Chapter 13:

Hitsugaya stood and waited on the outskirts of the Seireitei for them to come. He was certain his howl reached them with their keen hearing but that wasn't really what he was wondering. He wanted to see how they would react and respond to the howl. Chances were nothing would take place and if something did happen, they would arrive to investigate the noise. In that case, it was more curiosity than sense of duty.

He waited for several minutes and was starting to consider going back to the office to actually accomplish something. Just then, he saw two figures coming his way. It was Shinji and Hisagi. Hitsugaya took a breath, pleased to see them and wondering how to explain himself at the same time. They might be upset at him for howling when they were supposed to keep a low profile and came to scold him. Either that or they were going to ask why he howled, interpreting it as a kind of alarm.

Preparing an answer for any question they threw at him, Hitsugaya took a step closer to meet them. The two walked towards him and stopped, standing side by side and stared.

Hitsugaya looked from one to the other, noting their vacant expressions and the slight yellow gleam in their eyes. Their irises were that of a wolf's.

"You called," Hisagi said calmly, staring at Hitsugaya.

"Uh…" He didn't know what this was. He didn't know what to do. Was he controlling them? Were they in a trance? What was this?

Shinji and Hisagi shook themselves and their eyes returned to normal.

Shinji put a hand to his forehead. "What the heck was that?"

"Are you ok?" Hitsugaya asked, concerned.

"I'm fine. I just…" He frowned. "When you howled like that, I…"

"You, too?" asked Hisagi. "I heard it and I just… I felt compelled to come here. I even left Kira back in the filing room to get here. We were right in the middle of something and I…"

"Exactly," said Shinji. "I was overseeing training and as soon as I heard the howl… It was sending me the clear message to come. So I did."

"So it was like a summons," Hitsugaya said more to himself than to them. They were aware of what they were doing but couldn't seem to help themselves. This was very interesting.

Shinji looked down at Hitsugaya. "Why'd you howl like that? Something up?"

"No, I… I just wanted to see what would happen."

Shinji sighed. "Well, I gotta get back there. I left in such a hurry, Momo's bound to be wondering what's going on. Hope she didn't follow me out of concern."

"I don't see her anywhere."

"I better get back anyway." Shinji waved to the two of them. "I'll see you tonight."

Hitsugaya wanted to try another test. He howled as quietly as he could, watching their reaction.

Shinji turned, wrinkling his nose. "What?" he asked. "Why are you doing that?"

"Maybe something's wrong," offered Hisagi.

Hitsugaya tried a little louder, but he was just baffling the others.

Annoyed, Shinji groaned and threw up his hands. "Either talk to me or don't. I don't get what this howling's about."

Hisagi peered down at Hitsugaya. "Is everything ok? Is this a wolf thing we need to be concerned about?"

Hitsugaya tried one last time to incite a reaction from them. Changing pitch and keeping the howl brief compared to the first one, he succeeded.

"I cannot stand the noise," complained Shinji. "I'm going…" His eyes gleamed yellow as a new sensation washed over him, compelling him to howl. Shinji answered Hitsugaya's howl with his own.

At the same time, Hisagi's eyes changed color and he, too, started howling. He couldn't help it. He felt like it was something he had to do.

Hitsugaya stopped and moments later they did as well. That must have been the howl used to locate members of the pack. They responded to his howl, letting him know where they were, even though they were right in front of him.

Shinji's eyes were their normal brown as he looked around in mild confusion. "Why did we just do that?"

"Must be a wolf quirk," said Hisagi, also looking normal again.

Shinji looked accusingly at Hitsugaya. "Are you doing this? What the hell's going on?"

Hitsugaya decided not to experiment any further. At least, until the evening. "I was just seeing how you reacted to howling," he told them.

"You had to do that now?"

"Sorry," he said. "I'll see you guys tonight."

Shinji frowned. "Unless you do that again…"

Byakuya had a feeling they would make accessing the sickbay's blood bank more difficult after the first incident, which was why he had his new helper bring the blood to him since it wasn't out of the ordinary for someone who worked there to be there. However, once the meeting concluded, not even his Squad 4 helper would be able to get him blood and not have everyone know about it.

The arrangement was clear and simple. She would go to where they kept the blood, take a blood pack from storage and hand it to him as he walked by in a different location which he would then hide on his person until he could drink it in private. The blood would be unable to change hands now thanks to Squad 4's own arrangements. At least his helper was good for something else: information.

Once everything was in place, the nurse came to Byakuya to inform him of everything she learned. "Captain Unohana has not changed the blood's location but there are several traps and security measures in place, including Kido. Even in an emergency situation, the Lieutenant must always be present when someone opens the locker and extracts a blood pack. It is then immediately documented to prevent loss of inventory. The inventory will also be periodically checked throughout the day. Once in the morning and again at night, but also random checks in between. They've also stationed a guard somewhere near that room but will not tell us their location for fear it might be an inside job."

"Hm," said Byakuya. "This will be tricky. Clearly, they haven't disclosed the guard's location to anyone in your Squad on the off chance of it being an inside job. Unohana was adamant that it couldn't be, but it seems they're covering all their bases."

Smiling politely, Renji said, "Master, I would be happy to disarm the guard for you so that you may have your fill of blood. I will even take the fall, if you like."

"No," he answered. "I will not be sacrificing any pawns this early in the game. Besides, if you take the fall, that is one less resource and my blood supply must remain high."

Renji blushed, thinking about Byakuya biting his neck.

Byakuya addressed the girl. "Thank you for your report. Keep an open ear but do not make a move. For the time being, I will not require you to fetch me any more blood. If anything changes, report it, otherwise, I will bring you new orders when I have them."

She bowed and left before anyone could wonder where she was.

Renji moved closer to Byakuya. "Master, allow me to provide you with blood. I'd be happy to."

"Perhaps later," said Byakuya. "You'll need your strength for what I need you to do. As for the blood, leave it to me. I have an idea."

"They did what?" Akon asked, giving Hitsugaya his undivided attention.

"It's so strange. I don't know what was going on. They were themselves but they weren't."

"They came to you when you howled, though, right? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? What you wanted to happen?"

"You're the one who told me to experiment."

"And as a result?"

Hitsugaya sighed. "Their eyes were glowing slightly. They had wolf eyes. But I don't know what that means."

"That their wolf half had taken over, I would assume."

"But it's weird. For a second, I thought I was controlling them, the way Byakuya can with his hypnotic eyes. But when they arrived, they seemed to be aware of everything they had done. That's different from what Byakuya can do, since his victims never remember what they did under the hypnosis."

"You weren't using hypnosis," Akon explained. "You howled and it obviously triggered their wolf sense. Like how you whistle when calling a dog. The dog comes and it's under no one's control. It just knows to do that."

"Because someone trained it to respond to a whistle," said Hitsugaya.

"Not necessarily," said Akon. "Some just know to do that and haven't been trained per se."

Hitsugaya sighed, slumping into a chair. "They admitted they felt weird but I'm not sure what happened. They were aware. Then when I tried a different howl, it just compelled them to join in and howl back."

"As wolves will do. They answer each other's howls. We know this. People howl to make a wolf howl. It's what they do. It's instinct. Nothing to be concerned about. They responded the way they should have."

"It's the glowing I have a problem with. What does that mean? It makes me think I'm actively doing something to them."

"Other than triggering their natural wolf response?" Akon didn't seem very concerned. "Your eyes glow when your wolf side kicks in."

"They do?"

"Yup."

Hitsugaya put his hand to his face, wondering how often that happened and if anyone other than Akon noticed.

"Without further study, I couldn't tell you what's going on with them, but I doubt you're controlling them like puppets," said Akon. "If anything, you're tapping into their wolf sense and triggering an instinctual response, just like I've been telling you. Since you're the alpha, you might be able to stimulate this feeling within them and draw it out easier than others."

"If I'm drawing out their wolf side, isn't that dangerous?" Hitsugaya asked, turning his head. "What if they start acting less..?" He sighed. "Am I making them more animalistic by doing that?"

"No more than they already are," said Akon. "If I had to guess, I'd say it'd be easier to control their behavior by doing what you're doing."

"You really believe that?"

"It's a hunch until I can gather further evidence, as with any educated guess."

"What I'm hearing is that you want me to experiment more with this and see what happens to them."

Akon shrugged. "I'm all for experimenting to see what happens, making sure to do it right. Time and place, kind of thing. If you want to see if something will explode, you don't do it in a building. You take it out into an open field where you're not going to hurt anyone."

"I'm still concerned I could be making them more animalistic by doing this."

"You were concerned about what might happen if you bit them. Now you're concerned about what might happen if you try different wolf behaviors on them. If it gets too bad, just tell us and we'll step in. If they get out of control, we'll cage them or something."

"I don't want it to come to that," said Hitsugaya. "I don't want anyone to get hurt. Them or anyone who might get caught up in this. If they hurt someone it will be my fault."

Akon looked up and stared at him. "Because you chose to experiment without knowing what would happen?" he asked slowly.

"Because I'm the one who bit them," Hitsugaya admitted. Heaving a heavy sigh, he slumped in his chair. "I made them this way. I'm responsible for what happens. And yes, if I do experiment without full understanding of what I'm doing and things go south, that would also be my fault. If they go wild and hurt someone, I can be held accountable."

Akon snorted, amused. "You're more responsible and conscious than a lot of the people here who call themselves adults."

"You think I'm wrong?"

Akon didn't answer right away. "I think, while it's good to be aware that your actions have consequences, I think you're putting unnecessary pressure on yourself."

Hitsugaya sighed again. "Maybe you're right."

"After all, we allowed three people to become Soul Reapers who ultimately waged war on us. Do we blame Aizen for what he put us through or the ones who allowed him to graduate and go up in ranks until he became Captain and betrayed us? He knew what he was doing. He's the one we blame."

"I know that, but this is a little different," said Hitsugaya. "I'm not talking about someone who decided to do something they knew was wrong from the start and plot and deliberately hurt people. I'm talking about someone who may not be aware of their actions."

"And I told you I don't think that's the case with these guys."

"But what if experimenting makes it that way? What if I do something and it turns them wild and they can't snap out of it? Then we can't blame them and we're looking at shared accountability."

"I really don't think that's going to happen with the howling. If it changes anything, it might tame them, not make them go wild."

Hitsugaya rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, maybe… But we're not wolves. We're werewolves. What if it's different?"

"What if it's not?" Akon answered quickly. "Granted, there's some mild differences between wolves and werewolves, like the eating habits and sleeping arrangements. Wolves are nocturnal, wolves operate on a feast or famine type of diet, and you don't. But overall, you're very similar and remain in control of yourselves. I say stop worrying about it and trust each other."

Hitsugaya knew he was right. There was no sense in worrying about it, but he liked to air on the side of caution. Minimal experimentation and at the first sign of things going south, he was going to report it at once before things could escalate.

The approaching full moon was the main thing he had to worry about aside from Byakuya. If it was similar to his dream, he already knew what to expect, but couldn't be sure due to the variations between his dream and reality. He believed he could handle it this time around but helping them through it was going to be his primary objective.

As expected, once everyone went home for the evening, the sickbay was virtually deserted, save for one guard posted outside the window. He was a member of the Stealth Force and by his lonesome. Byakuya could sense the man before being sensed himself. Byakuya couldn't believe how stealthy he was as a vampire. Either that or the man wasn't taking his job seriously. Byakuya was able to hover above him in the night sky unnoticed.

He waited for several minutes before growing bored and slipped down to hover over then man's shoulder. That was when the man sensed him and spun around where Byakuya's eyes were waiting for him. His glowing red eyes stood out against the night sky, immediately snaring the man crouched on the roof.

"Ohh, isn't this a lovely night?" Byakuya asked slyly. "So pleasantly quiet. Have you ever felt such peace?"

The man did not answer, staring into his eyes.

"You must be so tired," Byakuya whispered to him soothingly. "Why don't you go to sleep?"

The man's eyes started to droop and his body swayed.

Byakuya placed his hand on the side of the man's face, cradling his head. "Sleep," he ordered gently and the man fell asleep on the spot. Byakuya laid him down on the roof and slipped inside through the window.

He could have easily bitten the man and gained a new servant but he wanted to test his limits. Hypnotizing a guard and taking blood protect by Kido seemed like fun. The part of him that knew he shouldn't be doing this hadn't bothered him for some time. The more blood he drank, the quieter that side became.

Byakuya stood in front of the metal doors and noticed the chains looping around the handles and clasped with a thick lock. That was easily broken. It was the Kido he was concerned about. He knew it would be difficult to break through that defense, depending on which one was being used. A slight miscalculation could result in sealing himself inside a trap where everyone would find him the next morning, if not sooner.

He moved forward very slowly, testing the floor with his foot for traps. Easing his way forward, he held out his hand and noticed a box entrapping the blood bank. This was the Kido. A kind of forcefield that would prevent him from entering and cause pain if he tried.

His hand brushed the outside of the box and he felt it warble. Curious, he pressed his hand deeper into it. It stung the palm of his hand but once he pressed hard enough, his hand broke through the other side and the Kido itself. Byakuya looked around in amazement. He had broken the Kido so easily.

Now for the chains. This was child's play. He broke them simply by squeezing the lock in the palm of his hand. The lock and chains fell to the ground like broken cookie bits. He opened the metal door and grabbed a few blood packs, stuffing them into his kimono. He closed the door, leaving the broken lock where it was on the floor and flew out the window where the man was still fast asleep at his post.

Byakuya smiled, pleased with himself. That was almost too easy.

What else could a vampire do?

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