Chapter 28: Curtain Call

*It's been about forever and a day since I last updated, huh? ^.^'

Please review. Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, just the OCs. *


Naoko had never felt so clearheaded and invigorated before.

Everything looked so clear and sharp to her eyes, scents that were imperceptible before were now noticeable, and even her reiatsu sense was heightened. She could feel faint familiar flickers of her friends in the distance and the alarmingly low levels of her brother and Renji who lay just feet from her.

She kept her focus on Szayel though. If I think about Brother and how hurt he is I'll lose focus on killing this smug bastard.

Said bastard tilted his head and gazed at her with interest burning brightly in his eyes. "I must admit I'm a little curious as to how you've suddenly grown so strong. How did you manage that?"


The air was thick with the heat of summer and the blazing sun only amplified the warmth. Naoko took a refreshing pull from her glass of chilled fruit juice. The sweet, cold liquid and sitting in the shade helped keep her cool. The hot weather made training difficult and put her at risk for heat stroke. So, her mother wisely suggested they cut their training session short and talk instead.

"So, how did you end up working in the Fourth Division?" The teen asked.

Sakura sipped her own drink before answering, "Well, I was a doctor before I died, medicine and healing are in my blood. That and Captain Unohana saw me use healing kidō without ever having been taught how. After that she was… pretty insistent that I join her division."

Naoko's eyebrows went up in awe, but then furrowed in thought. "How is healing kidō different from offensive and defensive kidō?"

"The kidō is used to facilitate healing by restoring the patient's reiatsu first by converting your own to match theirs and feeding it to them, I suppose you could compare it to a blood transfusion. Doing that helps a lot when healing the actual wounds by using the patient's reiatsu and that from the kidō. But I modified that process a bit," Her mother looked a little mischievous at saying that.

"I would draw in reishi from around me and change it until it matched my patient's reiatsu, then I would heal them using their reiatsu like any healer would."

"So, you took spiritual particles and turned it into spiritual energy," Naoko summarized, hoping she understood.

The captain nodded, "That's right and because I was able to do that I didn't tire out as easily or quickly as other healers did. I suppose you could argue my way was cheating."

Shaking her head, the teen said, "I don't think the people whose lives you helped would say that."


Naoko gave him the slightest smirk, "A little trick I learned from my mother."

'A little trick?' Naomi asked, skeptically. 'Drawing in a copious amount of reishi and using it to heal your wounds and give yourself a power boost? If that's what you consider a little trick I'd love to see what you consider a big one.'

The Quincy's smirk grew, 'I'm glad you're impressed. Remember to keep as much of your reiatsu away from mine.'

'I know, be careful.'

Szayel lazily grinned and spread out his hands, "So are you going to attack me already or—"

In a blink Seele Schneider hacked off the branch-like wings on Szayel's left, the appendages fell to the ground and Naoko landed lightly on her feet just behind him.

A shiver of pleasure rippled down her spine. There was something morbidly satisfying at feeling her blade slice through her adversary with ease. It was addictive and she wanted to do it again.

The Espada clutched his bleeding stumps and howled, "You vile little mongrel! I'm going to gut you and strangle you with your own entrails."

That name struck a strange, sensitive chord within her and it stoked her ire. She spoke calmly, belaying her blazing rage, "Mongrel? I resent that. I'm nothing of the sort. You on the other hand, are an amalgamation of numerous Hollows, if anyone is a mongrel it's you."

Naoko bolted forward and aimed to cut him again, but Szayel ducked out of her way. His remaining wings swung towards her and would have grasped her had she not shifted direction to the left and skidded to a near stop. She tried attacking again and Szayel made another grab at her, forcing the Quincy to retreat. They repeated this dance again and again.

This is fucking frustrating! I can't get anywhere near him, Naoko gritted her teeth.

The itch to make Szayel bleed some more was turning into an irritating craving. She wanted to (cut-rip-tear-maul) end him, inflict pain as recompense for hurting her brother.

'Stop Naoko,' Naomi firmly cautioned. 'Stop and think before diving headfirst. Everyone has a weak spot, an opening you just need to figure out what his is.'

The Soul Reaper was right. Naoko shifted her breathing to a slow and steady rhythm. Memories of her spars with Captain Zaraki skimmed through her mind. Keep your eyes open. She had and she had found an opening to cut the seemingly indestructible captain.

Could I shoot him? She wondered. Poor past experiences of using her bow made the teen wary to try. This was not a battle to test out theories and ideas to see what worked and what didn't. This battle was truly for life and death, mistakes were not something she had the luxury of making.

I can't get close enough to cut him because of that damn wing. He tries to capture me every time I do. Naoko weighed the blade in her hand, if I can't cut it off maybe I can ensnare it. She held Seele Schneider with her left hand and tucking her right hand behind her, she subtly started weaving wispy threads of reishi.

Szayel crossed his arms over his chest, "Are you going to stand there all day like an imbecile or are you going to fight? It makes for quite a boring show when actors just stand around and do nothing."

Naoko felt the threads winding around her fingers, I'm not ready yet, I need to stall. "Hey Szayel, answer me something. Why would someone like you follow Aizen?"

The Espada chuckled, "Is this some poor attempt to stall your inevitable death? Have you finally realized you can't win? I suppose out of the kindness of my heart, I could humor you."

You don't have a heart; besides you just want to hear yourself talk. Naoko refrained from voicing her sarcasm and focused on weaving more thread.

"I follow Lord Aizen in the hopes that when he becomes a god he will destroy you lesser beings. Humans, Soul Reapers, and Quincies are inferior to us evolved Hollows. Your triviality, ignorance, and arrogance and general mediocrity is a sin, one that I sincerely hope Lord Aizen makes you atone for that with your lives.

"Perhaps if he is feeling generous he'll let me have some of you. Despite how worthless you are it will still be interesting to see how you tick."

Man, is this guy a prick or what?

'I agree, did you stall long enough?' Naomi didn't know what exactly Naoko was planning, but she knew a stalling tactic when she saw one.

Naoko curled her fingers around the loops of reishi thread she had woven, 'Yeah, I think I did.'

With quick bursts of hirenkyaku, Naoko darted around Szayel. In vain he tried to swat her, to land some hit even though she was not attacking him. He was so busy trying to grab her he failed to notice the threads being tossed around him.

Szayel huffed, "Is this all you're going to do? Hop around like a demented74 frog?"

She rolled her eyes, you're one to talk about demented. And tossed another loop of thread.

With bow in hand Naoko nocked Seele Schneider, pulled the string back, and fired. Leaning back quickly the blade skimmed harmlessly past Szayel and lodged itself in the ground.

He chuckled, "You have such poor aim, I'm mere feet from you and you still miss."

Naoko's face was impassive, "Who said I was aiming for you?"

Quizzically he glanced at the blade stuck in the earth, saw nothing unusual about it, then looked at her. He scoffed, "Stop bluffing and just admit you missed you wretched—"

His wings wouldn't move. They couldn't move.

Numerous glowing blue threads entangled his appendages and tied up around the hilt of Seele Schneider. Szayel sneered and tried to pull his wings free, however the threads held. Naoko felt a modicum of pride in her work. The abundant reishi in the air had made it easy to weave the threads quickly, she took it a step further by reinforcing the ties.

"Do you think yourself clever? Do you think these simple strings will hold me? Ha!" Szayel mocked, "Your pitiful threads are nothing against me. My strength is far greater than you can imagine I will—"

"Granz."

A brief burst of hirenkyaku placed Naoko from being in front of him to slightly behind him, bow in hand and arrow nocked.

"You talk too much."

The arrow left her fingers and flew straight through his head.

Szayel's body remained upright for a few seconds before slowly falling to the ground. Her hand hovered by the string in anticipation to draw another arrow in case this was a trick. But he didn't move, not the slightest twitch. Naoko felt cheated by the anticlimactic end. For someone who bragged about his intelligence he surely would've had some ace up his sleeve for something like this. But no, his reiatsu was gone and all that remained was the corpse before her.

The Quincy lowered her weapon and let it vanish. Well that was a little disappointing. He took down my brother and Abarai, yet I killed him.

'Maybe he used up all his tricks on them?' Naomi suggested.

The sound of a single pair of hands slowly clapping cut off Naoko's mental reply. She turned to see Nemu standing stoically beside the freakiest looking clown Naoko had ever seen. Is that her captain? !

The clown captain ceased clapping and grinned in an offsetting manner. "A bit short of a battle, but interesting nonetheless. I swear you Quincies weren't this interesting before or is it just the ones from your family?"

"Stay away from her Kurotsuchi or so help me—!" Uryu was caught off by a blood spurting cough.

Nemu knelt beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder and back as he fought to settle his breathing. Kurotsuchi rolled his eyes and dug into his robes pulling out a pair of flasks containing dubious gray liquid. He tossed the flasks to his lieutenant.

"Here, have these imbeciles drink this to restore their organs and heal any damage."

Naoko's brow furrowed in puzzlement, "How did you know their organs were destroyed?"

The painted captain lazily waved his hand, "From the surveillance footage recorded by the bacteria I placed in the Quincy boy during our last battle."

Said Quincy screech, "You did what? !"

Renji blinked, "Wow, talk about an invasion of privacy."

The casual confession of such an unethical act stalled Naoko's brain and left her speechless. She sighed instead and plucked Seele Schneider out from the ground. Now that she had calmed from the heat of battle Naoko noticed other spiritual signatures, like the familiar waves of strength that only Kenpachi Zaraki could give off.

"Are… Are you okay?" Naoko knew it was a dumb question, but she couldn't help asking.

Uryu's cough subsided, droplets of blood spotted his mouth and his pallor was closer to ash than white. "I will be. I admit I'm…surprised at how strong you've gotten."

She felt a flush of giddiness and pride at hearing his compliment. "Well, it's not like I've just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, you know."

"Even so, you shouldn't have stepped in like that," Uryu admonished. "You should have run away from here, find some place safe. Honestly, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking of killing the bastard who was trying to kill you," Naoko snapped, her hands tightening into fists.

"You should've run," he repeated. "It's not your job to fight my battles."

"Your battle? In case you forgot I was fighting him too and so was Abarai. We were in this together or are you too prideful to admit you needed help?"

"I'm not prideful I just don't think it's your job to fight for me. Older siblings are supposed to protect the younger ones," Uryu defended.

Never had Naoko wanted to throttle him so badly. How could he say that? How could he even think that? She was numbly aware that her nails were biting into her palm.

Her head lowered, "I don't care what you think is right or what's supposed to be. You and I are family that means we fight together. It doesn't matter who's older or younger or who's supposed to protect who. We protect each other!"

Angry tears teetered on the edge of her lashes, ready to fall. Instead of shedding those tears she sucked in a lungful of air and looked him in the eyes. "But you are too prideful and chivalrous to let me help and fight. So, fine! You can protect yourself and I'll fight alongside those who actually want me to."

Uryu tried to push himself up, "Naoko, wait—"

A surge of hirenkyaku carried her away before the rest of his words could reach her.


In the meeting hall of Las Noches Aizen sat alone at the table, casually studying five holographic screens. Four of those displayed the four captains who had arrived, so many familiar faces and all here to see him. The fifth screen showed a young dark-haired girl running across the white desert. Szayel was a careless fool to let her out and use for his own amusement. Aizen would have killed the Espada for defying him like that if the Quincy hadn't done it for him. Grimmjow should have been guarding her, instead he liberated Inoue and used her to heal Kurosaki just so he could fight the boy.

Idiots.

Why couldn't his Espada be more like Ulquiorra, who followed orders to the letter and didn't question him?

Aizen took a calming breath. No matter, he would simply have those who did follow orders, retrieve the girls and the Quincy boy as well. It was time to pay his debt to his Western cohort. He summoned Ichimaru and the smiling silver snake appeared in moments.

"You rang for me, Lord Aizen?" He slowly drawled, canting his head.

"Yes, I need you to recover the Ishida children and bring them to me and have Stark fetch Inoue here as well."

The perpetually smiling man lazily saluted, "Right away, my lord."

"And another thing," Ichimaru paused at that, glancing over his shoulder. "Send in those three Arrancar I spoke about earlier. It's time we moved out."


*Short chapter I know and I'm sorry, but I wanted to post something after being gone for so long. I might post again sooner since I finished one of my two classes. Until then please review and keep your eyes peeled. *