Warning note: this chapter implies a onesided IchiHime. Read at your own risk.
失恋
Yukiko walked behind Rangiku. She was currently escorted to the eleventh squad barracks where she'll face punishment for her almost attempt at betraying Soul Society. Toshiro told Rangiku to think of a reason as to why yukiko almost defected. They came up with the idea that she was currently emotionally unstable due to past trauma.
The sisters walked side by side in silence. Yukiko's thoughts were on the occurrence after Rangiku came into the room after a short nap.
...
"Taichou, as of right now, two ryoka are captured. One by Kyouraku-taichou who engaged in battle and successfully subdued the ryoka. The other was subdued Kuchiki-taichou whilst the ryoka was attempting to rescue the prisoner. The hostage from the 4th squad was dealt with by Ukitake-taichou. Both Ukitake-taichou and Kyouraki-taichou sent the ryoka to be healed before questioning of Aizen-taichou's death."
Toshiro sipped his tea and nodded. He then turned to look at Yukiko. "Have we found Zaraki yet?"
"Yes. Zaraki taichou engaged in battle and lost to a ryoka. He was discharged from the fourth squad just a few minutes ago."
Toshiro stood up, "right. Matsumoto come up with an idea as to why Yukiko almost went to rescue Kuchiki Rukia."—Rangiku almost interrupted her taichou but nedded up giving a surprised glance at Yukiko, who just avoided the penetrating blue eyes—"I'll write it down and then you can escort Yukiko back to face her punishment."
...
Snapping back into reality, Yukiko saw Rangiku asking to enter the main office. The door was answered by Yachiru who looked at Yukiko. "Kusajishi-fukutaichou, I'm here to deliver a letter from Hitsugaya-taichou along with Kyuumu Yukiko. I leave her in you care. If you'll excuse me, " Rangiku then left with a nod.
Yukiko looked down to the little squirt. "Yuki-chan, what did you do this time?"
Yukiko gave the ground a childish glare, "I almost betrayed Soul Society by wanting to go save Kuchiki Rukia. I told Toshiro and he decided to stop me."
"This means you need to get punished right?"
Yukiko growled and nodded. "Alright. You take care of Ken-chan, Baldy and Yumi-Yumi." Yukiko blanched at her punishment. There is no way in hell she was going to take care of that blood lusting moron, that goddamn 'lucky' bastard, and the whiny narcissist pretty boy. Yachiru took her hand as she continued to stare into space with a blank look.
Entering the room where all three were together, Yukiko looked at Kenpachi sitting there like he owned the world after losing a fight. She also detected a slightly dangerous killing aura as he smiled manically at the ground. Yukiko gulped. She turned to look at the two goons to find them relaxing. What is up with people in this squad?
"I'm going on a patrol now Yu-chan. Take care of these people okay?" Yukiko raised her arm to stop her only to have her use shunpo and disappear from the room. Yukiko's hand left hanging in mid air, she had a slight horrified look on.
"Oi, brat. You got caught or something?"
In despair she left her hand flop down to hang on her side. She let out a whine as tears came out of her comically, "why do I have to take care of you as punishment? Kenpachi, hurry up and give me some chores to do or something. I don't wanna deal with you guys!"—Yukiko turned and pointed at Yumichika—"Especially not you pretty boy, don't you dare give me that look and comment on my hair!"
"Ain't it fine though, you get to take care of your amazing senpai?"
Without emotions she looked at Ikakku, "shut it Baldy."
She saw Ikkaku form a vein on his bald head, "I ain't bald you brat! It's shaved! Shaved!"
Yukiko shrugged with a smirk on her face, "whatever makes you feel better."
"Enough you two." Ikkaku and Yukiko looked at their taichou and nodded an apology. "Yukiko, how did you get captured?"
Yukiko turned to look at Kenpachi an then looked at the ground. She fiddled with her fingers, "I sorta left after Renji got beaten cause I had something important to do…and then things happened, next thing I knew I ended up here to serve my punishment."
…
A few hours passed as Yukiko ran errands back and forth for the three of them. All the way she weeped over the fact that she felt like a maid. This was a horrible punishment. At least with exile, Toshiro can come visit her.
All four heads turned to the door as they saw 3 figures enter the room, Yachiru, a seated officer and a girl slung over said seated officer's shoulder. Yukiko noticed that the reiatsu is that similar of Ichigo's. A ryoka.
"We found a ryoka! Put her on that seat there."
Yukiko then shuddered when the seated officer introduced himself with his tongue sticking out. She shrivelled into a ball; she would have that image of a perverted looking man stuck in her head. Crying a bit from the torture she's put through Yukiko looked at the sleeping girl. One of the first thing she noticed was the huge boobs, not as huge as Rangiku's but big indeed.
Yukiko stood up as she glanced at a disheartened Aramaki from having the nickname given by Yachiru to be called weird by Yachiru herself. "Ah, she's waking up." Yukiko watched as the ryoka's eyelids flutter open. Yukiko stood up and straightened her self out before smiling at the girl.
"Where am I?"
Yukiko answered, "the eleventh squad's main office."
Seeming to have regained full consciousness, the ryoka stood up before frantically looking around here eyes somewhat worried. Yukiko looked at the ryoka, she looks too innocent for blood and war. Then again, so does Yachiru, but the shortie saw many killings in her days.
"I'm Kyuumu Yukiko, 4th seat. The bald one there"—Ikkaku interjected with his usual 'shaved not bald' argument—"is Madarame Ikkaku, 3rd seat. Pretty boy is Ayasegawa Yumichika, a 5th seat. The shortie is Kusajishi Yachiru fukutaichou. And our taichou, who should stop glaring at my back, is Zaraki Kenpachi."
The ryoka bowed and introduced herself as Inoue Orihime. Yukiko smiled as Orihime's name reminded her of Tanabata. "So, Inoue-san, is that guy Ichigo still alive?"
Inoue fumbled for words at the sudden question from Ikkaku. Kenpachi then reprimanded Ikkaku for asking such stupid questions, "he's alive, I can definitely feel it. That guy is alive and getting stronger. Interesting. I'll help you Oujo-san. Because if I go with you, I'll definitely meet up with Ichigo again."
Yukiko jumped and punched the air. This means they're going to rescue Kuchiki Rukia. Ikkaku looked at her weirdly to which Yukiko smiled and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.
Gomen Toshiro. I guess I am going to end up a traitor after all.
Rangiku woke up from her dream of the past. She sat up from the couch and looked at her taichou. "Did you sleep well, Matsumoto?" Rangiku blinked. Despite the kind question, Rangiku asked what Hitsugaya-taichou was doing in her room. She saw her taichou popping a vein, "idiot…the office is not your room. Since you're up, help me with the paperwork, I'm tired."
Getting up and putting her scarf on, Rangiku only blamed Hitsugaya-taichou for taking up the workload of the 5th squad after having their captain announced officially dead and the break down of the fukutaichou following that.
Rangiku looked surprised when there was so little left. Rangiku looked at the paperwork in her hand after hearing her captain telling her to work. "Just how long did I sleep?"
"Never mind that, seeing your colleague and junior fight like that must be hard on you."
Rangiku looked away, "my…coll..eague?" she returned her attention to her captain, "taichou, do you really think that Gi—Ichimaru taichou…" Rangiku never got to finish her sentence as a loud urgent voice came from outside the door.
"Excuse me! This is the 7th seat of the 10th, Takizoe Koukichirou, reporting! Is Hitsugaya taichou or Matsumoto fukutaichou in?"
Hitsugaya told the man to open the door. The door slid open and showed the seated officer kneeling down bringing news from the detention centre. "Abarai-fukutaichou, Hinamori-fukutaichou, and Kira-fukutaichou have escaped from their cells."
…
Toshiro, with Matsumoto behind him, used shunpo to reach the detention cell as quick as possible. He thought the only irrational friend he has is Yukiko, it seems he was wrong. Toshiro reached the gates of the detention centre and asked to be allowed to enter Momo's cell.
He walked and asked the details from the guard. The guard bowed down and muttered and apology for blacking out when called by Momo. Toshiro tsk-ed and looked at the cell, "she used Bakufuku. Hinamori specializes in Kido. Sealing her reiatsu with the cuffs would e the most obvious choice, but we didn't do that because no one thought that she would want to desperately get out."
Matsumoto looked at the giant hole Hinamori caused wondering why she wanted to get out in the first place, after all she wasn't on death row. Toshiro knew the answer. She wants revenge. "Matsumoto, you head back. I'm going to stop this."
Yukiko set up a futon for Orihime to sleep in. After discussing the matter on how to help Orihime, they decided on letting Orihime sleep in Yukiko's room since no one dared enter the 4th seat's room—the last person to actually do it ended up being Yukiko's punch bag for 6 months.
Once the futon was set up, Yukiko gulped when she sensed a sudden spike in Momo's reiatsu, it was not big enough to be noticeable, but the girl was definitely using kido. Yukiko knew that would only mean one thing; Toshiro will go out to investigate. She looked at Orihime who fiddled with her hands.
"Orihime, do you mind if I step out for a bit? Just rest if you want to. But there's just suddenly something I need to find out for myself." The young auburn haired girl shook her head at this. Yukiko smiled and thanked her. Yukiko took out her sword and called out her shikai. She gave a shy smile when Orihime clapped.
"Kazemouko," the air around her began to swirl and her hair flayed around, "Sousaku." Her zanpakuto disappeared completely as the shoji rattled and slid open. She felt the wind moving, searching for Toshiro's reiatsu. He was on the move. "Oikakeru," she commanded. The wind began to follow Toshiro. Getting up she excused herself from the room and closed the shoji.
Using shunpo she went to Toshiro's location. Finding out he's stopped Yukiko summoned her zanpakuto back and returned Kazemouko to its shikai-less form. Sheathing her zanpakuto Yukiko muttered out a bakudo spell that will shield her reiatsu.
Yukiko used shunpo and stopped when she heard Toshiro's voice. She hid behind a tree hoping no one would notice her. Looking at the scene unravelling before her she gripped onto the bark tightly. Was Toshiro really going to kill Ichimaru? Before he could even take out his sword Momo jumped into the fray. Yukiko watched as he tried to stop Momo, telling her (Momo) that he'll be the one to kill Ichimaru.
Yukiko bit her lip. What a hypocrite! There he was stopping her from rescuing a criminal when he was about to fight and kill a taichou! How was what they were doing any different? At least she had a valid reason! He's doing it for revenge. ON BEHALF OF MOMO! Feeling rage building up inside her. She bit her bottom lip harder, effectively stopping her from screaming.
Something snapped in her when she saw Momo turn and point her sword at Toshiro. She was about to jump in the fray and stop the idiocy when something gripped her hand. She turned around to look at her exact replica—except for the red cat like eyes and cat ears atop the replica's head. "Kishin," she muttered out. At the call of the Kishin's name, her downcast eyes looked directly into Yukiko's.
"Stay," her voice was raspy, like she hadn't talked in months. Yukiko gulped. Kishin then smiled ominously, "get angrier. Get the feeling of wanting to cut. Oh look, that girl is explaining why she's attacking your deary."
The more Kishin spoke the stronger her voice became, like sweet honey underlined with death itself. Every fibre of her body stayed rooted on the same spot. Kishin, obviously annoyed at Yukiko's apoplexy, turned Yukiko's head around to face Toshiro and Momo fighting.
Kishin hugged Yukiko, her mouth close to Yukiko's ears. "He fought you so readily Yukiko, but faced against that girl he looks so confused and lost. Ara, he hit her too hard."—Yukiko watched as Toshiro turned to face Ichihimaru, taking out Hyourinamru, his mien filled with killing intent—"For that girl he's willing to kill, just because that girl dropped a single drop of blood. Would he do the same for you? I doubt it."
Seeing Toshiro unleash his shikai to fight Ichimaru and hearing Kishin's words made Yukiko realise; even if I care deeply for him…he won't reciprocate. Yukiko bit her lips to the point it bled.
"Ah, so that's the strongest ice-element zanpakuto in Soul Society. So much power, if only the boy can learn to control it."
Yukiko ignored Kishin's words. Yukiko watched as Toshiro used the chains to bind one of Ichimaru's hand in ice. Seeing Ichimaru's zanpakuto extend as he called out his shikai Yukiko was about to stop the zanpakuto from hurting Momo. Before she could even move one step, Kishin's hug tightened, "let's watch her die shall we," Kishin then covered Yukiko's mouth with her hand, drowning out Yukiko's scream.
Relief washed over Yukiko when she saw Rangiku stop the sword. "How boring," Kishin then disappeared, letting Yukiko fall to the ground. Kneeling on the grass Yukiko watched as Ichimaru retracted Shinsou. She let out a relieved sigh; she knew there wouldn't be another fight. Tasting the metallic flavour of blood in her mouth, Yukiko touched her bottom lip. The blood was beginning to dry.
Using shunpo she quickly returned to her room. She didn't want to be anywhere near Toshiro or Momo at the moment. Her mind may go crazy...if it hasn't already.
Toshiro stood as she glanced at Momo's sleeping form. He could not believe that he went on a rage and fought, endangering Momo. More importantly, he at least suspected that Ichimaru was behind this.
To find out the whole problem; he first needs to find out how much of Aizen's will was rewritten. Using Soukyoku to destroy Soul Society, is that part real? Or just another lied conjured up? If it is real, Toshiro then needs to stop the execution of Kuchiki Rukia.
Toshiro watched the jigoku chou appear before him. The message intended for the captains and vice captains shocked him. "Twenty nine hours from now, Kuchiki Rukia will be executed." Knowing what he must do he immediately, he turned around and walked out the 4th squad resting room.
"Come Matsumoto. We're going to end this execution."
Yukiko got back to her room to find Orihime still awake. Yukiko smiled sadly at her. "Yukiko-chan, is there anything wrong?"
Yukiko sat down next to Orihime, her mind whirling on what she had just witnessed. "Orihime, what would you do if the person you cared for so much doesn't even reciprocate your feelings?"
Orihime turned at Yukiko, "does the person you like, not like you back?"
"He only cares for me as a friend, nothing more. When I left before, I saw him fighting his childhood friend. When we fought yesterday, he could do it so easily, and yet when he's forced to fight her, he ends up lost and not knowing what to do. I mean, I told him that I was going to rescue Kuchiki Rukia and he fought to stop me. But, but, for her sake, he was even willing to go as far as to kill someone to avenge her captain for her sake.
"Even though I know he'll never love me the same way back, I was prepared to follow him no matter what. That even if something terrible happens to me, like getting exiled, I'll always find a way back to him. To always be by his side. The more I stay by him, the more it hurts.
"I want this feeling to go away. I want it gone...But when I think of it not being there, I know I'll be incomplete. Because my love for him made me the way I am today. I don't know what to do anymore!"
The tears that threatened to spill when Yukiko started talking were released. Yukiko looked down on her futon as she held back the sobs. "To tell you the truth," Yukiko turned to look at Orihime as she began to speak, "I don't know how that kind of deep feeling of love feels. However, I do have a person that I like. Right now, he's chasing after something. I sometimes feel like I'll be forgotten, so right now, I want to become stronger. I want to be able to do what you do Yukiko-chan, walking and fighting by his side. I want to do that someday. So, together, let's not give up and keep on moving forward okay?"
Yukiko smiled. She wiped the tears away and nodded at Orihime, "it's a promise."
After a few giggles from their bonding. Yukiko tapped her chin as she looked at Orihime. Orihime gave Yukiko a puzzled look. "Orihime, the person you like…is it Ichigo?" Orihime blushed furiously. Yukiko let out a small smirk, "well then. Shall we head to bed? We'll deal with everything tomorrow."
The two girls bid each other good night before settling into a nice position in their futon and then falling asleep.
To be continued…
Author's note:
Again! Another fast update. This one is was fun to write in my opinion! Finally some angst! It all can't be happy for Yukiko can it? I was scared to write the bit when Yukiko and Orihime was talking, because I'm afraid it might end up similar to Orihime and Rangiku's heart to heart in the later chapters of Bleach. By the way, I DO NOT own Bleach. I just love writing fics, that's all.
Urm, let's see, I feel like I need o clear some stuff up again because I am such a useless writer. Well…here it goes:
1. Kyuumu in kanji is written like 旧夢 which means Ancient Dream.
2. Yukiko is 雪子, meaning Child of Snow.
3. Sousaku and Oikakeru means, a search and pursue respectively. Sousaku is a command that makes Kazemouko find people through reiatsu and Oikakeru makes Kazemouko to follow the target once its locked on.
4. Kishin, 鬼神, means Demon Lord.
Urm, I think that's it. I would like to thank Taka again because your review kept me going. Thus the quick update. Don't think I'll be able to write anything for a week after this is posted though cause I won't be around a computer that often. Anyway! Thanks for reading! R&R?