The exams are coming up for me. Got really about one month and something left of school. I'm now not sure if I should be happy or not.
ANYWAY, THERE'S A LONG WEEKEND FOR ME.
Please review!
-Tammy Sakamoto
"Someone bring Abarai Fukutaicho to the relief station! You two over there go help the Ryoka!"
"Yes sir!"
"And the rest of you, Second through Fifth Division take a look after Komamura Taicho! Sixth Squadron look after your Taicho, you guys too, from Tenth and Eleventh!"
"Yes!"
"And all present Eighth and Thirteenth Divisions, tend to Third Seat Sakamoto and her wounds! Immediately! Report back to me when there have been any changes in her condition!", the blonde Official of the Relief Company shouted, declaring proper action be taken out until the arrival of the expected Unohana Taicho.
He glanced over to the girl that fell victim to Aizen's assaults. They all took a toll on their bodies, even the orange haired Ryoka that was reported to have outwitted Captain class Shinigami. But by far, Sakamoto Hisana would have been easily classified as the one in the worst condition out of all of them, and the one placed in the most dangerous situation...
and the one who is most likely to not survive past this day.
He frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose, ashamed that he would assume such negative thoughts on the expense of a fellow third Seat. Where there is a will there is a way, he encouraged himself.
'Where there is a will, there will be a way. Yes.', he thought optimistically, running over to his arriving Taicho on her zanpakuto.
Half a small soccer field from where he once stood, the members of Ukitake and Shusui's Division-including the two themselves-surrounded the still form of a female.
Shunsui, tilted his straw hat downward as he examined her eyes seriously. They held a distant and barely concentrated look in them, her once liquid brown orbs faded to become a nearly cold gray. Hisana held them open wide like most of the days he knew her, though they no longer carried the warm and joyous feeling that came along, and it seemed as though the wideness of her young eyes was even larger than normal...and more strained.
He sighed and lifted his right arm to peer at the abandoned zanpakuto he recognized was hers. Wakahiru was kept within it's sealed state, now nothing more than an ordinary cold metallic katana wrapped in green silk.
"Her zanpakuto has changed out of its Bankai against her will...", he informed aloud, everyone of them heard, but the statement was directed at the pale white haired Captain of the Thirteenth Division.
Ukitake tensed and looked down at the girl he was holding in his arms. She was stiff as her upper body was supported by is right arm. Her chin tilted upward to allow her eyes to look at the blue sky. The blood previously spilling from the corners of her lips have dried out, and she was no longer sweating. Or moving.
"So it was true than, that rumour I heard that she looked for Kurotsuchi to learn Bankai...", he frowned, examining the new piece of fabric adorning her waist and cascading across the hakama pants, "That extra article of clothing on her shihakusho should have told me everything, but...Sakamoto, do you know how foolish you have been?"
There was no response out of the said female's part. All that she did in response to his accusation was to not move a muscle.
Kyoraku peered over at his old time friend and then back at the jet black haired girl, placing his three longest fingers atop of the hole peeking out of her throat. He waited.
'No good.', he confirmed and sighed an umpteenth time.
"Ukitake, there's not really much mistaking in my assumption that-"
"I don't need to hear it. I've already known.", the silver haired Captain cut in, shaking his head with his eyes closed, "But what should we do now? Should we tell them at this particular moment? I mean...now?"
"...It's...not such a good idea now is it?"
"..."
his shadowed eyes observed the still girl. He couldn't think of anything else that could express his frustration other than breathing out an exasperated sigh, "For now...why don't we just let her lie down ?"
"...", Ukitake spoke of nothing, but only followed the suggestion the Taicho of Eighth Company made.
…
…
…
"Rukia, is that you?"
"Yes. It's me. Nii-sama."
"...I have something to tell you."
Unohana, who stood beside the two siblings noticed Shunsui and the pale Ukitake walk toward them. The straw hat captain could have been described to be as sickly as his long time friend.
…
…
...
"Kurosaki Ichigo...I thank you.", Byakuya rasped in a tone just loud enough for the Ryoka boy to hear.
"...Feh.", he half sighed and chuckled, to the raven haired Taicho, meant that this teenager boy had accepted the thanks.
"Rukia...", he continued, pulling his hand over to hold the wrongly convicted Shinigami.
"...?"
"I'm sorry.", he whispered. Her eyes visibly widened and shook.
"..."
He saw the Ukitake and Shunsui standing before them all and Shunsui stating to Unohana Taicho that "There is a situation.".
"Yes?", the stoic female Captain asked and listened intently as inaudible words were whispered into her left ear. Byakuya visibly saw her gentle eyes widen and stare back at the raven haired womanizer.
He looked over to his accompanying friend, Ukitake and caught the silver haired man staring at him. He flinched and peeled his eyes away from Byakuya's own violet ones and looked at Rukia for a moment, before peering at the distant buildings to the left of Sokyoku Hill.
Byakuya turned to look at his younger sister, continuing to hold onto her smaller hands. She looked back at him, her curiosity as peeked as his. What could they have been talking about that would have been such a big situation?
As Kyoraku Taicho retreated his lips from Unohana's ear, she called out to her Third Seat for him to come over and continue treating his own wounds. When her instructions were made clear, she stood up and followed briskly forward , the two of the three oldest Captains of the Gotei 13 following right behind. All three of them walked in the most feverish and desperate steps Byakuya had ever seen since becoming a Captain himself.
And his hunger for an explanation was slowly, but in an explainable manner, eating out his guts.
The raven haired man called out to the kneeling figure of Unohana's Third Seat Officer, "Might you have an idea of what circumstances are surrounding the matter's that has led your Taicho from leaving?"
He nodded slowly, "Yes, sir. I have just been informed of it a few moments before coming to you."
"..."
"..."
"...Well?"
"Well...the news has been kept as low and long as possible, until the conditions of the injured officers have been stabilized."
"Tell me."
He panicked, "Forgive me Kuchiki Taicho, but I'm afraid that my announcement will not be the best for your current condition."
"Tell me anyway.", he replied in a firm tone, "I, as a Captain of the Gotei 13 have the right to be informed to things surrounding the people."
"...Yes.", the blonde muttered, and busied himself from a world of curious stares directed at all corners with unwrapping a clean set of cloth.
"I am waiting."
"...It is unfortunate for me to say that this situation my Taicho is dealing with is in regard to your Third Seat, Sakamoto Hisana."
"..."
Nothing else was said. Byakuya blinked quickly, his heartbeat in hyper drive.
…
…
…
The heart dies a slow and painful death. Like leaves falling off of the branches of a tree, until there are no more leaves left to fall down. No more hope. No more life. Nothing at all...
I found myself dressed in a white untainted yukata. It would be the the cleanest article of clothing I would have worn for the last few days. But how did I get into it?
I half sighed, half scoffed to myself.
"Is this what it truly means to be dead?", I whispered.
"Yes. My child."
I jumped. As I turned around, I recognized the silhouette of a figure amidst the dense fog of clouds, slowly making her way toward my standing form. When she came close enough, I saw that the figure that spoke to me was a small old lady in her senior years, dressed in a green kimono, a mark of a married woman. Her head was purely thinned and grayed out, knotted into a tight and high bun.
She carried a soft seniority smile that was often expressed on her features, evident from the fine lines etched onto her eyes and cheeks. I blinked in surprise as she looked up at me.
"Who are you?", I asked quietly, not knowing what else to say to her, a nervous glance telling the old lady everything I was feeling.
"I'm Mrs. Tanaka. I live in this world and escort the departed souls from Soul Society into the Real world.", she gently replied, before taking my hand in hers and nudging me to follow her.
"Now this way, Hisana-chan."
"Where...are we going?", I questioned, but non the less followed her.
"We are heading toward the doors to the Real World.", she turned back to look at me, "But before you go, I will allow you to look back at your life, from the day that you were born to the last moments of your breath."
I slowly nodded, not knowing what to feel inside my heart.
"Okay."
Mrs. Tanaka smiled, though, her smile was never absent the entire time I conversed with her, "I'm sorry to say that yours had been one of the shortest lived ones I've ever had the chance to see. But it DID happen. Your story starts fifteen years ago, in Harajuku, Japan."
…
…
…
"What?", was what parted from his dry lips.
Byakuya's fears became a reality, an all too difficult truth to face.
"N-no!", he could hear Kurosaki Ichigo shout out from a few feet away, entrapped in the odd orb of regenerating light his friend held him in, said friends standing close to the orb to proven him from moving, no matter how much he wanted to.
"...Kurosaki Ichigo. Please calm yourself down.", Unohana pleaded, moving toward the group of Ryoka .
"No! I'm not going to calm down!", he shouted, "You guys! Let go of me!"
The thin raven haired boy responded, "If you move around, you'll kill yourself. Wait until Orihime is done tending to your wounds."
"Kurosaki-kun...please...", the female whimpered.
"LET ME OUT!"
His protests were futile, as they refused to free him, and the chestnut haired girl had matured her powers enough to hold him inside the transparent dome.
Byakuya on the other hand, was not tied down, and pushed himself to sit up.
This shocked Rukia, "Nii-sama!"
He breathed heavily, holding onto his younger sister's small palm, "Rukia, help me over to where she is."
"Nii-sama...you can't-"
"Rukia."
"But you're hurt!", she stuttered, and the twenty-eight head of the Kuchiki family turned to see that tears have begun to hang onto the waterline of her eyes.
"Rukia...I want to see her.", he whispered, bending his legs in order to hoist himself up, "I..."
"Kuchiki Taicho, please stay down.", the hand of the Fourth Division Captain on his right shoulder held him down. Rukia aid the female Captain with the task.
"...Nii-sama. I will go look...", the black haired girl suggested, holding on his wrist and pressing him down into the cleansing force field.
Byakuya reluctantly leaned back onto the dirt floor as his sister proceeded to move over to the ever growing crowd of medical Shinigami.
Unohana looked at him, remorse compiling her look as she stood up and followed Rukia. The Sixth Division Taicho laid there by himself, aside from the Third Seat from Unohana's squadron kneeling beside him.
"I...I give you my condolences, Kuchiki Taicho.", he mumbled, "She was a valuable asset to the Seireitei, that, Hisana was."
"...", he didn't say anything, and just turned his head to the left to see the hoard of Shinigami being dispersed upon the command of Unohana Taicho. Rukia was allowed to kneel beside the form of his Third Seat of one year.
At that moment, Byakuya realized something. His sister, that he brought into the family fourty-nine years ago , was shaking, her shoulders shuddering. The Soul Reapers that were shooed off displayed a crestfallen look on their faces, and some looked as if...
as if they were going to die.
The orange haired Ryoka that saved his sister was belting out his pain at the top of his lungs.
"HISANA..."
Hisana...
The shouts emitted from every present creature clogged his ears, and prevented him from taking in the proper intakes of oxygen needed to think properly.
Even the simple task of listening to what his brain thinking was hard to do, he could not hear his own thoughts...
he could only hear the echos of a three syllable name being repetitively spoken in his mind.
And that was all the fuel he needed to bolt up and run toward his jet black haired subordinate.
"Wait! Kuchiki Taicho!"
"Your wounds will open up again!"
"I implore you to stop!"
"Kuchiki Taicho!"
Still Byakuya kept his unsteady sprint, and threw uncouth attacks upon every person that dared to stop him whenever he wanted to proceed with an intent.
"Please!"
"Kuchiki Taicho!"
"Stop!"
He didn't hear a word of their shouts. Everything that vibrated off of his eardrums translated into Sakamoto Hisana.
"Sakamoto Hisana..."
"Sakamoto Hisana..."
"Sakamoto..."
"Hisana..."
And finally, he collapsed with a sharp 'thud' on his knees, sure that he broke a piece of cartilage or bone due to the heavy impact. Rukia was making sounds that showed him that she was sobbing as she held onto the thin fabric of her own yukata tightly.
At that moment, Byakuya ceased to hear anything concerning the outside world. Everything literally muted.
As the world was gone to him, he could hear the shaky breaths coming from him as he exhaled, then inhaled, then exhaled and then inhaled. Exhaled...
It became too difficult to breathe. It had been a sense of self he had never felt before. Not even when his wife, Hisana passed away that young Spring day.
Byakuya's thought brought him back to the first time when he was alone with the girl.
He hadn't seen her face, as his eyes were glued shut because he was pretending to sleep. It was late into the night during Winter. He had been working overtime, catching up with his paperwork, and so was she.
She had offered him a source of affection and care he had not been exposed to for a long time. Byakuya had been bothered by the idea that she shared a name that brought him heartache alongside her arrival into his life. He figured that he would hate her because of it, in order to prevent the soiling of his fond memories with a certain Lady Hisana he had fallen in love with so many years ago and was still attached attached to. Byakuya intentionally made things harder on her for the sake of his injured heart and Hisana. He told himself that he hated everything she did. She was the living embodiment of everything he found distasteful in life, the source that would lead him to forget his beloved Kuchiki Hisana.
He hated her for something that she could not prevent from happening, as proven when that Aizen confessed to using his cunning zanpakuto to have her parents name their daughter 'Hisana', all for his sick pleasure in seeing Byakuya react to such a profanity. Byakuya had been merely a spawn for him to toy around with, and with his undeniably sour personality, the head of the Kuchiki estate had made an innocent girl suffer through the seven years she spent in the Seireitei...
The raven haired Captain brought a hand to cup her pale cheeks. His thumb rubbed away a blotch of crimson blood underneath her brown eyes.
Maybe if she had been someone else, a young beautiful girl that approached his insecure world with a different identity or alias, maybe this would not have been her demise. She might not have been involved with any of this. Was it his fault that she had died?
"Don't worry Kuchiki Taicho, I'm going to train harder so that you don't have to be hurt anymore."
"Kuchiki Taicho, you're going to get a cold like that. So I'm just to going to put this jacket on you."
"Kuchiki Taicho! I left some bananas outside your office for you!"
"Don't die! Kuchiki Taicho! You stupid idiot! Why die because of me? You have the world to live for! I have nothing..."
Sakamoto Hisana was a selfless person. Now he realized it. She had done nothing that should have been rightfully repaid by his slap in her face...and that injury and humiliation she took back at Shino Academy.
He was a bastard. An stupid man indeed. Undeserving of the kindness she gave to him, the warmth that came with her presence near him.
"Sakamoto...", he whispered, bring his other cold hands to stroke her other cheek.
He had forgotten how soft her cheeks were. It had been a few months since he had the chance to feel them underneath his calloused palms. The last time had been during the hot springs, when she saved him from drowning.
Oh dear lord...
"Sakamoto...I...", he rasped out again. He looked at the deep brown pools of her eyes. They expressed a sense of fear and loneliness, obviously from dying such a way.
But behind those now lifeless orbs, he saw something that only he can see. And it was gratitude.
"Kuchiki Taicho, I'll grow stronger so that one day I'll pay for your kindness."
"Why?", he called out to her.
'Why do you want to be thankful?'
He didn't need to hear it in words. Byakuya could have guessed what her final words—in a mental sense—-to him were. She would have probably asked him to see her death as a long awaited thank you she had wanted to express to him.
Sakamoto Hisana stood before Sosuke Aizen battle ready. In a moment of utter panic she had flung herself over to him in order to block a would be death blow to Rukia and him. Her focus faltered for a moment, and it costed her everything. She managed long enough for recruits to come to their rescue. But they didn't manage to save her.
Truth hit him hard.
Hisana was dead because she protected him. And that was the final thank you he received. Everything she had supposedly been indebted to him for was finally repaid back.
A life for a life.
She had owed him nothing since the beginning. But she had made things flow that way in her little world, in order to find a reason as to why her Taicho treated her so coldly. If only he had never relentlessly assaulted her, maybe things would have been different.
"Kuchiki Taicho..."
Unohana's voice approached him.
"...What?", he muttered, his eyes turning to face the grim female.
"I am truly sorry. She will be seen as a hero."
"...A hero..."
"..."
Heroism.
Had Sakamoto ever thought of becoming one? No, she didn't. She had only wanted to be accepted. That was all that she really wanted in life. Or so he presumed.
"Please allow the girl to part with closed eyes."
"..."
With that being said, Unohana reached over to the obsidian haired girl's forehead, slowly pulling her palm downward.
"No."
The Fourth halted in her tracks, "Kuchiki Taicho..."
"I'll do it."
"..."
He replaced his hand atop the girl's forehead, slowly trailing his fingers down and over her open eyes. Once his cold digits left the upper portion of her face, her eyes were closed.
He couldn't explain it, but the sadness that overcame him when Sakamoto Hisana's eyes closed in death was just too unbearable.
Finally, he was able to listen to what was going on around him. The Ryoka boy was still shouting. The Shinigami were either silent or sobbing.
When Unohana placed the thin white fabric over her body, Byakuya asked him self if all this pain felt for his third Seat was his fault. After all, the girl they all admired had died because of a man not worth protecting. He said that he hated her because of her birth name.
Byakuya scoffed. If only he could take it back now. If only.
Hisana was a beautiful name. Everyone with that name was beautiful in his eyes.
"Hisana..."
The bearded Fourth Division Taicho brought the cloth over her face...
…
…
…
"...My child Hisana. This is the end of our walk. We have arrived at the gates that will lead to your new life.", Mrs. Tanaka called.
I sighed, but smiled, "Surprisingly, I don't feel any bit of sadness in me."
I trailed my eyes over the final time I looked at a certain raven haired Taicho's face, "Maybe it's because I know that he'll be happy that I gave him proper thanks."
"You have made your peace."
"Yes."
I turned back to look at the small smiling lady, and I smiled back at her. Never in my life have I ever felt so light hearted.
"I'm ready now."
She nodded and handed me a small bowl. I blinked and looked into the glazed bowl to see that there was a generous proportion of clear liquid in it.
"As a konpaku soul begins its new life in the Real World, all memories of its previous life must be erased, in order to keep the mechanics of the dimensions in proper order. When you drink this, things you retained as being Sakamoto Hisana will be gone once you go past these gates."
"I see. Well then...", I smiled, and bowed low, "Thank you Mrs. Tanaka."
She walked forward and placed a hand on my head, "Live well in your next life my child."
My smile didn't leave my face as I remembered to slowly pull my body up, as a sign of respect.
"Your unacceptable bow, is not low enough..."
"That bow was too quick, as if you want to anger me and disrespect me."
I laughed, recalling that second encounter with Kuchiki Byakuya.
'I'll forget who you are Kuchiki Taicho. I just wish I could remember that there exists someone as charming as you are.'
Having nothing to wait for any longer, I tipped the smooth edge of the water bowl to my mouth, "Thank you everyone."
'No regrets.
None.'
"...You sure are an interesting girl."
Five armored fingers wrapped around the small of my wrist, effectively halting me from allowing the water to flow into my parted lips and over my tongue.
The bowl was pulled out of my hands and flung away somewhere, bringing a gasp to escape my throat.
"What?", I said, turning to look at Mrs. Tanaka, whose smile never ceased to falter.
"Tanaka-san.", the same male voice called out to her, "I humbly ask that you leave us be."
With that, she bowed and was submerged in the dense fog again, leaving me with nothing but a short, "You have my blessing."
I turned to face the man who interrupted my small ceremony, "What?"
"What?", he frowned, or so his tone implied.
"Who...are you?"
…
…
…
A hand shot out to halt Unohana's movements, successfully stopping her from completely pulling the white cloth over Hisana's head.
Byakuya was pulled out of his depression by the sudden shock, his violet blue orbs widened, "..."
"I humbly implore that you do no such thing of placing that fabric over Mistress Hisana's face."
Byakuya turned his face upward from the ground in order to see just who this person was. He was assaulted by the brightness of white clothing that could easily illuminate and blind any person.
"Who are you?", Unohana asked.
The white clothed man, or being, in his crouched position craned his neck to look at the older female, "The spirit which inhabits Mistress Hisana's zanpakuto. My name is Wakahiru."
At that comment, all eyes widened.
…
…
…
"Who are you?", I demanded again, pulling my wrist out of the tall male's hold.
"...", he didn't say anything, other than reach out at lightning speed and take a firm grip on my upper right arm.
"What? Can't even remember the guy that saved your butt multiple times from being fried?"
I raised one black eyebrow and pursed my lips, "No..."
"Geez. You ARE a weird girl.", he mumbled, pulling down his mask to show his young masculine face.
I blinked in astonishment, "?"
"Remember me now?"
My lips parted, and I shook my head slowly from side to side. The tall man, whoever he was, brought his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"...Sigh...I'm Senbonzakura!"
...cue the fainting
-TBC-
Hm...Senbonzakura and Wakahiru huh? I wonder what's going to happen? Squeal!
This chapter sort of felt like a drabble didn't it? Just wanted to have a part where Byakuya sort of realized that his feelings for OC Hisana runs more deeply than a subordinate or a friend...hint hint.
Btw, he still loves his wife. I can never let that element disappear from this world.
Ah, sorry for the late update. I was doing nonsense and typing out this story for a LONG time.
Please Review!
-Tammy Sakamoto