"Concentrate!" Gin snapped, his patience waning, "it has to be natural if you want to sustain it."

"I'm trying!" Hinamori gasped out, "not all o us are prodigies!"

"Very true," he said, "but I assure you every single Shinigami who has a Bankai has learned to exist in this form as though it was second nature."

Hinamori bit her lip, holding all snide remarks back but only barely. Hinamori was standing in the middle of the room, in her flickering bakai form, barely managing to see the physical manifestation of Tobiume, much less put up a fight. It seemed that her Zanpakto was fine waiting for her to get ready, apparently even the rules stating she had to beat him were not enough to override his desire to look 'cool' in front of Hyorinmaru.

"Did you mean what you said?" Hinamori asked, her voice soft as she looked at the ground instead of Gin, "about Hitsugaya?"

"I wouldn't presume to know anything about him," Gin said with a shrug, "the only time I really see him is when a massive ice dragon is coming towards me. I knew you thought that way and so I used that to stir a reaction out of you."

"Oh," Hinamori said, her voice ladened with doubt, "um, so--"

"Don't think about 'what's next'," Gin ordered, "focus on sustaining your form."

Hinamori nodded, trying to force her muscles to relax. She could do this, she had to do this. She focused on making the fluctuation in her Spiritual Pressure smaller and the wavering image of Tobiume clearer. She fell into the rhythm of doing that, of just doing that. Slowly time seemed to ebb away as the fluctuations became minuet before vanishing into a steady flow, a still lake. The faint image of Tobiume stopped wavering and solidified until Hinamori knew for certain there were three beings in the room, four if she counted the silvery fox curled near Gin, watching them with a bored look on his face. Though in the beginning it took all her focus eventually it was rather like balancing. She relaxed into it as Gin had told her until she was kneeling on the ground facing Tobiume and her thought was that he was much more beautiful in real life than he was in her mind.

"Good," Gin said, "now you must fight him."

"Actually I'd rather not," Tobiume said icily getting to his feet. Hinamori's eyes widened as the spirit walked over and extended a hand, helping Hinamori to her feet, "I have waited enough to manifest, I would prefer to fight other people."

Much to Hinamori's surprise Gin made no argument. In fact he was bowing. To Tobiume. Gin was bowing because to see another's Zanpakto Spirit, especially during their bankai, was a great honor. Even if he had his moments of foolishness he knew better than to be less than respectful to a Zanpakto spirit.

"Now then," Tobiume looked at Hinamori and the blade she held that was currently in its initial release, "lets do something about this," he moved her hand so the blade was between them, pointed at him. He touched his fingertips to the blade.

Tobiume shimmered as though it were quaking at the touch. The prongs on the blade lengthened and wrapped around the blade completely, giving Tobiume an almost round appearance. The guard she held was rapidly becoming consumed by the metal that was twisting like vines. Hinamori moved her hand up, feeling the sword change. When her hand grasped the metallic vines color suddenly spread through them. They were vines. Hinamori suddenly found herself holding an ornate staff a bit taller than she was. She looked down to see she was wearing Tobiume's silk haori, the colors in the staff matched the plum trees on her robe, the crystals an exact match for the ornaments Tobiume wore in his hair.

"I--" Hinamori looked up at Gin, "I did it!"

Gin smiled faintly, a real smile not the grin he offered to the world.

"It seems you did."

Break

Rukia opened her eyes, the salt from her lashes making her eyelids unnaturally heavy. Renji peered at her as she quickly reached up to rub her eyes. Renji held out a damp cloth. Rukia accepted it with numb fingers, remembering that he had done the same thing for her when they were children and she had cried.

"You're a wreck," Renji said, his voice uncharacteristically soft, "what happened in that fight?"

"Huh? Nothin--"

"I know you better than that Rukia," he said, "and don't say its just about Hisana either. I know this has something to do with that fight of yours and its got something to do with Ichigo. I haven't seen you look this sad since Byakuya adopted you and I'm not letting you go away this time so spill."

"Spill?" she asked with an amused smile.

"Rukia," he growled.

"Did you know Kaien Shiba?"

"Of course," Renji said, "I knew about your fight too," he looked at her, "what about him?"

"The Espada I fought, he devoured Kaien's body," she closed her eyes before deciding that opening them was better, "he took Kaien's body and he wore his face and he--" her breath hitched, "he made me kill Kaien all over again!" she choked back a sob, "I had to kill him again and he-he tried to use my feelings about Kaien--he used what Kaien meant to me against me and I listened to him!" she sobbed in earnest now, "I had to kill him all over again!" her frame shook, "what if it had been someone else? What if it had been you or Ichigo or anyone who looked like him?! I couldn't do that, I couldn't kill someone who I, I, loved. I'd loose us everything!"

"Rukia," Renji put his arms around the sobbing girl, not knowing what he could possibly say to make things better.

He knew about Kaien Shiba's death, how Rukia blamed herself despite Ukitake assuring them that Kaien's death was not the fault of a terrified girl who had simply held her sword strait like Kaien taught her too. But if she fought an Espada wearing his face, if she had to go through that again, he knew exactly why she was acting as she was. There were fights that one did and moved on and then there were fights that wore at a person's very soul. Her fight with Kaien had been one of the latter. To go through that twice, he couldn't imagine what that was like. He could only hold her tightly against his chest, murmuring nonsensical comfort like he did when they were children.

It was impossible for someone to be strong all the time. But that was what she did, what Byakuya did as well. They shoved their emotions down until the world got to be too much, until it was impossible to keep them so locked up one second longer. Knowing Rukia the fight had affected her deeply, then they lost the War and she was captures and Hisana was alive--everything had to have built up past the point she could stand. Renji closed his eyes and tightened his grip on her, hating the feeling of not being able to help her.

"It okay," he murmured, "just, just let it out. I'm here," he gently ran his hand up and down her back, "its okay, We'll go and we'll save Byakuya and things'll get better."

Ichigo hung his head, hating himself for evesdropping, hating himself more for not being able to comfort her. She had seemed fine in the cell, fine when they were rescued and when her sister was alive. But maybe, maybe she hadn't been fine and he had been too blind to see it. Ichigo felt like an ass, no, he felt like a fool. He didn't like feeling like an idiot, especially not where Rukia was concerned. Running his hand through his hair angrily he turned to go and talk to Urahara.

"Don't let her do it."

Ichigo frowned and turned to see Hitusgaya standing against the opposite wall, his head bowed. He raised it fractionally, his eyes locking with Ichigo's.

"She's pushing you away, don't let her," Ichigo opened his mouth, "just take it from someone who knows. If you let her push you away, you're always going to regret it."

"You love her," Ichigo looked at Hitsugaya, his eyes wide.

He had thought Hitsugaya had a crush on Hinamori but now, now he realized the ice prince's feelings for the peach girl went far deeper than just friendship. How much had it hurt him to see her drift away from him? To try and save her, only to fail and have her still be so far out of reach. Ichigo knew that would hurt if it was his best friend, if it was his best friend and the girl he was in love with--his heart ached, that was exactly what was happening.

"I did," he said with a faint smile before he turned to go.

"Do you still love her?" Ichigo asked.

"I--" Hitsugaya stopped, "I don't know," he said, his head bowing slightly as though the words hurt him to say, "excuse me."

Ichigo watched him go, his own heart aching for the young man.

Twenty minuets later Renji and Rukia exited the room. ichigo saw her eyes and felt irrationally jealous that she went to Renji for comfort instead of him. Renji looked at him and nodded briefly before going off to find Hisana. Rukia made to follow him but Ichigo's hand streaked out and grabbed her wrist. Rukia looked at him, her violet eyes still red from tears. Ichigo's throat seemed to close up but he forced himself to keep it open.

"Rukia," he looked at her, "please be careful."

"i'll be okay," she said looking at where his hand was wrapped around her wrist, "I have to go."

"I know," he said, releasing her wrist. Rukia turned to go.

"Ichigo?" she looked at him, "be careful too okay?"

"I will be," he agreed.

AN

Sorry for the length. This is just a set up for the next super-long chapter which is going to be the "Rescue Byakuya Chapter"!! It's going to be a day or so unless I get into it and force myself to finish things sooner.

Lets go save Byakuya!!

AN