What had started off as a moderately bad day was now edging dangerously close to nightmare territory for one Hisagi Shuhei. Although his captain had, at first, said that Nanao was unlikely to be punished too severely, it turned out too severely meant execution or banishment. He could not promise his lieutenant that his wife was out of danger of being locked away for the rest of her life. He had suggested that if she were to cooperate and assist them in finding Rukia that would certainly turn the judgement in her favor.

For all of three minutes Shuhei had considered trying to talk Nanao into turning Rukia in, but, when he realized that to do so she would have to betray her captain, he knew that was not going to happen. So now the new plan was to lie; he would find Rukia himself, and he would tell everyone that Nanao had told him where she was. It was an awful plan, the sort of plan that might make Nanao despise him, but it was all he had, and he was determined their daughter was not going to grow up without her mother.

Finding Renji was his first bit of luck all day. The Fourth Division was packed with shinigami who'd been thrashed by the Ryoka, and, not having any other leads, Shuhei had gone to talk to them. Renji was with the young Captain Ichimaru, looking in on his own captain who was still unconscious.

Renji was leaning against a wall, waiting, while Toshiro and Unohana spoke, and Shuhei joined him, watching the two captains.

"I'm sure Shiba will do everything he can to keep her safe," he said, softly.

Renji tensed. "What do you mean?" He answered just as quietly.

"It wasn't the plan," Shuhei said, lying because he had no idea what the plan had been. "For him to have to protect her alone, but I know Shiba; he'll die before he fails his captain."

Renji didn't answer, but it was easy to see the fear growing in his eyes. Shuhei felt seriously guilty. He knew Renji loved Rukia, hell, everyone knew it except Rukia, and he was using that love to get Renji to give him any clue to where she could be-to turn her in-to be executed. It was an awful thing to do to anyone, but to a friend, it was unforgivable.

"I'll be there with him, and I know you will too, but even the three of us, we're nothing to a captain," Shuhei said, and he reminded himself that he was the one on the side of Soul Society and justice, and the people trying to save Rukia were the traitors. He was only doing what he had to. "Is there anyone else?"

Unohana nodded to Toshiro and left the room. Toshiro would be joining the any moment. There was barely time left for Renji to answer, but he did, and it seemed to Shuhei that he said the oddest thing. "I heard Ichigo beat Captain Zaraki yesterday."

"A strawberry?" Shuhei repeated, suddenly and completely confused.

"That's one of the Ryoka's names," Toshiro explained as he joined them. "The one with orange hair. He nearly broke Rukia out of prison yesterday."

"Oh," was all Shuhei came up with to answer the captain.

"Lieutenant," Toshiro said seriously. "I know things don't look good for Captain Kyoraku right now, but I want you to know that I am absolutely certain that he has not acted in any way to betray Soul Society, and I am sure he will be vindicated in time. Please, do not lose faith in him."

Shuhei looked down at the boy who seemed so absolutely certain. He'd known Toshiro for a great many years and would willingly admit the child was a great deal smarter than he was, but he was still a child. A child would want to believe in those he knew, and might be willing to overlook any number of things that didn't fit into the world as he wanted to see it. He wanted to believe too, but justice wasn't about what anyone wanted. It was only about the truth, and Kyoraku had helped a condemned prisoner to disappear. There was too much on the line for Shuhei to simply trust it would be fine in the end.

"Yes, Captain," he said, nodding firmly.

Toshiro frowned, clearly not liking Shuhei's answer, but then he turned to Renji. "You still coming with me?" he asked. "I'm going to go check on Hinamori. She'd probably be glad to see you're doing ok."

Renji nodded. "Yes, sir."

Toshiro was watching Hinamori talk to Renji when the orders came. Not one but three separate Hell's Butterflies flew in the open window. He lifted his hand and the black butterfly landed gently on his palm, passing its message to him.

Any shinigami found to be aiding Ryoka are traitors to Soul Society and must be met with lethal force.

Any shinigami found to be aiding the fugitive Kuchiki Rukia are traitors to Soul Society and must be met with lethal force.

Upon apprehension, Kuchiki Rukia is to be brought to Sokyoku Hill and will there be executed immediately.

As he heard the new orders everything clicked. Nothing connected to Rukia's sentence had made sense. It was far too extreme, and these orders, they were as well. Dealing so severely with any shinigami, regardless of their suspected crime was unprecedented. He was sure most others in the Gotei were explaining it as a reaction to discovering a plot by two of the most senior captains, but even that should not have happened. Kyoraku and Ukitake should have been questioned; then he and Unohana should have been questioned, and a massive manhunt for Aizen should have begun.

The only way any of it made any sense was if Aizen himself was calling the shots. And knowing what Aizen's power was, that was completely possible. Aizen had taken over Central 46. If he was issuing orders now, then he had to be there now.

"I have to go," he said abruptly.

"Where?" Renji demanded. "I'll come."

"No, you heard the orders. You know what you have to do," Toshiro said.

"Right," Renji agreed. Then, abruptly, he bowed.

"Thank you, Captain," he said, before he turned and ran out the door.

"How can you let him go when you know they're going to kill him!" Hinamori protested.

Toshiro frowned at her for a moment. She was just another victim of Aizen's lies, and, just like the rest of them, she had absolutely no idea she'd been used. "I'm going to go see if I can straighten this mess out before anyone dies," he said, finally.

"Then I'll come with you," she said, quickly climbing out of bed.

"No!" Toshiro almost shouted before he got control of his voice. "No. I need you to tell Unohana he's at Central 46."

"Who is?"

"She'll know-you tell her, but then you come back here, and you stay here, understood?"

Hinamori nodded, and after a second Toshiro turned and vanished from the room.

Shuhei was still trying to figure out what Renji had meant about Kenpachi losing to the Ryoka, if he'd meant anything at all, when he ran into Ikkaku alone, running back toward his division. It was odd seeing Ikkaku alone, not that he never went anywhere without Yumichika, but Shuhei had seen them both together earlier hunting for the Ryoka, and it didn't seem like they'd split up without a reason.

"Hey," he called out, and for a second it looked like Ikkaku was going to ignore him, but the Third Seat did finally turn back with a very impatient look on his face.

"Yeah-Lieutenant?" Ikkaku said, adding the title as an afterthought, as usual.

Shuhei had never gotten along with the guys from the Eleventh as well as a lot of his friends did. The biggest problem was the way they looked at fighting; they treated even life or death battles like games which was exactly the opposite way he'd been trained to think of fighting. Renji'd once told him all he really had to do was beat the shit out of Ikkaku once, and the entire division would stop treating him like a poser who'd been advanced above his station. Apparently all friendships in the Eleventh were based on someone nearly killing someone else.

And Ichigo had just beaten Kenpachi; that was what Renji was telling him. The Eleventh had, for all intents and purposes, switched sides. It was absolutely insane, and absolutely how they worked.

He stepped closer to Ikkaku and dropped his voice. "You heard about the arrests this morning, right?"

"Yeah?" Ikkaku said again, suddenly looking wary.

"I wasn't there," Shuhei said, "I wasn't there last night or this morning either. I got there just in time to see them taking Kyoraku-san away in chains. I couldn't do anything-he adopted me into his family, and I couldn't do anything."

Ikkaku looked uncomfortable as he answered. "Not like there's anything I can do, Lieutenant."

"I think Shiba's going to need more help than than Yumichika can manage," Shuhei knew it was a gamble, but the two of them had a gift for finding people, usually enemies, but out of the entire Gotei he was willing to bet they were the most likely to have found Shiba.

Ikkaku didn't answer so Shuhei added the biggest lie, the one that made this, even for the Gotei and all of Soul Society, so wrong. "You gotta let me help my family."

"They're using Ichimaru's old place, seems he was keeping it for a safe house for Rangiku, but as soon as we can locate Ichigo we're getting them out of the city, maybe to the World of the Living-you sure you want in on this? You've got a kid."

"I know."