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Prize of Victory	By : NovaAlexandria Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 87205 -:- Recommendations : 8 -:- Currently Reading : 8
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Chapter List
- 104
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- 106
Household Changes � Toshiro

The young man overlooking the marshy western edge of the largest lake just outside Seireitei took a look at the activity going on about thirty yards away and sighed as he used his power to create a dirty, mud-filled, ice wall of frozen swamp water, placing the ice as closely as he could to the rest of the nasty, muck-brown barrier he�d completed so far. If he closed his eyes he swore he would have seen Hyorinmaru curl a lip up in a sneer at the fact that the power of the great ice dragon had been reduced to creating mudcicles.

It was just so� undignified.

The 3rd Division had been at it for roughly ten days, �it� being the thankless and difficult task of installing the Defence Net�s many, many connection rods exactly where Szayel had indicated on the chart the scientist had handed to each Division Taichou. Toshiro had the less-than-spectacular luck of getting a chart for the section of the Net that required placing his allotted number of rods in a direct line through a wide, weedy, stretch of mosquito-infested wetland that no one in their right mind would have tried to incorporate into a permanent Kido barrier, especially not a barrier that required the arrangement of so many tall, metallic components that had to be set just so for the thing to work.

The ground proved too treacherous and soft to navigate by foot without sinking in up to one�s knees, or one�s waist if they were particularly unfortunate. A few places were even deep enough that it was damn fortunate they were outside the city walls and as such, many of them could walk on the air and pull their mired companions out. It was, regrettably, impossible to drill and pour concrete while hovering in the air so by the end of the shift everyone was covered in mud and reeked of swamp water. Not to mention the mosquito bites. If anything the annoying bloodsuckers just brought that much more hatred from his troops towards the swarm, regardless of the fact the little insects were not associated with their enemies. Bugs were bugs.

Constructing metal rods, ones that were several hundred feet tall, into such earth and having it stay upright was nearly impossible and the resulting setbacks in the Net�s construction had everyone nervous. Toshiro�s squad had done well enough until they reached the area on the map where solid land ended and the bog began. That was when the real problems and delays started and once they�d begun there didn�t seem to be an end to them.

After retrieving several of the rods parts from the quagmire in which they�d disappeared, it became clear that each rod would have to be held up with a base of either stone or concrete embedded into the bedrock. The best stone for the job, seki seki stone, had reiatsu-dampening qualities and would have made the entire section of the barrier useless, not to mention how rare the rock was and using it to hold up a pole, even a few hundred foot one, wasn�t worth the time and effort it took to mine and quarry the stone.

That left concrete and what a pain that was. They had to drain an area of the swamp, drill down far enough to reach solid rock, build the forms, place the base of the rod, mix and pour the concrete, and pray that it dried with the pole at the right angle. When it didn�t they had to chip all the concrete away and start all over again. The mugginess and dampness of the swamp made the concrete take that much longer to dry, slowing them down further and irritating the hell out of everyone.

He spared a glance down at his once-white haori, the brown-stained hem ripped from having lost fights with a bramble bush and the calf-deep mud he was currently standing in, respectively. After the first day and a ruined pair of sandals, he�d had the presence of mind to find footwear that could provide some kind of protection to his feet and his legs below the knee. The leeches had been the deciding factor on that choice.

While his Division, along with a few knowledgeable craftsmen they�d found among the civilian population, gamely did their best to get the painstakingly slow and filthy process to work, the task of holding back the water from an area long enough to pump the water out and get the base pole up fell to Toshiro. Once the base pole was up the rest of the pillar went up without too much of a fight and it didn�t matter if the water returned.

His Shikai was adequate for freezing water, but creating a wall of thick ice from it to hold back the rest of the marsh while installing the concrete forms and keeping it frozen long enough for the job to get done was a chore. The cold from the ice surrounding the form made it harder for the concrete to harden properly and the supports he�d created from ice to keep the pole upright and in place didn�t help matters either as they dripped frigid water down upon those who were working as they slowly melted and added water to the concrete they were trying to get settled. Then there was just the basic chill factor of working beside a moving glacier. His division was the only one geared up in winter gear and alternated between sweating like a dog and freezing like a popsicle.

Upon seeing the initial layout, Toshiro and his second-in-command had sent a message to the Science Division saying there would be issues and would it be too much trouble to re-route the grid around the swamp? The answer was an emphatic �no�, accompanied by an explanation that took an hour and a trip to the Library to decipher. So, for the last several days, he and his Division had been putting in very long, very tiring shifts. It didn�t help that Szayel would drop by at least twice a day and force minor re-adjustments to either the plan or the poles based on what had been poured and completed. It didn�t matter what obstacles his Division encountered; the scientist had the demeanour of someone who had a sword pressed to his throat and if he was going to suffer, everyone was going to suffer.

There were, however, a few silver linings, one of which was busy holding a pole steady with the help of his Bankai, helping his fourth and eighth seated officers seat the thing while another 3rd Division member made sure it was properly aligned. Szayel�s constant micromanagement had become a little more bearable of late, if only for the fact that he�d had a chance to speak with Renji. As abrasive, hot-headed and argumentative as he�d found Renji in the past, Toshiro�s heart had actually wanted to burst from his chest the day that Renji had shown up, on his own, and asked to speak to the �guy in charge� with the old cocky, self assured attitude Toshiro remembered him for.

He�d grabbed Renji by the arms, unable to say anything, staring at the former Fukutaichou in disbelief before Renji actually frowned at him. With one hand on his hip and jerking his other thumb over his shoulder at the swamp, Renji had snapped that if progress on the Grid didn�t pick up, a lot of nasty things were going to happen to a lot of people, courtesy of Aizen.

As short-tempered and as mouthy as Toshiro remembered him� the redhead had still squeaked in surprise when Toshiro ignored his less than-pleasant greeting and pulled him into a wordless hug, throwing his arms about the man�s shoulders. Eventually, Renji awkwardly returned the embrace, thumping him on the back in an exaggeratedly manly fashion, probably for the benefit of the people that were staring at them, their digging implements frozen in midair as they watched their Taichou glom onto Szayel�s pet.

�Ya gonna waltz with me or something, Toshiro-kun�?� he�d said quietly, his voice surprisingly thick for such a snarky remark.

When the shorter Shinigami didn�t say anything, he felt Renji sigh and pull him a little closer, resting his chin on Toshiro�s head for a few seconds before stepping back and holding him at arm�s length.

�Lotta� this going around lately, Toshiro-kun. Least you didn�t use my uniform as a hankie, like Rangiku-chan.�

There was a moment then with Renji�s eyes looking him over, as if to make sure that he was still in one piece, that Toshiro wanted to burst into relieved tears, to ask him what happened and why he was back to normal, to tell him how wonderful it was to see the crimson-haired, tattooed jackass alive and well and� and Renji again.

Instead, he felt himself fall back into the old familiar habit of grimacing and drawing what dignity he could muster around him like a cloak, his default reaction in the face of any action that treated him as less than a fully capable adult, or which seemed a little patronizing.

�That�s Hitsugaya-Taichou to you, Abarai-san�,� he�d growled out, left eye twitching a little and Renji wisely let him go, standing back a bit and giving Toshiro another critical once-over before grinning at him.

�Huh. Yeah, you�re right, I guess. Hey, have you gotten taller? I am fairly positive you only went to my waist last time, now you�re up to my chin.�

Renji, curiously, wasn�t terribly detailed when Toshiro asked why he was no longer a walking corpse. He briefly explained that Orihime had been given permission to restore his Zanpakuto and the missing half of his soul, mostly because Szayel needed a reliable babysitter now that Nemu was expecting. That and they needed all the hands they could get to get the Grid up and functioning. It was an entirely-plausible explanation, which was why Toshiro got the feeling that he was getting only a quarter of the story.

Renji then got a look in his eye that told the 3rd Division Taichou that things were much worse than Toshiro suspected with regard to Aizen�s dwindling patience with the grid�s progress and he decided that what Renji had given him would have to suffice for now. Szayel�s chronically nervous demeanour suddenly made much more sense to Toshiro and his own sense of self-preservation kicked it up a notch. He also distinctly recalled the through lashing Karin had been forced to give the Espada in front of them all not too long ago. If Aizen was willing to let them witness one of his highest ranking warriors being punished by a mere human girl, not that he would ever think of Karin that way, than it truly did not bode well for the rest of them.

Everyone involved with this little boondoggle was frustrated and the problem was compounded by the unpredictable Swarm attacks. The alarm would go off and Toshiro would have to grit his teeth and leave his Division and his ice-dam building to go defend the Seireitei with whoever had patrol duty in the area. Aizen kept the Arrancar, Szayel being the stand out as he was busy with the grid, stationed around the Seireitei at various points with the intent of intercepting the bugs before they could reach the outer limits of its districts.

Harribel would inevitably find him by using the Claim to tug him in the direction of the battle or, if he found it first, would follow the Claim to his location. He had to admit that it was an efficient arrangement. Their water and ice combination was particularly effective against the large numbers of locusts they usually encountered and they found that they could dispose of more of the things if he waited until the moment after she summoned her waves to freeze whatever unfortunate creatures the water touched. Then, after who-knew-how-long, the battle would inevitably end and he would return to his Division, hoping that the Swarm hadn�t managed to get past the front to damage what progress they�d made with construction, and get back to work. The worse that had happened so far was one battle had lasted long enough that the ice dam had melted enough to spring some rather large leaks and water had warped the unsettled concrete, forcing them to drill it all up and reset it all over again.

Kami he was tired, in perpetual need of a hot bath and these days he was ready to just fall onto his futon the moment he walked through the door. Unfortunately, Harribel�s fraccion usually had other ideas. He was under Claim-induced orders not to kill them. If he hadn�t been under those orders the three women would be a permanent fixture underneath the kitchen tiles for the idiotic, humiliating things that they put him through on a regular basis.

Dressing him up with a bow in his hair and under his chin and making him sit on one of the floor pillows like some loyal spaniel while they cooed at him and patted him on the head while they gossiped had been worth at least a layer of enamel on his teeth as he�d ground them together.

Toshiro broke away from his thoughts as he added some more ice to the wall, since the water it was holding back had a nasty habit of melting it within the hour if he didn�t keep refreezing it. Thankfully, one of Karin�s officers, her eighth seat, had a Zanpakuto that could create a breeze of varying strengths, up to a hurricane-force gale if necessary. It helped offset the cold created by the ice barriers and the frozen swamp water supports as far as helping the concrete dry. It also, unfortunately, helped erode both via melting. So it was a continual back and forth between the two Zanpakuto, one to keep the water at bay and the other to help dry the concrete. It was long, exhausting work and he�d been at this for well over twelve hours now.

And from what he�d picked up from Renji, if his Division didn�t get more of the blasted poles up faster they might have far more to worry about than fatigue. He, most certainly, didn�t fancy a public whipping.

The sun was low in the sky when the second shift from the 3rd showed up and Toshiro gave the order for those relieving them that the focus would be on making sure the drying the concrete they�d already poured remained uncompromised. He doubled the thickness of each of the ice walls. With any luck, they�d last throughout the night and the concrete would be dry by morning. At least, he hoped so. There was a member on this shift that could control the earth enough to create a small dyke, giving them a bit of leakage leeway.

He hadn�t really thought to eat anything during the day and as he trudged back to the estate that Harribel had taken for herself and her fraccion, he decided to take a detour through the market. The produce merchants tended to close up shop at sundown so if he wanted to actually eat something that didn�t come from a fork held by his �mistress�s� fraccion, he had better pick it up now. If he was lucky he might be able to eat in peace for a change.

Thankfully, the vendor he usually favoured hadn�t packed away his wares yet. A few minutes and a few coins later he had a few kabobs to munch on on the way home. It wasn�t much but it would hold him. Before he left the market he spotted a fruit stand and manoeuvred his way over. He could use some comfort food right about now, and the kabobs were not that filling. A few minutes later he was on his way home with a small watermelon tucked under his arm. It was still early in the year for them, and they were best eaten after they were chilled in cold water, but Toshiro was tired and still hungry enough to eat one warm at this point. The fruit reminded him of the days when it was just himself, his granny and Hinamori living in Junrinan, the 1st District in Western Rukongai.

The construction site wasn�t all that far away from the old, ramshackle house where they�d all lived together long ago and in much better times, with its small, spring-fed pond and large shady trees. There were times he sorely missed it, especially during the summer when the days grew long and the air grew hot, as it was now.

Between hunger, the long hours spent in the heat of the day and the mosquitoes, Toshiro was surprised that he wasn�t in a grouchier mood. Still, he thought a little irritably as he came out of the Shunpo he�d used to get �home�, there were at least a few hundred yards to go before he could retreat to the minimal sanctuary of his room. He was in no mood to be accosted right now by anyone. If he could just avoid them�

When there was no one ready at the gate to drag him into the house, he frowned and looked around, expecting an ambush.

The only thing he could detect was the sound of an early cricket or two somewhere in the grass of the small garden. He stood there for a moment, blinking at the absence of the usual annoying, female attention, then decided that something was definitely amiss.

Toshiro decided to cut around and enter through the door to the kitchen. The tiles on the floor and walls made it the coolest room in the house when the ovens weren�t on, and his room was only a few doors down. He concentrated on chilling the fruit with one hand and pushing aside the sliding door with the other and again, he was surprised at the lack of a �welcome� from one of the fraccion. It was nearly the dinner hour and the few servants that Harribel used to keep the place clean and food on the table were absent as well. His frown deepened and he waited for a tug on the Claim, indicating that Harribel was home and wanted him to attend her.

The tug never came.

Now he grew concerned. Something was wrong. He carefully set his prize on the kitchen table, cautiously searching for the three reiatsu patterns that would let him know his usual feminine tormenters were home.

Harribel, apparently, wasn�t home yet, but he hadn�t expected her to be since her shift on patrol usually ended in a meeting with the other Espada and the bastard that had brought the lot of them to the Seireitei. But her fraccion were home and he discovered their combined reiatsu just down the hall.

�Please, please let them not be fornicating on my bed,� he prayed to whatever deity might be listening.

It was tempting to just sit down at the table, try to eat his much-needed snack in peace and leave them to their sport, and he nearly did it when something on the floor caught his eye. It turned out to be a sheet of white paper. Reaching down, he picked it up and turned it over to examine it.

His eyes grew wide in shock when he recognized the drawing that had apparently been ripped from its place in a sketchbook. Someone had crudely drawn over the portrait of the old woman on the page, giving the image a pair of horns and a goatee. At the same time, he heard Mila Rose give out a hearty laugh, followed by a snarl from Apache, the sounds definitely coming from his room.

�Oh, Kami� they found the box under the floorboards��

The watermelon was utterly forgotten as his appetite fled. Instead, he stalked out of the kitchen and down the hallway, following the trail of ripped and defaced pages that someone had tossed around. A few of them were smeared with something sticky and which smelled sweet. There had been a jar of plum jam in one of the cupboards and the tiny part of himself that wasn�t reeling from the sudden onset of rage thought the smell was getting a little stronger the closer he got to his bedroom.

The scene that greeted him once he slid the door open stole the air from his lungs. The door slammed against the far side of the frame with a loud 'BANG!', and revealed what they'd been up to.

He had managed, with a great deal of trouble on his part, to salvage a few things that had once belonged to Momo during the chaotic months that had followed Aizen�s takeover of the Seireitei. Once he�d recovered, still in a daze after Harribel had Claimed him, he�d stumbled to the 5th Division to find that most of her treasures, like the prized books she�d borrowed from her former Taichou, had been taken. Toshiro assumed that Aizen had reclaimed his �gifts� to her and put them back in his own library. But some small things were either overlooked or had been considered to invaluable to take. Toshiro had spirited them away before anyone could toss them into the rubbish heap.

He�d retrieved her beloved sketchbooks, her small but high-quality calligraphy set with its brushes and ink sticks, and what he�d presumed was a simple, sleeping yukata made of sea-green silk. Then he�d squirreled them away in a locked wooden box hidden beneath the floorboards. They�d stayed there for years, as Toshiro didn�t dare take them out for fear of having them confiscated.

He�d kept those things as a way of creating a makeshift memorial to the one person he�d tried and failed to protect. If he couldn�t have saved his most cherished friend then he could at least try to preserve a few of the things that proved to the universe that Hinamori Momo had once existed. He felt he owed her spirit that much, at the very least.

Now it would seem that he�d failed her yet again.

Three pairs of very startled eyes met his rage-filled ones and all motion and gaiety in the room abruptly ceased. Sun Sun had her hand poised in mid-air, in between adding a curling moustache to an ink drawing of the late Yamamato-Soutaichou. The black liquid stained both the paper and the wooden floor where the stupid bitch had dribbled it. There were fresh ink marks over the walls as well in what he might charitably describe as infantile scribbling. But what really set his blood boiling was the sight of Momo�s silk yukata stretched dangerously over Mila Rose�s much larger frame. The garment was far too small for the tall, muscular, Arrancar female and he could see the garment�s seams nearly bursting and the fabric wrinkling as it tried to cover shoulders much broader than the ones for which the garment had originally been cut.

The dark-skinned, leonine woman had it tied loosely around her waist and had been in the middle of fending off one of Apache�s hands, which clutched the yukata�s back collar, as if trying to rip it off Rose�s body. The shorter woman had been standing on tip-toe before Toshiro had interrupted their festivities and, to the Shinigami�s absolute horror, took a step back and promptly slipped as her foot came down on one of the discarded sketchbook pages. The hand not grasping the silk collar tangled in Mila Rose�s long hair and both women went sprawling, to the accompaniment of the sound of the silk ripping from the collar on down to the middle of Mila Rose�s back. The tie at her waist gave up the fight as it fell to the floor in two tattered halves, barely missing a small puddle of ink that Sun Sun had managed to spill.

�Hey! Toshiro-chan, what the�!?!�

Apache never had the chance to finish her sentence.

All he could feel was a savage, wrenching sickness in his bowels as he watched Momo�s things desecrated by three� Kami, he hesitated to even think of them as women� they were absolute cows, little better than animals that did nothing but ruin everything they touched. Worthless, thoughtless, selfish, entitled bitches�

The sheer pain that erupted within him made him gasp for a lungful of air. It was followed by a mixture of hate and fury so strong that all he could see was white as the humidity in the air crystallized in the room. He couldn�t kill them, but Toshiro hadn�t yet received an order from any of them that he had to follow and he wasn�t going to give them a chance to give him one. Hyorinmaru was out and brandished before any of Harribel�s fraccion had a chance to scramble to their feet and the room erupted into a maelstrom of screams and ice.

Someone, she thought, had just done something incredibly stupid, or possibly suicidal. Maybe even both.

�Is there an issue, Harrible?�

Aizen�s silky, measured voice cut through the haze of agony, both physical and mental, that hit her in the gut in the same way that Yammy�s fist might punch through five feet of brick wall. Through sheer force of will and years of practice, she remained standing, her spine straight as ever and her shoulders back. Harribel felt her pet�s emotions run the gamut from horrified shock to a sort of frenzied wrath powered by grief so deep one could call it abyssal. What made it worse was that the feelings were only a quarter of what she suspected they really were. It had been nearly nine months since she�d bothered to refresh Toshiro�s Claim. Perhaps she ought to be grateful that the Claim had begun to weaken. She didn�t want Kami-sama and the rest of the male Espada to see her writhing on the meeting hall�s floor. Especially not that trumped up, self-proclaimed royal wannabe Barragan.

She had a reputation to maintain, after all.

Harribel took as deep a breath as she dared in a room full of powerful males; showing any sign of weakness, especially if it was connected to a mere pet, would be unthinkable. Then she turned her eyes up to where Aizen sat. He stared down at her, giving her a raised eyebrow.

�Nothing that I cannot solve, Kami-sama,� she answered in what she hoped was her usual voice. She prided herself on keeping an even, bored tone to it that betrayed nothing of her thoughts or feelings.

�A problem with your pet, perhaps? How unusual!�

The blonde Espada cocked her head to the side, making a show of considering the question before answering even as she steeled herself against the waves of pain and despair that continued to lap at her. Of course Aizen had probably felt the young man release his Shikai and recognized that it came from the place she�d chosen to den up. Still, one could never be too careful when it came to answering such an inquiry.

�Not with him, per say. However, I believe I need to have a discussion with my fraccion, Kami-sama.�

Would it be too much to ask, she prayed, for Aizen to simply take her at her word and let her escape this idiotic meeting? The sooner she dealt with this, the better. The last thing she and those she considered �hers� needed was to attract Aizen�s scrutiny or give him any reason to think she didn�t have complete control over her subordinates.

�Your pack of sorry harpies acting up again?� Nnoitra snapped out with a sneer, flipping a strand of his dark hair away from his eye.

She ignored him out of long habit. Letting someone like the Fifth get the better of her by giving his jabs any attention was pointless. Instead, she bowed in Aizen�s direction, remaining as calm and reflective as a vast ocean on a calm day under his gaze.

�Kami-sama, I�ve given my report for today. May I please see to this? It shouldn�t take long.�

She held her breath as she cast her eyes to the floor, projecting the image of the loyal, subservient warrior awaiting orders. Long seconds ticked by before Aizen gave a wave of his hand, indicating she had permission to leave. His voice, however, held an undercurrent of irritation.

�End it quickly. I do not need any more disruptions that might delay things.�

�As you wish, Aizen-Kami.�

Even with Toshiro�s emotions searing her nerve endings, she managed to bow a little deeper and make a graceful exit, leaving with both a purposeful stride and squared shoulders. As she made her way to the large double doors, Harribel slid her eyes towards the spot where Starrk stood, or rather slumped lazily against the wall. He looked as if he was half-asleep, but she wasn�t fooled. The taller half of the First met her gaze and in those grey depths she saw something that almost made her stop in her tracks.

She could have sworn it was worry.

If the First was worried about their ruler�s foul and ,of late, unpredictable temper, things had to be deteriorating more swiftly than she�d thought. As bad as dealing with Barragan as a ruler had been he had at least been consistent with following the rules he�d made and upholding the unwritten ones.

Up until a few months ago she would have given the same consideration to Aizen-Kami. Now� well, now she knew better. His public humiliation of Szayel, and the other things she had learned their leader had done to the scientist, things that broke even the very few laws Hollows upheld, was a warning to them all to watch their step around their currently volatile leader. What was the old saying, �Out of the frying pan, into the fire?�

�Not a comfortable position for any fish,� she told herself as she hurried past the gates.

She didn�t stop moving until she was far enough away from the Taichou Meeting hall to be certain none of the other Espada could see her, and that she didn�t have an audience of onlookers to worry about. Using Sonido, she located the nearest park with a source of water, in this case a small fountain that bubbled at the crossroads of two manicured gravel paths. Then she found the nearest tree and leaned weakly against it, letting it support her frame.

What in the name of Las Noches had her girls done to him? This was nothing like the day in, day out, cold gruffness and irritation she�d come to expect from the youth she�d Claimed ten years ago. His endurance, his ability to keep himself under control� both had snapped in such a violent, sudden fashion. She had gone ten years with very little emotional back lash from him, despite the unfortunate circumstance he found himself in. As such she was woefully ill prepared for such a turbulence coming from him.

He�d been working overtime for a while now, as well as fighting the Swarm when an attack came, with little rest. She had little doubt that those things had factored into this, but this wasn�t like him. Whatever had happened hadn�t been planned on his part. Rather, Harribel suspected, what she�d felt was a reaction, one in response to someone, or several someone�s, grossly overstepping her bounds. Running tanned fingers through her hair she let herself tremble a little as one fist curled against the bark of the tree. She took another deep breath, then another and another until she felt a bit of her equilibrium return. The sound of the water splashing helped as well, and she focused on that as a means of shielding herself.

The Claim, even if much of it had worn away, told her Toshiro had left her small estate in a hurry. He was headed, oddly enough, back towards the Western Rukongai district, though not back to the construction site and while the initial, overwhelming rush of hurt and ferocious anger had waned a little, he was still in turmoil. Then she turned her attention to the reiatsu signatures of her beloved girls.

They were alive, but hurting, and very, very angry. Her Claim-induced order for Toshiro not to kill them, no matter what they�d done, had held, but only just. Her bond with Toshiro had, at one point, lasted a full year. A decade later he�d managed to nearly circumvent a direct order after only nine months.

That, she thought with both trepidation and anticipation, could only mean one thing. Her Instinct had been right. He was growing stronger, truly beginning to come into the ocean of power that she could feel moving under all of that ice and cold. The full might of the dragon within him, the overwhelming potency of what he�d be able to wield, would be his to command.

And he would be hers.

A small thrill made its way up her spine, along with a shiver, though it was tempered a bit at the thought that things would now have to change if she wanted the sort of outcome she�d envisioned the first time she�d crossed swords with him. So much potential in such a young package and none of her fellow Espada had the wit to see it at the time. She was especially glad she hadn�t had to fight Barragan for him, but the Toshiro of a decade ago looked deceptively young and Barragan had, to the best of her knowledge, used up his allotment of Claims and thankfully preferred older, if still very pretty, men. There was the little rumour of his interest in the Sixth�s half-human, half-Arrancar daughter, but Aizen�s rules regarding the children as a whole prevented the old goat from trying anything�.yet.

She could, however, appreciate the Second�s ability to think ahead. After all, she�d done something similar to what he�d attempted with Grimmjow�s child. The only difference was that Toshiro had been much older, making a traditional Claim possible, rather than one that involved drinking her essence.

Almost ten years of patient waiting on her part would soon, hopefully, pay off. The only obstacles in the way were the dangerous conditions created by Aizen-Kami�s diminishing forbearance regarding the Defence Net and possibly Toshiro himself.

First things first though, she told herself as she moved in the direction of her home. She�d let her pet calm down and try to handle her fraccion first. The only question now was who she would assign to clean up the mess she was sure she would find.

He knew he was tethered, as surely as a dog on a chain knew that it could only go so far before the collar around its throat tightened. There was no real escape for him now. She�d track him down and punish him as surely as the sun rose in the East. Still, he�d looked at what he�d done, at the ice-filled disaster that was what was left of his room, the wrecked futon, walls pierced with ice spires and the three forms he�d encased in a solid glacial wall. He�d looked at it, and on impulse, grabbed the one half of the torn yukata he could reach, clutching it to his chest while he�d stood like an idiot surveying the damage.

Then he and Hyorinmaru fled, blindly using Shunpo to get the hell away from the scene of the crime. Toshiro really hadn�t thought about where he was running to, of course, but anywhere other than Harribel�s estate seemed like a good idea. It wasn�t as if he could hide.

So he turned himself westward, facing the sunset and let his feet carry him to the one spot that held some meaning for him. Toshiro found himself in Junrinan, seeking out his granny�s house. The old woman was long gone, of course. Her soul had probably been reborn into the Living World, moving from this realm into the next as a matter of balancing the number of spirits on each side. He was fiercely glad that she had been spared living under Aizen�s tyrannical rule.

It wasn�t a large place, a little on the rustic side but someone had at least cut the grass recently and raked the paths. Last year�s leaves still floated on the surface of the pond, but the water was still as icy and clear as he remembered it. Souls moved in and out of the dwellings of each district that surrounded the Seireitei on a regular basis. No house remained empty for long. Breathing heavily, he came to a stop outside of the front door and then raised his hand to knock on it. While it wasn�t exactly dilapidated, any signs of habitation were limited to the outside of the property. The garden seemed overgrown too. His granny would never have let this many weeds, flowering or not, run amok in the bellflower and peony beds.

To Toshiro, hungry, exhausted and radiating soul-deep pain from every pore, it seemed like the perfect spot to wait for Harribel to arrive and deliver whatever grisly punishment she had in mind for attacking her precious minions. There was nothing he could do but sit back and take whatever she chose to do to him, including killing or maiming him for unleashing his Zanpakuto on those three bitches. Wrapping the piece of Momo�s yukata around his neck and burying his face in his hands, he was oddly grateful that if he was going to die, he�d at least gotten in a few really good blows and what he hoped was a vicious case of frostbite.

He felt the tug on his Claim nearly an hour later, but it didn�t compel him to leave his spot on the threshold. That meant she would simply follow the Claim to him, he guessed. Then he shrugged resignedly. The crickets had begun their usual evening symphony, and this close to the woodlands he could hear the murmur of cicadas in the trees as well. The worst of the day�s summer heat had receded and the only trace of sunlight left in the sky was an orange glow along the horizon softly fading to purple and black overhead. Here and there he could see tiny fireflies hovering about the garden, flickering stars darting in and out of the foliage.

If tonight was his last night on this side of the Seireitei, or if Harribel decided to devour him whole like the shark she was, then his last moments would be spent in a beautiful place. That, and he wouldn�t have to finish that thrice-cursed grid of Szayel�s, though his Division would have to find someone who could act as Taichou in his place.

The sound of someone making their way through the grass, and then booted feet on one of the gravel paths leading to the house, alerted him to Harribel�s approach. Sighing, he wrapped his arms around himself and lifted his chin, willing himself to at least look his demised in the eye. His mistress, in her released form, made her way towards him. She moved gracefully, her white-clad figure swaying as she walked. The blonde Espada seemed in no hurry to get at him either, carefully opening and closing the gate he�d forgotten to lock by pushing it open and closing it with Tiburón�s tip. In her released state he could see her face, but couldn�t really read her neutral expression. He was used to her poker face though, with or without her mask present.

What he didn�t understand was why she carried a watermelon under her arm, the same one he was positive he had left in the kitchen of the house.

She stopped about five feet away, balancing the round fruit on her hip in a pose reminiscent of a housewife carrying part of dinner home from the market, and narrowed her eyes as she took the whole of him in; miserable, tired, hungry, borderline starving, and huddled on the doorstep. Looking around, she spied the pond in the yard and sauntered over to it, the bone fragments of her skirt clattering as she knelt down to slide the watermelon into the cold water. Looking irritably at wet fingers and then shaking the icy drops from their tips, she walked back over to the porch. At some point Toshiro�s mouth popped open, flabbergasted as he was that she hadn�t obliterated him where he sat. Instead, she gently set her sword on the boards, within easy reach, and took a seat next to him.

She let out a long breath, then leaned back on her arms and looked up at the darkening sky, where the sound of leaves and the occasional creaking branch rustled over their heads.

�This childhood friend of yours, this Hinamori Momo� those were her things?�

Her eyes went to the ruined yukata and he involuntarily clenched his fist, afraid that she would take it from him for some reason, until he realized he had bigger things to fear right now. He wasn�t sure what shocked him more, that she knew Momo�s name or that she hadn�t beaten him to a bloody pulp with Tiburón yet. Another nudge on the Claim between them told him she expected some kind of answer.

�Yes. How did you�� he began and she made a gesture with one finger that cut him off.

�After extracting the rest of my household from your ice, I noticed what they�d been up to in your room. I asked each of them why they were in a part of the house in which I told them not to set foot. Then I reminded them that all things pertaining to you� your body, your possessions, your person, all of those things are mine. Not theirs. Mine.�

He found himself unable to look away from her. It was the most she�d said to him, at least verbally, in a very, very long time. As irritating as her declaration of ownership was it was still less painful than, say, having her carve him into small pieces. The look she gave him also sent a shiver down his spine. It was as possessive as anything he�d ever seen on Grimmjow�s mug when Karin was present, or on those rare occasions when he saw Ulquiorra hovering over Orihime and her child, as he�d done at Aizen�s pointless little party a week ago. Then she sighed and looked back out into the darkening garden before continuing in her usual taciturn manner.

�None of them understood why you would be so� angry about the fact they�d found something to amuse themselves with. So while I tasked them with cleaning up the mess, reassembling the calligraphy set and what was left of the book with the drawings, I decided to talk to someone who could enlighten me as to your state of mind.�

For a second, Toshiro drew a blank and then found he was suddenly grateful that the looming darkness and the shadows cast by the porch overhang hid the deep blush that slowly spread from his cheeks to his chest and towards his hairline.

�The Fifth was less than pleased at finding me on his doorstep. However, he did allow me to converse with his pet for a short while. She was in a bit of a state until I assured her I had not yet decided if you warranted any punishment for your actions against my fraccion. I showed her this,� she stated, and reached for the empty scabbard strapped across her back. Her slender fingers retrieved a folded piece of paper from its interior, and she proceeded to give it to Toshiro. He reached for it numbly, and then unfolded the thing. It was the same drawing he�d found in the kitchen, now creased.

�Your former Fukutaichou didn�t know the subject of the picture, but she did recognize the artist. She told me that this Hinamori Momo used to illustrate some publication for the Divisions, and that you two had a �history� together. How close were the two of you?�

He stared at the portrait of his granny for the second time that day, rendered beautifully in the subtle ink washes, ruined now that Sun Sun had gotten her claws on Momo�s sketchbook and inkwell. When he found his voice, he was surprised at just how tired and broken he sounded, as if he was at the bottom of a well listening to an echo bouncing off the walls.

�We grew up here, with our grandmother,� he answered, waving the paper to let his mistress know the significance of the drawing and of the property. �Momo left first, for the Academy. She was older than I was by a few years. Then, Granny began to get sick. She got thinner and thinner and it wasn�t until Matsumoto told me that I was unwittingly draining her of energy that I found out about my power. Matsumoto got me into the Academy quickly. Momo had already made it into the Gotei 13. She ended up as that� as Aizen-kami�s Fukutaichou.� He caught himself before he could say what he was really thinking, though he was certain she could guess what he�d meant to say, by the way her eyes narrowed a little. Still, she did nothing but wait for him to continue.

�I� I always said I would protect her. I failed at that. She died in the Winter War. These,� he indicated, holding up the silk in one hand and the paper in the other ��and her calligraphy set were all I could save in the end. Now even those are gone.�

True darkness had fallen now, the only light coming from the growing number of fireflies in the yard. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, until Harribel sat up, stretched and brought one knee up, wrapping her arms around it and resting her chin on her kneecap.

�Have you eaten yet?�

Again, Toshiro gave her an exhausted, bewildered look. With almost no light to give her features any color, her darkly tanned body faded against the chalky white of her skirt, her boots and her transformed mask. Even her hair had lost its golden tone in the shadows of the moonless night. Only her eyes, the color of the sea on a hot, bright day, retained their true hue, luminous. He didn�t know if she could see in the darkness or not, but he supposed it didn�t matter.

He shook his head. She then rose, and moved towards the pond. A wave of her hand brought a tentacle of water upwards from the surface, propelling the watermelon she�d placed in it earlier, presumable to cool, into her arms.

�I believe this is yours. Of all my girls, only Sun Sun enjoys fruit, but this,� she said, holding up the melon, �isn�t something she would care for.�

The Third brought it back to the porch and he had to squint to see it, the dark green of the rind looking almost like a Hollow Hole against her chest in the gloom.

�You are capable of creating a light with Kido, are you not?�

Toshiro opened his mouth, then closed it and nodded, holding out his hand and gently creating a ball of blue-white light. It was one of the first things a first-year student at the Academy learned. Most had already figured it out before they enrolled. That he�d forgotten he was capable of it simply told him that his brain was starting to shut down from lack of food and fatigue.

He managed to create three small globes of blue-white light, sending them upward to hover in the rafters of the overhang. They would eventually fade away, but for now he could at least see what might be his last meal.

To his surprised, Harribel made another gesture and a blob of water from the pond floated into her hand. The fluid warped and wavered as it tried to escape the force that kept it together. Then three, thin jets of it shot out almost too fast to see and neatly sliced the melon into six wedges. She let the rest of the water trickle away over the grass and took up a slice, staring at the pink juice that ran down her fingers with a slight frown.

�How curious�. I did not know the Seireitei grew fruit that could bleed.�

It was almost too much for Toshiro to watch, as she moved the fruit from one hand to another and then licked the trickle of it that tried to run down her wrist. She seemed surprised at the taste, and then turned her attention back to him.

�Eat, Toshiro.�

He didn�t need any application of the Claim as encouragement for that order. The first bite, the burst of sugary juice in his mouth and the cold that eased his throat and his hunger-induced headache... before he knew it, he�d devoured two slices and was reaching for a third. Harribel regarded him with an odd look as he took huge bites of the watermelon�s flesh, still holding the slice she�d picked up and contemplating it as if she was uncertain whether she liked it or not. When he�d managed to reduce the fifth slice to a discarded, tooth-marked rind, he discovered that she�d moved into his personal space, holding the last piece to his lips.

He would have moved back out of instinct, but her unoccupied hand found the back of his neck, and her fingers toyed with the strands of pale hair that had grown to his shoulders in the last few months. She leaned over and moved her lips close to his ear.

�It is certainly sweet, but I think I would like it better at body temperature.�

Toshiro gulped, cheeks flaming as her whiskey-voice conjured up any number of incredibly inappropriate images, mostly built from years and years of coping with the three nymphomaniacs who served her. His mistress pressed the slice against his lips and he bit down on it, trickles of pink running from the side of his mouth as he hastily chewed. He only had a second to swallow before the hand at his neck moved up, cupping the back of his head and pulling it forward.

He only ever kissed her when she refreshed his Claim, so he was unprepared for her to reach out with her tongue and slowly lap up the sweet trail from his jawline to his mouth. She used his startled gasp at her unexpected manoeuvre to run that same tongue along his lips, seeking and attaining entrance. He got a brief flash of the blue mark that ran down her right cheekbone before he found himself kissing her back, tasting the salt that always seemed to cling to her mouth as well as the watermelon juice. She deepened it and his eyes fluttered closed, their tongues fencing back and forth. For once, Toshiro didn�t care if there was anyone watching or not. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours before she drew back, leaving him trembling and his wits in disarray. Halibel pushed the last slice into his hand and he ignored it as he tried to pull himself together.

She had never kissed him like that before. He�d seen her do this with each of her fraccion, turning each of them into little puddles of goo before taking their play to the next level, but he�d never been on the receiving end unless his Claim was involved.

�I was right. It�s much better served warm.�

The Espada drew back while he gave her a dazed look. Then she sighed and with both hands, she lifted the hand gripping the watermelon towards his mouth again, this time indicating he should actually eat it.

�Finish. You need the energy, as you�re more depleted than you realize.�

He did as she ordered and when he�d placed the last rind on the pile, she leaned in again and lapped at the other side of his mouth. This time Toshiro had no ready answer for his actions. He moved his head to the side and caught her mouth up with his own. Nor could he explain the tightening in his abdominal muscles, nor the feel of something uncoiling at the base of his spine. He did recognize the tension growing in his loins, grateful that his uniform and haori hid all evidence of the effects the kiss had on him.

This wasn�t what he had expected to be doing at this point in the evening. In truth, he had expected to be gutted by now, with her sword in his sternum, not having her languidly exploring his mouth with her lips and the tip of her tongue making jolts of electric sensation run up and down his body by running it along the roof of his mouth.

�Why?� he managed to gasp, breaking away and shaking his head.

She paused, and then sat back, her sea-green eyes glittering in the Kido-light.

�Why what?�

�Why aren�t you punishing me for attacking your fraccion this afternoon?� he asked breathlessly, the confusion evident in his voice now.

His muddled emotions must have been evident because she moved away and then got to her feet. Looking down at him the blonde Arrancar pursed her lips, as if trying to understand why he would ask such a question in the first place.

�Do you wish to be punished?�

�No!� he nearly shouted, then pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. �I� I just don�t get this. I disobeyed you.�

�I beg to differ.�

�Huh?�

Harribel closed her eyes and gave a deep sigh, then crossed her arms beneath her ample breasts. It was a familiar gesture, one that always made him think of distracting and unhelpful things. Wrenching his eyes back up to meet hers, Toshiro again blushed crimson, knowing she could probably feel where his attention had wandered and mentally shoved his libido into a deep, dark, cold corner of his mind. He told Hyorinmaru to do him a favour and sit on it to keep it from disrupting his train of thought.

Unfortunately, his Zanpakuto also seemed a little too interested in what was going on. That particular fact both floored him and made him decide to have a private chat with his blade later.

�You were enraged. I would have even called you homicidal. Yet you did not slay my girls when you had the chance, even though both you and I know the Claim has diminished to the point where you might have been capably of overcoming that order and perhaps even shatter what is left of the current Claim had you put your mind to it.�

Toshiro blinked.

It was true, he realized, startled that he hadn�t really felt it waning of late. Of course, he had also been working until he dropped each night, eating haphazardly and using Hyorinmaru non-stop to try to get his section of the grid up before the members of his Division had to suffer Aizen�s wrath over the lack of progress. It didn�t surprise him that neither he nor his mistress had noticed it until now. Had he been at full strength there was a good chance that she would be right, that he might have been able to shatter what was left of the current Claim and break free.

�My fraccion, however, have erred greatly. They disobeyed a direct order from me, regarding you. In addition, I believe I�ve made a mistake in leaving them to their own devices for too long. They need to understand that the protection I give them can also be taken away, as can their privileges.�

Harribel said this so resolutely that Toshiro thought he must have misheard her.

�I� don�t understand.�

�You�ve never been comfortable with me Claiming you in their presence. I thought it unusual for a Shinigami male, given the harem-based literature that your gender seems to favour,� she pointed out dryly.

In turn, he looked like he wanted to burrow through the floorboards of the porch out of embarrassment.

�You seem to be cut from different cloth. I think, based upon what I�ve seen this evening, to curtail their involvement with your Claim.�

He couldn�t believe his ears. Was she really going to allow him to skip the whole degrading mess? Would he finally be left in peace for a change? It seemed almost too good to be true and she must have noticed that distrust, because she turned her back on him to gaze out at the firefly-lit grass, the little flickering things reflected on the surface of the pond.

�I will still partake of them, of course. There are things a woman can do for another woman that men simply cannot duplicate, or understand. It would also be unfair to deny them something they have come to enjoy and expect. We have come to distress most males, for good reason, and I would not expect them to attempt to find a new source of companionship when the options for them are fairly limited.�

�Kami, I did not need that image,� he thought, a few of the more choice ones he�d witnessed over the years between the four women springing to mind anyway. However, what really made his jaw drop were her next words, spoken in a low, throaty voice that was almost too quiet to hear thanks to the crickets.

�Besides, they have served their purpose as far as educating you in that regard. In the future, I expect you to put that knowledge to good use.�

He hated it when he heard his own voice crack. It was a reminder of how his colleagues had seen him, as the child prodigy, heavy emphasis on �child�. Still, Toshiro�s tone raised an octave or two in response to that little revelation.

�Educating me�?�

Toshiro was too stunned to do more than sit there, with his pile of watermelon rinds and the wad of fabric that had once been Momo�s yukata, and process that little nugget of information. Was that why he�d been forced to� to watch� and, in some cases, participate in those sessions where everyone in the room had ended up in a post-orgasmic heap of some sort?

�From now on, I shall refresh your Claim on a more regular basis. You�re growing stronger, Toshiro. As the vast power within you grows, the more frequent the need to Claim you will be. We will be nearly matched, in due time. It will be a good pairing, one that I intend to use to protect and take care of what is ours.�

�Ours?� he squeaked.

He felt like a parrot, repeating what she�d said. The woman standing before him stretched her arms overhead, breasts lifting as her spine elongated and the taut muscles in her abdomen lengthened. The two long braids of golden hair hung down her back to her narrow waist, brushing the edges of the bone skirt that circled her hips as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

�We will protect my girls, and our eventual children, when you become strong enough to stand against anything that would harm them.�

The world suddenly seemed to spin and he scrambled for something to hold on to, to keep himself from pitching forward.

Children?

She was there suddenly, her hands gripping his shoulders, her green eyes and the Claim between them bringing him back to reality. There was that sense of calm again, the one that descended upon him every time he found himself buried to the hilt in her warmth, her reiatsu steadying him even as it robbed him of enough of his own to make him her captive. It helped him overcome the shock of what he thought she�d said.

He knew Aizen had a keen, if what he considered an unnatural interest, in creating Shinigami hybrids. However, he hadn�t really thought that the Arrancar that held his Claim wanted that sort of thing. She�d shown no interest in the trappings of motherhood in the entire time he�d known her.

Kami, he was so not ready for this.

�You�re... you�re pregnant?�

She was sitting now, and pulled him against her, his head pillowed on her bosom while she ran her fingers through his pale, silver-laced hair.

�No. The last time I had you was nine months ago, and I will let no other male, Arrancar or Shinigami, near me. Those that might have the power to Claim me either prefer their own sex, or have used up their allotment. Or they are far too lazy to bother. At any rate it is forbidden for Espada to Claim each other. I will not become pregnant until your power is such that it can stand against mine.�

He blinked up at her, suddenly relieved and yet confused as to what she meant by that. Her other hand smoothed its way up and down his shoulders, as if trying to quiet a jumpy, nervous animal.

�There is another thing to consider. As things stand, the Seireitei isn�t safe enough to create a child. Not,� and her voice dropped to a whisper �with a ruler who breaks the few rules the Espada set in return for our loyalty. He has yet to violate our taboos as far as children, as he has the others, but I do not trust that he will follow those if he can gain from breaking them. Tonight I learned that he chose not to protect his closest follower, from you and your former Fukutaichou. I respect his power, but I no longer trust him to keep his word to us.�

�You�re questioning him!� Toshiro exclaimed, speaking just as quietly as she for fear that someone might overhear their conversation.

She must have sensed both his astonishment and his fear about eavesdroppers, because she pulled his tired frame upward along with her own. Harribel helped him to the pond, where he gave his hands and face a quick rinse and she helped rinse the mud from his uniform and haori via dousing him in a sluicing wave of water. He also pulled off his mud-encrusted boots, still caked with the stuff after spending the day in the swamp. While he sputtered, one of her arms went around his waist. He found he could rest his head on her shoulder, something he would have been too short to do a year ago. She took the opportunity to lean in, her lips buzzing the shell of his ear, sending shivers up and down his legs and his spine.

�I am observing the situation, waiting to see what he chooses to do, and trying very hard not to draw his attention to us,� she corrected him. �I will do what I must to protect those I swore to protect. I will need a strong mate by my side to do so. We are not so different from one another, little dragon, in our desire to protect what is ours. I have no desire to arise his attentions in the way that Szayel somehow managed to do.�

Toshiro could understand that. What he had witnessed that day when Aizen had Szayel publicly whipped had shocked and horrified him for he could see the faded Kanji lines carved into the Arrancar�s back, as well as what looked like a good number of other scars that appeared to have come from previous, and relatively recent, torture sessions.

It took a second for him to realize what she was talking about and when he did he felt her hands move up to stroke the back of his neck and steady his shoulders. Then she whispered something else and he couldn�t help reaching up to clench her forearms when he heard it. His heart hammered in his chest as the fireflies clustered around them, then flittered off to orbit the hovering Kido globes.

Harribel helped Toshiro up onto the porch and then made a gesture with her hand for him to grab the Kido lights from above. She reached down and picked up Tiburón carefully. Then she put her other hand on the front door and pushed it open. He had no idea why she did so until she turned on her heel and motioned him indoors.

Maybe if he hadn�t been so worn out and off-balance, maybe if the true extent of her intentions for him hadn�t taken him utterly by surprise� the whole idea of a child, of all things, had thrown him off-kilter. Fatherhood was nowhere near the top of his priority list; the first items on that were simple survival for himself and his Division and staying out of the reach of Harribel�s fraccion if he could. Still, if she�d been thinking that far ahead, if she�d seen him for his true potential over a decade ago rather than as something helpless that needed salvaging� Toshiro wrenched his mind away from what that implied to concentrate on the here and now. He was still working on the fact that he hadn�t been skinned alive for losing his patience and turning his powers on his �mistress�s� underlings.

�I must refresh your Claim tonight and our current den is in� disrepair,� she said matter-of-factly as he summoned the orbs of Kido down to rest in the crook of his arm. �This will have to do for now.�

Well, Toshiro realized, he couldn�t really argue with her about either her need to re-Claim him per Aizen�s decree or the wreckage he�d left in his wake. He let himself really consider it and his own pragmatic streak agreed with her, to his surprise. His grandmother�s presently-unoccupied house was as private as one could want for her intended purpose. She regarded him with those heavy-lidded, luminous teal eyes and he swallowed as the corner of her mouth quirked up in a rare, half-smile.

�Take our solitude here as a sign of my good faith as far as your changed status with me, and as a reward for your obedience, now and in the future.�

As the blond turned and retreated into the darkened house, Toshiro realized that she�d been entirely serious about the final thing she�d murmured to him, half order and half offer, delivered in that same sultry, throaty tone that compelled him to follow her into the warm darkness without a tug on his Claim.

�Show me what you�ve learned from your teachers so far, Toshiro. Show me that you are the powerful man I�ve waited for you to become.�

�What do you mean, �he�s not going to be here today� uhm� Ma�am�?�

This came from a very nervous-looking Shinigami who wore the Fukutaichou�s armband of the 3rd Division and who acted as if the Espada before him was going to bite his head off at any moment.

It was tempting to do so, but Harribel had a much better use for the man in mind. It involved a mixing trough, a shovel and several hundred bags of dry cement.

The rest of Division, or at least the shift workers on daytime duty, stood around like petrified sheep, unable to perform their assigned duties as far as installing the Defence Net components without her little ice dragon to lead them.

She was going to have to have a talk with him later about his tendency to forgo delegating work. For now, she stared down Toshiro�s second-in-command, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and raising one golden eyebrow.

�He will not be on duty today. You lot have been too reliant on him for too long and he finally collapsed last night, due to exertion and overuse of his powers.� �Among other things,� she thought to herself.

In her normal form, the mask that covered the lower half of her face would have been enough to conceal a smile if she�d been capable of one. To the Shinigami�s credit, however, he both stood his ground and showed some real concern for her pet�s welfare.

�So, Ma�am, will you be in charge today?� he asked.

She nodded and then placed her hand on the Shinigami�s shoulder. He gave it a look that said he expected it to tear him apart.

�One should not expect a tool to remain sharp if it�s put to a task for which it�s ill-suited,� she said and then indicated that he gather the rest of the Division to stand before her to receive their orders for the day.

Behind her, her fraccion shifted and stared at the ground, occasionally stealing a glance at her before lowering their eyes again. The first part of their punishment had been to clean up the mess, repair what they could of her pet�s sleeping chamber and bed and carefully put the un-marked drawings and calligraphy set back in the box they�d found. The second part of their punishment was greeted with shocked silence, as she�d informed them that they were no longer allowed to touch, harass or partake of any intimate action with Toshiro. Then the crying and sniffling began. It had taken some well-placed kisses and caresses on her part to reassure her girls that they were still just as cherished as they had been the day before and they�d been a little mollified by that, if not happy about the change in Toshiro�s status, at least in the privacy of the household.

The third part of their punishment had the girls positively sulking in mortification. Normally, they would show up just before first light at the First Division to receive their patrol territorys for the day. Today she�d asked Aizen-Kami himself if they could be relieved of patrol duty to take her pet�s place in dealing with the issue of setting up the Net�s poles in the western marshes.

He�d frowned at her, and then inquired about Toshiro. She�d answered as honestly as she could, telling him that Toshiro had collapsed after using up all of his power, drained after days of using it in an inefficient manner. She left out any mention that what energy the young man had left had been consumed when she�d Claimed him the previous evening.

Instead, she bowed a little lower and offered her own powers as a substitute for his, telling Aizen that Tiburón would be far more helpful than Toshiro�s Hyorinmaru when it came to keeping the waters of the swamp at bay long enough to get pole supports in the ground and set properly. Harribel also informed him that with her help, Aizen could expect much more in the way of progress.

The other Espada in the room had looked at one another when she�d finished, and both Nnoitra and Barragan had sneered at her, their derision implying that she was trying to get out from going on patrol. Aizen had looked beyond her, at her girls as they hung back with their heads bowed in Kami�s presence and inquired, in that deceptively mild voice of his, as to why she wanted her fraccion to assist with the poles instead of patrolling.

Harribel had signalled towards them with one hand and said �They are with me today because no one is above doing anything they can to help get your Defence Net up and running quickly, no matter how lowly the work. There is no sacrifice too great if it means that the project is complete in a timely manner. My fraccion are going to help with the construction, as it seems they have a great deal of time on their hands these days and need to be taught a lesson.�

The room was silent for a moment before Aizen suddenly smiled and spoke in a pleased manner, a hint of amusement in his voice.

�You never fail me, my dear. Truly, you are one of my finest creations. I wish that more of my subjects were so loyal and as willing to serve me as tirelessly as you. You may take your pet�s place for now. I trust he will recover soon. It is always a pleasure to watch the two of you defend our empire during battle.�

With that, he�d adjourned the morning meeting and she�d earned a few nasty looks from Barragan and Nnoitra since the territory she would have been given to patrol had been divided equally between them and added to their own. The little bit of vengeful triumph she felt at that was diluted with Aizen�s warning that the speed of construction had better double as a result of her assistance. Otherwise, he would be very displeased. Harribel had no illusions about what that meant, since he�d been looking at her fraccion when he said it.

�Toshiro cannot come into his true power fast enough,� she decided.

That was how she found herself standing in the middle of a bog, draining entire stretches of the swamp until they were bone-dry and moving both the water and the creatures within it into other areas. The 3rd Division�s day shift sprang into action at the chance to drill and work on solid ground rather than knee-deep mud, some of them casting very grateful looks her way as she expertly wielded Tiburón. Her girls, meanwhile, had been given the dirty job of mixing concrete and drilling holes for the concrete supports. Mila Rose, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a good match as far as helping drill support holes. Her natural strength gave her an advantage, while Apache and Sun Sun ended up mixing heavy troughs of cement. Harribel hoped that the manual labour would leave an impression. The fact that Toshiro had managed to accomplish what he'd done so far astounded her.

Then again, he�d found some inner reserves last night that had served the both of them very, very well. Harribel�s body could still feel the delicious after-effects and the muscles in her lower abdomen contracted as she relived a few of the choicer memories. Toshiro�s former Fukutaichou, chained and confined to her porch while that jealous nitwit Nnoitra watched over her as Harribel asked her questions, had referred to her former Taichou as a �prodigy� and a �genius� when it came to learning new things.

Oh, had that been an understatement! She�d truly chosen well all those years ago and her decision to sacrifice a little of her pride in exchange for elevating his position in the household, was the correct one. He might not be able to return a Claim, but her choices as far as those who could were either unappetizing or perpetually asleep. She could definitely live with her compromise.

Szayel had made an appearance about two hours into the workday with his newly-mended pet. The scientist had said very little to her, hurrying to check the positions of the poles they�d managed to set that morning, while his redheaded flunky had busied himself with helping set the tall, silvery things. Harribel hadn�t missed the surreptitious, analytical glances the man sent her way. He could have been staring at her breasts, as many of the other Shinigami males did when they thought she wasn�t looking, but instead of thinly disguised lust, she�d detected a shrewd, almost calculating interest in his eyes. There was also something odd about him and had she not spent a portion of the previous evening refreshing her own pet�s Claim, she might have overlooked it.

She could detect the Claim that surrounded him. It practically gleamed, bright, shiny and very, very powerful. In fact, it was far more powerful than any Claim that Szayel ought to have been able to cast. Maybe, if he were back to his normal self it might not have seemed so strange, but for a pet of a pet Szayel couldn�t possibly have scrounged up or expended that much power.

Then again, she considered as she watched the pink-haired scientist scurry between recently set poles, making tiny adjustments, Szayel had always had a trick or two up his sleeve in the past. It made him a dangerous and tricky opponent. Underestimating someone with that kind of intelligence was never wise. Maybe he�d done something to enhance his bond with his pet. Given his penchant for experimentation, she was somewhat surprised that he hadn�t grafted a second set of arms on the redhead by now.

There were also other things to consider that made her reluctantly decide not to enquire further about it. Szayel was the only one with enough experience in dealing with Arrancar-Shinigami hybrid children. As tempting as it was to investigate the discrepancy behind what she saw of his pet�s Claim, she�d probably need Szayel fully functional when Toshiro�s strength properly manifested. There was no need to score points with Aizen by tipping him off to the oddity of the Claim, and lose a potential helper when it came time to create a cub. Harribel wasn�t into Pyrrhic victories.

Looking around at all of the people scrambling to meet the accelerated schedule Aizen had forced on them when he�d accepted her offer, Harribel narrowed her green eyes and extracted as much of the water as she could from a recently poured support. What had taken Toshiro and his Division a day to set and dry took her only a few minutes. The Shinigami holding the ropes keeping the pole in place blinked at one another and then erupted into an enthusiastic cheer. That lasted only a minute or two before they cleaned up and half of them hurried to the next spot to set up another pole while the rest finished construction on this one. At this rate, Harribel thought with some deserved smugness, she was going to be able to show, not a doubling of the rate of progress for this Net section, but a tripling. It would help her standing as far as Aizen was concerned to have this section finished in a matter of a few days rather than weeks, as the reports she�d read had stated.

The sooner this was finished the better. Looking at her fraccion, grumpily helping the 3rd Division members with their tasks as penance, Harribel decided that once this section was done and Toshiro�s strength had returned they could continue assisting with the work, until the damned thing was complete.

If they ever forgot this lesson, she had something else that would keep the memory of their recent defeat at his hands fresh in their minds. Harribel had plans to take the remains of his late friend�s yukata and seek out a tailor from the Rukongai marketplace this evening. Perhaps they would be able to fashion something for him to wear on his person at all times, like a scarf or perhaps a sash to replace the one he had all but outgrown. It would be a silent reminder to her fraccion of just who owned him. She�d make it up to them tonight with her attentions, as it had been when they had all banded together in Hueco Mundo for mutual protection against their male counterparts� viciousness and endless hunger.

As she gestured to the 3rd Division�s Fukutaichou to attend to her and to bring the maps, Harribel checked on Toshiro, using their newly-refreshed Claim. He was still dead to the world, clutching Hyorinmaru in one hand and wrapped in one of her blankets. Nonetheless, she could tell his heartbeat was steady and that he would be well on his way to a full recovery, if he were granted enough time to rest, eat and partake of the privacy of an empty house when he woke.

Privacy�who knew it would be such a turn-on for the little dragon? Then again, she told herself, every iceberg, no matter how large, melted in time. All the ocean had to do was surround it for long enough.

Once again, another chapter by Black Fox. Two more to go and part 1 is done. I started on part 2 but I fear I am a WOW addict and MOP has my attention right now when the munchkin doesn�t. As always, thank you all so much for the reviews.

Gin and Unohana would never, ever dare show that kind of affection for each other, even if they ever came to feel it. Aizen would be all over it in seconds.

No one calls him Sousuke because they value their continued health and lives.

No, we won�t see the daily lives of the population because I have no desire to waste a chapter on OC�s that mean are going to mean nothing to the story and even less to mosst readers. We were never told how many Arrancar Aizen actually had but we do know that Wonderweiss was #77. I suspect Aizen made a few more off-screen so I would guess there are at least 100, give or take a few.

Please note that Adult fan doesn�t tell me WHICH chapter you reviewed, so if you review older chapters I have no idea which chapter or event you are talking about unless you state so.

Spread the Grimmjow/Karin love. Two years latter and I am still the only one writing this pairing /sniff. There is so much potential I am surprised we don�t see it more often.

This Weeks Question: Does anyone know why so many Fanficts have Grimmjow�s hair as teal? I mean come on, teal is a medium green, blue tinted colour. It�s no where near the colour of Grimmjow�s hair; a very light blue. It�s in his bloody bio ��with light blue, spiky hair..� And I see it EVERYWHERE. It is driving me up the wall. How the hell can someone claim to be a Grimmjow fan and then fail so utterly in something so simple as his basic appearance! Did they fail kindergarten where you learn colours? Do they not know what a colour wheel is? Never, in any fandom, have I seen a character�s appearance so butchered so frequently that it�s in almost 80% of the fan fiction out there. What the hell!! Help me out girls and guys, every time you see someone write his hair as teal, correct them. Put a stop to the continued misuse and desecration of our favoured Espada. Don�t let the infection continue to spread.

Next Chapter: The defence grid is completed. Will it work or will Karin and Szayel meet the wrong end of Aizen? Stay tuned to find out.
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Prize of Victory