COMPLETE.

[sealship]

Who: Izuru (sealship), Rangiku (leftagain).
What: Kira arrives, and Ran goes off to see him~. ♥
Where: Near the church.
When: Sometime today.

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[sealship]

Kira didn't know a whole lot, really, and it might have been too bad, might have been a little bit unfortunate, but he would have never guessed. How could he have, really, when his loyalties were so pinpointed to one cause, one purpose, and how could he, really, when that cause and purpose all tended to circle back to Ichimaru Gin, to the 3rd Division?

He didn't know anything. Very unfortunate, yes, and it really was too bad.

Bright eyes slid open at the sound of her voice, and a look of mild surprise shifted over previously drawn features as his vision fell and focused on her. He noted the smile, and it seemed like her smile, felt like her smile, but something was still a little bit off. Her nervousness wasn't hard to read, really, considering she had the terrible habit of being maybe a tiny bit obvious when she wasn't in her normally chipper mood. Part of Kira wondered if it was because Hitsugaya wasn't in Nuadoria with her, and the other part said, no, that's not it at all; you really have no idea, do you?

He swallowed hard.

"Matsumoto-san," he greeted once he'd composed himself, straightening a little as he disguised the hesitance drifting in his voice with a small tilt of his head toward her. "You arrived quicker than I anticipated."

[leftagain]

She inhaled now, slow - this was more strange than she'd thought, having to do this - and she wondered, idly - crazily, in a sense - which of their words would hold more weight with Kira, but... She already knew that answer.

Because it was the same for her.

"Well, I hadn't seen you in a while so I missed you, Kira-kun." She felt sick to her stomach even as she said it, but she kept the smile there as well as she could. "Either way, we should go talk. It's a long story, so maybe we should go sit in the house I got when I got here."

Her smile flickered a moment - it was, after all, another memory she'd prefer gone at the moment. She knew she was as transparent as glass, but that much didn't matter anymore. "Gin's right though, I think it's only the six of us here. No one else has said anything if they are, and I can't..." The frown deepened slightly. "Ah, this place does weird things to our powers, so you never know!" The cheerfulness was contrived, but part of her just wouldn't let her drop it.

She was nervous, and she hated it.

[sealship]

The only thing Kira could really tell for sure about Rangiku was that she looked about fifteen seconds away from falling apart. Everything she said made enough sense, he supposed, but it wasn't right, either, because they weren't the words she wanted to say. There was something else she wasn't telling him -- something she was afraid to tell him, maybe, and she was masking her fear with sentences that went together, that flowed prettily enough, but that ultimately told him nothing.

Kira had never seen her like this before, and he realized in that moment that he'd never been so unsettled before in his entire life.

He frowned and his fingers tightened instinctively around the hilt to Wabisuke as he continued watching her, listening to her speak, as patient and quiet for as long as she needed him to be.

It was all he could really offer her, at that point.

"Matsumoto-san," he began slowly after her words fumbled to a stop, softer this time as he attempted to draw her attention back toward him. His tone carried a hint of reserved gentleness that was especially saved for situations like these. "Something's bothering you."

[leftagain]

"... Well, yes." And he was right - she felt fifteen seconds away from falling apart. Her eyes flickered to Wabisuke and she could have smiled if she didn't feel so terrible. "I'm sorry, just your arrival and what you said, I was caught off guard and..."

"Kira-kun..." Thoughts of moving to the house, of finding a place to sit, had fled her. She tried to regain some more composure, taking another deep breath. "That... really is the last thing you remember, isn't it?"

[sealship]

As clueless as he might have been, Kira really didn't like where this was going. Didn't like the sound of disbelief in her voice, and he hated the whisper of inevitable dread even worse. It wasn't like her, and beyond that, he knew that whatever she wanted to say couldn't have been good, couldn't have been positive. After all, there had to be some reason she didn't understand why he was remembering past events the way he was, why he couldn't fill in the pieces for himself, why he had to be told, because--

He was missing something terribly important.

"... Yes." His tongue felt thick again, and the word sounded horribly foreign coming from his mouth.

[leftagain]

"... Ah." And that was all she could manage for some time. It wasn't from a lack of trying, but she couldn't come up with a single thing to say. Finally, she looked back at him - not even having realized she'd looked away for so long.

"Your memories don't match up with Gin's and mine. It's like you came from back home before we did." A hesitation, and another glance away.

"Aizen..." She couldn't bring herself to add the honorific. Couldn't, wouldn't - not now, not after everything that had happened. After all, he wasn't captain anymore. "Aizen isn't dead." She could barely bring her voice above a whisper now - it felt something like a punch to the stomach to have to admit it out loud.

It also felt wrong - wrong to tell him this when he wasn't from the same time they were, but all the same she had to, because the alternative was worse.

[sealship]

The whole situation was like looking into a giant mirror, really. It was a mirror that told him what he needed to know, what he needed to hear, while leaving all the important details of his past out, while refusing him the truth in place of a well-blanketed lie that would keep him satisfied and at bay. But her words, what she was telling him (Aizen, she whispered, and there wasn't a taichou there, and part of him wanted to correct her, before he realized what it was that she had just said), they were like rocks against the glass.

The mirror cracked, and Kira's expression faltered, then fell.

He hadn't heard her correctly. Surely.

"You--"

Nothing, though, couldn't think of a damn thing to say, and he briefly wondered to himself when he'd started gripping Wabisuke hard enough that his entire hand had gone numb.

"I don't--"

Had to think, and breathe, and think, definitely had to think, and slowly, his fingers uncurled from around the hilt of his weapon until his hand could fall limply down to his side.

Had to stop staring, too, but--

"I don't understand, Matsumoto-san."

[leftagain]

It was difficult enough without looking at him, but she had to - it was too important now to just try and skirt around it or attempt to say any of it without looking at him.

"It's hard to explain." She paused here, arms crossing in front of her in a rare self-protective gesture - not from him, clearly not - but from what she had to say. "Aizen, Tousen and Gin--" And she had to pause here again, a faltering of breath - a long moment, though the reason this time was clear enough in that she'd had to say his name and pin it to the crime.

Later, she'd likely have to laugh - the most telling detail and almost complete proof that she wouldn't lie - her words were casting Gin in a terrible light.

It hurt more than she'd anticipated. She exhaled, slow. "Aizen, Tousen and Gin betrayed Soul Society. Aizen was never dead, he used an illusion to make us think he was." She trailed off - still looking at him, and hoping he'd believe her. Hoping he'd be able to.

[sealship]

The mirror shattered, and with it, so did Kira's resolve.

His first thought was that isn't right, and his second thought was, she's lying, except. She wouldn't have ever, would she. Wouldn't have ever lied to him, especially not when it came to Ichimaru, not when it came to Aizen, or even Tousen, or anything else that had to do with the Soul Society. It hit him like a slap in the face, and he couldn't breathe, couldn't hesitate his train of thought for long enough to do anything other than attempt to keep himself from barreling right over, because.

Her words clawed at his insides until he was nothing more than shredded pieces of what he used to be, and he'd--

Raised his sword against Hinamori-kun, and he'd--

Listened to (trusted and believed in, and there wasn't any other way he would have done it, because it was his job, part of who he was, part of what he needed to be, and was this what it felt like to be betrayed?) Ichimaru when all along he was just--

Using him?

His stomach twisted violently, and he felt sick.

"Ichimaru-taichou," was all he said, then, and his voice held the question that didn't need to be answered. It wasn't like there was any other Gin out there, after all. Wasn't like there was any other Gin capable of that sort of thing, after all, and he should have--

He should have known.

[leftagain]

"I'm sorry you... found out like this." But it was the only way, wasn't it? She was quiet now - face turned away by this point because part of her wanted to cry, but the rest of her wouldn't, couldn't let her - even though she felt something like her heart was made of glass and it was about to burst into pieces.

It was like re-living some of the most horrific moments of her past, and she didn't want it. "... Yes." And it was that last word that sealed the finality of it and she dipped her head forward to hide her expression completely.

"They left to Hueco Mundo." But now her voice was little more than an exhale with meaning, hoarse even then, when there was nothing of substance left. This was the shortest version of it retold, but - she couldn't think straight, couldn't put the details in order at the moment.

[sealship]

There was too much he wanted to say, wanted to ask, but nothing came to him, nothing rose from the broken remnants of the reflected lie he'd been fed for much too long. He couldn't ask why, because part of him knew why. Part of him understood, part of him realized, and he didn't know how he hadn't expected it, how he hadn't seen it coming.

Because Ichimaru-taichou had always been a little bit of a sin even when he was pretending otherwise, and now he was branded with mistakes he hadn't even realized he'd committed.

Because.

Ichimaru.

His hand lifted, fingers quaking in a way that they shouldn't have, and they brushed lightly over a strand of that red hair, before he was pulling away. Couldn't do anything to help her, could he, couldn't say a goddamn thing, not when he wasn't thinking clearly, not when he didn't know what to say, because there wasn't anything to say. It made sense now, somehow. All of it made sense, and it was so wrong, and more than Kira hated himself, he hated the tears hidden in Rangiku's voice and the way she hid her head.

"I'm sorry, Rangiku."

The words felt empty, hollow, and the sound of her name falling from his lips shook with another emotion he couldn't quite place. He shifted over the ground, feet sliding carefully over gravel and rock, and then--

He was gone.

[leftagain]

The touch was a surprise and she lifted her head quickly - but only soon enough to hear his words and see him start to go and she shook her head, making to reach for his hand and--

"Don't-"

But he was gone already and instead her hand fell, helpless in a way she'd never wanted to be. It had been different, when they had all known. It had been easier - easier to just drink away her troubles and pretend that nothing was wrong.

But now she would stand there - quiet and defeated in the dark and trying to regain herself. And after that she would trudge back to the house she'd claimed - all the while wanting to follow after Kira but knowing better, knowing better because now it was out of her hands, wasn't it?