"Vermin...," Stark muttered under his breath, sending the caterpillar-like Hollow flying across the dunes. The white armor-plated body bore numerous gashes from Balas; it still chuckled lowly at his approach. Rukia hurried after him, annoyed that her shunpo hadn't been able to keep up with his superior speed.
"An Arrancar and a Shinigami...guess I never thought I'd see one of her like again." The common Adjuchas-class Hollow cackled, rasping up thin blood from its grinning mouth.
Stark leveled his palm summoning a blue-tinged crackling fusion of energy to his fingertips. Rukia ran forward, pulling his arm back. "Wait!" she cried, "what did it mean another like me?"
He pushed her off gently, sending another glance of disgust to the downed creature. "Likely, its seen one of the Shinigami scouting parties. They used to enter Hueco Mundo in the past." Or...his suspicions lingered.
"Oh, no, Gingerback. This was a lone survivor. A man...shall I tell you how his comrades were tortured to dea -" it spoke no more. Stark sighed softly, feeling the breath of ice against his face. Rukia elegantly twisted her sword free from its throat. The resulting spirit particles scattered to the dunes, bereft of the mark that would set the spirit free.
"That one wasn't worthy of Konso."
Stark shrugged, glancing off to the distance. "It must've been lying. There's no possible way a lone Shinigami could survive for long out here."
She bit her lip, less certain. "Yeah, you're probably right." Deep down, she refused to let it go. The Hollow hadn't been speaking of her, of that she was certain. Was it possibly a surveying party? Soul Society had been known to send out Shinigami in groups to Hueco Mundo in the past. The Hollow had seemed so certain someone had survived...but where? Rukia wouldn't have questioned how entirely, knowing it possible to survive with some assistance. Still, she reluctantly glanced after Stark's striding form. For her benefit, he had slowed down his walk, lessening his long strides in order to give her time to catch up.
"You seem to be searching for someone. Have our orders changed?"
"Yes and no. The Director General informed me this morning that he wishes for us to convert the Grand Fisher."
Incredulous to the last, she openly gaped at him. "The Grand Fisher? The very same Hollow that's evaded hunting parties for years…why now?"
"I couldn't say. Supposedly something to do with it being wounded from a battle in the living world." Stark said punctuated by frequent yawning.
A battle? Who had it fought? Had the Shinigami survived? She found herself hoping for a happier outcome than most had fared. "Do you think we'll be able to convince it?"
"They tried once already. I don't see how asking again is going to change anything."
"What happens if it refuses to come with us?"
"Simple, we let it go."
... Living World...
Something seemed to be drawing numerous Hollows from Hueco Mundo. Ulquiorra sensed it the moment the dimensional rip split the worlds. Were they drawn to the trash Kurosaki? As improbable as it was, he could think of no other reason. Hour after hour, he discerned their presences, small fry. Lowly evolved beings whose presences went mostly under the radar of Las Noches. The Hollows entered the living world in droves; alerted to them by soul pager, Kurosaki took to the rooftops, slaying them with a determined countenance that harbored only mild annoyance.
But, what of Kurosaki's friends?
He had run out on them receiving the fifth beep on the pager in as many minutes.
Facing five, he began slaying them in his typical classless style. Disinterested, Ulquiorra sensed a brief flare of energy that wasn't immediately identifiable as reiatsu. Reiryoku? He thought the useless trash Kurumadani who was stationed in Karakura Town might've been fighting back. Probing the spirit pressures in the near vicinity with his Pesquisa, he discerned the Shinigami some distance away. Who was it?
Again. The flow was mildly erratic, weak, but almost familiar.
Rukia?
No. He knew her reiatsu. Leaving Kurosaki to his lone fight, Ulquiorra's swift Sonido carried him to an alleyway where a dark-haired human girl lay beneath a golden shield. Another stood over her, protecting.
It was...one of Kurosaki's friends.
"Orihime...?" The name slipped from his lips in surprise.
...Hueco Mundo...
The body she glimpsed first, large, furred, resembling almost a hamster with bird-like hands and feet. Its large mask had black dots running across from cheek to cheek and a lure similar to an anglerfish dangled from its head. She had seen it only in case files. The hideous masked face, the rumors of a fifty four year legacy in Soul Society's records. The Fisher was only Adjuchas class but far more cunning than any other Hollow.
Stark landed ahead of her, calling out in mild conversational tones. "Looks like you got banged up pretty badly."
"What's it to you?" The Fisher hissed, body shuddering from pain. "You're running around with one of his own kind! That boy with his huge sword…,"
Boy?
The Hollow mumbled a few other disjointed sentences. "Orange haired punk…didn't fall for my trick…,"
Could it be…Ichigo?
Rukia's heart leapt, she struggled to keep her expression composed. "Why were you after him?" Her tone was sharper than she meant.
"Oh, he just leaked reiatsu…next time," the vacuous holes in its mask flashed. "I'll get him."
"So you're not interested in becoming stronger through Aizen-sama?" Stark ignored the greed in the Fischer's voice. Silver flashed. She hadn't missed it. "There won't be a next time."
Stark half-turned, calling sharply. "Rukia!"
In her mind she had no plan. Maybe the beginnings of one. Attack. Evade. Destroy. Something had touched her reluctant heart, a remembrance of an orange-haired stranger who she had saved only for another monster to consume him.
I can't have that.
Rukia's instincts as a Shinigami were dull, sharpening only when faced with a human's destruction. She attacked with the ferocity of a tigress defending cubs, delivering slashing blows that the Hollow at first avoided then disappeared from her sight.
Stark grappled with her arm, attempting to dissuade her. "Hey, stop it!"
"No! This Hollow's taken too much blood! He's killed many Shinigami in the past!" No, that's not it.
She yanked her arm free and leapt skyward, searching. How can I let him live after knowing he'll kill Ichigo?
Stark phased in front of her, brow furrowed as if he lacked understanding. "Remember your allegiances, Rukia! You're treading on thin ice now. The Shinigami aren't your allies anymore."
A tremor went through her.
That's right...
All my instincts.
My purpose...I've become a traitor...but, still...
Throwing him an angry look, she shunpo'd to the ground glimpsing the swing of the lure. Slashing sideways, she was unprepared for the claws that sank into her as the Hollow rematerialized.
"Ahahaha! Not so strong are you, girl? Pity."
Rukia felt her arms shake, her upraised blade waver and come crashing down.
"You're young, but not young enough. More's a pity, I'm starved...maybe I'll go back to the living world."
She bit back the scream threatening to tear from her throat.
"That boy, Kurosaki, or maybe his sisters. They'd suffice."
"You b-bas-tard!"
She felt herself lift off the ground and sent flying, pitched like a broken rag doll. Rukia gasped as her back struck rock. Clutching her side, she sank down to the sand in a crumpled heap, passing from consciousness to the darkness of oblivion within seconds.
"Can't trust 'em…those Shinigami."
His eyes shifted to her crumpled form, one arm was wrapped tightly around her torso. Her small face surrounded by mussy coils of black hair had been drained of color. The wounds in her torso, deep, circular. He had watched the appendage pierce her body; her arms and legs had flailed nervelessly. If she had screamed, he shouldn't have cared (even if he did). But, she didn't scream her agony, only the rage simmering beneath the surface, evident in her last spoken words shattered Stark's inner apathy. Brave, foolish, very foolish, and also righteous. He had warned her not to engage the Grand Fisher - who chortled at the very human look on his face.
"Ru…kia?" He had no more thoughts.
She lay so still.
Blue light flooded the small valley.
The remnants of it burned Rukia's eyelids eliciting a soft groan.
Stark, who had moved with the speed of a vengeful God, hovered above the desecrated canyon, impassively gazing down at the chasm he had created.
Rukia awoke in her own bed cradled by pillows. Too many pillows. Since when did I have green pillows?!
"How long have I been out?"
From the grogginess of her head, she assumed sedation.
"A while." Stark's voice rumbled from somewhere to the left of her. To him a while could mean anything. Annoyance rose up hot in her chest, expanding painfully beneath the white bandages. "What happened?"
"Nothing you need bother with. Concentrate on healing. I've made my report already." He passed through her line of sight, close enough to touch, white tunic parted at the throat. She had never seen him look so. So lost.
"What happened out there, damn you?!" Determinedly, she flung back the covers, struggling to clamber out of bed and march after him.
"Stay there!" He barked at her. Rukia stopped in her tracks, eyes widening. "You were perforated six times." Stark's shoulders heaved, his fist lay curled on the panel. "Just stay there." She contemplated launching herself in a flying kick. Unerringly, he traced the code into the keypad. The panel retracted. "Don't follow me."
Rukia looked away after the panel slid shut.
He had never raised his voice to her before. Never showed signs of annoyance. Did he...blame himself for her injuries? Quickly, she disregarded it. No, he wouldn't. Stark wasn't the type to look after allies. Something else had to be bothering him. But, what?
"You came back early." Lilinette commented. He had nearly caught her dozing in the pillow palace, starting awake once the familiar tendrils of reiatsu had permeated the rooms.
"Hn," Stark's noncommittal grunt didn't faze her. He walked across the room, pushing her off the topmost pillows with little ceremony. Her skinny arms flailed but she still struck the floor with an indignant groan, glaring up at her other half. "What was that for?!" Lilinette roared.
"Leave."
"Whaddya mean, leave?" She clambered up to her feet, pouncing on him, hands outstretched to begin tickle torture. "I belong here, idiot!" He averted his face from her, smooth brow wrinkling in displeasure. Malcontent simmered in his aura, thickening the air. Sensing his mood, she wisely fell quiet, picking at the black edged collar.
"Did something happen?" She finally ventured to ask, noticing his grey eyes at once so clear, revealed the trouble behind his composure.
"I killed a Hollow."
He might've been a comrade.
"That's normal! Why get all hung up about it?"
I killed him out of hate.
Before Las Noches, I didn't kill Hollows. They died on their own. Even recruiting, Tia executed them with ease, while I looked the other way. If I had to, it was because it was orders and nothing more. But, this time, I didn't hesitate.
What's happening to me?
The door swung open.
Rukia lay on her side, facing the wall. Szayelaporro had come and gone, leaving unwanted bits of medical advice behind. Rukia disliked his pink hair and officious attitude. He reminded her of Kurotsuchi without the silent doll-like woman groveling in his shadow.
"Not again." She groaned, turning over with difficulty.
Someone else stood there in the threshold. Small, black-haired, lilac eyes narrowed on her in unmistakable glee.
"Hello, Kuchiki-san."
She sat up too quickly, her hand flying to her stomach. Raw pain savaged her torso. Perforated indeed.
"Who are you?"
"Name's Luppi. Luppi Antenor. I am one of the Numeros you weren't introduced to." He made a show of bowing, his overlong sleeves hid his hands. Rukia watched the fabric dust the floor.
"That's nice." Her eyes slid from his hands to the sword stand where her zanpakuto rested.
"Ichimaru and I were - how do you say, friends?" Luppi smiled winningly, his grin matching the piece of jaw bone left from his days as a Hollow on the side of his head. "At least he thought so. Seeing as you killed him," those violet eyes narrowed a fraction. "I don't have anyone to talk to."
"So, is this just a social visit or do you just like to talk?"
"Neither." He disappeared from her sight. Rukia frantically looked around, scrabbling up from the bed, her hand inches from closing on the hilt of her sword when something warm and flesh-like curled around her throat. Reflexively, she gagged, flailing inches from her goal. Luppi's light chuckle floated from behind her. Rukia twisted around, one hand flying to the kido-chanted rope shutting off her windpipe to his gloating face.
"Let's take a walk, shall we?"
I don't have much choice do I?
She felt her body lift from the room in the palace, travel jaggedly across wavelengths imagined. Luppi's Sonido was nothing like Stark's almost fluid speed and certainly nothing like the feel of running on her own two legs. She sensed the end in sight, feeling him lessen his step. Now. Pressing her fingers against the rope, she ignited a modified spell of fire like a spark to his grasp, incinerating the rope. Luppi felt the effects, cursing under his breath, he released her with a haughty sniff. Broken from the flow of speed, she skated across the sky above the domed roofline of the fortress, her eyes went wide as she took in the sight of the sand stretching as far as the eye could see and the moon above.
He had taken her outside. Beyond the reach of an ally, away from curious eyes.
She touched her hip where her scabbard normally lay.
Nothing..
She put her palms together, channeling reiryoku into her fingertips. "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens! Hado 73 Soren Sokatsui!" Twin blasts of blue light thundered forth from her hands. She had counted on him evading, tracking his reiatsu the way she had in Menos Forest, isolating it from all her other senses.
There!
She quickly formed another hand gesture, "Hado 54!" Energy gathered in a swath at her fingertips. Rukia released it at the last second, "Haien!"
The Arrancar disappeared in the blur of violet light. She caught her breath thinking back to the training dummies they had practiced on. Hado 54 incinerated its target on contact. Rukia bit her lip, anxiously searching for the Arrancar.
"Is this all your power?"
Rukia watched in disbelief as he phased into sight inches from her.
"Are you really the one who killed Ichimaru?" He smirked, shrugging elaborately. "I guess you're...how is it Schiffer says? Trash."
She flinched unable to stop the action.
"Ooh, sorry! You're something to Ulquiorra, aren't you? You're living in his palace after all."
"You don't know anything," about us.
"Or are you just some charity case? Somebody he might feel sorry for?" Luppi laughed happily. "If he feels at all!"
"Sh-Shut up!" Heat surged to her cold cheeks. "Shut the hell up!"
"No, you shut up." Luppi suddenly turned serious, a dangerous glint in his eye. "I'm going to kill you and prove my worth to Aizen-sama. So, just die won't you?"
She struck the sand, cradled in its unmerciful embrace. Grains stuck to her bloody lip, coating the front of her white tunic with a spattering of dust. Rukia inhaled through her mouth, the kido at her fingertips sizzling away into nothingness.
Somewhere above, a ghostly cackle resonated in the still, dead air.
Help me, the thought drifted through her pain-riddled consciousness.
"After all," Luppi wrapped a hand around the hilt of his zanpakuto, his smile razor thin. "Would anyone actually care if I killed you now? Hmm, Kuchiki-san?"
Yes and no.
No.
No.
No.
The space of a heartbeat passed. Rukia felt the tightness in her chest. An all too familiar suffocation of feelings, hardening her resolve. She had been too open, too easy for her enemies to read her emotional state. Rukia cursed her own weakness, knowing she had let her guard down.
I let them in.
For one second, I forgot myself.
Don't I have any pride anymore?
She blinked and the sand turned to flurries. Cold kissed droplets clung to her cheeks, her labored breath exhaled became a soft white cloud. Instantly, the sweat clinging to her body dried.
"Sode no. . Shirayuki?"
The spirit glided from the dark forest edge of trees, her steps light, almost soundless. "Rukia, you let indecision cloud your blade."
"I'm sorry."
"You've proved yourself over and over again even if your cause isn't the most worthy."
She winced, she couldn't help it. Sode no Shirayuki meant Ulquiorra.
"But, that is your choice. Now this thing dares call you weak?"
There's no one to save me now.
"I tried, I tried hard. I can't defeat him."
Not without you.
The sword spirit smiled softly. "I am always with you, Rukia. Call me...summon my blade form with everything in you."
She looked down at her hands, trembling, bled of warmth in the spirit's frozen environment. "And then? How can I defeat him with ice he can shatter?"
Sode no Shirayuki sighed, "Perhaps it is time. I had planned on waiting longer to reveal it to you."
"What?" She hardly dared raise hopes of Ban-Kai. The final form of her sword she had yet to attain.
"When the moment comes," the spirit whispered, her form vanishing in a flurry of snowflakes. "You'll know the words." Rukia blinked against the cold, ice gathered on the ends of her lashes. Mai," the word slipped from her lips. "Sode no Shirayuki!" Swiping her hand out, she felt the coldness in her blood coalesce. Her reiatsu dispersed into white mist backlit by the glow of the cero.
Her eyes opened.
The trailing white ribbon flowed around her body. Rukia glimpsed him above, a smirk on his effeminate face. She leapt upward, bounding past him, blurring into shunpo he could easily match. The white ribbon extended suddenly from the tip of the hilt snapping around his throat. Rukia felt the weight as he flew through the air, breaking her flow of concentration with his string of curses.
"For the last time, shut up!" She hurled him down against the domed rooftop, the blade revolving once more clockwise. "*Dai go no Mai, Fuyuno Kage."
(*Fifth Dance, Winter's Shadow."
White light washed the desert sands, spilling around the domed roof of the palace, obliterating the white stone. Beneath her feet, the dome collapsed inward flooding the interior with rubble and thick white dust settled like a blanket over the columns, the center floor where audiences with Aizen were held.
Rukia leapt from piece to piece, reaching the floor the same moment Luppi did. She saw his gaze dart around, searching for her. No, you don't. Phasing behind a fallen chunk of masonry, she leapt for the kill.
The Shinigami stood inches from him, her left arm pulled back, the length of blade thrust dangerously close to his face.
"You speak of weakness when you don't know the meaning of the word." Kuchiki's breath painted white ice flowers. The temperature had dropped well below comfort levels. He had forgotten what it was like to feel the cold.
"You underestimate your enemy, you die."
Luppi's mouth went dry. He could feel the bite of ice crystals growing on the side of his throat. For once his clever tongue deserted him. "Duly noted, Kuchiki-san."
The white ribbon formed a moon's shadow behind her. The copper scent of blood punctured the purity of frozen water. It was strange, she was something this Shinigami. She was almost lovely.
"If you come after me again," Kuchiki retracted her sword, eyes hard like flints. "I'll kill you." Sheathing her sword, she glared once more as a final warning then moved slowly away, one hand resting against her chest.
Luppi considered briefly the odds of landing an attack while her back was turned. Yes, no, maybe. There was also a huge chance, he would meet the same fate as his cero blast.
...obliterated into nothingness.
"What're you looking at?" Luppi snapped, glaring into the shadows. D-Roy Rinker, a lower ranked toady of the Sexta's slunk away. Luppi's lip curled. He had sensed hunger, the appetence of a lost soul seeking to condemn another to its empty existence. He was different however. Killing Kuchiki for food had never crossed his mind, Luppi's good mood returned. Rather ripping her innards out in all their gory splendor.
"One day, some day soon, Kuchiki-san."
Rukia's footsteps faltered. She had kept a tight one-handed grip on her sword after leaving the audience chamber, ready at any moment to call Sode no Shirayuki forth. But, when the solitary sound of her own footsteps remained alone and she had sensed Luppi withdraw to another part of the palace, she relaxed though shaken inwardly.
He was stronger than he had looked.
Fukutaichou- closer to Taichou class.
If the numeros were as strong as Antenor, she shuddered to think of the consequences of the Espada on the battlefield.
Leaning against one of the pillars for support, she glanced down at her hand, sticky with blood. When she looked up someone stood there close enough to feel the concern in his eyes, sense the disturbance in the air left over from his haste in reaching her.
"I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me." She said steadily, brushing past him, averting her face.
"Don't be stupid. I'm not trying to fight your battles." He scratched his cheek, "but, it'll be a pain if you bleed to death before the mission's finished."
Rukia stopped, her back hunched. Her chest felt an open wound. The green glow of Kaido faded from her hand. "What-you're actually concerned about the miss-hey! Put me down!?"With his damnable speed, he had scooped her up, one arm supporting her shoulders, the other beneath her knees.
"I'd drape you over my shoulder," Stark said blandly, "but, you're already in pain so..."
"Shut up and put me down!"
"Nah."
She thumped him weakly in the chest, her knees jerking up dangerously close to his chin. "What!? I can walk I tell you! Put me down this -"
"Too much trouble."
"Damn you," Rukia growled, grinding her teeth.
"Yeah, yeah, thank me later."
-TBC
AN: Thanks for reading :-)
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