Here it is, the long awaited next chapter! I admit, I've had a lot going on (exams, yipee!) and I've ignored writing for a bit. However, I am now back and updates should be coming thick and fast. Enjoy!
Two weeks passed in a blur for the young Were.
Between meditation sessions with Kisuke to try and contact her "Inner Beast" and physical training with Yoruichi, Rukia barely managed not to fall asleep in her dinner each night. In fact, a few times she had managed to do exactly that- before being gently carried off to bed by Tessai, one of the few non-Were in the compound.
There were only three non-Were that lived in the compound under the shop, aside from Kisuke. Tessai was another Magic handler, much like Kisuke- except he practised more in the herbal healing arts and practical household Magics. Rukia had barely seen the large man about, and aside from a warning from Kisuke to NEVER accept his potion for an upset stomach, she knew very little about him as he was rarely inside the building. The other two were human children named Ururuu and Jinta, whom had been semi adopted by Kisuke when he found them alone in a house after eradicating some Ghouls. It turned out the Ghouls in question were Jinta and Ururuu's very, very dead parents whom had risen to wander the Living World as Ghouls for an unknown reason. In any case, they were fairly nice kids, in Rukia's opinion. Tessai and the children usually tended to the shop, and weren't often seen aside from mealtimes, or in Tessai's case, someone was sick. The Were in residence were also very few, as Kisuke said that after they were stable they tended to move on and find a true pack. Only the three they currently had in residence were permanent.
The evening's meditation session had just ended, and instead of being ushered to Yoruichi straight away as was usual, Kisuke told her the evening's training was cancelled, and for her to go to dinner as he and Yoruichi had to attend to something. His tone was urgent and Rukia was intrigued- nothing every got Kisuke in a panic, not even the fact that she'd had absolutely no luck in finding the name of her Beast and couldn't fight for toffee. So for him to be this worried; well, it definitely warranted quietly following him.
She walked off in the direction of the kitchen as she was told, but this time, Rukia thought back on what Yoruichi had told her- to allow her senses, which were now far superior to a normal human's, to show her the way.
Pausing, Rukia took a deep breath and tried to relax, imagining stretching out her senses like limbs down the hallways.
She could smell the food Tessai was cooking in the kitchen. It was beef stroganoff, with his speciality mashed potato. Delicious!
"Focus Rukia. Now isn't the time for snacking." She mumbled, trying to ignore the amazing scent. Her senses crept along the hallway, where she could hear the harsh pounding of Tatsuki training on one of the punching bags in the gym, and the soft clicks of Mizuiro hastily texting one of his various girlfriends inside his room. She could smell the sweat on the She-Were's skin and Mizuiro's irritation in the air, and gently pushed forewards towards the other rooms, searching...
The new smell hit her like a train.
Blood, fresh and thick. The scent of copper was thick in the air, enough to taste it. Her skin crawled and something inside her chanted "hunt!" and she fought the urge to go charging in that direction. Instead, Rukia bent down and took off her trainers and socks, and proceeded to pad silently barefoot in the direction her nose took her.
"Kisuke," came a worried whisper- Yoruichi. "I'm not sure I can stabilize him. He's too far gone, I don't know what's happening." Her voice was despairing.
"I'll restrain him for now," The Wizard replied in a cool voice, though the speed of his response betrayed his fear. "Go and get Tessai. We'll need some of his brews. As soon as he's here, contact Orihime, Uryuu and Chad."
"On it." Rukia heard the door slam as Yoruichi sprinted with unnaturally soft and sure footing towards the kitchen. Deciding to bite the bullet and let her curiosity get the better of her, Rukia also broke into a run towards where she now knew they were. Kisuke's Lab.
The young woman slowed as she reached the door, but Yoruichi was long gone. Her violet eyes peered into the small gap between the door and it's frame. The smell of blood as strong enough to make her gag now, the air thick with it.
Inside the room was something fresh from a horror film. The great slab that Kisuke usually used to create runes and enchantments had been cleared, and ontop of it laid a mass of blood and fur, thrashing against great chains that held it to the table. The smell of burning fur was in the air as the creature thrashed and snarled between yelps of agony.
If it was burning from chains, that meant they were silver, Rukia thought idly. Then her stomach dropped to her feet as she realised what that meant.
The thing on the table was a Were.
A very, very angry one.
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Byakuya was lost.
Not in the navigational sense- Vampires had an excellent sense of direction after all- but in the mental sense. For the first time in his three-hundred or so years of existence, he didn't know what to do. He sat back in the plush leather chair at his office desk, and stared at the photographs framed upon it. Rukia's smiling face looked back at him, along with her sister- his soulmate. They looked so alike, he mused. Was that, why he had reacted so poorly?
He was now responsible for instigating a war, after all.
In fact, to call it a war would almost be rude. This would be slaughter, pure and simple. The Were simply didn't have sufficent numbers in the area to even put up a fight. Aside from Kisuke's few Were, a couple of nomads and two other small packs in the area, Karakura didn't house many Were at all. Nothing compared to the hundreds of Vampires that would soon be bearing down upon them.
But some of the older Elders thirsted for blood, desperate to finally eradicate what they considered to be a 'dirty' breed of non-human creatures. Were were the lepers of the magical world, often faced with prejudice and contempt by other races, vampires perhaps the most.
And now, because of his anger at his sister's death, they would be iradicated.
Looking back to the picture, he gently touched the cool glass that housed the the beautiul blue-eyed woman, and her tiny copy beside her, grinning widely. That night, the Were had taken away the last thing he had left. Whether that was intentional or not was not the matter, and did not change the fact that Rukia was dead.
So to take away all that they had seemed somehow... fair.
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"Rukia. Come and help me please, don't just stand there." Rukia let out a squeak. How had Urahara even known she was there? Obediently, she rushed into the room.
"Careful now, don't touch the chains. You haven't made your first change, so they won't burn you like they are him, but it will still hurt. Get that bottle labelled 'Basilisk extract'." The young Were searched through the great shelf that the Wizard had pointed to. A greyish, green liquid was in a bottle, and even as she handled the glass, her fingers felt slightly numb.
"Now pour it here," Kisuke pointed to the beast's great snapping maw as it thrashed on the table. She uncorked the bottle with shaky hands.
"How much, Kisuke?"
"Just until he stops fighting. Maybe half the bottle will put him out, he's strong."
She began to tip the sludgy substance into it's huge mouth. The beast's great eyes opened, and they were a shocking bright yellow. It began to fight against it's bonds in even more earnest.
"Kisuke?!"
Urahara met her gaze calmly. "He can smell what it is. Keep going."
Rukia watched her pale hand tremble as she sloshed the liquid around the monster's huge fangs. Slowly, as more of the bottle emptied, it's snarls began to weaken and fall into pathetic groans, and the thrashing and fighting became mere twitches.
"That's enough. Well done Rukia; make sure the stopper is in well and put it back where you found it." Kisuke slowly released his hands from where he had been holding the huge Were's muzzle and lowered it's head onto the slab gently as Rukia replaced the bottle. The Wizard wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked towards a book on a stand that Rukia hadn't noticed in her panic. It was thick, with a heavy leather case and binding. Looking up from the pages, he smiled.
"Thank you for your assistance, young Rukia. I'm not sure I would have been able to administer the essence alone."
"You're welcome Kisuke... but why are you hurting him? Isn't he a Were too?" Kisuke's smile dropped. He rubbed his forehead, looking troubled. Meeting Rukia's worried violet gaze, the man sighed.
"Rukia, you may remember what Yoruichi said about Were who didn't connect with their Beast, yes?"
She remembered alright. She hadn't sleep for days after that news.
"Yes." The young woman replied warily, eyeing the now completely still mass of blood and fur on the table.
"This is an example of what happens." Rukia felt the air gush from her lungs. "Yes, frightening, isn't it? The Basilisk Essence you just administered has him paralysed for the moment. As it is only an essence, it will wear off in some while, but it gives us enough time to get him in a secured cell," His calm green eyes met Rukia's once again, and he looked genuinely sad.
"Will you... Will you destroy him?"
"He is young, newly Changed. Judging by his behaviour, he has only experienced one full moon, which means there is yet time."
The young Were paused in confusion. "I thought Yoruichi said that the first one was the one you had to have bonded by?"
"In accordance to the Treaty, it is, yes. In practical terms, it can be done at any time- the earlier the better, of course, as the wolf is still juvenile in it's control. The more firm it gets in it's control, the harder it is to get the human side to retaliate." Rukia nodded in understanding.
"But aren't you violating the treaty?"She asked softly. Kisuke ran a hair through his blonde hair, looking unhappy.
"Yes, but-"
Kisuke was interrupted by a white-faced Yoruichi bursting through the door. It banged hard against one of the many cabinets of ingredients, sending a few tiny vials crashing to the ground where they shattered. The Were-Panther however barely spared it a glance.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about the Treaty right now," She snarled. Walking forewards, she forced what appeared to be a roll of parchment into Kisuke's hands. The seal on it was the colour of fresh blood.
"What?" Kisuke opened the parchment and began to read. Rukia watched as he too, began to turn a ghastly shade of white.
"What is it? What's going on?" Tatsuki demanded from the doorway, a confused and worried Keigo and Mizuiro behind her. Chizuru peered in between the two.
"They believe we've violated the treaty by killing a human and not erasing the evidence." The Wizard said softly. His voice betrayed nothing.
"Impossible. Nobody has been unsupervised, they barely leave here! And the other packs-" Yoruichi began angrily, but she paused and met Urahara's gaze with her own blazing yellow eyes. Understanding seemed to hit her. "Oh no," She whispered, her purple ponytail swishing hard and she shook her head.
"Yes." The pair both looked at Rukia.
"Were you alone the night you were bitten, Rukia?"
"N-no. But Renji would never have gone to the police, and even if he had, they would have just thought it was a bear or something!"
"He didn't go to the police, Rukia. He must have told one of the Elders of the Council."
Rukia almost felt like laughing. Renji, know a vampire? Was this a stupid joke or something? "Renji wouldn't know a vampire! He barely believes in ghosts!"
Yoruichi broke the silence that had fallen. "He might not believe in them, but he definitely knows a vampire, Rukia."She said gently. The young Were was just confused now.
"Your brother, Byakuya Kuchiki is an Elder. One of the oldest Vampires in existence, and commander of the second most powerful Coven in known existence."
Rukia shook her head wildly. "Don't be ridiculous! I've never seen him drink blood! And he goes out in daylight!"
The older Were all shook their heads. Tatsuki spoke up gruffly. "The older they are, the less they need to drink. It becomes less of a necessity to survive, and more like a fine wine. A delicacy. He probably only feeds once every few months."
"Yeah," Keigo piped up. "The sunlight thing is a myth too. They are irritated by sunlight, and weakened significantly, but they don't burst into flame like the movies. They're just like normal humans instead."
She shook her head again. It was impossible. Wasn't it?
Though it would explain how he always seemed to either be at work, or holed up somewhere in his office at home. And how he never put on lights when he was home alone and seemed fine with it... But then...
"But what of Renji? Doesn't the treaty say that humans who know about other creatures have to be killed?" Rukia suddenly gasped. She thought that by making him run from the beast she had saved him. If he had died because he had to tell Byakuya that his little sister was dead... well, she'd never forgive herself...
"No, Rukia," Kisuke said gently. Yoruichi learned foreward and took Rukia's pale hand in her own soft, coffee coloured one. "It says they must be destroyed, or changed. Renji is probably not dead..."
"Then he's a vampire." Rukia stated. The words were like lead on her tongue.
Vampires were coming to eradicate the Were, and Renji, and her brother, would be among them. Would Renji even recognise her? Or would he slaughter her as part of principle, because he was ordered to? The thought sent chills down her spine.
"Can you all shut the fuck up? I feel like shit, here and the room stinks of sweat and anxiety."
Everone span to face the figure on the slab.
Instead of fur, there was now tanned skin- lots of it too- covered in blood, held to the stone. The chains had loosened as his form became smaller, but the burned welts were clear over his very, very nude body. Rukia felt her cheeks turn scarlet.
Why was she embarassed? She'd seen a man naked before! And yet she wanted to cover her face and run in shame at peering at this man's body.
"Hey, you, midget. Quit staring, would you? I feel like a piece of meat here." That voice too! Rukia looked at the floor, her face now the same colour as the blood covering the table.
"I wasn't staring you, jerkwad!" She growled at the floor. "Shut up or I'll give you the rest of that bottle of Basilisk Extract!" How had he managed to ignite such furious passion in her belly?! He'd done nothing but be naked and an asshole to her!
A gloriously sexy asshole, something inside her chided. Somehow, it didn't feel like that thought belonged to her- she really hoped it didn't.
Wonderful, now she was crazy. Her brother was coming to kill her, along with her vampire ex-best friend, and it seemed to have sent her straight off the cliff of sanity into the depths of madness below.
And to top it off, some stupid carrot-head had dared to chide her for looking at him!?
The small woman straightened her back and looked up to meet an amused and pained honey-brown gaze. He raised one bloody orange eyebrow at her.
"Piss off." She snarled.
Rukia then turned on her heel and strode from the room, her head held high, leaving a crowd of confused people behind her. With the exception of Tatsuki, cackling in a corner and Keigo who was murmuring something about 'feisty sex-goddesses'.
Right now, Rukia was all for Kisuke and Yoruichi having to kill that stupid git chained to the table. It would save her the bother of doing it later.
Wowie, this was a long one (Just under 3k!)! I guess I just had a lot to get out... I know there wasn't a huge amount of detail in this one, but it was needed to get the real plot going, so it was sort of filler-y. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!