Chapter 9: Another piece to the puzzle

When Rose had finally managed to calm herself down, guilt replaced her anger. She had no right to be angry at Shunsui. He had simply asked about the mark on her thigh and she had shouted at him. The hurt in his eyes made her hate herself for saying what she had. Shunsui was kind and thoughtful, nothing like Master, who was cruel and selfish. Shunsui had asked her a question she was not ready to talk about. Only a few people knew about her past and they were gangstas who had similar past. The seams of her past where being torn apart by Shunsui and the Soul Society, and it scared her. There was a reason she did not tell anybody about her past, they would judge her and she could not bear the idea of Shunsui and Hana judging here. It was for her own protection that she told nobody about her past.

"Coward" came the silky ethereal voice of her Zanpakuto.

"I am not a coward. I am just protecting myself from pain" Rose thought back.

"And in doing so you are being a coward. It is time to face your demons instead of running from them. If this really is your past catching up with you and if the girl is really a past version of yourself you know who is behind all of this and you can stop it. If there is one child there has to be others, you know how he worked. You must save the others from the fate you suffered and the only way to do that is by telling people the truth. Stop running." replied her Zanpakuto.

"But it will hurt me by doing it. People would judge me" pleaded Rose.

"Your fear of your past it what is destroying your inner world. You must confront your fears otherwise you will lose your inner world. Trust the people around you, they will not judge you like you fear they would".

"The last people I trusted abused me. I cannot trust anybody".

"Then you have condemned yourself and all the other children." said the Zanpakuto in a stern voice.

In many ways Rose knew that her Zanpakuto was right. She was tired of running from her past. But was it really too much to ask that she disclose her past only to people she really trusted and only when she felt comfortable with it? Her Zanpakuto was also right, Shunsui would never judge her and would wait for her to tell him the truth. Her thoughts strayed away from her Zanpakuto and back towards Shunsui. She could trust him, but not as a lover. His past as a womanizer scared her and made her not trust him. He was likely to use her and then leave her. But was it really fair for her to ask Shunsui not to judge her when she was judging him? But it's not like Shunsui tried to cover the fact that he was a womanizer, in fact he seemed to enjoy the title. This raises the question as to whether Rose was really being prejudiced against Shunsui or if she had every right to be judgemental.

Suddenly she felt a warm fuzzy sensation wash over her, hold her, comfort her. It reacted with her soul and made her feel safe and secure. Shunsui's reiatsu was cradling her, wrapping her up in a metaphorical blanket that smelt of sakura blossoms. Rose shivered slightly and a tear slipped from her eye. Her soul still reacted to Shunsui's and it killed her inside. She had to leave Shunsui and cut her losses before he seriously hurt her. She only wished her soul wanted the same thing as her rational brain. It would make things far less painful. Subconsciously she let her reiatsu entwine with Shunsui's and before she knew what was going on she had transmitted all the feelings of pain and fear through her reiatsu and had transmitted it to Shunsui. Rose had no idea what had just happened, but she could feel her body transmitting her pain towards Shunsui and could feel him reacting to it.

Rose could sense Shunsui starting to move towards her and panicked. She was not ready to face him yet. Summoning as much reiatsu as she could muster, Rose pushed against Shunsui's reiatsu, forcing it away from her. Finally after a good amount of shoving on her part, she forced Shunsui's reiatsu away from her. Panting slightly Rose marched forwards at an increased pace and walked through the doors of the library. At the back of her mind she could sense Shunsui pick up his pace and move faster towards her.

The library was quiet with a few Shinigami scattered around at random intervals. Rose walked forwards towards the back of the library where the stairs were located. She hoped that Shunsui would not follow her down there and would respect her wishes to be alone. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ukitake and Nanao stare at her while surrounded by piles of books. Rose supposed that her teary and bloodshot eyes would draw attention to herself…and the large and fast approaching reiatsu of Shunsui. It did not take Ukitake or Nanao long to put two and two together.

"Rose?" Rose heard Ukitake call after her which was then followed by a scrapping of chairs. Rose reached the staircase and slid down the banister in order to move faster. The plan worked, she reached the lower levels of the library without being intercepted by Ukitake and Nanao. She knew that she was being childish but she needed time to think. She only hopped that Shunsui would not seek out her reiatsu and follow her. She could sense him on the ground floor of the library, searching for here. Quickly Rose opened the door leading to the room where Hana was reading and slammed it shut.

"Hana…I need a place to hide for a bit" asked Rose to a startled Hana.

"Sure…but this room is sealed by a powerful kido that blocks out all reiatsu signals. Once you are in here nobody can find you until you leave" answered Hana.

"Oh…ok…that should do"

Hana smiled kindly at Rose's obvious confusion. "This room was the old captain's section of the library. However a few hundred years ago they constructed the new first floor of the library and the captains section was moved there. I don't think many people realise this place still exists. All I had to do was re-enforce the kido barrier around this room and now I have my own private hiding place".

"Wow you must be very powerful if you can do such an advanced level of kido…why are you an unseated officer? Surely your power level would warrant you a promotion" asked Rose moving to sit down next to Hana.

"I don't like showing my true power…I'm uncomfortable" murmured Hana while turning away from Rose.

"Oh Hana, you have amazing powers. I mean there are not many people who can produce such a high level of kido. I mean seriously you broke the powerful kido surrounding these area and then re-built it with equal strength…you must be…wow " said Rose while gently patting Hana on the back.

"I just don't want members of my division to think that I am a nerd and a teacher's pet" mumbled Hana.

"Why would they think of you as a teacher's pet…I think Ukitake would be honoured to have you as one of his officers. Who are these people anyway?" asked Rose.

"They are the two friends of Lady Koru of the noble house of Koru, 5th seat of the eighth division, Hairi Fujiwara and Mikako Handa. They tease me because of my abilities. That is why I created this place, so that I can hide from them for a few hours a day" explained Hana.

"Hana, they are probably jealous of your abilities. Hell I would love to have your abilities but everybody says that I suck. You know Lady Koru is my zanjutsu teacher and every time I see her she reminds me of how inferior I am to her" said Rose with an encouraging smile of her face. Hana looked up and smiled a small smile.

"Thank you Rose, You are very kind. And I am sorry that you have Lady Koru as your teacher. You are not scum" whispered Hana.

"That's ok it is not your fault…it is all Kyoraku Taicho's fault". Hana looked at Rose curiously as Rose spat Shunsui's name out.

"Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to" whispered Hana quietly.

Rose paused for a moment, "I kissed him the other day and now I am scared because of his reputation. He might leave me for someone better". It was now Hana's turn to pat Rose on the shoulders.

"I don't really know how to help you Rose. Just do what you think is right. Is that why you needed to hide? And I know it is not really my place to say this but….wow you kissed Kyoraku Taicho…impressive" asked Hana. Rose blushed and looked away. There was a pregnant pause between then.

"You don't suck" whispered Hana after a long pause. Rose looked up at Hana with curious eyes. "You were the first person in a very long time to be nice to me. I enjoy spending time with you" continued Hana with a blush, "and if you need any help with your training you can come and ask me. I would love to help".

Rose stared at Hana and blushed, it was the first time somebody had every told her that she was of value. It made her heart flutter slightly. "Thank you Hana, I would love for you to train me" mumbled Rose with a blush on her face.

"I just don't know where or when I can. The training grounds are always crowded and I don't think we are allowed to leave the Seireitei" said Hana with disappointment in her tone.

"We could train here" said Rose after a pause. Hana looked up at Rose with wide eyes. "You said so yourself that this area is sealed off, we could train in here and nobody will know" continued Rose getting more and more excited by the second.

"I don't know…I suppose we could…but we can't train Kido in here or practise our shikai, but I suppose we could spar here" thought Hana aloud. "For Kido practise, I know this area in the thirteenth division where people rarely go, we could train there. But if we do this we must tell nobody because it is illegal to use your reiatsu for combat purposes in the library".

"That is excellent, every day at around 17:00 pm we come here and train, and then every now and then at random intervals we train at the thirteenth, nobody will know so you can keep your powers a secret. And yes we should keep this a secret." smiled Rose.

"Ok then" smiled Hana.

The next few days Rose set into a comfortable routine. Every morning, minus the weekends, Rose would get up and at 6:00 am and study for an hour and a half before eating breakfast and then training kido with Nanao. Nanao was getting angrier at Rose because she would refuse to perform any powerful, of destructive Hado spells which bothered her. They would then move on to hakudo training in which Rose would refuse to fight back. This all led Nanao to the conclusion that Rose hated anything that could cause harm to somebody. She had tried to talk to Shunsui about it, but he seemed to go in a daze whenever Rose's name was mentioned and that was only when he was sober enough to react. Something was going on between them and Nanao was desperate to find out. After her hakudo training, Rose would study for two hours before having a quick small lunch. Shunsui would usually lumber into the mess hall then in search for her. However he would usually be swarmed by all the woman in the room, begging for him to sit with them. This provided Rose enough time to escape as Shunsui was held back by the women. She simply could not face Shunsui after the incident because she did not know what to say to him. But whenever she thought of him it was like a part of her soul was missing. The zanjutsu lessons were always terrible and resulted in Rose getting the crap beat out of her, but she took it all silently. After some more studying Rose would then walk to the library and train with Hana until they were both too exhausted to move. Hanataro would usually bring them dinner round about then and they would all sit down and eat and talk late into the evening. Hanataro had been told about the secret training Hana and Rose were doing because he normally had to heal them. And he also got them kido books from the seated officer section of the library. This was illegal as the material in those books were considered too advanced for people like Rose i.e Only just started to manipulate reiatsu.

During the day Rose acted like she was fine, but in reality she was not. Her Zanpakuto was forcing her to relieve her past during her slumber. Every night Rose would wake up screaming and crying, desperate for the images of her past to leave her. But her Zanpakuto would continue haunting her, and scream at her to face her demons. But Rose refused and so the hauntings continued. It reached a point where Rose was too afraid to sleep.

Days turned into weeks and slowly Rose began to enjoy herself in the Soul Society. It was a Sunday and Rose and Hana were lying down in a field in back corner of the thirteenth division. They had been training kido most of the morning and were now taking a long break. The two of them watched the clouds above them slowly slip by while they drank tea and ate dango. Rose felt very guilty that tomorrow was the official start of the last term of the year at her university and she was currently lounging in a field like she was on vacation. She had her exams in two weeks' time and had been studying like mad in her free time for them. She had sent an E-mail to the university a few days ago explaining that due to medical reasons she would not be going back and would only attend the four exams she had. It was even harder for Rose to explain to Agatha Jay-Smith why she was taking a leave of absence from her work. Agatha had written back describing how upset she was that Rose had to stay behind in Scotland to attend the funeral of the dead uncle (Rose had lied) and that she should take all the time she needed to heal. One of the only things Rose missed was her baking. She had no time in her busy schedule for baking at it made her very depressed. Baking was one of the few things she enjoyed doing and suddenly she could no longer do it.

"What's wrong Rose?" asked Hana after observing Rose's depressed expression.

"I miss being able to bake" explained Rose with a sigh. "I used to work in a bakery and I had my own line of baked goods. I was like a local celebrity, everybody came to eat my treats and now I can no longer do it" she continued after seeing Hana's lost expression.

"You used to bake?" asked Hana getting excited, "Why did you not tell me, I would love to learn how to bake. Could you teach me?"

"You are missing the point, I have no place to bake here" sighed Rose

"There is a small kitchen just down the corridor from where my room is located. Nobody uses it because it is so far out of the way, plus they can just go to the mess hall to eat so it should be empty" explained Hana.

"Really Hana, that is great. I would love to teach you how to bake, think of it as pay back for your training lessons" said Rose with a smile.

There was a pause between them.

"Rose, how are you doing? You seem to be getting more and more tired. Is everything ok?" asked Hana, rolling over to look at Rose. Rose had deep bags under her eyes and was quite pale.

"I can't sleep at night. My Zanpakuto is…" Rose trailed off and picked up her Zanpakuto to look at it. The blue diamonds glittered in the sun and threw rainbows everywhere.

"Maybe it is your Zanpakuto trying to communicate with you. I suggest you meditate tonight and try to talk to it. Do you know its name yet?" asked Hana.

Rose grinned slightly. She knew loud and clear what her Zanpakuto wanted but she did not want to do it. As a result the two of them were fighting with each other, not in a literal sense but it was only a matter of time. However, on the rare occasion her Zanpakuto would pulled her into her inner world. Rose noted that a small moon had started to appear, shining light on the decrepit courtyard. She knew that it was her trust and friendship with Hana that was making it light in her inner world. "I'll try meditating tonight and no I do not know its name, but I think that I am getting closer" said Rose. That was true, Rose knew her Zanpakuto had something to do with dreams but that was it.

"Maybe you should try talking to Kyoraku-Taicho about it" suggested Hana in a small tone.

Rose grimaced, "You mean you have not talked to him. Rose you need to talk to him about what happened. It is the only way to resolve all this uncertainty." asked Hana a note of shock in her voice.

"I never had an opportunity to" mumbled Rose.

"Well go to him office tonight, you also need to ask permission to go back to the world of the living to sit your exams" said Hana in a slightly harsh tone.

"OK" mumbled Rose.

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussion everything and anything while drinking tea.

Ukitake sat on top of a hill, drinking tea and observing Rose and Hana lounging in the grass. It was to his knowledge that the two of them had been coming to the deserted field to practice Kido at random intervals. He had first caught wind of what they were doing when he sensed the two of them sneaking around outside his office window. In order to get to the back fields you had to past the Taicho's office, the mess hall and then the main training grounds. Ukitake was curious when he first senses Rose and Hana lurking around outside his window, not because what they were doing was wrong (although it was a bit surprising), but to Ukitake's knowledge, Hana had no real friends apart from her brother Hanataro. She was a quiet and shy girl who spent most of her time reading. He wondered how Hana and Rose had met, as he had no knowledge of the two of them ever spending time together. Ukitake was not worried about Hana and Rose being friends, he was worried by the fact that the two of them felt the need to be secretive. Worried that they might be doing something illegal, Ukitake sent his two third seats to investigate. However, to his disappointment the two of them had lost track of them after they passed through the mess hall. One day Ukitake waited in his office until he could sense Rose and Hana sneak by. He clamped down on his reiatsu and followed them, slowly, always staying a few paces behind them. He watched, with mild amusement as the two girls crawled through bushes and ducked under windows as they passed the administrative building. When the two of them reached the mess hall they would walk through it, into the kitchens and then out a window. As the mess hall was always busy nobody would pay them any attention. It was no wonder his third seats lost them in the crowd. After climbing out the window the two girls would dash across the main training field and into the woods. Ukitake followed behind them at a slow pace and eventually he emerged out on top of a large hill that overlooked the old, and almost forgotten training field. The field used to be used by Ukitake and his old fukutaicho Kaien as a sparing area. Nobody went there for obvious reasons. Curiously Ukitake sat down and observed the two girls practicing Kido and sometimes zanjutsu.

It was hard for Ukitake to predict when Hana and Rose would use the back training field as they kept going at random intervals. But whenever Ukitake sensed Rose and Hana lurking around outside his office window he would wait a few minutes before travelling to the training grounds and then spend a few hours observing to two of them train. It was not that Ukitake was stalking the girls, but he was curious to see how Rose's training was going. He knew that she and Shunsui had had a major falling out a few weeks ago and as a result Shunsui rarely saw her. He thought that it was his duty as a friend to keep an eye out on Rose when Shunsui obviously could not. Also he was curious about Hana. She always displayed weak powers which led Ukitake to believe that she was a weak Shinigami. However, from what he had seen she was displaying reiatsu levels similar to that of a fukutaicho. This suddenly made Ukitake curious as to why the girl was hiding her true power to begin with.

Ukitake smiled when he felt the reiatsu of his friend approach his location. With a ruffle of silk and a swirl of pink Shunsui sat down next to Ukitake. Ukitake could smell the slight scent of sake on his dear friend which led him to believe that Shunsui had already started to drink.

"Juu, Why are you here of all places?" asked Shunsui as he seated himself down next to Ukitake.

"I find the view to be intriguing" replied Ukitake while taking another sip of his tea. Shunsui looked around and saw in the distance two girl lying on the ground staring up at the sky.

"Is that?" asked Shunsui after finally spotting Rose.

"Yes, she and Hana, an unseated officer of mine, have been sneaking off every now and then to train Kido. From what I have observed, Hana seems to be giving Rose lessons" answered Ukitake.

Shunsui sighed, "I have been getting reports from Nanao-Chan and Maya-Chan that Rose has been rather difficult in her training. In fact according to Maya-Chan she has not been attending her zanjutsu classes at all this past week".

"Really? That's not good. I take it that Nanao is furious at her for being difficult in her training? But abandoning her zanjutsu classes altogether is bad news. Why do you think she did that?" questioned Ukitake.

"I don't know. But from what I heard from Nanao-Chan she no longer carries her Zanpakuto around. And what is more worrying is that she is becoming more and more tired. Nanao-Chan thinks that Rose is having difficulty with her Zanpakuto but refuses to deal with it" said Shunsui in a serious tone.

Ukitake looked at his friend and all the pain in his eyes. He could tell that he was really hurting over what had happened between himself and Rose. Ukitake was never given a fully detailed account on what happed but he knew that Shunsui had gone to ask Rose about her mark and she had freaked out. Shunsui had obviously tried to console her but then Rose had accused him being just like her ex and had the fled. It was without doubt a mess.

"What is interesting" said Ukitake breaking the silence between them, "is that in all the times that I have been observing the two of them, they never seem to learn any theory or consult any books which leads me to believe that-"

"They are learning the Kido in another location and are only practicing casting the spell when they are outside" finished Shunsui.

"Exactly, but where would they go?"

There was a pause in which Shunsui and Ukitake pondered the question.

"They must be training somewhere inside. Their other secret location must not be suitable for casting kido spells so they must go outside to practice. Nanao-Chan says that Rose spends an awful lot of her time in the library so maybe that is where their hideout is" mused Shunsui.

"But using kido is against the rules in the library" said Ukitake.

"Hence the reason why they are keeping it a secret" commented Shunsui.

They were both silent again. In the distance they could hear a chorus of birds singing. It really was a beautiful day.

"Did Nanao-Chan tell you what we found in the library?" asked Ukitake.

"About a possible suspect, yes, but she did not go into that much detail…or maybe she did, I don't remember much of that night." answered Shunsui.

"His name is Hiroto Kurosawa and he was third seat to the fourth division almost 50 years ago. He was an expert in healing the broken soul chains of wounded Shinigami. However, thirty years ago he was convicted for performing illegal tests on the souls of academy students. He fled the soul society to the world of the living but we were unable to follow him. His spiritual pressure was extinguished seven years ago so he has been confirmed as dead" explained Ukitake.

"If he is dead then why are we considering him as a possible suspect?"

"Because we found traces of his reiatsu on the body of the girl we found. And the worst part is that his reiatsu was similar to that of an Arrancar".

"Yare how troublesome"

"Toushiro and Matsumoto are currently in the world of the living following a lead we found yesterday. A few days ago I was permitted access to the Daireishokairō and I discovered that Kurosawa had an alias that he used in the world of the living. He called himself Angus Gibbs and from the most recent report from Toushiro he was a Doctor of child psychology and psychotherapy. He had a clinic outside of the Scottish town of Thornhill" said Ukitake.

Shunsui sighed and looked towards Ukitake, "In Rose's portfolio it says that she lived in Scotland".

"I know, that is why Toushiro and Matsumoto are investigating the area".

"You should talk to her Shunsui" suggested Ukitake after another long pause.

Shunsui chuckled darkly, "yes because the last one ended so well".

"Well at the very least talk to her about her Zanpakuto, you are her captain for the time being and you don't want her collapsing. And maybe by doing so the both of you can solve this misunderstanding" said Ukitake a little sternly.

Shunsui sighed, he did not want to talk to Rose about something that was obviously hurting her. But Ukitake was right, again, he had to talk to her about the misunderstanding between the two of them. Shunsui told himself that tonight he would hunt Rose down and talk to her.

"Oh yeah the reason I came to find you Ukitake was because I received a hell butterfly from Toushiro saying that he found something. He is travelling back to the Soul Society and would like for us to meet this evening." Said Shunsui.

Ukitake nodded and then turned back to watching the girls.

Shunsui, Nanao, Ukitake, Unohana, Rangiku and Toushiro were sitting in Shunsui's and Nanao's shared office drinking tea.

"Well Toushiro what do you have to tell us?" Asked Shunsui after a pause. He really wanted to go back to his quarters and drink sake until all his pains faded away.

Toushiro took a sip of his tea before talking. "As you know Matsumoto and I travelled up to Scotland to investigate a lead Jushiro found and-"

"-It is really wet in Scotland. All it did was rain. It ruined my hair." whined Rangiku.

"Matsumoto!" shouted Toushiro. Shunsui smiled lightly at Rangiku comment.

Toushiro glared at Rangiku for a moment before continuing where he had left off. "We arrived in the town of Thornhill and then proceeded to investigate the area. We soon found Kurosawa's clinic and investigated the area." Toushiro frowned and looked uncomfortable. Rangiku shifted in her seat.

"What is it Toushiro?" Asked Ukitake.

"The clinic that Kurosawa owned was actually an orphanage of some sort. It was established as an orphanage/ clinic for children who had survived traumatic experiences in the past. The house looked normally. The upstairs was full of children's bedrooms however they looked like they had never been inhabited."

"So it was a fake institution?" inquired Nanao.

"Worse Nanao…when we investigated the basement we found several cells equipped with chains and metal beds. There were also rooms dedicated to torture of some sorts and…and laboratories." Whispered Rangiku in a small voice.

Nanao gasped and Shunsui sighed loudly. "So he was using the children for experiments. The clinic was only a front." Shunsui felt sick to his stomach. Experimenting on children was disgraceful. He shuddered to think what the girl in the fourth had experienced.

Toushiro nodded. "We left the house and travelled back into the town and headed for the local administrative building. We found some documents and reports about the clinic. Apparently seven years ago one of the children escaped and told the authorities what was going on. When the authorities arrived at the clinic they would fifteen over children, each of different ages and the body dead body of Kurosawa. Apparently one of the children stabbed him in self-defence. We can assume that Kurosawa became a hollow." Toushiro shifted around uncomfortably in his seat.

"That is not all is it Toushiro?" stated Shunsui with serious eyes. He was unsure if he wanted to hear what was coming next. He really wanted his sake now.

Toushiro looked at Shunsui and then pulled out a newspaper clipping from one of his pockets. "We found this while doing our research." Toushiro handed Shunsui the newspaper clipping and then sat back down in his seat.

Shunsui looked down and saw that the newspaper clipping was a photograph. The photograph was black and white and rather faded but still visible. The photo shows a man in uniform carrying a small, thin child with dark, lifeless eyes. The child looked very dirty, her hair sticking up at random interval. There was what looked like blood spattered across the child's face and her bare legs. Shunsui eyes widen as he saw what was on the child's leg. It was faint but Shunsui could still see the outline of the number six on the child's leg.