alright, now we get to the celebration for the next few chapters.
Rukia was getting prepared for the day's event. It wasn't too big a deal, it was an event where her attire as a lieutenant of the Gotei 13 was permissible, and she was also representing the 13th. However the Kuchiki had a reputation for tastefully overdressing, and she had to deliver. So she had a yukata commissioned for today, a light blue one adorned with the snowdrop to symbolize her role as the 13th's current ranking officer. The obi was also adorned in the traditional maroon of the division, another tie to her post.
Her brother had no such worries for today. As he was a captain, his uniform was considered appropriate in even the most formal of environments. Though he had taken liberties in commissioning a replacement for the haori As Nodt had almost destroyed, which itself was a replacement for one that, as far as she remembered, he had lost in Hueco Mundo.
She shook her head to prevent herself from letting her mind linger. Today was supposed to be a good day, not one to fall into bad memories. Kukaku had invited a large chunk of Ichigo's friends as well. Rukia paused in thought. She hadn't seen Chad and Orihime in over a year, she hadn't seen Tatsuki in over two years! To think that such a short time with a bunch of mortals would have such an impact on her, but then, Ichigo had that effect on people.
Rukia paused for a moment after she finished tying her obi. Ichigo, for once she actually allowed her mind to linger on him. Ichigo was many things, brash, kind, idiotic, loud, it really was a surprise that nobody figured out he was a Shiba. She had her suspicions he may have been one in a past life as it seemed to stem from his very nature, but him actually being one wasn't even on her radar. He was a lot like Kaien, down to the way he made her feel. She knew what she felt. It wasn't some simple crush like it was with her late predecessor, it was real. It was what drove her to sacrifice herself for him and his family. However, she had thought that just like last time, it wasn't meant to be. A part of her so badly wanted to confess, but another reminded her that he still had a chance to return home to his life as a human, and she didn't want to take that away from him too. Why was it that every time she fell in love that love brought pain?
She was startled by a knock at her door.
"What is it?" Rukia turned to look at the sliding door to her room in the Kuchiki manor.
"Lady Kuchiki, your brother would like to know when you'll be ready to depart," It was one of the house servants, one of the ones she actually had a good friendship with if she remembered correctly.
"Tell him I'll be ready shortly," Rukia then moved to put on her gloves and socks before moving to put on her tabi. As she went through the process of tying her sandals on, she reminisced, allowing her mind to wander to memories she'd otherwise avoid. The memory that came up was the time shortly after her rescue when Ichigo was helping her look after Byakuya.
Three years ago
"You know they aren't just going to let you walk away," Rukia looked over at Ichigo as she washed some of the kitchenware used to make her brother's food.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo looked over at Rukia. He had been given a guest room in the Kuchiki manor, primarily because he had agreed to help Rukia take care of her brother while he was injured. He did it mainly because she asked, he felt that Byakuya wasn't deserving of this, an opinion that would change as time went on.
"You have a bankai," the fact he attained it in two days, the fact he did it for her, and the fact he used it to put her brother in this state to begin with all went unmentioned. "That means you now have the power of a captain. Captains rarely are allowed to enter the living world, and when they are they are they are restricted to one-fifth of their power due to their potential to cause harm to the world around them. There may come a time when you will be forced to come to Soul Society for that exact reason."
"Then it happens," Ichigo didn't consider how he would feel in that situation, primarily because he didn't want to.
"You'll be forced to say goodbye, lie to your closest friends, and would be lucky to even be able to visit them, and that's the best-case scenario," the threat of him simply being erased from everyone's memory was implied. It would be easy. Selective memory erasure on everyone who ever knew him and have the Visuals Department pull a few strings in the Japanese government and suddenly Ichigo Kurosaki never existed.
"And if it happens there's nothing I can do about it," Ichigo reiterated the point, and he was right. He was only just released from the fourth and was on close watch by medical personnel. If Byakuya and Kenpachi could almost kill him, then certainly there were other captains capable of subduing him far more easily. "All I can do is hope it never comes to that."
Rukia agreed. She didn't know what she would do with herself if her decision ended up taking away a human's right to a normal life.
Yuyu was working on getting ready for the day's events. 'Working on' being the operative term. As she was to join her parents in the Yayahara "delegation" to this party she had to look the part, however, this was a Shiba celebration, and those almost always were as casual as you could get the Kuchiki to consider suitable for nobles. She was tempted to just go in her shihakusho as that would be appropriate, but she had instaid gone for a casual pinkish kimono.
"Ahhh damnit! Not again!" the only problem was that in order to maintain her 'noble image' she had hair that reached down to the back of her knees, and it had gotten caught in her obi again as she tied it.
"Are you okay?" the concerned voice of one of the servants spoke through the door to her room.
"I'm fine. Just a minor inconvenience," She could hear the servant take the unspoken cue to leave her be. She hated being pampered, it all just reminded her of her father's iron grip.
Yuyu had finally gotten her hair out of the obi, again, when she heard a light tapping at her door.
"May I come in?" Yuyu relaxed at the voice of her mother, and honestly, she could probably use the help.
"Yes mother," Yuyu spoke politely. In the eighth she was far more casual, however, her mother was a different context, but not an uncomfortable one.
Fukuro Yayahara, formally Fukuro Kuchiki, was a comforting figure in Yuyu's life. This was why Yuyu didn't mind her grabbing her hairbrush and running it through her hair.
"You got your hair caught in your obi again didn't you?" Fukuro asked in a calming tone. She was already dressed for the day's events. She was dressed plainly, but the kimono was made of higher end materials.
"Yes," Yuyu spoke in a defeated tone.
Fukuro loved her daughter dearly, but she also wondered where she picked up her bad luck. Granted it may be due to her tying her hair back when on duty, meaning she doesn't have practice with how to tie an obi around it like she does, but she decided to ignore it.
"How have things been in the eighth division for you?" When Fukuro heard that the quincy hit the eighth she was worried sick, but was glad to find that the sternritter sent there only cared about the eventual head captain, leaving the division mostly in tact.
"Good. Captain Yadomaru is unconventional, but she has been doing a good job with familiarizing herself with the division," the fact that she had a leg up having been Nanao's predecessor as the lieutenant of said division went unsaid.
"And how is she treating you?" Her mother asked the core question. How is she doing?
"Great," Lisa had done well by the division. She still didn't have a lieutenant, but she had reorganized the division from the chaos of having both its captain and lieutenant removed from their operational and organizational structure. The avalanche of paperwork down the ranks was apocalyptic.
Fukuro casually kept brushing her daughter's hair, straightening out any kinks, and clearing any tangles, careful not to pull too hard.
"Good," Fukuro had mixed opinions on Captain Yadomaru. It was clear she was a competent and effective captain, which is all that truly mattered, but her creative interpretation of uniform regulations was… unbecoming. However, she was willing to overlook that if it meant her daughter had a captain that actually cared about their subordinates. "Done, we should get going," Fukuro put the brush down and walked to the door. She simply hoped her husband wouldn't cause a scene.
Byakuya was standing before a trio of graves. One was his wife's, the other two belonged to his parents. His father died in the line of duty as lieutenant of the sixth division when he was still a child. However, he at least was able to see his father. His mother, however, she died bringing him into this world. He never got to know her, to see her face. When he was young he was angry at himself for killing her, and the problem with anger directed at the self was that it had nowhere to go. Eventually, he was able to forgive himself after a long conversation with his grandfather, a conversation that led to the two gaining a mutual respect for each other.
"I figured you'd be out here," The aged voice of the man who raised him in the absence of his parents was unmistakable to Byakuya.
"What would she think?" Ginrei knew who Byakuya was asking about.
"Your mother would probably be elated. Granted she may have also wanted to give Isshin a piece of her mind as well," Ginrei leaned on his walking stick as he spoke. He was no Yamamoto, his body had betrayed him to the point where he couldn't continue in his duties as a captain long ago, so he passed leadership of both the clan and the sixth division to his grandson, one who he had to raise as a son of his own.
"He will be at the gathering," Byakuya never knew what to make of the former head of the Shiba clan. It was clear he was never expected to lead the clan, and so developed a lazy personality with a lackadaisical take on life.
"Of course he is, it's his family. But I have the feeling that there is much more on your mind than what you are saying," Ginrei had raised him, he knew the subble mannerisms he emoted with enough to tell when he was uncertain of what to do.
Byakuya didn't know what to say. Since the end of the war with the quincy he had been reevaluating much in his life, chief among these being his responsibilities to the clan. While there was a clear line of succession going back generations, it wouldn't prevent a power struggle in the event of his death, something that very narrowly came to pass. However, he still hadn't found someone who could fill the void in his heart that came to be after Hisana's death.
"You don't need to say anything. I understand," Ginrei's own wife died shortly after giving birth to his second son. While it was often that noble marriages were solely political, he and Byakuya's father had gotten lucky and actually had more than just a good relationship with their spouses.
"How did you move on?" Byakuya showed a side of himself that he could only ever show around two people. Hisana, and his grandfather.
"Even after so long, I still haven't. I only hope that you know she would have never wanted you to suffer because of her absence," Ginrei was one of the only members of the clan that accepted the marriage. He had a long talk with Byakuya over the matter, one that ended with him fully understanding the depth of his love for her. As much as the noble in him saw the political damage that marriage had the potential to cause, as a grandfather, he wanted the best for his grandson and knew she made him happy.
Byakuya let out a soft chuckle in response.
"Yes, she wouldn't have," Hisana was selfless to a fault. It was why he helped her in trying to find Rukia, it was why he continued the search even after her death. It was why he would move mountains for his sister. It made the memory of Rukia's sentencing all the more sickening. Fortunately, Ichigo happened, and thus allowed him to avoid a lose-lose situation,
"Let's not focus on the bad things that happened. I've found that to be a path not worth treading," Ginrei spoke with the words of a man who had outlived his grandson many times over, having made the same mistakes many times over. "Let us not keep Rukia waiting, after all, she isn't only representing the family."
Hitsugaya was walking to the Shiba manor with Matsumoto. While the celebration wasn't to start for a while, he and Rangiku had a history with some members of the clan, particularly Isshin. Of course, legally Isshin had been disowned, but such a term never existed for the Shiba clan. Isshin simply didn't have access to the absurd resources the clan had built up over the many millennia of its history.
"Do you think he knows how much chaos he threw the division into?" Rangiku was walking beside her captain. She had been named acting captain for the time window between Isshin's desertion and Hitsugaya being named his successor.
"I'm sure, and I would prefer it if you didn't cause a scene," He knew the request was in vain. Knowing her, she was probably going to do something in retribution for the massive piles of paperwork she had been left with that she was unable to pass off to him due to clearance issues. He had never seen Matsumoto that drunk before or since.
It was then that they reached the gates to the Shiba manor. Even though both Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had worked under Isshin for a fair amount of his captaincy, neither had actually been to the Shiba manor. They were expecting something similar to the gate to the Shihoin or Kuchiki gates. Something that conveyed the importance of the inhabitants.
The Gate to the Shiba manor, while large, was understated. Right before Hitsugaya could knock on the gate a sliding block in the gate opened, showing the eyes of a servant.
"Captain Hitsugaya, Lieutenant Matsumoto, we were not expecting you for another hour. Let me open the gate for you," then a few loud clacks happened and a smaller section of the gate opened and the head of the servant poped out of the smaller entrance. The servant in question was probably no older than Hinamori or Abari, though clearly was used to the more casual environment fostered by the Shiba clan. "Come in."
They followed the servant into the manor. The first thing they saw was an impressive arrangement of flowers. First for the three great houses that were invited, Kuchiki, Shihoin, and Yayahara, then one for each division of the Gotei 13, as well as displays for the Kido Corps and Onmitsukido. The Visuals Department was not represented for the same reason the Tsunayashiro clan was not, they clearly were not invited.
It was as he was exiting what was clearly the reception area that he heard something that he dreaded. The loud footsteps of a fully grown man in a dead sprint.
"TO-SHI-RO!" Isshin was running at a full sprint toward his former third seat and successor. Toshiro was getting ready to dodge but the missile that was his former commanding officer was intercepted by a fist powered by twenty years of pent-up retribution.
"THAT WAS FOR ALL THE PAPERWORK I HAD TO DO!" one Lieutenant Matsumoto had begun her vengeance upon her delinquent former captain.
Toshiro put his face into his hands and groaned as Rangiku did exactly what he told her not to do.
That was when Ichigo and a girl that he recognized to be Karin arrived at the scene,
"I apologize for-" Hitsugaya's attempted apology was interrupted.
"Don't, he probably deserved it," that was the voice of Karin Kurosaki, or as she would be known here, Karin Shiba.
"Let me guess, dad had a reputation for not doing his job?" Ichigo's question only caused Toshiro to nod while still holding his head.
"Why am I not surprised?" Karin's tone was indicative of her disappointment in her father.
"Ichigo! Karin! Why do you betray me so?" Isshin had somehow broken away from Rangiku long enough for him to lament how his children were most definitely not going to bail him out of this.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LAZY ASS!" of course that only caused his former lieutenant to begin chasing him.
"Because you deserve every bruise," Ichigo grabbed his father by the collar of his yukata before throwing him back at the angry lion that was his former lieutenant.
so. a bit of deep emotional stuff, a little insight into the eighth division, and Isshin being Isshin. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always feedback is appreciated.