I have taken far too long to update this story again- I am so sorry.

I felt that I didn't want took take any longer than I had to, so Lychee Green Tea wasn't able to check over the chapter for me, and I appologise if there are any spelling or gramatical mistakes. If you tell me about them I will correct them.

Anyway, here we have the sixth chapter, and I really hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to all my reviewers, and I can't emphasise how much the encouragement helped me finish the chapter.


Chapter Six: Breaking All the Rules

Yamamoto-Genryusai Shikegeni had many years of experience dealing with Shinigami, dealing with scandals, and with young people. The minute he glanced at the leading stories in the newspaper, he knew exactly what would happen.

He decided to stay out of it; years of experience had taught him that interfering would do nothing at this point. Besides he had no wish to get clawed by fingernails, have his beard yanked, or get kneed in the crotch again. There is a reason why the elderly are revered as wise; they've experienced everything.

He could tell the exact minute that Hitsugaya Toshiro read the paper. The temperature descended abruptly, the core of the cool weather beginning in the tenth division's new office.

Kurosaki Ichigo took a lot longer to reach the paper, and so did Kuchiki Byakuya. They'd been imprisoned in the first division, and Shikegeni was no fool, he'd sealed their reiatsu. He'd also made sure that they were not sharing a cell, or even in adjoining cells. He was resolved not to let them out, not until they'd calmed down and attempted to settle this issue.

Kuchiki Rukia was banned from the cells as was Abarai Renji- the situation did not need to be aggravated in any way. As such he'd also extended the ban to Hitsugaya Toshiro and Hinamori Momo, who were undeniably involved in the problem. It certainly had it's origins with them.

He frowned at that thought.

Hitsugaya Toshiro and Hinamori Momo were another problem, and so was Matsumoto Rangiku's scandalous pursuit of Kira Izuru. He couldn't have the discipline of the Gotei Thirteen upset by their behaviour; he'd need to talk with Hitsugaya about this.

Talking to Matsumoto was a lost cause, Kira wasn't the problem, and Shikegeni was always worried about making Hinamori cry. Perhaps he'd talk to Jyushiro, retire from work, and then get the younger man to take over his job and solve this problem- he was too old for such nonsense.


Hitsugaya Toshiro was currently walking towards the ninth division with a dark aura around him. He was in a mood to kill, and upon reading the newspaper he had restructured his entire day.

Kill Hisagi Shuhei was now at the top of the list, over paperwork, over almost anything- except Momo. But she hadn't interfered, so he remained undistracted and completely focused on his mission objective; obliterating the existence of the editor of the newspaper- which was trying to completely destroy any respect he commanded.

He was so focused on this that he almost ran into Ukitate, he didn't say anything to the other taicho, rudely brushing past him. Normally he would have felt bad, but at this moment, it was imperative that he annihilate Hisagi.

"Hitsugaya, I've got some chocolate for you," Ukitate said brightly, grabbing onto his arm and preventing him from walking further forwards.

Toshiro turned abruptly, about to tell Ukitate just where to 'stick' the chocolate. Unfortunately the older, craftier taicho had planned this to perfection.

Toshiro caught the chocolate on his turn, and mouth wide open about to insult his colleague, he swallowed it, blinked, and then his green eyes went wide in shock and he collapsed.

Jyushiro felt faintly ashamed of using drugs on a colleague, particularly one he was so fond of, but it needed to be done. Ambushing Hitsugaya when he was lost in anger was the only possible way to save Hisagi. It was the lesser evil.

"Oi handsome," Kyoraku called from where he was leaning against a nearby wall, "where are we going to put him?"

"There's only one place which will hold him," Jyushiro said wryly, feeling even guiltier now.

"Yama-ji is not going to like this," Kyoraku observed from under the brim of his hat with a smirk.

"I don't think we have a choice," Jyushiro shot back, pulling Hitsugaya off the floor, and carrying him carefully off towards the first division.


Hinamori Momo was more than a little shocked to see her boyfriend being abducted by Ukitate-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho. She rapidly forgot about any plans she'd had for killing Hisagi-san at the sight of the two taicho carrying Toshiro off towards the first division.

She had to know what was going on, her curiosity and worry were getting stronger with every step that the taicho took towards the first division.

She shadowed them, taking great care not to be seen. She watched them enter the division, and then watched them exit the division- without Toshiro. She circled the division trying to work out where exactly her lover had ended up.

She finally understood that there was only one place he could be, and so she ended up glaring at the outer walls of the jail. How dare they lock him up away from her!

She couldn't sense him, his reiatsu was obviously sealed, and so she didn't know which cell he was in. She began glaring at the walls again, she was going to get him out of there, but it required some planning, it required deviousness, and a distraction.

It also required patience, which was not her strong point.

But she still settled down to plot, something she had never been able to do before.

-That was what you did for love, and what it did to you. You changed yourself, and it changed you.

She thought everything through for an hour, before finally moving to act- she needed to make sure that this would work perfectly. But there were some events that she could never have taken into account.


Kurosaki Ichigo was getting sick of pacing, but there was nothing else he could do in this damn cell. He'd been told that he would have an audience with the Soutaicho at 4 pm, but the time was positively crawling.

He wished he could see Rukia, but he'd been quite firmly told that it was 'not permitted'. He was still feeling quite sour about it too, he missed her, they'd barely been a couple for twenty-four hours, and he longed for her.

He mentally saw images of Renji taking advantage of his absence with Rukia. He hated the fact that Byakuya was tied up in here too, that gave Renji far too much freedom with how he could act towards Rukia.

Ichigo was panicking; his pacing was getting faster, his fists clenched.

'Damnit Renji- if you so much as touch Rukia, or even make a suggestion- I'll kill you!'

The fact that he actually thought of Renji as a good friend was irrelevant. Almost everyone knew that the red head with in love with Rukia, and perhaps Ichigo had sort of betrayed Renji by getting involved with Rukia. He felt kind of guilty about that, but he refused to give up Rukia without a fight.

She'd freely chosen Ichigo; Renji had already blown his chance- he had a fifty year advantage over Ichigo. But Rukia had chosen Ichigo, not Renji, and he was fairly sure that she only saw the other boy as an older brother…

Even if she did like Renji as something more, she wouldn't betray Ichigo for the redhead. Rukia had honour and integrity; she'd never do that to anyone.

He was sure she wouldn't, he had no doubts at all, even if their relationship was so new…

He had no doubts whatsoever…

None at all.

He began pacing even faster, fingers tightly clenched into fists.


Abarai Renji was not the brightest man in Seireitei- far from it. Which was why, instead of attempting to court Rukia, he was confronting Kira about Rangiku-san. He was sure that Hisagi-san would want to be here too, except that the other man was hiding from Hitsugaya-taicho.

Renji wished him good luck, but was not about to get involved- his face was still healing and he had no wish to get injured again. His face burned whenever he changed expression and he would love to know who had done this to him, and why.

He drew his mind away from that- Unohana-taicho had done a lot for him, but she refused to waste her energy when it was not necessary. She also deemed it better for a wound to heal slowly and more naturally- especially if it was only a flesh wound- purely cosmetic and not fatal.

Apparently humiliation would not kill him.

Renji's protests over such treatment had only earned him scorn for a 'man with ink patterns all over his body'. He hadn't realised she had such strong opinions against tattoos, or the 'fools who voluntarily scarred themselves'. She didn't see the difference between the footprint and his tattoos, and after her initial lecture, he decided not to bother arguing the point.

Had he not been interested in Kira's situation, he would still have been hiding from the mockery. Division Eleven had been the worst- aside (of course) from Kuchiki-taicho's scathing remarks. Ironically the nobleman and Unohana-taicho had many opinions in common.

"So why is she interested in you? What did yousay? What did you do?" he demanded.

How had Kira (who always had problems talking with female colleagues) won over Rangiku-san, the beauty of the Gotei Thirteen?

"I- she, we,"

Kira was apparently having trouble describing the incident, which just made Renji more and more curious.

"Come on," he said, shaking the other man.

"I told her that her breasts wouldn't work on me," Kira finally admitted, going bright red, and not meeting Renji's eyes.

"YOU WHAT??"

Renji's yell echoed over all of Seireitei.


Kuchiki Rukia was wondering if someone had cancelled a funeral, she'd never seen so many flowers in her life. They were all for her too. Word had gotten around that her Nii-sama was imprisoned; therefore there he could not kill anyone who tried to court her.

She was a young, attractive, unmarried noblewoman- and she was starting to realise just how much her Nii-sama had sheltered her from. It was quite overwhelming, and she had no idea what to do with all the flowers- should she keep them? Should she return them?

What would send the right message?

Sometimes she felt like men were a different species, not just a different gender. That was why she liked Ichigo so much- she understood him, perhaps she couldn't predict what he'd do or say, but she still understood him. She knew him.

"Kuchiki, where do you want the next set of flowers placed?" asked Ukitate-taicho, entering the room with his arms full of brightly coloured bouquets. Kotsubaki-sanzeki and Kotetsu-sanzeki followed at his heels, their faces could barely be seen from behind the flowers.

Rukia's mouth dropped open, there were more of them?

Then she spotted large envelopes nestled in the bouquets and a sickening realisation hit her- they were love letters. But the only letter she wanted, the only one that meant anything to her, was the one that she had tucked into her robes, over her heart.

'Nii-sama, Ichigo, I wish you were here. I don't know how to deal with all of this,'

"Oh, and Kuchiki- I ordered the chocolates to be sent to the kitchen- I feared they would melt if they were kept in your rooms. Also I believe there was some statuary, kimonos, jewellery and pot plants amongst this lot- I ordered them to be sent onto the Kuchiki mansion, since they were taking up so much room. I trust that I made an acceptable decision?" Ukitate-taicho asked her seriously.

She nodded numbly, but then he piped up "I also sent the next lot of flowers onto division four, since I thought that your rooms were looking full and Unohana is always complaining that not enough people send flowers to the people in her care. I removed the cards and kept them for you though,"

Rukia shuddered at the thought of piling anything more into her room. It was completely full of flowers, they were everywhere- she still didn't know where she would be able to sleep that night.

She was definitely going to petition the Soutaicho for the release of one of her boys. She needed somewhere to sleep and she needed their help- they were the only two who'd be able to save her now. Renji had completely disappeared, not even the gossip of all the gifts she was getting had reached him. She was a little disappointed; she usually could count on him in these situations.

'Renji, Ichigo, Ni-sama- you are all idiots,'


"Trust me, this plan will work," Abarai-kun said, with a confidence that Izuru could not believe was justified.

"You want me to grope Soifon-taicho?" he questioned, making sure he had heard correctly.

"You want to escape Rangiku-san, and the only place she can't reach you in is the jail cells. You need to insult someone enough for them to place you in there- which means they need to be a taicho. None of the men will stand between you and Rangiku-san, she'll seduce them to get you off the charges in order to get close to you- and make you feel indebted," Abarai-kun pointed out.

In a twisted way it made sense.

"Therefore there is only Unohana-taicho and Soifon-taicho. Out of the two, Soifon-taicho is the safer bet," Abarai-kun stated.

"Why?" Izuru asked.

"Do you want to grope Unohana-taicho?" Abarai-kun whispered, looking scared.

Izuru was about to answer, that she was so friendly looking and mild that he was sure groping Soifon could not be safer.

Then he thought about it…

"Where is Soifon-taicho?" he asked.

No man possessed of good sense would ever grope Unohana-taicho.

Soifon-taicho would try to kill him and almost certainly castrate, maim and horribly injure him. She could never be as terrifying as Unohana-taicho though.

"Follow me," said Abarai-kun, and they walked out solemnly, "it is a brave thing you do Kira," he murmured. It sounded like a funeral elegy.

Izuru was trying very hard to think of a way out of this.

Soifon-taicho had never- according to 'official records' ever been groped, every man who had ever tried had been… 'Accidentally killed in training,'

In fact it had been so 'accidental' that Unohana-taicho hadn't been able to make the remains presentable for the family afterwards.

He couldn't believe that Abarai-kun had talked him into this, but something had to be done. Rangiku-san had followed him into the showers, into his room; she'd even tried to pull him underneath a bush, in her mad attempts to make him change his mind.

She had no care about the public eye or respectability. It was the first time he'd managed to escape from her all morning, and he knew it meant no good. She was obviously up to something.

He unexpectedly bumped into Soifon-taicho on the way into her division, with the overgrown Omeada by her side. He was surprised, so was Abarai-kun and he almost missed his chance to grab her. He regained his nerve and before he could lose it, he grabbed her shoulder- at least he intended to.

It was hardly his fault that she mistook his actions for an attack. She leapt into the air, so instead of shoulder, his hand landed a lot lower. It was only for a split second, and he got kicked into a wall for his troubles, but he felt oddly triumphant about it.

"You groped me!" Soifon-taicho growled, her face red, her fists so tightly clenched that they were cracking.

Izuru had the sinking feeling that the worst was yet to come. He couldn't protest that this was an accident- not only would it not get him into jail, but it was a lie, and to be honest, he doubted the excuse would even penetrate her skull. She was completely enraged.

Abarai-kun and Omeada leapt for Soifon-taicho as she leapt at him.

Izuru unfortunately landed on the bottom of a pile of the three. He would have been alright without Omeada, but fate was not that kind, and he was sure that because of the extra weight he'd broken several ribs.

"Calm down taicho. I'll have him taken to the jail cells in the first division, until you consider a suitable punishment for him," Omeada soothed the irate woman, for once actually doing a good job of consoling her.

"See that he is well secured," Soifon-taicho said in an icy voice.

She never saw the money changing hands between Abarai-kun and Omeada, but Izuru did. He raised an eyebrow at his oldest friend.

"The idiot told me that no one would ever grope Soifon-taicho. I told him that it would happen someday. We had a three thousand yen bet going," Abarai-kun explained.

"You're just lucky that we never put a time limit on that bet," Omeada grumbled.

"When did you make it?" Izuru asked, feeling used.

"Thirty-two years ago," Omeada said sourly.

"I want half the profits," Izuru said firmly.

"WHAT?" Abarai-kun gaped.

"Otherwise I'll tell Soifon-taicho about the bet," Izuru said.

"That's blackmail," Abarai-kun protested.

"No, it's a friendly donation from one person to another for their mutual benefit," Izuru said smugly.

"I still can't believe I didn't convince Zaraki-taicho to do it twenty years ago," Abarai-kun grumbled.

"You actually tried to convince Zaraki-taicho?" Izuru gaped.

"Yeah, I told him he'd get a hell of a fight out of it," Abarai-kun said.

"That's true," Omeada commented.

"He said it wasn't worth it- Yachiru doesn't like him touching other women, and she would have attacked Soifon-taicho in the midst of battle," Abarai-kun muttered sourly.

Izuru sweatdropped- it was a terrifying thought. The most bloodthirsty villain of the Gotei Thirteen ran his whole life around the whims of a tiny girl.


Ise Nanao was trying to comfort a distraught Rangiku, and not laugh. It was not an easy task, but the stern woman, who ruled the lax eighth division, managed it.

"And then he said that I should not be there!" the blonde complained.

"Well it was late at night and he probably wanted to sleep," Nanao tried to console her.

"But I was on top of his bed wearing a leather corset with long boots and I had a whip and handcuffs!!" Rangiku complained.

Nanao almost did laugh at the image of such a… well prepared Rangiku getting kicked out of Kira's room, and then having to walk back to her room dressed like that. Kira had place a barrier around his room after her entrance, which was another insult.

"Hey, did you hear? Kira-fukutaicho groped Soifon-taicho!" the seventh seat of her division burst into the room, belatedly realising that Rangiku was present.

"HE WHAT??" Rangiku yelled -this obviously added insult to injury.

Nanao glared at the seventh seat, who left in a hurry, and then tried to salvage the situation.

"I'm sure it was just an accident," she reassured the other woman.

Rangiku was obviously not going to take that as an acceptable answer, "I'm going to find out for myself," she said, racing out of the room.

Nanao sighed and followed her best friend- somehow she just knew that she was not going to get to the paperwork today.


Kuchiki Byakuya was sitting calmly in his cell, or at least he was feigning a semblance of calm. Ukitate-sempai had given him a newspaper, while dropping off a still unconscious Hitsugaya-taicho, and Ukitate-sempai had told him about all of Rukia's gifts.

Not happy, was an understatement. How dare any of those worthless cowards think they were worthy of his imoto?

At least Kurosaki had the guts to court Rukia under his nose, if not openly. But these worms had waited until he was conveniently out of the way, and were now trying to use her? He'd kill the lot of them.

The unconscious Hitsugaya squirmed and then apparently awoke, he shot up eyes wide. He glanced at Byakuya, and then his eyes flicked around the room. Apparently he'd worked out exactly what had happened.

"I'm going to kill Ukitate," he muttered, eyes narrowing, fist clenching.

"Only if you beat me to it," Byakuya informed him, feeling it necessary to point out the pecking order to his younger colleague.

"Loser does the other's paperwork for a month," Hitsugaya challenged.

"Make it six," Byakuya accepted.

Hitsugaya nodded, and then both went silent, plotting death for the thirteenth division's taicho. Both of them were stumped by how they were going to get out of the jail cell though.

They had both been outfitted with reiatsu suppressing cuffs, which fit tightly and could only be removed by a kido spell- which couldn't be performed without using their reiatsu, which had been imprisoned in their bodies by the cuff- it was an evil, never-ending cycle.

They were both startled by a large explosion. It was followed by a second, much closer to them, and then by a third, on their own cell wall.

"Toshiro!" Hinamori-fukutaicho's voice called through the smoke.

"Momo!" he yelled back.

The girl- with absolutely no sense of propriety, or awareness of an audience, flung herself on the boy. "I missed you so much," she almost shrieked, kissing him.

Hitsugaya, without even thinking about Byakuya's presence, kissed her back and then kissed again and again, holding her tightly against him.

"I missed you more," he said, she smiled- it was obviously some sort of logic between them that only people in love or the completely insane could understand. Then- as if their first display wasn't bad enough, the two, rather rudely began kissing again, falling back onto the bed Hitsugaya had occupied…

Apparently they had no problem with remaining there for quite some time…

Byakuya rather belatedly realised that if Hinamori-fukutaicho was in the cell, and that if she had made a hole to break in, then he could use the hole to escape from the cell. He poked his head out, at the same time as Kurosaki Ichigo- two cells down (perhaps Hinamori-fukutaicho's first attempt at finding Hitsugaya?) did.

Needless to say that killing Ukitate was no longer at the top of Byakuya's list. Kurosaki, saw his enemy, and apparently, in an attempt to avoid the fight, ducked back in the cell.

It was a big mistake, because Byakuya jumped right in, and now, Ichigo was trapped in a cell with Rukia's very angry Nii-sama. There were also no guards in sight- he was doomed.


Rukia was not in a good mood- Yamamoto-soutaicho had turned down her request to release the prisoners. She was walking back to her division, fuming, when she heard the explosion. She arrived on the scene just in time to see her Nii-sama jump into a jail cell- not out of one.

She naturally ran over to see what was happened and saw her brother and her new boyfriend fighting with each other. She did the most impractical and insensible thing possible in this case, she jumped into the cell as well.

"Nii-sama, Ichigo," she gasped at the sight of them.

Ichigo was currently being throttled, but apparently was not so short of air that he couldn't kick her Nii-sama between the legs. Nii-sama winced and let go, so Ichigo punched him and tried to run. Nii-sama tripped him and then leapt on top.

Rukia watched in horror and fascination wondering if she could or should break this up. She had heard that men did their bonding in strange ways- was this perhaps one of those sorts of things?

She hoped it was, otherwise, she was going to have to break it up.


Ise Nanao knew that this was a bad idea, but nevertheless she did as Rangiku begged. They blasted open the cells in the first division jail until they found the right one. So then the next logical step- to stop the prisoners from escaping, was to erect a barrier.

Unfortunately in order to create such a barrier, over such a large area, it had to cover the whole area of the jail walls- which meant she had basically trapped Rangiku in with Kira Izuru as well as all the other prisoners in their cells.

Without knowing it, she had also trapped the people about to escape from Hinamori Momo's blown in cells. Most of them had other concerns though, and didn't notice.


Yamamoto-Genryusai Shikegeni walked down to the jail cells, his favourite students in tow. He didn't have any guilty suspects for the explosions which had rocked his division, and made him spill his soup. He was grumpy about losing his lunch, and he took that out on Jyushiro and Shunsui due to the lack of any other current suspects.

They were lagging even further behind him, possibly because his temper had made his reiatsu flare, and the temperature was steadily rising. He walked past most cells and the occupants cowered from him- it was gratifying and soothed his temper.

The first cell where this didn't happen required investigation.

He was shocked to see that one of his more responsible taicho was quite intimately embracing a childhood friend. The pair didn't take any notice of him, or his two students who were gawking at the sight.

The Soutaicho coughed loudly, Hitsugaya looked up, and started- jumped back off Hinamori and fell off the bed. The girl herself went bright red, clutching her clothing to her and looked at the ceiling.

The Soutaicho moved on, giving them a few moments to fix their appearances … and retie their robes. He dragged his students with him.

The next cell where trouble was brewing was two doors down. It was the disturbing sight, Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Byakuya, two of his other more responsible taicho, were wrestling each other under the horrified gaze of Kuchiki Rukia.

To be honest, it didn't look like wrestling; it closely resembled a sex game gone badly wrong. He coughed loudly, but it only got the girl's attention- since the men were otherwise occupied.

He reluctantly unlocked the cell and sent his students in to separate them. It wasn't easy; Byakuya fought dirty (kicking and scratching in a most ungraceful manner) and quite refused to let Ichigo go. But eventually Rukia held Ichigo back, while Shunsui and Jyushiro simply held Byakuya off the ground. It was not the wisest move, since Byakuya was enraged by the sight of Rukia touching Ichigo, but at least Ichigo wasn't a problem now.

Since his two students had everything under control, the Soutaicho continued his quest for disturbers of the peace… and his lunch.

The last cell he had problems with was the one that had contained Kira Izuru.

It now also contained Matsumoto Rangiku- who was chasing the blonde man in continuous circles. Apparently neither of them was trying to change direction and catch the other off guard, or go through the centre, or anything...

If the Soutaicho had ever wondered if they were natural blondes, the question had been well and truly answered.

He coughed and they both froze, turning slowly to face him. It seemed that Matsumoto's disregard for decency did not extend to a heavily ranked superior- he wasn't sure if it was flattering or not, but chose to take it as flattering.

He walked back to his students, haori flapping, "You two- I don't care what you do, but fix this problem you created- and do it now!" he ordered, pointing at Jyushiro and Shunsui. He stalked off, wearing such a dark look that no one dared ask him anything.

Once in the privacy of his office, with the door locked he burst out laughing, closely resembling a maniac. He'd love to see how Jyushiro and Shunsui would deal with this.


Ukitate Jyushiro paced, while Kyoraku drank. Their 'charges' were all being walked to his office; reiatsu completely sealed so as to avoid more trouble. To be fair Hitsugaya and Hinamori were not really troublesome, nor was Kuchiki Rukia or Kira. Matsumoto, Byakuya and Kurosaki were another story, and he was supposed to punish all seven of them and Ise-san for their roles in causing trouble.

He continued to pace, until the doors slid open, then he sat down, trying to pretend he was calm, collected and knew exactly what he was doing.

The eight guilty men and women were all sitting in front of him. He looked at them sternly, trying not to feel guilty himself.

"Matsumoto Rangiku," he began, "you, Hinamori Momo, Kuchiki Rukia and Ise Nanao broke into the jail cells of the first division. Do any of you have anything to say in your own defence?"

The four women all shook their heads; Nanao refusing to say that she had not entered the cells- she was still an accomplice, and Rukia not mentioning that she had not broken in- merely taken the opportunity presented by Momo-chan's kido. She had known she was breaking the rules, even if it wasn't planned.

"Very well, you are all being sentenced to forty hours each of community service in the fourth division," he said- everyone knew it was a light punishment. He felt it was justified since they had only been trying to get in, and not actually break anyone out.

"Hitsugaya Toshiro, provided you injure no one and break no rules in the next month, you will be let off with a caution," the white haired boy glared at him, but nodded. Hitsugaya hadn't actually committed a crime, so provided he left Hisagi alone, he didn't need to be punished.

"Kuchiki Byakuya and Kurosaki Ichigo," Jyushiro intoned, "the two of you will start at opposite ends of the first division, and repair all the walls which were damaged today. You will do this in any spare time you have, and you will do it personally- not using subordinates to help you. Any fighting will result in Kuchiki Rukia being imprisoned in the eleventh division," he announced with a heavy heart.

The Eleventh division's prison was close to torture- Zaraki would use any of his prisoners as a fighting dummy. Kuchiki Rukia, would be quite easily vaporised by one such incident, no matter how tough she was.

The only way to resolve the argument between Kurosaki and Byakuya- or at least minimize the dispute- was to punish Kuchiki for their crimes. Jyushiro hated the thought of threatening her like that, but both men stiffened, and glaring at each other nodded, she nodded at him too- it made him feel a little better.

Now the tricky one, he sympathised, but couldn't actually help Kira Izuru. "Soifon-taicho will assign a personal punishment to you for the charge she has brought against you. But for now you will be released," he informed the younger man.

He gulped, "I understand Ukitate-taicho," he hadn't expected any better.

"Also, I have been asked to inform you to be discreet considering your positions in Seireitei and the relationships which are forming," Jyushiro continued, feeling quite awkward and slightly embarrassed by pointing out the obvious.

Hitsugaya, Hinamori, Matsumoto and Kurosaki all gave him quite hostile looks. Rukia gave him a hard look- a bit softer than the other four, while Kira looked pathetically grateful and Byakuya gave Kurosaki a very sharp look.

"You're dismissed," Jyushiro said, now knowing exactly how Genryusai-sensei felt.

Seven out of eight left, Ise-san remained, quite obviously waiting for her taicho. Matsumoto began chasing Kira again- at a fast walk, Hinamori and Hitsugaya walked side by side- but not touching. Kurosaki and Kuchiki walked with Byakuya very conspicuously in-between them.

The wind blew back voices and he heard Hitsugaya and Byakuya discussing leaving their 'bet' for another month.

He vaguely wondered what it was about, since he'd never seen either of them as the gambling type. They then mentioned something about torturing someone instead of merely killing him- and creating a record for drawing out the death as long as possible.

He felt sorry for anyone on their bad side, and ignored the shiver that went down his spine as he raised his cup to his lips. In doing so he spilled the sake- a bad omen- but it would only be in a month's time that he would understand the warning.


Who feels sorry for Kira? I know I do, and there is more torture for him in the near future, the next chapter. I hope that you liked the humour, it just seems to appear in whatever I write... I can't seem to stop.

Thanks for reading this chapter. Please review, I need the feedback, I really hope you liked the chapter and I will definitely update sooner next time.


Translation of Japanese Words:

Ba- Grandma/Old woman

Baka- Idiot

Chan- a suffix indicating a close relationship, often used by girls and when addressing someone younger.

Chibi- little/small

Fukutaicho- Vice-Captain/Vice Unit Commander

Hai- Yes/Correct

Haori- Hip/thigh-length kimono coat which Kyoraku Shunsui wears over the Shinigami uniform. Also the white coat that the taicho wear over their uniform.

Imoto- little sister

Kido- Ghost Magic

Kokoro- Heart-Soul

Kun- a suffix considered quite familiar, often used for addressing classmates and friends.

Mou Hidoi- That's mean/rude

Nei- hey

Nii- older/big brother

Reiatsu- Soul Power

Rukongai- This is part of Soul Society outside of Seireitei, anyone not in Seireitei dwells here.

Sama- honorific- generally means master/lord, used only in cases of high respect.

San- a suffix considered polite, often used for addressing people who you don't know well.

Sanzeki- Third-seat

Seireitei- The city in Soul Society where the Shinigami and nobility dwell.

Shinigami- Death God

Shunpo- Flash Steps

Soutaicho- Head Captain/Commander General

Taicho- Captain/Unit Commander

Zanpakto- Soul Slayer