"So central forty-six is going to use a marriage bond with you to control Ichigo?" Jushiro asked at Shunsui's back from where he was leaning his shoulder against the door frame several feet behind him. His green eyes boring into the back of his skull in an unnervingly unblinking way.
Shunsui wasn't sure what was scarier to him sometimes. The Hollows that they were charged with eradicating from existence or Jushiro and his vast network of informants. And by informants what he really meant was rats.
He'd always had a certain disdain for those who 'narked' on other people.
After all, Soul Reapers were supposed to be a very tight knit bunch. However, one wrong word or rumor from some gossiper tended to make that same tight-knittedness that they were committed to disappear pretty easily.
Why about a hundred years ago they had been damned near crippled entirely as a society. There had even been riots! Violent ones at that. And all because someone had decided to whisper to someone else about their husband's affair.
Needless to say, Shunsui's disdain had stemmed from instances like that occurring every so often.
But in this particular case he was able to push his disdain aside long enough to silently congratulate his dear friend's 'rats' since their 'narking' had saved him the trouble of having to sit down at the squad eleven barrack's and explaining things to Jushiro personally.
"That's right." He finally said after several minutes of flitting around his room, grabbing various things.
Shunsui kept second guessing himself on what he should take with him to the human world. Should he take his family heirlooms and such? His parents and siblings had left him a few nice and expensive things that he might decide that he needed later.
Things that they had wanted him to pass on to his future wife and children if he ever had them. And since he would apparently be having those things- he couldn't help but feel that it was somewhat necessary to take them with him to the human world once he left.
After all, as his future wife, the trinkets now technically belonged to Ichigo.
Oh sure, he knew that she had no use for them right that minute. Just like he knew that she really wasn't the type of girl whose affections could be bought by something so...ridiculous as something pretty or shiny.
Still...he continued to second guess himself anyways. Idly wondering how he was going to approach her so that he could court her. And many, many other very stressful things.
He had just turned to ping pong himself around his room again for what must have been the umpteenth time when he came face to face with Jushiro. Up until then he had all but managed to forget that his friend was even present to witness his internal debate, he had simply been so quiet.
But as the white-haired man pressed the wooden box that he kept his family heirlooms in, against his chest- he felt himself smile a little bit at just how well he knew him.
"Thank you, Jushiro." He said softly as his hands came up to grasp the box. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
Jushiro gave him a fond smile as he said, "You'd die without me, Shunsui. You can barely function as a man as you are without me around to remind you to do things."
"I do tend to forget a lot," He muttered before giving his friend a painfully wide looking grin. "It's a good thing that your around then. Otherwise, Ichigo would have me murdered without anyone to stop her."
Jushiro chuckled and shook his head as he turned to walk away. "Finish packing Shunsui. The sooner that we get to Karakura Town, the sooner that we can see to protecting your fair lady."
After that, Shunsui seemed to settle himself into a familiar pattern. He finished packing what he wanted/needed to take given the circumstances, and then once that was done he went to let Nanao know that she was going to have to run the squad without him for a while.
Then while he was in the midst of telling her why he would be leaving for so long, he only managed to get the worst of his explanation out and was waiting for his Nanao to respond- though from the thoroughly shocked and outraged look on her face maybe it would be better for his health not to stick around for her reaction when she finally moved.
He would admit, he jumped a bit when he saw her hand come up.
His self-preservation instinct was going mad on him and he was feeling awfully freaked out about whether or not she was about to actually kill him. After all, Nanano had a temper that nearly rivaled his own. And she'd done him damage over the years with it.
However instead of making an attempt on his life like he'd half expected her to, she merely pushed her wire rim glasses up on her nose a bit and simply said, "I understand."
Despite her words, he didn't dare relax just yet since the woman was pretty devious when she wanted to be. However, it genuinely seemed as if she wasn't going to hurt him as she slowly moved to stand in front of him and tilted her head back to smile at him.
"I expect you to be a total gentleman for Ichigo."
"I will be."
"You better," She said in a warning tone that sent a chill down his spine. "She's a nice girl, for a human. She deserves better than to be treated like another of your many, many conquests."
He visibly bristled at the mere idea of treating the substitute Soul Reaper in such a horrible way. To use her and then simply cast her aside as if she were nothing to him but a mere plaything- his stomach began churning with nausea again at the implication that he would or could be so cruel to the girl that was to be his wife.
"I would never-" He growled out from behind gritted teeth. His temper rising a bit.
"You have with others." Nanao said automatically, cutting him off. "Ichigo, despite being so young has accomplished much in the short time that all of us have known her... She saved Rukia from death. Protected the Seireitei and everyone in it to the best of her abilities from Aizen and the Bounts as well as others. She has fought beside us, cared for us, taken part in community programs in an effort to help us with smaller and less battle-esque things."
"She was pretty funny in that movie. Her screaming at Byakuya for trying to kill her may not have been one of her lines, but it was still pretty funny nevertheless."
Nanao hummed as she thought back to the movie. It had been pretty funny. But then again, she couldn't help but wonder if Renji and Byakuya had even bothered to warn her if they were going to use her for comedy relief to help balance the darker stuff in their film and make it more bearable for the audience to watch.
"She's watched out backs, taken care of us- and we owe her so very much since she defeated Aizen and lost her abilities. And then again with the Ginjo Kugo incident when she learned that horrible truth about being marked for death..."
"Most people wouldn't be so damned understanding or forgiving." Shunsui said with a nod.
"Most people like her would have slit each of our throats." Nanao said, though not unkindly. "She deserves every ounce of our respect and admiration."
"She has it and more." He said. Nanao smiled at him.
"You'll protect her."
"Of course, I will. The girl is to be my wife. And you should know better than anyone what happens to those who hurt my family."
Nanao didn't say anything more after that, she merely patted him on the chest twice with her small hand, and then walked away. Likely going to finish her work for the day so that she would have some time to carefully think about how best to support him from a distance.
He was finally beginning to feel more at peace about this whole situation that he had found himself in after speaking with her about it when he received a message via a hells butterfly, everything was in place. Indicating that it was time for him to leave.
After that, he grabbed his things and then went to the nearest gate where he met up with Jushiro.
"Are you ready now?" Jushiro asked him.
"As ready as I can be."
His friend nodded his head curtly as he turned and walked through the gate first, Shunsui hung back for a moment to reign in the sudden feeling of nervousness buzzing like a hive of riled bees beneath his skin before deciding to follow.
The trek to the human world was a familiar one to them. And as such they cleared the precipice world pretty easily. Especially since he didn't have to be concerned about Jushiro suffering an attack from his illness since his friend seemed to be doing just fine lately.
Once there, the two of them took a little while to get their bearings and take in the scenery a bit since it wasn't familiar to them. Sure, they knew that they were in Karakura, but much of what they were seeing looked...new to them.
So, they couldn't help but wonder which part of Karakura they were in. Because it certainly wasn't anywhere close to where they usually emerged near Ichigo's home.
Nor did it seem all that close to Kisuke Urahara's place either.
But the second that they managed to sense the familiar brush of Ichigo's reiki, probing and checking them out to determine if they were friends or foes, even from a distance, before they knew which way to go and began to move again. It took them only a few more minutes of tracking the substitute Soul Reaper's reiki before they found her.
Curious to see what she may be up to, since she wasn't in school, the two men peered down at the street where they could sense her at and blinked in startled surprise when they caught sight of her.
Neither of them had seen her since she had come to the Soul Society to request Kugo's body for burial in the human world about a year ago.
And given the circumstances of her visit then, neither of them had actually bothered to really catalog certain differences in her appearance so they couldn't really say just how much she had grown while she'd been without her abilities. But they were starting to realize that she wasn't the child that they had known any longer.
For starters, Ichigo was taller than she had been when they had first met. Hell, the girl was even taller than she had been at the time of Aizen's defeat.
Her usually orange colored hair had changed too. The color was no longer the vivid orange that they remembered from a few years ago, but a fetching strawberry blond color that held a multitude of different shades of both blond and red ranging from ash blond to copper. It was a lot longer than what they were used to as well.
The short, mannish style that she had once sported was now long enough to reach the middle of her back in soft, silken tresses that she had pulled back into a ponytail so that it was up off of her neck given how warm the weather was.
To be honest, the look suited her.
Her body had apparently filled out as well, they were ecstatic to notice. Finally, gaining the soft, eye-catching feminine curves that allowed others to realize that she was a girl and not just a pretty looking young boy. Which was good since the two of them had often worried once they had learned that she was a girl, if perhaps her growth had been stunted somehow.
After all, they didn't know of any other girls among their ranks that didn't at least have small breasts. And she had been flat as a twelve-year-old boy despite being fifteen!
To them it was unnatural for a female to be so damned small and lacking.
Granted, she didn't have the same obscenely large breasts that Rangiku or her friend Orihime had. But the size of her chest seemed to have grown significantly, and she didn't appear bothered nor self-conscious about it.
Shunsui certainly didn't seem bothered by the size either. So, it would be fine. Jushiro mused as he gave his friend a side eyed glance and noticing the surprised look on Shunsui's face before huffing a quiet laugh and shifting his focus back to Ichigo who had been standing in the same spot for a few minutes now eyeing the crowd around her in an anxious manner that made the two men frown.
"What is she doing?" Jushiro wondered aloud only to be shushed by Shunsui before the other man finally said.
"She's looking for someone."
It took the both of them scanning the street just like Ichigo was before spotting the person/persons that she was searching the crowd for. The look of relief that crossed her face when a couple of kids ran up to her yelling, was priceless. Her features softened with affection as the kids reached her and both threw their thin arms around her waist and hugged her for several seconds before letting her go.
After that, both kids took Ichigo's hands in theirs and the three began to walk away.
