Inoue Orihime

Orihime poked listlessly at her breakfast and contemplated Grimmjow, or more precisely what Grimmjow was likely to have done with Rukia. That "Nothing, yet" had been sort of ominous, but it had to be better than Aaroniero, surely? Orihime was sure it would be better than Aaroniero. Grimmjow was… Grimmjow wasn't very nice, but he wasn't as… unnerving as what she'd seen of Aaroniero. And he didn't have any kind of particular interest in Rukia, which was probably better — but then why had he taken her?

Maybe she would just try asking him.

She needed to know because she needed to know whether she could whisper it to Renji or Byakuya as a good thing.

Orihime had a mission. Every day — every day, no exceptions — she was going to make one person happy. Even just for a moment, but happy.

Ulquiorra would be scornful — even more scornful than usual — if he knew, but she had to do something or she'd go insane.

Insane.

Relieving pain could make people happy, but she didn't want to count it, because she was just healing them up to be hurt again — soon — and she knew it and they knew it.

But Renji had been happy for a moment when she told him that most of the Gotei 13 was intact.

Ulquiorra had been upset with her, because Renji and the others apparently were not supposed to hear anything that made them happy, just things that made them want to break.

But.

Insane.

So she would find a way to tell them good things, and make them happy. Even if just for a moment.

But first she had to figure out whether Grimmjow taking Rukia was good or not.

Since that might take a while, it was a good thing there were other people she needed to tell that the Gotei 13 was mostly intact!

Kuchiki Rukia

Rukia slept fitfully, curled against the wall — they'd thrown in a futon, but she couldn't reach it from where she was tied and didn't have any slack in the ropes to lie down anyway. She could have used the blanket, though.

Shortly before dawn, Edrad came in and kicked her awake — she was bitterly pleased to see his nose wasn't quite healed. He cut the ropes holding her to the wall and tossed a bundle of black and white fabric into her lap. A shihakushō? Except the kosode was white…

"Active shinigami are released to… do active shinigami things," he said. "You can use the bathroom or whatever." After another kick, he left.

Before leaving the room, Rukia pushed the futon and blanket over to just below the hook in the wall, just in case. Then she picked up the modified shihakushō and made her way warily to the bathroom. She didn't take a bath, but she did scrub down until she felt less filthy, then pulled on the shihakushō. It was a little — or a lot — too big, but she didn't care. …Actually the hakama being long enough for her to step on was a bit of a problem. She ended up tying it absurdly high.

Shawlong was waiting for her when she got out of the bathroom. Rukia was thoroughly distracted by how he was holding her zanpankutō, until he laced his fingers into the yoke, and it started to burn. "You're to be back by sunset unless you have prior authorization from Tōsen-sama," he said — commanded. "He's in charge of shinigami, so do whatever he says. Other than that, you're Grimmjow-sama's property, preserve yourself."

"Hai," Rukia replied. It wasn't like the yoke gave her any other choice.

He gave her the sword.

She made it out of the house without any further interference from the fraccion, and paused in the street to get her bearings. (She couldn't bring herself to let go of Sode no Shirayuki even enough to put it through her belt, so she just clutched the zanpakutō in her hands.)

Seireitei. Dawn. Aizen's bizarre castle occupying all of Sōkyoku Hill. She was on the northeast side, maybe about halfway out… Eighth Division territory, she guessed. Which still didn't tell her exactly who the house the fraccion had taken had previously belonged to — a minor noble family, probably, or a minor branch of a larger one.

It also didn't tell her where she should be going to do "shinigami things". Eighth? Thirteenth?

Well… everything still hurt. Maybe she should try the Fourth.

The trip was quiet. She saw a few shinigami out and about, in normal uniforms, but they actively avoided her. Arrancar ignored her. There were also a few people in white and black shihakushō, who actively avoided her as soon as they noticed the yoke. She really needed some answers.

The Fourth was buzzing with activity. The person at the desk went blank-faced at — probably the uniform? — then did another take, and called, "Tell the vice-captain there's another yoke!" The look now was… pitying.

Rukia lifted her chin, glad the too-large uniform at least obscured the rope burns. And everything else.

Isane hurried out, but smiled when she saw Rukia. "Rukia, you're alive! Hanatarō will be so glad." The smile faded quickly. "Come on, back this way."

It was a private cubicle. Rukia was grateful. She was also grateful Isane didn't ask about the rope burns and bruises and bites and wrenched shoulder and… all the rest, but just treated everything.

The skin around the yoke received a good cleaning and a coat of balm, but that wouldn't stop the thing from causing more damage. "They say it's not meant to be so damaging, and they'll change it, but I don't know how long it will be. Until then, I'd like you to stop by every day, if you can, for me to track it." Isane paused at the back of her neck. "Six is Grimmjow, isn't it?"

Rukia nodded. "He wants me under his control for… I'm not sure. Something to do with Ichigo, even though he's lost his powers. But Grimmjow-sama—" Interesting. She definitely hadn't planned to add a sama on that, but it came out anyway. "Grimmjow-sama has been busy elsewhere, so I've been left with the fraccion… at least one of them is still resentful about my killing him." Which she refused to be sorry about. "They did go easy on me. I guess this was why, for duties…"

"You will definitely be needed," Isane said. "No one with shikai is allowed to have their zanpakutō unless they're yoked or a whitecoat — a sworn shinigami."

"…People who went over voluntarily?"

"They have to go up to the castle and pledge loyalty."

"…And they wear this uniform," Rukia said. No wonder people had avoided her. How unfair.

"There are some other officers yoked," Isane said. "Kira, Ōmaeda, Yumichika, a few Visored, some others… And there may be more to come."

That wasn't exactly a good thing. "Vice-captains — are there any captains around?"

"Only Tōsen-sama," Isane said. "And not all the vice-captains are here — not Abarai, or Matsumoto, or Nemu. Although Nemu was here briefly I hear… But they're mostly in the… the castle."

Of course they were. She'd expected that, though, so she didn't allow it to hurt. "Even so, it's not as bad here as I was afraid."

"Well, um, actually…" Isane trailed off, then started over. "Tōsen-sama wanted to preserve the divisions. He wanted to destroy the clans."

…Oh. "The Kuchiki?"

"It's… bad. I think the main estate has stopped burning. Sixth Division was hit worse than most of the rest of us, too — not worse than Second or Eleventh, but the rest — because they wouldn't surrender the Kuchiki."

Rukia processed that. Of course she objected to it in principle, but personally she mostly felt sympathy for her brother's sake. She'd never been close to most of the Kuchiki. "I see."

"The children are supposed to be left alive to be, um, re-educated. We have a few here, but I probably shouldn't let you in to see them without approval from Hinamori-fukutaichō — she's in charge of the noble children."

"No, that's fine, I wouldn't want to get anyone in trouble," Rukia said. She wasn't likely to have a lot to say to most Kuchiki, or vice versa.

She would sort of like to see if she could salvage anything from her rooms at the estate, though. Maybe she would ask Shawlong. She could at least get hakama that fit from Thirteenth.

Isane sent her on her way shortly afterwards. She was relieved to see Hanatarō on her way out, and he was clearly relieved to see her, but then he was called to assist with an urgent patient. She promised to come back later.

"Do, please," he said. "Ishida and Sado — they're at Twelfth—"

Twelfth. Shit.

But at least they were alive.

Rukia walked briskly to Thirteenth, one hand on Sode no Shirayuki's hilt. Now that she was knew what to look for, she could see the damage was focused around noble compounds.

"Grimmjow-sama," she whispered under her breath. There it was again. "Ulquiorra. Szayelaporro. Yammy. Aaroniero." Good. "Aaroniero is a creepy lying freak." Better. "Aizen-sama. Tōsen-sama." Damn. "Ichimaru." Iiiinteresting. "Shawlong." Good. "Di Roy is a loser." Good. And then Thirteenth was in sight, and she stopped talking to herself before anyone could notice.

"Kuchiki?" said the unseated officer on duty at the gates. "You swore—"

Rukia gave him a poisonous look and pointed at her neck.

"Oh." He brightened. "That's great!"

"It's — what?" It was much better than being held by Aaroniero, but still—

"No! No, I didn't mean — it's — each division has to have three people with shikai, and we didn't have any trai — uh — whitecoats from our division, so we got these three people who used to be in Eleventh, and not the good kind of Eleventh, and they've been giving the Third Seats trouble ever since they got here—"

And now that Rukia was here, maybe they could at least get rid of one of them. "I see. Where are they?"

Before he could answer, Sentarō started shouting. "You do not have the right to order anyone in this division to do—"

"I am a sworn shinigami and you are—"

"That does not put you in command!"

"I'd like to see you try to stop me!"

The whitecoat — who certainly had the look of Eleventh Division — hadn't unsealed his zanpakutō, but Sentarō didn't even have his sword. The unseated officers behind him did, but didn't look up to… much of anything. Rukia drew and leapt, coming down between them, facing the whitecoat.

"Kuchiki!" Sentarō said.

The whitecoat gaped. "You — you're yoked! You can't—"

"I'm under orders to defend myself if necessary," Rukia said grimly. "Are you going to make it necessary?"

The whitecoat spluttered. "But you can't—"

"I expect Grimmjow-sama would probably find it amusing if I got in a fight with sworn shinigami," she added for good measure. "Probably less amusing if I were seriously hurt — I'd be punished, and he might even retaliate against my opponent — but fighting he'd approve of."

The whitecoat gaped some more.

Backed down.

"Well… fine. But only because of the Espada! Not because of you."

He swaggered away.

"Kuchiki!" Sentarō said again. "You're…"

She turned to see him struggling with words. Alive? Okay? Back? Yoked? "Reporting for duty," she said. "With shikai."

He hesitated for a long moment, then grinned. "Good to hear. Maybe we can get rid of one of these assholes."

"Are they all like that?"

Sentarō scowled. "He's the worst, but—"

"Kotsubaki!" Kiyone pelted into the yard, followed by Nanao, followed by a dark-haired woman with a yoke and a white kosode and slightly off reiatsu. "I brought — Kuchiki?"

"Yes," Sentarō said. "Who's that?"

"Be polite!" snapped Kiyone. "Yadōmaru-san came here as a special favor to Nanao to rescue you."

"Keep this up and I will knock your heads together," Yadōmaru-san said. She looked at Rukia. "Kuchiki Rukia — you're one of Ichigo's shinigami friends, aren't you?"

"Yes," Rukia said. "You're — one of the Visored?"

"Yes. Yadōmaru Lisa. You can call me Lisa."

Rukia nodded politely. "Has anyone told you Ichigo is alive but powerless?"

Lisa straightened. "I heard the rumor — you got it confirmed?"

Rukia nodded confirmation. "From Grimmjow-sama. He says he'll be bringing Ichigo to his Seireitei residence as soon as he's allowed to. He, um, wants a rematch with Ichigo, so he intends to make him regain his powers and then fight him. He says."

Lisa stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "I bet it'll actually work, too. He planning on keeping you two together?"

"I get that impression. I'm supposed to be… motivation."

"Sucks. Well, when he shows up you can tell him me and Mashiro and Hiyori are around."

"I will," Rukia promised.

While Rukia spoke with Lisa, Sentarō and Kiyone had been having a high-speed discussion about which shikai-wielding whitecoat they wanted to kick out now that they had Rukia. Lisa offered to go make sure he left, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

"Go ahead," Nanao said. "I need to talk to Rukia anyway."

When Nanao drew her into the empty vice-captain's office, Rukia was expecting something else about the Kuchiki — but instead, Nanao told her about the carload of humans Matsumoto had brought out of Karakura.

"The person you really need to talk to is Kuramadani," Nanao finished. "But…"

"Ichi-nii", one of them had said. That had to be Karin. And if Yuzu hadn't been there, Karin would surely have been demanding her? "Yes. I. I'll talk to him," Rukia said. "Thank you."

That night, she returned to the house before curfew, knelt, and asked permission to look for salvage at the estate. The fraccion discussed it and decided it was allowed as long as they were the ones running the show and doing their own looting. Why Edrad wanted the porcelain tea set he picked up Rukia couldn't begin to imagine. It probably wouldn't last twenty-four hours.

For her part, Rukia was able to salvage a few books, a few Chappy toys, and two nice kimono from the storage space under what had been her room. She almost threw the kimono back, but guessed the chance of Grimmjow or the fraccion demanding she dress up was low.

(She also froze her way into the smoldering remnants of Byakuya's room to see if there was anything left of his cabinet. The picture of Hisana was a little scorched, but salvageable.)

(The first teacup broke on the way back.)

Suì-Fēng

The Onmitsukidō trained for ugly fights.

The Gotei 13 saw a share of civil strife and revolts and so on, but at the end of the day, their primary purpose was purifying Hollows, performing soul burials, and balancing the Realms. It was a noble, necessary purpose, and it let shinigami wear a clean conscience.

The Onmitsukidō's primary purpose was to fight (and control, and contain, and punish) people.

"The Onmitsukidō was created to fight the Gotei 13, if necessary," Yoruichi had told her, long ago. "It was described as balancing it, of course, but everyone knew what it meant. Central 46 needed some sort of leverage in case the Gotei went rogue. Why do you think one of the highest noble families was put in control of the Onmitsukidō?"

Young Suì-Fēng had nodded seriously. "But… you're part of the Gotei 13, now, too?"

Yoruichi had smirked. "Yes, yes I am. And at this point it's likely the consolidation will stick even after I'm not around."

The young Suì-Fēng had been mystified, but the older Suì-Fēng understood Yoruichi had felt that if it ever came to the point of Yamamoto threatening force against Central 46, he'd probably have a very good reason, and she hadn't wanted the Onmitsukidō to function as a balancing force — not one under Central 46's control, anyway. Suì-Fēng had wondered, sometimes, how she'd react if her two duties ever pulled her in different directions, but it had never come to that.

The point was, to be Onmitsukidō was to be prepared for the ugly things people did to other people. They scoffed at torture. They scoffed at sexual torture. No head of the Onmitsukidō would be broken by multiple rape.

That didn't mean she wasn't memorizing the face and name of every man (and it had been all men, so far) who dared lay a hand on her. She'd avenge this… indignity.

Apart, of course, from the Onmitsukidō officers who had to assault her to make their conversion to the traitor's side believable. Sometimes you had to do unpleasant things to preserve your cover.

Urahara Kisuke

Urahara wished for his fan, but settled for ostentatious finger-counting. "One, despite my admittedly dire predicament, I haven't yet agreed to help you with anything." He held up another finger. "Two, Mayuri acquired this particular… skill sometime after my exile, and I've never had the chance to study it — there's no reason I'd be better at this than anyone else." A third finger. "And finally, while I could be wrong since, as I mentioned, I have no experience with that, I would guess that Mayuri can only resolidify when… all of him is present." He looked askance at the bucket at Aizen's feet. "That can't be more than ten liters. You'd have to ask Nemu to be sure, but I'd guess you want at least five times that."

There was a sloshing noise.

"Is it… he… moving around by himself in there?"

Sado Yasutora

Two days passed with nothing but feedings and occasional visits from a scientist who seemed to think she could function as a doctor. The lone highlight was the information that Kuchiki Rukia had tried to bribe her way in to talk to them, but hadn't come back because she was on assignment to the world of the living. Ishida spent several hours dissecting all the implications of this — that she was alive, that she had enough freedom of movement and access to resources to attempt to bribe someone, that she was trying to get to them, that the world of the living was intact and shinigami were being sent there, but they had enough confidence in their control over Kuchiki to send her there alone, and… Sado just sat back and let him speculate. It got his mind off their predicament in general and his missing glasses in particular.

But after two days, Szayelaporro came to Twelfth Division, and almost immediately had Ishida hauled off. (He didn't come to the Quincy cell personally, quite, but they could hear him out in the hall.)

"What does he want with him?" Sado asked the ersatz doctor.

"I'm not sure," she said, prodding one of his bruises without doing any good that Sado could see. "We told him we had more Quincy data on file than anyone could ever want — I was honestly expecting him to go after you, the Fullbringer data is a lot thinner…"

"The what?"

"Fullbringer data — we think that's what you are…"

Ichigo or Ishida or even Inoue could have put their foot down, one way or another, and maybe gotten an answer to WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE A NAME AND CATEGORY FOR MY POWERS, WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE, but Sado was still searching for words when the Twelfth Division non-doctor left again. Shit. And he hadn't gotten any real explanation about what Szayelaporro was doing to Ishida, either.

They brought Ishida back a few hours later. He refused to talk about anything, but just sat and stared at — probably nothing, considering how little he could apparently see without his glasses. Sado didn't think he was hurt worse than he had been before, but he definitely wasn't feeling well.

The non-doctor came back a while later, looking notably more upbeat. "Szayelaporro-sama had to go back to Hueco Mundo," she announced, between unhelpful pokes at Ishida. "Turns out he didn't get all of Kurotsuchi-taichō."

Sado didn't think there was anything to say to that.

When the non-doctor was gone, Ishida dragged himself slowly into a sitting position. "I want to — to laugh about the wet-dry vacuum cleaner some more, but I think it would hurt too much." He coughed. "Szayelaporro is a terrible excuse for a scientist. Even these Twelfth Division… shinigami are better."

"…What did he do that was so… unscientific?" Sado asked eventually.

Ishida coughed again, and it turned into wheezing before he managed to stop. "He didn't take any notes," he declared finally. "He just laughed maniacally the whole time."

"And… what did he do to you?" Sado tried.

Ishida scoffed, and started coughing again. "Stupid unscientific things."

Sado would have taken the not-able-to-stop-crying over not-able-to-stop-coughing, as it turned out.

Kyōraku Shunsui

Shunsui had officially allotted the time between his return to the sekkiseki cell and Orihime's healing rounds to Not Thinking. It wasn't always easy, but the mental recharge could be helpful.

Tonight, the gentle tingle of healing (so different from Aizen's harsh fixes) was accompanied by a whisper. "Most of the Gotei 13 is intact and trying to carry out normal operations," Orihime said.

He kept his smile to a twitch of the lips. "Thank you, Orihime-chan," he murmured.

He had actually had a fairly good idea of that already. Enjōji hadn't been able to communicate much, but Shunsui had gathered that there were others left behind at Eighth, who hadn't chosen to go up the hill, whom those who had might be able to protect. Shunsui was counting on Nanao being one of those. It was good to hear that most of the rest of the division was probably fine, too.

(He had to hope that Aizen either hadn't been watching closely enough to realize Enjōji's contempt for and resentment of Kyōraku had been an act, or didn't mind a few people slipping through the proving ground by sacrificing their own conscience without changing their loyalties.)

(Of the four officers who'd come with Enjōji, one had refused the proving ground outright and been killed. One had picked Rangiku, which Shunsui was not going to lightly forget or forgive — or forgive himself, for his responsibility for his officer. The last two were still trying to get up the nerve to do something.)

Well, with Orihime-chan come and gone, it was sadly time for thinking. Shunsui eased up to lean against the wall.

Three days down. Who knows how many to go.

Shunsui wasn't… overburdened with free time in the "proving ground", but he had some, and he spent most of it trying to evaluate the others' conditions, as much as he could by reiatsu and glimpses on the way in and out and sounds he'd rather not hear.

Suì-Fēng was holding her own, Shunsui believed, Onmitsukidō to the core. She wouldn't break, not really, unless Aizen managed to get hold of Yoruichi. He wasn't worried about Suì-Fēng. She'd probably take his head off if he dared. And she'd know somehow.

He couldn't not worry about Jūshirō. It seemed there weren't all that many people nursing a grudge with Ukitake — no surprise there — and most of those there were weren't anything to feel bad about in Shunsui's opinion. It still hurt Jū — the idea of it even more than what they did to him. And there was his health.

Sasakibe… Shunsui wasn't sure what was going on in Sasakibe's head. Yama-jii's oldest supporter was old enough to be sure in himself, but he seemed to be… faltering.

The others — were younger, and not Onmitsukidō trained. The sexual abuse was taking a toll. Or other abuse — as far as Shunsui could tell, no one had quite sunk to the point of molesting someone who looked like a child, not yet.

Komamura hadn't gotten much of that, either, and Shunsui thought that was almost disturbing the Seventh Division captain more. Having to lie there, helpless, untouched, while other people were hurt… He shouted a lot. Mostly for Tōsen to explain himself. Tōshirō was much quieter than Shunsui would have predicted. He snarled and snapped and growled, but didn't shout. It was a good call, if it was a calculated decision — without his sword, his haori, his reiatsu, Tōshirō's shouting wasn't very impressive. That was probably how Tōshirō would explain it, if someone asked.

Renji and Rangiku were holding on, still. They had both probably thought they'd gotten away from the risk of anything like this a long time ago, and now… now they were trapped. They sounded like they were starting to run out of anger, which wasn't good.

Ikkaku wasn't doing anything but growling, anymore. That was even less good.

Byakuya had retreated into his perfect Kuchiki mask. It was serving him well so far. Shunsui just hoped Byakuya wouldn't shatter when it did.

Hisagi Shūhei

The whitecoats kept coming.

Would-be whitecoats kept going up to the castle, despite all the vague warnings Hisagi gave — and to be fair, some of them were nobles' private soldiers who didn't have anywhere else to go, unless they wanted to take their chances in the Rukongai. So they kept going up, and they kept coming back — not as many as the first day, generally, only about twenty to thirty a day, and usually unofficial reports of four or five more who'd failed the loyalty test and been killed. Hisagi was trying to get Tōsen to give some sort of official death notification to the divisions of those who were killed. No luck so far.

But the whitecoats kept coming, and Hisagi kept wondering.

He could barely bring himself to face the sworn shinigami from Ninth — he did, because they were his responsibility, and they were especially his responsibility because he was sure at least half of them wouldn't have considered going up the hill if he weren't… cooperating with Tōsen. So he did. And he did not ask them what exactly they'd done, to 'prove their loyalty'. Who they'd hurt. They weren't supposed to say anything about it anyway, and he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to ask. And it would do no good anyway, so Hisagi said nothing.

He just… wondered.

(That man was punched by Matsumoto for getting too forward at a bar. That man liked to talk trash about nobles in general and Kuchiki Byakuya in particular. That man always used to grind his teeth when he saw Kyōraku drinking.)

Hisagi wasn't sure if it made it better or worse that as days passed it became clear they desperately needed all the shikai-wielding whitecoats they could get.

Kuchiki Rukia

Rukia's first mission to the Living World was very quiet, surprisingly quiet. She would have expected the disaster in Karakura to have stirred things up, but there were hardly any Hollows to be seen and the Whole souls she found were eager to move on, finding the world to be a frightening place at the moment.

Which was sort of ironic, considering, but she didn't tell them that.

She paused a few times to watch television coverage of the Karakura disaster, and caught what was apparently a much-replayed attempted interview with the survivors. Don Kanonji started telling a story about evil gods and beautiful spirit women, but was interrupted by a young woman it took Rukia a minute to recognize as Keigo's sister, who shoved him out of the way (and off his feet) and shouted at the reporters about basic human decency. In the background, Rukia spotted Tatsuki holding Yuzu, with Karin beside her.

It wasn't that she hadn't believed Kuramadani, but it was good to have confirmation.

The yoke burned intermittently. Rukia couldn't figure out any particular pattern to it.

She hadn't even been in the Living World forty-eight hours, though, when her soul phone transmitted an urgent recall. She'd been looking forward to having more time fraccion-free, but oh well.

Kiyone was waiting for her when she arrived in Seireitei. "Your interim report said everything was quiet, right?"

"Yes, unusually—"

"Good. We'll send a team of lower officers. The Rukongai is not quiet. I think it's the worst I've ever seen. Head for West Eleventh — we're trying to sweep out to Twentieth."

"Hai!"

When she arrived in West Eleventh District, she found the Thirteenth Division officers working in teams — disarmed seated officers using kido to immobilize the Hollows long enough for the weaker, still-armed officers to purify them. The whitecoats — four of them now — were there and taking out Hollows, but they weren't working with the teams and seemed to be ignoring Sentarō's orders.

The Hollows were basic Hollows — but there had to be dozens of them, and this was only eleven districts out. Not good at all.

Rukia released her shikai and sprang into the fray.

Six hours later, they were only at West Fifteenth when a team from Eighth Division came to take over. They dragged back to the Seireitei and got the wounded to Fourth. Since Sentarou had been there, Rukia didn't need to report. She was grateful. The yoke had apparently realized the Living World was detached duty, but now back in Soul Society it apparently thought she should be trying to keep her curfew.

When Di Roy tried to ambush her just inside the house, she clocked him in the face with her sword hilt.

"Feisty today!" Grimmjow said, grinning. "And sweaty, bloody… Back off, boys, I think I'll try her out. But put down the sword first, shinigami girl."

The yoke burned. Rukia growled but placed Sode no Shirayuki carefully beside the door.

"You can use lower-level kido if you want," Grimmjow added, and lunged for her — considerably below his actual top speed.

Rukia managed to knock Grimmjow through one partition and set another one on fire. When Grimmjow finally stopped playing and tackled her, they both went through the floor into a storage compartment. Rukia got the worst of that, but she did manage to hit Grimmjow with a rotting eggplant, and his expression was… unique. In the end, Rukia got pinned down and fucked, but only once, and then she got to go take a bath, while the fraccion were the ones who had to clean up the trashed house. She'd take what she could get.

Inoue Orihime

Ulquiorra had begun bringing Orihime to Espada meetings and having her kneel on the floor beside his seat. She wasn't sure why, but after just a few times she started considering sewing some padding into her skirt, because kneeling on a stone floor turned out to be very uncomfortable. She also wasn't sure why Ulquiorra kept resting a hand on her head during meetings. The chairs didn't have armrests, but all the rest of the Espada didn't seem to have a problem resting their arms on the table!

Sometimes — not just in the meetings — he would stroke her hair, or touch her face. Orihime always held very still and pretended nothing was happening. Because she knew what was happening elsewhere in the castle (to Rangiku and Renji and Tōshirō and the other captains and Rukia before Grimmjow took her away and please, if she could have just one prayer granted, please not Kurosaki-kun) — this was nothing! It wasn't as scary as threatening to pull her heart out of her chest, it was just… weird. But Ulquiorra was just… confused. He was confused about feelings. So she would be patient with him even when he scared her!

At any rate, the Espada meetings were more interesting than sitting around waiting to be summoned! Although the Primera didn't seem to find it very interesting. He looked like he was asleep.

The Quinta dropped into his chair and put his feet on the table, his blond fraccion standing behind him. "Hey Grimmjow, what's this I hear about your pet setting you on fire?"

Orihime's attention sharpened. Did he mean Rukia?

Grimmjow just laughed. "Nah, that was part of the house. And maybe Di Roy. Worst she did to me was smash some fucking vegetable on me."

"And you let your pet get away with that?"

"Get away with what? I told her she could fight, she fought, I beat her. She's not strong enough to be really worth my while, but she's fierce if you get her riled. I had my fun."

Orihime wondered how to interpret that, then decided she should probably interpret it the worst way. Not something she should tell Byakuya, then. Although Grimmjow was probably still preferable to Aaroniero. Maybe Renji would be able to appreciate that? And maybe the fighting part?

"And then I sent her to work in the morning, because I can manage my pet in a way that doesn't piss Tōsen off."

Oh, but going to work was probably a good thing! She could definitely mention that to Byakuya and Renji and probably Ukitake.

"Shame you can't manage anything else that way," the Segunda grunted. He had someone kneeling by his chair. She didn't recognize all of his fraccion yet.

The Quinta scowled darkly at Grimmjow. "The new one was definitely old enough—"

"She was an off-duty shinigami," the Tercera interrupted. "You could tell from the zanpakutō. And the uniform."

…It did seem like that should have been a hint.

Before the Quinta could try to justify himself further, Aizen arrived, and the chatter quickly died.

Orihime hugged herself and shivered. Aizen had never in her experience been comfortable to be around, but it was definitely worse now. It made her feel like she was so small and insignificant she barely even existed. It almost made her appreciate Ulquiorra's hand on her head as a reminder someone knew she was real. Not quite, though.

Aizen called the meeting open. Loly and Menoly served tea.

"The first order of business this morning is the continuing unexpectedly disruptive Hollow incursions in the Rukongai," Aizen said. "Until we vet and train sufficient sworn shinigami to deal with them, arrancar may be called upon to assist. If Tōsen assigns you to this duty, do not consume the Hollow — immobilize it to be purified by shinigami."

Hollow incursions in the Rukongai was probably something the captains would want to know about, but it wouldn't make anyone happy to know about it. Leave that for now.

"Szayelaporro is not with us today as he is still on assignment in Hueco Mundo."

Szayelaporro had come back from Hueco Mundo with some of liquified Kurotsuchi-taichō and said it was all of liquified Kurotsuchi-taichō. Orihime thought it was an understandable mistake — it wasn't like there was a handbook on these things — but reportedly it had taken Urahara-san about thirty seconds to conclude Kurotsuchi wasn't all there, so Szayelaporro was slightly out of favor over the error, and being punished by being made to stay in Hueco Mundo finding the rest of Kurotsuchi-taichō.

"Speaking of Hueco Mundo, we have now completed the construction of a sekkiseki pit in which any treasonous arrancar may be cast, to fight the Kenpachi until they die."

The Quinta perked up. "If you want to make him madder, I volunteer to kill that little pink bitch he carried around with him."

"…That won't be necessary, Nnoitra. Although I am willing to give you leave to go to Hueco Mundo and capture Kusajishi if you're that interested in her?" Aizen gave the Quinta an artfully doubtful look, and the Espada slumped down again.

"Nahhh. Something'll eat her soon enough."

Yachiru-chan was still free? Or uncaptured, at least? Orihime bowed her head and let her hair cover her face, and hoped no one would see her smile.

Today she'd made herself happy! Success.

…Or, no, actually, Aizen and Nnoitra had accidentally made her happy. She had better go ahead and tell Byakuya or Renji about Rukia going back to work.

Yamada Hanatarō

Hanatarō had been hoping to be let in to see Sado and Ishida again, but he'd been thinking of just a follow-up check to make sure everything was healing properly, not sudden serious illness and "uncontrollable vomiting". When Hanatarō finally got all the way in to the Quincy cell, there was no active vomiting, but Ishida looked awful. Sado, the cell, and Tsubokura Rin didn't look much better.

"What are you doing here?" Hanatarō asked. "Aren't you in… um…"

"Sensors," Rin said. "I volunteered? Sort of…"

He didn't elaborate, and Hanatarō decided not to ask — not before he'd seen his patient, at least.

"He said… he said he wasn't hurt, after the Espada took him again," Sado said.

"I wasn't!" Ishida said, then closed his eyes and clapped a hand over his mouth.

True, Hanatarō wasn't seeing any signs of injuries since his last visit. The incisions had healed further. Ishida did react badly to any pressure on his abdomen, though, and he looked like he was retaining water…

Hanatarō winced. "I think that thing on your liver is causing problems."

"His liver?" Rin said. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

Ishida groaned and dropped his head back to the cot. "Of course it is."

Hanatarō looked at Rin. "Could you go, um, inform Third Seat Akon of this? I don't want to get anyone in trouble with, uh, whichever number Espada it is, but unless you're supposed to be monitoring what it does — I mean, um, this could kill him?"

Rin nodded, eyes wide. "I'll… try to get in to see Third Seat Akon. Can you stay with them until then?"

"Well… I should be back at Fourth by sunset unless I'm actively doing something…" There hadn't been many instances of arrancar cracking down on curfew violations, but there had been a few. (Most noteworthy had been the 'oh-you're-out-after-dark-you-must-be-a-noble' incident with the Quinta.) There had been more whitecoats cracking down, and most of them cracked down on Fourth. "But I can stay for a while."

As soon as Rin was gone, Hanatarō started digging through his kit. "Rukia-san tried to get in to see you, but they wouldn't let her."

"We heard," Sado said. "Is she okay?"

Hanatarō thought of bleeding yoke and permanently bruised wrists and how Kotetsu-fukutaichō took Rukia into a private cubicle for treatment every morning she came in to get the yoke checked. "She's… coping? She's back on duty at Thirteenth, they're keeping her busy." He lowered his voice. "One of the things she wanted to tell you is a, um, a car-load of people made it out of Karakura Town into the Rukongai before the, um… before the town was destroyed, and get sent back to the Living World." He pulled a tightly folded piece of paper out of his kit. "This is Rukia-san's best guess of who was in it, after talking to Kuramadani and Ise-fukutaichō."

Both Sado and Ishida moved to grab it, but Ishida stopped short and let Sado have it. "I really want my glasses," he muttered.

Sado quickly read over the note. "Don Kanonji?" he muttered. "Yuzu and Karin, Arisawa-san, Keigo and Mizuiro, Chizuru, Kunieda and Ogawa, Keigo's sister, Arisawa-san's mother…"

"Not your band friends?" Ishida muttered.

"I hope they were out of town," Sado said. "Your father…"

"Ryūken would never have allowed shinigami to move him anywhere, much less into Soul Society," Ishida said. "I'm sure he's fine."

After a minute, Sado handed the note back to Hanatarō. "Thank you."

"And thank Kuchiki," Ishida added. "And Ise-fukutaichō, and… should I know who Kuramadani is?"

"The shinigami who — who was assigned to Karakura," Hanatarō said. "He was there. And so was Matsumoto-san — I think she sort of organized the, the getting out of the town part, but she's not here now — they took her away, and no one knows why…"

"Who knows why they do anything," Ishida said, then gagged.

Rin came back with Third Seat Akon. Akon looked like he was at the end of his rope, but from Hanatarō's experience that was pretty normal for him.

"His liver?" Akon asked, then shook his head. "Never mind. He didn't give us any instructions about experiments or observations, just said to hold them…" His frown deepened, then eased a bit. "That includes keeping them alive. What do you need to do?"

Hanatarō saw his own relief mirrored on Sado and Rin. "Well, at the Emergency Relief Station—"

"What do you need to do to resolve the problem without letting them out of Twelfth?"

Oh dear. "Well, um — I'm not, uh, I don't have any experience leading a surgery—"

"Oh, that won't be a problem. I'll get Hiyosu."

Oh dear. "Um—"

Akon brightened a bit. "If the problem is something on his liver, we can take that out, no problem. Just wait here, it shouldn't take long, you can fix him up when we're done."

Oh dear.

Ishida Uryū

The frog-faced shinigami seemed ready to operate with no anesthetic whatsoever, but the Third Seat stopped him and sent someone for nitrous oxide. "He's already weak, he could go into shock," he said. "And that Fourth Division kid would make big, sad eyes at us, and we want to be maintaining good relations with Fourth right now."

Nitrous oxide was not, Uryū decided shortly thereafter, an adequate anesthetic for having your abdomen opened up. He clenched his teeth and tried not to scream or cry.

"That's nasty," someone said. "What is that, acid? Poison?"

"No, chemically it looks inert… It's leaking Hollow reiatsu, though."

"Would that normally kill the tissue like that?"

"Not in a shinigami. Quincy are more fragile, though — check the data."

Quincy were not fragile. Uryū opened his mouth to say so, and a mortifying sobbing noise came out. He clamped his jaw again. They gave him more nitrous oxide. Unfortunately this was distracting enough that he wasn't paying attention when they finally took out the whatever-it-was and didn't get a good look at it, or even any look at it.

Someone went and got Hanatarō. He looked horrified — whether at Uryū's condition or Twelfth's idea of an operating room Uryū didn't know.

"He's still awake?" Hanatarō yelped. And he started chanting kidō, and then Uryū wasn't.

Ise Nanao

Nanao only heard a day after the fact that her cousin had been netted by Nnoitra's third (or fifth, depending on how you counted) attempt at taking a Seireitei pet. She probably would have heard sooner, and a little more tactfully, if Lisa hadn't been in Fourth recovering from nearly getting her leg bitten off by a Menos — a Menos — in West Forty-Second, but as it was Mashiro invited herself into Nanao's office and said, "Sorry about your sister getting fucked by Nnoitra. Uh. I mean fucked up. Uh. I mean yoked."

Nanao blinked. "I don't have any sisters." But someone they concluded was related to her— "I have cousins — Nobume? Or Nariko? Or — Nariko has daughters, they're still young, it wasn't one of them, was it?" She did know Nariko's daughters' names, they just weren't coming to her at the moment, which was very embarrassing since the elder was her nominal heir as nominal clan head…

"It wasn't a kid," Mashiro said judiciously. "Barragan congratulated Nnoitra on learning to tell children from adults. I think the name started with an N but I guess that doesn't help."

Nanao was… mostly sure both Nariko's daughters would still be considered children.

Damn. This was just the sort of thing she'd been afraid of when she'd strongly urged Nobume to get out of Seireitei.

Well, no. Nanao didn't really have the sort of relationship with her cousins where she could strongly urge them to do anything. She had her duty and they had theirs, which would have been hers if her mother hadn't had her sent to Shin'ō Academy. Nanao felt sort of bad about that — she wouldn't want to be stuck tending a shrine — but none of the vaguely-worded reproaches she'd fielded from Nobume over the decades ever implied her cousins had anything they'd rather be doing, just that her proper place was with them. No thank you.

So when she'd found out her mother's family had survived the fall of Seireitei intact — their home was evidently not flashy enough to advertise 'nobles' to arrancar — she had very mildly suggested they might want to leave Seireitei. Maybe talk to Kiyone and see where Ukitake-taichō's family had been spirited off to? Just — don't count on escaping once meaning escaping again.

And for all her nominal position as clan head, that was all Nanao felt she had a right to do. Her cousins would have agreed with that assessment, even though they hadn't agreed to get out of Seireitei.

But even if she didn't have any rights, she had responsibilities, so early the next morning she went to Fourth, in time for the yoke exams.

Kotetsu Isane

At least after the disaster with the Kuchiki girls at the yoke verification meeting, Tōsen had made sure the arrancar knew they had to be careful with the yoked. Isane appreciated it. She didn't think it would take more than a few over-forceful or resisted orders to do permanent injury to Nasu Rokurō, Dordoni's "manservant". Even what the Kuchiki girls or little Sacchi had survived would probably kill him.

"I just do what he says, Vice-Captain," he'd said when Isane had asked how he was doing. "I have a family. This gives them… a little bit of a shield, at least."

At the other end of the scale were the three Visored, who saw a lot of irritation, but usually not more than superficial cuts and slight burns even if they fought an order — which they didn't, usually, apart from Sarugaki Hiyori who was just an… argumentative sort of person. They were also in and out almost daily for battle wounds anyway, so Isane had privately granted permission for them to skip the morning check-ins if they wanted.

The Sixteenth Seat of Fifth Division wasn't as badly off as the civilians, but it wasn't good. The marks from the yoke ran into his whip injuries — Cirucci seemed very fond of recreational whipping — and oozed blood almost constantly, despite daily kidō healing and careful bandaging.

The Fourteenth Seat of Tenth had only been in Nnoitra's custody a few hours before Tōsen found out. He'd judged 'having been sort of near a noble house after dark' to be inadequate justification for yoking an active shinigami, and also that he didn't think Nnoitra could manage an active shinigami properly, and the woman had been released. Physically, she was recovering well. Mentally would take longer.

Despite being an unseated officer, Kuchiki Rukia was holding up under the yoke considerably better. She still really needed to come in every morning to deal with the effects of — as far as Isane could tell — a brawl with one to five arrancar followed by at least one rape. Rukia seemed determined to focus on the fights, and would triumphantly report fraccion with broken noses and fraccion knocked through partitions and fraccion set on fire. If it helped her to frame it that way, Isane wasn't going to argue. And it was true Rukia's injuries didn't speak of calculated torture.

Sadly, the same could not be said for Kira and Yumichika, and to a lesser extent Ōmaeda. Barragan and his fraccion never seemed to get tired of calculated cruelty. Kira claimed to be getting used to the rape and torture, and it was almost believable; Yumichika refused to comment at all. Ōmaeda was getting… brittle. They had more yoke-enforced orders than the Visored, so it was hard to be sure, but Isane believed they showed a little less resistance to the yoke's effects.

The latest victim was unfortunately another civilian, but at least an adult, and someone with above-average spiritual strength — though not as strong as Nanao, who was just coming into the Emergency Relief Station.

"Isane," Nanao said. "Mashiro said one of my cousins—"

"Ise Nariko," Isane said. "I asked her yesterday if there was anyone I should inform, but she said her family knew—"

"Her sister did, I'm sure," Nanao said, expression neutral. "Is she still here? Could I talk to her?"

"You're just in time," Isane said. "We're just taking some notes on the yoke's condition — she's already been — treated…" For some yoke damage, and a lot of non-yoke damage.

She was really coming to hate Nnoitra.

Isane stepped into the cubicle just as the nurse was finishing. "Ise-san, Ise-fukutaichō would like to talk to you, if you're willing…?"

Nariko sighed heavily. "Might as well." She looked up. "Nanao-sama."

"Nariko-san," Nanao said, moving past Isane as the nurse excused herself. "Are you — I mean—"

"You were right," Nariko said. "We should have left Seireitei."

Nanao winced, but didn't say anything. Isane knew she should probably leave them in private, but lingered in the doorway instead.

"Onee-sama isn't going to leave now, of course," Nariko said. "Even if someone tells her Nnoitra-sama is planning to go back for her as soon as he's issued another yoke. Hopefully that will be a little while. But I don't know for sure." She made an expression approximating a smile. "New and different challenge for the curse, yes? I'm actually morbidly curious!"

"There — probably isn't much I can do," Nanao said. "But if there is—?"

"Look out for Noriyo and Katae. Get into whatever shinigami-training thing noble children are going into. Onee-sama won't send them herself." Nariko rubbed her temples. "They won't be happy about it — they likely won't be happy about anything for a while—" She broke off as the yoke started bleeding again. "I need to go."

(Isane made a mental note to ask Hisagi to ask Tōsen to remind Nnoitra that he was not supposed to infringe upon the necessary yoke checks.)

Goodbyes were brief and awkward.

When Nariko was gone, Nanao closed her eyes. "I almost wish he'd taken Nobume. Nariko probably would have been willing to take the girls and run, after that."

Isane wasn't sure what to say. "I… can keep you updated…"

Nanao shook her head. "Only if she asks you to. We're not — close." She took a deep breath. "She asked me to look out for Noriyo and Katae. I'll talk to Hinamori, and look out for Noriyo and Katae."

"Family…" Isane said. "Family is hard."

Kuchiki Rukia

Thirteenth had the day off from Rukongai patrol. This was good because everyone, even the sworn shinigami, was exhausted and desperately needed a break, but at the same time Rukia had sort of been hoping to be out of Seireitei when Grimmjow found out about the Yylfordt-shaped hole in the exterior wall. Oh, well. He'd probably just think it was funny.

Kiyone assigned Rukia to rest and drink some of Fourth's reiatsu-restoring tea — even if she needed practice, right now she couldn't spare the energy.

Midmorning, Hinamori showed up at Thirteenth asking for Rukia.

"You don't have to go," Kiyone said, glaring in Hinamori's general direction. "She's asking, not ordering. Damned whitecoat—"

Rukia didn't point out that technically she could also be classified as a whitecoat, or even that both Isane and Nanao had seemed to view Hinamori and Hisagi's positions as net positives for everyone else. She just said, "I'm curious. Since she is asking, not ordering."

Hinamori looked relieved when Rukia emerged. "Rukia-san, how are you? How's the yoke? I mean — for research purposes — I've been assigned to redesign it so it doesn't injure people constantly—"

Rukia considered that and revised what she'd been intending to say. "It aches all the time — a sort of dull burn — but it's not… bad. It burns more and cuts whenever someone gives an order, especially a… remote one. Grimmjow-sama is, um, does not issue a lot of remote orders to me, I guess he thinks it's, uh, no challenge, so… I personally am not having major yoke problems."

"That's good to hear," Hinamori said. "That wasn't the main reason I wanted to talk to you, though. Can we sit down, um, somewhere not here?"

Rukia could feel Kiyone's glare, and it wasn't even directed at her. On the other hand, Rukia didn't feel up to dealing with civilians or random passersby. "…Fourth? Or Eighth?"

"Oh, that's a good idea. I can update Nanao at the same time. Are you all right to flash-step? I know you've been working hard…"

(Update Nanao on what?) Rukia evaluated her reserves, keeping in mind that they'd be out again soon. "I shouldn't go too far, but Eighth shouldn't be a problem."

Eighth had a handful of whitecoats among its officers. Curiously, they avoided Hinamori's eyes more than the others did. Rukia didn't ask, but followed Hinamori to Nanao's office. Nanao was there, with Lisa and another Visored with short green hair. One of Lisa's legs was splinted and swathed in bandages.

"Hinamori," Nanao said, then, "Rukia, how are you?"

Rukia was actually pleased she looked put together enough that people were comfortable asking how she was. "Holding up, thank you."

"You met Lisa the other day, but this is Kuna Mashiro."

"Also a Visored," Lisa said. "Mashiro, this is Kuchiki Rukia. Don't let the name put you off, she's one of Ichigo's shinigami friends."

"The name wouldn't put me off, I just feel sorry for them now," Mashiro said blankly.

Rukia bowed politely, choosing to ignore the Kuchiki remark. Both Kuchiki remarks. "Nice to meet you. Your leg…?"

"There was a Gillian in West Twenty-Third," Nanao said grimly.

Rukia stared. "I hadn't heard about that."

"Only one, so far." Lisa shrugged. "I got careless, I should have been able to handle it. But it looks like the three of us are going to need to be in top form and as active as possible. So I need to recover fast — and Mashiro had better get ready to go, she's on call."

"She doesn't want to sit around Fourth but isn't supposed to be alone," Mashiro explained. "Keep her off that leg!"

"I'll do my best," Nanao said dryly, and then Mashiro was gone.

Lisa sighed and leaned back in the chair. "I have to hang out here, if I go back to the house Harribel-sama will probably order me to stay off the leg."

"If you don't stay off the leg I'll take you back to the house," Nanao said.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Hinamori-fukutaichō has more urgent things to discuss than my leg. Go ahead, I'll stay out of the way."

"And—"

"And off the leg."

That apparently settled, Nanao turned to Hinamori and Rukia. "Tea?" she asked. "Or is this going to be the sort of conversation that calls for the captain's sake?"

Rukia missed Hinamori's response in her shock at Nanao possibly drinking Kyōraku's sake, but they sat down for tea, so apparently it wasn't going to be that sort of conversation. Or else none of them could afford to be tipsy right now.

"So, I don't know if anyone has mentioned I've been given charge of the noble children," Hinamori said to Rukia. "My end goal is to get them all into the Academy, but some of them are young enough or sheltered enough or… shaken it's going to take a while."

"Isane said the noble clans had been purged," Rukia said.

"Yes. Some of them worse than others," Nanao said. "My cousins are actually all still alive, but… How are Noriyo and Katae?"

"Settling in, slowly," Hinamori said with a slightly more genuine smile. "Still upset about their mother, but I think the idea of becoming shinigami appeals to them, and they're fast learners."

Rukia wondered what the full story there was, but decided not to ask just now. She really didn't know anything about Nanao's family.

Hinamori continued, "Then there's Shihōin Yūshirō, who could probably become a shinigami right now and is willing to do so, but Tōsen-sama is not willing to let a Shihōin loose without a yoke." Which was understandable. "And I'm not comfortable putting a yoke on anyone so physically young while it's still so damaging… At least he's keeping the Fēngs from acting out."

Rukia pictured a pack of miniature Suì-Fēngs, and shivered.

"But speaking of acting out — the Kuchiki."

"I heard they were very hard hit — and I saw the estate…"

"Yes. The way things went down at Sixth didn't help. And there were two girls who were, um, taken by the Quinta, until Tōsen-sama decided they should be considered children — three, actually, but one of them isn't a Kuchiki — well, anyway." Hinamori rubbed her eyes. "I have a group of about fourteen Kuchiki, of various degrees, and Kuchiki retainers, who are refusing to cooperate, and now they've stopped eating. Could you try to persuade them? As Byakuya-san's sister?"

"…I'm adopted. From the Rukongai. Most of the family has never had much time for me."

"Even so," Hinamori said. "If I can't get through to them soon I… I think I'm going to have to give up on the older ones, to get them away from the younger ones, and… Just please try."

Rukia grimaced. "I can try."

The noble children were being held in — Eleventh Division? It did have an unusually large lockup. And it probably wasn't the first time someone had put a kido barrier on the barracks to keep anyone from getting out. And it would hammer home the loss of status.

"How badly damaged were the barracks?" Rukia asked as Hinamori adjusted the barrier to let them in.

"Not as badly as you might think! They mostly, um, ran out to fight. Which is not to say there isn't a lot of cleanup to do…"

Before they went in, Rukia tugged her kosode and shitagi down a bit, the better to expose the yoke. Maybe she should cut her hair.

Just inside the gate, Hinamori had to detour to break up a fight — or more accurately, drag a tiny Fēng off a crying barely-adolescent girl in a no-longer-long-sleeved kimono. Despite Hinamori's superior size, she still couldn't get the knife off the kid. Rukia was about to wade in to try to help when a dark-skinned boy shunpo'd to the scene and disarmed the child.

"We talked about this, Xun!" the boy said. "No attacked unprepared people."

"I wasn't attacking her," said the child sulkily. "I was helping her. Those sleeves are a good way to get killed."

"Second, I also told you we are treating Hinamori-san as our commanding officer!"

The child got even sulkier. "Yes, Shihōin-dono."

"Yūshirō-kun, or you'll get us both in trouble. Now go show the older boys how to run proper laps."

"Yes, Yūshirō-kun."

"You can let her go, Hinamori-san, she'll be good now. Won't she."

"Yes, Yūshirō-kun."

"Thank you, Yūshirō-kun," Hinamori said. She lowered the Fēng child to the ground. "Please help Nakano-chan get set up again."

"Hai!"

Ah yes. Apparently before she'd been so rudely interrupted, the girl had been trying to clean bloodstains out of the courtyard. Why had she been attempting that in a furisode to begin with?

With that settled, Hinamori led Rukia quickly through the compound. "We only have the very youngest Fēngs. The older ones were officially Onmitsukidō, and either went down fighting or got away. I haven't been trusted with that information, but I expect there are some of each." She frowned. "I don't know why none of the ones who got away took the children with them…"

From what she knew of Suì-Fēng in particular and the Onmitsukidō in general, Rukia thought they should just be grateful the ones who went down fighting didn't take the children with them, but she didn't say that.

There was a reading lesson for very young children going on in the mess, led by a vaguely familiar young woman with bandages around her neck.

"Hosokawa-san," Hinamori said. "The third noble girl Nnoitra yoked, the first day, with Kuchiki Atsuko and Kuchiki Yorimi. I wouldn't say she's bouncing back, but she's… functional, and… I don't think being in a clan is helping the other two."

The Kuchiki, or at least the problem Kuchiki, were indeed in the lockup. Outside the bars, a little blond girl in a badly-fitting Academy uniform was holding a plate of rice balls and shouting at the inmates.

"I can't believe you, Kazuko! You're not the only one who's suffered! Your loss isn't bigger than everyone else's!"

"It's bigger than yours," retorted a girl of about the same age. "Your parents were already dead and you hated your guardian."

"Why, you—"

"And maybe you're happy to — prostitute your clan, but—"

The blond girl shrieked in rage. Rukia caught her hand before she could hurl a rice ball. "Don't waste food," she said sternly.

"Laps, Rurichiyo-chan," Hinamori said. "Thank you for trying, but this is not your responsibility."

Rukia took the rice balls as the girl left, and turned to her… relatives.

She recognized maybe four of them. One of them she remembered because she'd thought he was very young to be so arrogant at one of Byakuya's birthday celebrations. Two of them — the ones who looked both older and particularly bad — she'd been stuck with when she'd been dragged off with "the rest of the young ladies" for some obscure reason at some other interminable clan gathering, but she wouldn't have been able to recall their names if Hinamori hadn't mentioned them earlier. The last one was the son of the Sixth's fourteenth seat, and he was the one to recognize her.

"…Rukia-dono?"

"Rukia-san," she corrected. "What's this I hear about you not eating, Daitarō?" She took a bite of the rice ball. It was plain, but not bad at all.

"Why am I not surprised the Rukon Princess is a traitor," scoffed Arrogant Boy.

"She has a yoke," whispered… either Atsuko or Yorimi.

"That's right, I'm not a traitor, I'm a slave," Rukia said. "But I'm also a shinigami. Which you all have to opportunity to become. If you take it instead of not eating." She took another bite of the rice ball. "I have done starvation and I do not recommend it."

They were starting to be very focused on the rice balls. Maybe this had been going on long enough for them to get seriously hungry.

"The honor of the Kuchiki Clan—"

"Honor is the duty of, of clan leaders and shinigami and adults," Rukia said fiercely. The duty of people who could afford honor. "Your duty is to survive and grow up." She pegged the last of the rice ball at Arrogant Boy. "Speaking as a member of the main family of the Kuchiki, I say you all have the duty to live as honorably as you can, do you understand? You help each other, you don't help kill each other!"

She almost added that if they insisted on killing each other, they should have the decency to do quickly and cleanly, not by fucking starvation, but decided they'd take it the wrong way.

"Do you know who it benefits if you starve yourself now? No one. It benefits no one. And I'm frankly disgusted that you decided those little kids would do it." Some of them were barely more than toddlers! "Hinamori-san, please never hesitate to break up a family when the older ones are starving the younger ones. You, send those kids out or I will take them out."

Hopefully that had arroganted Arrogant Boy into submission.

Shihōin Yoruichi

After a week and a half of running around in reiatsu-suppressing disguise gigai, Yoruichi decided it was safe enough to contact Tessai. She made a call to a memorized number and left an inane message about a plane being late, and eight hours later, led Unohana to a particular street corner.

At precisely thirteen minutes to midnight, Tessai appeared out of a teleport kidō. "Yoruichi-dono. Unohana-taichō."

"Tsukabishi-san," Unohana replied.

Yoruichi fought the impulse to apologize for not bringing Kisuke back. "We shouldn't linger in the open."

Tessai nodded gravely.

Unsurprisingly, Unohana didn't bat an eye at the series of teleports which followed. She also didn't blink at the baseball Yoruichi snatched out of the air before it could hit her in the face.

"Good to see you, too, Jinta-kun," Yoruichi said, and dropped the gigai to the concrete floor.

"Where have you been?" Jinta snarled. "We thought you might be dead or captured or… stuff!"

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at Tessai. "You couldn't rule anything out?"

"Intelligence-gathering has been more difficult than anticipated," Tessai said. "Aizen has been conducting most of his operations in a newly constructed… castle, in which we have no sensors. We haven't seen any of the captains or captain-class prisoners since they were taken there. We knew you weren't captured at the scene of the battle, but couldn't rule out your later apprehension."

Unohana shed her own gigai more decorously. "Do I understand correctly that you do have sensors in Seireitei?"

"Mostly we're leeching off Twelfth Division's sensors, but yes," Tessai said.

"How bad is it?" Yoruichi asked.

"The Gotei 13 is still functional — most of the divisions are intact." The look in his eyes said some were more intact than others, and Second was one of the others.

Unohana declined any offer of refreshment in favor of getting a look at her division, so Tessai led the way to a monitor room, through a hallway with bare electric lightbulbs and concrete walls, with brightly colored rugs on the floor. If Yoruichi recalled correctly, the bolthole had started off as some sort of mortal military bunker before it was abandoned, and then taken over by Kisuke and Tessai to be adapted into a retreat.

The monitor room was already occupied by Ururu and a couple of Kisuke's insane mod souls. Ururu was kneeling in front of a monitor showing a ceiling's-eye view of an office — Ukitake's office, she realized after a moment, with Kotsubaki sitting behind the desk writing a… casualty report, it looked like. The camera was ideally positioned for snooping at the paperwork.

"I see why Jūshirō prefers to conduct important business in Ugendō," Unohana murmured. "I'm sure I didn't sweep everything out of Fourth — can we see what's going on there?"

"Sure!" Jinta said, and body-checked Ururu out of the chair (she rolled to her feet easily and gave him a sad look). Jinta hammered on the keys for a while, changing the view to the senkaimon plaza (with arrancar standing guard), then somewhere in the sewers, then a featureless Seireitei street, then the Sixth Division captain's office (with a hole blown in the wall), then another street where you could see… yes, that was a castle on Sōkyoku Hill, then burned rubble, then another street—

Tessai lifted Jinta out of the chair and took over the controls. "There are several cameras active in Fourth Division, but none in the captain's or vice-captain's offices. From what we have observed, your vice-captain has been left in command of the division. She does not seem to have been injured." He shifted back so they could see whatever he had brought up.

It was the Emergency Relief Station's reception and triage area, and it was busy. About a dozen injured shinigami were being seen to or waiting to be seen to. A third of them, Yoruichi noted, were in white kosode.

"What are they fighting, and what's with the uniforms?" she asked.

"Hollows in the Rukongai," Tessai replied. "They seem to be experiencing an unusual number of Hollows in the Rukongai. As for the uniforms… Two things. Look carefully at the neck of that blond man—"

"Kira Izuru," Unohana said. "Vice-captain of third."

The angle wasn't very good, and his clothing covered most of it, but Yoruichi could still see a strange pattern on his neck. "What is that?"

"They call it the yoke. We have several incidents recorded which… explain it better, but it's a method of forcing obedience."

Now wasn't that a nightmare.

"Yoked shinigami wear white kosode, and are permitted to carry their zanpakutō even if they have shikai. Those with white kosode — and shikai-capable zanpakutō — who are not yoked are called sworn shinigami, and personally swore allegiance to Aizen."

"So the white kosode indicates they're considered trustworthy… for one reason or another," Yoruichi concluded. She watched Kira Izuru try to shake off a nurse and point her at a shinigami in standard shihakushō.

Unohana tsked. "He needs to let someone look at his shoulder. He seems to have recovered from the battle well, at—" She broke off, as Kira's sleeve rode up enough to expose an abraded wrist and finger-shaped bruises on his forearm. "What is that."

"Some of the yoked shinigami are being held as personal 'pets', by arrancar," Tessai said.

"Yeah, and Tessai won't let us just browse the cameras randomly because we might see an arrancar fucking a shinigami up—" Jinta was cut off by a cuff to the head.

Unohana relaxed minutely as Kotetsu Isane entered the frame and waved Kotetsu Kiyone — sporting a bandaged on her head and a sling — on her way, before wading in to the new group of patients. She was yoke-free and in standard shihakushō.

Yoruichi envied her a little. No captain-class in sight meant no Kisuke, no Suì-Fēng, no Isshin, no Ichigo, no Shinji… "Any sign of the Visored? Or Inoue, Sado, and Ishida?"

"Yes," Tessai said. "Some of them. And — have you been watching the human news coverage of the Karakura disaster? A few people made it out of the town and back to the Living World, including Arisawa, Asano, and Kojima — and Karin and Yuzu."

That was more than Yoruichi had hoped for. It didn't do them much good in terms of defeating Aizen, though.

Unohana looked up from the screen. "We should probably go over everything in order."

"I'm eating something first," Yoruichi said. "And having a bath. That gigai felt grimy on the inside."