Adult-FanFiction.org : Bleach

Prize of Victory 2
By : NovaAlexandria
Category: Bleach > General
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Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor make a profit from this story
Chapter List
- 25
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- 27
Traitor!

Hana walked home with Toshiro, intent on spending the lunch hour with her fellow fraccion and their Mistress. Sung Sun and Apache had lunch ready for them and the discussion topic for the day seemed to be little Vindula-chan. The consensus seemed to be that Vindula was just too adorable for her own good. Szayel and his pet, Renji, were very protective of the children, so not many got to see the twins, especially after the incident where two, lower ranked Numeros had foolishly tried to take the young girl. Harribel was of the opinion that the attack wouldn�t have happened had Szayel not been holding onto his Espada rank by the thinnest of threads. The topic then veered off into speculation about Vindula�s father. Hana, thanks to her association with Ajuga, knew quite a bit more about Szayel than her fraccion �siblings,� but listening to Harribel�s take on him was eye-opening.

The fact that Szayel was Karin�s �pet� was hardly a secret. Aizen had forced him to announce his �decision� to accept Karin as his mistress in front of the entire Arrancar population, confessing that he had willingly submitted to Grimmjow�s Claim. As a result, Szayel seldom left his domain, preferring to stay hidden behind whatever traps and barriers he�d laid for intruders. In that sense, his behaviour hadn�t changed much from when he�d lived in Las Noches. By declaring himself the property of a mere human woman, anyone who could manage to kill him would be entitled to his rank, and all he owned, his Division, his Claimed property and his children. In a sense, having children had put him in even more danger than before and Vindula, a naturally born female, would be a fine prize.

Luckily, Szayel was still more than a match for the average Numeros, even if he appeared weak on the exterior. In addition, very few wanted to incur the wrath of the Sixth Espada by attacking his pet. Grimmjow�s ferocious temper was a well-known deterrent, as was his possessiveness. Anyone who wanted to kill the Seventh would have to strike and kill Szayel quickly, before the one that held his Claim could respond to his distress. Harribel thought anyone suicidal enough to try to make a play for Vindula, or take out her father knowing the obstacles, should try for him anyway and thus take him or herself out of the breeding pool via their own stupidity. There were very good reasons that she�d forbidden her girls to set foot anywhere near Szayel�s domain before the War. She hadn�t been as concerned about Szayel�s power as much as his treachery and penchant for sneakiness. Hana could see where her mistress might get that idea

She sighed regretfully as she polished off the last of her fish and rice and laid her chopsticks in the proper position to indicate she was finished.

�I should get home. I am late and Starrk-ji promised to play a game of shoji with me before I go out on patrol tonight.�

�Remember to report in this evening before picking up your patrol assignment,� Toshiro reminded her.

�Of course. Taichou, Harribel-sama� she replied and bowed her head to her two superiors. �Thank you for lunch, Harribel-sama. It was delicious.�

�It�s so wonderful to see you get along so well with the First,� Sung Sun smiled happily, as Hana rose from her seat. �Considering your history��

�History?� Hana asked, pausing halfway up. �What history?�

She noticed her Taichou�s eyes staring into his teacup, his hand frozen in mid-air.

�You know, how things happened in the war and all,� Mila Rose waved her hand in the air, as if that explained everything. Her words did nothing to dispel Hana�s confusion.

�Oh, I� don�t really know much about the Winter War, other than Aizen-Kami ascended the Throne,� Hana admitted. The history curriculum at the academy slanted heavily in Aizen�s favour, so she�d paid it only as much attention as required to earn decent marks.

�You mean you don�t know?� Sung Sun exclaimed, lavender eyes full of surprise and growing wider above the sleeve she held before her mouth.

�Girls,� Harribel�s cool, commanding voice broke into the conversation and all three of her fellow fraccion suddenly found whatever remained on their plates to be of utmost interest. Hana could only blink in confusion at the instantaneous change.

�It was a war. Aizen-kami�s forces fought against the Shinigami forces and won. There used to be thirteen Divisions. Now there are only five. Obviously a lot of people died, including my father��

She forced herself to stop thinking there.

�I should get going home,� she suddenly announced, standing up to leave.

�See you tomorrow Hana-chan,� Apache called out and waved, the other two girls giving similar goodbyes, but Hana hardly noticed it.

Sung Sun and Mila Rose�s words and her Taichou�s reaction to them bothered her more than it probably should have during her trip home. Hana could have interpreted their remarks any number of ways, but for some reason they left an uncomfortable feeling bubbling in the back of her brain. Starrk had been a part of her life from the moment of her birth, had watched her take her first steps and heard her first words. He taught her how to play shoji when she took an interest in the game while watching him and �take-ji play. Lilinette, before Ajuga�s birth and before Grimmjow and Karin came to live at the Estate, was her first playmate, her first babysitter and fellow conspirator in the annual �let�s soak Starrk-ji� contest. Why would she have cause for animosity towards the man and the girl who were� well, who were almost as much a father and a sister to her as much as �take-ji and Ajuga-chan?

She had no good answer that might settle the uneasiness kindled by the cut-off conversation and she backed off from pursuing it any further.

Hana made it back to the Estate, but was disappointed to learn that Starrk was not at home. Aizen had ordered him out on patrol, or more accurately, Lilinette admitted to skipping out on patrols and as Starrk was technically responsible for her behaviour, he�d been dragged, yawning, into her punishments as well.

The only one home was Karin, who had two more days to go before Unohana declared she could return to full active duty. Since Hana had patrol that evening, and Karin was buried in paperwork, she decided to get some rest. Night patrols were a bitch, but everyone had to take a turn on the rotation, even Toshiro. She passed her mother, just returning home, on her way out of the Estate�s front gate.

�Evening patrol?� her mother asked.

�Yes, I promise to be careful.�

She said the words before her mother could give her the warning herself. Nanao just shook her head and gave her child a quick embrace before shooing her on her way.

�I know you well,� her mother replied. �You won�t take any unreasonable risks.�

Once at the 3rd Division, Hana checked in with her Fukutaichou to get her assigned route for the evening. The majority of the Arrancar, aside from the assorted hybrid children, had their own patrols. The more reasonable of the Numeros often ended up paired with a Shinigami to provide a second set of eyes on a route that might require one, such as a section of thick forest or rough terrain. Tonight, her superiors had scheduled her to run her route with an Arrancar whose face she recognized, probably from crossing paths with him in the past, even if she didn�t know his name. He gave her a brief nod of his head before he disappeared in another flash of Sonido. It was more of an acknowledgement than most Shinigami below the level of �Taichou� ever received.

Harribel and her girls made certain to spread the word that the Third had accepted Hana as one of her fraccion, and that anyone caught �bothering� her, as Harribel worded it, would answer to the Espada herself. Hana also suspected that Grimmjow and Starrk had put their own little warnings out over the years as well.

The sun was just setting, lighting up the sky in shades of orange and brilliant purple when she felt it. It was hard to overlook Starrk and Lilinette�s reiatsu, rising and falling in a way that could only mean they were fighting. There didn�t seem to be any sign of Swarm activity, or at least, a Swarm invasion force. Hana supposed he could have stumbled across a rogue scout, but one insect would hardly cause the First to fight for more than a few seconds. Therefore, she concluded he and Lilinette must be training. Their reiatsu lacked any kind of agitation or panic, so she doubted he�d encountered anything he felt he couldn�t handle.

She had never seen Starrk and Lilinette train before and the urge to see Starrk�s fighting style for herself was incredibly tempting...

�They are not too far off my patrol route.�

Starrk usually fought with �take-ji and his Division, well away from her own unit and Hana had not so much as caught a glimpse of his Resurrección. Now would be the perfect time to take a quick detour and see what Coyote Starrk could do.

Her side-trip rationalized, she made her way towards the spot where she assumed the nominal head of her household had decided to train. Hana was nearly on top of the two before she realized that something was �off� and came to a halt. Reaching out with her awareness, she was surprised to find another reiatsu signature hidden beneath Starrk and Lilinette�s, one that Hana didn�t recognize. It felt like nothing she had ever encountered before. Curiosity turned to apprehension and she cloaked herself to the best of her ability. Given the extracurricular Kido training her mother had given her, her ability to hide her presence was more than adequate for a little spying. She wasn�t as good at Ajuga at �disappearing,� but then, her friend�s talent was something unto itself.

Hana heard the conflict before she even saw the battle and now she did stop. Starrk wasn�t involved in sparring, or training someone else, or any of the other scenarios that flashed through her brain. Her conscience tugged at her to immediately sound the alarm, but another, competing voice, the one that listened to Ajuga a little too often, told her to keep going and to investigate further.

�No one other than Aizen is stronger than Starrk-ji,� she told herself, trying to justify her feet�s decision to keep moving in the direction of the fight.

Indeed, whomever Starrk had engaged was weaker than he was. Hana had hardly noticed the presence at first, which still felt �off.� The reiatsu seemed �mixed� in the same way that Ajuga and Diaemus�s reiatsu was a blend of human and Arrancar reiatsu, but the flavour of it seemed strange. It was as if there were two halves to it, lashing against each other in competition rather than in cooperation like that of her two hybrid friends. She might have mistaken that weaker signature for another hybrid, much as one might mistake a crow for a raven. They were so similar that anyone with less experience around one might mistake it for another. She wondered if he�d encountered a strange Arrancar, considering the power differences.

The thought definitely excited her, and she continued her cautious approach. She didn�t want to end up caught in the crossfire. Power like this might very well snuff her life out before either combatant realized she was there.

Hana finally came to a large clearing, made larger thanks to the piles of leaves and splinters that had once been trees and bushes around the periphery of a smaller clearing Starrk and Lilinette stood on one side of it, Starrk calf-deep in mangled branches and torn-up bark, Lilinette perched on a recently-created tree stump. The male half of the First looked annoyed, though calm enough, while the face of the First�s female side literally glowing red with anger.

They faced two people on the opposite side of the wreckage. The one with a detectable amount of reiatsu looked very much like a short Arrancar with blond pigtails, her horned mask fragment covering her entire face. At least, Hana thought the individual was female. Nothing about the person indicated to Hana that she wasn�t looking at a prepubescent human boy, other than the hairstyle. She could almost taste the poisonous rage rolling off of the odd Hollow from where she stood. The other, whose reiatsu Hana still couldn�t detect from her position, was a leggy, dark-skinned woman with long purple hair. Her expression matched Starrk�s as far as its level of irritation and the hidden Shinigami�s eyes widened once she positively identified the taller woman. After that, Hana easily plucked the name of the other from memory.

The images and stats of those who had escaped Aizen�s grasp, the �Escapees� as they were collectively known, were posted on �wanted� posters all over each Shinigami Division. Aizen�s minions, in turn, tacked those same posters in prominent public places in each of the Rukongai Districts, from the manicured streets of the 1st District down to the dangerous pathways of the 80th District. The faces of Sarugaki Hiyori, a Vizard which explained why she �felt� a little like Diaemus and Ajuga, and Shihoin Yoruichi, which explained why Hana couldn�t detect the woman�s presence, had been posted for the last fifteen years, with the kanji for �reward� in large lettering beneath both.

To her dismay, Hana realized that this was no training match or sparring session.

�Oh shit,� she thought. �What are they doing here?�

Indecision kept her rooted in place. Yes, they were wanted fugitives, but only because they still had the balls, figuratively speaking in the case of these two intruders, to stand against Aizen. They had managed to escape being Claimed and enslaved and had the power to both elude and go head-to-head with Aizen�s Arrancar forces.

Her first worry was that they were here to try and assassinate Starrk and Lilinette. It would be a good tactical move to eliminate Aizen�s more powerful warriors, and free the ones they had Claimed in the process, but Hana didn�t think that was the case here. While she could see Shihoin Yoruichi, once the head of both her family and the now-defunct Onmitsukido, doing just that, the woman seemed more exasperated with her companion than ready to fight. However, he other� well, Hiyori certainly didn�t fit the profile of an assassin, not making that kind of racket. If Hana were to guess what had happened, she would say that Starrk and Lilinette had accidentally stumbled across the two invaders carrying out some form of infiltration.

She knew Lilinette, and she could read the type of character Hiyori was just by watching her. No doubt, the two young woman had been the instigators of this battle, probably picking the fight the moment they saw each other. They argued with one another, trading barbed insults back and forth like two children flinging food at one another across a dinner table. Starrk just stood there, pinching the bridge of his nose, looking for all the world like he simply wanted to walk away from the whole thing and Yoruichi almost seemed amused, if not for a certain �wariness� to her body language, as well as a great deal of impatience with the situation at hand. Maybe the two had had a time limit on how long they could stay in this Realm doing whatever it was they wanted to do.

Once again Hana debated on sounded an alarm. She was under orders to do so if she encountered any of the known Escapees attempting to sneak into the Seireitei, but she couldn�t bring herself to do it. These were friends of her mother and �take-ji. If she was going to be honest with herself, Hana admitted that she would love to see Aizen dethroned as much as the Escapees would and that she hoped whatever brought them here would help do just that. The fact that neither Starrk nor Lilinette had triggered the alarm that would have brought in backup or alerted the rest of the Divisions to their location also stayed her hand

�If Starrk-ji wanted to sound an alarm, he would have done so already,� she told herself.

Hana was simply too far away to hear what they were saying, though she could pick out some of the choicer phrases Hiyori and Lilinette threw at one another at the top of their lungs. Maybe she shouldn�t have been surprised at Lilinette�s vocabulary and Hiyori certainly sounded as if she�d learned to speak in the Gotei 13�s worst barracks. As much as she wanted to hear more than just some creative cursing, she didn�t want to leave the cover of the trees and underbrush and risk revealing her presence. Instead, Hana watched and fretted over what she ought to do. Should she stay here? Should she reveal herself and confront them, or try to get them to leave now that they were outnumbered? Would doing so endanger her and distract Starrk in the process? Should she just leave and let him handle things with the interlopers?

Hiyori charged with the saw-edged meat cleaver that served as a Zanpakuto in one hand and fired a Cero from her mouth, one that Starrk easily blocked. The woman snuck in behind the first blast to attack through the smoke, clearly hoping it would blind her opponent and give her an advantage. Starrk hardly fell for it and with that, the battle was on once more. Hana could only gape, stunned at the deadly display. She had never seen a pair of high-powered opponents go after one another like this. Hiyori furiously assailed her taller rival and Starrk countered her blows with an expression of extreme boredom painted on his face. Lilinette continued to taunt the skinny Vizard from the sidelines, perhaps as a distraction while Yoruichi let out a sigh, never letting her eyes leave the battle. In the meantime, the trees and vegetation around the clearing continued to take a beating. Hana had to wonder how long this would go on before someone other than herself, perhaps her Arrancar counterpart, spotted the melée and sent up a warning to the other patrols.

Starrk danced in and out of Hiyori�s way, moving backwards and weaving between the paths of each Cero Hiyori shot at him, as well as dodging her blade. Hana had to marvel at the amount of power she was able to toss from between the teeth of her mask, as well as Starrk�s ability to avoid each glowing red ball of energy with a bit of footwork. This continued for a minute or two, until the Vizard started using her head and shot a Cero, not at Starrk, but at a spot that she apparently thought he might land while sidestepping a swipe of the cleaver meant to sever his arm. He wasn�t expecting it and while he deftly turned to avoid the worst of it, she tossed one directly at him. It missed and hit a very large pile of what had been a stand of oaks a few feet away. The blast wave and the debris flying through the air temporarily blinded Starrk, his hand reflexively going to shield his eyes�

�which gave his masked opponent the perfect opportunity to whirl to the side and shoot a Cero straight at Lilinette, apparently trying to catch the girl in mid-gloat.

Lilinette was, technically, a bit of Starrk�s power he�d separated from the whole at some point in the past. Hana tended to think of her as a Zanpakuto, in a way, but her strength was nowhere near that of Starrk�s. The little Arrancar�s eyes went wide and Hana reacted instinctively, her reiatsu swelling before she�d even started into a Shunpo.

She used her flash-stepping ability to cross the field in a matter of seconds, frantically chanting the lines for the strongest Kido barrier she knew under her breath, creating the shield in the space before Lilinette just in time to absorb most of the blast. The remainder of it singed Lilinette�s hair and clothing and left her coughing, but she was at least alive and relatively unharmed. Hana skidded to a stop in the vegetative mess next to Lilinette, drawing her own Zanpakuto and levelling it at the Vizard along with a warning glare that she hoped would do her mother proud.

�Are you alright, Lili-chan?�

�Yeah, peachy,� Lilinette growled, letting out another hacking cough and then took a wheezing breath. Then the small Arrancar�s one eye blinked up at Hana, taken aback when she took in her unexpected helper.

�What are you doing here Hana-chan?� she shrieked.

Hana winced and gave her a hard look right back.

�I felt the battle, thought you guys were training, and came to watch,� she replied. That was the truth, she told herself, or at least, most of it.

�Hana� as in Nanao and Shunsui�s daughter Hana?!?!�

The incredulity and outrage in the screechy little Vizard�s voice made Hana look back up. The black and brown eyes behind the mask had gone wide.

�What�s it to you?� Hana shot back, not dropping her combat ready pose even though she was positive that Hiyori would easily be able to remove her before she even saw the Vizard move.

Starrk appeared beside her so fast she almost jumped in surprise. The only ones she was positive that stood a chance of keeping up with him as far as speed was concerned were Diaemus, Ulquiorra and probably Aizen, though she wasn�t sure about the last as he never lowered himself to get involved in any of the battles with the Swarm.

�You� you traitorous bitch!� Hiyori screamed as her mask shattered, revealing the face of a furious young woman. �How could you stand there defending the two them?�

�Hana, you should go,� Starrk said quietly. �Lilinette, you too,� he added. His other half glowered at that.

�C�mon Starrk, we can take them!� Lilinette complained and then coughed again.

�Traitor?� Hana murmured, not understanding why Hiyori would speak to her in such a vicious tone, unless she was angry about the Kido barrier, which was entirely possible.

Her use of the word �traitor� seemed a little harsh. Hana supposed it made sense in a way. Technically, Aizen was the usurper and by supporting Starrk, she was supporting Aizen, but still� calling her a �traitor� was a bit much when, considering the situation that most of the denizens of the Soul Society endured, the word �slave� might have been a better fit.

�Hiyori, we need to leave,� Yoruichi finally called out, appearing next to her companion�s side as quickly as Starrk had materialized next to Hana. �We are obviously already attracting attention and we cannot afford to do that.�

�Fuck that shit!� Hiyori snarled up at Yoruichi and then bared her teeth at Hana. �How could you?!�

The woman was clearly pissed beyond measure, far more pissed than she should have been over something as simple as Hana jumping in to assist Lilinette. In fact, Yoruichi suddenly grabbed Hiyori before the hysterical woman could charge at them, as she clearly wanted to.

�Starrk-ji?� Hana asked uncertainly, turning to look up at him. She wanted to obey his order to retreat, but she wasn�t positive Yoruichi was going to be able to hold Hiyori for long and the Vizard now seemed as if she was hell-bent on going after her! Right now, standing beside, maybe even behind, Starrk seemed like the wisest course of action.

�Ji?�

Hiyori�s body froze for a moment, her mouth hanging open and for a blessed second or two no sound came out of it. Unfortunately, the reprieve was short lived. �You would dare, dare to call the piece of shit who murdered your father �ji?�� Hiyori roared, once more fighting violently against Yoruichi�s grip.

Hana hardly noticed that though. Hiyori�s words echoed in her mind and she turned her gaze from the two struggling women to stare up at Starrk in shock.

�It� it can�t be true,� her mind wailed, even as a sudden look of guilt crossed Starrk�s face.

�Starrk?�

Hana�s voice cracked as she asked this, not wanting to believe it.

He gave a simple nod of his head, unable to look at her, but clearly answering the question. She had known her father had died in the war, but it had never occurred to her that Starrk had been the one to kill him. He was so close to Jushiro, and even her mother. Surely, Jushiro must have known the truth. Yet there was no animosity between them, at least none that Hana had ever been able to detect.

Hiyori�s continuing tirade, steadily increasing in volume and profanity, which Hana had blocked out as her mind raced with what she had learned, suddenly ceased and the woman went limp in Yoruichi�s arms. Starrk and Yoruichi shared some sort of silent communication; neither seemed willing to pursue the conflict any further, given Hiyori�s revelation and the stricken expression on Hana�s face. Yoruichi sent her a pitying look, and then disappeared with a now unconscious Hiyori thrown over her shoulder. No one made to chase after the two.

�You killed him?� Hana asked breathlessly.

She felt caught, as if in a vice grip with someone tightening the handle every few seconds, her lungs abruptly starved for air. Her thoughts skittered every which way and she couldn�t seem to collect them, couldn�t keep the lid on the pot of mice her mind had become. She just couldn�t see it, couldn�t see her father�s blood on the hands of the laid-back man who had helped to raise her. Yet, by his own admission, he had been the one responsible, the one who had killed her father.

�Hana,� Starrk rested a hand on her shoulder and she leaped away from him, staring up at him through tear-clouded eyes.

Hana hadn�t even realized she had begun to cry. Tears streamed down her face, wetting her collar and soaking into the front of her uniform. Dusk had fallen; the sun had disappeared below the horizon while she�d been watching the battle. One by one, stars shimmered into appearance overhead and the light from the full moon rising to the east gave everything it touched a thin silver-edged gilding, including the mangled remains of the clearing and the white uniforms of the two halves of the Espada before her. Starrk�s bowed his head, while Lilinette�s shorter body remained doubled over, her one eye closed and her arms wrapped around her slender frame.

�Why?�

It came out as more of a croak than she might have wanted and it followed a hiccup and a sniffle from her nose, which was starting to run. Starrk didn�t ask for clarification over what she was asking, which, to Hana, was as good as an admission of guilt.

�We were at war. Jushiro and your father ended up fighting Lilinette and I.�

�So you spared �take-ji, but not my father? Why?�

�Aizen ascended to the Throne before Jushiro could die, giving us the chance to save him, as your father wished,� Starrk answered. �Hana-chan��

He tried to touch her again, and she pulled away from him, scrambling over branches and debris to put some distance between them.

�Hana-chan,� Lilinette spoke up, her small voice lanced with pain and rough from the smoke of Hiyori�s Cero.

�SHUT UP!� Hana screamed. �You killed him! Then you took Mother and �take-ji, the two closest to him�� she broke into renewed sobs, ��you took them, and you� �take-ji��

Hana was much older now and had a much better grasp of how Claims worked than when she was small. It was something that she had never really thought too much about, other than trying to avoid becoming a target of a Claim. Now the whole ugly subject was spread out before her, the truth unavoidable.

�Tell me,� she hiccupped, hating the sound of her own waspish voice as she cried. �Did you rape �take-ji beside my father�s dead body, or did you at least have the decency to bury my father first!�

Starrk�s shoulders slumped now.

�I never �raped� Jushiro. I have always asked his permission first before instigating the Claim,� Starrk answered, his tone muted and eyes downcast. �And yes, we did give Kyoraku-Taichou a proper burial, as was fitting of a warrior who bravely died fighting for what he believed in, before I made any such overtures to Jushiro.�

Hana scrubbed at her eyes as he said this, his hands hanging at his side, fingers listless against the white fabric of his hakama.

�I told Nanao myself that I was the one who killed the man she loved, that I was responsible for his death,� he added softly. �I will not lie to you Hana. His death hurt your mother deeply, even though she understood there was a good chance that Shunsui could die in that battle. She also understood that I had no desire to kill him. We were at war, and during a war, soldiers must do what their commanders order them to do.

�I deeply regret Shunsui�s death, that it could not be prevented. I would like to have gotten to know your father more. I think that, under different circumstances, we could have been good friends.�

Starrk paused, looking up now, not at Hana, but at the slowly rising moon. Hana could see it now, the remorseful expression outlined by moonlight.

�The last words Shunsui spoke to us,� Lilinette spoke up sadly, grief in her own voice, �were to ask us if we could make sure that Shiro-chan and Nanao would stay safe under Aizen�s regime. He asked us to protect those closest to him.�

Hana knew, of course, that many had died during the war, and that Starrk was right. They had been soldiers on either side of the lines. It was just as likely that Kyoraku Shunsui could have killed Starrk and then she would never have gotten to know either him or Lilinette. There was a chance �take-ji could have died instead of her father.

�I��

Starrk tried to come close to her again, reaching his hand out towards her. She slapped his hand away and bolted. Neither Starrk nor Lilinette went after her, but Lilinette did call her name, as if begging her to come back. For now, she wanted nothing do with them. She felt betrayed, and not just by Starrk and Lilinette. Her own mother had known, as had Jushiro, and neither had seen fit to tell her the truth of how her father had died, that she had been living with his killer, playing with the man who had slaughtered him.

She needed somewhere where she could go, somewhere to think. She needed someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on like the teenaged girl she truly was. At the same time, she was still on duty and if she was going to leave her post, she had better let her Division know about it if she didn�t want to get into trouble. Thinking about her Division made her think of Toshiro, which instantly made her thing about the Third Espada.

Harribel-sama had fought in Karakura at the same time that Starrk and Lilinette� well, she�d been there, she might have seen something, or maybe she knew what occurred first-hand. If anyone could help her make sense of what had happened, it would be the dark-skinned blonde. Conveniently, her Taichou should be with his Mistress at this time of night, meaning she could let him know about aborting her patrol and satisfy the requirements about �rules� that her inner seated officer usually laid on her.

That left her with the emotional devastation of finding out that she had lived her whole life, willingly and happily, with the man who had murdered the father she had never gotten the chance to meet. She only hoped that she�d be able to keep it together long enough to get back to the city that lit up the sky to the west.

Starrk was all too familiar with the pain of loneliness and loss, as was Lilinette. Seeing that sorrow in Hana�s eyes, watching her run from them and leave them alone in that destroyed clearing brought a large chunk of that crushing agony back. Funny how he�d nearly managed to forget what that was like, surrounded as he was on a daily basis by the blended pack at Jushiro�s Estate.

He hadn�t considered what might happen if Hana learned the truth about the battle fifteen years ago. It never crossed his mind that the subject might come up. If it did rear its ugly head, Starrk had always thought that Jushiro or maybe even her mother would have been the one to inform her. Hell, he should have manned up and confessed his deeds to the child himself once she was old enough to understand.

However, no one had told her, whether by oversight or perhaps because the three adults in her life had assumed that the conversation could wait indefinitely. The result was that Hana had to find out like this. Now, here they were, standing alone in a field, abandoned again, this time by the child he had helped raise, protect, care for, let splash him with water and play pranks with Lilinette when she was a little girl, the same girl who called him �Starrk-ji�.

When Hana dropped the �ji,� staring at him in horror as if he and Lilinette were strangers, it felt like she�d stabbed him with her blade. What was worse was that the little, foul-mouthed Vizard was only the vehicle, the delivery mechanism for the pain. All of it, Hana�s, his and Lilinette�s, originated with him. He�d caused it, because her father had insisted they fight at higher and higher levels instead of just playing with each other and letting the real combatants work things out as to which side would win. Their particular battle was pointless in the grand scheme of things. He, Barragan and Harribel had been a means to an end for Aizen, nothing more and if his own battle had become inconclusive, it was because there had been no one in that false cityscape that could have stopped Aizen to begin with. The only one who might have stood a chance had never shown up and if Starrk had won or lost became irrelevant the second an unopposed Aizen had created the Ouken within the Seireitei itself.

Nanao had been angry with him for some time, hateful even, but she was a warrior, a Shinigami. She understood and approached him, letting him take her away from the wreckage of the 8th Division to the safety of the Estate. It had taken some time, but she had forgiven him, had even invited him to be there when she gave birth to Hana and to hold her daughter afterwards. When he had asked why she trusted him to hold her child, a daughter whose father would never get to see or know her thanks to him, Nanao had smiled sadly in her after-labour exhaustion and simply stated that �Shunsui would want this.�

Their entire world, his and Lilinette�s, had changed as he had held little Hana, the first baby he had ever seen. She was so tiny, so delicate, and so beautiful. She had looked up at him, a small bundle hardly bigger than his hands, and he knew he would die to protect her. He could vividly remember when her eyes opened to look up at him. He had half expected her to start crying, but she hadn�t. She had made a cooing noise and then went to sleep.

The creature he and Lilinette had once been, so powerful that their reiatsu would kill any other Hollows that drew near, even after he/it had halved itself in an attempt to stave off the oppressive loneliness that was their lot, now found itself wounded by that same child. Then again, he supposed that he�d been the one to wound her first.

�Starrk?� Lilinette came up beside him, and he silently pulled her against him, knowing exactly how forsaken she must feel right now. They had been together too long for him not to know. As such, he answered her question before she could ask.

�I do not know if she will ever be able to forgive us for our part in her father�s death.� He responded as honestly as he could. Lilinette�s depression at the thought of losing Hana�s friendship radiated from her small frame, but it matched his own, after all. They had so few friends and it had taken them so long to get the handful they did have. Losing even one hurt them both deeply.

�Jushiro and Nanao forgave us,� he pointed out, closing his eyes and tightening his arms around Lilinette�s shoulders. She buried her face in the shirt of his uniform, her mask fragment digging into his stomach, but at this point, it was nothing compared to the deeper hurt within him, made worse with the addition of guilt �They forgave us in time. They understood.�

�Yeah, they did,� she agreed, but there was very little hope in her girlish voice as she snuffled into the fabric. He reached around and absently stroked her light green hair, rendered silver in the evening�s gloom.

Starrk shared her sentiment, even if that tiny sliver of hope seemed as impossible to grasp as the moonlight around them.

Huge hugs and thanks for the reviews. Gt some pretty good case studies on Nnoitra. Hopefully you are all dabbing at your eyes with a hanky by this part. I don�t know who to feel more sorry for, Hana or Starrk and Lilinette. There will be no quick fix for this situation.

Harribel is not pregnant at this point of the story, not sure how that thought occurred to people.

Next Chapter: Toshiro and Harribel have a heart to heart talk and are ready to get it on� when Hana bursts in in tears.

This Weeks Question: Dear lord I am starting to run out of idea�s. Hmmm. If you could transform into any mythical animal, what would it be and why?
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Prize of Victory 2	By : NovaAlexandria Category: Bleach > General Views: 56251 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor make a profit from this story

Prize of Victory 2