“Shit,” Ichigo spat as he hastily lowered Rerugen’s body the rest of the way to the floor and straightened the man’s limbs out with Uryuu’s help. “Got any idea what the hell all that was about?” he absently asked as he unbuttoned Rerugen’s overshirt and carefully peeled it back to get a better look at the man’s shoulder wound; he wasn’t a doctor, but he knew enough, and he had the sinking feeling that they really needed to deal with Rerugen’s wound soon.
“Not a damn clue,” Uryuu grumbled as he knelt on Rerugen’s other side, hands hovering awkwardly in the air as he watched Ichigo work. “I’ve never seen him use a sword like that, much less with his left hand. Or uh… the hair thing. That was definitely new.”
Ichigo couldn’t resist snorting at that, gaze flicking up to Rerugen’s wavy, deep blue-black hair — very, very different from the pin-straight blond it had bled into right before things really went sideways — then back down to the mess both Yhwach and… maybe-Rerugen had made of Rerugen’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to get him back to Seireitei soon,” he decided as he gently poked around the wound to assess the damage.
Rerugen’s shoulder wasn’t dislocated, at least, but between Yhwach stabbing it and then all the weird shoulder rolls that maybe-Ruregen performed it was…
Well.
He really hoped Unohana was somewhere near wherever the hell they were going to return to Seireitei.
Uryuu made a high, strangled noise, curling in on himself at Rerugen’s side, and Ichigo bit his lip and mentally cursed at the sight; he needed… he needed something for Uryuu to do that the other could handle without too much thought. After everything his friend had been through while infiltrating the Wandenreich—
(And they were going to discuss that foolishness!)
—and then the bullshit fight with Yhwach, Rerugen’s injury and then… possession? Probably possession… followed by Yhwach’s decapitation… well. It wasn’t any surprise that Uryuu was starting to fall apart the very instant things started to seem safe again.
(Frankly, Ichigo was barely holding on with his fingertips, purely because Rerugen needed his skill right now.)
“Hey, unless you’re wildly attached to that coat of yours, mind cutting some strips so I can bind Rerugen-san’s arm and shoulder up?” Ichigo asked as he set about wiping the blood away from Erich’s wound with a corner of the man’s shirt, then carefully lifted the man to pull the shirt off entirely.
Uryuu startled at his words but remained silent for so long that Ichigo almost thought he wouldn’t get a response, but then…
“Y-yeah. Yeah I can do that,” Uryuu finally responded, followed by the sound of rustling cloth as he pulled his overcoat off.
Ichigo hummed in acknowledgment, even as he used the holes in Rerugen’s shirt to give him the purchase needed to rip it apart; he was so limited in what he had on hand—
(Oversight-oversight-oversight!)
(He couldn’t always guarantee a healer would be nearby!)
—so he had to make due with what he had on hand. So with a mental apology to Rerugen, he sacrificed the shirt to turn it into two makeshift pads and some rough ties to hopefully staunch the bleeding a bit. When long strips of white fabric were thrust towards him, he carefully folded Rerugen’s arm over his chest and proceeded to bind everything in place as quickly and securely as he could.
(He took it back, Orihime would probably be better than Unohana, but at this point he’d take anyone skilled in healing!)
(Fuck, the fabric on Erich’s shoulder was already looking a bit bloodstained.)
“Right, let’s go,” Ichigo ordered as he slotted his arms under Rerugen’s knees and shoulders, then rocked back onto his heels, braced himself, and then heaved the two of them up. “The sooner we’re out of here the better.”
Uryuu scrambled to his feet and darted after him, then in front of him, as they left the throne room and escaped through the barren halls, back towards the entrance. Back towards the way home.
Returning to the surface was almost as disorienting as going up, but it was fine, it was fine, they were back in Seireitei, they could find help, they could—
They could…
Ichigo tightened his grip on Rerugen’s unconscious body and stared blankly at Kyoraku and Ukitake. At the way Kyoraku was practically curled over Ukitake, who was weakly patting at one of Kyoraku’s hands. At how weak-pale-diminished Ukitake looked, sat bonelessly on the broken ground, flecks of blood on his chin and larger splashes on the front of his robes, deep circles under his sunken eyes and white hair so, so limp—
“O-oh, you’re back,” Ukitake said, voice hoarse and shattered and faint in a way Ichigo had never heard from him before. “Did… are you…”
He swallowed. Tipped his chin up. Declared, “Yhwach is dead,” with as much confidence as he could. When Kyoraku finally lifted his head from Ukitake’s shoulder, eyes red and slightly swollen, and his gaze fixed upon Rerugen, despair creeping in, Ichigo hastily added, “Rerugen-san’s… mostly fine. Injured, but he’s still alive. Though if you know where a healer is…”
“Unohana-senpai should be… around here somewhere,” Kyoraku told him, his own voice just as hoarse and shattered as Ukitake’s was. “She was here… a bit ago? With that little healer of yours…”
Ichigo took a careful breath, trying not to choke on the hazy of dust still floating around the area. “Right. Okay. Uryuu, can you go find them? Either of them. And get them back here. I don’t want to be carrying Rerugen-san around too much if I can help it.”
“On it,” Uryuu replied immediately, before vanishing in a burst of hirenkyaku.
Left alone with the two elder Captains, Ichigo pursed his lips before giving himself a mental shake — they were allies, Rerugen wouldn’t mind being near them — and carefully crossing the distance between them. He knelt. Lowered Rerugen to the clearest, flattest bit of ground he could find. Settled the man as gently as he could, ignoring how still-silent-pale Rerugen was in favor of busying his hands, checking the bindings and giving a worried look at the shoulder wound and otherwise just… trying not to think because… because he couldn’t afford to. Rerugen wasn’t in the clear yet. Ichigo couldn’t rest until he’d handed the man over to someone else. He couldn’t.
“What happened?” Kyoraku asked as he slowly straightened up a bit more from Ukitake.
Ichigo glanced over at the two Captains, taking in their exhaustion-worry-concern, and then sighed and settled more comfortably at Rerugen’s side, resigned to reporting the fight to them. “When I got there, Yhwach had already damaged the Soul King,” he starts with. “When I went to stop him, he… somehow managed to control my body, yapping something about how Quincy blood will never suffer the Soul King to survive.”
The complicated looks Kyoraku and Ukitake exchanged at that was… concerning, but Ichigo really didn’t want to ask. Or know.
(He’d ask Hat’n’Clogs later if the man thought whatever that was about would come back to haunt him down the line.)
(And if it wasn’t, he was going to do his best to forget the whole goddamn thing.)
“He used me to slice the Soul King in half,” Ichigo admitted with a grimace, staring down at his hands and flexing his fingers just to see that he could.
(He was going to have nightmares about that for weeks.)
(Eugh.)
(Give him Shiro’s desperate, furious control over Yhwach’s cold-vicious-ruthless control any day.)
Ichigo huffs and gives his head a shake, dislodging the clamoring thoughts in favor of telling the two Captains what happened. “Things after that are a bit of a blur. I fought free of his control, a gigantic black hand showed up in an attempt to help the Soul King, but it really didn’t do too much—” he didn’t understand the looks the Captains exchanged at that bit of information either, and really didn’t want to— “and Uryuu and I started to work together to try and, well, get anything done, really. Yhwach had some bullshit ability to undo any damage we managed to deal him, which made that pretty impossible. And then Rerugen-san showed up. Just… blitzed right into the fight from nowhere.” He paused. Stared down at the unconscious man in front of him. Mustered up the strength to softly add, “I didn’t even have a chance to warn him…”
He heard a sharp intake of breath and winced, forcing himself to continue before either of the Captains could say something. He had to keep going or else he wouldn’t finish, and he knew, he knew, that someone needed to know about the maybe-Rerugen before he crashed from exhaustion. “Yhwach forced his control on Rerugen-san, and forced the three of us to fight each other for a bit.” That hadn’t been fun at all, even if Ichigo could consistently break Yhwach’s control: Uryuu and Rerugen, being Quincy and little else, couldn’t. “I managed to redirect the fight a bit. Tried to keep Yhwach on his toes while keeping Uryuu and Rerugen-san safe, but… I think Yhwach got bored,” he admitted with a grimace, hands tightening into fists. “He just… turned around at one point and forced Rerugen-san to his knees and then just… stabbed him through the shoulder while rambling on about Rerugen-san’s power, and how it was a shame the man hadn’t joined him.”
The pure disgust on Rerugen’s face would have been hilarious in any other situation, Ichigo acknowledged to himself; he’d never even thought the man’s face could twist like that, given how unaffected Rerugen seemed to be about many things.
“Somehow, I don’t think Rerugen-san took that well,” Kyoraku said while Ichigo watched Rerugen’s chest rise and fall in a steady, if shallow, rhythm.
“Heh, no, he really didn’t,” Ichigo murmured, then shook his head again and tore his gaze away from Rerugen to fix the two Captains with a wary look. “That’s when things went… sideways.”
“Sideways,” Kyoraku repeatedly flatly, lips pressed thin and resignation in his gaze as it flickered down to Rerugen and then back up.
“Yeah.” Ichigo considered how best to describe what had happened, then shrugged and said, “No idea what exactly happened, but suddenly Rerugen-san’s hair straightened out and turned blond, and then he just. Leapt up and drew a weird sword that just appeared on his back out of nowhere. It didn’t look like any sort of Quincy manifestation, and Yhwach certainly couldn’t control him anymore.” He took a moment to think back to their combat, to how few exchanges the maybe-Rerugen had done. “Whoever was in control, they certainly knew how to fight,” he added with a frown. “There was a lot of… testing, I guess? A lot of whoever it was circling Yhwach. Yhwach kept trying to talk to him and whoever it was kept silent, which was kind of hilarious to watch, honestly.”
Ukitake snorted softly, then brought a hand up to his mouth as he started coughing, curling in on himself as his body quaked with the strength of it, supported by Kyoraku.
Ichigo grimaced and looked away, focusing on Rerugen for a moment and fussing a bit with the makeshift bandages, before turning his head to stare out at the destruction all around them, searching for any sign of Uryuu returning with help.
It felt like an eternity before Ukitake’s coughing fit ended, but eventually it did, leaving an awkward, uncomfortable silence to stretch between them.
“Somehow I’m not surprised silence was what annoyed Yhwach the most,” Kyoraku said at last, voice strained even as it aimed for dry humor.
“It really did,” Ichigo replied, doing his best to ignore the signs of how wrung out the two Captains — who had always seemed so indefatigable even the one time he’d seen Ukitake in the hospital — really were. “Well, until the person managed to actually cut him with that weird blade of his and then Yhwach couldn’t heal it. At all.” The sheer confused fury that poured off of Yhwach in that moment had been stomach-turning, and, even more than the unexpected change in Rerugen, was what kept Ichigo pinned in place despite wanting to help.
Except… except he hadn’t known if he even could help, or if he’d just turn into another obstacle for the unknown to work around.
“The blade was glowing,” Ichigo added after a bit of thought, slanting a sidelong look at the two Captains as he did. “I have no idea how. It didn’t feel like reiatsu or anything even similar, but it was definitely glowing.” When all the Captains did was exchange puzzled looks, Ichigo huffed in exasperation; it figured that the biggest question he wanted an answer to was one that he’d probably never get an answer to. Oh well. “Well, whatever was happening, it seemed to please the person because they got… really intent. Like really intent. Next thing I knew, Yhwach was trying to rant at them again—” which was one of the stupidest decisions Ichigo had ever seen— “and the person was circling Yhwach again, and then they just… dove forward into a roll, came up behind Yhwach and—” Ichigo mimed the path of the strange sword as it had come up and sliced all the way up Yhwach’s back— “which sent Yhwach to his knees, and then the other just. Cut his head off. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. And then he just… collapsed, and Rerugen-san’s hair turned back to his usual look, and then Uryuu and I grabbed him and got the hell out of there.”
“A wise decision,” another voice — a welcome voice, Unohana’s voice — cut in before either Ichigo or the two Captains could say something. “Allow me to take a look.”
Ichigo breathed a relieved sigh and moved back, giving Unohana more room to work. “Thanks,” he murmured as she settled in the spot he’d been in and began to examine Rerugan’s shoulder. One worry subsiding, Ichigo looked up and around, noting Orihime’s presence but continuing on, searching for—
“I told Ishida-kun to sit down and rest next to Yamada-san,” Unohana told him without looking away from her work. “Inoue-san, could you see to Kurosaki-kun’s injuries while I handle this?”
“Yes, of course!” Orihime answered as she shook herself and trotted over to Ichigo’s side, kneeling and bringing up her hands. “I reject!”
Ichigo bit back a grimace at the slow, itchy pull of Orihime’s powers unmaking his injuries, a sure sign of her growing exhaustion, and took a moment to give her a careful look, searching for… he wasn’t entirely sure; she looked exhausted, just like she felt exhausted, but he couldn’t spot anything beyond that. The golden light of Orihime’s skill cast both her and Unohana in a strange pallor, even more than usual, and he… he was so, so glad that the worst of the fighting should be over, now.
The healing would have to continue for awhile, of course, he wasn’t foolish, but… at least there shouldn’t be any new injuries rolling in. Hopefully.
“Rerugen-san will be fine, right?” Ichigo couldn’t help but ask as he watched Unohana carefully peel back the makeshift pad on the man’s shoulder.
Unohana’s hands didn’t pause in their work, but he could see the way her shoulders stiffened at his question. “I will do my best,” was her, slightly stilted, answer.
Ichigo frowned and cast a questioning look at Orihime, who just gave him a wide-eyed look and shrugged in response; clearly she had no idea what was going on either.
“Ah… Unohana-senpai, would it help if I healed him?” Orihime asked hesitantly, glancing over her shoulder at Unohana.
He could practically see the way Unohana hesitated at the question, followed by a soft sigh and a, “Do you believe you have the control to heal only his shoulder, Inoue-san?”
Orihime blinked, pursed her lips as her gaze dipped to the ground, then squared her shoulders and said, “I do,” with as much confidence as she could muster.
Unohana hummed slightly and gave Orihime a thoughtful look, then finally nodded and moved to the side, gesturing to the spot she’d just been in. “Then yes. Once you’re done treating Kurosaki-kun, come over here and work on Rerugen-san’s shoulder, and only his shoulder. I don’t want to risk what might happen if your skill interacts with his other injury.”
“His… other injury?” Ichigo can’t help but ask, hands clenching into fists as he looks Rerugen over again, searching for anything he could have missed, anything he overlooked that might interact badly with Orihime’s ability to erase injuries.
Unohana grimaced as she settled near Rerugen’s head and carefully cradled it in her hands, fingertips beginning to glow with healing power. “I have reason to believe that, before he arrived in the Soul King’s palace, Rerugen-san… performed an act of desperation to keep Ukitake-taicho alive. That desperation likely involved an injury to his very soul, which, if that was the case, is probably the reason he could be possessed while fighting Yhwach. And if he did injure his soul to save Ukitake-taicho’s life, I do not want to risk what might happen to Ukitake-taicho if that injury is unmade.”
Ichigo swallowed hard and pressed a hand to his chest, remembering the bleeding-aching-empty sensation of his own wounded soul after using the Final Getsuga Tensho; if Rerugen had done something like that, had torn a piece of himself apart for someone else, the fact that he could fight Yhwach immediately afterwards without showing even a hint of it…
But no, he had shown signs, hadn’t he? Rerugen had been paler than usual when he charged into the fray, and had even been a bit slower to react than Ichigo was used to seeing. He’d chalked it up to the exhaustion of, well, getting into the Soul King’s Palace, but… maybe it hadn’t been.
Orihime hummed in agreement and let her skill drop from around Ichigo in order to move over to Rerugen. “I reject,” she murmured, frowning down at the unconscious man as she focused her skill only around his shoulder. “Oh… that’s… how did he do that much damage to his shoulder?”
“Shoulders are delicate things,” Unohana said grimly, not looking up from what she was doing. “You see why it’s better if you heal that wound. As for his soul…” she hesitated, fingertips glowing brightly, then sighed and carefully settled Rerugen’s head back on the ground and sat back, gaze meeting Ichigo’s at last. “I have good news and bad news,” she announced. “The good news is that his soul isn’t bleeding out or tearing apart like yours did. The bad news… there’s another soul bound up with Rerugen-san’s, and I don’t think I can separate them.”
Ichigo blinked. Glanced past her at Kyoraku and Ukitake. Read the exhausted resignation in their gazes and huffed in exasperation.
(So what if Rerugen had another soul tied up with his own?)
(So far, the other had been more helpful than harmful, whatever they’d done to Rerugen’s shoulder aside.)
(And… well… Hat’n’Clogs could probably do something about it.)
(Probably…)
“So what now?” Ichigo couldn’t help but ask.
“Now, I am going to suggest that all of you return to the Living World,” Unohana stated as she ran a hand over her face and then glanced out at the devastation around them, expression grim. “Kyoraku-taicho, you can return after you’ve had a meal and a night’s rest. Ukitake-taicho, no strenuous activities or returning to Seireitei until I clear you, which will also apply to Rerugen-san when he wakes up. Kurosaki-kun, Inoue-san, thank you for your assistance in this matter so far, but I believe the rest of it can be left to us.”
Ichigo exchanged a look with Orihime, then shrugged and said, “If you’re certain, I’m not going to complain.”
“If you need my help with any more healing, let me know,” Orihime added quietly, as she allowed her skill to fade away at last.
Unohana gave a shallow nod, breathed a quiet sigh, then forced herself back onto her feet. “I will follow you to the Living World after I’ve made sure everything is handled here,” she announced, before disappearing in a burst of shunpo.
“I guess we’ve got our orders, then,” Kyoraku said with a touch of amusement.
Ichigo huffed a laugh and said, “Looks like,” in agreement, before taking another look around; he doubted they’d leave immediately, not when Uryuu, Chad, and Hat’n’Clogs and the others of the Shoten were still roaming around, but… soon.
Soon.
(Thank fuck.)
(And may there never be another stupid situation like this again.)
(He was so done with world-ending threats, he really was.)
(Let the Shinigami actually handle things for once.)
(He was going to get some goddamn rest.)