Noble Love - Bleach (Kuchiki Byakuya x Oc x A bit of Various)

二十一

Asa didn't know where the the path she took would lead her, hoping that she would join the others again. For now, reaching Orihime was no longer her main priority. Like she had told Aizen before, she would've fought him to get the answer, but after being his Lieutenant for some time, she knew it would be pointless because she would ended up dead. Even if she were to somehow survive, she would be too weak to move and would succumb to her wounds. She dared not recklessly sacrifice her life that easily and believed that it's sometimes best to take a step back before continuing to advance on the battlefield.

She suddenly stopped running when she felt a reiatsu depleting, and it belonged to someone among the group she came to Hueco Mundo with. 'Was that Sado's reiatsu?' she questioned with worry. 'Which meant that he encountered an Arrancar stronger than him - an Espada.' She was about to continue her journey when she picked up a reiatsu that felt so foul to her, she coughed a few times before placing a hand on her chest to try and ease the nausea. 'W-What's that reiatsu? It feels like it's a combination of at least 30,000 Hollow reiatsu.'

Trying to ignore the discomfort as much as she could, Asa continued running down the corridor, hoping that it would at least lead her back to the group, or at least one of her comrades. Flash Step would've taken her there a lot faster, but despite her wounds being healed, she had been exposed to the illusions during her battle with Randepra for too long, that it gave her some illusionary poisoning. The side effects of ilusionary poisoning was so severe that one could pass out if they weren't careful, and the only way to overcome it was by sitting somewhere safe and do nothing but rest until the discomfort and migraine stop. Although she was feeling sick and had used up a huge portion of her reiatsu, she had no time to rest up because she was afraid that the others might be killed, even though she wasn't in the right condition to fight another Espada. And she had to thank Aizen for healing her, otherwise the wounds would've made things worse.

On the way to the source of the foul reiatsu she picked up earlier, she could feel the fluctuation of her comrades' reiatsu, which told her that they had encountered some enemies that gave them a hard time. She could even tell that Ichigo and Renji had used their Bankai in their own separate battles, but they were soon overpowered by those stronger than them, which she guessed would be the Espada. Sado, who was the first one to be taken down, and Uryu also had a hard time with his enemy as well. The entire Hueco Mundo was at war with them, and she could tell they weren't able to win this no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that there was at least hope.

The reiatsu eventually led her outside of the building, and she found herself standing on one side of a bridged that was connected to another. 'What is this place?' she questioned while looking around, trying to understand her surrounding. She wasn't even sure if it was day time, or she had entered a different part of Hueco Mundo. But before she could proceed, the foul reiatsu disappeared. She took it as a sign that the source had been killed and was about to let it go and move on until she picked up another reiatsu. It was so weak that it was close to disappearing, and it felt awfully familiar to Asa, who mentally traced it back to the time when she visited Byakuya in the Kuchiki Family Manor so often that she could recognise his sister-

"Rukia!" she gasped with horror when realisation hit her. That reiatsu belonged to Rukia, and she was close to dying!

Asa quickly dashed towards the building on the other side of the bridge and slammed open the door. Cautiously entering the room, she looked around for the Shinigami, hoping that she wouldn't be dead by the time she found her. She ignored the dead Espada on the ground, as well as the damages in the room where the battle took place, for she was more concerned about Rukia's condition. Finally, she found her lying on the floor face down with her hand grasping her unsheathed Zanpakutou.