Now and again we try
To just stay alive
Maybe we'll turn it around
'Cause it's not too late
it's never too late
-Never too late
ShiKai CH.36: Enjoy the silence
~Flashback~
Think of Keiki.
Her words wounded him deep like a lance piercing his soul.
As the last General and guard of the Tsukikage castle keep; Kotoko knew his sole duty was in making sure unto his last breath that the enemy of his Lords and Lady was defeated. The task however, had seemed insurmountable to the previous Twelve, Lady Mizuna and Lord Kazahaya notwithstanding.
They had all been overwhelmed.
Defeated. Mara, with her siren's song of destruction; Ashura with his might, Angelo with his thorns and Shigekuni wielding the boon Keiki had provided him with: Ryujin-Jakka.
All by the Earth Element.
Kotoko perceived the man's slight smile. Knowing all this and yet, Kotoko couldn't. Mizuna beseeched him, even though her pleas fell on deaf ears. Ignore me and kill him.
I can't. Kotoko closed his eyes. The knowledge was sobering, everything Keiki had had was poured into his making. The weight of the pike on his back, was formed by her careful hands, its power manipulated skillfully to respond to his soul.
I'm sor--
"Kotoko, please..." Mizuna's voice broke, her lashes weighted down by droplets lowered, "I'm begging you!" Her hand slowly unfurled at her side, a javelin of water clasped indistinctly between her fingers. "End this...Shinryu-..sui!" Kotoko watched breathless as she stabbed backward, the lance piercing the vines to skewer Earth.
With a roar, she was flung to the ground; his hands scrabbled over the blunt-tipped end of the lucent weapon, desperate to pull it out. "Engulf him, my Dragons, Shinryu-Saisui!"
She used--
Her breaths came out harsh and short, her hand clawing at her chest even as the water vanished into Earth's body.
"You--" his eyes were wild, "-are you mad?!! You'll die--"
..her life as proxy.
"Kotoko!" her fierce gaze spun to him, "go! Leave this field of death! Go to her now! And please.." her eyes filled, the lids scrunching shut as wave after wave of intense pain rippled through her. "..protect Keiki."
He nodded once to indicate he understood her will.
An ear-splitting crack rent the air as he turned, his step taking him half a field away.
The ground rocked, black shot up from below directly behind him.
Kotoko felt the tip of the thing draw against his spine, the electrical charge danced along his skin. The very air crackled.
"Oh, Mizuna..Reio-Dono..please help us." The words slipped past his numb lips even as Mizuna's body was cast aside like a broken rag doll.
~Las Noches~
"Think of Keiki! She's the one you need to protect! Please..."
The girl's shrieks faded away into the babbling consciousness of others thoughts. Kotoko drifted for a time, simply listening to the inane drivel that constituted human views.
Time was immemorial to him. He didn't keep it locked away in the tune of a quiet melody like Mara, to be played like a sorrowful song. Hers was music, his was the silent word. The thought, the unspoken words were all branded into his consciousness like a scroll or papyrus to be read or perused at leisure.
Kotoko closed his silver eyes now, letting his senses drift along the flow of energy spiraling around the fifth tower.
There...
His eyes opened slowly.
...she was in there.
~Tsukikage Castle~
"It's quiet..the time of night when naught but the beat of one's heart and the crackle of the flame are discernible." Takara's voice was low. Kyou knelt at her feet, Hana beside him. Rizu leaned against the bookcase, pretending to be immersed in an old Harpers Bazaar, but Ren could tell she was listening as intently as the rest of them.
"The night air gutters my candle and I cup my palm about it, whispering soothing words to my little one."
"Little one?" Hana looked confused.
"She's the elemental of fire, remember?" Rizu said patiently.
"Ah--" understanding came into the Fourth seat's expression.
"Quiet," snapped Ren.
"The flickering stops, all becomes still once more. Beyond my window a velvety blackness cloaks everything in its veil. Midnight is upon us, the hour of the deepest dark of night is when the castle most comes alive. Couriers bring tidings of my Lords' children, foundlings they are, of whom Shigekuni is a part of."
"Shigekuni...why does that name--" Hana began again.
Ren fought to control her irritation, "because. That person happens to share the same name as the Soutaicho of S.S. "
"I doubt it's shares," Takara said, using the distraction to flip a few pages ahead, "I think they're one in the same."
"You're kidding!" Rizu exclaimed, her eyes wide behind the glasses.
I usually don't." The blond Lieutenant muttered grimly, "listen to this part. I glimpsed them together in the garden. The sun gilded Mara in a kind of golden radiance, he was entranced. I find myself filled with happiness. How, my Lords will take this most unexpected development, I do not know. One of the Court Guards and one of the Thirteen Generals--"
"You don't mean..." this time it was Rizu who interjected.
"In his youth, the Soutaicho-I mean Shigekuni Yamamoto was in love with an Arrancar." Takara's eyes rose from the last page, "the keeper of the key to Tsukikage castle. It says..he made a promise--"
"Yes," the voice startled them coming from the opposite direction. Kanzaki stood in the doorway, leaning on the heavy brass handle, "a thousand years ago, he made a promise on his honor and never kept it."
~Las Noches~
This couldn't be happening.
This wasn't--dammit! Ichigo stared at the large blood spot blossoming against the white. Kei... his hand extended, fingers folding around the blade, the cold metal folding against his palm. Ichigo felt a tingle, the faintest contact of her foreign reiatsu. It was fading fast. In vain he tried to recall all he had ever heard Urahara mention on healing Kido.
No incantation...but..damn it! He couldn't remember the fundamental basics of the lesson!
Ichigo sighed, plowing his fist through his hair. He'd never been good at stuff like that and without--
"Whatever are you doing just sitting there, Terran?"
He twisted around, his hand shot toward Zangetsu.
The boy had effeminate features. The kind you could call pretty, fine pointed chin, narrow perfect nose, small lips twisted into a snarl, oval orb mirrors in silver with a thick dusting of lashes making them seem heavier than they were.
Despite never before in his life harboring a thought or envy toward another man for his looks; Ichigo felt something akin to jealousy clench in his gut at the sight of the boy.
"Who--"
"I might ask of you the same." The boy rhetorically said, cocking his head at an angle, the feathered tips of his hair brushing closely the collar of the dark gray Kariginu he wore.
"Are you with that bastard Aizen?!"
"Such ill manners." The boy jeered, completely ignoring his question. "Are all Terran who lack mothers such vile things?"
"Why you-" in the corner of his mind, it dimly registered how could he have known? But it too was soon forgotten as the boy's strange almost mirror-like silvery pools alighted on the unconscious form of the girl before him.
And disregarded all else.
His costume was ancient-looking. Ichigo was reminded of a picture from an old seventh grade history class; it was of a Heian courier from the royal court. The wide belled sleeves that small impossibly delicate hands vanished into, to the billowing trousers of tucked in hakama.
The boy knelt, bent on one knee at her side like a knight of old.
"My Lady..."
Her hair hung in a dull gold sheet, her head tilted back, the long stretch of her throat visible for a moment; the boy's arms were low around her waist, her body bent back.
In the blink of an eye...they were both gone.
Not again. This wasn't happening...
"Ke--"
She had been taken from him yet again.
~In another part of Las Noches~
Mara was here. the thought both frightened and relieved him. She had been the one to revive Ishida and yet...
The Quincy's questions about who she was, perturbed him. The Shinigami weren't supposed to know precisely of the Generals' existence; the only saving grace was that her memory reversal had worked to some extent. Ishida didn't recall who it was whom had placed him in such a state, only that he awoke with the Hokuto-Shichisei glowing blue while slicing through his body.
The Quincy accepted Kagami's vague explanations about an attack and being forced to separate as true. Only...he persisted in asking about her.
Had Kei planned this? It seemed highly likely that she had, but he couldn't easily believe she'd have left so many flaws in a venture that demanded extreme risk be taken. Unless...she had intended for them to eliminate Ishida and Yasutora and then later claim it was--but no. That couldn't be it, since there was Kuchiki-Taichou and Kurosaki left to...
He could've screamed in frustration. She never told them anything of her plans and then expected them to be carried out to the letter!
Ishida must've noticed his preoccupation, "is something the matter?"
"Not at all." Kagami managed to say with a grimaced smile. He could tell that the bespectacled Quincy didn't believe him this time. "I'm just--" out of the blue, a savage stabbing pain asserted itself through his left lung. Kagami gasped, clasping his hands over the spot. The pain was excruciating and it meant only one thing. "What is it? Tell me!" Ishida exclaimed, with concern.
Kagami grimly looked toward the fifth tower. "It's Kei..." he winced as the assault began anew. "S-something's happened to her...!"
~*~
Kotoko saw the Terran's face.
The resemblance boiled the blood in his veins.
Right before him was the mirror-image of the man he despised more than life itself.
Kurosaki Ichigo. The name felt like acid on his tongue. Mara had spoken-thought it in passing after speaking with Water. Strangely Kotoko suffered no guilt from listening in on the thoughts of his comrades. Mind-reading came as easily as breathing or opening fissures in Time-space continuum. Not that Mara approved of that either.
But... Kotoko allowed a small cattish grin to grace his boyish face.
He didn't have to answer to Mara. Or to anyone...unless he chose to.
~In another part of Las Noches~
"Oh!" Kazeatari's sharp inhalation caused Yasutora to look back at her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, seeing as she had placed one hand over her side as if in great hurt.
"Y-yeah." She flicked the fan open and waved it briskly in her free hand, "let's continue."
Once he had turned back to the path ahead of them; she made a face. It hurt, damn it. It hurt almost as bad as when she had stabbed herself with Suzaku's divine blade. Kei...damn you. You'd better not die on me... Kazeatari thought harshly. If you do...then I'll drag you back from the Meido itself!
~To be continued~
AN: thanks for reading.
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Reviews appreciated ^^