Ruins
By Spunky0ne
(Blame it on boredom, or the raging infection of the pack. I couldn't stop the muse on this one. She's gone rogue...again.)
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Ywach's treachery leaves a trail of broken hearts and lives. As the rain washes everything away, four couples try to pick up the pieces...yaoi, mpreg…Grimmjow/Ichigo, Byakuya/Renji, Rikichi/Tetsuya, Aizen/Urahara
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Chapter 1: Torrent
Ishida Uryu stood at the edge of the Seireitei battlefield, his body white-lit and still tingling, and his heart pounding from the release of the specially tipped arrow his father had given him.
God, please let this work!
He felt a little jolt inside as the arrow found its mark, and the way to victory was, for a moment, opened.
"Now, Kurosaki!" he screamed desperately.
In front of him, Ichigo's slender form exploded with golden light as he swiftly turned and sliced across the quincy king's torso.
For just a split second, there was no sound at all, just a deep, throbbing feeling of impact that reached down and seemed to shake Soul Society to the very core. Then came the deafening rush of sound, and an eruption so violent that it wrapped around Uryu's body, lifting him into the air and tossing him like a paper doll, spinning helplessly out of control until he crashed down nearly a mile from where he had been, and only his blut kept him from taking frightening damage.
That is the ferocious, unrelenting power of Ywach's evil that, even as it dies, wreaks havoc on everything it touches.
He was unsurprised that the force of it left him lying on his back, looking up into a sea of swirling black, his body numb and frozen as the signals from his nerves were momentarily interrupted.
It's over.
It's really over.
The one who killed our mothers, and who tried to destroy everything…is gone.
For several minutes, Uryu could only lie on the ground, watching smoke, ash and debris billow in the air above him, could only hear the continued rushing as Ywach's power rolled outward, vaporizing everything within a mile of the impact point.
Anyone without strong reiatsu will disappear and no trace will be left, the quincy youth thought, with an inward chill, Luckily, the only ones I sensed there were Ywach, Ichigo, Renji and Aizen…and all of them but Ywach should be well enough protected. Still, they will be disabled for awhile after.
Uryu waited until the rumbling of the ground stopped, and the filthy air above him began to clear. Feeling returned to his collapsed body slowly, and he climbed to his feet and looked quietly back in the direction of the impact point. Ywach, he could sense, was dead, but he was glad to also sense that Ichigo's strong reiatsu still radiated somewhere ahead of him. And it seemed that Urahara Kisuke and several others were hurrying to that place.
Soul Society is no place for any quincy who wants to live, Uryu decided.
He felt the nearby touch of his own father's reiatsu and Ichigo's, and he turned in their direction and employed his hirenkyaku.
It's time now for all of us to start picking up the pieces.
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Near the edge of the blast zone, two unseated officers watched with widened eyes as ground beneath their feet shook for a moment, and in the distance, thick black smoke, blazing fire and unrelenting reiatsu mushroomed and billowed outward in a deadly, spreading circle of destruction. Yuki Rikichi sucked in a worried breath and focused on the stark outlines of a cluster of ruined sakura trees just a short distance ahead of them.
"That's where Tetsu-chan was defending the Kuchiki ecampment!" he exclaimed softly, "Come on, Ryuu we have to hurry!"
Their flash step engaged, and the two shot forward, racing between the skeletal remains of the trees and barely staying ahead of the incoming rush of choking smoke and soot.
"If that gets here too fast, we won't be able to find him!" Yuki Ryuunosuke exclaimed.
"Don't think about that," his elder brother chided him, "Just keep running!"
The two hurried through the trees and to the edge of a burned out meadow, where Rikichi took hold of his brother's arm and stopped the younger boy.
"Did you feel that?" he hissed softly, looking around.
Ryuu shivered and nodded, his mind going back, for a moment, to the first wave of quincy attacks, where he had watched his superior officer get swiftly defeated. Rikichi's brown eyes fixed on Ryuu's round green ones, and softened.
"Don't worry," he said, patting his brother's face gently, "They're going to be fleeing, now that the quincy king has died. But, we will still need to be careful."
He paused and fished out two healer's bags from within a pack he carried.
"Put this on," Rikichi directed him.
"Huh?" Ryuu mused, blinking.
"Don't let your sword manifest," Riki warned the younger boy.
"It won't," Ryuu sighed, frowning and looking down at himself, "It got broke in the first attack and it hasn't formed again."
"Good, it's actually better that way," Rikichi said, smiling, "Trust me, okay."
"What are you gonna do?"
"It's a trick I learned from Tetsu-chan to fool an enemy into thinking you're not a threat."
"Eh, not that we'd really be a threat to a quincy," Ryuu noted, shaking his head.
"No, not really," he brother admitted ruefully, "but this might just keep any quincies we run into from killing us on sight. If they assume we're healers, we will probably be left alone."
"Okay, if you say so."
"Come on, now, we need to find Tetsu-chan!"
Ryuu's worried eyes focused on his brother's back as they moved on.
"Do you think he's all right?" he asked more softly, "We haven't felt his reiatsu all of this time we've been looking."
He started to say more, but his words ended in a yelp as he tripped over the root of an upended tree and tumbled forward, over a little cliff.
"Ryuu!" Rikichi exclaimed, flash stepping after him.
He flew over the edge of the little cliff and caught hold of his brother's shihakusho, then realized as he did, that it wasn't really a good idea. He was pulled into a frightful tumble, and the two rolled and crashed and bumped their way down the incline, skidding to a stop at the very bottom.
"Ugh!" Rikichi groaned, sitting up and holding his head in his hands.
"Riki!" Ryuu gasped, staring as he came face to face with two angry looking quincies, who carried the unconscious body of a man dressed in the navy blue livery of the Kuchiki house guards.
Tetsu-chan! Rikichi thought, staring.
"What have we here?" the taller of the two quincies mused, his lips curling as he sneered at the two youths.
"P-please, we're healers!" Rikichi said, indicating their packs, "We were ordered to come here to find injured. We're only here to heal people."
"So, I see," the quincy said, eyeing the two, "Well, we're in need of healers right now, because of the devastation here. So, if you wanna live, get your asses over here, and come with us."
"You can try to run away if you want, little cowards," the second quincy huffed, "But if you do, be ready to die. We'll kill you the second you move."
"Y-you don't need to do that," Rikichi said, forcing calm into his voice that he didn't feel at all, "We have an oath to heal any injured, whoever they may be."
"Fine. Igor, tie their hands."
"Is that really necessary?" Rikichi asked, earning a quick, sharp cuff that left him reeling.
"Shut up, and do what you're told!" the taller quincy snapped.
Rikichi bit his lip gently and gave his brother a warning look.
There are heavy losses on both sides, and many, many injured. Healers will be in short supply, so it makes sense that they'd spare us and just take us to their camp. We'll just play along until we have a chance to free Tetsu-chan.
It will be all right.
But…I wonder why, this close to him, I still can't sense his reiatsu at all…
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The mingled sounds of flash step and sonido sounded as a lone shinigami and a tall, blue-haired hollow touched down, their feet making a squelching sound as they impacted the surface of the tarry looking muck that covered the broken ground.
"Ugh!" Grimmjow groaned, kicking his foot to get the gunk off, "Disgusting!"
Kisuke paused and looked around, reaching out with his senses.
"There's lots of interference from the shock created by Ywach's destruction," he warned the former sexta Espada, "It's going to be hard getting a fix on Ichigo's position, so why don't you go that way and I'll go this way, okay?"
"Grrwl, whatever you say," Grimmjow snarled, glaring at the mess around him, "Though I don't know why I'm doing this. I already fulfilled my fucking contract with you. This wasn't in the fine print!"
"Yeah, well," the shopkeeper chuckled, smirking, "Shit happens, right? I just need your help for a little longer, and I'll make it worth your while, okay?"
"You'd better," the hollow huffed, turning away, "I'll look over here."
"Thanks," Kisuke said, starting in the opposite direction.
Kami, what a mess, Kisuke thought as he waded through the black ooze on the ground, It'll be hard to find anyone with the signals being distorted. We need to find Ichigo and the others and get them some help. Even though their reiatsu will have protected them from the blast that exploded from Ywach's body when he was killed, Ichigo, Renji and yes, Aizen, will have probably been knocked out by the eruption of raw power. We need to find them and make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands while they're vulnerable.
He paused and studied the area, shaking his head in frustration at the level of destruction.
"So much damage," he whispered, rubbing his chin, "and with all of this slop covering it, can't see to even identify the pieces. No way to tell exactly where we are…just a crapshoot, really."
A rumble of thunder made him pause and suck in a surprised breath.
All of the smoke and ash made the sky look black. Couldn't have told it was going to start raining…but that could be a good thing for us. It'll help us find a path to the injured, while making it harder for our enemy to spot us, if they're around wanting to cause trouble.
He glanced down at his much thinner and badly aching body.
We've been pushed to the brink. It's good for us that most of the remaining quincies are choosing to run.
Water droplets began to fall, and the shopkeeper grimaced at the greasy feel of the first of them.
Ah, the air is easier to breathe without all of that bad stuff in it. It's like Soul Society knows the worst is over and is trying to start washing away the memories.
I wish I could.
This was a tough one.
As he began to search through the wreckage, images flashed in his mind, memories of the fallen captain commander, the gentle, smiling fourth division taicho with a deadly secret, the white haired taicho...
He paused, frowning as he moved a large piece of sheet metal and found three shinigamis lying side-by-side in a small shelter someone had built around them. The three appeared to be unconscious, but breathing, and as the rain splashed down into the opened up area, it washed away the grime that coated their skin, revealing familiar faces.
Kiyone and Sentaro…which means that this person between them is…
He felt a pang of sadness at the memory of how the thirteenth division taicho had sacrificed himself, freeing the bit of the god that inhabited his ailing body.
So that we might have some hope.
He frowned as he leaned over the white-haired man and looked more closely. The frown deepened as he heard perfect respiration, and no sign of the little rattle in his breaths.
His lungs should be gone by now.
He shouldn't be alive.
But a deeper scan revealed no life threatening conditions.
And his lungs are perfectly clear.
They've never been perfectly clear.
What the hell happened here?
The shopkeeper's fingers traced the unconscious taicho's peaceful face and body, searching for hints of reiatsu.
There is something there…but the power the touched him was so strong, the reiatsu radiated at such a high level that I simply can't read it. It reminds me of when Aizen Sosuke went transcendent.
Who did this?
Was it Aizen? But, the hogyoku stopped responding to him. This doesn't make any sense.
He closed his eyes for a moment, his frown deepening as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing in front of him.
So strange…
He heard a sudden groan from nearby and stiffened, crouching and looking around. Swiftly, he set a protective barrier around the three unconscious soldiers and he crawled out of the protected area. His pale grey eyes scanned the area, and just caught the shifting of debris, off to his right. He angled in that direction, his senses extended, but unable to read the person's reiatsu through the continued spiritual interference Ywach's death had caused.
"Ugh!" the person ahead of him grunted, struggling beneath several crisscrossed pillars that had collapsed, pinning him.
Kisuke moved closer and came to a stop as he recognized the man.
"Well, Sosuke, good to see you survived," he said, smirking, "Ready to go back to your cell?"
He made a sound of surprise as Aizen finally threw off one of the pillars and crawled out, revealing the fact that his body was horrifically damaged.
From the battle?
But shouldn't he have begun to heal? He may not have the power of the hogyoku at his command, but having it fused to his soul gives him regeneration and immortality.
Doesn't it?
Aizen's one remaining arm began to shake, and he collapsed onto his belly, groaning and leaking blood from his mouth and nose.
"Shit," he breathed, flash stepping to the fallen man's side.
A quick examination revealed that, in addition to being minus one limb a large hole had been opened up in the injured man's chest, near his heart. The shopkeeper's fingers gently moved the tattered bits of his clothing, revealing the darkened orb that was still fused with him.
"Huh…"
He raised a kido light and studied the hogyoku more closely, his eyes narrowing as he struggled to make sense of what he was seeing in front of him. At first, he thought he was seeing a crack in the blackened surface of the orb, but then, he realized.
It's not just cracked, the entire surface is shattered! That's just not supposed to happen. What the hell did this? Was it the same power that Juushiro's lungs? But no, that was a healing power. And this…this could possibly have happened when Ywach died and his power went nuts and struck everything around. Still, the hogyoku and Ywach's power are both transcendent, so I wouldn't have expected the hogyoku to shatter like this. It suggests something else in addition…but what?
"Are you going to leave me here to die?" Aizen asked suddenly, derailing the shopkeeper's thinking, "Not that I would blame you, of course. But, if you're not going to kill me, a little bit of pain relief would be desirable."
Kisuke bit his lip gently, considering.
"What is that expression?" Aizen went on, his voice beginning to shake, "It's not very merciful. But then…you never really were, were you?"
"Don't know what you mean, Sosuke," Kisuke chuckled, moving, "I haven't done anything to increase the pain for you. And we all know how much you'd deserve it if I did."
"Shades of humanity," Aizen coughed, "Such an odd balance of good and evil. I've…always rather liked that about you."
"Relax. I only hesitated because you caught me thinking."
"That could be troublesome for me."
"Could be," the shopkeeper said, smirking, "That depends."
Aizen managed a pained smile.
"On what you feel is right?" he asked.
"On how much you arouse my curiosity," Kisuke corrected him, the pupils of his eyes glinting softly, "I would have expected your regeneration to have kicked in by now."
"But the orb shattered," Aizen mused, quivering, "I see that makes you curious…and a little slow. I did ask for a pain block."
"Sure," Kisuke said absently, continuing to stare at the hogyoku's badly cracked surface as he yielded the kido spell to relieve the injured man's pain.
"Thank you."
"Such nice manners from such a wicked man," Kisuke snickered, "You must want something."
"I do."
"I'm not letting you go. You wouldn't get ten feet anyway."
"I know."
Kisuke's pale eyes met Aizen's darker, deeper ones squarely.
"Then, what do you want?"
Aizen's tremulous smile returned.
"I want the same thing you do…something that neither one of us will learn if I am sent back and placed in the hands of that monstrous psychopath you placed in your former division."
"Soul Society's most talented psychopath meets its most talented sociopath. I'd buy tickets to that."
Aizen let out a shuddering breath.
"I have seen it, and it holds nothing that you and I would find particularly arousing. After all, just inflicting brutish pain on someone relentlessly, even if that person deserves it, offers nothing to increase our knowledge…does it, Urahara Kisuke? And where I would have tolerated the abuse and, albeit slowly, recovered before, the damage to the hogyoku is extreme. I think the orb is dying. That does not bode well for me."
Kisuke touched curious fingertips to the device and nodded briefly.
"You're right," he said, shaking his head in wonder, "What the hell did this?"
"I would like to know that as well," Aizen agreed, "So, the question becomes, what will you choose to do with me?"
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As soon as the tenchurren doors opened, Byakuya flash stepped out, hastily leaving Rukia with orders to head for the Kuchiki encampment.
"Find Tetsuya, and tell him to be ready for a stream of incoming wounded!"
"Hai!" Rukia shouted back to him, flash stepping in the opposite direction.
Byakuya ignored the pouring rain that quickly drenched his clothing, and the splashes of mud that spattered the fine cloth that had only just been cleaned and repaired before his return.
I felt before that blast. Renji was already injured. He was unconscious, but he was alive. Now, I feel nothing coming from the battlefield! Nothing but the radiating of Ywach's dying power. I have to get there quickly.
He may not have much time.
He flash stepped forward, missing entirely the blue-haired hollow he passed that merely glanced in his direction and let out a huffing breath.
"Huh."
Grimmjow scowled at the continuing downpour as he continued to move around the devastated area, his senses extended and looking for Ichigo's reiatsu.
I know you didn't die, you bastard. How many times have we all seen it? You get sliced up and stop breathing for awhile, but somehow, you always survive. Whether it's the girl Aizen stole, or you going full hollow, you always fucking survive. Even a guy like me's got to appreciate your nerve, Kurosaki.
Where th'fuck are you?
He continued forward, shivering at the icy cut of the wind and the pelting rain.
"Ugh, damn it!" he swore, raising an arm to shield his narrowed eyes.
A little jolt went through him as he spotted the outline of a slender man who held a shattered sword in his hand. He rested on his knees, haunted golden brown eyes fixed on a mangled lump of fiercely radiant flesh and bone.
"Fuck…" he panted, squinting and shivering, "What're you doing, Kurosaki?"
Grimmjow moved forward, joining the kneeling shinigami in front of the dead king. He shook his head and let out a disgusted breath, his mind hit with sudden images of the carnage the quincies had wrought upon the land of the hollows.
"Good riddance, you son of a bitch."
He turned his head to give Ichigo a satisfied smirk, but it died on his lips as he read the dark, horrified expression on the ginger-haired man's face.
"Ichigo?"
The frozen shinigami didn't move or speak. Grimmjow moved in front of him and grabbed him by his quaking shoulders.
"What? Are you shell shocked or something? Ichigo, answer me! What th'fuck's wrong with you? ICHIGO!"