The Butterfly Effect

Chapter Three: React

React: intransitive verb, /rē-ˈakt/

1. to exert a reciprocal or counteracting force or influence
2. to change in response to a stimulus

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"Rukia-san, we're going to be late!"

Uryū thinned his lips and contemplated his umbrella for a moment before putting it into his bag along with his books and writing implements. He heard the door upstairs slide open with force, and the irregular thumping of footsteps on the floor above. Not long after, Rukia bounded down the stairs, snatching the toast out of Tsukabishi's expectant hand as she passed and stuffing it halfway in her mouth. Her manners had certainly... relaxed in the month she'd spent at the shop.

Casting her eyes around, she alighted on her school bag, which he was holding in his off-hand, and he held it out to her as she approached. Removing her toast from her mouth and swallowing too much of it at once, she nodded at him. "Thanks, Ishida. Let's go."

He hummed a short note in the back of his throat and slid the door open, allowing her to precede him before he stepped out and closed the entrance behind him. The shop's business hours didn't begin for some time yet, mostly due to Urahara's tendency to sleep late.

"Hold on," he muttered, and Rukia stopped, turning to glance back over her shoulder at him. He didn't say anything else though, just plucked a piece of lint from the sleeve of her school uniform, discarding it to the side. "Better."

She raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. Setting the strap of his bag over his shoulder, he drew even with her on the sidewalk and they started forward again, following the route to school. Uryū wasn't sure exactly how Urahara had managed to arrange it so that she wound up in his class, but he chose not to ask. The cover story was rather simple, in truth—Rukia was his cousin, who had moved back to Japan after spending several years overseas. It went some way to explaining the things she didn't quite get about living here, or he assumed it did anyway.

Glancing overhead, Uryū considered the pale grey of the clouds. "It's going to rain again," he observed.

Rukia followed the direction of his eyes, lifting a hand to shade her own, and frowned. "I forgot my umbrella," she replied, glancing behind them.

"No time," he told her. "The weather might hold until we get there, at least."

She nodded slowly, reaching into the pocket of her jacket for that device she carried around. Denreishinki, she told him it was called. Apparently her method of communicating with Soul Society. He peered over her shoulder as she flipped it open. She tilted the screen so he could see it a little better, but the little map that represented Karakura town was empty.

"No word on that disturbance from last night?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"No. I've reported the others, though. Maybe there's a pattern we're not seeing." They'd dealt with five separate incursions by Hollows in the past month, and on the days in between, Uryū mostly followed Rukia around while she used her sword to perform konsō on any lingering spirits. It was certainly much faster than what he did, which was trying to persuade souls into crossing over on their own. She'd looked at him strangely when he mentioned that, but he wasn't sure why.

"Maybe." He glanced up when a drop of rain pattered on his hair. The clouds overhead were still thin, but it was beginning to drizzle, and they were still a few minutes from the school's grounds. Opening the front flap of his bag, Uryū slid a hand inside and removed his umbrella, closing the bag back over and wordlessly handing the rain shield to Rukia.

She blinked down at it, her eyes flicking to his face. Uryū adjusted his glasses. "I have another jacket at school, if it is necessary," he said.

Holding the device out in front of her as she walked, Rukia opened it, swinging it back so it protected her from the oncoming water. Frowning a moment, she adjusted her grip, pushing it higher, so that it was over the level of Uryū's height as well. "Come on," she said, making a short gesture with her other hand.