~Survival of the fittest~
His pride was wounded. How could he have let that lower rabble get to him like that?! The Panther King of Hueco Mundo?! And why...just why did he have to be saved by a woman!?
~Flashback~
She walked the sands, golden eyes watching the world through the mask. Its weight long ago having settled itself as indelible, like the worst brand of betrayal etched permanently onto her face and heart.
She stretched sometimes the wings on her back, soaring through the impenetrable night, high above the never-ending sands. Alone, for there was something about her that the other Hollows kept away from. Acceptance had never come easy, save for the day she had met Kaien Shiba back in long gone days. He was the one whom had helped her find her place in the ordered world. But he was also the one whom had ended her life in the forest, his own fading to die away as well.
But only one had been infected by the night.
Only one had become a creature that was hated by all and shunned from everything good.
A Hollow.
She laughed sometimes a bitter laugh. Clawed hands tearing through the meat of her prey. If only the Kuchiki elders could see her now! This horrible, wretched thing that had once been human!
Even her own Captain had turned against her once he had seen what she had become and proved Kaien's sacrifice to be in vain. That night, as rain began to fall, he had drawn his sword, saying he was sorry. Sorry? Sorry for what? Standing by uselessly while his subordinates killed each other?
She had seen the horror in his expression and known there was no going back.
No amount of pleading or hoping they could look past the hideous form she had taken, could allow her to ever set foot in Soul Society again.
So, she had fled. Running away from that place, because in the end she couldn't die. She didn't want to die. Every selfish sense had been awakened. Instinct like an animal hunted led her to the bleak world, where she knew others like her resided. Impulse led her to hunt down the first thing she saw and shame made her howl an inhuman shriek to the sky, drenched in the blood of the Hollow she had killed.
~*~
But it was at times like these, that she most worried about herself.
She had known a gathering of smaller fry had entrapped a larger hunter.
Apart, they were nothing, but together their numbers proved even formidable for the large blue-armored cat on its haunches in the center, snarling taunts for them to just try and get him.
She didn't know why she did it.
Intruded.
Interfered with another's kill.
She just knew that in the end, mangled bodies lay sprawled around.
The cat hadn't moved.
She thought maybe he was too wounded to move about, but that concern was quickly proved untrue as he struggled to go after her, cursing with every step.
He was angry, she realized with some bemusement. His pride was the thing wounded. Instead of fighting to the death he had just been saved. Spared assured death.
Too bad, she scoffed to herself.
"Don't you dare turn your back on me!" his roar made her leap into the sky. Glancing back, she found he had--as she had suspected, attempted to slash at her from behind. Her conscious flight however, had left him sprawled bodily in the sand, screaming up at her.
"Stupid..." Rukia breathed through the jagged teeth of the Hollow mask. "Hot-headed fool." Turning away, she cast aside this incident as unimportant, never knowing it was the start of the relevant future, the beginning she had been denied and the end of which even she wouldn't have dreamed of in a million years.
Because living in Hueco Mundo meant survival and nothing more.
~To be continued~
Disclaimer: don't own Bleach.
AN: my mother's in the next room ill in bed watching a ghost show and I'm here working on a new story for you guys. ;) Originally I'd thought this up as a one-shot for There is always a Price. But then, I realized a one-shot wouldn't do it justice, so here we are. :) thanks for reading.
No flames-haters-stupid comments!
Reviews appreciated! :)