A Lasting Lesson [Closed/Kasumi]

Of course she had thought the letter to be a joke. After all this time Kasumi had grown used to the idea that Nanami was a lost cause. Ever since she’s had to read the full report on the circumstances of the woman’s disappearance she had placed a cross above Nanami’s head. A part of her had wondered why it had happened the way it did, wondered if she could have helped her had she been around back then, but what ifs meant nothing. Had it been a different time she might have gone looking for the older Shinigami, but nowadays she had other responsibilities most of which she couldn’t put aside for the sake of personal feelings. Good thing the message was sent from here, the Soul Society. There was no need for the young Commander to leave her realm unattended. A trip to the Rukongai wouldn’t kill anyone; they should be able to manage things for a little while.

With the decision made she was walking down a beaten path somewhere in the South Rukongai. The haori lightly touched her legs as she walked toward the house in the distance. Vör was peacefully hanging on her left hip, and out of habit Kasumi placed the palm of her hand on the oval crystal which represented the top of her Zanpakutō’s hilt.

Putting some strength into her legs, she quickened her pace. Her heart was beating somewhat impatiently – she couldn’t help but to want to be certain that nothing was wrong with Nanami. The ties they had ran deeply; the older Shinigami had been a good teacher and an even better officer. Hadn’t it been for her disappearance she could have been the Lieutenant of the First, or the Captain of the Fifth. Instead she was doing things on her own and Genki was messing with the Fifth to his best abilities. At least she hadn’t gotten complains about it, yet. She prayed it would stay that way, there really wasn’t anyone else to keep those hotheads in line. Perhaps I can ignore complains.. he’s their superior, they should obey him, unless things would go too far, but she really doubted that would happen.

By the time she woke up from her reverie, Kasumi was standing in the front garden, or back garden. She wasn’t sure. There seemed to be no indications of where the property was starting. It was just there. Between the woods. A small, cozily looking house of sorts with a single path leading all the way up to the door.

Nervously exhaling she rubbed her temples for a moment before proceeding to get closer. Every step took too long, and was too quick at the same time. She was unsure of who she would truly find there. Was Nanami a traitor? Had she decided to do a research in Hueco Mundo while having the chance? Could this be a trap of someone else?

Too many thoughts flew through her mind as she gently knocked and then entered letting the sweetness of the flowers inside along herself. It was then that she heard the voice. The familiar tone of a friend she had missed but hadn’t allowed herself to cry over.

“Nanami?” She tried, cautiously. Her mouth was dry all of a sudden. Trying to swallow the white-haired Shinigami searched for the corner the sound had came from. Light steps carried her closer to the source of her emotions – and she briefly stopped breathing when her eyes fell on the woman’s back.

So there was a back yard.

Ivory hair – just like her own; the locks were longer than she remembered them to be.

“What is the meaning of this? Why are you here?” She stopped, eyebrows raising with barely visible annoyance. “I was worried about you.”


631

Nanami didn't move when she heard the careful footsteps of her friend appear the back doorway of her little getaway home. A smile passed her lips, not self-satisfied but happy that things had worked out alright thus far. Nanami felt no malice, she didn't hear the ringing of drawn steel. Everything was 'so far so good'. She'd take what she could get.

"I'm glad you came," she finally replied once the Captain Commander had finished speaking. The annoyance hung in Kasumi's final words, a bitter taste that Nanami rolled about in her mouth as she decided her next words. "I apologize for my sudden disappearance. I don't know what information has come about it, the presence of a Hollow nature, a terrible battle, my sudden disappearance. I was not ambushed, or assaulted by any enemy threat. I was helped by an unlikely ally who knew what I've known for nearly a year now."

Nanami climbed carefully to her feet with slow, almost languid yet graceful movements. She didn't yet turn to face Kasumi but instead reached up with both hands to very carefully remove the two hair sticks from her bun to allow the rest of her hair down with a gentle shake of her head. She looked up towards the horizon and drew a deep breath allowing herself to feel the unease that clung to the edge of her emotions.

"I'm sorry I did not send word, Kasumi. I promise you, I had best intentions for all that I've done. I wished only to stand before you a resolved woman, free of any doubts to offer you the truth. One you've deserved for awhile now."

He right hand swept across her waist, holding on to her hip near her Zanpakuto but nowhere near the hilt. Her left hand raised to her face, open palm covering her left eye. She whispered, almost imperceptibly, "Stain it black, Sumizori."

It came easily, she could feel the rush of Sumizori's presence focus into her left palm. A gentle flow of white spiritual matter formed across her face. Smooth and form fitting, shaping naturally along Nanami's face forming a short divet for her nose, rounding along her cheeks down to her mouth and chin. Rows of countless jagged formed a wide grin. The left half were adorned with ornate black markings, the right half wore splotches of blood. Hollow reiatsu filled the air around Nanami but bound within the usual feel of her presence, tightly controlled.

She turned in two steps, ending with a sharp pivot that revealed her mask to Kasumi fully. Her eyes stared through the narrow slits provided, an eerie yellow glow replacing the soft brown color of her eyes. Her voice was entirely her own, she spoke softly, not apologetic but earnest. "I am Nanami Hideaki and I have been a Vaizard for more than a thousand years and you are the third soul I have entrusted this information with."

478/1098

Helped by an unlikely ally

Kasumi froze, she really hoped that this ally her friend was talking about had been Takua or whatever was currently left of the most intriguing and wise Arrancar she’s ever met. Soon her heartbeat dropped, then recovered with a hesitant pause – same went for her breath. If her instincts were right then Nanami wasn’t actually trying to talk her way out of things which have transpired. She wasn’t even really apologizing about being gone for so long. Instead, this was an explanation of sorts. Those two weren’t the same things, not right now. This wasn’t what the younger Shinigami had wanted to hear. It would have been so much easier to know that Nanami had been dragged away, had been forced to follow, and that the strange bits of energy detected near the spot of her disappearance had been a mistake or a spill-over from too many emotions bottled up inside of her throughout the ages. Then Nanami could still be helped, perhaps even saved.

This.. this was it. As the hollow reiatsu whirled around the former lieutenant Kasumi felt her eyes sting. Instead of drawing her blade she stood unnaturally still while waiting for whatever would come next. Muscles tensed in obvious stress and anger. Nanami didn’t have to turn around for her to know what was happening. The signs were too obvious, the intro she’s gotten too generous for this to be anything else but a release of one of them.

Why didn’t you tell me?, she wanted to scream the words into Nanami’s face, but didn’t find the strength to. Anger soon turned into sadness and she simply stared at the Hollow mask looking back at her.

Why did another friend of hers had to be tainted? Wasn’t Nagisa enough?

It truly was cruel to take away someone she cared about, again. Hope had been so fleeting. From the rushed excitement to annoyance and now to utter despair – everything went so fast, too fast. She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat but found a tear rolling down her cheek. Finding out that someone dear to you was terminally ill wasn’t easy. And that’s exactly what Nanami was. In the end, after a while, she would succumb to the parasite inside of her and then there would only be one option.

“How did this..?” Kasumi finally managed to voice as the stinging sensation moved from her eyes to her nose. Thousands of little needles were viciously stabbing the area that was her nose bridge, and she pressed her left hand against it in hopes of lessening the damage.

To accept the fact that she would be the one to execute Nagisa had been hard. At first she had thought it to be impossible, but now she knew that one day things might come to that. She knew, Nagisa knew – everyone understood the deal. So why was there another Vaizard being added to the list of those whose time was running out more rapidly than others’ was?

God, she should have been honored to be one of the first to know. Unfortunately, Kasumi wasn’t sure if she was happy that she did. As the Commander her task would be to make sure that Nanami wouldn’t hurt anyone in their Society – that she wasn’t a danger to those around her, and with the power she wielded that became no less serious than the Chinda’s case was.

“How are you feeling?”

Too cold? Too short? Too.. formal?

Kasumi’s lips twisted into something akin to a curve, she was smiling yet, but managed to keep from frowning.


603/1234

It was when she turned and saw Kasumi's face that she decided that she had made the right choice by remaining away from the Soul Society for so long. Because, if she had not taken the time to learn how to control her mask, to whether the truth of what it meant to stand alongside Sumizori she would have been swept up in the tidal wave of emotion upon seeing the anger, the disgust, the disappointment that so obviously wore her friends face. Nanami's expression faltered for but a moment, disguised easily behind her mask and waited in uncomfortable silence as Kasumi took in the sight. She didn't move, didn't even flinch a muscle when the single tear began to roll down Kasumi's face.

Ingrate! Bitch! Who does she think she is! Doesn't she know how much you've suffered wondering what she'd think!?

We had no right to expect anything else.

Nanami looked like a statue, so rigid and still. She made no reply to Kasumi's half voiced reply, choked by her misery at seeing Nanami's truth tearing down the towering hope Nanami had dared to build. She didn't give up, not yet, there was hope still. She didn't understand, how could she? She had seen so little of the world when Nanami showed her, she would see.

She smiled sadly, expression obscured still by her mask and replied finally. "I'm the same Nanami I ever was Kasumi. This Hollow you see manifested by this mask was not something created by others, it was made by me, by the conflict I lived throughout my existence. Imagine your short life and all the wonderful countless things that you've experienced in it. Then take that life and add another twenty of them and that is how long I lived before I joined the Seireitei. I was alone, Kas. I was lost and scared and I killed my way through the world and my soul was stained with blood. When I tried to give up that life instead of facing my guilt I hid away from the reality of it. I hid for so long and so hard that my soul was forever scarred. As I carry a Zanpakuto Spirit with me, I carry a Hollow too, neither more right or just than the other."

Like hell.

"It took me a long time to even learn the truth of this change, to even know it existed. When I discovered I entrusted the knowledge to Nagisa and the former Captain Commander and none others. I was once ashamed of that truth, for reasons plain on your face now I'm sure you can imagine."

"It was only by accepting those parts of myself that I can control my anger and violent nature. That's why I was gone so long, I wanted to be certain that I was ready, that I truly understood what it meant to walk this path and I understand it Kasumi. I truly understand it now. I'm not afraid and I'm ready to protect the Seireitei. You've been thrust into an incredibly precarious position. I don't blame you for the hard decisions you've had to make. I want to help. I want to serve alongside you, Kasumi."

All of her delicate hopes were placed on a single moment, on Kasumi. She stepped towards Kasumi and extended her hand outward to her. She spoke quicker now, excited. "We can turn away from this dark chapter the Seireitei is facing. We can stop waging this senseless conflict with mortals, with the few beings in the land of the Hollows who might be civilized and share our purpose. We can stop being afraid of our brothers and sisters in arms. With my new understanding, I can guide them away from the danger of falling victim to their nature that our suspicions and threats are pushing them towards. We can put our focus back on the duty to which we are solemnly bound and free ourselves of this barbaric nature."

"Together, Kasumi! Together we can set the Seireitei straight, and bring it into a new golden age."

681/1779

Swallowing past the bitterness that was Nanami’s condition, Kasumi moved to wipe off the trace her tear had left. There was no use in crying over something she couldn’t change or fix, all she could do now was support Nanami and make sure that the latter wouldn’t slip too fast. The time they had from here on was precious. The best option was to make the most out of it.

You don’t have to be ashamed because it’s not your fault, she wanted to say, but all these things Nanami was revealing pointed into the direction of it actually being her fault. Somehow, due to some mysterious reason which was so rapidly sketched here as loneliness, a beast had grown inside of her friend. Just like the Zanpakutō’s Spirit, it now was a part of her, perhaps had always been; it was scary to hear, because it meant that anyone could become a Vaizard.

Hazuki was right, the true danger – Kasumi didn’t want to call all of the Vaizard enemies – came from within their society. Somehow people were falling into the darkness, some quicker than others. To a certain extent she could understand that hard periods in one’s life could mess with them. Apparently some couldn’t work through the difficulties the way others did, then this happened.

Thankfully, Nanami had enough willpower to subdue her bloodthirsty side, but for how long?

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that on your own.” She said, meaning the words but feeling incredibly sad about the situation. With the time ticking, the young Commander squeezed herself for strength and took a deep breath. They would come through this, after having come so far, they would manage this, too.

“This is.. a lot, but I’m glad that you’re back. The Fifths haori has been waiting for someone worthy of it to take it.” She smiled, broadly, feeling relieved that Nanami was still herself. All they had to do was make sure that she had actually control over the ‘bad’ part, then.. it could be the same as it was with Nagisa.

“There is no need to worry about my position. The opportunity was there and I thought it was right to take it. One cannot change things, or steer them in the right direction, without the necessary means for doing so.” God, it had taken Kasumi ages to realize that. Instead of running from the power she wielded it was far better to actually use it. Killing Hollows and soul-burying lost ghosts was one thing, but in order to really help a society and everything linked to it, one had to do more than that.

“And..I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” she paused, smile slightly faltering as she frowned a bit. “there is no conflict with the mortals, we’re just keeping an eye on things like we’re supposed to. If they simply live their lives instead of mingling in our business, we wouldn’t even interact.” The next pause was longer, and she really found it hard to keep smiling.

Brothers and sisters in arms?
What the hell was she thinking?
How could she even consider such a thing?

Taken aback Kasumi blinked rapidly as she was waiting for her friend to burst out in a fit of laughter, but that never happened. Instead, Nanami wanted to tear apart what she had managed to construct in these short months in order to do what exactly? Make peace with Las Noches? The idea was laughable at best. Still, out of respect for the older Shinigami and the time they’ve spent together, Kasumi tried to be reasonable during her reply.

“Nanami, I understand that it must have been hard for you to spend your time away from home in the land of the enemy.” Trying to find a way of framing it in a positive light, Kasumi played with the memories she had and managed to collect something to continue with. “And while I agree that some Arrancar are more humanoid than others, they are the exceptions, above that they’re still fallen souls who’ve fed themselves with dead and living alike.” Takua came to mind, but she didn’t mention him. It didn’t matter, it wouldn’t change anything.

“We purify them, help them to move on, and protect the mortals from harm whenever we can. As the cycle keeps turning the balance remains intact. They die, we die. This is not a utopia. Las Noches will never be able to control all the creatures roaming in the desert surrounding it. That’s why there can never be a pact between us and them.”

She has always thought that Nanami knew that. Perhaps it was her new condition that was blinding her from the truth. Maybe the woman felt threatened considering the circumstances she was in. Kasumi wouldn’t blame her for that. “You’re still one of us.” An illness didn’t change people, it only affected them. “It would be nice to see you wearing the Fifths haori, and as long as you’re in control of yourself then there shouldn’t be any trouble.”

Moving forward a bit, she extended her hand as well, hoping for her friend to take it so they could move on from this topic and talk about her stay in Hueco Mundo. During the Vaizards stay there she might have gathered some information which was worth knowing.


894/ 2128

She could feel Kasumi's disgust and disappointment with every furtive glance, with every word she spoke. It was a poison straight to the center of Nanami's heart, every second that Nanami spoke and tried to reach she could feel more isolated and pushed away. She did not know this Kasumi who feared Nanami's truth, who seemed disinterested with the consequences of subjugating human's at sword point, who ignored the value of life based on a prejudice she knew was wrong. Nanami was made whole by Sumizori, she wasn't tainted by her and to see the whole of her evolution cast aside so freely by a child stung.

And she was a child. A child who seemed to have simply decided the way the world had worked without ever having really lived in it. A Captain Commander like the worst of them, sullied by their own absolute unshakeable self-confidence and moral imperative granted by power and nothing that made them worthy. By all rights, it should have been Nanami who saw the world in such a way, but by a trick of her own strange existence, she knew better. Her reality changed all the time, fleeting between this and that as she lived on and saw more. She knew that truth was subjective, that enemies one day could be allies the next. She studied Kasumi for a long moment in silence and knew the opposite was true as well.

Her expression darkened as Kasumi finished speaking, watching her warily as the light of her hope faded, more or less extinguished. She tilted her head upward, returning rigid and statue-like. "I truthfully don't seem to know how to respond, Kasumi. I had hoped you had a better explanation for the apparent casual indifference for the potential horror of the decisions the Seireitei has made of late. When I heard you had become the Captain Commander I was filled with hope, even when I heard what had transpired since I believed there some explanation. Now I'm left wondering if it's ignorance or malice."

Nanami reached up and gently laid her hand against the mask, it slipped free of her face without any effort, she lowered it and her eyes resumed their normal soft color staring into Kasumi's with the utmost disappointment. "I return with a mask, but I'm not hiding anything from you. I am Nanami, I am the same woman I am when I left. My soul has not been stained by some foreign evil. My morals, my ethics, are the same as they ever were. I care, Kasumi. About not only the souls that I must purify, and the balance I must uphold, but the state of the world that I preserve with those acts."

"You claim to have started no conflict with the mortals? Forgive me if I've misheard, but are Quincy not to be detained or killed on sight if they happen to protect themselves from a Hollow? Are you trying to tell me you genuinely believe that nobody will be harmed or killed by this directive? Or do you simply not care? Notwithstanding the obvious truth that a few dozen near inactive Quincy do not possess a threat to the balance! Certainly no more than the Hollow's who feast upon them!" She scolded sharply. "And yet you would in reaction to this immaterial risk to our duty murder them if they so resisted your tyrannical command, which you know some will certainly do?" She delivered her disappointed anger in sharp angry lashes, short and restrained but given harshly.

"And you would stand there and lecture me on what it means to be a Shinigami? On how 'they' are our enemy while in your mind I know you pictured him! Takua, can you even say his name or does acknowledging that contradiction stop you? A man better than any Shinigami, who did more good for our purpose than any of us! Certainly you! How can you know him and pretend there is no value in any of them? That there is nothing worth saving? How would you know! What experience do you count on to condemn and entire species!? Why do you even have an opinion!? Not even adult for a human, someone who changes their mind on all their beliefs when a single year passes! 'The land of the enemy', whose enemy!? Yours!? For how long have the concerns of the Seireitei been yours, a week now!? A year!? Not even ten! You would lecture me on the eternal cycle as a soul who has seen a single breath of it. You, someone who speaks with a certainty founded in the wink of an eye pretending to have answers she's known her whole speck of a life!"

"I'm 'still one of you'? How can you say that, Kasumi? How? Why was it even a question!?" Her still face twisted just slightly, a deep ripping sadness tore at her heart but she put it aside as no small feat. Quietly she asked "How is it that I, a Vaizard. Shinigami and Hollow both could spend months in the very land of monsters and emerge less changed, less monstrous than you?"

She went still and silent for a moment. She spoke quietly now her anger diffused and spoke simply, an edge of pleading carried. "Did you try to speak with the Quincy? Work an arrangement? Did you wonder if perhaps they might react as they always do, and try to defend themselves from what would appear to them a death sentence? Do you wonder how many lives might be lost because you thought they ought to mind their own business and die quietly when we aren't there to protect them?"

"Did you ever wonder if it is our suspicions and our fear that fuels the self-denial that turns our fellow Shinigami into Hollow monsters? Not the inherent risk they represent but the way that we treat them? Shinigami turn into monsters when they reject the truth and hide from it."

"Have you forgotten what it is like to live as a human? To not live and command by the premise of your power alone but have to work with people? Have you forgotten how you were only months ago, Kasumi? This isn't...this isn't who you are. It isn't who I know you were! You've disappeared into the expectations of that title, of the Seireitei, into the way that people have believed it is supposed to be. You don't have to be that, you don't have to be the Seireitei's Captain Commander Kasumi, you could just be yours! The clever young woman who cared! Cared about other people, and wanted to protect them, see them prosper!"

"Shinigami don't have to dominate everything around that might challenge us. We don't have to be right all the time and pretend we have all the answers. We don't have to hate, and fear, and fight everything that seems different. We can learn to coexist and be stronger for it, make our worlds better for it and uphold our purpose properly. If that isn't the way of the Seireitei then the Seireitei is wrong and the whole Seireitei has forgotten what it means to be a Shinigami."

"And if this is your Seireitei, Kasumi? Then so have you, or maybe you never really knew."

1218/2997

She let the words wash over her like rain. There were bits she could understand from the perspective of a mortal, but really hadn’t expected to hear from a thousand year old Shinigami. Then there were parts that made no sense at all. First Nanami seemed to be pointing out how a few dozen Quincy would never upset the balance of souls, then she proceeded to inquire how many lives might be lost because of Kasumi’s order to keep the same Quincy away from dealing with the Hollow-breeds. It took a lot of effort for the young Commander to keep quiet instead of remarking that it in the worst case scenario it wouldn’t be more than a couple of dozen dead. Right?

Patiently she waited for Nanami to finish her monologue. She didn’t want to interrupt her, didn’t want to have to repeat herself should her friend be unable to stop herself from rambling on. Some of the words were thrown with force, others seemed to offer a some sort of peace. In the end the stream of various emotions and circular arguments came to a stop. They faded as the mask made room for the real Nanami, the woman Kasumi had known and fought against for the Fifths haori.

History seemed to repeat itself. It was painfully obvious that Nanami had no faith in her. No, not even her. The Vaizard had forgotten what it meant to be a Shinigami. Somehow, somewhere down the line, she had returned to the values of those whose lives were fleeting. It was very odd for Kasumi to see this play. Bits and parts appeared to be ripped out of her past. They could have come from her lips, back when she was still a human child.

“I haven’t forgotten, but I am no longer a human, and neither are you. That’s why you have to stop thinking like one!” The usually bright blue eyes had already turned steely gray. A cold spread itself across the area as Kasumi spoke sharply. She would not be lectured by a Shinigami who had already forgotten what the Gotei stood for, even if it was her friend – a part of her even considered Nanami as a teacher of sorts – Kasumi could no longer accept this.

“If you think that the order to keep them from destroying souls was born from some sort of personal hatred for Quincy then you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Shaking her head in disbelief, Kasumi wasn’t even sure where to start. This was such a mess and her patience was really running thin now.

“Can you even hear yourself, Nanami?” The sigh, a heavy one, followed.

“We don’t hate, and we don’t fear. We don’t fight them because they’re different. This isn’t some joke war among humans for a religion or a piece of land. This is us, the Shinigami, maintaining the balance of souls. We make sure the realms don’t fall apart. None of us are responsible for personal happiness of people who live their lives the way they want to. The only thing we do is making sure they can live that life by making sure the cycle remains intact.” Visibly angry by now, Kasumi’s eyes had turned into cold, smooth ice.

“If there are too many hollow-breeds, we purify them. If there is a war on earth and there are too many souls in the Soul Society then we’ll send them back to earth.” She kept her voice low. Screaming wasn’t her thing, it annoyed her to have to deal with loud noises, her own voice not being an exception. That’s why the words were pretty much growls by now. Low ones. Threatening ones.

“We. Keep. The. Balance.” They weren’t gods or angels, they were reapers.


630/2758

Nanami raised the hand holding the mask and slid it over her face, feeling the comfortable presence of Sumizori swell in the recess of her soul as it held fast. She had once thought that the mask of the Vaizard was that of the Hollow's, a tool to hide their face from the world so that embrace their hideous nature. Nanami had resolved once to never wear her mask, that she would subjugate the darkness inside and then refuse to use that power. She had it all wrong, of course, the mask was not used to hide but to present to the world the other side of her that was once locked away. The wide killer's grin of one who indulges easily in their desire, the bloody spots that show the deeds done. Crass and simple symbols but important ones to Nanami. Nanami saw nothing wrong now in acknowledging the monstrous aspects of her nature, so long as she dictated how they manifested. Her yellow pupils locked with Kasumi as she spoke openly.

"I am proud of you Kasumi, of the power you've found and of having a purpose that pushes you so strongly, even as I disagree with it.” She wanted to say it before she no longer had the chance. “I can't help but think back of the unease I felt when you stripped the Haori of the Fifth from my protection. I feared that you had taken my lessons of power, of violence and purpose in the wrong way." The gentle breeze and rich scent of Nanami's garden sat at odds with the palpable tension that had settled between them. "In reality, you learned exactly what I set out to teach but it's only now I see that I was in error to have tried to teach you a lesson like that at all. For any part I had in setting you on this path I must apologize."

"When I speak of balance you hear me talk of mercy and guardianship, but what I mean is elegance. I mean compromise in rigid execution, not in purpose. We do not exist in vacuums and must be ever careful of how we go about our duty, we ensure that our duty is carried out by a blade and not a cudgel." Kasumi spoke of the Shinigami beating the balance into place, but Nanami knew there were better ways. Coexistence meant darkness and light in harmony, keeping one another in check naturally.

She wasn't accusing Kasumi of hatred, she was accusing her of carelessness and ignorance. The worst of her sins was apparent callousness, all for the higher purpose but Nanami was not guiltless in believing the same and worse yet for spreading it to others.

What now then could she hope to accomplish? Nanami had been angry, passionate, and she couldn't persuade Kasumi like that. Their perspectives were worlds apart now, utterly insurmountable. Sumizori's fury burned and Nanami let it, but it was Shirazayagami whose path rang true to her right now. With her mask Nanami's expression was unreadable, and her flat tone betrayed nothing the words themselves did not.

"I meant to call you here so that I could share my new perspective with someone I thought might understand it, someone who once shared that she felt the Seireitei pursued the wrong direction. I was careless. I was excited and thus ignorant and childish in how I spoke and carried myself today. I left myself open to the disappointment I should have expected, but it still stung me and I reacted in turn.” She allowed a slight polite incline of her head and went on. “I see now that so long as you lead the Seireitei, and others like you, I will have no place within it. I know the mistake of hoping that I might change the world by working alongside it and I refuse to waste another moment of my life attempting to do so. I formally resign my service as a Shinigami of the Seireitei."

Nanami's right hand gestured politely to the door behind Kasumi but knowing the tone in which Kasumi spoke and the clear fury in her eyes, Nanami’s left hand fell gently to Shirazayagami's hilt. "Now I must ask you to leave, Captain Commander."

712/3709

“There is nothing to apologize for.” If it hadn’t been for Nanami and the clash between them, it might have taken Kasumi longer to accept the truth she so carefully had ignored for the most part of her life. If there had been no spark then Hazuki wouldn’t have been able to help the young Shinigami start the fire that had burned a path for her which reached into the future.

“This is a compromise. A rigid execution would have been death to all Quincy.” Letting them do what they wanted to clashed with the Shinigami purpose, killing all of them was an extreme solution. Hence, they could live and obey – a fair deal in Kasumi’s eyes.

Calmly taking in the poisonous yellow eyes of the woman across of her, the Captain sighed. A gentle shake of her head expressed her own disappointment in someone she had hoped to have by her side. Somehow their values had switched places. Instead of being the one to listen to Nanami explain that the entire Rukongai couldn’t be helped because it was simply impossible and the Gotei wasn’t meant for that, she was the one trying to get through now. Odd, it felt really odd, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Life was unpredictable.

She’s actually telling me to leave.., the thought would have been amusing if it wasn’t for the severity of the situation. This predicament was not something Kasumi had thought that would happen. They should have had the same thoughts on the matter. Same views. A mutual understanding. Age should have been Nanami’s advantage, yet it was nothing at all. The years Kasumi had taken from the world and lost her youthful appearance to seemed to be of more use than the ones Nanami had lived herself. Perhaps this was a phase – perhaps a symptom of the disease. In any case, there was no way that she would simply turn around and walk out on the Vaizard with the strength of a Captain. The very idea was silly. A rogue of that level could do a lot of damage, and that was without the difference in fundamental principles.

“It’s your choice to resign if you no longer want to serve. However, you will have to give up your Zanpakutō and still remain inside of the Seireitei’s walls.” Calmly explaining the conditions of her ‘retirement’, Kasumi braced herself for an outburst. While aggression might not be the reaction she would get, she was pretty sure that nobody would willingly offer their Zanpakutō to the authorities. Certainly not when they already had a bond with their Spirit.

“I think that you understand why I can’t simply let you go.”


448/3206

"This would not be the first time the Seireitei had demanded I serve or become a slave, amusing to see that even now fifteen hundred years later so little has changed." Her eyes traced over Kasumi and a grimace formed fighting back the utter sadness of this moment, of what she could see in her mind was to come. There was no turning back now, she could have easily lied and insisted she would have served but whether that might have been believed was irrelevant, she would not deny the truth of her existence here.

Her eyes traced down to the hilt of her Zanpakuto and then she smirked. A bitter taste filled her mouth as she drew the blade with a gentle melodic ring that filled the air. "This Zanpakuto was never given to me by the Seireitei and any claim they might have had faded when I reforged the blade from the heart of my soul back on Earth before my return. As such I would never surrender it, Kasumi. Further, I have no ability to hand it over, I'm sure you understand. I could no more surrender it to you then I could surrender the joy, or happiness that exists within my soul. It would be a meaningless gesture, I hope you know."

Shirazayagami's presence filled her with serenity, even as she nurtured the hatred and rising violence of Sumizori. Each had their place, she had only the wish that Kasumi would not force her to bear the weight of both upon her, no matter the outcome.

"Remain pristine, and put an end to the needless conflict. Arise, Shirazayagami."

The blade held gently in her hands shone with a gentle white light. It shifted as the blade itself turned translucent but did not stop there. There was no sudden rush of power but instead, an intense feeling of overwhelming serenity flooded the area. The effect would be near instantaneous, to reach for one's blade would be unthinkable, how could someone stain a place like this with conflict? All the petty hostile emotions drifted away. The flowers that once remained closed bloomed, it seemed as if more may have risen from the ground around them, the air grew rich with their beautiful scent.

"Bankai," she intoned as her Zanpakuto's light began to expand out, filtering into the air until its form had all but dissipated leaving her seemingly unarmed. Still, its presence could be felt around them. This was Shirazayagami, this was the very presence that Nanami felt every moment, the pressing simple logical pull that diverted conflicted, that pressed her into a languid pacifism. Rising above Shirazayagami's influence meant the ability to divert that feeling and face others with it.

"No matter the monster you suspect of my Mask, know that this is the truth of my Blade. We do not need to be enemies. I implore you once more Captain Commander, leave here and know peace today. Our conflict can wait." She spoke in familiar gentle tones.

Nanami extended a gentle hand towards her, an open palm. "I will not surrender myself to your authority, I will not hand over my Zanpakuto. Leave here now, and put an end to this."

For a moment it was wordless between them, Kasumi seemed like she felt the incredible weight of Shirazayagami press down upon her and Nanami saw what she hoped to see, a moment of hesitation. Nanami felt no delay from her judgment. A single step cleared the distance between them with an eerie sublime silence that heralded what came next. Every ounce of power that once rested inside of Nanami roared out with a terrible rage, Sumizori had awoken.

Where no blade existed before one formed black as night, a familiar jagged shape and thrust forward with simple execution and purpose. She buried her twisted blade towards her former friend's stomach without delay. A single beat of a heart passed in the span of that moment. Nanami truly wished to end this conflict without bloodshed, but she knew it wouldn't be so. No matter Kasumi's momentary hesitation it would not last. Nanami's flight would lead a to pursuit and even beyond that, this conflict was inevitable. Better she take the only advantage she was likely to ever have even if it meant burning the last vestige of their former relationship in the process.

The excitement and delight at the prospect of drawing blood was present but muted. Her focus reigned but instinct guided her where it could not. As the deed was done the world around them shifted a second time. Blood welled from the ground, the air around them grew dense and cold as an uneasy fog settled around them and the light grew dim and muted. A pervase sense of bloodlust filled the air, created from being at the very epicenter of a timeless vicious conflict. Sumizori's presence had joined the battlefield, and Shirazayagami's receeded into Nanami. 

825/4533

No, of course she hadn’t expected for Nanami to meekly seal her blade and hand it over – perhaps – forever. Had she been in her situation Kasumi wouldn’t have done it either. There was only one solution now, and she already knew that it would be an ugly one. While she could split it up into either taking her back to the Seireitei in chains or kill her here, nothing between them would ever be the same from here on. Nanami knew it too. As the light crashed over her together with the heavy presence of Nanami’s ..whoever this was, Kasumi put her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“No,” She calmly replied with the same icy look from before. “there is no need to prostpone the inevitable.”

A second passed as she whispered the release, but nothing happened. Vör stirred, almost lazily, whispering an odd phrase of peace and calmness. Like Hebi’s strings the Spirit uncurled, then rose in the back of her mind but stilled Kasumi’s hand which was ready to release the biting cold.

What do you think you’re doing?, she questioned the Valkyrie while the latter wrapped her arms around her mistress. A moment later the two were on the beach. The water rolled onto the shore again, and Kasumi frowned as her annoyance manifested in all its glory. Vör’s eyes drooped, but the girl didn’t plan for her Spirit to take a nap any time soon.

’It’s not right, we don’t need to fight her. She’s been through so much already. Be merciful, be gentle. Let her live her life while she still has time.’ The nonsense that spilled from Vör’s lips was like a broken record. For one this was highly the time to be talking about morals, and two.. what the hell?

Before she knew her fingers were already digging into the Valkyrie’s royal cape. With dangerously narrowed eyes she shook her Spirit once, then another time. There was no time to be playing games. This wasn’t about anything personal – this was Kasumi doing what was right. For Vör to suddenly turn into this unrecognizabl-.

A blink of an eye later the pain brought her back to reality. Vör’s apologetic tone only echoed somewhere deep in her soul as the confusion swept across the Captain. Unable to figure out why her Spirit had crossed her the way she had, Kasumi didn’t have the time for an inner conflict because blood was already seeping from her stomach. It hurt, and as the pain was being processed Hebi burst outward with full strength. An explosion of silvery-white reiryoku the size of which would have vaporized the house behind her and the garden they stood in – but their location had switched.

With her hand still on the hilt of her Zanpakutō, Kasumi growled in indignation while studying her surroundings. Bloodied grounds – they seemed to be sinking, broken swords – she assumed those were of the ones Nanami had killed already – and a fog so thick that it easily hid whatever was ahead of her.

“You..” she hissed while placing the palm of her free hand over the wound and allowing for the pastel green light of Kaidō to mix with Hebi’s glow before seeping into the deep cut.

Anger rose as the pressuring atmosphere only guided her toward a path of pain and death. Baring her teeth while the silvery strands violently danced around their creator she could feel the viciousness hanging in the air. Every breath she took only fueled her rage regarding the trickery and treason her former friend had shown her.

“I have offered you a place next to me and this..”, her voice grew louder. “this is how you repay me?!” The uncontrollable sneer bellowed through the foggy space as it searched its receiver.


630/3836

Shirazayagami's presence had returned to Nanami but she pressed her aside for now. There was a moment of contact where she could feel that the ache deep within her heart but it did nothing for her now. Her blade was ripped free of the wound she delivered as Kasumi began to respond. It was a good blow, but given the advantages she held and all that she had sacrificed for it, it was a grim portent of the rest of the fight to come. She needed everything at her disposal, every advantage, every ounce of willpower brought to bear upon this singular moment. She had little hope of destroying the Captain Commander here, but that wasn’t what she was aiming for.

There is nothing else but this. Use me. We won't be caged again.

Nanami shifted her weight as Kasumi's Hebi thrust towards her and pulled herself backward, fading imperceptibly into the fog. She could feel the hypocritical rage fume from her younger opponent. The strands moved unpredictably in their pursuit of her, a technique she’d seen before but that had developed well in Nanami’s absence. Regardless, Nanami hadn’t sat on her laurels either and she was fighting upon her battleground. When she spoke, Nanami’s voice rang out from all directions, betraying nothing of her true location as she responded to Kasumi.

"You offered me a gilded cage, and when I reject your two-faced offer, as you rejected me, you show your true colors! And you dare to ask if this is how I repay you!?" Nanami clenched the sharp hilt of her jagged blade and grimaced, Sumizori's fury mirrored her own as she tracked the Hebi inching ever closer to her. "I may not claim the power you’ve obtained as my sole doing but I helped you get there because I loved you! I've demanded nothing of you because you owed me nothing!"

"And in spite of all I’ve done for you, you dare demand my Zanpakuto!? My slavery!?" Nanami let out a roar as she slid back across the bloody ground, yet none of it clung to her. She tilted the blade back and focused on the Hebi tracing it along towards its source. She had to do this quick, or she would be wasting efforts. "All because I refuse to be afraid of who I am! Because I refuse to believe that it makes me a monster! All while I stare in the face of someone who would give me the choice to bow down or die!" She moved like a bolt through the fog, flinging herself across towards Kasumi but just on the periphery of the fog, out of sight.

The first cut aimed for the source of the strands closest to Kasumi, her wicked blade slashed down as Nanami stopped near. It was a simple but elegant cut that ripped through the threads, allowing Nanami's reiatsu flared only briefly, enough that even Kasumi would notice her. But the Hebi was not so easily thwarted, the roots of the thread lashed out, seeking its prey, Nanami reared by as the threads lashed at her flesh. It burned deep, tearing through the upper left shoulder of her uniform and into the flesh proper. A follow up single step took her clear. She focused her presence allowing it to fill the twisted blade as it severed the Hebi, and pivoted as she flung it towards Kasumi as a deadly projectile. With it holding her presence it would serve as an elegant feint, after all, was it not her Zanpakuto?

As the blade left her hands she was moving much like the very same ethereal fog that surrounded them, trailing around Kasumi as the projectile closed towards her. In truth, that jagged blade was no more hers than any of the thousands that littered the battlefield around her. One step took her around her opponent as a simple gesture tore another abandoned blade from the ground. One more step was enough for Nanami to move behind Kasumi as the thrown blade reached its destination. She attempted to bury the blade through the Captain Commander left calve, abandoning it as the blow was struck and moving to fade once more into the fog.

650/5183

It was clear now that she didn’t understand Kasumi and probably never would. There was a difference between what had happened then and what was happening right now. When one betrayed the Soul Society then they were no longer free to roam as they wanted – not that Shinigami were ever truly free to start with, but that was a detail which was easily to compare with all the other life forms that were a part of the cycle. What mattered now was Nanami’s illusion of being above the world she was a part of, and its rules. In her anger she seemed to be lashing out at everything that’s made her into what she was now. Perhaps, with her being as ill as she was, the anger was in some way justified. Still, most of the things she was saying had nothing to do with the truth.

‘Slavery’, she had screamed, and Kasumi has snarled in return. How was the older Shinigami unable to understand that this wasn’t a matter of choosing, demanding or owning anything to Kasumi personally. The latter was simply following the law and because of the decisions Nanami has made things had taken a sharp turn into an unpleasant direction.

“For someone your age one would expect you to be wiser than that.” she bit toward the fog with eyes mirroring cold. Sometimes the only options were to bow or to die.

“You’re not a monster, you’re sick!” Kasumi finally snapped with teeth bared. The pressure built and she felt the fury slowly setting its teeth into every fiber of her body.

The second Nanami’s presence appeared in front of her she let Hebi burst toward the incoming attack. Thick strands of reiryoku licked at the blade until cracks appeared across its surface. Slamming the back of her hand against the side, she watched it shatter just to notice that her opponent wasn’t behind it. Instead, the devil was behind her.

Letting another eruption of reiryoku crash against the cut she still felt the steal as it went through her skin. The cut was bleeding but wouldn’t kill her any time soon. The fact that Nanami was already pulling back left Kasumi with little choice but to sent a circular wave of energy flying away from her. It was a thin silver ring expanding like a balloon with the Captain’s hips being the center. As the wave of energy disappeared into the fog, Kasumi inwardly growled. This hide-and-seek wasn’t her thing. Nagisa had been well at playing games like these – Kasumi preferred to see her opponent and fight them head on.

“Hiding won’t save you, so you should come out.” She let her voice be carried across the unfamiliar surroundings. “Don’t you want a proper death to start out clean?” The atmosphere was vicious, she couldn’t help but to lick her lips as the next words were slipping into the air. “Or would you rather be squeezed like some sort of pests?”


496/4332

Nanami understood the rules, she knew in great detail the position that Kasumi held now because she'd been a slave to it for over a thousand years now. Across those years she'd suffer because of them, ignored her feelings and served regardless, and finally hid like a coward from the world. She returned with the belief she might be able to enact change but serving would never let her do the things she needed. Only now with Sumizori and Shirazayagami beside her did she find the strength to do what she knew in her heart was right. There was something rotten in the Seireitei, and she was going to change it no matter who threatened her or stood in her way. She owed no loyalty to an organization like the Seireitei, not after all she'd sacrificed, not after everything she'd been through. They had given her nothing that even came close to what she had given it. Her sacred duty, preserving the balance, was not owned by them.

"That's funny," she shot back. "This is exactly the kind of wisdom I expect of someone your age." Her mocking tone shot out from around the fog.

"My darkness may manifest as a Hollow! But that does not make me any more different than you! I'm was sick, but not anymore, I've been made whole. There's a darkness in your heart too, Kasumi! Deny it, and see where that leads you like I did!" She had learned one thing from this encounter, Kasumi acknowledged the ugliness of the world, she simply no longer cared, perhaps even justified it one way or the other. Was there hope for someone like that to open their eyes? How long had it taken Nanami?

"It is a poor warrior who demands an opponent fight on their terms," she remarked calmly, shrugging off the hostility of Kasumi's words as she felt the ring of energy surged around her. This was her first time fighting with Sumizori's power and she had some work to do getting used to it. She launched towards the deadly ring and hurled the Zanpakuto in her hand towards it. It crashed with the outer ring and exploded, allowing its stored energy to serve as the bulwark against its power as Nanami threw herself over it. The proximity to it seared at her uniform once against, burning away the nearby flesh but she did not relent. On the edges of the burnt flesh knit together albeit slowly.

She slid across the ground as she landed deep within the fog, snatching up another discarded blade as she launched towards Kasumi. This time her energy was marshaled and still. This was yet another attack amongst millions she'd made before. She reached the periphery of her opponents senses, just out of sight and threw herself into the air with an elegant leap. All angles of attack were open to her, approaching from the unexpected vector to keep her opponent off balance.

Her step into the air kept her moving outside the edge of visibility, as she reached the apex point, above Kasumi she pulled herself to a stop almost immediately and focused a simple platform underneath her feet that she pulled herself against, coiled tight as she stared down at her former friend. This was never about killing her.

"By some trick of luck you have the power to beat me Kasumi, but that doesn't make what you do just. Neither does serving the Seireitei. Ignore what your heart says at your peril. I know the cost of living that lie."

She descended with all the force of her step, blade held upright, gleaming with murderous intent. A silent guillotine descending innocently until the very last moment where her present blared with all the threat and deadly force it carried. She swung down attempting to cleave deep into her neck.

643/5827

Nanami’s choice was obvious. If she wanted to hide in the fog of her powers then Kasumi couldn’t do anything to stop her. However, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t get her hands on her opponent in the end. All it took was some patience to have her close enough for her plan to work. The playing was getting on her nerves now – both had said what they had wanted to and all that was left was for one of them to be cut down.

Pumping more energy into Hebi she let the technique turn around her in the form of a sphere. Silvery threads burned brightly while the diameter expanded so she could have a bit more control about the area around her. Some of the strands disappeared into the fog, but that didn’t make them less real to the young Captain. As long as she used them to feel around, she didn’t truly need her eyes or other senses. Like bony fingers some strings came from the sphere and tugged at the air and ground alike as they blindly continued to look for their target. It was a slow progress but progress regardless.

Soon enough Hebi made violent contact with a sharp object which had to be blown off before it would come close enough to pierce Kasumi’s skin. It slipped through the energy layer but by then its location was known. Using the back of her arm to slap it away with force, she watched it scratch her skin leaving a dark red line before disappearing into the fog on her side.

These blades Nanami kept throwing at her, by now Kasumi knew there were more than a couple of them. Either the woman was creating them or she was picking them up from the ground. In any case, this was becoming boring in more than one way. If her opponent didn’t want to show herself and preferred to keep on playing hide-and-seek then she would have to lure her out – force her out, was a better idea.

Patience, she just had to ignore the cuts and have some patience.

Then, she felt it there. Her heartbeat jumped when Nanami’s blade went through the layer of Hebi which was like a bursting bubble of reiryoku by now. Not important, because Kasumi’s fingers were already touching the hilt of Vör. She knew that her enemy was coming for her, but a split of a second was all she needed now.

“Ban-kai,” the Hebi turned cold as it spun harder – the massive reiatsu erupting from Kasumi was curled into the same dense sphere from before as the round portal opened in the very space they were in and swallowed both of the Shinigami without a trace.

Spit out on the seemingly endless plain of snow and ice, the two women stood some dozen yards apart from one another – that’s how the transport to the world of cold worked. With only the aurora lighting the space around them, Kasumi smiled as if she was finally home.

“Welcome to Niflheim,” she cracked with an amused voice. Should the fog spread again this wouldn’t be a problem any longer, because the blizzard was already starting. Kasumi didn’t see her opponent, she wasn’t even sure if Nanami still had her mask on or had taken it off to take a look around her.

The cold happily bit into its mistress’ skin. Turning slightly Kasumi bared her teeth in a toothy grin. Her chin and lips were the only part of her face still visible – eyes were of no use in this realm of darkness. Everything was at peace, the snow flakes came with millions at the time. Seconds had passed from the moment of their arrival and the snow had already thickened around their knees.

“This is where you’ll die,” Kasumi dutifully shared her thought with her former friend, thinking it to be fair to open up about her intentions.



656/4988

Nanami could feel the pulsing desire in her blood, to rip and tear Kasumi open, to spill every drop of her blood into this bloody battlefield and be done with it. It was with this desire that her blade cut clean through the cocoon of Hebi that Kasumi was wrapped within. She could feel the dense form break away under the force of her cut, scattering the air around them with a mass of loose spiritual particles. Down and down it cut, ever closer to her opponents bare skin, ever closer to spilling that vital blood she would need to win. Close. Closer. Nanami knew what she was racing against, her opponents pride, her opponents arrogance, her doubts and her hesitations.

Bankai. She was too slow. The very air itself became thick with Kasumi's true power, suffocating in a way that Nanami had never felt before. This was power. This was the kind of power that shook the very world itself, the kind that dissolved away all barriers that stood in one's way. In the wake of it, Nanami was next to nothing. Her cut was stopped instantly, she pulled herself back once more as the fog and blood gave way to the will of the superior being and the frosted realm asserted itself.

Against something like this it didn't matter what Nanami desired, it didn't matter how strongly she believed in herself, how well she fought. Right and wrong melted away against a power like this and all that was left was the will of the stronger, their desires made real. She struggled for a moment against the weight of it, staggered back and short of breath in a way she hadn't felt in many years. Deep gasps were her sounds of weakness that she tried to subdue as Kasumi's voice filled the air around them. Niflheim, a name of legend that suited such a striking place.

Terror and regret, she had sought to open her escape only to allow her desire to try to open Kasumi's eyes lead her into this inescapable trap. The power of her Garganta could tear open dimensions, but against the weight of one constructed by such incredible power, she felt no chance of it here. Sumizori's bloodlust ran against her Hollow's terror at facing such a dominant power. Shirazayagami's sense of calm was thwarted by the desire to simply surrender against this incredible inevitability.

Nanami's arm wavered, bladed dipping down towards the snow that built around them, caught up to her knees. She would die here, as Kasumi decreed. If she fought, she would be defeated, if she waited the cold would claim her as sure as a blade would, leaving her pretty blue corpse buried within the snow. What was the point of her journey if it led her here? A weight closed in on her from all direction, suffocating her soul.

What hope was there to begin with? To stand against the very flow of the world and try to turn the tides? Nanami, you knew better.

Damnit! Damnit! Get out! Get out of here! Damnit! I swear we'll kill her! We'll rip her to fucking pieces!

To run, to surrender, to scream hopeless rebellion at an uncaring world. None of it would change anything, none of it would matter! And yet! Isn't that why she was here!? Isn't that why she had returned to the Seireitei? Isn't this what led her to pull that broken sword from her very heart and reforge it anew? She wanted to live! She'd had two thousand years of watching and letting those very same tides pull her along as she helplessly bobbed along. She was so tired of drifting.

So what if it was hopeless to change the world? So what if she destined to fail and die here barely causing a ripple? She'd have to hope hat some day perhaps those very ripples might grow into a wave. If her power meant right and wrong didn't matter, that her choice was to bow down or die, then her choice was clear.

Nanami's sword straightened. The waiver in her muscles eased and the chill that set deep into her bones faded to the back of her mind.

We did not come here to win. We came here to stand. If we die so be it, but I won't live my life running anymore. I don't want to do it alone, but I won't command you to stand alongside me now.

She let out the tense breath that choked her she could not hear their voices now, they'd fallen silent save the wind that brought the constant flurry of snow. Then she felt the ground shift underfoot. The snow around her took on the faintest tint of red as blood soaked through but far from the violent uproar of violence it commanded instead there was a silent rebellious promise of death that clung to the air. Underneath the ever mounting snow, around Nanami's feet, small red flowers bloomed amidst the snow.

"If I die, I die. But I won't bow to your Seireitei, child. I am not afraid of whatever you promise. Come then, and deliver your death to me."

865/6692

With the world around them having brought cold and calmness, Kasumi felt most of her feelings fade to the background. Everything was quiet. The snow peacefully fell from the dark sky above. It reminded her of a magical moment like the evening before the New Year. As a child she had felt as if everything was possible, and reality had been oddly detached from most of her senses. This was exactly the same but with a mixture of looking at the scene from above and being a part of it simultaneously. Except that she didn’t see a thing in the traditional sense, she felt all of it. Every crook in the snow, the floating flakes, Nanami’s warm presence – the form of her body which dominated a certain amount of space inside Niflheim. All of it painted a three-dimensional landscape that belonged to her.

Breathing out patiently she let her lips curl up a little in a bitter smile. Nanami really didn’t know when to stop. It was a shame. It also had Kasumi wonder if the woman was simply tired of life after having wandered this world for such a long time. Perhaps relieving her from her current form would be a form of mercy?

Frosty fingers rose in a circle around them looking like enormous bones that curled toward the sky. The snow remained floating everywhere, kept alive by Kasumi’s presence, as the cage was completed with a loud snap of ice fingertips meeting. In this curved dome of ice and snow she thought to bury Nanami forever.

“I think that you’re familiar with Hebi,” she let the woman know before allowing the reiryoku snakes to take shape. They ran across the walls of the cage, seeped from Kasumi’s armor and crossed the snow they stood in. Silvery blue was the only visible thing when she allowed Hebi to erupt in a blast of energy aimed at the Vaizard.

She sort of assumed that Nanami would survive this bit. In fact, she hoped that her opponent would. While the latter had been ready to die, Kasumi wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. This acceptance of death only came across as a potential peace. It’s not what the Vaizard deserved for stubbornness and the ongoing insolence with which she treated the Gotei. Above that, however, stood the treacherous nature that’s been revealed once Kasumi didn’t act the way this abomination of the Shinigami race wanted her to.

There was no room for hiding her disgust toward what Nanami had become. Should the illness hadn’t spread as far, should the woman had had the iron will to not bow down in front of the rotten nature which forced her to degenerate into this waste of space then things would have been different. Nagisa knew the truth about herself, knew what the future would bring her and had accepted it with her dignity intact.

Nanami on the other hand?

Well, Kasumi almost felt sorry for her. Almost.


497/5485

Nanami had an ease to her stance, she seemed light, feet spread shoulder width but light. Both of her hands rested on her Zanpakuto, she held it up and ready for the fight. She had stood like this countless times throughout history, statically poised and ready to fight for countless reasons against countless opponents. This time was different because it was the first time she wasn't standing alone. Sumizori and Shirazayagami stood behind her, she could feel their presence in the very air, their power stretching out, dwarfed by Kasumi's own brilliance but still there in the cracks, blooming faintly beneath the thick snow.

She was prepared to die, but only if she -must-. She would not betray her Spirit's now by embracing that fate, not after they stood here alongside her. If there was a chance she would take it. She searched hard for some way for her to break free of this prison, to escape the clutches of her former friend until she had to strength to make the difference she knew the world needed. But, never in surrender, never by turning back on the truth. She was prepared, yes, but all it meant was that she was unafraid, come what may.

She marshaled her strength patiently, her vision perceiving the world of Kasumi's creation looking for the crack she might peel away to escape through, or the opening that Kasumi might give her to take advantage of. Any rash attack would simply waste the remaining strength she had now.

The sense of peace pervaded Nanami's aura, spread into the air around her as potently as it could in the desolate chill of Niflheim. "Of course," she replied as the cage snapped closed, trapping them between one another. She could feel around her the shift as the intense energy forming the cage focused outward. She spun to face it carefully, blade poised up as it closed, its deadly power threatening to erase her from the very spot she stood.

I don't fight battles I don't think I can win, but... what choice do we have? If you think there's a chance then don't hold anything back, alright? I trust you.

You know how I detest unnecessary bloodshed, especially your own. Do what you must and I shall assist you how ever I can.

The discarded blade she wielded hummed softly with her power, not of one but three spirits acting for a moment in unison with a shared purpose, not just to survive but to fight together. Her blade descended down upon the terrible blast from the Hebi, a wave of energy releasing off the crescent of the swing and crashing into the wave of energy. She felt the powers collide, a terrible heat as both of her spirits moved to protect her, shield her as best they could.

Her arms strained as she felt Kasumi's attack break against the tip of her blade only to wrap around the blade, eating away at its form before rushing straight into her. She let out a jagged cry as she was forced back, stumbling back along the snow leaving two long lines of imprint as she nearly was pressed against the opposite side of the cage. As the smoke cleared, the scorched snow revealing, faintly between the imprints of her feet as well, small traces of those blood red flowers remained in her wake.

She was breathing hard, shifting her weight as she struggled to pull herself standing upright again. Her composure was pressed but remained as calm as one could in spite of the exhaustion. Her robes along the upper left of her body were completely scorched, burned and cracking skin. Her left arm hung uselessly along the left side of her body but she kept the blade in her right hand, a bare two feet of cracked steel that she held dutifully aloft. "Incredible," she praised, pain carried plainly in her voice. "You've become just so incredible, Kasumi, such a pity it had to be used for this."

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