Day 4 ☀ Digging through my own muscles for a clue
Who: Ichigo ( savior_n_black ), Shiro ( holeheart ), Rukia snowwhitesoul ) AND POSSIBLY MORE LATER?
What: Ichigo, and Shiro's powers finally force them to merge back into a single soul.
When: Day 4, early
Where: Middle of the city
Warnings: Language, violence, minor body horror?
( Hoping I can clear the way by stepping through my shadow, coming out the other side. )
What: Ichigo, and Shiro's powers finally force them to merge back into a single soul.
When: Day 4, early
Where: Middle of the city
Warnings: Language, violence, minor body horror?
( Hoping I can clear the way by stepping through my shadow, coming out the other side. )
She pays even less mind to the way her fingers have woven between the taloned fingers and returns that squeeze. Even if he had the whole situation under control, the adrenaline of a fight is still filtering out of her system. The touch of a hand, even one as hot as his, was comforting.
And the road is quiet, deathly so. They were near the market, she realizes from the scattered shards of crates and the sundered heaps of stalls sitting on the sidewalk. There are no bodies around, but plenty of dried blood. The monsters had more practical uses for corpses, after all. She turns to him as he lifts the mask, wondering if he's going to dispel it, and attempts to ask him - them, both, one in the same - if they were alright when his face bends down to hers, the knuckle of his other hand tilting her chin up so their lips could meet.
Its just a simple press of lips at first, his lips are so damn warm and soft and the bluster of his breath against her cheek is warm too. And he waits there as she stiffens in surprise, her hand coming up uselessly, pawing at the air awkwardly as she realized what he was doing.
He was kissing her.
They were kissing her.
Wh-Why? He's...they are...that time before... one part of her brain races with questions, confusion. Why, of all things and all times? Why did they do this? Was this Ichigo? What about Shiro? Would she be hurting Shiro by doing this?
But the other part of her brain emphatically tells the other to just shut up.
Her hand falls on his shoulder finally, a brace as she tilts her head up to him - they, if that was the case - back with a gradual opening of her lips against his. Permission, invitation... and acceptance in one tiny gesture. Uncaring of how that wall of reiatsu closes in around her like a pair of arms, or how the edge of the mask rests against her cheek and nose like a burning brand, a sensation all its own.
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The Hollow side adds a little something of his home. The teeth of the mask, pressed against the small Shinigami's forehead, nip the skin there by just barely moving. Enough to draw the smallest amount of blood, right at her hairline. A Hollow's mark of possession. Proof that not just Ichigo, but Shiro as well, wanted her. Kisses, from both of them.
It was probably confusing. Shiro knew that Ichigo had only kissed Rukia once, in a heated state. He knew now, he could see it like it was him (Ichigo, Shiro, where did one end and the other begin) doing it.
The kiss is warm, tender, and loving, but short. They break it off, pulling the mask back down in place. But the eyes behind the mask are just as gentle as the kiss had been.
They look off back towards the direction of the clinic. Inside, Ichigo's mind is coming closer to the surface, and shoving the Hollow down. But he doesn't want any of that, so he pushes. No, he will not be shoved down. They're in this together. He keeps himself anchored to the surface.
There were more monsters to destroy. People to save. And right now? The merged form could do that. They could do that. They could save people.
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It's strange to hear the two-as-one voice through TENEKA no doubt, and it was even confusing for the dual set of conscious minds trying to keep an equilibrium with one another. But the kiss is what it is. There's important things that need taking care of right now.
Stay close, Rukia. Have to be stronger.
Which meant that suffocating sense of reiatsu increasing was only rising as the horned helm turned to look away toward the Clinic. The would clear a path ( burn them all, cut down everything in the way ) between here, and there. That place as Safe. It would stay Safe. They would make sure of it.
The clink of chain wrapping one arm, and the scratch of claws across scorched pavement are the only noise as Shiro ( Ichigo ) steps forward again. The muted sounds of buzzing were rising. Those few forerunners of another plague of locusts was fast approaching.
And a plague it was. So many, and so vast the bloated insects looked like a seething cloud of chitinous darkness as they flew, or crawled forward. Streetlights being obscured one by one as the horde moved in closer, and closer.
Bugs. Bugs trying to stop us.
Burn them all, partner.
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Of course I'm staying close, someone has to watch your back after all.
For all her briskness, her cheeks are still flushed at the apples and that dab of blood right near her hairline has dried there. That tiny nick would eventually form a very pale scar, almost invisible except to someone who knew it was there. A tiny, particulate bit of hollowfied reiatsu would remain. She faced the on-coming swarm with a haughty, icy calm. Game faces on, it was show time.
But we are going to talk after this is done, just so you know.
Hakuren!
First kill is hers, boys. Too slow~
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The sword clinks as they stand back to back with her.
Our back will be fine.
Wait.
A talk? Crap. Aibou...
The icy blast of reiatsu snaps them out of it, and Shiro (Ichigo) opens the mouth of the mask, letting out a roar. But instead of forming energy between the horns, Shiro pulls on Ichigo's power and his own in equal measures, forming energy around their mouth.
And letting it loose in a center-of-the-earth-hot blast of hellfire, black and red swirling in chaos and flame towards the plague of dog-sized locusts. The fires consumed them, searing their wings and almost instantly boiling the innards of the insects. Unlike the Cero, the fire doesn't destabilize Reishi like a nuclear bomb, but it does feed on it, consuming the living creatures like a ravenous beast. The flames pour continuously from the Hollow-Shinigami's mouth as they sweep their head back and forth, engulfing the plague that had too much forward momentum to avoid the conflagration.
Between the ice and the fire, the creatures were done for. Charred and frozen, or both.
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But for the rest, he puts his extravagant power on display.
Lips beneath the mask pulled back in a snarl, the blackness is condensing, turning inside out, becoming more, and flowing over him. His sunrise hair whipping around him like a thrashing solar flare in the extreme shifts between hot, and cold.
Forming, forming--a sudden hiss that echoes oddly and his eyes snap open--burnished gold on black. The forming whiteness follows, surrounding the darkness of the Getsuga forming around his blade, merging with it, becoming it. The snarl at their would-be attackers is closed over by a death's head mask; horns, and a grinning skull with inhuman eyes staring out from behind it.
With one long turn, pivoting on one of his heels, the strange nuclear white, and swirled black energy gathered around his sword roared across ground, and sky to char anything it touched. From bricks, and mortar, to insects, or serpents, that strangely clashing, polarized fire was trying, inherently, to separate even as it consumed everything around it.
The two of them ( No there is only one. ) were coming apart at the seams. It was too soon, this was too soon! Neither Ichigo, nor Shiro were ready for what they were attempting to do here, and a very vital piece of this tripartite puzzle was still missing....
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Because they weren't ready for this. The broken soul of Kurosaki Ichigo wasn't yet ready for this level of power, not in any sustained form. And their third, he wasn't truly in on it. The Hollow being magically severed from Ichigo's soul in this place did not a thing to help with matters either. The reiatsus that had been so perfectly blended were starting to precipitate out like oil and water.
They weren't ready, and now they were going to suffer for it. One would soon go back to being two, the only way they were stable in this world.
Shiro suddenly became aware, painfully aware of his existence as another being, seemingly trapped in another body. Their endless cycle of energy creation, the nuclear power plant that was Resurrecíon was melting down. Shiro was out of energy and was being spit back out. Everything hurt, acutely, all over his body. His body, not their body. The still merged form brings their hands to their head, holding the mask, trying to stabilize even a cry of pain screeches over the Teneka.
But that's all. Their time was up. A huge crack runs through the mask, bisecting it longways. The two halves of the mask fall away, turning to black and white and red energy as they do. Then the rest; the fur, the sword, the claws, the haori... all melting away into energy.
Then, in the exact opposite way that the creature had formed, it explodes apart. The chain reforms, blazing to life with flame and shooting out from Ichigo's chest when the end of the chain touches the ground, something that looks like a little ball of that swirled energy bounces across the pavement, making pained squealing sounds with each bounce. When it finally comes to a stop, the chain flickers back out of view and the energy around the small creature flakes away like so much ash. Without the cloak of energy, there is a small, lizard-like creature. White scaled, with snow-white hair and a black mask... a familiar creature but in miniature.
Shiro, reduced to the most basic of forms, tries to get to his feet. He manages it, shakily, for all of about four seconds, before collapsing in a heap, completely drained.
And looking like a mighty tasty meal for a group of locusts that had, until just now, been keeping their distance.
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Pain sizzled throughout a body that was now, and distinctly his, Ichigo's, but everything from his bankai reverting to it's sealed state, to his claws, mask, hair, all of it was literally melting into pure energy, and coiling up like a hot blade spearing through his chest.
Ichigo screamed, and dropped both sword, and mask fragments as that soul chain ignited into being again; black fire welding the links together in a sudden flash. But the chain itself ends in another, tiny form of coalesced reiatsu...until even that burned away reveal the helpless, nearly-depleted, and most basic form of a hollow.
A tiny, lizard-like creature that didn't even have the strength to stand up.
Ichigo dropped to his knees, one hand scrabbling to retrieve the huge cleaver-shaped blade of his sword, while the other clutched his chest where the red soul-chain was fading out of sight again. Oh it was most certainly there, it was always there, but it wasn't always visible. That didn't mean that spontaneously having one ripped out of one's chest didn't hurt beyond belief.
Struggling, half out of his mind with the reeling loss of power, and equilibrium, Ichigo tried to use Zangetsu as a crutch to stand up.
Have to get up, have to get up, get to Shiro, have to get up.
But he only managed to stumble a little, and hit his knees again. Hard. Gritting his teeth, sweating, and breathing as though he'd just run three marathons back to back, Ichigo swung out wildly at the bloated insects eying the little white bundle on the ground.
Stay away...you stay away...leave him alone!
Half-dragging himself, and half-crawling in an awkward attempt at speed, Ichigo managed to get over to that little white bundle. On all fours, literally using his body as a shield, Ichigo raised an arm trembling so badly he could hardly hold his sword up, but nevertheless pointed Zangetsu threateningly at the multitudes of eyes starting to peer out of the darkness.
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The scream didn't come through the teneka, but within. Sode no Shirayuki crying out in alarm. Rukia had been standing a bit of a distance from their back, nothing more than a few feet to give her some maneuvering space and just some distance from that overwhelming reiatsu to keep it from scorching her back.
When she turns, its just as that terrible sound of both men screaming suddenly becomes just Ichigo's voice in her head. Howling in agony as the skull mask starts to fragment down the back of his head. No. No. No. No. No. No! She has to leap away and shield her eyes as the nuclear core overloads, bathing the street, the buildings, everything in incandescent, scorching light. The insects that are too close are simply...gone. Dust. Incinerated in a the space of a blink by the outlashing, uncontrolled power.
Ichigo! Shiro!
Then, with the sudden, but purposeful motion like a cell dividing, the form splits and the scream of pain reaches it's crescendo before going silent. The light vanishes, casting the street into darkness again. Windows shiver and what little glass remains in their frames splinters further, trees are shorn of their branches and Rukia huddles down against the asphalt as the last whispers of power ebb over her and disperse in the air. It takes a few moments for her senses to return. She's half blind, stumbling towards the hunched form of Ichigo - his blade reverted to shikai, his robes now that of a regular shinigami again - putting his body between the swarms around them and a replete, unmoving white form under him.
Shiro.
Stay away...you stay away...leave him alone! Ichigo waved his sword feebly at the encroaching locusts, these bigger than the others, hovering in the back of the swarm while the younger, smaller ones perished to their merged form. But then, the cleaving blade of Zangetsu drops, clattering on the still-scorching pavement, and Ichigo barely twists in time to avoid dropping his weight on Shiro.
A horrifying sound rises through the hovering swarm - ululation in the sound of chittering and thrumming wings as they closed in on the comatose pair.
Rukia stood over the pair of them, her heart hammering in her ears and the sword in her hand blazing white as the core of a new born star.
Shirayuki...Sode no Shirayuki... The army of insects surged forward, crowding out everything with the sound of their wings. Ichigo, Shiro, who had protected her before. Both of them, one a boy-becoming-man who lived to the impossible, the other an enemy become friend that shook and tested her long-held beliefs of what hollows were, what they could be and had come to - despite it all - be someone she cared for just as deeply. Her friends. Two people that she entrusted her heart to. About to die, here and now.
Not while she breathed.
There would not be another Shiba Kaien. She would not consign them to death because of her weakness.
...help me, PLEASE!
And her zanpakutou, her unerring companion, her weapon, the shard of her soul that willed to war, to protect, to fight, answered her with a roar of an arctic gale.
Some no Mae - Tsukishiro!
The radiant radius of her first dance formed under her feet as before. The tension singing through her frame as she held the attack for a beat, two, as she was able to distinguish her reflection in the faceted eyes bearing down on her. Then...the pressure snapped, letting go, and the attack launched a pillar of ice into the sky.
With them on top of it.
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Shit!
It seemed like the locusts, wise to where their prey was, decided that bringing down their little tower was the quickest way to reclaim their meal. Hammering at the base, and given the transient nature of the attack itself, they wouldn't be safe for long. A splinter crackled between her feet and she cursed again, sheathing her sword and looping Ichigo's dead arm over her shoulder and scooping up the white lizard as the tower gave out under them and they plunged to the ground below.
Clinging to the sleeve and the hollow tightly, Rukia closed her eyes. Don't think about how the locusts were swarming upward to meet them, how she couldn't shunpo away with such a tenuous hold on them both. Just focus. Ignore the sound of insect wings buzzing like a tsunami crashing ashore. Recite the mantra, bend your reiatsu, and just don't look down.
And bless her brother. Bless him for the hours of grueling drills over and over again till her arms shook and her throat was sore. Bless him for forcing her to practice and advance her skills in bakudo first, because bakudo required finesse and control and precision that she would need to even manage upper levels of hadou. Bless Kuchiki Byakuya for never accepting a half-done kidou and never letting her accept it from herself.
Bakudō # 73. Tozanshō
Four white lines shoot out from a single point, moving up above the falling trio to form an inverted pyramid around them, meeting and turning to form the top as crystal walls fill in between the beams and thin wires shoot out to latch on anything nearby that will serve as an anchor. The kidou forms around them, enclosing them from the arrival of the locusts and slamming poor Rukia against the bottom with Ichigo's unconscious weight crashing into her.
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Her hands hoist Ichigo's weight further up so that she can hutch over an keep him roughly on her shoulders. She has to end up biting down on his sleeve to keep him there as her hands flicker through the motions of another set of kidou. Double casting was draining, but these spells were simple.
The first crack of the walls makes her flinch. She was tired of that sound. So damn sick of it. Sick of the sound of buzzing insect wings as the enclosed space acted like an echo chamber. She loathed them, loathed the noise. She'd never be able to see a locust or grasshopper again without wanting to burn it to cinders. Another crack again and she waits, panting, trying not to lose Ichigo's precarious position on her shoulders, or let Shiro slip out of the folds of her top. Alone with the weight of their lives bearing down more heavily than their bodies, she waits for the crystalline sound of Tozansho shattering under the assault.
Fushibi! Soukatsui!
A glowing blue net strings itself between the locusts as the barrier falls, the hadou feeding into the threads of it. Rukia and her burdens fall down to the street below as the swarm above them, so closely gathered to break the bakudou, get caught in its spread. The web glows bright before igniting in a chain reaction, illuminating the sky in a blinding explosion.
==
Holy shit, help her in! Get them into a room! Where's Rapunzel, these burns need to be healed!
She doesn't remember nearly crawling into the clinic, or the hands that lift Ichigo from her and take Shiro out of her grasp. Or the panicked cries as loops of golden hair are piled on her and a song sang to heal the raw nuclear burns across her face and arms and head from Ichigo and Shiro's separation. Just her voice - so tired even through teneka, asking if the boys were okay.
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