See warnings in first chapter.

Day One: Part Three

Kotetsu Isane

Before they left First Division and parted ways, Isane made Kiyone swear on their parents' memory and Ukitake-taichō's honor to straight back to Thirteenth and not leave until morning. And not to pick fights with arrancar. Or Tōsen. Or Hisagi or Hinamori. Or anyone else.

"Just — don't get yourself killed!" she said finally. "Please!"

Kiyone nodded, wide-eyed. Possibly she was still walking on eggshells after the sudden crying jag. Whatever worked.

Isane arrived at the Emergency Relief Station to find the triage area full of severely traumatized noble children. Yamada Hanatarō was tending to an unconscious brown-haired girl with ugly burns and lacerations all around her neck. A blond girl had the Fourth Seat by the front of his shihakushō.

"Do something! Why aren't you good for anything, do something! Sacchi-chan is—"

Isane pried the girl off the Fourth Seat. "Sacchi-chan is being helped, and you are getting in the way. Sit down and be quiet or I will remove you from the room. Fourth Seat, check the rest of the children." She deposited the blond girl with the others and joined Hanatarō. "Report?"

"There was a yoke applied to her and then removed," Hanatarō said. "That's about all I got out of them."

Knowing that, Isane could see the pattern in the burns and cuts — but this was so much worse than what had presented in Kira and Ayasegawa and Ōmaeda. "Can one of you tell me how long the yoke was on her, and how the injuries showed up?" she asked the rest of the children. Most of them seemed too stunned to respond, or to have noticed anything, but the blond one stepped up. Isane braced herself for another tirade, but the girl seemed to have calmed down.

"They got Sacchi before any of the rest of us," she said. "I don't know how long ago it was, but at least three hours before sundown. And she was hurt from the first time I saw her — it got worse whenever they'd order her to do something — but it hurt her when they took it off, too."

The child had only average reiatsu for a Seireitei native, nothing like the vice-captains she'd seen the yoke on before. "Make a note — ask about effect of yokes on those with weaker spiritual power," she told the Fourth Seat. "'They' would be arrancar?" she prompted.

"They were monsters," one of the other children cried.

"…I think so," the girl said reluctantly. "I didn't… no one told me what arrancar are exactly."

"A group of them, more than five," Hanatarō said. "No Espada, though."

"They had a shinigami with them!" the girl added indignantly. "A really useless one! He was more scared than I was!"

"Aramaki Makizō," Hanatarō said. "From Eleventh Division. He was definitely scared."

Isane could hardly blame him. "What did they order Sacchi to do?" Hopefully nothing along the lines of the things they'd ordered Kira to do…

"Identify nobles," the blond said. "As opposed to retainers. In case anyone tried to hide." After a pause, she added. "It was smart of them, I don't think they would have found Kumoi on their own. And they asked about 'juveniles'. What was that about? What's going on?"

There was an awkward silence as Isane finished healing Sacchi. (She couldn't justify delaying healing a child so everyone could see an example of yoke injuries. No doubt there would be more.)

What the hell did she say? She didn't know if the children knew any of the background!

…She took the easy way out. "Hinamori-fukutaicho will explain. Tōsen-sama authorized her to take charge of noble children." Obviously neither name meant a thing, even to the girl who'd heard of arrancar before in some context. "I'll… send her a hell butterfly. We'll get the rest of you settled in a room until then." She waved to a nurse who'd just been standing by to get the children somewhere out of the way, then looked at the Fourth Seat. "Where's Iemura?"

"On the roof with binoculars," the Fourth Seat said. "We're trying to monitor the situation in Seireitei at large."

"What a good idea," Isane said. "Still, I'll need him down here — I need a full report on what the Fourth has been up to."

Ise Nanao

Nanao returned to Eighth to discover that Third Seat Enjōji and four other officers had decided to venture up to the palace-castle to swear allegiance to Aizen to get their zanpakutō back.

She groaned. "No one else do— No." She stopped herself. "Of course, there will be no negative consequences in this division for anyone who… who chooses to swear allegiance to… Aizen-sama. But…" She hesitated. "But I think that would not be a good idea unless you are certain you can do it… sincerely. I think… there may be a test."

Tōsen had offered to treat Hisagi as loyal without formal pledge like it was a big deal. Like he was letting him out of something beyond kneeling before Aizen (again) and promising loyalty.

"Understood," the Fourth Seat said. "Vice-captain, there seems like there's fighting going on…"

"Noble houses," Nanao replied grimly. "They're targeting noble houses, that'll be most of the fighting." She reconsidered. "Well, Eleventh probably accounts for a lot of it, too, but — noble houses."

"Should we…?"

"No." She just had to hope a shrine family was minor enough not to attract much attention. "…If any come here for shelter, we can let them in, and discuss it with Tōsen-sama later." Nanao rubbed her temples — she was a mess. "I'm going to freshen up a bit and eat something, then I'll address the division."

Nanao washed her face and re-did her hair, cleaned her glasses, and made sure her attitude was up to standards. She bolted down some food, ordered an unseated officer to make tea, and actually contemplated stealing some of Kyōraku's sake out of his office — it always seemed to make him feel better — but decided she needed her wits about her.

She did not allow herself to wonder about what was happening to Kyōraku — to all the captains. The only thing she could do for them now was keep the Eighth going, and the Seireitei.

Yadōmaru Lisa

Apacci didn't touch any of them, apart from ostentatiously poking each of them while muttering about snake bitches with inflated ideas of their own authority. Hiyori was already shaking with outrage anyway. Instead, she marched them through a confusing portal and then endless identical white stone halls. The first window they passed looked out over Seireitei from the perspective of Sōkyoku Hill. Mashiro stalled there for a moment. "I think Sixth Division is on fire!"

Hiyori snarled. "The whole place is probably going to go up soon. Serves them right."

"No," Apacci said. "Tōsen-sama wouldn't approve of that, and sadly he's in charge of shinigami town."

Mashiro scowled. "Fucking Tōsen." Apacci laughed.

The next window looked out on — down on, they were very high — endless moonlit white sands. This was not a view you could get from anywhere on Sōkyoku Hill. "What the—"

"The palace is in both Hueco Mundo and Soul Society," Apacci said. "…Somehow, who knows, I don't care."

Lisa didn't either. Hachi might be able to figure it out.

She hoped Hachi was okay.

They finally reached a large door marked with a "3", and passed through into a large chamber filled with couches and cushions, with a large pool in the middle.

"Finally," Apacci said. "This new place may be smaller than Las Noches, but the layout is a pain in the ass."

"Maybe it's modeled after Seireitei's," Lisa suggested dryly.

Apacci made a face. "The place sounds like so much fun already. Now, none of you move, I need a bath."

None of them moved. Fortunately the yoke allowed breathing without any trouble. Standing still was a great opportunity to notice how much they were still injured, though — and even the unnaturally healed injuries still hurt. Kind of a lot, actually.

Apacci stripped off, left her uniform in the middle of the floor, and plunged into the pool. When she emerged, she struck a pose. "Like what you see?"

"You look very… fit…?" Mashiro tried.

The arrancar huffed and sonido'd off somewhere, returning a moment later with a new uniform and a bottle of alcohol. She flopped down on a couch. "Your turn!"

"…What?"

"You're all filthy, and those clothes look stupid," the arrancar announced. "You, braid girl, lose the clothes and get in the pool."

The water was colder than Lisa expected, but she spitefully submerged up to her neck before she did any scrubbing. There had been a lot of dust from buildings being destroyed, and combined with sweat and blood — well, she wasn't going to deny she needed a bath. Just not… this bath.

(Why had the Gotei built an entire replica town anyway? There was never any chance of it fooling Aizen. Maybe Urahara had been worried about humans detecting a missing chunk of town from a distance and coming to investigate? There were going to be some very surprised and unhappy humans now.)

Apacci finally ordered Lisa out of the bath and Hiyori into the bath, and then ogled Lisa for a bit. "Not bad," she said eventually. "And you were a decent fighter — you'll do."

What the hell did you even say to that?!

Hiyori's appearance, once out of the bath, elicited a wrinkled nose and a "meh".

"Meh?" Hiyori said. "Meh?"

"C'mon, Hiyori, what did you want her to say?" Lisa muttered.

"I am not meh!"

"You're a shorty and you look like a child," Apacci said. "Of course you could compensate with technique — you yell so much your tongue must be pretty strong—"

Hiyori made an inarticulate noise of rage and attacked.

"Down!" Apacci ordered sharply, and Hiyori slammed into the floor. "Remember your place."

Hiyori growled into the cold, wet, stone.

Mashiro got a "Niiiiiice," and almost a boob squeeze until Apacci remembered she wasn't supposed to be touching. Mashiro herself looked very unsure how to react.

"Um, thhhhaaaaaank you?"

Oh, hell. Mashiro wasn't a child physically or mentally, she'd been a functional if flaky vice-captain, she wasn't really innocent, why did she get like this? Maybe she was hoping acting like a child would put the arrancar off, if Hiyori's looks did? But it didn't seem to be working—

"Now jump up and—" Apacci broke off suddenly, her attention shooting to the door just before there was a knock.

"Healer for the prisoners," said a male voice.

"You stay where you are!" Apacci barked. "…Please. Primera." She ran out of the room, returning with a pile of blankets which she tossed at the Visored. "Cover up in these and sit on the couch."

Raising an eyebrow at the sudden attitude change, Lisa wrapped up and sat. Mashiro almost beat her there. Hiyori took longer because she insisted on stomping the whole way.

Apacci inspected them, then opened the door to admit the Primera and Inoue Orihime. The Primera looked like he'd rather be anywhere else; Orihime looked miserable and exhausted and all cried out. She didn't speak except to summon her fairy things.

It looked like Apacci was mostly busy trying to surreptitiously glower at the Primera, and the Primera was asleep standing up, so Lisa took a chance. "Inoue," she whispered. "Do you know — the others?"

"Everyone's alive," Orihime said hoarsely. "They're just — just — they're going to do horrible things to everyone. Horrible things." Then she started crying again.

The Primera woke up enough to look kind of alarmed as he escorted her away.

The woman Espada and what must be the third fraccion showed up not long afterwards. "What was Starrk doing here?" the Espada asked.

"He's escorting the healing human for some reason," Apacci said with a shrug. "How'd everything go?"

"Seireitei has a rich landscape," the Espada said.

"We found a house to take, so we're not just down a hall from…" The third fraccion made a vague gesture. "All that. It's comfortable, and near a lake — it was just being occupied by some stupid old nobles or something, it was easy to clear out. Sung-Sun's keeping anyone else from poaching it."

How… appealing.

"Before we go down into the city," the Espada said, addressing the Visored. "I am Tier Harribel. Tell me your names."

"Kuna Mashiro!" Dammit, she was doing the childish thing again.

Why did Lisa have to be the grown-up here? "Yadōmaru Lisa."

"Sarugaki Hiyori." The words were dragged out of Hiyori almost painfully.

"You are mine," Harribel said. "You are junior to Mila Rose, Sung-Sun, and Apacci, and will obey them. We all serve Aizen-sama, and you will obey him. Tōsen commands the Seireitei, and you will obey him and his duly authorized representatives."

Each command hit the yoke like lead. Lisa could almost see the chains wrapping around them.

"You are not commanded to obey any other arrancar, including other Espada. Use good judgment and discretion, retreat first, but you are permitted to defend yourselves if necessary."

Lisa gave it a week tops before Hiyori got some additional orders to augment what passed for her good judgment and discretion.

"Follow me," Harribel ordered, and they did.

Mashiro was still so damn wide-eyed, Hiyori was almost visibly shredding herself against the yoke… Why did Lisa have to be the adult here?

She walked a bit closer to the Mila Rose arrancar. "I have a proposition for you three…"

Kira Izuru

The fighting had stopped and it was fully dark by the time Nirgge and Abirama herded Kira, Yumichika, and Ōmaeda into the area around Second Division. Kira was grateful. He wasn't sure if the yoke could force effective fighting, but it would definitely keep him from helping anyone. There were arrancar and damaged buildings and bodies in dark Punishment Forces uniforms everywhere. Regular shinigami dead weren't as common, but there were more than a few. (Ōmaeda had been vocally outraged, before Nirgge ordered him into silence.) There were survivors, plenty of them, but they were staying out of sight.

Kira wondered if Ōmaeda Marenoshin had escaped after refusing to surrender the division.

They didn't go to Second Division offices, though — in fact, if Kira recalled correctly, they were heading in the right direction to be going to the Ōmaeda estate. But there were probably lots of things in this direction.

Ōmaeda was practically vibrating with anxiety, though. And the yoke was — twisting, and drawing blood, and — was this what it looked like when someone fought an order?

They stopped at an intersection and Nirgge cursed, looking around. "This place is a fucking maze."

"I could get in the air—" Abirama started.

"Nirgge! Abirama! This way!" Another of Baraggan's fraccion appeared and waved at them. "The place isn't as big as it could be, but it's really cushy. We tried another one first but it was full of weird traps…"

…They were continuing towards the Ōmaeda manor. Ōmaeda made a strangled noise, and a thicker line of blood ran down from the yoke.

As they made the last turn, they passed some people coming in the other direction — Gantenbainne escorting Hinamori. Hinamori was cleaned up and wearing a white kosode. She was carrying a little girl, who was sobbing against her neck.

"You have to be brave," Hinamori was saying to the girl. "I know, I know, but you have to be brave." She looked up at Ōmaeda, then back at the girl, then back at Ōmaeda, and grimaced. "Can you hold out your hand quick for your big brother Marechiyo to hold, just for a minute? He can't talk to you right now, and he doesn't want to be seen, but can you let him hold your hand?" She caught the girl's head before she could raise it. "Just hold out your hand."

The girl did raise a hand, and Ōmaeda took it as gently as Kira had ever seen him do anything. He managed to whisper, "Mareyo-chan," before he clapped his free hand over his mouth to stifle a cry of pain.

"Marechiyo-nii-sama," the girl sniffled. "They — they—"

"You need to be brave," Hinamori repeated. "I'm sure your big brother will come see you as soon as he can, but right now you need to come with me and be brave."

"Mama—"

Ōmaeda got himself under control enough to take his hand off his mouth. "Be brave, Mareyo-chan," he whispered, and gave her hand a last squeeze before letting go.

Hinamori mouthed I'll take care of her at Ōmaeda, and then Gantenbainne was ushering her away, and Mareyo was crying harder again, and tears were running down Ōmaeda's face.

"Hey, keep up!" Nirgge said.

They kept up, Kira and Yumichika flanking Ōmaeda, providing as much support as they could. Because after that…

Marenoshin wasn't in the manor — maybe he'd gotten away, or died at Second or in the field. The rest of the family was, along with a half-dozen servants. Judging from the wounds, Ōmaeda Mareka, Marejirōsabu, and Maremi all went down fighting, with an heirloom sword or furniture or bare hands. And they hadn't all died instantly, but they hadn't been left to suffer. Ōmaeda tried to kneel by his mother's body, and was forced back to his feet. He looked… shattered. Kira didn't know what to say.

Yumichika leaned in. "Get this ugliness out of your system now, so you can be brave when you see Mareyo-chan again. You haven't lost everything. Focus on that."

Ggio apologized to Nirgge for not leaving Maremi alive so he could have a woman he wouldn't crush. Nirgge shoved him through a partition.

The three shinigami were led into what was now, apparently, Baraggan's throne room. The Espada's bone chair had been draped in rich fabrics. Chuhlhourne was offering the old Espada wine, Poww was standing by standing at attention, and Findorr was giving a report.

"…Szayelaporro is still in Hueco Mundo with orders to collect the captain of Twelfth Division, who is reported to have liquified and escaped into the sands." Findorr managed to present this with a straight face even. "Aaroniero has withdrawn to his residence in the new castle. He has a prisoner he wants to keep as a pet. Yammy broke a wall in the new palace and was sent to Hueco Mundo for 'exercise'. Luppi has returned to the palace to help with the prisoners. Dordoni—"

"I don't care about the rest of those has-beens," Baraggan said. "Nirgge!"

"Your Majesty!" Nirgge said, doing that odd salute. "We have your shinigami slaves!"

Baraggan grunted, eyes on the shinigami. "About time you got here." He spat on the floor. "Charlotte, Abirama, I am disgusted that you lost to this shinigami garbage. Nirgge, you should have killed yours."

"We're sorry we failed, your Majesty!"

"Well… we have until sunrise before they need to report to duty. Prove you're superior."

So it started.

Ichimaru Gin

"So, Gin, how are you? Enjoying the view?" Aizen said pleasantly.

(Gin wasn't sure whether Aizen had picked up the teleportation from the Hōgyoku or the Royal Realm, but either way, he was enjoying it way too much.)

"Lovely view, Aizen-taichō," Gin said as pleasantly as he could manage. It wasn't even completely false — the Royal Realm was remarkably intact and devoid of blood, bodies, or battle-damage. (Possibility: Aizen annihilated Zero Division remotely and cleanly. Possibility: Aizen carefully cleaned up the Royal Realm after the fight. Possibility: Zero Division withdrew to regroup rather than die against the Hōgyoku and are waiting for an opportunity.) Gin had not, of course, had much opportunity to look around, since Aizen had him sort of… melded… into a stone chair. (He took a twisted kind of comfort in it — surely Aizen wouldn't be punishing him so much if his betrayal were really accounted for in the plan from the beginning?) But he still had plenty to look at, since Aizen was very kindly allowing him to look through some of the viewing windows through which someone in the Royal Realm could observe the Seireitei! So far he'd seen nobles being slaughtered (yawn), extremely stressed vice-captains (amusing), Grimmjow and Nnoitra versus Eleventh Division (mildly amusing), arrancar trying to understand Seireitei social structures (quite amusing), and Izuru being brutalized by Baraggan and his fraccion (not amusing).

(He'd underestimated Tōsen. This purge-the-nobles, reform-the-Gotei gambit was a hell of a lot more coherent than anything he'd expected the man to come up with. It could be described as justice from certain points of view, some of his actions might even pass as minimizing bloodshed! Seriously, saner than Tōsen had been in decades if not longer.)

"I wanted to bring you up to date on something," Aizen said. "Do you remember that scheme you came up with for lower-ranked recruits after a conquest to prove their loyalty to me?"

"Think I had a couple of those, Aizen-taichō." Gin's personal favorite was just getting them all hooked on opium or something. Simple and effective.

"The one involving proving their disrespect for the old regime," Aizen said.

There had been a couple of those, too, but Gin was pretty sure Aizen meant the most extreme one. "Really? You're going with that? I know you have enough prisoners for it but… Isn't it sort of inefficient?" And it relied a lot on shame and implicit blackmail to ensure continued loyalty — not nearly as good a leash as an addiction.

"Very efficient," Aizen said. "It will simultaneously wear down the captain-class prisoners so they can be yoked."

"…If you say so, Aizen-taichō."

Without even a gesture on Aizen's part, the viewing window changed to show several different perspectives of a long hall. On each side of the hall were cell doors made up completely of bars. Each cell had a few steps down, and some equipment — a table with a sort of frame on top of it, chains, ropes, whips, canes, and so on.

"Somewhere in your new trilocating palace, I assume, Aizen-taichō?" Gin raised an eyebrow. "Are your new recruits even going to know what to do with all that?"

"I think it's fairly self-explanatory. If not, Loly can do a demonstration."

What an interesting thought. "You're just going to turn them in there with…?"

"Prove you are loyal by demonstrating your contempt for the old regime."

"I see." There was still a fair amount of room for interpretation in that. "So where are the prisoners?"

"Regularly they're in sekkiseki cells — I'll only have them here when the proving ground is operational." Aizen smiled briefly, obviously pleased with the nomenclature. "This is outside what will be normal hours, but I think we should get started. They should be moving them in right about… now."

And there were a couple Exequias, escorting Kyōraku. He looked like he was speaking to the Exequias — probably something inane. He didn't react much when he was taken into a cell and chained face down to a table, and if he realized what this setup was meant for he gave no sign of it. He did raise his head sharply when Ukitake, the next to be brought in, started coughing. Being chained in a prone position obviously did nothing to ease the paroxysm.

"You worried about that at all, Aizen-taichō?" Gin asked. "Ukitake croaking of his own accord?"

"If he does, I'll realize in time to revive him with no difficulty," Aizen said. All right then.

(Really, Ukitake dying had a better chance of breaking Kyōraku than either of them being raped any number of times, and it still probably wasn't above half. If he'd been working on them, Gin would have gone straight for the vice-captain weak point, and even that wasn't a sure thing.)

Sasakibe was mostly unemotional, but he was either genuinely confused by the setup or faking it pretty well. All right, him, this might break. Assuming anyone actually wanted to fuck him. Hmm. He wasn't bad-looking, necessarily…

Byakuya, now — Byakuya would have them lining up. For the moment he was keeping up a satisfactory Kuchiki stone face. Gin wondered if he'd be so stoic if he knew what had gone down with the Kuchiki. Or what he was in for.

The next two were eyebrow-raisers. "I have to imagine most of your recruits will look sideways at any of their peers who voluntarily fucks Komamura or Hitsugaya." Gin considered. "I guess if you got the right mood going…"

"Or they could beat them," Aizen said. "Like a bad dog or a disobedient child."

"Good point, and it'd be effective if they framed it like that," Gin agreed. Komamura was shouting something, probably for Aizen or Tōsen to… Gin couldn't begin to guess what Komamura was expecting. Hitsugaya was quiet, glaring but not struggling.

Renji was letting the Exequias drag him when he arrived, but started struggling and shouting when he saw the setup. He'd figured it out fast enough. If anyone else really hadn't known, they did now. Sasakibe looked outraged and appalled, Komamura shouted some more, Byakuya still didn't crack an expression, and—

"I thought the surprise would get a bit more of a reaction out of Tōshirō-chan," Gin said, disappointed. The boy had just put his head down on the table.

"I'm afraid it's probably not a surprise for him, or not as much as it should be," Aizen said regretfully. "I invited the arrancar to express their feelings about any previous encounters to the shinigami prisoners, and Luppi got… somewhat carried away."

"Ahhh, I see." Gin watched Renji kick an Exequias across the hallway. "Like… in released form?"

"Unfortunately. I had to have someone break it up and fetch Orihime."

That had to be about the least sexy hentai Gin had ever inadvertently pictured. "At least it wasn't Yammy, I guess."

"Yammy is not allowed to handle shinigami prisoners without Ulquiorra's supervision."

Lucky Ulquiorra. But then he did seem to like Yammy, unlike practically everyone else in any realm.

"…Except possibly Hirako-taichō," Aizen continued. "I may see how he gets along with Yammy."

"Visored aren't that much more durable… but I assume you know what you're doing, Aizen-taichō." The Exequias finally had Renji chained down, and were now trying to get Madarame Ikkaku to a cell. "How many people were surprised to find out he has bankai?"

"Some of the vice-captains didn't know, but none of them were very surprised."

Gin made a private wager with himself that Madarame would bite that Exequias's hand clean off. "You planning on including Kenpachi in this, too? Cause has certain logistical difficulties."

Aizen chuckled. "No, Kenpachi will be fighting problem arrancar in a sekkiseki pit."

Clever. Gin nodded approval (and to congratulate himself on winning the wager). "What about Kurotsuchi? That even makes Kenpachi sound like a good idea." The Exequias resorted to strangling Madarame into unconsciousness.

"He hasn't resolidified."

"I see."

Suì-Fēng was carried in already so tied up she could barely move. It saved a lot of time. Gin doubted anything not involving Yoruichi would really break Suì-Fēng, but she'd be as popular as Byakuya, and not just because women were so underrepresented. Everyone wanted to make the untouchable ones crack.

There was one cell left. "Unohana or Shihōin?" Gin asked. "And where's the other one?"

"They are, sadly, both unavailable at this time," Aizen replied. "But we do need another female option…"

No.

No.

No no no.

Rangiku identified the setup as soon as she saw it, too, and her lips curled back in a snarl. But she was scared, too, if you knew what to look for.

She was strong. She'd survive this. She would. Stronger than the rest of them, even if she was the only one without bankai-

Gin snarled and pointlessly lunged at Aizen, the chair keeping him from moving a centimeter. "Let her out of there! Don't you dare put her there because of me!"

Aizen smiled, and disappeared, and Gin had nothing to do but sit and watch the prisoners eventually realize it wasn't arrancar who'd be abusing them now. (Even though he didn't care, he still automatically noted that Ukitake, Sasakibe, and Komamura were shocked to see non-Hollows; Kyouraku, Suì-Fēng, Renji, and Madarame — and Rangiku — were grimly unhappy but not shocked; Byakuya still wouldn't make an expression; and Hitsugaya was probably just relieved Luppi wasn't going to be involved.)

Rangiku was strong, but Rangiku wasn't supposed to get hurt. She was supposed to be safely out of it. Shit.

Rangiku wasn't supposed to be singled out.

Because of him.

Shit.

Arisawa Tatsuki

They let Mizuiro take the lead in talking to the police, because it let everyone else tell almost the truth. He very shyly admitted that he remembered a lot of things that didn't really make sense and couldn't have happened, like an evil angel vaporizing everything, and a beautiful woman with a sword saving them and then their finding her or something, and a giant picking up the car and carrying it? And a monster chasing them through a dark cave. It meant the hospital added a bunch of drug tests to all the other tests, but at least Keigo could babble about his trauma without worrying about upsetting some delicate cover story.

They already agreed to let Asano Mizuho take the lead in talking to the inevitable media frenzy. She would probably tear them apart with her teeth. (The people who stayed unconscious back in town weren't all awake yet, but they were waking up, slowly. Mizuho was already berating Keigo in her sleep. She would be awake by the time the police let the media through.)

Karin took the lead dealing with Don Kanonji, when he wasn't being corralled by his agent/babysitter. She seemed to have the most experience.

Tatsuki wished she could take the lead in tracking down Urahara, wherever he was, and breaking his damn smiling face. But she didn't know where to start, and she didn't want to have to explain to her mother that she really did know something more about this.

(Not enough to do any damn good.)

(Her mother was alive, picked up from their house just after they skidded out of the Kurosaki Clinic. She could face Keigo without trouble, his sister's here too, and Mizuiro… if Mizuiro's lost anyone he's not showing it, but Chizuru, and the others when they wake up, and Karin and Yuzu— No one had ever given her a chance to stop this from happened, but she still felt like she should have, somehow.)

(Ichigo must be destroyed, wherever he was.)

(The big crybaby.)

(She hoped he was okay.)