Ichigo could almost hear the menacing chuckle ringing through his ears, dripping with victory and smug satisfaction. He shouldn't have believed the bastard would keep his word. There was a note left behind, a measly scrap of paper perched innocently on the kitchen table waiting for him when he rushed home in a panic. No upturned chairs, no broken glass. Everything was as he left it and the scent of last night's curry still lingered faintly in the air. The note contained two simple words: a trade. His stomach dropped like a heavy stone in a deep pool.
The meaning was clear: Aizen had his family.
A finger traces itself along his jaw roughly, sharp nail biting into his skin. He yanks his head away from it, disgusted at the touch as he throws as much menace and defiance into his body language as he can and resists the urge to swear violently at the man standing in front of him.
"What the fuck do you want Aizen?" he growls through gritted teeth.
The man smirks bemusedly, hazel eyes keen and analysing. He ignores his question.
"Do you love your sisters?" he asks sweetly, voice dripping like honey from a spoon.
Ichigo stiffens at the mention of them, amber eyes snapping forward to glare at the brunette bastard. "If you so much as touch them I'll –"
"You'll what? Kill me? Don't be so arrogant as to believe that you and I are on the same level, boy."
A small voice echoes through the room and makes his blood run cold. "Ichi-nii?"
Panic rises in his chest as he realises his sisters are here. "No! You said you'd let them go!" His stomach boils with rage and he rushes at Aizen, pulling against the shackles binding him to the wall. They stop him an inch from Aizen's face, and he can feel the cool metal cut into his wrists. He shouldn't have believed the snake would keep his word. Ichigo spits at the smug grin he holds, and a string of colourful insults follow.
Aizen wipes his face with a white sleeve, expression now one of annoyance. A chill passes through Ichigo as Aizen snaps his fingers, signaling the arancar guard holding his sisters. The guard roughly grabs Karin's arm and bites down on her bicep, drawing a painful scream from her lips. In retaliation, her scream of pain turns to one of anger as she punches the guard smack-on in the face with as much force as she can muster. Ichigo smirks – that's his little sister!
Aizen's expression turns sour, as he promptly crosses the floor to his sisters, backhanding Karin and snapping Yuzu's arm in what seems to be the same instant.
"Don't fucking touch them you bastard!" Ichigo roars, pulling against his restraints again. "Karin! Yuzu!"
Karin doesn't move, Aizen's blow having knocked her unconscious, and Yuzu, to her credit, glares openly at their captor as she cradles her broken arm.
Ichigo growls lowly. "What do you want Aizen? We had a deal."
That smug expression returns (gods, that irks him). "We did, but unless you're going to cooperate with us then I'll have to keep them here as insurance."
Ichigo freezes in place, eyes wide and fearful. No. He can't let that happen. Casting away his pride, he lowers his gaze and takes a few steps back in submission. He promises himself that when he gets out of here he's going to make the bastard pay.
"I'll do whatever you want," he says, voice strained through grit teeth. "Just let them go."
Aizen's grin widens, eyes still cold as ice as he produces a thick black band. Ichigo tenses up as he approaches, but remains in his place; he can't risk his sisters, he has to get them out of here and if that means letting Aizen near him then so be it. It takes all of his will power not to punch the shit out of the man as he ropes the band around his neck like a collar. The effect is immediate and he feels his legs almost give out beneath him – his senses dull and it's as though he's being smothered by a blanket. The pool of power that was tingling at his fingers before – dulled by the chains, yes, but he could still feel Zangetsu's presence beneath the surface – is cut off completely, so abrupt that it makes his vision swim.
"O-ok you've done what you n-needed," Ichigo manages to say between ragged breaths, "now l-let them go." His legs give out completely and he's forced to kneel, darkness threatening at the corners of his vision. He's too tired to care if it looks like begging; he only cares if it's enough to free his sisters.
Aizen seems satisfied with his response, waving a hand to release the girls. "Do not say I'm not a man of my word, Ichigo," Aizen warns as Ichigo breathes a sigh of relief before he allows the creeping blackness to take him into its hold.