All she could remember clearly was lunging at the man who had ruined her life, who had destroyed her emotionally before she felt a sharp pain in her lower region. A look of shock etched its way onto her face as she looked at the man who had severed her in two. Ichimaru Gin. She recognized him immediately but this was the first time she had witnessed his abilities and it would probably be her last.
And then she was falling, Shinji desperately calling her name from behind.
The pain was beginning to ebb away into a numbing feeling. She couldn't feel anything. Even when Shinji had caught her, she felt nothing. She felt cold, she felt weak, and she knew she was dying. But she accepted it. There was nothing more to do at this point.
Opening her mouth to speak, she began slowly, almost grimacing at the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. "Sorry, Shinji… I was impatient…" She attempted to smile, watching as he began calling for help frantically. He looked so scared. He didn't look like the cool captain or the cool vizard leader. He looked more like a scared little boy who had gotten lost. If she were able, she would have hit him and told him not to worry so much, that she would be fine. Just anything to get that stupid look off of his face.
Her eyes began to slip closed when he passed her on to Hachi but the last thing she saw was the look of determination flare in his eyes. That was the Shinji knew… He was going to pull them all out of this, just like he always did. She smiled weakly in his direction before she had finally lost consciousness, hanging on to life by a thread.
When she awoke, she found out that she had been healed and put back together by a Shinigami. Of course she didn't like that but she owed them. She was still /alive/. Even though it would take quite some time before she would be able to do some of the things she used to, she would be patient. At least, try to be anyway.
After she was discharged, she went back to her daily routines of picking on Shinji and getting into the occasional fights with him. Even when she began to get pains while wrestling around with him, she continued on, not wanting to worry him. She knew that if she did, he would panic and that is exactly what she did when she had her first coughing fit. He became so much more cautious with her after that and it bothered her. She wanted him to mess with her and fight with her but he was reserved and wouldn't do much of anything but return her insults.
By the time he had returned to his original position in the Soul Society, she was far more than annoyed. He was slow to reply to her insults and he seemed distracted, like his thoughts were elsewhere. It was then that she figured out he was bottling up all the guilt he felt for letting her get hurt. He had been hiding it from them for a while now and it really annoyed her even further that he would do such a thing. She was fine wasn't she? She was still alive! It was high time that he realized that.
Picking up the phone, she dialed into his division with determination. She would get him out of his little depression and get him moving again or she would have to use force.