Don't own Bleach. Boo.
Thanks for taking time to review guys. When I first started this, I expected things to be a bit more adventurey than this…oh well, hope to keep your interest in the future despite it! And yes, I understand that things concerning the noble families could be a bit wonky. Oppsie poopsie. I'm a dork and try to do research before I set what I write down in stone, but I can only find so much. Eventually I have to wing it.
I'm behind on the weekly-ness of my updates because of a road trip. How distressing (to me…not necessarily you).
Also, 'these are thoughts' "This is speaking" and duh, this is normal narration. Late, but I'm throwing it out there.
"Love And…"
CH 3: Love and War: Hitsugaya admits the truth, the appearance of rivals, and the first fight
Hitsugaya sighed. All of the captains and vice-captains (minus the 13th division who were speaking privately with the head-captain and Byakuya who was sulking in a corner) were all buzzing with gossip outside the meeting room. What an explosive turn of events! He knew Rukia's brother was very adamant about keeping the girl out of harm's way, but this was ludicrous! 'I suppose things like arranged marriages are still possible for the noble families, but I never figured a brother like Byakuya would be willing to give her away like that…' he thought.
The soul reaping prodigy smiled. 'But damn did she work her way out it. She's too good for just some random spoiled rich kid!'
"Why so smiley, Captain?" Matsumoto chirped. "Is it because you plan on fighting little Rukia for marriage?"
"Gah!" Hitsugaya's face turned bright crimson. "W-what are you on about, Matsumoto?!?"
His vice-captain shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about…" she threw her captain a sly look. "I know you two are getting pretty friendly with each other. And how can you resist, since she's such a cutie!"
"You're crazy, Matsumoto! We're 'getting pretty friendly' because that's just it! We're friends!"
"Aww, me thinks the captain doth protest too much…"
Toushiro Hitsugaya was a young man of many interests…but that certainly didn't include one Rukia Kuchiki…maybe. 'Okay,' he thought. 'So what if I am interested? That doesn't mean we should rush into this marriage thing so soon!' Hitsugaya frowned at the teasing Matsumoto. 'Besides, you need Byakuya's approval for the match to count and he's probably only looking to give that to nobles…'
"Hmm?" Renji Abarai, vice-captain of the 6th division and one of Rukia's best friends, overheard their little conversation. "I didn't know you and Rukia were friends." He barked out a laugh and clapped his white-haired superior on the back. "No wonder the weather's all better! Rukia has a habit of getting inside your head like that." He received a small growl and stepped back, muttering an apology.
"Hey, Renji, you're pretty close to Rukia," Matsumoto said, "don't you think my captain would be a good match for her?" The strawberry blonde giggled.
Renji laughed along with her. "I don't know…we'd be giving Rukia control over the seasons if we let him have her."
"But unlike other guys, Rukia wouldn't have any problems making out with him since they're both so short!"
The two vice-captains continued to chuckle at their jokes until Hitsugaya finally snapped at them. "I don't recall it being okay for my inferior officers to make such jokes about my temper and height."
That certainly shut them up.
Hitsugaya crossed his arms and muttered, "Besides, my temper is not that bad and I am not that short.
The entire group—who had been listening in on the conversation because, let's face it, since when did anyone ever describe Hitsugaya as "smiley"—burst out laughing.
"What?" the young man turned to face their spectators. He suddenly felt the weight of something very much like a chin rest on his shoulder along with the heat of a body.
"They do have a point you know," said a very familiar voice very close to his ear.
The boy turned his head only to blush even brighter than before. The girl of the hour was there, perching her pretty little head on his (now) very tense shoulder, her nose barely brushing up against his. Hitsugaya quickly jumped away.
"K-Kuchiki!" he stuttered.
Rukia grinned. "Your temper does tend to suck a little."
"And you have to admit, Toushiro, you still haven't had that growth spurt you've been waiting for." Ukitake chortled.
"Why am I being ganged up on?" complained the poor boy.
"Oh, Mister Grouchy-face, you're just too fun to tease!" Rukia laughed.
"I thought you weren't gonna call me that!"
"And I thought you wanted to be less formal!" Rukia mocked. "Besides, we never had any sort of arrangement that said I couldn't call you 'Mister Grouchy-face!'"
Ukitake looked from his new vice-captain to his favorite fellow captain. 'I wonder if little Toushiro would make Rukia quit her job if they got married?' he mused. "Now now you two! No more time to tease him, Rukia! Everyone, it's time to start the meeting again!"
They all entered the meeting room to see Ichigo, Urahara and the rest of their living world allies there with the head-captain and the 1st squad vice-captain.
Everyone was surprised, yet a certain noble was thrown into a world of worry—again. Byakuya had completely forgotten about Ichigo. What if he had feelings for his sister? The two were particularly close… Ichigo would certainly have no problem beating her at her little game and then what would he do? He would have to give his sister away to that insolent human!
'Calm yourself, Byakuya,' he thought to himself, 'he might not feel that way towards Rukia, and she once said she never felt anything more than friendship towards him. If the time comes, just deny him permission to fight the match.' Byakuya allowed himself the slightest of smirks. 'Yes, I still have control over this.'
If only, the noble knew of the much shorter problem he had to worry about…
--------------as I write this, my sister sits on her bed going "Wee! Wee! WEE WEE!" for no apparent reason at all. Somebody help!---------------
"So, long story short, the force we used to finally kill Aizen was strong enough to inadvertently expel the hougyoku from his body, shatter it, and send the pieces off into different places." Urahara summed up for the room.
"Kiyone, Sentaro and I had run into a hollow out in the human world that had used a piece of the hougyoku to become a full blown arrancar," added in Rukia. "So clearly, these pieces are still giant sources of power, and that their locations must not be confined to Hueco Mundo where Aizen was killed. There could be pieces in the living world and in Soul Society as well."
"So all three of you defeated that arrancar yourselves?" asked the head-captain.
Kiyone and Sentaro scrambled to answer before Rukia could. "Nope!" they said in unison.
"Goat-face here—"
"Silly old Kiyone—"
"Could both of you just carry on with the report normally?" Yamamoto drawled.
The two third seats froze. "Sir!" the two saluted, backs straight.
"Rukia was able to sense the hollow before us, and despite her warnings and help, we became incapacitated!" Kiyone said. "Thus, she had to fight the hollow turned arrancar by herself!" The quarrelsome pair gazed at their now blushing comrade with pride.
"Our new vice-captain here used her bankai to defeat the enemy in a matter of seconds!" Sentaro bragged. "At least that's what everyone else said happened. We were passed out so we couldn't watch the transformation or the battle clearly."
Many an eyebrow was raised.
"Is this true?" Hitsugaya asked, his voice slightly hopeful. He unconsciously held his breath.
"Yes it is, my little captain friend!" Urahara answered. "And what a bankai it is! Quite fitting for such a beautiful zanpakuto and wielder! Ouch!" The shady salesman rubbed his shin. "Rukia!" he whined. "It was a compliment!"
Hitsugaya exhaled. 'That means I won't have to worry as much whenever there's an engagement match…' He thought, glancing over at Ichigo and Renji. 'Or not…' Hitsugaya knew Rukia was close with both men—just how close had yet to be determined. His eyes wandered the room and landed on Byakuya, who now only looked slightly distressed. 'But Byakuya probably doesn't want to give either of them the cha—no! What am I thinking! Why am I this concerned? Can I be that attached to the girl after only a few months?!?' He stole a glace at Rukia.
'Who am I kidding?' Hitsugaya shook his head. 'Maybe I should have a chat with Byakuya after all…'
"—guya...Captain Hitsuguya!" boomed Yamamoto. "It is quite unlike you to be so inattentive during a meeting!"
The young captain blushed as he heard scattered giggling through out the room. Matsumoto lightly elbowed him and whispered "I saw you looking at Rukia! Captain has a cruu-ush!"
"I'm sorry, sir!" he bowed, ignoring his vice-captains ribbing.
"As I was trying to tell you, Toushiro," the head captain sighed, "I'd rather not underestimate the effects of these hougyoku pieces and needlessly lose the lives of soul reapers unable to handle the monsters they create. You are to lead a special team that will investigate any and all reports about abnormally strong hollows and the like in order to collect the pieces of the hougyoku for proper destruction. You may choose whoever you see fit to join—and should your work take you to the living world you will have the assistance of our living world allies here today. However, your only condition is that Rukia Kuchiki must be on this team."
"Kuchiki?" he questioned.
The head captain shook his head. "If you had been listening earlier, you would have heard Kisuke's explanation that since the hougyoku had been resting inside Rukia for so long, she has the best chance of sensing whether or not the hollow or arrancar you face is affected by a piece of it. Until he or the 12th division develop any sort of device to find these pieces you'll have to rely on her and reports from other soul reapers to find them." The old man turned towards Byakuya, who was poised to protest.
"And no, Byakuya, this is important and we need Rukia on this assignment. I'm sure there will be intervals where you can get her to fight someone in hopes of making her marry and quit, but for now let the matter rest. Besides," the old man's eyes twinkled, "Her powers would compliment Toushiro's very well since they share the same element."
"Now, if there are no more matters to attend to…" Yamamoto looked around the room. "…then meeting adjourned!"
Hitsugaya looked over at Rukia, who noticed and waved.
"I bet we're gonna get along great!" Rukia predicted. "Just like the head-captain said!"
Hitsugaya smirked and ruffled her hair. "Just don't let your wacky noble-marriage-fighting stuff get in the way ok?"
Rukia swatted his hand away. "Psh! No way!" She tried to fix the hair her friend messed up. She pointed a thumb towards herself and beamed. "This reaper isn't quitting until she's good and ready to! I'd rather go on search and destroy missions with you than hang out with stuffy rich guys any day!"
Hitsugaya left the meeting lighter than air.
----------------one reviewer said these dividers gave thing some personality. I wonder what kind of personality it has? Perhaps it likes walks on the beach? Maybe it prefers blondes over brunettes. Wish there was some way we could ask.----------------
Daisuke Tokugawa walked about with an air of importance about him. He was after all, next in line to lead one of Soul Society's most brilliant—nay, the most brilliant—noble families. He was tall, good looking with dark hair and a boyish face, rich, and popular with the ladies. Sure it didn't matter that he wasn't ranked among the other soul reapers of squad 10, but who needed that when you lived the good life? Besides, he was powerful enough with out talking to that fudy-dudy captain of his about promoting him. Who needed to work more as a ranked officer when you were rich and attractive?
'Ladies, ladies ladies!' Daisuke thought as he strutted down the street towards the 13th division.
And now as if his life couldn't get any better, Yukina Kuchiki, the pretty (but not as pretty as him) younger sister of Byakuya Kuchiki, had the good fortune of getting betrothed to super awesome him! Well, kind of betrothed. The silly girl apparently insisted that he fight a sparring match with her to determine his worthiness. Come on though! Daisuke was confident he could wipe the floor with his future wife in a second—and he could do it with out damaging her pretty little face (cause let's face it, who wants to marry someone ugly?).
'Well, I suppose it would be a tragedy that I'll have to be tied down…' the young narcissist contemplated. '…but she is supposed to be quite lovely…' He turned and waved to a group of giggling girls who were ogling him. '…ladies, ladies, ladies. I guess maybe I could just play around. I'm sure my lovely new wife will be so in love with me that she won't care what I do as long as we're married.'
Yes, Rukia Kuchiki had quite the surprise in store for her that day
----------------------Daisuke Tokugawa in my head was intended to be quite the evil player asshole (not to mention vengefulhint at future events!)…but now I'm afraid he's turned into Mung Dahl from Chowder—which I also don't own….ladies, ladies, ladies!------------------------------
The next day, word spread that the first suitor to fight Rukia was from the Tokugawa clan and that the match was that afternoon.
"Ahh!" Rukia yelled in frustration.
"Geez, your brother doesn't waste any time, does he?" Ichigo said. He, Chad, Orihime, and Ishida were spending spring break in Soul Society. They had been updated on all that transpired before they arrived to the meeting with Urahara and were currently hanging out with Rukia and Renji at the 13th division training grounds waiting for the first match to start.
"It's just like that episode of Fairytale Galaxy!" Orihime said. "Where the princess has to wait for the prince and then they get into this huge battle with a space dragon but the prince is a terrible fighter who tried using the princess as a human shield, and-and, then this dolphin comes along…" the imaginative girl prattled on.
"Right…so," Renji started, "do you know who this guy is?"
"Bah!" Rukia yelled again. "Psh!" She crossed her arms and started pacing.
"Daisuke Tokugawa." A female voice answered from behind the group.
Everyone turned to see Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, along with Ikkaku and Yumichika from the 11th division.
"Hey, you guys!" Ichigo greeted. "You know the guy who's gonna try to marry Rukia?"
"Yes," Hitsugaya answered. "He's from our squad and is nothing but an overindulged selfish bum."
"But he's quite popular with the ladies!" Matsumoto added.
"Well, not with this one!" Rukia declared.
"Speaking proper words now, are we?" Renji dead-panned. He barely dodged a kick to the shin.
"Shut up, Renji" Rukia barked. "He's an insipid megalomaniac!" She paced some more.
"What's a matter?" Ikkaku asked. "You can't actually be worried about fighting this punk? Hitsugaya ("Captain Hitsugaya!" the white-haired teen cried) and Matsumoto here say he's not even a seated officer."
"Of course I'm not worried about that twit! I was at the academy with him and all he did was goof around! It was a wonder he even became a soul reaper at all!" Rukia continued to pace and rant. "What's really got me riled is that my brother, who always claims to have my best interest at heart, would pick such a lousy jerk to try and pair me off with! Agh!" She threw her arms in the air. "I know I don't want to get married and quit my job, but this is just insulting!"
Rukia was breathing hard now, and everyone (besides the day-dreaming Orihime) subtly backed away. "And you know what else? When we were all in the academy and before I was adopted by the Kuchiki's, he would make fun of me and Renji and anyone else from the Rukon Districts!"
"He used to do that?" Renji queried. "I don't remem—"
"Of course you don't! You were off with your other friends when he'd do it, but he did!" Rukia snapped back. "He used to make fun of others because he thought he was so god damn special. He'd even get the other students in on it too!" Rukia rubbed both her hands together. "But I showed them! Those little brats had not thing to laugh about anymore when I got through with them! But now, he doesn't even remember that I was that same kid he used to make fun of for being poor…guess I'll have to teach him another lesson!"
There was an awkward pause.
"No, Rukia! Don't eat the pickled-tart! It's soaked in formaldehyde and you'll die!" Orihime wailed.
Rukia sighed. "Sometimes I really wonder if my brother thinks about exactly what he's doing when it comes to my life…"
"Of course I do."
Everyone jumped at the sound of Byakuya's voice.
'Why does he always sneak up at the wrong time?' Rukia mentally whined.
Her elder brother had shown up with Captain Ukitake and her third seat buddies. 'He probably couldn't find a way to ditch them.'
"Rukia!" Ukitake exclaimed pulling the girl into a huge hug. "We'll all be rooting for you! No offense, Byakuya!" he sheepishly added in.
The stoic noble merely stared off to the other side of the training grounds, making neither sound nor movement. More and more people were coming in to get good spots to see the fight: of course, almost all of the 13th division was there to support their vice-captain (the news of Rukia's promotion was very well-received despite her previous unseated status), and many reapers—even other captains and vice-captains—from the other divisions had come along as well, curious to see how well Rukia's little scheme would go.
"Vice-captain Kuchiki," 2nd division Captain Soifon greeted unexpectedly. "Good luck out there."
Rukia stuttered out a thank you.
The rather intimidating woman nodded. "We must all band together to defeat the patriarchy that oppresses us women. Your clan's rules on marriage and duty are absurdly out-dated."
"That was weird." Hitsugaya commented as the group watched Soifon wander off to some unoccupied spot.
"Figures she'd be a feminazi," Ichigo chuckled.
"She is right though," Rukia said. "Intense, but right." The short girl turned to Ichigo. "What's a feminatty?"
Before Ichigo could answer there was loud cheering coming from a large group of girls.
"Looks like Tokugawa's here," Hitsugaya sneered. Normally, the young captain was more loyal and respectful of the soul reapers he led, but normally, they weren't womanizing, lazy, spoiled, and trying to steal his girl. 'God I have it bad.' He thought. 'My girl…' he looked over at the glaring Rukia. 'I probably shouldn't let her find out about that.'
Rukia growled out some very unlady-like words before Daisuke stopped in front of her brother and bowed lavishly.
"Captain Kuchiki, good afternoon." Daisuke turned to Rukia and winked. "You too, Yukina."
Rukia looked at her brother. He had unfrozen himself and attempted to surreptitiously glance at her. She could read the expression in Byakuya's eyes: I am so sorry. You're right, I had no idea what I was thinking. I thought he was better than this.
'At least he seems to acknowledge he's picked out a total ass.' Rukia scowled.
"Well, Daisuke, seeing as I can't really revoke my approval of your match," Byakuya began, "we'll just have to see how you fair against my sister."
It is a common legend in Soul Society that when Byakuya Kuchiki performs any obvious act of affection out of his own volition, ten families of departed souls in the Rukon Districts will be reunited (even the reunion of one family is practically impossible). That being said, Byakuya placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, lovingly smirked, and whispered "I was wrong to choose him. Kick his ass, little sister."
Rukia's eyes widened along with everyone else's. 'Some orphans probably found their lost parents…' was the one thought crossing their minds.
"Any ways," Rukia said, turning away from her brother. "Since you have procured my brother's approval, there are only two rules you must abide by."
"Sure thing, sweets," Daisuke cooed while checking out Orihime. The poor girl, who was almost incapable of glaring, left the job of looking pissed and intimidating to her companions as she shyly hid behind Ichigo and Chad.
"Rule one: You have exactly ten minutes to defeat me. When I defeat you (Daisuke snorted, Hitsugaya growled) or, if by some miracle you are still standing along with me, you will NOT be given my hand in marriage." Rukia snapped her fingers to get the distracted noble to look her in the face. "I repeat, YOU WILL NOT BE MARRYING ME. EVER. Is that understood?"
"Yes, my dear princess."
"Rule two: in the highly unlikely event of my loss, should there be evidence of cheating to defeat me, you will be disqualified and I shall remove your head."
"Rukia!" Byakuya scolded.
"Fine, just an arm."
"Rukia…"
"A finger then."
Rukia smirked. 'I'm going to enjoy this. Too bad it's gonna be over so quickly.' She thought as she and Daisuke walked to the center of the field.
"I'll be timing the fight!" Ukitake called. "Ready?"
The two fighters—or rather one fighter and one...guy—drew their swords.
"Fight!"
End CH 3:Love and War
Oh the silliness. Excuse any typos and grammar errors and such. I do what I can. Also, I figured Rukia's violence and slight craziness justified the chapter title.