The Wound Within

Leaving his Captain and friend Rizu Yukino Minamoto behind, Kyousuke ventured through the Seireitei, on his way to seclude himself from the population. He strolled with a slight sag which made his straw shoes clack heavily against the Seki stone, echoing a soft, repetitve chorus. Once again, his eyes had gone from looking ahead into the distance to staring at his toes. He almost couldn't believe that this was where it would all end.

'I feel exhausted right now. And the only thing I've been doing is walking.' Kyousuke mentioned to himself, 'I can feel it. It's calling. I can feel the pressure of the void pulling at me. And it's getting harder to resist. But...I must go on...just a little bit further...'

Suddenly, a voice called out to him from afar. At first, it sounded more like a faint whisper, but soon turned into a frantic echo reverberating off the concrete walls surrounding him.

"Officer Junichiro! Officer Junichiro!" the voice cried.

Kyousuke turned to notice one of the unseated members of his squad racing toward him. He was a young man of average height and build with short-cut, jet-black hair styled with 7 spiked bangs dangling over his forehead. Kyousuke looked calmly into his wide brown eyes as he stumbled his last few steps, clutching a white bundle protectively in his arms.

The unseated Shinigami finally halted only a few feet in front of him huffing and puffing...

The young man panted and wheezed with sweat dripping off his face. His body bent forward as he grabbed his knees to keep from falling flat on his face. Kyousuke could only conclude that the poor fool had been running nonstop all over the Seireitei searching for him.

"Fuh-Forgive me, sir. I...I have...news...urgent," the man gasped between breaths. "I was told t-tuh...find you...important..."

"Take it easy, friend. Relax and breathe," Kyousuke advised him. "What is this urgent news you have for me?"

"Y-yes sir," the man answered, pulling himself up straight to catch his breath. Finally, he raised his head high and collected himself, "Sir, I have received word from Squad 10 that something important to Squad 12 was recovered from the Dangai," he announced loudly to Kyousuke before suddenly extending his arms out and bowing humbly, "I was asked to deliver it straight to you."

Kyousuke's gaze fell on the package presented to him; a flat object wrapped in paper and bound with a red string. As he took it from the unseated officer, he noticed it was also very light in weight. Curious, he tugged the string loose and watched the paper unfold to display the Squad 12 emblem emblazoned over a folded white robe.

"This is..." he began, stunned.

'Koga's hayori.'

Kyousuke nearly shook with distemperment. His eyes filled with rage at first, but then settled to a look of content. There could be no mistake about it now, he thought, tracing a hand over the colophon. Koga was gone and had no intention of coming back.

'What a fool.'

The soldier that had made the delivery stood by patiently, waiting to be dismissed, when Kyousuke looked uop at him. "You will take this to the Captain's quarters, and deliver it directly into Rizuka Yukino's hands," he told him, pressing the packaged cloak back into his chest. "Let no one else from the squad lay their hands on it. This is now your newest priority. Understand?"

"Sir, yes sir!" The soldier replied, thrusting his shoulders back to make himself as tall as possible.

Kyousuke smiled, amused by the concept of how he was already fitting in to his new role as Lieutenant. Ironic, he felt, that he was to be demoted from it after just receiving it. Without a word, he nodded to the man, who instantly faced about and sprinted away down the long corridor.

A calm wind swept through the land, dancing around the lone Shingami in dramatic fashion. Kyousuke's smile then drooped into a passionless frown as he turned and continued on his way...

After an hour of wandering, he came into a cave tunneled into the hills just outside the 25th North Rukon District (where he was born). He thought it would serve as a quiet place to meditate, make for decent concealment, and create a decent grave for him. Inhaling a breath, he braced himself and stepped into the mouth of ebony...

Kyousuke traveled about 50 paces inside when he suddenly felt a strange, cosmic energy rising behind him. As he turned to locate the source, he watched a transparent barrier of lavender-colored light form around the cave's entrance.

"So, this is where you want it, eh?" he muttered against the surrounding walls.

Reaching both arms back over his shoulders, he took his swords into his grip and pulled them from the scabbards. He spun them over his knuckles and caught them in an inverted grip before stabbing them into the soft, moist soil of the cave. Next, Kyousuke settled down in front of them, curled his legs into his body, and gently closed his eyes. He breathed deeply through his nose, listening to each breath as it began to lull him into a tranquil state; clearing his mind of any and all thought. This was Jinzen; the practiced art when a Shinigami attempts to enter their own mind and create a channel of communication between themselves and their zanpakuto.

A few minutes passed as Kyousuke sat in this state before the swords he had planted parallel in front of him began to glow with that same lavender light...

Just as soon as he appeared to shut down, he woke to a new setting. Kyousuke found himself staring out against a wide stretch of blackness. Stars dotted a velvet sky hanging above him, and as he looked closer, he could notice the stars rotating both clockwise and counter-clockwise with various speeds...as though in dance.

Upon further scrutiny, he noticed that the light each one gave off reflected against the ground stretched out before him.

'Water?'

Before he could analyze further, Kyousuke's attention was suddenly drawn to a long gleam of translucent light that passed by him. It was red in color, and it moved about on the air like a serpent through tall grass before starting to loop and tumble haphazardly. Soon after, another colorful wisp, this one of a more violet color, zipped around him. In that moment, Kyousuke felt a surge of energy flowing through it as it began tio dance with the red ribbon on the starry sky. After a few moments, they were joined by even more colored, cloudy wisps in an assortment of yellow, orange, blue, pink, green, and silver. They spawned by the thousands, and upon closer inspection, seemed to rise up out of the dark waters. Kyousuke was mesmerized. He had never seen such a spectacle.

The entire plane was aglow. It was also cold; the air was incredibly thin. Kyousuke could see his breath manifesting as a cloud of moisture that carried on the colorful breeze; although, he wasn't uncomfortable. He continued to watch the multi-colored wisps of mysterious energy shimmy and flutter around against the starry atmosphere.

Suddenly, it felt as though some divine force had cast an anchor upon the air itself. Kyousuke failed to grab a breath before crumbling to his knees. Off the glare of the black waters before him, he could tell the pressure was weighing on the lengthy colored cloths of energy as well as they were suddenly drawn into vertical lines sinking back towards the ebony ocean.

Sweat began to fall like rain from his face, 'Wh-what is this spiritual pressure?' he wondered, 'I can't...move. I can barely breathe...'

Kyousuke thought his skin would rip directly off his body the gravity was so intense. He struggled to inhale a single breath to keep himself conscious, feeling the ground quaking beneath the palms of his hands. Slowly, his body sunk lower and lower until he found himself pressed flat against the iron-hard granite.

"Hmph. You look pathetic," a voice echoed, bringing Kyousuke back from the brink of unconsciousness. He knew that voice...

Using every fiber of his being, Kyousuke dragged his face across the ground and lifted his eyes as much as possible, noticing a pair of legs bound in black wrapping extending 20 feet away from him. But even more astounding, was the fact the figure was standing on the waters...

Kyousuke fought to lift his head another half-inch to look at this stranger literally walking on the black waters, "Even after all this time, you cannot stand up in my presence?" The man asked, leering down at him with fiery golden eyes.

Kyousuke was speechless. He had never felt such a phenomenal amount of spirit energy before. No matter how much he searched, he couldn't detect any end to it.

The stranger merely glared back at him over a veil of dark bandaging practically mummifying his entire being. It was only when Kyousuke's eyes fell upon his waist that he noticed a pair of hakama adorning his body. They extended as low as his knees before splitting off into multiple strands dangling around his ankles. Long, wavy black hair cascaded down to the small of his back, nearly hiding the pair of swords chained over his shoulders. He was tall, fit, with a frightening level of power. This was his sword, his weapon. This was Burakkuhoru...

"So - you finally decided to show yourself," said the man Kyousuke now knew to be his zanpakuto.

Kyousuke slowly got to his feet, "Like I could ignore you forever?"

'Amazing,' he thought, 'I never expected him to be this strong.'

The colored strands of energy dancing around them were suddenly drawn directly into the figure, slipping and burrowing into his body, catching Kyousuke by surprise. What sort of act was this, he wondered. Did these ribbons of energy belong to him? Was this the source of his infinite power?

"Are you prepared then?" Burakkuhoru asked, drawing the sword over his left shoulder into his hand.

Following suit, Kyousuke slowly pulled the blade over his right shoulder. Grabbing both hands around the hilt, he set his feet apart and readied himself.

The two locked eyes together. Kyousuke stood rigidly while his opponent held his sword relaxed at his side - clearly the more waveless of the two.

Kyousuke proceeded to step forward towards Burakkuhoru when the man tapped the point of his blade against the black waters, "A word of warning, Kyousuke; should you fall into these waters, you will die," he said to the young Shinigami, "All of your spirit energy will be consumed."

Kyousuke casted a quick glance to the dark ocean, now under the realization he was in more of a pickle than he originally suspected, but with that came a perplexing query.

"I'm not sure I understand, Burakkuhoru. I thought your reason for calling me was so you could kill me," Kyousuke said to the man, "So why bother to warn me to stay out of the water?"

The man just stared at him, unresponsive.

"Did I have you pegged wrong?" Continued Kyousuke as he stared back at the man. The dark cloth wound around the lower-half of his face easily concealed any sort of expression or countenance. But Kyousuke had to know what was on his mind, "Is it possible you actually care about what happens to me?"

The midnight sky suddenly began to coat with a new color, painting the stars themselves with a reddish-orange hue. It was almost like fire. Beautiful...

Burakkuhoru stood quietly upon the black sea, his hair flailing against a cold wind, along with hanging strands of his cloth wrapping, "Are you such a fool, Kyousuke?" He finally spoke in a lax tenor, "After all I've put up with with you, do you really believe I would be concerned for your health? You came here to fight me. No, to best me - to master my powers."

He drew a half-circle along the waters with his sword before raising his blade up to the Squad 12 Lieutenant, "No," he said plainly, "I did not warn you to protect you, as you have naively allowed yourself to believe. I warned you about these waters so you would know that you cannot run from me this time. I warned you, so that you would understand that they are not how you will perish, because I am going to personally rip your cowardly heart from your chest, then watch as the rest of you slowly disintegrates into a shroud of ash, providing me sustenance for another 10,000 years."

Kyousuke didn't have a response to that. After all, what more could be said between them? It seemed both of their intentions were clear. Kyousuke tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword, while Burakkuhoru continued to stand there in wait.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Kyousuke asked rhetorically as he launched himself off the small spit of land he had been standing on, and charged Burakkuhoru head-on...

An aura of violet flames erupted around him as he neared the man, swinging his sword directly into the side of his neck.

His blade rang out a single tune that echoed across the ethereal plane in repetitive chorus. Kyousuke's blow had landed true; however, somehow to his astonishment, his target was completely unharmed. The long, curved, slightly serrated edge of his katana rested firmly against Burakkuhoru's bound neck, but it had not penetrated his flesh. It felt like he was holding his sword against a concrete wall over 100 feet thick, if not stronger.

'Wh-what the --," he thought to himself, stunned speechless. 'This can't be.'

He quickly replayed the point of his attack over in his mind. 'I swung as hard as I could. I put all of my energy into that attack! How could he not have a single scratch?!? He never even tried to dodge or block me!'

All of these thoughts culminated into a more than frightening reality. He didn't stand a chance...

Burakkuhoru peered at Kyousuke with an icy gleam in his eyes. His head was gently cocked to the right from the impact. As Kyousuke looked back into his eyes, he felt himself freeze against the glare. He couldn't move. Burakkuhoru slowly raised his left hand and flicked the blade away from his neck. Suddenly, Kyousuke felt the point of his hand being driven directly through his chest, shattering his ribcage. He felt Burakkuhoru's fingers grasp around his erratically beating heart. His breath caught in his throat. It all happened too fast...much too fast.

He threw himself back away from Burakkuhoru, landing back on the soft iron-hard platform he sprung off of. He clenched his hand around his heart as Burakkuhoru continued to peer at him. He couldn't seem to catch his breath as he panted.

"Why are you so frightened?" Burakkuhoru asked him.

It was then when Kyousuke realized the man was not holding his heart in his hand. He still felt it beating rapidly under the palm of his own hand - his flesh was closed.

'What the hell just happened?! I could swear I felt him stab his hand through my chest.'

But as he looked on, it looked as though Burakkuhoru hadn't moved an inch.

'Just what in the hell is this guy?'

"Well? Are you going to answer," Burakkuhoru questioned as he began to tread across the waters, "Or are you just going to stand there gawking at me?"

Burakkuhoru's body was constantly surrounded by the bands of energy spiraling through the mystic realm. One after another, they slithered into his body, combining into an endless, swirling stream of color.

"You had a moment just then, just for an instant, when you actually thought you could win. Now - here you are, shaking like a leaf," he added as he slowly advanced toward Kyousuke. "Tell me how."

Kyousuke was flabbergasted. Congruent to his spar with Rizu (his Lieutenant at the time), the moment his blade made contact with his opponent, he was given a glimpse into the true depths of his enemy's power.

'When I struck him, it felt like I was suddenly falling into a bottomless pit,' he noted, 'And the longer I touched him, the faster I fell. It was as though I was literally being ripped apart by his spiritual pressure.'

He had never felt such energy, and at the same time, he had never been paralyzed by a simple glare. Not even standing before the Head Captain filled him with such dread. It was like looking into conplete extinction. Kyousuke knew Burakkuhoru was incredibly powerful; he felt it every time he released his sword. But standing before him like this, he understood now just how unbelievably violent and destructive his power truly is...

'There's just no way I can beat someone like that. His spiritual pressure, it's astronomical!'

Burakkuhoru paused for a moment, leering at Kyousuke over his cloth mask. His brows drew together tightly, indicating a visage of rage.

"You truly are pathetic, Kyousuke," he said in a frigid voice. "It's almost too much to bear. Even after all of this time, you still continue to put me through this."

Kyousuke looked on, bewildered by his statement.

"I will not tolerate this any longer," Burakkuhoru growled as he lifted his blade into a menacing position. Next, he suddenly appeared alongside Kyousuke, catching the Shinigami by surprise. Kyousuke suddenly felt his waist split open, spraying his blood from his body like water from a hose. It had happened so fast he never felt the sting of Burakkuhoru's sword against his body.

"You blinked," Burakkuhoru muttered, standing beside his master, watching him collapse in his periphery.

Kyousuke caught himself on his hands and knees, slowly gasping for air as the pain from Burakkuhoru's blindingly-fast swing began to well up in him. The wound was deep. He could feel it stretch almost completely around his left side. Kyousuke could begin to taste a metallic texture on his tongue as more of his blood began to trickle over his bottom lip, streaming it's way down his chin.

'D-damn! What am I gonna do?' He thought to himself, already feeling crippled by that last blow. 'I'm losing blood fast. I've gotta think of something or I'll...'

Kyousuke fought to stay on his hands and knees as his arms trembled underneath him. He could hardly believe Burakkuhoru had inflicted such damage to him with a single swing.

"Are you afraid, Kyousuke?" Burakkuhoru asked as he watched the youngster struggle to stay conscious, "Does my power frighten you?"

Kyousuke wouldn't answer; choosing to stay focused on getting back to his feet. He suddenly felt something press into his back. It was gentle at first - light, but in a flash grew incredibly heavy and shoved him down flat against the cold, grinding asphalt.

Burakkuhoru glared down at Kyousuke, holding one foot down against his back, "I know you're afraid, Kyousuke. I can hear your heart shivering in your chest," he said as he began slowly applying more pressure against Kyousuke's spine, crushing him deeper into the sharp crystal reeds. Kyousuke groaned against the strain, unable to combat his might. "Someone like you is not deserving of my power. You only know how to fear."

Burakkuhoru reached down and grabbed a large handful of his hair, jerking his head up forcefully, "You see these waters? They are what gives this world I live in breath," he informed the injured Kyousuke.

Fighting through his pain, Kyousuke squinted his eyes open to look out over the black, choppy sea which continued to spit up multiple colored bands of mysterious energy.

"When I was born, these waters were so deep you could not see even one spec of land," he continued, now with a voice filled with calm serenity and quiet joy. "The entire realm flourished with indescribable power. The stars above used to burn like the flames from over a trillion candles, and with it, there was a song; a subtle hymn which brought me such peace, I no longer felt the pain." He paused there, tilting his head back and lifting his red-orange eyes up to the stars, "Now look at it."

"Go on," Burakkuhoru urged Kyousuke, roughly yanking his head back farther, "See what you've done to this place!"

Kyousuke was beginning to get a bad crick in his neck, but did what he was told and gazed up at the majestic gloaming. He could notice several other spots of land far off into the distance; the stars glistening above sparkled dimly against the fiery-golden atmosphere - each one looking like a dying campfire being observed from a mile away.

'What is he talking about?' He wondered, 'How is this my doing? I've never seen this place before in my life!'

"If you're the one that lives here, how am I to blame for what's happened to it?" Kyousuke groaned out.

"You're so clueless," Burakkuhoru answered, pulling the Shingami up off the ground. Now he dangled painfully by his coffee-brown tresses. "Are you telling me you can't feel anything here? You don't sense the connection?"

"Nggh! What connection?!" yelped Kyousuke as he kicked about, trying to pry himself free from the crazed spirit residing in his sword, "I don't know what you're talking about!"