With a Silent Step

The captain's meeting continued smoothly - well, as smoothly as they ever went with that group of lunatics gathered into one room. Afterwards, Hanatarou made good on his threat to keep Ichigo in the fourth division for a checkup.

"I'm tellin' ya, I'm fine," Ichigo insisted. Hanatarou gave the girl a stern look.

"And I'm telling you that we don't know that until I make sure," he admonished. Ichigo scowled, but didn't protest further. After what seemed like hours, Hanatarou finally finished his ministrations, and proclaimed Ichigo healthy, and let her leave with a warning. "Just make sure you check back in if you start feeling dizzy again. I wasn't kidding; that thing could be doing anything."

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo agreed quickly, and hurried back out into the sunshine. Renji met her on the street, looking embarrassed.

"Ya still look like yerself," he mumbled. "Only... short. And..." His eyes dropped to Ichigo's chest, his face flushed. Ichigo felt her temper rising up again. She hadn't meant to lose it in the meeting, but she hadn't been feeling like herself. Ossan and Shirosaki's warnings rang through her mind again about something seeming off. She still couldn't sense much, and wasn't feeling different aside from the odd vertigo that seemed to hit her every now and then, and that could have been a simple side effect from being in Seireitei as a girl. Hanatarou seemed to think that was the cause, he couldn't find anything really wrong with the Shinigami captain. Ichigo realized that Renji was still staring, an unusual expression on his face.

"For god's sake, Renji, I'm still Ichigo!" she snapped, and he jerked his gaze away, mumbling something incoherent.

"Sorry," he muttered after a few moments. "You're going back to the human world after this, right?" Ichigo had started walking, and the other captain kept pace with her easily, sometimes having to check his stride when he pulled ahead.

"Where the hell else would I go?" Ichigo demanded. "It's not like I have to stay here."

"Hitsugaya's pretty upset that you haven't moved in permanently. He says it makes more work for the rest of your squad, you not being here. He keeps asking me if I know when you're coming back, as if anyone tells me anything."

This was a complete lie, as Rukia told him everything - even down to the embarrassing details that Ichigo would have rather kept secret, like Kon's using his body for going out to a club one night while he was fighting hollows.

"You know perfectly well Rukia tells you whatever you want to know," Ichigo sniped at him, irritated for some reason. She suspected it had something to do with what Yoruichi called 'feminine modesty' - not that she had any of course, she quickly told herself and then wondered who she was trying to convince. Just cause it was twisted and weird, didn't make it any less her body, and she just didn't like people staring at her that way. It was fucking creepy when Shinji did it. Maybe that was just that it was Shinji, and that Shinji was a creepy bastard even when he went to buy milk.

In companionable silence, the two Shinigami captains made their way towards the gate into the human world. The doors opened automatically at their approach, and Renji walked through with his hands on the back of his head, whistling. Ichigo tried to follow, and slammed into some invisible barrier.

"What the hell?" Renji looked back, his face frozen in a comical expression.

"What happened?" he asked, passing through the doors again easily. Ichigo slammed her hands up against the barrier.

"I can't get through," she explained. Renji stood on the threshold, and she tried again. It was completely solid to her, despite the fact that he was standing in the middle of it - whatever it was.

"Maybe I could carry you?" Renji suggested a little too quickly. Before Ichigo could shout him down, he'd swung her up into his arms and walked forward. This time they both stopped short, although his hands passed through it. He turned around and backed up through the door - his body passed the entryway until Ichigo reached the barrier, and then he found he couldn't move any further. Dropping her easily to her feet, he scratched his head.

"Well that's weird," he commented. Ichigo kicked him on the shin.

"You think? Dumbass! I'm going back to talk to the soutaichou about this." She spun on her heel and started stalking back towards first division when another wave of dizziness assailed her. Renji caught her by the elbows as she slumped backwards, unconscious.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked the insensate girl. He picked her up, and carried her back towards her rooms in the fifth division.

-[TBC]-
(SHOOOOOORT. At least it's slightly longer than the author's note, though.)

Cause I need a reason to make my author's notes longer than the actual chapter (not), I'm gonna start replying to reviews. You three are AWESOME and are made of total love and win.

Anise: Because I fail at life, I have nothing to do with my days except for wait for my brother and cousin to get home from school so I can babysit them until one of the adults gets home. (I'm 22, but I live with my aunt, step mother, and stepdad.) So I spend all day thinking about it (or quirking around on Facebook) and then when I don't have to babysit any more at night, I start writing. And if I don't finish the chapter that night, I save it and work on it when I wake up the next morning.
About Mayuri's plan, not telling. x3 I have no idea how many chapters this is gonna be. At four, I was like, "I think ten might do it" but now at seven I'm thinking, "Good lord this things gonna be huge." And it's beginning to be filled with short chapters. :/ I hate posting short chapters, but I am a slave to my muse. When he buggers off, trying to get anything else written is like pulling teeth out of an irate hippo.
Did you know you hit the nail on the head with that? Schuschu (teh muse) just agreed with you on Shinji's partly-annoying-the-piss-out-of-Ichigo-and-Ishida and partly-lust.
And you're not weird in the least. I love talking to people - I've met so many great friends through my fandoms, and Bleach is turning out to be no exception. So talking to you through author's notes is as good as having a conversation through email or something. The funny part about this is that I stumbled out of bed at five in the morning, and having left my email open overnight (to watch for reviews, cause it updates automatically) I saw that I had new messages *blind as a bat without her glasses, especially at any distance further than a foot and a half* and staggered over to the computer to check them. I don't get up until between six-thirty and seven-thirty (I'm usually woken up by my aunt screaming at the kids, who are utter demons in the morning, but I don't get out of bed until seven thirty, when they leave for the bus stop) so waking up at five was horrible, and I really SHOULD have been sleeping. XDDD

Midnight: :3333 I love making people laugh. It's why I asked you to point out what you liked/disliked.
Gahhh, I'm so glad you like the plot! I think that's the first thing you said to me, and it just sent me into happy-overdrive. And when I first read your review, that I made you late for work, that made me happy too. XDD *usually it's me who's putting everything off to finish reading something* For me to have that effect on other people was mad exciting. And you TOTALLY should work on your own story! I'd love love love LOVE to read it!

Angel: Even with short chapters/author's notes longer than the chapter itself?
And I was trying to think of the most random, weird, disgusting thing I possibly could, and since my friend's brother actually did leave chicken parts in his room so long it no longer looked like chicken any more, I figured that would be as good as anything. I figure he got it to eat, and then set it down somewhere, and papers got piled on top, and he got busy and forgot about it, and then several weeks later, moved the papers and found the chicken again. XDD
Mostly interesting if all of Soul Society were after him; kinda disturbing if Yama-jii started in on it too. Oo;

Also: I drew a chibi girl!Ichigo based off of my keychain, but alas - my scanner is teh broken. As soon as I get the stupid thing hooked up and all the drivers and stuff installed, I'll scan it and post a link somewhere in the later chapters.