When the Stars Fall Down

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229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down May 9, 2013 1:38:40 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on May 9, 2013 1:38:40 GMT -5

“Why are you running?”
That was the puzzle of the situation, he had finally found her and all she did was retreat from him. Already he had his little run in with Ayumi—and oh, the things he had done to her—and now he had found a colleague of hers. The only person in the Division that Kyousuke might have held in similar station, the lovely lady herself: Lieutenant Kiriko. Of course, retreat was the only choice in this situation. Kyousuke would have taught her well to fall back in the face of such an overwhelming and genocidal force, but this overwhelming and genocidal force had taken a very particular interest in the woman who would have much rather just run away.

“Cut her off,” he motioned down the street. Kiriko had rounded a corner and hidden behind some of the off-white buildings of Seireitei. Immediately his three Arrancar soldiers hopped onto the orange, shingled rooftops and began to try to outpace the young Shinigami woman. Tova kept up his usual, leisurely pace, certain that he would be able to catch her. In fact, should he just run at his actual pace then he knew there would be no hope for that woman to stay away from him. She was an assassin, but he was a chaser. No one could outrun Tova, no one ever had.

More Cero were lobbed off from his hands, collapsing buildings and burning to death more Shinigami that happened to be in the area. They were well out of Sixth Division now—somehow near Second, in fact—and the terrain was becoming much more familiar. He had been around this half of the city much more than the last half, so to say that he knew his way around was in fact an understatement. He had saved the best for last, since much of the other half of Seireitei was now a smoldering ruin. Even the sky itself had been swallowed in the blackness of smoke.

By the time he fired his last Cero, there was nowhere left to run. She could try to hope over the rubble that Tova created. In fact that would be a simple and easy feat for someone as powerful as Kiriko. Yet she would also be aware that any attempt to do so would have her shot from the air like a trifle. No, Kyousuke must have taught her better than that. That moment Tova realized that between the collapsed stone and his Arrancar, she had nowhere left to run.

Animals were always the most fun when they were cornered. So Tova stopped in his tracks and lean up against one of the intact buildings. He would wait. He allowed himself to enjoy the shade of the narrow overhang above him and just wait to see what Kiriko would do, trapped by him and his soldiers. At this point the panic and rout they had created n Soul Society was laughable. The last Shinigami that had worked up the guts to attack them had been before Kenshou had arrived, an encounter that must have taught all of Soul Society the lesson it needed to learn.

There would be no stopping Tova, a thought that brought laughter as he tried to guess just what this Lieutenant would throw at him.

“Let’s see what she’s got, Tsukimiya.”

*****

560 Words/11 GP
Total GP: 11 GP

The Great Seireitei Massacre

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down May 11, 2013 11:23:11 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on May 11, 2013 11:23:11 GMT -5

The chaos had erupted like one of the worst natural disasters she'd ever heard about in the human world. Only this wasn't natural, not by a long shot. Unlike a volcanic eruption or earth quake there was no chance or nature to explain away the event. This attack, no this massacre, was beyond human ken. One could not blame God for such a catastrophe, unless you happened to think Tova Diablo was God. And who else could be behind this massacre? Who else would have the power to defeat so many brilliant and strong Shinigami in one fell swoop? She couldn't be certain who it was attacking, though the army of Arrancar was certainly one sign to base things off of. The more pressing concern for Kiriko however was where her Captain was! She hadn't seen him in the smoky mess at all nor any other Nibantai members to give her a clue as to his location.

Could it be that he was in Hueco Mundo again? But wouldn't he have been forewarned of this kind of thing? They were Hollow-breed invading after all. Wherever her Captain was, she really wished that he would magically appear. How was someone like her supposed to do anything? She'd told him that she wasn't strong enough yet to be in this kind of position, and she hadn't gotten much stronger in the time since Kiriko had been promoted to Lieutenant. The sight of the bodies and the broken buildings had finally caught up with her. War. This was what her Captain had been talking about. It was totally different when you were the attacker, when your opponents were mindless Hollow. But to be the ones attacked, to be chased like mice by a big old cat, it was terrifying! She wasn't supposed to be prey! Kiriko was supposed to be strong! There were people relying on her!

Running as fast as she could Kiriko quickly caught on to the men tailing her. They ran for a bit, playing with her by letting her keep some distance as she raced towards the Second Division's barracks. Her plan was simple; find the other members of her Division and get them mobilized as one. In this disarray there was no such thing as order, and she knew for a fact that people worked better with leadership. Especially her people. With the Captain gone, she was standing in for him in whatever capacity she could. That meant that as much as she wanted to go find some dark piece of rubble to hide behind that she had to stand tall and do her best to find the others. And that thought alone made her so angry.

She was nothing but a coward. Wanting to hide when the going got tough! Even thinking about abandoning her subordinates was the most cowardly thing she'd ever done. The thoughts racked her mind like hot coals, and she felt such deep revulsion at her gutlessness that it was almost as if a dark hole had opened up beneath her feet to swallow her entire body. Such a chicken hearted cur, she didn't even need Aneue's mocking laughter to know that for herself. She was so very furious with herself that it fueled her speed for a crucial burst as Kiriko raced ahead of those herding her.

She'd been too focused on her own inner dialogue though and suddenly she came to a rapid halt seeing the pile of rubble that blocked off her exit from this street. Perhaps she could get over it or jump to the nearest roof but that moment of free movement would leave her blatantly open to ranged attack. If for no other reason Kiriko needed to survive intact so that she could give orders to her Division. Without leadership they were bound to be cut down one by one. It didn't matter how good at killing they were, the Nibantai almost always worked with the upper hand. Surprise attacks were their main method of combat, and they always gathered intelligence first before going in. In a full on assault of Soul Society there would be no such chances to prepare oneself. This was bloody combat – straight out sword against sword, and she was worried for her comrades that they would be unprepared for this kind of fight.

Her internal anger skyrocketed as Kiriko saw her chances of escape dropping down to zero. If she wasn't even fast enough to do her job then what good was she? Deficient, that was what she was! This weakness was like a goad, acrimoniously jabbing at her back until Kiriko felt ready to boil over. At times like this her fear was hardly felt in the crippling manner of most cowards. Indeed, Kiriko's inner anxiety did nothing but fuel her rage and resentment with herself and those around her. She was not going to allow her image to be ruined by some animal Arrancar who thought they could trap her like a fish in a barrel! How dare they look down on her like this? She was strong! Maybe not good enough for everything but damn it if Kiriko would let them know that! She was the one in control, the one who was a professional. They could never take that away from her.

Turning smoothly, she knew that her figure was still as immaculate as ever. Hair pulled back tight in a bun and clothes recently pressed and ironed. Though the light coating of ashes didn't contribute to her overall appearance it was a paltry enough setback that Kiriko's fiercely stalwart expression overpowered such things. Setting her feet down in a solid stance Kiriko stood at her full height and glared down the approaching Arrancar. Her hands were folded in her sleeves and she looked for all the world as if she was simply reprimanding a subordinate instead of facing down certain death. Kiriko's stormy glare expressed her emotions quite well. As angry as she was with these creatures for daring to assume the right to hinder Kiriko when she was attending to duty, she was also darkly calm and collected. These moments, the times when difficulties seemed insurmountable, they were when she had the most poise, the most composure. This was nothing. Nothing that would make her lose her cool.

Staring down her attackers she flicked a piece of dirt off her hakama with a loose gesture. Showing her contempt for these things in an undeniable manner. None of them were recognizable to Kiriko, for despite having participating in the war on Los Noches she had killed all of her opponents and none were left for a rematch. It sounded impressive, but Kiriko also knew that she'd been kept relatively off the front lines. Leading her members into battle against the small fry wasn't all that much to call home about, not after what her Captain had achieved in battle.

She waited until they had surrounded her, knowing that there was no way of getting past them to begin with so it didn't matter much if she let them get in close. In fact she was worse off at ranged fighting and it was a small consolation to know that the closer they got the better off she would be when it came to combat. There were only three of them. Somewhere in the back of her head, a confident voice called out that she could take them. After all, three wasn't too impressive. But the way in which they'd moved had alerted Kiriko to something. She didn't lead a disciplined and skilled force for nothing, and the small signals of a well-oiled machine were hard to miss in this situation. They were just the tiny cogs, the pieces that helped to move things but not the main engine. There was someone leading them, giving them orders.

Glancing at the three in a purposefully dismissive way she looked on past them towards the burning remains of Seireitei. “You'd better call out to your Master for help,” she told them softly, her features never twitching as Kiriko stood strong and tall. These little baby monsters were nothing. She wasn't scared of mewling puppets! She knew their leader was somewhere nearby, now it was just a waiting game to see if he'd come or not. In the meantime Kiriko had more than enough pride and nerve to continue her imperial act. These Arrancar were too lowly for her to even look at and she continued to stare off into the distance for their leader.

WC: 1426 | GP: 28 | Total GP: 28

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down May 13, 2013 0:59:15 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on May 13, 2013 0:59:15 GMT -5

Slow clapping echoed through the stone streets as Tova finally made his way towards the trapped rat. Once it was clear that she wasn’t going to move from her spot his Arrancar soldiers had stopped in place. They eye here from the tops of walls and buildings, but obeyed Tova’s previous order to not attack. The lot of them could skewer her without much issue at all, but that wouldn’t be any fun. No, he was here to play and he saw no need to share this particular toy. They had their fun already, despite that rather unfortunate loss they had to suffer. But Tova was completely at peace with that, and was able to slowly approach the battle-ready Lieutenant.

“Thorny, I like that in a person,” Tova said as he swayed up to her. He stopped only a few feet in front of the woman, well out of reach of her weapon. They both knew that any big movements on her end would be the end of her, even if Tova stood in front of her so unprepared. His knees were locked, his hands were in his pockets, and he held himself at a casual and inefficient angle that made it seem as though he were leaning. Tova had much to say, and now that she was cornered it was as good a time as any. “See, Kyousuke has done a good job with you. It really is a shame that he can’t show up right now, but I’m sure he’d be proud. You aren’t fucking around like so many other Shinigami I’ve killed already. Like…what was her name…”

In a display of exaggerated thought, Tova pulled a hand from his pocket and tapped a finger against his chin while he gave out a low ‘hmmmm’. “Ayumi,” he interjected, “That woman, yes. See, you’re much better than her. I was disappointed. I expected more of her, but she welcomed me like I was no danger at all. She paid for it with a sword in her spinal cord. But you…”—Tova slowly slid his clean, steel weapon from its scabbard--“You’re on top of things! It’ll be much harder to wedge this between your ribs than it was with her.”

Steel rasped against the bottom of his sandal and sang out as it vibrated for just a moment. The King then put his foot back flat on the ground while he listened to the hum of his weapon. He allowed his eyes to flutter shut and nodded silently, as if the resonant sound were like a melody. “Zanpakutō, even like mine, aren’t normal weapons,” he changed subjects quickly, “I might not have a voice in my head like you do, but it still has a will of its own. Even that simple jostle from me sent it screaming, begging me to smear your blood like paint on the stones behind you.”

Then it slid back into his scabbard just as easily as it was drawn, as if there had been no points to his words at all. “It’s a measure of worth,” he finally explained, “Ayumi’s Zanpakutō did not scream. I could not feel its desire to maim me, and her lack of sense to protect herself was inexcusable for a Shinigami. She paid for this failure with her life. But you, as Kyousuke’s lieutenant, I want to see if you possess it. Let me hear your Zanpakutō’s cry. I want to see just what he sees in you. Call it a…”—he tilted his head to either side and smiled—“A curiosity of mine. I have a theory and you’re going to provide the evidence to confirm or deny it.”

*****

625 Words/12 GP
Total GP: 23 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down May 13, 2013 15:06:04 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on May 13, 2013 15:06:04 GMT -5

Kiriko's back rose as a disembodied clapping rang out against the remnants of what had once been a very pretty street. Stone echoed the macabre noise as if the entire world was silent at this one person's behest. Already Kiriko's hatred was rising up, and she had yet to even spot this mastermind. The monster that had dared to attack Soul Society, to treat her home like an old stomping ground and her comrades like dirt beneath their feet. It irked her to no end that the Arrancar were so silent, so still. As if they didn't even find her a threat. As if she was nothing but a puff of warm air.

Well this puff of air wasn't stupid and while she was itching to make a move, to dart forward and sink her fists into those ugly leering faces, Kiriko also understood power. The dynamic of power, the flow of strength, the authority of dominance. It was power which drove her feet into the ground, sinking and anchoring her body such that she knew even if she wanted to move, to attack, it wasn't going to happen. Her body understood things even better than her mind, and visceral fear was the weight that held her down. Even these Arrancar, nothing special but strong enough to squash her, they grasped the system intuitively just as she did. Kiriko's anger lent her strength, lent her composure and a calm collected demeanor. But that wasn't to say that she misunderstood her situation. On the contrary Kiriko was quite aware of what she had gotten into as a whole. While her combat skills were not the best and rather unbefitting of a Lieutenant she was not lacking in intelligence or discernment.

It didn't take a genius either to realize that any attempt at overpowering her foes would end bloodily on her side rather than theirs. Kiriko had pride, that was for certain, but she wasn't so stuck up or arrogant as to rush headlong into battle just to prove herself or her prowess. That was the Fifth's domain. It took more finesse and skill to survive an altercation the other way around by not jumping into a fight and escaping through wits and secrecy alone. On that type of battlefield there were things more important that physical strength or speed. Mental reflexes, composure, articulation – these were the weapons she had at her disposal, and these were the skills that Kiriko honed in that moment of dread when the mastermind revealed himself.

Another Arrancar, this one carried himself with such poise that she was momentarily reminded of her Captain. Though there were differing shades of casual death wrapped around her new focus. Kiriko's Captain simply was a killer, he breathed efficiency. This Arrancar was different. Murderer was perhaps the better word. Or predator. His expression said it all, that calmly glib smile as if he was happy to see her for some reason. She could smell the blood from this distance though Kiriko wasn't sure if that was imagined or real – the air heavy with that metallic tang.

He spoke and she couldn't help but shiver at the voice alone, her spine straightening as Kiriko stood ramrod straight. She would not allow him to get to her, it didn't matter what he said! And then the Arrancar brought up her Captain, an easy reference as if they'd just had tea or something and he was speaking of a long lost friend. But her Captain would never have associated with a Hollow, let alone something as evil as an Arrancar! A fierce glare coated her features as Kiriko bristled when her Captain's name was dragged into the mess. Something like this monster didn't even have the right to speak that name!

His eyes twinkled with barely concealed joy as the Arranar continued to speak, pausing almost tauntingly as he brought up the subject of dead Shinigami. Kiriko had been trying to not think about that, trying to push that worry far away. She didn't need it bogging her down right now, not when it was her duty to be a leader. But she had to wonder which of her comrades were already dead, who had been cut down in battle and who was bleeding out in some deserted street. The pause gave her just enough time to begin to imagine faces, those of her subordinates or friends. The people she wasn't with, couldn't help, and hadn't been able to protect.

And then, he uttered one single word. A name, so short and pretty. Just like the girl herself. Ayumi. Takasugi-san. And the blood soared in her veins, pounding against her eyes and in her ears until it was the only sound available. The beating of the drums. Ayumi. Ayumi. Ayumi. That girl wasn't supposed to be out in battle. She was still recovering from her ordeals! She wasn't strong enough yet, not mended from those ugly scars that cut through both body and mind. Takasugi was supposed to stay safe at the Division headquarters. What had she been doing out here? No --- Takasugi wasn't stupid, she would have stayed hidden. Safe. Their Captain needed her, wanted her skills, she wasn't an idiot to risk her life over a battle that was clearly outside of either of their capabilities.

Glaring ferociously Kiriko tilted her head up, chin thrust forward obstinately, “I'm afraid I have no reason to believe what an Arrancar might say. Takasugi-san is not someone you could have dealt with so easily and there is no evidence towards your wild claim.” Death... The final spark of a spirit... These things were far away and outlandish. They didn't happen to Kiriko's comrades. They couldn't. Because if Takasugi was dead then what was there to stop Kiriko from dying? If all that was good and precious about life could be wiped out so easily by a stupid blade then her dark soul had no chance in Hell of surviving this experience.

She simply refused to believe that was true.

The shift in conversation was so abrupt that Kiriko found herself confused for a second, unsure of if she had misheard the Arrancar or not. Zanpakuto? They were weapons of the soul, but that mattered little when the man was trying to send her into a fit of terror. All this talk about Takasugi, as if she'd be so childish as to believe he'd killed her without receiving even a scratch on him. If Takasugi had been out here, she wouldn't have been alone. There were men who were supposed to cover her, keep her safe. Kiriko knew those men and their strength, they weren't simple stepping stones.

“You will have to work harder than that to frighten me, and I'm afraid that my Zanpakuto doesn't have anything to say to you that would be polite enough for such company,” she deflected, her hands staying neatly in her sleeves and as far away from the hilt of Aneue as was possible. The blade didn't need physical contact to voice her anger though, the dark thoughts rolled in like a fog bank over a graveyard at midnight. The rattle of bones wanted an outlet. Aneue wanted to tear and rip and devour the bones of this arrogant little man who thought he could threaten Kiriko's friends. But even if Kiriko wanted to embrace that nasty little voice telling her to carve out the Arrancar's skeleton she had no intention of drawing her Zanpakuto. If battle came, her best bet was evasiveness and waiting for an opening to escape. The sword at her side was almost entirely ornamental, Kiriko had no ability to call forth Aneue's fury just as she had nearly no ability to swing the blade around in what could be called an attack.

WC: 1303 | GP: 26| Total GP: 54

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down May 17, 2013 1:28:45 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on May 17, 2013 1:28:45 GMT -5

Such a feisty sort of defiance came off of that woman, rolling from her body in waves. That was something that Tova could respect. He crossed his arms but never lost smile. He admired her stance and the vigor with which she held it, wholly content to remain still and readied. She was one of the few Shinigami who had taken that attitude with an enemy, but she was no less foolish than the others. While they might have not been as frightened of Tova as they should have been, this Kiriko was foolish enough to allow her situation to remain in the status quo. There was no mystery that Tova could strike her down at his convenience, yet she didn’t seem as though she were preparing an eventual escape route.

Lieutenant Chinda Kiriko of the Second Division had resigned to her death. This was a crime in the face of an opponent, one that he would not lightly allow her to get away with. He never lost that smile as he slowly drew his black-hilted Zanpakutō once again. The steel shimmered against the smoke-filtered sunlight that rained down from above. Despite the clouds of soot and ash that hung thick above their heads, the day was otherwise cloudless. No white tufts of water in the air to obscure the shimmering brilliance of Soul Society’s star.

Slowly the man rose the weapon above his head. He didn’t bother to respond to her words, he didn’t bother to read anything else into her stance or posture. There was nothing going on in that head of hers that he cared to see. The surface told him all he wanted to know—that he was staring down a terrified little girl doing her best to pretend she was brave. It was a farce that he would not tolerate in his presence, an insult to the master of lies himself.

“I’m heartbroken that Kyousuke hasn’t told you more about me,” began Tova as a swirl of dust began around his feet. His spiritual pressure suddenly bathed the area, so massive that most lesser being’s souls immediately blocked off their senses. Concentric circles began to form in the debris and small stones rose into the air at his behest. “Otherwise you would know that a tot like Takasugi was little more than fleeting entertainment.”

Those forest green eyes he so proudly sported bore into the crimson orbs of the woman in front of him, a girl that seeped with death herself. Tova could feel it in her very nature, her spiritual pressure gave it away. It was a tragedy that she didn’t realize it, and if she failed this test she would most certainly die. Her ignorance of herself would be her undoing, a fate fit for the blind.

Again his spiritual pressure rocketed upwards. The concentric circles of gray dust rose into spires that rose as a helical pattern into the sky above Tova. More and more began to move upwards, as if commanded by the direction his blade pointed. Around him the air began to resonate and blur, the vibration created by the King powerful enough to make teeth chatter together. His green eyes seemed to intensify. They took on a brightness of such magnitude that the seemed to light the world around him in a faint green as the screech of resonating air grew and grew.

“I don’t care about frightening you, Lieutenant,” bellowed Tova over the cry of his empty Zanpakutō. Perhaps even more so than a Shinigami—for their weapons took on a life of their own—the cry of an Arrancar’s Zanpakutō was an even purer reflection of the soul. Even Tova could feel the way his blood rose, the way his Aspect itched at him to toy with her until she fell to pieces, and especially the rumble of his stomach as he wanted to ravage and devour every little bit of the woman before him. The world was thick with it, it dripped with the emptiness and longing of a Hollow. As if Soul Society itself were being turned into one of those nightmarish creatures. “I want to see you! I want to hear you! I want you to answer the appeal of my soul and show me your worth as a Shinigami!”

*****

720 Words/14 GP
Total GP: 37 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down May 20, 2013 19:50:32 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on May 20, 2013 19:50:32 GMT -5

She was being paltry, putting up a false front of confidence that was backed by nothing but tissue paper and air. Even her claims at arrogance and the “royal Shinigami” stance of refusal to interact on any level with a Hollow were mere masks she hastily constructed to cover the emotions raging beneath her skin. If she created them quickly enough and used the proper glue Kiriko was even able to fool herself into believing her own courage and certainty. Takasugi was not in any danger. Could not be dead or injured. This man was nothing compared to her Captain. He'd be here any moment now, appearing out of the shadows to save her. All Kiriko had to do was keep up, keep up with the voice and the movements. Maintain equilibrium and just stay neutral. If she attacked, she was dead. If she ran, she was dead. The only option that was viable here seemed to be trying to talk this out, to stall and create enough of a situation that someone had the time to get to her. That her Captain took notice. He wouldn't want her to fight needlessly, to die for nothing. Hadn't he agreed with Kiriko when she'd told him that on their first meeting? That she wasn't willing to die over any old thing?

Those were the thoughts that kept her back straight and her voice steady, that was until the Arrancar slipped so fluidly into action that for a minute it felt as if she was watching some dance instead of a deadly game of cat and mouse. He lifted his sword, that soulless rip off of a true Zanpakuto, and the air became stifling. Heavy was a word that did not even begin to describe the pressure pushing down on her, as if all the air had been sucked from her lungs and the sky had come to crash around Kiriko's head. She felt dizzy, dazed, even the sweat that clung to her body had ceased to fall downward with gravity. The air swirled and lashed out, cutting at her very skin as if this man's spiritual pressure was full of knives that sliced in deep. Not just through her flesh but inward towards her soul. She couldn't breath, couldn't see, couldn't even stand as her knees gave way and Kiriko tumbled to the dirty ground.

The impact was lost under all of that pressure and she felt as if she was being forced to bow to some foreign king, her body refusing to answer her call as Kiriko struggled to remain upright. Kiriko wouldn't bow, not to some lowly Arrancar! Kiriko wasn't a servant or a slave, she was a Shinigami! A Lieutenant! A member of the Second Division! Kiriko was strong and proud and dear God that energy just kept coming in waves. The shriek of that empty sword was like the cry of a falcon as it swept down for the kill. She could feel it, her imminent death, that sword digging into her skull with barely any effort at all from the Arrancar. And it made her angry, made her pissed off and livid, because where in the Hell did he get the right to do this to her?!? Where was her Captain? But more than that, why wasn't she strong enough to do anything about this!? Why was she still so weak in body? Hadn't she trained hard? Hadn't she done her best to protect everyone and do her duty? Why the fuck was she unable to even stand under this guy's huge reiatsu?

Who was this guy?

Kiriko refused to despair, thrusting such bitter knowledge away with the abandon of one who had fallen too far too fast and their pride was still catching up with the shift. She was better than this! She was! Her fingers were the only things that could move, scrabbling around in the dirt for purchase like she was some abandoned child. But that wasn't true, was it? She wasn't abandoned. She'd never been abandoned. So what if Otousama didn't need her, so what if her Big Sister just ran off like that without a care for Kiriko? That didn't mean anything. She was big now, an adult. She didn't need anyone else, and plus she was a Shinigami! Like they'd ever amount to anything compared to her! Kiriko was strong! She was supposed to be strong! Dammit, why wasn't that true? It was supposed to be...

Her eyes were clenched too tightly for tears, but Aneue sensed the anguish nonetheless. With the lethal screams of that Arrancar's zanpakuto shredding the very air between them her own sword spirit began to stir. It started slowly at first, a faint hum and vibration from the blade, but it was the cold chill that caught Kiriko's attention. That icy cold feeling of bony fingers jabbing her in the side just as someone else used to do when they were little. You've got more than one sister... That insidious little voice whispered, all velvet smooth and honeyed, as if Kiriko didn't know what Aneue was trying to do. Didn't understand the machinations behind such an endeavor.

“You're not my sister, get over it already! Shut up and go away, I'm about to die, can't you just be quiet for once?” she shrieked in her own mind, hysteria making the words far sharper as Kiriko tried to mentally shove the spirit out of her head. “You don't belong here! You're not mine! I don't even know how you got here and I wish you'd never been created! Just leave me alone already!”

The sense of pain that drifted across their bond was so sharp that Kiriko choked and felt herself regret those words ever so slightly and the harshness of her rejection. Aneue was crazy, full of blood lust and despair and all too prone on tormenting Kiriko with disturbing dreams or creepy sensations, but she was also a constant. A presence at her side that never left her, that never abandoned her. Maybe... Maybe... NO! She couldn't trust Aneue, the sword hadn't even told her her real name, just some crap about being her sister! As if a stupid spirit sword could take the place of her real sister! Dammit, what did it matter if she was mean or not to her sword? It was just some stupid piece of metal that didn't even do anything useful. Kiriko had to tell the sword who was boss, get her out of her way so she could stop being so freaking disturbing and messing Kiriko up all the time!

That voice slithered in again, right up against her ear as if there was someone really there. “Imotou, don't be afraid... I'll tell you my name if you really want to know. I'll help you. I'll even destroy this lowly Arrancar that's bothering you so much. Just draw my blade. It's so simple, just move your hand, that's it... that's it... Just draw me and it will all be better. So much better Imotou you won't even be able to imagine it...”

That voice was so captivating, so charming. Didn't everyone else have a sword that did things? Why was it so unreasonable to believe that Aneue could save her? That Aneue had a power she had been hiding? The feeling of the hilt in her hand, cold metal searing its print into her flesh, was so sudden that Kiriko looked down with a jolt only to see the drawn sword. The cloudy metal failed to glint in the sunlight even as it drew her attention. That blade... She'd barely seen it ever since Kiriko had started to ignore Aneue. Maybe that was wrong of her, to ignore her spirit? Nothing bad had happened... right?

Aneue began to vibrate more strongly now, such a clamor arising that Kiriko felt her head clear ever so slightly. The pressure was still there, still suffocating, but somehow she felt able to stand, able to regain her feet and her composure. Aneue sang a death dirge in such glorious tones that Kiriko even felt confidence, a true determination that did not quake as her sword began to glow a faint white as she held it aloft. The noise rose and rose, but there was utter silence in her head as Aneue's voice appeared.

“Do you want to know my true name?”

WC: 1400 | GP: 28 | Total GP: 82

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down May 23, 2013 14:54:24 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on May 23, 2013 14:54:24 GMT -5

Nothing about this woman’s reaction matched Tova’s original expectations. Although she could not sense him in the typical way, her soul most definitely could tell when the immense spiritual pressure of the King of Hueco Mundo tried to suffocate her. Were her soul to allow her to feel him, to truly feel him, she would likely pass out in an instant. Yet even now his pressure proved so massive and volatile that he saw her begin to sweat. She lost balance, the vitality drained from her limbs, and all of the sudden the lovely young woman in front of him looked downright pale.

Tova amused himself with the thought that she seemed ghostly for just a moment, and then grinned wider when he saw her stumble in front of him. Her whole body collapsed into a mess of black robes and dark hair, sweat hanging from her chin in droplets. The idea which made all of this that much more satisfying? That the physical effect of his pressure aloned had caused this! Kiriko gave him quite the unspoken compliment that way and he’d have to thank her for both the beautiful sight of her crumpled helplessly on the ground and that she had shattered so quickly just from this simple display.

That sight almost proved endearing enough for him to forgive her failure. Not only had she simply fallen silently to the ground, barely conscious, but she had done so without so much as trying to answer his demands. Tova waited a few more seconds as he laid lifelessly on the ground, the wind violently ripping at her robes. Only once he realized that she had completely repressed her Zanpakutō, to the point she did not allow it to speak, did he lower his arm. Immediately the maelstrom around him died down and the air stopped vibrating. His spiritual pressure returned to flowing freely instead of violently and the whole of the universe seemed to give a sigh of relief.

Steel slid against scabbard as he put away his weapon and cautiously walked over to the woman on the ground. He stared at her and tilted his head from side to side as he examined the body. His eyes paid his subordinates a cursory glance as they jumped in closer in a flash of white, all eager to see what had become of the woman. Tova hesitated to touch her, of course, to check for a pulse. The physical shock may very well have been enough to kill her. However he wouldn’t put it past her to fake it, and instead stayed his hand.

“So I was right,” complained Tova, a bitter tang to his voice. “You were just eye candy for Kyousuke the whole time. He insisted otherwise, but…well, neither of us were the most honest people in the world. ”

Only after a few more seconds did he bend down. Long, pale fingers reached out to thread themselves through her hair and pick the woman up, only for her to finally stir. Her fingers moved first and clawed at the stone under of them, as if they tried to just figure out what bordered them. They found their way to her sword hilt and grabbed it. Her body rose next, like a marionette raised passionlessly by its strings while a symphony of spiritual pressure rang to life around her. The raven-haired womans eyes were lifeless—her mind elsewhere—even as the blade screamed frantically in a desire to be heard.

Vibrated air passed over his body in waves, buffeting his flesh with each pulse from her soul. He stumbled back once, then twice, before he stopped himself. His men retreated a bit farther, content to allow their King his fun with her. A small smile crawled across his lips, satisified by the display she had managed.

Yet she hadn’t gone far enough.

“That’s it, Lieutenant? That’s nothing! I guess you really are a waste!”

*****

660 Words/13 GP
Total GP: 50 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down Jun 6, 2013 20:04:57 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on Jun 6, 2013 20:04:57 GMT -5

Kiriko was on her feet, the air clear and cutting as her Zanpakuto hummed a sepulcher tune full of shadows and chilly tombstones. Her focus was so very fuzzy as if her head was still stuffed full of cotton even though the Arrancar had put away his sword and pulled his reiatsu back. Blinking myopically at her opponent Kiriko's blurry vision only served to make that instinctive fear all the more sharp as it sunk like tiny razors beneath her skin. Each exhalation and shift resulted in that familiar building pain, her bloodied pride shrieking just as loudly as the sword in her hand as all called for revenge. Coated in imaginary blood the wounds to her dignity were so severe that she could hardly swallow. There was only one relief in this picture, only one soothing truth. There was no one here to witness Kiriko's weakness. No one here to mock or lose faith, to remember these pitiful events. That knowledge was like a secret balm on her cuts serving to ameliorate the injury to her ego.

To be outclassed was one thing, to have another see her stumbles was something else entirely. Kiriko had always taken the risks on her own, hidden her flaws and shone all the brighter when there was someone to watch her. She refused to let her image be tarnished by anything and it was only luck and perhaps even fate that this horrible clash was completely hidden from the view of her comrades and peers. If someone had seen her now... The thought was horrifying. That was why when the rubble to her left began to creak and rumble as soon as she got to her feet Kiriko felt a dark dread building in the pit of her stomach. No... She had to be alone right now. Unless this was some ignominious entrance for her Captain that was meant to gain some advantage she wanted no part in the arrival of anyone else. Cursing quietly Kiriko felt her hopes shatter into infinitesimal pieces never to be pieced back together again, like a wet rock thrust into the flames and exploding, all of her strength burst as the pale faces of three Nibantai members appeared.

The leader, a keen eyed man who was known for both a propensity for cutting words and even sharper projectiles called out to Kiriko, his even voice breaking towards the end of her title with something akin to desperation. “Lieutenant Chinda!” There was so much relief in those two words. And Kiriko soon saw why as the second man pulled along his comrade who had a gaping hole in her stomach where firm flesh should have been. Each member was wounded and bloodied, though the girl, Arata-san, she thought under the sheen of sweat and dirt on the girl's face, was by far the worst off. That tight but eager smile on the young Shinigami's face was like a blow to the gut as Kiriko realized their expectations.

Not only had some of her squad mates just found her in the midst of the most dangerous battle she'd ever taken part in, but they were fully expecting her to save them. They were relieved to have come across her. Damn it! DAMN IT! Kiriko felt the Arrancar and his stupid little friends with their beady eyes on her comrades. On her subordinates. On the people she was supposed to protect and lead and keep safe! Damn it all! This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen! This wasn't how she was supposed to prove her worth! Where was the strength she needed to do her duty? Why wasn't she tough enough to beat this guy?

A fear unlike any other began to slither in her stomach starting at the navel and heading up towards her throat as if a snake was lunging towards her vitals. She was going to die. She was doing to DIE. And not just that, her men, her people, they were going to die because she was too weak to protect them! Because Kiriko was a stupid coward who didn't have the strength to be a good Lieutenant. What kind of soldier was she if she let her men die! What kind of Shinigami was she if she let a lowly Hollow come in and kill her men! Damn it, Damn it, Damn it! The desperation was so thick she could barely breath, and yet Kiriko watched as Arata-san pushed off the arm of her comrade and tried to stand on her own, the shaky hand signs Kiriko had taught them being employed as the three tried to convey a plan to her as if they really had any chance in this situation. As if they didn't realize that they were all going to cease to exist in seconds flat. As if they weren't aware of her failings, of her utter inability to protect them. They still thought she was strong. They still thought she was capable. She had lied to them and now they were going to die cursing Kiriko's name because she couldn't protect them.

Her blood boiled and the sword in her hand began that insidious whisper once again, that crooning caress of words, “Imouto... Imouto it doesn't have to be like this. I can save you. I can save Arata-san and Fujimoto-san and Kibe-san. I can save you all.” Kiriko listened hard to the beat of the blood drumming in her ears, to the panting of the men behind her and to the soft thud of pebbles tumbling down the pile of what had once been a magnificent building behind her. What had once been so perfect and beautiful but was now ruined by this Arrancar. “That's it Imouto... I can ruin him too. I can give you the power to make him bow down to you. Trust me... Trust me, I'm your other half aren't I? Shouldn't you embrace the power of your soul?”

Kiriko shuddered but that sugared voice just kept going, cajoling and comforting, promising the world in such a sweet tone. She couldn't really remember... Why wasn't she supposed to use Aneue? Trust... She didn't trust the sword. But why was that? Aneue just wanted to help her, right? That was what she was saying, and it all made so much sense. Everyone else had a sword spirit that was their friend, their mentor, their comrade. Aneue was made from the very same material, she was the other half of Kiriko's soul. If she couldn't trust Aneue then who was she supposed to trust? She kept telling Kiriko about the power, the great strength hidden in her soul, and it was so very enticing to think about. Kiriko had seen some amazing Shikai before, some terrifying and beautiful attacks. Shouldn't she have something like that too? Didn't she deserve a power that would make her opponents tremble? It was only fair. Only right.

Her hand tightened on the blade and Anenue sensed the change in resolve, the subtle shift in perception as Kiriko found herself believing that it was only her due to have a power that would slay this Arrancar in one strike. It was only appropriate that Kiriko had some hidden power inside, some grand ability that would help her save her comrades. The sword began to tingle, a faint rattling in the back of her head as Kiriko was filled with a burning drive. This was what she deserved! This was her right! “Tell me your name!” the words were uttered so forcefully that Kiriko almost didn't hear the slight giggling that preceded that soft umber voice, almost didn't perceive the sudden honed attention. The words came so simply, so easily, as if she had known them all her life.

“Rattle, Gaikotsu-Aneue!”

The battlefield flashed, seared by a brilliant light as Kiriko went through motions that were entirely new but felt like the oldest of choreographed katas. Her hands glided downward as she let the tip of her sword pierce the earth below her feet, but instead of spearing the ground the blade split apart into millions of tiny motes. Glowing particles that hung and shimmered in the air as they floated and orbited Kiriko's body. The silver light cast dark shadows over her face making her narrow features appear like a statue chipped from stone. The baubles of light trembled and swam as if stirred on the breeze before many coalesced in her hands once more, the specks throwing off no heat even as they pressed against her skin to form a long bladed naginata. The spear like weapon in her hands was cold to the touch and entirely white, bone white in fact, as Kiriko saw the segments of a spine fused together to form the shaft of her new weapon.

She jolted to see that, shivering despite the rush of amazing power that surged and filled her limbs with liquid sunlight and courage. She felt so strong! So capable! This was wonderful! So amazing! But the light had yet to die away, instead it seemed to be spreading and casting such a bright shade over everything that one could almost see the skeletons of the people around her through their skin. The chill creeped along, glowing motes drifting closer and closer to the three Nibantai members at her back. Something about this felt wrong, the complete silence in her head, the strange white pallor of Fujimoto-san as if even his black hair had been bleached white under the brilliance of her Shikai. She stumbled forward, looking down at the blade in her hands and only just then seeing what material it was made from. Not just bone... human bone! Her skin grew clammy as Kiriko shuddered with revulsion at the macabre sight. She recoiled, trying to drop the naginata but it was as if her hands were no longer her own as the light continued to spread outward, now reaching the feet of her comrades and bathing them in eerie silver.

She couldn't look away as Kibe-san's sandal peeled off his foot along with the bottom of his hakama, the slow drift of torn fabric almost reversing gravity as it floated up into the sky leaving a bare leg behind. And then the skin began to peel like the rind of an orange beneath a knife, each individual layer lifting up as if he was peeling from a bad sunburn in sheets of flesh. She couldn't understand what she was seeing until the pink of exposed muscle lifted away to reveal glistening bone. Kibe-san seemed paralyzed by shock but as the light spread further up his legs and towards his hips he began to scream a curdling terrible wail. His voice was joined by the desperate screech of Arata-san and then Fujimoto-san and Kiriko jerked her head towards them only to see strange globs of white and red floating in the air around their bodies. It took her a moment to realize that it was discarded flesh and bloody viscera. The expression of shock and anguish on Arata-san's face was vivid, but Kiriko really jolted to attention when Arata-san's pale cheeks began to peel away, revealing the fatty tissue beneath. There was no blood... It was strange but everything seemed to come off like a the husk of a corn, all in one layer that drifted up into the sky before morphing into tiny lights that floated back to surround her form. The lights were so dense it was a wall of lanterns in front of her but even that searing glow could not hide the skeletal remains of her comrades. The bones that had been picked clean of flesh but still remained standing as if they were alive.

There was a horrible shrieking and it wasn't until Kiriko realized that her throat was too dry to continue screaming that she understood the noise was coming from her own body. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the blank empty sockets of the skulls of what had been her comrades. Kiriko felt like throwing up and she tried to toss the naginata in her hands away, tried to drop it and recoil, but her fingers would not unbend and there was a wild and celebratory cackling inside her skull. Aneue was ecstatic, exultant, her voice soared on the highest draft of wind as she giggle and crooned with such dark pleasure that Kiriko felt her brain shudder to a halt. No... No wait... What was this? WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS?

Aneue started laughing, no longer the deliriously euphoric shrieking of before but now a darkly satisfied and mature mirth, “Oh... You poor little thing... You fell for it, how amusing! Well you asked for power, didn't you? I gave it to you so hurry up and smite that worthless little Arrancar before he catches on to what you've done! Come on now, those tiny little souls didn't really matter to you, did they? Oh come on! They were weaklings! They couldn't even take care of themselves let alone be of any help to you. Tell me the truth now Imouto, you hated them didn't you! Hated them for their expectations, for relying on you to save them? Well now it's over, now they've become useful! Ha! Isn't that ironic, such wastes of flesh have now become so very pretty once you take away all that ugly skin that was getting in the way of them being helpful. Aren't you happy? They wanted to help, right? Well now they have! This is what you always wanted Imouto, to have handy little subordinates right? You wanted them to be strong, to be useful, to be efficient. That's exactly what they were, there was nothing wasted when I turned them into your skeletal army!”

She couldn't compute. Couldn't understand. Unblinking eyes stared at the bony protrusions of Arata-san, of Fujimoto-san, of Kibe-san... What... What..? What had she done?

WC: 2228 | GP: 44 | GP Total: 126

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down Jun 8, 2013 23:15:51 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jun 8, 2013 23:15:51 GMT -5

Apparently the Lieutenant had an answer for him after all.

At first it seemed as though she could do little but stand there and asphyxiate from her own failures as they finally became too much to support. The air rang with the song of her blade, the melody nothing short of depressing. Every note and rhythm sad and foreboding, something that the King could respect in someone who called themselves a Soul Reaper. It sounded like the anthem of the grim reaper himself, taken and turned into a song meant to be played on the flute or harp. Even though her eyes remained as lifeless as ever he knew that something built within her.

When would he get to see it? His lips curled in anticipation, revealing the pearly white teeth beneath that were ready to sink into something. This entire little trip had given him nothing to feast on, nothing of true substance to enjoy. Instead of something rich he got fed celery and rice, longing only for meat and potatoes to go with his meal. Something about the pressure she suddenly gave off had his heart thundering in his chest and if the king didn’t know better, he would’ve thought himself in love. With the Lieutenant, with her Zanpakutō, or maybe just the song that it radiated into the air—he didn’t know.

Something approached
Someone, more accurately.

The men and women who appeared next were clearly colleagues. They ran up to join their Lieutenant at her side, shouting out to her and clearly expecting their Lieutenant to handle that man that had so ravaged Seireitei. Why should they expect anything less from her, especially with such an exquisitely tempered spiritual pressure bearing down on the world around her? He could hear her Zanpakutō begging for release, all but shouting its name in her ear. Why couldn’t she hear? Why didn’t she use her Shikai, something a Lieutenant could certainly do? Many had Bankai, or so he thought, and he still waited to see hers as well.

Something had not been right with the situation from the start; the way she acted, the way she seemed so clueless about her own Zanpakutō, all of it. This woman, blind and lost, tried so hard to keep a lid on the very things she needed to let loose. It took the arrival of her colleagues to bring life back into those hollowed eyes. These people she knew, people she knew counted on her to be a good and strong lieutenant. Tova could sense the crushing weight of responsibility on her shoulders in a moment. The song of her Zanpakutō dulled and fell out of rhythm, its shouts that much more frantic and excited. Before him Tova witnessed the strangest sight of a Zanpakutō at war with its Shinigami. One fought to be heard so it could prove itself, the other ran from it.

Why?
Fear?
Mistrust?
Something else entirely?

The thought proved foreign to the king. He could see—could feel—the pressure as it mounted. The Lieutenant only had so many choices. Of all things he didn’t expect this to be what drove her into a corner. The realization excited Tova that much more, sending shivers down his side as he put all of his might into containing the laughter.

Chinda Kiriko feared the expectations that others had of her.
Her closest allies terrified her!

It all made perfect sense to the King now, even if he did not understand why she retreated from her own Zanpakutō as she did. Kiriko here feared failure in the eyes of those who had come to depend on her. She had things that were expected of her as the Lieutenant of this Division and now there were people here to witness the shortcomings that Kiriko had convinced herself she had! Chinda Kiriko hated herself far more than anyone else hated her—no, they probably loved her!—but couldn’t realize that she already achieved what longed so desperately for!

Acceptance! Don’t you get it, woman?! It doesn’t matter if you can’t beat me! They won’t care! They’ll understand! You’ve created this problem yourself, it didn't need to exist! Tova thought. It finally overcame him, the desire to laugh, and he let loose only the quietest of chuckles before he restrained himself. The sight of the woman as she collapsed completely proved so exemplary that he wouldn’t have traded it for the world right in that moment.

Then her Zanpakutō got silent. Tova blinked. The other Shinigami blinked. Even Kiriko seemed stunned by what had happened, but that look of surprise told him all he needed to know—she had made her decision.

White light exploded from the woman and sent sheets of air out from it. The shockwaves pounded against Tova over and over, plumes of dust spilling out with each buffet of air. The king raised an arm to shield his eyes and listened to the flapping of his coattails in the violent, gale force wind. His forest green eyes peeked over the edge of his arm as the initial burst of light passed, revealing the transformation of her blade into…something else entirely.
Her weapon had become something other than steel. That much he could be certain of.

Pure white—very Hollow in nature—and clearly bony, her weapon…some sort of…spear? Naginata! That’s what those are called. The word got summoned from the vast library of knowledge that his extensive lifespan provided him. The Lieutenant’s eyes were focused—horrified—on her new weapon, one she clearly had never seen before.

It got worse.

From the weapon expanded a field of silver light. Tova lowered his arm after the storm ended, awed into silence by what unfolded before him. Literally that, for the very comrades that had shown up to watch their Lieutenant defeat this “monster” did just that—they unfolded! Like clothes being stripped and tossed aside he watched as their bodies opened up like banana peels once touched by the field of silver that vanished into the distance—it passed over Tova harmlessly for reasons he did not immediately discern—and likely cast its spell over countless others.

In seconds the men and women had been stripped of their clothes and flesh, turned into nothing but naked skeletons. They stood still, held together impossibly and with the faintest of sways to their posture. Tova blinked again, unaware that his face had been taken over entirely by a massive, bright grin. The sight of their flesh on the ground and pooled around the feet of the skeletons proved an even more enjoyable, one that sent another round of shivers down his back and sides.

Just as the King of Hueco Mundo thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. From around the corners of all the tall buildings surrounded them came even more skeletons—an entire army—likely made up of the weakest of Shinigami. Most were far, far below the strength that Kiriko herself had achieved. That must have been how the power worked! Anyone whose spiritual pressure got eclipsed by her own could be turned into nothing more than a skeletal minion, that useless given purpose through death!

Rattle, Gaikotsu-Aneue! I love it!!

Quickly the army surrounded Tova, operating entirely on instinct. He could tell from the look of horror on Kiriko’s face that she did not expect something like this in the least, which told him what little he hadn’t known about her relationship with her Zanpakutō. It had been trust, it had always been trust, and she had been right to doubt it! Like all of these pathetic Shinigami she gave the idea that “life is sacred” more importance than anything else! Yet her honest soul shone through with this power of hers, something that revealed the truth of her character!

Kirko had been afraid that her Zanpakutō would show her and everyone else the kind of person she really was!

Tova burst into uncontrollable laughter as the army surrounded him, perfectly white against the stone streets around them. His head snapped back as he laughed violently, his sides made sore in seconds from sheer exertion. “What splendid spiritual pressure!” Tova shouted through his laughter. “What a perfect release! YES! Kyousuke has never failed to entertain and he didn’t start with you! This Shikai, your ‘Gaikotsu-Aneue’, has stolen the show! You rip the flesh from those who are no good to you and put their skeletons to use as your minions!”

Tears formed in the corner of Tova’s eyes before the streamed down a cheek in perfect unison. Laughter overcame his words once more and he stumbled around, his hair thrown about as he doubled over and straightened against as if in some sort of hysterical trance, forced to move around as if performing some sort of twisted ritual. The king seemed as though he had completely lost his mind

“That is the Shikai I expect from you! This is the kind of power that fits your title as a Soul Reaper, as a Death God!” Tova shouted even louder this time after he gasped in a fresh lungful of air. His eyes were wide and his pupils were dilated as he stared at the woman in front of him, his chest heaving with an inhuman excitement at the sight. “Now put away that look of terror! You don’t care about those people and this proves it! So use your minions, fight me, or their loss becomes a complete waste! Your Shikai is exactly the sort of thing you Shinigami should wield! Why if Kyousuke had something like this…!”

Tova’s face lit up, his pupils tightened, and another massive surge of adrenaline filled his veins. Despite the burst of excitement his body seemed to calm. He stood up straight, composed himself, and a single hand reached up and unhooked his jacket. Underneath was not the bare, muscled chest that one would have expected. Instead there seemed to be another article of clothing, just as white as the jacket that it had been hidden beneath this entire time. Tov only opened the jacket just enough to reveal it, then stopped.

Wordlessly his hand slipped under the fold of the jacket and grabbed it. He pulled it out from inside his outfit and let it unfold in his hand. The cloth was white, save for a series of burns and tatters that left it browned in some places. What seemed to be the bottom edge clearly had a design of some sort, an object obviously meant to worn. Tova confirmed this by deftly slipping it over his own jacket and pushing his arms through the two holes meant for them.

The haori hung long on him, clearly tailored for someone with a bit more height than what the king possessed. On the sides that went over the chest were three spots of red, stains darkened by time. Tova spread his arms to the sides as if he modeled it for the woman in front of him. He didn’t bother to contain the laughter that grew in him, quiet and slow.

“What do you think?” Tova asked in the most innocent of voices. Were it not for the malicious grin that seemed permanently plastered on his face, someone might’ve bought that tone.

Then he turned around. On the back of the haori in perfect black was a symbol mirrored by the one on her shoulder bade: The Second Division insignia, framed by two more holes and spots of dark red.

“It looks better on me than it ever did him!”

*****

1,934 Words/38 GP
Total GP: 88 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down Jun 14, 2013 15:59:26 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on Jun 14, 2013 15:59:26 GMT -5

Kiriko. Kiriko. Kiriko. That word repeated over and over inside her skull, a battering ram that pounded eternally against the back of her eyes. An incessant grousing like the nagging of a long ago Mother. She could taste the name, a bitter and salty word, on the tip of her tongue. Kiriko. Kiriko. “Kiriko, come on... You're not being any fun! Where's the surprise, where's the awe! Where's the appreciation! Don't tell me you're really just afraid? Look what I did for you Kiriko! Imouto, Kiriko, stop that... Stop pouting, you can't tell me you're not pleased. You can't pretend you're not satisfied. You wanted strength, the power to crush your enemies, right? Well that's exactly what this is. So smile, laugh, come on, just stop staring!” The voice was cajoling, a wheedling almost whining tone as the sword spirit tried to mentally prod the Shinigami into action. The voice was full of surprise, true shock, as if Aneue couldn't even fathom why Kiriko was frozen in terror. Why Kiriko could do nothing but stare uncomprehendingly as more and more skeletons climbed the wall of debris behind her to form the neat ranks of an army at her back.

A childish whine rattled around in her ears before the spirit huffed in annoyance, “Damn it Kiriko! Stop all this stupid make-believe! You're not a kid anymore, you can't keep pretending things are different then they are. Face it – you're not really horrified, are you? You just think that you should be. What are you really feeling Imouto? Satisfaction? Glee? Confidence? POWER? Tell me I'm wrong. Say that I'm lying. But I bet you can't do that, can you? You can't deny the truth anymore, this is what you are! Just embrace it. He certainly doesn't believe your bluff and there's no one else for you to act for anyway.”

Kiriko felt her brain turn to a jellied mush as the pestle of Aneue's words just kept pounding and pounding until her head had been ground into nothing but pulp against the mortar of her skull. The words just kept flowing, a nonstop diatribe, a complaint against everything Kiriko held up as a standard, as a moral. Kiriko was too soft. Kiriko was such a fake. Kiriko didn't try hard enough. Kiriko wasn't good enough at combat. Kiriko was a weak leader. On and on and on it went, the same refrain repeating itself again and again. Just stop lying to yourself. That's all Aneue wanted. Just stop lying, and all of those faults would wash away. Kiriko wasn't too soft, she just made herself that way. Kiriko didn't try hard enough because she wanted to look nice and friendly. Kiriko wasn't strong enough in a fight because she didn't let herself think lethally. Kiriko was a weak leader because she ignored all of her good qualities. There was an answer to every accusation, a bandage for each mental wound. Just stop lying and you won't have to make yourself weaker anymore by pretending.

That was it. So simple. So damning in its truth. Kiriko couldn't deny it. She couldn't muster up a negation. Everything Aneue was saying, each blasphemous word, it was all the honest truth. Like the stones from Hell falling down to entomb her body Kiriko was encircled in the darkest of realities. The veil of lies she had concocted around herself was pierced by Aneue's glowing blade and she could not make those tattered pieces become whole again no matter how hard she scrabbled and clawed at them. It's not true... It's not true... You're... You're... YOU'RE LYING! She wanted to scream that out loud, to shriek and howl until that insidious little voice disappeared.

But it didn't disappear. And she didn't scream or protest. Because... It wasn't a lie. It was all true. Everything. And that realization was worst of all. Kiriko could have survived this horrifying event if she had been able to put it all aside – to lock it all away. It was Aneue, it was the sword spirit. A perversion of life itself. She hadn't been the one to do this, the one to wish this upon her comrades. It was all the sword, and so long as she tossed away her Zanpakutou when this was all over everything would have returned to normal. Kiriko could have gone on with great guilt and remorse but still gone on, still moved forward. Only now... She knew the truth. She knew of her own damnation. Because Aneue was a part of her own soul, a part of her own mind and spirit. Aneue was Kiriko. And this Shikai was nothing less than her own manifestation of power. It was hers and couldn't be blamed on anyone else. And that alone meant that Kiriko was anathema. She was damned. A true death god, that was what the Arrancar said between fits of laughter as Kiriko could only stare at her handiwork. A true Shinigami...

No less shaken by the comprehension that she was a despicable being Kiriko found herself unable to stop her eyes from wandering, from drifting along to survey the thick lines of skeletons surrounding her. They seemed to glisten in the air, their white bone gleaming like faraway stars they were so very beautiful... The movements of the bone as one soldier shifted an arm or a foot, the clacking of fingers and teeth, the wide-eyed stare of a skull, all of these things seemed like fleeting images frozen in time. Those tiny hands, all curled inward, like the petals of a lotus blossom in bloom. The sea of bodies, of skeletons, she couldn't help herself but to admire them. These skeletons were standing straight and tall, like proud little soldiers. Her soldiers.

Kiriko felt sick at her own budding emotion, at the anticipation and thrill she got from looking at her army. Her stomach roiled and raged but it couldn't stop that mental calculation, that bright appreciation. So pretty... Her army of skeletons. These soldiers wouldn't disappoint Kiriko. They wouldn't complain about hunger or weakness. They wouldn't stop for breaks or give in to pity or mercy. No – these were the perfect soldiers. Enduring, persevering, all there for her own amusement. Damnit, no! It wasn't like that! It wasn't!

She tried to discredit that thought, to refute it, but the pleasure that had lifted its ugly head at the words would not dissipate. None of that mattered though as Kiriko's eyes drifted further forward, settling on the Arrancar, the root of all of her problems here today. He was pulling something soft and square out from beneath his robe. The folded cloth unraveled in the wind, billowing in his hands like the white peace flag such a being would never wield. It took her eyes long seconds to realize what she was looking at, long drawn out seconds as Kiriko stared perplexed by the strange motions of the Arrancar as he put on the haori.

And then she saw them. The blood stains. The rips and tears. The pure black brush marks on the back that signified one thing and on thing only. Captain. Tsukimiya. Kyousuke. There was nothing but rage inside her then nothing but a burning animosity that bubbled and blistered before exploding in volcanic intensity as Kiriko found herself moving without thought. Kyousuke. Kyousuke. “HOW DARE YOU!!!” she shrieked and her own voice was the wailing of a banshie as Kiriko sped across the battlefield, her naginata raised to impale this thing. This worm. The skeletons surged around her, an ocean of clacking bones as they chittered and clanged in their bloodthirsty rush for contact. Hands outstretched like claws, jaws opening wide, the skeletons sought to swarm this puny little man and tear him to pieces.

Inside Kiriko was laughing a high pitch howl. How amusing! How funny! How quaint! This tiny little man. This mere Hollow-breed. He thought he could touch her Captain? He thought he could steal her Captain's haori? His rank? He thought he could speak of Kyousuke and get away with it? What a stupid man! What an idiot! Kiriko giggled as she plunged forward, her lips curved in an insane grin. This tiny little worm was going to be crushed now. She would rip him limb from limb and tear the skeleton from his body for her army. If he had had a heart she would have feasted on it.

WX: 1404 | GP: 28 | Total GP: 154

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down Jun 24, 2013 20:20:41 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jun 24, 2013 20:20:41 GMT -5

That did it.

The final support of the bridge collapsed and Kiriko plummeted into the river below. Yet instead of hitting water, it was more than she screamed. She shrieked at him at the top of her lungs, a sort of sound that seemed as almost inhuman as her own Shikai. The sight of her when she saw him draw out Kyousuke’s own haori had almost been too much! The way her eyes went wide, the way the disbelief set in, the way her entire soul seemed to tumble about with the conflict that he had created in her, all of it was like a gourmet dish for the king of all Hollows. It was exactly the sort of thing he had come here to see and Kiriko was giving a stellar performance!

White bone lurched first. From all around Tova the mass of skeletons that surrounded him lunged out right as he revealed the insignia to Kiriko, even if her actual body faltered. The furious rattle of bones filled the area—numbering at least one hundred skeletons by Tova’s count—as they rushed in like a swarm to devour the maggot that had dared infuriate their master. Some held part of themselves, some held parts of others, and there were a few that had sharpened shards of bone that they seemed intent to use as makeshift blades. Others rushed in only with their hands balled into bone fists, absent even the cartilage in their joints.

Those were creations of death, pure white, a perfect symbol of all things Hollow that Tova thought the Shinigami should more readily embody. After all, if they were going to strike down Hollows and call themselves Soul Reapers or Death Gods then they better live up to the job! Already he could tell that most of these so-called Shinigami had become pampered and protected—the very reason he had destroyed them before.

Not Kiriko. If anything, she was a sad little woman who had become crushed by her desire to be exactly what Tova wanted to see in Shinigami. Even the arrival of her allies had sent her tumbling over the edge into a neurotic breakdown, the weight of her own self-imposed standards proving far too much for her to handle.

China Kiriko tried to be a good Shinigami by stripping herself of the very things that made her human.

This folly had created the woman before him that had become a Lieutenant without so much as achieving Shikai. Now she had put a crack in that wall, summoned the power welled up in her soul and struck out at the enemy that invaded the city of Shinigami. She would do her duty—purify the Hollow.

Not to mention that she had a Captain to avenge.

Even as Tova saw the disbelief in her eyes, that was one thing he had not lied about. There was had been no deception in his actions. The truth of the matter was exactly what he had implied, and Kiriko knew it. Her refusal to acknowledge that led to her anger, led to the tip of the naginata in her hands begin thrust straight for Tova’s chest. She sought to impale him like hunter she knew she should have been, like the assassin that struck in the dark and from behind. The only lesson that she failed to obey in her rage was the very first one taught to all Shinigami.

Strike the Hollow from behind.

Yet even as the naginata tore through the air and forced it to get out of its way, the skeletons still arrived first. The small army descended on the king like a wave. White bone chattered in an horrific symphony, drowning out even Kiriko’s screams as Tova’s vision began a mass of daylight and glittering bone.

Then it all exploded. Bone was reduced to ash as Tova’s fist swung out, physically smashing through a few of the skulls in a well-aimed hook. Yet despite that he only swung once, many other skeletons around him erupted into shattered bone. White ash suddenly enveloped him as those skeletons feel mysteriously to bits, struck by blows that Tova hadn’t ever made.

In the midst of it all was Tova, a wild grin on his face. His body twisted in the sudden cloud of white and the tattered, stained haori fluttered in Kiriko’s face as she rushed past him. Her weapon caught nothing but air as her skeletons fell broken around her, clattering to the ground in a mess of snapped or dislocated bone that the magic of her Shikai could no longer hold together.

“What, did I do something bad? Is the woman that just stole the lives of at least one hundred of her comrades going to lecture me about murdering her Captain?” Tova shouted to her as she passed behind him. His right leg braced against the ground and stopped his twist from the punch. His left arm reached out just as Kiriko passed him and grabbed a handful of her robes. He pulled her back, knocking the woman off balance just as his other hand—scraped and slightly bloody from having punched through solid bone—reached to grab the front of her robes.

With a great heave Tova spun back around in the other direction. Kiriko was lifted off of her feet by his strength and smashed through skeleton after skeleton as Tova spun her back around, finally tossing her back in the direction she had first been going. Her body sailed through the crowd of skeletons and knocked them aside like bowling pins, clearing the area around Tova and leaving an open path as she tumbled along the ground.

The king didn’t stop there. He bounded through the clearing with immense speed and escaped the confused mob of skeletons behind him, some broken while others struggled to get back to their feet after having been knocked over by Kiriko. Tova rushed right over as she tumbled across the stone street towards a wall. His face was twisted into a mangled mix of excitement and combat high delirium as he grabbed her mid-roll, lifted her over his head, and slammed her back down into the stone.

The ground thundered as her body impacted the concrete road. The whole city seemed to rattle with the force of it and the road gave wave underneath her, fragmenting into large chunks of stone as a small crater appeared in the ground.

Then it was over. Tova stood over her, his chest heaving with excitement as the mob of skeletons reorganized themselves and prepared to rush the king. At his first, covered in dust from the shattered street, was Kiriko. Her bone-white Zanpakutō remained tightly clenched in her hands, but the king suspected that last outburst had taken from her what little steam she had. Even Tova could feel himself come down from the high of it all.

“You struggle desperately,” Tova said between deep, gasping breaths while he struggled to hold back his chuckling, “You fight and cling urgently to the standards you’ve set for yourself, thinking yourself worthless unless you can meet the norms of a Captain. You task yourself with the impossible and hate yourself for failing. Does it smart, Kiriko? Does it smart that for all of your trials and tribulations you still can’t so much as touch this haori? You never could, though, could you?”

*****

1,237 Words/24 GP
Total GP: 112 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down Jun 24, 2013 20:59:59 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on Jun 24, 2013 20:59:59 GMT -5

Kiriko seethed, her voice shrieking out the boiling wrath that was like acid against her insides. Her vision was red, no thought penetrated her mind, as she saw only the blood of this damned Hollow. Had to taste it, had to drain it from his very body until she could bathe in it! But as hard as Kiriko tried to attack, as swiftly as she raced in for the kill, her body was still no match for the King of Hollows. No comparison even. She lurched where he flew, she stumbled where he glided, she tottered where he stood tall. Without even noticing what was happening Kiriko felt cloth grow tight around her neck as the Hollow grabbed hold of robes and swung her around. Choking and scrabbling for purchase she tried to kick out but there was nothing except the disorientation of free fall. Even Aneue was silent as Kiriko slammed into the ground again and again, the body of her opponent an unyielding wall that she could only throw herself at like the waves upon the beach. That was all she amounted to here.

The anger sizzled and burned, spitting gobs that stung at her flesh like water poured into an oiled pan. She flinched again and again, struggling so hard, so hard, to get in at least one kick, one punch, one anything. And all the while the Hollow's words rung in her head, repeating and repeating until she wanted to tear her ears off and smash her own skull into the ground. Is the woman that just stole the lives of at least one hundred of her comrades going to lecture me about murdering her Captain? It echoed and bit, circling like sharks as the land beneath her feet kept chipping away piece by piece until she was standing on only a strip of thin island. And then it sounded again, that sentence. Is the woman that just stole the lives of at least one hundred of her comrades going to lecture me about murdering her Captain? The last foot of earth crumbled into the sea and she fell amidst the sharks. The woman that just stole the lives of her comrades. Stole the lives of her comrades. The lives of her comrades.

She felt nothing then, sinking down down down to the bottom of the ocean, torn to bloody bits by the sharks that still circled around her. Not even worth killing they just bit off chunks as it pleased them. She wasn't even worth killing. Air swished past her and Kiriko felt as if she was flying, as if she was soaring through the sky, but she certainly felt it when her body met the earth, when gravity and the grubby hands of the Hollow came to tear even that small happiness away from her grasping hands. Crushed in more than one sense of the word Kiriko lay there, her eyes staring upward almost apathetically as the Hollow loomed in close. She didn't care anymore. He could kill her if he wanted. She just didn't care.

And then he leaned in close, his breath ghosting along her cheek, and it wasn't the words that broke whatever was left inside her but it was that smile. That damned cheery grin. As if he was just so pleased to be shattering everything Kiriko was made of. And that was exactly what he was doing. He'd killed her Captain! He'd made her into a monster! He'd ruined even the smallest chance she had at a powerful Shikai! And worst of all, worst of all, he'd slammed right past everything that Kiriko had worked so hard to build and create for herself. Kiriko had torn down the bad and the ugly, she'd rebuilt her own persona, her own mind and past and story. She's trained and trained and worked so very hard to make everyone happy, to be the best, to be a good Lieutenant and before that a good Shinigami. But she wasn't! She wasn't good, she wasn't strong, she wasn't even worthy of her title. Not if Kyousuke was dead. Not if she had just killed Arata-san and Fujimoto-san and Kibe-san. Kiriko wasn't any of those things anymore.

Kiriko stared up at the face of the Hollow, even her hatred of him had waned as she lay there in self-pity. The light filtered past his hair, sparkling against his pearly white teeth and straining her eyesight. Fat tears welled up before rolling down her cheeks as Kiriko burst into sobs. Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to block out everything that had just happened, everything around her. “I hate you... I hate you... I hate you...” she moaned, her fists smacking against the Hollow's chest with a weak sort of intensity. Once she'd started she couldn't stop and Kiriko realized what it was that she was now that everything else had been stripped away. Just a little girl. Still just a lost little girl. Nothing had ever changed.

WC: 838 | GP: 16 | Total GP: 170

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down Jul 6, 2013 17:05:06 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jul 6, 2013 17:05:06 GMT -5

Despite all of her fire and venom, Kiriko had run out of juice.

After the last blow she had taken—being slammed into the concrete like she was naught but a misbehaving dog—her body lost what little strength it had. The tension flooded from her limbs and her heart shattered almost audibly, the one-two combo of physical and verbal pummeling putting the little girl down where she belonged. Condescending eyes gazed down on the young woman as she squirmed in the broken stone of the street, uncertain how to get upright again. It was all he could do to stop himself from offering her a hand—her sweat and blood-matted hair almost a tragedy given how beautiful it had been just a moment ago.

Streams of crimson down her face that poured from numerous gashes on her scalp and head had a unique beauty of their own. It reminded Tova of a bad attempt at face paint, widening his already smug smirk into something even more detestable. In her delirium she even toppled over a couple more times, smearing that blood along the off-white street that had collapsed underneath her. Her hands and feet shot out in every direction, as if she thought herself falling. Suddenly the woman seemed to regain a sense of herself and her body went tense and rigid, held up on all fours and back to the sky.

Delicate movements brought her to her feet, her chest heaving in breaths of fresh air no longer running thick with dust from the street. Her head still hung in front of him, her ruined mane of black hair the only curtain between Tova’s piercing gaze and her eyes. She stumbled forward like a marionette with half of its strings cut, each step a laborious effort that nearly toppled her again. The distance between the two was paltry, yet she dragged herself across it as if traversing a desert with nothing but her sheer force of will.

Wobbly arms raised themselves and Tova watched her entire body tense and shudder. Heavy tears fell from her eyes just as she tried to lift her face to see his own. Her tipped gaze revealed a dirtied, bloodied face made out of grime, crimson, and salty tears. The sobs drew lines of white down her cheeks and washed away everything that stained them. Tova couldn’t help but share in her catharsis, her heart freed of a few more chains with each drag of her feet over what few centimeters separated the two of them. Just as the tears cleaned her face they cleared her heart, showing her what honest feelings were leftover.

What remained was hatred, by her own admission. Tiny fists balled up once she reached Tova and pounded heartlessly against his chest. Kiriko hit with the force of a toddler now, an exhausted child that thought it wise to fight an adult. Just as the first fist hit his chest her sobs grew louder with her words, weak and slow as they were. The naginata at her feet was consumed in a bright light, transforming before his eyes back into the blade that it had once been. With it the bones of the men and women she had stolen the life from collapsed around her and hit the ground in an orchestra of rattling.

With the same slowness with which she moved Tova reached up and held both of her small, pale wrists in his hands. He didn’t squeeze, pull, twist, or do anything that might harm her. He just steadied her, let her weight lean towards him a bit, and felt his own smile melt and soften into something almost...genuine.

“You hate that you see more of yourself in me than in the mirror,” he whispered to her, the way a father might spell out the ugly truth of things for a child; a bitter pill that needed to be swallowed. “You hate that you see more of yourself in me than in the men and women who just lost their lives to you. You don’t hate me, but you wish you could. Every little bit of you wishes that you hated me instead of…yourself. It breaks my heart.”

Gently the man tugged the small woman into his arms. They wrapped around her back and tugged her in closely, the tattered haori of his first victim fluttering over her as he embraced her small, defenseless body. Tova didn’t honestly expect any further resistance from her. Kiriko was finished. She had passed his test, won her battle, and now it was time to present her award.

“I can’t let you hate yourself when you are, in fact, a beautiful example of what the Shinigami should be. It is only your preconceptions that make you hate yourself, so let me strip you of them,” his words came soft and even quieter, unheard by any but the Shinigami and Arrancar in a cuddle that never should have happened.

“You love your Shikai, Kiriko. In fact…you can’t remember having ever as much fun in your entire life,” his words passed her ears, her mind, and sank right into the depths of her soul. They struck impossibly deep, given life by a power beyond her lesser comprension. In the temple of self the very rules were rewritten, the place rebuilt in a matter of seconds—more than mere tapestry it was in fact a transformation.

“It’s the most incredible thing you’ve ever felt and you can’t wait to use it over and over, can’t wait to get to know your dear Gaikotsu-Aneue even better.”

*****

936 Words/18 GP
Total GP: 130 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down Jul 6, 2013 17:35:47 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on Jul 6, 2013 17:35:47 GMT -5

Kiriko struck her fists against the Arrancar's chest like inefficient rocks being thrown at a tank. The gesture was full of futility but she could not stop, could not release the hatred boiling inside of her, the limpness of her body and the acid cut of her thoughts. If she just kept moving, if she just kept repeating it over and over again, then maybe she could convince herself that she was being honest. That she was speaking the truth. She hated him. She did. Right? Right? She had to, and yet when the King grasped her hands gently in his own she found herself collapsing against his support. The disparate scents of her own blood and her Captain's haori wrapped around her in a comforting cocoon. If she closed her eyes... If she closed her eyes then everything was okay right now. It was almost as if she had never been hugged before, never been embraced in such a manner, and Kiriko melted into the proffered comfort. She was broken down into shattered bits but this man did not hate her, he didn't despise her, she hadn't failed him or killed him. Instead he was touching her, holding her, like a Father would. Like family.

Clean tears washed down her face, the feeling of security hard to push back even as everything around her seemed to disappear and melt away. Kiriko existed solely in that moment, solely in that embrace. She hated him. She loved him. She hated, she loved. Hated, loved. Which was which? What was what? They seemed to swirl so close together, becoming intangible and melding into one emotion. She was weak, but Tova had made her strong, had given her a Shikai. She was scared, but Tova was there to save her. She was a coward, but Tova forgave her. He forgave her for everything, because Kiriko was good. Kiriko was powerful. Kiriko was Aneue. Aneue was Kiriko. “Yes... Yes, I love my Shikai! Aneue-Gatotsu is mine!”

The relief that flooded her mind at such an admission was so very powerful that Kiriko almost fell to her knees, only the grasp of the Arrancar keeping her upright. She was okay. She was okay because Tova forgave her and because Aneue was here now. Everything was going to be okay. Better than that, it was going to be great! Fantastic even! Kiriko had power now, she had her own Shikai! Not bad, not weak, not afraid, all of those things were washed away with the blood and tears. Tova had reforged her in a new shape, a better shape. Kiriko was proud of herself. She was something to be proud of now!

She wanted to stay in that embrace forever, to hold on to the support and comfort of Tova, but now she was strong enough to pull back, to pull back and stand on her own two feet. Wiping the moisture from her face her hand came away streaked with red, she smiled, a beatific grin from deep within made all the more beautiful in contrast with the dirt and blood. “Thank you! Oh, thank you! You were right about everything!” Kiriko kept her hands softly encased in Tova's, arms outstretched between them as she gently squeezed the Arrancar's fingers as if they were old friends. Kiriko had never felt something like this before. She had always been searching, looking so hard and trying her best but never finding what she was looking for. Getting so very close at times, touching on the relationships but never enough and Tova had shown her in only a few seconds exactly the thing she wanted most. Family.

WC: 610 | GP: 12 | Total GP: 182

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down Jul 6, 2013 18:08:18 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jul 6, 2013 18:08:18 GMT -5

Surgical precision had always been his way of life. Just as he might remove a pending aneurism from her brain he had reached into her heart, mind, and soul and plucked out that thorn that had pained her so. Just as if he had removed the unbearable weight from a bridge, everything about her was…relieved. Her heart was no longer conflicted and stressed. She knew who she was, she liked who she was, and that was all there was to it. Tova smiled at the new sight of her, the way her hands moved to his and tightened in the smallest, almost unnoticeable way. Her misery vanished and her tears evaporated, replaced by the new sense of peace that the woman had found.

Despite the happiness she had discovered in his arms she managed to peel off of him. She took half a step back and raised her face to look him in the eye, a bright smile on her lips as she wiped her face clean into the sleeves of her robes. Her hands held Tova’s and squeezed a bit more, consciously this time. In just a sentence he had set her free from the pain that had followed her around like a black cloud of misery. The lyrics of a particularly famous song from earth slipped into his mind at the sight of her, the way she lit up, but he dismissed it and simply enjoyed the fruits of her labor.

Everything went perfectly. What had been just a minute ago a confession of her deepest disdain for him had transformed into the exact opposite—she loved him. Tova had gone from the devil to doting father in a matter of seconds, and her reaction communicated that in every way. So many years of learning and he had truly gained such a complete mastery of the mind and heart that a single sentence—changing something seemingly unrelated—had caused a cascade of transformation through Kiriko, turned her hatred into love that threatened to burst her heart at the seams.

For a moment the King wondered if all of Soul Society could contain his swelled ego. All of his effort had to be put forth just to contain the raucous laughter that threatened to jump forth instead. Instead he sated himself by pulling a single hand away from her soft fingers. He placed it on her head and pushed his fingers through her hair for just a moment and tugged out some of the knots created by sweat and blood.

“Someone feels better,” he said with a laugh, mostly so he could hear it for himself. The way she stood now it was as if he hadn’t just shattered her body like a pane of glass. When the blight of her self-hatred was removed a new sort of strength flooded her, the strength of pride in oneself. A strength that she hadn ever known until now.

Without another word he passed around behind her, a hand pivoting on her shoulder. He stopped a second later, but nothing happened. Tova didn’t speak, didn’t seem to move. It was then that white appeared around her shoulders, cradling and surrounding her with its warmth fresh from Tova’s back.

“And it looks better on you than it ever did on me, Kiriko,” he whispered from behind her. The haori was draped over her like a curtain, her arms not yet through the sleeve holes. “With Kyousuke indisposed it seems that it falls to you to fill your duties as Acting Captain. Your division needs your leadership now, but you won’t be alone.”

Again the grinning man pulled away from her. His finger traced along her back, moved around to her other shoulder, and he stood next her. The man bent over and deftly plucked her sword from the ground by the blade. He turned just a bit and used his free hand to offer the hilt of her blade to her, free for the woman to take. The sheath itself had reappeared in her sash, right at her side where it belonged.

“You’ll always have your sister.”

*****

688 Words/13 GP
Total GP 143 GP

Fulfillment

Transcendent It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.

2,576 Posts

RankKiriko Chinda Reiatsu415 Defense145 Strength65 Speed40 Spirit165

When the Stars Fall Down Jul 6, 2013 18:34:08 GMT -5

Post by Fulfillment on Jul 6, 2013 18:34:08 GMT -5

Kiriko was standing tall for the first time in her life, not the facade of a straight back that she had shown to everyone in the past but a real glimpse at an inner steel. The air seemed to dance around the two of them, light cascading over broken rubble and white bone and creating a halo effect. The entire scene was one of mass destruction and yet to Kiriko it appeared picturesque. There was nothing more beautiful in the world. She was so content, so full of happiness, that the moment Tova disappeared it was like a blow to her very heart. Was he gone? Leaving her? But then he reappeared like the whisper of spider silk and she basked in his presence like a cat in the sun, luxuriously stretching her new mindset as she spun and twirled, the coattails of the haori whirling around her like water splashing at her knees.

“Don't worry, I'll take care of the Second! I can do that now. I promise. And Tsukimiya-taichou won't have to worry about anything either,” Kiriko was eager to please, leaping at the chance that was being provided to her. Everything Tova said, every word, it was like the benevolent of caresses, as if she was still being hugged so firmly and wrapped up tight in the sound of his voice. That honeyed tone that made her feel warm and soft inside. The Arrancar King was proud of Kiriko too. Her own Otousama cared nothing for her but here was someone new, someone who was able to save Kiriko and forgive her all of her flaws. To recreate her as a better person. A stronger person. A capable person. Otousama? She didn't need such a weak old man in her family anymore. Why cling to the past that was only like dirt on the hem of her hakama? Better to shed it now, throw it all away and forget, because things were different. This was the climax of her life. Kiriko was finally whole. No – Kiriko and Aneue were finally whole. She grasped the sword in both hands, loving eyes polishing the cold metal that felt so right in her grip. The weight familiar and comforting. There was a soft sigh from somewhere in the back of her mind, and Kiriko smiled even brighter.

All of this thanks to the Arrancar King. Thanks to Tova. The man who had come in one fell swoop and replaced her entire world. Was this love that she was feeling now? Was this what it felt like to have a real Father? To be content, to be safe, to be cherished? Brimming with elation, Kiriko grinned, “Yes, I'll always have my family.”

WC: 450 | GP: 9 | Total GP: 191

Alter Tova Diabló

229 Posts

When the Stars Fall Down Jul 13, 2013 7:51:08 GMT -5

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jul 13, 2013 7:51:08 GMT -5

Just like flipping a switch. Kiriko had gone from weak and barely able to support herself to having the strength of character to face the responsibility of Captaincy with a beaming smile on her face. Tova’s hand brushed through her hair again as she spoke, a soft smile on his own face as he admired the results of his work. There was much to be proud of in the change he had inspired in Kiriko, but he knew that wasn’t enough. She spoke of family, did she not? Perhaps it was time to give her a new family; perhaps it was time to welcome her into a much larger family than just her and her sister?

“That’s right,” Tova said quietly, “Your Zanpakutō is just like family, never forget that. Family is whoever will stand beside you no matter what, whoever will have your back no matter what kind of person you are—unconditional acceptance. That’s why we love them.”

Although his words seem tangential, a small little piece about Tova’s view on the concept of family, he felt as though the idea needed to be shared. As if the simple act of speaking the words had a profound impact on the woman in front of him, almost as much as the ones that had stripped her of the rot and disease that ate her strength and left as little more than a whimpering sow. The idea that family was meant to be there for you, no matter how much they frustrated you, right to the very end. They didn’t have to like each other, they didn’t have to spend a ton of time with each other, but they were always meant to be counted on when the going got rough.

Contrary to popular belief, not many people had family like that to rely on. Tova himself smiled and held silent a scoff at the idea.

He had never known family yet he had created it.

“There’s a much larger family out there that would accept you, I just wasn’t sure you were ready. I’m still not,” he explained. Tova let his hand fall from her hair to her haori-covered shoulder. His other gently rested on the hilt of his blade at his side, a quiet rattle sounding as he gripped the weapon in its scabbard. “When the right people know, they’ll accept you. They’re all over Seireitei and they…stick together. Their numbers have swelled today, and you can find ap lace with them.”

Then his hand fell from her shoulder, but he never lost that smile. His arm rested at his side while his other remained on his weapon, undrawn. He seemed as though he had to wait for something, as if there was a divine cue that must be observed before he was permitted to act. Tova’s head tilted to the side just slightly, as if examining her—as if conflicted. Deep green eyes betrayed an inner debate, a consideration of how to go about just what he wanted to do that the King had not displayed until now. Gone was the absolute certainty with which he had uttered every word or taken every step. Now the King betrayed that he too took precautions against his own human fallibility.

“Once you tell them, they’ll accept you.”

Those words cemented whatever decision the devil had come to. What happened next was a blur, a painful twist of memories and realty accented only by the rush of movement and the bright flash of steel in the midday sun.
All she knew was that, out there somewhere, would be a family for her.

A family that could, hopefully, save her.

*****

614 Words/12 GP
Total GP: 155 GP

Fin

Bleach Gotei

When the Stars Fall Down

Post by Alter Tova Diabló on May 9, 2013 1:38:40 GMT -5

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Post by Alter Tova Diabló on Jul 13, 2013 7:51:08 GMT -5

Welcome!