Eclipse
a bleach fanfiction
The stars above hung from the midnight sky, bright and cold. Leaves crushed beneath her sandals; shadows stilled as she passed them by. She steadied her breathing, smooth gait devoid of any hesitation. Her palms were sweating. They always did.
Kawaguchi Ryoko exhaled, blowing a few stray strands of dark hair away from her face. The cold night air condense her breath into a moist spray of water vapour. She was aware it was an open call to the ones she was hunting.
As if on cue, a dark, hulking figure the size of a tree materialized before her.
"Shinigami…"
Pulling herself up to her full height, the 15-year-old rolled her violet eyes. "Doesn't take a genius to figure that out," she replied irritably. "How many of your friends are there around?"
The Hollow's crimson eyes peered down at her hungrily, and instead of replying, it lunged toward her.
She leapt up, unsheathed her sword and finished the job with a single slash down the middle. Landing easily, she sighed, mentally adding to the tally in her head.
"Really, Kuchiki-sempai, that's the 99th one already," she exclaimed out loud. "Can I assume that after I finish one more, I can finally go to sleep a few hours before dawn breaks?"
As expected, there was silence outside the spiritual barrier that had been set up for her training practice. They had begun in the evening, and while she had expected to finish before midnight, Ryoko hadn't foreseen the task to be this longdrawn. Why was she assigned to train away from the rest of her division and of all captains, assigned to Kuchiki Byakuya? She had a good mind to quiz Ukitake-taicho until she forced it out of him.
"Why can't I get something along the lines of an arrancar? Even something not ranked would be more fun," she muttered, stomping through the dirt and broken twigs. Leaves were getting stuck in her hair, and her mood worsened when she saw the scratches on her limbs and her shihakusho was torn at the hems. Finally, she caught a mental glimpse of an abnormal reiatsu behind a dark cluster of trees.
Slipping between the shadows, Ryoko closed in, closely monitoring any changes in spiritual pressure by quieting her mind completely. Forget the clothing, forget the lack of sleep, forget the weariness. Slowly but surely, something else was overtaking her mind…
Darkness.
Something wet spattered on her face and arms, combined with the familiar metallic scent of blood. She was falling now, and yet there was complete calm and quiet…
Nothing…
Light broke through suddenly, and she jerked up, convulsing. Immediately she threw up, further soiling her dirty shihakusho. There was someone standing before her, but a quick glance reassured her that it was only her sensei. Yet, Byakuya's dispassionate stare wasn't particularly comforting. Dropping her eyes, she swallowed hard, pressing her fingers against a bruise on her upper arm.
"Go back to your division house," he said quietly, continuing to watch her with that cold, level gaze.
She got up unsteadily, refusing to use her sword to support her weight. Replacing the katana at her side, the shinigami staggered off, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Byakuya relaxed his hand from the hilt of his sword, tightening his jaw.
Time to pay a visit to the other world.