Author's Note: Ch9 edited for typos and minor prose issues. It maybe further overhauled eventually.
Ichigo woke with a groggy head. A flowery scent lingered in his nose. Slowly it all came back to him. Hanataro and Saiki. Haruka. Tensa Zangetsu. The Menos Grande.
Rukia Kuchiki.
That crazy girl had been furious for some inane reason. She had struck him, not in the harmless bantering way, but she had hit him with the full force of her spiritual pressure. A knee to his ribs, directly over his heart. What a crazy, sexy girl. He didn't know if he liked that.
He touched his chest… found no injury. No bruise or ache or even a memory of discomfort.
He was inside a tent of linen cloth or similar, didn't look too waterproof. There was enough space for three or four people sleeping with shoulders touching. He looked through a gap in the entrance flaps, saw he was far, far away from town, high on a hill overlooking a lush forest. It was getting dark outside, the sky now shades of mauve. The crescent moon shone golden-white.
"You're awake, about time, finally," Rukia said from behind in a monotone voice, startling him. Still garbed in that body-length hooded white cloak, she sat in the corner, reading a thick paperback book. Lantern light glimmered in her eyes.
He ought to be angry, after what she had pulled on him, but his heart was at peace. No one had died or suffered mutilating injuries. Over a hundred Hollows—slain. Plus one Gillian oaf. Today was a proud day for the Gotei 13. A decisive victory. Now that he had seen their military prowess, he felt more at ease knowing his friends and family were under their protective watch. As with Tensa Zangetsu, he would simply have to trust the Gotei 13.
"I'm glad you've calmed down," Rukia said.
Muscles on one side of Ichigo's face constricted. "You're the one who needed to calm down."
"You had quite an overreaction."
"You were shouting and hitting me, then you broke my ribs. You're lucky Hanataro is a skilled healer."
Cautious indigo eyes slowly shifted to him. "I didn't break your ribs. I hit you with Hakufuku. It's a powerful anesthetic Kido, but it may cause disorientation, nausea, and hallucinations. At higher strengths, it may painfully halt one's heart for a second, which you felt. Sorry about that." Her tone was far too chirpy for someone saying sorry.
"Apology not accepted," he drawled.
"You're welcome."
"I'm welcome? What do you mean by that?"
"It means you're welcome, carrot-top."
"I said apology not accepted! Clean out your ears." He wasn't sure why either he or she was being this argumentative and petty. It was coming naturally. In a way, it felt like home. He was enjoying it.
And so was she, a little smile on her pretty face. "This is the second time I've saved you from a Hollow. You don't have to thank me, but you are welcome."
"Tch." He had no retort for that one. He changed the subject: "Why'd you hit me with Hakufuku?"
"One, to shut your disrespectful mouth. Two, I thought it'd be easier that way to retrieve you. It can be jarring when you're being escorted by someone else's Flash Step."
"Retrieve me?"
"Yes, retrieve you." Rukia huffed a cute breath. "My primary orders are to bring you to the Seireitei and fully assess your worth to the Gotei 13. If you think they would send me, a third-seat officer, all the way out here for no other reason than to be your personal plaything, then you are sorely mistaken. I was the one who first identified your potential, so in a way, you are now my responsibility."
Ichigo scratched his ear. Wires in his brain connected. "They told you about Saiki. About how it was my fault. And now you're taking the blame as well?"
Rukia nodded. "What you did was very reckless. In hindsight, we should've told you to wait inside the Sorting Room, but I guess that was a miscommunication on our part. Nevertheless, the past is the past. Move on and enjoy the present while you can."
"Yeah, that's what Haruka said."
At the mention of the busty blonde temptress, Rukia's jaw shifted left and right. Was it a bitter rivalry? Seemed more like the usual schoolgirl drama. "Haruka says many things, as chatty as she is." Rukia picked up his Wakizashi, unsheathed it, and waved it around like a toy. "She told me about your Zanpakuto. Or Zanpakutos, should I say. Tensa Zangetsu."
"What's your Zanpakuto's name?" he asked.
She picked up his Katana. "Why do you want to know? Hmm?"
"Well since you know mine…"
"You didn't ask for Haruka's." Apparently, they had talked quite a bit.
"I forgot to," he said flatly, truthfully.
After some more flippant waving of his swords, she said, "Sode no Shirayuki."
He hadn't expected such a poetic name. Sleeves of the White Snow. It fit her well.
Her tongue clicked, then she said, "Compared to Tensa Zangetsu, I have to say… you must think very highly of yourself, Ichigo.
"That's what I thought when I first heard it."
"Wow, so humble." Rukia's head tilted. "Oh, and Haruka also said you swiped this from some kid. I hope that's not a lie either."
"I'm not lying," Ichigo said in a staunch voice. "And his name's Kenji. He lives in a warehouse in the slum area with his gang. I took his Zanpakuto, then it split in two."
Rukia was thoroughly inspecting his swords from their pommels to the points of their blades. "Alright, I believe you."
"I'm serious."
"I said I believe you." Rukia exhaled. "Either way, this will save both you and I a lot of time, more so since you have both already imprinted on it and learned its name."
Immediately, he understood: "You're going to train me?"
"The only way I can assess you is to train you, but if it turns out we've grossly overestimated your potential, then there is no point in me being here."
Slowly, he asked, "What then happens to me?"
"I'll leave you at the Shinigami Academy, and that's where we say our goodbyes." Her tone lacked emotion.
His innards were suddenly cold and heavy. Unlike with Haruka, he didn't enjoy entertaining the thought of parting ways. He realized he was already growing on Rukia. His cute, hot-headed savior. He couldn't remember the last time he had crushed on a girl so badly. This was a first. This was a day of many firsts.
Rukia prodded his arm with his Katana's tip, saying, "You're decent at holding in your spiritual pressure, but to someone like me, you may as well be letting it all pour out unrestrained. You should know... sadness and fear are the easiest emotions to read."
Focusing on his heartbeat, Ichigo evened out his breathing. "So what?"
"So, you idiot, you can calm down, because your current progress is already impressive. Usually it takes many months to years before one's Zanpakuto spirit divulges its name."
"Haruka said as much."
"Then calm down," Rukia said coyly, firmly whacking his shoulder, "you won't be getting rid of me any time soon. Or should I say, I won't be getting rid of you."
And there it was, said out loud. He couldn't mask his true self if his life depended on it. Oh well. He couldn't hide who he was at heart. "Damn, that sucks, having someone as violent as you following me around."
"Violent, eh?"
"You heard me."
"I wouldn't say that to someone who is holding two swords while unarmed."
Chuckles shook his chest. "You almost sound envious about my two swords."
"Because I am," she said casually. "Two blades in sealed state. The only other Shinigami in history is Captain Shunsui Kyoraku."
That more or less confirmed what Haruka had said. "Do you know for a fact?" Ichigo asked.
"The Kuchiki clan," she began in an instructor's voice, "is responsible for recording and maintaining records of Soul Society from time immemorial. In terms of Zanpakuto history, Captain Kyoraku's discovery was a major event. Before him, it was thought that a Zanpakuto couldn't split in two at such a fundamental level."
"I see."
"Feel honored. Your name is already a footnote in history." Rukia sheathed Ichigo's swords with practiced ease and unneeded flair, like a master chef handling knives. The action would've made her look very cute and sexy if it weren't for her baggy cloak that did her body no justice.
"What's with the extra clothing?" Ichigo asked in his best uncaring voice.
"It's not extra," she said, copying his tone. "This fabric lessens the arousing effects of my spirit energy. I take it you've noticed by now, what happens to you when you're around female Shinigami."
His posture slackened as his mind replayed his encounters. Rukia, Yuyu, Haruka, and all those Stealth Force girls. Just being near them, laying eyes upon their bodies, had affected him a hundred times more than other girls. Even during swimming classes at Karakura Highschool, when girls in his class were in tight-fitting swimsuits, some in skimpy bikinis, he hadn't been so uncontrollably lustful.
"Yeah, I noticed," Ichigo mumbled.
"By your dazed look," Rukia said slyly, "you only realized now, didn't you?"
"I thought something was weird with you girls. I just didn't think about it." He wanted to ask a dozen questions but didn't know where to begin. He was almost fearful of the answers and what it would mean. He settled on, "It's not something you have control over?"
Her eyelids lazed—a stupid question. "Obviously, I wouldn't be wearing this cloak otherwise."
"Why are you wearing it?"
"Because, Ichigo," she said in a kinder voice, "I want to talk to you without you ogling me with your jaw hanging loose. I thought you'd appreciate it."
He felt his heartbeat in his teeth. "It's nice talking to you when you're calm."
"Same to you. And don't you dare bring up Kaien again." She slapped his head with the flat of the Katana's blade.
He couldn't hold back: "You're the one who just mentioned him. Now I wonder what happened between you two."
A deathly cold gaze wasn't fitting for Rukia's eyes. "To free him from a Hollow, I killed him."
He had nothing to say. He couldn't imagine how she felt.
"I still remember that night," she mumbled, "three decades ago, as if it were yesterday."
"Decades?" he blurted.
Her eyes closed. Her lips curled slightly. "I take it you haven't noticed this either, souls do not age in the same way as Humans. I may look like an adolescent girl, but I assure you, I have lived well over a hundred years. You may find that strange, but eventually you will grow to see how strange and sad it is for Humans."
Again, Rukia's words echoed unspoken thoughts which Ichigo had been pushing aside. Something indeed had seemed off about this world, about the people here. Certain people, namely the young, didn't exactly act their age. Many teenagers around town carried themselves like adults. Hanataro came to mind.
Ichigo ate a smirk. "I thought as much. Hanataro said he's had sex with Haruka hundreds of times, and at least ten other girls, and he looks like a teenager. He has to be decades old."
"He's around my age," Rukia said off-handedly, "and I've been with him a few dozen times. He was very gentle with me. He liked to start off by giving me a sensual oil massage."
Ichigo's face wrinkled, muscles in his waist clenching. "Did I ask?"
"I'm sorry," Rukia said in an overly-sweet sarcastic voice, "does that bother you?"
"It does," he grumbled, imagining a brick wall.
"Then know this, you may choose to marry a virgin woman from the Rukongai. Naturally, it would be a… difficult union, a Shinigami and an ungifted soul." Rukia gently took hold of his hand. Her skin was cool silk against his calluses. "I'm not offended if you regret asking for me to be your first. We all make mistakes."
Ichigo firmly gripped her fingers. "Since my death, I have no regrets other than overestimating Squad 4's fighting capabilities."
"How pathetic." She whacked away his hand. "I've been fucked to unconsciousness by countless men, rightfully used and discarded like the whore I am, and nothing will ever change this fact. Yet here you are, believing I'm some angelic ray of light shining down from the heavens. Open your eyes!"
He took hold of her smaller shoulders. Her petite build felt fragile. "You saved my dad and my sisters, and myself, from a fate worse than death. To me, you are a miracle straight from heaven. It doesn't matter how many guys you've been with." That last part was hard to say; he barely believed it.
"Pathetic." She broke eye contact, shied away.
He crawled up to her then patted her head, his hand rubbing her hood's velvety fabric. "You can keep saying that, but it doesn't change that you're my cute little feisty angel." These words felt unnatural coming out of his own mouth. He hadn't ever been this direct with a girl before, purposefully, not out of lust.
"Get your hand off me," she spat. Her cheeks were tinted a very slight pink. "I said get your hand off me!"
"Relax, don't bite me, Rukia," he chuckled.
"You're pathetic."
He was growing tired of that word. He was ready to take her. "Take off the cloak."
"No."
"You do have a duty here, remember."
She huffed a breath, unhooded herself. "Want to know something funny, Ichigo?"
"Yeah?"
"I've been stationed in the living world multiple times. There, this could be considered as sexual harassment."
His spine lost all stability. He choked, "What?"
Now she was so smug. "Don't play dumb. You've been in Soul Society for less than a day. You understand very well what you're doing now is frowned upon in your home town. How would your friends and family react to this behavior?"
"How is this harassment?"
"Because I said no, and now you're pushing me."
It was true. Within a day, he had fallen into worsening depravity. Now, he was demanding sex from this girl. Chad would toss him into an ice-cold bath. Tatsuki would beat him into a bloody pulp. And his sisters, Yuzu and Karin… What was he turning into? Some kind of perverted freak.
But despite all that, Ichigo still wanted Rukia; he couldn't lie.
Nervously he held her hand.
"I see," she said, sneering, leaning toward his face, "we're graduating from sexual harassment to sexual assault. Is this really the man you are, Ichigo? I didn't think so."
He breathed in her sweet coconut scent. "This is your duty."
She undid the top button of her cloak. "And that's the excuse you're going to tell yourself? Hmm?" Her eyebrow wagged.
"Yes," he squeaked.
"What was that? It almost sounded like you just admitted you're willing to sexually assault me to satisfy yourself. My goodness, Ichigo, what are your friends and family going to think when they find out, and they will eventually find out. May I remind you that no one lives forever."
It was too much. He couldn't do it. He let go of her hand. "You're right, I'm not that kind of man."
"I believe you." She didn't.
"Put your hood back on," he exhaled.
"No."
"What?" he snarled.
"No, don't tell me what to do, carrot-top. I'm not your miracle angel." Her smugness was slappable. She was loving this, testing the limits of his sanity, his breaking point.
He sighed. "I'll wait till you're ready for a gentle oil massage or whatever."
"That could be never. You may be a virgin for decades or centuries."
"Fine by me." Lying down, he closed his eyes and imagined a tropical beach island. The sand was hot. Lukewarm waves lapped at his feet. Rukia in a bikini was beckoning for him to rub oil on her back, and he ignored her, his attention on the clouds. He counted passing seagulls: one, two, three, four, then a flock flew by, twenty of them in a V formation. Resisting the effects of her spirit energy was arduous but not impossible. With impossible willpower, he could do it.
Minutes, maybe dozens of minutes, passed before Rukia spoke up in a mellower tone, "Ichigo."
"What?"
"Forty-seven souls were lost today."
"During the Hollow raid with the Menos?"
"Yes."
Forty-seven. His chest tautened. He had assumed no one had died. There must have been stray Hollows away from the town square. Damn. Damn it all.
Rukia continued, "When I said someone like you should have no problem dealing with a Gillian, I wasn't speaking in jest. You could've saved them all."
Ichigo looked at her. Her hood was up, and her expression was tranquil. "How can you say that? I've had no training other than two hours of Jinzen. I can't even Flash Step. My own Shikai's spirit energy will kill me."
"I know you can do it."
"How?" Forty-seven deaths throughout the town. No way he couldn't been there for all of them.
From a pocket in her cloak, she showed him a small red box a couple inches wide and long and high. Inside was cushioned a glossy blood-red ball not larger than a grape. "Do you want to know what this is?" she asked somberly.
To him, it looked like an expensive candy from a fancy down-town store for rich snobs. "Sure."
"This is from the Royal Palace. They've analyzed your soul."
"And what?"
She took a slow, deep breath. "As you've seen, the vast majority of souls hold little to no spirit energy. However, once in multiple centuries, a soul such as yours is found. Your dual-bladed Zanpakuto is proof of that. There are various methods in which they ensure valuable souls are recruited into the Gotei, depending on the situation. For you, they're offering this."
His quizzical frown twisted his brow. "I get that, but you still haven't told me what this thing is."
"It's…" Her gaze fell as she mildly blushed. "It's a real virginity pill. It'll restore my physical virginity and erase all my memories of sexual experiences. This is what they're offering you—me."
His arm bumped against the oil lantern. A tingling, hot sweat broke out. His hold over his spiritual pressure quivered. His stuttering pulse looped around his skull, his vision momentarily blotching. He wasn't imagining this. He wasn't in some kind of dirty dream that he couldn't wake up from. He picked up his Wakizashi; the edge was very much sharp, shaving off layers of dead skin on his thumb.
"Well?" Rukia said, irritated. "What do you have to say?"
"Are you going to eat it?"
"Only if I have to. Do I have to?"
His mouth was dry. "You knew I was already going to join the Gotei 13."
"Answer my question. Do I need to swallow this for you?"
From the depths of his spirit, from his heart, he knew what he wanted, and he sensed what she wanted from him, for she otherwise wouldn't have taken out this pill. She wanted to be his. She wanted a fresh start over. And so he nodded, took the pill, held it to her lips.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she said, "This will knock me out for the night, and I want you to know—if I one day have to kill you like I killed Kaien Shiba, then I will never ever forgive you, Ichigo Kurosaki."
"I wouldn't expect you to, Rukia Kuchiki." He placed this god-forsaken pill on her tongue.
She swallowed.
Her pupils shone bright crimson. Her back arched. For a heartbeat, her expression was one of bewilderment, and then nothing. Her eyes rolled upward, her body falling sideways.
He caught her then tucked her into her bed roll, praying to this world's deities that the night would pass without incident, but it seemed that his prayers weren't needed. Marked with Bakudo numbers, those little talismans hanging from this tent's ceiling weren't decorations. Even while unconscious, she was keeping him safe. He vowed to himself to forever protect her with all his power at any cost.
Author's Note: Next Chapter will visit the living world...
Review Responses
- There will be more and more IchiRuki scenes from here on out!
- For this story, remember Rukia has transferred to Squad 11, so she's likely much stronger than in canon
- Now that Rukia's training Ichigo, his power will rapidly grow