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Author:
Cheb

An Unsuitable Person

* * *



Chapter 2

(Where our heroine finds herself in for the unpleasant revelation.)

* * *

"How could that be?" Rukia thought, lying in a boneless heap, utterly drained. "I planned to give her only a fraction... How could I err so gravely...?" The lifeless shell of Akane lay beside her. The black clad form of Akane battled the Hollow, slowly chopping at it like an unexperienced woodcutter at a particularly thick tree.

Her zanpakuto was a beautiful claymore with a thin, almost transparent ice blade that widened slightly toward its end, where it curved gently into a wider three-pointed tip, like a rhombus slightly showing from its otherwise sleek shape. Its elaborate guard resembled, at the same time, both a fan of icicles and a huge snowflake.

It groaned and chimed its woe now at being used in the most barbaric way imaginable. Akane's form was terrible, she obviously never worked with a two-edged blade before — blinded by rage, she was raining a hail of the hard, savage blows in a completely unvarying and easy to read pattern. The Hollow was receiving lots and lots of superficial wounds and giving her a brutal beating in return. Seemingly unfazed by pain, Akane was springing back to her feet again and again, continuing her grisly work. The Hollow just hadn't her fortitude, backing slowly but steadily.

"Oh, I am an idiot", Rukia thought ruefully. "I gave her everything... So much power in the hands of an untrained rookie... This zanpakuto seems to be in a permanently released state, she is lucky if she won't drain herself dry..." She felt her vision blurring and cried as loud as she could: "Destroy the mask! It's the only way to finish it!"

With a savage cry Akane jumped high into the air, her jump carrying her over the overgrown spider. A mighty downward slash crushing its mask the monstrosity disintegrated into nothing... Akane landed near the koi pond and wobbled unsteadily.

"Are you all right?" Rukia asked with concern.

"Just fine!" Akane hissed through her clenched teeth, smiling cheerfully. Then she toppled over.

* * *

They were all dead. They all stalked her - their skin pale, their faces bloodied... Nabiki, holding her torn off arm. Daddy, his guts spilling out, Kasumi, her neck twisted at impossible angle... "Why didn't you save us?", they moaned hauntingly.

"No... NO!!!" she shook her head in denial.

"Sorry. You were too late," the severed head of Rukia informed her. "If you hadn't put yourself in my way and just let me do my job... But you're a real martial artist, ne? You can take everything, ne? Ever fit to protect those dear to you, ne? You don't even need anyone's help, ne...?" The words skewered her like accusing spears, making her writhe in agony of shame.

"AAAAAAH!" Akane woke up in cold sweat. Then she just sat there, her heartbeat gradually slowing down to normal. It was a dream. It was just a dream!

"Thank you, Kami-sama!" she exclaimed in joy. "Thank you- thank you-thankyou!" she jumped out of her bed and went downstairs, to the bathroom.

Where she promptly fell onto her posterior. The family was fine and unscathed, all right. The sliding walls lay smashed, through the hole one could see the broken and battered stone fence and the messed up lawn beside the koi pond - the telltale traces of yesterday battle with that... "Hollow", as Rukia called it.

"Are you all right, everybody?" she asked tentatively, having been taught by hard experience to be careful with words around anything unusual. After all when your relatives don't see the same things as you do, they tend to trust their own eyes... unfortunately. "I mean, after what happened yesterday..." she trailed off.

"Oh, yes, Akane," Nabiki said, "You really sleep like dead. Even missed Ryouga who charged in yesterday night to challenge Ranma..." She frowned. "Wait a minute... Now, thinking of it, why didn't I charge the oaf...? No, wait, they went together for that ladle, why should he search for him here? What is going on...?" she fell silent, confused.

"Ah... Uhm... Ryouga, of course," Akane mumbled, eying the demolished yard. As if the gentle, caring Ryouga could do such a thing to their house when Ranma wasn't here to goad and make a fool of him.

She didn't say a word until the breakfast was over. How much of yesterday was truth? Had she really become a Shinigami? She could never know it. Rukia wasn't here anymore, but obviously someone had cleaned the mess up and left without saying goodbye.

* * *

The road to school was uneventful – except for Kuno, who in absence of Ranma became much more active. A quick punting job later she headed for her class.

Ukyou stared at her with uncharacteristic suspicion. "Care to share something with me...?"

"Why? What is wrong?" Akane replied sweetly, feigning total ignorance. As if she'd talk to Ukyou about anything concerning her ability to see the ghosts. Surely, her arch-rival for Ranma's heart was almost like a best friend to her, but there were things she'd never discuss with her. It was enough that her sisters thought she missed a few screws in her head.

"As you wish," Ukyou replied with sudden coldness, turning away.

"Must be something on my face," Akane thought, turning away as well. "I should pretend better."

The class was about to start. "And now," the teacher said, "allow me to introduce your new classmate..."

"Kuchiki Rukia. Pleased to meet you," the all-too-familiar girl, now clad in Furinkan uniform, bent down in a polite bow.

Akane almost believed then and there that the "to jump out of one's skin" phrase had a literal meaning...

"The hell is going on?" Ukyou mumbled, gritting her teeth, so quiet that nobody heard her. "What mess did you get yourself in, Akane?"

* * *

Onna-Ranma, meanwhile, was dragging two small unconscious farm animals from the Horai depression (formerly Mt. Horai) towards the closest village, singing happily "I can be a man again!", blissfully oblivious of the incoming troubles. It will be long time till she gets home from this distant region, the three travelers having again lost all their money and supplies.

* * *

On the lunch break Rukia dragged Akane to the P.E. equipment shed, away from the unwanted eyes and ears.

Akane looked at her and gulped, feeling suddenly anxious. For the look on Rukia's face wasn't a pleasant one.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I lost all my Shinigami powers," Rukia said grimly. "So you shall act in my stead while I recover in this gigai. I thusly name you substitute Shinigami for Nerima district." She scowled at Akane's joyful reaction and Akane wilted back.

"I didn't do too bad, did I?" she asked tentatively.

"Frankly," Rukia said, "You did horrible. Any Shinigami rookie would get kicked out of the Academy for such performance." Akane drooped. "It's only your incredible resilience that allowed you to prevail. You call yourself a martial artist. Have you ever worked with a sword before?"

Akane looked up at her, surprised. "Well... Dad never agreed to teach me any sword forms. I learned what I could myself... Mostly from fighting Kuno. I can hold against him... I think. I'm not sure he doesn't hold back against me."

"I see," Rukia said, displeased. "Was your father so afraid of harming you that he didn't teach you anything really advanced?"

Akane sighed. "He was, I suppose. I wanted to believe it's because I wasn't ready yet, but now I feel more and more like I'm stuck. And there is nobody else to help me improve. Uncle Saotome refuses, Ranma is just insufferable... Shampoo would bee only glad if I never got stronger. And Ukyou is my rival, she won't help me on the general principle, although we get along well. For rivals, that is."

"So, you learned the basics of ki manipulation on your own, without any guidance?" Rukia asked, surprised. "I shall say..."

"No, I don't know any ki techniques," Akane corrected her ruefully.

"What...?" Rukia was shocked. "But you do use your ki. And use it extensively, in a completely wrong way!"

Akane just boggled silently.

Rukia sighed. "So you have learned to channel ki without even noticing it. It will be extremely hard to re-learn it properly, but re-learn it you must. Because you rely on the worst kind of Ki possible: the battle aura fueled with anger. It works, giving you speed and strength at least, but it is, in essence, the spirit of rage. Destructive, murky and eroding your control. It naturally evolves into the berserker rage. A total opposite of what a shinigami, or a schooled martial artist, needs."

Akane felt the ground being yanked from under her feet. "But what should I do?"

"You need to relearn everything from the very beginning," Rukia said sternly. "But first and foremost, you need to seal your zanpakuto, or you won't be able to stay away from your body for long."

Her cell phone chose this moment to beep loudly. Rukia flipped it open. "A Hollow signal! We have to go!" She produced a... candy pack and held it out for Akane.

"Huh?" Akane stuttered incredulously.

"Take one, it's the soul candy, it expels your soul from the body. Hurry up!"

Akane eyed the candy pack skeptically, with the bunny head on top and all, but still popped one pill into her mouth, swallowing it. The effect was instantaneous. Akane stepped away from her body, unnerved at the sight of its unmoving form.

"Let's go!" Rukia said, turning to the door.

"Wait!" Akane stopped her. "What if somebody finds it?" What if the perverts find it, she added mentally and shuddered.

"Do not worry," Rukia replied. "The artificial soul... Oh, wake up already!"

The body twitched, then sprang to its feet radiating an unhealthy cheerfulness. "At your service, pyon! What your orders will be, pyon?"

"What?" Akane stumbled backwards. The sight was more than just unnerving.

"Pretend to be Tendou Akane ," Rukia commanded. "Attend her classes. Go."

"Acknowledged, pyuon!" the body exclaimed and ran away with a spring in her step.

"Hurry up!" Rukia told the stupefied Akane, running out of the shed. "The Hollow may be killing somebody this same moment!"

"Right!" exclaimed Akane, her determination igniting. "Let's stop it!" She ran after Rukia out of the shed, pulling the claymore from her back and finding it... wrapped in ribbon? She shook the weapon, the ribbon unravelled and disappeared.

* * *

"Hey, are you all right?" Ukyou asked seeing Akane running by.

"I'm fine, pyon!" was the cheerful – too cheerful – reply. "I'm Tendou Akane, pleased to meet you, pyon!" She ran away, searching for Akane's class.

"Now that was just creepy!" Ukyou shuddered. "I know only one thing for sure: that was not the Akane I know." She glanced around and just shook her head noticing the not-Akane chatting animatedly with some boys. "I hope she knows what she is getting into, these snobby ghost-busters can be a pain in the ass."

Ukyou glanced around, scanning her surroundings, and noticed something near the far end of the school yard. "Rukia...? And..." She rubbed her eyes. "Well, I'll be damned!" She abandoned her grill with the half-cooked okonomiyaki on it and ran towards the corner where she saw the blurry and transparent but still undeniable Akane jump over the wall.

* * *

Shampoo sped on her bicycle, delivering ramen, when she saw an unfamiliar girl run in the opposite direction, followed by a barely discernible blur that looked like... "Sishen!" she exclaimed in awe, braking with a screech of tires at the sight of the living legend. "Shampoo must follow and watch, tell great-grandmother! Maybe even help beat Wu!" She turned around sharply and sped after the couple, not noticing Ukyou roof-hopping on a parallel course.

* * *

Cologne, meanwhile, just sat in the Nekohanten's main hall, puzzled beyond measure by what her ki-senses told her. "A disturbance in the Force I feel", she mumbled finally, then laughed softly: "I watch too much TV shows for my old age!"

* * *

At last they arrived at the park where the Hollow was detected. An oversized baboon was taking its time, chasing around a small ghost boy, and Akane growled, her battle aura licking around her like tongues of crimson flame.

"Calm down!" Rukia ordered. "Concentrate, don't let it distract you! And go straight for the mask!"

"Yes, Sensei!" Akane said, trying hard to comply. It was not easy, the abomination was just sickening, how it was practically salivating for the kid. It had to be exterminated now.

Akane rushed forward, the ice claymore gripped in her hands tightly. Too bad you cannot beat the Hollow with your bare hands - she somehow knew it, it was like a gut feeling. So what if her primary unarmed skills were useless? She wouldn't back off even if she did have to use this stupid chunk of ice! Why, just why wasn't her zanpakuto a normal katana, but this awkward gaijin thing - too long, too straight, with all too unfamiliar balance and grip?

Ukyou and Shampoo arrived at the same moment, almost bumping into each other.

"Now that's an unexpected turn," Ukyou noted seeing what Akane was doing.

"Slow down!" Rukia yelled, the only clearly visible participant of the action. "It's trying to lead you away from the boy! Protect him!"

"Who short girl is? Why yell at Sishen? And what boy?" Shampoo asked, confused.

Ukyou turned to her. "It's our new classmate, Kuchiki Rukia. The boy is that ghost there, he's somewhere around, I didn't see him clearly.

Rukia groaned, palming her face. "Akane, vary your strikes just a little! And calm down, it's goading you!"

A loud impact later the newborn Shinigami zipped over their heads slamming into a tree.

"I can't believe it!" Rukia exclaimed in exasperation. "That is the weakest Hollow I ever saw...! Akane, are you all right?

Akane answered by jumping back to her feet, wiping the blood from her lips and rushing the Hollow again with a mighty roar.

"Why Rukia call Sishen Akane?" Shampoo asked, utterly surprized.

"Because it is Akane," Ukyou replied with a sigh. "You probably can't see her clearly, but you could have figured that from her fighting style... Honestly!"

Akane zipped over their heads again, hitting another tree this time.

"Akane die and become Sishen?" Shampoo asked incredulously. "Then Shampoo see why can not beat Wu!" She pulled out her maces, getting ready to pounce. "No matter! Shampo beat Wu, show amazon warrior supremity!" After a brief pause she cast a menacing glance towards Ukyou, adding: "So glad, Akane gone now, less obstacles to take Ranma!"

Ukyou snorted. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I just saw Akane's body alive and kicking. Looked like it was possessed by some stupid spirit - probably a temporary resident that these guys have for events like this. And it's Shinigami, not 'sishen', speak proper Japanese."

"Oh." Shampoo looked disappointed. "No m... Doesn't matter," she corrected herself. "Shampoo is... will show who better warrior now!" She rushed the Hollow.

"Wait!" Ukyou cried, "If you can't see it clearly..."

"Aiyah!" yelped Shampoo, zipping over her head to crash against the same tree as Akane.

Akane pulled herself to her feet and stood wobbly, wiping the blood from her face and spitting out a tooth. "I fight on!" she growled, lifting her blade.

Ukyou saw Rukia trying to cast some sort of spell and failing, the resulting ball of fire leaving the Hollow confused for a moment. "Drats!" she said, fumbling hastily in her pockets. She quickly pulled out a vial of silvery liquid and a few ofuda. Pulling a number of throwing spatulas from her bandoleer, she splashed them with the liquid and slapped the ofuda on, wrapping each blade in a paper seal.

"What are you doing?" Rukia asked her.

Ukyou didn't answer, she clenched two spatulas in her left hand so that they stuck blades up like a letter V, placed one between them, ring on its handle pointing at her, and replaced the rest in her bandoleer. She pointed her left arm with the spatulas at the Hollow and put the index finger of her right hand through the ring on the end of the spatula handle, concentrating. "Quincy Art Revised..." She pulled her right arm backwards, the spatula trailing strings of blue fire connecting it to the two in her left hand. "...Kuonji Soul Sling!"

"No! Stop!" Rukia screamed. "You must not destroy it! The Quincy..."

"I'll wait for you, losers, to finish your job!" Ukyou replied angrily. "This here is only the last resort! And we will have a lo-ong talk about Quincy and stupidity. Both theirs and Shinigami." She kept her unusual sling aimed at the Hollow who was approaching now.

Shampoo finally came to her senses. "Wu strong," she admitted. "Shampoo distract, violent girl go for the kill. All right?" she asked the Shinigami.

"All right, Shampoo," the barely visible blur of Akane replied, readying her sword.

"And concentrate, concentrate damn it!" Rukia added. "Calm and control, not the berserker rage!"

Akane nodded. She and Shampoo rushed the Hollow, the Chinese Amazon feinting and forcing it to overextend, while Akane slashed at the mask. For once, she used her zanpakuto properly, and the result was impressive: she cut the whole Hollow in half, not just the mask. The abomination vanished without a sound.

"Thank gods." Ukyou breathed in relief, extinguishing her ki sling and putting the spatulas back in the bandoleer.

"What now, Sensei?" Akane asked, limping up to Rukia.

"Now you must perform the soul burial of that boy," she explained, looking around for the said boy and finding him hiding behind a tree. She went over to tell him how he would be better off in the Soul Society.

"Just great", Akane mumbled, examining her sword and finding it chipped and cracked in places. "Stupid chunk of... Huh?" She suddenly felt a burst of disappointment radiating from her blade.

Ukyou just shook her head. She was seeing Akane more clearly now, almost non-transparent. "The Shinigami swords are sentient beings with their own will and their own soul," she explained in a tone one reserves for small kids. "Didn't they tell you at least that?"

"What?!" Akane lifted her eyes at her. "How do you..." She glanced back at her sword, reddening in embarrassment, and tried to bow to it deeply while still holding it in bot her hands - the scene looked almost comical. "Uh... Please forgive me for my rudeness! I didn't... I mean..." She fell silent, unsure what to do. How do you communicate with a sentient sword?

"How violent girl accepted into the ranks of Si.. Shinigami is beyond Shampoo reason," the Amazon commented snobbishly.

"Probably got kidnapped or something," Ukyou replied sourly.

"Akane, come here!" Rukia called.

Akane limped up to her and the boy who looked a bit afraid of her rather bruised visage. Akane smiled at him nicely, the gap in her teeth and the shiner around her left eye included.

"Now touch his forehead with the pommel of your zanpakuto", Rukia commanded.

"Don't worry, everything will be all right," Akane said to the kid and did just that.

"Well, if you say so," he said with a doubt in his voice, vanishing.

Rukia turned to Akane, examining her intently. "Now for your performance..."

Yes?" Akane beamed, hoping against any reason that she did it right this time.

"It was terrible" Rukia exclaimed, throwing her arms up. "If not for the help of these two girls, you would be dead now! And the boy, and me too!"

Akane wilted. "Umm... Sensei, ain't I kind of dead now? I mean, what happens to a spirit..."

"Dead as in 'totally destroyed'," Rukia clarified. "Nothing left, true death, no reincarnation, finish." Akane paled. "What do you think the Hollows need the souls for? They devour them! A spirit must die in the Soul Society to be able to reincarnate on Earth."

Shampoo and Ukyou exchanged glances.

Rukia just shook her head ruefully.

Akane brought her sword up to show her. "It... chipped. What should I do...? How do I apologize properly? I mean, Ukyou said it's alive..."

Rukia squinted at the sword. "The damage will heal with time. For the apologies... You'll have to face your sword in your inner world. I'm afraid, it will be hard to make it respect you and convince it be your partner now... It's clearly an ice-type zanpakuto, just like my Sode no Shirayuki. I'm not too sure, but it feels much more powerful than mine. Not in the raw power, mind you. Its spirit calls for a great finesse and precision, only a truly disciplined wielder can master it. Why you had this one as a part of your soul is beyond my understanding. It calls for calm and cold control, while I saw you using only hot anger and barely controlled rage."

Akane wilted some more. "So... I will be unable to use... to bond with it?"

"Maybe you need to learn cold," the insufferable Amazon injected smugly. "Shampoo thinks Soul of Ice is just the thing."

"So, we have to train you, and train you hard," Rukia concluded.

Akane didn't find that prospect too comforting.

~~ End of Chapter Two ~~

* * *

Thanks for the C&C to:

— J. St.C. Patrick

— Travis Lock

— people who contributed using the Orphus system (5 bugs so far).

Last correction December 12, 2008

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