Disclaimer : I do not own any of the Bleach's storyline or character.

Chapter 4 : Fool

Byakuya walked into an empty room. He reached the altar and saw a picture of his deceased wife, Hisana. The more he starred, the more the guilt arose. He remembered holding his wife hand, promising to take care heras her final will. At that moment, he knew whatever sort of requests, Hisana made , he will not hesitate to fulfill them regardless of any cost.

But at this moment, he couldn't utter a single word. He knew the promise he made to Hisana, was only to bring Rukia in but not his wife. He sees no one other than Hisana but when Rukia desperately begged him to free her, a mixed feeling of anger, and…disappointment were what he experienced earlier.

It got worse after talking with Ukitake. He knew Ukitake wasn't any person who would stick his nose in matters not concerning him. Maybe, Rukia meant more than a shinigami assigned under his Division. There was a time when he could hear people talking about Rukia being helpful in Division 13th and he had to admit that Rukia did grow stronger all these years. It wasn't anything like Ukitake had told him.

He knew how hard Rukia practices. Those days, he knew she would only return home late and sometimes not. He once saw Rukia collapse near the mansion's entrance. He remembered he went to check her out but to find out she just fell asleep. He carried her back to her room. He noticed she was just about Hisana's weight even though she was not having any disease like Hisana did and the next day, he got to know from Ukitake's jigokucho that was actually intended to Rukia, but she wasn't awake yet, which wasn't like her that day. So, he touched the black jigokucho on behalf of Rukia.

"Kuchiki san, I heard from Sentaro kun that you have taken care of Report 67 yesterday. Thanks for your hard work. Please stay home for today, we will take care of the rest. And well done for taking down such a big hollow yourself." once done reporting and the butterfly disappeared just in seconds.

Now that he recalled those days, he eventually reached his lake. Watching hard at the moon, talking to himself,

"Fool." before returning to his room. A long night with a bright moon ahead.

A/N : Hello, everyone. I'm back. Firstly, I would like to apologise for my absence. And I will be uploading if possible every two days if possible. Please do leave me a comment. It does really encourage me to keep the story running. Stay tuned and safe.