Mastermind

Mastermind, a game based on guesswork and chance. Ten chances to get the correct combination of color and placement, and when that happens, you win. It all comes down to four words: Right Color, Right Place. Theirs was a game of Mastermind where the world chose the combination, they were the players, and the events surrounding them were the pegs.

First Move: Wrong Color, Wrong Place

In one eternal second, the pegs click into place, the world shifts, and the game has begun. Renji is not yet ready to be acknowledged by the man who takes his best friend way while Byakuya has not lived enough to care about the occupants of the room aside from himself and his new sister. It's not even the right time for them to meet.

Renji has only just started finding his potential. His will to rise above his past and his classmates will push him until he's better than all those students who once made fun of him, but that single instance will push him for decades to come. It becomes his drive, his goal, and his obsession to surpass that ethereal man whose mere presence stole the breath from his lungs and the strength from his limbs. Renji is set on the right path, but has only just begun to travel down it.

In contrast, Byakuya doesn't need anything to push him, but to divert him from the path he hurtles down. That first glimpse of the haunting picture of his dead wife makes him stumble, but the redhead he takes no notice of will be the one to shove him. The Kuchiki head is far from the path he needs to be, but he's finally on his way to it.

Second Move: One Right Color, One Wrong Place

The second time they meet, they are decades older. Ginjiro Shirogane has resigned from his position as lieutenant and Renji is one of the many applicants to fill in that place. He is just a name and a paper, but he is also by far the most qualified. The Eleventh Division houses him as sixth seat, yet his power has long since surpassed the position he proudly holds.

He is fighting and he is winning when Byakuya finally takes notice of him. Zabimaru lashes at a bleeding opponent with deadly protrusions ripping skin, a heavy whip-sword easily controlled with calculated flicks of the wrist. Renji is grinning, his hair tie lost and allowing blood red locks to curtain his face. He is deadly and graceful and looks one hundred percent the predator that he is as he viciously tears his blade out of his opponents shoulder and back into sword form.

The Kuchiki head is not easily impressed, and Renji's show of power is far from impressive, yet it strikes a chord within Byakuya. It is far from understood, but as the sun beats down on Seireitei, Renji is inescapably caught in the vision of Byakuya Kuchiki.

The next day, Renji Abarai is lieutenant of the Sixth Division and proudly stands by his new captain.

Third Move: Two Right Colors, One Wrong Place

Renji Abarai has achieved Bankai and fights Byakuya Kuchiki on more equal terms than any other lieutenant could. He is far from surpassing his captain and idol, but he is also much closer than he once was.

For the first time ever, Byakuya Kuchiki is impressed. His lieutenant is far from being able to beat him, but it is impossible to remain impassive standing before the colossal bone snake that is the Bankai of a lieutenant. He doesn't expect his lieutenant to be able to harm him and he remains unharmed, but he is brought down to one knee and, though he sustains no outwards injuries, he is certainly scratched by his lieutenant's fangs.

It is with reluctance that he cuts Renji and it is with respect that allows his scarf to flutter over the unconscious body of his lieutenant. The redhead may not have swayed him from his path, may not have shaken his resolve, but his scratch later allows Ichigo Kurosaki to change the unmovable Byakuya Kuchiki's mind.

Fourth Move: Two Right Colors, Two Right Places

Byakuya Kuchiki cracks.

Fifth Move: Three Right Colors, Three Right Places

Captain Byakuya Kuchiki of the Sixth Division, fierce upholder of the law, disobeys a direct order from the Head Captain Yamamoto and allows his sister and his lieutenant to leave. It's something that could quite possibly kill them, and they're going somewhere neither shinigami nor human should ever go, yet he even assists them in leaving. Something is struck within him as he watches his lieutenant and his sister disappear, and he is impassive as Yamamoto questions him. Later, as he reflects on what he's done, he knows that he is finally starting to do right by his sister. Past that haunting reflection of his late wife, though, is the vitality and the fiery passion of his lieutenant. Abarai Renji is burned into his mind and is slowly seared into his heart. He waits

Sixth Move: Right Color, Right Place

Byakuya might be dying, and Renji could not save him. They can be called friends by now, and there's mutual respect between the two. For once, they stand on equal ground, thought not necessarily in equal power. Renji has long since reached where he needs to be, Byakuya reaches it in the instant that he falls to a storm of blades and Senbonzakura disappears. Suspended in that one second, Abarai Renji is all that fills Byakuya's vision: Bright red hair, tattooed face a mask of rage, and whip-sword flashing. Darkness consumes him and the world fades away.

He's alive, it turns out, and sweeping relief consumes him. He'd come to accept his death, but at the same time he had far more to do. It's painful to wait for his healing, but at the same time it allows him to further connect with Senbonzakura. He's calm as ever and as he fights the man who almost killed him, it's with the juxtaposition of calm serenity and rage stemming from the vision of his sister and the lieutenant the world meant for him to be with. Rukia is the one to strike the final blow, and though the battle is far from over, all he wants is to find Renji.

Game Over

The fighting is over. In an eternal second, the game is won.

A/N: I'm not quite happy with this story. I had the idea, I thought it was cool, but I didn't know where to go with it, which I think really shows. I'd like to add more to it, but I don't know what to add, so if any of you have suggestions for what I could do with this, I'd be open to them and will eventually end up writing them. Thank you and, as always, read and review!