After War: 13. Slippage
13. Slippage
It hadn't taken Uryuu Ishida long to realize he couldn't' tell if he was looking at a fellow Quincy or not. The tall youth named Yura that looked back at him in the containment hall of Eleventh Division could have been anyone - or everyone - from his lineage, or not.
Yura stared back at him for a long moment, and then dropped to one knee, head lowered. "Ishida-san! We're honored!"
Behind Yura, the other seven youths immediately fell to one knee. After a moment, the toddler sunk to his hands and knees, forehead crouched over his legs. A moment later he looked to where Yachiru stood with her pouch of treats, smiling at her.
Beside Uryuu, Aibu and Zaraki looked to each other. Behind them stood Rukia and Renji, who Uryuu had insisted-nearly-begged accompany him to the first meeting of prospective Quincys, awaiting his impression. Uryuu looked a little embarrassed as he looked out over the bowed heads. The Quincy question was becoming a sore spot with some of the Division captains, and most wanted it decided, one way or another. Quartered in Eleventh Division had kept their mention out of most meetings, but conclusion was in order.
"Doesn't prove anything," Kurotsuchi said, growling deep in his throat. "A complete genetic workup is in order. I've submitted the paperwork already."
Zaraki gave the captain of the Twelfth Division a long-suffering look. "Don't you have enough genetic material already?"
"Fresh is better."
Uryuu cleared his throat, and the new group of Quincys lifted their heads, looking to him. "Could you all please stand up?"
Yura was the first to approach. "I'm Yura, the leader. We've heard so much about you, Ishida-san. We're honored to meet you finally." He bowed deeply to the human.
Renji looked to Rukia. "There'll be no tolerating him now."
Uryuu threw the red-haired Soul Reaper a tolerant look. "You invited me here, Abarai."
Zaraki put his hands on his hips, taking up the entire doorway. "Now what? Are they Quincys, or just baggage?"
Uryuu's eyes rested on the circle kamon on Yura's jimbei, frowning at the design. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, unwilling to allow the next words. "I can't tell just by looking at them, Captain."
"A test? A test. Yes, a few tests are in order," Kurotsuchi said, nodding, his masked smirk looking out over the lot. "And Uryuu Ishida also."
"Now wait a minute," Uryuu said, shaking his head, taking a step back from the scientist. "No tests. Not a drop of anything! My father works at a hospital, and if anyone should do any testing, it's him."
Aibu nodded eagerly. "He has a point. That would be best. And," he said, his diplomatic lilt returning as he looked up at Zaraki, "it would help mend the rift between shinigami and Quincy."
"It's not a rift for the victors," Zaraki grunted.
"No. Of course not, but think of the magnanimous qualities the offer would show. A good faith gesture."
Uryuu frowned at the Second Division officer. "You can't expect me to take them back with me. My father doesn't even know I'm here."
"Oh, very good," Kurotsuchi agreed. "Then we may test here." He looked out over the youths that had crowded to the wall, except for Yura.
"How much testing do you need done?" Uryuu asked, frowning at Kurotsuchi. "How invasive?"
Kurotsuchi gave a resigned sigh. "Just blood work, Ishida. That would be enough."
"And then?" Uryuu looked to Aibu. "What then?"
"You may take them home with you," the Second Division officer said.
"Uh, oh..." Uryuu looked from Rukia to Renji, but got no help. "I suppose I could deal with that more than leaving them here. I suppose..." He glanced at Kurotsuchi. "Just blood work?"
"Unless they could remain here a little longer. Just until I could sequence their DNA."
Uryuu looked back to the Qunicys near the wall, and then nodded to Yura. "I'll need to speak with my father first."
Matsumoto had lain awake most of the muggy night before, replaying the interview in her mind. She'd stared at the bamboo ceiling until the dark was hinted by shadows creeping across the woods behind her quarters, and until the shadows turned into the haze of dawn.
She hadn't come to any conclusions, nor had she expected to. By the time she got out of bed for the day, she was tired of thinking about the tangle of messes that had plagued the Seireitei lately.
I've been neglecting Captain Hitsugaya, she thought with a twinge of guilt as she dressed that morning, admitting it with more remorse than she usually did. But it wasn't as if he was busy with much else than the impending executions and captains' meetings.
The Arrancars in Karakura Town and Osaka City were nearly under control, and four of the eight from Eleventh Division had already returned. Ichigo Kurosaki had joined Ikkaku Madarame and his three squad members in the fight still waging in Karakura Town, and the reports coming in were all encouraging.
But Matsumoto knew captain had been too long without an adjutant, and she didn't like the idea of abandoning him, even if it was for Society business elsewhere.
Besides, she had questions he could answer. Not that he would answer, she thought as she made her way across the Seireitei to Third Division that morning. She wasn't sure Kira would answer them for her, either, but the chances were a little better. And a little sake would help.
"Ah, I see you're about captain duties," she said as she found him sitting on his back porch of his vice-captain's quarters. She crossed her arms, the jug of sake in one hand, and shook her head at his slumped form as he stared unfocused at the dim view of the woods. "You're not going to make a habit of this misery, are you?"
"You, Matsumoto. You're one to talk." He glanced her way and shook his head, sighing despondently as she stood closer. "You're the one causing the grief."
"Me?" She set the jug of sake down beside him and patted his head. "How am I to blame for this morose face?"
He moved her hand when she cupped his chin in her fingers and squeezed a smile from him. "How can you joke? This is serious stuff."
She sat down next to him and set the jug in his reluctant hands. "What stuff?"
"My report. Ugh, you know what I've got to do?"
"How bad can it be?"
He pulled the cork from the jug and looked at the slightly tinted liquid inside. "I'm not sure what I knew, or when, or even if I knew anything at all."
Matsumoto groaned, shaking her head. "You really are confused, aren't you?"
"Everything kept changing, Rangiku. I kept making excuses for myself, and for him. I kept thinking I was slipping into something I couldn't get out of."
"Hey! You started without me," Hisagi said as he rounded the corner of the small house. He looked from Matsumoto to Kira. "Oh, I see how it is. Conducting interviews on the back porches of quarters now, are you, Matsumoto?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're next, Shuuhei."
"Leave me out of it." Hisagi dropped down on the other side of Matsumoto. "What are we not-celebrating this time?"
"Culpability." Kira took a long drink from the jug, then looked at it for a moment. "This is the good stuff."
"Oh, yes." Matsumoto smiled warmly at him. "So, one vote has been cast. How'd you vote, Izuru?"
He swallowed quickly, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Are you serious? Gotei Thirteen aren't letting me vote."
She frowned at him. "But you're sitting in on the meetings, aren't you?"
"Yes, some of them."
She looked to Hisagi as Kira passed him the jug.
"I'm not voting, either," he said before she could ask, taking a drink.
She intercepted the jug as he handed it back to Kira. "What good are you two?"
"What do you expect?" Hisagi shrugged as she stuck the sake out to him. "Yeah, sure, we two sit in, but no one asks much of our opinions, and Fifth Division isn't represented at all, Rangiku. We have to sit there and listen to parts of your reports, and some of our own. It's agonizing, seeing it all again."
She sat between them, watching them handing the sake back and forth. "That's it? Ten captains voting. That could be split."
Kira shrugged. "It wasn't for the first vote. Unanimous."
"What'd you expect? They admitted subversion at the highest levels." Hisagi studied Matsumoto for a long moment. "What's he been saying about us? Did he try to manipulate Izuru into helping Aizen and Tousen?"
"Why don't you ask Izuru?"
They both looked to the lighter-haired man as he took a drink from the jug. "I did what my captain told me. Even raised my hand to Momo." A new wave of guilt washed over him. "If he hadn't let me out of the jail cell that day, it would have been different, Rangiku."
"It might have been worse, Izuru. Did you ever think of that?" she asked, stretching her legs out in front of her. She waved off the jug when he offered it to her.
"No? Hmm, that's unlike you," he said, raising the jug to this lips again.
"She's going to see him, that's why," Hisagi said with a nod. "Right, Rangiku?"
She scowled at his smirk. "Why not?" She turned her attention back to Izuru. "Did you ever think it would have been worse if he'd left you in the jail cell?"
The familiar feeble look came back to Kira's face. "Is that what he said?"
She sighed, smoothing her black robes, turning the obi so the detail faced out. "We haven't talked about you yet."
Kira rattled a sigh, taking another drink. "I didn't know what to think anymore."
They fell silent for a few minutes as Matsumoto realized she wasn't going to get any answers out of either of them. She didn't like their situations, and didn't much like her own at moments over the last week, but decided it was better than not being involved at all.
"It could be a tie vote, on the next set of executions," she said finally, hating the sound of the words as they left her lips.
"Well, you know Captain Soi Fon will vote for everyone to be executed," Hisagi opined as Kira passed him the jug. "She already cast her vote before she left with her detachment to Urahara's shop in the Living World."
"Yamamoto-san will vote for execution," Kira said with a nod. "He's a real old guard for the rules and regulations. I don't think he'd have leniency on any traitor."
"But he's only one vote," Matsumoto recalled, not liking how they both immediately thought of the damaging votes. "I don't think Captain Zaraki would have any leniency. Not when he was so eager to put ..." She caught herself before saying anything about what Gin had mentioned about Zaraki and Kuchiki when discussing Rukia.
"What?" Hisagi prompted when she didn't finish.
"It should be in the reports soon, if it hasn't already." She stood up and looked to each of them.
"I know what you're talking about, Rangiku," Kira said lowly. He nodded when she looked to him curiously.
"Were you there? Did you hear it?"
"No. Cap - Ichimaru told me about it when it happened." He shrugged slowly when she stared at him expectantly.
"Just told you? Nothing more?"
Hisagi shook his head. "He could have told you anything, Izuru."
Kira nodded. "But Captain Zaraki came by the Division offices later that day and had words with Ichimaru. I don't know what was said," he added as Matsumoto watched him hopefully. "It might not mean anything at all."
She sighed. "Will it be in your new report?"
"I've given part of it already." Kira sloshed the last third of sake around in the jug. "I didn't think it meant much at the time, but now," he shrugged, "I'll make sure I'll put it in. I don't know if it'll help."
"Just the truth, Izuru," she said lightly.
"Is that what you're doing, Rangiku?" Hisagi asked, his tone more pointed than he'd meant for it to be. "It would be simple to ask for something other than the truth."
"I've asked him for the truth. That's it," she told him.
"I guess it only really matters what Captain Kuchiki puts in his report," Kira decided. "If he leaves it out, it won't matter if it happened or not."
"It's in my report," she said. "If it's in yours, too, then Captain Soi Fon will have to look into it from Captains Kuchiki and Zaraki."
Hisagi shrugged, settling back on his hands behind him on the porch. "You'd think. But I don't see captain of Second Division doing anything she doesn't want to."
Matsumoto nodded in agreement, watching Kira's face reclaim its troubled, faraway look again. She shook her head, gesturing to him. "Do something with this, will you, Shuuhei?"
He looked to Kira. "Sure thing."
This time Matsumoto turned to look back out at the Seireitei as she entered the Second Division complex. Usually she didn't see the view down the steep incline, busy speaking with Junana, or buried in her own thoughts of the afternoon, but this time she took a moment to pause.
Heat swells rippled up from the streets and rooftops below, with Fourth and Seventh Divisions closest to Second. She could see most of the white banners raised over each Division's quarters, their numbers and insignia indiscernible at the distance, but she knew which was which. Beneath each banner now flew a second, smaller unadorned black banner, signaling the execution vote. The flag poles of Third, Fifth, and Ninth Divisions had a third banner; a split white banner indicating distress.
She knew Hisagi, Kira, and Hinamori had balked at raising the white streamers, but each had done it.
The hot wind lifted her hair as she watched the banners, hating what they meant. Soul Society in turmoil, even after winning the War. Executions would only add to the tumult.
She knew she hadn't heard much of it herself, even as she approached the Second Division administration building, but she knew it was there. Hitsugaya had been absent much of the week, and his mood varied from grumpy to hints of relief, to downright bitterness.
"Good afternoon, Vice-Captain Matsumoto-san," Junana greeted as Matsumoto reached the last hall to the jail cells.
"Hello, Junana." She looked at the scribe's pouch at her belt. "You've turned in last night's reports to Officer Aibu?"
"Yes, Vice-Captain." For a moment the girl looked like she was going to say more, but she wavered, her steps slowing.
"What is it, Junana?" Matsumoto paused, watching the girl's face.
"I believe..." Junana's usually light voice was even more timid, her dark eyes going to the jailor at Aizen's door inlet as they neared it. "I believe Captain is returning soon, Vice-Captain," she said barely above a whisper.
Matsumoto had stopped walking, turning to the scribe, the words making a flurry of thoughts race through her mind. When she focused, she realized she was staring back at Aizen from his cell down the long inlet hall. He was too far away for her to read his expression.
And she didn't want to read it, anyway. She looked back to Junana as they turned back down the hall to the last cell, not looking at any of the other cells as they passed.
"Thank you, Junana."
The girl nodded as they halted before the guard at Ichimaru's cell. The guard looked them over, nodding, and unlocked the heavy door.
"Fifteen minutes, Vice-Captain."
"Yes, thank you."
She stepped into the cell, her eyes going to the bars and the man behind them automatically. Gin was standing with his hands on the barriers, his grin appreciative when he saw her. She crossed the floor to him, aware that Junana stayed at the door to the hall, as she had at other times.
"Ah, I thought you'd changed your mind, Rangiku," he said when she reached him.
There was no hesitation this time when she put her hand over his on the bars. "Should I be changing it?"
"No, don't tease me here. I need what little time we get without your little mice." He smiled wider, bringing the same from her. "You always smell sweet."
She felt his hand slip over hers, his fingers firm on hers. "What did you do to Kira?"
His smile dropped for a frown. "Hmm, now you're going to interrogate me with our only time, Ran?"
"No. Don't answer that, Gin. But I am going to ask you. I have to, and I really want to know." She saw the grin crook back over his face.
"I didn't do anything to him. Just used him to the advantage of Momo-chan."
Her hand pulled away as he said, but he didn't relinquish his hold.
"Izuru did what a vice-captain was supposed to do; follow orders from their captain, and step in front of any sword drawn on him," he said quietly. "As long as he was there, I wouldn't have to draw my sword. At least, in theory, that's how it's supposed to work. Which is ideal when it's Momo-chan and Captain of Tenth wanting to fight." His hand settled over hers fully. "Now when you stepped in front of Shinsou's attack for Momo-chan, you weren't acting as Vice-Captain Matsumoto, Ran; that was for your friend, not your captain."
Her fingers curled away from his, but he didn't let her remove her hand. "You were going to kill her, Gin."
He shook his head slightly. "Shinsou has been known to fail, or miss. But I didn't want to engage Captain Hitsugaya. Nor you." His other hand slipped through the bars, one finger softly brushing the small mole below her lip. "I didn't want to involve you at all."
Her hand covered his as it rested at the nape of her neck. "You'll tell me all of it tomorrow when I ask?"
A flicker of vacillation passed over his face, his grin lifting at one corner as he nodded. "I'll tell you it all, but only if you ask."
She nodded, feeling his fingers press at the back of her neck, tangling in her hair. "Captain Soi Fon is returning soon. I assume she'll be conducting the interviews then."
He sighed, the grin becoming a frown. "Has she found Urahara yet?"
"I don't think so."
"Ah, she'll be in an ornery mood."
She smiled, her hand drawing down his arm, sliding into the wide sleeve of the gray jimbei a few inches. "You're not to be among the first to be ..." She couldn't say it, not while staring into his pale blue eyes. She could barely even think of the word. "You're not in ..."
"I know. Hey, maybe second, huh?"
Her eyes closed in momentary despair. "Oh, stop it, Gin."
"Would you be so very sad?"
She frowned at him, hurt heavy in her eyes. "How can you ask that?"
He leaned closer. "Because it stays on my mind."
Her fingers tightened on his wrist, anchoring him as close as the bars would let them.
"Time!" the guard called.
Behind her Matsumoto heard Junana move, the rustling of paper. She opened her eyes.
Gin grinned as she looked to him. His hand fell through her hair, pulling one long curl through the bars. "It'll still be you tomorrow, Ran?"
"I think so."
He nodded, fingers trailing to the end of the strawberry-blonde tress. She stepped back, feeling his hand squeeze hers briefly as she withdrew.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Gin."
"Tomorrow."