damn... 50k words already... and that's not including the backlog... well I hope you enjoy
Tatsuki was hovering around her friend group. She meant no offense to the others there, but outside of the servants who helped her get settled in and Rukia she really didn't know any of them well.
Sure. She recognized many of the lieutenants, especially Rangiku, but she didn't know them well at all.
"Hey, Tatsuki, are you sure Ichigo is going to be okay?" Keigo pointed over to Ichigo who was talking with some other people, probably nobles. "I don't know, but it would probably be rude to bail him out," Tatsuki figured they were talking about official business or something.
"Yeah, you're probably right," then an idea came to Keigo's mind. "Wait… these people have no idea about the living world," a mischievous smile grew on Keigo's face.
"Don't. If you cause Ichigo trouble I'm going to kick your ass," she knew that any trouble they caused would blow back onto Ichigo as he was the reason they were there.
"Aw, you're no fun…" Keigo slumped over before going to get some food for himself. That was when she noticed someone walk over.
He was a rather tall individual with hair reaching his mid back and wore a distinctive captain's haori.
"Hey, you are?"Tatsuki spoke respectfully as she knew he was an important person, but she didn't know who he was.
"I am Byakuya Kuchiki, head of the Kuchiki clan and captain of the sixth division," he spoke calmly. He didn't expect her to know him by name. She was new to this after all.
"Tatsuki Arisawa," she introduced herself before giving a respectful nod. "You're Rukia's brother right?"
"Yes, and I wish to speak with you about her," this surprised Tatsuki, but she nodded in response.
"When she was in the living world, how did she and Kurosaki interact with each other?" It was a suitably vague question. He also asked her as she was Ichigo's oldest friend.
"Honestly?" Tatsuki had to think for a bit to filter through all of those memories to form a response. Those few months with Rukia were some of the most eventful of her life. Everything seemed to change in a few days. And when she left, it was like there was a void where she used to be. "It always seemed they could cut right through each other's acts," Tatsuki could do the same to Ichigo's, but not Rukia. She was a puzzle she didn't quite have all of the pieces to. "I can't say much other than that as I don't know Rukia well enough to read her the same way."
Byakuya nodded. Rukia could be that way to people. Shelled away behind mask after mask, and switching between them so rapidly you barely have enough time to read it. Not even he was able to see what lay underneath. He feared that there may only have been two people who have ever seen who his sister really is.
"Thank you for your input," he didn't need the parts of the puzzle Tatsuki lacked, as he had most of them already. Ichigo did as well if the assessment of his childhood friend and classmate was accurate. It was even likely perhaps that he had more of the puzzle than he did.
"Yeah…" Tatsuki rubbed the back of her head. The cold air around the noble captain was off putting, and she found that the air seemed slightly thicker in his presence.
Then, suddenly, a woman appeared between the two of them. She was about Tatsuki's height, though she had far darker skin and golden eyes.
"So, what's little Byakuya doing talking to a human hm?" She spoke in a playful voice. It was clear the two knew each other. The look on the captain's face confirmed that, and it was clear that it was not an acquaintance he liked.
"I shall be leaving," he spoke to Tatsuki as though the other woman weren't there as he then turned to his own cluster of people. The slight pressure suddenly vanished. The air returning to normal.
"Aw, I was hoping to have some more fun," the woman then looked over to Tatsuki. "Yoruichi Shihoin, I'm an old friend of Kukaku's."
Tatsuki noticed how she had avoided lingering on herself. Not even giving a single title.
"Yeah, I think I've seen you around," the fact that a member of an entirely different clan was given access to the manor had said as much about her friendship with the current Shiba head.
"Did Karin mention anything about where she was going?" Yoruichi changed the subject and did so with practiced grace. The kind that unsettled Tatsuki slightly.
"Yeah, she said she was going to keep Isshin from doing anything stupid," Tatsuki pointed in the general direction of where they went.
"I wish her luck, he's been like that for as long as I've known him," then with a quick wave of goodbye she vanished.
"What…" Tatsuki was kind of surprised at that.
"Yeah, she tends to do that," Tatsuki turned to see Kukaku with a drink in her left hand.
"Huh?" Tatsuki was surprised at the sudden appearance of the host for the event.
"Yoruichi, despite all of her capabilities in social situations, is not exactly the type to let a conversation linger on herself. Took me decades to get her to open up about herself," Kukaku handed her some food.
"Is she shy or something?" Tatsuki was confused, Yoruichi seemed almost disarming with how casual she was.
"No, you spoke to the single most lethal assassin in Soul Society's history," Kukaku took a swig of her drink as she let Tatsuki process precisely what that meant. "She was trained to specifically avoid talking about herself. She still sucks at it."
"Oh…" that explained a lot. Yoruichi was manipulating the conversation to avoid talking about herself, probably even out of reflex. And then the disarming charisma of hers suddenly took on a darker meaning.
"Yeah, took me two full jugs of sake to get her to talk, though dealing with her while she has a hangover is not something I recommend," Kukaku chuckled at the memory. Yoruichi with a hangover was something that amused Kukaku, but her temper in that state almost rivaled her own.
"What's Ichigo doing?" Tatsuki looked over at her friend and he was still surrounded by those she guessed were nobility.
"He's speaking with some clans who wish to make themselves subordinate to us. In some cases again," Kukaku hated this part of politics. The assuaging of concerns, the dancing around points of disagreement, and the making of concessions. It bored her to death. "They want to 'be sure of the clan's future stability,'" Kukaku pantomimed. She got why they were concerned with that. The clan head position had changed twice in a rapid span. Once due to death, and the second time due to desertion.
"Your take?" Tatsuki felt like Kukaku didn't buy it.
"They're sizing him up. He has quite the reputation here, and now that he's my heir? They're probably going to try to have him marry one of their clan members," Kukaku hated saying that. And she could see from Tatsuki's face that she did too.
"And the women they will try to have him marry, will they have a say in the matter?" Right to the heart of the matter. Tatsuki knew her history. This kind of political structure was rarely kind to the disadvantaged.
"Nope. Which is why I hate this whole song and dance," Kukaku simply refused to be a part of that game. And she had promised Ichigo that she wouldn't force it upon him.
At that Tatsuki nodded. Then she remembered something that Kukaku might want to know.
"Byakuya asked me about how Ichigo and Rukia interacted when they were in the living world," Kukaku grinned. She knew exactly why he did that.
Isane Kotetsu was hanging out with her fellow lieutenants. She wasn't partaking much in the provided drinks as she wasn't much for alcohol herself. A hangover was simply something she couldn't afford right now. Though she was listening to the banter.
At least until a hand grasped her shoulder and the other lieutenants went quiet.
"Now now, don't mind me, I just want to speak with Lieutenant Kotetsu," the head captain spoke with a relaxed tone as he then signaled Isane to follow him.
When they were in a relatively secluded part of the main courtyard they stopped.
"Head captain, is something wrong?" Isane was confused. Why speak with her here like this?
"No, no. Not at all. I just figured it would be best to give you some space given the subject matter," he then turned to face her. "What is the status of your bankai? Do you feel that it is in a usable state?"
Isane nodded. She knew what was happening. It was something that Unohana said she was confident would happen. She said in her letter that she was confident in Isane's ability to succeed her. Her bankai was hardly mastered, but it wasn't in the state Rukia's was in, she could use it if she had to.
Kyoraku nodded. He then reached into a pocket in his haori and produced a letter.
'I, Shunsui Kyoraku, head captain of the Goteijusanbantai, hereby appoint Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu of the Fourth Division to fill the vacancy of the captain of the Fourth Division.'
This was it. The piece of paper she was waiting for with both dread and anticipation. She was being called upon to replace Unohana. Yet she felt like she didn't deserve it one bit. Unohana was a goddess of the battlefield, with complete mastery over the arts of battle, including the treatment of casualties. Isane was simply a doctor, a skilled one, capable of performing various emergency treatments and even most surgeries with high proficiency, but Ichigo had taken her out with a simple palm strike to the gut. She wasn't the shield the Fourth needed.
"I spoke with Unohana when I gave the order. I asked if you were ready to succeed her," Kyoraku spoke with a hint of guilt in his voice. There were so many things going on in his head at that moment. If Unohana had indicated anything less than total readiness, he would have called the whole thing off. "She said you were more than ready for this."
Isane looked at the head captain as he nodded and then turned away. He figured she would need time to herself given the responsibilities he had just dropped on her. He simply hoped she had had enough time to process her grief.
Ichigo had just finished talking with the nobles who were speaking with him, and honestly, he was quite happy that was done. He knew they were sizing him up for possible marriages. It was deeply uncomfortable for him. So being able to return to his friend group was a relief.
"Ichigo! You've returned!" Of course, Keigo had to make a show of it.
"Can it! Remember what I said?" Tatsuki quickly put him in his place, leaving a welt on his head.
"Ow ow ow ow! Fine," Keigo then sulked off, "You're both horrible!"
"What got into him?" Ichigo's thumb pointed back to Keigo as he sulked in a corner.
"My guess? Sake." Mizurio was sitting down partaking in the drink himself.
"And what are you doing?" Ichigo knew that Mizurio would have a field day here with the number of women to his taste.
"Observing," he then took another sip.
"Kukaku threatened him with something, I don't know what as he won't say," Tatsuki didn't mind, however. He was more level-headed anyway.
"Where's Orihime?" He had noticed a distinct lack of Orihime's weird musings.
"Rangiku took her and Rukia," Chad spoke in his usual stoic and reserved way as he ate some fried rice that was prepared for the event.
"Oh…" Ichigo wondered if he should grab Hanataro and find them just in case they were undergoing alcohol poisoning.
Most people think that when Rangiku grabs someone out of nowhere, it's to get them shitfaced drunk. While that is usually the case, and she was going to get Rukia and Orihime drunk off their asses, there was something else.
"So, both of you sent me messages about wanting advice with guys," she wasn't surprised. She had a reputation as a massive flirt.
Both Rukia and Orihime nodded.
"And does it have to do with our heartthrob noble heir?" They both looked away from each other. Their aversion to each other's gazes also confirmed that they were somewhat aware of the other's feelings
"Oh boy," If the two women before her weren't the nicest and most pure souls she had ever had the pleasure of meeting, she was sure that there would have been a fight of some sort. They both knew it too based on the tense and awkward silence.
"So, how about we start with a question, why?" That one word was such a massive question. Why had they fallen for him? Why did they want to be with him?
Rukia's mind flashed back to a long time ago. Long before she had become lieutenant, long before she even had shikai, to the one other person in her life she had similar feelings for. Kaien. How he was the first to treat her as a person. Not a noble, not a rukon rat claiming an unearned name, but a person.
Orihime remembered her years before meeting Tatsuki. How bad they had been. How she had been bullied and alone. Ichigo was always at the edge of her immediate circle of friends, but the way he cared for those friends, the way he would fight for them, she wanted that.
"You don't need to give me an answer. You just need it for yourself," Rangiku knew of Rukia's crush on Kaien. She had overheard a conversation involving that between her captain and his older brother.
"No, I think I have to say it," Rukia piped up. She wanted to deny these feelings for so long. To bury them, hide them away, and pretend they never existed. This was because she thought she would be taking away the normal life she thought he deserved, but now knew he would never have had. "He was the first person since Kaien's death to treat me as… me," Ichigo didn't know what the Kuchiki name meant when they first met, and when he did learn he didn't care. His similarities to her late mentor were more than skin deep. It was clear they had the same heart, the same values.
Rangiku hmmed at that. She never kept track of what happened after his death. Primarily because she had assumed Rukia had a support structure she could fall back on. Now it was clear that was never the case. Kaien was her support structure.
Orihime understood. Ichigo had never treated her poorly, even when she thought she was being nothing more than dead weight, especially during his rescue attempt. He had taken on Grimjow, Nnoitra, and… Her mind shuttered at the memory of Ulquiorra. The scars he left in her mind were deep, and the memory of Ichigo's battle with him still scared her to this day. That was the moment her image of Ichigo as a knight in shining armor shattered.
"What about you?" Rangiku looked at her former housemate.
"I…" she didn't know how to put it into words. It was a difficult thing for her to say.
"The way he's willing to fight, and possibly even die for someone he bearly knows," Rukia knew what Orihime was trying to say. After all, he had done the same for her.
"Yes," Orihime nodded as she spoke quietly. That was exactly it. His selfless drive to protect. His willingness to move the very heavens for those he called friends.
"Now how about how you make him feel?" Rangiku looked at both of them. This was the hard question. One that dictated the appropriate response for both of them to all of this. And the one that she knew could lead to an uncomfortable answer.
Orihime remembered the 17 months he had without powers. He couldn't see anything, not even normal spirits. She could see his pain, how he suffered without being able to do anything. How he let his grades slip, how he always seemed to be going through the motions day by day, the subtle shift in his posture when Uryu, Chad, or herself left to deal with a particularly close hollow.
No matter what she tried, she couldn't cheer him up. She had even floated the idea of rejecting the loss of his powers by him, but he politely declined, saying he didn't want to be a burden.
She didn't know what to do.
Then she remembered how Rukia could motivate him. Assert herself in a way to remind him what he was fighting for, to get him out of his funk, and… she could never find a way to do that.
"He…" Orihime took a short breath to collect herself, "He loves you," the words hurt coming out of her mouth, but she couldn't deny it. Those five months when he had his powers were the happiest Tatsuki had ever seen Ichigo. She had outright said that to her. And she didn't need any confirmation about how bad that year and a half was for him.
Rukia though was stunned.
"Me?" Rukia at her friend quizzically. Orihime simply nodded in response. At that moment Rukia was overcome with a strongly familiar feeling. Like she had been in this situation before. Then it came to her. This was another parallel between them. Their first loves both loved someone else. For Kaien it was Miyako, for Orihime it was… her.
"You weren't there for the time he didn't have his powers," Rukia's eyes widened in realization. Orihime was there for almost all of it. "It was almost like the fire he had in him died out. Like he was simply waiting to… to die."
"I see…" Rukia remembered the face Ichigo had when he saw her again. It was as if his life had started again. Like he was whole again.
"No, I don't think you do," Orihime could feel tears welling, but she needed to tell her friend just how much she meant to him. "You gave him everything he had ever wanted in life. He was broken without it, without you."
Rukia was speechless. She then realized she had never met Ichigo before that fateful day. She had never gotten to know what his life was like before she changed it forever. To hear she had such an effect on him was… she didn't know what to feel about it.
"Well, I'll leave the rest to you, how about a drink to lighten the mood?" Rangiku produced her sake set. "And with Lisa back I might finally have some competition again."
Yoruichi was walking about the grounds. Most of the official business was over with, and the revelry began. What was initially just tasteful drinking to make the talks less boring now led into proper celebration.
There were however a lot of people like herself who simply didn't like being drunk. It could be due to many reasons, though in the case of Yoruichi, her training was the reason. When she was drunk she got sloppy, and a part of her simply hated that. So she went to find kindred spirits until she found the son of her second-in-command and his successor under Sui-Feng.
"Lady Shihoin!" Marechiyo Omaeda quickly bowed once he noticed the approach of the former clan head and Onmitisukido commander.
"Relax, relax," Yoruichi dismissed the bow. "We're here for the Shiba's, not me. I lost a lot of my prestige a long time ago anyway."
"You're still Shihoin and you still have your title as tenshiheisoban!" Yoruichi sighed at the mention of her formal title. It was technically a ceremonial title, but it was still a major statement due to what it meant.
"And I'm telling you to relax." Yoruichi then noticed something, or more specifically a lack of someone. "Where's Sui-Feng?" She normally wouldn't have missed an opportunity to shadow her. Her absence was… odd.
"Captain Sui-Feng had other matters to attend to," Yoruichi was surprised at that. To pull Sui-Feng away must mean it was a major issue. The Onmituskido and by extension the second division doesn't have any formal recordkeeping or paperwork due to its nature. She set that up.
"Does the head captain know?" Omaeda's nod confirmed her suspicion. There was something afoot and the head captain was using the celebration as a convenient smoke screen.
In a moment she shunpoed away to the location of the head captain. He was sitting alone overlooking the rest of the party from a second-floor balcony.
"My my, what brings the great Yoruichi here?" Kyoraku was surprisingly not drunk. That already raised a few flags in her head.
"Where's Sui-Feng," she asked curtly. Sui-Feng was the last main branch member of her family, and Yoruichi is supposed to look after her and ensure her survival.
"Are you so unsure of your student?" Shunsui motioned for her to sit next to him as he spoke. He was trying to de-escalate the situation. Yoruichi declined.
"That is beside the point, I was charged with her well-being, and by extension that of her clan," the head captain sighed.
"I have her deployed, that's all I can tell you," Yoruichi quickly translated that into what it actually meant. 'I can't risk telling you, so stop asking.' She lightly chuckled as that was the same response she gave Yushiro way too often.
Yoruichi quickly cast a kido spell to mask their conversation.
"You can trust my discretion," Yoruichi then decided to sit down, but her face was still stern and her posture tense.
"It's the Visuals Department. Someone was able to rebuild Xcution and as a far more problematic organization this time," The fact they were undetected long before Ichigo found them was troubling, but their existence as they were could be tolerated. Michibane's cult however threatened the secrecy of Soul Society.
"So you want to know whose head has to roll and why," Yammamoto would have probably dealt with the problem directly. Send a task force, clear out the cult, then use that for an 'audit' of the department, probably a fiery one at that. Right now though? A more surgical approach was needed.
"Pretty much," The head captain closed his good eye as he relaxed. "Nothing to do except to hurry up and wait."
that scene with Orihime actually took a lot out of me. I ended up needing to take a break after writing it for a couple of days. I simply hope I conveyed the emotional weight of the situation for the both of them.
next up, drunk!Rukia.