Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in posting the past few days. Class has begun to get back into full swing after break, alas. And tis the season for plot bunnies to inspire one shots apparently as well. Yeah for everyone who has still been viewing this. That makes me happy. Any guesses yet one what Suiren's connection to the Kuchiki house is? Not many hints in this chapter but there are twists of their own, so never you fear. Reviews would be lovely too. I don't always reply, but the input helps, and I do try to include the criticisms as much as I can with the story. The plot twists will be dissected more closely in the next chapter's note, so keep reading. I really am not just writing this to confuse everyone. It's a bit long.
"Miyako! Where the hell have you been? It was supposed to be a standard sweep of Rukongai and checking the latest report. Teicho has been looking all over Seretei for you! I have been looking all over Seretei for you!"
The man yelling was tall with black hair like the shinigami lady's, only it was short and cut so that it stood sort of in spikes. Exhausted as she was from the long walk, she clung even tighter to the side of the woman's hakama to hold herself up, not sure if she should be protecting her the way that she protected Mother from the people who yelled at her. She was just beginning to yell back at him for being mean from where she stood when he seemed to have caught sight of her and her newest toy, which the shinigami woman had begun to carry when her arms had begun to tire two miles back.
He crouched down in front of her, until he was sitting on the balls of his feet and nearly at eye level before smiling and saying hello to her. Although smiling, she had learned, did not mean that someone wasn't going to attack you. Still, the other man stayed there, simply looking at her.
"And who are you?" he asked, the way he asked the question reminded her of a few of the older boys in the neighborhood who sometimes played with her and helped her steal food when Mother had not had enough sewing to pay for any rather than the sort of men she had fought earlier.
"Warigari Suiren," she answered, suddenly very shy and a little scared at the thought of standing and talking to two strange shinigami with no way of knowing how Mother was while she was gone.
"Ah," he said, looking at her and nodding solemn in spite of the smile. "Well then, something needs to be done about this. Don't you agree?"
She nodded, not quite sure what to think of the man. He actually was talking to her. Not over her head and not patronizing her as if she weren't there. She only remembered Mother and a few of the other kids in their neighborhood ever talking to her like that. Never another adult, and most certainly never a man. It seemed that the only men who ever noticed her were people like the bad men. Still, even while he kept talking, he didn't seem like them.
"Well, Warigari Suiren, we seem to be stuck. You see, you were part of the reason that Miyako was so late I was worried about her. On the other hand, I yelled at her, scaring both of you because of that. So, how about I carry you the rest of the way so we all get there faster and call it even?"
Her eyes narrowed with very unchildlike suspicion. "You aren't going to hit me because you don't like me?"
"Hit you? But why-?" The man sounded out and out confused by the question.
"Kaien, Suiren is Warigari Yuyake's daughter. I spoke with her mother about bringing her back with me after I found the girl trying to hold off five grown men who were threatening to attack both her and her family with a Level 56 Baikkidou, and a Level 31 Hikkidou."
She did not know what the numbers meant, but the other shinigami's eyes widened as he heard them very carefully picking Suiren up. She struggled for a second, until she realized that she was safe. She looked at Miyako, who she still thought of as the shinigami lady, and the other woman nodded in a way that let her know that the person holding her really was as safe as they seemed.
He moved really fast then, and she shut her eyes, turning toward the stranger so that she wouldn't get dizzy looking at the dark flashing forms.
He stopped a few seconds later and Suiren shifted just enough that she could see the forms of three men, all dressed in the black shinigami robes. But one had a small band wrapped around his arm, and the other two were wearing white haoris which covered theirs. One of the men in white sighed in relief while the other rolled his eyes.
"Well, Ukitake, it seems ya found yer two officers ya misplaced."
The man who was not wearing white adjusted his glasses mildly and looked at the group that had just entered. "I think there is more to it than that, teicho, since Kaien-san is clearly carrying a child.
She could not see the shinigami lady, but she heard her step forward. "Gomenesai, teicho, Hirako-teicho. I was not trying to worry everyone. I found the child when I was investigating the Shiboshi incident in Rukongai and removed her from a fight where she was using kidou. I have Warigari Yuyake's permission to enroll her daughter in the Academy. However, while I know it's irregular, I think that it may be best if she is housed in a division and not a dormitory with the other students."
While she could not see the man in white who the woman was addressing, the other man in white snorted.
"Miyako, she's a kid. A cute kid, at least asleep like that, but a kid. She's automatically dangerous. Especially if she's the brat from the Shiboshi incident. Those guys are crazy."
She turned away from the shoulder she was leaning against and looked at the man who had said that, meeting the blonde's eyes head on. "I'm not Shiboshi."
"I don't think she likes you very much," the other man in white observed. She could now see that he had white hair and was smiling, trying not to laugh as he watched the tall blonde's irritation. "I thought you knew more about children than that, Shinji."
"I know plenty about kids, Ukitake, and none of them like me. The only thing that kids do is kick ya in the shins or try an' bite ya."
"I think you have children confused with Hiyori-fuiteicho," the man with glasses observed dryly, before he noticed the pile of metal that the shinigami lady was still holding. "And, Miyako-san, what are you holding.
Suiren struggled free, jumping down and taking the machine off of the shinigami, glad to be able to explain. "That's my new toy. It's a rock skipper. I didn't get a chance to try it yet, but if I put the rock here and flip this switch, when I turn the crank it will skip the rocks like it does when there are a lot of puddles after it rains. Watch!"
She picked up a pebble and put it into the funnel, turning the crank and watching the tiny stone rattling in the gears until it came out glowing on the other side. She then threw it, expecting it to skip like the rocks that her friends threw in the street did. Instead, it blew up, taking a small hole out of the white haired man's haori, her hands going to her mouth in very upset surprise. Her rock skipper was not supposed to do that!
"A Level 82 Hikiddou in a child that young!" he asked, seeming more surprised than upset, in spite of the damage to his clothing.
"Ai, teicho." The lady stopped her explanation, looking down at where she was pulling on the edge of her sleeves. "Suiren, this is important but-"
"I know, but I just wanted to know what is the kidou thing you were talking about?"
"And you say small children are not dangerous," the blonde man muttered to himself.
She had to assume that the pile of metal she had noticed sitting against the wall as she came down from the fighting was supposed to be a copy of the reiatsu infuser which she had created by accident as a child. Honestly, she hoped that was what the heap of parts was. Otherwise, she might truly lose her temper as she began to make corrections to the device. It probably sounded like it anyway.
"You idiot! All of your screws are loose." Suiren fought the nerve to glare at whoever was snickering. "And you didn't even bother to square it properly! It really should be bolted in place, with how the gasket that holds the chute in place is set up, but it should work."
"Well, Warigari-san, I believe that given the fact that Tessai and I were duplicating this without blueprints after a hundred years, it was not bad." Urahara defended, the soft chiding completely belied by the fact he could not quit grinning, even after having her completely defaming his intelligence and general ability to function.
"Maybe, but I thought after a hundred years, you wouldn't still be making the same mistakes with it?"
"Yes, well, not all of us have your abilities with your toys. You really should share more."
"And risk having more things broken? No thank you, Urahara-san. I am more than capable of fixing things."
"Yes. I still remember your solution with the backpack hangar for your zanpakuto. You don't still use that, do you?"
"Not unless it is necessary," she replied, surprised at how much she had missed this sort of informal teasing. She had never really indulged in it that much, but it seemed as though it had been years since she her jokes had been more than a sarcastic or witty way to criticize and hide her weaknesses.
Because it had been years, she realized with a shock as she refocused herself, apologizing to Soifon and Hitsugaya, as both captains both seemed to be looking at her critically. And being here did nothing to change the reason why she could not joke or speak with people the way a normal shinigami might. However, all of the comments that they made seemed to be analyzing her fighting and her unit's fighting to determine how to break apart the groups that would be working to gather the information which had been requested to help determine the strength of the traitor's forces and the sort of strategies that would be needed in fighting them, something which no one had been able to determine so far. In a way, she was pleased to hear that it would be her and not her subordinates who would be gathering the main bulk of the information while Muhicchi and Nodaika worked with the main hollow fighting groups. Yourichi smiled and nodded approvingly.
"I told you that she would be the same. Our little raindrop here is too stubborn to have let herself get out of practice. She's too much like Kisuke for it to be less."
"I am not sure if that last is quite true, Yourichi-san," Matsumoto said, not with any rancor, but simply as if she were stating a fact. In her own way, Suiren agreed. She would not have needed to make some of the decisions she had if she were more like her former captain. "But, that wasn't what I meant to say. Can I ask for a precaution on her part before the mission, given some of the information that are in these records, and the sealed ones?"
"Of course," Soifon answered, "As long as the sealed information remains sealed."
"It will. But since we are dealing with someone who was condemned by the Central 46 for attempted murder of a vice-captain and the attempted entrapment of another vice-captain and a captain, it only is common sense to ask for some certainty that she will not betray everyone here on this mission."
Urahara went to open his mouth and Suiren stopped him. "I suppose that you will not count my word as good enough?"
Hitsugaya looked at his vice-captain and shook his head. "Matsumoto, you were told what would happen if you brought your personal feelings into this."
"She is not," Soifon stated simply. "She was tried and convicted and pardoned all within a week. Matsumoto-fuiteicho was one of the first witnesses on the scene, as were Kyoraku-teicho, Ise-fuiteicho, and Ukitake-teicho. There was no doubt she was guilty and that it was simply an attempt for clemency. However, we were told then, and I will remind you now that she is to be treated as if she were innocent. That means that you will take her word. If she breaks it, I will kill her myself. Is that good enough."
"Perfectly," Matsumoto agreed.
Regretting her desire to turn the conversation more serious, Suiren excused herself, taking the watch on the roof while everyone else rested and visited while waiting for the arrankar to arrive. The loneliness was an improvement over the betrayed look she had seen on Urahara-san's face.
In a way it was regrettable that she could not take the coward's way out. That was one disadvantage of having the same immunity to poison that her current captain and vice-captain did.
It would have saved her the effort of having to survive the constant attacks anymore.
After all, pardoned or not, no one would ever trust a traitor.
What would the point in arguing that be? She had confessed herself during the trial. It would be pointless to recant now.
She checked her communicator and went back inside for the final briefing before they left.
If there was any doubt in her mind, she knew as soon as she saw the others that she would be working on her own. She had broken her own motto and let herself get too close to remain the solid cold hearted bitch they expected.
At least alone, there would be no one she could betray, even by accident.