Title: A Circle Has No Beginning
Author: Gyaku no Sekai
Rating: T
Warnings: It's Kenpachi and Yachiru; need I say more?
Pairings: Kenpachi x Yachiru
Summary: AU-ish. A circle has no beginning and no end. In a sense, neither do they. And so, the cycle continues.
Dream of the ones who came before.
A circle has no beginning, and in a sense, neither do they; it is so long since their first meeting that both of them hardly remember it, but remember they do. Their memories are mostly suppressed by their new lives, appearing, seeming as dreams – at least until they meet, until their eyes are opened and they see. They are blessed (cursed) to always, always remember.
The first time is before the Before, when great beasts still roam the land and humankind is not even close to the top of the food chain. They are children then, new souls, abandoned by their parents in a time of lean hunting, and though it is hard to keep both of them fed, it is easier to keep watch for predators with two sets of eyes rather than one. He hunts for them, she gathers, and they survive – and die together when a rock a mile across falls from the sky.
They meet again in the Place Beyond when it is just beginning, assigned to the same district, taken in by the same family, but they feel the distant hunger their new kin do not; it drives them to become strong as one of the Warriors in Black, and again, they die together, succumbing to injuries given to them by the Hollow Ones.
A circle has no beginning…
The next time, she is young, too young, selling herself on the street for food even as she starves. He is a proud warrior serving his chief and knows her the moment he sees her, takes her home with him and coaxes her through the hunger-induced delirium until she remembers him, too. She follows him wherever he goes in conquest for his lord until she is slain by the enemy; he is not weakened by her death, he knows where she has gone. He is only enraged beyond words, and he storms the enemy stronghold like a beast gone mad, cuts down everyone inside before dying of the poison that coats their blades.
He finds her already waiting, already robed in black, but their moments are few before they are again torn asunder; he is caught in the crossfire between two Lorde-class Hollow Ones and dies cold and alone. She mourns, and waits. She knows that he is strong, that he will return.
He lives his next life empty, searching for something he cannot find, waiting for something that never arrives, and passes on far from his human kin, having wandered far and wide in his quest. She is the one who comes for him, and they walk together through the gates of the Place Beyond. But she has become sick, dying, and her illness kills them both.
His name – one of the many they have already taken and cast off – comes to her on whispers in the wind, borne by a thousand throats, and she knows it is him; he is king and conqueror both, and though he does not know her (yet), he will, as he always has. She abandons her parents, her husband, her children, to go to him; he sees her in the crowd around him, and though she cannot be his bride, she is always his favorite. He outlives her again and is near-ancient when she toddles up to him and smiles, her afterlife short and rife with bloodshed.
…and no end. In a sense…
They live many lives then, their timing off, always catching one another just before they part, until finally he is a powerful conqueror again, riding in from a far distant land, feeling acutely the restlessness in his soul that is the lack of her; the same that she feels when he departs from her life. She is of the family of his enemy; they offer him her hand and then force it to tip poison into his drink. He passes to the sound of her screaming in despair – and wakes in his next life to find that she is his mother.
In the life after that, it is she who becomes the warrior, then, a woman in the guise of a man and doing it rather successfully, too. She passes through the village where he has been reborn yet again, sees him, invites him to follow, and he does. He has no problem with being commanded by her because it is her, and he knows her well, just as much as he knows the strategies that she uses because they are the ones he taught her. He saves her life in battle but she dies anyway, miscarrying their child even as the healers fight to keep her with them.
Lives pass; she is persecuted as a witch, he is martyred as a saint. She dies in a city surround by desert, he is born on an island in the middle of the ocean. She is a queen, he her subject. They slide through the years and through bodies, wearing them and throwing them aside as if they mean nothing (and they do), but they never speak a word to anyone. It is a harsh lesson they have learned over time; many have claimed them to be possessed by evil spirits when they have spoken, and so they say nothing, not even to the Warriors in Black in the Place Beyond.
She is a baby, aborted by her mother, but at least she gets her revenge by taking the bitch with her when she goes. Sent to one of the worst of all districts, she watches, defenseless, as the people around her slaughter one another simply because they are more beast than man. Her world is dyed red for weeks –
And then he comes.
…neither do they. And so...
He takes one look at her and hacks apart the people who threaten her, picks her up off of the bloodstained ground and gives her the name that she has most recently worn, setting off towards the White City with her clinging to his back as she always has. They robe themselves in black and become the strongest, as they always have been, for no one else could endure as they have. Even what kills them makes them stronger.
...the cycle continues.
Don't say, "We have come now to the end."
White shores are calling; you and I will meet again.
-"Into the West," Annie Lennox, (The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King Official Soundtrack)
A/N: IDEK. Inspired by Orobouros by Resmiranda. Randomness while working on the next chapter of The Dragon and the Rift-Maker. No flames, or you will be beset upon by Ryuujin Jakka, who will make you feel terribly inferior because his flames are bigger than yours.