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gallusrostromegalus · 5 months

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Hello again, apologies if this has already been answered, but which captains get along the best? Any unlikely friendships within the gotei 13?

I did a post on some of the friendships in AEIWAM but I'd like to elaborate on a few of them so:

Less than a year after the events of Turn Back The Pendulum, Widower Sojun Kuchiki died, and a teenage Byakuya was orphaned.

Now, Byakuya wasn't totally alone in the world- he still had his grandfather and the rest of the Kuchiki clan, but that sort of ended up being the problem. Ginrei was massively overworked as captain of the 6th, and had to ask Byakuya to step into some of his late father's roles early, like taking a diplomatic trip to some of the clan's land holdings up North. A largely boring and scripted event, but an important one and good practice for the future Clan Head.

-So of course, it immediately went catastrophically sideways when a rival clan attacked and attempted to kidnap the Kuchiki heir, shutting down the portal system to prevent support from the Seireitei arriving in a timely manner. Young Byakuya, already doing poorly from the grief of losing his father, suddenly found himself alone in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by enemies and hopelessly outnumbered.

Unfortunately for the rival clan, just because the portals were down didn't mean that other shinigami weren't in the area.

The memory is burned indelibly into Byakuya's mind.

It was a blazingly hot, almost painfully bright bright summer afternoon, the sun gleaming off the blades of his would-be assassins. They were good, and had separated Byakuya from his retinue, but at least he had managed to buy time for the village and the rest of the diplomatic party to escape. He stood, panting, holding the blank asauchi sword that had not yet been called to host a zanpaktou spirit, between himself and the leader of the strike team. All around him, spears and Kido Spells were trained on his person. No escape. Nowhere to strike that wouldn't immediately get him killed.

Despite there not being a breath of wind in the valley where he stood, something was causing the Alarm Bell at the top of the valley to ring, making Byakuya look up-

The sun was behind the leader as he was saying something about how their contract didn't actually specify that they had to keep him *alive* so how about he be a good boy and come quietly before they decided he was more manageable dead, but Byakuya wasn't actually paying attention.

Behind the leader, the sun seemed to be having some kind of spontaneous Eclipse. Or at least, there was a dark spot in the middle of it that seemed to be rapidly expanding and surely that can't be righ-

Sharp

It wasn't even a word, more an impression in his mind that something was hurtling in his general direction with the intent to disembowel, and not even centuries of Noble Breeding to be stoic in the face of peril could stop Byakuya's entirely correct prey animal instinct to duck and cover.

The blast from the impact would have been enough to pin Byakuya to the ground anyway, given how it scattered half the strike team and the dust blinded the rest. Byakuya felt the interloper's feet strike the ground on either side of where he was curled into a defensive ball, and the string of invective was too fast to parse but the way his rough voice echoed in Byakuya's chest left no doubt to his meaning.

A swing of the Odachi from his impressive wingspan cleft three of the assailants in twain and mortally wounded a fourth. The headless corpse of the leader thudded to the ground behind him, vaporized from the neck up by the flying kick he'd taken to the head. There was a strange jingling noise, the bells of a child's toy, and one of the remaining assassins recognized the chime and spiky silhouette-

"SHIT! IT'S THAT SWORD BASTARD! THE ONE FROM NORTH 80!!"

The remaining assassins started to back up, and Byakuya peered up from where he was hiding under the protective stance of recently-appointed 11th Division Captain Zaraki Kenpachi.

"THAT'S CAPTAIN SWORD BASTARD TO YOU!" He roared back, bristling magnificently and the remainder of the strike team scattered.

Once satisfied they were fleeing and not regrouping, Zaraki reached down with his free hand and grabbed Byakuya by the collar, pulling him to his feet.

"Zaraki-Taicho?" He asked, almost not believing his luck. "How did you get here so fast? The portals are down and even Captain Yoru- Captain Fon's shunpo would take days to reach me from seireitei!?"

Slowly, Zaraki turned his head and actually looked down at the boy, single functioning eye blinking in confusion.

"Byakuya?" he asked, cocking his head sideways. "-The fuck are you doin' out here?"

"BYAKUSHI??" Yachiru shrieked with excitement, popping up from behind her father's shoulder, and scrambling over to climb into Byakuya's bewildered arms instead.

"I- I'm on a diplomatic inspection of land holdings for the Kuchiki Clan. Sir." Byakuya babbled, unconsciously settling Yachiru on his hip, still waiting for his heart to resume a regular pulse and not whatever this live-hummingbird-in-his-ribcage nonsense was.

Zaraki squinted, displeased with that answer. "...Didn't your dad die just last week? The fuck are you doing out here? You should be home mourning or something."

Byakuya's gaze flicked away from the captain, face wan and jaw tense. "I have. Duties." he winced.

"Hf." Zaraki grunted, still displeased, and Yachiru pulled a spare hair tie out of her kimono. "Whatever. Relatedly, where the fuck is 'here', actually? Also- We have a Portal system??" he asked, changing the subject gracelessly but with deep mercy.

"We are in Inuzka, the town inside the Kuchiki Clan's ancestral land holdings in North 41." he answered- Zaraki could stand to be more polite, but Byakuya had to admit he wasn't precisely out of line- He wasn't Clan Head yet, and even if he was, as a Captain, Zaraki still would outrank him. "If you didn't come here by the portals, you must have already been in the area... Forgive my impudence into prying, but what are you doing here? Eleventh Division exercises?"

"I'm fuckin' lost." Zaraki shugged, unbothered by the question. "Tryin' to go see family while they're done here for the summer and I thought I could just follow the Red River up to the headwaters and then I'd be close enough but I must've picked the wrong tributary..." He muttered, folding his arms into his Kosode and reaching out through the neck hole to scratch under his chin, contemplative.

Byakuya blinked in surprise. "I didn't know you HAD a famil-" He started, then slapped his hand over his mouth, mortified.

"HAH!" Zaraki's laugh rang through the empty street and he affectionately slapped Byakuya's shoulder. "Did you think I just fell out of the sky one day? 'Salright, I look like something that got tossed out of Heaven's garbage tip." he grinned, and Yachiru giggled as she braided Byakuya's hair.

"My apologies, sir." He mumbled, face flushed. "-Well, the Gotei-13 *had* a portal system but this was a very coordinated attempt to kidnap me and there was an agent in the Seireitei that sabotaged the portal system, preventing both a retreat and form help arriving. I got the villagers and my retinue safely through before they went down, but I'm not sure how I'm getting back..." he puzzled.

Zaraki frowned into the distance, the hand on Byakuya's shoulder rubbing a slow circle as he considered something. "These duties- sort of a 'go practice yer meetin' people manners' trip?"

"It was supposed to be a routine diplomatic excursion, yes." Byakuya nodded, confused. "I've been here before with- with my father, and we had planned to go together again, so it's not like this was dropped on me suddenly." he muttered.

Zaraki nodded. " 'S summer break for school right now, yeah? Yachiru starts school in September, when do you go back?"

"Um. The first week of September as well?" Byakuya blinked confused.

Zaraki tilted his head to peer down at Byakuya, and gave him a strange grin. "-And you know how to read a map, right?"

"Yes?" Byakuya huffed, starting to get annoyed at this strange interrogation.

Zaraki suddenly dropped into a crouch, single eye level with Byakuya's own, and the boy startled to see that his iris was a pale yellow, like a hawk. The Captain threw his arm around his shoulders and pulled him in close.

"...How d'ya feel about goin' on a REAL Diplomatic Mission?" he asked with a decidedly conspiratorial drawl.

"YEAH! COME SEE BA-SAMA!" Yachiru bounced in his arms with excitement, waving a handful of clover flowers he suspected were being incorporated into the braid.

Byakuya tilted his head sideways, hoping they would make more sense at a forty-five-degree angle.

***

Minutes later, the recently-installed Spirit Phone on Kuchiki Clan Head and 6th Division Captain Ginrei Kuchiki's desk rang.

The elderly head of the Kuchiki clan looked to his even more elderly commander, and then to the piebald clown that was now running the 12th division. Mayuri pressed a button on the strange device he'd hooked up to the Spirit Phone which would allow them to record and track the call, which whirred and clicked, and he listened for a moment into the earphones before giving Ginrei a thumbs-up. Yamamoto nodded as well, and with grave seriousness befitting a likely hostage situation, Ginrei picked up the receiver.

"Captain Ginrei Kuchiki speaking." He spoke, trying to keep the icy growl out of his voice and failing.

"Hi Grandpa!" Byakuya called cheerfully on the other end of the line.

"BYAKUYA?!" Ginrei yelped. "Are you alright? You need to get out of Inuzuka now! The Ozaki clan have-!"

"Oh no, no- they already attacked! I'm fine!" Byakuya interrupted him. "Captain Zaraki saved me!"

There was a moment of very confused silence.

"...Zaraki?" Yamamoto asked, stepping in to speak into the receiver as well. "What's he doing there?"

"You gave me leave to go see my family and tell them where I live now, remember Boss?" Zaraki grunted.

"HI JI-SAN!" Yachiru called as well.

"...Well that worked out nicely. What a stroke of good planning on my part." Yamamoto nodded and Mayuri rolled his eyes.

"I- Thank you, Zaraki-taicho." Ginrei said, bewildered but genuine. "...Where are you now?"

"I'm calling from the spirit phone in the town council building in Inuzuka." Byakuya explained. "If I may grandfather, about me getting home-"

"It's going to take at least three months to get the portals up and running again." Mayuri grunted, disappointed that he was not getting to test out his new spirit phone tracking invention.

"...Three months?" Yamamoto glared.

"Don't glare at me like that!" Mayuri huffed. "-With anybody else in charge a blast like that would have taken the system out for good, but *I* build in redundancies! Which are. also damaged. but not obliterated! Urahara hadn't backed up SHIT, if this had happened last year-!"

"Yeah, yeah- Hop to." Yamamoto waved.

"Well, since the portals aren't going to be working any time soon and I'm already more than halfway from the city- I had a thought." Byakuya spoke up, voice gentle and sentences clearly enunciated, making sure Ginrei could follow his logic. "It's an awful shame that the Land Holdings Assessment Meeting won't be held this year, but Zaraki-taicho's family is significantly farther north than I thought, and the journey there would take me through several very underrepresented districts-"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT." Ginrei snarled. "I knew it was wrong to send you to the Holdings without an armed escort, I'm sending the Onmitsukido out to collect you this instant!"

"Now hold on a minute." Yamamoto cautioned him with a hand on his shoulder as there was a muffled noise on the other end of the line. "-I know you're worried but-"

"-He's a Kuchiki, ain't he?" Zaraki interrupted on the other end.

"Yes? Of course? What does that have to do with anything?" Ginrei demanded.

"-Future Head of The Clan and Captain, yeah?" Zaraki continued. "He's gonna have to deal with shit like this sooner rather than later. Already dealin' with it! Tryin' to hide him back in the compound won't teach the kid shit."

Ginrei sighed, pushing his glasses up to rub the bridge of his nose, perfectly aware of where this was going.

"He's not made of spun glass- hell, he'd forced the assassins into having to siege him to get to him when I showed up. Exactly the correct choice for the options and information he had- But I do think you're right that he still needs an armed escort while he's learnin'. I'm armed, and I'd be Escortin' him." Zaraki offered. "...Actually, he'd be escorting me, I'm lost as hell and Byakuya knows how to read a map. I get more time with my family, he gets- What'd ya call it?"

"It would be an Exceptionally Valuable Diplomatic Experience." Byakuya chimed in.

"Byakuya..." Ginrei groaned. They had coordinated and rehearsed this, Gods help him.

"While I appreciate your concern Grandfather, and no shame to the Onmitsukido, but recent events have shown that sufficiently motivated criminals will try their luck against them." The boy continued, undeterred. "...Wheras Captain Zaraki is well-known in these parts- to the point that the Ozaki Clan's would-be assassins scattered at his mere silhouette. I honestly think that 'Within Arm's Reach of The Current Kenpachi' is quite possibly the safest place I could be in all of Soul Society."

"Kid's got a point." Mayuri shrugged, prodding at his call-tracking device. "Even *I* had heard of him as a fighter when I was still on the outside, and I was operating clean on the other side of the Rukongai! The guards at The Maggot's Nest speculated that if he were ever to cross the law, he might not be arrested because they didn't think that hole could actually hold him. Rather natural that he ended up here- very literally nobody in the rukongai wants to cross blades with him anymore."

Ginrei fixed Mayuri with a horrified stare, gaze slowly shifting to Yamamoto.

"...You're both Captains and privy to classified information, but this does not leave this room." Yamamoto said, covering the receiver and glaring imperiously down at both men. "Zaraki's family, especially his Mother, is someone we very much need to stay on the good side of, and I am NOT going to interrupt communication between them, lest we suffer Her wrath."

"Captain Kurotsuchi was in prison?" Byakuya asked, voice muffled like he'd covered the receiver with his hand as well. "-Yeah, he heard 'a me and I heard 'a him, which is why I ask Akon and *Not Him* if I ever need anything out of the 12th." replied Zaraki.

"...Who is She?" Ginrei frowned. "-And if She is so dangerous, you think Byakuya is the person we want to send as a diplomat to Her?"

"What for?" Byakuya continued, curious. "-Operatin' without a license." Zaraki shrugged.

"How does your mouth feel after saying that, Captain Kuchiki?" Yamamoto asked, voice light and pleasantly curious in a way that belied extreme danger.

"It's f-" Ginrei started and stopped. There was an odd sensation in his mouth, a sting like he'd taken a sip of tea without letting it cool down. "...Why is my mouth burning?"

"You were present for the execution of traitor Soya Azashiro, yes?" Yamamoto smiled menacingly.

"Operating what?" Byakuya asked, puzzled. "-Or anesthetic." Zaraki elaborated. "...Ah." Byakuya winced.

"Yes, the sight and heat of the released form of the Sokyoku is not something I'll soon forget, but what does that have to do with..?" Ginrei stopped as a horrible, terrifying thought occurred to him.

"I still do not entirely understand how-" Yamamoto admitted, patting Ginrei on the shoulder. "But Kiko'o is both Captain Zaraki's Uncle, and quite submissive to his Big Sister."

Ginrei paled.

Mayuri frowned in confusion, trying to work out how that happened, biologically speaking. "-Did Zaraki fucking hatch out of an Egg?"

"You can ask him when he returns with young master Kuchiki!" Yamamoto grinned. "-But that said, you see why I will not do anything that would turn her attention to Seireitei."

"...I understand." Ginrei gulped. "-but he's just a boy!"

"Take heart- You've seen how fond and protective of children Zaraki is? By all accounts, it's something he picked up from Her. Byakuya's youth will serve us all well." Yamamoto explained, uncovering the recciver. "Let him go."

Ginrei grimaced, but nodded and lifted both pieces of the Spirit Phone to his face again.

"-was in prison too, but that's just because his family sucked ass and didn't realize talent when they saw it-" Zaraki was explaining on the other end.

"Byakuya?" Ginrei asked.

"Yes, grandfather?" Byakuya asked, Zaraki's voice stopping like he'd been physically shoved aside.

"This journey will take some time, and I am concerned about your schooling." Ginrei said, never one to give up ground.

"Winter comes early up there, we'll be home well before term starts!" Byakuya assured him. "Captain Zaraki suggested I write to you for your sanity while I was away, but I feel like it would be a legitimate academic exercise to write reports on the lesser-known districts for as well." he offered.

"That is very generous of you to offer, young Kuchiki. I would appreciate Zaraki-taicho's local knowledge of the area in those as well." Yamamoto added, grinning at Zaraki's audible groan on the other end.

Ginrei winced. "Promise to return home by the last week of august, and sooner should any disaster befall you."

"Oh yeah, anyone loses a limb or major internal organ we'll hoof it right back!" Zaraki said, managing to evoke the exact opposite of reassurance, and Ginrei hid his face in his hand.

"I promise." Byakuya said, voice soft and sincere. "I'll write often, and call when possible."

"...Please, take care, Hokushin." Ginrei begged, using the boy's nickname. Public displays of sentimentality were unacceptable, but... this was his only grandson, about to venture deep into the wilds with some maniac!

"I will, Ji-san. I'll be fine, I promise." Byakuya replied, returning the intimate nickname.

"Alright punk, we need to get moving before it gets dark." Zaraki interjected, ending the call with an unexpected social grace. "See you in August Old man!"

"Bye Kuchiki-ji! Bye Jii-san!" Yachiru called.

"Go in good health, and I look forward to both your reports!" Yamamoto dismissed them.

"Didn't catch that Boss, bad line-" Zaraki said, then abruptly hung up, negating any vague hopes Ginrei had about his diplomatic prowess.

"Oh gods- What have I done?" Ginrei cried, hanging up the phone and hiding his hands in his face.

"Well, you've agreed to let your only heir and grandson walk into the most violently uncivilized parts of the rukongai under the supervision of a violent maniac that was raised by birds, and a toddler!" Mayuri explained, unhelpfully.

"Don't you have a portal system you need to be repairing?" Yamamoto glared.

"I'm multi-tasking." the freak of unnatural sciences waved, fiddling with his newfangled 'textual communicator' device. "My point is, loathe as I am to agree with someone like Zaraki, he's got a point. If your little star is going to be captain someday he needs to learn to handle worse than this. He'll be fine, or he wasn't qualified in the first place."

"Keep that name out of your mouth, clown." Ginrei snarled.

"That's the spirit!" Mayuri cheered, pumping a not-totally-ironic fist. "Mind copying me on those reports? That shit's gonna be HILARIOUS."

"KUROTSUCHI! PORTALS!" Yamamoto barked and the captain of the 12th abruptly made himself scarce. The captain-general gently laid a hand on Ginrei's shoulder, and Ginrei placed his own atop it.

"I never had children of my own, so I cannot imagine the depth of your fear, but I can imagine it pains you." Yamamoto sighed. "But that was the right thing to do. He will be fine."

"He will. He has to be." Ginrei sighed, sitting back in his chair. "...though I fear that Zaraki's presence may presence may prove more educational to the boy than any of us intended."

***

"Just a tip for the future-" Zaraki sighed, turning to Byakuya after hanging up. "-once someone agrees to your demands, you don't offer additional incentives. That just makes it a worse deal for you."

"I know that!" Byakuya protested. "-the second he brought up my schooling I knew Grandfather agreed to the trip, but that was also him retreating to the tactical ground of controlling my schooling. The offer of reports was the Opening Salvo of the next battle."

"...Fought the old man a lot eh?" Zaraki cocked a heavy, bald brow at him.

"There are limited opponents for me to practice diplomatic sparring on." Byakuya shrugged. "...but yes, he is a prickly old sod."

Zaraki barked a laugh and shook Byakuya's shoulder affectionately. "Alright, where the fuck are we, actually?"

"We're... Here, in Inuzuka Village." Byakuya pointed to their location on the large map on the wall of the village hall. "I'm not sure where in North 80 your family is-"

"Way up here, on the coast." Zaraki pointed out. "So... Oh, we did pick the right tributary!"

"I told you so!" Yachiru rolled her eyes, adding more clovers to Byakuya's braid.

"Lessee- We should raid this place for anything useful first, but we need to get moving soon so we're somewhere high before it gets dark, but... Oh hey, is this Saikoro the place with the big gambling house?" Zaraki asked, tapping a point on the map just upriver.

"I believe so?" Byakuya nodded.

"...Ya wanna learn how to shark at pool?" Zaraki grinned the same conspiratorial grin.

This time, Byakuya nodded enthusiastically.

#AEIWAM #an elephant is warm and mushy #bleach #bleach fanfic #kenpachi zaraki #byakuya kuchiki #Ginrei Kuchiki #long post

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