#017 - A plot?! WHAT IS THIS DEVILRY?!?!?

[notbantamweight]

Title: Aftermath
Series: Bleach
Written: 13, 14, 15 Feb 2010

 

The Winter War hadn’t ended well. After the resounding defeat at Fake Karakura Town, Aizen, Gin, and the remainder of their forces had marched on Seireitei. Ise Nanao, as the last remaining high-ranking officer, had ordered the seki-seki walls to be activated, and an immediate evacuation to the Living World. She knew that Seireitei was done for.
Many shinigami, she knew, would die at the hands of Aizen’s army, but she was determined to at least rescue the Reijutsu Academy students. They managed to escape through the same Senkaimon that Kurosaki Ichigo and his Ryoka friends had managed to enter through, not so many months ago. She left the children with a very bewildered Urahara Kisuke, and headed back to the Rukongai, determined to rescue as many of her friends as she could.

Her heart broke when she laid eyes on the ruined area, bodies strewn everywhere. She choked back a muffled sob when she saw the old, yet familiar figure of Lisa-fukutaicho, and the mutilated form of Hiyori-fukutaicho. She trod with care, plain black shihakusho, devoid of any insignia, blending perfectly in with the pitch black night. A hand on her shoulder scared the living daylights out of her, until the rough voice of Muguruma Kensei rumbled through her.

“Yer Ise Nanao, ain’t’cha?” His slurred words sent a frisson of panic through her, he was going into shock! Hurriedly, she sat him down behind a ruined wall, and checked him over for injuries. He hissed when her hand accidently brushed his upper thigh...or what was left of it. Nanao gulped, but her face was determinedly set, and she started to patch the wound up as best she could.
Light footsteps alerted her to another’s presence, and she turned slowly, silently, drawing Shotsuzuka as she did so, keeping the blade as well-concealed as possible. Most of the tension left her when she saw it was Urahara, dressed in cloak that seemed to be completely hiding his reiatsu. Behind him was the substantially larger form of Tessai-san, and the lithe shape of Shihouin Youruichi.

“Ise, I know you want to look for others. Go.” Nanao nodded in answer to the murmured statement, and set off, into the night. She cast a Bakudo over the still-breathing form of Hiyori, and carefully took her back to where the others were waiting. She swore she saw a tear run down Urahara’s cheek when he saw Hiyori, but didn’t meditate on it. Instead, she set out again, picking her way through the boulder-sized lumps of concrete.

She almost cried when Hinamori’s broken body blocked her path, a sword wound showing clearly her cause of death. She closed those eyes still showing confusion gently, and kept on. She soon found Hitsugaya-taicho, sword broken and horribly wounded. Her worst fears came true when she looked past him and saw the forms of every other Captain and Vice-Captain.

She grabbed Hitsugaya and the shards of Hyourinmaru, and ran back to Urahara, minding Hinamori’s body on the path. She left the small boy there, and sprinted back to where she had seen the other Captains and Visards. One by one, she took their near-dead forms back to Urahara and company, who by now had gained two new visitors, a white-haired glasses wearing man in a suit, and ...Kurosaki-taicho?

She shook her head, and turned around, heading back into the maze of rubble. She could feel the faint presence of Yoruichi-san behind her, and led the older woman through the labyrinth faultlessly, until she came to the killing ground. Here Nanao stopped, carefully using the barest hint of reiatsu to seek out those who still lived. No...

She jumped over a fallen pylon, and came across the body of her taicho. She wasn’t aware she was crying until Yoruichi pulled her into a brief hug. It took the two of them to get him back to the others, and they finally had to move Hinamori’s body from her resting place. Soi Fon, Hirako-taicho, Rose-taicho, Love-taicho, and the badly broken form of Mashiro-fukutaicho soon followed. All in all, the two of them managed to recover every one of the Shinigami who still lived.

Carefully, they transferred them through the Senkaimon, and into the Urahara Shouten. Suddenly, they had copereal bodies, and the silver-headed man (Nanao would later find out that he was Ishida Ryuuken, Uryuu’s father) called the hospital where he worked. Ambulances screamed up, and Nanao rode shotgun on the roof on the one carrying her taicho.
She’d refused a gigai for the simple fact that ‘someone had to defend the defenceless sod’. Luckily, one of the fifth-year Academy students had unlocked her Shikai, and, had the War not happened, probably would have gotten her into the Fourth Division. As it was, she was now healing Hiyori, and it seemed that the little blonde Visard would live.

Of course, awkward questions were asked, but Ishida-san managed to smooth them over, and finally, Nanao found a place to sleep, curled up in a chair between Ukitake-taicho and Kyouraku-taicho, both in Intensive Care, sometime really early in the morning.

She didn’t even notice when she was picked up, undressed, and placed in a soft, warm bed, so complete was her exhaustion. Voices went back and forth above, arguing, at times quite loudly, but Ise Nanao slept straight through it all. Growing up in the Eighth Division barracks had given her that useful skill.

~~~~~~~~

Morning crept up on her quite by surprise. The mid-morning sun slanted through now-ineffective blinds to warm the skin of Nanao’s face, and she gradually became aware of her surroundings, of the warm body spooning up against her, and the small, callused hand holding her left hand gently, idly stroking patterns over the skin.

Violet-blue eyes crept open, vibrant without their imprisoning frames, and she shifted slowly, luxuriating in the warmth, and comfort of her bed.

Wait.

What?

BED?!

Ise Nanao sat bolt upright, shocking a black-haired girl who immediately, and disturbing the person snuggling into her back, who, with a vigorous curse, revealed herself to be Kyouraku Irinai, the niece of Kyouraku-taicho, and a fifth-year Academy student. Nanao squinted in the sunlight, searching for her glasses, her protection.

They were handed to her, without a word, by one Urahara Kisuke. The shopkeeper’s usually jovial smile had been replaced with a totally serious expression. The blood drained from her face as she realised what kind of task she was now expected to do.

“There’s breakfast on the table downstairs. I expect to see you down there in five minutes, Ise-fukutaicho.” And with that brief statement, he left the room, feet not even making a whisper. Ise hung her head, before turning to the girl.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Ise Nanao. Who are you?” The girl’s words took the wind right out of her sails, even before they had even begun to fill.

“I’m Kurosaki Karin, Ichigo’s little sister.”

 

So, what could potentially could be something big? And it has a plot?! IN MY BLEACH?!! Well, it's more likely than once thought!