Byakuya had hoped that the effects of the little pink pill would have worn off by the time Renji returned and club opened. Not because he wanted to sleep, his dreams were hardly something to be actively pursued of late, but because he was aware on some level that his behaviour was not exactly normal. For one thing he was talking far too much. And in too much depth about things that, in truth, should remain private.
When the effects first cut in, Byakuya had found himself describing in detail how he'd decided on the design for Renji's tattoos and how he'd stayed to watch the horishi engrave the ink into Renji's skin. To start with Mendori had seemed fascinated, but then the conversation had been sparked by Byakuya noting the very attractive koi design which graced Mendori's arm, so the man obviously had a prior interest. However he soon became bored, apparently not as interested as Byakuya in Renji's reactions to the needle, though it was a subject that Byakuya could happily dwell on for hours.
It was the strength of it, the power. Like everything else about Renji, watching his skin tremble with self-imposed restraint as the needle plunged home again and again, had brought Byakuya to erotic heights he'd hardly imagined. And taking Renji home afterwards to retrace those lines with his own fingers, eliciting the same response at a time and place of his choosing, had created an addiction that Byakuya had never truly sated.
But no more. As he had told Mendori, that was no longer part of their relationship. Renji now danced to his own tune and directed Byakuya as he would.
Oddly, that had met with Mendori's approval and elicited his only contribution to their whole conversation. "Sounds right," he'd said. "Can only be one man in a relationship." Which was a very odd thing for him to say since it was obvious to anyone that both Byakuya and Renji were men and were in a relationship. Soon after that, Mendori had taken his newspaper and left.
With nothing else to amuse him and no one to speak to, Byakuya had started cleaning. The initial task had taken very little time. He and Renji had the routine down and there was little to do on a daily basis, so within a couple of hours Byakuya again found himself at a loose end. Cleaning the club a second time seemed like a logical progression of activity and Byakuya set to with a will, determined to remove every speck of dirt from floors, walls, windows and doors.
As he worked, he found himself singing. The music played at the club was often catchy and repetitive with easy to remember lyrics and simple harmonies. Byakuya repeated several, enjoying the sensation of air through his throat and the stretch and flex of lungs inflating to the fullest.
He was on his fourth clean through when Lee arrived. The host's hair was deep purple today and styled into a low crest across his head. Byakuya greeted him with a polite, 'good day' and continued his work, but, rather begin his own preparations for the night, Lee leaned on the bar and watched.
Byakuya bore the scrutiny for a while before pausing, cloth in rubber-gloved hand, to ask, "Is there a problem?"
"Nope," Lee replied. He had one elbow propped on the bar, chin resting on his palm, and was smiling as though greatly amused by something.
Byakuya checked behind himself, and then at his clothing, in case he was the source of this amusement, but could find nothing untoward. "Have I perhaps said or implied something humorous?" he tried.
"Nah. Was just wondering what he gave you, is all."
Ah, that was the issue. "It was a small pink pill," Byakuya told him, describing the size with thumb and forefinger. "The results are remarkable. I'm feeling very awake."
Lee's smirk turn into a full blown snicker. "Bet y'are." He stood up and shot the sleeves of his leather jacket. "Enjoy ya crash later. First one's always a doozy."
If by that Lee had meant the effects of the drug wearing off, then no 'crash' had happened. Renji returned from his first day's training at four and Byakuya met him, still very much awake, but determined not to repeat his mistake of that morning. He needn't have worried. Renji was far too excited by his own day to be overly bothered by the details of Byakuya's.
Arisawa-sensei had found a way of allowing Renji to use the door on the safe-room. The joy with which Renji had shared this piece of news was heartening. Ever since they'd arrived in the living world, a pall had hung over Renji. Despite his determination to be professional and proficient, he had all too often seemed to struggle with his own mood. Now that air of helplessness was entirely gone. Renji's grin, as he regaled Byakuya with a detailed account of the kata and suburi that had filled his day, was broad, toothy and confident.
Byakuya was content to sit and listen, the first moments of stillness he'd had in hours. It wasn't easy and he felt a continual need to fidget and twitch, but he held himself still, lessons learnt at his uncle's hand standing him in good stead once again. Afterwards, once Renji had changed and retreated downstairs in time for the club to open, Byakuya decided to continue the discipline. Cross-legged on the futon, he steadied his breathing, emptied his mind and for the first time since Senbonzakura had been stolen from him, deliberately stepped through into his inner world.
The tent was as empty as Byakuya expected it to be, as was the battlefield outside, but rather than the fear and despair that had haunted every previous visit, this time Byakuya felt invigorated by the vacancy. It was as though the energy that had coursed through his veins all day was now directed inward, filling up the empty spaces and creating a wave of forward momentum that would carry Byakuya with it whether he willed it or no.
And along with that tide came the inexorable conclusion that Byakuya could not allow this state of affairs to continue. He had to find some way of coping with Senbonzakura's loss.
Standing on the empty bone-littered battlefield, the tent to his back, he surveyed his inner world. As a manifestation of his soul, it was a rather pathetic place, all things considered. In the past, Byakuya had thought of it as poignant, as speaking to the depths of pain that dominated his past, but really, it was more a child's indulgence than anything truly real.
Take the skeletons, for example.
Byakuya wandered over to the first of them and crouched down to take a closer look. Disjointed and weathered, it was little more than a pile of bones in its current state and seemed like a frail framework on which to hang Senbonzakura's power.
Had they always been this way? Byakuya couldn't remember. It had been years since he'd bothered to look so closely, and back then every one of the dead had been clad in armour. Now that armour was gone, which left them exposed, yes, but looked at another way, they were also unconstrained. A foot soldier in heavy armour was restricted in how far or fast he may travel. Remove that armour and you removed the restriction.
Likewise the weapons.
The heavy naginata jammed into the ground beside the skeleton was nothing but a burden if one wished to travel fast and light. By shedding all this excess load, could Byakuya not at least create something of worth out of this wasteland?
Standing, he drew in a breath, focused his will and lifted his hands. Around him, the bones stirred.
The boy's name was Shige and he was suffering from lead poisoning. Yuzu sat by the communal firepit after everyone else had gone back to their tasks and tried not to watch as he struggled to eat his bowl of rice with a spoon. She wished there was something she could do to help, but there wasn't. Even Isane couldn't do anything.
"He might get better by himself," she'd said when Yuzu had asked about it. "Now he's out of that dreadful mine."
When Yuzu had asked which mine, Isane had avoided the question. She did that a lot, especially about more general things. The specifics she was quite happy to share.
"We grow all kinds of vegetables in the summer. And some of us go fishing in the mountain streams. There's even salmon to be caught in the bigger rivers."
That sounded like fun, and like they'd done it a lot. "How long have you all been living here?" Yuzu had asked, to no avail. Some questions just didn't get answered.
The bowl in Shige's hands took on a dangerous list. Yuzu couldn't stand it any longer. Putting her own empty tea bowl aside, she went over to him, sat beside him, and said, "Would it help if I held the bowl for you?"
Shige blinked at her, but she'd got used to how long it took him to process a question, and it wasn't like she had anything else to do. The others had left three days ago, all Yuzu could do until they got back was sit here and wait.
"Maybe?" Shige said finally, holding the bowl out a bit tentatively.
Yuzu took it, cradled it both her hands and held it up at the height Shige had been holding it before. Shige dipped his spoon and, using one shaking hand to steady the other, managed to get an almost full spoonful into his mouth. He grinned at her around the rice, showing off dark-stained teeth and gums. "Fank you."
She smiled back and propped her elbows on her knees to keep the bowl steady. "No problem. It's nice to have something to do."
"Hard work is important. Like good food and rest."
"It is, but too much can get boring." And now she was feeling better, Yuzu hated sitting around doing nothing.
Shige nodded at her enthusiastically. "I like the work here. The air smells clean. But it's much colder."
"It was warmer where you lived before?"
That won her a slightly less vigorous nod, probably because Shige had begun attacking the rest of the rice. With both hands to guide the spoon, he definitely ended up wearing a lot less of his lunch.
"There was a cave there too," he said eventually. "But the roof wasn't broken. That's why it was warmer."
Yuzu pondered the idea. A mine in a cave had to be too common to be able to work out where he'd come from.
She sighed. She wasn't even sure why she wanted to know so badly, except Tsukishima-sensei always said you should never pass up the opportunity to learn new things. And maybe, if she could find out where Shige had come from, she could do something to help the other people who were working there.
"Were there a lot of you?" she asked.
Shige blinked at her again, and this time there was no answer to follow. Yuzu tried again. "At the mine you worked at, were there a lot of people working there?"
"Yes," he said straight away, suddenly very intense. "Many." He balanced his spoon on one knee and flashed full hands of fingers at her several times. "Lots and lots and lots," he said, his voice sounding a bit awed.
A big mine then. Though she couldn't really know for sure, since there were only about fifteen people in this camp, and anything over that would probably be 'many, many, lots' to Shige.
"What did you dig up?"
"Silver," he said immediately, then shoved a big spoonful of rice in his mouth.
That narrowed it down a little, she guessed. Maybe. "Where was it?"
Shige chewed thoughtfully for a while then he said, "Close. I slept most of the way here but I didn't need to pee when I arrived."
That was interesting. If he'd been sleeping, Shige couldn't have just wandered here by himself. "Who were they? The people who brought you?"
Something suddenly hit Yuzu upside the head. She flinched, letting out a cry, and turned around to find Hiyori standing there, fists on her hips. "Quit with the interrogations!" Hiyori yelled, which turned every head in the camp towards them.
"I wasn't!" Yuzu protested, though her cheeks felt hot.
Hiyori glared at her, single brown eye sharp through a fall of straight yellow hair, and foot tapping against the ground. Yuzu folded like a fan. "I was just asking where he was before. If there's other people working there, I thought maybe we could help them too."
"If there was, they wouldn't need your help," Hiyori snapped. "I can tell a noble when I see one prancing about."
Her hand strayed to the mostly hidden side of her face in what looked like an unconscious gesture, and for some reason that jogged Yuzu's memory. That swelling and the bruised-looking disfigurement, she knew where she'd seen it before! "You're a negator!" she blurted. Though not a complete one. Not with that eye.
Hiyori flinched, her expression going wide and vulnerable for a second before closing down entirely. "What the hell is it to you?" she shouted. "You gonna drag me back there, let them carve my other eye out?"
Isane appeared beside them. "Hiyori, please stop shouting," she said, "You're upsetting people."
"I'm-!" Hiyori began at top volume. Isane narrowed her eyes and Hiyori's voice dropped by about a decibel. "I'm not the one calling people names," she finished.
"And nor is Yuzu. Negator is a designation, not an insult."
Hiyori's lip curled and she folded her arms across her chest. "Say's you."
"Say's me, and Kaname-san. Now who're you going to listen to."
That won her a reluctant sigh, though no answer. Hiyori was a stubborn sort, Yuzu guessed. Then Isane's attention fell on Yuzu, and Yuzu flinched again, her gaze darting away to look at anything that wasn't the judgement in those dark grey eyes. "I didn't want to do this, since you're a guest amongst us," Isane said. "But please would you keep to your own firepit and not speak to anyone who is not myself or Hiyori for the remainder of your stay."
Embarrassed and humiliated, Yuzu nodded, gathered her coat around her and hurried off back to her own tent. All she'd wanted to do was help.
A few days of basic training exercises, just to get back in tune with his body, and Renji was ready for the next step. The one he'd been promising himself for weeks. Shikai. He could taste it. Zabimaru could too, Renji could tell. There was a bubbling of anticipation inside them that only sprung up when they were on the verge of doing something profound together.
By the end of today, Renji promised.
Zabimaru's answering roar made him grin, earning him some wary glares from the commuters jammed in next to him on the train.
It was early. Rather than sleeping his normal six hours, Renji had made do with a two hour power-nap, before leaving the bar in Mendori's hands and skipping out before Byakuya got back from the sentō. Not that he was avoiding Byakuya specifically. He wasn't really talking to anyone if he could help it. It was stupid, but somewhere deep down, Renji couldn't help believing that if anyone found out what he was trying to do today, the attempt would fail. Once he'd done it, once he'd actually felt the weight of Zabimaru's shikai in his hands, he'd go back and explain. Byakuya would understand. He'd been a lot more laid back in the past few days. All this time apart was really paying off.
"Excuse me, excuse me," Renji muttered, pushing his way to the doors as the train pulled into Karakura. A minute later he was taking the station steps two at a time, his breath a cloud of steam on the cold winter's air, and five minutes after that he was dropping his gigai and letting himself into the safe-room.
This was it.
But first things first. Drawing his sword, Renji took his stance and focused, gathering reiatsu. It built quickly, fuelled by good food and days spent training, and when he had it teetering on the brink of collapsing under its own power, he released it, directing all into the blade via his hand sliding down the flat. "Howl, Zabimaru!"
As it had before, the blade tried to change, Zabimaru straining against the hold of the seal, trying to force their way free. For a second Renji thought they'd done enough, that this time it would work, but then the sensation folded, all that gathered reiatsu dispersing with a quiet whumph into the air around him.
Failure, just like he'd expected. He'd only given it go without sitting jinzen first because it'd felt wrong not to at least try.
Shrugging it off, Renji dropped to the ground, cross-legged, laid Zabimaru across his lap, and closed his eyes. Connecting with Zabimaru wasn't as easy as it used to be. Whatever was blocking shikai was doing a number on communication too, but with a little bit of concentration, they could hook up, sort of.
He opened his eyes again into blazing heat and a vast stretch of sandy waste dotted with tents and carts and people. The proving grounds, the place he'd first called Zabimaru's name and drawn shikai from his old asauchi. It made complete sense that this was the place he'd return to now.
In the distance, several gaggles of shinigami stood guard over a bunch of people sitting on the ground. Renji set off towards them, keeping a weather eye out for his younger self. That was the way this had gone before. Turn up at some point in his own history, give himself a helping hand, and when he got back to the real world, the seal would have loosened some more.
Except for the taser thing. Renji had no idea how that had worked.
Not that he understood the rest of it either. He was just doing what he always did, jumping in and making it up as he went along. Most of the time it worked, which drove Byakuya nuts even more than the lack of the planning.
He spotted a shock of familiar red hair amongst the small crowd of manacled prisoners. It was odd. At the time he'd felt like he was one of hundreds chained there in the blazing heat. Looking now, there was probably only about forty of them. Still pretty high for a seasonal run through Rukongai. They'd probably topped up the numbers from one of the final camps. Poor bastards. At least Renji had had a taste of freedom. He knew how to fight, how to want to live. Those poor shits were nothing but lambs to the slaughter.
It started while he was watching. That first pair. Neither of them knew what the hell they were doing. It was pathetic, for the shinigami watching as well as the poor bastards fighting. Everyone knew it was a waste of time but the rules said the prisoners had to be given a chance, so Zaraki handed out the asauchi and stood back while one of the pair got stuck in and the other one screamed and tried to run away.
Blocking out the hackfest - Renji remembered it from the first time. He could live without seeing it again - he focused on his younger self. And, wow. Had he ever been that scrawny? The kid sitting, head down, chained between two bigger guys, was all elbows and knees. His shoulders were still narrow and bony with none of the muscle they'd acquire later, and his clothing was nothing but rags. Scuffed, grazed and as grubby as hell, his eyes were screwed shut and his lips were moving, like he was silently reciting a prayer.
He wasn't. He was answering the ghostly figure that hovered behind and above him. Part baboon and part snake, it whispered in his ear like it had for months before this, and Renji recalled the words as if it was yesterday. If you die, we die with you and we're not about to let that happen…
He hadn't understood at the time. His world hadn't included things like zanpakutō and nue demons. It had been running and hiding, stealing food from wherever he could find it while trying to stay one step ahead of the shinigami. That had all come crashing down when Zaraki had picked up his trail.
Renji wondered sometimes if they'd sent the 11th's lieutenant out specifically for him. Unlikely, but even the possibility brought a little burst of pride. Zaraki's reputation as a strong fighter was totally deserved.
A cut-off wet scream signalled the end of the first bout as Madarame put the losing fighter out of his misery. Ayasegawa finished off the winner with his usual flare and the pieces were tossed out of the ring ready for part two. That finished exactly the same way as the first, which meant the chibi was up.
Renji watched as Zaraki leaned into the crowd of terrified prisoners and hauled the little guy to the front. Even experiencing it at one step removed, he still shivered as the huge lieutenant loomed over his younger self. He couldn't blame baby-Renji for almost falling over from fear. If nothing else, Zaraki's monstrous reiatsu was enough to put the fear of hell into anyone with half a brain. The guy exuded killing intent like some kind of murderous sweat stink.
Out in the ring, Kira was waiting. A younger, oddly more determined looking Kira than the one Renji was familiar with these days. His grip on the asauchi was solid and professional, and the jut of his jaw said he was all kinds of ready to survive this fight.
He was a noble, Renji knew that now. Stolen or sold or something as a kid, but an old enough one that he'd had a chance to learn the basics of sword-fighting from someone who knew what they were doing, and some things you never forgot. When baby-Renji staggered out into the ring to face him, it quickly became obvious that they were in different leagues. Kira's moves were technically excellent, if a bit rusty from lack of use, whereas Renji was struggling to even hold the sword correctly.
Zabimaru was trying to help. The nue, now as solid as Renji was himself, had wrapped itself around the chibi's back, its arms alongside the kid's to guide and direct. It helped, some. Without the quick reactions and strength that Zabimaru was instilling in those stick-thin arms, baby-Renji would have been dead ten times over. Even so, as Renji watched, heart in his mouth, Kira's attacks came closer and closer to killing his younger self. The kid got in a few lucky hits, sure, but even with Zabimaru's support, nothing was going to be good enough to turn this fight around.
They should be calling out shikai by now; Renji was sure they had done by this point originally. Not this time. This time, it wasn't happening. There never seemed to be a chance. And each time it looked like there might be, and the nue began to fade back to its ghostly form, Kira pulled some move that baby-Renji couldn't deal with alone, and Zabimaru became solid again, its hands supporting the kid's as he blocked and parried for his life.
Shikai wasn't happening because Zabimaru couldn't help baby-Renji and be in the asauchi at the same time.
Now Renji knew what he was here to do. He dove into the ring, fetching up behind his younger self and, with a deep breath, kind of elbowed Zabimaru aside. For a second it looked like the nue would refuse to go, the baboon snarling and the snake tail readying to strike, and then their eyes met. Understanding bloomed behind feral yellow and the nue stepped aside. In Renji's arms, his younger self froze as Kira lunged towards him, and then screamed at the top of his voice, "Howl, Zabimaru!"
The nue vanished, reiatsu boiled from Renji and from the kid in his arms and the asauchi shifted. Toothed segments sprang from the blade which was suddenly wider and thicker than before. Heavier too. The chibi's arms buckled under the weight but Renji held him strong, blocking Kira's blow and turning the blade to stun his friend when his younger self would have killed him in sheer panic.
And then it was over. The shinigami rushed in, and Renji stepped back, watching again as the kid was swept up and carried away. Only this time he got to see everything else he'd missed. Like Unohana-taichō going over to Kira and preventing Madarame's killing blow. The way Kira had thrown himself at her feet and the tears that had followed.
Renji looked away, feeling uncomfortably voyeuristic, and found himself looking at yet another familiar figure. Byakuya; which shouldn't have come as a surprise, and yet somehow did. Renji had half forgotten that this was where he'd first given his oath to serve his captain.
Like everyone else in this world of the past, this Byakuya looked younger than the current version. Some things never changed though. His face was its usual blank mask and the kenseiken glowed bone-white against ebon hair. He stood a little way from everyone else, haori shifting slightly in the breeze, staring at the group of shinigami around baby-Renji.
Or, Renji thought with a frown trying to puzzle out Byakuya's sight line, at the kid himself?
What had Byakuya been looking for that day at the proving grounds? It was a question Renji had only pondered since Ichigo came on the scene and Renji had actually developed the gumption to question his relationship with Byakuya. But maybe this was his chance to find out.
Byakuya was definitely looking at the kid, his eyes had hardly strayed from their point of focus. So, what was he seeing when he looked at the boy Renji had been? A servant, a protege, a lover?
Renji squinted at himself, dirty and skinny with sticky-up hair and sunburned skin. He wasn't exactly an attractive kid, so he didn't think it was a lover that Byakuya was looking for, unless he had some very specific tastes that Renji wasn't privy to, and after half a century with a guy, you'd think that was the kind of thing that got found out.
A servant was the most logical, given Renji's lowly start. Though, if he'd wanted one of those, there had to have been a ton of well-trained first generationers in Seireitei that would've fit the bill better.
But to see Renji as a protege suggested a level of forward thinking that Renji hadn't really credited Byakuya with. Not because he wasn't a damn good strategist, because he was. He was a noble, a clan-head and a Gotei captain, and you didn't get to keep that kind of rank unless you could plan your way around some pretty nifty opposition. It was just that, having that kind of consideration go into him, personally, was kind of… intimidating, in all honesty. What if he'd flunked out? What if all that potential had turned into nothing?
Renji was the first to admit that he'd had the power. Raw and undirected, sure, but it had been there. Hirako and Kurotsuchi had known that too, as they were just about to prove. Hirako was already there in the crowd arguing with Zaraki, and Kurotsuchi was just arriving. Pretty soon they'd escalate into a full blown row.
Distracted from his Byakuya-watching, Renji shivered as they kicked off, recalling the fight that followed. It wasn't any nicer to witness from the outside either. Reiatsu boiled around the two captains as they snarled at each other, baby-Renji trapped between them like a pig on a spit. The kid's face was alternately terrified and full of pain as blood dripped from his injured arm, now clamped in Hirako's hand.
They'd let him go soon, Renji knew, but it wasn't until they actually did that his breath escaped a huge tensed up whoosh. Baby-Renji, the second he was released, ducked and ran, smack bang into Byakuya.
Renji hadn't noticed it at the time, but now he did: Byakuya saw baby-Renji coming a mile off, could easily have got out of his way, and didn't. Instead he'd taken the full brunt of Renji's panicked charge, and then dismissed him as uninteresting. As an ice-breaker, it was a clever move. It brought the kid up short and made him look at Byakuya rather than run from him.
Renji remembered now how it had felt, meeting this guy for the first time, the differences he'd sensed between Byakuya, all poise and cool calm, and the Hirako/Kurotsuchi duo still bickering behind him. This man, Renji's instincts had said, was above all that. He was above everything. And that was something new and different in Renji's world. In his experience, mostly people shouted their greatness from the rooftops, even when they were an ass who couldn't even stop a kid from filching their smoked fish.
This man could have the whole world at his feet, and yet he'd never bother saying anything because that was where the world ought to be.
And he'd managed to convey all that by having the shittiest attitude ever.
"Damn," Renji muttered, impressed despite himself as Byakuya turned away from the chibi, forcing the kid to follow and engage. Testing him too, Renji guessed. All of it had been a test, a probing at Renji's soul to see how broken or twisted he'd become like strays in Rukongai often did. For someone inclined to murder, that turned back was a perfect target. Baby-Renji had ignored the opening and handed the guy his sword instead; two-handed, like an offering or a gift. What an idiot. He really hadn't had a clue.
On the other hand, given that the choices had been Hirako's stable of pit fighters or a dissection trolley at the 12th, maybe Byakuya hadn't been so bad.
As baby-Renji handed over his sword, some of the kid's reiatsu went with it, crimson trailing tails curling around the new zanpakutō and around Byakuya's hands. White reiatsu rose to meet it, the colours mingling until it was impossible to tell them apart, and when Byakuya received Renji's oath and returned the sword, some of that reiatsu went too, stretching into a thin thread that bound the blade and the hand that held it, firmly to Byakuya's hand.
Bound Zabimaru, Renji's zanpakutō and Renji's soul to Byakuya.
"Oh," Renji said, as so very many things fell into place.
It was getting on for five and Renji still wasn't back. Byakuya jittered around the bar polishing the tables, the effects of the tablet he'd taken earlier still in full swing. The 'crash' from the first one had eventually arrived yesterday around lunchtime, but it was no worse than a bad cold and nothing Byakuya wasn't capable of working through. It had left him heavy-limbed and exhausted though, so he'd not thought twice before asking Mendori for another pill this morning to give his energy levels another boost.
He desperately wanted to sit jinzen again tonight. Last night had been worse than useless. He'd not been able to focus and, when he'd finally struggled through into his inner world, the emptiness of it had left him feeling so depressed that he hadn't even tried to move the bones. It would be different now, he knew, but if Renji didn't make it home in time, Byakuya would have no choice but to do door duty!
"Damn it!" a loud curse came from the other end of the dance floor. Byakuya looked up from the table he was cleaning. The only part of Nic visible over the sound system was the top of his orange tousled head. So very much like Ichigo's in colour. Byakuya should tell him some time.
"Problem?" Mendori asked. He was in his usual place, leaning back against the bar with his sleeves rolled up and a cigarette in his mouth. Waiting for Akio-chan to come down, Byakuya assumed. She was up in the office meeting with a young woman who'd arrived earlier toting a large pink suitcase with sparkles.
Nic pushed himself to his feet, splitting a glare between his boss and the technology. "Damn thing won't work," he said, kicking something that made a scraping sound. "I think the drive's had it."
"It was working all right last night," Mendori replied flatly, turning to Lee and raising his finger. Lee, who was playing barman this evening, there was probably a rota of some kind since it had been one of the others yesterday, immediately scrambled to grab a bottle from under the bar.
"That was then, this is now. Hey, you been fiddling with any of this stuff?" Nic asked and it took Byakuya a moment to realise he was the one being spoken to.
He tried to respond but found his chance stolen by Lee. "Won't be 'im," Lee said, "Even when he's spinning, he's a proper little woman. Got the hots for the cleaning not the electronics, ain't ya princess?" As he spoke, he splashed some amber coloured drink into a short glass and pushed it towards Mendori. Whisky, perhaps. It was impossible to tell from this distance, though the scent would give it away. Would it be considered impolite to go around sniffing people's drinks? Probably. Byakuya turned back to his cleaning.
"Got a good voice though," Lee continued. "Ya ever need someone to do a set, get 'im on it."
"Clients'd like that. Already had a few of them asking where he was," Mendori said somewhere in the background.
"Cheap too," Lee laughed. "You can pay him in pills."
Byakuya wasn't really listening. There were streaks on the fake-wood table top. He scrubbed at them, finding the back and forth movement of the cloth comforting somehow.
"Oi! Princess!"
The yell was followed up by something hitting Byakuya in the back of the head. A beer mat, he discovered as he turned to see what it was. The writing was a dark six on a white background, and memories of his division for a second threatened to overwhelm everything else. Then Mendori said, "I told ya to go and get changed. That man of yours ain't back, so yer on the door."
Byakuya glanced around at the faces of the men in the bar. For a fleeting moment they seemed alien, like monsters from his worst nightmares, and then the illusion was gone, and they were just thugs and pretty boys again. Dipping his head, he rushed to the stairs, and refused to worry about Renji's late return. Renji was his own man now. It wasn't Byakuya's place to worry about him.
You really surprised that's how it works?
Was he? Renji floated in a sea of nothingness and pondered the question.
He knew that he felt all torn up from the revelation. Confused, which made it hard to be honest, but he did his best not to lie since he'd only be lying to himself, and that was stupid.
I don't know, he said after a moment or two. I guess… I kind of assumed I was in love with the guy. Finding out it was just because he owns part of my soul makes it feel… like he cheated somehow. Like I was cheated.
Ssentimental ssilliness, came an unmistakable hiss next to his ear.
Renji tried not to flinch, knowing that was probably the effect snake-tail was going for. Instead he snapped defensively, Falling in love isn't sentimental! Though there was no heat to it. Not really. I just… The words died away. Or rather they'd never been there to begin with. Renji didn't know what he thought, except that it had hurt to see his life reduced to a mingling of reiatsu far beyond his control.
He'd thought there'd been a choice.
You didn't chose the binding. Does that mean you couldn't have chosen the man?
Falling in love with Byakuya had been a slow process, that was for sure. To start with, he'd hated the guy. They'd clashed so many times in those first few months, it'd felt to Renji like his ass would never stop hurting.
That brought a smile to his face. Normally when he thought of someone getting spanked these days, it wasn't himself, it was Ichigo. The kid's backside had been as red as a ripe tomato by the time Byakuya had done with him, just like Renji's had been in the beginning.
And then Byakuya had thrown him away, tossed Renji out like the trash he was to sink or swim amongst the dregs of the division.
Or had he.
Looked at from this future perspective, there was a case similar to Renji's. A kid just as wilful and headstrong, and when Ichigo had proved too much for Byakuya to handle, Byakuya had given him to Renji. So maybe Byakuya done the same thing with Renji himself?
Bōgashima, the old soldier Renji had ended up drudging for, had been hard, but thorough and professional. He'd also had the perfect rock-solid personality that Renji had needed to throw himself against to get all his pent up anger and frustration out of his system. It had been agony at the time, but he'd come out the other end a better person, and an excellent soldier.
Then he'd gone back up to the Kuchiki estate to find everything there had changed. Byakuya had changed. Okay, he was still short-tempered and a lousy teacher, but he let Renji train alongside him and had dropped some solid advice about how to deal with different kinds of enemies. He'd also shown Renji how to sit jinzen properly, though he'd gotten all huffy when Renji had asked the wrong questions. Pretty much the same ones Ichigo had asked actually, about inner worlds and what they meant.
The turning point had been when Renji was finally trusted to guard Byakuya's back at night. Koji had been the name in the frame before that, along with a couple of the regular Kuchiki bodyguards. When Renji took over, they were sent back to the main house leaving him and Koji to take responsibility. Renji had been nervous. By then he knew just how much trust was being placed in him.
During sleep was about the only time a Gotei captain was truly vulnerable. And during sex, though that hadn't really been on Renji's radar. Not on anything more than a casual basis anyway, until he'd started spending the night in Byakuya's bedroom, and had finally seen the man sleeping. That had been a revelation. The ice-cold armour melted away leaving a young man that Renji could only see as beautiful. And that wasn't all, because Byakuya dreamed. Not nice dreams either. More like nightmares going by Byakuya's desperate mutterings and wrenching startled cries, full of the kind of blood and terror that Renji had thought only existed in Rukongai, and definitely not in the lives of Seireitei nobility.
He'd asked Koji about them, and got a cold-shoulder in response. It wasn't his business. That was for the master to speak about, if he wanted. Byakuya never had, but Renji had done his best to help anyway. The next time one of the nightmares struck, Renji had climbed into bed with his captain and held him in his arms, trying to soothe him with voice and presence.
Renji had kind of expected to be shrugged off, but Byakuya hadn't. He'd settled almost immediately, his breathing calming and deepening, his tight terrified body language stretching back into languid sleep. Luck, Renji had thought. Coincidence. And then Byakuya had murmured his name, "Renji," so quiet and real that Renji's heart had leapt into his throat and by the time he'd swallowed it back down again, it was too late. He'd fallen hard and fast. The man who owned him body and soul now owned his heart as well.
And it had been Renji's choice, as far as anyone ever chose to fall in love.
See, the baboon rumbled. Told you it doesn't have to be either or.
Sstill ssentimental, snake-tail hissed. He reducess you.
But he makes us stronger too, Renji replied, feeling his newfound insight slip comfortably into place alongside the other revelations. So I embrace it. I'll be a sentimental fool, he added, and opened his eyes onto the clear fathomless blue skies of his inner world.
A terrified bellow suddenly filled the air.
Renji leapt to his feet. That was Zabimaru, he'd know that voice anywhere.
Sand stretched in all directions, empty and uncompromising. There was no sign of the nue. "Zabi!" Renji called.
The bellow came again, and this time Renji was able to pinpoint a direction. He started off towards it at a dead run, bare feet scuffing over the sand, leaving little dusty plumes in his wake. Something moving on his head distracted him for a moment, until he remembered it was his top-knot because of course his hair was long again now he was back in this place.
Another bellow from Zabimaru got him back on track and now he could see something. It looked like a couple of branches sticking out of the ground. Renji sprinted towards them, realising as he ran what he was seeing. Snake-tail and one of the baboon's arms protruding from the sand.
Buried?
No, worse. Renji skidded to a halt, dropping to the ground and flattening himself over the deep dark pit. Black bars the thickness of his arms and less than a foot apart stretched across it from side to side, trapping Zabimaru below.
"Damn it!" Renji cried, prying at the bars until his hands stung and creaked from the force. Zabimaru was trying too, the powerful muscles in the baboon's upper arms bulging with effort, the snakes coils like liquid power.
Nothing. The bars never even flexed.
Renji collapsed over them, sobbing with frustration and rage. This shouldn't be happening! They'd fixed the shikai thing, he was back in his inner world, why was Zabimaru still trapped?
The soft scales of the snake's underbelly caressed the inside of Renji's arm as if to comfort him, its tongue a gentle flickering touch on the back of his wrist. Renji turned his hand palm up, and felt a calloused paw slide into it. He squeezed. The baboon squeezed back. Only then did Renji open his eyes. The nue was hanging off the bars, ten feet above the bottom of the pit. Its twin gazes level and serious.
"We've overcome worse," the baboon said, "This is the last of the seal. We'll work on breaking it together."
That was way more reassuring than Renji could muster at the moment, but he did manage to summon up half a smile. "Yeah, there ain't nothing we can't sort out if we face it together."
The baboon's eyebrows flicked but it was snake-tail that answered, "Sso, take yourself outside and ssummon us through your sword. We will sstart the fight there."
Byakuya couldn't help being surprised by how many of the young women entering the club tonight smiled at him. He tried smiling back, but that just seemed to make them grab their friends and hurry inside, so perhaps that hadn't been the right thing to do after all. It was hard not to though. Standing outside the club was boring and at least exchanging a smile was something he could do that wasn't pacing back and forth across the entranceway.
Bouncing on his toes helped a little, though it did aggravate the headache that had started blooming between his eyes. Pressing his fingers against it eased the pain a little, but what he really needed was a distraction. Like being able to sit jinzen. He should tell Mendori that door duty wasn't for him tonight, he had better things to be doing.
Then again, at least being out here gave him the first chance of seeing Renji.
Not that he was worrying.
He peered up the road anyway, hoping to catch a glimpse. Where could he be? It wasn't like Renji to be late. His timekeeping was excellent. It was one of the things Byakuya treasured about him.
"What are you doing all the way over there?"
It was a woman's voice calling. Byakuya spun round and found Akio-chan standing on the front step of the club, which was quite some distance away. She was right, he'd strayed from his post in his eagerness to see Renji.
"My apologies, Akio-chan," he said, hurrying back over. "I promise you, I was still very much aware of my surroundings. No one would have been able to enter without showing me their-"
"Byakuya, what did Mendori give you?" Akio asked.
Byakuya blinked at her, partly because of the question, but also because he'd grown quite unused to hearing his name from anyone's lips except Renji's. All the others called him 'princess', and with how absent Renji had been of late, the novelty was quite startling.
"Hey!" Fingers snapped right in front of his eyes. Byakuya flinched and refocused on Akio-chan. She didn't look pleased, so he bowed and said, "Again I apologise-"
"Don't. Just… Damn it, I've told him not to feed people stuff when they're supposed to be working. It's bad enough Lee getting tweaked without you starting it as well."
She glared at him and would, Byakuya suspected, have said more if the door hadn't opened behind her, disgorging the young woman with the large sparkling pink suitcase. She was a stunning woman with long dark hair that draped like a tail over one shoulder, drawing the eye to her most prominent assets. The dress she was wearing didn't help in that regard either, since the tight yoke top seemed to highlight her breasts until that was all Byakuya could see. It was really quite dizzying, and very attractive.
"Unagiya-san," Akio was greeting her, smile not quite reaching her eyes. "Thanks so much for coming. I'll let you know if we need your services, okay?"
The woman, Unagiya, dipped a nervous little bow. "It's an honour to even be asked," she said, "A small company like mine normally only handles things like dog walking and finding lost items."
Byakuya listened, spellbound as she talked. Her voice was husky with a wonderful roundness to it that was quite as attractive as the rest of her. Perhaps Renji would- but no. There was no Renji any more, and possibly never would be again. That thought made Byakuya feel desperately sad and he gave serious consideration to asking Akio-chan to order Renji to love him again, but no, that wasn't right either. There was nothing Byakuya could do but wait and hope. It was sad, but there it was.
More customers arrived. As Byakuya was checking their cards, a car turned into the street. Byakuya glanced around, squinting as the car's headlights blinded him for a brief second, and then he saw the figure jogging down the pavement behind it. Renji!
He wanted to call out, but managed to restrain himself, instead focusing on the important business of seeing the customers inside. While he was doing that, Unagiya-san said, "That's my husband. Thank you again, Akio-chan. I really appreciated your time."
Byakuya hardly heard her, he was far more interested in finishing up so he could greet Renji properly. The women headed inside and finally Byakuya was free, though of course he couldn't leave the front of the club. Contenting himself with bouncing up and down on the spot, he watched avidly as Renji loped towards him. Such behaviour was terribly undignified, but Byakuya couldn't bring himself to care because Renji had the broadest of grins on his face, and he was smiling at Byakuya. Byakuya's own mouth curved up in response as his heart soared. It felt like new years, or a summer festival to see such an expression, not only back on Renji's face, but aimed at him specifically.
"Hello!" he called as Renji crossed over so he was on this side of the road.
The car with Unagiya-san on board pulled away. It was a taxi, Byakuya realised, though he spared it no more than a cursory glance, not with Renji so close. Renji took more of an interest, ducking down and frowning briefly at something inside the car before he looked back at Byakuya and his grin returned.
"Hey," he said, "Look at you! Being all doorman-y, getting chatty with the natives."
Beside them, Akio-chan snorted quietly, but didn't mention the pill Mendori had given him. Byakuya was glad. It wasn't that he didn't want Renji to know, he just didn't want him to know quite yet. He might say that Byakuya should stop taking them, and then he'd never get the bones to dance. Even the possibility of being denied that was enough to make Byakuya want to cling to Renji and beg him not to.
Thankfully he managed to retain enough control to only stare at Renji longingly. Renji, who had turned to Akio-chan and, bowing very deeply, was apologising in the most beautiful formal language. "I am really very sorry for being late back this evening. Please accept my most humble apologies."
Akio waved a beringed hand at him. "Oh stand up, silly. Byakuya stood in for you, so it wasn't a problem this time." She pursed her lips into a mock frown, propped one hand on her hip and wagged a finger at Renji. "Just don't do it again."
"I won't, neesan," Renji replied. His grin was back, as wide and wonderful as ever, but it wasn't just aimed at him, Byakuya realised with some disappointment. Everyone was on the receiving end. "Let me nip upstairs and change then I'll be back to take over." With a quick dip and a finger-wave, Renji trotted off inside.
Akio-chan watched him go, raising a curious eyebrow at Byakuya when the door closed behind him. "He's looking very pleased with himself. Any idea what that's about?"
Byakuya did, though he wasn't sure how to explain it to Akio. He took a stab anyway. "There's a technique he's being trying to perfect in his training. It's exceedingly complicated involving many hours of meditation and practice. He actually managed to perfect it once before, however…" He flailed for a second before settling on, "a recent injury meant he had to start again from a lower point in his training and-"
"You know what," Akio-chan interrupted, her palm raised, "Tell me tomorrow when you're not spun."
He'd been talking too much again. Byakuya clamped his lips closed and nodded enthusiastically to prove he'd understood. Akio-chan simply sighed, shook her head and headed back into the club. Which meant Byakuya was alone, without even Renji spotting to keep him amused. Though at least Renji would be back down soon. That would be nice. It would be good to have company. Renji could tell him all about shikai and-
Two young women came around the corner. Byakuya greeted them warmly, inspected their membership cards, and ushered them inside.
- maybe they could talk about other things and-
More customers. Byakuya cast a longing look at the door, wishing Renji would come out and join him, and ushered these ones in as well.
- maybe he could relieve Byakuya for a little while, because Byakuya suddenly and rather desperately needed to pee!
He was hopping from foot to foot by the time Renji reappeared and Byakuya hardly even waited for him to come through the door before excusing himself and shooting inside to the toilets.
It wasn't until he was standing at the urinal that Byakuya realised he wasn't alone. Someone was in one of the cubicles. The water was running like the flush had been used, only it was going on and on and on. Then a phone rang, a cheery little tune with squeaky-voiced lyrics about ponies, that cancelled out the sound of the running water.
"Daddy," Akio's voice whined as the tune stopped. "This is a really bad time."
A polite and considerate person would have left rather than eavesdrop. Byakuya was neither, not when there was a source of potential information right under his nose. He'd learnt the skill early and used it remorselessly in his ongoing battle of survival against his uncle. The fact that he was still alive to tell the tale proved he was good at it.
Silently, he stepped closer to the cubicle, making sure to stay far enough away to avoid getting spotted under the door.
"The toilet if you must know," Akio-chan was saying. She paused then, "Daddy! That's revolting. I hate you!" Another pause. "Yes, yes, it went fine. The machine gave a reading." Pause. "No, I don't know what it was. It's in the office and I'm not." "Definitely over fifty." "Unagiya Ikumi." "Yes, I know that's a woman's name. That's because she's a woman!" "No, you didn't say men only, you just said people who could-" "Do you know how many people there are who can still operate-" "No, and I'll tell you why. Because they're all dead or working for important companies and someone would miss them." "They're not just computer geeks, daddy, they're specialists-"
Feet clad in pink slippers appeared on the cubicle floor. She was finishing up.
Byakuya backed up towards the door, straining his ears to hear the rest of the conversation.
"Yes, she does. She worked there for years before she got married." "I don't know, some foreigner." "See, I told you. Really convenient. You can pin it all on him." "Okay, yes. See you soon. Bye bye!"
As she hung up, Akio flushed the toilet. Byakuya took advantage, hauling the door open and banging it shut again loudly. By the time Akio came out of the cubicle, he was back at the urinal, and she hurried politely past without saying a word.
Byakuya let her get well clear before heading back outside himself. He needed to speak to Renji, urgently. If he'd understood that conversation correctly then Akio was helping her father identify people for Iba's army and Unagiya-san had just been scouted.
That had been Zommari in the taxi, Renji was sure. There couldn't be that many drivers who looked like him in Tokyo, plus the sign on the top of the car had been the same. Thinking about it, hadn't they promised to get in touch with the guy, buy him drink or something? That hadn't happened, too many other things going on. By now it probably didn't matter and, considering who they were hanging with these days, Zommari was better off out of it.
Anyway, it wasn't like they had time for a social life. Renji for definite had better things to be doing.
Excitement bubbled up inside him and his face tugged into a grin again as he bounced on his heels. He couldn't help it. It had just felt so damn good to feel the weight of Zabimaru's shikai in his hands again, to practice with it. To feel the stretch and burn in his own muscles as the whipblade created the kinds of torsion in his body nothing else ever did.
Sure Zabimaru was still trapped, but after giving it some serious thought, Renji reckoned that was probably a bankai thing, which meant now he had another goal to aim for. And he'd get there too. Nothing was gonna stop him now.
A small group of women came round the corner of the club. Renji stepped forward, about to give them the usual polite welcome, when he realised who one of them was. "Hanna-san," he said, adding an extra level of formal to his bow.
"Renji," she replied, the first time she'd actually spoken to him since the incident. Progress or a backward step? The latter definitely, he thought, as she cornered him against the door like she had that first night. It had been kind of convenient to be ignored.
"Still in a relationship," he said, hands high and visible, just in case someone tried accusing him of molesting the boss's daughter, 'cause yeah that would go well.
"But a little bird told me that you like women as well."
Mendori, that bastard. "Liking ain't the same thing as touching. And right now I'm a one man guy."
Renji knew he'd messed up the moment the words left his lips. Hanna's eyes lit up and she pressed closer. "If you weren't always so choosy, there's nothing stopping you from changing your mind again, is there."
"Except for Byakuya," Renji replied. "Look, I dunno how much clearer I can make this, lady. I ain't interested. I ain't never gonna be interested. The only way you're gonna get in my pants is by tying me down and ripping them off, got it?"
She backed off immediately, but not in the way Renji had been hoping. Talking like that, he'd kind of being trying to embarrass her into leaving him alone. Instead, her face took on a calculating cast. Renji's heart sank. He knew that look. He'd seen it before so many damn times. That was the expression of someone who'd seen a challenge and decided to meet it.
Crap. The last thing he needed was Kutsuzawa Hanna on his case.
"Please," he said, trying a different tack. "I'm just trying to do my job. Don't screw this up for me. I apologised after the last time and-"
The door behind him pushed open and, with the worst timing ever, Byakuya reappeared. He looked from Renji to Hanna and back again before saying to Hanna, "If Renji has done something to upset you, please allow me to face the punishment. It would be unfair for Renji to do so again when it was my fault the last time."
"You?" Hanna said with a sneer and a disgusted look. "I wouldn't touch you with someone else's." And with that she stalked off inside.
Renji watched her go with a mixture of relief and worry. It was good that this little encounter was over, but no way was that gonna be the last of them. She was gunning for them now.
"The young lady who was getting into the taxi when you arrived," Byakuya said suddenly and absolutely out of blue. "She's been identified as one of those who will be useful to the Iba. I believe Kutsuzawa is planning to have her killed. We need to stop it."
"What?" Renji said, his mind still elsewhere. On Hanna mainly and how much shit she could stir up for them.
"Unagiya-san, the woman who was-"
"Yeah, I got that part. I just don't see what it's got to do with us." The last thing they needed was to start rocking the boat in some other direction.
"A human woman is about to be killed when she's done nothing to deserve it," Byakuya began, but Renji wasn't having any of that tonight.
"No," he said, annoyance brewing up into genuine anger. "If Iba's interested, it's because she's got spiritual power. A month ago, you'd have killed her yourself, so you don't get to play the poor little innocent card, not now. Not when that…" he pointed towards the club and Hanna, his teeth clamping shut on some of the nastier words he wanted to use, "person, who just so happens to be the boss's daughter, keeps trying to get her claws into me! If she gets us fired, what the fuck do you think's gonna happen? We won't have anywhere to live, any money to buy food. So, no. I'm sorry about the woman, but she ain't our problem. We look after ourselves first, got it?"
Byakuya stood as unmoving as a statue through the tirade, gaze averted and hands at his sides. When Renji finished, he nodded, apparently accepting that what Renji wanted went. Which was good. Renji didn't want another fight on his hands, not when he'd been in such a fantastic mood earlier. It also meant he needed to be the bigger man and compromise a bit.
"We can keep our eyes and ears open," he said, toning his voice back to soothing. "We should be doing that anyway. If they're starting to send people through, then the Iba must be getting ready to move. We need to be ready too." He grinned. "Guess it's a good job I got shikai back, eh?"
Grey eyes immediately rose, and Renji saw his excitement reflected back at him. "Truly?" Byakuya asked.
"Really truly," Renji replied, his grin getting bigger. "But I'm guessing you already knew." Byakuya would have to, wouldn't he, if Zabimaru partly belonged to him?
A slight flush coloured the tops of Byakuya's cheeks. "I…suspected," he admitted. "Congratulations. I'm very happy for you and Zabimaru."
Renji chuckled and nudged him. "Make it sound like we're getting married, not training up again." He paused, wondering if he should say something else about what else he'd discovered. But what was the point, and it might just make things awkward with Senbonzakura still not around. "How's it going with you?" he asked instead. "Jinzen working?"
Byakuya inclined his head slightly. "After a fashion. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd like to go and try again now."
"Sure," Renji replied with a shrug, though he felt a little hurt. He kind of wanted to share his joy at regaining shikai with Byakuya. Even if they couldn't have a drink to celebrate, they could at least have stayed out here together and chatted. But that was just being selfish.
Some of what he was feeling must have bled through into his tone because Byakuya gave him a questioning look. Renji forced himself to nod and smile. "You go on in. No reason for both of us to stand out here like lemons."
"If you're sure," Byakuya said, that hesitance creeping back in his voice. Because, of course, Renji had forgotten, it was difficult for Byakuya to be around him.
"Absolutely positive," he said, just as a taxi pulled up and disgorged a chattering group of women. He stepped forward to deal with them, and when he turned back, Byakuya was gone.