Chapter 28:

"Ume! Snap out of it!"

Yukiko forced her eyes to clear somewhat, seeing a ripple pass through the face of Aizen. It was just an illusion? Again she felt the blade move inside her and coughed as her air was restricted. The taste of iron grew stronger as she struggled to see it as fake. She'd felt this pain again and again, and now no matter what she told herself, every sense was telling her it was real.

"Soyokaze! Help!"

The blade pressed farther into her chest and she lost the strength in her hand, dropping her blade. She didn't hear any response from her sword and felt the fear creeping in again. She was alone and drowning in her own blood. The doors inside shuddered, cracked, and burst, spilling out hundreds of memories of her dying in a similar fashion.

"It's a shame," Yukiko's eyes widened as the blade was drawn from her chest, drawing out a strangled gasp. She felt his hand reach up and stroke her chin. "You could have stood by my side at the very top. But now I must destroy what I created."

Yukiko tried to draw a deeper breath, but still she couldn't find the strength to erase the illusion in her mind. With the blade removed, the last of her strength vanished and she plummeted to the ground. She could hear Ichigo shouting her name, but that too was fading as the fog of her mind closed in. Her fading mind expected everything to go black upon impact, but instead her descent was stopped by something a lot softer.

"Ume, are you alright?" She gasped and lifted her eyes to see a shaggy head of black hair staring down at her. "Ume?" The person tapped one of her cheeks, bringing her sight into better focus. "Hey, say something."

She was able to make out three long scars on one side of the face and a 69 on the other. The sight brought a smile to her face and she relaxed. "Shuhei, I'm glad to see you're okay," she choked out. It was getting easier to breathe now and the pain seemed to be ebbing away. "Heh, I must look pretty pathetic right now."

"Are you kidding, you managed to fight Aizen alone," he said, looking away from her. She couldn't see what he was looking at, but moments later his attention returned to her. "Your bankai is pretty impressive too. You managed to stop the head captain's flames."

"I guess," she murmured. "Sorry I...couldn't do more."

Shuhei said something in response, but it never reached her.

A low growl emanated from a pile of rubble before the pile was knocked aside. Climbing out from underneath it, was Kensei, rubbing his head and looking around with a glare. "Tch, where'd that brat disappear to?" he grumbled looking around. All he could see were the buildings destroyed in the fights, while the energy from the soul reapers reached him from all directions. The only energies he could no longer sense, were the three traitors, the hollows, and Hiyori. What all had happened?

He was just noticing a few oddities when he was distracted by something heavy landing on his back. "Kensei!" The ex-captain rolled his eyes knowing exactly who the offending person was. "I thought for sure that guy'd killed you."

"Idiot, there's no way I'd lose to a brat like that," Kensei growled, scanning his immediate surrounding. "Where'd he go anyway?"

"He was beaten already," Mashiro laughed. "The headcaptain beat him up."

"Tch, how annoying."

"But then, he exploded and all the headcaptain's flames exploded everywhere," she continued.

"Wait, who exploded?"

She wasn't listening to him as she continued, "But instead of everyone getting burned up, Ume used her bankai and squashed all the flames."

Kensei froze at this and hauled her off his back. "Yukiko's here? Where?" he demanded.

Mashiro frowned and pointed toward the largest pile of debri he could see. "You could just feel her instead of asking me, idiot," she pouted.

The ex-captain ignored her as he raced in that direction, trying to sense the familiar energy. To his surprise, he did. She was there, her energy was strong, but quiet so she wasn't fighting. What was she even doing there? Hadn't Kisuke mentioned she's be unconscious at least until after the battle? As he drew closer to where her energy was coming from, he noticed there was another energy nearby, one he didn't recognize.

The ex-captain tightened his fists, ready to destroy whoever the unknown entity was when two people finally came into view. First his eyes picked out the bright red hair of Yukiko as she lay with her head on a soul reaper's lap. The soul reaper seemed to notice his arrival as he immediately reached for his blade and prepped for a fight. However, the moment their eyes met, the younger man lowered his weapon and relaxed on the ground while brushing Yukiko's hair out of her face.

"Is she alright?" Kensei asked, relaxing as well. It was a relief to see no hostility from the young man. "What happened?"

"She's not physically hurt," the man answered, looking up at him again. "Though I do think Aizen damaged her mentally."

"Tch, bastard used his illusions again?" Kensei asked, once again looking around for hostile energies. The younger man nodded in answer. "So where are they?"

"Tousen has been defeated, Ichimaru and Aizen moved on to the soul society," the young man answered.

"So you're still here why?"

"Ichigo and his father went after them," the soul reaper explained, looking frustrated. "If any of us followed we'd just be in the way."

Kensei scoffed derisively before looking down at Yukiko. She looked peaceful and like she was finally sleeping well. Deciding there was nothing else he could do, he plopped on to the ground to wait. The soul reaper kept looking over at him every few seconds then turning his attention back to the woman on his lap.

After a few minutes of this Kensei growled loudly, getting the other's attention. "What?"

Now that he got a good look at the soul reaper, something about him seemed familiar. He had short dark hair, three scars on one side of his face and a tattoo on the other.

"Hmph, you're the current lieutenant of squad 9, aren't you," he guessed. His appearance sure fit the description Yukiko had given him

"Y-yes," the other stuttered. "Shuhei Hisagi is my name."

Shuhei Hisagi, somehow that name sounded very familiar. Then again, along with his appearance she had mentioned he was a fan, which could mean they'd met before he'd been kicked out of soul society. Suddenly an image of a small child, crying his eyes out in front of him surfaced and he spared the soul reaper another glance. "Hisagi...you mean that snot nosed brat I saved from being eaten by a hollow? That's you?"

To his surprise, the young soul reaper blushed slightly and ran a hand over the back of his head. "I can't believe you remember that," he said in embarrassment.

"Tch, I had, for a long time," Kensei muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I probably wouldn't have thought of it, if she hadn't said you were a fan."

Shuhei's cheeks seemed to darken at this and he looked back at the woman in his lap. "You know, I assumed after all this, she'd tell me more about you. I never thought I'd actually meet you again in person."

"Thought I was dead?" Kensei asked, raising an eyebrow.

The younger soul reaper nodded. "Yeah, we were led to believe all of you were," he explained. "Though hardly anything was said about you at all. All anyone would say was that you were devoured by hollows."

"Tch, figures."

The pair fell into silence after this, the younger still brushing out the woman's hair. Then, she slowly began to shift and opened her eyes, looking at the young man. "Hey, Shuhei," she greeted weakly. "Is it over?"

"I don't know," he answered calmly.

"It shouldn't matter either way," Kensei cut in, startling the pair and causing Yukiko to jerk upright. "You shouldn't have been here in the first place. That's the whole reason you underwent that shit with Kisuke, right?"

"Kensei… Uh, well, that had been the plan," she admitted, shifting so she wasn't directly between the two males. "But when I woke up, I could feel the battles continuing and decided to join in. I felt confident I could be of assistance even if I didn't deal damage directly."

"And, did you?"

Yukiko smiled as she thought over the question then shook her head. "I'm not sure. I was able to wound him, but it was pretty shallow. Other than that, I was able to allow the others to see through his illusions until he defeated them. Then I stopped the head captain's flames from incinerating everyone here. But then I lost consciousness. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

Kensei growled, bringing his fist down onto her head, making her wince in pain. "Idiot, you don't have to do everything yourself," he said with a frown. "Sounds like you did plenty. It's not your fault the idiots were too weak to capitalize."

"Oh, like you were too weak to beat that kid yourself, Kensei?" Yukiko suppressed a snicker as Mashiro landed on the larger Vizard's shoulders. "He wouldn't have gotten in the way if you'd won."

"Tch, if you'd listened to me and not left your mask on, you could have too," he growled.

This lead to the two of them getting into a fight, with Kensei yelling while Mashiro had a tantrum on the ground. During this, Shuhei leaned over to Yukiko with a concerned look on his face. "Sh-should we stop him?" he asked.

Yukiko chuckled and shook her head. "No, they do this all the time," she answered, a soft smile coming to her lips. "They do this all the time, he's never actually hurt her."

"O-okay."

They watched the pair in silence for a time before their attention was taken by someone running up to them. "Lieutenant Hisagi, you need to leave the area immediately," the soul reaper said quickly.

"What's wrong?" Shuhei asked, getting to his feet.

"We don't know how much longer we can stall him," the man continued. "He's going to transfer this area back to soul society even if there are still people here!"

"Who?" Yukiko asked curiously.

"Captain Kurotsuchi," Shuhei sighed. "He's right, we need to leave."

Yukiko nodded before turning to the still bickering pair. "Kensei…" He didn't respond but she figured they couldn't wait, so she grabbed his arm. "Kensei…"

This time he looked down at her with a frown. "What?"

"We need to go," she said simply.

He looked between her and the lieutenant of squad 9 and nodded. "Alright. Lead the way."

"What about everyone else?"

"Since they're with Captain Unohana I'm pretty sure they already know," Shuhei pointed out. "They'll be fine."

Kensei released an irritated growl before his attention was once again taken by his ex-lieutenant. "Come on, let's go already!" she exclaimed gesturing for everyone to follow her.

"That's the wrong way!" Shuhei called out.

Yukiko giggled lightly to herself before their small group made their way to the edge of the barrier and exited the space. Once outside, they were able to note that the other Vizards had all made it out. Good thing too, as moments later they heard a commotion and noticed the captain of squad 12 hit a unusual shaped button after throwing aside his squad members. "Oh I hope everyone made it out before that," she said nervously.

"I'm sure it's fine," Shuhei said from her left. "His squad is pretty adept at keeping him from killing people from other squads."

Yukiko didn't like the sound of that and neither did Kensei. He was about to comment on this fact when They were approached by Lieutenant Sasakibe, who was helping along a still injured Head Captain Yammamoto. "Ex-5th seat Yukiko," the head captain panted. "Your actions these past few days are unacceptable. You've gone against the agreement set in place for your recovery and made a mockery of it by appearing in the middle of this fight today. However, as there are still many who require medical attention after the war, your sentence will have to wait. You will return to Soul Society until we can properly address your insubordination."

"Of course, Head Captain," she said, bowing toward him. She could hear the indignant response Kensei was about to throw out, but quickly stopped him. "When all of you return to the Soul Society, I will as well."

He nodded in acceptance of her words before being helped back over to the squad 4 members still treating the wounded. Once he was gone, Shuhei turned to look at her in concern. "What did you do?" he asked carefully.

"I simply disagreed with his assessment that I had not progressed enough and should be held in the maggot's nest until after the war," Yukiko answered with a shrug. "So, instead of risking reverting back to the pathetic state I was in when I started when they would take my sword away, I instead went with an alternative I learned about from Kisuke. I believed it would keep me out of the fight, and maybe longer, but lucked out and was able to appear when I did."

"Tch, the old geezer should just be happy you were still willing to help in that fight at all," Kensei grunted.

"Yeah, especially because you helped keep everyone from being burned alive by his flames, Ume," Mashiro through in. "Really, he owes you now."

"Hehe, yeah." Yukiko sighed and glanced around, noticing one soul reaper opening the Senkaimon and many others preparing for departure. "Well, looks like it's about time to go." She turned and met the gaze of her two comrades. "Don't give me that look. I promise I'll be back to at least visit."

"You can't promise that if you're gonna be punished for something that stupid," Kensei said in irritation.

"Sure I can. If it ends up being something that'll keep me locked away for a long time, I'll just leave," she answered with a shrug. "There's no point in going through that sort of punishment if it means I can't keep in touch with all of you. And forget about me staying in soul society if it means making you my enemy. I'd die first."

He smirked at this, amused by the shocked look on the current lieutenant. Then he plopped a hand on her head and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Just don't keep me waiting too long. I still have a promise to keep."

She blushed heavily at his words and smiled despite the slight shiver that ran down her spine. "I look forward to it," she murmured back.

By this point, Shuhei had once again gotten her attention and led her over to the Senkaimon with the rest of the soul reapers. Kensei lifted a single hand in farewell, ignoring the childish goodbye his lieutenant was giving, then turned and went to join his comrades. He could see the amount of injuries on all of them, specifically noting the severed arm of Hachi and Hiyori's bandaging around her middle. No one said a word as they met gazes, then started making their way back to their warehouse. The war was over, or so Shinji had said, Aizen had been defeated, their score had been settled. Now, he just needed to wait for Yukiko to come back...something he was sure he could do. After all, he'd waited for 107 years to be with her again. What's a few more days?

Shippoman: The war is over and everything is back on track...well almost everything. Yukiko is back in the hot seat and it's unclear exactly what her punishment will be. Stay tuned for the conclusion on Shattered Soul. Please remember to R&R ;p.

Also, sorry for taking over two months to write this one. I've had a lot more on my plate as of late. Working on something life changing and that coupled with a dozen other story ideas I'm working on just sometimes gets in the way. Anyway, let me know if you've enjoyed Yukiko's story and want me to continue through the thousand year blood war. I actually have a pole on my profile if you don't want to review or pm me. Once I know what the general consensus is I'll know whether or not to get started on that.