"I can't feel my senses.

I just feel the cold.

All colors seem to fade away.

I can't reach my soul.

I would stop running

If I knew there was a chance.

It tears me apart to sacrifice it all.

But I'm forced to let go.

Tell me, I'm frozen, but what can I do?

Can't tell the reasons, I did it for you.

When lies turned into truth, I sacrificed for you.

You say that I'm frozen, but what can I do?"

- "Frozen" by Within Temptation

Chapter Six: Frozen People and Sacrifices for Others

I couldn't remember when I'd passed out, but I knew right away that it had happened when I woke up to find an unfamiliar wooden ceiling above me, shadowed and lit by some nearby lamplight. I was still in my Shinigami uniform, but mostly healed and bandaged underneath it. At least I wasn't dead.

At first I was worried that I had been taken by the Shinigami, but then I heard a soft padding sound beside me and I looked over to find a small black cat - Yoruichi, I realized in relief - walking up beside the cot where I'd been lain. How he'd gotten me here, I didn't know, but then Yoruichi might be more powerful than all of us put together. And he was a freaking cat.

"Looks like you're finally awake," he commented evenly, coming to sit beside me and eyeing me carefully. We seemed to be in a small wooden room that smelled so much of earth, we might actually be underground.

"Yoruichi. You're still okay. That's a relief," I commented, shifting uncomfortably. Yoruichi was the only one unfamiliar and well-hidden enough for me to have lost track of his reiatsu signature. But looking him over now, he seemed unharmed.

"Yes. Better than you, at any rate," he sighed.

"Thanks for saving me. If you did, I mean," I added. He had to have gotten there and taken me away before even other Shinigami officers could have, which was impressive enough in and of itself. Then again, he seemed as dedicated to this mission as we were, if for his own reasons.

Yoruichi snorted in dry amusement. "You should thank your own stubbornness," he pointed out, deadpan. "How you managed to make it so long with the kind of injuries you had, I have no idea." It was half an admonishment for recklessness, I could tell, but there was genuine respect behind it. Which actually made me feel kind of good, almost despite myself.

"Yeah, I got hit quite a few times, didn't I?" I dared to joke with cheerful sarcasm, and Yoruichi rolled his eyes. But the word "hit" had suddenly registered something in the back of my mind... like a bell going off...

Suddenly, I realized what it was, and I sat up so fast I cried out and doubled over in pain as the half-healed wound on my stomach opened up again. "What the hell are doing?!" Yoruichi barked worriedly, coming over to stand in my lap. "You should not be moving around right now!"

But there was too much going on and too little time for me to spend a day laying around and recovering. "Chad..." I gasped out, gritting my teeth, angry with myself for not remembering until now. "He's in danger; he's -"

Yoruichi loaded his paw with reiatsu and shoved it, lightning-fast, at my forehead. My whole head fell back onto the pillows, tingling. "Calm down," he said with steel. "Sado is fine. He is currently imprisoned, injured, and unconscious, but being kept alive and healed until the rest of us are rounded up. Inoue and Ishida have avoided confrontations rather nicely, only picking those they knew they could win. Therefore, they are barely injured at all. They are currently still hiding together somewhere out in the Seireitei; I could sense their reiatsu signatures when I went out to check a few minutes ago, but only because I have them memorized. They will be fine." He gave me a mild glare, as if to say 'and that's that.'

I contemplated for a brief moment the idea that he was lying to me for the sake of the mission, but then decided that didn't sound like Yoruichi. For all his sternness, he seemed genuinely concerned for us all and had an innate sense of respect for others.

Yoruichi turned his tail and began traipsing away into the shadows once more. "We are currently hidden in an underground barrier on the same side of the city as the Senzaikyuu. I doubt anyone will find us here." This just made another jump come into my stomach, because I remembered that Hanatarou and Ganjyuu were still trying to get into there (unless they had succeeded), but I tried to clamp down on it when Yoruichi added over his shoulder, "You need to rest for a while. A half-dead man won't be able to save anyone."

I thought he was leaving, but then he carried something out of the corner back to me. "By the way, half of your... possession, got smashed. It was under your clothes, and it saved your torso from being riven in half. Although, I have to admit, it is a rather unusual shield." His tone was tight and unreadable. In the flickering light, he was holding up a Hollow mask, one that fit the contours of my own face: broad forehead, tapering down to a narrower but strong chin, the cheekbones flaring out slightly at the edges. It had skeletally grinning, omnivoric teeth, and red painted plumes flaring out along one white side of its empty eye sockets.

Remembering the Hollow side I thought I'd defeated in Urahara's chamber, then the teeth about to eat me in my last dreams, then the mysterious spirit who wanted to control my body that I'd detected in my soul room... I went cold. Because it couldn't be. It just couldn't.

Even if it was, I didn't have time to deal with it right now.

"I was... wearing that?" I asked cautiously, staring at it. "Under my clothes as a shield?"

"You don't carry it with you?" Yoruichi sounded confused now.

"No... But, actually, Hanatarou mentioned something last time when I woke up from my healing in the sewers. Something about a mask being hidden under my clothes, even though I was sure I hadn't put one there. And its presence had saved me from Renji's most lethal attacks, too, he said," I remembered vaguely, frowning up at the ceiling in thought. "I wanted to keep it... You know, take a closer look at it in sunlight, maybe keep it as some sort of charm. I don't know what I was thinking. It just seemed like a cool idea. But Hanatarou - I don't know what it was, but that thing scared the shit out of him. He insisted I had to throw it away before we left the sewers again."

Looking sideways at the weirdly Hollow-like mask in the light, maybe I could see what he meant. It was still strange and curious, though. What...?

"... What did you do with it?" Yoruichi's voice was still tense and unreadable, but he was staring at me now.

"Well, I watched it suck away into the sewers, and figured it was gone," I told him, shrugging. Then I frowned. "Or at least, I thought I had... I was so sure I had thrown it away... Huh..." I muttered to myself. Even I wasn't usually that distracted or forgetful of the details.

I reached over to pick it up - it felt like thin stone in my hand - before Yoruichi snatched it away from me again. "On second thought," he said quickly, "I'll take it for safekeeping this time."

"Huh? Why?" I gazed at him, nonplussed and a little irritated. "I kind of wanted to keep it." And figure out what it was on my own later. Where would he put it, anyway?

Ki suddenly fluctuated throughout the room and Yoruichi gave me a deadly grave look.
"I'm keeping it. End of discussion."

"... Okay..." I said in a quiet, soothing sort of voice, my eyebrows in danger of disappearing into my hairline. "I have an idea. Why don't you keep it? Jesus," I muttered to myself as he whisked it away, my eyes rolling and a slight shiver going down my spine. "All you had to do was say you wanted it instead.

"Hey, come to think of it," I added curiously to the ceiling, as I thought about this and he came back toward me stoically. "You really are pretty strong, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Yoruichi raised an eyebrow idly, like he hadn't just spontaneously scared the shit out of me with a bunch of ki as a foot-tall cat.

"Well... you've hidden from everyone all this time without getting into any fights at all. You could blast off Kuukaku's cannon. You could sense when I truly needed your help and find me. You could carry me all the way here with your form the size it is, and then heal me pretty well. I mean, I was just thinking..." I trailed off, shrugging and eyeing him inquisitively.

"Oh, that last one was no problem once I returned to my true form," Yoruichi dismissed.

"Oh, I se - Hey, wait, wait a minute, what?!" I shot my head over to stare at him, eyeing him up and down narrowly. "Your... true form?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah." Yoruichi suddenly, surprisingly, gave a very cat-like grin. "Come to think of it, I've never shown you that before, have I? Well, I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore; you'd have gotten to know me sooner or later. Behold..." There was a sharp spark of reiatsu, and then his form was changing and morphing, getting taller before my widened eyes, "... my true form!"

And standing there before me was... Holy shit, I'd been calling her a he.

Yoruichi wasn't a cat. He wasn't even male.

She was a woman, a very human woman, tall and lithe-formed and mocha-skinned, with a healthy amount of slim musculature, perfectly formed and moderately sized breasts and hips, dark rose colored nipples, curled dark pubic hair, a long glossy head of berry black hair, and fine pointed features and serious golden eyes just like her cat form's. Her neck was long and her head was elegant and angular. She seemed perfectly matter of fact and confident in her own skin, as evidenced by the fact that she looked utterly unembarrassed to be stark naked in front of me. Me, who had never... ever... seen a girl I wasn't related to naked before in my life.

I realized I was staring. Completely and utterly gaping. And that I was getting uncomfortably tight and warm down there... and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. It was like the part of my brain that thought was completely disconnected from the part that did... other stuff.

I really wanted to tell her to put some clothes on before my inherent need to jerk off reared its head. Now if only I could remember how to speak.

Yoruichi - whose voice was still deep, but very much female, in her human form - snickered over my hot-faced, slackened speechlessness for a while, muttering that she loved turning back into a human in front of new people, it was great. Then she informed me that I wasn't breathing. Then she chatted idly about how, before her exile with Urahara and Tessai, she used to be a Shinigami Captain, Shihouin Yoruichi. She even crossed her arms over her chest a couple of times, making her boobs... oh wow. Pulsating.

ShutuppenisIhateyou, ShutuppenisIhateyou, ShutuppenisIhateyou...

When Yoruichi finally sat down next to me like a cat (damn, were boobs always that... bouncy?) and said casually that she was going to explain to me how she got me down here now, I finally remembered how to speak out of sheer necessity. "Holy shit, Yoruichi, put some clothes on!" I finally gasped out, staring, in a voice that couldn't decide whether it was really high or really low.

ShutuppenisIhateyou, ShutuppenisIhateyou, ShutuppenisIhateyou...

Yoruichi blinked, and looked down. "Oh, yeah," she said. "Sorry about that. It's been so long, I forgot."

... Oh. My. God.

A few minutes later, I was fully dressed and standing with my back to her and my arms crossed, blushing like a maniac and embarrassed beyond belief to be doing it. I was such a fucking virgin. Goddamnit. Yoruichi had gone to a bag I hadn't noticed in the corner and was dressing in a turtleneck and a pair of tight pants, with her hair up in a scrunchy. She at least knew modern dress, it seemed. I tried to focus on that, and not... well, that didn't work...

"You know," Yoruichi suddenly piped up thoughtfully, still sounding like she was smirking quietly, "you're acting surprisingly innocent about this. Was that your first time seeing a woman naked?"

My shoulders tensed and my face got, impossibly, even darker. Damnit. I scowled. "... Shut up," I muttered in a mumble, and I sounded like I was about eight, but it was the best I could manage at the moment.

Yoruichi gasped. "Ooh, really? You want to see it again?!" she said gleefully, grinning, but in a way that meant she knew she was drawing blood. "I mean, who knows, Ichigo, you may never see another woman so fine and delicate as I am!"

I choked and made a strangled sort of noise at the offer. My face felt like it was on fire. "Ju - p - c - Stop worrying about my future and keep dressing!" I yelled out, but too late, I'd looked around, and shit she hadn't put her pants on yet and her legs were really nice too and she was actually very pretty and damnit I was never going to be able to look at Yoruichi the same way again!

Yoruichi laughed. "Has anyone ever told me that you have no sense of humor? That you're really a rather boring man?" she drawled mischievously, eyeing me in reserved amusement.

"N-no! No, they haven't!" I snapped indignantly on reflex, and then when Yoruichi started laughing teasingly again, I added exasperatedly, beyond even embarrassment now, "Anyway, put some pants on! Why aren't you wearing anything on your lower half anyway?!"

My lower half said it was because she was nice. My upper half told my lower half to shut the hell up.

Once she had finished dressing - including a light colored karate wrap-around jacket I hadn't been expecting - and my explosive, embarrassed shouts had stopped erupting spontaneously around the room, she finished easily, smirking, "Anyway, I used this to transport you here." She held up some piece of rope, tossed it into a corner of the room, and that was it. End of story.

I was really tempted to yell at her, but I was pretty sure Yoruichi was actually a lot stronger than me.

"By the way, normally screaming that loud would cause your wound to open up. So try to be careful in the future." She smirked.

I was very proud of myself for managing to look... relatively... calm.

In all seriousness, Yoruichi ended up showing me a gold-inlaid fan-like device with a clawed foot on one end. She said she'd tied me to her and then used it to fly us over here. "So," I summarized curiously at the end, "when you put reiatsu into this thing, it'll fly you wherever as long as you aim it where you want to go?"

"That's right." She looked elegant and mildly proud, much more expressive than she had been as a cat. "It's a very unique Soul Society artifact; you should feel honored that you'll be able to use it later."

"If it's so unique, that means you were special enough to get it, right?" She paused, stilling, her expression suddenly blank. It was clear she hadn't expected me to suddenly connect the dots. "I mean, it makes sense. You have all this reiatsu power, you can shapeshift into a cat, you can cure wounds, the Shibas liked and had a personal relationship with you, and you have something like this..." I looked up from my thinking out loud, my eyes searching. Yoruichi looked almost - nervous. "Yoruichi," I asked urgently, "who are you?"

Surely even an ordinary (ex) Captain wasn't this... well... privileged? And it had struck me, then: that I knew more about my enemies or the Shibas than I did about the people who were funding this little trip in the first place.

Yoruichi opened her mouth uncertainly to speak, but just then a huge reiatsu and a quietly deadly ki hit us from nearby. As we both froze and sensed on instinct, I realized it wasn't even directly above us - it was just that big.

And only a second later, I realized why it seemed so familiar.

"It's him!" I gasped, hissing, my eyes narrowing. It was that asshole Byakuya - Rukia's brother.

"It's coming from the direction of the Senzaikyuu," Yoruichi realized in grave, fiery dread, but I had already known that - and realized what must be happening. He must have sensed Ganjyuu and Hanatarou trying to break in and save Rukia.

Which meant I had to get there right now.

I shot to my feet, grabbing Zangetsu, jumping into my sandals next to the bed, and holding the fan-device (somewhat awkwardly) before me. "Ichigo, wait, where do you think you're going?!" Yoruichi barked worriedly, looking over at me in alarm.

"Hanatarou and Ganjyuu were going to the Senzaikyuu!" I shot back, whirling around to her. "If I don't go, who the hell would save them?!"

Yoruichi opened her mouth and then paused, staring at me in concern, but I was already moving. I shot my reiatsu into the fan and it whirled its parchment-like wing outward, lengthening and strengthening before my eyes. "Fly!" I commanded urgently, not knowing what else to do, and it wrapped around my arm with its end and shot me forward. The wooden door flew open before me, revealing us to be underneath the cliff of some sort of hill on the country-like outskirts of the Seiretei, and I forced myself to let my feet leave the ground. We shot forward, out like a cannon, and up into the air. As I flew straight toward cloudy blue skies above, the wind whipping my face, I heard Yoruichi run to the doorway and call after me angrily, jolted from her shock. But it was too late.

I straightened out once I was high above the Seireitei with little difficulty, learning quickly to cruise along with the device on the wind, everything quiet and everything below me surreally small. I liked this, but the thought barely registered with me; there were more important things to worry about right now. The white tower of the Senzaikyuu was easy to pick out. I flew down toward it, toward distant black figures I could see standing across from each other on the long walkway that connected the main tower of the Senzaikyuu to other buildings. One had long black hair held back in a white sort of head piece, with black robes and a white cloak. Two were standing tensely across from him. Behind them, in front of an open doorway, was - I realized with a jump in the pit of my stomach - a smaller figure, dressed in white with a dark head of hair.

... Rukia.

I picked up speed and flew faster and faster down toward the walkway below.

As I dropped, dropped, dropped, one form - Ganjyuu, I realized - ran forward and was attacked with swift ease by Byakuya. He was pushed back and then Byakuya was moving, with all of his reiatsu presence, in front of a shaking Hanatarou and a suddenly gasping and crouched Rukia. I could see them clearer now. I had to get there in time. My speed picked up as much as I thought it could. Ganjyuu had yelled something to distract Byakuya, the man turned back to look at him and then there was a sharp charge of reiatsu from him - as if from a zanpakutoh release. I saw Byakuya's blade disappear into a thousand razor-sharp pink sakura petals, saw them speed lightning-fast toward Ganjyuu, Ganjyuu collapsed bloodily as they cut through and past him, Byakuya turned back toward Rukia and Hanatarou, and then another Captain - a male with long white hair - appeared abruptly in a spurt of speed behind Byakuya to stop him from attacking and started holding him back, talking with him urgently. Byakuya's reiatsu was still furious. All this in a moment.

So many thoughts ran through my mind. Shit, how badly hurt is Ganjyuu? Why did the other Captain stop Kuchiki Byakuya? Is he not supposed to be here? What the hell is his problem? Why is he such a dick?

But suddenly, they all froze abruptly and started looking around wildly, staring skyward. I realized my angry reiatsu had hit them before I had. I got in close enough to see them in detail. The thin wan Captain with long white hair looked shocked, Byakuya looked intense and for once openly surprised, Hanatarou was staring at me in shock and awe, and beside him was...

Rukia.

Her eyes turned emotional and glistening, openly soft in a way they hadn't been a few months ago, huge and sorrowful and deeply dark in a too-thin face - with her long dark hair flying around her expression, ridiculously surprised at the fact that I'd come to save her, she was beautiful. She caught my eye, and then I flew down fiercely beside her tiny, white-robed form. I looked up and stood straight from my kneel. She just stared and stared. "... Ichigo...?" she whispered, holding her tiny hands clasped wringingly before her. She seemed fragile and fragmented, and she'd lost a lot of weight she really couldn't afford to.

Which totally figured considering she came from the crazy kind of place where food wasn't a normality, but that was beside the point.

I remembered, then, that she felt guilty for getting me into this in the first place. That she'd been locked up in solitary for at least a little while. That she probably was full of guilt and self-loathing and swiftly shifting perceptions. And for a moment, I was irrationally angry at her for even daring to think like that and unsure what to do with this all at once.

So I took a deep breath, swallowed, and walked right by her for a moment, forcing myself to ignore my own guilt and uncertainty, and the way she just turned around, her big eyes following me. This wasn't the Rukia I knew at all. "Hanatarou," I said down to him, dealing with this first. He was staring up at me with tears in his eyes, a mix of gratefulness and overwhelmed terror within them. "Are you guys alright? I'm sorry, I didn't even think about this when telling you two to go on ahead. What happened to Ganjyuu?" I was murmuring, carefully stoic, ignoring the three pairs of eyes on me: two blank and cautious far down the walkway, standing back.

"Ichigo," he swallowed shakenly, "w-we got past the guards and made it to this door. I used a key to get in; I-I snuck out and stole it last time we were in the sewers while you two were asleep because I felt so guilty about the fact that I'd been so little use in this. Ganjyuu started telling me that wasn't true and trying to cheer me up - he was the one who really kept us going after you left, talking about how you'd have wanted us to keep on going - but when the door opened and he saw Rukia, he..." Hanatarou swallowed and whispered, "Ichigo, he freaked out. He started talking about how Rukia was the one who showed up with the dead, stabbed body of his brother after he was no longer any use to the corps, he said Rukia had admitted to killing his brother all those years ago. I had to hold him back from attacking her. And Rukia... she just looked away sorrowfully and said that if she deserved to die by anyone, it was him. She wouldn't do anything; she couldn't even look him in the eye."

I froze. Avoiding glances and self-guilt maybe weren't surprising reactions in her current state. Yet while that story didn't sound like Rukia, at the same time it so painfully did. And the thought that she could ever have actually done something like that made me go cold and angry all at once. What on earth...? But there was no time right now, no time.

I forced myself to nod slightly and focus on the moment at hand and Hanatarou continued shakenly, "Then her brother showed up. The greatest master of the four main noble families, Kuchiki Byakuya. Ganjyuu only rose up to defend Rukia after I had said I was going to if he wouldn't - because Rukia had been in the Senzaikyuu so long, she couldn't even stand under the strain of her brother's ordinary reiatsu pressure; she just buckled weakly. I was worried about her. Ganjyuu swore at me and then rushed in recklessly in front of me. He insulted Byakuya's family when the man attacked him and then tried to get beyond him, saying only a coward wouldn't finish what he'd started, saying a Shiba would never have done such a thing. Captain Kuchiki got really angry and turned back. He said 'scatter, senbonzakura', and then all the sakura petals went faster than I could see them. They... they cut all over Ganjyuu's body and he collapsed... But Rukia's Captain, Captain Ukitake, appeared and stopped Byakuya from attacking us." The sickly one. That explained why his hair was prematurely white, and why he looked so wan and pale. "But Byakuya told him that's within his jurisdiction now. He said the Captain Commander has given the order that all Captains are now allowed to use their zanpakutoh anywhere in the face of the ryoka. And Captain Ukitake hadn't known yet... I don't know what they'll do now."

Hanatarou stammered to a halt, becoming too fearful to speak again, seeming like he was too scared even to glance at the Captains across from him after it became clear whose side he was on. He was shaking and he swallowed once, hard, but he stayed steady. "I see," I finally said.

I chanced one glance over at them. They were staring at me piercingly. They were doing nothing, it seemed, for the moment.

I licked my lips and decided to try something. "Rukia," I murmured, and she at least turned to look at me quickly, almost anxiously. "I came to save you." I continued to look away, deciding to see cautiously if I got a reaction.

There was none. I glanced sideways at her, to see that she looked almost desperately sad, her teeth gritted and her eyes swimming with angry tears. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit... They'd really done a number on her, hadn't they?

"Hey!" I said louder, challenging, faking indignation. That always got some sort of tough comeback, if not a temper. "What are you looking at me like that for?! I came here to rescue you; the least you could do is look happy about it!"

"... You idiot..." It was normal, but not said in its usual tone. "I told you not to come!" she whispered, half-sobbing, glaring at me angrily. "I - I forbade you to come; I told you your life is too important to lose it here!" Her fists were clenched by her sides and her body was trembling. "Now you're covered in bandages and you're wounded everywhere...!" She bowed her head, her voice breaking and her shoulders trembling fragilely.

And for once, I couldn't even be angry. I literally had no idea what to do.

"Uh... look," I finally sighed, trying to be unusually gentle. I looked over more seriously at Ganjyuu's distant, bloody form. We had to get to him and help him; his reiatsu was growing fainter. But those two Captains were standing in front of his body, watching us, looking with narrowed eyes from one to the other. And Ganjyuu may have a lot of reiatsu, but even he could only make it for so long. "You can get mad at me however you want later," I promised to her, and she looked up, confused and terribly uncertain. "After I beat him!" I said louder, stepping forward, the genuine anger of memories making my will to protect even stronger as I glared at Kuchiki Byakuya. (Rukia gasped softly behind me, but for the moment I tried to block her out. We had to get to Ganjyuu, and I was stronger than she knew.)

Byakuya stared back at me coolly, assessing. His supposed temper tantrum was nowhere to be found now. Ukitake had stepped back from him slightly, looking neutral and almost torn. It made sense - I was trying to save his subordinate. Maybe he, at least, had a heart.

"Ichigo..." came a sudden, still-uncertain murmur from behind me once more.

I sighed. "Rukia. Don't tell me to run away," I ordered her simply, steadily. "I'd never do that, especially not now, so don't be ridiculous. I came a long way to get this far, you know. It wasn't fucking easy." Keeping an eye on the two across from me, I chanced half a glance back at her wide-eyed surprise, as if she genuinely hadn't considered that. "I'm going to drag you out of here if that's what it takes to save your ass. Nothing you say will make any difference, so don't bother!" I snarked, starting to get a little peeved and snappish myself.

My "get it in gear" mode was a lot more well-developed than my "quiet, pleasant sympathy" mode. In fact, I wasn't even sure I had one of those. Besides, tact never really had been my strong point.

But, finally, something worked. A muffled but indignant light snapped back into Rukia's eyes and unconsciously, she straightened up slightly. "Hey! You're ignoring the rescuee's opinions? Well, what kind of strange rescue attempt is this?" she demanded, eyeing me up and down.

"The rescuee's not supposed to have opinions!" I snapped back sarcastically, inwardly enormously relieved but afraid that if I'd look happy I'd ruin it. "They're supposed to crouch in the corner and scream 'Oh my God, help me! Help meee!'"

"Why, you - !"

Then, suddenly, Rukia paused and her eyes widened in light surprise, as if she'd just realized what I'd done. She slackened and smiled up at me in fond exasperation, her eyes searching, as if for a moment she wasn't quite sure what to do with me. I looked away and toughened my face, clearing my throat, wondering when relief had started feeling quite so warm.

"You never change, do you?" she finally murmured. "Still all closed off, still don't listen to a single thing I say and try to recklessly save the day anyway..."

"Hm. And you haven't changed either," I murmured in return quickly out of the corner of my mouth. "Still nag at me and try to straighten me up all time. You know, a little worry about yourself wouldn't hurt right now." It was true, after all.

She lightened even further, but was still staring at me in what seemed to be a permanent sort of thoughtful startled state.

"Don't worry about me," I added suddenly over my shoulder, not quite sure why I was saying it, but attempting to smile slightly anyway. And maybe it looked a little awkward, but - well, it was warm, too, and genuine, trying to be reassuring. I gazed at her, and she stared back at me wordlessly, with huge, frightened eyes. "I'm not planning on dying just yet. And don't look at me like that. I've gotten a lot stronger while you were away, okay?" And for a moment, it felt just like old times.

Then I looked up, really looked up and took another step forward, planning on just busting my way through this because I had to, as always - but suddenly, there was a stifled gasp from the Captain behind Byakuya. "Byakuya... who is that?" Everyone turned to look at Ukitake Jyuushirou's involuntary, haunted expression. He had started and was peering closely at me, blinking hard, looking strangely like he had just seen a ghost.

And that was when I realized: he'd known him, too. The person I looked like. For a moment, I was tempted angrily to just burst out and ask somebody who the hell he had been, because this was getting kind of irritating, but before I could do something stupid -

"He is worthless. A nobody." The Lovely Asshole spoke up, staring at me emotionlessly, with that same freaky intensity he always had. "Even compared to the figure lying behind us, he is nothing. A drifter, a ryoka. And now I will destroy him. This is the end of this meaningless skirmish."

And it had meaning: namely, to save his own goddam sister. I smiled tightly through my fury and stepped forward, putting my hand on and connecting briefly with Zangetsu, who was swirling with unusual anger and anticipation within his confines. I realized after a moment why he, too, felt strangely protective of Rukia: the first reiatsu my true power had ever come into contact with was probably hers. "Well, look at you," I said with wide-eyed mocking as we took a few steps toward each other, clearing space for our fight, "so at ease. All that time talking to Rukia, and you just... let me?"

"Why would I need you to be distracted to be able to defeat you?" Byakuya asked crisply, his expression completely flat. "You may do whatever you wish. At the end of it all, you are still going to die. Don't think too highly of yourself, insignificant, ordinary human scum that you are."

Ooh - inflection. Fancy. But before I could open my mouth for a heated comeback, because goddamn I was really beginning to personally dislike this asshole on every possible level I could, it hit me. Suddenly, he visibly tensed slightly and then upped his ki as much as he possibly could in a furious barrage. I heard Hanatarou and Rukia gasp and buckle slightly, struggling not to give under the weight, but I kept my body and mind steady and focused. I knew cautiously that it was the best thing I could do for all involved right now. I drew Zangetsu, took a stance, and held his large scythe-like length at the ready in the thick air.

"Oh," Byakuya said softly after a moment, in almost mocking surprise, raising his eyebrows. "Not even a budge in front of so much reiatsu. Well, you weren't lying; you have gotten stronger." Then his expression darkened slightly. "I don't know how you re-obtained a Shinigami's powers again, but the illegal effort was wasted. You should have simply returned to your normal human life if you were lucky enough to live."

And felt like a shithole for the rest of my life. Sure. Great. I thought it was odd that he still considered my power's someone else's when I obviously had a released zanpakutoh of my own that I was using. Severe case of denial, maybe? Either way, it wasn't like I really cared. Funny, how getting stronger could do that to you.

When I realized he was still staring at me intently, as if waiting for and measuring my response, I tightened my lips and spoke. "... I'm not throwing away my life," I informed him quietly after a moment, my brows furrowing. "I'm going to defeat you. Take Rukia back. And return to my own home." My voice was hard. It was as simple as that.

Byakuya still kept calm and silent, completely still, but I could suddenly see what Hanatarou meant. His head tilted upward slightly, his nostrils flaring, and an icy kind of fire leaped into his eyes. "I said," he whispered, "don't think too highly of yourself! Insignificant, ordinary human scum that you are!"

Though he was whispering, it was so tense around us that I heard everything. Then he disappeared.

But I'd experienced this before, I knew what he was about to do, so I strained my senses outward and tensed, felt him speed behind me, then came sight, saw the blur of him follow his planned reiatsu path. And then, abruptly, I knew exactly where he'd be. I whirled around with Zangetsu and -

Clash. Our swords - my release and his asauchi - met as that was where, sure as day, he appeared.

Byakuya's black eyes widened in slight, but deep, surprise in his strangely lovely face, and he paused in what seemed like surprise instead of his usual reserve for the first time. I realized we'd never actually looked at each other face to face before, especially not at any sort of close distance. I relished the caught-off-guard look, the fallen arrogance, and then I grinned, the vicious curl forming over my face despite myself as I felt a brief spark of triumph. Saying I could "keep up with him" wasn't much... but goddamn, it was a hell of a start.

"You said I think too highly of myself? I just watched you move right behind me, Kuchiki Byakuya!" My grin formed into a smirk, my lips pressed firmly and fiercely together, and my jaw clenched. Whatever came, I could handle this. I could handle this.

And I would.

It was so different from before. Zangetsu thrummed a little and then firmed against his sword.

He sucked in a sharp breath and pushed off against me with a sharp blow of reiatsu. We separated again, sliding away from one another. I wasn't sure which part of that had triggered a realization, but a subtle shift in his expression told me he was taking the fight more seriously now. I firmed my stance in waiting, keeping half a sense on the still, watching reiatsu signatures around me.

"I see," Byakuya said after a moment, his expression carefully neutral once more as he eyed me up and down, distasteful but serious. "You... have improved. More than I had anticipated." His tone was short, but his eyes were considering. "In that case, lest you become too full of yourself, I must show you. I will show you that someone such as you could never compensate for the determination of a true warrior. You are a thousand years too early to defeat me." (Renji's words, or perhaps Renji had copied them from him, because Byakuya was a lot calmer and more natural throwing them around.)

Byakuya lifted his sword and opened his mouth, reiatsu readying. I realized what he was about to do... and strangely, willpower flooded me, fiery and strong.

Because he was wrong, I suddenly knew. I didn't have to be an officially trained Shinigami to know what true determination was. Determination, like checking myself into that institution for drug addiction when I knew I had no other options, like naming Ochi-sensei as my contact and telling myself desperately that if this didn't work none of it had ever mattered anyway. Determination, as I'd first learned it when I'd come back home from that place and started trying to fix everything: my grades, my working out, my care of my sisters, my health, my art, my confidence in myself... And in the process, unbidden, I'd discovered not only an appreciation of life and the lack of it, but a wealth of sheer stubbornness and drive to succeed within me, an ability to power through something that I'd never quite known I possessed before. It had been so long since I'd thought of that, and for the first time I really saw where it had gotten me, what it meant to me.

Determination, which I'd learned as a mere human. That sudden rush of strength and hard light in my eyes that I was learning over and over again, in stronger, steadier amounts. Determination that said I'd just have to dodge and block and beat him, that was all.

So I readied myself steelily as he opened his mouth and whispered, "Scatter, Senb -"

But Rukia had quite a different idea on the matter.

"No, Ichigo! Ichigo, run!" And she sounded perfectly present and fearfully strong this time, for a moment like her old self again, her eyes widened behind her brother in horror, and I had just enough time to tense and wonder if I was being too hasty, when -

A blur of yellow and black flashed past Byakuya, impossibly quick. By the time we both had finished stilling in surprise, Yoruichi was crouched beside Byakuya, her face made of cool stone and she holding the end of a long ribbon that had wrapped itself firmly around his blade, trapping it in place.

... Fuck, she was fast.

Everyone's eyes had widened, even Byakuya's. But my curiosity about her spiked even further when, as she stood, Byakuya finally straightened and had the presence of mind to exclaim in frowning surprise, "Yoruichi...!" It was clear he recognized her.

There was a moment of pregnant silence as they eyed each other, unreadable but piercing across the distance. No one else seemed to know quite what to say. What was with the atmosphere...?

At last, Yoruichi came to walk slowly in front of me, standing by me guardingly. She was, I realized, slightly honored in a way I didn't understand, broadcasting where her loyalties lay. For a moment, I felt guilty for pulling her into this when she'd been doing such a good job of hiding herself. Then again, she didn't seem to be best friends with the Soul Society anymore anyway.

Behind Byakuya, Hanatarou and Rukia dared to murmur to each other on the wind.

"Yoruichi..." Rukia murmured, frowning, torn. She sounded surprised and almost aweful, but there was a touch of fear there too.

"Who is that?" Hanatarou asked tentatively. "Do you know her?"

"No... but I've heard of her... She's the ex-Commander of Second Division Special Ops, and the ex-General of the Keigun Brigade of the First Division. And a noblewoman, on top of everything else. But... she disappeared... ages before either of us..."

I shot the impressively stoic Yoruichi a sharp glance. Well, that explained a lot. But she'd said that Urahara and Tessai had been exiled, and she with them. She hadn't said anything about simply following them. Vanishing off the map and disappearing. Was there something to this story I wasn't getting...?

Byakuya finally opened his mouth and spoke, seeming more guarded than he had been a moment ago. "Shihouin Yoruichi." His tone was quiet, respectful. Also questioning. "It's been over a hundred years... Everyone thought you were dead."

The statement was pointed. If I didn't know better, almost accusatory. Clearly, she hadn't kept in nearly as good contact with the people she'd known who had remained within the Seireitei.

Still, Yoruichi made no reply. If I didn't know better, I'd say she'd been frozen into a particularly cautious and frowning statue. Her eyes were dark and solemn.

"Yoruichi," I finally murmured to her. I did get a reaction: she shifted her weight ever so slightly. "Did you come to save me? Thank you." And I meant that. Twice in one day. I wasn't used to feeling on the other end of the process, hadn't been for quite a while, and it was strangely humbling. But... "But please, you need to move aside," I said urgently. "I need to defeat him. You know I do." There was no way I was getting his adopted relative out of this place otherwise, on top of everything else.

But when Yoruichi turned to me slightly, her gaze was almost contemptuous, and much emptier than before. "Defeat him now? On your own? Not yet, idiot," she suddenly hissed, still angry with me, and before I could react I got a huge, lightning-fast punch to my stomach wound that reached right into the blood and flesh, into blinding pain.

I heard some distant gasps, hissed to her with what air I had left what the hell she thought she was doing, but deep down I knew.

Even as I blacked out, I knew she didn't think I was ready to face Byakuya yet. And she was going to make sure we both got away until I was.