#These are in no way posted for concrit - they're just available whole or in parts to anyone who might want to write stuff based on them

[ks-caster]

I never figured out a title for this one - despite the length and depth of the outline??

Fandom: Bleach

Characters: Okay, this one centers on an OC. Most of my OC ones I just deleted in the purge - but the second half of this one centers on Tatsuki and Byakuya, and I thought maybe someone might like to experiment with their character development/relationship, so here it is for perusal. 

My outline is under the cut.

After staying late at a friend’s house and missing the last train, Ichigo runs back home through three towns, and just when he is about to arrive, he finds and unconscious girl lying on the sidewalk, with bloody bare feet and splatters of blood all over her chest. He takes her home for his father to treat. {Make her hair platinum blonde, almost white, but with just a little yellow, so she’s not like Toshiro.}

The girl regains consciousness late that afternoon, but she has no memories. Isshin goes to the police station with a picture of her, and is told that she doesn’t resemble any missing persons. Meanwhile, the girls help her get cleaned up and get to know her a little bit. They call her “bunny” because she’s so timid and gentle. By the time Isshin comes home, the girls have decided that they rather want to adopt “Bunny” until she gets her real memories back or her family comes looking for her. Isshin being Isshin agrees, and they go out and get a bunk bed so that the 3 girls can more conveniently share a room, since they learned the hard way that three beds do not fit very well onto one normal-sized floor when Rukia was staying over.

Bunny has assimilated into the family, and is trying to walk on her own again (as her feet were injured when they found her.) She does a lot of the shopping, taking Ichigo with her in case she falls, or to carry the bags home. She reveals that she’s been seeing things that others clearly cannot, and asks Ichigo if she’s going crazy. He explains all about ghosts, and how one can tell them from humans. 

Bunny and Ichigo have really hit it off now, and she starts picking him up from the sports thing and odd jobs he does over the summer for pocket change. Time passes happily, and Ichigo starts to wonder if not having powers and constantly fighting hollows is such a bad thing; he even has a dream about his own family, with Bunny as his wife. He wakes up and feels stupid, but can’t help thinking she’s adorable when he goes downstairs that morning and sees her in the apron Yuzu and Isshin got for her. The two go out on a date to the movies, and then she confides in him her worries that either she will never regain her memories, or that if she does, there will be no family, or something terrible, waiting for her. Ichigo reassures her that the whole family loves her, and if that is the case, then they just get to keep her forever. But he doesn’t have the guts to admit to himself that he probably loves her the most of all, and in a very different way.

Ichigo and Bunny are walking home from the movie and are stopped by a gang of thugs who know Ichigo from previous skirmishes, which he always won. The leader challenges him to a fight, which he wins yet again, but Bunny is taken hostage, and the rest of the gang beat him up very badly. Bunny discovers that she has some pretty strong legs, and after defeating two of the gang-members, terrifies the rest of them so thoroughly that they run away. She finds that she has skill in combat, but is brought to tears when she realizes that if she hadn’t been there, or had acted sooner, Ichigo wouldn’t be covered in blood. Ichigo tells her not to worry, that he’d rather get a little messed up himself (“a little messed up, you call this?!”) than see her injured.

When they get back home from grocery-shopping one day, Yuzu is standing by the door looking nervous, and Karin is serving tea to what Ichigo is too smart to think is an empty couch. Byakuya Kuchiki and a shinigami from the R&D department named Lin have come to bring Bunny back to the Soul Society, since it has been determined that she is dangerous, having appeared in the vicinity of the only known remaining entrance to Hueco Mundo in the world of the living. Bunny agrees to go with them, but asks if she can have one more day, since Isshin has gone out of town on a medical conference, and she wants to thank him properly for taking care of her. Kuchiki agrees, and the shinigami depart, promising to return in 24 hours.

Ichigo feels powerless, and doesn’t like it one bit. He reflects that even in the few months he’s known her, Bunny has become very important to him. Bunny seems resigned to her fate, although she still has no memories, and thus has no idea what’s going on. That night, the house is attacked by people in white uniforms that they never thought they’d see again, and Bunny is badly injured. Karin is translating the conversation that Ichigo cannot hear, and realizing that there is only one way to save the girl he has come to cherish, he takes a large kitchen knife and stabs himself in the heart.

Using his own chain of fate as a weapon, he attacks the arrancar, who turns out to be Sayzel Opporo (sp? Use?) And manages to get in a few hits in, between getting the living daylights beat out of him, since he has no spirit energy. Then, he finds himself doubled over in pain, because the chain is encroaching. He had forgotten all about that part. Just when things look dire for both of them, they are saved…

…By good ol’ Renji Abarai, who happened to be in the vicinity with—guess who—Rukia (and Kon?) in tow. They explain that they are basically on vacation, and came to this particular area because Rukia had it from her brother that Ichigo had Eisen’s secret weapon living in his house. Ichigo is flabbergasted, and tells Rukia she must be mistaken. He looks back at Bunny, who is wearing a formal, many-layered kimono that he’s never seen. She certainly looks different than normal, but there’s no mask that he can see, so he still doesn’t believe them. That is, until suddenly, a certain pasty white substance that is horribly familiar to all present seems to drip out of nowhere and form an intricately woven and twisted circlet around her head. (like Arwen’s butterfly crown) Her hair is very white-blonde, and her eyes are obviously pink. She also has earrings made of the mask-material. She looks up with a mournful expression on her face.

Bunny tells her story, about how Eisen created her to be a powerful weapon, and how once created, she developed a mind of her own, and a heart also, when Eisen realized that she wouldn’t be easy to manipulate, he gave up on the project and had her put in storage. Locked away in darkness for countless years, there was really nothing to remember, and she figures that that’s why it was so easy to lose them. She tells about her friend, who discovered her by accident, and who would talk to her through the door, and tell her about the outside world, which she had never seen. One night, hearing that she was going to be disposed of, he breaks her out, promising that he is going to show her the sky and the ocean and the birds, but he is killed while trying to help her get away. With his dying breath, he tells her to run, so she does; dashing away in terror. After some time, she realizes that, had she stayed, she might have had a chance of saving him. She feels so terrible about it, but she’s so scared she can’t do anything but keep running. After a while of hating herself, she begins to wish with all her heart that the wind whipping against her face would just blow through her mind and wipe it clean, free of everything that’s burdening her. At some point, she gets her wish, and loses all sense of self and being. She becomes as one with the wind, and runs on for days and nights without stopping. After ten days, she collapses from fatigue; apparently she didn’t succeed in becoming one with the wind after all. That was when Ichigo found her.

Byakuya and twenty members of the stealth force show up as Bunny is finishing her story. They attempt to take her into custody, but Ichigo protests, saying that she can’t help what she is, and she doesn’t seem to want to hurt anyone, since the reason that the experiment failed is that she developed a human heart and the conscience that goes with it. Byakuya tells him to stay out of it; it’s not his business, and will be handled by the soul society. Lin from R&D fixes Ichigo's body and stuffs him back into it, telling him that if he breaks the chain again, it cannot be repaired a second time. Bunny comes over to Ichigo and thanks him for protecting her, and he grabs onto her, ‘cause he doesn’t want her to leave just when he’s finally figured out how he feels about her. He begs her in a whisper not to go, and she presses her lips against his, and then whispers in his ear, “Kiss of death, recall to life, Tensa Zangetsu.”

Ichigo is reunited with his zanpakuto in the world of his soul, and reflects that, given the choice, no matter how comfortable peace can be, he really does prefer to have the power to fight when necessary. Coming to back in the world of the living, he finds that practically no time has passed, and Bunny still has her arms wrapped around him, and his around her. He really likes that, but she pulls away, saying that she really ought to comply with the wishes of the Soul Society. Enraged at the thought of her taken into custody and maybe torn apart as a lab rat, Ichigo prepares to fight against Byakuya and the stealth force, but Soi Fon shows up. Never having seen her attack before, he doesn’t even know he’s in danger until after he had Suzumebachi’s mark on him. After it is explained to him that his life can now be ended by one more strike to the same place, he says loudly that he refuses to allow her to be harmed, and doesn’t believe for a second that they just want to ask her some friendly questions. Rukia suggests that Ichigo accompany Bunny into custody, so that he may observe that the Soul Society is honorable. Ichigo agrees, and sheaths his sword.

Ichigo and Bunny are taken to the Soul Society, and Rukia and Renji catch up with their red-headed friend after nearly a year of separation. Bunny is very quiet, and keeps hold of Ichigo's hand the whole way. When they reach the main building where the head captain holds meetings, they are presented to Yamamoto, who welcomes Ichigo back with at least no open hostility, although he is unhappy about the way the two seem bonded. Mayuri Kurotsuchi says that it is unacceptable for Ichigo to remain with “The Specimen,” since he may interfere with the experimenting. Rukia informs the head captain that Bunny wouldn’t have even come if Ichigo hadn’t been with her, that she had the look of one who was going to make a break for it. Bunny substantiates this opinion by confessing her plan to make a break for it once the party entered the Dangai precipice world, but says that she didn’t mind coming, since Byakuya didn’t seem to mind Ichigo accompanying her. She figures that he wouldn’t have said yes if he was lying about “a few friendly questions.” Byakuya apparently was the one being lied to, which becomes evident in the faces of himself, the head captain, and captain Kurotsuchi. Bunny and Ichigo are chucked into adjacent cells, and Rukia is put in with Bunny, on charges of having conspired with them. She doesn’t deny it, but doesn’t exactly confess either.

Renji is granted permission to visit, and tells Rukia in secret street-rat code which she later translates for her cellmates that Uryu, Chad and Orihime have discovered their friends’ imprisonment, and plan to rescue them. Mayuri also visits, and has Bunny released for “inspection,” Ichigo spends some time banging himself against the bars of his prison, as his spiritual pressure is sealed off by his restraints. He tells Rukia how he feels about Bunny, and she tells him that she’s happy for him, that he’s finally found someone. Then she breaks the mood by telling him that only he would be psycho enough to fall for the one girl in all of creation that was going spend her life being hunted by every other thing in creation. But then she reflects that that’s why Ichigo was a perfect match for her, ‘cause no matter what the situation, he was a little lost without someone to protect.

Bunny is escorted back to the cell, looking a little tired and a little stressed, but none the worse for wear. Renji comes by later and tells them that Byakuya had insisted on attending the interrogation, just to be sure that all the right questions were asked, nothing got sidetracked, and that she didn’t escape or anything. Bunny says that she happily told them everything she knew, and that they had taken a blood sample, and a lock of her hair and some saliva so that they could analyze them, but that other than that, it was basically just a slightly stressful conversation. Rukia comments later on how pretty her kimono is, and she shows off the layers, which are all her memories wrapped around her. When Rukia wakes up the next morning, she sees the two of them lying side-by-side on opposite side of the bars. She feels a little bit lonely, because, although she had never felt that way about Ichigo, she had always felt that she had a close bond with him. She shakes it off as the door creaks quietly open.

Renji comes in looking harried and out of breath, and says that after analyzing the samples, Kurotsuchi had dashed off at a mad sprint, dragged the head captain out of bed, and five minutes later, a captains’ meeting had been called, the culmination of which was the order that Bunny be executed that afternoon, and that Ichigo and Rukia were both going to stand trial, and might possibly get executed themselves! If not, they would certainly be given long prison sentences just for being associated with “something so dangerous.” Just as he finishes speaking, Byakuya walks in, looking slightly flustered, which is saying something for him. He has keys in his hand, and begins to say the same things Renji just said. Then, he looks next to him and realizes Renji is there, which he apparently didn’t notice before. Bunny smiles and so does Rukia. Ichigo looks at them with an eyebrow raised. “It seems Mr. Stone-face has a heart after all,” Bunny whispers. Byakuya breaks them out and commands Renji as his subordinate not to say anything to anyone (thus taking the whole of the blame onto himself). Renji beats around the bush, and Rukia finally translates his um’s and uh’s into “he had planned on coming with us.” The four take a back door out, and Rukia hugs Byakuya for the first time, and whispers, “thank you, brother!”

The four are almost to the Rukongai when alarms are sounded, and they decide that if they can’t run, they ought to hide. Renji suggests Sokyoku Hill, as being the last place anyone would ever look for them. They go there, and Bunny, to everyone’s surprise including her own, is drawn like a magnet to the Sokyoku. Out in the open instead of in a cavern at the crown of the hill where they had planned to lay low, she is seen, and a bunch of shinigami show up, led by Soi Fon, with Mayuri Kurotsuchi in tow. They are attacking, and Ichigo, Renji and Rukia are defending against some pretty stiff odds, when Orihime, Chad and Uryu show up. The battle continues to escalate as the Seireitei sends in reinforcements, and then the Sokyoku ignites, seeming to slip free of its seals on its own volition. Upon further inspection, there is a figure garbed in brilliant red and gold standing atop its head.

Bunny has another layer to her kimono—the Sokyoku layer. She resonated with it because it is just like her, a creature designed solely to destroy, given great power in order to do so, and then kept locked up when not in use. The others climb on and they all fly away. Meanwhile, Byakuya gets in trouble for setting them free, and is thrown into the Repentance Cell—since a captain could easily break out of a regular prison—to await trial. After a few weeks of nothing interesting, someone vaguely familiar is put into the cell with him, “tacked” to the wall by five skewers, in the center of her chest, her upper arms, and her wrists. She turns out to be Tatsuki Arisawa, and she got captured trying to sneak in and steal Mayuri’s research data on Bunny. The guards warn Byakuya half-jokingly that she’s a “berserker,” and he ought to stay away.

It’s Tatsuki’s turn to tell a story, and she tells how the others had gone to a location she would not name aloud, for fear of being overheard, along with some other similarly anonymous people, and she had come along too. Bunny feared what use Kurotsuchi could put her DNA to, so Tatsuki had decided on her own to come and retrieve it, and then she had found a bunch of files on Ichigo, Chad and Orihime that she had been putting on a flash-drive when she had been discovered. She ran for it, and managed to hide the drive, but she didn’t say where, in case they were being overheard. Byakuya tries to get her down, but finds that without his spirit energy, he is not able to pull out the blades so deeply embedded in the sekki-sekki rock of the tower. He starts to think that he really ought to re-work his training so that he could fight without his sword or spirit energy.

A week passes, and then two. Byakuya’s trial begins, and Tatsuki is finally released from the wall, seeing as she cannot eat in that position, and no order has been given for her death yet. Someone is at least kind enough to have some screens sent to them, so they can divide the cell for privacy. As Byakuya is a captain, they are both given opportunities to bathe, and separate latrines, but that’s as far as courtesy extends. They both keep busy by working out, and they spar once in a while too. They don’t talk much; after all, it is Byakuya Kuchiki, and he’s the strong, silent type and all that. Tatsuki talks sometimes, because she says if she doesn’t, she might forget how or something. Byakuya is called into the court room four times over the course of the next three weeks, but no decision is reached. Tatsuki declares that she is going to go crazy if she spends too much more time locked up, and in the middle of the night, Byakuya catches her emanating a weird light.

When Byakuya confronts Tatsuki trying to do… well, something weird, she claims she’s going crazy, as she predicted, but he doesn’t buy it; he says she’s too stubborn to lose her mind. The two are at loggerheads for a little while, insulting one another more and more heatedly, until finally Tatsuki falls on the floor laughing. She says it’s because she’d never seen him get so ridiculously upset before, and he sits down too, having to admit that she’s right. He explains—briefly; he’s still Byakuya—that as the heir to a noble family, he was expected to keep his cool, and had made it a habit to keep his mouth, and face, in check. Tatsuki confesses that she was trying to break down the door, and he asks her how exactly she planned on doing that. After looking at him like she’s sizing him up, she shows him how she can manipulate the sekki-sekki, by breaking his shackles, though she has no idea how she does it. She invites him to come and run away with her and amazingly he agrees.

Tatsuki chooses to break the wall at the back instead, so it’ll be less conspicuous, and the two of them make a run for it out into the night. They sneak into the Kuchiki manor to get some non-prison clothes, and some money, and make for the world of the living, where it’ll be easier to hide, and find the others, with whom they hope to be reunited. Tatsuki is impressed by the efficiency of the R&D department when they find a permanent gate that even has a money-changer machine, and a dispenser for a new invention; a thin chain worn on the body that makes a soul visible to humans, and even suppresses their spirit energy. The two get to the world of the living and immediately get on a train, so they can travel a great distance from the portal without using spirit energy and leaving a trail. 

After riding for several hours, the trains have stopped running for the day, and they disembark and locate a small motel. When they get into the room they have rented, it is pretty decent; a bedroom, a bathroom, and a little living room with a kitchenette and a tiny tube TV. In a fit of gallantry, Byakuya says he’ll sleep on the love-seat, and she can take the bed. Looking at him like he’s an idiot, she opens the hide-a-bed he was about to sit upon, and welcomes him to the world of the living. In the end, he takes the real bed, since the hide-a-bed is a little short for him, and Tatsuki is smaller. The next day, they go to where the group of their friends had been hiding out—Urahara’s shop—but find it deserted. They head back to the motel, go to the local library and Byakuya uses the fake ID he was automatically issued with at the portal to get a library card, so they can use the computer. Tatsuki sends e-mails to Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu and Chad, and uses the computer to send a text to Rukia's soul page. She doesn’t say where they are, but asks them to get back to her as soon as they can. After that, they wait. Three days later, Byakuya announces that they ought to get some jobs, since it looked like they were going to be staying for a while, and their food and rent money wasn’t going to last forever. Tatsuki takes two part-time positions, one at a café and one behind the counter of a department store. Byakuya gets hired at a construction site, where his efficiency and businesslike attitude lands him a management position after a week of heavy-lifting work; if a fairly low one.

The two wait, and the time that should’ve been endless to Tatsuki flies by faster than she could have imagined. She loses her job at the store, but gets another one working as a maid at a fancy hotel down the street from where they’re staying. Getting used to living like this was way easier than she ever predicted, and the two settle into a routine. Five in the morning, with no alarm or anything, Byakuya gets up and gets in the shower. The sounds of him moving around and the water running wake Tatsuki, who puts on coffee for herself—he can’t stand the stuff—and turns on the news. She showers after Byakuya, who has left for work by the time she gets out, has breakfast and makes a pair of bento boxes, does the dishes, and heads out to the hotel. When she gets off at noon, she checks the computer at the library and heads home—how odd, that she had come to think of that shabby little motel suite as “home!”—to pick up the bentos and meet Byakuya at half past noon for lunch. Afterward, she either went back home, or to the café at two, for she only worked four days a week there. He got off at five, and usually went to the library to get something to read. She got off at seven, one of them made dinner, depending on whether she had worked that day, and they sat around reading, watching the news, sparring in the empty lot out back, or talking about this and that, until he went to bed at nine on the dot, and she lay awake reading until she fell asleep with the book half falling off the edge of her bed. The Soul Society cannot find them, because with Byakuya’s spiritual pressure suppressed, and the names he had put on the ID cards deleted from their system, they have no leads. One day, she sleeps through the sound of Byakuya getting up, and wakes up later than usual to the smell of coffee. On coming in to the kitchen, she finds him reading the newspaper and finishing up his breakfast. He says he likes the smell, if not the taste, but from then on, he always puts on a pot before he gets in the shower. Tatsuki doesn’t know how he feels about the situation, but she can’t say she doesn’t enjoy living with him. She figures out the sort of things he likes to eat, although it’s very difficult, since he’s man enough to eat whatever she makes. She thinks of him like a living, breathing conundrum that it’s her job to solve, and trying to un-tangle him in her mind becomes one of her favorite pastimes.

After two months, Tatsuki comes to the construction site and asks to see Byakuya, saying that it’s a family emergency (they told everyone that they were siblings.) She received a reply e-mail from Uryu, saying that they had finally got a computer up and running in their new hideout. She was unsure whether to reply or not, since it’s possible that it’s a trick. Byakuya says that after he gets off work, he’ll go to the library and send a reply, telling them to meet him at a neutral location, and he’ll go and watch the area from a distance to see who showed up. They agree to this plan. Eisen escapes.

The next day, the coffee maker is broken, and Tatsuki is in a foul mood as she leaves for work with the beginning of a withdrawal headache, and Byakuya’s no help when he tells her she’d have to quit sooner than later. She calls after him as he leaves and asks him to get some groceries on his way home from work. After he is gone, she reflects how much like a husband and wife they were, right down to the, “don’t forget to pick up the milk.” She shakes that thought off as quite mad, and hopes shinigami don’t have some way of reading minds. Byakuya does the shopping, and on his way home on the train platform, runs totally unexpectedly into Rukia and Renji. After a lot of visible surprise and happiness and relief on their parts, and a little, less noticeable surprise, happiness and relief on his, he invites them back to his place, saying Tatsuki won’t be back for another hour. At the motel, they all sit in the living room at a folding table that is stored upright against the wall when not in use; the two visitors on folding chairs, and Byakuya leaning against the counter, tinkering with the coffee pot. Rukia and Renji talk about their new hideout. Meanwhile, to Tatsuki’s horror, who should show up at her café job but captain Kurotsuchi himself?! She ends up in a chase/fight with him, and barely loses him before doubling back and going home with a headache like nobody’s business.

Tatsuki plods in looking like she’s been run over by a truck. She tells him that “apparently it’s not just sekki-sekki; ‘cause I just made a hill flip over on its head and roll up like a lollipop.” Then she sees Rukia and Renji, and her face lifts a little bit. They chat for a minute, and then Rukia asks her why she looks to worn and bedraggled. Tatsuki replies that it’s a distinct lack of caffeine, at which point Byakuya clears his throat and points to the full, hot pot of coffee. She exclaims over the fact that he fixed it and looks like she is going to drink it directly out of the pot. He tugs it away from her and tells her to at least pretend she knows what manners are, before pouring her a cup and handing it to her. After her coffee, she is a great deal more agreeable and tells them all about Mayuri’s appearance, and reassures them that he’s incapacitated and doesn’t know in what direction they went. “Remember the hill that flipped over and rolled up like a lollipop?” Deciding that it’s still unwise for them to stay in one place for too much longer, Rukia and Renji give them directions to the new hideout, and depart first so that they won’t have such a large, conspicuous group. 

Byakuya and Tatsuki pack up their things, and Tatsuki gathers up the nerve to ask him how he feels about leaving, after they’ve spent so much time here. She also asks him how he feels about being an outlaw. After a silence in which she makes up her mind that he’s not going to answer, he replies that it will be odd living with so many people again, and that he is a little sad that he can’t return to his family’s ancestral home. He also admits that he liked living as they did, because after spending time in prison, and before that, being a captain, and coming from a strict noble family, it was good to have the feeling of liberty to do whatever he wanted with his time, and also that earning a living was more satisfying than he ever expected. Tatsuki looks at him a little expectantly, and he continues, saying that he has become a bit attached to his boss, Yusuke, who is the easygoing, gregarious type that’s very easy to like, and also to Tetsuya, one of his coworkers, who is very quiet but when he speaks, it’s always something that’s actually worth listening to. He cuts off and asks her what her expression means. She says she’s happy, because this was the first time he had ever talked this much about what he was thinking and feeling; no, this was the first time he had talked this much, period. He asks her how she felt, and she tells him she misses her parents, back in Karakura, who don’t know anything about this for their own safety, and that she really enjoyed living here with him, because it was like she was actually an adult and everything, with a job and a house and all that. She says she’ll be happy to get back with the others, because she also misses Orihime and Ichigo and everyone. She says she’s nervous about going there, because having all those outlaws in one place was like begging to be attacked. They go out and head for the train station, still conversing. She says she really enjoyed the chance to get to know him better, and comments that it was difficult. He inquires about that, and she tells him a bunch of things she knows about him, and how she figured them out. At the end, she asks if she’s right in thinking he was married at one point, and he affirms that. She comments that he isn’t anymore, and he also affirms that. She falls into silence for a while, they board the train, and then he tells her a little about Hisana. When they disembark, she mentally berates herself for being so happy that he had voluntarily shared such personal information with her. All it meant was that he trusted her. Or something…

The new hideout is a colossal old mansion in the middle of a forest that no one ever went near, due to haunting rumors, which are now true. The gang is reunited: Ichigo, Bunny, Tatsuki, Byakuya, Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Rukia, Renji, the Vizards, (sp?) Urahara and co, Yoruichi, and Ganju and Hanataro; who had shown up to the party later. Rooms are allocated. Tatsuki is shown where to find coffee supplies, and is grateful for it. Adjusting is far more difficult this time; adjusting to a new routine, and no job, and so many more people. She thinks longingly of when it was quieter. Bunny and Rukia share a room, and Ichigo and Chad, and Byakuya moves in with Renji, etc… Bunny announces at dinner that Eisen has escaped, and is most likely looking for her, now that gaining more power quickly is a priority. They talk a little bit about what Eisen has been doing, and it is explained that Uryu is basically the unofficial leader, in charge of strategy and plans, since he has the best head for stuff like that. It just shook out that way. Tatsuki is a little apprehensive, but Byakuya doesn’t have a problem with that. Later, Renji is VERY stressed, and seems to be trying to tell Byakuya something. Byakuya eventually tells him to “shut up and talk,” and Renji blurts out that he and Rukia are officially seeing each other. Byakuya congratulates him, and Renji is so relieved he flops down on his bed.

There’s lots of training to be done, especially since a letter has arrived from Eisen: Deliver the specimen to him in a fortnight, or else! Ichigo and Byakuya spar with one another, and notice how much they have both changed; Ichigo isn’t as hasty, he seems to have grown up a bit, and Byakuya has developed a little creativity to his style. Byakuya wonders if Tatsuki mightn’t be in part responsible for that, but puts that thought aside; romance on the battlefield can get one killed. Tatsuki experiments with her new powers, and notes that Bunny, though she ought to be the most powerful of all, doesn’t really train, or fight for that matter. Bunny confesses to the girls that night that there was a “stone” at her “core” which was the source of her power, and when she made a run for it, she dropped it somewhere and has no idea where it is. A delegation arrives from the Soul Society: Captain Hitsugaya, Lieutenant Matsumoto, and a group of squad ten members. They demand to speak to Ichigo Kurosaki and Captain Byakuya Kuchiki.

The folks from the Soul Society want to request that Byakuya, Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Yoruichi and Urahara come back and resume their positions as members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Ichigo asks what exactly is the plan concerning Bunny and those who weren’t invited back, especially Orihime and Chad, whose powers are still ‘undefined.’ Captain Hitsugaya doesn’t answer, and Ichigo gets mad, saying that he’s not going to serve with a group who think they’re gods; deciding who becomes their allay, and who is carted away as a test subject. Hitsugaya looks a little upset, and then turns to Byakuya. Byakuya, to general astonishment, declares that he agrees with Ichigo, and that when all’s said and done, technically Uryu is in charge, and as a Quincy he’s highly unlikely to want to serve with shinigami either, and certainly won’t approve of Bunny and Orihime (on whom he is sweet) getting dissected. He then tells Hitsugaya to “go back and tell them this: When Captain Yamamoto breaks that habit he has of condemning and executing people without trial, and proves that he can actually come up with a plan that works, then perhaps I would return.” Hitsugaya is nonplussed, but Matsumoto snickers, hiding it very badly. That evening at dinner, Byakuya is asked why he really refused to go. Uryu says there’s no way it had anything to do with his ‘oh-so-brilliant-leadership.’ Byakuya doesn’t answer, but later Tatsuki is talking to him while they are taking a walk to the nearest town for news, and he admits that “Well, I thought you might object to your friend Orihime being…studied… by captain Kurotsuchi.” Tatsuki reflects inwardly that he has changed a lot, compared to the way everyone seemed to have thought of him before. Tatsuki smells something weird, and Byakuya suddenly starts shouting “cover your mouth and nose—don’t breathe!” and coughing.

Tatsuki comes too, and finds herself in an unfamiliar white room, with a sofa and a barred window, looking at a moonlit sky. After scouring the cell for a means of escape and banging futilely on the door for a while, she starts doing some stretches, and a basic martial arts drill. Judging from how much she did, she figured it was about an hour later when the door finally opened, and who else but Sosuke Eisen himself came striding in. He welcomes her to Hueco Mundo, and says he hopes she’ll cooperate with him and his friends, in “stand alongside him,” an attempt to “re-model the world.” She tells him no, but she’d happily stand behind him with a knife. He has her dragged into a room where Byakuya is being beaten, and tells her if she’s not careful with what she says, she’ll receive the same treatment, and he’s being kind to her for now because she’s a lady. Tatsuki is all distraught about Byakuya being hurt, and is shouting all sorts of derogatory things at Eisen. Byakuya tells her so shut up, because she’s annoying, and an eyesore.

Later, Byakuya’s inert form is flung into the same cell as Tatsuki (Eisen is hoping they’ll talk to each other and reveal the location of their friends’ hideout.) She tries to patch him up as best she can, but when he wakes up, it’s sooooooo awkward. Finally he catches her making her hand bleed from stress, and gently releases her fingers, saying (very quietly, so they won’t be overheard) that while he doesn’t fear pain or injury, he couldn’t bear the sounds of her agony. He strokes her hand, and she turns very red and has no idea what to think. He is taken out for interrogation three more times throughout the (they think) week, and then one night, Nel shows up outside their window, and after a hurried conversation, leaves promising to bring help, and saying that Tatsuki is very reminiscent of the one man she ever respected above all else. That night, Tatsuki dreams.

Tatsuki’s dream is of Sayuri and Makkuro a century ago. {Use pre-written chapter?} When she wakes up, Byakuya, who appears to be asleep, has his arms wrapped around her. She is very confused, but she is also really comfortable, so she goes back to sleep. The next day, Eisen comes in and tells them that the fortnight is almost up; there’s only three days left before his deadline. He has decided to move up the date to that night, for when he unleashes his power on that town where they were captured. He says he’s not going to warn the others, but at least the two prisoners will survive, and they’ll be together. He smiles evilly. Byakuya reflects sourly that he’s off his game; his performance didn’t fool anyone—not even himself. Then suddenly, all the lights go out.

Back to the hideout, all the preparations have been made for a rescue mission, and Rukia and Orihime and Bunny are especially eager for it to begin, as Tatsuki is their very important friend, and Byakuya is Rukia's brother. Renji and Ichigo are also eager, as they have bonded in a weird way with Byakuya. All weapons are sharpened, all bodies stretched, and they are preparing to force entry into Hueco Mundo, when suddenly they receive a massage, sort of like a patronus, that tells them if they really want to see their friends again, they had better wait at a certain point in the town. They debate over whether or not to trust the voice.

Byakuya grabs Tatsuki and uses his superior senses to get them out of there, but ends up fighting Eisen. Without his sword, he’s in bad shape, until somebody else says, “Scatter, Senbonzakura,” and releases it! It turns out, lord Makkuro’s power was the ability to “borrow” his opponents’ weapons/powers/techniques, and he’s using it against his former master. He introduces himself as Bunny’s predecessor, and then Tatsuki almost chokes, “d-dad?!” Meanwhile, in the town {give it a name} Sayuri, Tatsuki’s mother ‘Lillian,’ says that her husband, ‘Adrian’ is rescuing their two friends, and that they have bigger things to worry about, i.e. saving the town which Eisen intends to raze. Makkuro tells Tatsuki that he’s really an Arancar, and then Nel shows up and tells them to get a move on. They head back to the world of the living, to face what might actually be the final battle.

 There’s lots of fighting. ‘-_-

At some point during the climax, Bunny confronts Eisen, who has all this time been saying that he made her and that he controls her. (He’s either trying the Momo “fatherly” thing, or had something built into her brain so he can control her, in case she ever went haywire.) She tells him that at first that was true. She was a hand-bred, well-trained attack dog. But then something happened, something changed inside of her, and she found that she did not want to hurt anyone or cause suffering. That, the Spiritual Factor, was what made her useless to him, because it was something he couldn’t control. “I don’t know what or who it was, influencing me, whispering things that made so much sense I couldn’t ignore them. But I know whatever it was, it was real.” 

Then, when she came to the Kurosaki household, her memories were gone, her mind and all the Environmental Factors she had lived with all her “life” had been wiped clean, giving her a fresh start. “I lived a second life there; a new life; a real life.” So although he controls her Genetic Factors, he can no longer mess around with her Environmental and Spiritual factors. She tells him she isn’t his (doll, puppet, toy, marionette or something like that) anymore, and he doesn’t own her. She tells him he can never break the limits he aimed for, and then destroys her own core stone, saying she should never have been created.

In doing so, sacrificing her own life, she is unexpectedly able to transform into an ordinary soul, although she can still see spirits. Ichigo pledges his undying love for her, and asks her to stay with him forever. Byakuya actually laughs, and everyone looks at him. He claps Ichigo on the shoulder and congratulates him, but tells him he’s never seen a clumsier proposal of marriage in his long life. Tatsuki teases him, half-seriously daring anyone to do better, and saying it was great, and congratulating Bunny, at which point Byakuya says her name softly, and she looks up. He kneels down, and pulls out a ring.

Epilogue: ten years later, old friends are reunited at a party at the Kuchiki residence, and everyone gathers to show off their kids and whatnot. Orihime and Uryu are newlyweds, and Rukia is pregnant (due in a month) with her first kid, even though she and Renji tied the knot five years back. Chad actually has a girlfriend, to general astonishment, who comes with him to meet the others. Tatsuki and Byakuya have three little Kuchikis, (8, 6 and 3) and Bunny and Ichigo adopted twins (as Bunny has no reproductive organs. Eisen didn’t know what would happen if she ever reproduced, and didn’t want to make the Makkuro mistake twice.) Kenpachi shows up, wanting to duel Ichigo as usual, and Yachiru convinces him to stay for the party. Ichigo and Bunny’s kids call Byakuya “Uncle.” All is wrapped up nicely.