The Ulterior Motive (May 2010)

The morning sunlight shone over the gardens of the Kuchiki Manor, bathing in its warmth. The weather was clement, and the air peaceful. It was as if the battle against the rogue Zanpakutō spirits had never taken place, and Byakuya Kuchiki was still on the Soul Reapers' side.

But the truth was the truth, and the truth couldn't be denied. No matter how much Rukia wanted to believe her brother was still on their side, fighting with them, for them, she knew that she had to face the truth head-on and take it like a man. She coughed mentally. Scratch that, she told herself.

She was in the process of thinking of a suitable substitute for the word "man", sitting on a mat on the porch, when Ichigo ambled in without invitation and sat down in front of her.

"Hey," he said.

Rukia acknowledged his presence with a nod.

"You look troubled."

"Do I?"

"Yeah?"

This earned him a well-aimed punch to the nose.

"Do I still look troubled?"

"Well," said Ichigo, gingerly rubbing his bloody nose, "yeah."

He managed to dodge the next punch, but just barely.

"I am so MAD!" Rukia yelled through gritted teeth in a sudden outburst of pent-up emotions, punching the ground before her and immediately regretting it.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked cautiously.

"Of course I am!" snapped Rukia, rubbing her knuckles.

A minute of silence passed between them.

"It's Byakuya, right?" said Ichigo, sagaciously placing his finger on the source of everybody's problems.

Rukia sighed.

"I just… can't believe it…" she said. "I mean…"

"I see what you mean," said Ichigo, saving Rukia the trouble of saying something negative about her brother. "I didn't believe it myself at first. In fact, I still don't. Trust me, we're going to bring Byakuya back no matter what it takes!"

Rukia managed a smile.

"I don't think it's that easy," she said.

Ichigo's vivacity hadn't diminished.

"Oh I think it is," he said. "I beat him once, remember? I can do it again if he becomes a pain."

Rukia absently smoothened out the creases on her shihaksho as she recalled the cold expression on her brother's face the last time he had looked at her. There was definitely something abnormal about that, even for him. He just seemed… too cold to be real. Like the only thing on his mind was the utter destruction of the Sixth Squad, his own squad. Such cold, heartless malevolence was unlike the Byakuya Nii-sama she knew.

"Rukia," Ichigo called. "Do you know what we should do?"

Rukia nodded, and sniffled.

"I think so," she said, before returning to her senses and registering what Ichigo said. "Wait, what you think we should do?"

Ichigo looked mildly confused.

"I don't know. I was asking you."

Rukia groaned in dismay.

"This is so frustrating!" she said, punching the ground again, and as before, regretting it immediately.

"You should really stop doing that. It's not good for your bones."

"And who told you that?"

And odd look came over Ichigo's face.

"Captain Kurotsuchi. When he was fixing me up."

A servant arrived, carrying a tray laden with two porcelain cups and a steaming teapot.

"Tea?" Rukia offered.

"Sure," said Ichigo.

They sat in silence while they drank their tea.

Ichigo burped loudly and disturbed a flock of birds that were resting in a nearby tree. The result was that the tranquility of the garden was disturbed. The flock of birds in that tree disturbed the flock of birds in another tree, and so forth until the entire garden was filled with raucous crowing.

"Now look at what you've done!" said Rukia. "Do you know what they're going to do now? Eat our precious koi fish! Come on! We need to hurry."

They flash-stepped over to the pond.

"What the—?" Ichigo exclaimed, stepping down too soon and falling face-first into a rosebush.

"Holy—!" Rukia exclaimed as her head came in contact with a low-hanging branch.

It wasn't their carelessness in using the flash step, or the sight of the large black birds eating the koi fish that occasioned them so much shock, but the sight of the person standing on the edge of the pond.

"Byakuya?" Ichigo said, emerging from the rosebush and proceeding to remove the thorns that had attached themselves in all sorts of uncomfortable places.

"Nii-sama?" Rukia gasped, massaging her head.

Byakuya turned around. He didn't look amused.

"May I ask which one of you did this?"

There was cold fury in his voice, and Ichigo began to seriously doubt his chances of winning.

Once Ichigo regained his composure, he marched up to the former Captain of Squad Six and made to grab his collar, but managed only to pull Byakuya's scarf off him.

"What do you think you're doing?" said Byakuya. The impression he got was that Ichigo couldn't control his urges.

"Er…" said Ichigo.

"Ill-mannered boy," said Byakuya, snatching his scarf back and replacing it in its rightful place.

"Are you… back with us?" Ichigo asked tentatively, unsure of how the opposite party would construe his question.

"What nonsense," said Byakuya. "You speak as if I’ve perpetrated something unspeakable."

"But Nii-sama…" said Rukia, trailing off when she realized she couldn't say what she wanted to say without sounding impertinent.

Byakuya didn't glance at her.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," he said, as if struck by an epiphany, "what, may I ask, are you doing at my residence?"

"Oh? Oh!" said Ichigo as he struggled to digest what Byakuya said. The fact that he was standing before Byakuya without having to unsheathe his sword was incredible per se. "I was here… to see Rukia," he managed.

"I see…" Byakuya said. He now had a clear picture as to what Ichigo's preferences were. "Well, make up your mind."

"About what?"

"Your preferences."

"My what?"

Byakuya inhaled deeply.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," he said, "here in the Soul Society, it is uncommon for a man to harbor… feelings for another man. But if you think—"

"What?!" Ichigo said. "W-what do you mean?"

Byakuya was peeved at being cut off so rudely.

"What I mean is that you, being human, are obviously at a stage at which controlling your urges becomes difficult. For example, you seemed attracted to my scarf—"

"WHAT THE HECK!" Ichigo bellowed, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"As I was saying—"

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

Byakuya looked offended, and was about to say something witty when Rukia decided to steer the conversation to more germane issues.

"Nii-sama," Rukia said, "are you on the side of the Zanpakutō?" and added, "Just to clear things up," when her brother glared at her.

"As a matter of fact I never had any ties with those barbarians. What you saw was part of a plan Yoruichi came up with. I would not have complied with her wishes had I not foreseen the advantages."

"Ah!" said Ichigo, finally beginning to understand the situation. "You were wrecking them from the inside, huh? I like that!"

Byakuya looked at him and blinked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were acting as an inside agent. That was your plan, right?"

"Hardly," Byakuya said with dignity. "The plan was to… well, it wasn't meant to be so violent, but… You see, there were distinct advantages, as I mentioned before…"

"So what was the plan?" asked Ichigo. Curiosity was overwhelming, especially to a human who was a stage at which controlling his urges was difficult.

Byakuya inhaled deeply.

"To make sure that the Head Captain was securely locked away so that the rest of us could look after the Soul Society in a manner we saw fit."

Both Ichigo and Rukia gagged.