"Masami!"

She felt shock at the tearful voice that echoed through the little house, panic engulfing her as the voice was quickly followed by the form of her seven-year-old little brother, tears falling heavily from his eyes as he ran towards her, launching into her arms as she knelt to his level, arms outstretched and waiting.

"What's the matter Hiroki?"

"I fell off my bike!"

She frowned deeper, taking his little palm into her own as she inspected the scrapes, noticing the cuts upon his knee as she sighed and hugged him a little tighter.

"Do you want me to kiss it better for you?"

She may only have been fourteen but, after their mother had died from illness and their father had forsaken them for his work, Masami found that taking the role of Hiroki's sole carer was one of her greatest joys in life. There was nothing she wouldn't do or give for him.

With a nod of his head, tears still thick in his eyes, Masami placed a gentle kiss against each of his scraped up palms, placing the same kiss upon her own fingers before touching the digits to his bloody knees. He was so accident prone that this seemed to be a weekly ritual, with each cut that healed, Hiroki would get another one that always needed her attention.

"Please be more careful… I hate seeing you cry, my sunshine"

He gave a watery smile at the nickname. He loved Masami so much, she was always there, taking care of his injuries and drying the tears, tucking him into bed each night with a soft lullaby to help the sleep come along and chase the monsters away. He hoped they'd never be parted from each other.

"Moonbeam?"

Masami smiled fondly at his own nickname for her, knowing it was mostly for her own appearance that he had come up with it, brushing a strand of his own golden blond hair from his face as she spoke, his own blue eyes meeting with hers.

"yeah, is something wrong?"

"Promise you'll never leave"

Her heart tugged at his request, hearing the plea within those words as she picked him up and hugged him a little tighter than before, moving outside to where his bike lay forgotten on the front lawn.

"I promise… Now, why don't we ride our bikes together? I won't let you fall again"

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, blinded by the bright lights of the room she lay in that seemed intensified by the white washed walls and white linen bedding that covered her. She groaned in pain, trying to push herself upright in the bed as the scent of disinfectant hit her senses and she wrinkled her nose in distaste towards the smell. She didn't need to be a genius to know she was in the squad four infirmary.

"You shouldn't try to move so soon after waking, Miss Masami, you are still recovering"

"Huh?"

She blinked in confusion as she turned her head to look towards the voice, nearly screaming in shock and falling out of the bed at the sight of captain Ukitake, his smile one of, at first, relief and then apology as he helped her get back into a comfortable position.

"What are you doing here captain?"

For a moment, Masami was certain that a faint blush came to his cheeks, scratching the back of his head as he gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, you see, I heard that you'd run into some difficulties whilst out on a scouting mission and had been brought to squad four for surgery, I merely wanted to come and visit you to make sure you were alright… Your injury was quite deep and your reiatsu was unstable. Captain Unohana said it was a miracle that you didn't bleed to death. You've been here for nearly a week"

A miracle? Is that really what he was going to call it? Masami recalled what had happened with the hollow, the confusion she had felt at his appearance, questioning why he looked half human and dressed as such, the pain of his blade running her through. But, worst of all, the loss of control that had led to Her coming to the rescue. Masami sighed, choosing to look out towards the window as she spoke, her voice nothing like the one Ukitake had expected. Filled with sorrow and anguish, something that seemed so foreign to Ukitake's ears.

"I don't need to look into your eyes to know that you are hiding something from me captain… You don't have to try and protect me. I know what you wish to say and, if you ask the question, I will answer you truthfully"

For a moment, he was stunned. How could she know that he was hiding something? Could she really read people so efficiently? He sighed, leaning back slightly in the chair beside her bed as he posed his question in the best way he could.

"It was Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa that brought you in. They tried to explain the circumstance that they had found you in but were unable to give a full description. They stated that when they happened upon you, it seemed as though you were being suspended within the air, a sinister presence protecting you as it wiped out the hollow that had attempted to kill you. I need you to tell me what that presence was and how it could affect your reiatsu so drastically"

A straightforward question it seemed, but how could she answer when it show that she had been lying for so long, that she had been hiding the true nature of her zanpac-to. Keeping her eyes to the window, she realised there was no way to avoid the truth any longer. It was a miracle she'd hidden for this long as it was.

"Do you know the nature of my zanpac-to, captain Ukitake?"

"Yes, it is a rare zanpac-to with the power of light. It's blade cannot cut those who are allies or pure of heart unless it deems them a threat to its wielder. It's Bankai is undiscovered but it's shikai soaks into the body of its master and gives the illusion of a perfect night sky as the wielder bdomes a human blade"

She chuckled coldly, sending a strange chill up Ukitake's spine. What had happened to the usually cheerful Masami?

"You shouldn't always trust the light, captain Ukitake…. For even on the brightest days, the shadows still lurk in the background. The blade that so many know to be mine is only one half of a pair"

Ukitake's eyes widened slightly. Masami's blade was a dual sword? But they were even rarer and much more difficult to handle. There were only two known dual zanpac-to and that was his own and captain kyoraku. But, if what she was saying was true, then why hide such a thing?

"I hide the second blade within the closet in my dorm room. Whilst the first of the pair is a sword with a pure white handle with a silver blade, the second is pure black, from the handle all the way to the tip… It is the shadow of Marisha-Ten, filled with all the pain, suffering and sorrow I have felt within my existence. Wielding it reminds me of every tear I've ever shed, every time I've felt my heart being broken… Of the day I lost my brother and learned what it truly meant to lose hope.

I couldn't bear to be near it, even if it means I am never fully in sync with my sword spirits or that it cuts my reiatsu down dramatically by refusing to use it… and, besides, if others knew the true nature of both myself and Marisha-Ten, they would realise that our light is only a mask to hide the darkness"

There was silence as Ukitake processed what she had said before a surge of annoyance shot through him and he found himself knocking her upside the head, a reprimanding look on his face as she clutched the sore point and looked at him in shock. What the hell had he done that for? Wasn't he meant to be one of the gentlest captains in the soul society?

"You are a fool if you think that, by simply accepting who you really are, others would shun you so easily. By willingly cutting down your own power in favour of an illusion, you are jeopardizing both yourself and those you are sworn to protect! Your friends would not turn from you simply because they realised that you couldn't always hold a smile on your face, they wouldn't leave you if they knew that you shed tears. They would know that you are only human, that you had a heart that could feel. And your light would not fade from their eyes, only burn brighter for knowing the truth. And those who do turn away were clearly never worth your love in the first place"

Masami could only stare at the man, the sincerity in his eyes moving her beyond words could express as she seemed to see him in a completely new way. The gentle captain, filled with kind words had become a tower of strength and passion as her eyes filled with tears and she began to cry for all that she had tried to hide, a reassuring hand against her shoulder as she let go of all that she had bottled up, the grief for her brother, the fear of her own zanpac-to and the loneliness that still clung to her mind.

"I will help you as best as I can Masami… Wielding two blades is not an easy task when you have confined yourself to one. And it will take time for your sword spirit to forgive your shunning her for so long. But it will be fine, I promise"

She could only nod, a strange numbness washing over her. Could she find Hiroki if she became stronger? If she stopped hiding from the truth and learned to truly accept everything that had transpired?

After all, she'd promised to never leave him. Perhaps it still wasn't too late to keep that promise to her little ray of sunshine.

"Hey, did you hear about Rukia Kuchiki?"

"What, captain Kuchiki's younger sister?"

Masami's ears perked up slightly as captain Ukitake seemed to hang his head in his own grief at the voices of the squad four members outside the room. She hadn't known the captain had a younger sister?

"Rumours going around that she gave her powers to a human boy with bright orange hair from Karakura town"

"Oh wow, that's not a good thing for her then if it's true… the higher ups won't like that one bit"

Masami's heart nearly jumped from her chest at the conversation, her pulse picking up as she processed it within her mind. A boy with orange hair from Karakura town? Could they be talking about…

"…Ichigo"

Ukitake frowned as he kept his eyes from meeting Masami's, choosing that moment to bid farewell and take his leave. Who was Ichigo? And what connection did he have to the Rukia situation or to Masami?