Shunsui is overseeing the soul arrivals in Rukongai - you know, all the the souls freed by the slaying of menos-class arrancars - when he's told two of them remember him.

Again, I try to stay canon-compliant, but they are also things we don't know from canon (which is, uh, normal, just like you don't know how quantum physics work unless you've had a reason, whichever that is, to learn it).

By canon, I mean manga and databooks-canon. Anime has fillers (which are often, uh, extrapolations of canon that can even become canon-uncompliant). Same thing for the movies, etc. Basically, did Kubo do it (and no, him having contribuited isn't the same thing as it being canon)?
Not that some extra-canon material doesn't have interesting ideas, but I reserve myself the choice of whether or not I'll use it, and if I do I generally explain why.

Also, I find it kind of off-putting when fic authors condemn shinigami for killing arrancars (or even hollows, of all things) as if there wasn't a very good reason to do that, both for the world and for the hollows themselves. Sure, some shinigami are also enjoying it, but it doesn't change the fact that it must be done.

tags: Lilynette Gingerbuck & Coyote Starrk, Lilynette Gingerbuck & Kyoraku Shunsui, Kyoraku Shunsui & Coyote Stark, Kyoraku Shunsui & Ukitake Jushiro (mentioned), Kyoraku Shunsui, Coyote Starrk, Lilynette Gingerbuck, Ukitake Jushiro (mentioned), arrancars, hollows, shinigami, afterlife, Soul Society, post-Winter War, thanks

Losses and Gains

In retrospect, the consequences of Aizen's recruitment of menos-class hollows – should Soul Society prevail – were obvious.

Scratch that, Shunsui thought, as he looked over the proceedings. There was no "in retrospect" to this story. They'd realized early on what it meant, for Aizen to have cannon fodder of the highest level amongst hollows. They'd all known, a few hours only after the first arrancars were slain in Karakura by Hitsugaya-kun's team. Some had probably understood even sooner, like Shunsui himself – the moment the fourth and tenth espadas had walked in the living world, making it obvious that they were no ordinary hollows turned arrancars.

A shinigami – unseated, but from Shunsui's division, so he knew her name, obviously – passed through the crowd, looking like she was searching for something.

Her eyes fell on Shunsui, who was sitting a bit out of the way, ready to intervene if needed, but not overly enthusiastic about having to do so.

"Taicho! There are two souls who... who remember you, I think. They asked if we worked for the captain with the pink kimono."

Shunsui raised his eyebrows, surprised. He hadn't expected that. Sure, there was the possibility, but...

Honestly, what were the odds that those two – whoever they turned out to be – would end up in the very district he was supervising for the day? Hitsugaya-kun was in charge of North Rukongai, Komamura was dealing with the western districts, and the South was under Byakuya-kun in this unprecedented situation. Shunsui only dealt with the last quarter of the Rukongai, the eastern side, and that was one day out of two.

When it had been made obvious that they would need to reinforce their presence in Rukongai for at least two weeks after Aizen's defeat, the captains and vice-captains had barely taken the time to recover – thanks to Orihime-chan and Retsu-senpai, that had happened quickly enough – before deciding on how to deal with the situation.

So far, Yama-jii was staying within Seireitei to keep strong and oversee the efforts, and Soifon was coordinating communications through all of Rukongai – with Yoruichi's help. Kurotsuchi was keeping an eye on the flux of incoming souls through his machinery – and everyone except the scientist was relieved that Urahara had decided to come and help, or, as Shunsui would call it, keep an eye on his problematic ex-subordinate while a few potentially exceptional souls were making their way into Soul Society after having been purified. Retsu-senpai was staying in her division, overseeing the treatment of the officers who were still in dangerous waters – namely, Hinamori-chan and Jushiro, for various reasons – as well as making sure the others were coming to their appointments – Soifon, for exemple, might have regained her arm, but she, like Ushoda Hachigen, still needed to make sure that arm was working correctly. Zaraki was staying in Seireitei too, both as a remaining military strength and because him doing the kind of work they were doing outside was not going to happen.

The third division – Kira-kun was leading it, and surprisingly enough Rojuro-san had decided to tag along and make sure the vice-captain of his old division wasn't being overwhelmed while staying well away from Seireitei itself, which Shunsui understood, better safe than sorry even when you were trying to help – the fifth division – which Hirako had basically commandeered with the help of the three seated officers and seven unseated shinigamis who remained from his time, since the division was currently lacking both a captain and vice-captain – the sixth, the seventh – Aikawa had offered his help, and Komamura, being a giant-werewolf-or-something, had seen no reason to refuse – the eighth – Lisa-chan and Nanao-chan were doing so much work, Shunsui didn't even have to intervene and he loved it – the ninth – no matter what anyone thought, seeing Hisagi-kun following Muguruma around like a puppy while Mashiro-chan was asking one-hundred-and-twenty-two questions about everything and anything was deeply entertaining – the tenth and the thirteenth divisions – Ju-chan should be out of the fourth by tomorrow, and meanwhile his third seats and Rukia-chan had taken over – were taking turns overseeing the four quarters of Rukongai.

So, one in eight chances to get Shunsui of all the captains who were out there in Rukongai, and that considering there were eighty districts in each quarter and the captain could only be in one of those at a time. From the info Kurotsuchi was delivering him, East Rukongai currently had fifteen hotspots of soul arrivals, which meant that this one-in-eight chance was furthermore divided by fifteen. One chance in one hundred and twenty to get the right captain and be in the right district.

Whoever those two souls used to be, apparently they were lucky – or something like that, considering the circonstances.

Shunsui tilted his hat, got on his feet, and looked at the shinigami.

"They asked specifically for me, Kyoko-chan?"

The woman, completely used to being called so by her superior – especially as he never did much else than harmless flirting and ridiculously overplayed chasing unless it was reciprocated – didn't even blink.

"No, not exactly, taicho. They were just commenting between themselves when I overheard them. Then I asked them if they wanted to speak to an officer, since they obviously remembered more than... than the others, and the taller one mentioned all of the officers who went to battle Aizen directly."

Ah.

Shunsui looked around him for a moment – a sea of new arrivals, all the thousands of souls who had been freed as Aizen's soldiers had been killed. A few hundreds for a menos grande; at least a thousand for an adjuchas; several thousands, possibly a million souls for a vasto lorde.

From the reports, both from Fake Karakura and Hueco Mundo, Shunsui thought that at least the first four, perhaps five, espadas used to be vasto lordes, and all but one espadas were above menos grande. Even with the few arrancars who'd escaped – no one had found the Tres' body, and the Sexta seemed to have survived, as well as that little-not-so-little girl arrancar Ichigo-kun had come across – that still meant several millions of souls were being dumped into Soul Society all of a sudden. And people often forgot that, but a part of shinigami duty was to organize, as much as possible, the arrival of purified and konsoed souls. Usually, there was a two-shinigami team for each district, but in this case they needed much more than that for each hotspot – Shunsui suspected that the souls from a single menos appeared together, which obviously meant this, this humongous crowd of confused souls which numbered in millions, came from a single hollow.

He'd chosen this particular hotspot to oversee the work in the East districts because it was the biggest. So, vasto lorde. Probably the Cuatro, the Segunda or the Primera. Or the Cero, because there was that, too.

Shunsui sighed, and nodded at the shinigami.

"Well, lead the way."

While souls remembered their previous life in the Living World – within reason, of course: if you were born in Soul Society, you had no previous life to remember, and if you were very young when you died you didn't remember much either, and of course after a few centuries in Soul Society you didn't remember absolutely everything – all souls who'd become hollows forgot everything from that time. It was for the best, really. Who wanted to remember back when you were a heartless monster, or when you had been eaten by one? Imagine getting purified and sent to Soul Society, except all the souls you'd eaten before remembered who you were and you were known as the former hollow? Life in Rukongai could be hard enough as it was.

But, considering that arrancars were basically half the way to shinigami...

It was possible, Shunsui guessed, that the dominant soul of the hollow would remember. Because they'd been half-purified – or something – already, when everything had happened.

They walked by confused souls, whom Shunsui's men were dealing with – quick explanation of what Soul Society was, rapid assignation to a district, and as much as could be given as a starter kit to so many people at the same time – until the shinigami spotted the two she'd been looking for.

They were sitting on a rock, near the border of the neighboring forest – the fields of arrival of each district were situated outside of the populated area, and in this case the field was full to the brim.

At first, Shunsui didn't recognize either of them.

Logical, really. While the soul of a hollow dictated about everything about its appareance, powers, and personality, the dominant soul of a menos grande was still vaguely influenced by all the other souls in it.

Thinking back to Aizen's arrancars, that probably explained the outrageous hair colors some of them sported. Sure, a few of Soul Society's citizens had unnatural coloring too – white for their hair, generally, but occasionally green or something else – but those were always born in Soul Society, not the Living World, and had high spiritual powers with a particular edge that linked back to the color of their eyes or hair. Hitsugaya-kun with ice, Muguruma with wind, Ichimaru with the whole white snake / white kitsune thing he had going on, Isane-chan with snow, and Jushiro didn't count because he'd had black hair at first – though that was so long ago Shunsui hadn't even met him back then. Same thing with Kuna-chan and her green hair – if Shunsui remembered right her shikai had something to do with wild grass.

So, no, from far away Shunsui didn't recognize the two souls right away, but that changed quickly.

His subordinate gestured at the two, calling them out.

"I brought Kyoraku-taicho to speak with you, Lilian-chan, Cruz-san."

Then she excused herself, and Shunsui ended up in a staring contest with the Primera espada – except not, because they were ordinary souls, now, and they looked vaguely different and yet exactly the same. Starrk – Cruz, he guessed, instead of Coyote, and that probably had something to do with the names hollows took after a time, sometimes given by shinigamis, sometimes because they were more and more detached from their old, human life, so obviously the disconnect was even stronger for a menos grande with thousands of souls running around inside them – had no mask fragment, his hair seemed a bit shorter, and his eyes slightly grayer. Lilynette, without her helmet-like mask, with her eyes a more natural hazel and her hair leaning towards ice blond rather than light green, had become – had gone back to being? – Lilian.

They'd said, back in Fake Karakura, that they had split themselves into two not to be alone. What seemed likely was that the dominant soul – probably Cruz, but who knew, really – had let the second strongest out, even if they'd kept most of the power they had.

Lilynette – Lilian took a deep breath, looked away from the two others, and asked:

"How's the old man? I mean, your friend. The one with the..."

Then she made a gesture with her hand, wich was probably meant to be reminiscent of Jushiro's wound by hand-through-the-torso.

Starrk – Cruz winced, and put a hand on his other half – no, not anymore, but what were they, now? Family? Friends? – on Lilian's mouth.

"She's not trying to start a fight, I swear."

Shunsui laughed slightly – he wouldn't have, had Jushiro not survived, but Jushiro was alive, and those two hadn't been the one to injure him like that.

"He's alive, don't worry, but he's going to be a bit... weak, for some time. He's used to it, anyway. He's always sick, and that never stopped him from coming back."

For now.

Shunsui hoped it would remain true.

But in the meantime...

"So. You two do remember, uh?"

He looked around, at the whole assembly of lost souls around him. No wonder the Primera had had so much raw power, if that was their collection of souls.

Speaking of which...

Hum. The two had reiryoku, that much was certain. Not as much as they used to, but that had probably something to do with letting go of their soul collection, and anyway, you could strenghten your reiryoku with training, potential and willpower. Either they'd been spiritually sensitive back in their previous life, or they'd kept part of their assorted power from their time as arrancars. Both were possible, considering that, once again, they'd gone half the way to being shinigami.

He absolutely needed to keep the dominant souls of all the arrancars out of Kurotsuchi's hands. Experimenting on hollows was one thing – questionable already, considering their job was to purify them to begin with, but sometimes necessary – but experimenting on purified souls was just, no.

Cruz hunched over a bit.

"I'd rather not remember, but I don't think we get a choice. At least I don't feel the same emptiness we did, back then. It's just... memories. Still. You should probably keep an eye out for the other arrancars. I mean, they could be better now that they've been purified and all, we definitely are feeling better, but..."

"Who knows if they used to be good people, even before becoming hollows, right?"

Shunsui looked at Lilian, who was still not meeting his eyes but was still contributing to the conversation, with a smile.

"And if they've kept their memories and part of their spiritual powers like you two, it could be trouble, that's what you mean?"

"Hmf."

Cruz sighed, passing a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, that. Also, we... we wanted to say thank you."

At that, Shunsui blinked. It was obvious the two weren't hostile or revengeful, but he hadn't quite expected a thank you for all that.

He wasn't certain what they were thanking him for, actually.

"For what?"

Both ex-Primera looked a bit uncomfortable, but Lilian still answered.

"When... When Aizen came to us, he offered us companionship. Hollows don't know how to rein in their reiatsu like you do, especially not as it's an essential weapon not to be eaten. Ours was..."

There she looked around, at the thousands, millions of souls they had once possessed.

Cruz went on.

"Ours was so strong anything under adjuchas disappeared under the pressure, and adjuchas themselves didn't last long either."

Shunsui had the unpleasant thought of Yama-jii, Zaraki or Jushiro going around with their reiatsu completely unbridled, their whole reiryoku agressively displayed and crushing everyone around them. Most vice-captains wouldn't survive that, and even the other captains would have a hard time enduring it.

Nevermind that Ju-chan couldn't use his reiatsu that way, what with the way it was the only thing keeping him alive and standing – the idea was terrifying.

Cruz continued, oblivious to Shunsui's thoughts of doom.

"We were alone, so, so alone, and while most hollows wouldn't really care, we did, because we'd both died alone and forgotten or forsaken. In fact, I think we were the only menos-class hollows Aizen found who were already arrancars before him. He only used the Hogyoku on us to stabilize our powers. Becoming arrancars, learning how to suppress our strength, it helped, but I wouldn't say it was quite... enough."

Lilian picked up, jumping from the stone she was sitting on and landing on her feet.

"We weren't quite hollows anymore, but we were still hollows. You ended that. You killed us, but you ended the suffocating solitude we were lost in. So... Thank you."

And then, then, she smiled, she looked at him, and Shunsui wasn't sure, because he hadn't known Lilynette Gingerbuck for long, but he thought, maybe, from the way she looked – different, better, happy – that she hadn't smiled so even once back when they'd been arrancars.

Shunsui's eyes went to Cruz, and the man too was smiling – softly, and his eyes soon shifted to Lilian, and the smile remained. They probably hadn't known each other, back in the living world – they'd died alone, they'd said – but now, now they were family, no matter what.

A good thing for them, too. Starting over in Rukongai was always easier when you didn't get there alone, or when a family took you in.

"Thank you, taicho-san."

Shunsui... really didn't have much to answer to that, so he just laughed quietly and changed the conversation to something just as important – and that he could handle much more easily.

"So, what are you two going to do, now? I think there's a british community in the next district, and a spanish one somewhere around here too... Then again, since you two have spiritual power, you're going to need to eat, and for that, it's better to go to the lower-numbered districts, which are much more japanese."

That came from the fact that the Jureichi was always in Japan, which was a fact because that was where the Soul King had stabilized the three worlds, long, long ago – and, thinking that had happened only a century before Shunsui's birth was making him feel very, very old. Most of the spiritually aware humans were thus Japanese, or of japanese descent – however long ago that might lead back to – and those were the ones who went on to become shinigami when they got to Soul Society.

That also translated into an instinctive grasp of Japanese – taking over from the Living World language of a soul – and a majorly japanese culture in Soul Society, which existence revolved around the Soul King, much more so than the two other worlds, and that even in the communities of souls that came from other countries.

Cruz and Lilian shared a glance, and shrugged in sync.

"For now... We don't really know. We're staying together, though. Maybe... I thought we might go and see if any of them..."

There Cruz gestured at the crowd around them, oblivious to the two souls who had commanded them for decades, perhaps centuries.

"... want to stick together. We owe them that much, even if they don't know it. After that... We'll see, I guess."

At that, Lilian added, arms crossed and a mulish look on her face.

"But we're staying together. Whatever we do, we'll do it together."

Shunsui saw Cruz's eyebrows arch at the statement – you'd have thought someone had been suggesting they go their separate way or something, by her tone – and hid a smirk. The two might not be the same person anymore, but they definitely were brother and sister, looks be damned.

Lilian added – still not looking the shinigami in the eye, uh.

"But, I guess, you can come and visit. You and your shinigami friend."

Considering all his friends were or had been shinigami, that didn't say much.

"I'll tell Ukitake that, then."

Jushiro would come with candy, he just knew it.

Cruz sighed, mussed his – sister, yes, that would do – his sister's hair without a warning, which had her grumbling and trying to get away.

"We need to have a place for them to visit, Lilyne... Lilian."

That had the girl exclaim that they were going to get a place, anyway – entirely missing the point. Cruz sent a long-suffering look at Shunsui, who chuckled and decided to bring this conversation to a close. He still had work to do, as it was.

"I wish you two luck. And, don't forget: if you wish to, you can always go to the Academy. Even if it's only to get in contact. I'll tell the front office to send you my way if a Cruz-and-Lilian duo comes asking for Kyoraku Shunsui or Ukitake Jushiro."

A tilt of his hat, and they told each other goodbye.

Shunsui took a moment to see them awkwardly approach one of the souls they had hosted – killed, eaten, assimilated, but that didn't matter anymore, did it? They seemed ill-at-ease, but they would work through it. They'd get better, and they wouldn't be alone anymore. They already weren't.

Then he realized, as he watched them both leaving – perhaps he'd see them again, perhaps not. Perhaps they would decide to become shinigami, in a few years, or maybe not, but that would be their choice – this was the first time former hollows thanked him for purifying them.

Souls that had been hollows didn't keep their memories of those times. They had no way of knowing which shinigami had purified them, or that they'd been purified to begin with.

Shunsui stayed there, standing not far away from the crowd, for a long moment.

It was something, something important – to him, but not only, he'd have to tell Jushiro, he'd have to speak about it... He'd always known purifying hollows was the only way to free them from the anger, the hunger and the despair, but...

This time, for once, for the first time, he'd been told it was worth it by someone who knew what they had lost and what they had gained.