Winter War - Ensemble: Haste
Title: Winter War - Ensemble: Haste
Authors: incandescens. liralen
Characters: Hinamori, Soi Fong, Isane, Ukitake
Rating/Warning: PG-13.
Notes: This is a dark AU co-plotted with sophiap and liralen. The war against Aizen's forces went very badly. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.
Summary: Speed is required.
Index of Links
[...]
32. Ukitake: Sacrifices
33. Ensemble: Splitting The Party
34. Karin: At Bay
35. Retaking Seireitei, Part 2
36. Grimmjow: Trauma
HASTE
Momo watched the shadow follow Ukitake-taichou and Isane, quickening its movement as it slid after them over the broken ground. Bricks and timber fell to dust as it passed over them, and plants visibly aged and withered before crumbling. It seemed to be stabilising at perhaps twice the size of a man. Perhaps. She hoped.
She should have been following Ukitake-taichou’s order immediately and calling for help, but she couldn’t look away from the fleeing pair until she was certain that they were a safe distance ahead of the thing, and that it wasn’t going to catch them unless something changed. Something like it speeding up. Or Isane slowing down. But Isane was running like a hare across the smoky countryside, Ukitake-taichou’s hair floating out behind the pair of them: she watched for another few seconds until they were gone into the trees.
Iba grunted, and sat down next to Shirogane. Momo turned, hurrying over to make sure that he was all right. His hand moved to check Shirogane’s pulse.
“Is she -“ Momo started.
“No,” Iba said. He sighed. “Didn’t expect it, either.”
“No.” Momo hadn’t either. She’d only hoped. “The others?”
“Suzuki’s dead,” Iba said. He wiped ash and dirt from his face. “Rikichi’s unconscious. The others are alive. No worries there. Message.” He blinked. “You got enough juice left to reach our people in Seireitei?“
Momo realised that it was taking a miracle to keep her upright. That last blast from Tobiume had cost her almost everything she had. “Of course,” she said firmly, and sat down next to Iba.
“Good girl.” He patted her on the shoulder as she focused.
She ran through the facts in her head, trying to get them clear. She knew that she didn’t have the strength for a long message, and she didn’t want the last thing Soi Fong-taichou heard to be And Ukitake-taichou is urgh... It’d be so unprofessional. She’d never hear the end of it.
---
Soi Fong came down the long flight of white stairs side by side with Ushoda Hachigen, with one of her people ten yards ahead and another ten yards behind. This would be the worst and most ironic of all times to be hit by an ambush, or to have one of Ichimaru’s assassins jump out at them when they were all affected by the tower’s reiatsu-drain.
(Had it been her, she would have arranged such a surprise for any intruders, at a moment like this when they could have been reasonably assumed to be most off their guard. Poison would also have been involved, maybe with a ranged attack to draw attention while a close-combatant moved in from behind. She so rarely had the opportunity to discuss this sort of thing with other people who appreciated it properly. Even good commanders like Ukitake-taichou would develop a certain distance and a tendency to find other important subjects that they needed to discuss, thank you for your important contribution to the subject, Soi Fong-taichou, we will perhaps go into it later.)
The thought of Ukitake-taichou made her wonder what his current situation was. Ichimaru hadn’t come back, which meant that either Ukitake-taichou’s group had disposed of him, or they were keeping him busy for the moment. As soon as this place was secured, she would take a strike team and go to help.
Ushoda nodded to himself, looking around. “Yes,” he said quietly. His voice was a little hoarse, as though he hadn’t been using it for a while. “Yes, I thought it must be something like this.”
“And you believe Yadomaru Lisa is currently in Hueco Mundo?” Soi Fong probed. She already knew that from Grimmjow’s testimony, but she wanted to see how he’d answer. She’d given him a brief update on current events: his status as prisoner had mostly proven him as an ally of hers, or at least an enemy of Aizen’s, and she was willing to extend some degree of trust. She remembered him from a hundred years ago, when he had been second-in-command of the Kidou Corps, and she had been Yoruichi-sama’s trusted officer. She had scarcely known him then, but by all accounts he had been competent, and she valued competence.
He nodded. “Aizen was using us as leverage against each other. It made sense for him to keep us apart, so that we couldn’t plan an escape. I’m grateful to know that some of the others are still alive.” His wide face was not one to show casual emotion, but there was a darkness moving behind his eyes, a bitter anger and grief.
“We need to think where you can best be used,” Soi Fong said, not wanting to go anywhere near the question of gratitude or sympathy. “Are you still competent? Long-term reiatsu-bound imprisonment...”
He shrugged, his whole body moving heavily with the gesture. “Not as strong as I might be, but certainly still competent. Are any parts of Seireitei still under Ichimaru’s control?”
One of Shiba Kuukaku’s household came running up the steps, panting as he came, his clothing smeared with stone-dust and ashes.
Tired, Soi Fong thought, analysing the movements. Recent exertion other than these damned stairs. Close proximity to explosion blast. No sign of being subverted by Ichimaru or being an assassination attempt.
“Soi Fong-taichou!” the man gasped as he drew closer. “Word from Shiba-sama!”
With a little inward sigh, Soi Fong flash-stepped down the stairs towards him, passing her own man on the stairs. “Not so loud,” she scolded. “Do you want the whole of Seireitei to hear?” She was conscious of Ushoda following her down, but staying a tactful few paces away: close enough to hear, but not so close that he was forcing his way into the conversation.
The man got his breathing under control, and spoke a bit more quietly. “Shiba-sama sends word that the prison is under control and the governor is in chains. Her people are checking it and releasing the prisoners that we know are trustworthy. She and all her group are in good condition, and she will be moving on from there once it’s secure. She asks if you need any assistance and what your current status is.”
Soi Fong didn’t need to spend time considering. “Tell her that the Tower of Penitence is clear, and that we’ve freed a number of hostages from the noble families, as well as one of the Vizards. We’ll meet as arranged -“
Then the message struck her. As always, it came as a surprise, and as always, she resented that. She was not supposed to be surprised. Hinamori-fukutaichou’s voice, ragged but firm, as close as if Hinamori was standing beside her and in her blind spot. “We report that Ichimaru Gin and Kira Izuru are both dead, as are the shinigami and others with them.”
Soi Fong waited. This wasn’t all of it. The others were looking at her, surprised by her sudden silence, and she held up a hand for them to be patient.
“Before dying, Ichimaru released a fragment of the Espada Barragan. It appears to be unintelligent but is pursuing the largest source of local reiatsu. Ukitake-taichou and Kotetsu-fukutaichou are leading it cross-country to the north-west from our location. They started five minutes ago, regular flash step speed. Both of them are injured. We have other injuries here, but nothing that can’t wait. Requesting urgent assistance for Ukitake-taichou, repeat, requesting urgent assistance.”
Hinamori’s voice broke off with the hollow emptiness that came when the user had no power left to sustain such a kidou, and Soi Fong knew that she probably wouldn’t be able to send any more messages for at least the next half-hour. She bit down on her own near-panic, the fingers of her hand tightening into a fist so that she wouldn’t be tempted to touch her other shoulder, to reach for the arm that wasn’t there.
“Ichimaru’s dead,” she reported concisely. “All his people with him. Ours are injured.”
But now she had an unexpected tool to her hand. Oh, Aizen and Ichimaru were going to regret imprisoning Ushoda Hachigen here, just where she could find him and make use of him, when he was most needed.
She turned to Ushoda. “Ichimaru managed to revive one of the Espada, a creature called Barragan. It has the power to accelerate aging and decay anything it touches. It -“
He held up one large hand. “I know it,” he said flatly. “Aizen used it to attack us as well. I thought it gone.”
“Clearly not. But - you have no technique that may be used against it, then?”
His wide brow furrowed. Though Soi Fong was not the sort of woman to often be amused, he might have been a figure for mockery, if not for his calm and purpose. There was a solidity to him like foundation stones. “There were things I might have tried if there had been more time and more open space. Where is it now?”
“Pursuing Ukitake-taichou across the forest,” Soi Fong said briskly. She had no time for fear now, did not even want to consider that she was afraid, because by all the gods she was the Captain of the Second Division, and Captain of Covert Operations, and she was one of the Gotei 13, and they would not be broken again. “They began five minutes ago, heading north-west, and I know the area they would have started from. Assuming a straight line, we can intercept. How’s your flash step?”
He shook out one foot, then the other, putting each down in turn with a firm stamp. “Ready,” he said, not going into further detail.
There was no help to be found elsewhere. From what she knew of Sasakibe’s abilities, he had no way of hurting this creature that she didn’t already possess, and Shiba Kuukaku simply wasn’t a combatant on that level. She flicked a glance at the Shiba messenger, then at her own people. “Report the situation to Shiba Kuukaku and to Sasakibe-fukutaichou. Support that group of noblewomen. Hold the Tower. Understood?”
Her people flicked quick salutes at her. The messenger stammered acquiescence a moment later.
She nodded in return, then gathered herself and sprang into motion, leaping across the city and for the gate, Ushoda one step behind her.
---
Isane carefully counted the trees between flash steps.
Two. Four. Six. Two. Four. Six. Two. Four. Six.
Three trees had allowed the shard to catch up, and Isane still felt a pang about the ancient oak she'd sacrificed to slow it down. Still, better the gnarled tree than their lives. Ten a step had nearly lost it, but that was changing as the shard devoured more in its path.
Two. Four. Six.
Ukitake-taichou clung to her back, his slender body balancing over Isane's hips to keep her from straining. Isane ignored Ukitake-taichou's wheezing as she could do nothing about it, and she didn't want to shame him by noticing.
"Isane," Ukitake-taichou murmured, coughed wetly, "I think you might want to pick up your pace. It is speeding up."
Eight. Two. Four. Six. Eight.
She didn't waste precious breath on answering, just nodded, and went a little farther with each step.
Minutes later, Isane was thinking again. Thinking of the past. Of what she'd heard of someone who resembled what was chasing them.
"Taichou," Isane gasped and felt the body on her back stir and straighten. "What is it?"
"It's a remnant of Barragan," Ukitake-taichou said, in a calm and contemplative voice that made Isane relax into her task of running. "One of the Arrancar we faced in the false Karakura Town. He was their Number Two. Soi Fong-taichou and her fukutaichou did their best to destroy him, even as other subordinates dealt with his people."
"Arm?" Isane asked between steps.
"Hai. That is when Soi Fong-taichou lost her arm and took worse injuries as well. Even her bankai was not enough to destroy him." Ukitake-taichou's voice took on a more musing tone. "I wonder what brought him to this form? It seems unlikely that it was the doing of anyone in the Gotei 13. What if Aizen..."
Isane kept running and let Ukitake-taichou think. The shard grew behind her, and soon she was leaping in bigger bounds Big enough it didn't matter how many trees there were, big enough she was having to concentrate on not overextending her power.
"I wonder if..." Ukitake-taichou murmured, and the exhausted despair of his tone terrified Isane.
She extended herself for two extra long jumps, pulling a surprised gasp from Ukitake-taichou.
"What?"
"Getting us further ahead..." Isane panted, "need to talk."
Three more huge shunpo steps that drained nearly the last of her resources, and the Hollow reiatsu was left far enough behind that Isane dropped Ukitake-taichou to the ground in a regrettably undignified heap. She couldn't quite care enough as she gulped air, hands on knees. "What... are... you... thinking?" she demanded between them.
Ukitake-taichou sat seiza in the dead leaves. He looked pale and drawn, nearly as fragile as the crisp remnants of the previous fall. "The shard doesn't have a personality yet, doesn't have anything but the will to eat. What would happen if it absorbed a soul that had intentions or a powerful enough will to turn it from what it was doing?"
The white haori was in Isane's fist before she even realized she'd moved. "No!" she cried, "You will not feed yourself to it to find out!"
The calm look she got back did not reassure her in the least.
"But it would be..."
Unohana-taichou's dark eyes superimposed themselves over Ukitake-taichou's features, and Isane started crying even as she shook him with both hands. "No. You. Will. Not. Give. Yourself. Up. Think of some other way. What if it doesn't work?"
The nonplussed look on Ukitake-taichou's face made Isane chuckle through her tears.
"Not work..." Thin lips pursed under the weak moonlight. "Right. It is still Hollow. If all I do is feed it my power and its will takes over with everything that I am at its disposal, that would worsen the situation significantly."
Isane nearly cried in relief at the tone.
"Maybe... maybe we should try feeding it something peaceful? See if a deer spirit or rabbits might make it more tame?"
Qualms shook Isane. The tree had been bad enough, but another living being? Isane closed her eyes. It was better to sacrifice a deer than her self or her Taichou. "A--all right," she stammered, "I think... I think I can help you, Taichou."
She reached out with her senses. There. Picking its way through the underbrush a few hundred yards to the left was the calm feel of a grazing deer. "That way."
Grimly, Ukitake-taichou levered himself up, looking painfully stiff. "I'm afraid you're going to have to..."
Isane backed up to him and bent. He draped himself over her, and her heart nearly broke when he involuntarily groaned while pulling himself up onto her back.
"How's your shoulder?"
"Stiffening," was all the answer Ukitake-taichou gave. He settled and after one additional painful sounding breath said, "I'm ready."
They headed back, toward the hungry reiatsu, and Isane braced herself before she took a shunpo step back within its range. This time she felt the intensity of its regard turning on her as she came close.
"Go, Isane," Ukitake said tersely. "It's bigger now."
Feeling the shard following her, Isane turned and moved back in the direction of the deer. She felt much as she had for the ancient tree, but she was entirely willing to sacrifice anything other than another of her Captains.
Never again.
When Isane sped by the feeding deer, she startled it into flight. A young buck, antlers still spring buds, a few faded white spots speckling dark flanks. For a step, then two, they fled the Hollow together. Then she used shunpo, and led the animal by just enough.
The bleating cry the animal made when the shard took it made Isane stumble, but a quick hug from the man on her back gave her enough courage to catch her balance. When the hollow behind them paused to absorb the deer, she stopped, turning back to look. By the wavering moonlight, the darkness flowed over the startled, struggling animal and took its shape. Isane felt Ukitake-taichou's grip relax, the thin body's tension easing. The deer stood, shook itself, looking as dark as a moonless night, and Isane's relief nearly buckled her knees.
Then the deer trembled, gave another more piercing cry, and collapsed in on itself.
The amorphous blob of blackness writhed against dead grasses, and they turned to ash before the midnight mass gathered itself, solidified, and the now human form, broad and bearded grunted and levered himself up onto bony legs and feet. Isane gasped in horror at the empty skull, the black eye sockets, the wisps of unholy mist streaming from bone white orifices.
Ukitake-taichou snarled in Isane's ear, and then he bit out the spell for the Six Rods Prison of Light. The spell burst from him, and slender beams of light pierced the mid-section of the walking Hollow, rendering it immobile. Ukitake-taichou slumped against Isane's back.
"Run, Isane," croaked Ukitake-taichou.
And Isane ran.
That was when the streamers of power arrowed toward them from the city. One an insect of adamantine, the other of diamond air. Two figures bounding in huge steps of shunpo that Isane couldn't even fathom having the strength to do anymore.
---
We also now have a TV Tropes page at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/WinterWar, and are most grateful to whoever it was that created it.
Authors: incandescens. liralen
Characters: Hinamori, Soi Fong, Isane, Ukitake
Rating/Warning: PG-13.
Notes: This is a dark AU co-plotted with sophiap and liralen. The war against Aizen's forces went very badly. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.
Summary: Speed is required.
Index of Links
[...]
32. Ukitake: Sacrifices
33. Ensemble: Splitting The Party
34. Karin: At Bay
35. Retaking Seireitei, Part 2
36. Grimmjow: Trauma
HASTE
Momo watched the shadow follow Ukitake-taichou and Isane, quickening its movement as it slid after them over the broken ground. Bricks and timber fell to dust as it passed over them, and plants visibly aged and withered before crumbling. It seemed to be stabilising at perhaps twice the size of a man. Perhaps. She hoped.
She should have been following Ukitake-taichou’s order immediately and calling for help, but she couldn’t look away from the fleeing pair until she was certain that they were a safe distance ahead of the thing, and that it wasn’t going to catch them unless something changed. Something like it speeding up. Or Isane slowing down. But Isane was running like a hare across the smoky countryside, Ukitake-taichou’s hair floating out behind the pair of them: she watched for another few seconds until they were gone into the trees.
Iba grunted, and sat down next to Shirogane. Momo turned, hurrying over to make sure that he was all right. His hand moved to check Shirogane’s pulse.
“Is she -“ Momo started.
“No,” Iba said. He sighed. “Didn’t expect it, either.”
“No.” Momo hadn’t either. She’d only hoped. “The others?”
“Suzuki’s dead,” Iba said. He wiped ash and dirt from his face. “Rikichi’s unconscious. The others are alive. No worries there. Message.” He blinked. “You got enough juice left to reach our people in Seireitei?“
Momo realised that it was taking a miracle to keep her upright. That last blast from Tobiume had cost her almost everything she had. “Of course,” she said firmly, and sat down next to Iba.
“Good girl.” He patted her on the shoulder as she focused.
She ran through the facts in her head, trying to get them clear. She knew that she didn’t have the strength for a long message, and she didn’t want the last thing Soi Fong-taichou heard to be And Ukitake-taichou is urgh... It’d be so unprofessional. She’d never hear the end of it.
---
Soi Fong came down the long flight of white stairs side by side with Ushoda Hachigen, with one of her people ten yards ahead and another ten yards behind. This would be the worst and most ironic of all times to be hit by an ambush, or to have one of Ichimaru’s assassins jump out at them when they were all affected by the tower’s reiatsu-drain.
(Had it been her, she would have arranged such a surprise for any intruders, at a moment like this when they could have been reasonably assumed to be most off their guard. Poison would also have been involved, maybe with a ranged attack to draw attention while a close-combatant moved in from behind. She so rarely had the opportunity to discuss this sort of thing with other people who appreciated it properly. Even good commanders like Ukitake-taichou would develop a certain distance and a tendency to find other important subjects that they needed to discuss, thank you for your important contribution to the subject, Soi Fong-taichou, we will perhaps go into it later.)
The thought of Ukitake-taichou made her wonder what his current situation was. Ichimaru hadn’t come back, which meant that either Ukitake-taichou’s group had disposed of him, or they were keeping him busy for the moment. As soon as this place was secured, she would take a strike team and go to help.
Ushoda nodded to himself, looking around. “Yes,” he said quietly. His voice was a little hoarse, as though he hadn’t been using it for a while. “Yes, I thought it must be something like this.”
“And you believe Yadomaru Lisa is currently in Hueco Mundo?” Soi Fong probed. She already knew that from Grimmjow’s testimony, but she wanted to see how he’d answer. She’d given him a brief update on current events: his status as prisoner had mostly proven him as an ally of hers, or at least an enemy of Aizen’s, and she was willing to extend some degree of trust. She remembered him from a hundred years ago, when he had been second-in-command of the Kidou Corps, and she had been Yoruichi-sama’s trusted officer. She had scarcely known him then, but by all accounts he had been competent, and she valued competence.
He nodded. “Aizen was using us as leverage against each other. It made sense for him to keep us apart, so that we couldn’t plan an escape. I’m grateful to know that some of the others are still alive.” His wide face was not one to show casual emotion, but there was a darkness moving behind his eyes, a bitter anger and grief.
“We need to think where you can best be used,” Soi Fong said, not wanting to go anywhere near the question of gratitude or sympathy. “Are you still competent? Long-term reiatsu-bound imprisonment...”
He shrugged, his whole body moving heavily with the gesture. “Not as strong as I might be, but certainly still competent. Are any parts of Seireitei still under Ichimaru’s control?”
One of Shiba Kuukaku’s household came running up the steps, panting as he came, his clothing smeared with stone-dust and ashes.
Tired, Soi Fong thought, analysing the movements. Recent exertion other than these damned stairs. Close proximity to explosion blast. No sign of being subverted by Ichimaru or being an assassination attempt.
“Soi Fong-taichou!” the man gasped as he drew closer. “Word from Shiba-sama!”
With a little inward sigh, Soi Fong flash-stepped down the stairs towards him, passing her own man on the stairs. “Not so loud,” she scolded. “Do you want the whole of Seireitei to hear?” She was conscious of Ushoda following her down, but staying a tactful few paces away: close enough to hear, but not so close that he was forcing his way into the conversation.
The man got his breathing under control, and spoke a bit more quietly. “Shiba-sama sends word that the prison is under control and the governor is in chains. Her people are checking it and releasing the prisoners that we know are trustworthy. She and all her group are in good condition, and she will be moving on from there once it’s secure. She asks if you need any assistance and what your current status is.”
Soi Fong didn’t need to spend time considering. “Tell her that the Tower of Penitence is clear, and that we’ve freed a number of hostages from the noble families, as well as one of the Vizards. We’ll meet as arranged -“
Then the message struck her. As always, it came as a surprise, and as always, she resented that. She was not supposed to be surprised. Hinamori-fukutaichou’s voice, ragged but firm, as close as if Hinamori was standing beside her and in her blind spot. “We report that Ichimaru Gin and Kira Izuru are both dead, as are the shinigami and others with them.”
Soi Fong waited. This wasn’t all of it. The others were looking at her, surprised by her sudden silence, and she held up a hand for them to be patient.
“Before dying, Ichimaru released a fragment of the Espada Barragan. It appears to be unintelligent but is pursuing the largest source of local reiatsu. Ukitake-taichou and Kotetsu-fukutaichou are leading it cross-country to the north-west from our location. They started five minutes ago, regular flash step speed. Both of them are injured. We have other injuries here, but nothing that can’t wait. Requesting urgent assistance for Ukitake-taichou, repeat, requesting urgent assistance.”
Hinamori’s voice broke off with the hollow emptiness that came when the user had no power left to sustain such a kidou, and Soi Fong knew that she probably wouldn’t be able to send any more messages for at least the next half-hour. She bit down on her own near-panic, the fingers of her hand tightening into a fist so that she wouldn’t be tempted to touch her other shoulder, to reach for the arm that wasn’t there.
“Ichimaru’s dead,” she reported concisely. “All his people with him. Ours are injured.”
But now she had an unexpected tool to her hand. Oh, Aizen and Ichimaru were going to regret imprisoning Ushoda Hachigen here, just where she could find him and make use of him, when he was most needed.
She turned to Ushoda. “Ichimaru managed to revive one of the Espada, a creature called Barragan. It has the power to accelerate aging and decay anything it touches. It -“
He held up one large hand. “I know it,” he said flatly. “Aizen used it to attack us as well. I thought it gone.”
“Clearly not. But - you have no technique that may be used against it, then?”
His wide brow furrowed. Though Soi Fong was not the sort of woman to often be amused, he might have been a figure for mockery, if not for his calm and purpose. There was a solidity to him like foundation stones. “There were things I might have tried if there had been more time and more open space. Where is it now?”
“Pursuing Ukitake-taichou across the forest,” Soi Fong said briskly. She had no time for fear now, did not even want to consider that she was afraid, because by all the gods she was the Captain of the Second Division, and Captain of Covert Operations, and she was one of the Gotei 13, and they would not be broken again. “They began five minutes ago, heading north-west, and I know the area they would have started from. Assuming a straight line, we can intercept. How’s your flash step?”
He shook out one foot, then the other, putting each down in turn with a firm stamp. “Ready,” he said, not going into further detail.
There was no help to be found elsewhere. From what she knew of Sasakibe’s abilities, he had no way of hurting this creature that she didn’t already possess, and Shiba Kuukaku simply wasn’t a combatant on that level. She flicked a glance at the Shiba messenger, then at her own people. “Report the situation to Shiba Kuukaku and to Sasakibe-fukutaichou. Support that group of noblewomen. Hold the Tower. Understood?”
Her people flicked quick salutes at her. The messenger stammered acquiescence a moment later.
She nodded in return, then gathered herself and sprang into motion, leaping across the city and for the gate, Ushoda one step behind her.
---
Isane carefully counted the trees between flash steps.
Two. Four. Six. Two. Four. Six. Two. Four. Six.
Three trees had allowed the shard to catch up, and Isane still felt a pang about the ancient oak she'd sacrificed to slow it down. Still, better the gnarled tree than their lives. Ten a step had nearly lost it, but that was changing as the shard devoured more in its path.
Two. Four. Six.
Ukitake-taichou clung to her back, his slender body balancing over Isane's hips to keep her from straining. Isane ignored Ukitake-taichou's wheezing as she could do nothing about it, and she didn't want to shame him by noticing.
"Isane," Ukitake-taichou murmured, coughed wetly, "I think you might want to pick up your pace. It is speeding up."
Eight. Two. Four. Six. Eight.
She didn't waste precious breath on answering, just nodded, and went a little farther with each step.
Minutes later, Isane was thinking again. Thinking of the past. Of what she'd heard of someone who resembled what was chasing them.
"Taichou," Isane gasped and felt the body on her back stir and straighten. "What is it?"
"It's a remnant of Barragan," Ukitake-taichou said, in a calm and contemplative voice that made Isane relax into her task of running. "One of the Arrancar we faced in the false Karakura Town. He was their Number Two. Soi Fong-taichou and her fukutaichou did their best to destroy him, even as other subordinates dealt with his people."
"Arm?" Isane asked between steps.
"Hai. That is when Soi Fong-taichou lost her arm and took worse injuries as well. Even her bankai was not enough to destroy him." Ukitake-taichou's voice took on a more musing tone. "I wonder what brought him to this form? It seems unlikely that it was the doing of anyone in the Gotei 13. What if Aizen..."
Isane kept running and let Ukitake-taichou think. The shard grew behind her, and soon she was leaping in bigger bounds Big enough it didn't matter how many trees there were, big enough she was having to concentrate on not overextending her power.
"I wonder if..." Ukitake-taichou murmured, and the exhausted despair of his tone terrified Isane.
She extended herself for two extra long jumps, pulling a surprised gasp from Ukitake-taichou.
"What?"
"Getting us further ahead..." Isane panted, "need to talk."
Three more huge shunpo steps that drained nearly the last of her resources, and the Hollow reiatsu was left far enough behind that Isane dropped Ukitake-taichou to the ground in a regrettably undignified heap. She couldn't quite care enough as she gulped air, hands on knees. "What... are... you... thinking?" she demanded between them.
Ukitake-taichou sat seiza in the dead leaves. He looked pale and drawn, nearly as fragile as the crisp remnants of the previous fall. "The shard doesn't have a personality yet, doesn't have anything but the will to eat. What would happen if it absorbed a soul that had intentions or a powerful enough will to turn it from what it was doing?"
The white haori was in Isane's fist before she even realized she'd moved. "No!" she cried, "You will not feed yourself to it to find out!"
The calm look she got back did not reassure her in the least.
"But it would be..."
Unohana-taichou's dark eyes superimposed themselves over Ukitake-taichou's features, and Isane started crying even as she shook him with both hands. "No. You. Will. Not. Give. Yourself. Up. Think of some other way. What if it doesn't work?"
The nonplussed look on Ukitake-taichou's face made Isane chuckle through her tears.
"Not work..." Thin lips pursed under the weak moonlight. "Right. It is still Hollow. If all I do is feed it my power and its will takes over with everything that I am at its disposal, that would worsen the situation significantly."
Isane nearly cried in relief at the tone.
"Maybe... maybe we should try feeding it something peaceful? See if a deer spirit or rabbits might make it more tame?"
Qualms shook Isane. The tree had been bad enough, but another living being? Isane closed her eyes. It was better to sacrifice a deer than her self or her Taichou. "A--all right," she stammered, "I think... I think I can help you, Taichou."
She reached out with her senses. There. Picking its way through the underbrush a few hundred yards to the left was the calm feel of a grazing deer. "That way."
Grimly, Ukitake-taichou levered himself up, looking painfully stiff. "I'm afraid you're going to have to..."
Isane backed up to him and bent. He draped himself over her, and her heart nearly broke when he involuntarily groaned while pulling himself up onto her back.
"How's your shoulder?"
"Stiffening," was all the answer Ukitake-taichou gave. He settled and after one additional painful sounding breath said, "I'm ready."
They headed back, toward the hungry reiatsu, and Isane braced herself before she took a shunpo step back within its range. This time she felt the intensity of its regard turning on her as she came close.
"Go, Isane," Ukitake said tersely. "It's bigger now."
Feeling the shard following her, Isane turned and moved back in the direction of the deer. She felt much as she had for the ancient tree, but she was entirely willing to sacrifice anything other than another of her Captains.
Never again.
When Isane sped by the feeding deer, she startled it into flight. A young buck, antlers still spring buds, a few faded white spots speckling dark flanks. For a step, then two, they fled the Hollow together. Then she used shunpo, and led the animal by just enough.
The bleating cry the animal made when the shard took it made Isane stumble, but a quick hug from the man on her back gave her enough courage to catch her balance. When the hollow behind them paused to absorb the deer, she stopped, turning back to look. By the wavering moonlight, the darkness flowed over the startled, struggling animal and took its shape. Isane felt Ukitake-taichou's grip relax, the thin body's tension easing. The deer stood, shook itself, looking as dark as a moonless night, and Isane's relief nearly buckled her knees.
Then the deer trembled, gave another more piercing cry, and collapsed in on itself.
The amorphous blob of blackness writhed against dead grasses, and they turned to ash before the midnight mass gathered itself, solidified, and the now human form, broad and bearded grunted and levered himself up onto bony legs and feet. Isane gasped in horror at the empty skull, the black eye sockets, the wisps of unholy mist streaming from bone white orifices.
Ukitake-taichou snarled in Isane's ear, and then he bit out the spell for the Six Rods Prison of Light. The spell burst from him, and slender beams of light pierced the mid-section of the walking Hollow, rendering it immobile. Ukitake-taichou slumped against Isane's back.
"Run, Isane," croaked Ukitake-taichou.
And Isane ran.
That was when the streamers of power arrowed toward them from the city. One an insect of adamantine, the other of diamond air. Two figures bounding in huge steps of shunpo that Isane couldn't even fathom having the strength to do anymore.
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We also now have a TV Tropes page at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/WinterWar, and are most grateful to whoever it was that created it.