Ah, finals week. What would the college experience be without them? Good luck to everyone in finals.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
Ishida sat on the train, gazing out the window with a sorrowful look on his face. He had left the temple for the first time in years, and suddenly he found that he felt like someone who was lost in a huge crowd. Going back to Karakura would be nice in that he would be able to visit his grandfather's and mother's grave and reconnect with old aquaitences. However, there was always a possiblity that he would end up facing some people that he had been trying to purposefully avoid.
"Cheer up, Ishida." Ichigo said from the other side of the little room. He had a stack of papers in his lap, scribbling furiously with a black pen, a pair of reading glasses on his face. Glancing over at the open book in his other hand, he turned back to the papers without looking up at Ishida, "Don't look like your being lead to your execution."
"I might as well think of it that way." he said, "It's a miracle that my father never found out, or Kurotsuchi-taicho for that matter."
Ichigo snorted, chuckling to himself. Moving over to another stack of papers sitting under a book, he dropped the pile in Ishida's lap.
"Correct those."
"What are-"
"Grammer. I only have 2 weeks left of the school year and I need to finish these papers before going back to school tommorrow. Fighting Hollows and coming after your sorry ass has not exactly done wonders on my time frame."
Ishida made a face and opened the answer book, "Whatever made you work as a teacher anyway? I thought you hated school."
Ichigo shrugged, flipping another paper over, "After working as a Shinigami I guess I wanted to do something that wasn't as life-threatening. Something where I felt like I was in control of my own life." he said, "And mabye because I wanted to prove to everyone that I had the ability to do whatever I wanted with my own life. Just because I was forced into the life of a Shinigami, doesn't mean I have to be a slave to it."
Looking up at him, she lightly brushed her fingers across his cheek. Tilting her head slightly, her fingers trailed over his chin,
"Did you always want to be a Quincy?" she asked.
Ishida thought a moment, "I never really had a choice in the matter, but I guess I never minded. Being able to carry on my family's wishes and fighting to protect people has never bothered me. It's more of a 'being' rather then a job or a duty. I am a Quincy like I am a human being."
"But was not there anything else that you wanted to do?"
"My father is a doctor by profession." he said, "Medicine interests me. I'll probably go into that career once I leave school."
"I always wanted to swim in the ocean."
Ishida stared down at her a moment, "Nemu-"
"Promise me that you'll take me there one day." she said, "Just because I'm a Shinigami, does not mean that I can not dream for anything else."
"I suppose." Ishida replied, returning to the stack of papers in his lap.
Ichimaru Gin stood at the top of the hill by himself, looking over Rukoungai 78. Part of him felt a little guilty having to do this, but not for the usual reasons. He had come from the Rukoungai himself, and had spent most of his childhood and teenage life navigating around the deserted plains. Being impoverished had it's downsides, but at least he had been able to do whatever he wanted.
"What are your orders, sir?" the Arancar, Gin remembered his number was 73, approched him. They were waiting in a dimensional rift just a few feet away, ready to come threw at Ichimaru's orders.
"We'll wait a little longer." Gin said, "There is a small group of scouts from the Seireitei that go threw here about this time. If we go now they will alert the Soul Society."
"Yes sir." he disappeared.
God, he was tired. Having endless power and authority was better then anything he could have imagined. But at one point, he found himself completely and utterly alone.
Like I always was.
He was tired of standing alone on the balcony to his bedroom every night and seeing no one else with him. This was the last time he was going to fight for Aizen. He was going to die in this battle, and thats all there was to it.
As the last of the Shinigami gaurds left, he smirked and snapped his fingers. The rift cracked open like a shattered mirror and the troops came.
Renji hurried along the trees, doing his best to stay alongside Hitsugaya.
"Abarai, I have something to ask you."
"Sir?" Renji gave him a curious glance.
"If...If something happens to me in battle, you must be the one to take command. The top priority is to get the people out. Do not worry about Matsumoto and I."
"What?" Renji frowned, "But this is your mission, sir. Matsumoto-"
"If General Yamamoto is right and Ichimaru is here, then I can't force her to go against him. Beside the fact that it would put her and team in a precarious position...as a friend I can not make her."
Renji nodded, "I will do as you ask."
Hitsugaya chuckled, "Don't worry about it Abarai, I'll have you know, that many of the high Seireitei officials would be satisfied if you became captain of one of the units."
Renji gapped at Hitsugaya as if there was another head growing out of the younger man's shoulders.
"Don't shoot it down yet." Toushirou smiled, "Think about it-"
Hitsugaya's face turned pale as he felt the huge spike in reiatsu. He motioned with his hand and everyone instantly landed on the ground. There were only a few people following him, the rest of the troops were just beyond on the clearing.
"They're here." he said, "Kuchiki, Abarai, I want you two to concentrate on securing an escape route for the people. You know this land better then we do, so find a way to get the people out."
"Of course." Rukia replied, having just approched them. Tugging on Renji's sleeve, he nodded to her and they were instantly off.
Matsumoto smiled sadly, watching the other two leave, and then she stood next to her captain, "Gin is here."
"I know." Hitsugaya frowned, turning to look back at the town, "I'll have to face him myself-"
He froze.
A face stared back from him, inches away from his own face. Standing on the edge of the rockface in front of Hitsugaya, eye-level with the white haired captain, was Ichimaru.
Damn it!, Hitsugaya gasped, How did he-
"Long time no see." Gin chuckled, sneering widely into his face as he drew his sword, "Looks like we'll finally be able to finish our match, hm? Shinsou-" his red eyes opened to glare straight at the young man, "-shoot him down."
Shinji sat at the table in the Eternal Realm, taking another sip from the sake. Most of the Shinigami regulars stopped comming in a few days ago, and because of that, it was quiet. Hiyori was making her rounds about the bar, and he took another sip as he watched her.
He had known Hiyori since they were young. Being the son of a prominate businessman, Shinji was expected to take over the family company eventually, and Hiyori was the daughter of a rival company. In the end, to try and smooth over relations, their parents had arranged a marriage between them.
They arranged it when they were 5 years old.
At first Shiniji hated Hiyori. She was a gangly girl, without a whole lot of looks to her in the first place, with a tomboyish sort of attitude, and the quickest way to get him to do what she wanted was to beat him over the head. In the beginning, she had been the terror of his existence. They could barely be in the same room with each other when they first met. Shinji had come to doubt the sanity of his parents when he learned that she was the girl he was supposed to be his wife.
That was until he learned that she had the same powers that he did.
It happened one night they had a particular bad fight. Both of their parents had tried to arrange some sort of 'dinner date' for them when they got into middle school. Most of it had gone well until Shinji had 'accidently' teased her about the fact that her hair was short. Hiyori had promptly flipped out at him, and stormed out of the resturaunt in a huff.
Knowing that he could not actually go back without her, he had spent the next four hours after that looking for. After almost getting hit by a semi truck, soaking wet from the storm that had started, and utterly exhausted from searching the whole city himself he had finally found her.
She was being attacked.
Without thinking, not caring that she would learn that he had odd power, he had promptly materialized into his Hollow form, drew a zanpakuto, and beat the living daylights out of her assailants. Deciding at one point that she had gained her wits about herself, he watched in shock as she pulled a mask over her face, and proceeded to save him from one of the men that he thought he had knocked out.
Not saying anything to each other, he had pulled his jacket around her shoulders and taken her back to his place. He had his own apartment while he was in middle school, to avoid his parents as much as he could back then. Giving her a cup of coffee, they had simply spent the rest of the night sitting and talking. It was then that he learned that she had the same abilities that he did.
When he was in his second year of high school, he ditched his family. It was too constricting on him. He had been able to sense the approaching war, and he needed to fight it. Hiyori had come with him, much to his surprise back then. However, it did not bother him at all to have someone traveling with him. It just meant that he was not alone.
"Yo, Hirako!" Hiyori turned around, "Instead of sitting there and drinking the merchandise why don't you go back and do some work?"
They lived in their own apartment now, having moved out of the werehouse. The other Vizard's were on stand-by and had headed back to their own cities. Hansei was living in the same city they were, but only because he was stationed in Karakura at the police department.
Shinji made a face, gathering up other dishes at the tables, and hauled them to the back. There were not many dishes left to do, only a handful of plates and glasses. It was close to closing time, and most of the people were out for the night. He rolled up his sleeves and began pulling plates into the sink.
Despite the fact that they had been living together since they were in 10th grade, Shinji had not once laid a hand on her.
Hiyori marched into the back room, setting the pile of serving platters on the counter. Letting out a sigh, she sat up on the counter across the room kicking off her shoes.
"Tired?" he asked.
"Hell ya." she said, cracking her neck loudly, "I'm still stiff from training too. What the hell have you been doing, Shinji? You're getting fast."
He chuckled and shrugged, "I try."
"So." she said, "What are you planning with this whole Shinigami-thing?"
"Well..." he said, setting the clean dishes aside to dry, "...I know that if we can make some sort of agreement with them, we can hopefully get something beneficial out of it."
"Like what?"
"We have been able to gather more intelligence and more information about the weak points of the Arancar then the Seireitei has. If we give it to them, they let us in on their assult plans."
"They scratch our back, we scratch theirs?"
"Basically."
"I'll hand it too you, Hirako, you've got guts." she said, "You would have made a hell of a corperate man."
Shinji chuckled, "It's funny, isn't it?"
"What?" she said.
"That our families have millions, but here we are working full time at a bar doing dishes." he hummed, "Oddly liberating, isn't it?
She stared at him a moment and chuckled, "I suppose."
There was a silence for a moment, and then she smiled,
"I got a letter from Risa the other day." she said a little too quickly, "She says that grad school is going well."
"That's good." he said, setting another dish aside.
She frowned, staring at his back.
"Say, Shinji..."
"Hmm?"
"This war is going to be bad." she said, "We may not make it-"
In a blink of an eye, before she could finish the thought, he turned and pressed a finger to her lips.
"Hush." he said, "Don't say such depressing things. What will be will be."
She stared at him a moment. When was it that she started to rely on him so much? When was it that she started to feel her tomboyish, independent self start to slip away to this person that could not help but be comforted by him? By Shinji Hirako, of all people.
Hiyori nodded, "Okay."
"CAPTAIN HITSUGAYA!"
Rangiku shrieked as the sword pierced her captain's shoulder and shoved him into the nearest tree. There was a loud roar from Toushiro as he grabbed the sword that was stuck in his shoulder, and promptly yanked it free. He drew Hyorinmaru, and took a defensive position at a safe distance. Comming toe-to-toe with him, Gin smirked as he drew his sword back.
"You were never a match for me, boy."
Hitsugaya raised his sword, seeing the flood of Arancar in his feild of vision. Blocking Ichimaru's next sword, he managed to throw himself out of the way, "Matsumoto! The town-"
"I won't leave you here to fight him injured!"
"It's an order!" he called back, "Go!"
She glared at Ichimaru. He had not even looked at her once. Shaking her head violently, she blinked from sight. Gin turned back to his former commrade,
"You've taken good care of her, Shiro."
"That's supposed to be your job, you bastard." Hitsugaya swiped his sword through the air, slicing a cut into Gin's cheek.
"Sorry, Shiro, but I can't rescue you this time. Aizen needs a prisonar, and your the best choice." he said, "Abarai is much to bothersome, Rukia Kuchiki doesn't know enough, and Rangiku...well, I'm not giving her to Aizen."
"What?"
Gin chuckled, "Lights out."
The young man gasped as Gin appeared behind him, and promptly smacked him upside the head with Shinsou. Hitsugaya fell to the ground face-first, Hyorinmaru slipping from his grasp. Staring at the 10th Captain a moment, Gin sensed the two Arancar land gracefully behind him.
"Take him to Hueco Mundo." Gin said, "Aizen-sama will be glad to know that he'll be able to get some inside information."
"Yes sir."
They picked up Hitsugaya and they were gone. Gin stood in his spot a moment, staring at the ground.
Rangiku.
He sheathed his sword and leapt over the ridge towards the town. She was fighting her way threw the village. The lesser Arancars would never stand a chance against her. On the other side, Renji Abarai had brought forth his bankai to clear an effective escape route for the civilians, and Rukia Kuchiki had already frozen a third of the fleet on her own. She was too strong for someone who was supposed to be a regular foot soldier.
If he was planning to die, where was the best place to start?
Glancing over in Rangiku Matsumoto's direction, Arancars 110 and 112 were attacking her at once. Any Arancar in the 100's was a former Espada, and Gin knew that she would not be able to defeat even one of them alone.
He chuckled to himself and headed in her direction.
Renji cursed out loud as he felt Hitsugaya Toushirou's reiatsu disappear. It was as if the young captain had a skill for predicting battles. Aizen's forces had captured him, but Renji doubted that the ice-captain was dead.
Rukia was heading towards him, "Most of the civlians are out. Vice-Captain Matsumoto-"
"We have to stay with the people, Captain Hitsugaya ordered me to take command and to get the people out. That's what I'm going to do."
"Renji-"
"It's an order, Rukia." he said, "Get the people out."
She gritted her teeth, and headed back to the end of the line. Matsumoto had still not shown up, and he was beginning to get worried. When everyone was evacuated, they would have to leave.
Whether Matsumoto was there or not.
Ishida stepped off the bus onto the streets of Karakura. Hauling his bag over his shoulder, he stared up at the night's sky. It was familiar...too familiar.
"This way." Ichigo waved at him, "Dad wants you to stay at the Kurosaki Clinic."
Ishida headed in the direction that the orange-haired man was leaving in. As he glanced around the town, there were still remains of the last battle with the Hollows. Some shops and houses were still being repaired, a few downed telephone polls here and there...
Ishida sighed, what did I get myself into?
The next chapter has been put on hold until my Owari fic is finished. That story keeps getting in my mind and pushing out all my ideas, so I'm finishing that story first. It will be done by the end of this week, so expect an update for this story sometime at the end of next week. Thanks for your patience.
Happy holidays! Send me a review and tell me what you think!
Arigato
Lilith