Ichigo led him through the street, after they got out of his car. Teens hands were crossed on his chest.
"You're still not gonna talk to me? Don't be sucha whiny little bitch!" said Ichigo, ignoring a couple of looks that people send both him and Grimmjow. "You look good in that! It's Rukia who choose it!"
"But why the hell you can wear normal clothes, while I have to look like your bitch?!" he tugged on his black T-shirt angrily "It's too fuckin' tight!"
"That's the whole point. We go in, find the guy, clean the mess he made, find Byakuya and tell him that it's done, and then we will find someone to let us stay the night." Ichigo ignored the people, standing in the long line to get into the club, that shouted curses at him, and went straight in, throwing one look at the bouncer who tried to say something.
"So that's why you took spare clothes?" the end of his question drowned in the loud music, filling the crowded place.
Grimmjow saw sweat drenched bodies, dancing to the fast beat. A lot looked like they didn't knew where they were, their eyes vacant. Whole place was in the mist of a smoke, both machine-made and from people smoking near the walls, definitely not normal cigarettes. It was madness.(A/N: No it's Sparta!) Ichigo pulled him right through the middle of the mass, many of them, bumping into him, some going as far as to try and touch his hair and ass, clothed in tight jeans. Ichigo elbowed one idiot that tried to pull him into the kiss and rolled his eyes. They finally made it to the bar, and plumped onto the two barstools, after scaring two chicks to death.
"It's worse than hat n' clogs said it would be. The bastard who sells it is rich by now" Shouted orange-haired man, trying to over yell the noise. "You remember his face?!"
"Yeah!" teen nodded, glaring at the man, who was sending him weird looks, and was seated next to Ichigo. Orange head looked behind his shoulder, and smirking he leaned in to the teen, whispering into his ear. "That way he'll fuck off." When he nodded, man wrapped his arms around the smaller one's waist, pulling him closer.
"What the hell has he done?"
"You see them all? Normally it wouldn't be so wild here. That moron sells some dangerous stuff that usage disapproved even Twelfth, specs in different kind of drugs." He nuzzled his neck, and the teen shivered, remembering their bath. "But for now, we find him, take him to the side and do our job." He backed off and waved at the barman, ordering two drinks. Grmmjow cocked a brow at the alcohol.
"Gin with tonic? That stuff is not enough to even make me tipsy."
"You drink that and you smell like alcohol. You act drunk and get what you want. I don't fancy having anything stronger on a mission, kid, and I'm too tired to actually solve this like I should." Ichigo grimaced, remembering him calming Kenpachi down. He gulped down whole glass at once, glancing around the place, catching a glimpse of familiar short, light-green haired girl, who looked way to young to be here. Ichigo gulped, when he recognized her. He made Grimmjow drink his alcohol and pulled him by his forearm in the direction of the backdoors, leading to the back alley. They might as well start with the obvious one. "Now you shut up and do as I say. Play hard to get in that alley."
"What?!"
They made it to the back door, with Grimmjow trying to make himself free, and Ichigo pushed them open, pushing him out. Man pinned the teen to the wall and started a bruising kiss. Teen struggled hard, and tried to shout, but Ichigo moved his arms above his head and silenced him with his mouth.
"Shaddup, bitch!" Ichigo shouted, replacing his lips with his hand, and pushing his knee in between Grimmjow's thighs. The teen had a 'what-the-fuck' look on his face, and tried to struggle out of orange-haired man's hold on his wrists. "Ya thought tha I 'd le' sucha cutie alone, huh? Yur ass's mine now…" he licked teen's jaw and nibbled at his ear. He heard footsteps behind him. That was quick, he thought.
"Hey, my friend." Ichigo shouted inwardly in victory, and turned his head, narrowing his eyes.
"Whatta hell, do ya wan'?!"
"I have something that will make it easier for you" said the stranger, walking toward them. He had short reddish hair, and was clothed in black. He couldn't has been more than twenty. Another young idiot, thought Ichigo.
"R'lly? Show me then, ma frien'"
The man was standing about half a meter from them, and when he took out small plastic bag with blue powder within, Grimmjow tried to shout again.
"Shaddup, whore!" yelled Ichigo, applying some more pressure on his mouth. "What's tha' stuff?"
"It's a new one. Makes them hot and bothered."
"How much?"
"For you… I will cut the price for you, if you give me a try on that little whore here." Teen shouted (at least tried to) angrily, but it came out as a pathetic whimper from behind of orange-haired man's hand.
Ichigo growled low in his throat and let go of the teen, quickly grabbed the stranger by his neck and pinned him to the wall just beside Grimmjow. Said teen breathed in loudly and coughed, when he was able to breathe properly.
"You asshole! I thought ya would suffocate me!" he shouted.
"Let me go, ya fucker! Don't you know who I am?!" yelled the stranger, struggling. He looked into Ichigo's eyes and something in his head clicked. He was fucked.
"You really thought that you can sell this shit here, and it would go unnoticed?" he squeezed harder, and man gasped for air like a fish. "Even if Byakuya didn't want to dirty his own hands, you should have known that he would contact us." Grimmjow watched, leaning against the wall.
"Why won't you just shoot him?" he asked casually, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Because I don't have to." The man answered, grinning madly. "I can just keep squeezing, and squeezing, till he's dead. It's quieter this way, don't you think?" he loosened his hold on the man's neck. "And funnier. You, idiot." He said harshly, making the man whimper in fear. "From where you have this shit?"
"I-I've stolen it!"
" You have stolen enough to make this whole place high?!" Shouted Ichigo, but then smiled kindly. Grimmjow eyed him warily, not liking how wrong such a kind smile looked on the other's features. His eyes were in the way. "I might just let you go if you tell me." He was gripping the man as strong as it was needed for him not to escape, but lightly enough to let him breathe properly. It appeared that he was thinking the same as Grimmjow, as he started to shake more violently.
"It just appeared at my place, I swear! There was a note with it saying that it would make me rich!"
"From who?"
"I don't know!" Ichigo looked at him closely, and started to grin.
"Are you a part of any division?"
"T-third…"
"Good. I never liked Gin anyway." Ichigo gripped stronger again.
"You said…!"
"I lied." Ichigo turned his head toward the stunned teen, still staring at the whole scene. "You wanna kill him?"
"What…?" Grimmjow shook himself out of the trance, and took one step back unconsciously. "I thought that…"
"Well, our job is to get a rid of everyone that can be a source of conflict. Besides, I want you to know the difference between killing someone with cold blood and protecting yourself from someone. Come here." The man said, in a tone that knew nothing of objection.
Grimmjow hesitantly ducked under Ichigo's arm and placed his hands on his, and looked into the soon-to-be-death's eyes, which spoke of fear. Teen's breath picked up slightly, only to transform into harsh panting. When he started to tighten his hands, every little sound , the muffled, banging beat of the music leaking from the inside, the cars passing by the alley on the street, the drunken shouts of people on the street nearby, and even the yells of the man he was killing, everything was slowly getting silent, apart from Ichigo's voice in his ears. Soft breath tickled his neck and he shuddered a little, trying to calm himself down from sick excitement he felt rushing through his veins.
"Harder, Grimmjow. He can still breathe." His words were loud like an avalanche to him. Man rested his chin on his shoulder, but he ignored it, all of his focus on his victim.
He didn't feel orange-haired man's hands slipping from underneath his own, but he felt his pray's rapid pulse, as much as his own. Reddish haired man's hands gripped his wrists in futile attempt of freeing himself, and he struggled wildly, his mouth opening and closing in hope for catching this one, so much needed breath, and his eyes rolled to the back of his skull. Yells transformed into pathetic whimpers. Time slowed down making those minutes seem as hours, when his pray struggled less and less, his heartbeat slower and slower, until, just like that, it…
…stilled.
"It's enough, Grimmjow." Ichigo whispered, and the teen slowly came back to reality. He let go of the corpse, that fell to the ground ungracefully. Teen took a step back, hitting Ichigo's hard chest with his back and looked at the man he killed, into his open, glassy eyes, then at his own hands. His breath was calming down a little. "How do you feel?"
"I…"
Good.
Bad.
Wonderful.
Sick.
Extraordinary.
Confused as hell.
"… know the difference now."
"That's good. Come, we have to go to Byakuya now."
Ichigo didn't bug him further, leaving him to his own thoughts, only looking closely at him while was searching through the killed man's pockets, taking keys, a couple more packets with the drugs and his whole wallet.
Unlike earlier, they didn't have to make their way through the crowd, which Grimmjow was thankful for. He didn't feel like being with and close to people. They went up the stairs, and through the corridor that led to single, black door. Ichigo opened them and went inside, flashing a bright smile to him and shut the door with a loud bang.
"What. The. Hell?!"yelled Grimmjow, staring at the door. When he tried to open them, the knob resisted. His brow twitched, when he rested his back against the surface and slid down on the floor.
"I so hate your ass."
"Hey Byakuya!" shouted Ichigo, disturbing the peace of black-haired man's office. It was quite nice, sound-proofed room, and its simplicity said much about its owner- the only extravagant thing, beside a huge mahogany desk, was a wall made of glass. Ichigo could see the very same mass of people that he had to make his way through having fun, looking through it.
"It's Kuchiki-dono to you, Zangetsu." Byakuya said coldly from his sitting place behind the desk. Orange-haired man rolled his eyes, while sliding his fingertips over the backs of the books on shelves. He walked over to the couch and sat down, resting his feet on the coffee table. "Take your legs off the table, insolent brat."
"We're alone, Byakuya, call me by my name." said orange-haired man, getting as comfortable as he could. "Still have a stick up your ass?"
"I believe that is not of your concern. I assume you did what you were supposed to do, if you are here, Kurosaki. I am surprised that Abarai was not send here instead, through."
"He's off screwing your little sister in her precious morgue." Ichigo took one of the packets with the drug and threw it in front of Byakuya, who took it in his hand and lifted it on his eye-level.
"You will not speak of any Kuchiki in such a manner, you insolent brat." He opened his drawer and placed the bag inside. "Especially when you make Yoruichi visit me ." he added.
"I thought so. She's angry."
"Not much now. She is more disappointed, I think, and left the city a couple of hours ago." Man's brow twitched slightly when he remembered his ex-teacher's almost four hours long speech about ungrateful brats.
"What did she said about me?"
"She merely stated her opinion about your relation with Aizen-san. Nothing of my interests, but apparently she thought otherwise." He said, going back to what he has been doing before Ichigo barged in, which was sorting his paperwork out. Bills could be a pain in the ass when they were forgotten, and they usually tend to come back to kick you right it hurt when you expects it less. "Actually, one thing I want to know about. She said that you brought to the mansion 'Aizen's traitorous little slave' with you."
"He's not his slave. I bought him there, that's all. He seemed interesting, but I'm as disgusted with this as you are, Byakuya."
"Where is the said boy then? He should be following you right now, like you were following Urahara-san, as Seireitei's laws state, I believe." Kuchiki glanced at him from behind a particularly big gray envelope.
"Bet he's cursing me right now. I left him behind the door." Ichigo said, grinning madly. "Anyway, I think I saw a cop down there." He pointed at the club part of the building. "Dunno if Aizen knew about it though. The woman's crazy enough to come here alone just to have fun and that's what she's probably doing."
Byakuya nodded his head in acknowledgement, not even looking at him.
A couple of hours earlier
"I told you to stay in my office."
"With that creepy thing you have there?" asked Renji, smirking lightly, leaning against the wall casually. Like he wasn't observing Rukia, bend over the table with a scalpel in her hand, currently cutting out something he believed was the little girl's heart. He swallowed hard, when she finally got it out of the body, and whistling, weighted it. Renji shook his head wondering why even cutting somebody open she was so cute. It was sick on his part, he was certain of that.
"Again, have you got something against my couch?" Rukia scribbled something on the chart, cursing when she stained it with blood. "It's a gift from Nii-sama, and I love it. The heart's okay." She mumbled to herself. "It's normal. She was a healthy child, with no real problems, maybe apart from being a little too thin. I can tell that the wound on her arm was made before her death, and her ankle was twisted too. A couple of cuts on her back and stomach, and one bruise on her fore arm. Nothing that could kill her though. She wasn't raped, and there is no trace of other sexual abuse. Her insides are in good shape, although the left lung is collapsed and her brain is kind of nonexistent now…" Renji was long accustomed to her talking to herself while working, but paid close attention to what she said. When she lifted the white cloth that have been covering girl's head and Renji paled a little. He hasn't seen it yet, having come down to the morgue right after Rukia had been done with examining the scull. Her brain?, he thought, gagging a little, it's like her whole head's fuckin' nonexistent!. Black haired woman let the sheet fall from her fingers back to its place. "This was the major cause of her death as you can tell."
"Even Ikkaku could tell what caused her death. It's fuckin obvious." Grumbled Renji. She snickered a bit.
"But I took a sample of her blood, and the test's running right now, as like the samples of her organs. I think she might had something in her system."
"Why?"
"Something was off with her blood, at least that what the idiot I have sent for her body said me. He said that it had had a sweet smell to it, nothing like a normal iron scent, more like vanilla, but it wore off since then."
"That's creepy."
"Yeah. The previous children's blood wasn't like that, but if I'll find something in her, then I'll know what to look of in them."
"How long will it take?" asked Renji, after blowing on his fingers. Down there was slightly colder then above.
"A half an hour, maybe fifty minutes. We can go up now, I'm finished with her." She said, while zipping the body inside a huge plastic bag and wheeling it to the actual mortuary, where the corpses have been held. Se took of her goggles and apron. "All that's left now is waiting for results."
"Yeah." Whispered Renji smirking lightly. He turned his head away from her and mumbled something out, too quiet for her to understand.
"What did you say? I couldn't hear!"
"Maybe…" he started, blushing madly. He wanted to slap himself for being so shy – all of the woman he has been with were easy to talk to, so why it was so difficult now?! "After this is over, would you like to go somewhere or something…?"
"Yes, sure."
Still couple of hours ago
"So guys, let's sum it up. You haven't found anything that could lead us to discovering who the suspect is?" the group in front of Shinji nodded, making him close his eyes in irritation. "And the victims' connection with the gang called Eleventh?" again nodding. "And you, Hiyori, any info on Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"Apart from a ridiculous amounts of unpaid mandates, nothing." Small woman, sitting with her legs crossed on the table said. "Nothing on his disappearance too. It's like the guy vanished at the age of ten and came back to the live when he was fifteen."
"Kensei? Something about Sode-chick?" huge, white haired man shook his head.
Shinji rubbed his forehead, groaning. There was absolutely nothing more they could do. Most of the information they had was from Seireitei, and it wasn't enough- like the women he spoke with wanted him to back off. He sat down heavily in his chair and sighed, resting his forehead on the table.
"Ya know, Shinji, we can just let that Sode girl you have been speakin' with handle it. That's how it is done here. Hell, even Aizen's doing nothing!' said Hiyori.
"Yeah." Added Lisa, not stopping reading her hard-core yuri manga "It was always like this. Police handles small punks, and they do the rest."
"I'm not gonna let that fucker …"
"Detective Hirako. I think that you shouldn't talk like that in ladies presence."
Shinji looked to his left at Aizen sitting in the corner on the only armchair available in here. His favorite armchair. "Ladies? I don't see any …" he stopped speaking when he fell of the chair, with the pattern of Hiyori's sandal imprinted on his forehead and Lisa's manga in his gut.
"Detective Hirako." Aizen said calmly, with a smile on his face. "I believe that we have better things to do than wasting our time here. Somebody turned in again, and somebody have to interrogate him."
"They turn in only because they're scared." Mumbled Love under his nose and Kensei nodded in approval.
"Nevertheless, they do, so please, Rose and Love, go and do it." He said with a little more force to his voice. Said men walked away, groaning. "Good. And I have something to discuss with Detective Hirako personally, so…"
"Way to kick people out, Aizen-san." Snorted Hiyori, and stood up. "C'mon guys, I have cards in my desk. Wanna play?" everybody started to follow her.
Suddenly, quiet until now Hachi looked around and said:
"Has anybody seen Maschiru?"
"She's probably in the city." Said Kensei, shutting the door behind them.
Shinji stared after them, feeling the sudden urge to break something. The people he was forced to work with were all insane (maybe apart from Hachi), and terrible at what they were doing. Good buddies, but horrible police officers.
"We never had the chance of speaking about your meeting with Zangetsu. I believe that you wanted to ask me some more about him?" Aizen's smooth voice shook him out of his thoughts.
"How is that they don't know about Ichigo Kurosaki being Zangetsu? From what I heard from you, he's like famous here!"
"It's top secret, even the file you read. They may know about Zangetsu existing, but they won't tie him with Kurosaki-kun."
"Yeah. But for now, in his files I came across my father's person. I want to know if you know who killed him."
"So forward, Detective Hirako. I'm afraid I can't tell you that, because I don't know. We tried to search for his killer, but in vain. All we know till now, is that he was in possession of Kurosaki Ichigo's, who was missing at the time, position. I believe you read about it in the files."
"And Seireitei?"
"It was established half a year after his death. It is a very young organization."
Shinji looked closely at him. The man was smiling kindly, not minding any question he asked. Blond knew something was off. "What are your ties to Seireitei?" he asked suddenly, digging holes into the other's head, as if hoping to read the truth from the inside.
"I simply let them do what I think is the best for civilians and for me."
"And Kurosaki?" he observed the man hesitate a little before giving his answer.
"We've shared… a deep bond."
"By any means I don't want to pry, but what kind of bond?'
"I don't mind it at all, Detective Hirako. I feel like I owe you. I had been your father's colleague, and I wasn't able to find his killer." The man took a deep breath. "We've been lovers for quite a while."
Shinji's eyes widened and he gaped. Now that was something he wasn't expecting. He could see his Boss being indebted to Kurosaki in some way or another, hell he could think that they were friends, but that was something.
"For a couple of years actually, but I learned my lesson."
"What did he do?" he wanted to slap him for that question. He wasn't interested in a freakin' gay romance Aizen had, he wasn't at all. Yeah, keep living in denial Shinji.
"He found somebody else. But I can't bring myself to hate him for it, actually it was me who pushed him away." Which was the closest to the truth Aizen ever said in their conversation.
Later on, Shinji got out of the room dumbstruck, without any information he wanted to hear- he still didn't know about his father's murder. And Aizen was sitting in Hirako's favorite armchair, smiling slyly. That should calm the prying Detective down for a while.
Back to present
Not so many knew that Ichigo actually enjoyed a silence that was always present when he met Byakuya. It was calming him down a lot, actually the black-haired man was almost the less annoying of all the people he knew in his life and he rarely got out of his office angered – he was relaxing (when he wasn't calling him an insolent brat) , some may said. He liked watching the man work, an oddity he shared with Rukia, mostly losing his grasp of time. So when he saw what hour it was, he paled. Grimmjow was behind the door about the hour and a half, and orange haired man had a feeling that he was pissed off. A lot.
So after saying goodbye to Byakuya and a couple of curses later, both he and the teen were back in his car. And his previous peace was replaced by furious anger, as Grimmjow was giving him silent treatment. He decided it was the damn time for the other to stop fusing, and opened his mouth to say something, but teen only grunted and looked through the window. Ichigo was angry now.
"Say something to me, or I swear that by the end of this night you'll be waving your virginity goodbye!" he shouted, gripping the wheel stronger to the point his knuckles went white.
"You wouldn't dare."
"You wanna bet on this? I have no respect whatsoever and almost no sense of morality. I did worse than making you submit in a way you don't want to."
Grimmjow rolled his eyes, still glaring through the window. Who might have thought that the man would be so pissed off with silence? He had every right to be mad – he had spent almost two fuckin' hours sitting in the hall like a dog.
"Where are we going?" he asked, not really caring for an answer.
"To that man's you killed house. He had his freakin' ID in his wallet, and I took the keys. We can spend the night there." Ichigo looked at the other from the corner of his eye, and saw him tense slightly. He saw that his eyes widened too, it reflected clearly in the window of the car. He decided that it wasn't a talk he wished to happen here and now, so he continued "But before I have to look through his things."
Grimmjow nodded absentmindedly, as he recalled the excitement he felt feeling his victim's pulse under his fingers. It was like he had shoot a line for the first time – he didn't know if he wanted more or if he wanted to forget. For now though, he tried to forget, giving his mind a bit of a rest for now. Ichigo didn't bug him more, but he felt a sudden urge to talk. He cursed quietly. He acted like a goddamn chick.
"How do you feel… when you kill?"
Ichigo glanced at him, taking a deep breath and wondering if it was too early to force him to kill someone. Although he brushed it off, as his mind told him that Grimmjow should be used to killing. He should be just careful not to like it to much.
"It's like nothing in this world. It's addicting. I feel a rush of adrenaline, and sick excitement in my gut. I want to laugh when I do it." The teen looked at him, stunned. "I hope that this answer your question well enough."
They were quiet for the rest of the ride.
A/N: Well, I'm after a mini course 'how to connect a computer to the Internet' provided by my friend, since my parents think that I have better grades without it. Bullshit. Anyway, I tried to make this one longer than the rest, since I haven't updated in such a long time. I hope it's good.
Thank You for your reviews so far, and I encourage you to review more,
~The One
