Winter War - Ensemble: Who Are You? [Bleach]
Title: Winter War - Ensemble: Who Are You?
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ikkaku, Yumichika, Hisagi, Nanao, Lisa, Grimmjow, Harribel
Rating/Warning: PG-13
Word Count: c. 5,500
Notes: This is a dark (we're not kidding) 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: Old friends just aren't who they used to be.
Chapter Index
[...]
27. Momo, Isane: We Have Met the Enemy
28. Iba: Defense
29: Ensemble: Retaking Seireitei
"Hello, Ikkaku."
Ikkaku shoved Hisagi away from him, hard. A shard from the blasted-in door was buried deep in his shoulder, but he didn't care.
Yumichika waved at him lazily. He sounded stoned out of his mind. "I always knew you'd come."
Ikkaku had thought over and over about what he would do and what he might say when he saw Yumichika again, but it all flew straight out of his head with a roar as he unleashed Hoozukimaru.
All the rage, all the grief, all the crap he'd been through in the past few months--it blasted aside everything but blood-red anger and the pale, sickening thing in front of him.
Better to end it now, end it fast. He came down hard, all his weight and everything he had behind Hoozukimaru's blade.
He looked Yumichika in the eyes as the blow came down, because it didn't matter that Yumichika had lied to him, Ikkaku owed him that and shit--they were the wrong color, and was that a mask... no, it wasn't, what the fuck...
"Maa, maa... how sloppy." Yumichika stepped aside, raising his zanpakutou in a move that only seemed slow.
Ikkaku should have been to push right through such a lame defense, but the parry threw him clear to the side. He landed on something soft--someone soft, judging by the shriek.
Yumichika strolled forward. "Hmmm... Imagine that. I'm stronger than you, now."
Ikkaku pushed himself back to his feet.
"It don't count if it's stolen strength, you fucking liar!"
He charged again, this time coming in low with a swipe that should spill Yumichika's guts all over the floor.
Yumichika knocked him through a wall.
Of course Ikkaku would jump in without thinking. Shuuhei dropped into ready position, preferring to take at least a second to assess the situation.
That's Eleventh Division for you, Kazeshini said, not sounding the least bit disapproving.
Harribel stood back and studied the room calmly, keeping her own counsel as usual. Her hand lifted towards the sword slung across her back. She cut her eyes to the side, briefly distracted by Ikkaku's wipeout and Pagally's shriek.
Ise-fukutaichou flashed to his side in that second. The Arrancar's explosive entry had left a gash in her neck. It didn't seem lethal, but blood seeped between her fingers as she kept pressure on it. "Quick. I wasn't at that last battle. What do I need to know?"
Shuuhei only remembered bits and flashes of that day, but with Kazeshini's help, he remembered the most important parts.
"Water zanpakutou. Think tsunami." In a small, closed-off space like this, they would be crushed and drowned in an instant if Harribel was able to use her resurreccion.
He got a sharp nod by way of answer, and Ise fell back just as Harribel used Grimmjow's attempt to wrestle her down to demonstrate what even one of her lesser attacks could do.
"Inoue! Yamada! To me!" Ise snapped. "That is an order, Inoue!"
There was another crash as the wall between his office and his bedroom was shrapneled. "Don't!" Shuuhei called out as Lisa ran to interfere. "You're needed here!"
There was no time to explain to her about the crazy ideas that the Eleventh Division mistook for honor, but at least Ikkaku was getting Yumichika away from the main fight.
In the second it took for Shuuhei to yell at Lisa, Ogidou and Hoshibana both went for Harribel, and there was no room for him to unleash Kazeshini without killing both of them.
You may wanna watch that one, Kazeshini said, his attention on Ogidou, and Shuuhei felt himself fading back at the memory of the hate on the man's face.
No worries, I got us.
Ogidou took a blast of energy full on to the chest, and he was flung back, sliding across the floor towards the shield Ise had set up around Yamada and the new kid. He lay still, but breathing, blue-pale and drenched.
Harribel's focus on Ogidou gave Hoshibana time to make his move. Shuuhei quickly got Lisa's attention so she could see him shield his eyes. It was barely in time, and he did catch a few flashes of light that felt a lot like getting a knock to the head.
Good thing he knew about the effects of Hoshibana's zanpakutou, as Hoshibana had not seen fit to warn him or Lisa to look away. Shit.
But right now, Harribel was a bigger problem than whether or not the others dealt with him as a trustworthy ally. The odds of them all surviving this fight were slim.
If it had been a normal opponent, even a Hollow, Hoshibana's Kemuisuishou should have left Harribel disoriented and half blind long enough for him to get in the killing blow. Instead, she shook her head like she was clearing water from her ears, and was able to trap Kemuisuishou in the hollow of her sword. One twist sent it clattering across the room, and on the followthrough she blasted Hoshibana in the other direction.
Kazeshini shouted joyfully as Shuuhei finally joined in the fight, unsheathed sword in one hand, kidou pooling in the other.
Ikkaku hit the ground hard, rolling right back to his feet. Everything hurt, but everything sang, thrumming with red anger and the fight.
Yumichika picked his way through the rubble and ruined furniture, placing each foot with finicky precision as he avoided the dust and the water that trickled in from the other room. He released Fujikujaku, but he called it by some other damned name. Maybe it wasn't even the same sword anymore.
Hell, Yumichika wasn't even the same guy anymore, for all he was prissing his way through the dirt the way he always used to.
Ikkaku's next strike actually got through, cutting deep into Yumichika's right arm. Same guy or not, the idiot still left the same damn openings. But it didn't take long before Ikkaku was on the defensive again, parrying blow after blow as Yumichika went for all his usual weak spots.
They had sparred just like this so many times before. But this time, they weren't talking shit at each other and working to hammer out each other's weaknesses. Now, there was just the sound of their breath and the clash of metal against metal.
A dazzle in the corner of his eye told him Sparkles had used that trick sword of his again. Asshole. That was no way to fight.
"Y'bastard..." he panted. "Fucking had a kidou sword all this time an' never told me!"
"Oh? No... no, I didn't, did I?" Yumichika didn't even sound winded. He smirked. "Care to see? I'm sure you're dying to see."
Ikkaku answered that with a leg swipe that failed horribly. He hit the ground, skidding into the remains of a bed, and got himself tangled up just enough to lose his balance. He had barely kicked free and regained his footing when he heard Yumichika sing-song an unfamiliar command.
"Split and deviate, Ruri'iro Kujaku."
The four blades of Yumichika's sword glowed a sickly, green-tinged white, extending into these snaky things, and before Ikkaku could do more than stare in disbelief one had coiled around his wrist and another wound round and around his neck. It began to squeeze as it lifted him off his feet.
Shuuhei barely evaded Harribel's attack, dropping hard to one knee. The blast missed his shoulder by less than an inch, and he heard a gurgling gasp from behind him--shit, Hoshibana must have been grazed or worse by what Shuuhei had just escaped. His kidou blast knocked Harribel off her stride, but only a bit. A weaker blast surged right past him, helping to keep her distracted--Hoshibana wasn't completely downed, then. Good.
Lisa's face was masked, and now that she had recovered from Hoshibana's shikai she was firing off cero after cero. She was not always aiming at Harribel, and it took him a moment to figure out what she was up to. Her sword was still sheathed, but he recalled that even in its sealed form, Haguro Tonbo was hideously unwieldy to use in a small, crowded space. So, Lisa had obviously decided to open up the field a bit, blasting away the wall between Shuuhei's rooms and the hallway running behind them.
Good. That might save some of their lives if they couldn't stop Harribel before she went into resurreccion.
Grimmjow was up again, snarling and shaking the water from his hair. The floor was now flooded past ankle height. Lisa rushed into her newly created open space, not even breaking stride as she kicked Ogidou onto his back so he wouldn't drown.
Harribel now sent a blast towards Ise's shield. The shield wavered and wobbled, and Ise's face was gray and her arms trembled from the strain. The water near her feet was tinged pink--not good, not good at all. She had a few seconds left at best.
Shuuhei, Hoshibana, and Grimmjow all leapt for Harribel at the same time, but a sword stroke and a casual blast beat them all back without trouble. Blood arced from Grimmjow's side as he was flung aside, and Hoshibana simply crumpled to the floor with a splash. As for Shuuhei, he wasn't sure what happened, only that he heard Kazeshini yelling at him and telling him to stay awake and get the hell up even as he somehow managed to pick himself up from the floor, coughing up filthy water. Each cough sent a sharp pain through his side, and blood mixed with the water.
Lisa had better luck, thanks to Vizard speed and strength, but all that meant was that she could exchange blows with Harribel and not immediately be beaten back.
But then as Lisa brought Haguro Tonbo across in a bone-breaking arc, Harribel pivoted and and grabbed it halfway, adding to the momentum and using Lisa's own strength against her to smash her against the jagged edge of the ruined wall. Haguro Tonbo fell to the ground. It did not revert to its sealed form, but Lisa's hip buckled and she screamed when she tried get to her feet.
Harribel looked at them all with calm contempt.
"Destroy, Tiburon."
He was hungry, so very hungry. He was horribly tempted to devour this treat all at once, every last bit of it, in one gulp.
But that would be unseemly. And Yumichika did not care to be unseemly, even now.
Besides, he had been looking forward to this particular treat for so long. It really would be a shame not to savor it. The waves of power surging through his vines (through his veins) were familiar, deliciously familiar, and they blended with all the other waves. They were his, now. Forever. Always. Just as he was Harribel-sama's.
The waves crashed and his hunger ebbed. Not enough, though. Never enough.
He peered up at the bruised and bleeding form suspended in his vines. How odd. Ikkaku still struggled, even though there was almost nothing left in that form.
Yumichika remembered Ikkaku, of course. Remembered him well. But those memories were so far away, so insignificant.
It was as if they had happened to someone else, in some other place, in some other time. He ignored a small current of outrage deep below that did seem to think these things mattered.
It, too, was unimportant.
But he did wish it would be quiet as he contemplated all the ways he could consume this stolen life once he had taken it all inside himself.
Shuuhei knew there was pain as he coughed, and an even more troubling twinge as he got to his feet and drew Kazeshini, but he knew this as he might know a number, or a word. He didn't actually feel any of it. That weird sensation of watching from afar was back, and he didn't like it. Not liking it didn't change a damned thing, though.
Ise had dropped her shield. It wouldn't do a fucking thing against Harribel, he heard himself think, but neither would that offensive kidou she had prepared. It could buy him an opening, though, if he timed it just right...
Yeah, it might just work, he thought, and wondered what he was thinking.
Ise spoke the last parts of the incantation, swift and soft. An inner voice that was not quite his muttered the words along with her, counting, waiting...
"Reap, Kazeshini!"
He wasn't sure he spoke it out loud, and he knew he shouldn't speak it out loud. Ise was standing too close to Harribel, and he was too battered, too exhausted to have the kind of control he needed to keep Kazeshini's blades from going wild.
Before Shuuhei could tell himself to stop, Kazeshini was already flying, chains singing in the air.
Yumichika laughed as he felt Harribel-sama's resurreccion through the waves, like the notes of a wonderful song too deep to be heard.
Ikkaku had stopped moving, but he still struggled, the last tiny bit of his life clinging to its spot like a barnacle to a rock.
"Ah... fighting to the very end. It always was going to end that way for you, wasn't it?"
He thought he felt a ripple of withering contempt shudder through the vines.
Yumichika frowned and wondered why he frowned. Ikkaku was his friend. This should please him, should it not? To have Ikkaku like this, forever?
One more pull should end it. Yes.
Yumichika let the vines go slack just a bit, almost pushing back towards Ikkaku in preparation for that one last yank.
"... in the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens!"
Two gouts of blue fire leapt from Ise's hands as she completed the incantation for Soren Sokatsui.
The high-level kidou knocked Harribel backwards. In a second, she would have recovered, but before that second could pass, Kazeshini struck her from behind.
Hisagi heard himself laugh with triumph as he pulled Kazeshini's chain back just in time to keep the blade from striking Ise. It came within maybe an inch of her nose, and the expression on her face as the blade jerked to a stop was one of the funniest things he'd ever seen (but it wasn't funny, not at all...).
He felt a warm surge of satisfaction as the blade severed Harribel's spine on the return trip, and he wondered what the everloving hell was wrong with him.
Kazeshini smacked back into his hand. Harribel was already turning to dust.
"Well, that's done. Good times."
Then, all at once he was there again, and very aware of the burning pain in his side, and the rattle of water that was still in his lungs.
He finally collapsed, and rather than feeling detached, felt himself splash down hard, all the while very aware of Ise giving him the most peculiar look.
It was...
a wild riptide, waves breaking high against cliffs, vicious undertow that pulled him down into darkness and the storm surge that flung him back up into the light and unbearable agony...
... beautiful.
Harribel-sama's death crashed through him over and over, Tiburon's power breaking free and rushing through him, tearing everything in front of it to bits.
Yumichika screamed. The slack he had played in Ruri'iro Kujaku's vines became a channel, a torrent. Power spilled out of control, and things became clearer.
He recognized Harribel's cold, gray hunger as it coursed away, and something more familiar that was surging rapidly up from the depths, black brightening to blue-green and violet.
There was also something new, something that didn't belong for all that it was familiar. It was red-gold and roiling, and he knew it as well as he knew his own soul.
Send it back! came his own voice, finally released from the deep and crushing darkness that had silenced it for too long. Now!
Yumichika panicked. It wasn't supposed to work this way! He couldn't send things back, could he? The flowers on Ruri'iro Kujaku's vines pulsed a bloody red, and he couldn't feel a damned thing from Ikkaku... No, wait. There it was. That little stubborn bit that still hung on fiercely.
"Oh, you are never going to forgive me for this, are you?" he drawled, laughing for all that his heart was breaking.
He didn't know if he even could return Ikkaku's life to him, or what would happen afterwards, but he would be damned if he didn't try. He concentrated on the memory of that Arrancar bitch's power as it had washed through him at her death, and once he had the sensation firm in his mind, he took hold of all that red-gold and he pushed.
It hurt like hell, but he didn't stop. The flowers twisted back into buds. Red faded to blue-white.
"Yes, yes, that's it... go on..." he whispered, grinning. Yes, Ikkaku would probably never forgive him, but that wasn't important. He pushed harder. The buds became bumps, and the bumps became spots, and then the spots went away.
Ikkaku coughed and pulled at the vine around his throat. It wasn't draining him, but it was still crushing him. Oh, yes. Right. He had to seal Ruri'iro Kujaku.
But he was so tired. His legs wobbled and he fell to his knees as if he were a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Ruri'iro Kujaku fell with a splash. Yumichika fell as well, but something caught him just before he blacked out completely.
Holy shit.
Ikkaku lowered Yumichika to the ground--not as carefully as he could have--then stood back up, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. He rubbed at his neck, still feeling a tingle where those freaky vine-tentacle-things had nearly strangled him, but that was all he felt. He'd had people try to strangle him before, and there was none of the tightness, none of the raw feeling he would have expected afterwards.
That was...
Wow.
Ikkaku pulled at a gash in his hakama where Yumichika had sliced his thigh open. His leg was smeared with blood, but the wound was almost gone. It looked like maybe he'd had a run-in with a thorn bush, but nothing worse than that. Dozens of lesser wounds had healed completely, and that was the least of it.
"Damn, I feel like I could take on taichou and maybe not get my ass handed to me," he said, telling himself that no, he was not going to giggle.
Yumichika was awake again, and struggling to sit up. "That went further than I expected," he said. He sounded loopy, but it wasn't like what had been there before. This was almost funny. And his eyes were the right color.
"No shit," Ikkaku grumbled. He prodded at his shoulder, and really hoped that the energy that Yumichika sent into him had pushed the piece of shrapnel out before healing things over. He didn't feel anything sharp kicking around in there, so maybe it was okay. "Fuck. No wonder you never picked up any scars in all these years. So, that really you again?"
"I think so?" Yumichika was a bit wobbly, but he got to his feet under his own steam.
"Glad to hear it." He walked back towards Yumichika. There was no shadow of bone over his friend's skin, no almost-hole at the base of his throat. "Guess she got into your head good, huh?"
Yumichika gave him a stricken look, then turned away with a hmph. Then, as he always did after a fight, he started trying to set his clothes and hair to rights. It all seemed more frantic than it usually did, though.
"Yes, I would say so," he said, just a little too fast to sound as disdainful as he was obviously trying for. "Honestly, white? I'd never wear this of my own free will--you know how pasty it makes me look. I have no idea what she was thinking."
Okay, so Yumichika had lied to him, but Ikkaku couldn't help laughing at that. "Yeah, you look like shit, all right. So, you had a kidou sword all this time, and you never told me? That's a long fucking time to keep a secret, pal."
All those decades, and he didn't have a clue. He should be pissed. No, not pissed--furious. But even without seeing how Yumichika was focusing on his clothes rather than him, Ikkaku knew just how ashamed he was. Knew it, like he knew his own name.
Maybe it had come through in that energy backlash. Or maybe he just knew Yumichika that well, secrets or no secrets.
"Hell, you coulda won every fight we ever had with that whackadoodle thing."
Yumichika finally looked up at him, mouth and eyes tight with anger. "That wouldn't be winning," he snapped. "Winning is not the same as simply stopping someone. I do know the difference."
"Huh." Ikkaku blinked in surprise. It made sense, though. Maybe it wasn't so odd that he'd gone decades without a clue. Chances were, Yumichika had only used his full shikai a dozen or so times, tops.
Yeah, Yumichika's sword could do a lot more than he let on, but that didn't mean he wasn't fighting fair.
"That still don't tell me why the hell you didn't say something."
The 'oh, please' look he received was classic Yumichika. "You know how it goes." He shrugged, and looked more embarrassed than Ikkaku had ever seen him. And he did look like crap in white.
"Guessing you didn't want to be laughed at, right?"
It wasn't funny, but Yumichika laughed. It sounded as wrong as he had when he'd walked in there all possessed by that Arrancar. "Yes. It's something like that."
"Huh. Okay. I guess I can see that." Ikkaku walked up and clapped Yumichika on the shoulder. "Damn, but it's good to see you again. The past couple of months have sucked."
Yumichika looked at him, startled, then finally smiled. Any trace of the Arrancar was gone. It was all Yumichika.
And that was Ikkaku's signal to clock Yumichika with a left hook that lifted him clean off his feet.
"That's for being a dumbass, you dumbass! You shoulda said something!"
Yumichika lay there for a moment, letting the water lap against his chin. "Yes," he sighed. "I should have. So, are we all right, then?"
"Damn straight we are." Ikkaku held out a hand to help him up. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll fucking kill you."
Shuuhei suspected he had a few broken ribs, and he had badly wrenched his shoulder and torn some muscles on that last fall, but there was nothing to do for it but sit back and wait.
Yamada followed normal triage protocol without hesitation, doing the bare minimum to keep Ise and Grimmjow from bleeding out before turning his attention to Ogidou. Once the most urgent cases had been dealt with, the more healers on deck, the better. As long as they weren't under attack again any time soon, Shuuhei's injuries were inconsequential.
"How long we got before someone starts poking around here?" Ikkaku asked.
"I'd say fifteen minutes at best, twenty if we're lucky. Squabbles like this aren't exactly uncommon these days. Everyone will probably assume it was Kurosaki going on a tear again and stay clear until it's safe." Ayasegawa said. He sounded groggy, and his reiatsu felt a bit weak. Weak, yes, but with nothing hollow-like about it.
Ikkaku frowned, then shrugged. "Could be worse."
"It could be worse, or it could be a lie," Ise said. Once Ogidou had gotten back to his feet, Yamada had turned his attention back to her, as she had enough skill as a healer to help with the lesser injuries. She looked Ayasegawa up and down, not bothering to hide her suspicion. "What happened in there, exactly? This is a rather sudden change in allegiance."
Shuuhei looked down at where Harribel's body had been. The two halves of it were completely gone, fallen to dust and swirling off into the water. "Well, if Ayasegawa was tied to Harribel, and she died..."
Ayasegawa gave a harsh, humorless laugh. "Yes. That was brilliant timing on your part. Even if it did nearly break my mind."
"I do apologize, Madarame-san," Ise said, sounding not the least bit sorry, "but are you certain we can trust Ayasegawa now? You aren't exactly an unbiased party in this instance."
Ayasegawa looked more amused than offended, which in Hisagi's mind made him less suspicious rather than more, but Ikkaku went nearly purple.
"The hell? You're saying that, and you're all buddy-buddy with her?" He jerked his thumb over to where Lisa was lying on a piece of wall. Her chin rested on folded arms while Ogidou worked on her back and hip.
"That--that's different!" Ise spluttered.
"You're right, Nanao-chan. It is different. I've been serving here of my own free will." Once she'd been given the all-clear from Ogidou, Lisa swung back around into a seated position. From the look on Ogidou's face, she may or may not have groped his ass in the process. "Yeah, it's under coercion 'cause I'm trying to save my own ass, and Hacchi's, but if I were you, I'd be trusting that guy more than I'd be trusting me right now. And he's right. We've got maybe fifteen minutes before things get interesting--well, less than that now."
Ise fumed, then took a deep breath. "Right. Yes. Then let's get everyone mobile, and quickly. Yamada, please see to Hoshibana, then Ayasegawa. Ogidou, you look after Grimmjow, Inoue, and the Arrancar girl."
Ogidou balked at being told what to do by a non-healer, but Yamada--who outranked him, if Hisagi remembered correctly--just shook his head and made sure Ogidou did as told before calmly going about setting Hoshibana's broken arm and collarbone.
Ise herself saw to Shuuhei. "I'm not as skilled as they are at healing," she said softly, "but I think this is more prudent under the circumstances."
Shuuhei, who was quite aware of the looks Ogidou had been giving him, agreed.
He hissed with pain as kidou seared through the torn muscles in his arm and shoulder--no, Ise was definitely not from the Fourth--but then the pain was replaced with a pleasant warmth as the healing took hold.
"I'm amazed you could control your zanpakutou as you did, with the amount of pain you must have been in," she said. She was not as gentle as she might have been when she moved in to working on his ribs. "I'm surprised that you of all people would do something so risky. If you'd misjudged by even an inch, I would be dead along with that Arrancar."
For some reason, Ise scolding him as if she'd caught him bending back the spine of a book was more terrifying than being yelled at.
"You're right. It wasn't the smartest thing I could have done..." His voice trailed off as he tried to remember exactly what he had been thinking, or what he had said after. The usual hyperclarity of battle was not there. Kazeshini remained silent on the matter as well.
"Are you quite all right?" She looked over the tops of her glasses at him in a way that said she wasn't talking about his shoulder or his ribs.
"I--" The details of Harribel's death and his role in it were slipping away like a dream. It wasn't anything like when he'd killed Iemura, where even now he could still feel the hot blood on his hand, or Iemura's weight slumping hard against him. "I'm not sure. I don't know."
"If we get the human girl, she can help!" Pagally chirped before Ise could say anything else. She was not as gravely injured as some of the others, but she had dozens of lacerations and was holding her wrist protectively against her chest and shivering.
Inoue started to second this suggestion, but Ise gave him a look that quieted him at once.
"We may have to change our plans given the amount of attention we've drawn," Ise said.
"Change 'em how? All we need to do is get back on the move. We haven't lost anyone, and we've got more help than we planned on," Ikkaku said. "Oi! Smiley! Hurry up there with Boy Blue--once he's on his feet again, we can move out."
Ise looked very much like she wanted to say something caustic, but she was busy with an incantation that would finish stabilizing Shuuhei's ribs.
Ayasegawa raised an eyebrow. "'Smiley?' 'Boy Blue?' What's all that about?"
"While you were, ah... incapacitated all these months, your friend picked up the--" Hoshibana cleared his throat, "--habit of assigning supposedly clever nicknames to those in his circle of acquaintance."
Ayasegawa laughed, while Ikkaku told both him and Hoshibana to shut the hell up.
"Nicknames? Really, Ikkaku. That's more the sort of thing fukutaichou--" He stopped laughing very quickly once he realized what he had said.
"Do you know what happened to her?" Nanao asked. "Or any of the missing? We heard that Aizen had prisoners--other than the Fourth Division, I mean."
Ayasegawa shook his head. His lips were pressed tightly together, and his face was nearly as pale as it had been when he was under Harribel's thrall. "I don't think she was killed... But I don't know. I really don't. I heard rumors of prisoners, from, well, from her," he said, wrinkling his nose at a puddle of ash-gray water.
"Like I told you, they say there's a couple of real powerful shinigami locked up in Aizen's private labs," Grimmjow said. He looked unpleasantly eager.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Well, Hacchi--Ushoda Hachigen--is one of them. We know that much. Maybe their old fukutaichou is the other. At least we know who we're looking for, now. That helps."
Ise went very still and very quiet.
"What?" Lisa asked, but Shuuhei knew at once who one of the missing had to be.
"There may be other prisoners you don't know about," Ise said. She was trying to sound reasonable, but her voice shook.
Lisa swore, then turned away so no one could see her face. She'd no doubt put the pieces together, even before Ise started listing the names of the missing.
Kyouraku Shunsui. Kuchiki Byakuya and Kuchiki Rukia. Abarai Renji. Ishida Uryuu.
"Um..." Yamada twisted his fingers and wouldn't quite meet anyone's eyes as he interrupted to tell them what had happened to Kuchiki Byakuya and his sister. His account was very brief. Too brief.
Shuuhei sighed. "You're leaving something out, Yamada, aren't you? I heard what was done to Kuchiki Rukia." He took a deep breath. He really didn't want to say any of this, but he had to. The others had to know what they might be facing. "Aizen turned her into an Arrancar. And she wasn't the only one. He got Kira as well. I haven't heard of any others, but we can't be sure."
Ise closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. "We'll need to assume the worst," she told them, and herself. "Kira is in Seireitei. We've had word of that much."
"Right," Shuuhei said. "And I know that something got sent over to Ichimaru the other day."
Something, or someone. Yamada looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't quite bring himself to do so.
Ise took off her glasses and polished them on her sleeve. "Right," she said crisply. "This may have been our easiest battle. And Madarame-san is right--we didn't lose anyone, and we've gained a few allies."
She put her glasses back on, and looked up to where Ogidou was trying to heal Pagally. Pagally had backed away, protesting that she would wait for Orihime, thank-you-very-much, she didn't need some shinigami doing something horrible to her.
"As a matter of fact..." Ise said, and then her expression grew even more determined. Lisa looked up at her, head cocked, watching carefully. "Ogidou-san, leave off healing the girl, please."
Both Shuuhei and Ogidou protested, but Pagally sighed with relief, even though a huge bruise was forming under one eye and blood still seeped through a cut in one of her long, white gloves.
"I do apologize--" Ise paused, and cut a quick glance to Shuuhei.
"Pagally," he reminded her sharply.
Ise nodded, then turned back to the girl. "I do apologize, Pagally-san, but we need this to look right."
Everyone looked confused, but then Lisa grinned a very scary grin and thumped her fist and palm together. "Yes! Of course! And this also takes care of our Grimmjow problem."
"'Grimmjow problem?' What the fuck do you mean by 'Grimmjow problem?'" snarled the problem in question.
"Exactly!" said Ise, as if this was all as clear as day.
"Good thing I only knocked down the wall between us and the service hallway," Lisa said. "If I'd gotten the main hallway, that would make things trickier."
"What are you talking about? And why did you tell Ogidou to stop healing Pagally?" Shuuhei asked. Kazeshini was also demanding to know what the hell was going on. "She still needs a healer."
"Yes, she does." Ise's grin was fainter than Lisa's, but five times as scary. "And isn't that very lucky for us?"
Fandom: Bleach
Characters: Ikkaku, Yumichika, Hisagi, Nanao, Lisa, Grimmjow, Harribel
Rating/Warning: PG-13
Word Count: c. 5,500
Notes: This is a dark (we're not kidding) 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: Old friends just aren't who they used to be.
Chapter Index
[...]
27. Momo, Isane: We Have Met the Enemy
28. Iba: Defense
29: Ensemble: Retaking Seireitei
"Hello, Ikkaku."
Ikkaku shoved Hisagi away from him, hard. A shard from the blasted-in door was buried deep in his shoulder, but he didn't care.
Yumichika waved at him lazily. He sounded stoned out of his mind. "I always knew you'd come."
Ikkaku had thought over and over about what he would do and what he might say when he saw Yumichika again, but it all flew straight out of his head with a roar as he unleashed Hoozukimaru.
All the rage, all the grief, all the crap he'd been through in the past few months--it blasted aside everything but blood-red anger and the pale, sickening thing in front of him.
Better to end it now, end it fast. He came down hard, all his weight and everything he had behind Hoozukimaru's blade.
He looked Yumichika in the eyes as the blow came down, because it didn't matter that Yumichika had lied to him, Ikkaku owed him that and shit--they were the wrong color, and was that a mask... no, it wasn't, what the fuck...
"Maa, maa... how sloppy." Yumichika stepped aside, raising his zanpakutou in a move that only seemed slow.
Ikkaku should have been to push right through such a lame defense, but the parry threw him clear to the side. He landed on something soft--someone soft, judging by the shriek.
Yumichika strolled forward. "Hmmm... Imagine that. I'm stronger than you, now."
Ikkaku pushed himself back to his feet.
"It don't count if it's stolen strength, you fucking liar!"
He charged again, this time coming in low with a swipe that should spill Yumichika's guts all over the floor.
Yumichika knocked him through a wall.
Of course Ikkaku would jump in without thinking. Shuuhei dropped into ready position, preferring to take at least a second to assess the situation.
That's Eleventh Division for you, Kazeshini said, not sounding the least bit disapproving.
Harribel stood back and studied the room calmly, keeping her own counsel as usual. Her hand lifted towards the sword slung across her back. She cut her eyes to the side, briefly distracted by Ikkaku's wipeout and Pagally's shriek.
Ise-fukutaichou flashed to his side in that second. The Arrancar's explosive entry had left a gash in her neck. It didn't seem lethal, but blood seeped between her fingers as she kept pressure on it. "Quick. I wasn't at that last battle. What do I need to know?"
Shuuhei only remembered bits and flashes of that day, but with Kazeshini's help, he remembered the most important parts.
"Water zanpakutou. Think tsunami." In a small, closed-off space like this, they would be crushed and drowned in an instant if Harribel was able to use her resurreccion.
He got a sharp nod by way of answer, and Ise fell back just as Harribel used Grimmjow's attempt to wrestle her down to demonstrate what even one of her lesser attacks could do.
"Inoue! Yamada! To me!" Ise snapped. "That is an order, Inoue!"
There was another crash as the wall between his office and his bedroom was shrapneled. "Don't!" Shuuhei called out as Lisa ran to interfere. "You're needed here!"
There was no time to explain to her about the crazy ideas that the Eleventh Division mistook for honor, but at least Ikkaku was getting Yumichika away from the main fight.
In the second it took for Shuuhei to yell at Lisa, Ogidou and Hoshibana both went for Harribel, and there was no room for him to unleash Kazeshini without killing both of them.
You may wanna watch that one, Kazeshini said, his attention on Ogidou, and Shuuhei felt himself fading back at the memory of the hate on the man's face.
No worries, I got us.
Ogidou took a blast of energy full on to the chest, and he was flung back, sliding across the floor towards the shield Ise had set up around Yamada and the new kid. He lay still, but breathing, blue-pale and drenched.
Harribel's focus on Ogidou gave Hoshibana time to make his move. Shuuhei quickly got Lisa's attention so she could see him shield his eyes. It was barely in time, and he did catch a few flashes of light that felt a lot like getting a knock to the head.
Good thing he knew about the effects of Hoshibana's zanpakutou, as Hoshibana had not seen fit to warn him or Lisa to look away. Shit.
But right now, Harribel was a bigger problem than whether or not the others dealt with him as a trustworthy ally. The odds of them all surviving this fight were slim.
If it had been a normal opponent, even a Hollow, Hoshibana's Kemuisuishou should have left Harribel disoriented and half blind long enough for him to get in the killing blow. Instead, she shook her head like she was clearing water from her ears, and was able to trap Kemuisuishou in the hollow of her sword. One twist sent it clattering across the room, and on the followthrough she blasted Hoshibana in the other direction.
Kazeshini shouted joyfully as Shuuhei finally joined in the fight, unsheathed sword in one hand, kidou pooling in the other.
Ikkaku hit the ground hard, rolling right back to his feet. Everything hurt, but everything sang, thrumming with red anger and the fight.
Yumichika picked his way through the rubble and ruined furniture, placing each foot with finicky precision as he avoided the dust and the water that trickled in from the other room. He released Fujikujaku, but he called it by some other damned name. Maybe it wasn't even the same sword anymore.
Hell, Yumichika wasn't even the same guy anymore, for all he was prissing his way through the dirt the way he always used to.
Ikkaku's next strike actually got through, cutting deep into Yumichika's right arm. Same guy or not, the idiot still left the same damn openings. But it didn't take long before Ikkaku was on the defensive again, parrying blow after blow as Yumichika went for all his usual weak spots.
They had sparred just like this so many times before. But this time, they weren't talking shit at each other and working to hammer out each other's weaknesses. Now, there was just the sound of their breath and the clash of metal against metal.
A dazzle in the corner of his eye told him Sparkles had used that trick sword of his again. Asshole. That was no way to fight.
"Y'bastard..." he panted. "Fucking had a kidou sword all this time an' never told me!"
"Oh? No... no, I didn't, did I?" Yumichika didn't even sound winded. He smirked. "Care to see? I'm sure you're dying to see."
Ikkaku answered that with a leg swipe that failed horribly. He hit the ground, skidding into the remains of a bed, and got himself tangled up just enough to lose his balance. He had barely kicked free and regained his footing when he heard Yumichika sing-song an unfamiliar command.
"Split and deviate, Ruri'iro Kujaku."
The four blades of Yumichika's sword glowed a sickly, green-tinged white, extending into these snaky things, and before Ikkaku could do more than stare in disbelief one had coiled around his wrist and another wound round and around his neck. It began to squeeze as it lifted him off his feet.
Shuuhei barely evaded Harribel's attack, dropping hard to one knee. The blast missed his shoulder by less than an inch, and he heard a gurgling gasp from behind him--shit, Hoshibana must have been grazed or worse by what Shuuhei had just escaped. His kidou blast knocked Harribel off her stride, but only a bit. A weaker blast surged right past him, helping to keep her distracted--Hoshibana wasn't completely downed, then. Good.
Lisa's face was masked, and now that she had recovered from Hoshibana's shikai she was firing off cero after cero. She was not always aiming at Harribel, and it took him a moment to figure out what she was up to. Her sword was still sheathed, but he recalled that even in its sealed form, Haguro Tonbo was hideously unwieldy to use in a small, crowded space. So, Lisa had obviously decided to open up the field a bit, blasting away the wall between Shuuhei's rooms and the hallway running behind them.
Good. That might save some of their lives if they couldn't stop Harribel before she went into resurreccion.
Grimmjow was up again, snarling and shaking the water from his hair. The floor was now flooded past ankle height. Lisa rushed into her newly created open space, not even breaking stride as she kicked Ogidou onto his back so he wouldn't drown.
Harribel now sent a blast towards Ise's shield. The shield wavered and wobbled, and Ise's face was gray and her arms trembled from the strain. The water near her feet was tinged pink--not good, not good at all. She had a few seconds left at best.
Shuuhei, Hoshibana, and Grimmjow all leapt for Harribel at the same time, but a sword stroke and a casual blast beat them all back without trouble. Blood arced from Grimmjow's side as he was flung aside, and Hoshibana simply crumpled to the floor with a splash. As for Shuuhei, he wasn't sure what happened, only that he heard Kazeshini yelling at him and telling him to stay awake and get the hell up even as he somehow managed to pick himself up from the floor, coughing up filthy water. Each cough sent a sharp pain through his side, and blood mixed with the water.
Lisa had better luck, thanks to Vizard speed and strength, but all that meant was that she could exchange blows with Harribel and not immediately be beaten back.
But then as Lisa brought Haguro Tonbo across in a bone-breaking arc, Harribel pivoted and and grabbed it halfway, adding to the momentum and using Lisa's own strength against her to smash her against the jagged edge of the ruined wall. Haguro Tonbo fell to the ground. It did not revert to its sealed form, but Lisa's hip buckled and she screamed when she tried get to her feet.
Harribel looked at them all with calm contempt.
"Destroy, Tiburon."
He was hungry, so very hungry. He was horribly tempted to devour this treat all at once, every last bit of it, in one gulp.
But that would be unseemly. And Yumichika did not care to be unseemly, even now.
Besides, he had been looking forward to this particular treat for so long. It really would be a shame not to savor it. The waves of power surging through his vines (through his veins) were familiar, deliciously familiar, and they blended with all the other waves. They were his, now. Forever. Always. Just as he was Harribel-sama's.
The waves crashed and his hunger ebbed. Not enough, though. Never enough.
He peered up at the bruised and bleeding form suspended in his vines. How odd. Ikkaku still struggled, even though there was almost nothing left in that form.
Yumichika remembered Ikkaku, of course. Remembered him well. But those memories were so far away, so insignificant.
It was as if they had happened to someone else, in some other place, in some other time. He ignored a small current of outrage deep below that did seem to think these things mattered.
It, too, was unimportant.
But he did wish it would be quiet as he contemplated all the ways he could consume this stolen life once he had taken it all inside himself.
Shuuhei knew there was pain as he coughed, and an even more troubling twinge as he got to his feet and drew Kazeshini, but he knew this as he might know a number, or a word. He didn't actually feel any of it. That weird sensation of watching from afar was back, and he didn't like it. Not liking it didn't change a damned thing, though.
Ise had dropped her shield. It wouldn't do a fucking thing against Harribel, he heard himself think, but neither would that offensive kidou she had prepared. It could buy him an opening, though, if he timed it just right...
Yeah, it might just work, he thought, and wondered what he was thinking.
Ise spoke the last parts of the incantation, swift and soft. An inner voice that was not quite his muttered the words along with her, counting, waiting...
"Reap, Kazeshini!"
He wasn't sure he spoke it out loud, and he knew he shouldn't speak it out loud. Ise was standing too close to Harribel, and he was too battered, too exhausted to have the kind of control he needed to keep Kazeshini's blades from going wild.
Before Shuuhei could tell himself to stop, Kazeshini was already flying, chains singing in the air.
Yumichika laughed as he felt Harribel-sama's resurreccion through the waves, like the notes of a wonderful song too deep to be heard.
Ikkaku had stopped moving, but he still struggled, the last tiny bit of his life clinging to its spot like a barnacle to a rock.
"Ah... fighting to the very end. It always was going to end that way for you, wasn't it?"
He thought he felt a ripple of withering contempt shudder through the vines.
Yumichika frowned and wondered why he frowned. Ikkaku was his friend. This should please him, should it not? To have Ikkaku like this, forever?
One more pull should end it. Yes.
Yumichika let the vines go slack just a bit, almost pushing back towards Ikkaku in preparation for that one last yank.
"... in the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens!"
Two gouts of blue fire leapt from Ise's hands as she completed the incantation for Soren Sokatsui.
The high-level kidou knocked Harribel backwards. In a second, she would have recovered, but before that second could pass, Kazeshini struck her from behind.
Hisagi heard himself laugh with triumph as he pulled Kazeshini's chain back just in time to keep the blade from striking Ise. It came within maybe an inch of her nose, and the expression on her face as the blade jerked to a stop was one of the funniest things he'd ever seen (but it wasn't funny, not at all...).
He felt a warm surge of satisfaction as the blade severed Harribel's spine on the return trip, and he wondered what the everloving hell was wrong with him.
Kazeshini smacked back into his hand. Harribel was already turning to dust.
"Well, that's done. Good times."
Then, all at once he was there again, and very aware of the burning pain in his side, and the rattle of water that was still in his lungs.
He finally collapsed, and rather than feeling detached, felt himself splash down hard, all the while very aware of Ise giving him the most peculiar look.
It was...
a wild riptide, waves breaking high against cliffs, vicious undertow that pulled him down into darkness and the storm surge that flung him back up into the light and unbearable agony...
... beautiful.
Harribel-sama's death crashed through him over and over, Tiburon's power breaking free and rushing through him, tearing everything in front of it to bits.
Yumichika screamed. The slack he had played in Ruri'iro Kujaku's vines became a channel, a torrent. Power spilled out of control, and things became clearer.
He recognized Harribel's cold, gray hunger as it coursed away, and something more familiar that was surging rapidly up from the depths, black brightening to blue-green and violet.
There was also something new, something that didn't belong for all that it was familiar. It was red-gold and roiling, and he knew it as well as he knew his own soul.
Send it back! came his own voice, finally released from the deep and crushing darkness that had silenced it for too long. Now!
Yumichika panicked. It wasn't supposed to work this way! He couldn't send things back, could he? The flowers on Ruri'iro Kujaku's vines pulsed a bloody red, and he couldn't feel a damned thing from Ikkaku... No, wait. There it was. That little stubborn bit that still hung on fiercely.
"Oh, you are never going to forgive me for this, are you?" he drawled, laughing for all that his heart was breaking.
He didn't know if he even could return Ikkaku's life to him, or what would happen afterwards, but he would be damned if he didn't try. He concentrated on the memory of that Arrancar bitch's power as it had washed through him at her death, and once he had the sensation firm in his mind, he took hold of all that red-gold and he pushed.
It hurt like hell, but he didn't stop. The flowers twisted back into buds. Red faded to blue-white.
"Yes, yes, that's it... go on..." he whispered, grinning. Yes, Ikkaku would probably never forgive him, but that wasn't important. He pushed harder. The buds became bumps, and the bumps became spots, and then the spots went away.
Ikkaku coughed and pulled at the vine around his throat. It wasn't draining him, but it was still crushing him. Oh, yes. Right. He had to seal Ruri'iro Kujaku.
But he was so tired. His legs wobbled and he fell to his knees as if he were a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Ruri'iro Kujaku fell with a splash. Yumichika fell as well, but something caught him just before he blacked out completely.
Holy shit.
Ikkaku lowered Yumichika to the ground--not as carefully as he could have--then stood back up, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. He rubbed at his neck, still feeling a tingle where those freaky vine-tentacle-things had nearly strangled him, but that was all he felt. He'd had people try to strangle him before, and there was none of the tightness, none of the raw feeling he would have expected afterwards.
That was...
Wow.
Ikkaku pulled at a gash in his hakama where Yumichika had sliced his thigh open. His leg was smeared with blood, but the wound was almost gone. It looked like maybe he'd had a run-in with a thorn bush, but nothing worse than that. Dozens of lesser wounds had healed completely, and that was the least of it.
"Damn, I feel like I could take on taichou and maybe not get my ass handed to me," he said, telling himself that no, he was not going to giggle.
Yumichika was awake again, and struggling to sit up. "That went further than I expected," he said. He sounded loopy, but it wasn't like what had been there before. This was almost funny. And his eyes were the right color.
"No shit," Ikkaku grumbled. He prodded at his shoulder, and really hoped that the energy that Yumichika sent into him had pushed the piece of shrapnel out before healing things over. He didn't feel anything sharp kicking around in there, so maybe it was okay. "Fuck. No wonder you never picked up any scars in all these years. So, that really you again?"
"I think so?" Yumichika was a bit wobbly, but he got to his feet under his own steam.
"Glad to hear it." He walked back towards Yumichika. There was no shadow of bone over his friend's skin, no almost-hole at the base of his throat. "Guess she got into your head good, huh?"
Yumichika gave him a stricken look, then turned away with a hmph. Then, as he always did after a fight, he started trying to set his clothes and hair to rights. It all seemed more frantic than it usually did, though.
"Yes, I would say so," he said, just a little too fast to sound as disdainful as he was obviously trying for. "Honestly, white? I'd never wear this of my own free will--you know how pasty it makes me look. I have no idea what she was thinking."
Okay, so Yumichika had lied to him, but Ikkaku couldn't help laughing at that. "Yeah, you look like shit, all right. So, you had a kidou sword all this time, and you never told me? That's a long fucking time to keep a secret, pal."
All those decades, and he didn't have a clue. He should be pissed. No, not pissed--furious. But even without seeing how Yumichika was focusing on his clothes rather than him, Ikkaku knew just how ashamed he was. Knew it, like he knew his own name.
Maybe it had come through in that energy backlash. Or maybe he just knew Yumichika that well, secrets or no secrets.
"Hell, you coulda won every fight we ever had with that whackadoodle thing."
Yumichika finally looked up at him, mouth and eyes tight with anger. "That wouldn't be winning," he snapped. "Winning is not the same as simply stopping someone. I do know the difference."
"Huh." Ikkaku blinked in surprise. It made sense, though. Maybe it wasn't so odd that he'd gone decades without a clue. Chances were, Yumichika had only used his full shikai a dozen or so times, tops.
Yeah, Yumichika's sword could do a lot more than he let on, but that didn't mean he wasn't fighting fair.
"That still don't tell me why the hell you didn't say something."
The 'oh, please' look he received was classic Yumichika. "You know how it goes." He shrugged, and looked more embarrassed than Ikkaku had ever seen him. And he did look like crap in white.
"Guessing you didn't want to be laughed at, right?"
It wasn't funny, but Yumichika laughed. It sounded as wrong as he had when he'd walked in there all possessed by that Arrancar. "Yes. It's something like that."
"Huh. Okay. I guess I can see that." Ikkaku walked up and clapped Yumichika on the shoulder. "Damn, but it's good to see you again. The past couple of months have sucked."
Yumichika looked at him, startled, then finally smiled. Any trace of the Arrancar was gone. It was all Yumichika.
And that was Ikkaku's signal to clock Yumichika with a left hook that lifted him clean off his feet.
"That's for being a dumbass, you dumbass! You shoulda said something!"
Yumichika lay there for a moment, letting the water lap against his chin. "Yes," he sighed. "I should have. So, are we all right, then?"
"Damn straight we are." Ikkaku held out a hand to help him up. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll fucking kill you."
Shuuhei suspected he had a few broken ribs, and he had badly wrenched his shoulder and torn some muscles on that last fall, but there was nothing to do for it but sit back and wait.
Yamada followed normal triage protocol without hesitation, doing the bare minimum to keep Ise and Grimmjow from bleeding out before turning his attention to Ogidou. Once the most urgent cases had been dealt with, the more healers on deck, the better. As long as they weren't under attack again any time soon, Shuuhei's injuries were inconsequential.
"How long we got before someone starts poking around here?" Ikkaku asked.
"I'd say fifteen minutes at best, twenty if we're lucky. Squabbles like this aren't exactly uncommon these days. Everyone will probably assume it was Kurosaki going on a tear again and stay clear until it's safe." Ayasegawa said. He sounded groggy, and his reiatsu felt a bit weak. Weak, yes, but with nothing hollow-like about it.
Ikkaku frowned, then shrugged. "Could be worse."
"It could be worse, or it could be a lie," Ise said. Once Ogidou had gotten back to his feet, Yamada had turned his attention back to her, as she had enough skill as a healer to help with the lesser injuries. She looked Ayasegawa up and down, not bothering to hide her suspicion. "What happened in there, exactly? This is a rather sudden change in allegiance."
Shuuhei looked down at where Harribel's body had been. The two halves of it were completely gone, fallen to dust and swirling off into the water. "Well, if Ayasegawa was tied to Harribel, and she died..."
Ayasegawa gave a harsh, humorless laugh. "Yes. That was brilliant timing on your part. Even if it did nearly break my mind."
"I do apologize, Madarame-san," Ise said, sounding not the least bit sorry, "but are you certain we can trust Ayasegawa now? You aren't exactly an unbiased party in this instance."
Ayasegawa looked more amused than offended, which in Hisagi's mind made him less suspicious rather than more, but Ikkaku went nearly purple.
"The hell? You're saying that, and you're all buddy-buddy with her?" He jerked his thumb over to where Lisa was lying on a piece of wall. Her chin rested on folded arms while Ogidou worked on her back and hip.
"That--that's different!" Ise spluttered.
"You're right, Nanao-chan. It is different. I've been serving here of my own free will." Once she'd been given the all-clear from Ogidou, Lisa swung back around into a seated position. From the look on Ogidou's face, she may or may not have groped his ass in the process. "Yeah, it's under coercion 'cause I'm trying to save my own ass, and Hacchi's, but if I were you, I'd be trusting that guy more than I'd be trusting me right now. And he's right. We've got maybe fifteen minutes before things get interesting--well, less than that now."
Ise fumed, then took a deep breath. "Right. Yes. Then let's get everyone mobile, and quickly. Yamada, please see to Hoshibana, then Ayasegawa. Ogidou, you look after Grimmjow, Inoue, and the Arrancar girl."
Ogidou balked at being told what to do by a non-healer, but Yamada--who outranked him, if Hisagi remembered correctly--just shook his head and made sure Ogidou did as told before calmly going about setting Hoshibana's broken arm and collarbone.
Ise herself saw to Shuuhei. "I'm not as skilled as they are at healing," she said softly, "but I think this is more prudent under the circumstances."
Shuuhei, who was quite aware of the looks Ogidou had been giving him, agreed.
He hissed with pain as kidou seared through the torn muscles in his arm and shoulder--no, Ise was definitely not from the Fourth--but then the pain was replaced with a pleasant warmth as the healing took hold.
"I'm amazed you could control your zanpakutou as you did, with the amount of pain you must have been in," she said. She was not as gentle as she might have been when she moved in to working on his ribs. "I'm surprised that you of all people would do something so risky. If you'd misjudged by even an inch, I would be dead along with that Arrancar."
For some reason, Ise scolding him as if she'd caught him bending back the spine of a book was more terrifying than being yelled at.
"You're right. It wasn't the smartest thing I could have done..." His voice trailed off as he tried to remember exactly what he had been thinking, or what he had said after. The usual hyperclarity of battle was not there. Kazeshini remained silent on the matter as well.
"Are you quite all right?" She looked over the tops of her glasses at him in a way that said she wasn't talking about his shoulder or his ribs.
"I--" The details of Harribel's death and his role in it were slipping away like a dream. It wasn't anything like when he'd killed Iemura, where even now he could still feel the hot blood on his hand, or Iemura's weight slumping hard against him. "I'm not sure. I don't know."
"If we get the human girl, she can help!" Pagally chirped before Ise could say anything else. She was not as gravely injured as some of the others, but she had dozens of lacerations and was holding her wrist protectively against her chest and shivering.
Inoue started to second this suggestion, but Ise gave him a look that quieted him at once.
"We may have to change our plans given the amount of attention we've drawn," Ise said.
"Change 'em how? All we need to do is get back on the move. We haven't lost anyone, and we've got more help than we planned on," Ikkaku said. "Oi! Smiley! Hurry up there with Boy Blue--once he's on his feet again, we can move out."
Ise looked very much like she wanted to say something caustic, but she was busy with an incantation that would finish stabilizing Shuuhei's ribs.
Ayasegawa raised an eyebrow. "'Smiley?' 'Boy Blue?' What's all that about?"
"While you were, ah... incapacitated all these months, your friend picked up the--" Hoshibana cleared his throat, "--habit of assigning supposedly clever nicknames to those in his circle of acquaintance."
Ayasegawa laughed, while Ikkaku told both him and Hoshibana to shut the hell up.
"Nicknames? Really, Ikkaku. That's more the sort of thing fukutaichou--" He stopped laughing very quickly once he realized what he had said.
"Do you know what happened to her?" Nanao asked. "Or any of the missing? We heard that Aizen had prisoners--other than the Fourth Division, I mean."
Ayasegawa shook his head. His lips were pressed tightly together, and his face was nearly as pale as it had been when he was under Harribel's thrall. "I don't think she was killed... But I don't know. I really don't. I heard rumors of prisoners, from, well, from her," he said, wrinkling his nose at a puddle of ash-gray water.
"Like I told you, they say there's a couple of real powerful shinigami locked up in Aizen's private labs," Grimmjow said. He looked unpleasantly eager.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Well, Hacchi--Ushoda Hachigen--is one of them. We know that much. Maybe their old fukutaichou is the other. At least we know who we're looking for, now. That helps."
Ise went very still and very quiet.
"What?" Lisa asked, but Shuuhei knew at once who one of the missing had to be.
"There may be other prisoners you don't know about," Ise said. She was trying to sound reasonable, but her voice shook.
Lisa swore, then turned away so no one could see her face. She'd no doubt put the pieces together, even before Ise started listing the names of the missing.
Kyouraku Shunsui. Kuchiki Byakuya and Kuchiki Rukia. Abarai Renji. Ishida Uryuu.
"Um..." Yamada twisted his fingers and wouldn't quite meet anyone's eyes as he interrupted to tell them what had happened to Kuchiki Byakuya and his sister. His account was very brief. Too brief.
Shuuhei sighed. "You're leaving something out, Yamada, aren't you? I heard what was done to Kuchiki Rukia." He took a deep breath. He really didn't want to say any of this, but he had to. The others had to know what they might be facing. "Aizen turned her into an Arrancar. And she wasn't the only one. He got Kira as well. I haven't heard of any others, but we can't be sure."
Ise closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. "We'll need to assume the worst," she told them, and herself. "Kira is in Seireitei. We've had word of that much."
"Right," Shuuhei said. "And I know that something got sent over to Ichimaru the other day."
Something, or someone. Yamada looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't quite bring himself to do so.
Ise took off her glasses and polished them on her sleeve. "Right," she said crisply. "This may have been our easiest battle. And Madarame-san is right--we didn't lose anyone, and we've gained a few allies."
She put her glasses back on, and looked up to where Ogidou was trying to heal Pagally. Pagally had backed away, protesting that she would wait for Orihime, thank-you-very-much, she didn't need some shinigami doing something horrible to her.
"As a matter of fact..." Ise said, and then her expression grew even more determined. Lisa looked up at her, head cocked, watching carefully. "Ogidou-san, leave off healing the girl, please."
Both Shuuhei and Ogidou protested, but Pagally sighed with relief, even though a huge bruise was forming under one eye and blood still seeped through a cut in one of her long, white gloves.
"I do apologize--" Ise paused, and cut a quick glance to Shuuhei.
"Pagally," he reminded her sharply.
Ise nodded, then turned back to the girl. "I do apologize, Pagally-san, but we need this to look right."
Everyone looked confused, but then Lisa grinned a very scary grin and thumped her fist and palm together. "Yes! Of course! And this also takes care of our Grimmjow problem."
"'Grimmjow problem?' What the fuck do you mean by 'Grimmjow problem?'" snarled the problem in question.
"Exactly!" said Ise, as if this was all as clear as day.
"Good thing I only knocked down the wall between us and the service hallway," Lisa said. "If I'd gotten the main hallway, that would make things trickier."
"What are you talking about? And why did you tell Ogidou to stop healing Pagally?" Shuuhei asked. Kazeshini was also demanding to know what the hell was going on. "She still needs a healer."
"Yes, she does." Ise's grin was fainter than Lisa's, but five times as scary. "And isn't that very lucky for us?"