Afire Love (Bleach: Ichiruki)

VIII

Rukia Kuchiki

Ichigo's hand rested on the small of my back as he moved closer to me. I don't know if he was doing it intentionally, but it was driving me crazy.

I wanted to throw my arms around him. I was so happy he was back. But he did look like crap.

He looks slightly better now, even though I basically told him he looked terrible. And I know he was complimenting my appearance back there, but I didn't know how to respond to it, so it turned into one of our many ridiculous arguments.

Captain Zaraki stood before us, looking around as if he was looking for someone. There was even a lost and worried look in his eyes.

But Captain Zaraki worried? That sounds ridiculous.

And then his eyes landed on Ichigo.

Usually there would be a glint of playfulness and a hunger for killing in his expression.

But he looked lost. And empty.

"Ya seen Yachiru?" He asked.

My eyes widened. Lieutenant Yachiru was missing?

I looked up at Ichigo, his face also worried.

"Lieutenant Yachiru?"

"Yea. She's been missing a while now. Been looking for her ever since."

"No one else has seen her?"

"She was supposed to go to Isane. But I haven't seen her either." Zaraki said, his tone unchanging.

"I'm sure she's alright. You know her the best. She'll get out of this fine." Ichigo reassured him.

There was a huge boom all of a sudden behind Zaraki, Ikkaku, and Yumichika.

In instinct, Ichigo stood himself in front of me.

I looked behind me at the battle field.

The shinigami and quincies were fighting, the quincies numbers falling steadily. But it seemed that with every quincy that died, a totally new one rose from the dead.

I turned my attention back to the thing who appeared behind Zaraki.

It was a sternritter that looked absolutely ridiculous. He looked like a wrestler, wearing a mask.

He was saying a few things, his voice loud and contagious. But I was watching Captain Zaraki as he pulled out his zanpakuto.

And then I felt the spiritual pressure of a certain sternritter I had defeated not too long ago.

I turned around slowly, seeing the creepy figure of Sternritter F behind me. Äs Nödt.

He sneered at me.

Images suddenly flashed through my head, images of my friends dying - Nii sama, Captain Ukitake Inoue, Chad, Renji, Ichigo.

And it was me slaughtering them all.

But something was different. I expected to be near death right now.

But I was no where close to that.

In fact, the images playing in my head disappeared as my vision grew clearer.

Ichigo's arms were around my waist. I felt his eyes on me, worried.

But I felt an even stronger gaze on me.

I looked up to the left, seeing the Soul Queen's figure in the distance.

I instantly knew it was her. Because not only was Aizen next to her, but she had that composure about her that automatically made her almighty to all of us.