Hi there everyone! I'm back and I'm feeling angst today. Thanks to all of you who voted for my story 'Different' over at the Otaku Online Stop. To those who haven't read it yet… what are you waiting for?

I hope this one isn't to sad but I was thinking about it while I was listening to music. Thanks for reading.

If I owned Bleach…. Well… I dunno what I would do with it but I don't so we don't have to worry about that.


The cycle of souls from one world to the next is always constant, but it takes time although time in the Soul Society has never really been an issue since it seems to take such a long time.

She died at night, her eyes closed in repose and in acceptance that her final wish would be granted. She wouldn't have asked if it hadn't been so important but even now her soul was forgetting what that promise was. He was crying, something she had never heard him do after the first time, he had promised not to cry, but her last words had struck him. "I swear I won't forget you." Everyone knew that when a soul went through the cycle they always came out on the other side with no memories. She had promised him something impossible and it broke him further than her death had.

There was nothing for him to do but to wait, but thinking about it seemed to crack at his carefully placed mask. The man had loved the woman, even though they had only been together a short time, she was the other piece to his soul, and now she was gone in the sea of souls that were making their way to human bodies being born all over the world.

She would find her new family there, and they would love her, she would find love there perhaps children and then she would die after living a full life and end up back in Rukongai happy with her full life. He liked to imagine that that is what waited for her in her new life alive in the world.

It was an accident, he had been sent to the World of the Living to take care of a particularly big hollow. It was an accident that he had seen her, it had been over a hundred and forty years since she had died, and she didn't look the same except her eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul after all and hers were lit up in the face of a young girl no older than twenty.

She didn't see him but she felt him, when the girl walked by her heart seemed to hurt for some unknown reason. She thought it must be side effects of the cough that she had had for the past couple of weeks, it didn't seem to want to let her go.

It was an accident that he heard the cough that shook her small body, it was a cough he knew, and he felt himself break just a little bit at the thought.

It was not an accident that he followed her home, he watched her interact with her family, laughing and talking and holding a small boy that he assumed was her little brother. He didn't seem to hear anything that they were saying, just the wheeze of her breathing and the voice of her mother telling her that she ought to go to the doctor.

She didn't want to go to the doctor, he cost money and it was money that they didn't have. Her father was sick she explained, all she had was a stubborn cold, she would be fine. He didn't like the way she played it off every time she coughed, it was starting to hurt her he could tell, she was so good at hiding it.

His soul pager beeped, where was he? Why isn't he reporting back? They were stupid questions when faced with the problem at hand. It rang again and he knew he had to leave her, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

She slept with one arm off of the bed, her fingers curled in on her palm, eyelashes closed over dark eyes leaving them laying on her cheek. Taking everything and nothing at the same time he traced her fingers with his hand and then her cheek, then he stood and left her promising to come back to find her.

Waking up in the middle of the night was unusual for her but she had felt her heart pull as if someone she loved had just died, she didn't know what to do, she looked at her hand as it hung off the bed and mourned that the spaces between her fingers were empty, something inside of her told her that it wasn't always that way. She cried as she slept and ignored it all the next morning as her mother forced her to go see the doctor.

Three years to him was like a week, they had passed by so fast and he was devastated by what he saw. When he had finally gotten back to the World of the Living he had not found her at her home, all he had found were dishes piling up and a crying brother with a girl who seemed to be there to watch him. The contact numbers left for the girl in case of emergency told him where to find the rest of the family. A small hospital on the corner of a street was where she was, he could feel himself breaking as he looked at her lying there, memories of a night long since passed seemed to burn him as they passed through his brain.

Twenty three and dying of lung cancer had left her bald and thin, the medicine wasn't doing anything, she was angry and depressed, her father stood in a corner looking out of the window, her mother had gone to pick up her brother to say goodbye to his sister.

He couldn't see the light in her eyes that had told him who she was, it had faded, just like she was fading, he turned out of the room when her brother was brought in, he could hear the child ask why she wouldn't be coming home with him. "I swear I won't forget you." They weren't her last words but they broke him in half just the same, he slumped to the ground and let his sobs shake his body.

Hours later it was night time, his phone had been ringing again, but he had ignored it, he wanted to be the one to take her soul from this place, no one else would have that privilege, even if she didn't remember him.

Her mother and father were asleep, holding each other, she had never loved anyone like they loved each other. She struggled to breathe in, she could feel death at the door, she vaguely wondered if it would be scary, or if it would hurt. Breathing out hurt too, she closed her eyes for awhile and tried to sleep.

He entered the room when she seemed to drift off and stood at the foot of her bed watching her sleep painfully. He wondered how her soul could go through this twice and then her caught himself wondering if it would happen again. She was looking at him and he knew it was almost time, the living could only see Soul Reapers when they were about to die.

She felt her heart swell at the sight of him but she didn't know why, she reached out to him and he took her hand filling the spaces between her fingers with his own. They didn't speak as they were connected, he never wanted to let her go and she didn't want to die without this feeling that she could only describe as love pounding through her.

The monitors beeping franticly were only background, but her painful spasms and the wet sound of her drawing her last painful breath were harder for him to ignore. When you see something that you had never wanted to see again happen it takes a toll on you. Her mother and father screamed and cried, cursing everything that they believed in for taking her from them, then he looked at her, violet eyes grew brighter as they saw the last human image of him standing there holding her hand.

She and he stood there at the edge of her bed as they watched the doctors pronounce her body dead. She went to each of her parents and said a few things, and tried to hug them, then she turned her attention to him and smiled with a smile that he loved.

He held out his hand and she took it, "I told you I wouldn't forget you, Byakuya."

She squeezed his hand as he smiled like she remembered, when times were good. "Let's go home Hisana."

If her soul was destined to always die young and sick, he would make sure that she was loved for as long as he could, and that he would watch over her while she lived without knowledge of him.


So what did you guys think? I cried when I was writing it but I'm a pansy that way. Okay well I would really really appreciate reviews on this as it is so close to my heart. Come on people its not that hard just click the button and say a few words.