Chapter 7
Kyouraku
They sat back down at heir table after around two hours of reading. Ukitake shook his head. 'Nothing. I didn't find anything about Zanpakuto spirits merging.'
Kyouraku shrugged. 'Me neither. it's not that implausible that there are no texts on it. I only noticed it after learning bankai, I suppose you have to be close to your Zanpakuto no notice. So there are not that many people who might have noticed. And I did not notice it every time.
Also, many of the people who achieve bankai are captains, who often seem to believe that they are too busy to cultivate relationships properly. And a few hundred years ago it would have been unthinkable to write books about such topics anyways.'
Ukitake nodded again, closing his eyes tiredly. And opening them again when a hellbutterfly flew to each of them, telling them that there would be a captains meeting in five minutes.
Kyouraku put his head on to the table. That probably meant their theory was confirmed, unless someone had happened to find out anything else at exactly this time. 'Five minutes? Damn optimists, what if we are further than five minutes away?' he grumbled under his breath.
He heard Ukitake chuckle at his antics, and he sensed him move through the room, putting away their books. Then Ukitake put his hat on to his head, grabbed his arm and flash stepped them to the library doors. While he closed the doors, Kyouraku stood himself up, and then took over, flash stepping them to the 1st division.
After everyone had arrived, which surprisingly had taken little more than five minutes, Captain Unohana explained to everyone their theory, and the reasoning behind it.
'Medically speaking, it is quite plausible that the Shinigami would be affected this way by their Zanpakuto spirits illness. The Zanpakuto spirits would send distress though their bond on a subconscious level for both parties, which would result in the seen symptoms, with some variance between patients.'
Captain Kurotsuchi took over then. 'We have used an invention of mine to force out the Zanpakuto spirits in the six subjects we experimented on before, as well as four other randomly picked subjects. Nine out of the Zanpakuto spirits willingly answered our questions, apparently being concerned for their masters. We let the subjects sleep with the mentioned Shinigami, and all nine of them recovered.
The Zanpakuto spirit of the 10th Shinigami refused to answer, so he remains in a coma. With that, this theory seems confirmed enough.'
Captain Unohana continued: 'We also tried to find out how the Zanpakutos transmit the disease between each other. None of the Zanpakuto spirits we talked to knew that they were ill, through they did feel the distress. We also know that our inner worlds, where our Zanpakutos reside, connect to each other on some for us inaccessible dimension, making it impossible to isolate infected Zanpakutos to prevent spreading of the illness. We cannot think of any way to cure this illness at this point beside the obvious, though we will continue looking into it.'
Captain Kurotsuchi frowned. 'Looking into it? I don't see why. The solution is obvious, there is no need to search for another way to merge Zanpakutos or something silly like that. It's not interesting.'
Kyouraku sighed. Kurotsuchi was really an ass sometimes.
Ukitake spoke up before him, talking calmly. 'There is a need. Aside from the one Shinigami whose Zanpakuto did not share the information, there will also be others, who might be married or similar. Having to sleep with someone else would cause them distress, so another way to merge would be useful.'
Kurotsuchi sneered. 'What do I care? They can erase their memories afterwards if it's so important for them.' A statement which would have lead to a fight between probably all the captains, if Yama-jii hadn't hit his `cane´ against the floor loudly when the first captains started to draw a breath to argue.
'Enough. Captain Kurotsuchi, you will look for another way.'
Kurotsuchi bowed halfheartedly. 'With all due respect head captain, as a scientist I do not believe that another way exists. But I will of course do as I am told, even when...'
Yama-jii continued. 'Division twelve will research. Division four will organize the merging of the Shinigami who do not recover on their own, and following erasing of memories if wished, as well as artificially induced comas for those who find this option completely unacceptable.
The rest of you will continue your work. Tell your lieutenants but not the rest. Send those that do not recover on their own to division four. If you yourselves get infected, try to solve the problem. You know how to talk to your Zanpakuto spirits after all. And stand with your division members, this will be a difficult time for many. The meeting is finished. Captains Unohana, Hitsugaya, Zaraki, Kyouraku and Ukitake, stay behind.'
The other captains left. Kyouraku had an idea why Hitsugaya and Zaraki were special cases, Unohana was probably for advisory reasons, but him and Ukitake? Maybe advising too, since they had solved the riddle.
Unohana spoke: 'Captain Zaraki, since your Zanpakuto is not your own and you do not talk, we are hoping that you will not be affected, or that sleeping with someone will solve your case without problems. If not, please contact me immediately.' She `smiled´, repeating 'Immediately'. Zaraki nodded begrudgingly. 'You may go' Yama-jii said. He left.
'Captain Hitsugaya, I believe you will not be affected based on your age. However, since Hyourinmaru is older, there is a slim chance that you will indeed be affected. If so, please contact me immediately.'
Hitsugaya looked like he wanted to protest that he wasn't a child for a moment, then he answered. 'Thank you, captain Unohana. I will.'
He left as well, and this time Yama-jii spoke up. 'You are here to discuss whether I should allow captains and lieutenants the option of artificially induced coma or not. Please share your thoughts.'
They were silent for a moment, thinking.
Unohana began 'Arguments against it are that we know how to talk to our Zanpakuto spirits, and we know the situation. We can prepare. And we are vital for the working of the divisions.'
Ukitake spoke up: 'On the other hand, it is worse for us, since we cannot use memory erasing as a way out.'
Unohana nodded. 'That is true. We also should consider what it will do to us, or the relationships to the Zanpakuto spirits if such a thing is forced. Some might blame their Zanpakuto spirits, or blame themselves.'
Kyouraku knew it was his turn now.
'What if you forbade it? Some of us are rather stubborn'
He did not say -every captain is pretty stubborn, and some are stubborn enough to run through walls, literally- but they would know what he meant.
'They might just decide not to sleep with someone and suffer the consequences if they really don't want to. And imagine Hitsugaya is affected, do you really want to try forcing him to sleep with someone? The same goes for anyone else, he is just the most prominent example.'
Yama-jii nodded. 'Alright. Captain Unohana will put captains and lieutenants under as well, if they ask her for it. We will not state this explicitly, under the assumption that if it is important for someone, they will ask for it on their own. That is all for now.' They bowed and left.
Unohana paused briefly outside the door. 'I'm glad I didn't have to say that I will do it anyways, for everyone.' she said, quietly like she was half in thought.
Then, turning to them: 'Congratulations on solving the riddle. You helped a lot, my thanks.' With that she flash stepped away.
Kyouraku took Ukitake's arm, and flash stepped them to the outside of division thirteen.
The stood there, both in thought. Kyouraku could see that Ukitake was very tense, but that was to be expected in this situation.
'Looking forwards to explaining this to Rukia-chan?' he teased. That got him a slight smile, and a demonstratively annoyed look.
'Not at all, actually.' Kyouraku grimaced 'Same here' he said quietly. Ukitake straightened. 'Well, no point in procrastinating. See you tomorrow?' he asked, smiling at him.
Kyouraku returned the smile. 'Sure. I'll try to escape here for lunch.' He flash stepped away, towards division eight.