03 ☀ Video + Text; Night [ Using Stark's Encryption ]

[savior_n_black]

[ The video starts with Just a shot of Ichigo trying to get his PORTAL to sit upright on it's own. Once he does that, though...well, he's practically squirming with how weird this is. It's not exactly like he was too wild about his dignity being publicly, and brutally stripped like that

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[snowwhitesoul]

[She waits for another few days after he makes the broadcast, just to be sure that he's as recovered as he's going to get. But late one morning, Rukia is going to walk into his room, open his window, and proceed to try and haul his ass out of it.]

Come with me!

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[savior_n_black]

BWAH! Rukia, what - OI! STOP PUSHING!

[ ajhfhga WHAT THE HELL?! OUT THE WINDOW, JESUS CHRIST, LADY! S-Saved by shunpo, BUT STILL! ]

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[snowwhitesoul]

[Ooooout the window and through the byways and side streets of Promenade at full shunpo, a death grip on his shihakusho that'd take the jaws of life to pry loose. A leap over a hedge and they're trekking through some heavily forested land, weaving through trees and obstacles till they hit a long clearing of thick, wild grass. Bisecting it is a little brook that burbles contentedly. She finally lets him go and walks a few paces from him and turns.

Her expression is cold and focused, and her hand on the tsuka of her zanpakutou.]

Prepare yourself.

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[savior_n_black]

[ That hurried trip is sprinkled liberally with much shouting, cursing, and demands for Rukia to 'STOP GODDAMNITT, I CAN'T SEE, WHAT THE HELL, LET ME GO, TELL ME WHAT THIS IS AL ABOUT' etc, etc.

Now, though, half-sprawled on the grass, and gaping at the angry little shinigami, Ichigo scrambles to his feet, and holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. ]

WILL YOU STOP FOR A SECOND?! What is your freaking problem?!

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[snowwhitesoul]

[Shirayuki sings out a shrill, eager song as she is pulled from her saya, the thin fingers wrapped around digging tight into the braided silk of the tsukaito. A flick of her wrist towards Ichigo in salute sends the sunlight scattering along the razor edge of the blade. A cool breeze wafts against Ichigo's face, almost in warning.

Settling into a comfortable position, Rukia sets him with a perfectly detached stare and raises her sword in readiness. His only warning is the slightest shift of her weight before the distance between them is chewed up by a single step of shunpo and the grey arc of a blade swinging down on him.]

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[savior_n_black]

[ HOLY SHI- ! ]

RUKIA, STOP IT!

[ It's all self-preservation that gets Zangetsu over his shoulder, and meet Shirayuki before Rukia ended up cleaving him from shoulder to hip! ]

Have you lost your fucking mind?!

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[snowwhitesoul]

[The growl of blade sliding against blade as Rukia presses the swordlock to the side and away from Ichigo's center of gravity is the only thing that can be heard. The petite girl takes a half-inch step in closer, pushing her advantage with her lower center of gravity to force the lock to break in her favor.]

What are we, Ichigo?

[Despite the strain on both their parts, her voice is about as emotionless as her eyes. Precise, cold, and dispassionate.

But her blade, Shirayuki is far from cold.]

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[savior_n_black]

[ Ichigo is acting purely in defense; the screech of metal intensifies as he allows Shirayuki to slide the length of Zangetsu, then twists his wrists to angle his zanpakutou across his body.
But all of that is automatic response. His eyes widen a little at her question, mouth working as though he wasn't sure what to say. ]

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[snowwhitesoul]

Because I thought we were nakama.

[The swing that comes in aims for his hip and thigh, looking to fillet the muscle there. Their zanpakutou clash again and the impact resonates up both their arms.]

But you seem to think differently.

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[savior_n_black]

[ His eyes betray him right now; the flinching around the edges, then dropping from hers. A muscle in his jaw twitches, and with a sudden burst of reiatsu, he shoves Shirayuki back, and shunpos a few paces away. ]

...We are friends.

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[snowwhitesoul]

[But then she's right on him again, pressing him relentlessly, ducking into his strike range to hit from low to high, her foot slipping around to try and trip him. Because the more time he has to spend defending himself, the less time he has to put up a wall.]

That's strange, Ichigo, because I thought nakama trusted each other.

[And each clash of their zanpakutou, Shirayuki sings the same song to Zangetsu: anger, worry, frustration, fear. Fear for him. Worry for him. Anger and frustration at him, all tangled up in a convoluted gordian knot of emotion that she managed to keep from her face and voice.]

Nakama don't push each other away before running off to engage in a self-destructive fool's errand.

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[savior_n_black]

[ And, indeed, she's doing a bang up job of distracting Ichigo, and forcing him to fight smarter since he isn't about to actually take the offense, and end up hurting her.

Turn, and lightly step out of the attempt to trip him, Zangetsu turned crossways to protect Ichigo with the huge flat of the blade.

He could argue; say he hadn't intended to be tortured. But it would taste too much like a lie. Oh, no, he didn't want to be tortured by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd purposefully provoked whomever might be in charge of Promenade. He'd picked a fight, and he knew it. ]

Stop this, Rukia.

[ His eyes are hardening, trying to draw himself in, and away from how sickening it is to fight with his best friend like this. Even his voice has deadened, and if not for the momentary lapse of clanging metal, probably wouldn't have been audible at all. ]

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[snowwhitesoul]

Stop? Like I tried to stop you?

[Dead and cold in equal measure, she pushes him across the field, weaving kidou and bakudo together almost seamlessly. Harrying him until they're at the stream, where her foot makes another attempt to trip him into it.]

What happened, Ichigo? What are you running away from?

[Because that's what this is ultimately about, isn't it? Because its not like him to rush head first into harm's way for nothing. To rescue a nakama, to save people? Yes. But there was nothing to be saved this time, and thats why this made no sense. That's why Rukia was going to find out, and if she had to, reopen the scar tissue if it meant that she could stop whatever wound he was nursing from infecting more.]

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[savior_n_black]

[ She half-succeeds at that, but Ichigo only stumbles back enough to end up knee deep in the water. ]

You saw what happened, damnitt! I didn't run from Genero, and I'm not running from you!

[ He figures she's asking about the most recent of events. That she's trying to make him admit that he was in a lot more pain that he let on, but in truth, felt no fear. Not of pain, and not for himself. ]

Don't you get it?! It's better if you don't get too close to me anymore!

[ ...And that was a piece that slipped out on the coattails of frustrated anger, and a side-stepped slash from Shirayuki. ]

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[snowwhitesoul]

Mae, Sode no Shirayuki

[The splash of him landing in the water is what she'd been waiting for. Shirayuki had barely relinquished its metallic grey for white before the tip of it dropped down into the stream. The frothing little brook begins to ice over, crystalline roils of ice captured in a split second of time as the water freezes around his feet and legs.]

No, you are running from me. You ran from me to pick a stupid, potentially suicidal fight.

[In an inverse relationship to the stream, her voice is starting to crack, just the tiniest bit. There's something raw and heated there as she stalks over and, with her high ground on the bank, looks him dead even in the eyes.]

And you dont tell me what to do. I am not here for you to protect me and I refuse to turn my back on you. Because you refused to let me go to my death willingly, I'm not about to watch you do the same.

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[savior_n_black]

[ Damn. Stuck with ice freezing everything from his feet to above his knees, Ichigo glances down, and wonders how long it would take to break the ice up without using his bankai.

But, Rukia's words; I'm not here for you to protect me stings. As does the accusation that he was somehow suicidal.

With no good way of responding to that, Ichigo drops his gaze. Unable to keep looking Rukia in the eye right now. ]

...I'm not interested in suicide. And I'm not going to fight you, Rukia. There's no point.