A/N: So, there are two reasons for this little story. One is the fact that I just started binge-watching Bleach from the beginning and Kenpachi Zaraki happens to be my favorite captain. The other is that I decided to take a leap and participate in my Facebook fanficition writing group's weekly prompt challenge. The prompt was 'pursuit', and it made me think of Kenpachi's thwarted attempts to track down Ichigo in the second arc of the series. So I came up with this little scenario that could have happened while we were all distracted with other things, and vóila, this one-shot. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. The original characters and the awesome world they live in belong to Tite Kubo.
Shifting Priorities
Retsu Unohana strode into the medical ward of the Fourth Division headquarters in the same manner that she always did, with the outward calm and self possession that she had spent lifetimes cultivating. The unrest at the captains' meeting failed to shake her, as did the sudden announcement that the Seiretei had been breached by an unknown force. Despite the chaos reigning outside as the other divisions scrambled to find the invaders, in here everything was orderly, as it should be. They all knew there would always be another life or death emergency to deal with, one more bad day to add to the list of innumerable ones they had already been through. Panic would only decrease productivity. Her subordinates were waiting in a straight row outside her office for her orders, her lieutenant at the head with a report in hand. Taking the papers and dismissing them to attend to their stations, she walked inside, dropping the stack on her desk as she sat to take a sip of the hot tea waiting for her.
She had barely gotten a swallow down when the first commotion of the morning hit. Taking a breath as the familiar sound of running footsteps in the hallway drew closer, she folded her hands inside her shihakusho. Her third seat opened the door, bowing swiftly.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"Madarame Ikkaku. He's been severely wounded, but it's nothing we can't handle."
"Very well. Alert me if you need anything."
"Yes, Captain."
The door was shut again, and Retsu picked up her report, going over the details of her squad's readiness to handle the current situation. The relief team had already been deployed to retrieve the wounded, and her healers were on standby with all available beds ready for use. She hoped against it, like always, but it was likely that Madarame would only be the first in a flood of Eleventh Division combatants coming in for treatment.
She continued to work as the hours passed, listening to the increasing activity in the hallway as her prediction came true. She was rarely needed since most of the cases weren't life threatening, but she found herself in and out of the medical wards anyway. In fact, she had just returned from checking on the condition of her healers, ensuring that no one was exhausting themselves, when the door was thrown open and her third seat stuck his head in the door, sweat dotting his forehead.
"He's here, taichou." he announced without waiting for her to address him.
Eyebrows raising swiftly, Unohana rose from her desk. "Really? It seems rather early for a visit from the Eleventh Division captain."
"Yes. He requested a visit with Madarame-sama, but he's wounded as well. I asked him to wait in Exam Room 1."
"I see. I'll deal with this personally. Thank you, Yashochika-san."
The relief on his face almost made her smile as she watched him withdraw and close the door gently. Her division might be top notch at what they did, but every single one of them were terrified of Zaraki. She attributed their fear to a lack of perspective, but she pitied them nonetheless, and always tended to his medical needs herself. Straightening her posture, she left her office to see what predicament the latest Kenpachi had gotten himself into.
Pulling back the curtain on the first of four private rooms reserved for captains and lieutenants, Unohana glanced at the treatment bed, unsurprised to find it empty. Further inspection located Zaraki standing by the window, his back to her. A rivulet of blood coursed from the sleeve of his left arm, droplets of crimson falling carelessly to the floor. His hyperactive lieutenant didn't appear to be with him, a relieving and worrisome thing at the same time.
He turned his head to glance at her when she entered the room, an angry look on his face. "What's the meaning of this, Captain? I came to see Madarame." he demanded angrily.
Retsu smiled at him gently. "It's no problem for you to visit your third seat, Captain, but his condition is still tenuous, and I'd prefer it if you didn't drip blood all over him in the process. If you'll please sit down, I'll tend to your arm and you can be on your way."
The delay seemed to only anger him further, but he knew better than to protest, and sat on the bed with an irritated sigh. Stepping up to him, Retsu's nimble fingers began to work his haiori from his shoulder, swiftly followed by the other layers of cloth underneath. Her eyes widened slightly at the wound revealed beneath, twin jagged tears of skin across the ridge of his heavily muscled shoulder. It looked like he had been chewed on.
Probing gently, Retsu squinted her eyes as she determined the level of kido she would need to heal the injury. "This almost looks like... someone bit you. The preliminary reports said one of the ryoka was an animal. Did you have a run in with the invaders?"
The sudden, bitter expression on his face told her that she had missed in her guess, but somehow managed to strike a nerve anyway.
"Just get this over with, will ya?"
Unflustered by his snarky attitude, she let her hands hover above the wound and began healing it, not bothering with the numbing medication he would refuse anyway.
Kenpachi let his eyes slide shut under the soothing warmth of Retsu's healing kido. While it was embarrassing for him to need treatment already, or at all for that matter, he did enjoy the occasional attention her soothing presence provided. As long as no one got wind of it. Which they wouldn't. Captain Unohana's discretion was as reliable as her calm grace.
"So, if it wasn't the ryoka, what was it?" she persisted gently.
"I'd rather not talk about it." he rumbled with a sigh, eyes still closed. From the other side of the curtain a squeal of delight erupted followed by indistinct words as Yachiru was given her usual bribe so she wouldn't harass the staff while she waited on her companion. The corners of Kenpachi's lips lifted slightly as he listened to the commotion, satisfaction leaking into his aura...
XXXXXXXXX
Two hours earlier...
"No, not that way, Ken-chan! Turn left!" came Yachiru's high-pitched voice right in his ear.
Spinning on his heel, Kenpachi ran in the indicated direction, only to find himself at yet another dead end. The sight of the blank wall in front of him as he came to a sudden halt made him grit his teeth in frustration.
"Yachiru..." he growled menacingly. "I thought you said this was the right way this time. We've been running in circles for hours!"
"Well, don't blame me!" she started in on him for the hundredth time already.
"If you don't know where we're going, just say so. This is pointless."
"It's not my fault they're not holding still. Every time I get a fix on their location, they move."
"Do you really expect me to believe that? I think you're just lost and refuse to admit it!"
Yachiru opened her mouth to deny his accusation with a loud protest when she was interrupted by a growl from her stomach. Her eyes widened enormously as she clutched his haori in her fists and a little bubble of saliva rose to her lips. A look of unadulterated fear crossed her face.
"Ken-chan! I'm hungry!" she wailed suddenly, the sharp pitch of her voice sending a stab of pain shooting through his head.
Kenpachi frowned heavily. "Well, what do you want me to do about it? You're the one who got us lost. We're supposed to be fighting ryoka, not having lunch!"
"Forget about that, Ken-chan! I need something to eat... now!"
"Alright, alright, hold on."
Turning away from the dead end, Kenpachi started off in the opposite direction. They hadn't passed anything in ages that could count as food for the endless pit that currently rode on his shoulder, so his best hope was to keep going and hope they came upon something or someone that correlated to sustenance.
He ran for what seemed like forever, again, but the street they were traveling refused to open up into anything but more walls and empty spaces. He would have taken to the rooftops, but he wasn't about to risk encountering the ryoka and wasting precious time in a fight. The rumbling in her stomach grew louder, and she herself grew quieter, causing genuine concern to set in. A lesser man would be in a full-blown panic by now, and his entire division would be running like pansies instead of facing his hungry lieutenant.
He could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, but he didn't dare look over at her. Instead, he pressed himself to run faster, hoping desperately for a way out of this ridiculous maze. As soon as he found Yachiru something to eat he would hunt down the idiot who came up with this grand design and give them a piece of his mind. With his sword.
At last hope came in the form of an intersection up ahead; he could make it out just as Yachiru began to weep softly, burying her head into the side of his neck.
"Hey, now. Don't be a crybaby." he soothed. "Just chew on me until we get there."
He grunted in pain as she obliged and he felt her teeth dig deeply into his shoulder, the fabric of his clothing getting increasingly wet from a combination of his blood and her saliva. He tried to ignore the familiar sensation, the memories it dredged up from their time before they joined the Soul Reapers. It was a trick he had developed to keep the hunger, the desperation, the sheer need that beat at every corner of their souls at bay as they spent an eternity of days just trying to survive. A pacifier of his own flesh that had lulled her nourishment-deprived body to sleep on the worst of nights. The ghost of their life in the Rukongai refused to be subdued, pushing him onward, the frown on his face morphing to angry helplessness. He had promised her it would never be that way again, and every rumble of her stomach and tear that leaked from her eyes was a failure on his head. It tore his soul into shreds.
At last they made a turn that didn't end in a blank wall and Kenpachi spotted a trio of Fourth Division relief squad members sitting in a circle on the grass of a small yard, opening a blessing from the gods, three overstuffed bento boxes. They looked up as he approached before freezing, fear washing over their faces as he skidded to a stop in front of them, Yachiru diving headlong from his shoulder into their midst. Snatching the box of food from the nearest shinigami without so much as an apology, she began devouring the contents with her bare hands, leaving the group staring dumbstruck, but too afraid of the giant glaring down at them to say anything.
As Yachiru started on the last box, one of them finally broke from their stupor, and swallowed hard before speaking.
"Captain Zaraki?" she ventured.
"What is it?" he rumbled down from the sky.
"I... I just wanted to inform you, sir, that Madarame Ikkaku has been taken to the medical unit. Apparently he fought one of the ryoka... and was defeated." she finished with a flinch.
Her announcement halted Yachiru mid-mouthful, who stared at her a moment before she burst out laughing, spewing half-chewed rice over the group. Swallowing what little remained in her mouth, she jumped to her feet. "I don't believe that for one second. Baldy may be goofy, but he's strong, and no stupid ryoka could take him down."
With a childish huff the Eleventh Division lieutenant spun on her heel before jumping to Kenpachi's shoulder, her tiny fingers digging into the blood-soaked cloth. "C'mon, Ken-chan! Let's go see Scar-sama and see if she has any of the candy she promised to give me whenever I visited. Then we can smack Baldy in the head for being lazy and playing sick and go fight the ryoka!"
With a nod Kenpachi took off again, slightly slower than before, the blood dripping from his arm spraying across the seated shinigami, who were left where they were, more than a little bewildered as they stared at the remains of their ruined lunch...
XXXXXXXXX
Retsu inspected her handiwork in satisfaction. The numerous shallow wounds didn't even leave pink marks, and once she finished cleaning the blood from his arm, you couldn't tell that he had been injured at all. Removing the red stains from his haori was a simple matter as well, using a handy kido she had developed for private use within her division. As soon as she finished he stood, adjusted his clothes and headed for the door. Without looking back she started cleaning up the room to be used again, pulling out the sanitizing wipes and retrieving a new sheet for the bed. She didn't expect him to say anything, he rarely did, so when his deep voice reached her from the doorway, she stopped in surprise.
"Captain?"
Tilting her head slightly, she turned to answer him. "Yes, Captain?"
He gave her a grin that looked malicious, but anything softer would have been out of place on him. "Thanks a lot."
Returning it with her own soft smile, she gestured toward the door with her chin. "Don't mention it. Go on and see Madarame. Captain Kurosutchi passed by a minute ago, so you might want to hurry."
Saluting her with two fingers, he disappeared around the corner, leaving the room feeling a lot emptier without his enormous presence.
"Be careful out there." she said to no one before leaving the room, nimbly dodging out of the way of the tiny pink blur that raced to catch up to her captain.
The End