A Modern Courtship

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EerieQ Yes, Byakuya does need to loosen up a little! Even when he was a kid he was kind of uptight, lol. I'm glad that you like the story so far. The pacing might end up being a tad on the slow side, so I hope you will stick with it as their relationship develops. Thank you for reviewing!

xpinkcloudx: I'm so glad you like it! It's such a compliment that you're actually saving it on your computer, and it's only been a prologue and a chapter so far. I hope the rest of it doesn't end up disappointing you, lol. Thank you for saying that you think Byakuya is ic; I'm trying to keep it that way, and Byakuya's a complex enough character that it can be difficult. I do not have a ff.net account. Most of my stuff has smut in it, and this fic will too, and I feel uncomfortable leaving it up on ff.net. At any rate, thank you for reviewing! I hope you enjoy the rest of Renji and Byakuya's journey!

Satterb: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you like it so much. . . I usually write smut, you know, so it's strange writing a fic that has less of it than normal. There'll still be smut, eventually, but not every chapter. I'm trying really hard to keep them in character and to write a plot that makes sense given canon, so we'll see how we do. I also realized recently that you're also reading my Naruto fic, Four-Legged Frolics in Tokyo? Man, I'm sorry I haven't been updating that one. Most of my free time goes into Bleach fic, I feel bad for other fandoms that catch my interest.

A/n: The next few chapters take place between Ichigo leaving Soul Society and Renji going to the human world. Just a take on what they could have been up to.

Chapter Two


Renji was half-dreading this. When Yamamoto had told him to look for people who could be developed into captain material within the next few decades, he hadn't known that Renji knew someone who was qualified right now. A little guilty to be keeping that little secret from Yamamoto, he had resolved to do whatever he could to convince Ikkaku to accept a captaincy position. The Gotei 13 was in shambles, after all, surely Ikkaku would want to do what he could to help.

Renji found Ikkaku easily enough in the eleventh division, but he was surrounded by the unseated officers, all of them deep in conversation. Renji hung back, keeping his presence hidden as he waited. He'd have to wait until Ikkaku was alone. No one else but Yumichika knew Ikkaku had obtained ban kai, after all, and Ikkaku wouldn't be too happy if Renji let it out in front of everyone. He followed Ikkaku around for about an hour before the other man was alone, walking down an empty side street.

"I don't know why you're following me," Ikkaku said, still walking, "but you might as well come out, Renji."

Well, here was his chance. Renji shuunpoed off the roof and onto the ground a few meters behind Ikkaku. Now that he was here he couldn't help but be nervous, the significance of his task not lost on him. "I have a favor to ask you."

"Well?" Ikkaku asked. "What is it?"

Renji gritted his teeth together, then prostrated himself on the ground. He kneeled down, palms against the ground as he looked into the pressed dirt of the street. "Ikkaku-san. I'm here to ask you to become a captain of the Gotei 13."

"I refuse."

The suddenness and finality of the answer shocked Renji. He lifted his head, eyes wide as he looked up at Ikkaku. Surely, Ikkaku should know the importance of this request.

"Sorry," Ikkaku said, turning back to look down on Renji. "But you'll have to find someone else."

As Ikkaku started to walk off Renji propelled himself into standing position, fists clenched at his side. Desperation welled up inside him. . . aside from Ikkaku, who could do this? It was true that Renji himself had achieved ban kai, but that wasn't the only thing required for a captain's position. If he was honest he would admit his ban kai wasn't even battle ready. . . he would need at least a few years to train with it; most people took ten.

"Wait!" Renji yelled out. "There can't be anyone but you. Third, fifth, or ninth, you can take your pick for all I care. You have to help fill in the holes left by Aizen's group! You have to become one of the next captains!"

Renji was out of breath when he finished, but Ikkaku seemed unmoved. He was turning around again, just a little bit.

"You dumbass," he said. "We already went through this before, when you first found out I even had ban kai. I don't want to become a captain. If I become a captain, I won't be a soldier of Zaraki-taichou anymore. Your dream is to someday surpass Kuchiki Byakuya, right?"

Renji couldn't help but nod in response. Even now that he had come to a better understanding with his captain, even now that they had a tentative relationship, Byakuya was his goal. Renji thought that Byakuya would always be his goal; the man was just that strong.

"Well, I only have one dream. To fight and die under Zaraki's command. That's all there is to it. If you get it, don't ask me again."

Renji's lips pulled together in a tight frown, but he couldn't deny Ikkaku's convictions. He understood what it was to have a goal that drove you. "Yes, sir."

He was about to shunpo away when Ikkaku stopped him, the other man's tone of voice taking on a more casual tone.

"So how are you doing with that captain of yours, anyway?"

Renji shrugged. It had only been a few days since he had spoken to Byakuya in the hospital. Renji remembered walking into the hospital room and seeing Byakuya sitting there, a distant look to his eyes as he gazed out the window. At that moment, Byakuya had looked. . . vulnerable. It had shocked Renji, a little bit, tugged on something inside of him.

"Fine, I guess," Renji answered. Since the day in the hospital, Byakuya had been different. Not a completely different person, not by a long shot, just a somewhat less rigid version of who he had been. "He's more. . . approachable now, more involved with the division members. You know I think he might even have a sense of humor."

Ikkaku scoffed at that. "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not sure, actually," Renji said, completely confused himself. "This morning he told me that he uses Senbonzakura to cut his hair. I still can't figure out if he was joking or not."

Ikkaku laughed, a loud, boisterous noise. "You know, knowing that guy, he might totally be for real."

"Yeah." Renji smiled. "Probably."

Ikkaku was about to say something else when a hell butterfly fluttered between them, then came to land on Renji's shoulder. Its message was a short caress against his ear, and then it fluttered away. Renji frowned.

"Something wrong?" Ikkaku asked.

"No," Renji replied. "Just Commander Yamamoto wants to see me again. I have no idea why, though."

"Yeah, well, you probably shouldn't keep him waiting. Might be important."

Renji nodded, then shunpoed away. It didn't take him long to get to Yamamoto's office in the first division. When he got there, he was not surprised to find Byakuya already sitting across a low table from Yamamoto, both of them sipping cups of tea. Renji bowed as he entered the room, waiting for Yamamoto to invite him to sit.

"Renji," Yamamoto said. "Please join us."

Renji did so, taking a seat at the table as Yamamoto poured him a cup of tea.

"As you two know," Yamamoto said, "I have assigned tasks to various members to the Gotei 13, as we prepare for whatever it is Aizen is planning. I charged you both with discovering and fostering captain material, but I'm aware that this particular task could take years. So I'm assigning you to a mission to the human world, for now."

Renji sat up a little bit in anticipation. A mission to the human world often meant the opportunity to collect bounties on powerful hollows. And enough bounties could mean that Renji could afford a pair of sunglasses to replace the ones that Ichigo had broken during their fight.

"The local shinigami in a rural area of Japan has obtained reports of what appears to be a pseudo-arrancar. It might not even be relevant to Aizen, but that's what we need you two to find out. Have you ever heard of the Baku?"

Byakuya nodded over his tea cup. "A benevolent spirit in Japanese folklore. It eats nightmares and bad dreams."

"Yes, well, as you know folklore often has within it a grain of truth. There have been hollows in the past that have been able to travel into a person's dreams; no doubt this is what started the myth. The benevolent part is, most likely, a human creation. We believe this pseudo-arrancar has such an ability. It travels inside a person's dream and traps him there; once trapped, it can consume his spirit energy."

"What evidence do we have?" Byakuya asked.

"Human corpses have shown up dead in their sleep, with no causes of death as far as humans can make out. I realize that it's the flimsiest of evidence, but the local shinigami is convinced this is the work of an entity stronger than a hollow, and I trust her intuition. She will be assigned to a different location and you two will be sent to her post; in addition to investigating this phenomenon, you will take over her duties."

Sweet, Renji thought, hoping that the town was a hotbed for spiritual activity.

"Because there is so much we don't know, it is necessary for you to stay in the human world for an extended period of time and interact with humans. To that end, we have prepared gigais for both of you. Housing and human currency have also been taken care of."

Renji cast a quick glance over at Byakuya. His captain was sipping his tea, seemingly unbothered by the information. But Renji couldn't help but fidget a little bit. He had never stayed long in the human world, and Ichigo and his friends were the only ones he had ever interacted with.

"Will there be a substitute shinigami in the area to help us pass as humans?" Renji asked.

"No, of course not," Yamamoto said. "Substitute shinigami are exceedingly rare; Kurosaki Ichigo is one of a handful. Akon will accompany you to the human world. He will instruct you on human behavior as the research institute has studied it and teach you to care for your gigais. After that he will come back, and you two will be left on your own."

Renji nodded. He looked over at Byakuya again, but the other man seemed to be thinking over something with quite a bit of concentration.

"You two should actually head to the research institute as soon as you are mentally prepared for the mission," Yamamoto said. "Akon is ready to receive you. You are both dismissed."

Both Renji and Byakuya stood up and left the headquarters. Yamamoto had said "as soon as you are mentally prepared," but really that meant "as soon as possible."

"I will go delegate the rest of my responsibilities to the seated officers," Byakuya said. "I assume you also have work that needs to be finished before we leave."

Renji nodded, and with that they parted. It took Renji about an hour and a half to get his affairs in order, and after that he went to the research institute, not surprised to see Byakuya already there and talking with Akon. There was a female shinigami there as well, a pretty young thing with thick black hair and round glasses.

"Hello," she said, smiling as she ran up to Renji. "You must be Abarai-fukutaichou, I'm Tsukigata Tae, ninth division, unseated, the local shinigami in charge of Hikuno Town."

Renji swore the woman was talking a mile a minute.

"I've already briefed Kuchiki-taichou about what's going on and I've also written everything up in this report that you can take with you when you go to the human world on your investigation."

A thick stack of papers, about the size of a phone book, was deposited into Renji's arms.

"Basically what happened is that human bodies started to show up dead after mysterious circumstances and no one could figure out what was going on especially since human forensic scientists couldn't place a cause of death but the thing is they all died in their sleep and that's when I started to get suspicious so I went to the Great Spirit Library and learned about hollows that can trap and eat people while they're dreaming but this thing also seems to be targeting other hollows because hollows are showing up dead under the same circumstances and it must be something stronger than a hollow like a menos, right? Am I right?"

"Umm. . . yes?" Renji said, a little dazed from Tae's speech.

Tae took a huge breath. Her cheeks were tinged pink a little bit, but she seemed to be proud of herself for relaying the information to Renji.

"Of course you can always call me if you have any questions about what's going on," she said.

"I'm sure it won't come to that," Renji said. At least he was holding out hope.

Tae smiled and bowed. "Thank you for your hard work."

"Renji." It was Akon's voice now, and he gestured Renji over.

Renji walked over to where he and Byakuya were standing, looking down at their gigais. Byakuya's gigai was already dressed in what Renji assumed was modern clothing. Slim jeans that hug his legs, a graphic t-shirt with English words they couldn't understand on it, and a fitted black blazer. Akon had even given him little black fingerless gloves, probably to remind Byakuya of the tekkou he was always wearing in the shinigami realm. The gigai's hair was free of the usual kenseikan, and instead fell like silk around his face. It made the man look softer, Renji thought. Still masculine, but beautiful in a different way than normal. Renji's gigai, however, was still mostly naked. Renji pulled on the thin, tight white fabric that covered its groin.

"What the hell is this?" he asked. He could see his pubes over the top of the little shorts.

"Modern underwear," Akon said. "I believe humans call them boxer-briefs."

"Are they supposed to be this tight?" Renji asked. He didn't see how these were supposed to be comfortable. What was wrong with wearing his fundoshi? "Taichou, don't you think these are too tight?"

He looked up, but Byakuya was looking to the side, studying something there with great intensity. Renji frowned, wondering what was so interesting.

"They are fine, Renji," Byakuya said, not even looking.

Renji grinned as he cupped his gigai's impressive bulge. There was a cocky tilt to his chin as he turned towards Akon. "I see you got the size right."

"Renji," Byakuya snapped, his tone curt as he continued studying. . . well, whatever it was that he was studying. "Please remain professional."

Renji's hand fell to his side as he stood up straighter, grin falling from his face. "Yes, Taichou."

He gave his gigai another once over. Its hair was down, falling in a thick mess down its back, though Renji would no doubt put it up as soon as he could. He was surprised that the institute had kept his tattoos on the gigai, considered how conspicuous they were, but he wasn't going to complain about that.

"Why am I naked, anyway?"

"We like to let shinigami choose their own clothes, when possible," Akon said, walking over to a wall. He pulled it open to reveal a closet, full of odds and ends they had picked up from the human world over time.

"How about these?" Renji said, pulling out a pair of voluminous bright blue pants. The label on it said "Hammer Pants."

"Please limit your choices to this rack," Akon said, gesturing. "These are clothes from the most recent decade."

And Renji had thought those pants were pretty smart, too. He put them back and walked over to where Akon was standing. He pulled out articles of clothing, quickly assembling an outfit for the lab attendants to put on his gigai. Nothing fancy, but he thought it would look pretty cool together. Jeans that weren't quite as slim as Byakuya's, a plain black t-shirt, and a hoodie with a wicked awesome red and black design on it.

Once his gigai was clothed Renji looked over at Byakuya. Well, at least Byakuya wasn't busy studying that thing from before anymore.

"Are you ready to go, Taichou?"

Byakuya nodded.

The gigai were already being loaded onto a cart, looking eerily like dead human bodies stacked on top of each other. Akon took control of the cart before leading them outside, where a Senkaimon was ready to transport them. After it was open it was just a leisurely stroll to the human world. During the walk Akon treated them to a lecture on human behavior and traditions, and Renji hoped Byakuya was paying attention because there was no way in hell he could remember even half of it. Eventually they were at the opening to the human world, and Renji stepped through to find himself in front of a quant little cabin.

He breathed in the fresh air. . . there was a different quality to it, here, a life and freshness that you just couldn't feel in Soul Society. The cabin was nestled at the base of a mountain, dark green forest everywhere around them. There was a narrow dirt road leading downward, and Renji guessed that it led to the village.

"Because your activities might be considered suspicious by humans," Akon said, "we felt it would be best to keep you isolated. But the town is only a one mile walk from here, so it's still easy to reach."

Akon and Byakuya were walking inside. Renji took one more deep breath before he followed. It really was so different from the wasteland of Rukongai. There was life everywhere; not just in the smells but in the sounds too. The humming of insects and the singing of birds. . . soft footsteps breaking leaves as small animals traipsed through the forest. It was amazing. Renji could tell that he was going to like it in the human world.

Once inside, he saw that Akon had an array of devices on the table. Renji recognized most of them. Soul candy dispensers, soul separation gloves, memory modifiers. There was also a rectangular plastic device on the table, half covered with a keyboard and half with a screen. He assumed it was a human version of a computer, and Akon was showing them how to use it. Renji watched as he turned it on and showed them different applications.

"If you ever need to know how to do something," Akon said, "just youtube it. They have a tutorial for anything."

"Umm. . . okay." Renji watched as Akon opened up the site, but then they were moving on.

"If you're in your spirit form in the human world for too long," Akon reminded them, "you'll get tired. You'll need to enter your gigais in order to regain your strength. Gigais don't need to eat, although they can. But you two knew all this already."

"Of course," Byakuya replied.

As Akon went more in depth as to the operation of gigais, mostly stuff they already learned in academy, Renji took the opportunity to look around the house. It didn't take long, considering the size. The kitchen, dining, and living room space was all one room, and there were two small bedrooms branching off that one. Despite the small size, the house had obviously been prepared for their arrival. Everything was pristinely clean, and the sheets that sat on the beds looked much softer than the ones Renji had back in the barracks. He wondered if that was all done for Byakuya's benefit. Considering the influence of the four noble families on the Gotei 13, it wasn't unlikely.

Renji took the smaller bedroom, assuming Byakuya would be more comfortable with more space. From his window he could see a small wooden structure. Part of it was closed off, and he assumed it was the toilet. The other part was open, with a large shower head hanging from the top. There was a metal pump several meters from the bathroom structure, and Renji gathered that was their source of drinking water.

Renji went back to the main room to rejoin the others, but Akon was just about finished with his lecture.

"If you have any other questions," Akon said, "just call Soul Society on your soul phones."

"Is there an exchange outpost near by?" Byakuya asked.

Over the thousands of years that the Gotei 13 had been in existence, a small economy had popped up dealing with exchanging currency and goods between the human and spirit world. It was a business that wasn't entirely sanctioned, but allowed to continue nonetheless. Like Urahara's Shop, it provided shinigami goods to be purchased by Earth-bound shinigami and humans that might be more spiritually aware. It also exchanged currency and provided a place for shinigami in the living world to collect on bounties.

Of course, considering it wasn't too often that shinigami had extended stays in the real world, there weren't too many of these exchange outposts. So it wasn't a surprise when Akon shook his head in the negative.

"Give us a call if you need anything," he said, "and we'll try to be as quick as we can. The closest outpost is in Sendai, but of course that name doesn't mean a thing to you two. At any rate, if there's nothing else I can do, I'll be on my way back."

"We'll be fine," Byakuya said. "Your assistance is no longer needed."

"Thanks for everything, Akon," Renji said, giving the other man a salute goodbye.

"Sure thing." Akon opened up a senkaimon back to Soul Society, and then he was gone, the opening closing shut behind him.

Renji shot a look towards his gigai, then at Byakuya.

"We don't need them yet," Byakuya answered, heading out the door. "It will be easier to reach our destination in spirit form."

Renji nodded as he followed his captain out the door. As soon as they were out they started to shunpo up the mountain side. Their feet alighting down on tree branches once every few seconds, only to propel themselves forward again. In no time at all they were at a clearing more than halfway up the mountain. Byakuya landed before Renji, but Renji wasn't long to follow. He looked back as he landed. From here he could see down the mountain, could see the fog-covered valley they had just left. Through the fog he could see the small town of Hikuno, nestled in the middle of two green mountain ranges.

Renji turned and followed Byakuya before the other man got too ahead of him. It didn't take long for them to get to where they were going. Inside the forest, in a small alcove, lay the body of a hollow. It was a huge, hulking thing, the body curved like a small hill as it lay there. It looked like it was just asleep, but it was half disintegrated. Renji had never seen anything like this.

"What happened?" he asked. He came up and poked it lightly with his zanpakuto, but it didn't move.

"This was one of Tae's first clues as to what was going on," Byakuya said. "Usually, when a hollow is killed by a shinigami, its body disintegrates into spirit particles while its soul is purified. When it is eaten by another hollow, both its body and its soul are consumed. But in this case neither of those things happened. It's as though its soul was taken away, while its body was left to slowly decay."

"So you're saying the soul was eaten it its sleep?" Renji asked. It seemed like a stretch, but then again, he hadn't seen the research. As flaky as Tae seemed, she had written an extensive write-up, and had no doubt done extensive research on what could have been causing this strange phenomenon.

Byakuya nodded. "It's the only thing Tae could find that would explain this."

"So now we know that even hollows dream. What about the humans, did they die this way?

"Human anatomy is different," Byakuya said. "Once a human's soul is removed, he is clinically dead. His body will decay at a normal rate. The clues in terms of the humans, as Ukitake told us before, were that they all died in their sleep and no cause of death could be pinpointed in any of them. It matched the reports we had concerning Baku-type hollows."

"So. . . what now?" Renji poked the hollow with his foot. Nothing. "What exactly are we trying to figure out?"

"What classification of hollow did this. If it's consuming other hollows, it may well be at least a gillian. But Commander Yamamoto seems to think that it may be an arrancar, either pseudo or true."

"Why?" Renji asked.

"It was something Tae found," Byakuya said. "Before the deaths even started. She was patrolling the area when a flash of white off the forest floor got her attention. When she went to see what it was, she found a hollow mask, with just a small part of it missing. It looked like it had been ripped off."

Renji nodded. So they might be dealing with an Arrancar. One that may very well be under orders of Aizen, if Aizen did indeed have control of Hueco Mundo.

"So what's the plan?" Renji asked. When it came to battling he was extremely perceptive, but Renji had to admit that he wasn't too good at piecing things together otherwise.

"Whatever it is, it's too strong to live on just human souls alone. If it's still roaming the area, eventually it will sense our presence and target us. We'll be the bait to draw it out in the open. If it enters one of our dreams, the other will hunt it down and kill it."

It didn't sound like the safest plan, but Renji was never about safety anyway. "Sounds good."

"One of the reports contained an important fact about Baku-type hollows, one that will serve us greatly: unless we allow them to trap us in the dream world, they can't consume our souls."

Renji blinked. "Why would someone willingly get trapped in a dream?"

"There are many people," Byakuya said, turning away, "who would rather live in a dream than face reality."

After that they went back to the cabin. Renji was already feeling the drain from staying so long in the human world, and he slipped into his gigai as Byakuya did the same. Renji had never been in a gigai before; he had never needed one. Everything was more. He wasn't quite sure how to explain it. . . the smell of the leaves was fresher. The sounds of the forest were crisper. The hair trailing down his neck and back was softer. It was as though his senses were magnified.

Renji opened his eyes, blinking multiple times in quick succession as he got used to the vibrancy of the colors. This was amazing. He sat up, trying out his new body. . . handling it wasn't any different from controlling his spirit body. He found a ponytail holder in his pocket, thanked Akon in his mind, and tied his hair into a low, loose ponytail for the moment.

He got up and looked at Byakuya, the breath catching in his throat for just a second. Human clothes suited Byakuya terribly well, not that shinigami clothes didn't. But the cut of Byakuya's blazer did everything to draw attention to his slim yet well-developed build, and the blue streaks in the t-shirt did everything to bring out the light in his gray eyes. And Renji had been right before to notice that Byakuya's hair, worn down, leant him a softer edge. It made him look less intimidating, somehow.

"You look great in those clothes, Taichou," Renji said. He wondered if saying something like that was out of bounds, but he was only saying the truth. He didn't think there was any harm in that. At any rate, Byakuya turned away from him too quickly for Renji to see his reaction to the statement, to see if he was offended or not.

"Flattery is nothing but empty words, Renji."

Renji didn't say anything back, glad that he had gotten off with just a reprimand. As he got closer and closer to Byakuya, sometimes he forgot what the boundaries between them were, and ended up saying something that went past them. He had to remember that even though their relationship was improved, they weren't friends.

At any rate, night was falling in the human world, and it was about time for them to go to sleep.

"Should we sleep in shifts?" Renji asked.

"There's no need," Byakuya replied. "We'd have no way of knowing if the hollow is inside the other's dreamworld. We just have to keep our guard up, even in our dreams. The next morning we'll alert the other, and then we can make preparations for the next night."

"And you think he'll come back if he fails once?" Renji asked.

"I'm sure of it," Byakuya said. "I've already searched out the reiatsu in this town, and there's nothing here like what we would provide."

"Lucky us," Renji said, chuckling a little bit. He watched as Byakuya made his way to his room, and decided he should go to sleep as well. He went to his room, noting that there was a small dresser tucked against the wall. It hadn't been there before, and he wondered if the research institute had sent it. Inside were clothes similar to the ones Renji had picked up. There were also thin white tank tops that Renji guessed were for night use, and a whole drawer full of those awful boxer-briefs. Renji didn't know how humans dealt with such constricting undergarments.

Renji peeled off all his clothes except for the boxer-briefs and pulled on a tank top. He fell onto his bed, grabbing the report that he had left on the nightstand earlier. Tae's phonebook of a write-up. There was no way he was going to read through that monstrosity, but he didn't particularly mind skimming through it.

It ended up being dry, dry stuff. She had even divided it into chapters, the little overachiever. The first chronicled her experiences related to the phenomenon, and it read like an extremely boring detective novel with no climax or end. The second chronicled her research, and the third drew inferences from both. Renji wondered if she should have been assigned to the twelfth division instead of the ninth.

At any rate, it was great reading material for an insomniac, because Renji fell asleep right in the middle of reading it. The book fell onto his chest as his eyelids fluttered closed, the light on his nightstand forgotten as he drifted off into deep sleep.