Author's Note:

Sorry everyone for the very late update! The past few weeks have been busy... assignments, tests, me falling sick, and my family visiting... I would have posted an AN to tell you about it but I didn't want to keep spamming your inboxes especially since it wasn't even a real update!

I am on sick leave from classes today (but I am feeling much much better ^^) so I took the opportunity to write a new chapter! It was very hard picking back up where I left the story after so long... I hope you will not find this chapter too disconnected from the previous chapter.

This chapter has some fluff (as promised!) but it is also a little serious. I don't quite know how it ended up this way but I hope you will not be bored by it!

Thank you all for your kind PMs and messages! And thank you for giving me your ideas and opinions on how the story should proceed. I would like to especially thank those who have been reading Lady Kuchiki since the very beginning, and have been encouraging me all this while to keep writing: Atemu'sLotus, Juud, and mikamura.

Currently listening to:

Sakura Biyori by Hoshimura Mai

Lady Kuchiki

Chapter 6: Names


"And your name is?" Byakuya asked, despite already knowing it.

"Hisana." The girl smiled up at him.

"Just Hisana?"

---

Hisana lowered her eyes and bit her lower lip. After a moment of hesitation, she turned her head back up at him, the sparkle in her eyes dimmed, and replied with a small smile.

"Yes... Here, I am just Hisana."

Byakuya didn't say anything. He kept his gaze on the girl while her melancholy one seemed locked with his.

A soft breeze was blowing that night and the air smelt of cherry blossoms. The rustling of the leaves seemed to be the only sound that helped conceal the thumping of their hearts.

Byakuya tore his gaze away after a while and looked behind her indifferently.

Here I am just Hisana, she's said. Maybe she is starting to forget. To forget her life in the human world. He glanced back at her briefly. Her eyes were lowered, one finger twisting a lock of her shoulder-length hair at the side.

"I am Byakuya."

"Pardon?" Hisana asked, startled.

"I am Byakuya..." he repeated a little louder, turning his head to the side and staring intently onto the ground. "Just Byakuya too."

When Hisana failed to make any reply, Byakuya glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. She had looked up at him, her eyes wide and her brows knitted upwards.

"I am sorry.... " She stammered, her lips quivering a little. "I should go, I am not allowed to stay out this late at night. Aino-san will be so cross if she finds out I have snuck out again."

Their eyes met again this time. But when Byakuya failed to react, Hisana tore hers away and got down from her seat. She wrapped her arms around herself and took small rapid steps around the pavilions towards the woods. When she passed by him, Byakuya, suddenly seized by impulse again, grabbed the side of her arm, eliciting a short gasp from the girl. She turned her head up slightly, her violet orbs once again captured his, her pink lips slightly opened with surprise.

Byakuya quickly released his grip and looked down. "Thank you."

"Thank you for returning Senbonzakura to me."

"You're welcome." Hisana replied softly.

Thinking quickly, Byakuya slipped out of the white haori which he had worn over his shinigami clothes when meeting with his grandfather and held it out to the side towards Hisana with his eyes still downcast.

"Take it. It's a long walk back. You'll be cold." He muttered under his breath.

"... but ..."

"You'll need it." Just take it!

"... thank you..." Her fingers brushed against his as she reached out to receive it.

"Good night." He said in a low voice, almost inaudibly, keeping his gaze away from her and turning his back to start striding away. She didn't call him back this time. He kept his eyes looking forward and exerted every will power he could muster to keep his feet walking. When he heard the rustling of her clothes as she slipped on the haori, he felt a small smile on his face.

---

Hisana slid open the shojo door to the cottage slowly and stepped in as quietly as she could. After sliding shut the door, she tiptoed down the long hallway towards her room. Before she could congratulate herself on having successfully snuck back in without getting caught, she saw Aino-san standing with a lantern at the door of her room, one hand on her hip, looking quite matronly.

"Well well... what have we got here? Hisana-san you are quite past the curfew!"

"Oh!" Hisana managed to squeak out. "I... er.... um..."

Aino Matsu looked down at Hisana, squinting her eyes.

Hisana laughed nervously and then quickly bowed at her. "Good evening Aino-san!"

"Good evening Hisana-san. Now come on in you poor girl! It must be freezing outside! Oh kami-sama! I am supposed to make sure that you lot are all ready to be sent to Rukongai by the end of this week! At this rate how can I make sure that you'll be recovered with you sneaking out every night? And you've only been here for two days!"

Hisana lowered her eyes, feeling a little ashamed.

"And look at you! Do you have a fever? Why is your face all heated up?"

"I... er... "

"Come on now, let me check your temperature." Aino placed a hand on Hisana's forehead.

"Um... "

"Oh please don't fuss Aino-san! It must be just the haori. It is really quite thick. And I was hurrying back. That is probably why. I am really feeling quite alright."

"Alright..." Aino said hesitantly, taking her hand from Hisana's forehead and helping her out of the large haori.

"Where did you get this? I don't remember you bringing this with you. And it does look awfully large on you doesn't it?" Aino frowned as she folded the haori, remarking how fine and exquisite it is. As she straightened the collars, the embroidered crest behind one fold caught her attention. She brought it up and examined it closely before turning to look at Hisana who was undressing in the corner.

Hisana caught her eye and looked at her questioningly.

"Is something the matter Aino-san?"

"Where did you get this Hisana-san?"

"Oh!" Hisana blushed a little. She lowered her voice and said, "Don't tell anyone okay Aino-san?"

Aino nodded.

"The shinigami to whom I returned the zanpakuto gave it to me!" Hisana whispered with a shy smile on her face.

Aino raised an eyebrow.

"And do you know who he is?"

Hisana shook her head. "We didn't really get to talk since I had to come back."

Hisana paused as she recalled the little boy that the sword, Senbonzakura? Was that what he had called it?, had projected in her dream. The little boy who was passionate, generous, brave and honest... the little boy whom a gentle woman had lovingly called Bya-bo. She felt she knew the little boy. So did she know Byakuya?

Byakuya... It was a very handsome name, very fitting for that young man with that pale, regal face.

"Byakuya!" Hisana blurted all of a sudden. "His name is Byakuya."

"I see..." Aino said slowly. "And did he tell you what his family name was?"

"He said he was just Byakuya. Maybe he has forgotten it? Since it must have been an awfully long time since he had died."

Aino blinked and then nodded slowly. "Yes, perhaps."

"Do you happen to know him too Aino-san?"

"No Hisana-san, no. I don't know him personally."

"I see..."

Aino put the haori away in a chest of drawers by Hisana's bed and helped the girl up the bed. She tucked her in and gave her a smile before blowing off the flickering flame in the lantern.

Byakuya? The Kuchiki family crest? No doubt it was Kuchiki Byakuya, the snobbish heir to the Kuchiki family estate. What was he doing around my ward? That little Hisana-san surely does not know anything. Had she been sneaking out to see him? Aino wondered as she recalled that radiant smile on Hisana's blushing face as she talked about him. Best not to tell her anything about him. It is for the better... It won't be long before she leaves for Rukongai anyway.

Aino sighed and gave a full stretch. It had been such a long, long day. Now finally, she could take a rest from her duties.

---

Hisana giggled as she closed her eyes and sank lower into her bed, recalling every single detail from the evening. All uncertainty and distress she had felt towards the young man had dissipated. These had been replaced by a warm, tingling sensation in her heart as she replayed in her head over and over again his perplexed expression when she told him about Senbonzakura, how he had feigned indifference, and how he had proved to be such a softie when he handed her his haori.

She wondered though if it had been rude of her to withhold her family name from him. Did it matter who she was now? Departed from the earthly world, all earthly possessions really hold no meaning anymore. Even if he had recognised her family name (which she highly doubted so unless he were from her prefecture, and really kami knew how long ago he had died), she had felt, in a dark corner of her heart, that it did not belong to her anymore. Not when she was without her family. Not when her clan had rejected them.

Thinking about her family, thinking about her name only made her realise that Rukia and her were all alone now, and things would forever be different. She was dead. The life that she had known was dead. Everything was gone.

Hisana shivered. She felt sad again. It had only been two days... she realised... two days since she was brought to Soul Society. And already, she found herself starting to forget, starting to see her existence here in Soul Society as a normality. Is this the process of rebirth? To let go of the past and to start again?

Oh dear! This is too much philosophy for one night! I should stop thinking so much! Hisana yawned as she tried to shrug off the looming shadow of despair that was threatening to take over her.

She tossed and turned but could not seem to find a position comfortable and assuring enough to let her peacefully drift off to sleep. At last, she sat up feeling a little frustrated. She looked over to the chest of drawers by her bed and at the haori that was peeping out from the gap. She pulled open the drawer and pulled it out. Hugging it close to her chest, she could smell the cherry blossom scent of its owner on it.

At last, finally, she felt sleepy enough to let her body tumble down onto the bed before curling up, hugging the haori close to her, and dreaming cherry blossom dreams.

---

Byakuya stood hidden on the branch of a large willow tree behind the little cottage. Unknownst to Hisana, he had followed behind her as she made her way through the woods back to the ward. Of course he wasn't worried, and not to mention, cared about her. He just wanted to make sure she was safely back. This was his job as a shinigami, he had told himself.

Reunited with Senbonzakura now, he shunpo-ed back to his room in his division's headquarters. He placed Senbonzakura on the floor in front of him and sat, cross-legged, opposite it. He closed his eyes and tried to meditate, to connect to her.

"You wish to speak to me, Bya-bo?"

"Yes... yes... Senbonzakura.... "

"What took you so long?"

"...?! What do you mean? I've been trying to speak to you the whole time!"

"Is that so?"

"Of course!"

"I think not." Senbonzakura chuckled. "You've been shunning me ever since you stopped being called Bya-bo."

"Nobody calls me that anymore."

"Exactly."

"And that... that epithet... is no longer fitting. I am a grown up man."

"Have you really forgotten... Byakuya? Have you really forgotten yourself?"

"I want to be great."

"Unfortunately, this does not come from mastering kido, mastering shunpo nor swordsmanship. This comes from the self... This comes from facing and mastering your inner world... "

"My inner world... ?"

"Discover it... Byakuya... "

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