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.
Saturday, February 22, 2003
The look that Yoruichi shot to Urahara before she and Rukia began to spar was the first thing that clued Ichigo in that something was wrong. He'd been around her often enough to know her looks of displeasure and she definitely had one on now, even if it was subtle. The duo had set aside their zanpakutō before coming down to the training room, so it was going to be a purely unarmed fight. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta were watching from behind where he and Urahara stood.
Rukia and Yoruichi started out with basic hakuda and gradually picked up the pace, attacking, blocking and counterattacking until eventually Yoruichi caught Rukia with a hard kick that knocked her back several meters.
Ichigo had flinched slightly but continued watching.
The cat woman had followed up after the raven-haired Shinigami quickly but not ruthlessly, and Rukia was on the defensive against a still-gradually increasing attack speed. She managed to get in an interesting trip maneuver after sliding through Yoruichi's legs but as she went to follow up received a counterattack that once more knocked her back.
Yoruichi continued implacably, kicking the Shinigami back several more times and following up more quickly each time. Rukia got in solid surprise hit that staggered the older woman by being the first to use shunpo at close-range, but was once more sent into a tumble by Yoruichi as she did the same in return. She had then followed up immediately. It had been some sort of red line.
Rukia only barely dodged a stomp as she stood up and her effort to reposition to attack was met by a blow that knocked her square back into a large rock. It was then that Ichigo saw exactly what was coming.
Yoruichi suddenly appeared above his partner and said "Too slow," before bringing her fist back and immediately swinging it down with all her might. Rukia found there was no way she could dodge it in time. She closed her eyes as she braced for the hit and heard a heavy blow connect. She blinked her eyes open as she felt nothing.
Ichigo stood in front of her, fist still extended, a fierce determination in his eyes. Yoruichi skidded away in a plume of dust from the force of the punch, tumbling before regaining her balance—Ichigo had used shunpo to get to her and it had dramatically increased the kinetic power of his strike. He slowly drew his fist back and stood upright.
"Ichigo!" Rukia called out. To interfere in somebody else's fight, especially a training one was—
"Shut up," Ichigo said calmly. Rukia could only stare at his tone. "She was really gonna hit you that time."
"That's right, Rukia. Don't think I'm going to go easy on you," Yoruichi said as she stood in the dissipating dust cloud. There was blood trickling from a corner of her mouth and she wiped it away with a hand before looking at it. "Not bad, Ichigo, I'm impressed," she said with a small smile, "Even if it was a cheap shot."
"No such thing," Ichigo said, extending a hand to Rukia without looking to her. Rukia stared at it for a moment, disbelieving, as Ichigo continued: "Your pride is injured because someone helped you fight a stronger opponent? Don't be stupid: that's the point of teamwork! Your pride is wounded because someone interfered in your fight to save you? Don't be stupid: get stronger so you can save that person some day in turn! Your pride is stung because you didn't win on your terms? Don't be stupid: the only term that matters is winning! Fighting one-on-one is the luxury of a duel, not the reality of a war!"
Rukia's eyes widened as memories of Ukitake's words before Kaien's death played through her mind. She immediately flashed to Ichigo's fight against Grand Fisher. But…
Yoruichi narrowed her eyes as a grin formed on her face. "Now you're starting to think like a member of the Onmitsukidō!" she declared, before rushing forward with shunpo.
Ichigo grimaced and instantly moved to shunpo as well, picking up Rukia and leaping right as Yoruichi reduced the rock she'd been leaning against to a crater with a drop kick.
"Ichigo, what the hell!" Rukia declared, shaking herself out of her surprise at the sudden turn in the training.
"Get it together already," Ichigo said sharply, "we're gonna have to stand and fight if we want to have—"
"Stop running!" Yoruichi interrupted, appearing beside them. Ichigo turned away, rather than toward her, absorbing a kick she had snapped toward Rukia.
The duo careened off at a new angle from the force of the blow, and Ichigo rotated during their fall to absorb the impact as they crashed into a collection of rocks, sending up an enormous dust plume.
As the dust cleared, Yoruichi stood in the new crater, picking Ichigo up by the collar. Rukia was nowhere to be found. She had not held back whatsoever on that kick and the orange-haired teenager was already pretty beaten up from it and the impact. "Huh, 'so you can save that person some day in turn,' eh, Ichigo?" the cat woman said, looking about theatrically for the missing Shinigami. "How does it make you feel, knowing—"
She was interrupted by Ichigo reaching out a hand and putting a finger to her forehead. "Hadō Number 4—" he began. Yoruichi's eyes went wide.
Ichigo was in turn interrupted as he was knocked over, Rukia landing a shunpo assisted kick square into Yourichi's back that sent the pair flying. Rukia immediately got up, only for Ichigo to rise in front of her, Yoruichi having lost her grip on him.
He slid into a fighting stance a fraction of a second too late as the Flash Goddess did a flying kick out of the dust toward Rukia, and was only barely able to reposition in time to take the blow and knock Yoruichi off course. It was, once more, a full-power hit, and Yoruichi followed it up by spinning and punching Ichigo straight back towards his partner.
Rukia, to her credit, tried to catch him, but both were bowled over by the effort. The pair jumped up to confront the woman as she stared them both down. She now actually looked genuinely irritated. "Is this a joke? I'm not even fighting at half my full strength or speed; if you just keep protecting her without attacking you're gonna die, Ichigo," Yoruichi declared. The look on her face went cold as she added "One of the commandments of the Onmitsukidō is: if an opponent is so far above you that you can't save a comrade from them, you should let that comrade die and live to fight another day."
"Never leave a man behind: never get left behind," Ichigo spat, fully straightening up.
The Flash Goddess laughed harshly at this, taunting: "So which is it: victory, or saving your friends? What can you do when the latter precludes the former?"
Ichigo grinned as he said "You want to talk about jokes..." What good is victory if your friends are dead? Victory is, necessarily…
Rukia pushed up alongside Ichigo at that and adopted one of the CQC stances they had learned. "We're not going to beat her if we play by her rules, Ichigo!"
Yoruichi tilted her head quizzically at both the remark Ichigo made and the stance Rukia adopted.
With only a moment's hesitation, Ichigo likewise took up a CQC stance. "You know we're gonna have to go all in on this one."
"Don't look down on me, Ichigo," Rukia said, a new determination in her voice.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Rukia," Ichigo replied. It was not the time for jokes about her height.
At that they both used shunpo to go in two different directions. Yoruichi smirked and took off after Rukia. It would be trivially easy to keep Ichigo off-balance by focusing on her. Watching the cat woman speed toward her, Rukia held out a finger and fired off a Byakurai without incantation. Yoruichi easily dodged, taunting "Like that'll do anything!"
"It did what it was supposed to," Rukia said with a grimace, and Yoruichi's eyes widened as she felt Ichigo appear above her. She turned to block right as she heard Rukia shout "Bakudō Number 1: Sai!"
Yoruichi was able to break it almost instantly, but it slowed her down just enough for Ichigo to snap kick her in the torso and send her careening down toward the ground.
The Flash Goddess turned in midair and forced herself to stop, snapping her head back up. She was just in time to receive a double uppercut from both that sent her spiraling back parallel along the ground. Damn, she thought, I might actually have to take this seriously…
She once more forced herself to stop and looked up to see the duo streak toward her at what even she would admit was respectable speed. They were only a moment and meters away. She clapped her hands together and for a moment there was a blinding flash of light. Ichigo and Rukia both stopped immediately at it, only to find themselves within a pale gold hemispherical kidō barrier when it ended. It was clear they were only seeing half of it and the other half extended into the ground.
Yoruichi was on the other side and had used shunpo to put several more meters between them. She now regarded the pair with a passive smile on her face: "As you said, there's no such thing as a cheap shot. You lose. Now I could kill you at my leisure if I wanted to." She seemed to ponder. "Maybe I'd crush you," she said, the barrier starting to ever so slowly contract, "or maybe I'd—"
Ichigo tilted his head down and grinned, cutting her off: "Ne, Rukia, do you feel like dying today?" Rukia looked at him with panicked confusion at this. She could see the flash of blue in his eyes, could feel the reiatsu pour out from him.
"Ichigo, she wouldn't really—" Rukia began, jerking her head back to Yoruichi.
"Try me, Kuchiki, I'm not afraid of Byakuya-bo!" Yoruichi exclaimed with an equally wicked grin, and the barrier began to contract significantly faster.
"Because I figure that'd be a pretty shitty end to the week," Ichigo said, suddenly behind Rukia. He placed his right hand on the back of hers and clamped his fingers down between hers as he brought both their arms up to point toward Yoruichi.
The Flash Goddess frowned in sudden confusion, the barrier's contraction slowing accordingly.
"Ichigo, what are you—" Rukia began to say. She was cut off by him bracing himself to her with his left arm as he brought his head down beside hers.
"Sorry," he whispered, pain telling in his voice from whatever damage Yoruichi had done, "the highest thing I can remember the incantation to is only thirty three."
Rukia's head turned toward Ichigo's, her eyes wide, to find him looking and smiling at her. "You can't possibly be—" she started, only to see that look that said trust me yet again. It was unheard of for two people to do such a thing. It was inconceivable as to what the consequences would be. To her knowledge it had never been tried. She felt her own gaze harden, as two conflicting emotions suddenly roared to life within her, drowning out the lingering fear and confusion of a training exercise that was now suddenly too real.
"I'll handle the power, you handle the control—equals, all in," he said, "I can't do it without you, partner."
"Kurosaki Ichigo, I—"
"Three, two…" he said over her. His lips mouthed the word "one" right as she felt his reiatsu begin to flow around her own.
She decided then that she would do it because she trusted him, even as she didn't trust herself and didn't trust that it was necessary. She didn't trust that Yoruichi was really trying to kill them now, or had been—even if both she and Urahara had put them in lethal situations before. But she did, above all else, trust Ichigo, even as she hated him for it, and also as she…
They both proclaimed as one voice: "Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Hadō Number 33: Sōkatsui!"
Yourichi's eyes widened halfway through the incantation she realized they were truly serious. She made a snap decision to ride it out rather than try and dodge, and immediately exclaimed "Bakudō Number 73: Tozanshō!" in return.
The gold barrier flashed with a blinding bright blue-white glare that filled the entire training arena, forcing everyone else to look away. The barrier held for only the merest fraction of a second, like a contained explosion, before instantly failing at all points along its surface, just as an inverted pyramid finished forming around Yoruichi.
The hemisphere expanded comparatively slowly then in a deafening roar, everything upon the ground it touched vaporizing and flaring away, vast electrical arcs crackling out of it. Suddenly, the entire half of it facing the pyramid distorted and surged forward, its regular structure becoming an angular wash of destructive energy waves.
In the awful chaos of light and noise it was completely impossible to see Urahara shunpo atop the pyramid, to hear his shikai release of "Okiro, Benihime" or likewise to hear his utterance of "Tsuppane, Benihime!" as he drew his zanpakutō in a small circle.
The wave stopped in place right before the barrier, before there was another blinding flash of light and it disappeared, a ridiculously deep but thin fissure having been formed immediately in front of the man astride the pyramid. Urahara jumped down to the other side of the gap right as the spell behind him was dispelled, considering the shihakushō clad pair before him.
Ichigo was already slumped against Rukia, clearly unconscious, blood trickling from his mouth. Rukia was barely standing and panting deeply. The outfits of both were nicked and torn from the back blast of the kidō while it had been momentarily contained within the barrier. Rukia began to wobble and fell forward with Ichigo right as Urahara used shunpo to move up, catching both against him.
"Easy, easy," he said, right before Rukia passed out. Yoruichi appeared beside him then, looking at the pair in his arms for a moment. Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta were running up from whatever cover they had sought, but hadn't yet reached them. Yoruichi took Ichigo while Urahara hung on to Rukia. "I think you overdid it," Urahara said lightly, adjusting his hat down, "Now who's ruining evenings?"
"That would…definitely have broken a Bakudō of that strength," Yoruichi said solemnly, looking at Urahara. Her eyes were still a bit wide at what they had just witnessed, and her meaning was clear: if he hadn't done what he had, he'd be treating three patients.
"Well, I'm sure the news they technically beat you will lighten their mood," Urahara said, turning toward the ladder, "Now help me get them upstairs." With that, he disappeared with Rukia. Yoruichi glanced at Ichigo's still form before following after him.
Rukia sat up with a start only to be instantly assured by a voice to her side that "He's alright, he's just sleeping it off."
Her eyes snapped sideways in recognition to see Yourichi sitting on a tatami mat next to the futon she herself was sitting on. The woman met her gaze directly for a second before bowing deeply, saying "I'm sorry, Rukia."
Rukia was quiet at the highly unusual gesture and tone from the woman, and sat in silence more from surprise than from any lingering animosity. If Ichigo is okay, then… "I'm sure you had a reason, so I don't hold it against you, Yoruichi-san," she said at last.
Yourichi was quiet for a moment before sitting back up. She was still looking down. "The two of us, Kisuke and I, feel an obligation that if we're to train you, we have to make sure you have no inhibitions about protecting yourselves or one another," she said, before meeting Rukia's gaze again, "Pride, honor, justice…none of that matters if one or both of you are dead. The surest way to dispel you of those notions was to force you to confront that idea immediately."
Rukia said nothing to this, mentally rewinding the fight from this perspective. If that was the case, then, "I guess we failed," she said.
"No," Yoruichi said immediately, before pursing her lips. She too, had her pride: "Well, I was holding back, but if you take what I did as a representative scenario, you passed. Ichigo knew the stakes from the moment I was going to hit you, and you kept pace pretty well too."
"But not as well," Rukia said.
"He would've been screwed at the end there if it wasn't for you, Rukia," Yoruichi said earnestly, "He wasn't lying when he said he couldn't do it without you. Don't be so hard on yourself."
"He kept taking hits because he was trying to protect me…" Rukia continued on.
"Remember what he said after he entered the fight," Yoruichi reminded gently, before sighing. "Do you know why it was so easy for me to kick you around to begin with? It's because you were completely distracted. Your heart wasn't in it and you were really thinking about something else," she said.
Rukia blinked at how easily the woman had seen through her and looked away.
Yoruichi continued in turn. "You know, what goes on between the two of you isn't really any of my business, even if Ichigo is—" she suddenly paused and smirked at Rukia. "Well, between you and me," she continued, "I tease him plenty, and he's seen me naked a few times, but it's clear who he has eyes for and I don't mind telling you I think of him as something between a friend, a student, and an adoptive brother by turns. But don't tell him, yeah?"
Rukia blushed a shade as she put together what it meant if Ichigo would try and avoid looking at a woman like Yoruichi.
"Anyway, I like Ichigo, and Ichigo likes you. I also like Byakuya-bo, and he likes you too. So by the transitive property I guess I'm almost like your adoptive big sister as well as each of theirs," the woman pontificated as if she hadn't considered it, before coming back from being side-tracked and asking "Do you want my advice?"
Rukia found the cat woman looking at her and just stared back expectantly, both not sure what to make of her sudden "adoption" and knowing Yoruichi was the sort to speak her mind.
After a moment, reading her look, Yoruichi did precisely that: "I'm sure you've noticed that couples in the ranks of the Shinigami are exceedingly rare. Can you easily think of any off-hand who were both active in the Gotei 13, other than your former fukutaichō and his wife?"
Rukia let the reference go without dwelling on it, finding that was still very slowly becoming easier, and after thinking for a moment shook her head.
"There are four reasons for that. The first is because there are only so many others to pick from. The second is because all kinds of interesting things start to happen with your reiatsu when it's exposed to powerful emotions on a regular basis and that can be difficult and embarrassing to hide even for people who are used to controlling themselves. The third is that making it work is tough because so much of the job revolves around sacrifices. The fourth is that people are afraid of loss. It's a lot easier for your feelings, your reputation, and your sanity if you just don't open up," Yourichi said.
A silence extended between them then before Yoruichi reached out a hand and laid it on one of Rukia's. Rukia blinked and looked back up to meet the woman's gaze, finding she had a soft and considerate smile.
"But as much as you might think you're saving another person from pain, you're also inflicting a different kind of pain upon them if it's reciprocal and you lock them out. Don't wall yourself off," she said.
Rukia watched as Ichigo woke up and started, surveying his surroundings. Her saw her immediately and said in relief "Rukia."
She said nothing in response at first, and saw the worry immediately start to build on his face. She looked down at her lap then, hair falling to shield her eyes. "We need to talk," she said softly.
"What—" her partner began.
"Shut up, Ichigo," she said, only a bit louder. He fell silent immediately at her tone, and she paused to collect her thoughts. After some time, Rukia began at last: "The more this week went on and things fell into a normal pattern…well, normal for us…the more I thought 'this is fine'." She halted again, "I began to think that maybe it had all just been nerves and stress and joy and…we could go back to how things used to be and it would be fine. We could just be...partners. And I began to think that maybe things were better that way. What we're doing looks to be so dangerous, and I'm ten times your age, and we're from different worlds, and I'm a noble and…" she trailed off.
She clenched her hands into fists, taking in handfuls of her shihakushō.
"I thought that being that way again wouldn't be so bad if it meant we would both be safe, even if neither of us would truly be… But then today happened," she said. "The way you just decided to intervene, like you always do, without any thought for yourself. The way you poured everything into it, even as it wasn't truly necessary. You knew that if she really wanted to hurt me, or you, that she would have, and still you…" her voice grew harsh. There was a pause. "I hated you then, Ichigo. With every fiber of my being, I hated you for the risks you take, have always taken, will always take," she said.
She continued before he could say anything. "At the same time, just as much, I… I stopped liking you a long time ago, Ichigo. I know it was the same for you, yet neither of us… We haven't really been partners for a long time now! In that same moment I knew that I loved you just as much, even as I hated you for your total disregard for yourself and for others—I loved you for it just as much, and more than anything else I believed in you! And so not for the first time, and inevitably not for the last, I went along with you as you did something so incredibly stupid and reckless, despite all sense and out of all proportion…"
Rukia looked up at Ichigo then, met his gaze. His eyes were wide. She was far too proud and strong a woman to be weepy and funneled all the iron resolve she had into her stare even as her emotions churned. "I love you, Kurosaki Ichigo! I want to spend the rest of eternity with you. I want…" she again trailed off for a moment, there being more besides that she had too much pride to say even now. "And that's why I need to hear it back from you, right here and right now, not when you fear for my safety, not on some battlefield, not in the middle of a fight, not in a life-or-death situation, not as one of us is about to die, not when one of us is already dying! I need to hear it back from you when the only thing you have to fear is me!"
"Of course I…" Ichigo began as she continued to stare him down. He stopped himself, closed his eyes, breathed. A long silence stretched out between them then. At last he sat up fully to face her, and when he looked at her again the expression in his eyes was completely different. It was the same expression she had seen on him a thousand times: that cocky and self-assured look that was proof that all was right in the world and nothing was ever really at risk. "Kuchiki Rukia," he began again, "I would kill for you; I would give my life for you; I would live my life for you…but really I just want to live my life with you. I…love you."
"Promise me you won't die," she said immediately. She didn't refer to his physical body.
"I promise. Promise me," he replied.
"I promise."
"And we'll work it out no matter what happens."
"And we'll stand and fight together no matter what."
They stared at one another for a long time afterwards, not moving. There was no need to embrace; their reiatsu was so dense around each other now that they scarcely would've felt it if they had. And even still, despite it all, they were both proud people. There'd be time enough later.
Urahara and Yoruichi sipped tea across a kotatsu from one another, Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu having retreated to the front of the shop to do some work and to intercept the highly probable arrival of the pair's friends when they noticed the reiatsu storm that everyone was politely ignoring in the next room. They could just barely hear that Ichigo and Rukia were talking, but not whatever they were saying to one another. It was obvious what they were discussing.
Yoruichi narrowed her eyes and glanced across her teacup at Urahara, saying quietly "I'm shocked you're not trying to listen in on them."
"Do you take me for some kind of lecherous old man?" Urahara asked with only a faint sense of injury. "Public displays of affection are one thing, but private revelations of the heart are another entirely," he said, adding "Anyway, there's nothing to be learned or recorded."
Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at him at that claim.
"They're both so predictable about such things, and besides," he paused and brought his hat down to cover his eyes, "I know what it's like to be in love."
The Flash Goddess smirked and continued sipping her tea, looking askance.