Chapter 19 (Kumiko)

I stared contemplatively at Rukia. She said nothing, only stared at her palms and feet. She was miserable but that didn't come as a surprise to me. Rukia had never been happy—unless she was with her squad members. The only time I could recall her wearing a genuine smile was when she was talking to Captain Ukitake, or her former mentor, Kaien.

Kaien…it was still so hard to grasp that he was dead. He had been one of my friends for the longest time—one of the first people to push me to be better. His death was still a fresh wound in my heart, as it was for Rukia too.

"Do you deserve this?" I asked her finally. She looked up at me and I said in a low, quiet voice, "All the crap you've done—do they equate to the punishment?"

She looked down at her open palms again, "Yes…they do."

I watched her carefully. She had been a moron by disobeying her orders. For someone who had grown up in the outer districts, she still seemed to be learning the way of things in this cruel world. That, or she had forgotten. Why had she shared her powers with this human? Why had she jeopardized everything for someone who had died in the end, as he was destined to?

"Kisuke Urahara…" She murmured. She said nothing to elaborate, as if she was waiting for my permission to continue.

I adjusted my crossed legs, "Go on."

"He was asking about you."

There was something caught in my throat and I don't know whether it was a scoff or a whimper. I swallowed. "Is that all?"

She looked up at me, "I didn't tell him anything…"

I nodded, "I suppose you're not as stupid as I thought you were."

"Miss Kumiko," She stood up, "What…what happened to him and you—"

"You're in enough trouble, Rukia. There's no need to make more ripples in the water," I rose to my feet and she hastily sat down. Her fists were clenched and her gaze downcast again. I sighed, "There are things…that you are better off not knowing about the Gotei."

"What kind of things?"

"Things that will keep you up at night, Rukia." Things that still kept me up at night. Mysteries and questions from a century ago that only became more confusing and elaborate as time went on, and new mysteries emerged. Kaien's death, for example, was one of them.

A knock on the door caught both of our attention. A young boy from Squad Four walked in with a broom in his hand. He looked at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"Hanataro," Rukia said with a warm smile.

He bowed, "Miss Rukia…Good day Miss Kuna—I'm Hanataro Yamada. I serve Miss Rukia and clean her cell."

I recognized his name from a hospital form billed to Squad Eleven. Poor shit had been used as a shuttlecock in a game of badminton, Squad Eleven edition, about a month ago. "Call me Kumiko."

"Y-yes, ma'am."

I turned to Rukia. She walked forward and stuck her hands out of the bars for me restrain her. The Squad Six guards had given me the restraints after I made it clear that I wanted to be alone with my cousin.

The moment my fingers brushed against her skin, I jolted back. She stared at me with wide eyes.

I looked down at my fingers, expecting to see blackened, charred skin. Usually when I touched someone with spiritual pressure, there was a zap of electricity. But she had burnt me, like I had reached out and touched melting metal.

Something wasn't right about her soul's current composition. For a nauseating moment, my mind wondered back to the awful deaths Kisuke and I had investigated. The ones that were involved with the Hollowfication experiments. It was the same feeling…

"Goodbye, Rukia," I finished cuffing her and fled back to my Squad.

What had I read that reminded me so much of what I had just felt? There had been something that Kisuke was researching and I had read about it. Had Kisuke had something to do with Rukia's loss of power?

Stopping outside of the Squad Eleven gates, I hesitated before turning towards Squad Twelve. It wasn't hard gaining access and I quickly found Mayuri with his lieutenant.

"Kumiko, what a pleasant surprise," He grinned, "Finally taking me up on my offer to conduct some experiments on—"

"Kisuke's case files—where are they?"

He frowned, "You would know better than I do, my dear. You're the one who took the majority of them when Central Forty-Six decided to do a mass clean-up."

I ran my hands through my hair. I had combed through that research a hundred times and I hadn't come across anything to explain what I experienced. No, what I had read all those years ago was something I hadn't managed to steal.

"I may have snuck a couple files myself," He admitted with a grin, "But I'm not willing to share until you do."

"Spiritual pressure."

"Huh?" He stared at me.

"Rukia Kuchiki's spiritual pressure—what if her spiritual pressure is returning to her…but something is feeding off of it. Something that's more powerful." I stared at my hands. Pieces of the research files were coming back to me, "Kisuke always believed that a stronger spiritual pressure snuffed out a weaker spiritual pressure because it consumed it. Not because it just repressed the weaker one until it didn't exist anymore."

"Hmm," He began to pace, as if he too was beginning to recall the research too. "Nemu, go fetch me my special files."

"Yes, sir," She nodded and left us.

Mayuri turned to me, "Kisuke always thought you were a bright one." He sat down on his desk and regarded me for a moment, "But you're not entirely correct, my dear. You see, spiritual pressures don't eat one another—they're not animals. They fuse. Like two stars colliding together or black holes that merge together."

I stared at him, "That's…how?" My mind reeled back to Rukia. Was her spiritual pressure trying to combine with mine?

"That's what Kisuke wanted to know. His extensive research in spiritual pressures led him to the same conclusion we're at. You see—it makes sense that spiritual pressures can absorb one another. Hollows absorb a soul's riatsu to sustain their insatiable hunger. Quincy's absorb Reishi to strengthen their powers. So it's not much of a stretch to infer that Soul Reapers can do the same."

Nemu returned and he took a file from the box she carried, "But Hollows need to continuously feed on reiatsu in order to retain their power. And Quincy's release the Reishi they absorb. How did Shinigami balance this out?"

"Zanpakuto," I answered.

He shrugged, "Yes and no. To a certain level, Shinigami can control the amount of spiritual pressure by sharing it with their zanpakuto. And by releasing it in the forms of Shikai and Bankai. But what if they grow stronger than that?"

"It's not possible to be that strong…"

"You've gone to seen Rukia Kuchiki. I'm quite sure you don't believe the words you say," He smirked, "Kisuke found out that in order for a Shinigami to control this immense amount of power, the Shinigami needed to transcend. They needed to become something more than a Shinigami."

"What…what do you mean?" My heart was racing as I absorbed his words. Mayuri only stood there as I pieced everything together, "Hollowfication?"

He nodded, "No normal soul can handle an immense amount of pressure. They would need to become something else entirely. This was what became known as the Hollowfication theory. Kisuke theorized that Hollows could undergo this transformation as well, but it wasn't something they could do on their own. Their bodies burn spiritual pressure far quicker than a Shinigami."

"So it's not possible then."

"Not exactly," He chuckled and passed me the file he was holding, "Kisuke—the know-it-all that he was—found a way to control this process. To forcibly change a soul. All they needed was a high spiritual pressure and strong will."

I opened the file with shaky hands. Hogyoku.

"Did…" I let out a gasp. My throat felt like it was closing up as I felt panic settle in. Had Kisuke killed those people all along? Had I been in love with a monster all this time?

"Did Kisuke Hollowfy all those souls back way then?" Mayuri finished for me, "It's hard to say. There's no definitive proof that he did, so the only thing we can go off on is his character. And he wasn't the kind of person to experiment on souls in such a grotesque way."

"Then who?" I whispered. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me and I snapped my head up to Mayuri, "Is Rukia becoming-?"

"No. She won't become a Hollow. But," Mayuri took the file back. Nemu walked off with it and the box again, calm and collected. I seemed to be the only one losing my sanity. "I think that your husband is responsible for the anomaly that is Rukia Kuchiki."

Once again, I found myself questioning my faith in Kisuke. I needed to found out more. I needed to talk to Kisuke.


And after almost a century, Kumiko finally makes a break in the case!

Up next: Shizuko's deployment in the World of the Living is cut short after a tragedy; Kisuke and Ichigo do some training; we start to draw closer to our next reunion.