Author's Note: Hello! Before you start reading, I'd like to let you know that this is my first attempt at writing fanfiction (or writing in general, lol). I would really appreciate any reviews to help me understand where I can improve.
This story is based off of the Bleach Manga, and most of the Anime-only content will not be included/considered canon.
Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, if I did Starrk would have lived. All rights go to its mangaka, Tite Kubo.
Coyote Starrk's POV
'I'm Falling.'
After tanking that Captain's finishing blow, I knew I was finished.
My vision flashed with bright, disorientating colors as I felt reiatsu leaving my wounds faster than I could stop it.
I couldn't tell if the draining of my reiatsu was due to the attack or if it was my body's struggle to heal itself.
I felt the wind rushing against my skin, the chilling sensation brushing against my burning wounds felt...
'Soothing...'
I was falling swiftly through the air, blood spurting from my wounds.
'...falling...'
'I'm not alone...' I felt melancholy.
Memories of my time with Lilynette, Aizen, and my comrades—friends, flashed through my mind as I continued to plummet through the seemingly endless sky.
I felt the seemingly ever-present feeling of isolation—of loneliness fade as I plummeted to the ground at breakneck speeds. I felt I could die because after all this time I was no longer alone
Acceptance.
Thoughts of the battle vanished from my head replaced by an acceptance despite the strange feelings of sadness.
I'd always hated my immense power, which stood out even amongst other Vasto Lorde. It created a divide between myself and others.
That left my time as a hollow shallow, empty, and lonely time of my life, a time I've spent trying to forget.
I would try to befriend others despite knowing my mere presence could kill them.
It only led to more loneliness. Even as an Arrancar, that feeling lingered at the back of my mind.
But right now...
It was gone, and I felt.. a strange sense of
—joy.
"BOOM!"
"CRASH!"
Darkness swallowed my vision as I plummeted into the earth, feeling my bones shattering from the impact of falling from over a thousand meters above the city. The air was forced from my lungs in an instant as I felt my last thoughts leaving me.
'Where am I?' I asked myself, struggling to recall anything, my mind blank.
Panic struck me once I realized... I wasn't breathing!
I thrashed and flailed my limbs wildly, clutching frantically at my neck, gasping desperately for air.
"Haa! Haa! Haa.."
Relief washed over me as I gulped down deep breaths, air filling the crevices of my lungs while my grip on my throat loosened. Slowly, my panic subsided.
My eyes snapped open, and I became aware of the dark feeling surrounding me.
A hollow emptiness gnawed at my soul, as if something inside me had been torn away, a feeling that reminded me of my time as a hollow. Yet, paradoxically, there was a strange sense of fullness, like discovering a thirst I hadn't known I had and finally quenching it.
Slowly, memories flooded my mind as my eyes blurred briefly before finally clearing.
'..Thats right... I lost against that Shinigami. Where am I?'
With some effort, I finally looked down at myself. My usual white robe—now stained with blood and dust—wore tears and cuts. The robe parted slightly at my chest, where the high black collar that framed my neck was now ripped and torn from the fall. Small cuts and scratches covered my body, a testament to the fall I had somehow miraculously survived.
I struggled to move, my face contorting in silent pain as my broken bones ache in protest.
'Strange.' Despite the injuries sustained from the fall, the wounds I had suffered earlier—including having my guts torn out—were nowhere to be seen.
'It seems most of my bones seemed healed while I was out.' The only problem was, I couldn't quite move yet.
Exhaustion weighed on me as I lay in the mess of rubble my fall had created. Shattered concrete and dust were scattered everywhere.
While lying in the wreckage, I focused on sensing what was happening above me. That's when I picked up a multitude of tiny reiatsu signatures.
'Aizen-sama must have to destroy the pillars if those signatures belong to humans.' I thought, but I soon wondered why I couldn't sense his reiatsu. I could make out Gin and Kurosaki—who seemed stronger than before—but Aizen-sama was untraceable.
'Did they actually defeat him?' I wondered in surprise, a wave of sorrow washing over me at the thought of the one who I owed my loyalty to being dead.
What shocked me more was the fact that I couldn't sense my own spiritual pressure.
'Have my Pesquisa nerves fried during the fight? No.' I could feel the reiatsu of the humans around me. It was something else entirely—perhaps my reiatsu was likely too low to be sensed.
That thought quickly vanished as I realized something.
'Where is Lilynette?!'
My mind began racing in alarm as I tried to look around me, to no success.
'Is she dead...?' The thought suddenly came to me, and I dreaded the fact that it was most likely the case as my mind descended into anguish.
I was so focused on everything else that the thought of her dying hadn't come to mind.
My mind blanked and then a thought struck me, 'Is the reason I'm still alive...' My thoughts trailed off as I struggled to come to the truth.
'What has she done..' I begged whatever God out there for it to not be true. But deep inside, I knew it was the truth.
No, I felt it.
From within my very soul.
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my skin accompanied by a stinging pain that was washed away by my emotions.
"...You idiot..." I rasped, my throat parched and filled with dried blood. I ignored the feeling, my sorrow increasing.
That prior feeling of acceptance was gone—vanished once I began to truly grasp the situation.
My Fracción—my other half—sacrificed herself so I could live.
She was gone.
I stayed silent for the longest time as I tried to come to terms with the loss. Just when I thought that wretched feeling of loneliness vanished, it came back tenfold.
No tears or sad sorrowful expressions crossed my face. I simply laid there, in the rubble of some unknown place feeling sorry for myself, for what felt like an eternity, my mind as blank as my expression.
I had given up.
But it was at that moment when I felt my reiatsu seemed to react to my emotions, as as if it were suddenly guiding my thoughts toward a recent memory that now seemed so distant.
(Third person POV)
[Flashback]
After witnessing Baraggan's Respira ability backfire and turn himself to ash, Starrk stood still mid-air, twin ornament pistols in hand as he grappled with the situation.
"The Segunda dies and no one says a word...?" He says to himself, feeling sorry, "How depressing."
"But we aren't the type..." Starrk continues, referring to both himself and the other Arrancar on the battlefield, though he had different reasons for not wanting revenge
"...That fight to avenge each other."
The death affected him, even if he didn't show it. Barragan was still a comrade and a fellow Arrancar who he thought of as a 'friend'. And it brought him to sorrow that none of the others seemed to care.
Starrk's fingers loosened around the trigger. He was tired.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the bushy-haired Visored—Starrk guessed based on the masks they were able to summon—was approaching for an attack.
"We gotta make the first move!" The Visored could be heard shouting out
"Slam!" He yelled, his Zanpakutō drawn as he rushed towards the Arrancar, "Tengumari!"
His blade transformed into a massive, black kanabō more than twice his size before he swung the weapon at his opponent.
The Arrancar in question defended himself against his opponent by shooting a barrage of Ceros at the Visored, however, the beams were swiftly batted off by the massive Zanpakutō.
"Like that's gonna work on me!" The Afro Visored shouted with a grin as he swung at Starrk.
The blow was dodged with a swift sonido, the kanabō smashing into where he'd been just moments ago, smashing a building with such force that caused the wood to fold in on itself while its windows shattered.
"Oof!" Love let out as the wood shattered beneath his Shikai.
Starrk knew he was becoming sloppier and slower, and realized that the Visoreds noticed that too.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The Espada was hit down to the ground with a fierce blow from the Visored's Zanpakutō just as he reappeared from the high-speed technique.
"BOOOM!"
Starrk crashed into the ground, his impact turning a building into rubble.
His body laid amidst the ruins of the building, the Arrancar letting out a groan of pain, "Ow..."
The voice of his other half—Lilynette Gingerbuck—yelled from his right pistol.
"STARRK! STARRK!" She began, "What are you doing!? Aren't you going to get revenge?! Look at you!"
"Didn't I say it wasn't my style?", The Arrancar frowns as he gazes at the sky, "Forget it."
"Aizen-sama has no intention of helping us." He figured as much the moment Baraggan fell, seeing as the traitorous Shinigami didn't seem to care.
"These guys are tough." He despised violence and felt like giving up, "I don't care anymore. Somebody's gonna die if we keep fighting."
Starrk rolls onto his side, trying to make himself comfortable in the rubble, using his arm as a cushion for his head.
The pistol knocks into the rubble with a 'fwump'
"STARRK!" Her voice boomed at the Espada, "Are you crazy?!"
"You're the Primera Espada!" Lilynette continued to yell, her voice echoing from the pistol, "Act like it!"
"Stop acting cool and do something!" She screamed at him, "Why do you think Lord Aizen gave you that number?!"
"He believes in you!" She continues to try to motivate the Primera
"If you don't want to see any more of us die... YOU GOTTA FIGHT!" She finishes loudly.
"..."
A sigh escapes his lips, as he gets up, "I guess you're right." And with that, he shot up into the air ready for his opponent.
[End of Flashback]
Did his reiatsu just..? It showed him a memory.
Like it was trying to motivate him just as Lilynette did.
Then it struck him, "She remerged our souls together so I wouldn't die, but doing so meant she would have to sacrifice her life..." The Espada trailed off.
He felt himself calm down at another realization, the sorrow and grief lessening.
'Perhaps a part of her lives on in me.' An unknown feeling welled up in his chest.
'I have to move on..' A thought that was once at the back of his mind emerged. 'I have to get out of this place.'
He felt determined.
To live—for his partner and his friends.
He begrudgingly sat up, feeling his body ache in pain at the sudden movement.
'My wounds have healed enough for me to move.' He'd been lying there for hours, so he really shouldn't be surprised. But the speed was impressive for an Arrancar—though nowhere near as efficient as the Quatro Espada.
The Primera slowly got up from the ruins with ease, his body long since used to doing nothing for hours or even days.
As Starrk stood amidst the wreckage, he realized he was in a back alley, surveying the chaos around him. Trash littered the ground, a garbage bin lay destroyed on its side, and graffiti covered the cracked brick walls. This mess was likely the result of his fall.
Ignoring the mess, he turned away to ponder what to do from that point onwards.
He had no goals he wished to accomplish—his only desire was for friends.
Along with not being able to sense Aizen, he couldn't sense Gin or Tōsen anymore meaning that they were both likely dead.
He considered staying in the World of the Living but ultimately decided against it—It was too risky and the Shinigami were likely alert and all over the place after the recent events.
Starrk wouldn't take any chances.
'Guess I'll return to Hueco Mundo.' The Arrancar thought. The empty feeling still lingered but he tried focusing on the present moment instead of grieving over what's already past.
Starrk decided to check on Las Noches, hoping to find any survivors after the Winter War.
Yes, he'd try to find and help any surviving Arrancar he encounters.
And if there are none...
Starrk wasn't quite sure what he'd do. 'If that was the case, It'd be like living a pointless life,'
The Arrancar shook his head, trying to stay on the positive side of things.
Picking his katana that lay near the garbage bin in its metallic-gold sheathe—he'd lost his ornament pistols when he was knocked out of his Resurrección—sliding it into it to his black sash before tightening the cloth.
But it was then when he turned to face the street that he finally noticed the bodies. Unconscious or dead humans lay all over Karakura.
'What?'
His mind once again went blank.
He approached a human to check their pulse, pressing his fingers against the greying woman's neck searching for the flow of blood.
For a brief amount of time, he felt the woman's pulse and then it was gone.
'Did I... Shit.' The Arrancar panicked and quickly distanced himself, rushing to leave this place.
Stepping forward, flicking his wrist—channeling a portion of his reiatsu into his hand, flicking it into the space before him. The reiatsu tore a hole in the fabric of space creating an almost warped shattering sound. This was the Descorrer technique known to all Espada.
The tear—more like a portal—connects to the Garganta, the void between worlds.
Stepping through the portal, his feet were met with air.
Before he could plummet into the dark, infinite void the Arrancar instinctively formed a platform of reishi beneath his feet to catch himself.
Storms of reishi flashed throughout the space, its chaos disrupting the bonds of reishi making it unstable in the Garganta.
So he made sure to move as swiftly as possible—years of experience making the task easier than it would be for most.
A sense of calm washed over Coyote Starrk as he settled into a zone, maneuvering through the void and skillfully avoiding any flashes of reishi or the Valleys of Screams in his path.
In the end, it took less than five minutes for him to reach the vast expanse of Hueco Mundo. He emerged from the Garganta with a shattering sound, his arrival fracturing the space between the void and the world of Hollows like shattered glass.
Starrk's arrival was unusual. He wasn't at the entrance to Las Noches like an Arrancar would normally be.
The Arrancar stood in the middle of Hueco Mundo's grey, desolate desert, its only noticeable feature was the dead trees scattered scarcely.
There were hills of sand, Hueco Mundo's sand was so numerous that every slope formed a hill or a mountain.
"...How strange." He murmured, immediately beginning to think of reasons why he ended up in the middle of nowhere.
The entrance might've been destroyed during Kurosaki's initial arrival in Hueco Mundo, Starrk wouldn't have been surprised if that were the case.
So he decided to make his way back to Las Noches, knowing it would be pointless to ponder.
Extending his senses, Starrk tried to feel for any Hollows or Arrancar nearby.
'Nothing..' he thought, feeling disappointed. Seeing others nearby might have indicated his location as the absence of distinctive structures nearby—no sign of Las Noches or anything else—left him with no sense of direction.
Looking around in all directions, he struggled to find the city-sized palace from where he stood in the middle of the
Through the use of Sonído, Starrk appeared on a large hill of sand in an instant, his supernatural sight carrying his gaze far further than any humans, as he scanned the overlooking land.
What he found made his heart drop
Hundreds of hollows, covered in each other's blood lay dead scattered in one area. Dread welled up inside of him, his eyes widening in shock.
Some of their masks had cracks—a sign that made his heart drop as he slowly put the pieces together.
This was a mass-intercourse devouring—a sign of the formation of a Gillian. That wasn't what caused such a feeling.
No, what scared him was that they and many other Hollows in the area were dead, with no apparent cause, as if they'd just dropped dead.
"...No. Not this again.." He remembered the piles of corpses—far taller than him, that once surrounded him—he lived with for decades that slowly accumulated more and more Hollows, their deaths caused by his very presence.
Starrk thought he had truly gotten his reiatsu under control after the splitting and all but...
'Maybe something else did all this.' His brain tried to convince him and he nearly bought it.
Except for the fact that as soon as the Adjucha—that he'd easily sensed the Hollow a while ago since it didn't know how to hide its reiatsu signature—attempted to ambush him, it dropped dead, the glow in its eyes fading as its lifeless body fell to the ground, mouth agape in a look of hunger. It had died in an instant while trying to consume him
"...Dammit..." The Arrancar cursed silently.
He knew he couldn't attempt anything with his reiatsu as it is now.
That meant his plan of looking for any surviving Arrancar would have to wait until he gets his reiatsu under control.
Even if that meant isolating himself until then. Starrk hated killing—especially reiatsu killing, the main reason why he despised the act in the first place. It kept him separated from those around him, the reason for his loneliness.
But if isolating himself meant that this wretched act wouldn't have to happen again, he'd do it—if not reluctantly.
Taking in a deep breath, the Espada composed himself before beginning to plan out this 'training' of his, and the first step would be to find somewhere isolated from the rest of Hueco Mundo to train so that he doesn't kill anymore.
With no knowledge of where he was, Starrk decided to take a guess and faced West.
He'd journey until he found a good spot.
As he was about to leave, a powerful spiritual pressure washed over him—an Arrancar and a familiar one at that.
"Grimmjow..." He murmured before he vanished with a Sonído, not wanting to hurt the Espada.
As he sped through the desert at mock speeds, a sigh of relief escaped him. '
At least some of the Arrancar are still alive..'
With that, Starrk utilized his greatest asset—his unrivaled speed—to traverse the gray, seemingly endless desert in search of a place to lie low until the problem was sorted out.
(Chapter End)