Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo, meaning it does not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Bleach storyline (such as Aporro [in character, not name] and Vicenta Acere) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
Vicenta pressed her swelling cheek to the cold stone beneath her, panting and closing her eyes tightly against the dull stabs of pain that came with every strained breath.
"Wh-What the hell do you hope to accomplish by this…? Do you want information? Do you want to use me as a shield to destroy my family? Because I can assure you, there's nothing I would say that a savage like you would understand, and if I tell my father to he'll let me be killed. He'll only be hesitant because of my mother, but it won't be hard to convince him."
"Oh, you sweet little thing!" Marccia snickered, leaning over and grabbing Vicenta's chin so she could pull her up, the redhead smirking down at her and showing the slightest hint of fangs. "You're overestimating your value! How adorable!"
Vicenta sneered, calmly hissing, "Bit me, bitch."
Marccia giggled, her forked tongue snaking out and licking the tip of Vicenta's nose, "Tell me where, muffin." When Vicenta snarled and kicked her, Marccia chuckled and dropped her back onto the ground, turning and sauntering away, "No, no, I don't hope to gain anything from kidnapping you other than riling up your little… 'family'." She turned back towards the young Arrancar quickly, shifting her weight to one hip as her tails wrapped around her waist, "And, no, you won't have the opportunity to see your family again, so don't even think that you'll be able to talk them into or out of anything."
Vicenta narrowed her eyes and looked the woman up and down slowly, asking, "Well, then, what's stopping you from killing me? You already have your stress toy in that brat, Vaida." Something about this didn't strike Vicenta right… Either the woman was lying, or she had something else in mind for her.
"Oh, it isn't my place to kill you." Marccia waved her off flippantly, sitting down on a rocky outcropping, "That pleasure belongs to Daramos."
"Daramos, huh?" Vicenta quirked a brow, sitting up and sneering, "So, is he 'Marccia' to your 'Vaida'?"
Quicker than Vicenta could see, the retaliation was immediate and pain bloomed on the right side of her face, her back scraping against the floor painfully as she flew across the room before slamming into the wall.
Vicenta lay there silently, stunned.
If there was one aspect of her fighting she prided herself on, it was her speed. Even without Gavilan Pintado released, Vicenta was capable of moving at non-sonidoed bursts of speed that sent even her mother reeling, and when Vicenta did have her Resurreccion out she and Grimmjow stood on even footing in terms of speed, so long as she pressed herself.
By default, this meant that Vicenta also excelled seeing exceedingly fast movements, so long as they were in her range; of course, her range was exceedingly wide.
The smack that Marccia had delivered to Vicenta though… The young Arrancar hadn't seen it coming.
And that left her in stunned shock, staring off into space and replaying the scenario over and over, trying to follow Marccia's movements.
But, for the life of her, she couldn't…
…Vicenta had met someone who surpassed her in terms of speed, and it left her floored and humbled in the worst of ways.
Oblivious to the girl's shock, Marccia leaned over and hissed, "I'd watch my tongue if I were you, you little bitch, because while killing you may be Daramos' pleasure, I'm the one in charge of you until I can deliver you to him."
Still, as Marccia backed away and walked off, Vicenta said nothing, still reeling more from the shock of being bested rather than the pain, though the pain was getting great… especially in her lungs, with the way she was being thrown around…
Before Vicenta's thoughts could get much further, there came rasping footsteps from the front of the cave.
As she looked, her eyes widened when she saw a green-skinned, anthromorphic lizard with a mask like a jackal's head, the thin form of Gavilan Pintado clenched tightly in its mammoth claws.
"W-We found the sword, Milady!" It crowed, falling to one knee and holding it out.
Marccia strode over to it quickly and snatched the sword up, inspecting it with both hands.
Vicenta flinched and hissed when the woman drew the blade, "Get your hands off of my sword, Marccia!"
The woman, though, just glanced at her and smirked, twirling the bare blade around between her fingers, "These are supposed to be part of your soul, correct? What would happen if I were to… break it?"
"It's nothing so poetic, so get your head out of your ass." Vicenta spat, snarling, "If you broke it, it would simply repair itself. I just don't like anyone, especially not some damned filthy creature, touching my zanpakuto, so just drop it already!"
"You're quite full of yourself, aren't you…?" Marccia observed distractedly, tipping her head slightly and tapping the blade of Gavilan Pintado against the sheath, her hand curled delicately around the hilt underneath the graceful arches basket wiring.
"I told you to drop my sword." Vicenta growled venomously, squirming to try to stand.
"Always holding yourself to a higher standard, speaking so freely, barking out orders like you're in complete control…" Marccia went on, her face going blank and something flashing in her eyes, "Frankly, I don't like it…"
Her anger peeking at not only being ignored, but also at the fact that the Vasto Lorde still had her hands on her zanpakuto, Vicenta sat up as straight as she could and faced Marccia, screaming, "I said to DROP. MY. SWORD!!"
A bright, pearl-gray light filled the room and the Adjuchas watched in horror as a beam of condensed reishi smacked his mistress square in the chest.
Marccia, though, didn't budge an inch, and continued staring at Vicenta with a blank face and almost glowing eyes.
"…Alright," The Vasto Lorde started after a moment, walking towards Vicenta slowly, "I've made my decision."
Spent, Vicenta glared up at her defiantly as the woman approached, panting and slumping back against the wall exhaustedly.
Marccia stood over Vicenta and raised Gavilan Pintado over her head, bearing her straight teeth and pointed canines as she flashed a crazed smile, her eyes glinting so the red of her hair made her gold irises shine and glimmer the color of old blood.
"I'm gonna show you that a pack can only have one alpha female at a time."
"Szayel, I want to know what the hell you were working on yesterday."
Sigh. "And why would you want to know that so badly, Aporro?"
"Because this amount of blood on your uniform disturbs me. There's way too little of it, and it smells like it should he soaked in it."
"…Did you dig that out of the hamper?"
"That's not the point! Answer me!"
Sigh. "Your dosage is wearing off; hold on a moment and I'll get you another."
"Szayel!" Aporro dropped the slightly bloodied uniform in her hands and latched onto Szayel's arm, narrowing her eyes at him stubbornly when he turned back from the door to look at her, "What were you doing yesterday?"
Szayel stared at his mate with an expressionless face, then sighed heavily and shook his arm out of her hand, taking her wrist, instead and leading her out of their room and down the hall.
Aporro followed, her eyes still narrowed and her reiatsu now stirring irately against her skin. She hated it when Szayel didn't answer her outright; how he always had to make a goddamned ordeal out of everything.
Damn him and his love for the theatrics…
Still, she let him lead her, and as they followed the path that she recognized led to his containment cells, Aporro faintly sensed out lingering traces of a foreign reiatsu in the air.
While Aporro wasn't about to assume knowing all of the inhabitants of El Sanctuario personally, she would assume to know every last signature that every last inhabitant possessed, and there was no doubt in her mind that this signature didn't belong to any of them.
It also wasn't shinigami… Oh, no, it was definitely Hollow.
And while it wasn't unusual for Szayel to capture wayward Hollows for study and experimentation, he knew full well that no one was allowed to leave El Sanctuario at the moment… It was a rule he'd instigated.
So why—
Aporro jerked to a stop and stared at through the window in front of her.
The room on the other side was brightly lit, as to make sure that the dark room Szayel and Aporro were in would be able to see inside without the person on the opposite side being able to see them. The room was also very small, only six feet across by ten feet long. It had a small, overhanging bed jutting out of the wall, and the wall that had the door in it, the wall opposing the two-way mirror, was made of a thick, reiryoku-negating Plexiglas-like material, with several lines of holes dotting it about ten feet up for airflow.
But it wasn't the room that caught Aporro's attention; no, she'd already known that these containment cells were here. Actually, in this particular hall, there were about ten of them side-by-side, like prison cells in an insane asylum.
No, what caught her attention was what was inside…
The girl looked to be about eleven-years old, had choppily cut light brown hair, golden eyes that were typical for her species, and a pair of bone wings sprouting from her back, several piece of bone curved around her upper body so it almost looked like the wings were actually some sort of backpack or slip-on attachment. The bone also extended to her arms, gauntlet-like attachments covering the top half of her forearms, only about an inch past her wrists, as well as the tops of her hands, ending in small claws over her fingernails. A small strip of cloth was twisted around her hips and tied in place, like a skirt a girl would wear.
But Aporro knew…
What was in the room before her was no little girl.
And even so, even knowing what creature was in the room before her, something still pulled at her heart…
"Szayel, why is she in there?" Aporro murmured, her eyes scanning the girl's body and not missing the thick, clean white bandages wrapped around her hand, or the extremely fresh-looking scarring on the inside of her right arm, the same arm that had the bandaged hand.
"Because she was involved with Vicenta's disappearance."
"Her? No…" This thing in the cage, covered in bruises and cuts? Still smudged with desert sands? No… Some part of Aporro refused to believe that; probably the same part that made her feel so intensely sorry for the child.
"…Aporro?" She heard Szayel ask her, his hand settling on her shoulder.
"My maternal instincts picked a bad time to kick in." Aporro growled, pulling away from him and quickly leaving the small, dim observatory hall behind the cells.
Though she heard Szayel follow her, she didn't bother to wait for him and swung around the corner quickly and into the more brightly lit main hall of the containment center, walking past empty cell after empty cell until she reached the girl's.
There was a tall push-tray in front of her cell, a clear plastic platter on top piled with some of Szayel's specially-made, reiryoku-replenishing grey slop.
Ignoring Szayel's muted protests, Aporro picked up the tray and quickly unlocked the cell, opening the door and marching inside.
The girl looked up with wide eyes as the door shut behind Aporro, and she vaguely heard Szayel locking it again as she stood there and stared at her.
Aporro watched as the girl's wings folded in and pressed close to her back, her small body hunkering down slightly as she shuffled back, one hand (the non-bandaged one) raising and shielding her body.
But it was a vain move, and they both knew it.
The small Hollow had no energy to defend herself.
Not that Aporro was about to attack her.
"It's alright…" Aporro soothed calmly, taking slow steps forward, "I'm not here to continue whatever Szayel started…"
The small Hollow didn't listen, though, and shuffled back even more, until her back pressed against the dark glass window.
Aporro sighed and sat down on the edge of the small bed, setting down the plate and pushing it towards the girl, "Eat. It'll help you recover." When the girl narrowed her eyes at her in distrust, Aporro rolled her eyes slightly and reached out, scooping up some of the mush with her pointer and index fingers and shoving the blob into her own mouth. "See?" She swallowed, opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue so the girl would see she'd eaten it, "Safe."
"…Why?" The girl finally spoke, her voice a rasp.
"Because you're hurt?" Aporro shrugged, "Because you're weak? Because I know how Szayel can be? Because I'm a sap? Screw the why. Eat, because if you don't, Szayel's going to hook you up to tubes to make you."
The girl's eyes widened and she quickly sat down, her eyes darting between Aporro and the plate. Finally, she reached out and slowly took the edge of it, then jerked it over to her and started eating, shoveling the food into her mouth with both hands.
Aporro sighed and watched her silently, reaching into her pocket when the girl was close to being finished and pulling out a cloth.
The girl tensed when Aporro offered it, looking between her face and the cloth, then finished off the food and reached out, taking it and wiping herself off.
"…My name is Vaida…" The girl muttered.
"And my name is Aporro." Aporro muttered back, "Szayel is my mate… And Vicenta is my daughter."
Vaida tensed and looked away quickly, mumbling, "So that's why he was so angry…"
"…Well, that, and Szayel's naturally sadistic." Aporro shrugged. She then frowned at the girl, "What did you have to do with Vicenta's disappearance?"
Vaida tensed even more, pushing back and squirming slightly, "I… I was the bait… And I was the one who told Marccia about her…"
Aporro looked away and nodded, taking this in.
And she would be lying if she said she wasn't pissed.
But she wouldn't and couldn't bring herself to want to hurt the girl; again, her maternal instincts flaring.
"…How long am I going to be held here?" Vaida mumbled, "When is he just going to stop screwing with me and kill me?"
"Indeterminate is your first answer." Aporro said wryly, glancing back at her with a frown, "And never is your second. Regardless of the current situation, Szayel isn't allowed to kill you."
"…On whose order?" Vaida ventured, looking up at Aporro searchingly, ciruous as to who would hold more sway than Szayel.
"Mine." Aporro said, glancing over her shoulder pointedly and glaring.
On the other side of the clear wall, Szayel quirked a brow, then rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving them alone.
Aporro sighed, then turned back to Vaida, easily grabbing the girl's wrists as she flung herself at her in attack and stopping her. Aporro then stood and quickly pressed the girl to the wall, hissing, "You need to not do that again, Vaida, or nothing I say to Szayel will stop him from doing whatever he wants to when I have my back turned."
Vaida stared up at her, infuriated, terrified and shaking because of both, "Why do you care, Broken One?!"
Aporro just smirked down at her wryly, "Because I always have been and probably always will be way too maternal for my own good."
Vaida stared up at her for a moment longer, trembling, then lowered her head and lost her fight, choking on a small sob.
Aporro let her go and stepped back, watching as the girl crumpled in on herself and fell.
Her own anger prevented her from comforting the Hollow too much, but she couldn't quite bring herself to hate or want to hurt her.
Heaving a sigh, Aporro knelt in front of her, muttering, "Vicenta won't be missing long; we'll find her. No matter who we have to tear down. And when we get her back, I'll make Szayel let you go."
Aporro stood and grabbed the plate, then turned and walked out, locking the door behind her.
And as she walked away, she tried to keep in mind the gold eyes that stared after her with some glimmer of hope…
Because if she didn't, she was likely to let her anger get the best of her and forget her promise.
Fun in The Sanctuary~!
El Sanctuario's Clubs…! Part II
"I… I can't believe the Captain-Commander actually approved letting shinigami join this society…" Momo rasps nervously, glancing around and fidgeting.
Beside her, Soifon is sitting ramrod straight and glaring at the door, waiting for the chairwoman to come in.
Whether she was there because she was genuinely interested in the club or because the Captain-Commander sent her to investigate it, no one else in the room could tell…
…Not that they were really thinking about it.
They were all too nervous about being involved in the club to begin with to really ponder.
"Why do I always get invited to this shit…?!" Renji growls.
Ichigo throws him a glare, "Why do you always drag me along for this shit?"
"Now, now, everyone…" The occupants of the room tense and look up when, instead of using the door, Chairwoman Aporro descends from the ceiling and settles down directly at the head of the group, grinning darkly, "There's no need to unleash any hostilities just yet… save your anger for practice. Now, does everyone have a mannequin?"
There are several muted, nervously mumbled affirmatives, making Aporro nod grin widely as she pulls he chair up to her table, grabbing her life-sized and anatomically correct mannequin and pulling it over to herself.
"Alright, everyone, we can now commence the first gathering of the Arrancar Beginner's Torture Society! And for the first meeting, I figured we'd start small, so we're going to discuss how to torture someone…"
Everyone watched with baited breath as she fishes around inside of a desk on her table, their eyes widening when they see the contents of the slim, clear package she pulls out.
"Using the pins we used in our Kimono Society!"
"Aporro, did you take the needles I use for my vivisections and necropsies again?!"
"…If he asks, I wasn't here."
Unsurprisingly… the club would really only be popular with the Arrancar.