Chapter 8: Murder Most Foul
(Grrr! I have to get ready for work already! Barely have time to finish, can't edit properly or write my shout-outs. I am so done with full-time work it's not funny! I think I'll go nuts before this week is over. The work is fun, but overall, everything else gets so rushed that it hardly feels like living. America needs to shorten the workday! We need some hours to enjoy the money we earn...But, it could be worse...way worse actually. So, I take it back. I can handle this...just can't wait until I go back to part time. My life is very full of good things. I want to enjoy them all! Ah, enjoy the chapter and have a great day embracing what's good in your lives. Love, Spunky)
"So, how was your first day of school, my nephew?" Kisuke asked, smirking, and earning a look of annoyance from the Kuchiki heir as Byakuya sat next to Ichigo at the dinner table, trying not to wolf down his food, "You know, it's perfectly fine to lose a few of your manners while you're here. You are eating for two now, and you're incognito. No one's going to know it's you."
"She knows," Byakuya said, scowling at Yoruichi, "And I do not doubt she will find some unpleasant way to use the information."
"That's not nice," Yoruichi said, snickering, "I'm trying to help you too."
"Sure you are," Byakuya managed around a large mouthful of food, "You can't wait to embarrass me somehow and you know it. Thankfully, I can escape you at school tomorrow."
"Oh, I don't know about that," Yoruichi said slyly, "One of your teachers may just suddenly need a substitute."
"Oh?" Byakuya said disdainfully, "Well, since I am not taking coursework in Feline Stalking Techniques, Mastery of the Art of Annoyance or Sexual Deviancy, I don't think you can teach anything I would be wanting to learn."
"Well, I think it might be necessary to put Yoruichi or someone else down there at the school with you."
"That bi-erm woman is not going to be one of my teachers!" Byakuya snapped, "I would rather die a horrid, painful death."
"Well, you could just get your wish," Kisuke answered in a serious voice, "There was a body discovered down by the river today...and it turns out that it was a Karakura High student."
"What?" Ichigo exclaimed, going pale, "Who? It wasn't...?"
"It wasn't any of the gang," Kisuke said in a lower voice, "It's not anyone I think you know. The kid was kind of a loner. He didn't really hang out with anyone. The name's Seiji Chiba."
"Oh, him," Ichigo said, frowning, "He did hang out by himself a lot. He wasn't a bad guy, just real quiet. Damn. How did he die?"
"Well," said Kisuke, meeting Ichigo's eyes warningly, "that depends on who you ask. If you ask the Karakura Town police, they'll tell you that it looks like the work of some of those wild dogs that gave the town some trouble a few years back."
"You mean that wolf hollow that came over from Hueco Mundo? I thought he went back. You said before you tracked him."
"I did," Kisuke explained, "but things have been chaotic since Aizen's fall and the hollows are getting either more bold or just more desperate. Most that we've sensed coming through the garganta are easier to manage, but if the really creepy things start leaking over into this world, ol' Byakuya, here, is going to have a lot more to annoy him than Professor Yoruichi."
"Don't even go there," Byakuya said darkly, tipping his glass and drinking deeply.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.
"There are hollows that are the usual kind we see and there are some that usually stay further out in the desert and rather than crossing over, they just eat whatever blunders into their territory. There have been all kinds of brawls and battles. The infrastructure of things there has become really unstable and there have been large amounts of deaths and die-offs in some areas. It's not entirely implausible that something bigger and creepier came over here to escape all of that. It's intelligent. It picked a guy who wasn't popular, who was likely to be alone, that kinda thing and it preyed on him."
"What makes you so sure that it is a higher order hollow?" Byakuya asked, "If the police did not..."
"The police don't have shinigami senses, but I do," Kisuke said quietly, "I always investigate unusual deaths, especially when they occur in a place or a way that might somehow involve Ichigo."
"And what did you find?" the Kuchiki heir inquired.
"I found this," Kisuke said, indicating a vial he produced from with in his clothing.
Byakuya and Ichigo studied it for a moment and both looked back blankly at the shopkeeper.
"It's okay," Kisuke chuckled, "I didn't expect Ichigo would sense it and Byakuya's senses are still pretty scrambled by the destabilization...which reminds me. Ichigo, did you infuse Byakuya with your reiatsu when you got home from school?"
Byakuya flushed darkly and Ichigo cleared his throat, eliciting a snicker and a knowing look from Yoruichi.
"Y-you could say that," Ichigo answered, earning a scathing look from the Kuchiki heir.
"Hmmm, and was there any response in his spirit centers?"
"Yeah, he had a pretty nasty power flare when we...erm, that is, when..."
"I think you have made your point," Byakuya said dryly, "My power flared when we climaxed."
"Have you tested your spirit centers since then?" the shopkeeper went on, trying not to smile.
Byakuya nodded.
"They are still responding only sporadically."
"Why is that?" asked Ichigo, "Is it because of the baby?"
"Partly," Kisuke confirmed, "And part of it is the continued disruption in his systems, which I can't really treat. So, I'm gonna have to take some preventative action."
He snapped a silver bracelet onto Byakuya's wrist and the Kuchiki heir examined it, frowning more deeply.
"This is a limiter," he stated.
"But why use the limiter when Byakuya doesn't even have power, except when I...erm...infuse him? I mean, couldn't we just use it when we're...together?"
"We don't know that his power won't flare suddenly, and those power flares can harm the developing baby."
"Oh!" Ichigo gasped, looking alarmed.
Byakuya started to have the same reaction, then noticed how Ichigo had responded and calmed his expression.
"What?" queried the ginger-haired youth, "Did I do something wrong?"
"No," Byakuya said, turning a dark smoky eye on his lover, "It is just that I was...moved by your reaction. It is much different than before."
"Look, I said I was sorry about that and I meant it," Ichigo insisted.
"I know," said the noble, "You don't have to keep apologizing. I know what I just saw. You are becoming attached to our baby."
"Heh," chuckled Ichigo, scratching the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly, "I think I'm pretty attached to both of you."
"Well," said Kisuke, "as touching as that is, let's get back to the matter at hand. That thing you couldn't sense in this vial is something called 'transformative reiatsu.'"
The ginger-haired youth and the Kuchiki heir looked back at him blankly. Kisuke scowled at them.
"Hey, I can understand Byakuya forgetting, but come on, Ichigo. I taught this to you! You should remember."
"Well, we both know I suck at reiatsu sensing," Ichigo sighed, shaking his head, "That's hardly news."
Kisuke rolled his eyes and slipped the vial back into his clothing.
"Transformative reiatsu," he said, giving Ichigo a disapproving look, "is a kind of reiatsu that only a few very creepy hollows possess. You've got your hollow wraiths that suck the life, slowly and painfully out of their victims, the hollow vamps that suck the life out of you and make you one of them, the zombie hollows that infuse you with their reiatsu and you become one of them, and there are the Ookami seirei, spirit wolves that can transform a human or shinigami with their bite. You don't want this to be any of them, I guarantee you."
"But it sounds like it is one of them anyway."
"Yeah," Kisuke agreed, "I wouldn't put my money on the zombie hollow because its brain is essentially mush. The hollow wraith his possible and can possess one victim to lure others, as can the ookami seirei."
"I thought the ookami seirei was a wolf!" objected Ichigo.
"It is a wolf," Kisuke confirmed, "but it also has a humanoid form it often uses to lure its prey."
"And the hollow vamp?" Ichigo asked.
"It likes to play with its food," Kisuke said darkly, "It will lure and devour prey, then fuse with its dying reiatsu so it can take on that person's form. Like the hollow wraith, it is only detectable when it lowers its defenses to eat. And it eats a lot. If this is a hollow vamp, or any of the rest of these, it will have a good appetite. We should be thankful that it's a higher order thinker, because that will make it more cautious, and give us time to act. Yoruichi and I will need to hunt this thing down. That's why I want her at the school with you. The kid killed was a student there, and you and Byakuya are vulnerable while you're there."
"Then, maybe Byakuya just shouldn't go back," Ichigo concluded, "I mean, he's essentially powerless if something does happen, and what about our baby?"
He paused, noting the noble's stiffening lips and confrontational expression.
"I'm not as useless a all that," Byakuya said angrily, his dark eyes sparking, "and besides, that hollow may have randomly chosen that young man. It is probably going to avoid taking another victim from the school."
"That would be the intelligent thing to do," Kisuke agreed, "but we don't want to take any chances. Ichigo, I want you to stay close to Byakuya, not because I think he's in imminent danger or can't handle himself, but there's something else that may play a role here."
"What's that?" asked Ichigo.
"Byakuya's disrupted reiatsu and the fact that he's expecting are wreaking havoc on his systems. And his little power flares, while they're cute and get the heart racing, are also attractive to hunting hollows...especially high level hunting hollows. Growing reiatsu is like honey to them. You don't want them to sense Byakuya or we'll have a real problem on our hands."
"Shit," breathed Ichigo, "Kisuke, look, I know Byakuya's not incapable of defending himself, but I really don't think he should go back to the school. Please, can he just stay here?"
"No!" Byakuya replied, his eyes indignant, "Ichigo, he just said that the hollow is smart enough that it will likely look elsewhere for its next meal. We will be on our guard. There is no reason for me to hide like a child! I will be careful. I will stay close to you."
"But, what about our kid, Byakuya?" Ichigo insisted, "Should we really take chances?"
"Take chances," Byakuya repeated, "Ichigo, I'm not taking chances. I am just not giving up all of the things that matter to me just because there's something scary out there. I won't stop living because there are scary things in the world! That's no better than already being dead!"
He disappeared in a flash step, leaving the others staring after him.
"Fuck," Ichigo sighed, his face crashing down onto the table, "He's so damned volatile! It seems like I can't say anything right sometimes! Kisuke, I don't know what to do! It's not that I don't think he can take care of himself. I am worried about our baby."
"And you think he isn't?" Yoruichi asked, crossing her arms, "You know, I knew Byakuya as a kid this age and he wasn't the kind to be told what to do then, either. But there's something different about him this time."
Ichigo turned his head to the side and looked up at the purple-haired woman questioningly.
"You weren't there, so you have no idea of the way being noble born crushed him inside. Byakuya has never been able to be a normal person. Since he was born, he's always had to set an example and act in proper ways. Now, he doesn't have that hanging over him, it's like he's really enjoying himself for the first time ever. He is alive in a way he couldn't be before, and I think he's scared of losing that."
Ichigo lifted his head off the table and stared back at Yoruichi, his eyes widened.
"Well, maybe you're right," he said, thinking carefully, "But what good is that freedom going to be if he gets eaten by a hollow?"
"But," Yoruichi said pointedly, "What good is living if you live in too much fear?"
Ichigo stared back at her, unable to come up with an answer.
"We don't know exactly what this creature is and we doubt that it will draw attention to its movements by killing another student. Also, I will come to the school and watch over things. There is no reason to confine Byakuya here. We just won't let anything happen to him."
"We can't," Ichigo said, swallowing hard and remembering.
"Holy hell, do you even know how sexy you are this way?" he whispered into the Kuchiki heir's blushing ear and sliding his hands into the other youth's tight leather pants, curving them around his tempting bottom and making their hips grind together as they swayed to the music on the radio in their bedroom, "The only problem is that I don't know whether I can make myself peel them off of you. I wanna be inside you, but I love you this way too...rubbing up against each other...teasing like this. Gods, it feels so good, Byakuya!"
"I'd go crazy if anything happened to him," Ichigo concluded, dropping his face back onto the table, "What is wrong with me? I know I can't protect him from everything, but I want to anyway!"
"You are the victim of a pretty nasty case of falling in love, my frined," Kisuke said sympathetically.
"I know I have to go and talk to him, but I don't know what I can say that won't make him even more pissed. What do I do?"
Kisuke and Yoruichi exchanged knowing glances.
"I think you should let me talk to him," Yoruichi suggested.
"What? Are you crazy? He can't stand you! You know that."
"I think Yoruichi might be right," said Kisuke, "After all, she does have more knowledge of him at this age than we do. Maybe she can get him to calm down and open up a little."
"Yeah, right. I can see that happening...like never! You're both nuts. But I have a splitting headache and I have to make an appearance at home. I don't know. Maybe i should just stay there tonight."
"Heh, I don't think that's necessary," Kisuke chuckled, "Look, you go and deal with things at home and Yoruichi will have a talk with him. The worst that can happen is that he throws her out of the room."
"But even if I fail and rile him, at least it will make him want to talk to you again, even if it's only to complain about me."
"Well, I can't think of anything to say to him," Ichigo said, shaking his head, "I know I'll just screw things up even more. Go ahead, then."
"All right, I'll do it," Yoruichi said, rising, "Leave him to me. I know all about how that complicated little mind of his works. I'll have him eating out of my hand in no time!"
"Sure," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes, "And I'm gonna be named Miss Karakura Town at the next beauty pageant!"
He stalked out of the room, leaving the others looking after him. Yoruichi sighed and turned to leave the room.
"You need backup?" Kisuke offered, "You sure you shouldn't arm yourself a little better?"
"Oh, I'll be fine. I know a few things about Byakuya Kuchiki that even he doesn't know right now. Trust me. He'll listen to me."
"All right," Kisuke replied, looking less than convinced, "You know where to find me."
Yoruichi gave a soft laugh and made her way down the hallway to Byakuya's room, where she tried the door handle and found it locked, then picked it soundlessly and entered, watching and smiling as Byakuya's head lifted off of his arms, where he sat in the bed.
"I should have known that closed doors and locks wouldn't deter you," the noble said in a low, seething tone, "I don't suppose asking nicely will get you to leave."
"You don't really want me to leave, Byakuya," Yoruichi said quietly, crossing her arms, "Right now, I may be the only person, including you, who actually understands how you are feeling."
"If that is true, then I may as well kill myself before some awful thing comes out of the shadows and does that for me as everyone expects it to."
"You don't really think that," Yoruichi said, moving closer.
"What is it that you want?" Byakuya asked, looking away, "Did you come here to tease me, like always?"
Yoruichi stopped by the bed, studying the noble's turned head and shaking hers.
"Byakuya, I did used to tease you, but there is something else that I did that made you hate me even more when I disappeared from your life."
"What is that? You cut my hair while I was sleeping? Made me think I was dressed when I was really running around naked? What?"
Byakuya's eyes rounded and he went instantly silent as the purple-haired woman slid onto the bed and curled and arm around him, this time avoiding smothering him with her breasts as she gently embraced him.
"I know you don't remember, but when your father died, who do you think it was who comforted you? Who do you think also knew what it was like to feel such grief and not be able to show it? And who do you think is the only person who ever saw Byakuya Kuchiki shed actual tears?"
Byakuya held perfectly still, his mind reeling as he suddenly remembered.
And very, very slowly, he returned her embrace and laid his head quietly on her shoulder.
"You are really beginning to remember things, aren't you?" Yoruichi queried.
"Some," Byakuya admitted, "and most of the ones about you are unpleasant, but not all of them. And even if I didn't remember...it feels instinctive to allow this. I was confused it felt that way. I didn't know why, and then I remembered."
"Good," Yoruichi said, kissing him on top of the head.
"I still despise you."
"I know. It's fine."
There was a long silence, then Byakuya gave a sigh of resignation and closed his eyes.
"Thank you, Senpai."