A/N: Thank you for any and all reviews, favorites, and follows, as well as all you other readers out there!
Bleach and all products thereof are copyright to Tite Kubo, et al.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
The two PCs booted up in a way that looked to Ichigo to be completely unremarkable. They appeared to run off Windows XP, and loaded quite quickly, and so in less than two minutes both he and Rukia were looking at desktops of grassy hills beneath a blue sky. They were apparently completely uncustomized, and only two icons were visible: the Recycle Bin, and a document that had a film reel icon and was labeled "Open Me."
"Rukia, use the mouse to select the second icon, and hit the enter key when I say so, okay?" Ichigo asked. He didn't think she'd ever used one of their computers before and didn't want to explain double-clicking yet. He didn't know that it was necessary for them to both open the files simultaneously, but he wanted to be sure whatever it did wasn't out of sync between them.
After a moment she simply said "Mmm," in agreement. It was relatively intuitive.
"Now," Ichigo said. Both of them hit enter.
A light came on at the top of each monitor then indicating the built-in cameras had turned on, and something else besides lit up from what looked like an infrared receiver port. They were both suddenly scanned by a beam whose effects visually resembled those of checkout counter lasers. After this a command prompt window appeared on each screen, many lines of text scrolling by too quickly to read before what seemed to be gibberish flowed past at an astonishing speed. The prompts closed, and a new program window that was completely black appeared. Their screens then both went black as it resized itself to fill them.
A flash of white played at the center of the screen, occluded by a black disk, only for the former to freeze on the latter's right side as a three-quarters visage of a skull faded into view on the left. Around these faded in a shield outline with a scroll along its bottom. The body of the shield was filled in by a starburst effect of purple on black, with the words 'NIGHTMARE ECLIPSE" appearing in the scroll in yellow-orange. The total animation took only two seconds and held for another two, before the screen cut to blue, yellow text reading 'TOP SECRET – US / SS EYES ONLY" and "Distribution F: Further dissemination only as directed by USSOCOM 02/15/03 or higher DoD authority." Ichigo noted the date was only the previous day. This screen held for a few more seconds.
They were then greeted by a tight-framed shot of a woman sitting at a desk. Behind her was a rather well-stocked bookshelf, and she was flanked on her right by what seemed to be an American flag and on her left a red one neither had ever seen before. She wore a uniform that was somewhat like Alan's in cut but sage green, with a tan dress shirt, and a sage neck tab instead of a tie. Instead of pins reading "U.S." on her jacket's lapels she had dark metal anchor, globe, and eagle insignias. She had an extensive panel of ribbons, but no name tag or other devices. On each shoulder strap she wore a single silver star.
She appeared to be in her mid-40s but there was a hardness in her expression and eyes that suggested she was somewhat older. Her skin was a warm caramel color, her eyes a light brown hazel, and her hair a sandy blonde, clipped into a short and conservative pixie cut. She was staring straight into the camera and Ichigo swore he could feel her intensity even separated in time and space and through a recording. He had met many, many strong people in his life, and this was without exception one of the most intimidating ones he had ever seen, male or female, and she achieved it purely through her stare.
Her expression loosened into a professional smile that had hints of genuine warmth in it, but her eyes did not change one iota. "Staff Sergeant Kurosaki Ichigo and Lieutenant Kuchiki Rukia," she began, speaking American English with a warm tone and the slightest hint of a twang. Ichigo wasn't that versed in American accents but he could place it as being of some sort of southern origin. She was being subtitled as she spoke, and it was clear it was pre-recorded and not a live transmission. Ichigo could hear her from both his front and back, as both computers were playing the same thing.
"I'm sure that by now you're both wondering what exactly this has been all about. Allow me to address some of your questions. I am Brigadier General Riley Richter of the United States Marine Corps, and I'm the commander of US Special Operations Command's paranormal and supernatural activities division, Nightmare Eclipse," she said, and Ichigo almost thought he could see a smirk at the corner of the woman's lips. The fact this woman was, in some way, his actual boss, or his boss's boss, or whatever, filled him with both awe and dread.
"Although neither of you are soldiers in the traditional sense, know that despite that I am aware of the actions you have undertaken and regard your experience with respect. In deference to that, I will make this brief. You are familiar with four realms of existence," she continued, and at this she faded away to a black screen, displaying a blue circle at its center, "Earth," which was surrounded by three others: a red one "Hell," a white one, "Hueco Mundo," and a dark grey one "and Soul Society."
Her voice continued over the image of these: "This picture is incomplete. You might have at some point asked yourself 'Why only four?' and in this case the answer is because that is the limit of your experience," she said. At that the screen filled up with more and more circles of various shades, and began to jump-cut outwards in stages to show more and more, until at last the screen was just a messy riot of pixilated color. Neither Ichigo nor Rukia had noticed one of first to fill in was labeled Gehenna, nor would it have meant anything to them if they had. The screen cut back to Brigadier General Richter.
"There is apparently no end to these realms. Many of these realms are dead, and just as many are not. Many of those that are not are, by now, inconsequential in comparison to Earth. As I'm sure you have ascertained, having been driven by military competition and necessity, Earth has rapidly expanded its capabilities in such matters and thus its prominence among these. Of course, as you at least may know, Staff Sergeant Kurosaki, that is not the only issue," she said, raising an eyebrow at the camera right as it cut away to blackness again.
An image of Earth from space appeared then, centered on Japan. It panned out rapidly, showing the Moon, until both disappeared from sight. What seemed to be the Sun zoomed by to become one star among many before being lost to view as the camera kept zooming out to encompass the entire Milky Way. Still the camera withdrew and soon the Milky Way was one galaxy among dozens, and then thousands, and the camera continued until what seemed to be a sort of glowing foamy filamentary structure filled the screen.
"The observable universe encompasses a light-cone of radius 13.7 billion light-years, although for various reasons, the actual physical dimensions of this volume are closer now to 46 billion light-years in radius. There is no indication that the total universe is anything less than infinite in scope," Brigadier General Richter said. Rukia knew essentially nothing of astronomy and so this was all news to her, and the terminology the woman used left her completely lost for the moment.
The screen went back to the Brigadier General, who now reclined somewhat in her chair, steepling her hands. "You can perhaps understand the scale of the problem: we live in an infinitely large realm, and there are an infinite number of realms—and in both infinities there are many unpleasant things, a few of which you are familiar with. As you might imagine," the Brigadier General paused for a moment, inclining her head and giving a small grin that was subtly wolfish, "we keep pretty busy dealing with that."
"Unfortunately," Brigadier General Richter glanced down, "the more successful we have become in securing Earth from outside interference in the course of securing ourselves against each other, the more attention we have drawn from outside. Although we have kept pace with these developments, a confluence of events is starting to strain not just our resources but those of our allies. The particulars of these don't concern you at the moment, but the gist is this: one, we don't have enough people to go around; and two, the people we do have are overcommitted."
The Brigadier General sat back up and resumed looking directly into the camera, saying "And that's where you come in. Although Soul Society's resources aren't prodigious, what it lacks in quantity, it somewhat makes up for in quality. And so you are going to help us help you help us…" the Brigadier General trailed off to indicate it was an ad nauseam, before giving a smile and look that made both Ichigo and Rukia's blood run cold "…because at the end of the day, it turns out we're all in the same boat."
There was a lingering pause then, before she let the smile leave her lips. "Your current mission regarding Xcution can be thought of as a training day; everyone has a vested interest in seeing both your capabilities develop more fully and in more ways than one. Once that has been achieved, we will assist as necessary in putting Soul Society's outstanding…issues…to order with the two of you as the tip of the spear of our efforts. When that has been addressed, we will move on to more pressing matters."
The Brigadier General held up a finger, "You no doubt wonder at the meaning of what I just said, and I can only tell you that you will be better informed as you gain the ability to meaningfully influence the outcome. In this capacity, you will have to trust me, just as I am placing trust in you."
"For now," she concluded, leaning back again in her chair, "the main thing that you should concern yourselves with is getting stronger. Resources have been prepared to assist you. Good luck, and good hunting," she concluded, and it seemed that a predatory grin crossed her lips right as the screen went black.
The window closed, and the pair found themselves looking at completely different desktops than they had started on. Ichigo's background was an abstract geometric pattern in black, red, and white, while Rukia's was a cute Chappy graphic. Both were filled with folders that had titles like "Basic Marksmanship," "Military Bearing," "Close Quarters Combat," and so on. Neither bothered to immediately investigate them, and both found themselves just staring at the screens in silence before turning their chairs to look at one another.
Neither said anything for awhile, still at a loss for words. Ichigo inhaled sharply and then let it out, saying only "That lady is scary."
Rukia crossed her legs and rested an elbow on one her chair's armrests, bringing a hand up to her chin as she considered her partner. "You should probably get used to calling her 'Brigadier General Richter' because if you think you can treat her the same way you do with calling Yamamoto-sōtaichō 'ojii' she's definitely gonna kill you, in this world and every other," she deadpanned.
"Don't even joke about that," Ichigo retorted, crossing his arms.
"I think I like her," Rukia said, smiling.
"Tch," was all Ichigo said in response.
"Hey," Rukia said, pointing a finger at him and squinting, "What's a light-year?"
They had shut the machines off for the time-being and had gone to the living room to decompress after having had the structure of the cosmos explained to them. Rukia watched TV while Ichigo laid on the couch beside her, feet pointed towards her. They'd been given rather a lot to consider, and so they felt entitled to a break.
"Rukia," Ichigo said at last, "If we're gonna keep up some reasonable pretense of a cover story, you're probably gonna have to come back to school."
"Yes," she said absent-mindedly.
"And I'm probably gonna have to quit my job, there just won't be enough time in the day to do everything."
"Yes."
"And from what Karin said last night at the party she's been trying to help deal with Hollows, maybe she might be interested in working for Ikumi in my place…but then I bet they'd video-conference with Alan to conspire against me or something like that," he huffed.
"Yes," Rukia continued.
"Hey, you," Ichigo said, looking up at her as she continued watching TV, "are you even listening to me?"
At this, Rukia snapped her eyes over to him in a glare and in a smooth motion wrapped an arm around his ankles with surprising strength, before she began to mercilessly tickle his helpless feet. Ichigo immediately started to laugh and tried to kick and thrash as she berated him. "You think you're the only one with problems, Kurosaki Ichigo?! I just got told that the universe personally wants to murder me and nii-sama and everybody else and that I have to get strong and deal with it, and you want to talk to me about your part-time job and how I have to pretend to be a high school student right now?!" she proclaimed, showing no signs of stopping in her torture.
"I—I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Ichigo managed between laughing fits, "Rukia, I'm sorry, please stop!"
She continued for a second before stopping, though she kept her arm clamped on his ankles for longer as a threat as he caught his breath. As she was finally letting go, he used her grip as leverage to do a sit up and managed to get his hands under her arms, tickling back. She immediately let out a squeak at the sensation and tried to go for his feet again, only to retarget his underarms in turn. They fell off the couch in a heap, each trying to tickle the other.
Fortunately, the living room was structured around an open area, so they didn't run into anything. The battle was vicious, and ultimately came down to Ichigo's superior strength and reach against Rukia's greater agility and inclination to violence.
In the end, Ichigo sat with only some of his weight on the small of Rukia's back, holding one of her legs by the ankle and tickling her foot while she writhed underneath him laughing and trying to grab for his feet in turn. After a minute of trying with all her might she couldn't take it anymore and declared between laughs "Okay you win!" and "Ichigo, stop!"
He immediately did so, letting her leg go, but stayed where he was for just a second. "Promise you won't start again?" he asked.
"I promise," she said, putting as much sincerity as she could into it.
Ichigo found he didn't quite believe it for some reason and, transferring most but not all of his weight onto his legs, pivoted so he was facing the same way she was, pinning her once more as she tried to grab at his feet again. "Something tells me you're not being honest," he said.
"I am, I swear, come on, you're not exactly light!" she said, even though he was putting less than half his weight on her and also wasn't particularly heavy.
Ichigo placed his hands on Rukia's upper back and started to gently massage her, "You tryin' to tell me to go on a diet?" he asked casually.
"N—no," she replied, caught off guard by the sudden change in sensations.
Ichigo let his fingers start to work her superior trapezius muscles around the base of her neck and shoulders. His touch remained considered as he didn't want to hurt her, but his grip firmed up. Although Rukia was both petite and lithe, she was quite fit and her gigai reflected it. He quickly identified several knots, zeroing in on them to work them out.
Rukia let out a murmur at this but it was surprisingly relaxing; she'd never had a real back rub before, let alone a massage. She instinctively brought her arms up in front of her and crossed them to rest her head against them, giving Ichigo a bit more room to work with her neck.
Ichigo brought his hands up in turn, being very careful as he continued to loosen her neck muscles. "Promise you won't start again?" he asked more quietly.
"Mmm hmm," was all she said in response, tilting her head back a little and leaning into the massage.
"Want me to stop?" he asked as his hands dipped down to work along her clavicles.
"Don't you dare," she muttered.
Ichigo smirked and continued to massage her in silence, letting his hands go where he felt she was tensest. Rukia, in turn, did her damnedest not to let him hear her. They hadn't deliberately set out to distract one another, but it was what they naturally wound up doing. Several minutes later Ichigo was working around Rukia's shoulders and the latter had become quite relaxed against the rug.
"Hey, do you want to go hang out with everyone else?" he asked.
Rukia made a noncommittal noise in response.
"It can just be Chad, Inoue, and Ishida," Ichigo offered.
Rukia made the same noise again.
"You know if we just keep to ourselves they'll start talking…" Ichigo teased in caution.
Rukia got out something that sounded like "Let them talk." Ichigo smiled softly and returned his hands to her back, starting on her middle and inferior traps. "It's not fair," Rukia added at that, shifting under the new focus.
She sounded sleepy to Ichigo and he found it surprisingly cute. "We don't have to go. You sound pretty tired. Want me to carry you to bed, Kuchiki-dono?"
She surprised him then by turning around underneath him, having used one of his legs as a brace to rotate against by pushing with an arm and leg. He automatically moved his hands up toward her shoulders as she turned so he wouldn't be left with his hands dangerously close to her chest, and found himself looking down at her. She gazed up at him with an odd glint in her half-lidded ultramarine eyes and looked somewhere between pouty and amused. She lazily lifted an arm, bringing a finger to his nose. "Didn't I say that maybe you should shut up earlier?" she asked.
Ichigo blinked and then let a smirk play on his lips, tilting his head so that her finger brushed against them "I think it was determined I had some issue with that and needed assistance," he said idly, as if he couldn't quite recall.
Rukia withdrew her finger and gripped the collar of his shirt, pulling him down toward her. He gripped her shoulders and stopped himself with their noses just a few centimeters apart, his eyes searching in hers. "Well, you did brush your teeth," she whispered, before starting to tilt her head to one side. Ichigo found himself tilting his opposite as he slowly lowered himself down.
Both were closing their eyes as they were stopped by the sudden noise of their cell phones ringing. Both looked up toward the alcove that led to their bedrooms, and back to each other, determined not to lose the moment, but the phones just kept ringing and…
Rukia lightly pushed Ichigo off her with an aggravated cry. With a loud sigh he let her, coming to rest in a sitting position as she sat up next to him. They frowned heavily at each other and stood together to go get their phones, both quietly cursing that there would be hell to pay.