Hey, everybody! This chapter is the longest one to date - almost 7k words, (Gods! This story has completely run away on me...) so I hope you've got a few minutes to spare, XD. Couple of favorite characters returning this week and some changes being made, so I hope you enjoy!

Translator's Notes:

Izaname: In Japanese myth, the wife of Izanagi. Her name means 'female who invites.'

Minori: unisex Japanese name meaning 'truth.'

*While Byakuya's wristguards are properly referred to as 'tekkou,' I went with the laymen's term in the story simply for the sake of those who do not read the top Notes.

RED DUTY, BLACK HONOR

Chapter 20: Truth and Premonition

"Are you sure about this, Momo?" Hitsugaya asked, two days later. It was not the first time the question had been asked over the past days - or even the past hours - nor was it the first time that Momo responded with a decisive nod, eyes determined and face steady.

"I'm certain, Toushirou," she answered, her voice calm. "I need to be... away from the Gotei for a while, I think. My mind is much clearer when I'm not trying to think in terms of command and combat. I was never really suited to be a soldier anyway, you know that."

"Oh, I'm not so sure," Renji offered, grinning lightly as he settled one big hand on her thin shoulder. "During that training exercise to the Living World, you were the only member of the class that didn't run, remember?"

"And you think so well on your feet under stress," Matsumoto added, grinning as she leaned forward to wink at the girl.

"A-ah," Hinamori stammered, blushing brilliantly in the face of her friend's praise. "I'm not that impressive, really. I'm just good with kidou -"

"Which is why it will be an honor to have Hinamori-san amongst our ranks," Tsukabishi Tessai announced solemnly, striding up the grassy hill with his blue robes billowing impressively around him.

When Urahara had returned to the Seireitei to resume his former position as Captain of the Twelfth, Tessai had returned as well, to take back his position as head of the Kidou Corps. It had been Tessai that Renji had contacted when Hinamori told him, tears pouring down her face, that she couldn't stay a part of the Gotei Squads any longer, that the memories were simply too painful. Tessai - who knew about some of Momo's extraordinary skills with kidou - had been overjoyed to offer her a position in the Corps. It would be a non-combat, non-command position, which would allow Momo to simply focus on kidou, and not traitorous Captains and violent deaths.

She'd cried with relief when Renji told her that the Corps would accept her, and in the end she'd sobbed onto Renji's shoulder as he awkwardly patted her back, mumbling nonsense and wishing he knew how to deal with crying women.

The transfer had been arranged with a speed that left Renji's head spinning; he thought the Soutaichou might have had something to do with it, because the mountains of paperwork that accompanied such a move were somehow completed except for Renji's stamp before they ever reached his desk. He'd signed off on it with a sense of exhausted relief, sorry to be losing his friend and Lieutenant to the reclusive Corps but knowing full well it was the best solution for everyone involved.

And now, two days later, Renji, Matsumoto, and Hitsugaya were here, standing just outside the Seireitei as they bid goodbye to their friend.

"Tessai," Hitsugaya said, somehow managing to look down on a man who was half again his own height, "you will be taking the best possible care of Hinamori, is that understood?"

"Of course, Hitsugaya-dono," Tessai answered, bowing deeply. "Hinamori-san will be a credit to the ranks of the Kidou Corps. We will be certain to treat her as such."

"Ah, Shirou-chan is worried about me?" Momo grinned, ruffling his silver hair teasingly. When he stood stock-still under her hand, though, she snatched it back as though she'd been burned, worry seeping into her eyes.

"I... I'm sorry, Hitsugaya-tai- eep!"

Much to everyone's surprise, Hitsugaya had swept the girl into a crushing hug, pressing his face into her shoulder and holding on to her as though he never wanted to let go.

For a moment, Momo stood stock-still, frozen in shock, before a faint, sad smile bloomed across her face and she brought her arms up to return the young Captain's embrace.

"Take care of yourself, Momo. Promise me that," he whispered against her ear, and she nodded, pressing her own face against his hair.

"I promise, Toushirou. I promise."

Very slowly, the two parted, both blushing slightly and neither quite meeting the other's eyes.

"Goodbye, Momo," he said softly, and Momo startled them all by laughing, a bright, silvery sound that none of them had heard in years.

"Don't be silly, Toushirou. It's never goodbye for us - just a 'see you later.' " Leaning forward, she placed a delicate kiss on his mouth, shocking the young Captain into stillness as she turned away.

She and Tessai offered one another polite bows, before Tessai made a wordless 'shall we go?' gesture. And, one last time that morning, Momo answered with a single, decisive nod.

She only glanced back for a split-second before the two of them vanished into Flashstep, the breeze of their passing stirring the hair and clothes of the three who silently watched them go.

"She'll be okay, Hitsugaya. She's a tough kid," Renji said softly, a few minutes later. Hitsugaya was still standing where Hinamori had left him, a gobsmacked expression on his face.

"Taichou?" Matsumoto leaned over Hitsugaya's head to peer at him upside-down, consequently enfolding the back of his head in her voluminous breasts. Hitsugaya came back to awareness with an indignant squawk, leaping away from his overly-affectionate fukutaichou and rubbing furiously at the back of his head.

"Matsumoto, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that?"

"Sorry, Captain," Matsumoto giggled, clearly not sorry at all. "But how else was I supposed to wake you up?"

"What do you mean, wake me up?" Hitsugaya huffed, folding his arms across his chest and glowering. "I can assure you I'm not in the habit of falling asleep on my feet."

"Y'zoned out a bit, sir," Renji offered, fighting to keep a grin from splitting his face and not quite succeeding. "Not expecting Momo to do that, were you?"

"Oh!" Matsumoto's gasp hit a high note that bats would have envied; Renji winced and stuck his finger in his ear as Hitsugaya gritted his teeth. "Captain! That was your first kiss!"

Regardless of how right she was, it was hardly the sort of comment he was going to dignify with a response. "There is work to be done back in the office, Matsumoto. And I expect you to manage your share from this point onwards," he snapped, pointing sharply back towards the Seireitei. "You'd best get a move on."

"But Captain, your first kiss! This is a cause for celebra -"

"Get MOVING, Matsumoto! And you, Abarai!"

Still grinning ear-to-ear, Renji snapped off a salute and turned back towards the city, grabbing Matsumoto's elbow as he did. "Come on, Ran, you heard him."

"But - but - but! It was his first kiss!"

"And you got to see it, aren't you lucky?" Renji grinned. Rangiku giggled madly, and both of them were laughing when something cold hit the backs of their heads and exploded.

"What the hell?" Renji snapped, as Rangiku put a hand over the back of her head in astonishment, only to bring it back a second later, covered in -

...snow?

Snow?

She and Renji both stared at the icy-white crystals coating her palm for a moment before turning as one to face Hitsugaya, incredulity written across both their faces.

The young Captain slid the few inches of Hyorinmaru he'd drawn back into his sheath, smirked at the pair of them, and vanished into Flashstep.

They exchanged bewildered glances, grinned, and gave chase.

Renji found himself out of breath within a few minutes - as small as he was, Hitsugaya was friggin' fast. At least as fast as Kuchiki-taichou, although Renji would certainly never suggest that within the noble's hearing. However, he could still hear Matsumoto, half a step behind him and more out of breath than he was, and hung on to that fragile thread of dignity as he continued to chase a kid in a Captain's haori across half of Seireitei because said child had chucked a snowball at his head.

Oh, the hell with dignity. He'd just gotten dragged into playing a game of Flash Tag with Captain Hitsugaya, of all people - Renji could feel his brain implode slightly just trying to string the words 'play' and 'Hitsugaya' in the same sentence - but he knew the game from Byakuya's stories. Touch his haori and win.

He threw an extra surge of power into his footsteps, leaping after Hitsugaya just as they came upon the barracks of the Ninth. The young Captain glanced back over his shoulder, eyes wide as he saw Renji touch down just out of arm's reach -

- and smirked.

And then he leapt away again, and Renji had to twist himself sideways in midstep to avoid colliding at full speed with Hisagi, who was standing outside the gateway of the barracks wall. Renji hadn't noticed him a second before, too focused on Hitsugaya and the all-encompassing ice-and-wintergreen scent of Hitsugaya's reiatsu that had prevented him from sensing his old friend.

Renji stumbled to a stop just as Matsumoto landed, struggling to kill her own forward momentum. Her rapid backpedaling would likely have landed her squarely on her backside if Hisagi hadn't seized her arm at the last moment, his expression sharp.

"Where's the emergency?" he demanded as soon as Renji and Rangiku had their feet under them.

"And why were you two chasing Captain Hitsugaya? And... why in the three worlds is your hair all wet?" Yumichika added, eyebrows arched, as he stepped out the open gateway to greet his Captain.

"No emergency," Renji panted, before drawing in a couple of deep, slow breaths. "And our hair is wet because the snow melted."

"Snow," Hisagi echoed, mildly incredulous, and Yumichika somehow managed to sparkle suspiciously at the pair of them, which would have been the weirdest thing Renji had ever seen if the past week hadn't happened. Renji sighed faintly, rubbing the back of his head and grimacing at his wet hair. How he was supposed to explain this without sounding like he'd completely lost his mind... "Hitsugaya threw snowballs at our heads..."

"...because Hinamori gave him his first kiss as a going-away present and we were teasing him," Matsumoto filled in, and Shuuhei's expression went from incredulous confusion to mild alarm, probably believing that both of his friends had gone entirely off the deep end.

"That's sweet," Yumichika cooed, not doubting them for a moment, and sparkling cheerfully at the pair in what passed for normal, in relation to Yumichika at least.

"What going-away present?" Hisagi demanded, ignoring his twinkling Lieutenant for a moment and focusing his attention on his out-of-breath, wet-haired friends.

"Momo transferred to the Kidou Corps this morning. You didn't know?" Renji countered, glancing between the Yumi and Hisagi in surprise.

Shuuhei, in response, turned slightly sideways so that Renji could see the battered duffle bag still slung across his back. "I only got back a few minutes ago. I hadn't even made it through the gates before you two tried to bulldoze me."

"Sorry 'bout that," Renji muttered as Matsumoto giggled, but Hisagi shook his head slightly in response.

"Don't worry about it. What are you doing for a Lieutenant, with Hinamori gone?"

Renji shook his head slightly. He hadn't had time to think of finding a new candidate in the midst of handling the accelerated transfer, and it seemed callous to hand off her job the same day Hinamori left it. Unfortunately, the paperwork was stacking up on Renji's desk, and he and his seated officers were scrambling to complete evaluations as well as their newly-enhanced training schedule.

"Need to find one," he answered with a shrug. "I haven't had time to start screening candidates yet, though."

"What kind of candidate are you looking for?" Shuuhei asked, his eyes suddenly intense, and Renji blinked, pausing to consider his needs.

"I can get the paperwork under control with a little bit of help," he answered finally. "What I really need is someone who can help with the Squad's training and morale. They're improvin', and pretty damned quick, but I can't be in two places at once. If I'm gonna do paperwork, someone else has gotta be puttin' the Squad through their paces, and vice-versa. Why?" he added as an afterthought, watching Yumichika and Shuuhei's eyes light up with some suspicion. "Who do you two have in mind?"

"Ayasegawa, grab the file on -"

"Already ahead of you, Captain!" Yumichika chirruped back, halfway to the offices by the time he finished his sentence. He came back a minute later, carrying a folder that Renji recognized immediately as a personnel file - it matched the forty cluttering up the corner of his desk.

"Here you are, Abarai-taichou," Yumichika chirped, passing the file over with a little bow. He'd stopped sparkling for the moment, which was just as well for Renji's aching brain - although hearing his former superior call him 'Taichou' was still bizarre on multiple levels.

"Take a look," Shuuhei said, nodding towards the folder in Renji's hand. Glancing down at it, he read the name scrawled across the file tab and blinked in confusion.

"Ise Minori?"

"Our sixth seat," Hisagi informed him, nodding. "She's probably not up to Lieutenant's level by most estimations, but she's willing to learn and she's a good trainer."

"Related to Ise-fukutaichou down at the Eighth?" Renji asked, flipping open the folder to glance at her picture. The face was lean and a plain, brown-haired and hazel-eyed, and there was no resemblance to Ise Nanao that he could see.

"Yeah," Shuuhei answered with a casual shrug. "They're half-sisters, I think? Different fathers."

Realization hit Renji with the force of a fist to the gut. Nanao's jet-black hair and lavender-blue eyes, her delicate build and those pale, refined features, the markings of the elite that he saw in Byakuya every damned day, and he'd never realized...

"Shit," Renji said with some feeling, nearly dropping the folder in shock.

"Renji?" Matsumoto asked, just as Shuuhei said "Kohai?" and Yumichika tilted his head, inquisitiveness writing itself across his features.

"Sorry. Nothing. Just realized somethin' is all," he answered a bit too hastily. "Look, Ran, you're goin' past the Fifth on your way back, right?"

"Well of course I am, it's -"

"Good, good," Renji interrupted, pressing the file into her hands. "Drop that on my desk for me, would you? I want to review it later, but I just remembered something I need to discuss with Byakuya."

"Sure, but -"

Renji was gone before she could finish the sentence.

Bewildered, the three of them stared after him until Yumichika blinked in startled realization. "Since when has Renji called Kuchiki-taichou 'Byakuya'?"

"Ise Nanao," Renji said flatly, standing in the open door of Byakuya's office. He'd opened it without knocking, and foregone greeting the other man in lieu of announcing his epiphany.

Byakuya had raised his head at Renji's entrance, annoyance writing itself across his brow as he prepared to verbally flay whomever had elected to disturb his peace. The simple statement of his bastard half-sister's name, however, had silenced him before the words could form.

"Come in, Renji, and close the door" Byakuya ordered quietly, after a long moment of stunned silence, and Renji did so without a word.

"Who told you?" came the soft question, and Renji shook his head slightly, sitting down on the edge of his old, empty desk.

"Nobody. Shuuhei wants me to take Nanao's half-sister as my Lieutenant. When I asked if they were related, he said they had different fathers. It hit me then how much Nanao looks like you."

Changeable eyes, gone pewter-grey with anxiety, stared levelly at him for a long moment before dropping. "I was not aware that Ise Izaname had borne another child," Byakuya admitted, after another painfully long silence.

"You'd never guess they're related; they look nothing alike," Renji answered, managing a weary smile. He let it fade quickly, though, to ask his next question. "Does Nanao know?"

"Ise Nanao is... aware of her parentage, yes," came the slow reply, and Renji shook his head, mouth curling in disgust.

"Shit. It's like that, isn't it?" he muttered, hands tightening against the edges of his desk. Byakuya lifted his eyes again, regarding his former Lieutenant with a steady gaze.

"I am not certain what you mean, Renji."

"Those damned Elders of yours - they told her that she's something to be ashamed of, some... blot on the family tree and that she should never mention the fact her father is a noble, right?"

The vehemence in Renji's tone took Byakuya back a bit, but he answered anyway. "My Grandfather ensured that Ise Nanao received an education benefiting the child of a noble and placement within the Gotei squads. That is more than many patriarchs of noble families would have done for the benefit of their bastards -"

"Yeah? And tell me I'm wrong when I say those Elders of yours still treat her like a wart on their backside, and have been since she was born!"

"I would not couch it in those precise terms -"

"You don't have to, I just did!"

"...however, it is an unfortunately apt analogy," Byakuya finished over Renji's interjection, sighing slightly. "The Clan Elders are not forgiving of disobedience in anyone beneath their purview, and our father's disobedience reflects poorly on those who were affected by it."

"It shouldn't," Renji said, and his voice was so fierce that Byakuya looked up at him, startled again. Shaking his head sharply, Renji continued, shoving himself off the desk to pace the familiar floor. "You were just a kid when your father betrayed you. It was something you had no control over, no choice in, and yet you've been spending your entire life trying to make up for the fact that he was a treasonous piece of scum -"

"Renji!"

"He hurt you, Byakuya!" the redhead nearly shouted, spinning on the affronted noble with his fists clenched. "That makes him scum! And those damned Elders of yours are worse than scum, because they've been blaming Nanao for something she had less than no control over - she couldn't choose who her father was any more than you could have controlled his actions, and yet here the two of you are, carrying the blame and the guilt for something that isn't your fault!"

When Byakuya could only stare at him, stunned speechless and still, Renji winced and sat back on his desk with a thump.

"I'm sorry, sir, I shouldn't have presumed to -"

"Do not..." Byakuya's voice was hesitant and strained, and Renji ducked his head, flinching away from the censure.

"Do not apologize, Renji," Byakuya whispered, lowering his head, and his voice was shaking. "Not for being the only person to so boldly speak the truth to me in over two hundred years."

"Sir?"

"You are correct," Byakuya said, his voice struggling to find its usual calm and nearly succeeding. "My father's actions were... beyond the scope of my control, and neither Ise Nanao nor I should bear blame for his actions." Not raising his head, he plucked at the edges of his wristguards, pale fingers against pale fabric, and Renji wondered for a moment how upset Byakuya must be if he was actually displaying a nervous habit. "Ise Nanao and I are not to blame for our father's actions," he repeated, his voice still not quite level, but the tone of it was lighter, less burdened than it had ever been.

"No," Renji answered, his own voice weary but clear. "You two aren't to blame, Byakuya. You never were."

They sat in silence for a long moment, Renji watching Byakuya as Byakuya stared at his desk without seeing it, his mind still struggling with the revelation that Renji had just presented him. He continued to toy with the edges of his wristguards while he thought, and Renji noticed with painful sorrow that the elegant hands were shaking.

Silently, he slid off the edge of the desk again, retreating to the corner of the office where a small table stood, neatly cluttered with tea-making supplies. He spent a few minutes puttering about, heating water and measuring tea, and when he set a cup of tea down in front of Byakuya, the Kuchiki scion had recovered himself enough to pick it up and sip cautiously at the still-hot liquid.

"Thank you, Renji," he said simply, and it was clear enough that he was not referring only to the tea.

"Glad I could help, sir," Renji answered, grinning fiercely back at him so that Byakuya understood he meant every word. They drank their tea in silence, but it was not an oppressive, fractured silence like its predecessor; rather, it was the comfortable silence of two people who are utterly at ease in one another's company.

Byakuya was the one to break it, finally settling his cup back on the desk and leveling his gaze on Renji.

"It grieves me to admit that I have resented Ise Nanao for many years because of what she represents," he said softly, settling his hands on the desk and stilling them by sheer force of will. "I do not know how I might begin to repent for my attitude towards her."

His mouth pursed in thought, Renji looked over Byakuya's shoulder at the engagement calender hanging on the wall behind the Captain's desk. "The Kuchiki family hosts some kinda... festival thing every year 'round this time, don't you?"

"There is an informal interfamily gathering of the noble clans of the Seireitei at the beginning of the summer every year, hosted at the Kuchiki estate. It is not a festival, although it may appear that way to some."

"Kyouraku attends that, doesn't he?" There was no reason the man shouldn't - a chance to raid the Kuchiki's wine cellars, reputed to be some of the most impressive in the Seireitei, would hardly be passed up by the sake-loving Captain of the Eighth, and his noble birth - not as high as Byakuya's, but quite high enough - would ensure his entry.

"Yes. Both Kyouraku-taichou and Ukitake-taichou attend yearly, Jyuushiro-senpai's health permitting. Why?"

"Are th' attendees allowed to bring dates?" Renji pressed, and Byakuya blinked, catching on.

"They are. Ukitake and Kyouraku have attended as a couple for the length of my memory, but both may enter in their own right. You are suggesting having Kyouraku-taichou bring Ise Nanao as his companion?"

"Not me," Renji corrected, "you. If the suggestion came from you, it might help show her that you're tryin' to change your attitude," Renji offered mildly. "An' it would be a good way for her to see some of the inner workings of the Clans an' noble families without havin' to dump her into it face-first. Kinda an apology an' a welcome, all in one."

"It is an exceptionally well-reasoned and thoughtful suggestion," Byakuya answered, reaching for a sheet of the heavy parchment he kept for writing formal letters. "I will discuss it with Kyouraku-taichou immediately."

"Good," Renji answered feelingly.. "I think you an' she both need it." He set his cup down on the corner of his desk out of sheer habit, watching Byakuya hesitantly. "I'd better get back to my Squad, I've got a Lieutenant's seat to fill," he explained awkwardly, and received an absent nod in reply.

"Please come to the mansion after work," Byakuya said simply, already immersed in his letter. "My personal tailor will be there, and you must be fitted for formal kimono."

Groaning theatrically, Renji slid off the desk and headed out, shutting the door behind him. The fact that he had his back to Byakuya meant that he missed the other man's tiny smile.

The sound of the door sliding open pulled Ichigo's attention away from his paperwork; grateful for the distraction, he lifted his gaze to the doorway and blinked in surprise.

"Morning, sir," said the blond man in the doorway, bright blue eyes smiling, and Ichigo stared in astonishment.

"Kira?" he managed, after a second of gape-mouthed disbelief, and his Lieutenant smiled back at him, looking supremely content and exceptionally different from the man who had left the office three days ago. "You cut your hair?"

"Shuuhei cut my hair, this morning. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet."

The long bangs that had hidden half of Kira's face were gone; two neat side-locks framed the delicate bones of his face, not quite long enough to brush his jaw, and the rest of it was brushed back, falling just short of his collar in a neat wave, the painfully styled points no longer in sight. The changes, though minor, made an astonishing difference - Kira looked years younger, his eyes brighter, a constant smile playing on the edges of his mouth.

"It looks good," Ichigo managed, finally snapping his mouth shut. "Your days off were okay?"

Kira's smile widened slightly in response and a flush of color touched his cheeks, which, Ichigo realized, was really all the answer he needed.

"On second thought, don't tell me. I think I can guess. Personnel evaluations for the lower seats are on your desk, and I've been working through the unseated officers."

"Yes, sir," Kira answered quickly, moving across the room to sit down and pull the first folder towards himself. He had made it to the second page of the assessment before he raised his head again, looking faintly guilty. "Sir, is it true that Hinamori transferred to the Kidou Corps?"

Ichigo paused in his own writing to glance up at his Lieutenant. "Yeah. She showed back up around midnight the same day you and Shuuhei left. She and Renji had a long talk, and she said that she couldn't stay in the Gotei, so he arranged the transfer for her. She was supposed to leave this morning."

"She did," Kira answered, sadness twisting his mouth into a familiar line. "I bumped into Rangiku-san on my way back here; she said they'd just seen Hinamori off. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to see her before she left."

"It was kind of a rushed transfer, I think," Ichigo answered with a mild frown, glaring down at the files in front of him. "You knew Hinamori?"

"For decades," Kira answered, sounding mildly startled. It was easy, sometimes, to forget just how much Ichigo didn't know about the Seireitei and the people within it. "She, Renji and I were in the same class at the Academy. We were assigned as teammates during the practice session in the Living World that gave Hisagi his scars," he added musingly, gaze and attention drifting off towards nowhere in particular.

"Is that when you met him?"

"Met... sorry, what?" Kira asked, blinking himself back to the present. Across the room, Ichigo stared at him with weary patience, waiting calmly for Kira to collect his thoughts.

"Hisagi. Is that when you met him? That assignment?"

An odd expression twitched across Kira's face - half smile, half grimace - and he nodded slightly. "Yes. It was supposed to be a simple Academy training mission, but we were attacked by Hollows - Aizen's early prototypes, we know now. Hisagi lost his eye in the attack. I visited him in the hospital for a week afterward, and we... well, I think Renji explained what happened after - oh. You have a message, sir."

The abrupt change of subject caught Ichigo a bit off-guard, until he looked up to find the Hell Butterfly fluttering patiently a foot above his head, waiting to be acknowledged. Sighing in exasperation, Ichigo raised his hand to the delicate insect, allowing it to light on his finger and transmit its message.

'Kurosaki-san, please report to the Twelfth Division immediately, there is a communication for you that requires your immediate attention,' came Urahara's familiar voice, the cadence of it oddly quick and sharp. That, combined with the fact that he'd used the word 'immediate' twice in one sentence had Ichigo out of his seat in the space of a breath.

"Sir?"

"I'm needed at the Twelfth," Ichigo answered over his shoulder, already halfway out the door.

"Urahara, what the hell?" Ichigo demanded, shoving his way past a protesting Twelfth-squad member and into the large communications room. One entire wall of the small chamber was dominated by what would have resembled a movie screen, had it not been surrounded by a pulsating, bruise-purple frame that looked like it was composed of flesh. On the screen, Shinji was standing, arms akimbo, the fingers of one hand drumming a restless rhythm on his opposite elbow. He dropped the constrained pose as soon as Ichigo stepped into the screen's range, his entire body vibrating with tense urgency as he leaned forward.

"Ichigo, what the hell did you do with Ichimaru?"

"What do you mean, what did I do with him? We talked. I left."

"And...?"

"And I punched him. Once, in the stomach. Why?"

"Because he's gone," Shinji answered irritably. "And I don't mean that in the euphemistic sense, either; the bastard walked out on us."

"That's impossible," Urahara spoke up, an unusual frown creasing his features as he tapped his folded fan restlessly against the side of his arm. "The kidou collar I placed on him prevents him from leaving the grounds of the Shoten unless one of you or a member of my group is with him."

Shinji's eyebrows scrunched together as he turned to regard the scientist. "Kisuke, what the hell are you talking about? What collar?"

Urahara froze in mid-tap, going so still that even Ichigo turned to face him in confusion.

"Hirako-san... please tell me you did not just say 'what collar?'," Urahara said, his voice barely above a strained whisper. "Gin should be wearing a woven silk cord around his neck, the thickness of my little finger, tied in a loose knot and reinforced with kidou."

"Maybe he was wearing that the first day we were here," Shinji answered with a shrug. "But I was busy trying to corral Mashiro and Lisa, so I don't really remember. He hasn't been wearing it since."

Urahara swore, startling everyone in the vicinity, and wheeled away from the screen to start snapping orders. Ichigo, standing off to one side, watched in amazement as the sleepy, rumpled man who had trained him vanished under the face of a Gotei Captain.

"Hiyosu, pull up the tracking programs in Karakura. Gin was neutralized, but he may still emit a traceable signal. Rin, help him. Nemu, Akon, review the scans on Gin's neutralization. If we missed anything, I need to know it. There is no way he should have been able to remove that collar on his own. Stay in communication with me via the uplinks. Shinji, contact Ichigo's friends in Karakura and have them help us search, if they can. Doda and Litu, have the Senkaimon opened," he finished, sending the two little aides running. Urahara stopped long enough to seize a cellphone and headset off one of the cluttered shelves next to the monitor before turning to follow them.

"And send a message to the Third Division," Ichigo snapped, already halfway out the door, ready to follow the aides. "Tell Lieutenant Kira I'm headed to the Living World on an emergency and I'll be back soon."

"No, Ichigo," Urahara answered sharply, busy fixing the headset over his ear. "Gin was placed under my purview, and he is therefore my responsibility. You should remain here."

"And leave him running lose around my home town? You've forgotten who you're talking to, Kisuke."

Grey eyes blinked at him, closed-off and mysterious even without the shadow of the striped hat. "I suppose I had," he admitted after a long moment, and turned back to retrieve another cellphone and headset for the younger man. "Let's go, then."

Air rushed by him, ruffling his hair and shihakusho as he leaped across the rooftops of Karakura town. Puffing out an exasperated breath, Ichigo dropped to a halt, balanced carefully on the top of a utility pole. Crouching down - as much for balance as anything else - Ichigo drew a deep, careful breath and closed his eyes. Sensing reiatsu had gotten easier for him, but it was never going to be his greatest skill, and Gin, of course, had very little reiatsu to sense. Still, if he could even get a general idea -

"Oy, Ichi-nii!"

"Gah!" Grabbing the top of the pole with both hands, Ichigo teetered awkwardly for a second before he regained his balance. Glaring down the length of the pole, he wasn't particularly surprised to find his sister Karin glowering up at him, soccer ball tucked under one arm. "Are you trying to scare me to death, Karin?"

"Says the guy running around town as a Death God," Karin countered sourly, looking like she was contemplating kicking the soccer ball at his head. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd done so; quite frankly, Ichigo considered her more dangerous than their father. "I didn't think you were coming back for a visit until this weekend."

Grimacing, Ichigo acknowledged the vague sense of guilt he'd been feeling since he arrived. He'd been too busy frantically searching the city for any sight of the silver-haired fox to look in on his family; Ishida, who was still patrolling Karakura regularly, had checked them immediately and called Ichigo to assure him that they were fine.

It was somewhat galling, being back in his own city and not being able to visit his home. He hadn't taken been able to see his family while he'd been training in the Seireitei, although he'd been granted weekends off to come see his family as a Captain. This coming weekend was supposed to be his first visit back home.

"I'm not," he answered honestly, allowing note of genuine apology to creep into his voice. "I was called back here on an emergency."

"Does it have anything to do with that weird friend of yours?" Karin asked, rolling the ball out from under her arm and casually starting to bounce it from knee to knee.

"Which weird friend?" Ichigo asked, instantly wary, and Karin shrugged, never losing the rhythm of her bouncing.

"The one that looks like an albino fox," she answered casually, ignoring Ichigo's immediate curses. "He said I should tell you he was waiting over there-" she pointed down the road, in the general direction of a series of decrepit apartment buildings, "when you showed up."

"Karin, he is not a friend of mine! He's dangerous and you need to stay away from - HEY!" Ichigo nearly toppled off the pole as he ducked the ball his sister had just kicked at his head. "What the hell, Karin?"

"Hollows are dangerous, too, Ichi-nii, but with you and every other competent Shinigami out mopping up the Soul Society, your friends and I are the ones playing cleanup here," she snapped, looking past him in an attempt to judge where the ball had landed. "You can't protect everyone at once, so trust us to do what we have to in your absence."

"Karin, you are too damned young to be fighting Hollows!"

"I'm thirteen and a half, Ichi-nii. You weren't even two years older than me when you started. And at least I'm not getting myself killed by a mad scientist and running off to other dimensions to save my girlfriend," she added, glowering up at him. Ichigo's automatic retort of 'she's not my girlfriend!' died a swift death in his throat when he recalled that no, Rukia was not his girlfriend, she was his fiancee, which was worse, because his family had not been informed of that little development just yet. His father's reaction was going to be... excessive.

Groaning, he retrieved Karin's ball from a nearby rooftop and tossed it back to her with an admonishment not to talk to strangers - or Hollows - and set off down the road, leaping along the tops of the utility poles, wondering what the hell kind of game Ichimaru was playing this time.

Considering that nearly a dozen people had been out searching the entirety of Karakura town for the last hour, it was a bit of an anticlimax when Gin, watching the road from a rooftop, spotted Ichigo and waved until he caught the young Shinigami's attention.

Sighing faintly, Ichigo opened the line of his phone and carefully adjusted the headset on his ear. "Found him."

"What's his condition? Do you need assistance?" Urahara's voice came back immediately. Undoubtedly he'd already tracked down the location through the phone, and was prepared to send everyone else running in to play cavalry. Ichigo leaped again, alighted on the edge of the roof Gin had waved from, and glanced down at the former Shinigami, lounging casually against the low wall and gazing at the building opposite.

"He's fine, and no, I don't think so. I'll get him back to the Shoten," Ichigo said tersely, and closed the line before Urahara could ask anything else.

"Ichimaru!"

"Heya, Ichi-kun," came the lackadaisical response, accompanied by a lazy wave. "Y' foun' me okay? Yer sister's kinda scary, yanno."

"Stay the hell away from my family, Ichimaru," Ichigo snapped, leaping off the roof-wall and stalking across the gritty surface to face the other man. "If you go near my sister again -"

"I din' go near her, Ichi-kun," Gin interrupted, pale blue eyes wide and guileless. "She came up t' me an' wan'ed t' know if I knew ya."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Y' think I'd lie t' ya? 'm hurt, Ichi-kun," Gin pouted, putting a hand over his heart with an expression of exaggerated misery.

"I'm sure," Ichigo shot back, voice dripping sarcasm. "How the hell did you get loose, anyway? Urahara said the collar you were wearing was kidou-bound and you couldn't have gotten it off by yourself."

Gin snickered softly in reply, one pale hand arcing lazily to brush the side of an equally pale face. "Kensei-kun needs t' be more careful were he leaves his Zanpakutou when he's showerin'," came the grinning answer. "Li'l dagger like that, perfect for trimmin' annoyin' li'l threads, doncha think?"

"Fine," Ichigo snapped, waving his hand to cut Gin off. "You cut your collar, I get the point. But what the hell are you doing here, waiting for me? Why didn't you escape?"

"An' who says I wan'ed t' escape?" Gin countered, tilting one eyebrow. "I was jus' gettin' bored an' cooped up an' wan'ed to take a walk s'all. Knew somebody would be comin' out for me, so I decided t' wait. An' I decided t' wait here for ya 'cause I like the scenery."

Frowning, Ichigo glanced around. They were on top of an old apartment building, only three stories high and constructed of shabby brick and cracking mortar. Gin, for his part, was leaning against the edge wall of the roof and gazing at the building opposite, an older, even smaller structure with worn paint and a few slowly-spreading cracks in the stuccoed exterior.

Standing behind Gin, Ichigo could follow the man's gaze through the building's wide windows, peering into the lives of its inhabitants as they continued on their weary way, neither knowing nor caring that a pair of spirits could see their movements.

Gin, for his part, was staring fixedly through one window in particular. Scowling, Ichigo glanced through the same window, then blinked slightly. A young woman, probably not more than twenty, was sitting in a rocking chair just inside the window, wrapped in a simple blue yukata. One hand was rhythmically rubbing her heavily pregnant belly, while the other supported the slim book she was reading. She was pretty enough, Ichigo figured with a shrug - her best feature was probably her curly brown hair, worn long - but she looked nothing like Matsumoto. What, then, was the interest on Gin's part?

"Why the hell are you out here spying on innocent people, Gin?" Ichigo demanded finally, after a second or two of watching the woman rock.

Eerily pale-blue eyes blinked back up at Ichigo, fully open and oddly serious. "Some people ain't innocent, Ichi-kun. Some ain' even born innocent," he added, so softly that Ichigo wondered if the last comment had been intended to be heard at all.

"We're going back to the Shoten," he said flatly, rather than trying to ponder the philosophical nature of Gin's mumbles.

" 'course we are," came the agreeable reply, as Gin unfolded himself and stood. "You escortin' me back, or am I goin' alone?"

"Ichimaru, if you think I'm leaving you alone for a damned second, you're crazier than you look. Get moving!"

"Wha'ever you say, Taichou," Gin drawled in response, and promptly vanished down the fire escape. Ichigo blinked once, swore in startled disbelief, and leaped off the roof to follow him.

In the building opposite, the unborn baby shifted restlessly within his mother's womb, mutely protesting the disappearance of the burning reiatsu from nearby.

Gently, the young woman rubbed her stomach again, humming absently to herself as she continued to read down the page of the baby-names book she held. Although she'd only been skimming the entries, one name about halfway down the page caught her eye.

"Sosuke..."