BREATH OF LIFE
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Tokyo Ghoul. Or the songs mentioned from this point onwards. Kudos to people who recognize the songs, though.
Warnings: AU-verse, SLASH; flash-forward to the scene on the Sokyoku Hill. I don't have good song for Ichigo-Kenpachi fight conclusion yet, so if you have any suggestions, then they would be appreciated.
007 - Untraveled Road
"Kuchiki Rukia. For your crime of illegally lending your powers to a living person, you will be executed via Kikuou, as per Central 47's orders." The ancient man's voice was calm, if a little bit scratchy when he told the prisoner the verdict.
Rukia stood still, even if her heart had sunk to the bottom of the pit of despair in that moment. She had prayed, hoped… that there would be some last-minute miracle, but there was no miracles, only the inevitability of being killed because her mission had gone awry. Not only that, but she managed to drag down Karin-chan, too.
Sha was the worst.
A failure.
"Kurosaki Karin. For your crime of taking one Kuchiki Rukia's powers in an illegal procedure, you will be executed via Kikuou, as per Central 47's orders." Yamamoto thumped his cane on the ground. "Commence the execution."
Mutely, the girls allowed themselves to be led forward, the execution blocks grasping their wrists and ankles and lifting them in the air, their bodies in a cross position, the white of their kimonos a mocking countenance to the painful pale blue of the sky.
She swallowed as she watched the ground became smaller and smaller underneath her feet, knowing that when this farce of an execution would be finished, her body would be ashes, dancing in the wind.
Pitiful. She was so pitiful. Why was she even hoping, when she knew with an utter certainty that there was no hope anymore?
She looked to her right, where she was.
Kurosaki Karin.
The girl was staring onto the horizon, her eyes suspiciously glassy and her chin trembling slightly, even if she still held up her head stubbornly. Rukia's heart clenched painfully.
She was so, so young.
It wasn't fair that Karin-chan was paying for her mistakes with her life.
"Karin I am so – "
"Nii-chan. I believe in Nii-chan." Rukia's mouth snapped shut as she heard the stubborn girl's almost inaudible mutter. "He will come for me. He will."
Swallowing, Rukia's eyes were squeezed shut.
She was still believing.
Ahead of them, a great bird of fire materialized from the enormous spear with a shrill, yet melodious cry.
Rukia closed her eyes.
This… was the end.
The rapidly approaching heat, however, didn't sear her skin.
Previously closed eyes snapped open, revealing disbelieving violet irises.
'What - ?'
Here, in front of here, hovered Kikuou, but for some reason, the bird couldn't move forward - the reason for it were two thick red ropes squeezing its neck, leading to the lower back of a man, covered in dark red cloak with a hood.
"Nii-chan!" Karin's joyous voice caused the female Kuchiki to drop her jaw.
That was Karin's brother?"
"Karin…What I said to you about getting into trouble?" The voice that came from under the hood was stern, low tenor. It wasn't the most melodious of sounds, but it exuded authority, causing Rukia to subconsciously straighten out her spine.
"But I had to, Nii-chan! The Hollow would have eaten Yuzu and Goat-face otherwise!" Karin argued back. "You would've done the same!" The stubborn glare she aimed at her big brother made Rukia wince in expectation of the explosion from their strange savior.
"… We'll talk about it later." With those ominous words, another two thick ropes slithered from the stranger's lower back, and stabbed behind the bird's eyes, causing it to screech with pain and flap its wings frantically, the resulting wind blowing the hood off his face, exposing the grinning skull-white mask with stylized black lines leading from the center to the outer edges of it on its right side, while the left one was completely white. His hair was vibrant orange color, arranged in spikes, likening him to some kind of an orange hedgehog.
But that wasn't what caused Rukia's blood to positively freeze in her veins.
It was the rescuer's right eye.
Black sclera and… blood red iris.
A moment later, the man jumped onto the arbor that held the girls in the place.
"What the hell are you doing! This is dangerous!" Rukia finally found a voice to scream at the strange apparition.
"Getting you two out of these shackles. Now be quiet!" The man snapped back at her, causing Rukia to glare at him.
How rude!
"But you can't – " She tried again.
Red eyes glared at her. "Watch me."
With that, the four ropes - tentacles, Rukia noted with horrified fascination, unfurled through the sky, before they sharpened and snapped down to the middle of the bean on which he was standing.
With a mighty crack and a shockwave, the stone had shattered and began falling to the ground, along with the captives it held in its hold a moment before.
Rukia's heart jumped in her throat (-that weightless moment before the inevitable fall - ), but just a moment later, something wrapped itself around her waist, and then, she was safe, with the stranger standing on the pole, looking at the speechless crowd below them.
"Ichi-nii… You came." Karin's voice was full of relief and happiness, prompting the orange-haired man to incline his head to her.
"Of course- I will always come for you. But don't think we won't have words about your little adventure."
Taken aback, Rukia watched the usually brisk, more-bite-than-bark Kurosaki Karin splutter before she glared at her brother. If she could, she would've even crossed her arms in her chest. Instead she huffed. "Yeah, yeah, heard it all before, Ichi-nii." She grumbled, her mouth curving in a petulant pout, causing her brother to chuckle at her antics.
"So… do you have a plan for getting us out of there?" Rukia asked, looking at the gathered Captains below them apprehensively. "Because there's no way we could get us out of this mess safely."
The masked face turned to her briefly before looking down.
"We beat them and run."
It was Rukia's turn to splutter. "You - You can't! This is a suicide!"
"Ishida, Yasutora and Inoue are here. For both of you." Ichigo's calm reply filled Rukia with gratitude, terror and shame. "This is the least we can do."
"Besides…" Confused, Rukia felt the tentacle that was holding her near her strange savior, began to lift her up. "It won't be you who will be doing the beating. Hey! You two! CATCH!"
With that, both Rukia and Karin found themselves hurling through the air toward their lucky recipients, screaming all the while.
"ICHIGO, YOU BASTARD!" Karin's incensed howl caused Ichigo to laugh at his cute little sister's red face. For a moment, he wished for a camera, because the subsequent collision of the two pairs was comical to the extreme.
"SHE COULD'VE DIED, YOU IDIOT!" Both Pineapple and Snowflake roared at him, causing his kagune to twitch in amusement before he sobered up again.
"Take them away from here!" He barked at the girls human cushions. "This is your job!"
The Snowflake was clever enough to grab Karin and sped away, with the Pineapple copying his actions post-haste.
He could only hope his trust wasn't misplaced.
With that thought in mind, he propelled himself down in front of the pursuers, halting their advancement.
'What the hell is he?'
The question echoed inside Kuchiki clan leader's head.
The strange man had demolished three lieutenants as if they were mere Academy brats and not some of the strongest fighters aside Captains Seireitei had to offer. To add the insult to injury, the man didn't use those strange tentacles, but only his physical prowess... and still managed to either break or shatter their Shikai. The worst thing was, this stranger didn't use even a drop of reiatsu in the process.
And then, this monster in human guise turned toward him, a single black and red eye boring into his own dark grey gaze.
"You are pitiful."
Byakuya bristled. Outside, he still looked like stern-ice faced leader of the sixth division, but his mind was different story.
Relief, anger, resentment, disgust (With whom? Himself or that strange apparition?) but he reined them in with an iron will made of duty and honor.
Out of all the words he had expected, the masked bastard just had to choose those ones.
Worse even, his voice was calm, as if he were lecturing a disobedient child.
"You would kill your own family for the sake of rules."
"Because I'm not above them." Byakuya heard himself responding as he glared at his soon-to-be opponent. He drew out his sword, feeling its weight in his hand keenly - familiar, comforting and ready to slice the impudent fool in front of him into bloody ribbons at his behest.
"I will kill you. And then, I will kill her and your sister with my own hands. " He murmured, gray eyes narrowing slightly.
"No. That's not going to happen. I came here to make sure of that."
And then, a moment later, they clashed.
The blade screeched against the strange red tentacle, causing Byakuya's eyes to widen as it broke in front of his eyes, forcing him to hastily use Shunpo as to make a safe distance between the two of them.
However, his enemy followed him, as if he had expected this to happen, the two of those ribbons/tentacles whipping forward, spearing the air in front of him like vanguards of death itself.
"Hado number 4 - Byakurai!" Byakuya hurriedly spat out, releasing the thunderous whitish blue crackle of lightning at his opponent and piercing his right shoulder.
Not that it stopped the man – beast – whatever his opponent was, because a scant moment later, twin tentacles crashed against the place where he had stood a scant second before, shattering it into smithereens.
"Ah. Seems you got a lucky shot." The man mused, as his hand closed down on the wound momentarily as he winced. "Sheesh, Arima will be pissed."
Byakuya's brain worked miles per second.
'If not weapons then – '
"That's the least of your worries. Hado number 33 – Kurohitsugi!" He declared as he released a torrent of reiatsu, condensed in the form of blue flames toward his nemesis covering his form in firestorm.
Gray eyes widened as they took in a storm of… petals? Coming from the nexus of the bombardment.
Contrarily to his pale pink, those were shimmery red, like the petals of red roses. The sight would have been beautiful if not for the circumstance he was witnessing their bloom, the improvised tentacle-shield flaking away under the onslaught of fire.
Then, the nexus moved.
Byakuya exhaled a startled grunt as the fist buried itself in his gut with enough force to leave him dry-heaving for a moment, only for his chin to be hit next, the pain a belated flare in the back of his bran.
'How – how dare he!'
Byakuya glared up at his opponent. If he was going down, well, he would, but not without taking the smug son of a bitch with him!
The black petals glinted in the man's orange hair like some form of crystallized blood or red glass as he used the Shunpo to close the distance between them and delivered the kick into his gut, causing the man to cough and for the tentacle to wrap around his ankle before flinging him away like he was some kind of an insect.
"Kurohitsugi!" Byakuya barked out, sending a new wave of pale fire toward the masked man and forcing him to use his tentacles as a shield again.
This time, he kept the bombardment until the silver of a moment it took to attack him behind his back –
-and his gut was being sliced by a white-red hot pain, causing him to scream in agony.
"This was what you would condemn your sister to. Is it worth it?" The muffled voice Byakuya slowly came to loathe, asked him.
Blearily, Byakuya glared up into that single damn red eye, the blood tasting like bitter iron on his tongue.
"You can thank your sister for your life."
The tentacle slid out of his body, causing the previously unruffled, noble, icy captain of the Sixth division choke on a new wave of blood flooding his mouth.
His eyesight blurring, the last thing he saw was a red cloak with that damned orange hair topping the man's head.
Byakuya was sure… he hated the color orange.
/To Be Continued/