(Bleach) Awake and Alive - Chapter 36: Illuminating Light
In one of the hospital rooms of the taicho section of the 4th Divison, Mikari laid silently in the white bed wearing hospital robes. Her breathing steadily went up and down as she slept peacefully. It had been 3 days since her fight with Amaterasu, she was now recuperating from the surgery. Her body was placed in cool water to handle the burns before her body was stitched up and bandaged. The bandages were around her chest again, arms, legs, forehead, even her wolf ears and tail. A breeze then came in from the open window beside the bed. Mikari shivered in her sleep slightly and in the end woke up from the cold. Slowly her eyes opened up, blinked a couple of times, and looked around her environment. She brought her hand up from underneath the blanket to get the sleep out of her eyes and slap herself awake from the hospital nightmare. When she saw her arm, she had to stop and take a moment to stare at the bandages. The fight from 3 days ago flashed in front of her eyes. Mikari's eyes went down in sadness at the memory of the words, pain, and Amaterasu's angry face.
"Ugh, forget it Mikari." She muttered to herself, shaking her head to get the memory away. Then she pushed herself up to a sitting position...well tried. Throughout her upper body, centered in her chest and back, pain shot through her all at once, making her immediately lie back down and groan in pain. "Ah fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"I hear my little sister screaming."
Mikari groaned at Yoruichi's teasing voice and closed her eyes. "Please onee-chan. I don't need this talk right now."
"But you do." Yoruichi said in a serious voice. She walked over to sit on the bed and looked down at Mikari, who's eyes were still closed. "You just had to use Shunko, didn't you?"
"Shut up!" Mikari barked back defensively. "I know that there was a huge risk with my body...but-"
"But was it worth the risk?" Yoruichi's gaze went to the lonely zanpakuto that laid against the wall of the hospital room. "...you didn't even-"
"I know." Mikari cut in quickly, not wanting Yoruichi to say it. Her eyes opened up to look over at the zanpakuto too. After all she did, nothing good came to it in the end. She couldn't get Amaterasu back in the end. The thought almost brought tears to her eyes, but she held it back. There was no point now to show emotions.
"Alright." Yoruichi knew when to stop talking about something. This fight definantely did more then one number to Mikari, so she didn't want to make it worse. "The others want to see you and we can cath you up on what's happened."
Mikari turned to Yoruichi and slowly nodded. Yoruichi helped her up into a sitting position slowly so she wouldn't feel any pain, and thankfully there was none. Then she helped Mikari on her feet and they walked out of the room, step by step. As they walked to Unohana's office, Yoruichi told her that it was Kyoya and Momo who called Unohana to the Shihoin Compound after her fight. Momo was there in curiosity at the explosions, and that was lucky since Mikari needed first aid right away. Finally, they made it to the office where Unohana, Ukitake, Kyoraku, and even Ichigo were waiting for them.
"Wow! You really got beat!"
"Haha Ichigo." Mikari sarcastically joked with a hard glare.
"Glad you're feeling better." Ukitake said with a smile.
"Thanks but I'd like to get down to the matter at hand. What's happened while I've been asleep."
"I'll explain then." Unohana said from her desk. "The zanpakuto's have attacked us recently, besides the solo fights of shinigami and their zanpakuto's. But there's good news from all of this. We've found out that the zanpakuto's are being controlled by Muramasa. But if the shinigami defeats their own zanpakuto, they will be free from Muramasa's control."
The news shocked Mikari. "Are you serious? Has this happened to anyone?"
"Yeah, I got Zangetsu back by fighting him." Ichigo said proudly, but Mikari waved him off, not really caring. "Anyone else?"
CRASH!
"Get back here you stupid snake!"
The door to the office slammed open and in ran a small, white blur with Renji following it. He ran after the figure all around the room angrily in a circle, not noticing all eyes on him. Mikari saw that the figure was a small boy with pink hair, blue eyes, wearing white robes that extend past his hands but reveal his stomach. Other then him being a tinier then her, he had a snake's tail. The boy just laughed as Renji chased him, obviously having fun in their little game. Then he made a sharp turn, that got Renji to slip and fall, before jumping onto Mikari's back to hide.
"You've cause quite a mess Hebi." A new voice spoke out from the door. There Mikari saw a tall female with long, rosey hair that had black markings on it like Renji's tattoo's and green eyes. Also, most of her body was covered in green fur.
"C'mon Saru. I was just having fun." The boy laughed cheerfully on Mikari's back. He then climbed higher on her back so that he could bent his head over Mikari's head to see her. They blinked slowly at each other, just staring, before screaming and jumping away from each other.
Mikari pointed a finger at the two figures standing side-by-side each other. "Who the hell are you guys?"
"These two are my zanpakuto, Zabimaru." Renji spoke out, back on his feet. "Though separately, their Saru and Hebi."
"Awwww!" Mikari cooed, bending down to ruffle Hebi's hair. "How could Renji have a cute zanpakuto like you."
As Mikari stood back on her feet, she didn't notice the tint of pink on Hebi's cheeks. Saru noticed and laughed, nudging him. He just grumbled back, looking away. Meanwhile, Mikari turned her attention to Renji.
"So you fought them and Muramasa's control was broken on them when you won?" She asked.
"Yup! Though they don't remember anything about the rebellion." "...I see."
"There's one more thing..." Kyoraku began to say, stopping abruptly. Mikari looked at him to continue. The atmosphere got tense as he finished his sentence, "Kuchiki Byakuya seems to have betrayed us."
The news struck Mikari. Her eyes went wide in shock. "...W-WHAT?"
"I saw it with my own eyes!" Ichigo admitted to the group. "He worked alongside the zanpakuto's and attacked us!"
"Shut up Ichigo!" Renji yelled out angrily. "We don't know the truth of what's going on with Kuchiki-taicho! There's gotta be something we're missing..."
"Look Renji..." "Forget it."
Renji stomped his way out the door, his zanpakuto's following behind. The tense atmosphere was back again. Mikari felt sad for Renji. He looked up to Byakuya, as a taicho and rival. It's hard to believe that he would just betray them like that. Though deep down, she does think that there is a deeper meaning. You can never tell with Byakuya though.
"Mikari..." She then heard Yoruichi whisper behind her. Turning around, she saw an unreadable look on her face.
"What?"
"...Hitsugaya's back from his fight with Hyourinmaru...he's in one of the hospital beds..."
The door opened and closed behind Yoruichi in a snap. She and the others, except Ichigo who watched on in confusion, smiled slightly at Mikari's obvious behavior.
Back with Mikari, she swiftly walked down the 4th Division hospital. Well as fast as she could without her wounds hurting, thankfully for her it wasn't too bad since she had rest for awhile. Finally she stood outside the door that she sensed Toshiro in it. She planned to slam the door open, but she changed her mind at the last minute. So she slowly and quietly opened the door, just to have her breath caught in her throat. Laying peacefully asleep was Toshiro in a hospital robe like her with only his chest wrapped up in bandages. Mikari walked up to the bed and looked down at Toshiro with soft eyes and sadly sighed.
"Look at us, we're both pretty pathetic getting in the hospital right after each other." She joked, knowing that she wouldn't get any sort of reply.
Before taking a seat in the chair by the bed, Mikari saw Toshiro's sealed zanpakuto laying by the wall. She walked over to it and picked it up carefully. "I wonder...how did your fight with Hyourinmaru go? Did you get him back like the others?"
"Yes he did."
"That's good..." Mikari's eyes slowly widened at the new voice and looked down at the katana in shock. "...holy shit! Hyourinmaru talked to me through the katana! Is that even possible for me!"
"I'm standing behind you Mistress." The voice said again in a calm voice. Mikari quickly turned around, after putting the katana down, and saw the materialized dragon zanpakuto from the beginning of the rebellion.
"Holy frick!...Hyourinmaru?" She gasped out in shock.
"Hai. It's an honor to properly meet you Mistress Mikari." He bowed his head to her and she waved her arms around nervously in front of her.
"O-oh please I should be honored! And you d-don't have to call me Mistress Mikari."
"But you are Master Hitsugaya's significant other, so I am privileged to."
"U-um sure...but..." Mikari looked down sadly. "When you call me Mistress Mikari...it reminds me of when Amaterasu called me that."
Hyourinmaru watched as Mikari took a seat in the chair and kept her gaze to the floor. "Would you like to talk about it Mistress?" He asked sincerely.
"Sorry Hyourinmaru...but I shouldn't really bother you with it." Mikari sniffled softly, wiping her eyes to stop her tears from flowing. "I just...I'm so upset that I couldn't get Amaterasu back like Toshiro got you! I tried so hard, but I couldn't get through to her! She no longer cares about me! I've lost her forever!"
A handkerchief was lightly pushed in front of her face. She looked up to see Hyourinmaru handing her the handkerchief politely. Mikari took it and thanked him gratefully, before blowing her nose loudly into it.
"You shouldn't think like this Mistress. Both you and Amaterasu just needed time alone, away from each other." Mikari looked up to Hyourinmaru, curious to what he had to say. "Continue please."
Hyourinmaru stood beside Mikari's chair, looking out the window, his gaze on the sunset. "Back when I was with the other zanpakuto's and Muramasa...Amaterasu stood out from the others."
"Everyone, meet our newest ally. She will be a wonderful aspect against the shinigami."
Zanpakuto spirits of many shinigami stood in a dark cave with crystals providing the only light in the cave, until a figure stepped out from behind Muramasa. That figure was Amaterasu, no emotion on her face and the fire behind her shining bright in the cave. The other zanpakuto's began to murmur about her arrival. Then Haineko stepped forward.
"Wow! Miss goody two shoes is actually gonna rebel. Can't imagine you going against your mistress! You adore her too much to even harm her a scratch!" The neko sneered out. Most of the zanpakuto's began to laugh at Amaterasu. They then went silent, watching Amaterasu walk up to Haineko, her fangs out.
"Now look her." Haineko gulped at Amaterasu's intimidating tone. "I'll be the one who handles my mistress. Got it."
Haineko nodded and let Amaterasu walk by her to the other side of the cave. As the others went on with their business, Hyourinmaru continued to stare at Amaterasu. He felt that she was hiding something, it was in her voice. Also, when she was talking about her mistress, there was sadness in her eyes. She had her own plans.
"She was always standing alone, just staring off like she was thinking about something..." Hyourinmaru seemed to daze off Mikari noticed. She had to hold back from smiling as Hyourinmaru talked about Amaterasu. It was quite obvious he was into her.
"I bet she was thinking of you." Mikari's eyes widened at his words. Slowly she turned to him in disbelief.
"A-are you serious?" She choked out. It couldn't be true, not after all that has happened.
Hyourinmaru gave her a nod. "Yes. Whenever she talked with the others of rebelling, I could tell that anything she said was a lie. Deep down she didn't want to hurt you, after all you are her beloved mistress. So don't think she's going against you. I think she just has her own agenda and stuff."
Mikari looked down at the floor again, but this time she had a smile on her face. Be the words true or not, they made her happy. Amaterasu was one heck of a zanpakuto, well Mikari's always known that. And if they were true, Mikari had an idea what Amaterasu was up to, if she truly knows her that well. But she couldn't be too sure.
"Thanks Hyourinmaru." "There is no need for thanks Mistress."
"Did you say all of this to make me happy so Toshiro wouldn't get worried later?" She asked with a smirk.
"Yes, but also because you are Amaterasu's mistress. She wouldn't want you sad either or else she would be sad and I wouldn't want that too happen." He admitted calmly.
"Wow, he is like another Toshiro. Just more admitting to his feelings without even a blush." Mikari thought with a little laugh.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"The alarm now of all times!" Mikari bolted up from her chair and started to run out the room.
"Wait Mistress Mikari! You shouldn't go out in your condition." Mikari stopped to turn to Hyourinmaru. "I'm in better shape than Toshiro. So make sure he stays here if he wakes up!"
She quickly headed out the room to her own without a second thought. There she changed into her shinigami uniform and ran out of the room. In her hast, she forgot her zanpakuto in the corner. In the meantime, Mikari got outside the 4th Division to see Soifon and her division members surrounding some zanpakuto spirits...and Byakuya.
"Byakuya!" Mikari yelled out, getting his and Soifon's attention.
"Mikari-sama! Please head back inside! You're in no shape to fight!"
"Not until I get answers!" Mikari kept her gaze on Byakuya. He simply glared at her, obviously not gonna talk. Then he shunpo'd away from the area, leaving only the zanpakuto's trapped.
"Kuchiki-taicho!" Was yelled out behind Mikari. She turned around quickly to see Renji run past her and shunpo after Byakuya.
Back to the zanpakuto's, they were able to blast Soifon's division back before splitting up. Mikari turned to Soifon.
"You're gonna have to let me help now!" she begged, getting Soifon to sigh at her. "Fine. Just be careful!"
The two nodded to each other and shunpo'd away. Mikari went east from the area and stood atop a rooftop. She saw one zanpakuto spirit go in this direction, but didn't catch another glance of it again. Then the roof below her shook for a moment. Mikari turned around to see Tenken, Komamura's zanpakuto.
"I'm gonna have to apologize to Komamura later."
Tenken said nothing to her. His answer was shooting fire at Mikari. She narrowed her eyes and jumped into the air, dodging the flames. Subconsciously, Mikari reached her left hand to above her left shoulder. Her eyes widened in realization when she felt nothing. She had left her zanpakuto in her room.
"Damn! And just when I think I could use shikai!" She thought frantically. "No choice then." Holding her hands in front of her, reiatsu gathered and glowed yellow. "Way of Destruction #88: Hiryugekizokushintenraiho!" A large beam of electricity was shot towards Tenken. It was like Amaterasu's Thunder Rage, but couldn't compare in size or power.
The beam was sure to hit Tenken, who hadn't even tried to move. Then suddenly, another figure got in front of Tenken and took the shot. There was no explosion from the attack. Mikari stood back on the roof, watching as the lightning just stood in the air, like it was being held up by the new figure. She then saw that the lightning was being absorbed into a weapon. Once the attack was completely absorbed, Mikari caught site of the figure. He had black hair with a cloth wrapped around his forehead. Aside from travelers clothes, he had a box on his back and a long pike in his hands, probably the weapon that absorbed the lightning as it was crackling with it. Mikari guessed he had the power to manipulate lightning. But something was bugging her. The zanpakuto's reiatsu seemed familiar...but for the life of her, she wouldn't tell who he was.
"Who the hell are you?" She finally asked. This didn't make the zanpakuto happy. He began to yell out angrily in the air.
"Why does nobody know me! It's because my damn shinigami doesn't stand out! Ugh! My name is Gonryomaru!"
Mikari still looked at him blankly. "And who is your shinigami master?" She asked truthfully. Never had she heard that zanpakuto name. If she did, she forgot. And she felt bad when Gonryomaru yelled out angrily again.
"It was Chojiro Sasakibe!" "Really? Gramps fuku-taicho?"
Gonryomaru had enough of the conversation and fired a bolt of lightning from his pike at Mikari. She easily jumped into the air and watched the building she was just on go up in flames.
"Now Tenken-dono!" She heard Gonryomaru yell out. Her eyes widened. Where was Tenken? He wasn't where she last saw him.
"...bankai." A deep voice said from behind her. Mikari couldn't move fast enough as a giant hand grabbed her. She gasped out for air, feeling the grip of the giant bankai tighten around her. It felt like her lungs were being constricted against each other. The pain was so great on her chest and slowly as all the air was leaving her, her vision was going blank. And she couldn't move a single part of her body.
"Damn...maybe I should have listened and not gone out to fight...I can't do anything..." She thought sadly.
Tenken brought his hand with his sword up to bring it down on Mikari. As the sword went swiftly down at the now unconscious girl, a beam of fire hit it before reaching her. The sword shattered into millions of pieces from the beam. Then a giant lightning sword came down from the sky and cut the hand holding Mikari. Gonryomaru watched in shock as Tenken went back to his materialized form and Mikari fell slowly to the ground. But a gold light flew down and caught Mikari on its back. A warm feeling around her got Mikari to slowly gain consciousness. As she opened her eyes, she felt the warmth beneath her change to the feeling of the cold earth. She looked up with half-closed eyes to see the familiar wolf she has cherished for years standing beside her on the ground.
"A-amaterasu..." She whispered softly. Her energy wasn't back yet, so she thought she was dreaming.
The wolf smiled down at her and gently licked her cheek. That's when Mikari knew she wasn't dreaming. Her eyes widened, tears forming slowly. Amaterasu then turned her back to Mikari and began to glare at Tenken and Gonryomaru.
"Amaterasu? What the hell are you doing!" Gonryomaru yelled out.
"...I won't forgive you for hurting my Mistress!" Amaterasu growled out viciously. She let out a howl and both zanpakuto's on the roof were surrounded by blades of thunder and even fire. They flew at the zanpakuto's and exploded on contact. Both zanpakuto's feel to their knees on the roof once the smoke disappeared. They each were damaged badly from the explosions.
"Y-you traitor!" Gonryomaru yelled angrily before disappearing with Tenken.
Once Amaterasu sensed no other enemies, she turned to Mikari with a sad smile. "I'm so sorry Mistress Mikari! I should have never left you! I just-"
"It's alright Amaterasu." Mikari interrupted softly, surprising the wolf. She pushed herself up and hugged the wolf around her neck. The tears in her eyes finally fell. "I'm just so glad you're back...you can tell me later why you left...I just can't believe you're here..." She happily nuzzled her face in the warm fur. All she was thinking was that finally Amaterasu was back with her, the emptiness in her heart was filled again.
Then Mikari slowly went limp and was beginning to fall to the ground, but Amaterasu caught her and pushed her onto her back. She smiled as Mikari slept peacefully with a brightened face.
"I'm glad to be back Mistress Mikari."
Omake:
Amaterasu, still in her wolf form, walked through the 4th Division, with Mikari still on her back, sleeping away. She slowly tried to find her Mistress' room, but was having a difficult time in the large building. Then she heard a crash come from behind her. Turning around she saw Hanataro and Isane looking at her with wide eyes and gasped faces. The crash had come from them dropping medical supplies. Amaterasu looked up at them blankly, wondering what the problem was.
"OMG! That wolf is carrying Mikari-taicho with fire on her back! She's probably being burned to death!" Isane screamed out in horror.
Amaterasu's mouth dropped in shock as the two began to scream and run around in circles. Were the being serious? The fire couldn't burn her Mistress cause she wasn't allowing it. The fire was actually keeping her warm in this cold night. But they didn't consider that, now did they know that she was Mikari's zanpakuto.
"A-and there's a lightning sword underneath Mikari-taicho too!"
"OMG! OMG! OMG! What do we do!"
"Both of you stop yelling!" Amaterasu finally yelled out. The two stopped freaking to stare at the wolf again. "Mistress Mikari is sleeping so hush up! And will you tell me where her room is?"
There was a silence between the small group. But then the yelling started all over again.
"OMG! The wolf talked!"
"AHHHH! What can we do!"
Amaterasu swetadropped at the two and just walked away with Mikari.
"I should have gone back into my human form."
Bleach Awake and Alive Chapter Preview
Momo: "Yayyyy! Amaterasu is finally back with Mikari-taicho!"
Matsumoto: "Finally a good moment in this arc and in the next chap too."
Momo: "Hai. Amaterasu will finally tell Mikari-taicho the truth of leaving, and they will go help a team heading to find Sou-taicho."
"Next time is Chapter 37: A Loving Reunion."
Matsumoto: "Alsoooooo, Toshiro is gonna be up to and you know what that means."
Momo: "Mikari-taicho and Shiro-kun moments yayyyyyy!"
Matsumoto: "And maybe their zanpakuto's too!"