The New Mission (Private)

I feel the same way, Byakuya wanted to say, but for some reason he couldn't. "I'm not doing anything to you," Byakuya said calmly. He walked forward until he was standing only a few inches from Ryuunosuke. He could feel his heart beating faster as he looked at the other, not saying anything.

Ryuunosuke lunged forward holding his blade at Byakuya's neck. He had meant to kill the captain and then hopefully he could focus but something stopped him. He took a few steps back and fell to his knees. "Why can't I kill you?" he whispered. "What is this feeling?" he added almost silently. The emotions were causing a sensory overload. He couldn't focus at all.

Byakuya reacted quickly as Ryuunosuke lunged, and stepped back. He watched as the other fell, then stepped forward again. Not speaking he knelt down next to Ryuunoske, and touched his shoulder, hesitantly. "I... fell the same way," he muttered, not looking at the other.

It was almost pitiful how Ryuunosuke next looked at Byakuya. It was with a pleading look in his eyes that had never been seen before by anyone. "What is it?" he asked a tear flowing down his face. "How do I make it go away?" He wanted it to go. This feeling of joy and desire. It was conflicting with his strong sense of duty and his desire to never fail his missions.

Byakuya looked back at Ryuunosuke, and was startled by his expression. He leaned toward the other, then hesitated. I shouldn't do this... it's not right... what will everyone think of me? I should stop right now.... But Byakuya couldn't stop. The desire was too great. He leaned closer and slowly brushed his lips against Ryuunosuke's.

Ryuunosuke stood stunned for a moment and then some ancient instinct made him kiss Byakuya back. Then he stepped back looking about in realisation. "Is this love?" he whispered half to himself. He wasn't sure. He had never loved before.

Byakuya stood up and just looked at Ryuunosuke for a minute. "Ryuunosuke... I...." He stopped and shook his head. "We need to finish the mission." With that he walked quickly away, trying not to look back.

Ryuunosuke nodded and began to walk slightly in a daze. He didn't know what to do about his feelings, but he knew he had to complete his mission. He re-activated the bakudo Hyakko to hide himself and continued to walk. They had passed through Tres Cifras and were now nearing the inner sanctum of Las Noches where the espada and their leaders resided.

Byakuya sighed softly, and tried to focus on the mission. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, his thoughts kept drifting back to Ryuunosuke. He silently thanked the other for hiding himself, so Byakuya wouldn't have to look at him. He glanced up and saw where they were heading. This was probably the most dangerous area. "Be careful," Byakuya cautioned.

Ryuunosuke said nothing, but he was glad the other had said this. It created a small but powerful spark of anger that he could use to counteract the other feelings he was having and allow himself to focus more. It was not total. His feelings still strayed to Byakuya, but it was better then before. He could hear voices now. By the sounds of it there was a meeting going on. A meeting of the espada.

Byakuya heard voices and smiled to himself. If they could get close enough to hear what they were saying, then they might be able to get news on what was being planned. The only problem was they had to do it without being seen or heard. Byakuya walked faster, but made sure he wasn't making any noise.

Ryuunosuke dropped town and stopped Byakuya. He spoke under his breath. "Stay. This is a job for the Onmitsukido. Prepare the garganta." he whispered and then headed off without another word to get closer. His mastery of Hyakko allowed him to get a lot closer then most people would be able to. He was not only invisible, he was silent and barely had any reiatsu presence if he had any at all. Plus he was good at recovering information. It was part of his job, it was part of the job of all members of the onmitsukido of which he lead one of the five divisions.

Usually Byakuya did not take orders from anyone, and he always liked to be where the action was taking place, but this time he knew he shouldn't. He nodded silently and quickly prepared the garganta. He looked ahead of him and hoped Ryuunosuke would be alirght.

In the darkness Ryuunosuke made notes on what was being discussed and felt fear pulse down his spine with each passing word. What they were planning took evil to a whole new level. They planned to use the vizard and try and not just kill all the shinigami, but wipe out soul society entirely. It was then that one of them looked up. "Oh it seems we have a spy." Ryuunosuke froze as everyone turned to look at him and each of them began charging a cero. He stood there for a moment and then dashed away as fast as he could. He hoped Byakuya would have the garganta open as he was being chased by three espada. How had they seen him? WHoever their leader was they were clever. He rounded the corner and was glad to see the garganta open. He leapt at Byakuya and pushed him through it and dove through himself. It closed a second before a cero hit the space where they had been standing.

What was taking him so long? Byakuya frowned as he peered into the darkness that was in front of him. He could still here voices. He wished he knew what they were saying. Byakuya had started to pace when he heard a commotion. He strained to see but it was just too dark. The Captain's eyes widened and he stepped back as Ryuunosuke came in to view, followed by three Espada. He didn't have time to react as he was pushed into the garganta and it closed around them. After a minute, Byakuya got up (he had fallen as he was pushed in) and brushed off his clothes. "Well," he said finally. "Did you get any information?"

"Yes, but unfortunately I was spotted so it is likely they will change their plans or delay them. They planned to recruit the masked army" he said quietly his head hung low. Then he rose his head looking at Byakuya and passed a faint smiles "But I know the names of all and ranks of quite a few of the espada and most of their fraccion. Also by their plans we can assess what each is strong at." He rose to his feet and looked at Byakuya. "I don't know how their leader spotted me, but they did. They are very intelligent." he pulled out the devices which he had been recording the information on. A notepad, a video recording device and a hell butterfly, which had recorded the sound. "Lets take these for analysis at 12th squad then report a mission success."

"Well at least you got some," Byakuya replied, sighing. "That's something. And if they change their plans someone can probably figure them out again." Byakuya frowned slightly at their plan. He hadn't thought they would do something like that! Now they had more enemies to worry about. "Yes, let's go," he said quickly. "The sooner this is done the better."

Ryuunsouke headed off with Byakuya towards the 12th squad barracks. By some coincidence they had come back on the opposite side of Sereitei so it was a long shunpo towards the 12th squad research bureau.

Byakuya sighed when he saw how far they were from the 12th Division. He had had enough of traveling for one day. But, unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done about it. Tiredly he started to shunpo. It took a while, but eventually they got there.

(Moving this topic)

He shunpoed with him easily keeping his pace, but he was still tired. Thankfully however he was so tired that his emotions weren't raising their head. Soon this mission would be over.

Soren sitting at his desk who also run out of messing with things today finished up on his paperwork and heard several footsteps approaching the door of the squad and he leaned back in his chair placing his hand on his zanpaktou just ready for anything waiting to see who wanted to call on the 12th division at this time and what their reason was something else was rather amusing in the office as if needles were hidden in the floor but on the needles lie a poison that within 5 minutes could paralyze the target completely and keep them in that state for well over 2 hours.

Though Soren would have to first activate it the the poison and raise them when they saw their shadows on the floor because the poison wasn't in massive amounts and it dried up rather quickly so he waited and watch hearing the foot steps getting closer.

Byakuya opened the door to the lab and walked in, not knowing anyone was there. "Let's get this over with," he told Ryuunosuke. Then I won't have to see you anymore, he added silently. But did he really want not to see Ryuunosuke ever again? No. He knew that wasn't true. But he would try his best to stop thinking about him, and try to avoid him.

RYuunosuke as he entered spoke out. "We have come with data to be analysed." he stated calmly though slightly cold. "It is on the espada and their plans." he added as an afterthought to show how important it was. "Direct from Las Noches."

Soren looking at them both sighed and got out of his chair dropping the button to their doom rather and went to them and held out his hand to grab whatever their want while his other hand putting on a pair of glasses getting his work area ready. You know I would lose the tone my dear boy...not good to barge into someone's home and demand stuff...I don't take kindly to that anyways aside from your manners hand me the experiment and let me begin my work and once I do begin please do not bug me.

"We won't bother you," Byakuya replied to the 12th Division Captain. "But we need to make this quick. It's not something we can afford to wait on." Byakuya looked the other Captain in the eye, a look that sent most lower shinigami running for cover.