Title: Kyrie Eleison

Chapter: Vision

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach nor do I claim to. Actually, I said long ago that bleach governs over me, lol

Listening to: I can't hate you anymore (By: Nick Lachey)

Quote of the day: Killing two birds with one stone? How about two birds one grenade? - Me (I had a random day playing Call of Duty when I got the trophy)

"Oh my gosh…" the busty vice captain huffed and sat up from her spot on the couch. "Taicho, you're not the least bit worried that Yumi's all by her lonesome at the sixth division?"

"And why should I?" her captain asked, not taking his eyes off the paperwork she should be doing.

"Because!" Matsumoto crossed her arms and sent him a sly look, "Yumi-chan is a cute girl. I wouldn't be surprised if some seated officer is sweet talking her right now—"

"Matsumoto," he slowly spoke and glared at her. "For one, both Kuchiki Byakuya and Abarai Renji would never tolerate that behavior from any of their subordinates. And besides…" Hitsugaya's voice trailed off and the calligraphy pen he held stopped writing.

The vice-captain took notice of his manner of speaking and smiled slyly. "Taicho?"

"Miyamoto's strong. She wouldn't let her guard down anyway…" an almost sinister smirk was carved on his lips and the temperature dropped a few degrees. "But if anything does happen, someone will wish they were never born…"

She couldn't take it anymore and burst out into laughter. "Hah! I knew it! Taicho has the hots for little Yumi-chan!"

"S-Shut up! And I do not!" the ice wielder turned a nice shade of pink, even on his tanned skin.

"Oh?" Matsumoto sent him a cat-like grin. "What's all this I hear about a secret surprise for her then?" His emerald eyes widened in surprise and embarrassment.

"Th-That's!"

"Wow, you've been stuttering a lot! Is it because you're thinking of her?"

"No, I—"

"Aw, how cute! But don't go thinking indecent thoughts about her just yet, Taicho! That can wait until you want kids~!"

"MATSUMOTO I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!"

Yumi sighed deeply as she leaned sluggishly against the window of her temporary room at the sixth division. The room was homey with fine wood furnishings and bookshelves lined with novels and other references. The orange and yellow glow that signaled evening poured in, bathing the room in warm colors. All in all, it was almost a complete replica of her first room. But…

It wasn't the same.

Idly, her eyes drifted to one wall, where a door opened up to the gardens. There was a faint memory when the captain of the eleventh division broke down a wall. The faces of both captain of the eleventh and tenth would continue to stay in her head for as long as she would live.

Then, her gaze turned to the vase of white and yellow daffodils on the window sill. Normally, the sixth division would keep camellias. However upon arrival she found this.

'How ironic. Which sick person is humoring me I wonder?' she thought irritably, not knowing that someone coughed nervously on the other side of the white screen you're reading from. Yes, you.

Her fingers lightly traced the soft petals and she frowned slightly. "I wonder whats gonna happen now." She said to herself and finally sat down on the bed. "Ichigo and the group go back to the human world tomorrow. Maybe they'll let me go to the send off?"

Her words were mainly for distraction. More than anything, her ears were listening for the familiar sounds of rustling paperwork in the middle of the night, or a random shout at a lazy vice-captain. She missed hearing the sighs from the room across from hers that signaled his exhaustion and stress from work and pressure.

"…Tell me, Hitsugaya. Why did you join the Gotei 13? Tell me exactly why you would leave your grandmother in Rukongai."

Yumi hugged the pillow close to her chest, the scent unfamiliar to her senses. Maybe she was being unfair. He had his reasons. She had no right to pry.

"You don't know anything about me."

The truth was she wanted to know. She wanted to know what made him sad. What made him annoyed? What made him happy?

Now that she thought about it, Hinamori would know, right? She knew him since childhood so there's no doubt they're close. She became a vice-captain so quickly, so she was strong unlike Yumi who tended to get saved all the time. Sure, she could hold her own against a hollow or two but experience wise…not so much. Yumi wasn't used to the blood and gore of day to day Shinigami activity. Heck, at first she was just supposed to help the tenth division with paperwork, much less dealing with her ridiculous fear of thunderstorms and blood. Honestly, how did she even manage to become a Shinigami when she had this phobia?

Even more so, Hinamori was pretty. Her warm brown eyes were innocent and childlike. The hair she kept in a bun only added to the cuteness. Compared to Yumi, who had strange violet eyes and a rather short temper when it came down to it. The fifth division fukutaicho knew when to calm down and think things through. The proof was clear. That was probably the reason why he decided so easily that she be moved to another division.

"To convince Kuchiki-Taicho so quickly, he must have had some pretty good reasons to kick me out…" Yumi hugged the pillow tighter, nails digging into the fabric.

A knock at the door made her jump up, nearly losing her balance. "W-Who is it?"

"Fifth Seat: Minami Ryuuji. May I come in?" it was a male voice. It wasn't a deep tone. It was hard to explain. In simple words, Yumi had to call it 'young'.

"Sure."

The door slid open, revealing a boy with dark red hair. It wasn't a bright color like Ichigo's or Renji's. It looked darker, like crimson. Contrary to that his eyes were light brown, like chocolate milk (1). For a fifth seat, he looked awfully young. He couldn't look older than eighteen!

'Then again…Ukitake's third seats…' Yumi had to unconsciously grimace at their long arguments over who took care of the captain better. Kotetsu Kiyone looks young for her age too and she was a co-third seated officer with Sentaro...

"Miyamoto-san," he greeted politely and bowed. Yumi's polite instincts kicked in and she bowed as well.

"Ah, the pleasure is all mine Minami-san! But please, call me Yumi." Silently in the back of her mind she scolded herself.

'Damn it Yumiko! This is why people get so surprised when you go all rude and crazy once you get to know them!' her inner conscience rambled as her outer façade nervously avoided his curious gaze. Ryuuji stared at her strangely for a few seconds before laughing a little.

"You are an interesting girl, Miyamoto-san—"he paused and then scratched the back of his head nervously, "Erm…I mean Yumiko-san."

"Thanks I guess?" Yumi grinned sheepishly but then noticed a cart with food outside the door beside him. "What's this?"

"Oh…well." He began. Suddenly, Ryuuji's face began to get warm. "Abara-Fukutaicho told us we would get a guest from the tenth division and to take care of her. And I noticed you hadn't come down for dinner…so I thought I'd bring some up!"

Yumi was surprised at his kindness and then giggled merrily. "That's so sweet of you! Thank you so much, Minami-san."

"If I can call you Yumiko-san, can you…call me by my name too?" he slowly asked, his face heating up even more by doing so.

"Of course, Ryuuji-kun! But I warn you. I might end up making a random nickname for you if we get any closer than this!" she joked half-heartedly and then immediately berated herself again.

Yumi hadn't really expected anything more than a strange look and then the cold shoulder or a complaint. That's usually how it went.

Usually

"Then I'll look forward to it, Yumiko-san."

"Eh?" her violet eyes widened at his response. Ryuuji seemed so…innocent! Not even the childish kind like the loveable Hanataro that she visited every so often. No—it was more like a warm sun that she wanted to get to know and study.

For the first time since being reassigned to the sixth division she felt genuinely happy.

"Shall I bring these in? I wasn't sure what you liked so…"

"Oh, come in! We'll share okay?"

Time flew by quickly in that one room. Apparently, Ryuuji had just been appointed to the fifth seat and that was why she hadn't seen him during her regular Sixth Division Sprints to avoid paperwork.

"I was from Junrinan," he said, looking back at the memory in nostalgia. "I don't remember anything, back from when I was a boy. What I do know is that I was raised up in something like a pack of lost boys. We helped each other survive."

"Junrinan?" Yumi repeated, feeling the unfamiliar name roll on her lips.

"Yeah. Don't you know? There are a total of 80 Districts of Rukongai. The 80th is Zaraki and the 1st is Junrinan." He explained as he took a piece of paper and began to draw circles. "The worst districts are farther out. However, Junrinan was relatively peaceful. Maybe one of these days I can show you."

"Thank you. I'd like that." She smiled but then felt a yawn coming up. Ryuuji took notice and began to put the plates on the cart.

"I will take my leave for today, Yumiko-san. It truly was a pleasure to speak with you." Ryuuji bowed and began to leave. "I assume you are going to the Ryoka's send off?"

"Ah, how did you know?"

He chuckled a little, "Lucky guess. If you are, then you should get a good night's rest." As he left, Yumi looked outside and was surprised to see the sky was already dark.

"Wow… That was fast."

'Honestly. That captain doesn't know what he's missing…' the familiar voice of her blade spoke to her through their connection.

"There you are. Where have you been?" she asked.

'Busy. You have no idea the amount of snow I get when you're in a lousy mood. It takes all I've got not to freeze my tail off!'

"Snow? It snows in my inner world?"

'Long story. Anyway, how was your conversation with 'Ryuuji-kun'?'

"He's nice," she answered, attempting to avoid the question.

'Nice? You and I both know you thought he was cute! Or have you already reserved yourself for Hitsugaya?'

"Hell no," Yumi's sour mood returned to her at the mention of his name. "Toshiro can suck it…"

'I don't know whether or not to mention you called him by his first name or that he's such a touchy subject now!'

Yumi sat on her bed and frowned deeply once more. "It's not that I don't understand where he's coming from. It's just that…"

"Strange," Yumi stopped abusing the pillow and stared at the ceiling. "Why would it snow there?"

'…'

"I swear, if you know something spit it out."

'You haven't been honest with yourself at all you know.'

The Shinigami could just imagine her zanpakto crossing her arms in front of her. To this, she couldn't help but sigh and nod meekly. "Can't fool you I guess. I mean, you are a part of me. Right?"

'Get some sleep, young one. We'll talk in the morning.' She seemed to avoid the topic but Yumi was too tired to question it this time.

"Open your eyes."

Reisha blinked slowly, adjusting to the change of light. Or lack thereof… Her surroundings were pretty much what she expected of her inner world.

It was like stepping into one of those hedge mazes, except there was barely any color. In place of hedges were rose bushes. Reisha found herself smack dab in the middle of the thorny labyrinth with her zanpakto spirit in front of her.

It looked like a cross between a raven and a snake. The body was mainly of the latter, long with silver colored scales that glistened dangerously in the moonlight. At the tip of its tail was a sharp scythe-like weapon. Somewhere near its head, there were black wings that beat against the still silence.

"It's been a while since you have called me. Why is that?" her spirits voice was sleek just like a snake. And yet the hard look in her yellow eyes clearly spoke business with the daemon.

Reisha avoided the beasts gaze and crossed her arms. "I have no reason to. That's all ya nosy sword."

Shitsunen hissed, "Don't mock me, Adachi. I would easily strike you down now had I not the patience to deal with you all these years."

"And I would easily call your bluff," she easily countered with a smirk, finally meeting eyes. "But that wouldn't be any fun, would it?"

"…Forgive me, mistress." If snakes could sigh, this one did. "The air has been rather…bad as of late. My instincts want so desperately to be released. It has been a while since I have had the liberty of tasting blood on my fangs."

"The air has been bad?" Reisha raised a brow. "If I knew you were complaining about housing, I'd tell you to go speak to the builder."

"Mistress…" the snake sounded sympathetic but the daemon gave her a look not to continue. "Maybe you should take a look for yourself." There was a momentary silence before she sighed and nodded. Anything to get her spirit to not look like that. Shitsunen nodded and spread her dark wings to wrap around the two of them. "Then I shall show you… the deepest part of your soul that you have yet to see…"

Then, all she could see was darkness.

"Shitsunen?" she called out. Nothing. Not even the trees made a sound. The garden was ominously quiet now. Except this wasn't the same place as before. Cobwebs were strung all over the bushes and an eerie fog rolled in. "This isn't funny you damned snake!"

"What's not funny?" A small voice questioned her. Reisha turned around and let her jaw drop in mute shock. In front of her was a little girl wearing a pure white dress. Her eyes were an innocent shade of hazel and her black hair was cut short to her petite shoulders. She couldn't have been more than five or six.

"You're…" Reisha murmured, trying to regain the memory that she had locked up all those years ago.

"Say my name," the girl frowned deeply and clasped her hands in front of her chest. "If you don't, I'll be lonely."

"Shut up," the daemon snapped, backing away. "I don't know you!"

"How could you say that?" the girl asked with genuine tears beginning to fall from her innocent face.

Don't say it

"How could you say that you don't know me?"

Stop it!

"Onee-chan?"

Filler much? Yeah, poorly thought out. Sorry, I have major testing soon. Plus I needed some sort of way of putting Yumi's thoughts. I promise the next one will at least have some action. Oh, Ichigo's in the next one, so yay!

And before readers act, yes, I put the little scene where Yumi compares herself to Hinamori. Before people get any ideas, I do not claim this idea as my own, okay? Hundreds of stories have it. So....yeah. Sorry, i'm just paranoid about stuff like this now

(1) Yeaaah...I was actually drinking chocolate milk at the time... Anyway, I wanted another way of describing it anyway so milk it is! XD Kind of weird huh? Okay, i'm off to make some more!