CHAPTER 38: WE'RE BLEEDING,FALLING TOGETHER

Tayomi twirled her hair around her finger, sighing as she looked at the blonde strands of hair. It had been a week already, yet the blonde highlights had not disappeared. She wondered if her hair was going to stay that way forever and she hoped it would not. The highlights in her hair portrayed her as a rebel, when she was nothing like that. She been furiously washing her hair for days, yet the blonde highlights refused to fade away. But she had to admit, it was a rather tiny price to pay for being able to escape from her drowning inner world alive. Thankfully, Hitsugaya had found her in time and managed to wake her up, pulling her out from her inner world. If he had not done that, she would be lying down, completely motionless, dead.

Hitsugaya glanced at her, still slightly furious over the fact that she had gone to confront her Drowning Zanpakutou without telling him. It seemed that she loved putting herself in danger. She never failed to make him worry, although she continued to insist that he was panicking for nothing. He sighed and smacked her in the head hard, interrupting her thoughts abruptly. Tayomi glared at him, saying nothing as she rubbed her head.

"Stop touching your hair and touch your food." He ordered.

"Hmph." Tayomi huffed, poking at her food.

Ichigo raised his eyebrow, turning to look at Rukia. She shrugged and stared at Renji, who shook his head. The tension in the room had been absurdly high ever since Tayomi almost got murdered by her own Zanpakutou in her inner world. Hitsugaya had grown even more protective of her, which seemed to annoy Tayomi. Matsumoto sighed. Ever since that incident, Hitsugaya had refused to let Tayomi out of his sight. Even though Tayomi enjoyed the attention at first, she eventually felt as if he was stalking her, not loving her. Doing mental calculations in her brain, Matsumoto counted, arriving at the conclusion that ever since that incident, her Captain and Tayomi had argued at least twice a day. Tayomi continued to poke at her food, obviously having no appetite. She did not enjoy the cold war that she and Hitsugaya were going through, but she did not enjoy him practically stalking her. He followed her everywhere she went. Whenever she went out without telling him, he would end up barking at her. He never fell asleep before her, because he was too busy waiting for her to fall asleep first. He stood outside the bathroom whenever she went in it. Somehow, wherever she went, Hitsugaya would be following behind her, practically becoming her shadow.

After poking at her food five more times, she knew that she really could not swallow anything. Standing up, she stormed back into her room, slamming the door behind her. For some particular reason, she felt extremely mad right now. Hitsugaya had not shown much concern for her, unless scolding and screaming at her was considered being caring. She threw herself on her bed and buried herself under the covers, hugging the various bunny toys that she had. She stared at those which were gifts from Hitsugaya and pouted, looking away and pulling the covers over her head tightly. Hitsugaya grumbled and shouted after her, storming into the room. Ichigo, Rukia, Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Yumichika and Renji stared at each other blinking. A storm was definitely in sight and it was definitely anything but light or short.

"TAYOMI!" Hitsugaya shouted at her, tugging at the covers. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Tayomi forced the covers to stay over her head and cover her body, pulling on it violently. "GO AWAY!"

"GET OUT FROM THERE NOW!"

"NO!" She screamed back.

She heard Hitsugaya slam his fist down onto the table, producing a loud bang.

"Fine." He huffed. "Have it your way then."

Tayomi heard him storm out of the room and waited until she was sure that he was gone, before breaking down into tears. Why couldn't everything be so much simpler for them?

"Eh... Sakuri-san? We received a report from Soul Society... Ichimaru and an unidentified being's spiritual pressure is somewhere around this area..." She heard Ichigo speak.

Throwing her covers off, she transformed out of her Gigai and into her Shinigami form. She walked into the living room, where the other Shinigami were. They were all out of their Gigai and in their Shinigami forms.

"So, you finally decided to come out, huh?" Hitsugaya muttered under his breath.

Tayomi did not say anything. She looked at the window and jumped out, heading towards the spiritual pressure. Hitsugaya shook his head and followed behind her, along with the other Shinigami.

Standing on top of a building, she spotted Ichimaru and another Arrancar down below. The Arrancar was likely to be one of the three whom were spotted at the bar. He was almost as tall as Ichimaru and had shoulder-length black hair, which was uncombed and messy. He had pale white skin and dark green eyes, with black tear marks streaming down his face. He appeared to be completely devoid of emotion. His hollow mask was located on the top right corner of his face, covering half of his forehead, right above his eyelid. He possessed a horrifying amount of spiritual pressure, leading Tayomi to conclude that he was part of Aizen's new elite army, somewhat like the Espada. I wonder which Espada that is? Tayomi shook her head and jumped down, with the other Shinigami behind her. Ichimaru grinned widely, while the Arrancar beside him looked completely unaffected by their presence, merely glancing at them. Ichimaru laughed, as four Arrancars hopped down to join Ichimaru. Tayomi knew that they were not part of the Espada and were likely to be Fraccion, since the Arrancars possessed an amount of spiritual energy which was much lower than the Espada. Hitsugaya immediately recognised a few of them, as he, Renji and Matsumoto had previously fought them before. Shawlong Kufang. Yylfordt Granz. Nakeem Greendina. Sun-sun. The four Arrancar glanced at their opponents, before smirking.

"YOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A high-pitched voice suddenly echoed throughout the vicinity. Yumichika cringed. That voice was horribly familiar. Slowly, he turned around and choked, immediately shutting his eyes tight. A tall Arrancar appeared behind him, smiling and yodelling like a cowgirl. The Arrancar was clearly a male, yet he had bright pink hair with violet highlights and long, curly and glittery eyelashes. He wore a skin-tight white top and shorts, and the remains of his Hollow mask was heart-shaped, fixed on the side of his face. It seemed that the Arrancar had taken effort to decorate his hollow mask as well, covering it in colourful glitter and sparkles. It was evident that everyone was resisting the urge to laugh, except for Hitsugaya, who remained as serious as ever. The other four hollows shook their head, while Ichimaru simply scratched his head and the Espada simply stared.

"THE WONDERFUL AMAZING AWESOME BEAUTIFUL CUTE ADORABLE GLAMOROUS FUNKY SWEET MIRACULOUS SPELL-BINDING ENCHANTING ENTHRALLING VALLENCIE CUUHLHOURNE HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING!"

Tayomi blinked twice. Just then, the Fraccion suddenly got serious and charged at Yumichika, Renji, Ikkaku, Matsumoto, Rukia and Ichigo. Quickly unsheathing their Zanpakutou, they began their fight with the Fraccion, leaving Hitsugaya and Tayomi to face Ichimaru and the New Espada. The tension in the air heightened, as Hitsugaya and Tayomi refused to speak or look at each other. Ichimaru seemed to notice it and smirked.

"Ah, Tayomi-chan, why aren't ya an' Hitsugaya-kun speakin'?" He grinned.

Tayomi looked away and placed her hand of the hilt of her Zanpakutou, preparing to strike. Hitsugaya did the same as well. Ichimaru shrugged and shook his head.

"Ya are kinda unfair, don't ya think? Gangin' up on me like that? My friend is only here ta observe... He ain't fightin' y'all yet so it's me against ya two..." Ichimaru pretended to protest strongly.

Suddenly, Tayomi felt something stab through her stomach. She looked down, her eyes growing wider. A white hand was sticking out and it was pulled out of her stomach, as blood poured from her wounds. No... It can't be... Ichimaru smiled and the Espada returned to his side, still devoid of emotion. Tayomi watched her blood spill all over the ground, as her knees felt as if it had liquefied and she fell to the floor. She heard Hitsugaya scream and saw him rush to her side, as he picked her up and held her close to him.

"Put... Me... Down..." She mustered up all of her remaining strength. "Go... Get... That... Smiling... Idiot..."

Hitsugaya seemed reluctant to let her go, but finally relented. He put her down gently and dashed towards Ichimaru, with his Zanpakutou raised above his head. Tayomi blinked, before attempting to get up. Her wound continued to bleed profusely as she forced herself up on her feet, stumbling as she rose. The pain was practically unbearable, but she knew that she had to get up. As a Captain of the Gotei 13, it was not her job to fall, but to stand up and keep fighting no matter what happened. She had to live up to her responsibilities. With that in mind, she struggled with all her might to get up, but failed to. The Espada watched her for a moment, before turning his head to watch the battle between Hitsugaya and Ichimaru unfold.

"I thought I told you before..." Hitsugaya screamed, absolutely burning with fury. "If you touch Tayomi, I WILL KILL YOU!"

"But I didn't touch her, Hitsugaya-kun!" Ichimaru continued to defend himself from Hitsugaya's attacks, as their Zanpakutous clashed and produced deafening noises.

"I WILL KILL YOU. BANKAI!"

A pair of ice wings began to sprout from Hitsugaya's back and he grew an ice tail, as his hands were encased in ice. The four-pointed star transformed into an eight-pointed star and Hitsugaya pointed his blade at Ichimaru, before charging towards him.

"Bankai."

Ichimaru decided to release his Bankai as well and grinned. Completely unaffected by the fact that Ichimaru had released his Bankai, Hitsugaya dashed towards him, fully blinded by his anger. He wanted to kill Ichimaru. He wanted to kill Aizen. Whoever touched her deserved to die. Hitsugaya attempted to slash Ichimaru a few times, but to no avail. Ichimaru's smile was still all over his face, as he avoided each attack neatly, before striking out at Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya hopped backwards, narrowly missing Ichimaru's blade. Hitsugaya leapt upwards, ready to slash Ichimaru with all his strength. Ichimaru grinned.

"I see an opening!"

Hitsugaya watched in horror as Ichimaru placed Kamishini no Yari on his chest, gripping it tightly with both hands.

"It's either you or her now..."

Hitsugaya instantly knew that Ichimaru was going to stab her, just like he tried to stab Hinamori previously, before he defected from Soul Society. Hitsugaya ran forward to take the blow for her without hesitation, as Ichimaru aimed for Tayomi's head. The sound of a blade slicing through soft flesh and blood echoed throughout the vicinity. Ichigo, Rukia, Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Renji and Yumichika were distracted for a moment and turned to look at what had happened on Hitsugaya and Tayomi's side.

Hitsugaya felt the blade stab through his flesh, square in his chest. However, he felt someone's arms around his neck, holding onto him tightly. He looked down and his heart stopped for a moment.

Sakuri.

"Tayomi... You idiot..." He muttered.

Ichimaru retracted his blade and Hitsugaya and Tayomi fell to the ground. She could hear screams and gasps of horror all around her. She crashed onto the ground, beside Hitsugaya.

"Why... did... you... do... that?" Hitsugaya gasped for breath as he spoke.

"For... obvious reasons..." Tayomi replied, short of oxygen. "You've been... protecting... me... all this while... I have to... protect you... too..."

"Idiot..."

Ichimaru grinned, as he looked down at the blade of his Zanpakutou. A tiny sliver of his blade was missing from the blade, as if it had chipped off.

"Release and kill, Kamishini no Yari."

Author's note:
The proof-reading part of this chapter was sort of rushed, so there might be typos T.T Sorry...
But OMG it's a cliffhanger! Who's going to get the poison? Will it be Tayomi or Hitsugaya? Or both? .
Stay tuned to find out in the next chapter :)
I hope you liked this chapter! Please review! Thanks! ^.^
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