The cold of the stone woke him. A chill crawling up his back. A dull ache at his shoulder. The wound from Hakuran's subordinate. Bandaged, but blood was seeping through. Akagi slowly sat up. Dim surroundings. Walls, floor—all of it gray stone. Pale reishi lamp light slanted in thin through a small window near the ceiling. Beyond the iron bars, deeper darkness. *(Underground confinement cell.)* He reached for his waist. No zanpakutou. Of course. They wouldn't let a prisoner keep his weapon. "[sarcastic]...Real thorough, aren't they." He muttered it, leaning his back against the wall. That was when— "[angry]Hey, shift change is at six in the morning! Why the hell are you here at three?!" From deep in the corridor, a yell. "[surprised]Huh, it's three?! Seriously?! I misread the clock!" "[angry]Don't screw with me! Get back to your post!" "[sad]Sorry! Man, I just wanted to see my senpai's face sooner—" "[angry]What kind of guard wants to meet the prisoner?! Are you an idiot?!" Angry shouts and frantic footsteps. A noisy racket. Apparently, the new guard had gotten the shift change time wrong. Akagi let out a small breath. *(Not Rengen. If it were him, he'd screw up in a better way.)* But that brief laugh faded fast. When he closed his eyes, he could still hear it. —*Ren! Ren!* In the white plum garden, Rukia had been screaming and crying. Bound by the Six-Rod Light Restraint, unable to move a muscle. *(I swore I'd protect her.)* Akagi clenched his fist. The reiatsu-sealing lock kido had burrowed into his very core. He couldn't draw his zanpakutou. His reiatsu was suppressed, he couldn't even move a fingertip properly. Why hadn't he reached her? Why hadn't he moved faster in that moment? Why—? He rested his head against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. The gray stone stared down at him in silence. Time passed. How much, he didn't know. The light from the window seemed a little brighter. Footsteps from the corridor. This time, measured and calm. The iron door opened. "[cold]Good morning, Akagi Third Seat." Hakuran. Draped in a white haori, standing with her back straight. In her hands, a single sheet of paper, an inkstone, and a brush. Her white hair swayed, blue mesh streaks catching the light. Silver vertical-slit pupils looked down at Akagi coldly. "[cold]Did you sleep well?" "[cold]Thanks to you." Akagi didn't stand. He looked up at her, still leaning against the wall. Expressionless, Hakuran placed the paper on the table. "[cold]If you sign this, the execution recommendation for the Vice-Captain will be withdrawn." Akagi dropped his gaze to the paper. Written there, in fine script: —*That I discovered Kuchiki Rukia's beast-soul manifestation and concealed it. That I unlawfully exercised reiatsu to mentally and physically dominate the Vice-Captain. All of this was carried out by me, Ren Akagi, acting alone—* "[cold]...I see." Akagi said it flatly. "[cold]Do you understand? I will submit this to the Forty-Six as your sole crime. The Vice-Captain will receive protective measures as a psychological victim. This way, the Vice-Captain survives." "[cold]Your aim is to bring down the Kuchiki clan's authority. If I take the blame, the Sixth Division's chain of command goes blank. In that gap—your division moves in." Hakuran's expression didn't shift. "[cold]Correct. But this is the only path where the Vice-Captain lives." "[cold]..." "[cold]By tonight, I will extract a confession from the Vice-Captain as well. Through reiatsu conditioning. She is already considerably weakened, you know. Unable to suppress the beast-soul manifestation all day." Akagi's amber eyes carried killing intent for the first time. "[angry]...What did you do." "[cold]I placed kido tags in the guest quarters. Tags that forcibly agitate the Vice-Captain's reiatsu. The beast ears and tail will remain manifested continuously. She is likely clawing at the walls and weeping even now." Hakuran said only that, then turned her back. "[cold]Your signature by tomorrow morning. Make your decision." The iron door closed. Left behind, only the single confession document. Akagi stared at it. *(If I sign, Rukia survives.)* But—the Sixth Division collapses. Rukia will know that she was the one who destroyed Akagi. *(If I don't sign, Rukia is executed.)* No matter which way it fell—he couldn't protect her. Akagi slammed a voiceless fury against the wall. Around that time—second floor of the White Cherry Pavilion, the guest quarters. Rukia was huddled on the floor, clutching her knees. "[crying]...Nn...ah..." Black beast ears twitched and spasmed atop her head. The tail drooped limply from her waist, occasionally jerking with a jolt. The kido tags plastered all over the room glowed faintly red. The reiatsu waves they emitted forcibly drew out Rukia's beast-soul manifestation, pushed it back, drew it out again. "[crying]...Stop...this...already..." She tried to press her ears down herself, but her hands trembled too much to manage it. Her body temperature was rising. Her skin burned hot from the inside. *(Ren...)* Her mind searched only for the remnants of his reiatsu. That night, the reiatsu he had released in the underground archive. An enveloping pressure, warm and heavy. Her instincts remembered its texture. Without it—her heightened instincts wouldn't settle. "[crying]Ren...Ren...!" Rukia put a hand to the wall. Her nails scraped the plaster. White powder pattered to the floor. "[crying]...Where...where are you...you..." No answer. The beast ears drooped sadly. The tail swayed, strengthless. *(If I had—fought properly back then.)* Regret and rage, and—the sense of dependence on Akagi that she couldn't deny even if she wanted to. "[crying]...You...just..." And yet, she couldn't stop herself from craving his reiatsu. Tears, for the first time, flowed in earnest. "[crying]Ren...!" The voice she cried out was absorbed by the kido tags, reaching no one. From beyond the door, Hakuran's voice. "[cold]Vice-Captain, are you still maintaining your sense of self?" Rukia didn't answer. She had no strength left to answer. Footsteps receded. Claws still dug into the wall, Rukia kept crying, stifling her voice. Late night. Underground confinement cell. Akagi sat before the confession document, unable to move. He didn't know how many hours had passed. The light outside the window had vanished, darkness filling the stone chamber, then moonlight slanting in again. *(—Something.)* A small sound on the floor. *Clink.* A pebble. From the ventilation shaft near the ceiling, a second pebble fell. Akagi raised his face. *(That signal—)* The vent cover was removed from outside. The iron grate groaned. A mop of purple, unruly hair popped into view. Odd eyes—right gold, left purple—gleamed in the darkness. "[whispers]Senpai! You alive?!" "[surprised]...Rengen." Rengen crawled in through the vent and landed in front of Akagi. "[excited]Ah, thank god! I smelled blood and got worried! Oh, here—manjuu I swiped from the mess hall. You wanna eat?" "[serious]...First, listen." "[serious]Ah, right. Sorry." Rengen's face turned serious. "[whispers]During the day, I disguised myself as a kitchen hand and snooped around the upper levels of the White Cherry Pavilion. And then—I found a weird envelope in Hakuran's personal effects." "[serious]An envelope?" "[whispers]It was addressed to a former seated officer of the Third Division. The name of someone who fell from power two years ago—charged with causing psychological damage to a vice-captain through unlawful reiatsu use. Means Hakuran used the exact same method to frame someone before." Rengen caught his breath. "[whispers]The original evidence is most likely hidden in the deepest part of this building—on a stone shelf in the back of the underground archive. You know that place well, right, senpai?" *(The underground archive—)* The memory of that night flickered through Akagi's mind. The scent of white plum blossoms. Moonlight. Rukia's beast ears, and their overlapping lips. "[serious]...Thank you." Akagi said it briefly. "[serious]What senpai did wrong is wrong. But—I know you're trying to protect the Vice-Captain, too." Rengen said it with a straight face, then stood up. "[excited]I'll grab the key! Just wait a bit!" His odd eyes flashed. "[serious]Let's go, Rengen." Rengen nodded and crawled back into the vent. Silence returned. —But. Right after. *Bwoom.* The sheath of a zanpakutou—one that shouldn't have been at Akagi's waist—vibrated faintly. "[surprised]...What." He looked. His zanpakutou, which should have been left by the wall, was pulsing on its own. The reiatsu-sealing lock kido. Its formula—had developed a thin crack. *Crick.* A sound, and a seam of pale blue light spread across the stone floor. "[surprised]The seal...is breaking." Akagi slowly rose to his feet. He clenched his fist. *(I will protect her.)* He closed his eyes. *(That's all that matters.)* The zanpakutou's pulse beat strong and sure, as if affirming his resolve. The pale blue light tore through the darkness of the underground cell, stretching long. His blade had not yet broken.