Chapter 8: At the Met Headquarters, Key Street, Mashiba District

"Inspector Kurosaki, get your ass in my office this moment," a female voice said irritably.

It would have been a seductive line, as spoken by someone with such a smoky voice as Yoruichi Shihoin, but the tone was obviously serious.

Some of the other people in the Met looked up and then went back to work. Only Constable Chizuru -- a rookie who should know better by now -- gave Ichigo a thumb's up sign. Ichigo growled at her and entered the Chief Inspector's private office.

The Shihoin looked up from her day-old newspaper and tossed it on the table. Ichigo could just barely make out the headline under the fold: Fishermen Make Grisly Discovery -- Headless Man Found Floating in Rukongai waters!

She cocked a well-plucked eyebrow in his direction. The little twat wasn't paying attention to her. "I've heard from one of my colleagues that you've been poking your head in the Kuchiki case," Shihoin started, her tone low and threatening. "That's the first time I heard that you were assigned to it, Kurosaki."

Ichigo gulped. He hadn't quite planned on telling the Shihoin at all.

"Do you deny that you questioned the prisoner and accosted Byakuya Kuchiki in his own home, Kurosaki? Your actions should be subject to internal investigation! This is not to mention that little problem of paperwork for an exhumation you managed to slip past me."

The young man was silent. His boss continued. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"You can't stop me," Ichigo spoke up. "I'm checking this out on my own time, and I'm not neglecting my normal workload. If you want, I'll file a proper leave of absence, but I'm not going to --"

"Did I tell you to stop?" the Chief Inspector suddenly grinned at him.

Ichigo did a double take. "--what?"

"I merely asked you to explain yourself," Yoruichi Shihoin stretched out her legs, placing her feet on her desk. "Ever since the re-trial was ordered, I was planning to have someone re-examine the case, but did you ever bother to report to me and say you were interested in it? No. You're a horrible subordinate, and you deserve some ticking off for acting without my permission."

Ichigo almost withered at her words. Almost. "I'm not saying you are right to go behind my back. But if anyone in the Met had screwed up, leading up to a wrongful conviction, they would have hell to pay for. I don't care if the Seireitei outpost is to blame or us. A screw-up is still a Met screw-up."

He had to control his scowl from slipping into a smile. He wasn't totally off the hook yet.

"Still," Chief Inspector Shihoin continued, "I would like to know how you expect me, your boss, to save your ass from the wrath of the other chief inspectors, if I don't know your ass needs saving?"

"Er…"

"You better be grateful you didn't have to listen to Chief Inspector Gin," the Shihoin said. "His mouth was full of expletives for your interference."

Ichigo was silent.

"You better thank your friend down at Central Archives for telling me," she continued. "Too bad she was reprimanded and suspended before she came clean. But at least I had some idea of what was happening before I got chewed out by a colleague."

Fuck. He didn't realize that he got Tatsuki into trouble. He almost forgot about the case file he got surreptitiously.

"Chief Inspector?" the question was out of his mouth before he thought it out. "How is Mr. Urahara?"

The expression in her eyes didn't change. "He's in stable condition, but still unconscious. When he wakes up, I'll interrogate him myself." She seemed secretly delighted at the prospect. She waved Ichigo off with an elegant hand. "I suppose the fools outside let slip that the exhumation is underway? No? So what are you still standing around here for? Go scoot."

"And Kurosaki?" she called after him while her office door was ajar. She raised the volume of her voice, so that everyone on the ground floor could hear her. "Stop visiting Rukia Kuchiki on a daily basis. Just catch the real culprit, will you? Warden Kotetsu says she's running a detention center, not a dating service."

Ichigo visibly withered at those words. He slammed the door shut.

Yoruichi Shihoin smiled, catlike. She always had the last word in her Met.

So how do you find the story so far...? Drop me a line and tell me what you think. XD A big thanks, by the way, for all the lovely feedback so far.

The next three chapters (plus a few interludes) will be uploaded next week, so please stay tuned.