Chapter 36: Points of View
"Because that's exactly the sort of impression I got when I first meet Sosuke Aizen. And your King's reiatsu has almost the exact same fell to it." Beatriz told Keade this, and saw her gasp from utter shock and disbelief. "Let me explain it to you, the time I first met Sosuke Aizen…"
After becoming an Arrancar naturally, Beatriz wondered around Hueco Mundo's Menos Forest, searching for something to satisfy her hunger. Soon a Gillian level hollow found Beatriz and let out a roar. "Tch," Beatriz clicked her tongue with dissatisfaction.
The Gillian opened its mouth and charged and fired a cero at Beatriz. Without even moving, Beatriz took the attack head on, but she wasn't injured. Instead she had opened her mouth and inhaled, absorbing the cero's reiatsu.
Beatriz spat to the side. "Not even appetizing." She remarked and charged her own cero and fired it strait through the Gillian's head, killing it with ease. Beatriz continued walking with a scowl. "Isn't there anything in this freaking place with a tasty reiatsu?" She asked herself.
Immediately as if to answer her question, a reiatsu crawled over her and into her mouth suddenly, and it was a strong one. "So you want strong opponents do you? What if I said I could make that happen?" A voice asked from behind.
When Beatriz turned around, she saw a Shinigami walk in from a Garganta. "You're a little bit off. I said I wanted a tasty reiatsu, not a strong one." She told the Shinigami with a look of malice in her eyes, not simply because the person before her was a Shinigami but because of what she had tasted in his reiatsu. "Either way you've managed to interest me with your proposal; go on."
"I am Sosuke Aizen. I am researching your special type of transformation in which you have obtained the power of a Shinigami. Because you have obtained this power naturally, it makes you an invaluable resource to me." Aizen told Beatriz.
"So what's your angle? There's no way someone like you doesn't have an angle." Beatriz said with a snicker, as if catching someone in their lie.
"What do you mean? You can't really understand what I am like simply by looking at me."
"I can tell because your reiatsu has that king of dingy taste to it that makes me want to rinse out my mouth. I wouldn't get a taste like that unless you were the kind of person who always has a hidden agenda. The kind of agenda that in reality would make every soul in the universe turn on you." Beatriz stated.
"Is that your ability? So am I to understand you don't wish to join me?"
"Why should I? Just because someone's strong doesn't make them tasty, and since I've already achieved the power you're researching you really have nothing to offer me." Beatriz said and began to walk away.
However, before she had even taken two steps she, suddenly tasting two other powerful reiatsu entered the area. Or rather, they had only now allowed their reiatsu to be sensed. "Oh, Lord Aizen, I told you this one wasn't going to listen if you just walked up to her." One of two men who walked out from behind a tree said.
"Gin, I thought I told you and Tosen not to come out." Aizen said.
"Well she was right; you have nothing to offer her in return for her services. Since you like using persuasion, I felt it would just be easier if I came in and gave my incentive." Gin said and looked at Beatriz.
Beatriz however smiled. "Now wait a second, just who are you?" She asked with a strangely gleeful tone.
"Gin Ichimaru,"
"Gin Ichimaru…" Beatriz said and licked her lips. "And what exactly is this- 'incentive'- of yours?"
"What else? I plan to kill you if you decline." Gin said without removing the smile from his face while pulling out his zanpakuto and putting it in Beatriz's face.
Beatriz chuckled. "There's no more need for that. I just got a pretty god reason for joining. If I could just learn what makes your reiatsu so tasty, that would be good enough for me."
"Oh, am I that good to you; what exactly is it that makes reiatsu 'tasty' anyways? I'm finding the thought hard to comprehend." Gin told Beatriz.
"I find that people whose abilities are similar to that of my own are the tastiest. Because of that, I've always found someone's blood to be tantalizingly rich in reiatsu. That's my definition of 'tasty'."
Gin made a sarcastic frown as if disappointed yet still happy. "Oh, I don't have anything like that." He said and moved his blade to the side of Beatriz's face. "All I can do is this… Shoot to kill, Shinso." Gin said, and his zanpakuto's blade suddenly shot out past Beatriz, cutting her cheek slightly and hitting the ground behind her.
Beatriz looked to her side at the blade's edge after this with nothing but a smile on her face, and then stuck her tongue out and licked the side of the blade. "I see, that's makes sense." She said surprisingly, opposing what Gin thought of the situation.
Nonetheless Gin smiled at Beatriz's remark and sealed his zanpakuto. "So then, we have a deal?" Aizen asked.
At the sound of Aizen's voice, Beatriz cringed, the horrid taste of his reiatsu coming back to her. "I really don't like you, not even including what I said earlier, there's just something about your reiatsu that just makes me want to cut out your heart- if you have one." Beatriz said this with the most pissed off expression. "But, there's something about this guy here that makes me…" She continued and looked back to Gin, smiling at his taste. "…Joyful. That's the word."
While hearing Beatriz's story, Keade had more or less finished healing Akane. At least to a point the damage was no longer fatal, but she needed to get her to Ronnin and to safety before anything else happened. However after hearing Beatriz's details of Aizen, she was near her mental breaking point.
"And you're saying… that Ronnin is like that too?" Keade said, practically shaking in fear and sadness.
Beatriz was still managing to speak by keeping herself alive by constantly draining reiatsu found in Akane's blood pool around her. "That's right. I thought you ought to know. That cringing feeling I got from Aizen was brought back to me when I tasted your Soul King's. They're almost identical in flavor, almost identical in personalities most likely." Beatriz coughed; her life was obviously coming close to its end.
Keade couldn't help the tears coming from her eyes now. She just couldn't believe that Ronnin was like that. For so long now, she had trusted Ronnin and served him loyally. And yet now she was being told to be cautious of him because he may not be as noble as he pretends to be.
"I don't know the exact circumstances, but obviously you people put a lot of faith in your king. Just be careful from now on, okay." Beatriz told Keade with genuine worry.
Keade muffled through her tears. "Why… why are you telling me this?"
"I don't know." Beatriz answered. "I may be a hollow- making us enemies but- there's no one I wouldn't help, to kill Aizen. If your King is really like him… why shouldn't I?" Beatriz stated. "And you might want to keep this to yourself, if/" Beatriz started but was cut off by a sudden reiatsu pouring over her and Keade. "No way, why is he coming, not him, anyone but him!" Beatriz said, suddenly breaking into an expression of fear.
"What do you mean; who's coming?" Keade asked frantically.
"Run, you've got to run away now! There's no way you're going to be able to beat someone like him; you won't even compete!" Beatriz told Keade while raising her voice with urgency. "RUN AWAY NOW!" Beatriz screamed at Keade, but before Keade could do anything, a man appeared right next to Beatriz, who was suddenly stunned to the point of being unable to speak.
Beatriz shifted her head and looked up at the man now standing over her. "You shouldn't talk so much. In your condition, it's not healthy." The man said in a deep voice, and then raised his foot over Beatriz' head, and brought it down to crush it, killing her.
Keade couldn't believe what she just saw. From Akane's reaction, this man could only be one of her comrades; and yet he killed her off mercilessly.
"Don't look so shocked, she was going to die no matter what anyone did. Why prolong the inevitable?" The man asked Keade. He was very muscular and buzz-cut black hair. His sword hung over his back and his expression showed that he had almost no interest in being here. "And speaking of the inevitable, Beatriz did say you wouldn't even compete with me. Do us both a favor and let me crush you without a struggle then, alright?" The man said and then began to slowly walk up to Keade.
Out of instinct Keade jumped up and pulled out her sword. The man stopped as if surprised by Keade's declaration to fight. Keade stepped up in front of Akane's unconscious body to try and protect her. "I'm not going down without a fight."
The man sighed. "My goodness, I'm going to work up a sweat now aren't I? Very well, so be it." He said and prepared himself for battle by raising his reiatsu, and even though he still held the expression of not wanting to be here.