A quick peek into BLEACHed Elements before it officially comes out in 19 days, 18 if you don't count today...
The
door opened and several papers at the top of a particularly tall stack
shifted from the draft. Ichigo absently put his hand on top of the
papers to keep them from flying away as he opened the file and flipped
through the papers. The door closed with the quiet click of the lock
sliding into place.
"Well?" Ichigo said without looking up after a brief moment of silence, "What do you want?"
The
person who entered said nothing. A moment passed, and Ichigo, wary of
the silence, shifted several papers and discreetly opened a hidden
drawer in the desk to reveal a small hand gun which was hidden from the
line of sight of whomevemer was at the door by a stack of files.
"Listen,"
the deathberry said, "I don't have time to fool around, so if you have
to say something to me, spit it out, if you're not here on business,
get out."
And yet more silence. Ichigo's frown deepened, and he
masked his reaching for the gun with the movement of dropping a file
into his outbox. He rose to his feet as his hand closed around the gun,
and jumped as a pale hand came into his line of vision and grabbed his
wrist in a firm, but gentle grip.
"Now," a smooth baritone said, "you wouldn't really shoot your own husband, would you?"
Ichigo looked up for the first time since the other man entered the office in surprise. "Byakuya!"
The noble arched a brow in question.
"Geez!" Ichigo let go of the gun and dropped back into his chair. "You scared the heck out of me!"
The noble's lips twitched. "That's why you look up when someone walks in."
Ichigo chuckled and covered his face with his free hand as Byakuya released the captured wrist.
~*~*~*~
Byakuya
said calmly, “As you cannot seem to take proper care of yourself, it
falls to those who know better to take care of you. And your parents
have every right to be worried. You have been the target of three
separate assassination attempts in the past week alone, and the most
recent one would have been successful had Abarai not accidentally
knocked you over while horsing about with Madarame.”
“An accident for which I have never been more grateful,” Ichigo said, “especially since it saved my life.”
“Abarai still has the bullet you know,” Byakuya said. “Apparently he wants it to commemorate his first time getting shot.”
Ichigo shuddered. “That man is insane. Getting shot is not a good thing and he wants a souvenir to commemorate it?”
“Likewise,
he think you are insane,” Byakuya said lightly. “”Abarai cannot
comprehend how anyone can sit in an office and deal with paperwork for
as long as you do and not so much as fidget. To our understanding, most
human teenagers are very easily distracted.”
Ichigo blinked. “I think that is the most I have ever heard you say since our wedding night.”
Byakuya cleared his throat and looked away. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said sternly.
~*~*~*~
“Ladies
and gentlemen,” a dark haired woman clad in the uniform of the
Elements, said, “We are all aware that the Japanese Prime Minister’s
son was recently assassinated. Prime Minister Takada merely allowed his
own grief to consume him. The Prime Minister’s actions are not
indicative of all Japanese people’s tendencies. It could have happened
to anyone.”
“Be that as it may!” another man dressed in a
military uniform barked, “That does not change the fact that the
Japanese attacked a roomful of delegates unprovoked.”
“This
again,” Ichigo said calmly, rising from his seat, “You have succeeded
in repeating the same thing over and over since this meeting began.
Please calm down, or are you looking for a reason to break off the
unification process and start another war?”
~*~*~*~
Hitsugaya
sighed. “Kurosaki must be beating himself up over this,” the younger
captain said, “After all that work to keep a war from breaking out
three months ago, only to have it break out now, over an assassination…”
“Things are getting more complicated,” Byakuya agreed, “And Kurosaki in particular will be fighting two wars at once…”
~*~*~*~
“I’m sorry,” Ichigo said. “I couldn’t preserve the peace that you wanted so badly…”
The room was silent but for the steady beating of the heart monitor.
~*~*~*~
The
shinigami were gathered in the living room of the Kurosaki family
discussing the war that had broken out in the human war, and the
difficulties that would come from it. A light footstep on the stairwell
silenced the eight soul reapers and the silence was tense as Kurosaki
Karin appeared at the foot of the stairs.
"Ichi-nii was just called to an emergancy conference in Argentina," the dark haired Kurosaki said quietly.
The
news did not surprise the shinigami. They had known from the moment
news of the war had gotten out that Ichigo would be called away at the
most random of times.
"Please," Karin said, lifting determined
eyes to the shinigami, "Teach me how to be a shinigami so I can fight
in Ichi-nii's place!"
