Chapter Twenty Four: Choking Darkness
The sky was already beginning to lighten over Inner Seireitei as Masaya cloaked himself in darkness, scuttling between patches of shrinking shadow as he hastened away from the Seventh Division barracks and the unfortunate subject of his baiting. Tenichi's reaction had both amused and disgusted him, and again he found himself wondering why Keitarou had chosen to waste time and energy having the older Kotetsu brother brought to Rukongai in the first place.
I shouldn't question Keitarou-sama, but sometimes I wonder what this fascination is he has with those who share his blood.
The spy grimaced, pulling himself up into the branches of a sturdy elm tree and using the mottled shade of its branches to conceal himself, slipping into shunpo and speeding more quickly through the spiritual streams of energy towards the main gate. Even in his days as an Onmitsukidou, he reflected, they had scarcely ever noticed his entrances or exits, but these days, with his skills so honed and his focus so unwavering, he could slip in and out of the most secure region of Seireitei without even leaving a spiritual trace. Yes, Keitarou had certainly delivered on his promise to make him a new person, and, as he rippled past the unsuspecting guard on duty, he allowed himself a smirk of derisive triumph.
Had he ever been so stupid as to care about this place? Perhaps he had, but if so, he did not remember. His recollections of Seireitei were patchy and grey, covered beneath layers of mental dust at the back of his thoughts and he preferred it that way. To have ties and concerns like the Kotetsu boy was to have weaknesses, and without them he was unshackled and free to serve Keitarou's cause.
He spread his hands beneath his cloak, reaching out his senses for the nearest Gotei gate through which he could conceal his tracks and disappear from the heart of the shinigami's territory. He would go to Haruna, he decided absently. He had no intention of returning to Rukongai so long as Katsura and his unwanted follower had headed back there, for he had no wish to provoke Koku into carrying out his threat, but nor could he risk lingering too long in dangerous Gotei territory. No, Haruna was the best place for him to lurk, for Minami was still tied enough to him to protect him, even if he gave her nothing in return. She had been a useful pawn in Keitarou's schemes and, when he had discussed it with the scientist, Keitarou himself had agreed that keeping Minami on side would prove beneficial. Masaya did not really understand why his former wife was so tied to the past, locked onto his former name and the person he had long since discarded, but he had gleaned enough from her behaviour to realise that her love for him meant she would not betray him, even if it meant her life. That kind of loyalty was hard to find in a place as treacherous as Seireitei, and so, when it came to finding a place to lie low, Haruna was the first place that sprang into his thoughts.
The land he currently stood on belonged to the Fourth Division, but although his emotional recollections had been dulled and splintered by his near-death experience, Masaya's geography of Seireitei and the gates that linked the regions together was still as ruthlessly clear as it had ever been. Here, he knew, the Districts came together like spokes of a wheel feeding into the nucleus that was Inner Seireitei and, as a consequence, it was the one area where transferance between land holdings was both quick and simplistic. Some two ri beyond the borders of Inner Seireitei were a series of linked Senkaimonset up fifteen years before by the Urahara to connect these frequently patrolled stretches of land and facilitate ease of shinigami movement between the Gotei's base and the peasant settlements that covered the hills beyond. Masaya remembered with complete clarity where each gate was and how each could be opened without leaving a trace and so, without a moment of hesitation he drew the nearest gate open, stepping into it and focusing his energy on emerging near the village which he had once called his home.
It was not quite fully sunrise, and the market and village was quiet, with only the odd individual moving about, going to the well to collect water, or preparing their wares for the day ahead. Masaya pulled his cloak more tightly around his thin frame to conceal his features from anyone who might pay him any attention, walking along the dusty main street towards the cluster of houses that were the most familiar. Haruna was a wealthy town in comparison to some other District settlements, with proper dwellings built of stone and trees from the nearby forest and Minami still lived in the house that had once belonged to Masaya and his mother, many years ago. Masaya did not really remember those days clearly, nor did he have more than a couple of fleeting recollections of his mother's face, but the shape of the home itself he remembered vividly, including each and every escape hole that he had ever had cause to use when operating as a petty thief. That had been before he had made the ultimate mistake in joining the Onmitsukidou, he ruminated absently - but those days were long gone and there was no changing them now, even if he had cared to do so.
"What are you doing here?" As he approached the house, someone yanked on his arm, pulling him into the cracks between buildings and hissing in his ear. Masaya's body tensed, ready for combat, but as he wheeled to face his opponent, he realised it was Minami herself, dressed for market and with an indignant, anxious look on her handsome features. "I thought I told you that coming around here so often was dangerous, and now you're walking openly down the main street when anyone might see you?"
"Nobody pays me any attention," Masaya said dismissively, detaching his arm from her grip and facing her impassively. "I came to see you. I need somewhere to stay for a little while, and here seemed the most logical."
"Oh, so now you use me as board and lodgings?" Minami was indignant. "Never mind what damage it might do to me or my reputation if people thought I had a strange man suddenly staying here? You're the one who keeps telling me that my husband is dead and I have to manage without him - what do you suppose my neighbours would say if they thought I'd taken a lover?"
"You needn't concern yourself with that," Masaya's lip curled derisively over sharp, white teeth. "I have no interest in creating village scandal."
"No interest..." Minami's brow creased briefly, as though his words had somehow hurt her, then she seemed to pull herself out of it, grasping him by the wrists. "Listen. It would be bad enough if folk saw you and thought I'd lost my moral values, but even worse if they saw you and recognised you. You say you look different, and yes, you do, but not so much that I don't recognise you. True, I'm your wife, and that's how it should be but...if people saw you too much in my company, they might put the pieces together and realise. If that happened..."
"You worry too much about ties to the past," Masaya said levelly. "Those are all severed. Suzuki Naoto died. Why would anyone believe they saw him here?"
"You might have severed those ties, but not everyone is that cold or clinical," Minami snapped, a bitter edge to her tones. "You had friends here who grieved for you when you disappeared. People who supported me - people who still do. People who believed you'd died - what would those people think? I've told you that I'll do what your Keitarou-sama says, but if you keep coming back here..."
"Has someone been here?" Masaya asked sharply, and Minami shook her head impatiently.
"Of course not. What do you take me for?" she demanded. "The only folk that have been in these parts are traders, and they come and go every day. Nobody's asked any strange questions, nor have there been any shinigami patrols. I'd like to keep it that way, if you don't mind. If they knew that those stupid junior officers had been kept locked and bound in my cellar..."
"If nobody is asking questions, nobody will find answers, will they?" Masaya sank back against the wall with a grimace. "You worry about the wrong things. If you're loyal to Keitarou-sama, then protecting me should come automatically...or is it too much to expect a woman to understand that level of loyalty?"
"Shut up!" Anger flared in Minami's eyes, and she brought her hand sharply across his cheek, causing him to stumble in surprise. "You have no idea what loyalty is, Suzuki Naoto, damn you! What kind of foolish person clings on to the walking corpse of their husband, even when he no longer cares for her, just because seeing him occasionally makes her believe she has a reason to keep living? Do you know how much I still hope that, one day, I'll find the person I married inside that shapeshifting cadaver? You abandoned me, and you say I don't understand loyalty?"
She gazed at her hand, then sighed, rubbing her brow.
"If you said you loved me, I'd still take you back," she whispered, tears glittering on her lashes. "That's a woman's loyalty, Naoto. Maybe once you would've understood that...but now...I don't think you can."
"My loyalty is to Keitarou-sama," Masaya said quietly, touching his cheek briefly, then lowering his hand. "Yours should be too - any other kind of distraction is unnecessary and you should discard it. I have."
"I know," Minami's voice shook. "I know you have, damn you, but we're not all like you."
She folded her arms across her chest.
"Well? Why do you need to hide out here, anyway? Why not go back to Rukongai? I assume something's happened in Inner Seireitei, but you don't usually come here to me like this...and I'm not so stupid to believe for one moment it had anything to do with wanting to see me."
"A Vice Captain's gone missing from Inner Seireitei," Masaya said simply, and Minami's eyes became wide.
"Did you...?"
"No, of course not. Keitarou-sama said no more abductions, and I obey his orders," Masaya snorted, shaking his head. "No, it's nothing to do with me. He's a busybody who's prying into things he should not. But he'll be dealt with, and I'd sooner be away from the centre of chaos when that happens."
"I don't suppose I'll get any more, even if I ask for it," Minami rolled her eyes. "Fine, then I suppose, since my basement's free, I could lock you in it for a while. Nobody goes down there, not since I told my neighbours that it was infested with rats and better left alone."
She smiled bitterly.
"There are rats, as it happens, so if you get hungry, you'll be able to feed yourself," she added acidly. "I'm sure, given your current attitude towards the world, that you'd not have any qualms about slaying a few rats, and it would make you useful to me in one way, at the very least."
"I'm not afraid of rats," Masaya said disparagingly, and Minami nodded.
"Then you and they will be well matched," she returned neatly. "Come with me. There's an entrance hidden around the back of the house and less people will see you if you go in that way."
"Fine," Masaya nodded his head. "You could have begun with that, though, and wasted less time with your unnecessary emotional outbursts."
"I should slap you again," Minami said blackly, "but for now I'll just have to hope you get a few rat bites. I don't have time to fuss over you - I have to be at market soon enough, and if I'm not there, people will know something is up."
She took him by the hand, giving him a rough tug towards the rear passage that led to the back door of her home and Masaya did not resist, instead glancing around him to gauge the progress of the sun. It would be fully daylight before too long, he mused, but it should be possible to conceal himself fully in Minami's basement long before the streets became busy with visitors from the surrounding area. Yes, Haruna had been the best place to come to, given the number of strangers which flooded its streets on a daily basis. The flow of people was such that, when the time was right, he could melt away in the midst of a crowd of customers and nobody would ever be the wiser for his having been there.
As he stepped over the remains of the old boundary fence that had been knocked down in a recent storm, however, something faint flickered across Masaya's senses, causing him to pause. He frowned, turning in the direction of the sensation as he tried to work out what it was and where he had sensed it before.
"Naoto?" At his hesitation, Minami too paused, shooting him a quizzical look. "What is it - why are you hesitating? I thought I told you, I don't have time..."
"Shut up, you stupid woman," Masaya snapped, pushing her instinctively behind him as he extended his spiritual wits across the village space, unease growing with each and every passing moment. No, he had not imagined it. Though faint and clearly suppressed, he could make out the clear and distinct aura of a shinigami, and more, one of considerable rank. He muttered a curse, glancing at Minami, then taking a step away from her.
"Naoto?"
"Don't call me by that name," Masaya ordered, swiping her hands away as she reached once more for his wrist. "Get inside your house and stay there. Stay there, do you understand?"
"What do you...I have market to go to, and..."
"There are shinigami. You're too dull-witted to notice, but they're there and they're coming this way," Masaya cut across her, anger surging through his body, and at his words, Minami paled, her eyes widened as she followed the line of his gaze.
"Shinigami? Coming here? But why?"
"It may be a random patrol, but it may not," Masaya spoke in low tones. "Just do as I tell you, woman. If anyone comes asking you questions, you don't know anything about anything. Your husband died ten years ago and that's all - understand?"
"Are you just going to abandon me to deal with them?" Minami demanded, fear replaced by indignation in her eyes. "I knew you'd sunk, but not to that depth! You'll really sacrifice me and the people here in order to make a getaway? Your reaction tells me you don't think it's a random patrol, yet even so..."
"Shut up!" Masaya retorted. "I'm not staying here, not when it's dangerous. I'm leaving Haruna, and you should do as I tell you. Shinigami won't hurt innocent people - and you said there's been nobody here asking questions."
"No, nobody has," Minami shook her head quickly. "Nobody has, but...what if that's just because they didn't need to? What if they know about you...what if they know about me? What if..."
She trailed off, and Masaya turned to glance at her, taking in the pallor in her cheeks and the wide, apprehensive eyes that stared at him with a mixture of hope and dismay. She was trembling, he realised with a sudden jolt, her strong, defiant facade suddenly shattered by the thought of a shinigami invasion, and, despite himself, something stirred deep inside of his heart.
She's Keitarou-sama's ally, too. I should protect her for that reason. This village is our land. I should protect it, else Keitarou-sama will be angry.
He clenched his fists, rationalising the feeling until it settled and calmed into resolve inside of him.
That's right. Protecting allies of Keitarou-sama is my job, and Minami isn't one who usurps his favour or takes advantage of his benevolence. She acts as he tells her and no more. Keitarou-sama finds her useful, so he'd want me to protect her. That's my duty...so that's what I'll do.
"Go inside your house, and shut the door. Bar the windows, if need be," he said softly, and Minami let out a little gasp as she met his gaze, as though seeing something there that she had not seen for a long time. "If anyone comes here, tell them what I said. Your husband is dead. Cry, if you like - you're good at that, and it throws people off, when a woman cries over them. Do that, and don't worry about anything else. They won't linger here - they won't need to, I promise."
"What...are you going to do?" Minami asked shakily, and Masaya's gaze darkened.
"I'm going to do what Keitarou-sama would expect and protect those who are loyal to him," he said matter-of-factly. "It's a nusiance, but it can't be helped. This location is important to Keitarou-sama's plans, and so I can't let it fall into enemy hands."
"You're...going to protect me? Protect us?" Minami's eyes almost fell out of her head, and Masaya snorted, pushing away the hand she had hesitantly begun to reach out towards him.
"Don't mistake me, woman," he said curtly. "Suzuki Naoto might have been that kind of fool, but I act out of duty to Keitarou-sama, not to you or anyone else. Be grateful that he considers you useful - otherwise I'd simply leave you to die."
Minami's eyes glittered with tears, but Masaya did not hesitate to hear her response. Instead he slipped back into shunpo, heading towards the direction he had felt the encroaching reiatsu and inwardly cursing at having his day so summarily disrupted.
They're definitely heading to Haruna. Minami might have been mistaken - maybe there were spies here, and they covered their tracks better than she thought. That's what comes of trusting an amateur - but I won't let them reach the village. If they're looking for trouble, I'll have to give it to them myself.
He dropped out of shunpo, landing deftly on the branch of a nearby tree and scanning the land below him for any sign of the shinigami. There were two of them, he realised, both dressed in the identical black and white of a Gotei officer, swords hanging at their waists. One was a young man, scrawny and skinny, whilst the other was a young woman, slightly built. Masaya let out a sigh of relief as he realised that neither one of them looked particularly physically strong.
A coincidental patrol? Maybe it was. Either way...
Fumbling beneath his cloak for his own sleeping sword, Masaya prepared to launch himself from the branches, suppressing his reiryokudown to infinitessimal levels and blending and blurring his appearance in with the woodland so as to better camouflage his attack. As the shinigami paused to examine something on the ground, he took his opportunity, shooting down from the tree like a bullet from a gun and aiming the sharp end of his weapon directly for the young woman's jugular. As he did so, however, there was a sudden rush of air and spiritual energy and, with a resounding clang, his weapon met against another, stopping him in his tracks and causing him to step back.
He raised his gaze, horror and dismay glittering in his golden eyes as he met the grave hazel eyes of the Gotei's Thirteenth Captain, white haori flapping about his shoulders and long white hair tied in a tail at the nape of his neck. In the other man's right hand was the distinctive form of a gleaming katana, its sharp edge pressing against Masaya's own blade with just enough force to hold it at bay. For a moment he was frozen, and Juushirou pressed his lips together, running his gaze pensively over his sudden opponent.
"Well, well," he murmured, a look of troubled comprehension glittering on his features as he took in the spy's amber gaze. "Suzuki Naoto, I presume?"
For a moment, Sakaki allowed her full weight to crush the bones in the shinigami's wrist then, as his eyes began to cloud with pain she drew her foot back, lowering her sword to touch it pensively against his cheek. Far from the quick, deadly thrust that Souja had expected, now her victim was down, she had no desire to end the fun quickly. A shinigami infiltrating Rukongai was a rare event and, unlike the last one, this one she had no reason to hold back on.
The wound to his gut was serious, but it would not prove fatal. It had been enough to stun him, but, as she brought her weapon away from his skin, he struggled to pull himself into a more defensive position, his snapped wrist hanging uselessly from its socket as he pushed his elbow against the ground as a lever instead. His left hand was already reaching out for the discarded hilt of his sword, and despite her contempt for those who wore the shihakushou, Sakaki was grudgingly impressed by the resolution in her opponent's gaze. Although he had not made to kill her, he had not begged her for mercy, either, and for a moment she let him gather himself, waiting until he was within inches of grasping his zanpakutou's hilt before jerking out her right foot to kick him bodily in the throat and send him flying two or three metres back along the ground. He fell with a crunch and a groan, and Sakaki half wondered if the fall had shattered his other arm but, once again, there was the sound of scrabbling fingers against the dying grass and, panting for breath and dripping with blood, the shinigami pulled his body around to face her, resting his entire weight on his uninjured left hand whilst using the damaged right to protect his injured torso. His eyes fixed on her face, unblinking and cold with anger, but the colour of his skin was already becoming pale and Sakaki knew from past experience that he would be getting weaker from both the loss of blood and the shock of her attacks.
"I take what I said back, though," she said coquettishly, skipping nimbly around him and bending to pick up his finely crafted sword. "You aren't as weak as I thought you were. Most souls would be begging for their lives right about now - but you won't do that, will you?"
"Endou...don't...beg," Souja managed to spit the words out hoarsely, and Sakaki let out an approving chuckle at the flash of blind hatred that flared up in his eyes. "You...don't...understand...what...you...unleash...when...you...declare...yourself...our...enemy."
"What, exactly, are you going to do to me?" Sakaki squatted a short distance away from him, lifting her arm and tossing his zanpakutouacross the grass so that she was between him and retrieving it. "You have no sword and I know that with an injury like that you won't be able to use your demon magic."
She tapped her head with the index finger of her hand.
"I learned young that, if I can't use spells, I have to be able to stop anyone I fight using them," she said confidentially. "You can threaten me all you like, Endou-dono, but it won't make any difference. You're down to my level now. Humbled by a Rukongai resident who has no spirit power and no magic sword. Don't you feel ashamed of yourself? I'm sure your Clan would be ashamed of you."
Her eyes narrowed, and she squinted at him thoughtfully.
"I haven't met anyone from the Endou Clan before," she admitted. "It's kind of fun, to actually fight with one. I'd heard they were powerful and ruthless - you weren't really, but at least you don't die easily. I like that at least."
"Hadou...no...Yon...Byaku..rai!"
A sudden blast of white electricity zig-zagged across the clearing, narrowly missing Sakaki's leg and causing her to yelp, jumping to her feet with a cry of indignation.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be able to...!"
"Maybe...you didn't...hear me," Souja's eyes were like slits now, the normally pale, gentle gaze sparking with cold fire as he reached his shaking left hand out for a nearby shard of broken tree wood, using it to pull himself painfully and slowly to his feet. "I'm...the Vice Captain...of the Seventh...Division."
"I don't care if you're the King of Soul Society, you're not going to ruin my fun by escaping," Sakaki pouted, tightening her grasp around her katana and preparing to launch herself at him once again. "Just because you got to your feet, it doesn't mean I'm going to let you get away. I'm not an idiot and I'm not going to let a loose end like you slip out and bring trouble down on the people here."
"Stop me," Souja's gaze was already roving across the grass behind her for the glint of his zanpakutou, and Sakaki let out a growl of annoyance, driving forward with her blade angled directly at his injured stomach. Souja's movements were slow and shaky, but he managed to flare a feeble bakudoushield to deflect the weapon away from his vital organs, causing it to glance through his useless right arm instead. Fresh blood spurted from the wound and he let out an involuntary yelp of pain, but he did not fall back, and Sakaki cursed, realising that he truly meant to keep fighting her until he literally dropped dead from loss of blood or exhaustion.
Mother always said that the Endou were hard to kill but professionals at killing. He didn't look like a killer before but now, covered in blood and with that look in his eye, maybe I see it. Perhaps it's there, even in this one - the predator looking for his prey. Probably that means my game is over - I ought to finish him off quickly, and save decorating his body till after he's dispatched.
As Souja made a desperate lunge past her, aiming to retrieve his sword with his one remaining good hand, Sakaki took her moment, barging her smaller body into his taller one and knocking him off balance. He stumbled, flailing his damaged arm helplessly to try and stabilise himself, but Sakaki was not about to let her opening pass and she drove him mercilessly to the ground, slashing her weapon towards his upper body without caring particularly where she cut. Her first swing ripped through the black hakamashita, but the second and third drew blood and Souja yelled out, bringing his left hand up instinctively to push her weapon away. His fingers slid against the sharp edge of the blade, smearing blood across it, but Sakaki was beyond reasoning with now, and she merely brought her weapon back only to attack again, driving the tip this time towards Souja's throat. The Vice Captain saw the attack coming, mustering the last of his strength to fire an even more feeble Bakudouto deflect the sharp blade from slicing through his jugular, but Sakaki responded with a well-aimed kick to the ribcage, sending Souja once more sliding across grass which had been made slick by his spilled blood.
"Time to finish it off, Endou-dono," Sakaki's words had lost all humour, and she gripped the hilt of her weapon tightly in both hands, preparing to swing the blade one final time across his neck to sever his head from his body. Souja flinched, seeing the attack coming, but Sakaki knew he had exhausted his strength on trying to defend against her, and this time, he would not be making any kind of escape.
This time, he was hers for the taking.
This time...
"What have you done?"
The sound of Koku's voice, sharp and uncharacteristically cold cut through the morning air, and Sakaki swung around,blood still dripping from her katana as she faced her Rukongai rival. Defiance glittered in her blue eyes, and she moved to stand in front of the fallen body of her victim, as if claiming him as hers.
"This is nothing to do with you," she hissed, her eyes narrowing to slits. "This is my business. My job. Go back to your books, Koku. You're not wanted here. This is nothing to do with you."
"I said, what have you done?" Koku's brown eyes glimmered with something that Sakaki had never seen there before, and despite herself, she felt a chill run down her spine. Her fingers tightened on the hilt of the sword, and she thrust it out, spraying blood across the ground as she stretched the red-stained point between them, using it to keep her challenger at a safe distance.
"I'm killing a shinigami," she snapped back. "That's my job. I protect this place, and he came here when he shouldn't."
She cast the still Souja a cursive glance, as if to make sure he wasn't using the interlude to wriggle away, but he had made no attempt to move, and she realised that he had either lost consciousness or expired.
"He asked about Father," she added. "When he said that, do you think I was going to let him go?"
"You're a damn idiot, just like always," Koku retorted coldly. "Don't you think that it will bring trouble raining down on our heads if you kill one of the Gotei's senior officers? Do you know who that man is, Sakaki? Do you have any comprehension whatsoever of who you've just blooded with that godforsaken shard of metal?"
"Just because my sword doesn't have a soul, it doesn't mean it can't slit your throat, so don't insult it," Sakaki exclaimed petulantly. "Besides, why should I care who he is? A dead enemy is a dead enemy. Dead enemies don't talk. What does it matter what his name is? He won't be using it any more - and if you let me finish my job, there'll be nothing recogniseable left of him anyway, even if someone should decide to come looking for him."
"He's Endou Souja, you moron," Koku's tones were impatient, but Sakaki felt certain she could hear a certain note of fear or urgency underpinning them, something she had never heard in Koku's voice before. "Endou Souja, heir to the Endou Clan and son of Endou Hirata! Surely you can't be dense enough not to know who he is, not when Eiraki-san is..."
"He did say something about an aunt," Sakaki acknowledged, kicking absently at the black-fabric covered legs that sprawled at her feet, but there was no response, not even the faintest murmur of pain. "I told you, though, I don't care what the shinigami think or what they do. I kill shinigami. If they come here, I'll kill them, too. I'll kill as many as they send, so you needn't look so frightened. Just because you were a coward and let him escape, you shouldn't expect the same from me."
She offered him a mocking smirk.
"I won't even tell Father that you met him before he came here, but you let him go," she taunted. "I fixed your mess for you, and I won't even tell on you. You would've let him go back to Seireitei with all kinds of dangerous information...he even thought you were my brother, and he recognised me just by looking at me, that I was mother's child, and he knew I'd been in the Spiritless Zone, too. He was far too dangerous to let go, whoever he might've been. Besides, it's pointless to worry about now."
She kicked the still leg once more, but there was no reaction, and she snorted.
"He's already beyond anyone's help. If you want to make yourself useful, you can bury the corpse - I've lost interest in it now you've come along and ruined my fun. You can have it, if you like - I don't want it any more."
Koku's gaze flitted to the still form on the ground, and Sakaki saw his eyes darken until they glittered an ominous black.
"I see," he murmured, his words trembling with something that wasn't quite anger, but something else, a pent up emotion so deep and intangible that it made Sakaki ill at ease. All of a sudden, the entire clearing seemed to be filled with a choking, whispering energy, and the younger girl stumbled, almost tripping over her fallen victim in her hurry to put further space between her and her companion. All around Koku's body, the air seemed to distort and become suddenly more vivid, as though the gathered clouds of polluted spiritual energy had been forced apart, driven back by whatever strange energy had wrapped itself around Koku's aura. She took two or three steps back but, although Koku made no attempt to follow her, he turned his gaze suddenly on her and for the briefest instant Sakaki felt as though something savage was clawing at her throat, trying to drown her in an invisible sea of spiritual pressure.
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, no longer defiant, as fear gripped hold of her heart. "What are you...why...how...stop it! Stop it, Koku! Stop it and leave me alone!"
"You did something you should not have done," Koku's voice sounded foreign to Sakaki's ears, mired in the whispers and flashes of colour that fought to dominate her senses. Though she knew he could not use shunpo, she did not see him move, yet in a moment he was beside her and, before she could react, he had grasped her by the rough collar of her hakamashita, pulling her towards him so that her face was less than an inch from his. His gaze bored into hers, seeming to see right through her to the soul beneath, and try as she might, she could not look away, although meeting the intensity of that stare made her dizzy and afraid.
"I should kill you now, but it's not your time," he whispered, and Sakaki gathered her courage, swinging her sword around towards him. There was the clash of metal on metal, the vibration running through Sakaki's whole frame, and her eyes widened in consternation as she realised that from beneath the folds of his robe Koku had produced a weapon of his own.
In all the years she had known him, never once had she seen Koku wield a sword. In fact, as she stared in dull disbelief at the ugly greyish weapon clasped between his dusty, pale fingers, she could distinctly remember him telling Keitarou that he did not want to learn to fight with blades, because he didn't want to cause anyone to get hurt. She had mocked him for so many years for what she had interpreted as weak-willed cowardice, yet then, as their swords had met, she had felt the intent behind her companion's swing and it had unnerved her.
"Wh...where did you get that?" she demanded, as Koku pushed her blooded weapon away as though it were nothing more than a flower petal that had fluttered into his line of vision. "You don't use a sword! You said..."
"It wasn't time, then," Koku said softly. "It's not time now, but you do things that make me angry, and this time, it's not something I can ignore."
He gestured to the crumpled form of her victim on the ground with the sharp end of his weapon, which glinted strangely in the pale Rukongai light, giving it an eerie appearance that once more chilled Sakaki to the core of her being.
"You should not have killed him," he said softly. "It was badly done, and you will pay for it."
"Are you going to kill me, then?" From somewhere Sakaki found bravado, though inwardly she was trembling like a leaf at this sudden, unexpectedly aggressive onslaught. "Take your stupid, ugly weapon and kill me because you've suddenly developed an attachment to the Endou Clan and you're scared that I spilled a little bit of their blood? My blood is Endou, too, and Endou kill each other. You're such a coward, Koku...especially when I did you a favour, silencing him on your behalf."
"You really are an idiot, sometimes," Koku said bleakly, and the frustration and despair in his tones pierced through Sakaki's body, taking root in her thoughts as though it were her own. "I shouldkill you here and now, and put an end to it. That would be the sensible thing - but if I do that, people would cry, and I'm not you."
His eyes narrowed, the dark orbs sparking a strange, uncharacteristic fire from beneath hooded lids, and he reached out his free hand, plucking the blooded weapon from her grip blade-first as though it were nothing more dangerous than a stick she had picked up from the ground. He tossed it aside, pushing his own sword towards her throat until it scratched lightly against her skin. Frozen by the look in his eyes, Sakaki was unable to do more than drag air into frightened lungs, and for a moment, she felt sure he was going to swing the weapon through her jugular, so strong was the killer instinct that pulsed from the normally quiet boy's body. There was a pause that seemed to last forever, then, with a sigh, Koku pulled the sword back.
"It's not your time yet," he repeated, and Sakaki was sure she could hear a mingling of regret and resignation in his tones. "I won't kill until there's no other option but to. Get out of here, and don't come back. Leave the shinigami with me - and pray it's not too late to resolve this, else it won't be me you need to fear."
"Koku..."
"I said go," Koku's words ripped through her like a sudden clap of thunder, the whole clearing seeming to spark suddenly with dangerous energy that even her dead spirit senses could not help but pick up and she swallowed hard, cowed despite her usual defiance. Pausing only to grab up her sword from the ground, she spat at him, then scuttled into the woods as fast as she could manage. Only when she was sure she was out of sight did she stop, scaling the trunk of the nearest tree that would bear her weight, and sinking down into the branches, struggling to catch her breath. She was physically trembling, she realised, dismay filling her heart. Her hands were shaking so hard that she could not even sheath her sword, and, at length she gave up, shoving it down on the branch beside her and burying her head in her arms as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Tears that were usually so foreign to her glittered on her lashes and she dashed them away, but more came, mortifying her even further as she realised they too were signs of fear and confusion.
Koku...with a sword. Koku who doesn't use weapons, and who doesn't fight people, coming at me as though he meant to kill me, and...and turning the whole world into...something strange.
Sakaki swallowed hard, processing this with difficulty.
I've never seen him like that before. Is that why Father took him in? Did he know Koku had spirit power? I can't sense reiatsu, so I wouldn't have realised till he came at me like that, but...but whatever he did, it wasn't normal. Those voices..the whispers, the colour...like he was forcing himself into me, making me see...making me feel...what?
She screwed up her eyes, trying to make the memories disappear, but they sank deeper into her consciousness, replaying over and over again. The blurry, half-words that had slipped teasingly into her ears began to form into proper sounds and syllables, and she covered her ears with her hands, as if by doing so she could force them back.
I have to tell Father. I have to tell him...tell him everything. I have to tell him...that Koku threatened to kill me. He took that sword, and he put it to my throat...when all I was doing was protecting my family and covering his back too! It was a shinigami, and I have carte blanche to kill those, if they come here. That one wasn't a Kotetsu, so he was fair game. So what if he was an Endou? Mother wouldn't care if I killed her kin, so why should someone like him? I didn't do anything wrong. It was Koku. Koku was the one who was out of line and if he's betraying us, I ought to go slit his throat. But...I don't...want to go back there. I don't want to fight him...because...
She swallowed hard, gazing down at her blood-spattered fingers.
I don't think that I can.
The admission pained her, but she knew it was true. In that instant, the bookish, unassuming Rukongai citizen that she had all but dismissed had flown at her with a steel resolve she had not known he possessed and, try as she might to tell herself she was not afraid, she knew that she was.
I need to tell Father, before he hurts someone. Now, before it's too late - before Koku can get there and sweet-talk his way around it. I have to warn them...I have to warn everyone what he's really like. I have to go...now.
She had gone.
Koku took a deep breath, trying to calm the rising waves of angry reiatsu that threatened to engulf his whole body in their tempest. For a moment, all he could see was white hot energy, sounds and images blurring together and making no impression on his senses, but then a low moan came from the figure on the ground, and something in the weak sound cut through his delerium, giving him an anchor back to the present.
He's still alive.
Tossing the sword aside as though it was no more than a trinket he had picked up by accident, Koku hurried down at the shinigami's side, sliding an awkward hand beneath the man's head and supporting it as a cough racked through the broken body. There was a fair amount of blood, he realised, bile rising in his throat at the sweet stench that covered the body, and the front of the stranger's black shihakushouhad been all but shredded, indicating a frenzied attack that had not abated until he had come onto the scene.
"You..." the man wetted his lips, managing to croak a single word, and Koku shook his head.
"Don't speak. Don't say anything. You'll only hurt yourself more," he said, panic rising in his heart as he realised how badly the man was cut apart. "I told you this was a bad place to come. You shouldn't have come here. You should have gone back."
The man grimaced, coughing again, then flailing out a weak arm to support his body a little, pulling himself up just enough that he could see Koku's features clearly.
"I didn't listen," he murmured. "You...tried to warn..."
"I didn't suppose you would, but I had to try anyway," Koku said regretfully.
"She...didn't...expect you...to fight her...did she?"
"You were listening to that?" Koku bit his lip, and Souja offered him a feeble smile.
"Playing...dead...is sometimes...advantageous," he admitted, "if your physical position...is a weak one."
"Mm," Koku could not dispute the shinigami's words, and Souja cocked his head slightly to get a better look at his would-be rescuer.
"She...her name...was Sakaki...and you...Koku?"
"That's neither here nor there, not right now," Koku responded briskly. "There are far more pressing things than my name for you to bother about. She's messed you up pretty badly - even for her, this is extreme. I'm sorry. I got here as quickly as I could, but I can't use shunpo like you can."
"But...you...stopped her," Souja managed, and Koku snorted.
"Not in time. Not quickly enough, and nobody here will help to fix you," he muttered, glancing around him for any sign of inspiration, but there was none.
"Why...did you? Isn't...she...your...ally?"
"My ally?" Koku pulled a graphic face. "She's a damn nusiance, and that's all. I told you, I don't like death. She does, so we don't get along. Besides, I already told you, forget about me and forget about her for now."
"But..."
"You need your strength, since knowing all about me won't do you any good if you die right after I tell you," Koku said succinctly, pushing back the shinigami's shihakushouand examining the bloody mess with growing dismay. "I can't heal you. I don't know any spells that would, and there aren't any healers here. You know that, though, right? You knew when you came here that you were entering No-Man's land."
"You...are here," Souja objected, clearly ignoring the instruction not to talk. "You...and that girl...she...the one who...killed...in the Spiritless Zone...yes?"
"I've never left this part of Rukongai," Koku avoided the question, pulling the rough sash from his waist and using it to create a rough, clumsy torniquet around the worst of Souja's bleeding wounds. "I can't answer questions about what happens in other places, so don't ask me to. I'm trying to help you - you could repay me by helping me, too."
"Helping...you?"
"You shinigami have a way to get back to Seireitei," Koku said categorically. "I know you do - you must have had one to come here. You did, right? A...a Senkaimon, or something like that?"
"Yes, but...I didn't...wasn't my..."
"Can you open it up again?" Koku eyed his companion urgently. "There, they can help you. Heal you. Fix your wounds. You might live. I can't do it here, but there..."
"I...I can't reach...my sword." Souja coughed again, blood dribbling down the side of his mouth. "Without it...I can't...it needs...my sword...and...reiryoku. Even then...its not...Gotei gate. Maybe...it won't...open...but I need...my sword...to try."
"Your sword?" Koku's gaze strayed to the discarded weapon that lay across the grass, then back to the crumpled form that lay huddled against him. "You need a sword to open something like that?"
"You really...haven't...ever left here, have you?" Souja's eyes became pensive for a moment, before pain creased his brow once more. "Funny. You...don't seem...like you come...from Rukongai. Your reiatsu...felt..."
"I guess people aren't always what they seem," Koku said brusquely, not letting his wounded companion complete his sentence. "Anyhow, your sword. If I get it, do you promise not to try and hurt me with it?"
"You're...helping me," Souja snorted. "If I...killed you...how...would I get back?"
He flapped the fingers of his right hand uselessly, and Koku realised the limb had been shattered at the wrist, the distinctive dust-marks of a footprint across the black shihakushou telling him exactly how it had come to be broken. He muttered a string of curses, fumbling on the ground for Souja's sealed zanpakutou, the glittering blade somehow dulled in the hazy light of the Rukon Valley. Gently, he slid the hilt into Souja's damaged right hand, curling the fingers around it and ignoring his companion's visible flinch of pain as he disturbed the fractured bones.
"Now, can you?" he asked anxiously, and Souja gasped, drawing a pained gulp of air into his lungs. He closed his eyes, apparently bracing himself, then he nodded.
"Help...me...up," he instructed, moving his shaking left hand to cover his right, tightening his grip on the weapon. "I...need...to stand...to...open...the gate...properly."
"Like this? You'll drop dead before you do," Koku objected, but nonetheless he did as he was bidden. Souja let out a low, pained chuckle, shooting his companion a resigned look.
"I...know...my injuries...are bad ones," he said matter-of-factly. "I...thought I was...dead...till you appeared. I don't...know who you really are...but..that girl...knew you. She'll...come back. With others. If...you want to...help me, I..will help you. You...take me back...where I belong. In...return...I promise you...shelter. They...will protect you...in return...for you...protecting...m...me."
He coughed violently again, doubling up and it was all Koku could do to keep the man on his feet.
"You should worry about yourself first, and let me alone," he said bluntly. "You need a healer, first and foremost, and anything else can..."
"No," Souja shook his head decisively, the blade of his weapon glimmering unevenly with faint light as he focused his spiritual strength one last time. "Most...important is...reporting to my...Captain. Then...they can stop this. People...like her...for everyone...need to...stop. Endou...responsibility...more important than...patching my...wounds."
"Souja-dono..."
"She...was my...cousin," Souja said grimly, pain creasing his brow, and he drew a heavy, laboured breath into his lungs. "My aunt...my family must...redress...I must...warn them. Must...go back...more important than...my life...everyone...in...Seireitei."
"I see," Koku's eyes became grave, and he let out a sigh. "Even if I take you back, you won't let it rest, will you? Whatever happens to you, I won't convince you to let this place alone, will I?"
"Old...wounds...need...reparation. If not...new...wounds...form," Souja gasped out. "But...I promise...you will...be safe. I promise...I give...my word..."
"I told you already, worry more about yourself right now," As the shinigami stumbled, Koku let out an exclamation, hurrying to steady his wobbling form. "If you're going to open it, open it, before you fall down and can't get up. I don't know how these Gate things work, and even if I'm not all that keen on the idea of Seireitei, I don't want to have you drop dead at my feet."
Souja nodded grimly, and, through gasps of breath, he lifted the hilt of his weapon, thrusting it forward with resolve into the air beyond.
Immediately, the sky itself split apart, revealing a gaping tunnel of darkness beyond, and, as Souja parted his bloodstained fingers, Koku saw the irridescent, stunted form of a butterfly begin to take shape, fluttering feebly and drunkenly before them both before heading towards the tunnel.
"Follow...it...and...take me...back," Souja murmured, his words faint now as every syllable became an effort. "I need...to tell...Father...everything. Take...me...home...and I promise...they...will...shield you."
I can't protect you, even if I take you back. I can't save you, even if I step into that abyss with you. Worse, returning there with you may mean betraying everything here...and once I step into that chasm, there's no going back.
Fear clutched at Koku's heart as he regarded the yawning hole, knowing that, on the other side, lay the alien world of Seireitei and the shinigami that he knew so much and yet so little about.
I can't do anything for you, but if I leave you here, I let you die. If I abandon you, I killed you - that makes me like Sakaki. I know...that if there's even the faintest chance of saving your life, I have to take it. Whatever faces me on the other side...I have to go. If someone's life is there in front of me, I can't discard it...no matter what the cost.
Slowly and jerkily he nodded his head, tightening his hold on Souja's failing body and taking a step and then another one towards the Senkaimon.
Besides, whatever I do, it hardly matters anyway. It's already written...all I can do is obey.
Murmuring a prayer under his breath for help, he crossed the threshold into the tunnel, watching as the sky closed up behind him, engulfing him in black.