Chapter 8 - Vignettes

"Kuchiki, you can't be here," Ukitake Jushiro pat his subordinate's shoulder, stilling her movements as she tried to get into the Captain-Commander's personal office.

He was just on his way to meet the elderly captain when he saw her briskly walking past him, seemingly not noticing his presence in her focus.

She swiftly turned around to face him in surprise, only then noticing his figure. He gave her a lopsided smile.

But she was having none of it. "Please, Captain, let me talk to the Captain-Commander!"

Jushiro sighed—he knew she was going to be relentless. "I sympathize with you. Really, I do," he tried to say soothingly, taking a somber tone, "it's hard on everybody."

Rukia could only look down. She knew it was hard on everyone, she saw their faces as they walked out of the meeting. She saw the angry look on Hisagi-san's face, and the shame as he told her what happened, unable to do anything. It was the least he could do.

But Renji wasn't just a friend. He was her brother, long before Kuchiki Byakuya was. He was her anchor and her confidant. He kept her head straight when all she wanted to do was to give up. It was harder on her than they would understand.

"I want to see him," she said quietly. "Please. Just once, let me see Renji," she begged as she gripped her captain's haori tight, looking into his eyes to see any sort of loose string she could pull to unravel his resolve and help her see her dear redhead.

"You cannot."

"Captain-Commander!" Jushiro exclaimed in surprise. He didn't see the older captain coming, he thought he was already in his office.

Rukia was not surprised, however, as she was now more determined than ever to make the man do what she wanted him to do.

"You let my brother saw him yesterday!" she argued impudently, glaring at the most powerful man in Seireitei as if he was a mere old man.

Yamamoto loomed over her and sneered. "He was Lieutenant Abarai's supervising officer and the captain of his division. You are neither," he nearly spat pettily, his mood unusually sour for a man of his temperament.

Rukia stood her ground and held her head high in a mock of bravado over her actual quivering mental nerves. "Then I will use my authority as a noble to bypass that!"

"Kuchiki, stop it at once!" Jushiro scolded his insolent subordinate. He understood her reasoning, but he wouldn't tolerate any more disrespectful tone from her to the Captain-Commander. His words fell on deaf ears, however, because she was still glaring at the Captain-Commander, who responded just as harshly.

"If you think that just because you were adopted into the Kuchiki Household have any meaning to me, then you need to learn your place some more, unseated officer Kuchiki," Yamamoto lashed cruelly, his look of disgust far more painful than the sharp glares he threw at her.

He walked past her to get into his office, motioning Jushiro to follow him inside. Rukia was as still as a rock behind him. The white-haired captain was torn between consoling the obviously upset girl and risking to further irritate the commander.

He settled for a pat on her head. "Forgive him, Kuchiki," the gentle captain amended to his shocked subordinate, "he is..." he hesitated.

"It took a lot out of him," he finally said. It was not his place to tell the tales of the Captain-Commander's past, but he could at least convey that it was difficult for the commander to deliver his orders, even if it was a gross understatement.

"I will not stand by this," he heard the small Kuchiki said quietly behind him as he walked past her.

When he turned to inquire her, she was gone.

"This ain't right, Captain," Madarame Ikkaku grumbled, a deep set of frown marring his face. They were standing in one side of the training field as they watched some of the other officers train the recruits to their bones.

"Renji ain't a criminal." Renji ain't a normal case too, I guess. Still.

"Heck if I know," Kenpachi grunted, picking on his ear. The loud redhead was once his subordinate too, so he was somewhat concerned about him. He didn't show it much on the outside, however.

Kusajishi Yachiru was slumped on one of his broad shoulders, playing with one of the giant's spikes with a sad look on her usually cheerful face. "Poor Ren-chan."

"Poor him, indeed," fifth seat Yumichika sighed as he was leaning on one of the pillars next to his long-time partner-in-crime. This was surely the beginning of more conflicts ahead.

"We need to do something, Kira," Hisagi Shuuhei decided seriously.

"No, Hisagi-san," Kira Izuru groaned in exasperation. "Stop whatever it is you're thinking before you get us in trouble," he admonished the other lieutenant firmly.

"We are already in trouble because Renji is being imprisoned like a criminal when he's not!"

The continued to bicker the merits of going against orders and try to 'rescue' Renji from his supposed 'protection', when another usually silent lieutenant voiced her thoughts.

"I fear for him," Hinamori Momo murmured in one corner. Her small hands loosely holding a cup of tea that she seemed to find very interesting.

Ever since the whole debacle with her traitor of a captain, she was usually very quiet and only smiled at some moments, keeping to herself most of the time. Sometimes when the topic went to a certain... sensitive matter, she would relapse and everyone else's mood would turn sour. They tried to skip over those kinds of topics whenever possible.

"What if Renji was taken and we don't know about it?" she worried. Izuru and Hisagi frowned in contemplation. It was true. Renji was put somewhere that not many people can enter without the right keys. Aizen could already be devising a plan to bypass that.

But then she continued with a slightly more hysterical tone. "What if Captain Aizen comes and... and I don't get to see him?" her eyes widen, the pupils dilated yet her gaze was blank. She went still as a rock, body going into shock. Izuru scrambled to her side in case she went into yet another seizure.

"Hinamori..."

After all this time she is still...

Hitsugaya Toshiro looked up from a document he was reading when he saw his lieutenant stood up from her desk. "Where are you going, Matsumoto?"

Matsumoto Rangiku shrugged cheerily. "Oh, I'm just gonna try to see Renji for a bit—"

"You're not allowed to do that," Toshiro cut her off sharply.

Rangiku let out a frustrated noise as she backpedaled into the room and planted her hands to her hips firmly.

"Captain it's been ten days! He's been all alone with only the occasional faceless shadows giving him his food and stuff!" an utter exaggeration, but she was still furious.

When the young prodigy didn't relent, she threw her hands up in frustration. "This is barbaric! He is not a convict, Captain," she growled out in barely contained anger. "They can't treat him like one." They can't treat him like an animal.

"I don't like this as much as you do," Toshiro pointed out in annoyance, massaging his brows to soothe the growing headache he had, "but the Captain-Commander seems to think this is the best course of action." And you won't be allowed entry without his permission, either way; only that smug Kuchiki can do that. But he didn't say that part out loud, lest she tried to harass the noble, which then will pile on top of the problems that Toshiro already had.

"Now get back to work and stop thinking anything dodgy."

Rangiku bristled but couldn't say anything else as she trudged to her desk. She didn't do any of her work, though, as Toshiro would later find out in exasperation.

"Hollow activities have been going down lately," Yasutora Sado mused aloud as he walked down the street with his group of highschool friends-turn-comrade-in-arms.

"It's really strange," Ishida Uryuu agreed, a frown marring his unblemished skin while letting his chin rest on his curled fingers contemplatively. He had his suspicions.

"Where is that Kurosaki, anyway?" he added, throwing the question to the only girl in their group, knowing that out of the three of them, she was the only one who really liked to keep tabs on her friends.

Inoue Orihime tore her gaze from the ground they were walking on and blinked up to the question Uryuu asked her.

"He said that he's going back to Soul Society for a while," she recited thoughtfully as she recalled the exact moment the substitute shinigami told her that he wouldn't be going to school for some time. She was disappointed that he didn't even think of maybe inviting her to come with him, but what disturbed her the most was the dark look on his face and the urgency in his tone.

Maybe something happened? But if it was important, surely he would tell the rest of them?

Or maybe he was... checking on Kuchiki-san... she thought painfully as she recalled how protective the other was to the raven-haired girl.

"Any idea why?" Uryuu's inquiry distracted her from her depressing thoughts.

She breathed in deeply and sagged her shoulders. "He didn't tell me..."

As always.

Byakuya visited Renji every day. He would come in exactly at sundown—not that Renji would know that—and leave around an hour after that, just as the moon took its place in the night sky.

He would cast subtle looks at Renji, eyes admiring how the redhead's figure glowed in the dim darkness that was only supported by a small torch—a glow that was lost on everyone else safe for Byakuya—and the Captain-Commander, apparently.

Just as the moon shined the night sky, Renji's light flooded the surrounding area with a soft, gentle glow that was appreciated fully by Byakuya's eyes. And just as the moonlight reflecting on the still surface of his koi pond, a sense of peace entered the captain's body even as the situation keeps growing dire by the day, just being there with his lieutenant.

With those thoughts in his head, Byakuya recalled the words he threw carelessly at his lieutenant not so long ago, when they fought against each other.

'Shall I tell you the difference between you and I? It's level. It's like the story of the monkey trying to capture the moon. No matter how he struggles, it's just the moon's reflection on the water he sees. So he only sinks into the water.'

How the tables have turned.

Now, Byakuya found that he was the monkey reaching so desperately for his moon. So close, yet out of reach. He would grasp at whatever reflection the moon gave him on his koi pond, he would admire it and long to touch it. But he was not allowed to. And what hurt him most was that he did it upon himself. He let the moon slipped away, leaving only its reflection behind. He feared the day that even the reflections will be taken away from him, by the shadows and the dark clouds looming over the horizon. So he feasted his eyes on the moon's reflection, just a sliver of a shadowy touch, a shy gaze, on the figure merely a few steps away, barred from his reach.

And on these times, Renji didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

His captain just stood there, still as a statue. Still as a knight standing tall and strong protecting his lord. A silent guardian.

Renji let him.

"You bastard!" Kurosaki Ichigo shouted furiously, yanking the collar of one Kuchiki Byakuya's uniform high, drawing the raven close. They were in extreme proximity that Byakuya could see the dilated pupils of the substitute shinigami, the flared nose that pushed out hot air, and the snarling mouth that seemed ready to snap like a predator.

Ichigo found out about Renji's situation from Rukia, when she called him with her soul pager with a trembling, gasping voice that was so small and weak, as she retold the story that Hisagi Shuuhei told her. She was whimpering, begging for him to help her see Renji again, because she believed him, and she knew that he cared deeply for Renji too. That he would even rescue Renji, as he did with her before.

The horror in his expression grew the more she told him. She said that she didn't know everything yet, but what mattered to her the most was that they took Renji away like he was some sort of a cold-blooded criminal. That they took him to Muken. When he asked her what it was, and when she told him, he snapped his phone shut and ran out of his house in his soul form, leaving his body for Kon to take care of without so much as an explanation.

After telling the nearest person that knew of his 'side' occupation'—that being Inoue Orihime—that he was going away, he immediately took off to Urahara's and demanded to let him use the Senkaimon. When asked by Urahara Kisuke for his urgency, he simply lashed out for him to just get it done in a tone so dark that Kisuke silently obeyed, thinking he would get his information soon enough.

Upon entrance to Seireitei, he made for a series of furious flash-steps that would even make Yoruichi herself proud, aiming straight to the place he sensed a certain raven's fluctuating reiatsu was located.

Going back to the present, he shook the still captain roughly. "How could you even let this happen?!" he was this close to wringing the infuriating noble's neck, "I thought you care for him, you cold piece of shit!"

But Byakuya was unfazed. "Unhand me, Kurosaki Ichigo." Byakuya thought to himself that he, at least, had the courtesy to not scream at someone's face like a banshee, assault them and disturb their activity. He was just on his way to the Central Underground Prison when the substitute distracted him. He was running late.

Ichigo pushed the raven away harshly. "I misjudged you, Byakuya," he snarled almost in disgust, "you don't deserve Renji."

Now that did it for him.

This time it was the enraged Kuchiki who gripped his strong fingers around the orange-haired teenager's neck, piercing slate eyes boring deep into the other's brown ones. "Do you really think," he growled lowly, emphasizing every word, "that I wanted this to happen to my lieutenant?" Hiking the substitute shinigami off the grown due to the strength of his grip, he watched as Ichigo began to struggle.

Ichigo was just reaching for his Zangetsu when the raven dropped him unceremoniously.

"What do you want me to do? Leave him under your protection, as Rukia was?" he mocked harshly at the other who was gasping for breath.

"Damn you—" Ichigo rasped out. I remember having to save her from you, you bastard, he bitterly thought, unable to voice anymore since he was still scrambling for oxygen. He had a damn strong grip, the substitute shinigami couldn't help but scowl internally.

Byakuya silently observed the other who was still crouching on the ground, calming down from his uncharacteristic outburst.

"If there was any other way, Kurosaki Ichigo, believe me," he paused, "I would do it."

As Byakuya began to walk away from the scene, Ichigo called him.

"Wait," Ichigo breathed in another lungful of air, now standing up.

"If anything happens to him," he trailed lowly, voice heavy with dark promises should anything did happen to the red-hair in question.

"It's on you."

Byakuya turned his head slightly, his eyes covered by raven hair falling on his cheeks. "I would gladly kill myself to save him," he said in strong conviction.

It was the first time he ever expressed such a strong notion he had for Renji. He was sure it didn't develop overnight, rather over the course of the years he had spent with the lieutenant, but even his own admission shook his state of mind at its core.

Ichigo nodded, satisfied. "Good."

"Hey, any chance you're gonna let me out of this dank place soon?" Abarai Renji called from inside his 'dank' cell. The guards were just leaving from delivering his daily sustenance.

Seeing the unperturbed movements from the leaving guards, the redhead stood up and approached the bars that were holding him in slowly—he was getting good at walking with the binds on his feet—he could do with a more loose binding on his hands though, he couldn't eat as easily as he wanted.

"Come on, I've been talking to myself for what... a week?," it has been around three, I think, but who's counting? He thought distractedly, "I'm going crazy here!"

"Would you mind my company instead, Abarai?" a raspy voice uttered from somewhere near the entrance of the Muken. A dark silhouette approached the barely lit area near Renji's cell, showing the face of a weary Captain-Commander.

"Captain-Commander," Renji greeted dimly, showing no hint of surprise in both his voice and demeanor, "or should I say, Ryuu-san?"

Yamamoto took a sharp intake of breath at the fond name. "You remember," he whispered fervently.

While his appearance had changed, somewhat, the Seika was still as mesmerizing to see as he always was, with his glowing figure and flowing vermillion mane. Yamamoto was always excellent at keeping his knowledge from everyone else, but now that the secret was out, he couldn't help the nostalgia when he saw the redhead. I must've looked very different to him, even though he was the one reborn, he couldn't help but think self-consciously. It had been over a millennium; he had, indeed, aged.

"I've been getting them back," the Seika—Abarai, his mind supplied—shrugged, "flashes, mostly. Not enough to complete the picture. Yet." He didn't seem all that shocked with the idea of getting strange memories of a life he couldn't remember.

Yamamoto shuffled closer to the cell, taking a good look at the redhead. Paleness was creeping into his once sun-kissed skin, due to the lack of sun or his appearances finally catching up to his awakening and slowing turning him into what he once was, Yamamoto was not sure. His uniform—now changed into the white garments that prisoners wear, hung on his thinning figure loosely. He looked very different to who Abarai Renji used to be.

Yamamoto refused to say that he was a shell of the shinigami he was before.

Yet he couldn't help but feel relieved. And he felt the tremendous guilt that came with it, knowing what it cost.

"It's been so long..." he voiced weakly, vastly different from the firm and strong tone that he kept with others' company.

Renji observed the commander struggling not to break down in front of him. It's almost ironic, the redhead thought, that he is breaking down while I'm the one being held captive.

"I know why you're doing this," the redhead finally said as softly as he could, taking mercy on the older man, "I won't blame you for it." Yamamoto looked up at that, his eyes wide at the words that sounded so much like forgiveness.

Renji exhaled lowly. "But Ryuu-san," he continued with an oddly resigned tone, "you can't stop what's going to happen."

Yamamoto knew that.

A Sixth Division recruit groaned aloud, slumping against the mess hall table he was sitting on. "Man it's been almost a month! What kind of mission is Lieutenant Abarai doing anyway?" he whined to his friends.

"I heard from Rikichi-san that he's scouting the Material World," one of his friends told him conspiringly, "you know, Karakura Town has been under the Gotei 13's radar for quite some time."

"You mean with that orange-haired substitute guy?" another recruit questioned, a hint of envy in his voice. Clearly the redheaded lieutenant had managed to swoon and gather the admiration of the new recruits even barely two months into their time in the division. Not to mention that he would once or twice cook up a feast whenever he was in a good mood.

When the shinigami who told them of that fact shrugged in half-confirmation, they all sighed.

"Lucky him."

If only they knew.

"How are we going to get him?" Ichimaru Gin wondered aloud, his finger tapping against his chin in a mocking fashion of puzzlement.

Aizen Sousuke propped his cheek on his hand where he was sitting at the forefront of the meeting table. "They are all susceptible to my zanpakuto," he assured his comrades, all except those ryoka, he thought. But he figured they won't be much of a threat, barring the shinigami one.

"We just need some... ah, preparations," he smiled confidently.

Tosen Kaname lifted his head from his seated position by Aizen's left. "They're on high alert."

Light and shadows in the meeting room shifted, showing glimpses of white uniforms and bone-like appendages.

"Then we wait."

"What's the situation, Yoruichi-san?" Urahara Kisuke asked over the soul pager he was holding, his eyes roaming over the monitors in front of him that would show any spikes in unusual reiatsu around Karakura Town. It was not dissimilar to Kurotsuchi Mayuri's lab, only with smaller space and less advanced equipment. But it would have to do.

Yoruichi hesitated at the other end of the line, "It's... it's really bad, Kisuke," she voiced unusually quiet, "I don't think that I should..."

"I'll have to stay here a little longer," she decided firmly.

She told him of the situation that was informed to her by the senior captains under the permission of the Captain-Commander himself, deeming it necessary for the allies to know of the circumstances. Each sentence making Kisuke grow more sympathetic of the Sixth Division Lieutenant in captivity, yet his scientific mind couldn't help but be curious on the redhead's being. He had been receiving Renji in his shop for a long while, and not a single time did he notice anything short of the ordinary from the lieutenant. He needed to look into this.

"How is he taking it?" he finally inquired, knowing that Yoruichi knew who he was talking about.

She huffed out in irritation. "That spoiled brat... he's hiding it but I know that he regretted it," she growled out, remembering her encounter with Kuchiki Byakuya when she did almost the same thing that Kurosaki Ichigo did to him before.

"Is there any other choice?"

"I hate to admit it, but this is the most logical option that we could think of," she muttered sullenly on the line.

"Should I come?" Kisuke offered, considering his options. If he left Karakura, he feared that the rest of their allies there won't be enough to—

"No, you stay there with the rest of the group," Yoruichi interrupted his thought, "in case Aizen decided to visit."

Great minds think alike.

It has been forty-seven days since the Lieutenant Abarai Renji's confinement in the Muken, with only the topmost officials and allies in the know about the situation.

There were no signs of Aizen as of yet, the allies were growing weary.

It was a waiting game and a mental battery.

Restlessness will be their doom.

Just one. Little.

Slip.

Additional Notes:

Haori: a Japanese style outer jacket that is usually hip or thigh-length (varying lengths are used by the Gotei 13 captains here), worn open, sometimes closed witha string connected to its lapels.

Ryoka: lit. traveling evil(s); a term used for those who invade into Soul Society. Ichigo and his friends were labeled as ryoka when they invaded Soul Society to rescue Rukia.

*Byakuya's 'Monkey and the Moon' quote is an actual translated quote from the manga/anime.