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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
- 97
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Another chapter written by Black Fox

Crimson and Clover

Forty-seven� forty-eight�forty-nine�

It had been, to his way of reckoning, nearly nine days since he�d �awakened�, as Orihime-chan had so nicely put it, from what everyone who knew he was incarcerated in this room called a shambling existence. He had a few new minor scars, but everything else, save for his much longer hair, seemed the same. After an inspection in the metal mirror that Nemu had found for him somewhere in the vast maze that was the Science Division, he decided that Orihime�s �rejection� of anything related to the destruction of Zabimaru had been enough to address his initial concerns. He was, more or less, back to normal. The reality around him, however, had changed to something utterly surreal.

Fifty� fifty-one�fifty-two�

The pushups, sit-ups and callisthenics he busied himself with could only do so much to distract him from his current predicament. Nemu came twice-a-day with meals, and thankfully, the room had been set up with a small toilet and sink off of the main chamber. He supposed it had initially been meant for the use of the late Kurotsuchi�s staff members. The odd contraption he used for a daily shower worked surprisingly well, though filling the upper water reservoir was a bit time-consuming and emptying it was tricky.

Fifty-three� fifty-four� fifty-five�

It wasn�t as if he didn�t have the time to waste. Thankfully, Karin and Orihime had made good on their promises to at least visit and keep him informed of what was going on beyond the chamber�s door. Just as he assumed that no one could sense his reiatsu, he couldn�t sense anyone else either, unless they crossed the threshold. Between talking to the two young human women and Nemu, his initial picture of what lay outside only made him angrier, in no small part because of his own relative helplessness regarding his situation.

There were others among the survivors who had suffered far more than he had. At least, he thought, he�d been �asleep� while the worst occurred. His body might have been violated, but his mind had not. Renji couldn�t say the same for those who had not only endured having their Zanpakuto�s locked away, but had been chained, body and soul, to the very beasts that they were sworn as Shinigami to �purify�. Even someone as powerful as Kuchiki-Taichou now resided under the thumb of one of them. If Kuchiki Byakuya had been enslaved and brutalized, he didn�t hold out much hope of avoiding a similar fate if he left his current confines.

That was another issue he had to keep from thinking about too often, lest he work himself into another rage that would result in his sliding back into despair. Nemu had informed him that Yammy was hardly gentle with his pet, and that he had ordered Szayel to permanently silence the Noble, a procedure Nemu had been required to assist with. The more he learned of his previous Taichou�s fate, the more he desired to see Yammy�s flesh horribly rendered from the Espada�s body, preferably by Zabimaru.

Unfortunately, after a few days of talking with the others, he didn�t see much hope for his own future. Maybe he�d be able to escape after a while, if given enough lead time. Perhaps he could strike out alone in the Living World, maybe find the few he knew had managed to avoid Aizen�s patrols. Karin had given him the few names of those she�d encountered on their incursions into the Seireitei and found there were a few he didn�t recognize. Maybe they were refugees from other divisions, lower seated officers or unranked Shinigami that had found refuge with Ichigo, Rukia and that lunatic Zaraki Kenpachi �

He gave up on the idea of push-ups and instead lay down on the barely-comfortable bed Nemu had pushed into the room the evening he�d come back to himself. She�d dropped off a basket of clean sheets that morning and he breathed in their scent. Someone had put them outside to dry after washing and he could smell the wind and sunshine on them. Until he could find a way out of this room, it was as close as he was going to get to the great outdoors.

And yet, from what Nemu had told him, his disappearing would put Karin and her family in danger of drawing that son of a bitch Aizen�s attention, and he wasn�t sure he could do that to Ichigo�s sister. Hell, even Orihime could be pulled in if Aizen learned she had been the one to restore his soul to the point he regained his free will and he could not suffer the thought of seeing the bubbly human girl suffer for his actions.

The thoughts only threw him deeper into his desperation. Trying to quell them, he grabbed one of the books that lay in a stack next to the bed.

Studying had never been one of Renji�s strong suits, even while he was at the Academy; Kira and Momo had usually helped tutor him in the finer points of Kido control and the theoretical principles behind building forms with one�s reiatsu. His weak Kido skills were a sore spot. Orihime, bless her ditzy little heart, had raided the bookshelf in the house that Ulquiorra Cifer had taken over and brought him everything from a cookbook on pies to old copies of the Shinigami Women�s Society newsletter, a dryly-written treatise on diplomatic customs of the Four Noble Houses and their historical significance, to a thin volume titled �Kido for the Absolute Beginner�. Her intent, he guessed, was to give him something to read to help with the boredom. The book had been required reading for his first year at the Academy and he picked it up now, turning the pages until he found the incantation for Hado No. 53�

He�d worked his way through seven pages worth of exposition on how said Kido-spell could be used to restrain an opponent and worked up an appetite for something called deep-dish cherry pie when he heard the now-familiar sound of the lock on the door opening. In an instant he was up off of the bed, heart pounding, Zabimaru drawn. While Renji hoped he knew the person about to enter, he didn�t entirely trust that the rest of the former 12th Division wouldn�t eventually try to find out why the room was suddenly off-limits.

Thankfully, he recognized the head that poked its way past the door.

�Karin-chan...� he sighed and sheathed his Zanpakuto, relaxing a little as the young woman walked into the room.

Her dark hair was pulled up today in a simple pony tail. However, her normally serious demeanour seemed �off�, and she had an air of apprehension about her instead of her usual �in charge� attitude. In addition, she carried what looked to be a covered basket with its lid tied shut. Then any sense of calm he might have felt evaporated as both Nemu, carrying a tray of odd implements and the pink-haired bastard Szayel followed behind her.

Szayel gave Renji a condescending look and remained near the door, opening up the control box that governed the shield that surrounded the room with a small pick he�d fished from his pocket while Nemu picked up what looked like an earthenware pot with a brush sticking out of the top.

�Karin-sama, I think this idea is absolutely hair-brained�� Szayel began, and then shut up when Karin gave him a sharp look.

Renji guessed that whatever discussion they were in the middle of had been going on for a while, if the worried and irritated expression on Szayel�s face was any indication. Ah, to learn the bastard was now nothing more than a human girl�s lap dog. It was perhaps the only positive thing he had learned about his time �away�.

�I�m not wild about it either, but it�s the best one I�ve been presented with. So we�re going to go with it. Yoruichi gave it to me this morning and told me there was a specific time frame in which it could be used. That time frame is now, so get busy with that.�

�Szayel-sama, I�ve calculated the odds of discovery for each plan Karin-san outlined while we were en route here and this plan has the lowest level of risk, given present circumstances,� Nemu said gently, trying to calm things down a little.

Szayel gave her a look that said he might want to argue with her about her data, and then, shockingly, shook his head.

�You realize what will happen if Kami-sama discovers this, right? We will all be executed, or worse! He could even learn about your secret, Karin-sama. Are you truly going to risk your family and our lives for this deadbeat?� Szayel sneered and jerked his thumb in Renji�s direction, although Renji did detect a trace of fear in his voice as well.

�I risked my life for yours, so don�t even bother with that argument. Or would you like me to save the hassle and remove your Claim?� Karin suggested with a raised eyebrow.

�Ah�.� Szayel clearly had no argument for that and looked terrified at such a prospect.

�You and I are just going to have to be very careful not to let anything happen, aren�t we? We�ve got too much to lose to fail on this one and I thought you wanted someone reliable to baby-sit the twins?� she pointed out with a smirk.

Szayel had the nerve to look Renji up and down and then turn back to Karin with fresh protests.

�Reliable?! Him? Kami, spare me!� Szayel complained. �I doubt he�d know what to do with the business end of a safety pin!�

�The only concern I have is someone detecting the reiatsu anomaly we are about to create and report it,� Karin admitted, ignoring Szayel�s assessment of Renji�s babysitting skills. Renji, for his part, was inclined to agree with Szayel on this point, as much as he hated to admit it. This time it was Szayel�s turn to scoff.

�The shields on this place are ridiculously thick. Stupendously so. I highly doubt anyone will be able to detect anything.�

None of this meant anything to Renji, who watched Szayel and Karin bicker back and forth for a few more minutes while Nemu busied herself pushing his bed of all things into the middle of the room. Then she began to paint what looked like a large, intricate circular design onto the floor with about seven feet all the way around it, using whatever was in the pot and the brush. Every few minutes, she�d straighten up, rub her back a little and consult a sheet of paper she�d pulled from gods-only-knew-where. Eventually, it started to resemble a Kido inscription, but it wasn�t one Renji recognized, not that that was saying much given his complete ineptitude when it came to Kido.

�I don�t like this plan, Karin-sama� this is incredibly dangerous,� Szayel whined.

�Well, I don�t see you offering up anything better.�

�This counts as treason in so many ways� I have a family I need to protect now��

�SO DO I, and we�re already in it up to our eyeballs in it as it is, so don�t give me any lip about this!! One more thing isn�t going to change that. Now finish with the adjustments to the barrier. The sooner I explain this to Renji, the better!� Karin snapped, now truly pissed off. Szayel seemed to understand he�d reached the end of his allowable limit of complaints and shockingly backed off.

Grumbling something about �in for a penny, in for a pound�, Szayel returned to the control box and abandoned any attempt to talk Karin out of whatever was going to happen, which, Renji suspected, greatly involved him in some way. He cleared his throat and Karin looked up at him as she reached down, intending to open the basket lid.

�Exactly what, pray tell, are you going to do and how does it concern me? I�m still in the room, you know,� Renji declared.

He didn�t bother trying to hide how disgruntled he felt about people talking around him like he wasn�t even there. It reminded him that, up until a few days ago, people assumed that he was just another piece of lab equipment.

Karin gave him an apologetic look and a half-smile that did nothing to alleviate how stressed she seemed at the moment.

�Sorry about that. It�s just that I think this is the only way we can get you out of this room and we have to move quickly. It�s a bit complicated, but once Szayel makes the adjustments he needs to with the barrier��

��to make sure your daughter doesn�t decide to walk through it again�� he heard Szayel mutter darkly, and then flinched as Karin looked daggers at him.

Even Renji drew back a little. After only a few days of really knowing her, he had no doubts as to her claim of being Ichigo�s little sister, given how quick-tempered and fierce both were, as well as sharing that overwhelming urge to protect everyone and anyone they knew or cared about. Ajuga was, he�d learned in very short order, a subject best avoided or better yet, simply accepted for what she was.

��we can deal with the problem that your lack of a Claim presents,� she finished.

�You�re going to help me escape?�

Karin sighed and shook her head. �It isn�t possible right now, not without drawing obvious attention to your sudden absence,� she replied, her tone grim. �That would also draw Aizen�s attention, which in turn could draw it to some things that we don�t want him seeing right now�� she said, and when he opened his mouth to ask what those things were, she added ��they�re things you don�t need to know about. No offence, but you�ll sleep better at night without this knowledge.�

�So what does all of that mean?� Renji pressed her, not liking where this conversation seemed to be going.

Nemu chose that moment to interrupt them, holding up the sheet of paper in front of Karin�s face. The young woman took it, and moved away to scrutinize the image on the floor and compare it to the image on the paper. After a few tense minutes, she nodded at Nemu, who took the pot of paint and the brush and withdrew to stand quietly by Szayel. A few moments later, Szayel finished his tinkering, closed up the box and began pressing the buttons on it in sequence to seal the barrier.

�It�s done, Karin-sama. I hope you know what you�re doing. It�s our lives on the line if this doesn�t work,� the Arrancar said, drawing Nemu a little closer to him.

Renji glared at him, but Szayel seemed more worried about what Karin had planned than any potential threat Renji posed at the moment, and that unsettled Renji even more.

�Renji, take this and go stand in the center of the circle Nemu made,� Karin ordered. Then she pulled something from the basket and handed it to him.

He recognized it as a small cube made entirely of carefully-crafted layers of Kido, a few inches across in each dimension. Beyond that, he had no idea what its purpose was nor any idea as to who had made the thing. Despite his misgivings, the redhead did as Karin asked and then turned around to face the other three, a puzzled look on his face.

�Make sure you�re the only person that touches this before you put it down. Step to the side and place the cube on the floor, with one corner of the cube pointing to the characters in the circle representing the cardinal points�� she said, as if reciting a set of instructions someone else had made her memorize. When he blinked, not understanding, she sighed.

�Cardinal points� that means North, South, East�� she tried again. �You have to position it. I can�t help you with it.�

�Oh, right. Got it,� Renji answered and did so, shaking his hand as he withdrew it to get some feeling back into it.

The sheer amount of energy concentrated in the thing wasn�t something he was used to handling and his palm and fingers felt numb. Then he stepped back in surprise as the thing began to crackle and grow exponentially. It grew large enough to encompass the bed frame and as he backed up, Renji realized that the paint on the floor was glowing as well.

�Don�t try to avoid it, Renji!� Karin called out behind him. �You need to be inside it for this to work! It�s keyed into your reiatsu now!�

Renji whirled around to ask, exactly, what the hell was going on when he felt one of the sides of the cube of Kido hit him and sizzle every nerve as it went through his body, leaving him flat on his butt on the floor and a little dazed. He shook his head to clear it and glanced around, stunned.

The interior of the thing looked even stranger than the outside; delicate layers of patterns moved, one on top of the other, creating an iridescent effect that made it difficult to look at for too long. They shimmered in and out of view, giving Renji the impression he was encased inside of what seemed to be a form of living glass. While it was extraordinarily pretty, the redhead could find no way out of it either. Once he was inside of it, there appeared to be no apparent door or weak point he could use to escape.

�Are you alright?� Karin asked.

Renji got to his feet, shook himself and glared at her, feeling a little betrayed and claustrophobic at this point. Her voice sounded tinny, as if she were shouting through a long tube, echoing off of the side. He assumed that was the effect of the enormous amount of Kido in the layers between them.

�What the hell is this thing?� he called back, craning his neck as he looked around frantically.

Eventually, the parameters of the cube ceased growing. He realized the corners of the thing now touched the points on the painted circle to which they�d been aligned. Then he felt something in the energies �shift� and the reiatsu of the barrier around the room poured into it, blending in with the cube�s Kido and creating new patterns that swirled in the reiatsu that surrounded him. Placing his hand on the side of the new barrier, he found it was cool and surprisingly solid to the touch. Szayel and Nemu appeared as distorted shapes, though he could tell the scientist was suitably surprised by how large his eyes had grown.

�Yoruichi-san said that someone named Hachi-kun made this specifically to help us and help you.� Karin explained. �We weren�t sure it would work, but I guess Hachi-san is a former member of the Kido Corps.�

That, Renji inwardly cursed, explained why the circle�s glyphs had seemed so complicated. The cube was now translucent, its earlier transparency fading as more and more of the Kido patterns began to overlap one another, moving faster and faster. She got as close as the outer edge of the barrier would allow and tried to make herself heard by shouting, looking utterly apologetic now.

�I�m sorry, but you have to be Claimed, since we can�t get you out of the Seireitei and hiding you forever would arouse Aizen�s suspicions. He�s already too interested in Szayel as it is and that�s a danger to everyone that�s helped you recover. There�s no one here that I can trust to Claim you and not abuse you.�

�So you�re imprisoning me?!?!� Renji nearly shrieked in outrage, hitting his fist against the cube�s wall. �And did you say �Yoruichi�?�

�No!! Yes! I mean�we just� we have to keep this portal hidden � it will only work for one person�� she tried again. Her voice was fainter now, and looking through the barrier now seemed like looking into a rapidly-thickening fog. �This was Yoruichi�s idea� she�s with Ichigo and the others who are still fighting Aizen��

�If it�s a portal for one person, why can�t I just use it to get the hell out of here!?� he demanded angrily.

�Because your absence would be noticed and questioned, and there is far too much heat on all of us as it is without Aizen looking any closer,� Karin said sadly, appearing as little more than a dark shadow against the Kido barrier. �I�m sorry, Renji. The portal isn�t for you. It�s for� someone else. This is the only workable plan we have right now as far as your Claim is concerned. If I�d told you everything beforehand, you would ha��

The barrier chose that moment to become completely opaque, cutting off both audio and visual communication with anything outside of it. Renji found himself shut into the equivalent of a box lined with mother-of-pearl. Unsheathing Zabimaru, he squinted all around, trying to find a weak spot that might prove exploitable with his Shikai. There wasn�t enough room in the twenty-foot radius to unleash his Bankai without torching himself in the process. Then he took a deep breath, then another and tried to steady himself.

�Don�t panic� don�t panic�� he told himself. �There�s supposed to be a reason for doing all of this. I just have to figure out where the portal is in this thing and use it.�

Karin had mentioned Yoruichi. Renji grabbed onto that thought, trying to determine how the Shihoin heir was involved. He�d only met the woman a few times, when she�d breezed through the shop that Urahara-san ran, acting as if she were the landlord and Urahara a few weeks late with the rent. The only thing he�d known about her at the time was that she was good friends with the shopkeeper, had a wicked sense of humour and had given up her position within the Gotei 13 to follow him into exile. He also remembered that she was tricky and had absolutely no sense of shame or decency, but this was going way overboard with things. What he didn�t understand was what any of this had to do with his lack of a Claim, unless�

The air pressure in the cube changed suddenly and Renji felt his ears �pop� loudly and painfully in response. He winced at the sharp jolt on either side of his skull and moved his jaw about, trying to find some relief. As a result, he missed the sliding sound behind him. He did not, however, miss the sound of the metal bed frame creaking as someone or something clambered over it, nor the faint rustle of the bedding.

�Renji-kun?�

He froze at the sound of his own name, spoken by a breathless feminine voice he didn�t recognize. For a split second he thought, from its girlish tones, the voice belonged to Momo, back from wherever it was that Shinigami went when their lives on this side of the Living World ended. But the feel of it was different, less �cheerful� and more tentative, as if whomever had said it was unsure of what he might do.

Keeping his hand on Zabimaru�s hilt, he pivoted on one foot, putting his back against the wall he�d been facing in order to confront whoever it was, his Zanpakuto held protectively in front of him.

A joyful squeal assaulted his ears, making him wince and he made the mistake of closing his eyes on reflex.

�It really IS you, Renji-kun!!�

Someone roughly five-foot-six-inches tall, curvy and warm hit him full on and managed to wrap her arms around his neck in what he could only charitably call a �hug�. Rather, it felt as someone was trying to squeeze all of the air out of his lungs, anaconda-like, while sniffling and soaking the front of his uniform with tears. She�d also managed to manoeuver around his Zanpakuto, moving a little too quickly for his liking.

�Gah�� he managed to choke out and found his mouth full of hair of a shade that fell roughly between robin�s egg blue and sea green. There was, he discovered, an abundance of that hair as he tried to spit it out.

�I�m so happy to see you again� you have no idea how worried we were about you when we heard what happened and Rukia-chan and Ichigo-kun were ready to storm in here and grab you but Yoruichi told them that would be very bad since Aizen could use it to track us down and Kenpachi-san was ready to come get you too so he could fight you until Hiyori-chan hit him with that vending machine that Yachiru-chan brought home��

�Wait� wait!!� Renji gasped and pried whoever had such a death grip on him loose.

He held her at arm�s length, to try to follow what it was she was busy babbling about as well as figure out exactly why she knew his name. Staring down, his eyes met up with wide, gray ones and his brain decided that it was time to take a short holiday while his salivary glands dried up.

�Renji-kun? Are you alright?�

�Who in the hell�?� he began and then really let himself get a good look at the woman before him, eyes moving up and down her frame.

He ought to remember hair that color, as well as the pink maple seed-shaped marking, its wings meeting over the bridge of her small, pert nose. There seemed to be a faint scar, the skin only a few shades lighter than the rest of her face, nearly imperceptible, running from beneath her long bangs to just where the pink markings crossed her nose. It did not detract from her looks in the slightest. Unfortunately, he couldn�t remember anyone who was so ridiculously pretty and who had, as he looked farther down and felt his cheeks heat up, what any male would consider a set of remarkable �assets�. The only person that he remembered having that kind of rack was Rangiku and this girl might actually put the former 10th Division�s Fukutaichou�s cleavage to shame.

While she wore a simple, white sundress that no doubt had been made in the Living World, he also didn�t miss the slim katana slung from the belt around her hips. Nor did he miss the odd, bony helmet shaped like a skull with two ram�s horns on either side of her face, connected by a row of long sharp teeth perched atop her head. She also looked up at him with such an expectant, hopeful expression, one that only served to frustrate him as his memory yielded nothing useful.

�How do you know me? How do you know my name? Who the hell are you?� he demanded harshly, and immediately regretted saying anything.

The young woman�s lower lip began to quiver anew at his words and those large, pretty doe eyes began to refill with tears.

�You don�t remember me? How could you forget me so quickly? We met in Hueco Mundo, remember, Renji-kun? I and my brothers met you and Sado-kun and Ishida-kun and Rukia-chan and�� she sniffed a little ��Ichigo-kun.�

For a split-second Renji stared down at the teary girl, not making any kind of connection, until one of his earlier conversations with Karin about her half-Arrancar daughter came back to bludgeon him. The realization hit him hard enough to steal all of the breath from his lungs and the blood drained from his face. The child he remembered did have short, bluish-green curls that peeked out from beneath the hood of the rags she�d worn and there had been pink smudges beneath her eyes in roughly the same shape. But still�

�You can�t be� you� you can�t be her. She was just a little kid with a broken mask and missing baby teeth and a lisp and bare feet and a snotty nose and ��

Somewhere during the panicked speech that tumbled from his lips, Renji disengaged from the girl, made it to the opposite side of the bed while only tripping twice on Zabimaru�s scabbard and backed into the farthest corner he could find to give himself some much-needed space.

��And a scar on her face�� he whispered. �No, no, nonononono�� his gut screamed at him, while his rational side dragged the details of the talk concerning Karin�s daughter Ajuga back into the light for a thorough examination.

He�d mentioned how much Ajuga looked like Nel. Check. Karin had given him a strange look and he�d described the only example he�d ever seen of a Hollow child to her, comparing the two children. Check. Orihime had confirmed his story, though he had no idea how she knew about Nel, as Renji assumed that she�d been kept captive by Aizen somewhere around the time they�d run across the little girl and her three mentally-challenged companions. Check. Karin had mentioned that she�d met Nel as well at one point recently, though she hadn�t looked like a little girl and that she was somehow still with Ichigo and the rest of the escapees. Check. So she was working with them, as a rebel, trying to oust Aizen from the Seireitei while he had been locked in this odd, Kido-based cell with her for some reason that pertained to the lack of�

Renji blinked, brown eyes going wide as the reality of his present situation sank in.

� an Arrancar Claim on his person�

His jaw dropped.

�with a bed�

Holy shit.

�and Karin had yelled to him that this had been Yoruichi�s idea�

Oh, fuck, now the whole thing made a sort of perverse sense to Renji, who proceeded to hyperventilate as his legs gave way and he sank into the corner, hanging on to Zabimaru for dear life.

�Oh, no� you really don�t remember me, do you?�

The young woman sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, then gingerly made her way around the bed frame. She sat down on the edge of it, facing him. She had a sad expression on her face and looked down at her hands, her fingers laced together in her lap, as if unsure how to proceed at this point. Her body language conveyed a great deal of disappointment, while all he could think about was slaughtering Karin and Yoruichi for this.

They couldn�t possibly expect him to�

�Renji-kun?�

Oh, Kami, they really did expect him to do this! With someone he�d only seen as a bratty toddler until this point? The utter insanity behind that assumption astounded him. Renji closed his eyes, and tried to get his breathing under control before he passed out.

He�d kill them both, he swore. He�d kill them and then kill that pink-haired bastard for good measure and then try to figure out how to get the hell of the Seireitei on his own. He closed his eyes, counted to ten and when that didn�t help, counted again. And again. He was nearing seventy when he heard her sigh deeply.

�Oh, Renji-kun��

The bedsprings creaked as he heard her get up off of the bed and then he heard the soft, padding sound of her sandaled feet approach him. She stopped a few feet away. He detected the �swish� of the fabric of her skirt as it swirled around her legs when she sat and the �shush� of her sword�s sheath against the cloth as she laid it across her lap.

�Renji-kun, look at me� please?�

He shook his head violently, and buried his face in his hands, Zabimaru leaning against his shoulder for some much needed mental support. He could feel her reiatsu before him, cloaked and carefully banked and suppressed to keep from spooking him any more than he already was, which didn�t exactly put him at ease.

�Renji-kun� I�m here because I want to help save you,� she said softly and he felt sword-calloused fingertips trace along his arm, in what he supposed was an attempt to soothe him as Karin had done upon his restoration. Instead, he jerked his head up and growled at her.

�Don�t. I don�t sleep with children,� he said flatly, coldly.

She sat back on her heels, taking her hand away to Renji�s relief as he shuddered. Looking away, she seemed to be thinking about what to say next. After a minute, she turned back to him, her face set in a solemn expression.

�Do you know what happens when an Arrancar�s mask is torn away or broken?�

The question surprised him a little and he blinked up at her, his retort dying in his throat as he took in the sight only a small space away from him. Her hair fell in waves over her shoulders and long strands of it framed her face as she lowered her gaze to the floor. From where he sat he could see the full curve of her breasts under the white cotton neckline of her dress and the outline of her calves where she�d tucked her legs up beneath her. Definitely NOT a child in any way shape or form, except in his few memories of her.

No one would suspect that such a demure-looking creature could have possibly come here with such a purpose in mind. He looked away again in order to concentrate on the actual question and fished around for what he hoped was an intelligent answer.

�Nemu told me that an Arrancar will regress in apparent age if his mask is damaged. The more reiatsu escapes from the crack��

Oh, Kami. Did that mean what he thought it meant? Fortunately, the answer to that question came quickly.

��the younger and weaker the Arrancar becomes,� she finished, and then reached up with one hand to trace the left side of the mask atop her head.

Renji watched as she closed her eyes, fingers moving along a faint line that ran from the top of the mask to the bottom of the teeth, and continued on to her nose. �Nnoitra did this to me, with Szayel�s help, long before I met any of you. He couldn�t beat me with his own strength in a fair fight, so he took up Szayel�s offer to assist him in taking me down. Szayel had a machine that made me see an image of my opponent and I fell for it. Nnoitra hit me from behind while I wasn�t looking and cracked my mask nearly in two�.

�You mean that fucking rapist hurt you too? That he�s why you looked like a five-year-old back then?�

He couldn�t help it. His curiosity getting the better of him, Renji reached out and traced the thin line with his own fingers. She shivered a little as his nails scraped against the bone, and he wasn�t sure that he might not be hurting her. When he tried to break contact, Nel reached up and clasped his hand in hers, scooting a little closer. Her hands were warm, as if she�d just come in from a sunny day outside.

�Szayel helped, but Nnoitra was the one that exiled me from my place among the Espada and left me to die in the desert. In addition to taking away my adult form, the wound took my memories as well. If not for Pesche and Dondochaka��

She trailed off, looking away and biting her lip, though she did not release Renji�s hand. For his part, he could feel her energy as it gently enfolded his fingers. When he tried to pull his hand away, he found he was unable to do so. She took the opportunity to scoot even closer to him and Renji debated trying to tunnel his way out of the Kido cube with his teeth and one hand if necessary. Steeling his resolve, which wasn�t easy given that she was practically in his lap, he tried to appeal to whatever reason she possessed to see that what they�d set her to do was utterly unnecessary, probably wrong on many different levels and quite possibly illegal if one took Living World laws and standards into account.

�Look, Nel�� he pleaded, trying not to notice how her reiatsu kept trying to twine around his, creeping up and around his arm in a manner he could only describe as �cajoling� ��this isn�t right! There has to be some other way, some better plan than� doing this� with me� I mean I just woke up and I�m still trying to��

Looking back, Renji would say that was the moment when Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck started playing dirty. She bowed her head, looking up at him through thick, dark eyelashes, and said:

�Do you want her to keep crying over you, Renji-kun?�

�What are you�?� Renji started, but Nel leaned even farther into his personal space, silencing him by bringing the hand that held her sword up and pressing two of her fingers against his lips. He could literally feel the power within it �thrum� against his own reiatsu. The earnestness and urgency in her voice were also unmistakable.

�It took years for Hachi-san to heal my mask with his Kido, to help me get back to normal. I owe them all so much, Renji-kun. Do you know how much Rukia-chan cried when Yoruichi-san told us that your Zanpakuto had been destroyed?� she asked softly, the rhetorical question dropped like a bomb in front of him.

Of course he couldn�t have known what Rukia�s reaction would have been when she�d heard about what Szayel had done. But he could imagine it and it was an unexpected punch to the gut. The unbidden image Nel�s words brought up made his throat tighten up with more than a little guilt.

For him it had been one terrible moment of overwhelming agony and screaming, then nothing at all, and then suddenly he�d been yanked from the peaceful darkness to find nine years had passed in a mere instant. He couldn�t imagine what it had been like for his childhood friend or for Ichigo or Orihime or for anyone who remembered him before Szayel conducted his little experiment.

�She�s been mourning for you all this time, thinking that she could have saved you somehow, that she could have rescued you,� Nel informed him, her voice containing just a hint of reproach.

The fact that Rukia had grieved for him for nearly a decade, thinking the soul within him had been destroyed while his body still shuffled about took a lot of the fight out of him as he pictured Rukia, shoulders slumped, her face buried in the cloth of Ichigo�s uniform, indigo eyes red from rubbing away tears.

�Stop it�� Renji began, and then bit his lip to stifle a shocked gasp.

Her words had made him drop his defences for a moment and the full power of Nel�s reiatsu flowed into him, unhindered. It rendered him speechless as a wave of it replaced the trickle that had so far found its way up his arm to his shoulder. She slowly got to her feet, keeping the connection between them and pulled him, unresisting, up with her.

�Do you know how much I cried, knowing that I couldn�t do anything about it until my mask had healed?� she murmured in that low voice that had suddenly gone silky on him.

What little space there was in between them vanished and Renji inhaled sharply as Nel stood on tiptoe to press her curves into him.

More of her reiatsu washed into and around him and, unable to back up, he took the full force of her spiritual pressure head on. Renji arched his back as it thundered its way down his spine and spread out along every nerve in his body. Part of him, the part that had just regained his free will, wanted to fight back against sensations that left him reeling. The other part of him wanted to lean against the wall and let it drown him, it felt that damned good. And he hadn�t felt this good in� how long? A warning jolt from Zabimaru helped clear his head a little and he tried to cut through the mental haze that clouded his senses as he realised the last time he had felt this good had been when Szayel had Claimed him and that brought reality sharply back into focus.

�You can�t� you�re just doing this because that crazy woman Yoruichi told you�� he stuttered, trying to get his brain back together to put a stop to this before it could go further, or before he gave in and did something he thought he would probably regret on many levels.

�I�m here because I�m the only one that can Claim you, Renji-kun, to keep you safe. None of the others are capable of it and as Karin said, Aizen will kill you if he finds out you�re free.�

She said this softly, calmly, logically, as if explaining it to a particularly dense listener, all the while pressing parts of her anatomy that he didn�t remember her actually having the last time he�d encountered her against him.

Again, he tried to push back, only to discover that between the sheer strength and amount of her reiatsu and the faint fresh, green-grassy scent that he could detect now that she nearly inhabited the same space as he, a part of his anatomy that hadn�t seen voluntary action in a very long time had turned traitor on him.

Someone groaned and to Renji�s dismay, realized it had been him. He felt her draw the hand she clasped from her mask down and place it firmly on her hip, then moved that hand up to run her fingers through the long, crimson stands of his uncut hair. From there, she reached up and slid her hand along the back of his neck, drawing him down so that her warm breath in his ear sent shivers all of the way down the backs of his legs. He heard her whisper:

�You should have seen how happy Rukia was when Yoruichi told us that your Zanpakuto had been restored to you.�

He felt her lips brush his earlobe and actually heard himself whimper as he felt her belly press the fabric of his uniform against the traitor between his legs, making the situation that much worse.

�She actually hugged and kissed me with tears in her eyes when I agreed to Claim you ��

Every man, Renji decided, had an absolute breaking point.

He�d just reached his.

He could not draw upon the vast amount of experience with women that a man like Shunsui or Hisagi might have had to fall back on under such circumstances. But, he thought as the last of any resistance drained away at Nel�s admission, they weren�t here to critique him either. He turned his head and caught the lips of the girl in his arms, swallowing her gasp of surprise as he surged out of the corner. It wasn�t a gentle kiss either. Rather, it felt like he was giving in to what her enveloping, teasing, maddening reiatsu almost compelled him to do: surrender.

�Ren��

He cut her off in mid-syllable, his tongue lashing against hers in an attempt to take some kind of control over the situation. When she opened her mouth wider and caressed it with her own, sucking it deeper into her mouth, he knew he�d lost. He felt her reiatsu, stronger than his own, pulling him away from the wall of the opalescent barrier, enticing him to move back towards the center of the cube�s interior�

�closer to the bed that sat in the middle of it, with its messy linens and a pillow jammed between the metal slats of the headboard. Drunk on the chamois-soft energy that stroked against his, addled with it as he devoured her mouth and then moved on to her throat, Renji let himself be led. Even the call of alarm from Zabimaru felt muffled and distant in comparison to the twin sensations of her fingernails stroking his scalp and her hips as she ground them against his own in what was a blatant invitation. There was a small tug on the tie that held his hair up and then he felt it fall like a curtain around his face and shoulders. Renji would have said something, but Nel chose that moment to break the kiss and run her tongue along the line of vertical markings tattooed on his chest.

This, he hazily rationalized, was what Rukia wanted.

He felt Nel gently, gingerly, take Zabimaru from his hand with her own and while he was busy running his tongue around the shell of her ear, breathing in the perfume she�d dabbed behind it that made her smell as if she�d just rolled in a newly mown field, felt her lay both of their swords across the foot of the bed.

With his hands now free he ran them up and down Nel�s cotton-clad body, cupping her ass, skirting over the curve of her thighs, the dip of her waist, briefly let his palm hover over the place where her thighs came together before tracing his way up her belly. He heard her moan something that didn�t seem all that important anymore in comparison to following what the reiatsu that overwhelmed his seemed to want him to do. This was, he decided, to get rid of his suddenly restrictive clothing and find out what the skin beneath her dress really felt like.

Rukia must have gone through hell for all this time. Worse, he thought guiltily, he�d been partly responsible for her pain, being too weak to prevent his captor from obliterating a good chunk of his soul.

A set of hands that weren�t his own started loosening his uniform�s ties, dexterously ridding him of his obi and pushing the kosode from his shoulders to drop to the floor in a heap. Recapturing her lips, Renji redoubled his efforts, fencing with Nel�s tongue, drawing it along the roof of her mouth, a manoeuvre that dragged a whimper from her throat and across what felt like a small set of fangs in her lower jaw. Her reaction, wriggling even harder against him, set off a small flame of pride in his chest.

It wasn�t that he had much to be proud about, truth be told. He�d shared a few, half-hearted kisses with various female Shinigami after a night out drinking, a habit that he�d abandoned once he�d been assigned to the Sixth Division, and once with Momo when he and Kira had dragged the young woman out for the obligatory night of celebrating after their graduation and their assignment to the Gotei 13. That had been a drunken, sloppy thing that they�d never spoken of again. Instead, he�d directed almost all of his energy to his training, improving his fighting skills and his connection with Zabimaru, to prove himself against the measuring stick represented by Byakuya in the hopes that someday he�d be worthy of the one woman that seemed to be perpetually out of reach.

Funny, he reflected, how he�d always assumed that he�d wait until then, that his first time with a woman would be �with� her, rather than �for� her�

Renji�s hands found their way to a truly impressive set of breasts through the material of her dress, his thumbs moving across the thin fabric to stroke already-hard nipples, startling him a little. Reaching down, he broke off the kiss and grabbed at the hem of Nel�s skirt, pulling up at the moment her hands slipped below the waist of his hakama and the garment he wore beneath it. He discovered two things as he began an exploration of her heated flesh: that his initial suspicions were correct in that she wore absolutely nothing beneath that dress and that, from the way her slender, calloused fingertips moved over his shaft and cupped the heavy sac beneath, she knew exactly what she was doing with his body.

Her palm circled him, moving over the head of his cock and he couldn�t help the cry that forced its way out of his mouth as she worked him. It took what little self-control he still had to not seize her garment in his fists and tear it off. All the while her reiatsu flared along every nerve he had, pulling on his own until the back of his knees hit the edge of the mattress. When he felt her hands withdraw he could have screamed in protest, until he felt the remainder of his clothing fall into a puddle of cloth around his ankles. Without warning she placed one hand on his chest and pushed gently, causing him to fall back. He hastily propped himself up on his elbows, brown eyes wide, in time to see her cross her arms, grab the hem of the sundress and pull it over her head.

The redhead promptly forgot to breathe.

The last of what little willpower he might have used to refuse her, to stop her, disintegrated as she leaned forward, took his almost painfully erect member in her hands and opened her mouth. He got a brief glimpse of her breasts and the tip of his cock as her tongue teased the slit at the end of it before she swallowed him whole.

Renji couldn�t have stopped the scream that erupted from his throat if he�d stuffed his discarded hakama into his mouth with Zabimaru�s hilt.

He�d never felt anything like it. The fantasies he�d had while pleasuring himself with his hand, late at night, didn�t hold a candle to the real thing. The hateful pleasure he�d experienced when Szayel had first Claimed him, leaving his body wrung out and his heart filled with self-loathing, faded to nothing in comparison. Warm, wet suction combined with the rough sensation of her tongue swirling up and down his length to steal any reason he might have had left. Her reiatsu ebbed and flowed with each bob of her head, her hair moving like silk across his belly and thighs.

Renji could hear himself panting in time with it as little by little, it pulled more of his reiatsu with it, like ocean waves lapping at a shoreline, dragging the grains of sand with them as they rolled in and went out. She circled his head with her tongue and then he felt her swallow him fully again, throat muscles rhythmically tightening around him, the occasional scrape of a fang setting off an almost involuntarily push of his hips upwards. Anything to get himself deeper into that delicious mouth. He had no idea how long he laid there, eyes closed, head thrown back, and his hips shamelessly thrusting upwards in order to get his wet cock between those perfect lips, while her fingers teased and stroked his balls.

�Nel� oh, Kami� I�� he babbled, the pleasure threatening to overwhelm him completely unless she stopped.

Then, to his horror, she did stop and he nearly sobbed when she let his cock go, giving one last lick to his slit. The bed shifted as she climbed upon the mattress, straddled his hips and slowly, torturously, skimmed her fingers along the various tattoos that decorated his chest, arms and shoulders.

�Renji�� she whispered, head ducked and eyes lowered �Please, let me try to save you this time.�

The �please� hung there in the air as she hovered over him, waiting for some signal from him to continue. She�d withdraw, taking all of the pleasure she�d wrought so far with her, letting him make the choice to continue if that was what he wanted.

Renji couldn�t have opposed her then if he�d had the entire Gotei 13 at his back. Her eyes flew open and she met his gaze, startled, when he ran his hands up her thighs and let his thumbs graze her sex. He gave her a nod. The smile she returned to him erased any doubts.

This was what Rukia wanted, and Kami help him, he wanted this just as badly.

With one hand she reached down, lifted her hips slightly and guided his slippery cock to her entrance. Then, with agonizing slowness, he felt her body surround him as she lowered herself onto him. Grinding down, she closed her eyes and then began to move. His grip on her thighs, feeling the muscles in them contract as they lifted her up and down, tightened.

He thought her mouth had been the absolute pinnacle of heaven. Renji realized, through the haze of lust and the pulse of her reiatsu surging through him, enveloping him, that he�d been absolutely incorrect on that account.

She was almost too tight, too hot, too much for his over stimulated body to take for long. Yet it seemed to him, as she rode him, that she kept him from reaching his climax too quickly, reigning in the building pleasure that coiled and seethed in his belly. Moving his limbs seemed like an incredibly bad idea; he wanted nothing to interrupt the feeling of her heated, clenching, velvety passage moving from the base of his cock to the tip and back down again. Renji had a front row seat to the most mind-blowing show in the Seireitei and a perfect view of his painfully rigid member, glistening with her juices as it disappeared between her engorged, nether lips.

The weight of her reiatsu flowed over him, keeping him flat on his back and helpless to do anything save watch and move his hips up to meet her as Nel�s lush body moved above his, full thighs parted, breasts bouncing up and down with the rhythm she set. She kept one hand on his chest and the other propped behind her as leverage. Head back, eyes closed and pink lips open with her increasingly ragged breathing, he knew she wasn�t all that far away from coming. For that matter, so was he. Renji was dangerously close to losing it, and all he seemed capable of doing was driving his hips upwards and moaning garbled half-obscenities at how good she felt, how good all of it felt.

�Nel� oh, Kami�fuck�� he heard himself cry and realized he was pleading, though for what he wasn�t quite sure. Relief or release, maybe. He had to come, needed to come and yet he didn�t want the sensation of Nel�s body pleasuring him to ever end.

Renji felt her change her rhythm and would have actually whined until he felt the tip of her tongue trace his lower lip, as if seeking entrance. He caught it, opening his mouth for her. Her mouth enveloped his and he felt a massive rush of her spiritual pressure swamp his body, eliciting even further pleasure as her reiatsu invaded and twined around his own, just as her inner muscles seemed hell-bent on sucking his cock farther and farther up into her. It moved around him, encasing him, leaving all of the parts of him that it touched screaming for release, from the ends of his hair to his toenails. It was all-enveloping, binding him and too late, he realized what was about to happen.

Zabimaru wailed in the back of his mind, sounding a million miles away as Nel quickened her pace, gasping for air. Renji found himself dragged towards a precipice, bodily and spiritually, by her. He managed to reach down, fingers grazing the place where their bodies met, through the soaked curls above her sex to the pearl just above her lips�

He thought they might have screamed in unison as her body convulsed, her walls clamping down hard on him at the same time he gave one, last desperate thrust into her and pumped her full of his seed, his hands grabbing her hips so that he could force as much of himself into her as possible. The world faded to white for a moment with the force of his climax. Somewhere above, he heard a sob as his fingertips moved circle that pearl again and he cursed as she throbbed around him a second time, sending him reeling as another wave of pleasure surged over him.

At the same time, he knew that she�d taken some of his reiatsu into herself with his climax, leaving some of her own in its place. Nel�s Claim settled around him as each clench of her inner flesh stole what little breath he had from him. His arms and legs seemed heavy, as if all of his energy had been drained away and his eyelids slid closed.

The last thing he felt was her hair and skin as she leaned down, resting her head against his shoulder, her tresses blanketing the both of them, the turquoise and blood-red strands tangled together. His arms, for lack of anywhere better to go, wrapped around the still-shuddering form above him. He shushed a seething Zabimaru, content to let her body milk him dry, breathing in the spring-like perfume that clung to her hair and her skin. It smelled grassy, like green fields on a sunny day and after a moment he realized what it was.

�Clover,� he thought, suddenly proud of the fact he�d identified the fragrance as he drifted off.

Stay tuned for more exciting chapters. Not many more to go to finish this part of the story before we do the time skip and start heading into the home stretch, that hopefully won�t be over 1000pages long, lol. �til next update.
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Prize of Victory