See first chapter for warnings. This chapter appearing here some days after AO3, because of my endless grudge match with the posting interface.
Ichimaru Gin
Day twenty-two, and the First Proving Ground Respiratory Arrest award went to — wait. If respiratory arrest due to strangulation counted, then it went to… damn, he couldn't remember. Either Abarai or Suì-Fēng, within the first few days. And then excluding strangulation, Hitsugaya stopped breathing on day ten or so when a very large candidate sat on him. And Suì-Fēng had held her own breath to the point of passing out at least twice, and Byakuya might have done it once. And really there wasn't any point in bringing up temporarily obstructed airways.
Accuracy spoiled all Gin's fun.
First Proving Ground Mostly Spontaneous Respiratory Arrest Award went to Ukitake, no surprise there. (For a while it looked like there might be an upset — on Day Twenty-one Hitsugaya got back from the least successful yoke improvement attempt yet and couldn't seem to catch his breath the rest of the day, but he was fine in the morning.) Ukitake stopped breathing after a particularly nasty coughing fit. Apart from that it really was spontaneous; Ukitake had gotten even less popular in the proving ground as his symptoms worsened. Gin guessed that was partially out of not wanting to hurt a sick man, but some of them were definitely bizarrely averse to coughed-up blood. Blood from any other source, they had no problem with, but heaven forbid they came in contact with coughed-up blood!
…It might make some amount of sense as fear of catching the disease, but if Ukitake were contagious he would have infected most of his vice-captains over the centuries, Kyōraku, and his latest Third Seats might well have infected themselves. So really, Gin decided, they were just being stupid.
Back to spontaneous respiratory arrest. The first person to notice was Kyōraku, despite having every reason to be distracted. Perhaps that wasn't surprising. He then had to get the Exequias's attention, since none of the sworn shinigami alerted in the meantime did anything useful.
(Really, if Gin were still acting as Aizen's second—in-command, he'd be concerned about the low quality of followers this whole scheme was producing.)
Ukitake was dragged off by Exequias and dragged back in an hour later, breathing and conscious and apparently none the worse for wear. The candidates avoided him even more.
And now Kyōraku was being dragged off. Looked like Gin didn't get to see what for.
Well, he could still watch his former Twentieth Seat making the rounds with her favorite book of matches. She was always very amusing to observe — especially since it seemed his influence was still strong enough for her to skip Rangiku.
Kyōraku Shunsui
Apparently the regular proving ground routine and Jū stopping breathing weren't enough for one day. A lovely young lady from Third brought matches and went around burning everyone in intimate places — at least, Shunsui hoped she was responsible for the unusually uncontrolled screams he was hearing. (Since she was from Third, he didn't have to wonder how this tendency had been missed; Gin had probably considered it an asset. Then again, was she really that much worse than the rapists? Probably not.)
On top of that, Shunsui got to go see Aizen! Hopefully it wouldn't be whatever it was which usually left Tōshirō unresponsive for the rest of day. Or maybe hopefully it would; Shunsui was sort of curious about it. It was nice to be clean in the middle of the day, anyway.
The throne room was just as over-the-top as he remembered. "Shunsui," Aizen said, smiling. "I thought we might play a little game."
Oh, fuck. "Yare, yare," he said mildly, instead of showing how alarming that was. (Aizen undoubtedly knew, but that was how the greater game was played.) "I'm surprised you have time for that, Aizen-san."
"Well, another game of mine has come to a… premature end," Aizen said. "Thanks to your former vice-captain being a little too clever for her own good. Which I would discuss with her personally, but the Tercera really wouldn't take that well… So we're going to have a little game. It won't take long." He steepled his fingers. "Tell me, what do you remember about Ise Nariko?"
He kept better track of Nanao's relatives than Nanao did, so he knew quite a bit. Oh, but he did not like where this was heading. "The younger of Nanao's first cousins. Charming girl. Very creative approach to getting around the Ise curse." Or at least to keeping a clean conscience while producing children. It involved one-night-stands with Eleventh Division members likely to die in the near future anyway.
"Mm," Aizen said. "Nnoitra thinks she's charming, too — or at least fascinating. He finds it infuriating when a woman thinks she's better than him, but those are also the ones he can't seem to walk away from."
Oh, hell.
"He finds her so fascinating, in fact, that he wants another Ise." Aizen chuckled. "I don't think anyone's told him about the curse, but he would probably dismiss the possibility of it affecting him. Personally I'm curious to see what happens. Now, Nariko's children are a little too young for that, so that leaves two options."
Shunsui didn't say anything.
"I'm sure you see where I'm going with this, don't you, Shunsui-kun?"
"I do," Shunsui admitted.
"Now, since Ise-fukutaichō is currently performing useful services in the Seireitei, and Nnoitra would not facilitate that, I'm not going to ask for much from you. Just address me properly, and beg me to let Nnoitra have Ise Nobume instead."
Proper, devout Nobume, who'd take enslavement so much worse than Nariko — or Nanao, if he was honest. Nanao was strong. But Shunsui was weak. "Please, Aizen-sama, let him have Nobume instead."
"Very good, Shunsui-kun. I'll do that. Have a pleasant day."
And back to the proving ground it was. Really, it was amazing how no one ever noticed what a cruel sense of humor Aizen had, before.
(Things he'd learned: Nanao was un-yoked and on duty. Some yoked shinigami were also on duty. Lisa was autonomous enough to spoil one of Aizen's games, and also in some way under Harribel's protection — that probably meant a yoke.)
(And Aizen really liked games.)
(Not that that last was in any way new information…)
Coyote Starrk
Starrk knew it was coming. He paid attention to what people were saying even when he didn't act on it, and Lilynette loved to report gossip. Harribel was holding the yokes on three semi-shinigami who were very busy, and herself was doing some Hollow policing. Baraggan had three shinigami, and was… probably not doing anything terribly productive himself, but his fraccion were backing up shinigami patrols. Since Lilynette couldn't (or at least wouldn't) do anything of the sort, Starrk was going to be expected to do something productive — or at least yoke a shinigami who would do something productive.
(He didn't know if Ulquiorra was holding any yokes, but the Cuatro ran around on Aizen's errands himself all the time, and no way did Starrk want to do that.)
It wouldn't require living down in the Seireitei, but he didn't see himself… commuting. Lilynette was very enthusiastic about the idea.
So when Aizen told him to report to the throne room to choose his shinigami, he packed up some uniforms. Carting anything else down seemed like too much trouble when it probably wouldn't be very hard to replace. He understood were lots of dead rich shinigami whose stuff you could take. Lilynette couldn't be bothered to pack. (He considered trying to make her, then decided that was too much effort and decided to take this as an opportunity to get her in a uniform less modeled after Loly Aivirrne's. Maybe something more like Cirucci's, or one of Harribel's fraccion's — even Mila Rose's would be an improvement.)
"Starrk," Aizen said pleasantly when they arrived. "I have a choice of pets for you, neither of which should be too much trouble. Visored Ushōda Hachigen will be assisting in a redesign of the yoke to make it less injurious to weaker shinigami, and former vice-captain Sasakibe Chōjirō will be a bankai asset against Hollow incursions."
This was not a pet, this was a duty, but there was no point arguing that. "…Thank you, Aizen-sama." Starrk looked at the two kneeling shinigami — or one shinigami and one weird half-Hollow, whatever. Neither of them looked like a troublemaker, but looks could be deceiving. One of them was considerably bigger than Starrk, which would be very inconvenient if he ever had to transport him. The other one was so vacant-eyed Starrk was reminded of Grimmjow's complaints of having to order his pet to eat. He didn't want to have to do that. And if the shinigami was expected to fight anything, and Starrk had to tell him what to do, that would be even worse. But the first one really was so large…
He sighed heavily. "Lilynette? Which one do you like better?"
She gave the prisoners a critical look. "Neither of them looks very exciting, but the pink and brown one looks sturdier."
True. And if he wasn't a front-line fighter type, he'd be much easier to monitor. "All right." This was still going to be a pain, though.
Starrk manifested a compressed yoke in his hand and walked around behind the half-Hollow. "This will probably hurt quite a lot," he said.
It clearly did, but the man didn't cry out.
"Very good, Starrk," Aizen said. "Hachigen-kun, I trust you will not be too much trouble for your master. Your primary duty for the present will be aiding in redesign of the yoke so it does not injure subjects with weaker spiritual pressure, as well as other projects I may assign you. You will not do anything to try to circumvent or sabotage the yoke. Do you understand?"
"Hai, Aizen-sama," the prisoner — Hachigen — said, and grimaced slightly.
"Dismissed, Starrk," Aizen said. "I suggest you take your new pet down to Seireitei, check in with Tōsen, and get settled in. Oh, and you should choose your residence with the idea of housing at least four more pets, in addition to this one."
"Hai, Aizen-sama," Starrk said glumly.
How the hell was he going to be expected to handle five shinigami pets? He could barely handle Lilynette most days.
He picked up his bag. "All right, time to go. You can walk, right?"
"Hai, Starrk-sama," the prisoner — Hachigen — said. He seemed steady on his feet.
"Make him carry the bag — no, make him carry me!" Lilynette cried.
"Absolutely not." No one needed to be subjected to Lilynette's 'go faster!' kicking on the stairs.
They proceeded down the stairs in the white tower thing at a relaxed pace. Starrk was relaxed, anyway; Hachigen was favoring one leg, and Lilynette kept running ahead and then running back to urge them to hurry up. Not for the first time, Starrk wondered why she seemed to have all the energy between the two of them.
Halfway down, Starrk realized he probably should have looked into getting the prisoner some shoes before having him walk all over the place. The stairs were mostly smooth, but there was all sorts of… wood and stuff in Seireitei, there might be… splinters or something. "When we get to First Division, I'll check in with Tōsen — you two see if you can find Hachigen some sandals in the area. And a uniform if there is one, but definitely sandals."
"Fine, I don't want to talk to Tōsen anyway."
"Thank you, Starrk-sama," Hachigen said.
"Don't thank me yet, I'm going to have you find a house." In fact… "If you find the clothes before I'm done with Tōsen, go start trying to find a house." Might as well get some good out of this burden.
He regretted his decision half an hour later when, after he finally got in to see Tōsen, Tōsen insisted he stay for the upcoming meeting of yoke-holding Espada and available division leadership. Starrk wasn't sure why. Introducing him to the shinigami, maybe? Tōsen pointed him to the meeting room and then went off to do something else. (Unlike Aizen's meeting rooms, this one didn't even have chairs. Why would anyone do a thing like that?) He leaned on the wall.
Fortunately there wasn't too long a wait before people arrived. The shinigami looked at him sideways and whispered to each other. He heard "Primera" — presumably some of the ones who had been at the battle identified him. Baraggan and Harribel nodded short greetings as they arrived. Grimmjow and Nnoitra sent fraccion to represent them, which struck Starrk as unfair, but then Shawlong and Tesra were less likely to disrupt the meeting than their masters, so he could see why Tōsen wasn't complaining. No sign of Szayelaporro. Baraggan was accompanied by several fraccion, who assembled his damn throne.
Starrk wondered if he could pull rank and make Baraggan give him the seat. Probably not without more trouble than it was worth.
Tōsen came in last, after far too long a delay considering Lilynette was running around unsupervised while he was stuck here. (The pet/prisoner probably wouldn't even slow her down.) Then, instead of introducing Starrk and letting him leave, he had all the division-leading shinigami report. They were still fighting an abnormally large number of Hollows in the Rukongai; Living World patrols continued to be quiet. Sixth was almost back up to strength but replacement officers were still learning. Second was still far below strength, and in particular could use some more help with the "Maggots' Nest" (how pleasant). Tōsen ordered Baraggan to have his fraccion assist (also pleasant). Twelfth had reports on "strange readings in the Precipice World" they were told to submit in writing. Some of the sworn shinigami were becoming discipline problems, but on the plus side they seemed to have got the message about not harassing Fourth.
The female vice-captain in a white coat cautiously asked about the status of division members gone up the hill who hadn't come back yet. The other non-yoked whitecoat (who had "69" on his face for some reason — Starrk was fairly sure shinigami weren't normally labeled with numbers and that there weren't sixty-nine of… anything in particular, so he didn't know what that was about) hastily directed the conversation back to Hollows in the Rukongai and the casualties from dealing with them.
"We will alleviate this pressure," Tōsen said. "Aizen-sama has granted Seireitei a bankai asset."
And the empty-eyed shinigami Starrk had turned down walked in, followed by Zommari. There was a horrified gasp from some of the shinigami. At least someone had dressed him in the whitecoat uniform.
"This asset is held by Zommari Rureaux, the Septima Espada," Tōsen said. "I am in charge of its deployment."
"Just to clarify," said the shinigami with "69" on his face, "Sasakibe-san will not be returning to First Division?"
"Bankai assets will be managed centrally," Tōsen said. "And he is not currently capable of administrative work."
That was an understatement. The shinigami continued to look horrified — Starrk wondered if they knew this Sasakibe personally or if they were projecting his condition to their own missing captains — and no one brought up any new discussion topics.
"As well as Zommari, Primera Espada Coyote Starrk will also now be based in Seireitei," Tōsen said. "He is holding the yoke of Ushōda Hachigen, who will assist with the yoke redesign project." He paused. "Where is Ushōda?"
"Looking for a house," Starrk said. "With Lilynette. If I could be excused, Tōsen-sama, I really ought to go find them…"
Tōsen excused him immediately.
Starrk followed his sense of Lilynette to a house with a walled garden, some muffled explosions coming from inside, and a number of onlookers, both arrancar and shinigami, standing in the street. Sung-Sun spotted him first and held one hand up placatingly while pointing to Baraggan's fraccion with the other.
"They did it."
"I did not!" Ggio protested. "It was Charlotte."
Chuhlhourne crossed his arms. "I don't know why you're all so defensive, they seem to be doing fine in there."
There was another explosion.
"What," Starrk said.
One of the whitecoat shinigami coughed nervously. "That's, um, a secondary Shihōin property."
It took a long moment for Starrk to place the name. "The cat woman?"
"No — well, yes, but — well, the family has longstanding ties to the, um, the Onmitsukidō, and their properties tend to be… trapped."
"And you sent them in there."
"Charlotte sent them in there."
"I said I thought it would suit your purposes. Which it would!"
"Hiyori-chan went in with them," Sung-Sun said. "She said it would make her feel better to destroy some Shihōin property, and I'm not going to turn down anything that might improve her disposition."
Starrk would have been more annoyed if he'd been sensing any distress from Lilynette, but she felt more gleeful than anything else. So he just sighed, again, and trudged into the building.
He found Lilynette and Hachigen on the second floor, both apparently fascinated by the inner workings of what looked like it had been an unnecessarily complex deathtrap. Hachigen had a barrier up protecting them from the occasional shower of possibly poisoned needles coming out of the light fixture. From somewhere above them, there was another explosion and some shouting.
"Starrk!" Lilynette said. "Come look at this! Isn't it great? It used to make the hallway walls close in, but we broke it!"
"Great" was not the first description Starrk would have come up with.
"Not the most practical trap," Hachigen said. "Anyone with seated officer level strength could break out of it. I think it was mostly to show off — I think most of the traps here are because a Shihōin property must be trapped."
"So you think you can get it usable in a day without destroying it?" Starrk asked.
"Yes, Starrk-sama." He glanced up. "Although I may need to ask Hiyori to dial it down a few notches."
"And get like a thousand cushions for Starrk," Lilynette said. "And food. And I want my own room, with a window. And like… pet things. What could we get as pet things? And… um… wolf pictures! I want wolf pictures."
Hachigen gave Starrk a questioning look. Starrk tried to convey the uselessness of arguing with Lilynette in this mood — just agree and change the terms later.
Instead, Hachigen said, "Some of that may have to wait until I've finished my assignment from Aizen-sama, Lilynette-sama."
She sulked. "Oh, fine. But you need to get Starrk the cushions, or he'll pout."
About at that point the female whitecoat lieutenant showed up with an armload of complicated kidō diagrams for Hachigen to read, and Starrk realized he was going to have to go look for furnishings.
Hisagi Shūhei
Hisagi had known anyone they released from the — proving ground would be… he knew the idea was to break people. Sasakibe's condition was still, somehow, a terrible shock. It was worse for the others, he knew. Third Seat Okikiba had seemed to freeze up entirely. He'd been hustled away by Nanao and Iba after the meeting broke up — probably to Eighth for some of Kyōraku's sake. Isane had taken Sasakibe to the Fourth for an exam; the Septima followed. Hinamori vanished to look for the Primera and the Visored who was supposed to be helping redesign the yoke.
Hisagi had to go try to talk to Sasakibe.
He didn't know Sasakibe very well. He wasn't sure anyone knew Sasakibe very well, outside the Head Captain and maybe the senior captains. But someone needed to try to talk to him. Nanao might have been better, but as an un-yoked technically-noble she really shouldn't take the risk of catching Tōsen's attention. Kira was probably also better, so Hisagi was bringing him, but as Tōsen's lieutenant he needed to be there to hopefully prevent Zommari from interfering.
As it turned out, Zommari was completely indifferent to them. Kira probably could have come alone. Well, he wouldn't let Hisagi back out now. Isane stepped away from the bed with an anxious smile.
"He's… not physically injured, apart from a tiny bit of yoke damage. He's almost completely unresponsive to me, though. And the Septima has been using the yoke to get any response at all."
"Sasakibe-san," Hisagi said, and then stalled out. "I… thank you for bringing the orders back to Seireitei." Had that been a tiny flicker of eye movement? "Most of the Gotei 13 is intact because of it."
"The yoke is probably very distracting right now," Kira offered. "You do… get used to it, to some extent. If you have any questions Ōmaeda-san or I would be happy to answer them. Or Yadōmaru-san…"
Damn it, what to say. He couldn't mention First — First wasn't in the best of shape because way too many of them tried to swear allegiance and died rather than go through the proving ground, or worse (as far as talking to Sasakibe was concerned), did go through the proving ground. He couldn't allude to the proving ground in front of Kira and Isane. He couldn't say anything remotely subversive in front of Zommari.
"I'm sure someone will be able to help you procure some tea," Kira was saying, and there was a little shift at that. Maybe.
Finally, Hisagi just said, "We'll be glad to have your help. The number of Hollows in the Rukongai is wildly out of control."
And then suddenly Zommari was looming menacingly in his face. "This again! By whose authority do you kill Hollows?!"
Honestly, how the hell had Aizen managed to round up Espada who made the Gotei 13's senior officers look sane and stable? No, forget how, why? "Tōsen-sama's, most recently…"
That brought Zommari's building rant to a screeching halt. He froze, mouth still open, then turned on his heel and strode out of Fourth.
"Is he… actually going to ask Tōsen-sama why he's having people purify Hollows?" Kira asked.
Hisagi shrugged helplessly. "Possibly?"
(He was… mostly sure the question wouldn't trigger any sudden policy reversals from Tōsen, despite Tōsen's own… unusual status. Not if Aizen wanted the Realms balanced, anyway.)
"Er," Isane said. "Should I keep Sasakibe-san here for now, then…?"
Kira shook his head, and went and opened the examining room door. Half a dozen Fourth Division officers, three other officers, one whitecoat, one of Grimmjow's fraccion, one of Harribel's fraccion, and an Academy student on crutches all abruptly tried to look like they merely happened to be passing down the hall just then. He closed the door. "Probably better not."
Isane rolled her eyes. "I'd say they know better, but really they don't… Do we have any idea where Zommari-san is going to be staying?"
"I don't…" Hisagi grimaced. "I guess… I guess we have to take him back to First and ask Tōsen-sama."
He half-expected that to get a reaction — probably a negative one — but there was nothing. So, summing up… Sasakibe might be interested in tea, and that was all they had.
Maybe he could get this… officially delegated to Kira somehow?
Unohana Retsu
This time, Unohana was the one summoned urgently to the monitor room. She'd stayed up late going over archived recordings of the yokes in action, slept badly, and finally decided to take the day off from research and do physical training instead, just to clear her mind. Apparently it was not to be.
Ururu peeked into the workout hall. "Unohana-san? Yoruichi-san says you should come to the monitor room, one of the people with bankai is out of the castle." She paused. "Yoruichi-san says it's, um, bad."
It was Sasakibe.
And it was very bad.
"Do we know what happened — what was done to him?" she asked quietly as they watched Isane, Kira, and Hisagi escort Sasakibe out through the lobby of the Emergency Relief Center.
Yoruichi shook her head. "No, but I think Hisagi there knows more than he's saying."
"Hmm." She could see that — something in the tightness of his face, and how he never met Isane's eyes. The four left the lobby, and Tessai switched to an exterior view. "Was there anyone else released?"
"Not among the bankai users," Tessai rumbled. "Ushōda Hachigen. They want him to work on improving the yoke, I think." He pointed to another monitor, which showed the Fifth Division office overhead view, with diagrams covering the desk again and Hinamori pointing things out to Hachigen. "He seems… himself."
That made sense. "Any indication of why the Kidō Corps wasn't assigned to redesign the yoke to begin with?"
"No."
"Fuck if I know what goes on in Aizen's brain." Yoruichi scowled. "Kisuke thought he might have pawns in the Kidō Corps, so it seems like he could trust them with this…"
Unohana sighed unhappily. "Then he probably intended to accomplish something by assigning it to Hinamori-chan."
From what Unohana had been able to observe, Hinamori was handling her new position… surprisingly well. Which wasn't to say that she was happy or healthy — she was exhausted and miserable — but she was… sane, more or less. Probably not much worse off than Hisagi.
…Or at least, she hadn't been much worse off to begin with.
Being required to work on something you weren't qualified for was stressful for most people even without the threat of dire consequences. Could Aizen be actively trying to make her break? There wasn't much Unohana could do about it if he was, but…
"Would it be possible for me to look at all the recordings we have of Hinamori-fukutaichō?" she asked. "Preferably in order?"
Yoruichi looked at Tessai. "How much trouble would that be?"
"I can do it!" Jinta volunteered.
"No, you can't," Tessai said.
"Well, I could do it if you'd let me look at everything," Jinta said sulkily.
"No, you can't," Yoruichi said.
"Urahara-san would let me look at the recordings, and if you hadn't left him—"
He broke off mid-whine and crashed back into the secondary monitor. The screen cracked. After a beat of shock, Ururu, who had punched him, burst into tears and fled. Jinta flushed as red as his hair, and took off in the other direction.
Tessai sighed heavily. "One of the mod souls can do it. I must make sure neither of them does anything foolish."
Yoruichi winced. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."
"I think something like this was coming," Tessai replied soberly. "They have been coping well with the stress, but they are only children."
Kurosaki Ichigo
He had to leave the asauchi at the house when he went for yoke checkups or — rarely — anywhere else. On the one hand anything that kept him away from it was annoying. He could hear Zangetsu and his Hollow pretty consistently when he was holding the asauchi, though he couldn't always understand what they were saying. (Especially Zangetsu. The Hollow was almost always insulting him.) On the other hand, that kind of restriction did make him feel like Grimmjow was taking him seriously. Somehow.
It still made him feel kind of naked. (Despite way too much recent experience actually being naked in front of people.)
"Maybe I could learn kidō?" he said to Rukia as they approached Fourth Division. "I'm sick of being weaponless."
She gave him an infuriatingly dubious look. "That's… theoretically possible, I suppose."
"Shouldn't having lower reiatsu make it easier?"
"Have you ever even tried to do kidō?"
"I'm not thinking it will be a natural strength, I just think now might be a good time to try it." Rukia's busy most of the time, so— "Maybe you could get me a book or something?"
The dubious look turned outright alarmed. "No. You are not trying to teach yourself kidō."
"Oh, come on! You don't have to sound like it would be a complete disaster."
"Oh yes I do."
Nnoitra's fraccion was standing awkwardly in front of Fourth. Ichigo made a wide circle around him. Grimmjow's fraccion seemed to think what's-his-name was really mild and wimpy, but Ichigo vividly remembered being gleefully kicked while he was down. Since he was pretty sure he still counted as 'down', he'd keep his distance.
(He hadn't met all that many Espada, true, but of those he had met Nnoitra was the worst. By a lot. Even Ulquiorra wouldn't get his kicks abusing a couple of civilians.) (He'd probably kill them on sight instead, but that wasn't as disgusting.) (Enough about Nnoitra.)
According to the gossip Rukia had heard yesterday, Hachigen should be here, and so should… some very distinguished shinigami guy. Sasa-something? He didn't see either just inside the Emergency Relief Center, but there was a small arrancar hassling the shinigami on desk duty. As Ichigo and Rukia passed, the officer pulled a box labeled "Kusajishi" from under the desk and started offering the arrancar candy.
"Oh, here's Ichigo," Lisa said, poking her head out of one of the examining rooms. "Hachi's here, come say hi."
There was a limit to how pathetic he wanted to look in front of Mashiro or Hiyori, but he was in pretty good shape this morning — nothing he couldn't have gotten from one of the worse bully fights in Karakura. Plus the yoke, of course. "I'm going to…"
"I'm supposed to be heading out to the West Fifties today, so I shouldn't stop to visit," Rukia demurred.
Ichigo nodded, frustrated again at being grounded when they needed him. (But he wouldn't be forever.) "Be safe. See you tonight." They shook on it, then she went to find Isane and he went in to see Hachigen.
The blond glasses-wearing Third Seat — wait, his name was Iemura! — was examining Hachi's yoke and giving pointed looks which Lisa and Mashiro were ignoring and Hiyori was returning with interest. He did not look happy to see Ichigo. Not in the room, at least. "If you could save visiting until I am not working—"
"When you're not working we will be working, so no, we can't," Lisa said. "Well, the three of us are working, anyway."
"I'm not, but take it up with Shawlong," Ichigo said.
"And I'm afraid between working on the yoke redesign and assisting my master in setting up his residence, my time is also in demand," Hachigen finished. "It is good to see you, Ichigo."
"Same." He sort of wanted to ask about Shinji and the others. "I'd say you look like hell, but so does literally everyone else here, so whatever."
Hachigen smiled faintly. "You are all still a sight for sore eyes. I didn't see many people before, but…"
Lisa's expression darkened. "Apparently, today I get to shadow the bankai asset to make sure it's fully functional."
"Yes. I saw him briefly up in the castle, and I… would not count on him being functional. At least not until Zommari learns how to… direct him efficiently."
"Do you know what they did to him to make him like that?" Iemura asked. He winced at Hiyori's poisonous glare, but pressed on, "Kotetsu-fukutaichō couldn't find anything — physically wrong…"
"I don't know, I'm sorry. As for physical injuries—" He broke off. "I'm sorry, Ichigo, I should have told you when you arrived — Orihime-san was in good health, last I saw her. Doing her best to take care of everyone, as much as she could in the length of a healing."
Ichigo closed his eyes for a moment. That — wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was still good to hear. "Thank you."
Ulquiorra had better be protecting her from everyone worse than Ulquiorra, or Ichigo would double kick his ass when he got his powers back.
Coyote Starrk
With the traps gone or disabled, the house was indeed… suitable. It had enough room to house the threatened four or more shinigami prisoners without them being underfoot. It had pleasant grounds which might be nice for napping in. (The grounds were probably trapped, too, but Starrk was confident in his ability to survive and/or break out of anything he triggered. It might even be a satisfactory excuse to miss a meeting or two.) It had apparently been unused for some time, but almost everything still worked and what didn't work Hachigen could either fix or knew how to arrange to get it fixed.
Hachigen had definitely been the right one to pick. He even knew how to cook, when he wasn't busy doing… assigned kidō things. Starrk bet the bankai asset shinigami didn't help with household tasks or navigating Seireitei at all. (From what Starrk heard, he wasn't much good at being a bankai asset unless directed, and there had been a near-disaster in the field due to Zommari's unwillingness to direct him to destroy Hollows, so now Cirucci, of all people, was authorized to give him orders.)
He wasn't much good for distracting Lilynette — he'd just bribe her to leave him be and she'd come back to bother Starrk — but that was what the pet she wanted was for. The only real downside was that he did seem to come with socializing with Harribel's three pets, and that meant way too much interaction with Harribel's fraccion. (Which was to say any interaction with Harribel's fraccion. Although they had supplied the Zommari gossip.)
(Also the little blond Visored and Lilynette were a bad combination. They either squabbled violently and destroyed something or teamed up and destroyed something.)
No, living in Seireitei wasn't bad at all. He had better make the most of it before Aizen dropped more prisoners on him. Hachigen seemed to genuinely be not too much trouble, but he wouldn't count on getting lucky again.
Hinamori Momo
Hinamori would have to come up with some way to sufficiently thank Yadōmaru-san. (Maybe she could ask Mashiro-san what would be most appreciated.) Ushōda-san was — was perfect. He knew what he was doing. And as a bonus, he wasn't too harsh about her awful mistakes, instead gently pointing out where she'd been on the right track but had used the wrong substitution, or where she'd misinterpreted some part of the original design.
She had the workspace — or study space, at least — set up in what had been the Fifth Division captain's office. They were only occasionally interrupted by Division business; her Third Seat was doing most of her work. They were interrupted a few times by the other Visored, twice by messages from the children, once by an unexpected summons from Tōsen, and she didn't know how many times by the Primera's… fraccion? Other half? Whichever, she really wanted attention. Mostly to do with furnishing their residence, apparently. She finally picked one of the not-previously-Fifth-Division whitecoats and ordered him to assist the Primera in settling in.
"She's going to run him into the ground," Ushōda-san warned.
"He deserves it, he's terribly insubordinate to anyone not a sworn shinigami." And he had been a complete ass to Fourth Division. A nervous giggle escaped. "I'm sorry, I hope that won't cause trouble for you, Ushōda-san?"
"Most people call me Hachigen-san, Hinamori-fukutaichō," he said. "And I wouldn't think it would. Starrk-sama seems… fairly laid-back."
"And, um, the little girl?"
"Lilynette-chan. Or Lilynette-sama, as she would prefer." Hachigen nodded. "I intend to see if she can be bribed with sweets."
By the following evening — the end of Hachigen's first full day of work — he had a trial design ready to go. Hinamori insisted he take another day to double-check everything, and still another instructing her in how to apply it, before she took it up the hill.
"It will be demonstrated on a person," she said, and was grateful when he didn't ask for details.
(Aizen had erased most of the blood from her kosode before dismissing her. The remaining specks seemed indelible, and must have been a — taunt, she decided eventually. Not enough to spoil the clothing, just enough that she'd always know it was there, and remember how the skin just split—)
(He'd flinched away from her when she tried to help him up, after the healing. Only for a second, but it was real.)
The redesigned yoke went on without a hiccup and came off leaving not even a bruise. Hitsugaya never raised his head or met her eyes. Aizen's little half-smile never changed.
"Very good, Hinamori-kun," Aizen said when the Loly and Menoly arrancar had escorted Hitsugaya out again. "I see Hachigun-kun has been helpful."
"Hai, Aizen-sama. Thank you for permitting me the assistance." She would not call him Aizen-taichō if he didn't corner her into it. "I'm very grateful." She bowed.
"We will have to see about setting up a good time for switching out all the yokes," Aizen said. "In the meantime…" He made a vague gesture, and a packet of papers appeared in front of Hinamori. She failed to catch it before it hit the floor and had to scramble for it, but at least it hadn't come apart. "This is another yoke design assignment for Hachigen-kun — please relay it to him as soon as possible. Since he has such talent in this area, I'd like him to work out some… specialty versions."
Her heart hurt. "Hai, Aizen-sama. I will."