Bleach (c) Tite Kubo

Once More To See You Again

Regroup and Reassess

The Fourth Division finally released him on restricted duty. Although technically speaking, Renji isn't expected to return to his post until tomorrow at 7 o'clock sharp. But that's not the reason he's making his way through the Sixth Division's barracks right now. He's come to check on the prisoner.

Renji strides confidently through the barracks, seemingly untroubled by his numerous injuries. When other juniors officers or unranked officers saw him in the hall, they paused to bow their heads in respectful greeting at his passing, he offers curt greetings in return. Passing the butterfly cages, Renji produces a small silver key from his robes, twirling it around his finger. He presses it into a silver panel into a door frame. Beyond the door was the prison cells. Currently the Sixth division hosts one prisoner.

Rukia remained in the center of the cell. She hadn't moved since she'd been incarcerated. Barely slept or ate according to the other officers. She remains motionless as a statue on that stool, facing the single window in the cell.

"Why haven't you eaten anything?" Renji asks by way of greeting.

"Oh. It's you Renji..." Her voice is hoarse from more than simply disuse.

When its clear Rukia was unreceptive to further conversation, Renji tries to bridge the tense silence with aggravatingly awkward reassurance. "You made us worry for a while there with your crazy stunts. The top brass were in arms when the Menos showed up. Heard even the Kuchiki clan was too. When you didn't respond to recall orders we'd assumed the worst, that emergency relief was desperately required. Then the Omnitsukidou report came in, shocked everyone to hear the real story."

"Your concern is touching..." the bitter sarcasm makes Renji wince.

When Rukia finally glances back over his shoulder to address him, Renji is absolutely certain she's trying to glare him into an early grave. She has no weapons inside that prison cell, but her tired expression is frostier than her Zanpakutou. The rims of her eyes are slightly puffed with a trace of red. Renji had heard from the guards on duty that between her resolute Kuchiki-instilled silence, Rukia had been quietly grieving. Renji felt a curious mingling of feelings; pity and empathy coupled by frustration and an unbecoming private jealousy.

"Why are you here? Come to gloat?"

The words are a steel knife through Renji's stomach.

Renji frowns at her, masking the hurt of her biting tone with mild annoyance, "Are you still angry at me?"

"You cut me... twice. Had a jolly time of it too. Then you tried to strange me. You killed an innocent for no reason and left someone I considered a friend to bleed out in the street. I don't know what other response you expected."

"Friends. That orange-haired runt and..." Gut impulse compels Renji to say Lieutenant Shiba. The dark hair brother, the broken corpse they found off the mountain trail, looked almost exactly like him. As though someone had revived the late lieutenant and wound back time to reduce him to a teenager. Even that punk called him Kaien. "And his brother?"

Unbidden, thoughts of that kid's pathetic howls of rage and grief push to the forefront of his mind. and pushes down a reflexive pity. They were brothers, they had parents. Siblings. A family that would be left behind to grieve. They -

Renji clamps down on that train of thought immediately. He scolds himself for allowing those unprofessional notions take hold of him. He is a soldier. All that mattered was carrying out his mission and he can swallow his private distaste in his own time. Besides, those brats deserved it for stealing Rukia's powers and holding her hostage in the first place!

... if only he could convince himself.

Rukia finally spares a frigid glance over her shoulder, her eyes are still slightly red around the edges. She said nothing. Renji pulls a chair from the corner and sat himself down. Though his orders put him squarely on opposite sides, he wanted to demonstrate he still held some regard for her. As much as his new position would allow.

Renji had never been close to Lieutenant Shiba. He only know the man from second or third-hand accounts, maybe glimpsed him him from a distance. His reputation painted him as a one-in-a-generation prodigal genius. A hard-working yet easy-going individual who could deftly and effortlessly charming anyone who crossed his path, or earning their begrudging respect, and was Captain Ukitake's protégé-slash-pet project.

Renji also knew that Lieutenant Shiba had been Rukia's mentor, whose sudden violent demise could only be described as a tragic accident. He could understand the temptation that led Rukia astray. At least a little.

"He wanted to be a scientist. Ichigo wanted to be a doctor. They both wanted to help others through knowledge and healing, all they ever tried to do was help me. Despite that, despite me begging you not to, you killed them both anyway. Now you're expecting me to banter with you like nothing happened?" Venom drips from every word.

"We didn't kill him." Renji admits uncomfortably. "The brother - we didn't kill him. There was a Hollow attack. We found the body afterwards. There wasn't much of his chain of fate left after the Hollow was done with him."

A charged moment of silence stretches.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Rukia says coldly. "We both know he would've died either way. And twice over, his blood is on my hands."

"It shouldn't have been on your hands in the first place." Renji rebukes fiercely, "You should've known better. We're not supposed to re-associate with souls we knew in their past lives. It goes against-"

"You think I don't know that?" Rukia snaps back. "Do you seriously believe I wouldn't have put in a transfer immediately had I any other choice in the matter?"

She exhales a deep heavy breath, "I didn't know about the re-association until well after the fact. By then it was far too late to do anything. The damage was done. There wasn't much in the way of mitigation either. Not when those two shared a damn bedroom."

Another quiet sigh. She shakes her head gently, "They're going to execute me regardless of my reasons. Why bother explaining myself?"

Renji searches for something to lift the morbid atmosphere. "Captain Kuchiki's on his way to a hearing with Central 46 right now. He's probably requesting clemency right now. That man's your elder brother. There's no way he'd allow his little sister to die."

"No." Rukia answers distantly, quite devoid of emotion. "That man would rather kill me himself."

"This matter should have been brought to my attention immediately." Jushiro Ukitake, the sickly Captain of the 13th Division, declares to the assembled delegates. His voice stretches out across the entire shadowed chamber, searching for a place to find purchase before settling into nothing.

"Rukia Kuchiki is a member of the 13th Division. Matters of her retrieval and discipline should have fallen under the 13th's jurisdiction. Captain Kuchiki and Lieutenant Abarai have acted outside their remit to apprehend her. As her captain, responsibility to carry out this mission fell to my division."

"Then, why did you not act when the mission duration expired?" asked one of the officials from their shadowed alcoves, "Can you account for your subordinate's blatant disregard for the recall orders? Is it not your duty to ensure your division members respond readily to lawfully issued orders from their superiors?"

"For a mission of any duration, there is a grace period to allow for evolving circumstances outside the mission's original parameters. By her own after-action account, Rukia Kuchiki found herself in one such circumstance. Though illegal, we should not lose sight of the fact that her actions saved innocent souls." Ukitake defends with as much vehemence as his addled body allows.

"She violated our most sacred tenants!" Another bellowed, echoed by a fist slamming against a wooden bench.

"I will freely admit that this situation was brought on by Rukia Kuchiki's own inexperience, however-"

"If it was a result of her ignorance, a measure of blame falls to you as her superior officer; for failing to equip your subordinates with the proper knowledge to perform their duties correctly. Choose your words carefully, Captain Ukitake, unless you wish us to lay fault at your feet as well." A third snide voice chimes in.

Ukitake lowers his head grimly but he remains undetered. He should've expected the Central 46 to be obstinate, but this is above and beyond their standard stonewalling. He considers and frames his next words carefully.

"No one person can possibly account for every circumstance; and this was indeed a rarified occurrence bordering on the outlandish. In our history, there has only been a handful of substitutes. Though a fraction of them have been of ill repute, the norm have been of passable character. Our first course of action should have been to approach the situation offering the benefit of the doubt, to consider the possibility of open negotiation. The record shows Rukia Kuchiki's extermination orders were carried out in a timely manner. That suggests the human Kuchiki was collaborating with freely assisted her in her duties. We could have approached the human and made an assessment of his character, as we did any other."

"That proves nothing. The human could just as easily been keeping Kuchiki captive while performing her duties to throw off suspicion." Another esteemed delegate offers with a tone of extreme disinterest.

Ukitake takes a step forward. "There has been no evidence of that. Observers indicated that Rukia Kuchiki was in perfect health when moved to surrender herself to the authorities. Furthermore, it's become clear that Soul Society have executed an individual who has done nothing more than render aid one of our own in her time of need. Of course Rukia should have reported this situation at the beginning, so the appropriate legal steps may be pursued to officially ordain a new substitute, but I hardly believe that this chamber would willingly execute yet another promising young soul over an honest mistake. This specific case and its unique circumstance has already cost the life of one innocent. Must we allow it to claim another?"

The uncaring eyes of the forty executives and six judges stare at him from behind their inscribed screens.

"Compelling words, Captain. I find it interesting you refer to such a dereliction of duty as an 'honest mistake'. Equally interesting is the fact you cite laws you specifically authored into our annals to allow for such extraordinary circumstances. Does no member of this council, nor our six judges, find it convenient that Captain Ukitake is utilizing the laws he created to acquit his own subordinate of this crime?" The snide voice returns, sounding particularly bored. "Perhaps we should host an arraignment to determine if the good Captain is guilty of nepotism, using his military position to curry political favour with a member of the Kuchiki clan? I deem his motives... suspect."

Ukitake dearly wished to retort but he is far too experienced in this arena to rise to such blatant bait. So he bites his tongue and refuses to give the esteemed delegate the satisfaction of getting under his skin.

"Any person who leads warriors into battle would go to any length to ensure as many of his men survive first contact with the enemy as possible. That is simply honour. I see no suspect motives here, only a man performing the duty of his office." A low rumble boomed from one of the six esteemed judges.

Ukitake is momentarily struck by the surprisingly amicable statement. He should've known it was too good to last. "However, the matter of the Shinigami substitute is moot. He is dead. A greater crime has been committed in the course of this act that cannot be overlooked. One of such magnitude that we allowed Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, the 23rd Head of the Kuchiki family, and his primary adjutant the tend to the matter personally, as a compassionate gesture."

"A greater crime? I was only informed of the unauthorized creation of a Shinigami substitute. What other crime has been committed here?" Ukitake demands.

"The crime of re-association." The judge pronounces.

"What?" Ukitake blurts with less grace than such an august assembly deserves, eyes wide and shocked to the core. "How? Who? To my knowledge, there is no soul that could match that description. Who could she have possibly interacted with?"

The answer chills his blood.

"Rukia Kuchiki stands accused of violating the creed of souls and interfering with the reincarnation of one Kaien Shiba, former Lieutenant of the 13th Division and 21st Head of the Shiba clan. Your former lieutenant." The judge replies with a twisted feral satisfaction that almost sounds like gloating.

Ukitake doesn't hear the underlying malice. He's instead consumed by the all-encompassing dread, his heart seizes in his chest and his blood turns to ice. A weight the size of Sokyoku hill sits in his stomach.

"By our own most sacred tenants, none of your division could have attended to the task even if you wished to. Unless the entire 13th desired to become accomplices in Rukia Kuchiki's charge."

Ukitake weakly swallows down the sudden lump in his throat and somehow finds his words after an eternity. He already knows the answer, "What happened to... to the boy?"

"The contamination of Rukia Kuchiki's presence was deemed irreversible, therefore Captain Kuchiki made the decision to execute him along with the unsanctioned substitute."

That night forty years ago comes to the forefront of Ukitake's mind. Of his beloved Lieutenant's dying gasp and bloodied form, twisted by malice and devoid of humanity. Now coupled with an imagined scene of a doubtlessly frightened and confused child mercilessly struck down by cold invisible steel.

Ukitake feels as though a scab over his heart had been torn wide open, unleashing a fresh wellspring of grief and bereavement. He couldn't believe it. Not only Rukia's actions but the fact that an innocent life, that innocent new life, had been cut brutally short.

Why would she choose to remain in that situation in the first place? Did she fear rebuke for her mistake? Her heart was in the right place but she could be such a fool. Had she contacted him, had Ukitake only known, he would've made arrangements and taken care of the situation in less than a day. He would've sent agents, sent a replacement supervisor for the substitute and brought Rukia home to recuperate. Someone from the 8th would've done well. Kyoraku wouldn't have objected to loaning one of his officers to this small favour if Ukitake had the opportunity to explain the complexities involved.

"We will now pronounce the edict." A second female judge intones, interrupting Ukitake's private laments. "For the capital crime of transferring her powers to a human and failing to report the existence of a substitute Shinigami; death. For the crime of violating the creed of souls and re-associating with an incarnated soul; death. The sentence will be carried out in thirty-five days."

"That's..." Ukitake's eyes snap wide, he's lost for words entirely.

"The Central 46 have heard your testimony on behalf of Rukia Kuchiki. You may appeal the decision if you wish. On this matter, the court is adjourned." The first judge sentences, punctuated with the echoing slam of a wooden gavel.

Ichigo spent the morning in a daze. Urahara's medicine bottle tucked into his pocket and his many wounds covered by his uniform. He barely spoke to anyone as his legs carry him through the town. The shopkeeper advised Ichigo to return to school for his final day, but Ichigo hadn't pursued that. Adrenaline and stubborn will kept him functioning long enough to hear Urahara's spiel about Rukia's execution and agree to train, but now? Now, he's left along with his thoughts. His anger and outrage dulled to flickering embers as his mind tried to sort through what he'd heard last night. What he'd imagined he saw.

Mechanically, Ichigo took the medication on the hour every hour, dry swallowing the pillow. It was all he could do to get the wretched thing down. His throat as tight with pain and grief.

Those wretches said-

They said-

Ichigo swallows hard, not willing to allow that thought to come to fruition. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, trying to push away that uncomfortable reality.

Even though those Shinigami claimed it, Ichigo doesn't want to believe it. He doesn't want to think that the brother he loved, that he grew up with, had always watched his back, had effortlessly cajoled him into laughter and practical jokes (even and especially when Ichigo was in foul tempers), his closest and best friend, was dead.

He can't fathom why. Was this a cosmic joke? Wasn't it bad enough that Rukia was being punished for the situation Ichigo put her in? Wasn't he the one who charged in like a reckless fool in an attempt to play at the martyr to save his sisters? Shouldn't he have been the one punished for causing her mistake? Now they turned around and killed his brother too? But for what reason? Because he was there? Because he was a witness to Ichigo and Rukia's hollow hunting? What, did the Shinigami go around killing regular humans who catch the slightest whiff of their presence for kicks?

Ichigo grits his teeth, feeling a sting of tears in his eyes that he desperately tries to will away. The only thing that prevents him from succumbing to that soul shattering despair is a memory. Or what he desperately hopes is a memory. He clings to it like a protective talisman. When he passed out from pain and blood loss, he saw Kaien. Ichigo thought perhaps as a dying wish he hallucinated his brother one last time, but the image was too vivid to be a simple trick of the mind. It raised so many questions, and Ichigo dearly hopes his brother is around to answer them.

Without realizing it, his legs had carried him home. Ichigo meanders into the front door, offering a dull habitual announcement and greeting.

Yuzu's bubbly cheerful tones emerges from the kitchen, welcoming him home. Ichigo latches onto her good cheer, feebly attempting to leech some of it off for himself. She questions why he isn't at school and Ichigo manages to deflect with an easy excuse, making his way further into the house. The old man's in the clinic with a patient and Karin's in the living room, playing at a console.

Yuzu chases after him, "Oh Ichi. When you get the chance, do you mind checking on Kai please?"

Ichigo suppresses the urge to wince at their brother's name, he swallows and manages to answer with a natural tone, "Yeah, sure. I'll give him a call when-"

"No need ta call him. Kai's moping upstairs." Karin interjects, not looking up from the video game's boss fight. A wooden paddle pop stick bouncing between his lips. "Doesn't strike him often, but when he's gets sulking he's worse than you."

"Wha-"

"Karin!" Yuzu admonishes with her hands on her hips then huffs out a sigh. "Kai came home last night from his camping trip. His teachers sent him home because someone got hurt pretty badly. He's been super depressed about it and absolutely refused to come out of your bedroom all day. Can you just make sure he's okay? Maybe convince him to comedown for afternoon tea?"

Karin makes a wry comment but Ichigo doesn't hear it. His heart thuds against the wall of his chest like a hammering drum and he bolts up stairs. Each pounding foot on the steps jars his wounds but Ichigo doesn't care. He turns the corner, sprinting down the corridor before coming onto the door with two ornaments; the black and white plaque handing from a nail etched with the number 15 for Ichigo, and hanging from that a navy blue swooping sea swallow for Kaien.

Ichigo barges into his room with a loud bang, eyes fixed straight forward where he sees Kaien's bed and his desk. Both show signs of recent use. Despite that, for a fraction of a second, Ichigo's heart sinks into despair before a disorientated murmuring sound pierces halts him in his tracks.

Moving further into his bedroom and around the wardrobe corner, he finds Kaien peeling himself off the desk. Evidently, he'd falling asleep slumped over Ichigo's desk. A pale throw rug slips from his shoulders, gathering on Ichigo's chair.

"Yuzu... Whaizzt?" Kaien complains groggily, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hand before half-hooded eyes land on Ichigo.

The drowsiness vanishes instantly.

Kaien scrambles clumsily out of the chair, wrapping his elder brother in an embrace tight to the point of pain. It presses at his multiple tender wounds. Ichigo doesn't complain, returning the hug instantly. Whatever discomfort the physical action brings is washed away by the bone deep relief that Kaien is safe and alive.

"Thank god." Kaien releases a shuddering breath, taking a step back. He brushes the back of his hand over his eyes to whip away the first threat of tears and the two are stand in silence for a moment.

Then their room rings with a loud hard slap delivered upside Ichigo's head. "Ow!"

"You scared the hell out of me, dumbass! Don't you dare do anything like that again." Kaien scolds harshly.

Indignant anger overtook the whirlwind of emotions that tormented Ichigo all day. He welcomes it and eagerly rises to the bait.

"Oh, like I volunteered to get the living hell kicked out of me. Newsflash jackass, that wasn't my idea." Ichigo replies with a caustic tone, but any further words die in his throat. Killed by the expression on his brother's face, both the furious anger and worry front of him and the crying devastation etched into his memories last night.

Ichigo exhales a heavy breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

Another long moment drags on before he finally addresses the elephant in the room. "When did you get shinigami powers?"

Kaien winces, his anger fades.

"You saw me? I thought you were already unconscious." He passes Ichigo to close their bedroom door, suddenly extremely tired. "Sit down. It's a long story."

Sitting their desk chairs, Kaien takes a few minutes to collect himself as though trying to pick where to start. He begins with mild hesitation. He tells Ichigo about his experience. Most noticeable since that day at their mother's grave, since he saw Grand Fisher's lure take the guise of that unknown woman, he's been feeling something different in himself. A barely perceptible sense of a strange otherness that's been growing more aware over the last two months. How the other day during Ichigo and Ishida's hollow hunting competition, that otherness manifesting itself, moving him - moving through him, manipulating galleons of water to crush a hollow into paste to protect him. How Urahara found him, tended his wounds and explained that display was a nascent Shinigami power. Then finally, he confessed to minor discomfort that his recent camping trip was a convenient cover to train with Urahara in order to unlock that power.

Though the entire explanation is important, its a minor point that Ichigo latches onto.

"That bastard!" Ichigo curses, fingers curling into tight fists. "If I'd known you'd gotten hurt when Ishida pulled that stunt, I would never have let him get off with a scolding." He growls angrily to himself, before focusing on his twin.

"Is that why you've been nursing your shoulder and getting dressed in the bathroom for the last week?" Ichigo asks.

Kaien gives a wry smile, pulling back his shirt collar demonstratively to reveal the pink healed flesh of said wound on his right shoulder. It looks like a splotch of red with lightening arcs expanding outwards. The skin is mildly irritated but no worse for wear than a minor case of sunburn. That would probably disappear in a day or two.

"Wasn't as subtle as I'd hoped, huh?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ichigo demands.

Kaien shrugs, fixing his shirt and rolling his shoulder. "You had bigger things to deal with. And I knew you'd fly off the handle because you always do. Case and point; you're conjuring up ways to shove Ishida's bow up his nose sideways right now, aren't you?"

"No I'm not." Ichigo lies. Only because he's thinking about how to shove it up Ishida's ass instead.

"No point getting angry about it now. Its in the past." Kaien shifts in his chair, choosing his next words carefully. "I know there was nothing I could do before. Rukia always went out of her way to keep me out of the spirit world stuff as much as possible. I knew even if I asked her she wouldn't teach me any spells to help, so I took up Urahara's offer instead. I didn't say anything about it beforehand because I knew you'd try to talk me out of it."

Ichigo grits his teeth. "You're damn right I would. What did you think, that this was fun and games? A quirky way to spend an evening then back to school the next morning?"

"No, I didn't think that at all."

"Then why would you do it?"

"For you, you idiot."

Ichigo's taken aback, honestly confused. "What?"

Kaien stares at him for a long moment, incredulous. Slowly he shakes his head as if Ichigo is missing the blatantly obvious. "Are you truly that stupid? Is it so hard for you to fathom someone wants to protect you for once?"

"You didn't have to." Ichigo retorts.

"There's no 'have to' about it. I wanted to." Kaien insists firmly. "You're my brother, damn it. The only one I've got. What, did you think it was fun and games watching you come back late, covered in more scratches than Rukia could heal in one sitting? Or being stuck on the sidelines watching you getting your shit kicked in? For crying out loud, I almost lost you last night! Someone has to watch your back and I'm sorry to say Rukia wasn't cutting it. Especially now those Soul Society goons have swooped in to snag her up for one asinine reason or other."

Ichigo bows his head. Kaien continues, "Besides... there are things I've promised myself that I'd do. And one of those things was to help her."

Ichigo deflates. "Right. I suppose you heard about what's happening from Urahara, didn't you? That Rukia's been set up for execution."

Kaien shakes his head. "I do want to save Rukia too and I know we'll both have to go to the Soul Society to save her, but I'm not referring to her. There's more to it than that." Kaien leans forward, hands loosely folded together. "I don't know too much about the specifics, and I don't know what you've been told, but Zanpakutou are souls onto themselves. They're alive."

"Wait, you have one?" Ichigo is shocked.

Kaien nods. "All Shinigami aspirants do from what I've learned. In want of a better term mine is sick. Something's affected her and it's degraded her pretty damn badly. I don't know if she's contaminated by an affliction or injured or how any of it really works. She's barely sentient, barely coherent and I'd promised to figure out a way to heal her. Strange as it sounds, part of me is convinced that solution is somewhere on Soul Society's side."

Renji mentioned that last night too. Ichigo managed to pick that much up in between getting his shoulder blades hacked to pieces. Zanpakutou have names. And if Kaien has one... But does Ichigo even have one anymore now that he's lost his powers? He closes his eyes, compartmentalizing that for later. One problem at a time.

"You don't want to ask Urahara about it?" Ichigo prompts.

"I don't trust Urahara as far as I can throw him." Kaien declares with an uncharacteristically cynical tone, slouching with his arms folded. "He knew last night would happen. He knew Soul Society would snatch Rukia up and he knew you'd get butchered in the process. Hell, he basically admitted to me he let it happen to teach us a lesson. Only a truly sick bastard does something like that. The old shopkeeper is scheming, and I don't trust him in the slightest."

He sighs, "But I did promise I'd help him with one job as repayment for helping me learn about my Zanpakutou."

"You don't trust the guy and now you're in his debt?" Ichigo arches an eyebrow.

Kaien groans, "Yeah, I know. It's a less than optimal situation. But it was that or fumble about like an idiot and probably get myself killed on accident. Then you might've had to send me onto the other side yourself or I might've wondered his way anyways. Presuming a hollow didn't eat me first. Saved everyone the time to cut out the rigmarole."

"Charming image, brother." Ichigo mutters. He takes a moment to consider their options. "Regardless of whether or not you and I trust him, old Hat'n'clogs is our only ticket into Soul Society. We need his help if we wanna save Rukia."

"Rock and a hard place." Kaien laments quietly. "So what are you going to do? Charge in blindly, then?"

"Charge in blindly, yes. Kick asses, save that idiot and bring her home. Maybe flip the bird on the way out," Ichigo replies, Kaien hides a snigger behind his fist, "Urahara says he's got a way to help me get my powers back. I'm gonna take him up on it. Got no choice in the matter."

A strained challenging smirk pulls at Ichigo's lips, "And I'm not about to let my baby brother outshine me."

"Kiss my ass." Kaien rolls his eyes good-naturedly, "In that case, you'll need a sparring partner. And I need someone to show me how to use this sword properly. I'd actually like to fight with a little discipline because I refuse to flail an oversized knife around like a baby rattle. I'm not a berserk lunatic, thank you very much, unlike someone in this room I could mention."

Ichigo nods along. It took him a couple seconds to realise he'd been insulted. "Yeah. I'd appreciate - wait a minute. A berserk lunatic?"

Kaien is thoroughly unrepentant. "I didn't stutter."

Ichigo stabs a finger at him. "You take that back."

"Make me." Kaien challenges.

And just like that, the brothers descended into their typical bickering. A routine they threw themselves into with gusto. Their greatest challenge will begin in the morning.

Author's note:

No excuses. Been playing more Tears off the Kingdom, went on Holidays (thank you Star Trek Strange New Worlds for the inspiration for the C46 court scene). SS in a couple chapters. :D

Rukia is pissed. Ukitake just discovered that his son was reborn then killed again (and likely going to give Byakuya dirty looks), and Ichigo and Kaien plot their next course of action.

Regards,

Aurora313