Chapter 36 Our Past Never Forgotten
"Where the fuck did you go?" Rangiku muttered as she peered through the leaves of the bush she was hiding in. she had followed the large amount of trace reiatsu that he was leaving behind. She figured at this point that the Fifth Division was doings some sort of exercise but she wanted to know exactly what it was. She had lost track of the squad but that did not matter much to her, she did not want to get caught snooping anyways.
She was hiding in the bushes because for some reason Amagi's trail of reiatsu ran dry, so she assumes he must be near by. She grew angry with herself the longer she sat in the vegetation. So stupid, Rangiku shook her head, what the fuck am I doing in here? Like some giddy little girl. So pathetic. She was about to crawl out when she herd some one walking towards her hiding spot. She instinctively reached behind her and gripped the hilt of her zanpakuto in her hand, ready to draw it out in a moments notice.
"What do you think your doing?" A mans voice whispered loudly in her ear. Her first reaction was to summersault out of the bushes. She landed on her feet with Haineko drawn and pointing it in the direction from where the voice came from.
"Amagi-sama," She shouted relaxing her stance and sheathing Haineko, "sneaking around like that, could get your self killed." Amagi walked from behind the bushes, he was wearing only the bottoms of his Shihakusho. He had a turquoise ribbon wrapped around his upper arm. She blushed and looked away when she caught herself examining his muscular frame, "and please where the hell is the rest of your uniform." It was the best she could come up with and it was no where near what she really wanted to say.
"What? You have seen me in fewer cloths than this," Amagi said looking down at himself and chuckled. Rangiku glared at him, but she knew it was true; she was trying her best not to stare.
"And you should be the one to warn me about sneaking around," Amagi walked past Rangiku, "You were the one hiding in the bushes."
"Yeah, well I had a good reason," Rangiku folded her arms across he chest as she tried to think of an excuse and quick. Every time she was around him her chest would feel tight and she felt anxious; how she hated this feeling.
"Oh really, and what was that reason?" Amagi prodded coyly. He turned to face her with a wide grin on his face, "I would like to hear that."
"I-I was in the area," Rangiku stuttered but what she said was the truth, up till a point that is, "you kind of wrecked the village with your Sonniku Shunpo and I cam looking for you to yell at you."
"Oh damn," Amagi's grin disappeared as he looked over in the direction from which the village lay, "I tend to forget how much reiatsu I put out when I do that, was anyone hurt?"
"Not severely," Rangiku said but remembered the two assailants that tried to harm her when Amagi blasted over, "just a few cuts and bruises, Oh, and two unconscious thugs as well."
"Whew, ok you had me worried for a second there," Amagi sighed, reaching back to run the back of his head in embarrassment, "but what were you doing in the village anyways? Just on a weekend stroll I presume?" Rangiku nodded but kept silent.
"We need to talk Rangiku-chan," Amagi's voice turned serious; "we really haven't had time since I've been back you know? Come; take my hand I want to show you something." Rangiku looked at his out stretched hand for a moment before she took it. How familiar it felt; warm, gentle, how she missed it. Without a warning she found herself standing at the edge of massive lake. The water shimmered in the sunlight.
"I remember this place," Rangiku spoke softly as she recognized where Amagi had brought her to, "haven't been here since after you were sentenced to-"She pressed her lips tight before she could continue thinking aloud, "Sorry."
"No, it's ok Rangiku," Amagi smiled reassuring her, "I have to apologize for not being here for you at all. I left on a bad note which was not right for me to do to you."
"What do you mean?" Rangiku asked as she looked over at him with a puzzled look. Had he meant after the battle with Aku or when he was thrown out of the Seireitei?
"I was cast out when things were good between us," Amagi walked over to the edge of the lake and sat down on the smooth graveled shore, "and I left again with barely a good bye after Aku was defeated. You have been through a lot because of me and you deserve better than what I can give you." She wanted to scream in protest that that was not true, but for some reason she could not. She stood looking down at this man and felt so guilty for being jealous and secretly loathing Nia. Rangiku wanted to tell him that he deserved so much better than she herself could give him, but she believed he already had.
"You have nothing to apologize for Amagi-kun," Rangiku said softly smiling at him as he turned around to look up at her, "time is always a precious thing no matter what the circumstance or where you are."
"Yes it is," Amagi stood up and in one full swoop he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, "no matter what I want us to be friends, ok?" Rangiku melted in his arms; she barely heard what he said. He has not changed one bit, Rangiku thought as she smiled returning his hug, he has grown up so much but he is still the same old Amagi-kun.
"Of course," Rangiku buried her face in his warm shoulder, "would not have it any other way."
"Good," Amagi stepped back and grabbed her shoulders, "Now, don't worry about Nia-chan, she may act intimidating to you, don't take any notice, ok? She has a mean jealous streak."
"I noticed, but she is not the only one," Rangiku laughed and so did Amagi; he knew that she was referring to herself and knew exactly how jealous she could get.
"Alright, I have to go," Amagi looked back at the forest behind Rangiku, "the rest of my Division is near by. We are playing an interesting game of tag. You can come along and watch, or participate, it's up to you." Amagi released her and smiled. He vanished, leaving Rangiku by herself to think about what just happened between them. Though she was not alone for very long, and barely had time to grasp it all when at least a dozen or so people wearing the Shinigami uniforms were running along the shore of the lake.
"Rangiku-sama!" Momo shouted as she waved her arm in the air. Right next to her was the red haired Nia, her expression was contorted to that of extreme concentration.
"Momo-san, Nia-sama!" Rangiku waved back.
"What brings you out here?" Nia asked as she approached Rangiku.
"Well I found Amagi-kun," Nia's attention snapped to Rangiku and she glared at her, "he said I could tag along. If that is ok with you that is." Nia thought about it for a moment and decided that it would not hurt having her around.
"Would love to have you help us!" Momo said cheerfully.
"Do you know where he went?" Nia asked. Amagi never told Rangiku where he went but even still she did not know how to answer. After a moment of debating with herself, she raised her hand and pointed into the woods.
"Alright listen up," Nia called out to the rest of the Fifth Division, "Momo-kun take your designated squad accompanied by Rangiku-san, and take the right flank. I will take the left flank. We need to surround him, but be cautious, I'm sure he has some tricks up his sleeves."
"Yes fukutaicho!" everyone said in unison. They drew their zanpakutos and continued to divide into the appropriate squads.
"Let's move," Nia ordered, reaching behind her shoulder to grab her own zanpakuto Donnergott from its casing. The light glinted as it reflected off the long slender blade. She held it out to the side as she sprinted into the woods, closely followed by the rest of her Division and Rangiku. Not even Nia knew what was in store for them; Amagi kept that a secret but he promised no explosions.
The winds blew gently along the sands of Las Noches, which in recent years has fallen deathly quiet. Only a few hollows leave, but only because they are aloud to, though no one wants them to; it would upset the balance if none walked among the World of the Living or the Soul Society. Now only small groups of Shinigami patrol the vast desert but none are told what they are looking for. Only rumors of Arrancar and Menos Grande hiding in its vastness are told but any have yet to be spotted.
"Keiji what the hell are you doing back there?" A female Shinigami shouted to someone lagging behind her. She was bound in a white rob and a shemagh wrapped around her head to protect her from the more frequent sand storms. She and Keiji were on patrol when they lost sight of their squad members.
"Shut it maple syrup!" Keiji shouted as he picked up his pace. He too was bound in a white rob and Shemagh, "not my fault we lost track of everyone!" She stopped in her tracks and turned to face Keiji.
"Fuck you; I hate it when you call me that!" She groaned in annoyance.
"Fine than KAEDE-kun," Keiji said harshly. Normally the two of them got along just fine, but they had gotten lost in the deserts of Las Noches for god knows how long, and their patience had long been broken. When he approached Kaede, she turned her back to him and folded her arms across her chest.
"I'm sorry," He sighed as he stood next to Kaede, "this place has gotten to my fucking head. I don't know where we are and it seems to be going on forever."
"Yeah and that last sand storm did not help us at all." She said relaxing her stance.
"No it did not," Keiji knelt down and pulled his pack from around his shoulders and dropped it into the sand. He proceeded to dig threw it once again to look for his compass, "I know I keep searching but maybe it's still in here?"
"If it was not there yesterday than it won't be there today," Kaede placed her hand on his shoulder, "we just keep walking till we find a marker or something. One shouldn't be too far I hope."
"Your right," he re packed his pack and as he stood up tossed it back on his shoulders, "lets just go." Soon after it was not long until something in the distance caught there attention; a purple light flashed for a second or two before it stopped. Than seconds later it would re appear for another couple of seconds. They froze as they tried to figure out what this was.
"Whoa what is that?" Kaede squinted through the shemagh to focus on the light.
"Don't know but what ever it is it is getting closer." The wind suddenly died and the two of them shot each other a concerned look. The light was just about to break over the horizon when it disappeared. This time it did not reappear and the hairs on the back of Keiji's neck stood on end; he had a bad feeling that something bad was about to happen.
"What the hell is going on?" Kaede asked, it was eerily quiet and the air around them seemed to get thicker.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Keiji said taking a step backwards, "I think we should go. NOW!" As soon as he said that the sky around them opened up with a storm of purple-white lightning bolts. They jumped to either side as a bolt smashed the ground where they stood just a moment before and it was left sizzling as the sand melted. They stayed side by side as they ran, but what ever this was it was massive.
They watched the lightning hit the sand around them, and as they ran over previous strikes, the sand suddenly turned solid; the molten sand cooled into glass. Suddenly with a loud bang, the sky was torn open revealing a white light behind it. They were temporarily blinded by the sudden flash so they did not see what slithered out from within the tear.
"Run Kaede!" Keiji said as he was the first one to regain some vision, he was horrified by what stood over them," go! Now we can't do anything against this Hollow!" he gave her a slight push and she sprinted, running as fast as her legs could carry her.
"Keiji where are you?" Her eye sight was not fully recovered but she could tell there was something in front of her, and it was gigantic.
The ground shook as the figure that stood in front of Kaede bellowed; it was loud and it sounded terrifying. She saw another flash of light and knew that Keiji must have engaged what ever this thing was. His Kido only seemed to enrage it as it began to stomp around bellowing a deafly roar as it went. Another flash of light erupted but this time it came from the creature, and Kaede looked on in horror as Keiji was engulfed in flames.
"NO!" Kaede screamed, "Keiji!" she froze; fear, horror and dread suddenly flooded into her. She just watched her best friend, the only man she ever loved; die in the most horrible way she could imagine. She wanted revenge and she wanted this thing dead. She drew her zanpakuto in a blind furry of rage she charged at the beast, screaming as she went.
The creature turned to face her and in the on going lightning she saw the dragon like head, its razor sharp teeth seemed to grin at her as it lowered its slender neck to the ground. She continued to charge with her zanpakuto raised above her head, she knew instantly that it was futile, but she did not care. Before she could even get within striking distance, something grabbed her leg and lifted her up high in the sky. Her shemagh fell away, her long deep purple hair hung free of its containment. She had to think of something and quick.
"Hado Number 31 Shakkaho!" Kaede shouted and a ball of red reishi shot from her outstretched hand. It impacted and exploded on the dragon-like beast's snout. It screeched in surprise and in one swift movement Kaede was slammed into the ground with such force that she the wind was knocked out of her. She lay there in the crater that was formed gasping for air. The ground shook as the creature walked to stand over the girl; she hoped she would slip into unconsciousness before the beast killed her. She did not want to think about it but knew it was inevitable.
"Mitsuko Amagi!" Kaede heard the beast bellow. It was the last thing she would ever hear. She slipped away just as the creature opened its mouth and red hot flames erupted from deep in its throat.