Chapter 7: Sakura and Steel

(For Dalia2! Finally finished it. :) Enjoy!)

Squad 12 Captain's Log Entry 212021: My assertion that Captain Kuchiki was an anomaly that would be of interest turned out to be delectably correct! To think, I have taken the most powerful leader in the history of the most celebrated noble clan, and I have reduced him to an embarrassingly weak, bumbling, vomiting useless mess. The most enjoyable part was watching as he realized what was happening…the look on his face…it was more satisfying than I ever thought anything related to that stuffy noble prince could be. Yes, as I watch, he is about to unleash his fury on that bloodthirsty barbarian. Oh, I am so curious who will kill who.

Well, as long as at least one of them dies…

XXXXXXXXXX

Kisuke leaned over Byakuya's unconscious body, with Kenpachi, Ichigo and Orihime on one side and Rukia, Renji and Tetsuya sharing the same side as him. The shopkeeper frowned and shook his head as he studied the noble leader's partially uncovered body, then studied his six spirit centers and spirit core. He let out a flustered breath and looked up at Kenpachi.

"You wanna tell me again what happened here?" he asked in a mystified tone.

"You want me to start at the beginning or where he started fainting and throwing up like a girl, then gave me shit for knocking him up and passed out?" the eleventh division captain said, smirking.

"Let's go back to before the fainting and throwing up," Kisuke suggested, "If Captain Kuchiki said that you impregnated him…"

"That's what he said," Kenpachi confirmed, "I kinda think he's right, because he was acting really bitchy and having the nausea and vomiting, and the only thing that helped was when I rubbed his belly for awhile and gave him some of my reiatsu."

"Okay, those are definitely signs of noble male pregnancy, as Tetsuya can affirm."

"They are," Tetsuya agreed, "But such things don't usually happen between noble males and commoners…unless, does Zaraki taicho have some noble blood in his lineage?"

"Don't think so," Kenpachi huffed, "I told that to him and it pissed him off."

"Okay, so we have some definite symptoms of noble male pregnancy, just to confirm a few things…erm…"

Kisuke paused, looking around at the others.

"Sorry for asking such a thing, but, um, when did you and Captain Kuchiki have sex?"

"Eh, you mean, like the first time?" Kenpachi asked, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck.

"There was more than one time?" Renji mused, earning a warning glare from Rukia.

"I'm surprised Byakuya didn't kill Kenpachi right then!" Ichigo added, "Why?"

"Whaddya mean, why?" Kenpachi snorted, "The belly rubs and reiatsu infusions made us fuckin' horny, that's why!"

"Okay," Kisuke said, biting at his lips and looking down at Byakuya again, "Tell me about the first time."

"Well…"

"Ya don't have to go into too much detail," Kisuke added, cutting him off hastily, "Just, you know…tell us how it all started."

"Huh, we were tricked into going into that pocket dimension by that fucked up nut, Kurotsuchi. We got there and Kuchiki got himself grabbed by some of the creepy things in there. He got kinda fucked up in the fighting and I could tell that he was dying. There wasn't no choice, so I tried to give him some of my reiatsu. That didn't work and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. So, I gave him some life juice, just to keep him breathing."

"You what?" Kisuke said, his jaw dropping.

Tetsuya and Rukia inhaled sharply and covered their mouths.

Orihime gave the others a curious look.

"Huh?" Ichigo said, looking confused, "What's life juice?"

"W-well," said Kisuke, finding his voice after a moment, "you know that your spirit centers and spirit core control the flow of reiatsu through your body…so you have a way to alter your output for use in fighting. The reiatsu we use is made up of spirit particles, and it can be restored rather easily, though not quickly. Your life force, on the other hand, is very compacted reiatsu that is what supports your life at the core, so that when your regular reiatsu is tapped, you still have something running the important things…brain, heart, lungs, etc. Now, Central 46 has, for thousands of years, had a ban, a rule prohibiting the use of life force in healing."

"It's one of the first things they tell you when you train to be a healer," Tetsuya added.

"What he said," Kisuke went on, "If our buddy, here, had done that anywhere but in a pocket dimension, where Central 46 wouldn't pick up on the exchange, there would be a harsh punishment for that…mostly because it's an insane risk. There's just no guarantee that the person giving the infusion wouldn't give too much and die."

"Well, I didn't die," Kenpachi chuckled, "I'm standin' right here. I didn't use too much. I'm fine and Kuchiki's alive. No harm done and Central 46 don't need to know, right?"

"Erm, yes," said the shopkeeper, "however, that's not all of the side effects of doing something like that. Weird shit happens…bits of personality leakage that shows in the recipient, body changes or sometimes a bond is created between the two."

"A bond like when I infuse him with my reiatsu and we end up having sex?" Kenpachi asked, making the others in the room flinch.

"The bonding that you are describing is part of a noble pregnancy ritual," Tetsuya explained.

"Yeah, Byakuya said something about that when I told him what I'd done to make him feel better, but he didn't think at the time that he was carryin' or anything."

"Because, normally, commoners don't carry a breeder male gene," said Tetsuya, "and it is also exceedingly rare for there to be a strong enough resonance between a noble and a peasant soul for there to be a pregnancy."

"Tetsuya's right," Kisuke confirmed, "We're dealing with a lot of things here that don't usually happen, so we're in uncharted territory. The important thing is that we take care of Byakuya and make sure that the powers that be don't get wind of what exactly caused all of this to happen. The less we say about what's happening the better, I think."

"Yes, that's probably best," Tetsuya agreed, "There is enough disagreement over my status as a breeder male. Byakuya has never been identified as a male carrier of the gene, because it usually isn't sensed until the first male pregnancy. This is how my own status was discovered."

"That's right," Kisuke said, looking more closely at Byakuya's younger cousin, "I remember, since I was helping to care for you when you arrived at Kuchiki Manor after Byakuya rescued you from the illegal noble's prison. Though…with my banishment, just after that, I wasn't around for long enough to learn very much then. I think that if I'm going to help Byakuya, then I'm going to need some help from you."

"Oh, of course," Tetsuya offered, "I want to do all I can to help my cousin…just…eh…I am sort of uncomfortable around scientists, b-because of my history with them in the prison."

"Hey," Ichigo said, smiling supportively at Tetsuya, "you know that Kisuke only wants to help, right?"

"I do, but…fear isn't always logical. I don't mean to be anxious."

"It's okay," Kisuke said in a bracing tone, "Tetsuya, I promise you that I won't do anything to ever hurt you, okay?"

"Okay," Tetsuya said, sounding only slightly comforted, "We should get started. I have permission I can extend to you to enter the family archive. There are some resources available there that may help us to care for my cousin as he progresses."

"What am I supposed to do?" Kenpachi asked.

"Just…stay here and provide an infusion if you feel his reiatsu flagging."

"Aw, I don't have time to sit around and babysit Miss Fancypants!" the big shinigami complained.

"Fine," Kisuke sighed, "You don't have to stay. You just infused him recently. The attendants can look after him and let you know if he needs an infusion."

"That's better," Kenpachi huffed.

He turned an aggressive green eye onto Ichigo.

"Hey Ichigo, why don't you come back to my division and do a little sparring with me?"

"Um," Ichigo said, shifting uncomfortably, "I think I'm gonna stay here with Renji and Rukia in case Byakuya needs anything. Maybe another time."

"Fuh…sissy," the taicho spat, heading for the door, "Fine, whatever. I'll see you girls later…much later."

Kisuke watched him leave, then turned back to the others.

"Tetsuya and I are gonna go and take care of that research now. Just make sure Torio or one of the rest of you is with him until we get back with more information."

"Is Nii-sama going to be all right?" Rukia asked worriedly.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Kisuke reassured her, "We just need to stay on top of things and figure out what to say to whom about how this happened. I doubt Byakuya's gonna want it spread all over the Seireitei that Kenpachi got him pregnant."

Ichigo frowned.

"If that's so, then maybe someone should go and make sure Kenpachi doesn't spread it around," he suggested.

"Yeah, he's not too good about keeping secret things secret," Renji agreed.

"Then, you two should go and tell him," Rukia urged them.

"What? I'm not going over to the eleventh!" Ichigo yelped, "All that crazy guy ever wants to do is pound on me."

"What about you?" Rukia asked, crossing her arms and looking at Renji.

"Huh, me? Wha—I need to stay here and keep up-to-date on my captain's condition. I can't be running off on errands."

"Fine!" the young woman snapped, "You fools! I'll do it myself."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Ichigo said sarcastically.

Rukia gave the two a meaningful glare, then flash stepped out of the room. After she left, Renji glanced over at Ichigo.

"You have to get back to the palace, your majesty?" he joked, smirking.

"The Shiba estate's not a palace," Ichigo chuckled, "and I'm definitely not royalty."

"But you are noble now, and supposed to inherit leadership," the redhead noted.

"So?" Ichigo said, shrugging, "It doesn't really change anything, well, except that I live in Soul Society now and just go back to Karakura Town for college courses."

"And it doesn't bother you that you have to jump through hoops like my captain does? Not at all?" asked Renji.

"Eh…it's a little bit of a pain," Ichigo admitted, "but I guess they need me or they wouldn't have asked me to do it."

"Hmm, what about them choosing a wife for you?" Renji pressed, "How do you feel about that?"

"Not great," Ichigo confessed, "but it's not like they're rushing that or anything. I'm gonna see about putting off any major decisions for awhile…a long while, when it comes to marriage."

"Yeah," the redhead said, lowering his eyes to hide his disappointment, "I guess that's what you've gotta do. I just never saw you as somebody who would let anyone else make that kind of decision for you."

"Well, maybe that's why I want the decision to wait," Ichigo reasoned, "so I have time to figure out a way to be their heir, but still do what I want…marry who I want."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Renji chuckled, brightening slightly, "The Shiba clan might be more relaxed than the Kuchiki clan, but that doesn't put you totally in the clear."

"You never know what's going to happen, I guess," Ichigo sighed.

"Yeah," Renji agreed, "I guess that's true."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Nemu!" Mayrui shouted, glaring at the few small files in front of him, "I thought I told you to bring me the files on male noble pregnancy!"

"Those are the files on noble male pregnancy," his vice-captain informed him, "The truth is that the noble families make a point of guarding the information, so it is hard to obtain. They are not proud of the history of the breeder males…some because of the questionable methods used to make the first breeder males, and some just because of how they seem to defy nature."

"Seem to defy nature," the insane scientist mused, "You can say that again. Grr! This is useless! I want into that infernal Byakuya's archive. Didn't you say that you and the Shinigami Women's Association have invaded just about every area of that stuffy prince's manor?"

"Yes," Nemu said calmly, "We can access most areas of Kuchiki Manor with no problem. However, there are ancient protections on the archive that we cannot seem to bypass."

"Ancient protections? Like kido? Some sort of physical locks? What, you fool?"

The nature of the protection is mysterious. It seems that the door can only be opened if one has permission and a token from the Kuchiki leader or his cousin and bodyguard, Tetsuya Kuchiki's, sir."

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! What a bother. Then, if Byakuya's going to be useless, just seduce his cousin, Tetsuya and talk your way in!" Mayuri roared.

"I would, but Tetsuya cannot be approached that way."

"Oh, why is that?"

Nemu blinked.

"Because, Master Mayuri, Kuchiki Tetsuya is a homosexual. He does not copulate with women."

She glanced at the video viewing screen, where it showed Torio, Ichigo and Renji at the still unconscious Kuchiki leader's bedside.

"However," she said solemnly, "he did seem to be resonating very strongly with Urahara Kisuke."

"Kisuke?" Mayuri repeated, grimacing at even the mention of the name.

He thought for a moment, then a wicked gleam came into his eye and he began to laugh.