The Story of Bleach told through the eyes of one Hara Setsuna, Captain of the 14th. As a Captain do not expect her to be all sunshine and roses. Eventual Byakuya/OC although not for a long time, the only other paring is OC/OC. Expect spoilers of all Japanese Manga chapters eventually.

[] = denotes flashback*

*Flashbacks not in Order

A/N: So I've gone through and added chapter titles to each part. Not in the menu bar (because there is not enough flipping space) but below like you see in this chapter.

Not Mine

Heart on Your Sword 3

Nothing really hurt - one other thing her sword thankfully did in Bankai form was dull the pain to make it manageable. But that also meant she didn't know how far she had gone in battle. Perhaps when she dropped her sword she would collapse and never reawaken. All around her she could feel other battles. When she closed her eyes she realized that she recognized the energy of the people who were battling - various Captains having come to this desolate wasteland. However because of how many battles were going on, all the energy layered over each other and created a smooth blend of exchangeable signals. A few were closer to ending than others so she gripped her sword and begun the slow walk to one of those. She could have gone faster, but blood flowed out of her wounds like water and dripped down her body each time she moved. To go any faster would be the perfect way to kill herself at an accelerated rate, something Setsuna couldn't afford with her unsure of how far over the brink of death her body teetered. If it hadn't fallen over that edge already. If her body was already gone, all this caution would be for naught - but she wanted to think that she was still alive. That her body, as full of holes as it was, still had strength in it, and that she had not yet reached her breaking point.

After all hadn't she promised Byakuya that she had something to tell him when she returned? So there was no way she could let her body fall now. Kenji lay slain behind her, the spirit of her Ex-Captain finally put to rest, his death avenged. Now there was nothing to hold her back from finding her new future - to stop her from going after what she wanted with absolute clarity. Well, perhaps if Aizen managed to be victorious, but that wasn't a thought she could even begin to entertain. That was not the sort of man who could achieve victory, he might be powerful and wise, and he might have the power of influence stored inside his sword, but that kind of man didn't have the willpower to win. There was a missing drive for total victory inside of him. He would kill and slash and destroy but something about him seemed empty, and when Setsuna had felt vacant, she had never been able to fully achieve. Only now did she understand that. For so long she had been hollow, but she wasn't anymore. Ever since Ichigo a small spark had been growing inside of her. It was still small, and still had room to grow, but the spark warmed her up from the inside in a way she hadn't been warm in a long time. Life had meaning again.

As she neared the broken circle of pillars she began to realize that the reiatsu she had sought out had been Byakuya's. His reiatsu always felt like falling into a bed of needles, at least when he was in combat. When he wasn't it felt softer, like being showered by thousand of soft sakura petals, that had been blown from a tree by a gentle wind. It was one of the most comforting reiatsu sources to be around and sometimes - when she was near him, she would seek it out just for it's comfort. That was what she must of done here, seeking out the reiatsu she knew the most, even if it felt like needles. Upon reaching the now broken cage she saw Byakuya. He was staring at his sister and a very damaged Yamada. Their eyes met and she felt her face break out into a pained smile. He stepped around the large bulbous body of the person he had defeated and walked over to her, "You're alive." he said.

"And you're here." she replied.

"Did you think that I would not be?"

After she had arrived at Hueco Mundo she had slowly come to realize that of course the Captain Commander would eventually send a party here. In knowing that, she had come to understand that her desire to go after Kenji right away - instead of waiting, had been hasty. But she also knew that if she had not gone after him on her own terms, and instead gone after him under the banner of the Gotei 14 then she would have not been able to do it just for herself. It would have been under a false pretense that she had come. She had needed to do this just for her, and that had meant breaking her own code of conduct for the first time in years. A code she was sure she would break a few more times in the coming future, "I did not doubt that the Soutaichou was going to send a few choice people here, but I did not know that you would be one of them." She told him.

"You told me that you had something you needed to tell me. So I came."

Setsuna laughed and it hurt her sides, "Did you doubt my ability to survive?"

"I would never doubt your ability to survive." He said seriously.

"Indeed?" she meant to say it as a statement but it came out sounding more like a question.

"After all the work we did in developing your second form, I had no doubt that we would see each other again, or else I would not have come."

Setsuna found that she could not argue with that. He looked down to where her fingers were gripping her sword tightly. Blood had snaked down her hand and had long since stained the white wood of her sword. She gripped the sword tighter like the life line it was. He reached down to touch her whitening knuckles, softly as if he were afraid that she would drop her weapon upon too much pressure. It was grounding and she found solace in it, "Byakuya-san."

"You are using it right now?" he asked.

"I must admit that I am. I fear that if I were to let go my body would collapse."

"Hm. I see."

Byakuya removed his hand and cleaned it on his already ruined shihakushō, "I'm glad you are here." she told him honestly.

"And I you." He paused to look her over, "You had something you wanted to tell me?"

Ah yes that. Setsuna stared up into his eyes and wondered how to go about telling him what she had wanted to say since she had seen him last. For if not now, when? Still, she felt herself grow red at the thought of it.

[The night after her conversation with Ukitake, Setsuna found herself standing on the hill that held the mass graves of the Ikeda clan. She was holding a small bowl of lit incense that she laid on top of the grave that belonged to the head of the family. Because of the relationship she had, had with Kenji she had never gotten a chance to meet these people, or even get to know them. However despite all of Kenji's rage she had never thought them bad people. In the end she had been a commoner girl who could not yet reach the level of nobility, so she understood why they had said no. Wind picked up and made her Captain's hiyori dance behind her. Seeing Kenji again, after so many years of him imprisoned, so many years buried under the ground as a deep secret, a dark shame, had brought feelings up she had thought just as gone as he was. She didn't love him, not in the way she had before, but her heart still cared for this man deeply. Stab wounds aside.

Behind her the grass swished out of tune with the wind, signaling the arrival of company. When Byakuya stepped up next to her she wasn't surprised, "I had a feeling I would find you here." he said.

"I had thought this part of myself in the past. Clearly I was wrong." she told him.

"We can never truly shake off the shackles of our pasts. Happy or sad."

Words of wisdom to live by, Setsuna thought, "I wish we could. I don't want any more failed love stories. For you or I."

Setsuna was sick of it honestly. They had worked so hard to uphold promises they had made a long time ago. Hadn't the two of them suffered enough under the weight of Kenji and Hisana respectively? Ghosts of their pasts that would not let go, that clung to their frames attempting to drag them down into the mire with them. Rukia had almost died for a promise made on the grave of two dead parents, long ago. Setsuna had closed herself off too - from ever considering love again, even as it stared her right in the face. Afraid to make the same mistake twice. It was no longer acceptable to her, to go on as she was, "I almost let my sister die a week ago." he said softly.

"I know."

"I still cannot find it in me to break my promise to my father, or my mother. Even now."

Setsuna stared up at him, "Then don't."

"What do you mean?" He asked her.

"May I speak freely?"

"I suppose." He answered her warily.

"I have found, that there are always ways to break rules, without actually breaking them."

It was old advice from her younger days, something she hadn't considered until recently.

The look he gave her was almost comical in it's shock. She knew that he had not expected her to say that, but the burden on his heart was large, and if she could find some way to ease it, she would. As he got over his shock his eyes narrowed, "You walk a dangerous line Hara Taichou."

"Haven't I always?" Then quietly she said, "When Hisana died you were so distraught. No one could see it, but it was there, in the way you walked, talked, even ate. We talked about it once, and then never again. Nobility is a heavy burden, I just ask you to consider all meanings of a rule or law before you act."

"Has all amount of tact gone out the window for you?" he asked his eyes narrowing further.

"I am done Byakuya-sama. Admonish me if you wish." she looked down at the ground, awaiting his judgement.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped and closed it. After a moment he let out a sigh, and his body seemed to deflate, all ire following out of him. As his body relaxed Setsuna let herself relax as well. He wasn't going to berate her as she thought he was going to do originally, "I will take what you said into consideration. If you will take what I say into consideration."

"Which is?"

"Allow yourself to move on from Kenji. You deserve it, just as much."

Staring up at him Setsuna wondered if he knew that she had already begun to move on. If he would be okay with how she had chosen to move on.]

Unable to speak Setsuna found herself at a loss for words. How could she convey her feelings to the man in front of her. For so long he had been an unflappable wall for her. Something that one looked at but never attempted to climb, unable to reach the top no matter how much she had dreamed it. But she had promised herself that she would tell him the truth, no matter how painful, no matter if it broke down their friendship. Their relationship had been teetering on the edge of something else since after Ichigo's invasion. Perhaps even before, when they had been comfortable to let it go on as it had, without questioning. But careful tentative touches had almost become bold, and this sort of stalemate couldn't go on anymore. In this moment they had to know where they stood with each other.

Byakuya would never make the first move, Setsuna had realized a long time ago. She was a commoner, below him, and his promise to his family left him frozen. But Setsuna had made no such promise, and as such she was a free agent, allowed to do whatever she wanted to change the course of their relationship. Hadn't she just told Kenji that she planned to fight for Byakuya, since he could not? If he could not move freely, then she would just move freely for him. As she sat there thinking about this her heart rate begun to speed up, adrenaline fuling her system, "Are you going to tell me any time soon?" he asked his patience wearing thin.

Words spoken smashed through her thoughts and spurred her into an action she had not foreseen. Instead of telling him how she felt as she had planned to, she reached up, and with her free hand - pulled him down to her by his scarf. His eyes widened a fraction, and that was all the time she had to understand what she was about to do before she was kissing him. Shock settled into her system as she realized what she was doing and to whom she had done it too. She had have done it because she still had the pulse of battle thrumming through her veins she thought. That feeling where you thought you could not anything not having left her. But what was done was done.

When he didn't pull away she realized that he was kissing her back. Gently, but surely, with a confidence she didn't feel but he must, he was kissing her back. The two of them stood there for a moment, discovering the other in this new way. Learning about each other through a closer sort of contact than they had ever considered previously. He reached up to bring her to him, melding her body to his. She only had one hand, so she held onto his scarf tightly, afraid of what the future held after they were parted. The way he kissed was fervent and beautiful, empty of hesitation. It felt almost like the way he battled, so full of grace and power at the same time. Warmth filled her, and finally she let herself get lost in it. The second she did that she knew she was lost to the love she felt for him, to their kiss. Something like this was not given up easily, and she would cling to it, and die trying to achieve it again. His lips were soft against hers, claiming her and causing the small flame inside her to flare up, all consuming. It was only her hand slowly going slack on her sword that made her pull back quickly, leaving her staring at the man she had kissed and wonder what would happen next.

A/N: Hehehehe.

Reviews are helpful but not necessary. I understand that this is an OC. If that is not your cup of tea then do not leave a comment saying all OC's suck, that is not helpful and will not make me delete the story. I too understand that most OC's suck, and yet I write anyway.