Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or anything associated with it. Title of owner goes to 久保 帯人. :3 Nor do I own anything related to the Hana Yori Dango drama or manga.

AN: Hey all! Things have gotten really busy for me as of late since school has started up so that is why I've been taking so long to update. Sorry 'bout that. *grins sheepishly* Err, I can't get over Bleach chapter 423 where our little lovebirds say farewell. Ah! It tore at my heartstrings but I know for sure that Rukia WILL be back! Then those two have some making out err, I mean talking to do!

Of course a few words to some of my reviewers:

Shizuku700: Thank you for review first off! About the pairing thing, many have already asked about pairing Toshirou with someone and I honestly have no idea right now how it would come about. But for sure you will see more RenTat!

XxKasumiAmuxX: *catches flowers* LOL, again you made me laugh! Also please don't go into cardiac arrest because that means I lose one of my dear readers! Thanks for reviewing again! :D

SilverStella: Heh, don't we all want to torture Ichigo at some point? ;)

Kuchiki Yazumi 09: Hey thanks! A season 2 will most likely be in the works after this fic ends! And I agree that the proposal scene would be awkward if it were to play out like it did in HYD so I will definitely change some things around!

Thanks to my other reviewers GunBladez19, CloudRed1988, H-bomber, CaptureGod-Otamegane, and readers! Enjoy!

Oh and some phrases to know in *gasp* Korean! (sorry, my Korean may be off, haha! I only took a year of it and that was about two years ago so it's a little rusty!)

-Korean phrases: "Chal mokkaesumnida. Soondupunun mashisoyoh." ('itadakimasu' equivalent and 'the tofu soup is delicious')

Japanese phrases should have been mentioned in previous chapters but if you don't know, go ahead and ask me! :)

Chapter 25

Week one of Ichigo's intensive T.o.J training proved to be difficult indeed. Much to Ichigo's dismay time went by too quickly to fully absorb each and every ounce of information thrown his way. He was doing his best and he hoped that would be enough. On top of that, he had his school responsibilities with assignments and piles of homework to finish. Seeing him so busy, Rukia offered to speak with his teachers to extend his school assignment deadlines.

"You… you can do that?" Ichigo said disbelievingly during their now usual nightly telephone conversations after he had arrived home after training at her mansion.

Rukia scoffed at his question. "Of course I can. They'd be fools to say 'no' to me. My last name is Kuchiki." She haughtily reminded him.

"No, no, I can't let you do that." The thought was tempting to Ichigo, but he'd never hear the end of it for taking the easy way out. It would make him seem worse then those privileged brats that attended the school. "That's sweet of you, but it's okay."

He froze right after, realizing what he just said to her. Judging by the prolonged silence on Rukia's end of the line (which rarely happened), she was just as surprised by his comment as he was. It wasn't that he didn't mean what he said because he truly found it kind of her to offer such a proposition. It was just that it was the first time he'd ever said anything remotely... affectionate like that to her.

All awkwardness dissolved when Rukia chuckled and answered him. "Bakamono." Her tone less annoyed and more teasing.

A smile crept up to Ichigo's mouth at her response. It was typical but at the same time comforting and he wouldn't have it any other way.

After they bid their goodbyes on the phone, as usual Ichigo would notice the faint snickering outside his door. He would swing his door open only to have Isshin fall over the doorway into his room, eyes filled with bliss. And as usual Ichigo would push his father out while reminding him to stop his spying, his father's only reply being that he already had plans of a wedding in the works.

Ichigo huffed a sigh. Isshin would never change.

Saturday came around that week and Ichigo had already gone through training sessions consisting mostly of academic and art skills. Thanks to Rukia and yes, Renji, his calligraphy was gradually getting better. With Kaien's help, Ichigo was able to retain information about the world's current events mostly thanks to reading around five different newspapers each day.

His hold on learning different languages was a different story though. Toshirou and Orihime both helped him brush up his English skills as well as learn surprisingly, the Korean language. Kaien had gotten some inside information and supposedly Korean was a likely category in the language division of the contest. The grammar wasn't so difficult to learn according to Ichigo, considering it was similar to Japanese grammar. The pronunciation was what really got him.

"What do you say before you eat a meal in Korean? It's the equivalent of 'itadakimasu' in Japanese." Toshirou questioned him as he held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other poised and ready to write down Ichigo's progress.

"Um..." Ichigo scrunched up his face in thought. "Jaru... umm"

"Seriously?" Toshirou stopped him and looked at him with disbelief, Ichigo's answer obviously not even close to correct one.

"Chal mokkaesumnida." Rukia answered for him without hesitation. "Soondupunun mashisoyoh." She said this quite flawlessly.

"What does the last part mean?" Ichigo questioned, once again utterly amazed at her ability to surprise him with such skills.

"She said 'this tofu soup is delicious'." Orihime answered and happily handed Rukia another gold star sticker, something she felt necessary to reward a good job with thus also something Rukia had a lot of.

Toshirou's cold blue eyes glared at them both for their childish antics before tapping on the chalkboard next to him. He heaved a sigh of annoyance. "Okay, let's go over this lesson again for the fourth time."

By the end of the week, Ichigo took a moment to recall every new thing he had learned and realized that some things didn't make much sense to know for a contest. Why would he need to know how to cut a branch off of a little tree properly? Why did he need to learn to play a song on the piano when he never touched a piano in his life?

When Ichigo had asked Kaien these questions, Kaien had assured him that these things would benefit him in the end.

"You are at a slight disadvantage since you've never done these things in your life. Unfortunately your competition is other high school students who all come from wealthy families and have done these typical types of activities at some point in their life. But if you continue working as hard as you're doing now, you'll be up to par with them by the time this is done." Kaien gave him a reassuring pat on the back. "So don't screw up now, kid."

Ichigo nodded although still rather nonplussed when training for certain things.

Byakuya would have laughed considerably loud if he wasn't so immune to losing his stoic demeanor. News of Ichigo entering the Teen of Japan contest spread like wildfire that Byakuya was informed of it before the end of the week. "Kurosaki entering T.o.J. What a waste of his time." He looked over to his assistant. "Nanao, everything has already been set in motion, I assume."

"Hai, Kuchiki-shachou…" Nanao hesitated in speech. "Are you sure…"

"You dare question my authority?" Byakuya coldly interrupted, gray eyes ablaze. "I cannot be too careful anymore. I haven't done enough to prevent this as it as."

Nanao's back stiffened. "H-hai. Understood." She bowed and began to make her way out of his office. But before she could get out, she was stopped suddenly in her tracks when the door opened before her and a small dark-haired boy stood in the doorway.

"Ano, shitsurei shimasu." He bowed nervously, strands of hair covering his face.

"Hanatarou?" Thoroughly confused at his entrance unannounced, Nanao stood in her spot, eyes following Hanatarou as made his way into the office.

"What do you want?" Byakuya questioned instantly, aware of Hanatarou's presence despite his focus on his work in front of him.

"I-I um, I have decided to e-enter T.o.J. too." Hanatarou answered, trying to sound resolute but finding it very hard to control his voice from shaking. "I'm going to make sure Kurosaki Ichigo will not win the contest no matter what."

Byakuya gave a low chuckle under his breath. "That's impossible since you'll never win." He looked up from his work, giving a slight nod of finality. "You've done what you've can for me but it ends here."

"B-but w-wait!" Hantarou clasped his hands together, begging Byakuya to listen. "I swear I'll win and this time I definitely will get Kurosaki away from Rukia! P-please hear me out, Onii-san!"

"Onii-san?" Byakuya repeated with disgust. "You have no right to think of me as your older brother. Nanao, take him to security to escort him off the premises." He spat out and went back to his work.

After Nanao led a sullen Hanatarou out the door, Byakuya paused for a moment in thought as another plan came forth in his mind. Hanatarou entering T.o.J triggered an idea in his head, one that would surely make his sister regret disobeying his orders. Leaving his work for a moment, he pushed the button on his desk intercom to contact his secretary.

"Hai, Kuchiki-shachou?" His secretary readily said on the other line.

"Look through my contact records and call the Kano family." Byakuya requested. "Tell them I would like to have a meeting with their son as soon as possible."

Kaien's earlier words of encouragement (if you could call it that) weren't having much of an effect on Ichigo. After completing only a quarter of a pile of school assignments and even less reading required for T.o.J that Saturday night, Ichigo fell back onto his bed feeling utterly tired and in no mood to finish the rest of his homework.

As if the stress was never ending, Ichigo received a phone call from Tatsuki just as he was about to close his eyes for a nap. "What's up?" He asked over the phone.

"Ichigo, you need to go to Urahara's shop." She told him urgently. "My friend just called me saying something's wrong but my parents won't let me out at this time of the night to check on the shop."

Ichigo quickly stood up from his bed. "Is it robbers?" He asked worriedly, ready to call the police.

"Probably not. My friend said Urahara-san was outside yelling at a bunch of what looked like repo men. I'm really concerned, Ichigo." Tatsuki said.

"So am I. I'll go down there now and check it out." Ichigo decided and bid goodbye to his friend. He swiftly put on a black hoodie over his t-shirt and gray sweatpants and made his way out of the apartment towards Urahara's shop.

Just as Tatsuki had informed him, there definitely was trouble amiss when Ichigo came in viewing distance of the shop. He stood rooted to his spot at a far distance, feeling apprehensive at the scene before him. Urahara was frantically running around, questioning every single person who took something out of his store.

"I don't understand this! Why are doing this to my shop?" Ichigo had never seen Urahara so frustrated. Urahara tried to snatch a box away from one of the repo men but was instantly shown an official document regarding the repossession of his store inventory.

Urahara's eyes widened with shock after he read the document and solemnly sat down on the curb, a blank look upon his face as the repo men went in and out of his shop.

Ichigo didn't need to see the document himself to know exactly who set this up. This insight hit him like a slap in the face and he quickly ran back home, hoping to dear kami that what he was thinking hadn't come true.

His hopes faltered when he spotted a crowd of people already formed outside of his apartment building. He stood in back of them, looking over their heads and saw a white truck parked outside with more repo men moving furniture and appliances that were all to familiar to Ichigo. They belonged to his family.

He heard his father arguing with someone from the window in his apartment above.

"I don't understand. I had extension on the deadline this month."

"The extension has been revoked."

"You've got to be kidding me! How the hell could this have happened?"

"It's because you've been involved with them." The other man revealed without a lick of hesitation.

There was silence on Isshin's part, as if he were racking his brain for what 'them' meant until it finally sunk in. His tone of voice changed to desperation. "Please, I'm begging you. Think of my children. I don't care about myself, but my son and my daughters…"

Ichigo turned away and walked out of earshot of the window, not able to bear hearing his father beg and plead like that. He felt the weight in his chest get heavier, realizing that all these problems came about because of him. It was his fault.

Who was he to think that he could threaten a man like Byakuya and get away unscathed? He was practically a child playing a game only understood by adults. And sadly not only he was affected by the game but his family and friends were too.

Urahara was losing his shop, which ultimately meant no more work for Tatsuki and Chad. His father was already having a hard time finding work and now with his family's possessions taken away, what would they have to hold onto now? It pained Ichigo the most thinking about his sisters, what was taken away from them and what they could have had if he hadn't been involved in this mess.

Was entering the T.o.J contest really the only way out, the only way for normalcy in his life to be restored? For all he knew, he probably had a one in a million chance of winning it. And at the rate of how tired he was feeling everyday, would he be able to sustain his training for another week? School was always his top priority but now he felt it necessary to place T.o.J alongside school at the top of the list.

He really wanted to win this, not for himself, but for his family, his friends, and Rukia. But he had never thought about what would come about if he were to lose. For some reason something in the back of his mind told him he would be worse off.

Ichigo contemplated about this the whole way as he took the train to the other side of town and walked toward the Kuchiki mansion, informing Rukia through text that he was going to be there. Rukia was lounging on a couch in her room while reading a book, when Ichigo entered through the door. She looked up from the text and noticed his dismal expression, misinterpreting it as laziness instead.

"What's the matter? Did you come here to tell me you don't want to go through tomorrow's training or something?" She teasingly questioned, putting her book down on the table. "What an idiot, thinking that way."

Although Ichigo understood her words to be mere playful banter, he couldn't help but gaze down at the carpet solemnly in response when he felt there was some truth to it. His mouth became dry as if the words he was about to say were trying to keep themselves from being voiced.

"I guess…" He gulped. "I'm quitting." He kept it short, to the point.

The smirk disappeared from Rukia's face at his response. "What?"

"My enemy is far too powerful for the likes of me." Ichigo let out a bitter laugh and took a few steps forward before stopping at the foot of the couch. "I guess there had to be some time where I would have to raise a white flag and surrender. Because of what I've done, Rukia," He looked toward her, amber eyes showing regret, "everyone I know is affected by my mistakes... I really picked the wrong person to go against... And that's why I'm quitting."

He tore his gaze away from her, not able to look at Rukia's eyes for the guilt welling up within him would increase tenfold. "Please tell Kaien-san and everyone else that I apologize and thank them for all they've done to help." He turned around toward the door, intending to leave without another word.

"You've lost all your guts, haven't you?" Rukia blurted out loud, causing Ichigo to stop in his tracks. She crossed her arms over her chest and stood up from the couch, walking toward him although his back was still facing her.

"Raising your white flag because it's affecting other people, so what?" Rukia challenged, sounding offended at the prospect. "It's absolutely pathetic. Have you reached your limit now that you're acting like a loser?"

Her words hit him hard. "How could you possibly know anything about that?" He asked bitterly through clenched teeth, now finding it difficult to walk away without a final say.

Rukia raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Ichigo swiftly turned to face her, something bordering along the lines of anger shone in his amber irises. "What do I mean?" He repeated with annoyance. "You've been filthy rich your whole life living in splendor, never having to lift a finger to get what you want! How could you possibly understand? You have no idea what it's like to suffer so how could you understand anything I've been through?"

Rukia was in no way distressed or angered by his yelling, and instead scoffed at his question. "Tch, of course I don't understand what it's like to be a pauper like you."

That was it for Ichigo. He shook his head, tired of trying to prove his point to her. He tried to make his way out of the room without another word, but before he could, Rukia reached out her hand to grab his left one and managed to anchor him to the spot.

"Look at me, Ichigo." Rukia demanded although not forcefully. Her grip on his hand was firm even though his was slackened, as if void of feeling.

After a moment of hesitation, Ichigo sighed and turned to look down at her. As she read his gaze, she could clearly see the tired and defeated look in his shaded eyes. Her chest tightened, almost like she was feeding off of his own inner pain.

"The Kurosaki Ichigo I know wouldn't act this way at all." She said softly.

"Huh?" Ichigo furrowed his brow in question.

She tightened her grip a bit more, eyes cast downward. "As long as you have that strength inside that you showed me the first time we met," She met his eyes once again this time giving him a confident smile, "you'll be fine."

The heat rose in Ichigo's cheeks when he heard the sincerity in her voice and witnessed the smile she rarely gave anyone else.

"If you want to break down, go ahead. But always get back up and try again." Surprisingly she broke out into a laugh. "I've never seen you look so angry like that." She softly bit her bottom lip, as if trying not to blurt out what she wanted to say next. It came out anyway. "You know, you're still cute even when you're mad."

Ichigo raised his eyebrows in surprise for a second at her remark but couldn't help but laugh a bit to himself in an effort to act modest. He was feeling so many emotions at once but boy, was he tired. He closed his eyes, the thought of breaking down right then sounding like not such a bad idea. It felt good to block out his vision momentarily. Without opening his eyes, he felt Rukia tug on his hand and lead him to sit down on the couch.

He obliged and after she sat down next to him, he didn't even protest when she gently placed his head atop her lap in order to create a calm atmosphere. It worked as he instantly felt at ease being able to rest, and he welcomed the warmth radiating from her. He felt Rukia slowly rake her fingers through his hair, the action soothing his stressed nerves. They stayed like that in silence, neither daring to look at one another lest they break the mood, although they were undoubtedly in the most comfortable position they had ever been in.

Rukia broke the silence, fingers still softly raking through orange locks. "You don't have to worry about your family and friends."

Ichigo opened one eye questioningly. "Eh?"

She gave him a little pat on his head. "I was going to tell you earlier but someone was resting so peacefully here." Ichigo looked away in a failed effort to hide his embarrassment at the realization of his current position. She continued rather than go on teasing him. "For the time being, Toshirou is taking care of your family. Your family's belongings have been returned and Toshirou has kindly offered security for your family against those men who keep harassing them."

Ichigo raised a dubious eyebrow. "The yakuza is involved now?"

Rukia gave him another pat on his head, this time a bit harder to reprimand his doubt. "Well at this rate no loan shark will dare mess with your family now." Ichigo had to agree.

"As for your boss Urahara's shop, Renji and Orihime have ordered a huge amount of sweets for themselves and for future events, but mostly for themselves." Rukia chuckled. "Renji took it upon himself to go straight to the shop to help. I think he expected Tatsuki to be there. Now that I think about it, there may be something going on between those two." She said thoughtfully.

Now Ichigo's eyes were wide open. "Tatsuki and... Renji?"

Rukia laughed at his reaction, knowing that Ichigo was worried about Tatsuki. "Renji's not that bad of a guy. He is helping you so he can't be all bad." A pause. "They're all giving you their strength, Ichigo." Violet eyes bore through amber ones. "With S4 by your side, how can you worry about anything? No matter what, just be yourself. I believe in you."

Softly returning her gaze back at her, Ichigo felt something well up in his chest. Being at such close proximity he was able to study her eyes. He never really noticed how easily she expressed and reciprocated her emotions through her eyes until now. He had never witnessed such depth and beauty in someone's irises, never experienced receiving what another felt just through mere eye contact.

This was definitely not something he had ever felt beforehand. No, no. This was different. He didn't know exactly what it was and before things got out of hand, especially in the position they were in, he abruptly got up from Rukia's lap. She noticed the difference in his disposition and tried to play it off with a little sock to his arm. This one didn't hurt him though.

"Just be confident." Rukia added. "You are the boy I approved of, so you must be tough."

Ichigo nodded, silent but wholly appreciating her words. Although he would never admit it out loud, he had come to approve of her too.

Out of nowhere she tousled his hair playfully, causing Ichigo scrunch up his face in annoyance but not moving away from her touch nonetheless. Rukia laughed at his expression. "Just do your best, strawberry. It'll be okay." Rukia reassured him, moving her hand away and covertly seating herself a bit closer to him so that their shoulders brushed against one another. "Destiny has taken us this far. I doubt it's the end of the road anytime soon."

Destiny. Ichigo thought about it for a moment. Two of the most opposite people from the most extreme ends of the social spectrum were side by side, going against society's idea of what was deemed acceptable, brought together by some unknown force. Maybe it was destiny.

They sat in comfortable silence, shoulders lightly brushing the other, something mutual once again formed between them.

Two weeks came to an abrupt end and before Ichigo knew it, he was finally walking up towards the entrance of Karakura's largest indoor arena for the Teen of Japan contest wearing his Takaimono school uniform as mandatory by the rules. Walking alongside him were all of S4 which undoubtedly brought tons of spectators outside of the entrance as they made their way in. People squealed with delight catching a glimpse of the infamous S4 and yelling out in hopes to catch the attention of at least one. Needless to say, only Orihime was polite enough to turn and wave cheerfully to the crowd before Toshirou grabbed her arm to force her to continue walking to the entrance.

Once inside the building, Ichigo and S4 stopped to take in the countless number of male student contestants before them going towards their designated areas by way of the large signs posted throughout. Rukia looked up at Ichigo and sensed a bit of his hesitation.

"Yosh, let's go." Giving him a little push on his back to walk ahead, Rukia and the others followed Ichigo as he made his way toward the sign that read 'Last Names: K-P'. As Ichigo was filling out a short form going over legal mumbo jumbo, he heard someone call out Rukia's name from behind.

"Rukia!"

Ichigo stopped his writing, and turned his head curiously at the unfamiliar deep male voice. Person of said voice looked to be around Ichigo's age, no doubt another contestant since he was clad in his own finely presented school uniform. He had a subtle confident and wealthy air about him contrasting slightly with his unruly yet stylish cropped dark auburn hair. Behind him stood four other people, looking like a team of personal assistants. But Ichigo wasn't so focused on the team as he was on the manner in which the male student's light brown eyes were looking at Rukia.

There was no fooling Ichigo on what kind of look that was.

Ichigo's brow furrowed. Who was this guy?

The student strolled over casually with hands in his pockets and stopped a few feet in front of Rukia, his height over her just as tall as Ichigo was. Ichigo looked toward Rukia for her reaction and noticed her look of surprise and her mouth slightly parted as if she wanted to say something but couldn't get it out.

"Osashiburi, Rukia. I hope you're all doing well." He briefly scanned the rest of S4 with his eyes in greeting before coming back to rest them on Rukia again.

"A-Ashido?" Rukia managed to get out his name, wondering why the hell he was here. "What're you doing here?" She blurted out her thoughts, less rudely though.

Ashido smiled knowingly at her question. "Your brother called me last week and told me he would be sponsoring me if I entered the contest." He chuckled under his breath. "I took the next plane out of Italy knowing full well you'd be here." Ashido glanced up toward Ichigo and gave him a small nod. "Well then, I'll see you later." He softly placed a hand on Rukia's shoulder then walked over toward the same registration table Ichigo went to prior.

Rukia stood rooted to her spot, looking down at the ground speechless.

"Damn it, we should have known Byakuya would do something like this." Renji said after Ashido was out of earshot. "He really is cunning."

Toshirou nodded in regretful agreement. "We've just seen the most unexpected bomb blow up in our faces."

Ichigo was growing restless, being the only one unaware of who exactly this chummy friend of Rukia was. "That guy just now... who is he?"

"Kano Ashido." Orihime spoke up, biting her lip right after as if saying his name was a taboo in front of Rukia.

"He's the son of a multi-billionaire investor of Kuchiki Enterprises." Renji added in then paused, waiting to see if Rukia would say anything more before he spoke again. She said nothing but instead looked ashamed and avoided Ichigo's eyes.

Renji sighed. "He's also Rukia's fiance."

AN: *evil grin* Seems Ashido is there for some competition against Ichigo! *gets shot*

I have nothing more to say besides that I'm very tired, very stressed, and winter break can't come soon enough!

Please read and review, my lovely people! :D

Thank you, thank you!