"Let me go!" Nozomi shouted as Shizuno dragged her back to her room after her failed attempt to escape. It wouldn't have failed if Shizuno hadn't been returning from the soul society.
She punched him in the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward, "I'm sorry, but we can't let you leave until you've been rehabilitated." Shizuno said as he sat her down on her bed.
"What do you mean 'rehabilitated'?" she asked as Shizuzno rubbed the back of his head,
"I mean that we're going to try and bring you back to reality. Help you see that the soul reapers are not our friends." Shizuno responded, "We'll begin tomorrow." he said closing the door and locking it to make sure she didn't try to escape again.
He walked into his bedroom and lied down on his bed as Ijana entered the room and sat next to him, "So what has you so worried?" Ijana asked Shizuno, causing him to shoot up in surprise.
"Nothing. Just that she's pregnant, and that might lead to mood swings and shit like that." Shizuno said as he tried to sleep and prepare for the upcoming days.
-Anger-
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" Nozomi yelled as Shizuno and Ijana ran from her in fear. They both tripped out the door and crawled away as she slammed the door.
"You know those mood swings I was telling you about?" Shizuno said as he patted Ijana's back
"Yeah."
"Well this is what I was talking about."
-Sorrow-
"Hey,hey, its okay." Shizuno said soothingly as Nozomi cried out of sorrow of being away from Ichigo
"I just can't stand to be away from him." she bawled as Shizuno placed a hand on her back, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" she yelled, causing shizuno to snatch his hand away as she put her face in her hands, "Could you please let me go just for an hour or two?" she asked sadly.
Shizuno hated that she was expecting an answer, "Well... uh... y-you see... uh... No." he said nervously as Nozomi slowly turned her head and glared at Shizuno with deadly eyes. He slowly leaned away as she leaned closer to him causing him to whimper in fear.
She stood up and walked to the door and closed it, turning the key on the lock and kicking it through the crack at the bottom.
-10 minutes later-
Shizuno walked down the hallway into Ozan's quarters and knocked on the desk that he sat at. Ozan turned around and saw that Shizuno was covered in bruises and a broken swollen arm, "Dear God, what happened to you?!" Ozan said as he went wide-eyed and stood from his chair.
"All I really want to say is that I might need some help putting up a new door on Nozomi's room." Shizuno said as he stumbled slightly from having to maintain his conciousness.
"What happened to the door?"
"I was thrown through it. Oh and that reminds me, beware the monster that dwells in that room." Shizuno said just as he collapsed. Ozan simply shook his head as he watched Shizuno lying on the ground.
-Joy-
Nozomi hummed as she sketched a picture of Ichigo while she sat on the edge of her bed. Ijana walked in and sat next to her as she drew, "Wow, you're pretty damn good at drawing." he said as he watched her draw the man.
"Thanks. I've been practicing." she said joyfully as she added detail to the eyes.
"Well, you can draw way better than I can."
"You should check out my other drawings." Nozomi said, pointing at a small pile of papers. He picked them up and looked at the pictures with horror.
Most of them were pictures of him and Shizuno lying dead on the ground. Ijana quickly stood up and ran out of the room and slammed the door. He ran to Ozan's quarters and skidded to a dead stop in front of his desk, "Ozan, me and Shizuno are getting the hell beat out of us! You gotta have someone else do this."
"Sorry, Ijana, but your the only people that can do this at the moment." Ozan said as Ijana got down on his knees and begged.
"Please! Why can't you have Daichi or Zenas do it or something?"
"Zenas and Daichi are still stressed out about failing to convince Izara of the truth. They don't want another life on their hands." Ozan responded as he stood andpicked up a small book and opened it.
"Then can't you do it?"
Ozan flipped through the pages of the book, "I'm too busy searching for other modsouls in the human world that may need our help." he said showing Ijana the lists of names of modsouls in the book.
"Oh, come on. This is a bunch of bullshit!" Ijana whined.
"Get up and get back to work. I've already had this conversation with Shizuno." Ozan said looking back down at the book.
"Fine, but if I die I'm blaming it on you." Ijana said walking out of the room.
-Sogyoku Hill-
Ichigo lied sleeping on the top of Sogyoku Hill as the morning sun shown over the Soul Society. The red-haired woman walked up to him a knife by her side and knelt down to his vulnerable body and slowly shook him, "Hey, wake up! Wake up!" Zenas yelled as Ichigo tiredly opened his eyes.
His eye widened at realizing who it was and he jumped up, drawing his Zanpakuto, "Your that girl that I took hostage the other night aren't you?" Ichigo said lowering his sword slightly.
"Yeah that's right." Zenas said softly.
"Well then I guess you deserve a little payback," he said and, to Zenas's surprise, spread his arms and legs, "I'll let you take a free hit to any part of my body, though I would prefer you didn't kill me." he finished as Zenas stared in surprise.
"Wha...? No, that's not why I'm here. I want to ask you something."
"What's that?" Ichigo asked as he returned to his normal position.
"Well... Do you really love Nozomi?"
"Yes." Ichigo said simply.
"So then... What we're doing is wrong?"
"I wouldn't say that. It may have been right at first, but you simply lost sight of reality." Ichigo said reassuringly
"I see. Well, the other reason I'm here is so we can have a fight."
"A fight?"
"So we can have some revenge for both of us. It will be fair of course." Zenas said drawing her knife and getting into her fighting stance.
"Alright then." Ichigo said as he dropped his Zanpakuto.
"What are you doing?" Zenas said as she watched him drop the sword.
"I don't want you to die here. You haven't done anything I think you should die for." Ichigo said as he entered his karate stance.
Zenas raised a brow in interest and dropped her knife, "I said it would be a fair fight." she said as she jumped in the air at Ichigo and landed a kick to his chest and spun around for another, only for it to be blocked and spun for a third, which resulted in her foot being caught and she was thrown.
She managed to catch her balance and land on her feet. She attempted to sweep his feet from under him, but it was dodged when he jumped into the air. Zenas was surprised, he fought like he could read her mind. She jumped in the air to dodge a leg sweep, but was caught im mid-air and pinned to the ground. Zenas struggled to push him off of herself, but his weight was to much for her to lift.
"Damn, your good at this." Zenas said as Ichigo sat on her stomach.
"Its more like your fighting style is... familiar. Tell me something, do you know a woman named Yoruichi Shihoin?" Ichigo asked looking down at her.
"Yeah. But I'd prefer not to talk about it." Zenas said
"Why not?"
"No reason." Zenas said, her voice croaking and tears welling in her eyes.
Ichigo got off of her and she sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes, "What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.
"Before they began killing the modsouls, I used to train with her. I learned to fight from her, me and my sister. When they called us back, she tried as best she could to keep us safe, but when they finally took us she gave us up with almost no fight at all. We were saved by Ozan, our leader, and Shizuno, the green-haired man you fought." She stopped for a moment and wiped a tear from her eyes.
"Ozan taught us that they gave us up because they didn't care about us, but Izara, my sister, didn't believe him. She continued to visit Yoruichi and after a while she was caught in the act. Ozan thought that eventually she would give away our base of operations and get us all killed. So you know what he did?" Zenas said as tears flowed down her cheeks.
"What?"
"He had her killed. He executed her. And now that you tell me that the soul reapers have changed, I know that she was killed for no reason. She was killed for nothing." Zenas said as she held onto Ichigo and buried her face into his shoulder. He patted her back and let her cry as much as she needed. He knew what it was like to lose someone close to him.
-Caved mountains, Ozan's quarters-
Shizuno walked into Ozan's room and stopped at his desk, "You called, father?" he asked as Ozan turned around.
"Shizuno... I have some bad news." Ozan said lowering his head.
"What?"
"Its Nozomi. She just isn't accepting this."
"What do you mean?"
"She isn't accepting that Ichigo is the enemy. So... we have to..."
"Have to what?" Shizuno asked leaning toward him.
"We might have to... execute her." Ozan said looking away from Shizuno.
"I- wait, what? No! No you can't! You can't execute a pregnant woman! That's insane!"
"Its the only way, Shizuno."
"But she's pregnant!"
"That doesn't make a difference! I know she's pregnant. But pregnant or not, if we don't execute her, she will give us all away!"
"But...!"
"No buts! Now tell the others to prepare. She is to be executed tomorrow evening." Ozan said turning around.
Shizuno couldn't believe it. His father was going to execute a pregnant woman. Was this all worth it anymore, worth killing a woman for their own protection? No. No it wasn't.
Next chapter, lots of blood. Review please.
