Sukuse

by VraieEsprit

25 years on from Meifu and secrets abound, from the mines of 7th to the barren wastes of the Rukon. As blood is spilt, Juu & Shun realise Seireitei's most wanted rebel is not only alive but far from alone - but what secret weapon is he hiding in Rukongai's forgotten land?

36. Into the Rukon

Chapter Thirty Five: Into the Rukon

Well, so here they were.

Shunsui stepped out of the black chasm, setting his sandalled feet down on the parched earth of the outer Rukon and gazing around him with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. Behind him, he was aware of the spiritual presences of his companions following his example, each one of them primed and ready to launch into attack if they came under immediate threat. In the midst of the group stood Nagesu, his eyes unreadable behind the lenses of his glasses, and Shunsui glanced at him, inwardly relieved that he was not the only nor the most senior member of the Gotei present on this mission.

Upon arrival at Third Division's barracks, the Eighth Division shinigami had found that all but the Onmitsukidou officers had already gathered and, as the Second Division's secret operatives had emerged silently from the shadows around their neighbouring Division, Nagesu had begun calculating the calibrations to open the door to the Rukon beyond, checking every spiritual emission with his usual meticulous care. Whilst Naoko and Hanako had greeted one another with wary glances, both had seemed to understand the gravity of their current mission, and so, to Shunsui's relief, neither one had made any snide remarks. Instead, Naoko had come right up to him, bowing her head curtly and then raising resigned green eyes to meet his wary brown ones.

"Taichou's dispatched us to be of use to you in whatever way we can," she had said quietly. "We'll do our best, over the divide."

"I've no doubt," Shunsui had acknowledged. "I know Juushirou has had you investigating several things of late - I'm hoping your knowledge will prove useful when we arrive at our destination."

"Mm," Naoko had turned her gaze towards Nagesu and the gate, her entire body tense, and Shunsui's eyes had narrowed, interpreting the things that the Third Seat had not bothered to say.

You want to go find Keitarou and use that poison sword of yours to rip holes in him, the way he ripped holes in you. Your aura is tightly controlled, Naoko-chan - but I can feel it. I know the hatred you have for this man and his sword - but that knowledge and that experience might be enough to flush him out. I know why Juu really sent you, and it has nothing to do with your Hollow investigations. It's because, him aside, you know Keitarou's reiatsu best. Even Nagesu-dono and I, who've met him, haven't experienced Chudokuga's power at such close quarters as you two. If Juu can't go himself, sending you was the next best thing - but his sending you with me means he's asking me to look out for you and make sure you come back in one piece, no matter what the provocation.

I didn't expect to be going back to Rukongai so soon," Kai's voice at his right shoulder had brought him back to himself, and he offered the Onmitsukidou leader a grimace. "It wasn't that appealing the last time, but I'm told the wasteland Rukon is several times worse. I hope you're prepared for whatever we're going into, Kyouraku - at the very least, I think it's likely we'll find the site of Souja-dono's last stand."

"I'm counting on us doing exactly that," Shunsui had admitted. "It's not a nice mission, but I volunteered for it. I want to see where Souja went, and what he did before he died. If I can pinpoint that, maybe I can find something of use to the Gotei in tracking down his killer."

"Neesama said you had some idea of him being able to predict the future," Kai had observed. "Is that true?"

"That's what I'd like to prove," Shunsui had responded grimly. "One way or another."

Nagesu had unleashed the seal on the Senkaimonat that point, preventing any further conversation as one by one the shinigami disappeared into the blank chasm. Nagesu's meticulous work on both coordinates and release meant a short, uneventful journey between regions, and as Shunsui inhaled, he was aware of something stale in the air, heavy and cloying yet intangible to his senses. He raised his gaze to the sky, taking in the hazy cloud cover that cloaked the weak sun from view, and he sighed.

"Picturesque, isn't it," he murmured, and Kai snorted, shrugging his shoulders.

"I warned you. It's no picnic here, not considering there's been no resources of any kind in these parts for a long while," he said frankly, then, "Nagesu-sama, how close to the Spiritless Zone have we emerged?"

"Not close at all, if my coordinates are correct," Nagesu looked up from a scroll of parchment that he had clutched between his fingers. "I followed the scientific data from Ukitake's mysterious source, and tried to pitch my Gate's opening as close to that area as possible. With any luck, my sword releasing the Senkaimon won't have been easily detected - I took every precaution to make sure that was the case. Even though it's true that a Bankai sword releasing a Senkaimonshould in theory be untraceable, Keitarou is more knowledgeable about this science than I am, so I didn't want to take any risks."

He cast Shunsui a glance.

"We should divide here," he decided. "Kai-dono, I should like you and your men, along with Eriko-dono to accompany my officers and I as we comb the scene for any evidence of Souja-dono's place of attack. I believe there should be a trace of a broken Gate in that area, and I should like to conduct tests on it while the Onmitsukidou investigate the crime scene more thoroughly."

"I shall accompany you," Eriko agreed soberly, nodding her head. "If I can be of help, I will."

"Which leaves us to take the other direction?" Shunsui turned, putting his hand up to shield his eyes as he squinted across the barren landscape. "I can see something hidden in the dip of the land - something that looks suspiciously like shacks of some kind, yet I don't sense any kind of living presence. That being the case, it seems a good place to start looking."

"It could be an abandoned settlement from when the Rukon was evacuated," Nagesu warned, and Shunsui nodded.

"It could, but if so, we should tick it off our list," he said firmly.

"All right," Nagesu acquiesced. "Then we'll meet back here. Send a message if you need help - or flare your reiatsu, and we'll come."

"Understood," Shunsui agreed, and as the seven other officers disappeared into shunpo, he turned back to the group that remained. "Hanako-chan? We don't have a map, so I'm going to rely on you to be at the top of your game navigating us through this place when there's a good chance a lot of the scenery will look very similar. That's your key task on this mission - understand? Most importantly, tracking a route back to this gate as quickly as we can in the case of trouble. I have no intention of leaving anyone behind, nor any limbs or other extraneous parts, and it might not always be possible to rely on shunpo in such a unstable atmosphere. In fact, I'd rather we used that as little as possible, since flurries of spirit power in this environment will make us easier to locate for any enemy lurking in the shadows. We don't know who or what is waiting for us, so discretion seems the better part of valour."

"Yes, sir," Hanako nodded her head curtly, and Shunsui grinned.

"Naoko-chan, you're the highest ranking Thirteenth member here, so I'm going to entrust Kira and Atsudane's safety to you," he said blithely.

"Kyouraku-taichou, we can think and act for ourselves!" Makoto protested, and Shunsui offered him a smile.

"That was a Captain's order, not a request from a former classmate," he said lightly. "Naoko-chan, is that all right with you?"

"I'm used to it," Naoko said dismissively. "Are you planning on splitting our group further, then? Because we only have one healer, and we're already few in number. If Nakamura-san is going to be occupied with navigation, that's one less fighter, and..."

"I can navigate and draw my sword if I have to, Shikibu-san. Don't you worry about me," Hanako interjected sharply, and Shunsui sighed.

"We're not splitting up," he said with a little shake of his head. "I'm delegating simply because you're more familiar with the styles and skills of your members and it might be that we don't have much time to make a decision. Well, you know what enemy we're facing...so I'm sure you'll understand without me spelling it out."

"I do," Naoko's greenish eyes darkened. "I accept the order, Kyouraku-taichou. If we meet trouble, I'll know how to act."

"I'm sure," Shunsui pressed his lips together for a moment, then, "Shikiki-chan? Are you all right with this? I realise it's not long since you were last dispatched on a mission like this, but..."

"I wanted to come, when Retsu-sama spoke to me," Shikiki shook her head, a pained look in her aqua gaze. "More than anyone, I should be here, Kyouraku-taichou. I wasn't able to save more of my squad-mates. I was on manouevre in Sixth when Souja-dono needed me to heal him. And we're here...looking for..."

She faltered, chewing on her lip, and Shunsui nodded gravely.

"No individual heroics," he said firmly, gesturing for his companions to follow him. "There'll be no unexpected corpses on my watch...you can all consider that the firmest order of any I'm going to give on this little jaunt."

"Do we think he's really hiding out here?" As the group made their way cautiously through the undergrowth, it was Kira who voiced the question, glancing around nervously as if expecting a rag-clad plus soul to materialise from each nook and cranny, wielding a sword. "The exile, I mean. Do we think that he's really here?"

"If he's sensible, he won't be anywhere near here," Shunsui said frankly. "He's not a foolish man and he always knows more than you think he does. It's impossible to me that he wouldn't know of Souja-dono's death and that the shinigami are interested in his actions. If I were him - which thankfully, I'm not, but if I were, I'd go underground. Deep, deep underground, to a place that was impossible to find."

"Underground?" Makoto's eyes automatically strayed to the barren turf beneath their feet, and Naoko snorted.

"Kyouraku-taichou means figuratively, not literally," she said derisively.

"Though I suppose we can't rule out the literal possibility," Shunsui sighed. "It's all right, Makoto-kun - I think Naoko-chan's probably right. Wherever he is, it will be in the last place we'd ever think of. And that being the case..."

"We should start thinking of places," Kaoru murmured, "so we can get to the end of the list quickly and find him before anyone else has to die."

"Something like that," Shunsui nodded, pausing at the crest of the rise to gaze down on the ramshackle cluster of shelters that he could now see made up a rough, haphazard kind of a village. "Beginning with here. I don't sense any life signs from this place, even though we're as close as this now, but I want to go over it with a fine tooth comb anyway. There might be lingering Plus souls without a reiatsu signature. Also, I want each and every one of you to be on your guard against attack. The girl who killed Souja-dono had no discernable reiatsu, either. She could be here, or she could be miles away - but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"There are seven of us, and one of her. She'll find herself at bad odds if she tries to cause us trouble," Makoto said decidedly, but Shikiki shook her head.

"It's not as simple as that, Atsudane-san," she said grimly. "If Retsu-sama is right, and this is the same girl who slaughtered my comrades in the Spiritless Zone, then she singlehandedly took out almost a whole patrol without the need for any backup."

"But Fourth aren't trained in the same skills that we are," Hanako said bluntly. "No offence to the Fourth, Shikiki-san, but I'm not sure how healers would defend themselves against that kind of assault."

"But it doesn't hurt to be prepared," Shunsui interjected quickly, before Shikiki could find a response. "So we'll be prepared. Stay in range of one another and don't disappear into any buildings or shelters on your own...enter in pairs or not at all. This isn't a drill exercise, and nor is it like an average patrol into District territory. The enemy we're dealing with is very, very dangerous, and any who associate with him must be considered similarly unpleasant. I am absolutely serious about taking everyone back in one piece."

"I don't think there's anyone here," Naoko pulled Dokusou Houshi from its sheath, using the tip of the blade to nudge aside a tattered piece of cloth and wrinkling up her nose at the squalid conditions beyond. "Not now, anyway - but I don't think this was abandoned when the Spiritless Zone was formed. I think people were here till quite recently - it's not dusty enough for anything else."

"Suggesting a quick evacuation?" Makoto rubbed his chin, and Naoko nodded.

"Take Kira and go check those squats over there," she instructed. "Be careful - remember what Kyouraku-taichou said."

"We're on it," Makoto agreed, grabbing the more reluctant Kira by the arm and disappearing in the direction of the cluster of huts Naoko had indicated. Shunsui cast her a quizzical look, and Naoko sighed, shaking her head.

"He isn't here," she said curtly, and Shunsui could sense the disappointment in her aura. "I think...he might have been, at one point. Dokusou Houshi would be able to tell, if I released him, but you said you didn't want to draw attention to ourselves..." She trailed off, eying the Eighth Division Captain doubtfully.

"Nakamura-san and I could check the houses over there," Kaoru suggested, glancing at Shunsui. "It's not far, we'd not be out of sight, and if there were the two of us, we'd be fine. I don't think there's anyone hiding there, but there might be clues, and if Atsudane-san and Kira-san are exploring that patch, we ought to do some investigation too. That way if Shikibu-san wanted to release her sword, she could, since we'd be splitting the work between us and we'll be done twice as fast."

"All right, but be careful," Shunsui nodded. "Kaoru, you're in charge. Hanako, if you find any Pluses quivering in corners, please don't slice holes in them until you've ascertained why they're there...it's possible that Keitarou came here and forced people to obey him. Those people might be able to tell us things, so try not to kill anyone you don't have to. All right?"

"Promise," Hanako's eyes twinkled with wry amusement and she nodded her head, hurrying off after the Fourth Seated officer in the direction of the shelters.

"I didn't realise Nagasata-san was so perceptive," Shikiki murmured, her gaze following the two officers across the patchy, yellowed grass, and Naoko pulled a face, leaning up against the trunk of a dead tree.

"I'm not sure if it's perception or just an eagerness not to be standing around waiting for something to happen," she remarked. "I know how she feels, too. Kyouraku-kun, did you have to bring Nakamura-san with you? I realise her navigation is good, but..."

"We are still on official business, Naoko-chan, and much as I like being called affectionate names by a pretty girl in uniform, I'm still your superior officer on this mission," Shunsui said lightly, reaching out to tap her on the head. She flinched back with a scowl, and he grinned, holding up his hands.

"Sora selected Hanako. Not me," he admitted. "I had other things to prepare so left that job to her discretion. I may have failed to mention to her that you were coming with us, though, so probably it is my fault. I wouldn't have put you two together by choice, but it's done now and you're both old enough and experienced enough to manage. Besides, Kaoru's smart, and Hanako likes her. They work well together, and we can trust them to do their part of the job. If you trust Kira and Atsudane to do theirs, that leaves us to do ours. And we both know why you're here, so while there's just us, there's no sense in pretending otherwise."

"Taichou sent me here because I was possessed by Keitarou's sword," Naoko acknowledged bluntly. "He thought I'd have the best chance of tracking it and he told me so before I left. I should have known you'd realise that, too - though it's not a memory I'd like dragged up too many times before the Gotei as a whole. And especially not before Nakamura-san. You're right - we're adults, and as adults, we can both do our jobs. But I'd rather not remember what happened between Keitarou and I, or between Keitarou and Suzuno - and having Nakamura-san know about it would be worse still."

"I have no intention of doing anything of the kind," Shunsui assured her. "Nor should you worry about Shikiki's discretion - she's met Keitarou too, albeit in a different way from you, and I don't believe she's one to gossip about the shadows lurking in people's pasts."

"That's true?" Naoko's gaze flitted to Shikiki, who nodded reluctantly.

"He took me in when I was small, and raised me till I met J...Ukitake-taichou," she admitted at length. "I was with him for about four years, and lived with him in hiding. He protected me from the Endou purge, because he thought my skills were worth nurturing. Retsu-sama didn't say as much to me, but I think she chose me to come here because she knew that. Like you, she probably thinks I can sense him more easily than others - or maybe work out his movements. But I was just a kid, and I'm not sure...whether I ever really understood Kei-nii at all. I thought I did, but then...some of the things he's done since don't match up with how kind he was to me, and so maybe I didn't know as much as I thought I did."

She shrugged.

"I agree with you, though," she added. "I don't think he's here now."

"Likewise," Shunsui admitted. "But I didn't think he would be. I want you to release Dokusou Houshi, Naoko-chan. I know that I said it was a risk, but I think it's an important one in this case. Your sword's spores are intimately acquainted with Keitarou, and even if it can't pick up his trail, it might pick up other important things."

"All right," Naoko pursed her lips, but nodded, gripping the hilt of her weapon more tightly in her right hand as a faint greenish glow began to shimmer up the weapon's silvery surface. She raised the sword, holding it so that the tip pointed out across the abandoned village, and Shunsui watched as the faint flickers of light became more and more concentrated, giving the air around it an eerie, ghoulish appearance. Slowly Naoko spread her left hand out over the blade, her brow flickering slightly in concentration.

"Inotte," she murmured, "Dokusou Houshi."

Almost as soon as the words had left her lips, the weapon glimmered strongly with emerald light, then, bit by bit, the tiny particles of reiatsu that had clustered around it began to spread out into the ether, creating a cloud of spiritual vapour that lingered for a moment around the group of three shinigami before dispersing over a wider area. Shikiki's brows knitted together in consternation, and Shunsui saw her take an instinctive step back, as though wary of what the weapon could do.

"It's all right," Naoko had clearly seen her unease, too, for she cast the healer a faint smile. "Dokusou Houshi likes to understand its surroundings, that's all. It won't hurt you. Not like this."

"I'm sorry," Shikiki reddened, looking embarrassed. "I didn't mean...I just...I thought..."

She faltered, then,

"Someone told me you were from the Unohana Clan," she said awkwardly. "I didn't know what kind of a sword you had, even though I knew you weren't a healer, but I didn't realise..."

"It's not the kind of weapon an Unohana should be holding, huh?" Naoko acknowledged, a faint note of bitterness in her tones. "It's the opposite of everything the Clan stands for. I can't bring life with this sword, Shikiki-san. I can poison, intoxicate, or steal spirit power like a parasite. Maybe, if I was to push myself, I could do far more horrible things - but they're things that leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I won't even try to do them. Dokusou Houshi hasn't a single cell of healing reiatsu anywhere in its spiritual make-up. It's designed to kill, and to do so in unpleasant, perhaps cowardly ways. But they say a sword is the reflection of the one who wields it, so I suppose that tells you why it is I don't make my home with the Clan any more."

She lifted the weapon, sweeping it sharply through the cloying atmosphere.

"As a tool for spiritual detection, however, it's a useful ally," she acknowledged. "Kyouraku-taichou, Keitarou's reiatsu is definitely here. It's faint and I can't get a clear lock on it - so he's not here now, and I don't know where he's gone. But he was here. I'm quite sure and so is my sword. This is where he was lurking - Nagesu-sama's coordinates were right."

"Thanks to Juu's secret source," Shunsui, who had been trying to work out how to respond to his former classmate's self-critical little speech decided that it was safer not to attempt to cross into Juushirou's territory, instead focusing his attention on Naoko's last sentence with a measure of relief. "Can you tell how long ago he was here, or is that too difficult for Dokusou Houshi to make out?"

"Mm. A day or two. Maybe longer, but not much," Naoko's eyes narrowed. "It's very fleeting, but stronger in some places than others. There are other reiatsu signatures here too...but they're meshed together and I can't single them out. I don't think they're presences I recognise - and most of them are very weak."

"Perhaps the villagers?" Shikiki suggested, and Naoko nodded her head, a sudden grim expression crossing her proud features.

"Perhaps," she said cautiously.

"Naoko-chan?" Shunsui eyed her keenly, and Naoko pressed her lips together, driving her sword once more through the air and closing her eyes as the haze of green energy flickered and danced around the silver surface.

"Maybe I've imagined it," she said slowly, her words almost too soft to make out, "or maybe it's because Houshi-sama didn't get a proper lock on it before, so it's only at the edge of our awareness...but I could've sworn..."

She opened her eyes, shaking her head in exasperation.

"I can't pin it down," she said frustratedly. "Just like before, it's there but not there."

"What is?" Shikiki looked confused, and Naoko cast her a hopeful glance.

"Shikiki-san, you were in the Spiritless Zone. You were there when Mitsuki was found, weren't you?" she asked eagerly, and Shikiki nodded.

"Yes, I was, but..."

"Was there any foreign reiatsu around? Anything you noticed out of the ordinary? Anything at all?"

"I wasn't really looking," Shikiki looked chastened. "I'm sorry, Shikibu-san. Maybe I should've been, but with trying to get Aomori-san and Edogawa-san to safety, and making sure Madeki-dono was stable...my senses aren't as perceptive as most of the healers in my squad, either. I was focused on what I was doing, and I didn't think to scan the area for any reiatsu."

"But the killer of Souja-dono and the killer of the healers had no reiatsu." Shunsui pointed out. "That being the case, Naoko-chan, what's got you so agitated?"

"Hrm," Naoko gave her weapon a little flick, sealing it and returning it to its sheath with a sigh. "It's hard to explain, especially when I don't really have solid evidence. I picked up the faintest hint of reiatsu investigating the Hollows. It was really no more than a ghost of a presence, and I didn't recognise it, but it was...odd. Meshed in with the remains of the Hollow, as though..."

"It was manipulating them?" Shunsui asked sharply, and Naoko nodded.

"You remember that conversation?"

"I do," Shunsui agreed. "And you think you sense that spirit power here again now?"

"Maybe," Naoko agreed hesitantly. "I also picked it up at Thirteenth Division, though. The night Mitsuki was stalked...the night Kuchiki-kun took her back to Sixth, before Souja-dono was killed."

"Wait a minute," Shunsui's brows twitched together in consternation, and he held up his hands. "Are you telling me that someone who is manipulating Hollows also followed Mitsuki right into the heart of Juushirou's division without being detected - except by you, after the fact - and that person was also here in Rukongai, where nobody is meant to be?"

"I think so. Yes," Naoko looked troubled. "I know it doesn't make sense, but Dokusou Houshi thinks it and my sword is usually right when it comes to things like this. We've picked up that sensation before. It was fleeting and I can't get a lock on it...but it was there all the same. Someone's reiatsu. Not a sword...but something else."

"The Onmitsukidou, perhaps? The one Juu took into custody?"

"No..." Naoko faltered, then shook her head. "No, I don't think so. An Onmitsukidou would train with a sword. No, it's more than that. An Onmitsukidou would train, period. There was nothing really...trained about this spirit power. It's raw and rough and that's what's wrong with it. It's as though someone's using it on instinct - and there's no way one of Shihouin-kun's people would ever be in that position, no matter how dead he was meant to be."

"Dead?" Shikiki blinked, but Shunsui ignored her.

"So someone in association with Keitarou - someone from here?" he asked urgently. Naoko shrugged helplessly.

"It's all I can think of," She admitted. "How else could he get through to Seireitei to follow Mitsuki? I can't explain all of the details, but I'm sure it's the same person. Here and Seireitei. Which implies that we have a serious people leak, and Keitarou is exploiting it."

"No kidding," Shunsui grimaced. "All right. We don't know who's manipulating the Hollows, but now we can make a good guess at it being Keitarou, by proxy. And if I'm right that he's able to predict the future, maybe he can operate in particular areas in readiness for a certain patrol's arrival. Perhaps in the Spiritless Zone, too. Maybe he knew in advance when they would be divided into two groups - and sent two agents to do the killing. The Hollow attack was probably murder just as much as the slaughter at base camp. Shikiki wouldn't have noticed anything even if she did go to the camp site, because the Hollow attack happened somewhere a long way away from there, so just because she wasn't aware of it doesn't mean it didn't happen. I'm hypothesising wildly of late and it's not good, but if this person was manipulating Hollows in Seireitei, it stands to reason he or she did it in the Spiritless Zone, too. Mitsuki said the Hollow behaved strangely. Juu's been flapping about it since she first mentioned it and it looks like he's right to pinpoint the Hollows in all of this."

"Maybe whoever it was came looking for her because someone intervened in the Spiritless Zone and killed the Hollow," Naoko agreed bleakly. "Perhaps he was trying to finish the job, only it was too close to the heart of Taichou's division to try, so he pulled back. But he could try again. Mitsuki thinks there's no danger, but if it wasn't the Onmitsukidou - and I don't think it was - then the person in question is still out there. Somewhere."

"Mm," Shunsui rubbed his chin. "Though if he's not willing to make a move so close to the heart of Inner Seireitei, she's probably safe enough so long as she's at Juu's place with all of you. Using the Hollows is the kind of tactic I'd pin on Keitarou, though. It's sneaky and indirect, and his sword has controlling properties. But you're sure it's not Chudokuga, which means..."

"His son?" Naoko asked quietly, and Shunsui eyed her keenly.

"You know about that, then?"

"Taichou told me everything before we left. He thought I should know," Naoko said simply. "It occurred to me that the reiatsu I sensed might have been the mysterious Aizen Kohaku that Souja-dono mentioned. Manipulation could've been inherited, and there's no reason to suppose he'd use a sword - Keitarou isn't a traditional zanpakutou wielder, and he'd have other priorities."

"But then there's the sword Souja saw," Shunsui remembered. "Unless it's as Guren-sama said, and that's a decoy to make people think Kohaku is in a place that he isn't. It could be a prop or an experiment of his. It doesn't have to have anything to do with Kohaku - in fact, because it says his name on it, I'm tempted to assume it doesn't."

"Well, it's certainly not being used to manipulate Hollows," Naoko said acidly, "because Dokusou Houshi would've identified a fellow zanpakutou's presence, and he's adamant that whatever controlled those creatures, it wasn't a sword."

"Hollows scare people," Shikiki said darkly. "They can't fight them, so they run, scared. If you're right, Shikibu-san, then this is the ultimate way to intimidate the populace. If shinigami don't protect them, then they turn against the shinigami and fear them, too. I know...I was like that. My village was destroyed by shinigami, so I hated and I feared them. They took Dai-nii away from me and forced Kei-nii and I into hiding. If I hadn't met Juu-nii, probably I'd have always been afraid. I certainly wouldn't have become a shinigami myself. It's easy to understand how they think and feel, and Kei-nii would know better than anyone how to play on that emotion. He understands the Districts far better than a lot of the Clan shinigami do."

"He's creating an army, isn't he?" Naoko murmured, and Shunsui sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

"We'll need more tangible evidence of that before we can create mass panic," he said wearily. "Enough on this subject, now. We've already discussed enough in front of a lower seated officer without her Captain's clearance for her to hear it - I'm sorry, Shiki-chan."

"No...it's all right," Shikiki sighed heavily. "I won't discuss it with anyone else - and like you said before, I know Kei-nii. It's a little different, where I'm concerned. I was there...in the snows in District Seven that day, so I know...the worst of what Chudokuga can do to a soul."

"If you don't mind, let's let that memory stay buried," Shunsui asked plaintively. "I can hear Kaoru's voice, and it looks like Kira and Atsudane are heading this way too. We'll move on - Naoko, did your sword spot out any likely places for us to investigate whilst it was doing its sweep?"

"Mm. That way," Naoko pointed. "I don't know how to read what Dokusou Houshi is telling me, because whatever it is, it's dark, broken and decayed. It's...I feel as though I should know it, but it's all in the wrong order and Houshi-sama says he can't decipher it properly because of that. Still, if we go that way, we might find out more. Houshi-sama thinks whatever caused it is no longer there - the reiatsu is old and beginning to break down. It's significantly twisted and strange, though...and Houshi-sama definitely sensed Keitarou's reiatsu meshed in with it somehow. I think we ought to check it out."

"It's possible Keitarou was using it for experiments," Shunsui agreed. "Whether you can or can't pinpoint the other reiatsu clearly, Naoko-chan, your sword has told us unequivocally what poor Souja was trying to tell his father the night he came back. Keitarou is here - or more importantly, was."

"There's nobody in the huts we searched, Taichou," at that moment, Hanako and her companion returned to the group, Hanako dusting down her shihakushouwith a grimace. "How anyone can live like that is beyond me, but there were signs that the houses had been lived in at some point. Nagasata-san found footprints in the dirt outside the back of one - but there was definitely nobody hiding there now."

"We came up blank too," Makoto agreed, casting Kira a rueful glance. "Kira tripped over a cooking pot and almost got it stuck on his foot, so I guess that told us there had been people here...but not now. Not a soul. It's a ghost village."

"A ghost village which Keitarou was lurking around up till a day or two ago," Shunsui mused darkly. "He clearly did know we were coming and so cleared out."

"Maybe he didn't expect Souja-dono to survive and escape," Kira suggested, his cheeks still a vibrant scarlet from his comrade's blunt account of his exploits. "Perhaps he wasn't meant to go back at all."

"Or he didn't mean to kill him in the first place," Shunsui reflected, pressing his lips together as he gazed in the direction Naoko had indicated. "Perhaps Souja showed up here, saw something he shouldn't have done and then had to be silenced. Or someone decided to silence him, just in case."

"But they botched the job, and he escaped," Hanako interjected. Shunsui nodded.

"Well, if it's any comfort, it means that Keitarou's schemes aren't foolproof," he said heavily. "The Spiritless Zone and Souja...in both instances people escaped and were able to leak information back to Seireitei. Keitarou's agents are not as thorough as Keitarou himself probably would be, and his trusting them to carry out those tasks implies his own attentions are focused somewhere else. Whilst I still have concerns, I think we should press on. Naoko's sword indicated a likely place of investigation up ahead - we should begin there, and this time I want everyone staying together. It might be dangerous."

It did not take long for the group of seven shinigami to reach the stretch of land set aside from the makeshift village, and it was clear as they approached it that even without Dokusou Houshi's sensitive analysis, the area reeked of decay. Where they had seen patches of yellowed grass bravely trying to struggle through the dry ground around the settlement, here the ground was brown and dead, littered with the chalkish remains of bird skull fragments and other unidentifiable objects that to Shunsui's troubled gaze seemed to have once been other living things that had simply fallen out of the sky, never to move again. The curled branches of gnarled trees twisted like sentries warning them to keep out, and a coarse wall of thorns and briars acted as a barrier between them and what was clearly a world of death. To one side, water bubbled in a freshly broken spring, and Shunsui bent to run his fingers through the cool water. Though the liquid seemed clear and pure, he was reluctant to put it to his lips, instead getting to his feet and wiping his hands dry on the fabric of his hakama.

"There's a hut through the briars, Taichou!" It was Hanako's voice which broke the uneasy silence, and Shunsui turned to look in the direction his Ninth Seat had indicated, seeing that there was indeed a roofed building set deep into this world of decay, almost hidden from view by what now appeared like a deliberately designed divide. His eyes narrowed as he remembered the testimony Souja had brought back with him that night, the fleeting, gasped words he had heard through the door of the chamber as he had marshalled the members of Seventh Division here and there, ensuring they were kept too busy to either intrude or panic. It had been faint, and difficult to make out, but Shunsui had keen hearing, and what he had heard had lingered in his mind.

"...A hut...in the hut...the sword...said Aizen."

"A hut," he said out loud now. "Souja-dono mentioned a hut when he came back to Inner Seireitei. I don't suppose that there's any doubt this is the same one he meant. There's something very nauseating in the atmosphere around here - like you said, Naoko-chan, it's broken and decayed, yet somehow familiar."

His eyes darkened, becoming almost black with suppressed emotion as he moved to the narrow gap between the briars.

"I can sense Keitarou's reiatsu too, now," he added grimly. "I couldn't, before, but now I can. He was here, and very recently, I'm sure of it. I'd never forget that taint of something twisted in his aura, even after so many years. Dokusou Houshi was right to point this out, Naoko-chan. That was good work."

"Do we have to go in there?" Kira looked apprehensive. "It doesn't look very...friendly."

"There's nobody in it, though, so why should we care?" Makoto responded with a shrug. "So there's some dead stuff - Kira, we're shinigami. Our job is dealing with dead stuff. There's no sense getting squeamish about it. Taichou told us that the Rukon might not be pretty...well, this is the not-pretty he was talking about. That's all."

"Don't you feel the creepy vibes in the atmosphere, Atsudane-san?" Kaoru stifled a shiver, wrapping her arms around her body as though suddenly cold. "It's not what the place looks like, but how it feels. It feels like death itself lives here...and if we go inside, we might never come out again."

"So it feels a bit Hollowish," Makoto conceded. "But we fight Hollows all the time, Nagasata-san. It's no different from how it feels facing them, surely?"

"I'm not bothered if we go in," Hanako said pragmatically. "I can feel the nasty atmosphere but it doesn't bother me. Like Atsudane said, we're shinigami. More, we're here because someone's dead who shouldn't be. This is where he came, and because he came here he died - therefore we need to go where he went and see what he saw."

"So long as we don't get to the dying part, I tend to agree," Shunsui sighed, resting a reassuring hand on Kaoru's shoulder, and she turned to send him a doubtful glance. "I know, it's not nice, I feel it too. It's something deeper than a Hollow's essence, something darker and more unwelcoming, but we can't just walk away. I'm certain Souja came here. He told his Captain and Ukitake both about a hut, and a sword within that hut with the name Aizen on it. If that sword is here now, we need to find it and take it as evidence. And if it isn't...we need to explore the scene and see what we can learn. I don't want us splitting up again, not here. We're all going in there together - I'm afraid you'll just have to grin and bear it, Kaoru-chan, Kira-kun."

"Keitarou was here, which means we need to investigate," Naoko agreed solemnly. "Shikiki-san, are you all right about going into this place?"

"I'm sure that I'm more prepared than you think to face something ugly," Shikiki said softly. "Besides, the place might feel like death, but it isn't death. I spent the first eight years of my life in District Seven when people were being hunted and killed and I saw death on a regular basis, but this isn't it."

"I could release Dokusou Houshi again, and see if Souja-dono came here?" Naoko suggested, but Shunsui shook his head.

"I don't want you or your sword picking up anything from here," he said firmly. "Juu...I mean, Ukitake wouldn't thank me if I sent you back with some kind of spiritual poisoning because I'd let you dabble in dark matter. We'll use old fashioned investigative skills and see what we can find. Nobody is to release their zanpakutou here unless we come under direct attack and it's unavoidable. It's bad enough as it is - I imagine it'd be even worse to handle with swords released."

He pushed the briars aside, making his way purposefully across the barren land towards the hut, gesturing for his companions to follow him. They did, though he was aware that some were more reluctant than others, and he pressed his lips together, hoping they could not detect the misgivings in his aura.

Because I agree with Kaoru and Kira. Whatever I say about it, this place gives me the heebie-jeebies and if I had a choice in the matter, I'd be turning in the opposite direction. Shikiki's right - this isn't death, but something else, and if Naoko was right, that this is reiryoku, it must belong to someone. Someone...or something.

He frowned.

Maybe we're thinking about this all wrong. Naoko would've said if this was the same reiatsu as she sensed before, but she didn't. So this person isn't the one controlling the Hollows. Yet this feels like the kind of power Kai mentioned at the Captain's meeting...the one with the potential to destroy Soul Society. Perhaps the Onmitsukidou's threats aren't idle ones - and this is Aizen Kohaku. Maybe it's not the Hollows that Kohaku is connected to, but this place. But if that's the case...who other than Keitarou has the power to manipulate in a wasteland like this? Maybe the hut and the sword are something else completely. Oh, I wish I understood how Keitarou's twisted brain worked!

His brows furrowed together in consternation.

Have we overlooked something? Assumed something we shouldn't have assumed? If this is just residual spirit power and it's giving good officers the shivers, what would it be like if someone unleashed it at you full tilt? And yet it doesn't feel...as though it was released in any kind of confrontation. It feels as though it's just...here. I don't think someone released it intentionally...it just...leaked.

He reached the door of the small wooden shack, registering the scorched, melted lock on the door and brushing his finger against it with surprise. Someone had been here, then, and had forced their way through to get the door open.

Souja, perhaps. I imagine Keitarou has a key, and this looks like kidou. Still, it saves me vandalising it to get it open. The less reiatsu I deploy in this atmosphere the better.

He pushed back the door gingerly, glancing back at his companions before tugging the divide firmly open and gazing for the first time into the dim interior. The decay in the ether was yet more potent here, and he put his sleeve over his mouth, stepping hesitantly within the small, squalid shack.

It was empty, and as Shunsui's eyes became more used to the dim light, he realised that it too had been evacuated at short notice. Though the back of the room was partitioned with a ragged curtain, anything else the chamber had ever contained had been carefully removed and, as he crossed the faded mat floor to inspect the fabric, he noticed the chains and ties hanging loose against the wall. He paused, frowning.

A place just big enough for a sword. So it's more than just a decoy. Keitarou thought it important he took it with him, so it matters somehow.

His sleeve still pressed to his face, he used his free hand to rip back the curtain, the rotting fabric coming away in his hands as he surveyed with some dismay the bamboo cage that lay beyond, the scraps of food matter still littering the floor, and evidence of ropes or some other kind of restraint clear from a crude hook that had been drilled into the wall. The cage door was no longer locked shut, the fastening having been sheared through by some kind of sharp-bladed implement, and at his action it creaked slightly, swinging eerily on rusted hinges.

A...prison? Something was kept here? Someone...? Good grief, what have we walked into?

"Something was here. Something horrible." Kaoru's trembling voice made him turn, seeing his Fourth Seated officer standing in the middle of the room, her features chalk pale and her arms wrapped protectively around her body. "I don't know what it was, Taichou, but even though it isn't here any more, the air is full of something bad."

"Mm," Shunsui glanced at the ripped fabric in his hand, folding it in half and half again with a sigh before tucking it into his obi. "I don't understand it any more than you, Kaoru-chan. The place obviously had some significance, just as Souja said - but it looks as though the one piece of evidence we came looking for has been taken away too."

"The sword," Naoko murmured, moving to touch the loosened ties with a grimace. "Whatever Souja-dono saw here, it's not here now."

"But the fact it's gone indicates it mattered," Hanako said astutely, putting Shunsui's own thoughts into words. "Otherwise they'd have left it for us to find. This Keitarou person is good at leaving false trails, isn't that what the brief said? If the sword Souja-dono saw wasn't important, it'd still be here, so we could get excited about it and not focus on what really matters."

"Such as the fact someone was kept confined here?" Shunsui indicated the cage, and Kaoru let out an exclamation of dismay.

"As a prisoner? In a tiny place like that, with all this horrible stuff in the air? Who would do something like that?"

"A man who spent a good portion of his exile experimenting on turning village people in District Seven with reiryoku into various levels of Hollow," Shunsui said blackly, and Shikiki nodded her head.

"I think that's possible," she said sadly. "It's the kind of thing...he did...when he was working on reidoku. I never knew that, when I was small...but since...I guess it became clear."

"So he's making reidokuagain?" Naoko demanded. "Is that what this is?"

"It would explain the atmosphere," Shunsui said slowly. "The aura is very Hollowish, and that would make sense...but...I don't know."

"I don't know a damn thing about reidoku, except the stuff Kamitani told us when we were students," Makoto reflected, "but if someone was kept prisoner here, wouldn't Souja-dono have mentioned it? If he came here, and he saw the sword that isn't here now, and he talked about the hut...wouldn't he have mentioned a prisoner? If the place was vacated after he was here, it'd make sense for there not to be anyone here now. But nobody was anticipating his coming, right?"

"We don't really know if they were or weren't, but it's a point of thought," Shunsui rubbed his chin. "You're right, Makoto-kun. So either Keitarou wasn't using it for experiments always, and so there wasn't always someone here...or..."

"Maybe it was set up to look like someone was here, when actually it was somewhere else," Kira suggested.

"That sounds like Keitarou," Naoko agreed darkly. "It'd be just like him, to play the game that way. In which case, nothing Souja-dono told us matters at all. The sword might've been moved to make us think it was important. It could be a double bluff. We just don't know."

"Perhaps Tenichi-dono was held here?" Kaoru wondered, but Naoko shook her head.

"Tenichi-kun was one of my recruits. I'd know his reiatsu if it had been in here, and it hasn't." she said firmly. "Keitarou's is all over the place, but Tenichi's isn't. He wasn't held captive here...and we don't even know that he was taken prisoner by Keitarou or brought to the Rukon. There's no proof to suggest anything like that."

"But Souja-dono was attacked because he came looking for clues about that abduction, I thought?" Kaoru frowned. "Sora-dono said as much - was that wrong?"

"No...not wrong," Naoko shook her head, "just that it's dangerous to jump to conclusions that things are connected when there's nothing to suggest they are. Tenichi-kun wasn't inside this hut. Whoever was being held captive here, I think it would make more sense for Keitarou to experiment on people he found wandering in the Rukon. There's nobody to notice if they go missing...whereas shinigami disappearances are noticed."

"Tenichi might've been brought to Rukongai though, Naoko-chan," Shunsui pointed out. "Did Dokusou Houshi detect any sign that he was?"

"Maybe," Naoko admitted reluctantly. "He thought he detected the faintest of presences - but he wasn't totally certain of it. Tenichi was cuffed and probably drugged, so if he wasbrought here..."

"So there is evidence, you're just trying to conceal it because this Kotetsu Tenichi person was a former division member of yours?" Hanako's eyebrow arched, and Naoko bristled.

"I'm not concealing anything!" she objected indignantly. "I said he wasn't held in this hut. He wasn't. That's all I can be absolutely sure of. Detecting reiatsu that was here a long time ago is more difficult than you think, Nakamura-san...and I'd like to see you do better!"

"Well, so we've established that someone might've been held here at some point in the past, but we don't know who or why, or what happened to them," Kira said despondently. "We don't have much to take back to Urahara-taichou, do we?"

"I wonder."

Shunsui eyed the cage again, a sudden chill touching his spine as the rest of the phrase he had overheard Souja's faint voice mumble flickered suddenly to mind.

"Called her...Saka...ki. And a hut...in the hut...the sword...said Aizen..."

Called her Sakaki? Who called her Sakaki? Maybe someone who was in this cell...someone you set free? Someone who then helped you...when you were hurt?

He bit his lip.

Someone...now in Thirteenth Division custody? If Keitarou was using this place for experiments, and was kidnapping people in the wasteland Rukon to experiment on, maybe Juushirou's waif and stray was his latest captive. Maybe Souja rescued him before he was poisoned with the reidoku, but if that's even remotely close to what happened, it's possible that Juu's witness knows a heck of a lot more about Keitarou and his operations here than any of us imagined he did

And more, if he was chosen as an experimental subject, like Juu was all those years ago, it's not impossible that Keitarou will decide he wants him back.

---

Juushirou padded along the narrow corridors of the Thirteenth barracks, his expression preoccupied as he made his way to the small sickroom currently inhabited by the Thirteenth Division's unexpected guest. A silver-winged Hell Butterfly early that morning had told him that Joumei's preparations had been completed, and that Izumi would arrive at her new location the next day. That being the case, he had decided that he could not postpone his meeting with Souja's samaritan any longer, and so, after consulting Kirio on the boy's coherence, he had sent word to Mitsuki that he intended to hold that discussion that morning, if at all possible.

Shunsui's progress in Rukongai was also playing on his mind, and inwardly he wondered what kind of danger his friend might have stumbled into. Sitting in his office dwelling on the progress of people so far out of his reach was a pointless endeavour, however, so he had buried himself in his work, glad that, at times such as this, he had the reassuring responsibility of Thirteenth Division to turn to.

"He's awake," As he reached the end of the hall, Mitsuki slipped her slender body around the thin frame of the door, pulling the sliding divide shut behind her and casting the Captain a grin. "He knows you're coming, and he says he'll speak to you. I don't know how much he will be able to tell you, but he seemed to be resigned to the fact you were going to talk to him sooner or later, so I don't think he'll freak out when you go in there."

She patted his white haori contemplatively, then,

"Unlike me, he probably doesn't know what this is, so he's not going to get a shock if he sees you wearing it."

"Mitsuki..." Juushirou snorted, pushing her hand away from the pale fabric, looping his fingers briefly through hers before releasing his hold. "You're not offended by it now, though, I trust?"

"I'm not," Mitsuki agreed contemplatively. "I'm starting to get used to it, and the idea of so many people hanging on your every word."

"They do not!" Juushirou protested, and Mitsuki grinned.

"They do," she said lightly, cocking her head on one side to look at him. "If you don't realise it, you're being dense. You always said you'd make your division a family, but I didn't realise you'd go wholesale into succeeding. I'm almost jealous of it sometimes - I'm here, but I don't belong here, and you have all of them to fuss around after you."

"Mitsuki..." Juushirou's brows knitted together, and the healer laughed, shaking her head.

"I'm teasing you," she assured him, "or at least, mostly I am. I like your division - I just know I don't belong in it. And this isn't getting your work or mine done, so I'm going to have to beg leave to return to Fourth for more supplies. I'll take Hikifune-san with me, if I may - she's helpful, and she's taking this duty very seriously. Who knows? It might not be a bad thing if one of your division members picks up some more practical first aid than the theory lectures new recruits are apparently expected to sit through on joining a squad. I've been meaning to talk to Retsu-sama about that, but I haven't had a chance...maybe I will do so, if Hikifune-san finds it helpful."

"You're sounding a lot more like yourself," Juushirou remarked, putting his hand on the door and turning to glance at her. "I'm glad. You worried me for a while."

"Koku needs me, and it helps to be needed," Mitsuki replied pragmatically. "I'm serious, though. We don't have time for this kind of discussion. I know we've hardly had a chance to talk lately, but considering the situation..."

"I know," Juushirou's expression became grave. "Thinking about anything else is impossible when Souja's killer is still at large, especially when Shunsui, Naoko and two of my other officers are deployed into unknown, potentially dangerous territory. You're right, and I won't keep you any longer. I'm just glad to see you fit and well - and if Kirio's going with you to Fourth, I needn't worry any about your safety."

"I don't expect to be jumped en route," Mitsuki scolded, shaking her head in amusement. "It's not far to Fourth, and it's broad daylight. The Second have a prime suspect in Tenichi-kun's abduction in custody, so I understand, and nobody has threatened me since I've been here. I'm being useful, and that's what matters most - and worrying about Naoko-chan and Kyouraku-kun helps nobody, as I'm sure you realise. Now you be useful and go put that young boy at ease. He is very young, Juushirou," she added, her tones becoming serious as she glanced back towards the chamber. "He hasn't said much to me - I don't know why. He looks at me...as though he's not quite sure whether I'm there to help or hurt him, and he hasn't let his guard down around me once. The more I consider it, the more I think Ryuu and I must have been mistaken when we thought he said my name, because he's given me no indication that he's even interested in me, let alone that he knows me from somewhere before. It sounded like it, but perhaps it really was just a case of randomly assigning a name he'd heard to the first female face he saw. He'll let me treat him, but it's fairly clear that he doesn't want me around. I think he spoke more to Hikifune-san, from what she said, but even then he was very wary and uncertain of his ground. It's more than just wariness, though. There's something else in his aura."

"Fear?" Juushirou asked softly, and Mitsuki shrugged.

"That, maybe," she agreed pensively. "Sadness. Resignation. Pain from his wound. All of those things, too. But no, perhaps it's something else altogether that I pick up from him most of all. I think it's loneliness. Hikifune-san said he was on his own - she thought maybe he'd been abandoned like she was, and perhaps she's right. I'm not sure...it's hard to know what kind of a background he came from, but I get this impression from him that although he's holding back as much as he is, he's really very lonely underneath the wariness. You're possibly the one person who can reach through to him...so give it your best, all right? Be kind to him. It strikes me he's not used to people treating him with kindness."

"I was going to be, anyway," Juushirou assured her. "I want to know what he knows about Souja, of course, but I also want to make sure I keep my promise to that poor boy and protect his rescuer from unwelcome attention. Hirata would like to interrogate him, but I've held out and I'll handle this myself. You needn't worry. I'll be gentle."

"I know you will," Mitsuki hesitated, then reached up on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "I'll see you later. Maybe then there'll be time to talk, but right now, we both have important things to attend to."

With that she was gone, shooting him a playful grin, and Juushirou's fingers strayed to his cheek, a smile twitching at the corners of his own mouth.

In this climate, such shows of affection are inappropriate...and even if we wanted to talk about how things are between us, there are too many other things pressing. Yet even despite that, I feel that the girl staying at my division now is the Mitsuki I went to school with. Whatever she went through in Rukongai, the emotions are still there. She's strong and she'll overcome it. Perhaps when all this is over, we can look at where to go from here. Right now, there's no chance of her going back to the Rukon, since the Spiritless Zone is suspended...and if she were to stay here...maybe...

He frowned, lowering his hand and turning his attention back to the door of the small sick room that had been Koku's makeshift home since his arrival at Thirteenth's barracks.

Right now, though, I have to talk to the only person who might know what really happened to Souja in Rukongai. Get a grip on yourself, Juushirou! You're a Captain, not an adolescent schoolboy! No matter how pretty she looks, Mitsuki can wait. This is more important, so put it out of your head and get to work!

To think was to act, and he gathered his composure, pushing open the divide and stepping purposefully into the chamber beyond. A figure was huddled up in the far corner against the wall, curled up on the bed with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a shield against outside intrusion and, at Juushirou's entrance, he raised his head, brown eyes meeting the Captain's hazel ones. For a moment the two just looked at one another, and Juushirou thought he caught a glimpse of sadness in the youngster's gaze, but then the next minute it was gone, and Koku glanced away. His body language was tense and unwelcoming, but he made no objection as Juushirou closed the door behind him, crossing the tatami mat floor until he stood a foot or so from the edge of the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked the question softly, and the young man gave a little sigh, stretching pale fingers out against the fabric of his bed covers.

"A shinigami tried to take my guts out," his voice was low and flat, lacking in any particular emotion, but he made no attempt to meet Juushirou's gaze a second time. "I can't exactly say I'm fine."

"No, I know," Juushirou sighed, perching himself on the stool beside the bed and folding his hands in his lap. "It was a rash action and I'm sorry for it. So is the shinigami responsible. Souja-dono was her brother, and in the panic she jumped to the wrong conclusion...but you won't come to any more harm here now, I promise."

"Mm," the response was non-committal, but Juushirou was determined to persevere.

"You're name is Koku, I've been told," he observed, and the young man's head jerked into a faint nod. "Just Koku?"

"People like me don't tend to have all the fancy names and titles that people like you do," again, there was no resentment in the boy's tones, just a flat, emotionless edge, and Juushirou was reminded of Mitsuki's words about the youngster's wary attitude and lonely aura. He sighed, sitting back to regard his companion carefully. Despite the hunched figure that Koku presented, it was clear that the boy was underweight, the slight hollowness of his cheeks giving away the fact that it was unlikely he had had a stable diet for some time. His long hair had been carefully brushed and tied in a neat tail by one of his attentive carers, but the ends were uneven and ragged, splayed out against the rough surface of the blanket wound tightly around his shoulders. Whether his posture was out of defensiveness or pain from his injury Juushirou wasn't sure, but although he did not have Mitsuki's sensitivity for other people's auras, he was suddenly struck by how right her judgement appeared to have been. Frightened and wary he might be, but overriding all of these things was a sense of lonely melancholy.

If I was in any doubt about his motives for crossing the divide, his behaviour now would seal my convictions. This boy doesn't want to be in Seireitei. He didn't want to come here, and now he is, he's unhappy. I don't know what kind of a world it is on the other side of the Sekkiseki wall, but in comparison, this one must seem alien and dangerous. He came here because of Souja. That being the case, it's doubly important for me to find a way to keep his real origins a secret until I can work out better how to handle them.

Out loud he said,

"You'd be surprised, you know. Not all of us come from fancy, titled backgrounds."

"You're shinigami, aren't you?"

"Yes, but not all shinigami belong to Clans." Juushirou said frankly.

"Kirio-san said she was abandoned." Koku seemed to respond to this, although he still made no attempt to meet the Captain's gaze, and Juushirou nodded.

"That's true," he agreed. "People come into the Gotei from all walks of life. There are good and bad in all strata of society - and shinigami from almost all of them. When I say you won't be hurt here, I mean it. This is Thirteenth Division, and I'm its Captain. My name is Ukitake - Ukitake Juushirou. Thirteenth is also known as the District division, since most of its members are District born. The people here aren't so very different from you, Koku."

A little snort, but no verbal response, and Juushirou pursed his lips, rallying himself to try again.

"I wanted to talk to you about Souja," he murmured. Koku's head twitched into another jerky nod.

"I know," he said flatly. "Edogawa-san told me you were coming. I'm not going to be able to help you, though. I found him after he was attacked. I don't know how he brought us here. I don't understand shinigami techniques and I don't have anything else I can tell you."

Juushirou eyed Koku long and hard for a moment, then he let out a heavy sigh.

"You know, Souja was a fine young man," he said gravely. "Not just as a shinigami, but in other respects too. I knew him from when he was a small boy, and his father and I are old friends. I understand that to you, Souja is a shinigami, and because you helped that shinigami, you were hurt. I know you must be angry about that, and wary of what we might do to you. But we haven't brought you here in order to plug you for information then discard you. Souja wouldn't have wanted that, and it's not what I intend to do."

"Souja-dono wouldn't have done anything about it," now Koku raised his gaze, and Juushirou was taken aback by the sudden cold gleam of bitterness that surfaced in the young man's eyes. "He was a shinigami. He couldn't possibly understand anything about me. And even if he did, he's dead, so that door's closed."

"The first thing Souja said to his father when he returned to Seireitei was to ask about you," Juushirou said evenly, taking in the look of surprise and consternation that flickered across the boy's expression. "He was adamant that we made sure you were all right. Out in the field, too - it was Souja who stopped his sister from attacking you. Not me. Maybe I held her back, but it was Souja speaking through the pain to tell her that you helped him. He was that kind of man. His loyalty ran deep. He saw you as his ally, and he used precious last breaths to convey to us how important he felt that was."

Koku bit his lip, letting out a shaky breath of air.

"I think he understood more than you think," Juushirou continued, resting a hand gently on Koku's arm, but the young man pulled it back, rubbing it absently and lowering his gaze once more. "I think he was as frantic as he was because he knew that if people discovered you came from the Rukon, not District Seireitei, you'd be hurt. I think he wanted to make sure this didn't happen, and so he entrusted your safety to us."

This got a reaction, for there was no hiding the dismay in Koku's expression now, and Juushirou offered him a smile.

"I haven't reported it," he said lightly. "I don't intend to, and nothing you say about it will go outside this room. I promise - you have my word. But I know you met with Souja in Rukongai. I know that's where he was hurt. And right now, he can't do anything to help you. But I gave him my word that I would, and I keep my promises. This is the last thing I can do for a lad I was very fond of, and so I intend on doing it properly."

"What do you want from me?" Koku's words came out in a hoarse whisper, and Juushirou pressed his lips together pensively.

"I want you to tell me what you can, for his sake," he said at length.

"I already told you. I don't know the things you want to know," Koku shook his head impatiently, though there was a note of agitation also in his tones. "I can't fabricate something I don't know, Ukitake-dono. He was a stranger to me. I didn't know him before that day and I'll never know him now. That's the truth. We met for the first and last time that day."

"I don't want you to fabricate anything," Juushirou shook his head. "I want you to tell me as clearly as you can what you remember. Even if it seems unimportant, it may carry some resonance."

"And if I don't remember?" Koku demanded. "Are you going to use what you think you know about me as a threat?"

"I already told you that I wasn't going to mention the Rukon outside of this room," Juushirou reminded him. "I said it was a promise, and I keep promises."

There was a long silence, then Koku frowned.

"What happens to you, then, if it's found out you're sheltering someone who you think is from Rukongai?" he asked softly, and Juushirou shrugged.

"I'll deal with that if and when it happens. It won't change my intentions. I'm not afraid of the Council's censure, and I've made up my mind what to do about you, so I'll see it through. Thirteenth Division is a safe place and you have nothing to fear here. Whether you can or can't help us investigate Souja-dono's death, I intend on seeing his last wishes properly carried out. That means making sure you're safe, regardless of your role as last witness."

Koku buried his head in his hands.

"I should've not got involved. It's better not to get involved," he murmured, his words muffled and more than half to himself, but Juushirou heard them.

"Then why did you help Souja? If you knew it would put you at risk, why do it?"

"What else can you do, when you find someone helpless and bleeding on the ground?" Koku raised his gaze, looking hopeless. "I know it's wrong...I never meant to leave that place and come here. I never would've! I don't belong here, and I didn't want to come. Only...he wasn't able to get up on his own. At first, I thought he was dead. But then he groaned, and I knew he was alive. I couldn't just leave him there. I didn't know any way of helping him, though. I can't...I don't know any shinigami magic, and I can't fix people. I can't do anything useful at all."

"But you decided you should try?" Juushirou pressed, and Koku nodded.

"He had dropped his sword," he murmured. "He asked me to give it to him. His fingers were all broken, his wrist too, and he couldn't hold it right, but he...he did it anyhow. He couldn't stand up, so I helped him. He was bleeding a lot. He did something with the sword, and the black hole opened. We had to go into it. Then...then we were here. I don't remember...it's blurry."

He rubbed his temples.

"He fell down, and I was trying to help him up, and then the girl came with her sword," he concluded bitterly. "That's as much as I know. I told you. It's useless."

"But this was in Rukongai?"

"You already seem convinced that it was."

"I know, but I'd like to know for sure," Juushirou pursed his lips. "Friends of mine are in Rukongai as we speak, and if there's a crime scene there, they will find it whether you tell me it's there or not. I wanted to know whether you'd trust me enough to tell me that it was."

"I don't know, yet, whether I can trust shinigami," Koku pointed out. "If you think you know where it happened, you don't need me to tell you. Maybe it's all right, and you won't get me into trouble - but maybe it's a trap, and you will. I don't know who you are, Ukitake Juushirou. We haven't met before, so I don't know if you're a good person or a bad one. I'm not going to admit to anything until I know the answer to that question. I might not have shinigami skills, but I'm not foolish."

"No," Juushirou acknowledged, folding his arms loosely across his chest. "You're right, and I won't expect you to trust me or any of my people until you've decided for yourself what our motives are."

His gaze softened.

"But I am grateful to you, all the same," he added, causing the young man to gaze at him in surprise once more. "You helped bring a much loved son home to his family. Without you, they would never have been able to say goodbye. You took a big risk, and because of it, his family could at least cremate him with honour and find some kind of closure."

"I couldn't save him, though," Koku's words were numb. "I wanted to, but I couldn't. I don't like...death. I didn't want to see someone die. I didn't want to, but I couldn't save him. Because I couldn't..."

He trailed off, clamping his mouth shut as though afraid to allow his true feelings to come out, and Juushirou sighed, patting him lightly on the shoulder.

"Nobody likes seeing death, even those of us who wear its robes and do its bidding," he murmured. "We purify Hollows to free them from the taint of negative emotions and despair, and I believe a sword should only be used for that purpose. To see someone killed in the way Souja was is hard to stomach. He was young and he had promise for a future that was taken from him. Even finding justice for him doesn't make that easier to bear."

"The future, huh?" Koku's expression became wistful, and Juushirou was sure he saw regret in the other's brown eyes. He nodded.

"It would be twice as unforgivable, don't you think, if another young man had his future stolen from him too?" he asked gently. "Right now you're stuck here with us and I'm sorry, since you clearly don't like being around shinigami such a lot, but bear with it and let Mitsuki...I mean, Edogawa-san treat your wounds. You will heal, even if it takes time, and then, after that, we'll talk about what you want to do."

"I can't go back," Koku's eyes were sad. "There's no way to...I can't go back."

"But you want to, all the same?" Juushirou asked, and Koku sighed, shrugging his shoulders. The tension slipped from his body as he sank back in resignation against the wall.

"It's not a matter of going back to a place. It's going back to a time, and it can't be done," he murmured. "I can't undo this. I can't not have come here. And I can't go back. There's no place for me now...maybe there never was one, but now it's so complicated and I don't know what to expect. All I know is that I can't go back...not ever. I knew it when I helped Souja-dono, and whether I'm here with you or out there on my own, the same is true. I can't take back the past...and as for the future..."

He closed his eyes.

"Sometimes it's better not to know what that holds."

Juushirou eyed him keenly for a moment, then,

"Have you told me everything you think I should know about Souja's death?" he asked quietly. "Bringing justice for that boy is all any of us can do now. If you're from the Rukon, I understand how scared you must be, and I also know that there are probably things you saw there that you don't want to talk to me about. Maybe there are people there who you're afraid of, too. I won't ask you to talk about those things right now, but if they are there, Koku, and they relate to Souja's death, I hope you'll come to trust me enough to tell me about them later."

"I've told you all I can."

"The Endou have a tradition, that the cremated soul of the dead wanders looking for its killer," Juushirou added. "They can't rest until that person has been brought to account. I don't know if I believe in superstitions, but I would like to be able to put this business to rest, if for no other reason than to alleviate his family's pain. Souja's mother is quite unwell as a result of his murder - I've understood from Hirata that she's more or less collapsed since his funeral and doesn't leave her room. His youngest sister is confused and bewildered about why anyone would hurt her brother. His other sister is beside herself, trying to cope with the grief of his loss and the guilt of hurting you, and his father is struggling to hold it all together for all of them. Maybe you feel that Seireitei has abandoned you and people like you, and I can't deny that there's probably been an oversight somewhere. But Souja had family and that family loved him. You helped him come home to them, so I think you understand that impulse, at the very least."

"Meaning what?" Koku's eyes were expressionless, his demeanour somehow more defensive than before, and Juushirou sighed.

"I thought you perhaps understood being part of a family," he admitted. "Even though they're not here now."

"Rukon souls don't have 'family'."

"I'm sure that's not true," Juushirou shook his head. "Thirteenth Division is a family. There's no blood between us, but we are one all the same. For some of my officers, this division is their only family. Their comrades are their brothers and sisters. I'm sure that, even in the Rukon, that system operates. Mitsuki's told me that in the Spiritless Zone, souls gathered together for company and formed friendships. I know...I believe you're not from the Spiritless Zone, which concerns me, because I didn't know any souls lived outside of it - but even so, I can't imagine you've always been alone. If there's someone worrying about you back home..."

"There's nobody."

"You seemed miserable...I wondered if you were homesick."

"For a world with no sunlight? No life? Nothing?" Koku's words were cold. "I might not want to be here, but I told you, I can't go back. There's nothing to go back to. Nobody to go back to. And even if Souja-dono had family and you think you can elicit more information from me by talking about it, it doesn't change anything. I told you what I know. I don't know anything else. I can't invent something I didn't see."

"Fine," Juushirou got to his feet, smoothing the white fabric of his haori, before turning to glance once more at the boy. "But in your own words you just confirmed for me that you came from Rukongai. So who knows what other things you might decide to tell me as time goes on."

The stricken look that entered the young man's eyes was unmistakeably genuine this time, and Juushirou offered him a faint smile.

"You'll have to trust me, now," he said evenly. "I hope that when you realise you can, we'll talk again...but for now you should rest. You're still very pale, and I don't want to be nagged by the people looking after you for pushing you too hard so soon after such a bad injury."

With that he took his leave, striding from the chamber without looking back and closing the door behind him. Tsunemori waited in the passageway, clearly assigned sentry duty in Kirio's absence, and he cast his Captain a questioning look.

"Is he...all right? I mean...I know he's awake...but..."

"He won't hurt you. I don't think he's that way inclined, and if he was, I'm sure your training would soon put him right," Juushirou assured him. "Keep an eye on him till Kirio comes back, Tsunemori. Since he's prone to go wandering if he's unsupervised, and since Mitsuki will be cross with me if he's allowed to do that again so early into his recovery, I want you to be extra vigilant this time."

"Yes, sir," Tsunemori said fervently, saluting his superior officer before scuttling to take his place inside the sick room, and Juushirou sighed, leaning up against the panel wall of the hallway as he replayed the conversation in his head.

There's a lot you told me, Koku, and a lot you did not. I'm not as talented as Shunsui at reading between the lines and putting together nuances, but you tensed when I talked about family.

Mitsuki is right, too - you're lonely. Maybe you have been abandoned. Perhaps it's a sore point. I wish I knew more about Rukon souls and what they remember from their past lives - but I can't very well ask Mitsuki about it when it's a secret and I promised to keep it that way. If I want you to open up to me any further, Koku, I have to prove that I can be trusted both to keep my word and be discreet. That being the case, I'll just have to muddle it out on my own.

He pursed his lips pensively.

Still, Souja was definitely attacked in Rukongai, and Koku came back with him through the Senkaimon to the place Kikyue found them. So long as Shunsui and the rest bring back evidence that tallies with his story, the chances are I won't need to interrogate Koku again. If he didn't see the assailant - and how he'd have escaped unscathed from a Vice Captain's killer with no weapon of his own and no knowledge of shunpo or kidou, I don't know - then maybe there's no more he can tell me. At least, not about that. Maybe not about anything.

His gaze flitted back in the direction of the chamber door.

So why do I feel as though I want to speak to him again? Is it what Mitsuki said about him being lonely? Was it because he was so prickly and withdrawn? Getting involved personally in investigations is never a good thing, and I took this on for Souja's sake...but...having met the lad, maybe I feel differently about it. Perhaps I want to do it for his sake, too...so that, at the end of all of this, he has a chance to live a proper life, without needing to be so wary and afraid. He's the proof that people are living unnoticed in the wasteland Rukon, and that means something needs to be done about it...but right now, my job is to protect him specifically and that's what I'll do.

He ran his fingers through his lank white hair.

And prepare myself for Izumi's imminent arrival. I only hope the Thirteenth Division will prove to be the safe haven Joumei imagines it to be.

---

There was a bitter edge to the atmosphere of the wasteland Rukon as Nagesu and his companions made their silent progress through the clumps of wilted plants and greyed out hollow trunks of dead trees that flanked their path on either side. It wasn't a breeze exactly, Nagesu mused, rather a sense of antagonism towards their presence, as though the whole of the world beyond the Sekkiseki divide was screaming its defiance to the shinigami regime that claimed sovereignty over all of Soul Society.

It was a naive perspective, he realised, to assume that, by inaugurating the Spiritless Zone, the problems of impurity and pollution in the Rukon would be overcome. On the contrary, if Keitarou had really been making a base of this place, it suggested the opposite - by opening a judicial black hole, the Gotei had allowed a poison known as hatred to seep into the area left behind. Nagesu did not know whether the sad state of the environment through which they now walked was Keitarou's doing, or simply the result of constant pollution in the ether left over by the many fierce battles between shinigami and mutated soul in the years leading up to the Spiritless Zone's first blueprints, but whichever it was, the result was the same. Rukongai was empty and unwelcoming - and the perfect place for a man like Keitarou to conceal himself from prying eyes.

"Taichou!"

As they reached a stretch of more open land, Yunosuke, the division's Third seat let out an exclamation, raising his hand to indicate the dark, seeping stain of something colouring the dying blades of grass. Before Nagesu could even react, Kai had darted forward, crouching at the edge of the patch and eying it with a grimace, putting black gloved hands against the substance and bringing them to his nose, sniffing them disdainfully.

"Blood," he confirmed grimly, "and what's left of Souja-dono's reiatsu. I think we've reached our murder scene, Nagesu-sama."

"Nobody's made an attempt to clean up, if that's true," Nagesu himself approached the patch of land reluctantly, eying the extent of the bloodspill with dismayed eyes. "My goodness. I knew the reports said he'd lost a lot of blood - but can this all belong to the one individual?"

"It's smeared around a bit, but you're right. Nobody's tried to clean up," Kai wiped his hands clean on his uniform. "As for whether it's just Souja-dono's blood, I guess that's where scientific tests come in - the reiatsu is too degraded for me to try and speculate whether one or two people bled out here."

"If I might interrupt, Kai-dono, Nagesu-sama," the slender form of the Fourth Division Vice Captain joined them at that moment, eying the land with grave eyes. "I believe perhaps I might be of use in this matter."

"Eriko-dono?" Nagesu cast her a glance, and Eriko nodded, kneeling carefully on the ground beside the worst of the blood and hovering her hands over it, closing her eyes. For a moment she was silent, then she sighed, opening them and raising her gaze to the Third Division Captain.

"I only detect blood belonging to Souja-dono," she admitted. "I think proper tests would be needed to absolutely confirm I'm right, but even degraded, I sense only his aura here."

"So all of this," Kai indicated the blood, "is Souja-dono's? How in hell did he get back alive, if that's the case?"

"I can't guarantee that," Eriko said cautiously. "The person who attacked him is not in possession of reiatsu. Therefore her blood would not be significant to me at the scene. However, Retsu-sama was of the opinion that Souja-dono lost a potentially fatal amount of blood before he returned to Seireitei. This scene would support that hypothesis."

"Meaning that Souja-dono ought to have died here, but for some reason, managed to live long enough to get his message back home?" Nagesu asked. Eriko nodded.

"The strength of will and resolve of some shinigami when faced with death is an incredible thing," she admitted. "Medically, if all of this does belong to Souja-dono, I would not expect him to have been able to move, let alone open a Senkaimonand return to Seireitei. Yet I know that that is what happened. He must have been possessed of incredible determination, to stave off death long enough to do his duty."

She sighed.

"Retsu-sama did all she could to revive him, but looking at this, I think anything even she could have offered him would've failed," she said regretfully. "I'm not certain that even had Shikiki returned in time to tend to him with her exceptional and unique barrier magic, she would've been able to save him. Even now, Shikiki takes longest reconstituting blood. It cannot be done instantaneously, and sometimes requires multiple sessions to succeed. Souja-dono was already living on borrowed time following this attack. His organs had undoubtedly begun to shut down before he left Rukongai, and forcing his sword to release the Senkaimon would've only put them under greater stress. I do not believe Shikiki could have healed him quickly enough - he lost too much blood for her to be able to repair quickly enough to prevent an irreversable level of organ failure."

"You're essentially saying he was dying...no, he forced his body beyond the limits of life and death and his doing so also cemented his fate." Nagesu murmured softly. "Such courage in such a young officer is both awe inspiring and, in these circumstances, terribly tragic for all concerned. Hirata-dono had a son to be proud of...perhaps there is truth in the old adage that those who shine brightest burn out the most quickly. I did not know Souja-dono well, but my son has spoken very positively of him and his general attitude to his duties. Perhaps in time that knowledge will be of some comfort to the family, though I confess at present the whole thing appears so very bleak."

"I agree. He would've made a good Onmitsukidou," Kai commented. "Seeing this makes me realise how true it is, when they say the quiet ones are the ones that surprise you the most."

He turned to his companions.

"There may be further clues around here," he told them briskly. "Karaki, you go left. Doihara, you go right. Scour the horizon for anything of use. If you find anyone, take them for interrogation but don't kill them. I will speak to them myself. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the two officers saluted in sync, disappearing into subdued shunpo steps as they hurried to carry out his bidding, and Nagesu sighed, rubbing his fingers against his brow as if trying to offset a brewing headache.

"Yunosuke, I would be grateful if you and Kamitani would take some samples from the scene here," he said wearily. "I realise it is an unpleasant sight, but we must be certain, as Eriko-dono said, that we have found the site of Souja-dono's last stand. It's clear to me that events were as he said they were - he fought his enemy here in the Rukon, and then returned home. That being the case, there is almost certainly a Senkaimonin these parts, and I would like to find what traces of it exist on this side."

"I understood that the Gate had been destroyed, Nagesu-sama?" Eriko asked quizzically, as the two Third Division members hurried to do their Captain's bidding. Nagesu nodded.

"Certainly to the point where nobody else could enter it," he agreed. "Souja-dono appears to have forced it open using his zanpakutou, but his doing so activated some kind of self-destruction impulse within the Gate and it imploded on itself. If I'm correct, however, there should be spiritual remains of that doorway on this side that match the one on the other. I'm afraid it might become a little tedious for you, waiting for us to collect fragments of data - but in the absence of so much information, every little piece we can gather is progress."

"On the contrary, it is preferable to me to be somewhat superfluous to requirement," Eriko offered a faint smile. "I am a healer, Nagesu-sama. My being deployed into active service means someone has been hurt. As a healer, one hopes for that eventuality to be prevented. If I can be of material use to you in obtaining your spiritual samples, please, don't hesitate to ask. Retsu-sama requested me to be of as much use as I could be."

"That is reassuring," Nagesu offered the woman a smile, curling his hand around the hilt of his sword and pulling the weapon from its place of rest at his side.

"Well, Sekizanha," he murmured, more than half to himself, but at the sound of his words the katana glittered slightly, as if anticipating his next command. "I wonder if you can sense the Gate, even in your sealed form."

"You don't intend to release, Nagesu-sama?" Eriko was startled, and Nagesu shook his head.

"Sekizanha was always quite a powerful sword," he said frankly, "and releasing it into this atmosphere would corrupt the spiritual samples my men are taking. Besides, now that it has attained Bankai, it no longer needs to be fully released to detect or open a Senkaimonof this nature. I think, therefore, that the less I disrupt the spiritual balance the better - Sekizanha's techniques are a little violent, and I should rather save them for a time when they are truly needed."

He turned his back on the crime scene, extending the weapon slightly and closing his eyes as he centred his concentration on his sword's spiritual aura.

Well, Sekizanha? Do you detect anything of use?

You really shouldn't use me as a spirit detector, Nagesu. The woman is right - I'm not just a tool for your scientific endeavours. Besides, this place is thick with unpleasant auras. Just because there are no enemies in plain sight, I wouldn't assume there's nothing for us to fight against.

I understand, but this isn't that kind of a mission. Keitarou isn't here, and I'd sooner save our strengths for him, if possible. The more he learns about us, the more of a disadvantage we find ourselves at. He already knows our shikai. I would sooner he didn't have a chance to scientifically examine our potential for Bankai, so for now, let's just find the Gate.

Hrm.

The sword was silent for a moment, but Nagesu could feel its presence humming against his own thoughts. Then,

There are two gates here. One matches the spiritual aura you had examined at the scene in Seireitei. The second...is different.

"Two?"

Nagesu's eyes snapped open and he glanced around him in surprise.

"Nagesu-sama?" Eriko looked quizzical, and the Third Division Captain reddened slightly, shaking his head.

"Sekizanha detected two Senkaimon. Not just one," he explained hastily.

"Two gates?" Eriko looked thoughtful. "One that Souja-dono escaped through, and a second that Keitarou perhaps used for his own escape?"

"Perhaps," Nagesu agreed. "Sekizanha's indicating that it's somewhere in the close vicinity. It believes this one is different from the other, though how I'm not quite clear."

Between the dead trees, Nagesu. About ten paces to your right. Though I cannot open it. It is barred with a level of Kidou that would require a higher level of release to slice through - even in Shikai I do not think I could manage it, and if we were to use Bankai, it might well be the kind of trap you are afraid of. More, I think that the Senkaimon might implode on itself if too much pressure was applied - it seems very precarious to me.

Hrm.

Nagesu moved carefully around the splashes of blood in the direction his sword had indicated, putting his hand against the trunk of one of the trees and running the tip of his sword briefly through the atmosphere inbetween. As he did so, something glittered, then pushed his weapon back, and he let out an exclamation, only just managing to keep himself from falling headlong.

"Taichou? Are you all right?" Yunosuke's concerned exclamation made him turn, nodding his head.

"Yes. It didn't attack me, it simply repelled. It seems the second Senkaimon is indeed sealed with some kind of Kidou barrier. Keitarou does not intend us to follow wherever he's chosen to go."

The spiritual emissions leaking from the gate suggest the Real World. I don't know if that matters, but I think this gate goes there, rather than back to Seireitei.

"The Real World, huh?" Nagesu sheathed his weapon, running both hands lightly through the air that separated the two trees. "A gate barred and locked against us, leading, as we feared, out of shinigami jurisdiction and into the great unknown."

"Can you open the Gate, Nagesu-sama?" Eriko asked softly, and Nagesu shook his head.

"It's a powerful seal," he replied. "Sekizanha believes trying to neutralise it would almost certainly destroy the Gate completely, and I think I agree, judging by how quickly it reacted just to the presence of my sword sealed. No, I think Keitarou's done his best to keep us out this time. If of course, that is what this gate signifies, and this really is Keitarou's doing."

"If I can suggest, maybe we should summon the other group here and let them examine the scene too," Kai stood up, casting Nagesu a pensive look. "Much as I hate to admit it, I think we need Shikibu's sword to find out for sure."

"Shikibu Naoko?" Eriko stared, and Kai nodded.

"Shikibu's zanpakutouhas been controlled by Keitarou before, but more importantly, it picks up reiatsu on a terrifyingly in-depth scale," he said frankly. "It's not a nice sword by any stretch of the imagination - in fact, it wouldn't look out of place in my secret ops unit, but in a case like this, I'm sure it could tell whether or not it was Keitarou who set the seal on that Gate. Even given that he has a Bankai level sword, and his power levels being as they are, I'm sure that Shikibu out of everyone has the best chance of confirming or negating his presence at this scene."

Nagesu frowned, his brows knitting together thoughtfully.

"Very well," he agreed, after a few minutes of deliberation. "If it will settle the matter one way or another, Kai-dono, then I would like you to go find Kyouraku's party and explain to him what you just did to me. With his consent, I should like to deploy Shikibu's sword in the manner you suggested, and see whether or not we can't make a firm link to my prodigal cousin, Keitarou."

---

Author's Note
The return of Nagesu's sword, Sekizanha in this chapter. It's a little nostalgic - I haven't written about it in a while, but it actually got to speak a bit in this chapter. There's a good chance Sekizanha will see a full scale release before the end of this story, too!

Also, no sake for Shunsui - the entirety of his scene in this chapter he made me write in an entirely different way to how I first intended it. Silly boy...