Before the prince and his friends started for the lake, the Empress called the prince's servant to her and gave him a magical whistle. She told him when the time approached for the peahens to come to the lake, do you secretly look out and blow the whistle behind your master's neck, he will immediately fall asleep and will not see them. The servant listened her, took the whistle, and did as she told him.

When they arrived at the shore of the lake, the servant calculated the time when the peahens would arrive, blew the whistle behind the prince's neck, and he immediately fell sound asleep, as if he were dead.

He'd scarcely fallen asleep when the peahens arrived. Eight of them settled on the lake, and the ninth perched on the ground, walking over to the prince. It began to try and awaken him. It became a lovely extraordinary being in a royal green and blue haori, hair long and unbound.

'Arise, my birdie. Arise, my lamb. Arise, my dove.' He rubbed a gentle hand over the prince's head, but the prince heard nothing and slept on as if dead.

When the peahens finished bathing, they all flew away, and the prince awoke. He asked the servant, 'Did they come?'

The servant replied, 'They did come, my prince,' and he told him about how a beautiful creature tried to wake him.

When the unhappy prince heard this, he was ready to kill himself from pain and anger. Why hadn't he woken up? Why hadn't he awoken and leapt into the arms of his love? What if he never saw him again, oh woe and misery!

. . .

Renji had been untied for the greater part of the night, but strangely, he was so enchanted by the sights around him, the way the moon lit up the luscious meadows and forests, that he didn't even spare a thought for running away.

He returned from the woods refreshed, having been sent to chop firewood. He was still stiff all over from many hours spent walking, tied up, but the strength of his resolve hadn't wavered. He would not run away and leave his prince to travel alone with that traitor. He would prove himself to Prince Ikkaku at any cost.

Yet fascinated by the sheer beauty of the world around him, Renji was almost able to enjoy the hard labor of chopping and stripping trees. However, his mood plunged when he made his way back, dragging logs on a tarp, to see Prince Ikkaku raging and pacing the shore of the lake in the light of the dawn.

He watched as Captain Hisagi was sent off like a dog with his tail between his legs, rubbing his head, having been cuffed around the ears by the unhappy prince. Renji hauled in the wood, staring open-mouthed as the prince stomped back and forth and promptly turned on him in his fury. Renji flinched back in surprise.

"And what were you doing?! Why didn't you do something! Fucking useless-" the prince snapped. Renji held his hands up as Prince Ikkaku banged his fists to his temples and seemed about to collapse, rage combining with sorrow in a tumultuous mix. "I'll never see him again," he croaked. "God, I'll never…"

"My prince, it's alright," Renji tried, approaching cautiously, hands out, wary that he might lash out again and beat him on the head like he had Hisagi. "Is this not the right place?" Renji wondered, aghast that the prince was so distraught. Trying to comfort him, he promised sincerely. "We will keep searching, my lord."

"This is the place, I missed him!" Prince Ikkaku hollered, incensed. "I fell asleep!"

"It's okay, Prince Ikkaku, it's alright, we'll try again," Renji insisted, drawing closer as the prince at last stopped pacing, digging his nails into his scalp. "We'll keep looking. We'll be at your side until you find him." He dared to lay a hand on Prince Ikkaku's back. When the prince didn't immediately strike him or otherwise lash out, accepting his touch, Renji patted him once or twice, timidly. After a few moments, to his relief, the prince seemed to calm, seemed comforted.

He at last sighed and straightened up, brushing Renji off. He cracked his neck and looked at the horizon, considering the sunrise, and decided, "I'm going to rest now. I'm determined to stay awake tonight." Renji nodded his head and watched him for a little while, hands curling and uncurling.

When he saw Hisagi staring at him from across the clearing in a combination of amazement and bitterness, Renji stared back for a few moments before returning to chopping the logs into short pieces for the fire.

. . .

The next evening, they visited the shore of the lake again, but the servant calculated the time he was going to blow the whistle behind the prince's neck, and immediately the prince fell asleep as if he were dead. The prince had barely fallen asleep when the peahens arrived. Eight settled on the lake and the ninth alit nearby, changing into the lovely creature.

'Rise, my happiness, and greet your sweet love.' The prince slept on as if he were dead, hearing nothing.

When the great spirit failed to wake him and the peahens were about to fly away again, it turned to the servant and told him, 'When your master wakes, tell him that tomorrow it will once more be possible for him to see us, but after that, never more.'

On saying this, he transformed into a peacock and took flight, and the others from the lake after him. They'd scarcely flown away when the prince awakened, and upon realizing that he'd fallen asleep again, he asked the servant in a panic, 'Did they come?'

The servant told him, 'They did come, and eight of them settled on the lake, and the ninth became a beautiful creature that tried to wake you, but you wouldn't wake up. As it left, it told me that you will see them again here once more tomorrow, but never more.'

When the prince heard this, he was ready to kill himself in his unhappiness, and he did not know what to do for sorrow.

. . .

Renji returned at dawn with more wood and some grass he'd gathered to feed the two horses, and this time he was there to listen as Captain Hisagi explained what he'd seen the night before to the prince, who was in the middle of a particularly violent fit of misery, growing more upset with each passing word.

Renji watched as Hisagi began to cower back as he told him how his faerie love had come to him and tried to wake him up, and then flown away, hours later. He cowered back from the prince's temper, but there was a cold satisfaction in his eyes that made Renji suspicious.

That afternoon, Renji was allowed to sit nearby as they bummed around the campfire with the miserable prince, who refused to eat. As Hisagi coaxed him to take just a few bites or to speak rather than brood, Renji, sitting quietly and eating a piece of bread, noticed something as Hisagi leaned forward. Around his neck was a cord, and underneath his shirt was a short piece of wood with a hole on the end, like a little flute.

Untrusting and resentful, Renji decided that when night fell and Hisagi was to send him off to gather firewood, he would not do so. He would stay behind, hiding in the trees, and would see what Hisagi was up to.

Sure enough, when he was sent away that evening, he pretended that he went away, and then snuck back to the shore of the lake, and watched.

That night, Prince Ikkaku mounted his horse and rode down along the shore, and in order to not fall asleep, kept the horse continually in motion. He'd said earlier that he was determined to stay awake and see Yumichika. Each time he yawned, he doused himself in cold water from the lake and jogged in place, hit himself, then mounted his horse again. Renji put a hand to his mouth at how clever this idea was, but cast an eye to Hisagi, who seemed pleased with himself for some reason.

Remaining alert, Renji snuck along through the trees, settling in the grass on his stomach where he could clearly see them and the smooth surface of the lake, still as glass and reflecting the beautifully silver moon. Prince Ikkaku rode back and forth in the long bank of white sand, looking up to the sky in hope every few moments.

At a seemingly random moment, Hisagi suddenly stood up from the place he'd sat in the sand near a large log, sunbleached and glowing in the moonlight as white as a bone. Renji watched as he walked towards the prince and his horse, neither of whom seemed to notice him at all. Hisagi walked along by Prince Ikkaku's side for nearly a full minute before he pulled the whistle out of his shirt and blew it behind the prince's neck.

Prince Ikkaku immediately leaned forward on his horse, then flopped completely to the sandy ground with a heavy thump. The fall did not wake him, and he lay there absolutely motionless. Renji nearly shouted in outrage at the sight, at first thinking Hisagi had killed him, but then the prince gave a loud snore.

'Asleep,' he thought, heart filled with ire when Hisagi looked so carelessly on the prince's limp form, sitting down in the sand again not far away, leaving him to sprawl in the dirt as a corpse would. Hisagi! Why was he doing this?! He was the one keeping the prince from seeing his faerie love – why, why was he doing this? Renji didn't understand. It was such a cruel and unnecessary thing to do!

Prince Ikkaku's horse moved in an awkward circle, lowering its head to snuffle at its rider's face, but the prince didn't even flinch at the soft tickly nose pressing against his cheek, sleeping so still that he may as well have been dead.

Not five seconds passed of the prince lying there on his back when a great flapping of wings drew Renji's attention. Over the distant trees, a flock of large birds flew up, feathers glimmering in the light of the moon. As they came closer, he could see that they were the same nine golden peahens that had visited him and the prince in the garden for months on end.

Eight of the birds settled on the lake shore, chattering and chirping, splashing one another in the sand as they ruffled their wings in the dirt. The ninth, the silver peacock, strutted towards Prince Ikkaku's motionless body and transformed in a glow of silver light.

Renji watched as Yumichika, Ikkaku's lover, beautiful and bathed in a silvery glow that didn't seem to come completely from the light of the moon, approached the last few steps on bare feet. Now short-haired and clad in a simple white yukata, he looked at Ikkaku with an unreadable expression, cautiously drawing close to his side, as if confused by his silence and stillness.

Renji glanced over and saw Hisagi watching in open amazement. The two of them gazed on as Yumichika knelt in the sand at Ikkaku's side and implored him, "If you do love me true, awake and kiss me." Ikkaku did not respond in any way, lying motionless on his back but for his breaths.

He took Ikkaku's head in tender palms and turned it up towards his, leaning down to bring their lips close together and peer into his sleeping face, but Ikkaku did not wake up. He slept on as if he were dead, hearing nothing, blissfully unaware.

The sorrow in Yumichika's face made Renji's heart clench. Fae were not meant to frown in sadness, were not meant to dim in grief. He remembered hearing that a tear from a fairy eye could make the whole world weep.

Yumichika sat there at Ikkaku's side and watched him for many hours, until the glow of the sun began to return to the horizon. When the peahens had all had their dust baths, naps, and played in the lake, they readied to leave, chirping at Yumichika and bustling around him.

When the flock was about to fly away again, Yumichika stood and turned to Hisagi directly and told him very coldly – turning Renji's blood to ice, because it was as if he knew Hisagi was responsible for Ikkaku's sleep – "When your master wakes up, tell him to roll the under peg on the upper, and then he will find me."

Then he turned his back and transformed into a peacock and promptly flew away, and the eight peahens followed him in a flurry of joyful song and flapping wings. Renji watched as they flew off into the distance, towards the rising sun, and at last disappeared over the line of trees.

Almost the moment Renji lost sight of them, the prince woke up with a horrible scream, snapping into a sitting position with a start, his body flinging sand about as he looked around in panic, his breath quickened in despair. He watched as the horrible realization came over Prince Ikkaku's face, and his hands scrabbled over the claw-prints in the sand, the fluffy down left behind by Yumichika's friends.

He banged his hands on the lakeshore, and Renji could feel his misery, he'd fallen asleep again, he'd never see his sweet Yumichika again!

Hisagi stood and approached the prince where he knelt in the dirt. Prince Ikkaku turned on him in a rage, demanding, "Did they come?"

After a silent moment of hesitation, Hisagi replied, "They did-" Ikkaku wailed at that, heartbroken. Renji felt torn apart. "One became a lovely creature, and it told me to tell you to roll the upper peg on the under one and that you would find him."

When Renji heard that, he was consumed by rage.

Prince Ikkaku howled and howled, beating the ground with his hands. "Yumichika's gone forever! And all because I couldn't keep my eyes opened!" he cried. "I'll never see him again! Oh god!" His head hung in sorrow. "What will I do?"

Renji stood and quietly came out of the woods, eyes steely. He walked straight up to the prince's side, ignoring the way Hisagi took a step back in surprise, and crouched next to Ikkaku, placing a hand on the raging, wailing prince's shoulder. Ikkaku wasn't consoled.

He stood and turned to Hisagi, and with every ounce of fire he could muster, shouted, "You've been lying!"

Hisagi's face pinched, his brow coming down in anger. "How dare you talk to me like that!" He swiped for Renji, who stepped back, pulling away from him.

"Don't touch me!" he shouted. "You traitor, you cowardly traitor!" he accused.

Prince Ikkaku, ceasing his mournful cries, stood, expression dark and solemn as the grave. Renji drew back a little, confidence flagging. "What's this?" he demanded, voice low and unforgiving.

"Captain Hisagi," Renji told him with a pleading tone, "He's been lying to you, he's been putting you to sleep every night so you won't see Yumichika!" Throwing an arm towards Hisagi in accusation, he continued, "And just now, he reversed those words to be cruel! Under peg on the upper, that's what Yumichika said, not the other way around! He's trying to trick you!"

He stood there, chest heaving. He didn't say 'sir' or grovel or beg, he just stared Ikkaku right in the eyes, panting for breath. He hadn't talked to him like that since they'd been very young boys. Surely the prince could see that even now, Renji has always been his loyal friend?

Ikkaku gave him a long look, eyes cold and unreadable. "Have you gone mad?" Hisagi at last broke the silence, grabbing a handful of Renji's hair and shaking him. He yelped, hands going to his head at the sharp pain in his scalp. He looked towards Prince Ikkaku but his hopes were dashed when he turned away.

Renji's heart dropped. The prince didn't believe him?

"M'lord, as I've said, this one needs to be treated harshly or he steps out of his place," Hisagi hissed, shaking him again.

"I've come to see what you mean."

And Renji couldn't believe what he was hearing, couldn't accept it, feeling nothing but a hollow empty shell where his heart had used to be. All of Hisagi's duplicitous actions that had incriminated him before in the past weeks and undermined the prince's trust in him, it had all destroyed his chances of warning him now that Hisagi was behind all of it.

In a wild fit, Renji ripped the whistle from around Hisagi's neck and called after the prince desperately, "He's had this around his neck, he's been using it to put you to sleep!" Prince Ikkaku stopped, but did not turn, and helplessly, Renji cried, "Magic!" holding it out.

When the prince heard this, he drew his sword and turned slowly. Renji went still and silent in terror, cowering back as the prince turned on the both of them, holding the sword out, level with their necks.

"Kneel."

Renji dropped to his knees immediately despite Hisagi's tight grip on his hair. In all his years of knowing the prince, in all the years Ikkaku had grown out of his friendship and began treating him with indifference, he has never heard him speak thus. Like a monster, like the hand of death.

Renji's hands shook as he stared at the sand next to Captain Hisagi's feet. He was too scared to move, too scared to cry, his heart pounding so wildly that he felt lightheaded. He was gonna' kill him. Ikkaku was gonna' kill him; his best and only friend. It was all over.

"Traitor," he heard Ikkaku say, his tone dark and powerful, that of a future Kempachi.

Trembling, Renji put his forehead to the ground, his breath coming in panicked rasps. He flinched and held still as he felt a boot on the back of his head, digging him further into the sand, suffocating him as grit pressed into his eyes and nose and his mouth.

He heard Hisagi give a small derisive snort. "How low will you sink, boy?"

Renji screwed his eyes shut in his last moments, pulse racing, and then startled badly when he heard a heavy thump, the wet chop of a head. The shock was so intense, he startled so badly that it took several moments to realize that he had not been struck with the blade; he was still alive.

The foot came off his head and Hisagi collapsed next to him in the sand, his body coming down like a ton of bricks and sprawling across the ground. Renji peered upwards and then scrambled back in horror, hands over his face as he quickly shut his eyes.

Ikkaku has cut off Shuuhei's head.

It rolled, fresh and heavy, blood gushing from his neck and soaking into the white sand, soaking Renji's legs and feet and making him gasp and gag uncontrollably. His body lay there limply in the sand of the lake. As his head fell still, coming to a stop, a large shadowy force came out, whooshing off towards the Junrinan with a ghastly shriek of laughter.

"Free," it cackled, "Free!"

Renji raised his eyes to Ikkaku, standing there, sword bloody, cheek bloody, his eyes shining red with rage, and Renji could feel an indomitable spirit, that of a child brought to the mountain.

The prince put his sword away, but Renji remained on his knees, placing his forehead to the dirt again, hands out on either side of him. "Your majesty," he rasped, lips wet with saliva, his throat tight with illness. "Forgive me," he begged. "Not to relieve me of pain, for I will suffer more if you do."

"Rise."

"I cannot lift my head for shame, highness."

"Then I order you to stand."

Renji stood, and, upon the sight of the corpse of a man who had once been his friend, his lover even, he doubled over, holding his stomach and choking on vomit. Tears ran from his eyes pitifully, and no matter how he looked away, he was unable to block out the image of Shuuhei – Shuuhei – his head, his dead face there, staring at him. Dead, dead and gone forever.

Of all the resentment and hatred he'd felt for him for betraying the prince, for betraying him and treating him like a dog for his own advantage, he'd never wished him dead.

Renji stood there on wobbling legs, panting for breath and wiping his mouth, but would not lift his eyes. Ikkaku stood across from him solemnly, looking him in the face for once, but Renji would not return his gaze, too ashamed.

"I thank you for your loyalty," he said. "You have always been kind to me no matter my cruelty to you."

"And now on account of my foolishness, you'll never see Yumichika again," Renji rasped. "Shuuhei, because of me-"

"Enough," Ikkaku silenced.

"But I-" Renji sobbed, but Ikkaku stopped him with a wave of the hand.

"I won't hear it."

In the following hours, the two of them were silent. Ikkaku cluelessly packed up their supplies, and Renji dug a hole in the woods with a stick. At last when it was time, he found that he could not- could not look at him, let alone touch him.

Renji approached Prince Ikkaku and muttered timidly, "My prince, I…"

"Ikkaku," he reminded without looking at him, tugging fruitlessly at the straps to a bag and stuffing things in.

"Yessir. I… Ikkaku, I can't." When the prince turned to him in confusion, Renji bowed his head and whispered, "Please. I'm so sorry, I can't."

"I'll do it."

Renji went into the woods where the horses were tied and loaded the supply bags and waited for the prince to call him. When he did, Renji tried not to look in the hole where his old friend's body was wrapped carefully in a tarp and laid inside. Together they filled the dirt in and left it unmarked.

No grave for a traitor.

Renji dried his eyes for the last time and with a heavy heart, the two of them headed on alone together. He rode on Hisagi's horse at Ikkaku's side and they talked freely as friends. The prince's newfound kindness to him soothed the guilt and grief in his heart.

On their seventh day riding through the countryside, the prince received word from a messenger that Zaraki was at war and that he was being summoned home by the Kempachi.

"What will we do, Ikkaku?" Renji wondered, looking over Ikkaku's shoulder at the page, despite not being able to read.

Ikkaku folded up the letter and put it in his pocket. "I'm not going back. I haven't found Yumichika yet." Renji looked to his face anxiously. Didn't the country need him if the Kempachi had personally asked him to come home?

"I won't ask you to accompany me further, Renji," Ikkaku said. He thanked him for his help and apologized for mistreating him. No one has ever, ever said sorry to Renji before. Renji has always felt loyalty to Prince Ikkaku, but at that moment, he felt as though he was being ordered to leave his brother.

"I would never leave your side, my prince," he replied.

"I want you to go back and tell the Kempachi that I'm not through searching."

"But then you'll be alone… Don't send me away," he murmured.

"You've been a good friend to me," Ikkaku thanked him. "I will continue on, no matter how long or far the journey takes me. I must send you home in my stead. Please, Renji, do me this one last favor."

"I will, Ikkaku," he obeyed, and bowed to him. When he stood, Ikkaku embraced him briefly, and Renji felt tears come to his eyes. "Goodbye," he mumbled, and then they parted ways.

Renji went on alone for some time, riding through the forest and talking with his horse in his loneliness. He knew how to survive in the wilderness, so he was fine once the food ran out, but there was one problem: he can't read – meaning, he couldn't read signs or maps well enough to use them.

Apparently it wasn't as simple as keeping the mountain on his left to make sure he was traveling northwards, and after a few days, he realized he wasn't making his way back to the foothills lining the northern border, but instead was thoroughly lost in the East.