Chapter Seven: A Frying Pan and a Fire

The Dangai Precipice World

The three shinigami, one black and two red, walked single file down the center of the solid path leading through the gloom of the Dangai. Around them, the walls oozed and flowed with the koryu. Ikkaku Madarame led the way, zanpakuto resting on his shoulder. His gaze wandered, always alert for threats. Behind him walked Kurosaki Hisana, focusing on not tripping, since it would be a painful fall with her upper body bound by glowing yellow chain. The loose end of the chain was gripped in the hand of the man who brought up the rear, Ayasegawa Yumichika.

Hisana had seen images of the Dangai Precipice World that connected the world of the living to the realms of the dead, but she had never visited it before. It was quiet enough that she could hear the oozing flow of the koryu. Yumichika had told her not to get near them, an unnecessary warning. Her parents had drilled into her that touching the koryu or the kototsu "street sweeper" would result in death.

"This is really starting to irritate me," Madarame commented over his shoulder to his lieutenant. "The Captain-Commander sends us on a high priority mission and not only does his precious Kido Corps make us go through the Dangai, but the 12th Division can't even be bothered to halt the koryu."

Yumichika shrugged. "The Kido Corps doesn't care about working with us since the Captain-Commander replaced its leadership with his own men, and you know the 12th Division don't hurry for anyone."

"Of course I know that, but they're endangering a critical mission. I have half a mind to go over there and kick a few asses," Madarame fumed.

"It won't make a difference. They'll just say that they weren't given adequate warning to halt the koryu, and Captain Kurotsuchi will back them up because he doesn't like us," Yumichika replied calmly.

"And that doesn't piss you off?" Madarame growled.

"Of course it does. The lack of respect is infuriating. But stress causes wrinkles, so I'm not going to stress out over it," Yumichika answered.

Bemused by the pair's banter, Hisana tried not to think about what lay ahead for her. She knew the Gatekeeper wanted her dead, and wasn't sure why he'd ordered the pair to keep her alive. Unfortunately, the only thing Hisana could think of was that he wanted some information out of her, or just wanted to torture her before she died, as he had done to her mother. She resolved to tell him nothing if the situation was the former. If it was the latter… she shivered and went back to not thinking about it.

They had walked for a while when Hisana noticed something peculiar. Ahead and to the left, a rectangular section of the wall seemed to be infused with a golden glow that shone faintly even through the slow moving ooze of the koryu. It was the shape and size of a door, which didn't make any sense. A path through the Dangai had only a beginning and end. There weren't any side branches, and certainly not through the koryu. Still, looking at it, Hisana felt… almost drawn to it. It looked right, natural.

"What is that?" Hisana asked Yumichika.

"What is what?" he said with a slight frown.

"That thing, that golden glow, right there," Hisana said, tilting her head at it, irritated by her inability to point at the glowing part of the wall.

"That's just the koryu, girl. There's nothing glowing," Yumichika answered curtly.

Hisana stopped, turning to look at him in disbelief. "You can't see the glowing piece of wall right in front of us?" They were standing just meters from it.

Yumichika's eyes narrowed in irritation. "There's nothing different there. I don't know if this is a game or a stalling tactic, but I'm not amused either way." Passing her, he tugged on the leash, forcing her to stumble after him. "Keep walking."

Hisana trudged after him, glancing back several times until the strange glowing wall was lost from sight. What's going on? Can he really not see that? Hisana thought.

He can't, but I can, chimed a musical whisper in Hisana's mind.

Kaze no Megami? Hisana thought in surprise. Her zanpakuto had never talked to her while she was awake before. Do you know what that was?

I don't. But… it looked like a door, the zanpakuto sang.

Hisana had gotten the same impression. She mused on it as she walked. They marched through the gloom for several more minutes before Hisana saw another golden glow ahead. This time it was on the right side of the path. It does look like a door, but what if it is? Mom and Dad said that touching the koryu will kill me, and whatever it is, it's under the koryu.

Is that any worse than what's waiting for us at the end of this walk? Kaze no Megami hummed.

Hisana blinked. That was true. They'd been walking for a while. David would have gotten Karin to safety by now, and her parents would know what had happened. They'd run, abandoning their house. And now that they knew the Secret Mobile Unit was on their trail, they would be able to give them the slip and disappear again. She'd done what was needed to protect them. Did it matter whether she died in the Dangai or in the Gatekeeper's dungeon? You're okay with this? Hisana thought.

The choice is yours, Hisana. I will face it with you either way, Kaze no Megami crooned.

Her thoughts racing, Hisana kept her outward air of quiet dejection in place. As they drew closer to the glowing wall, Hisana decided. I'd rather be at the mercy of the Dangai than the Gatekeeper. With that resolved, she considered the problem of the chain and leash. Yumichika would be able to pull her back if she just made a run for the wall. A solution occurred to her almost immediately, and while it was a mean thing to do to him, she was running short on time, so she went with it. As luck would have it, there was a patch of uneven ground right near the golden glow. Walking over it, Hisana let herself trip with a cry of alarm. Landing flat on her face hurt, but it had the desired effect. Yumichika came close to help her to her feet. Hisana could feel blood trickling from her nose from the impact.

"Sorry about the restraints. Are you okay?" Yumichika asked.

Hisana winced. "Yes, thank you," she said, playing up on the helpless girl thing so he'd let down his guard. Then she drove her knee into his crotch with every bit of strength and reiatsu she could muster. Kaze no Megami whistled in appreciation.

The blow had the desired effect. Yumichika's eyes bulged. His mouth fell open, but only a high pitched squeak escaped his lips as he fell to his knees. Most importantly, his end of the kido chain fell from his hand as he cradled his family jewels. Hisana glanced back at the path they had come from, wishing she wasn't hurt and tied up; otherwise she'd risk making a run for it and trying to outdistance them, but like this they would catch her.

Ahead, Madarame heard the disturbance and turned around, his expression furious when he saw what Hisana had done. But he was too far away, and even as he started towards her, Hisana pushed reiatsu into her feet and threw herself at the golden glow that she really, really hoped was a door and not a fatal illusion of some kind. She heard Madarame shout something. Then her body hit the gray ooze of the koryu at speed, and it engulfed her in an instant.

Cold, silent blackness surrounded Hisana, and consciousness faded.

"No!" Madarame's strangled cry echoed through the Dangai an instant before the crazy girl hit the koryu and was swallowed up by it without a ripple. "No…" he said again, guilt and sadness welling up inside him.

"Where did she go?" Yumichika asked in a strained voice, struggling to his feet. "I'll thrash that little…"

"She's dead," Madarame said numbly. "She killed herself in the koryu."

Yumichika stared at him, turning pale.

"Damn it!" Madarame yelled in frustration. He wanted to hit something, but in the Dangai he couldn't even break a knuckle against the wall.

"I'm sorry, Ikkaku" Yumichika said. "It's my fault. I should have known she would try something like that."

Madarame grimaced. "You couldn't have known she'd be that desperate, to kill herself."

"We both should have," Yumichika said evenly. "Why shouldn't she have been that desperate? She must have known what was waiting for her, what she was walking into in Seireitei." He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. "I could see the terror in her when she surrendered. It took a lot of courage to do that. She wanted to save those two, and by now they're long gone."

"Is this what we've become Yumichika?" Madarame asked raggedly. "Kidnappers? Thugs working for a monster so terrifying that a kid would kill herself to escape?" Madarame looked at the crimson shinigami uniform he wore with the most profound expression of loathing Yumichika had ever seen on his face.

"We don't have a choice, Ikkaku," Yumichika replied grimly. "The Gatekeeper is the King's right hand, and the King of Seireitei's rule is absolute. Opposing him would destroy us. You know that."

Madarame nodded. "I do. But something has to change. The King's madness is getting worse; it's obvious. Old Man Yamamoto kept things stable between the Royal Court and the Gotei 13 for a long time, but now he's gone, and there's no one left to keep the King or the Gatekeeper in check."

Yumichika shrugged uneasily. "I wish things would change, but I don't see how. Let's head back and see what we can salvage of this mess."

Subdued, the pair made their way to the end of the path and into Seireitei.

The Living World

"We're safe for the moment, so tell me what happened. I want to know everything." Urahara Kisuke's voice was ice cold, heavy with rage and grief. Sitting across a small, round wooden table from him, David Crane knew that some of that anger was directed at him and accepted it. They were in a small, windowless room with gray concrete walls, lit by a humming florescent overhead light. The room had few furnishings, just a kitchenette in the corner, some metal cabinets, the table they sat at, and a trap door in the floor in the corner. The door in front of them was the exit while the door behind them lead to a room with a few beds where Rukia, Tessai and the mod soul piloting Hisana's body rested. The apartment was one of Kisuke's safe houses; this one was in Okinawa, buried underground on the edge of the American Marine base.

His voice sounding leaden even to his own ears, David talked, recounting the fight with the 11th Division captain and lieutenant, and Hisana's sacrifice, surrendering to save Karin's life. His mind wasn't really on the story but on the occupant of the cot against one wall that he kept glancing at. Karin lay motionless, back in her body now and deep in a coma; hovering between life and death as her soul decided whether to pass on or recover and return. Hisana had kept her from dying, but the grievous wound from Madarame's bankai was spiritual, not physical, and healing techniques couldn't do any more for her now. Knowing that his wife could die at any moment and he couldn't do anything about it make it difficult for David to focus on anything but her.

The last twelve hours were a blur. David had recovered enough strength to get Karin, her body and Hisana's body into Kisuke's van and leave the house behind. Then it had been a matter of rendezvousing with Kisuke, Rukia and Tessai, and running. They made their way to a secluded airfield, where Kisuke chartered a plane that took them to Okinawa and the safe house. They'd gotten Karin into her body.

David and Kisuke had been forced to physically restrain Rukia from going off to find the nearest red robe and force them to open a senkai gate for her. Eventually she'd just cried herself to sleep holding Tessai, who was a confused, worried and irritated little boy. He'd probably be more upset when they had to explain to him that he couldn't go home or see any of his friends again, and that his sister was gone. He was already suspicious of Melfina's attempts to imitate Hisana.

"So you failed," Kisuke concluded coldly when the story was done.

David felt his own anger rise, and leaned forward, glaring at the former captain. "If my wife lives through the night, you can take up her 'failure' to defeat a Gotei 13 captain with her. As for my defeat, I was working off of bad intelligence, and that's on you, Kisuke. Your file on Ayasegawa Yumichika said that he was a decent duelist with a melee-type zanpakuto of middling strength and no bankai. He has the most dangerous kido-type zanpakuto I've encountered in my life, and I've killed shinigami stronger than him."

"I'm sorry," Kisuke admitted. "You don't deserve that, and you're right about Yumichika. He's never fit the profile of an 11th Division officer. If one of them was hiding a kido-type zanpakuto, it would be him. I wonder how many of his victories against the arrancar and Vandenreich can be attributed to that trump card."

"Theory later," David said, rising to his feet experimentally, satisfied that all of his strength had returned. "Karin told me once that you could open a Reishi Hekan-Ki; a senkai gate for those with physical bodies. Do you have that equipment here?"

"I have the parts," Kisuke said cautiously. "I could put one together. Why?"

"Because I'm sorry, too," the American said evenly. "I did fail, and Hisana paid for it. Every moment counts now, so assemble that gate and I'll go get her before they execute her."

"Alone? That's suicide," Kisuke told him.

David shook his head. "I'm not going to pick a fight, Kisuke. I'm going to find and extract her. It won't be the first time I've stolen a prisoner from shinigami."

"They're not stupid, David," Kisuke said impatiently. "They'll throw her in the Shrine of Penitence if they don't execute her immediately, and even Yoruichi couldn't get in and out of there without being seen."

"I know some tricks that no shinigami has seen," David answered seriously. "Even if I didn't, I have to go. My pride as a Quincy demands it. If I do nothing and Hisana dies, the shame would follow me to my grave."

"What about Karin?" Kisuke asked quietly.

"I can't do anything more for her now. She'll pull through. Karin's too stubborn to die," he said with a smile. Picking up a pad of paper from the table, he quickly wrote down a short list and handed it to Kisuke. "Also, if you have any of those ready to go in your stash, they'd be useful."

Kisuke read the list and nodded. "Well, I'm not going to argue, then. I hope you can pull this off. I only wish I had the strength to go with you and be a help rather than a liability," Kisuke said as he levered himself up to his feet and walked over to the trap door in the corner, opening it and climbing down the ladder. "Make whatever preparations you need to and come down in an hour," he said to David before he disappeared from sight.

One hour later David dropped down the ladder shaft into the lower chamber, landing easily with a pulse of reiatsu to soften his landing. On the other side of the large, brightly lit room littered with crates, boxes and tools, Kisuke looked up from the large, empty frame of mottled white stone he had just finished assembling.

The Quincy was dressed in an outfit reminiscent of an American military uniform, but the fatigue jacket and pants were shades of blue and white. He wore a blue beret with a sapphire-studded silver cross on the front and dark blue combat boots. He had a satchel slung over his shoulder, and a quintet of Seele Schneider hung on his belt. Hand him a rifle and he'd fit right in with the Marines in the base above their heads. On a table by the ladder were a few cloth bags. David picked them up, examined the contents, and added them to his satchel.

Kisuke raised an eyebrow at his outfit. "Subtle. You're going to sneak into the heart of Seireitei dressed like that?"

David grinned and nodded. "Is it ready?" he asked, approaching the square stone frame.

"It is," Kisuke answered, pressing a hand to the side and pouring some reiatsu into it. The hollow area in the middle filled with a gray-edged white disc of light.

David stepped up and examined it. "Impressive." Pausing in front of the portal, he fished something out of his satchel. Kisuke glanced at it, seeing the Quincy palm a metallic disk with a flat back and a large smooth-cut blue crystal embedded in the front. As he watched, the Quincy poured a significant amount of reiatsu into the gem. When he stopped, it glowed faintly. He slapped it onto the frame of the gate and it stuck there.

"What's that for?" Kisuke asked curiously.

"Insurance. Don't touch it."

"Insurance against what, may I ask?"

"Making sure neither of our wives can coerce you into opening this gate for them. I'll locate another way back once I've found Hisana. When I reach the other side and the gate closes, you have ten seconds to get out of this room." Before Kisuke could reply, David stepped through the shimmering white portal and was gone.

"Aya…" Kisuke exclaimed, realizing that David had left him standing next to a bomb. "He does know that shunpo is really hard when you're in a gigai, right?" The former captain asked no one in particular as he continued to feed reiatsu into the gate to keep it open and tried to ignore the blue light next to his head.

The Rukongai

Emerging on the far side of the gate, David felt it snap shut on his heels as he dropped a few meters to the ground on the forested hill where the portal had deposited him. Looking around, he climbed to the top of the hill to get his bearings. When he reached the crest he found himself looking at more woodland in his immediate surroundings, and beyond that the low buildings of the Rukongai. Far in the distance were the walls of Seireitei.

If he'd had to walk, it would take more than a day to reach the walls, but once he was properly concealed he could make the trip in an hour. He was already suppressing his reiatsu, and as he stood on the hilltop he concentrated on another technique, once he couldn't show Urahara Kisuke or any shinigami - not even his own wife.

Closing his eyes, David focused on the small and incredibly fast reishi that made up the light around him. He pushed countless delicate tendrils of his own reiatsu out to meet them and bend them around his body. When the technique was done he opened his eyes, and smiled when absolute blackness greeted him.

The Quincy Licht Beugen [Bend Light] technique was one the shinigami still knew nothing about. It was developed by the Western Families after the diaspora from Japan, and the Vandenreich had disdained its use. They weren't subtle or patient enough to make themselves invisible. The technique also blinded its user for the duration, but in Seireitei where everything was made of reishi, a skilled Quincy could navigate with his reiatsu sense alone. Western Quincy had been using it to spy on Seireitei for decades without notice.

Now effectively invisible to both spiritual and mundane senses, David took to the air, Hirenkyaku accelerating him towards the walls of Seireitei at a breakneck pace. "Hang on Hisana, I'm coming."

The Living World

Kisuke shot up out of the top of the ladder shaft a split second ahead of a muffled "boom" and a plume of dust. Coughing, he quickly closed the trap door to seal the smoke and heat from David's reiatsu bomb in the chamber below. He was a bit irritated by the loss of stock and equipment, but the Quincy had been right. Rukia and Karin would both want to follow him once they woke up. Now they couldn't. Of course, he had other gates in different safe houses, but the women didn't know that, and he wasn't going to tell them.

Kisuke ached to help Hisana himself, and he was sorely tempted to make the trip to Seireitei himself even if he was too weak to make a difference without Benihime. But Hisana's parting words to David hit home. She was a smart, brave kid, and she was right: he did have a responsibility to Tessai, and he couldn't die carelessly.

Nor could Kisuke casually allow Rukia and Karin to throw their lives away invading Seireitei. Rukia's reiatsu and skill were undiminished, but the maimed gigai that imprisoned her soul made her dangerously vulnerable in a serious fight with a lieutenant or captain, and it would be weeks at a minimum before Karin was sufficiently recovered from her injuries to face combat again, assuming she even survived the next 24 hours. No, Kisuke concluded glumly that all he could do at present was hope that David was as good as he thought he was.

Kisuke's thoughts were interrupted by Rukia's scream from the next room. "Hisana, no! No, not my baby!" Kisuke ran to the door and opened it. Rukia sat on the edge of the bed their daughter's body and mod soul had been sleeping in, cradling Hisana's unmoving form to her chest.

Tessai was sitting on the other bed, looking between his mother and sister, confused and scared. "Mom, what's wrong? Is Hisana okay? Mom!"

As Kisuke moved to Hisana's bedside, he saw Rukia slip the green mod soul pill between Hisana's lips. A moment later, it popped back out. Rukia tried it again, with the same result. Her shoulders shook with terrified sobs, and Kisuke felt an icy dagger of fear plunge into his heart. A substitute shinigami's vacant body would only reject a soul pill if the true soul was dead, dying, or otherwise losing its connection to the physical form that anchored it. Praying it was the "other" option, and not his stepdaughter being murdered by the red robes, Kisuke pulled Hisana free of Rukia's grasp and laid her out on the bed, checking her vitals. As he'd feared, she wasn't breathing, and her heartbeat had stopped. Kisuke started performing CPR on her. If she was dead it was a lost cause, but he had to try anyway.

"How long since she rejected the pill?" Kisuke asked during chest compressions.

"It's been less than a minute," Rukia answered. "I woke up when the room shook When I went to check on her, she started convulsing. The pill fell out of her mouth and she stopped breathing."

"Mom! Dad! What's going on?" Tessai asked, voice trembling. From the corner of his eye he could see his son was crying, but he didn't have the time to comfort him. Finishing chest compressions, he tilted Hisana's head back and started breathing air into her lungs.

"Healing kido, now," Kisuke instructed his wife when he returned to compressions. "Focus on the head and torso. It lengthens the amount of time before cells start to degrade from lack of oxygen." Nodding, Rukia climbed up on the other side of the bed, extending her hand. A greenish glow poured from her fingers, surrounding Hisana's upper body.

Tessai's babbled questions cut off abruptly, and Kisuke realized his son was staring at Rukia with wide eyes. "What's that green stuff?"

At any other time discovering that his son had become spiritually aware enough to see kido being cast would be a jarring event, but it was a discovery and a talk with his son that would have to wait until after he'd done what he could to save his stepdaughter. Kisuke halted the compressions for just a moment to extend a hand towards his son and send a gentle pulse of reiatsu into the boy's mind. Tessai fall back onto the bed, deep asleep. Kisuke returned to the CPR.

A minute later, Hisana's body trembled slightly, and started breathing again with a ragged gasp. Her pulse raced at first, then gradually calmed. Rukia looked up, hope returning to her face. "Is she okay?"

Kisuke gave his wife a serious look. "She's not dead, but something caused her soul to lose its connection to her body." Experimentally, he tried feeding her the mod soul again, but it popped out once more. "Whatever that was, it's lingering."

"What's happening to her?"

Kisuke shook his head. "I can only guess. Either distance is interfering with her connection to her body…" he trailed off, hesitant to say it.

"Or the red robes are killing my baby, and the next time she stops breathing she won't come back," Rukia finished flatly. "Kisuke, we have to go help her!"

"David's already on his way. I sent him through the Reishi Hekan-Ki while you were sleeping."

Rukia looked at him in angry disbelief. "You had a gate to Seireitei here and you didn't tell me? Why? I should be there with him!"

"The same reason I didn't go myself. Neither of us could make a difference in a fight with a captain, and we both have responsibilities to Tessai as well as Hisana. He saw your kido, Rukia. He's becoming spiritually aware. If we get killed by the red robes, who will protect him?"

"Then you stay and I'll go. I can't sit here doing nothing and watch my daughter die!"

Kisuke shook his head. "I can't reopen the gate, even if I wanted to. David knows you and Karin too well. He blew up the gate once he was through." Gently he drew his wife into his arms. Still angry, she tried to push him away at first, then collapsed against his chest, sobbing. "Hisana's strong, and David was confident that he could find her. How many times did her father beat impossible odds and survive when everyone thought he would die?"

"But the Gatekeeper got him in the end," Rukia reminded him in a subdued tone.

Kisuke didn't have an answer for that, so he just held his wife and watched his daughter's body breathe. For now, at least, she was alive. Hurry, David. Please hurry.

Disentangling himself from his wife after a few minutes, Kisuke went to go find the supplies necessary to set up IV drips for Karin and Hisana; he wasn't sure when or if either of them would be ambulatory again. At least those supplies had been stored in the rooms above and hadn't been blown up with the gate.

Seireitei

The tension at the Captain's Meeting in the public chambers of the Captain-Commander, deep within the 1st Division barracks, was palpable. The Gatekeeper crumpled the piece of paper in his hand into a ball and threw it at the ground. "Explain this to me," he said calmly, addressing the bald captain of the 11th Division, who looked back at him with an expressionless face. "Explain how the two strongest members of the Division reputed to be masters of combat failed to subdue and return with one. little. girl." The last words were delivered through clenched teeth.

"That would be rather embarrassing to explain, if it were the case," Madarame answered neutrally. "As I noted in my report," he continued, glancing as the crumpled ball of paper on the floor, "we secured the target and would have returned successfully if the 12th Division had done their job. The flow of the koryu was not halted as requested, and the prisoner chose to commit suicide by throwing herself into it." As Madarame delivered those words, there was a stir of disquiet among the assembled lieutenants, and even a few captains. Madarame had been dispatched alone in the middle of the night on his mission, but by now word had spread about who he had been sent to "collect", and the outcome plainly didn't sit well with a number of the people in the room.

"Oh, shut up," the Gatekeeper said with a look of disgust, raising his reiatsu until the lieutenants fell to their knees, and even the captains could feel the pressure. Then he reined it in, and glared at Captain Kurotsuchi. "Explain."

Mayuri was dressed with a purple mantle on his shoulders, a gold frame around his face and a blue headdress, his face painted in vertical stripes. He bristled, glaring at Madarame before addressing the question. "It takes a significant commitment of manpower to halt the koryu, manpower that cannot quickly be brought to bear without damaging other projects, significant projects. My Division has never failed to halt the koryu on occasions where they were given proper notice!"

"Bullshit," Madarame spat. "You didn't halt the flow on our way out, and that's fine; we can handle it. But I checked on the time distortion between when we departed and when we opened the senkai gate for the return trip. It was more than six hours. Not only were we denied hell butterflies to get us back directly, but the koryu still wasn't halted, and because of that the prisoner was able to kill herself."

"That's enough," the Gatekeeper interrupted. "You still failed." He raised a hand to forestall Madarame's retort. "If the girl had escaped I would be seriously upset. Her death, however, was within acceptable mission parameters, if not optimal ones. Fail me again, though, and there will be consequences." With that the Captain-Commander's burning gaze turned to Captain Soifon. "I believe your team has been retrieved from the world of the living. Does their report have anything to add?"

Soifon shook her head, clearly unhappy. "No, Captain-Commander. They were overcome by the target, and they are being disciplined for that failure. The squad's leader had nothing significant to add to Captain Ikkaku's report beyond confirmation of the identities of the shinigami and Quincy who fled: Kurosaki Karin and an American named David Crane, respectively."

The Gatekeeper's eyes narrowed at the mention of Karin's name. "Understood. Captain Soifon, send more of your people to the living world. I want Kurosaki Karin found. The rest of the rebels in black can be hunted down at our leisure." Soifon nodded in silent assent.

"Captain Kurotsuchi," the Gatekeeper said to the 12th Division head. "I understand that the demands on your Division are many, and I appreciate the hard work you and your subordinates do." Mayuri inclined his head. "That said, the next time I order shinigami to enter the Dangai Precipice World on a mission, the koryu will be halted. I don't care how little warning you get. You or your lieutenant will do it personally if that's what it takes. Am I understood?" Mayuri's lips thinned in irritation, but he nodded. "Good. You're all dismissed."

Madarame was one of the last out the door. Yumichika headed off to a lieutenant's meeting while Madarame headed back to his office to deal with some paperwork. He passed through a few empty halls before sensing someone waiting for him ahead.

"Captain Ikkaku," Hirako Shinji, captain of the 5th Division and leader of the Visored said as Madarame turned the corner, leaning against the wall.

"Captain Hirako," he replied. "What can I do for you?"

"What really happened?" he asked. "The Captain-Commander may despise the Kurosakis enough to believe you, but I don't. Karin didn't run from you; there's never been a member of that family who would recognize a healthy sense of self-preservation if it bit them on the ass," Shinji observed in his usual sardonic tone.

"I've filed my report, Captain Hirako," Madarame said irritably. "If you want to know what's in it, I'll send a copy to your Division."

"I know what's in it," Shinji shot back, "and I know it's a load of crap."

"I'm done with this conversation," Madarame said, storming past him.

"Is Ichigo's daughter really dead?" Shinji asked sadly.

Madarame stopped, looking back at her. Shinji was taken aback by the raw pain on his face. "Her name was Hisana, and she really did kill herself, Shinji. I watched it. She knew enough about this hell we live in to choose a quick death in the Dangai over a slow one here." Fury growing on his face, Madarame stepped closer, his face close to Shinji's. "The worst part is, if she hadn't done it I would have brought her here and handed the daughter of one of my closest friends over to the sadistic animal who rules our lives. He's turning us into monsters just like him, and we're so focused on protecting our subordinates that we don't even see it. I've done things today that I would have died before doing twenty years ago, and if he ordered me to do it again tomorrow I would have to because he holds all of our lives in his hands," Madarame answered, his voice raw. Shinji watched, eyes wide with surprise, as he reined in his anger and self-loathing, putting his expressionless mask back on. "Does that answer your question?" With that Madarame turned and left.

"All too well, friend," Shinji murmured. "All too well."

"Ow…" Hisana hurt all over, but at least she could hear her own voice now, and her labored breathing. That was an improvement.

It felt like an eternity that Hisana had drifted in the perfect, silent, cold blackness of the koryu. Time had lost meaning. She wasn't even sure if she'd really been conscious for the whole thing. She'd passed out at first, but then woken back up in that same void. There was no light or sound there. She had tried to scream, but couldn't tell if she was successful. She couldn't move her body, but she could feel the cold. It was endless, chilling her flesh and seeping into her bones. She had never been so cold in her life and it had felt like it would never end, right up until it had ended, and she fell.

Now Hisana's skin was still chilled, but she could feel solid ground beneath her, and it was warm; or at least warmer than she was. She just lay there for a time, breath ragged as waves of pins and needles washed over her with maddening intensity. When the pain faded slightly, she tried opening her eyes. At first she hadn't been able to see anything at all, but now she could see blurs; blobs of light and dark.

When Hisana's muscles would obey her she sat up, wincing at the new pain movement brought from her broken rib and unhealed cuts and bruises from her fight with the Secret Mobile Unit. She patted her sash, reassuring herself that at least Kaze no Megami was still with her.

Waiting for her vision to clear, Hisana touched the ground she sat on. It was sand, loose and fine grained. Where am I?

Hisana sat still, and gradually her vision cleared enough to see. She was sitting in a shallow depression amidst more than a dozen short trees, all slender and bare of leaves, their branches clawing at the black sky and scattered, dark gray clouds like skeletal fingers. Leaning against the nearest tree, Hisana got to her feet. The bark felt odd enough that she looked at it closely, squinting. It didn't flex like wood, even when she pushed against it, and its surface felt more like stone than bark.

Shrugging off the oddity, Hisana slowly climbed the nearest sand dune on unsteady legs, wanting to see what lay beyond the spot where she had fallen. When she crested the dune she found herself looking out over a vast expanse of nighttime desert that continued on to the horizon, the monotony of dunes broken only by a few other bare trees like the ones below her. The landscape was brightly lit by the moon behind her, which cast a silvery light over the sands.

The moon… Hisana frowned as she turned around. The moon above her was strangely close and bright, but that wasn't what bothered her. The night before Madarame and Yumichika's arrival had been pitch black because it was a new moon. Now the moon was almost completely full. How long was I in the koryu? Hisana thought. Then she gazed out at the horizon in the other direction, and her heart jumped into her throat. "Oh," she said weakly. "Oh, fuck me…" she swore with feeling. It was kilometers away, but silhouetted against the horizon was a vast building of white stone that dwarfed any structure on earth. She'd seen pictures of it before in Kisuke's training room. Years ago her father had almost died on its towering roof.

Hisana looked out over the landscape of Hueco Mundo at the distant palace of Las Noches, horror and dismay bubbling up inside her. Nearby a chilling howl rose above the sound of the wind, a fitting counterpoint to her painful realization. "I am in so much trouble."

More Hollow cries filled the air, as if in agreement.

Author's Note: Out of the frying pan, into the fire! Next update soon.

For you regular readers, I've added a short foreword to Chapter 1 as of 7/19/2012.