Chapter 2: Snake Can't Slither

"You want to knock off for a while?" Ichigo asked, "Dinner's ready."

"Don't tell me you let Orihime cook for us," Kisuke chuckled, lifting Gin's limp arm and checking the IV, then studying the monitor next to the bed.

"No way!" Ichigo laughed, "I value my life. I cooked everything myself."

"Well," the twelfth division taichou said, taking on a more serious expression, "You may value your life, but it seems that bastard, Kurotsuchi didn't value Gin's very much at all."

"Really?" Ichigo mused, frowning down at the unconscious shinigami, "What do you mean? What did he do to him?"

"It's more like what did he not do to the guy."

"Whoa, even though he knew Gin was pregnant, he...?"

"He appears to have kept him unconscious and on very basic life support well beyond what any reputable scientist would deem safe. I'll be honest with you. Although the guy's body has been preserved, his mental and cognitive faculties may be gone."

"What?" the Shiba heir gasped, looking stunned, "You mean his mind...?"

"Could still be functional, but is more likely to be damaged, maybe devastatingly so. I don't even know if I dare to wake him."

"Damn," Ichigo breathed, shaking his head, "Isn't there any way to help him?"

"I don't know how much help he needs or if I can help him until I attempt waking him, and I don't know if I should attempt waking him while he's still carrying the baby. A sudden change in his state of consciousness or awareness could cause bad things to happen. It could go really wrong, really fast."

"So, what are you going to do, just keep him under like that until the baby comes?"

"I don't know," Kisuke confessed, "Just one of many frustrating questions I have to think about. But I do think taking a break and having a bite to eat would be good. You mind doing me a favor while I go do that?"

"Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"Sit down by him, okay?"

Ichigo sat down at Gin's bedside and looked up at Kisuke questioningly while the twelfth division taichou lowered the sheet and exposed the pregnant shinigami's rounded belly.

"What's that about?" the Shiba heir queried, frowning, "You want me to give the guy a belly rub or something? You're not going weird on me, are you? Playing jokes? Cause if you are messing with me..."

"I'm not messing with you," Kisuke chuckled, "Although a belly rub isn't far from the mark."

"Kisuke!" Ichigo objected, blushing.

"Just teasing. Look, place your hands over the rounded section and just relax and let your reiatsu billow around you."

"You don't want me to aim it into his body or something?"

"Heh, if you try to aim your reiatsu into him, all you're gonna do is fry the poor bastard, and we don't want that, do we?"

"Jerk..." Ichigo muttered dryly, letting Kisuke position his hands, then offering the requested flow of energy, "Hey, what is this doing, anyway?"

"Gin's body's kind of a mess right now, so he's not circulating his own reiatsu properly. Having yours flow around his body will add to his reiatsu and help to direct the flow more effectively."

"That doesn't sound too dangerous."

"Well, it's not without side effects, but I think if we don't do it, then all we'll have is a dead shinigami, a dead baby shinigami and no answers of any kind."

"So, this is definitely better, but what side effects are you talking about? We're not going to grow any unnatural parts or get sick or..."

"No, no, nothing like that," Kisuke promised, "It's just that, what I'm having you do is actually also related to something the breeders would do. The father of the child would do something similar to this with his pregnant spouse. It helped to keep the bearer's body in balance and it also bonded the two more firmly by mingling their reiatsu in the child."

"Wait, what?" Ichigo mused, blinking, "I'm not the kid's father! That's Aizen!"

"Well, he's not exactly available to help us out here. And even if he was, I don't think after what he already did to Gin that the guy would welcome him back with open arms. He's likely to lose both of them and his head this time."

"But if I do this, you mean...?"

"Your reiatsu would mingle with Gin's and the baby's...well, and the father's, of course."

"Kisuke, something doesn't make sense to me. If Aizen fathered the baby, then why did he try to kill Gin? And why didn't Gin already have the baby, since he survived? And if Aizen didn't father the baby before, does that mean that Kurotsuchi Mayuri did this to Gin using Aizen?"

"You are just full of questions, aren't you?" Kisuke laughed, "But you're in luck. I do have some answers, though only a few. And I have more questions."

He looked down at Gin's sleeping face, watching the muscles relax slightly as Ichigo began the reiatsu infusion.

"First of all, I know for a fact that Gin was already pregnant when he went to Karakura Town with Aizen. I don't know if he realized it, or if Aizen might have hidden the knowledge from him."

"But why would Aizen impregnate the guy if he was just going to kill him...and before the baby was born?"

"I'm not sure. That's one of my questions. But I do know that Gin was impregnated and that Aizen is a father."

"Whoa...a father?" Ichigo repeated, almost forgetting about the infusion, then catching himself and redirecting his reiatsu slightly, "You mean..."

"Let me tell you a little something about the breeders," Kisuke offered softly, "And this goes back to Tetsuya-san. I don't think you know. It's not ever spoken of, but Tetsuya was pregnant when he was rescued from the prison."

"What?"

"Tetsuya-san told Byakuya that the baby was fathered by Naoki, a boy that he shared a cell with in the prison."

"Are you saying that's not true?" Ichigo asked curiously, "And why would Tetsuya lie about that to Byakuya, who just rescued him?"

"I don't think it was really a lie. The boy was one of the fathers, but someone else originally got Tetsuya-san pregnant."

"And how do you know that?"

"Tetsuya-san was badly injured in the rescue attempt and Naoki was killed. Byakuya turned to me to try to save his cousin and the baby."

"But I've never heard of Tetsuya having a baby, so..."

"During surgery, Tetsuya-san's body went into shock. He had taken too much damage and could not manage the pregnancy and still manage his own functions. I tried everything I could think of...every damned thing in the book, but in the end, Byakuya was forced to choose. I could let things take their course and although the baby would be born, Tetsuya-san would definitely have died...or I could end the pregnancy and save Tetsuya-san."

"Damn...," Ichigo breathed, shaking his head, "That's a hell of a choice."

"Tetsuya-san was comatose, but Byakuya knew how he would choose. Even so, he couldn't do it. He couldn't let his cousin die, not after all he had done to bring Tetsuya-san out of that place."

"That's got to have been really hard on them."

"Yeah. Tetsuya-san took the news quietly while Byakuya was there but collapsed and completely lost it after he left. He didn't hold it against Byakuya, but it broke something in him. He was a mess for a long time, but after Hisana-san's death when he and Byakuya became lovers, Byakuya promised him that they would someday have children of their own. They had to wait a while to make sure that Tetsuya-san's body could tolerate the procedure to repair the damage from before, but things went well and they were able to conceive the Kuchiki heir."

"I'm glad. They deserve to be happy," Ichigo said approvingly, "But tell me something. You said that Naoki wasn't the only father. If he wasn't, then who else was?"

Kisuke's eyes narrowed.

"You have to promise me that you will never repeat this to another soul without my permission. Tetsuya-san doesn't want Byakuya to know, because he wants to let bygones be bygones and move on. To him, it's just Naoki's child and his, because it was Naoki who cared for Tetsuya and gave him the infusions."

"But someone else fathered the child?"

"Yeah, you know that obnoxious cousin that's always annoying Tetsuya-san?"

"Orochi?"

"Yeah. He was sent by Byakuya to spy within the prison and to protect Tetsuya-san until he could be rescued. Tetsuya-san's father was Kuchiki Soujun's first cousin and closest friend. Takao was his name. He was executed back when marrying a commoner was still strictly punished. Tetsuya-san's mom died in the prison when he was a child. Anyway, Byakuya found out he was there and sent Orochi because the guy was the only one who could masquerade well as one of the mixed-blood haters that ran the place. But it seems that protecting wasn't really what he was doing. According to Tetsuya-san, Orochi sexually assaulted Naoki and him numerous times, and when he found out that Tetsuya-san was pregnant, he had Naoki give him the infusions so that the signs of paternity would be confused. Tetsuya-san begged me to destroy them and to tell Byakuya that Naoki was the only father. He didn't want Byakuya to dishonor himself by killing Orochi in cold blood."

"Who wouldn't? The asshole deserved it!" Ichigo insisted, "But I get it."

"Tetsuya-san wanted to calm things between the factions in the clan that favored the traditional ways and the ones who were a little more accepting. Killing Orochi would only have made things more volatile. Even as destroyed as he was by what had happened, Tetsuya-san did what he felt was best for everyone. But, getting back to Gin, although Aizen did contribute the original genetic material, there are others who either took him sexually or contributed reiatsu in the kind of exchange you are using."

"S-so, by...holy hell, Kisuke!" Ichigo snapped, withdrawing his hands only to have them captured and set back in place by the elder shinigami, "Fucking hell, you could have at least warned me!"

"And you would have refused? Is that what you're telling me?"

"You could've done this yourself. Why involve me?" Ichigo demanded, "You know, I thought that crap you pulled on Orihime with the revealing dress was bad, but this is...this is criminal!"

"I couldn't infuse him. My reiatsu didn't resonate well with his. And Orihime's a full human, no part shinigami, so she's not compatible. You're at least part shinigami and your reiatsu resonates well with his. And since we can't exactly organize a donor drive while he's still considered guilty of treason..."

"I guess I see your point, but next time at least say something before having me do something like that."

"I will, but Ichigo, you need to understand, you being added to the list of fathers is not the biggest problem we have right now."

"Oh? You mean, the bigger problem is keeping Gin from being found. Well, we'll protect him while we figure things out. That's a given."

"I don't just mean that."

"Then, what do you mean?"

"I mean I've been checking out some of the blended reiatsu in this kid and I have to say, I'm more than a little freaked out."

"What? Who are the other fathers? Not Ywach, right?"

"No, luckily not him or we'd pretty much be screwed right here. But all of the others are very powerful shinigamis or hollows."

"So, what you're saying is that Aizen had him then handed him over to..."

"To Tousen and all of the high level Espadas. But that isn't the end of it. He also affected Gin's own reiatsu with the hougyoku, and part of the reason he's such a mess is because it is causing his body to slowly transform."

"Transform? Into what? A hollow?"

"No, not a hollow. A transcendent."

"A transcendent? You mean, like Aizen?" Ichigo asked, paling at the thought, "He wants to have a transcendent baby? Why? Because he could...control the kid and make the hougyoku accept him or her instead of himself?"

"I don't think so," Kisuke answered darkly, "Ichigo, I think that Aizen didn't give a damn about the baby, itself, only the transcendent body that he meant to make more powerful than his own, through infusions by Tousen and all of the ranking Espadas."

"That is really screwed up, if that's what he was trying to do. Are you saying he was just making this kid to be a new body for himself? What about the kid's soul?"

"He would have devoured it."

"His own kid?" Ichigo shouted, "Who would do that to his own kid! That's monstrous!"

"Yeah."

Ichigo went silent, gazing down at Gin and blinking in shock at the horror of what Aizen had done to him.

"So, wait, how is it that the kid hasn't been born yet? Hasn't it been too long?"

"It would be except that it seems Gin was held in suspended animation for a while so that Kurotsuchi could fix him up. He was brought out of it occasionally for tests, but then suspended again. It's a sure way of killing most people. Gin's lucky he's still here at all."

"But you don't even know if you can revive him."

"I don't know if I dare revive him and have him wake up to this. If Aizen was keeping him in the dark, which he probably was, because he's Aizen, Gin could lose it and make things even worse for himself and this kid."

Ichigo bit his lip gently, studying Kisuke's expression.

"Is that really the truth or did you keep him under while you tried to make up your mind about whether or not to let the kid be born."

Kisuke flinched and his lips stiffened.

"It's not the kid's fault, right? But you know that the tyke's going to be targeted by everyone, good and bad, looking to use him for something...to make a more powerful body, as a hostage, a bargaining chip or even to hold up as a god. The kid will be more powerful than Aizen and have a ton of shit to deal with. He or she is going to need someone in their corner...someone who will think only of what's best for the kid."

"That's why you chose me, isn't it?"

Kisuke lowered his eyes for a moment, then raised them again to meet Ichigo's.

"I took Tetsuya-san's baby and couldn't save him," he confessed softly, "And I really don't want to take the life of another kid. Even though it was to save Tetsuya-san's life...it...does things to a guy, you know?"

"I get it," Ichigo sighed, "Okay, I'll help him. Just, next time give me a little warning, okay?"

"You've got it."

"Go and eat now," Ichigo said, "I've got this."

"Did you eat?"

"Yeah. Go on. I won't let anything happen to them."

"Thanks, Ichigo," Kisuke said gratefully, turning away and exiting the room.

Ichigo went silent, letting his hands caress the bump on Gin's naked belly and frowning as he mulled over the disturbing details.

"That guy was as twisted as twisted gets," he mused, "and he's out there somewhere. I have to hope he doesn't know you're alive. If he does..."

A bolt of shock went through him as Gin's reiatsu throbbed for a moment, then the restrained shinigami moved fitfully on the bed and his eyelids fluttered and opened. He struggled to focus for a moment as Ichigo prepared to call out.

"Y-you!" Gin gasped, his hand wrapping around Ichigo's wrist, "T-tell me! Did...did you do it, Kurosaki Ichigo? Did you kill Aizen Sousuke?"