"It's going to be a little more challenging today, Grimmjow." Cino leaned over the balcony of his private booth. Grimmjow was with him, unchained but his own person sniper trained on him. Below them the stadium was alive with people shouting at the match taking place below. Another volunteer was cutting down slaves. Grimmjow wouldn't mind fighting him, he thought, when he saw him paint the blood of one of his victims across his chest and throw his hands in the air in victory.
He turned back to Cino.
"In what way?"
"In that you'll be weaponless to start. We'll spread a few throughout the ring."
"How many am I up against?"
"Four. I'm still certain you'll survive, but they are stronger than the ones yesterday."
"Are you gonna have me fight every day?"
"Until the market ends. Then who knows, maybe we'll go on tour."
"Fuck you."
"We'll see." Grimmjwo bristled. Cino clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, it's just about time for your match, let's get downstairs."
Grimmjow stared daggers into Cino'a broad back the whole way down to the ground floor. He was shoved into a room that had once been a functioning washroom but was now a convenient place to hold prisoners at gun point until their match. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, ignoring the riffle trained on him. It only took a few minutes for Cino to return and announce the ring was ready. The large man left to take his seat again and Grimmjow was taken to the gates.
"I got it," he barked when hands were on him to shove him through. He stepped through willingly just so they wouldn't' touch him again. He could smell the stench of blood fresh on the ground even if the bodies were now gone. Then a bell rang somewhere and it was on. The other gate opened and four men came out running. They weren't hesitant like the others. They were on a mission to survive. Grimmjow realized he might need to step it up this round.
He saw a sword but it was on the other side of the ring. The closest thing to him was an iron bar.
This was going to be messy.
He grabbed the crowbar and saw one of the slaves take the sword. The other men had gone for three different weapons. One brandished a machete, another held a chain and the other had something Grimmjow didn't recognize but many people seemed to be cheering for. He was perplexed when he saw the man pulling a cord attached the orange box, then heard a chugging and with a puff of smoke the rounded blade on the end started vibrating with a loud noise. He didn't know what a chainsaw was, but he knew he didn't want it anywhere near him.
"Great," he muttered when they spread out. It seemed these four had no plans on dying. They'd probably survived many matches and had strategized, unlike yesterday's three who were too terrified to think clearly.
His best bet was to pick the one closest to him and take him out. It happened to be the one with the rumbling chain saw. That suited him as he would prefer that thing to be out of the picture as soon as possible.
He ran straight at the man. His confidence clearly shook the man but he held out the saw and made a dangerous swipe at Grimmjow. His reach was shorter than the iron bar. It connected with the side of his face, breaking his cheekbone and nose and sending him onto his back. Grimmjow heard a horrific cry and looked behind him to where the man had fallen, his weapon dropping back on his chest. The vibrating blade cut gruesomely into his neck and chin until it sputtered when it got caught on his jaw bone.
Grimmjow actually felt a little sick at the sight.
He didn't have any more time to contemplate the first victim of the fight when the other three closed in on him. They weren't shying away from this fight. They knew their best chances were to attack him as one. He met the machete with the iron bar and drove it back into its wielder but it was the blunt side that struck him into the forehead so he wasn't out of this fight.
Next he met the sword. This man was strong and Grimmjow actually stumbled back after his iron bar collided with the sword strike. His opponent dove on the opportunity but left himself open and Grimmjow side stepped and caught him in the shin. He hollered but his allies were right there, the machete coming for Grimmjow's left, the chain on his right. He dropped low and rolled beneath both blows and came up close to the one with the machete. His iron bar came into the man's middle, doubling him in the dirt. Grimmjow reached for the dropped machete but a crack of pain through his back stunned him and he stumbled in the sandy terrain. The chain had struck him across the back hard enough he choked to regain his breath. He'd underestimate the speed of this man and his ability with the chain. Grimmjow was still recovering from the first strike when the second came down with brutal force against his unprotected back.
He couldn't breathe. The weight of the iron links slamming into him was enough to force the air from his lungs and stun him. His back felt numb from the impact, but beneath the surface he felt heat and guessed he was bleeding. He heard the reaction in the crowd and tried to block it out before it distracted him.
Too late.
The man was on him, looping the chain under his neck and trying to choke him. Grimmjow got his hands between the chain and his throat but he was dragged backwards against the man and he couldn't get the leverage he needed to break free. He was back on his feet, pinned against the enemy and he saw the crowd watching in breathless anticipation, some covering their mouths in horror at the sight of their favourite killer about to die.
Grimmjow narrowed his eyes and turned his hatred for the spectators on the three men left in the ring with him. The one he'd struck in the stomach was still struggling to get up, but the one with the sword was before him now. Grimmjow was busy enough trying not to be choked to death, but this man was going to run him through while he couldn't counter.
Shit.
He had only one move and he didn't know if he could pull it off but with the sword coming straight at his gut he had no choice but to try. The man choking him was about his size, just a little taller, which worked to his advantage in throwing the man off balance. First Grimmjow drove one foot back into the man's ankle, making his upper body shift forward onto Grimmjow, then Grimmjow lowered himself so that the man was fully over his shoulder and yanked down on the chain, ducking his head and pulling the man overtop of him.
It worked as well as he could have hoped. The sword stabbed through the wrong body and Grimmjow's captor fell dead at the hands of his ally. Unfortunately Grimmjow was still caught up in the chain and now the body and worked as fast as he could to get untangled as the other man pulled his sword back out.
"Fuck." He barely got away before the sword came down again. Now the man was emotional, his swings uncontrolled. It actually made him more dangerous and Grimmjow was having enough trouble just staying upright after nearly being choked to death.
When a hot line opened up just under his eye, Grimmjow knew he needed to end this. He couldn't take more injuries in this fight if he wanted survive tomorrow, and the next day. The man swung again, Grimmjow moved right into him, grabbed his arm and twisted hard and fast. His elbow popped out of place. He screamed and dropped the sword. Grimmjow didn't wait to pick it up, he drove his knee up as the man fell down and drove the cartilage in his nose high up into his skull. He was dead by the time he hit the ground.
The crowed screamed in approval but a megaphone sounded and Grimmjow spotted Cino in his sky box, waving at the crowed to calm. Then Grimmjow realized the problem. There was one man still alive.
The slave in question had puked out blood. Grimmjow had probably ruptured his organs when he'd struck him in the stomach with the crowbar. He looked at Grimmjow and then past him up to Cino. Grimmjow followed his gaze and watched the man high above in his pale suit. He stuck out one hand, holding his fist sideways with one thumb stuck out. The crowd went wild, chanting for him to turn it up or down. Grimmjow had no idea the custom came from ancient Rome, but it took little to guess what it meant when the thumb went down.
He picked up the sword.
"Wait—"
He ended it before the man could speak another word. The body fell limp at his feet. Grimmjow stared down on him for a long moment before the sword slipped from his fingers and fell into the dirt.
The crowd cheered.
Chains weren't needed when they brought Grimmjow back to his room this time. He sagged to his knees in his room when they let him go. He swallowed hard as his head swam with the pain killers and anti-inflammatories they'd pumped into his system after stitching up his face and trying to bring down the swelling around his throat.
He remained where he was as instructions were barked at the girl and he heard her meek acceptance of their orders. Chains hit the floor and the door shut. Yuzu came around and knelt in front of Grimmjow, a jar and bandages in her hand.
"They said for me to take care of your back," she whispered. It seemed she was still afraid of him. He shook his head and tried to stand. She dropped her supplies and hurried to help him.
"Please just lay down."
"No, I want to shower." He was still filthy from the fight. She looked him over and seemed to agree it was the best thing to do. "I'm fine." He shook out of her supporting hold and staggered toward the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
He let the water run cold over his sore body. His muscles ached from the strain he'd been put through, but mostly his back throbbed in pain where two red lines crisscrossed like an X over the whole length of his back. The second lash had left welts and open cuts. He shivered under the cold flow and from the pain.
He left the shower a bit steadier, the drugs in his system wearing off or leveling out or something. But when he pushed the door open he stared at his hand.
It was shaking.
"Um...are you alright?" He pulled his hand back against him at once and glared at the girl. She flinched away from the look.
"I'm fuckin' fine." But it was all he could do to get from that door to the bed where he collapsed face first, heaving out a long breath filled with pain. She inched toward him.
"Don't touch me."
"It's medicated." She held out the jar she had uncapped. "It will help your injuries."
He let out another long breath but said nothing more. She took this as her go ahead and moved closer to the bed and began applying the cream along the bruises and welts. His arms clenched under the pillow where he lay but he said nothing. As she worked, she watched some of the tension leave his shoulders and knew he must be getting some relief. By the time she capped the jar of cream, he was still, and when she moved around the bed she found his eyes closed. She left him to sleep and curled up on one of the armchairs.
"Kurosaki."
Ichigo spun in the hall and was surprised to see it Kenpachi waving him down. He was supported between a pair of crutches, one pant leg hung empty.
"Kenpachi," he greeted when he met him at the end of the hall.
"So you get the grand tour?"
"Sure did. This place is bigger than I remember."
"Yeah, it is. Too bad it wasn't full of soldiers." The pillar itself was huge, but the number of Soul Reapers were not. Forty-six in total. A devastating comparison to what they had been in the Seireitei.
"So you give your report yet?"
"In the morning. I was just going to see if I could help Shinji out."
"Nah, they're fine." Zaraki motioned back the way he'd come. "Come have a drink with me."
They made no mention of Kenpachi's state the other day. Ichigo imagined the large man shoved that down until another bout of depression struck him. Tonight though, he was his same old self, and he poured them drinks from a stash of bottles he kept in his room. They talked about the war, the days before the Clash, and Ichigo was happy to get lost in another time.
There was the slightest hitch in his voice when he talked of one battle in which Yachiru had come to his rescue. Ichigo didn't know what to say so he said nothing.
He left Kenpachi with a heavy heart and a bit buzzed. Rukia found him with his head in his hands at the foot of a staircase off the main room. She sat beside him, well aware of what was bothering him.
"We'll find them, I swear."
"I can't stop thinking about them, ever. I need to find them Rukia. Karin is strong, and she'll look after Yuzu, but this world is so crazy."
"I know." She slid her arms over his shoulders. It still felt strange for her to be so grown up, but now he took comfort in her embrace and leaned into her shoulder.
"Anything could be happening to them."
"You found me and I was fine."
"I know. I know." He said a little more firmly and straightened where he sat. "And now that I've found you, I know I can find them. I know they're out there. I just have to hope, wherever they are right now, they're okay.
"Grimmjow...?"
Yuzu hovered near him but didn't dare get close. He'd slid down the wall after being thrown back in the room. Now he sat there with his head in his hands. He didn't seem to notice the long trail of blood running down one arm.
"Can I get you anything?"
All she got as an answer was one finger pointing to the table. She glanced back at the bottle of rum and retrieved it for him, pouring it over into a glass. He only looked up at her when he downed the drink. She started at the long cut on his chin and the swelling and bruises around one eye.
"Let me—"
He pushed her hand away and she backed off, knowing the routine well now. He went for the shower. She pulled a chair over to the table and set up her medical supplies.
It was the sixth time she'd bandaged him up. He'd survived a week of the glads, but it was wearing him down. She wasn't sure if it was the injuries and the pain, or the faces of the men he killed that hurt him worst.
He had another drink before he sat in the chair and let her do her job. She patched his arm first, then had him lean and tilt his head back. The rum on his breath washed over her as she ran the needle through the torn skin at his jaw. He watched her work, his clear blue eyes unsettling. When she withdrew, he spoke.
"Who are you?"
"What do you mean? My name is Yuzu."
"Yes, I know, but who are you? Who were you with before this?"
"What makes you think I was with anyone?"
"You obviously haven't survived this long on your own."
She crossed her arms and sat in the chair opposite him, trying to pretend she was offended. But after a week in close quarters, they knew each other too well to pretend so she answered.
"Friends. You're right, I'm not strong enough to protect myself but I learned how to take care of people when I was just young. I do the cooking and the laundry and all the healing. My father was a doctor and I trained with him since I was in first grade."
Grimmjow knew she was skilled in medicine as she had been taking care of him all week. He took another drink, recovered now from his latest battle.
"So you got nabbed in the market?"
"Yeah...I was just getting some fresh fruit and someone grabbed me from behind. Then they brought me here..."
"Here as in this room or did they put you with the other slaves first?"
Her arms tightened around her middle. "With the others, but just for a day. Then they said I was...a good choice for their new volunteer."
"Hm. So your friends, who were they?"
"Just people." She shrugged.
"Kids like you?"
"Yes."
"Great, so no chance they're coming to rescue you then."
Her gaze shifted away from him. Clearly she lived in hope of it happening, but trapped here like this, there was no chance for mere children to help them out.
"What about you?" She asked after a while. "Do you have friends?"
He laughed at this. "Not a guy like me."
"Really? You never travel with anyone?"
"No, not usually, but I travelled with someone for a while, but he found his friends, we went our separate ways."
"That's sad."
"No, that's life. Now I have to go to sleep. I guess tomorrow's match is gonna be something special."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know." His voice dropped and he took one last, long drink, "but I guess I'll find out."
Ichigo leaned back in his seat after imparting his tale. He'd told of the past four years of travelling this new universe. Then he'd told of the past two weeks travelling with Grimmjow. Now he surveyed the faces of the group: Soifon, Kenpachi, Shinji and Rukia. They were all digesting his story. They had already told him of what areas on the new map they'd explored. Ichigo's knowledge added to that and he was glad to feel that maybe the last four years of travelling hadn't been in vain after all. But that still left them with one unmapped territory.
The Vandenreich territory on the Northern Islands.
"They are very interested in you," Soifon said. "And you've told us the Vandenreich are hunting your sisters."
Ichgio's hand tightened over the arm of the chair.
"Ichigo, that actually might help you find them." Shinji chimed in.
"What?"
"Well, we've been tracking their movements for a long time. If they are in turn tracking your sisters, well then we might be following the same leads."
"Yeah I suppose."
"This is good, Ichigo." Rukia patted his arm.
"Well then what do you know so far?" he asked.
"Basically what we've told you," Soifon admitted. "We've been trying to get across their borders for years but so far we've failed. I had hoped you might have succeeded where we failed when looking for your sisters."
"No, I never got in but..."
"What is it?"
"I know someone who has. And we let him walk away last week."
Fewf, that was a tiring one! This part of the story was a direct result of a recent Hunger Games binge but the movie Gladiator definitely helped me envision this apocalyptic "glads" so I guess I'm just borrowing left right and center from everything. Hope you can stomach some more as there is LOTS more action coming up!
Also, I agree, I was probably pushing it on the fact Ichigo never mentioned his sisters names to Grimmjow but I went ahead and took that liberty for some drama. I was careful to have Ichigo only refer to "his sisters" and if he did say their names in unheard conversations, well, perhaps Grimmjow wasn't paying too much attention to him. Anyway, I totally understand if you find it unbelievable but I hope you can roll with it too!
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!
Riza
PS, I'm going to pre-empt any concerns by stating right now there will NOT be anything romantic between Grimmjow and Yuzu (just in case anyone is worried about that!)