another bleach story, warning you right here and now, if you like your innocent views of included characters, this will probably ruin that image! It's built on their presumed past!

If you care not, then this piece is interesting to me, I wrote it one

day cause I was depressed and it made an awesome little idea so I built on it :)

bleach does not belong to me, just this story is mine

enjoy minna :)

A few days prior the gates of hell had not only opened in soul society, something which was near impossible in itself, but the area around the gate became tainted and it slowly infected the soul societies sky. The sky grew dark and and then black ash fluttered gently from the sky, the gate was quickly dispersed however the sky stayed the same, the ash continued falling from the sky. No body was sure what this meant, but surely it wasn't a good sign.

Since the sky's change, there had been multiple reports of the sky making people feel strange, rukia herself felt a little queasy and she had noticed her skin had turned pale, her hand in particular, and she had to wear a glove over her hand, her captain had retired a day earlier since he was also not feeling very well, the sky and ash didn't sit well with his lungs and ultimately made him ill so he decided to retire to ugendo to recover for a few days, or as long as necessary. Rukia had felt an un explainable nervousness when the captain had left, as if it was a bad thing that he was separating himself from his division, she could explain the feeling, it was almost a feeling of dread and it seemed to be worse when she thought about her captain, after a few days she hadn't heard anything from her captain and she had started to get worried and her worries were answered it seems when unohana taicho sent her a messenger with new medicine for her captain, rukia accepted the request. Odly enough as soon as she merely thought of going to see ukitake taicho, her insides crunched nervously and she almost felt sick, she was an odd sense of fear, she took a breath before heading to her captains home, hoping her feelings would change.

They didn't and by the time ugendo was in sight, fear had almost crippled her, she shook and jumped at every sound and touch. She couldn't understand her feelings as she admired the captain greatly. On closer inspection of ugendo, it seemed as though the normally peaceful building had been attacked, broken planks of wood and torn paper was littered on top of the water under the quiet house. Suddenly rukia realised she feared for the captain, had something happened? Was he ok, or even alive, was this the dread she sensed? She couldn't help but think it wasn't but she hoped it was and concentrated on that hope. She used it to force her body forward. By the time she had reached the captains door though, her body was still screaming to run, screaming that this place was not safe, she could barely breathe fighting panic. With the paper front door still shut, she could tell that someone or more to the point something was in that room, the wall on the other side of the room had been broken and light flooded into the room, where the captain should have been there was what looked like a monster outlined by the incoming light. She couldn't help but freeze and when she finally was able to stand and start backing away, the sick coughs of her captain sounded from the room, was he still in there with that monster, he sounded like he was dying. She once more couldn't move, her mind argued that it was her duty to help him if he was still truly there, yet she was terrified the monster in there would come after her. She clenched her fists and took a breath before gathering her strength and knocking timidly "t-taicho...?".

For a moment there was no sound but the shadow seemed to move weakly before the captains voice sounded weakly "yes Kuchiki-San..." He was definitly beyond sick, he was dying, rukia took a breath before letting herself into the room timidly. She regretted doing so immediately after what met her. The shadow was unmistakably her precious captain, but he was deathly white, black lines where his veins should have been lined his body, she could see through his torn clothes, on his back were a huge pair of black wings, spiked at the tips and slick, they looked strong and dangerous. His hands curled similar to claws and black nails as sharp as claws had replaced his once human features, he also had thick horns that had grown from his head and curved forward rather gracefully, jushiro shifted weakly to look at her revealing his pure black eyes, though he didn't looked threatening, he just looked tired and defeated, on his death bed, rukia screamed and collapsed with shock and fear, this was the reason she was so afraid, her body had known, she wanted to run, the captain, even as sick as he obviously was, still screamed danger. The captain looked away guiltily "you have my permission.. You can leave if you wish" he murmured weakly. Rukia looked at him shaking, she knew if she did that he would die, he knew that if she did, he would die, was he really willing to do that, did he not fear death, on closer inspection, he was surrounded by torn fabric and blood, a lot of blood, it was a wonder he was still alive. But she realised she had probably come in his last hours, it was obvious he only had hours, if that left.

It took a few minutes for her to adjust to the shock and she knew she wouldn't be able to just leave, she would blame herself for her captains death because she was too afraid. Jushiro avoided her eyes as even he knew they would destroy any strength that rukia may build to be able to leave, he panted weakly and struggled to stay awake though. Rukia finally took a breath to move closer "t-taicho... What d-do... You need..." He looked a little surprised though was too weak to react much "an emergency needle..." He motioned to his medicine cupboard weakly. At some point in time it had been partly destroyed and liquid leaked out of the closed door, rukia nodded and moved over to the cupboard reluctantly, flinching heavily everytime the captain moved. Opening the door revealed just how dire the situation was, most of the needles were shattered and glass was littered trough the saturated bandages and paperwork that remained there in the cupboard, with care she managed to find a lone surviving needle and cleaned it carefully. She had done this before but just the thought of getting too close to the captain terrified her. She quietly escaped to the captains kitchen to catch her breath and gain some sanity, it was still hard for her to believe her captain looked like such a monster.

After finding a bowl and cloth to help clean jushiro up, she once more slowly approached jushiro and put everything down beside him, she couldn't help but flinch still but she promised to herself that he was the same just he looked different, this helped her fear him a little less. He looked at her tiredly "your quite brave... Thank you Kuchiki-San" the eyes took her breath away, and not in a good way, they were oddly entrancing and when he looked away, rukia realised she was holding her breath, after steadying herself she reluctantly picked up the needle and found a vein before injecting it, The captain flinched but was silent. Rukia cleaned the new wound before reluctantly cleaning away the rest of the blood "t-taicho... What is this..." Jushiro looked a little thoughtful still obviously fighting sleep and pain "it's blood rain... It happens Extremly rarely..." He took a break panting. Rukia had never heard of it before and looked confused ""blood rain.." He nodded "the ash is from hell... It has the unique ability... to bring past horrors to life", rukia still didn't understand "past horrors...".he looked at her "I've lived a long life Kuchiki... Saved many people... Killed... Many people... Broke many rules.. And made many immoral choices... This is the consequences for that life... Even you have changed have you not..." Rukia looked shocked and looked at her gloved hand, the hand was which the hand she used to kill kaien all that time ago, rukia now understood jushiro's form, but it also made her a little more afraid, she knew that captains had to kill if ordered, but to look like this... She was almost too afraid to wonder just what kind of past her captain truly had.

Jushiro finally lost the fight to sleep and despite his unsteady condition, he managed to not fall further than sleep. Rukia decided to stay and clean up, despite her constant fear nagging at her to run, she started to wonder why unohana taicho wasn't here, or kyouraku for a fact, usually he didn't skip a beat either, had something happened to them as well.