9 - Shuunske's First Command - A First For Everyone

The snow did not stop falling, and everything was nothing more than a blur around Kasumi. It all stopped and started without his permission. And it all made it hard to function.

With his incapable hands and arms, and feet, Kasumi rushed through the forest, his energy not allowing him to use the shunpo to travel, and his muscles weak and tired.

Kasumi panted as he ran, the huge amounts of energy from Shuunske and other darker and more evil sources pressing on him and making it harder and harder to run into that direction.

Sweat fell away from Kasumi's body, despite the cold, he was boiling from trying to hard to gain control over his fractured and broken body. Blood dripped down from his forehead and down to his mouth, over his eyes. His black uniform was torn away, exposing his bloody body, cut in almost every area possible, and darkened from dirt and bruising. His pants were somewhat intact, with one leg missing completely, torn high, exposing his mid thigh, a muscular rendition of what used to be clean and handsome, but now beaten and injured with blood covering it.

His other leg was also in tatters, but still connected. His hair was messy, and clung to his head and face. It was much shorter now, and he was not used to the bangs as they were, blocking his vision from their hanging position in his face, and whipping his eyes with certain movments.

Another bolt of energy clashed down.

Kasumi's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to one knee. It was all he could do to keep moving, and the energy kept getting more and more intense. He had never felt this way about spiritual energy. He was normally able to take all amounts, and stand his ground. As a vice captain, this was needed in order to fight alongside your captain.

But now, there was not enough of him to stand and fight as he normally would. And this was more than just one captain fighting in the same area. It was four. And one was Shuunske. The other was the only man that Shuunske had fought. Another was Muriasachi, who was not particularly feared because of his amounts of spiritual energy, but was a captain none the less, and had a very intimidating feeling about him.

Kasumi could not sense what the other one was, but his eyes looked back up as he realized that it was a very familiar spiritual energy.

But he could not put his finger on it.

Then he had gotten it.

“Asura-san!”

Kasumi had met and conversed with Asura many a times back when Kifuume served under him. That was why the last spiritual energy was so intimidating. He had been known for a huge amount of Spiritual energy, almost rivaling Shuunske's, but much more intense than Shuunske ever would let on. Asura was much more crude and rough edged.

Kasumi stood up, his knee bending and snapping, cracking, and sending pain through out his body. Clenching his teeth and moaning into the pain, Kasumi pressed on, gripping his sword as he did.

It took him about another minute to realize that he was running. This was bad. He was starting to lose all ability to function. He was losing too much blood. Pretty soon he would not be able to think correctly, and soon after that he would lose consciousness. He needed to make it to location three. Hiiro would be there.

The direction of Kasumi's running was slanted as he veered into the forest, further.

Running from left to right like a drunken man after a night at the bar, Kasumi noticed that the terrain was beginning to change. The air was getting colder, and more intense. The ground was beginning to lose its snow, and dirt was being shoved up instead, burying the snow.

Shuunske had been here.

Kasumi was near location three.

More and more the terrain was shifting until Kasumi was running past fallen trees, and cracked rocks thrown from the ground.

The trees were not only bamboo now. Large trees were fallen, and pushed over, displaying a kingdom of roots and clay.

Jumping over a larger tree, Kasumi's tatteres kimono caught on a broken limb, causing him to fall. As he did so, he realized that he was now in the highest amount of spiritual energy he had ever dreamed of being in.

Coughing, Kasumi looked up, his eyes widening, not quite sure if he was dreaming or if he was actually seeing what was laying out before him.

The ground was blasted at and formed into large crater, with mountains of dirt and thrown trees all around. A huge glacier of ice, like its own mountain, independent of all other things around stood tall. Water was in the air, like gushing rings, scattered around the batter field, and rocks had formed walls and barricades all around.

Many of the trees had cutting marks on them, as if thousands of blades and sharp things had been cutting through them. What had been going on here? And was that ice?

Small segments of metal string and numerous different shaped swords and knives lay around, some stuck up right in the soil, and some covered in the muddy water that was formed in streams, coursing through the area from the surging amounts all around.

Kasumi pushed himself upwards, looking closer, in order to see the gleaming figure a top the glacier.

His eyes shot open, and he was temporarily fully awake.

That was Shuunske!?!

The boy he had known was now almost fully transformed, with a glowing blue sword that steamed. His hair remained white, and stylishly messy, but his body had been transformed. His uniform was much more revealing, showing white and scaled skin. His eyes glowed as well, matching the aura around him. He was incredible.

So this was the prodigy boys bankai.

Kasumi smiled.

Movements caught his eyes, and he saw the opponent. Another changed man. Wood panels covered him, with metal and spikes over it. His uniform was now brown with mud and blood combined. He looked like a wooden puppet. Blades hovered around him, and so did small dolls. Three of them. Was this also the bankai that Shuunske was fighting?

And he had been right. Just below there was the huge and mighty sword of Asura, the previous captain of 11th division, cracking the earth below, and being held down against the earth with ice and a kido rope of glowing yellow as well. Muriasachi must have been the one to cast the rope, but he could not see the crazed scientist through the massive blade.

Where was Hiiro?

Jumping up and hopping back into a run, Kasumi looked at the ground ahead of him, trying to sense all the smaller energies around, searching for Hiiro, and that god forsaken girl. Tsubaki.

Running faster and faster, bracing himself against trees as he moved, Kasumi ran around the perimeter of the battleground. It seemed that there was a current stand still that Shuunske was facing. All parties were planning further it seemed.

Who was winning? Who was going to win?

Shuunske had to, he was stronger. He had to be.

Brushing against trees as he moved to avoid them, his swaying body looking like a joke at this point, Kasumi reached for the button on his neck, pressing it in, and screaming, his voice cracking ro make it sound like a breathy whisper “Hiiro! Where are you?”

As he released his finger, nothing but static hit his ears. It was useless junk. He had to find her.

It seemed that running was getting him no where until he heard the screeching and horrific laughter of Tsubaki. She was here!

Kasumi bolted faster into the barrage of broken and battered tress and terrain. Throwing his body around huge tree after huge tree he finally made it, leaning against the tree in order to catch his breath, Kasumi looked up to see her. Hiiro. She was there.

Kasumi thought he was dreaming.

She was just standing there.

She looked untouched.

She looked stoic.

What was happening? Why was she not on guard?

He saw Tsubaki laughing, her back nudging against a tree before she launched herself into an attack on Hiiro. Why was she not moving at all. Why was she still? Unmoving. Unguarded.

What was this?

The attack came, but Kasumi did not let it hit.

Biting down on his own teeth so hard and fast that he felt one chip and crack in the back of his mouth, Kasumi pushed his failing body into shunpo.

It was the most powerful shunpo of the day, powered by his will to protect Hiiro.

When he landed, he had just enough time to see the black blade of Tsubaki slamming down.

Kasumi raised his own arm, and held it as firmly as he could over his head, taking the blow as much as he could.

It was more powerful than Kasumi had the strength to deal with, and the attack sent him staggering backwards, pushing against Hiiro, who in turn, fell against a thick tree behind her, broken halfway up. The rest of the huge tree lay behind the standing section, its huge girth threatening to be the thickest in the forest.

Another blow came, and Kasumi knew that he could not fall back again. It all happened in about a second, first blow, second blow.

Only this attack was different.

Kasumi closed his eyes, preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

With his visioned blacked out, he felt the throbbing feeling of the blackened blade penetrate his shoulder. It was a hit meant for Hiiro, but taken by him. It twisted as it went in, gathering all of the pain in one mustered ball, and thrusting it at him. But it was not a fatal wound. Kasumi yelled in pain, and in the pain, thrust his own blade forward, feeling the blade, in turn, penetrate the woman's flesh. His left free hand grabbed the blade that resided inside of him so as to make sure that it remained there. The sharp blade cut into his hand.

He heard her scream as well, and opened his eyes.

He saw his sword buried in her torso, right straight in the middle of the crooked woman.

Her scream was a mix of pleasure and certain pain.

It was unlike any other scream he had heard from her. It was like she finally knew that this was not just pleasure – but death.

Kasumi bent his mouth into wards, but was cut of half way through by a deafening pain that rushed through his body.

“Hiiro-cha-- aghshhh!”

The pain felt like it was ripping all the veins and nerves in his body.

His skin flapped open, and through the already existing cuts that were scattered all over his body, Kasumi saw black thorns and vines start to push their way through, taking his flesh with them. It was a bloody shikai ability, but this was not a surprise.

The pain was too much to handle, and within seconds, more and more black thorns were ripping through places that were not even already cut, until his left side was covered in thorns that wrippled all over his body, moving like snakes, and consuming his left arm heavily, corroding his handsome appearance.

Blood shot in all directions as his veins were torn apart and caused to shoot their load into the air and ground around the dying man.

Vines broke out all over his body, but after about ten seconds of this, it all stopped as soon as it had started. Only the pain got worse and worse.

Another laugh came from the woman.

“Did... DID YOU think that you b-beat me...? Stupid man. You are below my level... STUPID SHINIGAMI! … THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME!! You die here! You cant avoid my blade... once AGAIN!”

Kasumi could not talk as pain coursed through him. She was wrong.

“N-no. This was intentional... I... I... I... promised to protect... Hiiro... and that is w-what I did. I... I am sorry Hiiro... chan... I could not... fulfil... my other promise...”

He was cut off by a fit of coughing, blood spurting from his mouth and onto the ground.

“I... I tried...”

More coughing. More blood.

“But... I can make it... Hiiro-chan... I... I am not dead yet... right?”

A small smile came upon his face.

But it was never completed.

He heard a laugh.

But this laugh was not from Tsubaki.

This laugh was from Hiiro.

Kasumi's eyes widened, and his smile stopped.

What was this?

Then he got his answer as he felt another intense pain rip through him.

Only this was from behind.

Looking down, he saw Hiiro's blade punch through him.

The world stopped.

Why?

“Hiiro... chan...”

Kasumi looked back up at Tsubaki, who had a cocky and all knowing expression on her face.

Sound just stopped in his experience of life.

He felt death grip him, and his legs grew weaker.

His hands fell from his own sword, and Tsubaki's blade. They fell limp at his sides. Turning slowly, Kasumi looked at Hiiro, confused and hurt. Emotionally.

“... Why...?”

Kasumi staggered backwards, the handle leaving her hands, and staying within Kasumi.

What had he done wrong? Why was she doing this?

Bending in wards on himself, Kasumi watched, unable to hear, as Tsubaki spoke, reading her lips.

“You don't even know who is one your side... stupid shinigami!”

He heard no tone, but knew that she was yelling. Everything started moving in slow motion.

Feeling the hard of the ground as he fell against it, onto his knees, Kasumi spoke. His voice seemed to echo.

“H-Hiiro... chan... why? I... I did everything to protect you... Because... Because I... I wanted to tell you something that I... I was t-too weak to say before...”

Tears fell down his face. Pain was throbbing through him.

He remembered the bath house. He was almost going to confess this before. What would she have done?

Had she hated him this entire time? She had acted so well?

Why was he such a fool?

Why was he so in love. And so weak.

Ironic. That the only thing that he wanted to save was the thing that made him unable to do so.



“I wanted to say that... that... I l-love... you... Hiiro-chan. I have always loved... you. I have always... wanted it to be the same for you. So... then... why... is this happening to me? I... did I do something... wrong? Hiiro... I am... sorry...”

Kasumi closed his eyes. He remembered it all. She had always been so beautiful, and he had only wanted her to love him.

He remembered all the moments that had become awkward because he was so in love with her. He remembered her laughing at his jokes back in the academy. He remembered him training her. He remembered the hug that she had given him before they graduated from the academy. That was on of the only hugs he had gotten from this small girl.

Yes, he remembered her smile, and then all the images faded.

He had been lied to. Why? Why Hiiro... he could not believe it. He thought that he knew her. But. She.

She was different.

Why was this happening?

Looking back up to Hiiro, Kasumi saw her lips move, speaking with a horrible expression on her face that looked like hate.

“You allowed Kifuume to die. You should have been there. You should have died. Not Kifuume!”

With that, Hiiro moved, grabbing the sword from Kasumi, ripping it out viciously.

“And now you can even keep your promise to me! You damned idiot!”

What was this?

Why was he being blamed for this?

Why had he guessed that she had always hated him because of that incident.

She was right. He should have been there in stead of him. He should be dead, and Kifuume should be living. She had always loved Kifuume.

“I... I am sorry Hiiro-chn! But... but I did not break... this... promise... I will not die! I will live to protect you... please... allow me to show you! PLEASE!”

Tears fell down his face, and hit the ground with a heavier weight than ever before. What had he done?

He wished that he could run away, and hide.

He felt stupid, useless.

He was.

Then the sword came again, being pushed into his torso from the front.

“THEN DIE NOW!”

The sword stabbed into his, and then again, and again, and again. Blood and more blood. Tears and more tears.

Kasumi screamed, and fell forwards, embracing the last thrust of the sword, his blood shooting all over Hiiro, and falling into a hug that allowed him to touch her once more.

“I... love you... still... Hiiro... I... always... have... always... will... I... I am sorry...”

It was such an odd feeling.

Like drifting into sleep, he felt death pulling at him. He wished that he could stay with Hiiro. Even in the pain of the moment. He was not able to say anything. But he was hugging the woman that he loved. The blade through him stopped hurting for a single second. That second lasted forever, and the world faded away. He lost vision of everything around him, and it was all replaced by white. Only Hiiro remained.

“I... I am sorry... now your wish is granted... I will be dead... I... I am sorry...”

One last breath.

“I love you... Hiiro-chan...”

There were times…when Hiiro often thought of death.

When she was a child, she always remembered the final breath she had seen from a man. An elderly man on the street.

All he wanted was a bit of food. For months she had seen him, begging on the corner. His clothes dirty and torn. His face was contorted and old, Gnarled hands. She saw him every day as she walked with her mother down the streets. Never look sweety, stop it Hiiro don’t look at him anymore. She would speak lowly and pull her forward gently.

But she couldn’t forget his face. Looking right at her, the damaged cup in his lap. Soft brown eyes, that had seen such better days.

It was the eyes…she could see as the life left him, she would never forget it. Then, he simply slumped over.

Her mother had said he was simply drunk, the people who drink too much often do that. But she knew….even when her mother refused to see it. Even as a child Hiiro had known about death.



Was death painful?



She asked herself that question so many times in seclusion. Did it hurt to leave your body? Were you aware of what had happened? Did you stay after? Or go on someplace new?


She would at least have those answers.

Tsubaki charged at her. Mud kicked up with blood and snow. Hiiro felt tears burn under her eyes. She couldn’t move.

Only her heart beat in her ears. But she couldn’t close her eyes. She couldn’t control anything now.



She was like a puppet on a string.



“Kasumi-kun…I’m so sorry.” She hoped it was quick, the feeling of death. That it wouldn’t hurt as much as she thought…..




If only she could have been so lucky.
To die right then and there.
To feel that blade pierce her own flesh.





Instead of his.



She couldn’t move….She couldn’t close her eyes. She had to watch…





As her world crumbled to the ground….





He fell against her, Kasumi, her savior, he fell against her and she felt how cold he was, his skin was covered with cuts, bruises and welts that peppered his skin that throbbed against her. The world’s sounds blurred from her vision. She could only stare.

As her strangled name came from his bloodied lips.

no…no nononononono NO!!! She screamed but her lips would not listen. She remained silent as she screamed for him. No, NO!! Kasumi Please! Please no god no!

Tsubaki yelled at him, her words calloused and high. He had stabbed her as well, deep into her belly. And blood spilled from her. But Hiiro couldn’t hear her words…. Only his.

“N-no. This was intentional... I... I... I... promised to protect... Hiiro... and that is w-what I did. I... I am sorry Hiiro... chan... I could not... fulfil... my other promise...”

She wanted to cry, to scream. Not for her, he shouldn’t have promised to protect her. Something so weak. She was bound to die here. It was a wasted life.


Wasted….for her. Why??


She flinched as he coughed again. Blood spilled from his lips, falling down his chin. She couldn’t see his face. She couldn’t see the hope in his eyes.


“But... I can make it... Hiiro-chan... I... I am not dead yet... right?”

You’re not dead, Kasumi hold on please! Please don’t die!! Please – She stopped.

And she laughed. In utter horror she laughed at him. Her mouth fallen open with such a snide grin. She could feel it upon her face. Her eyes narrowed and her hand tightened upon her handle, lifting ever so slightly.

It was like watching a train wreck…..you couldn’t move, only stare in utter horror.


Only Hiiro did fight. She wanted to turn it. But she was restrained.



Please no! Kasumi kill me now! Move run. SOMETHING GET AWAY!! she screamed out with no words to ever reach his ears.

She heard his breath hitch, as her blade pierced his flesh. In her hands she felt the pulse of his heart throbbing against the blade. His body convulsed and he looked to her. In his eyes she saw everything in the world that mattered to her… Torn from her grasp. In those eyes she saw fear, pain, confusion, and so much sadness.

“H-Hiiro... chan... why? I... I did everything to protect you... Because... Because I... I wanted to tell you something that I... I was t-too weak to say before...”

Hiiro wanted to scream. She clawed at her mind pushed will all her might to break free of the invisible bonds that tied her. Yet she couldn’t move, and watched, unflinching at his words. His lips coated in blood.

Tears fell down his face. His body was shaking under the strain. Tears made streaks of clean skin down his face.

“I wanted to say that... that... I l-love... you... Hiiro-chan.”


No…..

“I have always loved... you. I have always... wanted it to be the same for you.”

Please no….

“So... then... why... is this happening to me? I... did I do something... wrong? Hiiro...”

Kasumi….

“ I am... sorry...”

“NO!!” she screamed unable to move, unable to react. He had loved her, he had loved her? why, why hadn’t he told her sooner? Why had it come to this? Her blade buried in his stomach. She loved him, loved him so much it burned. All the days together, She had hoped.

Dreamed of the days he might say those words. Now forced out by dying lips. Bloodied and looking into eyes with tears and sadness because he thought she had betrayed him.




She would rather die….




Hiiro wanted to die….



But the forces at be, refused to let her fall like that. Fall so easily. No……




The world was not that kind.




Then her lips spoke despicable words. Words she didn’t think. She never thought. Words she didn’t understand. How could she speak these words?



Pain bloomed from her heart. As she watched the light fall from his eyes.



And his world crumbled….



She had never seen him like that before. So broken, it killed her, she wanted to die. Yet she couldn’t move. She had to watch his eyes, fell the blood now lap over her finger tips as it slipped down her blade.

Smell as her blade burned his skin.

She had never blamed him. Not once….It had never even crossed her mind. Hiiro knew that Kasumi and Kifuume had traded the places. It was such a simple mission it hardly mattered, and Kasumi had better things to deal with.

But she never blamed him. How could be believe such horrible words?


“I... I am sorry Hiiro-chn! But... but I did not break... this... promise... I will not die! I will live to protect you... please... allow me to show you! PLEASE!”

His voice was breaking.

Please Kasumi, don’t believe me! It’s not true! None of it’s true! Please don’t, don’t cry. Please…I love you! I love you so much!!

Her blade was pulled from his body, and she watched coldly as he slumped in front of her. His head fell down like a man who no longer had a reason for living.

“THEN DIE NOW!” she screamed. But her body was shaking, plunging her blade into him again.




And again






And again….





please……make it stop…. She screamed. His blood fell against her, defeating her. All reason spiraled from her and it didn’t matter if she lived or died. All that mattered was that she stopped. She pulled so tightly it felt like she was going to tear.

And tears, finally fell down her face. Burning her skin as she pierced him one last time. He fell against her. Pressing her against the broken tree.

All she wanted to do was help people…and make the world a better place.

So maybe, old men wouldn’t die of hunger on the streets.

And what was worse about this? What broke her sanity more then she could believe.

He still said he loved her, with each cut he could only look at her in pain. And say those words she had once wanted nothing more to hear. In all her life, those words would have made her the happiest woman alive.

But he was defeated….slumped against her. His voice was hardly a whisper in her ear as the tears streamed down her face and she quivered against him. Eyes wide and she felt his pulse so weak.

“I... I am sorry... now your wish is granted... I will be dead... I... I am sorry...”

NO!! she shouted. And her body flinched. A tiny whisper of a noise escaped her lips. And she tore, harder and harder. Nothing mattered.

But he had to know. He couldn’t die this way. Not like this.

Scars formed upon her soul as she pulled harder and harder upon the restraints. And the thread that tied her.

“LET ME GO!!” she screamed. She pulled with more force then she had ever done. His heart beat was fading. And his eyes slipped closed.


Like a snap, the tie was broken And Hiiro fell forward. “Kasumi-!” She whispered, pulling Sunibunki from his belly and dropped it to the ground. Her arms held him tightly. And tears poured down her face. Sinking to the ground she didn’t let him go.

“I didn’t mean it! None of it please! PLEASE don’t, don’t die! Your all I have Kasumi! Your everything I’ve got! “ she cried pressed her forehead to his. Begging the gods to save him the last moments to correct what she had done to him.

“Kasumi!... I love you!” She couldn’t breathe burying her face in his neck and holding him.

“God don’t die! Please! Take me instead! Anything! It was never Kifuume…Kasumi it was always you.” She sobbed.

“I wanted to love you since i first met you….You idiot. Couldn’t you tell?” she cried cradling his head.

She hadn’t noticed yet how cold his body had become, or how still.

“I never blamed you for Kifuumes death. Never…I only thought how troubled you must have been. I never…..Kasumi please.” She cried harder again as a new wave of pain over took her.

“Don’t leave me….Please Kasumi your all I’ve got that’s worth Keeping in this world.” She kissed his forehead.



Her heart sank. When she kissed his lips for the first time.



Felt their Softness, coated in his blood.


And felt no pulse……felt the death that had overtook him. His body.


“….Kasumi..?” She leaned back Looking at him…..



His eyes…..





They were those eyes…..




Cold, lifeless eyes that stared ahead at something only they could see. Though they were sightless. It seemed even the beautiful color of his eyes became washed out.

All she could do, was scream. But the sound was not that of terror. But of pure agony, that echoed loudly like a wounded animal screaming in pain that no medicine could cure.

The man she had always loved, and wanted to be loved by. Lay in her arms. Bleeding by her own hand.

He could only say that he loved her in return. And that he was sorry.






There was no god…in this world.







She cradled is lifeless body, cried, sobbed and screamed.



“WHY!!!” She yelled as emotion burned in every pore of her body. “Why didn’t you just let me die!! Why did you have to save me…Why did you have keep your Stupid promises…” she brushed the hair out of his face. Wanting to die…..


Yet that laughter broke the silence. Soft and weak. Hiiro’s eyes snapped wide open. No…





She couldn’t still be……





“Now…..hehhe….look…what…you’ve….done.” Tsubaki hissed weakly. Blood fell from her mouth. And she had a hand clasped over the wound in her chest. She was bleeding horribly.

But she laughed……and Hiiro looked to her. Her hair had come undone from her tie. Falling over her shoulders Into her face.

It was there, She knew she had nothing else to live for.


And it was this…..bitches fault.


Suddenly Hiiro felt her world spiral away from her. She was going back to a place she had been to scared to go to before. Not since she was a child. And first heard Sunibunki’s name…



“….Come to me……child.”




“Sunibunki!!” She cried, Looking around her Zanbaktou’s spirit world. The smell of bile, acid and blood filled her nostrils and she looked around the dark damp halls. The air thick and humid.

Fleshy pipes created the walls. The ceilings, each flinching and pulsing with their juices. Some glowed, a soft red liquid that illumined the place and casted dark shadows. The sound of mechanical devices hummed within the living world. She saw the sharp talons of mechanical arms. Snap. Or grab a pipe, fitting in somewhere else.


This world was constantly shifting, alive and in pain.


Hiiro felt her legs weak. The strain from pulling herself away from the puppet’s grasp was painful. Her body was torn and battered. She felt energy slip from every pore in her body and her legs felt so weak.

But for the first time she held no fear in her heart. This place was nothing…compared to the pain she just endured. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she looked around again.



She was desperate.



“SUNIBUNKI!!” she screamed into the black halls that seemed to stretch on forever. She didn’t have time for her games. “Get out here!” she snapped. Listening to her echo race down the halls.


“Oh…. my, sweet little being what’s ruffled your feathers so?” A cool metallic voice whispered softly from behind her. Hiiro turned to see that the lips of a human. Still bleeding, still attached to their muscles, yet they were moved mechanically as they formed the words.

“I need your help.” She clenched her fists. The detached lips smiled. Yet remained motionless.

“Ohh….how I hungered to hear your lips speak those words.” She whispered. But her voice was distant, echoing from the darkness. Hiiro turned, swallowing all fear she had once had. For the monster that haunted her dreams. That terrified her to her very core.

The hissing of gears as air pressure shifted, the irritated clash as she moved through the halls. Small wires, detached, snaked over the walls. Over the ground like snakes looking for holes to bury themselves in. They drove down. Into the soft fleshy pipes and latch on. More hisses, air being released and she moved into Hiiro’s view.

Perhaps Sunibunki repulsed Hiiro because of the world she lived in. because of her uncanny ability to know exactly what Hiiro didn’t want to hear, how she could strike to her heart. Perhaps it was the was how she presented herself. Like a cult murder. Sunibunki was a woman, attached to these snakes, these pipes that hissed and held sharp claws that gripped and never let go. They wiggled and writhed from her boy. Down her spine were long leathery cords attached to iron claws that gripped at the ceiling like the talons of a falcon. They pulled taunt as she hung from them. The cords, Hiiro knew were attached to Sunibunki’s bones. And that she could no longer walk upon her own muscles.

Sunibunki had become part of the world she lived in. her body fell limp as she was carried like a dead body on a zip tie. Up to a few feet from Hiiro. Her wires, these tubes snakes out in all directions. Latching onto the floor. The wall, holding her steady. Then slowly, Sunibunki lifted her head.

….no…the thing that repulsed Hiiro the most. The reason, Sunibunki terrified her to her core, to reason she always wanted to run, to hide from this monster that wanted her so badly.



Was because of Sunibunki’s startling likeness to Hiiro herself.



She had scarlet hair, though it was messy and wet. Sunibunki had the likeness that she was once beautiful, once presentable. Now only a holly piece of flesh, filled with writhing wires. Hiiro could see under her near translucent skin. Revolting, she doubted even her organs were still inside of her. Spread out somewhere over this world. Sunibunki’s eyes. Burned, like hot coals they shone bright in the dim lights. Bright and horrible.


But Hiiro wasn’t scared By Sunibunki…..not right now, she had accepted that one day. She might look like her.



Sunibunki reached out, carefully cupping Hiiro’s cheek. Her eyes narrowing, “It’s nice to see your face so…grown up…..how’s life?” She asked casually, Hiiro smacked her hand away. And Sunibunki tsked softly. The smell of her body was like burning flesh and gasoline
“what do you want then?”

“Help….” Hiiro asked her. “ help me now…” She Begged looking to Sunibunki tears forming in her eyes.

Sunibunki smiled and reached forward. Taking Hiiro’s face into her hands. Drifting closer the smell over powering but Hiiro didn’t move, but only stared Unflinching into Sunibunki’s horrible eyes. Carefully Sunibunki walked upon her toes. Not actually touching the ground and moving closer To Hiiro. Her eyes half lidded.

“Of course my sweet. I would do anything, for your happiness.” She whispered, kissing Hiiro softly. She whispered against her lips.

“Make it rain blood…..Make them scream in glorious rapture, and they will fall because of our hand. You and I Hiiro….We are not so different….because you crave the rapture, and the screams. You want to prove yourself…and I ……….will quench that hunger.” She slipped away from her, smiling.


“now go…..and taste the fury…” She moved suddenly with such lighting quickness. Slamming her open palm against Hiiro’s chest. Forcing her back to her reality. Her world of blood and sweat and tears and pain. Hiiro was standing, Kasumi was behind her. Strewn upon the snow like fallen angel.

Sunibunki was held in front of her. Her eyes narrowed and her Reitasu exploded. Causing a short shockwave to move the snow below her feet.





“BAN-…KAI!”





Smoke enveloped her. But the smoke hissed and crackled and then. Fire sparked, spiraling up, like a small whirlwind of flames. They dissipated. Leaving Hiiro standing her Reitasu making the very ground quiver.

Her Shinigami Uniform was long gone. Upon her now was a smoothed long sleeved uniform. A high collar went just below her chin. Yet open in the front so one could see her pale chest. A dark sash wound around her waist, on her back there was a Bow with tails of lace. What had been her Shinigami pants where now shortened to a skirt and stopped just above her knees. Lined with a same black around the hem of her collar, sleeves and skirt. A cut ran up her thigh reveling more soft skin. She wore dark boots with wide heels that stopped below her knee. Yet the most interesting was upon her right shoulder. A marking, dark shapes sewn in. around a black spot, where she had been stabbed by the needle.

In her hand, there was Sunibunki. Glowing like a crimson glow stick. From the bottom of her handle three fuses crackled and sputtered, spitting sparks against the ground. Her hair had fallen free, and her eyes. Where not her own. They glowed with inner fire, like the embers of a dying blaze.

They were locked upon Tsubaki. Who watched her with a half smirk upon her face. She didn’t laugh, nor say a word. Only watched as Hiiro took a step. Her shoes crunching in the show. Before hissing. Steam rose as the water sizzled against the material. She walked slowly at first. But the steps grew into a walk, to a faster pace, to a run.

Screaming Hiiro jumped into Shunpo, faster than she ever had before. Her blade bit into Tsubaki. Before liquefying. Burning the cloth and like hot wax falling upon her bare skin. Tsubaki’s eyes lit up in agony and pain. A horrible moan escaped her lips but a half smile remained.

The pain burned so sweet.

But rage built up in Hiiro, that exploded. Blinding her mind. Dropping the now useless handle of Sunibunki. Pulling back she punched Tsubaki across the face. Blind rage overtaking her, she wanted to see her bleed. She wanted to have her scream in pain and feel a inkling of what she had just felt.

She wanted claws, to tear her apart with.

“hope and pray, and thou shall receive.” Sunibunki cooed to her and like droplets of water, the metal that had been burning in Tsubaki’s skin. Rose, small beads of white hot metal. They flowed to her finger tips. Not hurting her in the slightest. And cooling, forming inch long nails. Razor sharp.

She sliced through Tsubaki’s skin, Like hot butter.

And when the claws weren’t enough…… she stood back and let the molten metal flow over her body Burning her beyond recognition.

Tsubaki had been turned into, yet another body in the battle field. To battered to know who it could have been. The only give away was the blade by her side shattered The rose at the handle wilted. She was long dead. Hiiro assumed Tsubaki had actually died when She cut her open with the claws. But the rage in her boiled.
Turning ,the Metal followed her like a swarm of bee’s glowing they formed a blade upon the handle she held in her hand. Others flitted about her, swirling and attaching themselves to her as affectionate little wasps. But they burned her slightly. She could feel the heat of them on her flesh but she didn’t care.

She had to find the man, who controlled her like a fucking puppet on a string.

She looked to Kasumi one last time. Tears started down her face but evaporated before they reached her chin. Looking up, she saw the vast Iceberg where Shuunske must have been Fighting. There, the man must have been. The Reitasu surged to her feet and she soared off. Kicking up dirt and snow. Her Shunpo greatly increased by the bankai.

But it was flawed. Rage pushed her, emotions pushed her but her body could only handle so much. the sparks of the fuses upon her handle sparked angrily. Three different lengths. But she didn’t pay any attention.



She didn’t care….



She would prove, she wasn’t somebody’s toy.






“Give us rapture….and deliver his heart my child……”

“My sweet……innocent……Hiiro.”

Shuunske looked right and left. The entire battlefield had gone still. No one moved.

Shuunske bit down on his lip, waiting.

Waiting for the moment when it all started up again. He had no idea what he would do at that point. His energy was almost all used up, and was only good for a couple more kido attacks, or holding his bankai for a small amount. But he did not know if he could do even that. He needed to end this quick. He needed to be the one to end this standstill, and this fight.

Looking around again, Shuunske searched for any way to end the fight with a strategical standing. There was nothing he could do like this however.

He needed to improvise.

Then he heard the voice of Kirisami.

It spoke to him in a much more profound way than he did normally in the zanpakutou realm. This was because it was his bankai spirit form as well. It changed with him. Grew more and more powerful.

“Shuunske-sama, deceive him. Confuse him. Make him spread his resources thin enough for you to make a solid attack. Use the attack that we have been working on. Use it. Do not mind the energy cost. Use it Shuunske...”

The last word echoed.

Shuunske's eyes widened. He had not planned on using that attack here. Not because of its deadly power. No. It did not even have that. But the energy cost was insane, and would wipe him clear of whatever energy he had left.

But he had no other choice. He had to obey.

Standing up, Shuunske raised his sword.

He knew that with this next attack, he would not have the power to stand in bankai also, and would be reduced to merely shikai, or even less. He was not accustomed to using this attack style yet. It was a very risky choice.

He filtered his energy into his sword, preparing to use the attack that he had only completed once.

But he stopped.

A sudden and powerful energy washed over the area. Was that Hiiro?

Almost at the same time, he felt the energy of the crazed shinigami he had fought disappear.

What was going on?

Shuunske dropped his sword, and looked to the woods that still remained along the border of the battle field.

Kowai and Muriasachi had noticed it too. All of their heads shifted. It was a strong energy. Not at par with anyone fighting here, but stronger than anyone not of a captain status. It had to be Kasumi? He also had dark energy protruding from his zanpakutou. Had he finally reached another state of zanpakutou formation – bankai?

Shuunske smiled. But that smile faded. No. It was not Kasumi.

Although he had a dark energy, this energy was more than dark. This energy was probing, and tweaked. Like Muriasachi's energy. It crept and stunk all over the place. Shuunske's eyes widened. It was Hiiro!

Hiiro had achieved bankai? Under what standings? How had she done that, what had pushed her to do so? What was the meaning of this?

He pressed the button on his neck, but only got static. Her walki-talki was completely gone. So was her passive and shy energy.

Then he saw her.

Hiiro launched herself from the trees. A tree near her caught fire.

Shuunske's eyes widened. What was this? This was the last thing he had ever expected.

She launched herself straight for Kowai. What was her aim for? Did she think that in this state she would be able to stop a man like that? Was she crazy?

But Kowai looked frightened. Shocked. He looked like something out of the ordinary had happened beyond such a weak girl breaking into a bankai and attacking him.

What had she done?!?

Buzzing balls of what looked like highly heated metal whirled around her, so fast that they almost created a sphere of protection.

Shuunske quickly fired himself into shunpo, ignoring the order to use his un rehearsed attack, and landing directly in Hiiro's path of movement.

“Hiiro-chan!...” There was no reply. There was not reply. Not vocally, nor with any distinct body language. It was like he did not even exist. It was like she had one goal and that was blood, and death.

He had to stop her by force from attacking the man.

Turning slightly sideways, and into a kido stance, Shuunske raised his arms and fingers, pointing at Hiiro.

“Way of binding number one – sai!”

He felt the small amount of reiatsu fall from him.

But it produced only a small flinch in the girls arms before the kido was ruptured by the crazy and flowerless movement of the energy that swirled all around the girl in a rage almost as deep her own.

She moved fast, faster than she had ever moved.

Shuunske jumped back, and prepared for another kido binding spell, one of stronger origins, but he just barely noted the three string held weapons that were converging on his location, in attack mode. One was a huge cleaver, and the other two pitch forks. Each had blood on them.

Shuunske used the flash step to avoid them in just enough time. But they did not whirl back at him, and instead continued at Hiiro.

He was trying to take her out. Why was he so concerned about Hiiro? If he had kept on Shuunske, there was a chance that he could have landed a hit, but he was attacking this girl? It didn't make sense.

Bending into another flash step, Shuunske landed almost right in front of the charging and raging Hiiro, bending his sword so that he could deflect all the attacks. He was punched backwards by their accumulative force, and received a hit that he had not intended to receive.

As Hiiro sped by over head, one of the buzzing and spinning balls that flung itself around her, caught on the merciless winds of her serrated energy, moved and slammed into him, damaging his right shoulder to the point that he lost grip of his sword for a second. The small fumble weakened his defense, and the three weapons pushed through his line of defense.

Shuunske flash stepped again, re-gripping his sword handle, with his left hand on his shoulder. Why had she attacked him? Was she out of control? Was she even controlling herself?

He had to stop her. She didn't know what she was up against if she was to fight Kowai. He was out of her league.

Raising his left hand, he prepared to end her rampage.

“Way of binding number 61 – Rikujokoro!” It was a powerful binding spell. As soon as the words left his mouth, the six rods of light materialized out of the air, and slammed themselves against Hiiro. The metal balls that whizzed around slammed against the rods, and cracked them. It was not enough.

Raising his left hand again, Shuunske muttered “Way of binding number 9 – Geki!”

Once again, the kido reacted as soon as he spoke the command, sending a red light at Hiiro, paralyzing her, and slowing the metal balls so that their impact on the six rods of light was not so intense. It would still only last about ten minutes. The balls by no means were stopped, and her energy was so intense that the rods cracked in small tremors.

But Kowai did not stop, the weapons that he had sent at Hiiro before spun around and flew at her. Shuunske was not going to get anywhere with this hostage out in the open. Using the shunpo, Shuunske landed and sliced the metal wire of one of the pitch forks, but the other two had already gotten away, and were closer to Hiiro that he could move in time.

“Way of destruction number 4 – byakurai!”

The white blue lightening erupted from his hands, and shot at the weapons, not aimed for the actual weapon, but instead cutting the wire that they were controlled by.

The weapons fell. And more came. Only time more. Eighteen came this time. And all of them were small knives, and thus harder to hit, and block.

Shuunske could not keep this up. His weakened body ached whenever he used the flash step.

“Way of binding number 73 – tozansho!”

The huge pyramid of blue energy and light materialized around Hiiro. It was a very strong kido that cost Shuunske. He felt his knees weaken again.

But it worked, the weapons slammed against the surface of the wall, and merely bounced off. But Shuunske knew that it was only a matter of time, like everything else before they could break through.

Pushing himself into another flash step, his entire body aching, and tired, he charged into the barrage of weapons.

“GET AWAY!!!!”

Shuunske bit down on his own teeth, and gritted them against each other, anger flooding at the situation! He hated being the weaker one, and would not let it ever happen again. Why was Kowai this strong? Why had they not dealt with him before. Who was “they” anyways.

WHO WAS HE? WHAT DID HE WANT?

Shuunske pounced on the weapons in a series of flips, and well aimed slices. Weapons fell from the sky as he blocked and countered the blades and points. Sparks flew. Shuunske's face and mood changed.

What was this feeling?

Kirisami... was there more to this? There had to be some hidden power that he had. Kirisami... help...

He had to use his attack. It was the only way that he could win this fight. And he had to use it now. Even though he was weaker than before.

Jumping back, atop the huge blue pyramid, Shuunske announced loudly “Bunshin no Mizu ken Hyouton!”

Nothing happened, but Shuunske smiled to himself, a devious and troublesome smile. Kowai looked around briefly, and then looked back. Unaware of any change.

“This... is... my... surprise... attack... bakudo no 21 – Sekienton!”

At once a huge cloud of smoke blew up around him. Red smoke, caused by the kido. It was a smoke bomb kido that would hide his movements.

But he did not even use it...

it seemed...

Shuunske jumped out of the cloud of smoke, his sword held high, using shunpo after shunpo in order to carry himself straight into the weapon mass of Kowai.

The weapons reacted like snakes, throwing themselves at him in a flurry of uncharted movement. Shuunske engaged, blocking the weapons, and cutting the wires. But it was only about ten seconds before the weapons over whelmed him, and knocked the sword from his hands. His face changed into that of fear just before the weapons sliced him all over. Blood fell, and Kowai laughed.

“Well well well Shuunske...” Kowai spoke “... never thought you to be so rash and... well... stupid...”

Shuunske fell backwards, struggling for footing.

“I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you what you just did for yourself. You just lost this for yourself, and for your team.”

All of the weapons slowly moved to surround the small scared looking white haired boy. He had no reason anymore to guard himself.

“These weapons are not merely normal weapons. In fact, they are nothing like that at all. As you saw much earlier in this fight, they all have a high concentration of spiritual energy in them. That is why your pathetic acid tricks could not break them down. When these weapons connect with you, and draw blood, they link themselves with your system, and by doing that, they give me control of everything you do... do you feel it... the numbing feeling... that is me... taking you as my own... that is me... using you... just as I used your friends... just as I used Hiiro-chan... your 5th seat... just as I used her in order to kill off your own vice captain... just as I used Kifuume... the previous squad vice captain to kill off his entire squad, and then himself... just... like... that...”

Kowai spoke in a very arrogant way, inserting pauses and smiles as if he had orchestrated this entire battle from the start.

And he probably had.

Shuunske's arms fell to his side, and he closed his eyes...

“You... you...”

but the third you came from behind Kowai...

“You... you did what!?”

Shuunske had won.

It was over.

From behind Kowai, a blade thrust through him, causing his back to arch.

The metal twisted inside of him.

The white haired Shuunske look alike that was surrounded by weapons, and bleeding suddenly looked up, and fell into water. It was a false Shuunske. A clone. Merely a representation of what he was.

“I am not the stupid one... Kowai-dono.” Shuunske twisted the sword within him once more before speaking.

“About ten minutes ago I saw one of the many dolls you had morph. I did not know what its purpose was, but it was right around the time I felt her energy go berserk. My hypothesis was that it had something to do with contact by the weapons... but Hiiro had never fought you. It was then when I remembered the small needle that was not aimed at me a while back. I had wondered where it had gone. But then it made sense. You had sent that in order to attack Hiiro-chan... But I was still not sure what this whole bankai of yours did. So I tested it further. Water is a very moveable element, and I have learned to make it into many things, and manipulate it in many ways, the most advanced way was what you just saw. A complete replication of myself. Once I got that clone infected with your bankai's affect, you let your guard down to explain your victory strategy... that was when I knew that had the ability to attack. I had changed places with my imposter ever since I first emerged from the smoke cloud. And now... I win... Kowai-dono...”

With that, Shuunske clenched his teeth, and grabbed the handle of his zanpakutou, causing it to burst into water, entering Kowai's blood stream.

“I hope this hurts.”

Shuunske allowed the water of his blade to morph into tiny razor blades, ripping veins, and arteries as they moved through his system.

Jumping back, Shuunske watched as the mighty captain bent over in pain as the small blades reached his heart, tearing it into shreds from the inside, slowly. He hunched over, and then fell, his solidified air floor failing to hold him. Shuunske whipped his sword in the air, and water formed from the pre existing moisture and formed another zanpakutou blade.

He felt the same lack of ability to keep himself levitated any longer, and used the shunpo in order to reach the ground, falling hard against its merciless surface, and hitting a tree. The kido that held hiiro cracked until the pyramid broke, and the sis rods of light with it. The red light faded, and Shuunske only could watch for another moment before his eyes closed.... had he done it... finally...?






What had Kowai said about Kasumi...?



Muriasachi:

The rope was not going to hold itself much longer, and as soon as Muriasachi saw Shuunske move, he moved.

Jumping onto the blade, Muriasachi screamed: “BANKAIIII!!!!”

As soon as he said it, another huge dark energy hit the field, almost exactly like Hiiro's, with an eerie similarity. His skin started to receded, and the stitching that he had done when pasting his face together pulled at the threads, leaving muscle tissue and tendons visible under the ripped skin. His eyes turned dark gray and lost their pupil. The veins all over his body grew to a massive size, sticking out from his body. His captain's haori wrapped around him and changed into what looked like a lab coat. Blood covered his finger tips as his nails extended into syringe tips, and the skin on his fingers becoming transparent, showing different colored liquids that filled them. His teeth became sharp, pointed, and tiny, fitting together perfectly like little razor sharp shark teeth. His nose shrunk into his face like that of a skull, just leaving a bloody and dark hold in his face with the tendons underneath. Stench rose up around him, smelling like a pile of dead bodies.

He laughed at himself.

It was all just... so funny to him.

Muriasachi clinked his fingers together. The needles that extended from his hands made small noises like when silverware touches other silverware.

“Let goooooooooooooooooo...”

With that Muriasachi jumped up, his tiny and frail body carrying himself high into the air, not nearly as affected by energy loss or physical exhaustion as everyone else seemed to be. All he had been doing was dodging and reading movements.

As soon as he had entered the bankai state, he had lost hold of the kido rope that held down the giant sword. Muriasachi watched in awe aw Shuunske finished off his opponent with a quick cunning strategical skill that made Muriasachi's senses tingle.

The huge sword raised in the air and swung down on the huge ice glacier. It cracked, and exploded into large ice chunks that fell near Shuunske and Muriasachi.

“Byakurai! Byakurai! Byakurai! Byyaaakkkuuurraaiii!! Hahahahahahahaha!!”

Muriasachi launched blue lightening blast after blue lightening blast at the oncoming ice sculptures, breaking them into small pieces. He laughed insanely.

As he raised himself higher and higher into the air, Muriasachi watched as Hiiro broke free from the kido spells that were holding her back.

“Heeheeeeeeee! Come on Asura... swing your sword at me... not the glacier...” Muriasachi spoke in an agitating tone that suggested that Asura had tried to hit him and missed horribly.

“Shut it you crazy scientist!”

“MAKE ME!”

With that, Muriasachi used shunpo, and appeared closer to Asura. The large man whipped his sword around and all the segments froze back up into one long and huge sword.

“Yes yes yes yesss! Attack attack attack attack!”

Muriasachi bounced around, waiting for the attack to come.

“Attack you slow fat ass! ATTACK!”

The attack came, and was so powerful that it almost sucked Muriasachi down with the shear force of the downwards sweeping motion of the huge sword. He felt the radiation pouring over him. It was amazing. He felt the chemicals inside of him moving in order to defend against the radiation, protecting him from poisoning.

“Heyyy Asura! Did you know something!?! Did you know that I have a little secret weapon... wanna seeeee....?”

Asura looked at Muriasachi with a questioning face.

“I have all of your medical records recorded... right... here... heheee!” Muriasachi pointed to his decaying head.

“I have it allll!! ALLL!!”

Muriasachi bounced further into a shunpo carrying him close to Asura, the huge sword making it way for another attack that Muriasachi dodged with shunpo after shunpo.

“All you know how to do is swing that thing around. You have no way of beating me with your amount of smarts... but you wanna know what my secret weapon against you is? THIS!”

Muriasachi jumped forward into shunpo after shunpo, carrying himself all over the place, closer and closer to Asura, his huge sword not able to keep up with the new found speed of the 12th division captain. Muriasachi skidded to a stop behind Asura, and held out his hands. Before Asura could turn and react, Muriasachi's skin decayed suddenly and made holes in his hands. From those holes, a gas erupted and shot at Asura. The liquids in his fingers all drained. This was a once shot deal.

The gas erupted over Asura, and the entire area, including Muriasachi. He smiled as the chemicals in hos body strained in order to protect him, feeling like small bugs were running in his skin.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEEEEEHHEHEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHHEHEHUHUEHUEHEUEHEHEHUEHEUEHEAHAHUAHEUHUAEHAHAEHEA!!!!!”

Muriasachi loved the power he had over Asura.

But the poison did not engulf him for long, as Asura jumped out, having held his breath through the huge cloud.

“Shut up you crazy goon! You cant beat me with such a simple attack as that! Poison gas is such a useless tool!”

“... not... against... you...”

Muriasachi whispered as Asura raised his arm. It stopped. Asura's face froze in a pained position.

Muriasachi took a much more casual demeanor.

“You see, when I treated you for acute radiation poisoning, I treated you for the more basic kind of radiation, which is the kind of radiation that can be seen by scanning and charting gamma rays. That was what you gave off. However, there is a different kind of radiation that you would not have a built immunity against. When turned into a poison as I had it, it is called polonium-210. That kind of radiation does not emit gamma rays. Instead it emits alpha particles. These particles attack your cells from the inside in the same way a nuclear bomb would... only these do it much slower... heehee. All the poison had to do was make contact with the cuts on you in order to make it into your blood stream... this would not ordinarily be the case, but, in my nature, I made it so your body was extra vulnerable to this kind of radiation... just so I might have a leg up in anything I did... what can I say... it worked... heh heh... you cannot fight your doctor... Asura-baka. Now watch...”

Asura's skin started to peal backwards like a banana, and fall, leaving scorched holes underneath. The radiation started pouring out of his skin. Muriasachi started taking slow steps backwards in the air, not sure of his own immunity against such an exquisite radiation poisoning. As he moved backwards, his bankai self started mending itself again, his skin falling back together, the stitches looking stretched and his skin looking worn. The syringes on his fingers started to retract as well. By the time he had taken eight steps backwards, he had returned completely to his normal form, sweating like he had been working out for three days straight without food or water. His hair clung to him in an oily mess, and the stench still came from him.

Asura's arm started pealing and he started to scream as pain overtook him. The holes that appeared all over his body started to tear him apart so fast that he just fell apart into a smoldering heap of what used to be a human.

The huge sword shattered into a thousand pieces, everything falling down below.

The battle was over.

How fun!

The darkness erupted around Hiiro. The fragile blackness she had been enveloped in was long gone. The trees cracking and groaning around her as the fire blossomed from their skins, casting out a bright orange light. As though the fires of hell followed her footsteps. The snow kicked up hissed and turned to water which turned to steam.

Her eyes were locked, she could see differently. Everything was brighter, crisper and with vibrant colors. She saw the dark blues in the ice, on the ground where no heat lay. The wide licks of orange as the fire behind her grew hissing against the rain and snow. She saw figures in the distance. Orange and yellow short in stature he didn’t matter to her right now.

Another figure that within him held insane radiation and another by his side. They all seemed still as though taken by her presence. But none of them mattered. Her eyes were locked upon the figure ahead of her. With only a core of heat within him. A tiny orange ball in the center. It was his heart.

She was untamable, the metal of her blade. Whizzed around her like angry hornets, they tore at the tree’s as she skated past. Causing the tree’s to ignite painfully as each metal bead ripped through their fragile hollow trunks.

The three fuses at the end of her Hiiro’s Zanbaktou handle were crackling, spitting sparks and the shortest wick raced closer to the end. Hiiro clenched the empty handle tightly. The hilt had turned a darker shade, and become ribbed for grip, and though it held no blade she would use it as a weapon none the less.

“That’s it.” Sunibunki cooed from her mind urging her forward with bursts of warmth that sped Hiiro on. Propelling her faster then she had ever moved before.

The tree’s around her were wet and splintered. Torn up from the very ground and thrown to the edge of the wide barren battle ground that laid before her. Everything was torn, huge gapes and holes gouged the ground, but Hiiro jumped over them with skillful ease, she moved quickly, as though this was second nature to move this easily with so much speed.

But not once had her eyes left the man who had taken everything from her. She saw his face for the first time. Formed fake, like a puppet with wild hair about his face. Raw anger pulsed through her and she looked into his eyes. Cold and black. They were the eyes of a dead man.


But she saw fear in those eyes. A wide smirk formed upon her lips. Whole conversations could be taken from the mere seconds they held eye contact. Kowai was confused, nobody had ever broken from his trap before, how was this possible that such a weak woman could have broken his spell like that?

“Because, we are not weak!” She snarled under her breath. A pulse, a mere pop of energy to the right and sheflinched. Shuunske landed in front of her, his eyes wide with concern and confusion.

“Hiiro-chan!” Shuunske called but she didn’t stop. Her eyes never left the man. Boiling with rage, She would kill him, she would tear him apart. This man who took her, and used her, and made her betray the only person who cared about her in this life.

Shuunske wasn’t her captain right now, she wouldn’t’ listen to reason, she didn’t want to talk. She wanted blood. And it shown in her eyes. Without even a look to him, she leaped over Shuunske as though he was nothing more than a troublesome log in her path.

But the troublesome log didn’t leave her be.

“Way of binding number one – sai!”

Hiiro felt the restraints against her arms, like a small pull, but she wasn’t swayed. It felt almost delicate, and it hardly stopped her. Before she felt even the slightest restraints form in her Reitasu dismantled the kido spell. It was running wild around her, flowing out freely at a rapid rate. Fueling her insanity and increasing her power to beyond her mortal abilities. As though the kido was tangible, the rosy bullets that whizzed around her cut the kido and let it fall back into nothingness.

Her mouth opened now and she charged at Kowai. Screaming in rage tears streamed down her face, hissing against her skin. Preparing himself the man shot three weapons at her, a cleaver, two tridents rusted with use on poor innocent beings. Hiiro didn’t flinch; she would have taken the hit to get to him. Gripping her handle tighter, the third wick began to spark out, reaching the end of its short life. Going silent, blue sparks issued from the back of her handle.

Shuunske appeared in front of her again, the sound of metal smashing against metal rang clearly through the gouged valley. He was blocking the attacks from her causing more selfish anger flaring within her, she shouldn’t have to be protected. It was that protection that got Kasumi killed. Overwhelming emotion pour from her, causing her skin to ach. In her mind she screamed at Shuunske, he had caught her attention if not briefly. But only for him to move, move out of her way now.

At the last moment Hiiro skated around him. Her eyes followed him as she moved around him with ease. They were not the eyes Shuunske had known. But hot embers filled with anger and rage. Boiling emotions that manifested in the metal around her. The bullets smacked into his shoulder, burning a hold clear through his uniform. Hissing as they came into contact with his wet cool skin. Cooling quickly they fell off before tearing back towards their master.

A bullet stabbed through her arm. Slicing it as though it was a razor. They were beginning to hurt her, her Reitasu became more powerful, and shifting as it became potent. Blood oozed from her wounds. But it was as through something was stopping the blood flow, blocking the path from under her skin.

She smelled blood, as the tears ran red down her cheeks.

Yet Hiiro didn’t stop, she couldn’t, not now. It was as though she wasn’t in control anymore. She heard Shuunske call out to her again before a powerful kido spell. One that would have bounded Hiiro easily.

The white rods hit Hiiro powerfully in the gut, knocking the air out of her system. “No!” She gasped for air and pulled against them like a wild animal. Thrashing to pull herself free. Another Kido spell, red light wafted over her slowing the beads so they moved about with a drowsy sloth movements. Her eyes widened in fear, no, she couldn’t be restrained again. She couldn’t just be still. She wasn’t somebody’s puppet; she wasn’t something that could be controlled.

“LET ME GO!!” she screamed thrashing. The cuts and gashed upon her body grew as though her movements where lashing deeper and deeper. Her very skin was becoming unstable against the reckless levels of Reitasu. From her cuts, tiny strings. Dipped in a thick coat of her blood slipped from her open wounds Like leeches, being knocked around they slipped farther and farther from her skin. Like the cords that Sunibunki had that supported her.

The very same cords that took the place of her organs, of her body. Hiiro couldn’t fight against the energy that poured from her, causing the cords to manifest. The dam had been opened and she couldn’t’ shut it off.

Slowly the second wick upon the handle of her Zanbaktou burned to the final quarter of its life. Spewing white sparks.

She had to break free, get free!!!

Hiiro pulled against the kido. They cracked once more. Before a giant blue light enveloped her. forming a pyramid. “NO!” she screamed again. Thrashing harder, until the rods finally broke. Running up to the edge of the edge of the pyramid, Hiiro smashed her fist against the wall. She punched the binding spell. Over and over, until blood spilled from her knuckles. Her shoulder ripped open as though her skin was melting off, as fragile as paper. Her body was breaking down. It couldn’t handle this strain.

Hiiro’s legs gave out, as the tears poured down her face. Falling to the ground she continued to beat at the wall. “SHUUNSKE-SAAMMAA!! LET ME OUT!! LET ME OUT!” she screamed, her Zanbaktou all threw themselves against the walls. Bouncing off and ricocheting against the other walls.

This Ricochet blasted into Hiiro. Like a paintball of molten metal against her left shoulder, burning through her clothes and onto her skin. If Shuunske hadn’t slowed their movements they would have punched right through her body. But Hiiro hissed out in pain. Never stopping her attacks against the wall. Slowly a crack appeared over the area.

But it was too late; she had broken one of her fingers. She felt the pain as she punched a hole through the blue light. Watching as the kido shattered around her.

Kowai was dead. Shuunske had stabbed him through the chest now he remained upon the ground motionless. Blood fell from his mouth.

But it seemed she didn’t notice. Hiiro was revenged.

Like iron tears, her bullets started to sink. Falling onto her skin they hissed and fell. Though some flew about her with anger and renewed speed. Some went back to the handle of her Zanbaktou, forming a small combat knife.

Hiiro moved strangely now. As though she was in Shunpo, she jumped around, but it was unstable, She only moved a foot or two. Giving her a shimmer effect a though she was moving in and out of reality. Reitasu poured off her in thick waves and blood ran down her cheeks falling into the snow. The blood ran down her arms along with a thick black fluid that oozed from the cords.

Moving with her staggered Shunpo she reached the dead body. “No, no no no !!” shrieked grabbing the thick matted hair upon his head. It didn’t register that he wasn’t dead. He just wasn’t dead enough…. She there wasn’t a piece of him left she couldn’t beat and tear and burn. He would only then be dead to her.


In her mind, She only felt fire and Sunibunki laughed. Moving in time with Hiiro’s body. The pure bliss that came from the spirits smile.


What am i……and why can’t I stop…..

Kasumi….help me….

Darkness how had now completely take over the area.

Muriasachi stood alone, only a brief moment of silence allowing him to breath. His energy was very low. That last attack had been a very deadly mixture of chemicals that were unstable even in his body.

He felt as the chemicals inside of him all rushed to various locations in his body. One moment his arm would go numb, and another his tongue. Then in about another three seconds, all felling would be regained as the chemicals had done their duty.

Screams faded and Asura finally fell. His body fell further apart as he fell from the sky, limbs detaching and landing in a different location than the res of his body. Even after it had hit the ground, his body continued to almost glow and burn itself into bits from the inside.

Muriasachi looked at his hands. They were scorched as if they too had been burnt. There was no way to create a complete antidote to a poison that strong. He had suffered the consequences, and made it look easy, but in reality that was one of the most dangerous moves he had ever used in combat.

Muriasachi's hands went numb for the third time. It meant that the chemicals that had been sent there were not potent enough to sustain the damage this time. He would need a full transfer when he returned to Soul Society.

However, his time to think was interrupted by the huge shattering sound of the bakudo that Shuunske had used in order to contain Hiiro breaking under a perfect combination of her will, and the spells becoming greatly weakened because of Shuunske's condition.

Muriasachi smiled, a horrible and demeaning smile.

When had this puny little spit of a shinigami gained all of this power, and stature?

Was this a bankai?

And why was her energy so wild?

Her metals whipped to and fro around her, slamming into her, and taking small pieces of her with them.

Muriasachi smiled again. If it was bankai, then it was weak... however... so much like his own.

And then, just as the bakudo had shattered around Hiiro, reality itself shattered around Muriasachi.

At first he thought it was the drugs, followed by the guess that he was being knocked out by side effects. But it all reformed into something almost familiar.

Almost.

Heat was the first thing he noticed, and within another second. Bitter cold.

A cold that burned. Like dry ice, or blue flame.

A slow building, mechanical world surrounded him.

He felt... strange.

What was this feeling? What had happened to reality?

Embers fell from all around, and wires slowly shifted, like dying snakes made from synthetic materials, all fated to the same jailed and barred life as the chord next to them.

Muriasachi knew this place. But... at the same time it was completely knew to him.

He looked around, his sword felt weightless in his hands.

Had he been pulled into his zanpakutou realm? Why was it like this? It was different.

Notations and numbers flew through his head. Why was he being pulled into another world like this without his command? Had he exhausted his bankai to the point where he was being pulled in.

The heat grew more and more intense.

Was this radiation heat that he had caused. Was he killing off his zanpakutou?

No. This area was different.

“Yes. You are right. This area is different.”

Muriasachi whirled around, and gasped as he saw a pair of eyes looking into his, so close that Muriasachi could have licked his face. But he did not. Even Muriasachi was not that vile. The face that he would have licked was torn, and scarred horribly, similar to his, only the cuts on the man's face were sloppy and not well made. It looked like he had also fallen apart, and been resharpened.

He hung.



He hung from the various chords that fell from the ceiling, chords winding around him and through him, his blood oozed from his body, the blood holding nothing but empty plasma. Muriasachi laughed a deep laugh inwardly.

“Soeki... why are we here? … This is... different...?”

Muriasachi spoke as he looked around.

The walls rose above him, high until the darkness and heat waves consumed the top. All the way up some kind of unnatural light that did not penetrate the area from any obvious light source coated everything in a dim red light.

“Yes it is different. I needed to do something here.”

Muriasachi touched the wall, it was hot. In fact, it was almost red hot, and he felt the wall's throbbing with artificial life. It was almost like they pumped blood like a heart. What was this place, wnd why did it look so much like a copy of his original realm?

“What is this... Soeki... this is not your own realm. I know that. What is this. Tell me now!”

Muriasachi did not look at Soeki as he spoke, touching the walls as he moved slowly, examining every crack in the rusted over wall. His fingers found a large plug in that was about the width of a garden snake. It wriggled as his hands grew nearer and nearer to it. His white fingers crowded the synthetic material covered cord as Muriasachi yanked it from the wall. It was firm, and as It came loose, steam blew from the hole in the wall, and oozed from the plucked cord. He felt something his his shoe.

Pulling back quickly, he looked down, just barely able to see a thick puddle of blood that was dripping from the now opened plug. The throbbing became intense for a second, and then became more and more silent. Another tube next to the one Muriasachi had pulled filled, and started taking the job as a back up of blood transport.

“This is the repercussions of your mistake in the field a long time ago.”

Muriasachi's fist clenched.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL IT THAT!”

Moving suddenly, Muriasachi turned, and swept his hand across Soeki's face. A red mark quickly faded, and he felt the underlying metal that was built into his face. Soeki made no remark of the alleged attack.

“It was merely an active experiment that I was not at the level to handle at that point. Not a complete failure.”

Soeki looked at Muriasachi with a blank face that suggested that his emotions were gone, taken away, replaced with something “more useful.”

However, in that motionlessness, there was a distinct pain that haunted the man hanging by plugs and chords that attacked themselves into the abyss of the dark and mechanical world they were in. Soeki's face hung onto the metal that supported it like he was in pain, only unable to explain it. His eyes held no distinct pupil.

His naked body remained mostly humanoid, only his genitals had been replaced with heavy amounts of metal cords and material that plunged into his skin, and ripped at him from the inside. The hair on his chest was coated in blood, and greasy, with huge rips that tour his chest and stomach open. Small mechanical clicking and ticking allowed Muriasachi to know that his zanpakutou spirit was still running in perfect timing with himself. He monitored everything.

“Well, this is what that created. Only, I just now noticed it... her.”

“HER?!??!”

“Yes...”

“WHERE?!”

“... Here... among us... everything...”

The cords outlets that held Soeki hanging from the ceiling gave way, and threw him onto the floor, his rickety knees bent under the weight of his modified body.

Muriasachi gave Soeki a wicked and sickening smile.

“So... so that experiment was not of waste... it is still... active... she is still... alive...” His mouth twitched as he thought about the possibilities.

“And she just now gave away her location. She just now became active. Heheheheh!”

Muriasachi clung to his zanpakutou blade's handle, and bolted in the direction that the tunnel led him in. Cords fell from all directions and wires moved around him, propelled by the steam and liquids inside of them.

Flashing into the shunpo, Muriasachi carried himself forward, too excited to function. If this were all true, he would have done what no other had of the science and research facility would have done. He would have successfully tampered with reiatsu itself, and zanpakutou theories. His theory had been that if artificial creation of human life was near impossible, and at that time not doable, then the creation of something similar in the zanpakutou realm would be possible with the proper bending of spiritual energetic material.



Practically skipping in and out of shunpo, Muriasachi raced further and further into the distant hallway, the light growing more and more dark as he moved.

However, when he landed his last shunpo, he felt the darkened energy that he was looking for. He felt the slimy reproduction of such a fowl being as Soeki. Only it was slightly different. Had this creature evolved on its own, kept alive by the surrounding world?

It lay in front of him.

A girl.

A melting and destroyed, and yet somehow to beautiful dark crazed and protective girl. She hung from the world's cords and plugs just as Soeki did, only she was silent, and still, hunched over something.

Muriasachi saw the disgusting girl twitch. He was noticed. And he was no longer alone.

The woman's dark red hair moved as she did, her head turning almost 180 degrees, and snapping.

Muriasachi's stomach both wept with joy and confusion as he saw the sight. The woman that he was looking at was horrid, and ugly, but independent. She was her own self. As far as intelligence. But, like Soeki, there was no individuality at all, they were one with the world around them. They were not their own being.

But he also saw another red headed girl. One that had the body and figure of exactly that of Hiiro. A girl that he hated. Despised.

What was she doing in this world.

Then it dawned on him.

His experiment went too well. He had been trying to create another spirit within himself in order to boost his power. Another spirit that had a completely different power. Another spirit that would be itself. But he had been too smart for just that. No.

He had done the impossible. He had created a completely new zanpakutou spirit. An entirely knew spirit from the ashes of his own failures and mistakes.

Muriasachi was shaking, his fear and excitement taking hold of him.

This was too much to hold inwards, and yet he held it inwards.

He had been able to harvest an entirely new soul that attached itself onto a weak girl. That was its nature. Parasitic. The woman he had tried to create. Parasitic in order for her to cling to his world, and his powers, and make them improved. Refined.

And yet...

...this...

Hiiro beat Kowai’s dead body again and again. With each breath was a labored scream. Upon her discarded blade the second fuse sputtered before going out with a puff of black smoke. It began to then spit crimson sparks and emitting a ear splitting scream like that of a firework. The smell of burning flesh and gunpowder filled her nostrils. Yet she couldn’t stop, as though a force had taken over her completely. Her body was disconnected, aching and crying out.


The world starting to blur. Letting out a labored breath she fell to the side. The snow hissed as it hit her bare skin. Unable couldn’t move, blood surged up her throat and she coughed violently. Small pieces of metal and thick blood spilled onto the snow. She couldn’t stand, the world was spinning and becoming double. Her head hit the snow and found it was a struggle to even keep her eyes open. To stare into Kowai’s lifeless eyes.


Trying to move once more, lifting her hand to reach him. To tear at him but pain split through her stomach and she screamed shrinking back and holding her sides. Spitting more blood. She was burning up, the snow melted around her soaking her clothes and her hair. Yet the little iron bullets pounding the ground, Kowai, and anything around her mercilessly as though she was perfectly fine.


Yet her Bankai did not go away. Unlike most Shinigami Bankai’s, when they are close to death, They will revert back to their Shikai to reduce the strain of Reitasu upon the body, giving them a better chance of survival. But her Bankai didn’t stop. It continued to pour out as she struggled to stay awake. It was sapping her life energy. The struggle to keep her eyes open was getting harder and harder. The world blurred too much and slowly….



Slowly, the world faded from her views. Into blackness, that scalded her skin like hot tar.


“Shhh, it’s alright, it’s Ok. My Hiiro I will always take care of you….”


A cool breeze washed over her face. For a moment it felt like she was dreaming. Blue skies, people’s voices all blurring together to make a sweet drone of sound. She could hear the hum of the cars as they whizzed past her. Yet none of them saw.


Who was this woman? Standing there, shimmering like the air does on a hot day? Collapsed in the shadows like a broken maiden, such a sweet smile on her face, as she beckoned to her softly. Why did nobody else see? Or hear as the woman sang so softly. She sang such a broken song.


“My, such a darling looking young lady….come here won’t you?”



She had just wanted to go to the Grocery. Not even two blocks away. She just wanted to get some food to make dinner….






“Hiiro….c’mon baby! Get up now. You’ve still got so many things to do.” Sunibunki cooed softly, cradling her body in her twisted and melted arms. Sunibunki’s body rattled as she hugged Hiiro. She was upon the ground, in a massive central room surrounded by the living walls. Massive pipes and bags of liquid hung from the ceiling Pumping blood, plasma, oxygen, anything and everything. Each throbbing as they pulsed with Hiiro, and Sunibunki’s joined heart beat.


The cuts upon Hiiros body, arms and legs had split open, lifeless cords attached themselves to the floor, and to Sunibunki, so they were connected with the hissing moving mechanics. Yet Hiiro did not wake, like a dead body she was at Sunibunkis whim. Her body was at her disposal. Her face was relaxed as though she was only dreaming. And tears formed at the corners of her eyes.


It was everything Sunibunki had ever wanted, from the moment she saw the delicate girl. She had wanted total control. She wanted to escape from the horrible existence she had been pushed into. She wanted a body, fresh, and weak.


But it seemed times have changed. Hiiro had fought her presence, forced Sunibunki to continue as the Spirit she was and will always be. Yet Sunibunki cried out in frustration, through these years, she had come to love this tormented soul, that had always been as Sunibunki’s constant disposal. Always fighting her back she became the object of Sunibunki’s life. To get this independence, to finally break the girl as she had done so easily in the past.


But now sunibunki held Hiiro like a mother would hold a wounded child. Steaming tears hit Hiiro’s face as Sunibunki cooed to her, soft words and hymns. Urging her to wake, She ignored the fact, that she had done this to her. and that even now, she was sucking the life force from Hiiro.


Because without Hiiro Sunibunki would surely die.
Hiiro had lost her will to live, and gave herself over to Sunibunki without any fight, without any fuss. How cruel this world has been to her, she wanted Hiiro to be strong again. So she could fight for dominance once more.


Suddenly Sunibunki felt a disturbance, pressure lowering somewhere, pipes had been pulled, and Sunibunki held Hiiro tighter. A whicked smile widening on her face. Her body shivered and her voice rattled as she spoke softly.


“My darling little Hiiro nothing will every hurt you, never again. You see what they’ve done?” She stopped eyes widened she snapped her head around inhumanly, the synthetic bones that held her body together cracked and whined as she pushed to look behind her.


“Soeki.”


She frowned seeing the figure next to him. “No.” She hissed, and the temperature of the worldrose, steam spit from cracks in the pipes heating the room. Everything. Everything was because of him!


Hiiro…They had come for her Hiiro!


“You cannot have her!” She screeched, strong cords grasped the ceiling, puncturing soft bags of liquid above her head. Making a synthetic liquid that glowed rain down. Like angry snakes the tubes and cords Grabbed Hiiro. Pulling her back. Tightening around her, Lifting her up and into Sunibunki’s arms.


Her emotions were running wild, Unlike Soeki, who’s personality was cut out, pressed down and trampled on until there was nothing left. She was in total control of this world. And she was running ravage, the pipes whined and hissed, complaining against the strain put on them by her sudden ranging emotions. She wanted them gone, away from this world to simply leave Hiiro and her alone.


“Leave us alone we do not want you here!” She screamed. Grabbing a fist full of Hiiro’s scarlet hair she wrenched her head up so it wasn’t hanging at the angle, looking as though she was asleep. Her face softened and she pressed her cheek against Hiiro’s the gears imbedding into her sagging flash punctured Hiiro’s soft skin, making a small trail of red blood down her chin. Sunibunki didn’t notice, glaring at Muriasachi and Soeki. She wrapped her arms around Hiiro like a stubborn child not wanting to share their toys, repeating once more.


“We do not want you here. Go away!” She looked like she might begin to cry, whispering to Hiiro as though she was awake.


“They’re going to try to take you away from me, you don’t want that do you? No, of course not.”
Something within her snapped, causing her whole body to flinch and move horribly, her back arching as a long thick cord slid out of her body, and clasped itself into the floor below her. Sunibunki laughed, a synthetic care free laugh looking to Soeki with softened eyes. A seducing grin formed upon her lips.


“Come on….Soeki. It has been so long…. Don’t make this be on bad terms. Not with I missed you so, very much.” She cooed almost pouting, while caressing Hiiro’s bleeding cheek with a soft hand.

Muriasachi moved nervously.

He had created this woman from his own reishi. His own energy. How was it that he had not known this entire time, and mean while she had become such a strong individual. How was this possible?

His hand clenched as she spoke, her heat rising to something of a problem as sweat started dripping from his brow. She was like molten lava. It was as he had wanted. Only different. More than he had wanted. More than he had been able to control. And she was here. In front of him. Now.

Muriasachi's hand went to the hilt of his zanpakutou. This woman was the reason that he had failed in making himself a legend. She was what was holding him back. He had to end it. He had to end her.

His hand grabbed the hilt of the sword that lay inside of his sheath. But before he could move another moment, the murderous woman spoke.

“Leave us alone, we do not want you here!”

The tone of her voice was enough to send a normal man into chock. It was hollow, and empty. It was raw and full of killing intend, hidden under an acted grace. What was she? She was not normal. She was artificial. Fake.

She spoke again.

“We don't want you here! Go away!”

It was as if he could not move. Not even if he wanted to. He was confused. He did not know whether he should hate or love this woman. This creation. This artificial and fake excuse for a zanpakutou. Should he cherish it as the greatest scientific break through in history, or as the thing that led him into the one experiment that he could not finish?

Which one?

“They're going to take you away from me, you don't want that do you? No, of course not.”

The woman wrenched Hiiro's head back. She was in comatose. She was dead looking. Like a sleep that held her tight and without hope of waking her up.

Muriasachi analyzed her complex personality. She was trying to protect this girl, however she was the only one harming her. It was a complex that he thought was that of ultimate manipulation and confusion from this... creation.

She was the one that needed to be disposed of.

“Be quiet Sunibunki, you are choking the life out of this girl. You are the one killing her. You are the one that we need to stop.”

Soeki spoke, and it was as matter of fact as he was always, speaking with little attachment to the outcome. Muriasachi had tried to make him this way. Shape him.

He was a good creation as well. Although he was not fully created. Only modified.

Muriasachi's foot shifted, and he took a step to the side of the room, his sword sliding slowly from the sheath as he moved. As soon as the tip of his blade was removed from the tip, he felt a strange energy that he had never felt before. It was as if he was being drained of his natural power and it was being produced from another source.

He looked to Soeki.

“Muriasachi-san, you will not be able to use your abilities hear. As you might have figured out...”

“Yes I know Soeki-dono, don't pretend like I am dumb. These worlds are somehow linked. They are similar...”

“... No. You are wrong. They are... the same.”

Muriasachi's eyes widened. How was this possible? How was this even happening?

“N-no... h-how... is that... possible?”

Muriasachi's face turned down into a frown – a scowl.

How was this the same world? How did Soeki know this? Was he keeping this girl a secret from him this entire time. Had Muriasachi not established that complete obedience was needed in their relationship of master and servant?

Muriasachi was to know everything. Soeki was to obey orders.

Plain and simple.

Muriasachi looked back up at the woman. She was bent, her hovering body crowding over Hiiro's body.

If this was the same world then why had he not been able to sense this woman's presence, and use her abilities in battle. Why had Hiiro used his world as her own space. Why did Hiiro have to be the one present. She was a weak girl.

Whipping his sword into position for attack, pain flipped at his hand, sending a burning sensation down his blade and into the handle.

He dropped it. The metal rang against the floor below.

“Fool! You cannot use your own abilities when I am here, and this woman is too. There is an energy instability. What you think is your own ability may not be. The energies of Sunibunki and I are not far from the same, and thus they will react to your summoning call, as your own energy. And you cannot control that amount of ener...”

“SHUT UP! Stop telling me what I can and cannot control!”

Muriasachi looked at the sword that lay on the ground. The tip of its blade was molten red hot, and the rest steamed with intense heat that had suddenly lit fire to his own nerves. What did this mean?

Did this mean that because this woman was made of his reishi, that her attacks would confuse themselves as his own and vise versa in this inbetween world between his own realm and Hiiro's? If so, he was rendered useless, and Soeki was the only one that would be able to do anything here.

“Sunibunki. Give Hiiro back before you destroy both of our worlds, and both of these shinigami.”

As Soeki spoke, Muriasachi realized the connection that they had.

It all dated back to the research he had done.

In the beginning it had been a simple test to see if there was some way to increase his range in ability. He had tried to expand his zanpakutou's natural ability by practicing. But it had not worked at all. So he started working with modifications on Soeki. They had only been able to make small changes, but nothing substantial. He had only been a third seat at this point. However he still had full access to all material in the research facility as he was vice president.

He started adding the ability to change his own techniques. First was the ability to prolong his bankai state time, and thus be able to use his greater abilities for longer. This had all gone more or less as planned. But he was still not happy.

Anger starting to grip him over the matter of his seemingly weak zanpakutou technique, Muriasachi had started the largest research project he had ever endured his way through. It involved making an entirely new zanpakutou spirit that he could artificially insert into his world and use its abilities in combination with his own as a way to hold his own in battle, and as a way to gain the ability to become a captain and have many more men and women to test on.

It was his dream.

But it had not worked. He had gone through three humans lives, and four shinigami's lives, and had gotten no where. He had learned to artificially create a supplement that improved his reiatsu, but never was able to create another bankai option.

And now... here she was.

The woman that he had created from the ashes and lives of seven individuals in order to create the ultimate power. Her power was designed to be nothing more than pure power. And that was exactly what he had done. Molten heat was the definition of destruction, as was fire.

But he had likened her to fire more than he had intended.

Wanting her to leach onto his own realm, he had wanted her to be needy, and want a body that she could use to inhabit. Like fire. They both needed this. But she had grabbed Hiiro instead, and like the reverse, pulled her into submission and control.

Did this then mean that Hiiro and Muriasachi had some kind of history together that he could not remember. Possibly as humans before death.

The idea made him sick. To be likened with that... girl. It disgusted him, but the thought was there. He needed to make sure. He could not let this woman kill her, and in doing so cause results that not even Muriasachi could predict as far as damage and unknown consequences on both Muriasachi and Soeki, and there entire realm.

Hiiro and him were linked as such.

Or rather. Hiiro was his creation as well.

“Hiiro-chan! Snap out of this ridiculous slumber that you are in... there is not point in this! What happened back there happened, and all you are doing is causing others pain!”

Soeki spoke with passion.

But Muriasachi's head was bent and emotional pain struck him.

How was he supposed to feel about her?

She was a cherished experiment result. She was the reason that he was the greatest scientist in history.

A smile bent across his face. He had to protect her. He had to work on her more. He had to.

“I have to!” Muriasachi thought out load.

“Let go of her, Sunibunki-dono!”

With that Muriasachi sprung forward, his hands reaching the huge pipe that stuck into the back of Hiiro's head, and pulling it fiercely back. Hiiro's head yanked back with it, but he was not able to touch it for long because of the intense burning heat that the tubes were covered in.

Falling back, Muriasachi clasped his hands, burn marks on them. Red.

Then another sensation came in the form of a solid hit from Sunibunki who extended her hands into a slap.

Muriasachi flew against a wall, one of the gauges on the surface jamming into his back.

“Gnh!”

What power he had created. It was perfect. But he needed to be able to harness it.

“Muriasachi-san, please, do not move. You are powerless here. Allow me.”

Soeki moved forward, squaring off with Sunibunki.

“If you do not allow us to take her back, we will take her by force.”

Soeki moved as he spoke, cutting Sunibunki off from Muriasachi's view.

Without noticing, his hand moved to the handle of his sword. Turning it before he touched the handle, he noted that the burn marks were gone from the chemical healing that ran inside of him. His body was growing tired, and he would need to administer new chemicals in order to keep the strain down.

Like any drug, everything had a crash, and his body was near that point. He needed another to ration the dosage of chemicals used in the next 24 hours. There was a breaking point even for him and all his antibodies. At one point or another, he would not even be able to take it.

The handle was nothing more than warm when he touched it.

He needed to protect Hiiro...

Bony fingers clutched tighter upon Hiiro’s shoulder. Her anger flared, making pipes hiss and temperatures to fluctuate violently. Sunibunki’s burning crimson eyes leered into Soeki’s cold gray ones. They were eyes that had lost all their spirit. Eyes she had known since the days when she wandered as an aimless child in his space, back when his eyes had color, when he could smile, when he nurtured her into existence.

“Shut up!! You don’t understand me I’m not like you!!” She screamed her fingers digging deeper into Hiiro’s skin., causing small beads of blood to rise and meet her fingertips. One of her cords that supported her body weight snapped, thrashing momentarily before sinking into the ground with a dull sucking sound. Sunibunki shook her other wires and supports hissing and straining against Hiiro’s weight. “She’s all I need, and now I’m all she has!! We’re happy here, together…” Sunibunki cradled her head. “Hiiro tell them, you don’t want him here either….” She looked lost. Not sure what was happening to Hiiro. Why she wasn’t fighting her, why this had all become to painfully easy.

“Hiiro-chan! Snap out of this ridiculous slumber that you are in... there is not point in this! What happened back there happened, and all you are doing is causing others pain!”

“SILENCE YOURSELF NOW!” Sunibunki screeched Towards Soeki as though he had openly insulted her. The walls pulse angrily and She covered Hiiro’s ears. “She is safe here! Here NOTHING will hurt her!” She clutched her tightly, unaware of her fingers digging into Hiiro’s naked flesh.

It was then, Hiiro flinched, her eyebrows quivering and the corners of her mouth flinched slightly just for a moment. She looked as though she was fighting, unable to fight the torrent that Sunibunki washed over her. like she was in a black fog, no sound, no pain, no anything. She couldn’t feel, just float in the darkness.

“Let go of her, Sunibunki-dono!”


….who was that man? His voice was familiar. It stirred something, flashes that made Hiiro’s heart quiver. Tears flowed down her cheeks and the blackness that was once so soothing and safe, started to choke her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t see. She wanted to claw her way towards the voice.

Sunibunki lashed out. Smacking Muriasachi across the face and sending him spinning into the pulsating wall. “You will never touch her!” She snarled with pure rage. “You’ve caused her nothing but pain and sorrow since you met her. And I will not let you take her away from me! SHE NEEDS ME!” Sunibunki dropped Hiiro onto the floor, raising her full height she glared at Soeki. Standing over Hiiro’s crumpled body. Tiny wires like the fragile tentacles of a young octopus tested Hiiro’s skin, like one might test water to feel its temperature, before wrapping gingerly around her body, binding her to the ground.

Looking to her with empathy Soeki spoke,

“If you do not allow us to take her back, we will take her by force.”

“You will never take her from me. She doesn’t want you here anymore.” She hissed. “If she goes with you, she’ll only have more pain, more suffering. “ Her blazing gaze fixed suddenly into Muriasachi.

“And you…..I’d rather see you rot in these walls.” She snarled threateningly.

“Stop…” a weak voice cried from the ground cutting through the tense air. Sunibunki’s eyes widened and she looked just behind her. Hiiro had grabbed Sunibunki’s ankle. Her eyes were wrapped in the tiny convulsing wires and her face was contorted in pain. Tears of blood ran down her cheeks and her mouth fell open with shallow cries.

“….N-no more…please stop.” She choked her voice hardly above a whisper. Sunibunki looked torn, filled with Horror and concern. “Don’t speak –“

“I-I can’t breathe…” Hiiro rasped, her heart thudding in her chest and she struggled to breath. She realized she was upon the ground. A hot ground like the underside of a tongue. The wires that were all around her, she felt inside, slipping into the cuts in her skin, trying to find a hold under her flesh.

“You don’t need to breathe. Breathing just hurts you broke your ribs.” Sunibunki cooed as though trying to calm a child who skinned their knees. Hiiro took a horrid breath. “I want to breathe.” She cried. Letting her head fall back, she looked sightlessly at the ceiling. “…I want to breathe…. I want to hurt….I…” She cried harder, gritting her teeth.

“I don’t want to die….” She whispered before she was lifted into the air. Hot arms wrapped around her waist and Sunibunki pulled her against her side, supporting her weight. “You don’t know what you’re saying.” Sunibunki cried looking to her. “You won’t die. You’ll never die I won’t let you…”

“You’ll kill me.” Hiiro murmured hoarsely. Her eyes still covered tightly by the writhing wet organisms. Like worms in a puddle they clung to her face shielding her eyes. That voice, the man she knew was in the room. So plugged into the living network around them she felt the two others in the room but could not yet see. The cords refused to give way, and she was still too weak to pull from her face.

“…Please” She rasped feeling her body tremble. Her head tilted to looking in the direction of the men, they were not from here. They were a connection to the outside. Hiiro’s body ached as the wires slowly were pushed out of her body. Sunibunki watched in horror as Hiiro became more stable. Asserting herself, the walls she had once put up between Sunibunki and herself was re-building.

“Take me home…..” She pushed away from Sunibunki. Standing on her own two wobbly legs. Though naked she did not care. Slick bits of material slipped from her skin and onto the ground with a wet slap. As her body woke up, panic enveloped it. The realization of how close to death she was slammed into her, causing the walls to tremble under her super charged emotions. She didn’t see this man, but she knew where he was. She felt his weight on the ground. She knew his voice was what stirred her to wake up. If she hadn’t she might have….

Staggering another step Hiiro pulled another handful of wet cords from her skin. They twisted in complaint but fell weakly to the ground. Sunibunki clenched her jaw. The walls hissing and pulsing in raw emotion. “No you can’t! Not to him!” She screamed. But Hiiro felt a new courage inside of her. As the memories of her recent shortcomings floated to the top of her mind though not yet painful. Sunibunki seemed less frightening.

“Quiet!”Hiiro shouted her voice echoing off the wet walls and stopped Sunibunki in her tracks like a s child who had just been slapped across the face. Hiiro clenched her fists, before pulling off the slimy cords from her skin with sudden vigor.

“I’m not your toy; I can’t just be taken out and used for your pleasure. I’m your Shinigami…..and you’re my Zanbaktou spirit. THAT is our relationship. You don’t rule me anymore….nobody does.” She cried before grabbing a fist full of wires wrapped tightly around her eyes.

“Please….take me home…..I want to see him….I want to apologize…and…I…” She ripped the cords from her face. Her eyes were not brown, but they glittered like dying embers. Her hair fell to her face and she looked through the wet scarlet locks, into his eyes, those cold intense yellow eyes that seemed just as shocked and full of life as her own were. He could easily see the shock in her eyes, as her breath hitched and her eyes widened.

Time seemed to stand still, sound drowned out and she whispered his name.
“Muria-sachi….san?”

Suddenly the ground below them both shattered like a dropped plate. They slipped through a void. Looking upwards at the hole in which Sunibunki and Soeki looked down at them as they fell into nothingness. Sunibunki who had remained stoic rather than gaping in horror, appeared as though a smile had spread upon her lips.

“My Sweet Hiiro has returned. The spark of life I love so much. Soeki…it’s time you returned to your own proper place in this world. I want to fix all this damage that’s been done to my careful networks. Hiiro-chan I crave the time you lust for blood as much as you just had. Its been so much fun to be this close to you.”

The world fell away from them both. Falling through a whiteness before the cold snow hit them with full force. The chill nearly knocked all the wind out of her lungs, and pain blossomed from almost every pore of her body.

They were back in the snow, back in the night and back into the pain of the battlefield. In a flash everything flooded back to Hiiro. Her tattered clothes covered in blood. Her body hissed and screamed against her moving any joints. Kasumi was dead, killed by her own hands and she almost killed herself in the process. She felt her ribs were broken in who knows how many places, and her eyes blurred from the pain. She tasted blood and dirt and her fingertips were going numb from the cold. While other parts of her body greeted the cold to generously heal its painful burns inflicted by her own, unstable Bankai.

Jesus….I went into Bankai…..not even some vice-captain can do that…..

“DAMNIT!” Hiiro screamed punching the ground ignoring the pain it caused. Tears rolled down her cheeks, they tried to wash away from streaks of blood that had flowed before. What had happened to her? Was she even real? Kasumi was dead….he was dead….he was dead!!

And it was all her fault….she felt his heart leave, she felt everything she felt the words spoken out of her lips…she felt his heart break…..

Again Hiiro screamed in a mixture of agony and pain before attempting to pull herself up. Reaching a sitting position she mustered the strength to lift her head. Feeling for a moment truly alone…a horrible silence enveloped the land. It felt as though she was separate from the real world altogether. Alone in this cold frozen hell.

Out of the corner of her eyes she caught a patch of hair. White enough to be taken for snow, but it shivered and bent in the wind that blew. The soft white hair stuck out from the snow like a winter plant. Still and motionless. “Shu-Shuunske-sama….?” She tried to turn her head to see him better, but moving to much caused her neck and head to scream in distain. Over the blinding white snow she saw her gentle captain, so young. Face up in the snow his head fallen to one side. His Zanbaktou resting just out of his hand, motionless in the dirtied snow. Was he dead? Hiiro couldn’t tell from this distance.

“Shuunske-sama!” she cried before her voice cracked and pain bloomed in her chest. Her broken and cracked ribs yelled at her and she fell back onto the ground, the pain blinding, choking the air out of her lungs and forcing her not to move.

The world faded away like thousands of pieces of shattered glass that glowed with some unknown light. Muriasachi's smile turned cold and twisted. It was a bittersweet ending, and he was not sure he wanted it to end so soon. He wanted still to study the environment he had created. He had a new obsession. His perfection now was more than just Shuunske. He had another way to attain perfection. Although it was a different perfection. It was a different goal. Together, with the zanpakutou spirit, and the perfect body that he desired, he would be more than powerful, and thus be able to claim that he was finally perfect.

But he could do nothing to fight the natural change. The world around him shifted and blurred until the walls started to morph into trees around him. The dripping of water and liquids from the haunted world became the noise of the peaceful snow hitting the world in solemn silence. It was almost beautiful to him. But it was not important.

Night had now fully fallen. Muriasachi's fingers twitching, it was brought to his noticing that his zanpakutou was not in his palms, and was, in fact, no where in sight. It had never happened before. He always carried around his zanpakutou. He was always wary of an attack or an opponent. Always searching for suspicion and always analyzing people for their flaws and their strengths. Always making sure that he knew everything about everyone as far as data. Always making sure he was better – superior.

Blinking his eyes, he released his energy into a tracking sequence. Extending his energy over the land around him, he searched for the slightest hint of spiritual pressure. There was none. It was all old energy that had died.

Closing his eyes tighter, Muriasachi bent his will in order to boom his energy to its last level before he would no longer be able to weave spells and use his energy to such avail. His dark and grotesque energy flooded over the area, leaching up old energies in search of a living organism with energy that he could recognize. Was Hiiro dead? Was Shuunske dead? Had the enemy proven to be too strong?

If that were the case, then that meant that the enemy was able to penetrate the fortress. Muriasachi's senses flared. He could not allow that. He needed to stop them all.

Jumping into a flash step, his small but useable amount of energy still living inside of him, Muriasachi blurred past trees and past huge boulders that had been pushed up in the fighting. Trees were fallen all over the place. In fact, it looked as if the entire battle had been fought with powerful explosives. But neither Shuunske nor any of the other shinigami had seemed to be explosive type shinigami when he had run over them with short analysis.

The area only became more and more destroyed as he came closer and closer to ground zero, the area where the fighting had actually occurred. Where was his zanpakutou? He would not be able to perform any kind of attack or defense without it. And what was more, if the shinigami that Shuunske had been able to fight on par or above par of the boy prodigy, then there was no telling what the outcome of a fight between the two of them would be – but probably not a positive one for Muriasachi. He admitted that with much humility. Shuunske was the stronger fighter – by statistics that is.

His finger twitched again. He felt something. He felt a small lump of still barely thriving energy left. It was Hiiro. He could detect her energy from anyone other than herself now that he had done such thorough examination on her. She contained such a similar energy to himself. Only slightly more angry.

And yet, the energy was very similar to his. Too similar. No.

It WAS his energy...

launching into shunpo once more, Muriasachi landed. He had been right. In the slight distance, he saw Hiiro, her clothes torn beyond repair, hardly covering her body. Her near naked self lay in the snow, no doubt numb, and close to death.

Muriasachi smiled. She was still alive, and she had pulled away from the zanpakutou spirit that he had created. It was no doubt a flaw in the system. There was no way that a girl of her level could resist anything that he had personally created. She was simply a spit of a shinigami. Almost as fake as the zanpakutou spirit that resided inside of her.

What an odd bunch of shinigami this group was. All special in their own way.

Muriasachi started to walk with great speed towards Hiiro. Although he did not care for her, and would almost enjoy knowing that she had died, he had to preserve her. She was now an experiment. She was now more than just 5th seat Hiiro-chan. She was a thing. Not a girl.

As he walked, he pulled a small syringe from a small pocket in his sleeve. Arriving at her location, he bent down, and touched her forehead. Heat like freezing fire was what he felt. There was no doubt that she was unable to live by herself. She needed assistance.

Another test subject.

Muriasachi giggled as he bent the girls face into the snow, pushing her over, her weak body unable to fight back for her own survival. As soon as her neck was exposed, he pushed the syringe into a nerve on her neck. As it entered, he pushed the syringe head down, and allowed the liquids to pour into her.

It was a slightly modified version of the same liquid that he had given to Kasumi. Only, it was still meant for Kasumi, and a larger adult male. There was no question about it that the side effects that it would have on such a small girl would be almost as bad as Kasumi himself suffered. But it was all he could do in order to ensure that she lived for the time being.

Standing back up, Muriasachi's eyes widened. It was impossible.

Beside the girl, the experiment, was not only her sword, but his own. It had been taken back with her. Her selfish Sunibunki had sucked Soeki with her in the last moment. Muriasachi smiled. He might have been mad in another circumstance, but the reality that he had created that monster still lived in him as a happy and feel good accomplishment.

Looking at the small girl in the snow, he calculated all that was happening to her in real time. The medicine would have with it intense amounts of pain, probably only adding to the pain she was already going through, especially as it severed nerves slowly for the time being, deactivating them about five minutes later or so. It would move through out her and start to create new cells. The process would be almost twice as exhausting for someone in her condition. And the more the medicine was used, the more harsh the side effects would be. Muriasachi watched as a burn on the girl's neck started to fade, bubbling back into the skin and replaced with a new patch of skin that looked artificial. Almost like scar tissue. This was how the new flesh looked at first before the medicine had fully replaced it. It left gray skin instead of tan and pale skin.

Another energy grabbed at Muriasachi's attention. It was a much stronger and much more supreme energy.

Quickly looking over, he saw Shuunske in the snow. A layer of snow had already built up over his small and petite body. Small chunks fell to the side as he moved ever so slightly. A kind of lifeless moving, based in stop and go motion like he was in a strobe light, and only able to accomplish docile movements without much reward.

He did not even have the power to push himself up.






***



It had been like a sleep that left the sleeping without rest. Shuunske's eyes opened as if he had just fallen. It seemed like seconds ago. The trauma of the moment all still stayed with him, but the memories hardly were there. What was this cold?

… snow...

He was in the snow.

And Hiiro? What had become of Hiiro? Why had she become so angered? What happened? What had that power been that he saw. That flurry of energy and emotion all compact into that small frame that hurled itself not only at the enemy, but at Shuunske as well with nothing more and nothing less than killing intent. What had been done to her?

“Ahhh... Shuunske-boy, awake as well I see.”

Shuunske hated that voice, but at that moment, even its corroding sound gave him comfort. He was not alone. He was not by himself in the snow. Had Muriasachi been able to fight off his battle? Was everyone alright?

The voice came again: “Shuunske...? Shuunske-sama?” The tone went from less and less dull to more and more worried. “No no no no noooo... you look badly beaten. I suppose that not even a pretty boy like yourself was any match for a real captain then? And you are bruising up my body! You stupid boy!”

As he spoke, Shuunske opened his eyes. It was all so bright, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night. Darkness rode its temptations all around him. But the white of the snow. It was all so light, and too bright for him to stand. He tried to move again, but it was as empty as before. He could hardly feel his body. It was numb. Not from cold, but from total exhaustion. Breathing was almost too hard for him, and he felt like he had to force his heart to beat. His energy was gone.

The snow lay against his face in an unmoving way. It melted around him, soaking him in the wet ice. Freezing his body until it was colder than what was normal for a human temperature. He had pushed himself too far beyond his limits. He had used too much energy.

He felt the contrasting warmth of a hand against the side of his face. It was smooth, and seemed to never had done much actual work in its life other than type and move in small spasms.

He knew it to be Muriasachi's hands.

“I see I see... Shuunske-sama. At it again. This is becoming a pattern. Total exhaustion again. What a waste of a perfect body – to be given to a boy that does not even know his own limits.”

Shuunske felt the hand that lay on his cheek start to slide downwards. It moved down onto his neck, and pushed away his silver hair. The fingers wrapped around his neck, and Shuunske felt the captain's pointer finger push itself against his neck bone. It was less than comfortable, but he could feel it which was better than not feeling anything at all.

A small giggle sounded as the pressure grew more and more intense. Pain was hardly present at all, and Shuunske could still only execute his focus to the extreme drain that he felt in his body. He felt hollow.

“Ahhh... this one is bad Shuunske-boy. It seems that even your brain is tired. You have reached a hypo exhaustion mode caused, again, by the use of your made up spells... can you feel this at all, Shuunske-boy?”

Shuunske gave no answer to the seemingly cheerful voice. His eyes were once again closed and had been for some time. Muriasachi lay far from view, and his voice also sounded as though it was coming from a very far away place. He wanted to drift away into silence, and go back to sleep. He wanted to just wait, and rest in this abyss of emotion or feeling. It felt good. In a sick way.

The warmth of the hands took another moving turn, and Shuunske felt them push at him, causing him to roll over. They trailed like spiders over his collar bone, and into the small dipping crevasse in the bottom of his neck. But they did not stop. They persisted to push and intrude further and further down. Shuunske was hardly conscious enough to understand, but he started to realize what they were doing. As they moved over his body, Shuunske only able to feel slight bits and moments of contact as his cells started to wake up from touch, they pushed his clothing to the side. The v-neck that his uniform held was pushed much larger until his chest was exposed. Small cuts and bruises embroidered his small and perfectly toned body.

“Tch tch tch...” Muriasachi made the noise of a mother in disapproval. “You can't keep doing this stupid Shuunske-boy.”

***

Muriasachi's hands moved thoroughly over the teenaged boys body, his small and still underdeveloped body holding many cuts and damage. His thoughts took him away as his hands searched for more bruised spots, pushing against them to try and bring Shuunske back to his senses slightly. Not fully. He did not want that. Muriasachi wanted to relish the fact that he was still functioning, and that Shuunske had been defeated in combat.

But he was sucked quickly out of his thoughts as an electronic voice sounded within his ear.

“Sir! We have regained communications Muriasachi-taicho! A back up medical team is being sent over now. Please remain where you are Muriasachi-sama.”

Muriasachi bit his lip, and fell backwards into the snow. His fun had to be cut short again. But he was not restricted from looking at the perfect body which he desired and lusted over with such passion. He knew that he would be reprimanded for using the drugs that he had used on both Kasumi and Hiiro, but it was the only way that they would have lived in that moment.

“Sir, the medical team has arrived. Please hold your position Muriasachi-sama.”

Just as the shrewd man's voice stopped talking, a blue light washed over the area. The melodic sound of a gate opening over him sounded, and Muriasachi turned around in order to see a senkaimon opening. Multiple figures stood in the blue light, only their silhouettes visible. But Muriasachi could identify each and every one of them. 4th division captain, as well as her vice captain, Kumotsu. The others were less important members of the good for nothing squad that were tagging along for medical support.

“Glad you could finally make it... I hope you enjoyed your walk over here ladies.”

Muriasachi spoke with such a slanted and threatening sarcasm that Kumotsu took a step back, clearing her throat, no doubt thinking of some kind of retort before the 4th division captain spoke, trying to defuse all tension in the area.

“It is good to see that you are able to talk and move so freely, Muriasachi-sama. I would expect nothing less from a man such as yourself.” The words were flattering, but in a way only made Muriasachi more angered.

Bending his finger to fire back, the 4th division captain spoke again, interrupting Muriasachi, half on purpose, and doing so obviously. “Kumotsu-chan, lead the others, and attend to Shuunske-sama. Unit three, search the area for others, and I will take care of 5th seat Hiiro-chan myself.

***

It seemed to be only a matter of moments before he was pushed again, off the cold and onto a stretcher that was being held by two men of the 4th division. Shuunske's eyes opened ever so slightly and pushed in order to stay so. Everything was a blur of color. He watched as Hiiro was also pushed onto a stretcher in the same fashion that he was. Muriasachi stood, looking as though he had suffered the smallest of physical injuries in the entire ordeal.

Turning his head ever so slightly, Shuunske noticed another stretcher beside him. Only, the person on its white fabric was hidden under a white veil. Blood had already stained it however.

Shuunske bit his lip. It all made sense. It all was clarified as to why Hiiro had been so consumed in anger. Shuunske felt a tear run down the side of his cheek before he heard the venomous voice of Muriasachi again, muttering to himself as he looked at the dead body, “Well well. I guess his body was not as good as I had thought. In fact, it was less interesting than I had ever imagined. With that kind of resolve, it does us all better to see him dead like this... what a waste of my precious liquid. What a boring test subject. And how ironic it all is...”

Shuunske bit his lip so hard that he could taste blood in his mouth, before he once again felt a suden wave of tiredness run over him. They were safe now. They were going back home... at least... some of them were...

Shuunske felt the tear leave his cheek before he fell back into unconsciousness.

...It would all be continued...

There isn’t much Hiiro remembered once the world shattered from her view and sent her crashing down upon the frozen earth. She could hardly remember opening her eyes, feeling the breath fill her aching lungs. Her vision was blurred and hazy, and all sounds were muffled and hollow, as though her head was inside of a bowl. She saw dark shaps crowd around her. Urgent muffled words she couldn’t make out. Hiiro remembered being lifted into the air, but she was to numb to feel anything. Her arm fell off the stretcher bouncing with each step the medical team took as they raced her and whoever else was hurt to god knows where...


Who else was around her? Hiiro couldn’t remember their names. Only the familiar warmth their memories brought. But the faces, their voices were hazy. She couldn’t remember them clear enough. Straining to keep her eyes open Hiiro turned her head to one side. Seeing Shuunske, Was it Shuunske? She couldn’t’ see clearly. But the chill of the snow as bringing some clarity to her vision. It was Shuunske, her tiny perfect little captain. He was alright, he was alive and she felt a small sigh of relief.


Yet bodies passed her, as they walked through the wreckage of other battles. Walking in silence Hiiro felt the cool healing energy of the medics. Not doing nearly enough to halt her pain. In her ears, through the dull buzzing she heard one of the Shinigami speak in a low voice.


“They both exhausted their Reitasu totally. It’s amazing their even still alive. She’s taken heavy damage, internal bleeding as well as various burns. Shuunske-sama has lost so much blood I’m stunned he’s not dead by now. “


“Yeah…I guess its luck that the third seat beat out the vice-captain. I mean, what the hell happened out here?”


Kasumi-kun….Hiiro felt her body ache and tears slipped down her cheeks. “Hey hey calm her down what the hell happened? Her temperatures rising again!”

“I'm adding a low sedative.”


“No don’t I want to be awake…I want to see him” Hiiro thought but no words could escape her nearly frozen lips. Her eyes became glassy, yet she couldn’t feel the needle as it was thrust into her arm. All she felt was the world slowly slip away; black outlined her vision before it was taken in one fell swoop, leaving her in a dreamless state of healing.


Like a sharp snap of thunder Hiiro sucked in a breath and her eyes shot open. Bandaged fingers dug into the soft white sheets and Hiiro tried to get her bearings. Where was she? Was she alive? Who else was there? Pulling herself up she felt various devices resist. Plugged into her body to watch her vital signs. Hiiro grit her teeth and pulled the cords off her body, casting them to the ground as she sat up, her whole body felt as though it weighed a ton. Her legs had no energy and she was dressed in a pearly white cotton undershirt. Bandages covered her body and her hair was loose and messy around her shoulders.


She was in the safe house. Back underground and still in the world of the living.


It wasn’t a dream. For a small moment Hiiro hoped she was back in the Soul society, it was all just a horrible painfully vivid dream. Her shoulders slumped and she bit back more tears.


Everything had happened, Kifuume was killed. Kasumi was dead, and she was alone.


“I have to see him…” She murmured softly and slid gingerly off the bed. Like a child taking their first steps. She let out a soft muffled cry as her legs refused to hold her weight and she fell onto the ground. Stopping a moment to curl into a tight ball. A silent scream emitting from her open mouth and the pain brought tears to her eyes. She had broken something. Her ribs perhaps. When did she get this damaged? When did her skin get these welts and…


Reality hit her and Hiiro felt sick. Covering her mouth with a hand she now remembered so vividly breaking. The raw power, the endless stream of horrible malicious intent. She could have killed Shuunske, she could have killed herself. She went into Bankai…how was that even possible?


Sunibunki, what are you? She felt the air leave her lungs and she coughed. Kasumi, she had to see Kasumi. Everything was wrong she had to see him. Living or not, she had to see him. Apologize, anything. Because as she started to become more aware of the world around her. A rock grew within her heart and throbbed like an open wound. It was the most painful wound she carried with her.


Forcing her legs to move, Hiiro staggered up, swaying under her own weight. Taking a staggered step Hiiro moved towards the door. The breath left her body and she panted heavily. Four feet….four fucking feet and she was out of breath.


Gripping the wall for support Hiiro took step after painful step. She couldn’t cry if she felt she could she would have tears in her eyes. For some reason the tears never came. She felt hollow, opening the door she stumbled out into the hall and against the sleek glassy walls.


“Sh-it.” Hiiro coughed clawing at the wall for support.


Hasty footsteps echoed through the hallway and Hiiro ignored them as a Shinigami turned the corner seeing her broken half bandaged form moving across the floor with the help of the wall. She didn’t need to see the panic in his eyes. She could hear it in his words.


“Third seat Hiiro-san! Wh-what are you doing up!” The 4th division Shinigami rushed to her side but she ignored his hands for assistance. She also ignored his plea’s to return to her bed.


“Please Miss you were severely injured! It’s amazing you survived in the first place please if there is something you’d like.”


“How long until we go back to the Soul society.” Hiiro rasped distantly, focusing on taking one step after another.


“W-well as soon as you and Captain Shuunske-sama were stable enough to make the trip. Ah! Please you must return to bed!” He grabbed her arm as she slipped and fell. Shaking her head she pulled her arm away from him. “I have to see him.” She muttered quietly feeling for a stable hand hold before she pulled herself forward.


“Captain Shuunske-sama is still in critical condition and is in intensive care. You can’t see him right now.”


“I’m not talking about Shuunske-sama…”


“W-well I’m sure whoever you have to speak to is more than willing to wait until you are in better condition! Please Hiiro-san we just stabilized your condition!” He grabbed her arm more firmly this time and she halted like an animal on a leash.


“No! I can’t wait! Let me go!” she snapped pulling her arm free again. “Kasumi Engu…where is he?” She asked sharply taking another step. “What? Ma’am perhaps you don’t know but Kasumi-san…he’s…” His voice trailed off and Hiiro bowed her head fingers bending to claw at the wall with more vigor.


“Where is he being held!” she ordered fiercely, but the Shinigami did not answer. “I have to see him.” She replied her voice cracking. “So just take me to him I don’t care! I’m not going back until I’ve seen his face…”


The Shinigami looked to her solemnly before pressing the button located on his neck. The button Hiiro knew as connected to a wireless headset so one could communicate through a group.


“I need some help on the Third hallway E. Hiiro Takaniki Third seat of the 11th Division is refusing to remain in bed.” He spoke formally. Hiiro turned looking to him with widened eyes.


“You wouldn’t dare.” She murmured lowly. The Shinigami looked to her gravely. “All we’re asking is that you return to your bed. We’ll be returning to the Soul society and you will get the proper medical care you need. Please Hiiro-san this is for your general health.”


Her head whipped around as more footsteps could be heard. Throwing herself against the wall Hiiro tried to move away but her legs gave out. Falling the 4th division Shinigami caught her quickly and holding her tightly. Raw emotion boiled through her and she struggled for him to release her. But more hand grasped her. Holding her firm, calming words telling her to stop moving, to just try and relax echoed in her ears but she wouldn’t comply. Finally her arm was taken and stabbed with a tiny needle.


Screaming out Hiiro felt the same horrible sinking feeling as she had before in the cold.



No don’t… don’t make me go back to this darkness….



Her body shut down. Falling against the Shinigami that were holding her steady, and then lifting her she was raced back down the hall towards the room she had gotten ten yards away from. Her head fell against the 4th division Shinigami’s shoulder. Struggling she tried to keep her eyes open. But it was all she could do to focus on the figure that carried her, and a horrible helplessness watched over her as she slipped into nothingness.


She couldn’t protect him, she couldn’t protect Shuunske. She couldn’t even protect herself. Then after it was all over she couldn’t even muster enough strength to reach his side….and tell him she was sorry. Sorry for everything, sorry she didn’t listen to him, and stay inside where she couldn’t bother him. Where she couldn’t kill him.


I’m sorry Shuunske I failed you. I’m sorry Kasumi….so sorry….i tried, I tried with everything I had to reach you… She thought faintly as her eyes slipped closed and a single tear finally pushed past her eye and slid down her cheek.[/i]


I wasn’t strong enough...i let you down and because of that you died….I am so sorry. What am I supposed to do now? Now that you’re gone. I want to die, can’t they just see that? There’s no life without you, not really……

Whoever said not to let yesterday affect tomorrow….


Clearly never lost a person they truly loved before….


Tomorrow is filled with pain, and trouble, and more sadness then she wanted to imagine. It was going to be hard and at the moment in time. She didn’t want to face it. She wanted to close her eyes and join him.

She didn’t want to see tomorrow…..