Retsu strode up the long path to the Ugendo, forcing back her concern in order to keep a clear mind. She didn’t know what she would find upon entering Ukitake’s home, but the fact that he hadn’t immediately reported to the Fourth and Kyoraku hadn’t dragged him to the Fourth was either a budding problem that she would need to correct or a sign that something wasn’t right.

Ukitake had a scheduled check-up in a week. He hadn’t been to the Fourth in almost a month. Combat like he’d participated in, followed by the way he was snatched from the hilltop by the dragon he’d allied himself with, had certainly brought on an attack.

(She’d seen his expression when he was snatched. Knew that expression intimately.)

(Ukitake had been, for one brief moment, terrified out of his mind.)

She knocked sharply on the door frame and waited patiently for someone to come, letting enough of her reiatsu out to inform Ukitake and Kyoraku who had come calling.

Yamada Hanataro fidgeted at her side, weight shifting from foot to foot as he glanced from the door to Retsu and back, uncertainty clear on his expression.

“I want you to check on the ryoka and on Kuchiki-chan,” Retsu reminded Yamada, since he seemed uncertain as to why she’d dragged him along. “You are a familiar face on them and are skilled enough to handle most things on your own.”

“H-hai, Taicho,” Yamada mumbled, shoulders hunching in a bit and gaze firmly on the ground.

Retsu kept her face carefully neutral even as she inwardly cursed her previous Lieutenant. Yamada Seinosuke had been a competent, capable man, but he’d nearly ruined his little brother with his expectations. The fact that Yamada Hanataro had made it all the way to seventh seat despite his confidence issues spoke highly of his skills, but she had to wonder what he’d be like without the crippling self-doubt holding him back.

Well. Hopefully the ryoka could provide the impetus he needed to grow stronger. In the heat of the moment, he’d disobeyed and done what he felt was right, aiding the invaders in their goal.

Now if only she could encourage that to continue…

The door slid open and Kyoraku grinned lazily at them. “Fancy seeing you here, Unohana-senpai,” he drawled, then nodded a greeting to Yamada at her side. “Something you two want?”

Retsu examined him carefully, searching for clues to what she’d be walking into; Kyoraku wasn’t concerned or frantic underneath his affected laziness, so either he’d managed to stave off Ukitake’s attack or one of the ryoka had assisted. He was a touch shaky however, knuckles just a bit white as he gripped the door frame and eyes a bit too wide: after-effects of a panic-attack, she assumed. Likely from the Dragon’s presence.

“I’ve come to check on the two of you, and Yamada-san will look over the ryoka you seem to have gathered,” she told Kyoraku as she stepped forward, driving him back into the house with her proximity and careful use of reiatsu-sensations.

He gave way without protest, stepping aside and letting the two of them through before closing the door behind them. “We were going to come in, you didn’t have to come to us,” he mock-whined, though Retsu could hear the undercurrent of gratefulness in his tone. “We just stopped to have a meal first and get the kids settled. You know how Jyuu-kun gets sometimes.”

“Yes, and that was why I became concerned,” Retsu told him dryly, giving him a look that silently asked if there was anything to be concerned about. She relaxed at his tiny head-shake, willing to take his assessment as the truth until she saw evidence to the contrary.

Kyoraku led them into the main room where almost everyone was gathered around a table that had the remains of a meal scattered across it. Her attention zeroed in on Ukitake immediately, assessing his state and the way he sitting and coming up with a much better result than expected: his breathing was deep, his hands were steady, and his color looked good.

(Did the ryoka know healing, then? Or perhaps the Dragon did.)

(Odd to think of a Dragon healing a Shinigami if so.)

“Unohana-senpai,” Ukitake greeted her with a smile. “I’m sorry we didn’t come to you right away, but there wasn’t much that we needed at the time.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she told him sternly, sweeping across the room to sit down at his side, hand already glowing with a diagnostic kido. “Yamada-san, if you could check the ryoka?”

“O-of course,” Yamada said as he crept into the room after her and approached Kurosaki. “U-uhm, Kurosaki-san? D-do you mind i-if I, uhm… I need to…”

“Go ahead,” Kurosaki said with a casual shrug, moving a bit away from the table to give Yamada better access. “We’re all fine, but I understand the worry.”

“Th-thank you.”

Retsu tuned out the rest of their conversation in favor of focusing on Ukitake, sending her senses deep into the man’s body in order to assess his state. She could feel the damage done to his lungs and the stress lingering in his system, but she could also feel the aftereffects of something that had prevented the man from needing to immediately see her. She’d never seen the like before and it made her wonder exactly what had been done, and by who.

Still, Ukitake’s lungs needed healing, and here was as good a place as any to heal him. Especially since she’d have probably sent him home soon after healing him anyway; since he hadn’t had an attack and didn’t need to be monitored as closely, the best place for him was at home where he could be comfortable.

She focused her power and set it to healing what she could, especially the lighter damage inflicted by the combat with Genryusai.

(One day she’d like to heal him, instead of simply managing the damage to his lungs every month.)

(One day…)

By the time she sat back and let the kido die, Ukitake was breathing more easily than he’d done before she started. He turned his head to the side and pulled out a handkerchief, coughing into it a few times as he adapted to the change in his lung capacity.

“Light duty and rest for the next week,” she ordered once his coughing fit had subsided. “See me for your scheduled appointment so I can make sure nothing else is wrong. And if I may ask…?”

“Ah, that would be Rerugen-san’s work,” Ukitake answered with a sheepish smile. “He saw me at the start of an attack and felt responsible, so he offered to help.” At Retsu’s flat stare, he leaned back and raised his hands a bit in surrender. “It wasn’t much!” he tried to defend himself. “He just… offered some things he says he uses on himself. Something for the pain, something to relax muscles, and something to assist breathing, he said.”

“Hm. And where is this Rerugen-san right now?” she asked as she turned around and gestured sharply for Kyoraku to take a seat in front of her. She pressed a hand to his chest as soon as he complied, checking for anything wrong with him after the chaos of the day.

(Genryusai must have been angry to do so much heat-damage to his two favorite students.)

(Well… siding with a Dragon over the edicts of Central 46 would do that, she supposed.)

“Outside still, I think,” Ukitake answered as she finished fixing the mild burns on Kyoraku’s hands. “When I left him, he was on the back porch watching the fish.”

“Maa, please don’t make him angry,” Kyoraku said with a weak smile, trying to cover nerves with humor. “He really did help Jyuu-kun out.”

“I have no intention of fighting with him,” Retsu said with an arched eyebrow as she rose to her feet, making both men duck their heads a bit. Their level of attachment to the Dragon was concerning — Dragons could be devious beasts, after all — but it was also understandable.

She needed to speak with this ‘Rerugen-san’ before she decided whose side to take, because Genryusai was absolutely going to want the beast dead if possible. To have an Elder Dragon so close, to have it charm his own students to its side, was an offense she doubted he would take laying down.

That it had solved their little betrayal problem before it could get any worse would make him hold back, but how long he held back was up in the air. Central 46 being dead would help the Dragon as well, since many of those old geezers had despised Dragons with all their souls; without them to give the order, Genryusai would look like the warmonger they all used to be if he gave the order to have one of their saviors killed before Aizen’s body was even in the ground.

Well… there was no use borrowing trouble.

She’d investigate Rerugen-san as see what it was about him that had captured Ukitake and Kyoraku’s attention.

It would definitely be interesting.