What She Needs

Hey guys, here's another chapter, hope you like it.
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Dry coughs echoed in the cavern as Soifon tried to lift her shaking body off the floor, her head pounding fiercely. Managing to stand, she looked about passed the captains and healers who lay scattered around the room blown back by the sheer magnitude of Retsu’s technique.

The 2nd Division captain stepped forward shakily but determined. The more steps she took, the more solid her legs became as she hurried to the edge of the blanketed area. Staring down between the collapsed healers, she moved her eyes to cast a practical gaze over the women.

And she smiled, her respect and admiration for Captain Unohana rising to another level as four chests rose fully, a healthy pink tinge blooming in their faces. She turned to congratulate the Captain Healer and gasped. Her feet seemed to move without her as she darted across the cavern.

Retsu Unohana lay collapsed against the floor, her body limp and cold to the touch as Minazuki lay sheathed by her hand.

“Unohana-taicho, Unohana-taicho, UNOHANA-TAICHO” Soifon called loudly shaking the woman’s shoulders as behind her the captains began to move, the distress in her voice awakening them. Kenpachi Zaraki was the first to move as he stood up gingerly putting weight on his unsteady legs. Glancing at the smoothly breathing women, their faces healthily flushed he continued by as he hurried to Soifon. Reaching the kneeling captain, his eyes widened as he lifted Retsu up in his arms alarmed as the chilly, clammy feeling of her skin could be felt through her uniform.

He looked around wildly as he sought some one, something to do for her as she lay deathly still and cold in his arms. Her slack face smooth and pale as she hung against him. But who do you take the master healer to? Ukitake was up followed quickly by Byakuya, Kyoraku and Toshiro as the captains looked at Zaraki helplessly. He looked down into her still face despair filling him yet again. No breath stirred her lips, no movement could be felt in her body. She had given her all, her very soul to save the lieutenants and she hung in his arms lifelessly, her body ridiculously light as the captains crowded around her shock and sadness filling them as they stood in awe of this woman’s strength, her resolve and her sacrifice.

She had done what no one else could do, had brought four women back from the brink of death at what seemed to be the cost of her life. She was the embodiment and soul of a captain. She had commanded her squad with precision and kindness, never asking of them what she herself would not do. And now she had given these four women the priceless gift of another chance at life.

All around them, shinigami stirred painfully exhausted as one timid voice shuddered softly. Hanataro called for their attention weakly and suddenly Toshiro had the smaller man in his arms moving the spiritually exhausted 7th seat healer over to the cluster of captains.

“Ple….a….se………g.i…..ve……Unohana…….taicho…..a…..small….bl…..ue…..pil----” he fingered a chain he pulled from beneath his uniform before losing his battle with exhaustion and fainting in Toshiro’s hold.

Soifon quickly reached out and finished pulling the chain out from Hanataro’s uniform exposing a small thin vial about the length of her thumb with three tiny blue pills. Uncapping the vial, she dropped one of the small capsules into her fingers and gently slipped it into Retsu’s mouth rubbing the woman’s throat she hoped whatever it was it would save the master healer.

Zaraki hefted Retsu in his arms as Kyoraku lifted up Nanao, Byakuya held Rukia, Toshiro gently pulled Matsumoto against him and Ukitake took the long body of Isane up. Soifon moved out summoning her guards to bring in squads.

“Move everyone to beds in the 4th Division Relief Station except for him” Soifon jerked her thumb disgustedly at the dead body against the far wall crater.

“Kurotsuchi’ll get him” she spoke icily as her guards nodded professionally, leaping away silently.

~*~

Everyone was relocated as the rest of 4th Division cared for the exhausted shinigami always alert for any movement from the large room at the end of the hall that held the motionless body of their captain. Into rooms adjacent hers, Nanao and Isane rested in the room on the right and in the other lay Matsumoto and Rukia. Their bodies were completely healed and now the women slept recovering their reiatsu.

All the shinigamis were safely guarded by 11th Division as Zaraki felt it was the only thing he could do for them.

~*~

A week passed slowly for the shinigami who waited for people to wake up and everyday more and more people vacated the relief station as lieutenants and squad members rose from healing sleep. One such lieutenant was sitting in a chair in Rukia’s room watching her peaceful face as she slept, guilt eating away at him as he was once again forced to face his weakness. Laying his hand across the sheath at his waist he spoke inwardly.

Zabimaru…I want to be strong…strong….I have to protect her next time Zabimaru how can I call her mine if I can’t even do that much…

I HAVE TO BE STRONG he spoke, determination burning with steel as he stared into the red eyes of the Baboon King. He nodded his white head in agreement “Learn me Renji, stop playing little kisses with Rukia and learn ME, let me teach you what it truly means to wield me.” He began to fade as Renji opened his eyes staring into the cool dimness of Rukia’s room.

I will learn you Zabimaru he swore as he looked across Rukia’s gentle features. Aizen wasn’t done yet, not even close. He had a complete army behind him and soon he would have more, with his entire power he would try to crush them, destroy them all. He had to get stronger.

Renji stepped up to Rukia’s bedside and bent down placing a light kiss to her lips, he moved to whisper into her ear.

“Rukia I will be strong”

“No one will hurt you again”

“No one will take you from me again, not Byakuya, not Aizen, not even Soul Society”

“I will be strong” he promised her, his voice reverberating with strength as he stood up.

I WILL BE STRONG

Byakuya Kuchiki stood silently on the other side of the door, one hand lightly resting on the doorknob as he listened to his lieutenant’s words, heard them vibrate with complete confidence and determination, and he turned on his heel and walked off, his scarf fluttering elegantly behind him.

~*~

Layers……..weight....blankets..........shift........soft... shift......twittering.....birds.......breath… in.......chest............smell........ Rukia shifted disoriented in the darkness of her consciousness, her body felt weightless, her mind vaguely empty …...images of red hair and tattooed skin........clean.......too clean.........relief station….....flowers?……breath in again.......sigh......... as she breathed slowly I know that smell… vaguely she felt a soft touch ….barely sensible….lips….I know those lips…..layers…..I know that touch… a strange fluttering at her ear …….wind…..a breeze…….a sigh…….I know that voice….………layers………

The petite brunette tugged at her eyelids wanting to see….wanting to see that face she knew so well. Fighting weakly against her body, Rukia slit her eyes open wincing as light assaulted her senses. The dim illumination of her room stabbing through her head as she quickly shut her eyes again.

Her body suddenly felt too heavy, her senses full of sounds and smells and tastes. Again she tried barely lifting her eyelids she forced herself to see past the blindness of too much light until her pupils contracted and things began to focus into view.

Fuzzy grey lines began to fade as solid images registered in her mind. Tables, chairs, flowers? For who? Rukia wondered as she shifted, her mind slowly sinking into drowsiness again, things fading beneath her lowering lids.

~*~

Ikkaku sat across the hall on one of the table within Nanao’s room. He stared at the elegant slopes of her face. But once again, he shook his head.

Nothing…no passion…..no desire….no concern….

He sat there for who knows how long, how long he had perched on this table trying to make himself care for her, trying to make himself feel a great sense of loss, or a great sense of love, or concern but all he felt was emptiness. Nanao suffered horribly and barely escaped death and he couldn’t even muster up a decent sense of relief.

Unwittingly, Ikkaku’s dark eyes moved from Nanao’s face to travel over Isane’s. He remembered her butchered body vividly in his mind, remembered the stench of meat as she lay dying. And strangely he felt a warmth enter his belly. A heat that began to churn as he tried to see her peaceful face instead of the deathly pale bloody one, he had seen in his dreams.

The churning intensified as his gaze moved over her softly moving chest, that had been slashed into so many ribbons it was a wonder she was breathing at all. The churning rolled into a boil and Ikkaku jolted as he heard a loud crack echo through the room.

Looking down at his hands he stared at the thick chunk of wood he had ripped off the table. Suddenly the boiling erupted through him and Ikkaku was flabbergasted to realize he was angry, not just angry but royally pissed off. Images began to slide through his mind faster and faster of her mauled body, her shallow breathing, her deathly pale face, her fogged eyes.

Standing up in a flash, he shook his head as he took one last lingering look at the silvery haired lieutenant and a rush of emotions ghosted through him. Unprepared for it, he left the room, his mind full of disconnected thoughts as he tried to understand the intensity of his reactions to a lieutenant he had never really properly spoken too. Unbidden, a sense of relief filled him as he thought of her safety, that in and of itself disturbed him.

~*~

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” Renji roared as he spun the huge rattling joints of Hihio Zabimaru, and a tremendous crash sounded through the underground training arena, Yoruichi had shown him. He yanked his Bankai back and spun it trying to control the speed and focus on a target.

Whipping his arm forward, he snapped Zabimaru unprepared for the ring of metal as a cloud of dust arose from where it clashed with something else.

“Don’t swing it so quickly Renji, move your arm in smaller loops and aim with your hand. Where you angle your hand is where your snake head will land, its not in the wrist but in the hand” the cool, elegant drawl of Kuchiki Byakuya was heard through the settling dust as Renji gaped at his captain, his eyes wide.

Suddenly the captain lunged forward swinging his sword backward in an undercut slowly creating a target for Renji to hit. The move was slow as Renji shook his head out of the stupor and lifted his arm, he spun it in smaller circles and brought his arm down again flicking his wrist as he focused Zabimaru on the rising tip of Senbonzakura. Concentrating on the end of his hand, he threw his weapon forward hitting the tip of Byakuya’s sword.

“Again. Faster.” The 6th Division captain commanded speeding his motion up. He repeated the undercut with his sword waiting for Renji’s Zabimaru. Pulling his arm back, the lieutenant repeated the spinning flick as he focused on his hand again, this time pitching his sword down hard. The ringing sound of clashing metal sounded through the cavern as the huge snakehead hit Senbonzakura.

“Concentrate on the motion of the attack, not the strength of it. Strength comes with the technique not with brute force. Focus. Again.” The elegant noble’s voice never fluctuated as he spoke, his practiced eye breaking Renji’s stance down and correcting it.

Swinging Senbonzakura again in the same move, he caught a softer hit but instead of a wild throw, it was focused and hit dead on at the center of his sword.

“Good. Again.” He drilled Renji in the same move, making the redhead repeat it and with each move the swing got better. With such a powerful sword Byakuya reflected as he caught another pass you might be an incredible captain.

Byakuya observed, Renji had the latent talent and the untapped reiatsu to become even his equal though he would be damned if he’d ever tell the redhead of his potential, instead he just blinked calmly and told Renji

“Again.”

~*~

Rin Tsubokura poked her head into the Research and Development Lab again eyeing the corpse on the table from beneath her ponytail as it fluttered with every move she made.

“Hey Akon so what’s up with Mr. Dead and Ugly?”

The three horned scientist muttered under his breath before he glanced at Rin. “It seems to be a sort of gigai like Nemu but it has latent soul particles that are eerily similar to Aizen Sousuke. From what I can tell this seems to be something like a Modified Soul except instead of an artificially engineered soul it’s a piece of some one else’s soul.”

“So, like, it’s a piece of Aizen’s soul that got loose and formed a brain?”

“I doubt it got loose Rin, soul particles have no way to form solid organs or bodies. I think this was one of Aizen’s experiments that he left here as a little present. It was poorly constructed and fairly weak in terms of reiatsu but the hypnosis was as powerful as Aizen’s. I think Aizen was experimenting on duplicating himself before he completely awoke his zanpakuto. Judging from the age of this gigai its at least 180, 200 years old, it’s such an old model that we don’t even carry these anymore. Plus there’s the small matter of the sword he had. Kyoka and Kyoka Suigetsu…Rin, swords just don’t exist in such close connections like that. Again I think Aizen was experimenting on himself and wanted a body double to test the really dangerous stuff on. This thing was probably one of his failed toys.”

Akon turned back to the corpse he was examining, “But why did it attack the lieutenants and Kuchiki-san?” Rin asked him curiously.

“Aizen was already unstable to begin with, I mean he’s a nut so it stands to reason that any piece of him would be nuts too. Logically, he tried to animate his soul particles but every particle carries a piece of himself. He must have isolated this particularly nasty bit of him by mistake and when it went berserk without balance of other emotions, a consciousness, a brain etc. he locked it up for us to deal with later.”

“So Aizen’s messing with us? Already?” The young woman asked concerned.

“Naw Rin I think his little toy just managed to escape from wherever he left it.” Akon spoke humorlessly, the grim set of his mouth belying his casual conversation. He stood there in the well illuminated lab room eyeing the shriveled, mutated gigai before him. For a man, any man to create such a beast…it was beyond disturbing, it transcended madness and passed into the realm of sheer insanity.

“Rin I’m going to run a few more tests to make sure our little Mr. Dead and Ugly doesn’t have any more surprises left in him.” Akon spoke calmly as the younger assistant sat back in the far chair, silent as a mouse as she paid attention learning about the intricacies of this old gigai model as Akon spoke his mutterings louder for her benefit.

~*~

Everything felt heavy, a curious weight across her mind. Her chest felt heavy, her hands, even her hair seemed have a life and weight of its own. The breath in her lungs seemed to weigh a ton have to get this weight off me Rangiku thought disjointedly but her fingers felt heavy. A smell of sweet sugar drifted across her nose as she tried to make sense of herself. The sweet scent seemed to weigh in her nose as she tried to move, shifting slightly she tried again. A vague roaring in her ears made her try to wince.

…I wish it’d stop

Noise seemed to filter in on static waves uncomfortably echoing in her head loudly as she tried to move again. She twitched her hands and the static seemed to flicker changing as if someone was shaking it. Matsumoto breathed another weighed breath as she forced her body to move again. The flickering static seemed to tune in and out, changing in pitch, vaguely familiar sounds started to sound like words before they were lost in the fuzzy mess in her head.

I wish this noise would stop…

She edged her body slowly over something soft. It seemed to be supporting her…was she laying down? But all around her the noise continued dropping and rising in tones as it pushed passed the roaring in her ears. Detached, she felt as if she should know something. Know this sound maybe? Or know what she was laying on but her body just wouldn’t move.

I want to move…I want to stop this sound… Matsumoto vaguely decided as she tried to force her body to move. Suddenly her eyes sprang open and the roaring in her ears dissolved into words.

“Good job Ran-chan!” Yachiru smiled widely a sickeningly pink lollipop visible between her moving lips.

“Did you sleep well?” She asked and the weight was explained as Matsumoto realized disjointedly that Yachiru was sitting on her chest.

Why was…

“Yachiru” Matsumoto surprised herself and the lieutenant both with her raspy low voice, heavy with disuse.

“Yeah!!! Ran-chan can talk ne ne Ran-chan wanna know a secret?” Yachiru smiled a big, sugar-sticky smile.

Blinking repeatedly Secret…uh…se….c….ret the idea vaguely dimmed in her mind as the pink haired lieutenant leaned closer and whispered into her strangely sharp hearing.

“Ken-chan likes you” Yachiru giggled as she watched the buxom blond blink before drifting back to sleep. Yachiru smiled, her mind at ease as Rangiku finally awoke.

~*~

Shunsui Kyoraku knocked back a swig of sake as he welcomed the burn in his throat. Images of Nanao’s ruined body burning his insides as emotions swirled around him. He had caught himself in her room countless times, gazing at her passive, sleeping face and he realized without a shred of doubt that he love her.

Passive, calm, docile whatever she was he was relieved to be able to have it again. He didn’t care if she couldn’t match him, he knew now that he would change his very nature to have her love him the way he realized he loved her.

It wasn’t about physical attraction anymore…her flushed face arching in desperate pleasure morphed into the calm sarcasm she always hit him with to her withdrawn, pale face so near to death. He didn’t know what to do with himself as he paced the hallways of 8th Division. He wanted her calm and cynical again. He wanted her anyway she chose to come to him, he just wanted her awake.

He wanted her in his arms whole and happy, even if she hit him with her fan for it. Kyoraku finally understood now the intensities of his emotions and all he could do was accepted them. Accepted them for what they were as he haunted the Relief Station hallways waiting for her to wake. Just a twitch, anything to reassure him, she was still living, still with him.

Even if she didn’t want to be with him, he would let her go. The intensity of his realization almost overwhelmed him if not for the images of her deathly pale face, images of her destroyed body soaking in puddles of caked on blood.

The image haunted his nightmares whenever he could sleep, and he knew Ukitake was worried for him but until Nanao awoke, he could not calm down. His division seemed to stand on pins and needles as well waiting for the lieutenants to awaken, especially Nanao. She was their lieutenant, they needed her and wanted her quiet, capable self back in their division where she belonged.

This overwhelming rush of worry, concern and love was ever present in his mind as Shunsui fought against his moods but this uncertainty, this unwaking trial was wearing him down bit by bit, day by day as he waited…waited for her to wake up.

~*~

Yamamoto sat once again at the head of Division 1’s main meeting room as eight captains dropped in for this meeting. The research assistant scientist had reported his findings directly to the Captain Commander and all the captains had a right to know.

He looked around the room at the different faces, some impassionate, some withdrawn, some careless but the majority of faces were creased with deep lines of sleeplessness and worry as the lieutenants and squad members continued to sleep, the vivid absence of Retsu Unohana was a jarring experience for the old man as he fought past his own concerns and emotions.

“The examination of the body yield a modified gigai with Aizen’s spirit particles. Apparently Aizen has been experimenting and betraying us for a lot longer than we’ve come to realize. He engineered that gigai as a physical replacement for himself but it was a complete failure as the creature’s main trait seemed to be sadistic butchery and fornication.

The body appears to be roughly about 190 years old and with its death one week ago the gigai lasted only three days before it crumbled. Captains, that monster is yet another example of this man who now proclaims himself a god and tries to “stand in heaven” as he put. Aizen himself used pieces of his own soul to create that monstrosity, that captains, is just a taste of Aizen Sousuke’s true nature.”

He took another look at the empty faces around him from Hitsugaya’s struggle against his emotions to the intensity he read in Komamura, Kuchiki and Zaraki. Ukitake and Kyoraku looked close to tears, and even though Soifon stood tall under his graze, her eyes betrayed her sadness, to finally the apparent disinterest in Kurotsuchi.

“I know your pain” Yamamoto spoke quietly into the silent room as he gazed at the staff across his legs before raising his eyes to looked at them again.

“But we must not let that distract us. If we want to have a place for our lieutenants to wake up in, a place for our squad members to return to, and a place for our captain to call home WE MUST STOP wallowing in grief. Yes the pain is still close to the heart, yes the attack is barely two weeks old but Aizen will not stop to grieve. Aizen will not let us have time to mourn. He will sweep through Soul Society and only WE will decide how it WILL end! Whether our friends, our subordinates, our partners, our lovers are to have a place to call their’s we MUST awaken our spirits and fight for our comrades, for ourselves and for those who still sleep. We CAN NOT let this BASTARD destroy all that is good, all that is important. All WHO ARE important with his insanity! Pick up your zanpakutos and feel them scream for the battles they know are coming, feel them resound with the need to fight, to protect and to destroy!”

Around the room, the captains felt their swords vibrate in response, they pulsed and shuddered within their sheaths rising to the occasion. Even Zaraki thought he felt a vague resonance in the sword at his waist.

“PICK THEM UP and FIGHT, fight with their fury until your’s awakens, pour your guilt and your weakness into your sword and let them burn it away. Let them burn it till all that is left is the fire to fight, to fight AND TO WIN!”

~*~

“You know, I didn’t think the old man had that much fight left in him.” Kyoraku commented to Ukitake as the white haired man nodded in agreement. Even as they bantered lightly, the meeting had a sobering and powerful effect on them. The captains hadn’t cheered, hadn’t raised their swords in their arms, but their faces changed, their pitiful expressions morphed into strength, determination. Steel stared back at their General as hands gripped hilts and eyes promised to fight and swore to win.

Yamamoto had waved them off letting his statement hang in the air as he felt proud again of his court guards. As they all left he turned with a smile tugging at his mouth.

“That was a good one wasn’t it…didn’t think I still had that in me” he elbowed his lieutenant chuckling, proud of himself, a much younger man peering out of the commander’s body as his lieutenant floundered. “Yes sotaicho” Chojiro answered stiffly.

~*~

Lights, distortions. Grey movements fluttered at the edge of her consciousness as she sought to reach for them. But the farther she reached for them, the farther they seemed to be. Vague images ghosted across her face but she just couldn’t reach them.

Jumping forward she grasped at them barely brushing it with her fingertips. Her black bangs swung in her face as she tried to see, tried to touch the fuzzy images.

Everything was distorted, everything shifting and swaying, under her as Nanao struggled. She lunged falling endlessly through darkness as shimmers flew past her tumbling body like thousands of flashes of light. Stopping abruptly she hung in darkness and tried to hold the light in her hands only for it to disappear, sifting through her fingers like water.

Nanao began to despair as she tried in vain again fighting to grab the shimmering light but it just skipped out of her way. Forcing her body to move faster, she focused and threw herself with everything she had at the fluttering, glimmering petals of light.

She fell through a rent in the darkness, rolling into the light as she gasped and opened her eyes wide. An orange glow from an outside lamp showing through the blinds drawing shadowy bars across her face. Easily recognizing the room, her eyelids lowered a fraction. Disoriented, Nanao shook her head gently trying to get her bearings as her mind fought her, her body weighing on her as she tried to wake up only for sleep to tug her down again.

~*~

Ikkaku stood at the edge of a large wildflower field close to the edge of Soul Society gazing at the hundreds of different summer flowers that swayed in the darkening afternoon as night threatened the daylight. He sighed irritated I am a big, manly 11th division officer I don’t go picking flowers. He glared around accusing the daffodils and daisies for this humiliation.

Unbidden Isane’s smoothly sleeping face filled his mind. His forehead wrinkled with a frown, he was vaguely sure he should feel guilty about this but he couldn’t control the desire to take Isane flowers. He wanted to see her face when she saw them. These feeling were so foreign and unwelcome that he almost turned around and left but a voice echoing in his head, sounded a lot like Yumichika…

Are you scared…scared to take a pretty lieutenant some flowers? Ooo Ikkaku’s scared, Scaredy-cat, Scaredy-cat!

“I AM NOT SCARED!” He spoke loudly to the stupid Yumichika in his head. And bent down quickly to rake a handful of red flowers up. Quickly stuffing them into his shirt he turned to go as a guilty voice asked him Aren’t you going to take Nanao some?

No. Why should I? I don’t want to marry her or anything, it was just sex and I don’t want to have sex with her anymore. I want to take Isane flowers. He argued with something that sounded suspiciously like a conscious. Do you want to marry Isane?

Ikkaku was so lost in his head that he ran bodily into Yumichika who seemed to be running in the opposite direction. Colliding they bounced off each other as Yumichika dropped a handful of papers.

“DAMN IT IKKAKU!” He stood up angrily even as the third seat yelled back at him “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” But he took Yumichika’s proffered hand anyway as his long time friend began to haul him up. Suddenly letting go, Ikkaku tumbled back on the ground. Pissed off, he raised a fist ready to pummel the other man when he noticed Yumichika’s face.

The narcissistic man had a hand over a giddy little grin as he giggled “Ikkaku what are those?” He asked amused as the taller man looked about at all the flowers strewn around him. Blushing, the third seat scooped them up and shoved them back in his uniform.

“Nothing…” he pouted as he crossed him arms and looked away, still sitting on the ground but Yumichika wouldn’t let it go “Are those for Nanao-fukutaicho?”

“No! Why?” Ikkaku looked up as if his friend was nuts.

“Well Ikkaku aren’t you dating her?” Yumichika braced his hands on his hips as he stared down at the other man.

“No, I was just fucking her. That was the deal, it wasn’t a relationship or anything. We never talked unless it was about sex during sex.” He answered as the 5th seat pulled him up again.

“Then who’re the flowers for?”

“Isane-fukutaicho” Ikkaku mumbled sighing in defeat knowing very well how Yumichika would never let it rest unless he told him.

“Really!? I never would have thought you and her….”

“We’re not! I just want to take her some flowers. Is that so bad!?” He muttered crossly as he yanked the flowers out of his uniform again. Brandishing the crumpled flowers like a sword he glared at Yumichika.

“Is that so bad!?” But his best friend just laughed. “No Ikkaku I hope you and her hit it off but nothing will happen if you give her those ugly ones.” The excitable man promptly grabbed Ikkaku by the arm and dragged him back to the wildflower field, the third seat complaining loudly the whole way there, the papers scattered all over the ground fluttering away

And people wondered why 11th never got any paperwork done…

~*~

Tingles……sweet….honey……….minty…….smells…..wild………….what are those….smells?

They tingled in her nose, filling her lungs, images of flowers coloring the darkness she hovered in. Reds and yellows, purples, whites and oranges. Greens and blues sparkled through her consciousness as her nose filled with the sweet, rich scent of roses and daisies. Carnations and lily flowers seemed to materialize in her head, large buds and huge blooming flowers surrounded her, forcing out the darkness as the scents overwhelmed her nose and her senses.

She seemed to be surrounded by the sweet scents of Honeysuckles and Irises, Tulips opened up around her, enveloping her in a blanket of fresh smells. Isane wanted so badly to bury her nose in the wildflowers all around her but her body wouldn’t move.

She tried but no matter what she did her arms would not budge and her legs would not fold. She tried stretching out her neck but no part of her body would move.

Move…….I want to smell the flowers….just a little bit, just move a tiny bit so I can smell this one she thought compromisingly as a rose barely tickled the edge of her cheek. The soft velvety petals tickling her skin. She wanted to move.

She wanted to scoop these wildly, wonderfully smelly flowers up and revel in their crisp, heavy-sweet scents. She loved flowers, loved all of them even the ugly little berry flowers that only bloomed during the fall.

I want to move, move, move, move, move, move, I will move!

She thought as she concentrated with all her will power on moving, her eyes opening into a veritable rainbow of colors that hung so close to her face she could barely focus on them. Leaning back into her pillow, Isane’s thoughts jumped all over from Flowers! to Flowers?

Why are there flowers in my face? But the wonderful smells overwhelmed her nose again breaking her fluctuating thoughts as she leaned forward slowly making her body move so she could bury her nose in them. Wah…where are they going?

Why are they moving

Can flowers walk?

~*~

Ikkaku had stomped through the Relief Station all the way down to the far end where he unceremoniously entered Isane’s and Nanao’s room to shove a large bouquet of flowers into Isane’s sleeping face. He held them there waiting for something. A smile or a laugh maybe a blush but she didn’t do anything. So he scooted them closer to her nose Maybe she can’t smell them.

It took a while but he grinned confidently as Isane blinked awake and promptly buried her nose in the flowers. Pulling them away, he looked at her tired eyes as she smiled for him. It was a sweet, small smile and it stayed on her lips even as Ikkaku saw her fall asleep again.

He stared at her sleeping face again, as another one of those foreign feelings tugged vaguely at something in his chest but he pushed that aside in favor of looking at Isane’s pretty face. Nanao was pretty but Isane had a cuteness around her, a sense of childish innocence, a softness that filled her up with something indefinable that Ikkaku wanted to figure out. The elegant curves of her cheeks and the graceful shape of her lips made him want to kiss her.

Kiss her? Why? Kissing is for sex… He frowned down at her. Shaking his head he laid the flowers on her bed next to her sleeping body as he left out the door. A million thoughts running through his head as he wondered at his strange impulses First flowers then kissing?….what next hugging or…or….I don’t even know what. He frowned so deeply, it was enough to scare half the Night crew out of their skins as they jumped out the big Third Seat’s way in fear.

~*~

But at the end of the hall… Zaraki leaned against the wall, his eyes tracing the motionless face. Whatever pill they had fed her had yet to take effect if it was going to. And he was filled with a sense of loss, an uncomfortable sense of helplessness as he knew there was nothing he could do for Retsu Unohana. He had come to see Rangiku Matsumoto. To make sure she was alright for what reason he couldn’t figure out but he ended up at the captain’s room.

Retsu had been the first person to talk to him at the Academy, the first person to offer him anything other then the end of a sword or a fist. She had spent long hours talking with him, sharing tea and just being a friend. One of the oldest captains around, she had amazed him with her politeness and yet her body radiated strength and power. She had proven to him, at least, that a little calm temper made everything run smoothly. Retsu had shown him manners weren’t a weakness even though she never tried to change him, always just being a friend.

Kenpachi’s frown deepened as he studied her pale skin. Iemura came by everyday but his examinations yielded the same. Nothing, the captain’s body was empty like a shell or a gigai. Nothing pumped, shifted, changed, not towards health nor decomposition. She lay in the bed like a porcelain doll, motionless.
But even though she showed no change, no one felt the need to move her, to hurry her to the grave as everyone stubbornly clung to hope, wishing the much beloved captain would awaken. But, Zaraki reflected, that hope seemed to diminish everyday.
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Dang it...I made myself cry with this chapter....it's not over yet....one maybe 2 more chapters for this fic so review...

Reviews promote smut and the smut is so definitely gonna happen in the next chapter so review...and I'll write you wonderfull smut don't review and I'll censor it...all...

^_^ There will be a happy ending....