Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Well, it's been a while hasn't it? Believe me, it wasn't by choice. For three and a half months I was stupid busy and when not, so bone tired that I was falling asleep all the time. Up and down through bouts of depression and unreasoning anger and having no interest in anything at all. At one point I spent six weeks with my imagination completely absent...it was as if I had never had one at all and my desire to create had fled with it.
It took four and a half months just to drag my way through the first half of this chapter, and a month and a half once I was finally starting to feel normal again to finish it. I lost my momentum on this story and lost my immersion in it. It's going to take a while to get fully back up to speed. How long...? Who knows.
So, I have no idea what to think about this chapter. Hopefully it's not a total disaster.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 18
Families. They came in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and configurations. Some were tied together by blood. Some by a mutual need for support and the simple need for someone to care. Some formed by long association and welcome familiarity. Some were very close, some a little more distant and independently minded. Some were always on the verge of coming apart and some were utterly broken and dysfunctional.
Family had been on Blake's mind a lot for most of the last week. New found family that was ready and willing to accept her if that's what she wanted, and family she had left behind in a fit of youthful, blind idealism. Family that she had replaced with the ragtag group of Faunus that made up the cadre of the Vale branch of the White Fang. It would take a couple of years for her youthful naivete to erode enough for her to realize that this group was nothing even remotely close to a family and especially not where she was involved.
Some had thought it utterly delicious that Ghira's soft beliefs as they saw them had been skewered by his own daughter and that even she would not stay by his side. Others were spiteful and suspicious just because her last name was Belladonna and that meant that they were not about to consider her to be any different than her father. Adam's influence kept them from taking any action against her but their mistrust and suspicion came across clearly enough.
By the time she ran from them she was virtually alone, knowing that she was the only one who thought they were going too far with their actions while the rest of them felt that they hadn't gone nearly far enough. Despite the words coming from their mouths they didn't care about the cause nearly as much as they cared about spilling blood and it wasn't even just human blood. Any Faunus they suspected as not being sufficiently sympathetic to the cause was just as likely to taken out.
As she moved from hiding place to hiding place, hoping to stay ahead of anyone who may be hunting for her, she realized what a mess she'd made of her life. She'd been wrong and had thrown her family away to follow a path that didn't lead her to where she had been so sure that it would. Not only had she walked down that path, she had helped turn the organization her Father began to peacefully gain fairness and equality for the Faunus into something bloody and reviled that gained a false measure of those things through fear and intimidation.
She had traded true family for an illusion of one that was chasing an already broken dream, a dream that they had broken with their own hands and twisted ideals and she had helped them do it.
She loved her parents very much and she missed them but she couldn't go back home after what she had done and she had convinced herself that they would feel nothing but hatred toward her for it. With nowhere else to go and no other options in sight she had decided to enter Beacon. Considering what the White Fang had become, if she wanted to make a difference of any kind in the world then the best way to do that was to become a Huntress. As much as she could she would keep to herself and rely only on herself as she hid from the past and hid who and what she was.
There was an old saying that went, 'no plan survives contact with the enemy', and in this case the metaphorical enemy was Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee. Despite her efforts and intention to remain as isolated as she could, they wouldn't let her and before she knew it Team RWBY had become more like a family to her than just a team. She had tried to resist letting that notion take root within her, convinced that she wasn't worthy of their attention and their concern and that her dangerous past could very well show up one day and make a mess of everything. She feared greatly that her past would come back to hurt them.
Then along comes Ichigo and Yoruichi, who, like her friends, didn't seem to care all that much about her past and who claimed to be her blood ancestors, a claim she had no more reason to refute than to believe. Yet, she did believe it. She had become quite good a detecting lies during her time with the White Fang and she hadn't been able to find anything insincere in their words.
It was all very alluring and inviting, but there was that part of her that was afraid to settle into something that comfortable and warm. Afraid that if she did something from her past would intrude and put all of these people she cared about in danger. The potential horror of that was amplified as she watched her team and friends on this quiet Saturday morning, a day they would be spending in the training room with Ichigo and Yoruichi and learning more about their past and what the world used to be.
Ruby was practically bouncing in her seat as she ate and chattered away about what they might hear with an equally excited Nora being most of the other side of the conversation along with Jaune. Yang had a small, loving smile on her face as she watched her little sister's excitement while Weiss tried to hide a similar but more subdued look while trying to look exasperated at the same time. Pyrrha listened with interest as she sat next to the silly boy who was too blind to notice her interest in him, and Ren sat calmly, adding his own comments here and there and reigning Nora in every so often when it was needed.
She hadn't expected to become this attached to anyone again after she left the White Fang and it both delighted her and frightened her. She was happy that she had them in her life and was scared to death of losing them or seeing them get hurt because of her past mistakes. She wanted to accept this feeling of family from them and from Ichigo and Yoruichi, but she wasn't quite there yet. She still had too many fears haunting her to allow her to just fully embrace it and soak it all in. She really wished that she could.
For now, she would enjoy the moments as they came while keeping her eyes and ears open for any trouble and steer it away from them if she could when it came, and she was certain at some point that it would.
She turned her mind away from those thoughts and tuned back into what the others were talking about and she smiled at Ruby's obvious enthusiasm for the day ahead. She had to admit, she too was eager to hear more, to know more about the other worlds and hear of the adventures her teachers had been through. The things they had already learned about those worlds had led to a lot of discussions and she had surprised herself at just how involved she had become in them. Maybe that came from what was now a familial link to it but even if it wasn't it was still fascinating and she'd get to hear more soon enough.
Half an Hour Later
They had been told not to worry about lunch or dinner, both would be provided for them, but they didn't expect to see what they did when they entered the combat training room. At the back of the arena was a portable cooking unit that had been borrowed from the cafeteria. It consisted of a stove, a sink, a food prep counter, and a refrigerator. Not far from it were a pair of portable tables with place settings set up for ten people. In the middle of the arena floor was a series of ten chairs set in a circle with a large, low table in the middle that was laid out with bowls of snacks and empty glasses waiting to be filled.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting this," Yang said, echoing the thoughts of the others.
"If you're giving up your Saturday to listen to our old stories then the least we could do is make a bit of an event out of it," Yoruichi said as she appeared from behind the grouping of appliances. She was carrying a small stack of plastic food containers which she put in the fridge.
"Where's Ichigo?" Ruby asked, earning a snicker from her big sister, which in turn earned Yang a swat in the arm.
"He had to go back to the apartment and get something," Yoruichi answered. "He should be back any minute." She paused for a moment, looking to the far side of the arena. "Actually, here he comes now."
They all looked and didn't see anything at first, then the air seemed to distort, like a heat shimmer. A long vertical slit formed and the shimmering space bulged around it and it opened like a curtain being spread apart to reveal an ominous black void. A moment later out stepped Ichigo carrying a large cooler. A few seconds later the opening snapped shut behind him leaving no trace that it had been there to begin with.
"What the heck was that!?" Jaune exclaimed.
"Oh, I know!" Nora piped up. "That was one of those gargantuan thingys right?"
"Close," Yoruichi chuckled. "It's garganta and that's the method we told you about that let Hollows travel from their dimension of Hueco Mundo to the world of the living...or even Soul Society if they could surpass the spirit barrier around the dimension."
"That was creepy and just felt all kinds of wrong," Yang said with a shiver. The others all nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it does have a pretty violent and chaotic feel to it," Ichigo admitted. "And it's not someplace you want to lose your way in. You could end up in a different time or dimension or fall forever and never be seen again for that matter."
"Wait a minute," Weiss said. "If those other dimensional worlds that you told us about are all one now, then how are you able to use a garganta to travel between two points on one world?"
"Good question and an astute observation," Yoruichi responded with a grin. "Because garganta shouldn't work like that. It should only work to travel from one dimension to another, not from point to point in the same dimension."
"The best theory we can come up with," Ichigo began. "is that even though the dimensions all crashed together to form Remnant, there must be some form of a barrier between them that still uses or is connected to the dimensional gap. We don't know much about that kind of science so it's a pretty rough theory, just a guess really."
"Well, we actually could ask Kisuke now," Yoruichi reminded him.
"You found the soul of your friend?" Ren asked. He was quite fascinated by the whole reincarnation aspect and would love to know more about how the spirit world worked and how it might still work here on Remnant.
"We did," she answered. "And with a twist we haven't encountered before and which is probably unique. He is fully aware of who he is with all of his memories and experiences intact, which I can't ever recall happening before. The person he reincarnated to is aware of him as well and can communicate with him. As a matter of fact that particular awakening happened just recently."
"Who is it?" Blake asked.
"Professor Ozpin," Ichigo answered. He raised his hands to cut off the questions he knew were coming. "And that is a whole other, highly involved story that will have to wait for another time."
The was a collective, disappointed 'awwww'. "You're still going to tell us about which of us have souls that are familiar to you though, aren't you?" Ruby asked hopefully.
"Of course," he said, smiling. "I'm looking forward to that almost as much as you are."
"She's been practically bouncing off the walls ever since you mentioned it," Weiss huffed. "Just as I predicted she would."
"Oh like you weren't eager to hear about it yourself," Yang accused with a smirk. "And about the Zanpakuto too."
"I admit to being interested," she understated, by quite a margin if the slight pinking of her cheeks was any indication. "But I wasn't distracted by it all week."
"Maybe not, but you were a pretty active part of every discussion," Blake teased.
She just 'humphed' and turned her nose up, causing Ruby to giggle.
"Okay," Yoruichi said, getting everyone's attention. "Come to the fridge and grab a drink then take a seat at the low table and we'll get started."
"We're going to save the bits about reincarnated souls and Zanpakuto for a little later," Ichigo said as he set the cooler down next to the fridge. "We want you to get to know a few of the people and events before we get into that."
Once everyone had their drink and was settled in they began by recapping a little, quickly going back through how Ichigo's parents met and then giving the whole story about how his mother died which left not too many dry eyes in the room. They also included a quick and dirty thumbnail sketch of what Aizen was trying to do. Then, it was on to how he met a certain vertically challenged Shinigami.
"Wait," Weiss interrupted. "You kicked her in the butt?!"
"Hey, she just phased through the wall and into my room uninvited," Ichigo said, defending himself. "She was mumbling to herself and didn't respond when I spoke so I had to get her attention somehow."
"She got her revenge," Yoruichi smirked. "She immobilized him with a Kido spell that pulled his hands behind his back."
"Hey, I was only giving her an honest critique when I asked her why her art work was so sucky," he said in his defence.
"Wait...what?" Yang asked, echoing what the others were thinking.
"Instead of blanking his memory and moving on like she should have," Yoruichi explained. "Rukia decided to explain to him all about Shinigami and Hollows instead."
"Using a sketch pad and really bad art work," Ichigo continued. "Everything was bunnies and bears. When I asked her why it sucked she hit me with the Kido then drew on my face with her markers."
"Hmmph, serves you right," Weiss huffed.
It was all he could do to not laugh out loud at her response and let the cat out of the bag right then.
"As it turns out she was having trouble locating the Hollow she had been tracking because my overflowing spirit energy was messing with her senses and the tracking device she was using," he explained. "I could hear the Hollow screaming as it got near the house but she couldn't until it was too late. The house shook and my sister Karin came looking for help and collapsed outside my door."
"Oh no!" Ruby gasped.
"Ichigo then pulled off the first of many things he shouldn't have been able to do," Yoruichi said with a smirk. "He broke the Kido spell with brute force and without actively expending any of his spirit energy, which he didn't know how to do. He very easily could have damaged his soul."
"I had to save my family," he defended. "That thing had already knocked out my Dad and it had Yuzu."
"What did you do?" Yang asked.
Yoruichi snickered. "He attacked it with a baseball bat. Essentially it's a club used to play a certain sport that doesn't exist here," she explained before they could ask.
"You attacked a Hollow with a club?" Weiss asked incredulously.
He shrugged. "I had to do something and it was all I had."
"He did distract it long enough for Rukia to make it outside and slice it, making it let go of his sister," Yoruichi continued. "But then he got it in his head to play noble martyr. Since it was attracted by his spirit energy he tried to get it to come after him, thinking it would leave his sisters alone."
They all turned and looked at him and he raised his hand in surrender. "Hey, I freely admit I used to act without thinking, but my little sisters meant everything to me and I would do anything to keep them safe and that includes being monster bait."
"Fortunately for him Rukia got between them but she got hurt pretty badly," Yoruichi said.
"She couldn't fight anymore but she offered me a way to fight in her place and protect my family," Ichigo continued. "She could run her Zanpakuto through the centre of my being and give me part of her power."
"What!?" they all exclaimed at once.
"You let her stab you with a sword?!" Nora asked, incredulous.
"I did," he answered simply.
"But...you had no idea if it would even work," Blake said.
"Like I said," the look in his eyes was deadly serious. "I would do anything to protect my sisters. Any risk was worth it for them."
"Whoa!" Ruby gasped in a whisper.
Yoruichi noted the way they were looking at him and laughed. "They can't figure out if you were being incredibly selfless or incredibly stupid."
"It worked though," he responded. "I killed the Hollow and kept Karin and Yuzu safe. That's all that mattered."
"Even if you passed out afterwards from the power load," she snickered.
They carried on through his Hollow hunts, his encounter with Orihime's hollowfied brother, acquiring Kon, confronting the Grand Fisher in the cemetery on the anniversary of his Mother's death, the Hollow hunting contest with Uryuu and the fight with Shrieker and encountering the Gates of Hell for the first time. A lot of it was pretty sobering for the group and his first encounter with Renji and Byakuya was no different.
"Wait...her own adopted brother and her childhood friend came to take her back to face execution?!" Yang blurted in shock and no small amount of ire. Her eyes were starting to turn red.
"That is an extraordinarily cold thing to do or to order that it be done," Weiss remarked. She shivered. She had little doubt that her own father would be just as cold to his own family, had already shown that he could be actually but perhaps not quite to this level. She knew he had been that cold or worse to the virtual slaves that worked his Dust mines.
"By this point Aizen had already killed all the members of Central 46," Yoruichi explained. "The order to have those two retrieve her was exactly what they would have done to remind Byakuya of his obligations as a noble."
"Why would they do something that cruel?" Blake asked.
"Partly, simply because they could," she answered. "Mostly however it was due to history. When Rukia and her older sister Hisana died, Rukia was little more than a baby. Due to the harsh conditions of the district where they lived Hisana had to abandon Rukia. As cruel as it sounds it was simply impossible to ensure her own survival and Rukia's as well. Years later when she was in a better position she tried to find Rukia again and she met Byakuya while he was on a patrol of the districts. They eventually married which did not sit well with the elders of his clan. He was a lot more brash in his youth and tended to do as he wished."
She took a sip of her drink before continuing. "A few years later she passed away and there was always speculation that the clan had a hand in her illness and death but it was never proven. Before she died she made him promise to continue her search for Rukia and take her in if he found her. He eventually did, which further angered the clan and he had to promise to never break the rules and laws again. Her death and that promise turned him into a very cold and unyielding person. Even without orders he would likely have volunteered to go get her because she broke the law."
"But...she was his family," Nora protested, obvious distress tinging her voice. "It doesn't matter that she was adopted. Didn't he care about her at all?"
"He did," Ichigo said. "Very much so, but from what I understand he pretty much turned off his emotions once he made that promise."
"Unfortunately in the world of nobles, their honour and saving face almost means more than life itself and your word can often be used as a chain to keep you in line," Yoruichi said. "Losing Hisana hurt him more than anyone knew and it changed him. Fortunately after Ichigo eventually beat some sense into him he began to change."
He went on to tell them about his confrontation with Renji and Byakuya that saw both him and Uryuu left lying bloody in the street, which didn't do much to help the kid's opinion of the nobleman. That was soon forgotten when he began telling them about how he was going to gain access to his own powers, the potential for which had remained intact when Byakuya had taken away his borrowed powers.
"Wait wait wait!" Yang stammered, putting on the brakes. "You let this Uruhara guy cut your soul chain? Are you nuts? Isn't that like...letting him kill you?"
"He did, he is, or was, and not quite," Yoruichi said with a smirk. "It gets better though. After that, they bound him up and threw him in a hole and he had seventy two hours to escape before his soul chain devoured itself and he became a Hollow."
Dead silence...and maybe the sound of a cricket or two.
"And people think I'm crazy," Nora said quietly.
"This is why we keep telling you not to use what I did as an example of how to do things," Ichigo said. "It really was a true mad scientist idea but it was all Kisuke had and I had a goal in mind that I had to accomplish so I just blindly jumped in head first. If the Hollow in me wasn't actually the representation of my Shinigami powers I'm pretty sure things wouldn't have worked out the way they did."
Yoruichi reached over and took his hand in hers. "Since the moment he learned of it, Ichigo has always taken the meaning of his name seriously," she began. "In the years after his mother's death that grew exponentially. The people he cares for mean everything to him and he would do anything to protect them and keep them safe...even if it meant not fully understanding what he was getting into or if it meant tremendous risk to himself."
"That's..." Weiss began. She wasn't quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to say without sounding insulting.
"An unhealthy fixation," Ichigo said. "Possibly even an obsessive need. It took me a very long time to get it through my head and believe it that I wasn't responsible for my mother's death. But up until that point I was driven to do whatever it took, no matter the cost to me or how short the odds were, in order to protect the people I cared about. That need meant that I often didn't fully consider the consequences, if I bothered to consider them at all."
"It isn't all his fault either," Yoruichi said. "There were many of us that should have done a lot more than we did and who should have done a hell of a lot more to protect him from himself. Him and his friends who chose to follow him. But, since we didn't, the few things we've told you thus far are just the tip of the iceberg." She smirked at her beloved. "There's a whole lot more crazy yet to come."
"Like having my cousin," Ichigo began. "Who I didn't know was my cousin at the time, fire us out of a giant cannon in a cannonball made of spirit energy so we could break through the barrier over the Seireitei."
"...You got fired out of a cannon?!" Ruby was practically bouncing in her seat. "That's so cool! I want to do that!"
"Of course you would," Weiss drawled.
Yang yanked her hood up over her head. "Ozpin catapulted us off of a cliff and into the Emerald Forest, that's not a lot different there sis."
They detailed how they all got split up and the battles they all ended up facing, and how nearly all of them got wounded to some degree and captured. Then came Ichigo's fight against Kenpachi.
"You actually fought this guy?!" Jaune exclaimed. "If he was that powerful and that bloodthirsty why wouldn't you run?"
"Oh I tried to," Ichigo assured him. "Just the killer intent in his spiritual energy alone was bad enough, but he wasn't going to give up and the longer I tried to avoid him, the more chance there was that others would have shown up. At first I could barely hold him off and I couldn't even scratch him. He probably would have killed me if one of my Zanpakuto spirits hadn't intervened."
"A Shinigami's Zanpakuto and the spirit that inhabits it is literally a part of the wielder's soul," Yoruichi explained. "Sadly there are many Shinigami that don't fully realize what that means. Because of that there are many who never realize the full potential of their Zanpakuto. It requires a lot of work and proving your worth to the spirit. If your efforts are lacking you might not even ever learn its name."
"We'll get to more of that in a bit," Ichigo said, drawing a groan from a certain red hooded girl. "With my Zanpakuto's help I beat Kenpachi, but just barely. I only won by the fact that he hit the ground a couple of seconds before I did. If it wasn't for Yoruichi finding me I likely would have died there."
"And he learned so much from that, that after I healed him up he went rushing right back when he felt the dips and spikes of spirit energy when a couple of his allies were confronted by Byakuya outside of Rukia's cell," Yoruichi said. "I had to knock him out and drag him back."
"Seriously dude?" Yang said. "How thick were you?"
"Yeah yeah," he said, waving her off. "I know. Unfortunately there's more where that came from as this tale moves on. 'Obsessive need to protect', remember?"
They carried on and told of his Bankai training which made them question not only his sanity, but Kisuke's for coming up with such a method and Yoruichi's for letting him use it. They were staring to understand where his head had been at and why he was willing to take such stupid risks to accomplish what he had set out to do. It gave them insight into just what kind of person he was, but they also were able to see the dangers and flaws of his methods and what they would learn from it was a side benefit of telling them these stories. Just as was intended.
Next they set the scene leading right up to the moment of Rukia's execution, the kids all being even further appalled that Byakuya showed up to see supposed justice be done against his own family. Yoruichi painted them a vivid picture of the method of execution, what the Sokyoku was and what it did, burning a soul into nothingness in the form of a giant fiery bird.
"And at the last moment Ichigo suddenly appears in the air before Rukia with his Zanpakuto held across his back and blocks the Sokyoku," she said proudly. She chuckled. "It actually made me swoon a little bit."
"Whoa!" Ruby breathed, enthralled by the tale...and missing the bit about swooning.
"But how were you able to block something so powerful?" Pyrrha asked. "It shouldn't have been possible."
"Honestly? I have no idea," Ichigo answered. "It might have been because I wasn't its intended target and I surprised it. It was about to try again but before I could block it again I got some unexpected help."
"Two of the senior Captains intervened," Yoruichi said. "Captain Ukitake, who was Rukia's Captain, borrowed a device from my clan and with the help of his friend Captain Kyoraku, they stopped the Sokyoku."
"How could they manage that though?" Jaune asked, puzzled. "You said it had the power of a million Zanpakuto."
She smirked. "A while back when Ichigo gave you my formal introduction, he referred to the Shihoin Clan as 'The House of Godly Gears'. Each of the major noble houses had certain tasks. My clan housed and looked after numerous powerful artifacts and it was one of these that they used to restrain and dispel the Sokyoku."
They quickly went over the next series of events, the Head Captain chasing after his two misbehaving old students, Yoruichi leading her old protege off to fight, including a good dose of the history of why that particular fight was happening, and Ichigo breezing through four Lieutenants before being confronted once more by Byakuya Kuchiki.
"I'll admit, I was arrogant," Ichigo said. "I hated his attitude and what he was willing to do to his own family and I wanted to rub his nose in it. I kept demanding that he use his Bankai. When I told him I had one he didn't believe me and got really offended, said I was trampling on their pride and traditions. Even when I released my Bankai he didn't believe that it was real."
"Most times the release of a Bankai produces a large or showy effect and shows a great deal of power," Yoruichi said. "Ichigo's didn't do that. The only change was he gained a long coat similar to what he wears now and his sword changed shape, actually getting smaller and looking more like a normal Nodachi. What it did do though was compress his spiritual energy and massively increase his speed. He was as fast or faster then Byakuya, who I had trained in Shunpo myself when he was younger. Wasn't as fast as me yet though. I was the Goddess of Flash after all," she added proudly.
"You sure that wasn't because you liked to surprise the hell out of me by suddenly appearing naked?" he teased. "Just like you did the first time I saw your human form when I was recovering after fighting Kenpachi."
"Maybe you should try that Ruby," Yang teased with an evil grin.
"Yang!" the younger girl shrieked.
"Hmm...we could tag team him and have him at our mercy," Yoruichi grinned. "I'm game if you are."
"Yoruichi!"
The mischievous were-cat gave a quick look to Pyrrha, flicking here gaze from her to Jaune and back and giving her a wink. The Spartan got the insinuation and her face turned a deeper shade of scarlet that Ruby's currently was, and that was a feat all on its own.
"Was this a regular thing for you?" Weiss asked him accusingly.
"No, Yoruichi was the only one," he answered.
"The only one to flash you while totally naked," she corrected. "Nel nearly did and I bet she would have gladly bared it all for her Itsygo."
"Itsygo?" Yang asked, unable to keep the mirth out of her voice. A couple of the others were unable to contain their quiet chuckling.
"Nel was a sweetheart... and a real bombshell," Yoruichi purred. "She had it pretty bad for him. I know! We should have a girls night at that fancy Mistralian bathhouse and I can tell you all about her and all the other lovely ladies that crossed Ichigo's path."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Just don't go trying to convince them that I could have had my own harem or something." Which is exactly what she would probably try and convince them of.
"Well you could have if you hadn't been so single minded about being everyone's protector," she teased.
"Speaking of which, in our story here that is about to fail," he said, steering them back on track.
He went through the rest of his fight with Byakuya, the attempted intervention of his Hollow and their 'one last big attack' ending, and then how everything went downhill from there when Aizen showed up, took the Hogyoku from Rukia's soul and easily slapped down everyone who tried to attack him, nearly cutting him in half in the process. They were all pretty quiet by the end.
"How was it possible that he could go so long, make such intricate plans, and never be under suspicion?" Ren asked.
"The simple answer," Yoruichi began. "Is that the Soul Society was a highly dysfunctional construct. Aizen was as patient as he was intelligent. Every move he made was thoroughly considered, calculated, and examined from every angle before he made it. The persona he showed everyone was of a mild, thoughtful, and unobtrusive individual. What happened in a squad was that squad's business and the same went for the Captain's that led them. Even my squad didn't go sticking its nose into the affairs of another squad or Captain without justifiable cause."
"So long as he didn't do anything that was going to attract unwanted attention to himself he was free to move about and do as he pleased," Ichigo said. "And he was certainly clever enough to have contingencies to get himself out of any difficulties that might come up."
"He also knew just about everything there was to know about the people around him," Yoruichi said. "That allowed him to know who might pose a problem and who was likely to sniff around in places they shouldn't and how to take advantage of them. In hindsight, nearly every interaction he had with anyone was part of a manipulation to set all conditions in his favour."
"Sounds like my Father," Weiss thought to herself.
"I think that's a good place to leave things until after lunch," Ichigo announced. "I'm serving the curry that my Mom and sister used to make and while it's warming up I have some prep for supper tonight to finish so if anyone is handy around the kitchen, feel free to lend a hand."
"I'll help," Ren volunteered.
"And I could use an extra set of hands to finish laying out the table and filling glasses," Yoruichi said. Pyrrha volunteered to assist. The other's started discussing some of the things they had been told.
Yoruichi gave Pyrrha the task of putting ice and water in all of the glasses while she got out a selection of fresh and pickled vegetables and put them on small dishes and distributed them around the table.
"So, are you going to take my suggestion to catch Jaune's eye?" the mischievous cat asked innocently.
The heat from the sudden flushing of the redhead's face was nearly enough start melting the bowl of ice cubes she was holding. "I-I couldn't do something like that!" she protested.
"Why not?" she asked, grinning. "You do know don't you, that you're probably the hottest girl in this academy. As they say, if you've got it, flaunt it, and you definitely have it so why not use it?"
Poor girl couldn't even utter a coherent response and just furiously shook her head. Her ponytail whipped back and forth with such intensity that if anyone had walked behind her they would have been knocked across the room.
"Well you do want to get his attention and find out if he likes you, right?"
"Y-yes," she stuttered. "But I could never s-strip in front of him to find out!"
Yoruichi grinned evilly. "Never said you had to do a striptease, but that would certainly work. Just hit him with a little shock and awe. Wait until he's in the shower, then join him. You'll have him trapped and at your mercy."
A puff of steam came from the girl's ears. "D-don't you think that's a little extreme?"
"Jaune's a nice guy but he's as thick as a brick when it comes to something as obvious as the way you feel about him," Yoruichi explained. "He's not picking up the signs, so hit him over the head with one even he can't miss. You can't tell me that him being so oblivious doesn't hurt."
"It does," she admitted quietly, her colour receding a little closer to normal. "But I also don't want to push too hard and lose him as a friend. Friends have been hard enough to find and keep without driving them away."
She certainly knew Pyrrha's story and being a noble she could identify with it. In her case though it had been more an issue of a lot of phonies trying to suck up to her because of her status rather than people who had claimed to be friends backing away from her and leaving her isolated because of it. She had always had Kisuke, Tessai, and Kukaku though. Pyrrha hadn't met and made any true friends that would stick by her no matter what until she got to Beacon.
"I don't think you're going to need to worry about that," she assured the girl. "He doesn't seem to be the type that would throw away a friendship and especially not over a romantic issue." She smirked. "And if he did I'm pretty sure the Princess of Pancakes would launch him to the moon with her hammer."
"Maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up," the Spartan lamented.
"Oh no you don't," Yoruichi said as she passed behind the girl on her way to the other end of the table. She gave her a swift slap across the backside as she passed by, eliciting a surprised 'Eeep!' out of her. "That sounds too much like you giving up and that's not going to fly. The angst of teenage relationships aside, if you want Jaune you're going to have to go get him. He's the only one in this room who hasn't been able to see that you're interested so you'll have to take matters into your own hands and make it happen."
"I don't know if I can," she lamented. "And what if he's not interested?"
"If he's not then there's nothing you can do about it," Yoruichi answered with a shrug. "That's life and a no is not going to be the end of the world. But if you want to find out and have a chance to be with him then you have to get his attention. How is up to you, but you already know that subtle isn't working."
She sighed. "Why couldn't it be easy?"
Yoruichi laughed. "Sometimes it takes a little work to get the things you want."
"I hope it's worth it," she said. Given how things had gone for her socially ever since she became famous, she couldn't help but worry. The level of loneliness she had endured was not something she wanted to revisit and her mind kept tilting towards a worst case scenario that would see her driving him away. Maybe it was irrational and foolish but many fears were.
"Only one way to know for sure," Yoruichi said, walking up to the girl. She looked into her eyes. "I get it, I really do and I can see why you would have the fears about this that you do. But I can also promise you that even if he isn't interested in a romantic relationship with you he would never cast you aside. That's not who he is and I think you know that right here." She poked her in the chest right over her heart. "Try not to worry too much about it."
The call for lunch came soon after with Ichigo and Ren serving up the portions and bringing them to the table as everyone took their place. The Kurosaki family recipe for curry was less about heat and more about flavour and texture. Since he and Yoruichi saw these kids more and more each day as an extension of family, he wanted to share this particular meal with them as such and hoped that they would like it just as much as his family always had. There were no worries there, they all loved it.
They were well into it when he broached the next subject. "This seems like as good a time as any to tell you about who has reincarnated souls that are familiar to us...unless you'd rather wait?" The cacophony of responses contrary to that idea made him laugh.
"Alright," Yoruichi said with a chuckle of her own. "As we've said before, besides Pyrrha, there are four others among you who have the souls of people we knew. Remember a while back when we were telling you a bit about the Captains and Lieutenants of the Soul Society, and in particular the Lieutenant of the Eleventh Squad, Yachiru Kusajishi?" They all agreed that they did. She smirked. "Well, that soul would be in Nora."
"What!?" Nora exclaimed.
"So does that mean she's going to start riding around on Ren's back?" Yang asked, laughing.
The way Nora's face reddened and her eyes went glassy for a moment did not go unnoticed.
"We've found that the people with these familiar souls share some of the traits we recognized from the person we knew," Ichigo explained, saving Nora from any more immediate teasing...or Ren related daydreaming. "Yachiru was always energetic and excitable and looking for mischief to get into."
"Sometimes it's the physical actions," Yoruichi said. "Other times it's their personality or mannerisms. It could even be the nature of their Semblance or a combination of all of those."
"I guess that rules out Ren being Kenpachi then," Blake spoke up, adding a rare bit of humour herself.
"And I am glad for that," Ren said.
"Eh, he can ride on Nora's back then," Yang chirped.
Cue a repeat of Nora's earlier reaction.
"She had a sweet tooth and loved candy and it was not advisable for anyone other than Kenpachi to give her any," Yoruichi explained. "Yachiru on a sugar high was all kinds of chaos."
Nearly everyone looked at Nora. "What?" she asked innocently
"Furthermore," Yoruichi continued. "There was an unwritten rule that no one, under any circumstance was to give her anything with caffeine in it. The death penalty was a very real consequence if you did."
There was dead silence. They were either trying to figure out if she was serious, or contemplating the level of damage and destruction if someone were to give Nora caffeine.
"Ren says I can't have caffeine," Nora said simply. Oddly, she didn't seem overly perturbed by it.
"Ren is wise," Weiss offered, looking paler than usual at imagining Nora chugging down a pot of coffee then rocketing off unsupervised. She visibly shuddered.
"Can't let Yoruichi have much caffeine either," Ichigo said with an evil grin.
"NO!" Yoruichi shouted, standing and pointing at him. "Don't you dare!"
"She drank a bunch of that sweet Mistralian dessert coffee that they serve in those little cups."
"I-chi-go!" she growled.
His grin became even more evil. "She turned into a cat and shunpoed around the house like a rubber ball shot out of a cannon. Pretty much wrecked the place. Half an hour later she was hanging from a ceiling fan all swirly-eyed and meowing incoherently."
All heads turned to the mocha skinned beauty and she met their gazes. "Waaah!... don't look at me!" she cried out in mock distress as she dropped back into her seat and hid her face in her hands. They all blinked owlishly. "Ichigo you meanie, you said you'd never tell!"
"I made no such promise," he countered.
"Even Ruby doesn't go that spazzy on sugar or caffeine," Yang offered.
"Yes she does," Weiss corrected. "There's just less property damage."
Yang tilted her head in thought. "True."
"Hey, I don't go spazzy on sugar and caffeine!" Ruby protested.
"Yes you do," everyone but her teachers chorused.
"I'll remember this betrayal," she muttered, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Even with your occasional bout of caffeine fuelled kitty madness I still love you," Ichigo said, rubbing her back.
"It was one time!" she protested. He levelled his gaze on her. "Okay two," she amended. He raised an eyebrow. "Fine, three...but that one wasn't my fault!"
"Whatever you say Kitten," he smirked.
"Hmmph." she grumped. "Get on with the next soul Berryhead."
"Fine," he drawled dramatically, giving her ponytail a flip. "Well, that brings us to Weiss."
"Me?" the girl asked, her posture getting even straighter and her eyes widening.
Blake's eyes also widened as a conclusion came together in her head. The recipient of one of these reincarnated souls often had traits or abilities of the person they had known. Weiss seemed to have a predilection to using ice and they had just heard about someone else who wielded the power if ice and cold.
"I think Blake has it figured out," Yoruichi said. "Go ahead," she prodded.
Suddenly the centre of attention, she seemed a little less sure of herself. "Would it be Rukia?"
Ichigo smiled. "Yes it would."
Weiss was a bit floored by the news. She was well aware from the stories they had been told thus far that Rukia had been an important figure in Ichigo's life, even more so than what they had heard actual accounts of thus far. It was a bit overwhelming to find out that the soul of someone who had meant so much to him was now residing within her. She remembered Pyrrha telling them that she felt very much the same way when she found out that she had the combined souls of his friends Tatsuki and Orihime.
"Don't concern yourself about it too much," Yoruichi said. "It's not like it places any kind of obligations upon you. You are you, not her."
"Wow, she wields ice, she's from a rich and powerful family, she's bossy, and she's a bit of a midget too," Yang grinned. "Sounds like a match."
"I'll freeze you to your chair!" Weiss threatened.
"The knowledge was a bit daunting at first," Pyrrha admitted. "But then I became more and more curious to know more about them."
"What you asked me about still holds," Ichigo said. "Anytime you want to know more about them just ask and I'll gladly tell you about them. Same goes for you Weiss and for anyone else who has the soul of someone we knew."
"I had never given much thought to the concept of reincarnation before," Weiss began. "Finding out that it was real was enough of a shock, but this? And taking into account the entire set of circumstances around it..."
"Bit of a trip isn't it?" Yoruichi asked lightly. "If she thinks all of the things we've told them and are telling them now is mind blowing, wait until they hear about everything else," she thought. "Although, all of that will be far less fun."
"So when did you find out?" Weiss asked.
"The day you found us when we were having lunch with Ruby," Ichigo answered. "We can feel the presence of a person by their soul energy from quite a distance, but we have to be fairly close to feel the familiarity of a soul we knew in order to be able to confirm it. With Pyrrha and Nora it was while we watched all of you make your way to class one morning shortly after we came here."
Yoruichi smirked. "It took a great deal of willpower for Ichi to keep it together when we sensed your soul that day, otherwise you might have found yourself glomped by a Strawberry."
Weiss's face turned red. "T-that would have been wholly inappropriate!"
"But funny as hell," Yang laughed.
"Don't laugh too hard blondie because you almost suffered the same fate once," Yoruichi cautioned, her smirk widening.
"What?" said blonde asked, blinking in surprise.
"Yang has a soul that's familiar to you?" Ruby asked in awe.
"You too Little Red," the were-cat said.
"Me?" she gasped, eyes going wide.
They looked to Ichigo and it took him a moment to set his composure. He nodded. "You and Yang are sharing the souls of my little sisters, Karin and Yuzu."
They were rendered speechless and it was Blake who eventually broke the silence. "Wait, you said they're sharing the souls. Wouldn't they each have the soul of one?"
"Excellent question and nice catch on the phrasing," Yoruichi said with a smile. "In the past world and in this one, there is a belief among many that twins actually share the same soul. Each one has a unique signature to them, but their individual souls may well have been born of a single base soul that links them."
"I have a theory," Ichigo began. "and it's probably a stupid one but it's something that I choose to believe. Even in the chaos of the destruction of the worlds and in whatever way they reformed into this one, I believe that neither of them would leave the other no matter what kind of forces were trying to tear them apart. Karin would make sure to stay close to protect Yuzu and Yuzu would stay close to make sure Karin wasn't alone. Rather than be separated, as truly one soul they split themselves so that no matter where one went the other would always be there too." He smiled at them. "That first half went to Yang and somehow, someway, that other half of them went to Ruby when she was born."
"We first felt it during your initiation," Yoruichi explained. "And reconfirmed it during lunch that day. That day in class when we made an example out of Yang for how she was fighting, at the end of the class she said Ichigo was like a big brother and called him 'Big Bro'. He felt a small spike of something from Yang's soul, something intimately familiar and it left him in a pretty messed up state for a bit. It was as if in that moment something in her soul recognized him and acknowledged who he was."
"I worked and bled for all of the power that I have in order to be able to protect others," he said. "And that all began with Karin and Yuzu. I would do anything, endure anything to protect them. They meant everything to me and the biggest regret and pain that I have is that I wasn't able to prevent what happened so that they could live out their lives and be happy." The two girls had clasped hands and were getting teary eyed. "But, when I see who inherited their souls I can push that all away because you have that chance and I can't think of anyone who I'd rather have them be a part of."
"Wow, that's..." Yang was all but speechless.
"I never thought I would see the day when Yang was at a loss for something to say," Weiss smirked.
"Don't get used to it," Blake jabbed.
"Ow, the claws!" Yang wailed dramatically. Blake just rolled her eyes.
"So...you really would kind of be like our big brother then?" Ruby asked innocently.
"No more than if your souls had come from anyone else," he answered. "As we've said before where this is concerned, you are yourselves and no one else, who the soul used to be in no way defines you. But," he said with a smile. "I wouldn't turn down the role if that's what the two of you wanted."
"Too late for 'if'," Yang chuckled, giving her sister a one armed hug. "You've already been doing it. For everybody, not just me and Ruby." The others all voiced their agreement. "And that goes for big sister Yoruichi too," she added.
Yoruichi smiled even as her heart skipped a beat. It had been a long time since she'd heard anyone call her big sister. "Well we've gotten something out of this arrangement too," she said. "It has let us reconnect with people and a more normal way of living, something we were desperate for and we wouldn't trade that for anything."
"Can you tell us a little more about your sisters?" Ruby asked him. "About all of the people whose souls we have?"
"Sure thing," he answered with a smile.
For the remainder of the meal they talked a little bit about all of them, giving a bit more about what each of them was like and telling a couple of stories for each one. There would be plenty of time later for more but once the meal was done and cleaned up it was back to where they had left off before lunch and the promised and much anticipated explanation of just what a Zanpakuto was.
AN: Hopefully this wasn't a car wreck. Reviews are appreciated.
As always, trolls and idiots need not bother commenting at all. About anything. Seriously, don't bother, it's not worth anybody's time. You'll just get ignored, deleted, and/or blocked.