Ichigo walked around the kitchen with Hitsugaya, trying his best to look casual. Noticing his tensed shoulders, the young captain sighed before whispering, "Drop your shoulders a bit. If you continue looking so tense like that, we might get caught."
Ichigo let out a small breath. "Right. Sorry."
The two continued their walk as they listened, along with the other waiters (some of them real waiters while the others were undercover), to the head server how things were going to go tonight.
"Aizen-sama wants today to be perfect. There are many important guests coming today to celebrate tomorrow's wedding."
Ichigo couldn't help but let out a small growl, which was quickly silenced when Hitsugaya elbowed him in the guts.
"Rukia-sama will be arriving with Kuchiki-sama in a few minutes along with Aizen-sama. Quickly go and grab the appetizers. The guests are starting to arrive." When the head server disappeared through the door, Ichigo followed the others as they went to table to grab a tray of appetizers.
Renji quickly came over to Ichigo with a worried look. "Dude, do you know how to hold these heavy things properly? I don't want to accidently drop them and bring attention to myself."
"I know what you mean," Ichigo nodded as he tried balancing the tray in his hands. "I never worked in a restaurant before."
"It's quite simple really." Ichigo and Renji turned around to see Hitsugaya balancing the tray of appetizers in one hand while a white cloth was hanging on his other wrist.
Hitsugaya raised a brow at them and smirked. "They don't call me 'child-genius' for no reason." Renji threw his friend's retreating form the middle finger.
Ichigo copied Hitsugaya's example and tried holding the tray with one hand while Renji kept cursing.
"Ichigo."
The orange head slightly jumped. His free hand went to his ear piece and spoke through the little mic in the same wrist. "What?" he whispered.
"Just wanting to remind you to not act like a sex-deprived idiot and approach your girl too early in the game," Kenpachi snickered.
Ichigo glared as Renji tried to hold back his laughter. The exact same thing was happening to the other undercover agents as they heard everything from the earpiece.
"Shut the fuck up," Ichigo growled. His glared intensified as he heard Kenpachi rolling with laughter before turning off the earpiece. Ichigo looked at Renji's red face and shook his head. "Don't you say anything."
Renji shrugged his shoulders as he chuckled. "Let's just do this."
At that moment the head server returned to the kitchen. "Most of the guests have arrived. Hurry and serve them!" he ordered.
Holding the tray comfortably in his hand, Ichigo followed Renji and the other servers out the door and into the Grand Hall where hundreds of guests have already gathered for the rehearsal dinner. Apparently, Aizen decided to have dinner before the actual wedding rehearsal. The actual wedding tomorrow was planned to take place late in the evening and in his backyard so there was no need to rush things when everyone was hungry.
As Ichigo made his way around the room, he casually tried to look for signs of Rukia or her brother but there was none. Of course Kenpachi wasn't helping as he kept making annoying and perverted remarks through the earpiece.
Everyone was blending well with the crowd, serving appetizers while keeping out a sharp eye and ear at any sign of trouble. From the information given through the earpiece, there were three possible candidates so far who might be involved with the weapons dealing later that night.
After several minutes passed, the music died down and lights dimmed as the main headlight focused on the main door.
The head servant of the house came from the side and stood up straight next to the door. "Ladies and gentlemen. May I introduce you Aizen Sosuke-sama and his fiancée Kuchiki Rukia-sama, escorted by her brother Kuchiki Byakuya-sama."
The door slowly and elegantly opened and out stepped the three people, Rukia standing in between the two men with one arm linked with her brother while the other was lying limply by her side. Ichigo could tell by her body language she was trying to scoot away from her fiancée as much as possible without getting noticed. This just made Ichigo feel more enraged.
He hasn't seen Rukia in weeks and now she was looking like she was slowly dying inside. Her skin was paler and she seemed thinner too. And the sparkling choker made her look like some sort of dog. Ichigo curled his free hand into a fist, but held back his anger when Kenpachi started to lecture him seriously to stay put.
The guests all applauded as the three made their way around the room, receiving congratulations and good luck from left and right. While the other undercover cops were nearing them with appetizers, Ichigo, Renji and Hitsugaya decided to stay back incase they get noticed by Rukia or by Aizen. Who knows if that sick bastard had researched her background and investigated her friends?
As they came to the middle of the Grand Hall the orchestra started up the song again. Before anyone else moved, Aizen gently dragged Rukia away from her brother and pulled her into his arm to start their first dance of the evening.
"This is Matsumoto," she called in, "We just found a small cabin hidden in between the trees behind the mansion. We just saw a potential customer go in, escorted by some men wearing weird masks. Ikkaku is planning on going in to investigate once the coast is clear."
"Roger," Kenpachi responded, "Keep us updated, fukutaicho."
"Hai!"
"Well, that sure was fast," Renji commented, "Looks like you might be able to get your girl back sooner than expected," he smirked, patting Ichigo on the shoulder.
But the orange head was less than amused. "Something's not right…" he mumbled.
"What are you talking about, Kurosaki?" Hitsugaya asked.
Ichigo shook his head. "I swore last time I was here there was no cabin around there. It's not that big so I was able to check the entire place and there was nothing there but trees."
"You might have missed it from being too anxious," Renki commented.
Hitsugaya sighed. "Whatever. Just start going around serving again. The cabin is our best lead, so don't mess up when we're almost done."
"Aye-aye, taicho," Renji rolled his eyes as Hitsugaya walked off with his appetizers. Renji looked back to his old friend and patted him on the shoulder again. "I know you're not convinced but I'm sure this is it."
Ichigo raised a brow. "You sure I can trust that baboon-like instinct of yours?"
Renji glared before he smirked. "Well, it was this instinct that got me some booty the past few days."
This time Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Is that all you're thinking about?"
Renji snickered. "Do you wanna know who I did it with?" Before Ichigo could say "no," Renji continued. "Tatsuki."
If Ichigo was drinking at that moment, he would have spat everything out. "Tatsuki?"
"Get back to work you rainbow heads!" Kenpachi yelled at them through the earpiece causing the two to cringe.
"I'll tell you the detail later," Renji smirked.
Ichigo cringed even more. "No thanks."
As the red head walked off to a different side of the Hall, Ichigo's gaze returned to the middle of the room where more couples joined the "happy couple" in the dance. It was then Ichigo caught Byakuya's eyes, which was also looking at him with the same emotionless look.
As casually as he could, Ichigo made his way to the other side of the room, being careful not to let his presence known to Rukia. But because of his unruly orange hair, he decided it'd be best to travel along the walls, which, he soon noticed, Hitsugaya and Renji were also doing.
Soon, he arrived and was now standing next to Byakuya. But the two were facing opposite ways as Byakuya conversed with several people and Ichigo continued serving appetizers. But just as his tray was emptying out, he felt someone tug on his pockets, dropping something light into it.
Byakuya just gave him more information.
Without saying a word or looking at each other, Ichigo quickly made his way back to the kitchen. Once inside he set his empty tray on top of a countertop before heading off to the restroom. He quickly went into one of the stalls and dished out the small note. On it, Byakuya elegantly wrote:
My spy is in the wine cellars underneath the kitchen.
Cellar? Underneath the mansion? But what about the cabin…
Everything clicked in Ichigo's mind. Suddenly, his earpiece came on.
"This is Ikkaku. Me and my men are getting ready to go in," he informed.
Ichigo's eyes widened.
"Be careful," Kenpachi responded.
He quickly brought up his wrist and shouted, "Don't! It's a trap!"
But before those words could fully register into a person's mind, Ichigo heard yelling, cursing and gunshots on the other end.
A/N: OMG! What's happening? Does this mean Aizen anticipated that cops would be there? What will happen to our heroes now?
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