Cooperative Ventures
One Kurosaki meets another Kurosaki.
"Cousin." Hisoka planted his fists on his hips and glared up… and up… at the other young man. "Impossible."
Arc: Genre
Teacher
Yukimura meets his new magic teacher and said teacher’s housemate.
"So, tell me about these people."
It wasn’t really that Seiichi didn’t trust Belial. He did. He just also had a lively respect for his demon’s sense of humor.
Logical Conclusion
If the seal broadcasts sensation…
"Niou," Sanada said, carefully, "are you really suggesting an… orgy?"
Reconnaissance
Ukitake reports on disturbances in Tokyo.
Juushirou contemplated the blank page for a long time, marshaling his thoughts, before picking up his pen and beginning to write one of the most improbable reports in the history of Soul Society.
Home Again, Home Again
Konzen gets home and he and Ryouma finally meet.
Ryouma was fairly used to uproars around the house every now and then, especially when Nanako found his dad’s latest stash of magazines or one of his noisier senpai stopped by for a game.
This, however, sounded a little different.
This Time
Tezuka gets to high school and meets his rather unsettling new senpai.
At least there weren’t any supernatural beings hanging around this year.
Recruiting
Ryouma makes Moonlily an offer.
To whom it may concern. Echizen Ryouma proposes for those Grigori who feel an interest that they claim their own place in the emerging realm of heaven/hell.
Compromise
Karupin has some issues with Ryouma’s new realm.
Echizen Ryoma had two loves in his life. (Actually, he had three, though he would never admit it, at least not until the said third love stopped playing so damned hard to get.) Anyone from the Seishun Senior High tennis club could tell you the first one: tennis. Any of them could also tell you the second: his cat. So no one said anything when Karupin started to tag along on some of their practice days.
Hard to Get
Ryouma is still chasing Tezuka.
Dear Buchou,
Happy 40th. Heard you passed the Park Ranger certification; congratulations. Hope bears don’t eat you.
A Demon and Hir Boy
Kirihara in Hell.
"You… you… you ate Tash!" Jadis declared, pointing a shaking finger at Akaya. Or, possibly, at the cloud of smoke in front of him that had, until very recently, been one of Jadis’ inferior demons.
The Direct Approach
Ryouma finally catches Tezuka.
He hadn’t just been making excuses when he told Lily that he couldn’t come to Echizen’s “Hi, I’m Dead Too” party, as the man had called it.
The Sound of Music
Sanada gets enspelled and everyone gets a surprise.
Belial really couldn’t help but find it entertaining that Genichirou complained about Hell’s demons not being serious enough in their work.
"I mean, really," Genichirou was currently holding forth, "this is ridiculous, what am I doing here? I’m in the wrong story!"
Irony
Ryouma takes a vacation.
Ryouma nodded politely to the group that had gathered at his request. Several hundred years was enough to let someone get used to the same faces and personalities, he’d found, and so he knew almost every one of the assembled very, very well. Especially since he’d played tennis with them for several hundred years. He tugged at his cap, a habit that even death hadn’t been able to banish, and sighed.
Outtakes One
Author and Muse comments on the side, part one.
Outtakes Two
Author and Muse comments on the side, part two.
Confession
This is an answer to a challenge, the challenge in question being to write a serious story featuring Girly!Sanada and, preferably, Manly!Yukimura. Valentine’s and associated pratices seemed to offer a useful occasion for this. See Yukimura get chocolate from an unexpected source; see Sanada fidget and blush. Seriously.
A very small voice in the back of his mind was praying fervently to any kami that might listen and feel merciful that Niou never, ever found out about this.
Strategy
Kirihara meets Yanagi while out studying, and they chat about literature, history, psychology and teammates.
Of course, in the past few weeks Akaya had also learned that if he didn’t look up when the door opened he was liable to find himself lassoed by Niou-senpai’s scarf or pounced on by Marui-senpai, who turned out to be a lot more solid than he looked.
Wildflower
Yukimura, a bit troubled over Kirihara, talks first with Tezuka and then with Suzuoki.
“You don’t care, do you?” he asked, reaching up to touch a branch. “Not that you’re growing on volcanic rock, not that it’s winter. You just keep growing.” He sighed and smiled, a little crookedly, at the tree.
The Other Side
Kirihara deals with a stressful practice and finally snaps. In a good way.
Akaya tried to unclench his teeth before he gave himself a headache. “Both of you be quiet,” he growled.
Mock Battle
Kirihara sets up some practice matches with Fudoumine, to the general annoyance of most concerned.
What was it, he thought crankily, with pushy senpai who couldn’t retire properly when they were supposed to?
Quick Days
Side-story to the Third Watch arc; follows from “Fly”, in Challenge. Fuji and Tezuka move from the court to the bedroom.
“I like your hands, you know,” Fuji remarked, head bent over the one in his possession.
Sunrise
The new year starts, unsettling Kirihara a bit until he talks with Jackal.
The second years he could handle; he had earned what he saw in their faces when they called him Kirihara-buchou. Respect or fear or pride, he had earned it. But the glow in the first years’ eyes, the awe in their voices when they whispered to each other about him, that made him twitchy.
Distance
Inspired by ep. 174, and the anime version of the Rain Scene. Just how might Fuji answer the demands Tezuka is making?
More than Tezuka’s tongue stroking against his own, that firm hold occupied Shuusuke’s mind and defined the world for him at that moment. It was so unmistakably Tezuka holding him. Powerful, demanding, overwhelming. He felt so light in Tezuka’s grasp, as if Tezuka might breathe him in.
Given
The start of the new year gives Fuji some new problems to deal with. Yamato-buchou is his mildly evil self.
Shuusuke regarded the lineups for the first ranking matches of the year as though the board might bite him.
Warming Up
Tournament season starts, and Kirihara gets a present from his coach.
Akaya turned a glower on Suzuoki, silently demanding to know what he was up to this time. Suzuoki smirked at him. “You got to play exactly once this weekend and last. You should unwind a little. Besides, you could use an actual challenge.”
The Rush
Kirihara’s second spin through Regionals, and Nationals, as a captain this time.
The pace of what Akaya couldn’t help but think of as the real tournament season had two very different parts. There was the daily practice with his team, which, while demanding and sometimes intense, had a smooth swoop to it. And then there were the actual tournament matches, that sprinted along like a heartbeat after an adrenaline spike.
Change
After the tennis season ends, and the third years retire, Kirihara finds himself at irritatingly loose ends.
Akaya toed the door open and leaned in the frame. “Have I forgotten anything?” he asked, unable to keep the plaintive note out of his voice.
Promise
Knowing the history of Byakuya’s promises, Rukia makes one of her own, and hopes Renji can accept it.
A subtle softening passed over her brother’s face. Nothing so overt as a smile, but Rukia brightened to see it. I’ll make our house proud, she assured him silently. I will. I promise.
Understand
Rukia gets exasperated and points out the obvious to Renji. Spoilers through manga 181.
“Get it straight,” she snapped at him. “I am fully recovered. I have not had my spiritual energy drained. I am not in a false body that keeps draining it. I have not just come out of a prison that also keeps draining it.” Each not was punctuated by a brisk shake.
Price
Slightly twisted ficlet about the aftermath of the Soul Society arc. Spoilers through manga 181.
“Nii-sama?” she asked, a bit cautiously just in case this was a symptom of madness, or some strange family ritual she’d never heard of.
Patch
Renji gets an offer and wibbles hesitates over it; Byakuya pounds talks some sense into him.
Renji liked to think that he stayed alert for anything, even when he was at home.
Anything, however, didn’t usually include a tiny brat of a fellow vice-captain landing on his shoulders and pounding him on the head with a small but very hard fist.
Tea
Rukia campaigns against her brother’s stoicism.
Rukia drew some odd looks, marching through the main offices of Sixth Division with a tray of tea.
Marks of Time
Renji deals with his new job, and the echos of his old one.
Renji collapsed into his desk chair with a groan. “Who knew I’d ever appreciate paperwork?” he muttered, slumping over. Paperwork, at least, didn’t explode or kill anyone or change into weird, unpredictable hybrids.
Only A Story
Byakuya and Rukia speak of regrets and possibilities.
“Tell me about Hisana.”
Stare at the Sun
Renji catches a glimpse of Rukia dealing with her own new position.
It was good to know she hadn’t lost any of the edge off her vocabulary after all those years in a noble house.
Chocolate and Flowers
Byakyua watches Renji and Rukia, and tries to plan a future.
For a long time, Renji had walked at his heels, as if tame, always watching but never challenging.
He was no longer tame, and thus became worthy of consideration.
Conspiracy
Ukitake and Kyouraku discuss the general success of their plans.
Juushirou took a distracted sip of sake, and paused as the taste on his tongue reminded him that he’d been going to stop. He gave his friend a rueful glance.
Easier
Renji broods on his relationship to the Kuchiki family.
Life would be so much easier if he could just hate the bastard.
Resolve
Byakuya causes there to be romance, like it or not.
Rukia sank back, arrested by the phrase marry out of the house. She remembered the conversation she and her brother had had in the garden one evening, about regrets and stubbornness, and spouses and honor. Her heart couldn’t decide whether to stop beating or to race.
Representatives
Rukia and Renji, and, in fact, most of Soul Society, prepare; plotting continues.
He looked up at her with entreaty. “Are you sure I can’t just stay the third morning?”
Extra – Rematch
Kirihara finally gets that serious match he wanted out of Tachibana.
Akaya flipped restlessly through the pages of his book, cursing the English language and the educators who thought it was a good idea to make Japanese schoolchildren learn it. The voice that interrupted him wasn’t one he especially wanted to hear, most times, but at the moment even Seigaku’s terrifying old lady coach would have been welcome.
For the Third Time
Very memorable ceremonies.
But however much of a pain parts of it had been, it all came down to this. To he and Rukia, having escaped from the layers of their formal robes and elaborate hair ornaments, down to a yukata apiece, in a dim bedroom that belonged to them.
Break Down the Door
Rukia talks to her brother about career plans.
Kuchiki was her House, just as Rukongai was her past. And neither a survivor of Inuzuri nor a daughter of Kuchiki needed anyone holding open doors for her. She’d open her own damn door.
Extra – Courtship
Tachibana and Kirihara stumble into intimacy.
Tachibana was leaning over him, now, playing the same game of dare and counter-dare they played on the court.
Extra – The Fairest
The new year begins and Kirihara suffers a bit of culture clash.
“What are you doing here?” Akaya exclaimed, wide eyed.
Suzuoki blew a stream of smoke at him. “The coaches drew straws to see who would stay with each division this year. I got the short one.”
Touch And Go
Kirihara’s relationship to Sanada and his temper.
The first time wasn’t really a surprise. Even one summer of observation was enough to tell anyone that Sanada-senpai had no sense of humor.
Zoology and Mythology
Some friendly bickering within the Rikkai team.
They were all getting off the bus, stretching and exchanging dinner plans, when Masaharu heard Yanagi ask Kirihara, softly, “So which are you going to be, Akaya? A tiger cub, or the boy who swallowed a dragon pearl?”
The Quality of Mercy
Yukimura’s reaction to his team’s behavior during his absence.
“Too many of those games were sloppy, and too many were aimed at cheap victories that were unworthy of you. We are Rikkai. We are the best.” His eyes narrowed. “We don’t need to win by default. Ever.”
Essential
Sanada practices, and considers connections between sword and tennis.
Sometimes intense focus shut out the rest of the world; sometimes it only brought the world closer.
Clothed
A post-manga reflection on Ashura’s tunic and the likely adolescence of a god of destruction. All that energy’s got to go somewhere. This is entirely the fault of the artbook.
Ashura’s tunic is narrow, which suits his frame, even now that he’s grown. It’s simple, merely two pieces of cloth bound at his waist and wrapped at his shoulders, which suits his taste. And he goes bare under it, which suits both his desire and his humor.