There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

The Blade and Me

Toya closed the portal to Soul Society, almost nervously smoothing down his band T-shirt over faded black jeans. He'd had the outfit in his closet for a while, deciding against a shihakusho. Soul Society garb felt too stuffy and besides made him stick out too much. Going around to the front of the shoten, he stepped inside glancing over the usual haphazard selection of candy, renegade Shinigami items. A streak of black crossed the room catching his eye.

"Hey, you…," following the cat, he went along the back wall to the counter. Yoruichi sat beside the register, staring at him with unblinking yellow eyes. Extending his hand, he grasped her front left paw gently. "It's been a while."

In response, the cat sunk her claws into his fingertips. Toya retracted his hand quickly. "I was just being friendly. Geez!"

The cat turned her back on him with a human-like sniff. "You haven't changed, Amakusa. Still an undead punk with too much power in his hands."

Applying kaido to his minuscule cuts, he ignored her cat-smirk. "Alright, forget my niceties. I'm only here to see sensei." Who, Urahara has working for him. He managed not to roll his eyes at her feigned nonchalance. Yoruichi licked her paw and then spat to the side. "I get it, I get it. No need to be nasty about it."

"He's out back."

"Thanks." He went around the counter through the door into a long narrow hallway with several doorways. "I think." If he hadn't been so annoyed with her catitude, he would've asked her for the proper direction. Even then, he realized he didn't have to.

He could sense the man the way he had been taught. Felt the gathering collective of energies, the way reiryoku clung to his aura. Tessai stood tending to a few potted plants. Tall and broad, his dark hair was neatly braided into thin cornrows.

"Sensei."

"Toya."

He was almost surprised the man didn't greet him more exuberantly. "I got your message. I was injured during a mission so it took a while for me to get clearance to come and see you."

He moved closer, feeling almost inadequate. "So what's up?"

"I wanted to know your thoughts in forging a Kido sword to sever two halves of a soul." Tessai said hesitantly. Toya thought he had heard wrong. "A Kido sword….pardon, it's just that we covered this so many years ago. It was part of the exam, remember? My final was to forge and use a Kido sword in combat instead of my zanpakuto."

"The forging is similar but the results are different. For this I require an extra pair of hands. Your raw talent combined with my concentration."

Instead of answering directly, he plucked a leaf from the growing bush with needle-like points. "I have an apprentice now. I was watching her the way you watched me for my potential." He had liked what he had seen in Rukia. Her determination worked in her favor. She was small and not very strong, but didn't let it stop her. "I'm going to show her one day how to forge a kido sword to use alongside her zanpakuto." He tried to smile, playing with the sharp needles of the Rosemary plant. "Someday too, I want you to meet her."

"Toya...,"

He glanced over his shoulder. It was costing a lot for the man to speak. He could see the effort it took and thought if it was a favor, he would've preferred it being out in the open. Once he was back full time on the mission roster, he couldn't waltz out the door anytime he felt like it. Besides, he had a new obligation to Rukia.

Before Tessai could say more, someone stepped into sight. Toya's eyes narrowed. He had known someone else was there, watching them, he just hadn't been able to detect the man's presence until then. Because he was human or ...in a gigai. "I hope you don't mind, I got sick of your pandering. You weren't really going to say yes, were you?"

"Depends." He shrugged; keeping one eye on his former master's shame-filled face then a glance to the other man. It was sad to him about how terrible these people were. They all thought they knew him, imagining him as some sicko. If Rizu had gotten to know him better, maybe he would've asked her first instead of Rukia. But, then he had always had a soft spot for short girls.

"What do you want?"

"Your assistance."

Isshin gestured harmlessly, his hands open to show he meant no harm. "The very thing you want to create with your new lackey."

Toya restrained his glare. Apprentice was more accurate. "Why?"

"That," Isshin forced a smile. He hadn't played the bad guy in decades. He had known what it was like to be tough, to order people around. Asking something nicely of someone he knew better than to like at face value was different. "Is something I can't divulge, unless I'm going to kill you."

Toya almost laughed aloud, but he held back from the sound. Instead, he settled for indirect mockery out of courtesy to his sensei. "Kill me?" He had been a beast in his academy days. Ushoda, the current fucking commander of the corps knew it. Hell, everyone knew it. Sliced and diced by a bitch in bone armor and he hadn't died. This old man...this former Shinigami didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

"You might have your pretty words to back you up and think a threat's all that." He was sorry for the man. Very sorry. "But, please, if you're asking for help, do it nicely." Giving a backward hand wave, he dropped a silent casting of Akai Romon to the ground, letting the crimson pool envelop his feet. "Sorry. Oh, and does Rukia even know you're still alive?" Poor girl was beating herself up over the supposed loss of all the Kurosaki family members.

...

"So he's gone then."

"I'm sorry, sir." Tessai murmured, genuinely aggrieved. The bond between master and student remained, but he couldn't always control him. "He hasn't left Karakura Town." He could sense him walking down the street, the flow of his reiatsu was suppressed. Reiryoku gathered to him, drawn to him. He felt frustrated knowing they could achieve Kurosaki-san's goal.

"I could almost hate him," Isshin smiled ruefully. "But, he was right in a way."

Urahara leaned against the doorway, observing his dejection. Wild cards like Amakusa were difficult to handle unless they were played right. "I have something else up my sleeve that might convince him."

Isshin looked at him questioningly. "How?"

"If I might make an observational note, you aren't very subtle. I am." Urahara said simply. "Can you call him back without going to look for him, Tessai? Tell him it involves Rukia-san."

The large man shrugged, "I can, but he-"

"Do it, please. Meet me inside when he returns."

...

Toya heard him. Modified Heavenly Charged Sky Net. Tenteikura. He had stopped to look at a window display of early seasonal jackets. He particularly liked the black moto jacket with the silver zipper up to the collar.

"Come back to the shoten. There's something I want to show you."

He hummed under his breath. That guy, the former Squad Ten Taichou, he bet he wanted to show him the edge of his blade.

"This involves Kuchiki Rukia as well."

Rukia!?

What the hell did he mean by that? His apprentice was tucked away in Soul Society. Against his better judgment, he shunpo'd back to the shoten. He hadn't wanted to seem too predictable, but then again he couldn't ignore them if it really concerned Rukia.

Passing a glance over the building, he sensed them, three disparate spirit pressures. Yoruichi had gone outside to sun herself. The black cat had stretched her long furry body out in a patch of sunlight. Toya glanced past the drying pavement to the door.

"Alright, I'm here. Now what was it you wanted to show me?" He crossed his arms over his chest. Following their reiatsu trace, he had discovered them in a nondescript room. A sturdy table held a computer, a late 1994 model he would've hazarded a guess, and a few cardboard boxes stacked up against one wall. Urahara bent over the computer, his hand resting on the mouse. Shiba - that was his surname, a member of the fallen Shiba clan, stood to the side, scowling.

"There is a Hollow after Kuchiki Rukia ."

"So?" He remembered her face, haunted eyes. He had a niggling suspicion he knew what it was. The Arrancar...had to be. "As a hunter, we've been known to make our enemies. I can protect her if it comes to that." He glanced to Tessai who hadn't said a word. Almost recriminating in look, he should've remembered that was a vow a master made to their student. He had already protected her against that Hollow, once again wouldn't matter.

"Look at this." Urahara clicked on a page minimized at the bottom of the screen. The resized web page popped up showing a moving graph. Toya stepped closer, shaking his head slightly. He was aware he was looking at energy readouts.

"What am I looking for?"

"I can detect the five separate readouts that belong to the Sugeki." Urahara explained, gesturing to the thicker wavelengths varying from Kanzaki to Toya's own down to the girls. "But, there is another who keeps showing up. I thought it was an anomaly at first."

"When was this?"

"Three months ago."

Shit. He felt his stomach drop. It couldn't be the Arrancar. According to Rukia, he had still been in beddy bye mode back then. This was something else that was following them from the first hunt, casting his mind back to the missions prior, he made the generalization that it was likely when Rukia had joined them.

"I noticed it showed up again." Urahara pulled up a different schematic. "Again. And again." Even in Hueco Mundo, the distinct jagged pattern of energy followed them.

"It hovers at the closest point it can get to Soul Society, in the Dangai precipice world." Urahara showed the last screen from an hour before. Toya swallowed thickly. The scientist wasn't lying. It was there. "If you had used the Senkaimon to get here, you might've seen it."

"Who is it?" He backed away, anger rising. "You know otherwise you wouldn't have called me here." Someone's hand fell on his shoulder. Tessai's steadying presence was behind him.

Surprisingly it was Isshin who spoke.

"It's my son," he said roughly. "Or what's left of him."

His eyes widened as he absorbed this new implication.

"Hold on, don't even think of using Rukia as live bait!"

"We're not!" Shiba snapped at him. Toya shrugged off Tessai's hand. "Then, why all the secrecy?! The Hollow doesn't need a Kido sword! He just needs a fast decapitation." He knew his words hurt, they were cruel. He saw Shiba's face, pain and fury mingled together. "You can't save him. I'm sorry, but what's done is done."

"That is for me to decide." Shiba said finally. "What would you know about protecting people?" Toya's eyes narrowed into slits.

In the bitter silence that followed, the feed running on the precipice world updated itself. Urahara glanced at the screen, then focused on it concerned. "He's moving!"

...

The Shinigami was alone. In the constantly shifting world of the in-between realm, he walked whistling a song he had heard from the living world. The words were meaningless to the Hollow, but the refrain caught in his sensitive hearing stirring something inside. A memory perhaps that he had lost, the Hollow turned it over in his head, beyond the visceral hunger in the center of his being, another sensation that had nothing to do with Rukia, surfaced.

He remembered red headphones that clashed with his hair, math problems, sustenance on plates that he didn't have to hunt down. They were memories of a soul, one of many. They were his memories. The Hollow put aside examination of them for now, the ever present gnawing hunger demanded satisfaction.

In seconds, he was upon the Shinigami, tearing at tender flesh, seeking his vitals. The Shinigami screamed a high-pitched girlish sound, seeming to forget his focus, his training all to his own detriment. Hichigo burrowed his claws deep into the man's chest, tattered bits of flesh and cloth yielded, blood gushing wetly from the welter of the mortal wounds. At length, the Shinigami ceased his distracting thrashings, subsiding with a weak moan, the glaze of permanent darkness coming into his dark brown eyes.

Sated, but not full, Hichigo perched his ungainly body atop the slain, proceeding to carefully lick the blood off the ends of his curved claws. After feeding, he would've ordinarily have been contented to hide, sink into a light sleep until hunger stirred again or Rukia left Soul Society, but, he sensed a disturbance in the air. The onslaught of spirit pressures of varying size filled him something akin to dismay. He was not yet strong enough to take them all on, not now.

…

Toya unlocked the Senkaimon, coating his fingertips in reiryoku. Shiba, Urahara and Tessai followed him in. He ran a distance away, catching the fleeting scent of a Hollow. Glimpsing torn black cloth and blood, he found pieces of the Shinigami beside the rapidly disintegrating zanpakuto.

"We're too late," Toya said in disgust. "It retreated to Hueco Mundo."

Isshin hardened his heart against the crime his son had committed. Urahara had said there was a way. He had to believe it otherwise he would simply give into despair. "Help us."

"You see this," Toya gestured to the torn up bits of flesh and hair. "He did this!"

"Do you want him to do the same to Kuchiki?!"

There, he struck a nerve.

"He won't," Toya said coldly. "'Cause I'll kill him myself." Within seconds, Shiba had launched himself at him. Punching and kicking the younger man.

"Hey!" Urahara grappled with him while Tessai tried to pull Toya backward.

"That's enough!"

Toya stumbled back, palm burning. He had pushed a stunner into Shiba's gut. The older man doubled over gagging. Spittle dribbled down his busted lower lip.

"Dude, you," Toya pointed shakily, he had taken a hit to the right eye. The white around his pupil was filled with blood. "Need to lighten up."

Shiba pushed off Urahara who held his hands up as if to say no harm meant.

"Are you going to help us or not?" Urahara was the one who spoke up. Retaining a thread of normalcy, he did feel somewhat sorry for the slain Shinigami, even if the sight of blood did something to him.

"Che...," Toya dearly wanted to point out after the way he had been treated, you could kiss this Kido user sayonara.

But, he didn't say it, 'cause damned if they were right. He couldn't watch Rukia 24/7, he wasn't on the mission roster yet and with fucking nut Kurotsuchi wanting specimens, he couldn't guarantee Rukia would be safe. Who knew...she could hold up her own pretty decently according to Kanzaki, but she didn't quite run with the big boys either.

He was also damn proud of her for executing the Fisher. That little Kuchiki was something all right.

"Okay."

Relieved, the tension drained from Shiba's body. "Thank you."

"I'm not doing it for you or even 'cause I think it'll work. I'm doing it because of my sensei."

...Seireitei...

"Hey, stranger!" The words had come from a tall red-haired bear of a man who grinned down at her. Rukia swiveled on the bar stool, wondering how she had ever been taken at unawares. "Renji! Shouldn't you be on duty?"

"Nah, it's my lunch break." He waved to Takara who was busy serving customers at one of the umbrella-shaded tables. Taking a seat beside Rukia, he pulled the menu toward him, absently scanning the rice bowl specials.

"So, what's new with you?"

"Nothing much," she scoffed, sipping determinedly at her drink. She didn't miss his sloppy grin.

"I heard you're becoming quite the slayer of Hollows," he clapped her familiarly on the shoulder. Rukia thought of punching him lightly back, but grinned in reply. "I…," she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. How good it felt to open up to somebody like Rizu? How proud she felt during the meeting when Yamamoto commended them for slaying the Grand Fisher. Byakuya had almost met her gaze directly; she couldn't help but feel there was approval in his look.

And Haruka. Haruka had sent her another letter attached to a sparrow magicked into being with Kido. Toya had examined the sparrow and said she could learn to create messengers with ease using clay.

She hadn't been sure how to explain the letter or Haruka. She had thought Byakuya would've canceled the arrangement once he saw she had some use, but she was wrong.

"So word going around is you're engaged to be married." Renji said lightly breaking into her train of thought. She colored and looked away.

"Who's the lucky guy, do I know him?"

"No," Rukia faltered, trying to explain. "He was picked out for me," I don't know anything about him. "The clan wishes for an heir and it would help to strengthen my ties to them-" she stopped herself. She was starting to sound like Byakuya again.

"So it's not what you want," Renji probed gently, seemingly aware of her conflicted feelings.

"Yes. Well, no. I have an obligation," to the Sugeki. To cleanse Ichigo's soul. In all my life I've been searching for belonging and I found it. "They want me to give up everything and I…," she didn't know Haruka, but he didn't seem to be at all like her niisama. Realizing the need to change subjects, Rukia fished about for something to say. Takara came and took Renji's order of a teriyaki rice bowl, calling into the hidden kitchen area to the cook. As Rukia's attention drifted, she found herself remembering the first time she had eaten there, listening to their banter; white ribbon. She caught a glance of blue eyes pivot her way.

"I said yes to being trained in advanced Kido arts."

"That's great! Who with?"

"One of the Sugeki, Amakusa Toya. He's a former Kidoshu officer." She had to stop there, not knowing what else to say about him. She didn't know anything actually.

"I know the name," her friend whistled low. "You're in good hands. He was called a beast in his day, top marks, punk ass attitude to match."

A beast…? What was that supposed to mean?

Before she could question him further, a Squad member ran toward them, narrowly avoiding a collision with several of the tables.

"Abarai-Fukutaichou, we need your help with one of the training exercises!" The officer was young, obviously green around the ears and eager to please, she noted.

Renji stood up immediately, "oh, well, duty calls." He managed a faint grimace, "thanks, Rikichi for ruining my lunch with a pretty girl." Rukia aimed a kick at his rear end, but missed. She began to wonder if she was that predictable or if Renji had simply gotten better at dodging. Scary thought.

"Sorry, sir, but we need you." Rikichi bowed to her from the waist, his eyes taking on the same idolizing look when he turned back to his superior. Glancing once more apologetically to Rukia, he turned to leave.

"Oh, but your food!" Takara called after him. Renji jogged back to the counter, depositing a handful of spirit money beside his barely touched drink. "Can you send it over to Sixth Division? Please?"

She laughed, winking almost suggestively. "Sure thing! I'll make sure to send something extra for Kuchiki-Taichou - oh and tell him I said hello." The last part caught Rukia off guard. She hadn't imagined anyone so flippantly sending regards to her brother. He seemed…above eating with common Shinigami so how would he know Shimizu?

…Living World...

"This technique," Tessai said, voice hushed, "is forbidden because it requires the core of a zanpakuto."

They had been taken into one of the larger rooms beneath the shoten. Urahara had cleared it beforehand and inlaid spells to protect the outer structure in case the spell backfired. Toya appreciated the fine network of spells woven into the walls and ceiling. Gradually, turning to face his sensei, he felt Shiba watching him.

"Where did you get one?"

He looked down at the zanpakuto resting on the table. The spirit pressure enveloping it was familiar and not at the same time.

"It's mine." Shiba said. "I already told you, he's my son. I'm willing to make that sacrifice."

You're crazy...

Slowly, his gaze shifted to the older man. "Are you aware of what's going to happen to you if we use this sword?"

"I'm prepared." Shiba met his incredulous look evenly. "After all, you've cut someone's saketsu before. It's all the same to you."

"You're the monster, Amakusa! How could you ever claim to love anyone?!"

It wasn't, he wanted to rage. He hadn't had a choice then. He couldn't do it again like it was nothing. Who did they think he was? An animal with no sense of decency?! This was turning out to be a really shitty day.

"I don't have my zanpakuto."

"You can do it with that dagger you have attached to your belt." Shiba said amused. He had seen the Kido user without his zanpakuto, but armed with a spiritual blade forged from the very same glistening violet substance as his reiryoku. Amakusa never went anywhere without it, he was sure.

"If I do this," his hand reached for the rolled up lump of his shirt hem. "You'll be a regular konpaku in a gigai. You'll die if you try and corner that Hollow, any Hollow."

He was going to be useless. He needed Urahara and Tessai's help. But, if it succeeded, Ichigo might be human…a dead human…but it was worth it.

"Oh Force," Toya mumbled. "Can't believe I'm doing this." His hand almost shook, but he steadied it with resolve. He was damned if he was going to show fear or remorse. This guy was asking for it.

The short blade sliced through the spiritual bond between sword and master. Isshin felt pain beyond anything he had ever known. Crumpling down in spasms of agony, he felt the barest thread of his spiritual essence remaining. The cut hadn't been clean. Amakusa had deliberately stopped from cutting it completely.

"Why?" He asked the kido user, rising halfway, he stumbled to the door. It was getting harder to breathe with all the swirling energies thickening the atmosphere.

Toya had already resheathed his dagger, stepping to his sensei's side. "If all else fails, you'd better be damned sure," he formed the sacred ketsu-in, his long fingers manipulating themselves into complex gestures. "-you kill him before he touches Rukia."

Tessai mirrored his movements, channeling their reiryoku into a funnel. Isshin forced himself to nod before the volatile man flung an energy blast at him.

Toya heard the snap of the door closing, the sound slightly breaking his concentration. "Alright now, let's begin."

…Seireitei...

"Oh...I didn't order any dango." The sweet smelling buns looked sticky, piled high with glaze glistening on their poufy surfaces. "It's on the house," Takara offered, dusting her hands on a small towel suspended from her bone white obi.

"Thanks." She had eaten white rice and tender pork dowsed in generous plum sauce. The fragrant spice and pungent sweetness of the dish had surprised her with how good it was really was. She had watched as Shimizu had dispatched two sizable cartons of food with an errand boy she addressed as Kyou. She wanted to know how Shimizu knew her brother, but hesitated on probing too much.

"You mentioned Toya...right? He's training you?"

"Yeah." Rukia hesitated asking more. The girl had few customers after the lunch rush was over. "You knew him...before?"

"We went to school together. He was basically my sempai, well he and Hirako-Taichou. After Toya was taken out of the academy by the commander of the Kidoshu, we would've drifted apart."

"So he was taken out...why?"

"Oh, to give him special instruction in the spell arts. The commander of the Kidoshu personally trained him, which was a high honor in those days."

He must've shown a lot of promise when he was younger, why isn't he a seated Shinigami? Why did he leave the Kidoshu?

"You said you would've drifted apart. What happened?"

"You know how guys are in general." Takara said smiling awkwardly. "He was dating this girl who was a friend of mine. For a time he wanted to train her as well but the Kidoshu wouldn't allow it. So he resigned and tried to get in with Sixth Division." She sighed. "It was all so long ago; it's probably ancient history to you."

"No, this is interesting. He rarely talks about his past."

"Why would he?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," she gave an embarrassed smile. "You hardly know him and you're letting him train you. It's not like you know him at all."

I trust him..., I think. Renji seemed to have regard for his abilities. "What's it to you?" The words came out more hostile than she meant. Rukia watched the girl's blue eyes widen innocently. . .

"Why nothing...only I was going to give you a friendly warning. Watch your heart. With someone like him it can only end in misery. Toya is the kind of man that would just as likely stab you in the back as help you."

Rukia stuck her chin out. "Thanks. I'll bear that in mind." Things left unsaid hovered between them. Takara tried to smile, but the coldness remained in her eyes.

Uncomfortably aware of her scrutiny, Rukia paid her bill and left. Something about Shimizu had seemed off. She was pleasant to a point, except where it concerned Toya. But, Toya…she had seen his warm looks to the girl, remembered the tone of genuine sadness when he had talked about her. Why the bitterness from Takara? Unless he caused her to lose her Shinigami powers?

Rukia stopped in her tracks. The very thought horrified her. Shimizu was a regular konpaku, but once he had described her as having a beautiful shikai. She knew she shouldn't get into the records, but Shimizu had been right on one thing.

She was letting him train her and she didn't know a thing about him.

Sixth Division…she started moving in the direction where her brother's offices lay. Renji had gone to the training field and was still there judging by the agitation she picked up from his reiatsu; it seemed his headache had intensified with Byakuya's arrival. Rukia wasn't sure how long they were going to stay there, but she knew she had to hurry. Picking up pace, she shunpo'd to the records room.

…

Rukia gained access to the records room through a long hallway connecting the back of the building to other clerical offices. She moved through the tall shelves filled with scrolls without knowing exactly what she was looking for. Dust lay thick on the surfaces she touched, Rukia looked through one with a faint grimace. It detailed the tortures of a Shinigami accused of being a Quincy in disguise. She hadn't thought there was such a thing possible.

Shimizu had said Hirako was her sempai along with Toya, that put the record back a good hundred and twenty or more years…maybe? At random, she picked a year and went through the files from spring.

A name leapt out at her.

Shimizu.

Wrong one. This one was a Yuji Shimizu. The name was apparently very common among the lower seated officers. What about…returning to her search, she went through a cabinet of articles from the Shinigami Women's Association; why that would be there, she didn't know. When she had been sitting there with Renji, she thought she remembered a framed article about good eats from the magazine stationed above the cash register.

Yes!

Eagerly, she read the first few lines. The article was from thirty years ago.

"Shimizu-san celebrates twenty years of great food from her downtown location. Former Squad member and restaurant owner, Shimizu Takara granted us an interview…,"

She skipped over it. Hold it.

"…with Kuchiki-Taichou's blessing."

Toya had said she had connections to higher ups in Seireitei hence the reason she was allowed to stay in the Court of Pure Souls. Who knew it would be to her niisama?

"A member of the survey team - only survivor from the tragic incident which claimed the lives of her entire team."

She read the rest of the article finding nothing else except exuberance over the light fluffy dango which was somehow ironic to her. Undeterred, Rukia replaced the articles back into their haphazard stacks by year and moved back to the shelves. She knew what she was looking for now, a direct reference or report on the survey team who didn't return some fifty or sixty years back.

…

Beneath a report on Hollow sightings, she found a mission roll call that fit the dates she had compiled in her head. Rukia quickly compared it to the other she found dating months later. As she had thought the names were different.

Kitano Ryusei

Kazunomiya Mai

Ogata Ren

Shimizu Takara

Team Leader, Sumeragi Ilena

Ilena…what an unusual name. But, there was Shimizu on the last mission she would ever go on as a Shinigami.

Putting aside the scroll, Rukia looked through the remaining stack. Surely there had to be an official report on what happened. Biting her lip in frustration, she carelessly swept her hand across a different pile disturbing them. The scrolls bounced to the floor in a flurry of paper. Cursing under her breath, she dropped to pick them up.

It was then that she saw it. An attached paper to a different scroll describing the target. Somehow the papers had been misplaced, separated. The Hollow called itself Tier Halibel… they were granted permission to follow the Hollow into Hueco Mundo. They…

Kuchiki-Taichou authorized Amakusa Toya, unseated Shinigami to accompany the team based on his proficiency in the spell arts. He…

She found the official report mixed in with a scheduled training exercise.

: Survivor Takara Shimizu admitted into the infirmary of Fourth Division. Hakusui and Saketsu were compromised during the battle. Kitano, Ogata and Kazunomiya deceased. Company Funerals planned. Team Leader Sumeragi's status deceased, unusual death by decapitation noted. Unohana-Taichou reports the squad member has no recollection of the battle. Forthcoming inquiries are being made.

No mention of Toya.

Why?

She looked further, finding a slip of paper transferring Amakusa back to the Kidoshu under chief Ushoda's orders along with a psychological exam before he was returned to active combat.

Why…?

She couldn't understand what was between the lines.

What happened in Hueco Mundo, what went so terribly wrong? The only person she trusted to tell her the truth also wouldn't confide in her.

…

"Rukia…" The man's voice stopped her figuratively and literally in her tracks. Rukia pivoted gracefully on heel, bowing from the waist formally.

"Niisama."

It was mostly instinctive, she thought, to be almost servile. Straightening, she dared try and look him in the eye. "I trust you are well." No question. The man averted his gaze, his tone as bland as if he addressed the wall. "Why did you not attend the meeting at the compound when you were summoned?"

"I was…occupied." The words felt bitter on her tongue.

"The representatives from the Sakurazawa asked to see you."

Part of her wanted to feel ashamed for letting him down, another part, a much louder and stronger part of her refused to be paraded around like a captive animal. "If you please," she snapped. "Would you thank Haruka-san for the gifts, but I do not think it proper of me to accept them at this time."

Byakuya's regard passed over her, confusion momentarily displaced his customary indifference. "He has sent you items?"

"Yes, I…," suddenly it occurred to her that she had just given something away. Byakuya clearly hadn't known or approved it seemed of Haruka going out of his way to….what…treat her like someone important? His future wife? She had scarcely thought of the goings on with the clan, focusing only on the days she would spend perfecting her spell craft.

She felt almost selfish.

Then, Rukia shook the thought away. The one who was selfish was Byakuya. "I have obligations to others and you have them to the clan. Do what you will." Bowing, she quickly turned and walked away before her courage failed her.

…Living World...

Drained physically and mentally, Toya released his end of the shining rope of reiryoku. "How long is this going to take?" He was starved; the casting had taken more out of him than even the descorrer. He fingers cramped from maintaining their position for so long. Stretching them out, he flexed his joints, grimacing at the pain.

"A few days." Tessai looked worse. His dark blue shirt was soaked in sweat, his beard damp. Relaxing the slightest, he changed the seal to the distortion of space-time. "I was supposed to renew the barrier on our quarters today." Toya said, stretching his limbs.

Engetsu had fought them off, refusing their attempts to breach its basic shape. He supposed once the sword was separated from Shiba's consciousness it took on a mind of its own.

"I would suggest you have someone else do it. You'll need a full restoration of your reiryoku in order to perform any more high level spells tonight."

He hummed, finally trusting his legs to carry him to the door. "I'll have Kanzaki do it. He's good at Kido." If only Rukia was ready to maintain the barrier. He had heard that barrier spells cast by members of the nobility were stronger. In her case because of her adoption he wasn't sure if the same held true.

"Toya."

He stopped, his hand rested on the panel.

"You cut Isshin-san's saketsu wrong. If it was fully severed he wouldn't have been able to see spirits. You're not the bad person everyone thinks you are."

Why make that sacrifice if he couldn't see his dead son?

"Thank you."

Yeah, yeah. I'm not nice. No matter how you sugar coat it. I'm just…not a fucking dog either.

"I'll see you tomorrow." And the next day, and the day after that, he thought.

-TBC

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