[He doesn't know what he expected to feel, but there's no elation at her answer - no satisfaction in the knowledge that Aizen is gone or any real sense that a weight has been lifted from Seireitei. Kyouraku has lived too long to believe that Aizen does not have his sympathisers, even now - that somewhere, his ambition will not become a symbol for others to follow.

The dip in Jyuushiko's reiatsu and the pain in her voice registers distantly, his mind too occupied with a thousand new possibilities for betrayal. He returns the reassuring pressure on her fingers briefly and almost without thinking about it, before Katen Kyokotsu pulls him up short.

You are not listening.

To underline her point she follows the words with an abrupt memory of crushing emptiness - an echo of what he had felt each time he sensed Jyuushiko's reiatsu flicker out of his reach. And that brings with it another memory - of the sky above him exploding in fire and heat just before he had slipped into unconsciousness in Karakura Town.]

Yama-jii.

[It takes two attempts to sit up, the change in position triggering another wave of dizziness and a searing pain in his chest. The bandages that swathe his torso are tight enough that he can barely breathe until he swings his feet down to the floor.

I did not wake you so that you could make yourself sick again, baka. Minazuki is watching.]