Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Rising Dawn ❯ In the Aftermath ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, it's the property of Kubo Tite, all original characters are my own. I'm a poor college student, so please don't sue me XD.

 

 

Chapter 1

In the Aftermath

 

 

Rukia brushed a strand of her black hair from her eyes, scanning the town for the presence she had felt earlier. It had felt like nothing more than your average, every day hollow, but at the same time it felt bigger, stronger. She couldn't quite describe it. She nimbly hopped down from the roof, picking up the hollows trail again. She darted down the nearest street, her eyes searching the shadows for any hidden threats. One couldn't be too careful in these troubled times. She continued running down the alley way, determined to catch up with the monster before it did any harm. She stopped suddenly, and was pulled back, her white jacket getting caught on a 2x4 sticking out of a dumpster. She grumbled in annoyance and removed the piece of clothing from the obstruction. She noticed a small hole torn in her jacket and groaned, Uruyu had hand made all of the Crusader's jackets, and now that he was gone they would be hard pressed to get them fixed.

 

Rukia ducked into another alley and allowed her body to run on autopilot as her mind wandered back to the events right after the final battle.

 

Ichigo was sitting up in his bed when Yammamoto walked in, a sad look in the old mans eyes. He thanked Ichigo for his help in defeating Aizen, even praised his prowess as a commander and soldier. At first, Rukia thought they would make him a Captain of one of the more devastated divisions, but the sad look in her commanders eyes told her that it was not to be so. He told Ichigo that the Central 46 had decreed, allegedly on orders from the Spirit King himself, to have Ichigo and his Crusader's executed.

 

Rukia could only stand there in shock, both by what the commander had said and by the calm look on Ichigo's face. She didn't understand how he could be so calm in the face of death. Yammamoto then told them, that he would let them go, but would put out an order to have them killed on sight.

 

 

'And ever since then, we've been hiding and doing what we can.' Rukia thought glumly. She jumped up onto a rooftop and spotted a large spike shooting up from a rooftop not too far away. “Gotcha!” she shouted, to nobody in particular. She shunpoed quickly to the nearest rooftop, one right behind the hollow. 'There's nothing special about this one.' Rukia said to herself, glad that her concerns weren't justified. That is, until she plunged her zanpakutou into the back of the hollows head, which split the hollow apart to reveal several hundred more. It had been an ambush.

 

Rukia swore under her breath and released her shikai, causing a few of the lesser hollows to back up. That wouldn't last. They came in quickly, surrounding her and attacking from all sides. Rukia calmly and gracefully cut through the horde, but they seemed to be endless. She felt a tearing pain across her left shoulder, and noticed that a hollow had dug its claws into it. She held her scream of pain and frustration in and flourished Shirayuki, barely whispering the attack phrase. “First Dance, White Moon.” The area around her was quickly covered in a white circle. The appearance of the ivory circle confused the hollows, and the one digging into her back even jumped off in surprise, nearly taking her arm with it. But Rukia didn't have time to inspect the damage, she shunpoed out of the circle and turned to watch the column of ice engulf and shatter the hollows within. She let out a relieved sigh and turned to her left shoulder to inspect the damage. It was pretty bad. Two large gashes cut deep into her shoulder, exposing the broken bones and torn muscles. The wound was bleeding horrendously, and after the adrenaline from the short battle had worn off, Rukia began to feel the effects of the massive blood loss. She began to walk away, stumbling slightly, her head spinning from the pain. It was at that moment that she felt a much higher spiritual pressure appear directly behind her, her eyes growing larger by the second. She shakily turned to face the new threat, no scratch that, new threats. Rukia Kuchiki, now badly injured, was facing down two Menos Grande, with a much smaller humanoid figure riding on one of their heads. Rukia was frozen in place. With her injury, there was no way in hell she could take on both of them, not to mention whatever was riding with them.

 

 

 

 

 

Hikaru Aurora had just finished his lunch, choosing some fries and a soda over hunting it down. Besides, someone else would kill it eventually. That was just the way he was. He was a young, cocky, arrogant, and irresponsible Vizard. Something Hiyori berated him about constantly, at least when she wasn't busy sulking about Shinji joining the Crusaders.

 

He stood from his booth and began to walk out. He didn't believe in tipping. He walked into the sunlight and smiled, his icy blue eyes taking in the beautiful day in Karakura. The sun illuminated his face and he ran a hand through his short black hair. Today was going to be a good day. He walked down the street quietly, his black tennis shoes occasionally kicking the odd rock or bottle out of the way. He passed by a group of high school girls that began to giggle profusely at his passing. He flashed them a smile and kept walking. He wasn't interested, but he liked to make people he think he was. He didn't dress weirdly, at least not today. Today he was sporting his black tennis shoes, white t-shirt, and black jeans. Fairly unassuming. Today was definitely going to be a good day. Or so he thought. The thing that snapped Hikaru out of his reverie was the massive reitsu coming from the location of the hollow he had sensed earlier, he also felt a faint trace of a Crusader's reitsu. Reitsu that was fading fast. Oh and he couldn't forget the two massive Menos that stood out like a sore thumb. He sighed in defeat, and pulled out his gikon dispenser, plopping one of the small green orbs into his mouth and releasing his spirit from his gigai.

 

Hikaru turned to his gigai and glared at it hard. It had his eyes cast downward and was messing with his hair. “No eyeshadow this time you emo bastard!” Hikaru yelled at him before jumping into the air and shunpoeing out of sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rukia stared up into the jaws of death, as the two Menos charged their Cero's. She didn't have the energy to defend herself against them, and she began to feel light headed from the blood loss. Her vision swam, and began to go dark. At least she wouldn't die while she was conscious. But today was not her day, and her vision was brightened by a bright white light, which seemed to strengthen her and push her back from the edge of unconsciousness. What she saw was a Menos with its head cut cleanly in two. An easy feet for any veteran of the war. She groggily looked around for the person that had done this, hoping that it wasn't a shinigami. Her thoughts were rewarded by the yell of “Eruption!” from behind her, followed by a massive blue beam that cut through the other Meno's oncoming Cero, dissipating it and frying the massive hollows head.

 

 

Hikaru had come to find that the Crusader on the ground was badly wounded. Very badly. He didn't know the full extent of her injuries, but that pool of bloody and limp arm was enough to spur him into some serious action. He drew his zanpakutou silently and released his shikai, jumping behind the Menos and landing on his head. The bright white flash from his shiaki's release was enough to temporarily blind the strangely clothed archer riding on top of the right most Menos. Hikaru wasted no time in cutting into the creatures skull, and using his momentum to push off from its fading body. He landed behind the fallen Crusader, and pulled his golden katana behind him, heating it up to over 20,000 degrees Celsius, changing the air around it into a blue-white plasma that wrapped around the blade. He waited three seconds. The Menos fired its Cero. He thrust his zanpakutou forward in response yelling out the attack phrase. “Eruption!”

 

A torrent of blue-white plasma flew forth from his blade in one concentrated beam, slamming into the Cero and dissipating it with ease. The archer on top of the Menos barely leapt away in time. The plasma beam slammed into the hollows face, burning through it and melting the body around it. The air was quickly permeated with the smell of burning flesh and hot blood. The Menos collapsed and faded away before it hit the ground. Hikaru looked up to find the rider, but noticed that the strange man had dissapeared.

 

He walked over the the fallen Crusader, a young woman by the looks of it, but he knew better than to assume that she was young. He saw that she was struggling to remain conscious and took a look at her wound. He could see cracked and shattered bone, and the massive cuts were pouring blood down her small body and onto the ground around her. He sheathed his zanpakutou, the guilded blade changing from pure gold to pure silver as he did so. He noticed her eyes fluttering shut and managed to grab her just before she hit the ground. He didn't have time to get to his gigai, he had to get her to safety immediately. Shinigami were bound to be here soon to see why there had been two Menos in the area, and they would kill her on sight. Him too most likely.

 

He hopped from rooftop to rooftop with his fragile cargo and landed in front of a large warehouse. He casually walked in through the back door and glanced around the room. A good majority of the newer Vizards sat around and were laying cards, Playstation, Wii, Xbox, pretty much anything that could pass the time between killing hollows and getting killed by shinigami. Hikaru didn't pay them much attention though, instead rushing his precious cargo into the medical ward and setting her down on a spare bed. The other Vizards didn't notice, having seen hundreds of critically wounded soldiers brought in over the last few months. Things were supposed to get better after the war. Not worse.

 

After Hikaru set her down, he began to notice things about the medical ward. There were dead or dying soldiers everywhere. Many had not received treatment in time and had bled out in their beds, others had been dead on arrival, their throats cut, holes blown through their hearts, some had even been hacked up so bad that they weren't even recognizable. Their comrades had brought them back in hysteria, hoping that they could be saved. He felt bad for those guys, most never made it past their first few days here. Hikaru channeled his reitsu into his right hand and placed it over the fallen Crusader next to him. She looked familiar, but he was so bad with names that he couldn't remember for the life of him who she was. She was important though, he knew that much. After a few seconds of channeling a red ball of reitsu appeared over the womans chest, signal for “priority patient”. He hoped she would get help in time. He didn't have long to wait as another Vizard approached him, this one wore an old 4th division symbol on his arm. A combat medic that had been severely wounded in Hueco Mundo, a shinigami turned Vizard. The man nodded, his green eyes staring at Hikaru from under his long brown hair. “We'll do everything we can for Ms. Kuchiki, Aurora, you go rest now.” Hikaru nodded dumbly and walked out of the medical ward, nearly tripping over a severed arm on his way out, dazed over the news of who he had just rescued, and nervous about the reprocutions.

 

He entered the “common room” of the warehouse and sat down in a recliner. He hadn't realized how tired he was until he set his head down, his eyes closing immediately and sending him into a restless sleep, filled with images of Ichigo kicking his ass for letting Rukia Kuchiki get so badly injured.

 

Hikaru woke up to the sounds of shouting and faint explosions. He jumped to his feet with a start glancing around at the Vizards running to and fro, grabbing supplies, some just running for the door. One young Vizard, who looked no older than 16 ran up to him and began to yell “Royal guards! Royal guards! Oh fuck man we've got to get of here!”, the panicky kid ran to the other side of the room and began to grab food and drinks and stuff them into a backpack. Hikaru sighed, sincerely not worried and ran off to the medical ward. Rukia was sitting up in her bed glancing around. And she cast him a withering glare. Before he had time to speak she cut him off, “Who the hell are you? Where the hell am I? And what the hell happened?” She asked, her voice icy. Hikaru let out a sight and gave her a quick explanation, “You wounded. I saved you. Took you back to Vizards for healing. Shinigami raid. Royal guards. Leave. Now.” Hikaru ground out, sounding like an illiterate moron. Rukia gave him a skeptical glare and then gently stood from her bed. Her bloody cloths sat in a black bag at the side of the bed, and her zanpakutou rested against the wall beside her. She grabbed both and inspected the white robe she was now wearing. Satisfied that it covered her enough, began to shakily walk out the door, before stumbling and barely catching herself on the doorknob. Her reitsu was still too low for her to do much, so Hikaru jogged over to her and picked her up bridal style, ignoring her protesting yells and her fists smacking him on top of his head. They had to leave. And they had to leave now.

 

As the duo ran back into the common room, the young Vizard from before stood there waiting for him, trying to ignore the closer explosions and the panicked Vizards running around behind him. Hikaru just ignored the kid as he left the building, and continued to ignore him as they hopped from rooftop to rooftop. Rukia had eventually gone quiet during the trip and after they had put a few miles distance between the warehouse and themselves, the trio stopped. The kid needed some rest, and he needed to know where to take Rukia. “So, Ms. Kuchiki,” he began getting a deadly glare from the girl in his arms, which he pointedly ignored. “where exactly are we going?” Before she could answer, the group was assaulted by a massive reitsu, nearly pressing Rukia into unconsciousness. The young Vizard in front of Hikaru froze in place, his eyes going from vibrant brown, to a lifeless chocolate, a blade sticking through his chest, right through his heart. Torrents of blood flowed from the boys mouth and he dropped to the floor, blood exploding outward from his chest and painting the ground crimson.

 

Rukia, too drained of energy to lift her head couldn't see the murderer, but Hikaru saw him clearly. The man wore a long, flowing, black cloak over the standard shinigami uniform. The man's hair was black and hung over one eye, and in his right hand he held a zanpakutou, sealed by the look of it. “Hayate Kazaka.” The man said, his voice dripping with killing intent.

 

Hikaru never took his eyes off of Hayate, not when he set Rukia down, and not when he drew his sword. But before he could even release he felt pain rake all along his body. He didn't have time to find out what had happened, all he knew was that his blood was flying in all directions, and then he saw only darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AN:

 

Woot! First chapter up ^_^. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading reviews! Constructive only please, I don't like Internet douche baggery!