Disclaimer: I do not own bleach nor the characters. Sometimes I dream I do... and probably mess up the story by screwing with the cannon... and then I wake up and realise I'm not Robin Hood and I'm not Gunga din! I'm not Kubo Tite or Hiro Mashima; I don't own a manga and most certainly not Bleach.
(p.s. we all know I adapted part of my disclaimer from 'Stop the pigeon!' )
Lost and found
The sun was low in the sky when Byakuya sensed the hollow. The sun was already dipping behind the horizon thus causing the sky to slowly turn a brilliant orange. He would have preferred to be sitting on a hill somewhere and watching it disappear behind the horizon, allowing the sky to be engulfed in a deep blue darkness and one by one the city lights below would switch on like tiny fireflies awaking after the sun has gone to sleep. He really loved beautiful settings, which was why he had chosen to stay in the living world a bit longer, but sadly he could not indulge himself this time; there was a hollow nearby and he had a responsibility.
The hollow turned out to be a dark skinned arrancar with bright red markings around its eyes. "Great, a shinigami – just what I needed to spoil my fun." The arrancar said irritably as he slipped off the silver bangle around his wrist, he looked up at Byakuya with a confident smirk, "any last words?"
Byakuya really hated such people – loud, overconfident reckless idiots with death wish written all over them. "You're rather arrogant and unjustifiably so," He replied with cool detachment as he unsheathed his zanpakutou, it was evident that he had hit a nerve as the arrancar's dark brows knitted in fury. "It is evident that you overestimate you're self – "
"Shut the hell up!" the arrancar roared angrily, "I'll show you overestimation you bastard!" he held the silver bangles with both hands and yelled: "Tragar!" A net of bright red light, which flickered madly, filled the bangle, the arrancar developed dark grey feline ears with red markings, and a tail to match. "I'm going to knock you arrogant bastard down a notch or two."
"I wish you all the best." Byakuya said shortly. He sped towards the arrancar who seemed stunned by his speed, but before his blade struck the arrancar – when he was merely inches away from him – the arrancar disappeared. He reappeared to Byakuya's right.
"Fast, but not fast enough." the arrancar grinned, revealing long, sharp canines. "This, my friend, is what you call speed." He was now right next to Byakuya, the silver bangle around the hilt of his zanpakutou. The net of red light had spread along the length of his katana and was flickering tightly around it. The arrancar pulled the bangle downwards sharply and it hit the hilt of the zanpakutou with a reverberating clang that held an ominous finality to it.
It was as if something were pulling at his zanpakutou; an odd force, stronger than he was, was pulling at his katana. It pulled the katana right out of his grasp and as soon as the end of the hilt flew through the bracelet and was engulfed by the red net of light, his katana disappeared into thin air. Perfect; just what he needed right now, take his zanpakutou why don't you, and while you are at it, universe, why don't you just take his kido and spirit energy as well? Exactly what he had done to warrant the universe trying to so thoroughly annoy and inconvenience him on such a beautiful night he did not know, but one thing was for sure: he did not like it. At all.
"One, nil." The Arrancar smirk, "your move." He noticed the confusion on Byakuya's face and his smirk spread into a full, ear-to-ear grin. "Oh don't worry about your katana; it's just gone… somewhere." He pointed the silver bangle at him, Byakuya, "Do you want to follow it? I can arrange that – one problem though: you won't have your memory on the other side and to get it back you'll have to kill me. So what do you say?" He was taunting him. He, some random arrancar, was taunting him, Byakuya Kuchiki. He had last words all right: Die.
"If you, for a moment, thought that because I now lack my zanpakutou I am no longer capable of defeating you, you are sorely mistaken, definitely daft and have insulted my pride."
The arrancar narrowed his eyes in anger, "So you want me to just straight out kill you? Well fine." He lunged at Byakuya who dodged at the last minute. "Would you bloody standstill?" the arrancar growled as he spun round only to be hit squarely in the chest by a wave of bright yellow light which burned so much that he screamed in pain.
Byakuya put his hands together, "Art of destruction number 33, blue fire, crash down." A bright blue flame rushed towards the arrancar who was stumbling to get back onto his feet.
She had stayed much later than she intended to; she wanted to get home early and take a nap. She was more tired than she had ever been – at school teachers were piling work on the students like they had final soon and at karate, the coach had suddenly decided he wanted to turn her into a fighting machine. She really needed a nap and probably a nice, long bath. Suddenly something hit her on the shoulder and fell to the ground with a dull 'thud'. Tatsuki rubbed the shoulder it had hit as it had hurt, and looked down. A katana.
Now what was a katana doing falling from the sky? She looked at it, hesitated but in the end bent over and picked it up. She new nothing about katanas or weapons but she straightaway could tell this was a nice, most likely very expensive katana. Tatsuki looked around but there was no one around, she looked up and only the stars looked down. "Are you telling me it's raining katanas?" She said dryly, "that might be dangerous." She stood there for nearly three minutes contemplating what she should do with the katana and then decided it really was not her problem so she dropped it and walked away.
She was not ten steps away before she turned around sharply and marched towards the katana, which was lying on the ground where she had dropped it, like a poor abandoned puppy. Someone could be looking for it or what if some kids picked it up and decided to play with it? That would be dangerous; she could not just leave it lying there.
The arrancar watched with a mixture of fear and anger as Byakuya walked calmly towards it, "Do you see why you should not, for the briefest of seconds, believe yourself to be my equal, talk less of my superior? Do you understand that you are not at my level? You could live a million years and you still will not reach me."
The arrancar began to laugh. It was a loud, unstable laughter. He had been burned and beaten but he could still laugh with confidence, "You can't kill me and you'll never find your katana." It held the silver bracelet, which still had the red net of light flickering in its centre, and pulled it so it widened significantly. "See ya, shinigami." The arrancar said as he dropped the bracelet over his head so it rested around his neck, "time for my last trick, the disappearing act." As he spoke those words the same bright red net of light that had engulfed Byakuya's zanpakutou engulfed the arrancar and he too, like the zanpakutou, disappeared.
Byakuya narrowed his eyes in irritation; he did not actively hate anything or anyone but this arrancar was pushing him. He looked up at the clear nigh sky and sighed, time to find his zanpakutou.
He was not bothered about the loss of his zanpakutou because a shinigami cannot really lose his zanpakutou; it is a part of their soul so they can sense it no matter where it is, even across dimensions. What a fool.