"WHERE IS SHE?!"
Kuchiki Byakuya stormed through the medical wards of the Fourth Division. Everyone who was in his way quickly parted to let him through. No one is courageous enough to stop the angry Captain on his warpath.
He spotted Shiba Miyako and her husband, Shiba Kaien, immediately.
"Kaien." He growled as he physically hoisted the Vice-Captain of the Thirteenth Division off his feet and pulled him closer. "Where. Is. She?!"
"Captain Unohana is still operating on her." Kaien tried his best to keep his cool and not faint under the pressure of Byakuya's Reiatsu. He may be a Vice-Captain, but the difference in power between him and Byakuya is as clear as night and day.
"If anything happens to Rui, it's on you and your wife." He spat out as he threw Kaien violently back to the ground and Miyako quickly helped him back up on his feet.
"It's not Kaien's fault, it's my fault." Miyako whispered out, trying to control her tears from spilling out. "If it wasn't for me, Kurui won't-"
"Miyako." Kaien put a hand on his wife's hand to comfort her. "She will be fine. Have faith in her and Captain Unohana."
Byakuya could care less whose fault it was. All he knows right now is that his sister is currently in the operating room with her life hanging in the balance.
It was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission.
Hollow sightings have become more frequent and irregular around the Rukongai, something which had garnered the Gotei 13's attention. The irregular phenomenon had gotten them alarmed. The plan they decided on was to first send out reconnaissance teams to find out if there is a reason to it, if any other forces are at play. Almost every division sent out a few teams. His sister was in one of them.
From what he was told, Shiba Miyako's team encountered an exceptionally powerful hollow able to destroy Zanpakutos if Shingamis touched its tentacles. It had easily wiped out Miyako's team and she was the only one left. To add on, Miyako's Zanpakuto was destroyed by the hollow. Miyako would have died if it wasn't for Kurui arriving in the nick of time to save her.
And yet now his sister is the one in the operating room.
Miyako couldn't be of much help since her Zanpakuto was destroyed, shattered into a million pieces. The hollow, whose name was Metastacia as they soon learnt, wiped out Kurui's team as well when it displayed the ability to fuse with a person's body. By possessing the body of a Shinigami, it was able to sow enough confusion and swiftly take down each of Kurui's men until all that were left are her and Miyako.
Kurui had told Miyako to run and get help, stating that she would only get in the way since her Zanpakuto was already destroyed.
Byakuya knows Kaien and Miyako personally as fellow noblemen. The Shiba clan is a clan that is of equal status and wealth to the Kuchiki. Members of the Shiba clan are also very easy-going in nature, making it easy for anyone to befriend them. He knows Kurui have struck a friendship with Isshin, Kaien, and Miyako, and given how loyal Kurui is to her friends, she would not have hesitated to stick her neck out to save Miyako. He knows that Miyako and Kaien are good people. Rukia herself is in the Thirteenth Division, he had heard a lot from his adopted sister about how Kaien and Miyako are as a person.
He knows that, but it doesn't mean that he accepts this outcome. Kurui is his little sister, the last reminder he has of their parents. His wife aside, she is his only immediate family member left that is related to him by blood. His grandfather and parents had left Kurui in his care and he had failed. No matter how much he wants to think through it rationally, he cannot help but blame the Shibas for his sister's current predicament.
Thankfully, Miyako had managed to reach Kaien in time to call for help. The Vice-Captain of the Thirteenth Division had immediately gone to rescue Kurui and obliterated the hollow with extreme prejudice. However, the damage was done. Kurui had fallen in battle and the hollow had actually eaten a chunk out of her.
There is a portion of Kurui missing near her waist. The hollow had eaten a portion of her flesh and would have eaten her alive if it wasn't for Kaien arriving when he did.
A mission gone wrong had claimed the lives of his parents. He will be damned if something similar was the reason his sister left him as well. He may be a Captain, but never before had he felt more useless than what he is feeling right now.
He forcefully kept his temper in check and leaned on the wall, waiting for the operation to be over impatiently. As much as he hates to admit it, there's nothing he can do right now.
The only thing he can do right now is to pray for his sister's safety.
"Nii-sama?"
Byakuya's eyes shot wide open and immediately went to his sister's side. Any trace of her usual energetic self is nowhere to be found. Her eyes are barely open, her skin a sickly yellow. She is hooked up to all sorts of machines that is the only reason why she is still alive and breathing right now as she lay on the hospital bed.
"Rui." He whispered in half-happiness, half-relief. It had been two days since the operation ended. Captain Unohana had stated that she had done her best, and now it is up to Kurui herself to wake up. Byakuya had put everything aside and kept a constant vigil by Kurui's side throughout these two days. Hisana, Rukia, and Renji visited regularly as well whenever they could, but they have their duties. With him absent, it is now up to Hisana to run the clan and ensure that the clan elders are not up to no good. He is thankful to her for that. Rukia and Renji are now Shinigamis, they need to fulfil their duties first and foremost. Byakuya is given preferential treatment due to a multitude of reasons. That he is a Captain, that he is a noble, that he is Kurui's brother and only family member left, and that the Captain Commander has a soft spot for his little sister and thus turned a blind eye when Byakuya ditched his work for Kurui.
Thank God Kurui woke up.
"Are you feeling ok? Do you need me to call Unohana over?" Byakuya asked a series of worried questions as he used his eyes to scan for any signs of discomfort his sister might be experiencing.
"You… have more grey hairs now…" She wheezed out and Byakuya's eye twitched on reflex. Trust her to try and crack a joke even in this state.
He let out a breath when he sat down and gently held her sister's left hand with both of his. She is alive.
She is alive.
"Don't scare me like this again, Rui." He said tiredly. "I don't think I can take it a second time."
"I was winning." She croaked out and gestured to him for a glass of water, which he quickly poured and handed to her shaking hands. He assisted her in sitting up and to lift the glass up to her lips for her to drink.
"You nearly died."
"I was winning. Someone else was there." She said softly and leaned on the bedrest. "I was about to deliver the finishing blow when someone attacked me from my back. That blow was supposed to kill me. I know it has to be a Shinigami, I recognise the sound of a slash a Zanpakuto makes when I hear one."
That got Byakuya's attention immediately.
"Are you sure?"
"Ask Captain Unohana. She was the one who treated me, she would know if there is a slash mark on my back." She said softly, not having energy to go about talking in her usual manner. She reached out to her own Zanpakuto by her side, which is broken into two neat fragments, as though being cut by something sharp.
"See this? The hollow I was fighting had the ability to shatter Zanpakuto. The Zanpakuto will break into many pieces like what happened to Miyako. Mine was cut cleanly into two. It's different. Someone sneaked in an attack on me while my attention was on the hollow. That someone wanted me to die by the hollow's hands and erase the evidence of a sabotage by letting the hollow eat me. There is someone in the Seireitei who doesn't want me alive. They want me dead and make it look like an accident."
Byakuya's hold on Kurui's hand got a little tighter. His eyes narrowed as he felt his fury boiling underneath.
"Remember the Academy field trip gone wrong? When the dummy hollow somehow got replaced by real hollows? The time when you had to come and save me and my friends?" Kurui continued as she leaned into Byakuya's side for support. "I have a feeling that was on purpose too. For all we know it may be the same group of people."
"I will get to the bottom of it." Byakuya promised. There is someone out there who wants to kill his sister for reasons unknown. This is something that he will not tolerate.
Whoever that person is, he or she will be facing the wrath of the entire Kuchiki clan for trying to hurt their princess.
"Did you remember doing anything that might warrant such an assassination attempt?" He asked his sister, hoping that she may be able to provide any clues on just who her assailant might be.
"Maybe I had unknowingly snooped into places I shouldn't be. You know how I love to visit other divisions unannounced by sneaking in." She said unrepentantly. "I wouldn't be surprised that someone would want to silence me if that were the case."
"Don't worry too much about it. This won't happen a second time."
"I know, because the next time, I wouldn't be as careless." Kurui stated nonchalantly as if saying an undisputable fact. Like that the sky is blue and the grass is green, but there is no mistaking the hint of anger in her eyes as her grip on her broken Zanpakuto tightened.
"The next time, I will be ready for them."
"Rui-chan~ Guess who's here~ Oh, Isshin. You are here too?"
"Of course!" The Captain of the Tenth Division flashed him a bright smile as the light glinted off his shiny white teeth. The Captain gave Gin a thumbs up that might have dazzled any lesser being. "I am here to provide the most youthful Kurui some company!"
Gin would have rolled his eyes if it wasn't for the fact that no one could see his reaction since his eyes are mere slits. He turned back to Kurui, who is sitting up on her bed with countless bandages around her wounded self. She looks to be doing ok, much to his hidden relief.
Life in Seireitei would be so much more boring without her around.
Kurui's potential had sparked an interest in Aizen a long time ago when she was still an Academy student. It prompted him to give her a small test by replacing all the dummy hollows on her field trip with real ones, and Aizen was pleased that one of his subjects of interest passed his test spectacularly.
However, when Kurui had proved on more than one occasion that she has the ability and the tendency to snoop into places where she is unwanted, it got Aizen concerned. When the Captain Commander had ordered her to do some troubleshooting on the security problems in each division, she was too good in what she did when she stole a personal item each from the various Captains. When she had stolen the spare glasses where he kept together with some of his research notes on the fusion of hollows and Shinigamis in the extremely secure vault he layered with spells after spells, Aizen was alarmed.
Aizen was sure that Kurui didn't open up the notes to read it, because he had checked over and over again and there were no signs that it was being tampered with. Still, Aizen is a careful and suspicious man. It is still too early for his plans to come to light and too dangerous for it to happen now, so to be on the safe side, he decided to kill Kurui while making her death seem like an accident. It was where Metastacia was called in by Aizen to finish the job.
Apparently, even the most confident man can fail.
No one expected Kurui to return alive. No one knew how she managed to survive after taking a blow from Aizen that was meant to take her life. Not him, not Tousen, and certainly not Aizen. Still, she did just that, and now the entire Kuchiki and Shiba clan is on the hunt for whoever tried to assassinate the Kuchiki princess.
It had forced Aizen to keep his head low for the moment, setting his plans back by quite a bit.
Gin is on good terms with Kurui, who seemed to accept his eccentricity. They even pulled pranks together, sometimes with Yachiru joining in as well. The mischiefs they created are so well-known in the Seireitei that it caused their poor victims to quake in their boots. He might even call her his friend, if he wasn't so sure that Rangiku is the only person that he cares about in this world.
A small part of him is secretly glad that Aizen had failed.
"How ya feelin'?" The snake in human skin asked as he plopped down in a nearby chair. It does not take a genius to know that Isshin is here to act as Kurui's bodyguard in case the assassin strikes again. Isshin is probably here out of some sense of guilt that his fellow clansmen, Shiba Miyako and Shiba Kaien, were indirectly responsible for Kurui's current state. Isshin's heart had always been a little too big.
"Could have been better." She replied. Her energy level is a little lacking, but that is understandable considering that Metastacia had literally took a chunk out of her. It makes him wonder just how good Captain Unohana is in fixing people for Kurui to be still alive right now.
"Ya shoulda been more careful." He chided playfully with some sense of truth in his words. Kurui does need to be more careful now that Aizen has his sights on her. Once Aizen is on your case, he will not rest until he sees his desired outcome.
If Aizen wants Kurui dead, he will not rest until Kurui is dead.
"Is that concern I hear, Ginny?" Kurui did an exaggerated gasp and a look of mock surprise cross her face, with a palm over her opened mouth for extra effect. "You actually care for me?"
"Hey, I thought we are friends!" He played along by mimicking her actions. Talking to Kurui had always been like playing chess, each trying to guess what the other is playing at. He knows that Kurui had never fully trusted him. Their relationship is complicated. On one hand, they are die-hard pals when it comes to their pranks and mischiefs, ready to take a bullet for the other if need be. On the other hand, they had never confided to each other like how friends will. They had never fully trusted each other. He will never poke his nose into her business as long as she did the same for him. That is the unsaid agreement that hangs between them like a dangerously thin veil.
"I think partners in crime would be a better word." She mused. "You know, after the assassination attempt on me, I might need to reconsider who I think of as friends. I mean, someone did try and stab me in the back after all. Someone who I am sure is supposedly my comrade." She then cocked her head to a side as she looked at him with deceptively friendly eyes.
"Do you happen to know anything about that, Gin?"
Gin's facial expression didn't change, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't taken aback.
She knew.
Or maybe she just has her suspicions and frankly, it's not too far off.
"I am a Third Seat, and while I'm far from being the strongest Shinigami around, getting past my senses is no easy feat. Whoever that was, he or she was able to fool my senses and I did not detect his presence until it was too late. If that person is a Shinigami, then he must definitely be a Vice-Captain or even a Captain level Shinigami." She continues with her guesswork as he and Isshin look on. "Like you or Captain Isshin, for example."
"I would never do anything like that!" Isshin squawked at the insinuation.
"Geez, I was just kidding, Captain Isshin. But you do have to admit that if there is a Captain-level assassin running around, it is a cause to be worried about."
"I guess all you can do now is to beware of your surroundings. Never fully trust what you see. Can't be too careful, ya know." Gin quipped. That is the only warning he can give to her about Aizen's abilities without giving his own status as a double agent away. His ultimate goal is to see Aizen's downfall, maybe he can make use of this situation and turn it to his favour.
From the way Isshin is looking at them, Gin knows that the head of the Shiba clan had caught on that there is a hidden context in the words that the two pranksters exchanged.
Double shit for Aizen for having another Captain on his case.
But for once, Gin somehow cannot find it within himself to care. In fact, he is kind of happy that things turned out this way.
"Oh, don't worry too much, Ginny." She waved a flippant hand in his direction in a manner which is supposed to reassure him and Isshin. "Unless you are telling me that someone has the ability to control all five senses, otherwise I will be fine."
By this point, Gin have no idea if Kurui truly knows about their secret or she is just being ridiculously lucky in her guesswork. Why would she mention all five senses out of the many phrases she could have used? An allusion to Aizen's abilities?
Nevertheless, he kept on his mask.
Even as their conversation took a normal turn and the three of them snacked on the dried persimmons that he brought along, he still hadn't got Kurui figured out. Did she know? Or was it just her guess? Did she really read through the notes on hollow experimentation in Aizen's vault hidden away in his office? If so, how did she do it without leaving any traces behind?
He let a smile creep up his face naturally when Kurui and Isshin cracked a joke.
Life in Seireitei is definitely more interesting with Kuchiki Kurui around.
