Chapter 28:

The Seireitei hadn't changed at all. Ichigo squinted in the morning light, suddenly thrown back in time. It was late afternoon when they were leaving the World of the Living.

"Well, I'm off," announced Ikkaku.

"Where are you going?" asked Rukia.

"I'm going to check in with my Captain. We've been gone a long time. Besides, I want to see what the others are up to at the training hall. I hope they haven't been taking it too easy without me around to whip them into shape."

"I'd better go, too," said Yumichika. "Might as well, since we're going the same place. See you all later."

Rangiku looked down at the few bags she managed to bring back with her and sighed. "My Captain's bound to want to see me, too. But I should really drop these off before I do that. I would also like to rest a bit before getting back to work... and there are a few other things I need to do first."

Naturally, she was trying to avoid going back to the office and making up all the paperwork she had missed. Everyone knew that and chose not to call attention to it.

Ichigo looked from left to right, figuring out where he should go from here. "I'll see you guys later." Before anyone could stop him, he took off down the nearest street.

"Ichigo!" Rukia called after him but he was already gone.

"Rukia."

She turned to Byakuya. "Yes, brother?"

"You should check in with your Captain as well. Let him know you're back."

"Yes, brother." Rukia nodded her head.

Byakuya started toward his Division. There was bound to be a mountain of paperwork waiting for him.

Ichigo didn't know where he was going. The Seireitei was like a maze. Veneno must have been out of the sickbay by now. The only likely place Ichigo figured he would be was the Department of Research and Development. He was pretty sure he knew where that was. He wanted to make sure Veneno was doing ok. Judging from how the majority of Soul Reapers were behaving, he half expected Veneno to either be dead or in prison. As long as the Soul Reapers didn't do anything rash, Veneno wouldn't have a reason to turn violent. At this point, that was all Ichigo could hope for.

"Sneak attack!" Someone jabbed Ichigo in the back.

"Ow!"

Veneno jumped out from behind Ichigo, laughing. "Got you!"

Ichigo brushed it off. Veneno playing with him was a good sign. "I see you're feeling a lot better."

"Yup." Veneno held up his arm, twisting it back and forth and flexing his fingers. "All healed."

"That's good to hear."

Veneno punched him in the arm as if to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that his arm was entirely healed. This time Ichigo swung back. Veneno easily blocked his fist and stepped to the side, his other arm wrapped around Ichigo's neck. "Don't mess with me. You know I can take you."

Ichigo smirked. "I must remember our last fight all wrong. Who won that again?"

"You know I beat you all those other times."

"The final match settles it and decides the winner."

"It does not!" Veneno shoved Ichigo away. "The better warrior is the one who wins the most."

"The deciding battle is the last one. Everyone knows that."

Veneno rolled his eyes. "I can kick your ass and you know it."

The two walked down the street together until they reached an open area. There were Soul Reapers passing through and some who were using the area to read or chat. Ichigo grew concerned as a small group passed them by. Surprisingly, they didn't glare at Veneno or try to avoid him. In fact, they waved and Veneno waved back. Ichigo was relieved. It seemed some Soul Reapers had gotten over their uncertainty and accepted Veneno.

"Any problems while I was gone?" Ichigo asked after the group had passed them by.

"Not really. No one tried to kill me, if that's what you mean."

"More or less."

Veneno looked up. "One second." He dashed ahead and trotted beside a Soul Reaper with long white hair. Veneno was smiling at him and saying something. Ukitake smiled back and reached into his sleeve. He handed Veneno something which he took with both hands and smiled wider. Ukitake waved to him and went on his way.

Ichigo hurried to Veneno's side and looked at the object in his hand. It was a chocolate bar. Ichigo grinned.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What? He gives me candy. So what?" Veneno was already fighting with the wrapper.

"Whatever. I'm just glad your making friends, that's all."

Veneno stopped pulling at the wrapper and looked up at Ichigo. "He's not my friend."

"Hm?"

"I said, he's not my friend." Veneno was being serious. "None of them are."

Ichigo frowned. "But you seemed to get along with some of them and they were nice to you."

"Yeah, but that doesn't make them my friend. Just because they're nice to me and give me stuff."

"Don't you like them?"

Veneno shrugged. "I like Ukitake because he gives me candy and he's nice enough. But he's not my friend. None of them are. They're Soul Reapers."

"Are you going to start that again? I told you before, if I can be friends with humans, Soul Reapers, Quincies, Vizards and Arrancars, you can, too. There's no reason why you can't."

"There is a reason. They're Soul Reapers and I'm not. We can never be friends. That's just how things are."

"It doesn't have to be."

Veneno shook his head. "It is. Soul Reapers kill Hollows. I am a kind of Hollow. Arrancar or not, I'm still a Hollow. We're enemies."

"But you're getting along fine with them and they seem to have warmed up to you."

"We're still too different. At this point, the only reason why we seem to be getting along is because they have no reason to kill me yet and I'm using them."

"Using them?"

Veneno held up the chocolate bar. "They provide me with food and shelter. If I behave they won't kill me. And because I need them to provide such things for me, I won't hurt them. Besides, if I did try anything, they would kill me and I won't risk that. There's nothing further to the relationship than that."

Ichigo couldn't believe that. "So you're telling me, you don't feel anything toward Soul Reapers other than what they can do for you?"

"I don't know what other kind of relationship there is."

"It's not just what can they do for me," explained Ichigo. "Sometimes you go out of your way to help someone because you care about them."

"I helped that Captain because he supplies me with candy. If I lost him, I would lose a resource."

Ichigo knew that wasn't the reason. He helped protect Ukitake long before he knew of his generosity and candy stash. Whatever real reasons he had for doing what he did, Veneno was denying. Even from himself.

"You care about others not because they can do something for you but because you really actually care about them."

"Why?" Veneno couldn't grasp such a thing. "Why would you care about someone if they had nothing to offer you?"

"That's what friendship is. You care and not because you have something to gain. You genuinely care about the other person."

Veneno still couldn't understand that.

"I told you before, I'm here with you now because I want to be and not because I have something to gain. Whether you want to believe it or not, it's because I care about you."

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend and I think you deserve a chance to be happy. You said you always wanted a friend. Did you not know what one was?"

Veneno didn't answer him right away. He seemed to be thinking about it. "I just didn't want to be alone. I wanted to be with someone who can make me happy."

"Someone who cared about you and would help you?"

Veneno avoided Ichigo's eyes.

Maybe he was trying to convince himself that friendship between Soul Reapers and Arrancars was impossible. Maybe he still didn't understand.

"You and I can be friends, Ichigo," said Veneno. "But that's because you are also part Hollow. We can understand and trust each other. We can be friends. But with Soul Reapers... that's impossible. We can never be friends."

"But-"

"We're too different. I'm too different. Sometimes you have to stick with your own kind. Either way, I know I can't be friends with them because I don't care about them the way you say I should. To me, it's what they can provide for me. Once they can no longer do that, I move on to someone else who can. There can be no deeper relationship than that. I just... I just don't care about them. Not the way you say I should."

Once their usefulness was over, he would find someone else. Once they outlived their purpose, they became meaningless. It was like a toaster. As long as it toasted bread, it had importance. It was serving a purpose. Once it broke down, it was time to get a new toaster. There were no personal attachments. As long as it served its function, that was it. That's all that mattered.

As Veneno saw it, people were no different. He should only care as long as they were useful to him. If they provided him with food, then he cared. Once they could no longer supply him with food, he would move on to someone else who would.

It seemed to Ichigo that Veneno was still having problems with personal attachments. Maybe he was denying it or maybe he truly couldn't understand the concept. This was something Ichigo couldn't teach him. Veneno had to figure it out for himself.

Byakuya returned to his office in silence. Squad members bowed, welcoming their Captain. He opened the door to his office and stepped inside. Sure enough, there was a pile of paperwork waiting for him on his desk. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Perhaps Renji helped file part of the pile.

He crossed the room and looked out the window. There was little activity near the building. It was quiet for the most part, which he liked. Something caught his attention. Two people were passing under the window, laughing. It was Ichigo and Veneno. They appeared to be teasing each other but Byakuya couldn't tell for certain. Veneno shoved Ichigo with his arm as if attempting to knock him down. Ichigo said something back and Veneno started laughing again. Then Ichigo pointed and Veneno turned. While his back was turned, Ichigo jabbed him back. Veneno yelled something to him, but was still laughing by the looks of it.

Byakuya frowned. Veneno was an Arrancar and he was their enemy only a few months prior. Now he and Ichigo were getting along just fine. Almost like friends. Going on appearances alone, Veneno didn't seem to have any ill will against him or other Soul Reapers. His intention could have been different, but at the moment, he didn't seem like much of a threat. If Ichigo could trust him...

"Captain, you're back."

He turned around. "Renji."

"When did you get back? Just now? Rukia, too?"

Byakuya's face remained expressionless. "Is that a proper greeting for your Captain, Renji?"

Renji flinched. "Oh, yeah, right." Renji bowed deeply. "Welcome back, Captain Kuchiki."

Byakuya turned away. Honestly, he wasn't bothered by Renji's lack of a greeting and didn't care whether or not Renji gave him a proper one.

Renji raised his head, noticing that Byakuya was looking out the window again. "Captain?"

By this time, Ichigo and Veneno had continued on their way and were out of his sight. "Tell me, Renji."

"Yes?"

"Are you aware of the Arrancar situation we have on our hands?"

"You mean the one that's been here in the Soul Society? Uh, yeah. By this time everyone knows about him."

"What can you say about him?"

Renji was hesitant in his response. "Uh... well, that's tough to say. I've never actually met the guy so I have no idea what he's like. All I have to go on his what other people have said about him. A lot of people were worried, but now things seemed to have calmed down. I guess he's getting along with people. There was even a rumor going around that he helped save Captain Ukitake during a Hollow attack and got injured saving him. I wasn't there so..."

Byakuya listened, but didn't look at his lieutenant. "What do you think of him?"

"What I think? Uh... Well, like I said, I've never met the guy."

"Based off of what you've heard and others' impressions, what is he like? Can he be trustworthy? Is there doubt?"

"Uh..."

Ichigo seemed to trust him. He put in a good word for Veneno and seemed determined to help him. Why would Ichigo go so fair to protect someone who was an enemy? Logically, that would mean that Veneno wasn't an enemy. At least not anymore. A similar thing had happened with Linnette's group. They had started out as enemies and now things were different. It was possible for the same to be true of Veneno. Byakuya had come to trust Ichigo's impression of people, but there was always a trace of doubt. There was an equal possibility that nothing had changed and Veneno couldn't be trusted.

"Considering how people feel about him and the fact that he hasn't tried anything... Personally, I think we owe it to him to give him a chance. I mean, trust is easily taken away but at the same time, someone has to give it to them in the first place. Know what I mean?"

"I see."

Aside from the Hollow situation, nothing has happened while Veneno lived among them. It was possibly that the Hollow attacks and Veneno could be related somehow. Even Byakuya had his suspicions. The more he thought about it, however, the less he thought it possible. From what he was told, the Hollows were attacking Veneno as well as Soul Reapers. If he wished to do harm to Soul Reapers, then why would he risk his life to protect one of their Captains? It didn't make sense.

At this point, it seemed like the only reason why he was under suspicion was because he was an Arrancar and nothing more. They had no real evidence. While Byakuya wasn't completely convinced, he didn't see any reason to take action against Veneno. Not just yet. Not at the risk of starting something unintentional.

"Renji."

"Yes, sir?"

"There's a lot of paperwork to sort through. My absence has caused it to pile up to this point."

"You want me to help you sort through it all and fill it out?"

"Thank you for offering." Byakuya handed him half of the stack.

Renji's shoulders fell. His Captain's tone and expression remained serious, but Renji saw a little cunning glint in his eye. His Captain had a devious side. He must have had a good time in the World of the Living.

Just as Ichigo was about to suggest getting something to eat, Akon hurried past them on the street. "Where are you going?" they asked.

Akon slowed but didn't stop completely. "I'm running errands for the Captain. We're still trying to figure out where all those Hollows are coming from."

"Did you want to take a break for lunch or something?" Veneno asked.

"As much as I would like that, I can't. The Captain has me doing too many things as it is. I still have to help the others in the lab, deliver those reports and all those other files to the departments, then I have to..." Akon cut himself off with an aggravated sigh. "It's a holy mess. I've got to get going. I'm allowed to eat when I'm finished. Go ahead without me, though. Help yourself. Ichigo will go with you." Akon hurried off.

Veneno's head lowered in disappointment. "I never get to see him the way I used to."

"You're pretty independent now so he doesn't have to help you out as much."

"Even when I was doing things for myself, he still ate with me."

Ichigo tried not to smile. "So you miss eating with him and hanging out."

Veneno turned away, lifting his head into the air. "It's fine. I know he's busy and he would hang out if he could. No big deal."

Even as he said it, Ichigo knew it did bother him more than he was letting on.

"Say... Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

Veneno turned slightly. "Why do people give each other gifts?"

"Why? Because... It's to show that they care."

Veneno turned a little further so Ichigo could see his face. "How?"

"How what?"

"How do you give somebody a gift?"

"That's easy. I give you things all the time. It's as easy as that."

"Oh." Veneno looked away again.

"Why-"

Veneno sprang up, landing on a roof and took off running. Ichigo took off after him. By the time Ichigo caught up to him, he found Veneno standing in fort of Squad 12's laboratory. He pushed the doors open and Ichigo followed him inside.

"Veneno?"

The Arrancar took him down to one of the lower levels and over to a metal table covered with papers. He started gathering up as many as he could and placed them onto a metal cart. The ones he couldn't fit, he handed to Ichigo.

"Veneno?"

"These are the files Akon has to deliver." Veneno started pushing the cart out of the room. "At the rate he's going, he'll never finish his work."

"So then..."

Veneno grabbed a file and vanished. He reappeared a moment later empty-handed. Grabbing another file, he raced off again. Ichigo's eyes couldn't track his movements, but he could see what he was doing. Veneno was traveling as fast as he could to deliver all the files to their proper locations. As the pile on the cart started to shrink, Ichigo started feeling a tug on his arms as the files he was carrying started to disappear. Veneno raced around the room, handing the remaining files to working Soul Reapers. As soon as the last file was dropped off, Veneno screeched to a halt beside the cart, stirring up dust from the floor under his feet.

"Done. One less thing for Akon to do. Now he can't complain."

Ichigo couldn't hide his smile this time.

"What? Why are you smiling like that?"

"You delivered all those files for Akon. Obviously you care about him otherwise you wouldn't have done that."

Veneno crossed his arms and snorted. "It's just that now he has no excuse, that's all. Now he'll have more time on his hands. Which means he can hang out with me. It's not because I care or anything."

"But you do. Why would you want to hang out with him if you didn't care?"

Veneno had no answer for that.

"You want to hang out with him because you like him."

"No! It's just... Well... If he didn't deliver those then he would have gotten yelled at. And... and Akon has a lot to do so I wanted to lighten his load a little bit. It has nothing to do with liking him or caring."

Ichigo shook his head. "Caring about someone's well-being and wanting to help them out if what friends do for each other."

Veneno frowned. "Hey, he helped me out before when I was helpless and didn't know what was what. Now we're even. I don't want to be indebted to Soul Reapers. That's all. Don't over-think this."

Was Veneno still in denial or did he really feel this way?

As Akon returned to the lab, he found that his work was already done for him. The Soul Reapers had the files in their hands or on their desks. He looked around. "Who..?"

Ichigo pointed to Veneno.

"Veneno, did you deliver all those files?"

He nodded.

"That would have taken me two hours, there were so many and so many places they had to go. How did you..?"

"I ran. Fast."

Akon grinned. "Thank you. That was a huge help. You have no idea." Akon patted Veneno on the shoulder. "I'd better get back to the Captain before he kills me or worse. Thanks again. With any luck, I'll get to eat today after all."

Veneno's chest felt warm and a smile crept onto his face. Doing Akon that kindness gave him a strange sensation. He was happy to have been a help to Akon and even happier to have seen him so pleased and grateful. But why would he feel this way? He received nothing in return other than seeing Akon happy. For some reason, that was enough. But why? It didn't make any sense. Could it be that Ichigo was right and that doing things for people he cared about..? Veneno never thought such a thing was possible. He never believed such an idiotic thing. Then again, that was before he got to know these Soul Reapers. Before this peace between them.

Veneno turned to Ichigo. "It wasn't like I had anything better to do. Come on, let's get some food."

Mayuri moved from station to station, checking monitors and yelling at his subordinates. Every few seconds, he would shout and demand results. Unfortunately, all his questions went without answers.

"Well? Well?"

Hiyosu turned away from the screen to answer. "Nothing yet, Captain Kurotsuchi."

"How long does it take?" Mayuri bellowed to the child furiously working in front of him. "Rin Tsubokura!"

"Waah!" Rin shrank inside his lab coat, like a turtle fleeing into its shell. "Y- yessir?"

"Results! Now!"

Whimpering, Rin turned back to his screen, searching for answers that just weren't there. "Uh... No change."

"That's not good enough!"

"I'm sorry, Captain!" Rin's fingertips danced across the keyboard at lightning speed. "District clear. Uh... The following areas are clear as well. The-"

"I don't care about that!" Mayuri slammed his fist on the tabletop, causing everyone in the lab to freeze in fear. "Where are they coming from?! Tell me that!"

"I- I- I don't know!" Rin stammered. "Gatekeeper of the White Road Gate, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka, reported back saying there were no breaches. We've checked with the remaining gatekeepers as well and they've confirmed the same thing. None of the gates were ever opened."

"Check again!"

"He did, Captain," Hiyosu called from his station. "Five times. The gatekeepers are starting to get annoyed."

"Let them be! We have Hollows entering the Seireitei and no one can tell me how it's happening!" Mayuri screamed. "Call them again and check again! Maybe a Hollow slipped inside when the gates were opened under someone's authorization."

"That's a negative, Captain. Any Soul Reapers released on Hollow business have all returned before this incident occurred or were dispatched and have yet to return."

"That means nothing to me! The point is the Hollows could have entered when those gates were opened letting those Soul Reapers in or out. They could have entered at that moment and waited until now to make their move!" Mayuri pounded his fist on the table again. "Check again!"

"Captain! I'm sorry, but we just don't have the results you're looking for!" Akon pleaded for reason from one of the monitors. "The gatekeepers said nothing had gotten in and they're not going to change their answers just because you demanded it. The walls show no signs of damage so nothing broke in through there. Nothing tunneled underneath, not that anything could anyway. If anything came in from above, surely someone would have seen it, like the first time Ichigo and his friends showed up. We've had people thoroughly checking the walls, just in case, taking samples of the land and everyone is on high alert. All readings are normal, no abnormalities anywhere. That includes our equipment. The monitors and analyzers... everything. Nothing is showing up. We've been checking and double checking and triple checking everything every few seconds. It's not us, Captain! It just isn't there."

Enough was enough. Everyone in the department was stressed and on the verge of a breakdown. If it wasn't from their activity and relentless searching for something they couldn't find, it was from the fear of their Captain finally losing control and killing them all in a fit of rage. Either that, or he would turn them all into test subjects, in which case, death would have been a mercy.

The researchers continued to type while their Captain took a moment to think. "Finding out where these Hollows are coming from is of the utmost importance now. We don't know if it's over or not. Nevertheless, I want to know how they're getting in."

"I'm sorry, Captain Kurotsuchi," said Akon. "But the results we're getting don't have the answers you're looking for. There are no breaches and no one has seen anything entering the Seireitei. Logically, if there are no signs of entry, then it never entered."

"But they did enter," said Hiyosu.

"Yes, I know that. I'm just saying that if there's no way for them to get in that we're seeing, then they must have already been inside."

"Already inside?" Rin tilted his head. "As in they've been here the whole time? How can that be? Someone would have noticed if Hollows were in the Seireitei of all places."

"Not really," said Hiyosu. "I mean, we didn't notice the Arrancar that was living right under our noses in the department."

Mayuri's eyes suddenly went wide and looked towards the door. In no time at all, he flung the door open and charged out of the room. "Captain?" Akon hastily followed after him. The Captain took him on a long journey down several flights of stairs and to a large steel door. With one hard push, he sent them swinging wide open and entered the room. Not a moment later, Akon heard him cursing. "What is it, Cap..?"

The room was filled with large tanks, very much like the one Veneno was revived in. They all looked like large test tubes. What was left of them, at least. All twelve containers were shattered, glass covering the floor along with with some strange olive-colored slime.

"Damn it." Mayuri stood in front of the tanks, muttering in anger.

Akon stepped carefully into the room, covering his nose with his sleeve. It stank like boiled cabbage, eggs and rotting meat. The stench was powerful enough to leave a horrible taste in his mouth. "What is all this?"

"I know where the Hollows are coming from."

Akon turned to his Captain who paid him little attention. He was still looking at the empty, shattered tanks. Looking around, Akon soon realized where they were. "This is the lab where you were keeping those Hollows for experiments, isn't it? We put them on the back burner some time ago. It's been months since I was last in here."

"That's right. I was going to use them as test subjects, but then that Arrancar took precedence. To be honest, some of them started to bore me. I wasn't getting good results. Some I had never gotten to."

Akon stared at the shattered tanks. "So... the Hollows that are showing up... they came from here?"

"Exactly."

"But that doesn't make any sense." Akon pointed to the tanks with is free hand. "The Hollows we've been fighting are far larger than these tanks used to hold them. They would never fit."

"You fool. Can't you see that the tanks are completely shattered. What does that tell you?"

"That they broke out."

"Or..." Mayuri held up his finger. "... they became too big and broke it. They grew."

Such a thing was not impossible. The question was how and why did they grow to be so large so quickly? This phenomenon was very similar to Veneno's transformation into an Arrancar. He, too, had grown too large for his container and escaped.

"Captain, how did this happen? Growing so large in a short amount of time."

"The answer is at your feet." Mayuri pointed to the slime on the floor. "Look familiar? Granted, it's been fermenting for some time now, but it's an answer no less."

This slimy goop covering the floor was a dark color and smelled foul. It didn't bring back any memories Akon could think of. Until... "Wait. It's similar to the slime Veneno had in his tank when he was recovering."

"It's not similar. It's the same." Mayuri pointed. "These tanks had chemicals in them already. Then this mixture was added to these tanks. Do you understand now?"

"So the same goop Veneno had in his tank ended up inside of these tanks? By accident?"

"It was certainly someone's dumbass mistake!" Mayuri yelled. "This got mixed with the Hollows and mutated them. That's what's going on. The Hollows that are running around loose are mine. They were from my lab and they were contaminated with the Arrancar's mixture. There was no break in. They were already here."

Akon's mind was working rapidly to fit all the pieces together. "That explains a lot. Veneno's slime... Now it makes sense, if it was from his... Yes. That must be why the Hollows grew to be so large. The same way Veneno grew and developed within a short amount of time. And the fact that we can't sense them. We can't sense Veneno's Spiritual Pressure either. So some traits were passed on because of the chemicals. And if they were from this lab, that's why they were found so close to this Division."

"Exactly." Mayuri sighed. "My lab. No doubt the Head Captain will find some way to blame me for all of this because of that. I'd love to know how that mixture ended up in their tanks. In fact, I'd love to know a lot of things... But there's work to be done."

"In what way, sir?"

Mayuri pointed to the tanks. "Count them. All twelve of these tanks were occupied. We've only found three Hollows so far."

Which meant there were nine left, somewhere in the Seireitei.

Now we know. And now we get more action!

Please review! ^-^