Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
A world of chains. Darkness and infinite straight lengths of metal links all stretching out into the impenetrable darkness, utterly random and uncountable. Some chains ran together towards a common center, the nexus of chains in this world, and met at that place. Suichi rested on a chain, his balance perfect for sitting and facing someone else to talk. What he faced was the inner spirit of his sword, Haganerensa, the chain of his mind, a being covered and bound in chains from head to feet.
"Huuuuu" it breathed. It's voice was low and devilish, unlike Suichi's tired and snide tone. He sat with his wounds real and dried blood on his lips, facing his demon.
"I may have messed up" Suichi said "but that's no reason to pull me away like this. What do you want?"
"......Huuuuuu" it breathed again. "Such rudeness. What would your parents think of this?"
"My parents" Suichi replied "whoever they may be, are dead now. What they think of me now is not my concern. More importantly, what about you? Where was your power when I needed it? Where was the promise of unlimited chains, reaching into the sky, to pull down the heavens around me? Where was your power when I fought?"
"Huuuuu" it began, "you are a simple man, Suichi. You should not need such power, should you? The discretion of an assassin, the silence and the darkness. You are a shadow, and must fight as thus. It is unfitting for you to focus so much of your energy now on combat rather than your natural talents as a formless shadow on the wall. Your blade is the only form I should take if you are truly capable of acting like a proper assassin! Or have you fallen? Into the depths of barbarism. Have you become a warrior without knowing it?"
".....I may have" Suichi said. The chains became loose suddenly. The being within them was lowered and fell into their still tight grips as they wrapped around his arms and legs and body again. His face was uncovered, hidden by the darkness.
"Huuuuuuu" it growled. "Then, the time may indeed come. Suichi, unfreeze your heart. Let me into it. Let the chains coil and protect it instead of that feeble, fragile ice!" It reached out a hand toward Suichi's chest but was stopped by a frosty barrier. Suichi looked down at it from the sleepless shadows of his face. Its hand and skin was patterned like different tapestries of black and white wrapped around each other in the shape of an arm, and its hand was the same, a cloth cover filled with moving, solid chains. Suichi stood up and stepped back.
"My heart is ice" Suichi said "for a very good reason."
"For fear's sake, huuuuuuh..." the being breathed. It rose up, pulling itself up by the chains that bound it, and stepped onto the very support that held it there, the same length of chain that Suichi was on. Suichi could see its face, a head wrapped in black and gray and bloodied, stained white with two eyes visible from beneath the surface. Two horrible, glaring, piercing eyes, eyes that saw through his very soul. "You are afraid of power!"
Suichi did not immediately respond. To debate with himself was just what he wanted himself not to do. He understood where he stood in the world of his sword, and he understood its position on the current events. Suichi turned with a sigh. "I am not afraid to wield power, but that power will wield me. Is that not a legitimate fear to have? To become lost to power?"
"Huuuuuu" it breathed again. "Look around you. There are those who have lost themselves to power that yet survive and continue to grow even stronger! Do you not wish to be like them?"
"No" Suichi answered. A brief time passed. Suichi did not, and would not, elaborate. There was nothing more to say, it seemed.
"Huuuuu" it growled. The chains tightened and slowly drew it back. "You coward. You always come here to fight me, but only if I'm bound by these chains of yours! Release me, damn you, and together we can achieve power! True strength!" Suichi watched as the chains of his will wrapped Haganerensa back up in his tight seal. They held him together with his legs tightly wrapped by ten coils of tight chains and then brought his arms across his chest in a cross pose as they wrapped ten times around his torso. Then twice around his neck to keep his head from moving. Then as he stared, his eyes like two static demon's eyes glowing from the depths of the darkest hell into Suichi's own eyes, the chains gathered and wrapped him in a tight cocoon of metal. There was no sound but a muted breathing as he drew his breath from the realm of darkness through the holes between the links of chains. Suichi turned and began walking away, balancing himself on the single chain.
"I've never fought for power before" Suichi said "and I don't intend to start. It's just not....my way." And so Suichi went to the deeper corners of his soul, retired from the fights outside for the solace and meditation that his deepest mind held. Still, he had a connection to the world in this state. He could still feel his wounds and the constant pain of them, as well as the frigid cold of the rain and the gusts of wind kicked up out of mystery. Suichi turned around and saw a wall of chains moving in, criss-crossing into a wide and chaotic net, to block the way he had just come again. He sighed and saw his breath.
"I hope Hoji gets enough common sense to move my body out of the rain" Suichi said. "I don't want to die of something like a cold after all this..."
Meanwhile, outside of Suichi's mind, Hoji was indeed fighting to keep his alive, exerting the last strains of energy he had in his body after the fight with Kakugari had nearly taken all of him to finish. He and Horoshi were caught in a deadly game, blocking each other's counters and building up both rage and energy with each unsuccessful attack. Hoji threw a punch, fast as wind, that Horoshi caught with the flat end of his glowing sword. Then Horoshi would swing and have his sword caught by Hoji's own hand. Hoji held his sword in a tight grip, the wind powering his hand to clutch without fear, and he kicked Horoshi with a low, knee-driven kick in his leg. Horoshi ignored the blow and drew his sword back, slicing Hoji's hand as he did.
"Tch!" Hoji exclaimed. "You won't get away with that, kid!" Hoji hopped one foot back and swung up a kick to Horoshi's side. The young fighter recovered his sword and blocked with the blade. Hoji's leg ignored the slicing power and simply drove the metal into Horoshi's side. Then, his leg drew back, bending at the knee, and delivered another flat kick straight to Horoshi's gut, right under his ribcage.
"Grrrhh!" Horoshi grunted. He stepped back and Hoji advanced.
"TCHYA!!" Hoji shouted. He punched Horoshi in the jaw and stunned him. Then a blow to the cheek and awoke him with anger. Then he stomped the ground, crouched low, and powered up a fist wound back and low. Before Horoshi could swing his sword to counter, or raise it in defense, Hoji shot up straight and full, like a sudden updraft of galing wind, with a powerful uppercut! Horoshi was carried by a blast of wind up over the trees, and when his body slowed at the peak of its arcing height, Hoji appeared and delivered a spinning kick that sent him even further away into the forest. Hoji landed with a crash and splash of the soaked ground, his energy so totally drained that he immediately fell on shaking legs to his knees.
Am I done already!? Hoji thought. Hey, Torakaze! Oi! This isn't over already, is it? A silence passed, though brief, and he heard in the distance the cry of an angered youth.
It seems so Torakaze replied, equally exhausted by her voice. You must escape now. Take your friend and run as fast as you can. The winds will be with you for a few steps or more, but then it will all turn in reverse. You must hurry!
"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He was hesitant to leave. Horoshi was still alive, and above that he was barely injured yet. "It's not over yet!" Hoji growled.
You must go NOW! Torakaze demanded. Hoji growled, punched the ground and grabbed Suichi. With the unconscious man slung over his shoulders he picked a random direction and ran through the forest, weaving between the trees and running with a wind preceding him, making a path for him to follow that led out into the biggest gathering of open air and breezes it could find. When Horoshi returned and found both warriors gone, his sense left him and he swung the light off of his sword in a furious slash. The laser blast decimated a tree and blew it into burning pieces. The fires that spread were quickly extinguished by the rain and the moisture, but the shrapnel was still everywhere. Horoshi breathed vehemently, no longer a bright youth but a scorned and scowling fiend. He could only see death around him, the death of those two and the death of everyone who would dare get in his way.
No longer a boy, but Horoshi had turned to a dark and heartless beast just then....
Once out of the forest and onto the path, Hoji stopped and fell to his knees. He dropped Suichi in the mud and fell to his hands. His breathing was heavy and exhausted, as if lifeless and just reborn. Every breath he took was painful and hot and swelled his throat nearly to the point of closing. He gasped and tried to cool himself down by touching some cold mud to his throat. His breathing was deeper after than but the breaths still hurt. There was a stabbing pain deep in the pit of his body, at the bottom of his lungs with every great draw he took.
Dammit! Hoji thought. DAMMIT! It's not enough! It's not going to be enough! I can't just run! I can't just run!!! He'll follow me, and find me, and then where will I be!? Hoji pounded into the mud of the path and coughed in his difficult breathing. Damn, damn, damn, damn damn damn! Damn! Damn! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!
Calm down Torakaze said. At least you got away long enough to catch your breath. Now keep going.
I have to fight! Hoji thought. He heard Torakaze sigh, then he felt something leave him and reappear near him. All the energies that Torakaze had placed into his body were reconstituted into the hilt and unbroken handguard of a blade. But the blade was gone. Hoji took it from his fist and looked at it. There was nothing left to fight with at all. He couldn't even fit it in his sheathe if he had it, there was no blade to draw. Hoji glared at the broken sword for a moment, a cold and silent pass, then gripped it with a more firm resolve as the lightning struck in the sky.
"Fine" Hoji said. "Fine, then." He tucked the hilt carefully into the sash at his waist and tightened it to keep it in place. It was still raining, the sky was still a perpetual dark, and the state of things was just beginning to catch up to Hoji. "So it seems that I'm the only one to win so far....that holds our record at one win, one loss. If Jin wins, we'll come out on top. Otherwise, it's up to Shin to get us a solid tie....not that anyone's counting but me. I doubt Shin will lose. He's Shin. There's just no way he'll lose. If I know him, he's willing to be just as stupid as me....." Hoji turned around and picked Suichi back up. "Alright. Let's get the hell out of here and find Shin. At the very least, if he wins, we can hide nearby until that crazy kid goes away or dies...." So Hoji ran down the path, again full of vigor and life with a new resolve.
I lost Hoji thought. Even for all my effort, in the end, I took a challenge I couldn't complete. I lost. So I have to take this loss and run with it. I have to make something positive out of it. If I don't then all I can do is fret and moan and bitch about losing, and I don't want to be that sort of guy! Hoji hurried down the path, keeping himself keen and fully aware of his surroundings as much as possible. He sensed spiritual pressures all around, eight including himself, which told him that no one had died yet. Even though it was distant and vague, Shin's pressure was still there and told Hoji that he was still alive. Jin's was active too, though it seemed more defined and chaotic than usual. That meant he had to be close by. Hoji stopped in the road just long enough to try and sense Jin out and then, out of pure cosmic luck, turned to see the giant boy walk out of the forest with patches of thick mud covering his body and blood staining his fair skin.
"Jin!" Hoji exclaimed.
"Bald Death!" Jin replied. Hoji kicked Jin in the knee and ground his heel with a growling face. Once his rage died down, he looked up and Jin and motioned to Suichi on his back.
"He's done fighting" Hoji said. "Here." Jin took Suichi in his hands and held him against his shoulder.
"What about you?" Jin asked.
"Jin" Hoji began, "did you manage to win?" Jin looked away in shame. Hoji nodded, his face stern but without disappointment. "That's okay. I didn't either."
"So.....we all lost?" Jin said.
"Just a hitch in the plan" Hoji said. "As long as Shin wins, who cares what we did? This is his fight and we were just along for it, so let's go find him." Jin was recovered instantly. He smiled and nodded, allowing Hoji to leap up onto his shoulders for a free ride. "He's that way" Hoji said, pointing down the path and toward the rolling hills. Jin nodded and began running. All three of them went down the path together, toward the storm as it continued to move in. Hoji was focused forward, his sword still bladeless and safe in his sash at his waist. Jin was renewed in his charming happiness. That which had plagued him before, the earlier hopelessness of his loss at the hands of Senshi was gone, wiped away like a breeze through the fine dirt where his problems were all written down, and now they were gone.
It'll be fine! Jin thought. Death will triumph! No one can kill him! He's the strongest, he's the best! He won't lose ever! He's not weak or anything, he's really truly strong! We can all believe in him after all!!!
Damn you, Shin Hoji thought. You know better than to lose. More is lying on the line of your fight that you know now. I don't want to have to see you dead again, lying on the edge of the border of life like you're the only one who matters! Don't lose, Shin. Don't even think about losing, not until we're all ready to die together!!!
Yes, that seemed to be the main thought of the moment. It would all be alright as long as Shin won....
In the darkness, a man walked. Ignoring the absolute pressure of the surrounding nothingness, Netami walked right through the myriad league of darkness like it was nothing at all. Across the cut grass, the gouged earth, the soaked terrain all around. He ignored the stains of dirt on his socks and how worn his sandals had become from just the one fight, and he ignored how his body was so torn and cut from the fight. He ignored it all, holding sword tight in his left hand, ready to finish whatever ungodly thing still remained even after his power had been so explicitly exhibited. So Netami reached the crater where his Makaze attack had thrown Shin, and he saw that Shin was gone, yet his scythe remained. Shocked into terror by the revelation, Netami's pressure lifted on the surrounding area.
How? He wondered. How is this possible? What could have happened? He can't be alive at all! He just simply can't be!!!
Suddenly, the darkness caught him and grabbed him and pulled him back. Netami felt his body in free-fall down an eternal, abyssal tunnel into pure, opaque darkness, yet he could still see the sky of rolling clouds up above. The darkness grabbed at him like an army of hands and arms reaching out, and dragged him deeper and further into the feeling of all-encompassing darkness that held at his back as an airless, lonesome sensation. It was sheer terror that clutched his heart, which he batted away in an instant with the swing of his sword. The blades he threw, invisible forces of pure power, hit into the compacted dirt and the scythe stuck in it, toppling it over and causing many tiny scars in the dirt to appear.
"Miss" Shin said. He was standing behind Netami, his ribs exposed from the flesh that was cut away and his body still covered in a fresh coat of blood, undried by the wet air and constant rain. "You missed." Netami slowly started to turn. Shin stepped forward and threw a powerful punch to his head. His whole body spun, following after his jaw. The force was so great that his vision skipped a second and he could hear his own neck creak ominously as his head was forced to twist around. He landed and lost his balance, nearly falling over with the shadow of Shin looming over him, dark enough even to appear when there was no light in the storm clouds to give off such a menacing darkness. Shin grinned and wound back a leg. Netami leaped away just as Shin kicked the air and forced a solid piece of the ground up from just the powerful carrying wind that he had kicked. Shin glared his direction.
His eyes Netami realized. They're different. Shin was upon him at once with a punch. Netami flash-stepped away and posed his sword up at his shoulder. His eyes...are black! It was true. As Shikei had taken Shin's body, Shin's eyes were turned to pure pitch black, like a monster's eyes, unwatching, yet seeing everything around them. Netami swung his sword to throw a powerful, invisible wave of blades through the rain. Shikei watched them coming, able to see them plainly as arcs of light in the darkness, and he caught them. He simply hit them and they went away, he killed them in motion.
"Impossible!" Netami exclaimed. Shin was upon him yet again, both fists wound back and his legs straight back as he came out of his leaping flash-step.
"Nothing escapes death" Shikei said. He grabbed Netami's throat, so strong that Netami heard it creaking again, and then punched into Netami's hardened gut so forcefully that the impact nearly made him vomit. However, with the hand tight around his throat, the bile was stopped and held in the middle of his trachea, blocking his ability to breathe. "Drown..." Shikei said. Netami wound back his blade and jabbed the pommel into Shin's side. Shin was hit and blown away, but caught the ground and stopped immediately, slowly standing up as the wave of inertia passed over him. He stroked a hand from his chin up through his bangs and flicked away the rainwater soaking his black hair. Netami continued his attack, rushing in with his sword held up high and swung hard down. Shin stepped away from it and jabbed his hand, fingers straight, into Netami's cheek.
"Taaah!!!" Netami shouted. He stepped away and held his cheek, which felt like it was nearly pierced straight through, and looked back to follow Shin's movements. He was gone again, reappearing beside Netami with a fist in mid-punch. Netami dodged and swung his sword in counter. Shin stepped away from it and rapidly swung his hands to beat away the blades of power. "I can follow your movements after all!" Netami exclaimed. "You can't escape me. Your movements are just slow!" Netami began swinging with his left arm as fast as he could, throwing as many blades at Shin as he could to keep him back. Shin sighed and began to walk forward, beating the blades away with quick swings and apathetic reaches of his fists.
"You do not fear death" Shikei said. He grabbed a blade of energy and threw it back, halting Netami's rapid bladewave storm and throwing his sword to the side, still tight in his hand. "Therefore, you cannot understand death" Shikei continued. He grabbed another blade and threw it back. It hit Netami right in one of his fresher cuts, wrenching out blood into the rain that splashed against the already saturated grass. "You cannot understand the absolution of death, of true sacrifice, of human nature if you cannot comprehend death itself."
"Who gave you permission to preach to me?" Netami lowed. He allowed Shin to approach, holding his sword down so the blade touched the ground. "Hahaha" Netami laughed in a low. He looked to the sky, away, and brushed his bangs apart from his orange eyes. "Death....I understand it well, even though I do not fear it. There is no point to fear death. It won't force me to live any more than I already do, and acknowledging death will not get in the way of what I choose to do at all! It's all pointless to try and make me see things 'your way', Shin Kenpachi. Death may be a great motivator for you, but to me, death is just a result of fighting and war! Nothing else!"
"So then" Shikei said, "you do seem to understand a little..." Shikei reached up and grabbed Netami's shoulder. His thumb pressed between the joint of the arm and the shoulder, and with a painful pop he separated bone from joint, dislocating Netami's shoulder and numbing his arm totally. He was forced to drop his blade, but he showed no fear or even pain. He just turned to Shin with a sneer and clutched his throat. He gripped hard, pressing at its back to feel his spine, hoping to hear it snap or begin to creak a little. Shikei grabbed Netami's arm and began to pull on it, hoping to simply rip it off now that it wasn't attached to the shoulder anymore. "What if I ended this fight now? You can't fight without an arm, so what'd be the point of fighting until you die?" Netami became instantly infuriated and picked Shin up in his rage by the throat. He threw him and grabbed his own arm. He fell to the ground and rested his knuckles on the flat of his blade. He pushed his shoulder into his arm while holding it straight, and shouted in pain as it popped itself back into place.
Shin took advantage of his posture and hit him with a flying knee to the face. Then, while Netami was sent head-first backwards into the mud, Shin flipped back to his feet and kicked up Murasame.
"This is a true flying-sword attack" he said. He juggled the blade with two kicks and then hopped up, kicking with both feet into the exact balance point of the blade. It flew straight forward, blade aimed at Netami, and nearly hit him. He dodged by flash-stepping away and tried to dash back at Shin.
"I'm not afraid to fight unarmed!" Netami exclaimed. "Come at me!!!" Netami heard something click, something metal, and turned to see Shin wielding his sword, aiming down the tip right at him, glaring hot searing death at him. Then, holding the sword in a draw across his chest, he dashed in and swung. Netami leaped away, just avoiding the blade, but not the following blast of pure energy that Shin released. The explosion hit Netami's wounded chest and blood flew out like rain drops, hitting Shin's hair and face as he grinned like a laughing skull. Netami landed on his feet, still in pain, and saw something dark flying at him. He leaned far back as his sword flew right over him. The blade was aimed down and cut the air, scraping a new wound across Netami's body as it flew. He grabbed it at the hilt just before it could be sent further away and stood up. Shin was already there, his right hand at the bottom of the hilt, right under Netami's left hand. Shin took his left hand, drawn up high, and hit an open-palm up high on the blunt edge of the sword. Netami used his right hand and held the bladed edge away, and a struggle ensued.
"You preach about death so much!" Netami growled. "Why not die and experience the true terrors of it!?"
"Weakling" Shikei lowed. "To wield death, one must embrace it. All the pain and human weakness must be drained of the mind, so that one can face to his innermost fears, his darkness and his regrets, and LAUGH AT THEM!!!" Shikei jumped up, pushed out with his arms and delivered a drop-kick into Netami's blade. With that force he was able to push the sword into Netami's body, a long and shallow slice that held Netami in place with a stillness of utter disbelief and rage, and he flew across the hills to the crater where his scythe still rested. Once he stopped he took a hand to his exposed, bloodless ribs and a billowing darkness began to build. From his palm a dark, deathly cloth appeared and covered the wound, spreading like a black fire across his body, garbing him in material Death. Shikei picked up the scythe, itself, the physical form of its power as a weapon, and spun it around until it vanished. With the energy returned to its body it held out both hands and summoned the scythe anew, no longer as a simple metal weapon, but as a mass of scythe-shaped Death energy.
"Let me test your courage" Shikei said, spinning the scythe around with an energy whoosh as it tore through the rain. "Let me hear you LAUGH IN THE FACE OF DEATH!!!!" Shin's face changed as Shikei took total control. No longer flesh and blood, but the rain that coated Shin's face had stained it black and white. The power of death was revealed as the skull that was Shin's body opened wide and laughed madly into the air. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!"
Netami was overcome with distraught rage. He pushed his sword out of his body and took a deep breath. His bleeding stopped, and all his wounds became black. The blood was stopped and his body was healed. Then, he began to laugh and flew through the air with sword pose over shoulder at Shikei.
"HAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAAAA!!!!!!" The distance closed quicker than a flash of lightning. Then things became dark, black, voided. The clash of Death and Darkness stopped for a moment as the whole world lost itself to an unknown blackness.....
