"After adopting you, I swore in front of my parents' grave that it would be my last time in breaking the rules, and from that time on, no matter what happens, I would follow and defend the rules to the very end." — Byakuya Kuchiki.
°
°
°
°
°°°°°°°°°
Byakuya silently followed behind a slightly anxious Renji but inwardly he was asking himself how he and his servants had missed her.
"Do you live in this settlement?" his question startled Renji but the boy quickly regained himself and gave him a nod.
Renji scratched his head with his cheeks tinged in embarrassment. "We can't always resort to stealing so sometimes we wander around the forest or the stream downhill to see if we can catch a small animal to eat."
He knew the stream Renji was talking about and it was a small distance away from the village. Was that why they missed her? It was plausible, but how come no one knew her name?
"I asked around earlier for her, but no one seemed to know her name, why?"
"Eh, you did? That's suspicious as hell." Renji muttered weakly, still not sure why he was leading the suspicious man to their little home. "As for why no one knows her name, well no one's cares about the scraggly kids roaming about so we're all just brats to them."
"Is that so?" Byakuya asked, not quite believing that reasoning.
"Well that is one part, and the other is that we can't really stay in one village forever if we keep stealing. We'll stay for a few years and then we'll go to the next one. We've been here for three years now."
Byakuya frowned at that and all Renji could do was give him a shrug.
"And that is all you do to survive, steal? And the occasional hunts?"
Renji took offense to that. It wasn't as if they had that many options open to them when they woke up in the Rukongai.
"Hey! You think surviving is that easy? How about trying to keep a litter of homeless brats alive while at it!" Renji's emotions spilled out more than he meant to. "We did what we could to survive. You don't see anyone handing out free meals, do you?"
Byakuya didn't ask any more questions after that and simply contented himself with silently following Renji, something the boy seemed to appreciate as well.
Their home was a rundown thatch hut, bigger than a normal hut but not big enough to be comfortably called a building. There also happened to be a cellar that was accessible with a ladder and that was where they all slept.
He knew the building because he had checked it himself and had found six children, none of which bore the slightest resemblance to his Hisana.
But it seemed now there were a few more children. Eight more children, including Renji, totaled it to fifteen children sharing a cellar.
"Um, can you wait here, sir? I'll go down and call Rukia up." Byakuya nodded and Renji didn't wait a second before running down the ladder.
Byakuya only had to wait a few seconds before he heard shouting and cursing and muffled apologies.
He stood in the center of the ruined building with the calmness of a mountain in the middle of a storm as he waited for the clearly nervous girl to come up.
He understood their caution and suspicion given their situation, and silently approved of it, but there was really nothing for them to be worried about. All he needed was one quick look at the girl and he would be gone in the next mome—
His train of thought came to a complete halt as the exact mirror image of Hisana, albeit younger, climbed up the ladder with nervous steps.
"Um, good day, sir. My name is Rukia." She was clearly out of her depths as she gave him a shaky bow. The noble in him felt insulted by the display rather than respected, while the open-minded and understanding part of him, the part that Hisana had cultured with great care, thought nothing of it and returned her greeting with a nod.
"Renji said you were looking for me, Mr. Shinigami." She fidgeted on where she stood and the kids hiding a few steps lower mirrored her.
He never told Renji his name so she referred to him by what she knew him as but that didn't matter.
He was looking at her, Hisana's younger sister and her only regret. Rukia, or more accurately, Rukia Kuchiki.
"Do you mind if we speak in private, Rukia?"
She did but she was looking for a polite way to decline him and not incur his wrath. It irked him a little, as if he would dare hurt her, but he understood.
"Don't worry, I only want to speak with her alone. I promise I'll return her unharmed after our talk." He said to the kids hiding and eavesdropping just below the latch.
"Rukia?" He called to her.
"It's all right. You can go with him, Rukia. If he wanted to hurt you I don't think he would have bothered asking." Renji's head popped up from the cellar's entrance.
"Shut up, Renji!" She snapped at him with a harsh whisper before giving a resigned nod to Byakuya as she followed him out of the house.
She opened her mouth to speak when they got outside but faltered when she felt his hand on her shoulders and before she could so much as flinch or move away from him she was hit with a nauseous wave as the world around her shifted. She had blinked once and she had gone from her home to the same location where Renji had stumbled on Byakuya.
She was still frozen in her confused state when she heard him snap his fingers and idly noted the way the air shimmered around them in a dome.
"Now we can talk." She crawled out of her daze when she heard him speak but her confusion still persisted. What does someone like this want with someone like her? To her it just smelled like a different brand of trouble and all she had to blame for it was an idiot named Renji.
Byakuya on the other hand had an easier read on her with how her Reiatsu fluctuated and decided to lessen her tension with an introduction.
"My name is Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of 6th Division and Head of one of the Five Great Noble Houses, the Kuchiki Clan."
Unlike what he expected, instead of the metaphorical ice breaking, he felt a storm of gloom overshadow her.
"A G-Great N-Noble?" She asked as if unsure of what she just heard before realizing what she just did and paled even more.
"I'm so sorry. I apologize, my lord." She frantically apologized and had been about to bow before he stopped her by holding her shoulders and shaking his head softly.
He was already seeing some similarities between the sisters other than their resemblance. They were incredibly apologetic if they thought they might have offended someone.
As for the difference between them, he would say that without a doubt Rukia was a hard spirited soul whereas Hisana was soft spirited.
"You did no wrong, Rukia. However it would do you more good if you calmed down a bit and centered yourself." He said as softly as he could and that seemed to work as her Reiatsu started flowing a bit freely.
"I think I'm good now. Thank you, my lord." She said after taking and releasing a couple mouthfuls of air.
Byakuya didn't correct her in the way she addressed him, that would have to wait until she reconciles with what he's about to tell her.
"Um, forgive me for asking out of turn, but what does a noble lord want with me?" She was yet to understand the expressive scope of the power and influence the Principal Clans have but she had the general idea of what a noble meant.
Byakuya considered how to answer her question in a way that wouldn't be too abrupt and would ease her into what he had to say, except that he found none. He wasn't one for beating around the bush so he chose to be as blunt as he always did.
"I'm here because my wife asked it of me to look for you. That is why I am here." He ended up saying as the calm breeze blew against his coat.
"Your wife? Lady Kuchiki is looking for me… but why? I don't think I've ever met her."
Rukia was doing all she could to hang onto something stable from all the curveballs she was getting pelted with. Her confusion only seemed to pile up.
Byakuya accepted what she said as he continued speaking: "She's currently sick and we don't know if she'll make it or not so she asked me to look for you so that she can apologize for abandoning you all those years ago."
"W-what?" Rukia choked a gasp. She felt a foreboding and she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear it or not, because subconsciously she knew that it would change everything once she heard it.
"What do you mean apologize?" Rukia asked half-deliriously. "I haven't ever been offended by any noble lady."
Her eyes caught Byakuya's calm black orbs and instantly she knew, even before he had said anything, that there was no going back after this.
"My wife and your sister, Hisana Kuchiki, asked me to bring her sister back home to her. So that she can apologize for leaving her behind all those years ago."
––––––
Patreøn*com/QuackVader
––––––