Kira Izuru stared. He had a job to do, yes, but he couldn't help but stare. After all, it was his former captain standing right there-right within his grasp. He couldn't help it.
A hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Shuhei shaking his head slightly. "Just...try not to think about it too much, alright? Hopefully they'll see the truth."
The blond bit his lip and shrugged the hand off. "We'll see." They separated, each to their own pillar to protect, and waited.
They didn't have to wait long. His opponent arrived screaming and saying something about rituals and demanding for him to do the same. To which he simply replied "No."
"I've been paired with a coward." the arrancar cursed, spitting at him. "Fine. Abirama Redder. Fraccion to Lord Barragan."
"Kira Izuru. Lieutenant of the Third Division." He stiffened as the arrancar began laughing out loud.
"The Third?! So that creep Ichimaru was your captain! Does it hurt, knowing that Ichimaru must have abandoned you for your coward-" he blinked, feeling the blood drip from his cheek.
"Don't use that name so lightly around me," Kira growled lowly.
"Ah. So you can fight after all. Good." he grinned. "Your battle face. I will erase it."
There was no more speaking after that. Just strikes back and forth, each pushing the other to thier limit. Finally, he praised his good luck. Those ridiculous wings were only going to hurt the arrancar in the end. And they did prove to be his downfall. On the ground, the arrancar cursed at him.
"You dirty shinigami, playing tricks on me! That's no way for a true warrior to fight!" he struggled to move. "Just what does your odd zanpakuto do anyway?!"
Kira clenched his hand around the hilt of Wabisuke. "It doubles the weight of anything it strikes." he lowered himself to the ground slowly.
"Dirty bastard! Cowardly piece of shit!" the bird-man snarled, shrinking away from the blond man.
"You treated war like a game." he walked closer to his foe. "War is not a game. It's depressing and there's nothing exciting about it. Nothing." he paused as he stood behind the arrancar, eyes cold. "You want to know why Wabisuke is the best representation of this? Why it is the way it is?" he hooked the zanpakuto around the other's throat.
"No-no, please, wait-" Abirama pleaded, eyes wide.
"A warrior does not beg."
A swift movement and the wind stirred limp feathers.
"Don't forgive me."
The silence was deafening.
xxx
He turned as he felt Ikkaku's reaitsu dwindle to almost nothing, and with a sinking feeling he realized that Ikkaku had lost.
Yumichika clenched his fists and choked down a sob, instead focusing on his anger. He rushed forward to Ikkaku but found that hisagi was blocking his path.
"Move!"
"No. You can't do anythin-"
"Get the hell out of my way." his eyes flashed dangerously cold. "He needs my help."
"You're not thinking straight, if Ikkaku was beat, how do you think you would fare any better?"
The Fith seat cursed and dashed forward when he felt a slight prick on the back of his neck and fell forward in Hisagi's arms. "No, please." he murmured before closing his eyes.
Hisagi looked up to see Kira and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "He'll be alright when he wakes up."
"Of course."
xxx
The head captain had used Jokaku Enjo to trap the three traitors. It was a good move, she thought, eyeing up the arrancar that had come through the garganta. Besides the three top Espada, there were their underlings-Urahara had said they were 'fracciones'. The older Espada had laughed at their tactics, saying that he would send his four dragons to combat their four ants. She had no time to be worried about Ikkaku and the rest, they could handle themselves. Instead, she figured, best to get rid of the other small fry so that the actual Espada could be defeated.
Sui-Feng tapped her lieutenant on the shoulder.
"Let's go."
Time to get those fracciones out of the way.
xxx
Ukitake sighed, looking over at the girl swinging her legs off the roof of the building. She was clearly powerful, no question. But her relationship to Starrk he still couldn't figure out. He looked up as Shunsui was chuckling and smiled slightly. He was glad that the other was enjoying this battle for the time being.
It also seemed that the Primero was...not as bored? The girl had said that because thier power was so strong that Starrk didn't do much more than sleep. It must be at least a little bit exciting that he was participating in a fight-and from what Juushiro could tell, they were pretty evenly matched, though the fact remained that neither of them were taking it seriously at all.
He coughed again and the girl turned to him questioningly. "Are you sick?" she leaned away from him slightly, as if afraid she would catch whatever it was he had.
He gave her a tired smile. "Have been for years. Nothing to be worried about Lilynette."
"Oh." her vibrant magenta eyes widened a little. Whispering, she asked, "Are you dying?"
"Not yet."
xxx
The girls were safe.
That's what he kept telling himself.
The girls were safe.
He curled his fingers into fists and took in a deep breath before detaching himself from his physical body. He hadn't felt like this in years. Not since...well.
Isshin leaned his head back against the wall of his replicated home, dreaming. If only he had gotten to go to Soul Society with the girls, then he might've found Masaki...
But no. Kisuke had asked for his help, and by God was he going to give it all he had.
After all, the girls were safe.
XXX
First of all, Happy Valentine's Day! Here's hoping you're in a healthy relationship or being happily single. You know, unlike me, who's not happy being single...
Well! I'm going to change this just a little this time, it's driving me crazy that the numbers are all over the place- So instead of 47, I'm going to push it a little and ask for 50, that way I can always know when to update depending on if it ends in -5 or -0. Sorry if that seems a little much but hey. Also...wow you guys review for updates. Like seriously, I'm getting a little overwhelmed. And that's awesome! But I do have classes and projects to balance with my social life and my Internet life, so updates are going to slow down. I'll still try to post within the next 24 hours but more likely it'll be 2-3 days, we'll see.
So... This was so much fun to have all that buildup for those fights and then throw this at you out of nowhere. XD Now you guys really do have to review to hear about Ichigo's fight. Ha. I'm great (not). But! You need to remember this is all simultaneous, so...
I like Kira. I hope you guys like Kira. I feel like he went through a lot, and really let his character be known fighting Redder. I remember it as a very emotional episode for me.