...
It was a breathtaking sight.
There was no other way to describe it but that.
Staring into Aizen Sosuke's fate was a breathtaking sight, plain and simple.
It was of little comfort of course, but what little comfort there was, she would take hold of it.
The worlds were figuratively on fire and whether they survived or not truly was up in the air.
Whether she survived or not, even more so. Though considering her brief interaction with the man on the cusp of breaking the system, she figured her odds of survival were even less.
Still.
It was an absolutely breathtaking sight.
"Oi, Shutara." Her gaze slowly turned towards the voice, towards the only other living being in the sealed-off squad hall the four of them had been relegated to. "What are you waiting for?" Nimaiya questioned her, bemused.
She turned back ahead, her powers taking hold again as she simply stared at fates unwinding.
"...No." She answered, calmly. "I've changed my mind." She remarked with a sigh.
She didn't need to look at Nimaiya's face to know her words had confused him.
"What do you mean no?" The man idly tapped a finger against the sealed wall beside him. "I can't cut through this without my full power. Aizen made sure of that."
"You don't find that odd?" She questioned, turning her gaze towards him.
His expression turned bemused once again. "What? Where's this coming from?"
"...I am just saying, it's rather odd that-"
Nimaiya shook his head. "Look save this for later okay? The other two are gonna wake back up soon and I'd rather not make them kill themselves again-"
"Nimaiya. No." She cut him off, well, cut off whatever was left of his point. She let out a long sigh. "We've been beaten, plain and simple. Even if I killed myself and let you access the rest of your ability, you'll find yourself at the same result." She let a small smile grow on her face. "I just happen to have beat you to it."
She watched his bemusement turn less pronounced as his gaze turned inquisitive. "What do you mean?" He questioned, calmer.
"...I am saying Aizen Sosuke designed this prison of ours to be powerful enough to hold us together, and weak enough to require one of us at our full power to break." She sighed and settled her head back against the wall. "Because he knew the moment we decided to break out of it, the moment our full... clarity was returned to us... We would find ourselves no longer against his vision."
"...You give him too-"
"Do you dream anymore, Nimaiya?" She cut him off, his gaze locking into his as she asked. He blinked at her, his gaze quickly narrowing. "Do you still hold those fanciful notions?" She questioned, a lazy smile on her face. "Do you still wish to create a blade capable of cutting this... sordid system apart, safely?" A beat passed. "Is that not the prison you chose for yourself?"
Because Aizen had been right about that.
They had all been placed in a gilded cage, without even realizing it.
"Is that not why you create? Is that not why you painstakingly finetune your craft? Your dream? To cut the sin out of our history? To cut the symptoms that harm our very worlds?" She sighed. "Is it not why you helped manipulate captains of the past?" Anger rapidly filled him, yet before he could say anything, she continued on. "Not why we convinced them our research was more important, more beneficial for them in their death than the hell that awaited them?"
"...They agreed-"
"Consent does not change the nature of our immorality, Nimaiya. Even if there is truth in what we said, it does not change the fact what we did to those captains was wrong."
The anger remained on his face. "...You make it sound like we robbed them of something... All that awaited them was Hell- At the very least-"
"You need not waste your breath," She sighed. "I am not begrudging you alone, I am begrudging all of us-"
"We- Look- The advancements we made-"
"Aged Zanpakuto spirits refined and made more powerful before passing them on to another- Yes, I am well aware, we've all seen the fruit of your labor." A beat passed. "Delicacies, and delights, created out of the love and adoration held by singular individuals- Love and adoration passed on to others. Beliefs empowered by it. We've all seen the fruits of Hikifune's labor." Another beat passed. "Healing, propelled forward by the resilience and power held by those who understood pain better than any. By those who conquered and held it at bay long enough to reach the ranks of Captain. Yes... We've all seen the fruits of Kirinji's labor..." She let out a long sigh and turned away from Nimaiya's gaze, instead settling hers on the floor. "...The sacrifice of those willing to propel our society forward, whether in the mundanity of the fabrics of protection they helped me obtain through their souls, or the fates they allowed me to learn and understand... We've all seen the fruits of my labor..."
She slumped her head back against the wall.
"The creation of the perfect Zanpakuto, capable of cutting through even the worst of realities defects... The delights, and delicacies powerful enough to temper and tame even the hardest of broken souls, hollow and ours alike... A world without pain or suffering, a world filled with nothing but life at it's best... The perfect fate for every one of those souls..." She took in a breath at that, and simply let her power wash through her as Aizen's fate played before her. "...Is that not what we all sought? Is that not what we fought for?"
Silence filled the two, a silence that felt, surprisingly, uncomfortable. For how long they'd known each other, it was rather out of place-
"...Dreams are dreams for a reason, Shutara." Nimaiya sighed. "They're not meant for the living,"
"What if they were?"
He scoffed at her, though he seemed to at least accept the fact she was no longer going through with his plan.
Nimaiya never was one to fight for what someone didn't desire.
It was a good quality to have, one she wished the current generation of so-called scientists held.
"We've been alive long enough... Tried hard enough to know there's no solution."
"What if I told you I was staring at it right now?" She locked eyes with him again, her gaze taking in the sudden surprise that filled his face. "What if I told you, that this very instant, there is someone out there whose fate aligns perfectly with what we need?" His eyes widened the slightest bit. "A man with a blade powerful enough to cut through the horrible truth of our world. A man who could take even the hardest, the most broken and dangerous souls into himself, and still hold the delights of living true to his heart? A man capable of healing from even the destruction of his own inner peace? A man with a fate so fitting, that even if I wanted to cut and weave it into something else for better or worse, I simply wouldn't? A fate so alluring it would break me to change?"
She idly noted the deep, deep utter look of fear gracing Nimaiya's face seemed forced.
He wanted it to be fear.
She'd known him long enough to know it was hope.
A desperate scramble of a man who had given up a very long time ago.
"The worlds are on fire, Shutara..." His voice turned into a whisper. "They're on the brink of destruction!"
"When aren't they?" She questioned passively. "When aren't they on the brink of collapse? Every new hollow, every new shinigami, every new soul puts them at the brink of destruction Nimaiya." She shook her head. "It just so happens, we can see that brink right now. Aizen Sosuke wasn't born yesterday, nor is he the first or last of his kind. Even if he was put down, another would rise up in his place, with all his mistakes learned and understood, with all his truths out there for him to gaze on." A beat passed. "It's too late to turn back the pendulum. The truth is out there, and there's no hiding it anymore. No soul will ever allow it to continue, so why should we?"
"Because we're the Royal Guard," Nimaiya answered in a whisper, his earlier fear turned into resignation.
"Of who? Do we protect the system or its people?"
"...In a perfect world, both, but you and I-"
"Could you do it?" She cut him off, earning a sudden blink. "Could you really go out there, with your full clarity before you, and put an end to the man closest to doing the impossible?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Could you live with yourself? Could you really wake up to this cursed society, knowing there was the slightest chance of a better future? A future that you cut off at the knees? Because of fear?" She turned her gaze away from him and let out a long sigh. "So what if the balance breaks, it was never worth saving, to begin with- Else we wouldn't have a need to exist."
"..." Nimaiya opened his mouth, barely, to speak before shutting it again, a heavy expression on his face as he settled himself against the wall. "...You're gambling on him, Shutara..."
"I am gambling on fate." She let out a snort. "For the first time in my life, I am not going to determine it. I am not going to weave it. I am going to allow nature's fate to take its course." A beat passed as a genuine smile filled her face. "And I have to say, I have never felt more peaceful doing so." Her face split open into a slight grin. "I am going to bet on hope. I am going to bet on Aizen Sosuke."
Nimaiya, after a brief moment of silence, simply let out a long sigh. "I really hope this is the right answer." He shook his head. "'Cos we're definitely fucked if it isn't."
"I can promise you that... It's at least a solution. For good or ill, Nimaiya, there's an answer." She let out a breath.
"There's an answer..." She repeated to herself in a whisper.
...
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