After what Yuzu had told him about the reiatsu strings, the journey to the apartment became intolerable. Ichigo spent his time torn between panicking that he was making Renji worse with all this reiryoku sharing, and terror that Byakuya being cut off from them was what had caused him to get 'sundered'.
What the hell did that even mean anyway? Was it anything like what had happened with mom and dad?
He almost asked Uryū if he knew, but going by the look on his cousin's face as he sat glaring at his knees over in the corner of the van, he was still sulking from Ryūken's reprimand. And probably from Ichigo taking his dad's side too. So, when they finally pulled up outside Ryūken and Uryū's old apartment block, Ichigo couldn't wait to go and find someone who might know.
Leaving Uryū and Yuzu to do the social bit, Ichigo hauled Renji up in his arms and stepped through the back of the van, landing a couple of feet down on the gravelled drive. The sun was finally up properly, so he had no difficulties spotting the ambulance pulling in on the opposite side of the parking area.
Before Ichigo got even halfway to it though, the rear doors opened and Ryūken waved him off. "Don't come any closer," he called. "He's showing signs of agitation."
Ichigo backed up immediately and almost ran over Uryū who was standing right behind him. Uryū gave him a snooty look, flicked a similar one over at his dad and said, "We should go down to the training room. I'm sure that's where father plans to work."
Training room? The last time Ichigo had been here, the apartment had been a 2LDK, though the rooms were spacious enough to make it feel much bigger. Not training room big though.
Straining his shoulders to keep Renji's feet from trailing, because honestly the guy hadn't gotten any shorter or lighter over the past few months, Ichigo followed as Uryū led him in the front doors and then, instead of up the stairs, left down a narrow corridor that ended in a heavy door with a 'No Entry' sign on it. Uryū pushed it open and held it without comment for Ichigo to pass through. There were concrete steps on the other side, lit by the sort of bulkhead lights that screamed emergency exits and fire escapes. But this couldn't be either, since it was going below ground.
Ichigo set off down them anyway. He was starting to suspect that this building wasn't as simple as it appeared from the outside, so he wasn't altogether shocked when Uryū led him across a cluttered basement towards what looked like a blank wall. When they reached it, Uryū pressed a hand to a patch that, to Ichigo, looked identical to everywhere else, and gave a half-smile when there was a quiet click and a section of the wall opened.
Slightly stale air poured out to meet them as Uryū ducked inside and a low hum that was probably some kind of air conditioning started up.
"It's like the one under the hospital," Ichigo said, stepping over the threshold after his cousin.
Uryū nodded. "Hn. It's the original. Grandfather built this as a practice run." He paused for a moment, looking around. "Father hates this place, it's been closed up for years, but it looks like it's still okay."
The training room itself was a lot smaller than the one under Karakura General, which made sense if this was the prototype, but it had the same odd silvery walls. "So, does that mean this whole building belongs to you guys?" Ichigo asked as Uryū led him towards a door in the far wall.
"Yes, it's been in the family for years. My great great grandfather built it originally, which is why the shielding's built in."
That explained the odd muffling feeling. Ichigo thought he might have noticed something similar in the saferoom at the hospital but honestly he'd been too distracted at the time to be sure.
"It's pretty low level for everywhere except the basement," Uryū added. "Just enough to make any reiatsu signatures seem less powerful than they really are. I think grandfather planned for the whole family to live here eventually, but then he died and my parents needed money to pay the taxes and so father had the place converted into flats. The name on the deeds is a shell company though. That way, we just look like normal tenants."
And presumably could keep getting the rents even if they had to change identities. Ryūken definitely took his precautions seriously. How ironic that he was grabbed before he could put any of them into action. "You know, you still haven't said what happened that day. Didn't you guys have any idea you were being watched?"
They'd reached the door. Uryū stopped, one hand on the knob, his head bowed a little. "Do you honestly think we'd have allowed ourselves be taken if we had," he said, bitterness dripping from every word.
And yeah, okay, no points for tact, diplomacy or subtlety there. Well done, Ichigo. "Sorry," Ichigo said.
"Oh, don't apologise," Uryū snapped, "It's not like you knew anything about it." He wrenched the door open and stepped inside. As they had in the training room, the lights came on automatically.
Ichigo had been expecting a small living space like the one Renji and Byakuya had shared at the hospital. Instead he found himself in a largish L shaped room that looked more like a laboratory. For a moment he flashed back to the 12th, to waking up on Kurotsuchi's table, but this place lacked the old blood and chemical reek that would have really set him off. It smelt clean, and unlike the 12th, every surface was spotless.
It was decorated in dark blues and whites. Workbenches ran almost the entire length of the long wall on the left, the rearmost of which housed several old fashioned computers and a cluster of other gadgets. The space on the right, which only took up about half the depth of the room, was filled with exercise equipment with full height cupboards on the wall behind. The rest of the L seemed to be taken up by a smaller room nestled inside this one, with a half glass door leading into it.
Very different from Kurotsuchi's labs, but Ichigo still wondered how Uryū was able to bear it. He'd been a prisoner at the 12th for way longer than Ichigo.
"This was grandfather's workshop," Uryū said, which explained that. "It's where your father used to get his gigai serviced."
An old memory, of being wrapped in strong arms and hoisted into the air drove more recent ones from Ichigo's mind. The feeling of warmth and safety, the scent of his father's hair pomade overlaid by the ever present smell of incense, the rough prickle of his badly shaven chin against Ichigo's cheek. But none of that had been real, because dad's body hadn't been real. It had been built right here by Uryū's grandfather.
Had mom known? Stupid question. She must have. But she'd still loved Isshin, and that had to count for something, didn't it?
"Anyway, I'm pretty sure father's going to want your boyfriend in the operating room." Uryū was pointing to a half-glass door. "There's extra protections built into the walls and specialist equipment in there." He glanced at Ichigo, who was still carrying Renji, though now using enough reiatsu that his arms weren't in danger of dropping off. "Your other boyfriend, I meant, not that one."
"Fine," Ichigo huffed, adjusting his load self-consciously. "So where am I supposed to put Renji?"
Instead of answering him, Uryū went and pulled open the cupboard behind a treadmill. Inside was shelving containing what Ichigo hoped like hell were bits of gigai, and below, a stack of neatly folded futon. Uryū hauled one out. "Put him on this for now," he said, carrying it back out into the training room and settling it beside the wall. Ichigo followed and lowered Renji onto it gratefully before standing up and stretching out his back when it twinged.
A sudden burst of reiatsu outside the training room heralded Byakuya's arrival. Ryūken, pushing a wheeled stretcher with a writhing Byakuya strapped to it and with Hachigen in hot pursuit, shot past them into the laboratory. Like Uryū had suggested, they disappeared straight into the room at the back, Hachigen closing the door firmly behind them.
As soon as it closed, glowing blue lines shot from the edges of it, snapping out to each corner of the room and bouncing back to cross over each other until the entire wall of the operating room was covered in a dense grill, which held steady for a moment before fading to silver and then vanishing completely. Ichigo felt the operating room go with it. It was similar to the way Renji had felt when they'd sealed Zabimaru. Or the way Hanatarō felt all the time. Ichigo could see the room, see shadows moving beyond the glass, but he couldn't sense it in any way that counted.
Several seconds later, red-faced and panting heavily, the medic who'd been driving the ambulance arrived. She slowed to a stop beside Ichigo and Uryū, bending over and pressing her hands to her knees. "Oh my goodness," she gasped. "What are you people? I offered to help but they said there was nothing I could do and then they flew down the stairs. Flew!" She paused, squinting up at Ichigo. "Do I know you?" she asked. "You do look very familiar."
"Me?" Ichigo pointed at his nose. "I don't think so-"
"I know!" she said, standing up and puffing out her cheeks one final time. "You're the cosplayer. The one who rescued the little girl from the train crash last year."
"Erm…" Ichigo havered, shooting a glance at Uryū. What were the chances of running into the same woman twice, and if it was her, was it significant?
"It's your fault I got this job," she continued. "After I reported seeing you, I was called in for an interview with Kojima-keishisei and Kanonji-san, and the next thing I knew I'd been signed up for this 'emergency rota'." She sniffed. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. There's extra money in it and that's always useful."
And Kojima-san and his organisation got access to people with enough spiritual pressure to be useful in a crisis. It looked like the humans in Tokyo were way more organised than anyone in Seireitei knew. Good for them.
"Uryū-chan?" Yuzu appeared around the door. She looked a bit pale, though that could just have been the lighting. "I checked up at the apartment. It's a bit of a mess, I'm afraid. The front door's been broken down and most of the furniture inside's been smashed up."
"Damned police," Uryū muttered, attracting an judgemental eyebrow rise from the ambulance driver who, now Ichigo thought about it, was maybe a little bit familiar. He remembered the kid in the train. She'd been cute.
"Anyway, I thought we could maybe organise a handyman to come and fix the door, but when I tried to call, they couldn't hear me, so I think maybe there's something wrong with the phone line too."
"There's nothing wrong with the line," Ichigo began, just as the door at the back of the lab opened again and Ryūken stalked out, pushing the now empty stretcher. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Thank you for the help, Mirano-san," he said, when he reached them. He gave the stretcher a little shove in the medic's direction. "You may go now. We can handle things from here."
She caught it with a doubtful look, but didn't argue, which made Ichigo wonder if she was often asked to transport screaming ghosts halfway across the city. Perhaps that extra money was as much to turn a blind eye as it was to be on call.
"No trouble," she said. "Do you want me to call a handyman to come and get your door fixed too?"
"Your apartment door, jichan," Yuzu put in. "When I got upstairs, I found it broken. The hinges and the lock too."
Ryūken frowned and Ichigo could practically see him putting the facts together and coming to the same conclusion that Ichigo had the last time he'd been back in the living world: it was impossible to make a phone call without a body. After a moment Ryūken nodded and said curtly, "That would be useful, thank you. Tell them to send the bill to Goto Harin, Ikeda and Partners, Akiruno."
That dealt with, he turned to the rest of them. "Uryū, help Mirano-san with the stretcher and anything else she might need then return and watch Abarai. I need to know the moment he wakes up. Ichigo, stay out here until your cousin returns, then join us in the operating room. Yuzu-chan, follow me." And with that, he turned and strode off back towards the operating room.
The rest of them exchanged stunned-fish looks for a second and then scrambled. They all recognised doctor's orders when they heard them.
For the few minutes Uryū was upstairs, Ichigo sat on the futon stroking Renji's hair and trying not to think about what might be happening behind that half-glass door. The things that Yuzu had said kept coming back to him. The mixing of reiatsu and how Byakuya was still attached to him and Renji. If it was like mom and dad's bond, was that why he kept coming after them? Or was it something else, something even worse.
Renji's hair had grown since the last time they'd been together. It felt like a soft brush beneath Ichigo's hand and it was starting to curl too, especially behind his-
Ichigo froze as he stared at the tattoos on Renji's neck. Had there always been one up behind his ear? And lower down, hadn't that been like a collar not a lightning strike?
Rolling Renji over, Ichigo tugged at the front of his shihakushō, trying to get it loose enough to check the others. Renji didn't even twitch, which confirmed for Ichigo that this had to be jinzen not a healing sleep. Still, it wasn't like Renji hadn't done worse to him while he was under, so it was honors even.
Finally, after getting enough ties loosened to pull open both layers down to nipple level, Ichigo sat back on his heels. These tattoos were definitely different. They used to follow the same pattern as Byakuya's ropes, a plunging collar and twin lines that lead the eye down to Renji's groin. Now the collar was gone, replaced by a kind of tribal design across both Renji's collar bones.
Ichigo leaned forward, lifting the cloth to peer further down. Those ones looked to have changed too. They still led the eye, but there was more of them, like the stripes on a tiger's flank. It was the same on Renji's arms when he managed to get the shitagi off and, on his back, not only had the tattoos returned with a totally different design, the scars had changed too, healed to pinkish traces that looked years old.
By the time Uryū got back, Ichigo was sitting staring at his half-nude lover wondering what the hell had happened.
"Was this entirely necessary or could you just not wait," Uryū commented dryly as he stood over them, one arm across his chest, the other tucking his hair behind his ear.
Ichigo ignored the snark and pointed to Renji's bare chest. "His tattoos have changed. How can his tattoos have changed?"
Uryū shrugged as though he couldn't care less but he still hunkered down beside them. "Maybe they weren't real tattoos?"
"You mean like not ink?" Ichigo asked. When Uryū nodded, he shook his head. "No, definitely real, and done with needles. I remember Renji telling me about it."
"Then I have no idea." Uryū huffed. "But unless it's very important, do you think we can dress him again since father did tell you to join him as soon as I got back."
"Don't fancy doing it yourself?" Ichigo shot an amused glance at his cousin as he stood up. He had no idea what Uryū's preferences were since they'd never discussed it, but it was too good an opportunity for a tease to pass up, especially after that comment Uryū made about Ichigo not being able to wait.
The judgemental look he got as they sat Renji up and began dressing him again said he was way off base for even suggesting it. Then Uryū said, "Unlike you, I have more restraint than to throw myself at the first passing hunk."
Maybe not so off-base, after all. "So you do think he's a hunk."
Uryū sighed heavily, sat back on his heels and glared at Ichigo. "Yes, Kurosaki, your boyfriend is very handsome. Congratulations. Now please, go and join father before he comes out here and scolds me for something you did again."
Caught off-guard, Ichigo glanced towards the laboratory, gut twisting. Teasing Uryū had been a great distraction, but now he needed to get a grip. This was serious. Circumstances had dictated that, up until now, he'd focused on Renji. But both his lovers needed him and now it was Byakuya's turn.
"Go on," Uryū said, a uncharacteristic gentleness to his voice. "I'll keep an eye on Abarai."
Ichigo rose to his feet and, not looking back, set off.
Sheer determination got him as far as the operating room door but couldn't make him open it. That took closed eyes and a count of three before he could twist the handle and plough into the room.
Ryūken glanced up as he came in. He was over by the far wall with Yuzu, one hand on her shoulder like he was stopping her from moving. She looked over at Ichigo too and her eyes were so full of sadness that Ichigo's gaze immediately shot to Byakuya. He was lying on a long stainless steel table in the centre of the room, wrapped from head to toe in kidō bandage, and for a second Ichigo genuinely believed he was too late. That one of his lovers had died while he was outside mucking about with his cousin.
Then he saw Byakuya's chest rise and fall.
Relief swept through him and his knees sagged. He might even have fallen if the door hadn't been close enough behind to catch him when he slumped. Alive. Byakuya was alive. Halfway to being a monster still, but alive. And where there was life, there was hope.
It didn't look like the others were giving up either. Hachigen stood beside the table, eyes closed and sweating slightly, his fingers twisted into some kind of hand seal. His right arm was clockwork, Ichigo realised with surprise. The design, all tiny brass cogs, reminded him of something he'd seen before, but before he could think what, Ryūken said, "Is Abarai still sleeping?"
Ichigo nodded. "I don't think he's sleeping though. I think it's jinzen."
"That would tie in with what Sado said about Abarai withdrawing into his inner world. He seemed to think it might have to do with Byakuya."
"When did he tell you that?" Ichigo demanded, trying to think when Chad might have had the time, and irritated that he hadn't been the one to hear it.
"I believe you were distracted by Abarai's presence at the time," Ryūken replied dryly, which, yes, Ichigo was willing to admit that he might have been a bit caught up in the moment when he first realised Renji was there and alive.
Alive. Like Byakuya.
Ichigo's gaze veered back to the table where Byakuya's reiatsu had begun pulsing in an irregular fluctuating beat that Ichigo just knew couldn't be good. "What exactly is wrong with him?" he asked and it came out hushed. Scared.
"Right now, we're not sure. Hachigen-san and I both assumed he'd been sundered. Which in case you don't know, is when a shinigami's zanpakutō is cut out of them and destroyed."
Ichigo felt sick. Watching Renji have Zabimaru sealed away had been bad enough. Having your zanpakutō destroyed… Though that would explain why Byakuya kept going after Zangetsu. He'd be desperate to find a replacement for Senbonzakura, and he had a claim…
"If it is that, the prognosis isn't good, I'm afraid," Ryūken was saying. "According to Hachigen-san, the victim descends quickly into violent madness and dies soon afterwards. However," Ryūken paused and took a breath, "when I spoke to Yuzu, she told me something far more troubling. Yuzu-chan, tell your brother what you told me."
"He knows some of it, ji-chan. I told him in the van about his and Renji-san's reiryoku mixing and about the strings. But, nii-chan, when I got in here and looked at Byakuya-sama again, I realised he's not the same as you. He has a gap over his heart where you and Renji-san have that mix of reiryoku, and the rest of him is all holes."
Because he and Renji were draining him through the strings.
"And that makes it sound more like soul starvation, which something entirely different."
On the table, Byakuya arched, his mouth opening and closing beneath the bandage. Was he screaming still under there?
Nausea rose like a wave, driven by guilt and fear. Ichigo swallowed it back down and dug deep for something like courage. "Tell me we can fix this," he growled, unable to tear his eyes from the table and his lover's frail form. "Whatever it is, there has to be a way to fix it."
"If there is, we don't currently know what it might be," Ryūken said. "Which is why I'm recommending that we seal him away entirely."
"Seal- What?" Ichigo jerked his head up to stare at his uncle in horror.
"It's the only safe thing to do-"
"No!" Back in control now, Ichigo strode towards the table. "If it's me that's draining him of reiryoku, then it's up to me to make sure he gets enough back to live."
"And how do you propose to do that," Ryūken demanded, moving to intercept, eyes blazing.
Ichigo pulled up short. It was either that or go through his uncle to get to Byakuya and Ichigo wasn't quite there yet. "I'll… I'll… I don't know, tempt him back into my inner world and force feed him some!" he half-yelled in desperation.
"He enters your inner world?" That was Hachigen this time.
Ichigo glared at him past Ryūken's shoulder. "All the damned time. Ossan, my…" Ichigo hesitated for a brief second before ploughing on because fuck it, if Hachigen couldn't deal with the Quincy thing, they were all screwed anyway. "He's the manifestation of my Quincy powers, okay, and he said that him and Byakuya had an agreement. Something to do with when I swore to him-"
"Swore?" Hachigen was frowning deeply now, his hands releasing some of their tension. On the table, Byakuya thrashed slightly until Hachigen's hands tightened again.
"As a vassal. I gave him my zanpakutō to fight with. Ossan said Byakuya kind of gave it back to him later, so we still have a call on him." But Zangetsu didn't. There was still an imbalance there. Were the strings involved in that too? But if so, why were they only going from Byakuya to him and Renji, and not the other way around any more? What had cut them?
"The oath you swore, do you remember it?"
"There weren't any words. I just sealed the sword up and handed it over." Ichigo hesitated since the next thing he wanted to say sounded weird even to his own ears. "It felt real though, if you know what I mean. Like I was giving him a piece of me."
Hachigen breathed out heavily. "Then I would suggest that's exactly what you did," he said. "It's called a thrall bond and it's been forbidden in Seireitei since the nobility ceded partial control of the Gotei to incomers from Rukongai."
A thrall bond? Didn't the baby Kuchiki's auntie use that term at the clan-heads' meeting. Or had it been Kyōraku? "Why'd they ban it?" Ichigo asked, because if mom and dad being bound together hadn't done any harm, why would this? And honestly compared to some of the shit that happened in Seireitei, swearing an oath to someone seemed like nothing.
"It was a way of forcibly binding two souls together, allowing them to draw on each other's reiryoku. There were dangers, but it was considered worth the risk since it gave great advantage during battle. So long as the connection between thrall and master remained stable, that was. However, if anything unbalanced the pair, the weaker almost always ended up being drained of reiryoku by the stronger, even to the point of soul starvation and death."
So, not like the bond between mom and dad at all.
Hachigen took a breath, his gaze dropping to his clasped hands. "From what I understand, in certain circles that was initially considered a useful thing, a way to control rebellious gaki-"
"I hate that word," Ichigo interjected sharply. "There's no fucking difference between people outside the walls and those inside." He heard Yuzu gasp at his bad language but couldn't bring himself to care right now. Her attitude reminded him of Kyōraku's. A prissy smokescreen. What the fuck did a bit of cursing matter when there were lives at stake.
"I agree," Hachigen was saying, "But at one time there was a difference, and it is difficult for some people to accept that this has changed."
"Especially the freaking nobility," Ichigo finished for him.
"As you say," Hachigen agreed. "Which is why they found thrall bonds so useful, until certain powerful Rukongai souls turned the tables on their masters and forced them to become slaves."
An involuntary bark of laughter escaped Ichigo's mouth. "I bet they were livid the first time that happened," he crowed. "Crap, I can just imagine it, those stuck-up bastards getting a bit of their own medicine."
"Precisely, and yet that is exactly what has happened here."
Ichigo's mood sobered instantly, his gaze lowering to the table again. A thrall bond. And it was binding Byakuya to him and to Renji. Ichigo knew he hadn't been the one to create it, and he couldn't see Renji doing it either, which only left Byakuya.
Had it been something to do with Ichigo, a way of trying to control his Quincy powers? No, because Byakuya was bound to Renji too. Plus, that would mean Byakuya had done it deliberately and Ichigo couldn't believe that, because, for all of Byakuya's arrogance and pig-headedness, he believed in the law, and Hachigen said that linking souls this way had been forbidden. But how could you do something like this accidentally? That didn't make sense either.
Not that the details really mattered. Accidental or deliberate, the results were the same. Soul starvation and an imbalance in the connections. Though that had to be recent, because Renji had been sworn to Byakuya for years and they'd both been fine, pretty much.
Again, it came back to exactly how the connections been severed and when. Ichigo didn't remember doing anything to cut them. Could it have been subconscious? "Can't I just, I don't know, hook us back up again?" he asked.
"Perhaps. If he does enter your inner world like you say, then there has to be traces of the connection left. It may be possible to re-establish it."
Ossan? Are you getting any of this? Ichigo asked silently. It was a long shot. The last time he'd spoken to the Quincy spirit had been before Ayasegawa had tried to suck them dry.
It took a moment for the old man to reply and he sounded tired when he did. A little, though I find myself unwilling to encourage that person back into your inner world right now. I am not my full strength, nor is Zangetsu, and if this truly is soul starvation, then he is extremely dangerous. Should you face him, the best you could hope to achieve would be a temporary eviction. If you lost, he would consume you entirely.
So how am I supposed to do it? There has to be a way. I can't just give up.
You could go into his inner world. After all-
"-he's got a connection to me too! Shit! Why didn't I think of that!"
"Think of what?"
Ichigo opened his eyes to find everyone staring at him. "Ossan says I can go into Byakuya's inner world and-"
"Absolutely not, it's too dangerous." Ryūken was already shaking his head.
"No, don't you see, that's the brilliant part about it. The worst he can do if I'm in his world is chuck me out."
"Did your 'Ossan' tell you that as well?" Ryūken's expression hardened. "Has it never occurred to you, Ichigo, that that entity is part of a man who oversaw the slaughter of thousands of shinigami."
Ichigo looked at him, bewildered. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Because you are a shinigami too, Ichigo, Ossan replied, drowning out whatever Ryūken was saying. Your uncle is suggesting that I may have an ulterior motive. Which is not an unreasonable assumption given he knows nothing about our relationship.
"… to get you killed," Ichigo caught Ryūken saying as Ossan's voice went quiet in his head.
"He said you'd say that." Ichigo tapped his temple. "He also said he didn't blame you for thinking it."
Ryūken snorted. "A double bluff, if ever I heard one."
Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "If Ossan wanted to kill me, he could've done it a thousand times. But he hasn't. He's fought for me, and even offered to die for me, so I'm sorry, but I trust him. And if he says it's safe to go after Byakuya in his inner world, then that's exactly what I'm going to do." Pushing past his uncle, Ichigo addressed the man currently holding Byakuya's life in his hands. "Hachi-san, can you stop Byakuya from breaking free while I go in after him?"
Hachigen gave him an assessing look. "I will make sure that I do," he said, which was more than Ichigo had hoped for. "However, before you go, I want to ask your sister one more thing." His gaze shifted to Yuzu. "When you look at your brother and Abarai-san, do you see their zanpakutō?"
Yuzu's eyes widened slightly and she glanced at Ichigo before looking back at Hachigen. "Yes, sir. Both of them carry their zanpakutō as part of themselves." She looked like she wanted to say more, but didn't.
"And Byakuya-dono?"
She didn't even have to look. "I think that's what a lot of the holes in his reiryoku are. It's like a piece of unravelling cloth, and it's getting worse all the time."
"But his zanpakutō is not gone."
"No, sir. There's still bits of it attached."
"I don't see-" Ryūken snapped.
"He has not been sundered," Hachigen said right over the top of him. "Which means sealing him will not help. Re-establishing the bonds or finding some other way to rebalance the reiryoku deficit is his best chance for survival. I'm sorry, Ryūken-dono, but I support your nephew's decision to try and save his lover."
"Fine," Ryūken spat. He turned on Ichigo, "But if you get yourself killed, I'll not take the blame for it, no matter how much your father wails to Masaki."
The biggest surprise when he landed in his inner world was how clear the sky was. "Hey," Ichigo said, peering appreciatively out through the main doors of the Senzaikyū, "No BFF fog."
Thanks to your sister's initial purging, removing the rest of it was not difficult, Ossan replied, walking slowly down the stairs. Most of the goo-look was gone too, which was nice. Ichigo understood that it wasn't something Ossan could control, but that didn't mean he had to like it. The extra long hair and more than usually flow-y coat, he could live with.
There were no chains either, which lead to Ichigo's next question. "Where's Zangetsu?"
Sleeping, Ossan said, his head lifting enough that Ichigo understood he meant the hollow was upstairs still, presumably in the cell. I've locked the door. It will make him furious if he wakes before we return, but it should keep him safe for a short time if we are somehow outflanked.
If Byakuya managed to make it past them while they were hunting him. That made sense. "Good call," Ichigo said. "I have an idea, by the way, where the way through into Byakuya's inner world might be." He'd based it on his experiences accessing Hisagi's. That had been in Ichigo's version of Urahara's secret training grounds, the place both Hisagi and Ichigo had been reborn as half-hollows, so it stood to reason that the way through to Byakuya's inner world would be somewhere similar. "I reckon it's going to be the arena where I gave him Zangetsu and where he gave the sword back to you."
Ossan nodded. That seems logical.
The other option was the captain's quarters where Ichigo had finally accepted his place as a shinigami and Byakuya's lover, but that sounded too corny to be true.
It didn't take them long to reach the arena. Ichigo's version of Seireitei didn't have quite the same layout as the real one. Major landmarks, like the divisional headquarters, Sōkyoku Hill and the pits, were all squashed together, while most of the civilian housing, normally crammed tightly between them, was missing.
Like a three-dimensional schematic, Ichigo thought, recalling maps of the Tokyo subway system as they hopped from roof to roof. Would the layout change as other places in Seireitei became important to him?
He didn't have a chance to think about it too deeply. Landing on the sands of the arena proper, Ichigo turned slowly on the spot, looking for anything that might indicate a 'rift in the time/space continuum'.
I don't think they're quite the same thing, Ossan said.
Ichigo shot him a dark look. "How would describe it then?"
An overlap of awareness, perhaps?
Ichigo shook his head. "Nope, don't like it. We're sticking with my idea."
As you will, Ossan replied, and Ichigo just knew he was mocking him. Not that Ichigo cared. Considering they were about to embark on something that could turn out to be suicidally dangerous, he was actually feeling pretty damn good. Maybe because for once he was doing something, instead of sitting on his ass trying to work out what the hell was going on and letting everyone else run the risks for him. At heart, he was an action kind of a guy, Ichigo decided.
"Any luck?" he called several minutes later. They'd split the arena complex in two and each taken one half to search, on the grounds that Byakuya had a link to both of them so, unlike with Hisagi's inner world, Ossan should be able to sense it too.
No, came the reply in his head. The Quincy spirit was actually several hundred metres away but apparently distance was no object when thoughts were your medium of communication.
Ichigo growled quietly. This was stupid. Either the overlap wasn't here, or it was too small to be found easily and either way they were wasting time. "We're gonna try my other idea," he said, turning in a full circle to get his bearings. If the lists were in that direction then the 6th was in… that general direction.
He set off without waiting for Ossan, feeling the spirit catch up with him a moment later. They travelled in silence for a while before Ossan said, You never really believed the point of access would be at the arena.
Ichigo's lip curled without permission, but there was no point in denying it, because it was true. The arena might have been where the oaths were exchanged, but it wasn't where both he and Byakuya became who they were today. Byakuya, Ichigo knew, had moved from the Kuchiki manor house into the captain's quarters straight after the massacre. There, he'd had to come to terms with losing most of his family and his teacher. He'd learnt how to manage the 6th and achieved bankai. It was where he'd grown from a child into a man.
And it was at the bottom of Byakuya's bed that Ichigo had finally come to terms with being dead. Or mostly come to terms with it. He'd needed to have the point hammered home by Zangetsu at a later date, but the argument was still valid. The captain's quarters were, simultaneously, a place of change and stability, and Ichigo couldn't think of a better spot for a rift.
He felt it before he saw it. Not some blazing power source but a trickle, like an itch at the corner of his mind as he hopped the wall into the estate grounds. For some weird reason, it'd got dark as they travelled and now, with the temperature balmy and the skies a deep midnight blue, it felt like a night in late summer. The far reaches of the Kuchiki estate greeted them. Cicadas grating out the last of their songs from trees that had been artfully arranged to give the illusion of a formal garden run wild. Iris stood tall and elegant, while moon flowers clambered along broken down walls and over crumbling walkways. Despite not being real, the place still smelt like a florists.
Ichigo led the way towards the captain's quarters, guided in by the giant pine that stood higher than the roof and was starkly visible against the stars.
"It's here. Definitely," he said, slowing to a stop a few paces from the front steps.
Ossan came to stand beside him. I also can sense it, he said, obviously waiting for Ichigo to make the first move.
But that was easier said than done. According to Byakuya, even speaking about a shinigami's inner world was taboo, and here was Ichigo about to barge into that inner world without so much as an invitation. Did he really have the right to do that?
He has invaded yours many times, Ossan pointed out.
"Which doesn't make it right for me to do it too," Ichigo replied, shooting a look the Quincy's way. "Come on, you know the saying about two wrongs not making a right."
Ossan dipped his chin, but didn't answer. He was leaving it up to Ichigo then.
It was really a matter of deciding which was the lesser of the two wrongs. Invading Byakuya's soul, or failing to fix what Ichigo had, however unknowingly, broken. And honestly, put like that, there was only one choice to make. You didn't let someone die just because it might besmirch their honour. That was just plain stupid.
"Okay," Ichigo said, "Let's do this."
Not letting himself stop to think, he dashed up the front steps of the captain's quarters, yanked open the door and found himself, of all the unexpected places, inside a tent. Plain and practical, it was made of strips of heavy cloth in alternating colours, stitched together and hung over a wooden poled frame. In other words, exactly the kind of thing the 6th took with them if they were going to be out in the field for more than a couple of nights.
Ichigo's first reaction was surprise. Byakuya's inner world was a tent? Shouldn't it be an orchard or some kind of garden.
Then again, Ichigo had never really fallen for the whole sakura thing. Whereas Renji always claimed to smell cherries when Byakuya released Senbonzakura, Ichigo had only ever smelt blood. Those were not petals, they were blades, and if you got too close they would slice you to ribbons. The only way to deal with Byakuya, was to see him as he was; dangerous, strong, pig-headed at times, and arrogant to a fault, but with a core of nobility, in the best sense of the word, than ran so deeply through him that he would stand between three helpless children and everything Seireitei wanted to do to them, despite believing their father had been responsible for the slaughter of his whole family.
Put like that, a military billet in Byakuya's inner world made complete sense.
Feeling somewhat more at ease, Ichigo stepped forward and pulled aside the curtain door because, unless Byakuya had managed to reduce his inner world down to a single tent purely through the power of control freakery, there should be something more outside.
There was, and not surprisingly, it was a battlefield. Stretching as far as the eye could see, and overhung by a bruise purple sky, it was the most depressing place Ichigo had ever seen.
"Damn, he really needs to lighten up," Ichigo breathed, gazing around at piles of skeletons and limply hanging war banners.
It would seem your man has a somewhat grim mind-set, Ossan said as he emerged from the tent too.
Ichigo looked over at him, a greeting on his lips, though what actually came out was, "How come you never call Byakuya and Renji by their names?"
Ossan paused, apparently surprised by Ichigo's question. Because their names belong to them, he said after a moment, as though the answer should be obvious. And it would be rude to use something without the owner's permission.
"Right." It seemed like nit-picking to Ichigo, but what did he know. Turning back to the incredibly depressing, 'man, he was going to excavate that stick from Byakuya's ass even if it killed him', landscape, Ichigo said, "So, we're here. Any ideas where to begin?"
They started off adopting the same technique they'd used at the arena; splitting up and searching one half of the area each. Which would have been great if the battlefield hadn't stretched on for absolutely ever. After the first time he lost sight of the tent and only found it again through sheer luck, Ichigo suggested they stick together. "I don't care how instantaneously we can talk to each other," he argued, "If I've no idea what direction you're in, I can't come and help if you find him." Plus being alone out there was beyond creepy. Ichigo had no idea how Byakuya could stand it.
After that, they tried the line of sight method, which meant walking far enough that the tent was only a dot on the horizon and then one of them continuing on until they could only just see the other. Ichigo took the final leg, on the grounds that Ossan was taller and so Ichigo could see him for longer. But even that didn't work, and now a good couple of hours had passed and there was still no trace of Byakuya.
Regrouping back at the tent, Ichigo flopped onto the mat and glared up at the stripy canvas. "Is it possible that he's just not here?" he asked. "I mean, I was expecting to get in here and there he'd be, all monster mad and slavering over us, but no. There's nothing. Not even a trace of him."
Ossan, who was standing motionless by the tent flap said, If not here, then where?
Ichigo had an idea, but it seemed… off the wall. "Renji's place," he said. "I mean, if Byakuya could come into my inner world then why not into Renji's?" Okay, maybe not so far-fetched. Sometimes you just needed to articulate an idea to realise it made sense.
But we have no connection to that one, Ossan pointed out, which, yes, was true, but neither was it helpful. What Ichigo really needed was a way of being sure that Byakuya wasn't here. Some way of tracking him like-
You could attempt to locate his spirit ribbon.
Ichigo closed his eyes and counted slowly to ten. "And you couldn't have suggested that before?"
My apologies. It only occurred to me when it occurred to you.
Oh, now that was interesting. In the past Ossan had always known things that Ichigo hadn't. Quincy things, techniques. But that sounded like he was the same as Zangetsu, and only knew things that Ichigo did, albeit half the time on a subconscious level.
I do have my own sword now, Ossan said slowly after a moment or two of silence. Perhaps that has made me more like a zanpakutō.
"But you still know the Quincy stuff, right?" Ichigo demanded, because until he managed to pin his uncle down for some proper training, Ossan was his only available go-to guy for all of that stuff.
Yes, Ichigo, I retain an extensive knowledge of Quincy techniques. However you should, as you say, seek out your uncle. He is very skilled, as is your cousin.
It was good to know that Ossan wouldn't see him going to Ryūken as a betrayal. A half-smile curling his lips, Ichigo refocused his sight, narrowing it down until the air around him was full of red ribbons. This was going to be even harder than last time. Talk about searching for a needle in a haystack.
Some time later, and head buzzing, Ichigo gave it up as a bad job. It was one thing looking for someone you knew was there, and something else entirely trying to prove a negative. Maybe that was why Ossan hadn't suggested it until Ichigo was on the cusp of mentioning it himself. The spirit knew it was a shitty idea. "If he's here," he said, sitting up and rubbing his temples, "Then he's doing a good job of pretending not to be."
Which leaves us with trying to find a way into the other one's world, Ossan said.
Ichigo blinked at him a bit blearily, his eyes still fizzy from too many identical spirit ribbons. If Ossan had moved at all while Ichigo was busy, he'd returned to the exact same spot he'd been in before; upright as a tree, beside the door. "I guess," he said, after gathering his thoughts. "I don't suppose you saw anything that might have looked like a cross-over point?"
"No, and without a connection, it's unlikely either of us would see it anyway."
But Ichigo did have a connection. Not a formal one like the string maybe, but Yuzu had said that Ichigo had Renji's reiryoku inside him, and that Renji had some of his. That implied a connection.
Maybe he was just going about finding it the wrong way. If the string was a road, an access point, between two places, then maybe what he had with Renji was more like a telephone line. Or a mobile signal. Kind of hanging around in the ether but only connected you up when you dialled the number. So how should he go about dialling Renji's number?
Or maybe all he needed to do was call him.
Feeling ten kinds of stupid, Ichigo sat up, tipped his head back and yelled at the top of his voice, "Renji, you dumb fuck! If you're listening, pick up the phone!"
A couple of minutes of fading hope galloped past. There was no answer. Of course there wasn't. He didn't know why he'd ever thought there would be. Feeling ultra self-conscious, Ichigo pushed to his feet. "That's it," he said, "I'm officially out of ideas. Let's go home."
Returning to his own inner world was almost as depressing as entering Byakuya's. Ichigo closed the door on the captain's quarters with a churning in his gut and a heavy heart. With no way of reconnecting the strings between them, Byakuya was going to die. And it'd be Ichigo's fault. Not only because of the soul starvation, but because he'd not been able to fulfil his promise and find a way to fix it.
"Damn it," he snarled, thumping his fist against a supporting pillar. "I should've been able to do something!" He slumped forward, forehead thumping into the wood almost as hard as his hand. He was a failure. Useless. What was the point of him if he couldn't protect-
Ichigo?
There was something in the tone of Ossan's voice that halted Ichigo's downward spiralling thoughts. Warily he levelled a look under his arm at the Quincy spirit. "What?"
I have a… message for you.
"A message?"
From the one you tried to call.
"Renji?" But why now? Why not before?
Because that had been Byakuya's inner world, duh. Why would Renji try and contact him there. Ichigo sagged against the pillar, hardly able to believe his own stupidity. "What does it say?"
It is not words so much as… Let me show you.
A feeling crept over Ichigo slowly. Determination, satisfaction. Joy, tinged with sadness. Hope. And through them all, a great big giant bear hug of a welcome.
"That's it?" he asked as it faded.
It is, Ossan replied. Would you like to see it again?
See wasn't exactly the term he'd have used, but Ichigo nodded anyway. Again the emotions came, this time more intensely it seemed, and clearer. They sang in Ichigo's heart, bringing a smile to his lips. If that wasn't an invitation, then Ichigo didn't know what was.
"If we can find it, we can get in," he said, pushing off the pillar, full of energy again. Now where would his and Renji's places be? The 12th? It was where they'd proved they had each other's backs, but it seemed a bit gruesome. Ichigo couldn't imagine either of them wanting a connection routed through there. The same thing applied to Sōkyoku Hill.
The only other place, aside from the captain's quarters, was the divisional buildings. That was where he and Renji had spent most of their time, though Ichigo couldn't think of a specific pivotal moment that might create an overlap like he had with Byakuya.
Still it was as good a place to start as any.
With only the single wall between the Kuchiki estate and the 6th, they were there in no time. It still managed to be light when they arrived though. More than light. It was a dusty midday as they crossed the exercise yard towards the main building, reminiscent of many he and Renji had spent during the early part of Ichigo's life as a shinigami.
And maybe that was it. The connection, the overlap. Not a specific moment in time but a feeling. Of being with a friend and someone you loved. Of working hard and finding a purpose. Of being all you could be because that was the best way, the only way you had, of making a difference.
A mountain vista opened before Ichigo like the best kind of travel brochure. Only this one came with fresh pine-scented air and a eagle calling overhead. White tipped peaks filled the horizon, reaching up into an azure sky over a green meadow that swept down into a peaceful valley. But it was the jumble of rocks upslope that caught Ichigo's attention. They seemed to have steam rising from them and if that was an onsen then Ichigo was moving in permanently.
Sure enough, it was. Set in a secluded nook and surrounded by black volcanic rock, there was even a tanuki statue rising out of the steam, complete with travel hat, staff and great big balls. "Now that's what I call an inner world," Ichigo said, striding towards it.
"Glad ya like it," came a voice from behind him.
"Renji!" Ichigo turned and threw himself at his lover, every part of him singing with relief. Alive, and fine. Renji was fine.
Welcoming arms closed around him with all the strength and love he remembered, lips pressing eagerly to his ear and hair. "Ichigo. Ichigo."
The desperation in that affectionate growl loosened some emotion deep inside Ichigo and his eyes burned. He didn't care. After all the shit they'd been through, were still going through, he deserved this. They both did. He buried his face in Renji's shoulder and for a long moment let himself cling, basking in his lover's warmth and inhaling his scent, until the overwhelming stench of wet dog, sweat and something that'd been dead for way too long to be polite got too much even for him.
"What the hell is that stink?" he demanded finally, shoving Renji to arm's length and trying really hard not to breathe through his nose.
Renji grinned sheepishly at him. "It's Zabimaru." He plucked at a cowl of white fur covering his shoulders. "I'm just hoping the smell goes away when I drop out of this new bankai."
New bankai? Ichigo took another step back and ran approving eyes over a new gauntlet blade and hefty pauldrons. So that was what had been poking him in the cheek while they hugged. The tattoos on Renji's neck had changed too, like they had on his real body. Ichigo smiled. It looked like someone had won himself a major upgrade. "It's looks great," he said before punching Renji in the arm and laughing, "But you'd better be right about the smell or you're sleeping on your own from now on."
"You little shit," Renji mock growled, grabbing for him. Ichigo twisted out of his grip and was about to get stuck into one of their usual wrestling matches when he saw Byakuya.
He stopped fighting immediately, hands falling to his sides. Renji sobered too, coming to stand beside him and squeezing his shoulder. "It was the only way I could think to hold him without killing him," he said gently. "Zabimaru helped. They showed me how to change the rock to make it work."
Byakuya hung from the left wall of the onsen's nook, the rock moulded around his body like shiny black plastic, trapping his limbs and chest and covering his mouth. Only his bulging belly and glazed unseeing eyes were truly visible, along with skeletal hands clawing fruitlessly at the air. Ichigo's heart twisted. There was nothing really left in that monster's body of the Byakuya he remembered. Or at least he hoped there wasn't, because Byakuya would loathe being like this. The guy had such hugely high standards, and though he might use them to beat on everyone else, he held himself to them even harder. If they couldn't find a way to fix him, it would only be fair to…
Ichigo's brain stuttered to a halt. He couldn't go there. Not yet. Not while there was still hope.
A movement over the far side of the pool caught his eye. A super-sized white baboon with familiar dark stripes on its shoulders perched on the rocks along the edge of the pool, partially obscured by thick clouds of steam. Damp and spiky-furred, it stared back at Ichigo with baleful yellow eyes and, as their gazes met, its lips drew back to expose dagger-long fangs. Something moved above its head. A trick of the light, Ichigo thought for a second until, no, that was actually a snake. A huge white one, upright like a pole, its flickering tongue the only moving part. A baboon with a snake's tail. Zabimaru, Ichigo assumed.
Before Ichigo could do the polite thing and go over and introduce himself, the spirit got up and stalked off, clambering up and into the rocks, the snake-tail glaring back at him until the spirit vanished behind some boulders.
"I think they're a bit pissed with how long it took you to find us," Renji said. "But now you're here, you can tell me how to fix him."
"I've got no idea," Ichigo replied, before thinking it through.
At his words, Renji's expression hardened and his sword lifted. "Right, then I guess there's no reason to hold off any longer." He took a step towards Byakuya. "I'll give you a few minutes to get ready in the real world before I cut his head off."
"What!" Ichigo yelped. "You're not killing him!"
"You said you didn't know how to fix him," Renji said, through gritted teeth. "And Zabimaru reckons he'll hollowfy immediately, so you need to be ready to take him out when-"
"I don't care. We're not killing Byakuya," Ichigo reasserted, pressing his hand to Renji's wrist so he lowered his sword.
Renji wrenched his hand away and grabbed Ichigo's arm, spinning him to face Byakuya again. "Ya think he'd want to live like that!" he demanded. "You're fucking insane if you do."
Skeletal hands clawed at the air, a sharp-toothed maw worked mindlessly on stone, and there was nothing aware in those flat black eyes. "No, I-" Ichigo began, but Renji wasn't done.
"We had a promise," he spat. "Him and me, going back years. If anything happened; Urahara, the 12th, even jail; if anything like that happened, we'd make sure it didn't last. We'd do the right thing by each other, and even if he broke his promise to me, I ain't gonna-"
"He did keep his promise," Ichigo said, loud enough to get Renji to stop ranting and hear him.
"What?" Renji said, still obviously furious but frowning now.
"He took out a contract to have you killed if his attempt to rescue you from Shugo didn't work."
That seemed to take the wind right out of Renji's sails. His shoulders dropped and so did his gaze. "He told you that?" he asked, his voice weirdly vulnerable. Believing Byakuya had let him down must have really hurt.
Ichigo shook his head and tried to be gentle. "No. The Iba returned the fee when they couldn't find you. Minus commission."
That made Renji's shoulders tighten. "Fucking leeches," he muttered, before raising his head. "Was it a good contract?"
"It was an expensive one," Ichigo replied, not sure it was the same thing. "And the cost came out of Byakuya's private funds, not the clan's, which is how come they returned it to me."
"And it was definitely to have me killed?"
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Yes, Renji, it was there in black and white. The love of your life took out a contract to have you killed so you wouldn't suffer for three thousand years locked in Shugo with Zabimaru sealed away inside you." By the time he finished speaking, it didn't feel as much like an eye-rolling statement. In fact, it made Ichigo feel that maybe Byakuya hadn't been that far off the mark.
Then again, if Renji had been killed, he wouldn't be here now. Which kind of brought him back to the case right in front of them. "But that doesn't mean you've got to kill him now."
Renji shook his head. "Unless you got a fix for him it does."
What was it with shinigami and killing themselves and other people. "It's not a fix, but we think we know what's wrong with him." Briefly Ichigo outlined what Hachigen had said about thrall bonds and soul starvation, finishing with, "So I was thinking, if Byakuya didn't do it on purpose, maybe it's some kind of innate ability that he doesn't know about."
The sceptical look Renji gave him spoke volumes.
"It could be!" Ichigo protested. "I can't be the only person with things inside them they don't understand. I mean, look at you! You had the wrong bankai and didn't know it!"
Renji's expression tightened. "That was Byakuya's fault too."
"What?"
"According to Zabimaru, we stopped evolving after we swore to him."
Neither Ossan nor Zangetsu had said anything about their power being curtailed, though this didn't seem like the time to mention it.
Ichigo stared over at Byakuya trying to fathom his way through the mess. "If it isn't an innate ability, then working the kidō was either a huge coincidence or deliberate, and I don't buy deliberate. Byakuya wouldn't do that to us."
"Not if it broke the law, he wouldn't," Renji replied stiffly.
Ouch. Since when had he got so cynical.
Probably about the same time he discovered the oath of fealty he's sworn had crippled him. That'd definitely do it. Ichigo took a deep breath and ploughed on. "So, it has to be innate. Like, maybe he inherited it from his dad or something."
"Kuchiki Sōjun. He was about as straight up as they come," Renji said dismissively.
Determined not to be put off, Ichigo shot back, "Okay, so what about his mom, Sachiyo." He remembered her because her name reminded him of Senbonzakura's, only she had ten times more blossoms.
"She didn't even have shikai, remember." Renji growled lightly under his breath, shooting a quick glance over at Byakuya. "How far back you planning to go for him anyhow? Grandparents? Great grandparents? There's Towa in there and Kasumiōji, even an Ibuya or two." He barked out a mirthless laugh then looked away, rubbing a hand over his mouth. "Crap, who'd have thought this stupid shit'd end up being relevant."
"I could give you a blow job, if you like. Help you concentrate," Ichigo teased, hoping to lighten the mood at least a bit, maybe remind Renji of happier times. And they had been happy. Or at least Ichigo tended to think of them that way, until he remembered what everyone else had been going through while he'd been playing sex games with Byakuya and Renji.
His heart sank and his attempt at humour seemed to fall way short on Renji too, because for a second Renji's expression twisted into something terrible before collapsing into a scowl.
"You ain't getting it," he snarled. "No way he inherited it from any of that lot, 'cause if any of 'em could bind souls like that, they'd have been crowing about from the fucking rooftops! And the other nobles would've loved them for it. Finally, a way to keep uppity gaki in line. Bind 'em up tight and suck 'em dry if they dare set a foot out of line!" As the volume of Renji's voice rose, every sentence came with a jabbing finger or a furious clenched fist. "Fuck, the Kuchiki'd love something like that. Absolute fucking obedience!"
Renji dashed his hand away like he was dismissing all of it. "No. It ain't innate. It's a kidō. But I reckon you're right about it not being deliberate. It'll be something he copied blind off his uncle. Stupid bastard probably didn't even know what he was doing when he bound us together."
They say the simplest explanation is usually the right one.
From everything Ichigo had heard about Kuchiki Kōga, twenty eighth head of clan Kuchiki and captain of the 6th division for two hundred and thirty five years, he was exactly the type to go digging for forbidden techniques. And then use them on people.
Ichigo's happy inheritance bubble burst. "Shit."
Renji huffed a disgusted breath, visibly deflating. "And all this time I thought it was Zabimaru he was after."
"Yeah, well, he might've be after a zanpakutō too," Ichigo replied, his mind still caught up in the idea of Kōga. There was something about him…
"What?" Renji spun, expression murderous.
Ichigo backed off a step, both hands up, and quickly outlined what Yuzu had seen. "It's not the main problem," he explained, watching Renji closely. "But Senbonzakura is definitely missing. Which is odd considering everyone believes Byakuya used it to slaughter Central 46."
"I have no idea what the stupid bastard thought he was doing that night," Renji said, shaking his head. The worst of his temper seemed to have subsided. "Did he say anything to you?"
"No. He screwed me senseless, then drugged me and sneaked out. The next thing I knew, he'd vanished, Central were dead, and the Gotei was about to start an all-out war on itself."
Renji grimaced.
Ichigo shrugged and continued, "It could've been worse. I ended up invoking the Soul King's authority to hold everything together and the clan-heads took over the running of Seireitei."
"And now?"
"I've got no idea. The last I heard, Kyōraku was retiring, the onmitsukidō had wiped out the 7th in retaliation for killing the Towa, who are down to less than half a dozen members by the way, and Hirako Shinji's about to start a revolution." He hadn't meant to say that last bit, but it kind of slipped out anyway.
"Crap. What a mess." Renji hunkered down, ducking his head so he could scrub a hand through his hair and tug on the longer bits at the back.
Ichigo slumped to the ground beside him, legs crossed, elbow on knee, chin in hand. The rock wasn't comfortable exactly but it was warm. Thoughtfully, his gaze returned to Byakuya, who was still clawing at the air. "I still reckon Aizen's behind it all," he said glumly after a moment or two.
Renji shot a startled look at him. "From the 1st? What's he got to do with it?"
Ichigo's chin fell off his hand as he boggled at Renji. "Didn't Byakuya tell you? He's got his shikai back, that perfect hypnosis thing, and he's been using it on everyone."
"Fucking hell!" Renji groaned and dropped backwards onto the ground, arms above his head. "So that's what's been going on." He paused, then growled, "The stupid bastard. Why didn't he say something?"
"He probably thought he was protecting you."
"Doubt it. He's never done that before."
Ichigo glared at Renji. "That's what Karin reckons. 'Just ask him,' she says, 'he'll tell you the truth', but whenever I try it, the fucker just clams up."
"That's because you don't listen," Renji replied, smirking. "You just storm off in a huff, and he hates that, so he doesn't see the point in trying to talk to you."
There might be the tiniest smidgen of truth in that. Ichigo moved on. "So why hasn't he said anything then. I mean, did he tell you what happened with Senbonzakura?"
"Not much. Only that he was gone," Renji tapped his fist against his chest, "in here."
Ichigo frowned, thinking back to what they'd been talking about before. "Zanpakutō gone from its inner world but Byakuya's not sundered. Central definitely getting massacred by Senbonzakura, but Byakuya didn't do it." He counted the details off on his fingers as he spoke. "You know, if Kōga wasn't dead, all this stuff could be his doing. It fits his shikai to a tee."
He and Renji exchanged worried looks, then Renji shook his head. "No. No way. That guy would never have let Byakuya have the 6th if he was still alive."
"True." Ichigo crossed that worrying possibility off his list, though the nagging feeling that there might be something in it remained. He contemplated Byakuya, watching clawing hands that seemed to massage the air, wondering if he knew the answers. Probably. Or would if he was ever himself again.
Which he would be. Had to be.
Ichigo's gut twisted in desperate hope and, steeling his resolve, he said, "We've got to fix him. I've got too many questions to let him die now."
Renji snorted a laugh and scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands, but didn't argue. Nor did he interrupt when Ichigo filled him in on the last bit of the puzzle, Yuzu's stuff about strings and their shared reiryoku. "The weird thing is how the strings from us back to Byakuya are broken," Ichigo said as he came to the end. "If we could get to the bottom of that-"
"No need," Renji put in, right over the top of him. "I reckon I know exactly when it happened." Ichigo perked up, desperate for any kind of insight as Renji continued, "Back when we were in Matsuyama, there was a female arrancar, the one that nearly crashed the plane? Anyway, she caught up with us in Karakura, trashed Arisawa-sensei's apartment, almost killed Rukia-"
"I remember Chad mentioning it," Ichigo said. "Didn't Tatsuki drive her off?" Which sounded a bit far fetched to Ichigo. Then again Tatsuki had always been able to beat his ass at the dojo, so maybe she had.
"No, Rukia did. Or at least fought the thing to a stand still. But before all of that, the arrancar caught up with us in the woods and did something to Byakuya, trapped him under this glowing shield thing. My spiritual energy was all sealed up at the time so I couldn't tell what was going on but Arisawa-sensei said she drained all his reiryoku."
"That sounds like a possibility," Ichigo said, though in all honesty, if that was all it took, Renji's connection to Byakuya should have been cut when he was sealed.
"No, listen, that's not all." Renji frowned and sat up, knees high, elbows resting on them. "Thing was, while she had him trapped, she kept telling him that he tasted of you. She all but accused him of eating you, and I was thinking, what if she somehow stripped all of our reiryoku out of Byakuya. I mean, if one end of the string had nothing left to anchor itself to…"
"It'd be like unhooking one end of a rope bridge," Ichigo breathed.
"Exactly. The whole thing'd crash into the canyon and eventually there wouldn't be anything left except the anchor point at the other end."
"You and me."
"You and me," Renji nodded.
Ichigo huffed a huge breath and gazed at Byakuya. "Okay, say that's how it happened, how do we fix it?"
Renji shrugged. "Either find a way of getting Byakuya's reiryoku out of us, or ours back into him."
"Does it bother you which?" Ichigo asked, curious. After his initial outburst, Renji had been remarkably calm about all this. Strange, considering the last time they'd had a conversation about Byakuya, he'd been frantic with worry.
"I just want it all sorted," Renji replied, and there was a gruff note to his voice that just reinforced Ichigo's feeling that something had changed.
But if Renji wasn't ready to talk about it, Ichigo wasn't going to press. "Okay," he said. "Since we don't have a handy arrancar around, I suggest we try to re-connect with him."
Renji nodded, seemingly happy enough with the decision. "Any idea how?"
Ichigo glared at him. "How come I have to answer all the difficult questions," he protested.
"Hey, I answered the one about the string, so it's your turn to use the brain," Renji shot back, rolling to his feet. He stretched and as he did so, the cowl over his shoulders faded along with the gauntlet, and an immense reiatsu that Ichigo hadn't noticed surrounding him, vanished. Ichigo's ears popped and he wriggled his jaw. "Wow, that's gone up."
The grin Renji shot him could only be described as shit-eating. "Bigger than yours."
Ichigo shook his head sadly. "You wish, loser," he said, and dodged when Renji made a grab for him.
Before they could get into another tussle, an high-pitched wailing started up from over by the onsen. They both spun to look. It was Byakuya, writhing in his restraints, eyes clear, that hungry stare now directed across the water to where they stood.
Renji shuddered and looked away, but Ichigo couldn't help watching. He'd been almost peaceful before, so why'd he woken up now? And there was something about his movements, the ones before and the ones he was making now. The stretched out fingers and the way his bulging belly wriggled like he was trying to stamp his feet.
"How'd you trap him anyway," Ichigo asked after a moment or two.
Renji was busy taking off his sandals and tabi. He paused and frowned. "It wasn't hard. I mean, he obviously came at me with everything he had, there was loads of kidō and these skeleton things that kept firing byakurai and then falling apart, but without Senbonzakura it was never gonna be an equal fight. He went down pretty easy in the end. Kind of keeled over, so I dragged him back here and Zabimaru and me stuck him in the rock."
"And all that time you were in bankai."
Renji nodded.
Byakuya wailed again. The sound grated on Ichigo's nerves like a hungry baby crying and… fuck. That was where he'd seen it before. "Renji? Can you go bankai again?" he said, gaze fastened on Byakuya.
"What? I only just dropped out of it, ya demanding bastard," Renji protested looking back over his shoulder.
"Just for a minute." Ichigo shot a pleading look at him. Renji was obviously planning on taking a dip. He was down to his hakama and though he kept his body angled away, Ichigo could see that the scars on his back were just as faded as the ones on his real body, the tattoos just as changed.
Grumbling under his breath and reiatsu already rising, Renji scooped his sword back up. "Sōō, Zabimaru!"
This blast wasn't quite so big as the one that'd knocked everyone to their knees back in the workshop, but it wasn't far off. Ichigo swayed under the onslaught and waited for the pressure to settle out around him.
Byakuya had already gone silent, and when he looked over, Ichigo knew his theory was right. "Have you ever seen a baby animal feeding?" he asked Renji.
"Like a puppy or something?" Renji said coming to stand beside him. "I guess, why?"
"Look at his hands." They were doing that kneading motion again, like a cat that was being fussed or a baby being fed. Ichigo watched for a moment before shuddering and looking away. "Damn that's creepy."
"He's eating it," Renji said, sounding horrified. "He's eating my reiatsu!"
"We wanted to find a way of getting it back into him," Ichigo said. "Looks like we found it."
"Like that!" Renji pointed, eyes wide.
"You got any better ideas?"
"But we'd be feeding him. Like we're his parents or something. And he's Byakuya!"
Renji sounded so scandalised that Ichigo couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. "You feed the guy your dick and you're bothered by this?"
"That's different." Renji's expression turned slightly hopeful. "Can't we do it that way instead?" he suggested.
Ichigo turned to look pointedly at clawed hands, bulging belly and shark-toothed maw just visible around the rock gag, and raised his eyebrows. He didn't need to actually say anything.
Beside him, Renji deflated with a huff, his bankai fading with it. "Fine. I wouldn't want my bits anywhere near him at the moment anyway."
Nor would Ichigo, which brought them right back to feeding Byakuya their bankai. Though, put like that, it sounded more than a bit dodgy. Bankai were powerful. Maybe they should run the idea past someone first.
Closing his ears to the hungry wailing that had started up again, Ichigo said, "We should probably check it's doing what we think it is before we risk making things worse."
"Good plan," Renji replied, already tugging on his hakama ties. "How you gonna do that?"
Ichigo shrugged. "Ask Yuzu? She'll be able to tell if he's got your reiryoku inside him. Plus, I can let everyone know what we're doing in case it goes wrong. That way they'll know what they're dealing with."
"Okay. Guess you'd better get going them," Renji said, dropping his hakama. "And just when I was about to invite you to take a soak with me too. Amongst other things." He did an obnoxious hip wriggle that made his long cock bounce in its nest of dark red curls.
Damned if he was going to let that pass unpunished, Ichigo dropped his shoulder and charged Renji, who honest-to-gods shrieked as they made contact and was laughing his head off by the time Ichigo dumped him bodily in the steaming pool. Ichigo danced backwards, just managing to get clear before he ended up wet as well and a moment later, Renji surfaced from the depths squirting water like a clam.
"Bastard," he said, but his grin spread from ear to ear.
"Loser," Ichigo replied, automatically. "I'd better go. Enjoy your bath." He closed his eyes, and then opened them again, a sudden thought thought occurring to him. "How will I get back?"
Renji squinted up at him. "The same way you did last time, idiot."
"Right." Ichigo closed his eyes again, Renji's inner world already fading.
Renji's yell followed him out. "Hey. Don't forget your zanpakutō next time!"
All he could smell was pork ramen. Taking a deep breath and stretching until his back popped, Ichigo opened his eyes and looked around. They'd moved him, no surprise there. Before he left, he'd set down right next to the table in the operating room, hoping that being close in the real world would help him find Byakuya quicker in his inner one. Fat lot of good that had done. Now he was in the outer part of the lab, on a futon which had been squeezed in amongst the exercise equipment.
"Nii-chan, you're awake!"
Ichigo looked round. Yuzu was perched at the long work-bench, and the steaming bowl in front of her had to be the source of that wonderful smell. Ichigo's stomach rumbled.
Yuzu giggled and held out her bowl. "But that's yours," Ichigo protested.
"I've not started yet and there's more upstairs," Yuzu replied, sliding off the tall stool she'd been sitting on. "Unagiya-san dropped it off for us on the way back to their home. Apparently Arisawa-ojiisan has worked out a way of making normal food edible for spirits, or he's found someone who can supply us with food, Unagiya-san wasn't clear about it, but she said it should be fine for us to eat, and it tastes wonderful. Try some."
Ichigo was tempted. Now the bowl was closer, it smelt even better. But did he really have time? Maybe if he talked while he ate. Taking the bowl and chopsticks, he said, "How's Hachigen doing?"
Yuzu's gaze cut away. "He's sleeping. Isane-san came and relieved him about three hours ago." She glanced quickly towards the operating room. "She's in there now. Sado-san's with her."
Ichigo didn't think he knew any Isane, but if Chad was with her and Hachigen trusted her to keep Byakuya subdued, then who was he to argue. Filling his mouth with a mixture of pork and noodles, he chewed more quickly than the delicious flavour deserved and swallowed. "What about oji-san?"
"He's upstairs with Uryū. They're eating. I offered to keep an eye on you and Renji-san for a few minutes."
That was useful. With luck Ichigo would be able to sneak in and out again without having to get into a fight with Ryūken. "Great. Then I need you to do me something," he said. "Check on Byakuya with your special sight thingie and tell me if there's any of Renji's reiryoku inside him." Another mouthful, this one followed by a slurp of rich broth. "We think we might have a way to fix him, but we can't tell if it's working. Can you do that?"
At one time, if Ichigo had asked her to be a part of something he was doing, Yuzu would have squealed excitedly and jumped all over him. Now she just lifted her chin, straightened her shoulders and said, "Of course I can. I'll do anything if it helps. Do you want me to go and check right now?"
Mouth stuffed, Ichigo could only nod at her and watch as she hurried over to the half-glass door and knocked quietly before opening it and slipping inside. For a moment Ichigo was tempted to follow, but his gut twisted at even the thought of seeing Byakuya like that again, all wrapped in kidō bandage. And what would be the point. It wasn't like Ichigo had a fancy new ability to see what was happening beneath it. He'd just get in the way.
Telling himself he wasn't being a coward, Ichigo went back to his noodles, which didn't taste anywhere near as good as they had before, and choked down a few more mouthfuls.
He'd finished eating and discovered that Renji was still on the futon in the training room by the time the door opened again and Yuzu emerged looking pale but triumphant. "It's a very tiny amount," she announced, "I'd never have noticed if you hadn't told me it might be there."
"But it's definitely Renji's?" Yuzu's firm head nod was assurance enough. "Good. Tell oji-san that we're-"
"I think you should tell them yourself," Yuzu said, before Ichigo could tell her anything much at all. "Then if something goes wrong-"
"Nothing's going to go wrong,"
"Famous last words, Kurosaki. I remember you saying much the same thing before you fell out of that tree and broke your arm."
Ichigo grimaced and turned around. "Cousin. You're getting quieter as well as ruder as you get older."
The corner of Uryū's mouth tilted minutely. "If you think that's rude, wait till father finds out you were trying to sneak around behind his back," he said, coming into the laboratory and closing the door behind him.
"I'm not sneaking!" Ichigo protested.
"Then I'll go tell him you're back," Uryū said, hand returning to the door.
With a hissed, "Don't you dare," Ichigo grabbed him by the arm before he could go anywhere. Uryū stopped, looked down at the hand and raised a cynical eyebrow. Ichigo sagged and released him. "Please. If I tell him, he'll say I can't do it and we'll end up in another fight."
"Has it occurred to you that he says no because your plans tend to be very bad?" Uryū said. "You need to learn to think things through properly before you run in unprepared."
Ichigo was so very tempted to bring up the spat between Uryū and his dad earlier, but he didn't actually have a death wish, so he changed the subject. "What if I tell you? Then, if you think it's okay, you can go tell Ryūken in a way that'll make him say yes." And while he was doing that, Ichigo could sneak back into his inner world. Score!
"Only on condition that you actually listen if I tell you it's a bad idea," Uryū replied, after a moment's thought.
"Deal." Ichigo quickly outlined what he'd seen and heard in Renji's inner world, the conclusions they'd drawn and what he and Renji had come up with as a solution.
After he'd finished speaking, Uryū continued staring down at his feet for a long minute, one arm across his chest, the other pressed to the spot between his eyebrows. Then he looked up and said, "Start with shikai. There's two of you. If you both release bankai simultaneously, you could destroy the rock that's holding him, or kill him outright."
Ichigo, mouth open ready to argue, shut it again. "That's actually a really good idea," he said.
"This is why you should think plans through properly before you execute them," Uryū replied, moving over to the bench and picking up Ichigo's empty ramen bowl. "Apart from that, your reasoning seems sound, and with Yuzu-chan and Isane-san monitoring things from this side, along with myself and Sado-san to keep watch over you and Abarai, it should be safe enough." He paused, frowning slightly. "How long do you think it's going to take?"
How long is a piece of string, was the first thing that sprang to Ichigo's mind. He managed not to say it, going instead with, "I've no clue. Yuzu says there's only a tiny bit of reiryoku inside Byakuya, and Renji was in bankai for ages. Then again, he wasn't staying close to Byakuya so maybe that'll speed it up. Or maybe there's something else going on entirely. We'll have to wait and see."
"Then you should definitely set time limits. Immediate and long term ones. The latter can wait until we get a better idea of how this is going to work. But in the short term, there's two of you, so I see no reason why you can't alternate shifts, allowing each of you to come out of jinzen to eat, and sleep for a short time if necessary. Each time that happens, Yuzu can fill you in on how things are progressing from her perspective, so you're not working blind. I would suggest four hours initially, and adjust from there."
Ichigo listened to all of this, his jaw slowly dropping open. It was like hearing Byakuya outline a battle-plan and, if Ryūken had come up with it, Ichigo would have brushed it off as his uncle being a control freak again. But this was Uryū, and okay he wasn't exactly laid-back, but he was still only Ichigo's age and this was some high-level shit.
"Y-yeah," he said, once Uryū had finished. "Sounds… great. We should do that. All of it."
"Excellent. Then, do you have a foolproof way of waking you from jinzen? Having seen how unresponsive you both become, I wouldn't want to have to wake you in an emergency."
Ichigo thoughts whirled as he tried to catch up. "Something Quincy?" he suggested eventually. "Maybe a touch of that blut thing."
"Blut arterie?" Uryū's eyebrows climbed even higher this time, warning Ichigo that he might have got the term wrong. This was why he need Quincy training, stat.
"Look, I don't know what it's called," he snapped, "Just give my reishi a yank. I'll tell Ossan to be keeping an eye out for it and he'll let me know."
"I can do that," Uryū replied smugly, without giving Ichigo the proper name, the bastard. "Now, if that's all settled, I shall go and let father know what we've agreed." Bowl in hand, Uryū made for the door. As he reached it, he glanced back. "Well? What are you waiting for, Kurosaki? Go and fix your boyfriend so the rest of us can get some proper rest." And with that he strode off across the training room.
Ichigo stared after him in stunned silence. Then a small voice from behind him said, "Byakuya-sama's your boyfriend? As well as Sado-san?"
