AN: and thus endeth the Agent of the Shinigami arc! Woop woop! Jeez, that took forever. Given that I write these chapters ahead of time, it is actually a great effort to keep to the post schedule; epic-ness does not want to be restrained!
in other news, I have decided not to cut back on the schedule. Chapters remain once a week on thursdays until further notice.
Let the famous Ryoka Invasion / Soul Society arc begin!
X-X-X
The Striking Snake
ch8
Watch your Back
X-X-X
Urahara's shop was nestled in a small patch of land in the inner city. Despite the concrete walls surrounding the building, litter and other grime had a tendency to accumulate.
Consequently, the number one job for his surrogate children/conscripted servants was to sweep the area around the shop. The job was to be done once a day, and no excuses short of being attacked by hollows were accepted.
Not that the effort involved in the task was always consistent.
"Jinta..." Ururu pleaded. The red-haired boy ignored her, lost in his own imagining. "We need to finish the job, Jinta..."
"Hah! That's your job, Ururu! I've done my share!"
The timid girl hung her head. "But you've hardly done anything, Jinta... I've done that side, and the porch, and the - "
Jinta hit her over the head with his broom. "Don't tell lies! I clearly - AARGH!"
The reason he had stopped short was currently sinking a set of teeth and two sets of claws into Jinta's ankle.
"Agh! That bloody cat again! It always goes after me!"
Ururu, however, looked noticeably happier. "Urahara-san!" She called. "Your cat's returned!"
"Oho?" Kisuke's voice sang from the depths of the shop. "Jinta, Ururu, I'm sure you've swept enough. You can go take a break now! Oh Yoruichiii - c'mere, kitty, I have milk for youuu - "
The cat purred and rubbed itself against Kisuke's legs as the shopkeeper stepped out.
As the kids' footsteps disappeared down the street, Kisuke looked down at the animal, his goofy smile abruptly vanishing. "I was serious about the milk, Yoruichi, but you look worried enough to skip straight to talking."
The sleek black cat looked back up. "It's not good," the animal replied in a grating, ancient-sounding voice. "Though you may have already sensed them. They're here, Kisuke, and I don't have to tell you who they're after."
"Mhm." Kisuke sat down heavily on the porch. "I can't get a lock on their position yet. Not that I've come up with a great way to stop them, of course. Who are we talking about, exactly?"
"Captain and Lieutenant of division six. Serious iron, for a routine arrest. I expected a standard Onmitsukidõ unit."
"A captain... seriously?" Kisuke took off his hat. "This reeks of his work. Damn. And it's the kid from six. Who's... oh, him. That's not good. He's not exactly known for being reasonable... I really hope we can avoid a direct confrontation. How long do we have?"
"No way to tell. Be on guard, I guess." The cat licked its paw. "While the lieutenant is an impulsive idiot, you know that Byakuya boy - all about having everything flawless. He might wait for the perfect moment, to ensure there are no complications."
"Yeah. I guess." Kisuke clenched his fist. "They sent Renji and Byakuya after her, huh? Those sadistic old bastards..."
X-X-X
"Onii-san!" Gin turned at the foot of the stairs to see Yuzu looking at him, annoyed. "You shouldn't snack after dinner!"
Gin did his best to make his grin look contrite, although it didn't work well. "Hey, I'm sorry, Yuzu. But I'm too hungry to wait for breakfast..."
He was in fact carrying the food up to Rukia, but he didn't feel up to introducing his closet midget to his family. Besides, if all worked out well, she'd have her powers back before it became necessary to do so.
"Look, I'll bring the dishes down when I'm done, okay Yuzu?"
Yuzu had a look of incredible indignation on her face. Despite being only eleven years old, she seemed to have single-handedly assumed the position of 'mom' since her mother's death, and she never passed up a chance to act motherly. "I won't look after you if you get fat, Onii-san!"
Gin snickered slightly. "Yuzu, I could eat an elephant and I'd still be skinny. I'll be back down later, 'kay?"
Yuzu gave him a warning glare, but relented.
X-X-X
Gin set the tray of food down on his desk. "Yo, Rukia. I got yer food."
There was no response from the closet, which made Gin pause. Rukia wasn't one to pass up food - she was pretty meticulous about always eating everything she was offered.
He knocked on the closet door. Nothing. Not even breathing or faint shifting noises, so she probably wasn't in there.
"Now where did she run off to?" He hummed to himself, looking around the room.
Everything of his was in order. Rukia seemed neurotic about not invading his space, as if living in his closet didn't guarantee a disruption of privacy.
Rukia's backpack, however, was gone.
Gin opened the closet, to find her impromptu bedding re-folded as if it had never been disturbed. What was she planning - ?
A flash of white caught his eye, and he turned around. There was a piece of paper on his desk. He cursed himself for not noticing it earlier.
'Thank you, for all these times. Don't follow me. - Kuchiki Rukia"
Gin knew a final farewell note when he saw one. His hand was in his pocket and his fingers were around the green soul candy before the paper hit the floor.
X-X-X
"Kuchiki Rukia."
Rukia could have sworn her heart skipped a beat at the words. She skidded to a halt, and it took all she had not to fall over in shock.
That voice... it couldn't be...
"You are under arrest for crimes against the laws and traditions of the thirteen court guard divisions. Please surrender your weapon, if you have one, and come with us."
There was no mistaking it. Rukia bit down on her tongue. How could they? They sent Renji to perform the arrest? What kind of sick joke was -
She turned, and if her heart had skipped a beat before, it outright stopped.
From just behind Renji, the cold grey eyes of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki gazed at her impassively.
"You are charged with: illegal deputization of a living human, illegal forfeiture of reiryoku, failure to formally report anomalous battlefield conduct, failure to report in after exceeding patrol duties, desertion, and conduct unbecoming a Shinigami. Do you understand these charges, Kuchiki Rukia?"
Rukia winced at the formal tone coming from the red-haired man who had, in the past, been one of her closest friends.
"I- I'll come quietly," she stuttered, as if suggesting there was anything she could do to resist arrest. Seeing her brother's perpetually disapproving gaze, she forced herself to be calm. "I... I would request that you not harm the... the boy I made a deputy. He is innocent of any - "
"We are under orders from the central 46 to place you under arrest and to put a halt to the actions of the illegal deputy," replied Renji, his expression still stony.
Rukia gasped. Renji alone might have spared Gin, but her elder brother was merciless. His idea of 'putting a halt to' Gin's activity was almost certain to mean battlefield execution.
"I... Nii-sama," she pleaded. "Please don't - "
"Ya know, bullying a lady after dark ain't exactly what I'd call civic-minded behavior! Know what I mean?"
Three heads turned to face the newcomer, and Gin grinned wide as ever. "Yo, Rukia. These two giving you trouble?"
"Gin... I told you not to come after me..."
The tattooed, red-haired Shinigami looked at Gin disdainfully. "This is the deputy, I take it?" He said. "Stand down and surrender your power, and you may be allowed to live."
Gin tapped his chin. "Actually, I prefer the term 'rogue'," he purred. "And I got a better idea. You stand down, and take yer mitts off Rukia, and I might leave ya with only slightly life-threatening injuries."
Renji glared. "Are you resisting arrest, deputy?"
"Who are you calling a deputy, pineapple head?"
Renji seethed, and despite the gravity of the situation, Rukia had to stifle a grin at the nickname Gin had chosen for Renji.
"I'll take that as a yes," said Renji coldly. There was a silken noise as he drew his katana, dropping into a fighting stance with the ease of one well practiced.
Rukia's eyes widened. "Gin! Renji's a lieutenant! Don't - "
There was a lethal hiss as Gin's tiny blade left its sheath. The wakizashi glittered in the light of the street lamps.
Renji smirked. "It's funny you think you can beat me, deputy. With a sword that tiny, you must have the reiatsu of a mouse!"
Gin shook his head, sighing in amusement. "That's what Ishida told me too, y'know? And I told him the same thing I'm gonna tell ya now, Pineapple. Don't knock her till ya try her. She's more lethal than she looks."
"Abarai."
The red-headed Shinigami paused at his captain's voice, looking back at him for a second.
"Finish this quickly."
"Yes sir, Capt - hnn!"
Renji's head whipped back around as Gin pulled the dagger back, blood dripping down its length. "And ya call yourself a soldier?" He jeered. "Ya dumb fuck, you completely took your eyes off me! What, ya thought I was gonna wait until ya were done talking?"
Renji clamped his off hand over the bleeding wound on his stomach, and straightened. "You've got guts, kid," he growled, "but that won't be enough against me."
He held his sword out horizontally across his body.
"Roar, Zabimaru!"
The blade glowed red and, before Gin's eyes, morphed. The sleek Katana became a strangely segmented blade with wicked-looking tangs hooking from the back of each section.
Gin raised an eyebrow, his consternated frown on his face. "Snake Tail?" He said in a confused tone.
Renji grinned. "Just like I thought," he smirked. "You don't even know your zanpakutõ 's name, do you? Pathetic."
"Huh, I never knew they had names." Gin shrugged. "I take it that yer little command there caused a nice jolt - it sure felt like quite a surge."
Renji moved.
Gin's smile vanished in a flash, and he gritted his teeth. The young-looking Shinigami was fast - Gin could barely follow his movements. He shifted, trying to dodge, but he was too slow... too slow...
He grimaced as he felt the tangs of the strange blade slice into his left shoulder, ripping muscle and grinding across bone. The blade had stretched somehow – between every segment, there seemed to be some kind of elastic binding that loosened or tightened according to the redhead's will. Nasty. The lieutenant had a good handle on how to use it, too - it explained the whip-like movement.
Renji, however, didn't seem to be happy with his results. "You're faster than I thought you'd be, fox boy," he grunted. "That should have ripped your throat open."
Gin's plastic grin returned, masking the pain of the dripping - almost gushing - wound. "Hey, what can I say?" He replied. "I'd apologize for not dying, but it'd be a lie. I kinda like being alive. Been that way all my life, ya know?"
Renji narrowed his eyes, and swung again. This time, Gin didn't even see it.
The blade-sections of Zabimaru sliced into his side below the ribs, almost gutting him clean on the spot. He could feel muscles and organs being ruined under its bite.
He coughed, falling to his knees before slumping sideways. He barely registered the warm wet feeling on his face as his own blood pooled beneath him. Were the street lamps at low power in this district or something? It seemed darker than before...
"Come on," came the steely voice of the captain - Rukia's brother, Gin reminded himself. "We have the prisoner, and the deputy has been dealt with."
'The prisoner.'
This is Rukia's brother, and to him she's 'the prisoner?!'
Gin felt a searing rage rising in his body.
X-X-X
Byakuya and Renji had turned their back and were about to open a Senkai gate when an emerald glow appeared, illuminating the entire road.
The two Shinigami turned to face the self-styled rogue. Gin was standing up, and although unidentifiable shredded organs could be seen through the hole in his shihakusõ and skin, the wound on his side was no longer bleeding much. He was snarling, not smiling - and two eyes, redder than the blood that soaked his torn shihakusõ, shone clearly through the green light that emanated from his skin.
Byakuya Kuchiki narrowed his eyes imperceptibly, although his serene look remained. It wasn't every day that one saw a boy that was barely on the verge of adulthood sustaining his ruined body through sheer force of will.
"That's all ya got?" He growled, his voice tensed to the snapping point - almost hysterical. "Think I'd fall to scum like you?"
Byakuya frowned slightly.
"Abarai, deal with him."
Renji whipped his elastic sword around, and charged. This time, however, it was his turn to widen his eyes in shock.
Gin had moved easily ten times faster than before. In the blink of an eye, he had sidestepped Zabimaru's attack and stepped forward. Renji felt like a fool - he could have easily blocked the boy if he hadn't underestimated him and attacked recklessly -
The wakizashi drove down between his shoulder blades, just to the right of his spine. Renji gave a faint, strangled gasp as the blade stabbed through his lung, forcing the air out of it as it did so.
The redhead looked down, seeing a sharpened inch of steel poking through the front of his robes.
Gin pulled his blade free. Renji coughed, a bloody gurgle tingeing the noise, and collapsed.
"Rogue deputy one, lieutenant, zero," Gin hissed, flicking blood off his right hand. "What'cha gonna do about it, captain?"
"Tch."
Rukia felt her blood freeze. "No! Nii-sama! Please - !"
Neither of them saw the captain move, but move he did. In the merest fraction of a heartbeat he was standing behind Gin, blood running from the blade of his sword.
Gin felt two sharp lines of pain in his torso. He looked down to see two surgically precise stab wounds blossom with blood like some kind of rare flower.
He fell, first to his knees, then slowly keeling forward.
Byakuya turned, the same impassive look on his face, and raised his sword again.
"No!"
Byakuya... hesitated?
"Please," Rukia begged, tears rolling down her face. "Please, Nii-sama. He'll... surely he'll be dead in a few hours anyway. Please... please let him live..."
Byakuya flicked the blood off his sword. "Very well." He sheathed the lethal weapon. "I have struck him through the soul anchor. If he survives, his power will be lost. Either way, our orders are fulfilled."
Byakuya frowned as he felt a hand clutch his ankle. He looked down, his grey eyes meeting a pair of crimson ones.
Gin's eyes narrowed down to their foxy slits. "Kuchiki... Byakuya," he coughed, spitting blood. "I ain't dumb enough ta say... 'I'll kill ya someday,' cause in a fight... who knows? But... and you remember this, now..."
The noble's eyes narrowed.
"You... watch yer back." He grinned, his bloodstained teeth adding even more menace to the expression. "Cause I... ain't exactly the type... to fight fair."
Gin's fingers loosened, and Byakuya stepped forward, picking up his lieutenant's limp body as if it weighed nothing. "Come."
Rukia bit her lip, not daring to meet Gin's ruby eyes. "Don't follow me!" She cried. "You'll... you'll just die! If you follow me, I'll never forgive you!"
Byakuya frowned. He abruptly clipped a pair of cuffs around Rukia's wrists, still carrying the unconscious body of his lieutenant, and opened a Senkai gate.
Although she never did meet his slowly fading eyes, Gin was sure he saw her head turning just as Senkai gate slid shut.
X-X-X
It had begun raining, but other than that, the scene was one of déja vu - it had not been so long ago that the same unconscious body had lain helpless on the sidewalk under the light of the street lamps.
Kisuke's wooden platform sandals echoed through the hiss of the rain. "I swear..." He sighed. "Kids these days."
Hooking his cane over his arm, he moved to pick up Gin's inert body.
X-X-X