What's that coming over the hill?

[sinister_bells]

Who: Kenpachi Zaraki (sinister_bells) and Yachiru Kusajishi (inpiecesofcloud)
When: After this.
Where: The Zaraki &Kusajishi residence
Format: Paragraph
What: Yachiru tells Kenpachi all about the big fight between Priscilla and Riful.
Warnings: None, really

Comments

[inpiecesofcloud]

Yachiru was more tired and more hurt than she had been in a very long while. By the time she reached home, all her body wanted to do was fall into bed. Her mind had other ideas.

The door creaked when she opened it and walked into the apartment, her head hanging uncharacteristically low and the blood on her shoulder and soaked into her clothes sticky-dry. She rubbed an arm against her face to try to wipe away the tear-streaks, with very little success. It had been so hard to see Scilly like that, and scary. Yachiru was not the type of kid who scared easily but there were a very few things that could frighten her. And she had been terrified by that sensation, by feeling Scilly being swallowed up by her own power, lost in an inferno of energy she couldn't control.

Once in the room, she made a beeline for Ken-chan. Without a word, she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tight.

[sinister_bells]

He'd been sitting on the bed, looking at the Forge - playing the footage over again - when Yachiru opened the door. Something had to be very wrong for her to look like that. His eyes widened, taking in the sight.

She'd been crying. Yachiru had been crying. Ikkauku was more likely to cry than her. What caused this?

"Yachiru-" Whatever he was going to say was cut off as she jumped into his arms. He hugged her back, feeling a little off-kilter by the whole thing. Could he even remember the last time something made her act like this?

"Kid, what's going on? What happen?"

He wasn't even going to ask about the blood he could feel on the shoulder of her robe. For once, blood didn't feel good. Not like this.

[inpiecesofcloud]

"Ken-chan!" she sobbed, her face buried in his neck. "I wanna go home, I wanna go home." She was hugging him so tightly that only he could have borne it without any pain. "I don't want to stay here anymore, Ken-chan."

It wasn't exactly the truth, and even now she knew it. But for the moment she just wanted to hold onto him, shaking with sobs, and wish she was back in the Seireitei where nothing like this ever happened.

After a few minutes she pulled back, hiccuping, and she felt like there were no tears left inside her. She rubbed at her eyes with the back of one hand and continued to cling to Kenpachi with the other.

"It was- it was- Scilly," she choked out, still sniffling and gasping. "She was almost- almost gone."

[sinister_bells]

"Go home" he muttered as she held on to him as if her life depended upon it. Go home wasn't an option. They were stuck here. Though somehow he figured that wasn't what was really going on. She wasn't someone to just give up on a place - particularly because things got hard.

He waited for her to calm down - no use in trying to question her until then. One hand rubbed her back as he listened to her sobs. Finally she stopped crying, sat back and dried her eyes.

"Priscilla?" He'd long ago grown accustomed to Yachiru's nicknames and was quite proficient at figuring them out. Why was she talking about her though?

"What about her?" Did she see the video? That wouldn't be too hard to explain. But then again, where'd the blood come from? There was grit from the ruins on her too.

She'd been there.

"What d'you mean, almost gone?"

[inpiecesofcloud]

Yachiru, breath hitching, stared at Kenpachi for a moment. She wasn't sure exactly how to explain the storm of sensation she'd felt out there in that battle.

"She was fighting," she began, wiping her nose on a sleeve and streaking more dirt across her face. "And she was so mad. It was like her reiatsu wanted to swallow her up and she couldn't stop it. It was gonna swallow her up and never give her back!"

She threw her arms back around Kenpachi's neck, as if she was afraid he was going to disappear on her, too. "She's so strong," she said into his neck. "But she wasn't strong enough to stop it." Her voice dropped to a whisper, almost inaudible, and she said "I was scared."

[sinister_bells]

Fighting. He and Priscilla had done that once. He'd seen a little of that power she had; that she could release at her own will. He'd recognized her on that Forge post, seen the raised veins in her face.

This time had been different. She had released the power and couldn't control it for some reason. Priscilla was too good for that, to just lose control. She'd been one of the most fun fights he'd ever had and one of the most difficult. Every move of hers had been measured and planned.

"Who was she fighting" he asked quietly, more to himself than Yachiru. Who made Priscilla lose herself like this? The answer had been on the Forge too. Riful.

Riful had taught him to use the Forge. Helped him find Yachiru - to an extent. It wouldn't be the first time someone counted as "good" did something terrible though. Really, what did it matter?

He just held Yachiru for a few moments. A silent reassurance that he wouldn't leave; that he could never be swallowed by his power. Eventually he broke the silence.

"What happened to your shoulder?"

[inpiecesofcloud]

Yachiru's head snapped up and suddenly she was angry. It was a pure anger, a hatred so strong and undistracted it could only have formed in a child's heart

[sinister_bells]

"Terrible things?" He cocked his head slightly. Some morbid curiosity made him want to know what shoved Priscilla over the edge. Never to use later on, if he fought it would be on his terms. But limitations were good to know.

Turned into a monster. Is that what Riful was? The tentacles, the discoloration. Was she some sort of hollow, maybe an arrancar? He'd find that out later, Riful would surface eventually. Creatures like that always did

[inpiecesofcloud]

Yachiru settled down into Kenpachi's arms, her hands taking hold of some of the fabric of his robes. He was solid, he was here and she loved him so much sometimes she could barely hold it in. Being close to him now calmed her down a lot and her breathing evened out and her eyes cleared as she felt his finger pass against the side of her head and push her dirty hair out of her eyes.

"I'm okay, Ken-chan," she said, nodding. She shrugged her shoulder a little. "Doesn't really even hurt. Stupid Riful It's all her fault. It's all all her fault. I think she really hurt somebody Scilly likes. I couldn't tell, he was gone already when I got there. But I think. And she fights like a cheater, too. I hate her."

But Riful was only the cause behind what had scared her so much.

"I told her to. I told her come back! I said not to lose because I was scared and I didn't want her to go away. And I hugged her." Yachiru's breath hitched again and she shivered, leaning closer to Kenpachi. "I held onto her and I begged her not to go."

[sinister_bells]

Priscilla had pushed too far and somehow Yachiru had brought her back. A small smile appeared at the thought. She still impressed him, even now. He continued to stroke her hair as she calmed down.

"Fights like a cheater, eh?" He could have laughed at that. Considering all that had happened, that Riful apparently had done, that she should also be accused of cheating- Well, it was amusing.

He stood up, still holding Yachiru so she didn't fall. He headed for the door.

"We'll get that shoulder fixed up at the clinic. Then we'll see what's going on." Because this surely wasn't over, not by a long shot. He closed the door without locking it - who would dare steal from him? - and headed to where he thought the clinic was. Well, Yachiru knew, at any rate. She'd point the way.

"You did good today, kid."

[inpiecesofcloud]

"Like a cheater," she mumbled bad-temperedly. She leaned against his chest, one hand still clutching the fabric of his clothing. There was something very comforting about being close to him, his familiar scent and the warmth of his body. And she was so tired, so she was happy he was holding onto her because she was too shaky and worn out to hold onto him.

She nodded, resting her head against him, at the suggestion of going to the clinic. She didn't really care either way about her shoulder wound. It wasn't nearly as worrisome as the persistent fear she couldn't seem to shake off.

"I did, Ken-chan?" Giant brown eyes turned up to stare at him, questioning, uncertain. Worried. "You think so?"

[sinister_bells]

"And how exactly does she fight like a cheater?" He's very amused by her proclaimation of this. Normally Kenpachi wouldn't ask but this whole Riful thing isn't over yet. If they do fight and she "cheats" he'd like to know about it.

He ambled through the streets, not too concerned about losing his way or even getting there quickly. Yachiru's strong and quite resistant to injury. She'll heal fast.

"Yeah. You did. You brought Priscilla back. I'm proud of you." A smile forms, a touch of pride in it.

[inpiecesofcloud]

"She pretends she's a little girl all the time, but when she starts fighting she's like a hundred feet tall and has all these arms like ribbons and they can cut! She's a liar! Plus she only picks fights with people who are weaker than her."

Her little fists tightened in the fabric of his robes when he speaks. And when he smiled, she smiled back, small but genuine, and then she rested her forehead against his chest. For Ken-chan to say he was proud of her - she knew he was, but to hear him say it out loud - it almost made everything that had happened tonight okay. It made her feel like she was big and strong like him, like there was nothing she couldn't do, no one she couldn't fight, no battle she couldn't win.