See warnings in first chapter.
Day One: Part Two
Ise Nanao
Tōsen's voice over the tenteikūra promised safety for any division which surrendered its highest (remaining) officer. Nanao had her doubts, but she knew even the non-Espada arrancar who'd emerged from the castle would be too much for any unseated officer and more than a few of the seated ones. And after she walked out, weaponless — she had no zanpakutō to surrender — and didn't fight the arrancar clapping on the restraints, Tōsen did appear out of… was that a sonido? Tōsen swooped in from somewhere and put a kidō seal on the division gates.
"The arrancar will keep their distance," he informed her. "Thank you for minimizing bloodshed."
Fortunately he didn't seem to expect a reply to that, because she couldn't come up with one.
They took her right back to the vice-captains' meeting hall and deposited her in the supervision of a pair of arrancar who were mostly focused on glowering at each other. Iemura was already there, as were the Third Seats from First, Third, Fifth, and Seventh. Going in order then? She wasn't surprised Second hadn't surrendered, but Sixth was odd. She guessed Sasakibe had been taken elsewhere?
The Third Seat of Ninth was delivered, then the Third Seat of Tenth as well as Matsumoto, who had to be half-carried — all the running around wasn't doing her any good. The female arrancar stomping over and kicking her in the stomach didn't do her any good, either.
"If we weren't supposed to keep you alive…" the arrancar said menacingly.
Matsumoto opened her mouth to retort, but ended up coughing blood instead. At least it didn't make the arrancar kick her again.
There was a long pause before the arrival of Akon, then Sentarō and Kiyone.
"Don't tell me you got into a fight over who should surrender!" Iemura hissed at them.
"No!" Kiyone snapped back. "We both went out and very calmly asked which of us they wanted, and they took both of us!"
The arrancar didn't react to the talking, so Nanao ventured, "Status on Second, Sixth, and Eleventh?"
Akon made a disgusted noise. "A bunch of arrancar are attacking Eleventh. And vice versa. Although I think their Fourth Seat tried to surrender." He frowned. "Sixth… got slightly different demands. They were supposed to surrender all Kuchiki clan members."
"Oh." That would explain the reluctance. Wait— "How do you know that?"
"Uh—"
Before Akon could admit or deny that Twelfth was spying on Sixth, more prisoners arrived — Iba, Hisagi, and Hinamori. All of them looked battleworn, but Hinamori's uniform was soaked in blood all down the front.
"Hinamori!" Nanao gasped, among others.
"I'm all right," Hinamori said faintly. "It's… it's all healed."
"It is healed, but she probably lost a lot of blood," Hisagi said. He looked quickly around the room. "They… he… he came back, and just… fixed everything life-threatening. Just… waved his hand and fixed it."
No need to ask who 'he' was. "The captains?" Nanao asked, because someone had to.
"Them, too, I think — I saw all of them except the Head Captain and Unohana. But they were taking them somewhere else — Madarame too for some reason—"
"Bankai," Iba said. "Madarame has bankai."
"…That'd explain it I guess."
"And Vice-Captain Sasakibe," Nanao said. "So that's why he's not here." For the benefit of the newcomers, she added, "He came back here, after the defeat in the Living World — ordered us to preserve the divisions and preserve the balance."
Hisagi nodded acknowledgement before continuing. "I don't know about Kira, Ayasegawa, and Ōmaeda, some arrancar pulled them out of line—"
The male guard arrancar hit him. "His Majesty King Baraggan."
Hisagi just gave the arrancar a harassed look. The female guard arrancar laughed.
The same arrancar who dropped off the vice-captains from the battlefield took Matsumoto away. Nanao hoped it was just for more thorough medical treatment, but she wasn't optimistic. They must have had a reason for bringing the Third Seat from Tenth to this… whatever it was.
There was an explosion somewhere outside. Everyone winced.
A while later they started smelling smoke.
A while after that, Kira, Ayasegawa, and Ōmaeda (Marechiyo) stumbled in, shirtless and un-cuffed, and— Each of them had some sort of… kidō construct around his neck and shoulders. It looked half like a tattoo and half like inlaid metal, and Nanao had an awful feeling about it immediately.
"Kneel!" barked the arrancar that had escorted them in, and they all dropped immediately. To Nanao's horror, she detected a pulse of power from the constructs at the command, and a drop of blood trickled down from Kira's.
"Oh, do they have to obey us, too?" asked the male guard arrancar, perking up.
"His Majesty ordered them to," the escort arrancar replied. "But you'll need to get tuned to the yoke. Watch this." He shoved Ayasegawa's head down, revealing a gothic numeral 2 in the center of the design at the back of his neck. Then the arrancar (she really was going to need to learn their names) seemed to stick his fingers… under the design, pulling back with a tangle of inky lines leading back to the… yoke. "This is for if they're being stubborn. Pull those ridiculous feathers off, they're unbecoming of even a slave of the king!"
Ayasegawa obeyed, his expression stony. The skin around the yoke reddened further.
"Not that one — the blond one!" the guard arrancar said. "See what he thinks of despair now."
With all the other officers watching in mute horror, Kira was forced to lick the arrancar's boots, punch himself in the face, and break two of his own fingers. Hinamori started crying, but resisted all efforts to make her look away. Worse yet, the male guard arrancar then started to undo his trousers, but stopped when he realized the female guard was smirking at him.
"Oh, go ahead, Redder," she said. "Cyan would love to have the information to add to her dossiers."
"In your dreams, Mila Rose." He made a lewd gesture. "You bitches need a good—"
The guard arrancar — Redder? — was interrupted by the arrival of another arrancar escorting Isane, who was frazzled and cuffed but didn't look injured. Kiyone grabbed her into a hug immediately.
The new arrancar gave Redder and his friend a long look. "Tōsen-sama said the officers are supposed to be intact. And that probably means no fighting other arrancar in here, either."
"Fuck off, Gantenbainne, you're not an Espada anymore." But the escort arrancar did let go of Kira's yoke and shove him towards the others. Hisagi caught him before he could fall, and Iemura hurried over to look at the fingers.
Nanao considered trying to question the new arrancar, who seemed slightly more civilized, but he left almost at once.
"Vice-captain Kurotsuchi?" Akon asked, but Isane shrugged helplessly.
"I haven't seen her since before they caught me in Hueco Mundo…"
Drat. "Did you see anything on the way in?" Nanao asked.
"Fires," Isane said immediately. "Lots of fires. I think the biggest one is where Central 46 — was…" She swallowed convulsively. "There's… a really big fire, there." After a pause, she continued, "But Gantenbainne-san took me to the Fourth to check in before he brought me here, and it was fine."
"I wonder—" Hisagi started, and then all of them were sent to their knees by the strongest spiritual pressure Nanao had ever felt.
Those who'd come from the battlefield looked sickly unsurprised.
It was small consolation that the arrancar looked a little overwhelmed, too.
The Gantenbainne-arrancar stepped back into the room. "It's time. Bring them."
It wasn't a long walk from the vice-captains' meeting room to the Head Captain's office, but under the sickening weight of Aizen's spiritual pressure, it felt like miles. "Them" had turned out not to include Third Seats made redundant by their vice-captains' return, so it was just First, Tenth, Akon, and Sentarō and Kiyone, none of them looking very well under the pressure. Nanao tried to stick close to Hinamori, who was in turn dogging Kira's heels. Once there, no one needed any prompting to kneel. It would have been hard not to, as the spiritual pressure spiked and Aizen… appeared.
He looked rather odd, was Nanao's first thought when she could think again. Everyone below vice-captain had passed out, except Ayasegawa for some reason. And Tōsen was present, wearing half white, half black.
Aizen scanned the group, eyes pausing on Hinamori, who flinched, then turned to Tōsen. "No one from Sixth?"
"They refused to surrender the Kuchiki," Tōsen said. "The Espada have secured the division barracks with limited shinigami casualties. Second is still resisting, but Baraggan has gone to assist; it should be resolved shortly."
Aizen nodded. "Very well." He turned back to his prisoners. "I have ascended to the throne of the Soul King, and expect you all to serve accordingly. As I will be very busy, and my state may be overwhelming for the weak, I will be spending most of my time in my palace; I have delegated the Seireitei to Tōsen." He looked from officer to officer, and smiled. "The Espada are… eager to provide any necessary enforcement. I encourage you not to make it necessary."
Nanao wanted to ask about the captains, and the other people with bankai, and Matsumoto — why take Matsumoto? But she knew it was a bad idea, and even if it wasn't, she didn't think she could force herself to speak.
And then Aizen disappeared, and the pressure let up. Tōsen and the arrancar were still there.
"Rouse the third seats and join me," Tōsen said. He walked to the overlook and stood as if gazing out over the Seireitei. "You may remove the restraints."
Nanao wasn't sure who that was directed at, but it was Kira and Ayasegawa who struggled to their feet (Ayasegawa managed to mostly look like he wasn't struggling) and went around to take everyone's cuffs off. With Isane freed, it didn't take long to get everyone conscious and moving. (She obviously wanted to check over everyone who'd been in battle, but glanced at Tōsen and thought better of it.) As a group, they shuffled to the overlook.
A huge column of smoke was still rising from the site of Central 46, and smaller ones all over the Seireitei, though at least it didn't look like most of the divisions were burning. Nanao couldn't see Eighth from this perspective, but Seventh and Tenth looked intact. Something was going on in Eleventh, no surprise there, but you couldn't really tell what. There was active fighting going on around Second. If you looked carefully you could see the flashes of light from hadō (and probably cero). Sixth wasn't as agitated as Second, but there was more smoke in that area than its neighbors and some of it might be from the division itself.
"What's happening at Second?" Ōmaeda asked, surprisingly quietly.
"The head of the Ōmaeda Clan refused to surrender the division," Tōsen said. "I am forced to employ the arrancar to pacify the district. The arrogance of clans knows no bounds."
That was hard to disagree with in general, but in this case Nanao suspected it had more to do with buying time to destroy documents and let the Stealth Force go to ground.
"The clans are the cancer corrupting Soul Society," Tōsen went on. (Isane looked like she wished she could take issue with his metaphors.) "I will burn them out."
Shit.
There were several moments of shocked silence (apart from the Redder and Mila Rose arrancar guards insulting each other's hypothesized sexual performance in the background).
"W-what do you mean by clans?" Kiyone stammered. A good question.
(Akon had no family. Hisagi, Hinamori, Ayasegawa — Rukongai, and Kotsubaki was one generation removed from the Rukongai. The Kotetsu and Iba families were Gotei families — in the Seireitei for generations but always as shinigami. Kira and Nanao had clans, could be considered nobility — did Kira have any family left? Nanao had cousins she barely spoke to…)
(Ōmaeda had both a clan and a family.)
"What do you mean… burn them out?" Hisagi ventured, after Tōsen didn't respond to Kiyone's question.
Also a good question. The answer was at least partially literal — now that she knew what she was looking for, Nanao could match several of the sources of smoke to clan compounds. That was what was going on near Sixth…
"What do you mean, burn them out?" Ōmaeda demanded. "What are you—"
"Be silent," Tōsen said. The yoke on Ōmaeda seemed to twist, and the vice-captain choked to a halt. "They will be brought to account for what they have done to Soul Society," Tōsen said, as if no one else had spoken. "Their retainers can either swear their faith to Aizen-sama or leave the Seireitei."
…Some of the noble families had private armies and retainers with zanpakutō, so that would be quite a boost to Aizen. Then again, some of the private armies and retainers with zanpakutō would probably go down fighting against the arrancar rather than go over.
"Tai—" Hisagi broke off. "Tōsen-sama. You do— May I suggest that a large number of… any number of noble retainers being exiled into the Rukongai will do the most harm to the helpless citizens of the Rukongai."
"Then should they be killed?" Tōsen asked. Was he actually listening?
"There must be another solution!" Hisagi said.
"Will you assist me as my lieutenant in finding these solutions?" Tōsen asked.
Hisagi stared at him. "What — no! I'm not going to—"
Tōsen spoke over him. "The current Eleventh will also be dissolved, and its… denizens expelled from Seiteitei unless they swear allegiance to Aizen-sama. Those that survive."
Ayasegawa's expression was unreadable.
"I intend for the rest of the Divisions to continue to operate with you as acting leadership for now, while we consider future reorganization and consolidation," Tōsen said tonelessly. "You will not interfere with any division members who wish to report to Aizen-sama's castle to pledge their faith. Shikai-capable zanpakutō will only be permitted to those who have sworn faith and those rendered trustworthy by the yoke."
Hisagi seemed to have decided on another approach. "Can I ask about the Division shinigami who are from noble families? Most of them are good officers…"
"They may continue to serve in the Divisions, though Divisions must not be dominated by them," Tōsen said. "Some of them I trust to be loyal to their post… others may require the yoke."
"Yes, well… couldn't other nobles also serve in the Divisions?" Hisagi asked. "I don't mean Central 46 — even if they were still alive — or clan heads, just… randomly selected nobles, couldn't they join Divisions? A lot of nobles have strong spirit power, they could be an asset?"
Tōsen contemplated this. Presumably. For quite some time. Something exploded below in Second's district, and in the distance the Kuchiki compound was burning. Isane finally sidled around to check on all the battle-injured. Sentarō and Kiyone exchanged a series of grimaces and gestures, and then finally grim smiles. Redder and his friend speculated about what they might be missing stuck on guard duty, Mila Rose scratched under her bodice, and Gantenbainne stared out at the Seireitei.
"I suppose they might," Tōsen said finally. "With proper training." He turned away from the Seireitei. "Hisagi. If I am to undertake this, I need you as my lieutenant. I will accept you as loyal without your formal pledge to Aizen-sama, but join me now to minimize bloodshed and bring about justice."
(Redder pulled out a hip flask, and he and his friend each took two shots.)
"I—" Hisagi looked at the other vice-captains frantically.
Nanao met his gaze evenly. She wasn't going to tell Hisagi to do this — but she definitely wasn't going to tell him not to. If there was even a possibility of exerting some sane influence over whatever Tōsen's agenda was…
Ōmaeda mouthed please.
"…All right," Hisagi said.
"Y—" Kiyone didn't even get a full syllable out before Isane had clapped a hand over her mouth. Iba got Sentarō.
"I will also offer this opportunity to you, Hinamori-san," Tōsen said. "Will you help bring about justice?"
Hinamori was pale, but she raised her chin. "I want to help with the children."
This, Nanao wasn't sure was such a good idea. Hinamori was… fragile. (But when she thought of her youngest cousins she couldn't say she was certain it was a bad idea either.)
Tōsen left with his two "loyal" vice-captains (and the Gantenbainne arrancar) in tow. Hopefully someone would remember Hinamori really needed a change of clothes.
Once they were safely gone, Sentarō and Kiyone were released, and immediately threw a small joint tantrum about traitors. Isane started trying to calm them down, then burst into tears instead. It did derail the tantrum.
"I heard some of what Tōsen said to my captain during the battle," Iba said. "He talked about wanting to destroy Seireitei for killing his friend… Has he just… transferred it all to nobles, do you think?"
"I assume that's a rhetorical question," Nanao replied, rubbing at her temples. Would they be sending the demands about surrendering shikai-capable zanpakutō around already? Would they simultaneously be asking people to swear allegiance to Aizen? What was involved in swearing allegiance to Aizen? Tōsen seemed to feel that letting Hisagi and Hinamori skip it was a significant thing. "Though it's a good thing for Hinamori if he did choose them based on being from the Rukongai and not being former vice-captains to… well."
Well.
Hinamori Momo
The place where she'd been run through was still throbbing, even though Isane had checked it and found no remaining damage. This method of healing was effective, certainly, but it seemed to have some serious side effects. (Or else it was meant to keep hurting—) She was so tired.
Hisagi had all his attention fixed on Tōsen, probably trying to plan ahead how to argue against whatever horrible thing Tōsen came up with next, so it was Gantenbainne who noticed Hinamori stumble and caught her arm to keep her from falling. She flinched away, lost her balance, and he had to catch BOTH her arms to keep her from landing in the street.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "Thank you."
He just nodded, and set her back on her feet.
They were heading towards Sixth, Hinamori guessed. She tried to brace herself.
It was both better and worse than she was expecting. The front gates of the division had been blown open, as had the front wall of the captain's office and several other buildings. What looked like most of the division was kneeling in the practice yard in varying states of injury, guarded by a dozen arrancar. A Fourth Division team was on hand and healing people. Inside the captain's office, visible through the gaping hole in the wall, was a neat stack of bodies. The Tercera Espada was overseeing it all.
"Harribel," Tōsen said. "Where are Nnoitra and Grimmjow?"
"Since the fighting here had concluded by the time I arrived, I gave them permission to go to Eleventh," she said.
Tōsen apparently found this an adequate explanation. "I want the surviving seated officers gathered. Shūhei."
"Of course, Tōsen-sama," Hisagi said, before adding carefully, "Hinamori would really benefit from a chance to clean up."
"They both do not present the appearance of people in authority, if that is what they're meant to be," the Tercera said.
"Ah," Tōsen said. There was a long pause. "Use the vice-captain's quarters to clean up. One of the Fourth Division members will provide energy restoration and any necessary healing. One of the Numeros will return to the castle and collect the proper uniforms."
"Hai," everyone said.
Hinamori trudged unhappily into Renji's quarters, praying he was still alive somewhere. A Fourth Division officer followed her as she started to remove her shihakushō, stiff with dried blood.
"Where are you hurt?" the officer asked, eying her clothing with alarm.
Hinamori smiled wanly. "I'm not. Isane checked me already and dealt with anything important."
The officer's head snapped up. "Kotetsu-fukutaicho? Is she all right?"
Oh! "Yes," Hinamori said quickly. "She's fine. I think all the vice-captains except those with bankai… and Matsumoto… are supposed to be back on duty tomorrow." Not all of them would be fine, but Isane at least should be.
"What about Unohana-taichō?"
"I… don't know about her, I'm sorry. But she's probably alive."
She couldn't bear to say how terrified she was of what might be happening to the captains.
The energy pill helped, a lot, and so did the shower. She didn't linger, but even so when she got out there was a fresh uniform waiting for her. It looked like shihakushō, except with a white kosode. It… almost fit? Close enough. She twisted her hair into a tight braid and borrowed one of Renji's hairties. For some reason she felt like she couldn't stand to have her hair down or in her usual bun.
Then she had to face the world outside.
Hisagi met her just outside the door. He looked like he'd had an energy pill, at least. "I don't know if he wants you doing anything with Sixth, but all the branch Kuchiki and Kuchiki-beholden seated officers got slaughtered. They've got no one above seventh seat. Fortunately the last vice-captain retired to run a sunglasses shop, and Tōsen-sama seems to think he's acceptable, so someone's been sent to get him."
"Will he agree?" Hinamori wondered. Would he have a choice?
"His daughter's here, I'd be shocked if he didn't." He scrubbed his hands down his face. "I need to clean up — be careful."
"You too."
Tōsen was speaking to the Tercera as Hinamori approached. "All the Espada and Privaron Espada may take dwellings for themselves in the Seireitei. Just leave the divisions themselves undisturbed."
"Understood," the Tercera said. "Oh — the pets I took are not active shinigami, but should be capable of the work. How would you like me to deploy them?"
"The female Visored?" Tōsen said. "They were vice-captains, but only Yadoumaru is at all suited for administrative leadership… View them as unattached shinigami for the moment. They may be attached to a division in the future." He noticed Hinamori. "Hinamori. Gantenbainne will escort you to secure the salvageable youth from noble houses."
"…Hai, Tōsen-sama."
This was going to be ugly, but she would do it.
Shawlong Koufang
Shawlong had never been very impressed with Nnoitra — more like aspect of 'despair he'd ever stop being so insufferable' — and he'd only become less so when he learned of Nnoitra's cowardly attack on Grimmjow while the fraccion were… absent. Accordingly he hated everything associated with Nnoitra, including his inexplicably devoted fraccion Tesra.
But, while their masters were enthusiastically competing to see who could kill more of Eleventh Division, someone had to see to it that Tōsen's orders were actually carried out. It wasn't going to be Antenor — the slimy bastard had immediately wandered off somewhere giggling maliciously to himself, Shawlong hadn't seen him in hours. It wasn't going to be Dordoni, who was also busy going after Eleventh Division members but hopelessly behind in any numerical competition because of his insistence on endlessly talking at them. It wasn't going to be Cirucci, because everyone thought she was a shrill, annoying bitch. (At least she was on-task.) That meant there wasn't any definite leader, and that meant Shawlong had to talk to Tesra to get things organized.
"New orders!" Shawlong said, looking up from the message a Numeros had given him (for lack of anyone superior being reachable). "Noble retainers are to be encouraged to go swear allegiance to Aizen-sama, and if they fight we kill them, but if they just surrender we leave them where they are for the moment. We can do whatever we want with adult nobles, but juvenile nobles we turn over to the shinigami for… retraining." He guessed.
"How do you tell an adult noble from a juvenile noble?" Edrad asked.
"How do you tell a noble from a retainer?" Nakeem asked.
"We can still take their stuff if we want, right?" Di Roy asked.
"Who put you in charge?" Cirucci asked.
Shawlong passed her the orders with comment. "Does anyone have much experience with nobles, or juveniles?" he asked the assembled arrancar.
"Nobles from retainers isn't a problem," Cirucci said. She scanned the orders and tossed them over her shoulder (Tesra grabbed them). "We order them to give up the nobles. If they will, then those are the nobles, if they won't, then it means they refused to surrender, and we can kill them all."
"Except the juveniles," Shawlong said.
"Right, whatever."
"What if some of the retainers pretend to be nobles when we ask them to give up the nobles, to let the nobles sneak out as retainers?" Tesra asked.
"Maybe you're stupid enough to do that—" Yylfordt started, but—
"He has a point," Shawlong admitted. "Maybe we prevent any of the retainers from leaving Seireitei unless the nobles they surrender are proven to be nobles."
"And we're back to needing an expert on nobles."
"And juveniles."
"This is fucking stupid," Cirucci said. She turned away, released, and sprang into the air.
"Is she going off to slaughter them regardless?" Tesra asked.
But Cirucci was back almost immediately, carrying a flailing shinigami whom she dropped at Shawlong's feet before resealing. "He was hiding in the bushes near Eleventh Division," she said, sounding pleased with herself. "I'm sure he can help identify nobles versus retainers and juveniles versus adults."
"I — what — I don't know—"
"Unless he wants to die."
"Of course I can help."
Technically speaking they were supposed to offer Eleventh Division shinigami a chance to swear allegiance to Aizen before killing him, and if he wasn't Eleventh Division they should return him to whatever division he belonged at, but Shawlong wasn't going to split hairs at this point. "Perhaps we can suborn some retainers to provide information on other noble houses with the promise of mercy."
"You always make everything more complicated than it needs—"
"Then we wouldn't have to all operate together."
"…Point. You, shinigami, where's the nearest noble house?"
"Uh…" said the shinigami. "Uh…"
"If you're not going to be useful…" Cirucci threatened.
"I was just trying to remember the name!" the shinigami yelped. "There's one right over that way!"
Even with no one stronger than Cirucci on hand, the noble compound's guards went down like wet paper. Shawlong remembered to shout "Surrender or be killed!" regularly, but none of the guards made any move to surrender. Some of the servants screamed and ran instead of fighting — Shawlong had Edrad and Nakeem run a perimeter to make sure no one got away before they'd identified the nobles. Their shinigami prisoner got grayer and grayer as they slaughtered their way into the heart of the compound, where the nobles presumably were.
They finally located a group of well-dressed people refusing to make any expression, even as the last of the guards were killed in front of them. An unarmed servant hurled himself at Tesra and was thrown through a wall.
Shawlong looked at the shinigami. "Are these real nobles?"
"I… think so…?"
"Are any of them juveniles?"
"I… can't tell…?" He paused. "No, I think they're definitely real nobles or they'd have said something by now."
Cirucci sighed extravagantly. "Are there any which might be juveniles?"
The shinigami raised a shaking hand to point at a girl. She did look young, maybe, but she seemed dressed the same as the others.
"Great, let's make this easy." Cirucci produced a shimmering sphere of energy from somewhere and grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her away from the others. The noble's impassive expression cracked a bit, showing fear, and then dissolved entirely in screams when Cirucci slammed the yoke onto her neck.
"Aren't we supposed to not yoke the juveniles?" Tesra asked as the girl spasmed and cried on the floor and the rest of the nobles looked on expressionlessly. "Is it supposed to bleed like that?"
"I don't know, and we aren't sure she's a juvenile," Cirucci said. "She might be an adult. This way she can provide necessary information, we can kill the others, and if she turns out to be a juvenile I'll release her to the shinigami later."
"Oh good," Yylfordt said, and tore into the remaining nobles.
Coyote Starrk
Starrk was just considering asking Lilynette how many times she was planning on kicking the white-haired captain — or maybe distracting her and advising the man to act something other than mildly uncomfortable in the hopes it would get her to stop — when a tiny hole opened up in space next to his ear, and Aizen's voice came out of it. "Starrk, please collect Orihime-chan from Cell 8, take her to Cell 18, and advise Luppi to handle the prisoners a little more delicately."
"Yes, Aizen-sama," Starrk said, because what else was he going to say.
"The fuck was that?" Lilynette said. Apart from that.
"A new message system?" Starrk said with a sigh. "It sounded urgent. Try to stay out of trouble, Lilynette."
He hesitated to leave her alone with a shinigami, but this one hadn't hurt her even when there was a chance of it helping the shinigami win the fight; Starrk didn't think he'd try for revenge on her now. Plus she'd be pissed if she knew he was concerned for her safety. Plus Luppi was in the category of arrancar who were… erratic enough Starrk preferred not to expose Lilynette to them. (He hadn't been around long the first time, but he'd still managed two disturbing incidents with Numeros.)
He'd been in Cell 4 — 5, 6, 7, 8, and there was the human girl healing an unfamiliar shinigami captain, while Zommari loomed over them, staring fixedly ahead making everyone uncomfortable. Ah. Zommari must not have been up handling to whatever was happening in Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra had been sent to get things under control, and Zommari got the theoretically easy job of herding the healer around. It at least explained why Starrk had been dragged into this.
"Orders from Aizen-sama, she's needed elsewhere," Starrk said to Zommari, hauling up the girl by the arm.
"But Byakuya-san is still—" the girl protested, reaching back to the… healing shield.
"Needed elsewhere with a more critical injury," Starrk said to her. It was a guess, but it at least got the girl to cooperate. He picked her up. He'd been slow enough already. (Zommari, oddly, stayed to stare at the shinigami captain some more.)
This time, instead of checking the numbers, he just zeroed in on Luppi. It wasn't hard: Luppi was in full resurreccion, which took up more of the cell than was really convenient and spilled out into the hall. When Starrk peered past the mass of tentacles, he saw Luppi was holding up the prisoner with four tentacles and slapping him in the face with a fifth. "Come on Captain, don't play dead, I'm not done with you yet—"
Starrk sighed. "Drop him, Luppi."
Luppi pouted at him. "I don't take orders from you, Starrk."
He could say he was here on Aizen's orders. He could point out the low chance of his interfering for any reason other than Aizen's orders. He could point out that since he was the Primera and Luppi wasn't actually an Espada, he certainly should take orders from Starrk. But all that seemed like a lot of work, so he just pulled out a gun and pointed it at Luppi.
Luppi dropped the prisoner to lie in a heap of blood and shredded clothing.
Starrk dropped the girl (on her feet) and jerked a thumb over his shoulder with his freed hand, not lowering the gun. "Seal your sword and get out of the way. If Aizen wanted you to kill the prisoner he'd have said so."
Luppi pouted but obeyed.
The girl rushed past them into the cell, and gave a horrified cry, falling to her knees in the blood. "Sōten Kisshun, I reject!"
"Luppi…" Why did Starrk have to do this? Interfere, fine, but explain? He'd hardly spoken to Antenor before. "They're supposed to be kept alive."
"And he's alive!" Luppi said, sounding offended.
Starrk sighed and looked over at the healing in progress. All the dislocations would have been painful, maybe crippling without healing, but probably not dangerous enough for Aizen to step in. "What was closest to killing him?"
"Uh," the girl said, and one of the… fairy things… chittered at her. "He almost choked earlier, and with the earlier injury to his shoulder his arm could have been torn off if it had been pulled on much harder, but right now it's the, the internal bleeding. From the— the—" She lost the remaining color in her face. "No—"
"Really?" Starrk asked incredulously. Luppi pouted. "Stop making that face, it's tiresome." He looked back at the girl. "Can you heal him?"
"Y-yes," she said. "I've — I've fixed the, the internal damage, I need a little longer for the s-sword injuries, and—"
"Do that, I'll take you back to Zommari after," Starrk said. He felt this was fairly obviously Luppi's cue to leave, and yet Luppi was still there.
The prisoner groaned and stirred, trying to sit up. The girl caught him before he could fall back to the stone. "Careful!"
"Inoue…?" He looked around dazedly. When he saw Luppi, he glared rather than flinched.
Luppi glared back, started back into the cell, and ran into Starrk's gun. "No, Luppi. You need to review what it's safe for you to do to shinigami without killing them."
Luppi pouted again. Starrk wondered how upset Aizen would be if he killed him. And how much work it would be. …And how much work it would be to kill Luppi without damaging the girl or the prisoner.
He could probably do it pretty easily, with the gun…
Luppi abruptly developed a survival instinct and left. Excellent.
Of course, by the time they got back to Cell 8, Zommari was gone, and then Starrk was stuck herding the healer through all the rest of the prisoners. It would have been less work to talk Lilynette out of her revenge kicking.
Kira Izuru
Kira kept expecting Ichimaru to pop up unexpectedly and make a remark about the predicament Kira had gotten himself into. It wouldn't make anything better — he'd probably go on to make the situation worse — but the way it kept not happening was making Kira nervous. Which was ridiculous.
His nerves were frayed enough without that. Abirama Redder was obviously holding a grudge about Kira killing him, and would be extracting full payment at the first opportunity. If Nirgge was a good example, the other fraccion wouldn't do anything to discourage it, and Baraggan… Baraggan was going to be worse than Abirama. Baraggan was going to be very bad.
Although it looked like Baraggan would have to interrupt whatever he would be doing to them to let them go do Division business.
Assuming any of them were ever released from this office.
Kira leaned out over the railing and craned his neck, trying to get a look at distant Third. How much damage had they sustained? He hadn't had a chance to check with his Third Seat. How would he face his Division? He'd failed, and…
"Kira," Yumichika said, gliding up beside him. "We need to talk about strategies."
"…For dealing with… Baraggan-sama?" Kira asked.
"Exactly," Yumichika replied. "That's a good start. Give him what he wants. Give him respect, give him obedience, give him adulation—"
Kira was pretty sure his capacity to hero-worship had gasped its last sometime between when Aizen had almost killed Hinamori and the traitors' farewell to the Seireitei, and he wouldn't know how to begin to fake it. "I can do respect and obedience," he sighed.
"That's a start," Yumichika said.
"Ōmaeda-fukutaicho can't."
"Yes." Yumichika sighed, not really up to his usual elegance. "I'd wonder why Baraggan-sama even wanted Ōmaeda-fukutaicho, but then I remember he kept that Chuhlhourne creature around."
"Chuhlhourne is probably alive," Kira pointed out. "You may want to be more polite."
"Must I?"
Kira just shrugged, and snuck a glance over his shoulder at Abirama and Nirgge. They were verbally sparring with Mila Rose again, but Abirama caught Kira looking at them and made a crude gesture, accompanied by a vicious grin.
There was no point in deluding himself. If Mila Rose hadn't been present, Kira would have been raped already. It was going to happen. Probably a lot.
But he'd have to be able to work, so that would put some sort of limit on it. And possibly open him up to very awkward discussions with division members…
But… He knew shame. He was probably better-informed about rape and sexual slavery than most shinigami of his background, thanks to Ichimaru's unorthodox ideas of suitable dinner conversation and good places to visit in the Rukongai. He knew mind games, probably more intimately than any of the fraccion did. Despair was an old friend.
Most of the time Kira had no idea what Ichimaru had been playing at, during his tenure as captain, and he knew his own tenure as vice-captain had left him… not the same as he'd been before. But it hadn't been a bad course of preparation, for this. Probably not as good as the outer Rukongai, but not bad.
…Still no Ichimaru popping up to remark about showing proper appreciation. Where was he? Did it have anything to do with why Matsumoto had been singled out and taken away? Was he trying to persuade her… Kira wasn't sure what Ichimaru might be trying to persuade Matsumoto of, at this point.
Hopefully, whatever was going on, Matsumoto would be back soon.
Hopefully.
There was still no sign of Matsumoto when Iemura arrived with a food delivery several hours later. He explained in hushed tones that the Divisions were being presented with the ultimatum of surrendering shikai-capable zanpakutō or swearing allegiance to Aizen — apart from Second, which was still being subdued, and Eleventh, which was… well, it might have been presented to Eleventh, he wasn't sure.
"Do you know what sort of condition Third is in?" Kira asked.
"It surrendered in good order, I think," Iemura replied. "…There may have been some spillover trouble from Eleventh, but from everything I've heard, the arrancar aren't attacking Division barracks with that kidō marking Tōsen-sama put up." He shrugged. "And the, uh, the leftover Third Seats were sent back, so they should know you're back, or will be back at some point…"
The Third Seat had seen the little yoke demonstration when they first arrived. But Kira guessed they'd have to find out about his status sometime. …Since he did have a yoke, would they be returning Wabisuke?
"Did you see those tra—" Sentarō started, only for Iba to clap a hand over his mouth again.
"Did anyone explain Hisagi and Hinamori's new status?"
Iemura nodded, looking disapproving. "They agreed to this?"
"They may save a lot of lives," Isane said reprovingly.
"…Of course. Yes." He cleared his throat. "Sixth is… chaotic, even though they surrendered. The arrancar either killed or detained all the Kuchiki or Kuchiki-beholden officers."
It was too bad Renji had bankai — since he was another Rukongai native Tōsen might have let him handle Sixth. Then again, as far as Kira could remember Tōsen had never been terribly impressed with Renji. (Ichimaru had never been terribly impressed with Renji, had subtly discouraged Kira from spending time with him — but then he'd subtly discouraged Kira from spending time with anyone.)
"There have also been casualties when officers responded to calls for help, mostly from various noble households," Iemura said. "I don't know much more than that."
Isane stiffened. "Our relief teams?"
"I've been having them hang back," Iemura said, slightly shamefaced. "Until they can announce themselves and request permission from whoever's controlling the area."
Isane grimaced. "Probably the right call. You should get back. I hope I'll be back soon…"
But it was nightfall before yet another arrancar arrived and announced the un-yoked officers were to return to their divisions, and the yoked officers were released into the custody of their masters.
Or master's fraccion, since there was only the three of them.