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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 23, 2015 13:32:01 GMT -6
"Falling": (continued) Juushiro’s usual afternoon meditation halted as the door to his one-room quarters creaked as the lock turned. He stood, brushing at his haori, and raised his eyes, the green light in them dark with caution. Sometimes, it would be Starrk behind those doors, here to escort him to the garden and see either the boys, Kita, or Yumiko. Never Rukia. But more often than not, it would be Sousuke, Vale, or occasionally Gin. Whittling away at his resolve and hope for a bright outcome. He blinked when the glare cleared and the figure became apparent. “Yumiko?” he asked. “What-” He smiled. It was a welcome surprise, and even if there was a trap set within it, he would take it with open arms. “I’m glad to see you,” he murmured. She shifted, looking away from him, and his eyes narrowed, slightly. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Had Vale said something to disturb her? “Ukitake,” she whispered, voice hoarse. “Why?” A spasm struck through the captain’s heart. She’d been crying. And even in this dark realm, it had been many years since she had given into that desire. What could they have done to her now? “What happened?” he asked, holding out a hand. Kita had begun to slip away before he’d been bought. And the boys had demons he had little answers for. But at least, so far, he had been here for Yumiko. He didn’t care if he crossed a threshold and ended up being beaten for it later. He couldn’t care. “Yumiko?” he urged. And then pain ripped through the extended limb. Juushiro blinked, not quite processing it. The blood dripping to the floor from the long cut in his palm dealt out by the blade held tight in Yumiko’s hand. The sheath dropped somewhere in the shadows. “Yumiko, what’s wrong?’ he asked again.
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 23, 2015 13:35:34 GMT -6
Yumiko shook her head, eyes glassy with violet streaks. “Why,” she persisted. “Why didn’t you act sooner? When you risked everything for Kuchiki?” Her free hand clenched and the grip on her blade rattled. “If you could give me her voice, why didn’t you go further when I had grown into her powers?”
“Yumiko, what have they said to you?” There was an urgent pressure to her captain’s words but she ignored it. Rather, it didn’t matter.
She took a deep breath and wrapped a kido spell into the blade whispering in her head. “If that mistake is why you let Vale claim my heart and heal some wounds, why did you let it disappear in one day?”
“Alister created that pact, Yumiko. You know this!”
Yumiko’s head lowered. “Did he?” she inquired, tone too light. “I thought he gave me two options.” She turned her head to look beyond the doorway. “There were two choices actually.”
“Don’t blame yourself. Vale himself saw the impossibility of the first.”
“Because of what you did to me!” Rage blossomed through her, lancing through the pain, and her blade arched.
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 23, 2015 13:36:24 GMT -6
Juushiro held an arm up and winced as the sting of a kido whipped through his skin. His eyes narrowed further. What had they done to his daughter this time to make her speak thus? “Yumiko, calm down. We’ve spoken of this. And you’ve NEVER blamed me for your captivity. You’re not think-”
“Because that was what I was bred into,” she snapped, her blade swinging down as she cut him off.
Juushiro grunted as the skin of his arm broke at the contact of the metal, but the blow did not strike at a lethal angle. Still, his head began to ring with alarm as more words spilled forth from the distressed woman in front of him.
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 23, 2015 13:37:54 GMT -6
“No noble is born free,” she hissed. “It’s one of the first lessons all of us born to the houses learn. I knew there was a cage waiting for me. So I walked into the gaping one prepared for me, the damned yawning oblivion, and I waited for it to change shape. For it to become bearable. For the consequences to fade into something more.”
She looked away again. “In spite of the locks around me because of her, she provided me a means to find that way.” Her head tilted. “And it was beautiful.”
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 23, 2015 13:39:09 GMT -6
Juushiro grabbed her arm, not caring if the guards tore him from his daughter. He wasn’t going to let this sick game continue. “Yumiko, look at me.” She did, but there was still a distance in her eyes. His grip tightened as he realized she was barely clothed, too. “Yumiko,” he murmured, touching her cheek, “I know it’s been rough. I know that there is something compelling to their arguments, but nothing presented here is true happiness. You know that better than most.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why is that the case?” she continued in a faint voice. “I fell in love here. I …. cried here for the first time in decades. And …. it’s beautiful.”
“Yumiko!”
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Post by Yumiko Ryouma on Nov 23, 2015 13:40:42 GMT -6
“Stop,” she murmured, “trying to pull me back!” she cried out. A wordless kido lashed out, flinging the captain from her body, untying her kimono. She held it closed with one hand and walked over to the fallen man, looking down at his white hair. “I’m tired of the consequences, Ukitake. Is that wrong? I’ve bled, cried, and lost so much because of who I am. You’ve told me to keep hope burning. That I have fought so hard because I have to. And you’re right. I do. I have to fight to finally take the rewards granted me from my birthright. I have to fight to actually shape freedom from a fleeting dream into a reality.”
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 23, 2015 13:44:17 GMT -6
As terror nipped at the weariness weighing him down, the captain tossed aside caution and flung the brutal truth out. “Las Noches is a prison!” Juushiro yelled. “You’ve spoken to me of Rukia’s suffering. You’ve spoken of your worry for the kids. You know that it doesn’t matter what is said. You know your devotion has brought you into a terrible trap!”
Yumiko remained silent for a few moments, giving the kind captain a momentary pang of relief.
“Darkness is that which is necessary for creation.”
Juushiro froze. And then strode over, reaching towards the hand bleeding on Mizue’s hilt. “You’re bleeding,” he whispered. His fingers pried hers from the metal. Her eyes rose.
And Juushiro felt ice seize his heart at the dead gaze there.
Touching her zanpakuto had been a mistake.
Crimson flashed before his eyes as Yumiko’s power whipped out at him, her voice screaming in his ear to not take her away. That she would never, ever allow it again. That everyone who had would pay. He didn’t know how many times she struck him with blade or spun another wordless arc of kido. He didn’t know how many times he called out to her. Finally, Juushiro fell to his knees.
Clenching his hand, he stood to try one more time.
And Mizue no Kagami rolled towards him. Raising his head, Juushiro cursed as arms wrapped around his surrogate daughter, eyes closed and out cold.
“Damn you all,” he stated, tone cold, eyes dark with fury. “You steal the innocence of two children, rend the souls of the seraph and her mate, and still your thirst is not quenched.” The man in the doorway smirked. Juushiro glared. “Tell me what you have done.”
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Post by Sousuke Aizen on Nov 23, 2015 16:26:48 GMT -6
Aizen's eyes lifted from Yumiko looking toward the white haired captain. "I have done nothing, but allow this woman to see the truth on her own. The truth, which in reality was twisted lies of excesses. Woven into her mind by Soul Society--" Aizen paused, "and you; White Knight."
Aizen brushed the loose hair from her pale face as he lifted her into his arms bridal style. The guard sheathing Mizue no Kagami and bringing it to his Lord and Master. Aizen's eyes returned to Juushiro. Blood still dripping from his wounds.
"The question here Ukitake is not what I have done, but instead; what you and Soul Society have done to create this beautiful broken soul. Too late to free her. Too late to rescue her, but quick to steal her peace and happiness. Isn't the question that which you have done to her?"
Aizen turned to leave with Yumiko draped in his arms as he heard Juushiro mummer something as he looked to the floor. Aizen did not turn to acknowledge him only spoke as he continued to leave the room.
"I gave her what you could not and never would. Freedom to live her life. That. Is what I did to Yumiko."
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 23, 2015 17:51:08 GMT -6
“Damn you, Sousuke,” Juushiro grunted. “Quit twisting the unfortunate circumstances to your own advantage. I did not come here seven years ago to lose every one of them to you or your minions and certainly not her.”
He snapped the collar around his neck with kido, the energy from years of conserving what energy he could, and shunpo’ed towards King of Las Noches. In the same instant, he sent an electric pulse through the brain of the fraccion guard, incapacitating him. Part of him knew that this was reckless in too many ways, but he didn’t care. Even as Sousuke’s Danku wall rose to between him and the bolt of golden lightning he had cast at his back. Pressure scratched at his throat, in a tell-tale way he couldn't forget, but his eyes stayed locked onto his nemesis. “Let. Her. Go,” he snapped, voice hoarse.
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Post by Sousuke Aizen on Nov 23, 2015 18:10:43 GMT -6
Aizen chuckled as he turned looking at the White Knight. "You never knew when to give up and you will die because of it." He smirked at the ill captain. "She belongs to me now Ukitake. Just as all the others. This is their choice not mine. I only showed them the path to set their souls free of the chains Soul Society placed on them. Ichimaru was born of the darkness as was his wife. His son born into the same fate. The Urahara boy--" Aizen laughed. "Need I say more on that fact. If it were not for being separated at birth, I believe Kisuke would have been my partner in all this. Kisuke's dark side might not show as mine does, but the man is and will always been as evil as I."
Juushiro growled stepping forward as another guard grabbed him. Juushiro flung him across the room his glare returning to Aizen. A sudden cough rumbled through Juushiro's chest blood appearing in his hand.
"Continue this rampage and you will have ended yourself with no help of mine."
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 24, 2015 15:26:57 GMT -6
Juushiro coughed harder, hand to his mouth as he replied. “I wouldn’t - give you - the satisfaction,” he growled. He took a short breath and as the cough abated, the captain stood up from his crouched position. Blood ran down his throat to his haori, but his voice came clearly. “You’re not nearly monster enough to have my life, Sousuke, and your brother will be the death of you yet. He’s a better man than you were even at your best of disguises.”
He let his eyes stray from his enemy to the listless Yumiko in his arms, his heart seizing as he raised it back to the false king, trying to keep the budding pain out of his tone. “And I have not given up on any of them.” A flutter of dizziness swept through him, but he stayed still, immobile.
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Post by Sousuke Aizen on Nov 25, 2015 9:45:16 GMT -6
Aizen smirked with a shake of his head. "Such a fool Ukitake. You know as well as I that you can't make the unwilling do anything they do not want to do. One thing I have learned over the centuries. Why do you think I am a Master manipulator? You my dear, dying, old friend; don't have that kind of talent. They all believe they came to me of their own free will. Making them all willing in my case." Aizen looked to Yumiko then back up at the blood soaked captain.
"You do not have the time or strength to undo the years that I have done. Yumiko, Kita and the Snake along with their family will forever now be part of Las Noches." Aizen eyes narrowed at the man. "And if I have to kill to keep it that way--" Aizen smirked. "Well--you know that is not a feat I could not fulfill."
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 25, 2015 10:45:58 GMT -6
Juushiro’s hand clenched. “This is not the end, Sousuke. You may have turned them your way, or believe you have, but as long as they are not alone, as long as they have their friends – and family – any victory you claim is far from over.” He stood tall. “Even if darkness existed first, light will always come and banish it. As long as people like Kisuke and myself don’t give up on them and they survive whatever it is you have planned, it. is. not.” He coughed and stumbled, grimacing as blood ran down his lips. “It’s not over. There are some who will always weather the storm and act as beacons."
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Post by Sousuke Aizen on Nov 25, 2015 11:19:28 GMT -6
A smirk still across his lips Aizen replied, "Your beacon burns poorly, Ukitake. The darkness is strong; and right now as we speak Gin and his son face off with the Ayakashi Sada. Sojiro fallen and Gin soon to follow. Gin's heart's on the edge and the push of losing his light will send him over. Kita's heart, slowly being enmeshed by the darkness as Vale has his way with her willingly. Her heart and emotions turning to lust, her mind slowly wavering from the man she called Master and lover. By the end of the takeover, Kita's heart will be as black as my own, and Yumiko," He looked to the beautiful flower in his arms.
"She is there, finally, with her denial of the man she called father. She passed over, right into my arms, and tonight I will seal that door on her heart. Making her mine alone." Aizen turned from the man once more.
"Ponder on your failures, Ukitake and get them out of the way. For in time, you will have your comrades here along side to comfort. They will need someone to lick their wounds and heal their hearts from their failure to protect. You will need your strength to deal with their devastation." Aizen grinned even though Juushiro did not see it. "Not like it will help."
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Post by Captain Juushiro Ukitake on Nov 25, 2015 13:20:09 GMT -6
Juushiro shook his head slowly, beating back at the pain of failure and the weakness that bubbled up with his illness. “I refuse to believe the Gods will let such as you describe be. Even with an encroaching shadow,” he lowered his head, masking the new wave of hurt, “the Gotei have remained, and so has the shopkeeper."
He paused, looking from beneath his hair to his surrogate daughter and then turned. “Your reign will end and when it does, you will meet your doom. Your sins will catch up with you. And even you, with your blade of manipulation, can escape death only so many times. The truth of the matter before you is this: that hope remains as long as there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
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