Impertinent little brat

Chapter 14: Back to normal

Many of the captains of the Gotei thirteen understood diplomacy. They understood the need for it when in a 'delicate' situation, and they understood the fine art of quiet and delicate diplomacy when within earshot of those of lower rank.

The obvious exception was Kenpachi, because the man didn't much care for anything that couldn't be settled with a nice brawl. This was such common knowledge that it was the Truth and no one expected anything else than the Truth.

The less obvious exception now came marching through the gate to Seireitei. She was stomping in a completely and inexplicable soundless manner which showed more than let anyone hear how disgruntled she was. Behind her walked two cowering shinigami and an elderly woman who made a passable imitation of nerves of steel so long as you didn't take the time to look and note the haunted look in her eyes.

Other shinigami quickly got out of Soifon's way and the moment the small group had passed the gates, and had gone far enough so that the other shinigami suspected that the captain couldn't hear them, the gossip started flooding.

Soifon did not care for diplomacy any more than Kenpachi, but when Soifon brawled it was in the dark, cold places of the world where no one could hear you scream. This thought ran through Sentarou's head while he trudged on behind the second division's captain, already feeling as if he were in chains and being dragged to his own execution.

"Where are we going, do you think?" he asked Kiyone. He didn't need her to answer but he needed to talk, and that really was the only thing he could think of saying.

The blond woman looked up with a look of both misery and a "where do you think, moron?" etched to her face.

"Probably to the prison, right? Just for safe keeping. Right?" He was aware that his voice hade taken on a note of desperation but no matter what he did he couldn't seem to shake it. "I mean we didn't really do anything… not really!"

He would've walked into the rigid back of Soifon if there suddenly hadn't been a sword pointed at his face. He gulped. On the other end of the sword stood Soifon.

"You." She said. Her voice reminded him of dark, cold places and invisible sharp knives. "You attacked a captain. This is treason."

"But…"

"I will not take you to the prison." She continued. A small smile quirked her lips. This too reminded him of those dark nasty places he'd rather not know. "I will take you to Yamamoto-taichou. Plead your case to him. "

She turned and started walking again. Then added: "Yamamoto-taichou don't look kindly on feeble excuses."

The old woman called herself Chika Izanami but the fine name and her ragged appearance clashed so vehemently it was laughable. Renji suspected it wasn't her real name. She certainly didn't resemble the Izanami of the legend. But he didn't particularly care what she called herself so long as she could do what she claimed that she could. Which was to break the kido on Byakuya without endangering him in the slightest. The non-stop steady glare from Soifon may have something to do with her constant assurance that no harm would come to Byakuya.

No one glared like Soifon. Except for Byakuya but he was in no condition to glare, seeing as those few times he awoke he could barely keep his eyes open for more than a few minutes at the time. The second division's captain was a good substitute.

"I assure you ladies and gentlemen. I've been doin' this for the longest time. I know what I'm doing." Chika whined pitifully while she made the preparations for the… the kido-breaking business.

It didn't surprise Renji that she whined like a kicked puppy. Anyone would whine under the heavy scrutiny of three captains. Well two captains and one former one. Ukitake-taichou had left in a hurry some time ago with a stammered excuse that he had business to attend to. Kyoraku had gone with him so Renji assumed that it would be the serious sort of business.

"You had better." Soifon replied. Her glare didn't waver.

"Oh, I do! I do! My ol' mama herself taught me all that she knew an' I've been doin' this for so long that…"

"I don't care. Just get on with it." Soifon snapped.

The old woman bowed her head and continued grinding the herbs into the bowl. Renji thought he heard her mutter something under her breath that sounded like 'Been doing this for longer than you've been alive, girl.'

"What was that?" Soifon asked icily.

"Nothin', nothin'," Chika quickly said. "Nothin' at all. I didn't say nothin'."

Soifon's glare hardened.

"My, my," Urahara commented lazily from his seat by the window. "Such chilly weather we're having. Have the winter come early this year?"

Soifon's glare was redirected towards him, and if possible it seemed even icier than before. Urahara fanned himself and met her gaze calmly while Unohana sat down across from the furiously working Chika and regarded her progress with a gentle smile.

"Please, Izanami-san. Explain this process to me whilst you work." She said softly. "I'm curious to learn how you came about it. "

The old woman looked up. "My mother taught me the power of herbs." She began and when the captain of the forth division nodded for her to continue she cleared her throat. "I… I always had some talent with… with your sort of power…"

"Reiatsu."

"Yes. I had some talent with… reiatsu. Not enough to become a shinigami in those days but… but I thought that perhaps I could use it in the herbs. To enhance its powers."

"And the kido? How did you think of that?" Unohana prompted. Now both Urahara and Soifon were listening intently.

The old woman shrugged. "I didn't know what it was called. I just… " she made a vague gesture.

"I see." Unohana said softly. She paused. "You protested when you heard that we were going to break this kido. Would this be because of the combination of herbs and kido?"

"Yes, shinigami-sama. The herbs carry the… the kido into the blood. Breaking it in any other manner would be… it would… not be good." Chika muttered. "I'm sorry."

"Would it have killed him?"

"Maybe. It would've harmed him. I don't know how badly."

"Why would you make that sort of kido?" Soifon asked sharply and the old woman jumped at the sudden interruption.

"I'm sorry..." she stuttered. "I didn't know what… who it would be used against..!"

"And you didn't bother to ask?"

Suddenly the old woman's eyes weren't wide and fearful anymore. She met Soifon's glare head on and straightened indignantly. "I wouldn't survive long in Rukongai if I grilled my costumers for such information, shinigami-sama."

Soifon glared at the woman for a moment. Then swiftly turned and walked away.

"I need to return to Yourichi-sama." She said in clipped tones before leaving.

"You're not as good at this as you believe yourself to be. I am sorry that I didn't get to meet you in your prime. I've heard you were quite fearsome in those days. "

Yoruichi ignored the not so subtle taunt and walked calmly across the floor. She stopped in front of the assassin but didn't give any sign that she was listening or even acknowledging his existence.

"I'm curious." He continued and lifted his head to look at her. "How would letting me sit here in my lonesome, staring at nothing make me speak to you?"

She didn't reply. He was already speaking. Once they started it was just a matter of steering the talk in the favourable direction. Sometimes silence was the best carrot. People tended to feel uncomfortable when silence was the only answer.

Then they felt compelled to fill it with their own voice.

She just had to bide her time.

She knew Byakuya could hold his own for that time.

Rukia stood in the doorway to her room, gazing past the lush garden in the direction of the Forth division. She couldn't see the actual building from here but she knew exactly where it was and she had to fight down the urge to run across the garden, jump the wall and race over the rooftops to reach it. She wanted to be there to see to her brother's health, not stuck here, dressed up like some doll just so that she could go to a dinner with a man she loathed.

A man that looked deceivingly like Byakuya but that she doubted had ever said a true word in his life. At least not to her. Except for that one time right after her adoption had taken place, when he had turned up at the house in a flurry.

"Another filthy street rat, cousin?" That had been the words he had said back then. "Will you gather them all in our house? An army of rats. Gnawing away at our heritage…"

She could still remember the clothes he wore that day; Rich clothes. Jewels and silks. Had he gone anywhere near Rukongai dressed like that he'd have been either robbed or raped. Probably both.

She had been impressed by the clothes back then.

And she had wondered why her brother who obviously stood higher in rank than his cousin wore such simple clothing in comparison. Only later had she reflected that perhaps her brother merely found it unnecessary to use accessories to enhance his status. He didn't need it. Everyone knew Byakuya Kuchiki.

"Our heritage, Akihiko?"

A small smile graced her lips when she remembered her brother's words.

"May I remind you that your only heritage is what your father choose to lend you. This has nothing to do with me or this household. You may leave us."

That too had been something that she hadn't been able to understand back then. She hadn't been well versed in reading between the lines then. Truth be told she had felt angry that he hadn't defended her when his cousin had called her a rat. Years in the Kuchiki household had helped her in the art of hearing what is not said. Translated into Rukon-words, her brother had said; "Yer scum. Get lost."

She wondered idly what Byakuya would think about her translating what he said into common language when there was a soft knock from the door.

Time for that wretched dinner.

Sighing she closed the door to the garden.

"Yes?" she called, picked up her zanpakuto and hid it under the kimono.

"Akihiko-sama requests your presence, Rukia-sama." Came the meek reply and the door slid open to reveal a servant girl.

She nodded and stepped passed her.

"Please follow me, Rukia-sama." The girl added and led the way through the house. As if Rukia couldn't find her own way through a house where she'd lived for fifty years. But that was the way of nobility, though with her brother around such ridiculous behaviour was kept to a minimum. Byakuya would never admit it but she knew that he had little patience for formality drawn to the heights of the extreme.

Rukia had been deep in thought and hadn't noted the way they walked, so when the door was opened for her she stopped in her tracks. She couldn't stop the words from blurting out of her mouth:

"What is this?"

He was still pale as a ghost and his breathing was still coming in much too shallow breaths, but, and this was the important part to Renji, he would be alright. The kido had been broken, though Renji would be the first to admit that he didn't understand how.

The old woman had poured something down his captain's throat and then she had been jumping around, flapping her arms like a seagull hoping to take flight, and there had been a bunch of flashy lights… which had dimmed in a decisively anti-climatic way. And then Byakuya had just aged, in the rapid sort of way that Ichigo had showed Renji plant doing on that TV-thing. His friend had called it a nature-show, or something. Renji had wondered how they'd made the plants grow that quickly.

"Yer a big boy now, taichou." The redhead mumbled. Then he heard how utterly ridiculous that sounded and he snorted with laugher. He continued to laugh to himself, at himself, in the room that now only occupied himself and his unconscious captain.

"Oh… thank gods yer unconscious, taichou…" he babbled to the sleeping captain between breaths and laugher. "'cause… 'cause ya would… kill me if ya heard me…"

"How do you know that he doesn't?"

Renji yelped and nearly fell off his chair.

Whipping around he found Urahara standing at the door, partly hiding behind his fan as usual. Renji wondered if the man thought it made him look mysterious or romantic somehow. For Renji's part it only gave him an urge to beat him over the head with it.

"Urahara, what… er… ya kinda scared me." Renji stopped himself from yelling at the man for not knocking before entering, or at least making his presence known in some way. He didn't want to wake his captain, and Urahara had been helpful. Even if his help had turned out to be mostly unnecessary.

"Really? I certainly didn't mean to." The blond replied, which to Renji meant that that had been exactly his intention all along. He came into the room and closed the door behind him before padding over to the bed. "Looks a tad pale, don't you think?"

"Well he almost got killed." Renji said quickly. It annoyed him how critical Urahara sounded.

"Ah, of course. Rather careless of him, wouldn't you say?"

What the hell?

Renji hadn't meant to stand up but by the time he realised that he was already standing so he went with it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Urahara wasn't looking at him but kept his gaze on Byakuya.

"You're very protective, Renji." The blond commented, and now his eyes flittered from Byakuya to Renji, pinning the redhead with that knowing look again. The man was worse than Yachiru when she found a new toy. There was nothing to know, dammit! And what was wasn't cute in any damn way!

"What of it?" he huffed in annoyance and sat back down. That stupid Urahara was just teasing him… pulling his damn leg like it was a chew-toy. "I'm supposed to protect him, he's my cap'n."

Urahara didn't reply but Renji had a feeling that the man was laughing at him.

"It's cute." The blond beamed at him.

Renji scowled.

"Adorable really."

Renji put some extra effort into his scowl. Urahara fanned himself and gave him that look again.

"Very sweet."

Renji decided to ignore him lest he'd really end up beating the man up and waking his captain.

Eventually Urahara left. Probably feeling that he had bestowed some sort of twisted wisdom on the redhead… or he was just toying with him. Yep that was it.

Renji leaned back in his chair and put the ordeal out of his mind. When Ichigo entered a few hours later he came bearing gifts in the form of dinner which he happily (after some good natured begging and threatening) shared with the redhead.

"You know..." Ichigo said while they sat by the window. He paused to wolf down another mouthful of rice. "…I'd have though you'd be up at Yamamoto's with the cap'ns. How's he anyway?" his friend nodded towards Byakuya.

"Unohana-taichou says he's gonna be alright. Just needs a whole lotta rest." Renji yawned and happily patted his full stomach. "Why'd I be up there?"

"I ain't surprised. Byakuya's like an old boot tho'." Ichigo temporarily ignored his question.

"Huh?"

"Tough."

"Oh." Renji chuckled. "Don't think he'd like bein' compared with a boot."

"Probably not." Ichigo grinned and slumped down in the chair. "So what do you think's gonna happen?"

Renji shrugged. "He'll get back to work as usual."

"Yeah, yeah… I meant about Sentarou and Kiyone."

"What 'bout them?"

Ichigo went rigid and stared at him. The rice he'd been scooping up fell from his chopsticks. "Fuck… they didn't tell you, huh?"

"Tell me what?" Renji frowned, but did so lazily because he felt that in his current state of well fed mind nothing could upset him.

One minute later he was barging down the hall closely followed by Ichigo.

"What is the matter, Rukia-chan?" Akihiko asked and reclined on the pillows. He inclined his head and looked around. "It is the dining room of the Head of the Kuchiki clan. Many generations of great leaders have dined here."

"It's my brother's…"

"So it is." Akihiko smiled. "What do you think, Akane? Do you believe that Byakuya would mind us using his dining room?"

"Absolutely." His sister replied curtly.

"Oh." Her brother looked crestfallen. "Well he's not here, so let us not tell him about our little faux-pas. Come, Rukia-chan. Let us dine."

"We shouldn't…" she began.

"It will be our little secret. Come now, Rukia-chan, is it really such a… big deal? It is only a room."

"It is the room of the Head of House." She replied stoically, noting the way Akihiko used "common" lingo. As if he was trying to put her at ease.

"But yet just a room. The common dining room is in the process of being redecorated, all according to a request made by our cousin." Akane said in a sultry tone. "Surely he doesn't expect us to eat off the floor."

He wouldn't expect you to eat here at all, Rukia thought bitterly.

This was not going the way that she was expecting it to; in her mind this would be the great reveal where Akihiko and his sister confessed to their plot and continued to challenge her to try to stop it. That way she could beat the hell out of them. She knew that neither twin was particularly strong with their reiatsu, certainly no match for the average shinigami of the Gotei thirteen. Instead they were being… courteous? Friendly? At least Akihiko was.

It threw her off.

She sat down across from the twins. There had to be something more going on here. They had to be involved somehow. It was all too… convenient. Akihiko and Akane rarely showed their faces anywhere near the main house, no doubt knowing that Byakuya would take any excuse to throw them back out, and now they both showed up here? At a time like this?

It was…

Something was wrong. She just didn't know what it was yet, and the only way of finding out seemed to be to play along.

"I think we should have some sake. Don't you agree, Rukia-chan?"

"You wanna know something funny?" the assassin asked his still unresponsive captor. He faintly felt that there was something wrong with the way this so called interrogation was going seeing as he was the one asking the questions and the interrogator was keeping her mouth shut. He shrugged it off. "Look at this mark. Yeah, right there on my neck. You know what that is? That's a kido seal. My employer put it there. Wanna know what it does?"

The dark skinned woman didn't reply, but he felt that he held her interest and for some reason he felt oddly flattered by that. It was almost as if it made him feel better about this whole situation to know that he'd finally said something of interest to her.

So he continued to talk, because it really was a nasty feeling to be talking to someone who didn't care what you said. "It kills me. If I say the wrong sorta thing, you know. Like for instance, the name of my employer. Yep, I'm dead if I do, see?"

He grinned when her eyes finally looked his way. For the first time in hours she was looking at him.

"So why should I tell you?" he finished.

"Because if you do not." A voice cut through the small room like a knife. He hadn't even noticed the other woman entering, he'd been so preoccupied with the first one. "We will leave your fate in the hands of Byakuya Kuchiki."

He scoffed. "And why would you do that, little lady?"

"The boy you attacked…" she replied.

"What of the cub? He's got a connection to the Kuchikis?"

"He is Byakuya Kuchiki." the dark skinned one's voice said. Her voice was low but steady and gave no room for argument.

"Ah…" the man leaned back against the chair heavily. For a moment he said nothing and then he started laughing. "You've gotta love it, don't you? Nobles and their schemes… drag the world down with 'em if they gotta. Don't care 'bout the little man tryin' to make a livin'. It's just a nice mess they got me into this time around, eh?"

Neither of the women replied. He wondered idly if they had silently agreed not to. Let the nice prisoner do the talking, eh? What a nasty trick to pull.

"Should I tell you; I die. No way around that. If I don't you'll leave me in the loving care of the Kuchikis. Attacking their… what? The dude on top… or whatever… what chance would I have? It's all real neat you know, all figured out, right? Bet he thought I'd never tell, and his back would be clear, right? And if I tell his back's still clear."

"Who?" the dark skinned one asked, couching down to look him straight in the eye. She really did have nice eyes, he decided. He never could resist a woman with pretty eyes.

He told her.

And then he died neatly when the kido reacted and his heart simply stopped beating in his chest. It took a few more moments before his brain truly died and in that time he saw the two women rushing out of the house. He absentmindedly hoped someone would find and bury his corpse before it began to rot.

The corridors of the fourth division were not very crowded, in fact they were nearly deserted since the vast majority of shinigami seemed to have raced to the square. Some sort of questioning was being held in that boring old hall where the captain commander resided, and although it seemed that most shinigami were yet ignorant of exactly what the questioning was about it was apparent that it was something interesting. And like rats they flocked to the smelly cheese, leaving their divisions open. Only the unlucky few who had drawn the shortest stick remained, and those were easy enough to avoid.

He had never been particularly strong with reiatsu; the family had known it, his father had known it, even his wretched sister had known it, and they had all taunted him for it. Not to his face of course, but certainly behind his back. He knew they did. And because of that his cousin had been chosen the legitimate heir instead of him, despite the fact that he had been just a damned brat.

No, Akihiko had not been strong in reiatsu, but he had learned shunpo while watching that fool cousin of his and that traitorous cat wench frolic back in the day. Now it served him well in avoiding whatever guarding eye may be around.

It took little effort on his part to slip into the room unnoticed. This so called Gotei thirteen should defiantly inspect their security, his fathers guards would never have let someone slip past them this easily.

TBC