Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters. Kubo-sensei owns all rights 'cos he's just that great, unlike I, who is only able to provide you with fanfiction.
The Bridge Of Silence
+---+
+Rose Locket+
The forest deep into the training grounds of the 9th squad barracks was peaceful, silent from those who rarely went out to take a stroll, since everyone was usually busy. Hisagi Shuuhei was tired of sitting around in the office all day, looking out the window and trying hard to avoid so much thinking in one day. Thankfully, Kurosaki-taichou had given him permission to leave early, even though it was only mid-day to be more exact--except he didn't care as long as he got the chance to get out of that stuffy office.
Even as much as peacefulness went, it too was boring as well. How did other people manage to enjoy that suffocating silence though? Hisagi failed to understand, or care for that matter. He went deeper and deeper, the mid-day sun blazing above the canopy of trees, the rays played on the green ground almost like they were dancing. Thankfully, inside of the canopy it was fresh and cool, compared to the hot summer day that Soul Society was experiencing now.
"Stifle…Yoru no Hana!" A faint voice called out from deeper in the forest. The noise of the cicadas could not compare to that voice.
The smell of flowers joined in on the fresh scent, they were sweet unlike nothing else--almost like honey. The dark haired shinigami found that odd though, that smell slowly becoming more sweet and sweet--but suddenly the air was thinning out. He gasped for air, dropping onto his knees trying to catch his breath but it was doing nothing at all.
It felt like something was compressing against his lungs, a sharp pain began to take place and slowly he tasted blood on his mouth. A warm feeling ran inside of him, his eyes stared down at the green grass were blood was dripping, and it seemed to be coming from him. Slowly, Hisagi was losing consciousness as he started to see spots, his hands becoming white as he continue to feel the warm blood around him.
"Hisagi-fukutaichou!" The same voice came out of no where suddenly, approaching slowly as he saw someone running towards him. "W-what have I done?"
Kurosaki Yuzu panicked, seeing one of her superiors laying on the floor on a puddle of his own blood. The crimson red colour staining the bright green grass, slowly she made the spores that were travelling in the air vanished before she would kill the man on the ground.
"K-Kurosaki?" He strained her surname out, coughing up what looked like pieces of his lungs.
"I'm…sorry, I didn't know you were here." She quickly said, putting both of her hands above his chest to heal him. At least, she had the training to heal minor things such as that, but it had been horrid that he had being caught under that.
"W-what were you doing?" Hisagi looked at the honey coloured haired shinigami, her brown eyes locked in concentration as sweat was forming on her forehead.
"I-I was training." Yuzu explained, though she did not want to really because the private training sessions were meant to be kept secret.
"A-all by yourself?" His voice was still strained due to the pain, but it was slowly going away.
Yuzu nodded, trying hard to concentrate her reiatsu on the spell she was using at the moment to fix the injury that her zanpaktou had caused. The thought of injuring a vice-captain was a very bad one, what if there was punishment for it? What would her older brother say about it? The Kurosaki name could no longer be put to shame, now that it was a noble family.
She began to panic without thinking so much, without thinking of the possibilities that would cause prejudice against her and her family. It was bad, so bad that Yuzu started to cry suddenly. That had been a long time, tears were for the weak, Karin often said that, but at the moment she did not care.
"Oi-oi why are you crying?" Hisagi raised up a little bit, all of his injuries had been fixed.
"I'm sorry…please." She was on her hands and knees, begging for forgiveness. "It was my mistake, don't take it out on Ichi-nii and Karin-chan, please. Punishment is only served for me, not them."
The 9th squad fuku-taichou was confused, firstly there was nothing wrong at the fact that it had been his fault--walking around like a fool without knowing that there could be someone like her out here. And secondly, there was no big deal about it really seeing that it was an accident in the first place.
"No--its nothing serious." He attempted to explain, but she continued to sob. "Kurosaki, its fine. Really. It was an accident, it was partly my fault for not actually noticing your reiatsu around to begin with." Somehow he felt slightly pathetic to be babbling like an idiot, but he wanted her to stop crying over something done in accident.
"I'm still sorry." Yuzu stopped suddenly, drying the remaining tears from her eyes. "I shouldn't come out and train like that, one day Yoru no Hana will kill someone because I got careless." He smiled at her a bit, noticing that it could be true. No wonder all of the Kurosaki nobles were strong, deadly to a point as well--so it was bound to show on the youngest too.
+---+
The night had become stained in red, being washed away with the rain that continued falling on top of the fighting that was being done at the moment, while buildings and other places were being torn to pieces. Inoue was having a hard time handling Hisagi-fukutaichou, who's mysteriousness truly showed on their fight after he had briefly disappeared to help Kurosaki-kun.
Though, her powers were no longer present since Shun Shun Rikka had vanished from her grasp, they weren't the ones to willingly join her evil plans at all. They had declared that they could not go along with her new passions, if she could simply continue being the good person that she had been once they all would've stayed, but her denial had ended the friendship there.
"You shouldn't have attacked any of us." Hisagi muttered loudly, grinding his teeth at the sight of the woman he couldn't stand to see any longer.
"Why should I care about your opinion for?" She asked coldly at him, glaring and wishing to obviously destroy him.
"You've made a mistake, it was far too early for you to think that you'll be able to taken on us like this." He elaborated better, holding onto his kusarigama-like zanpaktou. "You failed to notice that we weren't going to stay the same way as ten years ago, did you? Soul Society took upon the responsibility to learn new tricks, to train harder to become stronger to protect this place and our home as well."
"What would you know about care?" She spat back, clenching her fists tightly until her knuckles turned white. What did he know about her own hardships?
For ten years, the plan she had worked on in order to destroy the thing that invaded her life, ending Soul Society for good so she could go back to her normal life. Mainly, it was Kuchiki Rukia who would be the first one to die by her hands, but she was no where at all. If it hadn't been for her, the normal life in Karakura would exist, and none of the troubles with Hollows and such wouldn't exist at all. That interference by the lowly shinigami, they destroyed her dream to become Kurosaki-kun's wife, to be able to have a happy home with him.
None of those fantasies could exist if they were around, it was their fault for creating this mess for them, and for shattering all of the dreams that had been created so long ago. Orihime wanted for life to go back to what it was, to have returned to school like nothing had happen, to continue seeing Tatsuki and Ishida, and mainly Kurosaki-kun, who would greet her even with only a little emotion behind it.
"Tensa Zangetsu!" Ichigo yelled from far away, ending the life of her prominent Espada.
Her gaze averted to the other Espada, it seemed that Renji and Rangiku-chan easily dealt with her so quickly like that without much; even after months of going over and over on their moves. Perhaps she had over thought over it, too much planning had been done and they had underestimated them. That was a mistake.
"Hyorinmaru!" Toushiro-kun yelled, cutting her son up and making him fall onto the roof of a building. Blood, so much blood.
"STOP!" She suddenly yelled, the unnoticeable tears had formed. Inoue couldn't stand to see it anymore, couldn't bear the pain of the image of her son nearly on his death. Why had it turned out this way?
Destiny had a funny way of destroying the paths easily, to crumble one's self without remorse or regret at all, just simply to imply the lesson that one needed to learn. Falling, falling deep into that abyss that one did not want to fall into--that was the destiny that was awaiting her.
+---+
Ichigo panted, the parasite inside of his body seemed to have stopped after he had finally managed to kill Croix. Though, blood and wounds were plastered in his body as he fell back onto the rooftop, unable to do anything else because it was a long night already.
How come everything had lead to this? Even if it was merely a low fight, so many questions were slowly coming to him. The only one thing he wanted to know was, why was Inoue willing to sacrifice so much just for this? Underestimating them had been the flaw of whatever the plan was, giving out all of the moves that they had only put an effort for him to change them, but the questioned remained. Why?
Her screamed echoed in the night, the rain continuing to fall on top of him, soaking his shinigami robes and washing away the blood from his face. His amber eyes gazing at the bright moon that hung over Karakura, how different it looked from the last time he had seen it. Missing home never came to him on the daily basis, truly there was no time to think when you were a captain who had a large amount of paperwork to complete.
Sitting in a room, going over reports and writing some regarding the division didn't make it fun--somehow though Ichigo could not complain about that life at all. Regardless of whatever boring life that was, there was a home that would welcome him without care of the past mistakes. The smile on his wife's face, the faces of his children--all of that was the new world that he took part in.
What about the others though? Understanding and reasoning were two different things, perhaps something that Inoue lacked from the beginning.
"Kurosaki…" His brother-in-law stumbled forward, he too was wounded.
"You got beat up pretty badly, Toushiro." The orange haired captain smirked, looking at him for a brief second. The expression seemed empty, but a void laid behind those bright teal eyes. "Old wounds?"
Hitsugaya let it slide the fact that his brother-in-law still did not address him properly, mainly because he didn't have much strength left to argue or fight at all. He laid there too, staring at the black sky while the rain soaked him completely, but he enjoyed the feeling.
"They never ease, only eating your subconscious away like its nothing." He said, holding onto his sword still. "It is strange how others think its easy, to express a loathing that exists there only because someone else manages to implant it inside, so deep. That darkness, so bewitching and haunting, it swallows the heart so deep."
"Ah, it keeps swallowing, deeper and deeper." Ichigo agreed. His form was returning back to normal, the adrenaline slowly easing. "Frankly, it is something I rather not think about at all--simply moving away from it and put it in the past. The present, it brings things that none of us want to see, but it is the future that is inevitable to avoid at all."
There were so many reasons, so many options, so many things that everyone had to decide upon in order to obtain a result in life. Whether it was awry or not, there always existed an option that could either bend or break, shatter a life into pieces that would never be able to put back together at all. Everyone knew that, or should as far as Ichigo was concern, because he had made so many choices that caused either good or bad.
A gate opened in mid-air, various shinigamis stepping forward lead by Soi Fon-taichou, and others from 4th division lead by Hanatarou. Following behind was Tatsuki, it was unusual for her to suddenly appear like that, but then again Ichigo had heard that they wanted to make her the fukutaichou for that squad, after the other one had disappeared long ago suddenly.
"Inoue Orihime, you are under arrest." She spoke clearly, no wavering feelings behind her tone at all. "I'll deal with the rest Soi Fon-taichou." The captain nodded, motioning for her subordinates to put a kido spell around the orange haired woman.
Ichigo saw the lieutenant's badge on her arm, the number 2 proudly carved into the material--obviously no one wasted time to make new arrangements to the Gotei 13. He could not help but admire, his friend who was amazingly strong and had learned to be a shinigami in such short time; it was truly amazing.
She stood there, it seemed that something was being said, but Ichigo was far too tired to actually care at the moment to listen closely. The rain poured, lightning flashing from across the sky--the blinding bluish light shinning against the dark sky. A long day tomorrow would await, but it was good to know that he would live to see tomorrow.
+---+
Tatsuki could no longer care for her former friend, the horrified expression on her face came naturally of course, but it didn't matter. Long ago, after hearing a lot of things, she realized that the Inoue Orihime she had known long ago had died ten years ago, and would never come back at all. Life moved on, she had died and was able to join the friends that were very much present in the moment, but she was no longer part of that group at all.
Her gaze moved towards her husband, the wounds on his body showed that he was never afraid to fight, even if it meant to hurt his friends. That was the risk on becoming part of that shinigami group, and there was no returning at all.
"Tatsuki." Orihime looked at her, her brown eyes holding those tears in her eyes.
"Inoue Orihime, you are under arrest." She said it so clearly, it hurt Orihime deep inside.
Never in a million years had she imagined that her friend would become one of them, learning about her death had been sad news, and Tatsuki was now like Kurosaki-kun. The only two that remained alive were Ishida and Sado, but neither would ever join with her at all.
Tatsuki couldn't really think much about it, mainly because she had caused inflicting pain on her friends, and most importantly to her husband. Renji looked beaten up from the distance, Ichigo had been hurt as well, along with Hitsugaya-taichou. They didn't need to be in more pain anymore, so it was better if she had allowed her friendly feelings towards the woman in front of her vanished.
Wavering on ancient feelings wouldn't do anymore, feeling sorry for the once weak friend could never be at all, due to the fact that she had turned bad. It had hurt a bit, knowing that the person she had protected while being alive suddenly turned against them, easily deciding on joining the dream of creating a utopian society of the sort. To rule over beings that back then were still unreal, now all of it changed since she was part of that group now, whether she had been alive or dead, none of it mattered at all.
"Tatsuki, why?" The orange haired woman called out for her, her voice held pain.
"There are no reasons for me to explain myself, to the enemy." She expressed, standing there with her back facing her former friend. "And, its Arisawa-fukutaichou."
Orihime's brown eyes glanced at the badge on her friend's shoulder, surely the number two was there--under the lightning it looked frightening obviously. Had so much time really gone by? Impossible, it was truly impossible for her to become such high ranking in a matter of a few years.
"Tatsuki…" Tears formed in her eyes again, she wished for things to go back to the way they had been so long ago, but nothing would ever be the same again.
+---+
Hinamori's breath was elaborated, harsh as the cold air was coming into her lungs--the two Kurosaki twins were obviously far too strong then she had anticipated in the past. Why? Why had they become so strong over a short amount of time, even if there were some imperfections to their moves, it was obvious that they would become stronger in the future.
Her zanpaktou was slowly losing power on its own, as she was growing weak from the lack of air that was coming to her lung; courtesy of Kurosaki Yuzu. Her zanpaktou was really scary, mainly because those spores attacked the lungs--so scary.
"Yozora no Kiri!" Karin yelled, appearing out of no where and throwing more of those small pieces, cutting her more and more.
"Yoru no Hana!" The spores were coming again, only using kido spells were the only way to prevent those things to continue attacking her lungs.
"Tobiume!" She let out another explosive attack, but it was becoming easy to avoid at all costs.
Karin couldn't determine if this would end good or not, but slowly she was gaining momentum as the bits of her sword were becoming sharper and stronger. The final attack would obviously come soon, but it couldn't be done at the moment. She had to wait, patiently gaining more power to those pieces of metal before giving out the final attack. There were only two stages to her shinkai form, one that was the one she was using at the moment, and the final that would declare the end to this.
'Are you willing to use my final attack?' Yozora no Kiri asked.
'If I have no choice, yes.' Karin replied, throwing more pieces towards the brown headed shinigami and causing another incision.
Why was the feeling of hate towards her so strong for? That loathing was clouding her thinking though, which was becoming irritating to the least amount. Her sister, it was strange how she was willing to join in on the fight as well, but why? So many reasons, but not enough time to think about none of them as she had her hand full. Another one of those fireballs hit her, the burning was nothing compare to the slash she had gotten on her leg. Immobilizing your enemy, that was a good strategy she had to admit, but not good enough.
Hinamori attacked both shinigamis, putting Yuzu on a paralyzing state as she fell onto the ground from the kick she was about to give her. Karin remained standing still, looking at her sister on the ground looking so dead, it almost hurt. Those two needed to be rid off, completely be erased from this world in order to obtain what she wanted, and to make Toushiro forget her.
"Hadou 99, Kurohitsugi." The black coffin appeared around Yuzu, soon she would be finished for sure due to her immobile state.
Karin watched, shocked to know that she was actually able to pull that one suddenly like that--the admiration towards that fucking bastard Aizen didn't end at all. He was the one who was said to have done that to Komamura-taichou, and it was said to had been something out of this world. At the moment, she failed to notice what was so great about that, but she could not let her sister be hurt anymore.
"Fade into the night…Yozora no Kiri." The reiatsu grew in size, becoming nearly suffocating to the weaker shinigami that was about to kill her sister.
All of the metal pieces that were swirling freely in the air, stopped around Hinamori, looking like she was encased on a cage. The frightening look upon the woman's face was vivid, the look of horror almost haunting as Karin waved her hand to direct the pieces of metal to point at the target, and enclose.
There was a scream, loud and agonizing it made Karin's skin crawl in fear of her own attack, that was why she did not want to show her son what she was capable off. Hinamori had been stabbed by the numerous pieces of metal, slashing her flesh and causing her to instantly fall onto the ground. A pool of blood began to appear around her suddenly, the dark sky was replaced with the full night sky of Soul Society; making the blood gleam under the bright moonlight.
Karin couldn't think, couldn't possibly know that she had perhaps killed her, even though it had not being her intention at all. She, too, fell to the ground on her knees as her katana had returned to its sealed form. Hinamori's chest seemed to be barely rising, obviously with lungs that had been attacked by her sister's zanpaktou would make it impossible for her to continue any longer.
"Karin!" Her dark eyes turn to the source of the voice, it was turning hazy as she saw the figure of a white haired man rushing to her side.
A smile appeared on her face suddenly, the familiar warming reiatsu wrapping itself around her like a blanket. "Toushiro…" Her eyes closed suddenly, the last attack had drained her energy entirely.
+---+
One month later…
The New Year dawned upon all shinigamis, without the celebrations at all since there was a trial still being put upon them; to test them of course. Hitsugaya seemed to be getting annoyed by having to actually participate on the trial as a witness, it wouldn't make no difference for those who would be punished by Central 46. There was so much paperwork to do, no time to fool around like a teenage boy at all, and only having to finish the details of certain paper for the trial.
Even after a month, some people still found it impossible to think that a human had become capable of plotting against Soul Society so easily. To create a calamity, to raise so many questions upon certain members of the Gotei 13--it seemed like a trick still. Nothing actually made sense, but then again, nothing in either way would ever make sense.
Soon though, Inoue Orihime would be sent thru the gates to Hell for everything she had done and for never asking for forgiveness at all. Aizen Makoto was to be sentenced to execution, it seemed that using the traitor's zanpaktou became the main issue of his punishment, but in the end it resulted on his death. Hueco Mundo was once again invaded, records and battle plans had been extracted from it that had been useful as proof against Inoue and her son. The part that confused him though, was how in the hell had Hinamori being in contact with her? No one could explain it at all, but that also resulted on harsher punishment then anything before.
The white haired captain swallowed the lump on his throat, the thought of her being punished still was far too bizarre for him to comprehend at all.
"Oi, Toushiro!" Karin snapped her fingers in front of his face. "You know, for a guy like you who's supposed to concentrate a lot, you actually go off in space. So childish." Her dark eyes shinned with sunlight coming from the window, they were soft though.
"I'm not childish, you know that." He grumbled at her, an invisible tick mark appearing on his face. His teal eyes narrowed at his wife, she was childish herself. "What do you want? Aren't you supposed to be helping Kuchiki-taichou, now that you're his 3rd seat?"
During the past month, Karin had gotten that promotion for no reason, it wasn't like she had willingly worked in order to gain a higher spot at all--actually it was the same as the previous one--with the exception of the squad. Working with Kuchiki Byakuya was like staring at a rock, sometimes it looked as though he didn't blink.
"Nah, I kind of ran out on them." The dark haired shinigami sat on the desk Indian-style, scratching her new short hair. "Kuchiki-taichou sort off…kicked me out for dropping the ink tray when I tripped. Anyways, I'll probably be transferred back seeing that I can't stand him. He's a rock, sometimes I wonder about him."
"What do you want then? Hiding here won't help, Matsumoto has tried that in the past years." The white haired captain expressed, scratching his head and leaning back against his chair. "Speaking off which, have you seen her today?"
"Ah, not really. She was supposed to be helping Ichi-nii with something regarding a few lower seats, a big mess." Karin dismissed it with a wave of her hand, literally not wanting to talk about the fact that she had actually gone off with her twin sister to the real world. "So, can I stay here?"
Hitsugaya shrugged, standing up while taking the folder containing the paperwork he had done for the day--he needed a vacation at the moment. Even if only a month had gone by, it felt like decades that passed by them entirely without much care at all, so it felt strange. Though, he looked at his wife on a different light due to him seeing her shinkai form when she had been fighting Hinamori--truly a sight.
Karin frowned, being ignored simply like that wasn't going to go well in the end--so she jumped off the table and raced after him. Nearly knocking her husband to ground, the papers fluttered as they were falling onto the woodened floor; her eyes were looking down at his.
"Karin, what the--" He was caught off by her lips. All of the sudden anger disappeared, replaced by the placid feeling that she was giving to him.
The enchanting smell of her caught him off guard, his logical and rational thinking ebbed away as his hands reached for the back of her head while grasping her firmly on with his big hand. So love made him blind, unable to think at all because once she had managed to put herself on his brain, it was nearly impossible to fight the feeling.
Karin smiled inside of her, surely he could never get angry at her for suddenly knocking him to the ground--plus they were married. Wanting to feel so near that warm made her crazy, driving her to the point of nearly wanting to cut down the door to the office and jumping on him, but it seemed Toushiro was simply responding on his own. Slowly, she felt the heat coming inside of her body as he continue to kiss her passionately, it was eating her away.
"Hn, Toushiro." She whispered softly, opening her eyes to look at him.
"What?" He responded, attempting to sit up and pulling her with him.
The dark haired shinigami sat there in silence, allowing her mind to slowly ease away those feelings that were running so deep inside, and her heart from beating so fast. Somehow, she had wanted to apologize for doing something so horrid towards his former friend, even though there really wasn't much to say about it.
"I'll like to apologize." She expressed, looking down unable to really keep eye contact with him at all.
"What for?" He asked, confused as to know why she was apologizing suddenly.
It was hard to truly express that out loud, to simply say that she was sorry for going all out against his former friend, even though she had all the right to do so. The dark haired woman sighed, looking up at the white haired man.
"I'm sorry for nearly killing her, and for causing everything." That was honest, but she failed to actually notice it. "She was your friend, you tried to protect her long ago. And, I had no right to go all out on her the way I did. I'm--"
"Don't, don't apologize for something I would do as well." He expressed, giving her a sincere look. "Hinamori was my friend in the past, but I can't allow that to affect my judgement for all of the things she tried to do. Attacking your sister and our son, I knew that you wouldn't have liked that."
Everyone faced difficult options, Hitsugaya could easily pick his wife and child out of his old friendship, mainly because it was part of the process of moving away from that pain. He pulled her into a hug, holding her close due to the fact that he would never bring himself to let her go at all--even if it cost him his life. She brought her lips to his again, wanting to drown on that fuzzy feeling that continued to cloud her mind entirely.
+---+
Chapter 14! Great, great...well fighting scenes obviously are the worst to write, so I tried my best. I should give myself some yogurt for that, and a pat in the head. Wow, so silly. Thanks to happygirl24 and WatermelonPrincess for reviewing, you guys are amazing so this chapter goes to the both of you. Well, I'm not sure if the events turned out like I wanted them. Shocking that I made Tatsuki a vice-captain, actually 'cos I can't stand that oaf Oameda or whatever his bloody name is. And, I thought that Tatsuki would fit the role in 2nd Division. Ichigo and Toushiro won, so that was obvious. A fast track on the fighting scenes, but oh well. Yuzu's zanpaktou in reality is deadly just like Karin's, guess no one can mess with them at all...specially Hinamori. I didn't kill her, though her fate is to be decided by Central 46 so that's going to be a big event next chapter in a slight sense. Ah, damn I didn't put any Tatsuki/Renji or IchiRuki scenes--I promise I will next chapter.
+happygirl24- 'Momo isn't dead, sorry! I have to think of something really harsh for her though, so you'll have to wait. And Karin and Yuzu always kick arse! I hope you liked how I did their zanpaktous--I had a very hard time coming up on how they would look like really. Thanks for the review as well!'
+WatermelonPrincess- 'Thank you, I have to think outside the box. No, I'm not actually advertising Taco Bell! Okay, anyways...yeah I don't like fighting scenes, they are very hard. Thank you for the compliment too! Don't worry, adult life might seem scary to be more precise, but if you think about it too much then it does get difficult. Its scary sure, but there's people in your world that are able to help with that, so don't be scared. I babble a lot too, trust me. Some have said that I should ge a muzzle for my mouth, but its only 'cos they don't like the stuff I spout to them about, mainly 'cos I say the truth about things they don't want to hear--if that makes sense. I hope I don't have to move soon, I don't know how in the hell I'll survive without internet! I need my Bleach updates and episodes! Sighs, I'll make it somehow! Thanks again for the review!!! Hope that you liked it.'
Well, I have a little stuff planned out for next chapter. I might, just might write a little bit of smut--not full 'cos I can't write explicit stuff. I'm horrid, and it would be my first time to add slight--I guess it would be called 'fluff' but whatever! Anyways, so that's just a little bit of what will happen next. Hinamori's fate is to be decided, that will be hard to think of a punishment for her. Orihime got a harsh punishment, eh. Makoto, will die! Um, Karin moved to 6th division--wouldn't working with Byakuya be hard? I wouldn't mind though--except I prefer Hisagi! I think he's smexy, well both of them are. Okay, that's all I have to say really. Review!