Kalon Kuchiki reflected on a conversation he had with his father, Kaito, over a year ago as he arrived by carriage at Kuchiki Manor in the late afternoon for tea with his cousin and Lord, Byakuya Kuchiki.

"Seeds sown on a moonless night come bursting up from the soil in direct sunlight," Kalon whispers to himself in the privacy of his carriage as they turn on the cobblestoned avenue leading to Kuchiki Manor. It was two miles from this point for him to get to the gates, but he knew that Byakuya's spies were already listening to every word he uttered the moment his carriage turned on the cobblestones. They must have been monitoring his spiritual pressure too, for all Kalon knew, and they can do that all day if it pleases them. It will not stop the progress of his plans because, to win every battle, you must know your enemy as well as you know yourself. And when your enemy is Byakuya Kuchiki, one must be vigilant with his every step. Kalon learned that valuable lesson when they were children. He was especially on his guard since events seemed to be unfolding in his favor.

"All is never as it seems at Kuchiki Manor."

Since yesterday's debacle at the clan meeting, a typhoon of gossip has been washing over the noble circuit, giving wagging tongues a tizzy of rumors to chat about and a swirl of speculations to speculate based purely on nothing but Byakuya's reaction in defense of Rukia's 'perceived' honor.

Why everyone was so willing to buy into this romantic fabrication between Byakuya and Rukia is pitiful. Kalon dismissed the concept as soon as he heard it.

Is everyone in the nobility this bored with their existence? He mused with an annoyed sigh, shaking his dark head.

Sieving the truth from rumors and then putting together all that he knows about his cousin, it's easy for anyone with a brain in their skull to see that Byakuya isn't shagging Rukia. The very idea is laughable in Kalon's mind.

My cousin doesn't have the balls to bed his adopted peasant. My, my! How the servants would talk should something like that ever occur. Byakuya is too goddamn honorable for such a thing as a little in-law incest.

Byakuya Kuchiki, the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Clan and Captain of Squad Six of the Gotei 13, might seem to be a cold, solid, impenetrable mountain of uncompromising principles in the guise of a man from everyone else's perspective; there is no hiding that truth. But one must wonder if all is as it appears.

Why is the mountain still mourning a peasant wench's passing for over fifty years, a thing that was barely alive while she lived and refuses to remarry?

Could it be that a heart is still beating under that rock, under that impregnable armor, just waiting for a well-timed knife to find it? The handle of that knife brushes against Kalon Kuchiki's palm as he draws closer to the gates of Kuchiki Manor.

Only a matter of time now, cousin.

Things are always subtle when it comes to Byakuya, but Kalon can somehow perceive nuances about his cousin's character that most miss entirely. Within Byakuya's spiritual reiatsu, there's a deep-seated sediment of profound loss, like a stain you can't wash out. Though the man does his best to suppress private things about himself in the company of others, Kalon can nearly always perceive this "off" thing about his cousin, like an unpleasant tingling at the bottom of the spine. Perhaps having a tyrant father like Kaito Kuchiki made him more susceptible to seeing daggers in the dark, feeling when things are about to go awry, or having a deeper understanding of how the Game of Whispers is played from an early age. In Kalon's green eyes, the more someone tries to hide something from him, the more noticeable it is that they're hiding something.

These skill sets contributed to building his reputation over the centuries of his lifetime. As a noble, your reputation is your universe! If it doesn't exist, you do not. Yet Byakuya sank his when he married Hisana, then further damaged it when he adopted her sister into his household.

Why is Byakuya still the head of the clan despite all his buffoonery? It mystifies me how he gets away with everything!

Kalon has always been a thinker. Unlike everyone else who accepted that rubbish about his cousin's disinterestedness towards Rukia for the last fifty years up until yesterday's meeting, that is, Kalon has never agreed with the populous opinion on the relationship between his cousin and his adopted pet sibling. All was never what it seemed when it came to Byakuya; Kalon found that out when they were children, and from what he's observed, Byakuya is overprotective with everything concerning his sister, just this side of nearly overbearing.

He's like a shadow when it comes to Rukia.

Kalon understands Byakuya (unbelievable as that may sound), he does. To his cousin, Rukia represents the last remnant of Hisana, the love of his life. If he didn't know better, Kalon would've sworn the two peasant girls were twin sisters.

So if one wants to maneuver the shadow, the quickest way is to get to the one thing left in this world that can put a dent in Byakuya's defense. His cousin's one vulnerability. Kalon Kuchiki knew what he had to do to achieve this goal, as distasteful as nine hells as it will be.

I will do my best if that's what it takes, my dear cousin, and oh! How I will savor ripping it away from your clutches, as you've ripped everything from me by existing in this world.

Kalon is one day early for his appointment. Though one doesn't drop by the Main Branch house without an invitation— not if you don't want to get tackled by the squadron of ninjas living in the shadows, ready at the snap of the Lord's finger to pounce on any threat, the main house's security force— Kalon, is a Kuchiki. Whether he had an invite or not, that alone is enough to impress the rube guards on duty at the towering gates and the servants of Kuchiki Manor. And he had sent a letter yesterday on the heels of his father's disgraceful conduct in council to soothe any hurt feelings. His cousin had not replied, and Kalon would have been surprised if Byakuya had replied via Hell Butterfly or otherwise. This early arrival after sending a letter for afternoon tea is Kalon's way of cementing his sincerest apologies on behalf of his household.

From the outside, his form will be correct, and his bearing will be seen by others as noble. If his cousin does not keep the appointment or create a fuss over his early arrival, it won't be Kalon who loses face, but Byakuya for being too affiliated with his emotions over something that happened already that had nothing to do with Kalon personally.

A snap of his fingers. Kalon reflected in admiration, snapping his fingers in time with his thoughts as they came back to him like an echo. He had to scoff at the arrogance of his cousin. With a snap of Byakuya's fingers, an elite army is at his disposal. Night or day, it didn't matter; distance didn't matter. Such power with the snap of a finger from one individual.

His cousin had his guards trained to be like this, and Kalon couldn't help but respect that about Byakuya even as he steamed with envy on the inside for this cousin's wealth. Not Byakuya's money. Whoever values wealth understands that money is but a byproduct of wealth. Kalon has money and understands the psychology of how to make money work for him. That's been his education from infancy, as any noble house worth its salt would have educated their children or wards properly in the subject. No, when Kalon thinks of Byakuya's wealth, he's referring to clout, authority, leverage, respect, status, fame, and recognition; his cousin has these in abundance.

When you mention the name Byakuya Kuchiki in the Seireitei, everyone within earshot knows who you're talking about. Just 'Byakuya' sends tongues wagging, his many titles popping up in conversations that, before his name was mentioned, had nothing to do with him. Hells! "Kuchiki" didn't have to be attached to his name. Just 'Byakuya' sends off a frenzy of excited whispers from females behind their fluttering fans and envy and admiration from the males, with everyone trying to measure up to the Lord of the Clan's standards, which is a mystery to Kalon as to why they try because for the centuries he's known Byakuya, his lofty standards have never been attainable by anyone. It's frustrating being related to a man like that.

It irks Kalon whenever he's announced at a party, and these series of whispers meet his hearing:

"Kalon Kuchiki?"

"Never heard him."

"Who is that?"

"Is he related to the famous Captain of Squad Six?"

"He can introduce me to Lord Kuchiki."

"We should make his acquaintance for an introduction to that 'handsome' cousin of his."

"A marriage proposal is in your future to the head of the Kuchiki Clan with the proper incentive."

It's like a serrated knife leisurely skinning Kalon's flesh from his bones every time the Lord of the Clan's name comes up. The utterance of 'Byakuya' effectively leaches all the attention from him in an instant. No one is interested in who Kalon is after Byakuya's name is mentioned—only if he can make an introduction to his flat-headed bore of a cousin.

If Uncle Sojun had just died without spawning a perpetual thorn in his side like Byakuya from his pretty little wife, then Kalon would've remained the heir and become the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Clan, following the line of succession. Seven hells! Without Byakuya's existence, Kalon wouldn't suffer such humiliation, and these feelings of lack haunting him constantly from his boyhood until now.

It didn't matter what his accomplishments were at the moment; it didn't matter what obstacles he had to face to achieve his triumph—it didn't matter. Byakuya's name alone is enough to fade Kalon and everything that represents him into the background. That's one of the reasons he hated his cousin, Byakuya Kuchiki.

But one doesn't hate the Lord of the Clan and be honest about it, even in secret. Absolute loyalty is the order of the day, every day, with every heartbeat. That's the Kuchiki way, and that's how one survives in this family. When Kaito threw a wrench into the system of things in that meeting yesterday by going after Byakuya's wife and his sister as he had, it caused a bit of an upset among noble heads, not to mention putting his son in a rather uncomfortable situation.

While his foolish father is an Elder with foundations in the clan's structure, Kalon's office is not so assured. He is a diplomat for his household and a politician by necessity. He adapts and plays different roles as the situation requires him to keep his place. He has learned early on in his life how to smile without baring his fangs, regardless of the state of his emotional constitution, especially in the presence of his mislikable father and his cousin. Byakuya is one of the shrewdest men Kalon has ever had the displeasure to be around. Nothing gets by him, even when they were children. Byakuya's irksome that way and a much bigger pain in the ass now with time and experience.

Dark Gods, how he pisses me off. Kalon thought, his deep green eyes staring out the window at the Seireitei in early summer, going by slowly with the momentum of his carriage. He could've flashed stepped from his estates in the west, and it would've saved hours on this trip, but why bother to wrinkle his finery and sweat for his cousin's sake? Besides, he has a retinue of servants from his household since he didn't trust the people working at the main house to look out for his best interests and not report back to his cousin everything he did, down to the most minute details, during his visit. Kalon didn't mind the trot; it gave him the time he needed to compose not just his facial expressions but his mind, as well as pat down his emotions in preparation to be in his cousin's presence for more than half an hour. He has a prepared list of contingencies, counterarguments, and answers to his cousin's possible probing questions, responses, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Puckering my lips up to kiss Byakuya's narrow ass on the right side because of my father's antics. Kalon blew out a long exhalation.

He knew the answer to why Kaito confronted Byakuya in the stupid manner he did. Kalon hates Byakuya's guts—that's true to a fault—but will give the man his due because his actions were absolutely appropriate in response to Kaito's disrespect. Kalon did not agree with Byakuya's choice of a wife (whatever the hell Hisana was), she wasn't fit for the title of Lady Kuchiki, and he had no idea what possessed his cousin to marry the dirty-ragged girl from the slums. However, it's a lapse in judgment to the extreme for Kaito to draw attention to his 'real' thoughts on the man's dead wife and her failures as a woman to birth an heir before kicking the bucket hard to the left. At least, that's what it's supposed to look like from the outside. Kaito was lucky Byakuya didn't kill him out of hand. A lesser man would have begged for death by the time his cousin was done issuing an appropriate punishment for such loose talk. Byakuya, in Kalon's estimation, isn't a cruel man, but that doesn't mean he lacks imagination in the arts; far from it. The way Kalon sees it, his father got off with a broken jaw and a few other injuries for his disrespect because of his position as an Elder of the Kuchiki Clan. From a political point of view, it would've come off as unethical for Byakuya to shred the old goat's flesh from his bones with Senbonzakura like cheese, losing the battle against a grater for such chutzpah.

But father had already calculated his survival, the sly old coot. Too bad Byakuya didn't kill the old bastard for me. He's such a rule-follower at the most inconvenient times.

Kalon took a deep breath of enclosed carriage air filled with the smell of new fabric and varnished wood, his head resting against the upholstered wall as he closed his eyes, listening to the soft sounds of the wheels against the cobblestones as they made the last turn that leads to the gates of the Main Branch house. The open carriage window carried in the fresh scent of acres and acres of recently manicured lawns stretching out on both sides of the road—a living display of the Main Branch's influence. All this land is Byakuya's, down to the cobblestoned road his carriage and the wagon behind it traveled on. His cousin could've renamed the road when he became the 28th Head of the Clan if he wanted to: 'Byakuya's Avenue' or something unimaginative like that. But Byakuya didn't. With his looks, Byakuya could have a harem—a bevy of noble ladies chained to his bedpost by their ankles, ready to flip their skirts up at the crook of his finger—and his position as Lord of the Clan made his actions above reproach. But Byakuya doesn't. What did Byakuya do instead?

My cousin married something from the slums and mourns her death for fifty years. What a schmuck! Dark Gods, he pisses me off! Kalon repeated in his thoughts. I'll have to shake things up around here when I'm the 29th head of this clan.

Kalon didn't care that Byakuya went slumming—there's a first for everything. Noble women are notorious bores, and the thorny patches of decorum they pretended to, were so stale that a little time spent in their company reveals their true natures, their facades crumbling like dry bread. By comparison, lower-class girls were better for sporting, and, in the bedchamber, a lot more entertaining. Want to have a good time? Take the newest chambermaids to bed, especially the ones that have just reached the age of maturity; it's not as if they'll be able to refuse a lord's advances.

Why did my cousin have to marry the wench? That was so ludicrous and degrading to the noble name of Kuchiki.

A year ago, when Kalon first heard the rudiments of his father's proposal for him to marry Rukia, he nearly exploded in outrage. It didn't matter that Byakuya raised that slumdog to the peerage. It didn't matter if she was respectable enough now to be a noblewoman after tutoring in the artistry. Rukia came from slum stock! Dirty, muddy peasantry, and she will never be a true blue-blood in the eyes of any worthy noble. Kalon could barely contain his angry disbelief at his father's command.

"Is this our heritage now?" He'd asked his father, beside himself with exasperation. "Is this what the Kuchiki legacy has boiled down to? Our dear leader marries from the peasantry; now you want me to marry that slum piece of trash?" Kalon had hissed at his father one year ago.

"That 'slum piece of trash' is worth more than your tiny brain realizes and will be worth more once she reaches the age of maturity."

"How so?" Kalon questioned his father snidely. "Has Rukia regained her lost virginity by Heaven's grace? That's the only way I might find her marginally appealing, if but for that first time. I'm not interested in that 'peasant' my cousin adopted into his home to mock the noble name of Kuchiki. I wasn't fifty years ago; one year won't make a dent in my opinion."

When Kalon first met the girl, he didn't know what the hell he was looking at. (A sewer rat in finery?) (A mangy dog dressed up like a person?) The girl was so skinny, her face gaunt from hunger and malnutrition, that Kalon almost lost his composure in the presence of her adopted brother and his Lord. Since that first meeting, Kalon has prided himself on not running into the slum trash on purpose and only kept up with the tidbits of juicy gossip surrounding Rukia over the years. He'll say this for the girl; at least she's not boring.

It's been a half-century since his eyes last saw Rukia; not that he hasn't been to the Main Branch house in fifty years, but on the occasions of his visits, he kept to the Main House, where his cousin lives. Rukia, as the quote and quote sister to the Lord of Manor, has her apartments on the northeast side of Kuchiki Manor. She's mostly at her barracks when he visits; thank the Seireitei. Kalon didn't know why she bothered to be in the Gotei 13 anyway. She's of no rank after fifty years, despite being a Kuchiki. Has she no shame? The noble thing to do is quit and save some face in the presence of such a monumental failure.

"Simpleton!" Kaito had snapped at his son, "It's been over fifty years, and there is still no heir to the clan. Byakuya doesn't intend to remarry anyone. Thirteen hells! The pansy doesn't even want to dip his wick into any of the chambermaids' or servant girls' oils, though the lot of them at the Main Branch house would practically lick the floor where he walks; all of them have puppy-dog eyes for him."

"My cousin's squeamishness toward female creatures aside," Kalon had interjected with his customary snarky tone, "his 'sister' has no true-blooded claim to the Clan. It's no secret that Rukia enjoys her trips to the mortal world more than anyone else does. You expect me to marry the leftover bed-sport of some human?"

That remark earned Kalon a boney backhand across his face, splitting his bottom lip; blood welled immediately.

"Expect?" Kaito said in a quiet voice, as he would speak to a trusted friend, but his eyes told an entirely different story. "I 'expect' nothing from you, my son." The last words saturated in the disappointed tone his father reserved only for Kalon. It sours the title "son" from the pride it was meant to be into an insult. "And you call yourself a politician. A thinker?" Kaito chuckled wheezily at that, making Kalon bite down on his anger at being hit and mocked. "Very well, 'Lord Thinker,' allow me to do the hard thinking for you, then." Kaito sneered, grabbing Kalon by the collar of his robes and dragging him closer until his son would smell his dry breath penetrating his nostrils. "You will marry the slut because I've commanded you to, my son, and you will do as you're told. Rukia Kuchiki is the only key left if you hope to wear the Kenseikan as the head of this clan. Now, I don't care if that offends your delicate, noble sensibilities. I don't care if you become the laughing stock of every aristocratic perfumed ass-flop in the Soul Society, given their titles on the virtue of the accident of their birth, or if you become the butt of every joke from the servant's quarters. I care not one whit if marrying Rukia Kuchiki ruins the precious reputation you've been building up over the centuries of your lifetime. You can offer her up to all your men, all your stable boys, and all your horses to fuck until she goes mad after you marry the little bitch and beget a son from her, and after she bears an heir for you, I care not what you do with her. But you will marry Rukia Kuchiki, Kalon.

The intensity of his father's words sent chills over Kalon's spine. He had to take a deep breath, channeling words into his throat by sheer willpower; he swallowed hard over the lump in his throat.

"And what's to stop my shrewd dear cousin from disapproving of this 'happy' union?" Kalon asked, swallowing the blood from his split lip and taking another deep breath to reign in his emotions leaking into his spiritual reiatsu.

Kaito's wrinkled face creased impossibly further as he smirked up at his son. "Let me worry about that. By the time I'm done, Lord Kuchiki-Sama won't be able to object to your marriage to his sister. He's too honorable. That's the problem with honor; it's straightforward."

We're about to find out how right you are, father, or how fatally wrong you are.

Kalon's thoughts leveled off; his spiritual pressure was calm and reticent. He didn't need Byakuya reading him like an open tome through his spiritual reiatsu. Kalon knows Byakuya, but the reverse is also true, and regardless of his mask of indifference, Kalon Kuchiki has no illusions about what his Lord thinks about him. For the most part, Byakuya's right. He is pretentious, he is sly, and he is an artifice.

Yet, you'll have no choice but to approve of my marriage to your sister. Your precious pride and secret joy, will you, Byakuya? I'll ensure it.

Kalon's evidence for this confidence comes from a report about two years ago, when a source from his household whispered something intriguing and exponentially embarrassing to the Kuchiki Clan if word of it got out. Kalon's source related that on the day of Rukia's aborted execution, they overheard Byakuya's confession as he lay on the stretcher, bleeding out on Sōkyoku Hill, telling Rukia about her sister for the first time. Confessing to his sister about his confusion and the indecision that had plagued him since her execution was announced and how he, Byakuya Kuchiki, noble leader of the Kuchiki Clan, had decided to commit suicide once her execution was concluded.

All at once, Kalon felt perplexed regarding this report. Relatedly, he was devastated that the wretched girl didn't die and that Byakuya didn't commit suicide as a catalysis following her death, which would have made Kalon the clan's leader by default. Then Kalon experienced a disparity of abject humiliation wash over him at the lengths Byakuya would have gone to for a mere peasant.

Anyone hearing these words would believe that his cousin was madly in love with his ward, unable to live without her presence in this world. Kalon rolled his eyes at Byakuya's sense of drama.

Killing himself over the death of a peasant girl?

Byakuya should've been happy to get rid of her. What a despicable showing for a leader! It was so embarrassing to Kalon listening to this report that now only three other people knew about this outside of Kalon himself: Rukia, Byakuya, and Retsu Unohana, Captain of Squad Four. The 'source' was disposed of quietly.

As medical personnel and a fellow captain, Retsu Unohana will have to keep her mouth shut as a matter of patient confidentiality.

"Holt! Who goes there?" Came a muffled challenge from outside the carriage. The carriage walls were built to muffle outside sounds, even as it passes through ruckus crowds, so the guard's voice must indeed be loud to sink through the thick upholstery. But that tells Kalon that they've arrived at Kuchiki Manor at last. That cobbled road is at least two miles long.

"His Excellency, Lord Kalon Kuchiki-sama, son of the most honorable Kaito Kuchiki-sama, clan Elder to his Lordship, the 28th head of the Kuchiki Clan, Lord Byakuya Kuchiki-Sama." Kalon's herald stated this imperiously.

"Lord Kalon is not expected until tomorrow afternoon." The guard opposed, and Kalon just about had enough. He turned his mouth toward the carriage window.

"I am nothing if not punctual, you flat-headed oaf. Shut up and open the gates, or should I tell my cousin, Lord Kuchiki-Sama, that his guard's rudeness offended me as soon as I arrived at his home on official business?" Kalon made the tone of his voice into a silky menace loud enough for the guard to hear.

Name-dropping Byakuya's name to a guardsman is a special sting to Kalon's dignity, but he'll sup disgrace and bide his time until he can take action. I should have this guard's eyes for making me have to refer my cousin to get inside the manor of my ancestors. I'm a Kuchiki for seven hells!

"Forgiveness, my Lord Kalon." Kalon senses the man's submissive state inside his spiritual reiatsu. It pleased him to feel it somewhat, but he wasn't satisfied by a long shot. "We were only caught unawares by your early arrival."

"The Lord of this manor does not like to waste time; we have that in common as blood." The implications of his statement are clear enough even to this rube, and in another second, the sounds of the Goliath gates of the Main Branch family were opening to accommodate him and his retinue. Looking out the carriage window at the majesty of Kuchiki Manor—soon to be my manor—Kalon thought, already picturing the place under his directive.

"Welcome back to Kuchiki Manor, my Lord Kalon-Sama." A chorus of guards said, their heads bowed low as his carriage drove through the gates.

My cousin may be the foreboding mountain in his element, but every tide has its ebb no matter how mighty the torrent, and Byakuya's reign as the 28th head is coming to an end sooner than all will suspect.