Chapter Text
In the blink of an eye, suddenly everyone had his back. Before he realized it, there were people standing by his side, friends and former foes, all of them ready to wage war for him.
For him… it was for him. They all agreed it was for him.
When did he gain so many allies?
There was something in that boy. And it wasn’t just the fact he looked like Kaien.
Her duty was to cleanse those who had become Hollows, and aid other spirits in getting to Soul Society. It was simple, yet incredibly hard. She knew she couldn’t save everyone, and sometimes she would have to choose between one or another. Sometimes, two Hollows would show up and attack defenseless ghosts, and she would need to decide which one was more important, which one to kill first, meaning the one deemed less worthy would rampage free and devour innocents for as long as she didn't go after it.
Few times had she faced such a dilemma, and to her eyes, she always made the right, most rational choice. This time, however, could be considered an exception.
It wasn't in her list of duties to protect the living from getting attacked. Her priority was spirits, humans came after. So when she found herself choosing between a low level Hollow going after a random ghost girl, and a more dangerous one pursuing a group of spirits, her focus fell on the low level one. It wasn't that she had a soft spot for children or anything, and it wasn't that she was slacking off and going for easier opponents.
No, there was someone else in the picture, a human protecting the girl, who was just different. His presence brought unexpected thoughts to the front of Rukia's mind the moment she felt him. Like a stream of words that weren't her own, a desire, a need, an order, a fact in itself.
He's special.
He's powerful.
Don't let him die.
She had to protect the King.
Rukia knew nothing about that man. His name, age, anything. She barely had time to hear him shout as she cut down the corrupted spirit, ending its painful existence and allowing it to move on. Then, at least, she knew the man was safe. As she landed on the destroyed pavement, shards of broken glass all around her, she briefly turned her head around not to gaze at the destruction, but to lock her eyes on the teenager shielding the little girl with his own body. His orange hair was the first thing that caught her attention, and then came his face. He looked like a delinquent, maybe a jerk, even. But his actions, the softening of his eyes as he stared at the poor ghost, the strange aura which surrounded him and compelled Rukia to pick him instead of her real duties, it all spoke otherwise.
He was something she couldn't comprehend. He was different, and Rukia gulped heavily upon realizing her own thoughts were suffocating her. Ignoring the feeling of being watched, knowing humans like him couldn't see her, she disappeared in a Flash Step and attempted to forget that whole thing had happened.
It was better to not get involved with him. It was better to act as if he didn't exist.
She wasn't ready for what came that night. No one was.
“If you’re a robber, I gotta tell you, you’re a terrible one!”
“Y-you… you can see me?”
The pain on her back was clear, the answer to the question was beyond obvious, but she still had to ask. Astonishment denied reality. Shock turned facts into a blur. Humans couldn’t see her. So how did he kick her?
“Huh? Of course I can see you”
She knew she wasn’t supposed to believe it, but a part of her yelled that this was right, this was natural. This man, rather, this kid, had to see her. It was an obvious thing.
“Anyone could’ve seen you-”
The black-haired spirit watched as the orange-haired human was attacked from behind by a man who seemed to be his father. They argued for a moment, and she watched, until she noticed the kid had turned the topic back to her and tried explaining her presence in the room to his dad. She interrupted before he could continue.
“Don’t bother,” she said, menacingly. “A normal human can’t see me. I’m a ‘Shinigami’. A messenger of death. A Soul Reaper, if you may.”
The boy stared at her, wide eyed, his frown reflecting the shock he felt in that very moment. It was strange to feel his gaze so focused on her, rather, it was strange to feel like she was actually being watched by the humans she had sworn to protect. To have someone stare at her so intensely wasn’t quite uncomfortable, but it was… different.
Perhaps it was because this boy was different, but what did she know? He was just a human.
He didn’t make any attempt to move, and he just seemed astonished at the revelation. Feeling like it was only right to let him know, she began a short explanation on what Shinigamis were, as simple and as bluntly as possible, so that his tiny human mind would be able to understand and allow her to go do her duties without leaving unanswered questions behind. Under normal circumstances, she would’ve simply deleted his memory, but she didn’t feel like it was right and she also didn’t have the means to do so at that moment.
After she was done with the explanation, the teenager glanced at her in a strange manner, then crossed his arms over his chest, huffing.
“So... you’re a kind of special spirit that hunts down evil spirits.”
“Yes.” She nodded firmly.
“You come from a so-called ‘Soul Society’, a different world, and you were sent by them to carry out that duty.”
“Exactly.” She nodded again.
“Alright, well, let’s suppose I believe it…”
With little to no warning, he grabbed a small table that was peacefully chilling somewhere in the room and flipped it. The Soul Reaper yelped and scrambled to avoid it, taken by surprise with the outburst.
“Like hell I’ll believe something like that!” he practically screamed. “Couldn’t you come up with a better lie? Oh, I get it, you just want to play samurai after dying, right?”
“Wh- you don’t believe me!? Even when you’re seeing me right here, right in front of you?”
“Tell you what, if your story had any truth in it, don’t you think I would’ve seen another Shinigami in my life? I wasn’t born yesterday! You’re the first one to cross paths with me! How am I supposed to believe you, huh!?”
She gulped, then gritted her teeth and determinedly extended her arm, as if reaching out to the orange haired boy.
She wasn’t sure why, but she inwardly apologized before chanting.
“Well then, I’ll have to demonstrate. Bakudo number one! Sai!”
Her demonic arts worked perfectly and the boy’s arms were immediately forced to cross behind his back, putting him in an awkward position and making him fall face-first onto the floor. He grunted and began squirming, trying to set himself free of the spell she had somehow cast on him. She knew it was a useless struggle and made no attempt to actually help him. With a mischievous grin, she planted one foot on the boy, and mockingly asked if he believed yet.
She didn’t wait for his response, however. Ignoring his panicked gaze as she lifted her sword, she quickly, methodically swung it down and tapped the air right next to the orange haired teenager- or, to be more precise, tapped the forehead of the ghost that was clinging to him, an old-looking salaryman who had probably passed away recently.
The boy watched with wide eyes, paying close attention to the scene unfolding beside him. The black-haired Soul Reaper calmly stared at the ghost, watching him start to glow and prepare to cross over. She noticed he seemed to be tearing up at the thought of leaving.
“N-no, please, I don’t want to go… I don’t want to go to hell…” he begged, obviously scared of what was coming. She didn’t grant him a smile, but she did soften her voice as she spoke.
“You’re not going to hell. You’re going to the Soul Society… don’t be afraid, it is a peaceful place. You may rest now.” She spoke a well-practiced lie, but it was better to reassure the spirits with something soothing, with some hopes they would be alright at the other side.
The ghost seemed to believe it, and closed his eyes as he was engulfed by light and promptly disappeared in it, leaving behind nothing but a black butterfly.
All the while, the abnormal teenager had been watching in shocked silence.
“What… what did you do to him?”
“I sent him over to the Soul Society. That is one of my duties as a Shinigami,” she said matter-of-factly. “I believe it’s useless to ask you again if you believe in our existence anymore. See, there are two kinds of spirits in this world…”
Sitting down and taking out a sketchbook she had somehow kept hidden within her black robes, she began explaining in detail what Soul Reapers were supposed to do, every now and then bickering with the boy and going as far as to draw a mustache on his face, taking advantage of the fact he still couldn’t move due to her spell.
There was a pressing thought in her head, a thought she herself hadn’t realized was there. Truthfully, she was there to hunt down a Hollow, an evil spirit that existed for the sake of destroying and consuming. Humans who could see Soul Reapers were rare, but the way they were supposed to be dealt with, if they ever came in contact with them, was nothing like… whatever she was doing. She was supposed to wipe his memories clean, ignore the encounter, and hunt down the Hollow. Now she found herself drawing an in-depth explanation of Shinigami, Hollow and ‘Plus’, the harmless ghosts the teenager seemed accustomed to dealing with.
She couldn’t help it, there was just something in her saying he had the right to know. No, rather, he was supposed to know these things, and it was impossible to think he wouldn’t. Yet there he was, surrounded by naiveness and unaware of the truth of the spiritual world unfolding around him.
Why didn’t he know? Well, the answer was obvious- for any Soul Reaper, the answer would’ve been obvious. He’s just a human with a bit more of spiritual power, if he ever spotted a Soul Reaper, he wasn’t meant to know what they were, what their duty was, or the outstanding things they could do. He was meant to remain in the dark just like everyone else.
But to her, that obviousness was wiped out of her head the moment she felt it. How special he was. How different he was. How he was meant to be protected at all costs.
Lost in her explanation and partially lost in her thoughts, she was rudely interrupted by the human yelling at her, spouting some nonsense about the extremely loud roar he had just heard. She squinted at him, thinking he may have lost it after hitting his head against the floor when she forced him down with her spell.
“A roar? Don’t be ridiculous, I didn’t hear any-”
Then she heard it.
Everything in her shook with the noise, unnaturally horrifying and sounding so close it was impossible. She turned around sharply, knowing this was literally a matter of life or death, but stopped dead in her tracks when something struck her.
How did he hear it before her?
“Hey! Hey, Soul Reaper, what was that!? Was that a Hollow!?”
Thoughts were racing in her head, the strangeness of the situation dawning on her too fast for her to process. Who the hell was this kid? Why had she paid so much attention to him? And how did she let a Hollow get so close to them without even noticing? Had her senses been failing, or were they being blocked by something else, a greater force covering them in a blanket and not allowing her to see clearly?
“Answer me!”
She gritted her teeth.
“Yes, that was a Hollow! I’m going to hunt it down, so you stay here!”
“The hell are you on about!?” Oh for the love of whatever God was out there, this was no time to argue. “Hurry up and let me go! My sister was screaming too! It’s attacking my family, get rid of this stupid spell, I have to save them!”
“You fool! Do you want to get yourself killed!? This isn’t something you can handle!”
“I said let me go!”
“I will not!” She had to protect him. He would be safe if he stayed where he was. It was foolish for a human to try and fight a Hollow. “You’re staying here, and I’ll take care of everything! Just wait!”
Why was she explaining herself to him? There was no time to think about it. She rushed to open the door and go into the house to kill the Hollow, but the moment she did, a shockwave of its nauseous presence almost pushed her back with how ridiculously strong it was.
Lord, how had she not felt it before?
“Ichi…”
The weak voice that came from the little girl crawling on the floor towards the boy’s bedroom meant nothing to her, but the world to him. She heard him scream a name- Karin, was it?- and watched in silence as they had a short exchange. The girl didn’t last much longer and finally passed out. She couldn’t care less, but the boy practically panicked at the sight and yelled her name again. The Soul Reaper didn’t even think about it before crouching down and confirming ‘Karin’ was alright.
“She’s just unconscious. She’ll live.” ...why was she telling him anything again? “Her soul is still in place-”
The sudden furious growls of the boy made her snap her head to lock eyes with him, slowly rising from the floor with strength she had no idea he was keeping inside, then determinedly trying to break his arms free of the invisible force meant to keep him still.
Bad idea. Really, really bad idea.
“Stop!” she yelled “Don’t even try! If you keep that up, your soul will break! A human can’t tear down a Bakudo on their own!”
He completely ignored her.
“ Stop it! ”
She couldn’t be sure, but the scream of rage he gave on the last effort to break the demonic spell sounded more feral than the Hollow waiting for them at the other end of the house.
In front of her astonished eyes, the orange-haired man broke the invisible restraints, his soul very much still whole and pulsing with an overwhelming power that was enough to paralyze her in the spot. He ran past her, grabbed a baseball bat laying around in his room, and sprinted downstairs towards his imminent doom, ignoring the previous warnings, ignoring the obvious other-worldly danger he was about to face.
She couldn’t let him die.
As soon as she felt like she was in control of her body again, she sprinted towards the first floor and unsheathed her sword faster than the blink of an eye, making it just in time to stop the hideous monster from hurting him. She hadn’t seen it, but the boy somehow managed to face off against it for a few seconds and withstand a hit strong enough to make his forehead bleed.
Sheer luck made it so the arm she managed to cut was also the one holding another girl that seemed precious to the orange-haired teenager. He ignored the pain and the blood partially blocking his vision and ran to catch her, hugging her close to his body and protecting her from the impact of the fall, also making sure she wasn’t hit by the falling rubble of walls breaking thanks to that damned monster. Well, at least, he would stay out of trouble now that his family was alright.
“What the hell is that thing!? Why is it attacking my family!? You said they only devoured other spirits, not living people!” Ah, sure, he wasn’t planning to shut up yet.
“This is a Hollow.” No , this wasn’t the time to be distracted, she had to focus on the Hollow- “It’s true that they go for spirits under normal circumstances, but sometimes, they also go for people with… unusually strong souls. People who can see them.”
“People who can… hold on…”
The Hollow was getting closer.
“I’m inclined to believe… it’s here for your soul.”
“Are you saying… are you saying this whole thing… is my fault? Everyone getting hurt, it’s my fault?”
She wasn’t supposed to feel bad for humans, to care for the emotions of the living, but seeing his face twisted in pain when he realized what was going on was just… just…
“H-hold on, I never said it was-”
Neither of them could react in time before the black-haired woman was smacked out of the way by the Hollow, plummeting into a wall across the street and leaving the path clear for it to go get the boy’s soul.
No, no, that was bad. She had to do something. Why- how had she been so careless?
She stood up from the debris and prepared to call forth her Zanpakuto, the circumstances looking bad enough to release it. Pressing her palm against the flat edge, she inhaled deeply, and was about to say the name when she realized the boy was nowhere to be found.
“Hi, ugly.”
She snapped her head to the side. The Hollow was already staring at him, hungrily gazing at its next meal.
“Do you want my soul?” he mocked, defiantly. “Then you’ll have to fight me for it! You’re not going to hurt anyone else if it’s my soul you want!”
The Hollow roared in apparent joy. It knew this was going to be both delicious and so, so amusingly easy. It lunged at the boy. All of his defiance left him and he stood there, paralyzed at the sight of a giant skull about to chomp him down.
She wasn’t even thinking. Her body moved on its own.
Eyes wide with horror, the boy watched as the Soul Reaper leaped into the Hollow’s way and took his place as its snack, letting it bite and almost tear her apart so that he would be safe. Her blade dropped uselessly to the floor, and so did the woman, falling to her knees and staring with empty eyes at the pool of blood forming underneath, all of that red belonging to her. Ah, well, it wasn’t the first time she had seen a scene like that before…
“Soul Reaper!” she heard him yell, but it was too late already. She was lying on the cold stone road, unable to move, and they both heard the roar of joy coming from the Hollow, almost as if it was mocking them while tasting the chunk it had managed to tear from the black-haired woman.
“Y-you… fool…” she grunted, moving an arm to try to lift herself up, if only just a bit, so she could turn around and look at him clearly. A part of her insisted on making sure he was alright, even in what felt like her last moments alive. “I told you to… uhrk… stay out of it…”
“I…” his eyes went down, reflecting his shame. “I’m sorry, I just... I thought…”
“You t-thought you could… beat… it? Really?” another grunt. “As I am now… I can’t fight anymore. Let’s just… let’s hope it eats us quickly…”
It wasn’t like her to give up so easily, but what could she do? It was hopeless now, she had not only failed her mission as a Shinigami, but she had also failed a greater duty that she wasn’t even quite sure about yet.
Protecting the king… she had failed. There was nothing else she could do.
…But perhaps there was something he could do.
“Do you want to save your family?” she asked, her voice weak, but determined.
The boy immediately lifted his head and locked his eyes on her again, a flame of hope igniting in them.
“Is there a way!? Tell me how!”
“There’s a way… well… it’s technically the only way we have left…”
Summoning the last remnants of her strength, she pushed herself up against the closest wall and lifted her sword, pointing it at him.
“You must become a Soul Reaper.”
It wasn’t a solution she liked, but it would, at the very least, offer the boy a chance to survive.
His shocked expression gave him away. He didn’t believe it was possible at first. The sound of the Hollow’s footsteps shook their very souls with how loud, thunderous, and terrifying they were, approaching them and giving almost no time to think.
“If I run this through your heart, I can pour half of my powers into you. For a short time, you’ll be able to fight the Hollow on equal terms. If it doesn’t work, we both die here… but that’s already an obvious outcome. There’s nothing to lose.” She almost choked on her own words, rambling as quickly as possible to convince him to do it. “I have a feeling, I just have this feeling… that you can handle it. You’ll be able to withstand it. I know it.”
He gulped, and for a second he glanced at one of the little girls, the brown-haired one, lying unconscious amidst the destruction of his house. The Soul Reaper didn’t quite catch what was going on, the boy whispering something in worry, tainted in a deep sadness, then turning around and firmly grabbing the sword, aiming for his chest.
“Let’s try your idea, Shinigami.” He grinned, trying to hide the fear and nervousness that were bound to come with such a decision.
She simply chuckled, and looked up at him.
“It’s not ‘Shinigami’... my name is Rukia Kuchiki.”
“Ah…” He smiled, and for an unknown reason, it made her feel safe. “I see. I’m Ichigo Kurosaki. And I hope this isn’t the last time we meet.”
The tension of the moment increased, the loud steps of the Hollow blurring all other sounds to nothing, all except for Ichigo’s heartbeat, filling his being and reminding him of how terrified he was, while Rukia feared not only for her life, but for Ichigo’s too, perhaps even more than her own. There was no more time to lose, and so she pushed the blade forwards, piercing right through his chest. The exchange covered the two of them in a blinding light.
The Hollow’s arm was instantly ripped off, sliced through with little to no effort, a huge sword doing quick work of it and forcing the monster to stop. It howled in pain, backing off if only for just a few steps, confused and blinded not only by the flash from a second ago, but also by the pain.
Dust and smoke cleared, light dimmed down, and the orange-haired Soul Reaper lifted his ridiculously oversized sword to rest it on his shoulder, not a care in the world over whatever he had just become. Rukia watched from behind, her clothes having turned a pristine white interrupted only by the dark red stains of her blood. She couldn’t believe her own eyes. She had intended to grant him a portion of her powers, but he took it all for himself, whether aware of it or not.
And, what was even more shocking, she was aware of the fact her own soul didn’t offer resistance. She had let him take it all. She couldn’t refuse the pull of his soul.
“You’re going to pay for what you did to my family!”
Watching him wield the sword and easily destroy the Hollow was almost beautiful. It was as if it was meant to be, as if Ichigo was naturally supposed to hold a Zanpakuto. As if it was his destiny.
As if Rukia’s true purpose was to grant power to the king.