Part XXV: Such an Innocent Gesture
"You, uh, you've got something in your hair…" Renji explained, his large, warm hand combing through Byakuya's black hair. He plucked the stalk of grass, twisting it between his fingers. He pursed his lips together and blew, sending the grass flying into the air. "It's out."
"Thank you." Byakuya said, his grey eyes focused on the road ahead of them.
"You tired of walking?" Renji asked, nearly bouncing on his feet. He seemed to have an inordinate amount of energy, but in truth he couldn't feel his feet and was trying to avoid the peculiar sensation.
"It's warm here." Byakuya said, crinkling his nose in distaste. "And humid." Byakuya turned to look at Renji, letting out a small sigh. "I don't mind the walking. It's the miserable, disgusting climate I'm tired of."
"Are you crazy?!" Kira asked, groaning with effort. "I haven't walked a mile in probably the last 30 years. So much fucking walking…" Kira shrugged his arms out of his shirt, fanning himself with exhaustion.
"My legs feel like they're going to fall off." Ichigo murmured, pausing in the road to stretch.
"My feet, my legs," Kira complained, glowering at Shunsui's back. "Hell, even my nipples feel like they're gonna fall off."
"You don't have to come." Shunsui replied, adjusting Orihime's position on his back.
"The Roman Legions walked less a day than we do." Kira groaned.
"You're a Master." Shunsui called over his shoulder, trying his best to ignore the stitch in his side.
"Shunsui," Jushiro interjected. He doubled over, his hands resting above his knees. He took several shallow breaths, his hair dragging against the ground. "This is too much walking."
"Alright." Shunsui conceded, wincing as his knee froze up. "We're setting up camp."
"Not on the road." Byakuya said, shaking his head. "That's a terrible idea."
"Someone would have to be insane to attack our group." Shunsui argued, lowering Orihime to the ground.
"The world has no shortage of insane people." Byakuya replied. He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "We cannot set up a camp on the road, near the road, or in sight of the road."
"The Vampire is right." Kira said with a nod.
"I don't care where we camp as long as I get to sit down in the next five minutes." Ichigo said, rolling his eyes.
"Hush and be patient." Kira drawled. He removed his shirt from around his waist and walked off the road. He stopped in the center of the field and laid down, his arms and legs sprawled out.
"What's he doing?" Jushiro asked, narrowing his eyes expectantly.
"Is he laying down to die?" Orihime asked, pulling on Jushiro's sleeve.
"No, no." Jushiro murmured, shaking his head.
"I have no idea what he's doing." Shunsui admitted.
"We should ask." Renji suggested.
"You ask." Shunsui said with a frown. "I'm half afraid to know."
"He-y!" Ichigo shouted, waving his hand over his head in gesture. "What're you doing?"
"He said to be patient." Byakuya said quietly, folding his arms over his chest. "Let's practice patience."
They had only a few moments left to wonder. A strange, thick fog rolled into the field. It was dense and the men could taste the water on their tongues. In the space of a few minutes, the fog had thickened and spread, blocking out even the sun.
"I can't see anything." Shunsui said, his hand reaching for Jushiro's.
"What's going on?" Orihime whispered, her face pressed into the back of Shunsui's shirt.
"It's a house." Byakuya murmured, taking a step forward. "There's a house in the field."
"Look!" Ichigo exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief.
And as the fog began to clear, the group could very clearly see the shadowy and eerie house in the center of the field. Kira stood in the doorway, his features shrouded by darkness. He turned away wordlessly, disappearing into the home.
"That's unbelievable…" Shunsui breathed out, his mouth agape.
"There's no way I'm going in there." Orihime refused. She stomped her foot, screaming as Shunsui lifted her into his arms to carry her. "No! No! No way! It's haunted!"
"It's not haunted…" Shunsui groaned. "How can it be haunted? It was just made…"
"It's full of souls!" Orihime screamed, trying her best to crawl over Shunsui's shoulder and down his back to freedom.
"Be quiet, child." Byakuya said firmly, his eyes meeting hers. "It's not proper to refuse a gift."
Unspoken as it may be, none of the shifters wanted to go inside. Byakuya entered the house first and a few excruciating seconds later Renji followed in after him. The house was simple and clean. There were three rows of tidy beds and a rudimentary kitchen.
"Better?" Kira asked, eyeing Byakuya with interest.
"We're still near the road." Byakuya said with a smirk. "But this will do."
"How did you do this?" Renji asked with wide, unblinking eyes.
"Dark matter." Kira said simply as he sat down on one of the beds. "I'll be needing more soon. I used nearly all of it."
"Wow." Ichigo said, stepping inside the house. "Not bad."
"Your Masters never made a chair or anything appear from nothing?" Kira asked, his hookah suddenly appearing in his lap.
"A chair and a house are two different things…" Shunsui whistled lowly. "Yabbe, yabbe…"
"You made this?" Jushiro asked, his fingers trailing along the wall with astonishment.
"Good grief, no." Kira laughed dryly.
"Then how?" Byakuya asked, sitting down on the same bed as Kira. He stared at Kira, his fingers aching to hold a pen.
"It's complicated." Kira exhaled. "But Masters don't just exist in one place. Body and Soul are, uh, well, kept separate. So there has to be some connection. It's like a tunnel. A portal, if you will. I simply exit in a different spot, somewhere between my Body and Soul. And then I can move things through the portal…"
"So you stole someone's house?" Renji asked, arching a brow.
"Don't be ridiculous." Kira groaned. "I don't harm humans."
"Then how?" Byakuya pressed, excitedly.
"This home was destroyed. I found it somewhere else and put it back together here." Kira explained. "Everything here was either broken or abandoned."
"So," Ichigo questioned, his hands clasped behind his back. "Is that how Masters travel?"
"Yes." Kira nodded. "We certainly don't walk everywhere."
"Does it work on people?" Byakuya asked, his eyes wide.
"I don't harm humans." Kira repeated.
"Does it work on humans, in theory?" Byakuya questioned.
"Yes." Kira said with a nod. "It's easy."
"Could you put them back together?" Byakuya whispered. "Could you do that?"
"I can't bring people back to life." Kira said firmly, dropping his pipe. "Only the Creator has that power." Kira shook his head adamantly. "There is no way to bring back the dead. Don't ever try."
"Why? What happens?" Byakuya asked, undeterred.
"A person can't exist without a soul. After death the soul departs to the river… If I was to bring someone back, I would have a body and no soul. Technically speaking, I would have to put a new soul inside. That leaves two options, my own soul or another human's soul… Either way, it's not the same person…"
"Don't try to bring the dead back to life." Ichigo said. "I learned that the hard way."
"I'm not trying to bring anyone back." Byakuya replied. "I was curious to see if it held any answers to my own curse."
"Ah," Kira said with a nod. "I understand now. Vampires… vampires are something else entirely. It has nothing to do with us, I'm afraid. So I can't help you."
"Why am I standing up?" Ichigo cried, jumping onto the nearest bed. He rolled over, crushing the pillow in his arms. "Oh God. This is nice."
"I'm not as tired as everyone else," Byakuya said, standing quickly. "I'll catch dinner." Byakuya looked to Jushiro and Orihime purposefully. "But I didn't cook before I died and I certainly don't cook now."
"I'll take care of it." Shunsui said, patting Jushiro on the knee. "Ukitake-san is better, but I can cook too."
"Do you want company?" Renji asked, attempting to stand. He was too exhausted. His body wouldn't even budge.
"You're fatigued. Stay here and rest." Byakuya replied.
"I'll come." Renji offered. "I'm not that tired."
"Go to sleep." Byakuya ordered, pressing his hand in the center of Renji's chest. He knocked the redhead backward onto the bed. And the instant Renji's head touched the pillow he was asleep.
"That's a cute trick." Kira murmured.
"It works on humans and animals." Byakuya said quietly. "It only works on the shifters if they're weakened."
"You're a scary guy." Kira said, exhaling a large cloud of smoke.
"What does that mean, coming from you?" Byakuya questioned, his steely grey eyes meeting Kira's.
"I suppose," Kira drawled. "That it's a compliment."
"Right here." Kira said, stabbing a thin finger onto the map. "This is where we're headed."
"A Master lives there?" Shunsui asked, exchanging looks with Jushiro.
"Yes." Kira confirmed, looking around the table at the others. "This is our first stop. If we can't beat him, we can't beat any of them."
"He's weak?" Renji asked, staring fixedly at the map.
"Not at all." Kira shook his head slowly. "He's probably comparable to me in strength, but that's not the issue."
"What's the issue?" Ichigo asked from his seat on the bed.
"Dark matter is, say, like a drug." Kira began to explain. "I can consume dark matter on a regular basis and not get 'sick' because I don't overindulge. Some Masters, the ones you are most familiar with, are addicted. They consume dark matter like air…"
"You said dark matter is your food source." Byakuya said, nodding his head in understanding. "So in essence, it's like blood for a vampire. The hungry vampires will never be as strong as those who drink everyday…"
"Exactly." Kira drawled. "It won't be hard to get more dark matter, but it will be time consuming."
"How much time do you need?" Shunsui asked.
"A week." Kira replied with a shrug. "But I need to be somewhere populated. This place is no good."
"I have a question." Byakuya interrupted, crossing his legs at the knee.
"Yes?"
"In my understanding," Byakuya began slowly. "A Master has one night a month to have corporeal form. The collection of souls determines how much longer after that, correct?"
"Correct." Kira said. "But souls don't matter, it's dark matter we need."
"Dark matter." Byakuya repeated, memorizing the correction. "So how are you here? Have you collected so much dark matter that you are able to maintain yourself?"
"This is a complicated question." Kira drawled, his blue eyes flashing. "And it's rather personal information that I'm not sure I'm comfortable divulging."
"My apologies." Byakuya murmured, his lips pursing with disappointment.
"We're a team." Shunsui interjected. "We all trust one another here. The end."
"Fine, fine," Kira breathed out. "But it's a long story."
"We're listening." Shunsui replied.
"Okay, long, long ago, in a far off place," Kira began, a smirk twisting his handsome face. "There once was a race of monsters with no fathers, mothers or sisters. These young monsters were neither human nor animal and would change their appearance with the waning of the moon. The monsters were weak and vulnerable. Humans hated them, they chased them out, they hurled stones and wielded fire. It was dangerous and lonely to be such a monster…"
"Three of the monsters stood out from the rest. They were stronger, smarter and cleverer." Kira laughed suddenly. "Eventually the monsters grew. They changed from children into young men. Their powers grew too. And suddenly many of the monsters were unhappy with how the three monsters led."
"The monsters broke into three groups." Kira continued. "Those with, those against, and those who remained neutral." Kira frowned deeply. "There was a war amongst this race of monsters. It wasn't just our friends who fought against us, it was our family…" Kira shook his head in disappointment. "In the end, the strongest three were left standing. Their only opposition was Kyoka Su-, I mean Aizen."
"Aizen was incredibly strong. He had consumed so much dark matter that he was nearly unstoppable. This war wasn't just about us. The entire world hung in the balance…" Kira chuckled humorlessly to himself. "To defeat him, the strongest sacrificed the other two. And in the end, the only way to defeat Aizen was to tear him apart…"
"I think I've said too much," Kira drawled, looking toward Shunsui with a frown. "But to answer your question, every Master who opposed the strongest three was torn apart, limb from limb, into 666 pieces. The pieces were scattered all across the world. The soul was trapped in a separate place, a prison called Carcer. And every Master who has ever walked this Earth is trying to put themselves back together again."
"I can walk around freely because I have already collected all of my pieces." Kira said with click of his tongue. "I'm complete."
"You were on Aizen's side?" Renji asked.
"No," Kira shook his head. "God, no."
"Then why was your body scattered?" Shunsui asked.
"At the end," Kira said slowly. "There was no control. There was no way to target certain bodies and not others. It was an all-out massacre."
"That's horrible." Jushiro breathed out.
"It's our life." Kira said with a shrug.
"Who are the strongest three?" Shunsui asked, looking at the map with interest. "Do you know where they are?"
"Ha-ha." Kira scoffed, shaking his head in absolute refusal. "You're insane."
"You're afraid of them?" Shunsui asked, his eyes burning into Kira's.
"Yes." Kira said unabashedly. "I am."
"How did you get your body back?" Byakuya asked.
"By killing a lot of people." Kira responded. "Lots and lots of people."
The group was silent for a few excruciating seconds. "But I've gotten past that stage in my life. I'm not nearly as angry as I used to be." Kira muttered. "And I swore a long time ago that I wasn't going to be who they thought I was."
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.
"The world." Kira said simply. "The world called me a monster. The world feared me, hated me, wanted me dead… I don't have to be that person. I made some mistakes, sure, but I'm sorry for them."
"Even as shifters you've killed." Kira pointed out. "Even as men you've killed. There is no difference between us, we all make mistakes."
"Are there any others like you?" Shunsui asked. "Masters that have their bodies, I mean?"
"One other, maybe two. No, no, just one." Kira answered. "But you'll never find him." Kira smiled mischievously. "He has given up on both monsters and humanity and lives as a hermit in the mountains."
"Which mountains?" Shunsui pressed.
"All the mountains." Kira replied enigmatically. "But it doesn't concern you. He's not a danger to any of you."
"Starrk. Starrk, wake up."
Coyote groaned, hugging the blankets tightly. He shook his head, smacking his slobbery lips together sleepily. "Huh?"
"Get up." Ginjo snapped, clicking his tongue impatiently.
"Who are you?" Coyote asked, eyeing Ginjo disparagingly. "You look familiar but I just can't place your fucking ugly face."
"Don't be ridiculous," Ginjo hissed. "We look alike."
"Don't be so mean." Coyote groaned, covering his head with the blankets. "I'm going back to bed until you can speak to me properly…"
"Vicomte Starrk!" Ginjo growled. "The Master requests your presence…"
"Ah, yes, thank you, peasant." Coyote teased, sitting up and sliding off the bed. "That will be all."
"You're gonna die young." Ginjo sighed, shaking his head.
"Doubt it." Coyote said, walking backward toward the door. "I'll live to at least 117."
"A tortoise could live longer." Ginjo retorted.
"Well, I'm a man." Coyote argued. "And I have no desire to be a tortoise or a vampire for that matter…"
"Hurry." Ginjo muttered. "I took my time to wake you up. He's not going to be pleased it took you so long."
"Who are you?" Coyote groaned. "You're just such an ass. Why am I stuck with a pig swiver like you?"
"Tick tock. Tick tock…" Ginjo taunted.
Coyote ran down the narrow stairs quickly, his broad shoulders scraping the walls. He hurried to the end of the hall and knocked on the door. He took a deep breath, smoothing down his hair and his clothes. "Come in."
"Master," Coyote said, stepping into the humid room.
"Coyote, sit." Aizen ordered quietly, gesturing to his lap. Coyote crossed the floor, his eyes diverted away from the bed. He sat across Aizen's thighs, adjusting awkwardly. Aizen sighed, placing his head against Coyote's back. Coyote was stunned, his mind and body nearly paralyzed by the shock of such an innocent gesture. "Don't move," Aizen ordered, his grip tightening around Coyote.
"Yes, Master." Coyote breathed out. Aizen's warmth enveloped him and the humidity in the room seemed to intensify. They sat in silence for only a moment longer before Aizen revived.
"You need to be here." Aizen said simply.
"Yes, Master." Coyote replied obediently.
"Do you know what I'm doing?" Aizen asked, placing his hand on Coyote's cheek. He pushed against Coyote's face, directing his view toward the bed. "Look and then tell me."
"I," Coyote swallowed thickly. He tried not to look at the bed, but he still caught glimpses of her small frame.
"Look." Aizen ordered.
Coyote gave in, looking toward the bed and at the petite vampire sleeping within in. Coyote exhaled shakily, for some reason his attention completely focused on the small but numerous cuts on Rukia's hands. "I don't know what you're doing."
"I have a plan." Aizen whispered, his lips curving against Coyote's skin. "Everything I do has a purpose."
"You should just kill her." Coyote muttered. "There's no purpose to doing this to her."
"You're wrong." Aizen said, clicking his tongue. "No matter how many times I have you, your body will always be barren…"
"Of course!" Coyote exclaimed, shaking. "What the fuck do you think will happen? I'm male!"
"And all my shifters have been male…" Aizen continued, unperturbed by Coyote's outburst. "And all the Masters are male…" Aizen licked his lips slowly. "Something so simple and basic is withheld from us."
"Why am I here?" Coyote asked.
"You need constant supervision." Aizen replied.
"Tsukishima and Ginjo don't let me do anything." Coyote argued. "I'm pretty well supervised."
"But you don't like them." Aizen murmured, kissing the back of Coyote's neck.
"And if I said that I didn't like you either…?" Coyote mused.
"I'd make you regret it." Aizen replied with a wicked smile. "Coyote?"
"Yes, Master." Coyote mumbled.
"Take her and bathe her." Aizen instructed. "And perhaps find some perfume. The stench of her death makes me sick to my stomach… Vampires are truly disgusting."
"Why'd you attack that Master?" Coyote asked, surveying Rukia's unconscious body. "Why did you bring those vampires along?"
"I'm feeling generous today," Aizen said. "So I'll answer one of your questions. I want to see what Wabisuke does next."
"You're not friends with the other Masters?" Coyote questioned.
Aizen bit down on Coyote's neck, leaving a bloodied imprint. "Of course not."