An: Special thanks to jbadillodavila, febri, and Frozen in Idaho for reviewing
"Byakuya, wait up, I need to tell you something." Riyeko called out to her friend, who was in the garden of the Kuchiki manor, then proceeded to run up to him. She could barely contain her excitement.
"What?" Byakuya asked, not knowing what has gotten his friend so riled up.
"I got excepted into the Shin'o academy." Riyeko had wanted to tell him sooner, but they were both busy.
"What?" Byakuya repeated what he said, though it was forced through the gritted teeth.
"Yeah, I'm leaving in three days, to join the new year." She added, her excitement slowly dying down at her friends reaction. "What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing, just that my only friend is leaving me." Byakuya's tone was getting sharper.
"I'm not leaving you, I'm just going away for awhile. I'll still visit, if that's what your worried about."
"It's not that." Riyeko was shocked by the anger in his tone. "It's the fact that your going to be there, making friends, and changing. When you come back you won't care about the friend you left behind."
"It's not going to be like that." She tired to reason with him.
"Just go, I don't want to talk to you anymore." Byakuya dismissed her and started to walk away
"Fine." Riyeko shouted after him. "I was done talking to you anyway."
Turning she quickly left in the opposite direction, trying to find her father and . They were talking in one of the sitting rooms, upon spotting other two men stopped their conversation.
"Riyeko, are you already wanting to go home," Sousuke asked confused by his child, usually she wanted to stay as long as possible.
"Yeah, there's still a lot of things I want to do before I leave." Riyeko smiled, hoping that she sounded convincing enough.
"Well we were in the middle of a very important discussion. You'll need to wait a while longer." Sousuke told his daughter reluctantly, not wanting to say no to her.
"We can continue this conversation at a later date, send this time with your daughter Sousuke. Children always grow up so fast, cherish these moments." Ginrei interrupted him and began to escort his guests out of the manor, while Riyeko let out a sigh of relief. She really didn't want to spend any more time here right now.
"Something happened between you and Byakuya, didn't it?" Her father stated once they were off the grounds.
"how did you know?" Riyeko's eyes widen at his statement.
"I'm your father, I know when your upset."
"Me and Byakuya got into a fight. He didn't want me to attend the academy." There was no point denying it.
"That's understandable, sometimes fights make relationships stronger." Sousuke explained to his child in an effort to comfort him.
"Did you and kasan fight?" Riyeko asked the question quietly.
"Not often, but whenever we did we weren't mad at each other for long, and every time I believe that the argument helped to make our relationship stronger." Her father answered as they began the walk home
"So mine and Byakuya's relationship is going to be alright?"
"Time will tell, but I do believe that this separation will do you both good. You aren't always going to be able to see each other as often as you would like forever." Sousuke turned his thoughtful gaze towards his daughter. "Whatever happens, if you two drift apart or stay close, is going to be alright, because relationships are meant to change."
"Ok." She agreed, not knowing what to say in response to his statement.
She just hoped she wouldn't lose Byakuya.
...
It's been three years since Riyeko was placed in the advanced first year class of Shin'o academy. Now the third year advanced class was beginning their first unsupervised mock mission to the human world, Riyeko had been placed in a group with two of her other classmates, one guy with blond hair and a girl with brunette hair, but she didn't really know them well. Riyeko didn't really know anyone well actually, she spent her free time studying as much as she could. Wanting to stay on top of her classes, and make her father proud.
"Come on Riyeko, were going to be late." The girl said to waved her over.
"Oh coming." She replied, running after them.
After a quick briefing entered the area where the mock mission would take place. Riyeko's group split up and started to look for pluses to purify. 'Well, actually I kind of ditched them, but whose counting.' She thought briefing, she tend to work better alone.
After roaming through a few empty buildings Riyeko found a pulse. She was a little girl, probably a couple of years younger then herself.
"Who are you?" She asked fearfully when the other girl approached her.
Her hair fell into her face as she raised her arms to block herself from Riyeko.
"It's alright I'm not here to hurt you. I am a Shinigami and I'm here to bring you to the soul society." The shinigami-in-training explained to her.
"Where's that at?" She asked, more relaxed this time, curiosity lacing her tone.
"It's a place where people go when they die, you should let me send you there. You'll be safe."
She looked at me unsure for a minute but then she nodded. "Ok, send me there please."
Riyeko then raised her katana and, as she has been taught, pressed the hilt to her forehead. Their was a flash of light, the girl then turned into a butterfly and flew away.
After seeing no more souls in area she went back towards the other two in the group. They met up and were about to start heading back to the main meet up when suddenly the blue head girl was picked up. A group of hollows suddenly appeared all around us, they were surrounded. One of them leaped forward and took a swipe at Riyeko, she tried to evade the hollow but he managed to reach her leg. She fell down and took a quick glance at her ankle to see it covered in blood, it would probably hurt to walk on it, but it wasn't anything too serious.
Riyeko then turned her attention towards the girl to see the blond head trying to help her. Another hollow saw that she was distracted and launched himself at her, successfully pining me into the ground with one of it's arms. She tried to push the hollow off of her but to no avail, her sword was out of reach as well. The thing was going to eat her soul. Riyeko was going to die.
She closed my eyes and prepared for the unavoidable. 'Open your eyes, Riyeko, and find another way to get him off of you. Don't give in.' Riyeko heard a soft, feminine, voice say.
Her mind raced trying to figure away out. Her sword was out of reach, kido was out of the question with her arms pinned, and she couldn't over power him. The only thing that seems to be keeping Riyeko alive was the fact that the hollow was toying with her. The hollow hadn't moved since it pinned her down, probably trying to scare Riyeko, so the thing can see fear consume her when it devourers her soul.
She did the only thing she could think of, it was a foolish idea but it might just work. Riyeko began to focus some of her reiatsu on her good leg, brought it up, and slammed it into the arm that was holding her down. It didn't do much damage wise, but it shocked the hollow enough that Riyeko was able to escape from his grasp.
Riyeko started back at fighting and dodging the hollows. Everytime she closed my eyes, even for a millisecond, she saw a vision of an light skinned girl with light brown hair, gray eyes, and white wings were protruding from her back. Her lips were moving, but Riyeko couldn't hear what the girl was saying.
She continued to fight despite this, the number of hollows was over growing fast though, and Riyeko lost sight of the other two.
'Listen carefully.' The voice of the girl spoke once more. 'If you keep fighting like this you're going to die.'
'You don't think I know that, who are you anyways?' Riyeko was over powered so she turn and ran to try to shake them off of her for awhile.
'You should know, I am a part of you.' The girl laughed lightly, despite the dire situation. 'Now listen my name is..., now turn around and shout my name or die, your choice.'
'What?'
'Just do it.' The girl stated, sounding annoyed.
Riyeko felt, for some insane reason, that she could trust her, so she turned to face the mass and shouted for the first time her zanpaku-to's name. "Dream, Yume no tenshi!" Riyeko felt the asauchi in her hands begin to change and she felt it's true power flow through her veins.
She sliced through them as fast as she could, but as the adrenaline from the initial release of her shikai was wearing off. Riyeko steps started to slow and the girl's vision was starting to hazy. It seemed pretty hopeless that, even with her new found power, Riyeko would survive this.
She miss stepped and a hollow took advantage and sliced her, blood scattered across the ground as Riyeko's body collapsed in on itself. The small remnants of energy she had left vanished as she fell.
As Riyeko layed there, not able to move from her position on the ground.' Am I actually going to die.' The thought made her body want to tremble in fear.
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you brutes to kill this girl." A female voice that sounded familiar spoke from somewhere behind her.
She forced her head to turn to look at the one who was going to save her. Her eyes were met with the sight of Yoruichi ginning at Riyeko like she wasn't on the ground, covered in blood.
The next moments were like a blur, Riyeko remembers Yoruichi running to fight off the hollows with other members of the Onmitsukido following behind her, then a member of the fourth division started to move her, and swore she heard her father's voice.
...
Riyeko's eyes fluttered open as she awoke in a room of white. Her body ached all over and she felt bandages all around her body, she probably looked like a mummy. Riyeko didn't remember being this messed up before she fell asleep. She looked around and guessed that she must be in Sogo Kyugo Tsumesho, she had been here a few times before whenever her parents were injured, it was the only logical place they would take her. As her eyes briefly gazed about the room they met the dark gray pair of another.
"You're awake." Byakuya exclaimed, sounding relieved.
"What are you doing here, Byakuya. I thought you weren't speaking to me anymore." Riyeko asked, confused by his presence. She was happy to see her friend, but she hoped he wasn't still mad at her.
"Um, your father couldn't stay with you, but he didn't want to leave you alone for when you do wake up. So I asked grandfather if I could stay with you, because I knew you and I didn't have any lessons today, and he said yeah, so I came here and waited. Then you woke and , well, the rest is happening now." Byakuya rambled on, something Riyeko knew he did when he was nervous, before adding the real reason. "And I wanted to apologize for getting mad at you for joining the Shin'o academy, it's not something that I have the right to get mad about, and I really miss talking to you, and-"
Riyeko cut him off before he could start rambling again, "I forgive you, I also missed talking to you, Byakuya."
"So are we still friends?"
"Of course." Though Riyeko didn't know how their relationship will work
"Oh good, you're awake." A nurse stated from the entrance to her room, surprising the two teenagers. "I'll get Unohana-taicho to look you over, you had a lot of people worried. Try to be more careful next time."
"Like I have any ability to control what had happen." Riyeko retorted after she left.
"But you could try not to get as injured as you did this time, for the sake of everyone that cares about you." Byakuya added, looking worried for his friend.
"I'll try."
"Good." Then Byakuya's eyes widen in realization. "Oh, there's a rumor going around that you earned your Shikai, is that true?"
Riyeko hummed an affirmative. "I earned it during the attack that got me in here."
"That's great, not the attack but everything else is great." Byakuya smiled, truly happy for her.
Before he could ask anymore about it the captain of the fourth division, Retsu Unohana came in. Riyeko's injuries must've been serious if she was attending to them. "Hello, how are you feeling?" She spoke softly and had a parental air around her.
"I'm fine, just a little tired." Understatement Riyeko felt like she could've slept for weeks and still be tired.
"Well that is to be expected, given your Shikai's effect." Unohana stated thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" Riyeko's head filled with confusion.
"We found traces of poison on in your blood and on your blade. It is safe to assume that your Shikai coats your sword in a poison that is meant to tire out your opponents, but the poison also seems to affect you so you'll need to train inorder to resist the poison." She explained as she performed different Kido spells on Riyeko to evaluate her condition.
"So my Shikai poisons other people and me as well?" That's a strange ability.
"All Shikais have a weakness, some affect the user more than others." Unohana then smiled gently at her, and Riyeko wondered why people were afraid of her. "Your healing is progressing along quiet fine, at this rate you should be able to leave, I hope you both have a nice day." With that she left to attend to her other patients.
"So what's the name of your zanpuk-to?"
"Oh, 'Yumi no tenshi' that's what she told me." Riyeko responded and with that they strangely settled back in to the easy conversing with one another. It felt like those three years of zero communication didn't happen, like they were still kids.
The two had talked for hours, up until Byakuya had been excused from the room when her father arrived. Sousuke was glad to see that they had made up, and that his daughter was alright. Sosuke had to leave soon after he came, a lieutenants work is never ending, and she soon found herself falling back to sleep. Feeling more at ease then ever since she joined the academy.
Omake:
Aizen: Something happened between you and Byakuya, hasn't it?
Riyeko: How did you know?
Aizen: It was all part of my plan
Riyeko: What plan?! *concerned*
Aizen: I mean, I'm your father. I know when your upset
Riyeko: "Oh, ok. Well me and Byakuya got into a fight
Aizen: Excellent
Riyeko: *even more concerned* Wha?
Aizen: I mean that's terrible, but for the best
Aizen: Yeah that sounds like something I would say
...
Byakuya: So are we still friends?
Riyeko: Let's see first you yell at me for wanting to pursue my dreams, then you say that I'll going to abandon you, and the you stop speaking to me for three whole years
Byakuya: Is that a no?
Riyeko: No, we're cool
