Happy New Year
Memories of that Somebody
Written by: Typewriterman
--
The anxiety inside of her grew, knowing full well now the identities of the ryoka who had invaded the Seireitei.
She had felt bursts of energy exploding all around her, indicating fights breaking out in attempts to catch them. There was already one burst that had thrown off an officer of the eleventh division, and several others throwing off several other shinigami. This one though, was not only bigger than the rest thus far, but involved more than one familiar reiatsu to her.
-- Chapter 9 --
Turning around a corner, the purple haired girl panted as her wooden sandals clacked loudly against the ground. A turn left, and she was close to where that huge burst had been, toward the steps leading up to the base of the straddling white tower that pierced the sky; the Tower of Penitence. Since then, both of the signatures had drastically decreased, almost to the point of death. 'Hold on…just hold on…' her orange eyes focused on the trail ahead, which banked left one more time before the open space at the base of the steep stairs.
Several beams of light flashed by her, where there were supposed to be walls. "…?" Senna stopped in her tracks, and stared out through the holes that had pierced the massive walls. Suddenly halting caused her ribbon to flutter down loosely again, past a face of disbelief to hang loosely over her shoulders. Gasping, she observed the damage before her; the walls were completely bashed and crumpled, as if the gate guardians stormed through; pockets of sunken tiles littered the open and flat surface at the base of the stairs, and in front of her, a huddled pair looked around in a panic. The larger of the two carried the unconscious form of a shinigami with orange hair, while the other, though meek, also wore a shinigami's uniform and looked back at a crumpled mess of black and red before disappearing from view.
"Oh no…" Senna gasped again, and rushed forward to where the two were. Landing next to the crumpled form, she immediately bent down to check the vital signs of the red haired man, before giving a choppy sigh of relief. Hearing a grinding sound nearby, Senna jerked her head about to and fro, in an effort to find where those others had ran off to. A single hand closing a trick tile about twenty feet to her left was the only clue to their whereabouts before several approaching reiatsus stopped her chase.
"Hey you, halt!!" a man called out with an authoritative voice, garnering her attention toward a blond officer and several unranked shinigami who followed him. His eyes flushed and his eyebrows furrowed with his blank stare.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" one of the unranked shinigami gasped out as he and another rushed to the crumpled and bleeding form of Renji Abarai.
"Lieutenant…Kira…" Senna looked down to her own lieutenant's unconscious form, trying to avoid the eyes of the blond man next to her. She gulped and silently accepted the fact that she was now a suspect in the attack.
"Hurry up and grab the other side!"
"I know what to do! Stop panicking!!"
"It looks like they fled…" reported one of the unnamed shinigami toward the blond lieutenant, "Should we give chase?"
Taking a pause, Senna felt his eyes glare through her, causing her to gulp again. "No." Suddenly, she felt a soft hand grasp her shoulder, and though it initially sent a chill up her spine, she glanced back to a soft faced Izuru looking back to her. "Come on, Senna." He said in a calm voice, "Let's go."
--
It was a grim scene to watch Lieutenant Hinamori shed her tears in font of the unconscious Renji, who had been placed onto a stretcher and wrapped tightly in bandages and a blanket-like cloth to keep him from falling out during transport. Her hands were placed over her mouth as she and the blond haired Izuru watched over their close friend. Senna felt quite out of place in the situation, though at the same time was relieved that she wasn't to be blamed for Renji's condition.
-
"We're all spread out…" Izuru reassured her as Renji was still being secured onto the stretcher, "It's just lucky that you got here when you did…"
-
"He was like this when we found him…" he now said gloomily to the close-to-hysterical young woman next to him. "If I had come to his aid sooner…" his eyes flickered toward Senna as they silently exchanged glances over the matter, and he sighed with sincere apology.
"No. It's not your fault." Momo spoke through clasped hands, as if she would break out into a full cry at any moment.
Glancing down to his friend, Izuru brushed a hand through his blond hair and sighed again. "Anyway, I'll contact Fourth Division. I'll have them send a high-level rescue unit..."
"That will not be necessary." All three of them flinched at the cold voice; their eyes wide with realization over who it was to would say such a thing. Looming behind Momo, the Sixth Division captain kept his face emotionless despite the situation. With darkened cold eyes, he leered at Senna with a look of utmost disappointment. "Just dump him in a cell."
"C-captain Kuchiki…" Senna breathed out from shock. Rather than antagonize him, she reactively glanced downward to the floor while the two lieutenants addressed him directly.
"B-but…" Momo began, grasping her own shihakusho uniform out of habit, "Renji fought the Ryoka by himself." She pleaded with the man before him, "He-"
"No excuses." Byakuya interrupted her, having nothing to do with Momo's heart-felt plea. Not even addressing the person he was chastising with direct eye contact, he looked toward the two lieutenants in a general direction, like all nobles seemed to be able to do. "Hechose to fight alone. Defeat was not an option." He coldly stated the facts to them. From the corner of her eye, Senna watched Momo's face retract in disbelief from the captain's words, as if she were somehow hearing a different message than the other two in the room with her. "We have no use for beaten fools. Now take this wretch away."
He turned to walk out of the door, leaving a normally timid Momo to give in to her own convictions. "Wait!!" she suddenly exclaimed with wide eyes, "That's no way to speak of-"
"-Shut up!" Izuru interjected and grasped the young girl's shoulder. He eyed her down as if to save her from a grave mistake.
"But, Izuru…" she turned her attention to her blond friend. Seeing the nobleman crane his glance to behind him, Senna rushed to jump in front of the two lieutenants and immediately bowed in reverence.
"M-my apologies, Captain Kuchiki!" Though not necessarily taking the blame for the two behind her, Senna breathed deeply in and out for being an indirect cause for the fighting, namely, her mission concerning Rukia.
"We apologize, sir!" Izuru bent down as well, following Senna's example. Though not as immediate, Momo bent down as well, giving her sincere regret over her behavior with her saddened facial expression.
"I'm…I'm sorry sir…"
Feeling his cold glare bearing directly down on her, Senna hesitantly looked up to meet her orange eyes with his dark ones, before he turned away to walk out of the room. A cold sweat seeped out from the intimidation from just his one glare, before she solemnly followed her captain down the walkway as well.
-
"Sayuri…return to the Division Headquarters…" Without so much as looking at her, Byakuya Kuchiki continued along the walkway, leaving Senna to pause where she stood.
-
Though it seemed that she had avoided yet another cataclysmic end yesterday, Senna didn't have any time to celebrate. Well, there really wasn't anything to celebrate for in the first place. In fact, it seemed to be that the captains and lieutenants had even more to worry about today, considering the sudden emergency meeting that was held just that morning. There was a total blackout of information to anyone else, even to seated officers. The only order that had been issued though was…the total wartime permission to wear one's zanpakuto in court…
'There's definitely something going on…' she thought. Despite a direct order, something was definitely wrong with the situation. Taking a peek around the corner, Senna needed to make sure the coast was clear as she snuck around the maze-like path that traversed around Seireitei. She had to take special care to take Mirokumaru along with her, given the wartime permission and all. Tiptoeing about, the orange eyed girl snuck about to investigate the base of the stairs one more time, letting intuition tell her that there was some kind of clue to lead her to the truth.
"Hmmm…?" she peeked from behind a broken wall that overlooked the battered area once again, looking around for any passerby-shinigami who could interfere with her investigation. While squinting her eyes in order to see all the high places where people could hide, a grainy sound from the middle of the skirmish zone caught her attention. A large square slid out of place, as what seemed like a six-armed tentacle monster popped from underneath, eliciting a scared "eek" from a surprised Senna. Panting and hiding behind the wall, Senna took deep breaths to calm down, and slowly but surely look around the wall again.
The monster seemed to have disappeared—to her joy—but movement running up the stairs caught her eyes immediately. Running ahead of two others, dressed in the shihakusho of a shinigami, and displaying loud, orange hair on his head…
"Ichi…go…?" she breathed out, and immediately took off running after the three. It had to be some sort of a dream. She saw Captain Kuchiki kill him before she and Rukia were taken back to Soul Society. No, if this were a dream, then…
--
"Yes! We're here!" Ichigo called out with sheer confidence, "There's nobody around!! Security's lax here too!" Making sure that both Ganju and Hanataro were still behind him, he began running again, now knowing that after these stairs that there was nothing to stop him from saving Rukia from execution. "All right! We're going all the way!!" he called out as the white tower in the distance seemed that much closer.
"Ich…igo!!" a voice called out from behind him. Arching an eyebrow in confusion, he glanced behind himself, thinking that it was Hanataro needing to take a break from fatigue.
"I knew that…that 'nutritional pill' was a bunch of bullsh-" he gave a cocky smirk as he turned around, but exclaimed in sheer surprise by what he saw. "Eh!?" was all he managed to yelp before a blur of black and red managed to jump him. With a forceful tumble, Ichigo thumped to the ground as the dark robed attacker sat on top of him. With a growl, Ganju was quick to take out one of his explosives while Hanataro stuttered incomprehensively.
The attack definitely took Ichigo off guard, but though pinned, his attacker seemed to hesitate in giving the final blow. He looked up; the light of the sun casted a silhouette that caused the face to be indistinguishable. Suddenly, soft sobs reached his ears, as a pair of scared and teary orange eyes hovered over a weak smile. "Sen…na…?" he asked, now recognizing her face.
Giving one last sniffle, the girl on top of him wiped her eyes with a sleeve and smiled again. Without warning though, her lips quickly curved downwards, as she cocked her fist over her shoulder.
"What…the heck!?" Ganju gasped while Hanataro stared in confusion.
No longer sitting on top of the orange haired teen but cross legged on the ground, Senna crossed her arms over each other and refused to look at Ichigo, pouting as she did so. "…you…you idiot…" she grumbled as Ichigo rubbed his head in search of a bump he was sure to grow to go along with his pounding migraine. "I…thought you were dead…"
"Geez…you're still so unpredictable…" she heard him grumble from behind her. Hearing him grunt to stand up, the sound of light patting against fabric gave off the impression that he was dusting off his uniform with his hands. "But that doesn't matter, anyway. We came here to save Rukia."
Senna lowered her head then, trying to restrain herself from tearing up again despite the smile that returned to her face. "You…doofus…"
"Huh?" He was caught off guard by her sudden name calling, but simply stood there as the girl stood up as well. Senna turned around to face him, giving off the most determined look he had ever seen on her.
"…why didn't you…invite me…?" she smiled even wider now, and wiped a single tear drop with her finger.
Smiling back, Ichigo stood proudly with his hands on his hips. "Come on, then." With that, the four of them turned and took off toward the prominent tower, now so much closer than before.
"We're coming, Rukia…" Senna thought cheerfully, "We're going to save y-" Gasping for breath, her muscles spasmed out of her control. Coughing violently, the immense feeling passed as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the four of them to glance to the other with furrowed brows.
"Run!!" Ichigo yelled back from the front, "Whoever it is, I'm sure we don't want to meet him!!"
--
"He's finally here…" The wind ruffled his white haori, and the soft jingle of bells rang in the background. "…which one is it? Let's see…"
Next Chapter "Preview"
"How do you...know my name?"
"Oh. Didn't Ikkaku tell you?"
No...not really...I think...
"I am Kenpachi Zaraki-Captain of Eleventh Company."
"And I'm Yachiru!!"
"Wha!? Lieutenant Kusajishi!?"
"Hey there, Giftwrap!!"
"...Giftwrap...?"
"...it's...it's just a nickname, Ichigo..."
Shinigami Cup!!
...Golden...
"Oh, Nanao-chan, Nanao-chan, wherefore art thou, Nanao-chan?"
"...I...really don't won't to wear this dress..."
"But you'd look so cute in that flowery pattern, Nanao-ch-"
SMACK!!
"...how about just the hat, then...?"
Author's Notes: Here we are in Chapter 9 already...ah, don't you remember that time in Chapter 8 when Senna and Rukia had that funny little thing happen, while Ichigo was none the wiser? Good times...gooood times...
Legalities
All characters created by Taito Kubo; Bleach does not belong to me