Title: New Waves
Author: Celirian
Series: Bleach
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its original characters and this story is in no way shape or form a part of the cannon Bleach universe.
Summary: The tiniest detail can make all the difference. The night Kaien Shiba went after the hollow that killed his wife there seemed to be only one outcome; the loss of another life. This time however, fate played its strings differently, setting a new pace for the story about a Substitute Shinigami named Ichigo Kurosaki.
Author's Notes: I am something of a reprise fanatic. The idea that one tiny detail or change in a series of events can have a drastic effect on the outcome of the story captivates me. This story will go along the same lines and plot as the original Bleach story in certain parts, but it will change drastically, pretty much right from the start. Along similar lines main characters in the original story might not be main characters in this story and visa versa. If this bothers you; well just don't read the story.
I'm open to productive feedback! If you think there is anything I can improve let me know (in a kind way). Flaming and immature comments will be either ignored or promptly made fun of. On a final note I don't pretend to be an expert writer. I'm a novice at best and English is not my first language so I apologize in advance for poor grammar and mistakes. I'm writing this in hopes of improving my skills and to, hopefully, create a good story. Hope you enjoy!
EDIT (06/27/2013): SO, for those of you already reading this story you might have noticed its...uh...changed a little. I'd apologize, but part of the reason Chapter 8 was so late was because I just have not been happy with this thing so far. So I went back and re-arranged stuff and rewrote a few things, BUT!
Nothing major or dramatic has changed. So you don't need to reread stuff or go back or anything unless you hadn't read to Chapter 7 before I redid things...then I apologize for the inconvenience -_-
New Waves
Chapter 1: Low Tide
There was wind and rain and at times, the dark night was alight with fire and at other times the wind's loud howl was nothing but white noise under the symphony of drums that echoed throughout the forest.
Still Kaien ran.
His clothes were soaked through, sticking to his body as he wove through trees. His bangs clung to his forehead to drip rain and sweat into his eyes. His teeth chattered as the wind blew, chilling him right down to his bones. He couldn't tell you where he was, let alone how he got there. He couldn't tell you exactly where he was going either but he knew he was going the right way. He knew his target was somewhere up ahead in the dark forest, waiting for him. A distant presence he could feel led him on and Kaien pushed his aching legs onward through the storm.
Yes, it was a trap. Yes, he was going to die. No, it didn't matter and no, he didn't care.
Nothing outside of the images splattered through his racing thoughts mattered. The bodies of his comrades that had been ripped open and scattered in the halls of the squad he called home, the other Shinigami still alive but left to die, slowly and painfully. The image of his wife lying unconscious and the lingering feeling he'd had when he knew (no, when he had thought) that at least she was okay after her mission had gone horribly wrong.
But she wasn't okay. She wasn't okay at all; she was dead. She was breathing but she was dead and she would always be so from here on out.
Of course Kaien didn't know that at the time. When Captain Ukitake had knocked on his door and told him that Miyako's mission had failed he had feared the worst. That she was dead just like the others that had been sent out before her, and everyone was dead.
Everyone but her. Yes, he was saddened by the deaths of his teammates, his subordinates, his friends, but she had come back and that was all he could think about. She had, somehow, beaten all the odds and made it through whatever hell and torture that had killed so many others and returned to him. Of course she had, she was his wife. His talented, beautiful, flawless wife. She could beat fate himself if she were up against him and she would be with him until the end of time.
Kaien had always been warned that idealistic thinking would get him into trouble and he had never believed it to be true, not until now. Idealistic thinking was nothing more than lying to yourself and everyone around you. It was putting hope where there was none and painting a picture of things that could never be.
If he was honest with himself he had known the truth all along. He knew exactly what was going on; a small voice in the back of his head had told him that she wasn't alive. That he was going to have to let go, but he ignored it. Who wouldn't in that situation? Secretly, as he ignored destiny's whisperings, he had told himself that when things went wrong (there was no if about it because they were going to go wrong, he had no doubts) that he would make sure he would be the only one to suffer. He and he alone would be the only one to die.
He wasn't expecting the massacre.
But there it was and there he was and it was time to make things right.
Kaien stopped near a large tree and slipped around its massive trunk. Behind it, the violent wind broke and stilled. Closing his eyes, he lifted his head towards the creaking branches and sparking clouds and reached out with his senses. For some people, reiatsu was hard to read, but for Kaien it was amazing how easy it was to connect with the world around him.
They called him a prodigy; one of the few exceptional cases that go through the academy every once and a blue moon. Kaien hated that name, but he was never angry at the power he had. It helped him save people and connect to his surroundings and that gave him a different view of the world; one that gave him different insight than an average person or Shinigami. Everything had a spiritual essence to it and he could touch every leaf on a tree and every bug on the ground. He could feel people and creatures both near and far; the hollow that was in the glen up ahead and the two Shinigami that had set out after him sprinting through the mud and wind.
It's now or never. Captain Ukitake and Rukia Kuchiki were catching up faster than he had previously thought.
Narrowing his focus, Kaien shrunk his own presence and let out a slow breath. The captain and Rukia disappeared from his mind, as did the hollow. The thunder went silent and all that resounded in his mind was rain, the pitter patter of every drop around him as they bounced off leaves and branches, slid down bark and found their place in the puddles of mud under his feet.
Water was his to control; this rain was his.
One hand on the sheath of his Zanpakutō, the other curled around Nejibana's dark blue hilt. The trembling rage in his fingers stilled as Kaien stepped away from the shelter of the tree and disappeared into the night, leaving a trail of frozen water drops hovering in the air.
Rukia Kuchiki looked up at her captain as the presence she had been grasping at disappeared like the warmth from a blown out candle. "Sir!"
"He's still alive." Without missing a beat, Captain Ukitake ducked a low branch and gave her an unconvincing smile. "Kaien is trying to hide, but the hollow isn't."
Rukia nodded. Right, it was simple; follow the hollow's signature and she was sure to find Kaien, but her mind was racing too fast to think straight. The person she strove to be like; the one she looked up to the most was dead. Miyako wasn't only dead, but she had killed her fellow squad members. Death was everywhere and it was making Rukia's senses swim and her stomach knot up in a way that was making it hard to breathe.
Shinigami meant Death God. It meant balancing death in all its forms, but she still wasn't prepared for it like this. Not from the hands of a friend; from someone she respected and adored. She wasn't ready to run after her mentor and vice-captain to stop him from getting himself killed.
To do whatever it took to keep him from losing his honor as a Shinigami.
The look on Kaien's face when he had seen what his wife had done would haunt Rukia for the rest of her life. A skeptical, almost playful spark in his eyes disappeared to be replaced with instant denial and disbelief.
And tears. Subtle, but there nonetheless. Tears of a man who's world had shattered like a glass against the wall. Tears that came and went faster than Rukia was able to process the situation that laid before her. He went from broken to resolute, from Kaien to someone she didn't recognize. Without a word he had turned and disappeared into the air. That was when Captain Ukitake had grabbed her sleeve and dragged her after him and that's how she ended up out here, in this storm, trying to sort out everything.
And now I feel like I'm going to throw up, Rukia thought and resisted the urge to put a hand to her flipping stomach. Keep it together, the Captain will make sure nothing bad happens out here. He won't let things get worse.
He had to. Things had already gone horribly wrong and while she could blame that on Captain Ukitake, he wasn't the only one that hadn't noticed Miyako's condition. It was impossible to think that things would turn out the way they did. All the other Shinigami had died or disappeared when they went to investigate this hollow; they didn't return unconscious. They didn't return at all. So why would anyone even imagine…treason?
Rukia heard the sounds of fighting up ahead and tensed to pick up her speed, but Captain Ukitake held up a hand telling her to stop. They both skidded a little in the mud before taking shelter behind a tree from the wind. The clang of metal, the splashing of water, and an unending hysterical laughter resounded around them and it took more control than Rukia thought it would to keep from running right into the middle of the epic-sounding battle or turning and running as far from it as possible.
The obvious sounds of scuffle aside that laugh made Rukia's blood turn cold. She was unable to suppress a shiver as she looked up at her captain, waiting.
Captain Ukitake, on the other hand, was putting all his attention into the battle that he couldn't see. Rukia could feel his reiatsu reach out, carefully brushing over the land to stop at the edge of the fight. After a couple of minutes he let out a small sigh and pulled back.
"We have to move carefully." He said putting a hand on the tree trunk for support. "We can't force Kaien to stop fighting."
Rukia blinked. What? Then why did they run after him in the first place? "Sir, he's going to get himself killed!"
Ukitake didn't respond. Pressing his lips together, he let out another small sigh.
Oh. Oh no. Her captain was not doing this.
"You…came to watch him die?" Rukia took an involuntary step back as realization settled. "You're not going to stop him from… from getting himself killed?!"
"I'm not going to get in the way of Kaien's honor."
Captain Ukitake was totally going to do this. He was going to stand there and watch Kaien try to fight an impossible battle to uphold some philosophy about fighting. A philosophy about life and heart that had been explained to her a dozen times.
There were two reasons for fighting: to protect (both the people you loved and those you were obligated to protect by your duty) and for honor (your own honor, not anyone else's) and, for the most part, Rukia agreed with this. When Kaien had first told her about it during her training it connected with her because before she had met Kaien; she really hadn't been sure why she had joined the 13 Guard Squads in the first place.
Mostly she blamed Renji. After all, it had kind of been his idea in the first place.
Kaien had given her purpose, though. She could fight for those who couldn't fight, like she used to on the streets and she could find her own honor and defend it. But in upholding these philosophies you had to respect other people's takes on it because everyone's definition of 'honor' was very, very different.
So it was a fine balance in the end. When did you put aside your own honor and let someone else defend theirs?
Pride, honor, heart, respect…all these things were talked about like the weather within the thirteen squads and what was more was that each person talked about it differently. Just as some people preferred summer over winter or rainy days versus sunny days, everyone had their own opinions and ideas and it was hard to place yourself within the conversation and figure out how they define you.
Not anymore.
Rukia gritted her teeth. It was wrong to be angry with Ukitake but this was absurd. Did he really run all the way after Kaien to watch his vice-captain, a man everyone loved and respected, die for his 'honor'?
"What about your honor, Captain?!"
Oops… she hadn't meant to say that out loud.
Ukitake visibly flinched. She knew this couldn't be easy for him. She had heard how he had tracked Kaien down and convinced him to be the vice-captain for his squad all those years ago. He loved Kaien as a brother, maybe even a son. So why was he content with just standing there?
"My honor..." Ukitake closed his eyes and stood up straight, a hand fell to his Zanpakutō, gripping its hilt tightly. "My honor as a captain, as your captain, is to respect your heart; what you stand for and fight for every day."
Argh! Pride be damned she could not, would not, just stand there. She might not be experienced enough to turn the tides of a fight, but at least she would have done something.
"Then, I am sorry Captain." Rukia bowed deep, her wet hair falling into her eyes. She waited a minute before she stood back up and locked eyes with her commander. "My heart will not allow me to stand here and do nothing."
A small, knowing smile was her only response.
Oh…. He knew she wasn't going to just stand by and let things play out into the inevitable. She would have to talk with him.
Later.
Rukia turned and with her captain inches behind, she headed straight into the wind.
Kaien lifted Nejibana straight out to the side as Rukia and Captain Ukitake splashed up behind him. No, they were not going to interfere. This wasn't their fight, it was his and his alone. This was his pride on the line and his night to die defending his heart.
Neither of the two newcomers said anything and Kaien took his Zanpakutō into both his hands, holding its gleaming blade straight out in front of him. Both he and the hollow were losing steam, but he seemed to be more tired than the monster at this point. Metastacia, was the vilest hollow he had ever fought. Tentacles aside, its spiritual pressure alone made his stomach wish it could turn inside out. Its voice grated against this ears like nails on a chalkboard and its taunts were enough to make him see red.
The hollowed made an amused clicking sound. "More of you? This has been a fantastic week; if things keep up like this I'll never be hungry again."
"You're not going to kill anymore," Kaien said in a monotone drawl that he didn't recognize as his own voice.
This had to end and now. He had managed to cut off a few of the hollow's limbs by surprising it with a couple of quick shunpō steps, but that tactic was one that couldn't be used for long. It never took an enemy long to figure out fighting patterns. Metastacia was a fast learner, especially for a hollow. It almost had a human like way of thinking and that was what kept throwing Kaien off. It wasn't just strong or good at fighting, it was using mind games and he, so far, had been barely keeping from falling for them.
But when a hollow talked about how delicious his friends had been all sense got knocked out the window and it was with blurred vision and an almost primeval need to kill that he'd found himself charging in and barely avoiding getting hit while being nowhere near hitting the beast. It was the messiest dance he had ever done (not that he could ever dance well), but he was better than this.
He just didn't care if he was better or not right now. Right now he'd use any tactic it took to kill this thing and as far as he could tell the only way to kill it would be to take it down with him. Though, to his advantage he hadn't released Nejibana yet and while he knew the hollow would know that he could release it at any time, it shouldn't know what his powers were.
Then again, it seemed to know a lot about him that it shouldn't. Which might be the only reason it was still alive at this point.
Maybe I should get it to talk…
Okay, that was probably the worst idea he had ever had, but this thing liked to talk. It liked to brag and everyone knew that when someone (or rather something) enjoys the sound of its own voice it will, eventually, let something slip that it shouldn't.
Dammit! Why did those two have to follow him? The captain should at least know better than to try and stop him, but why bring Rukia? Maybe Rukia ran first and Captain Ukitake was trying to stop her. Maybe the captain had something else up his sleeve, who knew? Either way it complicated things. Before he didn't have to worry about collateral damage. Now-
"What drives you, boy?"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Kaien refocused on the hollow. He was getting needlessly distracted. He came out here for a reason. He had to ignore the others and do what needed to be done, finished what he had started because now there was no turning back. If he didn't defeat this hollow here and now then Captain Ukitake and Rukia would be next and that…that would mean his life was even more of a failure than it had already turned into this night.
"Didn't hear me? I said, what drives you?" The hollow hadn't moved since Rukia and Captain Ukitake arrived, in fact, aside from its one comment he hadn't even acknowledged them. What was it playing at?
Kaien didn't answer the question, instead he eased up from his fighting stance and held out Nejibana to the side. The hilt dropped a couple of inches as his grip loosened, but the sword didn't fall to the ground. It hovered in between his fingers as the blade shimmered pale blue.
"Kaien!" Captain Ukitake's voice snapped.
Kaien, again, didn't move. "Captain. Don't." Cold. Icy. Determined. Hollow. Kaien's voice didn't even echo in the glen. It stopped flat against the wind and rain. "It already knows what we can do. It's seen Shikai before."
"Clever, clever boy." The hollowed cooed. "Just as I'd expect from a prodigy like you. Your wife's was impressive. I can only imagine what a water sword could be like."
Rukia failed to stifle a gasp. "It… knows?"
Kaien wasn't surprised. He had figured out the hollow's power almost immediately after their battle started, he just, again, didn't want to admit it.
"I thought as much." Captain Ukitake muttered more to himself than anyone else. "No one's returned and by eating the other Shinigami it's gained knowledge of us and our abilities."
The hollow laughed, shifting its gaze from Kaien to Ukitake. "More than that, my dear Captain. Much more." Turning back to Kaien its tentacles slowly started waving. "Would you like to see your wife, Vice-Captain?"
White clouded Kaien's vision and the sound of rain ceased with a deafening roar.
Whoa…
Rukia held a hand palm up in front of her. The rain was frozen in midair even though the wind whipped at her clothes and thunder still sang in the clouds. She knocked a couple drops away from in front of her eyes; they were still water and shattered into smaller droplets as she hit them and fell unceremoniously to the ground. She cast a quick glance to her right and only a few meters away she could see puddles rippling from falling rain. Kaien had somehow stopped the rain just around them. She knew he was powerful, but this was new. He hadn't even released his Shikai completely.
Nejibana was a sword of water and waves. It was a sword of the ocean and tides. She had seen him wash enemies away, but she'd never seen anything like this. And judging from the look on Captain Ukitake's face, neither had he.
The stillness broke when Kaien finally shifted his stance (though the rain still didn't move). He had gone so stagnant that Rukia begun to wonder if maybe the hollow had done something, but now her captain next to her had gone deathly still. The hollow was up to something, what she couldn't tell. She had never met a hollow this intelligent. One that spoke as well as any human, one that could hold up so well against one of the best Shinigami in the 13 Guard Squads.
The hollow twitched and laughed, a low, slow laugh that turned into a high pitched cackle. "How about it? Want to see your wife one last time before I kill you and then make you kill them? I can be merciful."
Nejibana's glow sharpened as water from the puddle around Kaien's feet began to crawl around his legs. He slowly spun the sword between his fingers as the water wound its way around his arm and twisted around the blade until it was completely encased.
Captain Ukitake took a step forward while murmuring a low warning, but it was lost in the wind. Kaien hadn't even said anything to release Nejibana or if he had then Rukia hadn't heard him. She knew it was possible to use Kido spells without the chants if you were strong enough, but she didn't even know of a captain that could release their Zanpakutō into shikai without saying its release phrase.
Water barely receded from Nejibana's trident form, Kaien launched into the air with an inhuman shout.
"Kaien!" Rukia took a step forward, but a hand grabbed her shoulder. Shrugging she took another step, her eyes never leaving Kaien. He wasn't even trying. He wasn't fighting. He was waiting for a moment to throw his life away. Bobbing and weaving through the stilled storm, any drops that Kaien or the hollow hit shattered leaving pockets of dry space.
Up, dodge, left, duck... no more drops were falling. There was a dance, a pattern, they were in a stalemate and it wouldn't take much to turn the tides. Careful not to knock anymore drops out of the air she followed Kaien's initial trail forward and paused as Kaien suddenly switched up the pattern and skidded to the left to create a new pocket of stillness.
"Kaien." Right, because he's going to hear you whisper. "Kaien!"
No acknowledgment.
"Kaien, listen to me!" Rukia put a hand to her Zanpakutō and took a step to her left, ducking to avoid a few glimmering water drops. "If we-"
"There is no we in this, Kuchiki. This is my fight. My honor. My heart."
Okay, she should have figured that wouldn't work, but what would? School never covered talking a friend down from suicide.
"Where's the honor in this?!" Hopefully this would work. He might hate her forever, but at least he'd be alive to hate her. "Where is the honor in dying alone while I'm standing right here?!"
A twitch in his hand.
"You told me that heart meant defending those that you cared for."
Kaien's knuckles went white and his voice didn't waver. "My heart is one thing, my honor is another. My honor was lost the minute I failed to notice that Miyako was dead. When I failed to stop the massacre that killed our comrades. The minute I gave into delusions and this is the only way I can get it back."
"By dying?"
"By making sure this bastard doesn't kill anyone else."
"No, that's not—" Actually, it was a good reason, but not one she could agree with. Not if it meant he was going to die. Rukia took another step and reached out towards Kaien with a shaking hand. What was she doing? She wasn't qualified for this.
And why was the hollow just watching? She suddenly realized the monster's stillness and… smug posture. Kaien was aware of it too. Nejibana's three tips didn't leave a line drive for the creature's mask no matter where Kaien was turned or looking and the hollow's gaze never left those glistening points.
Rukia's eyes darted from hollow to friend, waiting to see who would move first. Suddenly she didn't know what to do. Anything could set Kaien off and anything would set the hollow off. She wasn't strong enough to join the fight (not that Kaien would allow that) and talking Kaien down was obviously not going to work.
So what was there?
There was Kaien, the hollow, her, and her Captain. Kaien who wasn't thinking. The hollow who was obviously thinking too much. Herself who could barely keep her breathing under control and her Captain who wasn't going to interfere. There was the storm and a ripple in the air that just didn't taste right.
The hollow moved, Kaien screamed, and Rukia's sword was in her hands before she knew what she was looking at. The storm surged and she was swept off her feet to watch the lightening dance through the trees.
