Title: Broken Wings
Pairings: Ichigo x Rukia, Renji x Rukia, Hisagi/Kira, Hisagi x Hinamori, Hitsugaya x Hinamori, slight Kyouraku/Ukitake, a mention of non con Aizen/ Byakuya, slight Ichimaru/Kira, and slight Aizen x Hinamori
Rating: M
Warnings: There is also slight OOC, language, some sexual content, talk of suicide, and a reference to rape
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.
Rukia walked through the streets that she had once known so well, the streets that she had once called her homes. As she walked through the roads of Karakura town, she felt all of the anxiety come back to her. It had been a year since she had been here, it had been a year since she had seen Ichigo's face. In that year she had finally found happiness, in that year she finally realized what she and Renji had always had between them. As she looked around the town, watching the sun set she knew that this was a bad idea.
Days after her brother had come in and begged her to get Ichigo, she quickly left. Only a day before Renji was returning to her. Her life had completely changed. There was no way she could look that boy in the eyes. She was engaged. She had experienced a miscarriage. She was promoted to lieutenant of the 13th Division. The Kuchiki Rukia that Kurosaki Ichigo had once known was gone, she no longer existed.
She looked at all of the houses, wondering what had occurred in them while she was gone. Were they all happy? Were the people who she remembered still living in those houses, or in the year had they left? She was a stranger in a land that she didn't know. She couldn't take anymore of it.
Then she stood outside the building, the Kurosaki Clinic. It had been a year. Would he still remember her face? Would he still remember what he was destined to do? Did he still remember the Soul Society? She watched as the door open, her heart stopping as she watched someone walk out. There in the setting sunlight stood Kurosaki Ichigo. He looked exactly the same as she left him, no taller, no thinner, no fatter, he was the same Ichigo. She smiled as she looked at him, unable to speak his name. That's when those eyes looked upon her.
"Rukia?" he asked as he walked forward, his voice sounded exactly the same. "Is that you?" he walked deeper into the road. "Rukia…"
Rukia looked up at him. "It's been a while, Ichigo…"
He ran into the middle of the street, and much to her surprise, he ran up to embrace her tightly. As she was in his arms, all she could think about was Renji. Something about this felt wrong, something about this whole situation felt wrong. She closed her eyes tightly as she felt his arms tighten around her.
"Where the hell have you been? It's been a year. I didn't get a visit. It's like you forgot all about me. You didn't even leave a note…" he backed away from her, his hands still on her shoulders.
"It's a long story…" she breathed.
"Well don't stay out here… you have to come inside. We have to catch up…"
She shook her head. "I don't want to impose…"
"Come on, my father's out, my sisters are out, I'm just hanging with some friends… and you kind of owe it to me to explain why you disappear for over a year and then out of nowhere come back to my doorstep without warning…" he walked toward the door.
Rukia walked toward the house as she took a deep breath, something about all of this was wrong, she could feel it. But still she followed him into the house, knowing that she was on a mission; there was nothing she could do to defy it. It was all good politics, nothing personal.
As she walked through the door, she only saw familiar faces. There sitting at the table were the same gang that she remembered from back in the day. Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryuu, Sado Yasutora, they all looked exactly the way that she remembered them. In the year it was like she hadn't missed anything, it was like none of them had ever been apart. As she watched their eyes fall upon her, she knew they remembered her.
"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime jumped out of her chair. "You're back…"
"Don't get too used to it; I'm going to have to leave again soon…" Rukia looked around the room. "Since when does your father leave you home alone?"
"Since when are you in such a rush to leave? Whenever you come here you spend a long time, why should this be any different?" Ichigo looked into Rukia's eyes. "Unless you're afraid that useless friend of yours is going to come after you…"
"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime shook her head. "Don't talk about Abarai-kun like that…"
Rukia shook her head. "I doubt that Renji is going to be coming here anytime soon… he's otherwise occupied…"
She couldn't tell him the truth, she couldn't tell him that Renji was a captain and that she was his lieutenant. She couldn't tell him about the war. The world that he had once known, the world that he remembered had been destroyed a year ago. He looked at Ichigo and she knew that he didn't need to know, not yet.
"So what have you come here for?" Ishida asked, always getting to the point.
"To bring Ichigo back," she breathed.
"And what does that old man want me to do for him now?" Ichigo snorted.
Rukia bowed her head. That old man was killed by Aizen…
"We need you to help us accomplish a task…" she took a deep breath as she looked Ichigo's eyes. "You're the only one who can help us…"
"And when do you intend on leaving?"
Rukia didn't waste a second as she was in a rush to get back to the Soul Society. "Now would be good…"
"Now?" Ichigo asked. "You want me just to run away from home now?"
"It's really serious…"
"I don't care if the whole Soul Society's on fire; you can't just pull me away from here. I have a life… I have hollows to take care of… school… family… there's way too much just to walk away from…"
"You would put that above the Soul Society…"
"I haven't seen you in a year and the first thing that you want to do is to steal me? Rukia, what's going on? I know you didn't come here to take me back with you for no apparent reason… there's a method to your madness…"
Rukia took a deep breath. "It's very hard to explain…"
"Try to…" Ichigo begged as he looked at the shinigami. "Please, you can't just pull me away every time that you need me. And it has to be pretty urgent. I'm worried now…"
"No you're not…" Rukia knew him better than that.
"Okay, so I'm not… but I have a right to know…"
Orihime shook her head, trying her hardest to absorb the whole situation. "How long will he be gone?"
Rukia shrugged. "I have no clue, until the conflict is over…" she looked up at Ichigo. "What do you say?"
Ichigo took a deep breath. "I'm going to hate myself for this… but on one condition… Chad, Inoue, and Ishida come with me…"
Rukia nodded. "Deal…"
0o0o0o0o0o0
Ukitake looked through the files that were sitting on his desk. "Byakuya, I think you've outdone yourself… you even found their location?"
"I have more authority in the Seireitei than you think I do, Ukitake," Kuchiki looked through the files. "They left all of the information in the 6th Division before they left; I think that they thought they could trust me."
The days of the past week had passed by really slowly, Ukitake feeling the pressure of his position start to weight him down. The papers were endless, the meetings were pointless, and the wait was nerve-wracking. But as he awoke today, he knew everything was going to go their way. Today was the day when Hisagi Shuuhei and Abarai Renji returned.
"It's been a while…" Kuchiki sighed. "Those two have been extremely missed. Never knew how good of captains they were until I had to go months without them."
"Remarkable lieutenants make remarkable captains, and remarkable captains make remarkable captain commanders…" Ukitake sighed. "I'm still trying to tell Kyouraku about you being my heir…"
"You haven't told him?" Kuchiki asked.
"Not quite…" Ukitake sighed.
Ukitake thought deeply about Kyouraku. They were on two different planets now. Ukitake had been absorbed in his work as Kyouraku continued living the same life that he had always been. He spent all day with Kuchiki Byakuya looking through papers, Kuchiki Byakuya now becoming attached at the hip with him. Everyday that passed, he would think of Kyouraku, think of him and how they used to be. He missed that feeling, missed the joy, he missed the innocence. Becoming so absorbed in memories, he forgot about the moment was he was in, the sound of Kuchiki's voice bringing him back.
"Are you alright?" Kuchiki asked. "Whenever we talk about Kyouraku, you seem to go into your own little world."
Ukitake looked at the younger captain. "Yeah… I'm fine…"
A sigh filled the room, Ukitake freezing as he heard it. "You know what… I can help you with all of this. You've been overworking…"
Ukitake's dark eyes made immediate contact with those of the 6th Division captain. "No I haven't."
"I've been with you in this office everyday, I know you've been overworking, and I'm here to help you stop," he looked out the window. "Besides, we need to know what Kyouraku is up to anyway… he worries me…"
"He's not as bad as you think," another cry was made upon deaf ears as Ukitake pleaded to Kuchiki Byakuya. "You make him out to be some sort of monster. He's not by any means…"
"I've already ordered my division to be on the watch for the 8th Division and any of their suspicious activity," Kuchiki looked deeper into Ukitake's eyes. "You may trust him, but I don't. I don't trust a man who says that he's going to rip a captain's chest apart…"
"It's his own personal justice," Ukitake breathed as he looked back down at his work, trying to block out the disgust within the younger captain. "He's doing what he feels he has to…"
"Justice? You think that's justice. That is the farthest thing from justice I have ever witnessed. How can you call murdering a captain justice? Hisagi Shuuhei has committed no crime, yet Kyouraku feels he needs to punish him for all that Aizen has ever committed to us. Treason, murder, rape: all of the crimes now Hisagi's burden to bear and the rest of the captains are going to sit there and let it all happen."
"And surrounding the 8th Division with men is going to give you the satisfaction that you need?" Ukitake watched as Kuchiki's defenses refused to drop.
"In case you've forgotten, one of Aizen's crimes was committed against me, one of his most brutal crimes. I just want justice for what I've lost… nothing else. The man who did this to me is the one who is going to be punished, no one else," Kuchiki's voice was low as it shook uncontrollably. "Don't you feel the same toward Yamamoto-soutaichou? Don't you feel the need to have justice in his name?"
"Of course I do… I want the same amount of justice as you do. He took my sensei from me… he took my lieutenant… he almost killed Kyouraku… he almost took my life. He took everything that I held dear to my heart. I feel the same pain as you do…" the soutaichou looked deeper into Kuchiki's eyes. "I know you're bitter, but don't hold it against Kyouraku, he's a good man…"
Kuchiki nodded his head, a sarcastic smile across his face. "I'll agree when the reports say that there have been no illicit activities, until then… I can't trust him…"
Ukitake though deeper about the whole situation, Kuchiki Byakuya was a force to be reckoned with. Deep within his heart, he desperately hoped that Kyouraku wasn't planning anything to that degree. He desperately hoped that the innocence that he remembered was back to stay.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Rukia stood outside the house as he looked up to the sky. I can feel you Renji, even if you aren't with me, I can feel you right next to me. She took a deep breath as she heard footsteps come closer to her, her eyes moving over her shoulder to see who it was.
"You know, you really do have a lot of nerve doing this," Ichigo sighed as he looked to the sky, trying to see what she was looking at.
"What makes you say that?" Rukia was still absorbed in her thoughts.
"Coming here, and rushing me out of my home to go where you want me to," he looked over at her, her attention moving to look at him. "What the hell is going on there? What's the rush?"
Rukia sighed as she looked deeper into Ichigo's eyes. "Renji comes back from war tomorrow…"
"Renji's at war?" Ichigo was silent for about three seconds before speaking again. "Why didn't you call me sooner?"
Rukia sighed. "I don't know…"
Ichigo still was shocked at the word war. "Renji can't handle Aizen all by himself…"
At that moment, Rukia thought it was important to let him in on a small amount of information. "Aizen's dead, Ichigo…"
Ichigo shook his head. "What? H-how?"
"Long story…"
She thought back to everything that happened that night. The turning point for Ichimaru, the point where Aizen threw him away, discarded him as soft hearted. The turning point for Tousen, the moment where Suzumushi pierced through Hisagi's chest, the pain day the world changed forever. And most importantly, the moment where Shinsou went through Aizen's stomach, fatally wounding him, finally killing him. She wanted to explain that night, the aftermath, what happened in the 9th Division, but she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to give him the information on the three traitors, she couldn't find her voice.
"With Aizen dead what's the issue?" Ichigo shrugged his shoulders.
"We're not a hundred percent sure if he's alive or dead. It's hard to tell, but to give us hope, we assume he is," she looked over at him.
"And you sent Renji into the war zone? Alone?"
"He's not alone! And don't underestimate them! They've done everything that they can in Hueco Mundo, they're coming back to us…" she closed her eyes tightly as she looked away from him. "After months of fighting, they're coming back to us, and with you with us, we'll be unstoppable…"
"What do you need me for? Just tell me, Rukia. What's going on?"
"There have been countless tragedies, endless war, and bottomless heartache. The land that you knew, the Soul Society that you remember no longer exists. You'll find that it has become twisted, dark, vile…" she looked into his eyes, watching his body freeze. "To fully grasp this situation, I need to take you to the soutaichou…"
"There's not other way to stop this?" Ichigo's voice was somber, something alien to his personality
"We've been trying for months, no matter what, we keep falling apart…"
Ichigo sighed. "Then we have to go now. Only God knows what's going to happen if I continue to let you take care of this by yourselves. You're all useless without me," he looked forward. "I'll gather the gang, we're leaving tonight…"
Rukia looked forward as she remembered the words she and her brother had exchanged.
"If I do this… I want you to promise me that you will never send me on a mission alone with Ichigo…"
I promise…"
0o0o0o0o0o0
Hisagi stared blankly into the night sky as he held Kyouka Suigetsu in his hand. The power was oozing out of it, the evil stench of Aizen. His fingers burned as he touched the sword, hearing the words roll through his head, his body shuddering as he could feel the breath on his neck, that man wrapping his hands around his neck.
"You're forgetting something: that heart was once in my chest and it's also the reason why you've been able to advance this far. Face it; you're nothing without me…"
He closed his eyes tightly as he thought of those words, remembering the look on Aizen's face as he said it. His whole body shook as he tried to hold back his emotions, trying his hardest not to throw the sword into the distance of Hueco Mundo. Those words haunted him, slowly killing him.
. "I also hoped that you would forgive me if I gave it to you… I did some horrible things to you. I played with you, I almost killed you, I abandoned you, I lied to you, I don't deserve any sort of forgiveness, but I want it anyway. I know that I'm selfish, but I truly am sorry…"
"What have you made me? What did you do to me?"
"The more you use it, the more you become like me…"
He closed his eyes as he felt the pain roll through his chest, Kyouka Suigetsu falling to the sand as he doubled over in agony, his emotions taking him over. No matter what he did, no matter what he wanted, he was always going to be a beat. He was nothing more than Aizen's puppet. He looked at the sword, remembering the day that his life ended. He could still feel Suzumushi in his chest; he could still feel the blood pouring from his body. He grasped the hilt tighter as he recalled the way that he played God that day; he was supposed to be dead.
He pulled the sword out of the sheath as he watched it glisten in the moonlight. The beauty of Kyouka Suigetsu had never struck him before, but as he looked at the metal it called to him again. His hands shook as he brought the blade closer to his body as he heard voices go through his head. They he ignored all of them as he looked at the blade, pulling his body off of the ground.
Kyouraku wants me dead anyway… maybe this could save him the trouble… maybe this could save the world. One quick movement, one single strike of Kyouka Suigetsu and this could all be over. I don't belong here. I was never meant to live this way. I'm dead anyway… they don't see me…
He then dropped the sword to the ground. "I can't do it… I'm too selfish… I can't… I tried…"
His eyes looked to the sky as he tried to catch his breath, his body feeling heavy under the pressure. He looked to the sky, his memories bombarding him with every passing moment. He wasn't supposed to die here. He had a purpose. He had a reason to live. He was the chosen one. As those thoughts passed his mind, he looked over at Kyouka Suigetsu again; its lust for his blood was not to be quenched.
He heard footsteps come closer to him. "Hisagi-san, are you alright?"
He looked up to see Renji standing above him. "Yeah, just needed a little fresh air…" his eyes looked deeper into the stars above him.
"You don't look alright to me…" Renji moved to sit next to him, noticing the sword on the ground. "What's going on in your head?"
Hisagi could feel the tears in his eyes as he thought back to the moment where he saw Aizen standing before him, to the moment where everything had started falling apart. With every heart beat, every breath, he felt that man still inside of him, suffocating him to no end. His hands were around his neck cutting off his oxygen supply.
"If that man was Aizen…" Hisagi's voice shook. "Then maybe Kyouraku is right…"
"No…" Renji grabbed Hisagi's shoulder. "You're not giving up on me now," he looked down at the sword, his words burning with anger. "You were trying to end it weren't you? You were trying to kill yourself?"
"You don't understand…" Hisagi's voice raised an octave as he looked over at the 13th Division captain. "The pain of living the way that I am, it only got worse when that man came back…"
"But you don't know if he is back," Renji's grip tightened on the 9th Division captain. "I swear to the Heavens, Hisagi Shuuhei, I swear that if I ever see you raise a sword against yourself again, I will kick your ass so hard… if I ever see you with this look in your eyes again… I'll break your neck!"
Hisagi shook his head. "Being here, being where it all happened, being where Tousen was so long ago. I need to get out of here as soon as possible," he moved to wipe the trace of a tear from his left eye, Renji not noticing. "Abarai, I…"
"You'll get out of here, okay… and everything's going to be fine. You'll be back in a world where everything's okay again. You'll have Kira to lean on," a smile formed on Renji's face. "You won't have to shoulder it alone…"
Hisagi looked into the starry sky as he took a deep breath. Only a few more hours here, and then I'll return to you… Kira… and then you can save me from this…
0o0o0o0o0o0
Kira walked into the 5th Division, his eyes falling on the captain as she sat alone at her desk. "I need to talk to you," his voice was quiet, but full of a serious tone that was completely unlike him.
"What about, Kira-kun?" she looked up from her work.
"Hisagi-san…" he breathed.
She rolled her eyes at the comment. "Hisagi-san, it's always about Hisagi-san with you. Everything you do has to do with Hisagi-san, because you love Hisagi-san so much… I've heard it all before," she looked back down at the papers. "I don't have any time for you to explain to me why you should have him… you won… accept it."
Kira shook his head, his body filling with confusion. "Why did you want Hisagi-san in the first place, Hinamori-kun?"
She looked up at him with a sour giggle. "Don't tell me you're still bitter about me not wanting to be with you…" her eyes moved away from the 3rd Division captain, not wanting to look at the look of confusion on his face. "You know how I feel about you, Kira-kun; you're nothing more than an impotent, insufficient, backstabbing man…"
"This has nothing to do with me… not just me anyway. It has to do with why we're hurting the same man?" Kira looked into her eyes as if begging her to answer him. "Why are we doing this?"
She didn't need any time to answer. "Because we both lost someone we love, and he has qualities that those men had. He was there for me, just like Aizen always was, and he made you feel special, needed, loved, just like Ichimaru always did…" she stood up from her chair.
"He's not a surrogate Ichimaru…" Kira spat his venomous words at her, but she didn't stop taunting him.
"Isn't he? Until recently you wanted nothing to do with him. Until recently you avoided him, forgot about him. You didn't even know that he was hurting. The whole time he was in pain, you did nothing to save him, you just stood there and you watched him drown…"
"Don't you think I wanted to help him? Don't you think that I wanted to be there for him? It keeps me up at night when I think of what he was doing to himself, it keeps me up when I think about how I didn't do anything until the blade…" he swallowed those words, unable to say them. "Until he…" the memories of Tousen's tears was still fresh in his mind. "Until I almost lost him forever…"
"I was there for him the whole way. I was there to hold his head up late at night when he thought noting was left. I was there when he was drowning his sorrows in alcohol. I was even there for him after he kissed you. I have always been there for him, while you find him nothing more than a convenience… you're only falling for him because he's the only obtainable man here…"
Kira's heart broke as she said those words, his voice shaking as he answered her. "Hinamori-kun, why do you want to hurt me like this?"
"Because you hurt me…" she roared. "You made me feel so useless that I have to pretend I don't have feelings for him. I have to spend my days with Hitsugaya-kun, who I love dearly, and think of a man that once made me feel whole. A man that I once thought was my everything…" her voice broke. "You made me run away from that…"
"I made you sleep with Hitsugaya? Real intelligent, Hinamori-kun," he scoffed, his voice toxic. "You did what you did because you wanted to. You don't give a shit about Hisagi-san. The only reason you're still hanging on to him, the only reason you didn't turn away is because you want Aizen back. That heart in his chest is the only reason you want him," he could feel the tears forming in his eyes. "Why don't you just give him up?"
"You sound just like Hitsugaya-kun. I finally had something of my own, and you catch him by the lips at a party. You're a whore, Kira Izuru. You are a two-timing, impotent, backstabbing whore!" her words pierced through him, his heart breaking as she continued to assault him with her cries.
Kira took a deep breath. "You don't get it, do you? Hisagi is the only one who believed in me when I wanted to be a captain. He was the only one who supported me while Ichimaru was gone. He has always been there for me, and for once I wanted to be something in his eyes. I wanted to be something that could match his caliber…"
"Do you think that you accomplished that? Do you really think that you're someone who is of Hisagi Shuuhei's caliber? If you do, if you think that you can love and respect him with all of your heart, then you go to him…" her voice was thick with malice, her eyes watering as the emotions overtook her. "He deserves better than me, and if you're anything like me, someone who will throw him aside when the first storm hits, you have no business with him, Kira-taichou."
Kira looked into the distance of the night sky, his body freezing as he thought it through. He knew that everything that she said, she fully believed. He felt the tears roll down his cheeks as he looked at the ground, his body getting chills. As the emotions took over him, he knew that one thing was true. He was never going to be good enough for Hisagi Shuuhei. He was never going to be the one to save him from drowning, no matter how he tried. At that moment he knew that it was over, all of his dreams were shattered before him.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Ukitake walked to the 8th Division, his heart sinking as he remembered what Kuchiki had said. Around this building were now the men that we supposed to keep a watch on Captain Kyouraku Shunsui and Lieutenant Ise Nanao. He took a deep breath as he walked into the building, his veins filling with ice as he remembered the last few times he and Kyouraku had talked: they were brief, surface talks, not like the deep ones that he had remembered having. His heart stopped beating as he watched the lieutenant walk out of the office.
"Ukitake-soutaichou," Nanao gasped. "I didn't expect to see you here so late…"
"I thought I'd talk to your captain, if he'll have me, Ise…" Ukitake looked through the doorway.
The lieutenant took a deep breath. "I'm not sure that's such a wise idea…" she looked deep into the captain-commander's eyes, her gaze hiding something, making him feel uneasy, putting him at unease with her words. "He's been on edge lately, you understand…"
"I do…" Ukitake breathed as he looked at the lieutenant, his heart stopping as he tried to dissect her movements. "When he'll have me, tell him that he can come to the 1st Division. There are several matters I need to discuss with him…"
"I'll give him the message," the lieutenant turned to walk into the office as Ukitake turned away.
He looked around the division as he walked by seeing the 6th Division watching the front door, waiting for Kyouraku to do something wrong. He sighed as he realized that the man that he had once known, the man that he had once shared everything with was now someone who could not be trusted anymore. He closed his eyes tightly as he realized the end of one war was the dawn of another. The innocence that he had craved was once again put on hold.
This is the long awaited fourth part of the Falling Petals universe. This is the start of more drama than you ever thought possible, this one being the most heartwrencing out of the four parts (and Falling Petals was really intense!)
I highly recommend that you read Falling Petals, Kaleidoscope, and Dead and Gone first.
Like what you read, feel free to PM me a request (see profile for details.)
Also feel free to review.