The Perfect Sky
Prompt 14 - "Perfect Blue"
Very long chapter, and some OOC Byakuya. Enjoy :3
To Kuchiki Byakuya, the sky had always held a special meaning.
For as long as the Kuchiki head could remember, he recalled events, meetings—all of his memories—through the color of the sky, the whisper of the wind, and the shape of the clouds.
Ever since he could speak, he adored sitting in his mother's lap during a private moment, at home and out of the eye of public scrutiny. One day, Byakuya asked his mother, "What's your idea of the perfect sky?"
He had just been curious, as all small children were. His mother laughed and hugged him closer, so close that Byakuya could smell the sweet scent of her perfume and the laughter that bubbled up from inside of her body. She then whispered, as if it was a big secret: "My idea of a perfect sky would be a perfect blue sky."
From that moment forward, Byakuya had been determined to find that perfect blue sky.
The day the young Byakuya met Shihouin Yoruichi, it was on one of the lovelier days of winter, the sky an icy pale blue, with big, puffy grey clouds. Even though the sun still smiled weakly upon the frozen ground, the day still seemed so devoid of life.
He had been sitting under a tree in the gardens, observing another carriage come up the road to the Kuchiki estate. It probably contained another pompous noble family, no doubt to congratulate his father on his promotion to captain.
Byakuya heard the frivolous laughter of the noble ladies from inside, but he wasn't tempted to go and join the gathering. There weren't any children his age in noble families around Seireitei, anyways.
The light of the day suddenly disappeared, and Byakuya looked up just in time to see the sun retreat behind a cloud.
Darkness.
He continued to stare dully into space, before his thoughts were interrupted by a dark skinned girl that waved to him from atop the hill with a large smile. She then proceeded to shunpo to his side, startling Byakuya.
"I'm Shihouin Yoruichi," she announced upon her arrival. "And you look like Kuchiki Byakuya." She peered into his face, her dark eyes round. "Since when did you get so prissy?"
Insulted, Byakuya leapt up and opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, Yoruichi giggled and shunpoed away, sticking her tongue out at him from a branch of a tree.
"Well, what are you waiting for, you big stuck up prissy?" Yoruichi mocked.
His dignity slowly being stripped away, Byakuya did the only thing he could do: He disappeared in a cloud of shunpo and started chasing after Yoruichi.
The war was on.
Glancing up at the sky, Byakuya saw the sun peek out from behind the cloud and cast a warm glow of light onto the two children wildly shunpo-ing around the garden.
Today, Byakuya noted, was a grey, drizzly day, roiling with a mass of clouds and icy rain.
Pushing his chair back from the breakfast table and abandoning his cup of tea, Byakuya picked up Senbonzakura and nodded to Rukia.
"Come. We have a mission to complete."
Being the taichou of a division was a very arduous task, but also a highly esteemed one.
Anybody who met Byakuya always told him that he was perfect for the job in all of its aspects.
What nobody knew was that once upon a time, the position of taichou was the least thing Kuchiki Byakuya wanted to be.
It was dinner at the Kuchiki estate, a quiet affair, only marred by the soft thuds of setting teacups down on the table and the clacking of chopsticks.
His father was conferring over something with his mother while Byakuya picked at his food. It appeared that the cook had forgotten to make something spicy today.
Subtly listening to his parents' conversation, Byakuya picked up "zanpakuto", "Byakuya", and "join the Gotei 13".
"No!" he shouted suddenly, startling his parents. "I won't go to the Gotei 13!"
"Byakuya, listen..." his mother started.
"No!" he said stubbornly.
"All Kuchikis have fought in the Gotei 13! What are you going to be, huh, if you're not a shinigami?" his father roared thunderously.
"I'll—I'll be a writer!" Byakuya shot back. He really did love writing and creating fantasy worlds of his own, but it was only when the words left his mouth when Byakuya realized how silly they sounded.
His father roared in laughter, mocking Byakuya at the same time. Byakuya sat there, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
"Do you hear him, he wants to be a writer!" His father choked out between laughs. Turning his attention back to Byakuya, he glared at his son. "Do you realize what this will mean for the Kuchiki name if the next head of the family is a writer? All of the heads of the family have been captains of a division in the Gotei 13, a highly esteemed and honorable position that only the best of all shinigami can get! And this tradition will NOT change because of your desire to be a writer!"
"Mother..." Byakuya tried.
His mother stared back at him with soft eyes, before looking away. "Do it for the family, Byakuya."
Byakuya hung his head in defeat. He was never able to win.
Two weeks later, Byakuya first met Senbonzakura.
"This is to be your zanpakuto, your most precious friend and weapon," his father explained. "You will do all of your training with your zanpakuto, and learn many new things. Now speak to your zanpakuto, and learn its name, to start off with."
Byakuya had no idea how to do this, but he tried, falling into the echoing confines of his mind. "Hello?" he called out. "I'm—I'm Kuchiki Byakuya."
"A pleasure to meet you," a distinctly female voice responded, the sound fading and dissipating into the darkness.
"Who are you?" Byakuya cried out.
A beautiful female burst through the darkness in a shower of cherry blossoms, regarding Byakuya with wickedly dancing green eyes.
"I am your zanpakuto. I am...
Senbonzakura!"
At that moment, a brilliant pink light shot into the air, rustling the sakura trees under which Byakuya stood. Byakuya only remembered this day because of the sparkling pink light that contrasted with the clear blue sky.
As grudgingly as Byakuya admitted it, his father was true. Senbonzakura quickly became his best friend and Byakuya told her everything, including how he had never wanted to join the Gotei 13 or get a zanpakuto in the first place. Senbonzakura listened with a sympathetic ear, and Byakuya found that she had a talent for giving good advice, no matter how mischievous she seemed at first.
Three weeks later, Byakuya had mastered his shikai, triggered by the deadly command "chire".
Of course, his father had been a little disgruntled when he saw that his son's (and the next head of the family's) shikai was pink, but once Byakuya cut a tree to shreds with Senbonzakura, his father finally looked down at him with respect in his eyes.
Nothing pleased Byakuya more, or helped him settle his mind, than watching Senbonzakura's petals twirl in the air, whether against the clearest sky in the world or against an angry grey sky, and hearing her laugh resonate in the air.
Nobody had ever once said that Byakuya could be a writer, or god knows something else other than the dull, powerful, oh-so-mighty taichou of the sixth division.
Nobody, that is, except for one person.
"Nii...sama..." Rukia said, her eyes already drooping in sleep, her small body burning hot beneath the pile of blankets.
"Yes?" Byakuya asked, right before he shut the door to Rukia's room.
"Tell me...a story," she requested.
"Rukia, you're burning up with fever...you should get your rest," Byakuya pointed out.
"No…no, tell me a story," she protested, blinking open her eyes that were clouded over with fever, yet still shone with her usual spunk.
"I…all right," Byakuya conceded, stepping back into the room and closing the door behind him.
"So, which story would you like?" Byakuya asked, mentally ridiculing himself inside for doing this. If any shinigami in all of Seireitei had been there to witness the 28th Head of the House of Kuchiki demoted to some storyteller to a child…well, it might be cliché, but Byakuya was sure that he would never live it up.
"I don't know," Rukia responded, her voice growing heavier and calmer. "Anything…"
So, taking a deep breath and steely pushing all other reason and excuses his traitorous mind kept pummeling at him, Byakuya sat down and proceeded to tell Rukia a story.
He told a glorious story of how a boy was questing to find his one true love, his princess. He was nothing, not even a prince. He was only a mere pauper in his village. The boy's parents wanted him to be something powerful, like a samurai, but the boy refused, and one day, he ran away, in quest of his princess. But the boy's parents found him soon after, and they forced him to become a samurai. The boy soon became one of the best samurai out of them all, but still, he dreamt of rescuing his princess, his true love.
It was at this point when Byakuya realized that Rukia had fallen asleep, her deep breaths steadying out to an even pattern. Tentatively feeling her forehead, Byakuya realized that her fever had gone.
Standing in a rustle of shihakusho, Byakuya turned to go for the second time. But Rukia's quiet voice, half-within the throes of sleep, called out to him.
"Nii-sama…thank you for the story. You…should have been a writer."
Byakuya paused, momentarily frozen, his hand on the doorknob, standing in the hallway.
This was the first time anybody had said something of this kind to him—and it was Rukia, who had stripped down the overbearing, mighty taichou to what his heart really yearned for.
Byakuya smiled, the traces of the curves of his mouth lingering as his fingers fell from the doorknob, the door shutting with an audible click
"You're right…I should have."
Byakuya mentally sighed in despair upon seeing the party that awaited them at the gates of Seireitei. Rukia was struggling to keep up with Byakuya's swift stride, but she still trotted along determinedly behind him, like a puppy that followed its master everywhere.
Kurosaki Ichigo, Abarai Renji, Ishida Uryuu, Toushiro Hitsugaya, Matsumoto Rangiku, and Hinamori Momo awaited them at the gate. Renji visibly waved to Byakuya with an obnoxiously loud "TAICHOUUUU!" reverberating in the air.
Byakuya gave a stiff nod to Renji, glaring at him to calm down. Rukia stood next to Ichigo, as Byakuya assessed the party that was assigned the mission to take down a party of Menos Grandes spotted just a day before, in the wooded area some distance away from Seireitei.
"Really, Menos Grandes?" Ichigo's loud voice, one that rivaled Renji's, pierced Byakuya's eardrums, and he glared at the orange-haired shinigami. Byakuya…had a feeling he would be doing a lot of glaring today, most probably at Renji and Ichigo.
"Did nobody fill you in, loser?" Renji taunted back.
"Doesn't matter, Menos Grandes are easy to beat," Ichigo asserted confidently, pulling his arms back behind his head.
"Yeah, says the one who first tried to kill a Menos Grandes with the logic of 'If you chop it down, then you should be able to kill it'," muttered a certain dark haired Quincy.
Ichigo immediately turned on the Quincy. "Hey, that was one of my worse moments!" he yelled.
Uryuu responded with some other insult, and another banter started.
"Enough!" Byakuya commanded, his reiatsu flickering in the small area around them, silencing most of the squabble.
"We head for the woods out of Seireitei, approximately northeast of here. Once we reach the edge of the forest, we split up. The majority of the group will be under my command, as stated by Yamamoto-genryuusai. Hitsugaya-taichou will take Hinamori-fukutaichou and Matsumoto-fukutaichou around the back for our reinforcements. We," Byakuya waved a hand over Ichigo, Uryuu, Rukia, and Renji, "will be the main attack."
Byakuya appraised the group. "Understood?"
Everybody nodded.
"Good. Let's go."
The rain slapped against their faces, soaking shihakushos and bare skin alike. Rukia's hair was matted to her face, but she still forged ahead, keeping pace with Ichigo and Renji.
At the lead, Byakuya murmured to Senbonzakura while at the same time looking for any signs of the Menos Grandes and keeping an eye on the bickering group behind him, so they wouldn't fall prey to some stupid trap out here in the woods.
Suddenly, Byakuya stopped, feeling the whisper of an evil reiatsu tug at his own, enticing him, drawing him in.
"Stop." He commanded, his eyes level but calculating, unsheathing Senbonzakura.
"Everybody, get ready to attack."
The first Menos Grandes cracked the sky into a dark, swirling hole, the bleak darkness of Hueco Mundo still darker than the clouds that obscured any view or hope of sunlight.
The huge hollow rushed at Byakuya with a shattering cry, as dozens more streamed out of Hueco Mundo behind it.
As Byakuya uttered "chire", he realized something as Rukia released Sode no Shirayuki's shikai, Ichigo and Renji brandished Zangetsu and Zabimaru, and Ishida adjusted his glasses before preparing his Quincy bow and fitting an arrow to the string.
He realized, ominously, that as the Menos Grandes kept on streaming out, even with backup in the form of Hitsugaya-taichou, there were too many.
Several hours later…
Many Menos Grandes had been killed with keening wails that spiraled up into the air and disappeared, but still, several remained—the strongest of them all. The entire group, even the back up reinforcements, sported some sort of injury, but they still battled on.
Byakuya, Ichigo, Renji, and Hitsugaya had released their bankais quite some time ago, but Byakuya could sense reiatsus running low, for the whole group.
Another wail echoed in the sky, as rain continued to pour, relentlessly down on them.
Rukia whipped around from watching another Menos Grandes fall and disappear, her face shining in triumph.
"Nii-sama, did you see that?"
Byakuya nodded curtly, distracted by watching Ichigo and Renji combine forces against another Menos Grande that had just descended. Senbonzakura hung at his side, and it was only when his zanpakuto alerted him with a cry did he see the Menos Grande swoop down behind Rukia.
"RUKIA!"
She valiantly tried to swing Sode no Shirayuki at the Menos Grande, but she missed, as the Menos Grande cackled and scored a long, gashing cut down her side.
First, he saw her eyes widen in shock, and then her body stiffened.
Sode no Shirayuki clattered to the ground.
She started to fall, started to fall as if it was in a dream. Somewhere, in mid-air, a spray of crimson splattered against the grey backdrop of the sky.
Rukia hit the ground with a dull thump, her body frozen in that moment of impact, her mouth still slightly open in surprise.
Byakuya felt his body fill with anger, channeling all of his reiatsu into Senbonzakura as he rushed at the Menos Grande from behind, slashing it down with just one cut.
"That was for Rukia," he stated expressionlessly as the Menos Grande screamed in defeat and disappeared from sight.
As Byakuya sagged to his knees and tried his best to attend to Rukia, he didn't notice that the rain had stopped and the clouds had started to break apart.
Rukia had walked in on him, one day, in the gardens. Byakuya had gone outside of his stuffy office and taken some paperwork along with him to a stone bench near the sakura trees.
He had had every intention of completing the paperwork, but as unimaginable as it was, Kuchiki Byakuya got distracted by the clouds and the gentle sway of blossom-laden branches in the breeze.
It was then, when Byakuya was thinking about fetching Senbonzakura (who was resting in his office) and letting her see this sight. She would have been pleased at the sight. But, that was when Rukia, awed at the sakura, had stumbled in on him.
Not literally, of course. But Byakuya looked up at her with questioning eyes and she blushed, flustered, and tried to regain her composure, fumbling for words.
"Gomen, gomen, nii-sama, I didn't know you were here, and I shouldn't be out here, I know, I know—"
Byakuya arched an eyebrow as he set aside his paperwork (or at least, his premise of doing paperwork) and interestingly watched her continue to babble on nonsense.
"Rukia."
Rukia immediately shut up, staring at Byakuya with terrified eyes. Byakuya never figured it out, why some people were so terrified of him.
"It's fine that you walked in on me. I wasn't doing much else, anyways."
Rukia gnawed on her bottom lip, giving a shy nod.
"Nii-sama…do you mind if I sit next to you for a while? It's just—it's such a beautiful day."
"Go ahead."
Rukia murmured a quick "arigato" before seating herself next to Byakuya on the bench as Byakuya subtly shifted some paperwork so she would have more room. Rukia stared at the sky, her face filling up with carefree joy.
Warily, Byakuya watched Rukia out of the corner of his eye as he continued to write on his paper.
"Rukia…" the words floated out of his lips before he realized just exactly what he was saying, "what is your idea of the perfect sky?"
Rukia cocked her head and looked at Byakuya before turning her eyes back to the sky and a few gently floating cherry blossoms.
"Well…it would have to be the perfect blue sky, wouldn't it?"
Byakuya could only stare at her in shock for a few moments, before he bowed his head.
I should have known.
"I agree," he said softly. "I've been trying to find the perfect blue sky for years."
It was Rukia's turn to look at Byakuya in shock, before her features softened and a small hand impulsively rested on his own.
"Then, I suppose I'll have to help you."
"Rukia!" Byakuya shouted again. He felt his dignity and his control gradually slipping away from him, as if in a sieve.
"Byakuya…nii-sama…" Rukia said weakly, wearily opening dull violet eyes.
What was this feeling of pain, of indescribable loss and agony that stabbed through Byakuya's heart of ice? This…shooting pain, when Byakuya saw the sparkle that had resided in her eyes for so long was now gone.
Senbonzakura cried in sorrow, an echoing sound ringing in the dark, irrational abyss of Byakuya's mind as he tried to comprehend that Rukia – and as much as it pained the Kuchiki head to admit it, his Rukia – was dying. Every trickle of blood pooling on to the churned dirt and grass next to her prone body, every second ticking by, every breath she took—she was dying.
She was leaving him, just like Hisana…and what hurt Byakuya the most, more than any zanpakuto could, was the fact that he couldn't do anything about it.
"Arigato…for everything…I'm sorry that I wasn't able…to do much in return for you."
Byakuya felt raw anguish boiling up inside of him, welling up in his throat and weighing down in his chest. "Don't…" he started.
He took a deep breath to try and recompose himself. "Don't…say arigato. I should…be saying that to you, Rukia."
Even thorough her labored breaths and the evident pain she was in, confusion still shone in her flickering eyes. "Nii-sama…why?"
Byakuya didn't know quite know what to say, or how to say it.
Yet, before he quite figured out what he was doing, his hand had reached out and wiped away a streak of blood at the side of her mouth.
The crimson color seeped into the fabric of his glove, a glaring bright color attracting his attention, out of all the other dull-colored things in his life.
"Because…" he tried to say. "Because…"
Because you're the only person that knew me like nobody else did.
Because you took me for whom I was.
Because…I just might have loved you.
The voices poured into his head, each battling the other for dominance.
But before Byakuya could say a word more, Rukia's eyes widened as she gave a sharp gasp. Her body jerked slightly, and her fingers curled tighter into small fists.
"I…I think I understand, nii-sama," were her last words, before her body trembled and then finally lay still, closing her eyes with a last smile.
"Because…you understood," Byakuya said, several painful moments after Rukia's body had gone limp.
He leaned down, his hair gently sweeping her bloodied shihakusho, and brushed his lips against her forehead, gently caressing closed eyes that he would never see again.
As Byakuya stood, his soiled captain's haori fluttering, he realized that as he had tended to Rukia, the clouds had split and disappeared, exposing the sun.
Byakuya's mind raced back to that memory, that memory so long ago, when Rukia had vowed to help Byakuya find the perfect blue sky.
"Then…I suppose I'll have to help you," she said, as the sakura swirled around her dark blue kimono and the sun shone on her smiling face.
So long ago...
Feeling the sun kiss his face and the slight breeze rustle his hair, Byakuya felt the irony laughing in his face, degrading the Kuchiki.
It was so ironic—too ironic, that on the day of Rukia's death…
Byakuya had found the perfect blue sky.
-fin-
A/n: Yes, it was mainly long because I wanted to write from Byakuya's point of view and his past. And zomg, I just realized that ByakuRuki is kind of similar to Hatori x Tohru from Fruits Basket...well, in this chapter, at least. Reviews are appreciated, as always :)