baroqueworks | - 01. A donde el corazon se inclina, el pie camina.

Temperance
Series: Bleach
Characters: Kuchiki Byakuya, Zaraki Kenpachi

May 17, 1918.

Byakuya looks up. And up. And up.

The new man is like a mountain, or an oak tree. He wears his gear as if it were a light summer shirt and slacks, though Byakuya recalls how the straps had dug into his own shoulders, and how he'd been sore for days after the first time they'd run to the top of the old mountain by the base. This new guy didn't even seem to notice that he happened to have fifty pounds of combat gear strapped to his waist and back.

His hair is shaved in odd lines, reaching from his temples and forehead, curving around to the back of his head. Byakuya's CO claps him on the shoulder and says, "This one's from D company. He'll stick with us until his crowd catches up."

The man nods, joins the patrol. He moves quickly for his mountainous stature and with a deliberate, easy pace. Byakuya thinks that he could work with a man who has that sort of confidence-- but only if it were justified.

"Zaraki Kenpachi," he says, voice a low rumble that reminds Byakuya of his old Californian earthquakes. He's tall, hair too long for regulation now (not that he himself has any room to complain) but they're weeks away from any commanding officer and it's the fifth day in a row he's been stuck in a trench with this hulking giant of a man and he's only now learning his name. Zaraki shifts his sword to rest against his shoulder, its scabbard resting between his knees, his helmet slipping down over his eyes. Byakuya settles back and checks that his knife is still secure in his boot, rips open a mud-caked package from home.

"Kuchiki Byakuya," he responds in kind, and inclines his head politely at the man. Hisana had sent a picture and snacks. A short letter in her light, unsure hand.

He learns later that Zaraki Kenpachi had grown up in Hawaii, moved to New York and enlisted for lack of any other jobs to do. He didn't have to, just as Byakuya didn't, and he sends his pay back to people who aren't friends, parents, children or a spouse. Byakuya doesn't know where it goes, and he doesn't ask.

Byakuya sighs and shifts so his boot isn't sitting in a dirty puddle, pulls his hair back into a high ponytail, dons his sniper's mask and hefts the rifle to his shoulders before settling down behind his blind. Zaraki looks over and takes his post as lookout.

He's learned over the weeks that Zaraki Kenpachi is a man who thinks he's a samurai and still uses that old, beat-up katana he'd brought along and the combat knife he'd liberated from the last bastard who mouthed off to him like he doesn't have a revolver in the holster under his arm. Actually, Byakuya's pretty sure he's never seen the man use the gun for anything other than bludgeoning some poor bastard's skull in when he loses his grip on the sword, rare enough as it is. He can't deny that the man is efficient, though.

It's when Zaraki takes down a team of five soldiers creeping up to them by himself while Byakuya's trying to take out a Gerry colonel in some backwater warzone in France that he really starts to understand that his fellow soldier isn't an ordinary kind of guy. He'd finished off four and the last was almost pissing himself in fear as he moved up to Byakuya's blind. Byakuya was tracking the colonel, could feel the bastard come up behind him, but couldn't look back. He'd heard the sound of bones cracking, then the quiet thump of a body hitting the ground just as he took his own shot.

When he crouched back behind their cover, then stood up to help Zaraki move the bodies out of the way, they had looked at each other and nodded. That manic, sharktoothed grin on Zaraki's face had faded to a more thoughtful, serious look and Byakuya doesn't know why (they've saved each other's lives more often than he cares to count-- it's what happens in a warzone and neither of them were keeping track) but he says before he even has a chance to stop himself, "If you ever want a job, Zaraki, I know someone who could use a man like you."

His first response had been suspicion. Why the poor couldn't just take a well-deserved favor from those in better circumstances Byakuya's always had a hard time understanding, though if it's a matter of pride, it would all make sense to him.

When Zaraki rips open his own package from home a week later and turns up two packs of cigarettes, a letter written in crayon and one more neatly-written one from a woman named Retsu, he tosses Byakuya a pack, scans the letter again and asks him about the job.

If they make it back to the States.

They do, but not without a few sacrifices. Zaraki nearly loses an eye-- he recovers, mostly, but still gets headaches when it's too bright out so he fashions himself an eyepatch with a wide, sturdy band. It doesn't look much like an eyepatch at all, which Byakuya supposes he was going for.

Actually, he nearly loses both eyes-- his left had not come so close, though it had scarred him more visibly.

As for himself, the young Kuchiki heir has two new scars of his own, like craters, where he'd been shot in the side. Both entry and exit wounds had begun to scar over in the last few weeks, which is fine with him.

Zaraki hadn't brought up his offer since the day he had asked about it. If the man were the type to do things out of politeness, Byakuya would guess that he had left it hanging in case he had changed his mind. He decides that after so many months in the trenches with a man who had quickly come to be known as a demon, there are few hands he'd trust more in any position of power-- not that he'd ever say so. On the ship back to the states, while Zaraki's turning his eyepatch in his hands, half his face covered by bandages (more to assuage the doctors than out of any real necessity), Byakuya lays a hand on his shoulder.

He feels the mass of muscle tense, then shift uncomfortably. "Whatta ya want, Kuchiki?"

Byakuya replies, "My offer still stands."

"How do you know I haven't found something better in the last week an' a half?"

"I don't," Byakuya says, and he leaves it at that. They sort of have an understanding, though, and he doesn't think that he needs to say that ever since their first meeting, the other man had done nothing but cement his decision.

Kenpachi's reply lacks the usual bite to his words-- more amused banter than anything-- "You better not be leavin' me to take over a piece'a junk, then."

Byakuya had volunteered their main doctor-- a young man with a fierce, wicked intellect and a thriving drug trade on the side. Few surgeons in the country work as efficiently, or with the same ingenious flair as Kurotsuchi Mayuri, but Zaraki had refused, saying he has his own damn place to get a physical and also to get his eye checked-- it's been bothering him again.

He finds out later that Zaraki Kenpachi is connected to Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni in strange and unexpected ways; Retsu from the letters-- Retsu who helps to take care of little Yachiru-- is Unohana Retsu, dear friend and favorite niece of the old man-- the Old Man, capitals. Unohana Retsu who had seen to Byakuya when he had caught the flu at fourteen and the hospital was closed, Unohana Retsu who fixed up his hand when, in a moment of uncharacteristic blind rage, he broke his knuckles punching out the little bastard who'd tried to push him around in high school.

"Apologies for the intrusion," Byakuya says and makes to leave, but the good Dr. Unohana gives him permission to stay-- it's not as if Kenpachi cares about patient confidentiality. She's brisk and professional, but kind-- Zaraki doesn't need it, and he doesn't seem to notice it, but Byakuya watches her work carefully and decides that yeah, they could use someone like her, if she decides to join them.

(She doesn't, knowing full well what her uncle does with his spare time and money, but she says, also, that the Wandering Souls staff is free to call on her for help.)

He's fair-minded-- won't demand more than he deserves but won't take less than he's earned, and he's remarkably self-aware for a man so unfit for dealing in business. Byakuya wonders how the hell he does so well until he meets the boys Zaraki had been keeping an eye on-- the ear one of them has for negotiation and the other's knack for numbers and Byakuya can see how maybe gaining three hands for the cost of one, working in practiced tandem and with brutal efficiency, might be better than he had even imagined it could be.

It's a violent first year but he's a ruthless man and his hires are young gangsters-- the Sun Yee-On Triad and On-Leong Tong are hopelessly intertwined-- used to working from the shadows. Byakuya hadn't expected Zaraki to be connected to the Chinese criminal empire, but he's learned over the length of their acquaintance that few things should ever really surprise him about this man ever again.

He raises their pay to enough for three to live comfortably on with quite a bit to spare after the first year, talks Old Man Yamamoto into letting Zaraki take over at Wandering Souls so he can kick off a branch in Chicago the second, and by the third, they're raking in just as much cash as when Byakuya was running the place. Maybe more. The City is forgiving.

Byakuya supposes, too, that New Yorkers like his gritty straightforwardness, his unflappable calm and most of all, they're scared shitless of this ex-soldier's ability to mobilize his men. The patrons feel safe under all the layers of protection he'd set up-- Chang on one side, Timoteo on the other, the police on all three of their payrolls.

Zaraki Kenpachi had taken an immediate liking to Ichimaru Gin, which no one else gets because they don't trust him a far as they can throw him. It's Yumichika who points it out to Shuuhei when he asks years later; points out the way Ichimaru stands, the way he speaks, the easy conversation he has with Kenpachi. That you don't have to like something to like their style and you don't have to trust them even if you think they're useful.

"Because he's fearless," Yumichika says, "but he has no intention of dying."

Byakuya supposes that Ayasegawa would recognize that better than anyone, though he'd never admit to eavesdropping.

The few times Ichimaru's around when Byakuya is, he's unfailingly polite, though quietly snide. He's one of the few men the Old Man had picked with whom the young Kuchiki heir has never felt any sort of connection, but that doesn't seem to be a concern for anyone else. He decides that he'll fulfill his own duty where he's needed, and complaints about it have no place in his life.

Hisana's health had been declining since the day he'd met her but it really only worsens their sixth month in Chicago. Something in the air, he thinks, though she says it was bound to happen eventually. He wishes he could spend more time with her, wishes he could do something besides keep the servants paid and Thousand Blossoms running, wishes he could spend entire days at her bedside instead of on trains, moving between cities and negotiating with already-established organizations.

He only learns later what men mean when they say they had to choose between their jobs and the loves of their lives, and Byakuya already knows his choice.

She tells him about Rukia a week before she dies. It's far too late, in his opinion, and he knows it's weighed on her for all of the two years they'd had together. He doesn't ask her why she didn't tell him earlier-- she'd only say something like, I didn't want to be even more of a burden to you, and she's too frail for him to tell her to stop bullshitting him like that. He wouldn't have minded. He would have taken her in and treated her as he would his own little sister.

Though he wouldn't, admittedly, be very close to siblings even if he had any.

Rukia's thirteen when he meets her, and she looks so much like Hisana that it makes Byakuya sick to his stomach. He finds her at the smallest orphanage in California and when he approaches her, she backs away. Hisana did, too.

Her friends cluster around her and the woman who's running the place (she does the best she can but there isn't much she can do and Byakuya's never been to a place like this; he was born into money and a well-managed estate) corrals them back into the other room to give them some time alone. An older boy with a shock of bright red hair tries to duck around, nearly makes it, but his friends drag him back.

When Byakuya leaves the first time, the first to approach Rukia is the boy whose name Byakuya later learns is Renji, and he learns his name because Renji approaches him after he's signed the papers, has Rukia's packed bags in his hand and had sent her off to go to the bathroom before they left for the last time.

At sixteen, he's scrawny, scarred beyond what a boy his age should be and his eyes are hard and sharp. Familiar, in a way. Byakuya already dislikes him.

He introduces himself as Abarai Renji and tells Mista' Kuchiki in no uncertain terms that if he hurts Rukia, he will hunt him down, beat his head in with a baseball bat, then feed him his own fucking fingers. Byakuya thinks that it's nice that Rukia has a friend willing to threaten complete strangers for her, and he puts in a call to Zaraki when he arrives back in Chicago with Rukia in tow.

Zaraki's boys are in town a few months later. California, scoping out vineyards for the Old Man before swinging by the orphanage. Byakuya receives a call from Madarame with the sound of Iba Tetsuzaemon's voice in the background, a smug, ecstatic but painstakingly professional, "He's only a little younger than Yumichika. He fights well."

Madarame waits for an affirmative before he continues, saying, "Already cleared it with Boss, but he says to tell you that we're keepin' him."

Like a pet, Byakuya muses, and he passes on the message to Rukia at dinner (an awkward, quiet, lonely affair with just the two of them) that Mr. Zaraki's decided to take Renji in all the way back in New York. She'll even be able to see him once in a while, and she eats a little more than usual, trying hard not to look as happy as he knows she feels. It's a step up from never seeing him again, though Byakuya wonders how long that'll last.

The next time Byakuya sees Renji, almost two years later, the boy's shot up about half a foot in height, filled out, muscled and tattooed. He'd outgrown the awkward stage of adolescence and begun to move with the same graceful, predatory swagger as the rest of Zaraki's men.

Rukia had smacked him upside the head just before he gave her a hug that lifted her off her feet, and she was more animated than he had ever seen her. Byakuya suggests that she study in New York, stay with Doctor Unohana. He doesn't want her to learn the ropes of the trade and he tells her to stay away from the hooch, and it would be difficult for her to adjust to a new city, but she seems to fit in fine with the Wandering Souls staff.

Byakuya goes back to Chicago.

Renji starts working for Byakuya, moving between Illinois and New York, staying in neither for more than a few months at a time. He's conscientious, driven and ambitious. Byakuya likes that, but he can't shake the feeling that Renji's learning the business far faster than the average man would. Byakuya couldn't ask for a better employee, though, and Renji answers to him immediately and without question.

Zaraki Kenpachi is the sort of boss who selects for loyalty first, so he doesn't worry about a potential coup. Renji is more by-the-books than any criminal has the right to be, and he's survived New York like a cockroach, or a rat. Not only lived but thrived.

Byakuya avoids the city lately-- Wandering Souls had become less and less his haunt over time, though it still welcomes him warmly. The men aren't his and the patrons aren't familiar anymore, and the old guard only shows their faces every once in a while. He has his own connections to build, his own empire to expand; Thousand Blossoms saps his time and attention like nothing else.

He has his own town, now.

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