Chapter 8
A/N: I'm hoping to update once a week from now until the story is done. I'll post a notification if that changes. Once again, reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated.
All of Kinji's struggle and triumph had taken place in less than a second. Bare moments after Kinji had passed out his zanpakuto had exploded in blue fire, tossing a tarnished mirror the size of a dinner plate a dozen steps away. Akamatsu wasted no time in wrapping kido-reinforced bandages around it and activating the seal he had prepared for it. He gathered up the bundle and rejoined his co-conspirators a distance from where Kinji . She wasted no time in slinging orders at him, despite his wounded condition.
"Get us out of here now!" Lin screamed at him. He took out the roll of cloth necessary for the teleportation and tossed it in the air. Then he saw the cause for urgency. Sui-Feng was standing only a few dozen yards away from them. Her expression was caught in transition between shock and a look that promised death. But she was too late. With the cloth already surrounding them they were cut off from the outside world. In a few short moments they would be safe, and outside the Gotei 13's jurisdiction. Lin had the audacity to flash a quick smile and Sui-Feng and waved a blood-stained hand just before the trio vanished.
Isane was kneeling over her brother and pumping reiatsu into him as fast as she could without doing harm. His pulse was so weak she was afraid to stop to actually repair any of the damage to his body. Renji was standing guard over the siblings to ensure no one attacked them while Isane was working. The silver haired woman was the second most experienced healer in the Seireitei. She knew that the wounds Kinji had suffered would be fatal on someone with less power. They might even be fatal for him if he wasn't given immediate treatment. A hundred different approaches to fixing Kinji came to mind but she couldn't do any of them until his reiatsu was restored. He was so weak, and no matter what she did his reiatsu wouldn't increase anymore. Like there was something blocking her healing kido. She tried to force more into her brother and the limiting seal flared white through the blood that had blocked it from view.
"That can't be there." She said in disbelief. "Captain! We need someone from Research and Development. There's a Gentei Reiin on him and he'll die if we don't remove it."
"How the hell is that possible?" Sui-Feng demanded. Isane shook her head without looking up.
"We need to get him to Division 4." Isane continued, her eyes leaking tears. She couldn't stop herself from crying but she wouldn't let that stop her from saving her brother. "He needs immediate surgery and a reishi transfusion." She tore his robe into strips and bound his most serious wounds to slow the bleeding. The wound in his chest she had to pack with gauze first. "He's stable enough to move." She tried to take his zanpakuto out of his right hand but Kinji had a death grip on it.
"I'll take him." Sui-Feng said. Isane looked at the 85 pound woman then back to her brother who weighed more than twice that. Then she remembered that Sui-Feng was a Captain and was a lot stronger than she looked. She lifted her brother gently on the small Captain's back. Kinji's sword and feet dragged along the ground even after Sui-Feng stood upright. "I'll take him straight to Unohana and make sure no one tries to finish him off." Sui-Feng jumped into the air and tensed her legs. The subsequent flash step was so fast that Sui-Feng was gone before either Isane or Renji realized she had moved.
"Division 12. Can you get there fast?" Isane asked. Renji nodded.
"Don't worry. If I have to kick Kurotsuchi's ass to get someone to help I'll do it." then he was gone as well. Isane hurried after Sui-Feng and arrived to Captain Unohana personally preparing for surgery. She began to scrub in but Unohana stopped her.
"This is too personal for you Isane. You need to leave."
"But Captain-"
"Leave Isane. I will do everything I can." Her Captain's voice carried an unanswerable authority and Isane knew that fighting Retsu Unohana was something only idiots do. She stepped slowly from the washroom and went down the hallway. Then she turned around and started walking back toward the washroom. She went back and forth, her loyalties conflicting with each other. Her confusion and desperation was clear on her face. Even Renji could see it when he arrived at Divsion 4 with Akon in tow.
"Akon, go to Captain Unohana. She's probably in surgery right now, if anyone tries to stop you just tell them the Lieutenant gave you permission." Renji told him. Akon hurried toward the main surgery ward, having been there a few times himself, he had no trouble finding it. Isane didn't even notice the arrival of the tech specialist she had told Renji to find. "Isane, what are you doing out here? I thought you'd be assisting Captain Unohana."
"It's protocol. We're not allowed to treat members of our own family." The Lieutenant explained in a choked voice. Her cheeks were already stained with tears and she was clutching her hands to her chest. "The Captain ordered me to stay out here." Renji had never been good at dealing with sensitive emotional issues. Neither was he particularly good at talking to women. So he did the only thing he could think of that would comfort her and didn't require him to say anything. He hugged her. They were nearly the same height, Renji was only half and inch taller than Isane, but after a moment's hesitation she burried her face in his shoulder and started crying in earnest. It wasn't the practiced weeping of an actress, or a trained manipulator. It was an expression of the very real pain she was feeling. If she could help herself she would have asked Renji not to look at her. Her face was twisted in pain and splotchy. Her nose was running a little. Her shoulders heaved as she sucked in breath to continue sobbing. There was nothing beautiful or appealing about it. But Renji just held on and waited for the tall woman to finish. He let her lean on him when her legs decided to give out under her. But, eventually, she stopped.
"He'll pull through." Renji tried to reassure her. But when she looked at him with her red eyes the words caught in his throat. "I never really met the guy, but from what Captain Kuchiki told me he'll pull through just to spite the guys who tried to kill him."
"But he lost-" Isane started to say, but stopped herself. Renji didn't need to know about the artifacts, or the history of tragedy in her family. "He might not be as strong anymore. Lin took something from him."
"It doesn't matter. He's got you waiting for him, doesn't he? No self-respecting man would let himself die when there's a woman like you waiting for him to recover." he hadn't meant anything by it. But Isane blushed a deep red and buried her face back in his robe. Renji was completely oblivious and just figured she was crying again, albeit more quietly. The stood together like that until they received word on Kinji's condition.
Retsu Unohana had seen every variation on every injury there could possibly be. Or so she had thought before she got a good look at Kinji Kotetsu. The physical damage was obvious and straight forward. The stab in his chest had damaged his Saketsu and it was already reforming under the influence of her reiatsu. But his Hakusui was withered in a way she had never seen. The sheer amount of scars on his body testified to a career spent away from the comfort of the Seireitei. Most of them would be gone by the time she was done with him. But the stab wound in his chest, already healed, was refusing to disappear completely. She had seen that happen from time to time, it was called a grudge mark. The victims body refused to let go of some fragments of reiatsu from their attacker. She felt a sympathetic pulse on her own sternum. Her eyes glanced down to the zanpakuto clutched in her patient's hands. The tsuba, formerly a plain circle, now looked like melted candle wax and the blade was tarnished and pitted with rust. It wasn't actively deteriorating, but it was in grim condition.
Akon had taken one look at the Gentei Reiin, pronounced it shoddy work that would have disappeared in a few hours on its own, then dispelled it without an incantation. As soon as the seal was gone Unohana's work became much easier. But the Hakusui remained damaged. His body was rejecting the reishi transfusion so she went through their stock and found the donation Kinji had made more than a month ago. His body rejected it as well. Unohana had never seen that happen before. It made no sense.
But then her memory supplied her with Isane's requests over the last two weeks. She said that Kinji's zanpakuto had been bonded with some kind of artifact. That bonding may have tainted the reishi he donated and made his normal system reject it. She brought out a vial of Isane's reishi and injected it directly into his Hakusui. She waited for minutes, making sure the trauma of having the delicate area exposed wouldn't cause him to go into shock. The reishi was accepted by his system and some of the damage healed, but it was clear that this injury, like the damage to his zanpakuto, would take time to heal.
During the procedure she regularly glanced at the extra person in the room. She was normally assisted by two other medics, as was the case today, but there was a fourth person in the surgery room today. Captain Sui-Feng had followed procedure and donned the medical clothing of the surgical team in order to remain in the room. She hadn't said a word or moved and inch. Her eyes were fixed on the wound in Kinji's chest. The clothes were somewhat baggy on her, not many of her people were under five feet tall and as petite as the assassin.
"Captain Sui-Feng, could you go tell my Lieutenant that her brother is going to be fine?"
"No. I'm here to make sure he stays that way." Unohana had no trouble convincing others to do what she wanted. A few kind words and a smile could work minor miracles. But she didn't always force the issue when she didn't have to. And the look of wounded pride on the woman's face told her this would be one of those times.
Sui-Feng had taken her emotions and crammed them into a ball. Then she took that ball and shoved it into some dark corner of her mind. But no matter what meditative technique she employed she couldn't suppress the knowledge that she had failed, that her family had failed under her watch. No matter what else happened, she had her pride in herself and her family to support her. When Yoruichi had disappeared a century ago she had clung to that sense of pride to keep from falling apart. But Lin had shattered that pride, had destroyed the foundation of her life and identity. She had trusted Lin completely, or as completely as she had ever trusted anyone. She hadn't seen a single sign that indicated she was a traitor, not one in half a century. She knew what to do, she had to file the report so Lin Feng and Akamatsu Okubo would be put on record as traitors to be apprehended dead or alive. But part of her, the part that felt things and cared about people, made her stay with Kinji. The man was a consummate pain in the ass. He had stormed her Division and injured her subordinates, had gotten her drunk, and nearly started an all-out battle in the middle of her barracks. But she felt a sense of responsibility for his injuries. Lin was her officer, her cousin.
Not to mention that Kinji's testimony would be key to figuring out why Lin had betrayed them both.
"Emi, would you please inform the Lieutenant?" She asked the medic on her left. The woman began removing her surgical clothes and moved to the door.
"Yes Captain." she said just before leaving the room. The unranked medic had been unnerved by Sui-Feng telling her Captain no. She had never seen that before and the very idea of it made her uncomfortable. Unohana removed the anesthesia drip and took a wet cloth to wipe away the drying blood from Kinji's chest and arms. Her healing had removed many of the scars, leaving behind lines of untanned skin where the scar tissue had formerly been. Sui-Feng still didn't move from her spot in the room.
"You may removed the surgical clothes now, Captain. The surgery is over." Unohana said quietly. The smaller woman shrugged out of the white garments with a single motion, proving that the clothes were not even close to fitting. She picked them up and tossed them in the bin by the door to be laundered.
"Will he be awake and coherent soon?" she asked Unohana.
"I'm not sure. His body has sustained serious damage and if his zanapkuto is any indication, his mind is in disarray. He may wake in the next few hours or the next few days."
"Is there any way to forcefully wake him up?"
"None that I will allow, Captain Sui-Feng. You may wait with him in his room. I'm sure Isane would be happy to keep you company."
Unohana was only partially correct. His mind had indeed collapsed but she had already helped him along more than she knew. The surgery and reishi infusions had allowed Kinji to restore at least some of his soul-space. The place had literally fallen to pieces around him and his zanpakuto. And when the surgery ended he was left on a plain white landscape with no discernible ground or sky.
But as thought back, he could remember what it had looked like before Miko changed everything. And, gradually, the place grew to match his memories. A lush green forest with trees that towered hundreds of feet above him faded into being. Then the bright white sky was replaced by a dark blue canopy studded with points of silver. A huge yellow moon soon joined the stars and gave a gentle illumination to the scene. Red torii gates appeared around him and formed a kind of path through the forest.
Kinji still felt weak, but he rolled himself onto his stomach and then to his knees. He took a long time to make it to his feet and several times he had fallen back to the ground and been forced to start over, learning the basic motor functions like a child does. But once he did manage to stand on his own two feet his sword burst into a ball of light blue flame. The surprise almost knocked him back down, but there was no heat in the fire. It bobbed in the air and drifted just a little down the trail. He stepped forward slowly to follow it. His memories were still in a cluttered pile that he had only begun to sift and piece together. But his gut told him that he should follow the strange guide. His first tentative steps were slowly replaced with more confident strides and after hours he had broken into a fast jog. The flame took him on a twisting path that lead him out into the forest and back to the torii gates. Then he arrived at a stone staircase that went up a steep incline. Kinji could feel a dull ache in his muscles already. He was reluctant to push himself more but the flame would not wait for him to catch his breath.
The stairs were a somewhere in the thousands, Kinji didn't even want to count them all. His legs were columns of molten lead that he had to heave up each stair. He finally collapsed when he reached the top. His legs dangled partially over the stairs and his heaving chest was on cool gray cobblestones and his sweat covered face was appreciative of the small measure of relief.
"Don't just lay there. Come join me." Kinji tilted his head to look forward. There was a perfect copy of his family home sitting in a clearing and a woman he knew he should recognize was laying on the porch. There was a bottle of sake next to her and a dish in her hand. Kinji tried to pick himself up off the ground and dropped back with a thump. He settled for crawling over to the woman and lay panting next to her. She was beautiful, with fine features and narrow golden eyes. Her gold hair was chopped straight in the front and the rest was pulled back into a ponytail. From the middle of her neck to her mid thigh was covered in a tight black fabric. But that fabric was in turn covered by a loose kimono belted around her waist but hanging open to expose a little of her curves. She was shorter than him by a few inches. When she smiled at him he could see dainty fangs on her lower and upper rows of teeth. She also had a pair of golden furred fox ears sitting on top of her head and a similarly furred tail.
The woman smiled at him and poured a sweet smelling sake into a dish. Kinji manged to push himself against one of the support beams off to her left and picked up the dish. More light familiarity tickled the back of his mind. He picked up the dish and sipped from it. The strong flavor of plums and sweet cherries swirled over his tongue. The moment he swallowed he remembered he had tasted the very same thing before. His father had bought him a bottle of this when he received his Asuachi. Members of noble families were allowed to arm and train their children outside the stricture of the Gotei 13 if they so chose. It was a very old memory. It had taken place decades before his father had died. On impulse he had dripped some of the fine drink onto the blade of his zanpakuto. It was his first real interaction with the blade that would accompany him through his adolescence. Then the memory ended.
He looked down and saw the dish empty. The woman he was drinking with refilled it, but this time the drink was different. It had a light gold color and a light, breezy scent. He sipped at it and another memory surfaced. The flavor was a little sour and acidic, the mark of wine improperly aged. It was the very first drink he had made. He had planted the grape vines himself, picked the fruit, and pressed it himself. It had been the first thing he made by himself, and his first of many failures. He saw the woman's face through a haze of morning mist and saw her speaking, but couldn't hear her words.
The dish was empty again. "You're my zanpakuto." Kinji states to the woman who was sipping her own drink. She gave him another smile and lifted a glass bottle filled with a dark red liquid. Kinji held out his dish and she poured. Kinji swirled the wine in the dish and put it to his lips. The memory began even before it touched his lips. He was in pain, very real pain. He had a gash opened in his side by a hollow. Not mortally serious, but it was still very painful. His sister was dabbing at it with a damp cloth and beginning to apply a bandage. Kinji drank from a bottle dry red of wine he had made a few years before that had come out unusually strong. "I still need practice. Kitsunebi's power isn't the easiest to use." The vision faded away again. But this time other memories were beginning to fill in the blanks between the ones his zanpakuto had explicitly shared with him.
"Kitsunebi. Your name is Kitsunebi."
"Of course it is. Keep going, you haven't even gotten to the fun parts yet." she poured another drink. And so it went. Each new drink brought more memories and he felt very keenly the emotions that went with those memories. Some were happy, some triumphant, some bitter failures. But all were parts of him that he cherished. He remembered his childhood with his family, remembered his nights of debauchery with the other heirs of the noble houses. He remembered getting the fox tattoo and the subsequent hangover.
The last drink was a dark syrupy red. Kinji started at it for a long time. It smelled like fresh blood. He could feel the pain and bitterness in the memory just holding it there. And those emotions hit him full force when he let the blood pass his lips. Then he was back on that cold night, with his father's blood spattering his face and mouth. The sword had been driven in up to the hilt and he could feel his father's pulse fading away. Then a blinding white light shot from the wound into his own chest. He could feel the cold intelligence pressing on his mind. The horror and sudden self-loathing made him react in the only way he believed he could. He pulled his zanpakuto from his father's body and stabbed himself in the center of his chest, before the possessing spirit could work its influence on him. He screamed from the pain and collapsed onto his side. Then he surrendered to the blackness crowding the edges of his vision.
When the memory ended Kinji's face felt wet and he knew they were tears. But the dish was empty, and he hoped there would be no more. But his zanpakuto held out one more bottle. This one was different. The bottle was more like a gray metallic vase that slimmed toward the top
"What is that?" Kinji asked. The smile disappeared from Kitsunebi's face.
"The missing piece." she said simply. But he understood what the words meant. It was the piece of him that Miko had taken from him to ensure he wouldn't try to force her out. It was his drive, his ambition, and his lust for all that life had to offer. "This one is going to hurt." she warned when Kinji reached for the bottle. He snorted.
"I've gotten used to pain." Kinji boasted lightly. He poured the drink into his dish and the look of it made him pause. It was a pure clear liquid, but once it was in the dish he could see bright blue flames swirling around. He downed the dish as quickly as he could. He choked a little at the burning sensation but he kept it all down. Forgoing the dish he upended the bottle and emptied it all at once. The pain multiplied with each gulp. As soon as it was empty he tipped over onto the floor. It felt like he was being burned alive from the inside. He couldn't scream, couldn't even move. The pain rapidly became the whole of his mind. His zanpakuto watched him with intense interest as he shook where he lay. Small flames danced on his skin once in a while when he gasped and tried to suck in breath. The agony that initially shook him dimmed to an insistent, full body ache after a few minutes. Kitsunebi lifted him to a sitting position again. Kinji's face was pale and drawn but a smile played at the corners of his mouth. Though lines of blood ran from the edges of that smile there was a spark in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
"Now you're my master again." The spirit said softly.
"It's been way too long Kitsunebi." Kinji was still in pain but it felt less real as he said her name. He had reclaimed himself, he was Kinji Kotetsu once more. He smiled in full. His memories, both those he had made after Miko possessed him and those before had formed a whole. He wasn't the Kinji from before or the one from after. He was both and neither, and amalgam of the two. And he was loving it. The memories of the terrible things he'd done tugged at his heart like never before, but the good memories lifted him higher than they had for the first time in a century. He was fully awake and alive. "This place is pretty nostalgic."
"Yes it is. Much better than the lightless hole
that thing shoved me into. But we can catch up later. You've been asleep for almost a full day since you nearly died. There are other people who need to see you." She helped him to his feet.
"When I'm well again, I need to start training for bankai." Kinji told her in no uncertain terms.
"We'll see." she allowed. Then Kinji opened sluggish eyelids to see three people sitting next to his bed. Isane, Renji, and Sui-Feng. He saw Isane and Renji were sleeping and leaning against each other. He chuckled a little.
"Still got it." he muttered. He'd managed to get Renji and Isane to share a moment of intense emotion. And all he'd had to do was get himself nearly killed.
"And what would that be?" Sui-Feng, still wide awake after two days of keeping watch over him, asked with all the patience and civility she could muster. He could see dark circles under her eyes and realized she hadn't slept.
"Nii-sama?" Isane asked blearily.
"Hey Isa. You seem taller." He said with a smile. He'd used the baby name he'd called her when they were both still very young. The name brought tears to her eyes and a smile to her lips. She fell onto him and squeezed him tight, ignoring the comment about her height entirely. Her sudden lean forward caused Renji to tip over and lean between Isane and the back of her chair. He didn't wake up right away. But when he did he put his hand on the nearest surface and used it to push himself back upright. Kinji heard Isane squeak as Renji's hand put pressure on her backside. She sat back upright with a deep blush covering her entire face. Unfortunately that trapped the red-haired man's hand underneath her. Renji joined Isane in blushing before she stood upright and let him retract his hand.
"Captain Abarai." Kinji said as sternly as he could with his parched throat. "I may be in the hospital, but I will do my best to kick your ass if you don't treat my sister with more respect."
"Yeah, sorry about that Isane."
"I-it's fine. How are you feeling?" she asked her brother.
"Yes," Sui-Feng interrupted, "how are you feeling?"
"Like someone stabbed me in the back and ripped my heart out." He tried to raise his right hand and scratch at the stubble on his face, but he smacked himself in the head with the flat of his zanpakuto. He was surprised to still be holding it and tried to set it down. His fingers were locked tight on it and he used his left hand to pry the digits open. The sword now lay on his lap and he looked fondly at the blade he had missed for so long. The hilt was wrapped with blue and white cord and the tsuba was polished brass star with seven points and surrounded by a thin circle.. The blade was no longer damaged, but a perfect surface of steel and razor sharp.
"Do you know why Lin attacked you, or who those other two men were?" Sui-Feng asked impatiently.
"They were after and artifact that I had. They got it too, from what I can tell. But I don't know why Lin was a part of it, or the identity of the other two men. I hadn't met either of them before then." Kinji reached for a glass of water on the nightstand but Isane beat him to it. She let him drink half the glass then set it back down. Sui-Feng looked like she was about to explode.
"Why did she do it?" Sui-Feng demanded.
"If I had to guess, she was promised something by the Tenshin, the ones who wanted the artifact. Well, I'm pretty sure its them."
"What artifact?"
"I wish I could tell you, but if you want to know you need to talk to the Captain-Commander." Sui-Feng grabbed Kinji by the white robe he was wearing and tugged him close to her face.
"You'll tell me everything you know now!"
"I can't. But I can tell you this. If the Tenshin figure out how to use what they took from me, things are going to get bad very soon." Kinji sat up straighter and climbed out of the bed. Isane tried to restrain him but Kinji waved her off. He took Sui-Feng's hand, firmly away from his robe. Or he tried. Her grip tightened and hauled him away from his bed. He quickly grabbed his zanpakuto, not willing to be away from it for any length of time.
"We're going to go see Captain Yamamoto. Now." Sui-Feng demanded. She began dragging Kinji toward the door.
"Captain Sui-Feng, please stop. He isn't fully recovered yet!" Isane protested. Renji took more direct action. He placed himself between Sui-Feng and the door.
"Move it Abarai." she growled.
"No." He said sternly, even if he didn't feel like much of a barrier against someone like her.
"What's going on in here?" Captain Unohana appeared in the doorway.
"I need to take Kotetsu here with me for a meeting."
"I'm afraid that won't be possible for at least another day, Captain Sui-Feng. As happy as I am to see that my patient is awake and in good condition, I cannot let you take him until he is released from my care." The tension ignited the air between the two women. This is what I love about you Kinji, you never let things get boring. The sly voice in his head made his smile a bit wider.
"This is my jurisdiction Unohana. Don't get in my way." Sui-Feng tried to push past the older woman with Kinji it tow. Unohana put a hand gently on the shorter woman's forehead and Sui-Feng collapsed. Or she would have if Kinji hadn't grabbed her. Despite his weakened condition he could still support the 90 pound woman with little trouble.
"Thank you, Captain." Kinji said.
"You're my patient. I wouldn't let her take you anywhere until you're healthy enough to leave. Now back to bed. It's late and you need rest."
"I appreciate it, but I'm actually feeling-" Unohana put a hand on his head and he went down just as fast as Sui-Feng. Renji and Isane jumped to catch the both of them.
"You've gotta teach me that one." Renji said, in awe of the woman.
"She just interrupted their reiatsu a little to let their body's exhaustion overwhelm their willpower. Its a trick we use when a patient is resistant to sedatives." Isane explained. She began to tuck her brother back into bed. Unohana said goodnight to them and retired to her own quarters. Renji set Sui-Feng back in the chair she had spent the last 18 hours in. Then he had an idea. It was either the most brilliant idea or the most idiotic idea he had ever conceived of. But either way, he was going to make it a reality.
"Isane, I need to know if you can keep a secret."
"I think so. Why?" She was a little worried by the look on Renji's face. She'd seen that look before and it usually ended with him in the infirmary.
"I have an idea.."
