So, here Ichigo stood frozen on the spot, staring at the crater that yielded to him nothing useful. Kido was going to be the death of him - turning his Zanpakuto useless in a fight, shutting him up like a muzzle would, throwing him around like some rag doll... Swearing at the whole damn universe until his throat was raw sounded like a great idea but he decided against it at the very last moment. He doubted the universe was going to do anything about the complaints.

He closed his eyes and grimaced. He failed to protect someone he held dear. Again. He should've noticed that something was seriously off when Rukia plunged into an uncharacteristically state of sheer panic. Never mind that she recovered relatively fast afterwards. Hell, he should've caught something from the lethal expression she wore right before start of the combat. She was acting far out of character. He should've jumped in and stopped the combat before it spun out of control. On the other hand, Kladias-

Kladias.

Ichigo's head whipped around in search - he had completely forgotten about her, having been too caught up with Rukia's state.

He found her presence at the far side of the field immediately started sprinting towards it. Details came to his sight as he got closer; she was surrounded by a circle of the five remaining vice-captains. All of their weapons drawn to their shikai state. Shinji stood in front of her, one hand clasped around her throat to lift her feet off the ground, the other hovering over her wrists to keep the kido binding in place. The blades of her hands glistened sickly crimson, reflecting the light from the cloudy sky as she squirmed and twisted. Ichigo deduced that there must've been a kido binding around her ankles, since she wasn't kicking out at Shinji.

Few droplets of red marred the white expanse of the captain's haori. Blood was seeping out of shallow cuts on Hisagi's bicep, Tetsuzaemon's hand, Ikkaku's forehead and Yumichika's cheek. Renji's usually-tied-up hair hung loose all around his face - so there had been a struggle capturing Kladias. The woman looked pretty bloodied up too.

Shinji's face was barely an inch away from Kladias's, the fast-moving lips, clenched jaw and other body languages demanding answers. Kladias, however, seemed to be opting to answer with a feral snarl of open contempt.

Her dark red eyes glinted azure again, sending a physical shock through Ichigo's body that he almost tripped over his own feet.

Then her lips moved - barely. Shinji's eyes brightened in some acute realization and the hand that had been hovering over Kladias's wrists glowed and slammed into her face, knocking her unconscious upon either the impact or the kido. Shinji dropped her down to her feet none too gently and held her away by the throat as she sagged forwards to him.

Ichigo had plunged into the circle of vice-captains by the time Shinji started barking out orders,

"Matsumoto! Iba! Carry her" Shinji thrusted Kladias out to an arm's length, "to the 12th. Back alleyways. Don't be seen. Shuuhei," Hisagi flinched as Shinji shot him an unreasonably venomous glare, "the hell're you still doing here? Go. Now!"

Rangiku and Tetsuzaemon hurriedly reverted their zanpakutos back to their normal state, sheathed them and shunpo-ed up to grab hold onto Kladias. Murmured exchange of words, and Tetsuzaemon threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder and started into the forest. Rangiku jogged to catch up.

Hisagi was already nowhere to be seen, obviously having understood the vague instruction.

"Hinamori, head back to our headquarters. Kira, go find your captain too before- where'd they go?" Shinji whirled around frantically on the spot.

Ironic, how Shinji expected Hisagi to be gone, but not others. Ichigo just spoke up flatly, "Isane, Nanao and they teleported Rukia to the 4th division. They needed Unohana-san." He sounded much calmer than he felt. So. Much. Calmer.

"WHAT?" color drained out of Shinji's face, "Oh shit, shit shit shit shit- this is bad."

That ticked Ichigo off into an outburst, "That's the only thing you can think of - that this is BAD? Rukia's barely holding on! We - I should've stopped them, I should've seen this coming. She was freaking out beforehand." The half of it was directed more to himself than anyone else. He warily glanced around for Renji, wondering how he was doing midst of all of this. Not on the scene - he must've gone running to Byakuya the moment Shinji knocked her out-

Oh, hell. Byakuya's going to be enraged when he hears the news. Ichigo hoped that the poor messenger wouldn't be shot at.

Shinji's yelp brought Ichigo's attention back, "You two," at Ikkaku and Yumichika, "scat. Not a word to anyone. Ones who need to be notified will be notified when they need to be, how they need to be. That's an order." the pair of them nodded, looking slightly miffed, and shunpo-ed out of sight.

Ichigo was left standing alone with Shinji, who looked to be on verge of panicking, hands clutching the top of his head, busily muttering to himself. Ichigo caught only parts of the rambles-

"...Abarai's gone? Screw it, Kuchiki brat's going to be annoying to deal with. Rose, Kensei... Central 46... 4th division's bound to let the news out-"

Ichigo was rambling on the inside - how was Rukia? Why did Kladias do... that to her? Possessed? Her eyes. The grin, the stance. Familiarity crashed onto closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck - it was as if there was a physical barrier between what he was seeing and the memory the sight called forth. It made his head spin and throb.

But he had no problem recalling the shift in Shinji's eyes when Kladias spoke, right before she was blacked out.

Ichigo had to yell out Shinji's name a couple times and then resort to a slap on the shoulder before the captain's attention was focused onto him,

"What'd she say? Kladias. What did she say to you before you knocked her out?"

Shinji gave him a wide-eyed look close to disbelief, as if caught off-guard by the question. "What?" Ichigo snapped. Perfectly reasonable question.

Split second past and decision glazed over Shinji's face. He bent down to retrieve something from the ground and spun around to break into a stride towards the forest. Without answering Ichigo's question.

"HEY!" Ichigo yelped. "Answer me! No way that was a hard question. What'd she say that made you freak the hell out-"

"Follow along, Ichigo," Shinji cut through without breaking his stride, voice back to his casual drawl, "seems like you've got some catching up to do."

Ichigo blinked. Okay, still not the answer. He could choose not to complain and get the full story or drive a punch into Shinji's oh-so-calm-now face for tempting him with a bait. The latter sounded nice, since the temper within was screaming to get out. But... the full story. He realized that he still knew next to nothing about what happened in Seireitei after the Winter War.

A songbird shrieked out a pained note at the same time as Ichigo shouted at Shinji to wait up. However useless Zangetsu proved to be today, he wasn't going to just ditch it.


Ichigo stepped back and insisted, "NO! I'm not going back in there!"

Shinji glared at him skeptically, "You have the audacity to march into Seireitei uninvited, skewer all shapes and sizes of hollows yet you're scared to walk into a sewage system?"

"I'm not scared!"As a matter of fact, Ichigo had been in there before, with Hanatarou and Ganjou, to avoid the authorities back when they were trying to stop the execution. The depressing underground cavity brought back even more depressing memories. Also, he hadn't been able to smell a thing after being in the sheer stench of the place.

"No matter how terrifying it would be for you, it's one of the best ways there are to travel without bumping into people." Shinji bend down to claw at the edge of the slab plate on the ground.

"Can't you just use kido - snap a finger and disappear? Activate invisibility? Use Koukate-whatever like they did with-" like the did with Rukia? But her name wouldn't come up to his lips...

Shinji had managed to pull off the plate to reveal a square hole with stairs leading down, "We don't use kido for everything - too disconcerting. The 12th division keeps track of all unusual reiatsu activity within the walls of Seireitei, and Koukateni - the kido those idiots used, the one you must be talking about now - already attracted too much attention."

Ichigo pondered why Shinji was insisting such secrecy. Granted, what had happened was... terrible? Horrifying? Unbelievable? Unforgivable-

He was getting off-topic. Could it be as simple as that Shinji was trying to avoid getting into...trouble? Rukia was on death's doorstep and the stupid blond was just concerned about his status? That thought enraged Ichigo,

"Screw the caution to hell! Do you realize how unbelievably selfish of you to think of the troubles you'd be getting into when someone else's is- is- might already be dead? Well, sucks to be you because there were more than half a dozen witnesses of your half-assed control of the situation and I personally wouldn't hesitate to destroy you for even thinking of it for even a second-"

"Ahh! Ichigo - shut up!" Shinji widened his eyes and held up both of his hands up in a mock-surrender. His tone was incredulous but perfectly serious, "You think I'm trying to cover my ass for what happened? You think I'm stupid? I'm going to take full responsibility for the situation all right." He huffed out a breath, "Besides, you have to give me more credit than that; if I really wanted to get away with it, there are loads of alternatives actions I could have taken to make the bunch of you forget about everything-"

WHAM! Ichigo planted his fist into dead-center of Shinji's face. The captain was caught off-guard, and flew into the square hole on the ground, down the stairs... How dare he, Ichigo thought, how CAN he make a joke like that, now, of all times? And man, did it feel good - Ichigo had been feeling like punching someone for a LONG while now. A final thud, groans mixed with swearings told him that the blond has successfully reached the bottom of the stairs. No splash.

Pity. But Ichigo was too irritated to change that. He turned himself around and was about to sprint away when Shinji's sing-songy voice taunted from behind him,

"Ichiiiiiii-go! The only way you're going to get that catching-up while traveling through here! Underground cavity is one of the only places there aren't any surveilance."

Ichigo faltered his step and grimaced. Of course he wanted the information that was being offered to him. One too many times his so-called allies have concealed critical information from him, the ones that could have solved many mysteries for him before he dived into the situation to solve it himself and brewed up more trouble than before. On the other hand, he didn't want to be manipulated into going somewhere he didn't want to! And he didn't want to be traveling alongside the freaking sewage channels. But... he wanted to know what's going on, damn it!

Ichigo sighed.

Coming to a decision, he spun on one heel to head back towards the entrance to the underground cavity. He came to a stop at the very front of it, took a deep breath of fresh air - he was going to miss it, he was sure.

One foot in front of another, Ichigo descended down the stairs. Fetid stench of the place whooshed into his face, bringing back unwelcome memories... Time ticking away, helplessness and guilt enveloping him. Smell of his own blood mixed with the sewage.

Ichigo hoped that he hadn't been traumatized by what happened more than a year ago. Not like he needed another worry to choke him stupid...