A/N - Thanks again for continuing to read this, all comments and opinions are welcomed :)
Chapter 14 - Mysteries
Stretching and cracking his aching neck back into place, one of the remaining shinigami of Squad 2 awoke and glanced blearily around him. Immediately becoming aware of the stinging in his chest, he groaned and pulled aside his frayed uniform to asses the damage. Removing the blood-soaked makeshift bandage from a deep gash on the upper left of his chest, he sucked in a sharp breath as the crisp morning air assaulted the wound. The Hollow had caught him with its lethal claws, tearing the skin apart easily. He had been one of the lucky ones and had been flung violently backwards out of the area where he had hit his head upon a rock and mercifully lost consciousness. Those that had remained in the melee to fight the fearsome creature had not lived to tell the tale. The gash looked no better in the light of the day than it had last night, the deep red wound framed by skin mottled black and blue with bruises. The shinigami gingerly poked the clotted slice in his flesh before awkwardly patching it back up, wrapping a fresh roll of bandage around his chest and tying it securely.
Hauling himself unsteadily to his feet, he clutched his aching chest with one hand and his bruised head with the other. Amazingly, he seemed to have no bones broken, but to make sure, he took a few tentative steps and looked about to see if any of his comrades were awake. The two shinigami of the Stealth Force were nowhere in sight, though this wasn't unusual. They could still be in the area or have already left to carry out their instructions from Soifon-Taichou to head back to Soul Society and report upon the status of the mission. Three of the others were still asleep beneath a tall, aged tree, looking in much worse condition than he was. That left the fourth shinigami, Hiroki. Seeing a movement out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shinigami in question limping towards him between the splintered tree stumps and scorched, churned up earth, his face badly scratched.
"Ryota, how are you feeling?" Hiroki greeted, "are the others still asleep?"
"I could be worse, I mean, dead." Ryota laughed grimly, hand still over his wound. "How's your leg holding up?"
The other shinigami dragged himself up to Ryota and slowly sat on the charred floor, carefully keeping his right leg out straight. Peeling up his torn uniform, he grimaced as he showed his friend the deep gash running the length of his calf past the crease of his knee. "I hope we can get back to Soul Society before this thing gets infected. I'd hate to lose my leg after it survived that Hollow's attack. I wish that bastard hadn't killed the guys who were good at healing. I tried myself but only just managed to stop it bleeding."
Ryota chuckled as he squatted beside the other shinigami. "You could always try asking the Captain to heal it."
"Are you insane?" Hiroki grumbled, "she'd give me another gash with that stinger of hers to go with it if I dared. You know what she'd say, 'that'll teach you not to be so incompetent and move out of the way faster next time.' And then she'd make me run 20 miles on my injured leg. No thank you very much."
"So did you see how they finally beat it? I was out cold and didn't see a thing." Ryota asked eagerly.
"I was in no condition to see much," the shinigami pointed to his battered face, one eye swollen shut, "but I think the Taichou used Shunko and I'm pretty sure the new woman used her bankai. Didn't see what it was though, all I saw was a lot of white and purple lights flashing about. I felt the heat and heard thunder though, must have been flames or lightning."
"The Vice-captain can use bankai? She must be really strong."
"Yeah, didn't you see her beat up that fat, useless Ōmaeda? It wouldn't surprise me at all. We'd have been in real trouble if her and the Captain hadn't been around on this mission. The Stealth Force couldn't do a thing. Where is she anyway? And that new Vice-captain."
"I haven't seen them, I thought you'd gone to look for them."
"I heard a noise over there somewhere" he waved a hand vaguely to one side indicating the direction, "and thought they were on their way over to check on us. I waited a while, but they didn't show up. I could still hear whatever it was moving around the bushes so went over to check it out. All that effort and there was nothing there though. Must have been a wild animal I scared off."
"We'd better wake the others and check none of them died during the night" Ryota sighed, using all his energy to pull himself to his feet once more.
As the two officers neared the camp of the bedraggled Squad members, their hands joined, they slowed their pace to be close to each other as long as they possibly could. Before they left the cover of the trees, Yoruichi smiled at Soifon, gave her hand a squeeze and released her hold. Soifon returned Yoruichi's smile, a blush still clearly visible on her face. Stepping from the trees, the dark-haired woman tried with difficulty to bring her dazed, overjoyed thoughts around to her responsibility as Captain. Yoruichi followed slightly behind, impatient already to be alone with Soifon. It looked as though that would have to wait until they were back at Soul Society.
"T-Taichou!" Ryota hastily pulled himself to his feet and saluted the two approaching officers. The rest of the shinigami were now awake, tending to their wounds. They hastily saluted from their various positions.
"How is everyone?" Soifon asked the bewildered Squad 2 shinigami. He had been expecting orders to move out regardless of the condition of the men, not an inquiry as to their well-being.
"Er, still recovering." He replied. "I think a couple of them will need help walking, but we should be able to manage." Was the Captain blushing? Knowing better than to stare, the shinigami lowered his eyes.
"Good, when you are ready we'll leave."
"Hai, Taichou." He bowed and went back to helping the others to their feet, wondering what was going on with the Captain's behaviour.
Soifon could feel Yoruichi's tantalising presence behind her, and as Ryota turned back to the wounded men, the purple-haired woman closed the distance until she was leaning into the smaller woman's back. "This is going to be torture, none of them are in a fit state to walk unaided, let alone use shunpo."
Soifon shivered as Yoruichi's warm breath tickled her ear. Leaning back into the Vice-captain, their cheeks touching she murmured back. "I feel like I've been longing for this for a hundred years, a couple of days waiting is nothing compared to that. This is all just amazing to me. At least I know you feel the same way and I'm with you." Yoruichi felt a slight twinge of guilt, but it was quickly replaced by warmth at Soifon's words.
"The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back. Anything that tries to slow us down further will die." The Captain smiled happily at the golden-eyed woman and stepped away to help her Squad get on the move.
"I'm sorry for making you wait so long, Soifon" Yoruichi whispered under her breath so the Captain couldn't hear. Flicking her purple hair behind her, a mischievous smirk slid onto her tanned face. She planned to amuse herself on the long trek back to Soul Society by making her little bee blush as much as possible.
As the sun made its way high into the piercing blue sky, Squad 2 began the arduous journey back to Soul Society. The shinigami trailed behind the officers scouting ahead, supporting each other as they limped along. Walking side by side, their fingers occasionally brushed, sending sparks of electricity dancing through them both. After a while, Yoruichi glanced behind, and seeing that the Squad were a fair distance back, quickly darted round in front of Soifon and placed a kiss on her lips before bounding up into the trees, her red obi billowing in her wake. Wheeling around on a low bough, she grinned as she saw that Soifon hadn't moved, the girl's face aflame.
"Y-Yoruichi! You need to warn me when you're going to do that," the Captain gasped. The older shinigami laughed in response. She leapt nimbly from branch to branch over Soifon's head, eager to be on the move, scattering a drizzle of green leaves as she went. Soifon watched the cat-like antics of the older woman with amusement before turning to check on her Squad. Sighing resignedly, she slowed her pace. It looked like they would have to take another rest; one of the more badly injured shinigami had collapsed onto the ground exhausted.
Calling to the beautiful Vice-Captain, Soifon explained they would be resting for a while. Yoruichi decided to take a look further ahead. She was feeling full of energy and couldn't bear to sit still. She was tempted to take up her cat form and leap through the trees but instead contented herself with using shunpo to burn off some of her energy. After she had travelled a short distance, she became aware that something was wrong. She could sense the traces of a powerful reiatsu in the area. Coming to a halt on the path they were following, she cast around for signs of the owner. Walking further along the route, her keen golden eyes swept the surroundings. This reiatsu felt familiar, but somehow was completely alien to anything she'd come across before. An uneasy feeling growing in her stomach, she decided this was a grave enough reason to risk assuming her feline form, her senses magnified a thousand times. Immediately as the swirling smoke cleared, the silky whiskers quivered as Yoruichi recognised the scent of blood. Flicking her tail in agitation, she followed the rank odour until it led her to the foot of a tree, seemingly the same as every other in the forest. Her golden eyes widened in shock as she observed the grisly fruit swaying in the boughs.
The scorched and torn bodies of the two Stealth Force shinigami were impaled upon the branches, hanging lifeless as the unsettling new reiatsu stifled the already heavy air.