Either the Darkness alters --
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight --
And Life steps almost straight.
We grow accustomed to the Dark
by Emily Dickinson
How much could change in only a few short days of spring coming to greet their world as always did in year in and out. Spring was seen as a time of rehabilitated and rebirth to the once barrens lands in both the human and the afterlife for most the time. Some saw it as a time for a moment to breathe in more ways after the Winter War with Aizen in those who had faced it, it brought also new births and students into the ranks of the shinigami to renew their numbers once more as always, so much was going on.
Yet for the soul of a young man whose still was being kept under a close eye by one gentle healer and a fiery woman. Spring was a time of searching once more for those questions that still seemed unanswered after all he had been through for the moments.
Who was he really?
What had happen back in Aizen's ashen hell?
Who had been that other voice in his dreams incased in the ice?
Shiro was still seeking those answers on his own for the moment as he only sat under a cherry tree with the humming of bees in his ears in the buds above him and a starling's song ringing out in a call that spring was truly here! This uncomplicated moment made him smile ever so softly at hearing all this life around him in tranquility Peace was something you learned to treasured after hard times that many of the shinigami held in common no matter the rank in this one simple truth.
Only a few days ago, the young shinigami had been in the Forth to heal up. Only after some voicing on his own had Unohana Retsu let him go with making him promise to come once a day for a week in a check up just to be on the safe side.
There were many things going on also at the same moments Shiro was seeking his own answers by that of Matusmoto for the moment. Her own questions where now threaten her own mind and soul in what had happened when Shiro had been in the hands of that of Aizen. They never once had spoken of the events that had led to his capture or even how the boy had escaped in the first place to be found by them those months ago. He always seemed to dread and would break into a type of un-control shaking that lashed out on both the physical level and the spiritual level when asked about those events.
Last time ago, when asked about how or why he did not remember. His energy had flown into a storm in moments and froze half the room in ice, sending two shinigami to the forth to be healed. The boy maybe not be their captain Hitsugaya but he had the power of the former captain down right when pushed enough. One could see the healing in the boy slowly as he was bounding with his sword once more and even now joining the tenth for meals on normal bases. Shiro would even now give a petite weak smile at a joke or funny comment here and then, that was truly a gift to see in her eyes.
Yet this passionate woman was now just sitting in the private garden of hers' for the moment to think on the events to this day. "What happened back there in Aizen's hell? Was there a reason he let go of Shiro as he did to be some kind of pawn in his plans?" she thought in a numbness of endless cycles as her fingers traced the kanji on her tea cup for the 100th time. "Would he answer me if I asked him again..."
Knocking on her door brought the Lint out of her thoughts for the moment. "Yes?"
A shinigami who seemed young with fresh looked at her with respect for the moment "Miss, there has been a report of several hollows in the forest outside of the towns. The tenth has been order to scout or despond these hollows by the General."
Matsumoto looked at him for a moment, thinking of these orders. The Tenth had not been order to do very much in months after getting Shiro back home into their ranks. "Alright, get seats 2 to 5 to get ready with their shinigami and ready to head out in 15 mins."
He only nodded and bowed with the respected shown to his officer and hurried to carry on the orders yet one might have noted the slight hole over his heart if his uniform had caught the winds just right in the moment. Nor the slight twist of lips at things fell into step as his lord said they would if worded just right...As the shinigami left to follow their Lit into battle as many times as this. With out knowing also that Shiro did not know anything as these events where playing out..
Shiro had looking for Matusmoto a few hours later for their normal dinner time as they did every night of the week, yet he picked up on the tense air the moment he stepped onto the grounds of the tenth. What was going on? Following the sources of a few energies into the main office of the tenth as voices leaked into the air for the moment. Steeping into the office as they feel silent in seeing their former captain with a harsh light in his teal eyes and words to match.
"Where is Matusmoto-sama?" he asked, anger for the first time rising in his voice to the shinigami. Not the one toned note he had kept all these months when speaking to others. "Where is she?
The shinigami male only looked at the silver hair boy for the moment, a bit peeved at the tone but reply "She went after a hollow this morning with a team and has yet to return Shiro-san. Yet that was hours and no trace has been found of them by the other teams..."
Shock lay in his system for the moment of the breaking news of what may have happened to Matusmoto for the moment. Could she be dead? Hurt and slowly bleeding to death on the ground with no one to help her? Why was no one looking for them? Why had they not found and told him at all?
Shiro only turned for the moment to head out the door with a resolve: He would find her and being her back no matter what he might face in doing so. Killing anyone who dared to get in his way and would not fail in protecting those close to his soul as had done numbered time when a crying child. Not this time! Shiro would prove himself by way of the blade, to prove to him he was no longer Aizen slave to anyone.
Next Time:
Shiro felt the blood flowing like a river down his left arm from the claws of the demonic creature before his frosty gave. Eyeing those killer claws cruel sharpened before on the dead shinigami around him in the woods. This thing was more then the normal hollows that entered their world. This was a twisted imitation created by Aizen for some damn reason and sent here!
"Where is she?" he hissed at thing as if moved on hoof to the other front of him, grey flesh rippled from the pull of muscles just under the surface in tune to the voice of the young man.
It only looked with slits for eyes for moment and hissed out a gaggled word barely heard in the silence of the forest "Hueco Mundo"
