Chapter two up.

I forgot a disclaimer in the first chapter, so here goes: Unless Tite Kubo turned Swedish, I do not own Bleach.

Ichigo was sitting in his classroom. Until half a minute ago, he had been doing well in his English class. Then, he had felt a strange chill run down the back of his neck, and in an instant, the entire classroom had frozen still. Not Toshiro-encase-you-in-ice frozen, everybody had just became still. Perfectly still. And now, he was in the corridor, talking to the only person he knew that looked kind and intimidating at the same time: Unohana Retsu, the yonbantai taicho.

"Whadda ya want?" Ichigo asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
"The seiretei has needs of your services." Unohana replied in her normal, gentle voice. "I assume you've heard of the Hueco Mundo invasion?"
"Urahara told me all about it. But since the soul society no longer is in danger, I figured it's none of my business if you want to war some more."
"We figured you might feel that way." Unohana said. "But we're not asking you to do this out of charity."
"Look, I can't afford to fall behind even more in school. And if you guys want war, it's your problem." Ichigo said, now visibly annoyed.
"We would pay you to fight for us. As I said, no charity."
"Your money is useless in the world of the living, remember?" Ichigo countered.
"We do have a minor corporation in this world, which funds our operations here."
Unohana scribbled something on a piece of paper, and handed it to Ichigo.
"This is the amount of money we're offering. And with each hollow you slay for us, that number will grow."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. It was a lot of money. Definitely something that would help his economical future greatly.
"Sorry, but if I am absent from school any more, I'll be expelled."
"We have ways around that, you know." Unohana countered.
That was true. They did have some rather potent memory-warping tools, enough to keep him from getting expelled.
"What about learning?" He asked. "I do need to learn, and I need to pass my tests."
"We can do that too. 12th have developed some really useful learning devices."
"Aha!" Ichigo said, confident he had found the argument that would have the seiretei leave him alone. "I have hollow powers. You guys know that. You wouldn't want the big bad vizard to work for you, would you?" Ichigo smiled triumphantly.
"There was an investigation, and you were deemed as "not a threat", Ichigo." Unohana said, completely disarming his final argument.
"I guess I could work as a mercenary, then." he said. "Out of curiosity, what if you had thought I was a threat?"
"The 2n division would have eliminated you" said Unohana, still smiling. "We'll pick you up tomorrow at noon."

And with that, she disappeared into a gateway back to the soul society.
"Well" Ichigo thought, "at least this time I'll be making money."

(A/N: Ichigo is recruited the day after Byakuyas failure. Byakuya receives judgement three days after his failure. Continuity is a bitch)

As Byakuya left the Soutaicho's office building, he struggled to find some sort of emotion to apply to this odd, appalling situation. Perhaps he ought to feel angry? Or sad? Depressed? But right now, when his exalted position as captain and nobleman only had been taken away minutes ago, he felt only empty.
He also felt he needed to do something, or his head would explode.
He no longer wore the kenseikan, or his precious scarf. He did not wear his captain's haori- it had been left with the soutaicho- and he found that without them, he felt... naked.

Somehow, his feet brought him to the sixth division. It was the one familiar thing to him right now. He might have been stripped of his rank, but he was still a member of the 6th. Amidst the turmoil inside his head, at least this was reassuring.
As he walked, he found that he had no idea what to do. He spotted a new, unseated shinigami passing by.

"You there." Byakuya addressed the shinigami.
"T-taicho" the recruit stuttered, awed by his presence.
"If you had found out that you had been fired and everything you ever fought for had been taken away, what would you do?" Byakuya asked, still incapable of thinking up anything of his own.
"Y-you're not firing me, are you, sir?" the recruit replied nervously.
"No. I do not have that kind of authority, anyway. Now please answer my question."
"I guess I'd go out fer a drink." the recruit said.
Alcohol. Yes. That seemed like a simple, short term solution. Byakuya had never indulged in sake or the likes of it so far, and he had never been drunk, but now seemed a good time.

"Where's the closest bar?" he asked.
"Umm, just down street. Why, taicho, are you all right?"
Not paying the unseated shinigami any more attention, Byakuya turned towards the indicated direction.

The bar didn't really look the way he imagined it would. It was clean, and the people inside seemed sober, for the most part. Of course, as a noble, he could never have gone to a bar, associating with commoners would have been below his dignity.
But things were different now. Walking up to the barkeep, Byakuya said:
"You serve sake here, right?"
The bartender, obviously not recognizing him, said: "Ain't you a smart one. What was your first clue?"
"Just give me ten bottles of sake, to start with. And keep them coming."
The bartenders surly look lightened significantly when Byakuya showed him his wallet, thick with money, and soon he sat at a table with all the sake he could drink before him. And thus, Byakuya started his first drinking binge.

Ichigo was in a good mood. After two days of intense fighting, he, Renji, and the 6th division had retaken the third battle position. They had entrenched themselves, and thanks to his ban kai, any hollow army within his range had been destroyed. And because of his hard work, he had been given a day off after two days, a day which he meant to spend with Rukia, who just had gotten out of the 4th division. Personally, Ichigo suspected that his free time had as much to do with his hollow's mask as his fighting power, since the 6th division members didn't seem too happy about being bossed around by a shingami-hollow hybrid.
Nevertheless, free time was good, and he was going to make the most of it.
As he and Rukia passed the 6th divisions local sake-and-sushi bar, Ichigo heard a loud, slurring voice. A somewhat familiar voice. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn it was Byakuyas voice. He told Rukia as much.

"Idiot." Rukia said, elbowing him in the gut. "Nii-sama would never set foot in such a lowly establishment!"
"Still, it sounds a lot like him..." Ichigo said, stepping into the bar.

And lo, it WAS Byakuya. A very drunk Byakuya, too. There were plenty of empty bottles around him, and several more still not drunk.
A bystander noticing Ichigos expression would have been amused. Ichigos jaw had practically dropped to the floor, and his eyes were the size of plates.
But that same bystander would have been less amused by Rukias expression. Her face was a mixture of disbelief and horror. The both of them would probably have backed out of the bar and pretended they didn't see him (or at least Ichigo would, set as he was to enjoy his day off) but Byakuya turned and noticed them before they could.

"Well, if it ain't Isshigo an' Rukia" Byakuya slurred. "Have a seat, will ya?"
"N-nii-sama" Rukia stuttered. "What's wrong?"
"Ain't ´nii-sama´ anymore. Ain't even noble."
"What are you talking about?" Ichigo said.
"Tole ya. Ain't noble annemore. So I decided ta have a drink."
"Or a hundred." Ichigo noted. "What's this all about, anyway?"
"Nii-sama lost his battle station because of me." Rukia almost whispered. "And now he's been cast out. It's all my fault."
"Hey!" Byakuya said angrily. "Ain't sorry I did it. T'was my choice, see. But ya can't
call me nii-sama anemore. Wouldn't be right."
"You're still my brother, aren't you?" Rukia asked. She looked like she was about to cry.
Catching on to the violent gestures Ichigo was making behind Rukias back, he answered.
"O' course I am yer brother. But now, I have ta call ya ´Nee-sama´. Heh. Hehehe."
Byakuya chuckled, for some reason amused by the fact that Rukia was above him in status.
"Well, here goes my day off, I just know it." Ichigo thought.
"Alright, let's get you out of here. We can't leave you here, right Rukia?"
"Yes." Rukia said meekly.
And with that, Ichigo flung Byakuya over his shoulder and walked towards the 6th divisions quarters.

When Byakuya woke up, the first thing he noticed was the pain. He had been cut, stabbed, slashed and almost killed many times, but none of that could have prepared him fot this. His head felt as if someone had continuously bashed it with a sledhehammer, and his mouth tasted like vomit, alcohol and gall. He just wanted to die.
When he had gathered his wits, he realized that he must be suffering from a hangover. He had had headaches before, but this was a thousand times worse.
Sometime later, he inspected his surroundings. This had to be the 4th division, he recognized the room. To his left, he saw a small table with a glass of water, some sort of pill and a note, which said: "When you wake up, take this, or suffer like you've never suffered before. Without hesitation, he took the pill. Anything was better than this.

"He WHAT?" Ichigo said.
"Apparently, nii-sama has been fired and cast out at the same day." Rukia said.
"What a load of bull."
"It's terrible."
"Well, isn't it going overboard, just firing him like that? I'm going to look into this."
And with that, Ichigos day off was completely ruined.

Please read and review. It is appreciated.