You grumble to yourself as you scrub at the stains on the floor. You'd been trying to figure out what the shopkeeper was messing with at his workbench in one of the (many) back rooms, but you'd gotten distracted examining the various bits and bobs he had on the shelves, and ended up tripping over something and knocking a jar of…something over. You don't know what it was, but the room stinks of fish and it's somehow seeped into the wooden floor. Ugh.
The worst thing is, the shopkeeper hadn't even been annoyed. It was like he'd been expecting you to do something of the sort, and just laughed at you and said that you needed to clean it up. You could have at least had some solace in managing to get on his nerves, but nope.
You lift the sponge you're using up and wring it out into the bucket. Next time you'll make sure to be more aware of your surroundings – and then you can get him back for this!
Some time later, you enter one of the tea rooms, shihakusho considerably rumpled – you're not sure
why Urahara insists you spend most of your time there outside of your body, but you guess he has his reasons. The door was open, with his back turned to it, concealing most of the room from your sight. Excellent.
You approach your employer from behind and throw the sponge slightly to the right of his head. Time to test a theory.
Rather than moving his head like he normally does, he swivels his entire upper body out of the way, your impromptu projectile flying past and-
Whoops.
………
Hitting an unsuspecting Rukia, who was sitting across the table from him, in the face. Well, erm. Oops? This is awkward. Nejibana's disapproval at the back of your mind is almost palpable, and the laughing shopkeeper is absolutely
no help here!
-----------------------------------------
"Um…sorry about hitting you in the face with a dirty sponge?"
You rub the back of your neck in embarrassment as you sit across from Rukia, in the very same position that Urahara was sat previously, watching her clean her face with a towel. You hadn't noticed before, but she was in her spirit form – a short white robe being her clothing.
"My my, to be greeted in such a harsh manner when I come seeking aid…how cruel" she says mournfully, shaking her head. Damnit you apologised already- wait.
"You're making fun of me aren't you?" you say suspiciously, the slight smile on her face giving the game away. Shaking your head, you decide to move on and ask "What are you doing here, anyway?
"Ah – that shady shopkeeper said I needed some maintenance on my gigai, so he's doing that now. Goes to show I shouldn't have trusted his shoddy merchandise…" she says, muttering imprecations of damnation under her breath. Not like you have anything against cursing Urahara's name, but you're curious about something.
"What's a gigai?" you ask, frowning in contemplation – is it something like the get-out-of-body-free disc that you have? Rukia, oddly, brightens at your question, pulling a sketchpad and pen out of…
somewhere and starts scribbling away.
"So when a shinigami is heavily injured or otherwise needs time to recover while in the mortal world" she says, before flipping over the sketchpad to reveal…what the hell? Are those…rabbits? She takes no notice of your bafflement and blithely continues "They use a false body to assist in doing so – that is a gigai! Any questions?" she looks almost hopeful at that.
"Yeah…where did you pull that sketchpad from?" you ask rhetorically, before shaking your head and continuing, forestalling her response "
-that wasn't a serious question, but what's the difference between a gigai and a human body, then?" Rukia looks thoughtful for a second at that.
"Hmm, I suppose the only noticeable difference would be spiritual compatibility? I'm not really an expert, sorry" she looks genuinely apologetic at that. Well, it was only an idle thought anyway.
Your body, shattered on the ground.
"Actually, I had a question for you, Karin" Rukia looks almost apprehensive as she says this, choosing her words carefully. You tilt your head at her questioningly, which she takes as a signal to proceed "How – Why are you working here? I've met the proprietor, he's…not exactly the reliable sort" she seems to have changed her mind about what she was going to ask, but it's not like you mind answering.
"I found myself with ghost superpowers, he offered to teach me how to use them" you say, shrugging. There's really not much more to it, and creepy though Urahara is, you
have learnt a lot. She seems to accept that response.
"How are you finding the human world, anyway?" you inquire, suddenly curious – you don't know much about Soul Society, but what you do know paints it as very different. Her eyes brighten at this and she starts to chatter on about all sorts of things – juice boxes,
really?
About an hour later, Urahara, having finished with the work he was doing for Rukia, comes in and chivvies you out – "You shouldn't stay out past your bedtime, Kurosaki-san!" and makes some pointed remarks about slacking off, "even if it was with my favourite customer!" He was the one who told you to keep her company!
Ass. You struggle back into your body and leave with Rukia in her gigai.
"We should work out some way of keeping in contact while we're at school, Karin – you're across town from Ichigo, so we can't come and pick you up if there's a Hollow attack" Rukia says as you leave, clearly having been considering the topic, "We could get you a Denreishinki, although we'd need to link it to mine somehow…" she trails off in thought.
Beepbeepbeep.
Rukia freezes for a moment, her hand going into a pocket – wait, her school skirt has pockets? – and pulling out a phone. Oh, that's the Denreishinki, she showed it to you earlier in the week. She turns to you in alarm.
"Hollow attack! We need to get there – Ichigo said he'd be at home, but it'll delay us getting to the Hollow in time – people might get hurt!" she says, her words coming out rapidly in her haste. You turn to your bag, fumbling for your Shinigami-Disc, as you have dubbed it-
Whack.
…And you've just been smacked in the face by Rukia's glove-clad hand, knocking you clean out of your body.
"What was that for?" you yelp. Rukia looks at you, her expression intent on…something.
"There's no time, we need to decide our course of action,
now- oh what now?!" she cries as the Denreishinki starts beeping again. "Two Hollows at the same time? And they're both at the same location?!" she curses, clearly trying to figure out what to do.
Decide on your course of action here. Ichigo is currently at the Kurosaki household. It will take Rukia about the same amount of time to travel there as it will for you to get to the Hollows location.
[] Send Rukia to the Kurosaki household to pick up Ichigo, then have them come to assist you, you'll hold off the Hollows yourself.
[] Phone Ichigo to get him to come to the Hollows' location in his human body, Rukia will come with you to assist against the Hollows.
So, this took me a while - took me a fair bit to get a handle on writing Rukia. Rukia is a useful combat asset, but Ichigo will take longer to get there in his human body. If you send Rukia to get him, he'll get there faster but you'll be alone against two Hollows. Voting will be open a while because I've got a side-project to work on, so feel free to discuss before voting.
