A Historical Discourse of Several Moments And the Time After, Which Ended the Winter War
[AN: Um, a study in clinical angst for the win? No, seriously.]
WHEN HE FELL there was at first, nothing particularly different about the scene. The war rampaging on all sides did not pause or draw away any more than it did for any number of other fallen soldiers despite the fact that it was Kurosaki Ichigo who had struck the ground after a considerable drop, to scatter sand and blood. For long, drawn out seconds, he continued to not move and the fight continued to surge across both land and sky in a helpless push and pull, give and take.
Then those moments passed and everything changed.
-x-
IN LATER YEARS they will whisper that of course it was Kurosaki who rose from the ground, fabled visard mask in place and murderous aura dampening all other killing intent across the field.
He fought until all enemies lay dead at his feet before dropping dead himself, they insist. He died even as he cleaved the last one in two and there was just nothing his nakama or the Fourth Captain could do to rouse him afterward. He died a finished hero.
They only begin to tell themselves this after the truth is no longer something anyone is willing to believe in anymore. As Kuchiki Rukia refuses even until her own death to speak of the Winter War in general and this battle in particular, it stands uncorrected.
-x-
KUCHIKI RUKIA IS screaming.
Scattered and fighting across the carnage, this is what draws the eyes of those who are the nakama of Substitute Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo. It is not, in itself, a wholly remarkable thing; they are immersed in the greatest battle of their lives, and anyway Rukia herself is somewhat prone to yelling.
But this yelling is not of warning, or anger, or even fear. It is of desperation and shaky newborn grief, a sound that Renji has never heard at a volume higher than a whimper, and who all else have never heard at all. She kneels at his side in the sand dangerously ignorant to all else, and for those few who know them and within sight, this ingrains into their minds as an instant where the battle freezes but really doesn't, with her hands scrambling for a pulse and his breath and to roll him on his back and to staunch blood from wounds no longer bleeding, all at the same time.
Most will lose sight of her at this point, because this is the moment that the battle has frozen But Really Hasn't, and they are reminded of this with the need to defend their lives from all fronts for another few seconds before locating her again. By this time something inside her has broken and she is still, head bowed and hands buried in the sand, not crying but not breathing either.
Ichigo's killer descends from the sky in the same path as his body to land several paces behind. For perhaps the first time since their original meeting half a century ago, Rukia is completely unaware of Ichimaru Gin when he speaks to her, grin in place and sword at his shoulder. As he coos something mockingly sincere to her back and his sword arcs, the battle around them does surge; a lopsided half circle of nakama and family attempting to close in on them, futile but fierce. Those unaware of what has happened at least are paying attention now that the tempo of war has shifted.
They are all much too late to stop the blood that arcs across the sand and corpse of one Kurosaki Ichigo from this confrontation, but no one ever quite agrees if this is a good or bad thing.
-x-
CAPTAIN OF THE Eleventh Division Zaraki Kenpachi has not been, nor likely never will be, a man of eloquence, so it is something of a surprise to all who were not there that his only opinion of the climax of the Winter War is a grin that would frighten even most of his dumb-as-rocks squad and a Fuck, nobody'd ever see som'thin' that savage an' beautiful.
After the truth goes silent they assume he was talking about the battle, but it never adequately explains why Sixth Division Captain Kuchiki Byakuya forbids him to come anywhere near his sister, even in passing.
-x-
FORMER CAPTAIN OF the Third Division Ichimaru Gin stands with something a distant cousin to surprise on his face, that is, because his line of sight to his sword cutting through cute, broken Rukia-chan is impeded by a white blade coated in red sticking out of his chest cavity.
And this, finally, is the moment the battle freezes For Real.
There is no one more surprised than anyone else for the simple fact that no one dreamed of this at all. Here stands the traitor, the right hand man, the slayer of Substitute Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo, with his sword decapitating the afterimage of unseated officer Kuchiki Rukia helpless on her knees and sword useless in its sheath and oblivious to all but the great, dead man before her eyes; he is run through the heart from back to front with an uncalled shikai while her eyes just as blind as before bleed into dispassion.
His lips might have parted, but with a strength belied by such delicate wrists Rukia twists her sword and heaves, nothing but brute force used to cut her blade free from the longer path across his spine and lungs into open air. No one heard Ichigo hit the ground, but everyone hears Ichimaru when the corpse falls sideways in almost two separate pieces, angled away from her friend even to the last.
-x-
IT WAS UNLIKELY that Rukia would have told Ichigo of her feelings no matter how long he lived. There was no clawing regret of things left unsaid between them - or at least not for her; no matter that she cleans up a Kuchiki, Rukia is always first and foremost a child of the inuzuka street slums, and such romanticism is dashed in any who possess it at all. So while it was unlikely, it was equally unlikely she would have discouraged him should Ichigo have turned out to be of the sort who did.
It is this theory that lays claim to the underlying cause of the events that unfolded, but only because no one is quite willing to be the one to point to God or Fate or hitsuzen and call it inevitable instead of improbable.
-x-
WHILE THE SOUND of Ichimarus body is audible, it is also what spurs the moment onward. Motion returns to the frozen and noise to the breathless, and yet the whole battle does not so much surge as waver in the wake of such impossibility. Four Tsukishiro are released without call or plan (some claim to count more, but then this time between clarity is chaos and so there cannot be any true reliable source) and for a time the fight returns uneasily to what it had meant to be; incomprehensible, undocumentable.
Counting is irrelevant, only that soon in this former Captain of the Ninth Division Kaname Tousen locates the unlikely killer of his comrade and fellow traitor. He is armed with his own sense of justice and the vague thought that anything so dangerous needed to be disposed of before it had chance to grow. Rukia had worked her way far from Ichigo's body and the start of it all, but none of her other nakama still living could yet get close to her and so she was, alone and descending into senseless insanity all around her when Tousen threw wide and trapped her in his bankai.
She completes the motion of her swing before coming to a complete stop, just as anyone would when they find themselves completely senseblind. He takes a moment to watch her head tilt as if listening to something and say a prayer for her misguided path before swooping in for a clean, painless kill.
-x-
THIS IS WHERE any of those reasons to call the outcome inevitable are skirted as the events stack themselves most suspiciously neat.
-x-
THE SUDDEN LOSS of the chaotic mess that had become of her senses shocks Rukia, naturally, but not quite in the normal way that Tousen had been aiming for. She is, quite unexpectedly completely undistracted from everything else but what is occurring within herself - eyes no longer busy with color and movement, deaf to all but the rush of blood and the whisper of Sode no Shirayuki, air brought through her nose only finding silk and steel and cold.
There is something within her screaming, clawing, something savage and desperate and sure. It drives her, a demand and a plea, potential and a curse. Bankai Bankai Bankai she is screaming at herself, only now recognized with nothing else in the way to block it. (It is a distraction from all the things that will change when this is over, but she's not thinking about that.)
And there is also Sode no Shirayuki warm in her hand and whispering in her ears, voice loving and frantic all at once Then you must Dance, Rukia-chan, stop looking to the fools who don't know how and Dance with me.
So she does.
Rukia twists around on one foot, pommel ribbon flaring wide and blade arches graceful and deadly and she can feel it, the stumble of her partner as he missteps, cradling what she somehow knows is a bloody cheek. She can feel his bewilderment in the steps they exchange, and then his panic - for even that demon Zaraki had not been able to chase him around in his own world - completely unaware that the moment Tousen started dancing he'd stepped into hers. They go back and forth across the darkness, leading and following, and soon there is frustration added in to his confusion and fear. He cannot strike her; she moves without the hindrance of her eyes, unmatchable beauty and infinite grace. She knows where he will be before he decides to go there, and all he finds himself able to do is struggle not to misstep again, for faltering is deadly.
And all the while Rukia Dances, undistracted by the rest of the world, falls into step with the universe and lets go. Sode no Shirayuki sings in her hands, laugh's freely and cuts true. They move together with the flow of the universe around them, and even as she senses her opponent preparing to misstep again before he knows it, she croons That's it, Rukia-chan, you're Dancing.
Now here, sword and woman slip neatly under the opposing blade as if choreographed with a clear shot to his soft vitals Let me show you my Dance.
-x-
HAD ICHIMARU GIN not tormented her for years before killing Kurosaki Ichigo, not been so sure he had her number and that it was no threat, he never would have died to Kuchiki Rukia. Surprise alone killed him - knowing her only as a constant when he failed to recognize that people are variables who behave like constants. You can do something to someone over and over and get the expected response, but still they are variables and one day that reaction can change, completely, with no warning or reason.
Had Kaname Tousen not been so cautious to trap her in his Bankai to kill her, he also likewise would not have died. Without the self-clarity of his blade, Rukia likely would have been worn down and killed in the melee outside sooner or later.
Statements can be made, and speculation is even to this day widely varied and rampant; on what would-have-happened, could-have-been, and was-far-more-likely. The arguments and conjecture are fierce, probable, and useless. History is about what Happens, not what Would-Have-Happened.
The facts are, simply, that they did happen, and squabbling over where to put the decimal point on possibilities that didn't happen are, at best, moot, and at worst, incorrect.
-x-
WHEN THE FORMER Captain of the Fifth Division Aizen Sosuke arrives, it is to a massacre. He is very intrigued; if the deaths of his conspirators is unexpected or upsetting, there is no sign of it on his face or in his posture. If he is surprised, it does not show. He stands calm witness to the scene, taking it all in.
Here is one Kurosaki Ichigo, broken and lifeless in the sand where he had fallen.
Here is one Ichimaru Gin, cut nearly in half and leaking blood and gore, also very dead.
Here is one Kaname Tousen, again dead, sliced to frozen ribbons.
And here is one oddity, Kuchiki Rukia, defying every expectation and observation he had made in her regard.
Her blade has not changed, even still pristine after the slaughter she has just finished on his second captain. But a change is most definitely there; perhaps it is in the unexpected change of attire, a white yukata that barely reaches her knees, sleeves that almost reach her fingertips, a scarf of delicate white that loops around her elbows and arches behind her back, floating loose and easy; perhaps it is the visor sunglasses that wrap around the upper portion of her face in a glinting, glacial blue; perhaps it is the cold murderous rage in her eyes.
New bankai is hardly ever a threat. The sudden boost in strength is undeniable, but the lack of time and experience the user has to understand the flow of new power and practice in maintaining it means they are typically clumsy and burn out quickly, the last thing anyone can afford in a fight.
"Well now," he comments.
Aizen Sosuke is noted to have a penchant for talking.
Kuchiki Rukia does not.
-x-
FORMER AND REINSTATED Captain of the Twelfth Division Urahara Kisuke has only ever consented to one interview about the closing battle of the Winter War, and even then it was only after Kuchiki Rukia's death. The conversation was surprisingly brief.
"New bankai is hardly ever a threat," he tells in confidence. "But that's the thing, you see. Kuchiki-san was always so surrounded by such extraordinary people, that no one seemed to see that she was just as much an exception to many rules, if in usually more subtle ways. If I was more paranoid I'd say she'd done it on purpose, just for moments like that."
"It seems no one has much to say about her."
"She did have this way of inspiring loyalty in people, just with Kurosaki-kun right next to her doing the same thing it was hard to tell them apart. And while I will admit it's something that I had used - in both of them - on several occasions, I've spent far to long respecting that woman's right to kill me over past transgressions to stop now."
-x-
THE FIRST ATTACK is sudden and merciless, but Aizen Sosuke does not appear unduly bothered by it. He counters each strike cleanly before she moves back for a bit of distance, so they face off standing in open air just above the battlefield. Even just this close to her is bitterly cold.
"I must admit, I had not expected this from you," he tells her.
She is studying him for a weakness, and does not bother to answer.
"I have to wonder, though, what you hope to gain from this. What plan do you have for striking me?"
He is interrupted when Rukia lunges again, blade sweeping in from the side and then they are trading blows. It takes no effort to push her back, and she goes willingly. The murderous intent has not faded from her eyes, but other than that she is calm and still. Almost serene. It would be an unnerving response to anyone else, but Aizen is to much a scientist to be anything more than intrigued.
"Perhaps you don't have one," he muses, seeking a reaction. "Perhaps you have become as reckless as the boy you brought in."
For just a moment while that hangs between them, she stands before him.
Then she is gone.
There is pain even as he is dodging it, a line of fire across one shoulder very close to his throat, and the cold is much worse up close. Almost enough to freeze the crimson dripping through the air to fall on the sand and unsuspecting combatants below; at least, those that had not already frozen to stare at the confrontation building above them.
Kuchiki Rukia has drawn first blood.
-x-
VERY LITTLE IS known about how a shinigami and zanpaku-to are paired. The most common theories have to do with a reflection of the true inner self, and a manifestation of the wielder's desires. It is noted that in all recorded cases of bankai, the shinigami and the nature of their zanpaku-to are closely matched. The same cannot be said for all shinigami who have only reached shikai, but then self-awareness in the form of true understanding is also rare.
Perhaps a lifetime spent living in a world out of her control contributed to Sode no Shirayuki's singular most peculiar ability. Perhaps the multiple drastic changes in her situation and lifestyle is what gave her blade a corresponding adversity to its range of talents. Kuchiki Rukia did, after all, display a similar trait of personal ability to adapt as a situation evolved. Or maybe it was just random chance that her elemental nature was ice.
Documented in the Central 46 library on the blade known as Sode no Shirayuki:
On the blade known as "Sode no Shirayuki" (translation to Sleeve of White Snow); an ice-element blade that has several varied attacks stemming from a central ability to "take control of the field and freeze all within its influence."
-x-
THE ONLY PERSON who does not seem surprised by this turn of events is Kuchiki Rukia herself. She is beyond surprise, or any other feeling. The former captain examines his wound in a small amount of mild surprise, but still without any concern.
"How very interesting," he muses, and smiles at her. And then he is on her with blade drawn.
This is just another sort of dance, the zanpaku-to tells her, and her eyes are just in the way. Especially with this partner. He must pass through the aura of cold to reach them anyway, and even if Rukias senses are enslaved to his illusions, Sode no Shirayuki is not. With no eyes to see his shikai except through her wielder, it leaves the blade unhindered. So Rukia closes the eyes she does not need and lets her sword find the other.
The skirmish is not without consequence. When they next break apart, Rukia is sporting several new wounds, the last of which is a deep gash in her side from the near successful attempt to cleave her in half. Aizen is frowning at her now, because that last attempt had been thwarted by her simply vanishing in the middle of it.
He does not fully understand what it is she is doing. Speed is one thing, and while she is fast, it is not at an unmatchable level. He should have had her. He felt her under his blade, and then he simply had not. Curious.
"What an interesting blade you have, Kuchiki Rukia. She is unusually aware of her surroundings for you be successful in chasing me with it."
Rukia swings her blade in a wide arc that cuts the air in front of her, materializing a Hakuren along the length of the edge. Her opponent dodges, of course, (though from the angle it plows into the ground and freezes solid an entire wave of the battle below) but she uses the distraction for another sudden jump into his blind spot. Aizen slips away from another fatal blow, but he is also bleeding again. This is becoming troublesome. Once can be caused by surprise and called a fluke. Twice would indicate that she may be on to something.
"Very aware."
"Of course she is aware," even Kuchiki Rukia's disdain is from a step removed. "She freezes all within her influence, be it Heaven and Earth-"
Understanding comes with an icy shock and a steel blade to the gut, where blood and tissue freeze and cells rupture. The half-heartbeat of surprise-from-understanding is calculated and used to maximum efficiency for a critical strike.
"-or the Time that flows between them."
-x-
AN EXCERPT FROM the medical report written by Captain Unohana Retsu of the Fourth Division:
In the absence of any other explanation, I was forced to draw a few conclusions about the nature of Kuchiki-san's bankai in order to treat her condition. The worst of her injuries was a dangerous a fever that refused to be brought down or abated, resulting in several days of fever-dreams and delusions. I speculate that, as cold is the absence of heat, Kuchiki-san must either draw that heat into herself from the surroundings to stop time, or she shrouds herself in such intense cold that the time around her is frozen and then slips from that moment into another one at a different location. In the first case, the heat may not have completely left her or been fully released. In the other, such cold in open wounds has infected them.
No matter how she accomplished it, it is my professional opinion that this particular aspect of her bankai is too dangerous to her personal health and she refrain from its use. I cannot guarantee what might happen to her if she continues to use it even simply in training; while in no way more fragile than any average shinigami, there are limits to the stress one can put on their body, and to one's natural resistances, before permanent damage is inevitable.
-x-
BY THE TIME his swing could have connected she has already ducked out of the stream of time and retreated. Ultimately the attempt does much more damage to himself; the twisting shreds frozen muscles and organs; the bottom of his lungs is filled with ice and movement from inhaling splits the walls open; splinters of frozen blood flay his veins everywhere else as they are circulated from the beat of his own heart.
It will only take a minute, maybe two, for his insides to finish shredding in an agonizing mess.
The time for playing with her is very over. His curiosity has never proven a particular detriment before, but Aizen can no longer afford to have her live. He will not even try and get in close now; he will simply catch her in a kidou and crush her. Aizen reaches out with his will and in for his power-
-but it is not there.
Calculated for maximum efficiency.
Only now does he understand what she has done. If you know you will only get one strike, then make it count. Rukia's blade destroyed the hakusui soul sleep, and her ice froze and shattered the saketsu chain. Ultimate precision and infinite grace. His power is gone.
Kuchiki Rukia watches him crumble, and even as he dies, even as her bankai breaks apart, even as she collapses herself from gushing wounds and ravaging fever, she shows no sign of caring about any of it even to the last.
-x-
"NO ONE REALLY knew what to do about it afterward," comments Captain of the Ninth Division Abarai Renji (then vice-captain of the sixth division). "She was out of it for a long time, so by the time she was conscious again people had sorta gotten over the shock of just who had finally killed the bastard. Hitsugaya-taichou just about threw a fit."
(He pauses, then shakes his head.)
"None of us regretted it, exactly, but," (sigh) "In some ways she never really woke up. Never said a word about the whole thing again, zoned out if you tried, and I don't think anyone saw her use bankai again more than two or three times the rest of her life. But she seemed aware that Ichigo was gone, and it was like that was the only part of the whole thing that mattered at all and the rest were just superficial details that she couldn't be bothered with.
"She was always good at blaming herself," he says, voice gruff. "Something that never changed."
-x-
EYEWITTNESS ACCOUNTS AGREE that it is the Quincy Ishida Uryuu that reaches Kuchiki Rukia first. He checks her pulse, then takes a moment to check the pulse of her opponent. Satisfied that he is dead and she is not, he gathers up his nakama and sets off in search of help. The battle is breaking up around them slowly, with the enemy leaders gone the hollows and espada are beginning to retreat or flee, and by the time those moments pass the Winter War is over.
-end report-