Rukia's anxious eyes kept searching through the deep shadows on both sides of the street.
The night was like ink poured across the world. At last, in that deepest patch of darkness, her gaze caught a proud and icy figure.
He wore a captain's haori, like a statue carved entirely from pure nobility.
Even under a night curtain that seemed capable of swallowing all light, the sense of distance and authority radiating from within him did not lessen in the slightest. Instead, it became even sharper, carrying an air of untouchable, chilling nobility.
"Nii-san..."
Rukia swallowed, her voice trembling ever so slightly. She longed to respond, yet feared being reprimanded.
Kuchiki Byakuya's gaze, however, was as calm as a frozen lake and did not linger on her even for a moment.
He merely turned his head slightly and gave Abarai Renji beside him a cold, indifferent signal with his eyes.
"The captain's intent is already clear, Rukia. Confess obediently on your own," Abarai Renji strode toward Rukia, a trace of indescribable reluctance mixed into his crimson eyes.
Yet his movements carried no hesitation at all. As he reached out, spiritual power surged, his target fixed squarely on Rukia's gigai.
He intended to rip Rukia's soul out and take her back to Soul Society.
And just as Renji's fingers were about to touch Rukia's body—
"Hey!"
A somewhat lazy voice suddenly rang out in the frozen night air.
At the same time, a powerful hand shot in at a speed the naked eye could not discern. With a sharp crack, it viciously slapped away the hand Abarai Renji had extended.
Renji felt a tremendous force surge up from his wrist, instantly numbing his entire arm.
He did not even have time to see where the attack came from before his body instinctively flash-stepped backward, retreating dozens of meters away.
He stared ahead warily, at the tall, slender figure that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of Rukia, a head of striking orange hair blazing like fire.
"Shiba Ichigo?", Renji's voice was heavy with alarm.
"Huh? You red-haired idiot, my name is Kurosaki Ichigo! You can't even get my name right, and you still dare come grab my girl?"
Kurosaki Ichigo stood firmly in front of Rukia, his broad back blocking all the pressure coming from the upper ranks of the Shinigami.
He lifted his chin and looked straight at Kuchiki Byakuya and Abarai Renji. There was not the slightest hint of stage fright on his face. Instead, there was a defiant, unruly provocation.
Of course he knew the tangled and complicated past behind the name Shiba Ichigo.
Aizen had never hidden anything from him. That was precisely the point he respected most about Aizen.
As for this Shiba business, he had no intention of being associated with it at all.
His old man, Kurosaki Isshin, had chosen to change his surname himself. From childhood to now, Kurosaki Ichigo had always taken pride in the name "Kurosaki."
What was more, the current Shiba family was in cahoots with Rosse. They were no good people.
He, Kurosaki Ichigo, would never acknowledge any bloodline or stance forced upon him, and even less would he ever acknowledge people from Hueco Mundo.
He was only, and simply, Kurosaki Ichigo.
"Heh! So it really is noble blood," Feeling that overwhelming spiritual pressure, Abarai Renji pressed his palm tightly against the hilt of his Zanpakuto. Those crimson eyes were filled with a gravity he had never shown before.
"Your spiritual pressure is monstrous. Even after coming to the human world without any limiter placed on me, I still couldn't catch your movement at all just now."
He admitted his opponent's strength, but the reason behind that strength was something he could not accept.
"Hey, you Shiba family bastard!"
Renji took a deep breath, forcing down the resentment toward nobles in his heart, and shouted at Kurosaki Ichigo in a low voice.
"If you really want to protect Rukia, then you should come back to Soul Society with us! As long as you acknowledge your ancestry and officially become a member of the Shiba family, your status will finally be worthy of Rukia! Maybe Captain Rosse and the captain would even agree to your marriage with Rukia!"
"Hah? Marriage? What kind of nonsense are you spouting?", Kurosaki Ichigo frowned deeply, his face full of confusion.
From the very start, this red-haired bastard had been saying one baffling thing after another.
The strangely familiar scene made him recall the very first time he had met Rukia...
'Tch! Do all Shinigami in Soul Society, aside from Aizen-sensei, have something wrong with their heads?'
"Renji! What stupid crap are you saying?", Rukia's face flushed bright red in an instant. Shame and disappointment intertwined as she burst out angrily.
She stared at the close friend she had grown up with in disbelief, feeling as though some corner of her heart had been pricked by a needle.
Since when had Renji, who once struggled alongside her at the bottom of Rukongai and shared the same desire to break the rules, become so calculating and vulgar?
'What do you mean Ichigo is worthy of me?'
'Does he secretly have some noble status I don't know about? And even if he does, since when did my marriage depend on whether someone is "worthy," instead of whether I like them?'
'Renji, what on earth are you thinking?'
"Abarai," Kuchiki Byakuya's calm, water-like voice rang out softly. It contained only that single name, yet it fell like a judge's gavel, drawing an icy full stop to this absurd conversation.
This farce had gone on long enough. He did not wish to waste any more time.
Receiving the unmistakable unspoken order from his captain, Abarai Renji let out a soft sigh, a trace of complexity flashing through his eyes.
He no longer hesitated. His right hand snapped to the hilt of his Zanpakuto and slowly drew it out.
"Sorry about this, Rukia! And you too, you Shiba family bastard!", Renji's voice dropped, cold and lethal, all earlier confusion gone, leaving only unwavering duty in his eyes, "Capturing Kuchiki Rukia is the highest order issued by the Central 46! If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not following the rules of Seireitei!"
As his words fell, the tip of his Zanpakuto angled toward the ground. His entire body turned into a red afterimage as he charged straight at Kurosaki Ichigo, blade in hand.
He knew Kurosaki Ichigo's spiritual pressure was extraordinary, even possessing captain-level power.
But Abarai Renji was no pushover either.
He had become vice-captain through sheer effort, standing only one step away from captain-class himself.
In terms of combat experience, in terms of the resolve forged through countless battles, he absolutely did not believe he would lose to this halfway-in, green rookie.
"I told you we should've just fought already! Why the hell are you rambling so much?"
Seeing this, Kurosaki Ichigo's lips curled into an excited grin.
Fists and blades were the most direct language between men.
All that yapping in the end still came down to fighting it out.
Whatever you want to say, whatever you want to do, fight first, talk later.
If he lost, he would accept it.
If you lost, then get the hell as far away as you can.
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