Disclaimer: Bleach, it's storylines, characters, licenses, and so on do not belong to me. I take a very peculiar amount of joy from twisting them to my purposes, but this work is entirely derivative.

Refraction

A Bleach Fanfic

Chaos Theory AU

Chapter One: Rising Tide

Ever since Hell, Jinta had felt… weird.

Not all the time, just sometimes. Honestly, he tried to ignore it, because weird was normal in his life and so if he sometimes felt extra weird, that was bad news.

So he hadn't told anyone. Tessai looked at him kinda funny sometimes, like he was considering saying something or waiting for Jinta to say something. But Jinta never said anything at those times, and Tessai never ended up saying anything either. So that was that, he figured.

The fish cooking in the kitchen smelled really good today, and normally that would have been enough to make him feel pretty awesome, but right just now the weird was really making it hard to feel anything else. He couldn't really explain it, even if he wanted to—it was just like being sick in your guts right before you threw up but not ever actually getting to the part where it happened. Just a stirring first, like stirring soup, and then more like flipping pancakes, and then—

"Yoruichi." Tessai put the plates down on the table in front of them, voice steady. But even Jinta knew he wasn't just trying to tell her dinner was ready.

There was a smacking sound when Yoruichi slapped her knees to haul herself to her feet. Weird and sharp when everything else felt like… fog. Or something thick like that.

"Yeah," she said, standing up and looking at him and Ururu for a second. Jinta figured he probably oughta stand too, so he did.

"Ururu, Jinta." And then Tessai's hand was on his back, the other one on Ururu's, and he was guiding them towards the stairs. "Go to the basement. Don't open the door for anyone but us."

It wasn't the first time that had ever happened. But it meant things were serious. Jinta swallowed past a lump in his throat, too dazed to put up any kind of fight. The door closed behind them—he could hear the sound of Tessai sealing it with kidō. Then it was just the two of them, the dim stairwell, and the basement below, big and empty.

Ururu's hand was cold. Jinta wasn't sure which one of them had reached for the other. If anyone else had been there, he would have let go. But there wasn't anyone else. Yoruichi and Tessai had left, and Kisuke was still in Hell.

It was just them.

Beside him, Ururu's other hand found his shoulder. She pushed down until he was sitting. It probably wasn't hard—she was really strong like that. His butt hit the wooden stair underneath him, and he leaned back against the wall sideways. He still felt like he was gonna be sick.

Ururu didn't ask about it, or about why he was breathing so loud and slow, gulping air like he'd run for miles. Instead, she held his hand, then shifted sideways to slump against him a little. She leaned into him, and he leaned into the wall, and it didn't feel quite as bad anymore.

"I miss Kisuke-san," she said quietly. Always quietly, with her.

And he was always loud. Except right now, maybe.

Because he didn't know what to say to that. Just…

"Yeah. Me too."

Sweat trickled between Uryū's shoulderblades; he was more concerned with the strain he could feel pulling at the well-warmed muscles of his arms.

Such were the perils of trying to block a strike from his captain, he supposed.

Shifting out from underneath the heavier of Katen Kyōkotsu's blades, he remembered to check for the lighter one this time, and moved Yorugen's right-hand sword to block. His reward was another heavy clang, but his attempted deflection worked better that time, and he didn't have to endure a contest of strength he would lose in a matter of seconds. Hopping away with shunpō, he had just enough time to pull in a breath before Kyōraku was again pressing in too close for comfort. This time, Uryū crossed Yorugen's halves to block the first hit and tried to get in a strike of his own before the second connected.

"Yare, yare." Kyōraku frowned slightly when Uryū's knee came in for his abdomen. Abandoning the attempt to cut with his second blade, he caught the incoming leg with a pair of fingers, stopping the motion dead. "You're so persistent."

It was hardly a fair complaint. While they sparred most days until Uryū conceded, it was Kyōraku who'd agreed to those terms in the first place. Fair or not, though, he'd complain—and make a big show of doing so—for as long as they continued.

Clicking his tongue against the side of his teeth, Uryū reversed places with his shadow. Kyōraku's brows went up; it took him a split second to recover from the sudden loss of resistance. Uryū used that second to flash behind him, hooking one of Yorugen's blades with the other and swinging in a whiplike motion. It was the one thing that could reasonably extend his range beyond that of Katen Kyōkotsu.

In less time than it took to blink, Kyōraku pivoted, the lighter blade in his left hand knocking Yorugen aside. "Hold on a minute, Ishida-kun." The request was given in a much more serious tone than his whining, barely a request at all.

Uryū complied immediately, unhooking his swords and taking a neutral grip on both, shifting back out of Kage-e so that his body was once more solid. "Taichō?"

Kyōraku tilted his head, studying him for a long moment. His own hold on Katen Kyōkotsu was lax, almost negligent, but Uryū knew much better now than to trust the impression that gave. "Don't you think it's interesting? That we both have powers that make use of shadows and darkness?" His tone had flipped again. It was light, so effervescent it was completely unreadable. The captain hardly ever meant only what he said.

Frankly, though, that was more common in Uryū's life than the opposite. He was used to it by this point, and turning the phrase about in his head—picking it apart in search of the real intention behind it—was by now a process he began without even consciously deciding to do so.

"You want to know how they interact."

The little pull at the side of Kyōraku's mouth was indication enough that he was right.

"It might be interesting, if I could hide in your shadow. What happens to me when you have two of them, I wonder?" Carefully, the captain placed the smaller of his two swords in his sash. It slid in without cutting—one of many advantages zanpakutō had over actual steel.

There was, perhaps, merit in finding out. Uryū exhaled, already feeling the comfortable warmth of exertion being chased away by the cold settled over the division's training grounds. His breath fogged in front of him, obscuring Kyōraku temporarily before it cleared. "I suppose we might as well find out."

It wasn't without risk, but he knew the captain wouldn't have brought it up in the first place if he didn't think it was important enough for that. So Uryū split his shadow as though to use his Kagegaitō technique, without shrouding himself in either. They forked outwards behind him, both unsettlingly not where they should be, given the position of the sun. He'd learned to pay much more attention to that kind of thing, since he'd discovered that this was the nature of his power.

"Go ahead."

Kyōraku took half a step forward before pausing, his head turning to the left. He squinted out at something Uryū's angle didn't immediately allow him to see, then frowned. "We might have to wait," he murmured.

Sure enough, a jigokuchō appeared a moment later, fluttering towards the captain. When he held a thick, callused finger out towards it, the messenger butterfly landed, the privacy kidō laid on it preventing Uryū from hearing whatever was relayed. He hardly needed to.

"Aizen?"

The captain compressed his lips into a thin line. "Yama-jii is calling a captains' meeting, so you're probably right." A pause. "We'll continue this tomorrow."

"First thing?" Uryū lifted a brow, cognizant of the reaction that was going to get him but asking anyway.

A deep sigh followed. "If I have to." Which was Kyōraku-taichō for yes.

Uryū nodded once, unsurprised when his captain disappeared from his senses the moment after. It seemed Aizen was finally on the move.

Hi everyone. I'm still here. Just, you know, writing for fun is something I can apparently only manage during the summer, so.

Anyway, this is Refraction. For me, it's mostly a way for me to try and chip off some of the rust that has accumulated over the year and get back into the swing of writing for the CT-verse, so that my next stabs at actual plot advancement are not awful. For you, it'll be a collection of missing scenes/extra tidbits from Catastrophe Theory. So, actual missing scenes, deep-dives into character headspace, alternate-POV takes on the some of the scenes that appear in Catastrophe, and so on. Expect chapter lengths to vary widely, and some chapters not to have anything new added this way.

On a slightly-cooler note, perhaps, I'm happy to take requests, if you want more of X during some part of the plot A, or Y's perspective on scene B, or whatever. Drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. No promises on timetables (I'm very very rusty here and working to boot), but I'll try not to leave you hanging too long between chapters.

Cheers, y'all.