Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Bleach characters mentioned in this series. All characters belong to the original author Tite Kubo.
However: I do own Haruka Kaenbyo and Umeko Fujiwara.
Warning: Spoilers may be present.
The sky was painted in a multitude of shades of vermilion as the sun began to set beyond the hills. Haruka was sitting upon the roof of the abandoned shack they had taken shelter in for the duration of their mission in the world of the living.
"Did you feel that?" Haruka asked Hitsugaya who was laying beside her.
"It's just the wind," he replied. "Relax for once." He gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her down next to him. She curled up besides him, resting her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her in response. The two laid there as the sun continued to fall farther and farther below the horizon.
An ear-splitting shriek broke the silence. Hitsugaya was on his feet with Hyōrinmaru in hand within a split second. Haruka remained sitting her hands held in front of her, ready to use the kidō she had been perfecting for months. The sky was shredded to pieces when the Gillian revealed itself. Haruka channeled her reiatsu through the air, humidifying it and instantly changing the water to ice crystals. Haruka would normally never use this technique while there was another shinigami present because if they were unable to manipulate the ice the act of breathing would shred their lungs to pieces, but she knew from prior experience that Hitsugaya was comfortable with the ice shroud. Visibility within the frozen field was null but the two were able to feel their surroundings through the reiatsu they flooded through the ice.
Haruka dashed through the ice with grace, her zanpakuto still sheathed at her side. She felt the Menos swinging at the ice, attempting to free itself from the frozen prison the shinigami had created. Haruka approached the beast and blew a path of fire straight at it, melting the ice and revealing her position. The Menos swung angrily at her and began charging a cero. Haruka held her hands steady and began chanting the kidō spell. The cero it Haruka dead on, but the spell absorbed the power. She said the last word of spell and tried to shoot the cero back to the Gillian but instead the energy flowed into her causing her to fall to the ground.
The Gillian charged another cero but Hitsugaya was able to distract it before it could fire.
"Sit upon the frozen heavens," Hitsugaya shouted as the ice flowed around him. Hyōrinmaru's shikai slashed at the Gillian, ripping its right arm off. Hitsugaya had fought Gillians in large numbers before so he easily sent it back to Hueco Mundo within a matter of seconds.
As the sky returned to its normal state, Hitsugaya released all the ice in the air and dropped to the ground next to Haruka. He sheathed his zanpakuto and sat beside her. She was unconscious but still alive, her breathing and pulse very weak. He picked her and carried her on his back, using shunpo to get to Urahara's shop as quickly as he could.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her even though he was sure she couldn't hear him.
By the time Hitsugaya reached Urahara's shop the sun had already risen. He rushed to the door where he was greeted by Jinta.
"Where's Urahara?" The young captain demanded. "It's an emergency."
Jinta ran inside the shop and Hitsugaya followed. He could feel Haruka growing weaker with each passing second. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her, especially if he knew he could have saved her too.
"What happened?" Urahara said as he entered the room. He shifted his hat to get a better look at the situation.
Hitsugaya tried to stay calm when explaining the situation. "She absorbed a Menos' cero. It didn't hit her, but I'm not quite sure what happened. She was trying some new kidō she had been working on in the lab for months. She hasn't woken up since."
"This is a grave situation," Urahara said, gesturing for the captain to follow him into a back room.
Hitsugaya set Haruka down on the bed and sat on the floor beside her. "She has a chance right?" Hitsugaya could hear his voice becoming nervous. He was scared for her. He thought that the kidō had been perfected, that she would be able to complete the spell without any problems. If he had known that something like this could happen he would have never let the cero fire.
Urahara nodded to him. "I need to go look up something, I'll be back in a bit. Watch over her, send Jinta to find me if anything happens." He walked out of the room leaving Hitsugaya and Haruka alone.
Haruka looked as though death had already set in upon her. Her faint heartbeat and breath were all that told you she was still alive. Hitsugaya got up and laid beside her in bed. He wondered if she had been this worried about him when he was in the hospital. He believed that she would be okay in the morning. He had been up for over a day and was extremely exhausted. He quickly drifted into unconsciousness.
Arigato. Reviews welcome.
- Haruka Shinigami