After Rukia was saved in the most chaotic way and by a boy that shook his beliefs, Byakuya goes to one of the oldest captains to discuss her rescue and both their roles in it.

Because Ichigo is right in saving Rukia doesn't mean I am willing to just discard the very important fact that one of the four most important noble families in Seireitei would never abuse the law with their nobility and that's it.

And also!
...because it's the kind of things I do, there are a few elements in here that pertain to my little take on various points of canon that a lot of people count as inconsistant + things we don't actually know because canon doesn't tell us, aka:
- aging in Soul Society
- Soul Society + Seireitei timeline
- noble houses

But it's really only details

tags: Kuchiki Byakuya & Ukitake Jushiro, Kuchiki Byakuya, Ukitake Jushiro, Kurosaki Ichigo (mentioned), Kuchiki Rukia (mentioned), Shiba Kaien (mentioned), Shiba Miyako (mentioned), honor, duty, discussion of beliefs

What your honor demands

They were sitting face to face, a cup of tea in their hands. When he had come in, announced by Kotsubaki and Kotetsu with exaggerated enthusiasm, they had shared a greeting, the other man seeming slightly surprised by his presence, but not overly disturbed. He doubted much could still disturb Ukitake through surprise, after all those years – true, he had seen him disturbed, even more so not so long ago, but that hadn't been a matter of surprise, so much as pure disagreement.

They still weren't looking at each other, though.

Byakuya's eyes finally left his cup to settle on the man he'd specifically come to talk to.

Captain Ukitake Jushiro. Older than most shinigami in Seireitei, from one of the lesser noble family – those that had founded Seireitei – one of the very first graduates from Shin'o Academy, first of those – with his best friend Kyoraku Shunsui – to replace one of the first generation captains, amongst the highest in terms of reiryoku, constantly sick – and, finally, one of the most loved captains in the history of the Gotei 13.

Byakuya didn't share most of the man's beliefs, but that did not change the respect he had for him, his strength, and his principles – though that didn't show most of the time, because that was how he'd been taught to behave.

Ukitake's eyes looked up from his own cup of tea, and crossed Byakuya's own gaze, a kind smile taking over his face.

"Was there something you wished to speak with me about, Byakuya-kun?"

Byakuya did wish Ukitake would stop calling him that, but he supposed he was a child to the man who'd passed two thousands years. No matter his asking, Ukitake kept on calling him that.

He nodded.

"You went to save Rukia."

Something rather odd flickered on Ukitake's face, but it did not last and Byakuya didn't know him well enough to try and decipher its meaning.

"Indeed."

A pause, and then:

"So did you, in the end."

Byakuya didn't answer. The reason for his presence here... It wasn't something he usually did. Back when they were alive, he asked his grandfather, or his parents. But the three of them had died a few decades back. Now, he had no one to ask. He wasn't supposed to, he guessed.

The Head of the Kuchiki family probably wasn't supposed to feel uncertain.

Thankfully, Ukitake went on for him.

"I suppose it is the subject you wish to speak about. Am I wrong?"

"Not quite, no."

A moment of silence, as he tried to find the right words – he could not be uncertain. That was not who he was supposed to be. And yet, here he was.

"Ukitake-taicho, you have been a captain for the Gotei 13 for nearly two thousands years. Not only are you still alive, but you have also kept your station. Which means you do not lightly forgo the rules. What made you break them, this time? How do you decide betweem the law and your principles, especially when those are supposed to be the same?"

Ukitake took a sip, and looked to the outside for a moment before answering.

"Ichigo-kun has made you think quite a lot, hasn't he? About what your duty is, to yourself, to your family, to your captaincy. Since it is so... Can I answer you with a question of my own?"

"If you must."

"If Kuchiki-san had committed a truly heinous crime, do you think Ichigo-kun's words on the matter of family would still apply? If she'd defected with Aizen, for example. Or, say, if she'd killed a human without reason, instead of having saved one by giving him her powers?"

"...I don't think that her being my family would excuse it, no."

Ukitake took a sip of tea, and looked Byakuya in the eyes. He seemed particularly serious, as if Byakuya understanding what he meant was of utmost importance.

"Ichigo-kun is young, especially so considering that he's only had shinigami powers for a few months, whereas most shinigami with his level of power, even the most prodigious ones like Hitsugaya-kun, or Ichimaru-ku... I mean, Ichimaru Gin, back when he was as young as Hitsugaya-kun, most of those shinigami still went through several years, a few decades, of growth, both in power and in this role that we hold regarding the balance between the worlds. When he says that an older brother is meant to protect his younger siblings, I don't think he considers the possibility that the sibling in question could be at fault, moreso as, in Kuchiki-san's case, she wasn't either."

Of course. When Byakuya had called Kurosaki Ichigo a child... That was the truth of the matter.

Aging in Soul Society could be rather tricky, especially for gifted souls. Children like Rukia and Abarai generally grew up at a normal rate, and then stabilized around their twenties, but children who enrolled into Shin'o had a tendency to take decades to reach adulthood, especially if they exerted their reiryoku beyond advisable – reason why Hitsugaya-taicho still looked like a twelve-years old, at most, when he'd joined a good forty years prior, at the tender age of seven years old; between his extreme youth, and his constant work towards Bankai and other efforts due to his station, his spiritual body couldn't seem to have enough energy to grow properly.

Byakuya himself had taken an additional decade to what was considered normal to reach full adulthood, and he hadn't been part of Shin'o, only following the familial training – being a Kuchiki, he didn't have to go to Shin'o to take the final exam for when he'd actually join the Gotei 13.

So yes, Kurosaki Ichigo was a child, in many ways.

Ukitake let him think for some time, before continuing.

"It isn't about whether or not you should always follow the law, or always defend your family. It is more a matter of, how do I put it...? Well. I generally tell my soldiers that there are two kinds of fights, did you know that, Byakuya-kun?"

Byakuya frowned, a bit taken aback by the sudden change in subject – as taken aback as a Kuchiki ever was, at least, especially amongst the main branch.

"I fail to see the link between this and that."

Ukitake chuckled, but did not comment, choosing instead to take the words for an admittance of ignorance.

"Fights for your life, and fights for your honor. I do not doubt you remember what happened with... with Kaien and Miyako-san, a few years ago. Back then... That's what I told Kuchiki-san, when I forbade her to go and help Kaien against the hollow who killed them both. That this was a fight for his honor."

Ukitake's smile had disappeared as soon as he'd used his former vice-captain's name.

"Of course, there was also the matter of her getting in the way, in a fight between a hollow and a vice-captain. As good as she is... Well. Still, I could have gone to help Kaien sooner, myself, and yet I didn't. Why? Because Kaien asked me not to. At least for a time, I had to grant his wish, no matter the outcome."

The white-haired captain put down his cup of tea, his hands together on the table in front of him.

"Another way I could have said it, in truth, is that Kaien wouldn't have been able to live with himself had I butted in right away. As to how that relates to your issue..."

Green eyes fixed themselves on grey ones, and it seemed as if all the years lived by the sick captain were currently weighting on Byakuya through those eyes.

"It isn't a foolproof method, I must admit, but the one I follow about whether or not to forgo orders is the same: could I live on with having done it, and could I live on with not having done it? That, Byakuya-kun, is my take on honor."

Byakuya pressed his lips together – he understood what the man said, and, more importantly, it was quite obvious why Ukitake had chosen those particular words to speak to a Kuchiki.

"The Kuchiki honor demands that I follow the law. And by that, I mean both the honor of my clan, and my own as a Kuchiki."

"I know. But if your honor demands you follow the law, Byakuya-kun... Do not forget who makes the laws, and who enforces them. People make mistakes, and sometimes they simply do not know enough to be fair. More than that, do not forget that Aizen gave those fraudulent orders, no matter that you didn't know it at the time. The law would not have been obeyed, simply because the law threatening Kuchiki-san's life never should have done so. The sentence for giving a human our powers, especially one who can be considered a non-threat like Ichigo-kun, isn't the death penalty."

There had been exactly one substitute shinigami before Kurosaki Ichigo, which didn't give much of a precedent to rely on. Especially as the only one before Ichigo had turned out to be rather... complicated to deal with, after a time. There was a reason giving your power to humans wasn't allowed to begin with – on top of the fact that you would be putting a civilian with no training in danger – and it was that you had no idea if the human would use those powers correctly.

"Had the Central 46 issued a sentence of, let's say, a decade in jail for Kuchiki-san, I wouldn't have broken her out. I would have probably done my best to minimize her time, or to change it to her being on probation, but I wouldn't have gone against the Gotei 13 and the Central 46. Because then, the law would have been followed, and to a certain point, would have been fair; after all, though Ichigo-kun is no threat, Kuchiki-san couldn't know that before giving him her powers, and it could have gone much worse than it did."

Laws and rules were there for a reason. Those who thought they weren't, were particularly naive.

However, that did not mean those laws were necessarily perfect, or that the rules were always justified. Byakuya was, perhaps, starting to realize that – not as some sort of abstract knowledge, but as a reality he had himself experienced.

Ukitake closed his eyes for a moment, and Byakuya almost thought he was going to fall into a coughing fit, but apparently that wasn't to be the case, for the older man only took a deep breath – which seemed, however, quite unpleasant – and started talking again.

"As for you, Byakuya-kun... You should have tried to defend Kuchiki-san, at least in court, and you wouldn't have been going against the law. It wouldn't have worked, considering Aizen, but that... That was something you could have done from the beginning. Something you should have done, even, because holding the law above everything else, Byakuya-kun, also means that you must ensure the law isn't being abused."

A small smile, a bit wan.

"The Kuchiki clan is particularly important, not only to the Seireitei, but also to the Gotei 13. You are the noble house with the most family members to have worked as shinigami. It is also necessary to note that, though it is a sad fact, you are the great noble clan with the highest number of clan heads since the creation of Seireitei. You are the 28th, after only two thousands and two hundred years, which means your clan heads last least than a century on average, because most of them have fallen on the battlefield. Your beliefs do hold a certain weight, and what your family has taught you is that nobility shouldn't abuse their power to be above the law, and that's really important, Byakuya-kun. I can only encourage you to keep that in mind. But that shouldn't stop you from asking for justice for yourself or for your family. You may not have more rights than others as far as the law is concerned, but that should never mean you would have less rights than others."

Byakuya thought Ukitake was eyeing him with a rather humorous look for an instant, which had probably something to do with the fact that nobles had, in a way, more rights than others anyway. But he guessed they both understood what the older captain meant here.

"That shouldn't stop you, either, from considering which laws are unfair, be it to those of your statute, or to those inferior to you. After all, you do have the power to, if not change things altogether, at least influence them for the better."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow.

"I hope you aren't trying to recruit me to make social changes when I am apparently barely able to understand the difficulties of respecting the law, if we are to consider the latest events."

Ukitake gave him a guilty smile, but did not elaborate.

"That being said... I just hope you will keep this in mind, Byakuya-kun: it's not that you shouldn't obey the law, or that you should prefer your duty to your family over your duty to everything else. What you have to understand about all this, in the end, is that it all depends on your honor, and what it can or cannot bear to live with."

This time, Ukitake coughed a bit as he finished his sentence, and Byakuya thought it might be time to leave and let the older man to rest.

"You have my thanks for this discussion, Ukitake-taicho."