Well, I've finally updated the story. And I can assure you, this chapter WILL NOT disappoint.
Enjoy!
"Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You." -The Golden Rule.
Outside of using Shunpo, Renji had never ran this fast in his entire life. The speed was actually hindering him more than helping, for he had to continuously slow down to keep in pace with Hygasaki and Abigail who were leading the path to freedom. Abarai could tell Ichigo and Hitsugaya were struggling the same as him; if their powers were not completely out of use they would be leading the two humans out of here. Hell, they wouldn't even be in this situation if they had them!
But that's not what was bothering Renji now; there was something else pecking at his conscious. And it had to do with that bastard Kingpin, and ultimately handing his fate over solely to Tia Halibel, the vengeful Espada whose torture at the madman's hands Abarai knew was worse than anything he or his other comrades had gone through. Did she deserve to have him to herself? 'Yes, but so did I,' he thought, 'We all deserved a piece of him! After what he put us through…'
"Wait!" The group skidded to a halt at the corner of an alleyway at the sound of Renji's voice.
"Don't be so loud!" Ichigo panted, hands on his knees, "What's the matter?"
Aguso nodded in between breaths, "Spill it quick. We gotta get out of here now!"
"We should go back." Renji clenched his fists and looked back in the direction they came, "It's not right leaving him to just Halibel. We all got a bone to pick with him."
"Don't be a fool, Abarai," Toshiro scolded; it had been a while since he had acted like his old-Captain self, "That's too much of a risk to take. Halibel can handle him."
"And what if she kills him?! What if we never get our revenge?!"
"Calm down, Renji…" Ichigo started before his friend erupted again.
"No! That bastard's getting off too lightly! We should tear him apart! After all he did to us, he needs to be punished! Throwing me into an arena, beating you to a pulp-"
"Killing Rukia?" Kurosaki interrupted. Abarai went silent, frozen by the truth, the real reason he wanted to kill Kingpin himself.
"…She was my best friend," Renji whispered, "Maybe… Maybe even more, but I'll never know that now… He took her away from me! From all of us, Ichigo! We need to avenge her, not let her die in vain!"
Water dropped from a valve in the now quiet alleyway. The lieutenant had a point, Ichigo knew that. He wanted to kill Kingpin too for what he did to Rukia. But revenge was not something Kurosaki took lightly. If he had the chance to do what he wanted to do to Kingpin, he wouldn't feel human anymore. There was no good in turning into something just as savage as that bastard. That's why Ichigo decided to let Halibel have him; at her core she was a monster, a very deadly one at that. She had nothing to lose from torturing him.
"I get it, Renji," Ichigo said, "But sometimes we can't get what we want. It's best right now to save ourselves."
"But-"
"Do you want to die here, Renji?!"
"…No."
"That's what I thought," Kurosaki turned his back to Renji, "Don't think I'm not hurt by Rukia's death. I'm still aching inside. But we shouldn't let Halibel die in vain, either. She's risking everything for us right now, just so we can live another day. So let's not screw this up and do something stupid, got it?"
Abarai contemplated for a moment, getting his emotions in order. He hated the fact that he'd never get his hands on that bastard, and secretly wished Halibel would leave him alive just for him.
"…Yeah," Renji sighed, defeated, "Whatever. Let's just get out of here know, alright?"
"Fine with me," Abigail chimed, "Now come on, it's not that much further. Lead the way, Aguso."
As the others headed forward, Ichigo stood back a few seconds behind looking in the same direction Renji was earlier.
'Give him hell, Halibel.'
"Ghhngh… Ah-AHH!"
An intense pain forced Kingpin to awaken from unconsciousness, his eyes shooting open to nothing but darkness around him. He didn't care where he was right now, or why he was kneeling on the ground in one of his own torture cells; all he wanted to do was wring that blonde whore's neck for attacking him. When he tried to move his arms, however, he found that he was bound by chains to the floor in almost the same fashion he had restrained the woman. His legs were a different story. His feet had been nailed into the floor by two rusty stakes, crudely hammered through his bone into the cement. He broke into a raging fit, thrashing his body back and forth, trying to break free.
"So you're awake."
The voice came from behind Kingpin. He recognized it instantly as the woman's, and grew even angrier. Out of the blackness Halibel bent down before his restrained form, gripping his throat with one hand.
"I'm surprised you didn't come to earlier when I nailing your feet to the ground," she continued, digging her fingernails into his skin, "But don't think I wouldn't have enjoyed beating you down again. It's much more fun when you fight back."
Kingpin responded with a cackling wheeze. "Then… Why don't you untie me… So I can fucking kill you!?"
"Like you ever could. Besides, do you think I'm that stupid to take that risk? I'm not going to even give you a chance to run for help like the wounded swine that you are."
Tia stood and walked to the corner of the cell, picking up a heavy object. She dropped the metal toolbox in front of Kingpin and pulled out an old wrench. He watched wide eyed as she brought the business end of the tool towards his right hand.
"You bitch!" he roared, gripping his hand shut so she couldn't get to his digits, "You fucking cunt! I'll fucking kill you for this!"
Halibel didn't answer as she calmly put the wrench down and pulled out a screwdriver from the box instead. Almost delicately she placed the tip of the tool on the outside of her captive's fist, and then brought her own fist down on its butt, driving the metal through his knuckles and out of his palm.
"SHEEAGH!" Kingpin shrieked. Blood was dripping from his hand like a faucet as the tool sat perfectly in his flesh as if it belonged there. "F-Fuck!"
"Be quiet." Holding the wrench once more, Hailbel swung the tool into the side of Kingpin's face, cracking the left portion of his mask. The lens over his left eye shattered completely, revealing his yellowed bloodshot eye to her before his head fell downward. "Did I say you could die yet?"
"Nngh…" Kingpin grunted. This pain was unbearable! She had to die! She had to die now! "…Kill you… Tear you to pieces…"
Halibel ignored his threats, focusing attention back to his bloodied right hand. The screwdriver projected from it like a monument, albeit one splattered with crimson. She picked the wrench up once again, placing his fingers between its jaws.
Then she began to tighten it.
The bones in Kingpin's fingers made a sickening cracking sound as the wrench got tighter and tighter, as blood seeped from underneath his fingernails. All the while, the masked man gritted his teeth, wincing as all feeling in his hand disappeared.
"Graagh! F-Fuck!" he spat, thrashing his head back and forth.
"Quit that."
*WHAM!*
Kingpin's spine cracked as Halibel's swift kick bent his body back, the chains holding him off the ground. Coughing, he tried to pull himself up but failed to do so. He had never been so weak before. This was what Brianna had talked about.
He was pathetic.
"Now stay still," Tia ordered, looking into the toolbox again. She was not too familiar with human tools, but if something looked lethal, she would be damn sure to make it lethal. Something at the bottom caught her eye. Removing it, she inspected it carefully, making note of the battery pack and pointed tip. She set it aside for later, and removed yet another object from within.
"That hand is useless now," she muttered, holding the handsaw for Kingpin to see, "Just useless."
"NO-NO-NO-NO-YEEEAAAAGGGHH!"
Back and forth the blade went, slicing through the skin above Kingpin's right hand. Even though all feeling in his hand was gone, the pain from the saw still felt just as agonizing. Reaching bone, Tia struggled to slice through the marrow, but found it impossible with such a weak blade. She needed a stronger one. A more familiar one.
Kingpin's eyes widened as she came at him with her sword. Was she going to end it? Was she going to gut him? Decapitate him? Or just slit his throat and let him die slowly?
Tia held the sword out before her with one hand, readying the slash. "Your hand is useless… What point is there having an arm, then?"
*SHUNK!*
It was too much; it burned like the heat of the sun. Kingpin was mute from shock as he watched him arm, from the bicep down, detach from his body and fall to the floor, still held by its chain.
"Ah… Ah… Ah…"
"What's wrong? Is it too much for you to handle?" Halibel stared at the stub on his body as it bled profusely. A puddle of red was forming below it; if left unattended any longer he would surely bleed out. That was something she couldn't have. Not yet, at least.
Digging in the box, the Espada found an object she recognized, one she had used once before while with Starrk. After a moment of fiddling, she ignited the flame and approached Kingpin with the blow torch.
"Let's fix this arm up. I can't let you die. Not yet…"
"Did you hear that?"
Halfway up the wall that surrounded The Sanctuary, Ichigo looked back over the community. He could've sworn he had hear someone shrieking from within; hopefully it was Kingpin.
"Not a thing," Renji answered, pulling his friend up onto the wall's top. On the opposite side Hitsugaya stood waiting on the ground impatiently.
"Faster, you two!" the young Captain said, tapping his foot and looking around cautiously, "Guards may come by at any moment!"
Abarai dropped to the ground, catching Ichigo's bag of stolen supplies from above. Kurosaki turned back around, kneeling and extending an arm to pull Hyugasaki up and over. "Put some muscle into it, Aguso!"
"Sorry!" Hyugasaki grunted, mustering his strength, "I was a student teacher before all of this, not an athlete!"
"Well act like an athlete!" Abigail snapped, "Put some bloody backbone into it!"
"I'm doing the best I-
*BLAM!*
Aguso's sentence, and his life, was cut short as a bullet pierced through the back of his head and out between his eyes, the shot lodging into the cement wall he was so desperately trying to climb. Abigail froze as his body fell before her, lifeless.
"Aguso!" she cried, kneeling down and shaking him desperately, "Aguso, no! No, no, NO!"
His face speckled with Hyugasaki's blood, Ichigo's eyes darted to the streets, where armed men were approaching quickly. 'Shit! How'd they know we escaped?!'
"What the hell was that?!" Renji shouted from the other side.
"Guards! They just… They shot Aguso!" Realizing Abigail was still stranded down below, Ichigo extended an arm down as a last ditch attempt to get her out of there. "Grab my hand!"
The woman did not move, cradling Aguso's body. She gazed up at Ichigo with teary eyes, a small smile on her face. "…Just run, you little bugger. There's no point in even trying… Say hello to your little one for me, alright?"
He understood her words clearly. Hesitating slightly, Ichigo pulled his hand back and nodded. "…Thank you, Abigail. For everything."
The strawberry swung himself over the wall, landing beside Renji and Toshiro. The two only need look at Ichigo's face to know that Abigail wasn't coming. As they silently darted into the woods, they heard the ringing of machine guns from inside The Sanctuary as the only sane woman inside those walls left this world.
"YEEEAAARRRRGGGHHH!"
He was burning.
Kingpin was burning.
She was burning him alive.
Burning, burning, burning, burning, burning, FUCKING BURNING!
His arm was searing! His flesh was sizzling! He had to make it stop! He had to fucking kill her!
Then it stopped.
His body went limp, his head dangling downwards. It was over. But why didn't the pain stop? Why wouldn't it end?! He wanted to lunge and bite her, head-butt her, slit her throat, but he couldn't! Why was he weak?! Why was Brianna right?! Why was he cursed to suffer?!
"Are you done screaming?" Halibel tossed the blowtorch aside, the lethal can clanging in the dark and rolling away. "You almost made me deaf with your voice… Maybe I should've sewn your mouth shut earlier. But I would be lying if I said your cries were not satisfying."
Kingpin tried reaching for her, using the tips of his fingers to grasp for her flesh. In his exhausted delusion he didn't realize he was reaching with an arm that wasn't there; the scorched stub that was there remained motionless. "…Kill... you… Kill-
*SHUNK!*
No scream. Nothing came from Kingpin.
This pain was too much to handle.
He tried to open his right eye, to eliminate the blackness that had overcome it. But the more he tried, the more it-
No.
This was not just pain: this was blindness.
She had stabbed him in the eye. He could see the handle of the object, a screwdriver, just out the corner of his good eye. As the woman pulled it out, he could see his eye following suit, still attached to his skull by the nerves. One swift yank from the tool removed it from his body.
"So that's all it took to shut you up," Tia looked down on him with a cold, remorseless gaze. She wasn't human: She was a monster, a demon. Just like him, but something… more. Like she was born this way.
But Kingpin couldn't even focus on his own thoughts. Everything was numb. It was worse than an overdose; at least those felt soothing.
This was fucking hell.
It was too much.
Too much.
Too much…
Halibel watched as the madman's head bounced off the floor, blood pouring from his empty eye socket and surrounding his cranium like a crimson halo. She looked at the tool in her hand, the part of his body still gouged through its tip. Tired of the man looking at her, Tia threw the screwdriver into the shadows.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Halibel asked. She placed her foot on his head, pushing his damaged face into the floor. "This is how it feels to die. This is pain. This is how Rukia felt when you bashed in her skull. This is how I felt when you violated me. So, how does it feel, Kingpin? How does it feel to die?"
Her words were nothing but echoes in Kingpin's head; not that he planned on responding, though. He was too busy right now to even acknowledge her. No, right now all he needed…
Was time.
"Boss?!" Boss, where are you?"
'Damn! His men!' Halibel spun around at the voice of the incoming henchmen. Quickly grabbing her sword, she left the mutilated Kingpin behind and darted up the steps. As she re-entered the store room, Gentu and two armed men were just shuffling through the door.
"Hey!" one of the guards shouted, taking aim with his gun, "Who are- ACK!"
The Espada sliced his stomach clean open with one clean slash. As he fell to the ground, she sliced through the other guard beside him and delivered a high kick to Gentu's skull.
"OOF!" Gentu fell backwards, clenching his aching forehead. By the time he got back to his feet, his attacker was gone. "Dammit! Boss is gonna kill me now… Oh, shit!"
The reason he came in the first place returning to him, the big man rushed down the basement steps, flipping on the master light switch. The dark hallways were instantly illuminated, and Gentu could see an open cell door at the very end of the hall.
"Boss!" Gentu shouted, dashing down the long hallway, "Boss, you in there?! I'm coming!"
Gentu was not prepared for the sight he would witness in that cell. He darted inside and immediately turned away, his stomach churning. "My… My God… URP-
He emptied his stomach in the doorway, almost keeling over in shock. Trembling, he looked over his shoulder at his boss's maimed form. He couldn't be alive. There was no way-
"G… G-Gentu…"
The big man could barely hear the rasping voice of Kingpin, the masked man clawing at the air with his remaining hand.
"BOSS! Oh, God! W-What did that fucking bitch do to you?!"
Sethrin fell silent once again as his right-hand man stumbled over and began undoing his restraints. Talking was out of the question; he had to conserve his energy. Besides, he wasn't going to die. No, he was going to come back. Stronger, more powerful, more relentless…
And once he was back on his feet, he was going straight to that prison to slaughter every single fucking one of them.
In Memoriam:
Aguso Hyugasaki
Abigail
"For those to live, sacrifices must be made."