The topic of today's episode of 'Fun in The Sanctuary~!' was submitted by SerbiaTakesCntrl. ^.^ Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it~!
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.
Aporro gently (not to mention groggily) took a wet, warm cloth to the heavily bruised and abused skin on Vaida's hand, working off the remnants of blood Szayel hadn't bothered to get when he'd first wrapped the young Vasto Lorde's hand.
Vaida's wings twitched and rattled together in intervals, but she refused to let out so much as a pained gasped as the woman cleaned her up.
When Szayel had suddenly come by and shoved a stumbling, sleepy Aporro into the cell, Vaida hadn't been sure what to think.
Then, when'd he'd locked them both in, she'd panicked slightly.
Now, here they were, Aporro still silent and bleary and cleaning Vaida up, and Vaida having no choice but to take it for fear that the half-conscious woman would suddenly lash out at her.
"Ur… Miss… Aporro?" Vaida began slowly after a moment when Aporro started to rewrap her hand with fresh, clean bandages, "Why… are you here?"
"Does a desperate mother need a reason to coddle someone who looks like a child?" Aporro grumbled, looking up at Vaida with a heavy glare. When Vaida just froze and stared at her nervously, Aporro groaned and shook her head, turning back to the task before her, "Agh, Szayel's drugged me on something that doesn't keep me knocked out for long periods of time but does leave me woozy as fuck… He figured keeping me in a small space while he worked would be better for everyone, since if he tried to leave me with Stark or Illforte again with nothing to do I'd be pissed."
"…Ah…" Vaida nodded slowly, shuddering and closing her eyes when Aporro started to clean up her arm.
Aporro frowned when she realized that the young Vasto Lorde's entire right arm was covered in a light coat of blood, making sure to work very gently when Vaida flinched several times.
"He really did a number on you, didn't he?" Aporro mumbled softly as she refolded the rag to get a cleaner side.
Vaida didn't answer, instead watching as the woman continued to work.
"…Why are you treating me so nice?" She asked in a low voice after a moment, grinding her teeth in indignation when Aporro gave her an incredulous look.
"Didn't I already answer that? I told you, I don't completely blame you for thi—"
"Not that, not that!" Vaida waved her off violently with her left hand, looking up at Aporro with her face twisted in confusion, "Why are you treating me… like one of your own? Like another Broken O— …Arrancar…"
"What, instead of treating you like a filthy animal?" Aporro rolled her eyes, taking a tube of lotion Szayel had left her with and starting to gently rub some onto Vaida's arm, "Because you're not. You're a Vasto Lorde, and Vasto Lordes are extremely intelligent. You're as sentient as I am; I'm not going to act like you're a rabid dog." She glanced up at the girl pointedly, "Let's not forget, I was a Hollow, too. And that I, technically, still am."
Vaida made a face of disgust, "You still think of yourself as a Hollow?"
"We all have humbler beginnings." Aporro shrugged.
"…So… you… really meant what you said when… you said you'd keep him from killing me… didn't you?" Vaida asked haltingly, looking up at Aporro with wide eyes.
Aporro smiled, nodding slowly, "Of course I did… The only person I blame here is Marccia Bones, and possibly Daramos. I'm not about to kill you for something you were coerced into."
"…Then I should warn you," Vaida sighed, glancing at the wall and wincing, "This guy I know, Gillo… he may or may not try to come and kill you guys."
"Kill us?" Aporro quirked a brow, "For what?"
"Well… uh…" Vaida sighed, her bone wings rattling as they shifted nervously, "He's… he's kinda the guy I've been mooching off of for a while, and… well… it seems like sometimes he protects me from the other Vasto Lordes, and he's not really fond of Arrancar, either, so if he finds out I'm here he might just…"
"Break down the front door and storm in." Aporro nodded understandingly, sighing, "And the only reason Marccia hasn't done that is because you're an expendable pawn and she really doesn't care if you live or die."
"…More or less." Vaida shrugged, "Though she'd probably prefer it if I die; she's gotten into trouble quite a bit with Gillo for hurting me…"
"Hmm…" Aporro nodded, again, then sat back on the small bed and leaned against the wall as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "So, technically, only about two of the Vasto Lordes seem really united… And neither you nor Gillo are one of them…" She then glanced at the young Vasto Lorde and grinned, "You don't really have to be locked up at all!"
Vaida blinked, then perked, "I don't?"
"Nope." Aporro shook her head, standing, "But you're going to be." Shrugging when Vaida drooped and glared at her with an open mouth, the Arrancar walked over to the cart Szayel had left in the room with her and rifled around, "Sorry kiddo, but this is technically war, and prisoners of war aren't let go until the conflict is over."
Vaida would have complained if she still weren't partially afraid that this woman would flip out and decide to just kill her there.
Then again, the woman did seem pretty keen on taking care of her and being maternal, so…
"Here," Aporro turned back to Vaida and offered her a plate, "Eat."
Vaida took the plate and stared down at the strange, grey sloppy hash, making a face. While it was three sure meals a day and they definitely did replenish what energy the room around her sapped, they tasted terrible and Vaida was finally starting to feel comfortable enough to complain about it.
"This stuff sucks." She grumbled, trying not to sound petulant but failing.
"Yeah, I know." Aporro nodded with a sigh, sitting down and leaning against the wall sleepily, "But it's good for you, and if you don't eat it this room is going to end up putting you in a coma."
Vaida twitched and scowled, then started shoveling food into her mouth, trying to finish before the taste registered.
As she ate, she noticed that Aporro was acting weird and watched as the woman actually nodded off right here, sitting up and in Vaida's cell.
Staring at her and thinking while she ate, Vaida wiped he hands when she was finished and briefly considered killing the Arrancar where she was…
…But, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to finish the thought, or even move.
Yes, the woman's species disgusted her to no end, and she was royally pissed off for the situation she was in, but…
….The woman had been so good to her… Vaida couldn't bring herself to kill the woman when she was so weak…
Instead, she cleared off the bed and stood, nudging Aporro onto her side and starting to pace her cell, thinking.
Escape was impossible, that she knew; the walls were made of some weird, hard stone that didn't break when it was punched, and actually absorbed any reiatsu she poured into her fist.
The weird black mirror in the back and the weird clear wall at the other end weren't any better, and nothing on the tray would prove to be of any use; every last utensil was a slightly soft plastic.
Vaida figured she wouldn't even be able to cut skin if she broke the plastic into shards.
It seemed her only real options were to wait to be let go, or wait for Gillo to come and find her.
…The later of which she figured was a distinct impossibility, as Gillo was probably very, very pissed off at her, and probably would only encourage her Arrancar captors to teach her a lesson.
She hadn't really been lying to Aporro when she said Gillo might come looking for her, but she didn't actually figure it would be to save her, if he bothered to come at all.
So, as it stood, all there was between her and that deranged psychopath Arrancar was…
(She glanced at Aporro.)
…His drugged to shit look-alike mate.
Vaida whimpered softly.
She was screwed…
Abandoning all restraint, Gillo stormed straight over to the rough location of the Arrancar compound.
Blood was flecked across his torso and the long, ground-length wrap around his waist, his teeth were still elongated and the two flagella-like tendrils that slipped out of his back, one near each shoulder blade, whipped through the air and snapped endlessly.
His eyes still shone an eerie red from his unspent bloodlust, a state that not even doing the damage he had done to Marccia had sated in even the slightest.
That red serpentine whore had not only allowed the Arrancar to capture Vaida, she'd done nothing to recover her.
And that stupid, incorrigible, foolish little brat Vaida had not only done nothing to defend herself, she hadn't said a word to Gillo the entire time that Marccia had been using her.
Yes, Gillo had known, but Vaida hadn't even hinted that things were going beyond her control, and that was pissing him off almost as badly as the thought of her being a captive was.
He did not have the patience to deal with this shit!
He was too old!
He'd spent more time wandering these sands to attain the level he had than most of these uppity little shits could comprehend!
Gillo had not spent the energy he had on saving Vaida once just to sit back and let her be killed! Especially not by those disgusting, broken-masked heathens who dared call themselves inhabitants of Hueco Mundo!
Annoying as the little brat was, she didn't deserve whatever they were going to do to her…
Growling lowly, angrily in the back of his throat, Gillo stopped walking and held his hand up over his head, a large, dark ball of crimson starting to swirl and form some ten feet above him.
Without really waiting for it to reach a decent size, Gillo swung his arm down, the ball following the motion and exploding the moment it touched the sand.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of white sand rocketed skywards, a mushroom cloud of dust lingering in the air as the heavier debris bloomed outward and cascaded down in a sparkling waterfall of rough silk.
Near the top of the crater Gillo was left staring at, a large, heavy-looking metal door remained, a sealed-off corridor attached to it at a slight angle that disappeared even further into the sand than his cero had excavated.
His reiatsu crackling around him loudly, Gillo made his slow, deliberate way over to the door, vaguely realizing that whatever the door was made of had actually absorbed and dispersed most of his dispelled reiatsu and that not even a scorch mark remained on the pristine substance.
When Gillo stood in front of the door and reached out to grab it, the vault-like mechanisms clanked slightly, and before he even made contact he felt the air around the entrance of the compound sapping his energy right from his angry aura.
Growling, Gillo flashed back and held up his arm again, another red cero forming above him.
This time, though, he focused more on it, poured more energy into it, let it grow and actually reach about a third of its true potential.
Even a third of his ceros full power was still slight overkill, he supposed, because he knew there had to be a limit on how much the material of the door could dispel, Gillo didn't much care; he was pissed, and he wanted to see something destroyed.
Before he could swing the cero down, though, the dozens of mechanisms that made up the vault-like door suddenly began to clank and churn, the two thick bars that ran through the center sliding past and over one another before the door slid open.
Forcing himself to calm, Gillo watched as a white-haired man in black robes and a white coat walked up from the stairs on the inside, coming to stand on the thick lip of the door frame.
"…Shinigami." Gillo muttered, sighing.
So, it was true; the Broken Ones had allied with the hunters…
"…Gillo Berenzo." The white-haired shinigami said with an amiable smile, stepping down from the doorway as it clanked shut behind him, "I must say, despite the circumstances it is an honor. So many doubted that a Hollow could live so long."
"I can't say I'm flattered to know I'm a subject of speculation." Gillo drawled icily, his stare flat and heavily lidded, "Nor can I say that I'm flattered you know my full name. Don't use it. I don't like it."
"Just Gillo, then." The shinigami nodded, still smiling, "And I'm Jushiro Ukitake."
"…That name's vaguely familiar." Gillo commented, somewhat surprised, "I believe you're almost as old as I am."
"Oh, my age doesn't even hold a candle to yours." Jushiro shook his head, chuckling, "Even the Captain-Commander knows your name off of the top of his head, and he remembers fighting you several times over rather well. You're actually part of the course curriculum at the Academy, if they haven't change it since last I visited."
"…Yamamoto…" Gillo mumbled, the iciness fleeing his tone slightly. He paused, then growled and flicked his wrist, "Enough banter. Step aside, shinigami; my fight isn't with you."
"I'm afraid it is." Jushiro's smile turned slightly sorrowful, "You see, for the time being I'm the guardian of this compound, and if you intend to break in with your reiryoku so blatantly charged for fighting then I have to stop you here."
"Do not make me drag the Seireitei into this." Gillo drawled, his tendrils snapping, "I've managed to keep from making any serious offenses towards you and yours, do not be the one to end this unstable peace."
"My apologies." Jushiro drew his zanpakuto, sighing and shaking his head, "The Arrancar are our allies; I cannot allow you to massacre them. Now, if we could talk about this—"
"I'm through talking to you." Gillo hissed, his chest swelling and his shoulders squaring as he stood to his full height, "And I have nothing to say to them."
"…Pity." Jushiro remarked regretfully, one foot shifting back and both hands grasping the hilt of his zanpakuto as he took a firm stance.
Letting out an infuriated, animalistic growl, Gillo held his arms out at his sides and leaned forward.
The air around him rippled with a single deep, resounding snap, and Jushiro's eyes widened slightly as he had to swing Sogyo no Kotowari to his right before a solid and heavy punch met his shoulder.
There was a loud clang, like metal on metal, as Gillo's fist met the flat of Sogyo no Kotowari's blade, and though Jushiro's stance was solid several bone still creaked in protest and the captain found himself shooting back through the air.
Jushiro grunted.
His blade had held off against Adjuchas and Gillian who were thousands of times larger than Gillo, but none of them had had even an eighth of the force that the Vasto Lorde had put into that single blow.
And the captain wasn't one for heavy hitters… That was more Shunsui's area.
Of course, when released Jushiro would be able to hold him off for quite a while, hopefully until he received backup from one of the Arrancar, but he was hesitant to release so soon.
It hadn't even been ten seconds…
His resolve firming, Jushiro dug his feet into the sand and recovered, bending slightly at the knees and leaning forward with Sogyo no Kotowari in his right hand, his left hovering over the blades non-sharpened edge.
When Gillo appeared before him in another snap of speed, Jushiro thrust forward.
Gillo, his large hand raised above his head to bring down on the shingami's back, faltered and stepped to the side, lips drawing back over sharp teeth as he hissed at the sharp, silvery edge of the shinigami's zanpakuto slicing into his side.
Getting annoyed, Gillo flashed back a ways and raised his hand over his head, his palm facing the sky as yet another cero began to gather.
Jushiro tensed, standing straight and grasping his zanpakuto.
The air grew dense and heavy as the two men started to gather their power, the sands shaking beneath their feet and the air seeming to waver, several small explosions of sand going off around them as the small creatures that lived in the sands imploded at the force.
As Gillo's cero made it to a fourth of its potential, a third, half—
"All waves, rise now and become my shield, lightning, strike now and become my blade."
Two thin but large, pale hands grasped the red-woven hilt firmly, pulling as the blade started to rent itself in two with small crackles of blue-white electricity bathed in a red haze. As two swords were pulled from the one, a thick crimson cord kept them connected at their hilts, the bronze charms dangling from it swinging freely but somehow remaining at uniform distances.
Jushiro held one of these blades angled up at the cero as it started to crash down, starting to angle the other sword back at the cero's caster.
"Sogyo no Kotowari!"
Fun in The Sanctuary~!
Fun at the Beach…!
Szayel hates, hates, hates it when Aporro drags him to the human world for… familial excursions…
He hates going to fairs.
He hates going to festivals.
He hates going to petting zoos.
He hates going to concerts.
He hates going, period.
But… above all other locations, Szayel, above all else, hates to go to the beach…
And the bathing suits aren't the half of it.
The sun is terrible, and though he may not burn when he's just in soul form, he does when Aporro forces him to wear his gigai (always burns; Szayel never tans). The sands always get into every crack and crevice, no matter how special he makes the weaves of his clothes. He swears, those oily grains, more disgusting than the sands of Hueco Mundo, are far more slippery than he could ever be…
"Szayel!" Aporro calls, riding out a wave and landing skillfully on her feet as she waves an arm at him, "Get your robe off and get your ass out here before I come and drag you!" She then turns and, already chest deep, wades into the water a bit further before disappearing underneath another wave.
Szayel glares at the water after her, his cheeks burning with indignation as he angrily tears off his protective layering. Ignoring the catcalls he gets, he storms down to the water and walks straight in, scowling when sea spray mists his lenses.
When something nips sharply at his posterior, he quickly turns to fire a cero, only to remember that he's in a gigai and is left slapping at the water rather ineffectively.
When something snaps the tight waistband of his swimsuit, he spins yet again and glares heavily at his mate, standing stiffly as she wraps her arms around his neck.
"I knew you'd look sexy in a speedo." Aporro purrs, jerking him down underwater forcefully.