In the mornings, Ichigo goes to school. Rukia doesn't go with him - there is nothing that the humans can teach her with their outdated technology. Instead Rukia sinks into the white world of her programming. She doesn't touch the codes for the pilot array or the transformation sequences or the weapondry - those are fine. Instead she goes to the memory matrix, the core of what makes Shirayuki Shirayuki. There is nothing she can do for the lost memory - how does one recreate the experiences of an AI? - but she can teach Shirayuki how to communicate. Shirayuki repeats each word carefully after Rukia, showing no trace of personality as she does so.
Duty. Honor. Loyalty. Devotion. Friendship.
Her sessions usually ends with the buzz of the human communication device against her leg. Ichigo makes sure to remind her to eat when she had forgotten to do so for a whole day. Having been disrupted, she sneaks back into the clinic and takes the food that Ichigo has set aside for her in the fridge. Rukia eats quickly to avoid detection, and then sneaks back out again. She does not go back to Shirayuki immediately - Ichigo ends school around 3pm, and there is no point in coding when she will be interrupted again. Instead she will practise shooting, or walk around the place that Ichigo calls home.
Sometimes she goes to his school just as the students are leaving, and he'll meet her with a scowl and a complaint. But he will still follow her back to Shirayuki. Other times he meets her there. However they arrive, Ichigo's reaction is always the same upon seeing Shirayuki - he gets quieter, more focused, and if Rukia knew human emotions possibly happier as well.
But Rukia does not know human emotions, only the ways of Sou Sosaiti. She teaches him how to maintain and mod a Zan unit, how to use the pilot array, how to transform a Zan unit, how to use the aiming system. She even lets him into the white world of her programming and shows him how to change the code for his purposes.
She does not teach him about the memory core, or what a Zan unit is, or Sou Sosaiti norms.
Together they mould Shirayuki into something Ichigo can use, and Rukia mods Ichigo into a pilot that the Academy would have been happy to produce, if he were not human. But Ichigo is human, and by Earth's nightfall he is stretching tired muscles and preparing to go home. They always leave together. Sometimes Ichigo goes straight home, other times he makes excuses to go out for dinner. Rukia follows. In that manner, she meets his family and friends, and sees more of Earth than from her own walks around the city.
They eventually end up in Ichigo's room, Ichigo doing homework while Rukia sorts through the mods that Urahara has provided, trying to figure out which one matches Ichigo's current skill set the best based on his performance earlier in the day. Sometimes she draws. When they are both done they sit together at his table, and she teaches him how to manipulate the nanotech to give him the parts he needs. Ichigo's finished work is always different from what she pictures in her mind, and she does not picture how the mods will look like on Shirayuki at all.
This is not always the routine. Sometimes Shirayuki's sensors will ping Rukia's own comm, and Ichigo will have to go running from school or whereever he is to deal with the Haro. Sometimes Ichigo wants to go out with his own family or friends, or Rukia feels a need to sync with Shirayuki. They never communicate this calmly - there is always much yelling and slamming of various objects.
But this is the routine they fall back on the most. No matter how heated the argument, by 3pm Ichigo and Rukia will be headed back to Shirayuki together, where they will spend the quietest afternoons that Rukia has had in a while.
Rukia does not admit that she could get used to this. (691 words)
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Bleach sci-fi/Space opera
In the mornings, Ichigo goes to school. Rukia doesn't go with him - there is nothing that the humans can teach her with their outdated technology. Instead Rukia sinks into the white world of her programming. She doesn't touch the codes for the pilot array or the transformation sequences or the weapondry - those are fine. Instead she goes to the memory matrix, the core of what makes Shirayuki Shirayuki. There is nothing she can do for the lost memory - how does one recreate the experiences of an AI? - but she can teach Shirayuki how to communicate. Shirayuki repeats each word carefully after Rukia, showing no trace of personality as she does so.
Duty. Honor. Loyalty. Devotion. Friendship.
Her sessions usually ends with the buzz of the human communication device against her leg. Ichigo makes sure to remind her to eat when she had forgotten to do so for a whole day. Having been disrupted, she sneaks back into the clinic and takes the food that Ichigo has set aside for her in the fridge. Rukia eats quickly to avoid detection, and then sneaks back out again. She does not go back to Shirayuki immediately - Ichigo ends school around 3pm, and there is no point in coding when she will be interrupted again. Instead she will practise shooting, or walk around the place that Ichigo calls home.
Sometimes she goes to his school just as the students are leaving, and he'll meet her with a scowl and a complaint. But he will still follow her back to Shirayuki. Other times he meets her there. However they arrive, Ichigo's reaction is always the same upon seeing Shirayuki - he gets quieter, more focused, and if Rukia knew human emotions possibly happier as well.
But Rukia does not know human emotions, only the ways of Sou Sosaiti. She teaches him how to maintain and mod a Zan unit, how to use the pilot array, how to transform a Zan unit, how to use the aiming system. She even lets him into the white world of her programming and shows him how to change the code for his purposes.
She does not teach him about the memory core, or what a Zan unit is, or Sou Sosaiti norms.
Together they mould Shirayuki into something Ichigo can use, and Rukia mods Ichigo into a pilot that the Academy would have been happy to produce, if he were not human. But Ichigo is human, and by Earth's nightfall he is stretching tired muscles and preparing to go home. They always leave together. Sometimes Ichigo goes straight home, other times he makes excuses to go out for dinner. Rukia follows. In that manner, she meets his family and friends, and sees more of Earth than from her own walks around the city.
They eventually end up in Ichigo's room, Ichigo doing homework while Rukia sorts through the mods that Urahara has provided, trying to figure out which one matches Ichigo's current skill set the best based on his performance earlier in the day. Sometimes she draws. When they are both done they sit together at his table, and she teaches him how to manipulate the nanotech to give him the parts he needs. Ichigo's finished work is always different from what she pictures in her mind, and she does not picture how the mods will look like on Shirayuki at all.
This is not always the routine. Sometimes Shirayuki's sensors will ping Rukia's own comm, and Ichigo will have to go running from school or whereever he is to deal with the Haro. Sometimes Ichigo wants to go out with his own family or friends, or Rukia feels a need to sync with Shirayuki. They never communicate this calmly - there is always much yelling and slamming of various objects.
But this is the routine they fall back on the most. No matter how heated the argument, by 3pm Ichigo and Rukia will be headed back to Shirayuki together, where they will spend the quietest afternoons that Rukia has had in a while.
Rukia does not admit that she could get used to this.
(691 words)