One Moment
Characters/Pairings
In this chapter: Starrk, Lilynette, Shunsui, Harribel, Urahara, Yoruichi, Aizen, Gin, Unohana, and an unconscious Ukitake. Implied Aizen/Starrk. Shunsui/Starrk pre-slash.
Throughout the whole fic: Ensemble cast, centring on Starrk, Lilynette, and Shunsui. Past Aizen/Starrk, Shunsui/Starrk, Lilynette/Rukia, Grimmjow/Neliel, Grimmjow/Neliel/Zaraki, Harribel/all of her fraccions, and various others implied.
Rating: PG for this chapter. R for the fic.
Words: ~6900
Summary: One loose nail in the roof. One moment of betrayal. Starrk learns about the truth of his so-called debt to Aizen. A story about learning to trust again, and the difference one person (two people) can make. Canon AU. Starrk-centric ensemble. Past Aizen/Starrk, eventual Shunsui/Starrk. Also Lilynette/Rukia and Grimmjow/Neliel. Used to be called 'For Want of a Nail."
~ Arc 1: A God and His Clay ~
Chapter 1: The Moving Mountains of Bones
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
The layout of Karakura town was just like most Tokyo suburbs – the wealthier citizens lived in the centre, near the big highway that connects the town to central Tokyo, and the poorer citizens further away. Out of all the Shinigami, only Urahara Kisuke knew about this, though one would wonder if he chose the poverty-stricken street where his shop was deliberately. Maybe it was just the first empty lot with a huge space for a basement he could find.
Most of the battles in the fake version of the town took place within the outskirts, on the opposite side of the town from Urahara's shop. Some of them, due to the nature of shunpo and sonido, took place closer to the centre. But the battle between the Primera and the Eighth Division capture took place in one of the factory districts, where buildings were short, squat, and poorly-built for functionality.
Ten years ago, a contractor was hired to build a certain building. He was a lazy and greedy man, cutting costs to make more profit. And his usual way of doing so is to make the roofs of buildings poorly – well enough that there would be no water leakage, but unable to bear any kind of weight without caving in entirely. After all, he thought, no one would ever be stupid enough to stand on a roof, and if anything fell through it, the roof's integrity would be the least of anyone's problems.
The roof of that particular building was made with slats of crisscrossing wood that fitted together perfectly in the usual style of Japanese carpentry. It was nailed to the sides of the building. One of the nails was loose.
When the Fake Karakura Town was created, the Tenkai Kecchu copied every single detail. Including the loose nail.
Starrk was falling.
I'm not alone.
The pain in his chest was immense. There were black cracks appearing around the edges of his hollow hole, spreading outwards.
I'm not alone.
He stared up at the sky. At the corner of his eye, a haori was falling, white against blue. It looked like a floating cloud. Starrk found himself waiting a kick, a yell, or even some kind of ribbing for his ridiculous thoughts. But there was only silence.
I'm not alone.
Starrk fell through the roof. The wood cracked around his weight. He landed hard on the floor, shrouded in shadows. The sounds of battle were continuing without pause. No one stopped to look at him. No one stopped to come to him. Not even Aizen-sama. But surely Aizen-sama was busy with the battle, and he wasn't ignoring Starrk on purpose.
He held onto his thoughts of his comrades, his fellow Espada. Even if it was only for a few months, he wasn't alone. He thought of Aizen-sama's kind brown eyes, so much different from the ice-like gaze he gave the rest. Aizen-sama's hand… it was warm.
Wood creaked around him. The edges of the roof shuddered. The loose nail tried valiantly to fight to forces of gravity, but it lost.
The sky opened itself to Starrk when the roof caved in. Pieces of wood and dust scattered around his prone form. He turned his eyes up, glad that he managed to land on his back. Now that the roof was open, he could see the battle. Even if he couldn't take part in it at the moment, he would be able to see the victory that he helped with. He would be able to see Aizen-sama win.
His breath caught in his throat.
He could see Aizen-sama raise his sword and head towards Harribel. Even this far away, even on the ground, he noticed the killing intent held in the angle of the wrist.
The wound on his chest no longer mattered. There was a heat beneath the skin and bones that overwhelmed the pain. There was a choking lump in his throat. The air itself was too thick to breathe. He didn't know the name of this emotion; would only know how to name it years later.
Betrayal.
Starrk moved.
Aizen's (Aizen-sama?) sword cut through Starrk's forearm instead of Harribel's body. He could feel Harribel's (comrade?) shock next to him.
"Starrk," Aizen said, sounding surprised. "You're alive."
Vaguely, Starrk was aware that the Shinigami were all staring at him. He ignored them, lifting his head up and looking Aizen in the eye.
"Why…" it wasn't the pain that made his voice tremulous and weak. "Why were you going to kill Harribel, Aizen-sama?"
Shunsui hadn't wanted to kill the Espada.
It was because of his eyes. Not the colour; nothing as dull or cliché as that. No, it was… it was what was hidden underneath, the lingering hints of solemnity and loneliness mixed with some sort of strange innocence. Like the many lost children he had met in his long, long life, clinging onto the sleeves of any adult who gave them kindness no matter how hard the whip swung in said adult's hands.
Somehow, the Espada reminded him of the way Hinamori-chan looked nowadays.
Watching the Espada fall, Shunsui made up his mind to tell Ukitake about these thoughts. Either the man would laugh and tease him for his foolish romanticism, or he would come up with something insightful. Ukitake was always good for either of those.
(Shunsui refused to believe that he wouldn't be able to tell Ukitake about this later on. His friend might have had a hand stuck through his chest, but he would pull through. He always did.)
He wasn't surprised that Aizen would kill his own people, and he spared a brief moment of pity for the Tercera. But the Espada he swore was dead somehow came back, and Shunsui could only stare.
Aizen was smiling.
"I have brought all of you to me for a single purpose," Aizen said smoothly. Shunsui watched as Kyouka Suigetsu cut even deeper into the Espada's arm, blood welling up to stain the white uniform an even deeper red.
"But none of you had fulfilled it. None of you are strong enough to fight for me."
Then Aizen was moving back. The sound of his blade leaving flesh was sickeningly loud in the sudden silence of the battlefield. Shunsui found himself wanting to move forward, wanting to… do what?
The female Espada was gaping, staring at Aizen with such sudden shock and hurt in his eyes. Shunsui's hands clenched tight around Katen Kyokotsu; enemy, he reminded himself. They are the enemy.
Thinking of one of them being similar to Hinamori-chan was bad enough, but two… If it was two, then this war had tainted all of them with so much evil that not even a whole crate of alcohol would be able to wash it away.
"I'm done with you," Aizen said, with all the gravity of a man stepping on an ant.
The Espada's single visible eye was shadowed. His hands fell to his side, and Shunsui watched, curiously, as blue-coloured reiatsu began to build up in his hands. Slowly, they solidified into the form of guns.
"Take cover, Harribel," the Espada murmured. The man turned his head, looking straight at Shunsui. "Can you get the Shinigami some kind of cover, taichou-san?"
Shunsui could only nod.
The guns in his hands felt cold. Usually they were so warm, Lilynette's warmth. They were too light too. It all felt so wrong. He had never felt her so far from him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Starrk watched as the Captain start to order his allies to step back. The Shinigami seemed to obey him instinctively. Then his gaze slid back towards Aizen. He lifted his guns.
"What do you think that will do, Starrk?"
"I don't know," Starrk said with perfect honesty. Starrk wasn't even sure if this would work. He had never tried it. He didn't want to be alone again.
But he was already alone. And the man who had supposedly brought him out of his loneliness had betrayed him. The gaping wound on his skin was minor compared to the pain within. If he still had a heart, he would have sworn that it had been ripped out.
He shoved one gun into his mouth, the other to the mask covering his eye. Harribel was yelling something, but Starrk couldn't hear a thing. He fired.
His mask shattered. Blue light exploded outwards, upwards, tearing through the clouds.
In that one moment, Coyote Starrk ceased to exist.
"Segunda Etapa."
Hueco Mundo was a vast desert, an entire world filled with nothing but white sand and creatures who barely had any intelligence for speech, much less culture. There were no books. Any Hollow who met each other was often more interested in killing each other than speaking.
But even in a world such as this, there were stories, passed along from Vasto Lorde to Vasto Lorde in the rare times they met. Sometimes, the Adjuchas knew the stories too, whether from the Vasto Lordes they served or from each other.
One of the most well-known tales was that of the moving mountain of bones.
Less than a century ago, a nightmare came to Hueco Mundo. Hollows themselves were creatures of nightmares, children's tales of monsters under the bed made form and given teeth and irrepressible hunger. But even nightmares had fears of their own, and many Adjuchas were haunted by that tale. Of a creature so terrifyingly strong that it left behind trails of bones that built into mountains wherever they walked; a creature so powerful that it was impossible to be near it before one turned into dust.
Even the Vasto Lorde avoided the creature. Once, Harribel had heard that the creature was female, and she wanted to approach it – female Vasto Lordes are so rare that she thought herself the only one. But she had Adjuchas to protect, and her fraccion were too stubborn to be left behind.
But it seemed that the story had come to her instead.
The spiritual pressure in the air was so thick, so immense, that it was suffocating her even in her released form. She stumbled backwards from the column of blue light, eyes widening. Her gaze turned towards Aizen, and she saw something that felt like a cold hand sticking into her chest.
Aizen was smiling. He looked amused.
Harribel wanted, suddenly, to kill him. But there was suddenly a hand on her shoulder, shoving her backwards, and she fell through… was that a barrier?
The man who grabbed her was Starrk's opponent, a Shinigami with flowers in his hair and was far too hairy. Harribel stared at him, eye narrowing slightly, and he laughed.
"Well, Espada-san gave us a warning when he didn't have to," the Shinigami said. "I'm repaying the favour."
There was an odd look in his eyes, but Harribel ignored it to think about later. Her hands itched at her side. Her fraccion… they were still outside, and if this was what she thought it was…
"Not he," she said flatly, and then she was gone.
The spiritual pressure was getting even stronger. Harribel gritted her teeth and shot towards her fraccion. They were all still alive, and she held Tiburon with her teeth before pulling all three of them to her. She couldn't pull all of them into the barrier by herself even with both hands free, but she would rather die first before she let them all die like this.
Then the Shinigami was there again. The odd look in his eyes was there again, and now Harribel recognised it: the man looked as if what she had done had turned his entire world upside-down.
"Will you let me help?" he asked.
Harribel didn't have time to think, much less reply.
"Shoot to kill, Shinsou."
The blade came towards them, aimed straight at Mila-Rose's chest. Harribel made a low growl, shoving Mila-Rose back, putting herself in the path of the blade. It was an immediate, instinctive move; she was the embodiment of sacrifice, and if she died for the sake of her fraccion, then it would be worth it.
Shinsou's edge stopped right in front of Harribel's throat. She blinked.
Long, dark green hair danced in front of her. She looked down. A single pale hand stopped Shinsou from moving, the sword trembling as it met an immovable object. The fingers were splayed open, and they closed, gripping the blade tight. Harribel dodged the elbow as the creature in front of her literally shoved the zanpaktou right back at its owner.
"You're going to die if you stay out here," the creature said. Harribel's eyes widened at the sound of its voice: both Starrk and Lilynette's together, joined in an echoing chorus that was utterly alien and inhuman.
"But we should have known that you wouldn't have left them here, Harribel."
The eyes were a dull red, like old blood.
"I can leave them behind as you can leave Lilynette, Starrk," she said tentatively. Was this really Starrk?
"That's stupid!" the voice still echoed, but Starrk's was entirely gone. This was purely Lilynette's high-pitched, girlish voice. "That's really, really stupid! They're not part of you!"
Harribel looked up, startled. The creature had Lilynette's face, except slightly older. She resembled Inoue Orihime in age, if nothing else – all of Starrk's sharp angles were gone, replaced by slightly-rounded cheeks and plush lips. But the look in those red eyes was purely Starrk – tired, unimpressed, and just a little annoyed.
The wound that was on Starrk's chest had disappeared, replaced by thick scars spreading out from the Hollow hole in her chest, overlaid by a thicker one that corded from shoulder to hip, bisecting through the small breasts barely covered by the white uniform.
"They might as well be," Harribel replied.
The Shinigami at her side suddenly spoke. "Who are you?" he sounded mildly curious.
"You totally weren't paying attention to us, were you? We told you—" the creature suddenly cut itself off, shaking its head.
"We were one hollow," Starrk said. "That's what we are now."
His deep baritone was so strange coming from the female body in front of him.
"The moving mountains of bones," Harribel murmured.
The Shinigami shot her a surprised look, but Harribel ignored him, more curious about the creature's sudden wince.
"Is that what you called us?" the two of them spoke together again. "We don't like that name."
"What is your name, then?" the Shinigami asked.
The creature fell silent for a long moment. It turned around, facing the battlefield. Blue light started forming in its hands, creating a sword, and a gun.
"We didn't have a name," the creature said in its strange double voice. "There is no point in having a name when you are alone. There is no one who will use it."
It raised its gun at Aizen.
"We are Starrk, and we are Lilynette. Either name is fine." It looked back at them for a moment. "You should get into the barrier. Are you sure it will hold?"
The Shinigami nodded. He turned to look at her, and Harribel sighed.
"Take Sung-Sun," she said, for that fraccion would complain the least about being touched by the Shinigami. She pointed when the man looked confused.
Mila-Rose and Apacci slung over her shoulders, Harribel fled back into the barrier, followed closely by the Shinigami.
Behind them, blue light exploded.
Shunsui felt like he was an hourglass in the hands of a child, being turned around and around until he was dizzy. He put down the Arrancar in his arms and watched as the Tercera Espada pulled them all towards her, holding tight to their bodies and checking their injuries over and over. Like a mother with her children.
He dragged a hand through his hair and stared out towards the battle outside. Nothing had happened like it should have. No matter how Shunsui tried, he couldn't see the Espada in front of him or the one fighting outside to be enemies. He could barely even see them as Hollows, even.
God, he needed a drink.
Ukitake's stretcher had been pulled into the barrier somehow, and Shunsui walked over to his best friend, sitting down next to him. Retsu-senpai lifted her eyes, giving him a small smile before concentrating on healing his friend. Shunsui made himself comfortable, keeping half an eye on the shallow up-and-down of Ukitake's chest – he's still breathing, good – before he turned to look at the battle happening up ahead.
Aizen was winning. In fact, there was no way that the Espada (Shunsui stuck with that name in his head; calling the Espada by her names was too dangerous, no matter which one he chose) could win.
He pulled the tie out of his hair, staring at the bright blue cloth before he let out a shuddering sigh.
There was too big a gap between the Espada's skill level and Aizen's. No doubt they were on the same level in terms of raw power – Shunsui reckoned that she was on the same level as Yama-jii, or even higher – but raw power could only do so much in a battle. Shunsui's own win had proven that. Plus there was Kyouka Suigetsu…
Shunsui wondered, briefly, if Aizen had already killed the Espada and was just putting up an illusionary show to entertain the rest of them while he destroyed Karakura, or something. He wouldn't put it past the man.
An hourglass constantly being turned. He felt practically dizzy.
"You need to wake up faster, Ukitake," he said out loud, sighing heavily. "I'm starting to depress myself and I don't even have a drink with me to make that tolerable. You need to wake up to talk me out of this."
"I don't think Ukitake-taichou will be waking up today, Kyouraku-taichou," Retsu-senpai told him pleasantly. "But if you need to talk…"
Shunsui looked at Retsu-senpai out of the corner of his eyes. He knew who – or rather, what she really was – and he wondered if she would understand having compassion for an enemy. But at the same time… she had helped him heal that Sado boy.
He rubbed a hand through his face.
"I wish all three of them had been like that skeleton in robes," he said quietly. His eyes were still fixed upon the battle in front of him – even though it hurt him to see the Espada being constantly slashed at and hit with kido spells, he owe it to the man (woman? creature? what?) to at least watch without turning away.
"They are so human," he continued. "The look in their eyes…"
Retsu-senpai brushed a strand of Ukitake's hair away from his shoulder, her kido moving to another spot as she healed the damage.
"Kyouraku-taichou," she murmured. "Do you remember how Hollows are made?"
Shunsui tilted his head to the side, glancing at her.
"All of them were once humans. They were souls we failed to bring to Soul Society before their soul chains had rotted." She looked up, and her dark eyes were piercing upon his. "Is it so strange for some of them to have remnants of humanity remaining?"
… Ah, he made another miscalculation. Shunsui was really getting too old for this. Retsu-senpai would understand better than anyone what it meant to claw her way out of inhumanity, to repress instincts and blood-hunger to become someone better.
"No, it's not," he said.
He meant to say more – apologise, perhaps – but the barrier suddenly shook. Shunsui turned his full attention back towards the barrier, and his eyes widened. The Espada had been slammed against the barrier itself, Aizen's hand wrapped around her throat. The sounds of her trying to breathe dug deep into Shunsui's chest.
How many Shinigami had he heard making the same sound?
"This was a surprise, Starrk," Aizen was saying. "I have always thought you were the most loyal out of my Espada. You were certainly the most…" his lips curved up even further. "Willing."
She struggled even further.
"You remind me of my dear Hinamori-kun sometimes," Aizen mused. "The way you look at me… like a puppy, waiting for treats and praise."
Aizen lifted her up. The barrier shuddered hard. The yellow shield was smeared with blood. She struggled. Then, he threw her to the aside.
She hit a building, sending up a cloud of dust. It had barely cleared before she shot back again. There was blood all over her body, though her skin seemed pristine underneath. Shunsui recognised what could cause that – little cuts and wounds, meant more to cause pain than any real, lasting harm.
"You should learn to stay down," Aizen said. Then he drew his sword once more, the sound of metal against sheath loud. "What can you do with those weapons I taught you how to use?"
He was playing with her, Shunsui realised, feeling slightly sick.
She met his sword with her own.
"Aizen-sama," she said quietly, her voice an echoing mixture of the two creatures who made up her soul. "Our greatest weapon isn't our sword, or our gun."
"Oh?" Aizen raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you feel it? Our reiatsu is devouring yours."
Shunsui allowed himself to feel one moment of victory as Aizen's eyes widened.
"We are Hollow, Aizen-sama. And we have to eat. It doesn't matter if we die. We will eat you whole."
The barrier was shuddering. If kido could cry, Shunsui was sure that it would be crying. The reiatsu from the outside was seeping through, and it was completely cold. Not like ice, but like the complete absence of heat itself.
Distantly, he found himself realising that the buildings of the false town was slowly dissolving. The trees were all dead; in fact, they were dead even since the Espada had let loose the first blast of deadly reiatsu. Everything was turning into nothingness.
She wasn't smiling. She was looking at Aizen with deep sorrow. Then, she reached out a hand.
There was a moment of complete stillness.
Black and purple power shot out of Aizen, right towards the Espada. Blue surrounded her. The Hogyoku's energy hit the edges of the blue, and was immediately drawn in as the Espada's reiatsu began to feast.
Shunsui wondered how he could even think that he had killed this creature in the first place.
Kisuke sat on the very edge of the barrier, unnoticed, as he watched.
Hollows were defined by their hunger. They were natural cannibals, surviving by eating each other to grow stronger. The humans had a saying, 'a dog-eat-dog world', and that was literal when it came to Hollows.
But he had never thought this was possible. Of course, he had heard plenty of reports about being crushed by spiritual pressure, of feeling as if one's soul was being devoured, even amongst Shinigami. He never did realise that it was possible for it to be literal.
He itched to get closer. But no, he must wait. There were greater things at stake than research, here.
Yoruichi-san sat down next to him, her usual silent tread gone due to the anti-hierro jumpsuit that she wore. Her legs swung lightly against the edge of the building.
Kisuke looked at her from under the brim of his hand. Beneath the casual posture was a thrumming tension: she was prepared for battle.
"That's not going to kill him," she commented.
He snapped his fan open and grinned. "Don't worry, Yoruichi-san! There will still be time for us to make a dramatic entrance!"
Yoruichi-san didn't even look at him before she smacked him on the back of his head.
"She's weakening Aizen," she murmured under her breath. "If she keeps doing this, then… perhaps Ichigo wouldn't have to use the Final Getsuga Tenshou, after all."
Snapping his fan closed, Kisuke looked at her. He wasn't surprised that she knew about that – there was very little that Yoruichi-san didn't know.
"I do hope that is possible," he murmured.
He knew that his reasons for that were entirely selfish: he liked Kurosaki-san, and the thought that the boy would have to give up his power – give up his entire raison d'etre for life – for the sake of fixing Kisuke's own mistakes was… immensely uncomfortable.
Yoruichi-san was giving him a wry look. She was likely the only person in the world who knew exactly what was going through his head at this very moment. Opening her mouth, she almost made a comment…
But she was interrupted by a sudden, loud crack. Like thunder, except much worse, because it was happening in his head. Kisuke's eyes widened, snapping back to the battle.
What the hell had just happened?
Aizen-san had his sword through the Primera Espada's chest, the blade sticking out behind her back. His face was twisted, lips pulled back in a snarl of complete rage. The Primera was smiling, almost serenely.
There was something… off about the entire scene; something that was entirely strange. No, that wasn't it.
Ichimaru-kun was standing far behind the battle between the two of them only a moment before. Now he was behind the Primera, and Kisuke did not see him move. It seemed as if the man had teleported. But that wasn't it. Kisuke had reports of all of the three traitors' strengths, and while Ichimaru-kun was good at shunpo, he wasn't that good.
His eyes slid over to Yoruichi-san for a moment. She, too, was staring at Ichimaru-kun, a frown creasing her forehead.
"Kyouka Suigetsu…" Kisuke heard his own voice said, his mind working far faster than it could form words.
Unohana-taichou got there first. Her voice rang out, soft as silk, hard as steel.
"The Complete Hypnosis has been broken."
Kisuke didn't know how the Primera had done it. He resolved to figure it out. But now, something was more important: someone had to stop Aizen-san from initiating his shikai and placing his illusions over them again. He took a step forward. Beside him, Yoruichi-san did the same.
But someone else got there first. A hand gently closed around Kyouka Suigetsu's exposed blade.
"Shoot to kill, Shinsou."
The blade shot through the Primera's chest. Kisuke saw blood trickle down her lips. But the sword didn't stop there; it kept moving until it pierced through Aizen-san's chest. Aizen-san's eyes widened, a gasp escaping his lips as he was shoved backwards from the force of the impact.
The traitor had been betrayed.
The cold, blue reiatsu was starting to fade. Shunsui stared at the two blades that neatly impaled the Espada. Somehow, she was still smiling.
Shinsou slid out of Aizen's chest, then out of hers. Aizen stumbled backwards. The squelch that Kyouka Suigetsu made as it left the Espada's chest was sickening. Shunsui watched, his hands clenching at his sides, as Aizen snarled, lashing outwards, nearly bisecting the Primera into half.
And she was falling out from the sky.
There was another crack, this time softer and, thankfully, outside of his head than within. One body became two, and the more familiar forms of the Primera were plummeting towards the ground. Shunsui watched, his nails biting into his palms, as the man reached out, grabbing the young girl before he wrapped himself around her.
The barrier shuddered for the last time before it shattered completely.
Shunsui was torn. The strategist and Captain within him demanded that he stay and watch what was happening between Ichimaru and Aizen; but there was a part of him, the same part of him that was Ukitake's best friend, that wanted to rush down to see if the Espada was alright.
Practicality had to win over sentiment in war, he reminded himself.
He stayed.
"I didn't quite plan to do it this way," Ichimaru was saying in his soft, lilting accent. "Having such an audience… it's making me rather shy, Aizen-taichou."
Aizen, a hand placed over his chest, stared.
"But then… Starrk-chan and Lilynette-chan gave me such a good opportunity," Ichimaru sighed theatrically. "How can I resist?"
"Do you think you could kill me like this, Gin?" Aizen sounded far too smug for having a hole right in the centre of his chest. Blood was dripping down, falling through the air.
Ichimaru chuckled. "No," he said, his smile widening. "But there's poison in the inside of Shinsou's blade. And I left it inside you."
He stepped forward. Shinsui noticed the hole in Shinsou's blade, and his eyes widened. For a sword to receive a wound like this… it might as well have been completely broken. And Ichimaru did it deliberately.
"Kill," Ichimaru whispered, his hand right above Aizen's chest. "Kamishini no Yari."
His voice was completely void of his usual mischief and humour.
Shunsui watched as Aizen threw his head back. His flesh was being devoured from the inside, revealing the Hogyoku. The orb was flickering weakly, its colour nearly clear. Shunsui remembered the roaring black-and-purple reiatsu, and his eyes flickered towards the ground.
Aizen screamed. Ichimaru grabbed the Hogyoku.
In that one moment, the statues that had once been the Gotei Thirteen forces came back to life. Shunsui watched as some of them darted after Ichimaru – Rangiku-chan being one of them despite her injuries – and some of them beginning to contain Aizen, unwilling to believe that he could die so easily.
Wise people, those. Shunsui would leave them to it; after all, he had never once thought of himself as possessing any form of wisdom.
He shot down to the ground instead, senses thrown outwards to find the familiar pulse of blue reiatsu. It was weak, ridiculously weak given how the crushing power it was just a few minutes before, but Shunsui could still find it.
His eyes widened the moment his feet landed on the ground.
Both halves of the one soul who had made up the most crushingly terrifying Hollow alive were bleeding, blood spreading around them in a large pool. The wound Shunsui had given the man had reopened again, but it was joined by the wounds caused by Ichimaru's and Aizen's swords. There was blood on his lips. Shunsui could tell that he had several broken bones, probably from landing.
On his side, the little girl had the exact same injuries. Except that they seemed… more shallow, less fatal somehow.
Shunsui stepped forward, and fell onto his knees beside them.
"You were holding out on me, Espada-san," he tried for lightness. No matter how he looked at it, the Espada was dying.
One pink eye snapped open, and narrowed. "Goddammit," the girl said, coughing hard. Blood splattered the coat of her other half right where she was curled up against him. "What will it make you to call us by our proper names, huh?"
The indignation of her tone was blunted heavily by exhaustion.
Shunsui tried to smile. "Well, you kind of started it," he said. "You called me 'Taichou-san' first, right?"
She opened her mouth as if to argue, but a heavy voice stopped her.
"It's alright, Lilynette," he whispered, reaching out one bloodied hand to brush over her mask fragment. She quieted down, curling even further into his side. He held her close, shifting slightly as if to shield her from Shunsui's gaze.
Grey-blue eyes raised to meet his own. "Taichou-san," the Espada said. "Are you here to kill us?"
Of course not, Shunsui almost said. But then again, the Espada didn't have any reason to believe he would do anything else.
He shook his head. "No," he said. "I…" Actually, he didn't even know why he was here.
"I'm here to bring you to a healer."
"Why?" Lilynette burst out. "Why would you even do that?"
Why, indeed? Shunsui scratched his hair. He wished he was more like Ukitake; wished that he had his best friend's usual pool of easy compassion to fall back upon. But Shunsui knew himself well; knew that he was an imminently selfish man.
If he told these two that he was repaying the favour – the Espada could have killed him when he was taken off-guard by Wonderweiss's attack, after all – they wouldn't believe him. And they would be right not to: Shunsui could throw away his honour and scruples for the sake of his survival, and he would do it easily.
They wouldn't be able to fight him if he forced them, but at the same time… Shunsui dragged a hand through his hair again, mildly surprised that it was still loose; he forgot to tie it back up.
"Because I want to," he decided to say eventually, because it was the most honest answer. "Do I need more reason than that?"
The two of them exchanged a glance, having an entire conversation within the single second it took their eyes to meet. Then, they looked at him again.
This time, it was the girl who spoke.
"Okay. But if you trick us, we'll…" she faltered, as if unable to think up of any threats.
The man sighed, the sound heavy as the Earth. "We'll leave," he said.
They looked at him expectantly, and Shunsui felt his breath being punched out of his lungs. Their eyes were so old and so young at the same time; the look of children who had been through too much suffering. Shunsui found himself reaching out, his fingers brushing over the girl's mask fragment – it felt so warm beneath his hand – before he placed his hand on the man's shoulder.
"I can't promise not to trick you," he said, because that would be an unconvincing lie. "But I'll warn you beforehand."
They exchanged a look again.
"I suppose that's as good as we can get," the girl said. She let out a dramatic sigh, dropping her head onto her other half's shoulder. "You suck at making deals, Shinigami."
"Lilynette."
She huffed before settling back down. They leaned towards each other, watching Shunsui.
Now… the problem was that he didn't know how to get the two of them back up to the healing station together. He would have to go one by one.
"I'll have to separate you," he sighed.
"Take Lilynette first," the man said immediately.
Immediately, the girl shook her head. "No, Starrk. You're more hurt. You're the idiot who took most of the injuries onto yourself!"
"Take Lilynette first," he repeated. His eyes closed. "Please."
Shunsui sighed. He had the hourglass feeling again – Hollows weren't supposed to beg. "Sorry," he told the girl. "I can't refuse a request when it's asked so nicely."
She looked at him and her other half, single eye darting from side to side. Then she sighed. "You leave something behind," she demanded. "Leave something here so that anyone else who came would know that you made a deal with us."
So they won't try to hurt him, Shunsui heard. He almost smiled. He looked down at himself for a moment before he realised that he had nothing to leave behind. But…
"I'll be back in five seconds," he told the two of them. Then, just as their eyes were widening, he darted away.
His pink kimono was still lying there, right where Ukitake had left it before joining him in the battle. Somehow that seemed like a decade ago, at the very least, instead of only a few hours. Shunsui picked it up, slinging it over his shoulder before zipping right back towards the pair.
"Six! You're late!"
The girl was actually keeping count. Shunsui stared at her, his lips twitching upwards helplessly. He hoped that Ukitake would wake up soon; he would love to be able to interact with her off of a battlefield. She was adorable.
And he never thought he would ever use that word on a Hollow. But then again, these two were like no other Hollows he had ever met.
"I had to look for it," he said, holding up his kimono-full arms in protest. Then he was kneeling down again, placing the heavy silk over the man's form. He seemed to be dozing off, but he cracked open an eye once he noticed the weight.
He glanced down, then back up. One eyebrow quirked upwards. Shunsui grinned in reply.
"Pink isn't my colour," Starrk drawled. He sounded completely casual, but Shunsui noticed how his fingers rubbed over the silk; noticed the barely-hidden surprise in his eyes.
"Nonsense," he said. Reaching out, he started to scoop Lilynette up into his arms. "We have almost the same colour scheme, and pink is definitely my colour!"
Before Starrk could reply, he steadied Lilynette before moving into shunpo towards the healing station.
Retsu-senpai wasn't even surprised when he brought Lilynette to her directly. Instead, she directed him to a nearby stretcher. Shunsui laid her down there – she was being oddly quiet – and immediately looked for another stretcher. He pulled it towards her, and her fingers darted out, grasping at the empty air.
He placed his hand on top of her helmet. She looked up to him, the past bravado gone, leaving behind a young, wounded girl, looking horribly insecure.
"I'll bring him here right away," Shunsui told her.
She looked at him for a long moment before biting her lip. "Okay," she said. Her small fingers clenched hard over the empty, unfilled stretcher. The motion was so incredibly human that it hurt to look at.
Shunsui left.
Starrk was in the same spot as he was a few minutes ago. His eyes were open, but blank, looking upwards… right at the direction of the healing station. Shunsui wondered what it must feel like; what it meant to literally have two parts to one soul, and to be separated like that. If he had known this, he would have never pulled that trick that had nearly cost Lilynette's death.
No, he knew himself too well for that; if he had known during battle, he would have used it even earlier to force them apart. Now, though… now he just wished he would never need to face the two of them on the opposite sides of a battlefield again.
He still would have killed them. But if he had… he would need more than one crate of alcohol. Maybe he would need an unending river full of it.
Brushing the thoughts away, he knelt next to Starrk. Slipping one arm beneath the man's neck and the other beneath his legs, he paused, looking at him.
Starrk's eyes were focused again. The other man looked at him for a long moment, unblinking, before he let out a breath.
"Pink isn't your colour either," he said.
The comment was so utterly inane that Shunsui nearly fell over his face. He found himself laughing, rough chuckles tumbling out of his throat.
"Don't make me laugh, Starrk-san," he said, lips quirking up. "I might drop you."
"Oh no," Starrk said, perfectly flat.
Biting his lips to stop himself from laughing again, Shunsui tightened his grip around the other man's body and stood up. Starrk felt incredibly light – must be the bloodloss – and Shunsui dashed right back to Retsu-senpai.
This time, she did raise an eyebrow at him, her gaze fixed upon the kimono that was still laid over Starrk's form like some kind of gaudy funeral shroud. She knew how much he liked the thing, how much it meant to him. But Shunsui only shrugged – if there was anyone whose blood should stain the kimono, it was this man.
He placed him next to Lilynette, and the two of them immediately curled next to each other, like two puppies in a basket. She tucked her face into his shoulder, and his fingers stroked over the hair that peeked out beneath her mask fragment.
Shunsui turned away.
"Aren't you going to take the kimono back?" Starrk asked lowly.
Shaking his head, Shunsui stopped. He looked over his shoulder at them for a long moment. "Keep it," he said. "It'll be safer with you then out there."
"You're going to kill him, aren't you?" the question came from Lilynette. There were no doubts which 'him' she was referring to.
Glancing towards the skies, Shunsui let out a long breath. "If we can," he said.
"Good," she said, her voice muffled. "He deserved it, after what he did."
Shunsui itched to ask. He wanted to know why they had decided to turn their back and to fight so hard against Aizen, especially when neither of them seemed to expect being rescued and healed afterwards.
But there was a battle he needed to go to. And, if he played his cards right with Yama-jii, there would be plenty of time to ask later. They would have a story to tell.
And Shunsui loved listening to stories.
He drew Katen Kyokotsu, feeling her hum in his hands, tugging him towards the shadows. Making to follow her, he stopped suddenly at the sound of Starrk's voice.
"I hope he's coming back."
"He's too sneaky to get killed. That's how he beat us. So he'll be fine." A pause, then softer: "I hope."
Like lost children, clinging onto the sleeves of any adult who gave them kindness no matter how hard the whip swung in said adult's hands.
At the corner of his eyes, he watched as the Tercera – her name was Harribel, wasn't it? – hovered around the healers trying to heal her fraccion.
Shunsui hoped that Aizen could be killed.
If only so he would go to hell in the end.
End (for now)
Notes: A lot of my inspiration comes from Aria6's fics about Starrk. The ideas about Starrk and Lilynette's original form being female, the bit about Starrk's weaponised reiatsu, Starrk's power being able to dispel reality-warping shikai… all of them are adapted from her ideas to fit this story. I have a habit of unconsciously absorbing other people's ideas and transforming them into my own. Thank you so much for writing about my favourite character, Aria6! And I hope you like what I did with them (if you read this)!
One loose nail in the roof. One moment of betrayal. Starrk learns about the truth of his so-called debt to Aizen. A story about healing an empty heart, and learning to trust again. . Canon AU. Starrk-centric. Past Aizen/Starrk, eventual Shunsui/Starrk. Used to be called 'For Want of a Nail."
