Disclaimers, etc.: see chapter one
Opening Theme: Jue Ai by Faye
Ending Theme: TBA
This chapter written 9/26/2022
Bleach: Cross
Red Gemini
by Eugena
Rated M
Chapter Three: Fragments of Abomination
天国的白雪公主
The explosion of reiatsu broke the ground. It quaked, and many fought to stay on their feet.
When the smoke of the blue fire cleared, a woman stood bound tightly to Raiko. Her hair glowed white and blue. Her face seemed smaller with sharper features than before. Both Raiko and the woman were unconscious, as were Yumi and Shinjiro. Another woman lay behind her, bleeding, her crimson pool getting larger by the moment.
"Shira!" Ichigo shouted. Looking briefly to the woman tied behind Raiko, he knelt down to the second woman.
"Taicho!" Momo cried. She wanted to run to her, but the weight of Yukihime grounded her in place. Taicho entrusted her with it, and she would now protect it with her life. No one else must have Yukihime.
Ichigo turned the woman's head gently to look at him. Unohana rushed over while Mayuri reluctantly kept watch over his bound subjects.
Kenpachi tried to run to see the woman, but Mayuri gripped his arm. Kenpachi's reiatsu still flowed around Raiko, and both men knew he had to stay. As much as he wanted to go to the woman, he had to accept her children came first.
Then again, he always accepted that.
The child they had together, Yachiru, tried not to cry. Her energy flowed around Raiko.
The woman struggled to open her eyes. The switched from green to blue and back again. Their color would not stay one or the other. Ichigo ran his hand down her black hair. Blood ran down her mouth.
Hanataro and Rangiku wished there was something they could do, but they and Ichigo's friends kept watch for any invaders that might be coming. Besides, it did no good to crowd an injured person. No matter how many surrounded her now, the outcome would not change.
Yoruichi screamed in panic. Before the explosion, Nemu bound her to one side of Shirahime and Kisuke to the other. Now both parents were tied to the woman bound behind Raiko. Yet Yoruichi only wished to be let go, to see the dark-haired woman.
"Yuki," the woman said as she touched Ichigo's face. "I'm sorry I let them hurt you."
Ichigo held back tears. "I'm here, my princess. Everything will be fine now."
Rukia held back her tears.
Soi Fon wanted to rush in but held back. She went to Raiko.
"We need to wake this one up," Soi Fon said to Yoruichi and Kisuke. She gestured to the woman bound to Raiko.
Kisuke had no words.
Unohana said that he and Yoruichi might die, but if they did not try Shirahime and her youngest children would die. He was a fool to believe her. Shirahime was dead either way.
"Why punish this one, too?" he asked Soi Fon.
"To save the children, you idiot!" she snapped. "Come on, sister knew what she was doing!"
"Your sister is dying," he hissed.
"Are you going to let her kids die, too?"
Though she struggled to say more, the woman gave Ichigo a slight smile. "I need to introduce you to your new children. I hope you will accept them, my prince."
"Of course, I do," Ichigo said. "Now let's go home. All of us."
"Home," she repeated softly.
She closed her eyes. Blue fire burnt her body until nothing was left. Wisps of the blue smoke rose to the heavens.
Ichigo sank to his knees.
"Taicho!" Momo began to cry.
天国的白雪公主
Outside the barrier, Toshiro and the others struggled to regain their footing. They heard the screaming. Toshiro continued to throw himself against the barrier.
Shunsui and Ikkaku arrived, taking in the barrier. Hearing the screams, their blood ran cold.
"We must believe in them," Sajin said.
"We need to be ready for zero division," Shunsui said. "Whatever's going on, you can bet they'll take advantage of any moment of weakness."
天国的白雪公主
Ichigo felt a blue sphere press against his chest.
"What?" he asked softly.
He touched the sphere. It seemed like living blue fire.
Mayuri saw it and gasped.
The fairies of Shun Shun Rikka stared in awe. Led by Tsubaki, one after the other, they flew, their path straight to the sphere.
Nemu blocked their path, but they attacked. They knocked her away.
Finally seeing the orb enough to understand what it was, Uryu summoned his bow and aimed for the fairies.
"Uryu!" Orihime cried. "What are you doing?"
"Out of my way, Orihime. We can't let them get that sphere!"
"But why?" she asked.
"Oh, dear, sweet, naive Orihime," Shun'o said, "don't you understand anything at all?"
Ichigo stood, holding the sphere to himself. He summoned a yellow barrier.
"Kill those fairies!" he commanded. He looked directly at Momo. "You have the Sword of Execution. Use it! Kill them!"
Momo trembled. If she used it, it would not be like she gave it to someone. That would be okay, right?
"The rest of you," Ichigo said, looking to the many bound or near Raiko. "Protect the children. That's what she would have wanted."
Orihime stood in Uryu's way.
"No. You're not hurting them!" Orihime exclaimed.
"Orihime, don't you understand what that sphere is?" Uryu asked.
"I don't care."
Rukia summoned her second shikai. She didn't know what that sphere was, but it was obvious to anyone (except apparently Orihime) that it was very important and not something the fairies should have.
The fairies turned on her, enraged.
"First Revival!" Momo summoned Yukihime's first shikai. A wall of ice surrounded Rukia.
天国的白雪公主
Outside the barrier, the others heard Momo.
"Momo just summoned Shirahime's shikai," Toshiro said. "Something must have happened to her. We have to get in there!"
"But where's her dragon?" Ikkaku asked.
天国的白雪公主
"Tobiume," Momo said to her zanpakuto. "Can you sense Kosetsu? Or Yukihime's incarnation?"
"No," she answered. "Only hime-sama can allow Yukihime to appear as she does. And Kosetsu - he's gone."
"No," Momo said. "I don't believe it." She would try another attack.
"Wait, Momo!" Tobiume said.
"What is it?"
"Hime-sama's second Yukihime shikai is lightning. And that girl's name is lightning. So, I think you need to skip that."
"But the third is hard. The first one was hard enough."
"But it can kill those fairies. Momo, you know what that sphere is, right? The first Shinnouhi should have told you."
"That's taicho, isn't it?"
"That's all of hime-sama. If you want kami-sama to come back, they can't get it."
"Kami-sama?"
The essence of a god.
All that makes her taicho her.
天国的白雪公主
"Don't be foolish Orihime!" Uryu exclaimed. "They can't get it."
"Don't make us hurt you, Orihime," Chad said. "We can't condemn everyone else to suffer just to save your feelings."
Mimihagi broke his bindings inside of Jushiro. Jushiro fell to his knees as Mimihagi incarnated next to him. He looked exactly like a hand - because that's what he was.
Mimihagi stretched his fingers out to the fairies. He grabbed Lily and pulled her wings off.
Orihime screamed along with it.
"You're a foolish little girl," Jushiro said to Orihime. "That sphere is hime-sama's primordial spirit. They wish to give it to the king."
The others watching on did not hesitate to ready their attacks.
Rukia wanted to summon another shikai, but Yukihime's barrier still protected her.
"Think about it!" Ayame called to Orihime. "You get that primordial spirit, and this Ichigo will love you! You'll be exactly like her! You can get Ichigo after all!"
"Don't be foolish!" Rukia shouted. "You can't replace a god. That's not how it works. Even if you did, Ichigo would never love you. He'd hate you for this! He'd never forgive you!"
"She's just jealous this Ichigo threw her away," Hinagiku said.
"Move out of the way, Orihime!" Uryu said, his bow still drawn.
天国的白雪公主
"They don't want to hurt her," Momo said to Tobiume.
"Remind you of your endless devotion to Aizen?"
"Not even close."
"Hime-sama called the king the abomination on the throne that must be destroyed. Are you willing to throw away your feelings to do as hime-sama told you?"
"I have no feelings in this," Momo said. "Taicho is in charge. If she says the king must die, then I certainly can't allow them to help that thing!"
Fueled by her desire to see the woman she loved again, Momo pictured the third attack in her mind.
天国的白雪公主
"Third Revival."
The ground shook. Ice meteors rained down from the heavens.
They struck Orihime. She crumbled to the ground.
Mimihagi used the distraction to crush the wingless fairy and strip Baigon and Shun'o of their wings. He crushed them.
Jushiro walked slowly to Ichigo.
"Give it to me," he said. "I will protect it."
"You are the hand's host," Ichigo said. "Even though the hand is loyal to Shirahime, you can't be the host to this as well."
Ichigo looked to Retsu.
"You have an unpayable blood debt to her. So, I will give this to you. You will slit your own throat before you allow someone to touch it."
Unohana held her hands out reverently. Ichigo passed it to her. She felt the essence of the woman she loved.
"Hey, Unohana," Kenpachi called over, "don't forget your first name. You'd better not fail in protecting her this time!"
"See," Soi Fon said to Yoruichi, "sister is not gone. Now, help me wake this one up."
Neither Yoruichi nor Kisuke tried to help.
"Don't be such an idiot, Urahara," Mayuri said.
天国的白雪公主
Momo felt so cold. Tobiume was a fire zanpakuto, but both Shirahime's were ice.
"Kosetsu?" she called. "Kosetsu!"
Taicho needed Kosetsu.
天国的白雪公主
"Hey," Soi Fon said to the bound woman, "wake up. Come on. Shirahime - that is Shinnouhi - told me to tell you to drop the mask and save the kids! To be yourself! I get it now. They're your kids, too, aren't they? So, wake up and save them! We're not gods here, so only you can do this."
Mimihagi caught Hinagiku.
Uryu fired his bow and struck Ayame. She did not fall. Chad attacked.
Tsubaki flew towards the bound woman.
"Wake up and save your children!" Soi Fon screamed at the woman.
天国的白雪公主
"Wake up and save your children!"
Those outside the barrier felt their blood run cold.
Toshiro tried again.
"It's no use to try," the fifth division member who spoke earlier said to him. "I think Shinnouhi reinforced this."
She looked away as if reading something else.
"Message from Hinamori Fukutaicho," the woman said. "Kill the fairies."
"The fairies?" Ikkaku asked.
"The fairies are working for the king!" the woman exclaimed as she recited another part of the message.
"They must be Orihime's little fairies," Shunsui said.
"Well, time for them to die," Ikkaku said.
天国的白雪公主
"Wake up and save your children!"
The woman stirred. Her mouth moved slowly.
Soi Fon almost turned to intercept the fairy.
"Kurohitsugi!"
谢谢你们的阅读。
