Chapter 7: Key to the Past

(This is an all new chapter and more is on the way!)

As the foursome of shinigamis approached the small safehouse, the door to the cottage opened ahead of them and Byakuya stepped out to greet them, wearing a plain white yukata and bearing a weary expression. Tetsuya stepped forward to greet his cousin.

"Byakuya-sama," he said, bowing his head respectfully.

"Tetsuya," the Kuchiki leader said in a relieved tone.

His grey eyes scanned the others present.

"Kisuke, Ichigo."

He paused, his eyes narrowing as they fell on the Shima leader.

"Shima Kurushimi."

Tetsuya bit his lip gently, taking a steadying breath.

"My apologies, watashi no itoko, Kuri-Kuri-sama was with me at the time I received your summons and he heard the content."

"That was rather careless of you, Tetsuya," Byakuya chided him.

"Oh, now don't be hard on him, Byakurai. The poor thing was only half awake."

"Kuri!" Tetsuya snapped, stopping the smirking Shima leader as Kisuke covered his mouth to hide a snicker and Ichigo frowned and reached up to scratch the back of his neck, "Sumimasen, Byakuya-sama, Kuri-Kuri-sama was staying with me because of space shortages within the encamp—"

"Tetsu-hana, you don't need to make excuses to him," Kuri said matter-of-factly, "We've certainly done nothing wrong. Now, it is cold out here and if I am not mistaken, I smell hot food and tea? Why don't we take this inside and warm up while we…get down to business?"

"That's—probably a good idea," Kisuke chuckled.

"Very well," Byakuya said stiffly, stepping aside to allow the others to enter.

His hand took hold of Tetsuya's forearm and he stepped between his cousin and the Shima leader. Kuri smiled and moved closer to Ichigo as Byakuya closed the door behind them. Before anyone could say anything more, Kenpachi stepped into the room, also wearing a white yukata, looking as weary as Byakuya, but grinning widely.

"Well, looks like the cavalry's here," he said in a pleased tone, "Kisuke, Ichigo, good to see you. Kuri…and who's the pretty little cupcake there?"

Byakuya scowled.

"That is my cousin, Tetsuya, who acts as my bodyguard and healer."

"Pleased t'meet you, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya gazed up at the eleventh division taicho, wide-eyed.

"Th-the pleasure is mine, Zaraki taicho," he managed, giving a stymied little squeak as the bigger man's hand patted his cheek.

"I've heard all about you. You're a damned good fighter if Byakuya put you in charge of protecting those stuffy elders and the women and children while he was gone. How about we go a few rounds outside?"

"P-pardon me?" Tetsuya stammered.

Across from them, Kuri laid a hand on his sword.

"Hey, take it easy," Ichigo whispered, "It's fine."

Kuri relaxed slightly as Byakuya stepped in.

"There is little time for that," Byakuya said sternly.

"Lighten up, Kuchiki," Kenpachi complained, "I was just getting' to know him."

"We can save pleasantries for later," the Kuchiki leader said shortly, "Right now, I need to inform the others about what has happened and we need to gather together some kind of plan for what to do next."

Why don't'cha all sit down?" Kenpachi suggested, "There's tea if anyone wants it."

"I will bring it," Tetsuya offered, hurriedly escaping his cousin's grasp and heading for the kitchen.

"I will help you, Tetsu-hana," Kuri said, starting after him.

"That is not necessary," Byakuya objected, "Tetsuya can—"

"Pfft," Kuri huffed, waving him off, "This will be faster."

He disappeared from the room just in time to avoid the nasty glare Byakuya shot at him, but as he reached the kitchen, he found Tetsuya waiting for him, wearing an uncharacteristically angry expression.

"Tetsu-hana?"

"What do you think you were doing?" Tetsuya hissed furiously, "You know this is a serious situation."

"Of course I do," the Shima leader assured him, stepping closer to the slighter man and reaching for him, only to have Tetsuya step back from him, still glaring, "What did I do? I only don't like seeing him treat you like you're doing something wrong. You did nothing wrong, Tetsu-hana, and you are certainly not that man's slave."

"Byakuya-sama is my leader," Tetsuya seethed, "and we are very close. For you to insult my honor in front of him—"

"What? Insult your honor? Tetsu-hana, what are you talking about? I just said that he shouldn't scold you."

"I'm sure you were very aware that you were also making it obvious where you slept last night and with whom!"

"Well, there is that," Kuri chuckled, "but we didn't have sex last night."

"Stop treating this like a game, Kuri-Kuri-sama, this is serious!"

"Yes of course," Kuri backpedaled, never losing his charming smile, "Please forgive me, Tetsu-hana, I've been a cad. Let me apologize."

Tetsuya ducked another attempt at an embrace, shooting the elder man a scathing look.

"If you want to apologize, then do not antagonize my cousin any further while we're here."

Tetsuya gave him a hurt look.

"And do not insult me by making light of what happens between us…or you can be sure, nothing else will!" he snapped, blinking back tears.

"Tetsu-hana, I'm s-!"

Tetsuya grabbed the tea tray and disappeared out of the kitchen in a hissing flash step, leaving Kuri gazing quietly after him, sighing appreciatively.

"Such fire in you, Tetsu-hana," he whispered, "I am going to have my hands full now, eh?"

He looked around and collected several snacks to go with the tea, then he followed in the direction Tetsuya had gone. He found the others waiting, Tetsuya looking quietly down at his hands as he sat next to Byakuya, who had placed himself beside his cousin at one end of the sofa with no other seat next to Tetsuya. Kenpachi sat on Byakuya's other side and Kisuke and Ichigo occupied the nearby love seat, leaving a large, stuffed chair for Kuri. He set the snacks down on the table beside the tea tray Tetsuya had brought, then he sat down, trying to catch his blushing lover's averted eyes. Tetsuya pointedly ignored him as Byakuya addressed the group.

"I thank you for coming on short notice. Kisuke, I know that you and Ichigo were barely back from the royal realm and there are still intermittent attacks taking place within the Seireitei, but something serious has happened and I think it is something that we need to carefully manage."

Byakuya paused, measuring his words as the others looked on curiously. His breath caught as he felt Kenpachi's hand slide into his and a little feeling of warmth crept into his chest, bolstering him.

"At first, I thought that what happened was just—a mistake. I thought it an aberration that wasn't meant to be, but as things have moved forward, I've realized that there is something more at work that…"

He broke off, unable to find the proper words for several long moments.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Kisuke suggested, "Tell us what happened."

Kenpachi opened his mouth to speak, but caught a look of warning from Byakuya and just smirked slightly instead.

"What happened," Byakuya continued, "happened in the aftermath of the fighting. Kisuke and Ichigo, you know, as Kenpachi and I do that the soul king fell during the war.

Tetsuya's breath caught sharply.

"Damn it," Kuri breathed, scowling.

"This information has been restricted to only Captains, Lieutenants, Central 46 leadership and some few, such as Tetsuya, who are in sensitive positions within the clans and must be informed of such things."

"But how is the balance of souls being kept?" Tetsuya inquired, his voice shaking slightly, "Was a new king made?"

"Kind of," Kisuke said, shaking his head, "There wasn't time for us to try to locate someone who could act as a regent, like we did before. Ywach really fucked things up and it wasn't looking good. As you know, it takes tremendous reiatsu to keep that balance. In addition to the king, it's Squad Twelve's job to monitor and hold the balance of souls in place so that things remain stable. When the king died…"

Kisuke noticed suddenly the sad look that had come into Ichigo's eyes and slipped a hand into his as he continued.

"When he died, things started to come apart. Our worlds came very close to ending, so we were reaching for anything that could stop it, and the thing with the strongest reiatsu that we could find to stabilize the balance…was Ywach's body."

"His body," Kuri hissed softly, "Dios mìo."

Tetsuya's face paled.

"Luckily for us," Kisuke went on, "his body has a deep well of transcendent reiatsu that can sustain us for awhile, but we need to find a more permanent answer."

"But what does all of that have to do with what's going on with you, Byakuya?" Ichigo asked, "You and Kenpachi."

"I do not know if I can answer that," Byakuya sighed, "I only know that in the wake of the fighting, I laid in the wreckage and I was dying."

"Byakuya-sama," Tetsuya whispered, stiffening.

"As I waited for the end to come, I was rescued and kept alive by…"

He exchanged glances with Kenpachi.

"I was rescued by Kenpachi, though, not as you see him now. In the course of the final battle, he was forced to use his bankai for the first time."

Ichigo's eyes rounded.

"His bankai?" he mused, "I didn't think Kenpachi had a bankai."

"Yeah, who knew?" Kenpachi chuckled.

"At first," Byakuya continued, his eyes turning to look at Kenpachi, "I thought that the demon form he took was something akin to the normal changes that happen when a bankai is activated."

"Mostly," Kisuke added, "those changes happen to the zanpakuto. For example, you have Senbonzakura that takes on the shape of more swords, changes color or things like that. There are some, like Ichigo's that make changes to the clothing or flesh of the wielder as well. Some others change the form of the wielder more notably, but it's rare to have a bankai that completely transforms the wielder and makes the sword disappear entirely. Also, the reiatsu output that was sensed during the last battle indicates that the power that was released in the area where Kenpachi was fighting was well beyond that of a normal shinigami."

"Well, isn't that expected for the Kenpachi?" Ichigo asked, "I heard something like that."

"The Kenpachi is not transcendent," Kisuke explained, "It is merely the highest evolution of the fighting spirit in soul form. What happened when Zaraki taicho went bankai up there was the release of transcendent power. If it had happened here, it would have leveled everything within a hundred miles, maybe more."

"Having been rescued by this bankai form," Byakuya related, "I noticed that it was painful for Kenpachi to maintain."

"It's was nothin' I couldn't handle," Kenpachi snorted.

"He was not able to shift out of the form for several days and while he was in that form, he could not speak normally. I did sometimes hear words, but in my head. The creature was speaking directly into my mind. There was also something else that happened…between this creature and me."

Byakuya drew in an unsteady breath and on either side of him, Kenpachi and Tetsuya took hold of his hands.

"It was a primal connection of some sort that…"

Byakuya trailed off, unable to voice what he was thinking.

"What he means is that—"

"Kenpachi!" the noble hissed, his dark eyes flaring.

"Take it easy," the bigger man reassured him, "I was gonna say it nice and politely."

Byakuya loosed a shaky breath.

"I doubt that there is a nice and polite way to describe what happened," he went on, "The demon beast later described what happened as something in my body calling out to him. And it was not simply this primal creature being led to a lascivious act. There was compliance on my part too."

"What's he saying?" Ichigo whispered to Kisuke, who smiled patiently and squeezed the substitute's hand.

"So, what you're saying," Kuri surmised, "is that you and this demon beast bankai were together sexually?"

Tetsuya flew to his feet, his zanpakuto forming in one hand.

"Don't you dare…!"

He broke off as he felt Byakuya's hand wrap around the one that held Reku-hime.

"Stop, Tetsuya," Byakuya said solemnly, "He is correct."

"Wh-what?" Tetsuya managed, giving his cousin a shocked look, "Byakuya-sama…"

"I want to make it clear that this was not something I wanted to do, and in retrospect, I do not believe that Kenpachi's demon form wanted it either. We were, instead, compelled, and I do not know the source of that compulsion. As leader of the Kuchiki clan and the guardian of Seireitei history, I can tell you with certainty that such an act is not a normal part of the mechanics of our abilities. In other words, this didn't happen simply because I encountered Kenpachi's bankai form. It was that there was a set of circumstances that activated something within us both. The most powerful clan leader and the most powerful fighting soul in existence joined to create…a child."

Tetsuya's blue eyes rounded and he lost the breath to make any sort of reply, but Re-kuhime faded from his hand and he sat down again at his cousin's side and took Byakuya's hand back into his. Kisuke's pale grey eyes narrowed in focused thought. Kuri's expression seemed slightly haunted, but he said nothing of what he was thinking.

"So, what does all of this mean?" Ichigo asked, "If it's true that you and Kenpachi's demon form made a baby together…"

"It means that Byakurai was right not to tell anyone," Kuri concluded, "If Central 46 caught wind of this, they would have the pregnancy ended and I don't know what they would do to Byakurai."

"But he didn't do anything wrong!" Ichigo objected, "Byakuya just said that they weren't in control."

"Yeah," Kisuke sighed uneasily, "that's true. We take that to mean that they shouldn't be held responsible, that they should be free to decide what's the best thing to do."

"But something tells me that Central 46 isn't going to see it that way," Ichigo said bitterly, "Even if they don't come out and blame you, they're going to do something bad to you, aren't they? They're going to kill the baby and then what? They…they wouldn't kill you two, would they?"

"I was not about to go before them, reveal everything and find out," Byakuya admitted, "I think there is something deeper going on here and we need to figure out what it is."

"I agree with Byakuya," Kisuke added, "It's no coincidence that this happened, that it happened where and when it happened, that it happened to whom it happened. All of this leads somewhere and we need to figure out where before Central 46 catches up with us."

He paused, his brow furrowing as he considered.

"No, I think we don't even just have to worry about Central 46," he reasoned, "It may go higher than that."

"Higher than Central 46?" Ichigo asked breathlessly, "But that would mean…"

"The king's royal council," Byakuya suggested, "and perhaps the royal guard."

Kuri frowned.

"My father is assigned to his majesty's elite forces."

Byakuya nodded.

"As is my grandfather. But even so, with the 'king' incapacitated, the royal council and Central 46 are the ones who directly control the royal realm and Soul Society. That being the case, they control our fate. If they decide that they need to be sure this child, or any child of this kind is not born, then they may decide that Kenpachi's life and mine must be sacrificed."

"What?" Ichigo hissed, his golden brown eyes lighting with angry defiance, "They wanna kill you because they don't want this baby to be born? Why? What the hell is going on? What do they think is gonna happen if this kid is born? Are they worried about it being a demon or something?"

"Hmm," Kisuke mused, "the demons of the royal realm are very concerning, but I think that the chances of Byakuya and Kenpachi making that kind of demon baby are extremely low. And although the willing conception and bearing of demons aren't allowed, this is a grey area. Byakuya and Kenpachi were used by an unidentified source to create this child. Is it related to Kenpachi history? Kuchiki family history? Demon history? Or are we looking at something else? We need time to unravel this, but I'm warning you, Byakuya, that if you and Kenpachi are in the sights of the royal council and royal guard, we aren't going to be safe anywhere in the living world or in Soul Society."

"So, what do we do?" Tetsuya asked anxiously, "Where can we go? Do you mean we should somehow try to reach the royal realm ourselves? Is that even possible?"

"Well, Ywach managed it," Kisuke reminded them, "though he had a lot of reiatsu on his side, more than we have. No, I don't think we can go there."

"But if the royal realm, the living world and Soul Society are out, then where can we go?" asked Ichigo.

"The precipice world would probably be a good choice," Kisuke suggested.

"But wait," Ichigo objected, "The precipice world has that goddamned cleaner that chases me every time I go in there. Also, didn't you tell me that Squad Twelve monitors the precipice world?"

"That they do," Kisuke chuckled, "But—I've got some corridors that I can access that we can enter without Squad Twelve sensing it. Inside those corridors are some pocket dimensions. They're basically tiny worlds of their own that open only into the precipice world. Squad 12 uses some of these in their corridors to house very dangerous beings that are not criminals exactly, but they are not something we'd want wandering around our worlds. The pocket dimensions in my corridors are places where I go to conduct experiments of the kind that would definitely piss off the powers that be in Central 46 and get me in a lot of trouble. When you're the guy that everyone looks to for answers, sometimes the answers don't come easy."

"I think they will not come easy in this case," Byakuya concluded.

Kisuke tipped his head forward and touched his fingers to the front of his striped hat.

"You're a wise man, Kuchiki taicho."