Senbonzakura manifests fully to aide her Shinigami through a difficult time.

Angst/Tragedy

The night Hisana died, Senbonzakura kept vigil over her Shinigami.

Though haughty and proud and every bit as Noble as her Shingiami, the Spirit had loved Hisana as well. Loved her because she made her Shingiami happy in a way she had never seen before. Loved her because the first time she appeared to the young woman Hisana had fixed her with her violet gaze and simply said she was not going to leave just because of the Spirit. Sebonzakura could respect her for that. She had watched her Shingiami fall in love with Hisana more and more each day and watched her reciprocate the emotions.

Hisana had weathered the storm of the Kuchiki Elders just as Byakuya had dealt with having a Shingiami who was not only female but happened to produce blades that looked like flowers. Their situation was unique in that they were a Balanced pair. Female Shingiami and male Zanpakto were rare but male Shinigami and female Zanpakto were rarer still. The last one had been Kisuke Urahara and given the connection between the two the two men it was not a stretch to say that Byakuya Kuchiki was a bit less than enthusiastic about being part of the newest male Shinigami, female Zanpakto duo. The feeling had been mutual. Byakuya Kuchiki's power did not come from prodigal skill but rather from hard work, work that Senbonzakura would come to greatly admire and help him with.

But in the beginning instead of having a strong, prodigal Shingiami, she was stuck with a gawky boy who had not quite grown into his body and looked more like a girl than she did. A boy who was the spitting image of the mother who gave herself to see her child delivered safely into the world. A boy whose appearance had been the final nail in the coffin of a father whose son had become everything he could never have been. A boy who had looked at her with the same confusion and puzzlement she had looked at him with.

But they worked through it eventually.

Though he did not show his emotions to the rest of the world Senbonzakura had always felt them acutely. When Hisana died all Byakuya had done to the eyes of the outside world was lower his head as a single sob escaped his lips though it was soon lost to the wind. His hands had been steady as he gently brushed a kiss to his wife's hand before placing it beside her. He reached down and pulled the sheet over his wife's still form. The numbness and shock that he felt echoed in her. The idea that this beautiful woman, the woman with such inner strength who had changed his life so drastically, the idea that she could be gone was just--it was impossible.

As Byakuya stood to inform the gathered Elders that the Lady Kuchiki had passed from this world Senbonzakura had stood staring at the sheet covered form. She was nothing but a faint glimmer to the world but she saw Hisana none the less. When Byakuya and the Elders left she stayed staring at the single spot where the white clothed body lay. Even after it was gone she stayed. The only time she moved was to lift her eyes to the bare tree where a single soft plum blossom was gently moved by the wind. Before it could be taken away she reached out and closed her hand around it, shocked she could do such a thing.

She stayed until night came. Carefully she made her way to the bedroom where Hisana had slept last night. She had started out being healed but she had been cold and Byakuya had held her tightly against him, warming her as best he could. She hadn't wanted to die inside though, she had always loved the gardens just like Byakuya had. Even if there was nothing blooming the memory of what they had looked like, the promise of what they would look like in a few weeks, it was beautiful to her. She kept her silence as Byakuya ignored the world, both inner and outer.

Byakuya's began strong as he changed into his night cloths. His fingers were just as smooth as he moved the sheet to cover her. He had not wore the kenseiken that day, there was no care to vanity, nor had he touched the scarf that had been presented to him by his grandfather. Both items lay untouched as he walked over to the bed that he had shared with his wife the night before. But when his knees came to the surface his courage had faltered. The maids had made up the bed of course and he was irrationally furious. There was no evidence that two people shared this bed. That he and his wife had shared the bed the night before as he held her tightly against him.

He couldn't remember what they had spoken of, just that it had not been of death. Her last words would haunt him, words of guilt and sorrow, words that would rule his life longer than anyone knew. He remembered that, those horrible moments as her illness got worse and worse, as she slipped through his fingers like running water. She would not be there anymore to chide him for slipping off into his own personal hell, to show him that there was good in the world even when it seemed otherwise. How would he lead the Clan? How would he live with himself? He was supposed to be strong and untouchable. He was supposed to be so many things but all he was was weak. He couldn't save her just as she couldn't find her sister.

The door opened softly behind him as he struggled to shove his emotions aside for a moment.

"Byakuya?"

Byakuya turned his head as his ears listened to a voice he had only heard in his mind. Standing behind him, as real as any other servant in the house--as real as Hisana had been--was Senbonzakura. She was as beautiful as she had been in his Inner World, just as aristocratic in her silks and was not short as his wife had been, if anything she was taller than him. Taller and far more imposing. But now, with the twin trails of tears that marred the paint she wore on her face, she looked just as broken as he felt.

This was the day he was supposed to have dreamed of. He had been told that he would have a Bankai but being told was one thing. Until his Zanpakto physically manifested its avatar in the living world it was not a definite thing. But here she was, standing behind him. If she had opened the door she really had manifested in the outside world. But if she was expecting him to fight her--

"Of course not," she spoke in a soft voice still thick with the force of her unshed tears. He looked ahead, "I know you do not wish to sleep but you are weary."

"I am fine," he said, his voice thick and somehow unsteady.

His Zanpakto spirit was close enough suddenly for him to smell the scent of sakura blossoms that clung to her. His favorite flower may have been chinese bellflowers but Hisana had always loved sakura blossoms. Even before meeting Senbonzakura.

Byakuya remembered the first time she coughed up blood had been under a sakura tree.

Senbonzakura remembered the first time they kissed had been under one with the petals falling and hiding them from the world outside.

Senbonzakura gently opened her palm, revealing the single plum blossom that lay cupped carefully in her hand. Byakuya turned his head sharply aside, unable to look at the flower. She had loved flowers. That morning they had walked through the garden and when she got too weak he had carried her. When she lay dying he desperately wished for a flower to open, just one so she could leave this world with the sight of something she loved. One had opened, but if she had seen it she hadn't said anything to him.

"I think she saw it," Senbonzakura said softly, "and even if she did not, she did die seeing something she loved."

The first tear hurt. It felt like fire going down his cheek instead of water. His tears started in earnest then as his body was wracked with sobs. Though she was supposed to fight him Senbonzakura couldn't bare the thought of raising a hand to him. All she could do was wrap her silk covered arms around her Shinigami and hold him as he sobbed, No-one in the house would hear him cry, no-one needed to and Senbonzakura made sure her silks muffled the sobs that escaped his lips. It would be a few days before Senbonzakura realized that night Byakuya's heart had not been broken but shattered.

It would be decades before the Kuchiki head would allow himself to feel anything again.

But that night nothing mattered but the heartbroken Bykauya and Senbonzakura who mourned the death of a woman they had both loved. A woman who they would come to see, in time, gave them the greatest gift of all.

A family.

Later that night after Byakuya had cried himself to sleep Senbonzakura stayed awake keeping a silent vigil over her Shinigami. The plum blossom she had saved lay cupped in her palm still as she traced some pattern over it with her fingertip. Byakuya lay on the bed, his features soft in slumber. She had wiped the tears from his cheeks with her sleeve. The windows of the bedroom were open to the gentle night breeze. It was early spring yet, still a few weeks before the trees would push their first buds forth. Unexpectedly the air turned chillier. Not wanting Byakuya to get sick Senbonzakura closed all the windows.

She lingered there for a moment, her eyes softened as she watched a flurry of snow dance by the window.

Okay next two planned feature:

Senbonzakura and Benihime

Zangetsu and Sode no Shirayuki

If you've got one you want to see let me know in your review or PM me.