Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo, meaning it does not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Bleach storyline (such as Anzu) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
"Mother…"
My heart was pounding in my ears and my neck was getting hot. My hands were trembling…
Above me, my mother, Mikazuki Kimura, stared down at me blankly, her head tipped back slightly and her eyes narrowed with her arms crossed over her stomach.
"Didn't I make it clear…" She growled, "That you weren't to set foot on this battlefield again?" Her eyes darted to something to her right and she mumbled, "I'll have to teach Izuru Kira a lesson later…"
"Mother!" I shouted, wrapping my arms around Hiyori and standing, "What are you doing here?!"
A pause, then she glanced back at me and sighed, a tired look crossing her face, "'Mother'… I know you're supposed to address me that way, but for some reason… it doesn't feel right."
"Mom…?" I blinked, my mind reeling.
Mother was Mika… and Mika was an Arrancar… so Mother was an Arrancar… but… where was her…
"You're… an Arrancar…?" I mumbled, swaying slightly. Hachi set a hand on my shoulder and steadied me.
My Mother paused again, frowning before speaking, "For all intents and purposes, yes. However, it's more properly said that I am a construct Lord Aizen had Szayel Aporro create from one Hollow in particular. It is my understanding that this Hollow had consumed the human known as Mikazuki Kimura, and because of her inherent power, my body came out looking like this and I was granted her abilities."
I had to lean back against Hachi as my legs gave out.
"…Girl, when Aizen ordered that I accompany him and you out into this battle, I was also charged with one other duty." Mom's eyes narrowed, "In the event that you turned on us, I was ordered to strike you down."
My mouth went dry and I stared up at her, shaking, "M-Mother…"
Her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed, and with a sneer she hissed, "Do not call me that, you foolish little bitch." Before I could make an attempt at saying anything, she growled and went on, "I hate you. Thoughts of you plague me, urges to protect you, the need to comfort you, scattered and shattered memories that make no sense…"
She paused, then went on, tipping her head forward and looking down at me in a way that was almost soft, "If I were to kill you… would the human inside me finally die and stop giving me this unwanted pain…?"
Air constricted in my lungs as my Mother set her hand on the hilt of the zanpakuto at her waist, wrapping her long, black-gloved fingers around the grip and drawing slowly.
Hachi's sudden movement as he went to push me behind him jolted me out of my stupor, and I turned to him and handed him Hiyori, regrettably rougher than I would have liked, but I had to move fast.
The pink-haired vizard was grabbing and calling after me as I shot into the air, spinning around when I was several feet up only to stumble back at the flash of silver swinging towards my head.
Before the blade got close, though, it was intercepted, Halibel winking into existence in front of me with her large, tooth-like blade blocking Mom's. A hand grabbed my shoulder and jerked me backwards, and I looked up, blinking when I hit Stark's chest.
His grey eye flickered down to me and he frowned, "Didn't I tell you to stay out of this?"
I winced, "Things got… out of my control."
"Right." Stark sighed, wrapping his arm around my waist and bending forward, moving to jump back, "Whatever."
"Stark, no!" I struggled, making him pause, "Stark, I can't leave her!" I can still save her! I know it!
Stark glanced down at me, then sighed and looked ahead, watching listlessly as my Mother and Halibel clashed swords, "That's not her, you know. That's not even a real Arrancar. That's one of Aizen's sick and unfortunate experiments. She's dangerous and borderline psychotic."
I felt a stab at that. My Mother wasn't insane!
Though… some of the things she'd been saying…
"But… she's…"
"Valid?"
"…"
"…Fine." Stark let me go and stood back, "Halibel!"
In front of us, Mother and Halibel stopped exchanging blows, glancing over.
Stark jerked his head, "We're out of this one. It's the human's business."
Halibel frowned, then nodded, disappearing and reappearing behind me, next to Stark.
I sighed and looked at Mother, opening my mouth, but before I could say anything she flashed towards me, swinging her sword.
Almost too late, I flicked my wrist and was encapsulated in a cylinder, Mother's sword slamming into the barrier and sending me flying.
I tumbled around in the cylinder as it spun top over bottom, bouncing against the walls and screaming before I formed enough of a thought to shatter the barrier and form a new one, this one a few feet ahead of me.
This one was a simple circular plate, and when I slammed into it back first it bowed inwards slightly before breaking, leaving me to spin around and regain my footing, facing my Mother.
Swallowing hard when I saw she already had her hand lifted and pointed at me, I braced myself and prepared to form a reflective shield for the cero I was sure she was going to throw at me, but a wrench was thrown into my plans when a barrier formed around me before I could act, this one red.
This was the power Mika had shown me… The one she'd said was inhe—
Oh my god… this was my Mother's power!
"I see you've finally noticed." Mika-Mother-the woman mumbled, her eyes holding no anger as she went on, "A shame the realization came too late."
She closed her hand, and below me the red rings, so much like the rings that formed the base of my own barrier, screamed, and the temperature spiked dramatically.
I curled in on myself and clamped my eyes shut with a scream, the ensuing explosion deafening.
Halibel moved to surge forward, stopping when a gloved hand grabbed her shoulder. She looked back at Stark questioningly, frowning when he shook his head.
"ANZU!!"
Both former Espada turned towards Shinji, their faces blank at the look on his face.
Shinji stared at the cloud of smoke that was all that was visible of the area where Anzu had been, his eyes searching pointlessly through the thick black for any sign of her form.
He screwed his face up, glancing back at Aizen, who only looked at him pleasantly.
The moment Shinji made to flash step over to where Anzu had been swallowed by the explosion, Aizen spoke.
"Are you really going to leave me to find another target, Captain Hirako?"
Shinji ground his teeth audibly, freezing in place. 'Goddamn it…'
A sudden surge of reiatsu caught his attention and Shinji looked, his eyes widening slightly when the smoke was blown away and Anzu was left standing in the center, her body littered with burns and the edges of her clothes singed, but her barrier snapping with electricity beneath her feet and the rings spinning as strongly as ever.
A smile pulled at Shinji's lips and he chuckled, "Stupid girl… usin' that much energy at once…" Still, he had to commend her for staying in place and waiting for Mikazuki to come to her. It was never smart to charge an enemy who was faster than you.
"I would pay attention if I were you, Captian Hirako." Shinji turned back towards Aizen, smiling grimly when he saw the Arrancar Lord unsheathing his sword, "You might miss the action."
Shinji chuckled, "Finally unsheathin' yer sword against me? Ya sure are takin' yer time…"
Aizen said nothing.
"…Are ya scared?" Shinji asked solemnly after a moment. When Aizen still didn't answer, Shinji went on, "Ya can't just ignore me. I don't care how strong ya are, ya have ta be at least a little worried. A hundred years ago ya said to me… that I never opened my heart to ya, never gave ya any information, never tried to engage with ya…
"'nd because of that… ya don't know my zanpakuto's power." Shinji finished gravely, his reiatsu snaking out and giving the atmosphere a dark, dangerous tint.
They were both silent for a moment.
"…Listen ta me, Aizen," Shinji went on, his lips curling down in a frown, "If ya think Kyoka Suigetsu's the only zanpakuto that can control senses, yer very, very wrong."
Aizen visibly perked slightly, leaning forward a touch with interest.
Shinji sighed at his eagerness, then stood straight and held his zanpakuto out in front of him, mumbling, "Collapse…
"Sakanade."
I glared at Mother, panting heavily and slowly lowering my legs back down to touch the plate of my barrier, standing and almost giving in when my legs threatened to buckle.
Keyword being 'almost'.
I stayed on my feet and panted, sweat running down the back of my neck and my arms shaking.
So tired… I was so tired from making that barrier to staunch Hiyori's bleeding… Doing such a small-scale, specific job had been draining…
…Which meant I should probably tone down the barrier.
And I did. Without letting the barrier do what my instincts were telling it to do, I grabbed hold of my own energy and cut down the output. The screaming died down to a dull roar and the bolts of electricity decreased in number but not intensity, jagged strands lazily sparking up from the plate and a several feet into the air, well above my head, before joining up with another and/or arching straight back down.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the odd feeling of the few shards that lazily licked my face and I got goosebumps with how much raw energy was in the air.
"…Smart."
I blinked, caught off guard by Mother's compliment.
"Rather than summoning a physical repellant barrier – your default barrier, or a reiatsu repellant barrier – the barrier you use to defend yourself from massive spiritual pressure, you summoned a reflective barrier, which is an independent plate that you can move by your own will, to disrupt one area of my barrier to lessen the damage."
"You said while I have a barrier that protects and pushed outwards, yours contains and pushes inwards." I mumbled, "I figured if those two opposing forces got into too close a proximity and met with too great a force, the result would be…"
"Catastrophic." Mother affirmed, nodding, "Much similar to what happens with warm fronts meet cold fronts."
"You get a thunderstorm…" I mumbled.
"And you would have been caught in the middle…" Mother lifted her zanpakuto and her right arm, tilting her left to settle the flat of the blade across her right wrist, "You thought quickly and, instead of instinctively summoning a full barrier out of flight-or-fight, you took the road that led to less damage." Her eyes narrowed slightly, "You're not the idiot I thought you were."
I winced at the fact that my mother thought I was an idiot, at all.
"…You're still not worth my Resurreccion, though." Mother said softly, letting her sword arm go lax and fall so the blade was parallel to her leg, her right hand lifting. She extended her black-gloved pointer finger, mumbling, "Instead, I'll overpower your reflective barrier and blast you into oblivion."
A cero formed at the tip of her finger, this one a much darker crimson than what was standard amongst Arrancar.
I went to run, hoping to escape the blast radius, but was shocked to find there was no radius.
It was fast.
Faster than any cero I'd ever seen, even Ulquiorra's. And it was no thicker than a pencil, which only contributed to the speed.
It took skill and amazing accuracy to fire that kind of cero, and Mother had it.
Easily.
It didn't matter if I tried to run; the cero was already more than three quarters of the way to me.
I froze in fear, my body refusing to move.
…I lost control.
My barrier snapped to life of its own accord, in the form of a plate right in front of me, though instead of going reflective like it should have by instinct, it did something new…
The outer rings span counterclockwise and the inner the opposite.
As soon as the cero hit it, the entire plate turned red, the rings spinning faster and faster…
And then, it was over.
The plate didn't bounce it back, and it didn't break. The cero disappeared, the plate turned blue again, and the rings returned to spinning at resting speed.
I blinked.
…Where had the energy gone…?
I looked around, wondering if it had been reflected at an angle, but other than the damage being caused by other battles, there were no new clouds of dust that had no apparent origin. So where…
I looked at Stark and Halibel, who had been watching from the sidelines, helplessly, frowning.
Halibel glanced at Stark, who called out in his slow voice, "Your barrier shifted focus and absorbed it."
…Absorbed it…? So… where had it gone…?
"Pay attention, brat."
I spun back towards Mother, gasping and jolting when I saw her coming straight for me with her sword raised.
Quickly, a flat plate barrier formed on my hand and I held it out, catching her blade and tossing it aside. While her arm was down, I drew my other one back and fisted it, swinging at her face.
Mom growled and ducked, shifting her grip on her sword and swinging up.
Another barrier opened at the elbow I had swung at her with and the blade crashed against it, sending us both flying in angled opposite directions.
Stumbling and trying to recover, I tensed when Mom flipped back towards me and disappeared, spreading my legs and raising my fists in front of my chest in a defensive stance.
I couldn't move without losing concentration on my surroundings and risking her sneaking up on me; I'd have to stay stationary and wait…
Wait…
Wait…
…
…
THERE!!
I spun around, my default barrier snapping up and blocking her blade.
When her blade bounced off of it and she jumped back, I noticed something…
The resonance that followed her attack ran up my feet, as they usually did, but something felt different. It felt… heavier than usual…
Like either the barrier or me was carrying some great weight…
I looked down quickly and studied it, blinking when I found the problem.
The blank area my feet stood on, the area held within the two circling rings, was darker than usual… Almost no longer translucent. It was nearly solid navy.
It was… full…? Or nearly full?
With…
I blinked.
The energy from the cero…!
"I'm getting tired of this game…" When I looked up, Mom was recovering and standing straight, holding her zanpakuto out in front of her with one hand and growling, her sharp green eyes narrowed, "This next attack is breaking through that barrier, for good."
I panicked.
I had no doubt that if she had serious killing-intent that she would be able to break my barrier easily; she was my mother, after all, and her barrier was a lot more mature than mine.
And… as much as I loved my Mother… if I died, I wouldn't be able to save her.
Because no matter what she said about being a 'construct', she still remembered me, right? She had said so herself. She still felt the need to protect me… to love me…
Mother was still in there somewhere. I couldn't die before I saved her.
So, when she moved to rush me, I panicked.
Quickly recalling the same signature that was specific to the barrier that had absorbed her cero, I jerked up both hands and summoned the barrier, biting my lip and focusing on my reiatsu.
I felt hers, tucked away securely within the confines of the barrier, and dredged it up, imagining it traveling up from my stomach, into my chest, through my hands and into the plate…
And the plate flashed red, shooting out the cero energy straight at her.
I swallowed hard as I saw Mother's eyes widen before she took the blast head-on, her entire body consumed first in red, then a brief white as the cero exploded, then smoke.
The energy suddenly gone, my legs went weak and my head swam, and I fell to my knees, gasping for air.
That had… taken more than I thought it would have…
"Shit…" I braced my hands in front of my knees, "Shit… shit… shit…" I wouldn't be able to do that again… Not for this battle…
"…He-heh… he-heheh… HA-HAHAAHAHAHAAA!!"
I looked up, wincing as the smoke cleared to reveal Mother still standing.
Her clothes had been burned at the edges, and her straight, dark hair was slightly frizzy and dancing wildly in the wind. Wide, livid green eyes with dramatically narrowed pupils locked on me and she grinned.
My heart stopped.
She'd snapped.
"Hehe…" She laughed humorlessly, still grinning, "You're learning rather quickly, aren't you? Tell me, dear, what's your drive? Are you hoping to save Mummy Dearest?" She cocked her head to the side and grinned widely, her teeth showing and one brow quirking.
"M…" I shuddered, my arms shaking, "M-Mom…" So this was what Stark had meant by 'borderline psychotic'…
Instantly, Mother's attitude shifted and she scowled, standing straight and barking, "Quit calling me that! I've already told you, I'm not your mother!"
I lowered my head and clamped my eyes shut.
Mom… She was here… after so long…
…I refused to believe that this wasn't her. Not after what she'd said earlier… And what she'd been doing for me before today…
She'd been taking care of me… She was still in there…
"…Fine."
I looked up and opened my eyes, exhausted.
Mother was staring at me flatly, her arm slowly lifting her zanpakuto and her reiatsu condensing.
"If all we are going to do is continue this clash of barriers, then I will be the one to end this."
She held her blade out in front of her face point down, the back, blunt edge of the blade parallel to her nose and the dark metal gleaming.
"Fortify…"