Still alive! I'm still alive!

Just a filler chapter though.

X-X-X

The Striking Snake

ch19

Cloaks and Daggers

X-X-X

"Oh, sweet Kami..." Lt. Hinamori put her hand over her mouth in shock at the scene.

The third division lieutenant, Izuru Kira, dragged the last stretcher into the building and laid it beside the other two. All three contained unconscious lieutenants, and all three were bleeding from vicious stab wounds. "They were like this when I found them," he said, a bitter edge to his voice. "Chōjirō was still conscious, but he passed out after a minute. If only I'd gotten here faster, I would have been able to join the battle..."

Momo blinked, and took a deep breath. "No sense wasting breath on what could have been. You, do what you can to stabilize them. I'll send a hell butterfly to the fourth division - "

"No need."

Both lieutenants started in surprise and looked up at the sound of the cold voice. From the doorway, the imposing figure of Captain Kuchiki looked back.

"They engaged the ryoka without authorization. Throw them in jail."

"What?!" Sputtered Momo. "They acted in defense of the Seireitei! A force of three lieutenants was entirely appropriate, based on previous battle data! Lieutenants are perfectly authorized to act as they see fit in an emergency situ- "

Byakuya's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "Are you disobeying my order, lieutenant?"

There was a cold silence.

Kira quickly stepped in. "No, Kuchiki-taichō. Momo was merely making a strategic observation. Of course we'll - "

Byakuya's composure was abruptly shattered as someone elbowed him in the back. The three figures were suddenly enveloped in a suffocatingly powerful reiatsu.

"Last I checked, my L.T. doesn't answer to you, Byakuya, and neither does cute lil' Momo-chan. Who are you to be throwing orders out to other divisions' lieutenants, about other divisions' lieutenants?" Momo and Kira could make out the silhouette of a ragged haori and a shock of short, spiky hair. "Renji ain't the only one bleeding out there. Now quit picking on my lieutenant or I'll serve you with a knuckle sandwich."

Byakuya turned to see the smug, disrespectful face of the infamous captain Kurosaki.

He looked back, regarding the lieutenants... and then strode haughtily past Ichigo and out the door.

Ichigo sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Tightass. I don't know what his deal is." Then he looked thoughtful. "Oh, yeah... probably still being a pissy bag of bitch over his sister. He's the sort who would take it out on others."

Momo said nothing. Captain Kurosaki had a brutal reputation, and while he'd never actually killed a fellow shinigami (or at least, had never been convicted of such), he had gotten into nasty fights over seemingly slight insults - usually to other people. He was incredibly quick to anger if he perceived someone as a bully in any way, despite being a violent man himself.

"C- Captain!" Kira stuttered. "What should we do about - "

"Feh, don't worry about that," Ichigo waved his hand. "I'll send the hell butterfly. Nothing Byakuya can do to contest an order from me. Now come on, Izuru - I need ya for something."

The orange-haired captain waved to Momo as he dragged his blonde lieutenant away. Momo hesitantly waved back.

"Shit. They got beaten flat down, didn't they... how powerful is this invader, anyway?"

Momo jumped. "Shiro-chan!" She whined.

"That's Hitsugaya-taichō." The white-haired boy's expression was deadpan.

"First Byakuya, now you! How do you captains always walk so silently?!"

The immensely powerful child maintained his deadpan look.

Momo blinked, as if running out of steam. "... Umm... why are you here, anyway? You didn't bring your lieutenant..."

There was a silence, and Tōshirō's eyes narrowed.

"I'm here to warn you," he said at last. "Watch out for the third division."

Momo blinked. "You mean Izuru?"

"I was thinking of Kurosaki. But Kira might be in on it too." Tōshirō looked at the door, as if worrying someone might be eavesdropping. "Kurosaki-taichō is involved in some kind of skullduggery. I can't be too certain about anything yet, but it won't hurt to watch them. Especially when Aizen goes out alone."

Momo nodded. "I will."

Tōshirō flash-stepped away.

X-X-X

"The sun sets on the first day since the ryoka invaded the Seireitei, and we have suffered dozens of casualties, including three lieutenants! Three of the elite twenty-six! This is a state of critical emergency!"

The sōtaichō's staff banged on the floor. "In light of events, we shall overlook Kurosaki-taichō's misdemeanor yesterday, and Ukitake-taichō's unauthorized zanpakutō release. The Seireitei shall be moved to Wartime Conditions: Red Alert!" The old man surveyed the assembled captains. "No shinigami is to leave their quarters without their zanpakutō! Captains are sanctioned to release their zanpakutō shikai anywhere within the Seireitei!"

Every one of the eight captains' eyes narrowed. With the level of power a captain wielded, releasing their zanpakutō could easily cause non-trivial collateral damage from the power burst alone - to say nothing of the fallout from actual attacks. It was no small thing to allow captains to use shikai in the sacrosanct court of pure souls.

"Inform those captains who are not in attendance!" The Commander lifted his head. "We may be on the brink of an outright war!"

X-X-X

"Aizen-taichō?"

"Hmm?" The tired-looking captain looked up from his desk to see his lieutenant. "Ah, Momo. What do you need?"

Momo fiddled with her sleeves. "Well..."

Sōsuke smiled, putting down his brush. "You're nervous about the situation, aren't you?"

Momo blushed, nodding wordlessly.

Sōsuke nodded. "Don't be ashamed, Momo; it has us all on edge. Even Yamamoto-sōtaichō knows they are not threats to take lightly." He pinched the bridge of his nose, smiling kindly. "Kuchiki-taichō wanted to demote Abarai-san, but the other captains pushed it to vote and stopped him. Abarai will be able to return to his position once he recovers. A good thing, too - he's a fine lieutenant. Byakuya gives him too little credit."

Momo sighed. She hadn't even realized how tense she was over the ambiguity of Renji's situation - conflicting orders from two different captains were always tricky to resolve.

"You couldn't sleep, could you?" Momo instantly blushed. "Oh, don't worry. If you have no more duties today, feel free to stay here. We're moving to wartime readiness in response to the increasing threat, so you'll have a lieutenant's meeting very early tomorrow morning."

"Th- thank you, Taichō!" Momo said happily.

Sōsuke smiled in response, and went back to his work. Once again, Momo thanked whatever god was listening that she was lucky enough to be lieutenant to such a kind captain as Aizen.

X-X-X

One shadow moved past another in the darkness before the dawn.

"Well?"

"I am fairly certain a better time will never come. So be it."

A step. "What about - "

"All part of the plan, my friend."

"Ahh, of course. As if you would leave anything out. Well... shall we?"

Step, lunge. Grab. The rustle of cloth. Grunts of exertion.

"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu!"

Reiatsu release. Emotions running high. A fight. Shinigami sentinels are already running towards them.

The sun has almost risen. In mere minutes, the rays of light will pierce the deep shadows around them.

"Aha! This will do nicely!"

A metallic sound, and a gurgling gasp. The dripping of blood -

A loud grunt. The heavy, resounding thud of a body slamming into a solid barrier, laced with the sharp crack of stone breaking.

"Heh. It begins."

The hiss of flash-step.

And then silence, as the dawn's golden rays finally found their way between the walls and alleys of the citadel.

And shortly after that, the echo of rapid footsteps, and a scream.

X-X-X

Rangiku and Kira were attempting to console Momo, but it wasn't working too well. Part of this was what she had witnessed had hit her extremely hard, and part of it was that they too had been set on edge.

"No... no... this can't be happening..."

Kira was silent. It wasn't as personal for him, and he was thinking slightly clearer - he had seen the wounded lieutenants, along with the corpses of the dozens K.I.A. that now lay in the fourth division morgue. He could not say if the ryoka were strong enough to kill a captain, but there was no doubt that the brutality of the scene was well within the capacity of at least one of them.

"Yeesh, what's up with people screaming at fuckin' dawn... some people need their - "

Everyone turned to look at captain Kurosaki as he paused. "Uh. Well. There's a thing you don't see everyday." His eyebrows rose, a rare sight; Ichigo's perpetual bored look didn't shift lightly. "Uh-huh... I can see this being a big problem."

The lieutenants could not help but mentally award the captain for making the understatement of the year.

Ten meters or so above them, at the top of a long streak of blood running down the wall and the center of a shallow, red-streaked crater, hung the lifeless corpse of captain Sōsuke Aizen - nailed to the cracked stone by the blade of his own zanpakutō.

"Must have been recent," Ichigo mused, apparently unperturbed by the grisly turn of events. "If Kyōka Suigetsu hasn't begun disintegrating, he can't have been dead more than two or three hours - "

"You!"

Momo ripped Tobiumé from her sheath, charging towards the orange-haired captain.

You did this, you son of a bitch. Tōshirō warned me you'd try something, but I never thought you'd kill captain Aizen...

Ichigo didn't draw Zangetsu. He didn't even move. Instead, Momo felt another zanpakutō's reiryoku stop her own - the oh-so-heavy and tired-seeming power of Wabisuke.

She glared at the blonde lieutenant in her way. "Step aside, Kira!" She yelled. "This is between me and Kurosaki!"

"I'm the lieutenant of the third division," Kira said, his teeth gritted. "I don't care about your reasons. I can't let you attack my captain."

Momo pushed harder. "What part of 'step aside' do you not understand?!"

Kira pushed back. "What part of 'I can't' do you not understand?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes... and turned, walking away as if nothing had happened.

Momo gritted her teeth, and her eyes narrowed. Seeing it, Kira's widened.

"Snap, Tobiumé!"

Kira recoiled, barely dodging the explosive fireball that shot from Momo's sword. The incandescent projectile blew a sizable hole in the building just behind him.

"I see you're beyond reasoning with, if you'd release your zanpakutō over this," Kira muttered. "I'm afraid, Hinamori, I must treat you as an enemy! Raise your head, Wabisuke!"

Kira's zanpakutō was engulfed in ultramarine reiatsu. Its shape changed abruptly, straightening and extending to form a grotesque square hook facing forward at the end of the blade, the hook's inner edge carrying the same blade as the sword itself.

Kira dodged another fireball, and dashed forward, bringing his blade up and then down. There was a clash of steel -

The air turned frigid, and the metal of Wabisuke suddenly grew bitterly cold in Kira's hands. Out-of-season frost tinged the entire walkway for a brief moment.

"Stop this at once."

For all his tiny stature, it was moments like these that sharply illustrated why Tōshirō Hitsugaya was a captain. He had kicked Tobiumé to the floor and proceeded to block Wabisuke with the sheath of Hyōrinmaru, all in the space of a split second - without even breaking composure.

"Kira, you could have restrained Hinamori without releasing Wabisuke."

Kira bowed his head, knowing it was true. She had been completely irrational; a simple kidō could have taken her down.

"Hinamori, you acted so far out of line I don't even know where to begin."

"I... I'm sorry, Shiro- I mean, Hitsugaya-taichō..."

Tōshirō looked at the other lieutenants present. "Put them both under arrest for drawing weapons in a brawl!" He declared. "And for Kami's sake, send someone to get Aizen down from there before the body falls on its own."

The inhumanly strong Nemu dragged Kira away, while Shūhei and Rangiku restrained a passive but uncooperative Momo. Soon enough, there was nothing but silence.

"Uh... sorry about that, Jyūbantai-taichō," said the walkway's other occupant eventually. "My bad. I thought Kira would deal with that better than he did. Should have stepped in earlier."

"You're making a lot of mistakes lately, Kurosaki." Tōshirō's voice was low.

"Huh?" Ichigo scratched the back of his neck, his bored look persisting. "Well, everything's a mess with these ryoka mucking about, I'm kind of losing focus more often - y'know how it is - "

"Kurosaki."

Ichigo ceased his rambling. "Hmm?"

Tōshirō turned to look the other captain in the eyes. "You're one of only three living people I know who could throw a man hard enough to crack a citadel wall, so you listen to me," he hissed. "I don't have any evidence either way, but I saw you there, and you were getting set to kill Momo, weren't you?

Ichigo lazily raised an eyebrow.

"Well, let me put it to you this way," the younger captain growled. "If Momo loses even a drop of blood, and I smell even the slightest connection to you - or the ryoka you conveniently failed to apprehend - then I will kill you. And if you think I can't make good on that, well, don't think you're the only captain who trains against Zaraki."

Ichigo let out a shaky laugh. "That's a hell of a line," he said. "I guess I better keep an eye on her, then, if these ryoka are bad enough to beat lieutenants."

Tōshirō narrowed his eyes. "I don't make empty threats, Kurosaki..."

"Oh, I know that. Neither do I."

Tōshirō opened his mouth, but before he could respond, Ichigo had flash-stepped away.

X-X-X