Greetings readers, welcome to chapter 3 :D. This story is developing quite fast, I never write this much, but hey, what is a bored individual going to do :).
Today's chapter is a bit of a revelation, nothing too much, trying to keep some tension here. But we have a good man popping by.
I'll be honest with you, the update cycle as it has been the last few days isn't normal. I'd expect the coming chapters to be weekly-ish since I don't work well on schedules.
The thank you this time goes to Bloodlinenaruto for the review :). As always with reviews, please write something, it makes me happy to see them coming in and reading what you thought about the story. But if you can, write something constructive, the story isn't perfect and I'd love feedback on pointers, doesn't matter what.
So, without further ado... The chapter:
~Twan
Walking in with a cup of tea and a small plate of sandwiches, Ichigo greeted his wife. "Good morning Isane." He whispered as he put the breakfast on the nightstand. He had slept besides her on the chair during the night and was happy to see her awake. He bent forward slowly and gently kissed her, something he hadn't had the chance to do in weeks. "I brought you breakfast." He gestured to the plate on her stand.
Isane smiled at the gesture. "Thank you." She looked at him curiously "Why are you so happy?" "For the first time in weeks, I was able to kiss my wife, which makes a man happy." He explained, leaning back with a mysterious grin on his face. "And we're not having one baby, we're having twins." He couldn't contain the secret anymore.
Isane's eyes went big, "Twins?" She couldn't believe it, there were no twins in her family, and twins were rare in Soul Society. "Are you sure?" Ichigo nodded happily. "Hanatarō told me last night after you went to sleep." Isane's surprise was slowly turning into happiness. She always wanted a big family and twins were a quick way to get such a family. "I'm glad, that way our child won't be alone." Ichigo nodded in confirmation and leaned in for another kiss when a knock on the door interrupted them.
"Kurosaki-taicho, there is an emergency at the Eight division. We need you, sir." Ichigo looked at his wife with regret. "I could have Amira look after it…" he said, trying to convince himself as much as trying to convince Isane. "Go, I'm supposed to receive a check up anyway." Ichigo nodded, "I love you, Isane." and he steps out of the room after Aila, his Fifth seat.
"What is the big emergency, Aila?" Ichigo asked annoyed as they moved quickly to the exit of the building and sped up to shunpo. "Several seated officers of the Eleventh have broken in and are looking for a fight. Some of the guards tried fighting them but lost." Ichigo sighed and accelerated in front of Aila, arriving at the Division in seconds, his fist slamming in between his Fourth seat and the Eleventh's Seventh seat, breaking up the fight.
Ichigo's reiatsu was flowing around him, forcing the people around him to their knees because of the pressure. "You have made a grave mistake…" he whispered to the Seventh seat, approaching him when an empty tin can hit him in the head. This broke Ichigo's concentration, and in Ichigo-style irritation he threw his fist up and shouted "Who the hell threw that!"
"Yo, Ichigo!" Ikkaku called, his sealed zankapto on his shoulder as usual. "What's with breaking up of the fight?" he asked, looking surprised at the shattered ground. "That wasn't necessary, we were just having fun." Ikkaku explained with a grin.
"Go have fun somewhere else." Ichigo said in a cold tone, his calm composure returned. He turned around and was ready to shunpo away when Ikkaku appeared I nfront of him. "Come with me." And shunpo'd out of sight. Ichigo followed suit and quickly caught up with the bald man. "Keep up, if you can!" Ikkaku challenged and sped up, trying to stay in front until he nearly ran into Ichigo, who had easily overtaken Ikkaku.
"What is this about, Ikkaku, I have more important things to do than play tag with you." He was clearly annoyed, wanting to be with his wife. "I'm here to give some good advice, Ichigo." Ikkaku answered, his tone now serious. Ikkaku shunpo'd away again to land on the roof of a building and sat down.
When Ichigo joined him, Ikkaku started, "You can't keep protecting everybody." Ichigo wanted to stand up and argue the point when Ikkaku simply pulled him down by his haori and continued. "I know you want to be the protector, that's you, that's how you work." Ikkaku wasn't looking at his friend but in the distance. "Being protected means you never experience pain, loss or suffering. You don't get to grow up and become stronger. Protecting those that don't want to be protected can even lead to anger and argueing, but you already know that, don't you?"
Ichigo didn't reply, he was quiet and looked down. He wasn't used to being confronted with his mistakes. As a captain, he could do a lot with impunity. But here he was being, called on his mistakes again. "Ichigo, you need to apologize to your sister, what you did was wrong. She might not forgive you for what you pulled if you don't move fast."
The men sat in silence for minutes, just looking over Seireitei and pondering the words that were shared. "Alright, now, I'm going to have some fun." Ikkaku said, standing up. Ichigo was still mulling over the words Ikkaku had shared when his friend said, "I do mean what I said, you need to talk to her, soon." Ichigo just nodded and kept staring off into space.