Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters. They belong to Tite Kubo and whoever else actually owns it and I make no money from writing this. This story and all original characters therein however are mine and are not to be replicated, reposted, or copied in any way without my consent. Thank you.
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Ash Like Snow
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"Enough of that, the Arrancar did serve the wonderful purpose of telling me how to stabilize the transformation, and since 'will' is such a bothersome ability, one which I have yet to rectify with Nemu, I simply removed it. Now bear witness, Ichigo Kurosaki, to the next generation of Mod-Souls."
Thus, he watched as the first vacant-eyed Soul Reaper walked forward, and to his horror the puppet reached up…
…and pulled down a mask.
There was only one word for a situation like this.
"Oh fu—"
And an explosion rocked the area before it had even passed from his lips.
……
Kin felt the earth shake beneath her feet as she ran to the source of her future father-in-law's reiatsu. It was even stronger than it had been before, by many times in fact, and she could only guess that he had initiated Bankai. It was the only logical explanation to that kind of increase.
However, the reiatsu she felt of those around him were bloating because of a much different reason. She knew the reiatsu of the Vizard transformation, as Masaki had performed it a few times in her presence. It was just as much of an outrageous increase as it always was, and what had her dumbfounded was she couldn't recognize the original reiatsu of those who had transformed. Sure, she knew there were other Vizards in the worlds, but none that she knew of wanted to come to Soul Society, let alone participate in a fight against one of their own. It went against their principles, unless it was for testing of course.
She was a very apt pupil when it came to reiatsu emotion discernment too, as her parents had thought it best she know the emotions of her opponent to best manipulate them was it ever needed. What was odd about this whole situation was that she felt…nothing. The only emotions she could sense were from Ichigo and Mayuri, but all the other impressive spiritual pressures around them were…void. They felt nothing, nothing at all. That was simply impossible.
She doubled her pace. She had the feeling she needed to get there now, and then there was also the situation with Kaien to worry about
Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!
……
When the smoke cleared from the Cero's explosive collision, Ichigo was revealed in perfect health, smoke wafting from his superheated blade after the instinctive reflection of the Menos attack like it was something he put up with on a daily basis. Being where he lived and ruled for the most part, it actually was.
He smirked cockily. "Dang that stings, it took me forever to learn how to fire those and here these overgrown action figures can already do it! That is one ugly mask by the way, damn! Since that creepy bugger over there is your mother and father I can see why though. Poor bastard."
Mayuri flinched unnoticeably, but his expression did visibly harden. "Childish taunts don't become you, Captain. I thought your whole purpose of this trip was to teach me a lesson at my daughter's request. The way it is now I don't see you doing that anytime soon."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed murderously. "Oh I will get to you. I will take out each and every one of these fakes until I get to you, and then, if you're lucky, I will beat you. Right now, I'm seriously debating killing you." Each word emphasized hailed a rise in reiatsu, until when he was finished even the emotionless, supposedly fearless Mod-Souls had some sweat forming on their skin. The one masked didn't seem any worse for wear, which was a tribute to his creator, as much as Ichigo hated to admit it.
"Really?" the other captain asked amusedly, while he mentally thanked the fact that he wore so many layers of clothing. It wouldn't be good if the orange-haired man realized even he was feeling the pressure. "That's quite a claim. I suppose one Cero wouldn't really matter to a warrior of your caliber, but I highly doubt your threat. You see, every one of these wonderful products has been modified to disregard the reiatsu of their brethren, but, say they should all call out their masks at once. What would that mean for their opponent, especially should they be only one person?"
He seemed much too confident in himself, and Ichigo, though he had been living around countless Vastro-Lorde for the longest time, knew the veiled threat for what it was. Of course he'd be able to withstand it, but he could think of few others able to do the same. Even he would be feeling the pressure on his lungs though. It would seem Mayuri had simply discarded the idea of experimenting on Vizards, and instead went straight to the Arrancar for the answers to the transformation. He had to admit that what the scientist had created, as abominable as they were, would indeed be a valuable asset to Soul Society should any major disturbance happen again.
Sadly, it went against his moral code to let such powerful puppets be under the control of someone like Mayuri Kurotsuchi. He had heard of what the man did to tools that disobeyed him, and he would sooner destroy them himself than leave them to the mercy of the amoral freak-show. It was a good thing he wasn't like Aizen though, because what he had created could easily be used to overthrow Soul Society. He knew enough about the man to know that would never be the case; his only goal in life was knowledge and experimentation, and if he got any sadistic pleasure out of said experimentation, then all the better. How the man had stolen so many Arrancar from right under his nose Ichigo couldn't figure out, but he felt bad he couldn't protect them, even if they were Hollows. Nothing deserved to be put at Mayuri's mercy. Nothing. He pitied the Vizard creations too, he really did.
Nevertheless, they needed to be destroyed.
He sighed. "I can guess. I really don't see what Hat-and-Clogs saw in you. You gave life to a beautiful woman, a woman with just as many thoughts, feelings, and choices as any other person, and you broke her down inch by miserable inch just so you would have another tool in battle. You are the kind of person I hate the most!"
Mayuri rolled his eyes dramatically. "Save me your self-righteous preaching, boy. I have no need of petty squabbles right now, but if you are going to try something more, then feel free to face my masterpieces."
He only had time to see Ichigo's knowing smile before the speedster had disappeared from his vision and reappeared in front of the only masked Mod-Soul.
With his sword through its chest.
"I'm willing to take that as permission," the orange-haired captain said wickedly, then turned back to the bloodied body skewered by his sword. "Sorry.
"Getsuga Tenshou."
The explosion put the Cero to shame.
……
Tsukiyomi wasn't about to let her father do everything. She had been humiliated in their meeting with the captain of the Twelfth Division, and she needed to salvage her pride. She was a princess in Hueco Mundo, one of the strongest beings there there were, and yet she too had been played like a fool.
She was scared of death; it was one of the few things even she would admit to being afraid of. Normally death would mean going to Soul Society, or even Hueco Mundo, but death in spirit meant recycling; memories gone, soul reused. It meant death death. However, she had been given the one thing a person should never give to a desperate person.
A way out.
She had been told by not only the freakish scientist, but also by her own parents that it was possible for her to avoid her fate, that it was possible for her to 'complete' herself and live. Now every neuron, electron, and proton in her body was aimed towards that one goal: life, and anything that stood in its way. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was going to pay for what he had done to her, and he was going to pay for each tear she had shed with his own blood.
The reiatsu in the air was disconcerting, because she knew it wasn't any of the Vizards she knew, and the Vizards she knew were the only ones there were to know of. It didn't bother her though; they were nothing to be afraid of in her mind. Masaki trailed behind her as she bounded on the rooftops to the source, and her face betrayed her anxiety.
"Don't worry Masaki, Kai and I will be fine. You know we wouldn't die that easily," is what she said, but she only truly meant some of it. Death was never something to trifle with; she had been taught that well.
Masaki seemed torn. "But!"
"But what!?" She snapped, and instantly regretted it. She had been on edge ever since their meeting with Mayuri, and her control was a hair's breadth away from breaking. Even though that was a very, very bad thing, in this case she was glad, because that meant she could show what she felt for just a little while before it was gone. "I'm…sorry. It's just a lot to absorb all at once." Masaki opened her mouth to speak, and she cut her off right away. "No! It won't do any good to wish it had been me instead of you!" Her gaze softened when she saw Masaki's devastated face, and she winced as she turned her head back to face forward. "You're my twin sister," she said softly, "I would do anything for you, and I know you would for me too. To be honest…I'm glad my little sister doesn't have to deal with this, and if it meant sparing you from this again I'd choose the same life no matter how many times the situation was gone over."
Masaki wanted to cry, but they were happy tears. "You can be an evil, royal pain in the ass, but when it comes right down to it you're one of the most loving, compassionate people I know."
Tsukiyomi chuckled and smiled. "Don't spread it around, I've got a reputation to keep." She drew her sword as the ground shook and a plume of smoke was visible in the near distance. "Looks like the fireworks've finally started! It's payback time, freak!"
Her sister merely nodded grimly and drew her zanpakutou too.
They were in for one hell of a battle, she could sense it. She stiffened and spun when a source of reiatsu appeared beside them all of a sudden, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw it was only Kin, and she too looked ready for battle.
"Where's Kaien?" she asked immediately. He hadn't looked too good when he had rushed out, and the last thing they needed was for one of them to lose control while in Soul Society. Hell, the last thing they needed was for one of them to lose control, period.
"He said he was going to be fine, but he wanted me to get either your mom or dad, whichever one was available just in case."
Masaki got this sinking feeling deep in the pit of her stomach, and she couldn't let it go no matter how hard she tried. "Dad's a bit busy it would seem, and I think Mom was going to try and find him once we left."
Kin sighed in relief. "That's good to know. I'm sure he'll catch up with us later then, so for now why don't we go get some revenge?"
Tsukiyomi smiled devilishly. "You took the words right out of my mouth."
……
It was insane. It was damn unbelievable.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
There had been nothing left of the body when the smoke cleared, even the blood had evaporated in the intense heat caused by the attack being unleashed while embedded in its body. However, what had happened later showed just how hard the battle was going to be. Mayuri had simply stepped forward…and picked up the black gikongan pill.
"I told you I had my reservations about your threat. That certainly was an impressive attack, but even if the body is destroyed I can simply insert the Mod-Soul into another gigai. You'll find these pills significantly more versatile than their mass-produced counterparts. You're fighting an endless battle."
The others had yet to move, even after seeing one of their own literally blown to bits in front of them. Ichigo gritted his teeth. "You'll have trouble if they're all destroyed before you have a chance to get more gigais. Then there'll only be you!"
Mayuri sighed. "I did warn you, but now you're simply irritating me. Be gone like a good little boy!" He raised his hand with the strange remote in it, and pressed a small button. Instantaneously awareness seemed to come to all the dolls, and in complete unison they drew their swords and raised their hands to their foreheads.
Ichigo chuckled uneasily. "Aw damn it all!"
And it just progressed from there.
Within seconds he had been assaulted from every side, every angle, by masked faces with dead yellow eyes staring at him. How they had named zanpakutous he had absolutely no idea, but the fact was they did, and their abilities were nothing to laugh at. It was a monthly event to have a huge free-for-all with the Vastro-Lorde in Hueco Mundo, but with that their abilities were restricted to the forms they took at release. In this case Mayuri's observation about the Vizard and Arrancar really made sense. He knew that without will or even consciousness, Bankai would be impossible, so at least he had that to be thankful for.
He sliced skillfully, as if he were fighting Hollows, and he usually never met dead air. It was the single most disturbing fight he had ever been in. The fake Vizards showed no emotion, made no noise when they were cut, and the only indicator of life was the blood that came from their wounds. They were merciless, mindless killing machines; their freedom destroyed until they couldn't even voice their pain anymore.
Ichigo on the other hand, he could grunt his pain all too well. He was facing over a hundred things that put some of the highest ranking Arrancar to shame. He knew sooner or later he was going to have to call out his mask, but that would put even more strain on the air. He doubted there were too many unseated officers within a few miles still standing with all the reiatsu in the air already.
He sucked in air sharply when he was caught off guard and a long whip-like zanpakutou had caught his arm in mid-air, and right after he was thrown to the ground. "Damn it!!" he hollered as he rolled and brought up his blade with a crescent moon of deadly black energy following it. The things adapted fast, and worked surprisingly well together for not having any thoughts. Most immediately dodged what they knew to be a killing move but he managed to catch one, and the now armless body fell to the ground without a sound other than the heavy breathing as it tried to get back up, regardless of the fact it only had one arm left.
An explosion of energy erupted behind him and he had been too focused on the others to see it coming. It hit him dead in the back and launched him forward like a pinball into the bumpers, because he was soon tossed around the many armed enemies just like the game. This definitely wasn't going according to plan. He had only managed to destroy one so far, and though he had injured far more, they all had that annoying regenerative medicine that Mayuri always kept with him.
This was going to hurt, both him and them, but right now it was the only way to get himself to stop moving. He didn't want the injuries to be ones he couldn't deal with later on in the battle. "Hadou Ninety! BLACK COFFIN!!"
Like the Reaper himself, the darkness enclosed, and thankfully he was able to make it out of the blast radius just in time. It did manage to capture at least ten that had been following him though, but he couldn't even smile when the black dissipated and the bloody bodies fell lifelessly to the ground. Their pills simply rolled from their mouths and more rushed by and snatched them up. He hadn't used the Kidou's full potential, because that would have taken too much out of him. The Eternal Destruction spells were dangerous to begin with, but with enemies that couldn't even be killed by them he was rapidly running out of options.
He needed to find a way to get rid of those things!! Permanently!
He skidded to a stop as his sandals kicked up dust in his wake, and just as yet another fake rushed at him, a black blur whizzed by his head until when he looked ahead, he saw the fake slump to the ground with a black zanpakutou blazing with dark flames embedded in its skull. The sword retracted when the cloth attached to it was pulled back, and he looked behind him to see his oldest daughter standing on the air above him, twirling the flaming blade around her wrist.
"And just when I needed a good fight! Must be fate."
Ichigo's eyes widened when he saw another Vizard appear behind her, and his mouth opened just in time for her to spin backwards and slice right through the gigai's neck. He was almost disturbed by how calmly she went for the vital points on the bodies, but he guessed she had to have known that what they were dealing with weren't actual Soul Reapers or Vizards. The second her first kill had coughed up its pill she had already known.
"Wake up Dad! We've got work to do!" another voice called out, and he looked to his front to see Masaki had taken point defending his unprotected areas, and she was single-handedly fighting of five Vizards without her mask.
He wanted to reprimand them, tell them to get away, but at the moment he had to admit to himself that he did need help, if not just to keep some of the fakes occupied while he went in for the captain controlling them all. He steeled himself. "Thanks girls! Let's get this show on the road!"
He would apologize to any officers affected later, right now, he needed his mask.
The battle had just been kicked up a notch with the appearance of Ichigo and Masaki's masks and with Kin helping out, speeding alongside them, the injuries were getting easier and easier to avoid. Sure, the fakes may have finesse, but they lacked the raw power of the Adjucha and Vastro-Lorde, as well as the killing instinct. They were literally tools, but they were tools under the control of one very skilled in the art of war and torture. For that reason alone they had to be destroyed.
Kin had forgotten what it was like to fight without Shunkou, and the fight with Benitenchi had amplified her speed farther than she ever would have thought. By being forced to fight without Shunpo her natural endurance and speed increased, and that meant her other skills were boosted without her knowledge. That was all too apparent as she dodged slash after slash and skill after skill. Demon Art, special technique, regular attack, it didn't matter; she flew through them all like time had stopped just for her.
Incredible…is this really my power? She thought as she stabbed her sword through the gut of one the gigais that had charged her. To her horror the thing seemed unaffected by her strike, and instead raised its own sword to strike at her head. Instinct flashed through her, and before she was even aware of what she was doing she had let go of her sword and slapped her hands on the thing's face before the words leapt from her lips. "Hadou Thirty-Three: Blue Fire Crash!"
The spell vaporized the head her hands were on and blew through anything unfortunate enough to be in its path as it cruised forward to no particular target, until with a mighty explosion it hit the nearest wall. Kin couldn't restrain the victorious laugh that escaped her. "Take that!!" Sometimes she even surprised herself with her power.
She had to quickly take up her sword again, because with those she had destroyed even more came at her, and she could see the captain popping those pills into even more bodies. She couldn't release her sword, because a blunt force object would make no sense against things that needed to be killed in order to be stopped. Sharp things were the best for that. Dust shot into the air beside her and she saw a masked Masaki pull herself out of a hole she had created at impact. Her blade was the same as always, in fact in the entire time Kin had known her she had never once seen her release her blade.
She was a natural with the regular katana, and her training was shown in how fluidly she moved with the blade. It wasn't a weapon, it was an extension of her arm. With every strike sent her way she parried in a way that minimized the shock up her arm and perfectly reflected it where she wanted. More than a few times she had blocked an oncoming attack only to slide her blade to the side, and Kin could only watch as the attack glided down her blade and right through the head of an attacker that had come up behind her. She wasn't even using her full strength, instead she was using the opponent's strength against them. Her dance with Ikki was awesome to behold, but she was no pushover by herself either.
A laugh to her right and Tsukiyomi was seen rancorously setting foes ablaze with enough emotion on her face for Kin to be worried. The instantly cauterized wounds caused by her flaming zanpakutou weren't enough for the teen, no, she could only be satisfied by looking into the dull eyes of the foes she blocked against before her sword instantly combusted them and they were reduced to mere piles of ash; that infuriatingly versatile pill gleaming unhurt in the rubble.
Ichigo was getting annoyed. He was destroying gigais left and right and so were his allies, and yet they just kept coming back. He wanted to get to Mayuri, he had to get to Mayuri. He raised his arms behind his head to block the attack from behind, a tactic they seemed to be fond of, and with a flex of his muscles his sword had cut through the blade pressing against his and went right up through the masked face above it. Still in the same movement, Ichigo simply brought his arms down like an axe and cleaved through the one in front of him too as he ducked and twirled, sending his sword's signature attack into the one flying at his seemingly unbalanced form.
The pace was relentless, and under any other circumstances he would have been enjoying himself. However, if he didn't do something one of his friends would not only have the love of his life taken away, but also the life that had been spawned from that love. He wasn't going to let that happen. "Dammit, just die already!!!" he screamed as he fired a Cero into the new batch of resuscitated Vizards running at him.
His spine went stiff when he heard a pained female cry above the noise of the battle. He spun on the balls of his feet to see Kin clutching her leg, where a zanpakutou had been stabbed clear through her thigh. She was like a wounded animal in a den of lions, because the others honed in on that cry like a mating call.
"KIN!!" he shouted fearfully as he shot over to try and protect her. Kaien would kill himself if Kin died, and the wound on her leg was very close to being a fatal one. He couldn't make it, not even he could go fast enough to get there in time! He needed to—
He froze when the scarf around her neck sprung to unholy life, and each individual strand uncoiled and fired through the foreheads of every Vizard that had been coming at her, killing them instantly.
Then the air gained physical form.
Ichigo stumbled as a reiatsu darker and more demonic then his own unexpectedly pressed down on him and all the other combatants with crushing force. It wasn't as powerful as his, but the sheer amount of killing intent in the spiritual substance had even the mindless creations shaking severely in fear.
"Oh no…" he breathed out in a near-silent whisper.
A body fell from the sky and crashed to the ground below with a huge flare of dust on impact. Before the granules of dirt even settled he knew what was there, for a vicious hiss of Hollowized breath came out in greeting. The dust fell to the ground faster than he wanted, almost like even the grains of sand in the air were afraid of the presence they had heralded. The grey-green skin came into view first, but Ichigo's eyes widened in terror at the white clothing on the young man, stained all but completely red except for a few white patches.
Dark laughter coursed through the air as the head turned to evaluate the scene he had dropped into. Even though Kin was in a significant amount of pain, her heart almost stopped when she realized the eyes tattooed over with orange flames were open.
And there was nothing to look at.
He had no eyes. Only vacant space looked back at her from the open eyelids as blood continued to pour like tears from them. His grin was wide and inhuman, and she was sure even though there were no eyes that could be seen, they were glinting maniacally. She hadn't dared move, not after the scarf that she treasured like her own life had come to a life of its own and killed all her attackers. They were identical to Kaien's tentacle-like weapons in his Hollow form, and now she knew that was exactly what they were. He was covered in blood, and she could see the scars open and oozing, though the blood never fell from his body.
It was terrifying. He was terrifying.
……
Ichigo turned to Masaki. "This is getting out of hand. This isn't the place for me to be releasing my reiatsu like what he needs, so use that Kidou Isane taught you and have Sora get over here right away! Have Asuka ready the Garganta for him, we can't have any holdups!"
Masaki nodded. She saw her father's plan.
……
"K-Kaien…no…" Kin whimpered. She had helped him! He had told her she had!! Why was he like this!? Why was he here!? Dammit what's going on here!?!?!?
He sniffed at the air experimentally, and if he had eyes Kin was sure they had just fixed themselves on her. None of the enemies had dared move, even under the opposite orders of Mayuri. He walked towards her like he wasn't used to using his own legs, but it still got him there. The sword was still embedded in her leg, and it hurt like nothing else, but she could only blame herself. If she had had Shunkou activated it never would have made it to her, let alone into this kind of wound. She had been overconfident, and that had been her downfall. Now she was helpless as this…thing that looked like her fiancé walked towards her.
He crouched down and stared at her with the twin voids that occupied where his eyes had once been, and she gulped worriedly. She cringed when he leaned forward, but to her surprise he merely stuck his nose into her collarbone and inhaled deeply. His face turned curious and he moved down to the sword in her leg, where once again he sniffed like a confused dog. Wary, the long, oddly-colored tongue that had Kin cringing worse than before stretched from his mouth, and the second it had touched the red liquid flowing from her leg he recoiled and snarled at the Vizards that were once again moving, which stopped them cold.
He didn't look confused anymore, and Kin couldn't understand why. The monstrous Kaien held his bloody arms out to her like he wanted to show her something before he motioned to her leg. "Blo…od…. Pa…rtn…er…. Mi…ne…" The words came out slowly, broken past a voice box not used to making anything other than feral noises and a mind not adapted to human speech.
Kin couldn't make anything of his words, but he seemed to be honestly trying to communicate with her. He seemed to understand he wasn't being understood, and so he leaned forward again and Kin went stiff when he pressed his thin lips against hers. Her eyes widened. His kiss was tender. Not forceful and angry, or hungry and needy; no, it was gentle, tender, exactly like the kiss at the Soukyoku. He remembered her! He knew she was something important to him!
Again, he tried to speak. "My…blo…od…you…ha…ve. Part…ner." He was quickly getting a grasp of the language, because already he had succeeded in making his words easier to understand. He put his fingers to her lips and she gasped. He was saying she had his blood! He was referring to the lake, when she had accidentally bit into his shoulder!
Quite possibly, that had just saved her life.
She always wondered why he hadn't recognized her the first time he had transformed, because according to Asuka even the most low-level Hollow recognized a mate, though most low level hollows didn't even understand the concept. Now he recognized her though. He was terrifying, but he was still her Kaien deep down.
He jerked in front of her and a shadow was cast over them from the man now standing behind them. "How amazing, so you were actually hiding something like that under your reiatsu control? And you even inspired enough fear in my creations to cut off their receptors to my orders. You've just stepped up a notch on my importance list, I must get you back to the lab right away," Mayuri said excitedly as he held his released zanpakutou.
The one which had just been stabbed into Kaien's back.
Kin watched as he slumped to the ground, and even though he had never been cut by that particular zanpakutou before, he wasn't going into his usual convulsions. Of course she knew from her father that Ashisogi Jizou cut off all movement signals to the muscles, even if they were completely autonomous reactions. She had been warned because she relied almost completely on her movement, and it hadn't even been that to incapacitate her. She felt like an idiot, but thankfully that poison also meant Mayuri was none the wiser to his ability's side-effect.
With the fall of the source of their fear, the fake Vizards were much more inclined to move again, and Kin was still out of action. However, now that action had been taken, Ichigo and the others were done watching as well.
"Get. The HELL. Away from my SON!" Ichigo shouted as he threw away any notion of holding back and went right into his White Transformation. With a swish of his sword and an array of white light emanating from it, all of the Vizards in front of him found themselves without their upper halves.
Mayuri looked over at the interruption. "I have something far more interesting than this little match right now, so I'm going to stop fooling around with you. Bankai." The release came unexpectedly at the end of the sentence, but it triggered the full release of the Soul Cutter in his hand nonetheless. Soon the gigantic abomination that seemed like a horrible cross between a caterpillar and a cape-wearing baby had filled a good deal of the area as purple smoke wafted from its mouth.
Ichigo coughed and he could see his daughters and Kin doing the same. He had heard about this Bankai before, and he knew now that without the antidote or some other way to eliminate the poison they were dead. The battle had taken on a whole new seriousness.
Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.
……
Kin was staring at Kaien, who was still bleeding and yet not bleeding, completely immobile on the ground as he snarled up at the captain looking over him in wonderment. Her scarf had returned to normal, but now that she knew where to look, she knew his tendril weapons were merely extensions of his hair, otherwise her scarf wouldn't have responded like that. Since she was so close, she could see something moving underneath his skin, and though it sickened her, to some extent she was actually happy, because it meant he hadn't given up yet.
More like he had just been pissed off.
She watched the downward progression as from his head down, the movement of millions of tiny snake-like threads could be seen moving under his skin. Mayuri couldn't see anything since Kaien was still on his stomach facing away from him, but Kin could see it. She watched as they made their way to his fingers and toes, and from there she could see them tighten in place, like they had wrapped themselves around each of his individual strands of sinew in place of the now-defunct muscles. When they tightened she couldn't even see the bulges anymore. Then she saw his finger twitch.
He was moving! Even with Ashisogi Jizou's specialized nerve poison flowing through him, he was moving! And she could tell from his face, he was far beyond just pissed.
With a savage howl he leapt to his feet with his makeshift muscles moving his body. Mayuri was so surprised he didn't even react when the Hollow Kaien pulled back his fist and punched him clean in the face, which sent him flying back into his Bankai. Nothing happened after that, in fact it was like Kaien had been entranced. He stood stock straight as he sniffed the air repeatedly, and then his empty eye-sockets fixated themselves on the golden-headed creature.
With no warning he ran full speed into the Bankai's mouth.
"KAIEN!!!" Kin screamed as the creature ate him without hesitation, like it had invited the man into its mouth. She coughed heavily and realized the poison was taking effect, yet she couldn't even move.
"He'll be fine. The murderous aura hasn't left the air yet," a low male voice said, and she looked up to see Renji Abarai standing beside her with Hanatarou at his side.
She didn't question his observation, because it only took a second to confirm it herself. "Wh-What about the poison?" she rasped, looking at the two unaffected people beside her. Something caught her eye and she looked at their arms. She gasped.
The Hornet's Crest.
"I've already hit anyone who may have gotten any in their system, even the Hollow. Relax princess, this will all be over soon," a feminine voice said from her other side, and Kin looked over in surprise to see the person she had been looking forward to seeing the most.
"Auntie Soi-Fong!" she cried happily.
The hard-looking woman smiled tenderly at the youth. "I'm sorry. I would have come sooner had I known things would escalate to this level. We can't allow the Shihouin heir to the Second Division to die after all! I'm—"
Her words were cut off when the gigantic Bankai behind them started bubbling and screaming. Like a banshee the creature howled, until with a deafening boom it burst into a million pieces, and they could see Mayuri's stunned expression from his place beside it. When the smoke started clearing they could make out Kaien's outline, but when it dissipated completely Kin could hear Renji's harsh intake of breath. He didn't look like he did when he went in, and instead he seemed to be wearing some kind of odd dress-like covering with four two-toned wings spreading from his back.
"He ate it…I don't believe it, he bloody-well jumped in there to eat that!" Renji muttered in disbelief. Even after nearly two decades, it hadn't decomposed.
Kaien…had absorbed Fornicaras.
He didn't hold the form for long, but he had gotten what he wanted. An Espada release wasn't something one came across every day, especially when there were so little of them left. The Hollow Kaien had been able to sniff out the corpse even though it had been twenty years since the Winter War. It was a useful form, but right then the only thing Kaien had going through his mind was: Hurt, revenge, kill.
It wasn't a battle anymore, it was a bloodbath.
The grey-green Hollow tore into the Vizards like a wounded animal. Whether it was limb, head, sword, it didn't matter; if it was swung at him, he tore it off. He had innumerable tendrils at his disposal, and they sliced through just as many enemies as he did with his bare hands. He was a bloodied mess making a bloody mess, and Kin nearly vomited as the scene rapidly deteriorated into something one would expect from a slasher film.
Hanatarou knelt down beside her and she flinched when she felt something prick her arm. "What'd you do!?"
He smiled gently. "I merely gave you some pain medication. You'll need it when I do this." Right when he said 'this' he pulled the sword from her leg, and she cried out as the blade was pulled from her bone. He knew regular healing wasn't going to be enough for a wound like this, but he wasn't the seventh seat of his division for nothing. His zanpakutou was ideal for these kinds of situations. With a simple slash the wound had been absorbed and Hisagomaru had been filled to capacity. With a flicker of movement he had slashed the filled weapon at the battlefield and surprisingly, a Vizard fell to his attack.
What they saw next froze their blood. Kaien launched himself at the corpse before picking out the gleaming black pill and popping it into his mouth. "Kaien don't!!"
With a sickening crunch they realized he hadn't swallowed it; no, he was eating it.
He had found a way to get rid of the pills for good, and from the way his reiatsu was expanding like a Gillian evolving to an Adjucha, they knew it wasn't just getting rid of it.
"Why didn't I think of that!?" A maniacal voice asked loudly. Tsukiyomi had lost her fight. She was far too mad at Mayuri, the fake Vizards, and the fact that she once again had to rely on someone else, this time for relief from the poison. With angry strokes she cleaved through the remaining Vizard, eating each pill she stole from the burnt bodies when she was done. Just like Kaien, her reiatsu grew each time. They really were partly Hollow, they were getting stronger from eating those with high spiritual pressure, even if they were mindless gikongan pills.
Kin couldn't let this go on. She had power now, and though that power may not be able to get Kaien back to normal, hopefully it would be able to do something. The others beside her gasped as she stood with her reiatsu flared around her, growing and pulsing as she pushed it to the surface. She had to stop him, her, them. She could still fight, so now she would. She didn't have time to waste on a grandiose scene before she called her out, she was needed and she was needed now!
"BAN KAI!"
The explosion of wind halted the battle, and for those moments it was like existence itself held its breath. When the smoke cleared, something which seemed to be quite common during this battle, Kin was revealed, wearing a form-fitting ivory breastplate that matched the staff of her Shikai perfectly. However, it was what was behind her that had their attention. Red wings were stretched behind her back, innumerable feathers made of translucent ruby as they hung in the air seemingly by their own will. Inside each one glowed the same blue sparks as the orbs on the ends of her zanpakutou's initial release, and a second later the reason was revealed.
Kin had activated Shunkou. Her Bankai ran on the same principle as her Shikai apparently, and its strength was heightened by the highly destructive skill. When she pointed her hands forward the feathers all spread out, until like pointers they each straightened towards a target. They…weren't wings. No, the feathers only made that illusion when they weren't spread out.
"Hadou Four: White Lightning!"
And from each of those feathers, the spell came forth.
Everyone on the field of combat was forced to dodge as the bolts came at them from every direction, and only a few Vizards made it out unscathed. It was awe-inspiring at the amount of destruction that could be made from four words with that zanpakutou. Soi-Fong was gaping in disbelief, but Ichigo at least was smiling. It had worked after all.
"Okay, everyone stop or I'll start going into bigger numbers!"
Renji and the others had come to make sure the situation didn't get out of hand, and from the looks of it, that was exactly what was happening. However, they weren't to get involved with the fighting directly, they had been ordered.
Kaien though, was under no such authority.
Now Mayuri on the other hand couldn't believe the turn the situation had taken in such a short amount of time. He still had many of the pills left, and for once his subordinates didn't fail him and in the nick of time he had more bodies. His Bankai's main body had been destroyed, but thankfully he still had the normal zanpakutou that came with it to rely on. He wasn't completely useless when it came to combat.
He watched as the Hollow Kaien tore through his ranks, now using a different zanpakutou every time. His mouth was nearly watering by now. He wanted to experiment on the specimen in front of him so badly it hurt. He was a marvel, a miracle, an absolute anomaly that shouldn't ever have been able to exist. Oh what he could discover! After putting the last of his pills into the new bodies, an expert use of Shunpo had him right behind the person responsible for nearly single-handedly destroying two-thirds of his army.
With no gentle touch, he roughly grabbed him by the hair and put his sword at his throat from behind. "I know you're aware of your mortality, you wonderful mystery you. So you should know that I could kill you right now. Come quietly and we can avoid that. I would hate to kill off such a unique specimen."
Even Ichigo froze. He now had a trump card, and he could do whatever he wanted thanks to it. Even Kin with her omni-directional Bankai couldn't do anything.
However, those that could see Kaien's face only saw an unnaturally wide grin stretch over his face. "You…fell…for…it. Once…a…night…every…night…touch…them…and…find…zan…pak…tou…de…stro…yed…!" Though it came out broken and slow, it was understandable, and since Mayuri's sword was still the remnant left by his Bankai, and thus already released, instantly it blew apart.
Metastacia's power, no doubt about it.
"What!?" The blue-haired captain cried in astonishment.
Ichigo knew something had to happen right away or his son was going to become too powerful to do anything against. However with a flick of the scientist's hand the remote had once again reappeared, and with Kaien still standing straight, in an instant five Vizards had appeared and each one had their zanpakutou through his abdomen.
"KAIEN!"
"KAIEN!"
"KAIEN!!"
Ichigo, Masaki, and Tsukiyomi all cried out at once. He slumped to the ground, where Mayuri angrily kicked him against the nearest wall.
"You arrogant brat!!! I'm going to enjoy slicing you up until every one of those hairs throughout your body is nothing more than a barbershop's memory!"
This time Kaien was panting, and the blood was actually escaping the open wounds, where before it was like the blood had been kept in the scar tissue through sheer force of will. Even if it couldn't be seen outwardly because of the nerve poison, being simultaneously stabbed by five zanpakutous was putting the young man, Hollowized or not, through a tremendous amount of pain. Since they had gone clear through his stomach, that didn't bode well for the healing factor either.
"Masaki! Zanpakutou, now!! We can't let him continue!" Ichigo shouted frantically, and Masaki instantly understood.
She promptly pulled the mask from her face and as soon as Ikki had materialized, the inner Hollow had already drawn her sword and faced her opposite. They each put a hand on each other's sword hilt and in perfect unison cried out: "Synchronize, Tamasine!"
The black and white swords glowed in their owners' hands and melted onto them, until when they were done both Masaki and Ikasam were wearing fighting gloves, one white and one black. On the tops of their hands, in the middle of the metal material were ornate clock hands, both of the opposing color of the hand they were on. The same was true of their eyes. Masaki now had one completely Hollowized eye, and Ikki now had one completely normal eye. There was something else different too.
Their breathing, blinks, muscle movements, everything about them was in complete…synch. Like they were the same person they clapped their hands together and pointed them at the battlefield.
"Lord of Time…"
"…embrace thy children."
They didn't even talk in complete sentences anymore, one started and the other completed. It was amazing to watch, as two people acted in complete harmony. It was a step beyond their swordplay, and when Kin thought about it she realized that their unique swordsmanship was likely a side-effect of such a dramatic release. What was more amazing was that every single person in the field of vision they had pointed at had stopped moving like they had been petrified.
It was a truly amazing ability. Together, they had the capacity to stop time.
They had never tried this particular ability on Kaien before because they hadn't known how his blood would react to it, but when they looked at him they saw something far worse. It had done absolutely nothing. He was still bleeding, and he was still trying to move. He wanted to fight, even though he was seriously injured. It was a major downside of the transformation.
"Oh…"
"…shit!"
"He's not affected…
"…by our zanpakutou!"
"It must be 'cause he's…"
"… been cut by it before!"
They even spoke the same amount of words each time they talked. It was plain creepy.
"Release me this instant!!" Mayuri ordered irately. It only cut off movement, just like the nerve poison of Ashisogi Jizou, so things like talking were still simple to accomplish. "I will get my Lieutenant back, mark my words! As soon as I've returned her to normal—"
They were the last words Mayuri Kurotsuchi ever spoke.
No one had expected it, no one had seen it coming, the only thing that had been seen was the flash of movement before the sword had been sliced through his white neck and his head had fallen to the ground. The woman holding the bloody blade wept loudly as she took in the dead body; the truly, honestly dead body of the captain of the Twelfth Division. She shook violently even as she pointed her hand at the disembodied head. "Hadou Fi-Fifty-four: Abolishing Flame."
And with that, the head had been removed from existence. Nemu Kurotsuchi stood there, one hand holding her bloody sword, the other clasped to her growing belly. "F-Father…" It was only one of a handful of times she had ever addressed him like that, yet another thing he had deprived her of. "I'm…I'm so sorry!!" She cried loudly and fell to her knees in tears. "I couldn't!! I couldn't let you take away my baby!! I w-won't let you hurt m-me, o-or anything I love…not ever again!!!"
Hanatarou walked over to her, still in shock over the death of a captain, but relieved beyond any description of the word at the same time. Free. They were…free. He let her clasp onto him as she cried and he held her comfortingly, it was the only thing he could do. Even though he had been twisted, sadistic, and insane above all else, he had still been the one to have given her life. He had been her father, and she had just killed him.
It was like the entire area hadn't been expecting this sudden end, but one by one it seemed to sink into the combatants that their fight was over. The fake Vizards had stopped moving with the death of their creator, the only one to have control over them. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was no more. The fight…was over.
However, Kaien still remained in peril, whether his Hollow existence wanted to admit it or not. Masaki and Ikki sighed before clapping their hands again and time was restored to the bodies, when at last Mayuri's beheaded husk fell to the ground, as did all the Vizards now that they had no one to give them orders. They had been able to do nothing for Kaien, and to be honest they didn't know if anyone could do anything for Kaien.
As if on some divine cue, the Garganta opened wide. The Soul Reapers that had gathered at the sight of the Twelfth Division Bankai were quickly panicking, but Ichigo calmed them down right away before they did anything drastic. "Don't worry! It's help you idiots! Help!"
The orange head of hair could be seen even before he had jumped out of the Garganta, and the last thing they saw before the hole closed was a twirl of blue hair. Asuka had wanted to come, desperately in fact. If her Prince and Princess were in danger, it was only natural. Nevertheless, she had followed her orders, as much as it ate at her insides to do so.
Hirenkyaku took him to the sources of the reiatsu in an instant, and seeing Ichigo still completely Hollowized was something he hadn't been expecting. The entire area he stepping into was bathed in a thin layer of blood, and he could see Tsukiyomi cutting open more bodies on the ground. He was greatly relieved when he saw her pull out the gikongan, which meant they weren't really souls. He would hate to have to stop her only for her to realize she had murdered countless people. He wouldn't wish that on anyone's conscience.
His breath escaped him when he saw Kaien. He was Hollowized, but he was cut in so many places his grey-green skin might as well have been red. Worse than all of that yet, was that he had five stab wounds—from what he could tell anyways—that went right through his body, and from the way they weren't healing he could only guess they were firsts.
"What in the hell happened here?" he asked as he adjusted his slim glasses. Tsukiyomi's reiatsu was really getting to him, but he had been around her long enough to bear it, even if it was stronger than usual. She looked so beautiful; even battle-torn and openly angry, her pristine white skin still looked amazing. He blushed and adjusted his glasses again. Not the time Sora, not the time!
"That doesn't matter right now! Please, can you try to help Kaien??" Masaki asked desperately, her sword already resealed in its sheath, though Ikki was still beside her with the same amount of worry written all over her face.
Sora took a shuddering breath in. He was wary to even get close to the young man right then, but thankfully his power could be used at a distance. "Do those cuts go all the way through his body?" he asked beyond hope. A cut was significantly different from a stab wound. Cuts only damaged the outer layer, the epidermis, but stabs often chipped into bone, and usually internal organs too. This was what they had all been afraid of. If his organs had been cut and they too were scarred from completely healing, internal bleeding was inevitable, as was…death.
From the devastated looks on the two identical faces in front of him, Sora didn't even need to get a verbal response. "Dammit," he whispered angrily. "I'll do my best." He placed his ringed hands out toward the young man still sitting pitifully against a wall, trying his best to move even though his body was in no condition to do anything like it. "Souten Kishun, I Reject!"
The fairies shot off his fingers and over to the convulsing body, but just as they were about to encircle him a hand slapped to the side and shattered the oval about to encompass him.
Silence.
Nejibana stood there, as regal as ever. Crystal tears were falling from her pale blue eyes, and from her appearance alone they could tell that she had been crying for quite some time. She stood protectively in front of her partner, her oceanic hair still floating elegantly in the air behind her. "You cannot help him any longer," she said, and her smooth, spring-water-like voice could almost be felt as having been taken over by the pure, audible sadness that all tears displayed in physical form. It couldn't even be described accurately, it was like the sadness that could never be expressed but through tears was vocalizing itself, piercing itself into their very souls. The queen of the raging ocean was weeping, and in her voice were the cries of hundreds of thousands of tears.
"No…" Masaki whimpered, "YOU'RE LYING!! WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!! HE'S NOT DYING! HE'S NOT!!!!"
Nejibana swallowed the giant lump in her throat, and she didn't even try to stop the water falling from her eyelids. She didn't answer as she watched Masaki and Ikki dissolve into tears as they fell to their knees, and instead turned to Sora, who himself was standing there in frozen disbelief. "Tend to her, young one. She needs you more than he does."
And she turned away.
……
As much as it pained him to admit it, she was right. He could do something for Tsukiyomi, but it had been made abundantly clear that it was not his place to try and help Kaien. Wordlessly, he nodded solemnly to her even though it was a pointless gesture and walked over to the white young woman, still bathing in carnage as she tried to deprive more fake bodies of their mindless cores. He knew he should have known better, but that didn't stop him from putting his hand on her shoulder. Maybe it was the depth of the moment that halted his brain processes, or maybe the chance to touch her was too tempting to resist, but nonetheless he had immediately been blown into the wall behind her.
Tsukiyomi had reacted on impulse, and even in her completely emotional mind she still had to see who she had just punched. This being, this personality hidden deep in her psyche, the one allowed to love, hate, experience to every possible extreme froze solid upon witnessing an orange head of hair now smeared with blood. One frame of his glasses was cracked and they were askew on his face, but it was the wound on his head that brought that emotional being to the brink.
She knew him. Like Ikki, she too was like another being, trapped inside, constantly wanting out. She could do everything her host didn't allow her to do, she was the side of herself not even she wanted to admit existed. She was the part of her that wanted to try crazy things, that wanted to run amok, or just plain run period. She was the part of humanity that every human had but most had the opposing angel called common sense to balance out. She was spontaneity on steroids, emotions at their purest, most basic level. She loved what she wanted to love, hated what she wanted to hate, and wanted to go through life in the moment where reason and consequences didn't matter. Constantly…searching.
Yet she recognized the face, the bleeding head of the teen now only half-conscious. She had played with him long before their time in Hueco Mundo, trained with him as he struggled through his inability to use some of the most basic Quincy techniques as he watched his older brother master one after another. She had been there when his rings had manifested, when the only one she had given him had turned into his only method of attacking, as the others turned into his ability to repel death and save life. He was the one she constantly wished was an Arrancar, just so she would be able to show physical affection without hurting him.
For him, she had actually wanted to let this side of herself free, just so she could tell him she might…like him.
And now, just like in so many of her nightmares, he was hurt. Because of her.
The manic glint that had been growing steadily in her eyes as her reiatsu continued to swell with each pill she devoured, dimmed almost completely as she finally comprehended the fact that she had nearly killed the only man her age she would trust with her life. Oscar was nice, but he was too unpredictable and dare she even say, violent, for her to trust absolutely. As unlikely as it was, it was a human that held all the attributes she would look for in a significant other. He acted just like she did, calmly, but with pride. He was proud he was a Quincy, if only in name. He was proud of what he could do, of the modest—if not highly developed for their basic function—Quincy techniques he could use. He was stubborn, but not overly so, and he had an…airheadedness about him that made her want to smile at every lame joke he told, even if he could keep his emotions and his cool hidden deep behind the panes of glass that shielded his eyes, more so than his older brother could ever hope to achieve. He was simply Sora Ishida.
She knew how her dad would react if he knew she was falling for an Ishida, but she couldn't deny that it felt wonderful to give herself up to the wind as she fell from that tall peak and see where it took her, whether that be to the sunny shores of happiness or the deadly rapids of rejection.
This…was what she always wanted to experience. This feeling, show this emotion as herself, not her strange Hollowized side that took everything to the extreme. This blissful unknown between love and friendship that took a human heart to either overcome or abandon, the human heart that had the freedom to make the choice between the two.
In that moment something snapped inside her, something clicked into place. She stood unexpectedly in a meadow of yellow flowers, clouds floated sideways in the sky above. She watched, frozen in time as she saw herself, her human self with dark, Hollowized eyes smile sadly, as if resigning herself to her fate. As she looked closer however she saw that it wasn't herself, but it was someone who looked extremely like her. She too had white hair and Hollowized eyes, like she had noticed earlier, but not only was her skin different, but there were also subtle differences in the bone structure of her face, and eyes not thin and seductive, but instead wide and innocent, even with the dark transformation that had overtaken them. This…wasn't her, yet she knew deep down inside that this being, this entity, was what she had been fighting against. She had never thought it had a recognizable form before.
You finally did it, the unlikely doppelganger said, with what may have been deciphered as happiness etched in melancholy deep in her voice.
She tried to speak, tried to say something to the entity, the version of herself that she had been fighting against for the last how many years of her life, but no words would come. Instead, she found her arms lifting, unburdened by the constant nattering that had nearly succeeding in destroying her mental health more times than she would care to admit.
The peachy-skinned, Hollowized person that looked so much like her smiled. I know. I finally know where I belong. She showed me that when she pointed him to you…and he in turn showed you without even being aware of it. It's funny, I never got to talk with you once, the only thing I thought I could do was help you feel. Now, when it's finally time…I find myself wanting to tell you about all the things I felt as I watched us interact and I thought of all the things that could make it better, as I felt all the things you wanted to feel. I guess in the end, the one who had never shown emotion ended up showing the one who only felt emotion what it was like to truly experience, and what living life with emotions was meant to be like. I guess I can say irony did literally kill me!
She stopped and rubbed her eyes as tears now flowed. So I guess this is our first and final meeting then. It sucks, but sooner or later this day was going to come. I'm just glad you embraced me sooner rather than later. Six years is far too short, especially when it comes to realizing the true value of feeling. We won't meet again, but I'll always be with you. Goodbye, sister I never met. To Masaki I gave my life, my will so that she could live. To you…I gave my emotions, my future. Everything I wanted to experience and everything I wanted you to experience with the life I had restored.
I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to live with you, and I'm sorry I was too strong to live without hurting you. Now I finally understand what I wanted to feel, what I felt from mother's song. Masaki and Ikki had it the moment they were born, but now I finally understand too. It's not that I wanted to receive love to understand it, it's I wanted to give it. I wanted to give and receive everything I could, and because of that you had to hide everything that would usually be used to show that. I'm so sorry, but now, I finally, finally know what to say.
With that, she too stretched her arms towards her, and Tsukiyomi couldn't understand it, but she could feel tears falling from her eyes. I love you Mother, Father, Masaki, Ikasam, and I love you brother I never got the chance to meet. I love you, Tsukiyomi, and this is really goodbye. Thank you, I'll never forget the years I lived through you, and I'm sorry I couldn't give you what you needed without these results.
She smiled sadly as she reached forward and hugged her, where Tsukiyomi found she could do nothing else but clasp on to her desperately, like she didn't want to let this person go no matter how strong the feeling inside her was that this was what needed to be done. Tsuki could feel the warmth flow into her as the youth in her arms started fading, glowing as if by her own light as her existence was at last absorbed.
I couldn't let my two sisters die after all, even if it was my life you needed.
Realization struck Tsukiyomi like lightning, and suddenly she understood the reason for the tears falling down her eyes. Her sister, her third sister. It wasn't that she was too weak to survive in the womb, it was that she had chosen to give up her life so that the two that were too weak to survive would live.
She fell to her knees as she pounded the grassy, flower-laden ground and tears fell from her eyes. She could feel. She could feel…without worrying about how to feel.
"Goodbye…sister who saved my life…I love you too…."
And just like that, her reiatsu changed.
She fell back to reality in the second heartbeat it had taken to have the revelation of her inner world, the truth of her very life. She shuddered involuntarily as she felt her reiatsu spike, as something changed in the very core of her being. She could feel the happy tears of the part of herself now past as it fused seamlessly into her spirit, where it belonged for the first time in her life. It was the feel of the burden that had weighed her down for the past five years turn into a blessing, and at the same time she was sad to see the burden go, when she knew what that meant now. The last of their sister's soul was gone now, but paradoxically it lived on in them at the same time.
She felt tears fall from her eyes as she saw the blue oval of his healing powers over his body. He was awake enough to heal himself, she hadn't done anything that couldn't be undone. Tatsuki had finally reappeared after following the commotion, and she felt the drastic change in her daughter's reiatsu, and not just it's frightening volume either. She stood by her, stunned, as she saw the tears not black, but normal, fall from her Hollowized eyes.
Tsukiyomi…had completed herself.
Before that could even be fully comprehended, she had run over and thrown herself into the young Ishida just recently healed as she continued weeping, both tears of joy and tears of sadness.
The look on Sora's face was priceless, and he didn't know what to make of the normally calm and collected Tsukiyomi crying into his shoulder, but he did know now was not the time to speak, so he simply embraced her comfortingly and allowed her to cry. He didn't care if this was a dream and he really hadn't saved himself from unconsciousness, if it was real he was going to savor it.
He had the feeling something very drastic had just happened, and when he looked over, he saw another miracle happening on the bloodstained battleground.
……
Nejibana smiled somberly as she watched Tsukiyomi go through everything that she needed to. She had always had everything she needed, the only prerequisite had been that she recognize that. For the one that always fought off emotion even before her soul's powers had been developed, the hardest thing to do was to realize that she actually wanted to receive and reciprocate them.
Kaien was still squirming behind her, but she knew better than anyone that the Hollow had pushed his body far past his limits. Even though the neural poison had been neutralized at the same time as the deadly counterpart that came later thanks to the addition of Suzumebachi; his body had still been put under far too much of a strain. Though using his tendrils to take back control of his uncooperative muscles had been an excellent strategy, it had damaged them at the same time, and with his reiatsu continually pumping out of him rampantly, there had been no greater concentration available to his Hierro, and that was shown in how many new cuts he had on his body. His muscles didn't respond to the stimulus anymore because of the poison, but that didn't mean that his body wasn't reacting at all.
As it was, she doubted he could even stand up anymore. He needed rest, but in his condition he would simply bleed out since his organs couldn't fully heal. Right then, he really was between life and death.
It really was…the end of their time together.
Masaki and Ikki were still crying, and Ichigo and Tatsuki looked like they didn't know how to respond, like their hearts had frozen and numbed them to the situation around them. She took one last look at everyone, her new family she had only been with for such a short time, and silently waved goodbye. She turned slowly and walked over to Kaien, where she knelt down to his level. He was whimpering now, not knowing any other way to express his futility anymore. "…Kin…"
That one-worded whisper, that one plea from lips caked in blood came from both aspects of himself, that much she was sure of. He knew. She wiped the tears falling from her eyes and his too, both the bloody and the watery, as she looked at him like a lover to a terminally-ill love.
"I always knew this day would come," she admitted softly. "The day you walked into the throne room, I knew you right away. You were my partner, my missing piece, and the person that needed me the most. I could tell from the moment we met what you needed…and I was terrified. I knew even though you looked like everyone else, that really you were just like me, but blessed beyond any description I could think of. You, out of all of us, had the ability to interact with those around you. You weren't restricted to one person, one world, one lonely existence. But I could tell that you were paying for that with your life." She hiccupped as her tears resumed and she stroked a hand down the bloodstained cheek of the one she had been with for two lifetimes. She had never imagined it would be so hard to accept.
"I knew you needed me, you were called to me the second you set foot in that room. I've failed you yet again. I couldn't protect you when you lost your body to Metastacia, I couldn't stop you when your body was tainted further by Glotoneria. Once again…I've failed you. I could have…it took me so long just to get up the courage to return to your side and right then I should have…but I just…I wanted to be with you again! I wanted…redemption."
She was breaking down. Zanpakutous are no different from humans or souls, they were merely spirits encapsulated in the form of a sword; an immortal shell that will never truly disappear, even when their hosts do. Sooner or later someone else would come along with the ability to wield them, and once more they would appear. It was their greatest strength and their greatest curse.
"Of course you didn't notice that it was the day after I had rejoined with you that your Hollow hole had disappeared. You would have found out mere seconds later if you had turned into a Shinigami after I had returned to you. But…even then you knew. When I came out to greet you, you somehow knew that what I was seeing was the person I had failed, not the person I could still protect. You've always known me inside and out; the only reason you never tried to obtain Bankai was because you didn't want to take over Ukitake's position more than you already had. You never wanted to force me to submit. You were brash, careless, more idiotic than most anyone I had ever been exposed to before, but you were the purest soul I had ever come into contact with.
"When I saw you again, when I felt you after decades of loneliness, what was the first thing you said to me? 'This must be a pretty pathetic sword, it doesn't even cut!'" she recited with as much wit as she could, losing strength to both tears and the hiccups that came with them. It was a tragic sight, one no one in the vicinity had ever been privy to in the entire history of Soul Society. A zanpakutou, materialized like any other person, breaking down as she watched her partner lose strength. And Kin, who simply couldn't believe her senses, and refused to believe them altogether. She knew; Nejibana wouldn't even let her pass if she tried.
"I knew it was you, and my heart soared. I had another chance! But…but you didn't recognize me, but you recognized that I was important to you. The happiest days of my life were the ones I spent talking to you, those nights when we shared everything, Past, Present, and Future. You scared me; you possessed the redemption I dreamt of, but at a cost I had never imagined. I wanted to be useful to you again, I wanted to be with you more! To dance together like we used to! But I knew…deep down I knew I couldn't put it off forever, otherwise I'd end up failing you again…" she trailed off mournfully. She couldn't stand the thought, but even with this she was only delaying what she had set out to do.
"I can't fail you anymore, I won't let myself! Time after time my pride has been crushed beneath the finality of defeat, and not even my desperation, my love, or my anger could do anything about it. I wanted to be with you even longer, I wanted to take pride in the life I would help you lead, and yet even when the miracle happened and I was given that chance, the Cinderella story would lose its magic in what seemed far too short.
"Kaien, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry…"
The water mistress was shocked beyond any meaning of the word when she felt arms wet with blood wrap around her small body, and though he was weak, Kaien had still managed to move his head to her shoulder. "Nejibana…you've never…never failed me. I…should…apologize…instead. I'm sorry…you've always suffered…because of my recklessness. I put you through…so much pain…and still you never…blamed me. I never…deserved you…but if you can…forgive me too…for what it's worth…you're forgiven," he croaked out weakly, and she knew that it wasn't his blood speaking, but the lives of her two partners speaking in unison. Her tears fell heavier, and she smiled brightly as the face once wrought with despair glowed in happiness.
She hugged him back, more passionately, more intimately than she had ever embraced anything as she buried her face into his neck, uncaring of the blood marring her flesh. "I've l-longed to hear those words for s-so long!!" she cried happily. Already she could feel the hesitancy dying in her heart. She knew what she had to do, and she would do it happily. She could only hope he could forgive her. "Of course I forgive you. I love you, Kaien Shiba; I love you, Kaien Kurosaki. I would have been happy to stay your sword for all of eternity, but if this is what I can give…then I give it to you with no regrets. My wish has been granted, I will be able to protect you forever, I understand that now. Goodbye…"
Kaien could feel something in the darkness he was surrounded by, the place he felt his consciousness forced to whenever his blood took over his body. He could hear; each and every word he heard her speak through heartache and tears as he felt his body weaken. That one word, that one word at the end of her confession was like a blade pierced through his heart. Don't go!! Don't leave me alone here!!
And as he felt his body warm…as he felt his body strengthen beyond anything he had ever felt before…he felt these words waft into his prison as light broke through the endless darkness that made up this world. "I'll never leave you alone. I'll always be with you from now on. I'm what you needed Kaien, you were so unbalanced because you were a zanpakutou spirit with Hollow blood. Your zanpakutou nature couldn't bear it, what you needed was another zanpakutou.
"You constantly absorbed them for that reason, and your blood didn't allow you to fully heal because it didn't want to lose, because that meant its death. It was never meant to have any pull in your body, but since it did because of the Hougyoku it didn't want to give it up. Like everything in the world, it had a sense of self-preservation. A copy couldn't fill your void, and the second I felt what you had done the moment I cut you I knew that that void was meant to be filled by me. Death frightened me, because I had never truly had a concept of it when it came to my existence, but now I understand, I finally understand.
"This is my power, Kaien, my life, my gift to you. I will always be with you now, a part of you so intricate I will no longer be able to talk to you like we used to. Don't cry, this is my redemption, this is the chance I've waited for. I'm sorry…I couldn't bring myself to do it sooner. This is my…goodbye. It…may sound strange…but I do love you. Don't…cry…"
When the voice faded, the world exploded with light. Blue sky stretched as far as the eye could see, and blue rose petals floated without end on the water that licked silently at the sandy shore. The agony of his blood was gone, the darkness he had fought against by himself for his entire life had been vanquished by the one person that had lived closest to his heart for two lifetimes.
She…was gone.
He could feel her presence within him, feel her power, the calming water, the raging rapids, the all-consuming strength of the ocean flow through him. It was his now. She had given up her life so that he could live his.
And he fell to his knees at the shore and cried.
……
The reiatsu that shattered the air was unlike anything ever felt before.
Everyone had watched silently, like what they were witnessing demanded their complete attention. No one spoke, no one blinked, no one dared breathe as the small, powerful, and beautiful body clasping itself to the bloody Hollow faded into the body of the young man in an amazing spectacle of glowing light.
They watched, speechless, as the tears of blood were replaced by real tears as the blood disintegrated from his body. Then…he started screaming. They clasped their hands to their ears as he screamed like his mother had died in front of his eyes and he had been so close to saving her. His anguished wails pierced the air like the damning finality of a body-bag's zipper. They watched, as up from his feet white flowed.
His skin faded from the normal peach associated with humanity to the ashen pallor of an inner Hollow. His bloody red clothing crackled with energy and turned black as the transformation continued, and as it went up his stomach and arms his skin sizzled as the scars once there burned away in small puffs of steam. The black tattoos of his arm to cover those scars now healed turned silver as it continued up until it covered his face and hair, and that wasn't all that had happened.
There were gasps of astonishment when his downturned head had been taken over by the white coating. His hair wasn't completely white. A streak of pale blue had taken over the left side of his bangs, and his hair now seemed to flow backwards in the air like the waves of the ocean. When the screaming stopped and the head turned up to look at the heavens, more breath was lost. Only one of the flame tattoos over his eyes remained, and it was his left eye that had kept it as the yellow eye now back inside looked mournfully towards heaven. His right eye lacked that orange tattoo, in fact it even lacked the black one of old as well as the eye that should have been there. Instead of the yellow of his left eye, his right eye was a crystal blue, just like that of the woman that had vanished in his arms. What was more, was even though he had clearly undergone the White Transformation they had all seen in both his parents and his sister, his eyes didn't have the typical black sclera that came with it.
No one dared move, no one until Kin finally regained motor control.
She stepped forward hesitantly, her Bankai still at the ready in case Kaien had actually lost complete control and this was the final product. "Kaien…?"
He chuckled softly, and she was struck by how his deep, gentle voice had gained an unearthly quality. It sounded just like she could remember Nejibana's, though it was enough that his voice was still easily recognizable and the Hollow's tinge was nowhere to be heard. "In both my lives, she felt like a failure…when the one that had really failed was me…"
His tears started again, and she knew deep in her heart that this was her Kaien, and he was hurting beyond imagination. Her Bankai was disabled silently, and though her clothing was ripped in places and still bloodstained in others, she knew she had to walk forward and hug him. She felt his warmth as he returned her hug gratefully, and her heart wept with him, because it was the only thing that had the slightest inkling to what he had just gone through. She knew, in fact she was probably the only one that had noticed.
His zanpakutou…was gone.
He hugged her closer right before he let go, and as she watched him walk away he took off his jacket and the now black energy of his Cero exploded from his white, completely healed back. The energy of his technique was far stronger than she remembered it, but not only had he eaten most of the Vizard Mod-Souls, but he had just been completed thanks to Nejibana.
He stood, his silent fury burning in his bi-colored eyes as he looked down on the headless corpse of Mayuri Kurotsuchi. His muscles rippled with tension as he fought the emotions inside of him, until with a furious scream he pulled back and punched the dead body lying on the ground, the power of Cerokou behind his action demolishing the ground beneath the body the second the strike was set. It may be called disrespecting the dead, but had he not met him Kaien was sure…sure he would have had more time with her. His screams escalated with each punch he laid until he had created a large crater and the body had been disintegrated in the heat of the black Cero energies.
"DAMN YOU!!!!!!!! DAMN YOU!!!! GOD DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!!"
Once again, all he could do was fall to his knees and cry.
He was complete, but Nejibana was no more.
From the core of his soul, he felt this melody rise, like the hymn on an angel's lips.
.
I just need to get away from me
I just need to find some peace of mind
Caught in this game of unmet expectations
I want to leave it all behind
.
I want to be small
I want to be just like a child
I want to be quiet in your arms
I want to be small
I want to be just like a child
I want to be quiet in your arms
.
So in that moment when I lose myself
Let the world fade away from me
Give me a moment just to seek the silence
I just want to be set free
.
I want to be small
I want to be just like a child
I want to be quiet in your arms
I want to be small
I want to be just like a child
I want to be…quiet in your arms
.
He smiled through the tears and clutched his chest. "You had no regrets, just like you said. Thank you…thank you…and goodbye."
He stood shakily. It was his life, and now he could live it fully.
……
Author's Notes: This was the most heart-wrenching chapter I ever wrote, and I won't deny when I was writing it, and even now, I still felt like I was going to cry. I know this story still isn't getting very much attention, but I'm happy with what it's been getting since it was already posted somewhere else. Thank you to those that continue to read this, and I hope you continue to enjoy it. The song at the end was by Amanda Falk, called 'Small', and is also another thing I don't own. Look it up if you have the time, it's a beautiful song. I'm sorry to those who don't like character death, but it happened this way.
As always, reviews are always appreciated. Thank you, and that's it for me for today.