First Carrot Rukia, Now This! (PG-13)

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

[u]Disclaimer:[/u] Rukia Kuchiki and Yoruichi Shihoin belong to Tite Kubo.


[u][size="4"][center]I Really Don't Have A Witty Title For This...[/center][/size][/u]


Rukia sighed as she looked over Karakura Town from the pole she usually stood on, which gave her an excellent overlook of the town. It had been 3 months since Ichigo had lost his Shinigami powers, and Rukia was having a bit of a hard time getting over the loss of one of her friends. Strangely, she had only known him for a much shorter time than Renji or Kaien, but she had felt as strong as a bond with him as she did with Shinigami that had known her for decades. She guessed it was due to the fact that they had fought together so much, but the Shinigami really didn’t know anymore. She had begged and pleaded with Captain Ukitake for her to keep her old territory, and he finally consented after consulting with the rest of the Captains.
But just this morning, she received a letter telling her that “if she ever wanted to see Ichigo again, she should come to the Karakura High School sports field at midnight”. Worried about Ichigo, she decided to wait until the proper time, which was almost upon her. She jumped off of the pole and started crossing the rooftops, hoping Ichigo was perfectly fine. Little did she know that Ichigo WAS perfectly fine and sound asleep, unaware of what was about to transpire.
Rukia landed in the middle of the field, looking around and keeping a hand on her Zanpakuto, in case this was an ambush. “Ichigo?” She called out, still nervous about the trap that was most likely about to be triggered. “Are you there?” She took a cautious step forward, only for her foot to brush up against a piece of paper hidden just below the dirt. She then felt searing pain shoot through her body as the unfortunate foot that stepped on the slip of paper started to convulse and morph, with black claws popping out of her tabi and her waraji tearing apart from the stress. Orange skin could be seen attached to the black claws. Rukia gasped as the convulsions started to travel up her leg, her hakama straining to keep something inside. The same convulsions then flowed down her other leg, and the opposite foot became orange and avian-shaped. Her inflated hakama finally gave way, revealing that the lower half of Rukia’s body was covered in white feathers, with orange bird-like shins and feet. She cried out in shock. “I’m…I’m turning into a chicken?!?”
She tried to move, to get away from the swelling that was going up her chest, but she found that her new feet were stuck in place. She cried out as her pelvic muscles shifted to better accommodate her new posture and her shitagi and kosode burst to reveal a mass of white feathers. A set of feathers that would constitute her tail slowly started to emerge from her plump rear, but they had black tips on the ends, revealing that she was going to be a Chabo, a Japanese breed of chicken. Her arms were then affected by the convulsions, her hands shrinking into her body as her arms, now her wings, grew layer upon layer of feathers. Finally, the only thing left of her humanity was her head, which had lost all of Rukia’s trademark hair and was being replaced by feathers.
She sobbed when her mouth, her chin, and her nose started to merge together to form a beak while her neck shrunk into her body. Once her ears had sunken into the sides of her head, she felt herself getting smaller as her skeletal structure finished shifting. Finally, all of the pain from changing had stopped, and she looked like a regular-sized chicken. She could finally move, but she didn’t want to run away, to escape from what had happened to her. She sifted through the tattered remains of her clothing, eventually finding her Zanpakuto. She nudged the scabbard, only for it to mysteriously disappear. The rest of her clothing vanished as well. She squawked in a very high-pitched voice. “What’s going on?!?”
“I can answer that.” A familiar baritone answered from the shadows. A black cat slinked out of its hiding place nearby. “Hello, Rukia. Long time no see.”
“Yoruichi?!? What have you done to me?!?”
“A little training. If you want to see Ichigo again, you must become stronger. That’s why I will teach you everything I know, starting with shapeshifting.”
“But why a chicken?!?”
“The chicken is one of those forms a Shinigami would never assume unless they absolutely had to. I myself was turned into a toad when I was learning shapeshifting. All you have to do is learn how to get out of your current form.”
“And I am supposed to do that how?!?”
“Calming down is an excellent start.”
The woman disguised as a cat started to walk away, probably to go back to Urahara’s shop. Rukia groaned, then reluctantly followed, hoping she could figure out how to become human again soon.