Kioku o Uchikudaka re ta Kako

By - ByaRukifan

Pairing(s): Byakuya/Rukia, Senbonzakura/Sode no Shirayuki

~Chapter Three~

Had he heard right?

That district...it was the exact one Rukia's mission was in.

Byakuya kept his calm disposition, but on the inside he was shocked, worried, and fearful. He had been so consumed by that news he never even heard what else the Sou-taicho had to say. He never even heard him dismiss the meeting, only being pulled back into reality when Ukitake approached and addressed him.

"Byakuya?"

For a short second, as he was suddenly pulled from his thoughts, his eyes widened before scanning the room. Only he and Ukitake remained other than Yamamoto.

"Is something wrong, Kuchiki-taicho?" Yamamoto asked, seeing that the Sixth Division captain wasn't acting like himself.

Ukitake gave the older man a nod, answering before Byakuya had the chance. "Yes, Kuchiki Rukia was on an assigned mission in the district that was reported to have been attacked. She never returned."

Yamamoto opened an eye at the two remaining captains in the room. "Like I said earlier in the meeting, the report of the incident I received early this morning had said that the entire district had been almost entirely obliterated and there were no shinigami found in that area."

Despite hearing the news earlier, Ukitake still couldn't hide his shock. He looked behind him to look at Byakuya, but to his surprise, Byakuya was no where to be seen.

–

Byakuya rushed toward the district as fast as his skills in shun po could take him. He had left as soon as Yamamoto had finished speaking, not caring that their might be consequences of just leaving like he had. He needed to see, he needed to find Rukia and make sure she was alright. He had promised her he would be there for her. It wasn't something he ever planned on going back on.

Yamamoto had been right. There was practically nothing but debris and rubble left. It was hard to tell there had even been a district in the first place. Slowly, Byakuya walked through the area, looking around at all the damage. There were bodies lying around, a lot of them. He stopped in his tracks though, when he heard something crack beneath his foot. Taking a step back, he looked down.

Ice.

Unmelting, solid ice.

Byakuya felt his heart beat quicken. Was it from Rukia's zanpakutou? Had she been k– no. Byakuya shook his head, banishing those thoughts from his mind. As he continued to take in the damage the area had received, those banished thoughts began to resurface.

He continued searching, looking through the rubble and destroyed buildings. Not leaving anything unturned. After about an hour passed with no results he had began to lose his calm disposition. It wasn't like anyone was around to see him anyway. He was in a state of panic as he continued to look left and right, just trying to find something, anything that may give him some kind of answer.

Taking a few steps back, he looked up at the sky. Where was she? What had happened to her? Was she alright? Was she even still alive? It pained him to think of that. To think he may be too late. To think he hadn't been there for her when she had needed him. Slowly, he moved his eyes down to the ground.

Wait...

What was that?

He looked ahead of himself once more, doing a double-take.

No...it couldn't be.

He rushed forward to the object that had caught his attention.

It was...

Lying on the ground was Rukia's zanpakutou, still tucked in its sheath.

Byakuya wasted no time in picking it up to examine it.

Rukia was out there somewhere unarmed. She would never have just left her zanpakutou. He gripped her sword to him as he looked around frantically. One thing he did know for a fact though...

Rukia was still alive. The fact that he had her zanpakutou in his hands proved it.

The question was, was she hurt? Seriously injured? There was no way he could know that without physically seeing her.

"Byakuya, there you are." The familiar voice of the Thirteenth Division Captain called out.

Immediately, Ukitake noticed something wrong. "Were you able to find anything? Any clues?"

Slowly, Byakuya turned to face him, his expression back to its normal impassive state despite how he was truly feeling.

Ukitake let out a small gasp of shock upon noticing Sode no Shirayuki in Byakuya's grasp before becoming serious once more. "I'll get a search squad together and I'll inform the Yamamoto-Soutaicho of this. Maybe we can get the Special Ops to help search for her since she's part of your clan. Because of that and the fact that she's a Fukutaicho makes her disappearance of greater importance."

Byakuya turned away from Ukitake before giving a nod.

Taking that as a sign to leave, Ukitake turned. "Are you coming?"

"I'll head back soon. I want to do some more searching." Byakuya replied impassively.

Ukitake nodded in reply before disappearing, on his way back to the Seireitei.

–

"Kurosaki-kun!" Ichigo turned to see Orihime running to him, a bright smile on her face. "My boss let me have some more leftover bread." She explained as she began walking next to Ichigo on the side of the street. "I was wondering if you wanted some. I can't eat all of it. I would ask Sado-kun and Ishida-kun too but they're both still out of town."

"Sure, I'll take some." Ichigo replied, though he knew he probably wouldn't know what to do with it exactly, the last time she gave him bread it was way too much for him to finish as well. Though, the rest of his family may enjoy it.

"Great." Orihime said happily.

"Oh yeah, I have finished some of the manga you lent me. If you have time you can come over so I can return them."

Orihime almost blushed at the thought of getting to visit Ichigo's home again. "Sure, I'm not busy."

Ichigo gave a small nod as they continued walking.

–

"I'm glad you liked them. Those were some of my favorite ones." Orihime said as she placed the manga Ichigo had returned in her school bag.

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah, thanks for letting me borrow them."

"Oh, it was no problem." Orihime couldn't hold back a small laugh as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I wonder how Kuchiki-san is doing. It's good that we can all see her and the others again."

Ichigo shrugged before giving a small smile. "She's probably a lot busier than usual now that she's a fukutaicho, I'm sure she's just fine though."

Orihime nodded. "I'm glad she's a fukutaicho now, she's such a hard worker."

After talking a little more on the subject of Rukia and the other shinigami, Orihime and Ichigo said their goodbyes for the day as Orihime left the Kurosaki residence.

Ichigo let out a small sigh. "Well, guess I can get started on that homework."

–

Hours later, Ichigo sat on his bed idly gazing out of his window at the evening sun. After finishing his homework he had had nothing else to do but relax.

"Geez Ichigo, you really need to get out there and do something." Kon said, jumping up onto the bed. "Just sittin' around on your ass all day's boring. Don't you think you should get out there and have some fun? So what if it's getting dark, all normal teenagers are probably at some kickass party right now while you're sitting here doing nothing!"

The teen was becoming more annoyed with every word out of the mod soul's mouth. After a few more insults of how he was being boring, Ichigo grabbed Kon by the face and lifted him to eye level, his expression showing obvious irritation. "Would you just shut the hell up already!"

The pair's bickering continued on and on until the sounds of loud, hard knocks were heard.

"Kurosaki-kun! Kurosaki-kun!" A frantic voice sounded from outside.

Ichigo looked out of his window. "Inoue?"

He got up from bed and quickly made his way down to the front door. Opening it, he looked down at Orihime as she looked up at him, fear showing in her widened eyes. "Inoue? What's up? Something happen?" Ichigo was nothing but serious at this point, concerned for his friend's well being.

"I...I was on my way home from the store after leaving here...but I decided to stop by Urahara-san's shop to say hi, but when I there Urahara-san and Yoruichi-san looked strange so when I asked what was wrong they said something had happened in the Soul Society.

Ichigo's eyes widened slightly. "What happened?"

Orihime's eyes began tearing up as she looked down for a short second before her eyes returned to Ichigo.

"Kuchiki-san's gone missing!"

His eyes widened even more in shock at the sudden news. "What!"

"Nee-san's missing!" Kon exclaimed, his voice muffled by Ichigo's hand as he struggled to get free from his grasp.

Orihime nodded and wiped her eyes. "After I was told that I came straight here to tell you. Oh, what are we going to do? What if something really bad's happened to her!"

Ichigo moved back, allowing Orihime to come in as he dropped Kon on the floor. Orihime watched as he slipped his shoes on.

"Let's go." Ichigo stated, facing Orihime. "I need to know more from Urahara-san."

Orhime nodded before following Ichigo out of the door.

"Hey! Wait up, don't just leave me here!" Kon shouted before following quickly behind the two.

–

"Kuchiki-san was on a mission in Rukongai yesterday." Kisuke explained to the small group consisting of Ichigo, Orihime, Kon, and Yoruichi as they sat at the small round table inside the shop. "It was attacked and this morning the Seireitei received the report that the district had been almost completely destroyed. Kuchiki-san was no where to be found."

"So no one knows anything yet?" Orihime asked worriedly. "They haven't found any clues or anything?"

"Actually, Byakuya was the first one to go looking." Yoruichi answered. "When he got there there were many scattered patches of ice-"

"That has to be from Rukia!" Ichigo cut in. "She must have been fighting whatever attacked that district or she was purposely leaving it as a clue to find her, she may have made a trail or something!"

Yoruichi shook her head. "There was no trail. The ice was scattered about randomly."

Ichigo and Orihime frowned in disappointment at the news.

"Nee-san!" Kon sobbed.

"Byakuya also found her zanpakutou on the ground." Yoruichi continued. "It's currently still in his possession."

The teen's eyes widened again, "We have to go there and help." Ichigo said, the determination to find his friend and help burning his eyes.

Orihime nodded, "Yeah, Kuchiki-san would do the same for us!"

Yoruichi smiled before Kisuke spoke, "Figured you would feel that way. So I went ahead and prepared the Senkaimon. You can leave when you're ready."

Ichigo gave a nod. "Thanks, Urahara-san."

Orihime smiled and thanked him as well.

"I will be accompanying you on this." Yoruichi informed. "There's no telling what might happen out there."

"Yeah! I'm going to-oomph!" Kon was interrupted as Ichigo knocked him back onto the table.

"No way. I need you to take care of my body and family."

Kon simply let out a muffled whine followed by a few curses.

"What about your other friends?" Urahara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They're both out of town and won't be back for another two weeks." Ichigo answered.

"Alright. So I'm assuming you're ready then."

Both of the teenagers nodded, their expressions serious.

"Then let's go!" Urahara proclaimed with a smile.

–

Byakuya sat in his private garden in the Kuchiki Mansion., both Rukia's zanpakutou and his own lying in his lap as he sat with his legs crossed. He needed answers and needed them as soon as possible.

Shutting his eyes, he relaxed himself. If he couldn't ask himself he would get Senbonzakura to talk to Sode no Shirayuki for him. It was his last chance and he had to take it. He wasn't just going to sit around and wait for answers when Rukia was out there unarmed and in danger.

'I promised I would protect you...' He thought to himself as he began to concentrate on communicating with his zanpakutou.

After a few short moments, a familiar voice entered his mind.

"Yes, Master?"

To be continued...

IT'S BEEN SO LONGGGG. (cries)

I missed updating so much, friggin' school...

It's almost time for my Christmas vacation though...I just need to survive exams and such.

I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter, especially since it took so long to get up. I will DEFINITELY have the next one out sooner. D:

Don't beat me with raw fish for taking so long! (cowers)

I'm writing out chapter fourteen of this story at the moment, along with writing another fic...but it's not Bleach. XD

So yeah, working on two fics at once (though I guess you can count three if you include Shattered Mirage of Broken Dreams. I swear I'll finish uploading that one, but for now I've just lost the motivation to do so. Sorry! :( )

Alright, until next time.

Bai bai~

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Just remember, NO FLAMING!