Welp, another new chapter. I'm trying my best to lengthen them, but at the same time I'm also trying to smoothly end the Kaworu arc as gracefully as I can. Let's continue with this flashback, it'll compose at least half of this chapter then we'll return to the present.
Asuka Kyōraku found herself in her private chambers, where she had been residing for the past couple years as a hostage of General Shigekuni. She had become something far more through the years, however, and one could not help but marvel at the beauty still sustained within her.
Her amber hair flowed freely past her shoulders, framing her soft almond eyes and delicate pale skin.
She had been a prisoner there, supposedly, but taken care of quite well as one of many noble hostages sent over after the first Shinigami war to ensure peace.
In her arms was something of even more beauty, her child, still yet a toddler. Brought down from the union of the nobles and Shigekuni, this child was the true literal form of the peace between them. A fragile peace that Asuka would not live through, a terrible era of war that would mark the child forever.
The door opened slightly, revealing a young man who had to be in his early 20s with a furtive and nervous look on his face, always averting his eyes from Asuka and never speaking unless addressed first. There stood Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai, the younger brother of Shigekuni, a man of science and logic rather than war and brimstone.
"Don't be shy, brother Gendo, come in. Your nephew would love to see you."
Asuka's voice was lilting and calm, a thing of serene beauty, and Gendo was clearly affected by it, blushing as he entered the room and then laughing as the young toddler Kaworu rushed towards him and played about his legs.
"Sister Asuka, how are you? Has my brother been around lately?"
Truly, much was on Gendo's mind. Had she heard of her own father restarting the terrible wars that had ravaged the Shinigami clans for so long?
The Kyōraku clan was proud, and her father Kazou Kyōraku had united another coalition of noble clans to take down Shigekuni, gambling on the fact that the general would not be able to respond while he had a Kyōraku as his wife and mother of his child.
Gendo however, feared and truly understood Shigekuni's grim devotion to justice and war. Kazou Kyōraku was playing with fire.
"No, I haven't seen Shigekuni for a while. Kaworu really misses his father."
"I see…then…I have something I need to tell you, sister…"
Before Gendo could continue, there was raucous laughter behind him.
Three children ran inside the chambers, to Asuka's delight and Gendo's trepidation. They seemed to be playing and dancing around each other, little Shunsui chasing an annoyed Retsu while Ukitake tried to get them both to stop fighting and teasing each other.
Gendo sighed, he really did not need this at the moment.
"Can you children please stop it?"
Shunsui giggled, pinching Retsu's butt.
"Only if Retty stops being so stuck up!"
Retsu quickly sent a punch flying towards Shunsui's face, though it was intercepted by poor Ukitake's countenance as the young boy had stepped in to separate them. In a matter of minutes, there were child's cries and giggles and even worse, Kaworu fell over and hit his head and started bawling.
It took a few minutes to clear the children's ruckus up, but by then Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai had been summoned by his brother and silently departed, the words he had intended to speak to Asuka still left unsaid.
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai sighed as he absorbed his brother's heated tirade in front of him. It had been going on for several minutes.
"How could you allow that to happen to the Kyōraku and Ukitake hostages?! You realize that Jūshirō and Shunsui are left without nearly all their family now and your wife still hasn't the slightest idea?!"
Shigekuni stood firmly, shaking his head.
"You are naïve, brother, it is a time of war. Those noble hostages were not sent over to picnic, they were chosen as hostages to ensure peace between our forces and the noble clans. Only the Kuchikis have respected the armistice, how else were we to punish the noble clans for their impertinence? If old Kazou Kyōraku thinks he can push me around like this, he is sorely mistaken. Even now his forces and those of the other noble clans are assembling around our fortifications."
"In that case, what good did the execution of the hostages do?! Peace was already broken, and we will fight them regardless with our forces?!"
"It was a matter of pride, of a vow that we both agreed to carry out."
"But those were people you allowed to be killed, not formal agreements!"
"What would my soldiers be allowed to think? That I have gotten soft? A weakling with a noble wife who would allow the nobles to step all over us? Don't be preposterous, Gendo!"
Gendo sighed, slowly putting on his battle armor and turning back towards his older brothers.
"Then…what are your orders, Shigekuni?"
"Join your division, prepare for battle immediately. The Kuchikis will be arriving soon to assist us against the other noble clans."
"I fear, brother, that this war will kill more than just lives. It will kill ideals, it will kill hope. But as you have always said, I suppose your orders are…"
Shigekuni nodded firmly, turning to leave the room while finishing Gendo's sentence.
"Yes, absolute…as our justice must be."
Inside Shigekuni, a war was being fought, one for his very soul.
Noble lord Kazou Kyōraku stood before his army as it fought viciously against the ranks of General Shigekuni's army, pushing them back steadily with the assistance of the other noble clans and their infantry. The swordsmen were steadily fighting with cavalry support and the lack of General Shigekuni's appearance on the battlefield had only strengthened the determination and bravado of Kazou Kyōraku's forces.
As I figured, the coward is too scared to act...perhaps it will turn out to be a wise thing that I sent my daughter into his midst. It weakened him, as I thought, love shall be his undoing.
"Charge, men! Let's sweep these bastards back into their own fortifications!"
Gendo grimaced, doing his best to absorb Kyōraku's full charge with his own division. One thing was clear, the army of Shigekuni was taking heavy casualties and without the full and pure determination and appearance of their commander in battle they would be swept away.
Asuka Kyōraku sat within her chambers, doing her best to calm down the remaining noble hostages that had crowded around her. They were full of fear at reports that many hostages had been executed, but believing in her husband Asuka had merely done her best to abate such crazed and scary rumors.
"But where is my husband?! None of the men have been seen?!"
There were more cries directed at Asuka, noble women asking for their husbands and young sons. Thank god she had sent away the children, leaving Kaworu, Shunsui, Jūshirō, and Retsu behind.
Before she could respond, in stepped her husband, a sad smile on Shigekuni's face as he did his best to calm the noble hostages around him, sending them away so he could be completely alone with his wife.
Asuka smiled kindly, kissing her husband lightly and then doing her best not to annoy him. It was clear something was on his mind.
"Where is Kaworu?"
"I sent him away...the other nobles are worried, there are rumors that war will come once more...that armies are assembling outside the castle and that the noble hostages we have will be...harmed."
Shigekuni sighed, trying to hold back the tears in his eyes, standing between the forces of determination and love that were doing battle inside of him.
He could feel the force and voice of the cursed dragon of flame inside of him, Ryūjin Jakka.
"You know what must be done...only then will I lend you my full power and will you be able to crush the enemies before you?"
"But...she is my wife...she is the mother of my child! I cannot!"
"Then die in that state of cowardice, if you wish, but I shall not die with you!"
The dragon of fire surged around him, burning Shigekuni's insides and making him wince with pain and confusion.
"What can I do?! What must be done?"
"Leave it to me...I will make sure your justice is taken care of...You have no choice."
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai embraced his wife, trembling against her and trying his best not to cry.
"What's wrong, Shigekuni?"
"I'm...sorry, darling..."
In an instant, the room was full of flame. Everything inside of it was rendered into dust, including Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai's very soul.
Kazou Kyōraku's eyes widened as he watched his noble army slowly pushed back and smashed by Shigekuni's troops who seemed to be filled with a new ferocity and bravery. What had happened?! Could Shigekuni have really come onto the field of battle with resolution? And if so, what of his daughter?!
Lord Kazou Kyōraku grimaced as he felt the sword plunge through his chest and out his back.
"Imposs…ible!"
Shigekuni sneered, sliding his blade in deeper into the older noble lord and spitting out his reply with a hissing bitterness.
"You made me take her life, but with that, I gained true power. I'm afraid, this war is over. BANKAI."
Kazou Kyōraku and the entirety of his army had no time to react to the massive wave of flames that enveloped them. The screams of the mortally burned would continue on for many nights, as indeed would the flames caused by Shigekuni's weapon.
The scars from that battle would stay and live on, both physical and psychological. Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai gained final mastery of the Shinigami and of his own blade, but by doing so he was forced to burn away his heart completely…leaving bitter ashes and an even more resolute devotion to justice that would never ever sway even in the face of his only son centuries later.
Extreme measures have to be taken sometimes to maintain justice. Shigekuni would always believe that, after all, what else was left in his soul but the devotion to that ideal? All else had been burnt away.
For now, turn the pendulum forward, let us return to the pain of the present.
"Extreme measures have to be taken sometimes to maintain justice. I believed that then as I do now. What do you know of justice and the laws of civilization? If I were to falter for a second, the entire unity of the Gotei and Shinigami would collapse! What do you know of the thousands of bodies that were sent sprawling in pools of their own blood to establish the peace we have now?!"
Kaworu grit his teeth, shaking his head defiantly before his father, his reiatsu rising along with his rage.
"And who appointed you god?! Who were you, who ARE you, to make such calls? I see now, you appointed yourself through the ferocity of your fangs, of your claws, of your blade! Then, I will follow in your footsteps and appoint myself god, I shall remake this world beneath my fist and right as many wrongs as I can. The throne of god shall be mine! Neither you nor Aizen deserve it, full of such hubris as you are! I am the voice of the victims of the wars you people conducted, and we will have our personal justice."
Shigekuni stirred in his chair for the first time in a while since his son had appeared, moving his face forward and hissing with a ferocity few had seen from the normally stern and calm commander.
"Tch! So be it! Perhaps I am merely the strongest lion in a land of beasts. Show me your fangs, boy! Show me what justice you have."
Kaworu quickly reached for his blade, snarling angrily as he did so.
"My pleasure! This is what we've both been waiting for!"
However, in an instant, he felt something slam into him quite hard, cutting off any further words he had to speak. A glowing barrier had collided into him from above, pinning him directly to the ground. He could feel it slowly draining away his reiatsu, and found himself totally and utterly unable to react or release his limits and blade. Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai found himself, for the first time in a long time, totally and utterly powerless.
"95...Mabushii."
A tall man in strange clothing, with a thick brown mustache slowly strode out from within the shadows and darkness of the hallway. Behind him strode out a group of at least ten other men in similar clothing, chanting under their breath.
"Fuyutsuki, Kidō Corps Commander and Grand Kidō Chief. You're under our jurisdiction now, criminal. You'll find yourself unable to do anything under this binding kidō. To be honest, it's forbidden because of its effectiveness and deadliness, but we were given specific permission from the Captain-Commander."
Kaworu grit his teeth, unable to move an inch and barely able to breath or talk as he spit out his bitter response.
"Shit…you…bastards…"
Shigekuni gave a stern nod of satisfaction and grim strength.
"It's over, boy. Like I said, you were never one for tact or strategy."
"Neither were you, brother. You were always the brute between the two of us."
The voice had issued from behind them both. It was an old man with deep, pained wrinkles of age over his extremely expressive face. He had a thick long white beard and clean bald head, and was covered in flowing gray robes.
Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai.
Shigekuni rose from his throne once and for all, his eyes widening with shock and trepidation.
"Impossible! It was reported that you were slain by Urahara Kisuke!"
"Uncle!?"
"This is my fight, Kaworu. Stay where you are."
"I don't think I have much choice in this situation…"
The entire Kidō Corps struggled to do their best to keep Kaworu under the binding kidō, unable to deal with this new opponent who had appeared before their Captain-Commander.
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai merely grunted and shook his head, smiling slowly.
"Keep him restrained, I'll handle this. Just like the old days, hmm, little brother?"
"Indeed. Some things, you have to do yourself."
Orihime Inoue sighed as she gazed at the many wounded in front of her, with the bitter guilt inside her as she realized she had caused one of them herself.
Captain Unohana stood solemnly behind her, sensing the pain and confusion inside the young girl but also seeing the great potential she had in healing. Her powers were amazing, healing the wounded Shinigami one by one as they lay in their beds.
"You're quite amazing. Orihime, was it?"
Orihime nodded slowly, giving a polite smile that was tinged with the pain she was feeling.
"Yes, nice to meet you Captain."
"You've got quite a bit of potential...how would you like to help out around 4th Division? We have many who could use your healing help."
Orihime nodded once more, following Unohana past the beds full of wounded.
Perhaps she could find peace once more by helping others and forgetting the battles she had been forced to fight. Captain Retsu Unohana had a calm and peaceful strength she could admire.
One particular bed was bustling with activity, the nurses trying their best to stop Captain Zaraki Kenpachi from opening up his many wounds again as he sprang up from his bed and let out a yawn that was more like a roar.
"Kaworu?! I'm ready for round two, dammit!"
He soon found the members of his division bustling around him in devotion to their captain and interest in the vicious battle he had had with the bane of Soul Society. Ikkaku, Yumichika, and others were crowded around Kenpachi with much chatter and cursing.
Kenpachi for his part merely glared at them and gave a wide grin as he contemplated why they hadn't revealed the Yachiru situation to him.
"How come ya never pointed out how I was chatting up my sword or that I was crazy?"
Ikkaku could only smile.
"Well, we figured you'd slice us in half, plus you're more interesting crazy. Not boring like Byakuya."
Captain Byakuya Kuchiki sneezed, staring disdainfully at the strange tall human standing in front of him solemnly.
"What did you say you wanted from me, boy?"
Yasutora Sado gave a determined look, speaking in his gruff voice.
"Train me."
"Train you?! How ridiculous!"
Sado grit his teeth, thinking of Ichigo, Rukia, and the others. He had been useless in this war so far, he would not allow that to continue on forever. He had to have the strength and force to defend his friends.
"I wish to get stronger, I want to defend my friends...and save Ichigo from whatever is tearing him apart..."
Byakuya Kuchiki gave a disrespectful smirk, chuckling slightly at this foolish human's impertinence and then merely giving a slow shrug.
"So be it. Show me what you can do. If you can even force me to draw my blade, I shall train you."
In an instant, Sado was upon him with a mighty roar, sending a massive blast of destructive energy flying directly towards Byakuya.
For his part, the Captain did not reach for his sword, merely staring at the blast with slowly widening eyes.
Impressive...but is that...Hollow energy I sense in him?
Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai paused, his body suddenly trembling with a sudden burst of spiritual power as he held his jitte pointed at his older brother.
"Kaworu inherited his father's fighting genes...I was always more of the intellectual, caught up in matters of war and forced into madness...put into unfair and unjust spots. But such is life. Some stand by their principles and die, while others such as you manage to survive by betraying their soul."
He grunted as he raised his small jitte in the air, smiling sadly.
"I suppose I have no choice…if you insist on continuing this charade instead of agreeing to Kaworu's demands then I will have to bring 'justice' to you myself. Worry not, it will be clean and prudent. Kara, Tokikaze!"
The jitte slowly warped and grew into another shape, wrapping and melding around the hand that held it until it resembled a metal glove with spikes on the wrist and a long blade connect to the back of the hand. Overwhelming spiritual pressure surged around the old former Captain.
Shigekuni gave an unimpressed grunt, the area around himself suddenly exploding with power far more impressive than the reiatsu Gendo had exhibited, his tall staff splitting and turning into a sheathed katana. It had revealed its true form of a standard katana with a dark purple handle and a circular handguard.
"I will not even have to release my shikai to turn you into dust, brother Gendo."
Gendo sighed, shaking his head in disdain.
"You were always so arrogant, Shige...I have grown as much as you have devolved over the centuries. Perhaps you will defeat me, but gods willing I will add to your scars before that happens. Destructive Art 63. Thunder Roar Cannon!"
A massive wave of golden destructive energy hurtled towards Shigekuni, impressive for being performed without the chant.
The Captain-Commander merely sighed in annoyance, sending a massive wave of reiatsu forward as a shield to meet and blast away the destructive technique. Gendo had not waited for his blast to hit, already on the inside of Shigekuni's back, having been unknowingly placed in the same shield of reiatsu that his older brother had made. Gendo's speed was astonishing at this level, sending his blade forward towards his opponent's back.
Shigekuni sighed, not even turning around.
"So be it, I will give you the death you so desperately wish for. Banshō issai kaijin to nase, Ryūjin Jakka."
A massive aura of flame and terrifying reiatsu suddenly spread out from around the Captain-Commander, washing and pushing his younger brother and his attack away and slamming into the hallway's wall behind him. The flame began to spread, creeping out and terrifying the Kidō Corps men who did their best to keep out of the way of the flames and continue their binding of Kaworu. For his part, Kaworu was trying his best to keep himself concentrating on the kidō binding him and not feel awe at his father's power.
And this is just his shikai...old bastard!
Former Captain Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai stared as the massive wave of flame began to encircle him, burning away his robes and making him gasp for air under the weight of the reiatsu and power.
He smiled sadly and shook his head.
"The fist and pressure of time is absolute, Shigekuni. Neither you nor I can escape it...however, one can learn to conquer time and fate, at least to a degree. In that pit of darkness where I was damned for a seeming eternity, I learned many things. My tutor was myself and at my right hand I had darkness and infinite time."
He gripped his weapon Tokikaze by the blade that sprouted out of his metal hand as he continued, as if he intended to yank it out.
"Tokikaze…Bankai! Chireksi Okki!"
The flames closed in even closer, a horde of fire threatening to turn him into ash, but the younger brother just smiled. As Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai declared bankai, he continued gripping Tokikaze and indeed yanked the blade out of his metal hand which was quickly returned to its former flesh state.
Indeed Gendo only held the blade now, and it slowly elongated and changed until it was a fierce black katana that looked surprisingly like Ichigo's bankai form.
He pointed the blade's tip towards himself, as if intending to commit suicide.
Gendo gave a broad grin that seemed tinged with sadness as he looked at the flames around him, blade still pointed inward at his own stomach.
"You see, brother...when you have eternity to yourself in that void that neither time nor truth knows, well...when you have that, you can conquer all your guilt, all your fears...all your sins...I…suppose I have no choice…Tokikaze…Natsukashii!"
Gendo closed his eyes, sliding the blade into his stomach.
Suicide? Wait...odd...it slide right through him...as if through water...and then disappeared, as if his body had swallowed the blade with no sign of wounds.
Gendo Yamamoto-Genryūsai only sighed, shaking his head in what seemed to be deep sorrow.
The ground of the hallway around them had slowly descended into total darkness, as if Shigekuni and Gendo were standing on a murky pool of black shadows. It stretched out for as far as the eye could see, a dark murky ground of dark shifting shadows.
"Tell me again of the grand ring of mortality, Tokikaze…speak your story with my very breath..."
Suddenly the ground around the two brothers, the murky pools of darkness, well they began to warp and move considerably, as if ebony ocean currents.
The shadowy ground began to move and warp, hundreds of human-shaped shadows bursting out behind and around the brothers.
The shadowy figures had no definition or features or faces, but slowly they began to form into normal-looking people.
They were all different people, the dark shadows slowly fleshing out their clothes, weapons, and faces. Some of them dressed like Shinigami, others warriors, some women, some Quincy, and some totally bizarre and exotic with odd weapons and faces.
However, all of them immediately stared at Shigekuni with a great deal of malice.
Gendo only smiled sadly as a massive amount of forms around him, the people he had summoned pushing back the flames of Shigekuni with their various weapons and reiatsu.
"You see, brother, I had an eternity to conquer my guilt, my gears, my crimes. And when you conquer such sins of the past, they become a part of you, almost like family. I sided with Kaworu against you back then for a reason...I had seen, and help committed such madness for the Genryūsai clan and for you before, even taken part in such slaughter. Unlike Kaworu, who was innocent and just, there had already been blood spilled on my hands, and for that reason I decided to stop any more blood from being spilled by the Gotei 13's madness. Face my sins, brother, see that they do not overwhelm you. If you cannot handle the sins of another man, how can you hope to handle your own? Face the men I killed under your orders."
Suddenly, two specters burst out of the shadow ground and formed into two Shinigami between the two brothers. They wore white robes and they had odd silver pieces holding their hair similarly to Captain Byakuya Kuchiki.
One of them drew a long sword and pointed it at the massive group.
"Senbonyuriko, chire..."
The sword disintegrated into what seemed to be massive wave of what looked to be white flowers which promptly swept out around Gendo and the two Shinigami, flying out specifically a Shigekuni.
Meanwhile, the other Shinigami that had been summoned had leapt up into the air, glaring down at Shigekuni with cold eyes that seemed vaguely familiar. Floating up there, he drew a short kodachi and held it pointed down at Captain-Commander.
"Izon no Niwa, kiri..."
The kodachi exploded into a brilliant yellow spiritual force which formed into two golden spectral wings on the Shinigami's back.
"Karu..."
Hundreds of golden swords hurtled down from his spread wings directly towards Shigekuni.
Shigekuni gave a sad smile, shaking his head.
"So you did manage to carry through my orders of assassination against the Kuchiki clan back then, hmmm, little Gendo? This will not be enough however, you have not killed nearly enough, brother. Jōkaku Enjō."
As Shigekuni spoke those words, he swept his sword forward and sent a massive wall of imprisoning flames forward towards his younger brother. In an instant they had turned all of Gendo's summons two dust, including the two long dead Kuchiki nobles.
The flames burnt viciously and with great power in a massive circle that threatened to take the hallway with it entirely, however Gendo had shown his great speed and fortitude by managing to use a swift shunpo to deliver him out of the flames and directly in front of his brother.
In that instant, he did not use the sword to slash at Shigekuni, to his older brother's surprise. Instead he just stood there with a sorrowful look on his face.
The old man stared fiercely at his older brother, flaring with spiritual energy.
"What do you know of power, Shigekuni?! Of pain?! Of exile? Of Soul Society's punishment? We were not such a dishonorable, cowardly sort. While you were out there, fighting your bloody wars, I was rotting away in that hole…until Kaworu came. I learned much in that darkness, and so did Tokikaze…"
As he spoke, the ground beneath them once again had descended into pure darkness, shadow.
Gendo paused, dropping his katana into the ground into below as if it were a pool of water, Tokikaze disappearing below.
"Let me show you the lessons of time and eternity, my brother, one murderer to another. Let me enlighten your fascinating records, brother…You were right the first time, I have not killed nearly enough to summon power against you...but...the true terror of Tokikaze's hold on your past, is that those specters I summoned WERE NO ILLUSION! Show him the grand ring of mortality, Tokikaze…You shall face YOUR OWN sins now."
Suddenly, Shigekuni noticed the shadowy ground beneath him moving and warping, actual human shadows rising out of the ground and forming into figures around him.
The shadowy figures had no definition or features or faces, but slowly they began to form into normal-looking people.
They all seemed vaguely familiar as well, until Shigekuni began to notice that they were people he damn well knew. People he had killed.
Thousands of them.
There stood noble lord Kazou Kyōraku and his young daughter. There stood hundreds of Quincy and Bount. There stood even more thousands of noble Shinigami from every clan imaginable. These were the people on whom the stable foundations of the Gotei 13 and Soul Society had been built upon, these were the bodies that had formed the stepping stones of Shigekuni's fight for power and justice.
Still they continued to rise out of the molten ground, until Shigekuni found himself overcome and trembling, falling to his knees as he felt the stares of thousands of people upon him.
Asuka Kyōraku gave a sad smile, stepping forward and embracing her husband by the neck as he shook on the ground overcome for the first time in centuries.
She was still just as beautiful as she had been on the day she had died, still unchanged.
"I'm sorry, darling..."
Silence...and then they were upon him, all of the thousands he had slain.
Not a bad chapter? I tried my best, hope you enjoy the continuation of the battle of the brothers into the next chapter.
Do remember, the best way to encourage me to write more is by leaving me a review. Even the smallest review or comment will tell me that people are reading and want me to continue with the story.