Chapter 3 – Plans and Execution
Ichigo woke up slowly, hands who slowly combing through her hair. Sighing, she snuggled deeper into Sousuke feeling quite comfortable, "Comfy." she mumbled, trying not to give away how amusing it really was. Having him laugh with her, was one of the best things she had ever done lately.
"I don't think I've ever been told that before," Sousuke said chuckling, looking down into her brown eyes, which were now looking up at him tiredly.
Gently hitting him on his chest, she raised herself up though she didn't know how to begin the conversation they needed to have, but they had been so tired yesterday, and they also knew that things were changing incredibly fast for them.
Sousuke sighed, he knew what went through her mind though even he didn't know quite what to do. "Firstly, we need to eat something."
So, that's what they did – find something to eat. Ichigo had thought it through and had something in her backpack they could do, the only thing they needed to do was build a fire and have some water.
"You really have thought about this?" Sousuke shook his head, taking her hand and squeezing it to say that he was there.
Ichigo just held his hand, as they at the instant warmed soup she had prepared for them to eat. After they had cleaned up, they leaned into one another and just watched the fire – and Ichigo loved that they didn't need to talk, didn't need to do anything together to feel close. It was just comforting to just be.
"You do know what Kisuke implied by giving me that Sphere?" Ichigo asked, with a sigh she turned around so that they could look at one another.
"The past." He told her, glancing into her eyes knowing that she would understand what it all could mean. With the nod, "We will have to be careful with where we want to go."
"As hard as it was, it was your betrayal that got Seireitei out of their comfort zone. That prepared them for the Thousand-Year-Old Blood War."
"I know. I won't risk our future in the past, so, we will have to figure out something." Sousuke smiled because if they went that far into the past, he wouldn't do anything to risk their future.
"I don't want that either." Ichigo sighed, wondering what they could do. "They have to be prepared for that war either way you know, and they need to come out of that funk they are under."
"I've always wanted the system to change, it's one of the reasons I turned traitor in the first place." He said it was after all something she knew beforehand.
"You're right, it needs to change." Ichigo told him, "They are so far removed from the living world, every one of them should spend more time in the world of the living to get a better feel for it."
Sousuke smiled knowing that, even he wouldn't have thought of that as he too had somewhat become complacent in his centuries alive.
"When do you think we need to go back to, before Rukia came into my life or when I reached Bankai?" she told him, two events that she could think of that they could come back to and not wake suspicion in the way of our appearance.
"What are you thinking of?" Sousuke asked her, he could tell that she had thought of something right now. Before that had happened, he had thought about the suggestion, both times sounded like somewhere they could get to - like back before I encouraged Rukia to go to the world of the living, he would maybe be able to blame it on someone, but then there was the Visored. Then there was the week, in Seireitei, meaning that he had to go through with it and get out of it, just him not the two others.
"How long time would you need to put the blame on someone else, like that you were being controlled by something, though, you have all this evidence because you've had moments of clarity out throughout the centuries," Ichigo explained her thoughts and what she meant.
"Hmm." Sousuke hummed, and began to think back with dread – could that be done? "Maybe, though, I would maybe need a year to do it."
"That sounds doable because if we do things will change – though the whole invasion of Seireitei must happen the same, I think. I think it wouldn't even be me this time if we do, as I have these." Ichigo said and showed him both of her suppressors. One she had gotten from him, and the other from Kisuke. "I will go back like this, in my human body. To them, I will suddenly have no spiritual pressure."
"That's true, and I will also have to counter why I look like I do. I can use Kyoka's illusions, to make sure it will be gradual." Sousuke liked this more and more, as he thought about it. "Wait, who will take up your place with Rukia?" he asked because he knew how protective she had been of her sisters.
"It would be Karin." She sadly told him, "Meaning that my friends wouldn't be mine. They would be connected to her, not me." It was with a sad realisation that she closed her eyes, and laid her forehead down on his shoulders.
Kissing her forehead, he said, "Are you sure about that?"
It was hard to realise it, but Ichigo knew that it had to happen like that. That it may be for the best to do it at that point. "Not really, but the more I think about it the more I like it. Wonder though, what would happen if we do it the day after I meet Rukia."
"Let's see, you will need to explain how and why your spiritual pressure is next to none, then explain your difference in appearance," Sousuke told her, knowing that it wasn't the preferable way. "Before you ask, you will also need to do it if we choose the time when you got your fake Bankai. I also wouldn't have the time, to find the right papers and the time to blame things on Captain Kurotsuchi."
Looking at Sousuke she could tell that blaming it on the twelfth-division captain was the best he could do, and she totally agreed – he was someone that needed to go back into Muken. "Good." with a nod to him, they had an agreement as to where they wanted to end up, a year from the day she met Rukia, but this time things would be different. She wouldn't be the one to go into Seireitei, but her sister Karin would do so.
"Would we be able to meet up?" she asked him, hopefully, he would manage it.
"I don't know, you will be able to talk to Kisuke though you will have to convince him after all."
Ichigo couldn't help but groan at that, "That will be a pain in the ass, I can still remember how irritating and suspicious he could be back then."
Sousuke laughed at put out she became as she suddenly remembered how that man had been, been before he had gotten to know her. Sometimes he too couldn't believe how much that man had changed since meeting Ichigo.
"You will have to convince him that you've changed!" Ichigo snorted.
"Fuck." Sousuke exclaimed, closing his eyes with a groan.
With that, they burst out in laughter.
"Just think about how much fun we can have with this," she told him mischievously, drying the tear stains on her cheek.
"I know," he said in all seriousness, it was so easy to talk to her and fun to – sometimes it was a wonder that he had been how he had been for centuries. "I will let you know if I can meet up with you though where?"
"How often did you keep an eye on me back then?" Ichigo wondered if he knew where she sometimes went to, because there had always been someone that had been watching her in the past, either it was Kisuke or him or someone that had an interest in her.
"Not as often as you think." Sousuke laughed.
"I always went to a clearing, to think and clear my head. It's a place of almost disconnect from the rest of Karakura town,"
"That place – I understand. It's one of my many secret places, though, why you found it is a mystery. It should be completely off limits from anyone." It was weird to hear that because he could have sworn that he had warded it to hell and back. "Did you ever see a small cottage there?"
"No, only a serene garden." She said to him, wondering what he wanted with it.
"If you had gone deeper, you would have found a cottage there that I built to get away from everyone. It's a secret place, though I had completely walked away from it after my defection to Hueco Mundo." He told her thoughtfully, "Then we have at least somewhere to be, to live in if we wanted to."
"All this is great and all, but we can't plan any talk any more about this, after all, things can go completely off reigns. Go wrong or go to hell for all we know."
"That's true, but you are after all someone who always does the impossible," Sousuke muttered, thinking about all the times she had thwarted his plans and all the times she had survived when she was on the verge of dying.
"That's also true." Ichigo closed her eyes, also thinking about the same thing. Surviving everything from death, and all the battles that lead to her dying, and then surviving death for some reason.
"I think I can answer that question, My Queen," Ossan said and materialised showing himself together with Zangetsu and Kyoka Suigetsu.
They looked at their soul spirits, taking Ichigo's hand in his they listened carefully.
"You've been an interest to YHWACH, my counterpart since your birth," Ossan told her.
"It's also a fact that he also wanted you dead," Zangetsu said, rolling his eyes.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow at hearing that, but "Conflicting Feelings?" she inquired.
"Yeah, of course." Zangetsu and Ossan told her, "You are more compatible for the throne than him."
Sousuke rolled his eyes, "understand." Squeezing her fingers, in comfort. "What do you want to do about that?"
"Don't know, but I'm not the one for letting that throne dictate me. I'm someone who will defy that notion that I need to be in that room to do the job."
"That sounds like something you would do."
"Shall we just do it?" Ichigo asked them if they could talk about this subject to death and not come to a conclusion. It's better to just go to it with an open mind and wreak havoc.
"Then let's go."
Without a pause, they raised themselves her with her backpack now open – Ichigo took up the device not thinking about anything at all, 'Shall we?' she thought over to Sousuke, and without tremble, they both clasped it in their hand and thought about the time they wanted to go back to.
It was hard to hold on to it, as the pressure around them skyrocketed, pulsing in their hands – then a light happened, and if someone had looked on, they wouldn't have seen anything, as everything became quiet, not even a whisper that there had been somebody there. It was now just space.
However, the whole of Seireitei could feel that something had happened. Something that would be felt for centuries as a reckoning.
Shunsui and Jûshirou glanced at each other, before they blinked – "What did they do?" they said, before they smiled and went out of the picture completely.