Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach, I wouldn't even need to go to college. But since I do, I get to write crap like this every time a class is boring (read: Always).

EDIT: Chapter edited and fixed as of the 12/16/12 update. Pretty sure I missed stuff, should get a beta reader.

This chapter is brought to you by the last season of Lost (I don't own that, either, thank god.)

The First Guardian

Chapter Four: Soccer is a lot more violent that Football.

Kuchiki Rukia was a very patient Shinigami. She was, after all, the adopted sibling of a Kuchiki Byakuya, the head of the Kuchiki clan and probably the highest figure of nobility anyone in Seireitei could think of.

She was trained on several ways of etiquette, discipline, and noble behavior so as to hold up the reputation that someone of a noble clan such as her should have.

She took great pride on her training, and the fact that she could pull off as much of a noble façade as her elder brother could. It had taken a great number of years to learn all of that.

The why, for all that isn't Hollow in nature, did Kurosaki Ichigo manage to shatter everything she had worked for, and bring out the Rukia that frequently stole food and water back in her Rukongai days?

Ichigo intrigued her like no other thing ever had; the man had the presence of a leader she had only seen Shinigami Captains pull off. He had the brains to think of everything necessary for any situation and the will and, best of all, the capacity to break through any barriers that dared set itself between him and his goals. She began respecting him from the first night when they met, and over the past couple of weeks, it had only grown as she saw more and more of the man he was both in school and in the battlefield.

That wasn't the problem, oh no, the problem was…

"Ichigo, what're you doing to your Shinigami uniform?"

"Well, you see, me and my companion thought that having a theme song was a pretty cool thing, but before we got around to choosing one, we had to figure out a way to make everyone hear it whenever we pulled off something cool."

"…And?"

"Well, what better way than to stick speakers to the uniform's front? Sure, they may restrict mobility and my ability to crawl through narrow spaces, but they provide awesome sound and perhaps better armor."

"… I can't believe you're doing this. No, I can't believe your Zanpakutō would agree to something like this, a Zanpakutō is respectful of both its appearance and that of its wielder, it's their nature! And I thought your sword was the voice of reason!"

…

"Okay so maybe he's not exactly agreeing with me on this, but-"

That day Rukia learned she was as good with a shoe or sandal as she was with a sword. "Still couldn't hit him, though."

"What is that infernal sound?" Rukia actually had an idea of what it was, but she seriously hoped it wasn't what she thought it was.

"I like it!" Of course Orihime liked it; she must have felt the same as Rukia did at that moment, and she liked everything Ichigo did, Rukia still felt annoyed about that.

Down the hall came one Kurosaki Ichigo, holding what looked like a stereo, from a car, with his right arm held around it, and a battery, again from a car, in his left hand.

"Yo."

"What do you think you're doing?" Rukia's normal school act was gone, but everyone around her was just as bewildered as she was so no one noticed it.

"Well, we finally decided on a theme song, but since you stopped me from, err… making sure it was heard when I… did something awesome. I decided to have everyone hear it o that it would inevitably come to their minds whenever it's required."

…

"Do you like? It's called 'Number One' and it's-"

Rukia had to make great use of her memory modifier that day to make everyone forget the display of words and creativity that came from her mouth. It surprised Ichigo long enough to make him drop the contraption that she later destroyed, but it only made her more irate when he looked at her with unmasked admiration when she was done.

He could be the greatest person she'd ever known one moment, and the next he'd be someone no shrink on either world would allow you to stand next to.

Said person was now-

"What is he doing?"

He had said they'd go out for a walk, they ended up skipping the last couple of periods of class, he had said it was something extremely important that had to be done now. When she got around to asking, he just said 'It's a Friday of an odd day between the 10th and 18th of the month.'

That was real helpful, yeah.

"Ichigo, I'm not following you any further if you don't tell me what's going on."

Ichigo stopped walking, he turned around and looked at her and considered something. It was the first time someone other than his Zanpakutō came with him on a day like this, and he had never felt the need to explain it.

"Well, I have previously chosen several days in a month, the pattern I follow is erratic so as to throw off anyone who'd attempt to read them."

"Explain further, please."

Ichigo sighed, he knew she'd only get more confused, but he elaborated "Today, for example, is a Friday of an odd day between the 10th and 18th of a month. Similar days are the last Tuesday of each month it's between the 27th and the last, as well as the first Thursdays if it's between the 1st and 4th of the month, and odd numbered Wednesdays if they're between the 5th and the 9th of a month. There's more, but this is getting lengthy."

"… Okay, what do those days mean?"

"Those are the days I make sure to follow my sisters around."

Rukia blinked "You're stalking your own sisters?"

"Stalking is a… severe term for what I'm doing. No, I'm making sure they stay safe. By making the days seemingly random no one can tell when I'm there looking after them, so they'll try something stupid against my sisters. And when I shop up and kick their asses it adds to the effect that I'm always there looking after my sisters no matter when they choose to do something. Regardless, even if I wasn't around, I'd be able to feel it, but it would take longer for me to arrive and so they'd eventually think that if they act faster they'd manage something, and they probably would.

"I want to give them the illusion that no matter what they try, there is no way that they can harm my sisters, and eventually they'll give up altogether."

"You're awfully paranoid."

"Hardly."

"Wait, so there's someone actively trying to harm your sisters? What have they done?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened as he started walking again "It's my fault, I guess. I got into plenty of brawls back in the day. And eventually those guys I beat up learned I had two younger siblings, so they decided that they were my weak point and constantly try to use them to get back at me. Just another dumb mistake of mine."

Rukia knew what he considered was his other mistake, but decided not to voice anything and instead watch what he'd do.

He motioned her to stop, then walked into and through some bushes and trees, then told her to lay low as they peeked through the wilderness.

Before them was a wide terrain used for several sports, mainly soccer, and there were several children currently playing.

"Today in particular is a soccer day, so my little sister Karin plays, or actually utterly destroys, the other kids from her class. She's darn good at sports, and the other kids are big wusses, so I can't count on them helping Karin if something happens."

Rukia didn't know what soccer was or how it was played, but if the way Ichigo's sister moved around the field and left everyone else biting dust was any indication, then she was pretty good at it.

"My other sister, Yuzu, just sits by and watches. And while she would help and defend her twin sister no matter what, she's not a fighter; her personality and character are too meek for her to intimidate anyone."

Yuzu was sitting on some benches outside of the field, watching with a smile as Karin played, she seemed to take great joy in watching her twin play a mean game of soccer.

"Karin plays enough for the both of them, it seems." Rukia mused.

"Normally nothing- Oh, too soon, take a look at that."

Rukia saw what looked like guys from their own school, except they had different insignias to prove that was not the case.

"What are you going to do?"

Ichigo smiled, a bit sadistically, perhaps. "It's just three of them today. I'll let Karin handle them for a little bit before I step in, if they see her defend herself well, then that also helps towards stopping their bullshit altogether."

Rukia looked as if she didn't accept that, so Ichigo reassured her "Don't worry, I'm fast enough to stop a punch from one of these guys from this distance even before it was halfway to Karin, so I'm not actually risking anything, keep watching."

The game stopped the moment the guys walked into the field, and Yuzu stood up in case she needed to step in to aid her sister, even if she couldn't really do anything.

"Hey little girl."

Karin looked at the guy who spoke, seemingly the group's leader, and put her foot over the soccer ball she was about to kick into the opposing team's goal. "Yes? You're not supposed to interrupt a game, can this wait?" Karin took pride on being able to wear her Nii-san's scowl as he did during moments like this.

"Listen, you little bitch, your brother owes us, but since he doesn't have the guts to show up for us to beat up, you'll have to do."

Karin rose an eyebrow at that, this wasn't the first time this happened, she recognized one of the guys, his nose still looked strange from when her Nii-san introduced it to his knee. The guy's knee.

"I don't have time for this, I have a game to win, and you guys are really ruining the scenery with your ugly faces."

"What the-" That's all he said before he nearly swallowed a mouthful of soccer ball. When it bounced off his face and before he had time to realize what had happened, he took another mouthful, this time off foot, which managed to make him land flat on his back.

Ichigo beamed at Rukia "I taught her that one." She couldn't say she was surprised.

When the guy's head stopped spinning, he saw the girl wearing a smug look and still holding her leg out from when she kicked him. He stood up and motioned to the guys behind him "That's it! The bitch gets it! We were just going to take you as bait for your brother, but we'll have to beat you up now!"

The guys moved advanced on Karin, but then the leader felt someone tapping his shoulder "What?" Then he paled a little bit, standing behind him was the guy whose sister he was trying to harm.

Rukia's eyes nearly fell out of her head, she didn't even notice when Ichigo left her side in the bushes.

Ichigo was smiling as if he was just told he was the most handsome man in the world, which as far as he cared, he was. "Hey there, buddy! Allow me to inform of the mistakes you made today. First, you interrupted a sport that no amount of rain, snow, or stolen cars has ever managed to stop. Secondly, you popped your shirt's collar, that makes you look like a horrible douchebag, and they should put you in jail for that. Oh, and third," Now his smile disappeared and a face that could have made a gun refuse to shoot replaced it "You tried to harm, and kidnap, my little sister to use her as bait against me."

The leader tried to speak, keyword being tried, but his brain had not caught up with the fact that his lungs had no oxygen in them at all. Ichigo's fist was buried in his stomach and the next moment he crumpled like a tower of cards during an earthquake.

One of the guys, the one with the shattered nose, fled the scene as quickly as his legs would allow him to, but seeing in which direction the guy was going, Ichigo didn't bother to chase after and instead turned to his sister who was now kicking the last guy while he was in fetal position on the ground. What put him there was no mystery as he was howling in pain and holding the family jewels.

"Your sister scares me."

"You have testicles?"

"I do, wanna see them?"

"Keep your testicles away from me."

"I can't, I'm inside you."

"That sounds worse."

"Why?"

"I could have handled them myself, Ichi-Nii." She tried to look annoyed, but it was always nice to see her brother cared.

"Maybe, but there's something they said I wanna check on."

Yuzu came over to them; she seemed more concerned for the guy who had just gone unconscious from mass genital pain than her sister.

"You went overboard, sister."

"Really? I think he could have used another kick. Wanna do the honors?"

Yuzu refused, of course, she felt bad when she stepped on little bugs, and the idea of harming someone else who was already defenseless was pretty much a taboo for her.

"Go back to your game; I and these fellows have something to talk about."

"Aww, but I wanna see you torture them, Ichi-Nii."

"Listen to Onii-chan, Karin. Keep playing! You were doing great!" Yuzu was the only person other than Ichigo that could talk Karin into anything.

"Fine." They both waved Ichigo good-bye as he dragged the two poor bastards into the bushes.

"Yo, Rukia."

"Took you long enough." Rukia was sitting on the back of the guy who was previously run away, he was as beat up as anyone could be, but it seemed Rukia had avoided the idiot's nose. Probably didn't want to make it any uglier.

"Is he conscious? I need one of these awake for what comes next."

"He is, he's pretending not to, though." She kicked the guy in the ribs, Rukia was actually pretty angry with the three bigger men, they were trying to pick on someone they considered weaker, and in greater numbers. These men had no honor, and that pissed her off greatly.

Maybe she was a bit of a hypocrite, she only thought of things like honor and the like when it seemed convenient.

The guy groaned from the kick, and Ichigo lifted him from the back of his shirt and shoved him against a tree, making him land in a seated position.

"We can do this the easy way, or my way. I am going to ask you simple questions, if I don't get straight answers; I am going to immediately switch to my way, without preamble or warning. Is that clear?" And the guy just groaned.

So Ichigo kicked him in the stomach "That was a question. You failed."

"I'll answer anything; just- just stop the pain!"

"Good. Now, you guys were setting up a trap for me, which means somewhere, someone is waiting for you to come with my sister, and then you'd draw me to that place, which I expect is to be filled with everyone in your group and perhaps whoever sent you. Before you lie and force me to kick you again, you guys have no brain to set this up, which means someone else did. My question now is: Where is this place?"

Rukia had been thinking the exact same thing, her method would have been a lot more sadistic, but perhaps less aggressive. "Don't mess with his sisters."

"It's a- it's in a wrecked warehouse, the whole area around it has been abandoned since an explosion a few days ago! We've been using it as our base since."

"Oh."

"Oh! I get it now. It's because it sounded gay, right?"

And his Zanpakutō was somewhere else entirely, it seemed. The warehouse he blasted all those Hollows in and got stabbed from behind like a moron-

"Morons get stabbed like morons, moron."

-was the one they were using as a base.

"I know the place, now; this is what you'll do. You're going to stay here very quiet and not tell your friends I'm on my way to join their party."

"You can't be sure he won't say anything."

"I know."

So he punched the guy's lights out.

"Well, Rukia, sorry you had to see that. I don't like doing things like that."

"It's okay, you had to. It's for your sisters."

Ichigo shrugged, he really felt like he was some bad guy and not as a badass just now, but when it came to his sisters, he became a new kind of demon.

"Alright, so I'm gonna go beat someone up."

"I'm coming."

"Ha-ha!"

"I figured."

Oda Yokohama was starting to get fidgety, the guys he had sent to 'retrieve' the orange-haired asshole's sister were late, and it was making him nervous.

"It was my plan, a perfect plan!" His target should be in class, and his sisters far from his protection. They should have no problem getting one of them. He had timed it all to be perfect, but now those goons were apparently screwing up.

"This is a nice setup you guys have here. Looks a lot better than it did when I blew it up, anyways."

For a second, he almost flinched. That voice belonged to someone who had brought him great pain. But then he realized there was nothing to fear. The boy was outnumbered, apparently unarmed, and had come here of his own volition, it didn't matter if they had either of his sisters or not.

"You were a fool to come here, Kurosaki! You're heavily outnumbered and all with no way out!" Sure enough, the (newly repaired) warehouse gate was shut behind Ichigo, leaving several lit-up drum cans as their only source of light.

There were at least two dozen people walking towards the guy who had spoken, perhaps the leader, and getting between him and Ichigo.

Ichigo just raised an eyebrow, and then took a few steps to the side.

The other guys didn't have to wonder why for too long before the wall behind Ichigo exploded and flew through the air only to fall on top of them all.

"Awesome timing, Rukia."

The girl was standing outside with a hand held in front of her, palm outwards, and panting heavily from exhaustion.

"That took a lot more than it should have."

"What the hell did you just do?"

"Oh? You're still up? Seems you're 24 out of 25, Rukia. Sloppy."

She knew he was just joking, so didn't bother to glare or say anything.

"Now…" Ichigo was suddenly in front of Yokohama, and the guy knew no more.

Yokohama woke to the sound of steps and being moved around. He opened his eyes slowly only to see the ground, moving in front of him and a pair of feet belonging to whoever was carrying him. Then the pain kicked in and he groaned.

"Finally, you're awake."

That voice. That was Kurosaki's! He was the one carrying towards what he felt was a horrible, painful fate.

"What- what are you going to do to me?"

A girl's voice spoke next "Your friends were knocked out by the door, but none of them are heavily hurt and should be able to get back home on their own."

Ichigo took it from there "You weren't so lucky, I cracked a couple of your ribs and one of them was actually visible from your side. So I'm taking you to the Kurosaki clinic."

Oda processed that, then- "What? But I just- why are you- what? I tried to kidnap your sister! I wanted to beat you until you couldn't move!"

"So? I couldn't just leave you to bleed out."

"But why?"

"For starters, I'm not a killer. Not really. And murdering someone over something as silly as trying to beat me up is a little harsh. Though if you had actually managed to harm one of my little sisters, well… Maaaaybe I wouldn't have left you, either. But you'd have a lot more than a couple of broken ribs, trust me on that one."

The rest of the trip was silent, and Yokohama Oda had a lot to think about during that time, what little thinking he could do with the pain, anyways.

They arrived in front of Ichigo's home "Alright, you fell off your bike and me and Rukia were walking by, and since there wasn't any road an ambulance could take to get to you, we decided to bring you here to our clinic. Got it?"

He did the smart thing, for once "Understood."

"ICHI- what?" Isshin, somehow, stopped mid jump-kick when he saw the way Ichigo arrived at their home.

"Yo, dad, I have-"

"Ichigo! Who is this lovely lady? Is she your girlfriend? Have you finally grown to become a man, Ichigo? Oh, Masaki! Our son has finally-" A rock to the back of the head stopped his tirade. Ichigo was amused Rukia had done that. It figured that is what his father would notice, not the bleeding guy he was carrying.

They told him the whole (made up) story. And Isshin immediately got to work on assisting the wounded guy.

Ichigo went back up to his room, and Rukia followed after.

That would come back and bite Ichigo in the ass later.

"That was a good thing you did today, Ichigo." Rukia had changed into her pajamas, though how she did that in her cramped closet was a mystery to Ichigo.

"So, Ichigo, HER closet, huh?"

"Don't start."

"Whatever." He shrugged; it didn't seem like much of a big deal, really.

"Really, Ichigo. Not everyone would have bothered to aid a downed enemy. You managed to reign in your anger and took mercy of your defeated opponent. If you ask me, that's a virtue a guardian should have." Rukia really felt proud Ichigo had acted as he did.

Ichigo smiled, whether it was because she was praising him or because she called him a guardian, he wasn't sure. But he liked it either way.

"It's a bit too early to sleep, isn't it?"

"I'm tired. That Shakkahō took more out of me than I thought."

"That's strange; you didn't even use the incantation."

"What're you talking about? I did use the incantation."

"Really? Didn't feel like you did."

Rukia didn't answer. That Shakkahō was as strong as she could cast it even at full power. "My Sōkatsui is probably as strong as his Shakkahō. Powerhouse, that's what he is."

"But still, you should have recovered enough by now. Enough to do that, at least."

"I thought the same, but apparently this is going to take longer than we thought."

That ceased all conversation for the day; Rukia closed the door to the closet after throwing Ichigo a change of clothes and promptly fell asleep.

"She's even choosing your clothes for you now."

"Shut it."

"Why do you keep ignoring this, you know it to be-"

"Tomorrow."

"Hmm?"

"We start the training tomorrow."

"Excellent."

I was trying to watch the last season of Lost on DVD. I fell asleep a lot faster than I normally do when I head to bed. So I put it away and got to writing this chapter and the next. So I guess you could be thankful of the fact I found that series to be boring as hell.

This is what you'd call a 'filler' chapter. Some people mentioned Ichigo's sisters weren't getting much screen time, so I decided to do a chapter with them. I was planning to, just a little bit later. This chapter also helped a bit with character development.

Oh, and it's rather short because I plan to post the next one immediately. Leave a review and go read that one, then be kind and leave another review for that one.

- Flameal out.