Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Seer ❯ She Who Evolves ( Chapter 8 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"They couldn't get the substance covering her arm and zanpakuto off without risking breaking her arm," Rangiku said. "Despite that, all her injuries are healed. She just needs to wake up on her own."

"Are you sure that you don't mind her staying with you for a while?" Captain Hitsugaya asked.

"Someone used kido against her. That means one of our own got into a fight with her at the very least. Between the night of the festival and now, staying with me is the safest place for her." Rangiku answered.

"Yes, it is." The captain said with a sigh. "Until we figure out what's going on, she needs to remain in the presence of one of the officers."

"Do you have any idea what's going on Captain?" Rangiku asked.

"No more than you do now," he commented. "Whoever has been targeting her is being very careful."

"A man in a grey hakama," I mumbled. They seemed to startle at my words. I hadn't really realized I was awake until that moment either. I had expected to wake to pain in some form, but I felt like I was just lying there as if I had been sleeping. I had assumed that I was dreaming, but… Opening my eyes, I blinked up at the ceiling. "A man in a grey hakama, and a guy dressed like the stealth force's execution squad," I elaborated.

"The execution squad?" Rangiku asked.

I started moving to sit up but my arm refused to move. Remembering I had encased my arm from my bicep down in concrete I used my other arm to prop my top half up, leaving my sword arm to remain where it was with my encased zanpakuto resting across my body. I watched Rangiku and Captain Hitsugaya as they moved from where they had been standing in front of a window on the other side of the room over to me.

"That's what he was dressed like," I said. "He was the one that used kido against me."

"And the other guy?" Rangiku asked.

"He appeared after I couldn't move and tried to unbind my hand from my zanpakuto," I replied. "I don't know if he was trying to take her or just disarm me because my shikai was still running." I shook my head and looked down to my encased arm.

"Rangiku, can you give us a moment please?" Captain Hitsugaya said quietly. We both looked over to him. His expression was steady and he looked calm. I shouldn't have expected anything different, but part of me had wanted to see him angry or something. Maybe he was just controlling his face?

"Sure," she said standing. "I'll be in the other room if you need me."

"Thank you," he replied as she moved towards the door and disappeared through it.

I watched the door for a long moment before I let out a small sigh. Straining against the weight of my arm I sat up and pushed my zanpakuto from my lap so my hand could rest against the ground at my side. My arm was still frozen with my elbow hyperextended from how that man had twisted my arm. Moving my arm off to my side had almost been painful with the stress of being stuck in such a position for so long. Grasping my shoulder I rotated the joint, dipping my body so I didn't have to lift my arm to do it. I flexed my hand, trying to feel the cut I had made to strengthen my shikai. I didn't feel any pain, just the concrete and the dried blood from an old wound. "Well shit," I commented. "They healed my hand too."

"Squad 4 said that your arm wasn't broken," He stated. "Did you encase your arm like that to prevent him from disarming you?"

"Yeah," I replied softly. "He dislocated my shoulder just before he started trying to pry my hand from my hilt. I couldn't really fight him by then and my hand was only on my hilt because I had tied there, so I used my shikai to do this."

"Can you break it?" He asked as he reached out to touch the tip of my zanpakuto where it had crossed my body.

"Not without my shikai," I said shaking my head. "The cut I made on my hand has healed, and I completely encased my zanpakuto to make sure he couldn't try to break her, or that might have been her." I laughed a little to myself. "I think that was the first time she's ever helped me use shikai. I probably couldn't have done it without the help."

"Have you asked her if she can break it?"

I looked up him with surprise that slowly melted away as I realized what I had said. She'd helped me… Normally I forced my shikai. It was 100% my own power that fueled it and she resisted me every step of the way.

"No," I said slowly, still thinking through what had happened.

"I can break you free from this substance, but it will probably hurt you." His expression fell as he spoke. "I would much prefer not to do that. Talk to her, ask for her help."

"It's concrete, by the way," I said. "Reinforced concrete."

"I thought it was something like that," he murmured. I felt his hand rest on my back, helping me as I maneuvered my legs around to my side. I rested back on his hand just enough to tell him to keep it there. I didn't need his support, but the feeling of him touching me eased something inside me.

'Zanpakuto,' I called to her with my thoughts.

Silence greeted me.

I tried calling to her again, but I was greeted with silence once more. I frowned down at her. "Are you listening?" I half shouted at her.

"What?" her voice came, sounding annoyed. I looked up to see her standing a few feet away and couldn't stop my jaw from dropping. Her mask today didn't look like a mask. It looked like it was part of her, the gold plates appearing to be part of her skin as they layered away from her cheeks and melded into her hair. Her eyes were painted gold while raised golden vines danced across her eye brows and up into her hair line. Her lips were golden as well, but instead of stopping at just her lips the colors raised into more vines, swirling around her cheeks and up to her ears. The same designs were present down her neck and anywhere she skin was visible. Her kimono was shades of white and gold, the patterns across the fabric only interrupted by the armor like plates that covered her hips, shoulders and breasts.

I was so stunned by her appearance that I couldn't say anything. She looked like a goddess in gold, her teal eyes only adding to the awe that was her.

She let out a frustrated sigh. "You are such a clod. It is hard to hear anything inside that concrete sheath. If you had thought louder I might have heard you before you had to start yelling."

I opened and closed my mouth like a beached fish a few times before I remembered how to talk. "What's with the outfit?"

A smile quirked her lips as she looked down on us both. "You are just going to love your name." She walked towards us and knelt in front of me. "She who evolves, but you're going to have to earn it today little soul reaper." She poked my nose with her finger, her eyes clearly stating a challenge.

I nodded at her as I wondered about what was going to happen. Then it occurred to me... "What was supposed to happen yesterday?"

She let out a sigh and stood, the gold that was woven through her hair jingling as she moved. "I wanted to see what would happen. That fight had been in the making for two days. Not quite breaking the rules, but close." She glanced back at us from over her shoulder. Her eyes were on Captain Hitsugaya as she said, "You weren't supposed to leave. There shouldn't have been an Adjuchas in the Human World for you to go fight. You were supposed to feel her when the fight started and intervene just after she was disabled. Instead you returned after Ria's fight and felt nothing."

Her gaze fastened on me then, her eyes boring into me. "She Who Breaks, was your name. You should have come out of that with a few broken bones from your impact into the warehouse. When all you did was pass out, I realized that something had changed. I can only see your future, little soul reaper. I cannot see how the world changes if you aren't in it."

I nodded, knowing already that she could only see me. "Why did you lend me your power?"

Her gaze quickly darted away from me to stare at the window. She didn't answer me for a long time, but eventually her gaze slowly trailed back to me. "I didn't want there to be a possibility of us being separated."

"So, he was trying to take you away from me?"

"I do not know. When your names do not come to pass as intended, the future becomes confusing and sorting through your possible names becomes impossible for a time."

"Could you lend me your power again?" I asked softly.

"Why?" She asked sharply.

I motioned down to my arm. "I can't exactly get out of this without your help."

Her eyes narrowed at me. "You can get out of it. You are choosing to ask me for help instead of your captain."

"I am." I stated, meeting her gaze.

She stared me down for a long moment, her gaze becoming an intense glare. I held her eyes, not allowing myself to falter under the pressure that she seemed to be putting on me. "I don't think you're ready," she said quietly.

"How will you know if you don't give me the chance?"

She rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Tankyu no Unmei."

"What is that?" I asked her.

"It's my name you block head," she bit out. "I'm only saying it once, so you better not forget it." And she vanished.

I blinked at the spot she had been, not believing what she had said. "Tankyu… no Unmei," I mumbled to myself, still not believing it. The concrete that surrounded my arm cracked and I startled. It cracked again, a gap in the concrete opening clear down my arm. I flexed my arm, pressing against the cement to bend my elbow. The concrete gave, crumbling to dust as it parted with my skin. It continued to fall from my arm and zanpakuto until nothing remained but a light layer of dust. Hesitantly I reached over and untied the cloth I had used to bind my hand to the hilt. My hand was numb from the pressure of the concrete, so as the ties came lose she slipped from my hand to fall to the futon.

I stared down at my zanpakuto in wonder. She had really just given me her name. Her real name… I held in the squeal of excitement as it really hit me. Tankyu no Unmei! My zanpakuto finally had a name! She finally had a name! I wouldn't have to cut myself any more to use my shikai! Maybe… I'd have to test it out. I started to reach for my zanpakuto to hesitated. I was in Rangiku's house. Releasing my real shikai for the first time inside her home probably wasn't the smartest of ideas.

My arm started to tingle as blood rushed back to my limb. I pulled it into my body and cradled it, massaging the muscles as they started the tingling transition into mind numbing pain. I watched as Captain Hitsugaya came to kneel in front of me, his hand resting on my shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"Concrete too tight," I bit out between my clenched teeth. "I'm fine."

He nodded and dropped his hand.

I did my best to not make any funny, in-pain faces as the pain worked its way down my arm and through my fingers. When it was done I flexed my fingers, testing my hand. The joints were stiff, but otherwise I felt fine.

"What time was it when you found me?" I asked as I looked up to him.

"Shortly after midnight," he said. "I'd thought something had happened when it started getting well into the evening. When I arrived at the warehouses, I could only feel the traces of your residual spirit pressure and whoever you fought." His gaze slowly trailed down to rest on my arms. "I was worried for you."

I reached out to him, hesitantly resting my hand on the back of his. "I was worried too," I admitted. "But when they left me there alive, I knew you would come eventually." I told him everything that had happened. I tried to keep my words factual, but I could help but to add how things felt to me. How the stealth force guy was completely resistant to my kido. How he hadn't had a zanpakuto, but he had been so incredibly gifted with kido that he could use Zangerin without an incantation and still do so much damage. How the grey hakama guy seemed to be in charge of the man, but completely ordinary himself.

He let me talk without interruption or asking questions. He just knelt there and listened patiently, even when I started to babble towards the end. It was when I got to the part about seeing them and not being able to call out that he moved. He shifted forward, turning his hand so he could grip mine to pull me into him. Surprised by his sudden movement I fell into him, my face pressing into his shoulder as he hugged me to him.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realize you were there," he said into my hair. "I couldn't feel you and I was so focused on trying to figure out what had happened."

I hugged him back once the surprise wore off. "Its fine," I said quickly. "I had been knocked quite a ways away from the warehouse when he used his kido. How could you have known?"

"I should have known."

I laughed softly. "I'm not you. My spiritual pressure doesn't shine like a beacon. I'm like a small candle that can get blown out in a light breeze."

He didn't respond to me with words, but his grip around me tightened.

"I beg to differ," Rangiku said from outside the room. "You're like one of those annoying birthday candles that relights itself when you blow it out."

I laughed at her reference. She had spent far more time in the Human World that I ever had, but I knew what she was talking about. "I think they call them sparklers," I commented as I pulled away from Captain Hitsugaya. He seemed to be reluctant to let me go, his hands lingering on my waist until I had sat back down. "Have you been out there this whole time?" I asked lightly.

"Of course," she said as she slid the door open. "It is my house after all." Her voice was light, but her expression was serious.

"Sorry," I quickly said. "But thank you for letting me be all passed out in your guest room."

"How else am I supposed to snoop on you two?" She said, giving me a mischievous smile.

I couldn't help but to blush. "I-I don't know." I stuttered out.

She laughed and turned towards Captain Hitsugaya. "It sounds to me like we need to pay Captain Sui-feng a visit."

"I believe you're right," he replied. "Send a hell butterfly to Squad 2 and request a meeting with her."

Rangiku nodded but remained in the door way. "What are you going to do Captain?"

His gaze flicked to me then down to my zanpakuto. "Training."

It had taken an hour or so for us to actually get out of Rangiku's house. While I had been sleeping through the past two days, Rangiku had retrieved a few of my uniforms that weren't destroyed from my room and had left them for me to change into. It was nice having my uniform back instead of having to borrow Rangiku's overly revealing shihakusho. I still didn't have my kanzashi, so had left my hair to fall down my back in small waves. My hair wasn't pin straight like my sisters, something that I hated and enjoyed at the same time.

I had started to encourage us to leave once I was dressed, but Rangiku had insisted that I eat something. I was hungry. It had been two days since I had actually eaten a thing, but the excitement to trying out my new shikai was eating away at me… I ended up eating though. Between the urging of Rangiku and the look that Captain Hitsugaya gave me, I didn't have a choice.

When we arrived at the training area in the forest, dusk was starting to turn into night. The sun was gone, but there was enough light see the area with complete ease.

"They never repaired this place after the hollow attacked, did they?" I asked as we stopped on top of a downed tree. Several trees looked like they had been chopped off ten or twenty feet above the ground, leaving the tops of the trees lying around on the ground like oversized broccoli bits. It had only been a week since they had been chopped by the hollow, so all the leaves and needles were still green and alive looking.

"No," Captain Hitsugaya responded. "They don't care to fix things out here like they do inside the Seireitei. Hence, why we train out here."

I nodded in understanding. "So, why did we come all the way out here?"

"You said previously that wood was something you struggled with when using your shikai," He said as he jumped down to the ground. "Could you fix one of these trees before you learned your zanpakuto's name?"

I followed him, landing lightly beside him. "A fresh one that was smaller, maybe. But the ends of these trees have started to die. Even if I could put the back together, they wouldn't live."

He hummed his understanding and walked over to one of the untouched trees. He whipped out Hyorinmaru so fast that I didn't even see him draw the blade, it was just in his hand. The tree he had been looking at shuddered and split diagonally across its trunk. Slowly it slid to one side, the top half tilting with the movement. It seemed to fall in slow motion until the base and top completely separated and it fell with a boom, piercing the forest floor. He turned back to me, resting the blade of his sword on his shoulder in the process.

I blinked at the tree top as it settled to lean against a nearby tree. "You want me to fix that?" I said, gesturing towards it.

"I want you to try, yes." He said curtly. "You've believed that you would have more power once you learned your Zanpakuto's name. Test yourself, see what you can and can't do."

I sucked in a deep breath and steeled myself. I could do this. I practiced fixing branches and bark all the time. A tree trunk was just a really big stick. A really, really big stick…

Drawing my zanpakuto I started to move to cut my hand and paused. I… I didn't need to do this anymore. How did I even active my shikai without blood? I bit my lip and puzzled out what most of the other soul reapers did. They just called out their shikai and their zanpakuto's name, or vice versa. Would it really be so simple? I was suddenly nervous and unsure of myself. I had to figure it out. Instinct. Follow my gut…

I nodded at myself, settling on what I was going to do. I lowered my arm to my side, feeling no need to be aggressive about my stance. Relaxing my grip on my zanpakuto's sheath I called out, "Tankyu no Unmei, Okurimono no Kontorōru!"

I waited patiently, expecting some sort of feeling to creep up on me. But… nothing happened. I looked down to my zanpakuto, turning her blade so I could look into the steel. For a moment, I was only my reflection looking back at me, but as I watched, my zanpakuto's image slowly emerged. Her teal eyes watched me as I watched her. She didn't need to say anything, I understood. Okurimono no Knotororu wasn't the name of my shikai state. It was just something I said… I needed to pick a new name. Something that was her instead of what I had guessed she was.

"Maebure no Shukufuku."

Power surged through me from my zanpakuto. I closed my eyes, feeling the power as it caressed parts of me that I didn't know could feel anything. It felt like the power had manifested around me, the air moving in waves of power that tickled my skin and played with my hair. The feeling was so powerful that when I pushed the power outwards I could feel everything. When I had created a circle of power before it lined an object like a film and I could feel whatever disturbed the surface. This was like sonar. I could feel everything in the space around me. The movement of the wind, the shivering of the grass as that same wind brushed across it, the shifting of Captain Hitsugaya's haori as he sheathed his zanpakuto, the heavy thud of his heart beat…

I opened my eyes, wanted to see everything that I was feeling. It was like I had been nearly blind before using my shikai. The world was crystalline, lined with edges so clear that I could see the definition between each leaf in the trees that were dozens of yards away. Turning my gaze to Captain Hitsugaya I lost myself in the depths of his aquamarine eyes. So many hues of blue and teal, highlighted by the darkness of his pupils and augmented by the reflection of the greenery around us. His skin was flawless, the pigment even and smooth even over the sharpness of his cheek bones and jaw. His hair really was white as snow, the color even and showing no highlight from where the sun would normally bleach someone's hair.

"You are beautiful," I murmured. My gaze trailed down his body, noticing things about him that I had been to embarrassed to actually notice before. Despite the typically baggy shihakusho, he filled it out. His broad shoulders and lean body giving definition where most people's didn't. His hands were calloused from using his sword, but his fingers were long and almost elegant in their shape.

"Ria," his voice was deeper than normal when he said my name. It caused my eyes to trail back up his body to meet his gaze. His face was carefully neutral as he turned to gesture behind him. "Focus."

My own gaze flicked to the freshly downed tree he had gestured to. I nodded slowly before I pushed my power at it. Flecks of gold wafted in the general direction of the tree, swirling and churning like a playful breeze was influencing them. The flecks coated the tree in a warm glow and everything that was the tree exploded into my mind.

My eyes fluttered closed as I struggled to process all the information. Every fiber that I had once worked individually was suddenly there, in my head. I struggled to understand everything at once. It was just so much to think about at once. Reishi… reishi… I needed to break it all down into reishi. Reaching out with my mind's eye, I turned parts of the tree back into its original reishi form and lifted the tree. Unlike with the boulder last week, this was easy once I had a place to hold onto the tree. I lifted it from the ground without using any external gestures.

Placing it against the base of the tree was easy, but lining up was another matter entirely. I opened my eyes, staring at the ground as I saw with my mind and not my eyes. My head was starting to hurt from the strain of all the processes I had going through my mind. I pushed the pain away, focusing on the task at hand. Repair the core, seal the ring, seal the ring, seal the ring…

'It's too much,' I heard my zanpakuto's words in my head. 'You'll lose control if you keeping trying to use brute force.'

I shook her voice off, pushing it to the back of my head as I started rejoining the core of the tree. But, why was I doing just the core? I could do it all at once. I had the power. I could do it, I just needed to spread my attention.

'Tell him,' her voice said again. 'Tell Toshiro to disarm you if you lose it.'

I hesitated in my actions as I looked down to her blade. Her teal gaze met mine in the metal. Since when had she earned the right to call him by his first name? I scoffed at her and turned her down so I couldn't see her gaze. I felt the tree slip from my control for only a second. It started falling over and I reached out to catch it in my head. Catching it was easy, but the impact that it made on my mind burst stars through my eyes. Damn it…

"Captain," I said quietly. "Please disarm me if I start doing something weird. There's too much in my head…"

I felt his gaze focus more closely on me through that extra sense that was my shikai. I tried to not focus on him which caused my mind to wander. Gold flecks that seemed to glow with their own inner light scattered through the air as my senses expanded, consuming my thoughts. The progress I had made on the tree snapped and it came crashing back down to the ground, but the feel of the tree was only one of a million things that were going through my head. All the reishi in the area called to me. The plants, the dirt, the stones, even the reishi in the air consumed me as ever particle became its own thought in my head.

"Focus," Captain Hitsugaya repeated as he stepped towards me. I couldn't seem to reign in my senses. His voice was just another thing to categorize, his presence just another feeling to add to the list. It was just so much information. I couldn't do it. I started to let my zanpakuto slip from my hand, I had to stop it before I lost myself in the sensations completely. His hand suddenly closed over mine, forcing my grip on my zanpakuto's hilt to tighten.

"Don't give up," He urged. "Find something to focus on. Use me, your zanpakuto, whatever comes to mind, and focus on it." His other hand touched my chin, turning my head so I was gazing up at him. I stared up into those steady eyes, letting myself fall into them.

"Pull yourself in," he murmured. "Narrow your vision. You don't have to see everything at once. Just bit by bit."

I nodded slowly, "A piece of a puzzle," I said to myself. Slowly I drew my spread senses back in. It hurt to let the objects fall from my presence, like I was losing something that belonged to me. My body tensed as I dropped the objects one by one, letting them fall from my mind. The reishi… All those things that I could feel. I started to shake as my radius of awareness closed around us. I felt claustrophobic and the urge to explode was eating away at my control.

"Relax," he whispered, his hand leaving my chin.

"It hurts to restrain myself like this," I said quietly.

"Limit yourself, don't let your shikai control you." He replied. "You are the master of your zanpakuto, not the other way around. Use that power and make something of it."

Make something of it…

I suddenly had an idea of what to do with myself. I gripped my zanpakuto's hilt and put a purpose to the power I had churning inside me. Captain Hitsugaya stepped back from me as I smiled up at him. Turning away from him I reached out and snatched a few of the golden flecks that were hovering around me. They glowed like fireflies in my hand as I forced my will into them, turning them to liquid. Looking around I gathered all the little flecks in the air with my mind's eye and pulled them to me. As they touched my shihakusho they joined and melted into a liquid that spread over my uniform. I created more, pulling reishi from some of the downed trees until my entire body was covered in gold.

Thinking of my zanpakuto, I shaped the gold into armor. Black layered plates that were lined with gold formed over my thighs. Held in place by golden chain links, they hung from a black and gold mesh obi that encircled my waist. More black armor lined in gold formed across my sword arm's shoulder, the plates of the pauldron forming with elegantly curved edges and vine like designs etched into the surface. A breast plate emerged from under the shoulder pauldron to sweep over my breast in a rounded triangle like an archer's breast plate. The metal was thin, but just as decorative as the shoulder pauldron in its black metal lined with gold. An arm guard formed on my sword arm, shaping to cover the back of my hand in metal plates. Everything was held together by fine golden chains that wove around my body in delicate curves.

When I felt that everything was as it was meant to be I looked down at myself, observing what I had done. The armor looked like it should have weighed a lot more than it felt like it did. It felt like I was wearing tinfoil, but I knew that it was much thicker than that. Just the plated armor over my thighs was at least a quarter inch thick. With the creation of the armor, my sense of things was limited to a few feet around me and I didn't have the urge to feel every inch of it.

'Maebure no Shukufuku, or The Herald's Blessing,' my zanpakuto said in my head. 'Learn to use it correctly and it will protect you, fight for you, and amplify your power. Fail to learn, and it will never be any more than just some fancy armor to weigh you down.'

'So, this is what you meant by She Who Evolves?' I asked her in my head.

'Your night isn't over yet, herald.'

I puzzled over her words for a long moment. What else could possibly change?

Shaking my head to clear the thought away, I turned back to Captain Hitsugaya. His eyes were all for the armor that I had donned as he looked me over. I tried not to blush as he gaze roamed over me. I knew he wasn't looking at me, but the armor… but still.

"This is the form of my shikai, Maebure no Shukufuku, according to my zanpakuto," I said as I spread my arms a bit to show it off.

"Armor never struck me as your shikai," he stated as he took a step towards me.

"She said that I need to learn to use it, or it will really be just armor. So, I guess I was using it incorrectly this whole time," I said with a small laugh. "Who knew."

"Can you still manipulate reishi?" He asked.

"I suppose so," I replied as I looked down to the ground. Spotting a stone I willed it to move with my mind's eye. It shifted to the side effortlessly, as if I'd moved it with my hand instead of my power.

"Perhaps this is a different part of your shikai then," he pondered aloud. "May I?" He asked, gesturing as if he wanted to touch my arm guard. I held my sword hand out to him, offering him a clear view of the armor. His hand slid up my wrist to grip my arm as he ran his other across the metal guard. His hand slid over the back of my hand and down the plates that covered my fingers until his touch came across the sensitive underside of my wrist, tickling the tender skin.

"Do that again and I might smack you on accident," I commented as I fought back a giggle. He didn't acknowledge my comment as he turned my arm over, his eyes gazing at my exposed skin. I hadn't noticed that the sleeve of my shihakusho had vanished until his fingers were teasing my exposed skin.

"Do you still have to hold your zanpakuto to maintain the armor?" He asked, his eyes coming up from my arm.

"She didn't say," I replied. "I can always find out though."

I pulled my arm from his grasp and slid my zanpakuto into her sheath. I held onto the handle for a long moment, not wanting to break the shikai. Slowly, I opened my hand and released her, leaving my zanpakuto to hang at my hip. For a long moment, nothing changed. The armor remained on my body, my vision was still sharper than it had ever been and I could still feel the presence of the reishi around me. Then, like dissolving into water, the armor dissipated into gold flecks that diminished in size until they disappeared entirely. My vision dulled and became normal again, though it felt way worse in comparison, and the extra sense that I had for my surroundings vanished. The only good thing about the transition out of my shikai was that my sleeve had reformed when the armor flitted away.

I almost frowned with disappointment, but managed to hold it back. Maybe sheathing my zanpakuto had ended my shikai instead of just dropping it. I hadn't really thought of the difference until just now.

Looking up to Captain Hitsugaya I shrugged. "I'll have to play with it."

His gaze lifted from my zanpakuto to meet mine as he hummed his agreeance. It was full dark now, the light of the waning full moon illuminating us between the remaining standing trees. The light as it fell on his face made his pale skin look ethereal as I recalled how he had looked with my other sight. He had been so beautiful that it had almost hurt to look at him and know I was so dull in comparison. I stepped to him, dropping my gaze as I reached out to take his hand in my own. I laced my fingers through his, relishing in the warmth of his hand against my own cool skin.

"Without your help, I don't think I would have ever gotten to this point with my zanpakuto. She said this, us, was all because of a turning point in my fate. But, without you I never would have made it past that turning point to where I am now." My gaze lifted and I met his once more. "Thank you, Toshiro."

His expression softened when I used his first name and his hand tightened around my own. He gripped my hand tighter and slid our hands behind my back, effectively pinning my arm between his and my body as he pulled me into him. His free hand slid into my hair as his lips pressed to mine in a gentle kiss. The kiss only lasted a moment before he raised his head just enough to part our lips.

"You are a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for," he murmured.

"Maybe, but I'm not very good at figuring things out," I said shaking my head.

"It comes with experience," he said as he kissed me lightly. "Most of my abilities came naturally to me, but figuring out the control came easier with advice from my captain at the time."

"Isshin Shiba?" I asked, recalling the name of the former Squad 10 Captain.

"Yes."

I laughed at myself quietly. "You were once the 3rd seat, like I am now. Weren't you?"

He hummed his agreeance. I started to ask him another question, but his mouth covered mine. I lost the thoughts I had as he conquered my mouth, making my body hot with the fierceness of his lips and tongue. It was like he had to feel every part of my mouth with his own and claim it, and I was helpless to stop him… not that I wanted to. My free hand gripped his haori, trying to pull my body tighter to his as he leaned my body backwards just enough to step me off balance. When he finally released my lips, I was panting as butterflies flew rampant in my stomach and chest. My heart was pounding in my ears as I tried to remember up from down. All I could think of was the searing kiss we had just shared, and thinking of it made my body shudder.

When I finally had enough sense, I looked up to him. He was breathing a little heavily, but a very satisfied expression made his aquamarine eyes smolder smugly. "If you kiss me like that again, I'm going start expecting it every time you hold me."

He chuckled as he kissed me again, banishing all thought until all I could think of was his mouth on mine and his body pressed so tightly to mine. I couldn't help but to moan as he bit lightly on my bottom lip, teasing me relentlessly. The sound seemed to trigger something in him and suddenly I had my back pressed against a tree, his body pinning me in place.

A groan rumbled in his throat and he pulled back from me, his hand that had been tangled in my hair shifting to rest against the bark beside my head. When I opened my eyes his gaze was studying me like I had done something that confused him.

"What are you doing to me, Ria Yamamoto?" He crooned.

"I could ask you the same thing, Toshiro." I replied breathily. "I was a lady two weeks ago," I said with a light laugh. "Now all I can do is think about the way you make me feel."

He let out a long sigh, his warm breath caressing my cheeks. "We should go back. Before we get ourselves into trouble." He wasn't referring to actually getting in trouble. A blush heated my cheeks as thoughts of how we could 'get ourselves into trouble' ran through my head.

He kissed my forehead before saying, "You have got to stop blushing like that."

"I can't help it," I replied. "My sister says I'm an open book when I actually bother thinking."

"I would have to disagree," he said softly. "Until recently, I had no idea what was going through your head."

"I guess," I said quietly. "I'll just have to be more open with you."

"And I, you."

He rested his forehead against mine and inhaled deeply. "Let's get going. Rangiku will never let us hear the end of it if we are too late." He pulled our hands from behind my back and gently tugged me away from tree, leading us back towards the Seireitei.