Duty: Chapter 2

#04: Bleach (Byakuya & Rukia)
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Her heart pumped faster as she ran through a throng of people. She was going to be late! Hopefully, they wouldn’t mind to wait for a bit longer. If only Sentarō and Kiyone could keep their bickering at bay, she wouldn’t be so late for their meeting. As she saw the entrance of the amusement park, a smile broke across her face as she raced faster. Unfortunately for her, a young man suddenly appeared before her path, and it was too late for her to slow down. Thus, she bumped into him, sending them both tumbling to the hard ground.

“I’m so sorry!” she squeaked before quickly rising to help the young man up. From her observation, the young man was a high school student. For a human, he was pretty good looking with brown hair and the common brown eyes. “Are you alright?”

“Kurō is my name, Miss.” He grinned as they stood up, facing one another. “I’ll be fine if you accompany me for the day.”

She sweat dropped. Obviously, he was not a good guy despite his good features. “I’m sorry; you will have to settle with an apology only.”

Soon, she found herself slowly surrounded by five men, most probably Kurō’s friends. She sighed mentally. Why did she have to deal with this when she was in a hurry?

“Unfortunately for you, Miss, you will have to come with us. Don’t worry, we will treat you good,” one of them said, grinning suggestively.

She tried to back away from them, but one of them caught her wrist. “Give us a chance, Miss.”

“Let go,” she hissed, clearly annoyed now.

Kurō frowned. “You bumped into me. I ask for nothing but your company as repayment.”

Before she could retort back, a cold voice replied to them, “Remove your hand on her, or I will remove it for you.”

All of them turned to look at a young boy, around 12 years old with short dark hair, who glared at them with his piercing purple-grey eyes. His little frame was stiff, a sure sign of his silent anger. The young men laughed at him, and the boy was obviously not amused.

“Chibi, you’re still too young to fight us. Go back to your papa and mama now,” said Kurō with a shooing motion while the other chuckled mockingly.

The boy narrowed his eyes. “Remove your hand on her, or you will regret what I’m going to do to you.”

Now, the men were clearly not happy with the threat even though it came from a 12-year-old boy. They all stepped forward, successfully blocking the captive young woman.

When one of them tried to grab the boy, a spine-chilling voice joined in, “If you touch him, I will make sure you can’t use your hands anymore.”

Soon, they were face-to-face to a devastatingly handsome man with onyx eyes. The man was wearing casual attire, but the way he held himself could be mistaken as a royalty. His left hand was holding a short-haired little girl’s hand. The little girl let go of her father’s hand as she ran to the boy’s side and latched on his arm. “Onii-sama.”

“Onii-sama?” Kurō then looked at the man nervously. There was something about the man’s cold eyes that made him nervous. “Hey, man, we don’t want to look for trouble here. We just want to return the kid to his parents. You are his father, right? Look, we found the girl first, but your—”

Kurō stopped mid-sentence as the dark-eyed man suddenly appeared before him. Before anyone could react, he found himself dangling in the mid air. Brown clashed with black. He gulped silently as he looked at the cold, anger-filled eyes. He futilely tried to free the grip on his collar. When it didn’t bulge at all, fear started filling his gaze. Right at this moment, he realised he was messing with the wrong person.

“Let me tell you one thing, boy. The girl you wish to take is the mother of my children. If you wish to take her, you will have to go through me. Are we clear here?”

The man’s voice was surprisingly calm but cold at the same time, and his eyes were enough to tell Kurō that his threat was not to be treated lightly. Somehow, his friends had released the girl he had bumped into. No longer than a minute, he heard a happy cry of Okaa-sama from the little girl. Soon, he saw the girl standing not far behind the man with the little girl in her arms while the boy stood protectively in front of his mother and sister. How could he know that she was taken? She looked so damn young, no older than his older sister! A jerk brought his attention back to the man. Nodding frantically, he hastily replied, “Yes! Yes! I got it! I got it! I won’t bother her anymore!”

Through this ordeal, they had gathered quite an audience. The woman sighed as she pulled out her modifier memory. As she pressed the small button, a big explosion of pink clouds filled around them, and they used it for their silent escape. When they were quite a distance away from the crowd, the woman looked at her husband who was, once again, holding their daughter’s hand as they walked ahead.

“Byakuya…”

“It does not matter anymore, Rukia,” Byakuya replied and gazed at his beautiful wife. “Next time, we should come here together.”

“I should have come with you, Okaa-sama.”

Rukia looked at her son’s disgruntled face and smiled. “Kazuya…”

The boy studied his mother. “Are you alright, Okaa-sama? You are not hurt, are you?”

Her little guy was worried. Rukia knew his over-protectiveness attitude had stuck with him ever since that faithful day…

“Rukia-sama, Young Master Kazuya ran away from his lessons again,” one of the maids informed tiredly.

Rukia smiled before putting down the novel, a gift from Inoue, at the writing table. Byakuya had agreed to hold his son’s lessons as the new heir to the Kuchiki Family. The elders, however, didn’t have the same opinion and set the same protocol. Thanks to Kumiko-sama, their son didn’t have to learn as much as his father when he was young. Still, at the age of 7, he had to learn more than any normal child around his age.

Getting up with a small assistance from her chambermaid Suki, Rukia stepped out from the chamber. While caressing her protruding belly, she searched for his hiding son with his enormous reiatsu as a guide. Kazuya was still too young to conceal all of reiatsu. Being close to giving birth, she slowly waddled through the corridors and made it to the back garden. She came to a stop beneath a sakura tree. Smiling, she called out, “Kazuya, where are you?”

She knew where he was, but she would like to let him come out by himself. So far, Byakuya had not said anything to his son who was always skipping his lessons. Perhaps, he, too, was like that when he was young. She would have to ask Kumiko-sama about that.

“Okaa-sama!”

Rukia looked up at the tree with a smile. “Please get down here now.”

“But I don’t—”

“Be a good brother, Kazuya.”

After a few moments, Kazuya finally obeyed. Neither had expected that his little sister had chosen the next moment to join the world. Just before Kazuya safely landed by her side, her water broke, and sooner than she liked, the contraction began. She started to feel dizzy when she saw the blood that trailing down her legs. Distantly, she heard Suki and Kazuya’s panic cries, but she ignored them in the favour of controlling her breathing while leaning against the tree.

Unohana Taichou had said that it would be dangerous for her to bear another child after Kazuya. Byakuya had been upset about the news. Knowing him, he wouldn’t endanger her by giving her another child. After Kazuya turned six, she stopped taking pills without telling him. She wanted another child, a sibling for Kazuya. Just as predicted, she was pregnant again. Byakuya was, of course, furious, or more like afraid as he didn’t want to lose her. They fought a lot during her early pregnancy. But then, Unohana Taichou had stepped in, telling them that it was not good to stress her, or they would lose their unborn. That put any disagreements into a stop, and Byakuya finally accepted the situation.

Another contraction hit her, jarring her out from the past, and she had to grit her teeth from crying out because of the pain. Before the world turned black, she saw Byakuya’s grief-stricken face.

By the time she woke up again, she had her little girl at her side. She later on found out that she had undergone caesarean section. Thanks to modern world technology, she and the baby were safe. From that day onwards, Kazuya had taken the incident upon himself. Her little guy was thinking that it was his fault that she was hurt.

Seeing how anxious her son was, she couldn’t help but grin and grab him, holding him close.

As expected, Kazuya turned red. “Okaa-sama! Please put me down.” He really hated it when anyone held him up like a child.

“I’m strong enough to hold you up, so do you still think your mother is weak, Kazuya?”

Still blushing, he crossed his arms and looked away. “I never think you’re weak, Okaa-sama.”

A smile crossed her lips. “Then, you shouldn’t worry too much. Besides, your father will not allow anything to harm me.”

Before anyone could continue the conversation, Noriko called her brother up. Rukia kissed Kazuya on his slightly red cheeks and let him go to his sister who was waiting for him at the ice cream vendor. An arm snaked around her waist, and knowing it was none other than her loving husband, she leaned into him. Though Byakuya rarely voiced his worries and concerns, she knew that he cared.

“I’m perfectly fine, Byakuya.”

He said nothing but a hum told her that he heard her.

This was the first outing they had after Noriko was born five years ago. Aside from her usual Shinigami duties, everything was pretty much the same. The only thing that changed was the mayhem within the Kuchiki manor that occurred whenever her children were bored. She often wondered where their children’s trickster streak came from as she surely remembered she was not such a prankster when she was young. The answer was pretty obvious when Byakuya would subtly change the subject whenever she asked him about it.

Regardless, everyone within the household, especially Kumiko-sama, was happy. Ever since their marriage, Byakuya had changed for the better even if it was only before his own family and household. On the field, he was still the cold, emotionless Kuchiki Taichou. Everyone had thought Byakuya would be kinder after Kazuya’s birth, but of course, he proved them wrong by remaining the same as if becoming a father didn’t affect him at all. To anyone, he appeared to be heartless even, but his family knew better. Besides, would anyone believe her if she told them that Byakuya often read stories for their children before bed?

“Rukia.”

She blinked, breaking her musings and looked up at him. “Yes?”

Before Byakuya could say anything, Noriko grabbed his wife’s hand, urging her to go for a ride on merry-go-round. With a small laugh, Rukia complied with their daughter’s request. He felt his heart swell with love as he looked at his small family. He had been afraid and scared shitless when Rukia was pregnant with Noriko. Really, he didn’t know what he would do if he lost her. Thankfully, his prayers for the safety of his wife were answered, and they were gifted with a beautiful baby girl. Looking back now, he couldn’t blame Rukia for wanting a sibling for Kazuya. She must have thought about his feelings as the only child. Shouldering the responsibility of the Kuchiki Family was not an easy task. With Noriko, he was rest assured Kazuya would not go through everything alone as he had to.
His dark eyes narrowed when he saw a man approached his wife. Rukia, even after birthing two children, became more beautiful as the years passed by. Hence, she often caught opposite gender’s attention, something he hated. This was one of the reasons why he rarely came to this side of world. Of course, he loved to spend time with his beloved wife, but he just couldn’t enjoy it when he knew someone was eyeing his wife. To put it simply, it irked him. Couldn’t they see her wedding ring? With a concealed anger, he marched towards his wife. He really hoped that this would be the last time he fended off the unwanted attentions. Otherwise, he would have to disappoint Rukia the next time she planned for a family outing here.

The End

Thanks for reading.

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