One Moment
Chapter 15: No Good Deed
Characters/Pairings: Shunsui, Starrk, Lilynette, Rukia, Byakuya, Muramasa, and Kouga. Cameos by Ukitake, Yoruichi, Ishida, and Orihime.
Rating: PG
Words: ~7200
Chapter Summary: … goes unpunished. (In other news, Lilynette makes a hell of an impression on Byakuya.)
"Change of plans," Shunsui said immediately. "We'll head straight to the location of the seal and try to make Muramasa listen to us before he succeeds in breaking Kouga free. If Muramasa is already in the midst of opening the seal, then we will have to stop him."
Ukitake nodded. "I'll find Hitsugaya-taichou and head towards Genryuusai-sensei. Hyourinmaru should be able to douse Ryuujin Jyakka's flames at least temporarily; that will give me enough time to find out from Ichigo what happened between him and Muramasa. I'll head to the Living World to find you with the rest once we have that settled."
"I'll come with you," the dark-skinned woman whose name Starrk still didn't know said. "I need to kick Ichigo in the head. I thought I taught him to think before he acted."
Shunsui turned towards him. "That leaves you and Lilynette-chan with me, Starrk-san," he said, smiling slightly.
Starrk wondered, wryly, if it was something in the makeup of Shinigami that allowed them to deal with sudden changes so quickly. Here he was, still trying to recover from the sheer heat of the reiatsu that was still shuddering through the air, barely capable of thinking straight, and they were already modifying their strategy. It was almost enough to make his head hurt.
No wonder he had lost to Shunsui during that battle so very long ago.
"Alright," he said, because there was really nothing else to say.
"Will you let me follow you, Kyouraku-taichou?" the small, dimunitive Shinigami that Lilynette had been calling 'Rukia' asked. "I believe that Nii-sama will be there as well, and I wish to speak to him."
Shunsui glanced towards her before he nodded. "Of course, Rukia-chan," he said. "Ukitake, Yoruichi," oh, so that was the dark-skinned woman's name. Starrk told himself to remember it this time. "The seal is located right in the centre of the island in the middle of Karakura Lake. I'm sure you can find it."
"If I can't, then I'll just head for the direction of Starrk-san's reiatsu," Ukitake said, his tone teasing and amused. Starrk ducked his head, trying to not blush – he wasn't very good at suppressing his reiatsu yet. He had been depending on his wrist restraints to do that for him. "Don't worry so much, Kyouraku. Get going already."
"Ah, I've been scolded," Shunsui said, looking so mournful that Starrk couldn't help but smile. The Captain looked at him for a moment before he grinned as well. "Let's go, then."
He waved a hand, creating a senkaimon, stepping inside once the wood-and-paper doors opened. Starrk looked around him, taking in the sight – it was the first time he had ever been inside one, and he couldn't help but marvel at how different it felt from a Garganta: so much gentler, opening an already-created passageway instead of ripping through dimensions.
Shaking his head free of the thoughts, he followed Shunsui through the darkness. He fell back a little to run next to Lilynette, reaching out. Their hands met between their bodies, and she squeezed his fingers hard.
"You're okay, right, Starrk?" she asked, worry practically making her red eye glow in the darkness.
Starrk knew what she was really asking: Lilynette might look like a child, but he knew better than anyone that she wasn't one. She wasn't only asking about the physical aftermath of the battles they had fought against their wolves, but everything else as well, including the changes in dynamic between him and Shunsui.
Squeezing her hand, he nodded. "I'm fine," he said quietly. "What about you?"
He had noticed the change of address between her and Rukia, after all; and not to mention the many, many times Lilynette seemed to prioritise the young woman's safety beyond everyone else's. And he couldn't help but worry, because, for the first time, he genuinely did not know what Lilynette's actions meant.
"I'm not sure yet," she replied quietly. Even through the darkness, he could see her shrug. "But you shouldn't worry so much. I'll be fine."
Dropping his hand onto her head, he ruffled her hair a little. It was still a bit of a surprise to feel hair instead of bone beneath his hand, but this wasn't the time for him to dwell on that. "I'll take your word on it."
There was a moment of silence.
"When I spoke to him," he answered the question Lilynette had not voiced. "He told me that he's doing all this because of a duty he must fulfil, but… I think he was lying, because there was such a familiar disease in his eyes."
Lilynette's hand squeezed his tightly. She understood; she probably understood better than anyone else could in all three worlds.
"Can it be cured?" she asked.
Starrk took a deep breath, aware of her red gaze on him. "I think his cure is much easier than ours to find," he told her in the same quiet voice. "He is suffering so much because there is one person he greatly misses. If we reunite him with his master, then he wouldn't be in pain anymore."
"Mm," Lilynette said. "Okay."
So she would help, after all. Starrk didn't think she wouldn't, but it was… good, to have confirmation.
"Lilynette?" Rukia suddenly spoke up. When the two Arrancar turned towards her, she jerked her head towards the front. "I think we will have to hurry, or Kyouraku-taichou will leave us behind."
Surely she had been listening in to their conversation – in fact, it would have been impossible for not to, given how close they were – but Starrk wasn't sure how much she had understood from all that they had said. Ukitake had said once or twice that he and Lilynette seemed to have their own language that no one else could decode.
"Let's hurry up then!" Lilynette chirped, and her grin was wide enough to be seen. She tugged on Starrk's hand, starting to run faster, and Starrk noticed that her other hand was wrapped around Rukia's wrist. He ducked his head, swallowed the comment he wanted to make, and obeyed.
When they burst out of the passageway into the light, Starrk raised a hand to shield his eyes. They were standing in front of a large body of water – a lake not much different from the ones in Seireitei – and in the middle was a small island primarily dominated by a huge tree. It was easy enough to figure out that this was the location of the seal, especially since Muramasa was standing right in front of it.
An explosion went off to their side, and Starrk suddenly felt a sensation of complete wrongness. Instinctively, he grabbed Lilynette and Rukia and shoved them behind him, raising his hand and throwing up his reiatsu as a shield. He was barely in time: a hail of blue arrows rained down on them, and Starrk winced when he felt just how wrong and strange it was.
"Kuchiki-san!" Now that was a voice Starrk had been hoping to never, ever hear again. Stifling a flinch, he lowered the blue shield just as Inoue Orihime rushed towards them. She spotted him and Lilynette, her eyes widening, but she shook her head and turned towards her friend.
"I'm so glad to see that you're alright!" Inoue said, her hands clasping around Rukia's shoulders. Lilynette's entire body twitched, and Starrk tightened his grip around his other half's shoulder. "Where is Kurosaki-kun?"
"Ichigo is back in Soul Society," Rukia told her. "What has been going on here, Inoue?"
"I… I'm not sure," she said, biting her lip. "That man…" she darted a glance towards Muramasa. "He came here and he started attacking us."
"What are two Arrancar doing here?" a harsh voice interrupted her. Starrk shoved his hands into his pockets, turning to look at the source of the sheer wrongness in the air.
"Now, now, Ishida-kun," Shunsui spoke up. His attention was only half on the dark-haired boy in the white clothes, because he was watching what Muramasa was doing. It was clearly far too late to stop Muramasa from opening the seal, so they would just have to wait until it was open before making a move.
"Starrk-san and Lilynette-chan are here as our allies."
Ishida – what was he, and why did his reiatsu make Starrk's very skin creep? – narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "Inoue-san," his hand, holding a web-like bow, twitched. "Will you get away from the two Arrancar?"
Inoue ignored him.
"Kuchiki-san…" she said, and then looked towards Shunsui. "Kyouraku-san. I'm not sure what is going on, but that man… he attacked us, but… his reiatsu feels like… and his eyes, they…" she fell silent, shaking her head hard.
"His reiatsu feels like mine," Starrk said, a little wryly. "Doesn't it?"
"Y- yes," she nodded. "But…"
Shunsui stepped forward, tipping back his hat to look her in the eye. "You don't have to tell us not to hurt him, Orihime-chan," the Captain said gently. He gave her a small smile when she looked at him. "You see, Starrk-san here has already told us about Muramasa's suffering. We were hoping to reach here in time to talk to him before he broke open the seal, actually."
The boy with the strange reiatsu was joined by someone else, someone who felt like a human but was not at the same time. Both of them gave him a wide-eyed look. "The Arrancar said that?" Ishida asked, sounding incredulous. "When did Hollows know what it means to feel?"
"Ishida-kun," Inoue said even as Shunsui was stepping forward with thinned lips. "I don't think Starrk-san is a bad person." Her eyes turned towards Lilynette, and she smiled tremulously. "And I don't think Lilynette-san is a bad person as well."
"But—" Ishida started.
"The seal is opening, so I suggest that we all hurry over to the island," Shunsui interrupted him, and despite the lightness of his tone, there was a hard look in his eyes as he looked at all of them. "We can have the argument about the nature of Hollows later, Ishida-kun."
Before Ishida could say anything else, Shunsui turned to Starrk. "Let's go, Starrk-san," he said, eyes softening slightly.
Starrk's breath hitched. He tried to ignore it.
They reached the island just in time to feel the wave of reiatsu from the unsealed Shinigami as he awoke. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as the others prepare themselves for battle. Rukia seemed distracted, looking around her. But he focused on Muramasa, waiting for an opening for when he could approach the sword and his Shinigami master.
"Mura… masa…" the Shinigami – Kouga, he reminded himself – said. Starrk's eyes widened when he saw that look in his eyes. It was so very, very familiar. The last time he had seen it, he was lying flat on his back, staring at the skies and hoping for… hoping for something that he knew now would have been the ruin of all that he had come to care for.
His body was moving even before he knew it, rushing forward. He gripped hold of Kouga's sword before it could sink into Muramasa's body, feeling the blade tear through fur and skin. Starrk gritted his teeth, tightening his grip, and he shoved hard at Kouga, pushing him away from Muramasa.
"You… Don't interfere!" Muramasa yelled. Starrk didn't look at him, simply raising his hand to show him the blood dripping from the deep cut on his palm.
"He was going to try to kill you," he said softly.
"No, Kouga wouldn't…" Muramasa said, his voice strident. "Kouga will never attack me!"
Kouga was looking at Starrk with narrowed eyes. "I don't know who you are," he said. "But get the hell out of my way. I need to get rid of this worthless sword of mine."
Behind him, Starrk could feel Muramasa's reiatsu waver at those words. "Kouga…?" he whispered tentatively.
Those narrowed green eyes turned from Starrk to his zanpaktou. "You didn't come for me when I called for you," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You refused to lend me your power when I was about to be sealed."
"You… called for me?" Muramasa murmured, sounding shocked and lost. "I didn't hear you, I swear it. I've… I've always wanted to help you with all of my body and soul, no matter the situation."
Starrk was practically invisible in this confrontation between zanpaktou and Shinigami, but he refused to budge – he wasn't going to let Kouga attack Muramasa again, and he knew that he was going to.
The look in Kouga's eyes was exactly the same as Aizen's right before he threw Starrk away like he was trash.
"What's the point if you are not there when I needed you?" Kouga shouted, swiping his sword around. He glared at Muramasa, raising it until the broken tip was pointing straight at his throat. "I am your Shinigami. I am the one who created your powers!
Muramasa choked. "Aren't we comrades?" he asked, with a desperate sort of despair in his voice.
Lilynette gasped. The space where Starrk's heart should be burned. His arm ached from a wound long-healed; the wound dealt to him by Kyouka Suigetsu.
"Comrades?" Kouga sneered. "You are just a sword. You are just a tool."
The Shinigami raised the broken blade. The pain from Kouga's words, the fact that Starrk had to watch someone else be dealt a devastating blow of betrayal while not being able to do anything about it, slowed him down. He was too slow to stop Kouga from breaking the blade into half.
Muramasa screamed. The air itself started to break apart from the force of his despair and suffering, permeated with the scent of Hollows. He heard Lilynette's yell of rage, but Starrk wasn't looking at her anymore.
He breathed through his teeth, created a shield around himself using his own reiatsu, and leapt at Muramasa. When he felt that cloth underneath his hand, he pulled, and held on tight as Muramasa screamed and screamed and screamed.
Rukia stared at the scene in front of her, eyes wide with horror.
She could understand only some of it: Muramasa had tried his very hardest to free his master, and now his master was clearly a complete bastard who couldn't appreciate that effort. She couldn't even imagine harming Sode no Shirayuki – the battle against her had been the hardest she had ever fought in her life – much less… much less to consider her beautiful sword a tool to be discarded.
What kind of monster was Kuchiki Kouga?
"Rukia," Lilynette said, breaking her out of her thoughts. Rukia started, turning to look at the girl. She stumbled backwards involuntarily at the sheer rage she saw screaming from that one red eye. "Step back. I'm going to kill that man."
She snarled – sounding more like an animal than a human – before she drew her sword. "I fucking despise bastards who betray those who trust them."
Suddenly, Rukia understood the anger. Lilynette hadn't said much, but she could guess.
They had trusted Aizen, the two of them; placed their first trust, fragile as glass, into his hands. They had faith in him, so much that they would fight for his ambitions and die to protect him, and yet he took what they had given to him so willingly and tossed it to the ground. He had ground all they had given him beneath his feet until it all shattered.
It wasn't Kouga that Lilynette was looking at. It was Aizen.
Nodding, Rukia took a step back.
"Kick about, Los Lobos," Lilynette said, her voice soft and low. Rukia shielded her eyes from the sudden burst of blinding blue light.
When the light faded, she found herself gaping. A small part of herself was suddenly resentful that she was, again, the shortest person she knew, because Lilynette hadsomehow grown taller during her release. But most of her was marvelling at the sheer power that was emanating from the girl – if she was as powerful as one of the weaker Captains previously, she could probably give Ukitake-taichou a run for his money in raw strength alone.
Lilynette raised a hand, pointing it straight at Kouga. "Ce—" she started.
But then Senbonzakura was in front of them, his sword right over Lilynette's throat. "It is my master's duty to kill Kuchiki Kouga, Arrancar," the zanpaktou intoned. His lips, visible through the broken mask, were pressed into a thin line. "Do not interfere."
Rukia opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Lilynette was grabbing onto the sword with one still-furred, still-clawed hand and pushing it away from her neck. Blood welled up, sliding down her wrist. The grey fur turned dark.
"He has no right," she said flatly.
"What?" Senbonzakura asked, sounding clearly shocked.
"A traitor has no right to kill another traitor," Lilynette said, and Rukia nearly shivered at her tone of voice: had Lilynette always the capability to sound this menacing?
"My master was only pretending to betray Soul Society so that he can find out the location of the seal," Senbonzakura said, his echoing voice patronising. "It is his duty to protect the honour of the Kuchiki clan; the honour which Kouga has besmirched."
"Then he is an idiot as well as a traitor," Lilynette scoffed. Her smile was the most unpleasant expression Rukia had ever seen on her face. Distantly, she felt as if she had to defend her brother, but her hands were empty even as she grasped at words.
Was this creature the same girl who had played with Yachiru, and dragged Rukia into it by slinging snowballs at her?
"I have no time for you," Lilynette said.
In that instant, she was gone. Senbonzakura looked shocked, but Rukia was no longer paying attention to him. She watched, blinking, as Lilynette flashed into being right next to Kouga. She had felt her brother fighting against the bastard of a Shinigami, and now Lilynette was joining the fray.
Despite herself, Rukia moved into shunpo, getting closer to the three-way battle even as she made sure to stay out of range.
"Get out of the way," Byakuya was saying. "This is a fight for the honour of the Kuchiki clan. An Arrancar has no place in it."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Lilynette replied. She was speaking through gritted teeth as she held back Kouga's weapon with the same hand she used to stop Senbonzakura's blade. "I'm a fucking dumb Arrancar who didn't know how to read until the last few months, but I had this sense that honour has a lot to do with not betraying those who care about you."
"What are you talking about?" Byakuya asked. He sounded irritated and confused. Rukia knew that it was only because she knew her brother well that she could identify the latter.
"Honour has something to do with promises, right?" she asked, darting backwards as Kouga slashed towards her. She sent off a Cero, not even looking at him. Her gaze was entirely on Byakuya. "So I don't see what right someone who has broken all the promises he made, even though he's only pretending, has to talk about honour."
For the first time in her life, Rukia saw Byakuya stumble, his eyes widening.
Lilynette turned away from him, her eyes – both, Rukia finally noticed, because her mask fragment had changed – fixed upon Kouga. "Me, I know plenty about what it feels like to be betrayed," she said, her voice soft and quiet. "I know how much it hurts."
Suddenly, she bared her teeth, the expression a mockery of a grin. "Both of you remind me a lot of Aizen right now."
The sound that Byakuya made was the most distraught Rukia had ever heard from her brother. H stared at Lilynette for a moment before his gaze snapped towards Rukia herself. His eyes were wide and horrified, and Rukia knew, then, that he hadn't thought of the consequences his actions could have on her… on Renji. Like before, he had simply been consumed by his duty to the clan.
She swallowed hard. She wished, suddenly, that Renji was here. Renji had always been better at finding words to say.
"Fuck off, Byakuya," Lilynette said, sounding conversational even as she threw another Cero in Kouga's direction. "Leave this bastard to me. Go repair the damned honour that you've ruined yourself."
"Who the hell are you?" Kouga roared suddenly. "What the hell are you?"
"I'm a fucking dumb Arrancar who can't stand traitors," Lilynette answered, her grin widening into a snarl.
Rukia tore her eyes away from the battle, focusing instead on her brother, who was looking at her with eyes that would look calm and impassive to anyone else. Slowly, she tried a small smile.
"Have I…" Byakuya started, sounding a little lost. "Have I betrayed you, Rukia?"
She took a deep breath, staring down at her hands. "Nii-sama, I…" she swallowed hard before looking into her brother's eyes.
"I understand how important your duty to the Kuchiki family is to you," she said, haltingly. "So I… I forgive you."
Byakuya made to speak, but she shook her head hard, forestalling him.
"Nii-sama… I understand that I am too weak to help you with your burdens. I understand that there is much that I still must learn before I can help ease the weight resting on your shoulders," she said hurriedly. Somewhere behind her, something exploded, and Kouga was screaming. Rukia ignored it. "But after the war, though you have not made a promise, I thought… I thought that you would at least allow me to try.
"We were worried, Renji and I, when we thought you had gone missing. When you reappeared and seemed to have turned to the side of the enemy, we were… we were hurt, because we didn't understand." Mentally, she hoped that Renji could forgive her for speaking on his behalf. It was so much easier when she wasn't just talking about herself.
This was the most honest she had ever been with her brother. Somehow, it was ironic and fitting at the same time that it happened in the middle of a battlefield.
Byakuya was silent for long moments. Then he reached out, his long-fingered hands resting on her shoulders. "I… I did not think that you would…" he started, sounding a little dazed. "Rukia, I…"
Apologies, Rukia knew, did not come easily to her brother. She wanted, right now, to tell him that it wasn't necessary. But… but it was. She hadn't said it, didn't want to say it, but it galled to think that she placed her trust so wholly in Byakuya and it was not returned. That her brother still thought, despite everything, that he could solve everything by himself; that his burdens were only his own to carry.
Had he forgotten that Rukia was a Kuchiki too?
"I'm sorry for hurting you," Byakuya said finally, sounding as if the words hurt him to say.
At that moment, her heart ached, feeling as if it could burst at the same time. She remembered the last time her brother had apologised to her, when he was lying half-dead after shielding her from Ichimaru's blade. At that time, she couldn't do this for fear of aggravating his injuries.
He wasn't injured now, so… Rukia stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around her brother's body, hugging him tight.
She felt the hitch in Byakuya's breath; felt the way his entire body froze. She didn't move, waiting patiently until his arms finally came around to wrap around hers.
"I will get stronger," she said, her voice half-muffled by his clothes. "I will get stronger so I can stand beside you and share in your burdens."
Tipping her head back, she caught his gaze with her own.
"Will you help me?"
"Rukia, you…" he started. Then he let out a breath, a huff that brushed over her hair, before he nodded.
"Yes."
It was a promise, she thought. And Kuchiki Byakuya, Rukia knew, did not make promises easily.
Slowly, she smiled.
"DIE, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Lilynette's shout was suddenly ripped through them. Rukia jerked, twisting a little out of her brother's embrace to watch as the Arrancar literally shove a Cero right down Kouga's throat. Kouga, who was being restrained by Kyouraku-taichou… where did he come from?
The body exploded, blood and guts spraying everywhere. If Lilynette wasn't covered in it before, she certainly was now. Kyouraku-taichou was, unfortunately, caught in the blast radius as well. Rukia saw him make a face.
"That girl has no finesse whatsoever in the way she fights," Byakuya said, voice dry.
Rukia's shoulders shook a little from laughter. Her brother's sense of humour was so strange. "She learned primarily from Zaraki-taichou and Kusajishi-fukutaichou," she said.
"Hn," Byakuya said. "She needs better teachers."
Was that… Rukia's eyes widened. Was her brother offering? She was incredibly tempted to ask, but, no, she really shouldn't push her luck so much for one day.
Instead, she watched as Kyouraku-taichou literally dragged Lilynette deep into the depth of the whirling black miasma that she supposed was Muramasa. They disappeared inside, their reiatsu swallowed up so entirely by the whirling mass that she couldn't feel anything.
Blinking, she looked up to her brother.
"Yes, Rukia," Byakuya said in the same dry tone as before. "I fully comprehend the frustration of not knowing what is going on."
There was a saying, or a quote, about something that was rotten in some country. Shunsui wasn't sure why he was thinking about it right now, but he brushed through his memory, trying to figure it out, as he swam through the black reiatsu. Surely it was the perfect way of describing this situation.
He was blind in more ways than one. Not only could he not see anything here, but he couldn't even sense Starrk's reiatsu through the thick fog that was Muramasa's. Well, at least he told Ukitake about the location of the seal, so there was some chance of a cavalry. He was starting to think that they would need it.
His hand touched something. Suddenly, his vision jerked and cleared… somewhat. Instead of black and red surrounding him, the world was coloured in a very familiar shade of blue.
That mattered less than the fact that he could see Starrk in front of him. The Arrancar was on his knees, one arm wrapped around Muramasa's prone figure, the other reaching out for Shunsui. Shunsui took the hand, closing his fingers around it. He had a feeling that the physical contact was the reason why Starrk's reiatsu was enveloping him like this.
"Shunsui," Starrk gave him a wan smile. "I was hoping that you would come."
The implied trust there gave Shunsui a shot of warmth down his spine. He smiled crookedly at Starrk, fingers tightening. "Nothing can keep me away," he said lightly. He jerked his head towards Muramasa, noticing for the first time the glazed look in the sword's eyes. Remembering the way that Kouga had broken the sword that was Muramasa, Shunsui found himself hating that weak-hearted Shinigami even more.
"He can't hear us," Starrk shook his head. "I've been trying to talk to him, but I don't think he heard anything I've said." He bit his lip. "Shunsui, his situation is bad, but… I think I can still help him."
"What can I do?" Shunsui asked immediately.
To be frank, he didn't much care if Muramasa could be helped – it would be kinder if the sword was killed right now, because he didn't think Kouga would last for long under Byakuya's blade – but he would do anything to make sure that the tentative hope in Starrk's eyes didn't die.
Helping a zanpaktou that had been so badly used by its master didn't seem to be a method that would bite him back later.
"Why…" Shunsui started at the sound of Muramasa's voice. "Why are you trying to help me, Coyote Starrk?"
"I told you before: I don't like seeing people hurt," Starrk told the sword quietly. "As for other reasons… it would take far too long to explain. We can do that later."
Muramasa's eyes focused for a moment on Starrk before he gasped, seizing up. Starrk held him even tighter, his grey-blue eyes meeting Shunsui's over the sword's shoulder.
"He has been consuming Hollows to survive," Starrk told him in a low voice. "Now that he is so broken, his control over the Hollows is weakening. I'm not sure what would happen if he loses even more."
"Tell me what I can do to help," Shunsui said.
"I need Lilynette," Starrk told him. "Her pesquisa…"
Shunsui lifted that hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss onto the back. "You don't have to elaborate," he said, smiling. "I understand. I'll get her."
Starrk was staring at him, most likely because of the kiss. This close, Shunsui could hear the way his breath was hitching, and he gave Starrk another smile before he let go, stepping back into the black miasma. Instinctively, he turned, letting his body retrace the steps he took just now. The reiatsu probably didn't change the physical landscape, so it should be easy enough to come back here if he remembered the direction he took.
When he stepped out of the black miasma, he immediately had to dodge a Cero. Well, finding Lilynette wasn't a problem, but getting her might be, since she was fighting Kouga and all. Shunsui blinked, noticing that Byakuya and Rukia-chan were speaking off to a corner, bordering the edges of the battle. Why on Earth was Lilynette fighting Kouga while Byakuya, who seemed to have betrayed Seireitei for the sole purpose of killing the man, was standing to the side?
Why was it that every single time he took his eyes off Starrk or Lilynette, they managed to enact some sort of change?
His head was spinning; he shook it hard. There was no use wondering now. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the battle… there, just as Kouga was readying some sort of kido move. Shunsui stepped into shunpo, appearing right behind the man, grabbing both of his arms and restraining him by the sheer weight of his reiatsu.
"Kyouraku…" Kouga growled.
Shunsui ignored him. "Now, Lilynette! We don't have time."
Lilynette blinked at him. Shunsui was very glad that, no matter how much time she spent at the Eleventh, she didn't seem to have any qualms with someone else interfering in her fight to help her win it. She charged, yelling a war cry that Shunsui mentally censored, and shoved a Cero right down Kouga's throat.
Shunsui let out a blast of reiatsu to make sure that the blood and guts didn't land on his pink kimono. It was really troublesome for him to get that dry-cleaned.
"What does Starrk need me to do?" Lilynette asked, wiping her face with a sleeve.
"How do you know he needs you to do something?"
"You came out from that stinky black thing," she pointed with a claw, rolling her eyes. "I know Starrk's in there with Muramasa. I know that Starrk has a hell of a bleeding heart. I know you went in there to get him. There's no other reason for you to be out here without Starrk unless he wants me to do something."
Shunsui smirked, letting the darkness of Muramasa's reiatsu hide the expression as they stepped into the whirling black. He grabbed onto Lilynette's wrist as he moved in the same direction as he had just now.
"Are you learning to analyse people the same way Starrk-san does, Lilynette-chan?" he asked.
"Kind of," Lilynette said, and her voice sounded oddly distorted in this place. "I'm not nearly as good as he is at it, though. Because he's a bleeding heart and I'm not."
Well, given how easily and heartlessly she had dispatched Kouga, Shunsui supposed that was true. Starrk would have hesitated a great deal – not merely because he disliked killing, but simply because he didn't want Muramasa to suffer the loss of his master. Shunsui wondered if the differences in their power levels were a deliberate choice of the universe, given their personalities.
"So what is it that Starrk wants me to do?" Lilynette asked impatiently.
"Muramasa absorbed Hollows to survive his separation from Kouga," Shunsui told her, summarising the situation. "Starrk-san needs you to look for the reiatsu threads tying Muramasa to those Hollows he absorbed so you can free him from them."
"Hah," Lilynette said, sounding thoughtful. "I can probably do that, but I might just end up killing him."
"I'm sure Starrk-san has a plan to prevent that," Shunsui said, even though he couldn't think of any himself. Kouga was dead; what zanpaktou could survive his master's death?
He felt Starrk's hand again and gripped onto it, squeezing his eyes shut as black and red shifted to blue.
The first thing he noticed was that Muramasa's eyes were focused now. The sword was staring at Starrk with slightly parted lips, and there was something odd in his gaze, something that seemed like longing… but before Shunsui could put his finger on what it was exactly, it was gone.
Eyeing Muramasa suspiciously, he pulled Lilynette's hand forward until it was pressed against the bare skin of Starrk's neck. The moment they touched, the girl flickered into view.
"Ow, my eyes," she grumbled. Looking at Muramasa for a moment, she sighed, dragging a hand through her hair as she met his gaze.
"You don't deserve the shit that he told you, you know," she told him, matter-of-fact. "He's a hell of a bastard for treating you like that after you did so much for him." She paused. "Though seriously, couldn't you think of another way to do things other than to free the annoying bastards in our swords? They are so annoying."
Muramasa blinked.
"This is Lilynette," Starrk introduced belatedly. His lips were twitching. "She is the other half of my soul."
"I'm the nastier half," she said, smiling crookedly. Then she reached out, placing one small hand over Muramasa's neck. Her eyes lidded, and after a moment, she jerked away with a small 'eep'.
"How many Hollows have you eaten?" she asked, eyes wide. "There are hundreds of Menos Grande in here."
"I have been waiting for Kouga for hundreds of years," Muramasa said dully.
"Shunsui," Starrk turned to him. "If Lilynette frees Muramasa from the Hollows, will you be able to deal with hundreds of Menos Grande? They will be a threat to the town."
Narrowing his eyes, Shunsui considered the question. Byakuya obviously had control of his zanpaktou, and Senbonzakura was useful against a large number of enemies. He didn't have his own sword back – honestly, he had no idea what happened to Katen Kyokotsu – but he was a fair hand at kido and he could be quick enough to deal with a hoard if he had to. In a pinch, there was Starrk and Lilynette's powers as well, though he was loathed to ask them to kill the Hollows – they couldn't purify them like the Shinigami could, and he doubted that Starrk or Lilynette would want to become even more powerful.
He shrugged. "I believe we'll be able to manage," he said. "Besides, Ukitake promised to bring help soon."
"Do you truly mean it?" Muramasa said suddenly, his eyes fixed upon Starrk. "When you told me that you would lend me your power… did you truly mean it?"
Starrk jerked back at the voice, obviously startled. His eyes met Muramasa's for a moment before he relaxed, smiling softly as heis arm tightened around the sword's shoulder. "If my power can aid you in whatever way, then I will."
The sword's eyes slid towards Lilynette. "Would you lend me your power as well?" he asked.
"Starrk's power is my power," she said, shrugging. "If he agrees, so do I."
After a moment of silence – Muramasa was clearly waiting for more – she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.
"I don't like seeing people hurt if I can help it, alright?" she groused, looking clearly irritated. "I ended up being pissed off enough to fight for your sake just now. Doesn't that tell you something?"
Slowly, Muramasa nodded.
Shunsui was sure, at this point, that the sword was planning something. He narrowed his eyes, letting his hands drop to his sides, close to the two blades still strapped at his hip. If he was ungrateful enough to try to harm the two Arrancar in front of him after all the efforts that they were making to help him, then Shunsui would kill him.
He hoped he didn't have to.
"Alright," he said. "Free them. Free me."
Lilynette nodded. She reached out, and placed her hand over Muramasa's neck again.
For long moments, absolutely nothing happened. Then, slowly, very slowly, Shunsui began to be able to feel Starrk's reiatsu, then Lilynette's. Starrk let go of him, and he blinked when the blue faded away. He was still surrounded by black and red, but the miasma was slowly dissipating… no, dispersing and reforming. Each spot of black shot upwards, changing, shifting, the tips turning white and into familiar masks with sharp, pointed noises.
The groans of the Menos reverberated in his ears. The creatures towered over them, taller than even the skyscrapers of the Living World. Slowly, Shunsui could see, out of the corner of his eyes, the figures of Byakuya and Senbonzakura as they prepared to fight. Even Rukia-chan was getting into the fray, her hands glowing with the piercingly sharp light of kido.
Soon, the black and red reiatsu was entirely gone, and he could see the skies in its entirety – it was filled with purple clouds, heavy and looming, curled into a spiral. Darkness fell over them, the shadows of the crowding Menos killing any ray of sunlight that could penetrate.
Lilynette rocked back on her heels, and Starrk steadied her as they both stood. Shunsui knew he should leave, to start fighting the Menos Grande himself, but his instincts were screaming at him to stay right here.
This wasn't over yet.
"You're free," Lilynette said, rising to her feet. Her grin looked tired. "You can do whatever it is you want now."
"There's no need to thank us," Starrk said, placing both hands on Lilynette's shoulders as he stood behind her. "All we want is for you to find your own happiness."
"Yes," Muramasa whispered, nodding as if to himself. "Yes… I can see it… The path to my happinesss…"
He stumbled forward. Light was coalescing in his hand, and Shunsui grabbed for his own swords. But Muramasa was fast, incredibly fast. There was suddenly a sword in his hand, and he drove it, blade-first, right into Lilynette's chest.
Lilynette made a sound, almost like a gasp, and Muramasa shoved the sword even further. Her body slammed backwards, back meeting Starrk's chest, and the blade sank through her body, through Starrk's, and exited through his back.
Shunsui's sword went through his entire body: Muramasa had turned himself immaterial.
"Yes," Muramasa said, his eyes fixed upon the two Arrancar who were staring at the blades connecting their bodies. "This is what I want."
In that moment, he vanished. His blade remained there for only a moment more before disappearing as well.
Shunsui dropped his sword, lunging forward. He touched them, trying to find blood, trying to find the wounds caused by Muramasa's attack.
But there was nothing. It was as if the whole thing was Shunsui's imagination. A memory tugged at him; he dismissed it.
"Starrk-san? Lilynette-chan?" he shook them both hard. They were staring at him… past him, into absolute nothingness.
Slowly, Starrk's eyes focused on him. "Shun… sui…" he murmured.
Like a house of cards, he collapsed. Shunsui barely managed to catch him, practically flailing as he stopped Lilynette from smashing her face to the ground with his other arm. Somehow, he managed to lower them both gently to the ground.
He checked them over again, his hands tugging open their clothes. Though the sight of Muramasa's sword piercing through their bodies were engraved at the back of his eyelids, he could find no wounds, none whatsoever that could explain their current catatonic states.
The memory stirred again, prodding for his attention. It was… when Katen Kyokotsu first told him her name. He had met her, in his inner world, and she had… she had driven both swords into his body, grinning like the demon she was. He had screamed from the shock and pain, but when he woke up from his meditation, there was no wound.
Shunsui's mind whirled. Muramasa said that he was giving the whole of himself, but Starrk and Lilynette weren't Shinigami. They were Arrancar. Even if it was possible for a Shinigami to take another Shinigami's sword, could an Arrancar—
There was blood on his fingertips.
There was blood leaking out from the Hollow hole in the middle of Starrk's chest.
There was blood spreading out from Lilynette's abdomen, right over the place where her Hollow hole was.
Shunsui heard, as if from a great distance, Rukia-chan scream Lilynette's name. The Menos Grande roared.
The world was suddenly awashed with red. He tore his eyes away from the two prone, bleeding figures on the ground. Dully, he recognised the red light of at least three different Ceros gathering in the mouths of the Menos Grande, and knew that he was the target.
Starrk's body jerked. The sound he made – a choked, bubbling gasp – dug into Shunsui's ear, worming into his nerves. He would, he realised, never forget it.
Ishida and Sado and Orihime-chan were yelling something. He couldn't hear their words. Long strands of dark orange waved in front of him, and the red light zipped upwards, Ceros blocked by Orihime-chan's powerful shield. Shunsui noted that he should feel a little ashamed of letting a young human girl defend him.
But he felt nothing.
"Kyouraku-san!" Orhime-chan cried. "Please fight! We need your help!"
Slowly, his mind kicked into gear. Karakura town was in danger; it was his duty to protect it from the Menos Grande he had agreed to have released. Byakuya and Rukia-chan and the humans here… all of them needed his help. They were couldn't fight off so many Menos Grande on their own.
He knew that there was nothing he could do for Starrk and Lilynette now. He failed them the moment he was too slow to stop Muramasa's sword from piercing their bodies.
Shunsui picked up his sword.
Long years had taught him that he should never put sentiment before practicality, especially in times of war. This was no war, but it was a battle; his duty remained the same. But as he forced his body into battle, he knew perfectly well that he was not driven by duty. There was only one thing left in his mind that was forcing his body to move.
If he could do nothing else, he could protect Starrk and Lilynette's corpses. They deserved more than to be eaten up by Menos Grande; deserved to become more than just food for Hollows.
Notes: I'm not sorry.