Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, but Saiu is my personal creation.

DEVIL'S WAKE

Part II

Four months later . . .

Something had changed. He did not know what.

Saiu glided through the white mist that shrouded the dark expanse of his inner world. For demons such as he, internal communion with one's deepest self was a crucial but rare obligation necessary for personal balance. His usual habit was to visit his inner world every second season—or twice a year, by the calendars of humanity. To return again after so much time spent within his inner world was strange for him.

For nearly three months, he had come to his inner world every few days, searching endlessly for the fragment of human soul lodged within his own. Then he had encountered none other than Ichigo in his inner world, and together they had drawn out Saichi, the hidden specter that haunted them both. Since that eventful visit, he had not returned even once to his inner world.

Until now.

The fragment of pure soul was still within him, but he hesitated to search it out again, knowing that Saichi waited for him. The unnatural specter was determined to protect that fragment, because without it he would cease to exist in truth. Saiu still wondered if there was a way to tap into Saichi's unique abilities without giving any more power to the specter. Specifically, he desired Saichi's ability to combine Shunpo and Sonido into a movement faster than the fastest stretch of either technique alone.

With that ambition in mind, he had chosen to shun his inner world until he came to a decision on how to deal with Saichi. But then, something had changed—and so he had returned, hoping to discover the root of his unease.

He strode with purpose in his step, his senses locked on the ethereal road that had once before led him to the fragment of soul. This time, Ichigo did not step from the mist to join him. His fear of encountering Ichigo again had been another factor in his avoidance of his inner world, but tonight an intrusion by the human boy would have been welcome. That inexplicable change . . .

When his eyes finally identified the glow of pure soul, he was surprised at its location—some distance from where it had been before. The landscape of the soul was ever-changing even at its most static. Impatient for answers, he flash-stepped until he stood upon the watery surface above the submerged fragment, eyes narrowed as though willpower alone would allow him to see it.

"Welcome back," a voice whispered.

Saiu turned, shock rippling through him as his eyes fell upon the speaker.

Saichi sat cross-legged upon the glassy, obsidian water. The specter, a remnant from Saiu's effective but otherwise disastrous possession of Ichigo, had always appeared to be a perfect merging of Ichigo and Saiu, with flowing orange hair, bright burgundy eyes, and a face that blended theirs into a striking countenance neither human nor demon.

Tonight, Saichi looked at him out of eyes far closer to demonic red than burgundy, yet dulled and listless. His skin was paler, tingeing slightly toward grayish teal in the darkest shadows—as did Saiu's. The long length of his orange hair was streaked heavily with raven black strands.

Unease blossomed into tense disquiet as Saiu absorbed the changes in Saichi's appearance. He did not like that a strange sense of change had drawn him into his inner world—and now Saichi showed clear signs of a drastic change as well.

"What has happened to you?" he asked softly of the specter.

Saichi used one hand to flick his hair from his face. "Can you not guess?" he replied, his voice thrumming and high like a demon, instead of blending with human tones as it had before.

"The human in you has diminished," Saiu murmured. "You are no longer born half of Ichigo and half of myself."

Saichi nodded. "There is very little of Ichigo left in me now." He tilted his head toward the bright spot beneath Saiu's feet. "Only that single fragment of Ichigo's soul keeps me from reverting into a replica of you, where I would then be absorbed back into your essence."

"And cease to exist," Saiu finished.

"And cease to exist," Saichi agreed.

Saiu looked down at the glowing water below him. Something strange built within him, emotions he did not know, crushing against his lungs. He forced the words out, dreading confirmation. "Ichigo died."

"No," Saichi whispered. "He lives still."

Breathing deeply, Saiu chose not to analyze his emotional response to those words. "Then why have you changed?"

"What brought you here now, after four months?" Saichi asked, his red-brown eyes hardening.

"The demon mark I gave Ichigo before we parted," he replied slowly. "It changed, suddenly diminishing until I could no longer sense a connection to it. I had feared it was dissolved entirely . . ."

"I think it has merely faded to the point where you can't connect with it from a distance." Saichi's eyes went distant, darkening with anger and sorrow. "Ichigo has lost his spiritual powers."

His body going utterly still, Saiu absorbed the information. "How?"

"Through an ability of his Zanpakutō. To briefly gain power beyond imagining, he sacrificed all the power within him for one attack. As a result, he burnt out his soul's ability to generate reiryoku. He is dead to all spiritual power now."

Saiu nodded slowly. "And so you, like Ichigo, have lost all the spiritual powers that came from your human side."

Saichi met his stare. "Almost all of them."

"Ah," Saiu breathed. His gaze moved downward, and slowly he knelt to rest his fingertips against the black water. Somewhere beneath the surface, the fragment of soul glowed.

"What will you do?" Saichi asked, his voice dropping to a near whisper.

Saiu sat back on his heels, eyes going distant as he considered. Ichigo, with no spiritual powers, with a soul weakened to that of a normal human, presented no threat. Ichigo, with no spiritual powers, could not affect Saiu with his humanity, could not damage Saiu's purity as a demon. Saiu was safe from an Ichigo who had no powers: a solution to his dilemma that did not involve killing Ichigo with his own hands.

And yet, an Ichigo who had no powers was useless to him. Perhaps at some point Saiu might have a need for Ichigo again. Perhaps.

He had always been patient. There was no need for rash action.

With a ghost of a smile curving his lips, Saiu rose to his feet. Saichi watched him, his eyes narrowing as Saiu stepped away from the glowing patch of water.

"What will you do?" Saichi asked again, his voice sharp.

Saiu smiled for a moment more. "Nothing," he breathed. "For now, I will do nothing."

He turned and glided away, leaving Saichi to his endless vigil over Ichigo's lost fragment of soul—a fragment that still pulsed with power, undiminished by the spiritual deadening of the rest of the soul from which it had come. The power remaining in that fragment was all that kept Saichi alive now.

Ichigo had lost his powers. At the moment, his loss was to Saiu's advantage. For as long as that remained true, Saiu would do nothing. But when it no longer benefited him to keep Ichigo powerless . . .

Saiu paused in the embrace of the swirling mist and touched one hand to his chest. "In trust, Ichigo," he whispered. "I will hold this piece of your soul in trust, safe within my own. Pray that one day it suits me to return it to you."

And when that day came, they would learn if a single breath of power could bring a parched soul back to life.

. : END : .

...Continued in Devil's Sway...

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The full sequel to Devil's Smile will rejoin the Bleach world some time after the most recent events of the canon anime. It will not follow the newest arc in the manga. In fact, I intend to completely disregard the manga from this point on, something I've never done before . . . but the canon just isn't working for me anymore. Just a warning, if you're not up-to-date on the conclusion of the Aizen/Arrancar plot, the upcoming sequel may be hard to follow.

Devil's Sway will begin at some point before autumn. (I hope.) Watch for it!

Dreams of the Soul, Truth of the Heart
All in the Silence of the Sky