When you mess with fate
Chapter 15
A/N: I do not own Bleach and its characters. If I did... Never mind…
"Nii-sama," Rukia addressed her brother with a bow before she entered the Kuchiki dining hall.
Byakuya nodded, keeping his eyes on his adopted sister as she took a seat beside him at the table. He noticed the weight-loss and the dark circles around her eyes. It was as Renji had told him – Rukia wasn't doing very well. She had been shutting everyone out, isolating herself, and no one knew the reason behind it.
The servants began to place the dishes on the table. Byakuya observed the way his sister eyed the most delicious food prepared by the best Kuchiki chefs. She didn't look interested at all. Unimpressed.
The taichou of the Sixth Division had suspected something was wrong with Rukia for over a year. It was different from that time he found her down with a morning sickness. When she was pregnant, she had been devastated that Kurosaki would not be around with her and their child. But there was still a notable glow – the radiance of an expectant mother – on her being.
This time around, she looked lifeless, like all the energy she used to have had seeped away. At first, he thought it was because age was catching up and the captaincy was weighing down on her. But then, he doubted that was the case. His sister had always been a very tough person. She could take anything life threw at her. Everything, but...
An image of Shiba Kaien passed through his mind. He remembered now, how the death of the former fukutaichou of the 13th Division had affected her. Here, at this table, was the same Rukia he saw after that man died. She looked dejected. She looked crestfallen. She looked subjugated by guilt. Yes. Guilt. That was it. She blamed herself for the death of Shiba Kaien.
But that was a long time ago. Byakuya had seen how much Rukia had changed after she met the ryoka and gave her powers to him. She had been able to accept that killing Shiba was an act of liberating his soul rather than ending his life. She had reconciled with the surviving Shiba siblings and herself. Grudgingly, Byakuya admitted that it was all thanks to the man she had fallen in love with; even shared a child with. He seemed to have brought the sun back into her life. He brought life back into her life.
So did something happen again to cause her to revert to the post-Shiba Rukia? He snarled inwardly at the thought of another Shiba who resembled the dead one behind his sister's grief. And speaking of grief, it couldn't be that this involved the healer ryoka woman whom Kurosaki ended up marrying, could it?
Byakuya sighed. His sharp-mindedness told him that it could. It was the highest possibility. He recalled Renji telling him that Rukia became upset after she came back from visiting the son of that woman. The son who was not Kurosaki's but was adopted by him. It seems that every man is trying to be a saint, taking other people's children and raising them as their own. And then, he realised that he was no different from them when he, too, adopted Rukia as his sister.
Once their quiet dinner was over, Rukia excused herself with a bow. The Kuchiki clan head narrowed his eyes at her barely-touched bowl of rice. He must speak to her now before she caused further damage upon herself.
"Rukia," he called.
The woman looked up at her brother.
"You have not eaten," Byakuya stated.
Rukia glanced at her bowl before returning her gaze to her brother.
"Tell me what is bothering you," he sort of ordered, albeit gently. This was not something he usually did.
The petite woman – who had shrunken even more – was taken aback at the almost tender tone of her brother's voice.
When she continued to keep silent, Byakuya said, "I was told that you have not been eating or resting adequately. You have also indulged yourself excessively in your work. At this rate..."
"I'm fine, Nii-sama," she interrupted. "Whoever told you that does not know what they are talking about." She had never spoken to him with disregard before. It seemed that she didn't care about anything anymore.
At any other time, Byakuya would've admonished her for her behaviour. But this woman was no longer the sister he had come to know; the sister who always looked highly upon him with honour and respect. Rukia had changed. Her face held a hardened expression, which he had never seen before. Whoever did this to her was going to die a shameful death, cut into pieces by his sakura petals.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" he asked.
Rukia huffed. "Doing what, Nii-sama?"
"Answer the question, Rukia."
"I do not know what you are talking about," she said evasively.
Byakuya clenched his fists. Where was his sweet, compliant sister? What happened to Kuchiki Rukia, his pride? He continued to stare at her, commanding in silence for her obedience to return.
With a defeated look, Rukia squeezed her eyes shut, and swallowed hard. She sighed when she opened them again. "Nii-sama, it really does not matter what I am doing to myself or why I am doing it," she replied. "After all, I have ruined too many lives."
"Are you talking about Kurosaki and his family?"
She didn't have to answer. He already knew.
"Kurosaki!" Uryuu hissed as he quickly shut the door to his office.
"Yo..." Ichigo greeted. He was seated in the fashion writer's chair... in his shinigami form.
Uryuu regarded his old rival in resentment. It wasn't fair. Ichigo looked like the 18-year-old self he used to be after the war.
The former doctor took two large strides towards his cousin to throw him off his desk chair. "You're going to frighten my assistant when she finds my chair spinning around on its own."
"You could always say it's been possessed," Ichigo offered, studying the other man from head to toe. "What the fuck? You look like your old man," he commented as he burst out laughing.
Running his fingers through his grey hair, Uryuu growled, "What are you doing here?"
Ichigo gradually stopped his guffaw before he stated, "I need your help."
"What could I possibly help you with? You have everything," Uryuu asserted with a bitter tone, biting that last word.
"I don't have everything," Ichigo mimicked. "I need you to declare me dead."
"And why would I do that?" Uryuu asked, sitting down in his big chair.
Ichigo deadpanned, "Because I'm dead."
"Don't be stupid. You're not."
The orange-haired man folded his arms across his chest. "Oh, come on, Ishida. I'm moving to Soul Society. I can't just leave my human body to rot in my room."
"You are more of a doctor than I am. Declare yourself."
"Now, you're being stupid."
"No. Stupid is marrying the woman you don't even have feelings for," Uryuu barked, gripping the armrests beside him.
"Seriously? After all these years, you're still mad?" Ichigo asked incredulously. It had been almost fifty years. He couldn't believe the Quincy was still holding grudges against him for that.
"What do you expect, Kurosaki? You knew I loved her. You knew I proposed to her. But you married her anyway, when you don't even love her. Was that your way of declaring victory over our rivalry? Huh?" Uryuu snapped accusatively. "That was low, even for you. Some comrade."
Ichigo grunted, pacing the floor at the side of Uryuu's desk before he stopped at his previous spot. "I'm sorry."
The Quincy scoffed.
"Ishida, I know I screwed up. But my mind was clouded at that time. I just wanted to fulfill Rukia's wish and get my life over with," Ichigo explained, even though it didn't make sense to him.
Uryuu stood up and pointed a condemning finger at the shinigami. "You are a fucking coward, putting the blame on Kuchiki. You could've waited and have a little faith. Even if you didn't want to, you could've married someone else."
The two Quincy war heroes glared at each in silence.
"You're right," Ichigo conceded with a slump of his shoulders.
"Excuse me?" Uryuu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before crossing his arms.
"I said, you are right. You don't have to make me repeat that. Geez..."
The dark-haired human smirked in triumph.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "Bastard." That had always been the basis of their argument: neither one of them wanted to admit that the other was ever right.
Uryuu heaved a long sigh. "I don't think I would've married her, anyway."
"Why not?" Ichigo asked, raising his brows. After all the enmity they had between them, Uryuu wouldn't have married Orihime?
"She would want to have kids and... I wouldn't have wanted that," he replied.
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, of all the races," Uryuu paused, pushing the inside of his cheek with his tongue. "Of all the races, no matter how proud I am of mine, the Quincy remains the most cunning, most power-hungry one. It's toxic to the universe. I would rather not pass that down."
"Huh... Never thought I'd ever hear that coming from you," Ichigo muttered, crossing his arms again.
"How come you never had your own kids?" Uryuu questioned. He had been constantly kept posted on the life of their friends by Chad. Sometimes even Tatsuki would give him a holler on one of the social media.
Ichigo shrugged. "I'm part-Quincy."
"That's my excuse. Get your own," Uryuu snarled.
"I never touched her," Ichigo admitted.
"What?"
Ichigo knew it was more of a 'why' than 'what'. "I couldn't."
Uryuu nodded. "At least there's some integrity in you."
"Oh, please. I'm not that pure," Ichigo dismissed.
"I never said you were but what do you mean by that?"
"I just found out I have a daughter. With Rukia."
In one swift motion, Uryuu grabbed the collar of the shinigami's shihakusho and slammed the man against the wall. "You cheated on Inoue!"
"Calm down!" Ichigo tried to pull Uryuu's grip off. "It happened before we came back. I never cheated on Orihime. Not even when Rukia started visiting the human world."
Uryuu released him, but not without another shove. He sat back down on his chair and straightened the coat he was wearing. "Abarai would've killed you, anyway."
"They're not married," Ichigo mumbled, brushing invisible dust off of his robe.
Uryuu's eyebrows creased at that. "Huh?"
"Ichika took Renji's family name so Rukia could keep her. Some messed up clan requirement that I don't even want to know about."
Uryuu nodded as if he understood.
"So are you going to help me or not?" Ichigo asked again, almost pleading. Almost.
His bespectacled cousin shook his head. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"I'm not a practising doctor. I haven't renewed my licence in 20 years. They would think I killed you."
Ichigo huffed, grousing, "Why did I come all the way here to see you, then?"
"You didn't even spend a single yen to get here. Cheat-travelling in your soul form..." Uryuu murmured. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
The strawberry chuckled. "Hey, I had to run through the dangai twice to get here. Once, to Soul Society, and another time to Germany. It's hard work evading the Cleaner."
"Pfft. Stupid, as usual."
"Fuck off, Ishida."
Uryuu ignored him and went into a deep thought before he exhaled. "I can't certify your death. But I can help arrange your funeral. It's the least I could do for an idiot cousin like you."
"Gee, thanks," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes.
"You're welcome. Can't pass up a chance to watch you burn," the other man smirked.
"How did you know I wanted a cremation?"
"I didn't. It's the cheaper option if I were to pay for your funeral."
I wrote the Quincy conversation before the Kuchikis'. But the latter was kind of intense compared to the former so I decided to leave this chapter 'on a lighter note' instead.