Thanks to my beta reader - peanutbutterthedog

disclaimer: I own nothing. Kubo Tite made bleach. This story ignores everything that happens and is explained in the Fullbringers arc and forward with Ichigo miraculously getting his powers back (who cares he's not even in this story!). Hope things won't get too confusing .

Check out my DeviantArt (VoidInYourSoul) to see how my original characters look like.

Chapter 36 – What's on your dirty mind?

Renji's seat was empty today. Again.

Byakuya was starting to think that his lieutenant has disobeyed his orders and set out after the Kenpachi to look for the Ashura. He had a feeling this would happen but that didn't detract from him disapproving of Renji's actions.

Captain Unohana had somehow managed to cover up for the disappearance of his havoc-wrecking apprentice from the hospital but he heard that Hajime Junichi and Hayate Shigure were still being hospitalized.

Hajime had somewhat recovered but was still weak and confused. He slept most of the time and when he woke up he kept spacing out.

Hayate didn't even wake up.

"Troublesome brat..." he muttered to himself as he read a detailed report of the damage done to the sokyoku and the surrounding area.

"I hope it's not me you're knocking." an indignant voice came from behind him.

"Who else could I be knocking? I thought I told you not to horn in thru the window..." he said drily without looking back. Despite beeing so absorbed in the report, unable to believe that one small person could create such a big mess, he didn't fail to sense her coming.

"And I thought I told you not to call me brat." she retorted, jumping over his head and landing on his desk. It might have looked impressive if she hadn't skidded on a pile of papers which slipped off the desk and left her sprawling and cursing on her back.

"I was under the impression that you will be fooling around with Yoruichi for a couple of days." he said indifferently despite the fact that he couldn't stop staring at her laying on his desk.

"We finished. Hot springs or not, how long do you think someone can take a deep?"

"Well, I can't say I tried but obviously until you are fully loaded." he replied, finding himself amused by the course of the conversation.

"Yeah... I think I'm lucky I got away with only a one-nighter again. She's quite a handful, that Yoruichi."

"A handful is better than a mouthful..."

"Does it matter? A hand or a mouth, both can do the job."

He hummed in response, pulling the paper he was trying to read from under her.

"You can cut the crap, I know you're happy to see me." she said, grinning as she sat up and snatched the paper out of his hands.

"Don't lean too hard on this naked truth, it might backfire in you." he replied, watching the grin sliding off her face.

"Err.. Don't you mean on me?" she asked, eying him nervously.

"No." he said sharply but allowed himself a little smile. "And if we are going to get on with this romp I suggest you get ready to bend over.".

At these words she jumped off the desk and looked at him apprehensively. Obviously she didn't expect him catch on the word-play nor to cooperate so willingly.

"You can tell Yoruichi that I have learned a thing or two. And I strongly recommend against listening to any other stupid advices that woman gave you." he said. When he was younger, Yoruichi kept teasing him with double meaning comments. It took him a while to figure out that he has been fooled and usually it was already too late...

"Okay, okay you win. Enough with that creepy smile." the girl said quickly.

Rolling his eyes, he told her to sit quietly until he finish some of the paperwork, which miraculously had something to do with her, and then they will go out to train. To his surprise she obeyed without a protest, walking over to sit in Renji's empty chair.

Highly disturbed by her submissiveness, Byakuya stared at her as she sat with her feet on the chair, hugging her knees, and pouted at the air. He wondered if this was another game but decided to finish his paperwork before finding out.

"Did you find Akamaru?" Kurotsuchi asked his 3rd seat. "And did you figure out what the hell is draining the power from my squad?".

"Yes and yes, captain." Akon replied, showing his captain the way.

Yamada Hanataro from squad 4 arrived at his office and said that Hajime Junichi asked if Akamaru could drop him a visit. It took Kurotsuchi a while to remember who this Hajime person was and who did he think he is to summon someone from his squad. He didn't have time for this nonsense. The power levels in his labs have been dropping since yesterday night and he was trying to find out what was causing it.

"Akamaru's training room?" Kurotsuchi asked when he realized where Akon was leading him.

Fuming, he ordered Akon to open the doors as he stepped to the training room's entrance. Akon clicked a few buttons on a nearby computer but nothing happened. Looking at the screen in shock, he cursed and tried again.

"Captain... The training is set to maximum level. We can't open the door until the training is finished. That's also why all the power is gone. It's being used to run the training program." Akon said carefully.

"Can't open the door?" Kurotsuchi hissed, starting to click on the panel near the door. "Who do you think you're talking to?".

The computers started beeping madly as an override protocol has been activated. Ignoring Akon's protests that the entire system could shut down, Kurotsuchi clicked the last button and the entire room fell quiet, all the computers turned off, and the door slid open.

Marching in furiously yet carefully, avoiding puddles of acid and handfuls of spikes and other manners of traps which filled the floor, Kurotsuchi saw his apprentice standing in the dark room, holding katana in one hand and umbrella in the other. Near him, stood another dark figure that looked very similar to him and held the same objects but which melted into the ground the moment Kurotsuchi laid his eyes on it.

"I suppose you have an excuse for this, Akamaru." he said dangerously.

"Why do I need an excuse to train, captain?" Akamaru asked.

"Train?!" Kurotsuchi hissed angrily. "If you wish to kill yourself, go ahead! Just don't mess around with my lab and make sure you leave your corpse unharmed!".

The training program was set by levels of difficulties, and based on the level, the computer used the appropriate amount of power. By default there was a maximum level just like there was a minimum level. No one has ever used the maximum level and frankly it wasn't supposed to be used as it drained most of the power, leaving only the minimal amount needed to run the squad.

"I have no desire to die yet, captain." Akamaru said slowly and put on his goggles as the power started coming back, illuminating the dark room. "I think we'll need some new equipment...".

Gasping, Kurotsuchi stared around the room with wide eyes. The entire place was wrecked. Completely and utterly wasted. Craters on the floor and walls. Torn wires pulled out of the walls. Broken pieces of metal and wood were scattered all over the room. Long, deep gashes ripped the walls and floor.

"Come to think of it captain, we've never trained together, have we?" Akamaru asked with a weird smile.

"Foolish boy, I don't have time to play with you. Someone called Hajimi or something is looking for you." Kurotsuchi said impatiently, still scanning the damage.

"Hajime Junichi?" Akamaru asked in surprise.

"Yes, Akamaru-san." Yamada Hanataro said a few minutes later as he led Shoji to Junichi's room.

Shoji tried to ask what Junichi wanted but it seemed that Hanataro didn't know. He was only asked to call Shoji. Inquiring subtly about Junichi's healthfulness, Shoji learned that he was still not entirely stable. Before he opened the door he thanked Hanataro and told him he could leave and waited until he disappeared down the hall before he entered and locked the door behind him.

Junichi was laying sideways, looking at Shoji with bleary eyes. Judging by his overall posture, he looked thoroughly tired and miserable.

"Why the long face, Naoya?" Shoji asked cheerfully.

"Haru, who am I?" Junichi asked quietly.

"You don't remember? I thought your core has reacted to Kaya..." Shoji frowned. Last time they talked, it seemed something was beginning to stir... And he just called him Haru...

"I'm not sure anymore..." Junichi moaned and covered his head with the blanket. "Akamaru, who the hell is Haru? Why do I know this name? Why did I call for you?".

So he was confused... Which was perfectly understandable considering the circumstances. But there was no doubt in his mind that the whiny person hiding under the covers was not Hajime Junichi.

"Stop being so gay." Shoji teased.

"I'm not gay!" the person laying on the bed shouted, sitting up and throwing off the blanket.

The sudden exertion was too much for him apparently, because he doubled over, clutching his head. Shoji sat on the edge of the bed and started petting the sobbing man on the back.

"See? You do know who you are. You're just a little confused, that's all. I assure you that this is the exact reaction I would get from Naoya." Shoji said soothingly.

"Who is this Naoya?" Junichi asked, almost moaning, arching his back against Shoji's hand. "Is he... handsome?".

Shoji stopped petting but left his hand on Junichi's back. He frowned and looked down, realizing that the man, no longer sobbing, has crawled over him and laid his chest over his lap.

"Individuals have different inclinations on who is handsome. My opinion is meaningless since my eyes are utterly unsophisticated in that matter, I'm afraid..." Shoji said slowly, not failing to notice the hand that crept under him.

"You must have some opinion." Junichi said insistently.

"Oh, you misunderstood me. I have a very firm opinion but it's not going to be of any help to you. It's not what you're looking for."

"If by "opinion" you mean "dick" then that's exactly what I'm looking for." Junichi said, grabbing Shoji under the knees and pushing him back onto the bed. His spiritual energy started feeling slightly weird and any weakness he had previously seemed to have disappeared. Then he suddenly stopped, straightening up. "Oh gosh, why did I say that?".

He looked tired again and rolled off Shoji, laying on his back with his eyes closed, his face twisted in discomfort. His reiatsu turned back to normal, like a wave receding after splashing against the shore.

"That's not what I meant but... I think I will tell you my opinion." Shoji said thoughtfully.

Fifteen minutes later Shoji stood near the bed, tying his sash and rearranging his uniform which was somewhat disheveled during the energetic activity. It didn't really surprised him that the physical contact made Naoya's core react but it bothered him slightly... It can't be the only way...

"Haru-chan... I... don't like your opinion..." the man on the bed sighed, still laying half naked with his face down.

"You never did." Shoji said, humming. "It's very similar to yours when it comes to operations, but its essence is different. You can say that we have different reasons to do the same thing.".

"It still doesn't mean I'm gay..."

"Tell it to the one who'll need to change those sheets. Welcome back, Shintaro Naoya. New look, same great taste."

The person called Shintaro pushed himself up and looked tiredly and Shoji.

"But Haru, how can I just stop being Junichi? I mean, he's still here." he said, looking at his hands. "I feel like some sort of demon that took over his body...".

"Deep down we're all demons..." Shoji said quietly as Shintaro put his pants back on.

It would seem that the rebirth process wasn't without flaws. Shintaro did seem to regain some of his original conscious but it took quite a shock to work and even then another jolt was required to arouse his slumbering core. Perhaps it's because he didn't have his original body...

"Naoya, doesn't your memories overlap?" Shoji asked.

"Overlap?"

"You can't remember everything that happened to Junichi?"

"I can't even remember everything that happened to Naoya..." Shintaro sighed sadly.

Well, that much was obvious. If he did remember, he would have reacted differently. Much less peacefully...

"Who do you see when you look at me?" Shoji asked.

"My eyes, Junichi's eyes, sees Akamaru Shoji. But I, Naoya, know that you're actually Hatsuharu Fuji. Maybe it's because of the way you talk but you also look like yourself... just younger." Shintaro said hesitatingly.

Does the physical body have such a significant role? It can't be, because Shintaro was the only one who got a new body, and he was the first to wake up. What's more, he and Ryuzaki had been in a close contact for a long time now but nothing seemed to happen until Kaya... did whatever she did. But Ryuzaki is still asleep, or was she? He had no way to check it, with Tadashi being away...

No. It must be because the cores made contact somehow. Shintaro woke up after fighting Kaya and reacting with him, Fuji, who also had a core... But if Tadashi's group fought the demon, there was a strong possibility that Ryuzaki woke up during that encounter.

Or was there? It took a rather intense contact with Junichi to pull out Naoya, and that's after whatever it is that happened with Kaya. There's just no way he could start deducing from only one, very confused, subject... He had to find out more.

"Shintaro... What happened with Kaya under the sokyoku?" he asked as Shintaro started looking thru the drawers near his bed, muttering something about a mirror.

"Hehe, I see we're off the first-name-terms... I can't really remember, I think we were fighting..." Shintaro stopped looking in the drawers and sat up straight, looking alarmed. "Holy dead mother... Where's Shinra Tensei?".

"Well, obviously your were fighting." Fuji said, holding up the broken zanpakto, in it's released form, which still had two of it's four blades broken. "I'm asking if something else happened?".

Seeing his weapon, Shintaro made to grab it but Fuji moved it out of his reach.

"Give it to me!" Shintaro said in a choked voice, trying to get out of the bed but stopped by a hand on his face.

"I need to know, Shintaro..." Fuji whispered, leaning down.

Half sobbing in distress, Shintaro told him what he remembered, how Kaya changed and became much stronger, how he sealed her shikai and how it backfired, blowing up the cave. Then he muttered something about the strange feeling he got when he absorbed her shikai but wasn't very coherent at that point. He positively cried when he got his zanpakto and held it close to his chest, sighing in relief.

"Fuji... That girl, she's-" he started to say when he finally relaxed.

"She's Kaya." Fuji said sharply.

"But, it's-"

"No. It's not."

"But Fuji-"

"You are tired. You just got back and you need to rest, I wouldn't want to overload you with unnecessary information just yet..." Fuji said, his hand hovering infront of Shintaro's eyes.

As his eyes began to close, Fuji pushed Shintaro back into the bed and covered him with the blanket, putting his zanpakto aside.

Not very stable... But then again, Shintaro always was slightly unhinged. It was hard to tell how much of it was due to confusion and how much due to his personality. Come to think of it, they all were a temperamental bunch.

"I wonder if I should visit Kaya yet... if she's fluctuating like that at the moment, maybe it's not such a good idea. She might recognize me..." he had a feeling the reaction from Kaya is going to be much, much more violent, regardless of how much she actually remember. He couldn't risk something like that happening right now.

"Ahh... Nothing but troubles..." he sighed.

A Kuchiki always stood out in a crowd. Aristocratic manners, rich clothing and a parade of subjects from personal attendants to armed bodyguards, were some of the more prominent features. The common people might see them as nothing short of conceited extravagance, but for a Kuchiki, those were the very things that distinguished the exalted nobles from the low class peasants.

Luckily, Kuchiki Takeru had been deprived of most of those privileges a long time ago, allowing him to enter relatively unnoticed into a place which normally his eyes wouldn't even bother noticing, and blend in the crowd.

He knew it would be hard but not impossible for him like it was for the rest of his family. Unclean brutes, barely capable of matching their cloths, pushing and shouting at each other, all cramped together as if determined to keep touching each other as if stuck by their common dirtiness. Just when it became obvious to Takeru that he was the only person in this room that had washed himself in the past 24 hours, his eyes fell on the man he was looking for.

Making his way, careful not to touch too many people, he saw that the man was sitting between two women, harlots by the looks of them, whom he kept trying to grope while drinking sake.

"Oga Katsushiro." Takeru said solemnly.

The man called Oga grimaced and shook his head deftly at Takeru as the two women looked at each other and then at man sitting between them.

"Oga? You said you owned a small rice farm!"

"Which was burned by bandits a few days ago!"

"Along with your wife and three children!"

"You almost made us pay for your drinks!"

"Pig!"

"Ass!"

Both women slapped him and stood up, leaving without a second look back at Oga, who just sat with his mouth slightly opened. Obviously angry but too shocked to respond right now, Oga glared at Takeru, looking not as if wondering whether or not he should punch him, but how hard and at which angle he should punch to inflict the maximum amount of pain.

"Kuchiki!" he roared, his deep voice so loud that the entire room fell silent, and stood up putting a hand on Takeru's shoulder. "Free rounds for everyone?! Well aren't you farting money today?".

The silent room filled with cheerful shouts and Oga tapped on Takeru's shoulder proudly, grinning at everyone. Then he wrapped his arm over Takeru's shoulders and walked with him toward the exit, exchanging thumbs-up and cheers with random people on the way. Keeping a straight face, Takeru let Oga lead him until they were outside but once they stepped out of the bar he pushed the hand off his shoulder and faced Oga, putting each hand in the opposite sleeve.

"Well, you ruined my date. I ruined your name. I think we're square, sooooo I'll see you around, Kuch." Oga said brightly and turned to walk away.

Takeru signaled to the two bodyguards he left at the entrance to the pub and they caught up with Oga before he could get too far away. They had to wrestle him to the ground before they managed to subdue him. Keeping a firm grip on his arms, they got him to his feet as Takeru walked lazily toward them.

"If you think my name and your lawless promiscuity are of the same value, you are sorely mistaken, Oga." Takeru said, glaring at Oga with disgust.

"Oh come on, chief! I almost got into an Oga-sandwich!" Oga said indignantly. "What are you even doing here at this hour?".

"I wonder how you acquired that misguided notion that I am your friend, because I find your speech offensively unacceptable." Takeru replied coldly, his expression turning into a clear revulsion.

One of the men holding him pushed down on the base of Oga's neck, forcing him to bow and further bending his shoulders out of their normal range.

"Aww crap in a box! I don't bend that way, you douchebags!" Oga yelled in pain. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me, oh exalted Kuchiki-dono, I am merely an insect groveling at your noble feet.".

"Yes you are, Oga, and don't forget that." Takeru whispered, smiling cruelly.

With his black, sleeveless haori that left most of his muscular upper body exposed, his simple, dirty white hakama, his worn-out shinguards that reached to his knees and his messy, spiky, brown hair held up with a band around his forehead, no one would guess that Katsushiro was from the Oga family.

It was one of the lowest-ranking but a noble clan was a noble clan. Katsushiro, eldest son to the head of the clan, was one of those rare people that found the life of a nobleman endlessly boring. He was an uncivilized, greedy, lecherous and violent-loving man who basically wanted everything good life had to offer. When not partaking in some family business, Katsushiro removed his rich garments and jewelry and polite attitude and donned the clothes he was wearing now along with the barbaric manners it reflected. Unknown to his family, Katsushiro ran a sort of a street gang, composed of orphaned children and beggars he picked up outside of the seireitei. He managed to let them into the seireitei, paid them and took care of their basic needs in return for all sorts of services. They stole for him, gathered information he wanted, vandalized the property of people he didn't like, beat up people he really didn't like and other criminal activities. At first Katsushiro built his little group just for his own fun, but later on he started offering, under the table of course, his services to other people, which included many aristocrats. As long as they paid, Katsushiro took the job, even the dirty ones.

And oh how dirty they were...

"How long has it been?" Takeru asked airily.

"Umm.." Oga scowled confusedly.

"Six days." Takeru said sharply. "Do you enjoy spewing blood? Or maybe you have a death-wish? Why do you keep waiting until the last moment?".

"I'm just trying to avoid you as much as I can." Oga said with a stupid smile.

From the day they met, under rather gloomy conditions, Takeru knew that Oga Katsushiro was a dangerous man. He also knew that this man could be very useful as an underling if one could keep him on a short leash. Luckily, Takeru was a very resourceful man... And Oga wasn't a very smart one.

"I require your service." Takeru said, signaling the guards to release Oga, who fell on his knees, and leave.

"Oh no... if it involves adultery again you can forget about it..."

"You're not married, Oga." Takeru drawled with a little smile. "Or perhaps there is something I need to know?".

"No chief, I'm not married, but that chick was, and her chief was a fucking huge bull." Oga said pointedly, his face twisting in misery as he remembered the last time Takeru gave him a task.

"I don't pay you to whine like a baby. You will do as I say and there will be no more arguing." Takeru said smoothly, taking a picture from out of his sleeve and throwing it on the ground in front of Oga. "And stop calling me chief.".

"Yes, master." Oga muttered, reluctantly picking up the picture.

~{-}~~{-}~~{-}~~{-}~~{-}~

Upon re-reading, it's not as dirty as I meant it to be o.O

Or is it...? ;P

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