Author's Note: I was thinking of…shortening the story a bit. I'm cutting out an arc which isn't very important to the story, and trying to speed up the updates a little, to which I'm a great failure at. I'm so sorry. And...yes, the title of the chapter was completely random. Dialogue is...really needed here, so I tried adding in bits and pieces of descriptions, but at times I may need to drfit off, so I apologise for that. Gah, I'm apologising for everything, really.
Disclaimer: Read previous chapters.
Ore no Koori Koushi 10
The Long-shot Blood Range
"Did you say...murdered?"
Kiyone bit her lower lip; she attempted to elbow Sentarou in the rib, muttering something under her breath. His hand moved and gripped onto her fingers so tightly they turned ghostly white. She hissed softly, muttering something else in return, and he immediately let go. The blonde rubbed the tears from her eyes and bowed lower. "Hai, Ukitake-koutei. We found the bodies of Aizen-taichou, Ichimaru-taichou and Tousen-taichou in Zaraki. The people all say that it was the shinigami trainee, Kurosaki Ichigo, who went up the hill but they never saw him since, so we don't really know what happened, but Unohana-taichou suspects that it's arson...Ukitake-koutei?"
The sickly emperor held his mouth with the embroidery handkerchief and gave a raspy cough while thanking and dismissing his two royal servants for their time. They did not budge. As his fit died down, he flashed them a smile to which they didn't know how to react; relieved, or worried. Relieved, because yet another of his relapse had gone over as quickly as it came, and he did not seem to be in danger of another to add on to the list. Worried, because he didn't seem to realise that blood was trickling down from a corner of his lips as he smiled. They decided to go with the worried part.
Noticing their deepened frown, Ukitake wondered where the problem lied, and figured it out the instant he landed his gaze on the once golden handkerchief with two mandarin ducks at the corner where they were apparently swimming on a crimson lake. He wiped the blood off his mouth, and folded the piece of used cloth nicely, setting it aside in the bin next to the table where the other handkerchiefs lied. It was a wonder that there was no ant infestation after all this while.
"At any rate, we need to give them a proper burial ceremony. After all, they have served Tamashii well," Ukitake spoke as if nothing happened in the midst of the few minutes earlier. He rose from his seat, grabbing a tattered robe that hung by the throne and fitted himself in it. Dusting himself, he tugged at the sides to make sure they were comfortable and resumed smiling. "I will be making a secret trip to Zaraki, so please prepare the carriage, and don't tell anyone about where I will be heading, is that understood?"
"U-Ukitake-koutei! You can't be serious!" Kiyone exclaimed, losing her calmness in just an instant.
"For once, I agree with the booger, koutei!" Sentarou followed, knocking the girl off her feet with a swish of his own. "You need to take care of your health, sir! We insist on following you - no, we insist that you stay in the palace and continue receiving treatment from Unohana-taichou! If there's anything you would like, koutei, let me go on your behalf!"
"Why you slimy..." his partner curled her fingers into a ball-like fist and gave him a punch on the head. "Ukitake-koutei, don't listen to him! I will do anything for you as long as you say the word, koutei! I shall be the one who will go on your behalf!"
"No, no, no!" Ukitake interrupted, sweat dropping from the temple of his forehead. He held his hands up, shaking them continuously. "You've got it all wrong, Kiyone, Sentarou. I'm not going there because I want to investigate the matter. I'm just going to check on a close friend of mine who lives there, that's all. I promise I won't be staying there for more than three days. Alright, make it two days, then."
Kiyone and Sentarou stared at each other solemnly, biting the lower of their lips while keeping their heads lowered. Two days would mean 48 hours, and 48 hours would mean that much time without them by his side...48 hours without the aid of medicine, without their care, without them having to brew it for him to consume. Was he going to stay out for that long? Would he be able to hold out for that long without medicine at all? Their koutei, the one who so kindly took them into the palace, was prone to having his illness act up. The medicine would suppress it, only for the time being. The most he could hold out was, as they could understand after serving him for so long, a mere one day.
Unohana-taichou had specifically instructed them not to leave him alone for too often; they had done so, prepared the medicine just in case of an emergency. Too many a time had their master fallen to the ground, not responding to their calls; too many a time had he spat out blood while in the eyes of many, all of the people crowding around him and asking if he was all right. If this time, Ukitake-koutei were to go on his own...
"We'll go with you, koutei!" the two servants chorused. "We won't let you leave by yourself!"
"...Then, I suppose we all should get ready," Ukitake sighed, flashing them a true smile at last.
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Murdered...was it? That those few captains were caught in an assassin's fire? For whatever the reason there could be, Ukitake could come up with none of his own. Ichimaru Gin, man in his twenties, might've had been notorious for his particular ways of killing invaders that dared enter the palace grounds; he would first tie them up, ask a bit of questions, and then let them go after cutting them up for a bit. When asked, he would answer that he wanted them to lose a bit of blood before meeting with the next possible samurai on duty. Coincidentally, the next man had been Tousen Kaname, a man nearing his fortieth year. And just so coincidentally, that dark-skinned man had his own particular way of handling with intruders, albeit slightly different from how his colleague would normally do.
He heard so much, that the man was blind. He couldn't believe it at first, not after hearing that it was this blind man who could aim at the enemy in the chest so accurately, mentioning that if the intruder were still alive it'd mean Tousen missed his target: the heart. But one out of four chances proved fatal. Out of the four, three of it would go to the final person. Fifty-year-old Aizen Sousuke, popular amongst the majority of the girls in the sea of manly soldiers. Kind, thoughtful, and not to mention violent towards anyone who defied him.
Not to say that the perpetrators were under his direct command, but he would kill them off without mercy and without much of a reason. He'd always say it was because of his obligation as someone whose purpose was to protect the royal family, but Ukitake couldn't understand why Aizen would be so brutal. He's had three different consecutive ways of dealing with his opponents, of which the emperor had heard while inspecting the division Aizen was leading: one, he would slash the man's abdomen, leaving him to bleed for a while before moving onto two, stabbing his limbs to the floor. The final step was the most horrific.
The white-haired ruler coughed into yet another of his handkerchief, to find one drop of blood. Thankfully, it hadn't been a whole mess of it; he didn't bring any spares with him. With the mentioning of blood, sometimes in his younger parenting days when Toushirou hadn't been any older than six years, the poor child would come to his room, hands stained with the crimson liquid with a splat or two on his cheek. Ukitake would always panic, looking for any visible wounds on his son's body but was inquisitive when he found none. The next morning, a report would be lying finely on his desk, which read of the previous night's assassin's intrusion. The most common statement of all the reports, would be that the perpetrator died of blood loss.
Nightmares became the norm for his son.
With no one else to turn to, Toushirou chose to go to his father's room; but whatever he was doing awake in the most ungodly hours of the night, even he as his father was ashamed that he couldn't understand his own child. His Shirou didn't seem to want to talk about the past either, now that he was all grown out of the habit. Unohana, the royal family doctor, could only tell him that it was possible his son wasn't suffering from any health problems, but he just wanted to look for something. It stemmed from a source since his younger days, approximately a year before the blood trauma.
Ukitake narrowed his eyes. A year before Toushirou's sixth, it had been one of the darkest periods of his life as a father. It had been for a mere split second, just that one split second. But in the midst of that short a time period, the heir to his throne went missing right under his nose. They had been going around the states, visiting as he could remember. But on one fine afternoon, it turned out not to be so fine after all. Toushirou was gone. Just like he was now.
Worriedly, he tugged at the curtain of the carriage window, sticking his head out for a bit of fresh air. Instead, his coughing fit acted up and he scrambled for his handkerchief, covering his mouth with it and looked out again. That was fast. Already they were in the land where no rain fell. While it wasn't exactly where he was headed to, he was close. For some reason, it had felt as if time flew since he left the palace; Kusajishi was about as far from the palace as Zaraki, not to mention the two plots of land had so similar a climate that not even Ukitake himself could tell which was Kusajishi and which was Zaraki.
However, judging by how the cactus grew in the surroundings, he had a distinctive feeling that this was not his destination indeed. Beads of sweat rolled down his cheek, of which he wiped off with the back of his hand. It was steaming hot out here; how in the world could people like Kurosaki and Ishida survive in such a desert-like state and grow up to be so strong?
And there from the edge of the town, Ukitake spotted, a spike head of orange. Speak of the devil.
"Pull over!"
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"Ahh, Ichigo-kun. What a small world, meeting you here," the cloaked man greeted, leaning against the curving wall of the cave while sitting by the crackling of blazes. "I was on my way to Zaraki to meet an old friend of mine. Didn't expect to bump into you in Kusajishi. So, how has the mission been going?"
Ichigo folded the rag he initially put on himself, setting it aside neatly by the fire. He waited, and watched the emperor as he took a sip of his brewed medicine before speaking, "Ukitake-san, I'm sure you know what happened in Zaraki, right?" Ukitake listened, but said nothing. "Yeah, I admit it, those guys died 'cuz of something I did...But I swear, I didn't want to kill them that early! I just wanted them to tell me where Toushirou was, that's all, but they died before they could."
"You mean, Aizen-taichou, Ichimaru-taichou and Tousen-taichou knew where my son was being held?" Ukitake pondered; had it been possible that his son's kidnapping was an inside job?
"You...didn't know that they were the ones who kidnapped Toushirou?" When he saw the widening of Ukitake's eyes, he groaned and scratched the back of his head. "It's just a guess, actually. But somehow, they knew I was coming and managed to tip their leader off, got away with Toushirou too. I was prepared to kill 'em, but I wanted them to tell me before they could go to hell. I dunno why but a fire broke out and killed them, and like I said, I dunno why, but I was untouched by the fire. It was weird, really. But I left anyway and continued looking for Toushirou. After that, though, word about those bastards' deaths got out and I've become public enemy number one, so I can't really go in search for him now."
Somewhere, in the midst of Ichigo's explanation, Ukitake had drifted off in his own chain of thoughts. The fire, just as Kiyone explained earlier in the day, was truly a plot to silence all of the occupants in the room. Just that for some odd reason, Kurosaki hadn't been affected by the flames. But then again, he didn't escape unscathed; there was an evident scar on his right palm, skin peeled and flesh exposed while the area around it had turned black. Whoever it was that set the room on fire, it must've had been someone who was connected to the prince's kidnapping as well as the three captains...if his hunch was right, that it was truly an inside job, then could it be...?
"Well, thank you for the information, Ichigo-kun," the emperor replied, taking one last gulp of the bitter liquid. He pressed the edge of the wooden bowl to his lips and painfully allowed it to travel down before placing it next to him. "I've always known you were innocent anyway. Before I return to the palace, I'll be sure to stop by your family's house to inform them of the mission. As for Toushirou...well, um...I trust you should be able to find him, but I'll make sure to issue a notice around the country to not get in your way if they see you looking for him. At the same time, I'll go check about the fire incident you told me about. I've probably heard of similar cases happening in the past, but this was the first time it actually killed somebody."
"Eh? Are you really okay with that?"
"Of course I am. I have a friend who likes going to the royal library a lot, so when I'm free I'll join him in the search." I'm always free anyway, he thought to himself while giving Ichigo an assured, warm-hearted smile.
The orange-haired shinigami trainee nodded, bidding his farewells to the white-haired ruler of the country when his servants insisted that he should leave since it would not do him any good if he were to sleep in a cave where there was barely any fresh air for him. Typical, he thought to himself, that they would restrain his movements by this much. But it was still better than nothing. At least he managed to find Kurosaki before any of the imperial guards could.
But this would mean he needed to get to Zaraki quicker than before; now that he knew of Ichigo's state, he was certain he couldn't lose anymore time than he already had by staying in the palace throughout the whole affair. There was no way he could be able to call himself an emperor if he first didn't know of exactly what happened in his kingdom.
At the same time, he would be able to dig up some possible clues as to where his son might be. According to Ichigo, he had been whisked away to who-knew-where for the second time; honestly, if Ukitake had said he wasn't worried, he'd be lying through his teeth. He could totally understand why a lot of powerthirsty people were aiming for Toushirou, but this was ridiculous. He'd rather be the one getting into the trouble, Hitsugaya had nothing to do with it. He was just born into the world this way, as a prince; it wasn't like he was going to take over the throne that soon, was he? Ukitake wasn't about to allow that to happen...it'd be equivalent to sending his own flesh and blood to his own death.
Lightning flashed across the darkened skies, illuminating the area.
...For some reason, the ride was unsteadier than usual. Perhaps it was because of the fact that they were at a terrain region, but then again, his trip was this bumpy from the beginning. He just didn't seem to realise it soon enough to know...or did he?
"U-Ukitake...koutei..."
"Yes, Sentarou? What is it?"
The lightning came for the second time as the carriage plunged to a stop.
"There's...someone who wants to see you..."
He found himself frowning more than usual; Kiyone sounded unusually petrified. This wasn't like her at all. Ukitake called for them to place the carriage to the ground, and they obeyed. He pushed the cloth away, stepping out into the shadows. Droplets of rain batted against his body as a flash chased away the shadows before his feet; a tuft of white hair was what he found, a pale hand oozing a stream of crimson, and the clothes...oh, the clothes were as tattered as tattered could be.
"...You're...!" The figure fell to his feet while yet another lightning gave Ukitake a second chance. Indeed, it was the unmistakable trademark hair of snow white, a wisp of it seemingly standing out by remaining stubbornly attached to his face. "Toushirou..." he whispered, falling to his knees while lifting the limp body into his lap, brushing away whatever blood his fingers could reach for.
"Oh, whatever happened to you?" the emperor father asked, not expecting a reply. He carried the young prince into his arms when a pang of suspicion struck him; something wasn't right about this. It wasn't that he wasn't glad that his son had been found, but...why was it that he had this horrid gut feeling that if it had been someone else who found him, the report wouldn't include 'found in one piece'...?
He shifted Toushirou's body closer; his foresight was spot-on. There was something missing, something very very horribly missing...and as much as he didn't want to know what, he would have to know sooner or later. It was best if he could know about it before sooner and before later.
Ukitake bit his lower lip, his fingers trembling while gripping every body part he could feel for in the darkness. His legs were intact, so he hoped, but there was a need for concern about his upper torso. There was his arm there, hanging limply while the blood started to mix with the rain; his right arm, to be exact. What he was missing...was going to be devastating to the boy if he were to wake up to find out about it. Where...is his left arm? Ukitake could not answer to his own question.
Ukitake couldn't understand why Aizen would be so brutal. He's had three different consecutive ways of dealing with his opponents, of which the emperor had heard while inspecting the division Aizen was leading: one, he would slash the man's abdomen, leaving him to bleed for a while before moving onto two, stabbing his limbs to the floor. The final step was the most horrific.
And yet another, he glanced down. While the light lasted, he took a good, hard lookUkitake couldn't understand why Aizen would be so brutal. Looks like they needed to make a detour after all.
Next chapter: Ichigo swears to kill whoever dared to harm Toushirou like that while Ukitake rushes back to the palace where he hoped Unohana could find some way to stop the bleeding. The doctor doesn't like what she finds out...and she certainly doesn't like how she finds the whole plot to kill the prince only to send him back just so suspicious. There could only be one person who would go this far to harm the prince...and Ukitake isn't surprised.