Chapter 17
He stills remembers that day.
He remembers them all actually.
He remembers when Aizen had brought her home. Squirming and whimpering, Aizen had held her close as he'd entered his home.
They'd always been close, Aizen and him. He'd been the Lieutenant of the Division Gin had been assigned to after graduating from the Death God Academy in just one short year. They'd gotten along surprisingly well when Gin had been inaugurated into the Division. Something that surprised the boy at the time.
Gin had grown up an orphan struggling to survive. A fate many others actually shared. He wasn't used to getting along with anyone. Even when most children in the poor districts would band together to have some hope of survival, Gin had stayed alone.
He worked better alone, or so he told himself.
Then he had met Rangiku. Found her weak and unconscious and gave her some of the food he'd managed to scavenge when she woke. They stuck together after that. They watched out for each other, and, when they were old enough, they joined the Death Academy together. However, Gin graduated a lot earlier than her.
A lot earlier than most actually.
A prodigy, they'd called him and many Captains were interested in him but Aizen, not even Captain at the time, had been the one to convince him to join the Fifth Division. With a kind smile and warmth, he'd invited Gin to join his Division but it wasn't the sweet voiced that convinced him.
It was the genuine warmth behind them.
Gin had made his decision then and there. Heading to the Fifth Districting that very day and leaving Rangiku behind. He'd missed her somedays, missed being able to see her everyday but, as that days passed, that lessened.
Still he had no friends in the Fifth Division. Many were either too intimidated by him or to snotty to attempt to befriend. Aizen had seen that. He'd seen little Gin, barely more than a pre-teen, completely alone. Isolated from the others. While Gin didn't really care if he had friends or not, he didn't reject Aizen's friendship when it was offered because, once again, it was genuine.
Gin wasn't used to genuine. He'd grown up in a world where genuine didn't exist. The soul you called friend one day could stab you in the back the next. Still, he knew better than to let it slip from his grasp.
He'd grasped onto Aizen's friendship with both hands.
As they years passed, their friendship grew.
Thus, it wasn't rare that Gin would enter Aizen's home unannounced or already be there before the Lieutenant himself. Therefore, he'd been there when Aizen had gotten home, drenched from the ongoing storm and cradling a child in his arms. She couldn't have been more than days old when Aizen brought her home, shielded from the worst of the rain by Aizen's coat.
Aizen hadn't said a word when he'd found Gin in his home. He'd just given the boy a considering look before he'd held the child out to him.
Uncertain, Gin had only stared.
"Gin, I need to run a bath for her," Aizen had said, voice soothing and comforting as he urged Gin—still just a child himself—to take the babe. "She'll get sick if I wait too much longer."
Still uncertain, Gin held out his arms and Aizen had place her in them gratefully before shedding his wet coat and racing off. He held her stiffly and with no amount of comfort. He didn't know how to hold her comfortably and she let him know with a whimper as she'd squirmed.
"Easy," Gin had cooed, voice wobbly but determined as he rocked her. He moved carefully, barley more than a twitch really. He was too scared to hurt her but desperate to comfort the babe lest she start crying. "It's fine. Ya'll be fine."
And when big green eyes had opened, unshed tears in them, and locked eyes with his, he'd known that he'd protect this child from the cruel world.
He'd never bother to ask Aizen where he found her. He didn't ask who her mother was, if she had one. He just accepted her. She was part of his life now as much as Aizen or Daisy or Tōsen and he'd played with her as much as he could.
He also remember the day she mastered the art of escape. He'd gone hectic looking for her and nearly had heart attack when he'd spotted her with Aizen. There was no way to keep her escape a secret then. Aizen had given him the scolding of a lifetime but, try as he might, the child just kept disappearing on him.
It wouldn't be until years later that he would realize just why it seemed she could disappear in the blink of an eye but, by then, she'd be gone from their lives.
He remembers that day clearly, too, if not better than the other days.
There had been and emergency. A Hollow appearing and killing hundreds. The Fifth Division had been the first to react that day. Aizen had led them to the fight, calling out orders and commands, unaware that she'd followed them.
She'd been with Aizen before the attack, playing in his office while the Lieutenant had done paperwork. When the alarm had sounded, he'd been unsure what to do with her but had decided to leave her in the care of the Third Seat of the Fifth Division.
Gin had killed the man afterwards.
He'd gutted him alive. He had reveled in the man's anguished screams. Aizen had found him then, drenched in blood as he'd slowly pulled out the still screaming man's intestines.
Aizen hadn't reprimanded him nor did he commend him He'd simply cut the man's head of with his Zanpakuto, ending his suffering, and walked away.
Gin had been promoted to Third Seat not too long after.
The day they found her again, Gin had been too excited to follow the plan. He'd given chase without thinking. Leaving an injured Aizen behind, he'd followed her, the Hollow, through the forest. He'd chased her for hours, never letting her disappear from his sight.
The chase had been long and hectic and Gin doesn't remember how they'd ended up in The World of the Living, only that he finally had her cornered. Too tired to keep running, or perhaps finally irritated enough to attack, she'd stopped in a clearing and done just that.
Gin had avoided her attack easily enough.
The fight was grueling, lasting hours, but he managed to subdue her. Managed to get her to summit long enough for him to activate the Hōgyoku.
It was incomplete. Only able to do half of what they needed it to do and Gin was extremely lucky it hadn't killed them both. It had knocked her out though. She'd slipped into unconsciousness and for a few seconds he was worried it had killed her until he realized she was still breathing.
He'd found them shelter then.
Her transformation was just beginning and he had no way of transporting her back to The Soul Society until it was finished. Instead, he turned his attention to making her Gigai. He wasn't sure how any of this would turn out but he knew she wouldn't look normal.
If all went according to plan she'd still slightly resemble a Hollow.
Building it had been tricky without having all the resources he needed at hand but, after visiting a few Death God Bureaus established in The World of the Living, he managed to gather everything he needed to make a fully functioning Gigai.
On the last day, right as her transformation was ending; he'd slipped her into it. She wouldn't have been able to use her powers that way. Well, she shouldn't have been but Gin had underestimated her. Had forgotten that she had the knack of disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Green eyes had open, locked with his for a second and, suddenly, poof she was gone.
Well, not really poof.
Gin had turned away for a quarter of a second. Rustling behind him had drawn his attention and when he'd turn back, she was gone.
Just gone.
No Reiatsu, no footprints, no trail.
Gin had hunted her for days before finally returning home, defeated. Daisy, Aizen, and even Tōsen had question him repeatedly but he had been too devastated to speak. He'd been too ashamed to tell them what he'd done.
There was no telling what they would have done to him if he'd told them he'd used the unfinished Hōgyoku on her. Instead, he had said nothing. He vowed to keep it a secret until he found her again because he was going to find her.
And he did.
Many years later and living with a bunch of humans as a hired Assassin. The Agency, that's where she worked and Gin wasn't too surprised to know she was a killer. The Hollow in her would drive her to seek destruction and death, after all.
What he was surprised at was to see her still in the same Gigai.
It should have been too small. Too uncomfortable to keep wearing but she never took it off and that's when it hit him. As he followed her around, watching her from a distance, he'd realized she didn't know. She'd lost her memories at some point in the years since he'd transformed her or they just hadn't come back at all.
But not even that was as shocking as finding Daisy amongst them too.
The first time he caught sight of her he'd been over taken by hurt and betrayal. He'd been angry, ready to maim. He'd only stopped himself from confronting her because he knew he couldn't risk it. That and he'd realized, as he kept watching them, that Daisy truly had no idea just who the young girl was. So he help back. Daisy may have abandoned them but none of that matter as much as bringing Trixy home.
So he waited.
Bought his time until he had the perfect time to reveal himself.
And the chance offered itself in the form of a Hollow and a mission gone tits up.
"Why, why can't I remember?"
The devastation in her words shatters Gin's heart. It makes him feel guilty because he now realizes why she'd been so determined to know her name. Why she'd so desperately wanted to hear a name that, honestly means nothing to her now.
She's not the babe Aizen brought home on a stormy day. She's no longer the child that would follow him around like a little duckling. No matter how much they wish it otherwise, she never will be again.
Gin had realized that when he'd found her.
As he watched her fight, train, and kill, he'd realized that he couldn't just sweep her up into his arms and bring her home to Aizen. She's an adult. Her own person with her own life to lead. The revelation of the name they'd given her centuries ago would mean nothing but he can see that she'd hoped it would bring back the memories.
Nothing would, though.
If they hadn't come back on their own then they'd been lost through her transition to a Hollow.
"There's a reason ya can't remember," he tells her, voice soft. There's not a smile on his face this time. It falls when he catches sight of the distress on her face. "Ya died ta young ta remember."
"I died?" she asks, confused though no less distraught.
"Ya died as a babe," he says, only just resisting the urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. "Ya were taken from us ta young for ya ta remember us or any of it," he tells her before his eyes flicker to look as his Lord. "We looked for ya though. We never stopped looking for ya."
"Never?" she asks, a hopeful gleam coming to her eyes. Gin smiles as he sees it there, a soft smile he usually reserves for Kira pulling his lips up.
"Never."
It's not Gin who answers her, but Aizen.
He moves to stand behind her. The look on his face is both hopeful and sadden at the same time. The Hollow—Trixy turns to him wearily. Her red eyes—no longer the green they used to be—snap back to Gin.
"Is he?" she asks, voice small and uncertain but hopeful and Gin nods, smile widening. "I knew there was a reason your Reiatsu called to me," she mumbles before the weary look disappears. Wide, red eyes turn to Aizen, his heat clenching painfully at her next words. "You're the one, aren't you? You're the one who welcomed me into The Soul Society when Mother killed me."
Gin isn't the only one that's shocked at her words.
"Yes," Aizen says without missing a beat. A warm, comforting hand comes up to cradle Trixy's cheek. She allows it. The need to recoil from his touch never comes. "Of all the things for you to forget. Of all your lives not to remember, I hoped it would be that one."
"It's kind of hard to forget being slaughter by your own Mother," Trixy says, a bitter tone to her voice. "I always just thought it was my imagination," she continues with a shrug. "A dream. I was always too young in those memories. It just didn't line up. None of it made sense. How could I have died if I was still breathing? Nice to know that bitch really did kill me, though."
"She loved you," Aizen says, voice strong and sure even though the evidence proves otherwise. "She just couldn't handle raising you alone so she sent you to me."
"What a hell of a way to do it," she snaps as she pulls away from Aizen's grip. His heart clenches painfully as she takes a few step away from him. "How many times have I died?"
"More than I would have liked," he mumbles and he would have said more. Would have told her the many time they'd been brought together. Would have told her the many time he watched her be born, both in The Soul Society and in The World of the Living.
It's all one big cycle, after all.
You die in one and are born in the next again and again. There's no possible way to keep track how many times you'd passed through a realm but it's always with the same souls. Souls close enough will always draw together again. He and his daughter had passed through many of them with each other.
This had been the first time she'd gone into the next realm before him. It had been the first time for a lot of things, really. The first time he'd looked for pleasure in another realm.
The women, her mother, had been a beautiful woman. Long flowing blond hair, wide green eyes, sharp features and a thin waist. She'd seduced him thoroughly during one of his longer missions in The World of the Living. She had charmed him right into her bed repeatedly and he'd grown fond of her during that time.
He thought he loved her at one point.
Then it had been first time she'd been born in The World of the Living while he was in The Soul Society. The first time she'd lived two lives consecutively—short as the second may have been—in The World of the Living. When she had been born, Aizen had been both elated and guilt-stricken.
He was happy to have her back. His soul had recognized her instantly. It had heard her soul call back to him and he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. The guilt had come afterwards. It came once his time in The World of the Living had been ending. Time was running out and, as he held the woman he thought he's loved in his arms, he'd spilled his secret.
He told her everything.
She had been hurt, betrayed. She'd kicked him out and told him not to come back. As much as it had pained him, he'd followed her wishes. He left her home, heart in his throat, but stayed a few extra days to get one last look at his daughter.
That's how he knew that night.
It had raining, both in The World of the Living and The Soul Society. Thundering but he'd ignored it as he raced to save her. He didn't make it on time. Fragile as she had been, she had died before he could reach her.
All wasn't lost though, the soul was still there. Her Chain of Fate tethering her to her final resting place even as her human body ceased to move. He'd scooped her up, tears in his eyes, as he cleansed her soul and allowed her to move on to The Soul Society.
It wouldn't be the only time she'd die before him either. A few years after her soul—still as young as it had been when he'd cleansed her—had finally arrived at The Soul Society she would leave him again.
No, it wouldn't be the only time she died before him but next would mark the first time she would be eaten by a Hollow.
It had almost destroyed him.
He had gained a new appreciation for her strengthen though. She'd gone through the same thing time and time again. She had watched him die many times. Yet she had always managed to greet him on the other side with smile. She may not have always retained all her memories—he hadn't either—but they'd recognized each other.
Their souls called to each other.
He would have told her all of this if they hadn't been interrupted.
If the world hadn't come crashing back with a sharp cry from Wonderweiss.
"Shit."
Wonderweiss falls lifelessly to the floor. Killed during the distraction much the same way Gin had done to the Lieutenant of the First Division. With his Zanpakuto's power no longer restrained, Yamamoto wastes no time releasing it.
Aizen has only seconds to knock Gin and Trixy to the ground. A ball of fire comes rushing at them but Aizen manages to tackle them all to the ground before it can hit them. They scramble to their feet after it passes. Wasting no more time, they jump back into the fight.
Gin and Aizen attack as one but Yamamoto is too powerful. Too skilled for it to faze him, he blocks both their attacks easily. He returns it with one of his own, causing Gin and Aizen to fall back.
"All of you will pay for betraying The Soul Society," Yamamoto says, speaking to more than just Aizen and Gin. He's talking to all the Death Gods who have sided with The Lord. They will pay even if he has to kill them himself.
"Ah, but only after you have done the same," Unohana says, appearing next to Aizen and Gin. She had no intentions of bowing down to the man again. She will not go back to being the caged tiger forced to perform for his entertainment.
"There are many crimes we have to pay for," Byakuya says as he too moves next to Aizen and Gin. Decision made, he stands tall. A small, unnoticeable smile comes to his lips as Renji and Rukia move to his side as well. "However, most were direct orders from you so it is only fitting that you pay for them first."
"We faced you on the ground of injustice once before," Captain Jūshirō Ukitake of the Thirteen Division says, speaking back to Rukia's execution when he and Captain Shunsui Kyōraku of the Eight Division had destroyed the Sōkyoku. They had aimed to prevent any future executions by destroying it.
Yamamoto had almost killed them for it.
"We will do so again without hesitation," Captain Shunsui Kyōraku says, determined as he and Jūshirō move to stand by Aizen. Their Lieutenants at their sides. They had been one of the few to not make a move. They had stood back, watching the fight progress and only attacking when the need to defend themselves called for it.
Amongst one of those who had not made a move is the Captain of the Second Division, Suì-Fēng, but she does so now. Her Lieutenant does not come with her though. He's been cut down already. Killed by someone Suì-Fēng hadn't been paying attention to see. Her gaze had been centered on her Ex-Captain, Yoruichi.
She'd been too stunned to react. Shocked to see her stand with Aizen long into the fight while she desperately tried to figure out what side to choose. She knows now, of course, and slips next her ex-Captain without a word.
There's no more Captains or Lieutenants to come forwards. They've all fallen so Yamamoto stands alone.
Even as powerful as he is, he doesn't last long.
He's cut down by the men he had controlled like puppets. The very ones he'd forced to do his bidding no matter how questionable the command or face death.
Together they slay the man.
They cut him down just as a portal opens and a certain Honorary Death God arrives just a little too late.
Looks like there'll be no fighting here for him either.
"Ah, come on!"
