This Light, the Will of the Heart, I See
"…" –Kuchiki Byakuya
NOTE: This is the second revision of this fanfic. If you have been reading it before, ya might wanna go back through an' look through it again… This chapter has pretty much been completely changed.
Inspiration: None.
Chapter Rating: PG-17
Spoiler Warnings: None that I can think of.
Chapter Warnings: Mature themes. No lemon; dun feel like writing one.
"These are normal thoughts."
Note: Some Japanese words may be in italics.
These are thoughts Sakana receives. "This is stuff she sends."
"This is one's Zanpakuto."
Chapter 6: One
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Sakana's eyes flickered and she burrowed back down into the blankets. Sunlight was streaming in from her window, blinding her. She stretched and yawned, not wanting to escape the alcove of warm covers.
Then she shot up straight.
Alarmed, she looked at her clock. It was 10 am! She was thirty minutes late to leaving for the world of the living! Sakana threw the blankets off of her, leapt out of bed, and raced to the bathroom. Her hair was an absolute mess. She picked up Hana's brush and ran it through her hair, wincing as she roughly brushed through tangles. She then ran back to her bedroom, dove into the closet, and came out fully dressed (SHE DID NOT COME OUT OF THE CLOSET XP). Then she grabbed her Zanpakuto, hurdled down the stairs, almost trampled Hana into the floor in her haste, and out the door.
She decided to take a shortcut through the Seireitei and got to the gate in a few minutes. Toshiro was there, tapping his foot impatiently with a pissed look on his face.
"Where were you?" he growled, and Sakana had to resist the urge to punch him in the face. She probably would have if Soifon hadn't come up at that moment.
"Are you two ready?" Soifon asked. Toshiro nodded and stalked through the gate. Sakana sighed and followed him.
As they stepped into the world of the living, Ichigo was there to greet them. His neon orange hair (okay, maybe that was exaggerating a little) was disheveled, and he looked exhausted.
"Toshiro, Sakana." He acknowledged them.
"That's Hitsugaya-taichou to you, Kurosaki-teme." Toshiro shot back. Sakana flinched slightly and nodded to the tired substitute Shinigami.
"So, what's up with these hollows?"
Ichigo scratched his head, "My god, they're tough. I chop of a limb, it grows back. Chop of their head, it grows back. Chop them into one-inch cubes, they frickin' come back! Agh!" Ichigo shouted, frustrated, "It's like they're immortal!"
Sakana groaned; this mission was going to be harder than they thought. "Have you tried burning them?"
Ichigo stopped his spazz and blinked. "No…"
Toshiro snorted, "Dumbass."
Sakana spun around and brought the sheath of her Zanpakuto down on Toshiro's head. "Cut it out." She snarled.
"Well, where are they? I'm itching for a fight." Sakana said. Ichigo pointed over the hill they were at.
"Over that hill. Good luck; you're gonna need it." Ichigo said, leaning against Zangetsu. Toshiro and Sakana both went over the snow-covered hill and stared at the masses below.
There must have been thousands of hollows. Big ones, little ones, Menos, Vasto Lordes, all with a dangerous reiatsu. Sakana took a step back in surprise, and Toshiro looked at her.
"What, is it too much for you? You can always go back home." Toshiro sneered. Sakana glared at Toshiro but otherwise ignored the comment.
"Me and Rukia figured they must be guarding something." Ichigo said from behind them, "See there? That red thing, looks like a rock? I wonder what it is, but we can't even get close to it. Whenever we even try to head in that direction, they really start to be a pain in the ass."
"Where is Rukia?" Sakana wondered, looking around for the Kuchiki.
"She's down there, fighting." Ichigo said. He was proved correct when they saw a column of ice rise up. Sakana yawned and rubbed her eyes as Toshiro took off, drawing his Zanpakuto.
"Souten Ni Zase! Hyorinmaru!" Toshiro shouted. He swung his Zanpakuto and a blue and slightly black ice dragon emerged from it and ran through a few hollows. Sakana drew her Zanpakuto and focused on her reiryoku. She knew she wasn't healed enough to wield her Zanpakuto, but maybe…
"…Honouten…" Sakana started. What happened surprised her.
A flame dragon came from her Zanpakuto, but it seemed less controlled than before. A lot weaker, actually. But it still worked. That kind of shocked her; wasn't her reiryoku still drained?
"…What the hell?" she said softly.
"I'm back."
Sakana blinked. "Kaenrinmaru??"
"I guess since you've somewhat regained your reiryoku, I should tell you what's going on. About everything that's happening today."
Sakana was terribly confused. "Wait, HUH? What's going on?"
Toshiro soared past, Zanpakuto freezing anything in his path. "Get moving, Satoshi-subeta! Move if you don't want to be killed!"
"Okay, do tell." Sakana growled, ignoring the frosty taichou.
"I'm going to monologue for a little while, so pay attention.
"Back when your father was just learning about the Soul Society, my wielder was a youthful man by the name of Enkou Sentaishi. Yes, he was the father of Hana. He was a powerful Shinigami, almost on par with Yamamoto at the time. He was the captain of the 8th division, and a smart one, too. He was kind and cared for his division.
"One day, the current soutaichou gave them a mission. There was a pretty freaky hollow on the loose in the world of the living. He gave Enkou a mission to kill this hollow. Reports from the Shinigami stationed at Karakura at the time said it looked like a fox with nine tails.
"So Enkou accepted this mission and went to the world of the living. He took only a few members of his squad with him, but they were the strongest. And he faced this terrifying nine-tailed kitsune hollow. The battle raged on for hours, until Enkou finally realized that it was impossible to kill the hollow. The man did the only thing he could; seal the kitsune hollow away."
"So he sealed it inside of you?" Sakana asked, firing a Hado at a hollow. The hollow exploded into flames and died.
"Yes. I was the one who suggested it, however. He was very reluctant to seal that hollow inside of me. But before he sealed it inside of me, the kitsune hollow dealt a final blow. He only managed to seal the hollow away because I forced some of my energy into him.
"After Enkou died, I was placed in a sealed room, supposedly to never be wielded again. Over the years, the hollow's soul molded with my own, but I soon gained dominance over it. But after, oh, 2000 years or something like that, I was unsealed and taken from the room. I was surprised; why would I be freed after so long? Then I heard your father's voice. He was talking to Ukitake-san about a prophecy."
"I think I know what prophecy you're talking about," Sakana said, swinging Kaenrinmaru and incinerating a dozen more hollows, "Isn't it the one that says a child born of a noble and a commoner would wield the hollow Zanpakuto and either save humanity or destroy it?"
Then Sakana stopped.
"Wait… that child was me?"
"Is you." Kaenrinmaru corrected, "But yes. The prophecy actually said the first-born child of a noble and a commoner would wield the hollow Zanpakuto. Shunsui and Matsuri had already had your brother, Konosuke. They thought the prophecy meant him, but they were wrong. When they had you, I was taken out again. Do you remember when you were little; you used to have dreams about a fiery red dragon that looked somewhat like a hollow, soaring across the sky?"
Sakana nodded, "Yeah. I always thought I was going crazy then. Then later, I always thought I was dreaming about my Zanpakuto."
"That dragon was me; my true form. You are the child of the prophecy. Well, since we're on the subject, I might as well tell you the full prophecy. It goes like this:
"The first-born child of a koushouna and a heimin would wield the hollow sword. This child will have kanjouinyuu and seishinkanno, and will have a love of the opposite element. This child and the child's love will have the power to either save all of humanity, in both the Soul Society and the world of the living, or destroy it and bring chaos to the world. The child and the child's love will gain something precious before heading for their final fate. Pretty complicated, but everything fits. You are the child of that prophecy, and you must fulfill it before it's too late. I am a hollow Zanpakuto; the only one if its kind.
Toshiro was fighting off a rather large hollow when he saw Sakana standing there, eyes closed.
"BAKA! Don't just stand there, do something!" he roared at the other taichou.
"Honouten ni Umuranzatsu. Kaenrinmaru."
A giant dragon once again emerged from Sakana's Zanpakuto in a much more controlled form and incinerated the hollow that Toshiro had been struggling against. Toshiro blinked at the girl, who seemed to have a more determined face. Something in Toshiro's mind stirred, and he gazed on at the girl.
His Sakana.
Sakana tore through more hollows, determined to put a stop to the attacks. She killed a very ruthless hollow before sensing an oh-so-familiar reiatsu.
"Gin?!"
She saw him, standing over the egg, smirking at her. Confused yet enraged, she leapt at the "traitor".
"Ikorose, Shinsou."
The short Zanpakuto grew and would have impaled Sakana if she had not shunpo'ed out of the way. Sakana fell to one knee afterwards; using shunpo was something that took up too much of her energy at this point.
"Gin, it's me!"
Gin looked at Sakana, a frown present on his face. Sakana looked pleadingly at him. She knew he wasn't a traitor.
Was he?
"…Sakana, I…"
Sakana suddenly realized what was wrong.
"You're being controlled by Aizen, aren't you?"
Sakana hit the nail on the head. Gin's body shook once before he regained his composure.
"Sakana, ya have ta stop 'im… urgh!"
Gin knelt on the ground, clutching his head and crying out in pain. Sakana almost broke down right there and then. She had been right all along; Gin wasn't a traitor. He had been put under Aizen's spell.
"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
As Toshiro pulled Sakana back into the Soul Society, Gin's cry rang in her ears. But that would soon be drowned out by Toshiro's compassionate feelings for her.
The Ice Prince won every time.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
As they reached the first division about an hour later, they noticed Yamamoto standing outside. Toshiro put Sakana down and bowed to the Soutaichou.
"Hm. I see you have returned. Was the mission successful? The old man said. Toshiro nodded, not wanting to let the soutaichou know where they had been relaxing for the past thirty minutes.
"Hai."
"Satoshi-taichou, how do you feel?" Yamamoto asked, noticing the slightly distressed look on her face. Well, the head captain read it as distressed; Toshiro read it much differently.
Sakana shrugged. She wasn't about to admit that she felt a little… well… turned on. Toshiro had made her body temperature go up a few degrees. His lips on her skin made her want him right then and there, but having sex in the third division garden wasn't the best of ideas.
"Well, seeing as you've been through all of this trouble, I'm going to give you a month or two off. You both need to rest after all of that mayhem." Yamamoto said. Sakana grinned; that had just made her day.
"Okay!" she said cheerfully. Toshiro smiled at his love's exuberance.
A few months with just the two of them? Perfect.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Toshiro and Sakana stopped in front of the small house they would be living in for the next few months. Sakana opened the door and put the rest of her belongings on the floor.
It was a house the size of Sakana's, except it was only one floor. The bedroom was the size of Toshiro's office. There was a kitchen, living room, and den. Toshiro hung his coat up in the closet and brushed the snow out of his hair. Sakana was startled as Toshiro picked her up and carried her to the living room, where he laid her on the couch.
"T-Toshiro!" Sakana stammered, surprised. Toshiro got on top of her and kissed her lips. Sakana waited for him to enter her mouth, but he left too quickly.
"Stay there." Toshiro whispered, getting off of the couch and disappearing to a different room, leaving Sakana lying on the couch. She sat up slightly and tried to get a feel for what he was doing. All she could read was a slight mischievous feeling; his thoughts were well-guarded against her.
Don't even try it, my kaen-hime.
Sakana started a little and blushed. How did he know she was trying to read his mind? She quit and lay patiently on the couch. She heard the faint sound of running water for a moment before it stopped. Toshiro then returned to the living room and smiled at his love in a naughty way. The empathic/telepathic taichou once again tried to read his thoughts, and this time she got something.
Run.
Sakana left her gigai and took off, fleeing out of the door. Toshiro licked his lips and followed suit, hungry for a chase.
They had done it before. Sometimes Sakana would just be walking through the Seireitei when she would hear him shout "Run!" at the top of his lungs. She would run off and he would follow her, chasing her through the Seireitei. He would eventually catch her, and she would owe him something, mostly dinner. But now he was hungry for something else.
Sakana did not allow her mind to drift as she ran away. Using her telepathic abilities, she listened to the thoughts of everything around her. She figured out that Toshiro had set up a bath for the two of them, and he was driving her towards it. Apparently there was a small yokujou not too far away from their house. Sakana shunpo'ed there, making sure she got there in plenty of time to surprise Toshiro.
Toshiro smiled as Sakana headed towards the bathhouse. He skidded to a stop in front and opened the door only to be hit with a face full of steam.
"Ouch!" Toshiro exclaimed, closing his eyes. He heard Sakana giggle and he blindly and slowly walked into the yokujou. The snowy taichou took seven steps inside the bathhouse and fell into the hot water.
"Gwbbbblll! Gwaaah!" Toshiro shouted as he flailed for a moment before regaining his footing. Sakana was laughing now; this amused her. Toshiro crawled out of the bath and took off his dripping wet Shikakushou before going back into the bath.
"You made this steam, didn't you?" Toshiro demanded as he found Sakana and sat next to her. Sakana grinned and kissed Toshiro's forehead.
"Yeah… this is the most I can do with my reiryoku right now. Releasing Kaenrinmaru and using shunpo kind of exhausted me." She said. Toshiro wrapped his arms around her body, which now felt flushed again. Toshiro concluded it was the hot water that made her naked body hot.
Sakana rested her head in the crook of Toshiro's neck and closed her eyes. Toshiro's skin felt slightly chilly to her, and it felt sooo good. Toshiro's lips were once again at her neck and she sighed as she shifted so she was sitting pretty much on his lap. She felt his manhood against her thigh, and shuddered in pleasure. Toshiro's hands gently stroked her hair.
After a while the two got out (well, realistically Toshiro carried Sakana out of the bath) and returned back to the house, where Toshiro laid Sakana on the bed. Sakana moaned softly as Toshiro kissed her on the lips again. Her eyes opened to see Toshiro staring hungrily back at her.
"Let the fun begin." Toshiro whispered, licking his lips.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Translations and Stuff Like That:
Koushouna: Noble
Heimin: Commoner
Kanjouinyuu: Empathy
Seishinkanno: Telepathy
Mai hanryo: My partner.
Mai aibou: This also means my partner.
Yokujou: Bathhouse.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Yeah, much different than before. Don't worry, Gin will be explained soon enough.