Merry Christmas everyone! Just a quick short chapter. Not too much happens in this chapter, mostly just covering the conversation Rukia had with Kisuke in the previous chapter.
Chapter 4: Seeds of the White Moon
Chapter 4: Seeds of the White Moon
"That is not how you bow, Lady Kuchiki. Do it the way ladies do." The court lady in charge of preparing for marriage kept on scolding Rukia. Rukia, who had been raised as a lowly slave and warrior her whole life, was now being subjected to the training that noble ladies had been learning since birth. To say it wasn't easy for the poor girl was an understatement.
"No, Lady Kuchiki. You are too stiff." Annoyance was starting to creep in the middle-aged woman's voice.
"Sorry, let me try it again." Rukia responded in a meek voice.
With as much slowness and care as she could, she curtsied in the most ladylike way, hoping she would not fall over as her muscles tensed at this unusual position. Finally, she managed to do one without mishaps this time, earning a nervous sigh from her instructor.
"How's Lady Kuchiki's bridal training going so far?" Kisuke Urahara took a peek at the room where Rukia was being trained.
The court lady bowed gracefully to acknowledge the clan nobleman. "Lady Rukia is learning, my Lord, but albeit too slow."
Rukia inwardly cringed at hearing her own assessment, but kept an emotionless profile.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. That isn't good, is it? The wedding is in two weeks. Lady Rukia would have to learn everything in that span of time." Urahara shook his head. "Lady Rukia, I will need you to be fully ready by your wedding day."
Rukia responded in the way she'd always been taught to. "Will do, Urahara-dono. I will train very hard for this, I promise!" She then bowed with conviction.
Rukia had just finished changing her dress into the more comfortable servants' clothes when she heard a knock on her door. Her forehead creased, wondering who could be wanting her at this hour of the night when she heard a very familiar voice. It was Shiro-dono, of course.
"Rukia, are you still awake? May I come in?"
"Shiro-dono, please come in." She said while she sat down on the tatami mat in the proper way as taught to her by the court lady. She waited for him with her head bowed down to the floor.
She heard his footsteps enter the room and stop in front of her, but she couldn't see his feet as her head was buried between her hands.
"What are you doing?" Shiro sounded amusedly dumbfounded at seeing her position.
She slowly raised her head to respond to him. "W-what do you mean, Shiro-dono?"
Shiro had a confused look as he gestured vaguely to her. "I-I mean, why are you being so formal to me? You were never like this to me."
Rukia grimaced as she replied. "The court lady is teaching me how to behave properly as a lady. She says I need to be more dignified if I am going to be the Queen."
Shiro burst out in laughter as he sat down in front of her. "I'm not used to this. I like the Rukia who scolds me and screams at me."
Rukia sighed out as she finally relaxed in front of him and slouched from her rigid seat. "I can't do that to you now that you're crowned as King, Shiro-dono."
Shiro shrugged. "I guess not in public, but you have my permission to do it to me when we're alone like this." His voice had a twinge of teasing in it.
Rukia gasped as she heard the innuendo in his voice. "S-shiro-dono! What if the other servants hear you!"
"Let them. Everyone knows we're going to be married soon." Shiro said in a nonchalant tone, until his voice turned serious. "I'm sorry for making you go through this. I know it's been hard for you."
Rukia smirked. "It was, but I have sworn to protect you. Even this is part of the promise."
Shiro smirked back and reached for her hand. "I cannot share the throne to anyone but you."
Rukia was contemplating in her mind in her bed. She definitely had a lot on her mind the past couple of weeks.
After all, tomorrow morning is the biggest day of Rukia's life - her wedding. She definitely had come to the grip of everything at all. All the preparations were made. She had her wedding dress ready and loaded to be shown off to everyone on her big stage. She had everything prepared. However, she still felt nervous in her heart and mind, but her soul is ready to be united with Shrio - The Black Sun & White Moon together; forever.
Rukia loved Shirosaki Shiba with all her heart - she really does, there's no disputing her warmth and love for Shiro. From her saying "I will protect you.. Forever. ' indicating a lifelong love to him, in a sense. It just took her all these years to finally realize it. She was taught to repress her feelings, unlike Shiro, who is the clear emotional baby between the two.
She kept thinking back to the conversation she had with Kisuke a few weeks back, when Shiro shocked the world and announced that he wanted to marry her..
A few weeks prior to the day Shirosaki announce that he wanted to marry Rukia:
Rukia and Kisuke had run past the chaos of people for about an hour now. They had gotten back to Kisuke's secret hiding place - in the outskirts of the Soul Society. Kisuke had locked the door shut behind him, looked through the window to make sure no one was near, shut the blinds as well before turning to Rukia.
"Kisuke." Rukia broke the silence between the two for over an hour now. Neither of them said a word in the scramble out of the capital city streets. "You mind telling me what the fuck is going on!" Rukia yelled out to him, slamming her hand on his table for an explanation.
"Oh my! That's no way to greet someone who rescued you from being attacked by hundreds of angry mobs." Kisuke was shocked at her clear anger towards him.
"Who appointed you to be Shirosaki's personal advisor exactly?" "Shinji Hikaro never actually gave you his blessing." Rukia starts to question Kisuke's true motives, as she felt something was off the day Kisuke announced that he would be the royal advisor. Like if there's something hidden that he would not announce to Shiro and herself.
Kisuke took off his green bucket hat, relieving his long blonde strands of hair. He brushed them out of his face with his hands before he began to speak to Rukia.
"I did." Kisuke finally felt out. Rukia's violet orbs tighten up at his response. You don't understand Rukia." He spoke again after letting off a long pause. "There's a great danger lurking against Shirosaki. I haven't had the chance to personally tell him, due to him wanting to marry you actually."
"Danger? Danger of him wanting to marry me, a slave?" Rukia believes marriage is the danger part in all of this.
"No actually. It's not him wanting to marry you." Kisuke let out another long pause between the two. His orbs stood straight to her orbs before the next comments, since he knows what he will say next will make Rukia go crazy - literally.
"In fact, I actually support him wanting to marry you."
Rukia's jaw dropped to the floor - literally. Did she just hear him correctly? He supports a king wanting to marry a slave?
"What?!" Rukia yelled out in disarray." What do you mean you support him wanting to marry me?!"
"Rukia, slave or not, you two are really destined to be together. You remember when you were younger when I took you in for a couple of months?" Kisuke said.
"Yes, I remember helping you out with some of your experiments in exchange for shelter. I'm truly grateful for that, but, what does this have to do with Shiro?" Rukia is trying to figure out how this connects with Shiro.
"I recall every night, you would always talk about the young Shirosaki. 'Urahara-san! Me and Shiro did this today, we saw that today, we went here today, etc." You were absolutely obsessed with him, and your vow that you wanted to protect him forever makes it all the more reason that you should be the one to marry him." Kisuke let out, shocking Rukia in the process.
"Why can't I remember all of that? I had no clue I was that obsessed with him when I was younger?" Rukia is stunned that she isn't able to recall her childhood memories.
"Well.. children tend to forget some things when they grow older. That happens." Kisuke shifted his eyes and changed the topic. "Let's go back to the topic at hand…Sosuke Aizen."
"Sosuke Aizen is the biggest threat to not just the Shiba clan, but to the whole Soul Society.
"Sosuke Aizen?" Rukia responded.
"His men were supposed to strike today during the ceremony, but Shirosaki with his announcement caught everyone off guard that they lost the opportunity to strike." Kisuke explained to her.
"Rukia, I want.. No - I need you to marry Shirosaki Shiba and protect him at all costs. You are the key to defeating Aizen once in all. You together with Shrio, united as one, will stop Aizen."
"Why me?" Rukia raised an eyebrow. Why not Shiro with his supernatural powers? I don't have any supernatural abilities like him." Rukia stated that she has no actual fighting experience. How could she stop Aizen if she's clearly not a fighter?
"Because Rukia. You have something inside of you that neither Aizen, nor Shiro have." Kisuke opens his hands, and points his fingers at Rukia's chest.
"Inside of me? What are you talking about?" Rukia baffled at his comments. Is he serious or is he making up nonsense? She thought about it in her head.
"I will tell you when the opportunity is right. Right now, what's important is for you to give Shirosaki a response. He'll be at the seashore tonight at 22:00 waiting for you, he said." Kisuke dismissing her question for the time being. Rukia felt he was being hesitant to give a response, but she doesn't want to argue with him, so she just goes along with it.
Rukia just nodded. She still doesn't quite comprehend why she is the key to defeating Aizen. Is Kisuke just playing mind games with her? Why would he? He's appointed himself as Shiro's Royal Advisor to warn the two about the threat of Aizen, but something doesn't feel right to her. Like Kisuke is hiding something important to her. She just get this big hunch, that this mumbo-jumbo Kisuke is conveying to her is a rose, or something extremely serious.
On her way out of Kisuke's place, Rukia noticed something peculiar on a table near them - a large double edged crimson-scarlet scythe. A long white pole supports the long crimson blade on top….
"Oh, you still have the scythe I helped you make when I was younger? Rukia commented on its spectacle. "This was the first ever weapon I ever held before you know?"
"Well, you were the one who created that, Rukia. You jokingly said that you wanted to be the grim reaper one day and slay down those who attack Shiro." Kisuke added on to Rukia's comments.
"I did? I didn't realize how much crazy shit I said back then when I was a kid." Rukia scratching her black hair bob, still in denial of the things she said in the past.
"Well, you were so crazy that you even made a drawing of your grim reaper outfit, " Kisuke opens a drawer and finds the paper. "Here, take these with you on the way out. It might bring back some old memories."
On the paper was a drawing of a rabbit. The rabbit had the scarlet scythe in its hands. It was wearing a white kimono, the sleeves were torn, with a long golden belt tied. Three golden lines shown on her collar. Pair with a red-maroon cape with a golden outline around the hoodie part that had torn out around the upper chest of her kimono.
Text was written on the bottom: " Disappear! Sheer those away, who try to take those away from me."
"Oh, it's my old chappy drawings! " Rukia said inside her head. She thought she had lost her drawings forever. There was a whole stack of her awful, yet cute rabbit drawings. Rukia's smile became apparent as it was noticed by Kisuke.
Kisuke fixed her with a serious stare. "Rukia, don't get sidelined by irrelevant things. You can look more in depth with your drawings later. What you have to think about now is you will make sure that Aizen would not be able to touch Shirosaki."
"W-what do I have to do? Anything I need to do for Shirosaki, just tell me!" Rukia implored.
Kisuke shifted his eyes to the scythe lying on the table. "You can start with that."
Rukia turned to look at where he was looking. "The scythe?"
Kisuke nodded earnestly. "Yes, trained with that. Train hard that this scythe becomes part of you. After, you were the one who crafted it. I have a hunch that you will make use of this scythe someday to eliminate those who are threatening Shirosaki's throne."
Rukia then went on to grasp the handle of the said scythe. It felt familiar, and yet foreign. It was weird having mixed emotions all at once. "I must have this?" She had to confirm twice.
Kisuke nodded. "Yes, take it with you. It must be that blade and not anything else when you fight Aizen. That blade was for that one purpose."
Rukia, feeling resolute from Kisuke's encouragement finally fully grasped the said scythe and took it off the table. It was surprisingly light.
"I'll protect Shiro-dono with my life, as I have promised him." Rukia said with conviction.
Planting the seeds for an eventual transformation from Rukia? Hmm? Maybe? The next chapter would be Rukia's and Shiro's wedding! Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's once again!