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rays-of-fire-and-ice · 2 years

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To Give You Shelter

BLEACH Anime Celebration - Day 1: The Rain

Rating: K+ / General with mild themes

Setting: a few months after the war against the Quincy

Synopsis: During the reconstruction of the Soul Society, Momo finds the time to visit the grave of a subordinate.

AN: And so it begins! Starting off the anime celebration with an angsty one! Although this idea is fairly similar to other things I’ve tackled, I’ve for a little while now, and these prompts along with this beautiful fanart by @rainfestive encouraged me to finally write it out. I hope you all enjoy it!

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Momo manages a smile as she places the plate of sliced nashi pear in front of the grave. She’s careful to not disturb the flowers lain in front, or the burning incense sticks that’s smoke swirls up toward the clouded sky. Leaning back, she rereads the name engraved in the stone: Hirose Fuyuka.

“I’m sorry I’m this late,” she says, “rebuilding the Soul Society has taken priority. Nashi aren’t in season right now, but I hope it’s still sweet enough.” She eyes the array of flowers, and her smile widens a fraction. “It looks like the others came before, it must have been on their breaks. They’ve been working really hard lately, we all have.”

The corners of her mouth fall. At the slight waver in her voice, she presses her lips together and takes in a deep breath.

“We have a lot to do,” she continues more quietly, “much more than I think any of us realized.”

A drop of water splashes on to the headstone. Another lands on a flower petal; several more hit the ground and her feet. Within seconds, a sheet of rain pelts down on to her.

It’s like having ice cold water dunked over her head. She finally registers the stillness around her. Something about the lack of noise and any movements makes her mind race. She’s become so used to rushing to meetings, overseeing reconstruction projects, and organizing teams for various projects within her division that a moment like this feels strange, and it creeps dangerously close to her heart.

She can already hear a voice saying she needs to leave now, to go back to working on reconstructing areas in the Rukongai or start writing up progress reports or give her captain an update, but she remains rooted to the spot.

All around her are the graves of those who fell in the war against the Quincy, and only today had she come to see one of twenty who had belonged to her division.

She bites the inside of her cheek, but it doesn’t ease the tautness building in her chest. She leans forward and bows her head, in shame and in grief and in apology to those who she hadn’t mourned for yet. Rain drips from her bangs and fingertips. A tear falls down her cheek, and it’s joined by another.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she senses someone else is here, but it still comes as a surprise when a faint shadow falls over her. The rain continues to pour down, but none of it hits her.

Eyes widened, she looks to her side and gasps. Then, haltingly, she says his name. “Hitsugaya-kun…”

His expression shifts slightly, the frown in his brow softens in concern but his eyes also narrowing at the corners. “You really need to work on sensing reiatsu,” he says with no bite.

He’s drenched, hair drooping and uniform damp. It’s then she realizes what is sheltering her from the rain. If it weren’t for their surroundings or the heaviness in her chest, she might have smiled and said ‘That’s not what your haori is for, Hitsugaya-kun.’

Regardless, there’s something moving about seeing it held above her head. She remembers when he first wore it after being appointed as captain of the Tenth Division. At first, she’d thought it looked strange on him, but she couldn’t decide whether it was because she’d been so used to seeing him as a seated officer or because of the rushed circumstances of his promotion. In the first few months it seemed to weigh down on him, his shoulders sometimes slumped and his strides slow and unsure. In time he wore it dutifully, always keeping it impeccably clean and never once needing to have it mended.

He'd been so diligent in wearing, in fact, that this has been the first time she’d seen him without it in almost a decade. There probably would’ve been a time when she thought he'd looked like the Toshiro who just graduated and got accepted into Tenth Division, but it’s not the case anymore. He’d changed, hardened by war in some ways, and burdened in much the same ways as her captain.

Seeing these graves of the officers who served and died under his command, she can’t imagine the magnitude of his thoughts and feelings right now.

She snaps out of revere when he says her name.

“Sorry, Shiro-chan, I’m just not used to seeing you without your haori on.”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “Well, you act as if I never wear one in the first place, seeing as you keep forgetting to refer to me as ‘Captain Hitsugaya’.”

She can’t manage a smile this time. “Sorry, force of habit.”

Whatever huff had built up in Toshiro deflates at her words. He sighs through his nose and turns his attention to the grave. “Who’s this?” he asks, tone soft.

“Hirose-san. She was my twelfth seat, and today’s her birthday.” She can sense him wanting her continue, but she isn’t sure what to tell him. “She, uh, really liked nashi pears, and she came to Fifth Division two decades ago. Maybe you saw her around sometimes? She had a birthmark on her forearm and wore a really long earring for a while. She had to give up wearing it through when it almost cost her in a battle against a Hollow. She only ever wore it on special occasions from then on.

“She did a lot of gardening, so chances are if you saw her it was when she working on the division’s gardens. She always asked me if she could get a group together to garden every few months. Sometimes I’d join in when there wasn’t much work that needed to be done. She even bossed me around a few times!”

Momo didn’t realize she was smiling until she finished. It was a small, nostalgic smile, but was a sign of the lightness lifting the weight in her chest.

“I can’t say I remember seeing her,” Toshiro says. “She sounds like she was a good officer.”

“She was.” In her peripheral, the incense sticks had long been extinguished, but thin, faint coils of smoke still float up into the air. Around them, all the graves shine dully with rain. “Everyone here was.”

Toshiro nods once, but otherwise doesn’t react.

“Are you here to visit someone?” she asks.

“I’ll come back later, when the rain settles.” He half turns to go. “I’ll take you to the nearest shelter.”

For all the war had changed him, that was something that never wavered in him; he always looked out for others, whether he showed it blatantly or not.

She smiles in gratitude as she slowly straightens and takes hold of the nearest corner of his haori. “There’s no need. Let’s go to the officer you’re here to see.”

#bleach returns 2022 #hitsuhina #toshiro hitsugaya #momo hinamori #bleach #fanfiction

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flowerismi · 2 years

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I literally fucking cried on multiple occasions!... Watching it five times in a row...

God it was so freaking amazing! Thank you to everyone who made this possible! And my heart goes out to all the Bleach Fans who couldn't be with us today to celebrate this! Remember to stream! So we can get the light novels animated as well! And then the No Breaths From Hell Arc in another 10-20 years 😂❤️👌

#bleach #bleach tybw #bleach trailer #ichigo kurosaki #kurosaki ichigo #bleach anime #bleach returns 2022 #Bleach TYBW episode 1 #Justiceforbleach #bleach manga #manga bleach #anime #anime bleach #Getsuga Tenshou #bankai

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canariie · 2 years

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trepidation

Rating: K+

Synopsis: The relief must have been evident on his face because Momo giggled. “Shiro-chan! Kurosaki-kun likes you—you don’t have to act so relieved.”

“He just never addresses me properly as a captain,” he grumbled out of earshot from Orihime, who had gone into the kitchen. “I didn’t want to hear him trying to congratulate me or start giving me advice.”

Momo squeezed his arm. “Would that really be such a bad thing?”

“Yes, it would be,” Toushiro muttered.

...

Toushiro is apprehensive about a new role as a father, so Momo takes him to the World of the Living for the day.

Word Count: 3275 words

Setting: established relationship, many decades after the last Bleach chapter

Prompt: @celebratebleach‘s BLEACH Anime Celebration - Day 4 - A Day Off

Authour’s Note: Happy Bleach Returns everyone!! I was hoping to get this done by Squad 10 Day but alas I couldn’t make it! This took a while to write as I had to get into another character’s headspace a lot (and then it just grew and grew haha)

I can’t believe after so long we’re finally getting the anime adaption of the last arc! I hope everyone enjoys the anime well :) (I’m eagerly waiting to see Squad 10 on the screen :) )

Also shout out to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well for giving me the right feelings of anger in abandonment haha

—

“Cheer up, Toushiro! Think of this like a mini vacation,” Momo smiled brightly as she squeezed his hand.

“I don’t know why we have to come all the way to the real world to pick up some clothes,” Toushiro grumbled.

“You also need the day off, Taicho. Rangiku-san says you’ve been uptight lately, ever since the news of the pregnancy.”

The young couple had planned their day off together to visit the Kurosaki family in the world of the living. Orihime had invited Momo and her husband over so she could pass on some of her old maternity clothes to the newly expecting couple. Though Momo was ecstatic to take a break and see her dear friend, Toushiro had his reservations—especially with his wife traveling for the first time with child. The anxiety was so much to the point that Kyotetsu-taicho had ordered a necessary break for the tenth division captain, partly from all his excessive inquiries and late-night calls. Toushiro had scoffed at the order but with his lieutenant and wife staring him down, he relented.

“Please try to relax—for me,” she turned her amber brown eyes on him.

Ever since Momo became pregnant, Toushiro couldn’t help but stare in awe at her. She was always pretty, and once he realized his true feelings, he realized how beautiful she was. But now, with the added rieatsu she was warmer, like there was a fire glowing within. He watched as she pushed her long hair aside and look up at him through her eyelashes.

He was helpless.

“Fine.” Toushiro sighed in defeat. “You know that I can’t say no to that look…” he grumbled.

She smiled in victory. “I know.”

—

“Toushiro-kun! Momo-chan!” Orihime called, smiling as she wiped her some flour off her hands and over her apron. ”Welcome! Please come in! I just finished putting some bread in the oven!”

“Thank you for having us, Orihime-chan!” Momo replied cheerily as Toushiro followed her inside. It had been a while since he had visited the Kurosaki residence (though Momo had been a frequent visitor to see Orihime during her training sessions with Haachi). He had only physically been inside the substitute shinigami’s room, but from the first few steps inside the house Toushiro could sense the presence of the family all around him, even without the lingering rieatsu.

Fingerprint drawings pinned up on the fridge; soccer trophies lined up in a row on the bookshelves; certificates of achievement; a white board with a listing of chores with each member’s name scrawled on it. A large photo of a beautiful woman Toushiro hadn’t recognized before was pinned in the middle of the photo wall. He turned his head around to see if anyone else was at home.

“Ichigo-kun and Kazui-chan aren’t here now,” Orihime announced. “Kazui-chan had a scouts camp that Ichigo-kun is helping to chaperone for the weekend!”

The relief must have been evident on his face because Momo giggled. “Shiro-chan! Kurosaki-kun likes you—you don’t have to act so relieved.”

Momo squeezed his arm. “Would that really be such a bad thing?”

“Yes, it would be,” Toushiro muttered.

Orihime served them tea and biscuits, and the two women caught up eagerly. Toushiro was perfectly fine staying silent for the most part, occasionally offering a word of agreement—but he was more than content to just leave his wife leading the conversation as he observed her again.

She had worn a long yellow summer dress—from one of her shopping trips with his lieutenant—that brightened the warmth in her eyes. With her laughing and smiling, one wouldn’t not be able to notice any difference from her usual cheerful disposition. But even though she was in a gigai, he could sense another presence— something new.

And it worried him.

He had learnt to control his anxiety around her wellbeing— they had overcome many wars that had broken them individually to only make them stronger, together. Toushiro was proud of how resilient Momo had become over the years and he believed she was capable of taking care of herself.

But now with this new potential for danger, he was nervous to leave her out of his sight. This new role felt like foreign ground with responsibilities too large for him to handle. Everything felt like a greater risk, and Toushiro wasn’t sure if he was ready for it all.

“Momo-chan, let’s go upstairs and I can show you the clothes!”

Toushiro was shaken out of his revere when Momo turned to him and placed a warm hand on his arm. “Are you going to be fine on your own?”

He raised his eyebrow in mock annoyance. “I’m a captain—I’m sure I can handle waiting by myself fine.”

The look on Momo’s face said she didn’t really believe him, so he squeezed her hand. “I’m okay, go on ahead.”

He could see the worry in her eyes, but she just kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

Toushiro listened as their steps became softer until it was hushed with the soft thud of the door. Not one to want to sit idle, he walked around, looking closely at the photos hanging on the wall. Cheeky photos of Ichigo Kurosaki with wide tooth grins. Young girls dancing in school costumes and running on sports fields. Their father by a campfire, with hands on hips and metal clips in his hand. Even if there was only one person in the photo, Toushiro could observe the tight knit relationship of the family.

It all reminded him of the time he had happened on the family in the living world. Toushiro had only been recently promoted to captain of the tenth division and it was his first mission under the new rank.

He had gone out on his own before. But this time the job had more to suddenly lose and whole lot to prove. Rangiku was fully supportive and saw him off at the gate—something she hadn’t done in a long time when he had solo missions as a third seat. She had hugged him tightly, and the feeling of abandonment was so fresh, Toushiro couldn’t help but return the affection back silently.

He had finished the mission fine—cleansed any outlier hollows, checked on the patrolling officers, collected data on the residential rieatsu levels—and moved on. The routine brought comfort—that yes, maybe I can do this. While he flash-stepped above the roofs of Karakura, it was only the shock of seeing his captain as a human that made him stop in his tracks.

Stripped off the regal white robe of the military and garbed instead in cut off pants and a polo shirt. He seemed much smaller and less important, standing amidst a crowd of onlookers by a soccer field. This man from one of Soul Society’s noble families and who had led a fully company of men was now sporting a protruding belly and carrying a large megaphone like a cartoon character. Accompanying him was a stroller with two passenger seats, which Toushiro could see from far was occupied with small heads of hair. A child with shocking orange hair ran towards the former captain with an even brighter grin.

It was all so mundane, it felt unreal.

When Toushiro saw Shiba-taicho look over his shoulder, that’s when he picked himself up from shock and turned away.

Seeing the photos of the Kurosaki family through the years, stirred those old feelings of contempt inside. He had learned to bury down the resentment down as the need for duty triumphed over the childish feeling of betrayal. And as time passed and the tenth division captain seat felt like his own, he had forgotten the feeling of looking at someone else wearing his coat.

“Toushiro.”

He turned and stared in shock—standing next to him looking at the photos was Isshin Kurosaki.

The former captain had aged. Silver had streaked his hair and stubble. The last real image Toushiro had of him was of the young and cocky man, much taller than Toushiro’s short stature. Now Toushiro was eye level with him and could look straight as the man took of his glasses and tuck them into his doctor’s coat. Though he had looked tired, that didn’t stop the train of smoke from his cigarette to linger in the air.

“This was a good day,” Isshin reminisced. “Ichigo had scored his first goal as forward.” Toushiro could see the past run in his eyes, like old film. “You had also stopped by to watch, right?”

The white-haired soul reaper couldn’t say anything.

“Oh—I probably shouldn’t smoke this here,” the older man chuckled as he clapped a strong hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go into my office.”

Toushiro continued to stare at the man’s retreating back, before he followed wordlessly inside.

—

The door clicked shut softly behind Toushiro. He was distinctly aware that he was now in an enclosed space with his former captain, who was behind his desk pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

If not for Toushiro being taller and Isshin much older, it would have not been too different from when he would deliver reports as a third seat. The older man seemed confident with his white robe, jarring Toushiro back to times when he would shrug on his captain’s haori—that now belongs to you.

“Isn’t it against protocol to drink in your office,” Toushiro said dryly as Isshin leaned against his desk.

“Not if you own the place,” he winked and took a sip. “I actually encourage you to take a drink in the tenth division office—if you haven’t done so yet.”

“Are doctors even supposed to smoke?”

“Now, you’re just sounding like Ichigo! Here eat a manju—you need to loosen up.” He pulled out a plate of steamed buns that immediately made Toushiro’s mouth water, but he held back his excitement.

“I don’t want one,” Toushiro replied, though cringed inwardly at how petulant he sounded. When the older man had turned his back towards him, Toushiro grabbed one off the plate and quickly stuffed it in his pocket.

Isshin leaned against the desk, crossing one leg behind him as he regarded the soul reaper. “It’s been a while, Toushiro. I can’t remember the last time I saw you.”

“Whose choice was that?” Toushiro shot back.

Isshin chuckled though it didn’t reach his eyes. “It was mine.” The silence stretched long and if the doctor was uncomfortable, he didn’t show it, slowly swishing around the amber drink in the glass. Toushiro avoided staring at him and eyed anything else in the office. More family photos. A medical school certificate. Black ink pens over messy doctor note scrawls. Curtains drawn closed from the setting sun. Long shadows casting over. Time had moved on, but it only reminded the current captain that he could be dragged back to feeling like a lost boy in a cloak much too large for his shoulders.

“I wanted to thank you for taking care of Ichigo after he first returned from Soul Society.”

“He still needs to learn how to control his rieatsu—it’s unruly,” Toushiro scoffed.

Isshin grunted in acknowledgement. “That it is. It’s funny—Kazui is better than his own father at controlling his powers.” Isshin looked up at him, his eyes solemn. “Seeing them grow up reminded me of you when you were training.” A pause. “In a way, you were like a son to me.”

Something ached inside the young man and he realized that he hadn’t felt this torrent of emotion since Momo had left for the Soul Reaper Academy.

“Then why did you leave?” Toushiro said bitterly. “Why did you abandon us?”

“When you have a family, you realize how much you’ll give up to protect it,” the older man said as he took a sip of his glass. Even if years had passed, the tone of authority had remained in his low voice—but that did not deter Toushiro.

“Including the Tenth Company?” Toushiro replied in aggravation. His mind flipped to all the past battles, from Aizen to the Quincy Invasion. All the civilians lost, and soul reapers gone. Morale had suffered and both Toushiro and Rangiku had done their best to keep the company together—since the moment they picked the pieces up from the defected captain seat. It was there that Toushiro had learnt swinging a blade out of duty and leading a campaign was what truly made a captain.

Isshin’s grey eyes hardened, and he heaved a great sigh.

“It was never my intention to leave you all. But I had owed a debt that needed to be paid.” He looked to the picture on his desk, picking it up. From the brief glimpse, Toushiro could see it was the same women that was on the poster. There was an expression of fondness that even the young white-haired man didn’t need an explanation of who this woman was to his captain.

“I had gone alone to Naruki City to investigate the reports of shinigami deaths—I knew you two weren’t strong enough to go. However, I was attacked that night by a new type of Hollow that we were not prepared for.”

Isshin cleared his throat. “You know, Masaki—she was willing to sacrifice herself to save me—even though I was a shinigami and she was a Quincy. If not for her, I would have died.”

It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. Toushiro had heard tales of Quincies, long before the return of Yhwach—but they were hushed up out of existence and censored from the books. And even though it had been years, it still felt like taboo to dredge up the dark sins of Soul Society past.

“Then what did you do…?” he asked carefully.

The older man looked up, his eyes resolute as the blade he used to wield. “To save her, I gave up my life as a shinigami to protect her life.”

Isshin set his glass down as he took off his white coat— Toushiro was immediately jarred at the flashback of when the older man would take off his captain’s robe. Though it was against protocol to be seen without the cloak on, Shiba-taicho had always insisted on forgoing any of those decorum rules, especially in front of his lieutenant and third seat. Toushiro had then scoffed at the stupidity of the rule but equally admired how even without the tenth division insignia on his back, his authority never wavered. It was something that the young man had hoped to inspire in his own troops but still struggled with.

Looking at his former captain now, he recognized that it wasn’t the robe that made the captain—but the commitment to duty where it was called for.

“Was it worth it?” Toushiro asked.

“Every bit.” The father smiled. “She became my sun, my center of universe—and gave me more that I could ever ask for.” He picked up the glass again and took a long sip. “I only regret not being there for her the day she died.”

Toushiro knew that he had come close to the feeling. That battle of the Winter War with the image of Momo impaled on his sword was one he could never forget. Sometimes, he would still wake up in the idle of the night, drenched in cold sweat from reliving those moments. He was grateful, and seeing the haunting in his captain’s eyes, he knew he could not understand the pain the older man felt.

“But I don’t regret our time together! What we had was a love for the ages,” Isshin remarked with a wide smile. “I’m glad you ended up with the girl you had a crush on.” Isshin lifted his glass of whiskey in salute as Toushiro scoffed, his face reddening.

“And now—you’re going to have your own family. You’ll come to realize while you have a lot more to lose, you have a lot more to gain.”

Toushiro felt all the previous anxieties come up to the surface. Again, he felt reduced to a third seat, in a position he wasn’t sure he was qualified for.

“I don’t think I’m ready,” the white-haired man said softly.

“You are. Always have been,” Isshin affirmed confidently. “That’s why I wasn’t worried about leaving the Tenth—I knew you’d be there to protect it.”

That made Toushiro stop. “How were you certain I was going to be the captain?”

“I knew you were on you way to fully controlling your bankai—it was only a matter of time.”

And though it had been years, hearing that praise still made Toushiro lift his shoulders back in pride; stand a little smarter. “You still owe Matsumoto a call,” he retorted, looking off to the side.

Isshin laughed whole heartedly. “Haha yes—after the war she’s come and given me hell for leaving all the paperwork for her.

“Now,” Isshin prodded as he pulled the plate towards him, “Take that manju out of your pocket and eat some more.”

Toushiro shouldn’t have been surprised, his captain always knew. But that didn’t stop his from taking another, watching carefully as his captain regarded him with a smile full of nostalgia and pride.

He slowly took a bite. It was warm and familiar—just like how they tasted before.

—

A soft knock echoed at the door, and Toushiro looked up to see his wife coming in. “Toushiro, are you ready to go?”

“Hitsugaya-fuukutaicho! It’s good to see you again!” Isshin called out, wiping the crumbs from his mouth.

“The pleasure is all mine, Shiba-taicho,” Momo beamed as she bowed. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

He scratched the back of his head. “I’m sure much of it are tall tales from Hirako,” he chuckled. “And congratulations on the new addition! How far along are you?”

“Just a few weeks,” Momo smiled in response, “It’ll be a while until I actually show.”

“Well, you are already glowing. I remember when Masaki had our kids, she never stopped radiating joy!” Isshin gleefully grinned. “Have you decided on the name yet?”

Momo stepped closer to Toushiro and took his hand, looking up at him for assurance. “We’re still not quite sure what to name them. We want to leave it a surprise.”

“Masaki had a baby book that we used for all our kids, I could lend it to you.”

The young couple had two different reactions.

“Why would we need that?”

“Oh, that would be wonderful, if it’s not too much trouble!”

Isshin ignored his former third seat. “Nonsense, Toushiro has always been like a second son to me—I would be happy to do so.”

It was only when his captain left the room that Toushiro turned to his wife.

“You knew that he’d be here, didn’t you?” She smiled in response and reached up to hold his cheek.

“Rangiku-san & I knew you didn’t want to ask Abarai-kun & Kurosaki-kun for advice.” He chuckled, feeling much lighter than he had before he entered the house.

“But, I knew you needed to hear advice from someone you trusted,” Momo said softly with such kindness in her eyes that in that moment, whatever little remaining doubts he had inside him melted away. “Someone who believed you in more than you did.”

Toushiro leaned into her palm. “Thank you.”

—

Authour’s Note: Okayyy so maybe I cheated on the “captain-lieutenant” part but in a way, Toushiro was in a very lieutenant like position for Isshin and the bond still remains! I really struggled writing the two’s dialogue but I do think Toushiro had some abandoment issues on this, considering how young he was when Isshin left and especially how supportive he was towards Toushiro’s professional growth. I just wish in canon we got some closure for the 10th division.

I also think Isshin should have separate conversations with Toushiro and Rangiku because she comes with her own baggage on abandonment; one day I’d like to write the two of them together :)

#bleach returns 2022 #hitsuhina #momo hinamori #orihime kurosaki #toushiro hitsugaya #isshin kurosaki #isshin shiba #canariie: my fics

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bleachbleachbleach · 2 years

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Fic: Truth

Written for Day 1: A Voice for @celebratebleach! This was supposed to be 500 words of flash fiction, so I had no plans just prompts. You will notice that it is... not 500 words, so the “no plans” part got very scary for me very quickly, but fabulating with reckless abandon was a lot of fun and a great exercise!

Title: Truth (links to AO3) Rating: T Genre/Timeline: gen, post-TYBW Characters: Isane (POV), Unohana; Renji, Kiyone, Iemura Word Count: 5k Tags: Zanpakutou, Shinigami/Zanpakutou Bond, overrepresentation of Seireitei Communications, Laundry, Mountaineering, Grief/Mourning Summary: After the Blood War, Isane must confront the rumors. Was Captain Unohana really—? Or was she—

Isane has no ready answers, but truth is more a question than it is an answer, anyway.

They’ve asked her directly before, though mostly it’s just whispers. If Iemura catches them, he’ll shout about having respect, though Isane doesn’t think that’s what is missing. She doesn’t think Iemura has ever made a habit of respecting her, anyway. Not until Captain Unohana died.

What was she really like?

They want to know.

In the aftermath of the Blood War, life had flaked away from the Seireitei like the frost shaken from the doors when Isane opens the clinic on early mornings, like the kind that sloughs from evergreen branches when she moves through winter forests. It is disruptive and messy and then imperceptible. It’s a puddle wiped away, or snow joining more snow. But someone had to have found the body. Someone had known too much about how to read blood spatter—or more likely still, reiatsu, remnants hanging in the air like poetry. Someone had seen. Now all those who hadn’t whisper.

"It’s egregious, isn’t it?" Iemura says, furiously penning his outrage into that journal that he keeps. He has always talked to himself, but Isane gets the impression that this time, the question is for her.

"Um. I suppose?" Isane replies. Mostly, she thinks it is understandable to be curious.

Who was Unohana Retsu?

Unohana Yachiru?

→ Read more on AO3

Content Warning: This fic is rated T, but since this is an explicitly SFW event, I wanted to flag that there’s a compound fracture in this story. It’s lightly described, but you know. Bones!!

Prompts:

Features the first time a Shinigami heard their zanpakutou’s name

Takes places somewhere outdoors

Features two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel

Based on or features a song lyric

#celebrate bleach #bleach returns 2022 #kotetsu isane #unohana retsu #abarai renji #kotetsu kiyone #iemura yasochika #seireitei communications #bleach tybw #bleach fanfic #please know that Hitsugaya and Matsumoto are only in this because I realized I’d never written a fic where they weren’t and i panicked #i need them my security 10th division #and also because I wrote a fic in an overlapping timeframe where Hitsugaya says something accurate but ungenerous about isane #so I felt like Isane should get a chance to make offhand comments about them too #i haven't had opportunity to check tumblr in over a week because i live a sad life so i feel super self-conscious about popping on here to #post fic when i know there's been so many wonderful event submissions that i haven't yet had a chance to read #but i am VERY excited to finally gets my hands on all of them and luxuriate <3333 #no brain just bleach

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unohanadaydreams · 2 years

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Notes: I really just wanted these two to interact. I only have Seinosuke from the first CFYOW to go off. And I also added 1 instance of a character cutting themselves so they could display some Kaido. Bc I wanted to show some of my thoughts on Kaido lmao.

Plot: Isane Kotetsu stumbles through Seinosuke’s lobby to make a request & ends up leaving with something else.

BLEACH Anime Celebration 2022 - DAY THREE: Loss

MORE LIKE YOU

She dropped through the doorway, weighed by the collective wet that had melted her into a stuttering mess at the lobby entrance.

Seinosuke, who sat on one of the cushioned benches, studying the last spiritual pressure readings of his next patient, greeted her not at all.

Struggling with a bag zipper, Isane didn’t notice. She was too busy pulling a fluffy towel large enough that her battered duffel—of obvious human invention—deflated against her hip.

It wasn’t until she’d scrubbed her hair, which emitted a horrible clicking, and turned, crouching modestly to change her socks, that Isane understood she’d entered a room occupied by someone other than herself.

Toe-ing into a sumptuous pair of slippers, one of many lining the wall, she startled at the sight of him, almost tripping back into the snow.

“Yamada, my apologies,” she said, bypassing any real greeting with a formal bow and anxious twiddling of thumbs. “I actually came to see you, but of course, you must be busy. And if you are, I can absolutely leave. The weather isn’t all that bad, I just don’t handle it well…I’m sorry, you’re definitely busy.”

Seinosuke gestured to the very empty lobby that inclement weather often wrought. “I’m not busy at all.”

“Um. Well, good, then. That’s good. You see…actually, I-I can leave if you’re….working…on something.”

Taking a wonderful time to stand, straighten his clothes, and walk his reports back to the reception desk, currently empty of any reception, Seinosuke eventually made his way back to the barely welcome guest.

The pastel beading in her hair, that collected two long, thin strands side-by-side, clicked as her head swiveled to trail him.

“Has my brother done something? Died, most likely?”

Isane’s eyes were brown and perfectly round and much closer as she rushed forward to reassure, “no, no, nothing like that! Hanataro fought very capably.”

“Did he?”

“Well….as capably as he could.”

“So he survived it, is what you mean?”

Deflating, finally a person rather than a collection of nervous traits, Isane said, “of course he did.”

“Then what do I owe this momentous pleasure of seeing my replacement, visiting me unannounced and on her very own, for the first time?”

Isane was trained enough that she didn’t pout, but she did adopt the familiar glaze that all 4ths do when caught out or humiliated. A poor man’s calm, Captain Unohana would call it.

She bowed too low again, the click of her color-chipped hair accessories emphasizing the trip down, then back up.

“I’m here to request you apply for the position of 4th division captain.” She dropped her glaze, now fully shame-faced.

Seinosuke unleashed a horrible little giggle that embarrassed him before it even burst out in full.

He stood silent, pausing until he felt in control of his facilities again. “Why would I ever do something like that, Kotetsu?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” He could tell she was expecting another giggle.

“I see. You really are a shame to Captain Unohana.”

The perfect wrinkle that formed between her eyes made him feel better about his faux pas and long fingers beckoned her forward.

“Now bring me your sword and we’ll have tea.”

“Why would I entertain captaincy? I’m perfectly content and gorgeously rich right here.”

He handed her the tea with a gentle hand, completely at odds with his mocking.

“I just think…it’s for the best,” Isane murmured into the curl of heat that rose from her cup, her fingers skimming the clay edge and retreating fast at the sudden flush of naked heat.

Seinosuke took a sip, letting the tea cool on his tongue before swallowing, the Lieutenant squirming beside him, her eyes flickering and mouth fluttering at his non-response.

He did it again. Isane looked out at the yard, face full of longing to flee.

Vying for action, but still unwilling to speak out of turn, she sipped her tea closer to how one would slurp noodles.

He did it again.

Finally, “I sai—“

“I heard you,” he said in a perfect interception. “I was simply under the impression you couldn’t think. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You can’t think or act in the position merely one step above your own?”

The slick wood they sat on was newly polished, the curling flurries of snow in front of them falling in silent solidarity to the woman who sat taller than Seinosuke did, even when hunched over herself like a cooked shrimp.

“This place, your office, is beautiful,” Isane said. “And you belong here. That’s how Captain Unohana was too. That’s how a 4th division Captain should be.”

“Captain Unohana was quite ugly as a Lieutenant. And certainly as a new Captain.”

Isane shook her head and Seinosuke pondered ripping the beads that lay against it clean off, “even considering…her past, she’s always been graceful; a real lady!”

“No one’s born a lady. Especially no one from the 11th division, Kotetsu. Understand, won’t you? How you hold yourself is how you hold yourself. And I hold myself in much higher regard than the Gotei 13.”

“I’m not ready. I won’t be for at least another fifty years. At least! The 4th deserves someone ready.”

Seinosuke set his cup down, watching the steam cover the snow-laden garden in a delicate sheer screen.

“I’ve already refused you once. I won’t be doing it again.”

“Wait,” Isane scrambled, her hands once again rummaging in the bright orange duffel before revealing a simple set of scalpels, wrapped up in a strip of leather that rolled-out flat to reveal a line of tools from biggest to smallest.

She cut her arm in a quick, artful line that missed everything messy, her blood spilling lazy and warm.

Dropping the scalpel, she set her hand over the injured arm, half her fingers peeling back the frenzied spiritual pressure while the other half worked pressure into the wound, weaving them together in the buzzing, green oval of light that smelled of fresh cut grass in the Winter afternoon. Her technique was sound, not stitching so much as braiding the injured and healing pressures together until her physical body closed. It all took barely a minute.

“You see? Something like this, Captain Unohana would simply hover over and it was gone! And Hanataro has told me all about your loom, so of course you’re the same. But I’m….”

Seinosuke found himself touched by the same frustration that arose around his little brother. If he said she were right, she would believe him. If he said she should retire, she’d seriously consider. She had no confidence in the tireless hours she’d spent near perfecting the craft of Kaido. She was irreplaceable to that swamp she was seated in.

The Gotei 13 deserves very few of the 4th talent they had, let alone a direct protégé of Retsu Unohana.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Exactly!”

“…Kotetsu.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Apologize to your squad when you return.”

“Of course.”

“And be here again, this same time, next week.”

“Ye-you’ll do it? You’ll apply?”

Seinosuke finished his tea. “Obviously not. But I could use you to torture some old men.”

“Torture…” Isane’s eyes beheld horrors unknown to all but her before Seinosuke smiled in that familiar, restrained way that spoke of disappointment should she refuse.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be healing them—keeping them alive. Think of it like training.”

Their dead teacher lived in his lips, that moment. Isane smiled a little too.

“You could make me fit to be a captain?”

She looked so pitifully hopeful that Seinosuke really did almost tell her the truth—she already was.

Instead he stood, kicking her tea into the outside, sending the hot liquid to splash holes in the snow.

“One can hope. Now hurry home and prepare so you don’t make the loss of Captain Unohana a final blow to the division.”

Isane looked to him, eyes moist before she rose and thoughtlessly bowed numerous time, in succession. “I’m extremely grateful, Yamada-sensei. Thank you!”

As he led her back to the waiting room, back to her zanpakuto, and back to the outside that glowed white as her hair, Seinosuke wondered how someone so soft could have been molded by the same hands that hardened him.

The man’s brain was diseased, spiritual pressure slipping in and out of knots like a panicked eel.

Seinosuke delighted that he should keep the old man alive for a few more months, till his Clan grew scared enough to call again.

It was fun to believe himself an animal tamer, keeping the caged beasts of nobility docile and healthy enough to keep on display. The dire cases were kept behind sumptuous cloth and secret passages; the ever rotting corpses of the Central 46, so maddened, they were convinced they heard the voice of God!

Seinosuke felt less vitriol during his tea times when he thought of it all that way. And the time he took for steaming tea and whatever weather the afternoon provided him were near sacred.

Chiyo, the elder’s first born daughter, bowed deep and gestured to the closed door, where Isane had just fled, “you aren’t going back there, are you?”

“Not at all. Just handing out notes,” Seinosuke said, hands folded neatly in front.

The woman laughed and her father rattled at the sudden noise, pushing at her shoulder in lieu of saying ‘stop’. She did, smiling as she apologized.

“They boast such prowess but she came here for healing? See father! We couldn’t get better help if we tried.”

That was only because anyone better would refuse, but Seinosuke laughed along as though their jokes were shared.

“Now, now. That’s your father’s future nurse you’re bad mouthing. And I heard she holds fantastic grudges.”

“Oh, oh, I didn’t meant it,” Chiyo shivered as she wheeled her father into their usual treatment room. “I’m sure…she’s lovely.”

Seinosuke brought out the loom, summoning a constellation into the treatment room with a wave of his thin hands, “Not at all. She’s worse than I am.”

“She couldn’t have heard me…”

Mapping out where to peel away the old man’s spiritual pressure and flood those barren pockets with his own like starlight, Seinosuke smiled, fully wicked and pleased with the prospect of turning Isane into half the woman their captain had been, even if only through rumor.

“Oh, Chiyo. I would bring a rather nice gift next time you drop by, because I assure you, she did.”

#bleach returns 2022 #It took a lot of restraint not to make them more emotional or to not get more into Kaido #but I don’t think they’re close enough for that rn #and an info dump on my Kaido thoughts would’ve been distracting #seinosuke yamada #isane kotetsu #bleach fanfic

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dragonesszena · 2 years

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Bleach Anime Celebration 2022 - Day 1: The Rain

Tags: Uryu x OC, not in this fic though, this fic is just fluff and character interactions in the rain, set during the 17 month time skip after Hueco Mundo, no warnings, rating: g.

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It wasn’t supposed to rain that day, and yet here he was stuck standing under an overhang watching it pour down, lest he go out and get soaked. Uryu wasn’t inclined to do that, particularly with his arm still bandaged, and so he was simply hoping it stopped soon because he didn’t want to be hanging around for hours. At least he was dry, unlike the people passing by on the street who were also unlucky enough to not have umbrellas.

As he watched, a familiar figure went by at a pace that could only be described as a scurry, with such a dismayed look on her face that he couldn’t help but call out to her.

“Rina!”

She practically skidded to a stop in the water coursing down the street as she did a double take, but once she’d caught her footing she moved to join him under the shelter of the overhang. Uryu stepped aside to give her more room and to give space for the puddle that was rapidly forming under her feet. She looked down at herself with a grimace, plucking at her shirt which was now clinging to her, so soaked with water it was now a darker brown than her eyes.

“Hey, fancy meeting you out here,” she commented, letting the plastic bag she was holding slide down to her elbow as she reached up to attempt to wring out her long, chestnut hair. It seemed like a lost cause to him, which she quickly realized for herself.

He shrugged slightly in response to her comment and the motion seemed to draw her attention to the bandages still wrapped around his left arm. Her brow furrowed ever so faintly as her gaze fell on them, her lips compressing. “Did you need-“ she started to ask, but he cut her off with a hasty denial that didn’t seem to reassure her at all. Both she and Orihime had tended to his wounds in Hueco Mundo, and while he felt fortunate to still have his arm and appreciated their help he felt like they had done enough.

“Okay, well, if you change your mind, that’s what I’m here for,” she replied, not doing a particularly good job of hiding her concern.

“The Soul Society didn’t send you just for me,” he said, a statement and not a question. Given how poorly the Soul Society looked after its own, he knew they wouldn’t send someone to look after a Quincy of all people.

“Sent is a strong word,” she replied, suddenly not meeting his gaze in favor of watching the rain as she fiddled idly with the handles of her bag. Now it was his turn to be concerned, for he’d seen first hand what happened to Soul Reapers who so much as appeared to shirk their orders or duties. The last thing any of them needed was another incident like they’d had with Rukia, especially with Ichigo currently not possessing his powers and his own promise to his father to not help the Soul Reapers. Truth be told, he probably shouldn’t have been speaking with her now, but he’d never really cared what his father thought.

“It’s fine,” she continued, as if sensing his worry, “they wanted someone from squad four to be available just in case…” She trailed off with her own slight shrug.

“Just in case a group of Arrancar came and started kidnapping people,” he suggested flatly, reaching up to push his glasses higher up on his face. Honestly, the number of times Orihime had been kidnapped in recent months…

Rina let out an amused huff as she smiled, “Precisely.”

“Well, it’ll be good to have you here,” he said without really thinking about it. It would be good to have a healer around, but he probably shouldn’t have admitted that fact. It wasn’t like he was planning on needing her help now that things were back to normal, even if he was seemingly the only one in Karakura Town who could be counted on to handle a Hollow whenever one showed up.

Her smile turned shy and she shook her head slightly. “You won’t need my help,” she said.

“I’m… not supposed to accept it anyway,” he admitted, wishing the note of petulance hadn’t worked its way into his voice. Her brow furrowed again as she tilted her head to the side, but he didn’t elaborate.

“Oh, well,” she said, her confusion seeming to clear suddenly, “please know that while I have great respect for your honor as a Quincy, my honor as a medic says I can’t just let you die.”

It was his turn to laugh, both out of amusement and relief that he didn’t have to explain himself. It was easier to let her believe that was the true reason why he was refusing her. She wasn’t entirely wrong, now that he thought about it…

“Noted,” he said before pointing at her bag, steering the conversation into more neutral waters. “I hope it’s nothing water soluble.”

“Oh no, it is!” she said with alarm, holding the bag open to peer inside. A collection of small paper bags was stacked inside, the top one of which was admittedly a bit damp on the side. Rina made a quiet tsking sound as she withdrew it and carefully unfolded the top. “Well, maybe… no, they definitely got wet,” she said, having reached in and pulled out a piece of hard candy. It was a small, yellow oval with a diamond pattern running across it, and a faint scent of lemon reached him from the open bag. “I hope Urahara isn’t too upset. The other bags look fine,” she said, attempting unsuccessfully to shake the drop off her fingers and back into the bag.

“Is he starting a candy store?” Uryu asked, unable to think of what else he could possibly want five bags of Sakura Drops for.

“No, he said something about an experiment and I decided not to ask,” she replied, finally giving up and sticking the flat of her finger in her mouth.

“Probably wise,” he commented, eliciting another amused huff from her as she inspected her hand for any residue.

“They still taste fine at least,” she said with a shrug, tilting the bag towards him in a silent offer. He hesitated for a moment before he decided it was probably fine and took a piece. Lemon wasn’t his favorite flavor, and he had to fight not to make a face at the bitterness of it.

Rina rolled up the bag and carefully put it back with the others, making sure the wet side was facing up. “If he says anything I’ll just tell him he should’ve gone to get them himself,” she commented, much to Uryu’s amusement as he couldn’t envision her talking back like that. “Oh, looks like the rain is stopping.”

It had indeed dwindled down to a light shower while they’d been talking, and even that seemed likely to stop entirely within the next few minutes. Rina’s hair had barely stopped dripping in the interim, and her shoes made a distinctive squishing sound as she shifted her weight forward to peer up at the sky, making him once again grateful that he’d been inside when the downpour had started.

They stood in companionable silence as they watched the rain peter to a stop, the sun almost making an appearance before being obscured again.

“I should get going,” she said softly. “It was good to see you though. If you change your mind about your arm, you know where to find me.”

She stepped back into the road and was gone before he could answer, leaving him with a faint smile and the taste of lemon on his tongue.

#bleach returns 2022 #fic #bleach #uryu ishida #oc

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bigbrainbiology · 2 years

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18) Orihime Inoue <3

#fanart #bleach #orihime inoue #digital art #my art #drawtober 2022 #bleach was also a big part of my younger years haha #I'm looking forward to the new anime!#But I'm only gonna watch the eps where certain characters from my fave arc (arrancar arc) return XD #also hot take but I still think ichigo's endgame should have been a diff person #but I still like the official ships ^v^

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recurring-polynya · 2 years

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Bleach Anime Celebration Day 5 - The Anime is Back! - Features at least two characters, one of which must be your fave - Takes place during the Thousand Year Blood War arc - Features the colors blue and red - Features either what you're most looking forward to seeing or a missing scene

As far as #1 goes, I can never decide whether Renji or Rukia is my favorite character, so I just drew them both, as usual.

I am generously categorizing this as a missing scene, even if it's more like "wishful thinking on my part," but I went through the entire TYBW arc once, trying to figure out where Rukia even got that scarf, and the most plausible charming explanation I could come up with was that it was part of her Royal Realm gear, which she dropped when she was rescuing Rose and Kensei. Renji found it after his fight with Mask, picked it up, carried it around for a while, and then gave it back to her when they met up again. It's more plausible than it sounds!!!

I thought about skirting by on a technicality that Renji's hair is red and maybe I could just do a blue background, but I thought it would be fun to try to replicate the dramatic red and blue lighting from the first teaser trailer and it actually came out better than I expected and was a lot of fun, to boot!

#bleach returns 2022 #renruki #rukia kuchiki #renji abarai #my fanart #tybw #this is only the second wildest scarf-based conspiracy theory i have ever come up with #i just think it's neat #scarf discourse

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celebratebleach · 2 years

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BLEACH ANIME CELEBRATION - QUESTION FOR THE WEEK (OCT 10TH-16TH)

As part of the Bleach Anime Celebration, anyone and everyone has the chance to answer the below question. Please reblog this post with your answers and I'll be sure to reblog your responses to back here. You have until this Sunday (Oct 16th) to answer this question:

Who are your top 10 BLEACH characters and why?

#bleach #bleach returns 2022 #ichigo kurosaki #orihime inoue #rukia kuchiki #renji abarai #uryu ishida #byakuya kuchiki #grimmjow jaegerjaquez #neliel tu oderschvank #izuru kira #momo hinamori #toshiro hitsugaya #rangiku matsumoto #jugram haschwalth

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burymeinblack2022 · 2 years

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i’m gonna be honest with y’all if gerard dyed his hair right now i think i would spontaneously combust

#i saw a picture of him with black hair and he literally bodies it so well...IT'S HIS COLOR...#yes i love ur churchmouse vibes mx way but please...please may i have some jet black...#you don't even have to bleach it so it's chill.....u want to do it sooooooo bad....#wow anna said something #anna's shitposts #we literally got a new song in 2022 so realistically it's not unlikely at all #mcr #mcr return #my chem #my chemical romance #gerard way

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rays-of-fire-and-ice · 2 years

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What He Fears Most

BLEACH Anime Celebration: Day 4 - Battle

Rating: T or Teen for violence and some horror themes

Setting: a canon-divergent AU set after chapter 554, in which Toshiro and Rangiku managed to defeat Cang Du after Bazz B is requested to leave. They don’t leave the battle unscathed, but their injuries are not as severe as they were in the original chapter.

Synopsis: After defeating Cang Du, Toshiro and Rangiku run into As Nodt.

AN: of all things, this was inspired by me listening to ‘This Light I See’ while drafting a response to an ask, then checking my dashboard and seeing a gif of As Nodt. This is my first attempt at doing a bit of horror I guess, so we’ll see how it goes. Anyhow, hope you enjoy it!

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Toshiro runs over and around debris with Rangiku at his flank. All around them, most structures had been destroyed, but there are no signs of casualties. They keep their reiatsu low, trying to go undetched. Above them, the sky is darkening with clouds; he can sense rain coming, and it'll only make the situation worse once it starts pouring over the battlefields.

He stops when Rangiku slips on a loose bit of rubble. She regains her stance without trouble, but he still feels the need to ask. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

She half smiles. “I could ask you the same thing, sir.”

It’s not until she says it that he realizes he’s pressing his hand into his side. He’s been ignoring the dull pains from wounds inflicted by Bazz-B and Cang Du, with a few of his injuries still open and only protected by one of his spare bandages. She nurses scratches and cuts from the latter Quincy, most shallow and bandaged, but the most concerning one has been the deep one inflicted dangerous close to her temple.

They needed to get to Isane if they wanted to be completely healed. Glancing at the clouds again, Toshiro can’t sense many Shinigami nor any Quincy. He tries to not think of the possibilities of why that is. He reaches his senses out further until he finds her.

“Kotetsu isn’t far from here,” he says, turning in the direction of her reiatsu. “If we head that way, she should be-”

Wreckage falls nearby. It’s only seconds later when the source - a Quincy - walks out from behind a half-destroyed wall, turned away from them.

Toshiro curses under his breath. He and Rangiku go to crouch behind debris, but when the Quincy stops lists his head in their direction, they draw their zanpakuto.

“Be prepared, Matsumoto,” Toshiro says under his breath.

The Quincy eyes them from head to toe as he takes slow steps towards them. “So Cang Du failed,” he remarks. “You are Captain Hitsugaya, and Lieutenant Matsumoto.”

“And you are?” Rangiku asks.

The Quincy stops and finally meets their gazes, but he doesn’t reply immediately. “It won’t matter to you.”

To both Shinigamis’ bewilderment, he suddenly turns his back on them and starts to walk away. “My only concern is Captain Kuchiki."

Toshiro frowns, but Rangiku gasps.

“What is it?”

“Sir, I think that’s As Nodt,” she whispers.

The one who took Byakuya’s bankai, according to Renji. Toshiro recalls the physical description the lieutenant gave, and is fits this Quincy’s appearance. His abilities were among some of the most dangerous in the first invasion.

Toshiro finds himself a t crossroads: neither of them are can put up a fight the way they are now, but it’s their duty to protect the Soul Society. If As Nodt was looking for Byakuya, what did he plan to do to him this time?

Toshiro raises Hyourinmaru. “Then we can’t let him find Kuchiki.”

He glances at his lieutenant, who subtly nods. Under their breaths, they release their zanpakuto and advance in a flash-step. Once only a few feet away, Haineko rushes out in a cloud of ash and Hyourinmaru in a flurry of ice towards As Nodt.

As if anticipating their attack, the Quincy bends forward, avoiding both strikes. While the ice plasters against the ground and a nearby wall, Rangiku gestures for Haineko to attack him from the front. As Nodt spins away before Haineko was within a meter of him.

“He’s too fast,” Rangiku says through greeted teeth. It’s not that, Toshiro thinks, it’s that they’re injuries are making them slower.

As she calls her zanpakuto back, As Nodt only turns his head to stare at the ice coating a broken wall. His eye narrows, as if he were smiling; the attack seems to have amused him. “Attacking someone while their back is turned? Have you no honor? Or perhaps…are you afraid?”

Their opponent has something planned, but what? Without look away from the Quincy, Toshiro starts walking back and signals Rangiku to do the same. “Hardly. The moment you chose to declare war on the Soul Society, you became our enemy. Your invasion and all the bloodshed on your hands is what’s truly dishonorable.”

“How hypocritical,” As Nodt responds dryly, “but not surprising.”

Without warning, the Quincy whirls back around. Large thorns made of reishi form all around him in a circle before racing towards them. Toshiro and Rangiku dodge, jumping away from each other and landing in low crouches. The spikes hit the debris and broken walls behind them, and after the light dissipates, a black oozes spills from where they’d punctures the wreckage.

“That must be his ‘fear’ ability,” Toshiro says. “Avoid it at all costs.”

Rangiku nods stiffly. She goes to speak, but a fresh barrage heads towards her. She rolls over him, wincing as she shuffles to his side. “What should we do now?”

As Nodt is stalking towards them, new thorns ready to shoot. Rangiku is too close from him to use bankai, and considering their conditions, Toshiro suggests the only tactic they hadn’t used against Cang Du. “After he shoots those, make formation ten. I’ll use Daiguren Hyourinmaru after he’s trapped.”

“Right!” says Rangiku with a smirk. For a second, he wonders if it’s from how seriously he says the silly name or from how confident she is in the plan.

They rise and rush forward, ducking under the spikes shot at them. Rangiku calls upon Haineko to form Neko Rinbu, engulfing As Nodt in a tornado. Toshiro flash-steps to different points around the whirling ash, hoping the Quincy can’t clearly detect exactly where he is as a result.

When he grabs Hyourinmaru’s chain, that’s the signal. Rangiku brings Haineko in closer around the Quincy. Toshiro throws the chain in a side arc, and as it near, Haineko creates an opening to let it through. Once the crescent blade at the end disappears into the ash and the chain catches, he raises Hyourinmaru’s blade and strikes it, sending a blaze of ice down the links.

But something isn't right. The links are too rigid; his opponent doesn't struggle to free himself.

All of a sudden, Toshiro looses his footing, yanked towards Haineko.

Rangiku lets out a panicked sound and dispels Neko Rinbu. She was a second too late, with Haineko having cut into Toshiro’s cheeks, forehead and the tip of his nose. He doesn’t have time to wince from the new, sharp pain, because As Nodt is standing only a meter from him. Wrapped around his forearm and within his hand is Hyourinmaru’s chain and ice. With two forceful shakes of his arm, the ice cracks and falls off.

Toshiro stabs Hyourinmaru at him, but the Quincy throws the chain aside and vanishes. Wide-eyed, Toshiro rapidly scans the area. Rangiku does the same as Haineko returns to her sealed state, but she suddenly freezes.

“Your shikai…” From behind, As Nodt arm loops around her shoulders. “It reminds me of Senbonzakura.”

She yelps when a thorn pierces her shoulder.

“Matsumoto!”

Toshiro shoots a flurry over his lieutenant’s shoulder, but As Nodt lets her go and disappears again before it can hit him. Some of the ice catches into the tips of Rangiku’s hair, but she doesn’t react. She stares wide-eyed at the ground, mouth agape and breathing turning shallow.

Toshiro calls out her name again, keeps calling out to her as he rushes to her. She hears him the fourth time, flinging her head up.

“Captain!” she yells. “Behind you!”

Toshiro whips around, his sword clashing with As Nodt’s spiked gauntlet. He barely has the strength to hold his stance, his arms shaking against the weight the Quincy pushes into Hyourinmaru.

“Your turn,” is all As Nodt says before he plunges a thorn into Toshiro’s torso.

The breath is knocked out of him and he fumbles back, almost tripping over his own feet. He stops when the backs of his legs hit a piece of debris. His free hand clutches at the fresh wound, but he chokes at the burning cold races up through his body. Gritting his teeth, he wills himself to ignore it and focus back on the enemy.

He grips Hyourinmaru with both hands. No, he thinks. I won’t give in. I have nothing to fear.

He glances at Rangiku, who is doubled over, also trying to resist the power’s effects. A sweat has broken out across her face and her wide, unblinking eyes start to tear up.

As Nodt goes to attack her, but Toshiro steps in front of his lieutenant and swings Hyorinmaru for the Quincy’s head. The Quincy flinches back, and Toshiro only manages to cut the ends of several long, dark hair strands.

I have nothing to fear, he repeats as lands a kick squarely in As Nodt’s stomach, sending him back several steps. I have nothing to fear.

When Toshiro blinks, As Nodt and Rangiku are gone.

He swerves around, but the world is empty, devoid of sound or smell. He faintly hears his lieutenant’s screams above the ringing that assaults his ears. All he can feel is the heavy, burning cold pierce through him.

Ice is freezing over his wounds and forming under his feet, covering the ground within seconds. His reiatsu is getting out of control. He can’t let that happen. Where’s As Nodt gone? Where’s Rangiku? Did he take her? Is she dead?

With a frustrated cry, he closes his eyes and tries to reign in his flaring reiatsu. I have nothing to fear. I have nothing to fear. This isn’t real, I can break this. I can break this. I can-

“Shiro-chan!”

His heart lurches, and against his better judgement, he opens his eyes and turns in the direction of Momo’s voice.

She stands a long way from him, unharmed and looking confused; it's as if she only just entered the battlefields. He goes to call out to her, to get her to run away, but his mouth won’t move.

The air around him gets colder. Ahead, Momo shivers, rubbing her arms up and huddled into herself. Without warning, the ice forming under his feet shoots out to her, rapidly covering all debris in its path.

He screams, but his mouth and body still won’t move, no matter how much he wills it. Run away! Leave me behind!

She looks in horror, first at the ice coming towards her, and then at him. The look stabs through him; it’s worse than any wound a weapon could make.

It’s not real, but it’s too compelling for all of his senses to ignore.

His legs are suddenly free, and he almost falls over as he sprints to her. He reaches out to her, and it’s like a death sentence. The closer he gets, the quicker the ice spreads to her.

When it reaches her feet, she cries out to him. "Shiro-chan, run away! It'll get you too!" When the ice completely encases her legs, her panic turns to accusation. "Why, Shiro-chan?! Why-!"

Her wail is cut off when ice suddenly bursts from her chest, from where Hyourinmaru had wounded her over a year ago.

Toshiro regains his voice when the ice splays out over her torso and arms. His raw cries are wordless, even though he tries to verbally command Hyourinmaru to stop, which turns into begging himself to stop it.

By the time he’s in arms reach, the ice – his ice -- has almost completely consumed her, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.

She disappears, and a fresh pain strikes him through his chest. He only sees an arm clad in white and blood, and below it, ice and pieces of rubble.

As Nodt has impaled him on another thorn.

In his peripheral, Rangiku collapses to the ground without a sound. His own haggard breath reaches his ears. Sweat drips down his face. Despite how strained his arms and legs feel from sprinting, he’d never left the spot he’d seen his opponent vanish from.

“How disappointing,” As Nodt says. “You’re a captain, my power shouldn’t affect you so terribly. But then, fear comes more easily to children. They’re more prone to irrationality. It’s hard for them to escape it, they can become consumed by it when there’s no adult there to comfort them. They can’t stand on their own two feet, even when their friends are in peril.”

Fear evaporates, and there is only rage. With a roar, Toshiro angles Hyourinmaru to cut through the Quincy’s torso. As Nodt releases him and puts a distance between them.

Blood streams through Toshiro’s fingers when he clutches at his wounds, but he uses the adrenaline from this new anger to stay standing. The piercing cold still keeps him frozen, only able to move his eyes.

As Nodt goes to launch at him again, when a yellow chain of reishi comes shooting down from above. As soon as it collides with the Quincy, the chain wraps itself around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides. Wide-eyed, he swerves around to find the source.

With his opponent distracted, Toshiro feels the piercing cold start to ebb away. However, at the familiar cry of a bird, followed by a ball of flame racing towards As Nodt’s head, he goes rigid.

The Quincy pivots to the left, avoiding the fireball. Before it even hits the debris, it’s caster descends from above.

“Get away from them!” Momo yells as she swings Tobiume, throwing another fireball at him.

The Quincy doesn’t miss this one, losing his footing before the flames collide with his shoulder. The flames do more damage to his uniform than to his person, his skin only smeared with ash.

Momo lands in front of Toshiro, zanpakuto raised and stance strong. She flings her arm behind her and chants for a barrier. A yellow prism forms over him and Rangiku; he recognizes it as one of the higher barriers, able to withstand even strikes from a bankai’s attack.

So taken by her sudden appearance, Toshiro only just notices As Nodt heading towards her while trying to break the chains of Sajo Sabaku. However, he missteps in every direction, going from one side to the other and almost tripping over rubble in his path.

“What…is this?” the Quincy asks her, voice bordering on livid.

“Getting a little tipsy down there?!” comes a shout from above. Shinji grins down from the top of one of the few still standing buildings, his zanpakuto released.

While As Nodt is distracted, Momo lunges at him. Her opponent dodges too late; Tobiume slices into the edge of Quincy’s opposite shoulder. He grunts, but when she goes in for another attack, he stumbles out of range. She manages to get in a strike to his side, but even under the include of Sakanade, he still able to dodge most of her attacks. All the while he tries to break from Sajo Sabaku, but the chain holds strong.

Toshiro’s grip on Hyourinmaru tightens. He needs to help them. He starts for the barrier on wobbly legs.

“No, Captain…” comes a raspy voice from behind.

Rangiku has managed to prop herself up to sit against the ruins, clutching at a stomach wound he hadn’t noticed before - As Nodt must have injured her just before he’s impaled him. Despite her weakened state, she levels him a look that makes it clear he shouldn’t go out and help while he’s like this.

Cringing, he carries himself over to join her, not once taking his eyes off the battle unfolding before them.

Eventually, there’s a distance between Momo and As Nodt, enough for the latter to concentrate on creating his thorns. With his sense of balance off, they go flying in all directions. Everywhere they hit causes half standing walls to crumble and reduce bigger pieces of wreckage to rubble

Momo ducks when one flies at her and tries to rush at him again. However, more thorns shoot out and she has no choice but to fall back. She casts a kido barrier in front of herself when she can’t avoid three of them coming at her. All of them hit and leave the black ooze behind.

However, the black somehow bleeds through the barrier, it’s tendrils lashing to strike Momo. She raises Tobiume to cut them.

Toshiro finds his voice and stumbles forward, almost slipping on his own ice. “Don’t let it touch you! This is As Nodt!”

Heeding his warning, Momo instead flash-steps away from the barrier and dispels it, leaving the ooze to fall to the ground in with a ‘splat’.

Shinji leaps down to her side before more thorns shoot around the area. Shinji and Momo try and fail to advance on the Quincy, forces to avoid wave after wave of thorns. One of them hits the barrier around Toshiro and Rangiku, and like before, the black tries to reach them.

Momo yells something to her captain. Shinji scowls at whatever she says, but nods. Sakanade stops spinning.

As Nodt sways from side to side while trying to stand still. Sajo Sabaku is worn by this point, and he breaks the kido trapping him with an irritated growl. His baleful glare falls on the Fifth Division’s captain and lieutenant as he raises his hands.

However, he stops. Eyes roll to the right, and then his snaps in the same direction. “Kuchiki.” He jumps back, landing on top of a broken wall,from which he glowers at Shinji and Momo. “After I’m done with her, I’ll be back for you two.”

He then leaps to the same building Shinji and Momo had been standing on top of earlier. Momo has Tobiume raised, but she shifts her gaze from where As Nodt had leapt away to to Toshiro and Rangiku, conflicted.

“Lieutenant Kuchiki can handle him now,” Shinji says to her. “You sense her reiatsu? She’s gotten a lot stronger.”

Mind made up, Momo dispels the barrier and runs to them, not even noticing the ice crunching and breaking under her feet.

For an irrational moment, Toshiro worries what will happen if she comes near him, and he raises his hand. “Wait-”

“He got you with his power,” Shinji says, following behind her. “Whatever the heck you saw ain’t real.”

I know, he wants to say, but…. He can’t help it. It hadn’t been the first time he’d seen such horrific images that seemed too real. In his nightmares, she wasn’t the only one to freeze through because of him, but she had been for a while after Aizen’s defeat.

However, when Momo comes to his side and looks him over, panting and her brow furrowed in concern, it’s enough to begin grounding him. Before he can speak to her, she switches her focus over to Rangiku, her jaw clenching at her fellow lieutenant’s stomach injury.

“Reckon you have this?” Shinji asks Momo.

She kneels at Rangiku’s side. “I’ll do my best.” She angles back to Toshiro as her palms are engulfed in a heal glow. “I’ll heal Rangiku-san first, can you hold on until then?”

He gingerly lowers himself to sit on a large piece of wreckage. “Do it.”

She gets to work, chanting under her breath until the kido covers Rangiku’s wounds. It’s then he notices how haggard she is. There’s no visible wounds on her, but patches of skin are smudged with dirt and debris, the sleeve of her shihakusho has a tear, and there’s a thin sheen of sweat on her brow.

Shinji comes to stand next to Toshiro, back facing him and his zanpakuto still drawn.

“Got your bankai back?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Toshiro answers, voice hoarse. Then, after swallowing against the dryness in his mouth and throat, he asks, “How did you find us?”

The other captain’s shoulders tense a fraction. “We were on our way to assist Omaeda and Sui-Feng. Not sure if you can sense it, but they’re not doing good right now. But then we heard you and Matsumoto, and we figured you needed our help first.”

How loud had they screamed? Toshiro shakes his head. Staring at the other captain’s back, he recalls seeing bandages criss-crossed underneath his shihakusho. He wasn’t in the best condition either, but he came to help them regardless. “Thank you, then.”

Shinji smiles over his shoulder. “You’re welcome.”

Toshiro thinks back to a few minutes earlier. Keeping his voice low, he asks, “How did you know?”

Shinji quirks up a brow. “Huh?”

“How did you know what I saw?”

Shinji smiles lowers as he twists away. “I didn’t, but I have a fair idea what it might have involved.”

Toshiro opens his mouth to retort, but nothing comes to mind. He instead sighs through his nose and watches over the lieutenants.

Momo rolls the shoulder of Rangiku’s shihakusho just enough to heal the other wound. The skin doesn’t knit over the injury completely, but it seals up as a scab.

Rangiku murmurs something to Momo, and whatever it was makes Momo put a comforting hand on her uninjured shoulder. “We’re not going anywhere,” she reassures.

He won’t force her to divulge what she’d seen and heard while under the influence of As Nodt’s power, but that response may have been a clue. If that’s the case, he glares at the ground. I won’t abandon you.

It’s not until Momo starts wrapping bandages over the shihakusho and wounds that Rangiku looks over at him. “Captain.”

“Are you all right?” he asks. It feels like déjà vu.

She eyes the iced over wounds in his torso with concern. “I’m fine.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do much more than this,” Momo says. “Your injuries will have to be healed completely by Kotetsu-san.”

“I know,” Rangiku says. Now in less pain, she manages a small smile. “As is, you’ve done a great job.”

Momo takes the compliment with a shaky smile. Now finished with Rangiku, she stands and goes to Toshiro, already chanting the incantation for the healing kido. He slips the shoulders of his shikahkusho, allowing her to see the torso injuries better. She cringes when she meets his gaze.

“What?” he asks.

“N-Nothing, it’s just…I’ve never seen you so pale.”

If she hasn't figured it already, she’ll soon realise it wasn’t due to blood loss. He bites the inside of his cheek against the sting where the kido is healing him. The remains over most of the wounds, but a few shards crack and break away. Her hands shake over his torso.

“Don’t strain yourself,” he murmurs.

The furrow in her brow deepens. “I’m not.”

Shinji had moved over to help Rangiku stand, and the two discuss strategies and their encounters with the enemy. With their backs turned, Toshiro risks a moment of vulnerability.

He wipes the blood off one hand into his uniform, and then gingerly grabs one of Momo’s wrists. “It’s fine if you don’t heal anything over completely. You’ll need your strength for the battles ahead.”

She blinks, but then her eyes darken. “How many more battles are there to come?”

It’s a rhetorical question, but he answers somewhat bitterly, “However many it takes to save the Soul Society.”

Done with the wound on his stomach, Toshiro releases her wrist and she shifts her hands to hover over the injury in his upper chest. It's a full minute later when stares his hand, seeming to take in the details of it, as if examining it for one of her drawings. Something about it seems to upset her, her mouth drawing down in a frown.

“You faced against As Nodt,” she says. “So, that means when you were screaming before…”

For a moment he’s taken back to when they were children. Out of the two them, she was always the one who got scared the easiest. Perhaps it was because of that whenever he was frightened, she always looked like it was one of the worst things to happen. She’d comfort him, and eventually, her troubled look would melt away to a sad smile.

She has that same stricken look now, and it threatens to undo him, to make him confess everything he saw under the influence of As Nodt’s power.

Ever since he vowed to protect her always, he knew the power to protect her could also harm her. That was reaffirmed by what happened during the fight against Aizen, and again when he achieved Hyourinmaru's Completed form.

He had gotten stronger, but so had she. She’d run through and broken the ice beneath her feet, had stood in front of him when his reiatsu was out of control, and she did not freeze or buckle under its pressure.

He decides to say things he'd normally keep within. "It doesn't truly matter, none of it was real. If you truly wish to know though, I'll tell about it later. Right now, we need to focus on the battle ahead." He allows his frown to soften. "I haven't seen you in battle for a while. You've improved, I can tell." He meets her gaze. "Thank you for helping us." Once Kotetsu heals me, I'll return to favor.

At her slow, reassuring smile, the lingering threads of the piercing cold flood out of him, and in their wake is nothing but relief.

#bleach returns 2022 #hitsuhina #toshiro hitsugaya #as nodt #momo hinamori #rangiku matsumoto #shinji hirako #fanfiction #bleach #brotp: I've got your back #brotp: the fifth division #honestly I just wanted an excuse to write a scenario where Momo saves Toshiro #I usually write it the other way around and figured it was her turn #I admit I'm not 100% happy with it but I didn't want it sitting in my WIP files forever either #so here!

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