ladyseychelles asked:
What if Kaname Tousen had lived?
Tousen is one of those characters that I have come to care about because of cool people on this website who love him a lot (yes, I am looking at you, Tumblr user crysuzumushi ). He's not in my regular circle of blorbos, so I don't have many opportunities to write him, but his ratio of fanworks-to-coolness is still far lower than it should be, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to give it a shot.
"Are you awake, Tousen Kaname?"
For some reason, Kaname had retained the power of sight, but there was not much worth looking at in the white, featureless room he had awoken to find himself in. He sometimes examined his own hands, the long graceful fingers, tipped with sharp, black claws. He supposed that perhaps he ought to feel some sort of revulsion at his transformation, but having no visual point of reference, he simply found them rather elegant.
His reiatsu sense had been greatly muffled since he awoke, possibly due to something in the walls, or perhaps the heavy metal cuffs that encircled his ankles, wrists and neck.
In any case, it was shocking to hear a voice, surprising for one of his senses to suddenly work in exactly the way he expected.
"I am," he replied, sitting up the white bench cantilevered out from the wall that served as his pallet.
With a soft swish, the white door to his cell opened, and Kaname beheld Tier Harribel for the first time. She wore a high-necked outfit that enveloped the lower half of her face; her tousled blonde hair hid the rest. Kaname remembered the sheepishness in Sajin's voice the first time admitted that he concealed his face in public. No one had ever bothered to mention to Kaname that Harribel did the same. Perhaps all the Espada did. Perhaps it was ubiquitous and therefore did not merit remark. Perhaps they felt naked upon discarding their masks and felt the need to replace them with artificial ones.
"Perhaps you are surprised to see me alive," Harribel said slowly.
"Only slightly more than finding myself so," Kaname replied mildly. "I am more surprised you have the freedom of this place, but I have heard that the Nest of Maggots is so secure that it is common practice to allow the prisoners to roam unchained."
"Is that where you think we are?" Harribel asked, a smile audible in her voice. Kaname had probably never heard her utter more than a dozen words, total, and he had certainly never heard such amusement in them.
"Are we not prisoners?" Kaname frowned.
Harribel crossed her arms over her chest. "I am the Queen of Hueco Mundo. You are, for the moment, in my custody. Whether you remain a prisoner is yet to be determined."
"I don't understand. I…I assumed that Aizen's plan had failed."
"It did. Aizen is a prisoner of the Soul Society. Ichimaru was killed…by Aizen, is my understanding." She paused. "A truce was drawn in the dust and ashes of the battle. My understanding is that, if it had been brought before the Council of 46, they might have let their more imperialist impulses take over. That they might use this as an opportunity to expand shinigami influence to Hueco Mundo. Fortunately, your senior captains understand how disastrous that would be, so as long as I keep Hueco Mundo in line, they will not come knocking on my doorstep."
Kaname could hardly believe it. Aizen, captured, he could believe, although it seemed less likely than either a victory or dying in the attempt. Gin…it seemed odd to feel grief for a man who had never once taken his own mortality seriously. Gin was snake, a slitherer-outer. Of the three of them, he should have been the one to survive. Kaname could feel only numbness. He had known Gin since he was a child.
It was one thing to believe two impossible things before breakfast, but Kaname drew the line at a third. "Yamamoto agreed to this?"
"The Captain-General was gravely injured. The man called Kyouraku managed the negotiations."
Kaname's lip curled in distaste.
"You disagree, eh? That's too bad." She cleared her throat primly. "My understanding is that Yamamoto never would have agreed to let me take you. As far as he, and the rest of Soul Society are concerned, you are dead, by the way."
Kaname curled his hands into fists. "Then I am denied even what passes for justice in Soul Society. I have been given over to whatever revenge you would cast upon me?"
Harribel tilted her head to one side. "Justice," she said, "as some sort of philosophical ideal is a shinigami concept. To a Hollow, justice is purely personal. Every grudge, every grievance, is the most unbearable of injustices to us, like knives in our flesh. Being judged by some committee of impartial strangers is just revenge with a layer of grotesque theater slathered on top. You would find that preferable?"
Kaname set his jaw. "Cruelty is in your nature, I do not hold it against you. But the shinigami are hypocrites! They hold themselves the great balancers of the universe, and yet would rather throw me to their worst enemies than run the risk of having their own perfidies be brought to light, should I see trial."
Harribel gave a wry bark of laughter. "How dramatic you are! The human girl you kidnapped and threatened is the one who healed your broken body. The friend you insulted and the lieutenant you rejected are the ones who begged for mercy for you. I, whose home you invaded, offer you sanctuary, and all you can do is weep and gnash over your cruel treatment. Truly, you do belong here."
"Sanctuary…?" Kaname echoed.
"There are five bindings on you. They are shinigami bindings that bind your shinigami powers. I have the ability to remove three of them. I have kept you here while the last of your injuries healed. If you will swear your loyalty to me, I will remove one of the bindings and extend my protection to you as long as you choose to stay in Las Noches."
"And if I do not?"
"Then you are free to go forth into the desert, with neither zanpakutou nor Resurrección. To be fair, I do not think you would even make it past the gates. Grimmjow has been asking me every morning at breakfast if he can rip your arms off yet. I have been telling him he needs to wait until you make your decision."
"That is not much of a choice."
Harribel's eyes gleamed. "That is how we all came into Hueco Mundo, Tousen. I am offering you an opportunity, because I think you can be of use to me. If that turns out to be true, in time, I may become amenable to removing the other bindings."
"Three of them."
"Kidou is a shinigami art," Harribel mused. "But if a Vizard can fire a cero, perhaps an Arrancar might learn to cast a spell, even undo a shinigami binding. I am very interested in this possibility. That is one way you might make yourself useful."
"Just because I went against my own people once does not mean I wish to throw in with their enemies," Kaname growled.
Harribel stared at him for a moment, and then gave off that odd, barking laugh again. "Your people, Tousen? Have you not listened to a thing I said? Do you really not know why I agreed to take you in?"
Kaname said nothing as Harribel stepped closer to him and leaned down to look him in the face.
"Hueco Mundo is a miserable, desolate wasteland, but it is also a welcoming home to all those who have gnawed their own hearts to bits. I do not know what force drove Ichimaru Gin to follow Aizen, but he stayed true to it. He could not have become an Arrancar, even if he wished to. But you…your hatred ate you from the inside out. All of the Espada recognized you for what you were. Of course you have a home in Hueco Mundo…you are as welcome here as every other Hollow."