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Cradles in the sand	By : NovaAlexandria Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 9098 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, not make any profit from my stories.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
It was terrifying being locked in a cell with five others and knowing that you were likely to die in the next hour. She really wanted to panic, but she couldn’t. She was still their leader and she was not going to stop being that leader until they were all dead.
“Hold strong. No matter what we face, stick together and we might get out of this alive,” she said firmly.
Despite the white faces of her five charges, they nodded their heads and stood back to back the best they could in their little cage. It had a bit of room, but not much. Their weapons had been taken from them upon capture and they had been separated into different cells. For some reason the six of them had been chosen to go into this cage an hour ago while the other four had been led away. What sounded like a cheering crowd came from below.
“Alright bitches, hope that fake god of yours is listening because you are about to be mauled to death,” one of the guards laughed loudly.
The cage was lifted, and the floor folded away. They were lowered into a stadium with a pit of sand directly below them. Nanao felt her stomach plummet at the sight, followed by fear as the sound of snarling and excited hollows reached her ears.
Soul King help us, she thought in terror as the bars to their cage fell away, followed by the bars of most of the cells raising. She felt suddenly calm as death charged them. She felt a moment of pride at the women standing at her back as they maintained their circle until the first of the large hollows crashed into them.
With no reiatsu, no weapons, and nothing but their own bulk verses that of the large beasts before them, they were instantly scattered. Later she will be horrified at the image of one of her charges being snapped up by two different hollows and pulled in half. The sight of another one being swallowed whole with a third screaming in agony as she was crushed by the clashing beasts would flash behind her eyelids for many nights. Nanao was barely able to duck a swinging tail and had to roll away from stomping feet. She lost her glasses and didn’t bother to try and retrieve them. Her smaller size made it easier to remain unnoticed amongst the fighting beasts and she eventually managed to find her way to the edge of the conflict. With no comrades left, her best bet was to get to a wall and pray for the best.
Not that it will do me much good, she thought grimly as she rolled under another tail and regained her feet. I think I would have better luck fighting off a furious bull or enraged elephant.
“Ise-san!” The shout grabbed her attention as she raced away from the melee, her eyes meeting that of the young woman racing towards her. Shock rippled through her as she stared at a woman everyone had thought dead.
“Karin!” she called back stunned.
Another hollow ran pass Karin, the girl hardly even glancing at the Adjucus that was barely larger than a big dog. Nanao felt a flash of fear but the coyote wasn’t heading for her and, giving the trembling of the earth behind her from what was no doubt pursuit, she wasn’t going to slow down. Better the smaller dog ahead of her than the huge creatures behind her.
She ran pass Karin with her momentum before sliding to a stop and turning to face the young woman. Karin was standing in a defensive stance with what looked like a bone clenched in her hand. The Coyote, despite its smaller size, had one of the large hollows down in the sand with its fangs latched onto the throat. Another was backing off and returning to the melee with no small amount of fear for the smaller hollow. She quickly moved to stand beside Karin, falling into a defensive stance of her own that had been hammered into her at the academy. Despite the carnage, Karin seemed relatively calm.
For her to be this calm, how much of this has she seen? How long has she been here? Or maybe she is just putting on a brave face too. The last thought came from noticing that her companion’s hands were rather white around the bone she was holding like a weapon. And what is going on here? She asked Karin that very question. Her answer was a violent shove she wasn’t expecting, but it did save her life as a jackal took Karin to the ground. The only thing that had saved Karin’s own life was the bone jammed into its mouth, keeping those teeth from closing on her face. Nanao took a step back and swung her fist into its eye with all the force she could manage behind her slim body. It let out a yelp and then leaped away as another Adjucus landed protectively over Karin, one Nanao was surprised to recognize as non-other than Grimmjow, Ichigo’s patrol partner.
Seems like a lot of people we thought dead are proving not to be.
“Back to the cell,” Grimmjow ordered once it was clear the jackal wasn’t going to risk its life tackling the far more powerful former Espada.
“What is this place?” she questioned as she followed Karin to a safer distance. The answer horrified her. Raising hollows into power? Breeding? The thought was disgusting and terrifying given the larger size of the common Adjucus. Death would be far preferable. Hell, death was the result anyhow with the laws in place.
Grimmjow and the unknown coyote must have had some sort of pact, for the two settled into the meal the smaller canine had taken down and were gobbling up the meat as fast as they could. Karin stood nearby, her eyes scanning the others constantly and a sturdy grip on her weapon. Nanao knew Adjucus needed to eat to prevent regressing, and with so many vying for food it was wise indeed to eat as much as one could as quickly as possible.
With most of the confrontation now dying down, she could hear sobs and her eyes darted across the way to where a male sheep like hollow was herding Mihane towards its own cell. She almost took a step forward, but the practical part of her stopped her. There was no way she could get across the stadium to the other woman unarmed and lacking control over her reiatsu. She felt her heart clench as the Adjucus gave Mihane one last head but into his cell before the bars came down, sealing them both inside. Of the other four women that had accompanied her into this pit of hell, the only thing that remained was splatters of blood upon the sand and the torn remains of their uniforms. Later she would mourn their loss, but for now she had to be strong if she was going to survive this ordeal.
She was starting to get very nervous as the remaining hollows either finished off their meals or were getting a bit bolder about stalking around the ones that were still eating. Jackal was watching, not the hollows, but them with an intent she really didn’t like. Grimmjow was the first to rise and walk pass them with the rather odd comment about her not being his responsibility.
“To leave me with the adjacent to the man who killed my Lilinette,” the coyote mourned.
Nanao blinked and looked closer at the coyote. Now that she had names, the form made perfect sense. Coyote Starrk, the very man her taichou had faced off against during the winter war. It was clear he knew who she was even though they had never met. Either Aizen gave his Espada info on all of us and he remembered it, or Karin mentioned it during her time here. Either is just as likely. I hope he doesn’t hold a grudge against me for Shunsui’s actions during the war or things can get really uncomfortable.
“Come here, Ise-san. You can gain weapons from our meal’s fangs and claws. Then, you will apparently be bedding down with me.”
She looked between Starrk and Karin uncertainly. Karin had been here far longer and was clearly on amiable terms with the former First. With some assurance from Karin, they gathered the fangs and teeth, split them between each other, and then she found herself following Starrk into his cell, which was conveniently beside the one Grimmjow and Karin were sharing. The first thing she noticed was the only thing in the cell; the pile of shihakusho. The nest was whiter than there should be and a better examination showed that there were several quincy uniforms mixed in.
Starrk settled into the pile with a sigh of content and closed his eyes. She didn’t think he was sleeping, but he seemed peaceful at least and not likely to suddenly turn on her for a meal. It must have been later in the evening because after a short conversation with Karin, a meal was brought for her by a man she recognized from the 4^th, but whose name she couldn’t recall at the moment. She was surprised to see him, and he looked at her sadly before offering her three bowls.
“This meat looks suspicious,” she muttered uncertainly.
“Hollow,” Starrk answered with a yawn.
She stared at it in disgust and debated on even eating the rice it was sitting on. “Do you want it?” she offered. If I must share a cell with him, might as well at least try and make friends. I wouldn’t blame him for hating me just because of his past with Shunsui.
“I would like that.”
She picked out the meat and held her hand out tentatively. Not that I could really stop him if he wanted to bite my hand off, or take my throat out, she couldn’t help but to think ruefully with no small amount of fear. He’d taken a hollow several times his size down with ease just an hour ago.
Starrk gently took the meat from her offered hand before returning his head to his paws. Now that there was no longer a life or death situation, she took a moment to study him while she drank some of the water and tried some of the rice. He looked like a white scaled coyote with only one blemish, a black mark on his paw that she realized was the numeral 1. A hole went through his body similar to the one Grimmjow had, just higher up along his back to line up with his ribcage instead of his stomach. His eyes were a lazy, almost dull grey when he bothered to open them.
She finished the two bowls and stared at the third curiously.
“For desert?” she asked.
“Bodily waste,” Starrk answered. She couldn’t help the blush that spread across her face at the thought of using a bowl to pee in with a male audience. “I will not watch,” he assured her, even going so far as to shift so his back was too her.
This is probably the most embarrassing moment in my life, bar none. Okay, maybe not the most as Shunsui has dragged me into a good number and pulled some pretty ludicrous crap on me over the decades, but it’s definitely up there. I suppose I should be thankful that I am not expected to just go in a corner. That would get foul fast.
The lights went out shortly after she put the three bowls back in the safety cell and they were retrieved by the same man who had delivered them, sending her into pitch black. She barely held back a yelp of fear as her vision suddenly vanished, leaving her standing in the middle of the cell.
Okay, don’t panic. It doesn’t sound like Karin is panicking so she obviously expected this. First things first, sit down so I don’t walk into a wall or trip over something and hurt myself. It would just be the cruelest irony to land on one of those fangs and have it stab me through the chest and kill me or something. Killed by the very thing meant to protect me, oh yeah that would go over so well.
Okay, listen. There, I can hear Starrk’s breathing from my right. If I head left I should hit the other wall. Not a good idea to sleep near, let alone against, the bars. If I pull my arms into my uniform I can use it like a sort of blanket for now. Damn it gets cold in here fast once the light goes out. I don’t recall any heat coming from the artificial sun. Do they turn the heaters off too when the lights go out or something?
“The nest is over here, Ise-san. I forget Shinigami do not see so well in the dark.”
“The what?” she asked intelligently.
“The nest. It is cold at night and it is wise to share body heat. Despite the history I share with Taichou-san, I assure you I will not harm you, nor attempt to harm you, while we slumber. For now, we are pack.”
“Oh.” Well, he is right. It is getting damn cold and curling up amongst all that… clothing would be wise. Besides, it’s not like there is much I could do to stop him from killing me if he wanted to. From what Shunsui reported during the war about their encounter, Starrk hardly seems like the violent sort.
“I will come to you. It would be foolish to trip on the sand in the dark and harm yourself. Brace yourself, I am about to touch you.”
Even with the warning, she still jumped and let out a yelp of surprise as his cold nose touched her hand. Her hand returned to his head a moment later and she was thankful for the darkness that was hiding her blush of embarrassment. He’d even warned her! Starrk moved his head under her hand until it rested on his neck. His hide was surprisingly warm and relatively smooth.
“This way.” He took a step forward and she followed his lead until she felt the edge of the nest with her feet. “Make yourself comfortable first. I can see well enough to find my own place.”
Against the wall would be best. With it at my back and a few pieces of clothing, I should be able to create a little ‘shelter’ that should heat up with my body heat alone. Damn I wish I could see. It’s bad enough everything further than ten feet away is a blurry mess, but this is just absurd. Would it kill them to have a few lights?
She worked as she silently seethed, putting some clothes against the wall with two layers on the sand. She settled there and pulled more clothes up over her body. She put her back to the wall and pulled her arms into her own uniform. Once she was settled she heard Starrk move around a bit, adjusting the rest of the nesting material no doubt, before she felt his body rest against her. Warmth flowed from him into her and she felt her body begin to relax, despite the fact she was sleeping next to a very powerful hollow.
In his current shape, it’s easy to think he’s just a big dog. I don’t get a sense of danger from him at all. He is so much like Shunsui in body language, despite the shape difference, that I can understand now why it bothered him so to have ‘killed’ this man. I honestly think Shunsui will be relieved to learn Starrk survived the war after all, and embarrassed at the same time.
Still, he is a hollow and he has no reason to truly keep me alive other than the fact that he seems to have befriended Karin during her time here. I have no doubt that he would eat me if push came to shove. Granted, I suppose becoming a part of his soul collection would be preferable to being annihilated from existence.
That thought brought up a new line of thinking, one which might explain these ‘games’ the quincy were putting on.
Yhwach is not stupid. Even he understands that destroying too many souls would disrupt the balance of the realms, causing them to collapse. It is one thing to re-order them, it is another to destroy them. By feeding us to hollows, then sending them out to be killed by us, he is removing a large number of us from the battlefield while sending all those souls back into the cycle. Those souls are no longer a threat to him or his, he doesn’t need to worry about keeping prisoners, and any new soul being born, should he succeed, will be brought up in a world of his making. It’s a rather smart way to re-train your captives without ever needing to worry about them not breaking or regressing. His troops get entertainment and he gets fresh slates to work with.
Worse, was the other implication Karin had offered. Breeding. As far as she knew it was strictly forbidden to have intercourse with a Hollow, a rather odd law considering the likelihood of it ever happening was absurd. Hollows killed and ate Shinigami. Most of them were so large that the thought of having sex with them was ridicules, not to mention their monstrous appearance. In all of her years with the Gotei 13, she had never heard of a case of anyone having intercourse with a hollow, or even considering it in a joking manner, let alone serious.
And yet, the law had to have come from somewhere, she mused. The older days were far less civilized than today. After all, were there not pits hollows were once kept in to fight for our amusement? Perhaps the thought of breeding with them had occurred to some of the more deranged. Perhaps the offspring were uncontrollable or it wasn’t worth the loss of life. Most of the hollows they would have held back than would have been low level, not the more level minded, higher rank Adjucus that are clearly being held here. Kami-sama knows the old system tried some pretty deranged things, like the original plan for mod souls. If they came up with the idea to use dead humans as fighting vessels, the idea to try and breed shinigami and hollows would not be that farfetched.
“I know it is hard to trust me, but you should rest. You were intended to die in the pit today, and there is no telling if the Quincy well let me keep you or not. They could decide to rectify the situation in the morning.”
“What? Oh, it’s not the company,” she quickly assured him. “I am just thinking. My mind won’t shut down.”
“I see. What were you thinking about?”
“A lot of things. Karin mentioned that ‘breeding’ was something that took place here.”
“Yes,” Starrk sighed. “They wait until the woman being offered is in heat before tying her up and sending her down to be taken. I suspect the restraints are to prevent her from fighting or struggling and harming herself in the process over any fear that she will escape. Once bred, most hollows will protect the woman carrying their young violently. We so seldom go into heat.”
“Shinigami don’t go into heat,” she pointed out.
“Do you not ovulate?” he asked confused.
“Well, yes,” she frowned before getting what he was going for. “Oh, you can scent that?” she asked.
“Yes. I do not know how the quincy know which of your women are in heat and which aren’t, but only the ones in heat are offered for breeding. The chance to breed is very rare on the sands and the quincy have sweetened the deal. Anyone who produces offspring for them will be rewarded by becoming an Arrancar and freed from here to join their army. I suspect they are than foolishly sent to their deaths,” he snorted. “Not all women sent down here to breed are taken though, sometimes the hollows chosen will kill them instead.”
“That almost seems like a better fate.” There was silence between them for a minute or two while she chewed the thought over in her mind before daring to ask. “Have you been offered the chance to bred?” she asked hesitantly.
Starrk let out a sigh before answering. “Many times. Before you ask, I kill them quickly and consume them. Grimmjow does the same. We are not shinigami, but I am certain if giving the choice, they would have preferred death over what was coming.”
She really didn’t want to know, but she had to ask, “what happens to the women after they give birth and their… partner is evolved?”
“As far as we know, they are both moved out and he keeps her. I have never seen the same woman put into the pits twice. I know they survive the birth, for the births are done here in the centre ring with a large amount of ceremony. Once the healthy young arrive, the Adjucus is raised up on a platform pass the wards and is turned into an Arrancar by Yhwach. The family is than removed from the pits, never to be seen again.”
“What if the conception fails?”
Starrk let out a mild chuckle, one she almost felt more than heard. “There is the irony. Even between hollows, breeding during heat doesn’t produce offspring more than fifty percent of the time. Mates can go through several heats before succeeding.”
“It’s the same for shinigami.”
“And yet, opposites do seem to attract. Of the forty-six women I have personally seen that were bred, forty-five of them conceived immediately.”
Nanao felt horrified, not just because at least forty-six of her colleges had been raped by hollows, but because the implications of what Starrk had just told her were devastating.
Forty-five Arrancar! There are very few amongst the seated officers that can even dream of taking on the average Arrancar, and we would certainly have noticed that many being put on the field. True we have seen Arrancar amongst the soldiers, but as far as we have been able to determine, they are the remains of Aizen’s army that the quincy recruited.
Nanao swallowed nervously and she felt Starrk shift beside her, no doubt to look at her as her own body twitched at the horrible thought that was reeling through her brain. “You said you believed those changed by Yhwach were sent to the front lines to die. Why do you think that?” she asked through a throat suddenly gone dry.
“What other use would the quincy have for them?”
“Reserves,” she whispered. “Starrk-san, all the Arrancar we have faced so far are ones Aizen made. We haven’t seen a single one on the battle lines that was new. Until now, I didn’t even know Yhwach could make new Arrancar. Kyoraku-sotaichou may be over protective of my physical health, but if we had any inkling to such knowledge, he would have shared it with me.”
She felt the body beside hers stiffen. “While many are not nearly as powerful as us Espada were before Yhwach regressed us, many are at least of Fracción strength. Your seated officers were barely able to compete with them.”
“Yumichika and Ikakku far surpass the average seated officer strength,” she supplied. “I need to get out of here. I need to warn Kyoraku-sotaichou about what’s coming at us.” She shifted restlessly in place, for there was nothing she could do right now. Starrk even echoed that though.
“Rest. You are weary, and no doubt have many bruises and lacerations from today’s scuffle. You cannot see in the dark even were the cell bars open.” His shifted back to his original resting pose.
She had to get out of here. They were barely holding the lines as it was and the thought of another forty plus Arrancar suddenly joining the fray was enough to terrify her. While any of the taichou could take down a normal numerous, even they could be out numbered. The thought of four on ones with backing from the sternritter… she didn’t think even Shunsui could survive that. He would take a few out with him, but he would go down in the end. If they lost their taichou class fighters, the war was over. They needed every ounce of strength they could muster, which was why Isshin had even giving up his blissful, mortal life to help. It was why spiritually aware humans were being encouraged to step up and deal with the hollows and pluses the Shinigami couldn’t get to and were being deputized in numbers never seen before.
“Can you help me escape?” she dared to ask.
He let out a long sigh before answering. “There is no escape from this pit, save one. I do not fathom you would be willing to take that avenue considering the unknown outcome.”
One way to escape, and one he doubted she would take. She couldn’t fathom he was talking about death and hoping the hollow she was consumed by died to release her soul. The only time anyone is taken from here is when… she felt horror well in her chest, is when they are bred. A complete death sentence giving the law.
- 4
- 5
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Cradles in the sand