Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


Another day of healing went by. Neither Rei nor Ishin spoke through the cleaning ritual. The calmness in him overpowered his will to speak out against the process. His own mind's rebellion to remain as it was had been sedated by the calming sensation that Rei's powers had flooded him with. He had no resentment at all, just placid calmness. It felt to him like floating on the surface of a lake all the time, without a care at all, but some animistic sense in him demanded his mind to think of that lake to be one entirely of blood. He was still mentally unstable, and shifted between comfortable sighs and low, mad laughter.

Rei did not speak, not because she had nothing to say, but because her mind had become focused solely on the demonic aura of the swords that had done such a thing to an otherwise innocent young man. It is his swords to blame for his bloodlust Rei thought. If I am to return life to him, a life that is worth living even to a militant soldier like this, I must find a way to drain his swords of their inherent madness. Each day, when her lengthy ritual of cleansing had been completed, she would leave without a word and Ishin would lay still on his bed for another long day of sleep and eating to keep his body in recovery. Then Rei would eat some slight and meager meal if only to stop her waiting women from worrying over her health before going into the room where the swords held a powerful, oppressing aura.

Her ritual within that room had changed since her initial failure. The second day she had the room sealed off and instructed her guards to not try and retrieve her at all. Then, from within, a powerfully dense mist dampened the light and clouded the paper walls, making it impossible to spy from the outside while she worked.

"What's this?" a guard asked, mentioning the mist in the room. "Is this some kind of kido? I didn't sense anything happen yet."

"Lady Unohana is greatly studied in kido" another guard said "and spiritual energy in general. If she wanted to hide whatever she's doing, then she probably could with very little effort."

"She's a powerful young woman" the guard said. "It gets hard to believe that her mother was even more powerful than her." After three hours the guards became restless. They fought off the urge to open the door and check on their gracious benefactor and remained at guard, turning away everyone that passed through the hall on business or in search of the Lady for something. One young woman refused to be turned away, a noisy blond-haired girl who carried her sword in plain sight at her hip.

"I'm telling you" a younger Telly exclaimed, "it's a super emergency!!!"

"If the manor isn't burning down" the guard said with a gruff voice "then it's a super pile of CRAP!"

"Don't you mess with me!" Telly shouted. "I may look weak, but my kido could kick your kido's ass!"

"Ooo!" one of the guards began. "That girl's calling you out, man! She must mean business!" The guard's eyebrow was beginning to twitch in anger. He cracked a grin and tried to smother his building anger with a duteous and pleasant sense of guarding.

"Listen, kid" he said, leaning toward Telly with a wide smile, "I'm tired. It's been too long since the Lady went in there, and none of us have any idea what we're supposed to do aside from standing here and waiting for her to stumble out in whatever state she happens to be in! If you have any kind of suggestion as to what we can do to get her out faster for your 'super emergency', then by all means, tell me!"

"You can stop patronizing me" Telly said with puffed up cheeks. She huffed and turned away with a pout. "Just tell the Lady that she has important guests waiting in her sitting room, and that they are directly related to that boy she's taking care of, Ishin." The guard stood erect and nodded. Telly bowed and left, still arrogantly miffed at her poor treatment for seemingly no reason.

"Family, perhaps?" one of the guards said after Telly had completely gone.

"If a man like that can have family" the head guard said. "I shudder to think what such a meeting will produce...." An hour later the room became brighter as the mist was drawn away. A few moments later, Rei came out of the room in a weakened state and nearly fell over. The guard at the door caught her and helped her to her feet. "My Lady, are you alright!?"

"I am fine" Rei said. "Do not be so concerned. I won't lose....to a sword." The guard heard neither grace nor femininity in her voice. What he heard was the low voice of a warrior talking, the swearing of determination to win in whatever war she seemed to fighting inside that room.

"My Lady" the guard began, "I know this is a poor time to bring this up but, you have company. Relatives of Ishin, it seems. They've been waiting for some time in the main sitting room. Should we have them stay and meet with you tomorrow, or...?"

"No" Rei said to the man's stall. "I shall meet with them now. Please, I am weak. Help me there at least."

"Of course, My Lady" the guard said. He and his company of men moved out, assisting their graceful but weakened benefactor through the halls to her esteemed and quaint sitting room where a woman was preparing another bowl of tea for the patient guests. There were three people in the room waiting for Rei, commoners in plain, drab brown garments. One older man, who was thin and had a poor complexion from working too long in the sun. He was bald but had a goatee of rough, silver-gray hair around his mouth. Beside him was a woman who was slightly younger, had her loose and coarse hair up in a bun atop her head and kept her eyes closed in meditation. She had wrinkles at the edges of her mouth and under her eyes, and looked underfed. Then beside her was a much younger woman with fair skin and no signs of poor feeding or improper exposure. She was a dainty girl and a healthy one, but she looked the most demure out of all three in her expression.

"Excuse my intrusion" the guard said as he opened the door with his leg. He held Rei up with both arms and moved her into the room as her legs hardly moved to keep up with him. "I present to you the Lady, Rei Unohana, who expresses her apologies for making you wait so long."

"It's nothing" the man said, breaking a smile just to see her. The guard rested Rei down on a seat cushion adjacent to her company so she could see all of them.

"Lady Unohana" the guard began "has been kept at length due to problems concerning the healing of a recently inducted young man from a warzone. She's been exerting extraneous amounts of energy lately, and therefore is in a less than receptive state."

"I will be fine" Rei said. "My only excuse was that I had not anticipated company during my work."

"It is certainly understandable" the man once again said. "We did not mind waiting for you, either, so please do not think yourself of being troublesome. Thank you for allowing us in." The man and his family bowed in gratitude. Rei bowed as well but strained herself to rise back up into a proper sitting position. The woman made a bowl of tea for Rei, who graciously accepted it and drank it all in one gulp and slurp. With that she felt at least energetic enough to keep herself sitting upright on her own, and she dismissed the guards who left to stand at attention outside as always.

"Well" one of them said outside the room in a hush "at least it's in a different part of the manor."

"Yeah" the main guard said. "You know, this part of the manor smells like grass, fresh and spring-like."

"We're close to the garden, is why" another guard said. They all nodded with agreement and then went back to statuesque silence, standing guard with their arms crossed to keep even idle conversation out....


The family sat with Rei and the woman who made them their tea, a cup for each of them. Another woman from the corner of the room brought them sweets to eat which the family graciously accepted and promptly ate. Rei could tell immediately that they had only been able to come to her manor by the sheer luck of passing unharmed through the forests that surrounded her estate. They were of no royal importance or even relevance to the nobles of Seireitei. These were common folk who came on a self-imposed errand, people who Rei took to heart at any passing.

"I've been told" Rei began "that you have some connection to the young man I am treating now. His name is Ishin."

"Yes" the woman said. "That is my son." Rei was hit suddenly by the news. The husband tried to quiet his wife by taking her shoulder but she simply collapsed into sobbing and sorrow. "My only son....my sweet boy. They took him from us and sent him into war the second they learned that he had a sword!"

"Please, settle down, Mizumi" the husband said. "This isn't going to help us."

"I'd like you to know" Rei said "that your son is indeed faring well. His wounds have all recovered and his mental state is slowly being weened from the constant stresses and terror of war." Mizumi and her husband were ecstatic to hear this. Their daughter even leaned in and smiled when they had heard Rei's report. "That being said, there is still much work I have to do. Ishin's current status is tied directly to his swords. Even though they are completely disconnected and he has not been in contact with them since arriving, his swords have stayed in their released state and exude a tremendous amount of energy."

"It's always been that way" the man said. Rei perked her ears and looked at him.

"Please, tell me" Rei said. "Any information that you have on your son will surely help me in aiding his recovery."

"Ishin was born special" the husband began. "His spiritual pressure was unlike anything anyone had ever seen in their lives. I, myself, have never been a part of war, but I knew many men who claimed my son was a prodigy shinigami. They told me that if he ever developed the power to slay Hollows that I should jump at the chance to foster it and make my son famous. But I've seen what war has done to people. Whole towns and grand blocks of the Seireitei have fallen because of war! No one is safe from it! I knew that, in time, Ishin's gift would develop, but I never planned for it to happen so early. It was merely years ago, though really it was close to ten whole years since Ishin developed his terrible powers. One day he went to bed no bigger than his little sister. The next he was awake with two horrid blades in each hand, and taller than any man I'd ever known. He stood a full arm's length taller than I, his father, and his hair had turned from brown to bloody red."

"That's when he started to go insane" Mizumi, the mother, began in turn. "Poor Ishin.....he never got better. He was just so fascinated with his swords and his killing power. When a group of bandits wandered into our district, Ishin fought them all and suffered horrible wounds. But, he won, and he protected all of us from the thieves by killing them. It was such a terrible sight! He became so restless after that that his wounds never fully healed! He always swung his swords around, fighting imaginary opponents, and at night he'd stay up talking to them, talking to those demon blades of his!!!"

"Calm down, mother" the girl said, patting her mother's back. Mizumi took a deep breath and took to her tea cup after it was refilled. She took a hand to her head and rubbed her weary eyes.

"A man from the Seireitei came one day" she continued "and asked to see our son, who was in bed sleeping."

"He took him from us" the father continued "and told us that he would solve everything in exchange for our cooperation. I thought that Ishin would be cured, but instead they abused his powers and sent him out to war! Then, just a short while ago, we heard that the army was coming back from their campaign, so we went to try and see him."

"They wouldn't let us see our son!" Mizumi exclaimed. "Those monsters told us that he was no longer a son of ours!!!"

"Please" Rei said, instantly returning peace and calm to the tense room. "I understand your emotions well, and I empathize with you. I'd like to know one more thing before I can safely proceed with my healing practice. Just how old is Ishin? How old was he when he first attained his swords?"

"Like I said" the father began "it was about ten or so years ago, a little longer than that. That year....when his swords suddenly came to him, he was 110 years old." Rei was shocked. In the standards of the long-lived shinigami of the spiritual plane, 100 years equates to a mortal 10 on average. Some shinigami can live for over a thousand years, and its is indeed rumored that some live into the several-thousands of years somehow. Given Ishin's body and state of mind, Rei was utterly shocked and disgusted over the realization that a child, a mere boy, had been sent into a war and scarred so much. It took her a moment to regain her own emotional bearings from the overwhelming sensation, but when she did she stood straight up and planted her feet to keep from wobbling.

"I must tell you what I have been doing up until now" Rei said. "I have found a way to balance his mind by altering the spiritual structure of his body. Currently, I am redirecting the flow of his essence into the amplification of Earthen energy. As I progress, his body will become more and more earth-like, canceling out the other spiritual auras that surround him. This will return his body to a natural state and concentrate it into a single type. His swords, however, are the root of all of this. They bear an aura of destruction the likes of which I have never seen. Of all the types of aura that can possibly occur, this one is something that is wholly unique. Therefore, his swords being the source of his madness, I have sealed them in a hidden area of the estate so that not even he will be able to find them if he tries. This will minimize the direct contact he has with the contaminating objects and speed the recovery and alteration of his reiatsu."

"Then what will you do with his swords?" the husband asked.

"I certainly cannot destroy them" Rei said "for that may have dire repercussions on his own soul. He could die with them as he has entrusted to them all of him. He abandoned his former self, the innocent child that you knew, and became a mindless warrior with an unquenchable bloodlust when he was first thrown headlong into war."

"Then you can help him?" Mizumi asked desperately. "You will give us back our son?"

"Of course I shall" Rei said. "It may take time, but your son will be given back to you in the state he was in before his swords manifested. The swords themselves I will seek to seal somehow so that he can exist without their influence but without destroying them."

"Then the threat will still exist" the father said "that they might find him again and pull him out to war..."

"No" Rei said, pulling his attention. "If a shinigami's sword is sealed properly, then they can no longer fight. That is what I shall seek to do to Ishin." The family was moved nearly to tears. The father bowed on his hands and knees before Rei and exclaimed his gratitude.

"Thank you, Lady Unohana!" he cried. "Thank you so much!!!" Rei knelt down and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw her face smiling down on him with a message of peace and love.

"You may stay here as long as you wish" Rei said "so that you may be even closer to your son."

"That is what I wanted to ask you next!" the father exclaimed. "Your mercy is boundless, Lady Unohana. You are a grand, fantastic person! I can hardly believe, in a time of endless war, someone like you exists in this world!" Rei glanced down and smiled at him. His praise passed her by for the gratitude she felt, and even that registered thin for her. Rei had done what she had always done. She took those scarred by war and healed their wounds. Thanks were never necessary....


Days had passed since Ishin's family was invited to stay. They were fed, taken care of and treated as family in the enormous house. The father talked with the men and the guards on why they chose to stay, soldiers away from the war front. He drank with them and mingled with them all while still staying close to his wife and daughter. Mizumi and he daughter offered their help wherever necessary and went to the garden to admire its beauty each day. Rei's efforts redoubled on healing Ishin's aura and solidifying an Earthly influence on his body. After a few days, her efforts paid off as his body indeed started to alter and shrink back to its former fitting state. He progress with the swords went unrecorded and unspoken, but each day she left that room she seemed to carry and exhausted sense of pride.

Everything was progressing well. The Unohana estate continued to operate in a pristine and orderly fashion. However, being in the middle of the wildnerness as it was, the estate was not immune to the dangers of the wilds. Guards were placed at the borders every night to report immediately to and from each other on the goings on of the forest. Hollows were spotted and mostly eliminated. The few that got away simply ran like animals and never returned, either dead from injury or fled to their realm out of cowardice.

Each night the pressures of the Hollows would send chills through the bodies of everyone in the estate, including the poor family of Ishin who were guarded at all times from the desperate, animistic fiends. They were protected and knew it, and even the startling chills of fear did nothing to move their hearts away from the generosity and benevolence of Rei's hospitality. Each night they talked together of what their family would be like when Ishin was returned to them and how they would be happier than they had ever been....

One night, on a full moon, a dreadful roar echoed through the forests and many guards were mobilized. The pressure of the Hollow that had come was so daunting and frightful that even Rei herself woke up and equipped her sword in preparation for it. The roaring all came from the woods around the manor, but the pressure was focused and increasing in the garden....

"Kido squad!" a commanding guard shouted. A line of men and women armed with blades, battle-scars and powerful flares of light in their hands were gathered on the roof of the hallway at the garden's manor-side border. "Spread the light! Find the Hollow!" Each supporting member took a knee, aimed their hands and fired spheres of light that exploded off in the distance. The entire skyline outside the garden walls was bright and flashing with little movement at all. Then came up a huge object covered in shadows from beneath the tops of the trees, and then it ducked back down with a roar.

"Was that it!?" a guard shouted.

"That this was huuuuge!" Telly exclaimed, a leading member of the kido squad even as a young girl. The battle-ready soldiers spread out in the garden and took to the outer wall, standing guard with their blades drawn and ready. Rei stood amongst them with her hands folded into her sleeves.

"This is a tremendous power" Rei said "but it is still only a Hollow. Sever its mask and it shall be no more." The Hollow roared again and the bright lights slowly dimmed and died in the air. The kido squad moved back and silently ducked into the shadows to prepare their next possible attack.

"Isn't it strange, though?" a guard said to Rei. "Lady Unohana, I'm no experienced Hollow-tracker. I can barely follow the pressures of my own comrades in times of battle. But still, even if it's that far off, how can it seem to be so close by right now?"

"It's like it's already here" another guard said. Rei suddenly became aware of something and drew her sword. She turned and blocked an invisible strike that powered into her sword and threw her through the air and off of the wall.

"Lady Unohana!!" a guard exclaimed. His body was clutched from behind by something, an invisible force, and he was raised up off his feet. The force squeezed tighter and tighter until his back snapped and blood gushed from his mouth. Then he was dropped into a yawning, black void in the ground that closed and grinned with an evil smile.

"Hollow!!!" a guard shouted. The ground suddenly started rising up and laughing low. A giant of a Hollow had appeared. It's body was round and moved along the ground like a slug but its face was enormous. Tentacles stretched out from all over its body and more seemed to spawn anywhere on its skin that it desired. Without even looking the Hollow attacked and broke the warriors' line. Two men were grabbed and killed instantly, then tossed into the Hollow's mouth. A veil of slime-like flesh dripped away, revealing a huge set of bone-white teeth that opened up and briefly revealed another set of upper and lower teeth within the accursed thing's face. A giant Hollow had infiltrated the manor and was on the attack!

"So many morsels" it voiced with a deep boom of a voice "and so little time. By the end of this full-moon night, all of these souls will be mine!! RAAAAAAGGGHH!!!!!" It's roar shook the very estate grounds like a quake. Its pressure paralyzed many of the brave men who braced its impact to fight. Once it was through with its roar, many men bravely dashed forward to fight it in the absence of their Lady of War. Their swords sank into its slime-like skin and were pulled from their hands with great force. The fiendish thing suddenly shrank and sank into a puddle of its own goo that went down into a hole, taking with it the swords of many of the warriors.

"What the hell was that!?" a man shouted. "This thing can't be hurt, can it!?"

"Not by sword alone!" Telly shouted. The men looked up at the roof of the building and saw her standing all proud and arrogant with the kido squad behind her. "You leave this to us! We'll teach this disgusting Hollow not to mess around with the divine guard of the Unohana Manor!!!"

"Where'd this hole come from?" an observant warrior asked. He inspected the burrow, wide enough for a shinigami like him to fit into which seemed to narrow as it descended so infinitely down. "This garden is always in pristine care! Anyone would notice a hole this big before a battle!"

"Oh, damn" another man cursed. "Men! Divide into two parties! Search the estate! A Hollow has breached our defenses! It dug a tunnel from the forest into here while our backs were turned! These monsters are dangerously organized!!!" The men still equipped with swords took most of those who were without and went into the compound. The rest, all veterans of war, all wearing proud marks of their courageous fighting history as scars or bandaged wounds or militant haircuts, stayed in the garden and awaited the return of their vicious, viscous foe.

"Hey!" Telly shouted. "You're ignoring me on purpose aren't you!! Don't you underestimate the kido squad, you jerks!!!"

"Uh...." a man groaned. "That kid's pretty obnoxious, eh?"

Rei, meanwhile, had managed to regain her footing before being thrown too far away and was en route back to her manor. Suddenly, from the silent darkness, a growling creature sprung. A Hollow with long, bladed arms and an open mouth came jumping at her from behind. Rei sped up her running and outpaced the Hollow's leap, running past as its arm sank down in stabs. The Hollow then gave chase, letting its tongue drape out of its mouth as it sped through the woods after its prey.

"I give no pity" Rei said "to either the fools who love war nor the creatures who start it!" Rei stopped suddenly and drew her sword. The Hollow crossed its bladed arms before its face to guard itself, ignoring Rei's obvious threatening glare. She took her sword up in both hands at chest level, a traditional pose, and stood firm. "Do not mistake me for any ordinary woman" Rei said calmly. The Hollow charged forward and swung both of its arms out. Rei had disappeared from where it hung in the air, with streaks of light parting the wind where Rei once stood, and she reappeared with her sword drawn in its sheathe again several steps behind the beast. Suddenly, with only a curious grunt as a final sounding, the Hollow was bisected and evaporated into a black mist of energy. Rei turned her woeful eyes as the beast was destroyed and offered it a moment of silence and pause. Then, with a flash-step, she continued on to the high walls of the manor, an elegant and deadly lady whose swore spared no quarter for the demons that ruined her peace...