Author's Notes: This song I really liked, it's 99 Red Balloons by Nena, I really took a liking to it for some reason or another, and I applied it to an important scene in Bleach. I really wanted something fluffy so that would explain the ending.


99 Red Balloons by Nena

My memory of those several months is a bit rusty, I blame all those days confined in that damned tower. But the memory of the past several weeks appear almost as if they all happened at once yesterday. It felt as if life never happened before I met Ichigo, but it slowed down and sped up all at the same time. Was I really thinking about him that much? It felt like it was only yesterday that we went to the Urahara Shoten to check what they had stocked up.

You and I in a little toy shop

Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got

Set them free at the break of dawn

'till one by one they were gone

Back at base, sparks in the software

Flash the message "something's out there"

Floating in the summer sky

Ninety nine red balloons go by

But what happened next? Running, as those who were sent to find me from the Soul Society close on my tail, wanting me for seemingly petty crimes. It felt horrible to be hunted by the division leader of the sixth, and his sub-captain, my best friend. Did he really want to kill me? I still have yet to ask him. But it did hurt, to be hunted by my brother and friend.

Ninety nine red balloons

Floating in the summer sky

Panic bells, it's red alert

There's something here from somewhere else

The war machine springs to life

Opens up one eager eye

And focusing it on the sky

The ninety nine red balloons go by

I remember when they finally arrived, the fear I felt, the betrayal, the hatred, just all human emotions flooding me down with every bit of my soul that was poured into it. I want to ask Ichigo some day if he ever felt that, that sadness, that betrayal. Why am I even thinking about this? Of course he has, These things happened to me over the course of many, many years, while Ichigo; all his happened in a short span of time. I'm such an idiot. Maybe that's why he came to save me, because I was such an idiot.

Ninety nine decisions treat

Ninety nine ministers meet

To worry, worry, super scurry

Call the troops out in a hurry

This is what we've waited for

This is it boys, this is war

The President is on the line

As Ninety nine red balloons go by

I can't believe that boy sometimes, training in less the a month, gaining what takes over ten, twenty years. Achieving the release of his ban, and becoming one of the strongest non-captains the soul society has ever known. Who does he think he is? So reckless, so stupid, yet I still forgave him for all his vices.

Ninety nine knights of the air

Ride super high-tech jet fighters

Everyone's a super hero

Everyone's a Captain Kirk

With orders to identify

To clarify and classify

Scramble in the summer sky

Ninety nine red balloons go by

Why is it that I say I'm so much older then him? Taking pride in my age, yet at that time, I felt like he was someone who could teach me more about really living, not just as a doll for show. Just standing there, watching so many people fight for me. Sometimes, picking up the pieces that remain and staring over with what I have. Which is everything I had before. Just one extra piece to a long puzzle that may never end for me and him.

As ninety nine red balloons go by

Ninety nine dreams I have had

In every one a red balloon

It's all over and I'm standing pretty

In this dust that was a city

If I could find a souvenir

Just to prove the world was here

And here is a red balloon

I think of you and let it go

But letting go, is something I can't do. That's why I'm holding this extension of our soul right now. Five years have passed since you saved me Ichigo. Those years that we spend together seem like the only ones I really remember. Yet, this one's soul isn't a gigai, she still has the chain of fate connected to it, she can't speak, her legs aren't fully developed yet, yet this is my proof that my world is still here. Our one month-old baby girl.