NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Retorta chapter 3
Gin can't breathe .
He knows there's a difference between a captain and a lieutenant, the same way there's a difference between a lieutenant and a civilian, but…
He hadn't expected the gap to be quite so large.
Or maybe it's just that he's watching a standoff between monsters.
He remembers the terrified, defiant flare of Hirako-taicho's reiatsu, out of control and lashing at his surroundings, but that weight has nothing on what he's experiencing now.
Aizen had never shown what he was capable of, wrapped all his incongruously harsh reiatsu up in calm and mirrors, but Gin knows that Aizen is far stronger than the average captain. He would never have decided to toy with eight more-or-less captain-class shinigami if he weren't capable of putting them all down.
It's not Aizen's reiatsu that's slowly crushing Gin's lungs into his ribs, though.
Kisuke waits as Aizen pauses, panting. All he needs is an instant to get through the megalomaniac's guard. Aizen will only wear himself out spending his rage and pain in the meantime. Kisuke would be content playing defense until Aizen slips, but something in him is howling , his own fury carefully leashed but demanding retribution regardless. Almost carelessly, he shapes his reiatsu into a blade and thrusts forward, manifesting it in a vicious shard of light that he's never bothered to properly name. Aizen staggers, barely managing to deflect it with a palm-sized bakudo, and in the moment he's off-balance, Kisuke moves.
He sways forward and down, knocking Aizen's reflexive strike wide and leaving the would-be ruler completely open.
Aizen jerks, his eyes going wide, but he's too slow.
Kisuke twists, revealing the knife flattened against his forearm, and strikes with all the speed he possesses.
The knife slams home through several layers of bone, piercing up through Aizen's jaw and through his brain.
Kisuke pulls him close, supporting the lieutenant's suddenly limp body, and holds him up long enough to watch the last of the light leave Aizen's eyes before he contemptuously jerks the knife free and crouches to wipe the blade off on the body's haori.
It's only as he straightens that his previous laser-focus expands to include his surroundings, and Kisuke becomes aware of the violent spread of his reiatsu, crushing everything around him, including this timeline's tiny version of Gin.
Gin, who spent most of his time in the Gotei 13 trying to get close enough to kill Aizen, who is pinned to the ground ten feet from Aizen's body and watching Kisuke with wide eyes.
Kisuke pulls his reiatsu close to him, leaving just enough to ensure Gin can't go for his throat as soon as he's within range, and wanders over. He misses his geta and their disconcerting clicking, but being barefoot allows for complete silence, and he is too much of an assassin to fail to appreciate that particular advantage. Still, Gin watches him with all the wariness of a rabbit that just watched a hawk kill the snake that had entrapped it, even as Kisuke tucks the knife away and crouches down next to the boy's head.
The look on his face is far too resigned for someone barely over a century old.
Aizen is dead, as unceremoniously as you please. Tousen is also dead. Very dead. Gin remembers what was left of the corpse and shudders. He hopes that if Urahara-taicho feels the need to mutilate him, he will do so after he has killed him. Not that he would complain much either way. Aizen is dead , and he can never hurt Ran again. For that, Gin would accept a century of torture.
The man in question has never looked less like a captain, in Gin's opinion, blood-spattered and vicious and focused like the edge of the blade he wields. He knows that Urahara used to be Onmi, was third seat of the Second before he transferred, but Gin has never before realized exactly what that meant on such a visceral level, why half of Twelve flinched away from Urahara when he smiled. How much of a fool he and the rest had been, to be so easily blinded by a sheepish smile.
Aizen should never have crossed this man, should never have let him see the experimental hollow hybrids and then turned and walked away.
Gin can only be thankful that Urahara will kill him last, that he's gotten to watch Aizen be destroyed by a barefoot, young, thin new captain without even a zanpakuto.
The assassin crouches next to him and Gin tries not to close his eyes, determined to face his death with all the honor he couldn't afford to have in life. There is a brief moment of silence, and then,
"You know, brats like you shouldn't try to double-cross monsters. You should stick to worrying about brat things." A hand gently thwacks his forehead and Gin flinches despite himself. Then the pressure holding him down vanishes, and he looks up to see Urahara grinning mischievously down at him. "Go home to Matsumoto-chan, Ichimaru-kun."
Kisuke straightens abruptly, slipping his knife out of his sleeve and ignoring the way Gin, at his feet, is staring blankly at nothing. He suddenly has much bigger problems. Namely, he's standing over a child with another corpse just a few feet away, and Unohana can be extremely protective of children. And, unfortunately for him, Unohana is approaching rapidly. At least, out of all the captains, she's the least likely to deem Gin acceptable collateral damage. He braces himself, prepared to explain what he can or simply throw Gin at her and run, but she enters the clearing like a furious hurricane, smile nowhere in sight, and doesn't even hesitate when she sees him.
He throws himself backwards just in time to miss the blade that would have taken off his head, leaving Unohana to pull Gin protectively behind her by the collar of his uniform. Kisuke steels himself--he's seen her fight, but at least he hasn't done anything to make her too angry. Maybe he won't have to fight her, personally. He hopes.
While Kisuke and Unohana are facing off, though, the rest of the Gotei 13 arrives--all the captains and lieutenants currently not hollowfied, anyway. It's still an impressive showing. Or at least, it would be if Kisuke couldn't take on three-fourths of them at once and win. The only Shinigami he expects trouble from are the Soutaicho, Unohana, and the Shusui/Juushiro tag-team, who never play fair even if they can't match him for speed or lethality. If possible, he would like to avoid killing anyone; Ichigo has...Ichigo had repeatedly drilled into him that not everyone was a potential target. If he has to fight without killing, though, escaping will get much more difficult. He wishes, futilely, that Benihime were with him; with her defensive capabilities, it would be easy to slip away unscathed. There's no one currently between him and the Division Two headquarters, but any attempt at movement would bring the entire fragile standoff down on his head.
The knife he's holding looks laughable in the face of their might, but Kisuke will make it work. He has to.
And then an orange-and-black meteor crash lands directly in between Kisuke and the array of officers facing him.