Mockery Shaft
x.x
"I love you, Ichi-nii." Karin's lips trembled as she said it. The words were muffled.
She shouldn't have been talking like this. Ichigo leaned back and stared up the long shaft at the sky of Hueco Mundo. The white moon hung lonely without twinkling stars, and beneath their feet, the ground was bright white and hard. Light reflected down the tube from the opening skywards and did its best to remove the clinging shadows from the curving walls.
"They'll come for us," Ichigo managed.
His stomach hurt. His belly screamed with hunger, and the air he breathed was heavy with something that called to his hollow - no voices now, just a powerful urge to consume. Aizen was up there somewhere smiling at his inevitable victory.
Ichigo would not give him that victory.
He curled over himself, grimacing at the pangs of hunger. He aborted a motion to put his hand on his stomach. There was hole there. He didn't want to know how much larger it had grown.
He needed to distract himself, the smell of his sister's soul called to him. She was like ice-cream at breakfast-time: cold and frozen and not a good idea, but oh-so-sweet.
"What-what do you want to protect?" he asked her.
Those were the sorts of things he was meant to think about, weren't they? He needed to think like that!
He kept his eyes on the ground as he awaited her answer. Her moments of silence were almost more than he could bare.
"Us," Karin said. The ferocity surprised him. "You, me, Yuzu and old Goat-Face."
An idea awakened. Ichigo's mind turned, twisted and changed. He felt light-headed. He was fearful of himself, aware that he had suddenly taken a step and no backtracking would undo its effect.
"You're strong, Karin," he said, rushing to justify himself. "Sure, I am too, but I can't get us out of here alone. So help me. We'll be together, and I'll protect us for you."
He looked at her, and felt the hunger rip into his throat. His tongue sung with satisfaction at the decision. A realisation came to him, almost clinical: the teeth in his mask were were no functionless relic of humanity, they were first step of soul digestion. The anticipation made him hazy.
For a moment, Karin's voice made him hesitate.
"You're not the only one who gets to be a hero, you know, so you'd better accept other people's sacrifices!"
But only for a moment.
"I love you, Ichi-nii!"