Authors note:
This idea has been kicking around in my head for ages now. I'm finally going to write it.
Key: "Spoken words", 'thoughts'
Zanpakuto spirits
hollows, vizards with masks on
Disclaimer: I don't own bleach. I won't post this again. Like all my other stories I don't feel the need to repeat this over and over.
This is a what if type of story. It will mostly be third person from Hisana's point of view. Please enjoy this story of Bleach with a twist.
Prologue:
Hisana lay there. Counting each breath as it came. Each one bringing her closer to the end. She had long since lost the ability to speak, but before she had she'd asked Byakuya to find and protect her sister.
Hisana wished with all her heart that she would have found Rukia herself. Maybe then she could have loved Byakuya as a wife should, but her heart was just too heavy with guilt. She wished she could have been free of that guilt, but now it was too late.
Byakuya sat next to her, holding her hand. He never took his eyes of her that she noticed, but her vision was starting to dim so she could no longer be sure. She'd long lost any ability to move under her own power.
Hisana's breath continued it's measured pace towards her last. Her vision continued to dim. Byakuya gasped, coughed, and fell to the floor his hand pulling free from hers. The edge of some thing made of glass was pressed to her lips as an unknown stranger lifted her slightly. A harsh, bitter liquid was poured into her mouth.
"If you wish to have any hope of living, drink." A female voice commanded her.
Not that Hisana had much choice. It was swallow or choke. And some last bit of survival instinct made her choose drinking. She could feel the liquid rapidly hit her. She felt strength return to her limbs, her breathing became less labored, and her vision cleared.
The unknown woman was now crouched near Byakuya holding a strange device. It activated with a puff of smoke and then the woman turned towards her. The cloak the woman wore hid most of her features from sight, but Hisana was able to make out slightly tanned skin and golden eyes.
Hisana had no idea who the woman was and tried to ask only to find out she didn't yet have enough strength back to speak.
"Don't worry." The woman said lifting her easily and propping Hisana over her shoulder before running off at insane speeds. "I'm going to take you to someone that might just be able to help you. You think you are sick, but that's not the case."
Hisana wanted to ask what she meant as the scenery changed to a black, tar looking tunnel.
"Don't try to speak just yet. You were poisoned, and he antidote I gave you was the most I could bring and keep concealed. You might have felt some of your strength return but that won't last. The poison has progressed to far. All the antidote can do at this point is slow it down and buy us some time."
Hisana felt her breath start to become heavy again and heard the rattling of her own chain of fate. An impossibility in Soul Society.
"You may have guessed by now I'm taking you back to the world of the living. Since you are not Shinigami you will find that your chain of fate will once again become visible. This is necessary for the idea my... companion... thinks might cure you."
Suddenly they entered a vast plane of brown dirt and sun bleached rock. The woman gently placed Hisana on the ground and propped her up against a rock. Hisana got a better look at the woman that had carried her back to the world of the living. Or would have if the woman hadn't vanished as soon as Hisana tried to look at her.
"Well, well. Lady Kuchiki Hisana. It is an honor to meet you." A man said from off to the side of her. She couldn't turn her head to see him, she lacked the strength, but he walked in front of her making it unnecessary to try.
He had short blond hair that stuck out at the sides and wore clothes that she assumed were common to the local time in the living world. He wore clogs and carried a cane and a large glass beaker filled with a blue liquid.
"By now you should have been made aware of the fact that you were poisoned, yes?" He asked.
Hisana tried again to speak, or even nod her head. She still found herself unable to do either.
"I suppose the most you can do right now is blink. So blink once for yes, twice for no, and three times if neither applies." He sounded amused.
She blinked once.
"Well this here is the antidote to the nasty poison you were given." He held up the beaker and pointed at it. "The poison will, if allowed to finish its work, completely dissolve your spirit. You won't be reborn, in any form, and will, for all intents and purposes, simply cease to exist."
Hisana felt panic grip her. That was far worse then just dieing. If she died she might one day, in a new incarnation, see her sister and her husband again, but this would prevent that.
"Now you are too far gone to be cured by this antidote, but it will slow the final stages of the poison enough for use to save you by another method." He continued. "But you have to want to as there will be risks. Do you want to hear them?"
She blinked twice. She didn't care about the risks. If she could survive in some form that would allow her to continue on or be reborn then the risks didn't matter. She'd do it.
"Well I'm going to tell you anyways." He said. "This antidote will give you three days. During which I'm going to initiate a process of accelerated encroachment. At the end of which you will either have found a way to become a Shinigami or you will become a Hollow. Either way the release of all your remaining latent Reiryoku will completely burn the poison from your body. If you become a Hollow we will purify you and you will be reborn, and if you become Shinigami then there will be no need. Do wish to do this?"
She blinked once. Like there was any choice. Oblivion or try become a Shinigami or become a Hollow and survive in some form.
"Then drink this." He said and pressed the mouth of the beaker to her lips. More of the same harsh, bitter liquid that the woman had given her back in the Kuchiki manor spilled into her mouth.
"You need to drink it all." He told her.
Hisana did. With each swallow she felt stronger, and her breath came easier. By the end she'd been able to lift her arm and hold the beaker herself. She coughed a few times once she finished the last of it. "What's your name?"
"Urahara Kisuke." He answered and with a snap of his fingers the ground under her vanished. "Remember. Three days."
He said something else too, but by that time the panic from the fall caused her to miss it. The sudden impact at the bottom knocked her newly recovered breath from her. 'Ouch' she thought as she dragged herself to the side and sat propped up against the wall.
By the end of the first day the pain and the waning of the effectiveness of the antidote had her slightly delirious. Urahara had tried to talk to her about something but for the life of her she couldn't make sense of a single word or remember it even if she had. And even though she had no clue what was needed to become a Shinigami she made several attempts to try.
By the end of the second day she had given up trying, resigned to becoming a Hollow. At least she would survive that way. Granted Urahara would probably have to cut her down, but at least if he did she'd reform back in soul society healthy and whole.
At the end of the third day that illusion was shattered. Once again weakened to the point of counting each breath Urahara came to speak with her one last time.
"You seem to have decided to let yourself become a Hollow I see." He said. "Just so you know if you do, and we cut you down with a Zanpakuto, you will once again pass through the Dangai and lose your memories and identity. You will be as a new soul, remembering nothing. If that is what you want then so be it, for soon the final encroachment will happen. If you wish to change your mind this will be your last chance."
He'd no sooner finished speaking then it began. The pain was beyond any she had ever felt before but as she felt a darkness rise inside her as the chain fell away she fought back. She didn't want to forget everything.
Her sister.
Her husband.
Her life.
Hisana wanted to remember it all. She couldn't earn the forgiveness of a sister she didn't know. She couldn't be free of the guilt and love her husband like a wife should if she had no memory of either. And so she fought back against the darkness that was trying to take her over.
And without understanding how she found herself sitting on a cloud in a storm filled, endless sky.
"You finally found your way here. I'm glad." A woman's voice said from beside her.
Shocked Hisana turned to look at her. She had long blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and regal features. She wore a sky blue kimono with swirling lines and clouds, lined with silver, and slit up the side for freedom of movement. The sleeves floated free, unattached from the body, and maintained a few centimeters clearance from the woman's skin.
Hisana hadn't lived with Byakuya for five years with out learning something about Shinigami's and Zanpakuto's. This had to be her own Zanpakuto spirit. Which meant this was her inner world.
"What's happening here?" Hisana asked. Not surprised that she felt none of the debilitation of the poison here. She'd been curious about the nature of inner worlds and had gotten Byakuya to explain the basics to her once.
"This world is falling apart. If you wish to stop it you need to find me." The spirit said.
"How do I do that?" Hisana asked now finally noticing the cloud she was sitting on was rapidly dissolving around her.
"That is something you must discover for yourself. I am not able to assist you beyond what I already have." The spirit said.
Hisana didn't have much time to ponder how to figure what to do as the cloud below her dissolved completely dropping her into an endless black sky with no sign of ground anywhere. She closed her eyes and screamed. Flailing her arms and legs around trying to find anything to grab hold of.
She had no idea what she did but she felt herself get tangled up in streamers of something that felt similar to cloth but she knew couldn't be. Opening her eyes she saw large white threads everywhere. Each one stretching up and down into the endless distance. They were slowing her fall and so Hisana grabbed at them.
She twisted and tumbled between them. Unable to keep a grip on any one for long, until one held fast. Her fall jerked to a stop she looked at the thread she held. In a sea of white it stood out as a bright red. She knew that had to mean something, but what.
Suddenly she dropped, but not far. Looking up she saw that the red thread connected to the hilt of a sword embedded in a surviving wisp of cloud.
"Well done. You've found me." The spirit said from beside her. "Now pull me free."
How she was supposed to get up there and do that? Climbing would take too long and she could feel that she was rapidly running out of time.
"Hurry!"
Hisana kicked her feet out, tangled them up in as many white colored threads as she could. They wouldn't hold long, but she only needed them too for a few seconds. Braced, briefly, Hisana yanked as hard as she could on the red colored thread. The hilt, reveled now to be a full sword, pulled free from the wisp of cloud and fell towards her. As the white thread finally gave way she reached out and caught the sword.
"Well done!"
Power surged through her and she felt strength return and more. Everything went white briefly and she closed her eyes at the intensity of it. When she opened them again she was standing back up in the barren, rocky plain and staring at Urahara.
She felt that there was something stuck to her face and so she reached up and ripped it off. It crumbled as she did and so she gave it no further thought. Instead she looked down at herself to find a Shinigami's standard black shihakusho and holding a zanpakuto in its sealed sword form.
She lifted her zanpakuto up and looked at it closer. It seemed pretty standard with no embellishments beyond the guard which looked like a swirling of wind blown dust made of silver. But she knew it was hers and hers alone.
"My, my. It would seam that you succeeded Lady Kuchiki." Urahara said clapping as he walked closer.
"Yes. It seams I have." Hisana said. Enjoying the returned strength in her body, the ease of her breath, and the resonance in her voice as she spoke. "Now how soon can you send me home?"
"You cannot go back." Urahara said. "I told you that several times over the past few days."
"What?" Hisana remembered none of that.
"If you went back you'd no doubt tell your husband about the poison and he would no doubt confirm this with the relief squad. Possible Unohana Taicho herself." Urahara said.
"So?" She asked confused.
"The one that poisoned you used you as nothing more then a test subject to see if the poison would be effective. This same persona framed myself and many others for his own crimes in the past. Others, that would not have been as politically complicating, he simply killed." Urahara said.
"What does that have to do with sending me back?" Hisana was now even more confused.
"He would frame the Lord Kuchiki for a crime. Either resulting in his disgrace or execution. Most likely try to do the same to Unohana Taicho." Urahara stopped.
"Either way the Kuchiki clan would be destroyed. And it would be my fault." Hisana said realizing the truth. Byakuya was the head of the clan. It would be kinder for Soul Society to just execute him then to exile him.
"We already took steps. Byakuya remembers only that you died and that your body dissolved into spirit particles like any other spirit that dies in Soul Society." Urahara said. "Normally memory alteration devices won't work on those as strong as your husband except that he was prepared to accept that you would die."
"Can I ever go back?" Hisana asked.
"Yes. But it might be a very long time until you can." Urahara said. "The one that framed us and poisoned you must be shown for what he is first."
"I have conditions." Hisana said.
"Oh?"
"First you tell me everything. I'm not going to be a pawn."
"Anything else?"
"Second," She held up her zanpakuto. "You will teach me how to fight. I'm going to kill the one that did this to me."
Urahara came to stand next to her drawing his own zanpakuto from where it had been hidden in his cane. "First you hold a sword like this..."
Chapter 1:
"Ahhhh..." Hisana jerked out of sleep, her body shuddering in waves as the reaction to having once again dreamed of having been in the middle of lovemaking with Byakuya before waking up. Her breath came in gasps as she the pent up passion gripped her still, a dream not being enough of an outlet.
"Again? Wow. Fifty years and you still find new ways to dream of him."
"Damn it, Kaze!" Hisana snarled. Grabbing a nearby pillow, she spun to fix the target in her sight, and with a small burst of reiatsu flung her improvised missile at her white doppelganger in the doorway.
Kaze simply shifted her weight from leaning on one side of the door way to the other, not even blinking as the pillow flew through the spot she'd been occupying only a second before. She even took a sip of her coffee as she did this.
"I thought I was the one that was supposed to have the short fuse." Kaze said. Hisana just glared. "Tea?"
Hisana held out her hand and accepted her usual morning tea from the manifested Hollow. "How the hell can you drink that stuff?"
"You ask me that every morning. Answer hasn't changed." Kaze said. "Anyways breakfast is almost ready, but you have time for a cold shower first if you want it."
Kaze was half way out the door when she said this. Hisana tossed back her tea, healed the burn she got from it, and hurled the empty cup at her Hollow's retreating back. Without looking back, Kaze caught the cup and continued walking out the door.
Hisana just groaned. If Kaze hadn't hit so close to the mark she'd have stalked out after her and punched her out.
Once again Hisana lamented the loss of the polite, soft spoken woman she'd once been. But being poisoned as a test subject, dealing with an Inner Hollow, and fifty years in exile had changed her. She just hoped when she was finally able to get back to Soul Society and Byakuya, he'd accept the woman she now was.
Thinking of Byakuya reminded her of just when the dreams had started. The day Yoruichi had returned from one of her reconnaissance trips and told her that Byakuya had found her sister. Not that either Urahara or Yoruichi knew that Rukia was her sister that is. She never told them and had let Yoruichi believe that her wanting to know about the Kuchiki clan was simply to know if Byakuya was forced to remarry or not.
But Yoruichi had told her that Byakuya had found a girl that looked like her. The knowledge that he had kept his promise to find her sister had taken a huge load of guild off her heart. Her sister was found and safe.
And that night the dreams started. Now free of much of her guilt her heart had been free to finally love Byakuya. She had felt his absence keenly, and it had only grown with time.
As much as she hated to admit it, Kaze was right, she could really use a cold shower.
Half an hour later Hisana walked into the kitchen still shivering and wet.
"Mistress you know you shouldn't let her get to you like that." Her manifested Zanpakuto spirit said to her.
"I know Rudra." Hisana replied. It had taken time for her to get used to the name that wasn't even Japanese, but she had. It had been even odder when they'd stumbled on the fact that if Rudra and Kaze entered a dormant state while she slept they could build up a unique type of energy that allowed them to both remain almost permanently manifest. However, Hisana was now used to it.
"But she knows just which buttons to push to get under my skin." Hisana said pouring herself a fresh cup of tea.
"Well breakfast is ready." Rudra said as she carried plates of food out to the table.
Hisana was used to this. Rudra had taken to cooking decades ago and wouldn't even let Hisana in the kitchen anymore. Hisana didn't mind seeing as Rudra was a really good cook. She'd been so glad when she'd finally gotten her to manifest that first time. Instead of immediately starting Bankai training she'd dragged Rudra out on a shopping spree.
It hadn't taken Rudra long to realize her wielder had just been desperate for companionship and she'd gone along with Hisana. Even when they had trained together Hisana had been more interested in bettering her skills then in forcing Rudra to submit. In time though Rudra had submitted, but not by the usual methods. They'd become so close that Rudra had come to love her wielder like a sister and had surrendered all her power to her with out being forced.
The best part of that had been that Hisana's Bankai was at the maximum of ten times stronger than her Shikai, and her Shikai was at the maximum strength above fighting with Rudra sealed. Urahara surmised this was due to the unique bond they shared.
But Hisana didn't really care about that. She had a companion and friend with her always, here in her exile. She felt the same about Kaze, though their relationship was more antagonistic. At least she never felt bad about taking her pent up anger out on the Hollow. Hell, Kaze lived for those moments.
"Are you going to stay in there woolgathering all day or can we eat?" Kaze demanded from the table.
"Patience is a virtue. You really should try to have some." Rudra said gently.
"Do I look like someone that gives a flying rat's ass about virtues?"
"Kaze. Enough." Hisana said as she casually backhanded Kaze hard enough to knock her over backwards in her chair.
Kaze got up with a smirk and righted her chair. "You're in a better mood. Does this mean we'll go over and borrow the training ground today? Please say yes. I'd really like to kick your ass for all the mopping you've been doing lately."
"I'll think about it." Hisana said taking a seat. "And I have not been mopping."
"While I wouldn't use the term mopping," Rudra said before Kaze could needle her again. "Something has been getting you down a bit lately."
"It's just how long we've been in exile." Hisana said as she started in on breakfast.
"Oh? And here I though it was either all the wet dreams or that the idiot was back." Kaze said inhaling her food with no regard for manners at all.
Hisana's chopsticks snapped in her hands. "Kanonji's doing a show tonight?"
"You know you shouldn't tell her that while we are eating." Rudra scolded the Hollow.
"Again, do I look like someone that cares about shit like that?" Kaze said pointing at the Zanpakuto spirit. "I still vote we kill the bastard and be done with it."
"We do not need Soul Society to come looking for us for killing a spiritually aware human." Hisana said getting a new pair of disposable chopsticks. "We're trying to stay under their radar."
"We could kick the ass of anyone they'd send looking for us." Kaze said dismissively.
"And then they'd send more. Probably captains and likely more then just one." Rudra said. "We're strong, but not that strong."
Kaze just glowered but didn't say anything at that. She knew that Rudra was right. That didn't mean the Hollow liked it. Hisana could understand this impulse though. She'd been secretly cleaning up after Kanonji since he'd started doing his show. Urahara had put her up to it since neither of them wanted Soul Society to come deal with him. That would make it harder for them to remain hidden. So every time he did a show she made sure to kill the resulting hollow before it caused trouble and got on Soul Societies radar.
But even she was getting tired of it and was finding there were day's that Kaze's solution sounded appealing. What kept her from doing it was that it would just cause way more trouble then it would fix. But damn if it wasn't tempting some days.
"We'll be stopping by Urahara's today." Hisana said. "We need to know where the show is going to be."
"Can we spar?" Kaze asked with a psychotic, eager grin.
"Sure." Hisana relented. It would bleed off some of the Hollow's pent up aggression and make her easier to deal with for the next few days.
"Hell yeah!"
"The usual two on one training you like?" Rudra asked.
"If you want to join us." Hisana said leaving the choice up to her Zanpakuto spirit.
"Then I think I'll sit this one out. Kaze looks like she really want's to keep this to one-on-one."
"Damn right I do."
Hisana groaned. They hadn't even finished breakfast and she already had a life or death fight lined up for after lunch. Just great.
Hisana slid left, grabbed Kaze's arm with her left hand as the blow missed her by millimeters, shifted her right foot around in a spin, and slammed the hilt of her sword into the back of the Hollow's head driving her into the ground. She followed that up with a slicing downward thrust that instinct alone caused Kaze to roll out of the way of.
Kaze sprung to her feet just in time for Hisana to shift her weight, twist her wrist to level Rudra's sealed sword form, and drive the blade right through the Hollow's chest.
"Damn it!" Kaze swore.
"Fight's over. You lose." Hisana said.
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Kaze had healed the would almost as fast as it had been made. A power Hisana could also use since winning the inner battle. It meant their sparing matches didn't end until one or the other landed what would be a killing blow on any other opponent.
"How many limbs did you sever this time?" Urahara asked as he approached.
"A few. I don't keep count." Hisana told him.
"Four. Three of them mine." Kaze said. "I still can't believe you ever thought that hat looked good."
"I know you like to change your outfit now and then, but I agree, that hat looks ridiculous." Hisana said. It was true enough. Urahara had changed his outfit several times over the last fifty years that she'd been working with him to stop their mutual enemy.
"That is an amazing power you both have." Urahara said completely ignoring their commentary on his hat. "Are you sure I can't study it?"
"Can I cut your head off to see if it grows back?" Kaze countered with her usual insane grin.
"You can try." Urahara offered ready to draw Benihime.
"Kaze, enough." Hisana said. "Don't tempt her Urahara. She will take you up on that."
"And if I kill her instead." He asked.
"You can't and you know it. The best you can do is banish her back to my inner world." Hisana reminded him. "To truly kill her you have to kill me. And you know how hard that will be."
"True, true." Urahara waved it off. "So besides rearranging my training area, why did you come to visit this humble shop keeper today?"
"You are hardly what I'd call humble." Kaze said picking up her sword. The only significant change between her sword and the sealed form of Rudra that Hisana carried was that the guard was pitch black instead of silver.
Hisana couldn't hold back a snicker. Kaze had hit that one dead on.
"You wound me." Urahara said dramatically.
"You call that a wound." Kaze held up her sword. "Come here and I'll show you what a real wound is."
Hisana doubled over in laughter. She managed to gasp out, "You walked into that one, Urahara."
"Yes, yes." Urahara suddenly became serious. "Now what brings you here?"
"Tonight." Was all Hisana said once she'd calmed down enough to talk normally.
"The abandoned hospital." He answered.
"Thanks. Kaze we're going to be traveling in public." Hisana said as she slid back into her gigai.
"Yeah, yeah." Kaze griped but returned to Hisana's inner world.
"You do know that is a specially made combat gigai." Urahara reminded her.
"Yes. I remember. But I'm limited to half power while using it. Same as you in yours." She said. "Sparing with Kaze would be lethal with that kind of handicap."
"Ah. Right." Urahara mused. "I'll see you later, then."
Hisana nodded and darted up the ladder and out of the shop. Once on the streets she slowed to a walk to avoid drawing attention to herself.
'So why did you try to punch me at the end there?' Hisana silently asked her Hollow.
'You disarmed me. Again. I got a little pissed off.' Was the sullen reply.
'If you had just used Sonido to flank me and retrieve your blade you would have still been in the fight.'
'Like I said, getting disarmed again pissed me the hell off. I wanted to beat the shit out of you with my bare hands. What the hell are you laughing at?'
'The irony that when you two spar being disarmed is a literal thing. As in that Mistress Hisana actually cut off your arm not merely caused you to drop your weapon.'
'You don't need to call me Mistress you know.'
'I know. It just feels right.'
"If you say so." Hisana muttered out loud.
'I will win next time.'
'Sure you will.'
'Don't patronize me!'
'I'm not patronizing you.'
Hisana smiled as the playful argument continued all the way home. Well, playful for her. She was enjoying pushing Kaze's buttons. She called it getting even for the cold shower comment that morning.
Rudra, long used to such banter, couldn't stop laughing.
Hisana had found a roof top several blocks away with a clear view of the front of the hospital. She chose this spot for several reasons. It gave her a clear view, she'd be hard to spot in return from this distance, she would have a clear shot at where ever the hollow showed up after the moron did his work, and, best of all, she couldn't hear a damn word from the show.
She did need binoculars to see but that was a minor nuisance far out weighed by not being able to hear the moron blabber his idiocy.
'I still say we kill him the moment he shows up.' Kaze said from her inner world.
'Please don't tempt me. I'm really starting to like that idea.' Hisana thought back.
'You both know why that's not an option.' Rudra reminded them.
'Doesn't make it any less tempting.' Hisana thought back with a sigh.
'…Point taken.' Rudra noted. 'Looks like it's getting started.'
Hisana groaned and settled in to watch and wait. Kanonji made his usual overly flamboyant entrance and the crowd ate it up. They then did the annoying laugh in response to him like a pack of trained monkey's.
All three of them shared a shudder at that.
Kanonji then went on to do his usual idiocy of ripping out a demi-hollow's remnant chain of fate. And that's when things took an interesting turn as a huge commotion broke out in the crowd.
'What is that boy planning to do?' Rudra commented as she watched through their shared vision.
'I have no idea.' Hisana replied.
'What the hell is Urahara doing down there?' Kaze noted.
As they watched Urahara took Benihime in cane form and knocked the boy's soul free of his body.
'Holy shit. That boy's a Shinigami? What the fuck?' Kaze said stunned.
Hisana didn't even notice what the hollow said as a small girl had turned to look at Urahara right after he'd knocked the boy's soul free. And Hisana got the first look in over one hundred and fifty years at a girl that could be none other then her own sister.
"Rukia..." She breathed out.
Then it struck her. This was the Shinigami that Urahara had used to hide the Hogyoku. He'd mentioned that he'd done so back in May, but Hisana hadn't wanted to know, at the time anyways, the name of the poor Shinigami that was going to most likely end up as bait for their enemy. She'd felt that it would just be better to not know. Now she was regretting that choice.
'Did you just call that girl Rukia?' Both Kaze and Rudra asked her at once.
"Yes." Hisana was in such shock that she answered the question out loud.
'Holy shit. You're gonna kill Urahara. I can feel it. Awesome! You'll let me help right?' Kaze sounded excited.
"If there's anything left when I'm done it's yours." She said.
'What about the hollow?' Rudra reminded her.
Hisana reached out, lightly, with her senses. She felt a massive power on the roof of the hospital. She raised the binoculars and watched as the boy from earlier managed to both defeat the hollow and keep Kanonji safe, an impressive feat as far as the three of them were concerned.
'Looks like the hollow has been handled.' Hisana though. 'Now let's get back to Urahara's shop.'
'You gotta let me fight that boy one day. He's got some skills, and I'd love to go a few rounds with him.' Kaze commented.
'I'll think about it.' Was all Hisana said as she used just enough reiatsu to use shunpo, but not enough for it to be easily detected at a distance.
Hisana didn't have to wait long for Urahara to arrive back at his shop.
"Hello, Lady Kuchiki." He greeted her.
"Urahara. That girl. Do you know who she is?" Hisana said as she slowly drew Rudra.
"Kuchiki Rukia." He paused thoughtful. "Is the reason you look like you want to kill me have something to do with the fact that she looks a lot like you?"
"That might be because she's my younger sister." Hisana told him. "My biological younger sister."
Urahara swallowed nervously. "You never told me that. If you had I'd have never used her to hide the Hogyoku."
That brought Hisana up short. He was right. She'd kept that as her biggest personal secret.
"Wait. What happened to killing him in new and painfully creative ways?" Kaze demanded as she manifested.
Hisana kick Kaze's legs out from under her and planted her foot on the back of the Hollows head and proceeded to grind her face into the dirt. "He's right. I never told him. It's my own fault Ruika's in this situation. I can't blame him or take it out on him. Got it?"
There were some muffled sounds from from Kaze, but her thoughts came through clearly though the link they shared. 'Yeah. I got it. Now let up damn it!'
Instead Hisana channeled some reiatsu and drove Kaze's head down hard enough to make a small crater and daze her slightly. Feeling better Hisana turned to Urahara.
"You still think he might take the bait?" She asked.
"Most likely. He's been looking for it for almost a hundred years now." Urahara said looking glad to have gotten a reprieve from death. "I assume that if he does take the bait you'll be going after her now too?"
"Yeah. I know that wasn't part of the original plan but I won't abandon her a second time." Hisana said.
"Second time?" Urahara questioned.
"You have some sake? This is going to be a long story and I really don't want to be sober for it." Hisana said heading into the shop.
"Come on Kaze. We're going to indulge in your second favorite pass time. Drinking." Rudra said as she manifested and picked the Hollow up and carried her inside.
"Awesome. You drinking too?"
"I might as well."
Post Note:
If you are willing to, please vote yes or no on if you would like to see the bount arc or not done when the invasion and rescue arc's are complete. Just add your answer to a reveiw if you wish to cast a vote.