Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

This is a bit of an experiment. For the last couple of years I have toyed with ideas for a Bleach/RWBY crossover fic. I have never quite been able to settle on a particular idea or set of ideas, or how I really wanted to go about it. My ideas about how the worlds of Bleach became Remnant have been constant since the beginning but after a couple of years of on and off tinkering with ideas (mostly off, depression or something near to it kept smacking my brain and making a mess) I haven't gotten a lot closer to putting something together.

But, I did have this idea about Ruby and Ichigo meeting and decided to run with it as a one shot. It could eventually form the basis of a full fic, or be some component of one. Or it might just be a stand alone one shot. I have no idea what the future of my thinking about a full story will be.

So in the mean time I hope this brings some enjoyment. I had fun writing it. Not sure if it came out exactly as I originally thought...there was a big gap between when I started it and when I finished it.

And while I should know better than to ask, considering how few reviews my last few works have gotten, I will say it with hope any way.

Please Read and review. Hope you enjoy it.

(Slight edit made 08/14/18)

A Chance Encounter

City of Vale

Down near the docks there was a beautiful, tree lined waterfront park. It was a popular place for people to stroll along the shore through its well manicured grounds or peacefully sit and look out over the water. Up on the street level above there were any number of quaint shops where people could browse and restaurants and outdoor cafes where they could relax and watch the world go by. On this day however there was a crowd of people gathered around the main staircase going down into the park, observing the activity below. There were police vehicles parked around the entrance and a couple of officers kept the curious onlookers from going down to the lower level.

One such onlooker was Huntress in training Ruby Rose. Crime scenes attracted the girl like misery attracted the Grimm. Any time she was in the city and there were police lights flashing nearby she just had to go and see what was happening. She couldn't help herself and this was certainly no exception. The problem was, she wasn't close enough to be able to see what was going on. Sometimes being small had its advantages and she began picking her way through the crowd, darting into small gaps as people shifted and moved to try and gain a better view themselves. Gradually she worked her way forward. One last quick move should get her right to the front.

Unfortunately she wasn't entirely through the gap before the person moved again and caught her foot with theirs. With a small cry of alarm she stumbled forward and found herself looking down the long flight of stone steps that she was about to tumble down head first. Or at least she would have if a large, strong hand hadn't caught her shoulder and pulled her back upright.

"Careful," a gentle and amused voice said. "That's a trip I don't think you want to take."

"Yeah, that would have hurt," she agreed. "Thanks," she said as she turned to look at her rescuer.

The first thing she noticed besides the fact that he was tall, was his bright orange hair. It framed a tanned face with brown eyes that were regarding her with some amusement. He was dressed in black pants and boots with a white shirt, all under a long black, ragged tailed coat with a red interior. Over his shoulder she could see the handle of a sword and at his waist under the coat was what she thought might have been a shorter blade but she couldn't see enough of it to tell. Obviously a Huntsman and she really wanted to ask about the weapons but doing so while standing in a crowd probably wasn't the best idea so she reluctantly stowed her curiosity.

"No problem," he answered.

"So what's going on here?" she asked as she turned to look at the scene.

"Look's like some White Fang goons ran into the wrong people," he answered. He sounded amused.

Sure enough down below on the pathway that led from the stairs and into the park were four members of the White Fang, easily recognizable by their trademark white vests adorned with the crimson wolf's head and triple slash marks. Each one of them was looking pretty beat up and was tied to a lamp post, their masks smashed on the ground in front of them...and with their pants down around their ankles. On one of the posts was a large handwritten sign on a thick piece of cardboard.

'The Faunus deserve equality and all the benefits of humankind, but the terror and violence of the White Fang only hurts that cause and will never achieve it'.

She certainly agreed with what the sign said, but somebody had some guts to do that to members of the White Fang. She might not know a lot about them, but she knew enough to know that public humiliation was not something they would take lightly and they would be looking to hunt down whoever did it.

"I get why they're tied up," she said. "So they won't get away before the police showed up. But why are their pants around their ankles?"

"A little extra humiliation to go with being caught," he answered. "Along with the fact that they were all beaten up by one person and the video of it is already all over the net."

He held out a scroll and the video was playing on it. It had been dark out when it happened but the lights lining the walkway had provided plenty of illumination to make the video clear. Just as he said the four White Fang members were getting the stuffing beat out of them by a lone individual. The person doing the beating was dressed all in black, sort of like a ninja, with only the area around their eyes being visible. There was also no mistaking that the person was a woman. It looked like she was toying with them, they never came close to landing a hit on her and she moved and struck with such ease...so awesome!

"Wow," she crooned. "Whoever that is she is sooo good. Those guys couldn't even touch her."

He smirked. "Nobody can and she thought leaving them with their pants down would be good for a laugh."

She turned and looked up at him. "Wait, you know her?" she asked.

"You could say that," he said with a smile. "There could have been a dozen or two of them and they still wouldn't have laid a hand on her. The rank and file goons of the White Fang aren't all that tough, but you already know that, right Ruby Rose?"

Her eyes went wide. "You know who I am?"

"I do," he answered. "Me and the lady in the video like to keep an eye on upcoming Huntsmen and Huntresses, particularly from Beacon." He smirked. "For only being there for one semester you and your team have had some adventures of your own already, haven't you?"

She tilted her head cutely. "I didn't think anyone outside the school or the police knew about any of that."

"They probably don't," he agreed. "But we're pretty good at finding out things we want to know. And we may have been nearby for a thing or two."

"What?! When, where?"

"Tell you what," he began. "I'm waiting for someone and it's almost lunch time, and there's a nice little cafe across the street. I'll buy you lunch and you can ask me anything you want."

Her nervousness around new people suddenly kicked in, odd how it hadn't before. It was obvious he was a Huntsman, on that alone she was dying to talk to him about his experiences, plus he knew the person that beat up the White Fang members and he knew who she and her team were.

He sensed her sudden nervousness. "Sorry," he apologized. "You don't know me after all and I'm asking you to go to lunch with me. Not very smart on my part."

For a moment she thought she saw a look of sadness pass through his eyes. She rubbed the back of her head self consciously. "I'm, not good around new people...and I don't even know your name."

He face palmed. "Sorry, that was rude of me not to introduce myself. Name's Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Ruby Rose," she said. "Ahhhh...but, you already know that. Sorry."

He chuckled. "No problem. So, lunch?"

"...Sure," she accepted.

She followed behind him as the crowd seemed to part for him automatically. It may have had something to do with the fearsome scowl that she spotted on his face when a member or two of the crowd seemed reluctant to move. Something else she noticed and was paying strict attention to was the sword on his back. It was huge! A lot bigger than she thought it would be when all she could see before was the hilt and grip sticking up above his shoulder. It hung all the way down his back, and was wide at the hilt and tapered down to a point. The sheath looked like it was wrapped in white bandages or strips of cloth. The handle was long and rounded and several links of chain, with the last link being broken, was attached to the end. She really wished she could see what the blade looked like.

While she was geeking out over the sword on his back, he was thinking about the girl herself. He knew she had skill, he had seen it, but there was something far too familiar about her situation and what his had been so long ago. Children training for war. He didn't like it, but he knew that it was a reality of this world that could not be escaped if human and Faunus had any chance of creating a world safe enough for them to live and prosper in. Someone had to keep the beasts at bay and the situation was dire enough to require training schools for the youth of Remnant to hone their deadly skills at, rather than be out doing all of the things normal teens should be doing instead.

It also didn't help that the girl trailing behind him had fragments of two very familiar souls making up a part of her own. Souls that he had hoped to find some trace of for so long but hadn't felt until the first time he saw Ruby Rose on the day of her initiation into Beacon. This was the first time he had been close enough for his much improved sensory abilities to truly verify what he had felt that day. Karin and Yuzu, or at least a half of each of their souls lived on in the young leader of Team RWBY, and if he had felt it right that day, he knew who the other half of their souls resided in but he hadn't been able to confirm that for sure.

It had been so long since he had felt the presence of his precious little sisters. In all of the centuries that he had been awake since the worlds he knew fell apart upon their defeat of Yhwach, a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one, he had come across people who had fragments of the souls of people he had known as a part of their own, but he had never found anyone carrying fragments of those closest to him in life. He always hoped that finding some sign of those souls would be the cure for the nightmares that sometimes plagued him. Well, not so much nightmares as an occasional reliving of history in too much vivid detail.

It was always the same, he was falling away from the crumbling Soul King's palace after striking the death blow against the Quincy King. The dimensions of the Royal Realm, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, the world of the living, and even Hell, all crumbling and coming apart with nothing left to keep them together. He could feel the souls of his friends going quiet as he fell, he swore he could even feel his sisters even though they were so far away. He felt Orihime try with all of her might and conviction to reject the cataclysm, felt the warm glow of her power pass over him but to no avail. There was simply too much to overcome no matter how badly she wanted to.

He had been wracking his brain for anything that he could come up with no matter how far fetched that could make any sort of a difference but there was nothing. Oblivion was approaching and even with all of the power he had gained he could do nothing to stop it. He found himself screaming in impotent rage as he fell, feeling as useless as he ever had in his short life. As a protector he had failed. He may have defeated the enemy but the cost was well beyond enormous. That was usually where he awoke, short of breath and sweating. What happened after was remembered with much less despair and terror.

His screaming had stopped when he felt a hand grasp his and he turned his head to see Yoruichi falling next to him. The look in her eyes was the same as his and it was the first and only time he had ever seen fear in those golden orbs. He pulled and brought her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her and she did the same to him. He really wanted to say so much to her right then, how much he admired her strength, how much he appreciated everything she had ever done for him, and just how much he truly cared about her. But, any words said by either of them were lost to the rushing wind as they fell into oblivion.

It would be centuries before they awoke again and discovered this world that had so aptly been named Remnant, and centuries more before he would find himself settling down to a table at an outdoor cafe with a young girl whose soul was partly made up of the souls of his cherished sisters. After not having felt their presence for so long he just wanted to bask in it for a while which was one of the reasons he had asked Ruby to have lunch with him.

The cafe exterior was made up of large, light grey stone tiles while the floor of the outdoor seating area was polished darker stone tiles with light coloured veining running throughout. The tables were wrought iron with glass tops and matching cushioned wrought iron chairs and an ornate iron fence surrounded the seating area. They settled on a table at the front corner with Ruby sitting across from him as he sat with his back to the fence. Her eyes were practically glued to his sword which he had taken off his back, the wrappings spiralling away into the handle and revealing the partially hollowed blade as he propped it up in the corner and hung its smaller trench knife counterpart from the chain on the end of the handle. He removed his long coat and draped it over the back of the chair. After a waiter took their orders and request for coffee, he regarded her for a moment as she stared at his swords.

"My partner's names are Zangetsu," he said with a smile to the fascinated girl. "It means Slaying Moon."

"Wow," she crooned, veritable stars in her eyes. "I've never seen swords like that" She looked up at him. "You called them your partners?"

He nodded. "They are not my weapons, they are not an extension of myself gained just through training with them. They are a part of me. They are me and I am them. When I fight I don't wield a weapon, I am the weapon. I am Zangetsu and Zangetsu is me." He smiled and silently acknowledged the agreement of his partners from his inner world. "And unless I'm mistaken, you see Crescent Rose as more than just a mere weapon yourself don't you?"

She nodded vigorously, awed that he even knew the name of her sweetheart. "My Uncle Qrow taught me that the ability to use your weapon should be second nature. He said it can mean the difference between life and death." She looked away sheepishly. "I think Crescent Rose is more than just a weapon though."

"He's not wrong," Ichigo said. "And neither are you. You built it yourself right?" She nodded. "That means you put your soul into it with every part you made and assembled because you knew you would be trusting your life and the lives of others to it." Her scythe may not be sentient and alive like a Zanpakuto, but the connection between them was still real enough, even if it only existed in Ruby's mind. "And from what I've seen of you using it, you're well on your way to wielding it being second nature to you. I'm impressed with your whole team actually. For only being in your first semester at Beacon the four of you fight well and you've already developed some good teamwork skills."

She blushed at the praise and cocked her head cutely to one side. "When did you see us fight?"

The waiter brought their coffee and he waited until he left to respond. "The first time was during your initiation. We always try to be around the Emerald Forest on that day each year to keep an eye out for the new students in case they run into too much trouble."

She looked puzzled as she began dumping sugar in her coffee. "But Professor Ozpin said that no one would come and help if we got into trouble."

"None of the instructors would," he corrected, adding a lesser amount of milk and sugar to his coffee than his guest. "But we aren't instructors and while Ozpin knows that we show up for it, no one including him ever sees us when we're there. We only step in if some Grimm show up that we know the students won't be able to handle."

"But how do you remain unseen?" she asked. "There are camera drones everywhere so they can watch us."

He smirked. "We are the best at what we do, which includes not being seen unless we want to be." She didn't need to know about things she wouldn't understand, like the techniques of the Onmitsukido or concealing Kido. "We had a front row seat as you and your friends took out the Death Stalker and Nevermore. If it looked like you couldn't handle them, we would have."

"When else did you see us fight?"

"When you took on that Paladin," he answered. "We got there just after your team did. Nice work by the way."

She rubbed the back of her head nervously at the praise. "You keep saying 'we'. Who was with you?"

"That would be me," a woman's voice said from behind Ichigo.

Ruby looked up and her eyes went wide. Standing on the other side of the iron fence behind Ichigo was a dark skinned woman with yellow eyes, a mischievous grin, and long purple hair done up in a high ponytail. She was dressed in what looked like a black bodysuit of some kind under an orange jacket. She was so pretty! She leaned over the rail and wrapped her arms around him.

"Really now Ichigo," she said slyly. "I leave you alone for a few minutes and here you are off picking up young girls? I have to admit she is a cute one though."

Ichigo just rolled his eyes. "Don't mind her Ruby, she just loves to tease people."

"Mostly you but I'm adaptable." She kissed him on the cheek. "Nice to finally meet you Ruby, I'm Yoruichi Shihoin, this big strawberry's wife."

Ruby giggled. "Strawberry?"

Ichigo sighed. "My name has multiple meanings. One happens to be 'strawberry' but the intended one is 'he who protects'."

"You keep saying that but I'm not so sure," Yoruichi teased as she ruffled his hair. She walked to the entrance and rejoined them at the table a moment later. "So how did you two run into each other?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her head and adopted a sheepish smile. "Ah...well he saved me from falling down the stairs when I was trying to see what was going on in the park."

Yoruichi smirked. "That figures. If there's a beautiful young damsel in distress, Ichigo will find her and save the day. They could write books about his exploits."

"Really?" Ruby crooned as she also blushed at the 'beautiful' comment. If there was one thing she loved it was stories of heroism. She wondered for a moment if that was how these two had met.

"Definitely," Yoruichi nodded sagely. "He lives up to the meaning of his name quite fiercely. He's been the heroic knight in shining armour for many beautiful young ladies in trouble, fighting impossible battles against overwhelming odds."

Ruby was positively star struck as she looked at him. "Wow...so cool!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Geeze, exaggerate much?"

"Don't listen to him," Yoruichi said, waving her hand dismissively. "He tries to be all humble and doesn't take credit or allow himself to be proud of the things he accomplishes."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "There's only one thing I need to feel pride in and that's the fact that I have you beside me."

Despite the centuries they had been together now, it still gave her goose bumps and left her feeling flushed whenever he said things like that. It also reminded her of the first time that he awkwardly blurted out that he loved her. Things hadn't been good then. They were in the throes of the reality of what had happened. They had defeated the Quincy Emperor, but lost everything in the process, waking up centuries after their fall from the ruins of the Soul King's palace to find that the world they now lived in was radically different from what they had known. They had lost friends, family, and entire dimensions had been crammed together to form this one world where mankind had once again risen to life but was faced with hordes of soulless monsters that desired nothing but their destruction.

They were both wrecked. It had been a very long time since she had ever felt so defeated and helpless but at least she had the experience of already having lived for hundreds of years and the things she had already experienced as part of the Onmitsukido to lean on to help her cope with things. Ichigo however didn't have that luxury and there were times where she would snap at him and be unduly harsh with his failing attempts to handle the situation, forgetting that he was still little more than a child with less than eighteen years of living under his belt. It should never have been his job to fight for the afterlife that he shouldn't have even been aware of, let alone blaming himself for the demise of everything and everyone they had both known.

They had argued and fought, in epic fashion, and she finally realized that with her occasional harshness towards him that he thought she hated him and blamed him for the loss of everything and everyone they had known. As he was well known to do, he had placed the responsibility and blame for the loss of their worlds entirely upon himself. It was made all the worse by the revelation on a day that could have seen him lose all grasp on his sanity that he loved her and that he had for a long time. He could never tell her so and the thought that she hated him was crushing his heart and sapping his will to keep going.

From that moment on everything changed for them. She made sure to drill it through his thick orange haired skull that she didn't hate him, never had and never could, that she had feelings for him like she had never had for anyone else and that she hadn't known what to do about it. His declaration of love was the first purely honest one she had ever heard directed her way. She made sure that he never forgot that she loved him too even when she was beating him into the ground, teaching him everything she knew. The sad thing was that with everything that he knew and could do now that he had learned from her and his inner spirits, he could have made short work of Aizen and been able to take on the Quincy Emperor pretty much on his own, maybe with only a bit of help from anyone else. But there was no use even thinking about that now. They had each other, they loved each other deeply, and they had a new world to protect and they were determined that they would not fail this time.

She looked at their guest. "If you ever find someone like him Ruby, grab onto them and don't let go."

"I-I'm too busy training to become a Huntress to think about things like boys," Ruby said quickly.

Yoruichi smirked. "Who said it had to be a boy?"

"Ease up there Yoruichi, she looks like she's about to swallow her tongue," Ichigo cautioned. He wasn't far off and Ruby had turned a shade of red worthy of her name.

Thankfully their food arrived and interrupted any further teasing. As they began to eat Yoruichi noticed that Ruby kept glancing at her. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?" she questioned.

Ruby startled for a moment but recovered quickly. "Um...you were the one in the video Ichigo showed me, weren't you?"

"I was," she answered.

"It was so cool!" the young girl exclaimed. "I mean, you were all 'keeyha' and stuff," she made swinging and chopping motions with her hands. "So smooth...and it looked so effortless!"

"Well, it wasn't much of a show," Yoruichi more or less apologized. "Those guys were pathetic and I had to let it drag on way longer that it should have just to get a decent stretch out of it."

Ruby's eyes nearly bugged out. "You mean you could have taken them out even faster?"

"She could have had them all unconscious before any of them knew they were under attack," Ichigo said. "They wouldn't have known anything had happened to them until they woke up tied to the lamp posts."

"But why film the fight, tie them up like that and break their masks...and pull their pants down?" Ruby asked.

"Mostly, that's a bit of psychological warfare," Yoruichi answered. "We want to humiliate them and show them that they aren't as tough as they think they are and that we can kick them around anytime and anywhere we want to. We want them to know that we have no respect for them and their methods and we want them to know they are being hunted. We want them looking over their shoulders for the bogeyman they'll never see coming. What you probably didn't see on the sign I left was our personal calling card so that they will know exactly who is hunting them."

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a slip of paper. Drawn on it was a smiling, cartoon cat face and a strawberry with a scowling face.

"What the..." Ruby started.

"Cat-berry!" Yoruichi grinned proudly. For his part Ichigo just shook his head. "We leave this behind every time we hit the White Fang."

"She's even having business cards printed up to leave behind," he drawled.

"It'll be easier that way," she said, smiling. "And it shows a sense of organization. They'll think there's a bigger group after them. It will help increase their paranoia."

"Along with making them think we're insane," he added. Personally, he blamed Urahara for having such an influence on her. Of course he could be wrong, they may have both been bat shit crazy from the start.

"But, won't they just be more active against everyone then?" Ruby asked. "If they get all angry...well angrier, won't they just, um, lash out more publicly?"

"That's a very good question Ruby," Yoruichi smiled, impressed at the girl's analysis. "They might if they didn't have something specific to focus on, but by leaving a calling card behind it gives them a place to focus their anger and hopefully away from the general public. They'll drive themselves to distraction trying to figure out who we are and trying to find us. Humiliation is something they will take very personally and want to get revenge for almost as much as the slight to their organization. Besides, I thought pantsing them would be funny."

"Told ya," Ichigo said to Ruby. "And I bet she waited around out of sight until they woke up just to see the looks on their faces."

"It was hilarious," she chuckled. "They looked mortified and indignant at the same time. Kind of like you always used to look when I would tease you after we first met."

"That's because you were usually naked," he cracked dryly.

Ruby's eye's bugged out and she nearly spit out a mouthful of food. "W-what?"

"She thought it was funny to suddenly appear in front of me stark naked," he said like it was a normal occurrence.

"That's because you were such a prude," Yoruichi teased.

"I was not a prude," he protested. "It was improper for me to see you like that and you'd always spring it on me without warning."

"Wouldn't have been any fun if I had told you ahead of time," she reasoned. "And it wasn't like I was going to bathe in the hot springs with my clothes on. At least I got to see you naked too so I got something out of it as well besides a good laugh at driving you nuts."

He looked at Ruby who was practically speechless. "I started training with her when I was about your age and would have to soak in the hot spring afterwards to try and undo the damage. She's relentless to train with but I wouldn't know most of what I do today nor would I have survived this long if it wasn't for her. Even if she did keep trying to give me a freaking heart attack."

"All power and no skill back then," she said in sad but still fond remembrance. "And he was so hard headed that he often had to learn the hard way that power alone wasn't enough."

Ruby's eyes lit up. "My Uncle Qrow always told me that when he was teaching me. He said it didn't matter how powerful your weapon, your Semblance, or your Aura was if you didn't have the skill to use it right."

"Always remember that," Ichigo said seriously. "It might spare you a lot of unnecessary pain." She looked at him questioningly. He sighed. "I used to end up with a lot of injuries I could have avoided if I had been more skilled. And I also used to go into fights without much of a plan in mind and would have to try and improvise on the fly when things got ugly and desperate."

"Used to worry everyone to death and it took forever to break him of that habit," Yoruichi told her. "That's where you're fortunate. You train hard and have good teachers around you and you already seem to have an understanding of the value of tactics and having a plan. Keep it up and you will become one of the best Huntresses Remnant has ever seen."

Ruby didn't know how to respond. Not being great with other people went hand in hand with not knowing how to handle high praise. Especially when she knew that she hadn't really accomplished much yet. "T-thank you," she said quietly after a long pause. "I hope I can live up to that. I really want to be the best Huntress I can."

"You will," Ichigo assured her confidently. "Yoruichi's an extremely good judge of skill and talent." He kept the hint of brotherly worry out of his voice. He understood full well that Ruby wasn't either of his sisters even if he could feel the presence of parts of their souls within her. It was because he could feel them though that even after all of the years that had gone by he still felt the pull on his own soul to protect them.

He was also proud. Proud that in Ruby he could see the kindness and determination that he had seen in both Karin and Yuzu. He could also feel power deep within her, power that mirrored what he had always suspected and feared that his sisters might one day be capable of. He knew they would have used that power for all of the right reasons just as Ruby wanted to be a Huntress and use her skills for the right reasons too. Keeping an occasional eye on Ruby and her team was as close as he would get to seeing his sisters grow up and come into their own.

They ate quietly for a few moments before Ruby, ever curious, felt the need to break the silence. "So, you said you knew Professor Ozpin. Did the two of you train at Beacon too?" She could have sworn she saw a hint of sadness touch their features before it disappeared and she was worried that she had said something wrong.

"Where we lived and trained was practically a whole other world away from Beacon," Yoruichi answered somewhat sombrely. "It was also a long, long time ago."

The questioning tilt of Ruby's head brought Ichigo out of his thoughts. "We're actually a lot older than we look," he told the girl. He nodded his head towards his wife and grinned evilly. "Especially her."

This earned him an expected slap in the back of the head. Any other time the punishment may have been much worse for making fun of her age but she knew that he was trying to keep the mood light over what had the potential to be a depressing subject for the two of them. The centuries that had passed had made it easier to cope with and heal from, but that didn't mean it hadn't been crushingly hard at times and wasn't still. Being in the presence of someone carrying fragments of familiar souls had a way of tearing some of that scar tissue and reopening the wounds even if just a little. More so if those souls were more than just familiar. Time was supposed to heal all wounds, but evidently even several centuries wasn't enough to completely heal theirs.

"Still so rude after all this time," she lamented in mock sadness. "A barbarian through and through."

Under the table she bumped her knee against his leg in a gesture of thanks for cutting off her potential downturn. She wasn't the same as she was back then, she actually needed his help to keep herself from falling prey to the despair of the past, she couldn't keep things like that at bay by herself anymore. They relied on each other that way a lot, which was good because they had been broken so many times now since the end of their worlds. No one could stand forever on their own against things that would tear them apart from the inside out. But so much of her earlier life had been spent in keeping her deeper feelings to herself and dealing with things on her own that it still bothered her a little even now that she seemed no longer capable of that. But so long as she had Ichigo, her Ichigo, so long as they had each other, they would make it through anything.

"We've spent a lot of time travelling all over Remnant, training and hunting Grimm," he continued. "We finally decided to settle in one place for a while and Vale was a good fit for us. Not long after that we ran into Ozpin and Glynda."

"You know it really irks her when you call her by her first name," Yoruichi said. "She's probably cringing somewhere right now." She turned to Ruby. "He's never been one to show people proper respect when addressing them. And she thinks he's a delinquent. It's the hair and the scowl."

"Story of my life," he muttered.

"We pay them a visit every so often," she continued. "But mostly our time has been spent on trips outside the kingdom looking for the biggest and oldest Grimm we can find and killing them."

Ruby was incredulous. "You intentionally go out looking for the most powerful and intelligent Grimm?"

"It's what our skills and abilities are best suited for," Ichigo said. "And the fewer of those old Grimm that are around, the better it is for everyone."

The oldest and most intelligent of the soulless beasts that roamed Remnant were to the more common Grimm what a Vasto Lorde was to a common Menos hollow. However, they weren't nearly as tough to kill as a Vasto Lorde was and for the two of them now, even a Vasto Lorde wouldn't be a huge challenge. Killing the most powerful and intelligent Grimm not only kept them from utilizing their weaker brethren to attack humans and Faunus in something resembling organized attacks, it sent a message to all of the Grimm that there was an even more dangerous pair of predators wandering Remnant. They might be soulless and often stupid, but even the Grimm had instincts and understood well the chain of predation and Ichigo and Yoruichi stood far above them at the top of that chain.

Ruby was pretty much speechless. Just how good and how strong were these two if their skills and abilities were best suited for dealing with the most dangerous of the Grimm? And the casual way they spoke about it...it was like it was no big deal to them! She supposed they could be lying, but she didn't think they were. Not because she was that good at reading people, she knew she wasn't, but for some reason she just felt like she knew they were telling her the truth.

"So you go out looking for Grimm like the one's I saw at Mountain Glenn?" she asked. As incredulous as she was, she was also fascinated. The part of her that loved hearing stories about Hunters and Huntresses wanted to hear more and they must have some great stories to tell.

"We heard about your trip there and what the White Fang was up to," Ichigo said. "Unfortunately we were in Mistral at the time. We killed a King Taijitu in the swamps there that makes the one that followed you into Vale look like a hatchling."

"What did you see in Mountain Glenn?" Yoruichi asked, before Ruby could get sidetracked into hearing that particular story.

"Doctor Oobleck said they were Goliath's," she answered. "They were huge...way taller than the trees they were walking through. I've never seen Grimm that big before."

Ichigo and Yoruichi shared a look. "How many?' she asked.

"Five or six?" Ruby answered, not exactly sure of the number.

"They're too close to the kingdom for my liking," Ichigo said. "Guess we know where we go the next time we head out."

"They sound pretty big," Yoruichi said. "But they shouldn't be too much trouble. We can run circles around them and we'll have at least two of them dead before they even know they're being attacked."

Ruby's jaw nearly hit the table. "Are you serious?"

"They may be quicker than you think when they get moving, but Goliath's are pretty useless against a human sized target," Yoruichi explained. "Their biggest threat is if they stampede through a settlement, otherwise they just look menacing."

"Both of us, our Semblance is speed just like yours Ruby," Ichigo told her. "We'll be moving too fast for them to keep track of us let alone touch us."

"You can use your Semblance throughout the fight without having to stop?" she asked incredulously, looking back and forth between them. They nodded. "Wow. I can't do that. I have to stop if I want to change directions and after a few dashes it wears down my Aura."

"Give it time," Yoruichi smirked. "You're only just getting started remember? And maybe if things work out I might be able to give you some pointers in the future."

"Really?!" she gushed. "That would be sooo cool!"

The one thing they had noticed about Ruby's Semblance on the couple of occasions they saw her use it, was that it seemed to be a mixture of Shunpo and Hirenkyaku. Which made sense if you considered that she had both Shinigami and Quincy in the makeup of her soul. They could feel it when she used it and the clincher for the Quincy side of it was in the rose petals she left behind. They were made of Reishi. Somehow she was subconsciously forming those rose petals out of Reishi in the same manner that a Quincy could form a spirit bow out of it. Why it manifested that way and especially without a focal point like a Quincy Cross they didn't know, but their senses weren't lying to them.

Ever since they had awakened in this new world, this Remnant of what once was, they had seen manifestations of things they had known from before the collapse of the different dimensions. To them Aura and Semblance were this world's versions of Reiryoku and Reiatsu. They were virtually the same in what they were and how they worked. They also reflected the abilities a Shinigami would have in conjunction with their Zanpakuto or the use of Kido. The Faunus with their heightened instincts, senses, and animal traits had the most in common with the animalistic forms human souls usually took on when they became a Hollow, minus the hole and the drive to consume souls of course. Their Reiatsu even had the feel of a Hollow to it.

The Grimm, even without souls, felt like they had been influenced by Hell. Yoruichi had to take Ichigo's word on that one since he had been there and she had not. The lack of souls also made them hard to detect in the ways they were used to and they had to rely more heavily on their instincts and tracking abilities to hunt down the less obvious ones. Dust seemed to be some kind of amalgamation of both Reishi and Reiatsu. Little wonder those with some power could use it so well.

For them, they had retained all of their power from before the collapse and with all of the training and fighting they had done since they awakened they had gotten stronger. With the help of his inner spirits Yoruichi had even managed get the constant gusher that was Ichigo's leaking spiritual pressure down to what amounted to a trickle, at least for someone as powerful as he was.

But as powerful as some of the people were that they had come across over the years, none came close to their level and it added to an overall sense of isolation that they had. They were the last of what once was and knowing what they knew, how this all came to be, it made them feel even more alone wherever they went, even here in this quiet cafe full of people. No one else that they knew from before had survived. Once in a while they would find someone who had a piece of a familiar soul within them, at times it was easy to tell, other times you had to be around the person for a little while to sense it. That was why after even two other occasions of seeing Ruby it had taken the contact today to really confirm that she had part of the souls of Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki within her.

They both had people they wanted to find traces of. For Ichigo it was his family and all of his closest friends. For Yoruichi it was people like Kisuke and Tessai and Kukaku, and especially her Little Bee and her own little brother, but for both of them those so familiar and cherished souls had been elusive thus far. She was happy for Ichigo that he had finally found a trace of his sisters, and if they were right they knew where the other halves of the girls souls were and it shouldn't be too hard to check. Even if their souls were split as they were, she knew he would be happy that the twins were still together.

"Careful what you wish for Ruby," Ichigo warned. "She won't take it easy on you."

"I don't know about that," Yoruichi said teasingly. "She doesn't seem as hard headed as you were, I wouldn't have to beat the lessons into her. She might actually listen."

"Hey, I listened," he protested. "I just didn't always get what you were telling me."

"You sure you weren't just being a masochist?" she countered. "Don't worry Ruby, I wouldn't be any harder on you than what I thought you could handle."

"I like to train hard," Ruby declared proudly. "The harder I train the easier it is to fight for real. I want to be as strong and as skilled as I can be so that I can help people."

"Good to hear," Yoruichi said. "If you want to be good and stay good, you have to keep training and train hard. You've got the right attitude Ruby."

Ichigo smirked. He knew that Yoruichi loved to find people with talent and push them to make the most out their skills, to make them stronger and better than they ever thought they could be. They had spoken a few times before about offering their skills to a school like Beacon, maybe taking on some of the best and brightest of the students who went there and pushing them further. Beacon tended to attract some of the best students from all over Remnant and it was enticing to think what they could do with talented students like that. Considering who was sitting there with them now, maybe it was time to give it some serious thought again.

"So how are you liking your time at Beacon so far?" Ichigo asked.

For the rest of lunch and through dessert they talked to Ruby about her team, her friends and how she was handling life at Beacon as its resident underage prodigy. They even told her a couple of quick stories about their own adventures to whet the girl's insatiable appetite for tales of heroism. They knew she had been dying to hear some. As she talked it didn't take much for them to see that Ruby loved her friends and especially her team, and that her big sister was the sun in her sky. It was also clear that she seriously wanted to be the best team leader for them that she could be and that she was committed to keeping the people safe from the Grimm and whatever else wanted to do them harm.

"There she is," a girl's voice called out just as they were finishing desert. They looked up to see a well developed blonde waving in their direction. "Hey Ruby!"

The rest of Ruby's team, led by her sister, had arrived. And along with her so had the other halves of the souls of the Kurosaki twins. They could both feel it for sure now and Ichigo had to take a deep, settling breath to keep from showing how emotional that was threatening to make him.

"Ooh guys, come over here I want to introduce you to someone!" Ruby exclaimed. She was practically bouncing in her seat.

"We've been looking for you," the Schnee heiress huffed. "Would it hurt you to answer your scroll?"

Ruby frowned and snatched her scroll out of the pouch on her belt. "Low battery? But I just charged it this morning. It must be defective."

"I think you're the one that's defective," the white haired girl muttered. There was no malice behind it...and maybe even just the hint of a smile.

Maturely, Ruby responded by sticking out her tongue.

"So who are your friends there Ruby?" Yang asked. Those that knew her could easily identify the tone of voice as 'wary sister in protection mode'. Ichigo and Yoruichi could feel it in her Reiatsu and rolling off of her from the moment she arrived.

" Ah...this is Yoruichi Shihoin and her husband Ichigo Kurosaki," she told them. She smiled as she looked to them and gestured to the new arrivals. "These are my team mates," she began, her pride making her forget for a moment that they already knew who they were. "My partner, Weiss Schnee."

"Nice to meet you," Weiss said with the bearing of a well mannered noble.

"Blake Belladonna," she continued.

"Hello," Blake said with a polite nod.

"And my sister, Yang Xiao Long." The smile on her face easily conveyed her feelings for her older sibling.

"Yo!" Yang answered with a little wave.

"Nice to meet you all," Yoruichi responded with an easy smile.

"Likewise," Ichigo said. "Hope we didn't wreck your plans for the day by holding Ruby up. That would be my fault since I invited her to have lunch with us."

"How do you know her?" Yang asked, still looking to satisfy her protective instincts.

"Hehe..." Ruby began sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "I was trying to see what was going on over there," she gestured across the street to where the police were just finishing up. "And Ichigo kept me from falling headfirst down the stairs."

"You're such a klutz," Weiss huffed.

"Wow sis, I didn't know you had it in you," Yang said, her tone now becoming more relaxed and teasing. Helping Ruby had given them the benefit of the doubt. For now.

"Huh?" Ruby questioned, tilting her head cutely in her confusion.

"You know, the old 'tripping on the stairs so the hot guy will notice me' routine, Yang answered with a grin. "Didn't know you were looking for a boyfriend. And a married one at that."

"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, face turning crimson and waving around for emphasis. "It wasn't like that!"

"I knew you were desirable Ichigo," Yoruichi smirked, not missing Yang's usage of the word hot. "But I didn't know you had teenaged girls after you. Or that you would so readily respond by asking her to lunch." Why just tease one when she could tease two?

"Et tu Kitten?" he responded as he felt Yang's gaze just a little hard again.

"You always did have an eye for the cute and adorable ones and you've always had a lot of female admirers," she prodded evilly. Oh that had been so much fun, laying out for him all of the females that had been interested in him in their past while he had been so utterly clueless about it. "Such a player."

He just shook his head while Ruby was a sputtering mess. "Don't take her seriously," he advised the girls. "When she finds someone to tease she's like a cat toying with a mouse."

They did not miss the odd look that crossed Blake's face.

"Sounds like you Yang," Weiss accused.

"I tease because I care," Yang smiled.

"It's so much fun when you have the right target," Yoruichi grinned, patting Ichigo on the head. He rolled his eyes while 'sort of' scowling. "The reactions are priceless."

"I know, right?" Yang agreed. "Besides, it's the big sister's job to tease the little sister. Especially when the 'cute and adorable' little sister is attracting guys like him."

"Yang!" Ruby protested, turning redder by the moment.

It had taken a long time, but not only had Ichigo finally become mostly immune to Yoruichi's teasing, he had picked up the bad habit from her and used it on occasion. "Maybe Ruby and I should just run away together to escape this insanity." Said girl's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

Of course, he needed to remember who he was teasing with and almost anything could be a set up line for her. "Maybe you should take Yang with you Ichigo," Yoruichi purred. "She has been undressing you with her eyes this whole time. Think of it, how many guys have the fantasy of being with a pair of sisters?"

Yang nearly swallowed her tongue and was actually left speechless. Ichigo was a pretty good looking guy...and she thought she was being subtle damn it!

A slight chuckle came from Blake. "I think you may have met your match Yang."

"I'm surround by the perverted and the insane," Weiss muttered, throwing her hands up. Though it was amusing to see Yang rendered speechless, and she had to admit that Ichigo was rather handsome. Even the very flustered Ruby thought it was funny to see her sister get a bit of her own medicine.

"That tends to be normal around Yoruichi," Ichigo cracked as he wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Haven't been hearing any complaints from you about the perverted part," she countered with a smirk as she leaned into him. "As for the insanity, what does that say about you since you're married to me?"

"Insanity runs in my family remember?" he smiled. "Luckily for me."

She turned her attention back to the girls. "So would you like to join us? You missed dessert but you're welcome to some coffee or tea. Our treat."

For the next hour and then some they all sat and talked. About Beacon and their training, about their friends and their preparations for the tournament at the Vytal Festival. The girls were as astonished as Ruby had been to find out that their hosts chose to hunt the biggest and most dangerous Grimm out there, and that they had the balls to fight back against and unbalance the White Fang, usually with nothing in the way of serious physical damage to them unless it was unavoidable, but disrupting their plans and operations none the less.

Yang had been quite happy to find out that Yoruichi was a fellow hand to hand fighter. She was even more surprised when Yoruichi told her she used her Aura to strengthen her hands and feet when she fought and didn't use any weapons other than her own body. It wasn't quite the truth of course and Yoruichi hated to lie about it, but it wasn't like she could tell her anything else. Blake was greatly interested that Yoruichi also employed speed and stealth to get to her opponents before they even knew she was there, and how according to Ichigo there wasn't a place in all of Remnant that she couldn't get into and out of again without being seen or caught. Everyone got a laugh when she likened Ichigo's fighting style to being like a thunderstorm. Booming explosions and big flashes of light with no subtlety at all. She was an artist and he was a wrecking ball.

Seemingly too soon it was time for the girls to leave. They needed to finish a couple of errands before catching the airship back to Beacon.

"Are you going to watch the tournament at the Vytal Festival?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Maybe," Ichigo said. "Depends how long it takes us to track down and get rid of those Goliath's you told us about."

"And we might look around Mountain Glenn to see if anything interesting got left behind after your trip there," Yoruichi added.

"I hope you can make it," Ruby said. "We've gotten even better since you saw us fight that Paladin."

Yoruichi smiled. "We'll do our best to try and be there." It was obvious that they had made enough of an impression on her that she really wanted them to be there.

"I'm sure you guys will do great," Ichigo said, his tone turning a little more serious. "From what we've seen of the four of you in action, it's obvious that you all have a great talent for becoming Huntresses and if you keep working hard you could well become some of the best."

His compliment made them all smile and stand a little straighter. "But," he cautioned scowling, one hand reaching out to lay on the end of the larger Zangetsu's hilt. "It isn't going to be easy physically or mentally. Being a Huntress or a Huntsman is hard, it's bloody, it's scary, and you will find yourself in positions you never thought you would ever be in whether your opponent is Grimm, human, or Faunus." He closed his eyes for a moment. "Back when I started out I found myself facing odds that made me question what I was doing, made me afraid to the point that it dulled my blade. I was trying to fight with my brain, to think my way past my opponents rather than using and trusting my instincts. I used my weapon as a tool rather than becoming the weapon itself, a lifetime away from how I am now."

His audience looked a little less certain now. They were smart girls and it was obvious that even at this early stage they had felt at least some of what he was talking about and they understood enough of it. They may be young and raw but they were warriors who had already drawn blood and fought for their lives.

"Luckily for me I had some really good people training me and looking out for me, but two of the closest to me gave me the foundation I needed to deal with all of that and progress, to never be satisfied with the strength I have and to always work to get stronger to protect what I love and look out for those who need someone to look out for them. One taught me to feel and trust my instincts, to use them to defeat every enemy before me, no matter how strong. The other told me something that has always helped me when things were at their worst, words that remind me of who and what I am and what I am trying to do. They are words that have helped me more than I can ever say and I want to pass them on to the four of you in the hope that they can help you the same way they helped me."

He had their undivided interest and he felt the approval of his inner spirits. 'I would never have become what I am, or gotten to where I am if it weren't for the both of you. My partners who are me and I am them.'

He looked each girl in the eye and began to speak once again, his spirits echoing his words in his mind. "Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate. These words have meant the difference between me living and dying more than once and the difference between giving up and carrying on. I hope they can have the same meaning to you that they have for me."

He was a little bit surprised that the first person that reacted to his words was Ruby. Maybe it was because she was just grateful to have received advice from an experienced Huntsman, maybe it was because she was a lot like he was and had a tendency to charge into things without a thought, but it seemed that those words may have truly resonated with her and she understood. He could see it in her eyes.

"We'll all remember that," she said with a smile, speaking as her team's leader. The others seemed to be thinking about his words. "Thank you Ichigo." She paused and blushed nervously, back to her awkward self. "And thanks again for saving me from falling down the stairs. Ooh, and thanks for lunch too. It was really good."

"My pleasure," he grinned, amused. She was just too adorable. He really hoped that the harshness of the world never completely took that from her.

"It was nice to meet you Yoruichi," she continued.

"It was a pleasure to meet you too Ruby," the mischievous were-cat smiled warmly. "And your team mates. And we will try to get to the tournament if we can, but even if we don't you will see us again."

That seemed to make the little scythe wielder happy and once she and her team mates said their own polite goodbyes, they left. Between Ichigo's words to them and the earlier teasing, they would have a lot to think and talk about on the way back.

Yoruichi took Ichigo's hand in hers and they just sat there quietly for a few minutes. She was pretty sure that she knew what was on his mind and he would need a moment to centre himself and talk to his spirits.

"You know, for a while I thought I would never find Karin and Yuzu's souls," he quietly said after several minutes had passed. "By losing our worlds I always felt that it was them that I had failed the most. They had already lost Mom and they were afraid they would lose me and I couldn't keep the world safe for them. But to finally find them, to feel their presence and to know that they're still together with one another..." he tilted his head and looked at her. "Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to grab those two and hug them like I used to hug Karin and Yuzu?"

She chuckled. "Now that would have been a sight to see. Ruby would have been as red as her cape and Yang probably would have hit you hard enough to launch you into the harbour." Her smile waned. "It took so long before we ever felt the soul of anyone we knew, and this is the first time that we've felt and found the souls of anyone that was close to us. This gives me some hope that we can find more of them now."

He knew what was on her mind and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure we'll find Soifon and Yushiro somewhere. We've spent a lot of time out in the countryside and the wastelands where there aren't as many people. There are a lot of people in Vale so our odds have to be better." He frowned for a moment. "Speaking of which...and maybe I'm just being a hopeful idiot since we just found the souls of my sisters, but did you feel what I felt from Ruby's partner Weiss?"

She smirked. "You weren't imagining it. It was faint but it might get stronger as she grows in power."

"Confirming my sister's souls and finding the Midget's in the same day, and the three of them together like that..." he trailed off, not trusting his voice to stay steady.

"Rukia always was fond of Karin and Yuzu so maybe it's not that strange," she mused.

He smirked. "Goat Face always did call her his third daughter."

"And the other girl, Blake," she continued. "I would need a closer look for absolute confirmation, but I'm sure she's one of ours. Too bad she was hiding her ears."

'One of theirs'. One of their descendants from their own children they had given birth to better than three hundred years ago. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but it was one of the few instances where they hadn't thought things through. They had been aging slowly just like they would have in Soul Society, yet they never really thought about the consequences of it. About the time they had the twins, a boy and a girl, Ichigo stopped aging at all. He looked like he was in his mid twenties and she seemed to have not aged a day at all. The end of their aging process also meant the end of having anymore children. They had tried but it seemed no longer possible. They had no explanation for any of it. Half baked theories, but that was the best they could do.

At the time they assumed that their children would age just as slowly but that didn't turn out to be the case. As their children aged, they did not and it wasn't something that could be ignored. It was still an age of superstition then and ever since they had awakened from their long slumber they'd had to keep on the move lest people take notice of the couple that never seemed to age and brand them as something evil or dangerous. Even after their children became more than old enough to look after themselves, they dared the odds and stayed around until they finally had no choice but to disappear from their lives.

It was a shitty thing and they hated it, but they had no choice and they couldn't bring themselves to go as far as to fake their deaths. Didn't mean that just disappearing hadn't hurt them any less though and they saw that as they stayed near, though unseen and they watched as their children had families of their own, and then those children had their own offspring. It was an exercise in the most excruciating pain. Watching your children, grandchildren, even great grandchildren age and die while you didn't age a day and couldn't be a part of their lives. It nearly drove them mad and to save the shreds of sanity they were still clinging to they became nomads once again just as they had been after awakening and stayed away from what for many years had been their home. It was a very long time before they could even speak the names of their children without becoming despondent and depressed.

The most unique thing happened though in regards to their daughter's birth. She was a Faunus. Since neither of them were the only reason they could come up with for it had to do with Yoruichi's unique ability to turn into a cat and something from that ability came through in her genetics. Their daughter had been born with black cat ears that had numerous purple hairs the same colour as her mother's hair. There were other black cat Faunus on Remnant, but there were no other bloodlines that had purple hairs in the fur of their ears. That particular strain it seemed was singularly unique. Kisuke probably could have unravelled how it happened, how their genetics, Yoruichi's feline ability and Ichigo's Hollow side, and the spiritual energy properties of Remnant itself combined to cause the mutation.

Since the Reiatsu of a Faunus had a slight feel of Hollow to it, they knew immediately that Blake was one even though they couldn't see her ears. But the hollow component within her Reiatsu had a very unique signature to it, a signature that was unmistakable to them. It felt exactly the same as Zangetsu. There was no mistake to them, Blake Belladonna was of their blood. Seeing her ears would be the second and final piece of solid proof.

"Zangetsu says her hollow Reiatsu feels like she's a direct descendant," he said. "A granddaughter more than a dozen generations from origination."

"With all of this today it's beginning to feel like we were meant to come to Vale," she mused. "Like there's a reason why we're supposed to be here."

"With the way trouble always seems to find me, us, I'm not willing to bet it's just so we can happily find the souls from our past," he scowled.

"Pessimist," she smiled. "You never know, it could be. Just in this case it's so we can all be reunited to kick the bad guys asses again just like we did back then, even if you and I are the only ones that will know it."

"Think we should go see Ozpin again?" he asked. "You and I both know there's something going on and the last time we talked to him it seemed like he was feeling us out. Almost like he was looking for allies."

"I think he suspects that there is something different about us," she began. "Scratch that, I think he knows there is, but he has no idea what. He doesn't see us as a threat or else he would have asked us to stay away from the Emerald Forest on initiation days." She grinned evilly. "And it didn't do any good for him to have Qrow Branwen try and get any info out of me."

"I almost felt sorry for him," Ichigo laughed. "Him trying to chat you up at the bar and get you drunk enough to spill your secrets...it was all I could do not to start laughing and give away that we were on to him."

"He gave it a good try," she chuckled. "The pick up lines were pretty lame but it was an interesting game. He actually managed to keep his secrets when I went fishing on him."

"Good thing we didn't tell Ruby that her favourite Uncle tried hitting on you and that you drank him under the table," he said. "I wonder how long it took his eyebrows to grow back?"

They got lost in their snickering for a moment. It had been quite the drinking contest and he had been a formidable opponent. Well, not as formidable as Yoruichi's old drinking partner Kukaku, but worthy none the less. She had been so hammered by the time he passed out and of course she just couldn't resist pranking him by shaving off his eyebrows. She had been so hung over the next day that she could do nothing when Ichigo took the opportunity to tease and aggravate her. He paid for it of course but it had been worth it for him to get a little revenge against his wife.

"Just had a funny thought," she said, affectionately swinging their clasped hands back and forth between them. "The Ryoka Squad as a team attending Beacon. I can just imagine the fits you Chad, Uryuu and Orihime would have given the staff. Particularly Professor Goodwitch."

"Especially if I had a certain black cat riding on my shoulder," he smirked. "You were a charter member of that group too. I'm pretty sure you would have found a way to steal her riding crop and do something with it." He raised their clasped hands and kissed the back of hers. "So, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

"I thought we might go enjoy the park now that we've cleared the troublemakers out of it," she smiled. "Then maybe after some dinner we can go back to the apartment and have a little fun."

He kissed her. "You got it. But, we'll have to get back to business pretty soon."

"Tomorrow you can open us a garganta and we can have a different kind of fun and go hunt some Grimm in Mountain Glenn," she said. She too agreed that there was business to be taken care of, especially if Grimm of that size were lingering that close to the kingdom. "After things today though I just want to spend some easy time with my Strawberry and then get all sweaty with him."

He smiled and helped her to her feet. "Whatever my Kitten wants."

If there was one thing they had learned it was to take the quiet times when they came and enjoy them because the chaos would find you soon enough. It always did.

AN: Like I said at the top, this was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to show a little of how I saw the worlds of Bleach influencing Remnant, and a meeting between some principle characters in a relaxed setting. This may or may not turn into something else. Don't really know. As mentioned I have some different ideas hanging around but nothing is really developed very much.

I have a half-assed idea in mind for a piece where Ichigo and Yoruichi show up in time to fight Adam and Cinder respectively, keeping Yang intact and Pyrrha from dying. Probably wouldn't be much of a fight since Ichigo and Yoruichi should be able to mop the floor with them.

It also kind of fun to play around with the ideas of whose soul from Bleach could end up as part of which character from RWBY, even if it doesn't greatly come into play.

Anyway, I hope it didn't suck and I hope you enjoyed this and would be so kind as to leave a review. Fell free to check out my other stories too...the last three or four especially could use the traffic.