This is a long one.

At least, for me.

"What was that?" Rin looked at where the blip on the radar had been. Actually, not a blip. It had been.. what seemed like all the spirit energy being redirected into the center of the phenomenon.

Akon looked at where the blip on the radar had been.

"What was what?"

"You didn't see it, Akon-san?"

"No." He was wondering if he'd missed something important. He was kind of distracted, thinking how that noble had checked himself out against their... "advice."

Akon had actually allowed an experiment to get up and go home. Kurotsuchi-taicho was going to fuck him up...

No logic, no excuses. Akon was getting a footprint tattooed on his ass for this...

"I'd say, probably nothing." I hope.

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"Achoo."

Somehow, this poster-child of the nobility was able to maintain dignity while sneezing.

"Are you well, Kuchiki-sama?"

"Yes, for someone who just came back to life. Now, do you understand my instructions?"

"Yes, Kuchiki-sama."

"Repeat them to me."

"Kuchiki-sama?"

"Repeat my instructions, so that I may be certain you understand them."

"Forgive me." He said quickly. "You are going to rest in your room for the next few days, coming out only to eat. You are only to be disturbed if the soutaicho himself arrives. Messengers will be laughed at as they are shown the door."

"Correct. Thank you."

Byakuya closed the door behind him. The servant decided to stay close to the door, just out of curiosity.

A minute or two later, he felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his soul. The servant had tried and failed to become a shinigami, he knew when high level kido was going on.

He burst into the room just in time to see the box form. He felt his master's power spike for a millisecond before whatever was inside it got eviscerated. And eviscerated again. And then made to resemble the Swiss cheese his master's parents were so partial to.

The servant had just dropped to his knees in amazement when a final blade appeared.

It shot through the coffin, and stopped a fraction of a nanometer from the servants nose.

"Did I not make perfectly clear that I was not to be disturbed?"

"Forgivemeforgivemeforgivemeforgivemeforgivemeforgiveme..."

That would have gone on for quite some time, had Byakuya-taicho not finally said: "Don't do it again. Here is my scarf, I'd rather you held onto it for a while. Please leave now."

"HAI!"

The servant quickly retreated, but remembered to close the door behind him.

Byakuya looked at the bust of his image that he'd used as target practice.

He then decided to try something basic, to test his improvements.

"Hado: Number Four... White Lightning."

A large burst of electrified air shot through the window.

"Hado: Number Four... White Lightning."

The same result.

Maybe...

"Hado: Number Four... White Lightning."

He attempted to focus it into his hand, in a spiral shape.

He held it for a couple of seconds, before it finally exploded.

If I can improve that technique, I might be able to...

Byakuya was annoyed, though not surprised, to find the same servant rushing into his room. He also wasn't surprised to see his guards rush in as well.

The servant looked at what was left of Kuchiki Byakuya's outfit.

"Yes, that was why I gave you my scarf."

He examined the remains of his room.

"Maybe I should practice this somewhere else."

It was then that he felt something strange in Rukongai...

"Did any of you feel that?"

One of the guards nodded, hesitatingly. "I might have felt something..."

"Go to the Division HQ, tell them to be ready at the West Gate. I'm going to check."

He grabbed the scarf, and vanished.

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"HE-uuummmph!"

"Don't scream so loud, Abarai. Someone might hear you."

Zaraki pulled him inside, as he kicked, and tried to scream.

He also tried to bite, but with the vicegrip Zaraki had on his jaw, that wasn't really a viable option.

The kicks should have had some effect, seeing as Zaraki was quite clearly in a gigai.

"Man, this thing's practically indestructible."

"Well, it's supposed to hide your reiatsu, it's kind of gonna have to be!"

"Okay, nobody can hear, so I think I can let you speak..."

"YOU SONUVABITCH!"

He reached for Zabimaru as Zaraki released him...

And ran into a barrier on his blade.

"AHH!! Asshole!"

"I apologize, shinigami-san..." Renji turned, and saw the doorman, with his fingers still woven together in the sign that created the barrier.

"Fuck you. Fuck you both!"

"So, you don't want to hear me explaining myself?" Zaraki looked... hurt, almost.

"Well, I'm kind of curious..."

"Okay. First... we didn't do it."

...

...

...

...

"Do what?"

Zaraki's nonexistent eyebrow raised again. "You haven't heard?"

"No."

"Okay. Yachiru's suspected of having used forbidden technology to increase her power."

...

...

...

...

"No kidding?"

"Nope! They think I'm a crook!"

...

"They think you need to use forbidden techniques?"

"Yup!"

...

...

...

Renji's voice returned. "They need to lay off the pot."

"The... what?"

"Pot. Mortals use it to feel good. It's like sake, except it works better, it's illegal in America, and there's more ways to use it. People drink it, smoke it, make it into confections... Oh, and it's harder to get addicted to pot than sake. And it's harder to overdose on..."

"I gotta get back to you on that... Okay. So, you see why we're leaving."

"I don't see why you came back here."

"Neither do we!" Yachiru burst into giggles at her own wit.

"We were giving these assholes a chance. Maybe we shouldn't have."

"No. If you are suspected criminals, you should not have given us a chance."

They all turned to see Kuchiki Byakuya standing in the doorway.

"Byakuya-taicho!!"

His hands ran through a couple of gestures. A barrier shot up around the manor, and completely cut off any hope of people outside the mansion hearing, seeing, or feeling anything that happened inside.

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"OW, FUCK!"

Did it explode again, Your Majesty?

Go fuck yourself, Acidwire...

"Well, no doubt it's a powerful technique..."

Sora was a little surprised to see Yadomaru Lisa looking at something that wasn't pornographic...

And a little embarrassed that it had to be his shredded hand!

"It's nothing!"

"It looks like it's more than that... though not by much. It looks like Swiss Cheese." Sora looked up to see Hachigen standing over him, with a barrier forming in his hand.

He held up his own hand, or what was left of it, and the barrier formed around the wound. The hand was back in half a second.

"Tell me it didn't explode again."

They looked up to see Kensei standing behind them, shaking his head.

"Why are you even bothering?"

He just got up, and raised his hand again.

Yadomaru turned, and raised her book. "I can't watch."

He yelled the name of the attack.

BANG!

"OW! FUCK!!"

"Well, at least this time, you only got two holes in your hand..."

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"So, Abarai. What are you doing here?"

"I thought I felt his reiatsu in West 3. I thought he'd probably vanish while I was following 'standard procedures,' so I came alone. I followed them to a bar, where some weirdo Shiba guy took him, got him these gigai. I confronted him outside of the mansion, and he said he'd found a way to move between dimensions without being tracked."

"The private senkaimon in this household?"

Zaraki nodded.

"I see. And the reason you confronted him instead of coming to find me?"

"Well..."

"Well?"

"Well... they sensed me."

"I see. So, it was more them confronting you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay. Now, how were you able to hide your reiatsu so well, Zaraki-taicho?"

"I put a lot of effort into it, and I got these gigai from my new acquaintance. It's the funny kind of gigai that Twelfth Division can't trace."

"I see. I assume you obtained these by consorting with Urahara Kisuke?"

Zaraki shrugged. "Yeah." His standard "I-gives-a-fuck" expression still adorned his face. "He gave 'em to me after I figured out I might need to escape here."

"'Might' need to escape?"

"Yeah. We weren't sure if they were really trying to arrest us, or if anyone was stupid enough to volunteer."

"I admit I would not have enjoyed the task. So, if you manage to escape, what are your plans?"

"Well, Kisuke told me there was going to be fighting where I was going..."

"Karakura town?"

Zaraki gave him a flat look. "I wouldn't tell you if I knew."

"I see. Are these opponents going to be shinigami?"

"No way you actually think I'll tell the truth."

Byakuya shrugged. "I had assumed you didn't realize lying would be expedient."

"That's a stupid assumption to make. But lying isn't going to help me... I know you'll never find me where I'm going..."

"That's all you can tell me?"

"Hai."

"I understand." Byakuya glanced at the mortal-made clock on the wall.

"That only leaves why I should let you go."

"'Let' isn't the word here, Byakuya."

Kuchiki ignored the purposeful rudeness, and continued.

I should arrest them. It would be justice.

As would allowing your comrades to kill your sister. Byakuya wanted to groan as the familiar, contemptuous voice of his zanpakuto questioned him yet again.

She violated the law.

Did you ask why?

It doesn't matter.

Why doesn't it matter?

It doesn't matter why. The law is absolute.

If a law can be absolute, it shouldn't be so completely inflexible. It should be able to cover any situation justly.

Ours does.

Byakuya suddenly realized why he had always given this answer. Why he had always insisted to his sword that Seireitei's law was perfect.

He had been trying to convince himself.

He had been trying to convince himself that what he had wanted to do so badly was disgustingly wrong, so that he wouldn't feel obliged to bow to his desires.

So that he could persuade himself that he shouldn't obey his wife's dying wish.

So that he could persuade himself that he shouldn't protect his sister.

Damn you, Mayuri! What the hell have you done to me?!

Maybe you should rethink your ideas of justice... master-sama.*

Now even my sword doesn't respect me... Okay, you win.

"If you can persuade me to allow you to leave within fifteen minutes, I will leave you unharmed, and say I found nothing. If you try to escape without my permission, or if you fail to convince me to leave, I will attack."

Renji's jaw hit the floor.

"You're... serious?"

"I am starting to rethink some of my earlier positions. I would imagine that it is due to whatever strange potion it was that Kurotsuchi-fukutaicho injected into my spine."

"Tell 'im I said thanks. Okay... why shouldn't you let us go?"

Begin Debate++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Because the law says that I should capture you."

"Think you're up to it?"

"I couldn't say. I can think of a way to find out, of course."

Zaraki snorted.

Byakuya paused.

"If you wish to help either side, Abarai-fukutaicho, you have my permission. I will not penalize you after the argument concludes, no matter which side you pick or by what points you attempt to aid that particular view."

Renji's jaw, which he had just picked up, dropped again.

He quickly picked it up.

"Is that really you, taicho?"

"To an extent. I would like to think that whatever changes I am going through are positive changes. I meant every word I have since I have entered this building. In fact, I cannot remember the last lie I spoke."

That was a lie, Byakuya.

That is a family affair, and part of my promise to Hisana.

Whatever, just keep going.

"Okay. So... the law is the only reason you're trying to arrest Zaraki-taicho?"

"Is it not sufficient?"

"It should be, but... is the law fair?"

"Is it not? Forbidden techniques are forbidden for a reason, Abarai-fukutaicho. Gaining hollow powers would be an incredibly dangerous proposition. Central 46 is right to have forbidden these procedures." Byakuya was kind of wondering where this was going.

"I know, but, how do we know that's where Yachiru's powers came from?"

"How do we know that they did not come from such a procedure? Surely the matter must be investigated."

"Yeah, but, is Central 46 going to do it fairly? We all know they're a bunch of corrupt bastards. All you need is enough money, and you've got a vote. Hell, a man with your wealth could get himself made dictator. Maybe you should try it: with your new mind, you'd be better than we've got now."

Byakuya was about to point out that, as long as they were not paid, they might be fair, or that Zaraki might even bribe them. The fact was, whoever it who had paid them might even approve of Zaraki's performance as a soldier. Then, Zaraki himself spoke.

"Kisuke told me Central 46 is dead. Apparently, they got wiped out and replaced by imposters. Normally I wouldn't mind, but he says these guys are part of a conspiracy to wipe out Seireitei."

"If that is true, I would imagine he is part of it."

"Nah, 'e says he and the vizard are trying ta' stop it."

"And we know this is true?"

"I can generally tell when someone's not on the level. Case in point: I wouldn't trust Gin, if I was you. I got the same impression about Tosen and maybe Aizen, but they're both dead, so don't worry. Their fukutaicho are all okay, except Hinamori's a little unstable."

"Are those the only shinigami you would have me distrust?"

"Well, since you ask, I don't really trust any of the gatekeepers, except the West guy, Jidanbo. He trained with my division, so I know him pretty well. He's on the level."

"They are some of our most trusted warriors! You, a criminal, think yourself more trustworthy than they are?!"

"I was defending someone, my fukutaicho at that, from execution for something she didn't do. And are you telling me you do trust them?"

Byakuya opened his mouth to speak, and then remembered his unconscious preference for using the West gate...

Today's my birthday!

Some reviews would be nice...

I know you guys are going to have some thoughts on these developments.

* the suffix "sama" can be used to express the highest level of respect, or to insult someone by saying that they are stuck-up. Guess which here?