Notes: references to The Ancient Magus Bride in this chapter. Enjoy the angst :) I'll be hiding from the angry mob for this one.
As the faint reiatsu Aizen was following grew stronger, so did his unease. He was in no way prepared for what he might find, but he knew he had to find Gin. Whatever it took, he had to get Gin back.
He clenched his teeth as he stalked through the forest, wary of an ambush. Who knew what was lurking behind those trees.
That's when he heard the voice.
"Looking for something?"
He whirled around. Of course, the speaker would be right behind him. Ready to launch a sneak attack. But he only saw empty forest. Frowning, he traipsed onwards into a little clearing. Drawing his zanpaktou.
"Come a little closer, dearie. I won't bite."
The voice was worn and gravelly, yet there was a little warmth in it too. Though Aizen knew better than to trust it. Even if the voice reminded him of his childhood friend Yuki from the Rukon districts, if she were old enough to be his grandmother.
He stepped further into the clearing, keeping his wits about him. Scanning the area just in case a rogue hollow swooped down on him. But nothing did, and he made it to the centre of the little clearing unimpeded.
"Yes, that's it," the voice in the forest teased. "Just a little closer..."
Sousuke glanced at the empty space in front of him. Wary.
"What do you want?" he snarled at the empty air. The soft voice in the forest laughed, soft and indulgent, like a grandmother. Or a very good imitation of one.
"Why, to give you a chance to really see what you've lost," it told him. The beasts form slowly manifesting from the shadows of the trees. A human-like shape slowly coming into view.
But this was no human; it was a hollow. About a foot taller than Aizen himself, it had four arms and the ears of a bear covered by a large cowl. A long, skinny, bony body blanketed by a heavy cloak. And three piercing eyes staring straight into him from the shadows of the cowl.
Though he could not see her face, he knew her name.
Ashen Eye.
Said to be a millenia old, instantly recognisable by her ancient appearance and the staff she held. A powerful foe. And a dangerous one. Because nobody really knew what she was capable of. Her abilities seemed to vary with each encounter, and the documented accounts were few and far between. Not that many survived to tell the tale.
He stepped closer, still wary. He could not see her mouth, but her eyes were smiling.
"Hello, Sousuke."
His hackles rose at the familiarity she addressed him with. Making his entire body stiffen. Which only made Ashen eye laugh softly again.
"Oh, so tense," she cooed, which of course only made him tense up even more. "Relax a little, won't you?"
"Relax?" he glared at her. "How can I relax when you've taken something very important to me?"
His lips were caught I a snarl. He knew. He knew it was her. She'd taken Gin. He could tell from the faint wisps of Gin's spiritual energy trailing off her. He waited for her to deny it, or laugh triumphantly and tell him he'd never get his Gin back. But she subverted all of his expectations by simply shaking her head and tutting in a show of disappointment.
"Really now, Sousuke, is that any way to refer to someone you claim to love? As a thing rather than a person?"
Aizen grit his teeth and bit back another snarl as the voice in his head laughed. She's right you know. It's no wonder he left you. You never did see him as a person.
He shook off that thought and refocused. His first priority was getting Gin back.
"Does it matter?" Sousuke replied, trying to channel as much bravado as he could. Keeping a firm grip on Kyouka Suigetsu. "He's important to me. I want him back, wretch. Now."
He glared at the ancient hollow, silently promising wrathful vengeance. But she only cocked her head, amused. Her eyes gleaming with delight.
"Funny," she said. "You say you desire him back. But were you not the one who discarded him in the first place?"
Sousuke's body froze from the inside out. It was as if he'd been thrown into an icy lake. Or crashed through the sheet of ice holding him above it. "What?"
"You did discard him, yes?" Ashen Eye asked. The question sounded so innocent, yet he knew its sinister meaning. A question designed to trip him up with his own answer. His own guilt. "Or am I wrong?"
Silence spread through the air around them, dense and think. Sousuke's hands clenched tight around the hilt of his zanpaktou. He gripped it so tightly his hands shook.
"Am I wrong?" Ashen Eye repeated, but Sousuke could not answer without condemning himself. So he said nothing.
"Ah, so I'm right, aren't I, little Have-Not," the hollow taunted, smug as anything. "you did discard him. I wonder why," she mused. "did you grow bored of him? Did you stop loving him?"
"No," Sousuke growled out through his teeth. But Ashen Eye just cocked her head again and chuckled.
"Really now?" she asked, very much amused. "Because I don't believe that for a second. In fact, I believe your exact words were 'I wish I'd never met you'. Isn't that right, Sousuke?"
The cold chill permeating his body threatened to crush his lungs. Cutting off his air supply. Ashen eye continued. "Now, why would you say that if you still loved him?"
"I didn't mean that," Sousuke snapped. "I was angry. People say a lot of things when they're angry that they don't mean."
Ashen Eye shook her hooded head slowly. "Ah, maybe so," she said, holding up her index finger – or what passed for an index finger on her four fingered hand - "But words have power, you see. Words are soul given sound you know. And once another being had heard them, they cannot be taken back. And such words can be easily transformed into a curse..."
Sousuke grit his teeth. The magnitude of the hundreds, if not thousands of souls this monster has taken paling next to the fact that she'd stolen Gin.
"You bitch," he snarled, "What have you done with him?"
The hollow chuckled to herself again. Sounding for all the world like his friend Yuki. The likeness was so uncanny it was frightening. Another denizen of the Uncanny valley funhouse world. No, the Place of Nightmares.
"I've put him away someplace safe," she told him, as if he were reassuring a favourite grandchild their favourite toy was safe and not going to be thrown away with the rubbish. "Since you won't be wanting him anymore, I took him out of your hands."
"By removing him from existence?" Sousuke asked, bristling for a fight now. But he knew no amount of hacking and slashing would get his Gin back. He had to play whatever twisted game the beast had in mind to get his other half back.
"Why yes, I did," Ashen Eye nodded. "I've taken him out of this world, just as you wanted."
Sousuke just looked aghast at her but she continued as if she were discussing the weather. "Soon the world will forget him. His family... his friends... even you."
She shifted her stance and positioned her head so she was looking directly at him. Chilling him even further. Her gaze so penetrating it felt to him he were a naked skeleton without flesh before her. Completely exposed.
"I won't," he said firmly. "I won't forget."
"You will," she assured him. Her conviction planting a small seed of doubt in his mind. "you'll forget what he looked like. What his voice sounded like." she paused between each sentence. Letting the dread build up inside him as she stepped closer.
"You'll even forget his name," she finished, pausing in front of him. "You're forgetting it right now, even as we speak."
Sousuke stood there, horrified at just the thought of this. Very few things in this world terrified Aizen Sousuke. And losing Gin, the one good thing in he had left in this life besides Yuki, was at the very top of that list.
Show no fear, he told himself. Show no fear at all...
"I'm not," Sousuke answered. "I still remember him. I still remember our life together."
Ashen Eye cocked her head again, amusement sparkling in her three yellow eyes. "Oh really?" she said. If Aizen could see her face under her hooded cowl, he was sure she'd be smirking right now. "Then tell me, my dear boy, what is his name?"
Aizen snorted. "Well, that's a stupid question."
"No such thing as a stupid question, my boy. There are a thousand stupid answers, but never a stupid question. Tell me what his name was. If you do know it."
"Of course I know it," Sousuke snapped. "It's... it's..."
He tried to rack his brain for the name he wanted, desperate to put a name to the face in his mind - but his train of thought had come off the tracks, derailed, and crashed into the nearest tree. The tracks it'd been on vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"It's..."
He felt all the heat drain out of him into the ground, gripped b a new fresh terror. I can't remember.
Ashen Eye cackled. "You see? You're forgetting him already! It won't be long now before even this trace of him is erased from this world. And soon enough, it'll be as if he never existed at all."