A/N: Sorry to have kept you waiting so much time for a new chapter! College has been crazier than ever! However, I do want to leave you this short chapter before disappearing again until March (sorry too much to do x_x). For those who don't know it already, I'm publishing a book! :D, yet it's only on my home country (Chile xD), so it might take a while to get known, yet I thought you should know as it was one of the things that got me busy. Anyway, I pretend to finish this story eventually, so let's get to work!

Mist's Sword

"Bankai?" Byakuya asked.

A great amount of mist covered Rukia and she was not seen by Byakuya. The mist was so dense and so huge that it covered Byakuya's sight within seconds; he didn't flinch, he merely dropped his sword as he prepared to counter attack.

"Bankai" he said. "Cut, Senbonsakura kageoshi."

Thousands, if not millions, of cherry blossom petals made a barrier around Byakuya in order to defend him, however, just as Rukia said, that man wasn't him and as the real one should have been able to see through Rukia's movement, this man didn't, and so he received a cut on his arm without even sensing it.

"If you are so sure I'm not your brother, why do you hesitate?" he asked "Why didn't you cut my throat?"

"Because I need to understand what you did with the real one."

"Why would I tell you?"

The mist suddenly cleared a little bit and it allowed fake Byakuya to see Rukia, who now held two swords, one in each hand and they were equally white and pure, also they were join by a ribbon that started in each sword hilt as she wore a snow white kimono. Rukia rose her swords towards Byakuya and calmly said "Fubuki.*"

The real Byakuya would have been able to react, he would have avoided that attack and he would have had a fair battle with Rukia, however it didn't happen. The mist around Byakuya suddenly became ice and he became frozen solid as Rukia lowered her swords.

"My bankai is why too dangerous to use around allies." She said "Sode no Shirayuki extends her domain on ice and snow around the mist and so she governs through everything on earth and sky."

And so the ice broke and killed the fake Byakuya. Rukia could feel how the spiritual leftover, which at the beginning felt like Byakuya, ended up feeling different, which meant she wasn't wrong. She never had a doubt, after all the training she did she became able to see beyond spiritual pressure, Orihime helped her to be able to see the true aura of people, and so now she knew exactly how her brother felt and that man wasn't him. She deactivated the bankai and she followed the path towards the end of the zone in order to reach Tatsuki and, if she was lucky enough, Ichigo too. He needed to remember her, and so she could finally tell him what she was never able to.

"So, in this alternate universe, timeline or whatever, we were friends?"

Orihime nodded to Uryuu's question. They weren't by any chance in an alternate universe or timeline, however it was easier that way to explain Uryuu all the questions he had, as such to why they were so set to rescue Ichigo.

"It's hard to imagine Ichigo as anything but hell's king." He said.

"For us is the other way around." Ulquiorra said calmly "He always seemed to be too self righteous to be such a thing."

Orihime was quite tired wandering zone to zone and yet not find anything. They were now closer, as Ishida said, to Ichigo. Instead of taking the official route that he led Tatsuki and Rukia they were taking a shortcut in order to reach them faster, and so they were traveling around a pretty disturbing crimson tiling corridor filled with endless paints around the walls, painting in which people suddenly appeared and showed different kinds of torture, and those were real prisoners being tortured as Uryuu said. Orihime had to watch up straight, yet it was kind of hard considering that it was somewhat tentative to look right or left once in a while.

"Are we there yet?" Orihime asked.

"How many times will you keep asking that?" Uryuu asked sighing "We are just two zones away, this one and the coliseum."

"Coliseum?" Orihime asked.

"They make the prisoner fight themselves to death so they get revived and die all over again." Uryuu explained "It's not that hardcore if you consider what we've seen as far, however we might want to be careful, there's a lot of fighters there and dieing means…"

"I know." Orihime interrupted "We'll be careful."

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

Uryuu and Ulquiorra said that at the same time; they glared at each other for like a second and then they kept looking forward as Orihime giggled.

Rangiku was pretty disturbed by all what Gin said, but he was perfectly calmed as he looked Rangiku with a smile.

"I've been waiting for you… for a very long time" he said "please, take the hogyoku off my chest."

Rangiku's eyes opened wide as she considered it could be a trap, but she knew she had no time to wonder, so she extended her hand towards the sphere and she extracted it from Gin's chest. It was weird, as she held that thing in her hand it seemed as it was shut down, it had no glimmer inside it as it used to do, it was like if the power was… drained… and so she looked at Gin who gave, maybe for the first time in his life, a smile.

"Thank you." He said as his body seemed to start breaking apart "Now, I can go where I belong."

"G…Gin!" Rangiku yelled as she grabbed his hand, which became full of cracks.

"No, no Rangiku." Gin said as his body started to fall apart, becoming ashes "You must be strong… you might be our only hope… you and that girl Tatsuki."

Rangiku didn't understand, what was all this? Why did Gin do all that?

"I've been waiting to die a long time." He said "Now I can, and if my death might bring you hope… then I'm happy."

Rangiku start shedding tears; she still didn't understand quite what was happening, yet she could see in that man's eyes that he meant his words.

"Don't trust anyone easily. And be careful…"

And just like that Gin became ashes in the wind as she held what seemed to be a lifeless hogyoku. What was she meant to do with it? She didn't know, and she couldn't really care that much, because as she held it she could only feel how the man before his eyes had just passes away, something he seemed to have been wishing for? Why? Although she thought she would never know, she would come to know why and until then she had to stay strong. She left the room while shedding tears in search for Kisuke Urahara, the only man that could understand what was going on.

However as soon as she left the room she was attacked. She was hit in the neck with such mighty that she started falling unconscious as a young man took the hogyoku, but before she passed out, she heard a voice.

"This is not your fight."

That was Toshiro Hitsugaya's voice.