Chapter Four: A Shinigami's Duty
Seireitei
Moroyoshi Katsuko, 19th Seat of the 6th Division, had been summoned to the office of her squad's lieutenant Abarai Renji many times before, but never without a reason. So a vague sense of unease filled her as she approached the door to his office in the barracks of the 6th Division.
Katsuko was a stout woman, short of stature but solidly built and muscular. Her features were unremarkable, save for a pair of scars, one across the bridge of her nose and the other tracing down her cheek to her neck. She wore her black hair cut short as a matter of practicality; long hair got in the way in a fight. She knew herself to be plain and perhaps even a tad mannish in appearance, although her husband never failed to insist that she was the most beautiful woman in Seireitei. A small smile flickered across her lips before it vanished. She loved him because he was sincere when he said it, not because she thought it was true.
Straightening her crimson robes, Katsuko knocked on the door. "Come in," came the division lieutenant's voice. Katsuko entered, bowing as Renji rose from his desk. Katsuko was struck, as usual, by the strength of his presence. Like most high ranking officers, he kept it suppressed as a matter of courtesy when around lower ranked shinigami, but it was still there. Even if you weren't looking at a mountain, it still cast a shadow.
Renji was not alone, and Katsuko blinked in surprise. Rising from a chair in front of Renji's desk was a silver-haired man of advanced years, his lined, aristocratic face distinguished. "Kaname," she said with surprise. Tomogoshi Kaname, 5th Seat of the 6th Division, had not only been her mentor since she graduated from the academy and was accepted into the 6th Division, he was the closest thing she had to a father, having grown up an orphan in the Rukongai. A chill went through Katsuko. There were only so many reasons that he would be in this room when she was summoned.
"Katsuko, have a seat, please," Renji said. Alarm bells were going off in Katsuko's head. The lieutenant had a well-earned reputation as a gruff and somewhat distant commander, for all that the Division's officers admired him, but he sounded almost… gentle now.
Wordlessly Katsuko sat down. "What's happened?" she asked tightly. Something was very wrong.
Renji and Kaname exchanged a silent look, and then Kaname sighed. "There's no easy way to say this, Katsuko: Nikan is dead."
A cold fist gripped her heart. Her husband couldn't be dead! She had spoken to him just days ago before he left for the living world. Katsuko felt like an immense weight was crushing her chest, as though she were standing in the presence of a captain at full power. She couldn't breathe for a moment.
"How?" she managed to get out.
"A Hollow killed him. His squad leader went looking for him when he didn't report in last night, and found his body in his patrol area in the living world."
Katsuko shook her head in denial. "No. A Hollow wouldn't have been able to kill Nikan. He was too strong for that." She looked at Kaname, expression pleading. "You know a Hollow couldn't have gotten him."
Kaname sighed. Reaching into an inner pocket, he removed a glass vial and tossed it to Katsuko, who caught it by reflex. Inside were slivers of whitish Hollow armor stained with blood. "He was covered in claw and bite marks. The 4th Division medics took those fragments out of his chest. All the wounds are consistent with a Hollow attack. I'm sorry, Katsuko. I know this must come as a shock."
Clenching her fist around the vial, Katsuko stood, bowing to Renji and Kaname only by reflex. "I'd like to see him," she said quietly.
Kaname got up. "Of course, Katsuko; the 4th Division is expecting you. I'll walk you over."
Katsuko nodded in wordless gratitude. Each step out of the lieutenant's office felt leaden. The walk to the 4th Division's barracks was a blur to her. Kaname followed her silently.
The guards outside the 4th Division parted to let her pass, and a guide met them inside, leading Katsuko and Kaname to the morgue. Their journey ended in a bare, sterile room deep in the morgue. A short, slender shinigami with an appearance of relative youth was there, peeling off a pair of gloves. He had short black hair cut messily, and his blue eyes were sad. He wore a pack slung over one shoulder, the white sash contrasting with his red robes.
"7th Seat Yamada," Kaname said formally, bowing to the youthful medical shinigami.
"Oh!" he said, starting in surprise as they entered. "Ah, welcome, 5th Seat Kaname," he said with a bow, "and 19th Seat Moroyoshi. I'm… very sorry."
"Thank you, Hanatarou," Katsuko said mechanically. Her eyes were drawn to a form covered in a sheet on the room's stone slab of an examining table. "May I see him?"
"Of course," the diminutive medical shinigami said, stepping to the far side of the table and drawing back the sheet. Katsuko managed to maintain a stoic exterior even as rage and grief boiled inside her. Nikan lay there, eyes closed, looking as though he were merely sleeping. Save for the shallow gashes in his side, the deep bite mark on his leg, and the messy hole on his sternum. Katsuko distantly noted that the medical shinigami had done a good job of cleaning him up; he would look handsome for his funeral.
At last something within Katsuko broke, and her shoulders started to shake. Hanatarou slipped out of the room after exchanging a discreet nod with Kaname. He closed the door behind him.
Water started dripping onto the table by Nikan, and Katsuko looked up in irritation. The least the 4th Division could do was make sure the roof didn't leak! It wasn't until her vision blurred that she realized she was crying. A low, mournful keening filled the room that Katsuko was shocked to discover was her own voice. Kaname embraced her, one of the few times he had ever done so, and Katsuko wept, her face buried in his crimson robe.
When the tears were past, Katsuko drew away from him, drying her eyes. "My apologies, Kaname," she said.
"Don't apologize for your grief Katsuko," he said gently.
Katsuko looked back at her husband's body, and through the grief and anger she had a moment of clarity. "Once we've laid him to rest, I want to be assigned to his patrol area."
Kaname looked startled. "Katsuko, you're a seated officer. Taking such a position would reflect poorly on the division. I know you must want revenge, but-"
"This isn't about revenge," Katsuko said firmly. "Nikan was strong, Kaname. He was close to being a seated officer himself. You know that." Kaname nodded reluctantly. "If a Hollow…" she swallowed a hard lump in her throat, "if a Hollow killed Nikan, then there's no one left in his squad who can deal with that Hollow when it reappears. You're going to have to send a seated officer to deal with it in any case, and I want to be the one." She looked at her mentor imploringly. "Please Kaname, I need this."
Kaname looked uncomfortable, but he nodded. "All right, Katsuko. Lieutenant Abarai wasn't certain where we were going to get reinforcements for Nikan's squad; they've been understrength for a while, so he'll accept the need." Katsuko nodded; there were never enough loyal shinigami wearing the red; ever since the new Captain-Commander had replaced the old one the ranks had been strained. At that time many of those who wore the black had resigned from the Gotei 13 or had rebelled and been executed. Only those who wore the red were permitted to enter the living world, and their numbers were always stretched.
"Thank you, Kaname," Katsuko said.
The Living World, Four Months Later
As Hisana and her mother wandered from shop to shop at the mall in town where they had travelled to shop for some winter clothes, she reflected on the whirlwind of change in her life recently. The only thing stranger than how much had changed in Hisana's life was how much had stayed the same.
Hisana was in school once more, and going back at summer's end had been almost surreal in its normality after months of spending nearly every day training to improve her shinigami powers.
Any notion that she had already been a skilled swordswoman was dispelled almost from day one. Not only had her aunt made embarrassingly clear in their early duels how far Hisana had to go, but Karin had proven to be a ruthless taskmaster, frequently running Hisana through combat drills and kido practice until she couldn't lift her zanpakuto anymore, or channel a spark of reiatsu. Their work had borne fruit, though. Her parents commented that she was growing in skill almost as quickly as her father, and while she didn't have the raw power Ichigo had possessed, she was better at some things than he was.
Hisana's spiritual sense was keen enough that her aunt's speed, while still far surpassing hers, rarely caught her by surprise anymore. She had learned the hoho techniques quickly, and was zipping around her stepfather's underground training area with ease by summer's end. She had memorized and become adept at casting low-level kido, and could put a fair amount of power into them even without an incantation. Mid-level kido still tended to explode on her, but Karin and her mother assured her it would become easier with time.
Hisana's greatest sense of accomplishment had come when she had finally released her zanpakuto's shikai form. She had dreamt all summer of her sword's spirit, a willowy woman with hair and skin the same shade of metallic gold as the blade, and eyes that shone with a deep blue light. The dreams always happened in the same place; a palace unlike anything Hisana had seen in her waking life. The dream palace was immense, seemingly as large as a city, filled with endless hallways, ballrooms, passages and rooms that an army could get lost in.
At first, Hisana's dreams of that place had been merely of wandering the halls, lost and not caring as she marveled at the beauty of the dream until she awoke. Later, she could sometimes hear a woman singing, or catch a glimpse of movement, a golden figure glanced for an instant and then gone. Months later, the day when she had finally chased down the golden woman, she had thought that the dream was done. But when she approached the spirit of her sword, its voice had been lost in the song. It had taken Hisana weeks more of dreaming to slowly understand the meaning behind the song and hear her zanpakuto's true voice.
After Hisana released her shikai, Kisuke had started taking part in her training more often, teaching her hakuda techniques of hand to hand combat to compliment her zanpakuto's released form. As Karin put it, "He knows more about that kind of fighting than I do."
When school started back up, Hisana had been surprised at how vehement her parents were that academics would come before training. "Your future is in the human world, Hisana," her mother had explained. "That hasn't changed. Like your aunt you straddle the two worlds, but you live in this one. School is still important. We won't stop the training, but you won't have as much time for it. You've already made amazing progress. As long as we stay hidden you're more than capable already of taking care of yourself."
So Hisana's life had returned to a semblance of normality. Karin and David went home to Los Angeles, with promises to visit. Hisana started school again, and to her surprise things changed for the better. Some of the girls who had made problems for her didn't seem interested in being so childish anymore. Others just seemed warier around her. When she asked her mother about it, Rukia had laughed. "A vast majority of humans aren't spiritually aware, but that doesn't mean they're totally oblivious. A part of their mind they're not consciously aware of is telling them you're a dangerous opponent. They can't quantify why they're nervous around you, but they are."
To explain her long absences during the summer, Hisana and her parents told Tessai that she had gotten a job in the city. Lost in his own pursuits and summer activities, he hadn't really questioned it too much, and it explained to him why Hisana always crawled into bed in the evenings exhausted.
As Hisana shopped with her mother, something kept nagging at the edge of her spiritual senses. The whole city had felt faintly wrong ever since they arrived. It wasn't until they sat down for lunch and Hisana saw half a dozen different ghosts wander by over the course of the meal that it hit her. "Mom, isn't it weird for there to be so many ghosts wandering around?" Hisana asked quietly. "I can see two just from here, and I can sense more around the mall."
"It is unusual," Rukia agreed idly. "One would think that the red robes would have replaced the one you met by now. Maybe they haven't, or his replacement isn't as good."
Hisana was struck by her mother's lack of concern. "Doesn't this bother you? If someone doesn't bury these souls they'll become Hollow or get eaten by one."
Rukia sighed. "It does, bother me, Hisana. As a shinigami I'm shocked that the Gotei 13 has fallen so far since they put on the red. This is shameful." She gave her daughter a direct look with her one good eye. "But as fugitives, there's nothing we can do about it. Even if we could risk being seen by the red robes, your father doesn't have a zanpakuto to perform burials with and I can't leave my body. Enough people give me strange looks already without me wandering around poking the air."
"I could do it, Mom," Hisana said. "I brought Melfina with me. She could take care of my body while I help these souls." She held up the rabbit-headed dispenser similar to her mother's with the mod soul her father had named Melfina inside.
"Out of the question," Rukia said sharply. "We do not reveal ourselves in populated areas."
"C'mon mom, if there was a red robe around here they wouldn't be leaving all these souls to wander. It won't take long."
"I said no, and that's final," Rukia told Hisana.
Hisana slumped in her chair dejectedly. "Why did I learn how to be a shinigami if you won't let me do the job? Didn't you tell dad when you met him that he had a duty to help every soul and that he couldn't just pick and choose which ones to save?"
"Kisuke never should have told you that story," Rukia muttered. "This is different, Hisana. Your father only had to worry about Hollows. You have to worry about being seen by a red robe. Even the smallest risk of being spotted is unacceptable. All of our lives depend on staying hidden."
Hisana nodded glumly and picked at her food for a few minutes, appetite gone. When the meal was done they left the mall and headed for the train station. They were only seconds outside the mall's doors when a scream tore through the air, then another. Hisana's looked around in alarm, but no one around them seemed to notice, even as the screaming continued.
Suspicious, Hisana reached out with her spiritual senses, and detected a nauseating reiatsu. Whipping her head around, she saw three souls run around the corner of a building, a man a woman and a small girl, their chains bouncing as they ran, terror clear on their faces. A moment later, a humanoid Hollow half as tall as the building rounded the corner in pursuit of them, its deep, and chilling howl echoing through the air. It pursued the trip of frightened spirits across the parking lot as humans milled around, unaware.
"Let's go, Hisana," Rukia said sadly, gripping her daughter's shoulder. "It shouldn't be able to tell us from the humans, but there's no sense risking it."
As Hisana watched, the girl spirit tripped and fell. The Hollow roared in triumph as the adult spirits turned in dismay. The man kept running, while the woman dashed for the child. The Hollow would have them both in seconds.
Determination filled Hisana and she stepped away from her mother. "I'm sorry mom. I can't watch this and do nothing." She grabbed her Chappy dispenser and swallowed the pill as Rukia turned, eyes widening in alarm.
"Hisana, NO!" Rukia cried as Hisana's spirit form erupted from her body. Pushing reiatsu into her feet she threw herself at the Hollow. Her zanpakuto flew from its sheath as the Hollow's massive fist plummeted toward the pair of screaming souls.
Time had not been kind to Katsuko. Her hair was a tangled mess, her robes wrinkled and spotted with blood in places that she hadn't bothered to clean. Her eyes were bloodshot, with bags under them.
Katsuko's soul pager pinged, but she ignored it. She'd been ignoring it for months now. She didn't need it to know that the massive building the humans used as a market was full of souls needing burial. She knew already.
Watching the humans mill about below from her vantage point, a construction site adjacent to the mall, Katsuko frowned in irritation. It shouldn't have taken this long! She had scoured Nikan's former area for Hollow, slaying a number of them, but none was the one she needed to find. Before she left Seireitei, Hanatarou had shown her what the Hollow appendage that had pierced Nikan's chest looked like. It was a barbed spike with a unique appearance, and she knew that she would recognize it if she saw it. Doubt gnawed at her. What if Nikan had managed to kill it before he died? No, she thought, there had been no trace of dissipated Hollow reiatsu where his body had been found. There would have been if the Hollow that killed him had died there.
What she was doing now would horrify Kaname, or any of her comrades. She had foregone burying the souls that gathered in the human mall while cleansing the rest of the city normally. The result was a buffet of souls that attracted all of the area's Hollows to one place, where she could easily examine and dispatch them. Letting souls linger like that was cruel and violated a number of Seireitei's laws. A few had turned into Hollow themselves and had to be killed, but Katsuko didn't care. Finding the Hollow who killed Nikan was all that mattered to her.
A fluctuation of reiatsu drew Katsuko's attention back to the present, and she watched a new Hollow chase some souls across the parking lot. It was a regular bipedal type, without any limbs of the type that had killed Nikan. Sighing, Katsuko picked up her zanpakuto and hopped down from her perch lazily. Once she would have worried about saving those souls from the Hollow, but now she was a bit surprised to realize that she didn't care if they were eaten. All she needed to do was get rid of this Hollow and wait for the trap to draw in another one. Eventually it would attract the Hollow she wanted.
Katsuko was almost there when a dark blur shot towards the Hollow, resolving itself into a teenage girl wearing black shinigami robes and wielding a golden zanpakuto. Eyes widening in surprise, Katsuko ducked behind one of the human mechanical conveyances as the black shinigami came to rest between the souls and the Hollow, raising her blade to catch the Hollow's falling fist on her blade. The force of the impact almost drove the girl to her knees, but when the dust cleared the souls were safe, the shinigami girl was still standing, and the Hollow was staggering back, black blood dripping from its fingers where the golden zanpakuto had cut it. The girl in black didn't waste any time, leaping at the Hollow, dodging its clumsy swing at her and plunging her blade into its eye before yanking it to the side, tearing its head open and shattering its mask. With a howl the Hollow dissolved.
A black robe? Here? Katsuko's mind raced. She couldn't get a sense of the younger shinigami's strength; the girl was putting out almost no reiatsu, but she'd dispatched a fairly strong Hollow with ease. Katsuko decided to remain hidden, edging closer but keeping cars between her and the black robe. The girl shinigami turned to the souls she had just saved, comforting them and then performing the soul burial.
When that was done, she wiped her forehead, sighing. "Mom is going to kill me," she said, glancing over her shoulder. "I hope Nikan's replacement comes and takes care of the souls around here," the young shinigami murmured before trotting off after the male soul who had run into the construction site.
Katsuko went rigid when she heard her husband's name on the strange girl's lips. How-? Then it clicked. Nikan hadn't been killed by a Hollow! That damned black robe girl must have killed him and made it look like a Hollow attack! Rage filled Katsuko, and she took off after the girl shinigami. Kill you… I'll kill you!
Hisana walked slowly through the empty construction site, looking around for the third soul the Hollow had pursued. "Hello!" she called out. "You can come out, mister! The monster's gone!" After a few minutes, she gave up. "Maybe he faded away on his own. I should probably get back to mom and find out how many years I'm going to be grounded…" Hisana said to herself.
"You're not going anywhere except the grave, murderer," a woman's cold voice said from behind her.
Hisana turned, drawing her zanpakuto. Her eyes widened in dismay when she saw a crimson robed shinigami before her, anger and hate etched on her face, her fingers white-knuckled from gripping her sword. I'm such an idiot! "Murderer? That's rich coming from someone wearing those blood-stained robes."
"You killed Nikan," the red robed woman grated. "Don't you dare deny it, I heard you outside. I'm Nikan's wife Katsuko. You're going to die, scum."
"Funny, Nikan said the same thing before he tried to kill me." Hisana shot back, getting angrier as she remembered how much pain the red robes had put her family through.
"Pummel, Roddokiba!" [Fang Rod] Katsuko shouted.
Hisana stepped back warily as Katsuko's zanpakuto glowed blue and changed shape, shifting from a sword to a heavy flanged mace with a nasty-looking bladed head. The older woman charged forward, swinging the mace at Hisana, who dodged out of the way, then had to raise her sword to parry the follow-up blow. Even angling the strike away instead of blocking it outright, the hit sent a shock through Hisana's arms. Crap, Nikan's wife is stronger than he was! That shikai's got a lot of power behind it!
Hisana jumped back to give herself some breathing room, than pointed her zanpakuto at a downward angle and took a deep breath. "Scream, Kaze no Megami!" [Wind Goddess]
The blade of Hisana's zanpakuto melted away, folding back to engulf her right hand and flow up her arm in a shower of golden light brilliant enough to force Katsuko to shield her eyes. When the light faded, the sword was gone. In its place was a bladed gauntlet that enveloped Hisana's right hand up to the forearm. On the back of her hand was a golden oval in the shape of a mask, its features identical to Kaze no Megami's dream form, its eyes shut and its mouth closed in a thin line. The mask's metallic hair framed its face and flowed up to Hisana's shoulder, wrapping and forming a flexible sheath of armor around her right arm. From the mask's forehead, two thick locks of hair arced upward, becoming a pair of sharp, curved blades that extended thirty centimeters past Hisana's knuckles.
"So you have a shikai. That won't save your hide, you little bitch," Katsuko grated, launching forward in a renewed attack. Hisana raised her arm, catching the strike on the face of the mask and stopping it cold. Kaze no Megami's hair absorbed and dissipated the force of the impact, throwing Katsuko off balance. Hisana took advantage of her surprise to close in and drive a knee into the older woman's gut, glaring as Katsuko stumbled back.
"Get your facts straight, psycho," Hisana said angrily, "Nikan tried to kill me, a sixteen year old girl he'd never met before, just for wearing a black robe. The Hollow killed him; I was just trying to stay alive. From where I'm standing, your side is the one with all the murderers on it."
Hisana's words just seemed to make Katsuko angrier. "Shut up! I won't listen to any more of your lies!" she yelled, redoubling her efforts. Hisana sighed in frustration, blocking Katsuko's renewed attacks with the mask on the back of her hand or dodging them entirely. When Katsuko overextended herself, Hisana put her father's hakuda training to good use, darting inside the larger woman's guard to cut her with Kaze no Megami's blades or deliver a reiatsu-boosted punch or kick to somewhere sensitive before dancing away from her counterattack. Despite suffering a number of gashes and bruises and at least one broken rib, Katsuko kept coming with a constitution that amazed and dismayed Hisana. What does it take to put this madwoman down?
After taking a number of direct hits from Katsuko's massive mace, Hisana's zanpakuto began to hum slightly, vibrating against her arm. Katsuko noticed, and smirked when another swing connected and knocked Hisana back, Kaze no Megami's hair absorbing less of the impact. "Your toy there is reaching its limit, little girl. I'll break it and I'll break you."
Hisana returned a hard smile. "You think so, huh?" When Katsuko's next attack came, a powerful horizontal swing that would have torn Hisana in half, the younger shinigami jumped straight up and over the strike. At the apex of her leap she brought her hand up to cover the lower half of her face, pointing the mask's visage down at Katsuko. The mask's mouth opened in a wide "O", and Hisana saw the other woman's face go pale as she felt the surge of reiatsu, built up in Kaze no Megami's hair from all of Katsuko's attacks, each blow powerful enough to shatter concrete.
The mask screamed from its open mouth, and the sonic blast hit Katsuko at point blank range, slamming her into the ground with vicious force. The pressure wave shook the whole area, and in the physical world people turned in surprise to look at hundreds of birds took wing, flying away from the construction site.
Hisana alighted back on the ground, coughing and waving her hand, surrounded by a thick cloud of dust. "Guess I shouldn't have aimed that down," she muttered, glancing at Kaze no Megami, whose mouth was closed once more. "At least you don't have to breathe this." She felt a faint trickle of amusement from her zanpakuto. "Or stand in it," Hisana added, realizing with dismay that her clothes and hair were being covered with settling concrete dust and dirt.
When the air cleared a bit, Hisana could see Katsuko lying at her feet in a shallow depression of cracked, buckled concrete created by the downward force of the sonic attack. The stunned red robe's zanpakuto – reverted to its sealed form – slipped from her fingers.
Hisana extended her left hand downward, palm open. "Bakudo No. 4: Hainawa," she chanted. A golden rope of reiatsu shot from her palm, snaking around Katsuko's body from shoulder to ankle before wrapping snugly around the fallen woman. Hisana closed her hand around her end of the rope, wrapping it around her wrist and getting a firm grip on it.
"Wake up," Hisana said. When Katsuko didn't respond, Hisana tightened her fist around the rope, and the length of it constricted around Katsuko's body, squeezing painfully. The red robe groaned, her eyes edging open. Hisana crouched over her. "I want some answers."
"You're going to be… waiting a while," Katsuko coughed. Struggling, she tested the strength of Hisana's Hainawa.
"Stop that. Shinigami a lot stronger than you have tried and failed," Hisana said irritably. She could hold either of her parents with ease, and both of them were stronger than Katsuko. By the end of the summer, she had been able to produce full incantation Bakudo that even her Aunt Karin couldn't break.
Hisana knew that was true because once her aunt had conceded defeat and asked Hisana to dispel the kido, her mother had stopped her and slyly suggested tickling Karin to make sure she wasn't just pretending; neither her aunt's indignation and then panic nor her helpless laughter had been feigned. Hisana reckoned it had been fair repayment for all the bruises and scrapes she racked up sparring with her father's frighteningly skilled sister.
When Katsuko ignored her and kept fighting the binding, Hisana squeezed the rope again, and its coils tightened further, drawing a pained gasp from Katsuko. "So you're going to torture me, is that it? I won't tell you anything," Katsuko grated.
"Why do you red robes hate us so much?" Hisana asked insistently. "Twenty years ago everyone wore the black. What changed? Was it the Gatekeeper?"
Katsuko sneered. "Stupid kid; you don't have a clue. Your kind's a dying breed; in another generation you'll all be gone."
Hisana tilted her head. "We both have zanpakuto; we use the same techniques, we bury souls, we're both called shinigami. What makes you different from me?"
"I'm on the winning side," Katsuko spat. She rolled over on her side and pointed her hand at Hisana. "Shakka-"
Hisana squeezed the rope as tightly as she could and it crushed Katsuko's body mercilessly, forcing the air out of her and disrupting her incantation. Hisana kept the pressure up until she could hear the older woman's ribs creaking, and the rope cut through her robe and skin in places before she eased up. "That's funny; it doesn't look like you're winning to me."
When Katsuko could breathe again she coughed blood, then laughed harshly. "You have no idea what's coming for you, black robe. They'll send stronger officers to kill you now."
"Maybe they will, but you won't live to see it," a new voice said in an emotionless tone. Hisana looked up in surprise as her mother stepped out of the fading dust cloud, looking seriously angry. "Stop playing and kill her, Hisana. We have to go, now."
"What?" Hisana looked at her mother, shocked.
Rukia looked at her coldly, and Hisana shivered. "How did you think this would end? That you'd have a fun little fight with a red robe, prove who's stronger and then you both go home like it's a kendo tournament?" Rukia shook her head. "This one can't be allowed to return to Seireitei. She's right, they would send stronger shinigami officers to hunt us. They would kill you, kill your father and I. They wouldn't spare your brother, either."
Hisana flinched. She had a horrible vision of her parents slaughtered, the Gatekeeper finishing the job he had started on the day of her birth. She imagined Tessai dying on the blade of a sword he could never see or avoid. "You made the choice to reveal yourself, Hisana," her mother said mercilessly. "This is the consequence. Now kill her and let's go."
Hisana looked down at Katsuko, and watched the red robe's face go pale as she saw the decision in Hisana's eyes. "I'm sorry," Hisana said in a ragged voice.
"Go to Hell," Katsuko growled, spitting in Hisana's face.
Wiping away the bloody flecks of saliva, Hisana rose to her feet. Dispelling her shikai, she sheathed the zanpakuto. Then she pointed her right hand at Katsuko, index finger extended like the tip of a spear. "Hado No 4: Byakurai," she said hoarsely, and a spear of white light lanced from her fingertip and through Katsuko's chest. The red robe's lungs released one last rattling breath, then the light left her eyes and she died. Trembling, Hisana let the Hainawa fade.
Other than the charring, the wound in Katsuko's chest looked like the one that had killed Nikan, and Hisana found herself shaking uncontrollably, remembered pain and fresh guilt filling her. Then her mother's arm was around her shoulders. "Ssh, it's all right, Hisana, it's done now," Rukia said, comforting, sounding like mom again. "Let's get you back into your body and home."
Hisana nodded, feeling drained and numb. She stumbled over to her body, sliding into it and putting away her soul dispenser, then glanced back when her mother didn't follow. Rukia had her palm pointed at Katsuko's body and a grim expression on her face. ""Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado No. 31: Shakkaho!" A sphere of red fire shot from Rukia's hand, enveloping Katsuko's corpse. When the light faded, there was nothing left but ash. "Always remember this, Hisana: If a red robe sees you, kill them and don't leave any evidence behind. Now let's go."
Hisana nodded silently, and fell in step beside her mother as they left the construction site behind.
"It's my fault, Lieutenant Abarai. I take full responsibility," Tomogoshi Kaname said with a deep bow as he stood in front of Renji's desk.
The tattooed red head looked up from the report Kaname had handed him and sighed. "Give me the short version, Kaname. How bad is it?"
"Are we speaking of Katsuko's death or her actions leading up to it?" Kaname asked quietly, shame lacing his voice.
"Both. What happened?" Renji answered.
"It appears," Kaname said heavily, "that Katsuko purposefully gathered unburied souls to lure Hollows. I can only assume she was attempting to draw out the Hollow that killed Nikan. I should have seen how deeply Nikan's death had affected her."
"Not your fault, Kaname," Renji replied. "I didn't tell you, but I made her go to a mental evaluation with the 4th Division before I approved her requested assignment. Either she fooled the experts, or she didn't crack until after she was in the living world." Renji sighed. "So the Hollow got her, I assume?"
Kaname shook his head. "No. We only have reiatsu traces to go by, since Katsuko's body appears to have been incinerated, but we picked up three reiatsu signatures at the site where she fought and died; one hers, all shinigami. She may have been right about Nikan not falling to a Hollow."
"Or she may have been wrong, and her actions attracted a black robe to bury the souls she left out." Seeing Kaname look at him in surprise, Renji waved his hand irritably. "It's not treason to acknowledge that those who wear the black still bury souls," he said, looking at his own crimson robes with private distaste. "The statisticians in the 12th Division confirm that more souls enter the Rukongai every year than our people bury."
"Let me go hunt these black traitors," Kaname pressed. "It's the least I can do for Katsuko."
"Request denied," the third person in the room said curtly. He was tall and slender, with long dark hair that flowed to his shoulders, three locks guided down the side of his face by a ceramic ornament. He wore impeccably tailored robes of deep crimson and the white haori of the 6th Division captain over it.
Kuchiki Byakuya turned from where he had stood looking out the window to gaze at Kaname, his aristocratic features stern. "If the involvement of the traitors in black is confirmed then this is now a matter for the 2nd Division. Deliver your report on Katsuko's death to their lieutenant. You are dismissed."
Kaname looked crestfallen, but he bowed silently to Renji and Byakuya before departing.
"I know how he feels," Renji said quietly once they were alone. "It's maddening to lose two of our own and be allowed to do nothing."
"You know that he will never let either of us travel to the living world for another century at least," Byakuya replied, gazing up at the towering buildings that housed the 1st Division and the Captain-Commander. Only someone who had known Byakuya as long and as well as Renji would have heard the faintest trace of sadness in the man's perfectly controlled voice.
"That fact keeps me going, captain." When Byakuya raised one delicate eyebrow, Renji elaborated. "It's the day he allows us to return to Japan that I fear."
Byakuya considered that for a moment, then nodded. "As do I."