Rangiku stared at Renji. The boy looked terrified, and she really couldn't blame him. She couldn't believe what he'd just told her. How could this be happening? Kuchiki Rukia had been sentenced to death. "And Byakuya isn't doing anything?" she demanded.
Renji shook his head. "The captain won't discuss it at all. It's like she doesn't even exist. You knew him before-and his wife-maybe he'd listen to you."
Rangiku nodded. "He's going to whether he wants to or not," she said firmly. "Don't worry, Renji. We're going to fix this."
She looked down at Yuki, asleep on her tiny futon, and then over at Kin-chan, sitting inside of a fort he had constructed from furniture and blankets. Shiro-chan had been going over reports at the table when Renji arrived, but he wasn't there now. "Kin-chan," she called to her younger son. "Where's Nii-chan gone?"
"To get Daddy," Kin-chan answered, not looking up as he was busy scribbling something on a scrap of paper.
"Why would he-" Rangiku broke off as she felt the reiatsu of both her older son and her husband reach the house at the same time. She hopped to her feet and turned toward the open porch. "Don't you even-"
Gin appeared outside the shoji door. "Abarai, time for you to go home," he said, not even glancing at the red-headed lieutenant.
"Yes, sir," Renji said, quickly. He fled the room by the hall, not daring to pass the grinning captain.
"Two days!" Rangiku roared, turning on her husband and the son who stood only a step behind him. "Rukia has been sitting in a cell condemned for two days and you thought you just wouldn't tell me about it? And don't think you're getting out of this either, Shiro. I know you're just as guilty!"
"Ran, you're supposed to be resting," Gin said.
"And I will, just as soon as I've told Kuchiki Byakuya what I think of him! His own sister, Hisana's flesh and blood, and he's not doing anything?! You'd better be doing everything you can, too, Gin! They can't kill her for something that stupid. It's practically murder! You'd better be filing a protest and speaking to the general and whatever the hell else a captain can do! You'd better be calling in every favor anyone ever owed you! They can't be allowed to execute Rukia!"
Yuki started wailing at that point, and Rangiku was distracted for a few moments, trying to calm the baby, but as soon as she could speak over the sound of Yuki's whimpers she did. "Don't you dare try to make me stay here, not with Rukia's life at stake!"
"It's out of the Gotei's hands. Central 46 has passed their judgement, Ran," Gin said. "There's nothing anyone can do."
"Don't give me that bullshit," Rangiku answered, in a low voice, as she swayed gently and shushed the tiny infant in her arms. "You can get her sentence commuted or something, and if you can't, Byakuya can. He's the head of the goddamned house! If he can't use that power now there's no point to any of it. She's all that's left of Hisana."
Gin sighed. She was right about that, at least. It was all pointless. Even if by some miracle she persuaded Kuchiki to act, Rukia was going to die. There was nothing anyone could do to save her. She was damned the moment Urahara hid the hogyoku in her soul, but if Rangiku got to yell at Kuchiki maybe she'd feel like she'd done all she could. She didn't need to be running around Seireitei less than a month after giving birth; she wind up back in Division Four.
"Shiro can watch Kin-chan, and I'll get a ricksha to take us to the Kuchiki estate this evening," Gin said finally.
"The hell you're coming! The moment I raise my voice you'll whisk me out of there, apologizing for my bad behavior, and that's not going to happen! He's the one who's behaving badly this time. He made Rukia his sister; he owes her a proper nii-san's dedication. You do whatever it takes to protect your little sister or brother, isn't that right, Shiro-chan?"
Toshiro raised his head, and cold determination shown in his eyes. "Always," he promised.
"See?" Rangiku demanded, turning back to Gin. "Shiro-chan knows it. Kuchiki Byakuya has no business doing anything but fighting for his sister, and he knows it! I'm just going to remind him before he shrugs her off as nothing but another worthless piece of Rukongai filth."
"I'll wait outside," Gin said. "If you take Yuki with you, deal?"
"You think having the baby with me will keep me calm?" Rangiku demanded.
"I think having a baby with you will ensure Kuchiki doesn't hurt you."
Rangiku shook her head. "He would never."
"He's in a very bad mood. Would have let Kenpachi pick a fight with him if I hadn't intervened."
"You didn't want to see that?" Rangiku asked, somewhat surprised. Gin was not usually the sort to calm people on the verge of fighting; he was much more the type to egg them all on.
"I didn't want to be caught in the middle," Gin answered.
The Kuchiki estate was quiet, and all the servants seemed melancholy and subdued. They treated Gin and Rangiku politely, but there was none of the friendliness of times past. They knew many of the servants by name and had talked with them many times before, but not tonight. They had all too clearly picked up their master's mood.
At least he didn't make her wait long. Rangiku was exhausted, and she wasn't sure how long she could manage sitting on her knees on the tatami mats of an empty room holding a baby before she just gave up and laid down.
It was only a minute or two before a servant opened a door and Byakuya stepped inside, waiting for the servant to close the door behind him before he spoke. "You wished to see me, Lieutenant Ichimaru?"
Rangiku got carefully to her feet and crossed the room to look him directly in the eye. He looked down at her with that always so calm, so composed expression that she knew he intended to make everyone feel inferior. Hisana swore to her that it was a mask like Gin's smile, to shield him from the world, and years ago, when Hisana had been alive, Rangiku was sure she had seen real emotions hidden in the depths of his eyes, but now there was nothing.
She raised one hand and slapped him for all she was worth. He didn't so much as flinch. She'd thought he might stop her, but this was worse, looking at her like that, so full of contempt.
"That was from Hisana," she told him as she stepped back and raised her hand to Yuki's head, stroking her feathery soft hair. Gin had insisted she take the baby to keep her calm, whatever he said, and he was right. Even she couldn't yell at a man with a helpless, sleeping infant in her arms. "Rukia is her flesh and blood, don't even try to tell me she isn't, and you have thrown her away like she's worthless. How could you say you ever loved Hisana and treat Rukia like she's nothing?"
"Are you done?" Byakuya asked, as though she was boring him.
Rangiku could feel the tears forming in her eyes; GIn wouldn't like that. He hated when she cried. He always wanted to fix it. "You know, nobody made you take her in. You chose to make Rukia your sister. You promised to be her big brother, and if you don't stand up for her now, you have less honor than the worst criminals in Rukongai because at least they would stand up for their family. What pride do you have, Kuchiki Byakuya, if you can allow a Kuchiki, your own sister, to be executed and to have her very soul destroyed?"
His eyes narrowed and Rangiku knew that something she'd said must have hit home. "The law must be upheld," he answered. "I am a captain of the Gotei 13. It is my duty to uphold the law."
"Fuck the law," Rangiku snapped back. "You're Kuchiki Byakuya. I've been told a thousand times that you are one of the most strongest men in all of Seireitei, but if you can't save your own sister I really can't say that I believe it. Because my husband, that filth of Rukongai that you hold in such contempt, would never allow anyone to harm me or any of our children, not even if the entirety Soul Society was against us-that's real strength, Kuchiki Byakuya, not just power and a pretty title or two, but the courage to wield that power to protect those you love, even when you know it could cost you everything. But you don't have that kind of courage.
"I'm glad Hisana didn't live to see this. She believed in you. She believed you were more than head of your family, than captain of the Sixth, she believed you were a real man."
His expression darkened. "You have no right to speak of-"
"She was my friend! You're not the only one who lost her, Byakuya," she answered. The tears overflowed her eyes suddenly. She was beginning to feel wobbly, but she couldn't just walk away. "If she'd entrusted Rukia to me, I would have done anything-" she choked back a sob. "I will do everything I can. I will. I will try to save Rukia, but I'm not a captain and I'm not the head of the Kuchiki family. Nobody cares what I have to say, but that's not going to stop me. I loved Hisana, and I will do anything to save Rukia. Why won't you?"
Her knees gave out abruptly and as she sank toward the ground Byakuya caught hold of her and the baby in her suddenly loose arms.
"Ichimaru," he said, and the other captain appeared almost instantly.
Without a word, he pulled Rangiku away from Byakuya, leaving the captain holding the infant as he looked Rangiku over.
She looked up into his narrow eyes and forced a pitiful smile.
"Tears?" he asked.
"Why won't he save her?" she asked.
"He can't, Ran," Gin answered. "No one can. I'm sorry."
She turned her face against his chest with a moan of misery and despair, and Gin's arms wrapped around her, holding her up when she no longer had the strength to stand on her own.
After a moment he picked her up. Then he raised his eyes to Kuchiki. The man looked strange, holding a baby, stiff and uncomfortable, not that he didn't always look a little bit that way to Gin. "Could you have someone bring the baby out? I don't seem to have enough hands."
Byakuya looked down at the infant in his arms, and the tiny, pale creature stared back at him. Her gray eyes seemed to hold some deep doubt as she looked at him. "I've got her," he said. "I can carry her to the door.'
"Thanks for that," Gin answered, smiling pleasantly. Rangiku would never know it, but he could see that her words had struck Byakuya. The man was hurting. He didn't want to allow his sister's execution. Gin couldn't imagine what had him paralyzed into inaction, but it didn't really matter. Even the head of the Kuchiki family couldn't stop this execution.