A month after the battle, Kyoraku-Soutaichou announced the first memoriam service. Byakuya and Aoi had made a reputation among the families of the fallen for their compassion and support so it was only natural that they would be asked to attend. Kyoraku-soutaichou gave a long speech about the bravery and loyalty of their fallen comrades reading each name from a long, long list as tribute. At the names of two of her mentors, Aoi wept silently until Byakuya's hand moved to her shoulder in a supportive manner. Her shock however, was when she heard the names of some of her students, especially since some of them were too young to be fighting. She turned towards Byakuya who stood motionless and her head dropped.

As Soul Society started to heal, the daily life began to return back to the normal routine. At first, most of the missions were assigned to larger groups of new recruits in an effort to spare the wounded or recuperating Shinigami.

Rukia was among the first to be assigned a mission. She would be going to the world of the living to monitor the hollow activity again and she seemed too happy for Byakuya to be concerned. As the second month after the war's end progressed, Byakuya also took up several small missions for his squad. It was a Tuesday, evening when he returned from his barracks later than expected and with what seemed to be a foul mood. Aoi had already dined and was in her office. She saw him pass outside but he did not attempt conversation and she assumed he was still busy. She bathed and prepared for their customary walk in the garden but when she went to him he was still in his office.

"Byakuya-sama, will you join me for a walk?"

"I am still working," he said without looking at her and she frowned.

"Shall I wait for you?"

"Īe, I will retire right after this," he said.

Aoi left him and returned to her office. She preferred a workaholic Byakuya to a grumpy one and she knew that she just had to wait for him to finish before they went to bed. She only had to wait for 45 minutes but when she heard him exiting his office she followed suit. He seemed surprised when she opened the door but he said that he thought she was in the garden and she didn't give it a second thought. They lied down and she snuggled in his arms but he seemed lost in thought.

"Dō shita, Byakuya? What's troubling you?"

"Īe, it was just a long day," he said and patted her arm before falling asleep.

The next day Aoi was equally disturbed with his behaviour. She had woken in his arms like every other morning but when she started caressing his chest, instead of tightening his arms around her, he sprang to his feet and started getting dressed before she even had time to greet him.

"Daijobu, Byakuya?"

"Hai, I have to get to the barracks early, I have some reports to do," he said matter of factly and exited the room in a hurry.

Aoi finished her training sessions early that day, she had been trying to simulate the battles of the last war but it was too painful to contact someone so soon after the end so instead she had been enhancing the already existing scenarios.

She returned to the house and to her surprise she found Touma playing by the pond. She changed her uniform to her daily clothes and walked quietly towards the youngster, while Natsuko rushed to bring her lunch. He was lying prone and his hands were in the water.

"Dame desu, Touma-dono," she said instinctively and smiled as the child pulled away from the water. "Your servants will have a hard time explaining how you got your clothes in this state."

"That's not my problem," he said insolently and she sat down next to him.

"Perhaps, but if you do something that your parents deem inappropriate, it would be them that will take the blame," she said.

"That's their job, isn't it?"

"No, their job is to make sure you are well fed, well rested and properly educated, not to take the fall for your mistakes."

"I don't care," he said but unconsciously brushed the dirt away.

Aoi sat by him and allowed him to feed the fish that gathered towards them as soon as they saw the food. The young boy seemed happy and chatted with Aoi, who urged him to be remembered for being kind above everything else, until Byakuya's reiatsu rose sharply behind them.

"Byakuya-sama," they both said, surprised at his sudden appearance and she smiled until she realised that his face contorted with anger.

"Koko de nani o shite iru no, Touma?" he said, quietly but his inflexion was harsh.

"We were watching the fish," came Aoi's reply to spare the child but Byakuya had other ideas.

"I thought I told you not to come here alone," Byakuya said, turning to his cousin and called Seike to get him back to his room. Aoi waited until the two were out of range and said, "You didn't have to be harsh with the boy."

"I thought I told you why he is coming here," he said as he took her by the elbow and pulled her inside their room. "I don't want you to socialise with him, every bit of information he gets will be used against me," he said as he released her. "I have enough troubles as it is."

"Can I help you somehow?"

"No, they are matters of the Kuchiki clan," he said and left for his office, shutting the door behind him.

Aoi was surprised at his attitude. Byakuya never shut the door between his office and their room when they were alone. When she had inquired, his response was 'I want to feel your shadow on mine' as he pointed to their shadows overlapping on the tatami mat. It was something that happened every night. She would read in their room while he would be adding his daily entry to his journals, right before bed. Later that night, Aoi still tried to learn what was troubling him but it was in vain. She embraced and kissed him to take his mind off his troubles but he was cold as stone. She felt hurt but did not say anything, thinking that it was just a phase. That night, her nightmares came rushing back to her like a flood. She yelled and kicked him twice before he shook her awake.

"Aoi… Aoi… I am tired, if you cannot sleep quietly, go to your room," he said, staring her down until she stood and left him to sleep.

Something is clearly wrong with him, she thought but was unable to find peace. Instead she prepared for the next day's sessions. In the morning, she ate her breakfast before him and went to prepare. It was customary for them to leave the house at the same time but Seike had stopped her before she left to speak to her about a kimono. Aoi looked at him strangely and allowed the older gentleman to lead her to her office before he took a deep breath, shut the doors and whispered. "Byakuya-sama's behaviour is changed. Is something wrong?"

Aoi's eyes widened, "I have noticed that as well. I don't know what is wrong with him. What did he do?"

"He said the tea was bitter," Seike said, watching for her reaction before producing the rest of his evidence.

Aoi, shared her own observations with him and for a moment they remained silent. She asked the older man to follow her. "I am not going to read it," she said as she pulled his journal from the shelf, "I just want to confirm something." She opened the journal and to her horror, she saw that there were no entries for the past two days. She told Seike and asked him to be on his guard for the rest of the day before she left for the Academy. Aoi spent the day away from the house, returning late in the afternoon with a pack of papers in her arms. When Byakuya inquired, her eyes fell momentarily to the jewelry on his wrist before she replied that she had to review some reports. To her surprise he invited her to walk with him after their evening tea and she met with him in front of the pond in the garden. They started walking unaware of the shadow that was following them when Aoi spoke first.

"Isn't it time you named your price?" she said to a wide eyed Byakuya.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you are not my husband. What have you done with him?" she asked and watched him carefully as his hand rested on his tsuka.

"What gave me away?" he asked but she smiled.

"I will tell you after you rest dead on my feet," she countered and he laughed.

"Perish the thought, ona. It seems that the raw material failed to teach you your place."

"The raw material, eh?" she said. "Listen here, usurper, I can only give you 1 minute, after that, you'll die, so tell me where my husband is."

Byakuya's clone laughed. "There is only one Kuchiki Byakuya," he said and to her surprise she nodded.

"Sōdesu, demo anata wa arimasen," she countered calmly.

"We shall see," he said before unsheathing his sword, "Chire, Senbonzakura!" he exclaimed and pulled his blades around him before directing them towards her.

She rushed towards his blades, "Tate!" she exclaimed and a shield similar to Danku appeared in front of her, only it was portable. "Osoi!" she said and shunpoed inside his no hurt area. Bashing him with the shield in the trajectory of his own blades. "Senbonzakura is an unforgiving Zanpakuto," she said as the reigai's eyes widened before it turned to dust leaving only the clothes and a mod soul pill behind. She lifted the clothes and his accessories, passing them to Seike who was standing guard on the patio.

"Here! That's what this was," she said, showing him the pill.

Seike nodded but she seemed sad, "Nani ka machigaete iru, Aoi-sama?"

"I failed to learn Byakuya's location."

Seike stayed with her as she was trying to find what was going on. She knew it would be difficult to learn more without drawing anyone's attention to her. It was enough that she had gotten the drug from the 12th squad.

"Seike-san," she called him and he smiled at her, "The Kuchiki family has been in charge of maintaining the historical records of Soul Society. Where are those records?" she asked and he indicated the Archive. "Stay safe, Seike-san," she said as she left the room to change into her uniform. It was late at night when she entered the Daireisho Archives but her pass allowed it. She searched everything about soul pills and even though she learned about reigai and mod souls, she was unable to learn anything specific about them as the records had been sealed or destroyed. She retired in the mansion, shunpoing in the backyard and found herself looking at Seike talking with Byakuya. She shunpoed again between them and shielded the older man with her body, "Stay back, Seike-san. We do not know how many of them there are," she said as her hand flew to her tsuka. She beheld the Byakuya that was standing before her. Her eyes flew to his clothes. They were tattered and his scarf was missing. He had a few small scars and for a moment she felt her tears rise to her eyes.

"Speak," she ordered him.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Byakuya-sama, what did you eat on Wednesday morning?" she asked knowing that his reigai was probably created before that day and that it would not have those memories.

Byakuya gave her a detailed description of that morning, noting the fact that she had favoured the okonomiyaki instead of the soup.

"Seike-san, your turn," she said prompting the man to ask Byakuya a question and she stepped back in order to give them some privacy.

When Seike smiled and nodded at Byakuya she approached them.

"Are you sure?" she asked the older man and he nodded.

"It is an old arrangement that I have with Seike in order to pass messages effectively," Byakuya explained.

"But the reigai have all the memories the 'raw material' have until their day of creation," Aoi pointed out.

"Naraba, Byakuya-sama, what kind of fruit did you ask me to buy for you before you left for your mission on Wednesday?"

"Nashi," he said and Seike nodded again.

"We didn't have pears on Wednesday," Aoi pointed out but Seike said that the reigai had asked him to throw them away and bring him blueberries instead.

Aoi was still suspicious but after Byakuya had bathed and eaten he had sat with her and told her everything that had happened. Aoi told him that she used his journals for confirmation. She was expecting him to scold her for opening his private journals but instead he commended her for her quick thinking and her skills.

"I could see you when you fought him," he said. "At the beginning, I wanted to charge in and tear his head off seeing him walking so closely to you, but you seemed more than capable to handle him," he said but seemed thoughtful.

"I had drugged him," she admitted and he nodded in understanding.

"Should I be afraid?"

"Are you a clone?" she asked and stared him straight in the eye. She took the mod soul pill out of her pocket and crushed it between her fingers.

"How did you realise he was not me?" he asked and Aoi spent quite a while narrating the events of the previous days.

"Naraba, if they managed to clone you, that means that the rest of the captains might also be…"

"You needn't worry about that," he said as he grabbed her arm and flash stepped away from the mansion. He took her to a secluded location and as soon as he released her his eyes changed colour.

Aoi didn't waste a second. "Bakudo no 75: Gohutakkan!" she yelled and as soon as the pillars fell on top of him she continued speaking the incantation while providing the somatic components, "Black and white net. Twenty-two bridges, sixty-six crowns and belts. Footprints, distant thunder, sharp peak, engulfing land, hidden in the night, sea of clouds, blue line. Form a circle and fly though the heavens. Bakudo no 77: Tenteikura." Reigai Byakuya's eyes widened as she transmitted the message to a select few individuals. He pulled in all his reiatsu in an attempt to free himself. He was successful but Aoi didn't care. Now all she needed to do was survive for long enough and that was easy enough. Before long, several captains flash stepped in their location. Not all of them were friendly and suddenly a full blown battle erupted in the middle of Seireitei. Aoi provided support using her Zanpakuto's full abilities. She exchanged rapidly between the copied abilities and Kyoraku's heart warmed up seeing his lost friends' and mentor's shikai in full bloom. At the heat of the battle, the 'raw materials' also arrived at the location sensing the excess of reiatsu that was released and joined the battle. As everyone started fighting their clones, Aoi yelled at them to change enemies as a mirror match was going to be at their enemies advantage. Kenpachi rushed and attacked Reigai Byakuya, making the real one tsk in disapproval before attacking Reigai Kenpachi. One by one, rushed to attack the one that Aoi indicated as she knew everyone's abilities. Kyoraku along with the visored captains jumped in and attacked anyone that would give them an opening while Aoi supported and healed everyone while they moved about. When the reigai realised that she was healing their opponents, their tactics changed in order to assault her as well. Byakuya made to protect her but as his blades flew to her, Kenpachi moved to land a blow on his back. Aoi cast a Danku that took the blow but cracked. "Eyes on your opponent, Kuchiki-taichou," she whispered as a torrential kaido left from her open palm and landed on each ally, replenishing their reiatsu reserves. With their opponents healed, the reigai returned to their individual fights. "Smash the pills!" she said as Isane's reigai turned to dust. "No!" a voice sounded from behind her and she turned to see a shinigami in yellow juban under his shihakusho who charged in the fight and took Isane's place. Aoi stared at him, she had seen this man while she was in training before the war. His research revolved around the Dangai. As Isane defeated Reigai Hinamori, she flash-stepped next to Aoi and helped support their allies.

Aoi, seeing that Isane started healing, turned to hadō but soon realised that their new opponent could use all of their attacks against them. She shunpoed next to Kenpachi whispering a few words while pretending to heal him before turning towards Ōko Yushima. "Hadō no 32: Ōkasen'' Aoi said, sending it straight towards Yushima to see what he would do. When he absorbed and sent it back towards them she fired the next one. "Hadō no 88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō," she cried out, making Byakuya stare at her surprised that she could cast something so potent without incantation. Yushima instinctively tried to absorb the destructive hadō only to be struck at the back by Kenpachi, who shunpoed away as the hadō hit Yushima. "Bakudō no 62: Hyapporankan!" Aoi said but as Yushima's body was nailed to the wall she saw that this would not be enough. She knelt, "Bakudō no 99 part 1: Kin!" she said and stilled her form, bringing all her focus in holding her opponent. It was at that moment that all reigai turned towards her. Yushima was still moving about trying to free himself and then two things happened at the same time. Limiters of power appeared at the chest of each reigai halving their power level while Aoi touched the ground with her fingers and said, "Bakudō no 99 part 2 : Bankin. Shokyoku :Shiryū." Byakuya shredded reigai Kenpachi and unleashed his Ikka Senjinka, hurting several of the reigai and then one by one the rest of the captains made quick work of their opponents. "Nikyoku : Hyakurensan," Aoi continued and Yushima screamed knowing what would be coming next. Byakuya's hand touched her shoulder as he whispered "Don't kill him, Aoi," before falling to his knees next to her, exhausted and wounded. Aoi breathed deeply and stopped channeling allowing the second squad to apprehend Yushima.

When Byakuya and Aoi finally returned to the mansion from the fourth squad's barracks, Rukia was also there along with Kurosaki. The four sat for a while as the younger seemed too energetic to retire and discussed quietly until Ichigo mentioned that he and Byakuya had had a wrong start in their acquaintance. When Aoi inquired, she was stunned to learn that he had been hell bent to allow Rukia's execution to go through in a way to uphold the law and his vow. Rukia saw her surprise and so did Ichigo who turned and stated, "You didn't know…" thinking that it was some kind of great secret of Byakuya's and that he had gone and uncovered it.

Ichigo felt that Byakuya would have murdered him if his wife and sister were not present.

"Īe, I didn't know," she said pensievely, trying to figure out her husband's reasoning.

"I made things awkward between you two, didn't I?" he asked, for a moment forgetting that they were not his contemporaries.

"Perish the thought, you don't have that kind of power over us," Aoi said and fixed him with an icy stare. Please stop talking, if Byakuya attacks you…

To Byakuya's relief, Aoi rose after a while and told them that she would retire and he followed her in their bedroom. They sat next to each other and Byakuya started writing in his journal as she read for a bit, but after he finished he turned to observe her. She looked pale and tired. He knew she was just waiting for him to finish so they could retire together and so he stood to lead the way. When she saw him move, she closed the book on her lap and watched him. He sat next to her and he answered all her questions, hiding nothing from her but their discussion woke both of them up. Ichigo and Rukia, only a room apart from them, were able to hear them speaking but not what was said and after a while they heard their door slide open. Aoi led Byakuya in the garden and they sat on a blanket watching the full moon. Seeing that the other two were in their rooms, Byakuya lied back and rested his head on her lap. She smiled gently at him and caressed his hair. "You did not tell me your opinion on what we discussed earlier," he said.

"My opinion on what? Your reasoning?" she asked softly and he nodded.

"In case of a conflict like that, Byakuya, I would always side with the 'living'," she said. "I would have tried to help her as much as I could, even if it meant that I would break a vow. Haven't I done that myself?" she asked him and his eyes widened.

"You remember?"

"Yes, from the first time I entered Kirinji's pool," she said.

"You never said…"

"There was no reason for that, my love" she said as she massaged his temples, eliciting a pained moan from his lips and a giggle from hers.

Byakuya braced his upper body on his left hand, lifting his head from her lap to look straight in her eyes "It's for times like this that I would really like to live on our own," he whispered in her ear and she shuddered. Byakuya led her in their room and moved to the closet. "I wanted to give it to you earlier but I never found an appropriate time…" he said as he pulled a box out. He opened it and removed the light shawl that was elegantly wrapped inside. It was made from the same material as his own scarf and she blushed as he placed it on her shoulders. "I had it commissioned for the ending of your training, but with everything that happened, it took more time to be completed."

"Thank you," she said, "It is truly magnificent."

Kurosaki Ichigo was restless, he, like everyone else had been transported to the fourth squad's barracks to be healed but since he had fallen asleep during the process, he was now lying awake on his futon in a guest room of the Kuchiki mansion. He wanted to stay in the garden and meditate for a while but had seen Byakuya as he lay with his head on his wife's lap and feeling like he was intruding, he had stayed in his assigned room instead. He was trying to relax from the events of the day but all he had managed was to turn from one side to the other. In the end, he closed his eyes and let his mind be swept away by the sounds of his surroundings. He had just started to feel his body going numb and was cherishing the pulsing sensation when he heard Byakuya speaking his wife's name with a passion that Ichigo never expected of him.

"Aoi…" Byakuya whispered as he kissed her deeply. Ichigo could hear shuffling of fabric and heavy breathing and his eyes widened at the realisation of what he was listening to. His face, no, his whole body had turned as red as Renji's hair and he felt he was going to faint from the rising blood pressure. He felt like the minutes lasted for hours but dared not move lest they realised he was awake for he was sure Byakuya would murder him on the spot. "Aoi… Aoi, let me see you," he said, his breathing was laboured and Ichigo felt their reiatsu rising. Aoi moaned softly and Ichigo heard her apologise quietly. The shock came right after that as he heard Byakuya's soft chuckle.

"No man should ever complain," he said as he kissed her gently. "Any louder though and Natsuko would probably barge in here stomping her feet in disapproval…" he said amused and Ichigo heard them both giggle until Aoi sighed audibly before saying "Will you stay with me tomorrow?"

"Aa… Kyoraku-soutaicho has ordered us to rest while the reserves take over for a few days. Sleep now, my wife… You've done admirably today," he said as he kissed her again.

"Praise indeed, coming from your lips," she said softly and he embraced her.

"I would like to revisit the training grounds after I recover," he said and Ichigo heard them kissing again. Please don't start over, just go to sleep… he thought as he exhaled deeply and turned on his side. For a few moments, the silence was staggering as the couple tried to fathom whether he was awake or not while Ichigo was counting in order to keep his breath level. Phew, abunai abunai… he thought as they started whispering again and he felt his body relax. He did not realise when he had fallen asleep, the last thing he heard was a mutual proclamation of love before they too settled down for the night.

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Dō shita, Byakuya?: What's the matter Byakuya?

Daijobu, Byakuya?: Are you alright, Byakuya?

Hai: Yes

Dame desu, Touma-dono: Don't do that, Touma

Koko de nani o shite iru no, Touma?: What are you doing here, Touma?

Ona: woman

Sōdesu, demo anata wa arimasen: Right, but it is not you

Tate: Shield

Osoi: Too slow

Nani ka machigaete iru?: What is troubling you?

abunai abunai: that was dangerous

Naraba: In that case