in a movie or on television or in a magazine before.
"In the army, yes," Rukia explained. "My older brother, Kuchiki Byakuya, is a rather famous commander with a legendary team. Any military personal will know of him. They've never failed a mission or even missed a target."
Hikaru whistled low. "Impressive."
"I suppose so." Her tone turned bitter. "Since the day he took me into the family, I've been expected to follow in his military greatness." She bit her lip, looking down. "That is partly the reason I am here now."
"What!" Hikaru exclaimed. Some soldiers looked over at her curiously, and she hurriedly lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "That's so unfair! So, your brother's making you go off into war? What an ass."
Eyes wide, Rukia frantically shook her hands in front of her chest. "No, no! I didn't mean anything of the sort. I would not be here if not for my own free will – I chose to serve my country."
Hikaru relaxed at her words, her shoulders deflating. "Fine. As long as you had a choice."
Rukia smiled up at her shyly. "Thank you for worrying, though."
She grinned and patted her back. "No problem. What are friends for?"
When the train arrived not long after, the two had become well acquainted. Hikaru reluctantly stood off the bench, not ready to leave her friend so soon.
"Well...I guess I'll be seeing you?" She awkwardly offered her hand for a shake goodbye. After all, there was no guarantee that the two would meet again; they were going off to war. Rukia looked at it thoughtfully before she grinned widely, leaped off the bench, and bounded into her for a hug.
"Goodbye, Hikaru," she mumbled into her ear happily. "We will most definitely meet again."
Hikaru beamed over to her before stepping onto her train, and the two friends parted.
.. ღ ..
Yuzu's wails and sobs ran through the house, interrupted only when she sniffed deeply, and then picked up again. Ichigo was at a loss for what to do. He watched her with anguish in his own eyes, the paper in his hand crushed within his palm.
'Dear Ichi-nii and Yuzu,' it read, 'I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I can't tell you where I'm going, or even if I'll be okay, but please don't look for me. Karin.'
Screwing his eyes shut tightly, Ichigo finally turned his head away, no longer able to bear watching his baby sister in so much pain. How could Karin do this? How could she just get up and leave when their family was already so broken? Couldn't she have thought of how much this would have hurt them?
"Yuzu," he finally murmured. He didn't know what to say, but he had to say something. "It...It's gonna be okay."
"No, it's not!" she choked out, wiping at her runny nose and peeking out at him from under her hands. Sweet, pacifist little Yuzu was glaring at him. "Karin-chan is...she's..."
Unable to finish, she gave into her tears. Ichigo didn't attempt to console her again.
.. ღ ..
Rukia breathed in deeply, steeling herself for the meeting she would have to endure. Hitching her long, black coat higher up her shoulders and holding the ends together, she shielded herself from the cold winds whipping at her. There was no way to save her face, however, and she could feel her cheeks going numb, no doubt flushed red already. Oh, well. Her mission was too important to deter because of simply some bad weather. She had faced worse.
Her boots crunched as she walked through the snow that littered the ground, getting sprayed with slush. Darn. And they had been a present from her brother, too. Trying to control her irritation, she wandered down the path she had started on, keeping her eyes fixed on each house she passed.
Her gloved hands tightened around her coat when she found her target. As she approached the front door of the house, her steps slowed, her fists hesitated knocking on the door.
She hadn't really thought of what she would say at this point. Really, when she'd seen that familiar face on that poster, all she'd done was pack an overnight bag and fly straight here, to this small town, with her heart pounding in her ears. She hadn't paused to plan this out; all she'd known was that she perhaps knew the answer these people so desperately sought, and holding back that information was not an option. And now she was here. So, why back out when she had come all this way?
With a sigh, she finally thumped the back of her hand against the wood of their front door.
There were no sounds of bounding footsteps or any scuffling, but the door just suddenly creaked open. She didn't jump or even flinch, used to surprises after such long years of brutal training. On the other side stood a young man, tall and lean with flaming orange hair.
'He's handsome,' she allowed herself to think. But all those good looks were hindered by just one feature: Those haunting, hollow eyes of a man without hope. 'Kami,' she prayed, 'please let me have come in time to save him.'
She swallowed and forced herself to meet his gaze.
"Is this the Kurosaki residence?" she asked.
"Depends," he replied roughly. "Who's asking?"
With a suppressed tremor, she answered, "I am Kuchiki Rukia. I -" And here she paused and licked her lips in hesitation, because it certainly didn't seem right to blurt out such a reckless declaration while standing on this man's porch.
"Could we perhaps talk?" she finally asked, flitting her eyes past his figure, indicating she wanted entry. He hesitated, eyeing her suspiciously, but finally relented.
She stepped inside gingerly, trying to be discrete in observing the decor while he took her coat for her and hung it on a nearby hook. It was such a neat and organized home, filled to the brim with pictures. Her heart leapt as she caught a glimpse of black hair; she peered at it closely, realizing it displayed an image of a cute, little girl beaming up at the camera. However, there were no recent pictures of her in sight to offer any clues as to what she might look like now.
"Rukia."
She jumped as her name was suddenly called, and when she looked over her shoulder, she found the orange haired man watching her solemnly.
"We'll talk in the living room," he said, pointing to it and walking towards it at the same time.
Irritation bubbled up inside of her almost immediately. Who was this man to call her so familiarly? She had just met him, and she didn't even know his name! The nerve of some people. If her brother were to hear of this, he would keel over in shock.
With a poorly suppressed glare, she followed him, seating herself reservedly on the couch.
"I've come here today to deliver some very important news to the Kurosaki family," she stated. "You wouldn't tell me at the door, but am I to assume that you are a Kurosaki?"
He sent her a slightly amused glance – the only expression she had yet to see on his face other than his sullen one.
"Why are you talking like that?" he asked her with almost humor. "All formal, I mean. It's weird. Just talk normally."
Her lips parted in surprise. She could never! Why, her Nii-sama would have a conniption if he ever heard of it. She was a proper lady, no matter how much war she had seen. Right?
"To answer your question,' he went on, ignorant of her inner dilemma, "yes, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."
She nodded primly.
"Ichigo." She tried it on her tongue. If he would call her by her given name, then so would she. "I've come here today," she went on sullenly, "to talk about something very...well, odd, I think describes it. I can't think of any other word."
He raised an eyebrow, the only sign to show he seemed interested. Otherwise, his eyes had hardened and his face was tight again.
"It's about this..."
Hesitantly, she dug out a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her trousers. She pulled apart the three folds she had made to make it easier to carry, smoothing it out as best as she could. Then, she gulped and carefully handed it to him.
His eyes skimmed over the contents with a bored expression. He seemed to take a moment to absorb the material presented before him, and then, he froze. Completely still.
The word 'Missing' was boldly typed across the top in obnoxious, capital letters. Underneath it was an enlarged picture of a young girl, no older than a teen, scowling darkly at the camera – a startling contrast to that little girl captured in the frame by the front entrance.
His eyes immediately flickered to his guest. She was biting her lip, watching him expectantly.
"Do you know?" he whispered to her, his eyes anguished. She looked away.
"I...I don't know," she answered honestly. "But I'm pretty sure -"
"Where is she!" he demanded, and suddenly, he lunged at her, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Tell me!"
"Ichigo," she said sharply, breaking away from his grip. She just couldn't meet those pained eyes knowing she was about to disappoint him. "I'm sorry, but I don't know."
He sucked in a pained breath, leaning away as his lips thinned.
"Then, why are you here?" he finally asked, his jaw set.
She was back to gnawing at her lips in anxiety. "Something strange happened to me just this past year," she told him. "An encounter with a young boy." She saw that she once again had his attention and continued, "We were both enlisted in the army and waiting for the trains to take us to camp. He introduced himself as Kurosaki Hikaru."
She didn't miss the way he jumped, and her eyes narrowed.
"Does that name mean anything to you?" she questioned.
"Hikaru's our cousin," he explained. "She was born a few years back. We lived with her family for a while after my dad was drafted."
Rukia nodded. "Well, we became friends, Hikaru and me, even in just ten minutes. Of course, with war, there weren't many chances to meet, and -" She broke off, her lower lip trembling. "Just a few months back, I received word that he was...captured...by the enemy and taken away."
"I'm sorry," Ichigo mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. He had never been good at giving comfort, so he didn't quite know what to say.
She breathed deeply and shook her head. "It's been a while since I've seen him," she continued as if she'd never paused – it was rather impressive, "but even now, I still remember him. He was definitely male – I was sure of it."
Her gaze wandered off to her memories, her expression curiously skeptical. Ichigo eyed her in confusion, not quite understanding the message she was trying to convey.
"What's this about?" he asked. "And what does this have to do with my sister?"
"Ichigo, I-I know this might be difficult to hear," Rukia began hesitantly, "but I'm trying to say that...that girl – Karin," - she pointed to the wanted poster – "is the Hikaru I know."
He stared at her blankly, but she continued.
"I didn't want to believe it," she said. "I didn't believe it when I first saw the picture, but they look exactly the same, despite the different hair, and I don't understand how she could have made it into the army at that age or even why, but..." She breathed in deeply, her gaze confident as she met his eyes. "That was her."
Yay, an update! Finally, we see the Kurosaki family.
Oh, by the way - Ichigo's issued number? Those are the three divisions I think I would want to be in most if I was in Soul Society - 13, 4, and 10. 13 because Ukitake's kick-ass, and Kiyone and Sentarou are hilarious. 4 because Hanatarou's adorable :D And 10 because, duh, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto ;) But I think 11 and 8 would be cool, too. What about you guys?