Impertinent little brat

Chapter 13: "The Enemy of my Enemy…" and all that.

Urahara found it "cute", something the blond former captain refused to let Renji forget even for a second. The redhead was starting to suspect that his face was gaining the same colour that his hair. The fact that the three captains regarded him with poorly hidden but clueless interest didn't make things any better. It made him feel like there was something there that he needed to explain. Which there was not!

And Urahara would only smile in that lazy but knowing way that made Renji's cheek grow hotter by the second.

"Is there something that we should know about?" Ukitake-taichou finally asked in that gentle but also frighteningly perceptive way of his.

"Aren't there always, Ukitake-san?" Urahara replied, shooting Renji another knowing look.

Renji stubbornly glared back. There was nothing to know! And it wasn't cute either.

"Oh?" Kyoraku-taichou said. His sly gaze darted between Renji and Urahara and the look in his eyes said that he'd caught scent of something interesting. He'd be like a dog with a bone.

Renji groaned inwardly.

When Urahara had come to wake him that morning Renji had been sleeping with his head on the side of his captain's bed. Nothing odd about that, was there? And the blond probably wouldn't have made a big deal out of it if it hadn't been for the fact that his currently-boy-captain's face had been resting inches from Renji's. But of course Byakuya's and his faces had been close, and of course the blond just had to walk in to see this, and of course he had to make it into something that it defiantly was not.

"Nothing of any note to Byakuya-kun's health, I assure you. Just an… interesting side note." The blond said, somehow managing to both say nothing and something at the same time. The captains' interest was peeked.

Again their eyes turned to Renji and he wanted to be swallowed up by the floor. It was nothing. It was just that stupid Urahara making it into something.

"As for Byakuya-kun." Urahara continued. "Mayuri-san has been working on it and to make a long story short; we're dealing with someone quite ingenious at developing new and unseen uses of reiatsu."

"So it is a kido then?" Ukitake asked.

"Indeed it is. Mayuri-san finds it very interesting, and so do I. I would guess that he'll be tinkering with it with great vigour in the future." Urahara said. He paused and looked thoughtful.

"Planning to steal it away from Kurotsuchi-taichou so you can tinker with it yourself, Kisuke-san?" Kyoraku deadpanned.

"Ah, Kyoraku-san, I'd never steal it."

"Just relieve Kurotsuchi-taichou from the trouble of figuring out its secrets on his own, then?" Unohana-taichou replied gently and smiled.

The blond smiled amiably.

"How about now? With Byakuya-kun hurt, can we break this kido without endangering him?" Ukitake-taichou asked Unohana.

"Actually I believe that given the circumstances it may aid him in his recovery."

"Really?" Renji hadn't meant to speak, but it had just blurted out of his mouth before he could stop himself. He hadn't even noticed that he had bolted up from the chair.

Again Urahara gave him that knowing look and he felt his cheek blush again. And of course this caused the captains to once more give him those curious looks that were really starting to grate on his nerves.

"Yes." Unohana-taichou replied after the required pause where three captains tried to figure out something they knew would be something. "What we want is for Byakuya-kun to regain his full power as a shinigami."

"He'd have it no other way." Ukitake-taichou nodded, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Also I think Yama-jii would be loath to accept to be yet another captain down." Kyoraku-taichou added and Renji's eyes widened.

"But… he couldn't just…" his mouth was talking again, and the words tumbled over each other before he could run them though his brain. He paused to bring them back under control.

"Discharge Kuchiki-taichou?" Unohana-taichou finished. The look she gave him was mild but somehow still stern. "In times of war Yamamoto-taichou will do what he must, even if that entails discharging a weakened captain."

"But… but… the sixth division would be down a cap'n." Renji argued heatedly. A voice in the back of his mind pointed out that it may not be the best choice to go arguing with a bunch of captains, but now he was becoming angry. Yamamoto couldn't do that! How could any of them even think of doing that?

"The commander would find someone to fill in." Ukitake-taichou said.

"Like who?" Renji snapped. "Who could do that? The cap'n is…"

"You have obtained bankai, have you not? Abarai-fukutaichou?" Unohana-taichou asked mildly.

Whatever had been on the tip of his tongue was swooped away with those words, and Renji stopped. Stared. For a moment he was certain that she was kidding, but the serious looks on the faces around the table disputed that.

"Me? Are you nuts?" His mouth blurted out. Somewhere in the back of his mind that little voice groaned and shook its head. That was not any way to speak to a captain. "I couldn't be a cap'n!" I couldn't be the cap'n.

"Why not? You have the strength, though it's not as refined as the commander would like, and Byakuya-kun seems to have showed you the ropes well enough." Kyoraku-taichou said.

Renji spluttered. Whatever words that should or should not have been spilling out of him seemed to have gotten clogged in his throat. He wanted to scream at them in rage but nothing came out. That's not the way I wanna become a cap'n! Or even a fuckin' pseudo-cap'n! Dammit!

"Eh…" Urahara interrupted the discussion, if it even could be called that. "Since this is not something that's actually a pressing point that needs to be resolved unless we fail miserably, which I hope we don't, let's get back to the point at hand, before Renji-kun burst a vein. Or blows up the room."

Not until then did he realise that his reiatsu was flaring along with his anger, and Renji quickly reigned it in. "Sorry…" he muttered, though his anger wouldn't allow him to say more than that. When he went to sit back down Urahara was giving him that knowing look again, though he quickly hid it behind his fan. This time Renji was too pissed off to care.

"No matter, Abarai-fukutaichou. No harm done." Ukitake-taichou smiled.

"It's only natural for a fukutaichou to wish to protect his or hers taichou." Unohana-taichou filled in.

Kyoraku said nothing, only gave him a curious and somewhat mischievous look.

There was a pause when the occupants sat in silence trying to get back on track.

"Where were we?" Kyoraku asked after awhile.

"I think Retsu-san was going to tell us about the advantages of breaking the kido on Byakuya-kun." Ukitake replied.

The dark haired woman nodded her thanks at the other captain. "The kido may disrupt Byakuya-kun's reiatsu recovery rate if we let it remain and stop him from regaining his full strength. If we break the kido it stands to reason that his reiatsu will return to normal once the damage of the senka is healed. However, due to the damage dealt by the senka, the breaking of the kido will put a great strain on his body. "

Renji felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Is he strong enough to go through it?" Ukitake asked with a note of grimfaced worry.

Unohana was silent. She wasn't hesitating exactly but was considering the question. Renji realised that he was holding his breath and forced himself to breathe. "I believe that he is. Though once it is done he will be weak and I would rather prefer that he remains in my care until I'm satisfied that he has recovered. "

"I think we can arrange that. " Kyoraku smiled. "We have the outmost confidence in your skills, Retsu-chan."

The woman smiled. "I have no doubt that you will allow it, Shunsui-san, I was more worried of what Byakuya-kun would have to say about the issue."

"Oh. Yes, you're right. He never has liked just lying around has he?" Kyoraku said thoughtfully.

"I heard you had to tie him to the bed once, Unohana-san." Urahara chimed in.

"Of course I did no such thing." Unohana replied calmly, and the captains and Urahara chuckled. Renji felt like he was missing something.

"But the cap'n will be alright then? Right? If we break that kido he'll be alright?" Renji asked impatiently and frowned. He was starting to feel that they were not taking this serious enough. They were just sitting there, exchanging pleasantries and joking, while they should get going and help his cap'n.

Unohana looked at him. "I don't know, Abarai-fukutaichou. He'll still need to recover from the Senka, and that is no simple task. There is no way to tell how much or how little of his reiatsu will be recovered. But I believe that once the kido is gone it will heighten his chances of a full recovery."

"Oh…" he muttered. So there was still a risk that Byakuya wouldn't… "Damn."

"There's something else we should consider." Ukitake said suddenly and looked serious. "Who placed the kido on Byakuya-kun to begin with?"

Yoruichi Shihoin was not a person who was accustomed to rage. Rage in others she was more than accustomed to; she enjoyed bringing them to that point even. It was a fault of hers, and one she enjoyed greatly so she had never been overly concerned about it. But her own rage was something almost alien to her. "Don't get angry, get even" was the motto she had acquired from the action heroes on TV. It suited her.

She was well aware of that Soifon was keeping her under close watch at the moment. The other woman could see her anger too, and much like her it was something that she didn't quite know how to handle, so she had settled for keeping a safe distance and a close eye on her. Lest she'd do something regrettable to the man they had chained to a chair.

The assassin's head was hanging forward and light snores were coming from him.

"Yoruichi-sama." Soifon said, dragging the cat's attention away from the man.

"Don't call me that, Soifong. It's Yoruichi." She gruffly replied. She could feel impatience clawing in her, creeping under her skin like worms. It was not an emotion that she, as a former member and captain of the second division and the Onmitsukido, should feel. They were trained for these sorts of situation and she knew that impatience would only breed mishaps.

At least the other woman didn't argue with her. "Yoruichi. We should bring him back to Seireitei. He can be questioned there."

"No. They will take too long." she replied. She was going to make that bastard talk now.

Soifon was silent, turned around and continued to gaze out the window as she had done on and off since they'd dragged the assassin there. "Are you going to torture him?"

The dark skinned woman gritted her teeth.

"No. Right now I'm in no condition to torture anyone. I'm too angry. I might make a mistake and kill him." She admitted. She needed to stifle her rage before she did anything. Even then the prospect of torturing someone didn't sit well with her, but she knew that she was growing short on options.

Soifon turned her head and looked at her with a frown. Then she nodded.

"Go see how Kuchiki is."

Yoruichi shook her head. She couldn't do that right now even if she wanted to. If Bya-bo was alright, yes then that would calm her. If he wasn't… she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep this rage under control.

She shouldn't just have dropped him off at Renji's. How could she have been so stupid? She should have gone with him and made sure that the red head was there to protect him. She must have grown dumber with age, much the same way that human's grew bald or wrinkly.

And that was why she was so angry wasn't it? It wasn't because of the assassin; thought that certainly did nothing to calm her. She was angry at herself.

She made a mistake and because of that Bya-bo…

"I'll go get food." She announced. Even to her own ears her voice sounded flinty and barely restrained.

Before Soifon had a chance to reply Yoruichi had walked out of the small, haggard looking house they occupied, and carefully closed the door behind her. She needed to restrain her anger, he told herself again. It was a struggle. How did you restrain yourself from wanting to beat yourself into a pulp?

Taking a deep breath she tried to relax herself, but her muscles were wired taut to the pain where she was starting to develop a headache and it was no use.

Food.

She was going to get food.

Yoruichi was not particularly hungry but something told her that perhaps if she occupied herself doing something instead of doing nothing, maybe she could wrench this rage under her control.

It wasn't far to the store and even the people in this part of Rukongai knew better than to bother her. Still she walked around for a bit before going to the store in hopes to vent a bit of anger. It didn't work.

"Gimme the monies here." The dirty brat in the store said and held out one hand. In the other he held the food in a vice like grip. Yoruichi suspected that she'd have to pry it from his cold, dead hands rather than he'd give the food away before getting paid.

Rukongai could be rough.

The people living there had risen to the occasion and acted accordingly. What else could one require? It was no different than living in the nobles' world, except in wealth. Both worlds had their share of trapdoors and…

"Hey. Ya want the food or not?" the brat interrupted her thoughts rudely.

"Ah." She muttered and handed him the money. Obviously age was also making her distracted.

She grabbed the food and left.

Was she giving in to self-loathing, she wondered and contemplated this while she walked the same round back to the house. She was in no hurry to get back yet, seeing as the rage hadn't dissipated in the least. It wasn't as if Soifon would let the assassin get anywhere.

It was then that she heard the voices coming from the alley. She stopped and pricked her ears not so much because it was uncommon to hear angry voices in Rukongai, but because those angry voices rarely came from alleys and when they did they usually belonged to people not familiar with the golden rule "when in Rukongai avoid dark alleys. And if you cannot; then for the love of Kami-sama, at least avoid attracting attention to the fact that you're in said dark alley." This rule applied during daytime too and only shinigami or complete idiots would ignore this rule.

"…in deep shit! We should go tell the captain what we did!"

"No!"

"But we have to fix this! Sentarou!" the female voice screeched. Moments later a man with dark hair and headband came rushing out of the alley, closely followed by a woman with short blond hair. "Stop! We have to tell Ukitake-taichou!"

"What? Are you insane, Kiyone? Tell the captain what?" the man snapped, whirled around and glared at her. The fact that the woman wasn't the least bit surprised by this told Yoruichi that these two probably had had this fight before.

"Everything!" she screamed. "We have to tell him everything! It's because of us that Kuchiki-taichou is…!"

Yoruichi's eyes widened.

"Shhh!" the man covered her mouth before she could continue. "Lower your voice. Do you want the whole of Rukongai to hear you? Listen. If we go back to that old woman and make her break the kido, no harm's done, right? You heard what Ukitake-taichou said. The breaking of the kido will help. We can go back to our lives and everything will be fine."

"It's too late, Sentarou! We… eeek!" the blond woman stumbled back when Yoruichi flash stepped and landed between them.

"You will come with me." she said and by the look on their faces she guessed that she looked just as angry as she was.

"Problems, Rukia-chan?" asked Akihiko with feigned concern. It had to be feigned Rukia knew because there was no way he'd care for real.

"Nothing of great concern, Akihiko-sama." She replied and tried to seem nonchalant as she approached her brother's cousin.

Akihiko was dressed according to his stature; in red and white silk. Tasteful yet rich in the kind of way you could expect from someone very rich and who had no particular need to engrave that fact that he was very rich by adding unnecessary accessories. In essence he was the accessory to the clothes.

"That is good to hear. I worried, seeing as you ran of so quickly the other day." He smiled.

This she knew was his careful way of prodding for information. She had only been at the Kuchiki household for a few short hours and she was already longing to go back to her division where the words spoken meant nothing more than exactly what they were.

"Just a minor inconvenience. I hope I didn't offend you in any way, Akihiko-sama." She replied carefully.

She couldn't help but wonder; when her brother had been hurt the other day she was not the only person who had felt the surge of his reiatsu. Akihiko had even commented on it so obviously he too had felt it, and yet so far he had not asked her about it.

Why?

"I see. Would you care to join me for dinner this evening? Surely you long for some proper food after spending time dealing with the problems of the Gotei thirteen. I can only imagine how draining it must be." He offered.

"It would be my pleasure, Akihiko-sama."

"Yoruichi-sama!" Soifon exclaimed when the dark skinned woman shoved the two seated officers into the house. The other woman frowned and looked at the two apprehensive shinigami. "Why have you brought these two here?"

Yoruichi gave the two a steady glare. "Explain."

The assassin seemed to have woken up during the commotion and now he too was listening intently. It didn't matter. He wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't know w…" the man, Sentarou began but was silenced by Kiyone's fist to his arm.

"Be quite, you idiot." She snapped and then turned toward the captain of the second division. Despite the fact that she was trembling the woman straightened herself carefully before bowing deep. "I'm sorry, Soifon-taichou. It was us."

"You?" the captain frowned.

"They were the ones who put the kido on Bya-bo." Yoruichi nodded. For some reason she felt calmer now. Perhaps it was because she was finally getting some answers about this whole mess. "Commissioned it at least."

"You two?" Soifon's eyes would've made ice seem warm. She didn't question the revelation though, trusting Yoruichi's word.

"It was just a prank." Sentarou whimpered under the weight of that glare. He had already had to go through a similar experience with Yoruichi herself not long ago.

"A prank?" Soifon didn't have much patience for pranks even on a good day. This was not a good day. "Do you consider it a prank to target a captain of the Gotei thirteen?"

"It… wasn't like that… we just wanted to teach him a lesson…" the man struggled to explain himself. Kiyone remained silent, obviously resigned to her fate. "Kuchiki-taichou was… he just walked past Ukitake-taichou without a word when Ukitake-taichou nearly collapsed and… and we just wanted him to feel what it's like to be… weak and in need of help… and then the old woman said…"

"Enough." Soifon bit out and the man cowered. She straightened herself to her full height. She glared at the two shinigami. "You have attacked a captain of the Gotei thirteen. I do not need to hear your reasons for doing so. You may save your excuses for when you speak of this to the commander."

At the mention of Yamamoto the two visibly wilted.

"They commissioned the kido from a woman here in Rukongai. Bring her to Bya-bo. Take those two with you." Yoruichi said, and when Soifon nodded curtly before walking out with the two other shinigami, she realised something.

The anger that seemed to have cooled down in her was not gone by any means. It had grown cold and sharp. It was a calculating anger that was like steel in her core. This was anger that she could work with, and now she turned around to look at the assassin who was still chained to the chair. For the first time she saw fear in his eyes.

TBC