The Revival *Part 1*

((OOC: This thread is a continuation from this one ))


Voices...

'Are you sure ...?........ Have your test's......her chances........minimal and wha-'

...

'Test's have confirmed it was her, but...'

...

It was an attack, so slow and dull, but a torrent of unfamiliar. The stark lighting was visible through her closed eyes, her mouth was dry, her voice broken and her body lifeless.

The sounds around her separated. Machines beeped and hummed around her head. The lights above her buzzed with energy. Shuffling of people around her rolled along the hard ground. A slight echo to muffled voices.

Her eyes opened. Her voice strained to ask a question she couldn't find the words to ask.

A body rushed over to her, followed by others. Her vision was hazy, and faces blurred in and out of focus.

'Good morning Kaiyo'

'D...D-did i fall asleep?' She croaked. Her mind was jumbled and muddled. A fountain muddied. Murky water that hid the truth she'd never even considered against the lie she believed.

The reply was swirled into the abyss. It faded again. Her grasp of the tangible world so faint and quiet. A whisper of a life force.

'Have you ever had a dream...A dream so splintered with shards of reality, that you would've sworn it was real?...Maybe it was.'

She sat bolt up. Her eyes wide with panic, her lungs breathing for what felt like the first time as her golden blonde hair swayed slowly down to her shoulders. It was dark. So dark she couldn't see anything, but she could feel. Kaiyo could feel everything. She pulled herself up to her feet, stumbling forwards as her knee's buckled. She opened her arms to grab onto something, but fell forwards. Her cheeks prickled against the cold ground, the heat of her face soothed by the chill that seemed to spread along her body. She tried again, dragging her hands down to her torso as she pushed herself up. Her piercing blue eyes lifted from the floor. She sighed, her warm breath sticking to the ground as she swung her legs round to sitting. 'Come on...' she snarled to herself. She bent one knee, holding balance with her hand over it, and then the other. She remained squatting for a moment. Never had her own body been so uncooperative with her. Her face was flushed, beads of sweat rolling down the sides of her cheeks as she gritted her teeth. With a grunt, she pushed her body weight forwards and stood up. She staggered a few paces, allowing her berated breathing to catch up with her when she was finally able to balance.

...

Her foot twitched on the table, a jolt of movement that spread up her leg and shook her entire body for a single and brief moment. It was enough, it seemed, to give another glimpse of hope. Her hands relaxed onto the medical table, melting against the slab of metal on which her small frame had been placed. Her face was taught and pale, an image of drained life one might assume. They would assume correct.

'Has it changed yet? Her reiatsu, is it hers again?' . The urgency of the voice might have lost it's own self assumed grandeur if it's reception weren't so humble.

'Forgive me Sir, our team is doing all we can...We never assumed this would happen...We thought her completely dead...It appears we were wrong.'

...

A light appeared with a force, a spark of energy that illuminated the path away from the dark. A drag attached to her weak limbs, a force driving her backwards, pushing her out entirely. Kaiyo threw her body forwards, trying with all her might to reach the end. For the time being, her single being was driven by such a need. No other thoughts occurred, it seemed to simple and yet impossible.

'Heh, who doesn't love a good fight?' It stalled away from her. An image of a former self split apart from the scene as she was left watching, so weak and feeble and uncertain. She stepped closer, desperate to touch and feel the being that pretended to be her. Her hand stretched forwards and grabbed only a wisp of light, a tendril of energy that absorbed her skin with a yellow spark. She turned her hand over, her fingers curling in one by one as they slid into her palm. 'Weird...' she pondered, lifting her gaze just in time to tilt her head.

The metal blade sliced through the air, whistling through her ears as it sliced at her again. She ducked, feeling the vortex of energy moved aside by the weapon. So confused, she stood, staring the tip of the blade face on as it struck down at her. Instinctively, and with more calm than she could possibly comprehend, her hand moved up. Stopping the blade and all it's force with a flat palm. Unharmed...It froze there, for a long time, her eyes dilated as they narrowed in on the blade, the serrated edge worn from combat that had ground to a halt so immediately. She leant in closer as the blade vanishing, leaving another strand in her hand. An ethereal thread of life that dissolved into her skin with a warm glow.

---
'Well?! How long until she's back? Will she remember everything? Or nothing?'. The man's voice was low and gruff, and loud enough to boom through the small frame of the other figures that surrounded it. A lapse of response settled upon the resonating urgency. A small voice replied, 'We have no way of telling...She may still die-' 'We've never had anything like this so we can't be certain of anything, at the moment, it all depends on the patient herself'.

Colour had flushed her cheeks, her hair flecked with strands of gold woven into the vibrant blonde; tussled and angelic. Her frame smaller and her muscles more defined. Beside her hand, a spark of golden light danced. The spiritual energy instantly recognised as it pulsed back to life. Alarms sounded around her small body, and a crowd burst through a set of double doors.

---

People struggle with not knowing themselves. They fight against who they're told they should be, and they spend their lives defining who they are.

'Found you...Me' Her light pink lips curled upwards into a weak smile. The reason for the emptiness and the unfamiliarity with her own self...She was found. Had she been lost? Or broken? ... Did it matter?

She faltered for a moment, her charred hand hovering over the tendrils of energy. Its golden hue sprawled through the air in never-ending wisps; dancing around her arm. Was this really what she had just fought for, what she’d killed over? The epicentre of the light was blinding, so glorious and deadly. She stepped in closer, inhaling the vortex of air that had swarmed the energy source. It prickled the skin on her shredded hands as she opened her palm and grabbed the golden light. The sheer force of the jolt knocked her to her knees; the adrenaline coursing through her veins like lightning as she slowly rose back up to her feet. A spark of sharp energy span around her now dilated pupils, their crystal blue pigments intersected with shards of glistening yellow.

---
Her heart drummed steadily through her ribcage, her nerves fluttering behind her breastplate as the hair along the back of her neck stood on edge.

'It's her...'

The voice roused her from a slumber that felt like it had lasted a lifetime. She wasn't waking from a dream or a nightmare, she was waking from obscurity, waking for the confinement of her own death. No more... The opaque yellow light simmered up around her body, surrounding the white coated people that stared, astounded at the girl. Like a wave that dissipated through the ocean, a rush of reiatsu surged from her body; pushing beyond the reach of control as it spread further and further away. Like a beacon. A ripple of life that swept through all of Soul Society. So much for keeping this a secret.

She understands, she doesn't comprehend.

Her eyes opened slowly, wearily. The stark contrast of the pearly white and crystal blue only emphasised by the clinical lighting. Kaiyo blinked a few times, her face drawn and confused. Faces, unfamiliar faces blinked down at her like she was some kind of zoo animal. 'Take a picture it'll last longer' she laughed. Her voice seemed to startle the huddle further a they moved coherently as one, a step back. Kaiyo sat up too quickly, her head seemed to follow, rushing against her as she wavered in and out. For all she didn't know and all her mind had stripped, she felt her sense of self. Finally again, like she'd been trapped for so long. She took a moment, unable to register the 12th squad machines that had begun to spiral out of control as twisted around slowly; more cautious of her unstable state this time. The sea of gaping faces remained bug eyed and silent. She rubbed the back of her head slowly, 'So...What happened?' she pondered as casually as one who had just returned from the dead could.

She recoiled with a shudder as her knee jerked forwards once more. She'd never liked the feeling; not being in complete control. Still, she'd already been prodded and probed and measured; in fact it had worn her out an usual amount. Normally a fountain of endless energy, the blonde girl was feeling quite groggy still. Her legs swung through the air still, her mind slowly ticking over everything she'd been told in the past few hours. It was, to say the least; a lot to process.

'So...I died'. She began, her sweet voice holding enough authority to make the two shinigami with her pause their scribblings and make direct eye contact. 'But they tried to save me, by taking out my soul- so a new me could grow...But old me just grew back instead?' Her mind fizzled in a meagre attempt to actually understand this. She was just going to have to go for, 'Hard to kill', she'd always been told she was vivacious anyway. Her hand moved up her cheek, massaging her temple deeply. The woman nearest too her, a nerdy looking lady who'd barely spoken a word to Kaiyo, replied. 'Basically, yes...We just need to make sure this isn't temporary and you don't combust or anything'. Contrary to what quiet nerdy lady seemed to think, Kaiyo did not find that comforting. Her eyes widened with panic as she imagined herself ballooning outwards and exploding. 'I'd make such a mess' she whispered to herself, flicking her eyes back up with a very smug grin and she laughed loudly, 'Haha, at least i'd Rest In Pieces!' she doubled over as she laughed at her hilarious pun- oblivious to the fact that nobody else had even cracked a smile. Boring lot.

Her laugh eventually dwindled back into the stuffy silence of the room. She sighed slowly. Scratching the back of her head as she hopped off her table. 'What's next then?' she mused, squinting at a confusing graph thing on a machine. She didn't even know what it was measuring. Her eyes felt sleepy, and she was wearing soft pyjama clothes so she was just about comfortable enough to have a nap. She blinked hard a few times, eager to get her tests over with. She didn't feel like she was going to explode...

'But i don't get how some throwing loads of balls at me tests my reaction time', she felt a little uneasy. Having been lead along some very clinical looking washed white corridoors, she'd been placed in a glass box with dozens of tennis ball sized holes in. Apparently, her task was simple. Just try not to get hit. Her blue eyes darted left to right as a loud whirring noise filled her ears, she tried to shout over it. 'Will it stop when i get hit?' No reply. Bloody 12th squad. Kaiyo sighed, trying to loosen up her very tense body, not because she particularly cared to do well but because she was fairly certain the 12th squad wouldn't have made the balls light, and they wouldn't stop when she did get hit. She had no choice.

She titled her weight forwards, pulling apart her gait as she bounced on the balls on her feet, knees bent and ready to move. Her thin pale blue trousers flowed with her movements; she quite liked them. Her top was just a white t-shirt though; so not quite as exciting. The first ball came from behind, fast as a bullet and powerful as a cannon-blast- it struck her in the back, just on her left shoulder. Kaiyo turned around in time to take another strike to the back of her right knee. She dropped, already feeling the impact swelling on her skin. She groaned in annoyance. Another ball shot over her head, flying past with speed enough to propel her hair in it's direction. She pulled herself back up to her feet, pulling her hands out around her just in case it helped. The next ball took her straight in the gut, throwing her backwards against the edge of her box as she slapped against the shell and fell face first. A voice buzzed into her cell, 'If it's too hard you can give up' The man sounded about as sympathetic as a pencil and it twigged at anger in the ex-captain. 'Yeah you try dying then dodging bullets' she snarled, brushing down her clothes as she stood. 'Just carry on'. she ordered.

The machine started up again, the vacuum of air causing a still breeze from each hole within her box. Kaiyo took a slow step forwards to the centre, her bare foot rolling down onto the ground as she exhaled slowly. Calming her body as she tried to pay closer attention. She leant in left to avoid the first, rolling her hips the other side as another shot over her face, practically tickling her skin. She threw her legs back; tucking in her limbs as she flipped over another three, landing like spiderman as she bounced off her nearest corner. Practically dancing as she stepped to the left, ducking and jumping back up on the other side in a single fluid movement.

A smiled toyed on her lips as her heart began to beat faster, adrenaline pumping around her body as more bolls shot through her chamber. Kaiyo swab dived forwards, rolling up as she stepped up the side wall and flipped backwards, managing a fan kick out to the side as she adjusted her landing; bouncing up off her hands to land back on her feet. Finally more accustomed to the fast movements, her body reacted further. Hanging from the top as her small hands gripped onto the holes for the balls she flipped down and rolled along the floor. Throwing her weight back up to her feet as she twisted around, bringing her foot after her as she landed a brilliant roundhouse kick on one of the buggers. She flash a white smile. Lunging and leaping around her box as she punched and knocked the white balls or evil; catching the occasional one to throw it back through another hole. Then, quite suddenly it stopped. One leg up in the air and arms twisted around her torso, she giggled slightly and assumed a more natural posture.

The door opened, and three different lab coats stood in waiting. Kaiyo brushed a rogue strand of hair back into place as she approached the three noticeably taller than her, people. 'I did good didn't i?' she nodded, clearly quite smug. Only one of them even smiled, the others seemed a little more intimidate. She couldn't figure why. They walked in silence once more, leading the girl to a plain white room with a bed in the middle. They paused in the doorway, one of them asking in an almost sickly sweet tone. 'Would you like a rest now Taichou?'. Kaiyo stared at blankly at the man for a moment, uncertain if she'd mis-heard him or not. When his face started to look concerned she nodded quickly, stepping into her new room alone as the door sealed behind her. She stared down at her bare feet. 'Captain?...'

She lay in silence. Staring at the white ceiling above.

For all her exhaustion, she'd only managed to rest; not sleep. She'd slept enough. So many thoughts eluded her grasp, and so many others bounced around her mind, un-answerable. She sighed; allowing her eyes to shut. Her mind drifted off to smaller thoughts. Colours, noises, people, places...

She threw herself up in a frenzy, patting her body up and down in case she'd missed it. Even in her clinically pristine room, she rolled from the bed, checking underneath it as she scrambled to her feet and flung the mattress across the room. Her door buzzed open as three very nervous looking scientist gaped at the girl. Kaiyo leapt towards, grabbing the nearest as she lifted the man straight up in the air with one hand. 'Where is it?!' she demanded. The man was choking by his collar; panicking and unable to answer. She dropped him, pushing aside their fragile frames with a strength she'd forgotten she even possessed. She sprinted down the corridoor, her eyes sparking with fury as she was lead through a maze. Finding her way to a large room of people, all stood staring at the door she sprang through. 'Where is it?' she snarled. No reply, Kaiyo 's hands moved up to her head in annoyance. 'Where's my Zanpakutou?!' More silence...

...
What if the nightmares give chase, where can we run then?

'Excuse me?' the indignant tone would have been enough without the exaggerated head jerk, but Kaiyo couldn't help herself. The man had already begun to stutter and sweat, but she was too pissed off to really take any notice. 'I-I...Erm, w-well....You, erm, y-you see, Y-your sword was, er-erm, damaged? In the p-p-process and we're r-re-paring it for you' he let out a strained breath as he finished, his beady eyes darting around the room. She dropped her head, defeated. She blew at her blonde hair with a huff. It seemed silly that she wasn't allowed her own sword, but it made sense that if she'd died, so had it...She'd get it back later...Or take it, whichever was necessary. With her increasing strength, it was fast becoming apparent that the 12th squad could not contain the Captain for too long.

'Fine' she conceded, jumping off her spinning chair with a slight wobble as she swayed across the floor to her next task. Kaiyo was being as patient as she could be, but she was already starting to grate on the regime she'd been put on. As well as eating some really vulgar things, she'd even allowed them to inject her with some supposedly sciencey stuff...After she'd raised her reaitsu enough to suffocate the room of people, well, they hadn't done that one since.

'So...Just lifting stuff?' she puzzled. This surely would not help her. She looked blankly at the metal pole in front of her. It didn't even have any weights on it. Her confusion was clear enough to read, and she was at least given some kind of explanation. 'It drains your reiatsu...Your average Vice Captain could lift the bar perhaps three times'. She glanced back down at the pole...There was no way in hell this would be hard. With a snort of disbelief, Kaiyo shuffled her stance. Preparing to lean down at pick it up, when she was paused mid-squat. 'Wait...You need a bench' one of them called. Kaiyo straightened her back, tugging at her soft pyjama bottoms as she waited for a bench to be brought in. She ran her hand steadily through her blonde hair, it felt nice to be back. She'd missed everything, even the feeling of her own hair tickling the back of her neck. She smiled secretly to herself for a moment, certain none of these strangers might understand. There was a tinge of sadness, Kaiyo hadn't admitted it...But she'd not been able to remember anyone. She knew she'd known a lot of people, and done a lot of things, but all of it had yet to return to her memory. It made the joy of her own life wane a little.

She leant back onto the bench. Shuffling her bare feet apart as she stretched out her arms. 'So I just have to beat three?' she called, not certain who too. A voice answered all the same, 'Well, at the very least but-' . 'Go as long as i can...Gotcha' she finished. Always the same with these lot; they weren't happy until she was sweating and panting with burning lungs and shaking hands. She smirked to herself, she'd been in the company of 12th squad for so long, she longed for her own squad back. The lovable brutes that filled her loyal ranks...There was a glimmer of sorrow in all joy and excitement she had at the moment. So for the time being, she could only do as she was told.

Kaiyo brought her elbows down as four people dropped the bar into her small hands. She adjusted her grip and pushed upwards. It weighed so little she nearly exploded with laughter; in fact, it wasn't until her tenth rep that she even realised the weight. The realisation hit her eyes, wide with shock as she winced slightly and pushed the bar back into the air. Slowly bringing it back down as she felt the extra weight pile on to it. Her feet shuffled around the floor as she felt the strain spread along her body. Her face quickly began to warm up. Determination flashed through her mind as Kaiyo made a conscious effort of directing her reiatsu. She'd never been brilliant at it; concentrating and the like was for the lame spells people needed to cast when they couldn't fight properly. A golden hue buzzed around her sweaty hands as she pumped the not VERY heavy bar back in the air. She grunted at the power behind it, clearly trying to crush her through the bench as she lifted it once more. The strain of her muscles piercing and screaming for more oxygen as she powered through. She could feel the tug of her limit when she'd half lifted the bar, clenching her teeth she gnarled out a small growl as she slowly lifted the bar back up to full extension. Her face was bright red, her feet flailing around desperately trying to pendulum the pole up as they slammed against the now comparatively freezing ground. She could feel her very energy source being sucked out like a vacuum and for each second she held onto the bar, she grew weaker and weaker.

The vibrant gold that had coated her hands dimmed. It's faint yellow turning more to a tint of the air. The veins in her neck we popping under the pressure as the ground cracked beneath her when she brought the pole back down. The room had long since been evacuated. Not that Kaiyo had noticed. The air was thick with her reiatsu, and she only wished she could suck it back into her body. No luck. She paused, her hands shaking and her elbows bent just inches above her. Kaiyo shut her eyes, pulling her mouth as she exhaled through a whistle. She delved deeper into her own power, clinging and clambering for whatever strands and wisps of power she could muster. Her eyes sparked back open with a jolt of lightning that seared along her skin. The unusual sensation tickled somewhat as it danced around her arms and up to her hands. With a final surge of reiatsu, Kaiyo pumped the bar up and down for another two sets. Stopping only when she felt an empty shell of power...The bench she was resting on gave way- dropping the girl to the ground with a heavy thud as she flung the bar behind her. Narrowly escaping death as she panted heavily. Her chest strained and her muscles aching, she rolled off the broken bench and cracked ground to a soft part of the room. She curled up into a ball and fell asleep, so oblivious to the test she'd just suffered through.

We hope to find the strength to stand against our fears but sometimes, despite ourselves; we run.

She tugged at her eyes, appalled by the bags beneath them. Kaiyo hadn't even realised how little she'd been sleeping; her zombie like state had only become apparent to her now. Now she saw how dead she still looked- let alone felt. She lowered her gaze, catching her pale skin and dark eyes in her peripheral vision before she sighed and swatted at her reflection as she turned away from it. Had her dreams become so abhorrent that she'd decided not avoid them for the rest of her dreadful time? Kaiyo didn't remember making that decision.

Having slouched back to her garishly plain room, she tugged off the Shinigami robes she'd finally been given; dragging her sluggish body into thin shorts and a t-shirt to sleep in. She flopped onto her bed with a cushioned thud and shut her eyes. She shuffled down under her blankets and turned her head so she could breath. Two seconds passed before her tired eyes flickered back open. Red and bloodshot, they stared into the abyss that surrounded her bed.

Was she afraid? Having been gone for so long, would she lose the life she cherished so much by just falling asleep? 'That's just stupid' she muttered to herself. Not buying her own lame excuses tonight. Her head was pounding, it had done for a few days now but that was probably due to her lack of sleep. She'd just been unable to drop into that sweet land of nod. There'd appeared to be no reason behind her, aside from a blind refusal to do so of course. She rolled over onto her back, knitting her fingers together as she rested them on her chest. Shutting her eyes as she tried to focus on the rise and fall of her ribs as she steadied her breathing. Still, no sweet serenity found her. Had she not felt so exhausted and empty, her frivolous attempts might have annoyed her.

Her mind scraped along the surface of a sensitive topic and her face prickled with head as tears welled in her eyes. Not many people could remember dying twice. The first time she'd ever experienced pain, her living body draining of her very soul. The first time she'd experienced un-imaginable pain...The literal fight of her life, that she'd lost...She tried to piece together her last moments. She had nothing else to do with her night afterall. She'd been carried in, surrounded by healers...Captains to bind her reiatsu.

It was like opening a box that had been sealed shut and thrown to the deepest darkest point of her mind. Tears streamed from her eyes. Her throat choked with sorrow. As her warm breath stuck to the cool air of the evening. Was it even worth living once you'd died? Would there still be a place for her?. Could she be forgiven? Kaiyo had no personal memories left; she knew what she was like and how she might have acted in situations...But the situations themselves were blurs of stories she'd been told. It wasn't fair.

She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow, feeling her wet tears seep into the fabric. She let out a small croak of pain. So much pain...Her small hands slid up along the mattress and under her head; curling in to fists to tight that her knuckles turned white. Her nails duck into the palms of her hands as she tensed all the muscles in her body. Quietly weeping to herself in the confinement of her new sad life. It wasn't that she'd felt like she died even...Just suppressed. Just made so small and insignificant, so weak and feeble. She'd been thrown into the darkness...Her shaking body calmed for a moment. She sat up, unable to stop quakes of sorrow catching her small frame as she wiped her face, wet from tears. She sniffed slightly and looked around the darkness.

For a while, Kaiyo sat in complete silence. She didn't move an inch... She turned around, sitting still to face where she knew her door to be. 'Heh...' she smirked to herself, shaking her head slightly as she slid back down. Turning her pillow over so as to not lie in her tears. She shut her eyes. Allowing, for the first time in a while; sleep to take her.

----

Kaiyo awoke with a smile, a serene calm she'd been longing to feel. It suited her face, and lit up her smile with sincerity.

Words toyed on the edge of her tongue as she swung her legs off the desk, knocking her heels against the cupboards below as she mustered the courage to speak her mind. 'So, erm...I'd like to move back to my barracks...You know...Get my squad back' She grinned hopefully as she managed to raise her gaze, piercing into the woman's eyes as she registered immediately her nerves. Kaiyo withdrew, scrunching her face with confusion as the woman dropped her eyes with shame. The penny dropped...'I...' She swallowed hard, wondering if she'd even managed the words, 'I'm not Captain anymore am I.?' The woman didn't even have to answer, she could see it written across her face. It cut her deep, that someone else might have taken her space, or that she might have lost what she'd worked for...What she cared so much for.

A jolt of light buzzed through the air as Kaiyo felt the prickle of rage along her spine. She bit back her tongue, only managing a second as she leapt from the counter and stormed from the room. Shouting behind her as she moved,

'I'll be getting my sword back now'