Day Break - zero hours remaining
"This is it." Rukia breathed next to Renji on the porch of Urahara Shoten. "The attack will begin in Soul Society any moment, and we aren't going to be there."
"We wouldn't be much good in this state." He said, moving his arm that kept him propped up slightly behind her, hoping she wouldn't mind the contact. He felt her small weight lean into the gesture.
"I dreaded this dawn for so long," she whispered, the red sun just cresting the horizon of Karakura and lighting up the white buildings in the distance but casting much longer, deep shadows on the ground, "but yesterday, I didn't think any of us would make it to see another sunrise. So now I don't know what to feel: relief or dread."
"How about victorious." They turned to see Uryu limping out with Chad's strong arm keeping him stable. The dark teen lowered his thin framed friend to the step as well. A moment later, Ichigo came out to join them, a patchwork of bandages but standing on his own.
"What do you mean?" Renji asked Uryu.
"I mean last night Grimmjow was a broken man and we had nothing on the Vandenreich. Now Grimmjow has his soul back and we have acquired valuable information about the enemy. It is more than we had before."
Renji thought it over and then nodded. He had Rukia back at his side, they had all lived. "Yeah," he sighed, "I guess that makes sense."
"Of course it does!" Ichigo said breaking the heavy mood with his sudden shout. "We're going to win this thing, no matter what."
"Right." They agreed. Rukia leaned back to look past Renji's arm.
"Is Orihime alright?"
"Tessai is taking care of her. She has a concussion." One of his hands fisted in anger but he didn't let it touch his voice.
"And the others?" Chad prompted.
"I was just about to go see."
It was a silent understanding when everyone rose. After everything that had just happened, no one wanted to hear this second hand. They made their way inside to the main room. They hadn't had time to get Grimmjow in back, he'd been bleeding out faster than Kisuke and Tessai could heal when Halibel had brought him through. When the wound in his leg had been stabilized, they began to notice the lack of scar in Nel's small face and her bone mask. They all wanted answers.
They found a very exhausted Urahara sitting cross legged next to the three arrancars: the very last of the espada. Grimmjow was awake, to their surprise, leaned back against the wall with his leg propped up on the coffee table while Urahara painstakingly sewed muscle and flesh together with a mix of thread and spiritual bindings.
Halibel was on his other side, wrapping a long bandage around his hand. The horrible wound in his shoulder had already been bound up and only a few cuts remained uncovered. Nel was at his feet, hands wrapped in his pant leg while she just stared at the other two working.
"There." Urahara sat back, wiping a tired hand over his face. "That should hold..if you don't move."
"Nel will make sure Grimmjow stays put!" The girl assured him.
"Great..." the sixth espada sighed, eyes half closing but the girl never lost her smile.
Kisuke now addressed those gathered. "I take it you want to know what happened?" Ichigo nodded. "Then I guess it's a good thing I sent the children to make tea."
The sun was well up, the day truly upon them by the time they'd finished their tea and Urahara finished relaying the story he'd gleaned from Nel with minor clarifications from Grimmjow.
"So where is Pantera?" Renji asked at the conclusion of the tale.
"Nel's spiritual pressure had indeed mixed with Grimmjow's but only contained a portion of his soul. When she transformed and gave him her power, it gave him the most concentrated dose possible of what was left of Pantera. Pantera, in turn, was exposed in the most direct way possible to his master and renewed himself in his body. Grimmjow has regained his soul, but much like when a zanpakuto is broken in battle, it takes time to recover. It will take much longer than that for Pantera to reform, but I am certain it will happen."
"Amazing." Rukia breathed, her eyes falling to the small girl. "But Kisuke, what about her scar? What does it mean that it is now gone?"
"Ah, now that was remarkable." No matter how worn out, the old scientist could never quell his interest in a good mystery or miracle. "Nel could not simply impart that piece of her that held the remainder of Pantera. She had to give Grimmjow everything she had, and she did. I must say, though I have never met her adult form, I think she must be very intelligent—she knew exactly what she was doing back then."
"Okay, so she gave him her power, how does that explain the crack in her mask disappearing?" Ichigo prompted.
"Just getting to that." Urahara said, accepting more tea from Jinta and taking a long drink before continuing. "We already decided that Nel's powers seeped out of the crack in her mask, keeping her in child form. Well the reason that crack could never close is because it was force open by that constant onslaught of power. When she gave up that power, however, that onslaught ceased, and the wound finally closed."
"What does that mean?" they turned at the gruff voice, Grimmjow looked like he might pass out at any second but he was holding on to hear this.
"It means she can grow up now, like a normal child would. She will almost surely regain her old powers in the process, but only as she grows."
"Nel's going to grow up?" the child squeaked in confusion. "But she already told you all she doesn't know how!"
"You don't have to know how this time," Urahara explained gently, "it will happen naturally."
She thought this over and looked back to Grimmjow. "Grimmjow always says Nel needs to grow up."
"Yeah and I also told you to leave me alone, but you never listen now do you?"
"Well if Nel had listened she wouldn't have saved Grimmjow all those times, now would she?" She shot back with a pout. Grimmjow relented.
"Guess you're right about that kid. I owe you one, again."
"Then Grimmjow can never ever leave Nel!"
She jumped up closer to him, gripping his heavily bandaged arm. Blue eyes found Halibel first, before shifting down to the child and closing in a show of disdain that no one really bought.
"Fine." He sighed his musical sigh and she hugged his arm tight to her despite his cry of pain
"Wonderful!" Kisuke clapped his hands in exaggerated joy. "Brace yourself, Grimmjow, I hear the teenage years can be alot of work!"
Urahara laughed at his own joke when blue eyes widened in what looked like sheer terror but the moment was interrupted when Nel tugged a little too hard on his arm and set Grimmjow off balance. His leg slid on the table and he jerked in pain.
"Carefu,l" Halibel reached out to steady him and he hissed out at the slight movement.
"Guess I woke up just in time." A soft voice spoke from the other side of the room and Ichigo jumped to his feet when he saw Orihme up and about.
"Orihime, you shouldn't be up."
"By the looks of all of you, I've been asleep too long." She regarded Grimmjow for a moment and Nel's smiling face. She had missed the explanations but her innate ability to read others told her much had improved in the last harrowing hours, even if Grimmjow was a bloody mess right now. "I think this time, I can help."
She brushed past Ichigo and came to kneel before Grimmjow. Her golden glow washed over him and he shuddered at the feel of his femur snapping back together, muscle and sinew repairing not just there but in his shoulder and many parts of his body. The relief ended a little early, Orihime held a hand against her head and Ichigo quickly urged her to lay down. She didn't protest this time and apologized to Grimmjow but he moved his leg from the table and, though still tender and sore, the bone was firm and the rest of him felt great relief.
"Thank you." he sighed out. Gingerly, he came to his feet and let out a breath when his leg held.
"Orihime you shouldn't have pushed yourself." Ichigo was saying but she just smiled, seeing the glow in Nel's face as she took her place at his leg and Halibel quickly rose when she saw Grimmjow was still shaky.
"I had to." she said simply. And he turned back to Grimmjow and Halibel.
"Will you stay and fight with us?"
Grimmjow looked sideways to those harsh green eyes. He couldn't break the habit of looking to her for answers after she had directed them through those long days fighting the Vandenreich.
"Decide for yourself." He felt her supportive arm withdraw and nearly stumbled as she swept out of the room. Their levity died, the events of the night and seriousness of everything settled on them once more. Grimmjow stood there a moment longer before following after her.
"Should we go after them?" Ichigo asked but Urahara shook his head. "No. I think they both need to sort a few things out." But his smile came back slightly as he looked on them all. "Thank you, everyone. This battle with the Vandenreich, it is not wrong to be frightened, but we witnessed a miracle last night. We saw hope. The Vandenreich lord himself, who struck the espada down time after time, couldn't easily defeat Grimmjow once his soul was restored. That reunion- that is something I don't think can ever be broken again. And neither will we break. We have gained two allies and after yesterday, that might be all it takes to sway the tide of this war."
His speech was unusually hopeful for him, but no one argued, no one wanted to break the spell and they all turned to where the two had left, hoping that that bond was just as strong.
"Halibel..." Grimmjow moved to her side on the edge of the porch. "I think we should stay together."
"I wasn't going to leave." She muttered back, voice hollow behind her mask. "We all decided to stay together back then, I won't go back on that now."
Her eyes stayed forced ahead but she caught him move away from her in her peripheral vision. He sat down hard on the steps, lacing his fingers into his blue locks and shutting his eyes. Tiny hands slid from his leg and Nel was just small enough to squeeze between his knees and look up at him.
"Grimmjow?"
"Go away Nel." Even though she usually took pleasure in the words, they bit out much harsher and more sincere than usual.
"But you said you wouldn't leave!"
"Nel please just leave me alone!" He covered his face and she backed off, disturbed by this show of emotion she thought gone once his soul came back.
"What's wrong with Grimmjow?" Nel wailed, tugging at his pant leg.
"He's growing up too, Nel." Halibel was next to him again, watching the slight tremors running through him. For a moment it was hard to tell if she was angry or sympathetic, her green eyes conveyed little, but she sat next to him, Nel nudging over to give her room. "He's gone through alot of changes, body and mind, and all those years he pushed everything down and just turned it into anger don't mean anything now."
Her words weren't really for Nel. She was trying to give some reason to Grimmjow for why he felt this way. She watched his fingers knot tighter in his hair until she placed her hand on the back of his neck, over that puckered pink flesh and those terrible scars. She heard him gasp out, trying to hold back emotions that were all but foreign to him.
"I fucking killed him." He finally said, voice thick. "I left him there and then I killed him."
"He didn't have any hope of getting his soul back, not like you. It was merciful."
"I didn't even like him." He said it more to himself, in confusion, in pain he couldn't explain.
"But he was one of us, so it hurts."
"NO!" He slammed his fists into his knees and launched himself up and away from them both.
"Walking away from us won't let you escape the pain this time, Grimmjow."
"I know that dammit, I'm not an idiot." But he wouldn't turn to face her.
"Do you remember all of it? All that time without your soul."
"...yeah."
"Then come back here."
"Don't expect me to follow orders like I did before."
"I don't. But I'm asking you to come back."
He growled low, but he did as she said. "What?" She stood up slowly, before him, studying him. His naked torso was still bandaged, the way he stood showed her he was still in pain, still felt the exhaustion of the last days and her eyes caught every scar that was left uncovered. He really needed new clothes, she thought briefly, what was left was torn and hung too big on his shrunken frame,. All that pain he'd suffered, and yet he didn't know how to suffer emotions. None of the other espada had. It's why she detested fighting, and why they couldn't understand that. Because battle brought emotions; outcomes could have higher costs than limb or life. Guilt, memory, these were also scars you bore even if they couldn't be seen. And she was watching him learn all of this for the first time. He really was like a child. And he would have to see Nel learn all of this in turn, as she grew up.
His hands were shoved into his pockets, shoulders slouched. "You don't have to pity me now," he said when he could muster a little more gruffness in his voice. "I ain't broken anymore."
"I don't pity people Grimmjow. I didn't pity you then and I don't pity you now. Your pain before...it was difficult to watch that. But I never acted out of pity. I chose then not to abandon you, like you have chosen not to abandon that child. I won't go back on that choice and I don't blame you for killing Yammy."
He tried to remain firm, tried to hold steady before her. But he did remember all that time without his soul. He did remember her soft touches, her gentle hold. At the time he didn't think it had helped, but now he found himself half expecting her to reach out and protect him when he was feeling this way. But she didn't move, she was waiting for him.
"I..." He felt his voice shaking, felt heat rushing into his face, blurring his vision. He didn't want to feel it. He tried to swallow it back and brushed past her. "I'm fine." He spat out, but his leg jolted with a sudden weight and he didn't even have to look to know Nel had his pant leg.
"Why is Grimmjow sad?"
"I'm not sad." he said giving a shake of his leg but to no avail so he leaned down and picked her up in his arms just to get his leg free so he could keep walking.
"Nel can tell."
"Shut up."
"It's okay, Nel gets sad about Dondochakka and Pesche too. And Dog."
"I said I'm fine!" He growled moving up the steps.
"Then why is Grimmjow holding Nel so tight?"
He stopped on the top step and looked down at her. The arm supporting her had stiffened against her and he tried to relax his hold but his whole body was tensed up. He watched her expectant, round eyes, hated how they could read him so easily, but at the same time he knew he never throw that away, not for anything. He felt his breath choke and he couldn't look away from those waiting eyes.
"Because...we were all we had...and I..." He just turned a fraction, just barley an inch but he felt Halibel's arms around him the second he sought them out. He sank into the double embrace- child hanging around his neck, hands clasped over the scarred reminder of just how much he had endured- how much he had changed. And Halibel's firm grasp keeping him from falling off that step.
"Did I do the right thing?" He asked into her shoulder past a sniff. Even now he didn't really want to let the tears out but he no longer had much of a choice and she felt them against her skin despite his effort.
"Yes, Grimmjow. You did right by him."
"Then why do I feel like this?"
"That's something you'll figure out for yourself." She whispered back. She held him for a while longer until something gave and suddenly she was holding alot more than she expected and had to quickly lower him back to the step.
"I'm okay," he said when she pulled back to check him over; he had a hand clenched over what was left of the wound in his leg. "Just a spasm." He took a shaky breath and eased Nel from around his neck.
"Is Grimmjow really okay?" She asked skeptically.
He just shook his head, running a hand through his hair and shaking off this foreign feeling. He had no memories of ever crying before he killed Yammy.
"Good. Because Nel never wants Grimmjow to be sad or hurt or lonely again!"
"Thanks kid." he dropped his hand on her head but turned to Halibel. "But we have a long fight ahead of us. They took our home, Halibel, and they took one of us. We're going to fight them, right?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"And these guys," he said, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder and thinking of one orange haired teen in particular, "are really alright? We can trust them?"
"I did when I had to, and it's the only reason you have your soul back."
"Fighting with Soul Reapers, eh?" He let that feral grin slide over his face. "Alright then," he stood up, Nel in arms, and Halibel watched him point to open sky, "We're coming for you, you Vandenreich bastards. You better be ready."
-End-
Look for a continuation of Day Break when the manga has developed the Vandenreich story line a bit furhter
Well, we made it to day break, so that's the end for now, I didn't know whether to put "end of part one" or to just plan to start a sequel but my thought process is this: I want to come back to this once Kubo has laid out some more about the Vandenreich and we see what happens in the war. Problem is, I have no idea how long all of that will take, so perhaps in a few weeks I will be satisfied or find new inspiration for a whole new story following Day Break, or perhaps I will only be able to give an epilogue or one shot. So, in sum, this story was always meant to conclude here, at daybreak before the way, but I will be posting something more later, I just don't know how much more or in what form. I don't even know whether to put the story status at complete in case I do want to just ad an epilogue later...
Anyway, thanks sooo much for keeping with this story, I quite liked it, and I would really appreciate feedback particularly pertaining to the time jumping that was going on at the beginning of this story since it was the first time I really used that style and I just wanted to know what people thought of it. It would be a great help as an aspiring writer!
And if you're looking for more Grimmjow, check out my new story Mask, it's very different from anything I've put on this site before but I am excited about it and I have another Grimmjow & Ichigo story in the works as we speak!
Thanks again,
Sincerely,
Riza A. Winters