A loud whistle suddenly silenced all the students. Inuyasha loudly blew the whistle again as he looked at all the students seriously.
"Now I may be a new teacher here, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be easy on you all" Inuyasha said as the students groaned. "Go to the lockers and change, and then we will get you started on building some stamina in you brats".
Ichigo just watched him and realized that Inuyasha was serious about this gym teacher act. He made mental note to have a word with Inuyasha after class to find out what the hell was going on. During class Inuyasha had the students running laps nonstop; he said it was to build stamina. When the students questioned him about that he had to prove it to them by running laps with them, however unlike the others he wasn't even winded at all when they were done making the guys feel jealous and the girls stare in awe. The only ones who were not complaining and were doing well were Ichigo, Chad, and Tatsuki.
After running Inuyasha had them do various other exercises that left the class exhausted by the end of the period. The other students changed back into their uniforms and headed to lunch, while Ichigo stayed behind to have a talk with the former Espada. Walking into the new gym teacher's office he saw the white haired man eating a pack of instant ramen.
"Alright what the hell is going on here?" Ichigo shouted while slamming the door behind him and storming over to the desk.
"An annoying strawberry is interrupting my lunch, that's what's going on" Inuyasha said putting the chopsticks down with an annoyed look.
"You know what I mean, what are doing here?"
"Kisuke Urahara got me a job" Inuyasha said like it was a normal thing. "He set me up with a gigai and here I am, is there a problem?"
"Hell yeah there's a problem!" Ichigo yelled slamming his hand on the desk. "You're an Espada you can't just stay here, soul society will find out!"
"Ex-Espada actually and Kisuke made this gigai special to hide my spirit energy so the soul reapers will be none the wiser" Inuyasha returned to his noodles. "I really don't mind being a teacher here. I would have gone insane with boredom at Orihime's place".
"What!?"
"Did I say that last part?" he said as he finished his ramen, going by the look on Ichigo's face he indeed did, "oops".
"You're staying with Orihime?" Ichigo asked shocked.
"I couldn't stay with Urahara and his crazy woman, Orihime was happy to give me a place to stay" he shrugged. Ichigo realized that Orihime knew this and that's what she was keeping secret yesterday.
"Fine, but I'll be keeping an eye on you and don't you even try to do something to her" he warned.
"Oh relax I'm not here to fight and I'm only interested in one woman" Inuyasha said as he watched Ichigo leave his office. "Oh yeah, Orihime told me to tell you to not mention that I'm living with her to someone named Tatsuki". Ichigo nodded his head at that knowing how protective she got and how Tatsuki would probably lose it if she found out a man was living with Orihime.
Ichigo joined Chad, Orihime, and Ishida for lunch. They sat in silence for a while before Ichigo decided to break it.
"Why did you agree to let Inuyasha live with you Orihime" the girl blushed and Uryu almost choked on his drink.
"I think he's nice" she defended.
"Your letting an Espada live with you?" the Quincy nearly shouted at her.
"He was nice to me in Las Noches, and mister Urahara told me how he tried to stop Aizen" she said to them. They decided if Urahara was willing to put some trust in a former Espada then they could at least give him a chance.
"He knows how to run a gym class though" Chad spoke up referring to the workout he got a little while ago from the arrancar, now gym teacher.
"I'll have to keep a close eye on him" Uryu said pushing his glasses up.
"Yeah me too" Ichigo agreed.
"Just don't tell Tatsuki that I'm living with him okay" Orihime said to all of them. Funny she said that because the following weekend Arisawa Tatsuki got to find out what was going on first hand. She came over to see Orihime Saturday night to find out why she was being so secretive all week.
"Alright Orihime just what are you hiding?" she asked straight forward sitting across from her.
"Ah, I'm not hiding anything" Orihime stuttered.
"Then why do you always seem to hurry home after school every day, like you're afraid someone might find something out" Tatsuki questioned, waiting for her to spill it while Orihime fidgeted nervously.
"Hey Orihime" Inuyasha said opening the door to the bathroom and walking out a little wet wearing nothing but a black towel around his waist, leaving his muscular chest and legs exposed. "I saved you some hot water". Orihime just looked down at the floor knowing what was about to happen.
Tatsuki just stared at the almost nude and wet white haired man in front of her. Her mind was slowing processing this situation one thought at a time, 'A man was living with Orihime' was her first thought as her eyes got wider and she stood up. 'The new gym teacher was living with Orihime' was the next thought as she walked over to him. 'This man is walking around in just a towel in front of Orihime' was the last thought as she ran over to him and made a fist to punch him in the face. Inuyasha saw the attack coming and easily dodged it, as well as the following kick.
"Whoa what did I do?" he asked as he continued to dodge the girl's attacks.
"You're taking advantage of Orihime!" she accused him and continued to fail at hitting him.
"Tatsuki stop, I invited him to live here!" Orihime tried to reason with her best friend.
"Yeah got to do better than that little girl" Inuyasha taunted as he caught Tatsuki's fist. She grew frustrated and tried to kick him again. Inuyasha dodged the kick; however his towel got knocked off. Orihime screamed and covered her eyes while Tatsuki fell back in embarrassment. Inuyasha quickly ran to his room covering himself and came out a moment later fully clothed in a pair of jeans and black tank top. He walked over to the two girls who were trying to hide the red faces. Inuyasha sat down next to Orihime who had just finished wiping away her nose bleed.
Orihime then explained who Inuyasha was and why he was living here. Tatsuki seemed to accept it all except for the part about him living with Orihime. In the end she let that go with the promise that if Inuyasha tried anything she would kill him.
The months passed and things stayed relatively quiet. Inuyasha continued to be the gym teacher and kept watch over Ichigo. Sometimes Inuyasha dealt with a few attacking hollows out of boredom, but made sure to be quick in case any soul reapers showed up. Urahara sometimes called him over to study his abilities, by running a few simple tests and asking more questions about his species. In his spare time he would explore the city, check on Kagome, or go visit his friends in Las Noches.
Finally seventeen months later after, the day that he waited five hundred years for was upon him. Tomorrow Kagome would travel through the well one final time and he would be there with her in this time.
He was at Orihime's house packing up his few belongings in a single suit case; he planned to drop off this bag at Urahara's shop, make a quick trip to Hueco Mundo to say his good byes and then go be reunited with Kagome.
"Are you really leaving Inuyasha" Orihime asked sadly by the door.
"I have to follow my heart Orihime" he said looking at her and smiling, "Thank you for giving me a place to stay" he then gave her a quick hug and headed to the front door. "And it's not like this is goodbye, you'll see me at school Monday".
"What?"
"I never said I was quitting as your schools' gym teacher" he said chuckling, "It's too much fun whipping you brats into shape, see you later" and with that he left. Orihime smiled to herself happy that she would still be seeing more of her friend.
He dropped his bag off at Kisuke's place surprised to see no one was there. Inuyasha stepped out of his gigai and opened a garganta to Las Noches. He found that Harribel, Stark, Lilynete, Sara, and Zana were all together in the meeting hall expecting him. He explained to them all what was happening and that they would be seeing him much less often.
"So this is goodbye then" Stark said looking a little disappointed that one of his comrades was leaving.
"Not really I'll come by and visit sometime, hey if you want you can come visit me" Inuyasha said trying to cheer his friend up.
"We'll hold you to that!" Lilynete spoke up. Inuyasha smiled ruffling her hair and shook Stark's hand.
"You know, you should be the one taking charge of Las Noches not me" Harribel said.
"But you're doing such a good job, and don't make it sound like I'm abandoning you all" he said rubbing the back of his neck, "If you need any help just give me a call". He extended his hand out and she promptly shook it.
"Farewell my friend" was her parting words to him.
Inuyasha said his goodbyes to his fraccion as well. The two girls cried about how they were losing the coolest guy in Hueco Mundo and wouldn't let go of his arms. After some coaxing they finally let go and Inuyasha opened a garganta back to Kisuke's shop hoping the man would be there this time. Stepping through the portal he landed in Urahara's underground training area. Inuyasha saw the hat wearing soul reaper he was looking for a few yards from where he landed, he also noticed with him was a group of other soul reapers, three captains and several lieutenants all looking directly at him.
"Oh shit" was the only thing he said.
"Arrancar!" most of them shouted upon seeing the white clothes and mask fragment on his head. They all moved into an attack stance.
"Wait it's not what you think" he tried to say putting his hands up. Inuyasha suddenly felt something coming from the left and just barely dodged a powerful swing from a sword. Looking up he saw a large captain, with an eye patch, spikey hair and psychotic grin on his face. Another slash from this captain's sword had Inuyasha pulling out his own weapon to block. The force of the blow was enormous and had Inuyasha using two hands on his sword.
"You're an Espada" the large grinning soul reaper said.
"Former Espada", Inuyasha corrected. The soul reaper put more pressure on the blade, causing Inuyasha to stop messing around and start pushing him back. The guy looked down at his arm that was still missing a sleeve and saw the number zero on his bicep. His grin grew wider and he started laughing.
"What luck I get to fight the strongest arrancar!" Inuyasha pulled back to get some distance.
"You want to go freak!" Inuyasha shouted, but before he could charge him Yoruichi appeared between them with her hands held up to stop.
"Alright that's enough boy's break it up!" the woman shouted at them.
"I came in peace tell him to back off" Inuyasha argued.
"Ah Inuyasha I was wondering when you would get back!" Urahara happily exclaimed.
"You idiot you could have warned me ahead of time!"
"Yes, but I wanted to test you to see how you would react" he said appearing next to Inuyasha "and you passed my test!" Inuyasha punched him in the head.
"I could have been killed you jack ass!" Kisuke just clutched his sore head muttering something about how employees are so mean to their bosses.
"Kisuke Urahara, you will explain why you have allied yourself with an arrancar" captain Hitsugya said rather angry at the blonde shop owner. Kisuke explained to all of them what Inuyasha was doing here and how he came to be a special sort of agent for him. Inuyasha himself walked away from the discussion not caring to hear what he already knew, he was already going to be a few hours late from when he wanted to see Kagome. Leaning on a rock he looked down at his white arrancar uniform and the number zero on his arm and seriously considered getting a change of outfit, he didn't need any reminders of who he used to work, and he didn't want any more soul reapers to get the wrong idea.
The dog eared arrancar noticed one of the soul reapers had come up to him which to him seemed pretty brave, considering she was just a lieutenant by the badge on her arm. She walked up to him with confidence.
"Urahara said you kept watch over Ichigo for the last seventeen months, is that right?" she asked.
"What's it to you girl?" he said back staring at the short female.
"My name is Rukia Kuchiki Lieutenant of squad thirteen" she said proudly.
"Should that mean something" he said knowing it was a little rude. "Don't take it personally, but ranks don't really have any significance to a guy like me".
"Be that as it may I just wanted to thank you for watching over Ichigo" she said to him. Inuyasha was shocked; he never thought in his entire life a soul reaper would thank him for anything. Kisuke thanked him for his earlier help, but that didn't mean much since he wanted to fight Aizen. This was different and he didn't know how to react.
"You're welcome I guess" Inuyasha saw Kisuke waving him to come over; he walked over to stand next to shopkeeper making sure to keep a good distance from the soul reapers.
"We've decided to allow you to stay under the employment and watch of Urahara" a captain said. Inuyasha looked over at the man with black hair and an emotionless face that struck him as familiar. "We'll report this back to the head captain".
"Like I give a damn what you all think, I'm above your ridiculous laws" Inuyasha snarled, his old stupid and rebellious self, coming forward.
"Hey watch it, we just basically decided you can live, you should be more grateful!" a red haired lieutenant shouted at him.
"I plan on doing as I please with or without your acceptance" Inuyasha said with a sneer, "You soul reapers need to learn that you're not in control of as much as you believe, if you were then maybe a threat like Aizen wouldn't have arisen" he knew it was harsh to say that, but it was the truth going by how a few of them visibly flinched. "I'm late enough as it is, later" he was about to leave until Kisuke stopped him.
"Wait my friend I need to cash in my third favor you owe me"
"What now?" Inuyasha asked annoyed wanting to leave.
"You see we are just about to go help Ichigo", the shop keeper explained," and we have a method to return his powers to him". Kisuke showed him a sword made of spirit energy that would be the device to give the teen his power back. "You see we've already added enough spirit energy from everyone to make up the soul reaper half of Ichigo's power, but the other half of his power is derived from that of a hollow. The Vizards offered to help, but their only half hollows themselves, so we need a powerful arrancar like you to complete the little bit of hollow spirit energy in this blade that they added to it, understand".
"That was a lot, but I think I get it" Inuyasha said scratching his head. He accepted and Kisuke easily extracted a bit of his spirit energy and implanted into the blade.
"You have one favor left Kisuke, and then we're done" Inuyasha said to him seriously.
"I'll make sure to save it for a rainy day" he said behind his fan.
"See you around Inuyasha" Yoruichi waved at him.
"Hey arrancar, you better be prepared to fight me next time we meet, the names Kenpachi Zaraki, remember it" the crazy looking soul reaper said to him. Inuyasha acted like he didn't hear him and looked over at Kisuke.
"If you tell him where I'll be living I will kill you" he said quietly to the man.
Inuyasha went upstairs and got back in his gigai. Grabbing his bag he left the shop, he had to travel on foot all the way to the Higarashi shrine, Kisuke made his gigai for him to be able to use some of his powers like a cero and his sonido in case of emergencies, but using his sonido in a highly populated city would draw too much attention so he would have to take a train. Travel will be much easier for him once he figured out how to open a garganta with this false body he thought.
After traveling by train and walking a short distance the moment he had waited centuries for was arriving as he walked up the steps to the shrine. Inuyasha was a little late because of his trip to Hueco Mundo and the business with Kisuke so he didn't arrive at the time he originally wanted. Instead he was here at the following morning of the day the well stopped working.
Inuyasha walked over to the front door and almost barged in. It amazed him that after five hundred years he almost resorted to old habits like it were merely yesterday. Chuckling to himself he knocked on the door, Inuyasha didn't have to wait long as Kagome's mom soon opened the door and gasped upon seeing him stand there. She was about to call out to her daughter, but Inuyasha shushed her.
"Wait I want it to be a surprise, where is she?" the woman smiled at him and told him she was upstairs in her room sleeping. She also told him that she was so upset about the well that she barely slept at all. Inuyasha quietly thanked her and made his way up the stairs to where he remembered Kagome's room was.
He slowly opened the door and saw the girl he had been longing for, for centuries laying on the bed asleep. Inuyasha walked over and sat down on the bed and just watched her sleep. He began to hear her start crying and calling his name in her sleep.
"Hey Kagome!" he called the reaction was instantaneous, she quickly snapped awake and rose out of bed to see Inuyasha's smirking face. "What are you crying for?"
Kagome had never felt so alone the previous night as she went to bed knowing that the well longer worked and she would never be able to see Inuyasha again. That night she cried herself to sleep and now she was awake seeing Inuyasha in front of her wearing modern clothes and his hair tied back, at first she thought it was a dream, but it felt too real.
"Inuyasha is that you?" she said touching his face.
"Of course it's me, duh"
"Inuyasha, sit" nothing happened, but Inuyasha visibly flinched.
"I can't believe this, five hundred years and that still makes me flinch" he said. Kagome started laughing.
"It really is you" she suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a hug and started crying again. He happily returned the embrace.
"Stop crying I'm not going anywhere"
"I thought I would never see you again" she said looking up at him, "Where are your ears?"
"Oh right let me fix that" Kisuke said that if he focused a bit of his spirit energy to his ears then his true dog ears would appear and vice versa. Inuyasha did that and the furry triangle appeared like magic on the top of his head. Kagome reached out to rub one to make sure they were there.
"That feels nice" he remarked.
"You waited five hundred years for me?"
"Sort of" he said rubbing the back of his neck.
"What do you mean?" he didn't want to tell Kagome the truth, but he figured she would find out eventually. He told her how he died not long after the well closed off and what his after life was like. He told Kagome about Hueco Mundo and the constant fight for survival and evolution. He started to feel ashamed when he got to the part where he joined Aizen and fought against soul society, Inuyasha was afraid that she would be disappointed in him for what he had done. He finished up by telling her how the war ended and the people that helped him after.
"Oh Inuyasha" she hugged him again, "You had to go through all that".
"You're not upset by what I did?"
"You tried to stop that Aizen guy in the end right and save your friends, you're a hero" she smiled at him.
"No, Ichigo Kurosaki is the hero" he corrected remembering that it was him who defeated Aizen.
"Yeah, but did the right thing, that makes you a hero to me", that sentence reminded Inuyasha of why he loved Kagome so much.
"Kagome I've had five hundred years to think about what I want to say to you and I still haven't come up with anything good" he admitted to her a little embarrassed.
"Just say what's in your heart" there was a short pause before he replied.
"Alright I love you okay, I'm sorry I couldn't say it before"
"I love you too Inuyasha" she said. Inuyasha leaned down and kissed her with all the love that he had built up for centuries.
"There's something else I want to ask you" he said pulling away.
"Yes" Kagome said red faced and breathless.
"Can I stay here, with you?"
"Of course I want you to stay, as long as you don't ever leave"
"Wouldn't dream of it" Finally after five hundred years that empty feeling that came with being a hollow was starting to feel whole. Now that he had Kagome again he felt complete.
THE END
I would like to personally thank all who reviewed, favorite, followed and hell even the people that just read it.
So that's the end of Eclipse the first story I finished. It was great writing this. The sequel I'm currently still trying to figure out, here's a teaser Inuyasha gets a second stage release. It will probably be a few months until I start writing it, since I want to see where the Bleach manga chapters are going and plus I want to finish my other story Arch Nemesis that's almost to its end.
For those who wanted Kagome to come in and have a role don't despair she will have an active role in the sequel.
Until then