Chapter 41:
Ichigo staggered through the street holding his stomach wound shut with his hand. He wasn't healing fast enough. There was only one way he knew of that could do that.
Byakuya was making more slaves and Ichigo just had the two. He needed more. Another reason to do what he believed was the only way.
He heard someone's voice and allowed his legs to give out. If they meant him no harm, they would rush over to help him. No reason to exert himself if he didn't have to.
"Ichigo, what happened to you?" came Rukia's voice. "Hold on. Let me get you help."
Ichigo grabbed her hand. "No, wait. Rukia… stay. Please."
She stopped where she was and bent down. Ichigo must have been in rough shape to be acting this way. His stomach wound was deep and he was covered in scratches. These weren't from a blade.
Ichigo pulled her closer. "Rukia, please. I need you."
This was very unusual for Ichigo. She couldn't remember him ever saying that to her outside of battle. And even then, it was more like an order than a plead. Something was wrong with Ichigo. Was he like this because of the blood-loss? Was it making him delirious?
Ichigo moved his head closer to rest on Rukia's shoulder. "Stay," he told her quietly.
"Ichigo," Rukia said firmly. "We need to get you help."
Ichigo adjusted his head slightly, breathing down her neck. "I can… help… myself."
He opened his mouth to take a bite.
"No!"
Two had shown up to stop Ichigo: Hitsugaya and Byakuya.
Both came leaping out of nowhere to prevent this. Ichigo used his speed to vanish and reappear a few feet away with Rukia's hand in his grasp. Taken by surprise at the sudden burst of speed, Rukia momentarily struggled to get her footing again and when she did, received a shock.
"Brother?" He didn't look like himself and his eyes were glowing bright red. She barely noticed the large white wolf standing nearby.
There was a standoff between the trio, each glaring at the other.
Byakuya's eyes glowed dangerously. "Not her," he said firmly.
Ichigo tightened his hold on Rukia's wrist. "She's precious to you. Is that why she's off limits?"
Rukia looked from Ichigo to Byakuya.
Byakuya narrowed his eyes in answer.
Ichigo scoffed. "You'll feed off everyone else but not her? How special." Ichigo glanced at Rukia with a smirk. "Then I guess it'd be a pretty big screw-you if I had her all to myself, wouldn't it?"
Ichigo would bite Rukia just to spite Byakuya, but he also needed the blood.
"How would that make you feel, Byakuya?" Ichigo asked him with amusement in his voice. "Watching your beloved sister serve me for the rest of her life?"
Byakuya's nails cut into his palms as he clenched his fists even tighter. "You keep your filthy mouth off her neck."
Ichigo laughed, enjoying this too much. "It's not fair for her to be off limits and have no one claim her. Just because you refuse to eat her doesn't mean someone else can't have her."
"It does," Byakuya said darkly. "She's not involved."
"She is now." Ichigo held up Rukia's hand in his fist. "If you won't eat her, I will. I might as well, right? Let's not be selfish."
Rukia again looked from the two men, trying to piece things together.
Byakuya snarled at the thought. Having Ichigo use Rukia would be the ultimate insult and he knew that. How dare he even suggest such a thing. He couldn't allow this to happen.
He had to kill Ichigo. Now more than ever, he had to.
Yet… he made a good point. And what if he failed? To allow Rukia…
Byakuya vanished and reappeared behind Ichigo and kicked him away from Rukia. Grabbing her in his arms, Byakuya jumped before Ichigo could recover. He landed on a roof with Rukia in his lap.
"Big Brother, what's going on?"
Byakuya's face looked pained.
"Big Brother?"
Byakuya looked from her to Ichigo on the ground, too weak to stand. "You can't have her," Byakuya stated simply. "She's mine."
He held Rukia so tight, she complained.
"It won't hurt for long," he told her.
He would rather bite her than allow Ichigo to have her.
Hitsugaya's wolf ears drooped in dismay.
Rukia was the one shred Byakuya had left of himself. Once he bit her, that would be gone. Along with whatever was left of Byakuya.
He held back for this long, but his vampire pride won out.
Byakuya pulled her in close and held her. Sensing something was wrong, Rukia fought to look up at him but his hold was too strong. She couldn't move her head. "Big Brother, what are you doing? What's happening?"
She felt his hand on the back of her head, stroking her gently. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his breath on her neck.
Rukia wasn't sure who he was apologizing to, from the tone of his voice, but it made her heart ache and a chill go down her spine.
"Big Brother, stop," she told him and tried to push away. "Whatever it is, you don't have to…"
Using his hand to force her head to one side, Byakuya prepared to bite her neck.
"No, don't!" Hitsugaya shouted in wolf form, which came out as a loud bark. "Stop! Don't do it!"
Just as Byakuya's fangs were about to scrape her flesh, something hit him from behind and he was forced to bite the roof instead.
A brown wolf with Hisagi's eyes had planted his paws on Byakuya's back and, standing on the vampire's spine, attempted to pick Rukia up in his teeth. She pulled away, unsure of what was happening but didn't attack, seeing traces of a friend in his features.
Roaring, Byakuya threw Hisagi off his back and grabbed him by the tail, whipping him into the roof beside Rukia. Hisagi yelped in pain, his four legs kicking frantically.
"I'm going to rip you in half, wolf!" Byakuya grabbed Hisagi's skull with one hand and his spine with the other and began to pull in opposite directions.
"No! Hisagi!" Hitsugaya jumped as high as he could to reach the roof and save his friend. "Get off him, Byakuya! Stop this!"
Byakuya used Hisagi's body as a shield and then dropped him to attack Hitsugaya directly. Byakuya's enhanced strength proved devastating as he drove his fist into Hitsugaya's body. At the last second, Hitsugaya twisted in the air to take the blow on his left hip instead of his chest which may have saved his life.
He felt the bone break on impact and Hitsugaya fell to the ground painfully.
Byakuya grabbed Hisagi's tail and threw him at Hitsugaya then followed his path for another attack.
Rukia had no idea what was happening but understood that this wasn't her brother. This wasn't his style of fighting and she never knew him to be this vicious. Even the way he looked at those wolves was unlike anything she had ever seen him display before.
Hisagi hit Hitsugaya and Byakuya landed on them both, feet-first. He began to punch Hisagi over and over, Hitsugaya feeling the blows from directly underneath, then Byakuya took Hisagi by the scruff and tossed him aside to attack Hitsugaya. Hisagi bounced several times before landing in a clump on the ground, barely whimpering.
On the ground, Hitsugaya shifted back to Soul Reaper form to speak with Byakuya.
Upon seeing who the wolf really was, Rukia let out a soft gasp, watching from the roof.
"Byakuya," Hitsugaya told him. "Please."
Byakuya scoffed. "Begging for your life, Captain? How pitiful."
"For yours, actually," said Hitsugaya. "Don't do this."
"Don't do what? Embrace what I am? Protect myself from foul creatures like you who strive to destroy me?"
"You're feeding off everyone around you, turning them into your devoted subjects who will do anything for you, even kill their own friends. You nearly turned Rukia into one just a moment ago. Soon, you'll have bitten everyone and there will be no one left."
"Suits me just fine," answered Byakuya. "No one left to oppose me. An endless supply of blood for me to feast upon."
"They won't be themselves anymore," Hitsugaya told him. "And an endless supply? We both know you won't stop there. You don't need more subjects. You're not starving. You're only doing this because you can. Not because you have to."
"There's no difference to me."
"See? You're not Byakuya anymore. Just a shell of a man who was once a respected Captain. There's a reason vampires can't see themselves in a mirror. It's because you wouldn't be able to stand the sight of what you've become."
Byakuya bent down and lifted Hitsugaya off the ground by his kimono, holding him in the air.
"Don't let the vampire in you win, Byakuya. You're better than this. Don't forget who you really are."
"Cute speech, but I wasn't moved." Byakuya pulled Hitsugaya in close. "What you fail to understand is that I like what I've become. I see no reason to change. I don't want to. And you have no right to make me."
Reasoning was useless. Hitsugaya suspected as much when he saw Byakuya try to bite Rukia.
Byakuya put his left hand on Hitsugaya's head and got ready to twist. "No hard feelings when I take your head off, Captain."
The ground underfoot suddenly grew cold and Byakuya looked down in time to see ice shooting straight up, encapsulating him but not Hitsugaya. The smaller Captain used his feet to push off the pillar of ice and jump away from the trapped vampire.
Rukia was on the roof with her sword pointed in their direction. Instead of looking proud of her work, she looked ashamed and disgusted.
Hitsugaya understood. She had never attacked her brother before and never wanted to.
"What was that?" she demanded. "What happened to Byakuya?"
Hitsugaya kept his distance from the ice, moving around it to check on Hisagi as he answered her. "Byakuya's been turned into a vampire and so has Ichigo. Byakuya's been a vampire longer so he's losing himself. Ichigo's on his way, but…"
Ichigo was sitting against a wall, hand still pressed to the wound in his stomach. He was in no condition to fight.
Catching up to the battle, Nanao saw Ichigo and hurriedly rolled up her sleeve to offer her forearm to him. She helped guide his mouth to her arm and he bit her, drinking the blood that flowed forth slowly but hungrily.
Rukia had to believe it now that she saw it with her own eyes.
Hisagi opened his eyes to look at Hitsugaya. He had been badly beaten and couldn't move or change back. "He won't stop," Hisagi whispered weakly to Hitsugaya in wolf form.
Hitsugaya laid a hand on Hisagi's shoulder, feeling his pain. "I know," he said just as softly.
The ice pillar began to crack.
"Rukia," Hitsugaya said, standing. "You need to get away from here. The more blood Byakuya drinks, the stronger he gets and the more he loses himself. If he gets you…"
"I can't leave," she told him.
Hitsugaya didn't want to tell her that she would be in the way, knowing how she idolized her brother, but there was nothing he could do to force her. He also didn't want to make another werewolf.
The ice pillar shattered and Byakuya broke free with a roar. The first person he looked at was Rukia, shocked that her attack would ever reach him.
"Why, Rukia? Why do you attack your brother?"
Rukia flinched then glared at him. "You are not my brother." She didn't sound very convinced of this.
Something Byakuya took advantage of. "Dear Rukia… Do you not know your own brother? Who took you in to the Kuchiki family? Who called you his sister? Who's taken care of you all this time? You've worked hard to prove it was a good investment, haven't you? Rising to the rank of Lieutenant. How proud you have made me."
She had always wanted to hear him say something like that to her, but now that she had, it didn't feel as good as she thought it would. Whether it was a lie or a stranger saying it, it made her feel sick.
"You've devoted yourself to me so much already. There's just one step left. One thing you can do to make me see you the way you've always wanted me to see you. My pride and my love…"
Byakuya's eyes were glowing dangerously as he opened his mouth wide, showing off his fangs.
"Give me your neck, Rukia! Serve me on the next level!"
He shot off the ground like a rocket, steering straight towards Rukia who couldn't use her sword against him.
Hitsugaya shouted helplessly for him to stop, unable to jump with his injured hip.
Something hit Byakuya's shoulder and he spiraled out of the air. He dug his claws into a roof to slow himself and managed to land on an awning of the building beside the one Rukia was seated on. He recovered from his tumble and looked in all directions to find the attacker.
"Hahahaha! Marvelous! A direct hit. I never did think vampires were all that invincible, but with everything you've proven so far, I just had to be sure. Looks like I was right, Nemu."