Countdown till final: 2
Again a picture comes with this chappy, you know where to go to see it.

A while after Ichigo knocked himself out, Benerice started to play around with his limp body.
Eventually she even unbuttoned the ruined shirt and her eyes fell upon the tattoo on the left side of his chest.
She grinned, and turned to leave the room the orangette was held captive in.

"Ne, ne. Guess what I found. He has this totally cool tattoo on his chest. Some red orb and a dead tree."
The man leaned on a railing and was smoking a cigarette.
"It's a mate marking. Probably. Which would mean he hasn't only joined arms with the council head."

"Mate marking? Who came up with these crest things anyway?"
The man stomped on the cigarette end he dropped and retorted.
"That was you, idiot. You talk to much. Why have you told him everything?"
Benerice pouted slightly and tripped around in front of him.
"Mah, He's my uncle isn't he? I wanted him to know at least that much, since he can't remember on his own because of dad."

Her mood then suddenly made a turn to her overly joyful character and she said while giggling.
"Hey, did you hear? He called me girly. Do I really still look so young?"
The man waved her off uninterested, for the time being at least.
"To me you still look like you just hatched from your mothers crotch."
"Grandpa! You're horrible!"
"Shut up and go back inside. I don't want him to take the place apart when he wakes up."
The man grumbled at Benerice, who followed the order, but not without puffing out her cheeks.

...

"Haven't you found a new trail by now?"
Shiro pressed the Kuchiki.
The pale was getting anxious now, because even the ancestor seemed powerless in the face of that camouflage ability that the opponent seemed to have.
"Unfortunately not. Considering the question, I conclude that you haven't found anything either. What about the girl?"
The males eyes landed on Rukia.
"I don't know what to do. All we concentrated on the past days was combat. I only ever used that sensing stuff one time and I have no clue how I did it in the first place."
Shiro grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her lightly.
"Then try to remember what you did. If you can use the sensing it'll be a great help. When he was right, your sensing specializes on wide distances. We might not have the time to search every corner of this huge ass city!"

Rukia shrugged off the hands and bellowed back at Shiro.
"Don't you think that I know that already? What do you think I am doing anyway? I want to find Ichigo as fast as I can and before he'll become that guys puppet as much as you!"
She took a deep breath and asked much calmer now.
"Who thought that my sensing works for long ranges?"
"Ichigo. It was just his suspicion though."
Thinking of it now, why was he so desperately clinging on to Rukia and hope that she would find something, when he hadn't even proof that she had that ability?
Suddenly Shiros eyes widened as it finally hit him.
"That's it..."
"What?"
"That's it!"
Shiro began to pace around in front of Rukia and rambled.

"The V.A.S.T. tower has outer measures of seventy-five by fifty meters that's the same as three football pitches. The training facilities are centered in the building and surrounded by strong walls that even would withstand an air raid. Back then you were about in the middle of one of these, yet you sensed something outside of the tower. Over that distance and through a barrier that even hinders your average Vampire from noticing anything. No doubt, you are a wide range sensor. One that exceeds Ichigos record as rookie in range and strength. And you're a simple human!"

The Vampire fixed Rukia suddenly.
"You have to use it. I'm sure you can penetrate his camouflaging. When you don't find a way, we're doomed."
Rukia felt like a mountain weighted down on he shoulders all of a sudden.

No, a mountain was light compared to that.
She was shouldering the whole world, like the titan Atlas did in the Greek mythology, and it was crushing her.
It became hard to breathe.
How should she find a way to concentrate under these circumstances?

"Now, instead of pressuring her even more, you should try to help her."
Kuchiki said.
He stepped in front of her and knelt down, so that they were about at one height.
"Think of the time that you spend with Ichigo and try to remember how it felt being around him. When you memorized that, just look around you for that feeling. I'm sure it will work."
Rukia nodded and recollected anything that came to her mind.

Ichigo, when they first met.
That measuring gaze, his short temper and the angered smile.
The blood-crazed beast deep down in him that he tried to lock away.
Always pushing her aside, but still giving her a gentle smile and a chest to lean on when she needed it.
He always felt warm and shone at her from far away, just like the sun in the wide sky.
Yes, just like the sun, he had become the center of her universe.
She would never stop reaching out to it, even if it would hurt her.
May her flesh be burned and her bones scorched, only when she finally embraced the sun she would stop.
This light that guided her out from the dark place he had been confined in.

Light?

"It's still far from here. I barely can feel him and his presence wavers. We might be to late to avoid it, but we still can stop worse from happening."
She said resolved and sprinted off to the west.
Byakuya and Shiro followed close and the last mentioned picked his mobile and made a call.

"Ulquiorra. You may use Hydra. Activate it as you see fit."
"Has Ichigo-sama lost?"
"I don't know yet. But it is possible that I will be to late to prevent it."
"Understood. I will put the plan on standby."

Shiro hung up and saw Kuchiki look at him.
He explained, though the ancestor hadn't changed his expression to a questioning one.
"You asked before if I ever noticed about the connection between S.I.N. and Ichigo. I haven't but he himself did, so he made up a plan. Should it ever be confirmed that he lost his reason completely, all members of V.A.S.T. were allowed to eliminate any S.I.N. after their own judgment once that plan was activated. Ulquiorra is the only other person with the authority to activate it, under the requirement that he's given permission by Ichigo or me, or in case of a code red."

They turned around a corner and heard Rukia call that they were getting close.
"That's a well thought out plan. You have great faith in that person."
"I have faith in everyone of my council, since we are all part of one big body. One is the brain, one the eyes, one the muscles, one the heart and one the bones. As strange as it sounds, considering his character, I refer to him as the heart, because everything aside from the bones would die and rot without it, should it stop functioning."
Shiro explained to Kuchiki, who gave a short nod in understanding.
The pale took in his surroundings, noticing that they reached the harbor.

Rukia stopped her run, her gaze wandering to the sky and Shiro followed it.
They stood in front of a huge freighter.
"Ulquiorra will keep our backs clear, until we stormed Noah's arch here."
Shiro said.

Footsteps resonated from the ship.
"So you gathered the whole family, Moswen."
The man appeared at the fore of the ship and looked down, fixing Byakuya, then swapping to Shiro.
The pale stared at him disbelievingly and mumbled something in a foreign language.

"Tad...*"
The man heard him despite and smiled down upon him.
"Devez mat, Gwyn. * I am overjoyed that you still recognize me."
Shiro grit his teeth and stolidly looked at the ground.
He balled his hands so hard to fists that he thought they'd break under their own pressure.
Shiro didn't know how to feel right now.
He was happy to see that person again, somewhere deep down, but the fury he felt was much greater.

"Tad..."
No!
He wouldn't call out to that person with that name ever again.
That bearded old man up there wasn't worth that title anymore.
With all his lungs could offer Shiro cried out in rage.

"Jehannnn!"

Chapter 26
End

Breton (substitute language for Gaulish):

Tad → Father

Devez mat → Hello

Names:
(Translated by the meaning of the original names)

Moswen → White, Light skin (Egypt)

Gwyn → White (Welsh)

...ironic, isn't it...both their names mean the same...

Jehan → God/Yahweh is gracious (Belgian)