DISCLAIMER: It aches my heart to say this, but sadly, I do not own Bleach. ;(

Two. Grief and Sorrow

That old man can't possibly get hurt. It cannot be. It's impossible. He just can't.

Yamamoto Akane recited this in her head like a mantra. She laid on her knees in the middle of the desert, the blood stained sand beneath her with her hands holding onto her zanpakutou so tight as if her life depended on it. She forced her eyes to shut, trapping any tears planning to escape as she felt the pain linger in her heart as well as on the wound of her palm.

The rain covered her whole body, and she couldn't determine whether it were tears falling down her cheeks or whether it was her blood or the rain she felt spilling down her hands. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop herself from trembling.

She cursed herself in her mind. She kept on asking herself, how can she be this weak? What exactly had she been desperately doing this past century?

All this time she fought like a madman, recklessly fighting, battling, and killing enemies just for the sake of becoming stronger. But now, she looked at herself and she saw the weak and helpless child she was before. Was there even a change that happened to her from the time she ran away from soul society? Was she still the grandchild of Yamamoto Genryuusai who brought nothing but shame and disgrace to his name?

She didn't know. She truly didn't know what to think anymore except the fact that her life was slowly crumbling into pieces as she thought of her grandfather she deeply loved and intensely hated being badly hurt. She couldn't even make herself think about the possibility that he could be close to his death. She lived her life for the sole purpose of being able to be rightfully called his granddaughter. She distanced herself from him, being afraid of disappointing him once more as she promised herself that one day, she will return and she will not be the weak Yamamoto anymore, the one who didn't know how to protect anyone even herself . That was what kept her living. Though now as she felt the excruciating pain her grandfather suffered, she felt lost and her hatred towards him intensified even more.

"Damn you old man. I can't believe that even right now you're still haunting me." She unconsciously muttered as she tightened her grip on her sword.

She remembered how merciless her grandfather had been towards her because of her weakness. After all, Soul Society's Captain-commander never did become gentle to anyone and even his granddaughter was no exception to it. What he saw from her disappointed him, and he found it unacceptable for the Yamamoto name. He spoke words as sharp as blades to her grandchild's weakness yet it did no good to her except crush her. He treated her not as a child, not as his granddaughter, but as a Yamamoto who must live up to the expectations of protecting Soul Society with all her might, which she was unable to fulfill.

She had all the power she could have flowing into her blood, yet unfortunately her body, heart and soul was unable to wield this power for she neither had the conviction nor the strength to control it. And by the time she lost all hope, she decided to run away, unable to take any more of it. Because of her careless decision, Yamamoto Genryuusai spoke words to her that eternally pierced her heart and until now it continued to echo in her mind.

"You have disappointed me Akane, I never thought that you were a coward. Very well, begone from here! Soul Society does not have a place for cowards! You had all of the opportunity and power within your grasps yet because of your lack of conviction and determination, you threw it all into waste! As a Yamamoto, your action is unacceptable therefore you shall receive punishment. I shall place a seal upon that power so that you may suffer and learn how hard it is to strive for strength."

Each word stabbed like daggers, and no matter how she tried to forget what her grandfather said, she couldn't. The punishment she received, was accepted by her with no argument for she understood the consequences of what she had done. She also understood what the seal meant, the seal that left a mark on her back in order to suppress her powers. It reminded her about the power Yamamoto Genryuusai didn't believe she deserved to have, and she was willing to strive and live her life with that curse. And by the time that she left Soul Society, Yamamoto Akane was forgotten. Even after a hundred years, she remained to be a story untold, and no one ever heard from her since then.

If there was something Akane regretted from the past, it was the fact that she had given up easily and doing nothing against her weakness. She never did try to fight for anything, for she believed that her Grandfather would be there to fight for her and protect her. But most of all the one thing she regretted the most was not being able to understand her grandfather, and not being able to understand what Yamamoto Genryuusai desired for his grandchild.

Akane slowly opened her eyes as she felt the rainfall subdue above her. The rain truly brought nothing to her but misery and she was glad that it ended because she has finally made her decision.

"Yama-jii you can't die on me, not after making me suffer like this. I haven't even shown you how much I changed, old man." She spoke without a trace of fear and pain as if he was there right in front of her. She stood up and she began concentrating her reiatsu on her right hand as she prepared to perform a kidou spell. She had already decided the one thing that she must do, and that is to assure herself of her grandfather's situation. She needed to see it for herself.

"Trespass to the Realm of Time and Space."

As soon as she said the incantation she swung her right hand horizontally opening a gateway towards another dimension. It was a kidou teleportation spell that she created herself though she was quite aware of its imperfection. The only flaw with this spell was that by the time she reaches the Real World, there was a possibility that time lag might occur ranging from a week, or worst case scenario, which is a month or even more. She really didn't mind it much, because somehow something inside of her assured her that her Grandfather was alive. And she knew that the best thing she could do right now was to trust her gut.

"Stupid Kidou spell. Please don't fail me too much this time." Akane grumbled as she entered the gateway leading to Urahara Shop.

A/N: Hello again bleach and fanfiction peeps! Again, if you reached up to here, all I can say is that I LOVE YOU! :)) And thank you so much for your time and effort in reading this fanfic. It truly means a lot to me. And btw, I would like to double thank the people who liked, reviewed and favorited my story! THANK YOU SO MUCH I appreciated it and you really really really made my day! thank you again! :D

~lost_feather: hi there! I really don't know how to reply to your message but anyway I'll just place it here :D I would just like to say thank you so much and I'm really really really glad that you liked my story. Oh if you only knew how happy I was when I read your review! anyway thanks again and yes I'm kind of planning on inserting romance in it and I kind of want it to be with Byakuya because I love his character so much! Again, a million thanks to you lost_feather! :D