After War: 8. Bonds
8. Bonds
After several moments of awkwardness upon Zaraki's shocking entry into the Quincy's quarters, the tallest of the youths had attempted to demand answers. He also proved to be the oldest, and introduced himself only as Yura, leader of the clan.
"I know who you are," he said to Zaraki, the biting tone in his voice unmistakable. "You're shinigami, the ones who slaughtered all the others. What have you done with Lord Aizen?"
Madarame had snickered at the title, but quieted at a stern look from his captain.
"Aizen is captured," Aibu said before anyone else could speak. "He most surely is not the man you think him to be. We've been told you're without food. How long has it been?"
Zaraki wasn't as interested in the matter of sustenance as he was other issues, but Yachiru had hopped off his back and raided the nearest Eleventh Division pack of provisions.
"We have snacks!" she chirped, rummaging through the pack.
Zaraki cleared his throat, which sounded like a growl to the Quincys, making them crowd closer to the wall, except for Yura.
"Maybe we should see to their needs before we start asking too many questions," Zaraki said as his vice-captain found her stash of sweets in the pack.
"I think that would be our first order of business," Aibu agreed, nodding.
Kurotsuchi shook his head. "I have questions..."
"Later," Zaraki said. "First they eat."
Zaraki estimated the group of youths carefully. They all shared the same black hair of varying lengths, the girls wearing theirs loose, with a braid to the left at their temple, their dark eyes fearful. One of the oldest held an infant who appeared under a year in age, and another younger girl was obviously in the early stages of pregnancy. Another child, toddler age in a red and floral print-trimmed chan-chanko, was held by one of the other boys. The older Quincys were dressed in similar manner of loose mompe-style pants and jimbei or hippari in bright colors, the girl's hippari embroidered with a marumon of the self-styled Aizen kamon at the edges of the sleeves and front bottom corners. The boy's wore the kamon only at the top left side of their collars. All looked back at them with caution, but one of the taller boys now stepped forward and stood beside Yura.
"What have you done with Lord Aizen?" Yura asked, stepping closer to them.
"I don't know what Aizen has told you, but I can guarantee it's been mostly lies," Zaraki decided, looking down as Yachiru appeared beside him, her arms full of food items, heavy on the candy, he noticed. "When did you pack so many sweets?"
She smiled up at him. "I have enough to share."
Aibu felt his command of the situation slipping away. He looked around at the room, and gestured to the two low oval tables to one side. "Come and eat and we'll discuss our departure."
Yura looked the slight man over carefully. "If you've captured Lord Aizen, we want no part of your company."
Aibu took a step closer, one hand on his katana hilt, a slight edge hinting his generally diplomatic speech. "I suppose you can think of it like that, young Quincy, but you may like to suggest to your comrades that you accompany us civilly, or we will resort to other methods of compliance."
Zaraki raised an eyebrow, surprised at the Second Division officer's change.
Yura frowned, his uncomfortable scrutiny of the shinigami increasing. He finally nodded. "For now."
"Good."
Aibu set about organizing the provisions at the two tables, overseeing the abundant sweets distribution that Yachiru had packed among the more substantial supplies. The small vice-captain busied herself dividing the candy into shapes and colors as Yura spoke lowly to his fellow kinsmen.
Two of the Second Division members took up posts at the broken doorway and the other settled against the wall near the table farthest into the room. Yura directed the girls of the group, who brought the children with them, to the back table where the lower ranked members of Twelfth Division were dispersing the food. They kept their distance at the far end of the table, away from where the low ranking Second Division shinigami leaned at the wall, ignoring his attempts at a pleasant expression.
Zaraki and Kurotsuchi watched the meal preparations being made, noting the keen appetite of the toddler who had few qualms about eating the foreign foods on the plate before him, and helping himself to what was on the nearest teenage girl's plate. Jugs of water were passed, and within ten minutes the Quincys had lowered their guard enough to eat and drink deeply of the water offered, staying ever watchful of the black-robed intruders around them.
Zaraki looked to where the four male Quincys had settled at the other table, the two youngest teens kneeling, eating little, while Yura and the second oldest boy stood, staring back at the captains, refusing the food on their plates.
Zaraki sighed, looking to the single doorway at the back of the room which was closed. He glanced at Yura, who was watching him. "Where does that door go?"
"Our personal quarters," the Quincy said. "But it's been locked for three days. Since the physician stopped coming by."
Kurotsuchi took new interest. "Oh?" His eyes fell on the pregnant girl at the far table. "What was his capacity?"
Yura's eyes narrowed on the captain's attention, stepping in front of him to block his view of the girl. "He saw to our needs, and arranged our meals." He looked to Zaraki. "The doors locked when we heard the sirens. The physician hasn't been back since."
Zaraki looked around the room. "You've been trapped here since?"
Yura nodded, pointing to a small door that blended into the wall to one side. "And the facilities."
Zaraki looked to Madarame and Ayasegawa waiting nearby. "Look into the facilities."
"Yes, Captain Zaraki," Madarame said, and left for the door across the room with the Ayasegawa.
Kurotsuchi angled his head to see the far table. "How many females are pregnant?"
Yura visibly bristled at the question. "That is no concern of yours."
Kurotsuchi took a step toward the youth, but Zaraki put a hand to his fellow captain's arm. "Oh, but it is a great concern of mine," the Twelfth Division captain said. "Of an utmost interest."
Yura stood his ground as Zaraki turned the other captain to the side.
"I think we should save some of our questions for a later debriefing, don't you think?"
"I've never encountered a pregnant Quincy. I think -"
"The questions can wait, Kurotsuchi."
The other captain reluctantly nodded.
Madarame and Ayasegawa met Zaraki after their search of the facilities. "Nothing. Just the basic lavatory. The water is shut off from elsewhere."
Zaraki nodded, looking back to the door at the back of the room, glancing to the latch. "See what's beyond that door."
"Yes, Captain."
Which had been followed by their captain's massive hand breaking the latch off, and then shoving the door in with a single push. The Quincys didn't scatter from the tables, but they did bunch together closer at the noise. The toddler began to cry, and Yachiru threw her captain a stern look as he undid her ten minutes of coaxing the younger child closer with a piece of candy.
Madarame and Ayasegawa moved into the new hall beyond the door. The set of bamboo walled rooms the Quincys shared were sparse, but comfortable, consisting of four chambers for sleeping, and two communal ones for meeting and general living. The meeting room was the only one that housed anything other than cots and stools. Here the room was spacious, with thick rattan mats lining the walls and a large circle drawn in red on the hardwood floor beneath the caged lights overhead.
Madarame looked to Ayasegawa, jerking a thumb at the marking. "Doujou."
Matsumoto nodded to the warden at the thick, barred gate of the hall to the back section of the detention building of the Second Division complex. The walls were bare, sterile, topped by low ceilings, devoid of any doors or windows. She was unescorted now, even by the scribe who had seen her as far as the building's entrance.
She couldn't blame Junana for not accompanying her. She moved deeper into the corridors, hearing nothing but an occasional cough from rooms beyond the walls. The hall turned, and when she followed it, she knew it was the end of her walk.
The hall was wide, with six inlets to cells to her left, to her right an outside wall that let in sunlight from the narrow windows that were cut at an angle in the wall. They were deep enough so that the outside world was not viewable except at a particular angle, but still allowed the natural light. She noticed, as she passed the windows, that they seemed to disappear when viewed from the interior, admitting indirect light but no glimpse of the outside.
The first sunken hall to her left was barred by a gate, and beyond it she could see, at the far end of the long inlet, a lone figure sitting on a cot. The nerves rattled up her spine as Matsumoto recognized Aizen's form, sitting at one end of the bed. He looked to her, his posture straightening as he saw her. She glanced at the sentinel who stood at the opening of the gate to the long entry to the single cell, and then continued her way down the hall.
The next inlet also ended in a single cell, this one with another sentinel. In the cell beyond she could see another figure, but she wasn't sure who it was; just the gray uniform of the prisoner. She moved on, seeing the next cell, but this one was unguarded and empty. The fourth inlet was occupied, a sentinel at its entry, and she could see the Fourth Espada standing against the far wall, looking out toward her with lowered head, his hands resting at his sides in absence of any pockets. His head lifted when he saw her, but he made no other move.
Each of the cells was of graduated, progressively shortened entry halls, entered by a barred gate. The fifth cell was empty, and Matsumoto's steps slowed as she approached the last cell entry at the end of the hall. The guard there was large, even for a guardsman, of any division. He gave her a swift appraisal, not speaking, holding out his hand, his posture stiff as he towered over her.
Matsumoto handed him her authorization paper, signed with Soy Fon's signet in red ink. He looked at it for a long moment, and then nodded, reaching for the ring of three keys at his baldric.
"You're allowed fifteen minutes, Vice-Captain."
She groaned at the short time, but nodded.
He unlocked the door and pulled it open, the hinges squeaking loudly.
She stepped in, looking immediately to the hall to her left, her fingers suddenly involuntarily closing across her palm.
His was the closest of the cells in the hall, set back only few meters. Behind her the gate closed, not locking, but Matsumoto didn't hear it, aware only of the man staring back at her from behind the bars.
For a few seconds he didn't move, and she watched him sit on the cot, for a brief moment seeming like the boy who had found her that day so long ago when she'd lost all hope, collapsed and weak from hunger. She watched him stand, her mind rushing with images of so many years. She'd seen him as a boy, seen him become strong, rise to captainship.
They had seen a lot of firsts together. She'd watched him grow into a man.
Her thoughts lurched to a halt.
A man that had left her alone for the first time in her adult life, left her hurt and bewildered. Was it another game? Just another game to him?
She stopped a meter from the cell bars, her eyes taking in his face, trying to read more than he was willing to convey.
"Ah, Rangiku, it's good to see you," he said, smiling, his hands closing around the bars before him as she halted. His wrists were in the reiatsu sealing cuffs as well as common bonds, but this time in front of him. "Don't stay so far away."
"Me?" Her hands tightened into fists, but her voice lacked the hate she wished she felt. "You took yourself out of my life, Gin. Completely out of my life. Not for a day or two like you used to, but -"
"I never meant to hurt you, Ran. You have to know that."
She closed the distance between them, her hands on the bars below his, her knuckles white with effort. "You said sorry. That was it, Gin."
He sighed, nodding, his eyes going over the simmer in her blue eyes, the hurt echoing behind it. "I was sorry. I still am."
She'd always felt stronger when he was around, but now she felt more vulnerable than ever. "Was I that easy to walk away from?"
"No. Never easy. It wasn't what I had planned, Ran."
She clenched her hands tighter to keep them from shaking. "What did you have planned? Slip away in the night? No goodbye at all?"
"No." His hands settled over hers on the bars, warm and strong, as so many other times, still able to calm her soul despite the barrier between them. "I hoped it wouldn't be goodbye ever."
She tried to take her hands from the bars, but his hold tightened over them, gentle, unceasing pressure that made her remain. "How could you follow him?"
He looked down at her hands in his grip, his fingers moving over the back over her hand, thumb resting crossed over hers. "You've heard the last few days."
"I know what you've been telling Captain Soi Fon."
"It's all true."
She studied him in detail. He wore the standard slate gray mompe and jimbei, the last longer than the usual waistcoat, looking oddly underdressed without the captain's coat and shihakusho she remembered him in. "When did you start lying to me? Or was it all lies?"
"I never lied to you, Rangiku. Never -"
"I'm not asking for myself, Gin. I'm asking you for the truth."
He estimated the facade slipping over her face. "I've never lied to you. I didn't tell you anything other than the truth, which is why I wouldn't tell you much of what I did." He took one hand from hers, his fingers slipping to her hair, trailing down to the ends that curled just at her collar.
She watched his hand as it moved, her fingers lighter on the bars. "I trusted you. I didn't think you'd -"
"I know. I wanted you to trust me so you wouldn't ask."
Her eyes narrowed. "That's not trust."
"Yes, it is." He looked to the soft tresses in his hand, the cuffs shortening his reach. "Your hair is longer."
A smile crept to her lips.
He moved closer to the bars. "You still smell like almonds."
"Time!" the sentinel shouted into the cell entry.
She closed her eyes momentarily, shaking her head, looking to him again. "You admit you're a traitor."
"No."
"I don't think you can prove you weren't."
He nodded, sighing. "Doesn't look like it."
"If you're telling me the truth, if you aren't a traitor, Gin," she said quietly, her hand moving to his that hung near her hair, "you have to prove it or they'll execute you."
He grinned, a hint of his former self that she remembered. "I think they'll execute me anyway, Ran."
She refused the tears that threatened her eyes. "Promise me you'll tell me everything if I ask."
"I promise."
"No matter what the consequences?"
"Yep."
Her eyes didn't leave his face, watching the smile that had dimmed as he nodded. "Even before Captain Soi Fon?"
"Ah, she's an angry one."
"Gin, even before her? Do you promise?"
"The truth, Rangiku. As always, the truth."
"Time now! Let's go, Vice-Captain Matsumoto!" the sentinel called louder.
She nodded, pulling her hand from his grip, missing the warmth as soon as his touch was gone. "I'll see you tomorrow."
He nodded, and she forced herself away from the cell as the sentinel entered the room. She left the cell with only a short look back. He didn't wave, only staring after her.
Her mind felt detached from everything as she made her way down the halls of the Second Division complex and out into the bright streets of the Seireitei. She was oblivious to the few fellow shinigami she passed, even her own Division members as she found her way home.
She had prepared to go straight to her back porch and attempt to sort through the layers of sensations passing, flipping through her mind, aching into her heart.
But there wasn't time. Soi Fon stood at her front step, Hitsugaya and Junana by her side. Matsumoto wanted to run in the opposite direction, to avoid anyone at the moment. She approached her quarters, looking to each of the captains, bowing.
"You've had your visit, Vice-Captain Matsumoto?" Soi Fon asked before Hitsugaya could get the first word out.
Matsumoto nodded, watching the other woman carefully. "Yes, Captain."
"Good. I'm taking a unit to locate Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi Shihouin. You'll be overseeing Gin Ichimaru's interviews while I'm gone."
Matsumoto stared at the woman with disbelief.
Soi Fon eyes sharpened on her. "Is that a problem?"
"No, Captain."
"Are you sure, Vice-Captain?"
"She said it's not a problem," Hitsugaya said pointedly.
Soi Fon sent him a belittling stare, which he held, refusing to wither, until she looked back to Matsumoto.
"Then it's decided. Junana will be your permanent scribe for this. I expect a full report when I return." She looked to Hitsugaya. "You'll be without your vice-captain for a while, Captain."
He nodded, eyes fastened on Matsumoto.