In the Grip of Madness | By : phoenixreal Category: Bleach > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3818 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
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Chapter Eleven
When the Wheels Continue to Turn
“You’ve lost him, we all have,” Kisuke said as he sat across the table from Isshin.
In a way, the trip to Soul Society had been to confirm this very thing to Kisuke. He knew, from the very beginning when he was told what had occurred, that things would turn out badly. Isshin had turned his back on his child, and that alone was enough to raise Kisuke’s ire at the other Shinigami. The fact that any of this had taken place, though, had not surprised the once captain. No, he had not been surprised at all. He understood, of course, why he had not been informed of any of the things that had occurred. Why would he have been told? He would have gone to Soul Society and demanded the old man listen to reason. He would have fought for Ichigo, as he had fought for the others. He sighed, hearing movement further inside the shoten. Shinji would no doubt be listening. He should be listening. Kisuke tapped his chin and wondered if they even realized that the Vizard captain had slipped out of Soul Society again. No, likely they had not, but he imagined that Hiyori, once she found out he was in the World of the Living again would give him what for. He smirked, turning his attention back to the distraught man across from him. His sympathy for Isshin Kurosaki, though, was gone.
“I know that now. Those eyes that looked at me were my son’s, at least, when he said I had no place in his life any longer,” Isshin said with a sigh. There wasn’t much more to be said.
Kisuke hurt for him, he really did. But he couldn’t tell him it wasn’t his fault, because it was. One good word from Isshin, and things would have turned out so much differently than they had. “Why, Isshin? Why would you have turned on your own son?”
Isshin lifted his head from where it was cradled in his hands and looked at Kisuke. “I can’t tell you for sure. I thought I had left the mindset of the way Soul Society thought behind me when I stepped out and my powers were sealed to me. I thought that I could never see things their way again. But when… When Shunsui came to me and told me what had happened, I believed him, Kisuke. I believed him. I saw the heartache in that man’s eyes, losing the one person he loved more than anyone in the world, and my heart broke with remembered pain. I knew what it was like to lose the one you love, and I… Kisuke, I wanted to punish him for taking someone else’s love away from him.” Isshin’s eyes filled with tears again. “And all I did was do exactly the same thing to my son that everyone else did to him. I got so caught up in Shunsui’s pain, in Shunsui’s loss, my own loss of Masaki, that I hated my own child. Because Kisuke, he drew the Grand Fisher to them that night, and you know it. And maybe there was a piece of me that blamed him for Masaki’s death.”
The truth behind Isshin’s words was harsh, but Kisuke had always had a suspicion that there was a deep part of Isshin that blamed Ichigo for Masaki’s death, and this confirmed it. Ichigo, a child of nine years old, possessed of unimaginable power and already brimming with limitless reiatsu, had pulled that hollow toward them. They had never stood a chance against something like the Grand Fisher that night.
Kisuke looked up as the door opened and he saw Uryū and Orihime had come. Then he noticed Chad was there as well, silent as always behind them. “Come in, sit down,” he said, and gestured around the tea table. Before he could say anything, Tessai brought tea to everyone. Kisuke hadn’t even realized that Tessai knew they had guests. The three humans looked chastised and deservedly so. None of them had wanted to see Ichigo even given the chance. Every one of them had refused the offer to stand beside the senkaimon and wait him to be sent back to his new home in Hueco Mundo beside his lovers.
“You didn’t see Ichigo before he returned,” Isshin said flatly as he wiped his eyes. There was no accusation in his tone, but Kisuke knew that he regretted that they had not been there as well.
“I couldn’t,” Uryū said as he slipped to sit on the ground. “I know I should have, but just from what the Agarthan Arrancar said he was like… Was it as bad as you thought?”
“He told him off,” Kisuke said with a smirk. “So, he was quite obviously there and knew what was going on, if he even had to pull on the power of his inner hollow to clear his mind up enough to speak it. He’s not happy, as you can imagine.”
“He has every right to feel like that,” Isshin said with a deep sigh again. He just couldn’t stop sighing.
Orihime was crying again already. “I want to go back. I want to help those Arrancar all I can,” she whispered. “I don’t deserve to stay here. I don’t deserve to be here, in this comfortable human life, while those Arrancar carve their life out in that underground world. No, I don’t deserve to be comfortable and safe. I need to go back.”
“What do you mean?” Uryū asked, frowning at her.
“No, I need to make up for my part. So, I should help them. If I help them, then I’m doing something for Ichigo’s new people. And they could use it.”
Everyone was quiet for a long few minutes. “I can take you back; first, why don’t you go visit your human friends and tell them you’ll be away for a while?”
She nodded, standing and leaving tearfully again. Kisuke watched her go with a sad heart. He turned to the others. “Mayuri isn’t done, and I don’t think everyone in Soul Society is in agreement of letting Ichigo go so easily.”
“What do you mean?” Isshin asked with a glance at Uryū and Chad.
“I mean, he’s let go of an experimental subject far too easily. He’s not done. I’m also worried that some of the other captains won’t give up so easily. Suì-Fēng was far too quiet as the head of the punishment squad. I would not be surprised if she didn’t try to have Ichigo killed secretly.”
“She wouldn’t.” Yoruichi said from behind him, completely naked. Everyone averted their eyes. She had obviously been listening in her cat form when she heard what Kisuke had said. Without looking, Kisuke slipped off his haori and tossed it behind him.
“She would, and you know it,” Kisuke said as she flopped down beside him, his haori covering her for the most part. “You know she’s gotten bitter without you there to temper her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t already left to go to Hueco Mundo in an attempt to assassinate him as it is.”
Yoruichi growled. “Fine, send me with Orihime. I’ll make sure she doesn’t interfere. He has a baby to take care of soon.”
“And the others?” Isshin asked, wondering now who would stand with his son and who would not.
“I don’t think Kyōraku and Kuchiki will be a problem. Zaraki and Hitsugaya made themselves clear on how they feel. Suì-Fēng I worry will attempt to cull him secretly. Kurotsuchi we know will try and re-acquire him as an experimental subject. Unohana, well, she will stand with saving lives. This might be in our favor or against it. Shinji, Rose, and Kensei…I don’t see them turning on Ichigo no matter what. He trained with them as one of their own.” Kisuke thought for a long time. “I don’t know for sure on any of them, though. There is no telling the status for anyone at a given time.”
Isshin stood slowly. “Keep me appraised. I’ll work from the shadows if I must from now on. I’ve turned on my son, and there is no salvation to be had for me. So, it shall be that I will be his father, and I will do my duty as his father one way or another.”
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo’s first reaction when he got into the Las Noches was absolute glee. Sōsuke was waiting by the door when he returned, and he bolted right for him the second he saw his Master.
“Ichigo,” Sōsuke breathed as Ichigo leaped and wrapped himself around Sōsuke’s body. “I’ve been so worried, I can’t tell you how worried I’ve been,” he said, and he meant it with his whole heart. For a second, Sōsuke couldn’t believe what he was saying, then he couldn’t believe what he was feeling. He saw that Grimmjow and Szayel were both standing back and watching. “Ichigo, come, we’re going to our room because you need rest, in your own bed.”
“Master, love,” Ichigo breathed into his neck and sighed deeply. “Missed you.”
Sōsuke dumped Ichigo right into the middle of the big bed where he flopped with a happy expression on his face. “I was scared I wouldn’t come home to you,” Ichigo said with surprising clarity.
“So was I,” Sōsuke said as he climbed into the bed. He laid a hand across Ichigo’s belly. In the time he had been gone, the bump had grown. “Interesting. The baby appears to be growing faster than expected.
Sōsuke was about to summon Szayel when he cringed in pain, his hands going to where the hogyuku was embedded into his body. There was some kind of pulse.
“That thing really does grant wishes,” Ichigo whispered and when Sōsuke looked up, he saw the black and gold eyes. Before, those eyes would have meant insanity in Ichigo. Now, they meant clarity. The reversal of his eyes was perhaps the strangest thing that he would have to get used to.
“What do you mean?” he asked, opening the kusodo he wore to show the orb was glowing blue in his chest.
“The hogyuku is mine,” Ichigo whispered, moving to stand on his hands and knees and touching the small object gently. At his touch, a pulse issued from it and he smiled. “Mine, because I am the master now. It knows my mind, and what it is doing is accelerating the birth for me. All the little ones will come quickly. My body could not tolerate more than one at a time, or twins of the same father. But it can quicken the time it takes to birth them. I have much work to do yet. Starrk doesn’t yet come close, out of fear. And Nnoitra despairs yet that I will never accept him. Ulquiorra’s emptiness is still consuming him, and he has yet to understand. I’ve granted the gift of creation to Grimmjow, and his healing shall come when the baby Yazu is born to him. No more will he suffer hollowness.” Ichigo paused, his eyes starting to bleed back to normal. “Szayel’s legacy will not be madness, and the chaos of the second shall not be passed on.”
As soon as Ichigo’s eyes were normal again, he fell back into the pillows, completely asleep and exhausted.
“I wonder,” Sōsuke said as he stood and headed out toward Szayel’s lab. If he had mastery over the hogyuku, then what did that mean for all of them?
Szayel was busy with something when he walked into the room and cleared his throat. Szayel didn’t stop to do anything but answered.
“Can I do something? I’m going over readings from Ichigo’s return, and I’m not sure I actually understand some of them…” he muttered.
“Maybe something Ichigo said might help?” Sōsuke said with a sigh. Sometimes, Szayel didn’t listen very well.
Szayel stopped, turning to him and stared. Sōsuke had held open his kusodo and was showing him quite clearly, he was talking about the hogyuku.
“The hogyuku…” Szayel muttered. “What did he say about it?”
“He said that he was the master of the hogyuku.”
“Oh, that makes more sense,” Szayel said with a sigh, putting down the test tubes he was holding. “Now, if he has mastery over the hogyuku, though, why does it still answer to you as well? You’re still able to create Arrancar.”
Sōsuke nodded. “Perhaps it does my bidding because Ichigo wills it to answer to me. The hogyuku will answer to the strongest power source around it. Ichigo fits that position, especially now that he has been made into an Arrancar. An Arrancar without a hollow hole, of course.”
“Which makes him something even more than the rest of us,” Szayel murmured, turning back to his papers where he’d written down several things. “Yes, that would make sense. Arrancar are the bridge between hollow and Shinigami, but what happens when that bridge is broken and re-forged? You get something unknown, like Ichigo. He’s not a Shinigami any more, but he’s also not quite an Arrancar.”
“What exactly is it that had you bothered?” Sōsuke asked, closing his kusodo around him once again.
“Oh, the baby. It appears to be accelerating in development once Ichigo got back here…” he stopped. “Because now he’s near the hogyuku again instead of Soul Society. It all makes sense. That’s one of the reasons he can’t be separated from you. He has mastery over the hogyuku…”
Sōsuke nodded to himself more than anything. “I never would have imagined. It is the hogyuku that has been slowly changing us all to match Ichigo’s desires. Even in his madness, he is still the same person. He wants to solve all the pain that we have. He removes your madness, he takes away Ulquiorra’s emptiness, he quells the destruction in Grimmjow. He’s removing the aspects of death that each of the Espada were left with. By doing that, he’s healing them all…”
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Now he’s worried,” Ichigo growled as he sat in the dome shaped area of his inner world. Not much had changed, though it seemed that Shiro and Zangetsu had gotten used to the small confines they now lived in.
“He needed to know,” Shiro said and snuggled his nose into Ichigo’s neck. He’d put himself right in Ichigo’s lap as soon as he appeared in their inner world. Ichigo didn’t argue it anymore, and he understood now that Shiro required tactile sensation now and then.
“They’re going to send the captain of the second,” Zangetsu noted from where he stood by the edge, watching the falling rain of black inside the water. Still, the madness remained, and none of them knew how to rid Ichigo of it.
“Can we trust the others, the ones that turned on you, to stop this?” Shiro asked, frowning as he nuzzled into Ichigo’s throat.
Ichigo nodded. “I trust them. I know you don’t think I should, after they turned their back on me, but I trust them to do what is right, especially now that they know better.”
“You almost told Sōsuke all, y’know,” Shiro grumbled. “I thought we were surprising him with the rapidity of the babies.”
Ichigo smirked and glanced out into the water. A figure ran between the dripping madness. He smiled as she dodged and weaved, never letting anything touch her. It wouldn’t matter, she was formed of madness, and thus would forever be immune to it. Like all of Ichigo’s kits, Yazu would stand tall and never suffer like he had.
“Child!” he called and the small figure darted through the bubble and stood before him. He smiled at her and she grinned, her mouth filled with rows of sharp, cat-like teeth. Brilliant blue cat slit eyes stared back at him, and there were broad streaks of green under her eyes just like her father. On the outside of her eyes, two small bone fragments streaked with red lines covered her temples and disappeared into her hair. Her face was identical to Ichigo’s and in a way, Ichigo thought she looked a little bit like Yuzu. Ironic considering her name was Yazu.
“Dam!” she said and jumped into Shiro’s lap where he sat on Ichigo’s.
“How’s my Yazu?” Ichigo asked and ruffled the small child’s head full of thick orange and blue streaked hair. A pair of cat ears sat high on her head, striped as well. The tail, matching her ears and hair, whipped around her back.
“When are the others gonna be borned? I need to play with someone!” she demanded.
“You have to be born first, silly girl!” Ichigo sighed.
“Well, hurry up!” she snapped and leaped off Shiro’s lap and ran back into the madness tainted water.
“She’s gonna be a handful,” Shiro muttered. “All day, she gonna bug me, when am I gonna meet my papa, when am I gonna get brothers and sisters, when am I this and that.”
Ichigo smirked. “Sooner than anyone thinks, thanks to my unconscious influence on the hogyuku, it seems…” Ichigo commented, laying hands on his burgeoning belly.
Shiro sighed, standing up and walking toward the edge so he could see the child playing. “Who will be next?”
“Starrk.”
“His connection is tenuous. Grimmjow is the only alpha with which you are completely secure with,” Shiro noted. “You will have to work to break through the barriers that each of them have set up. Nnoitra’s heart is flooded with despair and pain. Ulquiorra’s emptiness is still a problem. He must begin to heal some before we can grant him relief. The second… Well, I’m not sure how things will work out with that one. He’s a rakshasa Arrancar, and that means something different than your average animals. Szayel, aside from Grimmjow, has forged the deepest connection with you.” Shiro paused. “I think that the one at most danger has to be Starrk. His connection to you is very thin, and if ya don’t shore it up, he’s going to fall out of our grasp.”
“I know. I told Sōsuke that. Each one presents a unique challenge. But by the time I’m done, they will be healed of their aspects of death and more,” Ichigo sighed and ran a hand over his head. “But I worry on Sōsuke. Will he remain patient as I deal with the Espada?”
Shiro smirked. “Sōsuke is smitten, King. He ain’t going to do anything to piss you off. No, he’s going to be a good boy and wait, and then we’ll surprise him most of all.”
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Suì-Fēng didn’t expect to have someone literally drag her from her hiding place in Hueco Mundo. She most certainly didn’t expect to be face-to-face with Yoruichi Shihōin.
“Ah, see, I knew you’d try it,” Yoruichi said with a smirk as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Yoruichi-sama!” Suì-Fēng exclaimed, staring in shock at her.
“I can’t let you kill him,” Yoruichi told her with a shake of her head. “He’s happy, and he’s home.”
“How can you say that? After what he’s become? He’s a brood mare for them!” she snapped. “How can you let him stay there, bearing their children like some sort of…of… prize sow!” She snorted. “This mission was not one I had to be ordered to do. I would have done so anyway.”
Yoruichi looked at her for a long time before she spoke. “I think you mean to do what is best for him, so I get that. But the life he’s living is still a life. So, he’s loved by them and he’ll bear their children. So? Is there a worse life for someone who spent ten years being tormented and tortured by his friends?” Yoruichi asked with a sigh. She stepped forward and cupped Suì-Fēng’s face suddenly, making the other woman flinch backward. “Love is worth making sacrifices for. You ever thought about that?”
Suì-Fēng shook her head in Yoruichi’s grip. “I don’t understand, Yoruichi-sama.”
“No? I would think as long as you’ve chased after me, you’d understand that I’m about to kiss you, you dumb woman,” Yoruichi whispered and leaned forward to gently brush Suì-Fēng’s lips with her own.
“Why now?” Suì-Fēng yelped and stepped back suddenly. “You…you’ve had plenty time, and now you come here, when I’m on a mission to do this? Why? Just to stop me? Is this some game? Because, Yoruichi-sama, don’t play with my heart this way.” Her eyes were already welling with tears.
Yoruichi nodded. “I suppose that seeing Ichigo, and seeing him with his lovers has influenced me. I’ve been here watching for a week now, that’s how I knew when you arrived. I’ve observed him, and his truth. And while his truth isn’t the thing you would imagine it to be it is. And it made me realize that I’ve wasted a lot of time.”
Suì-Fēng stared at the other woman, the woman she loved with every part of her soul, the woman she promised years upon years to give up her entire soul for, who was standing there confessing to her. “No, there’s no way that this is just some random idea that got in your head. You are tricking me, and the minute I leave this mission undone, you will leave me, abandon me in Soul Society while you run back to your precious Urahara!”
Yoruichi stared for a second then started to laugh out loud. “You-you’re jealous of Kisuke!” she gasped as she tried to get her mirth under control. “You think that… that Kisuke and me, oh dear souls, no, that has never happened nor will it ever happen!” she heaved a breath and controlled her laughter finally. “Kisuke is my best friend but I’ll never be the one he loves.”
“Who…who does he love, then?” Suì-Fēng had relaxed her stance without realizing it while Yoruichi was laughing so hard. Perhaps it was Yoruichi allowing herself to be in an unguarded state that did it, but she was beginning to doubt her suspicions.
Yoruichi wiped tears from her eyes. “Sh-Shinji, idiot. Him and Shinji have been lovers since they were captains the first time,” she said as she stood up, rubbing her stomach. “Oh, wow, that was a good one. I mean, shit, now you know about them being lovers.” She looked slightly remorseful but shrugged. “Oh well, now that Shinji is back in Soul Society as a captain, they don’t see each other as much, but yeah. Why do you think those two always disappeared alone? And why Kisuke did everything in his power to save him?” She paused. “Good kami, how many times I’ve walked in on Kisuke bent over his desk being…”
“Oh, oh my,” Suì-Fēng said with wide eyes. “I didn’t, I mean, he’s the…”
“Oh yes, my dear Kisuke likes to be fucked,” Yoruichi said with smirk. “Watched once or twice at Shinji’s request, just to get Kisuke going. Hmm, but look how red the idea makes you. Could you be curious about watching those two go at it?”
Suì-Fēng turned away but soon felt the warm embrace from behind as Yoruichi’s arms wrapped around her, cradling her chest. “I am not here because I want to save Ichigo’s life, though, he was my student and I do want to save him. I am here to stop you from turning even further away from the correct path. Please, think about it. And if the excuse that I have always loved you makes you see the truth, then that is why I am here. I am here to help you see, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to say something.”
“How long?” she whispered.
“As long as I can remember, you were always there, Suì-Fēng, and I love your devotion and your passion. And you have taken on the duties of the second beautifully with grace and more ability than anyone else. So please, accept my words for what they are, as my confession to you.”
Yoruichi stepped back from Suì-Fēng’s back and grasped the other woman by the waist and pulled their bodies together again from the front. She leaned in close to Suì-Fēng’s face, breath panting a slight bit now. “You have no idea how long I have waited, wondering if I should take this mood, kitten. But I think that this, this whole situation, has shown me that the time to wait is done. I’ll make you scream before this day’s over, and you’ll never doubt my devotion again.”
Suì-Fēng’s face flushed bright red, and she melted into the body of her Yoruichi-sama as the other woman’s lips met hers for the first time in full. The certainly didn’t stop there, not until Yoruichi’s promise was kept. Afterward, they both swore never to become passionate in the middle of the sands of Heuco Mundo. That sand got in way too many uncomfortable places for their liking.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Only two months passed before the day that Yazu would arrive came.
The morning began with Ichigo yelling at Sōsuke and then crumpling in a dead faint. Everyone was sent into a flurry of activity in anticipation for something so unprecedented. Considering they were unsure how Ichigo’s body would handle the actual birthing process, Szayel had prepared a surgery room for him in case it was necessary. Imelda had arrived from Agartha with Orihime at her side. At first, Orihime seemed not to know what to do, but it was soon revealed that she had spent a lot of time becoming an Arrancar midwife in Agatha and once Ichigo’s actual labor began, she had no trouble working with what she knew.
The process of the birth was more complex than anyone expected, but Ichigo’s body adjusted, the birthing canal formed as it was supposed to, and before long, an exhausted Ichigo held a tiny baby with hair, ear, and a tail streaked tabby blue and orange. Piercing blue cat eyes stared at them, and unlike most babies, she didn’t scream. She had a small bone fragment set that framed the outside edges of each of her eyes that was marked in red. Ichigo recognized the little child that had been playing in his inner world for the last nearly three months during the gestation. The second she was put on the floor, she was off and Grimmjow was chasing her.
“They really are born running,” Sōsuke said as he stroked Ichigo’s hair. He was half asleep on the bed and smiling as Grimmjow tried to verbally reason with the small girl. Despite being able to walk, of course, she was still a baby and couldn’t talk, nor reason. After a great chase around the room, Grimmjow had a sleeping Yazu in his arms as he returned.
“Fuckin’ kid is gonna have more energy when she gets bigger?” Grimmjow grumbled, but his face revealed a calm, loving countenance that was almost unknown on him. He didn’t notice, but Ichigo certainly did, that his hollow hole seemed to be flickering, almost as if it were attempting to fill in. Nuzzling his face into the soft hair on Yazu’s head, Grimmjow was completely lost in the smell and the feeling of the baby in his arms. The baby that was his and Ichigo’s.
The birthing room as Szayel put it was specially designed for this. It was a large room with a comfortable bed that Szayel had specially made. The bed came apart in places and could be moved to make birthing more comfortable.
“As expected,” Szayel said as he replaced Ichigo’s covers. “The birthing chamber is gone, and the birth canal as dissipated.”
“Can I hold her?” Orihime asked, tentatively looking at the baby in Grimmjow’s arms.
He nodded, handing the child to her and she smiled. “Careful,” Grimmjow muttered. “She’s got a full set of feral teeth.” He idly reached up and rubbed his arm. She’d already gotten him once.
“I know, I’ve helped several Arrancar give birth in Agatha. So different from humans but a lot the same too. I don’t think Ichigo realized who I was, though,” she commented as she looked to Ichigo’s sleeping face.
Grimmjow shook his head. “He didn’t.” He paused. “The last few weeks he has been considerably out of his mind,” he added, sighing as he brushed fingers through the thick hair of the little kit’s head. “I think preparing for the baby did it, we aren’t sure. We just hope that he is more sane once he has to help look after the little one here.”
“I’m insane, not deaf,” Ichigo said, and everyone turned to see he hadn’t moved, but the black and gold eyes were staring back at them. “And not always. Shiro couldn’t help me with my sanity; he was too busy chasing her all over my inner world. But she could walk through the insanity, which made things difficult. She’s immune to it, since she was created in my insanity,” he said and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going back to sleep though.”
Ichigo turned and snuggled into the pillows, sighing as he fell back into a deep sleep.
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