BLEACH: REIATSU IS THICKER THAN WATER

by Vashkoda

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or its characters.

Author's Note: Okay, I lied. This will take three chapters.

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A week had passed, and Isane had yet to make a move, one way or the other. Whether he felt encouraged by this, or simply took it as a sign that she needed more convincing, the Shaman had begun spending more and more time with her. This behavior hardly surprised her, but what was really infuriating was that Isane found herself starting to enjoy his attention.

It was all thanks to that damn Quincy reiatsu, she was sure of it.

The other day he had called her beautiful. Her... Isane! Convinced he was making fun of her, she glared at him and stormed off, ignoring his pleas to return. She had been told many times by others how plain-looking she was, or how she was too tall for any man to ever want to be with. Even her hair was long and wild--she had never been able to do anything with it.

The next morning she had been surprised to find that he had braided feathers and glass beads into her hair. She was so fascinated by the colors and the glimmer that she could not stop staring at them. As she was distracted, the Shaman reached over and embraced her from behind, asking if she now believed him. She was so flustered that she tore herself away from him and ran off again.

The morning after that, she discovered that he had pierced her ears while she slept, adding more shiny trinkets to them. At this point, his plan was backfiring, as Isane saw it. She was very disturbed that he could get so close to her during the night without waking her, and it gave her all the more incentive to stay away from him.

Except that a part of her actually enjoyed his gifts, and didn't want him to stop.

From then on, Isane slept with one eye open, worried about what the man might try next. She swore to herself that if he ever tried tattooing those markings on her, she would kill him.

It was to Kiyone's credit that she never laughed when she saw Isane, as she knew that she must look absurd. The girl even complimented her once or twice, which made Isane conclude that all three of them must be completely insane. She would not have been surprised if Kiyone began sewing herself a fur cloak just like the Shaman's.

And then there was the issue of Kiyone's connection with her. As they continued to perform the healings, Isane felt her spirit bonding with the other woman's more and more. It was to the point where she could almost feel Kiyone when she was nearby, and sense what she was thinking. One time, Kiyone had even spoken Isane's thoughts aloud, word for word.

That was what finally drove the two of them to go to the Shaman and ask him to break their bond. He pointed out that if he did so, Isane would no longer be able to help with the rituals. By that point, however, Kiyone had become much stronger, no longer showing signs of any illness, despite the Shaman's assurances that the treatments were not complete. Both women felt they could risk it. Isane suspected the man was really only worried that Isane would leave, now that Kiyone no longer needed her.

The Shaman drew the markings on them and spoke the incantation, scowling his disapproval the entire time. Finally, it was done--their connection was severed. The two women realized that they could no longer hear each other's thoughts, and smiled in relief.

Isane expected that the changes to her vision would eventually fade as well. Already she was noticing and remembering how drab and cold the world really seemed. The sparkling jewels in the Shaman's hair had once again reverted to dirty feathers and broken bits of bone. Isane almost felt like crying.

There were other consequences. Whether her mind was reeling from the sudden separation from Kiyone's spirit, or the gradual loss of Quincy sight, Isane began having very vivid dreams. The images were so distorted--and the situations so frightening and bizarre--that she would wake up in a cold sweat, her heart racing.

If she hadn't been worried about her sanity before, she definitely was now.

Kiyone's health had also made a turn for the worse. Isane was amazed at how much weaker she seemed, and wondered if the woman had previously relied on their combined reiatsu to sustain her. Isane continued to attend her healings, if only as a spectator. She had not overtly agreed to remain with them, but she did not feel right leaving Kiyone when she was so ill. Part of it was guilt, true, but Isane had also become attached to the noblewoman during their time together. Jokingly, Isane had called her nee-san a few times after the Shaman made his comment about their similar reiatsu. Kiyone had not liked that one bit, and although Isane had felt somewhat hurt by that reaction, she now knew a way to tease her whenever Kiyone decided to be annoying.

And part of her--yes, she admitted it!--wanted to stay for the Shaman. She tried not to let the rational part of her mind take over whenever she thought about him. Even if she could no longer see the beauty in either of them, she still had her memories, and trusted that it had been real.

To her dismay, with the change in Kiyone's condition, all of the Shaman's attention was now focused on the other woman. He tried to make it up to Isane by involving her in the occasional healings he performed for other customers, teaching her more kidou. Isane knew that he needed to continue performing these services in order to be able to feed the three of them, for Kiyone's money had not lasted long. Unfortunately, now that Isane had developed her reiatsu, she was constantly giving off spirit energy, whether she actively used it or not, and she actually needed to continue eating or she would grow too weak to move. She now focused very intently on the Shaman's lessons, thinking that if she did leave him, she might have to try eking out a living as a healer herself in order to afford food.

She watched as the Shaman marked his latest customer with the ink. She had now learned enough to know that the odd cross-like symbol on the person's skin was not part of the normal kidou, but the Shaman had been using it to begin all of his rituals. When Isane had asked him about it, he became secretive, saying it was merely a form of 'Quincy magic'. Well, that was fair. In breaking her bond with Kiyone, Isane had effectively rejected her membership as a part of that special group. The Shaman may even have taken it as a personal insult.

Isane decided to step away from the healing a moment and check on Kiyone. For regular customers, the Shaman performed healings in his home; saying their treatments didn't require enough reiatsu that he needed to go to the woods. That also enabled them to keep a close eye on Kiyone, who now spent most days in bed. She didn't suffer from nightmares like Isane did, but Isane had noticed that Kiyone always looked exhausted no matter how many hours of sleep she had.

She pulled open the screen separating the rooms and looked down at the other woman. Underneath the blankets, she still wore her noble finery, including a new pair of gloves that the Shaman had bought her. Before her relapse, Kiyone had complained that his mysterious ink always stained her fingers, and that she would be too embarrassed to show her hands in public. His thoughtful gift had surprised the two women.

She seemed to be sleeping deeply, and didn't wake even after Isane called out her name. She decided not to disturb her, and instead chose to take a walk outside and get some air.

Isane noted sadly that the surrounding buildings were falling apart more and more every day. The Shaman had told her not to worry; that they were all uninhabited because people feared to live so close to him. There was also a smell in the air that was all too common in poor neighborhoods of the Rukongia; the stench of dank and mold, and of death. Isane had once looked into the neighboring buildings to see what could be causing the smell, and saw a vision as bad as any of her nightmares. There were rats everywhere, some piled on top of one another in little mounds ...every single one of them dead.

After putting a fair distance between herself and the Shaman's home, Isane was able to take a deep breath and finally relax. It surprised her how much better she felt being away from there, as if a great weight had been lifted from her soul. It was during moments like this that the pull to escape the Shaman was strongest, and she had to fight with herself to make her go back.

By the time she returned, the customer had already left and Kiyone had awakened, hungry as ever. Kiyone was still strong enough to feed herself, but just barely. After their meal, it was once again time to go to the forest. She could not exactly say why, but this time Isane found herself filled with dread. An image of the dead rats flashed briefly in her mind.

Isane told herself it was just her nerves.

After Isane and the Shaman had carefully seated Kiyone at the base of a tree, propping her body up against it, he left them alone to prepare. These moments were awkward, and Isane occupied herself by looking anywhere except at the other woman. It pained her to see how frail she had become.

"You look too serious, Isane-san. Don't worry, Shaman-san said I would recover."

Isane grimaced. "You looked like you had recovered two weeks ago. Now, you can barely sit up. I don't know why your body isn't responding to the treatment."

Kiyone shrugged, but then she wasn't concerned; she had absolute faith in the Shaman. Normally Isane wouldn't have questioned his abilities either, but something was obviously wrong.

"I'm sorry it's taking so long, Isane-san," she said guiltily. "I know you were hoping to be gone by now."

"Hmph. Don't worry about it."

"Ah, that's right. You aren't staying for my sake." Kiyone smirked, then drew an invisible heart in the air with her finger. "It's Shaman-san who's keeping you here."

Isane sighed in irritation. "You're an idiot, nee-san."

The other woman just laughed. Isane couldn't help but join in.

"So then, if you don't decide to stay, what will you do with yourself?" asked the younger woman when the laughter had died down.

Isane sighed. "I'm not sure. I thought maybe I could start my own healing business, maybe in another district so that I wouldn't compete with the Shaman."

Kiyone looked thoughtful. "Well, you could always come to my family's district. We don't have anyone nearly as good as you, Isane-san, or I would never have had to come here. Anyone with talent automatically leaves to train with the Shinigami, and is never again seen outside the Seireitei." She paused and looked over Isane's shoulder.

"Except for you, of course, Shaman-san."

Isane stiffened, wondering if the Shaman had overheard her talk of leaving. Although she still hadn't made any decision, she was secretly curious what was now going through his mind. Was he angry with her? Was he worried?

The Shaman startled her as he stepped out of the shadows. Isane was surprised the other woman had even known he was there.

"That's all right, Kiyone-san. I always understand what you mean."

Those words were spoken so tenderly that Isane had to fight down a brief moment of jealousy. She glanced at the Shaman, wondering if he was trying to provoke that reaction on purpose, but he wasn't even looking in Isane's direction.

"Excuse me," she mumbled, climbing to her feet. She threw Kiyone a quick smile to reassure her that she was fine, and started walking away from the clearing.

That man was so infuriating! She was surprised at how much she could both love and hate a person at the same time.

After wandering for several minutes, hoping to cool off her anger, she realized that she no longer had any idea where she was. Losing herself in the woods in the dead of night was not a wise idea, even if most wild animals might sense her reiatsu and choose to leave her alone.

Reiatsu... that was her answer. She reached out with her mind to try and locate the Shaman's reiatsu. It would have to be easy to find, considering the amount of energy that went into one of Kiyone's healings. Indeed, after a few seconds of searching, she managed to pick up his energy signature.

Except that it wasn't coming from just one location. She detected multiple sources of the man's spirit energy throughout the forest. Surprised, Isane followed the nearest one, noticing that it flickered and grew weaker as she approached. When she finally saw the source, she gasped softly in dismay.

A sparrow lay gasping on the grass. Even as she neared it, it couldn't summon the strength to move. The bird merely watched her with terrified eyes, its little heart racing.

There was no doubt that the reiatsu she felt was coming from the bird, even if the signature belonged to the Shaman. Somehow they were connected, and it didn't take long for Isane to piece together how.

Why are you surprised? her inner voice mocked. He told you why liked coming to the woods. He revealed that he was a Quincy, and that he needed to draw reiatsu from others to perform his kidou.

The kidou... his special Quincy magic. Suddenly she understood the purpose of that mysterious cross that he used to mark his customers.

But he's using that energy to heal others! she argued with herself. Could such a thing be wrong if it helps save lives? She had gladly shared her own energy with Kiyone when it was needed. In fact, back then Kiyone had seemed fully recovered. Now she only seemed to grow weaker.

Like the bird.

She was instantly on her feet, sprinting as fast as she could through the forest, tracing every flare of reiatsu she could find, knowing that one of them had to be the Shaman. Or Kiyone. Already she realized that she couldn't distinguish their reiatsu; they must have intermingled as much as hers and Kiyone's once had. Except the Shaman was on the receiving end of the power transfer this time. And maybe he had been back then, too. She desperately tried to remember if she had ever seen him draw the cross on her or Kiyone.

Isane cursed herself for not recognizing earlier signs. She passed more and more dead or dying animals, reminiscent of the rats she had seen. Of course, when the Shaman had been performing rituals at his home, he had to draw power from whatever was available nearby. Not even the spirit particles making up the buildings had been spared, explaining why his neighborhood was literally falling apart.

Clearly some of the power he fed on had to be used to perform the promised healings, or people would have grown suspicious. But it was also obvious that he drew much more than he needed, and was still continuing to leech energy from Kiyone. What on earth could he be storing all that energy for?

Isane's anger towards the Shaman returned full force as she realized that she had been played. Had he been manipulating her feelings from the start? Surely it was to his advantage to try to keep her and Kiyone with him as long as possible, perhaps until he had completely drained them of all their reiatsu.

That bastard! She would show him. When she finally found him she'd--

What could she do? The Shaman was vastly more knowledgeable and powerful than either her or Kiyone, especially with the store of energy he had been building up for who knew how long. No, her priority was to get Kiyone away from him before her life force was drained completely.

Except that it had never been done. No one escaped the Shaman, or if they had, none survived. Perhaps he had only to concentrate on a person's reiatsu to be able to draw from it, even at a distance, as he was doing to the buildings and the animals. But no, if he could do that, he would be drawing from everyone in Soul Society. Human souls must be different; they must require a direct connection or conduit.

Like the cross.

It wouldn't surprise her if traces of the cross stayed on a person's soul even after the physical mark had washed away. That would explain why Isane had never seen him marking it on either of them. He would only have needed to draw it once--perhaps one night when they were asleep--and they would forever again be linked to him.

Now that she knew what to look for, she searched deeply in her soul for such a mark. Indeed, there it was, just as she had guessed.

She was about to flare her reiatsu and destroy the cross when she realized that the move would alert the Shaman, and force a confrontation here and now. No, she wasn't ready! In fact, she probably never would be; the gap in their powers was just too great. Maybe one day that would change, but she highly doubted he would let them live that long.

There was one way she could exact her revenge, but it involved a great deal of luck. If her plan failed, he would definitely kill them.

The hardest part would be keeping her mind hidden from him. She could only pray that he wasn't able to read her thoughts as Kiyone once had. Now that he likely had a strong mental bond with Kiyone, Isane realized that it was too risky to share her plan with the other woman. She was on her own.

Calm down, you're going to give yourself away! she chastised herself, trying to keep her heart from pounding so loudly.

Isane slowed her pace to a walk as she approached the last source of reiatsu. It had to be Kiyone; the nearby animals would not have lasted this long.

She spotted the Shaman leaning over Kiyone's body, and her heart skipped a beat. Seeing the chest rise and fall, she was finally reassured that the Shaman had not killed her. At least not yet.

"So you have returned, Isane-san," he remarked. "Did you have a nice walk?"

Isane fought down her fear. "Yes I did. But it's far too cold to be out here much longer, Shaman-san. Let's bring Kiyone back to your home. I will do all the necessary cleaning there."

The man looked ready to protest. Nevertheless, she was the "servant". He couldn't exactly tell her not to to do her job.

Kiyone had to be carried, and remained sleeping the entire walk back through the streets of the Rukongai. Isane had no trouble holding her; she was as light as a feather.

When they had returned, Isane lay her friend down and covered her in blankets. She looked up at the Shaman, who was silently watching both of them.

"Shaman-san, Kiyone is getting weaker every day. I want to help her get better. Is there anything I can do?" She didn't have to fake the tears that now rolled down her face; she was terribly worried for Kiyone.

This was where she waited to see if he took the bait.

"Isane-chan, you have already broken your bond with her. You will never again be able to share your reiatsu. I warned you about this before," he told her softly, laying a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"But what if you bonded with me, Shaman-san? Then you could still use my energy to help her."

The man hesitated. Isane knew that he was already drawing power from her, so in fact she wasn't really offering him anything new. But if they did make this bargain, he would be given opportunities to draw larger amounts of energy from her without giving away what he was doing. Isane suspected that it had been extremely frustrating for him to have to leech their energy so slowly each day.

"If that is really what you want, Isane-chan."

Isane bowed her head, trying to hide her smile. "Thank you, Shaman-san."

He drew out the jar of ink, and began marking her skin. Isane had noticed that with his tattoos, he never had to worry about washing or reapplying the black liquid. It must be extremely convenient, but not something she would ever have done to her own body.

Green flames rose from the ink. Isane shielded her eyes for a moment, then opened them to find that the Quincy sight had fully returned. It would not be long now before their bond grew strong enough for the Shaman to enter her mind and discover her plan. She had to act quickly.

She reached out with her spirit to search out other sources of energy. She ignored the human souls she saw, knowing that she could not touch them; the ones in Rukongai would have no reiatsu anyway. As she focused the Sight, she could make out the individual spirit particles making up each body of energy, and could see where the Shaman had been chipping away at them over time. The neighboring buildings were on the verge of collapse. Every rat and other small animal of the 31st District had already been killed.

But Isane wouldn't just limit herself there.

She expanded her senses, testing just how far she could go.

"Is everything all right, Isane-chan?" The Shaman was beginning to look at her strangely.

"I'm fine, Shaman-san," she said, trying hard to keep the strain out of her voice. "I just need a moment-"

There, that should do it! She couldn't imagine how thin she must have spread herself to cover so large an area; or how many individual connections she had made. There was no time to think. She had to act now.

"Begin the ritual, Shaman-san. Please, accept my energy."

In her mind's eye, she found the Quincy cross he had drawn on her. It was like a door linking their two spirits, which he could open at will to pour her energy into him. She gathered up the threads of reiatsu she had used to make her own connections to the powers of the Rukongai, and waited for him on the other side of that door.

At the last possible second, she thought she saw shock register on his face. Luckily by then, it was far too late to stop it. She tapped into every source of spirit particles she could find, even her own formidable reiatsu, and unleashed it all as a mighty stream of righteous fury.

A deafening crash echoed through North 31 as dozens of buildings simultaneously collapsed, their foundations of spirit energy depleted. Elsewhere, the rats and mice of other districts were dropping like flies. And if anyone had looked out their windows in the direction of the Shaman's home, they would have seen a brilliant green flame race up into the night sky, then vanish just as quickly.

It had not taken long for the Shaman to regain control. In fact, the blast hardly seemed to have had any effect on him.

"So it seems you have learned a thing or two, Isane-chan," smiled the Shaman. "I thank you for the nice charge of energy. It is unfortunate that I had to let so much of it escape, but there is a limit to how much I can absorb at a time." He motioned with his hands, and suddenly a bright bow of energy formed between them. The man grasped at it with one hand and used the other to summon an arrow out of thin air. He drew back on the bow and took aim.

"Nevertheless, I think you have now outlived your usefulness to me."

Isane couldn't move, weighed down both by the grief of her failure and the loss of all her energy. She heard a whimper beside her, and her heart fell even more as she saw that Kiyone had awakened just in time to witness their deaths.

"Isane-san?"

Isane forced herself into motion, interposing herself between the two as a shield. It wasn't much, but it was all she could do now.

"My, what a touching scene..."