25 - Strawberry In Flames - [Nothing Can Be Explained] (Instrumental 2008)
Mercury Black just barely managed to clamber atop a fallen log.
It was quite a struggle, without any legs. He ached all over, the pain sharper in some places over others.
He was surrounded by a sea of similarly uprooted, destroyed trees, and their fallen scarlet leaves shod about. The clouded, overcast sky muted the colours below with its dampened light.
In the distance, he could see them. Whatever monsters Ichigo and Cinder had become. The thing was sitting on top of her mutilated body now; so it seemed pretty clear who'd won.
And yet, he wasn't moving. Neither of them were. Mercury was confused by the sight, but didn't question it. The whys didn't matter, at this point. Only the whats.
What should he do now? –What could he do, with his legs gone?
He checked Emerald again. She wasn't moving. She was barely breathing, either. He'd done what he could, but it didn't look good. If she didn't get proper help, she wasn't going to make it.
Did he feel sad for her? He wasn't so sure. Was that bad? He wasn't so sure about that, either. He just felt empty.
He was numb inside, and aching on the outside. It reminded him of home, and he hated home. That was why he'd burned it down.
He couldn't burn down whatever the hell this was.
Mercury gazed up at the bleak, silvery sky, and let out a drawn-out sigh. It was getting chilly outside.
The Crown of Choice was in her hands.
It was late at night, and she was alone. Perhaps, just once... before she delivered it to Arthur Watts the next day.
She carefully placed it on her head.
{"You're safe."}
{She was seated beside him. She shuffled closer to the man, and her hands moved with her. Her arms closed around his side. He awkwardly tensed up at first, but eventually the swordsman's strong hand reached around her shoulder, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She was safe.}
- –—{}—– -
Cinder Fall awoke with a start, and an explosion of flames.
At once, she acrobatically leapt to her feet, blinking her eyes clear. One honey-amber on chalk-white, one sulphur-yellow on coal-black.
Over her eyes was a porcelain-white, smooth masquerade mask that curled up at the tips. She almost reached to tug at it, but something instinctive stopped her. It felt natural against her skin, as though it was much a facial feature as her nose or mouth.
She touched at her face with both her hands, and realised what that meant. Only two eyes, not six?
Cinder glanced down at her hands, and found the right her normal, fair-skinned hue, with blood-red nails as always. Her left was exposed, and gloveless, ashen-white and clawed. Next, she reached for her throat, and found the hole, that hole, was still there. She was still wearing that ragged black dress, that had come with the transformation bestowed upon her. It resembled her original red dustweave vestments, but pitch-dark and rough. Had her full transformation come undone? She snuffed the mystic fire around her out.
She stood up, and let out an involuntary, shaky gasp.
What...?
...What is this...
As much as she wished she didn't, she recognised the sight before her at once. Understanding it was another matter entirely.
A grand, pillared building that was as much a work of Atlesian art as it was a hotel. High and wide arched windows ran along its multiple stories, four on either wing of the front entrance. They were matched by ornate pillars of marble, standing between each window and right at the corners of the grand hall. The glass was lit from within by warm light, contrasting the colder atmosphere outside. The front entrance used an automatic glass door, underneath four pillars, another two arched windows flanking the middle, and a large central decorative window with intricate lines and detailing. It lead up to a roof that was lined with a succession of much smaller columns. On the front of the magnificent alabaster architecture, a peach-hued holographic sign glowed softly.
{the Glass Unicorn}
It wasn't a sign she'd soon forget. It even had the same picture of a unicorn's horned head, just behind the lighter words.
How...
She furtively looked around. Above her, the full, shattered moon shone down in all its broken, flawed glory. The bright moonbeams hid most of the stars, but not all of them. A few studs of light twinkled defiantly in the night sky, competing against the moon, and all of the other artificial glows below.
She blinked bewilderedly at the buildings surrounding her, and the promenade in front of the hotel. She couldn't recognise any of them. Not the imposing, four-legged monument made of criss-crossing beams of iron, nor the illuminated clocktower attached to a majestic, gothic palace. There were more, a smooth-sided skyscraper that rose above the clouds, what resembled a Mistralian castle –but stretched vertically to a ridiculous degree, and some sort of strange collection of colourful, domed buildings all together flanked by spires on either side, like a clutch of giant jewelled eggs. And that was only a handful of them. Every architectural masterpiece in sight was entirely alien to her, apart from the one in front of her.
The one she despised with all her heart.
Murderous loathing reared its head in her psyche. Hadn't she burned it all down?
No; it was clear that wherever this was, it was not Atlas.
A hollow-chested horned beast, impaling her, tearing her arms from her flashed before her mismatched eyes. She broke into a cold sweat, bending over and exhaling sharply.
Was she...
"No..." Cinder rose back up, her contrasting eyes determined, with a hardened glint to them. She refused to even consider... that.
After a moment's rumination, she decided on her course. There was only one building she recognised, and the fact that its lights were on meant that it had to be occupied. If nothing else, she could burn it down again to brighten her mood.
Walking slowly, surely, Cinder subconsciously warmed the cool nocturnal air around herself for comfort. The sides of the street were lined with ornate black-painted streetlamps, painting the asphalt in yellowy, pallid light. It became apparent she was the only one here, under the cold lonely sky.
- –—{}—– -
The glass door quietly slid open before her, and she stepped inside.
A red carpet led down the centre of the huge entrance hall, just as she remembered, and the doorway was decorated with tall potted plants on either side. A solid wooden desk stood right at the back of the room, with a large golden clock hanging from the high glass ceiling just behind it. The smooth clock-face crept closer and closer to midnight, even though it was nowhere near that time in the waking world.
A shelf flush with the wall was filled with expensive leather-bound booking records. In the corners of the room were transparent glass sculptures of exotic grimm, a Sea Feilong and a Sabyr's fierce visage standing as tall as a man, reflective under the glimmering chandeliers and many dust-lights on the walls. The room was multiple stories high, with brown-painted doors and balconies leading down each floor's network of corridors. Along the left and right sides of the red woven carpet leading to the main desk, round white tables surrounded with three plush grey chairs each alternated with low white coffee tables faced by wide grey sofas. The higher tables were adorned with metallic gold-foil flowers, whilst the small statue of a Wyvern sat upon every coffee table.
It was at one of these coffee tables she found someone.
His black-sandled feet were kicked up onto it, and he leaned back, reclining into the soft fabric without any discernable care, his eyes closed. A long, bandaged white sword was laid across the table, as though it were one of the hotel's fine cutlery; –like a comically oversized butterknife in a napkin. Something squirmed beneath it.
"...For somewhere so fancy, this place sure has some lousy service." Ichigo remarked, as his eyes narrowly slid open. "There's no staff at all... unless you were one of them?"
Cinder didn't speak. She just acted. A sparking, blazing thunder-fireball was lobbed at his head before she could think any further, the visceral reaction wholly instinctual.
Ichigo didn't even catch it. He just looked at it , and it snuffed itself out, the air itself blurring with a static buzz for a split-second.
It was then that she paid closer attention to the new armour he was wearing. A white cross linked to red pauldrons, and a white-black waistcloth. Not only that, but he was human now. More human-looking than she had ever seen him, even in her borrowed memories. No horns, no hole, both eyes were amber-brown on white sclera. It almost made her feel self-conscious, even as her half-hollowfied eyes inspected his body. Almost.
"Salty about your loss, I'm guessing? Don't bother trying anything. I'm in shikai."
"You..." Cinder glared. "What are you doing here? What is this place?"
"You soul. And mine, too. It seems to be a mishmash of both our inner worlds." Ichigo explained. "And we have your little bug to thank for it."
"My bug?" Cinder repeated confusedly. "You mean... the Nightmare? But why am I in here? I was never affected... Release me at once!"
"In your dreams..." Ichigo paused. "–Not this one, anyway. So you weren't working alone after all, I can tell. That thing with the garganta sealed the deal."
"You know what they're called?" Cinder asked evenly. "I'm surprised. But given the holes we now share, I can see how."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her. "You really don't know anything, do you? The word 'Arrancar' probably doesn't even ring a bell with you." He judged that the state she was in now, was her soul when it was not in Resurrección.
Cinder furrowed her brows. "Should it? Don't be so condescending. It just comes off as uncouth."
"I couldn't give less of a crap what you think of me." Ichigo snapped. "If I want to be rude, you'll just have to just stand there and take it. You took someone I know from me. I'm here to repay the favour."
He reached over the coffee table, and lifted the white half of Zangetsu slightly. She caught a glimpse of what was pressed underneath, sandwiched between the longer white sword and a short onyx dagger put flat against the table. He'd already captured both of them?
The nightmares were young, and small, with a stark white lotus for a head, contrasting the thorny, tentacle-like black vines that made up their stubby, jellyfish-like main bodies. Lone ruby-red eyes glowed upon seeing her. Did they see a potential master? Or prey? Her control over the creatures of grimm was never quite as sure-fire as her Mistress's.
He lowered the sword, and the Nightmares were concealed once more.
"You're... truly not of this world, are you?" Cinder murmured. More to herself, than him.
"...And you are?" Ichigo gave her a questioning, narrow look. "You don't seem so human, yourself. Not faunus, either."
"I am Remnanti, born of this world forsaken by the Brothers. My Queen has merely bestowed me a gift." she stated proudly, boldly, hand on her chest. She didn't feel it, in front of this eldritch monster in the guise of a man. "What? Don't tell me mere appearances are worth more than real, tangible power. I regret nothing. You're hardly one to talk, what with that wild horned beast you became."
"I'm not gonna say that." Ichigo denied. "I've got a friend whose head is a wolf's. I don't think he's ugly. More fluffy, than anything else. You're not ugly on the outside; it's your soul that's ugly."
"I see... this is about Amber. You must hate me for taking her, Ichigo." Cinder sneered, her mismatched eyes drawing tight. She was half-sure she was going to die, but it would be with spite, if nothing else. She was catching on. "Yet you can't cut me down, because that would mean the very last remnants of her soul are extinguished from this accursed world."
"Nope." Ichigo told her.
"What?" Cinder frowned.
"You're half-right. I do hate you. I'll say it to your face. But, I also have a way to get her back. It just won't be me alone who does it." Ichigo stood up, and took a single step towards her, his hands in his pockets.
Cinder stepped back. "You fool. It's impossible to reverse death. You should know, Soul Reaper."
"But you said it yourself; Amber's not dead, so long as you're alive." Ichigo took another step forwards.
Cinder took another step backwards, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of her masked face. "You fool... how would you even..."
"—What's wrong?" Ichigo took a further footstep forwards. Just like against Aizen. "...Why are you backing away from me? If you want to hit me, you'll have to get closer. Or are you so wary of me that you want to keep your distance?" a small, mean smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "If that's the case, then that's silly of you... you should know distance only matters between opponents of matching strength."
He continued walking slowly towards her, as Cinder kept backing away, slightly faster than his relaxed gait. Her hollow throat was tight, and she couldn't muster a response to Ichigo's taunts. He was halfway across the hall now, and she was almost back at the double doors.
"For you and me, distance is irrelevant." he continued. "Look... if I do this..."
A hand on her chest.
"...I can almost pierce your heart."
Ichigo surely stared into her wide, quivering eyes, as she completely stopped in place. He could see the fear in them, clear as day. She was goddamn terrified of him. Zangetsu had done a number on her. –Not that he was surprised by that. Zangetsu 'did a number' on Ulquiorra.
Her heart felt as though it had stopped, her breath halted, her chest contracted as her stomach dropped into her lower intestines and her brain couldn't even comprehend what had just happened. She hadn't taken her eyes off of him. His left hand stayed in his pocket, whilst his right's fingertips were pressed against her sternum.
And yet, she hadn't seen him move at all. He had been so far away from her, and now he was well within arms reach. All in less than a moment.
Like a ghost.
"...But after what you've done, I don't think you have one. So I'll just reach for your throat instead."
At once, Ichigo's hand blurred from her bosom, to the hole in her neck. Then inside it, and he pulled. What he was grabbing onto she did not know, but she did know that it hurt.
The pain was a array of lancing, red-hot stokes at first, then before long it felt as though every spiritual cell in her body was burning away from the sheer agony of it. Ichigo was not being gentle. The sensation was as if her very soul was being ripped in two, and she was conscious for all of it.
It was.
"Haaargh!"
From her hollow hole, a bright yellow-gold light shone, as Ichigo tore it free. It filled the hall, outshining every other lamp in the hotel. As the blinding light faded, where there were once two figures in the room, there were now three.
Amber had fallen onto the red carpet. Two swords clattered to the floor, sliding in both directions. Two scimitars, one dark-silver, one tempered bronze. They resembled the blades of Midnight in shape.
In Ichigo's hand was a small, white and red insect. A beetle that he couldn't sense at all. Grimm. It squirmed, until he immediately crushed it with a squeeze. The sticky black ichor soon dissolved into nothingness.
Within seconds, Ichigo let go of Cinder, leaving her to slump, and crouched down to scoop up his friend. She was the same as he had last seen her, but now without a chain of fate, and clad in a worn flowing white dress, the mirror of Cinder's ragged black one. Her golden eyes fluttered open, and she spoke.
"Ichigo..."
Then her eyes widened, and she swung to her own two feet. "Ichigo!? I'm... back...?" she shuffled backwards, and hugged herself, rubbing her arms up and down her sides. "I'm back! I remember... I remember it all! It was her..." she pointed shakily.
"You..." Cinder spat venomously, hunched over. She straightened up, even as she leaned on a table behind her slightly. In her hands was the darker sword, snatched up from the floor. "So this is it? After all I've accomplished? I'm just supposed to roll over and die, after losing everything?"
"Did you even have anything to begin with, you witch?" Amber growled.
"No, I didn't. I never did. But that was fine, so long as I could take it." Cinder retorted. She was all too aware of the place she was standing in. Where this had once been. "It's not enough to deserve it. You have to be worthy. And I am far, far worthier than you! You're not even the one to best me! He took everything from me!" she hollered, pointing at Ichigo. "Reapers shouldn't interfere with the living! You're not even supposed to be in this world! You said it yourself, you disgusting hypocrite!"
She could feel it now; the power she once held, had dwindled by half. Taken by the woman in front of her. And even at her full strength, Ichigo was such a monster that it wouldn't matter.
Ichigo crossed his arms. "It doesn't matter what you think, now. It doesn't matter that I shouldn't be here, either. You had no problem killing to get what you want. What's wrong with a little taste of your own medicine? Guess I'm just worthier than you."
Amber reached for his arm, and he stopped. "Ichigo... she's right. I mean, not about the killing thing, no. –She's totally a psycho– but she's right about me not beating her. So I'll do it. To truly put her in her place. I wanna fight her. I want payback."
"Sure. I was banking on it, actually."
"I'm serious about thi– Wait, really?" she blinked. "I thought you'd be more protective, here." she waved her hands about vaguely.
"You're the one who needs to beat her, to take back your body." Ichigo clarified. "Trust me, I've done this kind of thing myself. She's weaker now, after all she's just been through, so don't worry about it."
"I guess have beaten her before... She only won because she must've torn open one of those portals, which that giant laser thing came out of."
"So I outsmarted you." Cinder re-framed. "I don't see why I can't do it again. But why should I even bother? It's not as if I can get away."
"That's right. You won't." Ichigo nodded. He'd cut her down before she could. "But you seem to be the type that would do anything to live just a little longer. Most would. It's natural. Looks like this is your shot."
"You expect me to just dance for your whims—"
Clang!
Amber had already rushed forwards. In her hands was the bronze scimitar, catching the light of the chandeliers with a polished sheen. It locked with its silver counterpart.
"Dance for me." Amber demanded.
"So pushy..." Cinder was shoved back, sliding towards the doorway. Amber glanced at it, and the glass was frosted over in seconds.
Relaxing her grip, Amber let Cinder swipe forwards to break the blade-lock, but deflected it high in a shower of sparks. She kicked at the other woman's exposed stomach, her foot aglow with crackles of flashy yellow lightning.
Cinder's muscles seized up on contact with the shock, letting Amber fling her back with the kick, right into the frosted glass. As soon as she touched it, she was covered in shards of biting ice, smashing through the glass as her body was spiked all over.
Rolling out onto the hard concrete steps, Cinder burst into flames, kicking up a haze of steam as the ice sublimated. "Haaaah..." She breathed out, wisps of white smoke leading off from her mouth into the night air.
"You can't even make lightning, can you?" Amber mocked, standing in the broken doorway, her eyes blazing with magical streams of light. "No wonder. You've only had the Maiden powers for a couple months. I had them for over a year."
Cinder responded with a punch to the ground, and the stonework beneath Amber's feet began to bubble bright orange and well up. A combination of earth and fire magic melded together to create a micro-volcanic eruption.
Amber leapt into the air, as a hand of frothing, molten magma chased her upwards. A gust of wind gathered beneath her, as she began to fly. A quick glance downwards had a hulking mass of pale stone tear away from the side of the Glass Unicorn's front walls, splattering the hot liquid rock and peeling the entire building open.
Ice encrusted over the wall, rapidly cooling the lava with an explosion of steam, and Amber stretched her arms wide to pull the white cloud around her. Crackles, flashes and thunderous roars broke out across its billowing expanse, and it rose high over her head.
Ichigo watched on with interest, seated atop a black lamp-post. A thundercloud? Pretty creative.
With a ear-splitting crack, a bolt of pure lightning lanced between the cloud and Cinder on the ground. She hastily pulled up a wave of lava to block, but it was too slow. Far too slow to block the speed of lightning.
The low rumble of thunder was matched with a ground-shaking explosion. A blusterous swell of blackened smoke clouded the ground, and Amber readied to fire off another arcane bolt—
A hypersonic buzz behind her, and her blazing eyes widened before she twitchingly brought up her bronze scimitar to block the flaming blade swinging at her neck. It was redirected, and Cinder managed to score a burning gouge into Amber's shoulder. Where was her aura? She twisted round, and grit her teeth.
"You may have held the Maiden's magic for longer, but I have something greater than that." Cinder declared, her crinkled eyes eager for blood. A pulse of wind wiped away the magical thunderstorm. She breathed in, readying to let loose a gout of jet-blue flames...
The fire went out. Cinder's sword, her breath, all of it. Her lungs burned, and her eyes stung as though they had been stabbed from the inside.
"Greater than this?" Amber smirked through the pain, as she knocked Cinder's silver sword wide, and slashed her, from the right collarbone to her left hip. To her relief, there was no aura that came to Cinder's defence either. Instead, she'd made a direct cut. Blood didn't splatter from it, but instead frothed, and boiled. Cinder would have let out a howl of pain, but her voice was lost. All sounds were lost.
Cinder fell like a stone, quickly hitting the ground below heavily. It gave her space, to think. No sound... no fire... bubbling fluids... no flight...
"You've figured it out, haven't you?" Amber teased. "This is why you don't discount air, hot stuff. Fire is useless without it. I've created a localised vacuum. Air for me, and not for thee." she pulled her sword level with her chest, pointing the tip right at her opponent. "You just blew away most of the air close to you, too. The best part is that you can't even hear me explain this! It's risk-free!"
She avoided mentioning the sheer toll it was taking on her to maintain the open vacuum, against the rest of the world's air pressure. Her brow began to sweat from the magical exertion.
On the ground, Cinder was rifling through her mind for any counter she had to the vacuum, before she could lose consciousness. She was bleeding from her nose, now, and the bubbles of blood in her nasal cavities burned and disoriented her. She crouched, to put all ten of her fingers on the ground, and a great shard of jagged stone erupted from the street. It aimed right for Amber, and she swerved out of the way, only to realise too late that Cinder had latched onto its far side. She leapt from the massive stalagmite, and grabbed her around the waist, the two of them landing in a crumpled, rolling heap on the rooftop of the damaged Glass Unicorn.
It was a wide expanse of smooth place stone, flat and even. The twinkling lights of the foreign skyline surrounded them, a collection of great monoliths of glass and steel. The full, broken moon shone down from above, creating an environment as bright as the night could be. A perfect environment to end this.
Ichigo flickered onto the very top of the rooftop, and watched as Cinder's blood now ran freely, before the wound sealed itself. The magical vacuum had broken. That fact that Cinder had even survived it at all was probably due to her status as a soul, and that was the same for Amber trading blows with her. Normally, he wouldn't expect a human to be able to withstand blows from an Arrancar at all. It seemed that they'd split all their powers between them both, becoming equals in both magic, and reiatsu.
In the distance, the full-sized replica of Big Ben, a landmark's facsimile from Ichigo's inner world, inched closer and closer to midnight.
They both raced to their feet, and lunged at each other once more. Cinder was more aggressive, striking over her head, whilst Amber's had whipped up to block horizontally.
The dark silver scimitar in Cinder's hand sparked and burst with flares of crimson fire, whilst the whirling, shredding howl of a miniature tornado swallowed Amber's golden-bronze blade.
No further words were exchanged. They were too focused.
Amber pushed back, Cinder's hand was forced high, and Amber took a low sweep-kick at her legs. She was blocked by Cinder's shin, stone encrusting it, and she grunted in pain. This time, she struck low with her sword, but Cinder had already twisted her weapon down to deflect. Again, Amber attacked the same spot, and Cinder defended her legs for the third time. Her head tilted downwards, to see better, and bounced back Amber's sword hard enough to force it back. She was only holding it with one hand, so she easily overpowered it—
—Amber was only using one hand. The other was free, to grab the hilt of Cinder's sword, holding it in place.
A shock of electricity seized the muscles in her hands up, preventing her from removing her grip, and Cinder's eyes drew wide. Amber held her scimitar out to the side, the bronze soul-metal catching the moonlight. The tornado around her sword was wiped away, to be replaced with something far more dangerous.
It would take all of her focus and concentration to maintain this elemental state, a fusion of lightning, fire and wind at its purest, for only a second at most. Any longer and it would burn out her reserves. She'd chosen to use it, then, only in the second that mattered the most.
The centimeter-thick layer of still air around her sword began to glow purple. Steams of lilac light flew from it, flickering off into the night air. The blade itself was awash with a violet aura, as the air was first super-heated, then ionised. The fourth state of matter: Plasma.
A flash of light, a thrumming hiss, and the swish of a sword slicing though the night air.
The clocktower from Earth in the distance struck twelve. The hanging clock inside the broken-open Glass Unicorn hit midnight at the same time. They rang out as one.
It was was a long, drawn out, melodic sound, chiming musically together before the individual bells to count the hour rung out.
Gong.
Cinder was cut right through her shoulder, the blade gouging itself into her chest. But instead of a gory mess of blood and viscera, only orange curls of light leaked from the critical wound.
Gong.
"Ah-ck... n-no... no..." she choked out, her voice weak. Her sword fell from her hand, clattering to the floor as it, too unfurled into curls of ethereal orange-gold reishi that floated away.
Gong.
"I... never stood a chance from the start, did I? This world, this accursed world can rot for all I care... My entire life... was it all for nothing...?"
Gong.
"Cinder..." a hand latched onto her white, clawed one, she and found that it was Amber holding it. Where Cinder's face was wrought with despair and frustration, Amber's eyes were instead just... sad.
Gong.
"...I'm sorry it had to end like this. I know what you've been through, thanks to the memories shared between us. But I know, thanks to those memories, that you've brought this on yourself." she told her, as Cinder broke apart more and more.
The hand she was holding crumbled into uneven pieces of pure light. What surprised her, was that Cinder wasn't passing away in the conventional sense. Her light wasn't fading. She could feel her very soul being eclipsed by her own, as the Fall Maiden's power became whole once again.
Gong.
Ichigo appeared, flickering into view. In his hands were his swords, and the two nightmares were impaled on the smaller one. As they disintegrated, he sheathed them both.
"We won't be needing those things anymore. You've realised she's not dying, haven't you? Her soul is being absorbed, like she tried with yours. Until now, it wasn't so clear cut, but now that you've properly beaten her, you're the one in full control."
Gong.
"So that's why our auras didn't work? Because we share souls?" Amber hypothesized. "But how comes you know how this works? Has this happened before? This seems pretty specific, to me."
Gong.
"Happened before? Yeah, I went through a pretty similar phase myself." Ichigo nodded.
"A phase? Is this that normal?" Amber gawked.
Ichigo shook his head. "Not really, but that'd be too complicated to explain right now."
Gong.
Cinder developed a weak smile. Her mask broke away, leaving her face bare. She eyed the sword in her chest, the one she felt pulling her in. A conduit between her and Amber.
"Fine... you wish to take what's mine...? Then have it, you thief... but I'll live on through you... My fire will burn you away. Never forget, wind fuels flames. For now, my power might be your blade, but I'll be the sharpest blade around. If you just happen to slip and fall on my sword, well then... Your life is already mine; you just don't know it..." her eyes flicked over to Ichigo, expecting a threat to match her own.
Ichigo did not speak. Instead, he just watched on. This exchange of words was quite familiar to him. He'd expected it, actually.
Gong.
Amber's face turned resolute. "Then I'll just have to live enough of a life for the both of us. And even then, Ichigo will never ever leave my side, ever again! Never! I'm sure he'll manage this just fine!"
Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch. "Since when did I agree to that?"
Gong.
A rumble, and the Glass Unicorn's rooftop cracked right down the middle. The buildings in the skyline began to shift away, growing to different, bizarre elevations like giant artificial plants. The shards of the shattered moon itself began to fall, and the night sky broke like an untouchable pane of glass.
"Cinder's inner world is coming apart. Since it's not her world anymore, but yours." Ichigo glanced about quickly. "It's probably 'cause I killed those bugs, too. This is it. Say your goodbyes."
"That's fine. I've said all I've needed to." Amber replied.
"Y-you hear me...? I refuse... I refuse to end it here..." Cinder reached out, with her single remaining arm. "I... don't want to die..."
Gong.
The final chime had come and gone. The clock had run out.
In this crumbling fusion of worlds apart, Cinder Fall's last conscious thoughts were made.
I see now... I was neither deserving, nor worthy in the end...
I wasn't any more free under Salem than I was under the Madame...
That cursed collar never left my neck...
Her eyes closed as her face joined the rest of her body, peeling apart into strips of spiritual light.
Ichigo Kurosaki... was the crown's future a lie?
...I wonder if a Soul Reaper is any better than an undying Witch...
Forever Fall was silent.
Then, it was not. The two silent statues that had been still for a good while now finally began to stir.
Like a dropped vase, cracks spread across the porcelain-white skin of the horned Vasto Lorde, until entire plates of the hollow's hide began to fall away. The fragments landed on the bed of dead scarlet leaves with a soft thump, before dissolving away.
Ichigo was sitting in the same place, in his far more human shikai state, his waistcloth bunched up underneath him as he sat. His red-and-white Ōken armour was pristine, and stood out against the neat, uniform black of his shihakushō.
The first thing he did after coming out of jinzen was look around. Where was she?
"Uh... I-Ichigo..."
His eyes edged down, and he realised what he was sitting on. Who he was sitting on.
"Ah!" he leapt to his feet, and helped her up quickly.
Amber patted herself off, and stepped back, before she gasped, and pointed at his head. "Your horns! They're gone!"
Ichigo reached up, and rubbed his hands at the sides of his head. "What the..." They really were gone. Both of them, this time. He just looked like his normal, human self now. Was it because of Zangetsu? "...huh. Don't worry about it."
Flakes of orange-gold light were still peeling away from Amber's body, exposing fair skin. A feminine figure was taking shape, nearly identical to Cinder's, though lacking most of her hollowfied bodily features.
Save two.
Her face was the first thing he noticed. The left side of her face, where Cinder's glass eyepatch had once been, was covered by strands of hair. Luscious brown hair, the same colour as Amber's originally. Overall, she looked almost exactly like Cinder did, though with slightly softer features, a brunette head of hair, and softer-tinted orange eyes, instead of Cinder's toxic hue. She reached up to brush it out of the way behind her ear, and Ichigo stared at what it revealed.
She had a hollow mask. It didn't cover her left eye; it rather surrounded it instead, looking like half of a minimal masquerade mask that didn't fully surround her eye. The smooth crest of bone was small and thin enough out that Ichigo could see the beauty spot just under her human-coloured eye– a facial feature of Amber's, and not Cinder's. The corner of her mask ended with a tiny trio of white feathers, matching the pendant she'd once worn on her huntress outfit. Through her neck, he could see the silvery sky, and the sea of collapsed trees beyond. His heart fell.
Amber was dead.
Now, she was a spirit. An Arrancar, specifically. You could only put so much stress on a plus soul before it hollowfied. She'd jumped straight to the Arrancar stage, probably due to the nature of a Maiden's mystically layered soul to begin with. Although, he could sense the small number of souls didn't make her a very strong one. All three points were there. She had the hole, the partial mask, and...
"A sword...?" she reached down to the leafy forest floor. Or, once-forest. Miles of trees had been felled in the battle before. It was atmospheric and eerie enough to almost pass for another inner realm. Ichigo felt mildly guilty, but he had other things on his mind for now.
Stabbed into the ground was the bronze scimitar she'd wielded in Cinder's inner world.
She hefted it up in her hands, the warm soul-metal catching the light of the cloudy sky. It was long and sleek, the gleaming blade single-edged, and growing wider the further it was from the hilt, until it tapered to a sharp point. A small indent on the dull edge made the point of the blade angle backwards, and the guard was two-pronged, front and back. The crossguard ended in two small curls of metal that rolled up on the back side, and down on the front. The pommel was another metallic curl, facing forwards. Finally, the handle's wrappings were a warm, rich yellow, with white diamond gaps that felt comfortable in her hands.
She lifted it up, and found it was perfectly balanced– supernaturally so. In that moment, she just knew:
"This is... mine?"
She trailed off, and turned to Ichigo. He had a taxed look on his face, but it quickly vanished as she soon as she glanced at his face.
Ichigo gestured at her waist. "Yep. You've even got a sheath for it."
"What do you– holy crap! I do!" she gasped, grabbing hold of the ochre-yellow scabbard on her hips. "Since when was that there!?"
Ichigo took a deep breath. This was... not going to be easy. He'd better break the news softly.
"It's a part of your soul. The zanpakutō of Arrancar are different to those of shinigami, because while Soul Reapers need theirs to be forged first as asauchi, Arrancar get their swords naturally the moment they awaken."
At least, that was how it was supposed to work. He still wasn't sure what the heck was going on with Crescent Rose.
She just blinked at him. "Was I supposed to be able to follow any of that?"
"It would've been ideal," Ichigo jabbed back, " 'cause you're an Arrancar now."
She just blinked at him. Again. "Excuse me?"
"Crap." 'Break the news softly' my ass...
"I said, excuse me!? This sounds really damn important!" Amber repeated.
"Well, I'll try and summarise things, here. Just, er, try and sit down first, okay?"
She slowly lowered herself onto a fallen log. It was covered in a coat of shed red leaves, that crunched under her.
"You're... not human, anymore."
"What!?"
Ichigo winced. "And, uh... you're dead. Technically."
"Technically!?" she cried.
"I'm going to break this down for you. Your soul has turned into an advanced hollow– which isn't that bad, trust me– and with it, comes a mask, a hole, and a sword. Arrancar are what we call them, back home." Ichigo explained. "They aren't a thing on Remnant– until now, that is. I'm pretty sure what Cinder turned into has to do with what you are now."
"I'm... still dead..." Amber took a while to find her voice again. That was fine. He waited for her.
"Cinder... wasn't always like that. I've got all her memories, now. Or would it be our memories?" she supposed. "Our souls merged, didn't they?"
"Yours absorbed hers... that's why you're in control. It's also gotta be why you're like this now." Ichigo surmised. "Though, there might be some influence from her spirit... you said she wasn't always a hollow?"
"She was born human, as she told you. What she didn't say, was who she was working for: Salem."
That got Ichigo's attention. Just as he guessed. It made sense, with what she pulled in their fight. For her to have access to the garganta... it was concerning. His face tightened into a shallow frown.
"Cinder was an orphan, who got taken in and exploited by some rich hotel in Atlas. The Glass Unicorn. We just saw it, didn't we? They put a shock collar around her neck, which is probably why her hole is there." Amber briefly pointed at her own throat's hole. "Does it work like that? I feel like it does. Eventually she snapped, and slew everyone there with her semblance. After that, Cinder was practically raised by the Grimm Queen. More than that, she was experimented on, and enhanced by her black magic with a series of blood rituals. She's a witch, remember?"
"So Salem figured out hollowfication?"
"Not quite yet. I can guess what you're referring to. Salem's very soul is broken, Ichigo, and I'm not sure even she herself understands how. Cinder never learned the reasons why. But she eventually managed to replicate it, with Cinder's spirit."
"So she turned her into some sort of fledgling living hollow?"
"With an influx of grimm-matter to physically stabilise it, yeah." Amber clarified. "I know why Cinder wanted the Fall Maiden's magic, now. There's a vault, under Beacon."
"For the relic?"
"You know about those?" Amber sounded surprised. "They're kinda top-secret."
Ichigo absentmindedly rubbed at the back of his neck. "Another ghost told me."
"Figures." she nodded. "Anyhow, it was the Relic of Choice, for your information. There's four of them in existence."
"So what happened to the one in Beacon?"
Amber's suddenly had trouble maintaining eye contact.
"Amber...?"
"Salem already has it– but it's not my fault! It was totally do-or-die! Cinder delivered it to her in the two months you were gone."
Ichigo tilted his head. "Okay...? I don't blame you for any of this. You were, well... dead."
"A-ah, sorry..." she murmured. "It's kind of muddled, since I remember it all as myself doing it, in a way..." she tapped her fingertips together tentatively. "You, um, don't hate me, do you?"
"Of course not."
"I know, I know, I just wanted to hear it..." she dithered. All of Cinder's experiences were now her own; including the ones where she'd been maimed by the man in front of her. She pushed them away; Ichigo was the only reason she was even here now. "...Do you think I should take a new name?"
Ichigo cocked his head. "What, like a mix of both? You don't need to do that."
"Really? I meant, ah, taking the start and end of our names, and putting them together. Like... Amb-er, or, Cind-er." she paused. "Oh, you're right... never mind. Amber it is."
"Amber's a nice name." Ichigo nodded. "If your parents gave you it, you shouldn't change it." A small wind blustered across the ruined land, rustling the bed of leaves. It didn't touch their clothes, being spirits as they were.
"So, back on track... the relic Cinder took from the Beacon vaults was one of four." Amber continued. "The Relic of Choice is a crown that grants visions of futures to come. Cinder was tasked to collect it for Salem, then move onto the next relic. She started sidetracking after she tried it on once, though."
"She must've seen something, then..." Ichigo figured. "So, was the Relic of Knowledge on her hit list?"
"You're wondering if it might help you with the whole universal collapse thing, aren't you?" Amber idly kicked her feet back and forth against the trunk. "I remember that conversation in your room. That was one of the few times I had the bigger influence over Cinder's body. Not enough of an influence to spill the beans back then, though."
"So did Cinder know anything about it? What are these relics in the first place, anyway?"
"Cinder was told enough to hunt for them, but not everything." Amber elaborated. "The relics are divine manifestations of the abstract ideals of humanity."
"Abstract ideals?" Like schrifts, then? "So they rewrite reality?"
"Yes. The Crown of Choice, the Lamp of Knowledge, the Staff of Creation and the Sword of Destruction." Amber listed. "These magical artefacts are the most powerful objects on the planet. They were sealed away in extra-dimensional vaults, long ago."
"How long ago are we talking?"
"Eighty years, if we take the foundation of Atlas with the Staff as the last time one of them was used by the Wizard."
"That's not that long ago." Ichigo pointed out. Even without going by Shinigami standards, eighty years was closer than World War One. It was hardly ancient.
"Well, it's a long time to me!" Amber defended. "It's before the CCTnet! Imagine that!"
"...So Ozpin founded Atlas? How'd you hear that?"
"Salem liked complaining about him, to me– I mean Cinder. A lot." Amber admitted. "She's fixated on him. Cinder heard a lot from her, y'know."
"So you know where the next relic she was going to be assigned is?"
"I know where every relic vault is!" Amber proudly put her hands on her hips, and puffed her chest out.
"The Crown was in Beacon, the Lamp is in Haven, the Staff is in Atlas and Sword is in Shade. The vaults themselves are kept in some sort of magical slip-space though, and the portals in the Huntsmen Academies are the only gateways to access them. In fact, I think the academies were built around the portals, and not the other way 'round."
"So how did Cinder take the crown, if it was so protected?"
"Each vault is opened by the corresponding Maiden. Autumn opens the one under Beacon. Also, it wasn't just Cinder who did it. Salem is a powerful witch, knowledgeable enough in her craft that she could figure a way through the gateway even on the other side of a portal. She just had a Seer grimm supervise." Amber recounted. "We won't exactly have that sort of help if we go after the Relic of Knowledge ourselves. We'd need the Spring Maiden's help, first, and I have no clue who that is."
"...If Salem's so powerful, then how comes she hasn't taken over Remnant already? That's what I'm guessing she wants, anyway."
Amber looked up at the sky, peering at a flock of birds that resembled robins overhead. "Cinder was never told her true end goal. Whatever it is, she needs all four relics to pull it off. It's been in the works for millennia. The reason it's taken that long is because Salem can't just step out and win, herself. She was sealed away, into the Land of Darkness, by Ozma thousands of years ago."
"'Ozma' sealed her?"
"Ozpin, Ozma, Ozymandias. The man has taken many names across his many lives, but I'm sure you've noticed the pattern. He had to seal Salem away, because she's immortal. Maintaining the spell keeping her trapped has sapped him of most of his magic, in addition to creating the Maidens. The way the ancient spell he cast functions, is that it only prevents Salem specifically from leaving. Grimm, people, and magic are all free to go back-and-forth. He couldn't block everything; just her alone."
The sky above had darkened slightly over the two of them. It had been a long talk.
Ichigo stepped over to the log, and sat down next to Amber.
"I think I know all I need to." he decided. "I've finally got the lead I wanted, and I got you back, too." he huffed.
"You're welcome. I'm basically a super-double agent!" Amber cheered, pumping her fist in the air.
"Not any more, though. I crushed the bug thing that was inside Cinder." he made a face. "–Nasty."
"Cinder was given a grimm parasite at a young age, to prepare her body for her changing soul. It was a creepy-crawly method to monitor her, too." she shivered slightly. "Thanks for tearing it out."
"It was just off a guess." Ichigo replied. "Not as if I needed to be told a frickin' parasite is something bad."
"Without that in me, then that must mean that Salem either thinks Cinder's dead, or no longer an asset." Amber mused. "I'm free as a bird, now. But I think I'll stick around this time. I guess Cinder's soul is influencing mine just a teensy bit, because I don't really want to pass on, anymore. Is that selfish?"
"Hardly. I'd say that's a good thing. Because with the way you are now, a Soul Burial wouldn't work anymore. I'd have to stab you with my sword. Not that I would, of course."
"W-wha?" she gasped, hands on her cheeks, "I definitely don't want that, now!"
Ichigo smirked. "Y'know, you're like, the third time I've had to rescue a girl I know with basically zero intel."
"The third time? That means I'm the charm, right?" Amber smiled at him. "Look at that... You're a regular knight in shining armour!"
Ichigo sighed. "I didn't quite make it this time, though. You died, in the end. I messed up."
Her smile died down, but she still nudged him playfully in the side. "I don't feel dead, though. This is totally different to last time. Are you really sure?"
Ichigo gazed out across the mowed-down woods. "You're a ghost. Being dead is kind of a prerequisite for that, don't you think?" he exhaled, and slouched slightly. "Although, you're right. This is different to last time. You're not chained to Beacon anymore, you can eat and drink, and, now that you have some decent reiatsu, I think people with aura should be able to see you."
She was surprised to hear all that. All of this was news to her. "Really!? Why didn't you say so from the start, dummy? You did save me!"
Ichigo absorbed her cheer, and turned to face her with a grin. If she really thought so... "Yeah... Yeah, I did. You're safe."
"You're safe."
She paused.
She was seated beside him.
"Amber...? Your face..."
She touched at her face unconsciously, her fingers coming away wet. "A-ah... sorry..."
The Fall Maiden was crying. She wasn't sure whose tears it was.
She shuffled closer to Ichigo, and her hands moved with her. Her arms closed around his side. He awkwardly tensed up at first, but eventually the swordsman's strong hand reached around her shoulder, and gave her a reassuring squeeze.
She was safe.
The crown's future had come to pass, in the end. It wasn't a lie.
Ichigo flushed slightly, but let her sit there, weeping quietly into his shoulder. She'd been through a lot, after all. Months and months. Had it all just bottled up? He didn't ask.
He knew then, that Amber was the type of girl to grow sad, more so than she did angry.
Ichigo sighed, and looked up at the silvery sky. He could see a few holes in the bank of clouds, through which the early evening sky let a couple pinprick stars peek through.
They were only a few spots of light in the dark sky, but they were there.
NEXT: 26 - MINUTES PAST MIDNIGHT - [Wrapped In Kindness]
Author notes:
And that's that. Cinder Fall is out of the picture... mostly. The plural of Arrancar is 'Arrancar', BTW.
[ecxDOTimages-amazonDOTcom/images/I/51eROvllggLDOT_SL1000_DOTjpg]
Use this pic, but imagine it bronze-y and zanpakutō-ier to get Amber's sword. I know a surprising number of people wouldn't want more zanpakutō in this, but you literally can't be an Arrancar without one. I think that's it for this story, concerning 'good' RWBY characters getting zanpakutō. I don't wanna overcomplicate anything. To that end, the backstories of all the characters in this chapter are the same as canon, just that Cinder got black-magic'ed to hollow out. Her parasite was of the soul, not just physically. Ichigo's design is back to being fully default too, because I think I did exactly what I wanted to with his forced-faunus phase. Anything to do with souls gets the Bleach-logic treatment, otherwise it's all simple and straightforward. (The italic part just after the start is a flashback, btw).
You know how I said something wasn't going to happen a long time ago? I deleted it a while back, so maybe you don't. Anyway, I take back what I denied. If you know, you know.
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[wwwDOTartstationDOTcom/artwork/WKxN12]
These are the pics I used to base Cinder's inner world off of. Her final fight was fairly quick, because you've seen her fight like three times by now. You can say she was mentally exhausted, for this one, if you like. The way this whole inner-world thing stitched together is: 1) Nightmare grimm go into 'inner worlds' in actual RWBY, and 2) Zangetsu forced one on a dying Cinder, that was linked to his own. Ichigo went into his own inner world at first, which brought Zangetsu out last chapter. It should be fine if this doesn't make 100% peer-reviewed, fact-checked snopesjak sense, because this is a fanfic, after all. This was the best way I could come up with to finish Cinder's character. I know that someone asked for them all to die, but I'm gonna be frank, I think it'd be a lot better further down the line for Mercury and Emerald to survive. Cinder's basically dead, so Zangetsu still got his kill. Amber just absorbed her spirit.
This wraps up the schizo Cinder arc. Amber looks exactly like Cinder, but with brown hair now, plus a little mask. Ichigo now knows a whole lot more about Remnant, and what he should do next. Expect the rest of the world to react to miles and miles of forest being instantly wiped out, too. That would be kind of hard to miss...
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