The next day, I woke refreshed and renewed, but I was however, quite disappointed to find that we had a brand new stack of reports on our desks, Ruka seated at her desk scribbling away on the documents. Knowing Ruka might say something about it, I scurried outside before she could see me.
I felt the need to train once more, to practice my abilities, so I had snuck to the training grounds, where I hoped to find Renji who was probably training with Zambimaru and Ikkaku Madarame. I peered through the open archway that led down to a rocky path into a deep pit, which was used for training…
It was completely silent and empty.
"How odd…" I said aloud. Usually they're here training, and if not, even Rukia was there practicing with her Zanpakutou. I shrugged, confused slightly, and more annoyed that this would mean I would have to go back to the office and complete the reports for the articles.
I sighed. Then it I heard footsteps from around the corner.
"Eh, Rukia, you think they'll notice when we're gone?" The familiar voice of Renji spoke softly from the distance. My eyes widened.
"When they're… Hmm…." I thought to myself. I had recalled those two talking about Ichigo's decision to head into Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, but I never thought they would go as far as to follow him… If they were going, what the heck, why not I go to? I turned around and looked as Rukia headed to the tower that contained the gateway to Karakura Town…
I followed behind them silently, both of them wearing cloaks, and armed with their Zanpakutous. I was lucky enough that I had decided to bring mine's along today, I thought to myself. Why did they choose now to go off into Hueco Mundo? And how did they plan on getting there? As long as it got me from avoiding another packet of paperwork, I was more than fine.
It was not long before Renji sighed and turned around, I jumped a little, not expecting him to sense my presence.
"Where do you think you're going Raine?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Wherever the heck you guys were going." I crossed my arms. I wasn't losing this one, I was not going to back off and decide to act upon it later.
"That bastard Ichigo decided he would run off without us… I'm not letting that happen, we're coming with him." Renji smiled.
Rukia looked to me calmly. "I suggest you stay, if we need your help, we'll contact you don't worry, you need to continue the investigation on Shuhei Hisagi's location, we can count on you Raine."
Using flash step, they disappeared from before me.
I blinked. "What the… What where they thinking!?" I began to run back to the building. I sensed the sudden lack of Rukia and Renji's spiritual pressure. They had left to Karakura Town… on their way to Hueco Mundo…
As I headed back towards the barracks, I heard a sudden scream from far away. I turned around, wondering where the sound came from. The furious roar of a hollow followed the shrill scream.
"Crap!" I said aloud, "Another damn hollow!"
I jumped from the wooden floors, to the open sky, and dashed forward, the wind whipping wildly through my wavy black hair.
"I'm glad you spotted one in that short time you were gone." A familiar voice popped out of nowhere.
Surprised, I stumbled in mid-air and crashed down to the ground, my face digging into the soft dirt as I crash-landed into a patch of green grass in front of the borders of the outlying forests where the hollow scream had come from.
I heard laughter from behind me, from the same familiar voice… I pulled myself from the dirt…
"You should stop scaring me like that, I can get killed one day." I brushed myself off, annoyed and tense.
The voice from behind me had come from my captain, Ruka Kusabana. She landed on the ground gracefully, and observing my appearance, she scribbled something down in her notebook.
"Hey! What are you writing in there!?" I peered from behind her shoulder. She merely smiled, snapped the book shut, and lightly tapped the top of my head with it.
"That's none of your business Raine…"
My eyes narrowed. "I'll find out some da-" I was cut off by the loud roar of the hollow once more…
"Crap!" I unsheathed my Zanpakuto. Ruka mimicked my action, pulling her blazing orange sword from its hilt; it seemed to absorb the heat from the sun, radiating the excess heat in several directions.
She looked to me and nodded. There were several other roars, there were more than one hollow out there…
A hollow burst from the trees, spraying leaves everywhere, it was giant, monstrous, an ugly gray color with a red striped mask that had the appearance of a rhinoceros's face. Its arms slammed lazily against the ground, it held its head up to the sun and let out a menacing roar. Several more hollows followed from behind it, a tall spider-like hollow aimed for Ruka, jabbing its stinger towards her.
I held out my sword… "Blind The Enemy! Raito Hisui-Emerarudo!" In that instant, the glistening blade of my sword melted until it reached the hilt. A green plasma-like wave shifted through the air, and I directed it straight towards the hollow. It struck it directly in the center, exploding upon impact, a giant brightly glowing green dome grew from the inside, tearing the hollow apart in an instant and absorbing it entirely, giving me more energy. I continued as my wave of green plasma continues to eat up the rest of the hollows on my side, flashing a bright blinding light, which disabled their sight entirely.
Ruka held her swords in a defensive stance. Stern and serious, she called out. "Burn… Suzaku!" Her sword burst into flames as a phoenix-shaped flame flew from her sword, spreading flame in all directions. Her sword turned into two glass-like katannas connected by a long golden change, they glowed brilliantly like the afternoon sunset. Afraid of being roasted, I created a shield of plasma around me, blocking the flame from striking me.
Ruka jumped up, and with one swift swing with both swords, completely split the hollow in half. I watched as the hollow shattered upon impact of the flame, disintegrating into mere ashes. Her swords blazed even brighter, and she held out one of her swords directly straight, her spiritual pressure growing greatly as a projectile of flame, like a burning tornado led by the phoenix, pierced all of the hollows in a complete row, cleaning off the rest of them. She threw her other katanna, which stabbed another hollow, the chain extending and the blade piercing the chest of the unsuspecting hollow.
She landed back down. Her hair slightly ruffled, as she re-adjusted it into a tight ponytail once more. Her swords went from a burning tirade of flame back to the steaming sealed silver blade. She sheathed her sword.
The green plasma collected and gathered until my silver blade was intact. I sheathed my sword.
"Well… that was… interesting…" I looked to Ruka in awe.
She smiled. "I bet you I could beat you in a battle any day!"
"I was hoping for more of a self esteem booster like, 'good job!' or something, but this?" I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Good job lieutenant!" She said sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes.
"Well, now that we got these handled, and we still have all those reports we have to look through, why don't we head back and get it done?" Ruka said, knowing my reaction would involve avoiding it in every possible way.
"Actually I do have some paintings I never finished…" I smiled.
I was whacked across the back of my head with the notebook. "Paperwork. Now. Painting pretty pictures comes later."
I sighed and smiled, "Such a weird person you are, using a notebook for a weapon…"
I dodged another oncoming whack from the notebook. She chased after me as we ran all the way back to the Ninth Division building…
It was a few days after Renji and Rukia left, and Sereitei had made little mention of their whereabouts. It seemed no one really noticed or knew they were even gone. Everything had been quiet, and we had finally completed all stacks of paperwork. Not much action happened at all, other than the fact that Ruka decided to spar against Hitsugaya. Fire against Ice… Not a good combination. I remember seeing both of their swords clashing, the blazing heat enveloping the icy crystals, but they grew stronger and overpowered the flame… the ice dragon Hyōrinmaru against the fiery phoenix Suzaku.
Neither of them had won, for after getting carried away, they ended up knocking each other out… both of them ending up sick the next day, Ruka with a cold and Hitsugaya with a fever. Boy was that fun teasing my captain about that, and rumor had it that Ruka secretly liked Hitsugaya, but it was never proven and if I ever did ask my captain, it would result in the continuous smacking on my head with the notebook.
I sat next to Ruka, on the edge of a cliff, overlooking all of Soul Society, the breeze whistling through our hair. We were calm, and we sat still admiring the beauty of the landscape. Cherry blossom petals sprinkled around us, dancing with the wind with every sway and blow.
I was generally concerned on Rukia and Renji. And my mind went at ease when a small black Soul Butterfly landed delicately on Ruka's fingers, relaying a message.
"Raine, I need you to run a general scan of Karakura Town if that's alright with you." Ruka spoke and looked to me, scribbling something down in her notebook. "Ever since Rukia and Renji disappeared… We have no one else really to depend on. I'll keep an eye on things back here."
My heart jumped. "Sure! I'll do it!" This would be my chance to convince Urahara, the owner of the Urahara Shop in Karakura Town.
"Excellent. Prepare whatever you need. You'll need to head out in about an hour." She said, closing her notebook and allowing the small butterfly to drift away slowly with the wind.
I nodded, standing up. "Thank you Captain. I should…erhm… might be back soon. Be safe while I'm gone!" I began to run off…
"You're telling me to be safe?" she called out from behind me. I chuckled lightly before using shunpo to flash away.
