Operation: Big Brother Ch 7

A/N: This chapter turns more serious toward the end as we approach the climax of the story. But there are still a few warm and fuzzy moments. :)

And don't worry, we'll be back to humor and fluff by the next and final chapter.

(Originally posted 8/2/2014.)

XxXxXxX

Sousuke didn't return to Seireitei the next day.

Ichigo was torn between being worried about him and angry. It didn't help that he had passed an extremely uncomfortable night since he had let the three youngest of the village children sleep on his bed and use his blankets while he crawled up on the floor.

Then in the morning, he had to get them all fed breakfast, and that meant arguing with the cafeteria staff who maintained that non-students were not eligible to eat in the dorm dining halls.

"If your name is not on this list," insisted the woman at the cafeteria entrance, tapping a sheet of paper and sneering at the ragged group of children huddled behind Ichigo, "then you are not allowed to eat the food provided by the Shinigami Academy." She crossed her arms. "Period."

Ichigo sighed. Bureaucracy, it seemed, knew no temporal boundaries.

Finally, he got everyone fed and was leading them across the street to take a turn in the bathroom when Shinji happened by, spotted them and burst out laughing.

"Eh, it's Strawberry Duck and his little ducklings! Ya even got the orange beak!" he crowed, gesturing at Ichigo's spiky hair and the line of little children.

"Shut up, Shinji!" Ichigo said. "By the way, do you know which division is responsible for district 78 in the Rukongai?"

"Sure! It's the sixth." Shinji gave him a toothy grin. "An' right over there is sixth division lieutenant Kuchiki Ginrei." He pointed. "Biggest stick in the mud north of the South Pole."

Ichigo followed his finger. A tall, elegant man very close in appearance to Kuchiki Byakuya, right down to the haughty facial expression and fancy kenseikan, was promenading down the street.

"Wait right here," he told the kids. He sprinted to intercept the officer.

"Ginrei!" he called. "Hey Ginrei!" The man turned, every bit as shocked and offended at being addressed by his first name as Byakuya always was, with the same understated, elegant air of being affronted. Ichigo slid to a stop in the gravel directly in front of him.

"Boy, am I glad to see you. I understand the sixth division is in charge of patrolling Inuzuri?"

"Indeed, and why is that any of your concern?" Ginrei looked down his aristocratic nose at Ichigo.

Ichigo grinned. "I happened to be talking to Yachiru the other day, and she said the Shinigami Women's Association was getting ready to rebuild their swimming pool."

Ginrei paled. "No. Not that again."

"Well, I might be able to redirect her toward the fifth division," Ichigo offered, "if a certain favor could be done for me…"

"Anything. Anything," begged Ginrei, shuddering.

XxXxXxX

Ichigo hurried back to the kids, a satisfied grin on his face. He had gotten Ginrei, however reluctantly, to agree to increase the patrols in Inuzuri and to promise to send a captain or lieutenant to supervise it personally. He hadn't even had to mention the Seaweed Ambassador. Congratulating himself on a job well done, he hurried the kids to the bathroom.

Finally, they were able to start the journey back. This time it went faster. He borrowed a horse cart, hitched himself to it, and flash-stepped all the way back to their home village.

The entire time, he couldn't stop worrying about Sousuke. When he got back to Seireitei around lunchtime, he found out that Sousuke hadn't shown up for any of the morning activities, nor had he signed in for breakfast or lunch.

No one knew where he could have gone. Nor did anyone really care. The boy was a loner, despite all Ichigo's efforts, and he really had no friends or even acquaintances besides Ichigo. As Ichigo rushed from building to building trying to figure out where Sousuke might be, he spotted a familiar figure.

"Kurotsuchi Mayuri!" cried Ichigo.

"Yes? Who calls my name?" asked the man, slinking closer.

"Hey, you're just the brilliant scientist I've been looking for!" declared Ichigo. He eyed the young man. He appeared somewhat human, unlike his future self, although there was still that deranged, vacant expression in his eyes. Odd black bands circled his eyes and what looked like headsets covered his ears. "I bet you have surveillance equipment all over Soul Society, am I right?"

Mayuri started. "And what if I do?"

"I've been sent on a school project from the Shinigami Academy, to detect and track all the students," said Ichigo. "You know how to do that, don't you?"

Mayuri's eyes glittered. He muttered to himself, "At last! Someone who truly realizes that I am ahead of my time! Yes, it can be done with machines. Last month, I invented this machine called a computer, that runs programs called software, and just last weekend I created the iPad."

"Yes, yes!" Ichigo said, encouragingly. "I bet you've also invented face-recognition software."

"Why yes, how did you know?" mumbled Mayuri.

"Listen," said Ichigo, "I have a job that can only be done by an incredible genius."

Two hours later, Ichigo was still frustrated. Although he had seen far too much of the captain-commander clipping his nose hairs in his bathroom — and he really needed brain bleach after viewing two weeks of the nocturnal activities in Shunsui's bedroom — for some reason, Sousuke hadn't appeared anywhere on Mayuri's equipment.

Leaving the mad scientist cackling to himself in his tiny garret, Ichigo returned to his search. Time to go back to the old-fashioned method: running around and asking people. He was truly flabbergasted by the degree to which Sousuke was isolated. No wonder he turned evil. It must have been a pretty lonely life.

Ichigo frowned. He was determined to change things this time. Not only for all of Soul Society and his friends, but also — especially — because of Sousuke himself. He remembered the emotions he had felt in Aizen's sword during that battle. Not only loneliness, but also a weary and bitter sorrow. A long-time, resigned sadness. The sadness of someone who had long ago given up.

During the few months he had been hanging out with Sousuke, the sadness had faded a little. It was almost as though sparks of hope had been lit inside Sousuke's dark soul, that he had started to believe there might be a chance of moments of happiness and companionship, that the world was not entirely a black and evil place, that there might be room for goodness now and then.

Ichigo scowled to himself. He would just have to stick very close and keep Sousuke from doing nutso things like he had seen him doing last night. He shook his head. Sousuke needed him, that was all. And he would be there for him.

After crisscrossing the entire Academy and several large parts of the city, Ichigo was catching his breath by one of the fountains when he had a brain flash: he remembered Sousuke had a favorite spot in the hills just outside the walls of Seireitei. It was a secluded clearing in the eastern forest, overlooking a small but perfectly round lake. Sousuke loved to sit on a natural ledge, a grassy nook shaded by trees just above the lake. The spot was private but still open.

That must be where he was. Shaking his head at his own obtuseness, Ichigo flash-stepped away, and soon found himself on a footpath leading into the forest.

It was an early spring day, fresh and cool, and pale green leaves dusted the long branches of the trees under a moist, overcast but bright sky. Tiny white flowers poked out from mossy beds on either side of the path, and the air was alive with bird calls and squirrels chittering as they jumped from branch to branch. The juicy scent of growing things was so pleasant that Ichigo found himself smiling despite his worry. No wonder this was one of Sousuke's favorite places.

Soon he found the turnoff leading towards the lake, and increased his energy flow to maintain his pace along the uphill track, jumping over long gnarled roots and thick spiny bushes that had overgrown the trail. When he finally reached the narrow, upsloping meadow dotted with vibrant magenta flowers below the final ridge, he slowed his headlong progress to a normal walk so that he could enjoy the setting. An erratic breeze ruffled his hair, and the aromas from a multitude of plants tickled his nose. He took a deep breath, fixing the pleasant scene in his memory before he moved on. He clambered over the ridge and saw the lake spread before him, smooth and silver like a mirror in the calm air.

He reached out with his senses, trying to see if he could detect Sousuke's reiatsu ahead, but felt nothing. Still, he was convinced he was going in the right direction.

He turned sharply to his left and scrambled up the steep hillside, grabbing hold of tree roots and scrabbling fast over the pebbled ground to keep from sliding backwards.

At last he reached level ground, clambered over a final rocky ledge, and there, on a grassy outcropping overlooking the lake, was Sousuke, looking very young and small as he sat at the edge of the overhang, hugging his knees to his chest, the brisk wind tugging at his messy brown hair.

He was gazing out over the silver lake, and Ichigo could see his profile dark against the grey sky. He had removed his glasses.

Ichigo released a little of his reiatsu to give him warning, and then walked over the long grass to his friend. He settled himself beside him. "Hey."

Sousuke glanced up at him, brown eyes bare without his glasses. His eyes looked a little red and very bright. "Ichigo."

There was silence between the two of them for a few minutes. Ichigo scanned the lake. There was something about the smooth expanse of water that was exceptionally peaceful. He could feel his muscles relaxing and his heart rate slowing.

Sousuke said softly, "Have you come to tell me you can't be my friend anymore, now that you know what I'm like?"

"Wha—" Ichigo began, then ran a hand through his hair. "No, of course not!" He hesitated. "No, I— I wanted to say I was sorry. I shouldn't have made those nasty comments last night."

Sousuke pulled a blade of grass from the turf and twisted it around his fingers. "It's fine."

"No, really," Ichigo insisted. "I admit that I've always had a tendency to think the worst of you, and it's just not fair."

Sousuke tilted his head and looked straight into Ichigo's eyes. "Yes, for some crazy reason you seem to think of me as a villain of some sort. I can't imagine why. And yet you still seem to want to be around me. That's what I don't understand."

Ichigo felt the old exasperation rising. Sousuke always seemed to be right for the wrong reasons. "Why won't you believe that I like you and feel responsible for you?" he demanded. "I never said you had to be perfect."

"If I'm not perfect, my enemies will find a weakness that they can exploit."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Not again. I thought we'd gone over this before."

Now Sousuke was amused. "Are you truly telling me that I should cease striving for perfection?" he asked. "Haven't I seen you relentlessly striving to become stronger?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said. "That's because I have people I need to protect." He turned his mind away stubbornly from his sisters, his friends, all the people who were doomed to die in the future.

Sousuke eyed him. "It seems to me there really isn't anyone you need to protect here. All that was in the past."

Ichigo felt his ire rising again. It was the future, not the past, and Sousuke still didn't understand. "What about you?" he said pointedly. "Hasn't it occurred to you I want to protect you?"

Sousuke lay back on the grass and put a blade of grass between his lips. "Have I said that I need protecting?" he asked in a soft voice.

"You don't have to ask!" cried Ichigo. "I'm going to protect you even if you don't ask!"

Sousuke looked away and silence fell between them for a moment.

Then he rolled to one side and fixed Ichigo with his dark gaze. "I arranged it so the execution was stayed," he said softly.

"What?" asked Ichigo in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Sousuke gave him a gentle smile, shook his head, and rolled his eyes upward. "What does it take?" he asked the sky, mockingly. "I go through a tremendous amount of trouble to accomplish the task he asked of me, hours of casting detailed and precise illusions, all to do exactly what he wanted… and now he doesn't even remember what it was?" He rolled over. "No wonder I've never felt the need to obey a code of ethics."

Ichigo stared at him with his mouth open for a few moments until it finally hit him. "Takeo! You arranged that he wouldn't be executed after all!"

"Mm-hmm."

"Wow! That's great," Ichigo enthused. "That's awesome. Thank you." He grinned widely. One life saved, even if it was Takeo's worthless one, was a definite step forward. Were some of his ethics 'lessons' taking root after all? "Thank you very much. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome," Sousuke said with a small smile.

"How did it work? I mean, you said it was difficult…"

"Yes, I had to work with many people in the judiciary to get the paperwork undone and the new process in place. But I finally completed it yesterday."

A genuine smile blossomed on his face, and Ichigo found himself returning it. They grinned at each other like a pair of idiots before Ichigo said, "So come on now, didn't it feel good?"

Sousuke gave him a blank stare. "Feel good?"

"I mean, is that like the first unselfish thing you've ever done in your life?"

Sousuke's mouth drooped in a mock pout. "Hmmm. Not the first." He made a great show of counting on his fingers. "Maybe the third— or was it fourth?" Then he laughed, an open, honest laugh that was so different from his usual deadpan expression that Ichigo felt warm right through. "It was my pleasure," Sousuke continued, "to do something for my friend."

Ichigo's grin stretched his face wider than Shinji's.

Sousuke's expression darkened slightly. "The only problem is that I had to expose myself somewhat. I trust that will not cause any issues."

"Nah." Ichigo waved a hand. "There's still due process, even here, so you don't have to worry."

Sousuke rolled over and gave Ichigo a piercing stare. "There it is again."

"What?"

"'Even here.'" The boy's eyes narrowed. "Ichigo, there's something about you, some deep secret, that I haven't yet been able to penetrate."

Uh oh. "Uhh…" mumbled Ichigo, mind racing frantically.

"I've known it for a while," Sousuke continued. "You frequently allude to this place as though you do not belong here, as though you're from somewhere else." He tilted his head. "I believe you mean me no harm, but it's disturbing that you're hiding something important from me. Given our long friendship, don't you think it's time to let me know your secret?"

Ichigo studied the ripples on the lake for a long time before he firmed his lips. He was right, he realized. It wasn't fair to ask Sousuke to trust him when he himself had been lying all along.

He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up in spikes. "You're not going to believe me."

Sousuke examined him through narrowed eyes. "Try me."

Ichigo released a deep breath. "Okay." He paused. Where could he begin that didn't make him sound like a lunatic? "You see, uh…" He fell silent again.

"Are you from another universe?" Sousuke asked quietly.

Ichigo's eyes widened and he whipped his head around to stare at Sousuke. "What? What makes you think that?" How had he figured out that much? "No, no, of course not." Then he stopped. He was from the world of the living, did that count as another universe? He shook his head. "Not really," he hedged.

Sousuke's eyebrows lifted. "Now that is an intriguing answer," he purred. "Not of this universe, and yet partially of it?"

"Well, you see, uh…" He paused again and glared at Sousuke. "You have to promise that you won't laugh. I swear to you I'm telling the entire truth, no matter how unbelievable it sounds."

"Well, at this point I have ruled out all the logical conclusions, so I'm left with only the fantastical and illogical ones. Therefore I think you will find my mind to be quite open."

Ichigo sighed. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you figured out this much. But you're really not going to believe this." He took a deep breath, ran both hands through his hair, and turned to face Sousuke.

"I'm a time traveler. I came here from about two hundred fifty years in the future."

After that bombshell, Sousuke stared at him in silence for a while, eyes searching his face. "No," he said at last.

Ichigo gave him a lopsided grin. "See? I told you you wouldn't believe me."

Sousuke continued to stare at him, and Ichigo recognized the expression he wore when he was thinking furiously. He must be calculating this story against all the little things that Ichigo had done, the little errors he had made, all the things he had let slip.

"But time travel is impossible. It's merely fantasy. Have you been reading Urashima Tarō?"

"What's that?" Ichigo said, confused.

"The old legend of the fisherman who does a good deed and is 'rewarded' by being cast out of his time." He sneered faintly. "No good deed goes unpunished, after all."

"Never heard of it." Ichigo shrugged. "I don't really understand how time travel works myself, but we use magic that defies the laws of physics after all, almost as though we were in a manga, so is a temporal spell too hard to conceive of?"

Sousuke looked confused. "What's manga?" Then his gaze hardened. "Never mind. Let's not get distracted from the main question here. Do you have proof?"

Another shrug. "Not really, since I'm not even from Soul Society in the first place and I'm not that familiar with your history. But you've noticed it already. I know a lot of the shinigami personally in the future. That's why I call them by their first names."

Sousuke stared at him for a long moment, still calculating. "If one assumes that the impossible may be possible, then yes, it does fit with all of your behavior." His eyes narrowed again. "Unless you have been setting up an elaborate plot."

Ichigo scoffed. "Not my style," he said, and a smile flickered over Sousuke's face.

"True," he acknowledged. He eyed Ichigo more intently. "But even if it were possible," he continued, "why would you do it? Why would you come back to this time? Why…?" Realization dawned in his eyes. "You came back for me, didn't you?" Sousuke whispered. "To stop me…" Something began to burn in his eyes. "So I do accomplish some of the things I aspired to," he breathed, eyes glittering. "I knew no one could stop me… I am more powerful than anyone else in the Seireitei… that is, until you appeared."

Ichigo held up a hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't go jumping to conclusions. I didn't come back here to hurt you. But you're right that you make a lot of bad decisions in the future. Let me tell you, it doesn't go well for you." Nor for anybody else, he thought silently.

But there was a look of deep pain and betrayal now in Sousuke's eyes, something Ichigo had never seen there before. "You sought me out. That explains why you claimed to be my friend… you wanted something from me!"

"No!" Ichigo jumped to his feet. "I'm not 'claiming' to be your friend – I am your friend. My feelings for you are real!" he insisted.

"Then why lie to me for so long? Why keep coming after me, insisting that you feel friendship for me, when the entire time you're deceiving me?" Sousuke was on his feet too, his eyes burning.

"Would you have believed me if I told you from the beginning?" Ichigo demanded.

"Maybe." Sousuke glared. "You never gave me the opportunity! You told me a true friend was truthful. I told you the truth! I told you everything about me, all my secrets!" His eyes were furious and angry. "I opened up to you, made myself vulnerable, and for what? So you could use me for some unknown reason!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ichigo cried. "I've never wanted to use you! I only wanted to be your friend! I'm gonna explain everything. You have to listen—"

Just then there was the sound of heavy footfalls from the other side of the ledge, and about a dozen soldiers appeared over the rocks. They spotted the boys, and a cry went up. "There he is!" They drew their swords and began running.

Sousuke stared at Ichigo in shock. "That's the Omaeda family crest! They must've figured out that I was responsible for their son's imprisonment after I got him released." He narrowed his eyes. "I did it for you… did you betray me?"

"No!" gasped Ichigo, reaching for Zangetsu. "You have to believe me, Sousuke. I swear on everything that I've never betrayed you, that I've only wanted to protect you, that I see you as my friend."

The men were almost upon them. Sousuke stared at Ichigo for a long moment. "Believe you? Trust you? Ten men! Against one." His eyes narrowed. "Or is it eleven?"

Ichigo shook his head in disbelief. "For a genius, you sure can be an idiot sometimes. Of course I'll stand beside you. It's ten against two. I'll give my life for you, Sousuke! Haven't you figured that out yet?" He drew both his swords and took a defensive stance.

Then the men were upon them. Hacking and smashing, they drove straight for Sousuke. "Vengeance!" one shouted. To Ichigo, he yelled, "Stand clear, boy, and we'll spare your life. We're only after the traitor there."

Ichigo bared his teeth and shouted as he gave a great sweeping blow with his smaller sword and plunged it straight into the breast of one of his opponents, "You'll have to get through me to get to him!" To Sousuke, he panted, "Stand back-to-back! That way they can't get around us, and we can't lose."

Sousuke dispatched one of the soldiers with a single blow, calm now in the midst of battle. He glanced at Ichigo, eyes pensive. "Very well," he murmured. He parried a blow and thrust deeply past another opponent's guard. The man pivoted and took the blow in the side, then leaped backward, and two of them came at him at once.

Sousuke's figure blurred, and all at once he was somewhere else. The two men suddenly turned and began fighting against each other. One grunted and jumped forward, inside the other's defenses, and slashed at the other man's neck, beheading him. As he shouted triumphantly, Sousuke appeared behind him and plunged his sword into his back. Kyouka Suigetsu, Ichigo realized in a dim part of his mind, and then he had no time to think as three men attacked him at once.

"Getsuga Tenshou," shouted Ichigo and swung his huge black blade with tremendous force, smashing two of the men into oblivion and leaving a crater in the ground where they had been. When the dust cleared, he looked up only to see one of the enemy, face contorted, about to smash his sword directly on top of his head. He ducked and the blow sliced into his arm, slicing off a strip of his flesh and spurting blood into the air. Brilliant, burning pain ran down his arm in a scorching line.

He gasped, his left arm suddenly hanging limp, and managed to take a step backwards while swinging his sword at the man rushing him. He connected mostly by blind luck, and the man gasped, clutched at his chest, gurgled, and slid to the ground as Ichigo pulled his blade loose. Blood coated the blade and dripped over the man's robes.

The captain of the guard came forward and faced Ichigo. "Don't think I'll be so easy to defeat!" he shouted. "Although I have no official rank, I have achieved bankai. I will now smash you into oblivion for the honor of our family! Bankai!" he cried.

All around them, the sky began to darken as a dozen or more huge rotating blades spun overhead, serrated like rotary chainsaws.

Ichigo panted and took a few steps backwards. Sousuke was just behind him, having finished off another couple of soldiers. He looked at the sky in dismay. Sousuke surely didn't yet have bankai. It was up to Ichigo.

"Bankai!" he shouted. He would defend both of them. He swung his blade in a huge arc.

But just at that moment, swirling colors began to appear all around Ichigo. The world around him began to dim, and the spinning colors increased in speed. They seemed familiar somehow.

Ichigo's eyes widened. It was the pattern he had seen when he had traveled through time. Was he being pulled back to his own time? "NO!" he shouted in desperation. "Not now! NOT NOW!" he screamed.

Sousuke had pulled back and was staring at him in shock. He couldn't leave him alone to fight the Omaeda officer's bankai. Not after all he had done… Sousuke would be certain he had betrayed him. He couldn't go.

He grabbed onto a rock with one hand. "No!" he screamed again. "I'm staying HERE!"

But the whirling colors were increasing in intensity and velocity. The world around him was dimming, and he was losing his grip on the rock. His hand closed on emptiness, and the clash of blades and the men shouting faded, became faint and far away.

"NO!" he shouted again. "Sousuke! NO!"

But the spinning colors obscured everything around him. There was nothing but brilliant, amorphous light all around them, and the sickening disorientation he remembered from his earlier trip through time.

The last vestiges of the clearing around the lake dwindled to nothing, and the last thing he could see before it completely disappeared was the dismay in Sousuke's eyes.