Title: Daughter

Author: Tuliharja

Summary: The pathway between worlds is finally open once again. Amaterasu makes her way to Seireitei to find her husband and daughter, only to find… One-shot.

Disclaimer: BLEACH belongs to Tite Kubo while Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle belongs to CLAMP. I'm merely writing fan fiction about it. I don't either own the cover art of this.

Author's note: Ever since the last arc in Bleach, this scene has played in my mind...and now I finally managed to write it. Thank you TheLonelyAbsol for betaing this.

-Daughter-

Things had finally settled down enough for the worlds between each other to connect. A portal opened and a woman came out of it, followed by a small, armed squad. What greeted them was total destruction. Many buildings within Seireitei had collapsed, and even more in Shinigami. Bodies were scattered all around like smashed flies; blood had spilled all around the dead soldiers. Some of them had even started to rot, which was surprising, since the woman knew the chaos hadn't taken place that long ago.

Eyebrows knitted, she scanned her surroundings, trying to find someone, anyone, alive. Yet everything that greeted her was death and… Lifting her look from the ground she could hear sound -no, voices. Someone was alive!

Her heart rate increased as she quickly headed toward the voices. Despite her men telling her not to rush, she continued onward. The deep worry, fear, was driving her ahead like a devil on her heels. It taunted her, driving her mad, yet still leaving calmness within her. Like that heavy feeling one gets, before a hurricane hits. That's why, Amaterasu didn't stop.

She didn't even stop as she passed several Shinigami, telling her useless things. Couldn't they see that she simply didn't care? That there were more pressing matters to attend to? Her womanly side, her motherly nature, was urging her to find those two. Those two who-…

A sharp breath and she finally stilled. A few, mere steps away was Kenpachi Zaraki. All torn-up and bleeding heavily, but still alive. Nothing fatal. He was fine, which meant that surely Yachiru was, too. Yet, where was she?

"Where is my daughter?" Amaterasu questioned, her voice thin and pathetically weak. She hated when she sounded so pitiful, because she wasn't one. She wasn't weak and neither was her husband. But at the moment he seemed somehow smaller… weaker.

It made the words that were about to come get stuck inside her throat. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she closed the distance between them. She grabbed his tattered-up collar, pulling his face mere inches apart from hers.

"Where is my daughter?" She all but hissed her question, making the Shinigami finally meet her gaze. The eyepatch was gone, Amaterasu noticed, but she ignored its absence, as she could see her answer within Kenpachi's eyes. The look in his eyes told her he was sorry.

'Sorry for what?' Amaterasu mused. She couldn't understand that look. She just…couldn't. It wasn't like her husband was frail, or her daughter. Her little girl she had been blessed with... Why, why did Kenpachi look so sorry?

"Tell me… tell me!" she shouted her last words. Other people's hands were trying to pull her apart from Kenpachi, but she shrugged them off. She wanted -no, she needed to know where Yachiru was.

"She's..." came the gruff voice, before a shrug. A simple shrug, yet it told volumes to Amaterasu as she unconsciously let go of him.

Shock and utter disbelief played upon her face as she shook her head. She had heard the words, yet somehow… somehow… she couldn't process them.

"What do you mean?" she asked in a tiny voice, thinking she must have misunderstood his shrug. After all, he hadn't finished his sentence. Surely, she was reading too much into his action, right?

"Amaterasu. Yachiru… is gone."

"What do you mean she is gone?! Then go search for her!" She shouted at him, starting to feel irritated. She knew that at times Kenpachi was a thick-skulled idiot, but even he should be smart enough to go and search for Yachiru if she was missing.

"No, she is…" The large man shook his head, making Amaterasu all the more irritated and angry. Yet, she was feeling anger not for Kenpachi, but because they should already be going and not stalling here anymore.

"She is what? She is what, Zaraki Kenpachi?!" she shouted, letting her irritated and angry feelings show. But what Kenpachi did next surprised her fully: he pulled her tightly against his chest, cradling her like most fragile and precious person either of them had ever come to know: Yachiru.

"Where…where is my daughter? Kenpachi… answer me… where… where…?" She cried, her voice breaking in the end into sobs. Salty tears started to roll down to her high cheekbones, making her lift her hands to wipe them away, but someone got to them first.

Dark, almost black eyes met her dark turqoise eyes, looking at her keenly. The expression within Kenpachi's eyes was searching and questioning, like he was asking her to forgive him.

"I hate you."

…But she couldn't, not yet. Not when the wound was so fresh, so new. Not when he had reassured her that Yachiru would be alright, when she had told him she would take Yachiru to Nihon. To safety. But he had denied her that, telling her it was their duty to fight. And then… then the path to the Soul Society had closed and she couldn't head there to help her husband and daughter. Her one and only daughter. The one that was irreplaceable and therefore so precious. After all, Amaterasu had told both Kenpachi and Yachiru that she couldn't ever give Yachiru siblings.

"Ah…" Kenpachi breathed out, pulling Amaterasu closer to himself as he closed his eyes. He took in her scent as Amaterasu's cries got louder and louder, until they became like those of a bawling child. Yet he just accepted it all, wishing he could also take her pain. Until this point, he hadn't even really realized what had happened. But as the woman he had chosen stood wailing into him like this, so weak and so fragile, he understood he had really screwed things up this time.