A/N: A big thank you and a thousand chocolate-chip cookies to wisdom-jewel for providing inspiration for this chapter! Your support is forever appreciated! :)

Disclaimer: Own this franchise, nalagaOcean777 does not. Ridiculous, those who would think so are. …Strange, this form of speech is.

"…I have a feeling that your life will be quite a long one."

It is to this statement that Jyushiro Ukitake awakens, finding himself lying flat on his back. Blinking blearily, he is greeted with a first-class view of a vast expanse of darkness over his head as his vision clears, a darkness occasionally shafted by rays of light rising and fading from the surface on which he lies on. Even as he watches, a tiny stream of bubbles drifts down from the abyss above, glittering delicately as it meanders past his shoulder, and bursting upon contact with the shimmering, rippling floor beneath him.

For a moment he can only stare, mortified, almost afraid to move.

And then he takes a small breath of air, registering the strange, soothing thickness of it as it passes through his lungs…and he knows exactly where he is. With an abrupt start he tries to sit up - but he is interrupted by the same voice as before, now closer. It is deep and rolling, making one feel secure in its presence - and it is also familiar, only confirming his suspicions as to his whereabouts.

"Stay still, Jyushiro. Do not move. Not yet. It is not quite past…"

And then it strikes like a sledgehammer, that horribly familiar pain, making him double over with a shudder he cannot control. His chest contracts considerably, and Jyushiro mentally braces himself, waiting for that first racking cough to erupt in scathing fury…except that it never comes. Instead, after the briefest of moments, the pain subsides, and though the light burning in his chest is still there the other symptoms simply fade away, relaxing the stiffness in his shoulders ever so slightly. Moving gingerly, he blinks in disbelief at this good fortune before cautiously lowering himself down on his back again, heeding the voice's previous request. After a few more seconds, a smile crosses his face as he finally realizes the reason for the nonforthcoming coughing fit.

"Ah…Kotowari?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you…"

"It is not a problem, Jyushiro."

And then his savior drifts into his line of vision, a large swordfish as long as he is tall, its toned muscled body reflected in a warm glow from the light of the 'floor'. The zanpakuto spirit's scales are silver and gray, filled with various undertones of every type of blue that flickers into being and fades away again with his every movement. The length of his blade-shaped jaw is quite impressive as well, a long bone-white spire that is angled high and with pride. The single large eye that surveys Jyushiro from one side is the color of an ocean beneath a wide expanse of blue sky and bright sunlight, unfathomably deep, filled with knowledge and peace. The most prominent thing to be found about Kotowari, however, is the silver ring bound at the base of his tailfin. Attached to this silver ring is a length of translucent scarlet rope, clearly strung with silver charms, that stretches all the way down to the floor and through it, to some other source beyond. Even as Jyushiro watches, the rope surges slightly to the right, as though the attachment at the far end of it is moving about swiftly in the opposite direction.

Noticing the source of Jyushiro's gaze, Kotowari is quick to reassure him.

"Sougyo is on the other side, Jyushiro. He will return as soon as your attack has finally been settled. It is particularly vicious this time around," he adds, an odd note in his voice. "…Forgetting your medication will do you nothing but harm, Jyushiro."

At this the said Academy student shifts uncomfortably, returning Kotowari's long stare sheepishly. "I never intended to leave it behind in the first place…but…I couldn't just ignore that hollow's presence…"

"I never said your intentions were wrong." Kotowari's gaze remains unmoving. "The hollow has been dealt with, if it troubles you still. Shunsui Kyouraku arrived with reinforcements before you blacked out."

"That…that's good." Jyushiro settles back more comfortably, one worry apparently dissolved. "But…I don't remember quite…"

"You were trying to hold the hollow off while the others went for help," Kotowari prompted. "The younger Academy students are now fine, and none have sustained injuries with thanks to your vigilance. However, you overexerted yourself considerably. And without having taken the medication beforehand…" He paused. "As you have probably recalled me having said before, it was…vicious. Sougyo and I lent you the best of our strengths, but in the end we saw no other choice but to pull you here and shield you as best as we could from the brunt end of the episode. That which you just felt a few minutes ago was a particularly strong relapse, the last echoes of a dying occurrence. The rest, you are being shielded from by means of being present in my half of the domain. Sougyo is above - or below, if you would prefer - warding off the worst of it, from the surface."

"I see…"

There is silence for a while, though it is not uncomfortable. Ukitake lets his gaze roam back to the dark abyss above his head, though his view is occasionally blocked by Kotowari's form as he circles overhead. The sight is rendered strange by the fact that the zanpakuto spirit appears to be swimming upside-down…though in reality Jyushiro is the one lying upside-down…against the surface of the ocean…eyeing his lazily drifting Academy robes, which sway and ripple in time with the subtle currents of the water around him, Jyushiro frowns slightly. It was quite a different perspective, to be sure, the daunting sensation that you were going to fall straight forward into the abyss a…very awakening experience…but at the same time, it was not so very disturbing at all, but rather had a protected, untouchable feel. A place where one could rest in peace with no fear of being harmed by others.

This was the exact second time he had come here, to this place, his inner world. The first time, seeking the name of his zanpakuto, he had found himself floating on the surface of a vast, deep blue ocean, surrounded by nothing but water below and blue sky above…though the heavens had been dancing with jagged shards of slight, golden in contrast against the sunlight. Lightning in a blue sky…

Sougyo and Kotowari had come to him then, dorsal fins cutting the rippling surface, proud blades slicing deep into the shifting waters. Sougyo, with his darting movements and black scales filled with scattered speckles of gold; and Kotowari, with his deliberate, steady strokes, his sides a hewn silver glowing with various underlying tones of blue. Both with the opaque red line that bound them, that kept them connected no matter how far away one or the other might stray. One could imagine his surprise - and joy - in discovering two separate entities instead of the forewarned one.

Sougyo and Kotowari.

As one, Sougyo no Kotowari.

Apparently, it seemed, his inner world was split in two domains, one above the water and one below. Sougyo seemed in charge of the one above, the one with the lightning in a blue sky, while Kotowari managed the one below, the one that was apparently a place of a dark abyss and shafting light. Ukitake seemed to be meant to be the center, the point of all rotation, to walk the glittering, delicate line separating the two. He could never quite fully enter one part of this world or the other - he was confined to the surface of the ocean itself, both above and below.

Now Jyushiro raises his gaze back to Kotowari, remembering something else.

"Kotowari, what did you mean?"

"Mean about what, Jyushiro?"

"When I was waking up, I mean." Jyushiro frowns at him. "You said something about…my life…being a long one."

There is a long pause then before Kotowari then placidly responds.

"Yes…yes, I did say that. It was more of an afterthought than anything else, but yes, that is so. I do believe that your lifespan will be a very extended one."

"…Why?"

"Why not? Do you doubt it?"

In the wake of this new voice the world around Jyushiro visibly shifts, and he finds himself experiencing the sensation of being moved, practically flipped over. He barely has time to shut his eyes when he feels himself breaching the surface of the water, when he feels the warmth of sunlight, a great contrast to the chill of a looming abyss, touching his face. A new sound fills his ears, the damp hiss of shifting water and the soft roar of the occasional small, breaking wave. A new buoyancy lifts his back, and suddenly his Academy robes are not drifting, but clinging to his skin, soaking wet and exposed to air. A distinct, almost comforting chaff of salty air bombards his olfactory senses at the same time, quite different from the exact lack of such a scent below the water.

He opens his eyes to dancing lighting against a bright blue, and he knows immediately where he is.

As though to confirm his suspicions, there is a disturbance in the water beside him, and he finds himself spluttering and blinking in the wake of a sudden salty splash, just barely catching a glimpse of a flashing silver charm, a streak of transparent red. And then Sougyo is beside him, one large eye mere inches from his own, bobbing in perfect time with the rhythm of the current, the golden flecks intoned within his black scales flashing brilliantly like priceless coins.

"Ah, sorry about that," he says hastily as Jyushiro mops his brow with one free hand, still trying to clear water from his eyes. "I suppose I should have given some sort of warning. But say, you are alright, aren't you?" he adds, almost in trepidation, and his concern is suddenly clear, verily reflected in the golden depths of his gaze. "I held off as much of the pain as I could, and it's about over now - thought you might have wanted to see a little sunlight before you woke up, y'know. But really…how are you feeling?"

Jyushiro nearly laughed at the stark contrast in conversation. The facets of his inner world were not the only polar differences in his heart. However, with a meaningful try, he managed to suppress his mirth - for the moment, at least. Sougyo was quite genuine in his concern, despite. Though the more outgoing of the two and the offensive entity of Ukitake's zanpakuto, Sougyo had a habit of displaying emotion in vibrant, more simpler ways, be it in speech or way of acting, unlike Kotowari, who let his thoughts show in the tones of his voice instead of the words he spoke.

"Don't worry, Sougyo." Jyushiro cast the swordfish beside him a reassuring smile. "I'm fine now, thanks to both you and Kotowari."

"Yes. Yes, of course." At this Sougyo abruptly turned away. "Well, I knew all along that you were alright. I just wanted to be certain."

"If you say so…"

Jyushiro Ukitake eventually awakens the next morning after a very long slumber, to be greeted by a dozing Kyouraku at his bedside, along with many more visitors that fairly burst into the room mere minutes afterwards. However, it is only after a hearty breakfast consisting of almost three-serving's worth of food, the reassuring of concerned fellow students, an update on the recent homework assignments, and some good-natured bantering with Shunsui about just why he really couldn't be late for the class to start in mere moments, along with his intended methods of getting there at the last second, ("No, you cannot and really shouldn't use shunpo to get there, Shun, I don't care how convenient it is and how the girls go to swoons over it, you just can't. Yamamoto-san doesn't approve of cheating, as I've been trying to tell you time and time again - I - well, yes, I was there when he said that - but that's still no excuse, and you know it! Honestly, you can't go relying on brownie points forever…"), that Jyushiro was finally able to settle back in the futon, savoring the silence and relative emptiness of the room. The ache in his chest, which he had noticed since awakening, had finally begun to ease somewhat, and the danger of another episode felt quite remote for the moment, which was more than he could have asked for.

And it is then that he suddenly remembers.

Peaceful expression folding into a very small frown, he fingers the sheets, suddenly pensive. All that time in his inner world…and they had never really pursued that one statement Kotowari had made concerning the possibility of a long life.

The question still plagued him, really - would he actually be able to live up to those sort of expectations, much less from his own zanpakuto? He wasn't sure, but…perhaps he could set that as a goal. Yes. A quest for longevity. It would be quite a victory.

Time was an uncertain and almost trivial thing in Soul Society, of course, but if he ever reached the three-thousand-year mark…well, he'd muster his courage and make it a point to give candy to the youngest current Captain at every opportunity afterwards, even if he or she didn't want it - which was rather probable in itself.

It was a rather bizarre bidding, in all honesty - he'd have to be a Captain himself to gather a fair chance of accomplishing the candy-giving aspect of the whole idea - but Jyushiro didn't mind. Shunsui could cook up odder things than that without really trying - in fact, he could blame the Kyouraku noble for more than half of the malformed ideas he had found himself garnering recently.

And he wasn't sure, but…he could have sworn that he could hear Kotowari and Sougyo chuckling in the back of his head in the wake of that thought.

A/N: Ahh…gosh darn it all, I think I pretty much botched the delivery on this one. X.x I've been battling evil little plot bunnies of doom for a couple of weeks now, as all of you have undoubtedly noticed, and this chapter has been fighting tooth-and-claw against completion at the same time. Which leaves for a rather exhausted brain and a most-probably-inferior piece of writing. I'm truly, truly sorry. D: However, as I currently see no way of improving this update without having to rewrite the whole thing (which I just can't imagine doing at this stage) I'll just be uploading this and crossing my fingers. Constructive criticism is welcomed with wide-open arms. Really.

Um-de-dum…weeeell…all that depressing stuff aside…let us move on to the credits! And thus I thank wisdom-jewel for your previously aforementioned inspirational values and chocolate-chip cookie appreciation, hu3long2 for your immensely supportive and morale-boosting reviews, AisuHime for your short and down-to-the-point support, DelMarch for your very encouraging words, St. Kitsune for your wonderful ideas and continued responses, kimi108909 for your smile-inducing words, Arguealot for our interesting conversations, and D R A G ON L I L I E S for your introspective response - which I really did appreciate, by that way! :)

And so, hoping to update soon, I depart to continue combat against the unexpected overflow of ideas that I cannot get rid of!! :D