Winter War: Iba: Hurry up and Wait (1/2) [Bleach]
Title: Winter War - Iba: Hurry Up and Wait
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Iba
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for language and references to character death
Word Count: c. 11,500
Notes: This is a rather dark AU co-plotted with incandescens and liralen. The war against Aizen's forces went very badly. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.
Summary: There is a defection to deal with, plans cast in doubt, a few tough questions asked, and a dose of rough justice handed out. Meanwhile, the packing still needs to be done.
Previous chapters
"What do you mean, you don't know where he is?"
The silence that followed Ikkaku's demand lasted only a few seconds. Then, everything exploded into a frenzy that was just this side of pure chaos.
Hinamori quickly and matter-of-factly swept up all the papers from the table and carried them over to the fire. Ukitake-taichou, Ise, and Shiba began running through options and trying to decide which of their plans might be salvageable.
Sasakibe shouted over whatever Ikkaku said next and ordered Yoshino to come get the prisoner and secure him, now. Yoshino was on it before Sasakibe even finished speaking, and Grimmjow's exit was more of a running scuffle than any kind of orderly departure.
That left poor Shirogane on her own to explain how Rikichi said he was going to do a perimeter patrol--just like they always did a few times an hour at random when they were encamped--and she had just been telling Yoshino she thought Rikichi should have been back by now when Ikkaku came outside.
At least, that's what it sounded like. It was hard to tell, given how she could barely draw breath to speak before getting cut off by Ikkaku and then by Soi Fong.
All this took less than thirty seconds.
Iba shook his head in disgust, and, once he was finished running through his mental checklist, got working on the orders he'd been given just prior to everything going to hell.
Everyone needed to be prepared for battle or evacuation, was what he'd been told, and now it looked like it was going to be evacuation. Again.
With a bum leg, there wasn't much he could actually do by way of toting and hauling to get an entire campful of people ready to be miles away and untrackable by nightfall.
That didn't mean he was useless. Far from it. If he had done his job properly over the past few weeks, he'd have everyone ready to go before the top of the hour.
Only the knowledge of how much could go wrong, and how badly, kept him from feeling smug about this.
He hobbled to the hallway and bellowed out an order. A few seconds later, three of his people came running pell-mell. They were kids, really, one of them still in his Academy uniform. Kids, but they were fast on their feet and would remember--and do--what they were told after being told only once.
"First up, this ain't a drill. We got to get everyone ready to evacuate and fast. No idea what kind of time frame we're looking at for real, but assume the worst--everyone ready to move out in twenty minutes with pursuers hot on our tail." They might have more breathing room than that, but if he told them that, there was a chance they'd act like they did have it.
If Rikichi had turned on them, then their location could be taken as known. Trying to make it look like they'd never been there would only be a waste of time. A waste they couldn't afford if Ichimaru got Aizen to send some Hollows after them. "No cleanup detail. Anything that's not essential gets abandoned in place, as is. No exceptions."
The way things were, it would take him too damned long to stump around and see for himself if everything was being done the way it was supposed to. So, he had to rely on others to be his legs and eyes and voice, and hope like hell they didn't fuck it up.
"Suzuki, get the word out and tell the squad leaders to make sure we got everyone accounted for. Then circle back and find out if we got anyone missing and who they are and when anyone last saw 'em."
They were distracted when Yoshino came back in, Hoshibana and Ogidou close on his heels. Hoshibana looked like he wanted to murder someone. Ogidou was, as always, smiling pretty. Freak.
"What about them?" The recon squad hadn't figured into any of their drills, and Suzuki sounded close to panic at this disruption to their carefully rehearsed routine.
"Not your problem," Iba told her curtly. The recon squad could take care of itself, and would do so faster without any 'help.' "Make sure everyone else is where they need to be and ready to move out when I give the word."
Next up was Taguchi, who was responsible for getting the wounded and their small group of healers ready, and their few, precious medical supplies packed for transport. Kuroda's job was to make sure two days' worth of rations were ready for all the able-bodied to grab on their way out.
The three of them wouldn't be doing most of the work themselves. It was much too much for just three kids, but those kids could get instructions to the people who could be counted on to get it done.
At least, Iba hoped they would get it done. He'd run regular drills on emergency evacuations after he got laid up, and each time, something major got fucked up. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse that it was a different kind of fuckup each time.
Unfortunately, there was nothing else to do now but hurry up and wait. Everyone would be accounted for and ready to go in twenty minutes, or they wouldn't. Either this would end up being just another drill, or it wouldn't.
Meanwhile, he had better make sure he knew what was going on. One thing Komamura-taichou had ruthlessly pounded into his head over the years was that not knowing something was no excuse for screwing up. Neither was 'wasn't my job.'
Which reminded him--he'd better make sure somebody knew what the hell they were going to do with that Arrancar when they had to move out.
For no more than a second, he thought about going to check on the blue-haired bastard himself. Then he shrugged the thought aside, deciding that Grimmjow had nothing to say that he wanted to hear.
He felt inside his top for the pack of cigarettes that should have been there. Nothing. He fished around some more until he remembered that he'd smoked the last salvaged cigarette--an ashy and unsatisfying mess made up from butt-ends he'd carefully hoarded--yesterday afternoon. These days, cigs were even harder to come by than booze.
Soi Fong and Ikkaku were still working over Shirogane, who now looked like she very much wanted to find an elsewhere to be. Iba did his best to keep from fidgeting, but then the craving for a smoke got driven clear out of his mind when it came out that Shirogane, Yoshino, and Rikichi had been able to overhear bits and pieces of what was said in the meeting. Not everything, but enough to be a real problem if it turned out that Rikichi was going to start telling tales--voluntarily or otherwise--to Ichimaru and his goons.
"Let's see..." Ikkaku squinted, peering off through the trees as if he thought Rikichi might be lurking in a thicket. "If Four-Eyes here is right, Rikichi's been gone maybe ten minutes. Terrain like this, he could be three, maybe four miles away if he's using shunpo."
"How skilled is he?" Soi Fong asked.
Iba was about to say 'not very,' but Ikkaku beat him to it.
"Lot better'n he was a few months back. Nowhere near as good as these two, though," he said, jerking his head towards Hinamori and Hoshibana. "And what the hell are you two doing wasting time? Get after him while there's still time to catch up!"
Soi Fong contradicted the order with a sharp wave of her hand, and Sasakibe was right there with new ones before she or Ikkaku could say anything.
"No. Hinamori and all the other vice-captains are to stay here. Hoshibana-san, I want you and Shirogane-san to go after the boy directly. If you cannot track him down before nightfall, send back word--we'll have to assume the worst. Madarame-san, who are your best trackers? Not including yourself, of course."
"Newb--Takano and Maki--Aramaki," he said quickly. Hoshibana and Shirogane had already flash-stepped away to go after their old division-mate. "You want they should see if Rikichi's laid a false trail and doubled back or something?"
"I'll tell them," Hinamori said before Sasakibe could confirm Ikkaku's guess. She did not look happy. At all. She disappeared in a flash-step before anyone could say anything else.
There had been times, back before he got injured, when Iba and Ikkaku would talk through the strengths and weaknesses of their hodge-podge and nameless little squad. When the talk came around to Rikichi, 'smarts' and 'sneakiness' never managed to come up. Enthusiasm, very much yes, and willingness to jump into any kind of insane situation with no hope of success, but the kid wasn't in any danger of being mistaken for the brain trust of the group.
Ikkaku sighed, shoulders lifting and slumping extravagantly, and the mad seemed to fall right off of him. Instead, he just looked tired. Tired and twenty years older. "You know, we're all going to feel really stupid when it turns out Rikichi had to take a shit and fell into the latrine."
"Better to feel stupid than be dead," Soi Fong pointed out. The weight of all the insulting things she could have said after that was oppressive enough that Ikkaku took insult anyway. The mad slid right back, and he left before he could be dismissed, snarling at Yoshino to come with him and make sure that miserable excuse for an ex-Hollow was ready to be dragged out of there--by his hair if need be.
And with that particular item off his to-worry-about list, Iba decided it was high time he go make sure Kotetsu had what she needed and was ready to get Ukitake-taichou safely out of here.
If worse came to worst, that was.
Every step, every twinge in his knee, was a bitter reminder of just what could happen if they didn't plan for the worst. If they assumed that just because someone seemed to be a friend, they couldn't turn traitor.
Yeah, Iba had learned that lesson all too well, too many times.
Still, there was part of him that really hoped this would all turn out to be a mistake and Rikichi would be dragged back here in a few minutes to be razzed and possibly forced to go scrub off before re-joining so-called polite company.
After all, it was Rikichi.
The thought stirred up echoes he chose ignore.
Hinamori returned without fanfare, a quick nod telling everyone concerned that she'd sent her other two squad-mates to see if Rikichi had laid a false trail. Her expression was still dark as thunderclouds, and Iba grimaced when she shot him a quick, sharp I need to talk to you look.
Iba held up a finger, quietly telling her she'd just have to wait a damned moment. For one thing, he didn't particularly want to talk to her just then. For another, he still hadn't talked to Kotetsu, who was getting an earful from Kigai Kaede about what old Fourth Division supply depots were within quick striking distance and might be worth the risk of raiding for food after they moved out. Iba had worked with Kaede a few times when he was still on the reconnaissance squad, and knew she had a habit of using twenty words when three would do.
"Oi! Kotetsu!"
Kotetsu broke away from listening to Kaede's report while Kaede was still yammering away--not that Kaede minded or even noticed, from the look of things. "Yes? What is it, Iba-fukutaichou?"
He hated how she always sounded like she was waiting to be yelled at for something. Didn't used to be like that.
"Just wanted to make sure you had what you needed to get Ukitake-taichou out of here."
"Yes." The response was quiet, almost shamed, and he felt like a shit for asking. Of course she would be ready and more than ready, but he had to ask. Assumptions got people killed.
Speaking of things that could get people killed, Ise was glaring at him over the rims of her glasses. It took Iba a second to realize what he'd done, and he mumbled a quick apology to Ukitake-taichou. It was all too easy to talk about him as if he wasn't there, or worse, as if he was still slipping in and out of a coma while they were waiting for him to die.
He'd be catching hell from Ise for that later, so even though Hinamori was growing visibly more cranky by the second, he hobbled over to her as if she were a safe haven.
"Do you really think Rikichi turned on us?" she asked him without any lead-in. The question wasn't plaintive, the way he would have expected from the Hinamori of a year ago. The question was designed to put him on the defensive, and it did its job just fine.
"I'm not about to blindly trust someone who up and ran off after hearing damn near everything we've been planning. That's a brand of stupid we can't afford."
Hinamori pursed her lips, and her eyes cut down and to the side as if running through something in her mind. She sighed, and when she spoke, it only sounded half-directed at him. "As long as we find him before he runs into any of Ichimaru's people, I suppose it doesn't matter."
Doesn't matter? Did he hear that right? It didn't matter that someone she'd been working side-by-side with for the past few months might have gone to the bad?
"If we have to throw away this chance because of him..." The look in her eyes made Iba very glad she didn't finish that sentence. His confusion cleared as he realized that it wasn't the idea of betrayal or having to run again that had her bothered.
"Hoshi and Shirogane'll capture him. Find him. Whatever." It was a reasonable hope. Regardless of why Rikichi had disappeared, if they could find him before anything happened, they could still proceed as planned. Well, maybe even more carefully than planned.
Iba paused for a moment as the implications of in a few days, this could all be over crashed over him like a wave, and if he had let himself, he could have been lost. Then, again like a wave, it receded, leaving him with an only slightly less pissed off than before Hinamori.
"So." That was all she said for a moment, but Iba knew there was going to be more. He was tempted to tell her that they didn't have time to talk, but she knew as well as he did that all they had to do at the moment was wait. He could always just turn and walk away, but she could outrun him, no problem.
Hell, these days, his mom could outrun him without getting out of breath.
"What do you think of our assignment?"
It was an innocent-seeming question that had large, splintered spikes at the bottom of it. Neither of them was happy about their orders, and they both knew it. It had been hard to hide their reactions, the way that particular news had been dropped on them without warning.
"Can't say I'm surprised." He slapped the side of his crutch, in case she missed his meaning, but that only answered part of her question. He thought about smoothing things over with a harmless little fib, but she knew as well as he did these assignments were in no way random.
"As for you," he said slowly, not sure what to brace himself for, "I guess they didn't want you to have to go toe-to-toe with your old captain."
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. It wasn't quite a smile, but he could tell that what he'd said was no surprise. In fact, she seemed pleased. "And they won't send me to Seireitei because too many people there would still remember what happened to me after... Well, after."
Not just Seireitei, either. Hinamori hadn't exactly gone with the reconnaissance squad as a volunteer. Maybe she knew that, or maybe she didn't, but now that she was being trusted to guard Ukitake-taichou, it didn't matter that some of them had argued to keep her the hell away from him until they knew exactly where her loyalties lay.
Yeah, she seemed like she was on the right side. And like she'd gotten her head screwed on straight again. It was great, it was good, but they were not about to let her screw them over the way Hisagi did.
With that thought came an automatic tensing, tightness in his neck, a pounding at his temples, but he stopped. He took a breath. He let it go. There was no changing things now. Only waiting to see what kind of truth came back from Hueco Mundo.
Iba wasn't sure what he'd say to his old pal, wasn't sure what he'd believe, or what he'd do, and with that, Iba realized something with a suddenness that made him cough: maybe it wasn't just a busted leg keeping him off the Hueco Mundo team.
"I do have one question, though. And thank you for being honest with me before." Her voice was sweet, she was smiling again, and looking more like the Hinamori he remembered.
"No problem. Have at it." He'd been about to tell her that he really should go see how Suzuki was doing, but what was the harm? He could spare another minute or two.
"When was I going to be told that Kira had been found? And that he was with Ichimaru?" Her expression didn't shift, but her smile went from sweet to sharp all the same.
Shit. Iba ran through explanation after explanation in his mind, knowing he was in a full flop sweat and that anything he said was going to sound as fake as Aizen's kindness.
"The way Ukitake-taichou spoke, it sounded to me like this was something everyone knew." There was a slight--very slight--tremor in her voice, but he didn't know what was driving it.
"Everyone did know!" His protest was loud enough to gain Ise's attention and a raised eyebrow. He gave her a strained smile and shook his head. He could handle this. "There were rumors for weeks, right? That Kira had been spotted? You must've heard the rumors."
"Rumors, yes. But what I heard just now was mentioned as fact." The tremor was still there and it shivered like flame. The fact that her voice was still cheerful just made it worse.
Maybe he shouldn't have waved Ise off after all. He wasn't used to dealing with a Hinamori who didn't mince words, whose temper crackled and flared. He was used to cheer, and warmth, and a sweet little kid who trailed after Aizen like a duckling.
Of course, given who she was trailing after now... Ikkaku stalked past, zanpakuto hiked over his shoulder and a scowl cut into his face. It deepened when he saw Soi Fong talking to Ukitake-taichou, but he was distracted easily enough when Iba shot him a please help me smile.
Ikkaku took quick stock of the situation he was being asked to jump into, measuring up both Iba and Hinamori in a second. The lines around his eyes and mouth deepened. "Okay. What's going on here? Ain't you two got things to be doing? What with this being a fucking emergency situation and all?"
"Oh, we were just talking about Kira," Hinamori said with the kind of gentleness that made Ikkaku take a step back and Iba wish he could.
"Che... You sounded like Unohana-taichou for a sec, there." Ikkaku sounded more approving than not. Then he snapped his fingers and turned to Iba. "Speaking of Kira--Tetsu, what the hell's going on with that? Did I hear Ukitake-taichou right? It ain't just rumor any more? The guy's with for real with Ichimaru? Willingly?"
Iba nodded and concentrated on not looking at Hinamori. She had turned a wonderful shade of red and now appeared to be fascinated by something on the floor. "Guess it's hard for you all to get the current news when you're on the move the way you are, but yeah. We just got solid confirmation Kira's back in Seireitei. Best anyone can tell, he's been there for five weeks, give or take. Doesn't go out in public much, from what we've heard."
"Which ain't much, I take it? So, that's why you flagged me down, huh?" Ikkaku flicked Hoozukimaru so that the end of the hilt clipped Hinamori on the shoulder. "This the first you heard of it, Peaches?"
Momo, still red-faced, nodded sharply.
"Smooth move, Tetsu. Real fucking smooth." Ikkaku headed off, slapping Iba on the back just a little too hard to be considered friendly. "Peaches, if the evac winds up being a wash-out, you and me need to get in another sparring session before the party starts. Meanwhile, you two might want to stop looking like you're standing around doing jack-shit."
"Okay." While she her answer was directed to Ikkaku, she looked up tentatively at Iba, halfway between embarrassed and trying not to laugh her ass off out of sheer nervous relief.
"Hey, at least it wasn't just you," he said, and was rewarded by the sight of her clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle mortified laughter. "So." He cleared his throat. "No harm, no foul?"
She gave him a thumbs-up, but didn't look at him or even try to speak to him until she was no longer about to lose it.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." The first time she said it, she was half-laughing. The second time, no trace of laughter at all. "But... it's Kira. What was I supposed to think?"
"Maybe he's just a prisoner? Maybe it ain't what it looks like?"
That wasn't what she meant, but he didn't know what to say to what she did mean. Hinamori had gone off her nut when she heard exactly what Aizen had done and said after leaving her to bleed out on the floor of Center 46. It was easy to think that people would assume she'd do the exact same thing if she heard her old friend and classmate was now cozying up to Ichimaru.
Unfortunately, he couldn't say anything, because when the word came in about Kira, he had wondered how Hinamori would take it. Everyone knew she and Kira were pals from way back, and more than few had wondered if maybe they were more than that at some point. Their spectacular and so-very-public falling out after discovering Aizen's 'body' had devastated Kira and made things just that much worse for Hinamori.
"If he's a prisoner, then Ichimaru probably won't take him along when we draw him out." She sounded rueful but deeply relieved, and more at peace than she had when she first approached him with war in her eyes.
"Probably not." The door to the hallway slid open. Iba looked up, but it was just Taguchi. Some problem with moving a couple of the wounded, from the sound of things, but Taguchi had the brains to go right to Kotetsu rather than wasting time coming to him. Kotetsu in turn told Ogidou to go with Taguchi to see what could be done.
"Glad he's here to help," Iba said, "but I have to say--the idea of that guy working on me..."
"I won't let him touch me," Hinamori said curtly. "Not after what I've seen him do." Her hand went up to the burn on the back of her neck, her fingers tracing but not touching the line between scar and still-raw skin.
Iba had wondered why her wound wasn't as healed as it should be. His own leg had been jacked up almost beyond repair, but Kotetsu had done a good job patching things up--until having to use it when they were forced on the run without warning jacked it up even more.
"I wonder how much Kotetsu knows about what he's been up to of late. All his little 'innovations.'" As for him, he was wondering what Hinamori had been up to. Someone--he couldn't remember who--said she got torched while training. They'd made it sound like a kidou backfire, but Iba had also seen the kind of fireballs Hinamori's shikai let loose.
It was hard not to think of the rumors that had gone around while he was at the Academy. Whispers about shinigami who had tried too hard or too early to force their way to bankai, and one morning someone would go looking for them only to find bloody chunks strewn all over the training ground.
After he graduated, the rumors changed a bit. Instead of bloody chunks, the whispers talked about rooms deep in the Fourth Division where they kept people who had to be fed by hand and have the shit wiped off them like they were babies.
Perhaps he should talk to Ikkaku. Of course, there was always the possibility that Ikkaku knew all about it. If he did, chances were he wouldn't do a damned thing to stop it. Just the opposite, probably.
"Still, he is good at what he does," Hinamori said, because she was the sort who would always try to find a kind word about someone. She pulled down the back of her collar a bit to worry at a half-healed patch of skin, and Iba saw a glint of gold.
Iba didn't so much agree as acknowledge what she'd said with a grunt. Suzuki had just come back in, and she looked like the slightest touch would send her flying off into bits.
"That's my cue. Look--about Kira. I'd've told you myself if I thought of it, but I didn't think of it, and I feel like crap that I didn't. I mean it."
"I know you do."
He started to hobble off, but a tug on his sleeve stopped him.
"I was able to grab a few things to bring back when I left Urahara's shop. He knows I took them, so it's okay." She reached into the front of her gi. She pulled it open a bit as she did.
"The hell?"
Hinamori blushed, and looked down to make sure she hadn't revealed more than she intended. Well, she had, but not in the way she probably thought. The gold slipknot necklace with its heavy end-rings was familiar. It was also something that should not have been in this place, or around that neck.
Hinamori pulled her gi closed again. "Rangiku-san was my friend," she said with the sort of care that suggested she was trying to convince herself as much as him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... are you okay?"
"Yeah. It's just--"
In all the day to day, in all the needing to stay prepared, they didn't have the luxury of wallowing in memory of what was.
So, when it snuck up on you, all unexpected, it could just about knock you on your ass.
"--kinda hard to believe she's gone, sometimes."
It took no effort to call up the sight of her walking across the room, hips swaying, her chest lifting and her fingers clutching at the air as she stretched and yawned. He could see what the dying light looked like on her hair, how it turned it more red than gold.
He kept his gaze on the center of the room for a moment, watching a woman who wasn't there. A woman who still seemed all too alive even after she died of her wounds during the retreat from the fake Karakura town.
"Iba-san?"
"Sorry. Just thinking." He didn't need to say about what, but then something else struck him. If the memory had hit him that hard... "Can you imagine how nutso-crazy Ichimaru would go if he found out she was dead? Damn, I hope that cracked-out plan works--if we get to use it. I kinda hate to say it, but that necklace would help sell our decoy as the real deal."
"Right." For a moment, Hinamori seemed lost in her own memories, but something in them hardened her face. She clutched the necklace so hard it was a wonder she didn't warp the links. "I'd need it back, though..."
In contrast to her face, her voice seemed almost dreamy. Then, she shook her head as if clearing out the cobwebs, and her face lit up with a genuine Hinamori-smile, just like the ones he remembered from better days. "Thank you for talking to me--I'm feeling much happier about our assignment. Oh, and I almost forgot..."
She reached back into her gi. There was a deliciously familiar crinkle of cellophane, and she called out "Catch!" as she sent a small gold-and-white packet arcing towards him.
He didn't dare let himself believe it until the pack of Mild Sevens smacked into his palm like they belonged there.
"Just don't smoke them around Ukitake-taichou. I brought chocolate back for Nanao-san and Isa--eep!"
He'd reached out and grabbed her arm, and she squeaked again and flailed when he gave her a peck on the cheek.
She scurried off, blushing, and Iba turned his attention to Suzuki. Suzuki's jaw had dropped, but she collected herself easily enough.
"Everyone's accounted for, and has reported to their assigned groups." Her fingers clenched and unclenched in the cloth of her hakama, and she spoke as if by rote. "The group leaders will take a count every two minutes until we get the signal to move out."
"Good. Now stay here until we hear back. Shouldn't be much longer, so be ready to run when I give word."
Iba looked out the door. A single guard stood there, looking out into the dark of the surrounding forest. It wasn't quite nightfall, but the sky had gone violet-gray, and Ise had finally given in and lit a lamp.
Either way, stay or go, they would know something soon.
"There." Hoshibana pointed at an open patch among the trees. Dull brown leaves covered the forest floor, just as they did all around them, but in that one spot, small, dark patches of wet stood out in a faint but distinctive parabolic pattern. Someone had broken out of shunpo at this spot, disturbing the leaves and raising evidence of last week's rain. Shirogane might have missed it, but once Hoshibana pointed it out, it was unmistakable.
Elsewhere, she could see pale flecks of green, recently snapped wood showing up stark in the twilight, marking someone's less than careful passage through the underbrush. There'd been an attempt to mask tracks, but only with the end result of making other, more obvious marks. "He's running, now? And still heading due south?" she said.
A grunt and a nod from Hoshibana, and they were off again. Hoshibana flash-stepped ahead, zig-zagging in and out of sight across a wide arc, looking for any sign of their quarry. Shirogane, who was better at close-up than long-range sighting, ran along Rikichi's trail, keeping an eye out for any changes of direction, anything that might have been dropped, or worst of all, any sign that might have been deliberately left for someone else.
Shirogane Mihane wondered if Sasakibe-fukutaichou had had their old division in mind when he sent her and Hoshibana after Rikichi. Rikichi had learned his woodcraft from Iwamura-goseki, just as she had, and Hoshibana-sanseki had learned from the same master as Iwamura. They, of anyone, had the best chance of finding and catching Rikichi.
The only problem was time. There wasn't enough. In short bursts that were barely sentences, she and Hoshibana had parsed out their orders. At nightfall, they were to send back word if Rikichi had not been found. Nothing was said about stopping their search. So, Hoshibana declared, they would not stop.
There was no need for him to say anything about the honor of their division, and the need for the two of them to preserve it--or to restore it, if need be. She could hear the speech as he would have given it, could hear the familiar, drawling voice. And he no doubt knew she would.
Out loud, he merely indulged in a short burst of profanity. A year ago, she never would have believed it of him--or of herself, for that matter.
It was not nightfall, not yet, even though she had to call upon a simple, utilitarian kidou to get enough light to see if a branch was freshly broken or not. Also, she could only see Hoshibana flash in and out of sight because the flickers of movement caught her eye. His indigo haori and graying ponytail made him just another shadow in the twilight.
The sun had finally set, and they had maybe fifteen minutes left before they would have to let go of any pretense that it was not yet full night. Mihane mentally prepared the kidou that would send a one-word message to let the others know they had failed--run.
When Hoshibana stopped suddenly, and turned, Shirogane almost sent the message. But instead of the sober shake of the head and the it's time she expected, she saw a sharp grin and a the flash of a pale hand as he signaled her to follow.
Two flash steps took them to the edge of the wood and to a wide road.
"There." Hoshibana reached out as if grabbing a string, and Shirogane closed her eyes. Even though Rikichi was masking his reiatsu, he couldn't do so completely. He was close. She could just see the faint red thread. Without waiting for orders, she took off, flash-stepping over and over again as fast as she could and ignoring the growing burn in her lungs and her legs. She was much younger than Hoshibana, and on open ground, much faster.
Five steps, then ten, and she could hear Rikichi. Three more took her past him. She dropped out of shunpo right in front of him, and he skidded to a halt, windmilling his arms to stop himself from falling as he launched himself in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately for him, Hoshibana wasn't as nice as she was. He didn't block Rikichi so much as body-check him straight out of a flash-step. The impact knocked Rikichi off his feet so hard that his heels were up above his head. Shirogane stepped back neatly, and Rikichi landed on the small of his back and skidded to a stop right where she had been standing a second before. From the way he hissed and arched his back, he'd earned himself one hell of a case of road burn.
Hoshibana walked over to them slowly, the purposeful weight of each footfall timed to let Rikichi know exactly how much trouble he was in.
"Hoshibana-san? Shirogane-san? What are you--"
Hoshibana thumbed the guard of his zanpakutou free of the scabbard with a deliberately audible snick. Rikichi got very quiet very quickly.
"What the hell were you thinking, Rikichi?" Shirogane knew she sounded shrill, but she didn't care, even when Hoshibana held up a hand to shush her. "How could you do this to us?"
Rikichi looked more confused than scared, but that changed when Hoshibana crouched down right next to his head.
"Think before you answer her, Rikichi," he said softly. "You know what I chose to do to my own men when I, ah... had cause. Take care that you do not inadvertently... give me cause."
Shirogane slapped her palm to her mouth just too late to stifle a very loud curse. They'd never spoken of what they had to do to escape Seireitei. For Hoshibana of all people to resurrect that as a casual threat...
...meant that maybe the threat wasn't casual. Again, she wondered if Sasakibe-fukutaichou meant anything by keeping the retrieval mission within the Sixth Division.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Rikichi protested, looking frantically from one to the other and growing more panicked as he watched their growing confusion. "What did you have to go and do this for? You've ruined everything!"
Shirogane could practically hear Hoshibana's raised eyebrow.
"Don't you get it? You get it, don't you, Shirogane-san? You were there. You heard it. You and me and Yoshino. We all heard it, right?"
Hoshibana looked at him through hooded eyes for a moment, then turned his attention to Shirogane.
"Yes, that clears everything up," he drawled. "Now I suppose it's too much for one to ask what 'it' might be, hm?"
On to Part Two
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Iba
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for language and references to character death
Word Count: c. 11,500
Notes: This is a rather dark AU co-plotted with incandescens and liralen. The war against Aizen's forces went very badly. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.
Summary: There is a defection to deal with, plans cast in doubt, a few tough questions asked, and a dose of rough justice handed out. Meanwhile, the packing still needs to be done.
Previous chapters
"What do you mean, you don't know where he is?"
The silence that followed Ikkaku's demand lasted only a few seconds. Then, everything exploded into a frenzy that was just this side of pure chaos.
Hinamori quickly and matter-of-factly swept up all the papers from the table and carried them over to the fire. Ukitake-taichou, Ise, and Shiba began running through options and trying to decide which of their plans might be salvageable.
Sasakibe shouted over whatever Ikkaku said next and ordered Yoshino to come get the prisoner and secure him, now. Yoshino was on it before Sasakibe even finished speaking, and Grimmjow's exit was more of a running scuffle than any kind of orderly departure.
That left poor Shirogane on her own to explain how Rikichi said he was going to do a perimeter patrol--just like they always did a few times an hour at random when they were encamped--and she had just been telling Yoshino she thought Rikichi should have been back by now when Ikkaku came outside.
At least, that's what it sounded like. It was hard to tell, given how she could barely draw breath to speak before getting cut off by Ikkaku and then by Soi Fong.
All this took less than thirty seconds.
Iba shook his head in disgust, and, once he was finished running through his mental checklist, got working on the orders he'd been given just prior to everything going to hell.
Everyone needed to be prepared for battle or evacuation, was what he'd been told, and now it looked like it was going to be evacuation. Again.
With a bum leg, there wasn't much he could actually do by way of toting and hauling to get an entire campful of people ready to be miles away and untrackable by nightfall.
That didn't mean he was useless. Far from it. If he had done his job properly over the past few weeks, he'd have everyone ready to go before the top of the hour.
Only the knowledge of how much could go wrong, and how badly, kept him from feeling smug about this.
He hobbled to the hallway and bellowed out an order. A few seconds later, three of his people came running pell-mell. They were kids, really, one of them still in his Academy uniform. Kids, but they were fast on their feet and would remember--and do--what they were told after being told only once.
"First up, this ain't a drill. We got to get everyone ready to evacuate and fast. No idea what kind of time frame we're looking at for real, but assume the worst--everyone ready to move out in twenty minutes with pursuers hot on our tail." They might have more breathing room than that, but if he told them that, there was a chance they'd act like they did have it.
If Rikichi had turned on them, then their location could be taken as known. Trying to make it look like they'd never been there would only be a waste of time. A waste they couldn't afford if Ichimaru got Aizen to send some Hollows after them. "No cleanup detail. Anything that's not essential gets abandoned in place, as is. No exceptions."
The way things were, it would take him too damned long to stump around and see for himself if everything was being done the way it was supposed to. So, he had to rely on others to be his legs and eyes and voice, and hope like hell they didn't fuck it up.
"Suzuki, get the word out and tell the squad leaders to make sure we got everyone accounted for. Then circle back and find out if we got anyone missing and who they are and when anyone last saw 'em."
They were distracted when Yoshino came back in, Hoshibana and Ogidou close on his heels. Hoshibana looked like he wanted to murder someone. Ogidou was, as always, smiling pretty. Freak.
"What about them?" The recon squad hadn't figured into any of their drills, and Suzuki sounded close to panic at this disruption to their carefully rehearsed routine.
"Not your problem," Iba told her curtly. The recon squad could take care of itself, and would do so faster without any 'help.' "Make sure everyone else is where they need to be and ready to move out when I give the word."
Next up was Taguchi, who was responsible for getting the wounded and their small group of healers ready, and their few, precious medical supplies packed for transport. Kuroda's job was to make sure two days' worth of rations were ready for all the able-bodied to grab on their way out.
The three of them wouldn't be doing most of the work themselves. It was much too much for just three kids, but those kids could get instructions to the people who could be counted on to get it done.
At least, Iba hoped they would get it done. He'd run regular drills on emergency evacuations after he got laid up, and each time, something major got fucked up. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse that it was a different kind of fuckup each time.
Unfortunately, there was nothing else to do now but hurry up and wait. Everyone would be accounted for and ready to go in twenty minutes, or they wouldn't. Either this would end up being just another drill, or it wouldn't.
Meanwhile, he had better make sure he knew what was going on. One thing Komamura-taichou had ruthlessly pounded into his head over the years was that not knowing something was no excuse for screwing up. Neither was 'wasn't my job.'
Which reminded him--he'd better make sure somebody knew what the hell they were going to do with that Arrancar when they had to move out.
For no more than a second, he thought about going to check on the blue-haired bastard himself. Then he shrugged the thought aside, deciding that Grimmjow had nothing to say that he wanted to hear.
He felt inside his top for the pack of cigarettes that should have been there. Nothing. He fished around some more until he remembered that he'd smoked the last salvaged cigarette--an ashy and unsatisfying mess made up from butt-ends he'd carefully hoarded--yesterday afternoon. These days, cigs were even harder to come by than booze.
Soi Fong and Ikkaku were still working over Shirogane, who now looked like she very much wanted to find an elsewhere to be. Iba did his best to keep from fidgeting, but then the craving for a smoke got driven clear out of his mind when it came out that Shirogane, Yoshino, and Rikichi had been able to overhear bits and pieces of what was said in the meeting. Not everything, but enough to be a real problem if it turned out that Rikichi was going to start telling tales--voluntarily or otherwise--to Ichimaru and his goons.
"Let's see..." Ikkaku squinted, peering off through the trees as if he thought Rikichi might be lurking in a thicket. "If Four-Eyes here is right, Rikichi's been gone maybe ten minutes. Terrain like this, he could be three, maybe four miles away if he's using shunpo."
"How skilled is he?" Soi Fong asked.
Iba was about to say 'not very,' but Ikkaku beat him to it.
"Lot better'n he was a few months back. Nowhere near as good as these two, though," he said, jerking his head towards Hinamori and Hoshibana. "And what the hell are you two doing wasting time? Get after him while there's still time to catch up!"
Soi Fong contradicted the order with a sharp wave of her hand, and Sasakibe was right there with new ones before she or Ikkaku could say anything.
"No. Hinamori and all the other vice-captains are to stay here. Hoshibana-san, I want you and Shirogane-san to go after the boy directly. If you cannot track him down before nightfall, send back word--we'll have to assume the worst. Madarame-san, who are your best trackers? Not including yourself, of course."
"Newb--Takano and Maki--Aramaki," he said quickly. Hoshibana and Shirogane had already flash-stepped away to go after their old division-mate. "You want they should see if Rikichi's laid a false trail and doubled back or something?"
"I'll tell them," Hinamori said before Sasakibe could confirm Ikkaku's guess. She did not look happy. At all. She disappeared in a flash-step before anyone could say anything else.
There had been times, back before he got injured, when Iba and Ikkaku would talk through the strengths and weaknesses of their hodge-podge and nameless little squad. When the talk came around to Rikichi, 'smarts' and 'sneakiness' never managed to come up. Enthusiasm, very much yes, and willingness to jump into any kind of insane situation with no hope of success, but the kid wasn't in any danger of being mistaken for the brain trust of the group.
Ikkaku sighed, shoulders lifting and slumping extravagantly, and the mad seemed to fall right off of him. Instead, he just looked tired. Tired and twenty years older. "You know, we're all going to feel really stupid when it turns out Rikichi had to take a shit and fell into the latrine."
"Better to feel stupid than be dead," Soi Fong pointed out. The weight of all the insulting things she could have said after that was oppressive enough that Ikkaku took insult anyway. The mad slid right back, and he left before he could be dismissed, snarling at Yoshino to come with him and make sure that miserable excuse for an ex-Hollow was ready to be dragged out of there--by his hair if need be.
And with that particular item off his to-worry-about list, Iba decided it was high time he go make sure Kotetsu had what she needed and was ready to get Ukitake-taichou safely out of here.
If worse came to worst, that was.
Every step, every twinge in his knee, was a bitter reminder of just what could happen if they didn't plan for the worst. If they assumed that just because someone seemed to be a friend, they couldn't turn traitor.
Yeah, Iba had learned that lesson all too well, too many times.
Still, there was part of him that really hoped this would all turn out to be a mistake and Rikichi would be dragged back here in a few minutes to be razzed and possibly forced to go scrub off before re-joining so-called polite company.
After all, it was Rikichi.
The thought stirred up echoes he chose ignore.
Hinamori returned without fanfare, a quick nod telling everyone concerned that she'd sent her other two squad-mates to see if Rikichi had laid a false trail. Her expression was still dark as thunderclouds, and Iba grimaced when she shot him a quick, sharp I need to talk to you look.
Iba held up a finger, quietly telling her she'd just have to wait a damned moment. For one thing, he didn't particularly want to talk to her just then. For another, he still hadn't talked to Kotetsu, who was getting an earful from Kigai Kaede about what old Fourth Division supply depots were within quick striking distance and might be worth the risk of raiding for food after they moved out. Iba had worked with Kaede a few times when he was still on the reconnaissance squad, and knew she had a habit of using twenty words when three would do.
"Oi! Kotetsu!"
Kotetsu broke away from listening to Kaede's report while Kaede was still yammering away--not that Kaede minded or even noticed, from the look of things. "Yes? What is it, Iba-fukutaichou?"
He hated how she always sounded like she was waiting to be yelled at for something. Didn't used to be like that.
"Just wanted to make sure you had what you needed to get Ukitake-taichou out of here."
"Yes." The response was quiet, almost shamed, and he felt like a shit for asking. Of course she would be ready and more than ready, but he had to ask. Assumptions got people killed.
Speaking of things that could get people killed, Ise was glaring at him over the rims of her glasses. It took Iba a second to realize what he'd done, and he mumbled a quick apology to Ukitake-taichou. It was all too easy to talk about him as if he wasn't there, or worse, as if he was still slipping in and out of a coma while they were waiting for him to die.
He'd be catching hell from Ise for that later, so even though Hinamori was growing visibly more cranky by the second, he hobbled over to her as if she were a safe haven.
"Do you really think Rikichi turned on us?" she asked him without any lead-in. The question wasn't plaintive, the way he would have expected from the Hinamori of a year ago. The question was designed to put him on the defensive, and it did its job just fine.
"I'm not about to blindly trust someone who up and ran off after hearing damn near everything we've been planning. That's a brand of stupid we can't afford."
Hinamori pursed her lips, and her eyes cut down and to the side as if running through something in her mind. She sighed, and when she spoke, it only sounded half-directed at him. "As long as we find him before he runs into any of Ichimaru's people, I suppose it doesn't matter."
Doesn't matter? Did he hear that right? It didn't matter that someone she'd been working side-by-side with for the past few months might have gone to the bad?
"If we have to throw away this chance because of him..." The look in her eyes made Iba very glad she didn't finish that sentence. His confusion cleared as he realized that it wasn't the idea of betrayal or having to run again that had her bothered.
"Hoshi and Shirogane'll capture him. Find him. Whatever." It was a reasonable hope. Regardless of why Rikichi had disappeared, if they could find him before anything happened, they could still proceed as planned. Well, maybe even more carefully than planned.
Iba paused for a moment as the implications of in a few days, this could all be over crashed over him like a wave, and if he had let himself, he could have been lost. Then, again like a wave, it receded, leaving him with an only slightly less pissed off than before Hinamori.
"So." That was all she said for a moment, but Iba knew there was going to be more. He was tempted to tell her that they didn't have time to talk, but she knew as well as he did that all they had to do at the moment was wait. He could always just turn and walk away, but she could outrun him, no problem.
Hell, these days, his mom could outrun him without getting out of breath.
"What do you think of our assignment?"
It was an innocent-seeming question that had large, splintered spikes at the bottom of it. Neither of them was happy about their orders, and they both knew it. It had been hard to hide their reactions, the way that particular news had been dropped on them without warning.
"Can't say I'm surprised." He slapped the side of his crutch, in case she missed his meaning, but that only answered part of her question. He thought about smoothing things over with a harmless little fib, but she knew as well as he did these assignments were in no way random.
"As for you," he said slowly, not sure what to brace himself for, "I guess they didn't want you to have to go toe-to-toe with your old captain."
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. It wasn't quite a smile, but he could tell that what he'd said was no surprise. In fact, she seemed pleased. "And they won't send me to Seireitei because too many people there would still remember what happened to me after... Well, after."
Not just Seireitei, either. Hinamori hadn't exactly gone with the reconnaissance squad as a volunteer. Maybe she knew that, or maybe she didn't, but now that she was being trusted to guard Ukitake-taichou, it didn't matter that some of them had argued to keep her the hell away from him until they knew exactly where her loyalties lay.
Yeah, she seemed like she was on the right side. And like she'd gotten her head screwed on straight again. It was great, it was good, but they were not about to let her screw them over the way Hisagi did.
With that thought came an automatic tensing, tightness in his neck, a pounding at his temples, but he stopped. He took a breath. He let it go. There was no changing things now. Only waiting to see what kind of truth came back from Hueco Mundo.
Iba wasn't sure what he'd say to his old pal, wasn't sure what he'd believe, or what he'd do, and with that, Iba realized something with a suddenness that made him cough: maybe it wasn't just a busted leg keeping him off the Hueco Mundo team.
"I do have one question, though. And thank you for being honest with me before." Her voice was sweet, she was smiling again, and looking more like the Hinamori he remembered.
"No problem. Have at it." He'd been about to tell her that he really should go see how Suzuki was doing, but what was the harm? He could spare another minute or two.
"When was I going to be told that Kira had been found? And that he was with Ichimaru?" Her expression didn't shift, but her smile went from sweet to sharp all the same.
Shit. Iba ran through explanation after explanation in his mind, knowing he was in a full flop sweat and that anything he said was going to sound as fake as Aizen's kindness.
"The way Ukitake-taichou spoke, it sounded to me like this was something everyone knew." There was a slight--very slight--tremor in her voice, but he didn't know what was driving it.
"Everyone did know!" His protest was loud enough to gain Ise's attention and a raised eyebrow. He gave her a strained smile and shook his head. He could handle this. "There were rumors for weeks, right? That Kira had been spotted? You must've heard the rumors."
"Rumors, yes. But what I heard just now was mentioned as fact." The tremor was still there and it shivered like flame. The fact that her voice was still cheerful just made it worse.
Maybe he shouldn't have waved Ise off after all. He wasn't used to dealing with a Hinamori who didn't mince words, whose temper crackled and flared. He was used to cheer, and warmth, and a sweet little kid who trailed after Aizen like a duckling.
Of course, given who she was trailing after now... Ikkaku stalked past, zanpakuto hiked over his shoulder and a scowl cut into his face. It deepened when he saw Soi Fong talking to Ukitake-taichou, but he was distracted easily enough when Iba shot him a please help me smile.
Ikkaku took quick stock of the situation he was being asked to jump into, measuring up both Iba and Hinamori in a second. The lines around his eyes and mouth deepened. "Okay. What's going on here? Ain't you two got things to be doing? What with this being a fucking emergency situation and all?"
"Oh, we were just talking about Kira," Hinamori said with the kind of gentleness that made Ikkaku take a step back and Iba wish he could.
"Che... You sounded like Unohana-taichou for a sec, there." Ikkaku sounded more approving than not. Then he snapped his fingers and turned to Iba. "Speaking of Kira--Tetsu, what the hell's going on with that? Did I hear Ukitake-taichou right? It ain't just rumor any more? The guy's with for real with Ichimaru? Willingly?"
Iba nodded and concentrated on not looking at Hinamori. She had turned a wonderful shade of red and now appeared to be fascinated by something on the floor. "Guess it's hard for you all to get the current news when you're on the move the way you are, but yeah. We just got solid confirmation Kira's back in Seireitei. Best anyone can tell, he's been there for five weeks, give or take. Doesn't go out in public much, from what we've heard."
"Which ain't much, I take it? So, that's why you flagged me down, huh?" Ikkaku flicked Hoozukimaru so that the end of the hilt clipped Hinamori on the shoulder. "This the first you heard of it, Peaches?"
Momo, still red-faced, nodded sharply.
"Smooth move, Tetsu. Real fucking smooth." Ikkaku headed off, slapping Iba on the back just a little too hard to be considered friendly. "Peaches, if the evac winds up being a wash-out, you and me need to get in another sparring session before the party starts. Meanwhile, you two might want to stop looking like you're standing around doing jack-shit."
"Okay." While she her answer was directed to Ikkaku, she looked up tentatively at Iba, halfway between embarrassed and trying not to laugh her ass off out of sheer nervous relief.
"Hey, at least it wasn't just you," he said, and was rewarded by the sight of her clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle mortified laughter. "So." He cleared his throat. "No harm, no foul?"
She gave him a thumbs-up, but didn't look at him or even try to speak to him until she was no longer about to lose it.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." The first time she said it, she was half-laughing. The second time, no trace of laughter at all. "But... it's Kira. What was I supposed to think?"
"Maybe he's just a prisoner? Maybe it ain't what it looks like?"
That wasn't what she meant, but he didn't know what to say to what she did mean. Hinamori had gone off her nut when she heard exactly what Aizen had done and said after leaving her to bleed out on the floor of Center 46. It was easy to think that people would assume she'd do the exact same thing if she heard her old friend and classmate was now cozying up to Ichimaru.
Unfortunately, he couldn't say anything, because when the word came in about Kira, he had wondered how Hinamori would take it. Everyone knew she and Kira were pals from way back, and more than few had wondered if maybe they were more than that at some point. Their spectacular and so-very-public falling out after discovering Aizen's 'body' had devastated Kira and made things just that much worse for Hinamori.
"If he's a prisoner, then Ichimaru probably won't take him along when we draw him out." She sounded rueful but deeply relieved, and more at peace than she had when she first approached him with war in her eyes.
"Probably not." The door to the hallway slid open. Iba looked up, but it was just Taguchi. Some problem with moving a couple of the wounded, from the sound of things, but Taguchi had the brains to go right to Kotetsu rather than wasting time coming to him. Kotetsu in turn told Ogidou to go with Taguchi to see what could be done.
"Glad he's here to help," Iba said, "but I have to say--the idea of that guy working on me..."
"I won't let him touch me," Hinamori said curtly. "Not after what I've seen him do." Her hand went up to the burn on the back of her neck, her fingers tracing but not touching the line between scar and still-raw skin.
Iba had wondered why her wound wasn't as healed as it should be. His own leg had been jacked up almost beyond repair, but Kotetsu had done a good job patching things up--until having to use it when they were forced on the run without warning jacked it up even more.
"I wonder how much Kotetsu knows about what he's been up to of late. All his little 'innovations.'" As for him, he was wondering what Hinamori had been up to. Someone--he couldn't remember who--said she got torched while training. They'd made it sound like a kidou backfire, but Iba had also seen the kind of fireballs Hinamori's shikai let loose.
It was hard not to think of the rumors that had gone around while he was at the Academy. Whispers about shinigami who had tried too hard or too early to force their way to bankai, and one morning someone would go looking for them only to find bloody chunks strewn all over the training ground.
After he graduated, the rumors changed a bit. Instead of bloody chunks, the whispers talked about rooms deep in the Fourth Division where they kept people who had to be fed by hand and have the shit wiped off them like they were babies.
Perhaps he should talk to Ikkaku. Of course, there was always the possibility that Ikkaku knew all about it. If he did, chances were he wouldn't do a damned thing to stop it. Just the opposite, probably.
"Still, he is good at what he does," Hinamori said, because she was the sort who would always try to find a kind word about someone. She pulled down the back of her collar a bit to worry at a half-healed patch of skin, and Iba saw a glint of gold.
Iba didn't so much agree as acknowledge what she'd said with a grunt. Suzuki had just come back in, and she looked like the slightest touch would send her flying off into bits.
"That's my cue. Look--about Kira. I'd've told you myself if I thought of it, but I didn't think of it, and I feel like crap that I didn't. I mean it."
"I know you do."
He started to hobble off, but a tug on his sleeve stopped him.
"I was able to grab a few things to bring back when I left Urahara's shop. He knows I took them, so it's okay." She reached into the front of her gi. She pulled it open a bit as she did.
"The hell?"
Hinamori blushed, and looked down to make sure she hadn't revealed more than she intended. Well, she had, but not in the way she probably thought. The gold slipknot necklace with its heavy end-rings was familiar. It was also something that should not have been in this place, or around that neck.
Hinamori pulled her gi closed again. "Rangiku-san was my friend," she said with the sort of care that suggested she was trying to convince herself as much as him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... are you okay?"
"Yeah. It's just--"
In all the day to day, in all the needing to stay prepared, they didn't have the luxury of wallowing in memory of what was.
So, when it snuck up on you, all unexpected, it could just about knock you on your ass.
"--kinda hard to believe she's gone, sometimes."
It took no effort to call up the sight of her walking across the room, hips swaying, her chest lifting and her fingers clutching at the air as she stretched and yawned. He could see what the dying light looked like on her hair, how it turned it more red than gold.
He kept his gaze on the center of the room for a moment, watching a woman who wasn't there. A woman who still seemed all too alive even after she died of her wounds during the retreat from the fake Karakura town.
"Iba-san?"
"Sorry. Just thinking." He didn't need to say about what, but then something else struck him. If the memory had hit him that hard... "Can you imagine how nutso-crazy Ichimaru would go if he found out she was dead? Damn, I hope that cracked-out plan works--if we get to use it. I kinda hate to say it, but that necklace would help sell our decoy as the real deal."
"Right." For a moment, Hinamori seemed lost in her own memories, but something in them hardened her face. She clutched the necklace so hard it was a wonder she didn't warp the links. "I'd need it back, though..."
In contrast to her face, her voice seemed almost dreamy. Then, she shook her head as if clearing out the cobwebs, and her face lit up with a genuine Hinamori-smile, just like the ones he remembered from better days. "Thank you for talking to me--I'm feeling much happier about our assignment. Oh, and I almost forgot..."
She reached back into her gi. There was a deliciously familiar crinkle of cellophane, and she called out "Catch!" as she sent a small gold-and-white packet arcing towards him.
He didn't dare let himself believe it until the pack of Mild Sevens smacked into his palm like they belonged there.
"Just don't smoke them around Ukitake-taichou. I brought chocolate back for Nanao-san and Isa--eep!"
He'd reached out and grabbed her arm, and she squeaked again and flailed when he gave her a peck on the cheek.
She scurried off, blushing, and Iba turned his attention to Suzuki. Suzuki's jaw had dropped, but she collected herself easily enough.
"Everyone's accounted for, and has reported to their assigned groups." Her fingers clenched and unclenched in the cloth of her hakama, and she spoke as if by rote. "The group leaders will take a count every two minutes until we get the signal to move out."
"Good. Now stay here until we hear back. Shouldn't be much longer, so be ready to run when I give word."
Iba looked out the door. A single guard stood there, looking out into the dark of the surrounding forest. It wasn't quite nightfall, but the sky had gone violet-gray, and Ise had finally given in and lit a lamp.
Either way, stay or go, they would know something soon.
"There." Hoshibana pointed at an open patch among the trees. Dull brown leaves covered the forest floor, just as they did all around them, but in that one spot, small, dark patches of wet stood out in a faint but distinctive parabolic pattern. Someone had broken out of shunpo at this spot, disturbing the leaves and raising evidence of last week's rain. Shirogane might have missed it, but once Hoshibana pointed it out, it was unmistakable.
Elsewhere, she could see pale flecks of green, recently snapped wood showing up stark in the twilight, marking someone's less than careful passage through the underbrush. There'd been an attempt to mask tracks, but only with the end result of making other, more obvious marks. "He's running, now? And still heading due south?" she said.
A grunt and a nod from Hoshibana, and they were off again. Hoshibana flash-stepped ahead, zig-zagging in and out of sight across a wide arc, looking for any sign of their quarry. Shirogane, who was better at close-up than long-range sighting, ran along Rikichi's trail, keeping an eye out for any changes of direction, anything that might have been dropped, or worst of all, any sign that might have been deliberately left for someone else.
Shirogane Mihane wondered if Sasakibe-fukutaichou had had their old division in mind when he sent her and Hoshibana after Rikichi. Rikichi had learned his woodcraft from Iwamura-goseki, just as she had, and Hoshibana-sanseki had learned from the same master as Iwamura. They, of anyone, had the best chance of finding and catching Rikichi.
The only problem was time. There wasn't enough. In short bursts that were barely sentences, she and Hoshibana had parsed out their orders. At nightfall, they were to send back word if Rikichi had not been found. Nothing was said about stopping their search. So, Hoshibana declared, they would not stop.
There was no need for him to say anything about the honor of their division, and the need for the two of them to preserve it--or to restore it, if need be. She could hear the speech as he would have given it, could hear the familiar, drawling voice. And he no doubt knew she would.
Out loud, he merely indulged in a short burst of profanity. A year ago, she never would have believed it of him--or of herself, for that matter.
It was not nightfall, not yet, even though she had to call upon a simple, utilitarian kidou to get enough light to see if a branch was freshly broken or not. Also, she could only see Hoshibana flash in and out of sight because the flickers of movement caught her eye. His indigo haori and graying ponytail made him just another shadow in the twilight.
The sun had finally set, and they had maybe fifteen minutes left before they would have to let go of any pretense that it was not yet full night. Mihane mentally prepared the kidou that would send a one-word message to let the others know they had failed--run.
When Hoshibana stopped suddenly, and turned, Shirogane almost sent the message. But instead of the sober shake of the head and the it's time she expected, she saw a sharp grin and a the flash of a pale hand as he signaled her to follow.
Two flash steps took them to the edge of the wood and to a wide road.
"There." Hoshibana reached out as if grabbing a string, and Shirogane closed her eyes. Even though Rikichi was masking his reiatsu, he couldn't do so completely. He was close. She could just see the faint red thread. Without waiting for orders, she took off, flash-stepping over and over again as fast as she could and ignoring the growing burn in her lungs and her legs. She was much younger than Hoshibana, and on open ground, much faster.
Five steps, then ten, and she could hear Rikichi. Three more took her past him. She dropped out of shunpo right in front of him, and he skidded to a halt, windmilling his arms to stop himself from falling as he launched himself in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately for him, Hoshibana wasn't as nice as she was. He didn't block Rikichi so much as body-check him straight out of a flash-step. The impact knocked Rikichi off his feet so hard that his heels were up above his head. Shirogane stepped back neatly, and Rikichi landed on the small of his back and skidded to a stop right where she had been standing a second before. From the way he hissed and arched his back, he'd earned himself one hell of a case of road burn.
Hoshibana walked over to them slowly, the purposeful weight of each footfall timed to let Rikichi know exactly how much trouble he was in.
"Hoshibana-san? Shirogane-san? What are you--"
Hoshibana thumbed the guard of his zanpakutou free of the scabbard with a deliberately audible snick. Rikichi got very quiet very quickly.
"What the hell were you thinking, Rikichi?" Shirogane knew she sounded shrill, but she didn't care, even when Hoshibana held up a hand to shush her. "How could you do this to us?"
Rikichi looked more confused than scared, but that changed when Hoshibana crouched down right next to his head.
"Think before you answer her, Rikichi," he said softly. "You know what I chose to do to my own men when I, ah... had cause. Take care that you do not inadvertently... give me cause."
Shirogane slapped her palm to her mouth just too late to stifle a very loud curse. They'd never spoken of what they had to do to escape Seireitei. For Hoshibana of all people to resurrect that as a casual threat...
...meant that maybe the threat wasn't casual. Again, she wondered if Sasakibe-fukutaichou meant anything by keeping the retrieval mission within the Sixth Division.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Rikichi protested, looking frantically from one to the other and growing more panicked as he watched their growing confusion. "What did you have to go and do this for? You've ruined everything!"
Shirogane could practically hear Hoshibana's raised eyebrow.
"Don't you get it? You get it, don't you, Shirogane-san? You were there. You heard it. You and me and Yoshino. We all heard it, right?"
Hoshibana looked at him through hooded eyes for a moment, then turned his attention to Shirogane.
"Yes, that clears everything up," he drawled. "Now I suppose it's too much for one to ask what 'it' might be, hm?"
On to Part Two