Chapter 4: Hiding in Plain Sight
"Stand straighter!" Byakuya hissed softly as he and Ichigo stepped out of the senkaimon and into the dark sands of the Hueco Mundo desert.
"Sorry," Ichigo whispered back, taking on a stiffer bearing and forcing himself to frown slightly as Byakuya usually did.
"That is better."
"Do not speak so properly," Ichigo teased the noble, "I never speak like that."
"Excuse me for not mimicking you perfectly," Byakuya snipped in Ichigo's annoyed voice.
"Hey, uh, Taicho?" Renji interjected, studying them curiously, "How do you want us to split the group?"
Ichigo bit his lip gently, looking at Byakuya out of the corner of an eye.
"The usual formation," the noble provided softly.
"Just employ the usual formation, Abarai," Ichigo answered.
"Usual formation," Renji said, nodding, "Got it."
The redhead led a group away, while a second group looked at their taicho in askance.
"Have Rikichi lead with me and you watch the rear guard with the others."
"W-wait," Ichigo exclaimed softly, giving him a confused look, "Did you mean me me or you me goes with Rikichi?
"I, as in me in your body!" Byakuya explained hastily.
"Erm, Rikichi, take the advance guard with Ichigo. I will follow with the rear guard."
"Yes sir!" Rikichi shouted, falling in at Byakuya's side.
Ichigo moved back with the others as Byakuya and Rikichi headed down the trail.
"It's an honor to work alongside you, Shiba-sama," Rikichi said appreciatively, "All of us appreciate your actions in the war, sir."
Flinching inwardly, Byakuya gave his subordinate a flustered look and ran his fingers through the short spikes of his ginger hair as he had seen Ichigo do before.
"Hey," he said casually, "you can forget the sama thing and just call me Ichigo. I'm not like your stuffy taicho."
Rikichi paused and gave him a guarded look.
"Okay, Ichigo," he answered politely, "B-but you know, Kuchiki taicho isn't really stuffy. I know some people think that, but he's been helping me a lot with my zanpakuto training."
"H-he trains with you?" Byakuya asked, giving his subordinate a mystified look.
"Well, not exactly," the younger man explained, "I learn a lot by watching him. I watch his stances and footwork when he is fighting and sometimes when he and Renji spar in front of us. I listen to everything he says. And he has been encouraging in his performance reviews."
I know exactly what Ichigo would say, Byakuya noted inwardly, He would probably say it's more that Rikichi is so driven.
And he would be correct about that.
"Sounds more like you're just determined to succeed," he said, patting the young man on the shoulder in Ichigo's familiar way, "Byakuya should train with you sometimes. I mean, you're third seat, right?"
"Oh," Rikichi said, blushing, "I am third seat, but the taicho only trains with his fukutaicho."
"Well, that's something that oughta change," Byakuya said dismissively, "if Byakuya has any sense."
Rikichi's flush intensified and he stole a glance back at the rest of the group that followed.
"Ichigo," he said more solemnly, "Kuchiki taicho has a lot of responsibilities. We all know that. And we know that it takes more than good training to improve. We have to want badly to learn. He does notice our improvement and he does encourage us. We can feel how much he cares about our safety in the way he protects us when we are out on assignments. And…well, maybe I shouldn't say this, but…"
Rikichi paused, letting his brown eyes scan the desert around him.
"Yes…erm, yeah?" Byakuya prompted him.
Rikichi took a steadying breath.
"There's something that happened in the war that changed the way we think and feel about Kuchiki taicho."
"What's that?" Byakuya asked curiously.
"Well, it used to be that we were all pretty scared of Kuchiki taicho. He barely seemed to notice us and we just tried to do our jobs and stay out of his way. But after you and Renji fought him, he seemed different. He looked at us more closely and began to track our performance more carefully. He rewarded us for our improvement and for bringing pride to our division. But even then, we always felt like he was a little distant. But, when the quincies arrived and he sensed that the advance guard was being decimated, he hurried to reach us. We pulled back, but we were watching as he fought."
Byakuya felt a shaft of guilt stab at his insides.
"That must have been terrible, watching him get humiliated in front of you. Instead of protecting you…"
"I'm sure you know," Rikichi said, touching his arm lightly and stopping him in his tracks, "The quincies were way too strong and none of us knew how to fight them. If we had continued to try instead of backing off and getting to a safe place, we all would have died too. Instead of letting all of us be killed with him, he sent us to safety and faced the enemy with just Renji at his side. We all think that Kuchiki taicho and Renji had to be braver than any of us to sacrifice themselves to help us get away. There's no humiliation in losing a battle like that. We are proud to serve under officers like them."
Byakuya gazed at the young man in silence for a moment.
"Byakuya's lucky to have subordinates like you," he said finally, "He should appreciate that."
"He does," Rikichi laughed softly, "You just have to understand Kuchiki taicho like we do to recognize the ways he shows it. It isn't in what he says, but what he does. Every one of us knows he values us, he wants us to excel, to bring pride to our division, and he will always protect us, even if it means he must die."
"Yeah," Byakuya answered, his heart fluttering at the warm feeling the young man's devotion evoked in him, "Stuffy or not, Byakuya's a good guy."
The words seemed to mollify the young officer, who moved off slightly to examine the area. Byakuya scanned the desert ahead of them with his eyes and a moment later squinted and honed in on a particularly dark region.
"Hey Rikichi," called softly, "give that area over there a closer look, okay?"
Rikichi nodded and followed his gaze, studying the little shadows and probing with his reiatsu.
"My reiatsu's great for fighting, but my sensing sucks," Byakuya complained as he had heard Ichigo do.
"It's okay," Rikichi laughed, "Kuchiki taicho says that it's sometimes the tradeoff of having large amounts of power. I'm actually pretty good at sensing. Give me a second."
He probed again for a few moments, then frowned.
"What is it?" Byakuya asked.
"I think it's a trap. Part of our training is looking for certain visible signs and reiatsu traces that suggest an ambush. I'm definitely seeing that here."
Byakuya nodded.
"So what do we do?" he asked.
"Well, my kido's good and you've got a ton of power, so we move ahead and take out the trap before the rest of the group gets here. C'mon!"
"What?" Byakuya objected, "but..."
I do not even have a damned flash step!
"Rikichi, wait!"
He ran after the flash stepping youth, cursing inwardly at the time it took to catch up to where Rikichi had taken cover in some rocks, not far from the ambush site. He panted softly as he moved to Rikichi's side.
"H-hey, we should message the others and get some backup," he suggested, "I'm not as familiar with this kind of thing."
"It's no problem," Rikichi said with a calm certainty that Byakuya had never seen the young man exude, "We do training on this all of the time. I know exactly what to do. Just be ready to get out of here quickly if something goes wrong."
Byakuya studied the young man's determined expression.
Rikichi has come a long way from the overly shy and under-confident boy he was.
"You got it," he said, grinning and following as Rikichi led him on.
They closed in on the ambush group, moving carefully in the shadows and working their way to a raised bit of land that gave them a perfect angle. Rikichi read the size and power levels of the ones ahead of them.
"That one near the center front is the leader. Some of the others are more powerful, but he's giving the orders. If I hit him first, then it will stun and confuse the others and I can make a quick second strike from a slightly altered position to make them think there are more of us. Stay here."
That is my own strategy, Byakuya marveled, watching as the young officer executed the maneuver perfectly, loosing a kido blast that incinerated the leader and sent a shock through the ambush group. He moved with a quickness that Byakuya knew came from constant practice and loosed another heavy blast of kido, throwing most of the hollows in different directions and scattering them. The remains of the ambush group panicked and disappeared in flickers of sonido.
Rikichi appeared in front of him, smiling widely.
"That got them!" he laughed.
"Good job!" Byakuya chuckled, patting the youth on the shoulder as he knew Ichigo would, "You do pay attention to Byakuya. I've seen that move before."
"Thanks!" Rikichi said, blushing, "Let's get back to the group. I'm sure they felt the disruption from my attacks. We need to tell them the way ahead is open."
"Right!" Byakuya agreed, "Go on ahead. I'll be behind you."
He sighed appreciatively as he broke into a run and followed.
Giving that boy a chance was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
He hurried after Rikichi, cursing his powerlessness.
We have to get switched back quickly. It is too dangerous for me to be attending to military business while so impaired. As soon as we return…
Byakuya's thoughts were disrupted by the rumble of an explosion in the distance ahead of them. He pushed himself into his fastest run, his eyes locked on the flashes of light that followed.
Ichigo and Renji must have run into trouble!
XXXXXXXXXX
Ichigo heard the sound of a kido blast and felt the ground shake under his feet. His head turned and he looked in the direction Renji had gone, just in time to see the redhead following as his group quickly flash stepped to rejoin them.
"It's an attack!" he warned his group, "Get into formation!"
The shinigami soldiers moved into position around him as Ichigo ran to the top of a small rise, scanning ahead of him.
"Give those fighters some protective fire," he ordered the soldiers.
He could see almost immediately that the return fire wasn't enough to protect the returning fighters.
Damn it!
He looked around for Byakuya and spotted Rikichi returning with Byakuya trailing behind him. Byakuya's worried eyes met Ichigo's as they approached, and he called out a quick command to Rikichi.
"Take this group and help Renji!"
Byakuya and Ichigo ran forward as the group gathered, and they moved together, hurrying to where Renji and his subordinates were engaged in a heated clash with an onslaught of powerful hollows.
"Looks like they used a fake ambush there to lure us!" Byakuya concluded, "We need to get to them quickly!"
"You're supposed to let me say that!" Ichigo hissed, "Remember, you're in my body!"
"S-sorry!" Byakuya panted, "Ichigo, we need more firepower."
The two drew their swords and threw themselves into the fray, but quickly found themselves being forced back and slowly cornered.
"Oh, this is not good," Byakuya whispered, his eyes widening as the number of hollows around them began to swell.
He was sure that the line of shinigamis was about to collapse, but just as the hollows began to overwhelm them, A galloping horse appeared on a nearby ridge, carrying the Shima leader on his dark back.
"Bankai!" Kuri cried, sending his zanpakuto's heavy chains flying forward to wrap around groups of hollows and drag them down. The black stallion he rode loosed a heavy barrage of deadly sharp, white ice blades.
"Hit'em hard!" Renji howled, "We've got backup, guys!"
The shinigamis rallied behind Byakuya and Ichigo on one side and Renji on the other, crashing into the hollows and engaging in close range sword fighting, now that the numbers of enemies had thinned. Kuri brought his husband's stallion closer and flash stepped forward to join in the hand to hand fighting, taking up a position near Byakuya and Ichigo.
"Is everything all right with you two?" He asked, smirking very slightly, "It looked like the hollows had you on the ropes."
"As if!" Byakuya snapped, carefully employing Ichigo's more casual style of speaking, "We woulda been fine."
"Why are you here, Shima taicho?" Ichigo asked in Byakuya's stern, proper tone.
"Looks to me like I'm saving your behind, Byakurai!" the Shima leader laughed, slashing at the nearest hollow, "Is something wrong with you?"
"We were fine!" Byakuya snapped irritably, "You're in the way!"
Forgetting his inability to flash step for a moment, Byakuya staggered slightly and stumbled away.
"Ichibun had too much to drink at the party, eh?" Kuri chuckled, "It's a good thing he's not in the military. We have to be able to hold our liquor, ne Byakurai?"
Ichigo gave him Byakuya's best smoky offended look and turned his back.
Kuri worked his way to Renji's side.
"Ren-ren-nii, are you okay?" Kuri inquired.
"Yeah, just a little singed," Renji said ruefully.
He and Kuri glanced back at Byakuya and Ichigo, who were finishing off a group of attacking hollows with sword and hakudo.
"Is it just me?" Renji asked, "Or are Ichigo and Taicho not radiating any reiatsu right now?"
"No, I feel it too," Kuri said, frowning, "You think it is that stuff we slipped them at the party? Did you read the side effects?"
"Eh, I don't remember them being listed. I'll have to look at the packet when we're not in the middle of fighting, okay?"
"You do that. I know Byakurai's fighting style, and this isn't it by a longshot. Something is up with them."
"And if that's true, then Taicho's gonna fucking have our heads, you know," Renji groaned.
"Eh, they have to catch us first, ne Ren-ren-nii?" Kuri snickered.
"Shut up!" Renji snapped irritably, "You're another clan leader, so he can't do anything really bad to you. I'm his fukutaicho, which means he'll probably beat the holy living hell outta me and give me shit assignments for months after!"
"Take it easy," Kuri chided him, "I won't let you get blamed. If they find out, I will take the rap, all right? Mamà and Tonia will give me hell for it…"
"What about Tetsuya?" Renji asked, smirking, "You probably won't get any sex for a week!"
Kuri's face fell.
"Oh shit, you're right, Ren-ren-nii," he muttered, "Damn, we had better just not get caught."
"But how're we gonna not get caught if they lost their powers and it's because of the shit we slipped into their drinks?" Renji hissed, "They're gonna know it happened the night of the wedding and it won't be long before they figure out it was us! Why the fuck did I ever let you…"
"Take it easy," Kuri said, giving his face a little slap to get his attention.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"You're going to give us away, burro!"
"No one has to give us away," Renji said anxiously, "We're gonna be…"
"Shh!" Kuri hushed him, "They've finished off the hollows over there. Be quiet and just act normal."
"Normal, right," Renji said, gulping as Byakuya and Ichigo approached.
The two came to a stop in front of them.
"Shima Kurushimi," Ichigo said, using Byakuya's precise and slightly derisive intonation, "why did you come here? You were not assigned to this mission. As I recall, you have just spent your wedding night with my cousin."
"He's sleeping it off," Kuri said, smirking and earning a smoky promise of death from the noble's dark eyes, "I just thought you might need a hand and Tetsu-hana's Arashi agreed."
"We do not need you interfering. We could have mistaken you for another group of hollows attacking."
"Put down your hackles, Byakurai," Kuri said reprovingly, "I was just helping out. And besides, you were getting trashed when I arrived. What is with your reiatsu? I can't feel your or Ichibun's."
"We are not sure what has happened," Ichigo said sedately, "I will be taking time off to go and be checked medically."
"Yeah, I'll go in too," Byakuya added, "Something weird's going on, and it seems to have happened at the party. I think someone's playing some shitty joke on us. I guess we'll see as soon as we check in."
"Good you're doing something," Kuri said approvingly, "I hope everything's all right. You take care now. I've got to go home and give my new husband some more attention."
He barely held back a smile when it was Ichigo's body that reacted to the words and not Byakuya's.
Shit, we were right! They are definitely switched!