55. Turn Right

Approaching a hollow in Hueco Mundo is a tricky business.

In the human world, a shinigami can at least be confident in the knowledge that a hollow opponent has ventured beyond its home ground and will see a challenger as an opponent or prey, not an intruder. Hueco Mundo, however, is their territory, and infringing upon it carries an extra weight, an instinctual implication of threat and offense. As hollows have evolved to deal with hostility and challenges from their fellow hollows (which typically end in death for the weaker combatant) rather than peaceful negotiations, the instincts they develop over the centuries in Hueco Mundo drive them to be fiercely territorial and very easily offended. Even those that are powerful enough to see beyond their instincts are more likely to attack rather than talk.

Any sort of confrontation can become very dangerous, very fast.


Aizen was an expert at illusions and altering perception, unmatched by any other shinigami at scheming and deception. In the future, his abilities would be legendary and cursed by any shinigami who had ever fallen for his false charms. However, as he had yet to reveal his true self, there were few individuals willing to speak against him. If asked about his true nature, those few who did know would not hesitate to describe him as an arrogant blowhard with delusions of grandeur who was overly confident in his own abilities and self-importance. (An opinion that would become much more popular during the Winter War.)

Starrk, despite his power and his hollow nature, had no such perception of his own abilities. He knew he was strong, but long experience of life as an outcast had convinced him it was not something to be proud of, and taught him the value of plenty of other properties he did not possess.

There were many ways their meeting could have gone. In one potential outcome, Aizen's honeyed words and false offer of friendship could have resulted in a new minion more powerful than he'd ever expected. In another, they never met at all.

In this outcome, the result of their differing instincts and philosophies proved disastrous.


Starrk watched the unfamiliar shinigami approach with apathy, the barest flicker of hope for companionship and interest that lit in the back of his mind did not show on his face. More prominent than hope was resignation (no one else had survived; why would this one be any different?) and a hefty dose of suspicion (hollows did not trust). After all, this was his turf where he was alpha, where he was safe, and the shinigami was intruding; everyone who had tried in the past (however unsuccessfully) had fully intended to kill and eat him.

In a move he would come to regret, upon encountering the powerful arrancar, Aizen tried to replicate the procedure he'd used to recruit Barragan (minus the presence of Tousen, who was covering for Aizen and Gin back in Seireitei)– by attempting to bring Starrk under the influence of his zanpakuto.

Starrk did not share Barragan's arrogance; when he saw his opponent drawing a weapon, he took it as a sign of an attack.

He went from passive to violent in the space of an eye blink. Aizen had his zanpakuto half drawn by the time Starrk's hand landed on his arm, twisting it with a sickening crack and forcing the shinigami to his knees, hand rendered useless. In a blur of motion, the wolf arrancar dodged backwards, barely missing Gin's blade when it came to Aizen's defense, and skirting easily around his follow up attack.

When Aizen once again tried to go for his blade, to expose Starrk to his shikai, the arrancar had no idea about the special ability, but he knew he needed to keep the shinigami from using his sword. Starrk dodged around his injured opponent, putting Aizen's form in the way of Gin's zanpakuto, and when Aizen one again tried to release his shikai, Starrk grabbed the weapon from his shattered hand.

And snapped it in half.

The captains both froze, staring at the two halves of the now-useless blade. Aizen's expression hardened; to a shinigami, that was an unforgivable insult. He pushed himself to his feet, favoring his bad arm and shot a frozen glare at the arrancar.

To Starrk, the action had been purely practical and he watched the strange reactions warily, pacing just out of reach and waiting for the next attack. Aizen did not disappoint. On his word, a giant kido attack launched through the air, more than enough to destroy ten captains. Despite having only a single word of warning from the abbreviated kido command, Starrk managed to dodge into the air, avoiding being hit by the skin of his teeth and watched the devastation from out of range. His den - the massive piles of dead hollows and the valley surrounding them where he and Lilynette had lived for longer than he could remember – was incinerated to nothing and Lilynette cowered, hiding amongst the nearby dunes. While Aizen was still observing his handiwork in satisfaction, vision obscured by the energy and sand thrown up from his attack, the arrancar responded to the blatant threat with a cero; formed and fired in a millisecond without even the single word of warning that Aizen had used.

Aizen was flung fifty meters through the air and hit the ground with bone-shattering force. When he stood up, blood trickled down his face and he moved with the care of a man favoring broken ribs and serious internal damage. There was pure murder in his eyes. It had been a warning shot, but Starrk wasn't good at 'holding back'; the traitorous shinigami had nearly been killed. As Aizen's hands raised and a new attack formed on his lips, the arrancar readied himself to respond.

The battle progressed quickly and it became more and more evident that gravely injured and without his sword, there was no way Aizen was going to win. However, he did not get the chance to retreat with dignity and hobble away. They fought until his defeat was certain and blood poured from multiple wounds. His zanpakuto was useless in pieces, and his kido was only marginally effective against a foe that refused to get close to him and was capable of dodging energy attacks with milliseconds of warning. However, it was not his opponent who landed the finishing blow.

A quicksilver flash in the darkness was the only warning Aizen got before a thin blade pierced his neck, spraying blood onto the pale sand, and his head toppled from his shoulders, eyes stunned.

Starrk's eyes widened from his position the air and he slowly came down to crouch on the nearest intact dune as Gin eyed his former boss with dissatisfaction and disrespect, cleaning the blood off his sword with a practiced flick of the blade. After a moment of staring into the decapitated head's blank eyes, he grimaced and kicked it, sending the grisly thing rolling to the base of a dune and drawing his gaze to Starrk.

"Not how I would 'have liked ta do it." He remarked, eyeing the silent arrancar warily. "He shoulda been killed once he had the Hogyoku. He'd have everything he ever wanted…an' I'd rip it away. I could have taken everything from him!" he sighed regretfully, lamenting the lost opportunity. "But I was sure you were gonna kill him if I didn't. And he's mine." His gaze challenged the holder of the territory, who had yet to speak a single word.

'Why did you do that?" the hollow's voice was rough and raspy from disuse. "Wasn't he your friend?"

Lilynette peeked out from her hiding place and made her way slowly back to her partner's side, keeping obstacles between her and the shinigami as often as possible. Gin never even glanced at her.

"Nah." A blasé flick of his fingers was the only sign of regret the silver haired shinigami showed. "He was a bastard, an' he deserved worse'n that."

"Hm."

"Don't suppose ya want to eat him? Save the problem of evidence…?" Gin smirked at the strange hollow, gaining confidence as time passed without any further attacks.

Starrk shifted uncomfortably and crinkled his nose while Lilynette sniffed vaguely at the body but looked just as reluctant.

"I could." Starrk frowned. "I'd rather not."

"It'd help…" Gin wheedled.

Starrk shook his head. "I already have more than enough power."

Abruptly, Gin realized what it would mean if this hollow ate Aizen - if the arrancar powerhouse was augmented by the traitor's power (not to mention his abilities – it wasn't unheard of for such talents to carry over) and he promptly stopped pushing. The last thing anyone needed was a super-powered hollow with illusion capabilities.

"Ah, well…guess I'll have to make do!" A brief pat down of the headless body resulted in the Garganta generator and Gin used it to blast open a hole and dump what was left of Aizen in a random wooded corner of Rukongai. He blasted a tree with kido before leaving, lighting it up and setting the area on fire. There was no way the locals would miss it, and they would notify Seireitei when they found the body. No doubt Gin's comrades would draw their own conclusions. Then the Garganta closed, leaving him with two very confused hollows, a battlefield of scorched sand and melted glass, and the blood where Aizen had died.

Silence fell.

He could hardly believe it was over, that the bane of his afterlife was dead. Not the way he would have liked, but still – dead. He'd been irreverently, anonymously defeated at the hands of a nameless hollow. The indignity caused Gin to grin widely.

Aizen had wanted to be the King…and he'd been defeated ingloriously by the most primitive type of monster, who didn't even know who he was. And after he'd been humiliated and crushed, Gin had landed the killing blow.

Poetic justice never felt so good.


Merry Christmas!

I can't say this is exactly 'in the spirit' of the holiday, but even if it isn't themed, I wanted to give you guys an update as a gift. I hope you enjoyed it! :)

I know I've been a bit 'doom n' gloom' for a while, and I probably will again come January, but for now: Merry Christmas!

(Also, can anyone guess the reference in the chapter title?)