BYAKUYA

I ran to the place where we first met, that should be where she should have been. It was usually a place of significance to both parties where they could rondeau. I looked for her and I waited for a few moments, but she wasn't here. Perhaps she was at the rice fields where we used to stargaze? I ran to the rice fields and made sure to check our old hangout places along the way. I was sorely disappointed each time I didn't find Hisana, but each time I failed I grew more and more confident that I would find her by the rice fields on the outskirts of the district.

I stumbled slightly from exhaustion. I checked under the trees in the surrounding areas, on the roofs of the shacks and in cultivated areas. Was she deliberately hiding from me? Like the games we used to play? I huffed and bent over, resting my hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath. There was no way I could search the entire field. My heart pained me. I've been waiting patiently for almost fifty years, just to see her again, if only briefly to send her off. Did I do something to displease her? Did she hate me for telling Rukia about her? I thought for a while where she could be. I rechecked each location and carefully filed through my memories of every place we ever went together. Eventually I decided to find higher ground and started jogging towards the hill over looking the entire district. If I was lucky, perhaps she would be there and my troubles would finally end.

I reached the stairs leading up the cliff and decide to run to close the distance quickly. When I finally reached the top of the stairs I leaned on the wall of the cliff and groaned, sucking in painful breaths of air that I had deprived myself of. I was aware that this was a dream and I didn't have to feel exhausted but my current emotional state was really what was tiring me out and not the physical exertion. We I felt well enough to stand upright once more I lifted my face and glanced at the peak of the hill. There were three mounds near the top, and I could just barely see a figure sitting at the edge.

Utter despair and disappointment hit me like a hammer to the chest. My hope and my heart were crushed into ashes and scattered in the wind. He didn't face me but I knew he must have seen me running around the entire district.

"I'm really sorry captain. Honestly. I didn't choose this place either, I would have much rather have met back at the office as if nothing had happened. I didn't expect us to be brought here when I accepted your invitation. I'm truly sorry." Said Reji as he dug his fingers roughly into his thighs. I collected myself quickly. The tears that spilled from my eyes didn't stop, but I kept my composure and approached him.

"It isn't your fault. I acted foolishly. I have suspected for a while that she had already passed on, but that didn't stop me from hoping." I told him as I sat beside him. He looked like he was going to protect but took one glance at me before closing his mouth.

"I miss the office you know? All this time in limbo has really been messing with my head. I didn't think I had regrets when I was alive but now that I've been watching everyone from a distance and rethinking my life over, I realised that I still had so many regrets, even some I didn't realise I would regret. Like marrying Rukia." He said and my grief turned into anger.

"Swine! Say that again!" I yelled and grabbed him by the scruff of his kimono. He grunted and looked away from me.

"It's not like that. You know once you told me that we were completely different people. I don't think we are different at all." He told me and I shoved him harshly and glared at him, urging him to continue before I was tempted to cut our farewell short.

"I was so in love with Rukia since well forever. I let her go because I wanted the best for her. And she got it. She moved forward. I just couldn't. I knew that we loved each other as friends. I knew that we grew into different people over the years and deep down in my heart I knew, I just knew, that she would never be able to love me as a man. But I proposed and she was too kind to reject me. I know she was sacrificing on her part, trying to love me when it was a lost cause. All it did was cause her suffering that she couldn't explain. I lost sight of what really mattered to me from the start. Her happiness. And I ruined our lifelong friendship over my selfishness. God, I hope she doesn't resent me, even if I deserve it." He said and shook his head and covered his forehead with his hand.

I didn't know what to say to him. He was right. But it is human to make mistakes, and he genuinely didn't realise his mistake until after he had died.

"Tell me, how are we alike?" I asked him and he sighed.

"I mean no offence, but you do realise I have been around the two of you the entire time, right? We both married the women we were absolutely crazy about and knew that they didn't love us the same way. We hoped that that would change but it didn't. And we both lost them. I just hope that she can find someone else to love. I hope the same for you, but you are too damn stubborn to put yourself out there. Being dead and all opened my mind to a bigger picture kind of perspective." He said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Listen. I know I was only a subordinate to you, but I thought of you as a friend as well. You are Rukia's only family now that I'm gone. I know you have been trying to be more open to her, and honestly you far exceeded my expectations. But it hurts me to know that she could be lonely, misunderstood and worse. I know you will protected her anyway. But please. Look after her for me? Don't let her date bad characters, don't let her hide her pain. Let her talk to you if she needs to, you know she would do the same for you. Rukia has been hurt a lot over the years, she hates crying in front of other people because when she is alone she wants to release all her pain that she keeps hidden for our benefit. I know I should have answered Rukia's invitation, but I just couldn't see her again. I think it is what is best for both of us. Tearful goodbyes are the worst." He said in mock sarcasm. Then he pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

"These are the other guys we grew up with. It was a terrible day, they day we lost them. And we never really recovered. I tried to fill the void with her friends at the academy and Rukia isolated herself." He told me sadly. And a portal opened up in the air in front of us.

"I guess that means I can pass on now. I do feel slightly more at peace after seeing a familiar face." He said and stood up.

"I know I have no right to tell you this but, stop waiting for Hisana. Moving on and trying to find happiness isn't a betrayal. Life is all about learning. Someone like you should take life slowly and enjoy it, not rush into things and make rash decisions. I can't believe in going to say this but I really wish you would find happiness." He said and scratched the back of his neck. In truth I was too numb to feel anything.

"I guess this is it then. Goodbye captain. Thank you for everything, it has been an honour to serve under you and I hope with all my heart that I will be able to do so again in another life if fate is kind to me. Be seeing you." She said as he closed his eyes and walked into the portal without hesitation. In truth I was glad I got to see him one last time myself.

"You were the best subordinate a man could have, as well as a loyal friend." I said and bowed to the portal. I was glad it was Renji who answered me and not grandfather. I still needed his guidance and I hoped that my actions didn't shame him enough to refuse me the wisdom I needed to guide the family. I would accept all punishment and advice eagerly. After a while the world around me drowned out before I noticed that I was standing under a sakura tree from home, overlooking the pond. No rest for the weary as they say it. I sighed internally and gazed wistfully as the calm water of the pond without even a single ripple, when inside my heart it was turbulent. I took a deep breath and turned around. I almost tripped and fell into the pond as I did when I was a boy. Grandfather was right behind me sitting at the stone table under the tree sipping his tea. He stared at me.

"Byakuya, why do you look so startled?" He asked me and I forced my eyes to look at my feet and nothing else, even after I sat across from him at the table.

I opened my mouth to apologise but I knew that it was pointless. I realised that I was being rude and even more shameful by refusing to meet his gaze. I clenched my jaws and forced myself to sit upright and look him in the eye.

"I've missed you grandfather. I need your advice. I am willing to do whatever you think best, even step down from my position. Please lend me your guidance!" I finished and bowed. He sighed and looked over the pond.

"I understand Byakuya. I am…terribly disappointed in you but I forgive you. even if I were alive, I would never be able to execute my precious grandchild. There is only so much anguish a parent can take. But you should know that you have chosen your path. Once you give into the temptation of using the records selfishly, there will never be a 'last time', so don't bother giving me your promise to never do it again." He told me and I looked at my hands. I felt like a child again, being scolded for being caught cheating on a test, only it was a much greater, completely unforgivable offence.

"I can't help but bet proud of you though. My time in limbo has made my mind more flexible and I can easily see how difficult your life has been, and I forced so much on you and then left you to fend for yourself. I can honestly say you did the best you could. You are still a child, I know I can't expect you to understand our duties and fulfil them as our predecessors had. You are determined and you could restrain yourself, but a child's heart is always fearless of consequence." He said and we were left in silence once more.

"You said you would do whatever I told you to do, am I correct Byakuya?" He asked me and I looked towards him.

"Yes, grandfather." I said obediently. He looked at me and hardened his gaze.

"Then Rukia Kuchiki is to be executed by your hand. She will be punished of behalf of the both of you. I will absolve your crimes against our family and Soul Society if you do so. That is my judgement. Just because a responsibility is difficult to accomplish doesn't mean it should be left incomplete." He told me and my calm shattered into a million pieces. I couldn't kill her. My hands started shaking onto of my thighs, and the muscles in my abdomen clenched and my body shivered in complete rejection of the command. I stood up on shaking legs and looked my grandfather in the eye.

"Forgive me grandfather but I will not. I don't mind living with a few sins. If that if what you are trying to accomplish is punishment, then I will retire from my position as head of the family and take Rukia away with me. If that is acceptable to you then name the next head of the family for me and any information you will have them know. I am sorry to disappoint you once again." I said and bowed. I stood up straight and walked away from him, but I didn't know where I could go.

I ended up walking to Rukia's room. I just needed something familiar and comforting around me. Her room was bare as if it had never been hers. I looked at the wall directly opposite myself where the portrait of me should have been. Nothing. Fear clenched at my heart. I searched the entire house for anything that connotated to her existence, but there was nothing. I fled the compound and ran to the thirteenth division. I search ledgers and looked at the wall dedicated to previous captains and lieutenants of the division, but there was no trace of her there. I tried to calm myself and told myself that perhaps this was a place from the past, before I found her. I didn't feel as if I could go back home so I walked to my office and slouched in my seat.

This was the most exhausting, emotionally abusive dream I have ever had in my entire life, and trust me I had suffered nightmares that could kill a man from fear. I wasn't really paying attention to anything until my drowsy eyes caught a glint of red. I turned my head sharply to the wall across from my desk. 'Abarai Renji, Lieutenant under captain Kuchiki Byakuya, K.I.A'. This was a seriously horrible dream. If Abarai was here, that means Rukia had to be here somewhere. If not, I can find her at the academy or Hanging Dog, I thought to myself before getting up and lazily walking to the gates leaving to the academy and the eighty districts.

I couldn't pass through, there was some sort of barrier in the dream. I occurred to me that I couldn't leave until grandfather let me. And after what I did, he would keep me here and lecture me until I was rendered mentally insane. I dragged my feet home and to where we were sitting before. He was still there but he didn't acknowledge my presence. I lay my arms on the table top, even if it was impolite, and rested my head on them tiredly.

I groaned in agony. I felt as if my energy was somehow being drained out of my body by force. I could barely keep my eyes open, and this was only a dream. At least it was supposed to be.

"What is happening to me." I groaned as my body ached from exhaustion. Grandfather stilled with the cup to his lips before lowering it onto the table.

"You are dying. That is the alternative. As to your offer, Rukia can live in your stead as long as she marries into the family and provides a service to the next head of the house hold." He told me and my eyes widened in shock.

Whatever. I tried my best with what little I had going for me. I fought for what I believed in and I don't regret anything. My life has been full of suffering but I don't feel sorry for myself, life isn't fair. Hopefully the next life is better.

I closed my eyes and tried to rest through the pain, until it inevitably stopped, releasing me of the chains of this life.

"Do you accept your fate Byakuya?" Asked grandfather softly.

"Yes." I said and I tried to calm myself. It would do no good for me to struggle or try to find a way out of this dream. Maybe it was the type of dream where you make up after you die. Grandfather sighed. I would have opened my eyes but I was too tired to care much about respect at the moment. And then slowly, I started feeling less suffocated. Like pressure had be pushing me down had just lessened.

"I had no intention of damning either you or Rukia, Byakuya. I merely wanted to teach you a lesson. Pick your battles. Knowing when to stand against something difficult and accepting difficulty in life is an important lesson I never had the chance to teach you. You did ask for my advice did you not? My advice is this, if you believe you are in the right despite what accusations and implications are laid ahead of you by the elders, stand firm in the decision you have made. Never second guess your own mind. Being young is only a disadvantage to you if you allow yourself to let it be. None of them were ever the head of the family, and for good reason. However, you mustn't ever ignore council. You must listen and consider before you decide that it is not necessary. Even if it is against what you would have preferred, accept it and embrace it." He told me and I looked up at him in confusion. Why did old people always have to bully the younger generation?

"I don't honestly have any opinion on your adoption of Rukia, she has become strong since you first brought her home. I believe the family should be proud of her accomplishments under our name. She too has made me proud. I am regretful for never having been able to meet her." He told me and stood up. He walked over to the pond and sighed.

"I will be leaving you then, take care Byakuya. I am not yet able to pass on, so I assume I can be called on once more in the future. Hopefully when that time comes I will have fulfilled all my wishes that bind me to this realm. Never forget that I am exceedingly proud of you. Perhaps I cannot move on from limbo because you are yet to keep your promise to me. I asked you to find peace and happiness in this life, even among your pains and sorrows. I am sorry that your marriage was short lasted." He said and stepped into the pond. He just dropped right into it, without a so much as a ripple, and disappeared.

Slowly things became less vibrant and I felt myself being pulled into a deeper slumber.

RUKIA

I was having a really strange dream. I was somewhere in district seventy-eight, but I couldn't quiet recognise it. Probably because it was closer to district seventy-nine than I ever got. There wasn't a person in sight and I didn't know how to get home. No, this place wasn't home anymore. I stopped when by sandals sloshed on the ground. I thought I stood in a puddle of water until bright red started soaking through my socks. My eyes widened in realisation and I screamed. I ran away as fast as I could, but no matter how far I went I never left the bad area, who ever said that you couldn't be lost in a place you have never been?

I shivered and a breath of frost exit my mouth. I heard running but I couldn't see anyone. It made me more afraid and anxious. I heard a bottle shatter and I ran into the nearest ally and faced the exit. I walked back until I felt safe in the dirty corner away from whatever made the sound. Just then something grabbed my wrist. I screamed and ripped myself free and backed away from the person.

My eyes widened in shock and recognition. I lifted a shaking hand and pointed at her. No words left my mouth though. She walked towards me slowly and placatingly with her arms stretched out in front of her trying to reach me. I continued to step back and I contemplated running until she spoke.

"I know you know who I am. I won't hurt you. What is your name?" She asked me. And continued to close the space between us.

"R-Rukia Kuchiki." I told her and flinched as somewhere in this ghost town a screaming infant wailed. I took a shuddering breath and looked into her eyes.

"Kuchiki? Did you also marry Byakuya? Or a relative of his?" She asked me and my eyes widened.

"No! No! Byakuya found me and adopted me into the family as his sister." I defended and watched her hands cautiously.

"I see. I know you know who I am, but I will introduce myself to you. My name is Hisana- "She said before I cut her off.

"Yes, my older sister, brother told me everything." I told her an if I hadn't been looking closely at her seemingly peaceful face I wouldn't have noticed the look of violent anger that passed her expression. At my interruption or at the fact that Byakuya hadn't kept her secret, the reason wasn't relevant however when she reached me and rubbed her arms up and down my arms.

"I told him not to tell you. on my deathbed as well. It doesn't matter, it wasn't true anyway." She told me and my blood ran cold and a shiver of fear raked my spine.

"What do you mean? Why did you lie to brother?" I asked her timidly. She moved her hand to my cheek and held my face as if I was the most precious thing in the world.

"It was private. He didn't need to know the truth about something so personal to me. You must be wondering about my relation to you then?" She asked me and I nodded.

"You are my daughter." She told me and I shook as I looked into her eyes. She was my mother? I opened my mouth but I couldn't think of anything to say. She drew me closer to herself and I pulled my arms to my chest defensively. She hugged me and tried to rub my back soothingly, only the contact with her was making me feel even worse.

"I was a concubine in the palace. I fell pregnant with you and your father; the emperor would have raised you as an heir if you were male but when I was in labour before you were born completely one of the maids told me that you were female. All female children of the emperor were taken and raised to be concubines for the next generation, as I was. When I was left for a moment during the delivery I walked to the balcony in as much pain as I was in and fell. When I was found by a soul reaper and sent on to the Soul Society, as you were still unborn when we died you were sent with me here, to this place. This place that seemed so impossible to escape. At least I had you. I saved you from a terrible life that awaited you and I didn't need to live to watch it happen." She told me and I shivered. She was truly frightening.

"I didn't abandon you on purpose though. You see I made a deal with a smuggler who was going to help us to a more liveable side of the district. I had to leave you for a few hours though because the people who bought me wouldn't have accepted me if I had a child and I was afraid they might hurt you. Once I was safely on the other side of the district, my smuggler friend was supposed to meet me with you, but it seems that his work finally killed him and you were lost to me. I found a way relatively safe between either sides of town to travel when I searched for you. But you just seemed to disappear. I never gave up on fining you and making things right. I promise I died searching for you." She told me. Tears of hurt and confusion flooded my eyes and my chest constricted tightly. I wanted to ask her why she married Byakuya, but I was too afraid.

"At least I have the opportunity to see you now. I held on this long hoping beyond hope that I would one day find you again, even if it was in death. You are all grown up, and doing well it seems. Nothing can make me happier." She said and held my face lovingly in her hands. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. I pulled myself away from her and wiped my face.

"I don't understand. Weren't you friends with Byakuya? Why did you agree to marry him if you didn't care for him?" I asked her and she looked truly shocked.

"I suppose we were friends. But to me he was no different that your father when her asked me to marry him, even in my sickly health. All that matters to men like him is securing the heir for the next generation. I agreed to marry him because whether or not I fulfilled my purpose as his wife, I would be closer to finding you. What mother puts a man and his ambitions above her own child's safety?" She asked me and I looked her in the eye. Did she truly not understand?

"He was in love with you. He believed that you were his friend! He even tried to improve your way of living long before he asked for your hand! He went against his family's laws just to be with you, don't you understand what he did for you? Even after you died he fulfilled your wish! He found me and protected me! He was forced to tell me what he thought was the relation between us because he wanted to salvage a relationship between us since we couldn't go on living ignoring each other. He loved you so much that just looking at me ripped his heart out! Didn't you get his lantern requests? He went every year to try and communicate with you! Almost every day he spent hours in the memorial room paying his respects to you, missing you! How could he possibly mean so little to you?" I screamed at her and slapped her hands away from me violently until she flinched. I admit that having a mother meant a lot more to me that a sister. But I couldn't accept her as such. I would rather die. If I kill myself then Byakuya will be free of all traces of her memory. It is the only thing I can do to make up for what Hisana has done to him. Hisana sighed exasperatedly.

"When we were friends, I was a good friend to him. I won't lie, I truly did care for him. I was thankful for his help over the years, and you have no idea how grateful I am to him for finding you for me. I would have responded to his calls, if for no other reason, to thank him but I couldn't. Even if he did find you, I didn't want to hear it from him, I wanted to see you for myself. I didn't want to be forced to move on before I was ready." She told me. She tried to make herself sound so reasonable.

"You really believe your actions were just? What about committing suicide? You threw away your own life. You didn't even give me the chance to live mine! What makes you think that you knew how our lives would have turned out? My father could have loved me! We could have escaped, you could have run away with me. We could have lived out lives! You didn't even give me a chance! I was innocent! Its your fault! Someone with your sins was sent to district seventy-eight and you dragged me into that hell hole as well! And now you have stained me with your sins! How can I ever look at Byakuya again?! In your life how many people's lives did you ruin? How many lives like your smuggler friend were sacrificed in your search for me? Do you have any idea what you have really done?!" I screeched at her. She retreated frightened of my sudden outburst.

"Well you won. You got to see me again. Now move on and leave me! I don't have the heart to stay with Byakuya after everything you have told me. I will kill myself and remove myself from his life. Hopefully he can forgive me one day. But I truly hope you get the punishment you deserve!" I yelled at her. A fire spitting portal opened up behind her and a skeletal arm shot out and grabbed her. Good she was going where she deserved to be. If I couldn't forgive her, I don't see how any God could. Perhaps Byakuya was kind enough to forgive her, that's just how he is. Before I could try to calm myself, I was pulled towards the portal. Hisana had grasped hold of my sleeve.

"Please! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" She begged. Absolute terror filled me.

"First you murder me, then you abandon me in a whole different kind of hell, and now you are trying to drag me down to actual hell with you?!" I yelled and tried to pull myself backwards.

"If God decided you belonged in hell, what makes you think I feel differently?!" I shouted and pulled my obi free and shrugged out of my yukata. She lost her grip on her and was pulled through the gates of hell. I shut my eyes tightly so that I wouldn't have to watch. She has scarred me enough already, that was something I didn't need to see.

I felt extremely hot from the gates of hell, but once they closed I felt like I was frozen solid. I got focus and tried to wake myself up.

BYAKUYA

It must have been the early hours of the morning. My dreams still weighted heavily on my mind, but I was quickly snapped fully into consciousness when I saw the white bursts of breath coming from my mouth. Why in the world was it so cold?! I bolted upright and covered myself with my gown, not that I had any warmth to keep with me.

I ran to Rukia's room. The floor beneath her door and the better part of the door was covered in a thin layer of frost. I slid her door open only to be hit in the face by a blast of icy air. Rukia lay shivering in her futon. The ground around her was covered in a pillow of think snow. She wasn't even touching her zanpakuto but the blade had slid out of its sheath purely out of her will alone.

I ran to her and knelt in the snow next to her. I pulled her up to me and tried to wake her up.

"Rukia? Rukia please wake up! Its just a bad dream! Rukia? Rukia?" I called her and eventually she opened her eyes but she cried out and shoved me away from her. I tried to calm her down and almost got a foot to the face. I tried to catch her when she scrambled up and made a mad dash for her zanpakuto but she shoved me aside and ran out of her room through the garden doors.

I flash stepped to my room and collected my zanpakuto before quickly following her. It wasn't difficult t track her, her spiritual pressure was fluctuating from her panic. What on earth happened to her? I considered the possibility of her seeing someone from her lantern offering, but who could it be? Abarai spoke with me, I watched him pass on myself. Kurosaki? He would never harm her though.

I was just in time to see her open a Senkaimon and pass through it. That was just like her, running away to the world of the living. I opened a portal quickly and passed through it. Hopefully I haven't lost trace of her.

I stepped into the world of the living and traced her spiritual pressure until suddenly it just vanished. I don't think she was capable of hiding it in the state she was in but I knew what direction she went so I decided to search the area. After a few minutes went by I started panicking. I didn't know where her human friends lived, except the quincy and I really didn't feel like dealing with his kind, surely, she wouldn't have gone there. The next best option was Urahara.

I flash stepped and quickly made it to his residence, his light was on so I assumed I had found the correct place. I knocked and waited. I heard people shouting in hushed voices so I kept knocking until Urahara opened the door.

"My, captain Kuchiki. It's really late don't you think you could come back in the morning? At a decent time?" He asked behind his fan, but for someone who had implied to be tired, he didn't look anything less that one hundred percent alert.

"Urahara. I know Rukia is here, please let me come in so I can bring her home? I don't think she is well." I asked him but tried to enter before he could reply and narrowly missed having my nose broken by his cane.

"I'm sorry I must insist. You are right, Rukia is definitely unwell and for that reason she requested that she stay here until what troubles her is over." He told me and I stilled, forgetting the insult on my tongue.

"What's wrong with her, do you know? Tell me what you know." I demanded and he narrowed his eyes at me. Urahara was our benefactor so an uproar between us wouldn't be good for either party, but we both knew I would win in a fight. And he had his livelihood in the world of the living at stake if he refused.

"Miss Kuchiki is in hysterics because of an awful encounter with a spirit in limbo. She said she can't seem you until she shows you what happened, I am currently using my memory recording device to record her dream with the departed. She insisted that it be shown to you, she also said that she can't go home for some reason. Said she didn't want to hurt you anymore. Yoruichi is with her trying to help her with the recorder. Now if you don't mind, its late. Time for you to be going." He told me and I almost growled at him.

"Look, I don't know what is wrong with her but I would never hurt her! I should stay with her to show her that what she seems to believe is false, then when this is over we will leave together and I will pay you generously as always for being of assistance to us." I tried to reason with him and he sighed and closed his fan.

"I'm sorry captain Kuchiki, I believe I asked you to leave. I am not currently doing business with you or miss Kuchiki, I am merely helping her as a friend." He said coldly and I flinched. I opened my mouth and licked my suddenly too dry lips. I tried to form words only to end up unsuccessful. Then there was a crash and a yell grabbed both of our attention. I groaned unhappily and looked at Urahara, looked at his cane and looked at the door.

"Apologies." I said as I flashed past him towards the noise. Yoruichi was putting a cone shaped device in a container when I found her.

"You." I growled out.

"Where is she?" I bit out and felt around for her spiritual pressure. Yoruichi looked startled, and I suppose anyone would be if the saw the head of the Kuchiki family running around bare foot in nothing but his night clothes.

"I told her the memory capture was complete and she bolted. I tried to restrain her but she pulled away from me and opened the Senkaimon. I think she fled because she could feel you were here. Want to see what she was so afraid of?" She asked me and I nodded. She took the object she was putting away into a device near a screen. Urahara came in a few minutes afterwards. I tightened my gown around myself and tried to fix my hair with my hands. I wouldn't apologise. But I did feel a bit guilty.

After a moment the video began. It started where she said good night to me and closed my door. It took about ten minutes for her to fall asleep. I recognised this place. This was the worst part of Hanging Dog. All three of us were transfixed of the footage. Even I had goose bumps and I jumped only a little when someone grabbed her wrist. I was starting to see why she was so spooked. Then I gasped. Hisana!

Tears filled my eyes as I watched the confrontation between her and Rukia. Yoruichi rubbed my back comfortingly and Urahara looked completely taken aback. Rukia was her daughter! She had killed herself in the world of the living and her barely born baby as well! How could she? I was touched by how much Rukia cared about my well being and absolutely torn apart about the revelations Hisana made. Even now, I felt my love for Hisana chip away, but it was still there. She was my best friend and my first love.

We all gasped in horror as the gates of hell opened up swallowing Hisana. I shook in fright as she almost pulled Rukia in with her. I don't know what was worse, watching the woman you loved be damned or nearly watching your sister, your friend being killed! When we heard Rukia talk about suicide we all shot bolt upright. Not long after she was panicking to wake up did her memory flash to when I woke up. I had seen enough. I flashed out of there home, even hearing their shouts behind me. I opened the Senkaimon to the Seireitei and flashed through. Where would she go? Would I find her in time? How could she believe that she was responsible for her sisters' sins? I did feel extremely hurt and used but I didn't blame Rukia, because it wasn't her fault! I cared about her because she was who she was, not because she is connected to Hisana, didn't she understand that?