Chapter 7: How to have a change of heart without surgery

After walking with Rangiku and Kira for nearly an hour, Ikkaku was undecided on who would win an 'annoying contest'. Izuru had started crying again once someone had accidentally mentioned Ichimaru, and Rangiku was making bad jokes nonstop, which were all about ghosts and zombies. To make things worse, she was carrying an IV bag filled with blood and was drinking it out of the connected plastic tube like it was a straw.

It paid off at least, because Rangiku really did lead them to where they were meant to go. It turned out not to be an actual sugar bowl, but a candy store that looked like an old-fashioned theatre where kabuki performances might be held. As they went in, the dusty wave-glass windows were taped up with posters advertising 'Lolly Gags', who performed in the evenings.

The place was rather creepy like the barber shop he'd come to earlier. The floors were dirty and the windows were coated with dust. The light was eerie and yellow, and little twinkling paper butterflies were hanging in the place of lamps. There was something that was keeping him from looking directly at the person behind the candy counter.

When they made it inside, Renji had once again become scared like a spooked animal and was holding tight to one of Ikkaku's hands. Izuru was now weeping silently, breathing through his fingers and trying to pull himself together quietly. Yumichika wasn't talking much and was sitting very close to his neck, practically holding on to him. Rangiku didn't seem to be scared, but she was silent too, not even slurping rudely from her blood pouch like before.

There was a palpable tension in the room as they looked around the mostly filled booths and the candy counter in the center of the store. The candy counter itself looked rather like a bar, which stretched around the store in a circle. Inside the circle was a large shelf pillar that was also round, housing candy jars all the way around. Ikkaku wondered how the employees got out after their shift was done. Did they just climb over the counter or something? There didn't seem to be a gate or a door or anything, and still, for some reason he could not bring himself to look at the person behind the counter, even though he was trying.

Frustrated, he looked around to the side. There were customers staring rudely at them, and he found that most of them were tough men that you'd see at a bar. Through a few old western-style swinging doors, there was a stage and a few chairs and tables that were knocked over. Glass bottles were on the floor and candy wrappers literally made up the wallpaper.

Ikkaku figured out why his friends were acting strange when he saw a large sign that was almost as big as the candy menu. It was a long list of Queen Yachiru's decrees, and when he read some, it almost made sense that they would be displayed in a candy store.

'All funerals must been accompanied with candy.'

'A fee equal to a work-hours salary must be paid in candy without fail.'

'Whosoever asks for directions or assistance shall pay by way of candy.'

'Whosoever denies or fails to provide a dying man a last piece of candy shall be put to death.'

'All prison sentences must be accompanied with candy.'

'Tax exemption may be received on the condition that the debtor pay with an equal amount of candy.'

'Whosoever breaks the law must repay their crime with an equal amount of candy.'

'No candy shall be allowed to spoil. Anyone found in possession of candy past the date of expiration shall be put to death.'

'Wow… Harsh,' Ikkaku thought, swallowing. As it seemed, the tiny tyrant was not here, and it seemed like a good reminder that they should have some candy with them just in case.

Rangiku mumbled something about the Red Queen finally bringing about some justice, and Ikkaku had to stare at her in wonder about how Rangiku could be so heartless in this world. She didn't care about Kira crying, and she didn't care about that murderous tyrant. Hell, she supported her. This was messed up, so he stopped thinking about it, instead opting to buy some candy.

Ikkaku didn't have any money of course, and was dismayed, realizing that he had lost the stuff he had been carrying with him some time ago. It wasn't like he'd found any money, but Hozukimaru was gone again, along with the other things he'd collected before he'd met Akon, so he really had nothing to trade with either.

Luckily, Rangiku had some money, which was strangely iridescent and shiny, not quite silver, not quite pearl. Ikkaku thanked her and used to it to get some weird candies he'd never heard of. They were twisted crystallized bows that looked like they were made of some kind of maple sugar that might melt in one's mouth, but Ikkaku didn't dare eat any. They looked like they would crush easily, so just in case, he got some plain peppermints too.

At that point, Yumichika directed Ikkaku to the bathroom and said that he should go in even if he didn't need to 'go'. Of course, Ikkaku didn't even know why they'd come inside this store in the first place, since this was just supposed to be the next landmark that they were passing by, but he didn't question Yumichika this time.

Immediately, he noticed that the perspective of everything changed. The room was suddenly on four different planes instead of three and there were mirrors everywhere, screwing with his vision. Moving with precision completely stunk because he always seemed to be going the opposite direction that he was supposed to. It was almost impossible not to look in a mirror, so he kept trying to look down at his own hand instead of the reflected one, but every time he tried, he confused his real hand with one in another mirror. It took him probably five whole minutes to properly wash his hands, trying to turn the grimy sink knobs the right way.

The water didn't look very clean and as he shook his hands off, he looked up, directly into one mirror, and suddenly, he was looking at himself – no surprise – but it was something that had happened a long time ago.

In a large oblong mirror with a cheap gold frame with peeling paint, he could see it playing out. "C'mon, there's a spittin' contest in town!" He watched himself, barely seventeen, still thinking himself a man. It was back when he'd been young and dumb enough to still have some sort of code of chivalry, which caused him to want to take care of Yumichika, perhaps to prove that he was a man.

He could see himself towing Yumichika along by the wrist after they had first met in the woods so long ago. Yumichika had been older, maybe in his early twenties, and there he was trying to look disgusted, but his face looked so surprised and delighted that Ikkaku found himself unable to look away from the mirror, even as black grime started to creep forward and turn the glass black.

At the time of the memory, he'd already gotten into that habit of going on ahead without looking back, and he hadn't seen Yumichika's facial expression that was filled with so much hope and adoration, but now that he did he found that his heartstrings were being cut. He thought of when they'd first met, when he'd tried in his own stupid way to be a man and take care of Yumichika by scraping together money and protecting him, even though Yumichika made it clear that he could fight on his own.

Now that he thought about it, he wondered why Yumichika hadn't left him, a stupid kid on the cusp of adulthood who thought he knew everything and didn't want to be told otherwise. Yumichika had stuck around and tolerated his company, not complaining when Ikkaku hung around him or was overly demanding. Ikkaku had always been in charge, always having the plans, and Yumichika went along with them without question, even if he knew they were stupid or flawed.

Ikkaku watched his younger self pull Yumichika along, and suddenly he realized that he had felt strong at that time because Yumichika hadn't crushed his spirit and handed his ass to him like every other man who tried to get in on Yumichika's goods. Yumichika had believed in him and given him confidence, even when he was wrong. Yumichika was the person he was always fighting for, trying to impress in the back of his mind, even if he wasn't paying attention.

"Spitting is ugly," Yumichika said, finally getting control of his facial muscles and forcing his smile away.

Young-Ikkaku stopped, looking back, perhaps disappointed. "Oh… Well, we're still going," he insisted, already making their decisions the first day they'd met. Yumichika went along with it, and it had been that way ever since.

As blackness covered the mirror completely, Ikkaku tried to look away and found another memory above him in a mirror that looked like a silver tea tray. He was young still, perhaps twenty-three, and he was in bandages. It looked like it was after he'd fought Kenpachi, because that was the only time he'd allowed Yumichika to patch him up. That was when his worldview had been rocked; his stubborn childish principles had completely changed to align with Kenpachi's, even if some of them didn't line up as much as he'd thought.

Yumichika was rubbing his back and he was eating something or other, sitting in front of a fire. They actually had some place to sleep that night, which he'd been glad for. For the first time, he was allowing Yumichika to fix him up and get him healthy so he could be good and strong when he found Kenpachi again. Before, he'd been hesitant, thinking that it would feel weird to have someone taking care of him, but he found that he actually liked it, and besides, those bandages were necessary. He didn't want Zaraki to turn him away; he wanted to follow him so bad, so Kenpachi could teach him to fight.

Ikkaku didn't know how much time he spent staring at the mirror, watching the two of them in silence for a few minutes, maybe an hour. Finally, he saw Yumichika give a little sigh and move behind him, still rubbing his back, which suddenly made a cracking noise. He could vaguely remember that he'd messed his back up so bad that he could hardly stand after that fight. Yumichika had literally had to drag him to safety after Zaraki had left them.

"Ooohhh, I dunno' what you just did, but that felt great." Sure enough, Ikkaku sat up and twisted with ease, his back having finally corrected itself. "Seriously, it doesn't even hurt anymore."

"Good," Yumichika said, a little smile on his face before blackness corroded the mirror's glass beyond recognition.

Ikkaku found another mirror, smaller than the others and with an ornate frame, and it looked like he was looking directly at Yumichika, as if he was looking through his own body's eyes.

"I really messed up tonight, didn't I? Sorry. Seriously, though, that was one hell of a fight." Yumichika almost looked concerned, but then he just smiled cruelly and turned away, just in time for the glass to go black.

Another mirror, this one with a handle. It seemed to be the bottom of a bucket.

He saw Yumichika sitting silently in the dirt, holding his cheek with a quiet sort of blood-lust in his eyes. Ikkaku could see himself, maybe nineteen, holding Yumichika's good-for-nothing boss at swordpoint, threatening him within an inch of his life if he didn't leave Yumichika alone.

"He doesn't owe you anything, you bastard."

"On the contrary." Yumichika had been a top-seller or something, and the guy didn't want to let him go, but after Ikkaku cut off a few of his fingers, he agreed.

Yumichika didn't cry, but as Ikkaku held out a hand to help him off the ground, his eyes were shining with something like freedom. Ikkaku held out a hand and touched the glass, having to watch Yumichika's face turn black and burn away like paper.

Another mirror. This one was a looking-glass with a crystal handle, but it was attached firmly to the wall like the rest. Ikkaku started to feel like he was spinning. His heart felt like it weighed a ton.

"I never hoped for those guys to be so strong. Wasn't that fun?"

Another.

"Boy, am I lucky tonight."

Another.

"These academy uniforms are so ugly," Yumichika complained, causing Ikkaku to slow down and focus on the mirror. That was right before Yumichika had had to cut his hair. He'd been so distraught, and Ikkaku remembered because he'd been the one to cut it for him.

Yumichika had complained about the uniforms for months, but Ikkaku actually liked them. Yumichika looked nice in red, and his long black hair looked sort of right against the crisp white of the uniform. Ikkaku had never been able to keep his clean, but Yumichika had always had some sort of magic trick to repel dirt.

"Hmph," Ikkaku saw himself pout, remembering that he had been upset about not being able to just join Zaraki's division straight away. "Why do we even have ta' go ta' school, anyway?" Truth be told, he had felt a little threatened and emasculated, since he knew that he knew nothing about book smarts. He was a little concerned that he might never be able to graduate.

Yumichika might go on without him and join Zaraki's squad without waiting. Ikkaku remembered that after that thought popped into his head, he'd demanded that Yumichika help him learn to read. He knew a few kanji, but not enough to be able to read a book easily. Of course, Yumichika was happy to help. He always was.

"It'll only be a few years and then you'll see your precious Kenpachi again."

"Ya' think he'll take us into his division?" Ikkaku asked, hope in his voice. He looked off into the distance at the white walls separating the academy from the division barracks.

"Of course he will," Yumichika assured.

"If he doesn't, I'll make him," Ikkaku muttered. The memory burned to ashes.

Another mirror, right next to it, was broken into a few pieces, giving him five or six different views of the same memory.

"See, that didn't take so long, did it?"

"Psh… The nerve of that inspector, telling me I barely passed," Ikkaku huffed, holding his certificate that said that he'd graduated.

"You could put in a bit more effort at kidou, Ikkaku."

"What for?" Ikkaku scoffed, not noticing Yumichika's face fall. Ikkaku looked on through the mirror, wondering why Yumichika looked so sad and surprised. "I'll never be any good at that anyway. It's stupid."

"Hm. If you say so…" Yumichika's head went down and he was smiling again, having hidden something expertly by smoothly changing the subject. "I do wish that these work uniforms were a little less plain."

"Why don't you… uh… glam it up? Or something," Ikkaku said awkwardly.

"Really? What color should I use?" Yumichika asked enthusiastically.

"Uh… any color, I dunno'."

Another. Another. Another. Them together during their golden years, always traveling, always happy even though they were suffering. Them leaving the Rukongai behind forever. Them joining Zaraki's squad and kicking everyone's ass, taking seated position almost immediately. Them on missions together. Them taking care of Yachiru. They had always been a team and all they'd ever had for a long time was each other. Every memory felt like a knife, like it was something that would never happen again. They all were complete with Yumichika's beautiful eyes, the real Yumichika from his world, so pretty, so broken, so far away.

"Are you crying?" little-Yumichika asked, finally drawing Ikkaku out of his trance.

"No," he said out of reflex, almost looking into a mirror on impulse to check to make sure he wasn't. It wouldn't have helped anyway. They were all black, as if someone had painted the glass.

Sure enough, when he felt his cheeks, his hands were wet, but that was probably just because he'd just washed his hands. His nose was running, but that had to be because it was cold, and his throat was tight and burning, but that must be because he'd eaten a spicy peppermint or something. He definitely wasn't crying.

"You're crying," Yumichika said in dismay, maybe trying to comfort him, and it pissed Ikkaku off so bad that he wished Yumichika was full size so he could punch him.

"Shut up, no, I'm not," he said roughly, practically stabbing Yumichika with his eyes in an attempt to shut him up.

"I think you are."

"Oi," he growled, glaring at Yumichika. "I didn't ask for your opinion, okay?"

"That doesn't make me wrong." Ikkaku just growled, clenching his fists and then wiped his eyes with his wrist for good measure. "Maybe we should leave…" Yumichika sighed, maybe regretting bringing him in here.

Ikkaku wholeheartedly agreed, and leave they did. When he came back out of the bathroom, he was surprised to see his friends still there. Even though this dream had become a real world, he still expected weird things like that to happen. Maybe his dreamscape was saving up to lull him into some false sense of security and then pull a huge prank on him. Ominous...

Rangiku had bought them all 'blood' lollipops that probably weren't made of real blood. It had quieted Kira down, at least. He actually looked pretty happy. For all those tears, Izuru sure was pretty when he smiled. Ikkaku unwrapped his own sucker and stuck the flat candy in, tasting raspberry.

"Good, it's just fruit blood, then," he mumbled.

"Hey!" Kira said, taking his sucker out of his mouth and staring at it, sticking his tongue out. "This isn't fruit," he said in confusion, which was weird to Ikkaku, because it had taken Izuru like five minutes to figure out.

"Oh, that's mine then," Rangiku said, snatching it and putting it in her own mouth, giving Izuru the one she'd been saving for herself. She must have mixed them up.

Renji just stopped walking all together and stared at Izuru morbidly, eyes wide. He tugged on Ikkaku's arm, making a distressed face. Renji seemed upset that Kira had been eating the candy that was real blood. Ikkaku just shrugged, kind of creeped out too. "Doesn't look like he's scared." Renji exhaled, still watching Izuru strangely as they started to walk again.

Yumichika was a little disappointed when Ikkaku wouldn't share his candy, but Renji was eager to let him have some. Ikkaku hesitantly let Renji have Yumichika on his shoulder for a while. It didn't seem like he'd disappear yet, so he allowed it, watching Renji hold out the sucker for Yumichika to try to lick. They walked for about an hour through a grayish field that eventually became a desert. It wasn't a sandy desert. The ground was so dry that it was cracked, big flaky pieces of clay sticking up all over. Rangiku seemed disinterested in everything and simply plugged her nose, mentioning something about smelling blood. Ikkaku rolled his eyes, watching her swirl her lollipop in her mouth.

"It's just your candy."

"I don't think so..."

The light wasn't particularly harsh, in fact, it was actually kind of dark out, even though it was nowhere near night-time. When Ikkaku looked up, he saw that there were two suns, and both had some sort of dark halo around them that was casting shadow rather than light. It was hard to explain, because they could all still see fine.

They made it up a dry hill with big cracked plates of dirt that required careful climbing, and from there, they continued on upward past lumpy piles of black cloth. As they kept walking, the piles got larger and larger until it seemed that they were walking between two cliffs. That was when Ikkaku realized that the cloth was actually that of individual shinigami uniforms, tattered and stained shihakusho that were all around them. Maybe his mind had decided to group items that had been repeated or seen many times in real life.

They stayed silent, walking warily through the ravine, which slowly came back down until each pile of clothes was probably up to their foreheads, just high enough that they couldn't see over the sides. The ground crunched beneath their feet, sometimes splintering and poking their soles.

The air was tense and electrified, keeping all of Ikkaku's arm hairs standing up. Even Kira was calm, finally having gotten a handle on his nervous emotional behavior, although he was still looking around warily. Then again, they all were.

"They're yours," Yumichika said quietly, causing Renji and Izuru to jump even though he was nearly silent. Ikkaku looked at the clothing with interest.

"Woah..." He looked back the way they'd came. Surely he couldn't have gone through this many uniforms throughout his career? Then again, if they were busy, he probably went through one a day from the way they got all slashed up. Even if he only took one hundred and fifty years from his shinigami career and multiplied that by the amount of days in a year... That would be a five-figured number.

Suddenly Ikkaku looked down and saw that the sharp ground was lined with thousands upon thousands of wooden splinters and broken blades. "Hozukimaru," he whispered, stopping dead, looking up so he could see down the path. They'd been walking over these 'woodchips' for probably twenty minutes. He was getting really creeped out.

He tried to drown out the noise that was coming from above. Still, no one here in this dream world could hear it except for him. He could hear Renji talking to Yumichika, and it must've been late at night because they both sounded tired.

Renji was telling Yumichika what happened, or what he thought had happened. "He told me about these insane dreams he's been having... I think maybe he finally died in one of them... Maybe his soul's gone, or... I don't know. I don't know how to get him out of there or if he'll be like this forever, just... Try talking to him... I don't know what else to do."

Ikkaku's chest clenched up; he was grateful that Renji at least hadn't spilled that they thought the dreams were caused by him holding in his feelings. Even in a crazy situation like this, Renji still kept his promises.

"Ikkaku," Yumichika said hollowly. "Just... just wake up already."

Ikkaku blinked and smiled a little bit even though he felt like dying. He looked down at his feet, starting to walk again down the path of his broken swords, that of which had been damaged through countless battles.

Eventually they came to a place where the uniform walls seemed to end in the distance. As they approached, they suddenly realized they were atop an enormous hill, and laid out beneath them was a twisting path that led through the parched dirt down to a huge lake... no, not a lake, an ocean. The suns shone on the water, which looked red and unnaturally thick, but that was probably a trick of the light. There were no waves, no ripples, nothing. It almost looked like fabric.

Ikkaku's breath was taken away as they came closer, finding a boat which was just rising and falling in the water... No, no, this wasn't water. It was blood, and it had suddenly started bubbling like a tar pit.

The dock was made of the large blades of his bankai, from the one time he'd broken it. Looking back, he considered it all for a moment. This was his legacy, just a bunch of empty trophies of his past battles... and all of it was broken. Every single thing, every uniform, every bit of skin, every sword, they were all destroyed.

They got in the boat, Izuru unnaturally silent, seeming almost like his real self. Rangiku was plugging her nose, presumably to keep up with her vampire joke. At least if she really was a vampire, she was making an effort not to go crazy and bite someone because she'd caught some blood-smell. Then again, if she was a vampire, the smell would be too insanely strong for her to resist.

Renji just stared out at the endless sea of blood, seeming awestruck and disturbed. Ikkaku had to wonder where it could have possibly come from. Getting in the boat, Ikkaku shoved them off of the dock, seeing that there weren't any oars, but a long pole that he could push off of the bottom with.

"Yumichika?" he asked uncertainly, not sure exactly where they should be heading. Thankfully no one freaked out or rocked the boat, which was something like a canoe or a boat one would use in the city of Venice. "Where did all this blood come from?" It couldn't be all the blood he'd bled from all of his battles. It couldn't be if he was still alive, right? He definitely hadn't bled this much, even if he was looking at his whole life.

Yumichika was quiet for a minute, sitting in Renji's lap. Then he looked up. There was nothing out here but the red sea and the black sky. The ocean was bubbling like mad, peppering them with drops of blood. Renji seemed to be hyperventilating, clinging to the sides of the boat like he was afraid it would capsize at any moment, even though they were gliding through so smoothly that there wasn't a single wave left behind.

"From every enemy you've ever slain." Yumichika stood up and pointed off around a turn and suddenly Ikkaku saw an island that looked like a monstrous boulder that was poking out of the water.

After about ten minutes of silently shoving the boat along, it occurred to Ikkaku that an ocean would be too deep this far out. Still, the pole easily touched the ground, revealing that the water was shallow. It was almost as if this was a valley that had filled up, as if the blood wasn't naturally supposed to be here.

Kira spoke up, saying the second normal sentence Ikkaku had ever heard from him. "How does it keep warm enough that the blood doesn't coagulate? Shouldn't it be like jelly?"

"No, look," Yumichika said, pointing to the bubbles. "Their blood is boiling." Rangiku started laughing like crazy for a full three minutes, dipping her fingertip into the water to take a taste.

Ikkaku was getting antsy as they approached the island and Yumichika crawled back over to him and was lifted onto his shoulder.

"It's not just your enemies' blood... There is innocent blood, blood that others have shed for your sake... All this blood is blood you wish you had given. You'd like to think that dying for another is foolish, but... your heart betrays you." He pointed directly upwards and suddenly Ikkaku heard words from the real Yumichika.

"You never would've wanted to go this way... I would take your place... to give you your warrior's death."

Ikkaku's heart jolted, not just from either Yumichika's words, but from what he could see now. The island wasn't a rock at all, but a mass grave. It was an amalgamation of tangled bodies, severed limbs, and dried corpses. These were the enemies that had bled the ocean of blood. There sure were a lot.

Suddenly, using that pole to push the boat made him feel like Charon from the Underworld.

When they came up upon the 'shore', Renji threw up over the side of the boat, not wanting to set foot upon the 'land'. Rangiku didn't seem to care either way and just got out. Ikkaku warily put his foot on the 'ground', testing whether it would give way under him or whether one of his old opponents would grab him, but nothing happened. He resolved not to look down and to just walk, not paying mind to the dead bodies. There didn't seem to be any living people left at all.

"Nobody here," Rangiku quipped.

Yumichika rolled his eyes. "Weak," Kira called blandly from the boat, a little grey in the face, but apparently feeling snarky enough to insult her lame joke. Ikkaku looked back at them, beckoning them to follow.

Soon enough, the corpses were packed together so tightly that if Ikkaku didn't focus enough, he didn't have to notice a hand or a face of someone he didn't even recognize. If he'd beaten them, they probably weren't worth remembering, but they probably remembered him and resented him for defeating them, which would explain why the blood was boiling like hot tar.

He thought back to what Yumichika had said about giving his own life in Ikkaku's place. That was completely stupid. What, did Yumichika think he'd die for him too? Sure, he loved him, but that was just... Dying for somebody else? No. Nope.

Still, the thought of watching Yumichika's eyes go dark set part of him on fire inside, and suddenly, the bodies gave way.

Little-Yumichika looked at him smugly, and Ikkaku suddenly got the idea that little-Yumi had been able to hear what his body heard all along. He suddenly got the urge to throw him back into the ocean to drown. The jerk.

"Tch'. You're so high and mighty," Yumichika teased Ikkaku further, irritating him enough that he felt like taking half of him in each hand and twisting him until he ripped apart like a party favor. The violent urges were swirling in his gut, stronger than ever, and he had struggle to beat them back.

"You're so full of double standards it's ridiculous, Ikkaku. You say that it's completely shameful for Yumichika to want to die for you, yet you battle recklessly and don't care about how he would feel were you to leave him behind. On top of that, you turn it around and refuse to accept that he could die before you instead. When the Queen killed me you were ready to kill her. What do you say to that?"

Ikkaku clammed up, repeating an inward mantra that he would not add Yumichika to the collection of bodies here.

"You want to die a warrior's death for Kenpachi, but dying for another's sake isn't even an option? Someone you admire versus someone you love? You love him, yet you have no faith in him, you don't respect him, you don't admire him at all? What kind of love is that-"

"I don't love you. I hate you," Ikkaku said bitterly. He was defensive, angry, because those words hurt. They hurt because somewhere deep down, he knew they were true, and he didn't want to be told that he was a screwed up monster, even if he was.

He probably wouldn't act if Yumichika was in a fight to the death. If Yumichika died for his sake or faded away in his arms, he probably wouldn't do anything, but God would he want to avenge him. He would hunt the killer down and make them feel all the pain Yumichika never voiced, he would kill them and make them lay there in their cold blood until they had repaid every second of life that Yumichika had lost because of them. Yumichika would be dead, and he would care, even if it wasn't the Eleventh Division's way.

It was shameful, it grated on his male pride and everything he'd held to be true for decades, but his heart wrenched at the thought of Yumichika dying before him.

Dying for another... It was stupid and pointless as hell; Ikkaku still felt that way, but he also thought that it was okay to give your life for someone if they would do the same for you, and Yumichika had just said that he would, even if he thought that he was just talking to a comatose body.

"You'd like to think that you wouldn't die for him, but you know you would, because-"

"Because that's the fool I am," Ikkaku admitted, cutting Yumichika off.

"It's about time you learned some empathy." Fuck, it still didn't feel right inside him, thinking about doing something so cowardly and shameful as to interfere in someone's battle and save their life. It was rock-stupid and it was out of his alignment, but Yumichika was right for once. Even if it was shameful, he would do it if it came to it. He would die by the sword if only Yumichika could live on.

The island moved again, and Ikkaku felt something in his heart shift.

"What's that?" Izuru asked in a shaky voice, hiding behind Ikkaku. Renji hesitantly started forward, breathing twice as much as he should, freaking out as his feet touched dead faces and chests and arms. He was practically crying, and Izuru looked upset as well, so Ikkaku stood in front of them, letting them hide if they wanted. Rangiku was silent, maybe filing her nails or drinking the blood straight out of the sea.

Ikkaku looked forward, starting hesitantly into a little hollow that the bodies had formed. It was like an archway or a cave, the top being formed from a hundred or so interlaced arms, the walls being made of rotting or mummified chests, ribs plainly on display in some. Inside, there was a big guy that Ikkaku actually remembered fighting back in the Rukongai.

The man hadn't had a sword and had punched like he had a rock for a fist. He remembered coming back through town and seeing vultures picking apart the guy's stomach. No one had moved him after he'd died and his guts had been eaten away.

Through the hole in his torso, Ikkaku could see a door handle.