Chapter 4

Byakuya walks though the long wooden hall of his squad barrack. He has on his usual aloof emotionless face walking past his squad members. His subordinates greets him as he makes his way to squad 1 to attend the usual captains meeting. Byakuya takes a left turn to get to his destination. Spring is upon soul society so the cherry blossom in his manor will be in full bloom soon. It's been almost a month since he came back from the real world, it's been 1 painful month since he last saw Yukino. It takes everything inside of him to not run towards what he desires the most. His family name, his pride, his whole being telling him to forget her, but is it that simple? There hasn't been a single day he didn't think about that pretty face. He cannot concentrate on his work, she was like a drug to him. He needed her to feel normal again. Byakuya sighs. He is too afraid to make a move, what if Yukino doesn't feel the same way? Byakuya would be okay watching her from the sidelines, he wanted her to be happy. The least he can do is give Yukino back her home in soul society, but gotei 13 won't help him. He already appealed to the captain commander to look into the current shihoin family, but the answer that he got was obvious. Even kuchiki family does not have the right to authorise a raid on another noble family. Byakuya clenched his fist together in helplessness, isn't there anything he can do?

He walks through the grand hall of squad 1 and makes his way into the captains meeting hall. All the other captains arrived one after another so captain commander can start the daily meeting.

"Any progress on the arrancar interference in karakura town? Kuchiki taichou…, I believe your lieutenant in the real world is personally handling it?" Captain Commander asks looking directly at Byakuya.

Byakuya takes a step forward "I'm afraid there is no progress, we cannot locate the enemy base or the motive behind all these attacks. Unfortunately the hollow attacks are increasing and my squad is having a hard time holding the fort"

"I see, we need to send someone from the captain class as re-enforcement"

Captain Commander stands up and hits the ground with his wooden cane "Kuchiki Byakuya, I hereby appoint you in the real world to solve the arrancar problem. You are to aid the substitute Shinigami, Kuchiki Rukia and squad 6 lieutenant Abarai Renji in their work. You are to stay in the real world till the hollow attack ceases or further notice is given out"

Byakuya keeps his straight face "Understood" his usual cold voice didn't quiver. No one noticed how fast his heart started to race because he felt nervous for the first time.

…..

Yukino lays down on the soft green grass as she was watching Hak playing ball with his friends. It was finally getting warmer in karakura and flowers were starting to bloom. Spring is here, the sweet scent of wild flowers lingering in the air. Yukino had a lot in her mind. Even though she has been practicing every day with Orihime and Rukia to hone her sword skills, Urahara not letting her join them to fight hollows. Hollows are appearing almost every day for some reason and she can't do anything to help her new friends. Why is Urahara so afraid of her power?

Yukino touches a little flower bud on the grass with the tip of her finger. A small yellow flower blooms from the bud putting a smile on her face. She looks at her little brother and before she knew she drifted into a nap in this amazing weather.

There he is again in his handsome self. How many times has she seen him in her dreams? He lays down next to her… their fingers are touching slightly. Yukino closes her eyes and shifts closer to his body, her cheek touching his strong chest. He combs his fingers through her hair before resting his chin onto her head. He caresses her arm all the way down to her small palm and entangles her fingers with his.

Yukino wakes up suddenly, how long has she been asleep for? The sun is about to set into the horizon, time for them to go home. She gets up and looks for Hak but he's nowhere to be found.

Panic ran through her mind when she saw Hak's ball on the ground, but her brother was nowhere to be seen. She ran like crazy screaming her brother's name. Suddenly She felt someones reiatsu lurking behind her which definitely wasn't her little brother neither a hollow, her intuition was sharper than ever. She immediately changes into her Shinigami form and takes her stance.

"Show yourself" Yukino screams

"Well well look who I found. I've came to confirm the rumours about you but never expected you to find you this easy? Looks like you packing some dangerous powers too" A man came out of nowhere, stood an feet away from Yukino.

Yukino hopped back a few feet "Who are you and what have you done with my brother"

The man appears right behind Yukino and whispers in her ear "Oh im sure you will find out"

Yukino shivers, she takes another few steps back in the opposite direction and observes the man carefully. He was a Shinigami no doubt, but he wasn't wearing the shinigami robe. This man was wearing black bandage like fabric all over his body with his face covered. Suddenly 10-12 men came out of nowhere wearing the same outfit and one of them was holding unconscious Hak under his arm.

"HAK!" Yukino screams trying to get through these men to get to her brother.

"Not so fast princess" Yukino soon was stopped in her track.

"What do you want from me? Who sent you here?" Yukino starts to tear up.

"You will come with us, otherwise I don't know what's going to happen to your brother and all these children?" The man hissed.

Yukino turns around to see the unconscious kids lying on the ground. Same kids that were playing with Hak before. Her face turns pale while helplessness burst up inside.

"Don't worry they are still alive" the man takes a step forward towards her.

"Let those kids go, they have nothing to do with this. It is me who you want right? Let my brother go and I will come with you quietly"

"You are a smart girl princess, now drop your sword and come to me. I will release everyone else soon after"

Yukino wipes of her tears after tossing her sword on the ground and makes his way towards the man. "I won't try anything so just please let them go"

The man flash stepped behind Yukino and grabs her arms behind her back with one hand and puts the other hand around her waist, keeping her in place "Good, now we have you as promised we will let the children go. But as for your brother, we don't need him thus keeping him alive is unnecessary"

"NO, STOP DO NOT TOUCH HIM"

"Sorry I have my orders to follow" The man holding Hak took his sword out and proceeded to end his life.

Wind started to blow vigorously as all 12 men were thrown off their footing. Tree branches came out of the ground and grabbed them one at a time. Earth under their feet rose and started shaking like an earthquake. The branches picked them off their feet squishing them tighter and tighter.

"Are you doing this" The man who was holding Yukino fell on the ground. He could not believe his eyes. "You don't have your zanpaktou how are you using your power?"

Suddenly he felt a sword on this throat.

"Show us your face, Why are you here, why are you after them" the raven Shinigami demands while the red haired one picks up Hak and flash steps towards the other kids.

"Rukia San, Renji san you came" voice hardly came out of Yukinos throat. She had no energy left in her body, knees gave in as she fell on the ground. "Thank god, Thank god you came, please help the children" cries Yukino before she felt numb and passes out.

The man disappears from in front of rukia and appears on top of a slope next to them. "Don't think this is the end princess, I will retreat today but I promise I'll come back for you" The man disappears.

Rukia ran to Yukinos side and lifts her up from the ground. Her body was burning up. It was so hot that rukia could not hold onto her any longer. All the reiatsu started to burst out of her body making impossible for anyone to stand even close to her. All the trees started to die around her as her body kept sucking in more and more power. It made a disc like shield around her which flew Rukia and Renji away as they were forcing to penetrate through.

Yukino runs around in a dark cave. It is so dark and cold. She could not find a way out, there was no way out. There wasn't any light, she couldn't hear any sound. As if all her senses have gone numb at the same time. She stops running and curls up in a ball on the stone cold ground and waited for death to take her.

"Renji do something, her body won't last this vast amount of energy she will die. She used too much of her power…." Rukia couldn't finish her sentence when she saw her brother flash stepped in front of them out of nowhere.

"Ni sama…"

Byakuya walks into the shield where Yukino was. Ground crumbles in front of him as he proceeded towards her. He pushes through the shield, his clothes were being ripped off by this vast amount of power. His body was being torn apart but he pushes through and reaches the core of the power, reaches where lies the most important person in his life.

Yukino hears a voice, a very warm familiar voice. It was calling out to her. She tries to answer him but nothing came out of her mouth. She gets up and runs towards the voice. She kept running and running but the darkness did not seem to end. She stumbles upon something and falls down. Everything hurt soo much. She heard his voice one more time and this time she sees a light at the end of the tunnel. She had no more energy left to run towards it, she couldn't get up. She cries out in her helplessness and buries her face into the ground. She thought she couldn't get out of here as her body gave up on her. She heard the voice one more time and this time it was very near. She suddenly felt an arm around her body and felt being picked up from the ground. So he came for me? She snuggled close to his chest as he walks out of the tunnel into the light.

Byakuya grabs Yukino and picks her off the ground. Her thick spiritual power trying to threw of byakuya out of the shield. He grabs her tight and snuggles her closer to his body to let her energy pass through him and flow out. He doesn't know how long he can keep this up but all he knew was to let the energy flow out of her body through him so Yukino does not destroy herself.

….

Yukino wakes up in uraharas house. She expected every single muscle on her body to be screaming with pain but surprisingly she was okay. Orihime helps her sit up and she touches yukino's forehead to see her temperature.

"Good you are not burning up anymore, I was so worried when I was called out this late at night"

"Orihime san, my brother and those children…?"

"They are fine, they are safe…"

"Was kuchiki byakuya here? He saved me again…" Yukino recalls everything that's happened. "I know what he did for me, I need to know if he's okay"

"Kuchiki Taichou is strong" orihime gives Yukino a sweet smile. "He got up few minutes before you and left.."

"Sorry orihime san I have to go.." Yukino jumps up and picks up her clothes that were folded neatly right next to her bed.

"I think you need to rest some more…." Orihime protested but Yukino was out the door before she could finish her sentence.

I can sense him still, he's near. Yukino says to herself. She didn't have to go very far. She saw that tall familiar figure walking away just outside urahara's shop. Yukino had no idea what she was thinking when she ran towards Byakuya, puts her arm around him from the back hugging him tight.