Noble Love - Bleach (Kuchiki Byakuya x Oc x A bit of Various)

二十七

"Of course not!" confirmed Kazeshini.

"The jig is up." said Senbonzakura. "Now let's finish our fight."

Byakuya had his eyes closed during the whole exchange and was silent for a few moments. "You want me to kill her?" he suddenly asked, to which his Zanpakutou spirit expressed shock.

At that moment, Byakuya moved away with Flash Step, Sode no Shirayuki manifested her sword form just in time for her to block his attack. When he slashed at her, she leapt onto a nearby rock as he jumped towards her. When the Zanpakutou spirit leapt away, he landed on the rock and jumped after her as well. As they clashed in mid-air, the other Zanpakutou spirits look on, with Hozukimaru noticing that the Shinigami was serious about killing her. Byakuya landed on the side of a rock before leaping off of it and clashing with Sode no Shirayuki once more. As the force of his attack slammed her into a wall, which caused the latter to grunt in pain, he prepared to stab her, only to have her blow an icy wind at him, prompting him to jump back. She then generated icicles threw them at him, who deflected and destroyed them with his sword in mid-air, before appearing on the ground behind him.

Sode no Shirayuki began to use her Shikai abilities, starting with Tsugi no Mai, Hakuren, which engulfed the Shinigami in a large amount of cold air. When the latter used Hado #4: Byakurai, she leapt away to avoid the bolt of lightning, only for him to appear behind and slash at her. She managed to evade and was forced to block another attack from him while upside-down in the air. As they clashed several times, she moved away, prompting Byakuya to follow her. At that moment, Senbonzakura realised that his previous master was really going to kill her. When she used Some no Mai, Tsukishiro, the Shinigami moved back several times to avoid being trapped in the ice pillar before landing on a rock outcrop.

As she used Some no Mai, Tsukishiro once more, an icy circle formed on the wall behind him. As a horizontal ice pillar formed before breaking apart, the Zanpakutou spirit stood on one of the falling segments, but Byakuya appeared behind her using Utsusemi, revealing his scarf was the one being trapped inside the ice. He then used Bakudo #63: Rikujokoro to immobilise Sode no Shirayuki before moving towards her. When she expressed shock, the Shinigami raised his sword before cutting through her, killing her in a single blow. Sode no Shirayuki reverted to her sword form before snapping into two, and the rest of the ice pillar crashed into the water as the broken sword landed on top of one of the segments.

"Impossible!" proclaimed Senbonzakura, who went to the broken sword as the other Zanpakutou spirits ran to the edge of the cliff to see for themselves. While the aftermath of the battle went on, Tamako was hiding in the shadow again and disappeared once he went back into the ground.

Meanwhile, while everyone in the Sasaki Family Manor was asleep, Asa was the only one awake. She snuck out of her room, for she didn't want to wake her worried butler up, and went into the garden to look at the night sky. It reminded of the time when Byakuya first visited her, when they took a night stroll in the garden after a scrumptious dinner prepared by the clan's personal chef. She remembered it was the night when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom under the bright moon, the time when they painted the ground with their beauty. The cool, refreshing wind danced in the night, occasionally brushing her hair so delicately. She remembered her and Byakuya walking in the garden in a comfortable silence along the flowing river, until they arrived at the clear lake decorated with pink and white petals, and koi fish were swimming inside the water so calmly. The duckling had grown into five ducks, that were ironically sleeping in the nest like before. To end the night, he plucked a cherry blossom from its branch and placed it in her hair, and she often blushed at that memory. It was like she was watching the entire scene playing in front of her eyes.

However, tonight was different. Though the night was quiet like before, Asa felt very anxious for some reason as she felt her stomach churn with discomfort. It wasn't a normal stomachache. It was like trying to tell her something horrible was about to happen. It may have been just her imagination, but she couldn't shake that feeling off no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that everything would be alright. She didn't want her friends getting hurt or killed, and the thought of it only worried her even more. What if this ominous feeling was telling her so? She was aware of the fact that she was in no condition to fight. Her wounds were partially healed, and she had only half the amount of reiatsu. But there was no way she was going to leave things as it is.

Asa didn't bother changing her dark blue yukata and strapped her Zanpakutou to her waist before sneaking out of the Sasaki Family Manor, creating a Kidou barrier around the whole compound that would protect everyone inside. But despite having so little reiatsu, she sacrificed a part of it to make the barrier, leaving her in a condition where she could barely fight. Despite that, she began running around Seireitei, hoping that the bad feeling she had would lead her to someone who was in danger before it was too late.

Rukia was sitting on a chair inside an office and sleeping against the back on her side. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking around. "I must have fallen asleep." she mumbled. When she used the back of her hand to rub her eyes, she suddenly felt an immense reiatsu, the one that she was able to recognise instantly. 'His reiatsu!' she thought. Getting up from the chair and letting it fall behind, she rushed out of the room and ran through a hallway filled with torn windows and defeated Shinigami.

Upon seeing Byakuya standing in the middle of the hallway with his back facing her, she gasped with surprise, yet she felt relieved that he was alive. "Nii-sama-"

"Rukia." he suddenly called, stopping her in her tracks.

The said woman then noticed her surrounding. "Did you...?" she trailed off before her gaze went back to him. "Nii-sama, what are you doing here? No, where have you been?" The said man didn't respond to her, nor did he turn around to look at her. "Answer me, Nii-sama!"

At that moment, someone placed a broken Zanpakutou in its Shikai form next to her head, which immediately caught her attention. "Here's your answer." he said.

"What?" she exclaimed before stepping away from him to come face-to-face with Senbonzakura. "Who are you?" He only responded by tossing the broken Zanpakutou to the ground, and Rukia recognised it as she knelt to the ground. "Sode no Shirayuki?!" Placing her hand over the broken sword, her eyes widened with horror. 'I can't feel any reiatsu.' she noted. 'She can't be-!'

"Without Sode no Shirayuki, you've got no way to fight." stated Senbonzakura coldly.

"It can't be..." murmured Rukia, who clutched the hilt and blade of her sword to her chest and sobbed.

At that moment, her adoptive brother, who hadn't spared a glance at her, ordered, "Stay away from me."

She turned around to look at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

"He means this!" As Rukia turned, she saw Senbonzakura raising his sword over his head, and he lowered it to strike her. She quickly closed her eyes to brace herself for the impact, but instead, she heard his sword slashing something, or rather, someone else, followed by the sound of blood splashing to the wall and ground before that person landed on her, as well as the Zanpakutou spirit saying, "Y-You!"

Rukia's eyes shot open, and the first thing she saw was a shocked Senbonzakura holding a bloodied sword. When she felt the person leaning on her and the smell of blood hit her nostrils, she looked down, only to see something that she wished she hadn't seen, which caused her to cry out, "ASA-DONO!"