A/n: Thank you for the read, follows, favourites and reviews.

Warning: Mature language, small amount of violence and possible grammar errors

Disclaimer: Lol I don't own Bleach... But... if I did... The fullbringer and the recent arc would be burned alive! Well except for the good guys ^^

But seriously, I only own Kobayashi Suki because she's badass :3

Chapter 10

In Soul Society, many workers were rushing about in the thirteenth division barracks. The two third seats had been fighting over the paperwork as usual and everyone who was in the division had a serene smile on their faces. This division was led by the famous Ukitake Jushiro, however due to his illness; his work was often taken care of thanks to the duo third seats that were practically shouting in each other's faces. As the usual business for the thirteenth division went along smoothly; two shinigami had been walking together, looking towards each other as they spoke hushed words.

"So did you hear about the Kuchiki-hime's imprisonment?"

"Yeah, who hasn't heard about it? So what did she do to deserve this harsh treatment?"

"Well I don't know much, I just know it was pretty bad."

Oblivious to the talking duo; a pair mint green eyes looked towards them with a brow furrowing. The owner of the mint green eyes was a woman standing five foot one with long, caramel hair, peachy skin and she wore the regular shihakusho. She gave an odd frown at the words, before the realisation sunk into her head.

"Wait a minute!" Both of the shinigami that were previously conversing had looked towards the caramel haired figure with confusion etched on their faces. "Do you mean Kuchiki Rukia?"

"So, what of it?" One of the shinigami spoke, "Who are you?"

The caramel haired woman stopped at the question, her eyes slightly widening as the response. "You don't know me?!" She gasped dramatically, looking towards her comrades with a glare, "I'm Mizushima Kei! The..." Once she had noticed on what she was going to say, the woman let out a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of her head, "Never mind... I forgot I transferred divisions..."

"Wait," The shinigami spoke up with the same frown, "I heard rumours about some transferee recently... didn't you transfer from the fourth division or something?"

"That's right!" Kei replied cheerily, raising her hand to show a thumbs-up, "I liked it at the fourth division, but I was recommended to take a new start!" She showed a grin before her expression turned serious at the reminder. It was no time for her to be getting sidetracked like she usually does, "So you said Rukia had done something wrong? I recently transferred here so I have been busy with other stuff..."

The shinigami gave one look towards each other before they explained to Kei what they have heard.

-:-

August the first had always been a different time for Suki. While her father went out to join Isshin to watch the fireworks (Suki was surprised that she wasn't forced to go), Suki had decided to work on her power. Even though Yoruichi had dismissed the small group and told them to prepare for their trips, Suki clearly knew that the cat would not want her stop her training. She was sitting cross legged in her temporary room, staring at her bat with content, watching it glow its abnormally bright colour to indicate that her power had activated.

It was like the bat was trying to talk to her through Morse code, a kind of message that Suki had never really understood. After staring at her bat, Suki had released her power with a sigh and lied on her futon with a frown forming on her face.

She was meant to be resting for a week, but Suki couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't just head straight to Soul Society. They were going to rescue Rukia, who was probably suffering in some sort of jail... or prison... whatever they called it over there.

It's odd to think that Suki would've never thought any of this was possible just a month ago. Her amber eyes went back to staring at the ceiling, keeping focused on a dot that had always bothered her whenever she stared up. Despite the fact Suki wasn't in the details with the shinigami and hollow business, there was always a question that had been repeating in her head for countless times.

Why was she the one that received the reiryoku? Why was it her that got the powers with Chad and Orihime? She understood why the duo gained abilities, because they had hung out with Ichigo on a daily basis but Suki never really did spend too much time with Ichigo. Whenever she had spent time with him, it had to do with some class assignment that she had done in the last minute. Surely that wasn't enough to give her powers... right?

"Annoying," She whispered to herself with a scowl, "If I keep thinking like this and my head will explode." At the sound of fireworks, Suki paused to herself and looked out of the window with a frown. The sky was dressed with different colours, but most of the fireworks were covered by the buildings ahead – not that Suki really cared anyways – she didn't want to go in the end. Her thoughts were stopped by a single stomach growl, the first one she's had all night.

Once again, Suki was lucky that she was home alone.

When the silver haired female went into the kitchen and prepared herself a small snack, she was completely oblivious to a small figure that had crawled into her house. She silently hummed a tune stuck in her head as she prepared the Katsudon*. A hint of gratitude flashed in her expression when she recalled that her father had leftovers from the day before and all she needed to make was some fresh onions. Still not noticing the figure, Suki chucked the leftovers into the microwave to heat it up, cut the onions (obvious without crying) and threw them on the frying pan with a rare smile on her face. Even though she loved sports and enjoyed baseball, Suki often did like cooking because it was one of the few things had settled her mind. Music was another thing that Suki had liked, but she had no musical talent what-so-ever – it didn't meant that she couldn't hum a song.

It was only a few minutes when both tasks were done and Suki had finished recreating her dish. Just as she placed the onions on top of the rice, a familiar voice spoke up.

"For someone that acts tough, you surely like to use creativity."

The voice startled her, which made Suki let out a surprised yell. She nearly lost her balance but she dropped her utensils and let it clatter on the ground before she regained her posture. Her mind was still on red alert as she recovered her thoughts.

What on freaking earth - she sent a death glare towards the speaker, holding her hips with a growl. "How the heck did you get into my house?!"

Yoruichi purred calmly, licking one of his front paws as Suki trembled in rage. "You left the window from your room opened," That stupid ignorant cat just thought he could come whenever he wanted to?! What happened if her father had been here instead?! Just as Suki opened her mouth to yell at the cat, Yoruichi spoke up again, "What are you making? It smells good."

"I thought cats were carnivores," Suki uttered as she folded her arms before she realised what Yoruichi was planning to do. She shook her head to dismiss the thoughts and resumed her glaring at the cat in pure annoyance. He was planning to distract her! That sneaky little bastard! "It doesn't matter about what I'm making – what do you want?"

"I had spoken to Kisuke about the situation with your bat," The cat replied calmly which made Suki's glaring stop. She narrowed her eyes and waited for him to continue, "When you had first used your bat to exterminate the hollow – the reiryoku had been stored inside the bat and there was simply too much of it being stored, resulting in the bat snapping in half. When Kisuke had fixed your bat, he had designed it especially so that your reiryoku would smoothly flow out of the bat without it snapping again."

Suki's eyes widened when she had recalled Kisuke's mysterious gaze meeting hers. He was right when he assumed that she would thank him afterwards. Now she wouldn't have to worry about her bat ever snapping in half again – it also explains why it had felt different when Suki had carried it around with her. Now that it had been a bit over a week since she had gained the bat, she was comfortable with the lighter weight.

"Also," Yoruichi locked eyes with Suki with a serious stare, "I want to ask you this question before the week is up." His golden eyes narrowed as he got to his next point, "Starting from next week will be the most dangerous impact of your entire life – I want to make sure that you are on board because there will be no turning back once we get there."

Suki actually gave herself time to consider the cat's words. There has been a few times where Suki had actually reconsidered her decision of leaving her father alone. She couldn't even make up a dumb excuse to where she was heading because it was a place for dead people. But at the same time, Suki wanted to go because from what she learnt about shinigami, they were quite ruthless. True – Suki hasn't intended on killing anyone in her life because she was not into murder, but it did not meant that she wasn't willing to fight for something she really wanted. Fighting on the other hand, had been something that she had been doing since she has been to middle school. She had purposely left her hair short, which left many people mistaking her for a boy at the time and boys had only treated her as one.

Eventually, Suki learnt to fight on her own – sometimes she would bring the bat to help her.

Orihime was someone who was not adapted to fighting, yet she was going because she wanted to rescue Rukia. The silver haired female knew that she had to go there to protect Orihime – the walnut haired girl was her friend and one of the few people that managed to make Suki open up slightly. She could never tell if it had been because of the bubbly personality, or if it had to do with the times they had spent together but Suki definitely knew that she couldn't leave Orihime alone.

It had felt like a lifetime of silence between the two. Yoruichi had remained relaxed, waving his tail casually in front of the silver haired girl and Suki felt her fists clench tightly, "I'm sure... Yoruichi-san..." The cat looked like he had a smirk crossing over his face, but he turned away before Suki could actually confirm it.

"Alright then – I will be asking the others tonight. Make sure you are ready when we arrive to Kisuke's and I do have a favour to ask of you from Kisuke." Hearing the feline's words, Suki turned to see the cat giving her the stare that appeared almost human. "In seven days from now at an hour after midnight – you are to leave your window wide open." Before Suki could ask why, the cat had already backed away.

As the cat jumped down from the table and left the house without another word, Suki found herself staring at her meal with... a hint of gratitude pouring in her stomach. Sure she wasn't the kind of girl to get overexcited when she was happy, but Suki was feeling good about herself.

Was this because she was doing some good deed to rescue Rukia? Well technically, breaking Rukia out of the prison and intruding without permission in a mysterious place wasn't exactly on the 'good deed' list but still... It seemed right.

Suki had dismissed the thoughts and went to enjoy her dinner – a thought in her head that hadn't really occurred to her until she put the rice in her mouth. Once she realised, her amber eyes widened with realisation and she turned to face her temporary room with annoyance in her eyes.

She has no idea on how she was going to hold her bat and travel.

It was different with the rest of the crew; Ichigo had a sheathe for his weapon while Orihime, Uryu and Chad could manifest their power on site. Suki was the only one that had to completely depend on one item in order to activate her power. Since her power was so different compared to the rest of the group's, Suki really needed to figure out a game plan just in case she doesn't end up fighting any other shinigami. She scowled in annoyance before she turned back to her meal and finished it off – the least she could do was worry about that after her food.

...

The week of waiting was the biggest pain for Suki.

Her normal routine was pretty simple – wake up, have breakfast and go out to play baseball until the evening, eat dinner than go to bed but now, she knew she had to change everything. This time, she has to wake up, had a bit of time to spend with her power, eat breakfast, do a workout, spend some more time controlling the power, dinner and then straight to bed.

Since her father was rather intelligent, he had noticed the vast changes that Suki had to her routine and asked on more than one occasion if anything was going on. Because Suki hated lying to her father, she would simply ignore him and hide in her room so he didn't intrude.

Ever since the fireworks festival, Suki had not seen any of her classmates, nor had she seen the annoying black cat and for once she was quite glad that she had some alone time. She gave herself some time to consider on holding the bat – since she knew that carrying it around would look not only stupid but definitely retarded. In normal cases, she would've brought her sports bag, but once again, Suki didn't know what it was going to be like in Soul Society so she had come up with an idea.

It hadn't taken her long to go along with the idea, but it had taken a while to prepare for it.

Before she knew it, a week had almost passed since she had last spoken to Yoruichi. Suki was uncomfortable with the idea of having to leave her father alone, but she had enough faith to believe that Kisuke would keep an eye on him while she was gone. The day before she had to leave, Suki knew that she had decided to make one final visit to an old friend; so at least she could say goodbye.

She narrowed her eyes as she walked her own way, trying to ignore the sights of the gravestones beside her and the sounds of ghosts whispering in her ears. Just because she can see them, it doesn't mean that she was going to start listening to them. They were still people in the end – people that weren't her father. Just as she made it to a particular tombstone, Suki noticed a familiar figure and her eyes widened with astonishment.

"Dad?"

Hiro was wearing casual clothes and he turned to show her a cheerful grin. At the sight of the grin, Suki had to flinch and remember the hollow once again. Was it always going to be like this? Was she ever going to look at her father without flinching again?

"I knew you would come here," Her father noted as he turned back to the tombstone and read the name. "I've noticed it's an old habit of yours – you always come here whenever you're in a tight spot," He gave a chuckle and allowed her to join him. "So, my lovely daughter, what's wrong?"

Suki looked desperately towards Hiro's direction, as if she had been silently pleading him to not ask her. She didn't want to be in this situation where she would have to lie – but for the first time she had wished she could lie to him. Instead of saying the million things that were running through her mind, Suki turned away from him and lowered her head, "There's something I have to do, tonight and..." She trailed off at the loss of words, flinching when she felt a hand grasp her shoulder.

"Suki," Hiro spoke without the usual suffix – it was enough to get Suki staring at his amber eyes with another flinch. "I know that you're keeping something bottled up," He explained with a grave tone and Suki once again lowered her head. How was she ever going to get out of this one? Just before she was going to respond, her father silenced her by raising his hand, "I may be your father, but I can't force anything out of you so I want you to do what you need to do."

Suki's eyes slightly widened in shock at her father's words, "Dad..."

"Now, even though I'm letting you go I want you to do something in return... I just want you to promise me this," His eyes looked down to the grave, "In fact – just keep a promise that you'll come back safely."

Suki remained still; she couldn't digest the fact that her father was asking her to do something like that. Sure he wasn't the strictest father on earth, but he would've normally asked a lot of questions about her intentions. It's not like Suki can say that she was going to another world to break someone out of prison anyways, but it still felt weird to hear her father to let her go.

"I don't know what to say," The silver haired female finally admitted as she joined his staring at the grave.

"Just say 'I'll come back in one piece daddy!'" Hiro replied with a cheery grin as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She didn't bother to fight back his support, sighing coolly as his eyes dropped down to look at her, "And if that doesn't get you going, then just come back so you can talk to Hayato-kun again!"

Now Suki just felt like a child, staring in front of the stone that had 'Taka Hayato' in bold letters. She squeezed her eyes shut, finally wrapping her arms around her father with a weak smile over her face.

"I'll definitely back in one piece," She whispered as she gave him a final hug. Hiro appeared happy as his daughter returned his hug, "It's a promise that I will definitely not break..."

...

"It could've have been during the day... or at least ten at night... but no, stupid Urahara wanted to make me stay up until one in the freaking morning!" The silver haired girl grumbled as she pulled open her window and glared at the view from her area. It seemed that even when she does quit any gang groups, she still has to be staying up late. "I swear to Kami's earth that I'll-!" No sooner than she spoke, a flying object shot through the window and smacked into the wall, opposite side of her. Her eyes widened with horror, annoyance and surprise as the crimson liquid formed into words.

'Please meet at Urahara Shoten immediately...'

Suki's eyebrow twitched in irritation. This is what she was staying up for?! Jeez, this is the last time she's listening to the cat for asking favours, "That stupid idiot! He always has to do some flashy way of getting people's attention." There was no way that the pesky businessman was normal, "Wait... there's more..."

'P.S – Right now, those who think this looks like the message of someone before their death has no sense of humour!'

"What an idiot!" Suki retorted before she paused in realisation. Now she felt like the bigger fool because she ended up talking to herself like a madwoman.

She snuck out of her temporary room to see that her father was snoring with a blissful smile on his face in his own room. A smile of gratitude crossed over her face, noticing that her father was safe and sound. Her smile disappeared slowly as she gave one final look to her old man before leaving her house, "See you soon dad."

As Suki stood out of her house, she smoothened out her black sleeved shirt, chuckling at the irony of the golden number twenty-nine on her shirt and dusted off her grey, baggy jeans. Her boots slipped on smoothly, covering her shins and feet, before holding her bat's casing over her shoulder on a strap. It was originally just a bat case without a strap, but Suki knew that she wasn't going to be holding her bat for the entire trip. Who knew how long they will be there?

Suki walked swiftly towards the shop, not bothering to rush on ahead like she was meant to. It was funny; Suki let out another amused chuckle as she walked towards the shop. The last time she had headed over to Urahara's was the time she first encountered a hollow and that hollow had been killed by Uryu. Now if that hollow had come to her now, she would've beaten it so badly that it would've been crying back to its dead mother.

She rounded the familiar corner towards the shoten, spotting Chad taking a seat and waited for the rest of the crew. He nodded in greeting as Suki lifted her hand to give a half wave, well aware that neither of the two was going to talk at all. The silver haired female leaned on the building, folding her arms to watch the sky with a hint of boredom crossing over her face.

How long did it take for everyone to get their asses over here? Her eyelids slowly closed at the feeling of the wind brushing her face, taking her mind off the entire mission. When she heard the sounds of feet scuffling, Suki had to open one eye to spot Ichigo and Orihime together.

"Kobayashi, Chad..." Ichigo didn't look surprised at their arrival; however he had the accepting expression on his face. It looked like Kisuke had told Ichigo that the rest of the crew were coming along – well at least Ichigo wouldn't be a complete dunce.

"Wow," Orihime looked over towards Suki and Chad, blinking innocently at the silent duo, "You two are really fast!"

Chad stood up to get closer to Ichigo, "Well I couldn't sleep so I headed out for a walk and got the notice around here." Before Suki could ask what Chad was talking about, she noticed the familiar bloody message that she had gotten earlier.

A sweat drop formed behind Suki's head. So even when they were right next to the store, Kisuke still did something as stupid as that? What did this guy do in his spare time anyways – actually – Suki didn't want to know.

"Well as much as I love reuniting with friends, this is getting boring – why's Ishida taking his sweet ass time?" Suki wondered, glaring at the direction of the open roads. It was like the quincy was going to act like he was late, then he would show up in the last minute and act like some sort of hero. But that was Ichigo's job – he's the one that wanted to save Rukia.

"Yeah," Ichigo followed Suki's sight and raised an eyebrow in confusion, "I heard he's joining us too..."

"Don't worry," Orihime chimed brightly, looking towards the questioning duo. As Suki spared her a glance, Orihime returned a bright smile. At least she was an optimist, "Ishida-kun will come, we need to just wait a bit..."

"He won't come," Chad stated which made Suki raise an eyebrow towards the Great Dane. At the same time, Orihime had turned around to give Chad a childish pout of disapproval, "It's no big deal Inoue, it would be better if he didn't come. Among us, he's the most complex. The more complex a person is, the weaker they are – that's who he is." Now Suki had her eyes locked on with the Great Dane, "So I think that he is the weakest among us. Maybe it would be better if he didn't come," Even though Suki wouldn't mind if the jerk didn't come along to Soul Society, she would have to disagree with Chad. There was no way a weak person would easily defend someone from countless hollows and still have the energy to kill more.

"Who did you say won't come?"

Speak of the devil.

Suki's eyes narrowed darkly as Uryu appeared in sight, before she realised what he was wearing. She knew that the guy liked white, but wasn't a completely dorky outfit (plus cape) that happened to be white a bit too much? The silver haired student groaned at the pounding headache that was beginning to throb – oh how she can't stand the colour white.

"You're here," Orihime exclaimed with a cheery smile.

"You've misunderstood Inoue-san, I don't care what happens with Kuchiki-san," Uryu looked rather determined to admit that he was going to Soul Society to defeat the shinigami that fought him. "However I did want to show you Kurosaki, how strong I've become!"

Wow, real tough talk for a guy in a cape.

Apparently, it looked like Ichigo had the same opinion, "You actually manage to walk in that weird outfit all the way here? You're much braver than I expected."

"How can you say it's weird!?" Uryu shot back, grasping onto his cape dramatically and sent daggers towards Ichigo's direction. Suki wanted to open her mouth to answer that question but she was interrupted by someone clapping their hands.

What was this, first grade?!

"Now that everyone is here," Kisuke had materialised from his house and opened the door for the crew to enter, "I will explain how to get to Soul Society – you should all listen carefully otherwise you may die even before you enter."

Great, that's the kind of thing you tell people before they end up accepting an offer. But Suki promised her dad that she would survive, she tightened her determination and gave a direct stare towards the mysterious business man as she entered the building. Whatever he had in mind, Suki wasn't sure if she was going to like his intentions.

*Katsudon is a Japanese dish that is served with tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet), egg and onions on top of the rice.

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Ciao!

Original - 04/10/13

Edited - 22/07/14