Chapter 24: Bagging the Snake
It was late at night when the long expanse of dark sand dunes gave way to the deceptively tranquil environs of Las Noches. Tadashi was a silent shadow at Renji's side as the two edged along the side of one of the buildings. Renji leaned close to Tadashi.
"This is nuts!" Renji whispered, "I sure as hell never thought I'd be trying to break into Las Noches to capture Gin!"
"Well, Captain Kuchiki needs our help…and I really owe him…considering."
"Hey," said Renji, meeting his eyes encouragingly, "it's good you want to help him, but stop being so hard on yourself. You and Nia are going through a hard time, losing your brother like that. And Shuji's picture was really convincing. What you did was wrong, but Byakuya understands why it happened…and he wants to move past it. He really respected Takashi's abilities, and now he wants to help you."
He sighed and shook his head.
"Let's just try to let this go and focus on the mission at hand. Now, when Byakuya and I were here before, I was able to move around a little. I noticed that there are lots of ways to get in, but it's getting out that's tricky. I want you to stay very close to me."
"Hai."
They followed the building around to a small, walled in courtyard and climbed a brick wall, dropping down softly on the other side. They followed the line of bushes to a small door.
"The funny thing about this door is that it opens into a storage area that leads into the fortress, but there isn't much security in the area…I guess because you wouldn't think anyone would be crazy enough to sneak in here. Now once we're inside, I have to depend on you to figure out where Gin is, because your reiatsu sensing is better than mine. Stay close, and tell me when you sense him nearby."
Renji picked the lock on the door and the two slipped inside. They moved into the storage area and hid behind stacked crates as Tadashi read the reiatsu in the area. He located Gin's reiatsu and pointed silently. They slipped out from behind the crates and moved silently through the too quiet hallways, carefully working their way toward the reiatsu Tadashi had sensed.
"I just realized something," Renji said softly, "We're heading right toward Aizen's bedroom. They might be together…and if that is the case, we have to do something to attract Gin's attention. Any ideas?"
"Well," said Tadashi, reaching into his shihakushou, "snakes like mice, right?"
He pulled a small mouse from his pocket, "We use these mice in the twelfth to monitor restricted areas. They are beneath notice and can easily move around. Let me show you."
They slipped into a small room just short of the hallway where Gin and Aizen slept and hid behind a sofa. Tadashi put the mouse on the floor and took out a small viewing screen and a control device. The mouse shot swiftly across the floor and disappeared into the hallway. Tadashi sent it down the hallway, keeping it close to the wall, where it slipped past the guards and under the door. It moved slowly around the bedroom, turning in different directions to offer a variety of visual angles. Tadashi pushed several buttons and watched the screen carefully.
"Yeah," Tadashi said softly, "We're in trouble…because they're wound around each other just like you'd expect a couple of snakes to be!"
"Shit," muttered Renji, "that's not going to work…"
He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.
"We have to get him out of that room without Aizen following. So, how are we going to do that?"
Tadashi laughed softly.
"Well, I have to say, I never in my wildest dreams thought this would be necessary, but the mouse is capable of hypnotic suggestion," he explained.
Renji gave Tadashi a very intense look of disquiet.
"You do know what a freak Kurotsuchi is, don't you…" he said wryly.
"Of course," said Tadashi, touching several buttons on the controller, "Now watch as Gin suddenly feels the need to urinate."
"Wait a sec," Renji said, grabbing his arm, ""If you're sending him to the bathroom, we should get in there and catch him as he comes in."
"Hai."
Tadashi followed Renji out into the hallway and silently to the bathroom. They slipped inside and waited behind the door. Tadashi checked the video screen, then touched several buttons, then watched the screen as Gin began to stir. He twitched several times and reached down to rub his suddenly swelling member.
"Tadashi!" Renji hissed, "What the hell? He doesn't need the bathroom! He needs…"
He broke off as Gin nuzzled closer to Aizen and began to nibble at his throat. Aizen's voice floated softly through the speaker.
"Again? Well…if you are in the mood…"
"Ah, Kami, I think I'm going to throw up!" commented Renji, "Please, at least turn off the sound so I don't have to hear them moaning!"
"Sorry, the code numbers were kind of close. I think I was off by a digit," said Tadashi, lowering the volume, "Well, he'll probably have to go after, right?"
"Shit, those two are twisted," muttered Renji, "Kami, I hope they hurry up. This is really disgusting. I am so glad he never got his hands on Byakuya! Not that he didn't try, snaky bastard!"
"Wow…" commented Tadashi, "and I thought Captain Kurotsuchi was a slavemaster! If it wasn't Gin, I'd feel sorry for whoever he slept with!"
"Please, Tadashi, I'm trying to ignore this!" complained Renji.
"Well, it could be educational…"
"Tadashi," Renji sighed, ""I think you've been in the twelfth for too long!"
"Say that again after Gin is in our hands!" Tadashi laughed softly, "You may not like it, but sometimes the freakish stuff from the twelfth comes in real handy!"
"I think you're enjoying this too much!"
"Okay…looks like they're done…no, hang on, he's finishing Gin…"
"Tadashi!"
"Sorry, Vice Captain. They're done…and…oh…oh, Vice Captain! This is not good! Aizen is coming!"
"Tadashi!"
"No…sir…coming to the bathroom!" Tadashi hissed.
"Oh shit!"
The door opened and Aizen entered and started to close the door. Two kido spells struck him at the same time, dropping him in his tracks. Renji and Tadashi quickly yanked him inside and bound his hands and feet.
"Not that it will do a damned bit of good, you know. As soon as he regains consciousness, we are so fucked! He can do stuff without speaking or using his zanpakuto! That is how fucking scary this guy is!" Renji groaned.
"Why not just kill the bastard and end all of our troubles?" Tadashi asked.
"Because…when I was here before, one of the things I learned was that he set things up so that if he was killed, Las Noches would automatically self destruct and kill everything within about a mile of this place! I don't know if that is true, but I'd rather not find out!"
"That kind of makes me want to use a little more caution," Tadashi admitted, "but I think I can keep him out for a while…until morning."
He took a small tablet out of a plastic vial and placed it under Aizen's tongue.
"There, now hopefully, we don't have to worry about him. Now we just have to get Gin to…"
The bathroom door opened suddenly and Gin stepped in and promptly tripped over Aizen's bound form. Renji launched himself onto Gin and Tadashi removed a small device from his pocket and touched it to the struggling shinigami's body. Gin convulsed and fell still.
"Damn!" exclaimed Renji, "You didn't kill him, did you?"
"No sir," said Tadashi, leaning over Gin, "I just knocked him out."
They quickly bound Gin and Renji threw him over his shoulder.
"Let's get the fuck out of here before Aizen wakes up!" Renji said insistently.
Tadashi pushed several buttons on the mouse controller and the creature returned, slipping easily under the door and into the shinigami's waiting hand.
"Can't we just open a senkaimon and take the easy way out?" asked Tadashi.
"Naw," muttered Renji, "We'd be dead before we got it all of the way open. We'll go back the way we came."
They slipped out of the bathroom and slunk around the corner and down the hallway. As they approached the stairway, Renji spotted a hollow patrol at the bottom.
"Quick, in here!"
They ducked into a room and shut the door. As the patrol moved past, they sighed softly in relief and Renji moved to open the door.
"And where do you think you are going with him?" said a cold male voice.
Tadashi instantly launched himself in the direction of the voice, readying the shock device. The hollow moved suddenly and although both went to the floor, the hollow ended up on top.
"Shit, not now!" Renji moaned, dropping Gin.
He leapt onto the hollow and wrapped his arms tightly around its throat, choking off a cry of warning. Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the door, but Renji held the hollow tightly by the throat until it expired with a soft huffing sound and dissolved into ash.
Renji picked up Gin and carried him to the door, looking back at Tadashi. The shinigami was studying a slash to his ribs. Frowning, Renji set Gin down.
"Don't worry about it, sir, it's nothing!" insisted Tadashi, "Come on, we have to get out of here!"
"First things first," Renji said, moving in close to him and gently pulling away the top the other's shihakushou, "You aren't going anywhere without us healing that slash. You'll drop from blood loss before we get to the bottom of the stairs!"
He leaned close and spent several long minutes carefully healing and binding the wound. The only sounds they heard now were occasional footsteps in the distance, the ticking of a clock and now and then a cough or light snoring. When he finished the healing, Tadashi put his uniform back in order and followed as Renji picked up Gin and headed for the door. They peeked out into the hallway and found it clear. As they stepped silently down the stairs, they looked longingly at the large double doors that they knew led into the guarded courtyard.
"Faster, but only a faster way to die," Renji whispered, "It's way too well guarded."
All at once, alarms began to shriek all around them. The doors burst open, nearly throwing them to the floor and guards poured into the darkened building, blindly passing the shinigamis trapped behind the door. Renji glanced at Tadashi.
"Okay, I guess that pill didn't knock him out for as long as we'd hoped! I don't know how many guards are left out there, but it's our only way out now. Flash step and don't stop until we are clear. Don't wait for me if I fall behind…just get out!"
They dashed out the doors, listening to the yelling of the few courtyard guards that had remained. They flash stepped again and again, feeling the heat of pursuit closing in. Light pulsed all around them, flooding the area around Las Noches with light and exposing them over and over. Gradually, the sounds of pursuit faded and they slowed and stopped behind a sand dune. Tadashi quickly began opening a senkaimon as Renji set Gin down and checked his bonds. The shinigami was awake now and looking both flustered at his situation and frighteningly furious. When the senkaimon was opened, Tadashi turned back to them and sent Gin off into unconsciousness again with the shocking device.
"Thanks," Renji muttered, "I wasn't sure he wouldn't try something if I tried to carry him while he was awake!"
"No problem, sir," Tadashi said, smiling, "anything I can do to help!"
They passed through the senkaimon and immediately stopped as a hell butterfly floated up to them. It stopped in front of them and Nia's voice floated out of it.
Vice Captain Abarai, I tried to take the two to Captain Kurotsuchi, but he had been in a fight and turned to liquid form, so he will be useless for our purposes for several days. I have taken them instead to Kisuke Urahara's shop. He has stabilized Captain Kuchiki for now and Shuji is being kept unconscious. Kisuke said that we cannot remove the tendrils from Captain Kuchiki until Gin comes and gives him more information about Shuji's nature. Hurry…even though the captain is stabilized, everybody here is very much on edge. I know they worry that this might not be reversible. They aren't coming out and saying it, but I can tell that's what they're thinking. I don't agree. I believe Gin will be able to tell us something."
"You heard her," Renji said quickly, "Come on!"
Tadashi turned and opened a senkaimon into the living world. As soon as it opened, the two flash stepped into it. Renji breathed a sigh of relief as they burst free of the senkaimon and landed on the street in front of Urahara's shop. They flash stepped to the door, just as it opened from the inside and Kisuke looked out at them.
"This way," he said, motioning for them to go inside.
They followed Kisuke down the hall and down the long ladder into the training room below the shop.
"I had to put them down here because I'm pretty darned sure this is going to make a mess…not to mention, it's a better place to try to contain that snake you're holding! Oh yeah," he said, slipping a band around Gin's wrist, "This will seal his spirit energy away and make him less likely to bolt."
Renji dropped Gin and flash stepped to the small cot that held Byakuya. He knelt next to the noble and slipped a hand into his, trying to ignore the presence of the tendrils protruding from the captain's slender torso.
"Byakuya," he said softly, "Byakuya, we're back. We brought Gin…"
He broke off as Byakuya's eyes opened, feeling the breath freeze in his lungs. Wide gray eyes stared dazedly up at him, but the centers glowed a deep blood red. Tiny white wisps of forming bone floated in the air around him and strange whispers rose up from within his body. Renji gasped softly.
"Kami, Kisuke!"
"Don't worry," Kisuke assured him, following his gaze, "He hasn't fully transformed. This is actually just the beginning. I'm sure the sleeping creep over there will be able to help."
"Yeah?" said Renji, skeptically, "Who's going to make him talk?"
"You let me worry about that. You stay with him. Keep talking to him. It seems to slow the process. Tessai and I will wake Gin and get to work on him."
Renji nodded wordlessly and moved closer to Byakuya, tightening a hand on his captain's. He hardened his heart against what he saw happening and focused everything on making himself speak. It was difficult at first, but he found as he began…that immediately, it seemed to grow easier.
"When I first saw you…that day you came to see Rukia at the academy? The very first thing I noticed about you…was your eyes. They told me everything. Everything else about you was held so tightly under control, so tightly that it seemed that nothing could possibly live beneath a surface so cold and distant…but the truth of who you are has always been there…in your eyes, Byakuya…"
"Renji…" Byakuya whispered.
"Relax," Renji said softly, "everything will be all right. Kisuke will get that bastard to talk and we'll find a way out of this!"
Gray and red flickered against each other. And his voice, when he spoke again, carried the dead whispers of hollows.
"Renji…you cannot…allow me to become…a hollow…"
He stared into the strange eyes and searched for the part that still remembered him.
"You won't become a hollow," he said firmly.
"That's right," Byakuya whispered, staring into his eyes, "because as my Vice Captain, it is your duty to see that it does not happen…even if you are forced to kill me yourself…Renji Abarai!"