Retsu found Rerugen right where Ukitake had said he’d be, leaning against the deck railing and staring down into the water. She doubted he was actually watching them based on his how still his head was, but he was probably using the motion as a form of meditation. His folded wings and lax tail gave credence to that potential as well.

(Dragons were active beasts, constantly in motion.)

(Seeing one so still but not dead was… strange to say the least.)

Not that his meditation kept him from sensing her. His nostrils flared as she approached and his head swung around, brow ridges furrowing as he gave her a narrow-eyed stare.

“I came to ask about the specifics of what you did to Ukitake-san to ease his attack,” Retsu led with, deciding that a neutral topic was probably the safest. He already knew that she was a healer from that tense moment on Sokyoku Hill, so her question should come as no surprise.

His tense expression eased at her words and his head bobbed in a sharp nod. “Things I learned while I was alive,” he answered easily enough. “A technique to trigger the body’s natural methods of pain management. Another to force the muscles to loosen. A third to clear his lungs of obstruction and provide clean air to breath. I hope I did not cause further complications…?”

“No, Ukitake-san is fine. I’ve healed the damage to his lungs and ordered him to rest for a week,” Retsu said as she came to a halt and looked Rerugen up and down. It had been a long time since she’d seen a Dragon so close, and a part of her itched to know if her techniques worked on such an alien being and what sort of feedback she’d get from trying it.

She wouldn’t ask it, though. He didn’t look like he’d taken a single wound during the whole mess, and she wasn’t about to push her luck with someone who had shown such hatred for Shinigami as a whole.

(Not that she blamed him.)

(She’d killed many of his kind in the past, whether or not he knew it.)

Rerugen’s wings rustled and he leaned a thigh against the railing again, watching her with a sharp, inscrutable gaze. “Have you looked to the Living World for a cure for Ukitake-san?” he asked almost casually, the intensity of his stare the only thing giving him away.

“The Living World?” Retsu repeated in surprise, taken aback by the suggestion. “Shinigami aren’t susceptible to human illnesses, our reiryoku prevents us from getting ill.”

“Except when you become exhausted or if you are born with low reserves,” Rerugen rumbled, tail-tip twitching like a cat about to pounce. “I have been around men and women with lungs that felt like Ukitake-san’s, all of them in the Living World. Humans call it ‘tuberculosis’ and have a cure for it now.”

Retsu bit her lip and considered his words. She’d long ago determined that it was an illness ravaging Ukitake’s body, but to have it be a human one—

His words made sense though. She’d never met Ukitake before Genryusai had taken the young man under his wing, but it was entirely believable that he’d managed to exhaust himself somehow as a child and, in that moment of weakness, been exposed to the illness. And even if it wasn’t precisely the specific illness Rerugen had mentioned, perhaps she should spend more time investigating human medicine anyway.

“Give it some thought,” Rerugen said as he turned his head away to stare back at the water below. Not that she was under any illusion that he was actually looking away from her. “Was there anything else?”

She debated her words for a moment before giving a mental shrug and plowing onward. Rerugen seemed the sort to appreciate straightforwardness in his communication. “I’m curious as to your plans for the future.”

A rumble crawled up Rerugen’s throat, equal parts amusement and warning. “Looking to hunt me down, are we?”

“Looking to know if I need to prepare for war or not.”

His head tipped towards her, poison green eyes sharp-deadly-focused as he weighed her words. The scrutiny made her skin crawl, made her hand want to twitch towards her sword and a ancient, familiar grin want to creep across her face. That was a dangerous look, a killing look if she’d ever seen one, and a part of her wanted to stretch out and prod until the Dragon’s banked fury erupted.

(Rerugen had skills she’d never before seen a Dragon wield.)

(What would it be like to fight him?)

The look faded, tucked away behind the pretense of civility that Rerugen wore so well, and he said, “Unless you intend to bring war to the Living World again, then no.”

Retsu mentally shook off her disappointment and considered the Dragon’s words. If he wanted to return to the Living World… “So long as you do not attack our own, I doubt anyone will be able to find fault in that,” she offered after a moment’s thought. If Rerugen was returning to the Living World, then he was going to return with the teens who had invaded in an effort to protect Kuchiki Rukia. Which meant he would probably fall under Urahara’s protection soon enough.

Between that and being the one who saved the day, Rerugen was positioning himself in such a way that Genryusai would have to bite his tongue and accept a Dragon as an ‘ally’.

“You mean that so long as the hatchlings and I remain together and in the open, no one will be able to have any of us… removed from the picture,” Rerugen said dryly. “I’m surprised to hear you Shinigami have such restraint these days.”

“Times have changed, and us with them,” Retsu admitted without a problem, knowing the truth for what it was. They weren’t better by any means, but… there was a mellowing amongst the organization that she’d been keeping an eye on for centuries. Even the genocide of the Quincy two hundred years ago had occurred differently than if it had happened closer to when she still involved herself in combat. “Those two you’ve taken up with are perhaps the most obvious in their growing disdain for the sort of warring we Shinigami once participated in.”

Rerugen snorted at her words. “That must bother their old teacher to no end,” he said, lips pulling back from his teeth and wings twitching against his back.

“Immensely,” she said in agreement, baring her teeth to match Rerugen’s toothy maybe-smile.

“Good.”

Rerugen, Retsu decided at last, was an interesting sort and she could see herself coming to like him.

Watching Genryusai play at being polite to him was going to be exciting.

She couldn’t wait.