On Blade's Edge

Chapter Ten

The Storm Breaks

Friday May 23rd, 2014 – 9:00 am

Rukongai Motel

Shiro stood in the bathroom at a no name hotel along the main road of Rukongai. It was a pay by the hour. He stood and stared at the reflection looking back at him. With his hair having no color, the hair dye took well. His hair was perhaps a shade or two lighter than Ichigo's, but once he cut the extra length off of it, it looked like it. He then reached into the bag and took out the needle and leaned over, piercing his eyebrows in the way Ichigo's had been done. He glanced up to the mirror where the picture of Ichigo from when he was taken into the hospital was taped. He'd get as close as he could to the appearance. He wiped away the blood. It wouldn't matter if the skin was red; he had to cake on makeup anyway. He went ahead with the other facial piercings, the cheeks, the lips, but he knew he couldn't manage the ears so he left his hair to hang over them. He did put a few in so at least the lobes were pierced.

He looked himself over and nodded. He'd sleep for a while and let the piercings set. He'd already taken a large dose of painkillers, and had used lidocaine on his face before he started. He didn't need the rest; of course, he'd be wearing the yukata he'd bought. It was sure to get Nnoitra's attention tonight before the meeting began. He smiled, letting his head drift away to dreams of what he had planned. Nnoitra's life would end, that was certain. And he, he would die today too. Perhaps just not in the way others expected. He turned off the lamp and let himself fade.

Today was the day his Kuro would be free. Today was the day that he would be free.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

10:00 am

Rukongai police department

Byakuya looked up as the rain began to pound on the windows. What happened to the storm blowing past them for the most part? They hadn't had a typhoon this strong in a while. He looked over the documents for the police action later that night. If the rain kept up, though, it was going to make things more difficult. There was a knock at the door and he looked up to see one of his officers handing him a file.

"Sir you should see this," he said softly. "It's an emergency weather report."

The man handed a file to Byakuya. "This could complicate matters," he muttered and stood up to turn on the TV.

"…from the weather service Typhoon conditions are possible in the next twenty four to forty eight hours. Advice immediate evacuation from coastal areas, and inland areas should remain indoors. Board windows if possible, and stay inside. Do not, repeat, do not go out into these conditions. Again, we repeat, the typhoon that was going to pass several miles outside the eastern coastline has changed direction and heading directly inland at this time. Anyone along the Ojiga-hama Coast needs to take measures to protect themselves…"

Byakuya turned it off. "A typhoon. In the middle of the biggest bust we've had in the last fifteen years." He sighed and shook his head.

He looked up as someone knocked on his door. "Ukitake," he said as the tall, white haired man came in a sat down, coughing into a tissue and smiling.

"How's Rukia?" he asked.

Byakuya nodded. "Good, I think sending her and Renji to stay at the Seireitei was the best idea. They're an extra layer of protection to keep the house safe. She's struggling. I sense a lot of guilt from both of them. The best way to fix it, though is to take down Aizen's operation and put an end to this, finally."

Ukitake nodded. "You know, you need this to end. You've worked yourself to the bone after that Las Noches case you had to pull off of."

Byakuya shook his head softly. "If it weren't for me, my family, we could have got him for that murder."

"We couldn't, and you know that. He had Hisagi's brother. There was never a chance. But we've got everything now. I've got so much on the bastard's drug division it is enough to sink him for two lifetimes. Zaraki's nailed the human trafficking to the wall, and I know that with Harribel coming in, we can freeze his legal assets. He can't get away this time," he said, pausing to cough into the tissue in his hand and panting for breath. "We all need a long break after this," he said as he stood. "I've got to make sure my teams are set to go."

Byakuya nodded and went over the files on the weather. If that typhoon it them dead on, it would help or hinder them, there was no guarantee of either. He sighed, and started making calls to the other captains that were helping with organization. This operation was huge, and it had to be, or things would fall through completely. He had given out all the information that they'd gathered to everyone. Now it was just a matter of waiting, and hoping that the blasted typhoon was on their side by the end of the day.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

10:30 am

Seireitei Safe House

Isshin sat and watched as the news began to report that the weather was turning bad. He looked up and saw Grimmjow sitting alone and staring into the distance, and he wondered what he had done to get involved with Aizen. What drove someone who had an obvious moral compass to do these things. He got up and moved closer to him. The blue haired man looked up, scratching the stubble growing over the ornate jawbone tattooed to his face.

"Typhoon conditions they're saying," Isshin said, glancing at the TV that was still on.

"Yeah," Grimmjow said, glancing over as well. "Hope the bust goes well."

Isshin nodded. After a few minutes he said, "Why, I'd like to know, why were you involved with Aizen?"

Grimmjow sighed and glanced at Nel who was in the kitchen with Orihime. "Stupid, to be honest, got caught by the wrong people. I'd be dead if I wasn't so good with explosives. I was useful, so I was kept. That's what he does, keep people that are useful and throw away the rest," he said with a nod. "And go after your loved ones, of course. And no one was more important than her, and I knew if I didn't do what he said, she was dead. He doesn't give us much choice at the end of the day, you know."

Grimmjow sighed, looking around. Isshin nodded and glanced at Urahara. "I suppose I can't blame you for getting stuck."

Grimmjow nodded. "So how are you involved? I mean, I got that Urahara is Aizen's brother, but you're Urahara's brother?"

Isshin nodded. "Urahara and Aizen share the same mother, and Urahara and I share the same father," he said with a soft smile. "We lost our cousin Kaien when Urahara left Aizen, because Kaien was helping him. He was murdered in Las Noches the week before my son was kidnapped. Urahara came to me after his murder, but it was too late because Aizen was already going after him. I was sitting there, the entire time, and it wasn't until his friend Orihime screamed that we even knew something was wrong. By the, well, you were there."

Grimmjow nodded. "Yeah, Ulquiorra and me did that one, Nnoitra was driving the van. I…" Grimmjow paled. "I'm glad I was there, because Nnoitra was talking shit the entire way back to Aizen's compound. The minute he fucking laid eyes on him, fucking perverted bastard…" he said, running a hand over his head. "I never thought, you know, that Aizen would let him…"

Isshin nodded. "I never thought he'd do something like that either. Murder is one thing, but to do what he did…" he said with a sigh. "Sometimes I can't believe I've lost so much to one person's greed…"

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Flashback

Thursday June, 21st, 2007

Casino de Las Noches

"Are you sure?" Kaien said, glancing at his cousin. "You are really sure? He's doing that?"

Kisuke Urahara was standing inside the main office at Casino de Las Noches with his cousin Kaien Shiba, the man who been raised beside his father's youngest son, Isshin, and the one man he knew he could trust. Kaien ran the Casino on the up and up. He rented out the areas to Aizen's "friends" but he didn't know what went on there. The Casino belonged to him, after all. He'd bought it with hard earned money over the years.

"Kaien you don't understand, he's taking the Casino," Urahara said, running a hand through his pale blonde hair and glancing out the window for signs of his elder half-brother. Kaien was his cousin, Urahara's father's youngest brother was Kaien's father and Kaien had been raised as Isshin's brother practically by his mother, Kukaku.

"I don't, what do you mean?" Kaien asked, meshing dark brows together and staring at the paperwork.

Urahara sighed. "He's already drawn up the papers. He's bought it out from under you, Kaien. He's coming tonight to tell you that the Casino is his."

"How…why?" he asked, looking up at Urahara.

"You're a good man, that's why. He can't trust you. You have to understand, he's doing terrible things, cousin, terrible things. He's running drugs, prostitutes, all sorts of things. I didn't know, but now I do and this is the proof," he said, holding out a folder filled with files. I'm going to meet Lieutenant Kuchiki. He's going to help me get out of this before someone else gets hurt…these men he's bringing with him aren't friends, they aren't coworkers; they're violent and gangsters," Urahara said. "He knows you'll turn him in, so he's got to get rid of you. But this place, this is where he's doing everything."

Urahara had come to this conclusion the hard way after coming out and nearly running into the short, pale man with green eyes standing outside his house. It took him a little while to figure out that he was following him. When he stopped him and asked who he was he just said he was his "protection". Urahara didn't buy that for a second, but it took almost all day to shake the bastard from his tail. Once he had, he'd come to see Kaien. Maybe he could save him. He'd ended up getting all the paperwork he needed, including the emails he had hacked from the servers and deleted documents he'd recovered from Aizen's personal computer. Not only that, he had the money trails, the account numbers, and the dealers names. Everything. He would put a stop to it once and for all.

Aizen closed his eyes. Aizen had always had ambition, but to go this far. There was a buzz from his phone system and he saw that someone had pushed the panic alarm. He looked up. Aizen with a couple of men walking behind him carrying guns. That's why the security man had hit the panic alarm.

"Shit," Kaien said and looked at Urahara. "Look, back room, bottom drawer of the black file cabinet, this is the key, it is everything that Aizen's ever done here. He has the other key," he said, pressing the key into Urahara's hand. "I'll buy you some time," he said and smiled gently.

"Kaien, you should run, he's…" Urahara said. He didn't want to say that Aizen had no plans to let him live.

"I know. I'm disposable, but you aren't, take care of that little brother of mine, well, the fat one and the brat with the kids. I'll do what I can," he said, patting him on the back and pointing to the door that led to the file room. "Just hurry."

Urahara just nodded and hit the stairs. He fumbled into the cabinet and got the files and was just getting into the alley when he heard the sharp report of the gunshot. He closed his eyes and gave a prayer before he ran for all he was worth. He had to get out of Rukongai and make it to Karakura Town before Aizen got to Isshin and his kids.

Inside, things happened so fast that even those that saw it were shocked into silence before everyone started running. Kaien came out and Aizen stopped and then grinned.

"You helped him."

"Of course," Kaien said, smiling. "I had to."

"Of course you did, of course," Aizen said and turned to the tall, lanky man behind him and held out his hand. The lanky man with dark hair put a gun in Aizen's hand. "You know what that means."

"You took my place, there's nothing left," Kaien said with a smile.

"True. And I was going to let you leave, Kaien Shiba, under threat that I'd go after your little family, Isshin was his name, right, the one your mother raised? See, he's also Urahara's brother. And I need to hurt him. Now, I really need to hurt you. So I'm going to go after him. That way you can both have knowledge that you are at fault for the pain you bring him. So I want you to die knowing that by helping Urahara in his misguided attempt at justice, you've condemned your precious family," Aizen said, holding up the pistol and looking at him. "Anything you want to say?"

Kaien shrugged. "I knew that you'd be the death of me."

Aizen nodded and pulled the trigger. The noise sent the employees running and very few were stopped before they got out. The Hisagi boy managed to hide until the cops arrived but other than that, the others fled. Aizen wiped the camera footage before he left. The cops arrived to find one witness, one dead body, and one gun wiped free of prints. Aizen was taken in, but tested negative for gunshot residue, of course he'd changed clothes immediately and had worn gloves. The only thing connecting him was the Hisagi boy. Then, things fell apart rapidly. By the next day, Urahara arrived at Isshin's house, and Sunday morning they were already deciding how to go about things when Ichigo was kidnapped.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

Friday May 23rd, 2014 – 1:00 pm

Seireitei Safe House

Ichigo looked up to the high windows where wind and rain lashed at them. It reminded him of more than one occasion that he'd been bound during such storms inside the compound. Nnoitra had always been upset by storms for some reason. He never really knew the answer to that one. He turned when he heard the door open and close and saw that it was Zaraki returning with lunch for him. He still couldn't handle being out in the open so much yet.

"Hey, brought you something different," Zaraki said, sitting down on the bed beside where Ichigo was curled into a ball against the headboard. Zaraki wished that he would show some sign that he was coming out of it. Of course, it hadn't been a week yet, so he was trying to be patient. It was just so hard. He had to find that one thing to bring him out, though, he had to find that one thing worth lighting that spark.

Ichigo nodded and sat up, glancing up as a strong gust of wind whistled against the high window. "What did you bring?" he asked, slowly coming toward him.

Zaraki smiled and pulled the lid off the plate to reveal an elegantly prepared plate of sushi. Ichigo's father had told him that he adored sushi, especially rainbow rolls. Ichigo's eyes lit up immediately. Zaraki smiled finally as he reached out and tentatively picked up the chopsticks and plucked one of the rolls from the plate and dipped it into the wasabi slowly, as though it was going to disappear. Without thinking, Ichigo had moved to kneel in front of the small table, and he started eating for the first time without prompting from Zaraki. Before he knew it, he'd finished it off and then he stared at the empty plate and back to Zaraki and then to the plate.

"I…I…I…" he stammered.

"Hush, don't start apologizing for eating the food I gave you to eat," Zaraki groused, moving the table and turning to look at him as he took the chopsticks from his slackening hands.

Ichigo couldn't believe it. He ate food without asking, without instruction, without…was Zaraki right? Were they all right? Was it possible he wasn't completely dead inside?

A loud and glass rattling boom of thunder shocked Ichigo into yelping, just at that moment and he grabbed onto the nearest thing, which was of course, Zaraki. The larger man held to the trembling form as Ichigo tightened his grip. He swallowed and shook his head, but he refused to say it. He wasn't going to keep being sorry. He wasn't sorry. So instead he just held the larger man all the tighter and remembered vividly the last time he'd been in these conditions.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Flashback

November 2013

Espada Compound

Ichigo had long since stopped resisting. Things now moved in a clockwork fashion for him. He did as he was instructed. There was only one exception, and that was now and then, he had the overwhelming desire to run, and he did just that. When it happened, it led to sound beatings, and a night fixed in place on the cross or the chair, but he still would do it anyway. The only way he had to rebel was in those moments. Despite the pain, his spirit was not completely broken.

That fact alone was enough to keep Nnoitra interested in him. No matter the pain, the beatings, the humiliation, or torture he put Ichigo through, he still didn't break completely. Nnoitra loved it. He had found someone with an unbreakable spirit, and he reveled in his ownership of him. He reveled in showing him off and making certain that everyone knew that he enjoyed the fact he was not a shell groveling at his feet.

It was one of the storms that had pushed Nnoitra and Ichigo from their rooms. The skylight had crashed down and they were forced out into one of the common rooms to wait out the storm. Nnoitra had wrapped Ichigo's leash around his leg and kept him pressed tight against his leg while he played idly with his hair. Zommari came in, leading his doped up Luppi behind him and sitting him in front of the fireplace.

"You sure you ain't in love with your boy?" Zommari said with a smirk.

Nnoitra narrowed his eyes at the large man across from him. "Fuck off, Zommie. I've told you, don't piss me off. I've got more dirt on you than anyone except old Barragan," he said with a roll of his eyes.

Zommari snorted. "Shut up, Nnoitra."

"What? You wouldn't want that daddy of yours to learn that the real reason you haven't given him an heir is that you're too busy fucking boys up the ass instead of finding a pussy hole?" Nnoitra said with a wide smirk, hands still threading through Ichigo's hair.

Zommari glared at him. "We agreed, Nnoitra, are you breaking your part of our bargain?"

Nnoitra rolled his eyes. "No, fuck, just messing with you, dammit. Our agreement is still on. You get a bitch of mine to fuck and knock up, and your asshole crime family gets an heir. When are you going to do that shit, anyway? You ain't got a lot of time, you know."

Zommari sighed. "Soon, I guess."

Zommari had joined Aizen's group through Barragan on one of the old man's visits to Central and South America. He was the youngest son of a Haitian crime family and had no real future in the family, but a whole lot of good connections for Aizen to exploit by using the Rureaux family name in the Caribbean and Central America. He was expected to give a child to the family before he turned forty; else his father would disown him. If that happened, he'd be blacklisted and no doubt be dead within a month. He only had a couple years before he was out of time, and putting them off with the reason he hadn't found the right woman was starting to wear thin. Almost twenty years of the same excuse had even his mother wary. Nnoitra knew this, and to keep Zommari on his side, he used the fact he knew it. He'd told Zommari to give him one of his girls to knock up if he promised to be a good boy. Zommari couldn't stand the bastard, but there wasn't much choice. His father wouldn't care that he was gay, but he would care that he wouldn't be given an heir.

"Fuck, you Nnoitra," he said, standing up and taking Luppi and leaving him alone in the room.

Nnoitra looked down and a smile crossed his face as he ran his hands through Ichigo's hair. "Baby boy, you are the only reason I live," he whispered before the thunder drowned out his voice.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Present

Friday May 23rd, 2014 – 2:00 pm

Seireitei Safe House

Wonderweiss hissed at the TV again as the power flickered on and off. The storm didn't seem to bother him in the least. However, everyone else had gathered with him around the TV. The satellite had gone out, of course, and the only thing they had was an old DVD of game shows that had been in Wonderweiss's bag. Since there's a backup generator even if they lose power, the TV won't go out, and it is keeping everyone's mind off the building Typhoon outside their doors. Even with the insulation of the Safe House, they can all hear the storm blowing in. Before the reception went out, weather said that the typhoon was going to hit them head on and had no sign of slowing down before expected landfall at eight that evening.

"Oh, good lord, look at that hair!" Tatsuki said, pointing to one of the done up high hairstyles on the show.

There was giggling among the girls. It seemed that Nel had become fast friends with Orihime and Tatsuki, and it seemed she was quickly becoming close to Lisa and Mashiro. Hiyori still hung back from all of them. Rose was still in talking to Luppi, and Zaraki had gone in with Ichigo over an hour ago. Isshin and Grimmjow sat together at the kitchen table, halfway watching the TV, and halfway watching the scanner that sat in the middle of the table. Renji and Rukia, of course had gone with the teams. Shinji and the others were lying around the room in various places, trying to watch the TV shows with the girls, but looking back at the table, unsure of where they would better be.

Another round of thunder sent the TV off and Wonderweiss let out a strange sound and then the generator kicked on. He muttered a few things and then returned the TV and DVD back on so they could watch it again. No one complained when it started all over again. They just went on and watched it, some of them speaking the answers in time with the DVD, and picking on the merchandise sales and laughing crazily. Rin had taken to sitting very close to Wonderweiss and seemed to have become quite good friends with him. No one was talking about what was coming. They all knew the storm would be breaking soon.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Friday May 23rd, 2014 – 5:00 pm

Casino de Las Noches

Shiro moved into his position at around four pm, making sure to stay in view of the Shinigami agents. He saw more than one of them grow annoyed because they were under orders to restrain him. He knew the game, and no one could play it better than him. Shiro had his own play to make. He had to make it. For himself, and for Kuro. So instead, he sat at the bar; drinking sake and waiting until he head the first familiar voice enter the front where he sat. The back room entrance was a few feet from where he sat. He smiled as he heard Zommari's voice and saw the huge black man pass him to go into the back.

Outside Byakuya was trying to keep the microphones working but the rain was drenching by this point. They could not move until Aizen was on sight. They had enough to put him away, but they had to catch him first.

"First one's arriving, Rureaux, sir," Renji said from his position inside the front coat closet. Byakuya always grinned when Renji called him sir. He thought it was adorable.

"Keep an eye out for the fucking albino," he said.

"Already on site, sir, he's at the bar," came someone else's voice across the coms. "I've got him if he moves."

"Don't break cover, but keep eyes on him. He's after Nnoitra, we know that," Byakuya said.

A few minutes later, a few others came in, and then all that was left was Nnoitra and Aizen himself. Byakuya was getting nervous when a car pulled up and the tall lanky bastard stumbled out the door. A shorter man with an umbrella led him into the building, also with one eye, and it was obvious this one was waiting for something. Everyone tensed to see what Shiro would do. If he wanted to, he could blow the whole thing. They just hoped that he wasn't that stupid.

Shiro, of course, had no intention of blowing anything. He heard Tesla's voice and he turned around and locked his eyes on Tesla's one remaining eye and grinned. Tesla nodded, telling Nnoitra something as he took their coats and the umbrella and turned around. Nnoitra's eyes lifted and locked on Shiro's back as he dashed from the bar to the hall leading to the back exit. From behind, he looked identical to Ichigo with the dyed hair. He heard him following and he hit the exit at a run. He knew that he'd follow him. He knew the Shinigami wouldn't follow him.

Shiro splashed through the puddles and driving rain, keeping the hood over his head where he felt the dripping makeup running already. He wouldn't need it anymore. Something told him that Nnoitra might be as ready to die for his sins as Shiro was to kill him. It didn't take much to get to the docks where he paused and pulled down the hood and saw the Nnoitra was hot on his tail. He smiled and slipped into the warehouse. The surf was rising fast, and he knew that this building would be under before the night was over. Eight pm, they'd said. It was a little after seven. When the main typhoon hit, he had a feeling the whole building would come down. That was just fine by him.

He got inside and scrambled up the rigging to a makeshift catwalk he'd put up earlier in the day as Nnoitra came into the room looking around.

"White and black, whispers in the dark, could it be Nnoitra's off the mark?" Shiro called, lilting his voice even higher than normal.

"I swear to fuck, if you aren't him, I'll cut your throat," he growled, pulling a wicked looking butterfly knife from his pocket and dancing it over his hands.

It was obvious that Shiro was right. Nnoitra's hair was unkempt, pulled back haphazardly, and his one eye was surrounded by a dark circle. His bandana over his other eye was dirty and much in need of a wash. He was wearing a suit and tie, but the tie was barely together, and it looked like he'd been dressed by Tesla. Shiro grinned swinging down and landing behind Nnoitra and the door. Nnoitra turned and glared at the figure in the dark.

Shiro grinned in the darkness and stepped into the light so Nnoitra could get a look at him. The orange die was dripping down his face with the makeup in some strange semblance of a weeping clown, only the paint was flesh colored instead of white. He wasn't wearing contacts, he didn't care if he saw his eyes.

"I promised, I promised you pain," he said, voice lowering a bit as his eyes locked on Nnoitra's face.

"You," Nnoitra said, eye widening in shock. "No, I'm seeing things, you're fucking dead…and if I'm seeing dead things, is he dead too?" he said, hand shaking with the knife gripped loosely.

"Oh no, the black demon lives, and the white demon dies, don't you know, death comes for you, straight as the crow flies," Shiro said, sauntering forward, his hips swaying as he closed the distance between them. Nnoitra's face faltered. "I didn't die, I didn't die, and now you will pay," Shiro said, and leaped without another warning.

Nnoitra had enough thought to put up the knife and drive it through Shiro's shoulder as he impacted with him. Blood spurted and Shiro just grinned at him. Nnoitra's shock was apparent as Shiro grabbed the knife from the bleeding wound and winked at Nnoitra before he planted the knife into his good eye without a second thought. Nnoitra screeched, blinded now completely, as Shiro got up and snatched a shackle he'd laid out ahead of time and snapped one of Nnoitra's hands to it. The surf began flowing over the low floor.

"Nnoitra, shut up," he said as he picked up another shackle and attached it to one of his ankles.

"Fuck you! You're fucking dead!" he screamed.

"Nope, not so dead. You didn't quite kill me. And you should have. I'm going to kill you now, not for me, but for Ichigo. You hurt him so much, no more will you hurt anyone," he said, taking his knife and cutting through Nnoitra's shirt and pulling hard until he felt the shoulder pop out of place.

Shiro didn't mind the screaming so much. Nnoitra quickly lost the ability to make words, and that was okay by Shiro. When he was done, it was after midnight, and the water was swirling around his waist. The typhoon was passing, and now the tide would pull back the remains into the ocean. He smiled and held tightened the shackle on the hand and wrist so it stayed in place. Then he smiled and put his hand down on the board and pressed the knife against his knuckle and severed the last two fingers of his left hand off. He grimaced and pulled the bandages he'd brought and wrapped it tight, leaving the two digits as evidence of his own demise. He left two knives behind, sure to be caught in the debris. There was no doubt what happened. He stepped out, the rain beginning to slack off by now, and disappeared into the depths of the darkness, a shadow among the shadows.

Behind him, sirens blared still in the direction in which Casino de Las Noches reside.