Chapter 3: Vessel of the Gods
"Did you kill Aizen Sousuke?" Gin repeated in a hoarse, gasping voice, his fingers quaking dangerously where they held on to Ichigo's wrist.
"You're awake," Ichigo mused dazedly, "Kisuke wasn't sure you'd be in your right mind, but you...know who I am? You know who you are and Aizen? Everyone?"
"I...I remember," Gin panted, his body quivering, "but tell me, did you kill Aizen?"
Ichigo looked back into Gin's tortured eyes, searching for words.
"I defeated him," he answered finally.
Gin's expression grew haunted and he shivered harder.
"H-he's alive?" Gin asked shakily.
"He would have earned a death sentence, but with the hougyoku in him, he couldn't be killed. They put him in Muken."
A measure of relief flashed in Gin's icy blue eyes and his shaking lessened slightly.
"He's in Muken?"
"Well, actually," Ichigo said cautiously, "There was a war with the quincies. Kyouraku was made soutaichou after Yamamoto soutaichou was killed."
"Aizen escaped? Did he kill Yamamoto soutaichou?"
"No, the quincy king did," Ichigo explained, "Kyouraku Shunsui was chosen to replace him. Kyouraku soutaichou needed Aizen to provide help in the war. They kept him restrained, but brought him out of Muken and used his power to help get the surviving taichous and fukutaichous into the royal realm to fight the quincies."
"The quincies invaded the royal realm?" Gin mused, "I was out a long time..."
"After the quincy king was defeated, the taichous returned from the royal realm and found that Aizen had escaped his restraints and fled. No one knows where he is."
The color drained from Gin's face and he closed his eyes against the words.
"We're not going to let him hurt you, okay?" Ichigo promised, "Kisuke and I are going to protect you and your baby."
Gin blinked in surprise and, for the first time, looked down at his rounded abdomen. His blue eyes rounded in shock and a terrified scream escaped him.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay!" Ichigo said urgently, as Kisuke burst into the room and moved towards them.
Gin shook harder under Ichigo's hands, then his eyes glazed over.
"Th-those nightmares!" he gasped, "They w-were real? He...he...?"
"Take it easy," Kisuke said bracingly, "Like Ichigo said, we're going to protect you."
"You c-can't protect me!" Gin panted, his chest heaving, "He is a monster! I have what he wants. He'll come after me, and there's nothing you can do!"
"What do you mean?" Kisuke said, shaking his head reprovingly, "You're looking at the guys who stopped Aizen before. We'll stop him again, as many times as we have to. Don't worry."
Gin moved his frightened eyes to look at his rounded belly again and shivered.
"Can you tell me," Kisuke went on, "Do you know when and how Aizen did this to you?"
"I think...in Las Noches," Gin posited, "Before we l-left, I had blackouts...horrible dreams, and I became ill. Sousuke...made excuses, but I felt like he wasn't t-telling me everything. The nightmares were too real...and I sometimes found strange markings, bruises, bites or small injuries that made me suspicious. I didn't dare object because he was watching me closely by then. H-he knew I would betray him. I was rather stupid, wasn't I? Playing into his hands like that..."
"Join the club," Kisuke said ruefully, "I think we all got taken for a ride by that guy."
"Not you," Gin said, more softly, "You knew all along that he was poison. You were there when he corrupted the taichous and fukutaichous that became the vizards. You tried to stop him then. But he was too strong for you already and I knew that. That's why I went along with him...to wait...to watch...to see if anyone but me would be able to figure him out, challenge him...beat him."
Gin's eyes met Ichigo's with unusual warmth.
"I am glad you finally came around. If you hadn't been enough to beat him, I would have been Soul Society's last hope, and you saw what a disgrace I turned out to be, even though I understood his power. I didn't know he would fuse with the hougyoku."
"Who did?" Kisuke mused, "You can't blame yourself for not picking up on that, or for not being able to defeat him. Even Ichigo couldn't do it on his own. He had to beat on Aizen until he weakened him enough that Aizen became vulnerable to my special kido."
"Ah, a team effort," Gin said appreciatively, "I never was much of a team player...too bad for me."
"Well, you might not have been a good team player before," Kisuke said thoughtfully, "but if you want to get out of this situation alive, then you need to be willing to work with us now."
"Don't be ridiculous," Gin sighed, "I'm not going to get out of this alive, and you know it, don't you, Urahara Kisuke?"
"What're you talking about?" Kisuke asked, "Ichigo told you, we're going to protect you. We're going to figure this thing out."
"And how long do you think you have to ruminate before someone figures out I'm alive and with you?" Gin asked pointedly, "Where did you find me, anyway?"
"In the wreckage of the twelfth division," Kisuke answered, "Kurotsuchi taichou had you stashed away in a preservation cubicle. You've been there for a long time in hibernation, except when he apparently brought you out of it for experiments."
"He must have drugged me senseless, because I don't remember a thing about that. But something doesn't make sense to me. If it's been so long since Sousuke was captured and I was impregnated, as I think I was, in Las Noches, then how am I still like this? Is this because of the hibernation?"
"Yes," Kisuke confirmed, "Your body was carefully preserved intact. In fact, you were so well protected, even when the twelfth was pretty much obliterated, your little pod came through unscathed."
"Lucky me," Gin said blithely, "But that horrible Mayuri would have wanted me alive for his perverse experiments, so it makes some kind of sense."
"Let's go back to Aizen," said Kisuke, watching Gin's face closely, "Tell me what you know about what he was doing. I already have a pretty good idea, but I need you to confirm my hypothesis. What was that bastard up to?"
"I don't know," Gin confessed, "All I knew at the time was that I was having the worst nightmares of being drugged and raped by Sousuke, Kaname and most of the Espadas. I didn't have a clue it was really happening. Sousuke really must have hated me..."
"I don't think it was even hatred," Ichigo said darkly, "He was probably pissed at you because he suspected you were going to backstab him, but why this? Why pregnancy?"
"Again, I'll tell you, I already think I know," Kisuke warned him, "It's just important for me to know what you knew, what you suspected...that kind of thing."
"Well, I did wonder why, if the dreams were real, he would be doing that to me. It unnerved me a little because it was so close to the time when I might be forced to reveal my hand. I wasn't aware he could have this done to me, but...that explains the experiments on Kuchiki Tetsuya doesn't it?"
"You know about Aizen kidnapping Tetsuya?" Ichigo asked anxiously, "What did Aizen do to him?"
"I'd like to know that too," added Kisuke, "because when Tetsuya was found, he appeared not to have been harmed in any way."
"He wasn't," Gin confirmed, "Sousuke ordered me to just run hundreds of tests on him, to examine him very closely. He was interested in Tetsuya's Breeder ability."
"You ran the tests?" Kisuke asked sternly.
"Yes," Gin affirmed, "Remember, I was trying to keep him convinced I was on his side. It would have been suspicious had I not agreed to run the tests. And he didn't ask me to harm Tetsuya, not that I could have refused if he had asked it. He was watching me like a hawk...and apparently manipulating me from beginning to end."
"Like I said, join the club," Kisuke sighed, shaking his head, "So, did Aizen say anything about why he wanted to explore Tetsuya's Breeder ability?" Kisuke asked.
Gin let out a frustrated breath.
"He did, but hearing that the nightmares I had were real, proves he was just manipulating me."
"What did he tell you?"
"He told me that when we reached the royal realm and he became king, he was going to possibly impregnate a man, so he needed to know how Tetsuya was able to become pregnant."
"And you...?"
"I thought he was going to impregnate me later. I didn't know that he was going to have me impregnated by just about everyone in Las Noches. I wonder if there is anyone who didn't rape me...not that I want the memories back or anything."
"Well, they might come back, but if they do and it's a problem, I can help you out with that."
"What a nice guy," Gin said, recovering his characteristic smirk, "What's the catch?"
"No catch," Kisuke said more softly, "I just hate what that bastard did to, not just you, but a lot of people. I do expect you to tell me what you know. Beyond that, just sit tight and let me try to figure out what's going on in your belly there."
"What's going on is that Sousuke was probably trying to grow some kind of monster," Gin concluded, frowning, "That's not hard to figure out at all. I thought you were a genius..."
"It's the nature of the beast that I'm interested in," Kisuke explained.
"What?" Gin inquired, beginning to look alarmed.
"Having you inseminated and infused with the reiatsu of multiple powerful souls wasn't all that freak did to you."
Gin blanched.
"What else did he do?" he asked, looking down at his belly, then back at Ichigo and the reinstated twelfth division taichou, "I don't...feel any different."
"That's because the procedure he used on you is incomplete. It was held back by the hibernation. Unfortunately, now that you are awake, it will complete itself."
"What procedure is that, dare I ask?"
Kisuke paused, frowning more deeply.
"He used the hougyoku to force your body to transcend."
Gin's blue eyes rounded in distress. He struggled to speak, but found himself lost for words.
"Why?" he managed finally, "He knew I was going to betray him. Why would he impregnate me with this monster reiatsu and then try to kill me? And if I was a transcendent, why try to kill me if he couldn't?"
"Oh, he could have killed you, because, as I said before, the process wasn't complete. You're still not immortal. But you're moving in that direction."
"I don't understand. How is that possible?"
"I think we can agree that what Aizen led you to believe about him impregnating a man, perhaps you, upon reaching the royal realm was a lie to cover up what he planned to use you for. He had you inseminated by multiple powerful souls, then used the hougyoku to transform you, also affecting the reiatsu inside you."
"To create the monster-child?" Gin asked in a shocked tone.
"To create a stronger body for himself," Kisuke corrected him, "It was a hedge, in case he wasn't strong enough."
"But then, why kill Gin?" Ichigo asked.
"By the time he killed Gin, he had won," Kisuke surmised, "at least, he figured that his mastery of the hougyoku had been successful. He cut Gin down, figuring there wasn't any way he was going to lose, because he had transcended and seemed to be above everyone."
"Do you think Aizen knows that Gin is alive?" Ichigo asked worriedly.
"Why are you so concerned?" Gin asked pointedly, "Aren't we enemies?"
"Why would you be my enemy?" Ichigo asked, frowning, "We both don't want Aizen to kill you. We both want him caught and put back in Muken."
"I would like to do that without dying or ending up in Muken, myself."
"You're not exactly in a position to make demands," Kisuke reminded him.
"I was merely stating my interests for the purpose of negotiating. I'll help you trap Sousuke, but in exchange, I want protection from him and from Central 46...and...I want my child to go with me when this is over."
"Come again?" Kisuke mused, shaking his head, "Weren't you just calling that little bundle of badness a monster? And now, you want to raise the kid?"
"That is sort of strange," Ichigo agreed.
"Not really," Gin reasoned, "See, even though the kid is going to be a vizard type, just because most of his or her parents are monsters, doesn't mean the kid will be."
"He's got a point there," Ichigo said to Kisuke, "The baby's innocent."
"Are you thinking you'll be able to give a kid any kind of life, even if you survive all of this?" Kisuke argued, "You'll be lucky if you come out alive, yourself, and luckier than that if you stay that way afterwards."
"That's why I need you," Gin posited, "Help me get the kid born and help me trap Sousuke so that he goes back to Muken and I never have to worry about him getting out again! Promise that and I'll cooperate completely."
"I think you'll cooperate anyway," Kisuke said sternly, "If you walk out of here, you won't live for a day. If Aizen doesn't catch you, Central 46 will. You'll have more than monsters to worry about."
"Kisuke, I don't think he's asking for too much," Ichigo interjected, "He's going to help us catch Aizen. He should get something in return. Come on..."
Kisuke's frown deepened and he considered the situation carefully.
"I don't like this," he said finally, "You were a part of Aizen's betrayal, and even if you were planning all along to stab him in the back, that only makes you less trustworthy. You're a self professed snake, and I don't doubt that if you weren't a bit desperate, you'd be pretty dangerous. I have more good reasons to force you to do what I need than to negotiate with someone I don't trust...but...Ichigo's right. I guess if you are going to risk yourself and that monster baby to trap Aizen, the least we can do is to make it worth your while. Just don't be thinking we can get Central 46 to change their mind about you. They're not likely to do that."
"I know," Gin said sadly, but what are my options, ne? My future looks bleak in all directions now."
"Hey, don't talk like that," Ichigo chided him, "I told you we're going to protect you. And we're taking your deal, right Kisuke?"
The shopkeeper sighed resignedly.
"Yeah, all right. But so help me, if I get a whiff of you doing anything shady here, I will personally escort you to Muken to stay for the rest of your life, if not eternity. Forget about Aizen's wrath, you break this deal with me and you will be the sorriest creature in existence, got it?"
"Oh, that's crystal clear," Gin affirmed, smirking, "So, we have a deal. What do you want me to do now?"
"I'm going to make some dinner," Kisuke said, looking around, "I want you to eat and try not to have the monster kid until I have a lead on Aizen's whereabouts."
"That sounds easy enough," Gin agreed.
"Ichigo, I have to go back to my lab for a while after we eat. I want you to stay here and neither of you should go outside. The barrier around this place is your only protection from anyone, Aizen or Central 46 finding you. You want to stay alive, stay in here while I'm gone."
"Cheery, isn't he?" Gin mused, recovering some of his usual wit.
"Ichigo, will you please give the joker there another infusion?" Kisuke asked dryly, turning towards the kitchen, "I'll be back."
"Sure thing," Ichigo answered, turning back to the resting shinigami.
He paused, gazing at Gin's slitted eyes.
"Well?" Gin inquired.
"I just wondered if you were bothered by me touching you. The infusions are kinda intimate."
Gin looked back at him with an amused expression.
"I have hosted the most wicked shinigamis and hollows the three worlds have ever seen in my most private places," he said, shaking his head, "Why would it bother me for you to touch me on the belly?"
Ichigo blushed, earning a more pleased smirk from Gin.
"I guess you have a point there," Ichigo said in a flustered voice, moving to begin the infusion.
