Rebirth: A Tale of Two Souls

2: Worlds of Revelation

The love that once was born can not die. For it has become part of us, of our life, Woven into the very texture of our being. Each of us would wish to leave some part of ourselves,So here and now we bear witness to the one we knew in life,Who now in death bequeaths a subtle part, precious and beloved,Which will be with us in truth and beauty,In dignity and courage and loveTo the end of our days.

-Algernon Black

Was she taken from me in reprisal for the actions I have taken? Did Hisana grow so sick as a punishment for my sins? She could no longer be in pain in a place away from me but I could feeling the suffering of her absence. Will everything I care about be taken from me in return for the lives I've swept away with such ease?

Byakuya was still very cloudy as he considered the fact the deep wound in his chest was missing, replaced with unblemished flesh, not even a scar remained as proof of the nasty gash that had been there when unconsciousness took him. Senbonzakura had returned to it's place at his side, settled unharmed as he was next to him. He doubted consciousness would keep long and he glanced along the still rain splattered street to note that a lot of his blood still mingled into the water.

He blinked once when he glanced at the fact there was a woman clad in whore garments near him, smiling as if she'd done something to help him. Her dark hair and kind face reminded him so much of his late wife that he held his initial urge to attack her in check. The fact that he was being seen in such a torn state was bad enough, it was nearly insufferable that someone of such lowly station would be taking pity on him for it.

When he first tried to speak he found himself coughing instead, bringing a hand close to his mouth to reveal a few specks of blood…perhaps still in his lungs when his wound closed? Just how long had he been laying here?

"Be careful." The girl was the first to speak, her wide eyes bright with concern as she reached toward him, settling a warm hand on his shoulder.

With a few extra moments to consider the girl he realized she had a strong untapped spiritual power of her own, residue of it's messy use still hung so heavily in the air he was inwardly shocked he hadn't noticed it immediately when he woke. Blaming his grogginess for the sloppy note of his scene at hand he finally managed to get to his voice: though it was far more coarse than he liked.

"Who are you girl?" It seemed more like a demand than a question coming from the arrogant soul-reaper, even when laying in a trash covered ally being rained on he managed to be the image of pride. A bit more harshness reached his tone than he meant, but his usual apathy wasn't exactly an easy thing to break even for a human girl that had probably saved his life.

"I'm Kagome." She said slowly, perhaps taken aback at his apparent attitude. "I just…sort of happened across you. Are you okay?"

She was shivering a little, she'd been out in the rain for a while now and given the nature of how little cover her school uniform offered she was freezing. The poor weather had slowed a little but it seemed to just be a momentarily lull from the thunder that still rumbled through the clouds above, lighting flashing across the sky to illuminate them for a few moments.

"I'll manage." He retorted, his replies had never tended to be long and now wasn't any different. He couldn't feel spiritual battles raging around him. Leaving him to wonder just how long he had been unconscious. "Thank you for your aid."

He started to get up and his body disagreed with his decision making him so busy that he settled to one knee to avoid returning to his back and being lost in the lightheaded feeling. Just what had Ichimaru done to him?

"Oh. Be careful." The girl had a hand settled on one of his shoulders. She didn't look much more stable than she and he realized that her energy was at a temporary low, she'd never learned to control how much to put into something and likely burned herself out almost completely when she healed him. "You can't just get up like that, you just had a hole all the way through your chest. Who are you?"

Even if she was dressed as a whore his honor didn't allow him to leave a women in such a place when she'd saved his life and the way she seemed to be shivering now hinted that she was worse off than him in the matter of health. "I'm Byakuya Kuchiki"

"Well Kuchiki-kun." She smiled a little, though it was tired it remained somehow cheerful. "We should probably get somewhere out of this cold. I think I can help you walk."

He considered her silently and his face gave nothing away but he was slightly impressed by her want to help him so badly, she'd already risked her health and was likely more uneven on her feet than he yet she would still do her best to give him a shoulder.

"Where would you need to go?" He asked her seriously before he moved to accept or decline any help.

"Um…" Her cheeks turned as pink as the cheery blossoms his blade was named for and she looked around uncertainly. "Well, I guess we could go to my home but I'm not completely sure where it is from here. It should be north of this area."

She remembered one of the familiar parks she passed that wasn't too far from her home but she still wasn't familiar enough to know exactly where she was, if she got to a main street she could probably find it.

She didn't have time to think on it very long before she found herself swept up by the bizarrely dressed man she'd saved. He was holding her bridal style close to his chest. "Which way?"

She was blushing so furiously as her mouth fell open heat emanated from her cheeks. She floundered in her frustration, about to protest when she was cut off.

"Just tell me which way." He wasn't in the mood to argue sensibilities with a human sex-seller.

She pointed toward the only way there was, out of the ally.

Eternally glad that it was so cold and stormy for the lack of people Kagome had a chance to find a street-sign and silently point the way home. She was past the initial way he acted, he was trying to protect her in his own way when he'd just been in such bad shape of his own. He was definitely warmer and helped keep the chill winds and growing rain of the weather from her. She wanted to protest but she knew somehow that he wouldn't accept anything she said.

Instead she found herself staring at him, he reminded her vaguely of Sesshomaru. The commanding presence, regal bearing, the cold voice and face, the very strange outfit. Though without the facial marks or claws. He did however have a sword at his belt. The gloves on his hands seemed to have diamonds the size of dimes and the strange piece in his hair as well as the silky soft scarf gave him unique details that were reminiscent of the boa and the odd designed armor Inu-Yasha's brother had. The kimono's weren't marked the same but were strange enough that it still added up to the high-school girl.

It wasn't until he'd asked her a second time with a much less kind tone that she realized she'd been staring so hard and the red in her cheeks that had started to fade returned in earnest. "Um, there. That's our house over there. I'll need to get my key out."

It wasn't until he was settling her down just as soon as she said it that she also added up that they had been moving incredibly fast. She had been so used to riding on or with demons in the feudal era that it had taken her until now to note that he had been moving even faster than many of they had. She fumbled through her bag to get out her key and opened the door for them to lead him inside.

Her family had a nice home, it was similar to the size of the one they had at the shrine but the yard and grounds weren't nearly as big.

"It doesn't seem like anyone else is home yet." She commented as she turned the light on, shivering again. She had been getting more heat from the man than she thought she was. "Probably got stuck at school or work cause of the storm."

"Are you going to manage?" The captain watched the woman waver on her feet and saw her begin to shiver again.

"It's not my business." He reminded himself as he observed her moving across the foreign room, he'd never learned an immense amount about the human world but it was definitely alien. Yet he couldn't convince himself that it was honorable to simply leave her without knowing she would be able to warm herself back up and be safe. Humans were nearly always more frail than soul reapers or even other spirits in soul society.

"I think I'm okay." She said with a strained smile and she coughed a little bit as she started to dig through clothing in a closet. "I think I kept a box of dad's old clothes in…well a case like this. You should probably change before you catch cold."

"I will not." He was looking at her incredulously now as she offered him commoner clothing. He was cold but he wasn't so weak that such weather could effect him more than that. "If you'll be fine I should be on my way."

"You can't just go out into this storm." Kagome blinked at him, not sure why he was offended, it wasn't as if the clothes stank or anything. "You had a -hole- through your -chest-."

She stressed certain words as if it might help him remember what she figured he had put out of his mind. His perhaps slightly more irritated eyebrow raise told her volumes more than most - she did deal with Sesshomaru for a long time after all.

She attempted instead to be a diplomat. "At least let me put your other clothes in the dryer for a while first. I can find you an umbrella as well."

Her energy was fluxing often so it was fairly annoying to read but it was definitely getting steadily weaker. Shouldn't she be worried about herself at this point.

"If I will let you dry my kimono will you change yourself and dry off? You are shivering far more than I." He figured if she wanted to come to reason he could at least remind her to do the same.

"Yes." She nodded furiously and actually pushed the pile of clothing into his hands and pulled him slightly into a circle. He wouldn't have even moved if he wasn't so shocked again by her familiar nature with him, if she hadn't saved his life she wouldn't still have her arms for that transgression.

"Third door on the right up the stairs." She hadn't even realized that he was angry about something else - again. "I'll be down pretty soon."

She dashed off and only years of discipline kept him from yelling at her. She was obviously ignorant of what his name meant or who he was, normally that wouldn't be justification enough but her case was wholly unique to the lord of the Kuchiki clan.

After several minutes of getting into the commoner styled clothing and frowning at it as he left the strangely decorated room she'd sent him too. Why were these people so obsessed with their automobiles to completely dedicate a room to them? He noted the temperature in the house seemed higher, though being out of his wet clothing was definitely nicer, not that he'd admit it - ever.

"Good, good." Kagome smiled at him brightly again, at least she'd chosen more acceptable clothing this time, her pajama's covered far more than her uniform. "I'll dry these for you. I left blankets on the couch and turned the radio on. I'll be right back."

He knew enough to know how the radio work and listened for a time to the man going on about just how poor the weather was going to remain for possibly another full day. Noting that the storm seemed to have come from no where he wondered if the fighting had caused the effect in the real version of the world that they'd created.

"There." Kagome returned and watched him curiously as she crossed the room and then tossed a large piece of colorful linen at him. "Take a blanket silly, you've got to be cold after that."

He caught it easily enough but still was displeased with this easy manner she had toward him, saving him didn't give her the right to treat him so poorly did it? It was hard to tell, no one had ever saved his life before.

"You shouldn't be so familiar with people you don't know." He replied coolly as she sat on the same couch with him and curled up under another blanket. "Why invite me into your home and treat me as such when I'm just a spirit to you."

Kagome just looked at him a little strangely. "Just a spirit? You are as flesh and blood as I am, or otherwise I couldn't touch you, right?"

She really wasn't sure what she was dealing with but her confused question was completely true, and a realization for the captain of the sixth squad that he was in more trouble than initially believed…

To be continued…

Hello, first of all I'd like to say I greatly appreciate all the lovely reviews. I've gotten more support than I ever expected for this tiny fiction. I really hadn't planned to work on it again so soon but the mass of reviews I've gotten (14 is amazing for me for a first chapter) I wanted to work a little more on it. I hope that I'll keep up to the standards of the people interested in it. Thanks for reading.

-Aura

P.S. I know I normally reply to those that review here in thanks but people have Pmed me recently that they are irritated that I 'cheat' about the length of my chapters by commenting in the chapters. rolls eyes Anyway I wanted to: for this fiction at least, give a pause to that. Only questions people have that I can talk about (without ruining plot) will I mention in my P.S. section)