Empty Heart
Title: Empty Heart
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Bleach
Spoilers/Warnings: None
Pairing: Shunsui Kyoraku x Nanao Ise
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters.
Theme: #22 - Naprapathy
Summery: Nanao has lost her heart, and her division is falling apart with out heart.
Empty Heart
Jyuushiro Ukitake was extremely worried about Nanao Ise. He watched her closely from his spot in the crowd. While he looked grave and sad, Jyuushiro was not as upset as most of the people at this funeral. That was because he knew that Shunsui Kyoraku was not dead. However, only he, Retsu, and the Commander-General knew that. Everyone else believed the captain of the Eighth Division was dead. Including Nanao. And that was what had him worried.
Nanao seemed to be taking every thing in stride. Jyuushiro knew better. The Eighth's lieutenant was deep in mourning, but she wouldn't share it with anyone. She was much paler than normal, and to his eyes, she looked incredibly small and fragile. He, Shunsui, and Retsu had all opposed keeping Nanao in the dark about this, but Yamamoto had overruled them all. Anyone with sense would know what this could do the lieutenant, and they would need her to help hold the Eighth Division together.
He was also concerned about how well the new captain of the Eighth would take care of her. The man was not at all familiar with the dynamics of the Eighth, and it would be easy for a stranger to overlook Nanao's emotional state. Jyuushiro would have to keep a close eye on the woman to make sure that Shunsui's Nanao-chan was here when he came back. Truthfully, the only good Jyuu really saw coming of all this was maybe Shunsui and Nanao would finally move past their current stage of relationship when Shunsui got back from his mission.
Nanao was exhausted, but that was nothing new these days. She couldn't sleep. Well, she could if she wanted to have nightmare after nightmare about her captain's death, but Nanao preferred exhaustion. It was easier on her sanity. Besides, it wasn't as if there wasn't enough work to fill her hours. The entire division was torn between mind numbing grief and rage. It didn't exactly make for an efficient work environment.
But she would keep the division running even if it killed her. It was easier to immerse herself in the running of the division than to deal with the thoughts of what she had lost. It wasn't the same at all, but Nanao tried to maintain at least some sense of the familiar for her fellow division members. They had lost their captain, but at least she was still their same Lieutenant Ise.
It also didn't help that her new captain grated against her nerves. Logically, Nanao knew a large part of it was her problem rather than his. Shunsui Kyoraku had been her captain since Nanao had graduated from the academy. The idea of someone else in that role was completely foreign to her. And that didn't even take into account her personal feelings for the man. Captain Hirotaro Nobuda was nothing at all like Captain Kyoraku, and Nanao keenly felt the difference.
Of course, that might have to do with the man's attitude towards her as well. She vividly remembered the diatribe she received when he confronted her about not attending the sword practice with the rest of the division. He hadn't even let her explain. Nanao's zanpakutou was a tanto even in its sealed form. She was utterly useless in most practice sessions because of that. Shunsui had handled all of the sword practices with the help of the skilled seats, and he had drilled Nanao privately or with Captain Ukitake helping them. Nanao handled all of the kidou instruction and practice sessions for the division.
It sounded like that arrangement would no longer work. She was dreading the practice session tomorrow that Captain Nobuda had demanded she attend. It was going to be difficult and quite likely humiliating all around. She sighed and rest her head in her hands. She didn't know how she was going to manage. She could fight with a standard sword. Shunsui had insisted on teaching her, and Katen Kyokotsu had been gracious enough to allow her to use the shorter sword of the set for her training. But they were simply skills she didn't use very often. Still, she would have to deal with it.
There were other things that worried her more quite frankly. The division's morale was the worst that she had ever seen it, though that wasn't incredibly surprising. More worrisome to Nanao was the fact that her fellow division members seemed to fear their new captain. She could see why they might be intimidated by the man. Not only was he not familiar, but he was short of temper and prone to outbursts. Still, fear seemed a rather extreme reaction, and Nanao wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. She knew that transitions were not always easy, especially a major one like this, but still the fear people were showing was not a good sign. She sighed and turned her attention back to the paperwork at hand. Thinking was not exactly the best way to spend her time these days.
Jyuushiro sipped the tea Retsu had poured for him. The two of them were enjoying afternoon tea in his private garden for several reasons, not the least of which was that he enjoyed the healer's company. Shunsui had always teased him about his feelings for Retsu. The conversation had turned from Retsu's recent studies of naprapathy to current news in the Gotei Thirteen.
"Has Lieutenant Ise said anything to you recently about her division?" Retsu asked.
He frowned. "No. Actually, I've barely seen her since the funeral. I didn't want to intrude on her if I wasn't welcome. She had enough on her plate as it is."
Retsu sighed. "I was hoping you could give some details of what might be happing at the Eighth. I've had a marked increase in their division members coming to the Fourth. Mostly with minor injuries, though we've had several broken bones. I also don't like the despair I'm seeing with the division members. Grief I would understand, but this is something more."
Jyuu's frowned deepened. "You think the Nobuda's transition to captain isn't going well."
She bit her lip. "I'm not sure what to think. Except the few times I've seen Lieutenant Ise I've wanted to either drug her to make sure she gets some sleep or put her directly in Shunsui's hands. She is not well. The woman is definitely exhausted and clearly heartsick."
"She loves Shunsui," he said softly. "Of course, she hasn't been ready to face that. It's understandable given that Shunsui has practically raised her. They both needed to for their relationship to transition. This mission was incredibly poorly timed."
"I know." Retsu sighed. "If you see her, try and see if she will talk. She needs support and comfort even if she won't ask for it."
Nanao bit back a sigh even as she took her place for sword practice. She steeled herself for what she knew would be an hour and a half of misery. Nothing was as it was under Captain Kyoraku, especially here. It had become apparent very quickly that Captain Nobuda did not have the gift for teaching. Nor did he have the patience that many of the division members needed. So these practice sessions were now a combination of long winded diatribes and extremely hard practices. There had been more injuries in the last two weeks during practice than they'd have in nearly two years.
It worried her quite honestly. Most of the division was cowed and fearful when it came to Captain Nobuda. The rest were angry and resentful. Morale was at the lowest Nanao had ever seen, and she did not know how to fix things or even just make them easier. As lieutenant of the division, one of her jobs was to be a bridge between the other division members and the captain. But given that Captain Nobuda held her utterly in contempt, even that proved difficult.
More than anything else, what Nanao really wanted was to crawl into Shunsui's old futon and not come out. Ever. When Captain Nobuda had demanded to move into the captain's quarters it had been Nanao who had packed everything up and moved it. It had taken longer than she liked as she hadn't been able to stop crying. She had simply moved all of the belonging into her own quarters. Those things were a constant reminder, but really, everything around her ways. She had a great many regrets at the moment, and everything reminded her that she hadn't taken chances that she could have.
Turning her attention back to the sword practice at hand, Nanao drew out Yamazakurakaze. Nobuda insisted she use it in practice even though it was particularly unhelpful. Her style of fighting did not work with regular sized swords, and no one else in their division had a tanto. Now if she had been allowed to teach others how to defend against her style of fighting it would be another story, but Nobuda had put a stop to that the first time she tried. He claimed that no one in the division was advanced enough to learn it. That was hogwash to Nanao's mind, but she had not been able to convince him otherwise.
The practice session ended with one of the youngest division members in tears, and slow building fury in Nanao's chest. Once she had made sure that the Seventh Seat and the Ninth Seat were helping the girl, she headed straight for the division office. She needed to have some words with the captain.
"Excuse me, sir." Nanao stood at attention before his desk. "I believe you need to hear what I have to say about the division."
He waved a hand at her.
"The Eighth would perform better all around if you would stop berating and haring its members at the drop of the hat. We are capable of far more than you give us credit for, and you have done nothing to give us a chance to prove our worth. You have simply acted as a bully in many cases, and if this goes much further I will be forced to file a compliant with the First Division."
The man stared at her for a moment, and then Nanao found herself reeling when he backhanded her.
"You will not tell me how to do my job. This entire division has been coddled for too long, and that fact that the former captain's whore is the second in command is an insult. You are to do your job and leave the thinking to your betters, bitch."
Her head was reeling. She had never been treated this badly. Not even when she had been a child in the Rukongai. And she wanted to kill him for thinking of her captain like that. Even if she had been Shunsui's lover, he would have never let her rise to her position in the division if she hadn't been qualified for it. He had no right to judge her captain based on rumor and assumption.
"Do you understand?"
"Yes."
She wasn't about to tell him what she understood though. Nanao knew what she was going to have to do. But first she needed to go to the Fourth.
Jyuushiro was furious. And all it took to set his temper off again was to glance over at where Nanao was being treated by Retsu. The entire left side of the woman's face was a purple bruise. It looked particularly ghastly combined with her pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes. Quite frankly, she looked like someone hanging on only by sheer force of will. Nanao had not said who had hit her, but there was an extremely limited pool of people who would even consider harming her. She was well liked and well respected throughout the Gotei Thirteen, and most people currently held a great deal of sympathy for her given the Eighth's recent loss.
If Shunsui was here, he would most certainly have taken matters into his own hands. Actually, when Shunsui got back from his mission and heard about this, he would most likely take things into his own hands. It was not going to be pretty. But what really worried Jyuushiro and set off his temper at the same time was Nanao herself. First of all, she shouldn't have to be dealing with this at all. No one should have hit her, especially not hard enough to leave a bruise like that. And on the one hand, she would not speak of the attack or who had hit her. Then again, the young woman was absolutely furious. Nanao rarely displayed her temper, but when she was truly furious, she was not an opponent he would want to face.
Nanao was furious. It was a cold, self contained fury, but the way her eyes blazed let Jyuu know that someone was in serious trouble. Except he wasn't entirely sure she was physically able to deal with a fight right now. She was tired and heartsick, and Jyuushiro wanted to pack her off some where she could rest and relax for at least a week.
"There. You're set." Retsu gave Nanao a long look. "Now, we need to speak about what caused this injury."
Nanao pursed her lips. "Thank you, Captain Unohana, but that won't be necessary. Will you and Captain Ukitake please gather the other captains for me?"
Jyuushiro narrowed his eyes at her. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to challenge Captain Nobuda."
There was a logical part of Nanao's mind that was screaming at her that she was crazy. Nanao ignored it. She had to do this. It was either that or let the Eighth be destroyed. While Nanao knew that she wasn't exactly in the best shape for this fight, she didn't think that putting it off would give her any advantages. And even if she failed today, Nanao knew the fact that she had challenged Captain Nobuda at all would make the other captains wonder what was going on at the Eighth.
The fact that dying didn't bother her had given Nanao pause when she had headed into this. She didn't care too much about dying if it was for her division. That was all she had left. She took her position across from Captain Nobuda."
"You're an idiot girl."
Nanao stood firm. "You may be the Captain of the Eighth, but it's my division."
Captain Yamamoto called the fight to order, and they began. Nanao actually found herself evenly matched against Nobuda. At least, evenly matched with her using both kidou and a blade. She had yet to release Yamazakurakaze. But she would have to soon. Nobuda had a great reach than she did, and a tanto was a match against a normal sized sword if they went blade to blade. But she wanted to force to release his sword first. That at least would be a psychological victory for her.
It took a tricky bit of kidou to manage it, but Nobuda released his zanpakutou, and Nanao felt her heart sink. It was an odachi: a sword with a blade nearly three feet long. It was useless in close combat, but it gave him an extended reach, and put Nanao a much great disadvantage. This was not going well.
"Yamazakurakaze, fly."
But it wasn't going to be enough. Especially when a fireball of kidou burnt her hand badly enough to make her drop the tanto. Nanao scrambled for the blade even as Nobuda knocked her legs out from under her. She fell with the breath knocked out of her, and Nanao knew it was over. He was going to kill her. Nanao refused to look away. The blade swept down towards her, and then clanged off another blade. Nanao's eyes widened at the sight of her Captain standing before her, Katen Kyokotsu's shorter sword blocking the blow. Nanao was afraid to blink and break the illusion. This couldn't be real.
"This fight is over. Given that I'm the Captain of the Eighth Division, there is no need for it."
It was his voice even if the familiar baritone was cold and angry. Nanao make a soft noise. But the vision in front of her didn't move until Nobuda had backed down and walked to the sidelines. Then he turned. It was her captain. Still wearing that ratty straw hat and that familiar pink haori over his captain's haori. It was him. The frown on his face lightened slightly as his eyes took her in.
"My Nanao-chan." Shunsui gathered her into his arms, scooping her up off her feet. "I am so sorry."
She wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. She took a deep breath, taking in the sake and sandalwood that he had always smelled of. He kissed her forehead. Nanao let out the breath. This was real. He was home. He wasn't dead. That empty place in her chest was gone, replaced by warmth and contentment. Nanao felt herself relax, and then she did something she would not have expected. She fainted.
Jyuushiro smiled as Shunsui flew into a mild panic and called for Retsu. It looked liked his message had reached his friend in time. If Shunsui hadn't arrived when he did, Jyuu would have had to interfere himself. But all would be well now. Retsu would most likely tell Shunsui to put Nanao to bed and make sure she ate and rested over the course of the next few days. Hopefully, the time Nanao spent bedridden would provide Shunsui time to explain things to Nanao and move things along with the two of them. Of course, that meant Shunsui couldn't go haring off to deal with Nobuda.
That's what best friends were for. Jyuu stalked over to the man who was looking both shaken and annoyed. Jyuushiro picked him up by the collar and slammed him into a wall.
"Give me one good reason not to let Shunsui kill you."
The man's eyes went wide. Jyuu kept talking.
"Now, Nanao hasn't said a word about what might have caused all this, though I saw her face earlier today and the bruise that was there. However, Shunsui has a way of getting her to admit to things she wouldn't tell anyone else. So either, you can go see the Commander-General and request a nice remote posting in the living world or you can wait around until Shunsui finds out details. The choice is up to you."
And with a smile, Jyuushiro walked away. Time to go find Retsu. They could share a cup of tea, and she could fill him in on whatever developments there might be in the saga of Shunsui and Nanao.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Bleach
Spoilers/Warnings: None
Pairing: Shunsui Kyoraku x Nanao Ise
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its characters.
Theme: #22 - Naprapathy
Summery: Nanao has lost her heart, and her division is falling apart with out heart.
Empty Heart
Jyuushiro Ukitake was extremely worried about Nanao Ise. He watched her closely from his spot in the crowd. While he looked grave and sad, Jyuushiro was not as upset as most of the people at this funeral. That was because he knew that Shunsui Kyoraku was not dead. However, only he, Retsu, and the Commander-General knew that. Everyone else believed the captain of the Eighth Division was dead. Including Nanao. And that was what had him worried.
Nanao seemed to be taking every thing in stride. Jyuushiro knew better. The Eighth's lieutenant was deep in mourning, but she wouldn't share it with anyone. She was much paler than normal, and to his eyes, she looked incredibly small and fragile. He, Shunsui, and Retsu had all opposed keeping Nanao in the dark about this, but Yamamoto had overruled them all. Anyone with sense would know what this could do the lieutenant, and they would need her to help hold the Eighth Division together.
He was also concerned about how well the new captain of the Eighth would take care of her. The man was not at all familiar with the dynamics of the Eighth, and it would be easy for a stranger to overlook Nanao's emotional state. Jyuushiro would have to keep a close eye on the woman to make sure that Shunsui's Nanao-chan was here when he came back. Truthfully, the only good Jyuu really saw coming of all this was maybe Shunsui and Nanao would finally move past their current stage of relationship when Shunsui got back from his mission.
Nanao was exhausted, but that was nothing new these days. She couldn't sleep. Well, she could if she wanted to have nightmare after nightmare about her captain's death, but Nanao preferred exhaustion. It was easier on her sanity. Besides, it wasn't as if there wasn't enough work to fill her hours. The entire division was torn between mind numbing grief and rage. It didn't exactly make for an efficient work environment.
But she would keep the division running even if it killed her. It was easier to immerse herself in the running of the division than to deal with the thoughts of what she had lost. It wasn't the same at all, but Nanao tried to maintain at least some sense of the familiar for her fellow division members. They had lost their captain, but at least she was still their same Lieutenant Ise.
It also didn't help that her new captain grated against her nerves. Logically, Nanao knew a large part of it was her problem rather than his. Shunsui Kyoraku had been her captain since Nanao had graduated from the academy. The idea of someone else in that role was completely foreign to her. And that didn't even take into account her personal feelings for the man. Captain Hirotaro Nobuda was nothing at all like Captain Kyoraku, and Nanao keenly felt the difference.
Of course, that might have to do with the man's attitude towards her as well. She vividly remembered the diatribe she received when he confronted her about not attending the sword practice with the rest of the division. He hadn't even let her explain. Nanao's zanpakutou was a tanto even in its sealed form. She was utterly useless in most practice sessions because of that. Shunsui had handled all of the sword practices with the help of the skilled seats, and he had drilled Nanao privately or with Captain Ukitake helping them. Nanao handled all of the kidou instruction and practice sessions for the division.
It sounded like that arrangement would no longer work. She was dreading the practice session tomorrow that Captain Nobuda had demanded she attend. It was going to be difficult and quite likely humiliating all around. She sighed and rest her head in her hands. She didn't know how she was going to manage. She could fight with a standard sword. Shunsui had insisted on teaching her, and Katen Kyokotsu had been gracious enough to allow her to use the shorter sword of the set for her training. But they were simply skills she didn't use very often. Still, she would have to deal with it.
There were other things that worried her more quite frankly. The division's morale was the worst that she had ever seen it, though that wasn't incredibly surprising. More worrisome to Nanao was the fact that her fellow division members seemed to fear their new captain. She could see why they might be intimidated by the man. Not only was he not familiar, but he was short of temper and prone to outbursts. Still, fear seemed a rather extreme reaction, and Nanao wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. She knew that transitions were not always easy, especially a major one like this, but still the fear people were showing was not a good sign. She sighed and turned her attention back to the paperwork at hand. Thinking was not exactly the best way to spend her time these days.
Jyuushiro sipped the tea Retsu had poured for him. The two of them were enjoying afternoon tea in his private garden for several reasons, not the least of which was that he enjoyed the healer's company. Shunsui had always teased him about his feelings for Retsu. The conversation had turned from Retsu's recent studies of naprapathy to current news in the Gotei Thirteen.
"Has Lieutenant Ise said anything to you recently about her division?" Retsu asked.
He frowned. "No. Actually, I've barely seen her since the funeral. I didn't want to intrude on her if I wasn't welcome. She had enough on her plate as it is."
Retsu sighed. "I was hoping you could give some details of what might be happing at the Eighth. I've had a marked increase in their division members coming to the Fourth. Mostly with minor injuries, though we've had several broken bones. I also don't like the despair I'm seeing with the division members. Grief I would understand, but this is something more."
Jyuu's frowned deepened. "You think the Nobuda's transition to captain isn't going well."
She bit her lip. "I'm not sure what to think. Except the few times I've seen Lieutenant Ise I've wanted to either drug her to make sure she gets some sleep or put her directly in Shunsui's hands. She is not well. The woman is definitely exhausted and clearly heartsick."
"She loves Shunsui," he said softly. "Of course, she hasn't been ready to face that. It's understandable given that Shunsui has practically raised her. They both needed to for their relationship to transition. This mission was incredibly poorly timed."
"I know." Retsu sighed. "If you see her, try and see if she will talk. She needs support and comfort even if she won't ask for it."
Nanao bit back a sigh even as she took her place for sword practice. She steeled herself for what she knew would be an hour and a half of misery. Nothing was as it was under Captain Kyoraku, especially here. It had become apparent very quickly that Captain Nobuda did not have the gift for teaching. Nor did he have the patience that many of the division members needed. So these practice sessions were now a combination of long winded diatribes and extremely hard practices. There had been more injuries in the last two weeks during practice than they'd have in nearly two years.
It worried her quite honestly. Most of the division was cowed and fearful when it came to Captain Nobuda. The rest were angry and resentful. Morale was at the lowest Nanao had ever seen, and she did not know how to fix things or even just make them easier. As lieutenant of the division, one of her jobs was to be a bridge between the other division members and the captain. But given that Captain Nobuda held her utterly in contempt, even that proved difficult.
More than anything else, what Nanao really wanted was to crawl into Shunsui's old futon and not come out. Ever. When Captain Nobuda had demanded to move into the captain's quarters it had been Nanao who had packed everything up and moved it. It had taken longer than she liked as she hadn't been able to stop crying. She had simply moved all of the belonging into her own quarters. Those things were a constant reminder, but really, everything around her ways. She had a great many regrets at the moment, and everything reminded her that she hadn't taken chances that she could have.
Turning her attention back to the sword practice at hand, Nanao drew out Yamazakurakaze. Nobuda insisted she use it in practice even though it was particularly unhelpful. Her style of fighting did not work with regular sized swords, and no one else in their division had a tanto. Now if she had been allowed to teach others how to defend against her style of fighting it would be another story, but Nobuda had put a stop to that the first time she tried. He claimed that no one in the division was advanced enough to learn it. That was hogwash to Nanao's mind, but she had not been able to convince him otherwise.
The practice session ended with one of the youngest division members in tears, and slow building fury in Nanao's chest. Once she had made sure that the Seventh Seat and the Ninth Seat were helping the girl, she headed straight for the division office. She needed to have some words with the captain.
"Excuse me, sir." Nanao stood at attention before his desk. "I believe you need to hear what I have to say about the division."
He waved a hand at her.
"The Eighth would perform better all around if you would stop berating and haring its members at the drop of the hat. We are capable of far more than you give us credit for, and you have done nothing to give us a chance to prove our worth. You have simply acted as a bully in many cases, and if this goes much further I will be forced to file a compliant with the First Division."
The man stared at her for a moment, and then Nanao found herself reeling when he backhanded her.
"You will not tell me how to do my job. This entire division has been coddled for too long, and that fact that the former captain's whore is the second in command is an insult. You are to do your job and leave the thinking to your betters, bitch."
Her head was reeling. She had never been treated this badly. Not even when she had been a child in the Rukongai. And she wanted to kill him for thinking of her captain like that. Even if she had been Shunsui's lover, he would have never let her rise to her position in the division if she hadn't been qualified for it. He had no right to judge her captain based on rumor and assumption.
"Do you understand?"
"Yes."
She wasn't about to tell him what she understood though. Nanao knew what she was going to have to do. But first she needed to go to the Fourth.
Jyuushiro was furious. And all it took to set his temper off again was to glance over at where Nanao was being treated by Retsu. The entire left side of the woman's face was a purple bruise. It looked particularly ghastly combined with her pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes. Quite frankly, she looked like someone hanging on only by sheer force of will. Nanao had not said who had hit her, but there was an extremely limited pool of people who would even consider harming her. She was well liked and well respected throughout the Gotei Thirteen, and most people currently held a great deal of sympathy for her given the Eighth's recent loss.
If Shunsui was here, he would most certainly have taken matters into his own hands. Actually, when Shunsui got back from his mission and heard about this, he would most likely take things into his own hands. It was not going to be pretty. But what really worried Jyuushiro and set off his temper at the same time was Nanao herself. First of all, she shouldn't have to be dealing with this at all. No one should have hit her, especially not hard enough to leave a bruise like that. And on the one hand, she would not speak of the attack or who had hit her. Then again, the young woman was absolutely furious. Nanao rarely displayed her temper, but when she was truly furious, she was not an opponent he would want to face.
Nanao was furious. It was a cold, self contained fury, but the way her eyes blazed let Jyuu know that someone was in serious trouble. Except he wasn't entirely sure she was physically able to deal with a fight right now. She was tired and heartsick, and Jyuushiro wanted to pack her off some where she could rest and relax for at least a week.
"There. You're set." Retsu gave Nanao a long look. "Now, we need to speak about what caused this injury."
Nanao pursed her lips. "Thank you, Captain Unohana, but that won't be necessary. Will you and Captain Ukitake please gather the other captains for me?"
Jyuushiro narrowed his eyes at her. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to challenge Captain Nobuda."
There was a logical part of Nanao's mind that was screaming at her that she was crazy. Nanao ignored it. She had to do this. It was either that or let the Eighth be destroyed. While Nanao knew that she wasn't exactly in the best shape for this fight, she didn't think that putting it off would give her any advantages. And even if she failed today, Nanao knew the fact that she had challenged Captain Nobuda at all would make the other captains wonder what was going on at the Eighth.
The fact that dying didn't bother her had given Nanao pause when she had headed into this. She didn't care too much about dying if it was for her division. That was all she had left. She took her position across from Captain Nobuda."
"You're an idiot girl."
Nanao stood firm. "You may be the Captain of the Eighth, but it's my division."
Captain Yamamoto called the fight to order, and they began. Nanao actually found herself evenly matched against Nobuda. At least, evenly matched with her using both kidou and a blade. She had yet to release Yamazakurakaze. But she would have to soon. Nobuda had a great reach than she did, and a tanto was a match against a normal sized sword if they went blade to blade. But she wanted to force to release his sword first. That at least would be a psychological victory for her.
It took a tricky bit of kidou to manage it, but Nobuda released his zanpakutou, and Nanao felt her heart sink. It was an odachi: a sword with a blade nearly three feet long. It was useless in close combat, but it gave him an extended reach, and put Nanao a much great disadvantage. This was not going well.
"Yamazakurakaze, fly."
But it wasn't going to be enough. Especially when a fireball of kidou burnt her hand badly enough to make her drop the tanto. Nanao scrambled for the blade even as Nobuda knocked her legs out from under her. She fell with the breath knocked out of her, and Nanao knew it was over. He was going to kill her. Nanao refused to look away. The blade swept down towards her, and then clanged off another blade. Nanao's eyes widened at the sight of her Captain standing before her, Katen Kyokotsu's shorter sword blocking the blow. Nanao was afraid to blink and break the illusion. This couldn't be real.
"This fight is over. Given that I'm the Captain of the Eighth Division, there is no need for it."
It was his voice even if the familiar baritone was cold and angry. Nanao make a soft noise. But the vision in front of her didn't move until Nobuda had backed down and walked to the sidelines. Then he turned. It was her captain. Still wearing that ratty straw hat and that familiar pink haori over his captain's haori. It was him. The frown on his face lightened slightly as his eyes took her in.
"My Nanao-chan." Shunsui gathered her into his arms, scooping her up off her feet. "I am so sorry."
She wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. She took a deep breath, taking in the sake and sandalwood that he had always smelled of. He kissed her forehead. Nanao let out the breath. This was real. He was home. He wasn't dead. That empty place in her chest was gone, replaced by warmth and contentment. Nanao felt herself relax, and then she did something she would not have expected. She fainted.
Jyuushiro smiled as Shunsui flew into a mild panic and called for Retsu. It looked liked his message had reached his friend in time. If Shunsui hadn't arrived when he did, Jyuu would have had to interfere himself. But all would be well now. Retsu would most likely tell Shunsui to put Nanao to bed and make sure she ate and rested over the course of the next few days. Hopefully, the time Nanao spent bedridden would provide Shunsui time to explain things to Nanao and move things along with the two of them. Of course, that meant Shunsui couldn't go haring off to deal with Nobuda.
That's what best friends were for. Jyuu stalked over to the man who was looking both shaken and annoyed. Jyuushiro picked him up by the collar and slammed him into a wall.
"Give me one good reason not to let Shunsui kill you."
The man's eyes went wide. Jyuu kept talking.
"Now, Nanao hasn't said a word about what might have caused all this, though I saw her face earlier today and the bruise that was there. However, Shunsui has a way of getting her to admit to things she wouldn't tell anyone else. So either, you can go see the Commander-General and request a nice remote posting in the living world or you can wait around until Shunsui finds out details. The choice is up to you."
And with a smile, Jyuushiro walked away. Time to go find Retsu. They could share a cup of tea, and she could fill him in on whatever developments there might be in the saga of Shunsui and Nanao.