Renji was automatically aware of something maybe a little out of the ordinary when the school of angelfish drifted over his head. Calmly, serenely, Renji lifted his hand upwards, and the fish fearlessly drifted to his outstretched grasp, slipping through his open fingers and nibbling on his arm.
He opened his hand flat, and one of the angelfish floated into his palm looking as complacent as if it was being held there, frozen by an external force.
Something approached from behind, and Renji watched in curiosity as the fish dispersed, only to come together in their school to inspect the newcomer. Renji craned his neck backwards, supporting himself and pressing his palms into the grainy surface of the sand.
"You again?" Renji asked, smiling cockily at the figure.
"I know." Shuuhei answered, the little black and white bodies of angelfish hovering around him like a backdrop. "Seems like you can't get enough of me, eh?"
"I'm dreaming." Renji realized aloud.
"You are." Shuuhei confirmed, "I wouldn't fret about that, though. It's very pretty here." Dream-Shuuhei stretched his neck skywards. Renji followed suit, looking upwards past the drifting patterns fish swimming overhead.
"Yeah. It is." Renji agreed, taking in the sight of the sun's reflection against the surface of the ocean water from below, it's light distorted to a brilliant white that bounced and danced off the calm waves as if the whole ocean was set aflame. It contrasted quite nicely with the teal tint of the water deeper down on the seabed where Renji sat on the soft grainy sand. It was nice. Peaceful, even.
Renji pushed himself off the seabed, surprised to find himself floating just as easily as if he were truly underwater. He twisted against the faint current to face Shuuhei, who was still rooted in his stance on the sand as solidly as if he were on dry land.
"If I'm here," Renji mused, "and you're here, then are we both dreaming?"
Shuuhei chuckled, his eyes full of warmth that was almost never seen in them in the waking world. "Two people sharing the same dream? Renji, that absolutely would be ridiculous."
As he spoke, a barracuda drifted over to the duo, playfully chasing away the school of angelfish.
"Whatever you say." Renji muttered, suspiciously eyeing the fish as it swam to brush affectionatly against Shuuhei's shoulder, "Then you're a part of my dream, right? Like my subconscious?"
"Like your superego? I suppose it's possible. That in mind, I could take any form I chose to in your dream. I could have been any one of your friends or mentors or symbols that are meaningful to the mysterious concoction that makes up your brain." Shuuhei stated, reaching out a hand to pet the barracuda fondly. It wriggled in his grasp, spine arching like a cat at his touch, which was an odd sight at the look of its rows of wicked, jagged teeth. "Tell me, Renji, why do you think I'm in his form in particular?"
Renji cocked his head, "Does there need to be a reason?"
"Pretend there does. Humor me."
Renji rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think. A dark stain on the seafloor of a shadow passed over his head, and Renji looked back up at the twinkling surface of the sea. Dozens of neon reds, purples and yellows flitted in between of the mass of writhing fish. One drifted a little behind the school, spinning dazedly as it tried to catch up to its siblings.
"Because we're underwater? Like when you- the Shuuhei in the non-dream world, saved me in the river?"
Shuuhei released his grasp on the barracuda, who swam away to continue snapping at the angelfish, and began walking underneath the shadow to follow the school of fish overhead. Unlike Renji, the water didn't pull him up to float, he merely tread along the ground as if he were oblivious to the scenery. In fact, his clothes and hair didn't even look wet, "A good guess, but a bit literal. This is a dream after all. Try to look at the bigger picture."
Renji dug his heels into the sand, using it as leverage to propel his buoyant body forward to catch up. His footsteps felt too light, devoid of traction against the water and the sand to get a good walk going on. "If you know, can't you just tell me?"
"Like you said, I'm just a part of your subconscious. How would I know anything that you don't know?" The Shuuhei of his dream shrugged with an arrogant smirk.
"For being a part of my brain, you're just as annoying as the real Shuuhei." Renji grumbled. He followed Shuuhei, "So riddle me this, Mr. Inner-Mind Guru; if I know I'm dreaming, how am I still asleep? Shouldn't I be awake by now?"
Shuuhei tuted, kicking up a small cloud of sand, "The nature of dreams is hardly so black and white as you seem to think it is, Mr. Abarai. Clearly you're having a lucid dream of some sort, which is a little different from a regular dream. Try to enjoy the ride, why don't you?"
Renji chuckled, shifting to float on his back, suspended in the water at shoulder-height with Shuuhei. He smirked, "Now I know this is a dream. Shuuhei's never this relaxed about anything."
"Which reminds me that you still haven't answered my question!" Shuuhei chastised as he put his hands resolutely on his hips, the softness in his voice hardening to the same recognizable tone he had in real life when he was scolding someone.
"Uh, what question was that again?"
Shuuhei stepped forward and spun on his heels to stand directly in front of Renji, reaching his arms out spread-eagle, "Come on, Renji- of all people, why me? Why has your subconscious taken the form of Shuuhei Hisagi?"
"I don't know?" Renji shrugged, "I've been hanging out with you- him for a while now recently. Maybe that's it?"
"You've known Shuuhei for years." Dream-Shuuhei replied, sounding unimpressed with Renji's deductions, "Why would he suddenly pop up in your imagination if your feelings hadn't changed at all?"
Renji's eyes widened in alarm. He whirled in the water into a standing position again, aside from his feet which still floated an inch or two above the seabed. The current picked up like a sudden breeze around him. "Woah, hold on- Who said anything about my 'feelings'?"
"It always comes down to that, doesn't it?" Shuuhei deadpanned, folding his arms with resolution in his stance, "If you didn't have such a hard time really letting people in, because of your stupid-ass insecurity bullshit-"
"Wait just a second! I do not have stupid-ass insecurity bullshit!" Renji protested, stepping up to Shuuhei to tower over the man in his full height. But Dream-Shuuhei just gave him an analytical glare.
"You never think you're worth the effort, do you? Good old Renji, always there to take a beating so the real heroes can have their chance at glory- is that what you think of yourself? It's the reason you distanced yourself from Rukia, and that you developed this obsession with beating Byakuya Kuchiki, and now you're letting it get in the way of confronting your real emotions again!" Shuuhei was hissing at Renji now, finger pointing accusatorily at the seething red-head.
The water was picking up, the current tugging at Renji and Shuuhei's clothing and whipping their hair about their heads chaotically but neither paid it any mind.
Renji shouted back "That's not how it is! I know I have room to get stronger, so how is it bad that I work to achieve that? Is it so fucking terrible that I'm not expecting everything to be all sunshine and rainbows? How am I supposed to protect my friends when I'm not strong enough-"
"-Get over yourself, dude!" Shuuhei fired back, interrupting Renji's objections, "You're putting all this baggage on yourself and then when a chance to have something actually good comes along you say it's too hard! What about all the people who care about you?"
"I never asked anyone to care about me!"
"But you need it all the same. Just like you needed help when you were drowning in the river." Shuuhei pointed out, "Did you even think about how terrifying it must have been for Shuuhei to almost watch you die like that?"
"Well I'm so sorry I almost drowned! I'll send him an apology card first thing in the morning!"
"You know what I'm talking about! Think about the future, Renji! And for once something beyond proving your value to a world that isn't worth the effort, and try to realize that some people actually are! What would happen if you were to die now? What will you wish you had done differently? If you never just own up and start acting like a man and tell Shuuhei about these feelings you've been developing-"
"I don't have feelings for Shuuhei!" The last sentence came out in a scream, the words seeming to echo against the hellish tossing and turning of the water. Renji panted after the outburst, clutching his fists until the shallow nails bit into his palm. He was so furious he felt himself shaking-
Except that it wasn't just Renji shaking. Alarmed, he realized that the startled expression on Shuuhei's face meant that he was feeling the tremors as well. The shaking was real- or at least as real as it could be in a dream. They both looked down at their feet, where the sand seemed to shift and distort between them. The grains slipped into oblivion as a jagged valley of black something opened up in the space between Renji and Shuuhei. The valley grew into a chasm, the quakes upsetting the ground around it and knocking Renji and Shuuhei off their feet while sand poured freely into the growing dark cavern. The gap yawned wider, revealing stiff, solid walls amongst the trickles of sand falling in.
After a few more moments the tremors quieted, then stilled. The cavern was still, as if it had always been there, with only the flux in the current as water and sand were pulled into the gap in an attempt to fill the empty space to show anything had changed at all. Renji dug his feet into the sand to avoid being pulled closer himself.
"What the hell is that?" He called out to Shuuhei,
"I'm not sure!" Shuuhei shouted to be heard over the rushing of the current in their ears, "Your dream, remember? I'm just a figment of your twisted imagination!"
"This whole 'I only know what you know'-excuse is getting real old real fast!" Renji growled in response.
Renji craned his neck forward to look down the chasm, finding little but inky blackness. The word 'insecurity' pulled at his mind and he snorted with humorless laughter in response. He freed one foot from the sand and took a tentative step forward, needing to hold his arms out for balance to avoid being sucked in altogether.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Shuuhei screamed, sounding more scared than outraged.
"This is my dream!" Renji bellowed loud enough to clearly be heard. By now he stood at the edge of the abyss, toes hanging freely off the edge.
"Stop, you idiot! You don't know what's down there!"
"This is my dream!" Renji repeated, "And it can't tell me what to do!"
And with that, Renji allowed the current to pull him into the yawning chasm.
Dretched in a cold sweat, Renji awoke with a start. He sat up on the futon, swallowing and still expecting to hear the mad rush of the current in his ears. His breathing slowed when he recognized the absence of an ocean, replaced instead by a chilled breeze and a few rays of light slicing through the shadows of the Urahara guest room. The whole scene was eerily calming, perhaps a bit too much like in the same way Renji's dream had started out.
Renji looked over to the adjacent futon, and was surprised to find it empty. That was Shuuhei for you- pissing Renji off in his dream, then wake up first thing in the morning just to make him look bad.
The bed was unmade, but when Renji laid his palm on the pillow it was obliquely cold. Shuuhei had been gone for a while now.
Renji whipped his head around, looking for any other signs of life. No good, the red-headed vice-captain was the only one in the room.
Renji got up and stretched, eager to get last night's dream out of his mind. He mentally cursed his own traitorous brain and its pushiness. His "feelings" were stupid- Shuuhei was his friend! And a guy, a guy who was very interested in women in fact. Moving in the direction on the bedroom door, Renji tripped over a small bundle placed at the floor. The small bundle actually happened to be his shinigmai uniform, washed and mended and carrying the slightly bitter scent of laundry detergent.
A note had been laid out on top of the clothing, written in scrawling handwriting.
"-Mr. Freeloader
We took the liberty of taking care of these for you and your companion. Hope you find it to your liking! A bill for dry-cleaning services has been provided for your convenience with this note, naturally."
Naturally.
Renji sighed, but pulled the uniform on anyhow. The note claimed that Shuuhei's clothes had also been washed but they were nowhere in sight, meaning the dark-haired vice-captain must have already changed.
Had this most recent of journeys into the Real World been planned, it was much more likely that Renji would have his hairbrush on hand. Instead, he had to make due with combing his fingers through his hair before pulling it into what was hopefully an acceptable pony-tail, all the while hating the world.
It was quiet outside the guest room- too quiet, Renji decided with his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Urahara, Tessai, Yoruichi and the twerps must have been busy minding the shop and the research from Renji and Shuuhei's samples. Shuuhei himself was no-where to be found as of now. Everyone else must have been at school. Renji himself didn't envy that most of his friends in the real world had an education to get, and he didn't even fathom how Rukia could stand it after her being cooped in the Academy for so long as he had.
Renji brushed the stiffness out of his freshly-washed clothes with his hands, walking to the kitchen-area in hopes of scrounging up some food that had not already been hidden or booby-trapped in advance from him. To his surprise, it wasn't a deceptively delicious-looking pot set out temptingly in the kitchen, but Rukia.
The petite soul reaper had set out three bento boxes, one in front of her and two on either adjacent sides of the table, and looked as if she was just about to start tucking into hers when Renji walked in.
She looked up upon his arrival, "Ah, he lives." She said with a teasing smile. She was wearing her school uniform, but it couldn't have possibly been later than morning, could it?
"Shouldn't you be at school or something?" Renji said. Normally he wouldn't be so snappish, but he was still feeling tired and stressed out from the dream. He rubbed his eye with his wrist and yawned.
Rukia pouted, tossing a piece of her lunch into her mouth before replying "I came here on lunch break to bring you food. You're welcome, by the way!"
"Lunch?" Renji said, perking up, "What time is it?"
"It's like half past noon, dummy."
By this time, Renji was already supposed to be hunting down dangerous universe-ripping hollows, but instead he had slept half the day away! "You're kidding! Who the hell's idea was it to let me sleep for so long?"
Rukia rolled her eyes, "Considering you spent the previous night holed up in a ditch somewhere, we thought you could use some rest. You could have gotten really sick out there, you know? Now stop being ridiculous- sit, eat, appreciate the gift of my friendship." She pushed one of the boxes in Renji's direction, who sat down at the table and tried not to sulk.
Renji didn't realize how hungry he was until he was scarfing down the boxed lunch. As he ate, his eyes drifted to the unattended bento across the table from him. Rukia noticed his gaze and followed it.
"That one was for Lieutenant Hisagi." She said, answering his unasked question, "Making it seemed the polite thing to do, seeing as all the trouble he went through to take care of you-"
"-Why is everyone saying he took care of me? I wasn't completely useless out there, you know." Renji scowled, but Rukia cheerfully ignored him.
"-But Mr. Urahara said that he went out on a walk late last night. He came back earlier for breakfast when I came before school to check on you, but other than that he's been gone all day."
Renji cocked his head, taking a momentary pause from feverishly eating, "All day? Where's he running off too without his zanpakuto?"
"You sound as if you're worried about him." Rukia pointed out with a smirk, leaning on her elbow. Renji furrowed his brow in response.
"You sound as if you think that's funny."
"Lieutenant Hisagi is a grown man. I'm sure he's fine wherever he is doing whatever he's doing." Rukia stated, her easy smirk slipping into a slight frown, "He is fine, right?"
"He was fine last night."
"Are you fine?"
Renji polished down another morsel of food before giving Rukia a grin, "I'm always fine."
Rukia didn't look convinced, her eyebrows knit together in her usual way of looking torn and frustrated. "It's okay if you're not fine. That hollow gave you a pretty good crack in the head. We could get Orihime or Hanataro to-"
"Hey, now!" Renji interrupted, waving his had dismissively. "You know me- Good ole' Renji, always willing to take a beating for the team." He said, quoting almost exactly what Shuuhei had said in his dream.
Rukia looked disturbed at the statement, indigo eyes growing big. "You shouldn't say stuff like that, jerk! As if we don't have you throwing yourself into danger enough as it is!"
In the face of Rukia's sympathetic indignation, Renji hesitated. How many times, in fact, had Renji been beaten within an inch of his life simply because he was the willing party? Still, he never stopped to think that this could prove fatal and he always got out okay in the end. It's not as if he asked people to be concerned about him!
Renji grunted noncommittally, turning his attention back onto his food. Rukia did the same, albeit still giving him a suspicious look.
"They're still trying to pin down and trace the spiritual particles found on you and Lieutenant Hisagi." Rukia threw in after a moment of silence, "It's taking longer than expected, supposedly. I'm told that whatever kind of portal you happened to get yourselves stuck in was extremely unstable."
"Gee, no kidding? And I thought that the tearing holes through the fabric of the universe was completely stable business."
"They just don't make world-changing phenomena like they used to, do they?" Rukia agreed with a sardonic smile.
A third voice drifted in from the doorway "You young'uns don't know the half of it."
Both soul reapers looked up to the familiar figure leaning against the doorway, wearing a cocky smirk that didn't quite meet her hauntingly yellow eyes. In fact, she looked all together tense.
"Miss Yoruichi?" Rukia asked, "Is something wrong? You said Mr. Urahara hadn't finished compiling the data yet."
"He hasn't, at least not completely anyways. As far as I can interpret from all the scientific jargon-shit flowing from his mouth, we can't yet determine the source of the portals. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
Renji furrowed his brow. As far as anyone had told him, the general plan was to sit on their asses until Urahara could point them in the right direction. "What else could there be-"
Even before the question had made it out of Renji's mouth, he stopped.
The now-recognizable buzzing noise was back. The same noise that had been made on that day Renji and Shuuhei first came into contact with the portal.
"What in the world is that?" Rukia groaned, clamping her hands over her ears,
Yoruichi was also affected by the sounds, her fingers rubbing circles into her forehead where Renji could guess a headache was growing. "The sound of the seams of the separate worlds being split apart, as it happens."
"This is nothing." Renji said, a little louder now that they were all competing with the buzz for attention, "You should have heard this when the portal opened under me and-"
Rukia gasped, "Lieutenant Hisagi!"
Renji started as well. Another portal was opening, likely carrying another hollow. And Shuuhei was out there without a weapon, basically a walking talking buffet of spiritual energy. Renji's heart sank fast- that portal could be opening anywhere but something in him knew, just knew, that no one but Shuuhei could be that unlucky.