Behind a death- Aftermath *open*

'Captain we can't hold her down!' The scream hollowed through the bated breath of another squad member. Kaiyo's body was thrashing from side to side, groaning in pain. Covered in blood, sweating and not even conscious. The 4th squad Captain barked at the struggling squad members as he dug another needle into Kaiyo's arm. 'I told you! Binding Kidou's of that level have no effect! Sedate her!' Not diverting his gaze he continued his jobs. Firstly they had to stop the bleeding. Kaiyo had lost a hell of a lot of blood, and was effectively soaked in it. Broken and cracked ribs, burnt, cut, flooded lungs and exhausted. It was a miracle Kaiyo was even able to push out each flickering breath before she was plugged up to the machine. Her writhing body flung around against the unfortunate shinigami assigned just to keep sedating her. A captain with her level of power, fighting against death was actually quite dangerous to be around. A few spiked in her reiatsu had already effectively dropped over twenty squad members already. Kaiyo had been forced into a medically induced coma, she was teetering on the edge of consciousness anyway, and the wake-less dream at least gave her the time to battle her inner demons. Killing for revenge was a new thing, but Kaiyo had been cut so deeply she couldn't help herself. Slaughtering the noble family who ordered it, again was probably not her best choice, but it was something she would take with her to her grave. A place she might very well be visiting sooner rather than later.

The sporadic beeping of a heart monitor bounced from the sterile walls. The lingering metal taste of blood still bitter in the air. Kaiyo was only barely conscious of the world around her. In fact, in her mind, the stillness. The Dark. The silence...She was dead. Waiting to be revived by some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Kaiyo had never considered what happened to a soul reaper that died; was she sent back as a human, void of powers or memories of her past life? Her victory, everything she'd wanted, meaningless.

A flash.

A jolt.

A sudden explosion of colours and sounds and lights. Then nothing again. The surge happened again. Fading her vision out of darkness into a blurred view of white; was that really any better? Her eyelid was draped open, a glistening yellow light thrust against her glimmering blue eyes. Bloodshot and barely responsive, the muffled voices made it sound like she had water in her ears. The light faded as her eyes were allowed to close again. The beeping returning to a somewhat normal pace. Regular at least in it's weakness. The pain pricking of a needle pierced her bruised arm, collapsing veins didn't help her much, but she was too weak to complain...

Ryouta was busy soldering the last metal fingernail onto his mechanical arm when he was interrupted by the ringing of his communicator. He ignored it, and finished what he was doing. The point of adding fingernails to the hand was actually functional- a few hours ago, Ryouta had realized that he could scratch himself with that hand, and decided that this was the most practical solution. That being done, he picked up the still ringing communicator. He was surprised that whoever was calling him had not given up. Strange...it was the 4th Division Vice-Captain. Ryouta flipped it on and answered somewhat testily, "You've reached Captain Ayame Ryouta, what urgent matter requires my attention?"

"My apologies for disturbing your work, Captain, but Kaiyo-taicho is currently in critical condition at our headquarters. We were wondering if you could help..."

Ryouta sighed. To be honest, he was not really that interested. Organic bodies were so boring. He would have to look into replacing all his major organs with prosthetic ones. And recently, Ryouta had been feeling more and more detached from his fellow Shinigami. Emotions like empathy, pity, and even joy were a fleeting memory- if he had to list the top five emotions (in terms of frequency) he'd felt in the past month, they'd be satisfaction, (scientific) interest, boredom, avarice, and anger. Still, he decided to make his way to the 4th Division headquarters, making certain to bring along a vial of 12th Division regenerative serum.

Upon arriving, he was quickly brought to the scene. Ryouta watched impassively as Kaiyo writhed on the ground- clearly not conscious, but frighteningly mobile all the same. "You're never going to be able to sedate her while she's moving around like that," said Ryouta. "Let me try. Weep, Reifujin Arashi."

He drew his Zanpakuto, and the blade melted into innumerable droplets of water. "Aisu Kan'oke." Water droplets surrounded the ends of each of Kaiyo's extremities except her head and then froze, securing her to the ground. Ryouta could feel her fighting it even so; her small body bounced up and down against the ground, and he could feel the ice giving way. He focused his full power of concentration on his power, strengthening and reforming the ice even as she caused it to crack and buckle.

"Quickly now," he urged the 4th Division members around him, including the Captain. "While I can still hold her!" Admittedly, Kaiyo was a much more powerful combatant than Ryouta- she being 11th Division and all. Fighting had never really been Ryouta's cup of tea, despite being a Captain.

The chilling cold began biting against her skin, tingling and prickling against her skin with a numbness. Registering nothing but pain, the chilling tendrils drew closer to her inner sanctum, creating a discomfort that made her struggle against it. Her reiatsu sparking against the ice that was cracking around her. The abusive amount of strain on her body was allowing only flickering amounts of the world into her senses. Momentary lapses of light and sounds echoed through the darkness. Serving only as reminders that she wasn't quite dead yet.

Kaiyo opened her eyes, unable to see, and still not conscious; the blind vision of the captain startled 4th squad members who were still trying to sedate her. Helped undeniably by Ryouta's Zanpakuto. The lower ranking members stayed back, leaving the Captain and his lieutenant to finish off the initial healing. Of course Kaiyo was no way near stable, but she at least wouldn't be at such a risk of dying if they managed it. Healing Kidou's had never really made sense to Kaiyo, but they worked well so she had no complaints. Of course there was always the stinging, the internal pain caused by the body disagreeing with an alarming rate of regeneration, when it should have died.

((OOC: linking in with later storyline of Kaiyo losing her Zanpakuto and reiatsu ))
Zanpakuto spirits were born within the soul of the Shinigami, linked at the core of their combining powers they were created to serve and protect the shinigami they were born unto. The assumption would therefore be that Kaiyo's Zanpakuto spirit and her own energy would be fighting together to help her live...Not trying to kill her.

The Captains blood stained Zanpakuto had been brought with her, slung into the corner of the room it began to spark and glow with a golden hue. Jolting and radiating power that seemed so separate to Kaiyo's. The girl's body dropped into a stunned stillness, her breathing so light that the healers around her first assumed her dead. Told otherwise by their Captain, the 4th squad members continued in a rushed fashion, sweating out their own stress and exhaustion as something very odd happened. From across the room, an explosion of sorts sent out a shockwave of energy from her Zanpakuto. Projections of her Zanpakuto spirits were formed within the shards of lightning that danced like flames through the air; surrounding by sheets of pulsing lightning. Wading through the thick air, the sparkling semi-materialised embodiment of her Zanpakuto dropped into a combat stance. Shimmering ghosts that leapt forwards with a ferocious intent. Whether they were attacking the 4th squad that was trying to save her, or Kaiyo herself; either way it wasn't normal...Or safe. Cracks of lightning shot forwards, bouncing off Ryouta's ice barrier as the spirits drew closer. Silent and deadly.

Ryouta smiled thinly as his fetters of ice held, allowing the 4th Division members to do their work. It was satisfying, to say the least. Yet, in the corner of his mind, he was troubled. Surely, aiding in the recovery of a comrade, and someone he had called friend, surely that was supposed to elicit emotion beyond satisfaction- something like joy, or relief, or something? Ryouta wondered briefly if his Hollowfication was retarding his emotion- or worse, if his Hollow alter ego was taking over his body. Or maybe it was his new eye; with it, he saw others just as fluid filled organisms with heat signatures.

Ryouta pushed those thoughts from his mind. He had more pressing concerns- namely the projections or whatever that were emerging from Kaiyo's Zanpakuto. Kaiyo was unconscious still, and as far as Ryouta knew, a Shinigami could not utilize his/her Zanpakuto's powers while unconscious. It must be acting on its own, or perhaps something was forcing it to. Pondering over the cause would do nothing though.

They seemed deadly, possibly malicious, though Ryouta couldn't be sure. He'd rather be safe than sorry though. "Sever the lines between light and darkness, trap all within the confines of your energy! Bakudo#64: Ultimate Sapphire Barrier!" A dome-shaped barrier of pure blue appeared around the electrical phantasms that came from Kaiyo's Zanpakuto. With the help of the incantation, Ryouta had condensed the spell, making it smaller, but exponentially harder to break. He'd just have to see if Kaiyo's Zanpakuto...Tenrai Zenpyuu, or something like that, was capable of breaking his barrier without her help. Hopefully not- holding Kaiyo in place with his ice fetters, and attempting to stop her Zanpakuto from wreaking havoc had been more taxing than he cared to admit.

The golden images exploded around the blue dome, a wash of golden light seeping through the spell. At least no longer taking a physical form the energy was sheer light now. Though unable to fully break through the spell, a few sizzling flakes of lightning had managed to dance through, the rest curling in on itself within it's confines. The final explosion was just light, a bright flash of white light and the lightning was gone, her Zanpakuto sealed again.

Kaiyo's eyes quaked in terror as she jolted forwards, awake now at least. The girl's barely mobile and beaten body was slammed back down by the 4th squad Captain. Kaiyo winced at the force behind it, she was weak all over and was barely able to deal with immense pain that had began surging around her body from the moment she was conscious. Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she felt every searing nerve in her body. Kaiyo couldn't make out any voices, just blurred images and the vague recognition of someone she knew, but anything more were thoughts incapable of grasping in her condition. More machines were plugged into the girl as more bodies surrounded her. The pain at the very least meant that she was still alive.

Ryouta watched impassively as he watched his spell more or less hold Kaiyo's Zanpakuto at bay. Only a hard look in his organic eye betrayed any ounce of the physical effort it was costing him to do so. He continued to watch as the 4th Division members, Captain included, crowded around Kaiyo to do their job. She was obviously in bad shape, but from experience, Ryouta knew she'd pull through. Small as she was, Kaiyo was tough.

With a sigh that only contained a modicum of his true level of exhaustion, Ryouta slumped against the wall and let his eyelids close. "Let me know if she'll need any artificial limbs," he said aloud. For the first time in a long time, Ryouta felt...uncertain. Perhaps it was this near brush with the mortality of someone he had always viewed as a constant. He had to admit, it was a blow to his ego, which was admittedly puffed up due to his keen understanding of the world.

He had almost forgotten what it was like to feel like he wasn't in control. It was almost...exhilarating. Don't worry, Stein's voice echoed in his head. We'll get what we want.

"I'm not sure what that is anymore..." Ryouta whispered almost inaudibly.

It's everything, understand? Everything. And no one will get in our way.