One Moment

Characters/Pairings: Starrk, Shunsui, Ukitake, Lilynette, Muramasa, with cameos by Rose, Sentarou, Kiyone, and a whole lot of other people. Shunsui/Starrk pre-slash.
Rating: PG-13 for blood and gore in the style of the manga.
Words: ~7100
Summary: Starrk hears voices. Muramasa makes his move. The author makes rampant assumptions about the nature of Arrancar zanpaktous.

~ Arc 2: The Captain and the Wolf ~

Chapter 10: Voices in the Dark

What is that voice?

What is that smell?

Do you smell that? This is…

Shinigami. Food.

What is this place?

Let me out… Let me out!

LET ME OUT!

LET ME OUT!

Starrk's hand jerked.

"Did you hear that?"

"Eh?" Kyouraku, lounging on his office couch, lifted his eyes. He was folding his paperwork into origami shapes, finishing up a paper crane and making it hop on the low table in front of him. "Heard what?"

Starrk hesitated, looking around him. There were only the two of them in the room, and unless paper could suddenly talk, there was no discernible source of the voices… if there were voices in the first place.

He shook his head.

"No, it's nothing," he said. Though he could see the concern in Kyouraku's eyes, he was distracted from reassuring the other man when he looked down at the paper in his hand. The involuntary twitch of his hand had made a large streak of black to cross right over the centre of the paper, utterly ruining the ink painting he was in the midst of completing.

Groaning, he let his head drop onto the table.

"Ugh, I give up," he groaned. "This is way too difficult."

Kyouraku chuckled. Starrk heard his footsteps as he came over; felt the hand on his shoulder as the Captain peer at the ruined painting.

"Well. That line creates a rather interesting new aesthetic that I didn't know existed until now," he said, sounding far too amused. "You might be starting a new artistic revolution here, Starrk-san."

Starrk considered stabbing him with the brush.

"Your jokes are as terrible as ever, taichou-san."

"No, no," Kyouraku flapped his hand. "I'm perfectly serious. It's a very expressive streak, cutting through the desert and the trees like that."

His mouth was twitching. Starrk gave him a flat look before he turned to look at the painting again.

Words had never sufficed when he was trying to explain what Hueco Mundo felt like, and so he was trying to recreate it with paper and ink. He had almost succeeded: he had the huge expanse of white dotted with some bare trees here and there, the vague outlines of the mountains of bones in the distance, and even the two dark figures in the foreground that was supposed to represent him and Lilynette. Starrk had been trying to paint a new tree at the lower left corner, and that was where the streak of ink begun: it stretched across the entire piece of paper to the opposite edge, crossing over the entire painting and completely destroying the whole of it.

Sighing, he put the brush back on its stand.

"You're not going to try again?" Kyouraku raised an eyebrow.

"No," Starrk shook his head. And to stave off the disappointed almost pout he knew was coming, he added, "I'll do it tomorrow.

"Besides, isn't it almost time for the Sixth Division's taichou-san and fukutaichou-san's demonstration?"

"Is it?" Kyouraku glanced towards the clock at the wall. "Ah, it really is! We're going to be late!"

Starrk stifled a snort. The Captain's sense of time was worse than Starrk's own, which was saying something because Starrk didn't even know how to count hours and days until Las Noches.

He stood up, stretching a little. "I'll grab Lilynette and come back then," he said. She was off in the Eleventh Division, sparring slash playing with Yachiru.

LET ME OUT

Wild-eyed, he whirled around, scanning the room. It was as empty as it was five seconds ago, but he knew heheard those voices… Those strange, echoing voices…

"Starrk-san?" Kyouraku's face was right in front of him, and Starrk almost tripped over his own feet as he stumbled backwards. "What's wrong?"

"I…" he stared at grey eyes. "I… I thought I heard," someone, "something."

"There's no one here but us, Starrk-san."

"I know." But he couldn't help shivering slightly. The sheer evil and wrath of those voices… He could barely feel the chill of winter when it came a few months ago, but now he was cold all over.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Food… Shinigami… FOOD!

Starrk's entire body jerked. He would have fallen flat on his face if not for Kyouraku's steadying hand on his shoulder.

"I might just be going completely insane," he muttered.

"Maybe you've just been cooped up indoors for so long," Kyouraku said lightly, though his eyes were still narrowed in obvious concern. "Boredom can do funny things to a mind."

But Starrk wasn't bored. He was the furthest thing from bored.

"Maybe," he said. Shaking his head hard, he pulled away from Kyouraku, staring at a random spot on the wall. There was an odd stain on it. "It's probably nothing. You're right, I'm probably just bored out of my mind." He was speaking too fast and his smile felt strained, but he hoped that Kyouraku wouldn't pursue the subject. "I'll meet you at the Sixth Division?"

Kyouraku looked at him for a moment before he nodded. "Alright."

"Please…" Starrk licked his lips. "Please don't worry about me, taichou-san. I'm sure it's just my imagination."

Even though his imagination had never pulled anything like this. Even though his imagination could never create voices, not even when there was only him and Lilynette in the desert and he would give anything to hear another voice aside from theirs.

Starrk averted his eyes, and fled the room using sonido even before Kyouraku could say a word.

He tried not to think about how hauntingly familiar those voice sounded.

"Do you think it's something worth worrying about, Ukitake?" Shunsui asked mournfully, staring into the depth of his sake dish.

"Which part?" Ukitake raised one dark eyebrow. "The fact that Starrk-san might be hallucinating voices, or that he clearly didn't want to tell you the details about it?"

Shunsui sighed deeply, knocking back the alcohol. "Both, I suppose," he said, though he knew that Ukitake would realise that he was far more bothered about how Starrk still didn't trust him after the months they had spent together. He hadn't even gotten the Arrancar to call him by his name yet.

Sighing again, he looked out of the winter. The mid-spring night was cool and fresh, and the moonlight slid across the waxy surfaces of the new leaves, making them shine like the still waters of a lake.

"He's stopped flinching away whenever I try to touch him," he said quietly. "He doesn't even tense anymore unless I really try my utmost to sneak up on him." Which he hadn't tried again after nearly getting a Cero to the face. The thing had blown out a wall, and Nanao-chan had cut his sake expenses to pay for the repairs.

"That's some progress, but…"

He shook his head. "I know that Aizen is rotting away in the Muken," in eternal loneliness with no one allowed to visit him. "Still, it sometimes feels like he is still lingering, like a demonic spirit, right over Starrk-san's shoulder."

"Is a few months really that difficult to endure for a man who has lived for a thousand years?" Ukitake took a sip of his tea.

"I see him every single day, Ukitake," Shunsui said, knowing he was whining. "It's getting so difficult for me to not simply reach out to take what I want."

Ukitake hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose this experience will teach you patience when it comes to your impulses, if nothing else."

"When did Starrk-san become a lesson for me?" he grumbled, tugging off his straw hat to drag fingers through his hair.

Reaching over the table, Ukitake bopped him on the top of his head. "That's not I said and you know it," he frowned.

Shunsui opened his mouth to deny him, but he was interrupted when a hell butterfly fluttered into the room. Both of them stared blankly at it.

Ukitake-taichou and Kyouraku-taichou, please report immediately to Sokyouku Hill for an emergency meeting.

"An… emergency meeting?" Ukitake asked, surprised. "At this time of the night?"

Shunsui's instincts were suddenly screaming inside his head, warning him this announcement might just be the prelude to terrible danger. He blinked.

But the hell butterfly wasn't finished yet.

Please ensure that Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck will be present as well.

"What?" Their voices rang out as one, staring at the hell butterfly. But the tiny black insect didn't seem inclined to give any answers, because it immediately flew back out of the window again.

Ukitake's brows furrowed. "What would Genryuusai-sensei want with Starrk-san and Lilynette-chan right now?"

"I have no idea," Shunsui dragged a hand through his hair. "But Ukitake… I have a bad feeling about this."

His friend's eyes on him suddenly narrowed. If there was anyone who fully trusted Shunsui's 'bad feelings', it was this man.

"Well," he shook his white-haired head. "I suppose we'll have to obey."

Shunsui sighed. "Starrk-san isn't going to be pleased to be woken up."

Starrk could barely concentrate on what was going on, and he didn't even have the excuse of having just been awoken this time. Contrary to Kyouraku's expectations, he wasn't asleep when the Captain came to fetch him.

Everything happened so quickly: the appearance of the First Division lieutenant, that strange man, the Seventh Division's Captain being attacked by his own zanpaktou… The Shinigami were all yelling around him, in surprise, in shock, as their swords refused to release on command.

He could see and hear all the events, but he felt as if he was trapped in a red-filmed bubble. The Hill, the Shinigami… they were all tinged with blood, and he couldn't even hear them properly. His head was filled with other voices: terrible, terrifying voices, screaming and screaming for him to let them out. He wished he could, he really wished he could, but he didn't know how.

And he knew, somehow, that letting the voices out would just not be a good idea.

"It's quite simple," the stranger was saying as Starrk tried his best to concentrate on what was going on. "You zanpaktou are no longer with you. I freed them from you Shinigami."

Explosions happened in the distance. More shouting of disbelief… Starrk's head hurt. He pressed his hands hard over his ears. Why was he here? This was the problem of the Shinigami, wasn't it? What was he doing here? Why had he been—

"Starrk-san!" There was a hand on his arm… two hands, on both arms. Starrk looked up, knowing that his eyes probably looked wild. He wondered, fleetingly, if his eyes looked red.

Ukitake and Kyouraku were on both sides of him. Kyouraku leaned in.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you while you are obviously in pain, but… will you retrieve your and Lilynette-chan's swords from my Division? You know where I keep them."

Starrk's breath hitched in his throat. He stared at the two Captains.

"You heard what he said," Ukitake said urgently, jerking his head towards the stranger. "The zanpaktou of the Shinigami have been freed. If that is true, Starrk-san, then you and Lilynette-chan are our only line of defence."

Right. He was Arrancar, not Shinigami. He should… he should still be able to release, to fight against whatever threat that was here.

"I…" he swallowed hard. The screaming was getting louder by the second, but he forced himself to nod. "Alright."

"Thank you, Starrk-san."

He shook his head, "Don't thank me yet."

Moving into sonido, he arrived back to the Eighth Division in a single second. He rushed towards Kyouraku's office immediately, nearly ripping apart the door of the broom closet as he took out his and Lilynette's swords.

He stared at them. Perhaps what the Captains said was true, but he couldn't help but feel dread. This was a bad idea, he couldn't think of any reason why this would be a good idea… But, somehow, he couldn't trust his own judgment anymore. Even now, his hands were trembling on the sheathed blade as the voices screamed and screamed and screamed in his head.

Surely he was going absolutely insane.

Taking a deep breath, he darted back towards the Hill, arriving back at the same spot, right between Kyouraku and Ukitake. He found Lilynette and tossed her wakizashi at her before he looked forward again.

The stranger was laughing, hands spread out. "Behold! The true forms of the zanpaktou you thought you owned!"

Two hands gripped his wrists just as a whole flood of creatures appeared on the Hill by shunpo. He stared at them, mouth dry, barely feeling it even as the Captains' reiatsu pulsed into his restraints. The carved stones dropped onto the ground, and Starrk wondered, briefly, madly, if anyone even noticed the sudden rush of power that, even now, made the insides of his skin itch.

Likely not; they were all distracted by the sight of even more creatures – was that a woman with cat ears? – walking past them, heading towards the stranger.

LET ME OUT

Starrk fell on his knees, clapping his hands on his ears. Beside him, he heard Lilynette choke on a scream as she did the same. He knew she heard it too: heard the voices as they grew stronger and louder with every second; heard the thirst for blood, for death; heard the rage and malevolence that permeated every syllable whether or not they could distinguish one from another.

"My name is Muramasa," the stranger's voice rang out, barely piercing through the chaos in Starrk's mind. "Tonight brings the end of Shinigami rule. From now on, the zanpaktou will rule over the Shinigami!"

"Starrk-san!" Kyouraku was grabbing him. Out of the corner of his tear-glazed eyes, Starrk watched as Ukitake scoop up Lilynette. The ground was shaking... or was it really? He wasn't even sure anymore. He could barely see anything beyond the dark spots crowding into his vision.

Kyouraku's warmth was suddenly gone from his side, and Starrk heard, as if from far away, his voice asking for the whereabouts of the old man, the Captain-Commander. His hand groped blindly for support, and he leaned hard against Ukitake as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Starrk…" Lilynette's voice was strangled with pain. "Starrk… we have to do it."

The malice wasn't just in Starrk's head anymore. It was all around him, coming from the oddly-shaped creatures. They were going to attack... and Starrk knew that, without their zanpaktous as weapons, the Shinigami might as well be helpless.

He had to do something. He had to help.

Glancing at Lilynette, he nodded shakily as he drew his sword. "Let me go first," he said.

Lilynette looked at him and nodded. "Alright."

Taking a deep breath, he snuck a glance at Ukitake, only to realise that the Captain wasn't paying any attention to him. He was frowning deeply in the direction of the stranger… what had been said while Starrk was occupied with the voices in his head? What had he missed?

No, there was no time for that now. He would ask later… and tried to reassure himself that there would be a later.

"Kick about, Los Lobos!"

Nothing happened: no burst of power, no disappearance of half of his sight, no wolves by his side or guns in his hands.

Starrk blinked. Something did happen: he could hear his own thoughts. The voices had disappeared.

Before he could even think of breathing a sigh of relief, he heard them again. From outside his own head.

But the voices weren't screaming anymore. They were howling – raw, angry, feral – all the same thing, hundreds of voices joined together.

FOOD… SHINIGAMI… FOOD!

His eyes went wide.

Oh, no.

Jyuushirou's head was spinning slightly. He wanted to focus on the fact that Genryuusai-sensei had been trapped by his and Kyouraku's and Unohana's zanpaktou, but he couldn't; not when there were so many of the other Captains' zanpaktou attacking all of them. He hoped that Starrk in his resurreccion would be about to contain most of them until they could figure out what was going on…

But there was no roar of power beside him. Instead, there was only the howling of wolves… of Hollows. Jyuushirou's eyes widened when he saw the literally hundreds of wolves appear in front of him. All of them had grey fur crackling with blue, and their reiatsu felt horribly, horribly familiar.

Perhaps relying on Starrk's release had been an ill-conceived idea.

Jyuushirou didn't have time to dwell on that thought. One of the wolves was sniffing in the air, and its red eyes suddenly snapped towards him.

SICK ONE, WEAK ONE. MINE!

It leapt towards him, disappearing in mid-air. Jyuushirou's hand went to his sword, but before he could draw it, he was knocked completely off of his feet, landing on the ground.

There was something warm dripping onto his face. He wiped at it, annoyed, and his eyes widened when he realised that it was blood…. Starrk's blood.

Starrk, who was standing over him, the tendons of his neck standing out from how hard he was gritting his teeth; Starrk, who had an arm in the wolf Hollow's mouth, and the beast's fangs were sank deep into his flesh, the corners of its mouth stained with red.

Jyuushirou knew how strong Starrk's hierro was. When he was ill a few weeks back during winter, his reiatsu had dipped until the Arrancar literally could not feel his touch on his skin. But the wolf was biting through his flesh as if the hierro was nothing… Perhaps because it was nothing.

His thoughts were broken off for the second time in as many minutes when Lilynette screamed.

"Starrk!" Her single eye was wide, and she gripped tight onto her sword. "Kick about, Los Lobos!"

"LILYNETTE, STOP!"

But Starrk was too late – the sounds of the howling grew exponentially louder, and the wolves at the foot of the cliff Muramasa – if that was really his name – had doubled.

Jyuushirou scrambled to his feet just as Starrk kicked out, his foot slamming into the wolf that had its arm in its grasp. He winced as he heard the sound of flesh tearing off of bone as the creature reluctantly let go, spittle and blood flying through the air as it fell backwards. It twitched before standing up again.

He could practically see pieces of muscle hanging off of Starrk's radius bone. But the Arrancar didn't seem to even notice.

"Taichou-san." Jyuushirou blinked. "Are you alright?"

Those grey-blue eyes were fixed on him, and the concern was absolutely sincere.

"I'm unharmed," he reassured quickly. "But your arm…"

Starrk glanced at it. "It doesn't matter," he said, and Jyuushirou reached out, an offer to heal him – to at least attach the muscle back to the bone – on his tongue before Starrk slammed him back down onto the ground.

"Look out!" That was Kyouraku's voice.

"CERO!"

As Jyuushirou's watched, a huge ball of blue light clashed against the Abarai's – or was it Zabimaru's? – familiar red Hikotsu Taihou. The two colours pressed against each other hard, turning the skies into slices of alternating light, before the blue yawned and utterly swallowed the red before the entire thing exploded right into Hihio Zabimaru's skeletal face.

In the brief silence that followed, Jyuushirou was aware that every single pair of eyes on the Hill was on Starrk. Even the wolves were silent.

Slowly, Jyuushirou picked himself up from the floor, drawing his sword as he stood. Even if he couldn't release it like the other Captains, it could still be used as a weapon.

"H'oh. I admit, I took a gamble with you, but you're a rather interesting thing, Arrancar."

Starrk didn't say a word, only staring with narrowed eyes at Muramasa. Jyuushirou could almost hear the drip-dripping of his blood onto the ground.

Then the enemy swept his arm outwards. "All of you, follow your instincts!"

The wolves reared back, making to leap. Out of the corner of his eyes, Jyuushirou saw Lilynette begin to move, and he made a grab for her only for his hand to meet empty air.

"Kuchiki!" she yelled, and Jyuushirou blinked again when he saw that Lilynette's wakizashi was now wedged between the teeth of one wolf that was inches from tearing out Kuchiki's throat.

"Lily- Lilynette!" Kuchiki shouted, her large eyes made even larger than usual with shock at the sight. Lilynette was even smaller and slighter than she was, but she seemed to have no trouble at all holding the Hollow back.

"Get back," Lilynette hissed. As Kuchiki stumbled backwards, she slammed her head into the Hollow's mask. Bone smacked against bone, and the beast backed away, growling still in that strange, echoing voice that sounded both human and animal, both male and female.

Lilynette rushed forward, kicking the beast hard enough to send it back, crashing against its fellows. She leapt towards them, and Jyuushirou's eyes widened as he watched her use one of the Hollows as a stepping stone to jump, heading straight upwards.

"Oy, you stupid wolf-bastards! You fuckturd Hollows!" She stood in mid-air, waving her sword around. Jyuushirou allowed himself one tiny wince for her language.

She pulled an absolutely ridiculous face. "You want my body, don't you?" As everyone watched, she took her sword and slashed it down her arm. Blood welled up immediately, staining the skin red. "You want to eat me all up, don't you?"

"I'm going to kill that girl," Starrk muttered, and the comment was so sudden, so unexpected, that Jyuushirou felt a laugh burst out of him.

SHE'S THE WEAK ONE

WE'LL KILL HER FIRST

The wolves spoke with an amalgation of a hundred voices, speaking in chorus, echoing loud enough to make the very air itself shake. Lilynette's eyes widened.

"Oh shit," she said.

Starrk disappeared from beside Jyuushirou, appearing by Lilynette's side as if he teleported. He crashed a fist onto her mask fragment. "You really didn't think that through, did you."

"Shut up! I'll see you do better!"

Raising his mangled arm, Starrk faced the literal hoard of wolves. He beckoned at them like they were a group of recalcitrant children. Jyuushirou stifled the urge to laugh, because the beasts did look incredibly menacing as they growled as one.

"How the hell is that better?! You look like a pervert, Starrk!"

"How do I look— never mind that! Go!"

With that, Starrk shoved at Lilynette's shoulder, and she disappeared. Jyuushirou blinked when he saw Starrk turn towards Kyouraku; from here, he could barely see the Arrancar mouth I'm sorry before he, too, vanished.

What could Starrk be apologising for?

The wolves were howling as they gave chase, the huge number of them forming an extremely long trail of grey and electric blue. At the moment, he couldn't help but worry for the two Arrancar, especially Lilynette: no matter how powerful Starrk was, he was up against a literal army, all of whom could hurt him. How could he protect Lilynette against all of them?

"Someone really needs to teach those two about appropriate timing for comedy," Otoribashi sighed right next to Jyuushirou's shoulder. "They completely murdered the tension of this scene. Look at our poor, dear villain of this round."

Jyuushirou looked. Their newest threat looked rather stupefied as he stared after the direction where Starrk, Lilynette, and their dangerous entourage had disappeared off to. His mouth was slightly open.

Chuckling, Jyuushirou shook his head. "I believe that same person should teach you about the the appropriate time to appreciate the artistic value of a scene, perhaps?"

Otoribashi grinned, flipping a lock of hair away from his face. "There is nothing he could teach me. I already know that it is always the time to appreciate the artistic value of a scene."

"Even in the midst of a battle?"

The sound of the zanpaktous' various weapons clashing against bare, unreleased steel resounded around them.

"Especially then."

"Well," Jyuushirou smiled slightly. "It seems that I have the chance to test your word on that."

They joined the fray.

"This sucks."

Starrk sighed, dropping his face into his palm. "I know. Shut up already."

The two of them were hidden up on one of the trees near the Thirteenth Division's barracks. Their wolves – because there were no doubts that they were theirs – were prowling around the area, so many that the entire forest was literally covered with them. Starrk really, really hoped that there was no one taking a midnight stroll or anything that would have them walking around the area.

He ran a hand through his hair, tugging through the strands.

"Oy," Lilynette nudged him. "Is your arm okay?"

Looking down at the mangled flesh, he shrugged. "It'll heal," he said. At Lilynette's uncertain look, he sighed. "It's not as if you haven't seen worse."

She winced, but nodded.

Back at Las Noches, sometimes he would return from Aizen's rooms with his flesh literally burnt off to the bone and with the stench of roasting meat clinging onto his clothes. That was one of Aizen's 'training methods' for him, to get him used to the idea of pain and fighting so he would not fear it. Though Starrk had never been sure if the burns were illusionary, the pain had always been real.

This was nothing in comparison.

"Have you come up with a plan yet?"

Starrk shot his other half an irritable look. "You can think as well, you know."

"Why? You're so much better at it."

Rolling his eyes, Starrk looked down towards the wolves again.

"I think they're the Hollows we've devoured," he said, barely stifling a shiver at the thought. "If the Shinigami's zanpaktou were released, then the wolves were released from our zanpaktou. These are the Hollows that are- were part of our soul collection."

He looked at her. "Am I right?" She was the one who gave him form, after all; she remembered more.

"Yeah," Lilynette nodded. She drew her knees up to her chest. Starrk brushed his hand over the hair at the nape of her neck. He knew what she felt; knew that she hated the fact that the two of them might have left Hueco Mundo, but the desert didn't seem to want to leave them alone.

"We can only distract them like this for only so long," he continued. "They're going to succumb to their hunger soon."

He took a deep breath. "I guess we have to kill them to stop them."

Lilynette gave him an incredulous stare. "That's your plan?" she hissed. "We have been sitting here for ten minutes and your only plan is that we go 'wahahaha' and kill them?"

Starrk gave her the same incredulous stare back. "No," he said slowly. "I just said we kill them. I don't know where you get the 'wahaha' part from."

"It's 'wahahaha'," she corrected.

He opened his mouth. Closed it abruptly. He wouldn't go into a debate about how many 'ha' should be in an evil laugh. He wouldn't even want to consider why he even knew how an evil laugh was supposed to sound like.

Maybe Lilynette had been spending too much time with Yachiru. He couldn't think of anyone else from whom she could learn something like that from.

"Do you have anything better?"

She bit her lip. "Maybe we can… just let them go?"

"And let them rampage amongst the Shinigami?"

"No," she shook her head hard. "Maybe we can open a Garganta, and then lead them all back to Hueco Mundo… Once they're in Hueco Mundo, we can let them go."

Starrk glanced down again. "I don't think so, Lilynette," he said softly. He wanted to do the same thing too; wanted to not have to kill and to be less powerful at the same time. But… "I don't think all of them started out as wolves. They're part of us now, and I don't think we can let them go."

"This sucks."

"You've said that."

"This sucks balls."

He rubbed his knuckles over the top of her mask fragment. "Enough already."

She pouted at him, but he ignored the small tantrum to stand up, balancing on the branch of the tree. Holding onto the trunk, he looked out: there were fires off in the distance, and he could practically hear the screaming from here. He wanted to help, but… right now, he had a far bigger problem to deal with.

When this was over, he really should apologise to both Captains again. Instead of helping, he just dumped more problems onto the Shinigamis' plate.

"Are we going to do this together, or are we splitting up?" Lilynette asked.

"Can you handle them on your own?"

Usually, Starrk was the only one who fought. But Lilynette had her own resurreccion form now, and, even without it, she had been training with Yachiru for months.

She was frowning, actually putting thought into the question. So when she said, "Yeah," he believed her.

"Let's go, then."

They drew their swords in tandem. The sound of steel sliding against steel had the wolves turning their attention on them.

YOU WERE HIDING

COWARDS

Despite those words, there was no disdain in those red eyes; they weren't human enough for that. There were only rage and irresistible hunger. They snarled in tandem, raw blue reiatsu running down their mouths in a mockery of drool.

Starrk squashed down the sorrow he felt at the sight; he had done this, and he would finish the job. If he didn't, then the Shinigami would get hurt, especially the unseated ones. All of these wolves are at least Adjuchas; they would just devour most of the lower Shinigami without any effort.

"Try to kill me, then," he said, and jumped.

His foot landed on the spine of one wolf, and he instantly stabbed his sword downwards. Skin, muscle, and organs tore apart underneath the blade, and blood flew into the air. The stench of it was thick, and the wolf he had cut tried to howl, tried to turn, but it only tore its own skin and flesh further.

Starrk raised his foot and snapped that spine into half. Then, taking a step forward, he crushed the mask under his heel.

He tried to not think about how weak and glass-like the bones felt, or how deeply the crack wormed into his ears. He tried not to remember Aizen's rooms in Las Noches. He tried not to remember that Arrancar he killed with his bare hands.

At the corner of his eyes, he could see Lilynette swinging her sword. The wolves were crowding around her even more, heading for the weaker half. Starrk raised his hand, calling power to the forefront of his skin – on his chin, his chest, his palm, on every single fingertip.

"Cero."

The beams of light and heat screamed through the air, impacting with the wolves behind Lilynette.

"Thanks, Starrk!"

Blood splattered everywhere, drenching Lilynette's pretty, dark green yukata with blood. Starrk made a mental note to advice Ukitake to not lend her any more of those clothes, because she had dirtied almost every single one she had gotten her hands on so far.

Another growl, and Starrk stabbed his sword backwards, catching the wolf aiming for his neck with a sword in his throat. He tore through trachea, jugular, and spine on one side, then the other, before dodging the head as it rolled onto the ground. He wanted to watch to see what happened when one of the wolves was killed, but he was getting attacked by far too many at the same time to even turn his head, much less think.

Was this how his enemies felt when they were faced with his wolves? Maybe he should ask the blond Visored Captain sometime…

No, he needed to stop thinking.

The sound of wolves howling, growling, and snarling were all around him, filling the air. Starrk's lips drew backwards. He wanted, oddly, to bare his fangs.

That's ridiculous. He didn't have any.

Thankfully.

Shunsui smacked his head against the table, lifted it up, and smacked it back down again.

"I know you have plenty of intelligence to spare, Kyouraku," Ukitake said, sounding far too amused. "But you should stop trying to erase it that way."

"I'm not trying to make myself more stupid," Shunsui grunted. He smacked his head hard again.

Then, lifting his head up, he dragged a hand through his hair. There was now an insistent throbbing at the back of his eyes, but he expected that… and it served well enough for his purpose.

"What are you doing, then?" Ukitake sounded mildly curious.

Instead of answering, Shunsui looked out of the window. The sky was turning purple and orange with the approaching dawn, and he wished he had the mindset right now to appreciate the sight instead of only using it as a distraction.

"Trying to focus."

Ukitake's hand smacked the back of his head. Shunsui watched mournfully as his straw hat fell to the ground.

"Stop fretting over Starrk-san," his friend told him severely.

"You're fretting over Lilynette-chan as well," Shunsui accused him.

Shaking his head, Ukitake sighed. "I only worry over her as much as I do Kuchiki and the rest of my Division," he said, running a hand through his white hair. "I lost Sentarou and Kiyone during the first rush, but you don't see me running around being horribly worried." He raised an eyebrow. "And neither of them is nearly as powerful as Starrk-san."

Shunsui sighed, dragging a hand through his long tail of hair. "It's not his physical safety I'm worried about," he said. Looking at Ukitake, he tapped a finger over the side of his head. "It's up here."

"What do you mean, Kyouraku?"

He was about to answer when there was a knock on the door. Shunsui turned to see Retsu-senpai standing at the doorway. She bowed slightly when their attention turned towards her.

"Kyouraku-taichou, Ukitake-taichou," she nodded to them both. "I believe there is someone out there that you would like to see. Will you come with me?"

Exchanging a glance with Ukitake, Shunsui nodded.

"Of course."

The Fourth Division's barracks was filled with the pained groans and moans of the injured. Shunsui pulled his hat down over his eyes, using it as a shield against the sight of all the gaping skin and open wounds. Not for the first time, he truly admired Retsu-senpai for being able to deal with this every single day.

"Here."

He looked up at the soft voice. Standing at the entrance to the barracks was a figure that looked like he took a shower in blood and gore before he added some splinters of bone as decoration. He held two bodies over his shoulders, and, as Shunsui watched, he lowered them down onto the stretcher with a gentleness that belied his terrifying appearance.

"Sentarou! Kiyone!" Ukitake gasped, rushing forward.

The two Third Seats stirred, bleary eyes fixing upon Ukitake. "Captain…" Kiyone murmured. "I'm so glad to see that you're alright."

Kotsubaki tried to scoff, but coughed halfway through the sound. "I'm even gladder to see he's alright, Kotetsu."

Blinking, Ukitake stared at his subordinates for a moment before he laughed. "Well, if you two can still bicker, you're going to be just fine."

"They're not that hurt, taichou-san," the blood-drenched figure said, and Shunsui's eyes widened at the familiar form of address only one person used. But surely it couldn't be…

The man pulled off one dark red glove, revealing the tattooed, gothic one on the back of his hand. He used the cloth to wipe over his eyes, and Shunsui found himself stumbling forward when the blood clear enough for him to notice the three lines that slashed down from one side of Starrk's face to the other.

He gripped the man by the forearms, barely remembering at the last moment to be careful with the left – the last he saw it, it was a mauled thing with the flesh hanging off the bone. But now it seemed to feel oddly solid under his hand.

"Taichou-san," Starrk greeted.

Shunsui swallowed at the sight of those grey-blue eyes: they looked tired and so strangely empty.

Before he could say a word, Starrk's attention had already turned to Ukitake. "I found those two in your Division headquarters," he said softly. "They were protecting some of your other subordinates from… from my wolves." He looked physically pained when saying that. "I managed to get them before they were completely overwhelmed, but… they have been fighting for a long time."

"Their injuries are mostly minor," Retsu-senpai murmured from where she was kneeling over the two Third Seats. "The primary problem is the drain in their reiatsu… I believe they would be back in fighting condition in a few hours."

She turned dark eyes to Starrk. "Your injuries seem far more severe, Starrk-san."

Now that she mentioned it… Shunsui took a step back, not letting go of Starrk's arms as he looked the man over. The kosode and hakama – originally light grey, to distinguish him from the Shinigami – barely clung onto his skin with the stickiness of drying blood. There were rips everywhere, revealing the claw marks underneath, still bleeding sluggishly. Shunsui's breath stuttered in his throat when he noticed one set of three that went from Starrk's collarbone down to his hip.

"Please don't bother," Starrk was saying. "I'm alright. I'm healing faster with… with more of my wolves that I kill." He tugged at his arms before turning wry eyes to Shunsui.

"Can I have my hands back, taichou-san?"

Shunsui forced himself to chuckle even as alarm bells were ringing at the back of his mind. Instead of letting go fully, he took a small step back, using one hand to pull away Starrk's ruined sleeve.

The limb didn't look anywhere near healed. The flesh was raw and new, with a thin, transparent layer of skin that barely managed to cover the pulsing muscle and nerves beneath.

"If this is your definition of 'alright', Starrk-san," Shunsui finally said. "I don't want to know what you mean by 'injured'."

Something odd flashed across Starrk's eyes in that moment before the lids shuttered.

"I'm alright," he repeated. "Any healing done to me will only be a waste of time and energy you can use on someone far more deserving."

Before Shunsui could even say a word in protest, Ukitake interrupted him.

"Starrk-san, where is Lilynette-chan?"

This time, the emotion flashing across Starrk's eyes was far easier to read: guilt.

"We were split up after we left the forest," he said, turning away to stare at the wall. Shunsui had learned long ago that this was one of Starrk's avoidance tactics, and he wished that Ukitake would just stop with the questions even though he knew the reasons behind them.

"The wolves… they were starting to attack the Shinigami. It's… it's what Hollows do: they go after the weak ones, and the wolves are all Adjuchas, so the unseated Shinigami are no fight for them.

"Starrk-san…" Shunsui tried.

The words tumbled from Starrk's lips like an endless torrent. His eyes were wide, staring emptily into space. "I can't… I can't let them just kill, so I went after them to stop them, and then the next time I look, Lilynette was gone. She was just gone and I can't find her anywhere. She said she'll be alright but I lost her. I lost her…"

Shunsui let go of Starrk's arm only to grip him tightly by the shoulders, forcing Starrk to turn, to look at him.

"Starrk-san!"

Starrk looked at him, wild-eyed, and Shunsui gentled his tone. "Starrk-san, I'm sure Lilynette-chan is fine. Even if she can't fight against the wolves well, she knows how to climb trees, right?"

"Trees?" Starrk echoed. He looked lost for a moment before his eyes (thankfully) focused, and he nodded slowly. "She… she knows how to climb trees. The little pink-haired girl… Yachiru… she taught her."

Shunsui smiled encouragingly. He let his thumbs stroke over Starrk's shoulders, sliding down his biceps. "I don't think the wolves know how to climb trees," he said, and hoped that it was true. "And Lilynette knew how to hide if she's overwhelmed."

He watched as Starrk took a deep breath. "They… they can't climb. We hid… in a tree before."

"Then Lilynette-chan is safe," he soothed. "Why don't you stay here a little and let Retsu-senpai heal you?"

"I can't," Starrk shook his head hard, squeezing his eyes shut. "The wolves… they'll still be hunting. I have to stop them. I have to find Lilynette."

Then, before Shunsui could even say a single word, Starrk pushed himself out of his grasp and disappeared in a burst of sonido.

Shunsui stared at the space where he used to be blankly.

"Starrk-san seems to be exhibiting elements of shock," Retsu-senpai said quietly. Shunsui barely kept back the smart remark he wanted to make – something in the same vein as no shit – by virtue of both respect and self-preservation. He had once heard Abarai suggest rather fearfully that Retsu-senpai could castrate a man by just one look, and though he knew that wasn't true, she certainly could make him feel similarly.

He sighed instead, staring down at his hands. Rubbing his fingertips together, he watched the dried flakes of red as they drifted to the ground.

"Ukitake," he said. "Do you see why I was worried now?"

"Mm," his best friend said. "My apologies, Kyouraku."

"Eh?" Shunsui blinked, lifting his head. "What for?"

Ukitake shrugged at him. "For doubting you," he said softly. "And for asking about Lilynette-chan."

Shunsui snorted. "Yes, you do have to apologise," he said dryly. He allowed Ukitake to wallow in his guilt for just three seconds. "For teaching Starrk-san to apologise for things that are not his fault."

"What?"

"Who else could he have learned it from?" Shunsui arched an eyebrow. "I certainly don't do that."

Ukitake stared at him for a moment before bursting out laughing.

Allowing that sound to wash over him, Shunsui stared out of the still-open doorway. Retsu-senpai's subordinates were carrying more of the injured in even as the sun crawled up the horizon and the orange light started turning yellow and blue.

Though he wanted more than anything to chase after Starrk, he knew he shouldn't. This time, he had nothing to do with practicality.

A hundred years or so ago, he told a tiny Nanao-chan that it was part of a Captain's job to believe in and wait patiently for his subordinates. Starrk wasn't one of his subordinates, but Shunsui would wait and believe in him, nonetheless.

He had seen it in those dark, wild eyes: these were demons Starrk had to fight on his own.

Notes: I did say that the plot is moving faster, right?