With Renji's reiatsu raging behind him, Ichigo put his head down, and ran. Screw stealth. That hadn't got them anywhere. What he needed now was speed. He had to get Uryū back to Ryūken. The quicker he did that, the quicker he could go back and help Renji, because that back there was supposed to be him.
He'd been the one who'd insisted that they went, over Renji's objections. He'd been the one who'd slowed them down so they'd got caught. The one to fuck up his easy kill, to fudge the door lock. The one who'd walked out into the middle of a firefight without a weapon.
He'd been the one without bankai who'd had to have his ass saved yet again.
In his arms, Uryū stirred, groaning softly. Ichigo slowed to a trot and pushed aside the cloak just enough to catch a glimpse of his face. Sweat beaded on his brow and upper lip, and his skin looked pinker than normal.
"Just hang on," Ichigo muttered, worry for his cousin now rising to compete with his concern for Renji. And then there was the kid on his back. Ichigo was terrified of even stopping to check on him. He was half convinced the kid was already dead and he was hauling a corpse around. The hairs on his neck told another story, but that could be nerves as much as the kid's breathing.
They arrived on the top of the Sōkyoku Hill and Ichigo glanced briefly back at the massive cloud of dust and smoke rising from the direction of the 12th before leaping down the side of the mountain and ducking into the cave. Someone was down below. The mat was rolled back exposing the trapdoor and Ichigo yanked it open, letting it slam closed behind him as he dropped into the bright sunlight below.
"Karin!" he was yelling before he hit the bottom. "Oji-san!"
The figures who appeared in answer to his call were blond haired, not dark and silver, but Ichigo recognised them both, and one of them was an answer to just about every prayer he'd made on the way back. "Thank crap!" he said, sliding to halt in front of a surprised looking Kira. "On my back, quick!"
"I don't think I'll-" Kira began as Ichigo released the catch on his cloak, letting the garment swing loose to the ground. "Oh!" he gasped, as the hidden burden came into view. "Oh my, quickly put him down here."
"You're gonna have to help," Ichigo said, wrestling with the makeshift harness and trying to hang onto Uryū at the same time.
"Let me," Urahara said, reaching for Uryū and for a second Ichigo was tempted to hand him over, to watch the scientist's skin blister and melt as a result of another's mad experiments. But then his cousin moaned again and Ichigo remembered the horror on Uryū's face when he'd seen the state of the kid. He hadn't been able to stop whispering apologies as Ichigo had wrestled the unconscious body onto his back.
"Don't you touch him," Ichigo snapped, lowering the cloak draped form to the ground and standing astride him.
Both Urahara and Kira looked at him oddly, but neither said a word in disagreement. Instead Kira helped with the straps while Urahara watched nervously, his hands fluttering from time to time as though torn between helping and taking flight. Eventually, after a minute or two, he said, "I assume since you are alone that not everything went as planned?"
Luckily, Kira had just released the final knot as Urahara spoke, so when Ichigo shunpo'd forwards, grabbed the scientist by the throat and slammed him bodily into the rocky hillside, he was able to catch the unconscious kid before he hit the ground.
Ichigo hardly noticed, he had other things on his mind. "Like you didn't already know," he snarled into Urahara's rapidly paling face. "They were waiting for us! You sent us into a trap, you freaking asshole!" Long slim fingers wrapped around Ichigo's wrist, their tips resting gently over pressure points that Ichigo knew from experience would numb his hand in an instant.
Grey eyes that made Byakuya's seem warm and friendly met his, and Ichigo was forcibly reminded of this man's abilities. "I suspected," Urahara said, his tone calm, "But I did not know for certain."
"And you couldn't have said something?"
"Tell me, Kurosaki-san, if I'd told you it was a trap, would you have gone in to rescue your cousin anyway?"
Ichigo stared at him, confused. "What the hell sort of question is that? Of course I would!"
"Would Abarai have gone with you?"
An image of Renji's face; his disgust and distrust just from finding out Urahara was Ichigo's source of information. If Urahara had told Ichigo it was a trap, he would have had to have let Renji know, it would have been unfair not to. And Renji would definitely have refused to go. Plus he'd have argued against Ichigo going even harder, possibly even gone to Byakuya for back-up, and between them, they could have stopped Ichigo from rescuing Uryū.
"And if Abarai had not been with you tonight, would your mission have succeeded?"
Another flash of memory. Renji leaning over Uryū and shaking his hand. Him stalking out of the cell with Zabimaru drawn and ready. The grip of his fingers on Ichigo's wrist as he shunpo'd for all of them after the alarms went off.
The expression on his face when Ichigo had refused to leave him to fight alone. The look in his eyes as Ichigo had told him he'd be back.
That was enough. With a furious, growling, "You fucking bastard," Ichigo threw a punch straight into Urahara's complacent self-righteous mug. For a brief second he thought the man had dodged, but then came the satisfying impact of flesh against his fist.
"Ow!" Urahara wailed, collapsing at the knees and clutching at his nose, blood leaking through his fingers. "Dat really really hurd!"
"Suck it up," Ichigo snapped and turned his back on the disgusting excuse for a soul, only to find Kira flipping back the hood of Uryū's cloak. "Don't!" Ichigo yelled, lunging towards them.
He was a moment too late. Kira's fingers brushed against Uryū's face and he flinched, yanking his hand back and cursing softly. Ichigo grabbed him and pulled him further away, putting himself in the firing line.
Even from this distance he could feel the pull on the fabric of his body. Instinctively he met it with his own as he crept closer, refusing to part with a single scrap of reishi. The sandy soil around Uryū began to swirl, tiny eddies like miniature tornadoes, and sparking off them, pure reishi.
"Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Urahara called.
Some things were more important than grudges. "Kurotsuchi's fucked with his ability to absorb reishi," Ichigo shot back, leaning over Uryū to flip the cloak over him again. And paused. The slight pink hue to Uryū's pale face earlier had deepened to an angry red like bad sunburn, and small blisters had started to form. It reminded Ichigo of his hands after he'd used a lot of reiatsu with his gloves on.
Crap. It was the cloak. If it stopped Uryū absorbing reishi then it was working exactly the same way as Ichigo's gloves did, and a rash like that all over didn't bear thinking about.
Not stopping to second guess himself, Ichigo tugged the cloak clear of Uryū's body, stopping in a mixture of shock and disbelief as he spotted something like a kidō glowing in Uryū's chest and the sand around them immediately leapt into the air, dancing furiously. What had been small sparks became torrents of disintegrating matter that turned into pure energy. It was like when Ichigo had absorbed the arena barrier but hugely more powerful. As was Uryū's reaction to it. As the energy passed through his skin, he moaned, squirming and arching in a horribly familiar way, his hands fisting at the ground and his dick starting to harden.
Ichigo's cheeks flushed in sympathetic embarrassment and he yanked frantically at his kosode, wanting something to put over his cousin to protect his privacy. Except if he did, Uryū would just absorb it and it'd make him worse. Ichigo's hands froze as the full implications hit him. There had to be something they could do. Uryū couldn't keep absorbing reishi at this rate, it would kill him as effectively as being wrapped in the cloak. There had to be a third option. Some way of restricting the reishi he had access to, something like…
"Sekkiseki!" Ichigo blurted, spinning round to find only a curious looking Urahara several yards behind him. Wherever Kira was, he'd taken the kid with him, which had to be a good thing. He couldn't afford any more damage. "We need to put him in sekkiseki."
"That would seem the logical solution, yes," Urahara said, "and there's a very convenient enclosure made of the very same stuff about half a mile in that direction." He pointed towards a large outcropping that loomed in the distance." However I can't move him, and though you're doing an excellent job of staying in one piece considering how close to him you are, I have a feeling that picking him up may challenge even your resilience."
Damn it, he wasn't wrong. Although there was a good foot between Uryū and where Ichigo was kneeling, the pull on his reishi was constant enough to be painful. Touching Uryū while he was in this state would rip Ichigo apart in no time. And whereas he'd happily suffer the pain of doing it, it was entirely possible he wouldn't actually make it as far as the sekkiseki, even with shunpo. Even wearing his gloves.
There was only one option. Despite the discomfort and damage it caused, it would have to be the cloak again.
Ichigo reached for it, and paused, hand hovering over the dark cloth. Uryū had been wrapped in the cloak for a good half an hour as they broke out of the 12th. Why had it only just started to affect him at they reached the Sōkyoku Hill?
He replayed events, searching for clues. Had Uryū been uncovered at some point? No, Ichigo would have noticed. He'd have been able to see if…
He'd have been able to see.
His brain stuttered over the thought, peeling it apart one fact at a time until it made sense.
When Zabimaru had bounced off the toughened glass, Ichigo had dropped the hood on his own cloak so he could release a getsuga tenshō. And he'd never put it back up. He'd been able to shunpo and sense reiryoku, but he'd still been able to see Uryū, then and every moment afterwards, despite Uryū being wrapped from head to toe in his own cloak and Ichigo not wearing his properly. Which meant that at some point before that, the kidō that let Uryū's cloak make him invisible had stopped working.
Because it had been absorbed. Because Uryū, like Ichigo, could absorb kidō as well as reishi. It had just taken him about half an hour to absorb all the kidō imbued in the cloak completely. And when that was gone, his body had started eating itself. Just like Ichigo's hands did inside the gloves.
Fuck. He should have realised.
Still, that didn't change the fact that Uryū had to be moved and the cloak was the only way to do it.
Ichigo grabbed the garment, tossed it over Uryū's still writhing body, rolling him into it like he learnt to do in first aid classes with people who caught on fire, then scooped him into his arms and shunpo'd for the rock.
Urahara got there before him. When Ichigo arrived he was helping a weak looking Ryūken out of the same super-sized pet carrier thing he'd been in when Ichigo and Karin first found him. From the way he was leaning on Urahara and had his gaze fixed on his feet as he struggled to walk, it was obvious he still wasn't well.
"Right at the back," Urahara said, waving Ichigo past them, just as Ryūken looked up with a worried, "How is he?"
Ichigo shot to the back of the cage leaving Urahara to explain, "It appears my colleague has been playing fast and loose with your son's ability to absorb reishi. Precisely how he's done that and what the long term effects will be are as yet unclear. In the meantime, keeping him enclosed in sekkiseki should ameliorate the worst of the effects. Or at least we can hope. In the meantime, we really should try another…" As they moved further away, their voices faded into the distance.
Lowering Uryū carefully to the stone floor, Ichigo's thoughts echoed Urahara's. This had to work. If it didn't, Ichigo didn't know what else to try. Everything else in Soul Society, except Urahara's cloaks, sekkiseki and wildflower silk, was vulnerable to being absorbed, and the silk, like the cloaks, did too much damage to be a decent long term option.
"Kurosaki, get this thing off me right now," Uryū's muffled, croaky, but unmistakably furious voice said from somewhere close to Ichigo's pectoral.
"Ah!" Ichigo yelped, almost dropping his cousin in surprise. Uryū was awake? He'd been sure he was still unconscious.
With a nervous swallow, Ichigo flicked back the hood to find irate blue eyes glaring at him from a face that was blistering more by the second. "Fuck, sorry, okay!"
A quick glance behind showed Ryūken and Urahara were well clear, so Ichigo released his death grip on the cloak and allowed it fall open, shunpo'ing back a step as Uryū peeled the rest off his reddened skin and tossed it aside.
After it was gone, Ichigo waited for something to happen. For the sand to get sucked in through the front of the cage, for Uryū to start writhing about on the ground again. Nothing did, beyond the steady pull on Ichigo's own reishi at a level he could easily resist, and Uryū scratching furiously at the scarlet weals that tracked up and down his body.
Damn, he was skinny. Ichigo had noticed he was bony from carrying him around, but not how bad it really was. Maybe it was the light, or the lack of clothes? No. Those joints there, at the tops of Uryū's legs, should have muscle around them. They shouldn't be bulging through skin that looked stretched thin enough to tear.
If Uryū noticed he was naked, he didn't make anything of it, and so Ichigo ignored it too. Even a shihakushō would get turned to reishi if Uryū tried to wear it at the moment, and it wasn't like they hadn't shared baths and bedrooms as kids.
After a moment or two of watching Uryū scratch, when his own hands started itching in sympathy, Ichigo pointed out,"You know, that's only going to make it worse."
Uryū froze, then raised his head slightly and glared at Ichigo like he was trying to cause spontaneous combustion. "And what would you know about it, shinigami?"
The smirk that curled Ichigo's lips was one of relief more than amusement. If Uryū was snarking at him like that, then he was going to be fine. Stuck in a stone box and naked, sure, but still 'cousin Ishida', and that was what counted. He lifted his gloved hands to chest height and wriggled his fingers. "I'm the world expert. You're talking to Seireitei's only fully-functioning Quincy-shinigami hybrid. And yeah, I know the blisters itch, but they hurt like fuck if you pop them, believe me."
Uryū snorted in amusement, "Only you, Kurosaki, could give good advice couched in such ridiculous terms." Still, he sat up, crossing his legs tailor fashion and pressed his palms flat to his knees. "Though I'm surprised they're letting you roam free if you can manipulate reishi," he continued. "I was under the impression that the ability made us Soul Society's number one enemy."
"That's where the gloves come in," Ichigo replied absently as a sudden realisation hit him. "Hang on, you knew I was part shinigami? Seriously, was I the only one who didn't?" That was really starting to get annoying.
A heartfelt sigh met his accusation. Eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, Uryū said, "Of course I knew. Ryūken told me after aunt Masaki was killed. Since she was no longer absorbing the excess reiryoku from your father, Ryūken and I had to step in or risk being exposed to Soul Society." A quiet snort was followed by a rueful head shake. "Not that it made a difference. They found us all anyway." Uryū lifted his head, blue eyes intense like fire through glass. "I assume that's how they tracked down your father?"
Ichigo nodded. "I think so. It's not something people want to talk about, so the details are still a bit sketchy."
"I hate to interrupt such a touching family reunion," Urahara called from outside, "but your sister and cousin have arrived."
"Cousin?" Uryū asked with a frown. He was scratching again, digging red furrows into his arm.
"Dad's side. Turns out he's Seireitei nobility, or was before he left," Ichigo said, frowning back at him and watching as nails quickly drew blood. There was something that would help with that, he was sure of it. "And stop scratching."
As Ichigo left, Uryū's hand stopped moving and slowly curled into a fist. "Damn it," he huffed under his breath and glared up at the ceiling. "It itches!"
Karin and Ganju were talking to Kira over by the edge of the outcropping. Ignoring Urahara, Ichigo nodded to Ryūken, who was sitting on a rock looking like he'd rather be lying down on a soft bed somewhere, and headed over to speak to them. As he got close, Ganju spotted him, shot him a disgusted look and elbowed Karin in the shoulder, muttering something in a low voice. She turned and her eyes told Ichigo everything he needed to know.
The last time he'd seen an expression like that on her face, was the day they'd found Ryūken's abandoned car.
Ichigo needed no other reminders. He was stepping into shunpo even as Karin yelled after him to stop.
Renji. It had to be Renji.
He emerged from the cave into the blinding glare of the morning sun. It was a whole new day and Ichigo had left his friend, his lover, to die.
Eyes watering from the brightness of the light, Ichigo brushed his hand across his face and raced for the 12th, guilt lending his feet wings. As he ran, he reached out, searching for Renji's reiatsu. Before it had been a raging conflagration, a scarlet pillar reaching from heaven to earth, unmistakable to anyone who knew him. Now it was gone.
Ichigo hunted frantically amongst the generic flares of mediocre shinigami that made up the vast majority of the Gotei 13. Against those, Renji should have shown up like a spot of blood on a white sheet. And yet he wasn't there. Wasn't anywhere. The grounds ahead were half in ruins, buildings destroyed, bodies all over, but nowhere amongst all the chaos and destruction was there any sign at all of Renji.
He reached the wall of the 12th and would have gone straight over it without a thought if someone hadn't caught his arm in an iron grip and swung him back around on himself, sending him crashing into a pillar and bringing half of it down on his head. He came up fighting, Zangetsu drawn and a getsuga tenshō already releasing. It sang across the broad roadway, splitting paving slabs as it went, and smashed into the wall opposite, sending brick and plaster exploding outward.
"Better?" a facetious voice asked beside him.
Ichigo spun, snarling and punch swinging, only for his fist to meet a hand like a steel girder.
"Not this time, I think," Urahara said, stepping in close and grabbing Ichigo by both hands like he wanted to dance. Fingers closed around Ichigo's wrists, this time actually putting pressure on those points of promised numbness. Zangetsu tumbled from nerveless fingers, and before Ichigo could react with anything more than a sudden intake of breath, a light flashed in front of his eyes and some kind of kidō burned into his muscles, freezing him in place.
"Shibireyubi," Urahara said, as Ichigo found himself hoisted over the man's shoulder like a lanky sack of rice. The ground appeared to move as Urahara began shunpo'ing slowly from roof to roof. "Superior in my opinion to sleeping spells like tanma otoshi as it allows me to have my say while transporting your incapacitated body back to where it should be."
For a dizzying second, Ichigo thought Urahara meant his labs or maybe, if he was lucky, only the 2nd's punishment cells. Then Urahara continued, "If you'd waited for a mere moment, you would have heard what your sister had to say. It appears that she and Ganju were close enough to the 12th to witness the battle and saw when Abarai fell. Since, unlike certain other members of her family, Karin-san uses her brain for thinking, she had the presence of mind to lock onto his reiryoku and thus felt it as it disappeared."
As his body started absorbing the bakudō, Ichigo managed to force out a coughed and desperate, "Dead?"
"No. Of that she's quite certain. Our best guess is that he's been placed in a cell not unlike the one currently housing your Quincy cousin, which suggests Mayuri wishes to keep him safe at least for the time being. In other words, Kurosaki-san, so long as you don't go blundering over the wall and get yourself killed, the situation may yet be recoverable."
For some reason the back of Urahara's dark green haori was covered in scattered strands of short, black, animal hair. Ichigo squinted at them, trying not to throw up from being bounced up and down on the shoulder jammed into his stomach. And thought about what Urahara had said.
Renji wasn't dead. The situation might be recoverable.
Dare he hope? Karin was really good at sensing reiryoku, Ichigo was sure of that. And she'd had a friend die recently so she knew what that felt like. Nor was she the type to sugar coat something just because it was nasty. So maybe hoping was okay. But just hoping wasn't going to be enough. "You… help… him," he managed as Urahara sprang up the side of the Sōkyoku Hill like a mountain goat.
"That I'm afraid will not be possible. There are events afoot that preclude my direct involvement in this affair, however I can rattle a few cages and send out word amongst the unwashed masses of Seireitei. Who knows what may turn up in response to such a rallying cry. In the meantime, Kurosaki-san should worry about his uncle and cousin. We need to get them moved before someone notices I'm harbouring two misappropriated research subjects and tries appropriating them for their own use."
The cave, trapdoor and ladder all followed each other in quick succession, and Ichigo soon found himself being roughly dumped onto a rock. He landed with a thump, his still fuzzy arms and legs sprawling, and gazed up at the fake blue sky painted on the ceiling of this strange, impossible room that belonged to this strange, contradictory guy, and sighed.
He didn't understand. He just didn't. And every time he tried to, it got even more confusing. Maybe he should just lie back and let someone else do the thinking for him. Let others tell him what to do. He'd just hit what he was told to hit.
Gods, he thought with a sigh, that sounded so relaxing.
Karin's scowling face appeared, blocking his view of the painted fluffy white clouds, rapidly followed by Karin's fist snapping his head to the side so all he could see was dusty ground and rocks. He didn't bother dodging. He probably deserved it.
"Idiot! What'd did you run off for?" she yelled.
Ichigo rolled his head back round so he could see her. "Because it seemed like a good idea at the time?" he offered.
"Idiot," she said again, this time without heat, and held out her hand. He flailed for it, managed to get a grip and she hauled him upright, grabbing his shoulder to balance him as he teeter-tottered and almost fell on his nose. The bakudō was clearing rapidly but it was leaving him with that same dizzy high feeling that he always got from absorbing concentrated spiritual energy.
If he didn't take his gloves off, his hands would start itching next. He should have asked Byakuya for some of that cream… Shit! Of course!
"Where's Kira!" Ichigo demanded, staggering upright, and immediately followed the question with a yelled, "Oi! Kira!"
"He's that way," Karin began, pointing off to the right, but Ichigo had felt the slight flare of reiatsu when he'd called Kira's name. He stepped into shunpo, almost tripped over his own feet, and stumbled to a halt the other side of a nearby rock outcropping.
Kira was there, sitting next to the kid Ichigo had carried back from the 12th, his expression desolate and Ichigo could see why. Most of the kid's body was covered in a sheet, but the bits that were showing looked like he'd been used as a dart board.
Ichigo hunkered down beside them, pressing his knuckles to the ground to keep his balance. "How is he?"
Kira tweaked the sheet slightly higher and shrugged. "Not good," he said. "I tried healing him with kidō but…"
"It doesn't work," Ichigo finished for him. "Yeah, that's what Byakuya said about it."
"Did he tell you that if the damage is bad enough, it will never heal." Kira sighed. "Ukitake-taichō's lungs never have, but at least he's stable." He paused, frowning. "Physically, anyway."
Ichigo knew that the 13th's captain was supposed to be nuts, but this was the first time he'd heard anything about his chest. "He was injured by a Quincy?" he asked, hoping for a few more details.
"So they say," Kira replied, raising his head to look at Ichigo. "But you didn't come over here to discuss Ukitake-taichō's health problems. What can I do for you, Kurosaki-san?"
Ichigo spared a quick glance at the kid. Rikichi, wasn't it?
Someone had found a sleeping mat from somewhere, so he wasn't lying on the ground. Maybe Ichigo could help him a little more. "There's this cream," he said, trying to remember what, if anything, Byakuya had said about it. "When my hands reacted to the gloves," he held them up to show Kira, "Byakuya used it to stop them itching. It came in a ceramic jar, about so big?" Cupped palms roughly described the container's dimensions. "The jar was plain whitish, I guess. The cream inside pale green and smelled smooth, kind of cool."
"And it worked?" Kira enquired curiously.
"Yeah," Ichigo nodded. "Like a freaking dream. The itch went off and they started healing up right away."
"Do you have any left?" Curiosity now turned to hope. Ichigo felt like a heel for crushing it.
"No, Byakuya's still got it. I was kind of hoping you might know what it was."
Kira shook his head. "To my knowledge there is nothing that works on this type of injury, so this cream of yours could well be a miracle cure. Did Kuchiki-taichō say where he got it?"
Ichigo thought his face probably looked a lot like a deer's caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. "Not really," he hedged, which wasn't a total lie. He just didn't fancy telling Kira that Isshin had invented it. "But I was going to ask, do you think it'd be good for Ishida too?"
"Your cousin? The Quincy?" Kira asked, one hand going to cover the tips of the fingers on the other, which were pink and angry looking like a mild burn. He'd touched Uryū's face, Ichigo remembered. "I can't see that it would hurt-" he continued, only for a voice to interrupt saying, "You should fetch it. Both of them need all the help they can get."
Ichigo looked up to see Ryūken, propped up by Karin on one side and a resentful looking Ganju on the other. Ganju shot another look at Ichigo, like he was something tracked in on the bottom of a shoe, and Ichigo was really started to find it annoying. He was the guy's clan-head for god's sake. Didn't that count for anything?
"Urahara said the boy was injured by my son," Ryūken was continuing. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You're also a Quincy?" Kira said, and the edge to his voice could have been dislike or fear, it was difficult to tell.
"I am," Ryūken said, "but first and foremost I'm a healer, and I also trained under a Quincy master in techniques that may be of use in this circumstance. Granted I don't have access to my normal equipment and supplies, but I'd like to try if you'll let me."
Despite his bravado, Ryūken's legs were trembling. If he didn't sit down soon, Ichigo thought, he was going to fall down, no matter who was trying to hold him up.
"Put him here," Ichigo said, leaping up to clear a space.
For a second it looked like Kira might kick up a fuss at having a Quincy so close to his patient, then he sighed and shook his head. "If you say you are a healer, then I suppose I have no choice but to trust you. And you are Karin and Yuzu's uncle. That alone should grant you a free pardon for your race."
"As you being a friend of my niece grants you pardon for yours," Ryūken replied tightly as he was lowered to the ground.
Kira huffed a rueful laugh, eyes flicking from Ganju to Karin, then over towards the sekkiseki cage. "Touche. My apologies, Ishida-san, it's easy to forget that there are criminals and victims on both sides of this war."
"As there always was." Reaching out with a trembling hand, Ryūken touched his fingers gently to Rikichi's shoulder, where muscle was clearly visible through the skin.
As he made contact Ichigo sensed a zing of reishi. Kira made a strangled sound, lurching forwards like he thought Ryūken was killing the kid. Ichigo grabbed at him, but he needn't have bothered. Kira had already stopped, hands still out-stretched, staring in amazement at Rikichi because, where Ryūken had touched, and for about a quarter of an inch around it, the skin was whole. Not healed by a long stretch, it was still angry red and rough looking, but the lace effect was well and truly gone.
"You healed him!" Kira cried, his blue eyes wide and his face lit up with hope. "How? That's supposed to be impossible."
"It is," Ryūken said weakly, leaning on Karin "Unless you use the same method that caused the damage in the first place; reishi manipulation."
Which had taken a whole hell of a lot out of the man, Ichigo could tell.
So apparently could Karin. "Can you keep Rikichi alive now you know there's a chance of him being healed?" she asked.
"I think so, yes," Kira replied, then looked from her to Ryūken, his eyes narrowing assessingly. "Ishida-san, Urahara-san said that you hadn't been well, though he didn't explain in what way. Perhaps if I tended to your injuries first, you would then be able to heal Rikichi?"
"I would be exceedingly grateful," Ryūken said, his whole body seeming to relax in relief. This had been his aim all along, Ichigo realised. Which made sense. Whatever healing Urahara was doing for Ryūken, it didn't seem to be working very fast and they really needed to get everyone out of Seireitei as soon as possible. With Kira on the job, they'd might be able to leave by tonight.
Though how they were going to transport Uryū, Ichigo still didn't know. If Urahara couldn't come up with some solution, it would probably have to be the cloak again, which was going to be agony if they couldn't heal his skin up first.
There was nothing for it, for Uryū's sake and Rikichi's, Ichigo was going to have to steal the cream. Damn, he'd been hoping to put off returning to the 6th until he could bring Renji home with him.
The division's headquarters were in chaos. Ichigo kept his head down as he walked across the main courtyard; the last thing he wanted right now was for someone to flag him down to talk. It worked, or at least kept people away for the most part. One or two looked like they might try and start something, but a quick, cold glance and they backed right off, running back to their gaggles of friends. There were little groups all over. Not standard for the 6th at this time of the morning. Ichigo was glad to get across the yard and even happier to see Hisana's desk unoccupied. He took the stairs beside it three at a time, stretching his legs for the hell of it rather than using shunpo, because doing that might alert Byakuya, and if there was one person Ichigo needed to avoid completely, it was him.
Because Byakuya was going to go apeshit when he found out what had happened. Plus, if he heard about Uryū and Ryūken, he might just decide they should be sent back to Kurotsuchi.
The captain's office was open and empty. Ichigo slipped inside, heaving a sigh of relief, and closed the door behind him. Now if he could just find the cream and get out again, this might have all been worth it.
But where the hell was the stuff?
Ichigo took a moment to think, looking around the room and replaying that morning when Byakuya had put the stuff on his hands. Somewhere at the far end of the left-hand bookcase, he decided, remembering that Byakuya had stopped there on his way back into the room with the water and cloths.
A quick sortie and he found the pot behind an ornate lacquered case. At least he thought it was the right one. It looked the same. Even so, he should check. Ichigo couldn't imagine anything worse than getting everyone's hopes up and it turning out to be the wrong gloop.
He put the crockery pot carefully on Byakuya's desk and stripped off his gloves, tucking the rancid things in the top of his hakama, which frankly weren't much better. He needed a shower. Hell, he'd needed a shower yesterday after he got back from the Living World and still hadn't managed it. Maybe later. After Uryū and the kid were fixed. After he'd got Renji out.
Because that's where he was going next. On the way to HQ, Ichigo had done some serious thinking, and there were flaws in Urahara's arguments. Okay, so maybe Karin had sensed Renji being put in a sekkiseki cell, but kept alive wasn't the same as being unhurt and Ichigo didn't trust that fucker Kurotsuchi not to do things to Renji just because.
So that's where he was going next. Pick up the cream, drop it off with Ryūken and Kira, and then get Renji out. Okay, so the detail about how he was going to do that bit was sketchy, but it was a plan. He'd work on the rest on the way.
The seal on the pot broke easily. Ichigo twisted the lid off and took a sniff at the cream inside. It smelled the same, looked the same; kind of pale green and shiny. But there was one more thing he could try just to be sure.
He scooped up a finger-full and daubed it on the back of his hand, rubbing it in. The effect was immediate. All day his hands had been sore. Not itchy or painful like they'd been before, but annoying. He'd known they weren't quite right. The cream took that away. The little patch beneath it felt as though it was being bathed in healing reiatsu, which was dumb because there couldn't be any reiatsu there.
But there was reiryoku.
Okay, now that was strange. He hadn't noticed it before.
Ichigo closed his eyes and used his other senses to examine the cream. And yeah, there was reiryoku. But the amount was tiny, so dilute and at such low levels it might as well not be there at all. Totally out of proportion to the effect it was having.
And the reiryoku itself was odd. Not shinigami, that was certain, it was more like Ryūken's or Uryū's except purer. Clear and clean and white, just like that reiryoku Hanatarō had fed him along with the kidō when the sōtaichō was testing him. That had made him as high as kite. This was healing him. So what was different?
"I was under the impression that you were to always have the negator with you before you removed your gloves."
Ichigo spun, pot clasped in his hands. Damn it, he'd been focusing so hard on the cream, he'd missed Byakuya coming up the stairs. "Err, yeah," he stalled, trying to think of an excuse. "I erm… I got itchy so I left him in quarters to…" His words trailed off as a shaking Hanatarō appeared from behind Byakuya. He hadn't noticed him either, but then he wouldn't have. The little negator moved around the world like a spot of negative space. Ichigo couldn't even get a reiryoku reading off him.
And he was completely impervious to Ichigo's Quincy abilities. Which meant he'd be able to touch Uryū!
"You may leave us," Byakuya was saying to Hanatarō, who was bobbing his terrified little bows as he starting reversing out of the room.
Ichigo, totally without thinking, said, "Hang on a minute."
"You have a problem with the negator being dismissed?" Byakuya asked blandly.
Yeah, he really did, because if Hanatarō left then Ichigo couldn't send him to the bolt-hole with the cream and instructions to help anyway he could. Course, he couldn't exactly say that to Byakuya. So instead he blurted, "Hanatarō. His name's Hanatarō. You shouldn't just call him 'negator'."
The look he got for his trouble could have frozen oceans. By the door, Hanatarō had started apologising for existing and if he bowed any deeper, any faster, he was going to pass out, Ichigo was sure of it. Still, Ichigo wasn't going to back down. This was important. Maybe as important as the cream.
For long moments Byakuya stared at him, and Ichigo stared right on back, tightly controlled reiatsu roiling between them, until finally Byakuya blinked, dipped his chin infinitesimally and turned towards Hanatarō. "Yamada, I said you are dismissed." And damn, Byakuya knew his surname? Ichigo had forgotten he even had one.
"Yes, sir, I'm sorry, sir, it's all my fault, sir," was still coming from by the door, interspersed with wet gulping noises.
"Then leave."
"Yes, sir, sorry, sir."
The kid was stuck in a loop, Ichigo realised, and shouting at him'd only make it worse. Glancing between the panicking Hanatarō and a Byakuya who was looking more and more irritated by the second, Ichigo made a decision. "Look," he said to Byakuya, "You probably want know what's going on. So let me sort this little guy out quickly and I'll come straight back and tell you everything."
Grey eyes narrowed. "And if you decide to go with him?" Byakuya asked, as though Ichigo was always disobeying his orders.
Which, okay, yes, Ichigo had to admit, on occasion he had been known to play fast and loose with things Byakuya said, but this was different. This was about Renji. "I won't. I promise."
After another long moment Byakuya lowered his gaze, picked up the top piece of work from his to-do pile and began reading it. "See that you do not," he said.
Permission granted, Ichigo grabbed Hanatarō by the shoulder and steered him quickly out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.
The stairway was as good a place to talk as any. Ichigo peered over the rail to check there was no one listening below and said, "Remember that bolt-hole Renji and me talked about?"
It took awhile for Hanatarō to get himself back under control enough to answer. Ichigo always forgot that, even if he couldn't feel Hanatarō, the kid was hypersensitive to the moods of people around him, and getting caught between Ichigo and Byakuya having a stare-down couldn't have been much fun. But eventually Hanatarō managed to stutter, "The o-one beneath the S-Sōkyoku Hill, sir?"
"Yeah." Ichigo held out the pot of cream. It was minus its lid but that didn't matter. "I need you to go there and give this to Kira. You know Kira, blond guy with a droopy face from the 4th?"
Hanatarō took the cream but was still shaking from head to toe. "I'm sorry, sir, the only people I know from the 4th are Unohana-taichō and seventh seat Iemura. They were rarely needed at the 8th since Ise-sanseki is very skilled in healing."
"Right, yeah." Ichigo had forgotten that the kid had been a virtual shut-in before he'd come to the 6th. "Well, you can't miss him. Just yell Kira and he'll answer." He bent down so his face was on a level with Hanatarō's. "Look, I know you're scared, but I really need you to do this for me. I'd do it myself but Renji…" Ichigo stopped, the full horror of it suddenly hitting him all over again. Renji was back there, with Kurotsuchi, with no one to watch his back. Deep breaths, that was the answer.
He tried again. "Renji got caught at the 12th and I need to get back out, so-"
"I'll do it." Apparently he'd used the magic words or something. Hanatarō straightened up, hands clutching the pot to his chest, and Ichigo didn't need a facial expression to know how the kid felt. Determination to succeed was written in every line of his body.
"Course you will," Ichigo said, patting him on the shoulder as he stood up. "And while you're there, tell Kira about me not being able to absorb reishi off you, okay? There's someone down there who might be able to use your help."
That earned him a little bow and a, "Yes, sir," that sounded way more confident than it had before. Then Hanatarō was off down the stairs.
Ichigo leaned on the rail to watch him go, and was about to return to Byakuya's office when another figure appeared from under the landing. Tall, elegant, and strawberry blond, there was no mistaking who it was. Matsumoto stopped at the bottom of the stair, frowning up at Ichigo for a moment before she turned to say something to her escort. They nodded and stepped back leaving her alone to climb slowly up to meet him.
For a second Ichigo was tempted to bolt. She was going to say things, he just knew it. For starters he'd dumped her at the 3rd and done a runner, and still hadn't a clue as to how he was going to explain that. But he couldn't just leave. She was his responsibility.
"How are you doing?" he asked as she reached the top. She looked tired but not as stressed as she had been. Hopefully that meant she had good news. Ichigo couldn't even remember when the 10ther's grace period was up. The days were merging into one long blur of stress and no sleep.
"I'm fine," she said, the small frown on her brow belying her words. "I was just coming to tell you actually; the captain of the 3rd's offered me a place."
"That's great," Ichigo said, flashing her a genuine smile. If anyone deserved a safe haven, it was Matsumoto. Plus being at the 3rd put her back with Yachiru again, which was cool.
"It is. I'm really happy about it, and I couldn't have done it without you. Or Abarai… " Her frown deepened. "There's been rumours but I didn't want to believe them. Has Kurotsuchi really taken him?"
Damn, she'd overheard. "Yeah, but not for long," Ichigo replied. "I need to straighten some stuff out with Byakuya and then I'm-" He bit the words off, remembering at the last minute that you didn't share stuff like that with people. Especially not people from other divisions. Matsumoto was 3rd now, one of Ichimaru's, which made her the enemy. "It'll be fine," he finished lamely. "You okay to get back to the 3rd by yourself?"
"Of course," she said, serious for another moment, and then her expression brightened and a wicked smile lit her eyes. She leaned in slightly, pressing one slim hand to the top of Ichigo's arm, and nestled. "And anyway, who said I was going alone?"
Oh god. Ichigo closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest, trying not to feel the warm softness pressing up against his folded arms. He wasn't going to look, not at her face and not at the rest of her either. She was just a friend, nothing else, and he wasn't that sort of guy! He wasn't!
A waft of something rich and enticing filled his nose, followed by breath that felt cool against his burning cheek. Then lips fluttered over the thin skin beside his ear and Matsumoto murmured, "I'll not forget what you did for me, Ichigo. Thank you."
Why couldn't floors open up and swallow you when you wanted them to? He couldn't extract himself without touching her, and if he touched her, he really might die of embarrassment on the spot.
Never had Ichigo been so grateful to hear the office door slam open in his life.
"I have to go," he said, opening his eyes but keeping them fixed on her, very pretty, face.
"Really?" Matsumoto pouted at him, her bottom lip glistening pinkly.
He swallowed, mesmerised by it and totally unable to move, until Byakuya broke the spell with, "I am waiting, Kurosaki."
A hand on her shoulder and he eased himself away. She let him do it, then suddenly darted in and planted a firm kiss on his cheek. "Too sweet," she laughed, and dashed off, waving back at him as she ran down the stairs.
He stared after her, gob-smacked. That woman was nuts, but in the best way possible.
Still grinning on the inside, Ichigo turned towards the office. And his good humour vanished immediately. Byakuya was glaring at him like he knew Ichigo was personally responsible for all the crap that was about to come his way. He wasn't wearing the kenseikan, Ichigo realised. His hair was tucked behind his ears and the style made him look different. More vulnerable.
That was the only thing about him that did. With a cool look, Byakuya swept back into his office, the message loud and clear. Come and explain yourself.
Fuck. Ichigo fixed a scowl on his face and stalked towards the door. This was going to be no fun at all.
Byakuya was back working at his desk when Ichigo got there, looking like he hadn't got a trouble in the world. Only the slightest tremor in his reiatsu gave him away. No one else would have noticed Ichigo thought. The guy was a master at burying everything.
As Ichigo came in, he pushed the documents aside and folded his hands on the desk. Ichigo closed the door, and stood glaring at the floor, waiting for the interrogation to start. Despite what he'd said, he really didn't feel like volunteering information. The less Byakuya knew, the better, probably.
He didn't have to wait long. "I assume you were involved in Renji's sudden decision to challenge for the 12th?" Byakuya said.
A challenge? That was what they thought was going on? Well, yeah, Ichigo guessed they'd have to. If you didn't know there was someone in there to rescue, you'd never see it as a rescue mission.
"I thought it some kind of spiteful rebellion until I remembered the boy-"
Ichigo jerked, eyes meeting Byakuya's in shock. Did he know about Uryū?
"- and your upset over losing him. I presume, since you are here and Renji is not, you succeeded in rescuing the little traitor."
Not Uryū. He meant Rikichi. Ichigo was off the hook. If Byakuya didn't know, Ichigo wouldn't have to fight him to stop Uryū being sent back.
But Byakuya wasn't finished. "Tell me, was it worth the price?" he asked, and his eyes were cold enough to make Ichigo shiver. Reiatsu licked at Ichigo's skin like the touch of a blade along with every scathing word. "Abandoning a friend, so one who testified against you could go free?"
Ichigo clenched his fists, scowl deepening. 'It wasn't like that-'
"A man who trusted and trained you, defended you, for a snivelling snake who would have sold out anyone to preserve his own skin."
Teeth ground against each other as Ichigo fought to keep himself in check. 'It wasn't-'
"For that you would leave a friend behind to die!"
"It wasn't like that!" Ichigo finally bellowed back, words tumbling over each other. "It wasn't! I didn't leave… I had to. He couldn't carry both of them!"
"Both?" The full weight of Byakuya's reiatsu slammed into him. Ichigo's knees started to buckle under the pressure, but he wasn't going down that easily.
He snarled, shoving back against it. "Yeah, I said both. Now get off, you fucker!"
"You will explain." The reiatsu vanished, whipped back in tight.
Ichigo staggered a step, caught himself on the edge of the desk with one hand, and scowled at Byakuya, who looked like he was about to take tea, not halfway through an argument, the bastard. Though it was all surface. Underneath, his reiatsu was seething like flat water over a strong current, which meant this had to be really getting to him.
Which made sense, Ichigo guessed. He had to be as worried about Renji as Ichigo was. Sure they'd broken up, but even Ichigo could tell it wasn't real. Not really. Byakuya just sucked at expressing how much he cared. So maybe, if Ichigo got this right, Byakuya would help him get Renji back. There had to be a way, even if it meant a formal challenge. And that was something only a captain could do.
How had it all started anyway? With Ichimaru, Ichigo guessed. Which… crap, that wasn't going to work. Ichigo knew damn well that even hearing Ichimaru's name would shut down any chance of Byakuya listening to the rest. Same thing with bringing Urahara into the mix. So, he'd tell a lie or two. Just small ones.
"Karin heard a rumour," Ichigo began, "that Kurotsuchi had someone important to me and her." And then he wove his story. It wasn't a very good one, 'cause he sucked at lying, but it was good enough. Urahara's help became good luck. Ryūken's escape, fate. Then came Hanatarō, Renji, and the run itself. Told like this, the trap seemed more obvious. It made Ichigo look dumb for wanting to do it, and mean for using Hanatarō to force Renji's hand, and Ichigo didn't care. Not if it made Byakuya help him, not if it got Renji out, and anything that might help with that was gonna be played right up.
So when he came to Renji's last stand, Ichigo went for it. Elaborating on how Renji insisted on staying behind, the way he'd said it was up to him to cover Ichigo's back. How he'd ordered Ichigo to look after Uryū and not to hang around trying to help him when Ichigo didn't even have bankai.
When Ichigo finished, he stared at his feet and waited for a reaction. Any reaction. When nothing happened after a moment or two, he sneaked a look at Byakuya, and might have been looking at a marble statue. Even his reiatsu had closed down. Gone was the seething mess of hidden emotions from before, now he was like ice; absolutely opaque and unmoving.
Ichigo swallowed nervously. Had he fucked up in the telling? He didn't think so. He'd not over exaggerated Renji's role. He was a big damn hero for doing what he'd done and letting Ichigo get away. All Ichigo had done was make sure that bit stood out from the rest of the shitty mess.
Still, Byakuya was slow taking the bait. By now, he should have been offering to help.
Finally, finally, the ice prince moved. A flick of grey eyes and Ichigo was caught up in a staring contest again. "Tell me," Byakuya said, "when you first had word of this, why didn't you bring it to me?"
Ichigo blinked at the question. He hadn't even considered it, and Renji hadn't said anything. "I didn't think you'd care," Ichigo said. "I mean, you didn't care about Rikichi, so why would you-"
"That shinigami!" Byakuya began at a volume that had Ichigo taking a nervous step back. At his reaction, Byakuya stopped speaking, inhaled deeply through his nose and started again a bit more quietly. "That shinigami was an outsider who had already proven himself deceitful and opportunistic. Your cousin is a different case entirely. From what you say, he was innocent of any wrong doing and was brought to Seireitei under duress."
"But," Ichigo said, "he's a Quincy."
"And so to all intents and purposes are you. Why do you think there were so many who objected to your being elevated to citizen status and why we have tried so hard to keep your real identity a secret. In Soul Society memories are long, and of those who do not personally remember the last war, many are old enough to recall the stories of parents or grandparents. To allow a Quincy to walk among us unrestricted is anathema."
Ichigo hadn't heard of any war, but he'd kind of realised from Kyōraku's reaction that Quincy weren't exactly welcome in Seireitei, which was why he hadn't told Byakuya about Uryū and Ryūken in the first place. "So why -" Ichigo tried again.
"However," Byakuya cut in, his hand coming down onto the desk with a sharp slap, "Quincy though he may be, he is also your cousin. You are the Shiba clan-head, installed and acknowledged by all of Seireitei. As a relative of yours, it could be argued that he too is a noble and thus owed protection. If nothing else, a legitimate bid could have been offered and defended!"
"But I couldn't bid against Kurotsuchi -"
The hurt expression in Byakuya's eyes stopped Ichigo from saying any more. "You think that I would not have done so on your behalf? That, had you brought me this information, I would not have moved mountains to discover the truth of it rather than allow yet another innocent to remain in that man's hands. Have I not said again and again that I loath and detest him with every fibre of my being. Did I not lay down my own life to keep your sister from his hands. And yet still, you could not trust me enough to tell me of your cousin?"
Ichigo stared at him in utter disbelief. "How the hell am I supposed to know a thing like that when you chuck kids out on the street to die?"
And now it was Byakuya's turn to look shocked. "I would never-" he began, and Ichigo was all over that. Damn nearly crawling on the table so he could get in Byakuya's face, he yelled, "So what about Rikichi! You ordered Koji to throw-"
"That shinigami is not a child," Byakuya shouted back, coming to his feet and slamming both hands down on the desk. "He is a serving member of the Gotei 13, and as such is responsible for his own behaviour-"
"Fuck that, he was terrified!"
"As he should have been given his appalling behaviour."
"Appalling behaviour?" Ichigo threw up his hands. It was that or punch Byakuya, and that never led to anything good. "I just… I don't fucking believe you, I really don't. He's about Karin's age and you expect-"
"Forty, at least," Byakuya said, right over the top of him.
Ichigo stopped, frowning. "What?" Was that supposed to make some kind of sense, because if it was, he'd missed the memo.
"While you persist in seeing these things through human eyes, you will continue to misunderstand." Byakuya wasn't shouting any more, but Ichigo could tell that he had a point to make and wasn't afraid of making it. "The age of a shinigami is not necessarily reflected in their appearance. That 'child' was recruited by the 10th approximately three decades ago, which means he is likely at least forty."
Which made him about the same age as uncle Ryūken.
Ichigo's world tipped sideways. Faces flashed through his mind: Yachiru and the kids she'd been sparring with at the 3rd, Rikichi, Hanatarō.
Logically he knew they weren't kids in human terms. Looking at the others, they couldn't be. Hinamori had known his dad. Renji said that Matsumoto had been a shinigami twice as long as he had, which made Matsumoto well over a hundred. But Yachiru still played like a little girl, and when Rikichi had stumbled over his testimony in front of the sōtaichō, he'd been as terrified as Keigo in middle school the morning those thugs had threatened to kill him. And then there was Hanatarō. Ichigo didn't have a clue how old the little guy was but he'd still spent most of life shut up in one division, and when Hisagi got in his face down at the Pits, Hanatarō had damn nearly pissed himself in terror.
So no, shinigami weren't humans, but however many years they had, kids were still kids.
"Fine," he snapped, "not age then, experience."
Byakuya opened his mouth, presumably to come up with some smart-ass come back, only to shut it again and glare at something over Ichigo's shoulder. "The timing of this could be better," he said cryptically and lifted a hand.
A hell butterfly fluttered past Ichigo's ear to land on Byakuya's finger, flick its wings and announce, ""For: Kuchiki Byakuya, captain, 6th division. From: Kurotsuchi Mayuri, captain, 12th division. Message begins.
Kurotsuchi, sounding oddly distant, replaced the generic voice saying, "… terribly inconvenient these things. Take a memo, Nemu, look into propulsion units to up the carrying capacity of - Oh, it's started already. See that that first part is deleted."
As Kurotsuchi cleared his throat portentously, Ichigo glanced at Byakuya wondering if they were thinking the same thing. A message from Kurotsuchi had to be bad, right? No way would he bother if he was just gonna let Renji go. Was he going to demand Uryū back in exchange? He could go hang. If that was the case then Ichigo'd find some other way of getting Renji back.
"Kuchiki," Kurotsuchi's oily tones came loud and clear now. "I have something of yours, something which I might be persuaded to part with if the price is right. But before we start negotiating properly, a small demonstration of possession and intent, I think."
An agonised bellow that had to be Renji erupted from the butterfly. Ichigo glimpsed Byakuya closing his eyes and turning away, as Ichigo dropped his chin to his chest and bit his lip. He knew how much it took to make Renji hurt, the guy had skin like stone and obstinacy to match.
Fear made the next part almost funny. It was Renji again, but this time you could hear every word and he sounded as pissed as hell. "Bastard! I'm gonna fucking kill you! Byakuya don't listen to him!"
Renji's yelling cut off abruptly, followed by something that sounded like a scuffle with things breaking and then Kurotsuchi saying, "Idiot, I told you not to remove the controller." More sounds of fighting and then nothing for a moment or two.
Finally Kurotsuchi spoke again, "As you heard, Kuchiki, your boy's mine now, and I'm preparing to carry out some of those interesting modifications I mentioned during our challenge bout. I'm sure you remember that. The one where I beat you fair and square until you cheated with that filthy zanpakutō trick."
Ichigo opened his mouth to protest, only for Byakuya to gesture him into silence. He stalked towards the door, unable to stay still for a moment longer.
"Given my loss of research materials, I propose a simple exchange: your boy for the Quincy-shinigami female."
This time Ichigo wouldn't be silenced, "No way, you sick fucker!" he snarled, thumping his fist on the side of a bookcase.
"It's not a difficult decision, however I know you're a busy man so I won't expect an answer right away. You've got precisely three hours before I start the first set of surgeries. If I haven't received an affirmative by then, I'll send you the bits I've removed by special delivery."
"Message-" The flat of Byakuya's hand hit the desk, the butterfly a squashed splatter beneath it. He was breathing hard, head down, his hair falling over his face and Ichigo could see his other hand clenching and unclenching at his side.
"So?" Ichigo said, "What do we do?"
For a moment Byakuya didn't move, then he slowly raised his head and stared straight at Ichigo. "Do?" he said and the edge to his voice made Ichigo think of sharp things, like Senbonzakura in full flight. "There is nothing we can do."
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Ichigo demanded. "We can't just leave him in there! Kurotsuchi's going to cut him up!"
"You would have me turn your sister over to him instead?"
"What? No!" Course he didn't mean that. "Something else. There's got to be something… A formal challenge. Bid for him! You can do that."
"Impossible," Byakuya retorted. "Renji has bankai. A very obvious, very public bankai, which Kurotsuchi spent half his compound to prove existed. I cannot bid for him. No one can bid for him."
"There has to be something," Ichigo said again, staring wildly around the room. "We'll fight. If it's both of us, we can take Kurotsuchi even on his own ground."
"I am a captain," Byakuya replied, expression tightening. "Such an act would be treason. We would both be arrested and imprisoned, and then who would protect your sisters." He was pulling himself together, Ichigo could see it. Hardening himself. He'd done it in the arena when Unohana had bid for Yuzu. But then it had been himself he was writing off, this time it was Renji.
Ichigo was getting desperate. "Well, we can't just leave him in there!" he shouted.
"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you blackmailed him into joining you," Byakuya shot back.
The truth hit Ichigo like a punch to the belly. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Bile rose in his throat and for a brief horrible second he thought he was going to throw up. Because Byakuya was right. This was all his fault. It had been a trap, but not one designed to catch Ichigo, and so Ichigo hadn't thought twice about leading Renji straight into it, and then leaving him there. Because he'd been so caught up in his own self-importance, hadn't thought anyone would want to trap Renji.
Fuck, how could he have been so stupid! So shortsighted.
"If either of you had half the native wit you were born with, you would never have allowed this happen in the first place." Byakuya stood straight, now icy in his calmness. As he turned his back on Ichigo, he said, "I wash my hands of the pair of you. I've no use for anyone who could do something so foolish."
It was like being given permission, except it was the complete opposite. Because if Byakuya wasn't prepared to fight, Ichigo was the only one left who could.
"Fine," he said, striding towards the door and feeling an odd sort of icy calm himself, "Then I'll go and rescue him myself."
As he left, he heard Byakuya call, "Kurosaki?" Then more loudly, "Kurosaki, you will return this instant." And finally, as Ichigo leapt over the rail to the floor below, an almost panicked shout of, "Ichigo!"
Ichigo ignored him and kept walking.