Hello, this is my first fan fiction! Please rate and review, and please be nice about it (:

I do not own Bleach; even if pigs fly, I still will not own Bleach.

WHILE reading this story, I would recommend listening to

Top Emotional Osts Of All Times: Yuukimaru's Theme

Which is on YouTube.

I do not own the song either.

~Marlode~

Searching for Wishes

Chapter One

The place reeked of blood. The sky was streaked with pink, red, yellow and purple, just like the bruises and gashes that adorned the figures sprawled out over the field. The cries and moans of the injured rang out to the ears of the dead, calling for them to come back, and to help them, to not leave them alone.

"Renji!" cried out a feminine voice.

"Renji!" panted out a bald Shinigami.

"RENJI!" belted out an orange haired Soul Reaper.

And their voices, along with others, cried out, "Renji, Renji, Renji…"

It might have seemed selfish that they cried out for Renji, granted that there were others wounded, others in need of help, and calling out for someone; for anyone. But Renji was their close friend, and they wanted to keep him that way. They had to find him, just as some still searched for those that they did not want to lose.

Ichigo, Rukia, Chad, Ishida, Orihime, and Byakuya had already found each other. There were others that they worried for of course, but deep in their hearts, they held a fear that they would not find those they searched for. But Renji, he always came out alright. He always came through, so even though they were worried, they held a belief that he would come out in the end, he had to. They had been looking for him, running into one another and discovering each other on the way, forming a tight, exhausted group, of bloodied and desperate warriors.

Renji was a safe bet; he could never seem to die, and they were all extremely grateful for that; just as they were overjoyed that they had formed a group, something to hold them together. Even Byakuya, whose heart was not cold, just hurt to the point where he raised one too many psychological walls around himself.

So as they found more of their friends, they continued to search for Renji. Hitsugaya called out for the red haired man, and Matsumoto yelled out for Renji through her tears, but it was not just her; they were all crying. Even the men, who felt no shame for letting their tears slip. Not now, when they had so much to cry for, when they might never see the ones that they wanted to ever again. Not now, when they could cry and not be ridiculed, or ridicule themselves for it.

The setting sun set to night, and the moon rose. The Shinigami continued to trudge on; their feet browned from the caked on blood and dirt, and their hands fumbling to drag their swords behind them. Then suddenly, Ichigo stopped in his tracks.

"Ichigo?" questioned Rukia.

Then she stopped as well, and her eyes grew wide, and her breath caught. The others halted, forming a ragged line, creating elongated shadows on the moonlit ground. They were facing a body with claw marks, and swords sticking out of its flesh. The eyes were open, looking up to the sky, and the hand held a broken sword with its shattered fragments scattered around the being.

The body had long red hair, strewn out of its hair tie, and stunning black markings arching along the chest and abdomen, and slanting over the forehead.

"No, no, no." gasped Rukia. Her dirty face was suddenly overcome by a flood of tears, even more than before. "Not Renji, not the stupid, big softie- not him."

Ichigo's large brown eyes were glazed as he trudged over to the broken body, and fell to his knees beside his best friend, Abarai Renji. He gritted his teeth, and hissed out,

"Baka, Renji, where did you go?" Ichigo scrunched his eyes together, and his eyebrows crinkled forward.

He took Renji's face, and looked into his lifeless eyes, and cried out in a cracked voice,

"WHERE ARE YOU?" He yelled out desperately. "WHERE, ARE YOU?"

Then out of the group, Hisagi walked over to where Renji lay, and begin to pick up the pieces of Zabimaru. "What are you doing, Hisagi Shuuhei?" Byakuya forced out in a constricted voice.

Hisagi simply continued to pick up the shards Zabimaru had become, keeping his back to the high strung noble.

The Kuchiki took the back of Shuuhei's uniform and spun him around, seething the words, "I said, what are you doing HISAGI SHUUHEI?"

"I am gathering Renji's sword together so that he can hold it! Now you can help, or stop bothering me!" Hisagi spat out.

Normally, a lieutenant such as Hisagi would be punished for speaking in such a disrespectful manner to a captain, but when the world one knows is breaking, rules do not seem to matter much.

Byakuya took a step back from Shuuhei, saying "But he is dea-"

Rukia jolted up from the heap she had collapsed in, and stumbled over to Hisagi, and the kneeling Ichigo. "I will help you Hisagi, Renji needs to hold his sword."

"That's right," agreed Ichigo. "He never felt comfortable without it!"

So the group that had gathered, also involving other Shinigami who happened to stumble in, began to work in a frenzy gathering up the broken Zabimaru. The pieces were sharp, and the Soul Reapers soon found that their hands were bloody; and they found that they did not care.

It took about two hours to retrieve the many shards that had been scattered from where Renji lay, but the carefully pieced the broken sword together, and laid Renji's hand on the hilt, after removing the swords run through the red haired male's body.

"But his body will not stay there, and neither will Zabimaru." Byakuya supplied.

"But nii- sama…" Rukia sighed. "Ichigo?" she asked.

"Ne, Rukia?" rasped out Ichigo.

"How does that one saying go in the real world?"

"Could you narrow it dow- ah, that. It goes like, 'It's the thought that counts'," Answered the Substitute Shinigami.

Byakuya nodded his head, "I understand," He said.

The ragged group slowly reassembled into a circle around Renji, whose eyes had been smoothed shut by Rukia. The clouds began to clear, and soon the stars shone onto the battle field, where the war with Aizen had been ended and won, but with major losses for the Soul Society.

The Shinigami crowded together shoulder to shoulder, and their faces became wet with tears once again, as Abarai Renji's figure shone red, and along with Zabimaru, his body broke into a column of crimson light that turned and twisted into the wind. Then, as if on cue, all over the field, blue, red, and green soul lights took to the sky, flowing with the streams of air, and up into the cold night of the shining stars. And everywhere one would glance, arms were raised to the sky, and eyes were opened wide, reaching for and waving goodbye to the beautiful souls that lit the heavens.

The silence came with the take off of the souls, until Ichigo whispered,

"Well, he definitely won't miss the moon, and he'll finally get to reach the stars."

I know that there is a lot of angst, but bear with me please.

Please review, I would love to hear from you. (Nice, please, nice!)

~Marlode~