Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Hell Butterfly ❯ Grave Tidings ( Chapter 12 )

Hell Butterfly

 

Grave Tidings

~12~

 

o)0(o

 

The first thing they saw when the portal opened was Rukia. Well, the very first thing was the inside of Minazuki's mouth, but once they were spat out the glorious sight of Kuchiki Rukia alive and well was what greeted them.

 

Renji brightened instantly, waving at her casually as this was by no means the first time they'd feared each other dead. Ishida and Sado seemed pleased in their ways, but it was Inoue who ran forwards and hugged her tight. It was closure for the seeming hours she had searched the halls of Las Noches for her friend. “I tried to find you!” she half-laughed in her surprise. “Kuchiki-san! I can't believe you're alive!”

 

“Well, it's really hard to kill someone that's already dead.” She gave no sign of the pitiful condition she'd suffered mere hours ago, already restored by the immense healing skills of the Fourth's lieutenant. Once her brother's kido-imbued scarf had given her a fighting chance, she'd battled all the way to health without once looking back. “Is Ichigo following behind?”

 

Inoue froze.

 

“What?”

 

“Where's Ichigo?”

 

“I don't know.”

 

“Well who does?”

 

“P…parts of him are…floating around in a…foreign dimension, possibly?”

 

Looking at the girl properly, Rukia realized she was going into shock. “Do you mean the Garganta?” asked the shinigami soothingly. She shook her head mutely.

 

"Rukia," said Orihime in a low voice, right by her ear. It was perhaps the first time she had addressed her as such. "He was torn to pieces and tossed into a nowhere world...by Espada Zero who is named Tenebra Shirojos...and even when his inner Hollow took over, he still couldn't win."

 

Inoue stepped away, a very worn expression of hopelessness on her face. It sat there comfortably, as if she felt that way frequently and had simply never shown it to others.

 

"That's where Kurosaki-kun is."

 

o)0(o

 

“Kuchiki-taicho! Rukia-san is fine now; she went back to the senkai gates.”

 

“Thank you Kotetsu-fukutaicho. This is the second emergency patient. Please see to him personally. He has been fighting alone for the past five hundred years.”

 

Isane looked at the huge bundle of fur and masks in Byakuya's arms and fretted slightly. “Isn't that a Hollow?” She'd heard from Rukia about a Hollow they'd befriended who had turned out to be an Espada. She hoped the Soutaicho wouldn't hear about this. Allowing an arrancar into the most vulnerable area of Seireitei would not look good on her report.

 

“This is Ashido Kano, a shinigami.” He implied that she should take him.

 

“He looks very tall.”

 

“So are you.”

 

“And heavy.”

 

“You are a lieutenant in the hospital division. I am sure you can lift anyone.”

 

“The fur hide and Hollow masks are very unsanitary.”

 

“I must leave. He may have broken bones; he was trapped under a rock fall for several hours. It would be shameful if he were to die when he had finally made it home again.” That was the closest the captain would ever come to saying `get over it and do your duty'. He draped the unconscious body against Isane, forcing her to wrap her arms around the man before he fell, and allow his chin to hook over her shoulder. A spike from the Hollow mask he wore prodded her cheek. Staggering slightly, Isane glanced around for a vacant gurney or bed.

 

There were none.

 

“Um,” she said to the empty room, not wanting to jog a man with broken bones by swinging him into a more comfortable carrying position. “Little help?”

 

o)0(o

 

“But it's Ichigo! We're talking the guy who's so wired to fight he ripped my powers away! The one who gets into all the trouble going and survives it! Th-the human brat who defeated Zaraki and Nii-sama a month after gaining his powers! He's a vaizard! How could he die when even I managed to kill an Espada?!”

 

“I doubt he did,” interrupted the Soutaicho, ancient bearer of fire hidden beneath weary granite. His voice was damning, and it was directed at Inoue. “Why would traitors kill each other so early in the game of war?” He leaned heavily on his staff and glared at her out of small, sharp black eyes.

 

The next word to leave your mouth will be yes. Any other answer and they all die.

 

Yes.

 

A tiny word.

 

The only thing that you grasp in your hand is the throats of your comrades that rest on the block of a guillotine whose string you hold.

 

Small as the trigger that sends bullets through the backs of all her saviours.

 

Understand, woman. This is not a negotiation. This is an order.

 

“I am not a traitor.” Quiet, trembling, but only because she was not used to having such steel in her voice.

 

“The ryokas,” growled Yamamoto. “So conveniently causing distractions at the time of Aizen's betrayal. So easily taken hostage by the enemy, and so kindly allowed to heal their fellow spies before departure. So lucky to know an exile who could open a portal into the Hollow's dimension for them. Killing chaff is a favour to Aizen, it keeps his army streamlined. And if all he had to do to ensure my trust in a Vaizard, a Quincy and two suspicious humans was play a song and dance with Urahara, rather than be given the Hougyoku outright; he would be a fool to do otherwise. Know this. I did not send my captains into Hueco Mundo because I feared for your safety, girl. Only because your ability to reverse fate is too dangerous to leave in the hands of a defector.”

 

Orihime found herself staggering backwards, reeling from the pressure of his prejudice. Edging nearer to Ishida and Sado, she tried not to break and reveal just how many of his points were hitting home. Easily kidnapped. Waste of resources. A dangerous…tool.

 

“What sympathy does a two thousand-year-old death god have for a fifteen-year-old human? Ojii-san, this is a child who only learned about the existence of spirits because her brother became a Hollow and tried to drag her down with him.” Ukitake Jyuushiro stepped in smoothly to calm his teacher's ire. “She came to Soul Society to save a friend and to repay a debt to Kurosaki Ichigo. She stayed in the advent of war, despite criticism and trained even against orders. Given that she vanished seconds before a battle-party of Espada inexplicably left, just when they had many of our best soldiers cornered; blackmail comes to mind. Does it not?”

 

“You of all people know that I am not inclined to forgive disobedience.”

 

“I'm not under your jurisdiction.” Inoue's retaliation came from out of the blue, even though she was sorely tempted to hide behind Chad and his stoic armour at this point. “I don't carry a zanpakuto, I'm not dead. I don't come under your authority. Neither does Sado-kun, neither does Ishida-kun.” They may have been surprised by her reasoning, but Sora had not run away with a small child without fully explaining how he was allowed to do such a thing. She understood civil rights well. “You have no right to punish us for trying to keep our friends alive!”

 

“Keep trying to speak like an adult, and Jyuushiro's argument that you are a witless child will fall apart.” The patriarch was scornful.

 

“I never said witless,” replied the white-haired man with mild dismay. “She's a wise young girl. She values life. But she is defenceless against Aizen's elite soldiers, and I wonder why this surprises you. Only a captain wouldn't be.”

 

“Please make a report to the Soutaicho, Inoue-san. Explaining is more helpful than arguing, after all.” Unohana's rebuke was aimed at everyone. Everyone duly flinched.

 

Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, Orihime took a moment to organise all that had passed before she opened her mouth and began to speak. Soft, occasionally pained, but always fluent; the testimony flowed out of her. Yet always, the hardest one to convince that she was not a traitor was herself. And it tended to shine through when one did not believe one's own argument.

 

I restored Grimmjaw's arm.

 

I helped rebuild Las Noches when Perro Rabioso exploded.

 

I swore fealty to Aizen.

 

I did nothing when they turned Karin into an arrancar right before my eyes.

 

I failed to find and heal Rukia when she was dying.

 

I revived Needle Prisonn from death even though he nearly killed me.

 

I watched Ichigo be torn to shreds and never tried to save him.

 

“I…I can't remember doing anything…anything to help us…at all…” she whispered, horrified, staring blankly at memories no one else could see.

 

"Then why were you so beaten up when we found you? I thought you'd pissed Aizen off or something." Renji had spoken.

 

"Well...no, I...when I broke out of the room they kept me in, and starting using Tsubaki to cut through the walls so I could get to Rukia in time...it's a labyrinth, I never ended up in the place I aimed for. But eventually I tripped over the Hougyoku. He keeps it in a green tower and there are barriers around it." She scratched her cheek a little. "I'm not sure. I think I can step through barriers, so I don't know if it was a strong one."

 

He was gaping at her in disbelief. "So you just walked in and picked it up?"

 

She blushed. It wasn't coming out right. She wanted to tell them how petrified she'd been, how desperate to help, but that was probably useless information to the harsh Soutaicho.

 

"No, sort of..." Her hands were twisting around each other, she seemed much discomforted. "And I tried to break it with Tsubaki. He just pinged off it. And then there was only one thing left to do."

 

"Being?"

 

"Reject it. With Shun'ou and Ayame. I reversed time on the Hougyoku so that it would be wiped out of existence. But there was actually an Espada guarding it, a Privaron. It was like being inside a shrinking iron maiden." Inoue hunched on herself a little - that memory would be sure to creep her out for a very long time. "Spikes of reiatsu were growing out of the walls and I had to make Tsubaki part of my shield otherwise I would have been skewered."

 

"Can you do that?" asked Ishida. She shrugged.

 

"I did...I still haven't asked Tsubaki whether he can fight again after this though. And after that I was safe for a little while, and Souten Kisshun was weakening the Hougyoku. It was like onyx when I found it, but it was turning cloudy very slowly...I didn't really see the Hougyoku when Aizen ripped it out of Rukia, but I'm sure it was being unmade."

 

Now they were having difficulty expressing their shock. The captains remained stern-faced, but everyone else could hardly believe their ears. This was Inoue. She was meant to sit in a room until they rescued her. But instead she'd been sabotaging the catalyst of Aizen's power?

 

"B-but...he found me..." She could feel her stomach churning nauseously in recollection. "He was really pissed off. He snapped all the spikes and shattered my shield like it was nothing." She still saw that crackling white faultline in the back of her mind, an easy incision into her safety zone. "And then he took the orb back and beat me up and killed the Privaron because it had been useless. It was called Needle Prisonn. And...I revived it because...I don't know…I wasn't in my right mind anymore." Inoue shrunk in on herself, knowing that would brand her as a traitor all over again. "Then he dragged me to the arena in the centre of Las Noches and everyone had been called there."

 

She couldn't say the next part. Her mouth was moving, but no sound came out.

 

"Kurosaki was being pitched against a new Espada there, as if we were just entertainment." Ishida stepped in. "And his opponent was very strange. But eventually Inoue-san shouted out to Kurosaki that the enemy was his little sister Karin." He sounded disbelieving of his own words; gave her an odd look that made her wince. "Kurosaki eventually kept fighting after that..."

 

"But he stopped surviving." Chad rumbled gravely.

 

"Why his sister? Was that on purpose so he wouldn't be able to fight back?" asked Jyuushiro, frowning.

 

"I don't know," murmured Inoue, biting her fingers fretfully. "It was something to do with a Vasto Lorde. Sometime after I was kidnapped a Vasto Lorde came to Las Noches to join his army, but after his mask broke he just erupted with reiatsu and died."

 

They remembered her mentioning this before; that she'd helped rebuild after 'Perro Rabioso'.

 

"It must be to do with reiatsu," stated Unohana, appearing to know more than anyone else could attempt to guess at. "Kurosaki-kun had an unusual potential for reiatsu, certainly his grew incredibly quickly. Perhaps they needed another like that after losing a Vasto Lorde, and looked to his family in case it was genetic."

 

"She didn't know what she was doing!" insisted Inoue suddenly. "They cut her mind out; Karin didn't even know it was him! She only fought at all because she was in danger!"

 

The Commander-General sighed heavily. "And you think this petty attack on the Orb of Distortion forgives all the times you worked in Aizen's favour?"

 

The girl looked away. "That's your choice..." she replied in brittle tones.

 

"How close did you come to destroying it?"

 

"I have no idea, I know nothing about it. But he won't be able to create super-soldiers again for a while. I'm certain he won't be able to create another Karin, not the way it is now."

 

"So the substitute really is dead." Yamamoto exchanged a tired glance with his captains. "I did order him not to retrieve you. It was not a task for children to attempt. Retsu could have retrieved you as easily without his presence in Hueco Mundo."

 

She seemed about to cry. "How could he have known that? They just wanted to save me, even though I only went there so they'd be safe a little longer. Kurosaki-kun defeated two or three of your captains the first time he came here. He has no real idea what any of you are capable of. He...he had...a skewed view of Soul Society, because he was too strong. He thought he could save me the way he saved everyone else."

 

"He was wrong." That was the founder of Seireitei's final judgement.

 

And, of course, he was right.

 

o)0(o

 

Malibu Adverts: Hueco Mundo Style.

 

Gin: Imagine if we undead took life as seriously as the rest of the world.

 

 

Bibip beepi bip bop!

 

Ichigo pulled the rattling mobile phone out of his shihakusho and flipped it open. “Moshi moshi?” he rasped.

 

“Is that you Ichigo?” asked Mizuiro. “Have you got bad reception?”

 

“No, I'm in vaizard mode!” he screeched.

 

“Oh…kay…well are you free for the cinema this weekend? Everyone's going to see Ponyo.”

 

“Yeah, well I would…” mused the scraping alien voice of Hichigo. “But I'm a bit too dead right now.”

 

B e e e e e e e e e ~ ~ ~

Mizuiro had hung up. Traitor.

 

o)0(o

 

“Hah! Your attack was 0.3 seconds late!”

 

“Shut up! At least my mask lasts longer than ten seconds!”

 

“My mask have fifteen hours battery time.”

 

“Ha, that is so yesterday. My own zanpakuto has wireless internet!”

 

The arguing vaizards stopped fighting and stared at Urahara.

 

“What? I'm Tech Squad! It does Bluetooth and Blu Ray too!”

 

“Well we use Red Ray,” sniffed Ulquiorra proudly. He had an old-fashioned mobile phone hanging by its strap from the white spike on his mask fragment. He was sidling towards a portal. “I'm going hands-free. Hello, Yammy?” The Garganta swallowed him. “Can you hear me now?!”

 

o)0(o

 

"Oh mon," wailed Dondochakka, pulling up behind a queue of Pesche, Hallibel, Gin and the Hollow gecko as they waited for Lunuganga to move. The wide, endless, empty desert stretched invitingly all around them. "Oh mon, it's TOTAL GRIDLOCK!"

 

o)0(o

 

Thanks for reading! Arc 1 ends next chapter!

 

Alliriyan~*