When they went back out into the main room Orihime was just beginning to rouse. Rukia went over to explain things to her while Hisana investigated the mirror a little more closely.

"Mirror mirror on the wall," Hisana said jokingly.

She had said it jokingly, but the surface of mirror she addressed began to ripple like the surface of a pond that had had a stone thrown in it. On a hunch, Hisana requested

"Show me Renji."

Obligingly, the mirror settled on the image of the young lieutenant looking around the castle on his self-imposed quest.

"Freeze frame," she said and the image paused, exactly like a mortal world camera.

She shared a look with Rukia and Orihime and then said,

"I wonder what else this thing can do."

To answer the demand in her comment, the mirror split itself into several different sections, one showed an image of the morror showing other people and places, another showed itself showing one person or place at different times and a third image showed it acting as a map and a fourth showed someone stepping through the mirror out through the surface of a looking glass somewhere else just like stepping through a doorway.

The three of them exchanged another long look.

"How much would you like to bet that our kidnapper has no idea what this mirror is capable of?" Hisana said wryly.

"Let's make sure we keep it that way," Rukia said.

"Mirror Mirror," Orihime said, walking up to the silver frame. "Please show me how Kurosaki is doing."

Rukia exchanged another long speaking glance with her older sister, communicating that she felt a sort of older-sisterly amusement herself for the young red-haired woman and her very obvious feelings for their mutual friend. The mirror showed the temperamental youth, still dressed in his full Soul Reapers regalia, pacing frantically up and down the hall outside of one of the official looking corridors in Seireitei, with Sado and Ishida standing or leaning against a wall nearby watching him. He was clearly in a state. it was also just as clear that the others were worried, but knew they were unable to do anything without even the smallest lead on how to find their friend.

"Kurosaki," she murmured worriedly.

Sadly, though it seemed that the power of the mirror was great, her voice did not miraculously reach him.

"Hmm..." Hisana said, her face taking on the same sort of expression that Rukia's brother's face did when he was deeply considering something.

"Mirror, I need you to show me four things," she said firmly after a long moment. "I need a wire-frame map of this place showing all levels and passages, as well as markers showing the locations of ourselves, Sousuke Aizen, Renji and Byakuya Kuchiki. I need to see where all of the world gates are in this place. I need to see Aizen and what he is doing and I need to see Byakuya."

The mirror obligingly split into several different images. One showed Byakuya Kuchiki sitting in a small, bare room without any ornamentation, guarded outside and in by four very big and scary looking Shadows but he was as calm and utterly unruffled by such things and looked exactly as if he were sitting in his own tea house on his estate.

"Elder Brother!" Rukia said, breathing a sigh of relief at a minor fear she hadn't known she was holding in.

"He isn't even chained up," Orihime noted.

Her tone conveyed the idea that she understood why Aizen would not have found little ol' her to be a threat worthy of precautions, but that this man was a Captain of the Court Guard Squads and as such should have warranted a little more caution.

"That's some confidence that our captor seems to possess," remarked Hisana. She studied the image of her former husband a little more closely for a long moment, with an unreadable expression on her face, then smiled with a little private amusement.

"No wonder i cannot find a decent date on even a Friday night in this lifetime," she said with wry amusement. "It seems that I have already used up all of my good man-finding karma... probably for my next several lifetimes!"

That observation startled a small laugh out of the other two women and a moment later, tension broken slightly, they settled down to business. The wire frame map of the castle they were imprisoned in was a bit dificult to follow at first, but they found through experimentation that they would change directions and highlight different sections of the map to have a closer look at the kind of size and shae of all the rooms and corridors. It was Orihime, surprisingly, who seemed the most adept at it, after but a few moments of trial and experimentation she was able to select, deconstruct, manipulate and ascertain the different sections of maps, and even figured out a way to get the mirror to show real-time images of certain rooms she selected.

"It must be those video games she plays," Rukia muttered.

She'd tried the Mortal realm video game machines, and some of them were mildly entertaining. Rukia had tetris on her Soul Pager. However, those long ones that involved maps and quests and characters were simply too inaccessible to the busy Soul Reaper, Orihime it seemed had just the right sort of tilted thinking to make herself adept at figuring out new ways to do things with unusual resources.

When Rukia saw Renji on one of the wireframe images Orihime opened, it reminded her of the mysterious message that the red-haired ape had given to deliver to Hisana, marked urgent.

"Oh, I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but Renji told me to tell you that..." Rukia spoke carefully, reciting directly from memory. "Not, under any circumstances, no matter how much Aizen bullies you, are you to use that thing he gave you... especially the one that he got mad at you about that time."

Hisana blinked at her for a long minute, her mind clearly switching tracks from whatever she was thinking about to figuring out what Renji's message via Rukia meant.

"Ah, I see," she said at last, nodding to herself. "Yes, I suppose that definitely makes sense."

"Um, what did he mean? What was he talking about?" Rukia asked, by now eaten alive with curiosity about what Renji might be keeping a secret from her... and involving a gift to her sister no less!

"You're a Soul Reaper right?" Hisana said, seemingly changing the subject.

"I- ah, yes," Rukia said, mystified by the non-sequiter.

"Then I don't think I had better tell you," she replied. "The less you know now, the less you'll have to lie about later on. Plausible deniablity."

Rukia's brow furrowed in puzzlement and no little annoyance at being left out of the loop, but decided that it was wiser to drop it for the moment in the interests of getting on with their self rescue.

:It would be so great if we could be the one's to rescue brother!: Rukia thought to herself.

It always seemed like she (and Orihime) were always the ones being rescued, she wanted to be the heroine for a change. And wouldn't that just tick Renji off! The mental image of him; mister big, bad world-hopping, Shadow-killing, I-have-a-bankai-and-you-don't lieutenant bowed over in gratitude to her for saving him was a very satisfying one. She came out of her reverie to realize that her two comrades were looking at her a bit strangely.

"You had a sort of odd little laugh for a minute there Miss Rukia," Orihime said concernedly. "Are you okay?"

"It was just the thought of Renji groveling at my feet when I show up and win the day," Rukia said with a sharp grin of anticipation. Hisana looked dubiously over at her.

"You... um, you've seen him fight, yes?"

"Of course I have," Rukia scoffed. "We've even sparred together."

Rukia did not mention that during said spars, her older brother had been hovering somewhat menacingly (though of course his expression had been the same as it always was, cool and calm) in the background, and Renji hadn't used his bankai during it at all... but still... she had fought him. Just, maybe not at full strength was all. She had always used to be able to pound him flat when they were kids, so she shouldn't have any trouble now...

Her mind flickered back to what his latest bankai had looked like as he sliced his way through enemies that had given even Ichigo a split second to pause and scratch his head. And she reluctantly also remembered that he had said something to her brother about having a slightly stronger sword now due to some kind of special training he'd been doing. As well as what he had looked like on the battlefeild of Shadows.

:That makes it all the more important to show him that he's still not at my level," Rukia thought nervously to herself.

Back when their relationship had been close, they'd been more or less equals, but that had changed when they'd entered school together. For the first time in their lives there had existed an inequality between the two of them, and that inequality had created a gap that had grown and grown and grown, widening into a seemingly uncrossable chasm when she'd joined the Kuchiki's. Ichigo had managed to bridge that gap, and Renji's rank as her brother's lieutenant had begrudgingly kept that bridge in place, but Rukia found that she resented the need for a bridge at all. She wanted to be better than him, she sort of always had. They had always kind of been in competition and part of her was still irked that the big, dumb lummox who wasn't as fast as she was or as strong as she was always seemed to have everything so good and easy. Social rank was one thing, but this wasn't about noblewoman versus mere-lieutenant, this was about Renji versus Rukia. Renji talked big about not protecting a warrior of the field but she knew deep down that he had to feel that he was a better fighter than she was. Rukia wanted to show him he was wrong about that. She was his equal in martial strength and skill. And if she was his equal, then there was no reason why they shouldn't be able to look each other in the eyes. There was no need for that idiot to look elsewhere.

Rukia looked over to see her sister giving her this look of (partly amused) melting pity.

"What?" Rukia demanded, nettled.

"Perhaps you should see a little something so you can really understand," she replied.

The images that had been on the mirror all cleared to tiny, postage-stamp sized pictures off to one side as Hisana touched the mirror again.

"Mirror, show us all my journey with him."

The mirror, as if playing a movie, displayed the story of their first meeting (in which he had been naked, and unlike in Hollywood movies, the camera angle didn't block anything out, sadly for the audience, Renji's body was entirely obscured by shadows.) It showed their trip up to the mountain, the geas placed on him by the mountain spirit, their journeys through different Realms with his new sword and how he used it to kill Ferals.

"Renji has... a different shikai?" Rukia said in disbelief and amazement. "I've never seen or heard of such a thing."

The closest she had ever heard of to having two different shikai's was her Captain's, and the Captain's of Eighth Squadron's, zanpaktou, which had two swords, but that was in a single shikai. Renji's Zabimaru clearly possessed an entirely alternate form with alternate abilities. Impressive ones.

"It would seem so," Hisana replied with a shrug. "During our entire journey that's the one he has been using up until he pulled that giant snake from out of no-where. He says he's been training his abilities."

"Hmph!" Rukia said with a toss of her head. "He still probably sucks at kido."

Whatever else his ability, and no matter how great his strength became, at least she still had that over him. The images of him fighting and gaining ever greater power and control over his new shikai made her worry just a little on the inside if it wouldn't be long before he surpassed her completely, to such a degree that she wouldn't catch up.

They continued watching the tale of their journey through the Realms of the Dangai; the defeat of the katschei in this very Realm they were in, then their continuing quest, the elves, the Shadows, the Realm guardians, more ferals, her budding abilities... Isana clearly ordered some details glossed over. But both women present were shocked to discover about Yoruichi's very obvious amorous pursuit of him in a nearby spring one morning.

"I had no idea!" Hisana said, looking aghast and slightly irritated.

"I'm going to have a talk with her next time I see her," Rukia muttered in agreement.

Their anger found a far more available target when they discovered about Renji's little trysts in the Wood while Hisana had been busy training with the Mi'kote.

"Why that little tomcat!" Rukia said in outrage.

"I know! The nerve! And he didn't say one thing about it," Hisana seconded also clearly outraged about it.

"And with three of them!" Rukia said, scandalized when she saw the way that the other bunny-girls threw themselves at him.

The movie was paused right then and there.

"Renjiii!" Rukia yelled, calling up his image on screen and opening a channel via his heartstone. "You have some explaining to do!"

"Wha-?" he asked, clearly bewildered.

"Those bunny-girls you dallied with!" Rukia snapped, letting him feel the full brunt of her displeasure with him.

"Oh. That," Renji said, she felt his discomfort.

"Yes that," she bit out icily.

"How'd you find out about that?" he asked curiously.

"Never you mind that," Rukia retorted. "What did you think you were doing? You think that just because they're available and willing, that its okay for you to act like some kind of... of..."

"Brainless philanderer," Hisana cut in.

"Yes," Rukia afirmed.

"Debaucherer of innocent women."

"Yes!" Rukia seconded.

"Morally bankrupt seducer. Rake. Roue. Skirtchaser. Womanizing playboy!"

"All of the above! Rukia agreed wholeheartedly.

They could all see Renji reflexively duck his head in the mirror from wherever else in the castle he was. He was clearly caught flatfooted at having been found out for his exploits.

"Don't take this th' wrong way or nuthin' girls, but all the terms you just used apply to men who go out looking for women to seduce. With what happened with these girls, the terms don't quite apply the way ya use 'em."

Renji could probably all but hear Rukia's angry foot-tapping, for he quickly added

"Put it bluntly, I didn't go look for them, they came ta me."

"That's no excuse," Hisana said sharply. "A gentleman would have politely declined."

"Elder Brother would have," Rukia added piously.

"Well, no offense but me and Captain are two very different kinds of men."

"Clearly," Rukia and her sister said in unison.

"Look, I know you ladies are probably determined ta be mad at me for it no matter what I say, but try and see it this way; those girls knew they couldn't keep me, but I was their only chance at gettin' what they really wanted. I'm not saying it was right exactly, but it wasn't as terrible as you two make it out ta be. Everyone involved went in with their eyes open... and..."

Renji's tone turned just a little chiding and upset in return.

"It's nobody's business but the peoples involved. I kept it discrete because I knew you girls'd take it the wrong way, especially the mortal missy raisin' a kid on 'er own, but when all's said an' done, I don't think you have much ta chide me on. I turned down Yoruichi when she offered, I ain't so much as laid a finger on the mortal missy though there's been plenty of opportunity, so clearly the terms, rake, womanizer, skirt-chaser, and whatever the hell a roue is don't apply."

"You sound like you're justifying it."

Renji shrugged.

"Say what you like, it is what it is. They got what they wanted from me."

Rukia opened her moth to hit him with another scathing remark but paused because the heartstone she held let her sense for the first time, some of the things he kept hidden behind a mask she hadn't even known existed until recently. Rukia was surprised to discover that under the defensiveness was a welter of other emotions about the episode. Even if he was acting cool and unapologetic about it, Renji was sad in his way. He'd known going in that he was essentially being used as a walking sperm bank and while he hadn't been overly wild about the idea he'd went along with it because he'd felt sorry for the women involved. It wasn't compassion by the classic definition (and most would have agreed with Rukia if she'd said Renji was getting the better part of the deal) but it was a sort of Renji-style compassion. If he didn't have much, he'd share what he had unstintingly, that was something Rukia had known about him from the first day they'd met.

"Well," Rukia grumbled, some of the wind taken out of her sails. "Just because you have women flinging themselves at you doesn't mean you can just take them up on it anytime you want. You're an officer in the field after all, you should be doing more important things than dallying about with loose women."

Rukia could sense that he would have liked to retort, but also felt that it was a waste of time to argue.

"Yes, missus," he settled for instead. "Any word on getting lines of communication open to Captain yet?"

"We're working on it," Hisana said, her tone indicating that she would have still liked to chide him, but since her younger sister had dropped the subject, she was willing to let it slide. "Have you found his heartstone?"

"Not yet, this place is enormous," he said. "You girls be careful. I dunno what Aizen's got up his sleeve, but it can't be good. Please see what you can't do about getting me in touch with Captain."

The connection cut out as Renji went back to his search so Rukia and Hisana shrugged, banished the image of Hisana's adventures replay and got back down to business.

"Renji did say something about this heartstone giving me some kind of authority in this place," Rukia said consideringly after a few minutes of brainstorming with the two of them to try to figure out a way to establish the line of communication that Renji had requested.

"Maybe you could just ask and receive," Orihime suggested hopefully.

"It can't be that easy," Rukia said skeptically.

"We loose nothing by trying it," Hisana said philosophically.

Rukia shrugged and said

"Mirror mirror, show me something that will enable us to create a covert line of communication between two people."

Several images appeared showing an array of different odd-looking atrifacts, books, jewels, weird-looking conglomerates of indescernable objects.

"well, I suppose we take our pick then," Hisana remarked.

"I wish we knew more about them," Rukia remarked.

Orihime found that when she tapped on an image, it enlargened and writing scrolled next to it, telling what the object was and how it worked.

"Useful, this thing, I think I'll keep it," hisana said, only half-joking.

The three of them browsed through the communication objects, debating the merits of each, and at last settled on the one they thought would best suit thier purposes. It looked like a a set of several small silver hairpins, each with an opalescent jewel on the tip of it, that, when touched to the power of the master of the Realm (that by default being Rukia now that she held renji's heartstone) could open lines of surface thought communication between the different pins.

With great trepidation, Rukia decided she would try out that "putting herself through the mirror" bit that she had seen portrayed earlier. The mirror obligingly rippled over, like a silver pond turned sideways, and with some trepidation, Rukia slowly put her hand through it and then her face into it so that she could look and see what she was doing. To her great surprise and secret delight, she found indeed that she was in fact in another room entirely. She quickly scooped up the objects she had went for and thenducked back into her "prison" chamber.

"Doesn't seem like much of a prison now that I know we can go pretty much anywhere via one of these mirrors," Rukia remarked even as she and her sister started setting up the pins to work as they had seen.

"Now the only trouble remains planting one of these on Captain Kuchiki," Orihime remarked.

"Leave that to me," Hisana said with confidence.

Rukia and Orihime exchanged a glance.

"I know there's probably a mirror near Mister Kuchiki's chamber," Orihime said a little hesitantly. "But I don't think It would be a good idea to mirror-travel about at will. Aizen's bound to catch us if we do and then we'll loose our best way to beat him."

"Oh I don't intend to leave this chamber without permission, but I won't have to," Hisana said with easy confidence. "After all, the evil mastermind thinks he has plans for me, and even the most rigid of jailers allow at least this one small thing."

"And what's that thing?" Rukia questioned dubiously.

Hisana smiled a small, serene (but somehow very smug) smile.

"Conjugal visits."

LOL.

Thank you so much to those who reveiwed and I'm sorry it took for freaking ever to get this chapter out. I blame Skyrim. I'm playing right now as a matter of fact, my controler needed to recharge and I thought, I promised myself I'd upload a new chapter for War 90 and Bloody Roses who have been waiting on pins and needles apparently. (BR I'm so sorry to hear about your hand, I hope you feel a lot better soon! In the meantime, this should cheer you up).

On a side note, if anyone has seen the anime Legend of Twelve Kingdoms (and if you haven't go watch it, it's really well done!) I'm going to be starting to post a new fic for it. It's a pretty obscure fandom, so if anyone wants to take a look at it i'd welcome the traffic and the extra readers. ciao!