Title: Turnabout
Author: darkling59
Fandom: Bleach
Rating: T
Date: 9/25/2021
Disclaimer: Bleach and all associated characters, settings, concepts, etc. within this story do not belong to me. All of the original stuff does. Please DO NOT steal.
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Aftermath
"This is so weird." Lilynette whined, flopping backwards onto the obscenely comfy bed behind her. Starrk, happily ensconced in the cushions on the matching couch across the room, opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow in question. "I mean, I thought I'd be going back to academy but you'd be going with me! Not…." She made an inarticulate, annoyed sound and waved her hands in the air towards the ceiling.
"…It's nicer than your academy dorm." Starrk observed sleepily.
"That's not the point!" She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Arrgh…I thought you, of all people, would be upset! What happened to 'shinigami can't be trusted'?"
He offered a laconic shrug. "I told you, if you want to be a shinigami, then I'm fine with it. If you decide you don't want to, then we can leave. And I'd much rather be here than in the fourth division."
"What did you do to that guy?"
"Nothing." Starrk grumbled, pointedly shutting his eyes. "He's just like that."
They'd been in the fourth division for all of five minutes, just long enough for Yoruichi to herd them out of the senkaimon and into the nearest exam room, before Zaraki's reiatsu skyrocketed on the other side of the building and his booming yells echoed through the narrow corridors:
"I FELT THAT! WHERE IS HE?! I CAN FEEL THAT SWORD GUY! I WANT A REMATCH! DID YOU FIND HIS SHINIGAMI? LET ME FIGHT HIM!"
That's where they lost Ichigo. Despite not knowing them well, he'd attached himself to their group at Urahara shoten after Yoruichi got a good look at the extensive bloodstains on Lilynette and Starrk and hurried them back to Soul Society with barely enough time to exchange introductions with everyone in the shop. He'd come along to keep them company and offer some support but took off to stall Zaraki while Yoruichi quickly urged them out of the building. Lilynette was put out to lose her self-proclaimed protector, but mollified when Yoruichi took them to a small building on the forested outskirts of the thirteenth division compound where they were briefly greeted by a cheerful Captain Ukitake. Evidentially they were to be his guests while they waited for a healer. In Lilynette's mind, of all the captain's she'd met so far, at least he lived up to the hype she'd heard about them at the academy.
…Starrk decided not to tell Lilynette just how far they were from the actual members of the thirteenth division or about the guards he could sense patrolling in the forest outside the front door. He also didn't draw her attention to the fact that the monitored front door was the only entrance or exit to their room without destroying a wall or two; even the windows were too small to crawl through.
The shinigami were playing nice, but taking no chances. Given that was already more than Starrk expected, especially after the battle at the lake, he was feeling cautiously optimistic about the situation.
"How long until Captain Ukitake gets back?" Lilynette asked, a distinct impatient whine in her voice.
"Who knows? He's got a whole division to run. It could be a while."
"Argh! Why can't we just get this over with?!" She yowled and, in a fit of petty rage, pitched the nearest pillow across the room.
Starrk was up and after it in a flash, catching it just before it could slam into the face of Retsu Unohana, captain of the fourth division.
"…Thank you, Zanpakuto-san." She smiled at him calmly, acknowledging the pillow with a raised eyebrow and a graceful nod.
"Er. Sure." Starrk shrugged awkwardly, tucking the pillow under one arm while Lilynette tried to muffle her mortified squeak of horror in the background.
"May I speak with your wielder?"
He stepped aside and gestured towards Lilynette. She glowered at him like he'd betrayed her, then her eyes widened when she got a good look at Unohana.
"Are you a captain too?" She exclaimed, surprised.
"I am indeed. My name is Retsu Unohana. I am the captain of-."
"The fourth division!" Lilynette interrupted, tripping over her own words with her excitement. The trauma of the battle hadn't been quite enough to dampen all of the hero worship she'd learned at the academy. "I've heard of you! The fourth years were saying…uh…I mean…" She flushed. After a moment, she bobbed her head in the loosest approximation of a formal bow. "I-I'm sorry for interrupting you. My name is Lilynette Gingerbuck."
Unohana smiled at the young girl. "That's quite alright. Captain Ukitake requested that I stop by. Apparently, you were injured during the rebellion…?"
"Well, I mean…" A hand instinctively went to cover her stomach, still heavily stained with blood. She hadn't had a chance to change clothes in all of the running around. "Sort of? But not really. We're fine."
"Fine?" Gentle disapproval colored Unohana's voice and Lilynette's bravado wilted. "You don't appear to be fine. Please sit down. I'll take a look and then you can go back to the academy."
"But…but…" Lilynette squirmed even as she reluctantly obeyed and sat up on the edge of the bed, compelled by the force of the healer's personality. Her eyes landed on Starrk, leaning against the wall next to the door and fiddling with the pillow. "But Starrk hasn't been healed and he was the one who fought! He was bleeding too!"
"Oh?" Unohana turned and blinked when she registered the blood on Starrk. "I was under the impression that zanpakuto broke when they were injured and returned to their sword form, not that they bled."
Awkward silence fell as Lilynette and Starrk exchanged a complicated look and refused to meet Unohana's eyes.
"…I see." Her tone cooled slightly. "Then I had better look at both of you, just to make sure."
Two quick kido scans later and she was looking between them with a hint of confusion. Despite all of the blood in evidence, it appeared Lilynette was right. They really were fine. She couldn't find any trace of internal or external injuries, though Lilynette was suffering from a touch of kido exhaustion. She would have worried that they were hiding something if she wasn't using kido, but it was extremely difficult to hide anything from a full body scan.
They looked back expectantly and she offered them a strained smile, focusing primarily on Lilynette. "You'll be fine. Pending Captain Ukitake's approval and your zanpakuto's return to your Inner World, you'll be ready to return to the academy when they resume normal courses next Monday.
"Next Monday?"
"Yes. I hear the rebellion caused quite a bit of damage to the facilities and precautions are being taken until it is absolutely certain that all of the zanpakuto have returned to their wielders. They're on a limited schedule until then."
"…Oh. I guess that's why Starrk needs to be back in my Inner World before I can go back to the academy?"
"That's correct." Unohana did not tell them how troubling it was that he was still manifested. That he was even still able to manifest. All but a handful of captain-class zanpakuto and the unfortunate spirits that had killed their shinigami and no longer had hosts to return to were already gone. They'd naturally returned to their sword forms as soon as the effects of Muramasa's abilities faded completely.
Lilynette looked back at her with innocent confusion but Starrk's eyes were darker and older, more knowledgeable despite being no older than his wielder.
"Don't worry. I won't be around long." He reassured her quietly. Then he tipped his head at Lilynette. "But she'll cause a stir if she shows up looking like that."
"Hey!" Lilynette hissed and punched his arm, blushing. Self-consciously, she brushed at the blood all over her front but it was dry and stained by now. That particular uniform would never be the same.
Unohana laughed quietly. "I'll send someone along with fresh clothes soon."
"…Thanks." Lilynette mumbled then, seeing the captain was about to leave, she startled. "Uh! It was nice meeting you? Captain?"
"You as well, Miss Gingerbuck."
Charmed despite herself, and despite the danger inherent in the duo, Unohana vowed to keep an eye out for Lilynette in the future. The child meant no harm and Seireitei could only benefit from her inclusion in the Gotei 13.
Lilynette waited until the captain's footsteps had faded away before frowning at Starrk. "What did she mean, 'we're okay'? It felt like my guts were being ripped out through my stomach!"
Starrk grimaced. "Yeah…me too, through my chest. Apparently, that's what happens when we overstep our abilities as zanpakuto and shinigami."
"You mean…when I followed you and became a wolf? And you said I couldn't do it? That's what started this?" Her eyes widened in realization and guilt.
"Started it maybe, but I caused the worst of it." Starrk sighed and flopped back on the bed. "I never should have lost control at the lake. Seeing all of those hollows…"
"I get it." Lily tried to empathize, though she honestly had no idea what it was like or what he'd been going through. She just knew it was bad and she never wanted it to happen again. "So…this is a hollow thing?"
"Our scars are in the same places as our hollow holes used to be." Starrk replied quietly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. His other half's eyes widened. She'd never thought much about her scar before, but suddenly its perfectly round shape took on new meaning. It was proof of the outlandish story he'd told her; of the past she'd probably never remember.
"Oh." Her voice was tiny.
"Don't worry. The captain said we were fine and I'm sure she's right. If we don't do that again, we'll be fine. Also…" Starrk hesitated, thinking of the fissures in the ceiling of Lilynette's inner world and the ominous hole where they led.
When he'd been silent too long, Lilynette scowled. "Also, what?" Her eyes narrowed. "No more secrets, Starrk! We're in this together, remember."
"…Yes. And you do need to know. There's something I need to show you in your Inner World when I return."
"Is it…bad?"
"I'm not sure. It's something to keep track of, but so long as you stay away from it, I think we'll be fine. I've been keeping an eye on it until now."
"Great, something else to worry about."
"Lily…"
A loud knock interrupted them and they both instantly went quiet and stood to attention.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Ukitake poked his head in and smiled at the sight of them.
Starrk nodded in greeting but Lilynette just chewed on her lip, lost in thought. Given she'd approached Ukitake with something like awe at their previous meetings, her silence was slightly concerning. When she snuck a glance at Starrk, her zanpakuto immediately felt a wave of foreboding. Another important decision clicked into place in her mind.
She firmed her jaw and addressed Ukitake. "You're old, right? So you have lots of experience with shinigami?"
"You could say that, yes." Jushiro wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused so he settled on faintly confused.
"Do shinigami ever remember their old lives? Before they died, I mean."
Starrk jolted hard and his eyes widened. "Lily, are you sure…"
"Shut up, Starrk." She snapped, not taking her eyes off of Jushiro. "So, do they?"
The shinigami's brow furrowed and seriousness settled over him like a mantle. He could sense the gravity in those words. Whatever was behind them meant a lot to Lilynette and Starrk. He didn't reply until he was sitting on the couch and the other two were seated next to each other on the edge of the bed facing him. For the first time since he'd met them, Lilynette was the one that seemed calm and Starrk was as tense as a bowstring.
Tactfully, Jushiro did not mention it. He carefully considered the question and answered it to the best of his ability.
"Their human lives? Sometimes. A human with great enough spiritual pressure might recall quite a lot when they wake up in Rukongai, though it often fades quickly. A human with very little reiatsu might not even remember their name."
Student and zanpakuto exchanged a look heavy with hidden meaning.
"What about hollows?" Lilynette tried hard to sound unconcerned, but Jushiro saw through it immediately. Unsettled by the implications, he frowned.
"Do they remember? I don't believe so. There are no recorded cases, at any rate."
Starrk's expression did not change, but his furry ears lowered slightly at the answer, drooping in response to the emotions that did not show on his face. Lilynette stiffened and grabbed his clawed hand. When it didn't look like either of them would continue, Ukitake took the reins of the conversation. There were a few reasons Lilynette might ask such a thing and none of them were good, but they weren't as bad as Starrk seemed to think.
"However, I do not see why it would matter." One of Starrk's ears twitched and Ukitake smiled slightly, trying to infuse encouragement into the expression. Lilynette just stared at him blankly and Starrk refused to meet his eyes, so he wasn't sure how successful he was. "Provided a soul has been properly cleansed and means no harm to other souls, they are welcome here."
Privately, he did not think a creature such as a hollow could meet those criteria if they maintained the same mind and personality they'd held as a hollow. But if a cleansed hollow meant no harm, they were the same as any other soul.
There was a palpable release of tension between the duo on the bed.
"Do you remember your previous life, Lilynette?" Jushiro ventured. It was far from an innocent question. He was thinking back over the abilities he'd seen Starrk manifest and trying to compare them to what he'd seen from hollows over the years. They didn't match, but did they match better than a shinigami?
"No. She doesn't remember anything." The deep tone was ancient and sad, far more so than Starrk had ever spoken before. Jushiro turned his eyes away from Lilynette and towards the wolf zanpakuto in realization.
"But YOU do." He breathed, shocked.
"I remember dying, Taicho-san." He sounded so, so tired. Jushiro ached to comfort him. Lilynette did comfort him, gripping his hand tightly and leaning into his side until he put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her. "And I remember…" He hesitated, looking down at her in painful remembrance. Then he closed his eyes and his pointed ears drooped all the way, so far into his hair that they were no longer visible. "I remember them killing her first."
Lilynette keened quietly, painfully and Starrk bowed his head. The emotion in that short statement was heart wrenching. Jushiro closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry you had to remember that."
"…Yeah." He choked out.
"You should have told me, stupid." Lilynette growled, trying not to sob as she pushed even closer.
Jushiro gave them a few minutes before gently asking the obvious next question.
"Who killed her? And you?"
"Shinigami." Ukitake closed his eyes, feeling the knowledge settle in his gut like a leaden weight. Suddenly, a lot was making sense. But Starrk wasn't done. "Two of them came after us in Hueco Mundo. Captains dressed in white."
Wait, what? That didn't make sense.
"White?"
"Yeah. The first wanted us to join him. When I said no…well, here we are."
"Do you know their names?" No shinigami would be prosecuted for killing a hollow, especially one as strong as Starrk (Lilynette?) must have been, but Ukitake had a sneaking suspicion…
"The first one introduced himself as Aizen. I don't know the other one's name, but he had silver hair and a creepy smile."
Ukitake's eyes snapped wide and he stared at the zanpakuto in shock. Of all things, he was not expecting Starrk to link back to the traitor.
"When was this?" his mind raced, trying to reconcile Starrk and Lilynette's timeline with Aizen's actions. What was it they'd said before leaving for Karakura Town? They'd been in Soul Society for five months? Six?
Starrk shrugged. "A while ago. I don't know how long it was before I woke up."
"I don't know either." Lilynette butted in. "I don't remember anything about…that. Being a hollow. I only found out he remembered right after the battle at the lake. I think I woke up in Rukongai…four to six months ago? It all blurred together in the beginning."
"That's normal. It takes some time to come to terms with dimensional relocation." The captain automatically reassured her. His mind was racing but long practice kept the turmoil off his face. His apparent serenity gave Lilynette the confidence to ask one more question.
"Is he here? That Aizen guy?" Her voice was small. "Starrk said he was a captain but I-I don't…"
"No, he's not. You don't need to worry about that; Aizen and his compatriots left Soul Society months ago and they are not welcome here any longer." Jushiro reassured her.
"So…we're safe here?"
"From Aizen? Yes." Jushiro's eyes softened as he took in the worry written all over her face and the better-hidden but still evident fear in Starrk. "Don't worry; he can't get you here. Further, I can promise you that myself and the other captains will do our very best to keep him away from you and make you welcome here from now on. I am sorry that you've experienced such hardship since coming to Soul Society, but we would be honored to count you as one of us, a shinigami and a defender of souls."
Lilynette blushed hard and stammered. "R-really? You don't care about all of that?"
"What matters is who you are here and now. Your previous lives are not a factor." Jushiro reassured her.
Like a valve had been switched, all of the tension drained out of both of them. Lilynette grinned and then let out a huge yawn, followed shortly by her zanpakuto.
"Thank you, Captain." Starrk had the final word. "I think we'll stick around for a while."
Jushiro smiled softly as the two of them settled down in the guest room, Starrk taking his place on the sofa and Lilynette sprawling on the bed, barely taking time to change into the fresh clothes he'd brought her on Unohana's request. Slowly, he slipped out of the room, giving them the privacy to relax into their regained peace.
He was not so lucky.
He maintained his calm as he traveled past the guards and through the trees to his division, and as he passed among his squad members. He kept it until he was sequestered back in his office, far from the academy student, her odd zanpakuto, and any other prying eyes. Only once he was absolutely certain no one could see or hear him did he let his eyes widen and his breath stutter out in a series of low gasps. His hands wanted to shake but he clenched them firmly, not allowing the reaction.
He'd picked up far more from Starrk and Lilynette's carefully told story than they'd intended.
A Vasto Lorde class hollow. Probably a naturally created Vasto Lorde class arrancar, given Aizen's interest. And it had been Starrk, not Lilynette, who Aizen tried to recruit.
Jushiro had gotten an up-close look at the devastating effects of Starrk's wolves during the rebellion and had heard even worse from the reports of the battle at the lake. Now he was forced to think about what might have happened had they been turned on shinigami at Aizen's behest.
A shudder wracked the captain's thin frame.
If the traitor had succeeded in his recruitment, Jushiro was certain they would have faced Starrk and Lilynette across the coming battlefield in Karakura Town. With the strength Starrk had as a zanpakuto and must have had as a hollow, there was no doubt he would have been more powerful than any arrancar observed so far. He would have been in the top three, perhaps even the primera.
And now that powerful creature was bound inside of a young student, just a sword spirit but with abilities never before seen, memories of a long life of suffering, and a shaky allegiance to the shinigami that Jushiro could only hope he'd repaired somewhat with his reassurances.
Once in a while over the centuries, Jushiro had seen the effects of an improper cleansing. A plus soul who did not take to konso as it should, a hollow with only part of its mask shattered before it was forcibly sent on, a specimen of Kurotsuchi's who suffered unknown tortures including partial konso before finally expiring on its own…the cases were rare and always unique but they did happen.
Most of the time, the suffering soul became a hollow. If it was originally a hollow, then the twisted result was re-cleansed as soon as the soul condensed. It was always easy to find it; the final soul was mindlessly aggressive and in pain, all but begging to be cleansed just to end its agony.
The duality of Starrk and Lilynette's souls meant their case was even more unique and their final combined soul was theoretically more stable than the improperly cleansed souls Jushiro had seen before. In this case, that actually made them more dangerous than the mindlessly aggressive examples of the past. It also made cleansing them again a dangerous option; if it had failed once, who was to say it wouldn't happen again? They might be reborn with both their powers and the memories of this life intact as well as the knowledge of their previous life. They could be effectively immortal.
Not that he wanted them to be cleansed, but a few of the other captains had made suggestions about it after the battle of the lake. Jushiro had always been planning to fight for Starrk and Lilynette, to let them live out their lives in Soul Society as they pleased, but that desire had just become a necessity. To avoid making them enemies in their next lives, they could not die by shinigami hands in this life.
Jushiro looked down at his desk, taking in the half-complete report there with slow despair. Describing the rebellion was hard enough; how on earth was he going to explain this to the head captain?
Lilynette spent that night in Jushiro's guest house, sleeping deeply as she wandered the corridors of her mind. Starrk dematerialized during the night, taking his place at her side in his massive wolf-form and showing her the fissures in the ceiling and the hole that he stressed she needed to stay away from at all costs. The network was deeper and more expansive than before the near-disaster at the lake but try as he might, Starrk couldn't sense what was beyond it. Normally, Lilynette might have protested such high-handed commands, but just staring into the empty void beyond the hole made something queasy curl in her gut, even in sleep, so she blustered until Starrk led her away and then vowed to avoid it in the future.
In the morning, he was gone when she woke up and she nearly panicked.
"Starrk?" She yelled inside her own mind.
"Mmmwhut?" His sleepy mumble came from her Inner World and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're back, then?"
"Unless you need me out there, then yeah."
"Good! Now you can't take off on any more adventures without me."
"Uh-huh. G'night."
"It's morning, you…"
He was asleep again.
She was grinning when she told Jushiro that Starrk had returned and the captain shared her enthusiasm. He led her back to the academy personally and she stalked through the hallways like she owned the place. She hesitated for a moment at the entrance to the cafeteria, old doubts and worries surfacing, but then one of the other students she'd met during the evacuation stood up and shouted to her, waving her over.
"Hey Lilynette! Where've you been? You won't be-lieve what happened the other day! There was a huge dome of fire in the middle of the city!"
Lilynette grinned, puffed out her scrawny chest, and sauntered over. There was plenty she needed to keep secret, both for her own safety and because Captain Ukitake told her it was classified information, but not everything.
"Where've I been, Harue? You wouldn't believe me if I told you! I met a captain!"
Author's Notes:
-Originally, I was going to start this chapter with a segment including Ichigo and his friends but when I went to write it, I found there was nothing for them to say that hadn't already been said. Plus, I'm pretty sure anyone would take a good look at Lilynette covered with blood and think 'Infirmary. NOW.', not stop to talk for a while. And I wanted the end of the fic to be focused on Starrk and Lilynette; Ichigo gets enough time in the spotlight in canon.
-And that's a wrap for the main fic! Almost, almost, a wrap for the whole fic. All that's left is a short epilogue. Also a few deleted scene and AU segments that will go up in Howling at the Moon next Saturday.
-Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed last chapter! See you next time!
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