Well, I'm slowly getting the ball rolling on this story…
As I said, it's my first Bleach fanfic, so I hope it's not too full of wrong things or bad characterizations of canon characters. I might fiddle with the timeline and histories of the characters a bit though, obviously.
Anyway, stick with me guys, I've been a little bummed lately since usually I'm used to like, a dozen reviews or so whenever I make a new chapter but for most of my fanfics I only get two or three now.
For those who don't know my style, Italics are usually a character thinking or flashing back.
I'll be updating this as well as I can.
Let's get this started!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or its characters, settings, etc.. Did you really need me to tell you that?
Soul Society
Seireitei
Rukia stared worryingly at Inoue and Ichigo as a light breeze came between the buildings of Seireitei.
"Ichigo, Inoue…"
"Looks like you're finished seeing to your brother and the business here? Let's go then…soon they'll open up the door to send us back to the living world. You haven't recovered completely, you know. You should rest in preparation."
Rukia glanced away from his face, biting her lip, her eyes brooding.
"Yes, about that…I have something to tell you…I've decided to stay…in Soul Society."
He stared at her with wide eyes, eyes that for a moment seemed to betray some sort of emotion other than the usual Ichigo grimace. Sadness? Yearning? Longing? Betrayal? Love?
But it only lasted for a brief moment, too brief to be realized or truly recognized by either.
He only gave a snide smirk, nodding. Inoue only watched on quietly, which was surprisingly uncharacteristic of her.
"I see, well that's good then."
"Huh?"
"Heh…since you decided for yourself, didn't you? If you actually want to stay here…isn't that a good thing?"
She gave him a slight dreamy smile in response to his grin.
Inside, Ichigo was grimacing.
Do I remember now, truly, why I came? The reason why I wanted to save you so much? I remember what you told me long ago, still…A Shinigami should look on all equally, it should not pick and choose who it saves…A Shinigami must save all or save no one, otherwise it's useless and meaningless. But I'm not that kind of person, Rukia…I'm not instantly inclined to let my life go for a stranger or acquaintance.
Ichigo smiled and Rukia spoke slowly, turning around and walking away.
"Well Ichigo, we part ways here…though you don't leave for a few days you said, right? Maybe we can all chat sometime."
The reason was you, Rukia…I can't shake that…it's obvious…I wanted YOU. I wanted to come and return you to my home, to my life…it's almost pathetic in a way. It's selfish.
"Got it…see ya Rukia."
"Should you really have just Rukia go off like that, Ichigo? She looked kind of funny…"
Ichigo sighed, averting his glance to a few random Shinigami bickering in the corner.
"Look, if she wants to go drown in her own angst or watch over her wounded brother, let her, okay? We're not babysitting her. It's her choice, you heard her."
If she wants to stay here…let her…
Inoue only sighed in response, staring broodingly at Ichigo's fixed smirk and Rukia's retreating back.
"Oh well…"
"Something on your mind Orihime?"
Ichigo turned to see Ishida and Chad slowly striding towards them, nodding to both.
"Oh, it's nothing Ishida…just…"
Ichigo butted in.
"We were just seeing off Rukia. I think she'll stay here while Seireitei is recovering."
"You think, huh?"
"Yeah…I do…"
I came for you, Rukia…but I'm leaving without you…somehow I feel...like the battle was never won…you may have decided it for yourself…but I can't accept it.
Ichigo Kurosaki was as always all bluster, letting the true emotions he had stay burrowed. One wouldn't even be able to tell that his heart was aching for a particular short woman of delicate pale skin.
Rukia sighed, slowly making her way past one of the many random barracks inside of Seireitei.
She had been walking for a while by herself after leaving Inoue and Ichigo behind.
A gloom had fallen over the entire area after Aizen's betrayal, she knew this in truth.
Ichigo had almost…died…protecting her…so had Renji…and her brother. It was disgraceful how weak she was…how vulnerable!
She couldn't depend on them forever; it wouldn't be fair to them or to her.
And next time…Ichigo may not…well there won't be a next time. But…I can only use some kidō right now, I don't even have my sword with me or my powers back…it's pitiful…but…
"Next time they come, I'll be ready."
"Ready? Really, Rukia Kuchiki? Are you ready?"
Rukia spun around at the snide male voice, just in time to get a hard boot in her face.
Soifon stood grimly outside Yoruichi's abode, feeling shameful for how meek she felt.
I am a Captain of the Gotei 13…this is wrong…
However, she couldn't help be taken aback whenever she encountered her sempai, from the first minute she had reappeared in Soul Society and she had battled to the death. She still remembered the exhilarating breaths, bruises, and sweat of that battle, and she knew it made her body tingle violently.
However, she had not come to Yoruichi to enact shameful fantasies or stay frozen stiff. In fact it was mainly out of concern, as Yoruichi hadn't appeared for weeks. Supposedly the outsiders were preparing to leave and she hadn't been seen for a while, cooped up in her quarters.
Yoruichi was certainly a wild and unpredictable sort, but it seemed quite out of character for her to be reclusive like this.
Soifon sighed, tapping her foot impatiently as she wondered when Yoruichi would answer the knock she had landed on the door and if she'd be late for the Captain's Meeting that would surely be called this morning.
A lithe black cat hopped on the rooftops of Seireitei, pausing only for a moment as it glimpsed Soifon.
I am sorry…little Fon, but I cannot involve you in this…if what I felt approaching Seireitei was real and not a figment of my fatigue, then this is far beyond your power. I've done enough brooding on the past; I need to investigate this matter personally…
She had felt these deceptive spiritual presences popping up around Seireitei, distinctively familiar, but so slight and quick that she doubted anyone else had felt them or thought them significant other than one of the thousands of spiritual presences latent in all Shinigami. She could barely feel that single, familiar spiritual presence. It seemed to faintly exist every few minutes and then disappear.
The sleek feline took one last look at Soifon and then continued full speed, its eyes determined and fierce.
Rukia grunted, coughing blood as she tried to get up from yet another rough kick to the gut. Whoever this stranger was, he was dressed in what seemed to be Shinigami attired. Captain's robes even! She hadn't seen his back, but logic would point to the fact that the number of this fellow's division probably lay there.
Logic however did not apply. She had never seen this man in her life. He was no Shinigami, she knew it wasn't possible.
She couldn't even feel his spiritual presence. The only explanation for that were that he was increasing his spiritual power in short bursts with each attack and then decreasing them when not attacking, so quickly that she could not even sense it.
But that couldn't be possible. There couldn't be anyone that fast. Was this being a Hollow!? Or a trick of Aizen? But why had it come for her, and how could she defeat it?
How had it even gotten into Seireitei!?
She hardly had time for anymore questions, the man being directly behind her like he had been the whole time.
Now that was definitely shunpo…so fast I couldn't even react to it…This man…he can't be human…but he can't be a Shinigami…I don't even see a weapon on him…it's impossible…where did he get those clothes?
"My, you're a rather slow cow, hmmm?"
"Bastard!"
She whirled around, grunting angrily.
"Destructive Art: 33, Blue Fire, Crash Down!"
A massive burst of destructive energy flew straight out of her outstretched hands at his smirking face.
He only laughed, ducking in a quick move that seemed utterly easy. As if the kidō she had used was child's play.
"Is that the best you can do? Let me answer you one better!"
He held out his hand in her direction, smirking.
"Destructive Art: 95, Lighting Genesi -"
Rukia fell backwards, her eyes widening in terror at the spiritual pressure that the man had been collecting for such a high level spell. It didn't even seem that he had planned to chant it either.
"Never mind…the kidō actually. I think I'm getting carried away…if I attack you like that there may only be enough Kuchiki to fit in a dust pan to take back. Little Sōsuke would be quiet annoyed though…maybe I should kill you just to get on his nerves?"
She stared at him hatefully, thinking feverishly on what she could do to attack or escape this menace.
"Who the hell are you?! Are you man? Beast? Shinigami? Where is your zanpakutō, if you are, and why are you attacking me?"
"You are not worthy of seeing Inazuma unveiled. You are not even worthy of being slain or tortured. What a pity! Is this what Seireitei has fallen to? Has the Kuchiki line devolved so low since little Byakuya?"
"How…do you know these things?! How do you know my brother?! Identify yourself, bastard!"
The man sneered and reappeared alongside her before she could even blink, giving her a brutal punch in the stomach.
"You are not worthy of hearing my name either."
She gasped for air, her eyes bulging as she fell to her hands and knees and spit blood.
"And here I thought I'd have a challenge. You're not even making me sweat."
He sneered, grabbing her by the neck and pulling her up to face level, her feet dangling a bit off the ground as she gasped for air.
"No, I won't kill you, you're not worthy of that. But you're coming with me."
Rukia spit blood in his face, gasping a she struggled in his iron grip.
Suddenly however, something came over his face and he released her, pushing her aside roughly and flash stepping away just as a massive stream of what seemed to be glowing beautiful pink cherry blossoms slammed hard into the ground the man had once been standing.
"Hmm!?"
The man had flash stepped to the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings above Rukia, who was lying passed out on the ground.
In front of him, having just flash stepped seconds after the queer attack of cherry blossoms, was a tall and noble looking man with black hair meticulously drawn into a white headpiece and attire that would identify him as a Captain of the Gotei 13.
"Who are you to decide who is worthy and not worthy, cursed Okami!? If you doubt the Kuchiki line then I, Byakuya Kuchiki will make you pay a pound of flesh personally."
The man sneered, staring at Byakuya.
"Little Byakuya…It seems you've grown up. Are you still as slow as you always were?"
Byakuya materialized right behind the man, who seemed startled. Byakuya's blade Senbonzakura was already drawn at pointed at the man's back.
"'Slow' enough to kill you, Kaworu."
Tōshirō Hitsugaya stood over the resting Momo Hinamori and felt a terrible sense of dread and responsibility.
The responsibility had been much as an inheritor of the style of the Dragon Hyōrinmaru, to be one of the Three Dragons was a enormous and powerful responsibility. It was said that the only other wielder of such zanpakutō was Yamamoto-Genryūsai and his Ryūjin Jakka. This was odd, as there were supposed to be three of these Dragons but Mayuri's records had said that the other wielder was dead and lost to the records.
For one of the Three Dragons to be defeated was a terrible shame, regardless of the circumstances or his age.
Regardless, the boost in responsibility and power that he had undertaken in being the youngest Captain of the Gotei 13…perhaps it had been too much for him?
He thought that he operated at his best in a sphere of logic, detachment, order, and civility; he thought that he handled his responsibility as Captain to his best capability.
After all, 10th Division depended on him.
But hadn't Momo depended on him as well? And what of Seireitei depending on him as the only Captain to have encountered Aizen's plans before any other.
He had failed both aspects miserably. Momo was left scarred. It wouldn't have been as bad if the scars were only skin deep, but no…they lay deep and painful in her psyche, he knew that.
Perhaps the whispers of his youth, of his arrogance, perhaps they were true.
She had never thought them valid, however, and as he glanced down at her delicate sleeping face he could still hear her voice.
A young crafty boy with a rather snide voice and brilliant white hair sat beside a young girl in a pink kimono, the both of them slurping up noodles as dawn approaches.
The young girl glanced at the boy, sighing as she noticed his eyes boring intently into the noodles he was devouring. Yet to her they also seemed to dwell on something else.
Something distant.
"You dream of being one of those Shinigami…don't you?"
"Heh, why, do YOU want to become one?"
"Oh shush Shiro-chan…you know why I ask…I see your eyes when they enter the city…so full of...they're so serious…it's not like you."
"Hah, maybe…maybe…but what do you care?"
"I…I've decided I want to become one too…"
"You? Bed-wetter Momo?"
"Oh don't be a dolt, Shiro…I'm not a little baby anymore and neither are you…"
He hummed lowly in response, returning to his noodles though the girl seemed to still be dwelling on the matter. She continued speaking, much to the boy's curt surprise.
"But…Shiro-chan…promise me…if we do make it into the Shinigami…we have to promise to protect each other…it's dangerous you know…"
The young boy only grunted, slurping up a bundle of noodles, with one hanging out of the corner of his mouth as he lazily responded in an almost patronizing tone.
"I knew it; you're scared as a baby!"
She frowned, but he only smiled broadly, slapping her on the back.
"Don't worry, Momo…You worry too much! We'll be fine, especially with me around!"
Hitsugaya's face was encumbered with terrible emotion when slight footsteps behind him interrupted his trance, and he was glad his back was to the door so that no one could see his face.
Rangiku peeked into the room, whispering respectfully.
"Captain? The Captain's Meeting will be beginning soon…don't you think it's better that you-"
"Yes, I know, thank you Lieutenant Matsumoto."
Hitsugaya gave a short sigh, but this sigh was kept inside. He could not allow himself to be seen in an uncollected state. After all, no matter how young some thought him, no matter how arrogant, no matter the mistakes he had made…
No matter…he had the present and future to think of, the past would just weigh him down.
After all, there were many who depended on him, and he would never let them down again, not as long as he drew breathe and Hyōrinmaru lay at his hip.
He nodded to Rangiku, who seemed mentally occupied and uncharacteristically nervous. She had her own problems after all…Gin…she had been drinking heavily as of late, and though he didn't show it overtly, he worried for her.
His face was collected now, responsible, and firm. As a Captain should be.
"Yes, let us go, Lieutenant."
"Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding."
Weren't you the one who said that, Aizen? I will prove you incorrect with my own hand. Momo was no doll to toss aside.
Hueco Mundo
Las Noches
Aizen sat silently on his white throne, overlooking the large chambers he was in. Presently Kaname Tōsen had entered, bowing to him and then staring at him silently. If he were staring, being blind and all.
"You may speak, Kaname. What is on your mind?"
"Nothing too pressing, Aizen-sama, I simply wonder if it was wise to send that reckless fool of a man to capture the Kuchiki girl. He may be a Shinigami, but I hardly understand what you see in him or how he dares speak to you so brashly. He may have defeated Grimmjow, but that is hardly anything worth-"
"Silence Kaname, I will reply. There are some in the world who are worthy of my interest, and that is a great honor, if you can frame that next to my eventual fate as lord of all. That Shinigami interests me greatly…He was my mentor in that cursed city, you know…so long ago."
Aizen paused.
"He seems to have gotten far stronger, if such a thing is possible for that wretched old man's son, but he is still nothing compared to Kyōka Suigetsu. While he never glimpsed my initial release, he is still nothing but a pawn…As for his worthiness…I would say I felt my blood boil and skin crawl seeing him even now. He was known as 'Okami', once, long ago. What a swift slayer of enemies he was! Pity he is so lowly compared to me now."
Kaname nodded slowly, trying to reply.
"I see…so they interest you? If you think he can bring back this Kuchiki, then you must be correct."
"There are others who may interest me, Kaname…those outsiders were far more intriguing than the entirety of the Gotei 13. That brash young man…the young female with the perplexing powers…the Quincy…and that other one…Oh, they may be significantly worthy of our interest in the near future."
Tōsen nodded.
"I see now, Aizen-sama."
"Indeed you do. You are dismissed, Kaname."
Tokyo, Japan
Karakura Town, Urahara Shop
"You're mad, do you know that, to stand up to the rest of the Gotei 13?! I may be you friend, but this is madness…You'll die! What of your fath-"
"Speak not of him, Kisuke…or you will make me your enemy as well."
Urahara stiffened, gripping the pipe that was lazily in his lip, his eyes wide as if he had had a sudden seizure. He could even feel Benihime trembling inside his sword cane. She felt it too…Where was Yoruichi Shihouin? Still in Soul Society, probably.
But to one of the so-called Three Prodigies, the spiritual presence was unmistakable.
That…spiritual presence…faint…but…
"Urahara? Is there something wrong?"
Ururu had spoken, breaking him out of his concentration, but he only gave her his lazy smile.
"No, nothing at all, little Ururu…"
It matters but little that I barely escaped Seireitei…it matters but little that I am exiled from Soul Society…if what I suspect is correct, then I have to warn them all, especially Ichigo Kurosaki…knowing him…
He suddenly rose, startling Ururu, and made his way down the main hall of his store, shouting briefly.
"Tessai…prepare for dangai…we move tonight..."
"Sir?"
Knowing him…knowing him…but can even Yoruichi compose herself in front of the love she betrayed before he slices her in two? What terrible folly. The three dragons are all intact… Hyōrinmaru, Inazuma, Ryūjin Jakka…
Urahara turned away, ignoring Tessai's curious glances, whispering fiercely to himself.
"What do you seek from returning from the grave you should have stayed inside for eternity, Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai?"
Hope ya'll enjoyed that chapter…stick with me, keep reading and reviewing and I hope I give you a good Bleach fanfic. Maybe if this one goes well I'll do some more later, when it's done. Though I have many chapters planned for this fic, so that's way down the line.
Anyway, see you next chapter.