Byakuya Kuchiki x Reader

Chapter Twelve

You struggle to wake up as the sun hits your face, you barely slept. A hell butterfly lands lightly by your face on your pillow. It seems you have a mission in the world of the living today.

You decide to rest a bit longer, you don't need to report to your captains office until late morning, giving you some time to try to decompress.

You attempt to sleep again but before you know it, it's time to head to your captains office to be briefed on the mission.

You wondered what the nature of the mission would be, and who would go. Byakuya had used the word 'we' so you assumed he was coming too, and for a captain to attend it must be a tough one.

You arrive at the office, finding Renji already there. As you enter you can tell that they both are noticing how tired you look, you don't need a mirror to know you look like shit right now.

"Y/N, you okay? You look like you haven't slept for days" Renji asks.
"I'm fine.." you say coldly, the cool air made your fingers cool, so you press them under your eyes, trying to wake yourself up a bit.

Byakuya looks at you, a hint of concern behind his eyes. They seem so much softer these days, but you don't have the capacity to read into it right now. His look helps you to compose yourself.

"A strong spiritual pressure belonging to a hollow was detected 9 days ago. A scouting team was sent and hasn't returned"
Byakuya explained.
"Alright, I guess they need us to go clean up those weaklings mess..." Renji began, but was cut off by his captain.

"There's more Renji. The scout's spiritual pressure has disappeared, if they were killed we would be able to detect that, there's something else going on here"

"Alright, let's see what we can do then.." Renji says. Byakuya stands from his chair and you and Renji both follow him towards the senkaimon.
As you walk, Byakuya is deep in thought.

He tries to push away the curiosity he has about you, and fills his mind with the memory from yesterday. He hides a sweet smile as he feels his heart warm.

"Hey captain, I noticed you and Y/N were sparring in the mountain training ground yesterday. She's pretty strong right?" Renji grins at you, clearly trying to break the silent tension.
"Yes, she is"
"Y/N, did you manage to land anything?"
"Yeah, I cut him once, but I came off much worse"
"Wow really! Even I haven't done that..." Renji looks a little dejected at the idea that you could be stronger than him already.

You all arrive at the senkaimon, and head through it with no problems.
"Captain, what's the plan?" You ask, usually you had gone alone on missions, and the stealth force hadvery different types of missions.
"This is the last known location of the scouting team, see if you can find anything to go on. Spiritual pressure, blood, any indication of them or of the hollow they came for"

You scan around the street, it had been a while since you had been to the world of the living, it's looked different every time.

As you walked around you managed to find a tiny amount of residual spiritual pressure, the scent was unmistakably hollow like.

Before you could alert the others you sensed something strong, it came suddenly, almost crushing you at first. You turned to see the others, Renji was taken off guard as well, as he pushed himself to his feet. Byakuya looked surprised, but unaffected by the pressure.

You ran over to join them, trying to zero in on where this pressure was coming from. You could tell that it was the same as what you had picked up on moments before.

There. You saw it, it walked slowly from around a corner, screeching and stomping its heavy legs.
It was huge, and its spiritual pressure was intense.

"Captain, permission to attack" you yelled, hand ready on the hilt of your sword.
"Go ahead, both of you" he replied.
You and Renji launched towards the hollow, you took off one of its arms with your zanpakto in one sweeping motion, as Renji aimed for its head. Its mouth opened discharging a cero and Renji diverted in time, cutting into its shoulder as the cero fired.
The red light crashed into the ground causing a small explosion.

Byakuya watched on, examining both of your skills, his hand ready on his sword, to step in if needed.
You landed on your feet and launched off the ground towards the hollows head.

"Look out!" Renji yelled. It was too late, the hollow was faster than it initially appeared.
Its remaining arm slammed into your side, you felt your ribs crack under the force and flew towards a building.
You couldn't react under the pain and prepared for the impact.

But instead of hitting the concrete, your landing was soft and warm. You opened your eyes and saw your captain, he winced slightly at the impact. He was holding you with both hands, bridal style. You blushed as you looked up at him, his eyes focused on the hollow.

You felt the pressure disappear, renji must have defeated it. Byakuya's eyes switched focus to you. He knelt down, placing you partially on the ground, but kept one arm behind your neck.

He looked you over, the worry in his eyes faded a little, you knew it mustn't be too serious.
"Y/N! You alright?" Renji yelled as he ran over, putting his zanpakto away. You winced in pain again, and felt embarrassed. You suddenly felt weak, you should have been able to take this one down, it was strong but you were stronger, at least you should have been.

"You'll be alright, just some broken ribs" Byakuya says, trying to reassure you. He must have mistaken your embarrassment for concern over your injuries.
"I'm good" you say through gritted teeth. You try to stand up, and manage to, despite the pain.

"Come on Y/N, even if you can, you shouldn't walk" Renji says, ready to catch you if you fall.
"I agree with Renji, let me carry you" Byakuya says. You try to protest, but your captain scoops you up forcefully.

Your captain carries you as Renji opens a senkaimon.
"Do you think that hollow could really be responsible for all this? It was strong... but it didn't seem to have a kind of ability to effect spiritual pressure" Renji says as you make your way through to the soul society.

"Before it appeared.. I sensed its spiritual pressure in the area... it was definitely involved in some way" you say between bouts of pain.

"There's certainly more to this case than that one hollow, I'll file a report with the head captain"
As you reach soul society, your captain flash steps, taking you to squad four barracks to be healed. Crushed ribs were far beyond his healing abilities.

After Captain Unohana had gotten you situated in a bed and began healing your wounds, Byakuya left, presumably to report to the head captain.