Stand In the Rain
Shadow of an Echo
A/N Wow, this update kind of ran away with me, an extra thousand words spilled out. This chapter should clear up a few things, and set the stage for the drama to come.
Chapter Fourteen
Erase My Scars
"Rise Asayake!" Rikichi called, his Shikai revealing itself just in time to intercept Nanao's blade.
While those two were engaged, Isane was sneaking up behind them, ready to strike Rikichi from the opposite side as Nanao. She was nearly in position when a shout came from her left, "Bankai! Heika Hisagomaru!"
Isane had just enough time to twist around before, "Shisatsu Mouka!" The red beam of light shot at her, faster and stronger than she could defend against, causing her to leap out of the way.
Both Nanao and Isane were in Shikai, Rikichi was the more aggressive of the students, while Hanataro was more powerful. When Rikichi attacked he left openings the women could exploit, but Hanataro hung back far enough to see the conjoined attacks, sending a burst of power whenever it was needed.
This was working well as a strategy, until Nanao proved her place and sent her own attack, "Bind Midorieiri!" Green threads of power shot from the tip of her flared sword, hitting Hanataro. He had been too slow to move away, the threads hitting his foot, only to wrap around and force their way up his body. It did no good for Heika to cut through the threads, as soon as he sliced one it just regenerated and continued its path upwards.
Hanataro dropped Heika, struggling against the vines rapidly cocooning him, it was up to his neck before a red hot blade cut between him and Nanao; the burning Zanpakuto cauterizing the vines, preventing them from regenerating. Disconnected from Nanao's Zanpakuto the vines holding Hanataro loosened from around him; disappearing into reishi particles. Soon both Rikichi and Hanataro were back on their feet, facing off against the two women, heavy panting breaths the only disturbance in their otherwise firm stance.
Ichigo interrupted them, "Good work, time to take a break!" He called over during the momentary lull, all four of them returning to his side.
Rikichi was the first to notice the second person standing with Ichigo, "Captain!" He exclaimed happily.
Byakuya acknowledged him, "You fought well, balancing defensive with offensive moves. You are learning quickly."
"Thank the people who've taught me, I wouldn't be this good without them." Rikichi was blushing just as badly as Renji could at hearing his Captain's praise.
"I already have," Byakuya responded, gracefully side-stepping his subordinate's awestruck reaction, "This training is being accomplished with the approval and governing of many high officials, myself included in that. I knew you would be in good hands."
"Thank you Captain Kuchiki," Hanataro voiced his own response to the Captain's praise, more than aware Byakuya did not give out compliments easily. The rare praise adding to his pride at what they had accomplished.
Ichigo was, for once, not focused on his students, instead he was looking over Isane and Nanao, who weren't in much better shape than Rikichi and Hanataro. "They turned out to be better than you were expecting; didn't they?" He teased, knowing the Lieutenants had been surprised at their proficiency. Not knowing about the demonstration the day before, and the motivation they had gotten from it, left them at a disadvantage.
"Don't be so smug Ichigo, it's your fault, you told us they were beginners!" Nanao accused.
"They are," Ichigo defended himself, "We are just getting started." And that was the truth, finding their releases was actually the easy part of this training, learning to use them was the hard part. He was going to mimic Kisuke and work them into the ground while they had time. At least for them he had the backup of several healers wanting to keep his students healthy.
Isane's eyes widened as she realized the truth in his words, "They are going to be Lieutenant level when you are done, at the very least." Their battle had been too close for anything else to happen.
"That's the idea," The smirk was a tad unexpected coming from the usually scowling Ichigo.
Byakuya took the opportunity to interrupt, "I would like to test them myself." He had observed enough to be curious how well they would hold up.
Twin gulps were heard as the two Soul Reapers in question processed the words, "You're joking right?" Hanataro spluttered out before he could think of the consequences.
Byakuya sized up the Fourth Squad officer, making him shrink down on himself, before, "I assure you I am not joking. I want to see your progress, so take a few moments to recover from this round of fighting, and then get ready to face me." He ordered.
Both Rikichi and Hanataro blanched when they realized how serious he was. So much for recovering, they spent the whole time leading up to the fight with Byakuya panicking. Not exactly the most relaxing thing they could do. Ichigo saw this and pulled them to the side a few moments before they faced off, "Listen don't get so worked up, treat this fight just like the one with Nanao and Isane. You did well using that tactic, also remember what I told you before, don't try to win, focus on not losing." He advised before sending them off to the Squad Six Captain.
"That was very good Ichigo," Isane complimented. "I can see why they have responded to you so well."
Ichigo shook his head, "Most of that is from them, I can guide them, but they have to put in the work."
"You make them want to," Nanao informed. "Motivation driven by anger fizzles out quickly, but that same motivation driven by the desire to learn is much stronger. They may have started out self-motivated, but you are the one keeping them that way."
"It's starting," Isane interrupted, not wanting the other two to miss anything by being wrapped up in conversation.
Byakuya was not in Shikai, but his Zanpakuto was drawn and ready. Rikichi and Hanataro hadn't bothered to start off like that, Rikichi calling Asayake out, Hanataro with Heika considering there was no one around needing healing to make his Shikai useful.
To Ichigo's surprise and approval, Rikichi actually made the first move. He launched himself at Byakuya, the straightforward attack was simple enough to dodge by Byakuya, and when the charging Rikichi was next to him, he reached out to slap him with the flat side of Senbonzakura.
He was a second too late to notice Rikichi's bold attack had been a distraction, Hanataro yelling, "Shisatsu Mouka!" Forcing Byakuya to use a few flash steps to avoid the speeding beam of light.
Now Byakuya was getting into the fight, realizing the pair could be pushed hard, "Scatter Senbonzakura." He released his Shikai, surrounding himself with dozens of sharpened pink petals.
They flew at the inexperienced Shinigami, who quickly scrambled to reposition themselves, settling back to back, protecting each other as they fought to escape the stinging blades. Their clothes were ripped and torn, until Rikichi noticed something. Asayake was melting all the petals it touched, and they didn't reform once they were disabled. With new purpose he lashed out as quickly as he could to destroy as many of the petals as he could reach, "Hanataro don't cut them, see if Heika can melt them!" He called out over the sounds of rushing blades.
Hanataro focused on trying to get his attack as broad as possible while following Rikichi's order. It was working, but with each strike he was drained of Spirit Pressure. His Bankai was compact like Ichigo's, but he wasn't used to the drain of even using Shikai, much less Bankai.
Byakuya saw the problem first, even before Rikichi, and he started to concentrate his attack on Hanataro to see what his subordinate would do.
Rikichi noticed the majority of Senbonzakura's blades moving away from him and towards his love, and he saw red. He slashed his way through the storm of petals, disregarding the cuts he was getting from the ones he missed. He was no longer interested in defending, now all his focus was on attacking the one trying to hurt Hanataro. Disable Byakuya, or at least force him into drawing the petals back to himself in order to fight him, and Hanataro would be safe.
Byakuya was ready for him, expecting the move, and he pulled back only half the petals to deal with Rikichi, splitting his focus and directing the two groups with one of his hands each. His Shikai would obey any command he gave, but it had taken a lot of trial and error to split up the cloud into more than one group at a time.
He was impressed with the tenacity Rikichi was displaying, charging towards him, burning up his Shikai at a steadily growing rate. There was a line of blood dripping from his left cheek, and another from the right temple, not counting the various wounds left on the rest of his body.
The thing is, if they were seriously in danger, Byakuya would have called off the fight. Rikichi might have several wounds, but they were shallow. He was moving quickly, switching positions in a constantly changing pattern. It was hard to direct his blades towards him without being able to predict his movements, he was already strained from holding multiple opponents back. Time to end this.
Rikichi and Hanataro realized in the next few seconds what made the difference between Lieutenants and Captains. Byakuya increased the speed and force of his attack, not allowing either of them much time to strike back.
The fight ended quickly after that, Rikichi and Hanataro forced to yield before they were hurt too badly. They collapsed to the ground, breathless and drained, but altogether happy with how well they held up under the Captain's attack.
Byakuya looked down at the wounded and exhausted Shinigami with a glimmer of approval in his eyes. "You did better than I thought you would. Rikichi figuring out burning disables my blades was a good example of observation skills, but I warn you, never attack an enemy with rage. You must control your anger and channel it into beating your opponent. You did perform well when you approached me, I was overstretched and you knew to take advantage of that, but your success was overshadowed by your injuries. In charging me blindly you opened yourself up to more harm; a serious detriment on the battlefield."
"Yes Captain," Rikichi responded, desperately working on getting his breathing under control.
Then Byakuya turned his attention to Hanataro, "You need to increase your stamina. Bankai takes a lot of power to maintain, even ones like yours and Ichigo's. You fought very strongly in the beginning, but drained yourself quickly, I recommend training every day with your Zanpakuto as much as you can. You have power, now focus on learning to put it to good use." A bit more critical than Rikichi's assessment, but only out of the desire to make the Officer stronger.
"I'll remember that." Hanataro promised. He was in much the same shape as Rikichi physically, his injuries focused on his legs and stomach instead of face and arms due to his dodging the blades while Rikichi charged head on. However his Spiritual Pressure was far more depleted after fighting twice with Heika in one day, only moments apart from each other.
"Are you done Byakuya?" Ichigo was coming over to them, the female Lieutenants following him.
Byakuya had to keep an iron grip on his emotions to keep himself calm at the overly familiar address coming from Ichigo once again, "Yes Kurosaki, we're finished. Lieutenant Kotetsu please help them recover." There wasn't anything life-threatening, they had indeed fought well and Byakuya hadn't pushed his Shikai quite as hard against them as he could have until the very end, so they were just scratched up and sore. However despite the relative lightness of their injuries, he knew the Seventh seat had used up too much power to patch Rikichi and himself up.
"Right away Captain Kuchiki," Isane agreed, rushing over to the boys, "Ichigo, your wish to learn healing has been passed on to the Captain and I, would you like to start learning now?" She offered, admittedly curious to see how quickly he picked it up. Have just a short conversation with Izuru and a person would know how much Ichigo had stunned him with how quickly he was mastering Kido. This would be a little different than traditional battle oriented Kido, but the fundamentals were the same. It would be a good time to learn too. Rikichi and Hanataro were far from being in danger of losing too much blood or losing function in any area, and even more so away from losing their lives, but they were hurt enough to be a good measure of Ichigo's skill.
"Alright," Ichigo agreed instantly, "What do I need to know?"
"Come here next to Rikichi, part of being a healer is knowing who to heal first. With these two, they have injuries with similar severity, so the deciding factor is location of the wounds. Facial and head wounds bleed more severely than other places, so we should start with Rikichi rather than Hanataro." She had explained all that while positioning Ichigo and herself, one on each side of Rikichi.
"Okay, I know Izuru has taught you how to pool Spiritual Pressure into your palms, it's the first step in using incantations. Healing Kido starts the same way, only the focus point stops at the hands; not continuing to our Zanpakuto or released in an attack or defense. It looks like this," She pulled her power together. Letting it coat her hands until they glowed with a halo of Spirit Pressure.
"You try doing that while I start healing Rikichi," Isane ordered, settling her glowing hands in place, one on each side of his face, bathing the wounds in power.
Ichigo watched her for a few moments, best at learning by example, then he attempted to copy her. He directed all of his power to his hands while trying to switch away from harnessing his power and towards emitting it. By the time Ichigo got the hang of it, the glow bright and steady around his hands, the slices on Rikichi's face and neck were already healed up to the point he didn't even have a scab over the cuts. The injuries left nothing but still tender scars in their path, something that would likely take a few days to heal. Isane was already moving down to his shoulders and torso shortly after Ichigo succeeded.
"Good, very good." Isane complimented, not stopping her work to continue explaining. "Now when a healer works on a patient there is no set incantations like with battle Kido, but that doesn't mean it is all the same."
"How does that work?" Ichigo asked, fascinated at watching the process of Shinigami healing close up while he wasn't the one that needed treatment.
"It is more accurate to say every healing job is different." Isane admitted, "You see instead of rigid incantations that only do so much at a time, healing is personalized. We have a basic method that starts the process, but each patient has to be dealt with as a separate entity, and occasionally you will find a person who has multiple wounds that all need to be treated slightly differently if we want to heal them."
"Okay I can understand that," Ichigo replied, "So how do you personalize it?"
"The first few moments of a healing procedure are not actively closing the wounds, instead it is connecting your Spiritual Pressure with the patient's. Since every patient has a unique power signature, this link-up goes a little differently in every case. When we heal someone, the exact process is using our power to stimulate and amplify their own Spiritual Pressure and guide it to the injury needing taken care of. No person can heal another Shinigami using only foreign power, their body will only accept energy originating from itself to heal. What we do is bolster its strength and leading it to the right place to begin making repairs. We won't be rejected from helping if our powers are integrated closely enough their power and ours become indistinguishable, in other words we are only adding to their power, not trying to override it completely." Isane informed. Healing was a far more delicate and intricate art than traditional Kido, which was a good part of the reason there was so few healers compared to the number of fighters.
Ichigo thought it over for a bit, Isane almost done with Rikichi, before asking his next question, "So how do you learn to connect with and guide power to the right place?"
"Connecting is usually the easy part," Isane confessed, "When we are injured our bodies search desperately for the energy we need to heal, and a trail of power directed towards us is the perfect opportunity to reinforce our strength enough we can act. Guiding it to the right spot is more difficult, this is when we get to the individual differences in how our Spiritual Pressure flows through us. A good portion of navigating the stream of another person is based on instinct."
At that point Isane had to take a moment to get the next set of information organized in her head. "The process is a bit like tracking down people through their Spiritual Pressure trails. The patient's body will be pulling energy to the areas that need it, and the biggest draws are the more dangerous wounds that need the quickest attention. It is our job to follow the pull of energy to find the right spots. From there it is fairly straight forward. Their own power will be harnessed by the body, and since we are linked together with them it will draw us in to where we can replace their energy with ours."
Ichigo blinked quickly several times, shocked at how much went into this form of healing. Oh he had known it wouldn't be easy, something as delicate as healing the sick and injured could never be simple. Just not possible. However that didn't stop him from being surprised. At least human healing had a set way things had to be done; Shinigami had to start fresh with each new patient.
"You think you could try it on Hanataro?" Isane requested, gesturing to the waiting Shinigami who Byakuya had kept an eye on while they were busy with Rikichi. She would not push him into it if he didn't think he was ready to heal a real person.
It took a moment before Ichigo responded, "Will this hurt him if I can't do it?"
"No, you will either succeed, or his body will reject the attempt. The rejection might give you a jolt when your power is forcibly returned, bit it's automatic for him and won't harm him if it happens." She assured, liking the fact Ichigo had considered that before jumping into something new.
"I will try," Ichigo decided, "As long as Hanataro is okay with it." He added on, giving his friend a choice.
"I trust you," Hanataro responded, "I think you can do it."
With that, Isane showed him how to position his hands correctly around the wounded area to make guiding the Spiritual Pressure that much easier. "Now sink your power into his body slowly, just like you would direct power to your Zanpakuto, only do it about half as fast. You will know it worked when his power starts to tug on yours. That is the first sign of the connection between you two." Isane ordered, Ichigo trying to comply, getting stopped several times for attempting to feed power too quickly. It was extremely difficult to hold back the wellspring of power pushing at his control. This was definitely a time when his overabundant Spiritual Pressure got in the way.
"You need to calm down Ichigo, don't try to force it, let your powers meld naturally." Isane warned, realizing the problem, but knowing if Ichigo could manage this the very same power making it difficult to learn would allow him to heal much deeper and more complicated injuries. The more power they had to work with the better when it came to healing.
Taking a deep breath, and concentrating on how much Hanataro needed him, he gave it one more try. In the same moment he finally felt Hanataro's presence join with his own the injured Shinigami let out a sigh of relief. It only took the sensation of help arriving to start alleviating the pain. Now it was a matter of finding the right spot to feed power to. He opened up all his senses, feeling out any pull or tug. Searching for power trails was still not exactly his strong point, at least he was aided a little bit with Hanataro being familiar to him. Even back when he couldn't follow a Hollow worth a damn, he had always been able to sense his friends and know they were okay.
That being the case he was eventually able to locate a disturbance in Hanataro's usually calm presence. He directed the gathered energy to the anomaly, immediately feeling his own power start to wick away. "I think I have it." He informed with relief, glad to finally be helping Hanataro stop hurting.
"Good Ichigo," Isane complimented, "Now keep the flow steady and smooth, you can increase the amount of power you are sending to speed up the healing, but do it in small increments so he has time to adjust to the previous influx before processing more." She was amazed, and pleased, the he was picking it up so fast. These were mainly small superficial wounds, with only a few deeper cuts, but he was doing great. She didn't doubt it wouldn't be long until he could heal far more dangerous injuries. That took practice, but he was a natural.
Ichigo obeyed the advice, trying to slowly increase the speed of Hanataro's recovery; he had been hurting long enough speed was something Ichigo was willing to work on no matter how hard it might be.
Slowly but surely the cuts on his body started to knit together, gaining speed as Ichigo increased the power he was sending to help his friend.
Isane watched him until Hanataro was healed as far as he would go like that, "Time to stop Ichigo, his body has to finish up on its own." She interrupted; Ichigo listening regretfully.
"Why not keep going until they are healed all the way?" He was visibly disgruntled at not being allowed to finish.
"It's better for him if the last part of the healing is allowed to finish naturally. If we always do all the healing on them, their bodies may eventually stop healing on its own, or at least make it extremely difficult. You already know about the immune system being stronger if you fought things off in the past I believe?" She got a nod to her question. "Well for us, because of our extended lives, our healing factor can suffer if we go for too long without engaging it. That situation is extremely dangerous for active duty Shinigami if they are harmed when not in range of a healer." She explained fully.
Seeing that Ichigo was still a little resistant, she added on, "I promise you this is the best thing for them right now. I do recommend you help them to the hot spring so they can wash up and soak their strained muscles. That will do them a world of good right now."
"I'll help you tend them," Ichigo had nearly forgotten Byakuya was there during the course of learning, but he was reminded when the Captain volunteered himself.
"Are you ready to move around on your own, or do you want a little more help?" Ichigo turned to Rikichi and Hanataro, not knowing how much they could handle yet.
"I think I can," Rikichi answered first, carefully pulling himself off the ground.
Hanataro attempted to follow suit, but his worst injuries were centered around his legs, and it still hurt quite a bit to stand despite the healing done on him. The pain wouldn't have been any better had Isane herself performed it; there was only so far they were willing to go healing anyone. So all he could do was grit his teeth against the pain, and bear it for the time being, "I'm not sure my legs will hold out," He admitted honestly. There was no adrenaline helping to keep him on his feet like there was during the fight.
"How about you lean on me, and if you have too much trouble I can carry you?" Ichigo offered.
"If you don't mind," Hanataro accepted, but he was a tad reluctant to make Ichigo put himself out for him.
"Hey Hanataro, it's no big deal, friends help each other," Ichigo dispelled Hanataro's concern once he realized it was necessary.
Not able to protest against that, Hanataro allowed Ichigo to help him over to the hot spring, Byakuya mirroring the action with Rikichi, who looked a little stunned at the personal attention from his Captain.
Nanao and Isane took the opportunity to slip away once it was obvious Ichigo and Byakuya had everything under control. Everyone would be taken care of.
Once at the healing spring, they carefully helped Rikichi and Hanataro out of their uniforms and into the water. The spring tempting enough to join them, all three in training Shinigami surprised when Byakuya joined them.
Ichigo realized this was the first time he had seen Byakuya even partially out of his uniform since he broke into Byakuya's healing room looking for Rukia after her failed execution. It made the noble look noticeably younger, reminding Ichigo of what Retsu had said about Byakuya being young by Shinigami standards. Rukia had already admitted to him she was over sixty years old, made him wonder how old Byakuya was in comparison.
Deciding Byakuya was relaxed enough he wouldn't send Senbonzakura after him for asking, he jumped in head long, "Byakuya, how old are you?"
For an instant Byakuya's eyes widened, proving he was caught off guard by the question, his normal aloof expression back nearly as quickly as it left, "I don't see how that's any of your business." He rejected, but so far no swords were involved.
"You're right, it's none of my business." Ichigo agreed, "But that doesn't stop me from being curious." He couldn't stop himself from adding that last bit on.
"Why do you want to know?" Well this was interesting, his avoidance of the question was proving to be amusing to Ichigo.
"Well, I know Rukia is right around sixty, and Renji is about ten years older. I am honestly just curious how you fit in; nothing more than that." He put his hands up in the air as a gesture of surrender in an attempt to placate him.
"If I tell you, would you leave me alone?" Much more of this and even Byakuya was going to lose control.
"Sure," Ichigo agreed easily, knowing he was pushing his luck.
"I'm a hundred and thirty," He finally confessed.
Hanataro blanched at that, the first one to catch it was Rikichi, "Hana, what's wrong? Isn't the water helping?" He asked in concern, thinking maybe Hanataro's injuries had been more severe than they originally thought.
"It's not that," He admitted, "It's just, um well," He stalled out, a blush on his face as his shyness returned full blown.
Byakuya closed his eyes, a quiet sigh of resignation escaping him, which was just as unusual as seeing a snowflake in July, "Let me guess, you're older than me, aren't you?" He had kind of suspected that much, but Hanataro's reaction to his confession proved it.
"By twenty years," Hanataro admitted. "I didn't join the academy until I was nearly fifty, and I already knew your name then, because the Kuchiki heir was a very popular topic of conversation. No one ever mentioned how old you were though, and while going through the Academy I didn't have much of a chance to see anyone outside of it. By the time I graduated you were already the Lieutenant of the Sixth. You became Captain a few years later when your Grandfather stepped down."
Byakuya did the math quickly, "Ah so you were there after my time in the Academy, my family sent me while I was still very young, this was to make more time for training to be head of the family when I graduated. I was a member of the Sixth by the time I was thirty. I wasn't much bigger than Captain Hitsugaya when I first got into the squad."
"I thought Toushiro was older? I don't mean ancient, but more than a few decades?" Ichigo asked in confusion.
"That's because he is," Byakuya informed, knowing enough about Toushiro to think he could get away with it, "He is older than Rukia, but they are two different kinds of Shinigami."
Now Ichigo was confused, "What do you mean different kinds?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," Byakuya responded drily, "There are two different kinds of Shinigami. One born, the other coming straight from the Living World. Born Shinigami age faster. Still slower than a human, but we reach milestones much quicker. Captain Hitsugaya's human life ended when he was a small child. He was a human with high spiritual pressure, not unlike your friends and little sisters, and his soul was healthy and intact when he passed. This meant he was able to enter the Soul Society looking and acting like he did when alive; Spiritual Pressure and all. It doesn't work like that for all of us."
Ichigo caught the emphasis in the sentence. "Let me guess, the other Shinigami come from the souls who didn't come straight here? You said Toushiro made it here because his soul was healthy and intact, so what happens when that isn't true?"
"Not bad for a guess," Byakuya would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he was a bit impressed with his intuition. "Yes the second group of Shinigami is comprised of souls that could not be salvaged when they passed through the gates of death. Now, don't get confused here, a disease of the flesh is not a disease of soul, you can have a perfectly normal healthy life and still fail to pass through the gate, and on the reverse you can be a very sickly human and get into Soul Society without pause. A lot of it depends on what was done in the life of the soul. Truly evil crimes are punished by banishment into the realm of Hell, but for those that are twisted in the same way but do not give into the urge enough to warrant banishment there is a second option."
Byakuya paused there to give his listeners the chance to assimilate what he'd thrown at them before continuing, "That second option is to be kept in the gates of death. The soul is stripped clean of the tainted portions, leaving fragments of the original soul behind, but nothing that could be reformed into a fully functioning soul again; at least not on its own. In this class of Shinigami their spiritual pressure is gained by the compounding of these partial souls into one dense ball of energy, and having that ball of energy join the Soul Society by being born from a powerful Shinigami. The parent's Spiritual Pressure is what gives our children their physical features, making our children purely our own no matter where their souls happen to come from."
"Is there any big difference between the two besides the aging thing?" Ichigo found this extremely interesting, never having anyone bother to tell him much about Shinigami biology or origins. He knew next to nothing about the race he partially belonged to.
Hanataro answered him first, "It's easier to heal a born Shinigami. The threads of Spiritual Pressure we have to travel along in order to heal them are much more streamlined than those of natural Shinigami."
"Wait, why are the ones brought directly here called the natural ones? Wouldn't that be the ones who were born?" The discrepancy bothered Ichigo.
Byakuya took over, "We call the ones directly from the Living World the natural Shinigami because they didn't have to be altered to be who they are. A born Shinigami is much further removed from the human race. We were never a part of it. Also, another word for the Living World is the Natural World. It comes down to calling my counterparts what they are, a being derived from nature instead of spirit like my family and I." At least if they had to be the ones to educate Ichigo, he was making it surprisingly easy on them, asking the right questions and actually understanding the answers.
"If born Shinigami are so different from humans, why couldn't I tell the difference between the two?" A valid question.
"Because the difference isn't in the way we act, well most of the time," Byakuya was forced to admit, "It's more in the way we function. The way our physical bodies work if that makes sense. There are things we can do humans can't, and things humans are capable of that we aren't."
"Would you be willing to tell me? I know my father was a Shinigami, makes me wonder if I would be classed with born Shinigami or natural." That little revelation was something Aizen had taken great glee in revealing. He told him all the dirty little secrets that had been kept from him; all done to make him more likely to submit to the psychopath. None of it had worked though, he knew secrets were kept for a reason, after all he had enough of them himself.
"I'm not sure about you, though it's likely you are classed with born Shinigami. I doubt a soul truly born human could keep passing back and forth through the gate while still living. Body or no body, you would be sensed as alive." Byakuya assessed. He found himself tempted to test the matter himself, but that would mean admitting curiosity to the oh so annoying Kurosaki.
"Things we can't do include dying of old age, and reincarnation. Once we are killed our soul simply dissipates back into the particles it was made out of, to start condensing another usable soul. Natural Shinigami follow the same course as general spirits, when they die their soul gets passed on to a new life in the Living World. Though we do share the inability to die of old age with natural Shinigami. Another thing we can't do is have a child with a human, we simply do not have the correct seed. Natural Shinigami can interbreed with humans without a problem, but born Shinigami are constrained to looking within our own class if we want to have children."
"Can a born Shinigami and a natural Shinigami have children together?" Now that was an interesting thing, despite knowing he was a crossbreed himself, he hadn't really thought about what that meant. Guess Isshin was a natural Shinigami then.
Byakuya wondered how long Ichigo would go on asking questions before stumbling upon one of the more disconcerting facts about born Hollows, especially for someone never exposed to it before. "Yes, so long as it's the dominant partner who's natural. A born Shinigami can carry a child of a natural, but it doesn't work the other way around."
"Why doesn't it work? How come you said dominant partner and not the father?" Ichigo was getting suspicious, there was a barely there gleam in Byakuya's eyes that might just be amusement, what was so funny?
"It doesn't work because we need two sets of strong spiritual pressure to produce a child, but once we have it there isn't anything stopping us from having children. Natural Shinigami are not equipped to carry a child formed like this, only born Shinigami can do it. Oh and just so you know when I say born Shinigami are capable of carrying these children, I mean all of us." He couldn't hold it back any longer, he just wanted to get one good hit in to return the favor for all the annoyances Ichigo had been causing him lately.
"You can't possibly mean what I think you do!" Now Ichigo was just plain spooked, that was possibly the most terrifying thing he had heard in a very long time.
"Sorry, Ichigo, but I think it's exactly what you're thinking," Hanataro was backing up Byakuya, Rikichi only nodding. "Both female and male born Shinigami can carry children, our reproduction has nothing to do with biology, so we are not constrained by it. We do not need a female/male pair to have children like in the human world. That would be the biggest difference between us and humans, or even natural Shinigami."
"But just because it is possible, does not mean it's accepted," Byakuya figured a joke had to end sometime, and this was kind of important. "From time to time there is an accident in the academy, or a very quiet instance in the low ranks, but the closer you are to the Head Captain the more you realize it is not safe for us to have children. The severe taboo on males and females engaging in relations with each other make a male carrying a child an ultimate sin in Captain Yamamoto's eyes. Women have it easier, they can usually find a male friend willing to take responsibility if it meant keeping her and the child safe."
Mouth going dry with worry, Ichigo made himself ask, "So how does that whole male getting pregnant thing work anyway?"
"It's rare," Byakuya admitted, "Actually any pregnancy is rare, to balance out the length of our lives we have an extremely low fertility rate. A couple may be together for centuries and never produce a child. The situation has to be exactly right or it just doesn't happen. The souls waiting in the gate first must reach maturity, a process that we truly have no idea how long it takes. Then once they reach the right stage, a suitable pairing is sought out. The couple must trust each other completely, any kind of dishonesty or unfaithfulness will result in the soul rejecting the couple. Even if it does find an acceptable pair, there still has to be something happening on our side or it will look somewhere else. A soul will only come to rest with a couple if at the moment of discovery they have entwined their spiritual pressure. Remember it takes two sets of strong spirit pressure before we can have children, because that's what it takes to actually form the child. So it will not settle on a family that is not strong enough to give the soul what it needs."
"Just how rare is pregnancy?" Ichigo had calmed down from the worst of his panic at hearing all the conditions against it; that sounded like one in a million odds.
Byakuya had to think about it for a moment before he could answer, "Last time I updated the records, the birth rate was bouncing between two and three a year for the entire Soul Society."
"So not too much to worry about right?" Ichigo felt relief washing through him, he couldn't imagine bringing a child into the world when they were in the middle of a war.
"Not really, but there is one bad thing about all this," Byakuya cautioned.
"What else could possibly top this one?" That would take a lot of effort according to Ichigo.
Byakuya pushed a piece of wet hair away from his face in an effort to stall this response, "It's a very good thing the chances are so rare," He admitted. "Because if the partners don't manage to keep a grip on their Spiritual Pressure at the wrong time, there is nothing available to stop a child from forming."
"Damn," Yeah, that would cut it, definitely worse than the previous news. He might not mind children in the future, especially if they were with Jyuushiro and Shunsui when everything was safe from Aizen again. Now he knew there was no way to stop it from happening except try to keep control of themselves and hope it doesn't happen if they don't manage to hold on.
For the first time ever, Ichigo heard Byakuya laugh, though it was very rueful, "I felt the same way when Grandfather explained it to me."