Chapter Fifty-Three
"The Shinigami - they must have been Fourth Division - were already there when I regained consciousness," Erina explained, trying to keep her voice steady. "I don't know if they didn't notice me because of the rubble or if they were just preoccupied, but I was able to take a look around without them noticing me." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I guess they were preoccupied. The whole area looked like... like a tornado went through it."
She could keenly feel the eyes boring into her as she relayed the story, grim and confused. She bit her lip, then forced herself to continue.
"They were tending to... a very badly wounded captain nearby. Since the last thing I remembered before getting knocked out was Edward fighting that captain, at first I thought he must have won. But then I realized he would never leave any of us lying unconscious in the dirt, so I started looking around. I didn't find him," she added hastily. "I don't know where he is... it might be anywhere."
No one interrupted her. No one spoke. She took a deep breath, then let it all out in an agonized sigh. "But... I did find Steve."
Dikayumi, sitting against the wall, buried his head back in his arms. Herald muttered something under his breath and half-turned away, but he couldn't walk away.
Erina knew how they felt, but her attention was focused on someone else. "Yylfordt... I'm sorry, but he's..."
"Don't say it."
She closed her mouth. Maybe she could have done this differently, maybe there had been a better way to say it, but it was done now. She glanced helplessly at Herald, but his eyes were fixed on Yylfordt. Lilynette lay at his feet, her tail curled around his ankles as though making sure he was still there. Even her wolfish eyes looked sad.
Yylfordt must have forgotten to breathe; he swayed, caught himself with a half-step backwards and took a breath so sharply it hissed against his gritted teeth.
"We've died before," he finally murmured to the ground. "They can't keep Szayel down..." The words seemed to light a fire inside him and he looked up at Erina fiercely, as though she was arguing. "He can't be killed. He's better then all of you... death means nothing to Szayelaporro Granz."
He whirled around and leapt up onto the nearest available perch. "I have to find my master," he called back at them without turning. "Grimmjow needs me."
A moment later, he was gone.
No one moved to follow him. Erina looked around at the rest of the Fourteenth Division - Herald and Lilynette, Charles, Dikayumi, Kitsune their mod soul... and her.
Herald met her gaze this time, and suddenly she could read the misery in his eyes, too. He saw the same thing she did. The holes.
"They have to be out there, somewhere," she whispered, but he either did not hear or did not care to respond. Their now-lone lieutenant went to sit next to Dikayumi, and Lilynette sat down on the other side of the shivering Quincy with a low, sympathetic whine.
They were all still there when the Shinigami found them, sitting or standing in a loose, silent group, consumed by their thoughts.
...
There was no moment when everyone realized they could relax again. The Shinigami were wary, they looked over their shoulders, they gave each other dark looks. The lingering fear that it was not over hung over Seireitei like smoke, and there was no wind that could blow it away.
Even the news that Caro was defeated was treated as almost... unimportant. Urai made his report in the middle of a ruined building, partially cleared to make room for the wounded and dying, to the Ninth Division lieutenant. The man was distressed and distracted, and Urai could guess why. The fighting all over Seireitei had been brutal, but the worst of it had to be, by far, when captains fought. Perhaps they had sought each other out in some desperate gamble to keep themselves from killing unseated officers by droves, or perhaps they had special orders. Either way, it seemed that two captains had already been confirmed as dead, several others had been found barely clinging to life from the intensity of their battles, and still more were still missing. To Urai's horror, they claimed his own captain was one of the latter.
Lieutenants, officers, unseated Shinigami... every rank and Division in Seireitei had taken massive casualties. There was hardly a building left undamaged in all of Seireitei, entire sections having been blown apart by combat. The last Hollows had been chased out of Soul Society, leaderless, and no trace of Caro's mind-control seemed to remain, but, even so, this was no victory. Even saying they had defeated Caro made Urai hesitate - it felt like a lie.
It took longer then he had expected, but after fetching a Fourth Division healer some supplies and helping other Shinigami clear a street to accommodate more wounded, he forced himself to slip away. He kept an eye out as he ran back towards the First Division, stopping here and there to mark the locations of wounded Shinigami with a weak kido flare. They became rarer, harder to spot, as he neared the building Caro had claimed for his headquarters.
Finding the place was easy, but when he arrived only the Fifth Seat remained.
He looked around, as if his ghosts would leave a trail for him to follow, but the wind that had served to drive away smoke earlier was already erasing their footprints in the ash. The Fifth Seat had moved, gone to perch on the nearest solid surface while he obsessively cleaned his glasses.
"Where did they go?"
The other Shinigami held up his glasses to squint through a lens, then slid the pair on with an almost subdued air that did not suit him.
"They left."
Urai shifted his weight from one leg to the other, suppressing his urge to say... something uncharitable. "And you... did not ask where they were going?" he said instead, carefully. The other Shinigami shrugged, focusing on his second, smaller-framed pair of glasses.
"It was none of my business, and (while normally that wouldn't stop me) considering they saved my life I thought it the least I could do to let it go without prying." He looked up thoughtfully at Urai, as if struggling with some internal debate, then added, "They did leave you a message, though. 'Say nothing, even if they ask about us. We were never here.' I think it would be a good idea to respect their wishes on that."
"Why?" challenged Urai. "Now that they are gone, why should we stay quiet?"
The second pair of glasses went right above the first, but even with two pairs on the Fifth Seat still managed to look over the rims sternly. "Because in the event that they do come back, I don't think they would be very pleased with anyone found spreading rumors about them. Nor would it serve any purpose. Trust me on this one; let them go."
