Author's Note: Have been away from my dear Sake King for so long, gosh do I miss him. Can't wait to get to the bottom of this missing Nanao. Where had she gone? Sorry for taking so long to update, have been terribly sick and too busy to recover. I love Bleach……still slightly deranged.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

Fall of the Sake King

By annyenil

"Tai-taichou?" A timid voice asked. It was a sweet, melodious, yet uncertain voice. Shunsui cracked open an eyelid indolently, but could not see a thing because his eyes were too cumbersome from all the crying and moaning he had done in the past few days. In his hand, he still clutched the Eighth Division fukutaichou armband that had been brought back as a horrible omen of the missing Nanao. Even his most appeasing friend Ukitake Jyuushirou could find no words of comfort at such an excruciating fact strewn at him like a large unavoidable fishing net trapping him in thick, strangling webs of black venomous lines. Shunsui wailed. It couldn't be true. For the first time in a week, he moved. He moved his arm up to the sky and tenderly traced the contour, the fragile, misty contour of the clouds. The next instant, the clouds had moved, leaving his single finger trembling slightly in the sky, ever so incongruous.

The sociable Shunsui had never felt so gauche in his entire life. He couldn't face his Nanao. And yet that voice, that voice that gives him hope, this hope that hangs him so precariously over the balance of sanity, was such a tempting thin thread that he almost believed it. It could not be Nanao. His lovely Nanao-chan was gone. Dissipated into the heavens and the earth. Vanished. Forever. Shunsui shuddered at the thought and fought the stream of manly tears welling up in him again. Matsumoto Rangiku always said that the tears a man shed over women were always manly. But Shunsui seriously wondered if this mourning he was carrying out had left him anymore dignity to stand and not be flouted as a shinigami and as a man in Sereitei. He couldn't care, really. It simply hurt too much.

Kyoraku Shunsui was getting annoyed. Why was Nanao calling his name? Shouldn't she be gone now that he had squandered away so much of his energy moaning and groaning over her absence?

"Tai-taichou……Here is your meal." The familiar figure bowed. Through his blurry vision, Shunsui saw. He saw that same pair of spectacled eyes, same delightful hair, same pair of hands carrying his meal. Shunsui thought he had been so starved and thirsty that mirages had been engendered. Maybe it was time for his swan's last song. Maybe Nanao had taken pity on him and decided to see him before he left this world for good. Shunsui could feel the intense pain gyrating along with his heart beat. It was so clear, so felt that he wished Nanao could hear it. So that she would know what kind of an irrevocable mistake she had committed. Now, she was standing next to him, holding his last meal, at least his feeble body could leave in peace. Shunsui could not believe his eyes. It really was Nanao! He rubbed his eyes clear just to be sure.

Reality was cruel.

"Go away."

"I am sorry, Kyoraku taichou." A bespectacled Hinamori Momo wearing a new hairstyle stumbled off the ladder looking rather dejected. Shunsui buried his face in his flowery hakama and quietly censured Jyuushirou for such a joke with his emotions. Dressing up Hinamori-san as Nanao to cheer him up! What a LOUSY idea! Shunsui was abysmally despondent. "Why……is the sky so dark? Look at the clouds!" He exclaimed to himself, his mind completely transcending the realms of coherent thoughts. Shunsui had been ruminating over how he should stage his death. Sure enough, without Nanao, he was desperate and bereaved enough to leave this world. But he also wanted something flamboyant and showy that the world would remember him by. "Till death do us part," Shunsui inwardly whispered to his accustomed cynosure.

He had worked it all out in his mind as he lay immobile for the past few days. The epitome of all ways to die was, to him, to have Nanao hold him in her arms as he slowly and dramatically draw his last breath with a flourish after saving her heroically from the attacks of Aizen and his Arrancar army. In the nick of time. It had to be just in the nick of time, or it wouldn't be as cool. Shunsui grinned to himself. Then he frowned. It would never happen his way, because Nanao was nowhere to be found and it wasn't like Aizen would descend from his stupid throne just so that Shunsui could die in Nanao's arms. Besides, ever since he left, he hadn't been exactly interested in bespectacled women.

He sighed.

Nanao, oh Nanao, wherefore art thou, Nanao?

"Ukitake, how's Shunsui doing?" A weary Hitsugaya Toushirou asked, eyebags under the eyes of the prodigy indicated that something beyond the control of mere capabilities was bothering him.

"Completely wrong." Jyuushirou whispered back in a hushed tone, his eyes darting around suspiciously. "Hasn't eaten for days. And he mentioned something about Aizen and dying."

"Did Hinamori work?" Toushirou was beginning to glance around nervously as well, as though in fear someone would overhear their conversation. His aquamarine eyes dimmed a little when Jyuushirou shook his head regretfully in response. Matsumoto had not been eating. Or speaking to him. Or doing anything at all. Toushirou knew he had been unreasonable, but he had no idea it would take this long for Nanao to return. "Ukitake……how long will this take? I am afraid I cannot keep Matsumoto in there much longer."

Jyuushirou raised an eyebrow. "Has she tried breaking out?"

"No," Toushirou snarled, "That is exactly the problem, Ukitake. I…..Matsumoto……I don't know how much longer I can keep her in there……" He looked down. At least Jyuushirou understanding enough so the young captain would not have to explain himself further, and that saved him much chargin. How could he bring himself to say that he did not have the heart to watch his friend suffer in a cold dark cell? It wasn't becoming of a taichou to have such weak, ungrounded thoughts. And yet, all these, all these was simply too unreasonable. Toushirou tiptoed covertly and grabbed Jyuushirou's collar. With as much menace as he could summon, Toushirou growled, "This better not take long, Ukitake."

Jyuushirou watched unfazed as the young taichou stormed away, leaving behind a trail of blazing ice. He sighed to himself again and again. Shunsui, what on earth are you doing? Get a grip on yourself! Let's end this shit.

Seriously.