A/N: Been a while since I've updated. Between my birthday, a writing course, job applications, starting a martial art and preparing a talk I've had a bit on my plate. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, Empire total war (amazing game!) Regardless, I should have updated sooner, sorry about that. To make up, partially, this is a longer chapter than I'd normally post.

*Apologies to those who believe in the American legal system, but it's still messed up.

x

The Heir Apparent
Chapter 23: Where Rain Once Fell

The sun was shining brightly the morning of the seventeenth, as the Kurosaki family plus Rukia made their way up the tall hill. Rukia hummed happily as she swung the picnic basket between her hands, while Ichigo trudged along beside her, hands in his pockets. Karin, who had her thumbs tucked under the straps of her backpack, glanced at them and gave a knowing smile.

'Oh look,' said Yuzu, pointing to the top of the hill. 'That's the spot we first saw Rukia-nee.'

'What's he doing there?' said Ichigo.

Rukia followed his gaze. At the place where she'd waved to Ichigo and his family exactly a year ago was a tall Caucasian with a digital camera taking photographs of the surrounding land. He wore a bright yellow button up with flowers all over it.

'Looks like a tourist,' said Karin. 'Don't accept if he tries to give you money.'

'I like his shirt,' Isshin mused, fingers framing his chin. 'Looks Hawaiian.'

'Don't even think about it,' Ichigo warned.

'What are you talking about?' said Rukia.

'One time he tried to mug an old bloke for his hat.'

'It was a nice hat,' said Isshin defensively, 'And I put in my shirt as my half of the wager.'

'And that gives you an excuse to start a fight in the middle of the park?' said Karin, rolling her eyes.

'So, he took an old man's hat?' said Rukia, raising her eyebrows.

'Nah,' said Ichigo with a smirk, 'Turned out that he was a retired Muay Thai sensei, he beat the crap out of this loser.'

'It was a near thing,' said Isshin.

'Please, he owned you so badly I'll bet they heard you in Tokyo.'

'Then he took his pants as well, leaving him to limp home in his underwear,' said Karin with an identical expression to her older brother. 'Served him right.'

'That was too harsh,' Yuzu protested.

'It's alright Yuzu, daddy can take it,' said Isshin, sniffing bravely.

'You were asking for it,' said Karin.

Rukia had barely noticed that during the conversation they had scaled the hill, she gave a start as she realised that they were passing the tourist in the garish shirt. He nodded awkwardly as they passed and said, 'O-hei-o go-zai-ma-su.'

'Oh, he speaks Japanese. Ask him if he does any martial arts,' she said, nudging Ichigo. Since he was almost exactly the same height and build as Ichigo's father she was curious to see who would win.

'You ask him,' he retorted.

'Ichigo, a lady just asked you a boon, how could you be so uncouth as to refuse,' said Isshin dramatically.

'She isn't a lady, she's my lieutenant dammit. I'm the one who orders her around.'

'You wish,' said Rukia, folding her arms.

'I think you should do it, Ichi-nii,' said Yuzu timidly.

Ichigo pursed his lips, managing somehow to remind her of a frog. 'Fine.' He turned to the tourist. 'Hey you!'

The young man, who had been watching them curiously through striking blue eyes, twitched at Ichigo's harsh tone. 'Er, kon-ni-chi-wa.' His speech was slow, as though he was unsure of the syllables.

'You do anything, you train in a dojo for any martial art?'

'Kon-ni-chi-wa?'

'It's useless,' said Karin, 'He probably just picked up a little Japanese from the travel magazines. Either that or he's mentally retarded.'

'Whatever, I'll get through to him,' said Ichigo, and made a Karate stance. 'Do-you-do-Karate?' he said slowly, using universal sign-language, and finishing off by demonstrating a pulley-punch.

The tourist shook his head and said an English word. When Ichigo indicated that he didn't understand, he pocketed his camera and raised his arms with his elbows in and fists to his cheeks; his feet spread wide with his left slightly forward. Although he wasn't nearly as cut as most Shinigami, it was clear that he trained a fair bit.

'Kickboxing,' said Ichigo, 'That's a slightly tamer version of Muay Thai.' He turned to his father, 'Aren't you glad you didn't challenge him?'

'But it's such a beautiful shirt,' said Isshin, staring greedily at it.

Karin kicked him in the shins. He fell like a tree to the floor, clutching his leg. The tourist blinked and stared, but otherwise no-one reacted.

'Let's go,' said Karin, grabbing Isshin's collar and dragging him away.

Yuzu bowed politely to the tourist, 'So sorry about the trouble.'

'He can't understand you,' said Ichigo, giving a salute-wave to indicate that they were going.

'Um, say-o-na-ra,' said the tourist, giving a short bow. He made the mistake of pronouncing say instead of sai.

'Sayonara,' Rukia corrected him, before turning back to Ichigo.

The tourist watched them go, wondering what in the world had been going on that he'd missed. What a strange family, where the daughter abused the father and everybody took it for normal. Was it that common in this country? It was a pity he hadn't been able to communicate to them that he'd only just started kickboxing informally and hadn't achieved any rank yet. He took out his camera to take a few more shots as the group started on the shallow downhill on the other side.

Rukia kept pace with Ichigo, watching the birds circle above them, high and free. The land was different to Soul Society, not so much in the lay of it as in the habitation. Here it was all urbanised. Still, it wasn't entirely unpleasant to look at.

'Hey Ichigo,' she said.

'Hey yourself,' he replied.

'What exactly does a human resource manager do?'

Last night Isshin had called a family meeting regarding the duties of each person, and that was the job Rukia had been given.

'They just make sure that everybody's happy, I guess,' said Ichigo.

'Well, are you happy, Ichigo?'

The question seemed to catch him by surprise, for he took a moment before he answered. 'I think I am, Rukia,' he said, his tone surprisingly unguarded. 'I was lost for such a long time, trapped in a feeling of helplessness. But that was before I met you.'

'Ichigo,' she said softly, unable to find words to respond with.

'I'm so glad to have you two back,' Yuzu interrupted them, much to Rukia's relief. 'It's been lonely without Ichi-nii and Rukia-nee.'

Rukia smiled and started chatting with her, while Ichigo sulked. Then the hairs on the back of her head started to quiver, and a shiver ran up her spine. She knew the feeling, it was the first sign that a hollow was about to materialise. Since she'd felt it so strongly even with a Gigai buffering it must be close; or stronger than a regular hollow; or both.

'Ichigo,' she warned.

'Hollow?' he said. He must have sensed it too, proof that his training was paying off. Or he recognised her tone.

'Yeah.'

She reached into the small pocket over her breast, and pulled out two green gikongan. One was a regular Chappy, for her, the other was Kon who they'd borrowed from the twelfth division outpost that had used to be the Urahara Shoken. Ichigo didn't trust the other mod-souls, even the others besides Chappy. For his part, Kon seemed happy to be having a break from the place. They had his lion-pushie body packed, but had taken him out of it earlier because he'd refused to shut up.

'That had better be Kon,' said Ichigo, looking at the one she held out to him suspiciously.

'Of course it is,' she said.

In actual fact she had no idea which was which, but they couldn't afford to stall with a hollow on its way. It had most likely sensed Ichigo's families latent spirit power and was targeting them. With no guarantee that the resident shinigami would arrive quickly enough, they had to take immediate action. They swallowed the hard candy like pills, and their spirits separated from their bodies.

'Wow,' said Karin, 'That's kinda cool. But also rather weird, there's now two of each of you.'

'Pyon,' said Ichigo's body, feeling at its hair.

'Pyon?' said Ichigo, his eyes widening, 'DAMMIT RUKIA, that's not Kon.'

'Pyon, I feel pwetty nice,' said Ichigo's body, running a hand up and down its chest. That hand was straying dangerously close to its groin. Karin's eyebrows shot up, and Isshin quickly put his hands over Yuzu's eyes.

'Stop that, you pervert,' cried Ichigo, grabbing his body's hands and trying to wrestle them away.

'Now that is reaaaly weird,' said Karin.

'Rukia, help me dammit,' said Ichigo loudly.

'Don't worry about it, we have work to do,' said Rukia, opening her top slightly to look at the Summer Snowdrop reitsu-sealing tattoo on her chest. It was the first time she'd worn one.

'There is no way this is alright,' said Ichigo, struggling with his body on the floor.

'Pyon, I'll tickle you, pyon,' said Chappy, and proceeded to do just that.

'Ha ha ha ha -stop- ha ha ha -tha- ha ha -that!'

Then Rukia noticed her body, with Kon in it. He had one hand on her breast, and was busy unzipping the back of her pale pink dress with the other. 'Nee-san, beautiful nee-san,' he was saying, 'I never thought this day would come when I was in you.'

Karin's mouth dropped open like a fish. Isshin gasped and used one arm to cover Yuzu's eyes, and the other for his own, with his fingers cracked open over one eye.

'…on second thought it might be better to first get the right mods into the right bodies,' Rukia concluded.

Meanwhile the tourist was examining a photo he'd just taken, down the hill at the family group, on the preview screen. He furrowed his dark eyebrows as he took in the small figures. For some reason his camera had blurred the teenage couple, making there appear to be transparent copies of them; only just visible. The strangest thing was that they were in a different position to the original pair, and wearing black. He sighed, the salesman must have ripped him off with a faulty model, and pressed the delete button.

In the distance a tree was ripped in half for no apparent reason, sending dust and leaves splaying high into the air. The tourist shook his head, this truly was a strange land.

x

Byakuya stood high above a small town, facing a hollow of incredible power. Despite being only two meters tall, it was unlike anything he'd ever faced before, patterned with red demonic designs over its half-white half-black armour. Under Byakuya's arm, Rukia lay unconscious and wounded. Somehow he knew that if she'd lost against this opponent he would likely lose as well. But that made no sense, he was far stronger than her.

It wasn't just her he was defending, far below another woman lay in the rubble, bruised and bleeding. Hisana, the love of his life. But that was impossible, Hisana had died of illness. And she'd never joined Gotei thirteen, never worn a shihakusho. Yet somehow his dream-self knew her as a fifth seat in the tenth division.

'Defeating a captain wasn't difficult,' said the hollow, 'How do you think you, a mere lieutenant will fare?'

Wait, he was a lieutenant here? Sure enough, he had no haori. There was an armband on his left, but for some reason he couldn't lift his arm to check what division number it was. If he was a lieutenant, did that mean he didn't have his Bankai?

'Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi,' he heard his mouth say, as he dropped his sword. It was a strange feeling, being a spectator in his own body. Even still, it was a relief that he had this power. 'Scatter,' he said, the skyscraper swords dissolving into innumerable blades. He indicated with his hand, and they surged towards the hollow. But it was strange, there seemed to be far fewer than he would normally command. Was his power being sealed because he was in the material world? His other-self seemed to know that it wasn't.

The hollow didn't even move as the blades engulfed him. After a few moments he burst free of the seething mass of churning. He wasn't even cut. 'Is that it?' he said.

Come on Byakuya thought desperately, use your annhilationscape! But his other-self just stood there, shocked.

'My turn,' said the hollow, and disappeared and appeared right in front of him. Byakuya had no time to react before a glowing white fist ripped through chest. Sudden, terrible, ripping pain. But it was muted, not nearly as intense as he would have expected it to be, as though it were the memory of pain rather than pain itself. Rukia fell from his limp arm, blood burst from his mouth and nose. He could feel his body shutting down. 'Now I feed. Be glad, shinigami, for you will be the first today. The women will be joining you shortly.' The hollow opened its mouth, exposing surprisingly normal teeth.

Then he was away, pulled off the killing fist. The figure carrying him swept down to catch Rukia before she hit the ground. Blood pumped out the gaping wound that pulsed agonisingly, his vision was darkening. Only when he'd been set down did he see his rescuers face. Ichigo, in Bankai form, staring down at him with shocked eyes. He looked different to the young man Byakuya knew, older, more mature, something else. His other-self smiled and tried to speak, but couldn't form words with no air. They both knew he was too late.

His vision was almost totally black now, he could barely see anything, and his hearing was dull and muted. The ground beneath him felt as soft as feathers. Ichigo said something, but he couldn't catch it. Probably some lie about him going to be alright. He shook his head and glanced over to where Hisana lay nearby, then looked back at Ichigo. He nodded, and clasped his hand firmly. Byakuya could feel himself sinking, being swallowed by a sea of oblivion. He concentrated on the firmness in his hand. There was no more pain.

Byakuya woke with a start, drenched with sweat. He put a hand to his chest, thank goodness, there was no hole. It had just been a dream, a vivid; horrifying dream.

'You awake,' said a gruff voice nearby.

Byakuya started in its direction, and saw Kenpachi sitting in a wooden chair, staring at him. 'So it would seem,' he said, as stiffly as a man could coming out of a nightmare.

'You alright?'

'I am fine.'

He quickly took stock of the situation. He was in bed, and judging by the decoration and décor, in the fourth division medical bay. The last thing he remembered was falling unconscious in Hueco Mundo. He was still alive, so they must have succeeded in their mission. A fourth division medic rushed in and started checking his vital signs. He recognised him as Hanatarou.

'How long have I been out?' he asked.

'Um, er, six days Kuchiki-taicho,' said nervous medic.

'That is a long time,' said Byakuya coldly. 'Why wasn't I woken sooner?'

'Um, there were complications sir, you'd have to ask Unohana-taicho about it to hear the details.'

'Well, what was your understanding of it?'

'Er, I think you came very near to killing yourself by exerting like you did when you were so weakened sir. We kept you asleep to heal your body, but; um; your soul-sleep and chain-link were damaged. Um, kinda sorta badly. Sorry.'

Those were the pieces of the soul that created and maintained spiritual power. The shock was intense, and he instinctively tried to raise his reitsu as high as he could, hoping to refute the analysis. The air barely thickened, even with his greatest exertion, and Byakuya was left out of breath. Hanatarou, weak pathetic Hanatarou, hadn't been effected by it. Had he even felt it? Byakuya wasn't sure if he would have.

All his life he had been blessed with great spiritual strength and talent, enough that with hard training he'd become one of the elite fighters of Soul Society, a captain in Gotei thirteen. His power had been one of two pillars that he'd built his life around. Now it was gone, and he was left desperately clinging to the other.

'Bummer man,' Kenpachi muttered.

Could he possibly fathom the depth of his loss?

'Since you are awake, I guess we can discharge you,' said Unohana, entering the room and nodding Hanatarou off. He left, giving a short bow before closing the door behind him.

'How long… how long until my abilities return,' said Byakuya, regaining his composure. 'They will, won't they?'

'I'm not sure, there's never been a case like yours before, since yours came from maintaining a Bankai near death. I'm amazed you were able to at all, and then survive. Physically you're nearly mended, but we'll have to see if your power returns on its own. If it doesn't, then we'll have to consider experimental treatments.'

And if neither method works, I'll be forced out of Gotei thirteen, Byakuya realised with a flash of fear. Honourably discharged, most likely, but kicked out all the same. What would he do with himself then?

x

Ichigo leaned back contentedly against the wall, watching his father and sisters. Yuzu was praying in front of their mother's grave, and starting to sniff. Pretty soon she would burst into tears, he knew. It happened annually, ever since the first anniversary of that fateful day.

The hollow had been a disappointment. After fighting Arrancar and traitorous captains with hollow powers it was hard to imagine a new enemy that would put up much of a challenge. With his current abilities even a strong hollow like the one they'd just faced had been child's play. He was beginning to understand why Kenpachi docked his power so heavily.

Yuzu started crying.

'Geez, just for once could you not do that?' said her dark twin.

'But I-'

'Alright kids,' said Isshin, clapping his hands above his head gleefully, 'It's time for the fun and games to begin. First up, the Kurosaki family grave excavation race! Oh, and Rukia-chan is we-' Karin cut him off with a jump-kick to the face.

'Honestly, how stupid can you get,' she said angrily, stamping his face into the ground. Yuzu giggled timidly.

'My precious, beautiful daughter, I have failed in raising you. That you could treat your beloved father so-' she stomped his head again.

'Won't that break his nose?' said Rukia, who had moved to stand beside Ichigo in the commotion.

'So what if it does,' he said with a shrug. In his prolonged absence the family dynamics seemed to have changed, if only slightly.

'Want to take a walk?' she said.

'Sure.'

The rest of the family was far too preoccupied with Isshin's torture to notice them go. They made their way through the wooded lands quietly for some time, until they came to a place which Ichigo recognised as where he'd fought the Grand Fisher. He could still trace the marks they'd made in the ground, although grass had grown over, and the broken trees and shrubs had new growth covering most of the damage.

'The scars remain, but they're slowly healing,' he said, pointing them out.

'The same could be said about our hearts,' said Rukia.

'Yeah,' he agreed.

Last night, amongst other things, Isshin had revealed to them that he'd been the one to kill the hollow that had murdered his mother, Isshin's wife. Ichigo wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing. On one hand he'd wanted to be the one to extract vengeance. On the other, his father had had an equal claim to the hollow's head. Either way, the Grand Fisher wasn't coming back just so he could get his chance to kill him.

'The weather's nice,' he noted, looking up into the cloudless sky. 'That's good.' He paused, allowing the silence to grow. 'It was raining the day my mother died.'

'Ichigo, you don't have to tell me,' said Rukia quickly. 'I mean, you can if you want-'

'I want to,' he said.

Surveying the ground, he could tell where he'd finally fallen in his battle, delirious with bloodless. Rukia had held him then, and healed him.

'It was seven years ago today that it happened. I was nine. There was a girl by the river, a girl I found out later was the Grand Fisher's lure. She was falling into the water, I ran to save her. It all happened so fast, in an instant my mother was taken from me. She was most important person in my life, I would have died to protect her. I could do nothing. After that I was lost, so terribly alone.'

That was where his tough-guy attitude had come from, he had never wanted anybody to realise how much he was hurting inside. It had also served to keep anybody else from getting too close.

'I swore to my soul that I would never let those important to me get taken again.' He was silent for a moment. 'There's no chance I'll ever find her, is there?'

'We've been over this before, Ichigo,' she reminded him softly.

'Oh, right.' He paused, wondering whether to continue or not. Taking a deep breath, he took the plunge. 'It was a long time before I allowed anybody else to touch my heart. I was terrified that I'd be left broken again if that happened, if something happened to them. But she did,' he gave an amused snort, 'before I even realised it.'

'You had someone else you cared for; when? Is she still around?' Rukia's tone was concerned, her expression unreadable.

'She was taken from me one night, by two men she worked with. They left me broken and bleeding on the pavement. It started raining the moment they left, as though the weather was responding to my despair. That was my very darkest moment, tied with the death of my mother.'

'I'm so sorry.'

He smiled, and looked into her violet eyes. 'Don't be, that story has a happy ending. You should know, it was you!'

Rukia's eyes widened, 'Me?'

'Yeah. That time, I was able to protect-' he caught himself just before he said the fateful words. But by the way Rukia was looking at him, she'd realised. I was able to protect the most important person in my life.

It was true, now that he thought about it, she was. Not that he'd ever go out and say it, never mind that he just practically had. Saving her, protecting her successfully when he'd failed to protect his mother, had saved him. But Rukia had done more than save his heart, she'd become his heart. A life without her would be empty, meaningless, directionless, love- He grappled to get his rampant thoughts under control, his voice box becoming as heavy as iron in his throat.

'Ichigo,' she said softly, her cheeks going pink.

Ichigo's face went red as he turned away and stammered for an excuse to change the subject. Then he heard Isshin's loud shout. 'Delinquent son, third daughter, it's time for lunch. Finish making me a grandchild and put on your-' he was cut off, probably by Karin.

Ichigo's stomach growled at the prospect of food. 'We'd better head back,' he said, keeping his eyes averted from Rukia's face.

'Sure.' She wasn't looking at him either.

Despite their embarrassment, they still walked back side by side.

x

The rest of the day passed without incident, unless you counted Isshin's antics and Karin beatings of the aforementioned. After dinner, which Yuzu had cooked and was naturally scrumptious, both Ichigo and Rukia headed up to his room. Since all the pretences were off, she took a futon for his cupboard, rather than share the twins' room.

'Bit different to our normal days,' she noted when Ichigo closed the door behind them.

'Yeah, I'm not totally drained.'

'It's good to take breaks like this,' she said, falling back on his bed, arms spread.

'Hey, I hope you're not planning on sleeping there.'

'Ichigo, did you mean what you said?' she countered.

'About what?'

'About me being your most important person.' She felt embarrassed just asking him, but she had to know.

'I never actually said that,' he said evasively, but when she continued staring at him he caved. 'Alright fine, I meant it. Satisfied?'

'Not quite. You told me about your pain, Ichigo. Now it's my turn.'

'Rukia, you don't-'

'I want to,' she mimicked his earlier statement with a smile. Him towering over her was distracting, so she made space on the bed and patted it.

Ichigo snorted, 'If pops ever got wind of this…' he muttered, but lay down besides her anyway.

For the next few hours she poured out her heart, like she'd never done before. Her life in Rukongai with Renji; her entry into the shinigami academy; her adoption into the Kuchiki clan and estrangement with Renji. Then the thirteenth division and Kaien. Like Ichigo's experience, he'd also fallen in the rain. Much of it Ichigo had heard before, but he proved a good listener, prompting her with gentle questions when thick emotion made her voice waver.

'-after Kaien died I was alone again for years. I busied myself in my work, and tried to forget. Then one day captain Ukitake called me to his office about taking up my first assignment, a short term one in Karakura town. That was when I met you.'

'Mmm, and we know what happened after then,' said Ichigo, and reached over to grab his bedside alarm clock. 'We'd better get to sleep, it's quarter-to twelve, and we've got an early start tomorrow.'

'What are you talking about?'

'I gave the gang a call, and Ishida took it upon himself to organise us a trip to a very exclusive private beach. Apparently his dad has some sort of time-share ownership of it.'

'Thanks,' she said with a big smile, then frowned. 'Wait a moment, who's going to drive us? All you guys are far too young to have a drivers licence.' She wasn't that clued up about the material worlds customs and laws, but she knew for certain that sixteen year olds weren't supposed to be driving. Except in countries with messed up laws*.

'Ishida's got that covered too with the hospital's chauffer. He's being paid overtime to take us, that's why we've got to go early. Don't worry, everything's sorted, we're all chipping in.'

'Ishida a bit more then the rest, I presume?'

He scowled. 'Yeah. Friggin rich-kid.'

She snuggled in beside him. It was just so comfortable, she didn't want to move. 'Ichigo,' she said.

'I know,' he sighed, 'But with pops bursting in to wake me…'

She knew what he meant, so she got up to go to the closet. She couldn't resist smiling him goodnight before pulling the door shut.

x

On the other side of Karakura town, a Senkaimon gate open, and two black butterflies led a man and a woman out. They were in white high-collared shirts and pants, and had unremarkable thin Asian faces. The man had a jagged scar running down the left side of his face, it made his eye and lip droop. He wore a brown band around his right arm, it had white circle with a black five-pointed line star inside. The woman also wore the band, except her outer colour was purple.

'Well, we're here,' said the woman. 'Are you ready to go?'

He just looked at her expressionlessly.

'I'll watch the Quincys,' she said, and disappeared, appearing a moment later on a nearby rooftop. She the proceeded to jump from roof to roof.

After a moment the man did the same thing. Only he went in the other direction.

x

Ishida Uryu woke up with a gasp, and immediately checked his clock. It was past two in the morning, why was he awake? He'd had a weird dream, strange strands of reitsu floating around him. In the dream he'd never felt anything like them before. But feeling the air now, there was nothing.

Deciding he'd just eaten too much heavy food, he drank some water and went back to bed. He had a big day tomorrow. Perhaps if he brought flowers for Inoue-san, he thought as he drifted back off to sleep.

x

A/N: Sorry if the Ichigo and Rukia feel a bit OCish, but after 22 chapters of character development I think they can show a bit more vulnerability than they would in the series. They're still on baby steps, nothing's changed there… yet?

As for the armbands, think like the Nazi armband with a different symbol and a different outer colour. Not that armbands like that were in any way unique to the Nazi's, they were quite common among political groups around that time and before. But for obvious reasons, those are the ones that are remembered the best.

By the way, did you notice the cameo? Yip, that was me. And I do have a yellow Hawaiian shirt.