Return of the Espadas (Ichigo x OC x Grimmjow)

Chapter 22 - The End

Kaisha's POV

I was back at the meeting point, squad 8 barracks. With me were, Shinji, Lisa, Hiyori, Kensei, Mashiro, Rukia and Izuru. We were all sighing with relief and celebrating.

"We shouldn't celebrate yet" Shinji told us. Why not? I'm sure the other people destroyed their bombs.

"How long until the bombs go off?" Rukia asked.

"29 seconds" Shinji replied. Wow. So precise. I count down in my head. Hopefully everyone did it. I twirled a strand of my blood red hair around my finger.

Bang! My eyes widened as did everyone else's. That could only mean one thing... a bomb went off. Oh no. Who was it? I desperately want to know. It could have been Rose, Love, Shuhei or Rangiku.

"Shinji?" Rukia asked and raised an eyebrow at him. Shinji looked back at her knowingly. What? Am I missing something? Wait... I think I am. I wasn't listening when Shinji told who was going where. I have a feeling that that is what Rukia was asking.

"Well, from where I can see, I think that it's at squad 9 barracks and the person that I put there was... Shuhei. Since he's pretty fast, I'm assuming he got there, but he might have died" he said. I gasp. Shuhei. No, it couldn't be. Everyone's faces fall and Izuru started crying a bit.

I've been in the Soul Society for a bit longer than a week now and I've met all the captains and lieutenants, even trained with some of them. One of them that I trained with was Shuhei and he was pretty strong. Why couldn't it be Rose or Love or Rangiku or Izuru or one of the visoreds that died? Actually, that's pretty selfish of me. But Shuhei is one of the hottest guys here, probably even the hottest.

But then again, we weren't sure if he was dead. We waited in dead silence. Finally, the others arrived.

"We saw a bomb go off. Any chance you guys know who it is?" Rangiku asked. Shinji filled them in on what we think happened. We're about to check on Ichigo and Yamamoto when someone approaches us.

"I'm sorry. I tried to save him" a sobbing Momo said. I was about to ask her what she meant but then I think I got it. Izuru hugged her and we tried to calm her down.

"I-I was fighting lots of hollow near the squad 9 barracks. I was really tired and sore. Then this hollow came and it was about to hit me when Shuhei came and blocked it. Shuhei killed the hollow but then 10 more surrounded us. I thought Shuhei just came to help me and I didn't realise that he had to disable the bomb - I didn't even know there was a bomb there" Momo took a breath before continuing.

"We fought the many hollows and eventually defeated them. Shuhei told me he had to disable a bomb so he went to the bomb and I followed him. We weren't really close to it and before we got to it, the number 5 popped up and it started counting down. Shuhei grabbed me and threw me away. I wanted to go back for him but I knew I wouldn't be much help. I saw him put up a kido barrier to protect as much of the Seireitei as he could, but the explosion killed him."

At the end of her little story, Momo started crying waterfalls. When she was telling us what happened, I thought she was brave, but now I change my mind. Hiyori hit her on the head.

"Stop crying. He saved your life and tried to protect the Seireitei. We have to remember him for what he did and not cry. Would he want you to cry?" Hiyori asked/shouted. Momo quickly shook her head. Izuru hugged Momo and comforted her. We all stayed still and silent for a while.

The sound of battles around us kept going on but then died down. Explosions were heard and seen. All the hollows should be dead by now, or hiding, but there were a lot of soul reapers killing them off.