Hitsugaya stood behind Yourichi, watching the former captain examine the girl's feet as she wiped the layer of salve away so that they could look at the burns. The muted sounds of voices talking from the shop grew sounded briefly louder, unfiltered by the door as Urahara left to contact the Captain Commander before it shut again slowly, the sound of footsteps fading quickly as he went. It had only taken one look at the fragile looking woman lying unconscious for Ikkaku and Yumichika to leave, following Rukia and Karin, Chad lingering a few seconds longer before nodding and walking out behind the rest.
"That should be the last of it," Yourichi said and went to stand next to where Ichigo had stationed himself near the girl's head, well out of the way of the three officers. He stooped down and lifted her left foot, only to nearly drop it as soon as he actually saw the burns. The entire sole of her foot was a blistering, angry red with odd crystalline streaks cracking the surface and three darker burns, so red as to be almost black, etched into the instep. He blinked and looked more closely at the marks, tilting her foot so that it caught the light, showing the deliberate patterning of the red lines. Even so, it was nearly a minute before it truly sunk in to his mind just what they had burned into their feet. The soft gasp and sharper hiss behind him confirmed that both Matsumoto and Renji had realized as well that the odd lines were in fact kanji written with kidou burns into the instep. And while the blisters had blurred the lines slightly, it had not taken long to recognize just what they had written on her arch: the numbers five, three, and nine. A glance at the other foot showed that it bore identical marks, down to the pinkish crystals that covered the rest of her sole.
"They are sending another captain to help escort her and the Captain Commander has given his permission to gate her directly into the Fourth division." Urahara said softly, his sandals clicking softly as he moved behind them to look at her feet. It was impossible to truly tell what he felt without looking at him as he reached out a hand and stopped himself before he touched the crystal lines. "Girl, what did they put on your feet to do this sort of damage?" he asked, his voice soft and low, a thread of anger purring just beneath the surface.
"Salt."
The answer came soft and flat, no emotion carrying through in the tone. The word caught a bit at the edges as if the speaker was asleep or drugged. Urahara raised his head slightly as he stepped to the side, his hand holding his hat in place to keep it from fluttering in the gentle breeze that came through the gate which had opened in the doorway while the rest of them stiffened slightly. Hitsugaya did not need to look behind him to know that it both of the officers behind him had their hands on their swords ready to draw at the first hint of a threat from the young woman in front of him.
Urahara let out a soft sigh and began to wave the fan he kept inside the inside pocket of his coat absently as he mused out loud. "Oh dear, I forgot that was one of the side effects. Yourichi, when did she take the medicine?"
"Almost an hour ago." Yourichi answered, not bothering to hide the confusion and impatience in her voice as she stood, her hand near Ichigo's shoulder so that she could grab or block him if the situation became worse.
"Urahara," Hitsugaya warned the shopkeeper softly.
"The anesthetic that Yourichi gave her earlier was designed to render the person taking it completely unconscious instantly, but it also has the side effect that once it is in the person's blood stream, there is a window of thirty minutes to an hour where the person will answer every question that is asked of them. There are some drawbacks since the question has to be asked directly to them and they will only be able to give a very literal answer, but it is quite effective, even as a medicine. You still have up to half an hour before it wears off."
"Hitsugaya -teicho, I ask permission to resume the questioning immediately," came the soft and reserved female voice from the doorway, near where the gate had closed moments before.
Hitsugaya stood and turned, nodding to where Soifon stood. "I will let you start the questioning then." He moved to stand by the girl's left shoulder, opposite from Yourichi and Ichigo. The dark haired captain moved forward, her released zanpakuto obviously resting against the white of her haori and began.
"What is your name?"
"Dakamoragu Masumi"
"Are you an ally of Aizen Sousuke, Ichimaru Gin, or Tousen Kaname?"
"No."
"What were you before you became shinigami?"
"I was a college student who worked as an English tutor and a part time caretaker for where I lived."
"What were the events of today that lead to you becoming shinigami?"
"It was after midnight when I finished cleaning up from practice and I picked up the mirror to remove the contacts I had to wear for the performance when I noticed it had been spelled. I managed to push through the spell enough to see the man on the other side. He had dark hair and his sword was half drawn in front of him. He smiled and began to laugh when I told him that I would not let him hurt me or any of those I protected and I broke the mirror breaking the spell. For a second, there was an odd sort of doppleganger that looked like me before it disappeared back to the man I had seen through the broken pieces of the mirror. After that, I took a taxi home after that and reinforced all of my outer protections so it was not able to attack any of my charges through the day. As soon as I got off the bus on my way back from class though, I knew that they had gotten through my wards by breaching the emergency access that I had set into them. I ran to get help as soon as I realized but one of them chased me. I tried to fight back but he pinned me before I could hit him and held me until one of the others came. They dragged me back to the house and they used me to force my own protections out of the way. The man from the mirror was waiting inside the door. He held his sword in front of my eyes and asked me what I saw. I told him a sword and he laughed at me. Then he had the other two hold my hands and feet while he burnt them. He told me that it was interesting that my kind could see through illusions and asked if it had worked so well through the mirror. I tried not to answer him and to hide in the tower that I found I could get to when the pain was too bad, but he dragged me back out every time I went to get there. And he told me that he knew what I was for my house and asked me to serve him. I refused, and every time I refused he did something to me. First, he treated my feet with salt and bandaged them, then he started with the cuts around my neck and face. I could feel him beginning to come close to my control and I pushed myself into the tower, but he pinned me through the collarbone with his sword and when I started he literally forced me out from there. He showed me where his hand was bandaged then and tried to spell me to see just how strong I was in my power to have sent a tengu-yokai puppy to attack him. I knew then that he wanted to make me rouge and I had to get away. I could not get back to the tower anymore, and I was too afraid to keep fighting him. So when he stood and pulled his sword away, I drained all of the power that I had protecting my house. He had the two men who were helping him keeping guard over me with their swords pointed at my heart. I used my own power to force my body to sit up onto the swords, meaning to kill myself. I even felt myself die, but he pushed power through my barriers. I almost held him off, but I was too weak, and when I opened my eyes, he was just standing there, smiling. The taller of the two guards pulled me to m feet then and told me that they would let me go free, that they would let me go free and not bother me or my territory again if I could outrun them to the end of the tunnel. I agreed. It was the only chance I had. The dark guard opened the tunnel and told me that I should start to run. I did, and then I fell, and when I got up, I was being chased by the dark haired girl who helped with my stitches and I was here."
Towards the end of the testimony, a thread of panicked fear had begun to creep into the woman's voice and her arms shook as if fighting to keep from reliving the thoughts that must be in her head and it was already clear the medicine was beginning to wear off.
"Soifon, you have five minutes before she awakens." Urahara said softly from where he stood in the corner of the room, confirming what Hitsugaya had begun to suspect.
"Were you ever human or something that at one point in time was human ?"
"Yes." The shifting became more noticeable and Soifon began to speak a little faster. "Are you currently still a human or at least a human spirit?"
"Yes."
Soifon stopped, biting her lower lip. It was clear that she had expected one of the answers to be no and was now uncertain of her next question. Honestly, Hitsugaya had to admit to himself, he would be in the same position if the questioning was reversed. He could not think of any human class that would explain the controlled sort of power that the girl's actions hinted at."
"Ask your last questions. It will not last much longer." Urahara said, impatience leaving his voice slightly sharper than the normal mellow commands he issued.
"Soifon, let me." Yourichi said, her hand raised as if to stave off the argument that she expected to come. "Girl, are you a rusubin?"
"Yes."
"Were you born a true rusubin?"
"Yes."
"What is your jurisdiction?"
"I am not strong enough yet to hold an official one on my own, so the area I cover is not officially mine yet."
"Rusubin, where is it that you take care of?"
"Karakura town and the surrounding areas."
"Did they even begin to succeed in making you rogue?" The last question came out in a half frantic rush of words from Yourichi.
"No, I killed myself first."
Yourichi smiled and reached down, ruffling the girl's hair as she stirred, clearly awakening. "Good girl." There was a breathy note of relief that crept through in her voice with those few words that belied just how happy Yourichi was to hear the last answer. She nodded slightly toward Soifon and the Second Division captain returned her zanpakuto into its normal state.
"I will let the others who are waiting know that we only need someone to help transport, not the full escort that we were expecting," she said and reopened the gate, sending a hell butterfly through.
"Masumi -sensei, please lay still. I promised you that you'd be safe here."
" Hush, Ichigo. I know that. Please, I just need to sit up." the girl replied. Her voice was stronger, more certain than it had been when she had been under the drug, but there was a tremor underneath that said more clearly than anything else just how hard she was fighting to hold herself together. The gauntness of her features and the dark circles that rimmed her eyes had not been so obvious when they had seen her unconscious either, though he thought, looking at the girl as she stubbornly tried to sit up on her own, only to be caught by Ichigo when she failed. Her eyes darkened slightly as she fell back a little, wincing as if her head hurt before opening her eyes again.
"Masumi, stop fighting before you hurt yourself. Dammit, you will hit me if I do anything to help you right now."
"No, not if it gets the room to quit spinning. Do whatever you need to, kunji."
Ichigo waited for a second as if expecting her to say something more, and when she did not, his eyes began to widen but he kept his tone neutral as he said "Remember you told me that, sensei." and picked her up so that she was half sitting, leaning against Ichigo's shoulder for support while her left hand fiddled with a bracelet that she wore, half hidden in her sleeves. Suddenly, she tugged at the cord and it snapped and she held the bracelet up so that everyone could see it, the silver charms of the bracelet clinking softly on the red cord. She smiled sadly at it, and for a second, it felt as if the power level in the room may have increased. If it was the girl's reiatsu though was impossible to determine with all of her energy masked by Kurosaki Ichigo's.
"Go," she told the chain of charms in her hand. It took less than a second for whatever spell she had created to take effect, too fast for anyone to react and all they could do was watch as the bracelet seemed to turn into thousands of silvered black light motes that shot off in all directions, all in less than a second. Hitsugaya began to stiffen, bracing himself to deal with this strange sort of kidou when one of the sparks touched right above his heart. It felt as if it dissolved and he could hear this odd voice speaking in his head "The 16th true rusubin and unofficial council member acting for Karakura town and surrounding areas is dead. Treaty not violated. Attempts to make rogue failed. All ties with allies are broken." He blinked as the message faded, the odd strange calm he had felt at the message slowly melting away as well. Soifon shook her head, a gesture which Ichigo mirrored before he looked at the girl he was holding, confusion showing on his features.
"Masumi, what did you just do?" She leaned back against his shoulder again and looked up, her face looking even more drained and wan after the effort the gesture had cost her as she opened her mouth to answer. Before she got the first word out of her mouth though, Komamaru's gruff voice answered from where he stood in front of the gate that had reappeared in the doorway.
"She destroyed all of that which tied her power to the duties of being a rusubin. Those that are dying or close to death use it as a fail-safe so that no one will turn their alliances against them. I have seen it once before. If she would have done less, then we would have known she was rogue and would have been forced to kill her. It is part of the reason that we keep to the treaty we have with the rusubin council, because they keep such a close watch on their own."
Hitsugaya nodded approvingly. "Ah, good. You are to help transport this one then?"
"Yes. We need to leave immediately while the gate is still secure."
Ichigo looked up and went to step forward until he heard Soifon's voice."
"Kurosaki Ichigo, you are not authorized to go through the gate. Hand the girl to Komamaru so we can leave."
Ichigo stood there woodenly, still holding her. "I don't care if I can go through or not. She is my friend and I gave my word that-."
"Kurosaki-kun, the captains would not be taking her to the Fourth Division if they meant to hurt her. And she will die if she does not get something other than her own reiatsu to draw energy from soon." Urahara said. Ichigo still refused to move.
"Ichigo, I will be fine. Now, please listen to them, student. This is not worth fighting over."
Ichigo reluctantly held out his arms and Komamaru took Masumi, tucking her into the crook of one arm. Not, Hitsugaya noted, his sword arm as he took his place in the guard formation in front of Matsumoto and Renji and they all flashstepped through, leaving Urahara to shut the gate behind them.