The moonlight hovering over the soul society shifted its luminous gaze onto the glistening face of the 4th division's vice captain Kotetsu Isane. Through the empty window a gentle wind glided over her sweat covered face carrying her sleepless words as it stirred. Even though the event on Soukyoku hill took place a little over a week ago, Isane still hadn't recovered from what happened that day. Questions that she couldn't answer pounded her unconscious mind as her body tossed and turned trying to avoid the dilemma going on in her head. Haunting memories resurfaced in the form of nightmares due to the dwelling of these unanswerable questions.
"No...augh no don't go...stop it's too dangerous...go back...Stop...leave...no stop...STOP IT!!!!" Isane cried out her desperate pleas fell over the dark room, and echoed off into the empty area. Her blue gray eyes snapped open and her body unintentionally lunged forward. "Kumono-kun" she gasped out, her ragged breath now filling the void where the echoes of her nightmare no longer lingered. Her sliver head whipped around as her eyes attempted decipher where she was. But to no avail all Isane could see was a battlefield. The most gruesome blood coated wasteland she had ever been assigned to treat.
When she first signed up to be in the 4th division Koutesu Isane knew what that meant. Out of the 13 divisions the 4th was the one most looked down upon as apposed to the almighty and impressive 11th division. But she would endure it, she knew that the 4th division wasn't as noble as the 1st division nor was it as proud as the 6th division. The 4th division was for those who wanted to heal rather then fight, to treat wounds rather than inflict them. It was here that Isane felt she would be most helpful.
It wasn't as if she was weak. Oh no she most certainly was not weak...physically that is. But mentally she hasn't been the same since that time, on that day five years ago when a Menos broke though the sky and landed in area 69 of Ryuutamashiikai. Several ryoka had been decimated before the 2nd and 7th divisions were dispatched. Captains Soi Fong and Komamura fought magnificently against the hollows that had fallowed the Menos out of their world. But the Menos Grande itself had barely been harmed by the time the 4th division had arrived.
Isane remembered that day as if it were still going on right now, and in a sense it still was. Arriving at the scene just after the Menos had unleashed a cero was a sight that never fully escaped her vision.
In the textbooks they tended to exaggerate on what a Menos could do. In truth a lot of the 'facts' in the textbooks were old myths handed down and overstressed since ancient times; for instance the purple-gray mist that a Menos exhales "is a toxic gas that will melt you layer by layer starting from your skin and ending once you organs were liquefied"...Not true, from what Isane could tell the purple air emitting from the Menos wasn't harmful to anything other then your nose. Maybe some of that god awful odor was coming from it, but Isane was sure it was just rotting corpses she smelled.
Another myth was that a Menos's cero would obliterate you down to the last atom if stricken by one. Isane almost wished that's what the power of a cero could do but it was all in vane. The bodies were still there, the blood, the dissembled body parts...everything, every atom was there and sprawled out for the world to see. Never the less the seemingly futile fight continued. Isane and the rest of the 4th division hastily went to work trying to what the shinigami of the 4th division do best. To cheat death it self, to save their friends and allies from the very clutches of a death and bring them back to the living world.
It was a while before another squad came and to the exhausted medic's horror it was the 13th division that was sent in as reinforcements...the very same squad that her little sister Kotetsu Kiyone was positioned in. Although with the help of Captain Ukitake the battle was beginning to look more promising, and with her own Captain, Captain Unohana healing shinigami left and right at an accelerating pace, more and more hollows were killed and the Menos was taking more hits
However it their effort was all in vein. Three back to back cero's were fired after the Menos Grande had used its humongous hand to knock back the 7th division's forces. Isane was temporarily blinded by the explosions, and during that time all she could do was listen to her fellow teammates dieing cries as she sat dumbfounded and blind. Seven long antagonizing minutes she sat in darkness waiting for the dreadful shadows to release her vision so she could witness the annihilation first hand.
The first blurred thing she saw was Kiyone laying face forward on the ground with crimson pooling out from underneath her prone form. Her eyes became even more impaired by the fresh tears spilling from her gray orbs washing the caked blood that stained her pale cheeks. As she feebly stumbled over to her sister, Isane saw one of her best friends run at the Menos eyes as red as the plains they fought on yelling, bellowing, shrieking at the Menos to return a fallen comrade. Isane found her self shouting as well.
"Kumono-kun stop it, runaway you fool. Kumono-kun it's to dangerous get away from here. Kumono-no-baka STOP IT!!!" her voice was hoarse and her throat raw by the time Kumono was picked up by the Menos Grande and personally crushed by its enormous fist; even with all the other boisterous commotion going on around her Isane heard everyone of Kumono's bones snap like twigs. Once it done was done with the task of crushing Kumono, the Menos threw the mutilated body down where it fell on top of Isane.
She fell over, toppled by the added weight and fell down on the ground next to her stiff sister with her best friend who was now no longer distinguishable from all the other dead bodies that occupied the battle scared land. Isane laid there unmoving just like all the other fallen shinigami around her. With her dull colored eyes she too could have easily been mistaken for one of the deceased. It wasn't until literally the 5th division came that the Menos was taken back to the world of hallows after Captain Aizen Sousuke drove it to be beamed up by a blinding yellow light.
Isane now knew that Aizen was probably the one who sent that Menos to attack Ryuutamashiikai 69, in order to test its abilities. Aizen...it was his fault...it was all entirely his fault! After that devastating battle Isane was semi-relived to find out that her ditzy and clumsy sister wasn't dead but had been knocked out early on in the battle. The only serious wound she suffered from was slight amnesia, meaning Kiyone had very few recollections before she was injured. As relived as Isane was she couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously. Kiyone was lucky enough not to remember the screaming. She was fortunate enough not to recall the devastation. That bimbo-headed blonde was blessed enough not to know the feeling of death sprawled out on one's chest.
Ten years after that mentally scaring event Isane witnessed another Menos Grande...no not one...not two...hell there were more then eight of those god awful abominations appearing from the sky hovering over Seireitei. Seeing a Menos again brought back the memories that Isane was sure she had purged her mind of. It had taken months of visiting a physiatrist to help her come at ease with her duties again after her first encounter with the supreme hallow being, known as the Menos Grande. Even though Isane insisted after a few weeks that she was fine Unohana disagreed other wise and ordered her to sit down on the couch a few more times.
Now the vice captain was peeling off her damped white sheets as she eased her self off her sweat covered bed. She tried in vain to wipe the perspiration off of her face but it was soon replenished and she was driven to take another method to rid her self of the salty fluids. As she walked out side into the cool night air Isane briefly wondered aloud if she should start seeing Captain Unohana again to help her ease these recurring memories. She let out a pent up sigh that helped her chest feel less weighed down. Her feet softly treaded on the polished floorboards courtesy of the newest 4th division members.
When Isane was about to turn a random corner she heard a soft voice call out her name and scare the living Zanpaktou out of her. Her composure was regained when she realized that it was just Captain Unohana. "Y-yes" Isane stuttered still slightly jittery from her nightmarish slumber.
With her cerulean gaze still locked onto the full moon Unohana simply stated it had been a rough day. Smiling awkwardly Isane walked over and took a seat next to her captain and joined her in watching the star filled heavens. The night sky some how took her mind off the chaotic events that had previously occupied her thoughts...Or was it Unohana's presence that was working miracles on her worn out brain? Some how just being near her captain always gave Isane a warm, comforting, reassuring feeling. Isane knew instinctively that as long as she was by her captain's side everything was going be okay. "Please rest after you calm down" Unohana asked politely, as if knowing Isane was unstable at the moment.
"Y-yes" Isane answered unsure if she could fill out her captain's wish. Everything was just a little too overwhelming at the moment to just brush off on a whim. But as she watched the moon drift in the sky...maybe...just maybe she could fall back asleep.
Unsure on how exactly it happened Isane found her self drifting off to sleep in the soothing embrace of her captain arms. No longer wanting to think any more Isane loosened up and let her self become powerless in the consoling hug. Too soon to even apprehend it she was once again asleep.
Unohana abandoned her post by the alluring moon to escort her vice captain back to her quarters. She carried Isane into her room and sat her gently down on the bed covering the girl up with a white blanket and tucking a sliver braided lock behind her ear where it belonged.
"Cap...tain" Isane murmured sleepily at the soft touch of Unohana's fingertip brushing up against her cheek. Unohana smiled softly at Isane before placing a brief kiss on her forehead.
"I will always be by your side protecting you" Unohana vowed as Isane instinctively reached out for her Captains hand and interlocked their fingers. "...Always"
The 4th division captain Unohana Retsu found her self staying by Isane's side though out the night warding off any and all demons that dared attempt to harm her beloved vice captain.