Kayo watched, frozen, as her father practically killed Scott again and again and again. She'd already known there was something special about the human she'd given her powers too out of desperation and then came to admire as she got to know him better. But she knew he shouldn't be about to survive any of these fights.
As her father stood over Scott, his sword drown for a kill stroke, the spell broke. Only she could stop this, only she could save Scott's life.
She knew what she had to do.
Running forward and ducking under Kyrano's raised arm, Kayo barrelled into Scott, kicking him in his shoulder to send him tumbling over and out of the way. He came to rest against the side of an upturned car.
'You lowly human! How dare you touch my father's cloak!'
Kyrano immediately sheathed Senbonakura and watched. He'd been willing Tanusha to do something like this, something that would denounce her attachment to the human and thus allow her to return to Soul Society. He found he was holding his breath as she turned to him.
'You come near him again and I will kill you myself! I swear it!'
Scott managed to turn himself so that he was facing the square and the three Reapers. Disbelief was written clearly on his face, but he frowned as he listened to Kayo speaking. There was something deep in her eyes that told him she didn't mean it.
And then he understood. He hadn't stood a chance of saving her life – she was the only one who could do that, and it would mean leaving him, leaving them, for good. His eyes softened and so did Kayo's, safe in the knowledge that her father and Rigby couldn't see her.
She ran over to him and pinned him to the car, 'unwittingly' helping him to sit upright, before approaching her father and kneeling down on one knee.
'Father, I have awakened. I, Tanusha Kyrano, I beg to be redeemed from my sin.'
'Do you mean that?'
The words were softly spoken as her father was want to talk, but they were charged with emotion to Kayo. She could feel the love he felt for her, and his compassion for Scott, and there was also the regret that things had gone so far.
This was all her fault and she needed to make it right.
'I do.'
'Very well. Let's go home.'
'Yes, Father.'
Picking up Zangetsu, Kayo walked back over to Scott and held the hilt out to him.
'Return my powers to me, and you can go back to the normal life you wanted. Once that happens you'll forget all of this. Including me.'
Scott listened to the girl that had not only changed his brothers lives and International Rescue for the better but had impacted so heavily on him. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, and Scott wanted so much to reach up and brush the tears away and tell her that everything was going to be alright. He couldn't even hold Zangetsu, though, and Kayo cupped his hands around his sword and, using his lap to hold them, she took the end of the blade.
'I've had enough of humans, and you most of all. You're grouchy and childish and totally reckless.'
'Kayo…'
'Farewell, Scott.'
With a last smile for the only human she'd ever known who was worthwhile, she pushed herself onto the blade.
The square was consumed by the brightest white light. When Scott opened his eyes again Tanusha was there, her cargo pants and t-shirt gone and back in the black shihakusho he'd first seen her in.
He had just enough consciousness to see the three Reapers walk away and disappear.
He closed his eyes.
