Sup Everyone, Grimlock here! Just a small note that I have done some mild corrections in previous chapters, nothing more than some grammar fixes and a couple instances of very small story edits.
Water crashing into me and soaking me to the bone snapped me out of my daze. The scalding heat of it was familiar, in a way that had me gripping my zanpakuto harder and gnashing my teeth. My head whipped around to see Tenjiro, like I worried, but not with the grey skin that indicated the zombification of a powerful Shinigami. He had an uncomfortably straight face, his own zanpakuto resting on his right shoulder. His eyes were focused, unmoving from me.
"Tenjiro, what the fuck are you-!"
"Fight's over, kid." The healer's voice was grave, and hit me as hard as the geyser of water had. I cast my gaze around, seeing bodies strewn all around the remains of the Rukon District we had been in. Blood stained the ground, rubble was everywhere, same with the corpses of the Rukon residents. Nothing was moving. I blinked. "Come on." The Zero Squad member urged. Nodding my head was more of an automatic response rather than a conscious one as I sheathed Zangetsu and stepped over to the waiting carriage. Despite being over two years since the last time it happened, I couldn't stop myself from waiting for a second for Chad to pull me up inside. Like every other time, the reminder that Chad wasn't here anymore to do that caused me to flinch, before I hauled myself in silently and sat in my seat. It felt cold without Unohana to lean over and rest her head on my shoulder. It felt unsecure without Dad and Kenpachi to sit closest to the back, each with a leg across like they were guarding the way in. It felt uneven and unsteady without Chad to sit across from me, silently fingering his coin. A pulse of warmth from Zangetsu pulled me closer to the present. I adjusted in my seat to get comfortable, despite knowing I wouldn't be without the rest of the Front Liners, and stared out the back of the carriage as I was escorted back to the Shiba House.
It, more specifically the cannon built inside of it, was the only way to get to the Royal Palace, and thusly was what the Wandenreich wanted to take control of more than anything. After Ichibe put up the kind of bullshit protection spells only he could make, what remained of the Gotei 13 made it our home base. It took far too long (anything later than the day the Quincy had declared war seemed like too long to me, though), but Ichibe had eventually assigned Tenjiro and Kirio as exclusively support roles for the Gotei. Tenjiro used his healing prowess to heal anyone that didn't have high-speed regeneration, and Kirio provided everyone with reiatsu-rich foods, with Ichibe regularly sending down care packages full of the stuff Kirio needed to keep the food coming.
The ride stopping abruptly drew me into the present, and I refocused to see we were next to the Shiba House. Looked like we were somewhere around the mid-twenties of the Rukon today. It helped a lot to not get overwhelmed by the Quincies that the house was built to move around. I stepped out before Tenjiro could get all pissy about 'wasting his time' and entered the building. There was a bit less hustle and bustle, luckily there didn't seem to be less bodies than usual. The doors to what we turned into the meeting room were shut, meaning the captains were discussing something. I peeked into one of the infirmaries, and thankfully it was mostly empty. With those out the way, I went forth with completing my usual route, going straight to the lab. Kisuke had all but demanded that the lab be as close as possible to the cannon in case of emergencies, so I had to walk past the launch pad to reach the door.
As soon as I opened the door, I heard arguing. Weaving around the various projects, I eventually caught sight of Kirio, in her thin form, yelling at Kisuke, who was sitting at a computer. He was typing in the way I had come to recognize as him being too tired to think.
"You're our head researcher, we have to rely on your inventions to beat the Quincies, meaning you have to be at the top of your game to do it!" The pink haired woman yelled. "You're barely keeping yourself upright, let alone coherent, nothing good will come out of your head like this! You'll just end up creating something likely to fail before it even reaches the battlefield!"
"So it'll be just as successful as anything else I've made." The blonde snarled. "Every moment I don't spend trying to outsmart them is the getting another step ahead of us. We've been on the backfoot since this war started, we have to turn that around, and that's not going to happen if we slack off."
"It's not slacking off, it's getting yourself refreshed! Getting your mind back to working at its best, thinking things through rather than attempting something doomed to fail at its inception!"
"Everything I've done has failed, Hikifune!" He barked back. "The 'Death-Dealing' adapted to everything I threw at him, Hyosube was the one that put up wards so our throats aren't slit in our sleep, my plan to use the distortion energy to reach the Palace only ended up being an opening for the-the Schut-whatever to sneak in behind us!"
"They've designated you a Special War Threat for a reason, Kisuke! They don't know how you think, they can't prepare for you, the only reason you've failed so far is because their only way to outsmart you is by keeping you too exhausted to think! You're only feeding into their plans like this!"
"At the very least, as long as they know I'm working to defeat them, they're also constantly having to make up new plans! My continuous efforts are keeping their nerves on edge as much as they're messing with mine!" Kisuke finally turned to face the fellow scientist as his voice raised at the end. In doing so, he spotted me. "Ichigo, you understand, help me convince her!"
"You used to be in the Onmitsukido and you just noticed him!" Kirio immediately tried to reason. I started stepping forward.
"You're right, I do understand." I hummed, before I reached out, grabbed the back of his coat, and lifted him into the air to look him in the eye. "I understand that not getting rest will make anyone worse off, and that, against the Wandenreich, anyone not on their A-game will end up in the ground." He tried to look away. I grabbed his chin and forced him to look into my eyes. "I can't lose you too." When I let go of his face, he couldn't do anything but remain staring at me, the bags under his eyes seeming to grow heavier with each passing second.
"…I couldn't stop you even if I wanted to, so there's no point in resisting." He sighed quietly. I glanced at Kirio.
"We'll eat properly after a nap. You have anything we can finish quickly?" The woman's face was a mixture of pleased and concerned, but she reached back and lifted a plate from where it had been sitting next to Kisuke's computer. There were rice balls on it. I picked one up and held it out to the blonde, who stared at it for a long second before he grasped it and took a small bite. The first one I grabbed for myself was practically swallowed whole, which I balanced out by biting into the second one and chewing as I hung Kisuke off my shoulder and started walking to the launch pad.
There was a futon to the side of the launch pad. At first, there had been a lot more. Kisuke and Kurotsuchi had delivered quite a convincing argument for why the 12th Division needed to have the quickest access to an escape route. At Kyoraku's order, the Front Liners also bunked at the launch pad, to guarantee that no one could successfully perform a raid for the cannon. Honestly, I didn't remember when it started, but sometime after I became the only Front Liner, Kisuke and I began sharing his futon. Neither of us had any desire to verbalize why.
I lowered the blonde down so that he was sitting on the futon with his back against the raised platform of the launch pad, and I sat to his right. He was about two-thirds of the way though his rice ball by this point, with me having finished mine by the time we were out of the lab. The two of us sat in silence, staring at what used to be.
There was a minor shifting next to me, and Kisuke's head rested on my shoulder. My arm came around to rest atop his shoulders as I lowered my head to lay on his.
"Night, Frankenstein." I muttered, a routine I couldn't recall when we started.
"Aizen was the one that put you together." He hummed back, the fog of drowsiness entering him just as it did me.
"But you're the one that got me working." I finished, feeling his body go slack as soon as the words left me. Once he was out, I wasn't far behind.
I couldn't help but chew on my lip as I stood in front of the door of the Urahara Shoten. My right foot tapped anxiously, and I didn't bother to try to control it. Kisuke was sitting in the shop, waiting for me to open the door. I didn't need to have a subconscious track of his reiatsu to know that. He was happy to wait as long as necessary to have the dramatic entrance. As soon as I open the door, he would flip out his fan, and lazily drawl about how great it was that I caught him at a time he wasn't busy.
Not even bothering to pretend I wasn't stalling, I shifted my focus towards the updates given to me by Zangetsu. Shiro was making great progress with Momo, and he was keeping tabs on the fodder. He described them as 'slightly less pathetic' which meant they were doing great. Ossan was helping Byakuya with apparently starting a goddamn mutiny, which I supported absolutely. He mentioned the two of them had gone to Kyoraku a couple days ago to hint at what they were planning, and he hadn't been disapproving. Meaning that he was likely at the level of 'if they order him to stop it, he will half-ass it'. We want him at least at the level of 'if they order him to stop it, he'll bullshit something about not receiving any orders'.
My palm rested on the frame of the sliding paper door, and I gently rested my forehead on my knuckles. Nearly everyone else I had reconnected with was different than the version of themselves I was familiar with. Beyond any obvious physical differences, like Rukia having two legs again or Uryu having both arms. They were happier than what I was used to, less burdened even with all the training and preparations for war. It was easy for me to understand that no one could properly visualize everyone, including themselves, dying in war. Could they imagine the idea? Of course, but they couldn't feel the weight of it. Thus, everyone was…lighter, than I was used to. To such an extent that it was easy to separate them in my mind. The Rukia who had lived with one leg for the last six years of her life was a different person than the Rukia who still thought her zanpakuto created ice. The Chad who had to be pulled away from beating the corpse of a Sternritter we could no longer identify was a different person than the Chad who had yet to even awaken his left arm. It was easier to be around them with that in mind.
But Kisuke was different. Throughout the wars, he had never…broken down, in that sense. He hadn't become a different person, rather I just saw more of what he always kept hidden away. He had always been paranoid, preparing for everything he could think of and then some. He had always been afraid of real failure, of loss and consequences. An invention not working as intended during testing was informative, it lead to new ideas, different routes, and streamlining. A device he had trusted to protect someone failing only resulted in death. He wasn't like Renji, who had started off as someone who would be offended if you didn't think his tattoos were cool and died as someone who would flay himself alive if it meant Rukia's safety. The only difference between the Kisuke of this time and the one from mine was that mine was too tired to crack jokes.
I both so desperately wanted to see him, and felt a pit form in my stomach at the very idea. Because with everyone else, it was so easy to view them like different people. Because with everyone else, it was so easy to forget they weren't the people I knew. Everyone else could look at the versions of themselves I knew and be horrified by what they became. Kisuke would just sigh and make some half-hearted joke about how the stitches on his face ruined his unassuming image.
"Why are you just leaning against the door?" I blinked, surprised to hear anyone, and tilted my head to see Jinta standing with an annoyed look on his face. "Either go inside or leave, stop being weird." A breath escaped me, and I returned to how I was before I knew he was there.
"Just shut up and leave me alone. You wouldn't get it."
"I never asked why you're being such a weirdo!" He immediately shouted. "Mr. Urahara told me to sweep up the front of the store, and I can't do that if you're blocking the front door!" I couldn't help the snort that left me.
"Since when do you actually do your chores instead of pawning them off onto Ururu?"
"How do you know about that?!"
"Everyone knows about it." The kid huffed angrily, no doubt trying to figure out who 'ratted him out' despite that his method of hiding it was simply waiting until he thought no one was watching.
"It's all your fault, anyway. Mr. Urahara started being all uptight since you and Ms. Yoruichi came back from Soul Society." The confirmation drew a laugh from me.
"Good to know my hard work paid off. If he's making sure you actually do your chores, then you're finally learning some responsibility."
"Shut up! I'm responsible! And you're still not moving!" The breath that left me was much more frustrated.
"I'm thinking, kid. Buzz off, it's not like you're not gonna get another opportunity to sweep the front of the store."
"You can think about stuff somewhere else, can't you?" He snapped. "Mr. Urahara said that the faster I sweep up the front of the store, the faster I can practice baseball, so move it!"
"I've gotta do my thinking right here so that I don't have the chance to back out. I can't afford to go back and forth on this, so I need to make sure I actually do it."
"Now you're not even making sense! You're talking like you know you have to go inside, so just open the door and go!"
"I've been trying to tell you, ya brat, it's not that easy! I need to figure out if I'm ready to throw my old life away, you've never dealt with stuff like this so I know you wouldn't understand!" He scoffed.
"You threw away your old life as soon as you chose to come over here!" My eyes snapped wide. "It's way too late to back out, so just accept it and move!" My head lifted as I turned to the redhead, who had his arms crossed over his chest. I was aware that my jaw was hanging, but I couldn't get myself to focus on that.
"…Did Yoruichi talk to you?"
"What would Ms. Yoruichi have anything to do with you being in the way of me doing my chores?" I was left staring in astonishment that the boy had somehow said the exact thing I needed to hear without having any clue what he was talking about.
"…Thanks, kid. You really have no idea how much that helped." I muttered as my fingers wrapped around the frame of the door. I pulled it open before I could even begin to backtrack.
"Do you never check the expiration dates on your shit?" I huffed as I parsed through a box of product, pulling nearly every third item out and tossing it into the trash bag beside me.
"I had the twins take care of that up until the Winter War started." Kisuke muttered, he and Tessai hunched over a bench on the other side of the room. Kisuke was analyzing several samples that had been taken from me, while his partner was alternating between studying a book on forbidden kido and the biology of how reiatsu functioned. It was left unspoken that Ururu and Jinta were too busy to do tasks around the shop, currently in charge of keeping the hollows in Karakura at bay as they were.
"You still get human customers, you know, the ones that get most affected by expired food?" Was my deadpan response. The blonde waved off the complaint.
"Outside of your spiritually aware friends, I only get human customers once a week or so. It's not like my product is that far past the expiration dates."
"This one is from two years ago." I held up. Tessai was the one to turn and glare at the rice cake in my hand.
"…I knew he had been slacking off recently." The dark skinned man grumbled before returning to his studying. A snort came from me as I finished the box and moved onto the next. The sound of the door sliding open caused my eyebrow to twitch.
"Oi, I don't care how boring you find patrols, if I find out someone gets hurt because you're lazy, I'm gonna-" I blinked in confusion at finding the one that had opened the door was not the redheaded mod soul. It wasn't anyone at all, in fact, if you weren't aware spirits existed. Off to the side, Kisuke paused for just a moment.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Kuchiki-taicho?" I hummed in appreciation at the scientist keeping me from being in the dark. "It's not often you come to my shop all by your lonesome." Trying my best to squash down all the feelings that suddenly burned inside of me, I turned back to the box of granola bars and returned to checking dates.
"Tessai and I feel like we are making good progress on returning Kurosaki-san to the fight. See, we've realized the issue is that his reiatsu veins are actually-" I was surprised that Kisuke appeared like he had been cut off mid-sentence.
Byakuya must've been frustrated about something, if he didn't let the grey eyed man finish speaking. Kisuke didn't seem to appreciate it, considering the man straightened and glared in the direction of the open door.
"Of course I have other ideas for stopping Aizen, but I fail to see why I should not prioritize getting our dear Kurosaki-san back on the field." There was a firm warning in his tone that caused the hairs on the back of my head to stand up straight.
Whatever Byakuya said in response did nothing but get Tessai to do the same as his oldest friend, the two glaring at the clan head.
"Kurosaki-san has been involved in this war since before it started. Outside of the Hogyoku, he was Aizen's primary focus. There is no more foolish action than to disregard him simply because he is human."
Wait, was Byakuya trying to throw me off to the side because I didn't have my powers? Rage built within me. I had come the closest to killing the megalomaniac! I was the only one that wasn't under the influence of Kyoka Suigetsu! He was threatening my town, my friends, my family! I had more reason to fight than nearly anyone in the Gotei 13!
"Kuchiki-taicho, this is war. This is life or death. This is the time where rules do not matter, only victory. Your sense of duty demands that you do not permit humans to fight your battles? Fine. Then think of it like this: It is highly likely at this point that none of us are capable of killing Aizen, Yamamoto-soutaicho included. Kurosaki-san may very well could if we return his powers to him. Are you going to allow your sense of duty to get in the way of performing that very duty?"
Even without the ability to perceive reiatsu, I could feel the pressure in the air, the heavy threat of Kisuke's willingness to do anything as long as it would ensure victory. The unspoken warning that may very well include the killing of a noble clan head if he wished to prevent the ex-assassin from doing what he believes is necessary.
"As I said, of course I'm not dedicating all my resources to Kurosaki-san's recovery. I have never been one to put all my eggs in one basket. But by my calculations, he is our best bet."
Silence filled the room, before the door shut on its own.
"He's gone, Kurosaki-san." Tessai was the one to inform me, before they both returned to their work.
"…Thanks, you two." Grey eyes flicked to me for a moment before snapping back to the monitor in front of him.
"I wouldn't say what we're doing is deserving of thanks, but you're welcome nonetheless."
"Don't try that 'morality-deficient scientist' schtick on me, Getaboushi. We both know part of why you're doing this is because I can't stand to not be able to protect the people I care about."
"Well, that and the reliable free labor." His smirk was heard in his tone.
I threw a granola bar at his head.
"Kurosaki-san! What perfect timing you have! You caught me at a time when I wasn't overwhelmed with work!" He drawled while covering his mouth with his fan. The sight brought a reminiscent smile to my face and a warm feeling to manifest in my chest.
"…Long time, no see, Getaboushi." His head twitched back as his eyes blinked under the shade of his hat. He tilted his head suspiciously, and I knew he was poking around with his reiatsu sense to find anything that would indicate any true intentions.
"Unless you've somehow successfully tricked me since we've met, I'm certain you would have tried to hit me as soon as you saw my face again." My smile turned somewhere between malicious and teasing as I crossed my arms over my chest.
"And what reason would I have to hit you, huh?" A light sweat appeared on his face. "Go on, don't be shy. Clearly, you have an idea on what it could be, or else you wouldn't bring it up."
"Oh, you know," he laughed off, "Yoruichi-chan told me a little bit. I can understand that anyone would be a little bit peeved if they exited a portal to find themselves a few dozen feet in the air-"
"After being chased by an all-devouring monster that just so happened to be coming through that very portal right when we were using it that no one had warned us about. Of course." There was more nervous laughter.
"Of course. But you've been informed that I'm banned from Soul Society, and surely you're understanding of how difficult it would be to illegally create a portal under such circumstances."
"Of course." I agreed. "Perfectly understandable why the man who created the Research and Development Division in the Soul Society, mentor to the current head of that division, and person infamous for dozens of morally grey experiments and inventions would have difficulty with such a task." Hearing him choke on his own spit was amazing. "Especially considering that man clearly has never attempted such a thing before and would have no idea how to even go at such an endeavor."
"Yeah." He dumbly nodded his head, no doubt having come to the conclusion that Yoruichi spilled every possible bean and was currently fearing for his life. "Exactly."
"Though, I feel that we are in agreement that a thing such as that wouldn't necessarily be enough to make me want to hit you. I'm sure you've got more evidence to back up a belief like that." As I spoke, I stepped up, casually grabbing a can of tea off one of the shelves, checking the expiration date, and cracking it open. I maintained eye contact as I walked up until I was right in front of him, then calmly sitting down cross-legged with my free hand resting in my lap, cracking my fingers one at a time to maximize his nervousness.
"Well, I can sympathize with how angry someone could theoretically become if they were to encounter…three captains in their quest to rescue a single girl of no substantial level of power."
"A girl whom I only learned after the fact was intended to never recover said level of power due to a morally unethical invention somehow finding its way into her body by completely unknown means." The blonde was at the level that he simply froze up.
"…you found out about the-" His voice was weak.
"I found out about the Hogyoku." I confirmed. The last knuckle on my free hand cracking was as loud as a bomb from how silent the room became.
"…I should start running."
"You have until I finish this tea. I'm not paying for it, by the way." I was halfway through the can, and he was halfway across the Shoten.
"All Front Liners! The Fourth Division is being attacked!" Kisuke's voice was hard over the Tenteikura. "We need immediate assistance fending off the Wandenreich!" All of our eyes widened.
"Ichigo, Unohana! I'll hold them off here!" Zaraki immediately roared. "You go to the Fourth!" As much as I wanted to argue, and not allow Kenpachi to be by himself, Nozarashi was too big to be used inside the tight halls of the medical division. Unohana and I slung an arm over each other's shoulders wordlessly, and I shot us forward in shunpo. It took only a few seconds before we were inside, and the Original Kenpachi immediately sprang forward to decapitate four Soldat in a single slash. Zangetsu was sheathed, it too dangerous to swing around my dual blades until we evacuated everyone. Instead, my Acero enveloped my arms up to my biceps and I lunged forward, clawing out the throats of everything wearing sheer white I passed by.
"Unohana and I have entered the Fourth Division!" I called across the spell. "What's the plan?!"
"Kurotsuchi opened a portal to the 12th in the Intensive Care Wing! Evacuate everyone there and prevent the Quincy from following!"
"Unohana, you guard the portal! I'll work on clearing a path!" I ordered immediately. She didn't waste time with a response, darting down a hall towards Intensive Care. Sinking deeper into my Hollow instincts, I leapt down the halls, my Pesquisa pulsing every few seconds to keep track of everyone in my vicinity. Heads were crushed under my grip, organs were removed from their cavities, bodies were ripped apart. There was no doubt I painted a horrifying image, but I couldn't let that slow me down as I pulled doors straight out of their frames and bellowed to those inside where to evacuate. My sandals were ripped apart as my Acero enveloped my legs up to my knees. My talons dug into the floors and pushed me faster, giving me sharper movement on the level of Grimmjow in his Resurreccion. I glanced behind me and saw medics moving injured patients as quickly as they could towards safety.
My Pesquisa pointed out someone coming at me from the right, and I snapped around with my claws ready only for the blade of the Soldat to bounce uselessly against a glowing orange triangle. My hand pointed and the shield disappeared, perfectly in time with me stepping forward to impale my arm through the Soldat's heart. I spotted Orihime coming out from a room, as well as over half a dozen patients behind her inside.
"I've got this hallway, keep going!" I nodded in acknowledgement before pouncing around the corner. Blood and torn carcasses followed my path as I ripped apart every Quincy in front of me. A distant explosion of reiatsu caused my body to tense, before I matched it with Kenpachi using his Bankai and I relaxed. That marked a practical guarantee that he would be fine. One of my hands wrapped around the top of a medic that had tripped, and I spun to hurl them back in the direction I came from. I tuned out their scream as I reoriented myself and continued bounding around the hallways, carving apart anything my Hollow nature instinctively marked as an enemy. Before I knew it, I had gone in a complete circle, and I tore through a few more hallways before I found myself in the hall leading to Intensive Care. Unohana was splitting apart Soldats as fast as they entered her view, and she was introduced to my presence through me spearing a hand through the back of a Soldat's throat. There was no need to acknowledge each other, or even coordinate, as we silently each picked a side and continued our protective rampages.
A group of three medics and four patients limped down one of the halls as quickly as they could, Kisuke taking up their rear and rapid-firing kido spells behind him.
"This is the last of them!" He announced, which seemed to invigorate the Soldats to try harder as much as it did Unohana and I. A layer of blood coated the walls, floor, ceiling, and ourselves. Once Kisuke passed us, we retreated in time with him, majorly assisted by me unleashing a cero behind us. The portal was easy to spot, eerily similar to a Garganta, and we herded ourselves through it immediately. Unlike the void-space of a Garganta though, as soon as we stepped through the opening, we stepped into a tightly packed room in the 12th. I heard a loud, metallic click, and the portal snapped shut. There was a collective sigh of relief from just about everyone, and I checked in on Zaraki. His reiatsu seemed just fine, Yachiru was on top of him, and the most powerful signature I could sense around him was Overkill. I dropped my shoulders with a relieved breath and refocused on the group around me, content that the Captain of the 11th would come back bitching about not having any worthwhile opponents.
A single step forward was marked by a wet slap, and I glanced down to see that my hands and feet were dripping in blood, which I could feel all the more distinctly now that I had let my Acero fade.
"Is someone available to wash me off?" I embarrassingly asked.
"There's a sink opposite the dissection table to your left." Kurotsuchi actually sounded disgusted, and then I remembered that, as much of a disturbing freak he was, he did make a point about keeping a clean lab.
"Thanks!" I tried to ignore the sounds of my feet leaving puddles on the floor as I stepped up to the sink and washed my hands, being pleasantly surprised by the power behind the faucet. It was practically power-washing my hands. Once I finished washing my extremities, I turned around, finding Unohana kneeling by a patient with Kaido working at a stomach wound, and Kisuke sitting on a chair with his head in his hands. I mentally stuttered for a moment, not at all liking the image of Kisuke seemingly struggling mentally with something. But I had to prioritize, Kisuke was unharmed, and we just dumped about fifty injured people into a single room. I clapped my hands loudly to catch everyone's attention, before cupping my hands around my mouth.
"Alright, everyone! I understand this is a shit situation and we need to work out all sorts of things with the sudden change in environment, but there is some good news to this!" While several Shinigami perked up at the possibility of an upside, I found it difficult to ignore Kisuke flinching. "We're in one big-ass room with no dividing walls, so if we get the injured to huddle close enough together, we can fit a lot more of you inside Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka at once!" Everyone seemed to very much agree that was good news, and the Shinigami of the Fourth started talking with each other about how best to group patients together. Unohana even looked pleased by the idea, as if she hadn't immediately thought of that. But then Kisuke went from holding his head in his hands to leaning back against the chair he was in limply. There was an empty look in his eyes.
"…Orihime Inoue did not make it out of the Fourth Division." Those within ten feet of the man all froze, but the noise in the room prevented the majority of its occupants from hearing his words.
"What?!" My own voice came out much sharper than I intended, and it drew the crowds' attention once more.
"From what I was able to put together, Orihime Inoue was surrounded on all sides by Soldats and overwhelmed. I was unable to fight my way to her before she was dead." The room stared at the blonde. I could tell just by looking at him, that the collective horror and dread of everyone present couldn't weigh as much on his mind as his own self-hatred. I was certain others would likely mistake his monotone as him being unfeeling, but I knew him better. It was his own desperate attempt to separate himself from the pain, his mind reasoning that he couldn't let it get to him or else more deaths would occur. Kurotsuchi screamed in anger and I heard something slam against a wall.
"HOW COULD YOU LET SOMEONE SO VALUABLE BE KILLED, YOU LACKADAISICAL CRETIN?!"
"Kurotsuchi," I ordered flatly, "Leave the room." He whirled around at me, and I didn't even have to look in his direction for him to understand that yelling at me right now was not a good idea. He scoffed as viciously as he could and I heard him slam the door behind him.
"…I used Shakkaho to dispose of the body." The grey-eyed man continued after a moment. "I didn't want to even consider the possibility of Zombie using her body." As I collapsed to my knees, I heard the resulting whispers, of people finding themselves both disgusted and relieved that he was able to think and act in such a mechanical manner to take such a precaution. They were horrifyingly grateful that he ensured Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka couldn't be used against us. But I knew what he really said. I knew that what he really wanted was to make sure Zombie couldn't use my friends against me again.
Kisuke was groaning on the ground, covered in bandages applied by Tessai, as I sat on the other side of the tea table, gratefully eating a riceball the apron-wearing man prepared.
"Did you have to go for below the belt?"
"I was contractually obligated to attempt to castrate you." I informed.
"By who?"
"Me." He groaned into the floor. "So, have you figured it out yet?"
"…Well, I've figured out that you're not the version of Ichigo Kurosaki that left to rescue Rukia Kuchiki a month and a half ago." He flopped onto his back. "I've narrowed it down to some sort of time/space manipulation, but I don't know if you're from a parallel universe or a different point in time."
"From the future." I confirmed.
"Aizen got that far along in his plans?"
"Nah, Yhwach."
"…Those stories about a confined Quincy King are true?"
"Don't say that like you haven't been suspecting it since my Mom died."
"Ok, just because your mother was mysteriously defeated by a hollow that she should have been able to defeat without even taking damage and that happened simultaneously with Ryuken Ishida's wife-Ok, yeah, I'll stop." All it took was a single mildly irritated eyebrow raise to get the man to understand he was making a mistake. "I believe I'm not incorrect in assuming both that you have time traveled to stop Yhwach and that it took longer than it should've for you to return from Soul Society because you were assisting in training the Captains?"
"And now you understand why we kept you completely in the dark for so long. The slightest bit of information and you figure out everything." I groused.
"I've noticed that you visited the Vizard on your own after the event where you went on a rampage, and I suspect that you had already attained control over your hollow powers in the initial timeline. In which case, I can only presume that you learned some sort of trick involving hollowfication that you then retaught to your fellow Vizard." He thought aloud.
"Proving my point." I pointed out with faux-annoyance.
"On multiple occasions since then, either Unohana-taicho or Yoruichi-chan have pulled me from the Shoten, wherein my cameras have shown that you and whoever does not distract me go into my basement. By the way, do you realize how expensive it is to replace the cameras every time you break them down there?" He continued on while I politely sat back and let him do his thing. "I strongly suspect that your sessions with Unohana-taicho involve something to do with her relinquished title as the First Kenpachi, and that your sessions with Yoruichi-chan almost assuredly revolve around her Kokubyo Senki. Though, that doesn't necessarily explain why they spend so much time around you, nor why you had them request me to enroll them at your school as your personal nurse and therapy animal respectively. Considering my sensors have not indicated any senkaimon nor garganta opening outside of during the Kasumioji Incident, I am left to assume you do not visit the Seireitei on the regular to assist in others' training. In this case, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the reason they are around you so often is not for practical purposes relating to your time-traveling, but emotional purposes relating to some sort of relationship." He paused for a moment to tilt his head my way, asking for confirmation. I gave a single, amused nod. The grey eyed scientist smiled and fixed his head.
"Furthering that train of thought, if you only sought to have me enroll them so that the three of you would be able to spend more time together, you wouldn't necessarily have to have me enroll them in those particular roles. Yoruichi-chan has the necessary training to be able to act the part of a high schooler, and Unohana-taicho could have also fulfilled the role of a teacher's assistant, for example. Thus, I feel that I am on the right track to believe that there was explicit purpose in those particular roles. You don't appear to require any form of assisted living, case in point that they do not accompany you wherever you go, which leads me to the conclusion that they actually provide some form of mental rehabilitation for you. The most common-" Kisuke cut himself off and tilted his head back my way, realization and concern filling his eyes. "You have Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder."
"Yeah. While you were waiting for me to step inside, I was trying to psyche myself up enough to see you. You're the only one that made it out alive beyond myself." Eyes the color of smoke widened, before darkening.
"…Then this isn't to attain the best possible outcome." He understood. "This is to attain any positive outcome." A nod from me was all he needed as he sat up, done pretending the bruises I gave him meant anything. "Considering the information I've collected, I don't believe I'm wrong in presuming I was the 'brains' to your 'brawn'?"
"Got it in one. My memorization of everything that the Wandenreich are going to do combined with your extensive counter-planning?" Dying smoke brightened to vicious storm clouds.
"They won't know what hit them." I blinked at the madness in his gaze, that flawless fusion of paranoia, a loose grip on ethics, and a crazed drive to win that made him one of the Five Special War Threats. Once again, a reminiscent smile floated onto my face, and I didn't hesitate to reach out and pat the shoulder of an old friend.
"Good to have you back, Frankenstein." He tilted his head on genuine confusion, as the gears in his mind worked.
"Aizen is the one that masterminded the circumstances behind your birth, though?" A bark of laughter came from me. Close enough.
"You're the one that got me working." Shock dressed his face as his eyes shined at the praise.
Next Chapter: Seventeen-Year-Late Goodbye