Title: Of Mental Time Warps and Human Experimentations
Summary: On a visit to the Shinigami Academy, Byakuya was hit by blast from the past that links his nightmares and the present. How will he escape? More importantly, will his mind survive?
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
Prologue & Chapter 1
Author's Note: My dear readers, firstly, thank you for clicking this fic in the first place. This is my first venture into posting my own fic at and I hope you all enjoy. I'm not sure how often I'll update as this but please review and I'll do my best to reply to each individually. Thank you!
EDIT: I went back and edited this chapter recently and reposted. Sorry about all those spelling and grammar mistakes before!
Prologue
From an outsider's point of view, it was just another typical Gotei 13 Captains' meeting headed by leader of the first squad, Yamamoto-taichou. But Byakuya, captain of the 6th squad knew better. The captain of the 12th squad, Urahara Kisuke, was making a presentation on his newest invention, the Hou Gyoku, a frighteningly powerful device to turn Shinigami into Hollows and vice versa.
"The power of the Hou Gyoku takes the very atoms of the soul and spontaneously breaks them down and remakes them into that of a Hollow's thus expanding the Shinigami's limits to uncharted amounts which will allow…" droned Urahara-taichou in the most boring voice Byakuya has heard coming from the man. Of course, the usual sound he hears coming from the mad scientist was the trademark evil chuckle and at that thought, he suppressed an involuntary shudder. A voice broke through his thoughts.
"Kuchiki-taichou, would you care to step forward for the demonstration?"
Byakuya blinked and found himself strapped to a table and looking up into bright medical lights. Stark naked. His eyebrows came together in a very displeased frown, the kind that meant sharp sakura petals would be flying freely just as soon as he got loose. Two faces loomed above him with uncannily similar unholy glee sparkling in their eyes.
"Byakuya-bou" came the female voice from his right. That voice he recognized. Oh, by his Zanpakutou did he recognize it. It was the captain of the 2nd squad, Shihouin Yoruichi, little princess of her clan and the only one in the entire Soul Society to beat him at Shunpo.
'This must be a dream… it is a dream… it is a dream… it is a…'
"Dream?"
The voice jerked Byakuya's head to the left where he heard the clack of wooden clogs against the tiled floor. He took it back, it was a nightmare.
And it was.
Chapter 1
Present time
In the times when Urahara and Yoruichi had still been Shinigami, they left many marks (though some would argue scars) on the minds of those who resided in Soul Society. Others had also come and gone and left their spots but these two were among the exceptions, especially in the mind of one Kuchiki Byakuya.
To those who had not had the dubious pleasure of knowing her, Yoruichi was the impenetrable noble ice princess who was a genius of many talents, being the first female ever to succeed the Shihouin title. Byakuya believed from the bottom of his heart what they said about that little, imaginary line between genius and insanity. For that matter, it also applied to the co-star of his nightmares.
He shuddered. At least they were gone, but for how long? The talks throughout the Seireitei pointed to their re-induction into the Shinigami ranks due to the parts they played in the past war against Aizen-turned-Hollow and his motley army of Vizards and ex-Shinigami. Yes, that was what had triggered the nightmare, it all started with that damnable Urahara's Hou Gyoku. There were also rumors of the return of another whose disappearance all those years ago left a legend but other rumors say that the ex-captain just wanted to be left alone. There had never been anyone who was offered return to Soul Society, let alone the Shinigami ranks, after exile and here were three cases that were being hotly debated. Yama-jii was ever being the old conservative and opposing it but the younger ones were strongly in favor, some so much that some would give up their captain posts for the old ones to be reinstated.
Byakuya refused to think of himself as old (Yama-jii still had centuries on him) but he could not quite allow himself to support the breaking of tradition after following the rules strictly for so long. It was not a rule, strictly speaking, but having come from a noble line, tradition had played a big part of life. An eyebrow twitch here was inevitable at the memory of overhearing what some lower ranked Shinigami called him when they thought he wasn't around. Surely he would know if he had something up his ass and he was not inclined that way no matter what the rumors said.
With a sound that from a lesser person would be called a groan, he sat up on his futon and opened his eyes. The room was still the same as it ever was since he moved into it when he became the heir to the Kuchiki clan. Byakuya really did not want to get up today but duty was duty and it was screeching in his ear. The cute, pink haired vice captain of the 11th squad had put forth the idea that each year, two captains of Gotei 13, with their vice captains, would give talks inspiring the aspiring Shinigami in the academy's graduating class and lo and behold, even the great Yamamoto-taichou could not stand the arguably deadly aura of pink cuddliness to disagree. So, as a guy called Murphy whose law is enacted at the worst moments, Byakuya drew the short straw this year along with Unohana, the captain of the 4th squad. As much as he did not want to do this, he also equally disliked being late and so combined with nagging voice of duty; he was faced with the extremely difficult task of getting out of bed.
Hours later found a stony faced noble, a tattooed eyebrows redhead, giant frontal braided healer and a good looking guy-if-she-was-a-guy at the gates of the academy, the only thing that separated them from the untrained masses of the Shinigami Academy. The accursed sense of déjà vu was niggling at the back of Byakuya's mind and would not desist. This was the first time he had come back to the academy since a long time before Urahara and Yoruichi's reappearance and it brought back memories, ones that if he dwelled too hard upon, would earn him a place as a skeleton in the closet right next to that crazy uncle twice removed. Needless to say, Byakuya believed the events of the past made him stronger willed, if not sturdier of mind.
"You did not attend this academy did you, Kuchiki-taichou?" asked Unohana quietly. The reply came in the form of a terse nod of his head just as the doors groaned open before them.
Unohana graced this with a light titter of laughter and turned to her vice captain who was looking at the large gates with a small, reminiscent smile on her face. She put a light hand on the younger woman's shoulder and said something quietly, to which was answered with a growing smile and nod of head then stood up straighter. Byakuya understood that this was the girl's first time back at the academy since her graduation and like any successful alumni; she wanted to present a good image.
There was no turning back now, though Byakuya would never admit to ever having thought of such a thing. What he really wanted was a nice tea under a shady tree in his garden, not walk past a long stretch of red, blue and white clad Shinigami trainees who gawked and whispered and pointed at him with the occasional swooner. He was quite aware of his reputation here as the ice prince and because of it, the girls kept their distance of exactly three point eight metres, the radius of which displays a clear circumference in large crowds and among the largest of the captains, only beaten by Zaraki Kenpachi whose evil aura sent the little ones scuttling back an amazing eight metres. Urahara had even told him once that he would do a study on this contradictory 'repellent yet attractive energy' he exuded, which Byakuya hoped he was joking about, but with that man, nobody ever knew.
They finally reached the dean and his assistant at the end of the long walk and Byakuya was happy to let Unohana do the spoken formalities while he stood there with his gaze upon the old man, and by old, he meant Yama-jii stage yet with only a small fraction of the first squad captain's spirit energy.
"It is such an honor to have you here today, Kuchiki-taichou," said the dean who had turned his attention onto the inattentive man, after obviously having given finished with the 4th squad's captain.
The hard look Byakuya gave the old man would have sent anyone less than a third seat from most squads shuffling away by a few more seats to get away from the mean looking man with the white hairpiece unless they were from the 11th squad, they were into that kind of thing, especially that captain of theirs. Obviously, the jiji was made of sterner stuff, there was only a slight spasm of facial muscles before he got it under control but his assistant, well, the look had its effect. This elicited a snort from Renji, who had been the recipient of that look more times than he could count until it had no visible effect on him as far as his captain could see.
'Alright, enough fun and games', thought Byakuya as he let the expression slip from his face and opted for a more neutral one. He nodded at the dean to acknowledge the man and said a terse, "Lead the way."
This was enough of a sign for the old man to start his tour of the school as he guided them through the halls and told them about the changes that have been made in the past decade or so. Byakuya toned him out, he realized that he could not remember the man's name off the top of his head and mentally scolded himself for not paying more careful attention but could not be bothered to remedy that. If it was important, he will find out later. It was just that there were just so many memories of these halls, though not because he attended this academy, no, the noble houses all home schooled those they sent off to Gotei 13 and this Kuchiki was no exception. The only ones were those who became part of the Kuchiki clan by marriage or adoption and even that was rare as the nobles liked to intermarry. It was image of Hisana, and later Rukia, that Byakuya saw in these halls, especially the former, as it was within these very walls that he had met his first object of extreme affection. That is a time he did not want to dwell on right now, not because of the bittersweet memories but of the traumatizing ones too… Urahara had… NO! He definitely would not think about that, especially with what Yoruichi did as well…
It was the inattentive Kuchiki Byakuya who was shaking his head vehemently that did not sense the red blast of the Kidou blast that was flying his way from the corridor scuffle.
It was the noble Kuchiki Byakuya who created a joke that would run rampant through the halls of this academy for the next thousand years.
It was the greatly shamed Kuchiki Byakuya who ended up, or more precisely down, on the wooden floor out cold and the worst thing was, it had singed off the edges of his eyebrows.
Will he live it down?
Renji thought not.