Supernova
By Willow Athena
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters, but Rien and this story are definitely mine
Author's note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and PMed me condolences. I'd like to thank you all for your understanding and encouragement. We have all been through a lot together, I mean, many of you have been reading this story for over two years now, and only fantastic fans like those encountered in the Bleach Fandom would really stick with an author like that. I hope my writing has improved over the years. I'd like to say a big thank you to you all. Your interest and feedback is the reason I continue to write. Enjoy.
Warning: Rating for this story is M, since chapter 30, so if you're not whatever age this site says then stop reading now.
CHAPTER 34 – Some Things Can Only Be Felt
"At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it."
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Renji was going over the sixth division's squad reports with Byakuya when he received Rukia's distress call. All the message brokenly said was : Help…Rien. To say they were both instantly off would be an understatement. Byakuya called Ukitake's third seats and found out where Rukia was supposed to be patrolling. Renji and Byakuya shunpo'ed around one of the larger districts in Rukongai, searching for signs of either of them. Byakuya's shunpo was far quicker and could cover more distance than his own and Renji struggled to keep up, but he pushed himself – Rukia had called for him. She hadn't called for Byakuya or any other taichou, when Rukia had needed someone, she had called for him, and he wasn't about to let her down.
Byakuya spotted the Garganta close and a figure that was undoubtedly Rien fall from the sky and a trail of white spirit particles fly off of her clothes like the tale of a shooting star.
Thought became action and before Renji could even comprehend what was going on, Byakuya had shunpo'ed and caught Rien's falling body. He arrived as Byakuya landed in the open field. Renji noticed Rukia's lifeless body lying a short distance away, the Tenteikura spell written on the ground in Rukia's blood.
Byakuya tried to calm his racing heart and the sick feeling that crept up in his stomach at seeing all the open stab wounds on Rien and the vibrant blood trickling out of them.
Her autumn coloured skin was painted a vivid red as her tattered clothes precariously hung like wilting leaves off of the branches of her arms. The sensual bouquet he had worshiped only hours earlier was now tainted with the smell of rust. The sticky coolness of her blood coated his arms and ran through his fingers, and flowing with it, that painful memory of their past. He would not relinquish her this time, not now, not ever.
He placed his ear against her chest, her blood smearing across the silver of his cheek and ear and soaking into his hair. He pushed her chest firmly against his ear so he would not be mistaken.
Thump…Thump…
It was as faint as always, but her heart was still beating.
It beat with such defiance.
He had noticed Renji rush to Rukia's side as he landed, but the sight he now saw was too perplexing to Byakuya. Renji was cradling Rukia to his chest and rocking her back and forth, obviously overreacting, like he was too hysterical to feel from her reiatsu that she was injured but otherwise okay.
"Rukia please don't leave me," Renji cried as he almost suffocated Rukia against his chest. "I love you, please don't go…I'll do anything," Renji pleaded, kissing Rukia's sweat-slicked hair.
"I'm fine, you idiot," she weakly scolded, only to have Renji lean down and fiercely kiss her.
"I won't be fine for long if you keep smothering me," she protested as she half-heartedly pushed him away, barely able to lift her arm.
"We should get them to Unohana taichou immediately," Byakuya stiffly said, to remind them both he was still there, and that Rien, and probably Rukia as well, needed urgent medical attention.
Rukia and Renji both froze and turned to look at Byakuya, whose back was now facing them before he quickly shunpo'ed away with Rien's unconscious body in his arms.
Perhaps this death would have been a more merciful end to her life, Rukia regretfully thought.
Unohana thought she was having a serious case of déjà vu when she saw the stoic captain shunpo into her hospital with the bloody and unconscious body of that troublesome girl. Only this time, it was Byakuya who brought her in, cradled securely in his arms, her blood smeared across his cheek and soaked into his new haori.
It had been almost a year since Ukitake taichou had barged into her hospital shouting and hysterically screaming for help. Byakuya hadn't done any of that, but there was something about the way he had held the girl and the slight, almost unnoticeable, hesitation before he handed the ryoka over to the nurse, that made Unohana wonder if he had somehow had a change of heart concerning the troublesome girl.
Perhaps these were strange things to think about while removing the unconscious girl's clothing in the examination room, but Unohana found herself unable to shake these thoughts. The girl was of course pretty, Unohana conceded, as the nurses wiped Rien's bloody body down with damp cloths and alcohol so they could properly assess the extent of the damage. But the girl's beauty was nothing in comparison to Byakuya's magnificence. Even she, a taichou, had been lured in by Byakuya's beauty on more than one occasion. Ever since that day on Sokyoku Hill, when they had all found out about Byakuya's romantic and tragic past, she had harboured a secret crush on the stoic captain. But she had locked away her hopes and privately laughed at the silly ryoka who was so unrequitedly and hopelessly in love with him. Byakuya was, and always would be, unattainable…right?
Unohana's eyes must have been deceiving her, just like her mind was playing tricks on her. She quickly ordered the nurses who were helping her out of the room. Rien's naked body lay motionless on the examination bed, now luminescently golden and blood free. Unohana leaned closer to the multitude of open wounds on Rien's torso and silently watched as scrapes disappeared and slashes across her skin began to heal themselves without any assistance. Unohana wondered how long Rien's two senseis had been keeping this secret.
This time, since Rien's ki was not depleted, she seemed to be healing herself without any external assistance required. At the rate the unconscious girl was healing, Unohana guessed that all the ryoka would need was a couple of hours before she was fully healed. Unohana was still not sure how Rien had woken up the last time, so she was not willing to bet on a favourable outcome this time around either.
Unohana herself dressed Rien in a hospital gown, after securely bandaging her arms and torso to hide the healing wounds beneath. She called the nurses back in and instructed them to place Rien in a double room with Rukia, once Isane was done with the shinigami, and that Rien's progress was to be closely monitored by the two nurses.
Unohana leisurely walked out of the examination room, slowly digesting the new information and attempting to generate a medical hypothesis for the ryoka's high-speed regeneration. She fully expected to see a concerned Byakuya waiting for her outside the room, but the only person anxiously waiting was Renji. Perhaps Byakuya didn't care about the ryoka after all.
Kuchiki taichou couldn't hide from her questions for long, and she was in the mood for answers or she was going to submit a detailed, truthful report about the whole incident.
Byakuya arrived back at the hospital a few minutes later, his hair just this side of not dripping, and in his old haori and scarf. The minutes he had waited outside the examination room had seemed like an eternity, and as soon as he had calmed himself enough to realise that there was nothing he could do for Rien, he had left.
Byakuya had raced home, washed Rien's blood off of his body and ordered the only thing she had ever given him, the new haori, cleaned before her blood became a permanent reminder of the day he had almost lost her.
He could not lose her.
Byakuya soon encountered Unohana taichou in Rien and Rukia's room. Rukia smiled warmly, though hesitantly, at Byakuya as he entered. Renji, sitting in the chair next to Rukia's bed, did not even venture to lift his gaze anywhere near Byakuya's direction.
They were not in the ICU section of the hospital, so Byakuya assumed that this was at least a good sign. Rukia, all bandaged and bed-ridden herself, was anxiously looking in Rien's direction, as if expecting something horrifying to happen. Unohana seemed unconcerned by either patient but was sternly staring him down, accusation written all over her expression.
"Are they well?" he vaguely asked, trying to control his tone and conceal the real question burning a hole in his heart.
"They'll both live. Rukia at least is fine, there will be no lasting effects after we complete restoring some of her reiastu so her body may heal itself unimpeded. Our resident ryoka's injuries should be fully healed by the end of the day. I wouldn't bet on the odds of her regaining consciousness though." Unohana piercingly stared Byakuya down, his blank expression giving nothing away to her.
"How long has she had this high-speed regeneration, Kuchiki taichou?" Unohana bluntly asked, since her visual investigation had provided no results.
"I wouldn't know," he tonelessly replied.
"Really?"
"Our training is mostly theoretical since she has no zanpakuto, and as you can imagine, after the last incident, I try not to hurt her," Byakuya competently lied, having already considered all the questions that she could pose to him.
Unohana seemed to accept this explanation of his ignorance and her suspicions were dying down until Byakuya's heart had almost leaped out of his chest at the sound of Rien's heart-wrenching scream. She sounded like she was in agony. Byakuya closed his eyes, in the usual way, but this time, it wasn't out of boredom or disinterest, it was to hide her pain reflected in his depths.
"Why is she doing that? I thought you said she was unconscious," he calmly asked while curbing the urge to push Unohana aside and rush to Rien to calm the intermittent moans and screams she was now making.
"She remains unconscious, but she does this from time to time. It appears as if she has a fever, and is in pain from her injuries trying to rapidly heal themselves. I would guess that the more serious the injury, the more painful the healing process. It must be torturous. It is a blessing that her mind won't allow her to wake up when she is in this much pain," Unohana explained as she leisurely walked to the door.
"This is not over, Kuchiki taichou, there is still much to discuss. I will return in five minutes and I expect you both to be gone – my patients need their rest," Unohana added as she glanced at Renji's contrite, seated form next to an equally worried looking Rukia.
Unohana shut the door as she left so the ryoka's screams would not filter through her hospital and scare the rest of her patients.
Five minutes, was that all he was allowed?
Byakuya walked to the only vacant chair, right next to Rien's bed, since Renji was in the chair next to Rukia's. He wanted to gather Rien up in his arms and kiss her and tell her that everything was going to be okay, that he was right there – always by her side. But he did nothing, he just sat there next to her bed with his eyes closed and listened to her scream in agony.
"Nii-sama, Rien was…"
"Rukia, conserve you energy and rest," Byakuya sternly instructed as he lifted his finger up to his ear and vaguely pointed to the walls.
Of course people would be listening in by now, Rukia realised. The news of the Arrancar attack must have spread through the squads like wildfire. Rukia and Rien's every word must have already been monitored by now.
Byakuya stood up suddenly and paced, the wind catching in his old haori and scarf as he moved back and forth. He stopped just as suddenly near her head as she screamed once more. He couldn't endure the pain in Rien's voice any longer. Byakuya tugged lose the damp scarf that his wet hair had rested on. He gently moved her hair out of her face. He used the cool parts of the windflower scarf to mop up Rien's feverish sweat, to sooth her in some way.
Rien loved this scarf. She openly coveted it and had remarked to him on more than one occasion that this scarf, after a century of daily wearing it, had soaked up his scent like nothing else ever had. He had once come home from a two day long mission to find her sitting on his bedroom floor, the scarf wrapped all around and her inhaling deeply. She had at first tried to pretend that she was just trying it on, but he had eventually tortured it out of her. He had also once tried to give it to her as an engagement gift, but she had refused the proposal and the gift, firmly stating that she could not accept a family heirloom.
Rien cried out once more, tears rolling like raindrops out of the corners of her eyes and soaking into the scarf Byakuya had placed next to her head on the pillow. Byakuya could not be angrier with himself – this was his fault! He should have been there to protect her. He should have never let her out of his sight, let alone out of his arms.
He couldn't even look at Renji and Rukia. He was unable to control his countenance in this moment. One could only guess what they thought he was doing, lurking next to Rien, his body blocking most of their view. Rien screamed in pain again, and that was the final straw – Byakuya had to get out of there and kill something.
"Renji, we have work to attend to, let's go. A meeting has been called for all the taichous and fukutaichous to discuss how we will deal with the intruders." Even though his voice had remained calm and authoritative, his expression as he looked at Rien's unconscious body remained pained.
He pushed his emotions aside, swiftly turned and walked out of the room and Renji obediently followed in his wake.
Ukitake taichou had arrived back from his mission in the early afternoon and was immediately informed of the 'Arrancar Incident' as everyone had apparently begun calling it. He found himself in a panic and immediately shunpo'ed to the hospital even though his third seats had assured him that everyone was okay.
As he walked up to the help desk, he saw a familiar pair of nurses huddled in conversation. They appeared so engrossed in their conversation, that they hadn't even noticed him standing at the counter. Ukitake was about to interrupt when he caught a sliver of their conversation and hesitated.
"Did you see Kuchiki taichou yell at that ryoka girl?" a blonde nurse asked.
"Yup, it was terrifying. The poor girl had just woken up and all he did was shout about how reckless and idiotic she had been," the brunette replied to her friend.
"Yeah, it made me shiver too. I really felt sorry for her," the blonde nurse said and leaned conspiratorially closer to her friend. "But did you see the way he looked at her when he stopped shouting?" The blonde nurse began to squeal and giggle with her friend.
"I'd give anything for him to look at me that way," the brunette sighed.
"Me too," the blonde agreed. "Do you think all those old rumours about them are true?"
"I hope not. It's unlikely, he was really mean after all," the brunette said. "I've never seen him up close before, but he's really handsome. Do you think he'd pick me up and carry me if I fainted in front of him?" she asked while giggling again.
Jyuushiro cleared his throat.
Both startled nurses jumped up and turned around to find him stone faced and standing there.
"Uh… Ukitake taichou, how nice to see you again," the brunette said while blushing.
"Kuchiki-san and Shihouin-san are in room 300, if that's who you're looking for," the blonde said without delay and her eyes averted.
"Thank you," was all he said in return before walking off.
Jyuushiro wondered if Byakuya had truly been angry enough to shout. Even so, anger was not love, he decided. Jyuushiro knew Byakuya – when Byakuya was in love, he did not hide it well. If Byakuya was truly in love with Rien, he would have asked her to marry him by now, and Jyuushiro knew that there was no way Rien would refuse. It was all impossible, Jyuushiro concluded – the nurses were just silly, infatuated girls, and what did they know!
When Jyuushiro arrived, he found Byakuya disinterestedly leaning against the door frame of the hospital room's bathroom with his eyes shut. Jyuushiro stepped in and closed the door, only then glimpsing two small figures in the bathroom.
Rien tightly gripped the edges of the sink as she painfully coughed up some blood. The vibrant red spray stood out in stark contrast to the white porcelain of the sink before Rien opened the tap and washed the evidence away. She took a drink of water and gargled her mouth a few times until it ran clear and the taste of rust was washed away with it.
Rien tilted her head slightly towards Rukia who had been holding her hair out of the way with her uninjured hand. "I guess this is what best friends are for." She smiled at Rukia, hoping to alleviate some of her friend's apparent worry.
"Are… are you okay?" Rukia asked, almost in tears.
"I'm fine," Rien assured her, even though she still felt intermittent waves of nausea and pain. Rien washed the beads of perspiration from her face, and turned around to find Jyuushiro quietly standing against their closed room door.
"Jyuu," she exclaimed as she ran up to hug him.
"I'm so glad you're oaky," he said and kissed the top of her head while affectionately placing a hand on her jaw.
"You should rest," Byakuya sternly insisted and tugged the nape of her hospital gown, moving her towards her bed.
Jyuushiro stood there for a moment, in shock, unsure of what to make of Byakuya's actions. Was he jealous?
"I'm fine, Byakuya," she protested, sounding like this was the 100th time she had said it, but she still obeyed his glare and got under the covers.
Rukia had returned to her bed as well, her one arm in a sling and substantially bandaged, but no other visible wounds that Jyuushiro could see.
"It was all my fault, Ukitake taichou…" Rukia began to say but Jyuushiro put his finger to his lips and then pointed to the walls around them. Of course, Rukia should have remembered that they were being spied on, as Nii-sama had pointed out earlier.
Ukitake taichou wrote something on the door with his finger, chanted in a whisper and then placed his hand in the middle of the invisible circle he had drawn. All the walls shimmered and connected in a beautiful display.
"Wow, you really have to teach me how to do that," Rien said as she radiantly smiled at him.
Ukitake turned to Rukia. "Now, tell me everything," Ukitake taichou commanded his subordinate and Rukia shifted into mission debriefing mode – just the facts, none of the emotion.
Byakuya sat next to Rien's bed and Ukitake next to his subordinate's as they listened to Rukia's horrifying recount of what she remembered of the battle.
"Are you sure it was Rien with the white hair?" Ukitake asked Rukia once she was done. Ukitake's hair had once permanently changed from black to the silvery white it now was, but he had always thought it was because of his illness. With Rien's hair turning white, and seeing her coughing up all that blood, Jyuushiro wondered if Rien had somehow caught his illness when she had risked her life to cure him almost exactly a year ago.
Before rational thought could intervene, he felt the guilty weight push down on him and attempt to suffocate him.
"I'm pretty sure it was me," Rien piped up. "But it was also not me," she added sounded slightly confused herself. "It was like I was there beneath the surface watching it all happen," she revealed as she hesitantly looked between Byakuya and Jyuushiro.
Byakuya would still not look at her.
"I believed her zanpakuto took over when it sensed that she was in imminent danger," Byakuya explained to Ukitake taichou.
"Whatever happened, I'm glad you are both okay," Ukitake said as he rubbed the top of Rukia's head. "Is Rien really oaky? What about all that blood she was coughing up?"
"Unohana taichou said it was her body trying to get rid of any poisoned internal blood from all of her healed injuries," Rukia explained, but continued to look worried. There were a lot of injuries, Rukia anxiously thought, and a lot of pain.
"Your unparalleled recklessness placed you both in danger," Byakuya said, finally turning towards Rien, who contritely bowed her head once she had glimpsed his quicksilver.
"You were naïve to think you could make any difference with your current level of skill," he coldly added, unmoved by the silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Byakuya, I wouldn't go that far, after all…" Ukitake tried to defend but was cut off.
"What did you think your death would achieve?" Byakuya asked, ice coating every disinterested word and sending a cold shiver rushing down her spine.
"I've had enough of this!" she finally shouted back and jumped out of bed, quickly running out of the room.
Ukitake immediately got up and went to the door, but Rien had already shunpo'ed away. "Where does she think she's going? We should follow her."
"There is no need," Byakuya evenly stated. "Unohana taichou discharged her half an hour ago," Byakuya informed Ukitake, who continued to look surprised.
Tears began to form in Rukia's eyes. Rukia knew that Rien and Byakuya often fought, and rarely saw eye to eye on anything, but there was something different about this fight. Her brother had been too severe this time. "She risked her life for me," Rukia softly said, looking down at her bandaged arm.
"She placed you both in danger," Byakuya countered as he stood up and shunpo'ed away.
Author's Note
The quote is from Memoirs of a Geisha which is one of my favourite books, well worth the read, or I suppose you can watch the movie if you'd prefer (also really good). Like I said, this was a hard chapter for me to write due to the circumstances. I hope I did not disappoint anyone.
Reply to Reviews:
I have not done this here before, but I have seen other authors do it and I thought that I will for once reply to all of the faithful reviewers from the last chapter. If you guys like it, let me know and I will make it one of the usual things I do.
Dreamzy: You are awesome. I appreciate your kind words, it really did mean a lot to me that you took the time out to review and say what you did. I wish I could do more to thank you.
Metsfan 101: Thank you for your encouragement and your condolences. I'm really glad that you appreciate my writing. I am making my way through your fic and will review again soon.
Piper: I'm glad you loved it. I hope I did not disappoint this time. Keep reviewing.
YaoiFan: Thank you for reading my other story as well. Wow, somebody actually checked out my profile page. Thank you for all the compliments.
Deepest Night: Did I not pay up with those drinks on more than one occasion. You owe me more than one review for having thanklessly enjoyed 32 chapters without reviewing before. Thank you for your protective words. You might be right about the mean people in the JR fandom, Bleach fans are so much nicer and more loyal and deserve more of my time than those other people.
Erin: I know you only started reading the fic this year, but you have been loyally reviewing and have even ventured to read my other work as well. I wish you had an account so I could PM and thank you, but I understand how daunting it can be when you're new to fanfiction. I still feel like I'm new to fanfiction. I'm sorry that the reviewer in the JR fandom was so mean to you in their review. It wasn't you they had a problem with, it was me, and it was only because they are a close minded troll.
BlackCards: I'm glad you liked the beginning, and then the cliff-hanger. I was really hoping the beginning wasn't too sappy, I kinda felt like it was really sweet of Byakuya and I wanted to show that side of him (in private).
Reviewer: A reviewer said a few chapters ago that they loved the story so much they turned their little sister onto it. I hope you and your sister are enjoying it, and thanks for the word of mouth. Please review and let me know how you are faring.
AbsurdBird: Thank you for saying this was your favourite fic on here. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter.
Eeenstar & RaRaRachel: Thank you for the encouragement. It is always nice to be validated by a friendly voice. Because I am not an author by profession, when someone who is a well-established author in an allied fandom was that mean about my writing, it really shook my confidence and made me wonder if I'm just fooling myself. I have subsequently gotten what I think people in fanfiction call a 'Flame' since that first harsh review, but it has not shaken me because the flamer has no spine and produces no work. I'm not used to not succeeding at things on my first go, and so it gave me pause: I did not want to be arrogant and discount their words, but I also didn't want one bad review to negate all the wonderful things people have said. I also always like to improve where I can.
1983: I am glad you enjoyed the action, I was really nervous about whether I executed it well or not. Your comment about Rien being badass made me squeal with delight. I hope it was not overplayed, I mean, it's been two years coming. Your entire review really made me smile, so thank you for your insightful comments. I like a little humour wherever I can get it, and I am glad someone appreciated it and all the hard work that chapter contained.
Lu: Your loyal reviews always make me fangirl. You are really one of the reasons I keep writing, I wish you had an account so I could thank you more thoroughly or review some of your work in appreciation. I'm glad you enjoy the couple's interaction so much, so do I. I am really trying to keep them in character, and I hope I am succeeding.
Daydreamer1606: I always wait in breathless anticipation for your loyal reviews. Thank you for the protective words, they really meant a lot to me, and you were right in any case. I'm glad that you enjoyed both my portrayal of the action and the tenderness. "I kinda feel sorry for ukitake but when I read rein and byakuya's moments I really don't care about him." – That really made me laugh. You are awe…wait for it…some.
I'd also like to send a big 'thank you' to everyone who favourited and alerted the story. Please remember to Review. I love hearing from you all.
~Willow~