Bleach: Unwanted Past

Chapter 4

The darkness seemed to never lift around me. Every time I look around, there's nothing but black. I was alone, and no one could find me. Although I knew this wasn't a particular place someone could physically visit, it still makes me wonder what's happening to me. And the longer I'm in this void, the more it's starting to feel like...home.

"Just let me take control." My eyes look up. A familiar figure stands before me. She looked just like me but in black and white. She has white or gray, wherever I have black or dark colors on me. Wherever it is light-colored on me, she has black. Her white hair is long, like mine, but it's not in a ponytail. The only thing completely different is her eyes.

The gold orbs were wide with excitement, her smile so wide it could be painful. With my hollow's appearance, I knew my surroundings had changed. I look around, familiar fire covering the cold hard ground. A white void, this time, infinitely surrounding us.

"How did I...get here?" I ask no one in particular.

She laughs crudely, "you cried yourself to sleep. That broken jaw seems to be quite painful."

My green irises turn back to her gold ones. I give her a cold hard stare, a distinctive look I give her whenever we meet. She's right, yet I don't feel the pain in my mind palace. "Why are you here? Why now, of all times?" I could feel my body grow rigid. It's as if a shield goes up to protect myself from my hollow self. Not-so-good memories take a peek at the surface, reminding me how hard it was to control her. Now, it's more of ensuring she doesn't get the upper hand to take control.

She holds her sheathed sword, letting it sit on the floor as she leans down on top of it. "Let me kill that retched ex of yours. He's bothering you, isn't he?"

I softly shake my head. "You can't. It's all in my head. But...somehow...he feels so real..." I look at my hand, remembering the feeling of him touching my face. He's real, but he isn't at the same time.

"Well, then I can kill him!" She boasts, raising her hands in the air like an excited child.

I give her an annoyed look. "We wouldn't know what would happen if you did! Who knows, it could kill my brain, and I'd be dead in the real world."

She frowns, shoulders slumping. "I suppose you're right. If you're dead, then I'll be, too." A rumble echoes through the white void. I watch as my other me looks around, keeping her frown. "Looks like you're waking up. Bye-bye!" She waves to me, her figure slowly disappearing into thin air.

Agonizing pain arises in my jaw as my senses start to come back. I whined, gently holding it in my hand while my vision unblurred. As usual, Sachi is there. He wore a frown, his gold orbs looking down at me. I quickly sat up, trying to crawl away from him. But he quickly squats down, grabbing my ankle and pulling me back to him. I groaned from the abrupt movement, feeling my jaw crack from it. I couldn't talk or scream with a broken jaw.

"Quit moving, would you?" Sachi grumbles, bringing his hand to rest gently against my jaw. A green glow slowly lights up in his hand, a warmth spreading on the painful area. In seconds, his hand moves away, and his hold on my ankle loosens. The pain is gone, even when I move my jaw.

I look up at him in surprise. "How did you... that's not Kido. What did you do? And why?" My brain couldn't handle the many questions I had. They kept piling the longer I stayed in this dark void.

The corner of his lips didn't curl up into a smile. A sadness I've never seen before reflects in his eyes as I look at them. "I'm not sure," he says, "it just felt...right."

— — — —

"So, that's what's going on."

Ichigo looks up from the table, his eyes meeting his friends. The red-haired male, Renji Abarai, sat close to Rukia Kuchiki. The group ran into the duo as they were headed to the Head Captain's quarters. Kisuke Urahara left them behind, telling them to stay with their Soul Reaper friends.

With each passing second, Ichigo could feel his muscles waver like a ticking time bomb. He needed to move. He couldn't just sit here and wait. What could he do to help Kana while Kisuke went to do the hard work?

"I wouldn't do anything, Ichigo." Rukia suddenly speaks after a bit of silence. His sweat dropped at her words, something she tends to do. She can somehow read his thoughts. "I can see it in your eyes. You want to go and do something to help. Just leave Kisuke to find the information, and go from there." She suggests.

"That's right," Orihime's soft voice seems to calm him down, only a little bit. He looks over at her by his side. "Mister Urahara said she's strong, right? So I'm sure she's doing just fine!"

Her positivity didn't seem to make it to Ichigo. He appreciated her efforts, but as someone who is loyal to his friends, he feels he can do much more than just sit there. He looks away, staring back at his crossed legs. "You're right, Orihime." He says. It was the only way to keep her from trying to help anymore.

The orange-haired boy didn't notice the thumping of footfalls gradually getting closer. He looks up to see none other than the Captain of the Barracks they sat in. "Brother!" Rukia announces.

"Captain!" Renji bows.

Byakuya Kuchiki narrowed his eyes at the human group in his division barracks. "Why are you here?" He asks simply.

Rukia smiles, bowing down to her elder brother out of respect. "They have come with Kisuke Urahara, brother."

Byakuya almost grumbled at the mention of the scientist. "Kisuke Urahara?" He knows the man isn't named a criminal any longer, but his distaste for unwanted people coming by has gotten worse.

"Yes," Rukia looks up at him, "they're here to gather information about Kana Yamamoto."

"Yeah. Apparently, she was kidnapped." Renji jumps in.

The captain knew very little of the girl they spoke of. He remembers seeing her during Aizen's battle and her argument with her grandfather, the Head Captain. A memory of him much younger, back in the day, with him fighting his nemesis, Yoruichi, came to the surface. He remembers her speaking fondly of the girl.

"You're getting as quick as the Princess," the purple-haired captain teases, speaking of your nickname, "and she's catching up to me." She muses.

Young Byakuya stops his movements of chasing her, apparent confusion on his face. "Princess?"

She pauses, as well. "That's right. She's much older than the both of us, but I've been teaching her how to be quicker in Shunpo." She smirks. "Maybe you and her can race and see who's getting better?"

Her words didn't faze the boy. He tried to think of the girl Yoruichi had just named, but he couldn't seem to put a finger on where he's seen her before. "I don't think I've met her."

Yoruichi shrugged her shoulders. "Too bad. She could teach you a few things." And she quickly disappeared as Byakuya unleashed a war cry, chasing after her once more.

"Brother?" His younger sister calls out his name for the third time, finally catching his attention.

He huffs, looking away in almost disgust from looking at Ichigo and his friends. "I know nothing of Kana. Now leave. You have no business being here."

"I never liked that guy," Uryu mumbles after the captain walks out of the room. Chad hums in confirmation. The group soon stand up, walking out of the room and into the fresh air.

"We'll let you know if we hear anything," Rukia says, following them out of their division quarters.

Ichigo nods to her and Renji. "Thanks. We'll be around."