Fic Update: What You Wish For, Chapter 10b...
Title: What You Wish For.
Author: Starvinbohemian.
Rating: NC-17.
Pairings: Rukia/Kaien and with all the implications this would have on Rukia/Everyone Else.
Summary: “Drown not thyself to save a drowning man.” An AU wherein Aaroniero really was Kaien. Rukia comes to terms with what it would have meant for Kaien to be alive.
Part I: Plunge Part II: Submerge Part III: Deluge
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 10a
What You Wish For
Chapter 10B…
It’s the communicator that wakes her.
Rukia reacts by instinct, and Ichigo’s t-shirts scatter when she leaps from the closet.
While she slept, the sun moved across the sky and into afternoon; it beats down on her as she runs.
She runs without thought, too focused on her task to consider anything but what awaits her.
Her destination turns out to be a public park. Rukia whips around, seeking potential dangers. She thinks it’s still too early for children to be out of school and, thankfully, there don't seem to be any children around the playground. The park is empty.
Maybe too empty. Where's the hollow? It has to be there somewhere. The communicator pinpointed this location.
The hollow almost manages to sneak up on her.
Just in the nick of time, Rukia springs backward to avoid the enormous tail that darts out at her legs.
“That was too close, Kuchiki! You weren’t paying attention!”
Just behind her, the impact of the tail snaps a tree in half. Still invisible, the creature laughs at her. “You’re too slow, shinigami!”
“Show yourself!” she demands.
“If you say so.”
The air shimmers, and then the hollow appears before her, crouched on top of a swing set. The beast is enormous, with bone-white horns protruding from its malformed head. The poles of the swing set creak in warning of a snap.
The mask grins at her. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he hisses at her.
Me, too, she thinks. Rukia draws her zanpaktou. The rush of savage joy is a relief. If nothing else, this, at least, she can do. “Come, hollow!”
“So eager! Very well, shinigami, here I come.”
Kaien always told her to respect her opponent’s size, not just due to difference of strength but also due to their longer reach. This hollow is huge. Rukia circles, keeping her distance.
“Sorry, Kuchiki, but they’re probably always going to be bigger than you.” He grins. “But you can still be faster.”
The hollow strikes out at her. Ready, she dodges the first blow. When its giant fist swings back, she's already darted around him. “Hey!”
They’re too close to the street. Any minute, someone could walk by and become a casualty of battle.
No, Rukia decides. No one is going to get hurt today. All she has to do is draw him deeper into the park and away from the main street.
Decision made, Rukia turns on her heel and runs.
“Hey, where are you going? I thought we were gonna play!”
Not here. The monster is right on her heels, close enough that its warm spittle hits the back of her neck. His heavy footfalls thunder in her ears.
He’s too close. There won’t be enough time to turn and swing before he barrels into her. Rukia makes a gamble and drops to the ground. His large feet trample beside her head, but he goes right over her.
Jumping to her feet, Rukia raises her zanpaktou. The hollow stumbles to a stop and turns with a furious howl. “I am going to take you apart, piece by delicious piece.”
“Bitch, I’m going to tear you apart!”
Rukia can’t help it- her stance falters. For one crucial moment, there is an entirely different hollow before her than before.
It’s a moment she can’t afford. In the time it takes to blink, the hollow has gotten in front of her again.
“Really, Kuchiki? You’re daydreaming again?”
She means to parry the blow so that she can slip beneath its massive arm for a close hit. But to her great surprise, her zanpaktou bounces off of the hollow’s skin as if Sodeno no Shirayuki were made of rubber. Uh-oh.
The hollow's backhand sends her flying into a tree. Her back hits the bark with a horrible crunch, and she crumbles to the ground.
The hollow snorts. “That’s it? How disappointing.”
Rukia grits her teeth against the pain as she struggles to her feet. “No, that’s not all. Tsugi no mai, hakuren!”
Nothing happens.
Her confidence vanishes in the second it takes her to realize her zanpaktou has ignored her call. When she reachs for the power source of her sword, she finds nothing there. Sodeno no Shirayuki… why?
The hollow takes advantage of her surprise. Its tail whips around and takes her out, smashing her back against the tree. Suddenly, there are evil stars in her eyes.
She knows before she even tries that there’s no getting back up this time. But even with blood in her mouth and in her eyes, she still has to try.
It's worse than she anticipated. Something in her back snaps, and she screams.
The hollow leans over her with a sadistic grin on its pale face. “This is what they send to protect their precious humans? How embarrassing.”
Rukia glares, but says nothing. She isn’t going to waste words on a hollow.
“Maybe you won’t make such a good meal after all.”
She’s distracted and hurting, and so she doesn’t notice what’s about to happen until it’s too late. The hollow’s tail wraps around her ankle, and then she’s suddenly upside down in the air. Rukia nearly chokes on a wet gasp. The pain in her back is blinding.
The hollow brings her up so she’s staring directly into his huge jaws. “Ah, well. I’m still going to eat you.”
Her arms don’t want to cooperate. Damn it…
She’s failed again.
Rukia can’t bear to look at him, but she hears him come up beside her. Kaien sighs and rests his large hand on the crown of her head. “Look, I know you’re frustrated. I get it. I’ve been there. But you can’t let the frustration win.”
“I’m trying so hard, Kaien-dono,” she whispers.
“I know. That’s why you’re going to get this. Just trust me.”
Trust me.
Trust…
… me.
“If you really want to atone for your sins, then there is something I want you to do, Kuchiki… Bring me the heads of all your friends.”
“Shut up!” she screams.
The hollow draws back in surprise, but not before she sends a hot blast of kidou directly into his face.
His screams echo around her as she plummets back to the ground.
Rukia trusted Kaien. Because, like Niisama and Captain Ichimaru, Kaien was a child prodigy. The skills that took her years to learn came as natural to him as breathing. It had been whispered around the squad that Kaien could have been a captain, but he loved Squad 13 too much to leave. When Kaien went into a fight, even against the hollow that had murdered his beloved wife, Rukia trusted him to win. She trusted him, because he was that powerful. And because he was her friend.
And none of it mattered. In the end, despite all of his experience, confidence, and natural talents, Kaien still died that night. None of it saved him- from her, little mediocre her- and he died.
I’m going to die now, she thinks, strangely unafraid, possibly too shocked to be afraid when, after everything, it could end like this.
Still screaming, the hollow lunges again for her. He’s expecting to bite off her head, but Rukia draws back her zanpaktou and drives it right into his chest.
The hollow rears back, her zanpaktou still caught in his chest. He's screaming in agony, but she’s defenseless now. The defensive strike was a calculated risk that might not pay off.
“Hey! Over here, you bastard!”
Except not.
Rukia can’t help her grin when the familiar reiatsu washes over her.
Ichigo.
He came.
Relieved, she lets her head drop back onto the grass.
The hollow grins at him. “I’ll get to you after I’ve devoured her!”
Rukia hears Ichigo snarl, “Not gonna happen!”
Then, there's the sound of steel clashing, and it’s the most comforting sound in the world.
All Rukia can see is sky. She painstakingly angles her head so she can see the show, because Ichigo in battle is a beautiful thing. There is nothing complicated about that.
The hollow tries the tail trick on Ichigo, and immediately finds himself short a tail. Faster than her eye can catch, Ichigo moves from the ground to the top of the hollow’s head.
“Get off! Get off!” the monster screams. He shakes his head frantically, and Ichigo slips sideways. He catches himself in time before the hollow can dislodge him. With a firm grip on the hollow’s hair, he swings downward with purpose.
(No one ever showed Ichigo how to fight. He just knew.)
Taking advantage of an opportunity, Ichigo pulls Rukia’s zanpaktou from where it’s been lodged in the hollow’s chest.
(Maybe Ichigo is a child prodigy, too.)
Before the hollow has time to understand what’s been done, Ichigo rams Sodeno no Shirayuki right up under its jaw. The doomed beast swats at him ineffectively, but Ichigo has already returned to the hollow’s head. With a ferocious yell, Ichigo drives Zangetsu down into the hollow’s crown.
And it’s over.
The hollow dispatched, Ichigo drops down beside her head. “Rukia!”
There was never any doubt that he would win. For all that Kaien and Ichigo resemble each other, Ichigo has never died on her. And she is so, so grateful…
She grins up at her savior. “Moron, I had him.”
He scowls. “Shut up! This isn’t funny!”
“Who’s laughing?” Rukia winces as he awkwardly pulls her into his arms. “Careful, fool.”
He surveys her with an anxious look. “Should we go to Inoue?”
Her back is on fire. Going to Inoue would mean an easy fix, but maybe this is an opportunity to finally teach the boy something.
“No. Let me show you.” Rukia takes his hand and places it against her back. She snorts at the way his eyes widen. “Focus your energy into the wound.”
“But… where is the wound?” he asks uncertainly. There has always been someone else to heal him, but he can't always count on that being the case. “I can’t see it…”
“It doesn’t matter. Just picture my back and your energy pouring in and restoring the tissues.”
He nods with determination. “Okay. Got it.”
She doubts that, but oh well. He could hardly make the situation worse. Relaxing against him, Rukia watches as Ichigo’s expression settles into fierce concentration. “Begin.”
Rukia is amused to discover that not everything comes easily to him. Unlike Inoue’s healing energy, which feels like a soothing balm, Ichigo’s energy is halting and jerky, darting forward and then slipping in another direction before the pain has gone.
“Is it working?” he asks.
“Not at all. Focus, Ichigo.”
“I am!” he snaps. “Damn it, this is hard.”
“No, it isn’t. Defeating arrancar is hard. This should be easy.”
“Shut up. Or you can heal yourself.”
“Even like this, I could probably do a better job.”
“Rukia,” he warns.
“All right,” she says with a sigh. “Just focus.” Rukia closes her eyes on the sight of his determined face bathed in golden light and endures his awkward attempts at healing. She will be healed- eventually.
Now that the threat of danger has passed, they should probably talk about the things that were said the last time they saw each other.
They don’t, and Rukia is all right with that. At least, for now.
After a while, she opens her eyes to see Ichigo regarding her with a solemn expression. “Hmn?”
“What’s wrong with you?” he asks. “That hollow was a joke.”
Rukia avoids his eyes. “No hollow is a joke. You’re overconfident.”
“Why are you out here by yourself? I thought Urahara had you on bed rest.”
“You do realize that creepy merchant isn’t an actual doctor, right?”
“Rukia…”
She isn’t going to have another conversation about supposed overdoses. “Anyway, why are you out here? Inoue said you weren’t at school yesterday, and you’re clearly not there today. Your studies are important, Ichigo.”
He rolls his eyes. “As if you would know.”
“I do-”
“Just drop it, okay? You’re not supposed to be here. I’m not supposed to be here. But we were, and that’s one less hollow hurting people today. That’s good, isn’t it?”
He has her there. Closing her eyes, Rukia gives in. She doesn’t really want to talk anyway. She lets him get on with it and doesn’t even point out that his healing feels as if someone is poking her wound with a bony finger.
With her cheek pressed against his chest, she can’t help but notice that familiar smell from his closet.
Ichigo’s reiatsu jumps suddenly.
She looks up at him in surprise. “What’s wrong?”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“You’re smiling. It’s creepy.”
“Sorry.”
She isn’t.
TBC…