One Man's Legacy
By Spunky0ne
(I couldn't decide on whether to do another Aizen/Gin or an Ichigo/Gin/Ichigo, so I'm doing both. This one pairs Gin and Ichigo, a new one for me. I hope you all enjoy it! Love you, Spunky)
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Chapter 1: In the Wreckage
"Ugh!" Ichigo complained, carefully trying to avoid the odd green slime that covered mot of the debris he was moving, "This is disgusting! Why are we doing this again?"
"Riiiiiight!" Kisuke chuckled, extracting a partially destroyed computer console and gently setting it aside, "You're used to just coming in, busting up the town, saving the day and leaving. You've never had to bother cleaning up after yourself, here, have you?"
"What?" the Shiba heir snapped indignantly, "I wasn't even the one who made this mess!"
"Well, the mechanics of the situation are simple. You and I are a couple of healthy bodies left in a society where most everyone else is pretty trashed. Someone's got to pick up the mess. And besides, picking up the mess in the twelfth division is too dangerous for most regular folks."
"You can say that again," Ichigo sighed, "That big blob that tried to eat me is still giving me the creeps. I hate this place. Now I know why Renji and Rukia'd rather have teeth pulled than to come here."
"Huh, I think they wouldn't complain so much to be out of bed and on their feet again instead of being in bandages and aching all over like they are."
"Has Byakuya come to yet?" the Shiba heir asked, a twinge of worry in his belly as he remembered carrying his unconscious friend back home from the battlefield.
"Not yet, but he will," Kisuke assured him, "He comfortable at home, surrounded by the clan healers and attendants. Orihime's there and Tetsuya hasn't left his side since he was brought back. The healers are watching him because he's so close to giving birth to the Kuchiki heir."
"That's right," Ichigo remembered, smiling, "I just hope that Byakuya's awake by the time the baby comes. No one should miss a moment like that."
"He won't," Kisuke laughed, "No one's more devoted to family than ol' Byakuya. He'll wake up in time."
"Argh! I wish he'd wake up in time to help out with some of this. This is disgusting!"
"Yeah, well, this disgusting mess is full of Kurotsuchi Mayuri's secrets. And with him missing, we aren't going to overlook anything that might give us a clue about that."
"Don't know why anyone even wants to find out where he disappeared to," Ichigo complained, "That guy is worse than some of the enemies we've fought. I don't know why you ever got him out of the Maggot's Nest. He's crazy! The shit he's pulled..."
"Well, he did invent some pretty important things, and we would have lost even more people than we did without some of his crazy remedies."
"Whatever, I still don't like him. I don't trust him."
"Good. Neither do I."
"But you got him released!" Ichigo objected, grimacing as he discovered a still warm chunk of the blob they had destroyed, "You...?"
"Just because I got him released and put him in position to be a taichou doesn't mean I liked the guy," Kisuke explained, "I just figured that a mind like that had potential that I could mine while I was a taichou, myself. I didn't count on losing my job and being banished. I was supposed to be there to keep him under control. But it didn't happen like that. Now that I've come back here, I feel responsible for cleaning up my mess."
"Why am I cleaning up your mess?" the Shiba heir mused dourly, "I think I'd rather be like Byakuya, unconscious and surrounded by people who love him, getting ready to have a baby..."
"You? A baby?" Kisuke laughed, "You're barely out of diapers yourself. You have two kid sisters. Are you that eager?"
"Naw," Ichigo sighed, "I just don't want to have to pick up all of this crap anymore. Can you really blame me?"
"No," Kisuke said, shaking his head and smiling, "And we'll knock off soon. Just help me with this fallen wall over here. I think I sensed a computer still functioning back there. I want to check it out."
"Okay," Ichigo agreed, regaining his smile as the end of their work approached.
The two took up positions on either side of the large piece of broken wall and pulled together fiercely.
"Damn! That is really stuck," Ichigo noted.
"Yeah, see if you can break up some of the edge over there, while I work on this side. If we can't get it this way, we can always break it up more and pull it out. I just don't like taking the chance of destroying anything that might still be working, you know?"
"Yeah, okay."
Each worked quietly at his side of the wall, then the two tried again to lift the section, only to find it still refused to budge.
"All right, I guess we're hacking it up."
"One stupid blast of kido would do it, noooo, he's got to have it in one piece," Ichigo muttered under his breath.
"Fighters," Kisuke chuckled, "They have no appreciation for the finer things. It's all hacking, slashing and bashing, no finesse at all."
"You did a fair amount of busting things up too," Ichigo reminded him.
"Yeah, I did. But I'm not the one griping about cleaning up my mess."
"This isn't MY MESS!" shouted the Shiba heir.
"Just kidding!" Kisuke laughed, "Don't blow a gasket over there."
"I'm not blowing anything," Ichigo grumbled, "There, I broke it over here. We can probably get this piece out now."
The shopkeeper joined his friend and the two pulled at the smaller section of wall, dragging it away and revealing something that made both men stop and stare for a moment.
"Well, I'll be. What was that crazy bastard doing with that?" Kisuke breathed.
"What is it?" Ichigo queried, moving closer to the huge, blue, tube-shaped structure.
"It's what was still working back there behind the wall. It's a preservation unit. I don't know if we want to know what's inside it."
He moved closer and studied the controls on the unit. Ichigo moved along the side of the unit, picking up a fallen file from the debris littered floor. He opened the file and scanned its contents as Kisuke continued to study the preservation unit. A moment later, he stiffened and the file nearly fell from his hand.
"Kisuke!"
Hearing the urgency in his voice, the shopkeeper moved immediately to his friend's side and took the file from his shaking hands. His grey eyes read briefly and his breath caught.
"Mayuri, you son of a bitch!" he gasped softly.
"How the hell could he do that?" Ichigo wondered numbly.
"Not in any way I'd want to know about, and that's saying something. Hey, why don't you go and get Orihime and bring her back here, okay?"
"You're going to...?"
"Not until you get back. I'm going to make sure that everything's stable."
"Okay."
"And Ichigo, don't talk to anyone about this. We don't know what we have here yet, and we don't want anyone else getting involved until we do."
"Gotcha!" the Shiba heir agreed, flash stepping away.
Kisuke returned to the unit's control panel, where he spent the next half hour studying each of the many buttons. He found a small panel, which, when pulled away, revealed a schematic of the unit with precise instructions for it's use. After studying the schematic, Kisuke moved back to the main controls, eyeing them carefully, then sighing softly at his findings.
"You are one messed up, freaky bastard," he mused, "I hope if they ever do find you, they build a hole deeper than Muken to put you in!"
"Urahara taichou?"
Kisuke blinked in surprise, still not used to hearing his restored title. He turned to observe the young officer standing amidst the debris a short distance away.
"Yeah, Rikichi, what's up?"
"It's the newly elected Central 46, sir!" Rikichi exclaimed, "They've just left the sixth division and are coming here to survey the recovery and restoration efforts."
"Just what I don't need," Kisuke mumbled, "Hey, uh, you need to go out there and keep them from coming in. You shouldn't be here, yourself. There's...ah...some dangerous gasses and malevolent reiatsu I'm cleaning up here. Tell'em I'll have to walk them through tomorrow, okay? It's just too dangerous right now, and hey, we just elected all of them. Wouldn't have to replace any so soon, ne?"
"R-right, sir!" Rikichi said, straightening, "I'll stop them from coming in. But will you be all right, sir?"
"I'm fine. I'm using protective kido. Go on, now, okay?"
"Yes, sir!"
Kisuke watched the youth disappear into the distance, then turned back to the preservation unit.
"It's good that some of the young, kinda innocent ones are still with us," he sighed, placing his attention back on his work, "We lost a lot of that in the war."
He continued his exploration for a time, pausing when he heard approaching footsteps, then breathing a sigh of relief as Ichigo and Orihime appeared.
"You found her. Thank goodness," the shopkeeper said, sounding relieved, "And you didn't tell anyone?"
"Not a soul," Orihime promised.
"How's Kuchiki taichou?" Kisuke asked kindly, "And Tetsuya?"
"Kuchiki taichou is awake, and just in time!" Orihime said excitedly, "Tetsuya-san is in labor and expected to have their baby tonight."
"Good...good news," Kisuke said, smiling, "I'm sorry to have to pull you away from that..."
"Oh, it's okay," the young woman assured him, "The clan healers have Kuchiki taichou's care under control, and they understand Tetsuya-san's breeder ability better than I do."
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Kisuke agreed, "And I could really use your help here. Ichigo and I had a look through the file on what's in this preservation unit, and to make sure that the one in here survives, once we open it, we're going to need to use your healing abilities."
"Okay, I'm ready," Orihime affirmed, "But, what's in there?"
"Come on over. Just, stand back a little. If our buddy, Mayuri, left any kind of traps or such on this thing, I want to be the one to deal with it. Stay right there until I tell you."
"You've got it," Ichigo said, frowning and nudging Orihime back a step behind him.
The two watched as Kisuke took a steadying breath and then touched several of the buttons. They held their breath for a moment at the sound of a loud hissing, then relaxed slightly, watching as the unit's lid rose. Kisuke waited until it was fully opened, then moved forward and leaned over the unit, studying the contents carefully. He examined the naked body of the silver-haired man within, briefly, then drew up the sheet to cover him from the waist down, before calling the other two rescuers over.
"It's okay, no traps," the shopkeeper informed them, "And he's alive and perfectly preserved."
"He?" queried Orihime, following Ichigo to where Kisuke stood, then gasping as she recognized the person in the unit.
"Ichimaru Gin," Ichigo said softly, looking down at the unconscious former shinigami taichou.
"Wh-why is his stomach like that?" Orihime asked in a trembling voice, "Is he like Kuchiki Tetsuya? Is he a breeder male too?"
"I don't think he was a breeder male before, but he was transformed somehow into one," Kisuke surmised.
"You think that creepy bastard, Mayuri, did it?" Ichigo asked.
"No, he didn't," Kisuke said with certainty, "You guys remember during the Hueco Mundo invasion that Kuchiki Tetsuya disappeared for a few days, then reappeared?"
"Yeah, and he didn't remember a thing about what happened or where he was," Ichigo recalled aloud, "They checked him out and he hadn't been harmed at all. But he never did remember anything from the time he was gone."
"That's right. It was erased from his mind, by the person who did this to Gin."
"Do you think he knew about this when...?"
"Shh!" Kisuke hissed suddenly, "Someone's coming this way. We can't let them see this guy. Gin's conviction for treason and death sentence were never revoked. If word of this gets to the powers that be in the wrong way, he's not going to live to have that baby! Quick, you two stabilize him and get him to my cottage near Kuchiki Manor. I'll talk to these guys and make sure they don't see you. Orihime, handle this carefully, okay? He's in a pretty fragile state right now. Mayuri didn't go easy on him."
"Okay!"
Orihime leaned over the preservation unit and invoked her power, swiftly providing relief to the unconscious shinigami and stabilizing his body, then she turned and gave Ichigo a nod of approval.
"You can move him now."
Ichigo nodded back and moved forward, then slid his hands under Gin's slender body and lifted it cautiously out of the containment unit.
"I know he broke the laws of Soul Society and he wasn't exactly innocent," Ichigo commented as they worked their way out of the debris that had been the twelfth division, "But he was really trying to stop Aizen."
"I know," Orihime agreed, "It's just sad that Rangiku-san could never get Central 46 to listen to her so that they would pardon him."
"I don't know if they would have, even if they had listened," Ichigo sighed, "As much as Soul Society has changed for the better, some things haven't changed much at all. Gin would have stood a better chance of someone listening if old man Gramps was still alive. I think Kisuke's right that we have to keep this a secret."
"But won't the truth come out eventually? I mean, he can't hide forever, right?"
"One problem at a time," Ichigo chuckled, "Right now, we have to stay focused on keeping Gin and his baby alive. We can worry about clearing his name later."
"You mean, you want to help him?" Orihime asked, smiling up at the Shiba heir, "That's good, because I do too! I know he did some things wrong, but he was a good friend to Rangiku-san. I know we can't tell her about it now, especially with her still being treated in the fourth division, but I know she will be really happy when we can tell her he's alive."
"Yeah, she was really broken up when she thought he died. It's strange, though. She said she buried Gin, herself, in the Rukongai. If Gin's here, I wonder how Mayuri tricked her...or if it even was Mayuri who tricked her. We don't know a thing about how he disappeared from Karakura Town and ended up in Kurotsuchi's hands. I wonder if Gin knows what happened."
The two stopped talking as they reached the small cottage, concealed within a misted section of forest, alongside a large, moonlit lake. They carried Gin inside and laid him in a comfortable bed in one of the rooms. Orihime remained at the unconscious shinigami's side, keeping his body stabilized as Ichigo left for a short time, returning later with food for the two to eat as they waited for the shopkeeper to arrive. They breathed a sigh of relief as Kisuke's flash step finally sounded outside, then the shopkeeper joined them in the bedroom. He looked Gin over again, nodding approvingly, then drew curious frowns from the others as he placed kido bindings on the silver-haired man's slim wrists.
"Do you really need to do that?" Ichigo asked, lowering his eyes, "I mean, we know he wasn't really with Aizen..."
"And we don't want him getting stupid and leaving here before we get his side of what happened," Kisuke warned them.
"Like who took him and made Rangiku-san believe she buried him," Orihime posited.
"Or who the father of his kid is," Ichigo added.
"I don't know who took him," Kisuke said, "whether it was Mayuri or someone who gave him to Mayuri, but the name of the father was in the file on the second page. The father of his baby is...Aizen Sousuke."