He couldn't believe that the anger that welled up inside of his was directed at Yoruichi, for years he had felt only desperate love for her, but this seemed to be completely replaced by the burning fury at how she had used tried to use him just nights before. She acted like nothing had changed between them, but when she needed comforting she crossed the boundary and used his love as a way to use him for herself, despite the impact she knew it would have on him.

Regardless of this, he couldn't escape the fact that she was still his teacher and his bankai training would commence in the near future , this would take a long time so he'd have to think of a way to avoid her as much as possible by speeding up the process of achieving bankai or getting a new teacher altogether.

Suddenly, Kisuke remembered something that he had done research on a while back, on a mission to the Rukon District he had discovered that when visiting your inner world to talk to your Zanpakuto, a certain hormone is released in the brain that forces the body to hibernate so Soul Reaper is fully concentrating and the swords spirit can fully manifest inside of your mind without inside interruptions. He figured that if you could somehow make this phenomenon occur outside of the mind then you could force your Zanpakuto spirit into real life. Combine this technique with a certain gigai technology then voila! He would have a new teacher to help him learn bankai, and who better than Benihime himself?

He rushed back to his room to write down this idea so he could immediately begin testing prototypes of the invention, in this way the finished product could be ready in time for Monday, when he would have to face Yoruichi at training.

Sometime later, when he had gathered together a clear plan of what he was going to do to make this device, he realised that he would need to collect some of the hormone that he needed. Strangely enough, this hormone was most commonly found in a plant that grew in the Squad 4's medicinal garden, outside of the body at least.

Raring to go, he made his way to the Squad 4 barracks, outside it was still raining so he walked mostly underneath awnings that stretched out from the nearby buildings, the sky had stayed a permanent shade of dark grey all day so it was impossible to tell if it was morning or night. As he looked up at the clouds, the sky rumbled with thunder.

The medicinal gardens were left open to the rain so Kisuke had to first spot the plant that he needed from a distance before darting to get it so he could stay relatively dry. That was the plan anyway, he had already spotted the plant and quickly made his way towards it, a willow tree grew around the plant, shielding a lot of the gardens from view on the outside of its branches, due to this he hadn't realised that someone was under the canopy. Purple hair, orange jacket, it had to be Yoruichi. He quickly turned around but was stopped by the voice behind him.

"Can you not even be near me anymore Kisuke?" she asked, her voice sounding even and devoid of emotions. To him, it seemed like luck wasn't on his side today, he had run into her twice in one day at the times when he really didn't want to see her.

"I don't really want to be here right now Yoruichi, I'll just come back later," he answered, his voice equally as steady and controlled.

"Come on Kisuke, we're friends and I'm sorry, can't we just forget it ever?"

These words made the anger flare up inside of him all the more and, like so many times around Yoruichi, he could no longer keep his emotions in check. "Can't we just forget it? You just don't get it do you? You and I both know how I felt about you but you had to mess with my head anyway."


She ignored the comment about messing with his head, she had already agonised over this fact all day long, and instead she asked a far more dangerous question "felt?" she whispered.

"Yes, felt, Yoruichi. In case you haven't noticed, I'm tired of chasing after someone who only wants me when it suits them." She looked at his face as he said those words that were filled with venom. His blond hair had been dampened in the downpour that still seeped through the branches of the willow tree in which they stood, the damp strands of hair curled around his face in a way that made his eyes look more prominent and his jawline seem very angular. The water glistened on the tip of his nose and his eyes were filled with a passion that she'd never seen before, this was a totally different Kisuke than the one she knew from her childhood, this one was passionate and sure of himself and, totally and completely beautiful.

This wasn't what she was supposed to be thinking at this moment in time, so instead she tried to reply to him. "I know what I did was wrong, but I didn't know what to do!"

Kisuke looked puzzled, "Didn't know what to do about what?"

"I mean, there was so much that I could've done to change it, it could all have been different if it weren't for me," she mumbled, more to herself that to him.

"Changed what Yoruichi? What's up with you?"

"Yamada died on the mission," she said quietly, she wasn't even sure if he could hear her and sure enough, he leaned in closer to listen to what she was saying, "I was actually just putting some flowers on his grave, when we were making the arrangements for his funeral it was discovered that he was actually supposed to be assigned to Squad 4. He always loved this place so I asked for him to be buried here."

Kisuke looked on at her, the passion was still alive in his eyes but the corners of his mouth released the grimace that he had been displaying, he slowly walked over to where she had been sat a few moments before to look at the small grave that displayed Yamada's name. After a short while, he returned to facing her and said,

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to know what I had done; I didn't want anyone to know,"

"Yoruichi, you know that I'll be here no matter what, and I've always thought that you'd always be there for me too, but that changed after what you did…" he trailed off, still angry.

"I am here for you! I'll always be here for you," Yoruichi tentatively held her hand out, as if wanting to rest in on his shoulder but was unsure if she was allowed to.


Seeing Yoruichi act so vulnerable and unsure of herself was a big indication to how much she must have been carrying on her shoulders. He wasn't sure what had happened to get Yamada killed but he could assume that it was no accident, the way she had been acting since that mission must have been because of this. A little bit more of his anger broke away, like he always knew it would eventually, although he was still hurt, she was hurting too and he couldn't make her suffer anymore pointless arguing.

He took her hand in his and looked her in the eye when he said "I know that, and despite everything, I still want you to be there when I gain my bankai."

"That'll take years Kisuke, surely we'll have made up by then?" she asked, flashing a worried look at his face.

"Not necessarily," he said, more of the anger released from his face as he began to smile at the thought of his invention, "I've created a way that will let me achieve bankai in three days."