Underneath Interior
-SkyFinal

"Unohana-taichou?" Kotetsu Isane peered timidly through the shoji. She hoped she was not a disturbing her taichou. She mentally berated herself. She is an accomplished shinigami! She knew more kidou then other fellow shinigamis, maybe even more then some captains! She was a good role model for her younger sister, Kiyone of the 13th division. But still, her fear of nightmares would never cease. It had become a ritual for the taichou and the fukutaichou to sit and indulge in tea to calm Isane's nerves. They would chat about her dreams, and watch the sunrise for a new day of healing (mainly the 11th division). What was strange to Isane was that Unohana-taichou would always be prepared for tea, it was if she had an instinct to when Isane would have nightmares.

"On the porch, Isane," said Unohana, facing the stars. She turned to smile at her fukutaichou. "What were you dreaming of this time?"

As Isane sat down gloomily on the mat beside her, she prepared the tea. She hummed a small tune, as she watched Isane from the corner of her eye. Currently, Isane was fidgeting and looking guiltily. Honestly, no matter how many times this has happened, she still thinks she is disturbing my sleep. Unohana Retsu was known to sleep less then the normal shinigami, her duties as a healer required her to be ready at any time to save a life. Every night she only needed a few hours to sleep, many nights she would stare at the stars or work on a more efficient method to heal the injured. She handed Isane the now ready tea.

"Thank you, Unohana-taichou." Isane drank the warm tea, it flooded into her body, warming her up. The two shinigami drank in silence, admiring what the heavens offered to show in the night sky. Isane fidgeted, she always remembered her dreams in great detail, but this one she was not sure she wanted to bring up. She hesitantly began, "Unohana-taichou… today I was dreaming of…the incident this afternoon…"

Unohana stared at her fukutaichou, "The incident when one of the 11th division refused to let his comrade be heal in Minazuki?" A nod confirmed her suspicions.

"Why does it bother you?" Unohana knew for a fact, that Isane never dreamt of humans in her dreams. Isane first began coming to her after her dream of fish cakes, after that was dumplings, and many other edible products. She always dreamt of non-living things.

"B-but that man had to right to call Minazuki a creepy weirdo alien thing! Minazuki heals much faster then some of the 3rd seat or 4th seat, and is a great zanpakuto!" argued Isane. "Why does everyone seem to be afraid of Minazuki…"She continued to rant, and did not notice that Unohana was staring at her. "…like that time when the 8th division began-"A hand was placed on her shoulder, the fukutaichou finally seemed to become aware of that she was ranting. "Ah! Sorry Unohana-taichou! I deeply apolo-"

"It is alright," said Unohana, she took a sip from her cup. "Not everyone or anything is disliked Isane. I learned that from Hitsugaya-taichou." Isane thought over the words that had just been said and saw the hint that lay hidden in the statement.

"Hitsugaya-taichou is not afraid of Minazuki?" She received a nod. "I admit I had thought his reaction would be the same as the others, on account of…his age," said Unohana. "Most people at his age would be afraid of Minazuki, but we had forgotten one thing of Hitsugaya-taichou." The captain faced Isane.

"Do you know what it is, Isane?" Isane could not think of the answer and shook her head. "The moment when he put on the captain's haori, he was forced to become an adult. He could not afford to be childish." There was a pause, and Isane noticed that Unohana had more to say. "Although, even an adult can be a child once more."

"Unohana-taichou?"

"Do you remember when…?"

49 years ago, West Rukongai

"…it was an ambush, casualties were kept to a minimum. One down and four injured. Matsumoto was severely injured while trying to protect civilians. The hollows have been taken care of Unohana-taichou, but the damage might have been too great, I require your assistance."

Unohana was disturbed by the news from the hell butterfly summoned from Hitsugaya. There had been news of a particularly strong group of hollows, and the two strongest people of the 10th division decided to dispatch themselves and a few seated officers to investigate. It either must be a group of cunning hollows, or the civilians living near were careless and got caught in the battle. Unohana hoped it was the latter.

"Isane, we are heading to West Rukongai." Isane, who had been listening to the news went and fetched her zanpakuto along with her medical pack and followed her taichou to the lawn where she already released her shikai. "To West Rukongai, Minazuki." Unohana hoped she would make it in time.

When they had arrived, Unohana and Isane could see the blood and broken debris everywhere where the battle took place. There was still smoke raising from the ground, no doubt because of kidou spells, Searching for any recognizable reiatsu, Unohana could sense a faint familiar reiatsu coming from a large hut very near the battle scene .

Telling Minazuki to stay back, she walked up the hut and knocked on the door. A shy girl, probably in her teens, peeked through and asked, "Are you the friends with chibi nii-san and kirei onee-san?" Before Unohana could answer, a weary voice spoke, "They are friends, Hikari. Don't worry." A tired Hitsugaya walked up to the doorway, his arm bandaged but blood was slowly spreading. "Thank you for coming, Unohana-taichou."

"There is no need for formalities, Hitsugaya-taichou." Isane and Unohana stepped into the hut. Inside the officers and the 10th division fukutaichou laid on the straw beds. They seemed to be alright, but Matsumoto seemed too pale and having a hard time to breathe. "What is the damage?"

Hitsugaya sighed heavily, "All four of my seated officers are stable. I somehow managed to heal them, though you should check on them to make sure." His voice turned icily, when he got to Matsumoto. "Matsumoto has a possibly of a minor concussion, along with a sprained ankle. She might also have internal bleeding, one of the hollows thought it was amusing to have a squeeze toy." True to his words, Unohana found no danger to the officers, but the main problem was the fukutaichou.

"Matsumoto will be fine." Hitsugaya visibly relaxed. "I could heal her here, but she would be safer in Seireitei. Let us move your men outside for Minazuki to carry." Isane brought a mini-stretcher for Matsumoto from her medical pack, so she would not disturb the internal wounds. Hitsugaya and Unohana both muttered a small kidou spell. The four men floated, and the two captains directed them outside towards Minazuki.

Inside, Isane prepared the stretcher when she felt eyes on her. She turned and the girl from earlier. "Is there anything that I can do to help?" Isane smiled. "Of course, Hikari-san was it? Can you help me move Matsumoto-san on to the stretcher?" Hikari smiled and skipped over to help Isane.

Matsumoto groaned because of the movement "Onee-san will be alright? She won't die?" The girl, judging by her behaviour, was not accustomed to death. After carefully putting Matsumoto down, did Isane answer reassuringly, "Of course! If I know Matsumoto-san, she'll be up and running in no time!" Hikari brightened and hugged Isane, "Thank you!"

"Now come on, we need to bring the stretcher out."

"Ok!"

Outside, Unohana and Hitsugaya brought the men on top of Minazuki. The healer then went on top to make sure the men were comfortable and to check up to see if there were any other injuries that Hitsugaya overlooked. Immersed in her work, Unohana failed to notice Hitsugaya was hesitantly coming to Minazuki's head. It was a while before she noticed that Minazuki's mood was calm during her check-up with the third officer.

Minazuki is a very moody zanpakuto. To her, she could easily read through Minazuki's moods, and every single time Minazuki was called out to rescue injured shinigami, her mood was fearful. She feared she would not be able to save others in time, despite the record that she never lost a shinigami inside her stomach or when carrying them back to Seireitei. Why was Minazuki so calm? She craned her neck to see where her zanpakuto's head was, if there was anything to calm down Minazuki, it was to pet her head.

Ah. I see.

Unohana checked the final shinigami before confronting the individual who was calming Minazuki. There in front of her eyes was the 10th division captain, Hitsugaya Toushiro petting Minazuki. She examined the young taichou, for once his forehead was smoothed out, and he looked content. His eyes were unfocused as he stroke Minazuki's head, his eyes facing the hut, as if waiting for Matsumoto to come out. Before Unohana could take in to what she was seeing, Hitsugaya took notice of her staring. As if Minazuki's head was hot lava, he drew his hand back and a rosy haze spread across his cheeks. There was a silence before Unohana spoke.

"You do not fear Minazuki?"

"Why should I be afraid?" A confused gaze turned her way.

"Minazuki is not… what people would imagine for a great healer to have as a zanpakuto partner. I suppose, they would want a more easy to the eye appearance," Unohana softly said as she stroked her shikai's back. "What they do not accept, they fear."

"That's stupid then." His icy voice cut through the air. "They shouldn't fear Minazuki because of how she looks. They should be glad that she can save their lives and still continue to do so. Although that's not the only quality of Minazuki they should care about."

Unohana smiled, the number of people who do not detest Minazuki could be counted on a single hand. "Then, what else do you like about Minazuki?" Hitsugaya mumbled something incoherent and would not face her anymore. But Unohana caught what he had said. After all, she had years of experience of learning how to communicate with patients who could not speak right. Before she could say anything, Isane and Hikari had brought Matsumoto and were ready to head back to Seireitei.

"Take care, chibi nii-san! You still need to grow!"

"Oi-!"Hitsugaya turned to correct the girl, but Minazuki was already flying and the hut was a speck in the air.

"Unohana-taichou?" Isane asked. Her taichou became silent after finished the story. Unohana calmly finished the last of her tea before staring into the sky once more. "You should head back to your room, Isane. I've heard from Ukitake-taichou that Kiyone will visit tomorrow. It would not do you well to stay up too late."

"Ah! Why didn't Kiyone tell me? Her visits always tire me out." Isane stood up. "Good night, Unohana-taichou! Thank you for the tea!" Isane rushed back towards her quarters. Softly laughing, Unohana gathered the tea cups, and put them away. Finally settling into her futon, Unohana thought of what Hitsugaya had mumbled. She fell asleep with a smile gracing her face.

"…Sea animals are cute…"

01.06.13 - fixed format