Ash Cat

Summary: What events would cause Matsumoto to achieve her bankai? (Haineko's PoV)

Haineko was just waiting for the right moment, he would have told anyone, if they cared to ask. He was waiting for the right moment when his Mistress needed him – when her strength alone could not achieve what she wanted and she had to turn to him for his help. She was strong enough for now – he would simply have to wait.

It didn't help that he was just as stubborn and fond of doing as little as possible as his Mistress was. But she was strong, and just about fierce enough to earn his respect as a fellow being of fire. He admired her energy, as well as her incredible devotion to her taichou, the ice-creature she should have been at odds with but instead cheerfully followed. He admired they way they argued over various weak points in the others' personality – but still defended each other in battle with fitting aggression. And as an extension of his Mistress himself, he began to share her feelings for her taichou too. Cats like he and his Mistress did not devote themselves to beings lightly – the emotion was always had to be earned by the recipient, and because of that nearly always deserved. He knew she knew her light-heartedness aggravated her taichou sometimes, but it wasn't in her nature to stop being or doing something just because another didn't like it, but even he noticed when she curbed it back just for the ice-child. Noticed when she glowed with pleasure after a compliment from him, or when she took his criticism painfully to heart. At the moment, the strength of her shikai was enough for her to manage. She had no true need for him, yet.

So he watched, and waited for the perfect moment to let her call him. She trained, and fought, and lived, and he grew stronger inside her mind because of it. He had watched in amusement as her taichou attempted to help her summon him, but had shook his head, inside her mind. She didn't need him yet, or at least not enough for him to emerge from the spot in her mind he had stayed in from the day she had first begun as a shinigami.

This was why he had only just begun to stir, as the current battle raged on. He shifted slightly, feeling his Mistress begin to struggle. A battle against an old friend, Ichimaru Gin, which had left both she and her taichou injured, attempting to keep up against the traitor his Mistress was trying to stop recognising as 'friend'. Her exhaustion and her complete heartsickness at the situation called to him from where he was curled up in her mind. Both physical and emotional damage to his Mistress...it seemed to him that only her taichou could help her with the emotional damage, but the physical struggle...it was his purpose in this life to help her with that. He feels her call for fire rather than ash, and knows he must answer.

'Call me' he whispered into her mind 'I will come, for you have great need of me. Call me'

Confusion. Hurt. Acceptance. They responded around him as he felt his Mistress' hand return to her zanpakutō, taking up position in defence of the fallen taichou as she reached back for him – for his heat, for the strength only he could give to her.

"Ban...kai"

And the world burnt.