Chapter 11

Half way towards her destination, Yukiko froze. Something important just disappeared, something that was now worrying her greatly.

Grimmjow... No.. Yukiko shook her head, trying to convince herself otherwise. Just because she couldn't sense his spiritual pressure didn't mean that he was... Her long blonde hair forming slight waves as she shook her head again. He wasn't dead. He was just hiding it... But that isn't his style... Please Grimmjow. Don't be dead! She hurried to the battle scene where someone, likely her father by now, was fighting with Nnoitora; a small light of naive hope that Grimmjow was still alive shining in her strong yet fragile heart. She could still sense Orahime's and Ichigo's. Yachiru was there as well. Tesla, who she could sense before, was most likely dead as she couldn't find an ounce of his presence left, and Nnoitora was still alive. That thought bothered her. Yukiko never liked the tall espada, and found ways to bother him by doing things like calling him a 'spoon' or the occasional 'satalite dish'. Though with his outfit... He was sort of asking for it. Grimmjow always thought he looked kind of like a praying mantis, but Yukiko just thought that was way too cruel... To the praying mantises that is.

Managing to avoid Ulquiorra the entire way, Yukiko found a rather odd sight for her eyes to behold. Grimmjow was laying on the ground, unmoving, bringing her fear back the her mind, Kenpachi was fighting Nnoitora as she had figured, and Orahime was behind her shield with Yachiru, watching the ongoing fued. The only thing missing was Ichigo, but he was still alive. She could feel it. When her blue eyes wondered to a puddle of red liquid on the ground, another confirmation happened. Tesla, was in fact very much dead. Now the only reason this scene was odd to her was because Grimmjow was just laying there. Her feet moved quickly as she moved over to the limp body of her dearest friend. When she reached him, she kneeled down on the ground, and struggled to pull his head up and onto her lap. Her hand reached to his neck, where the pulse was to be found, and to her relief, it was found. His pulse was faint, but it was there none the less, and she found herself crying tears of relief, a gentle smile in her eyes and on her lips. She kissed the electric blue haired man's forehead and lifted her face to watch her father fight against a large spoon. No... Not quite spoon as the top half of his uniform had been either cut off or obliterated. Unfortunately for her though, the same fate did not befall upon the outfit's owner.

"SNOW!" A shout of joy came from the little pink haired girl, now standing, on a piece of rubble. She jumped up and down from the excitement welling up within her little body, and as Yachiru prepared to run over to Yukiko, the kneeling blonde shook her head vigourously.

"No Bubblegum! Not right now."

"Why?" Yachiru pouted.

Yukiko simply pointed to the battle infront of her and the point was made. If Yachiru ran to Yukiko, there was a slight chance that she may get caught in a blow made by either of the warriors and Yukiko wouldn't risk that; she loved the little piece of bubblegum too much for that, and she knew that Kenpachi would blame himself if she were to get hurt wether or not it was he who inflicted the damage. She recalled the time that Yachiru had fallen ill with a simple cold. Kenpachi was worried so much that he couldn't even bring himself to leave her bedroom to do anything until she got better. His meals would be brought to the room, his work, (though that still was rarely done until last minute), his drink, and everything else. He even skipped Captains Meetings until Yachiru had gotten over her cold.

Despite his appearance, and the way he treats others, he is a great father. He may not always show it in the most traditional ways, but Kenpachi Zaraki does care for people. It's just that he is pretty picky about the people he allows himself to care for. Yes, it's true that fighting is his favorite thing, and his favored types are fights to the death, but there are four things that he puts above them. His fifth seat, Yumichika, his third seat, Ikkaku, his lieutenant/unofficially adopted daughter, Yachiru, and his daughter, me. I just wish more people could see that.

Sighing, Yukiko watched as her father and the fifth espada went at each other with everything they had as that thought went through her ever busy mind.

"Now, I think I'll take care of you.." Nnoitora's voice brought her back to the fight, but there wasn't a fight to be seen anymore. Nnoitora was stalking over to Yachiru and Orahime, Kenpachi was laying on the ground, bleeding profousely from a wound in the center of his chest.

"Dad.. No.." Yukiko gasped, and her hand went over her mouth. Her heart stopped beating at the sight. She couldn't loose him. Not again. She wanted to scream, but it wouldn't come out. But Kenpachi knew that he couldn't die right now, he couldn't do that to Yachiru, and he definately couldn't do that to his own flesh and blood again, and he knew that she must be worried about him, what with him just laying there. But he was thinking of a plan, and to put her worry aside, he moved his hand a bit. Yukiko noticed, and sighed gratefully. As Nnoitora got ever closer to the two females behind an orange shield, Kenpachi got up and warned him not to get any closer to Yachiru. The spoon man turned around, surprised. Apparently, he had been under the assumption that Kenpachi had died. Orahime looked relieved, and a smile was on Yukiko and Yachiru's lips now. There was a new look in the captain's eyes, and the two liked it. Any doubt that resided in them towards his victory was gone. Kenpachi Zaraki would win. There was no doubt about it.

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"Can't... BREATH!" Yukiko gasped out as she was hugged very tightly be the little pink girl. Kenpachi pried Yachiru off and pulled Yukiko into a hug of his own.

"I'm sorry I failed you..." He said, making sure it was so quiet that only Yukiko could hear him.

"You didn't fail me at all." Yukiko whispered back, shaking her head. Kenpachi just pet her hair with his eyes closed, relieved that she didn't hold anything against him. Then his eyes opened as he suddenly remembered something he wanted to ask her.

"Why did you kiss that guy..?"

"Because, he's my friend." Yukiko said as she pulled away, somewhat reluctantly. "That's Grimmjow. The man I told you about in the letter. All this time, he's been like an older brother, and I was worried about him. But he's still alive, and when I found out, I was so relieved that I kissed him... But it was only on the forehead." She admitted.

"That's all the relationship was? He never..." Kenpachi raised his nonexisten eyebrow.

"No!" Yukiko shook her head. " Never! I mean, yeah we cuddled, and I slept with hi-"

"YOU WHAT!?" Kenpachi yelled.

"Eh? Ah, no! Not like that! I'd fall asleep while we would talk and he let me sleep on his chest and that kind of stuff... It wasn't like that at all!" Yukiko spoke quickly, explaining what she meant, shaking her head violently.

"That better be all it was." Kenpachi warned.

"It was. I promise." Yukiko smiled gently as she hugged her father again. "So... Um, maybe we should meet up with the other captains.. Or I could go find Renji... Or Shailloh..."

"They got Shailloh?"

"They got Shailloh."

"Well then."

"Yup..."

"We gonna go?"

"Sure." Yukiko first headed over to Grimmjow's still motionless body and kissed his forehead again, then joined Yachiru on the shoulders of the mountain of a man, and off they went on a mini adventure to find the other captains. When they got there, Ichigo was getting his butt handed to him on a platter by Yammy.

"Down you two." Kenpachi said. His two little girls climbed down and watched as he ran to save the Strawberry looked around, seeing Mayuri, Unohana, and Byakuya with Shailloh sitting beside him. She ran up to Shailloh and wrapped her arms around his neck, grinning from ear to ear.

"And here I thought I'd have to go looking for you boy!" Yukiko giggled, petting her gaurdian wolf.

"Yukiko... You're alright..?" Looking up, she saw her captain's dark blue eyes set on her. She smiled up at him, getting up she replied.

"Yes.. I'm perfectly fine." Her smile copied itself in her eyes, and Byakuya could feel his self-control slipping; he wanted to hug her, to tell her how worried he was about her, he wanted to hold her and never let her go... And he didn't know why. Luckily though, he had enough self-control left to stop the rest of it from dying off and allowing him to give into this odd feeling he had. Now while Byakuya still wasn't aware of the feeling he had for his fourth seat, she was now highly aware of her feelings toward her captain, and had finally come to terms with it. If she had any doubt that Byakuya would react badly, she might have actually hugged the living crap out of that man, but she knew he would; not only that, but he was her captain, and... She wasn't entirely sure that it would even be accepted. So she settled for being able to have the relationship that they had. This was as close to him as she figured she could ever get, and she was perfectly happy about that.

"Good." He nodded his head, and hesitantly patted the top of her head. The gesture surprised Yukiko quite a bit, but she accepted it by smiling, and laughing. As they turned to watch Kenpachi battle against the huge being that is Yammy, Yukiko sat herself down beside her captain and her crush. Her life was certanly getting more and more interesting by the second.