24 Chips - 16
Theme: 11:00
Title: Lost Time
Fandom: Bleach
Character/Pairing: Hirako Shinji and Sarugaki Hiyori
Category: Romantic
Rating: PG
Warnings: Just language, really bc of Hiyori. And as always, I'm making up their past before the TBTP arc because we don't know about their childhood/academy days/etc.
Disclaimer: Bleach =/= mine, or we'd see way more Vaizard love.
Summary: Part 16 of my 24-piece series of memorable "firsts" for these two.
The first time Shinji ever realized he could lose Hiyori -- really lose her - it was one of the most sobering experiences of his life. They’d all had some trouble, some difficulties implementing the plan of action he’d thought up. They’d started at midnight, giving everyone an hour’s worth of time and then resting for another hour or so. And now, nearing 11, they were almost done. It had been hard.
But it had worked. He’d been the first to try it, going into the depths of his own soul and beating and crushing down the hollow within while the others took turns fighting his transformed body in the confines of their shielded warehouse home. And after a grueling half hour or so, he’d come out victorious, mask resting against his face for a moment before it had crumbled away and he’d fallen, exhausted.
The others had done it as well, one at a time until only one was left. Hiyori. Despite the fact that she’d railed against it, he’d insisted that she be the last one to go through the process. And though he’d given her some flimsy excuse - and been sandal-beaten for it - he knew perfectly well what the real reason was. He wanted her to succeed more than any of them. And despite the fact that he knew perfectly well it was as much about her resolve as it was anything else, the fact that she was reaping the benefits of all of their experience didn’t hurt either.
But she was taking too long. They’d all taken different amounts of time, and had different results - hell, Mashiro had been able to simply put a mask on and keep it on, she hadn’t even had to subjugate it - but none of them had taken this long. Nodding to Rose as he stepped back, watching the other man take his rotation in the fight against Hiyori’s transformed self, he set his jaw as Risa caught his eye. She didn’t have to say anything, he knew what she was silently communicating. That if Hiyori couldn’t do this… couldn’t tame and master the beast within her soul, there would be only one option.
Shinji knew that, and yet it was the last thing he wanted to think about. He knew what that one final option was, they’d all discussed it before anyone - even him - had tried this. The option that would become reality should one of them fail and transform completely into an uncontrollable hollow. But he wasn’t willing to accept that, he couldn’t accept that. Hiyori was strong, she would make it through this.
But even as he assured himself of that, watching Hachi cast high-level binding kidou onto her small form made him grit his teeth against the urge to shout out, to say something, anything to try and break through to her. As if it would help - he knew perfectly well it wouldn’t - but it might have made him feel better as he felt his hand tighten involuntarily around the hilt of his zanpakutou.
Come on, Hiyori… You’re stronger than this, don’t let it beat you.
It was his turn again, leaping in to tag out Kensei as the seconds ticked by, seeming like hours as he parried a blow from her claws, ducking the cero she hurled his way. This wasn’t Hiyori, he couldn’t let himself think this way. It was the thing inside her, just as that monster he had become wasn’t him. But… it was Hiyori, all the same. Her body, her mind that fought him tooth and nail while her soul hung in the balance, waged in a desperate war with the darkness threatening to consume it from within.
The designated time was almost up, the time when they would be too exhausted to keep battling it and would be forced to concede that the hollow had won, that Hiyori had lost her own fight as they had lost theirs. Closer and closer as the seconds crept by agonizingly slow and it became harder and harder to fight down the panic rising in the back of his mind, the panic that begged the question of what he would do if she lost, how he could get through the centuries ahead if he didn’t have her there beside him.
Fingers tightening around his sword’s hilt again, he prepared to start yet a third circuit, ignoring Risa’s protests that they’d reached the limit, that they couldn’t keep pushing onward. But he couldn’t stop, couldn’t give up so easily, screaming in his mind as though she could somehow hear him.
Fight it Hiyori!
And then, as though his words had somehow made it through, there was a pulse of reiatsu and she stopped dead in her tracks, the hollow’s body beginning to crack and slough away into fading bits of bone leaving only Hiyori standing there, horned mask covering her face for a moment before she collapsed.
He was there to catch her as she fell, his relief almost palpable as he gave into the urge to cradle her to his chest, thankful that the others were also gathering around, their own sighs of relief mingling with his own. Because regardless of what Hiyori may have meant to him, she was also a comrade. A friend. She was one of them.
Title: Lost Time
Fandom: Bleach
Character/Pairing: Hirako Shinji and Sarugaki Hiyori
Category: Romantic
Rating: PG
Warnings: Just language, really bc of Hiyori. And as always, I'm making up their past before the TBTP arc because we don't know about their childhood/academy days/etc.
Disclaimer: Bleach =/= mine, or we'd see way more Vaizard love.
Summary: Part 16 of my 24-piece series of memorable "firsts" for these two.
The first time Shinji ever realized he could lose Hiyori -- really lose her - it was one of the most sobering experiences of his life. They’d all had some trouble, some difficulties implementing the plan of action he’d thought up. They’d started at midnight, giving everyone an hour’s worth of time and then resting for another hour or so. And now, nearing 11, they were almost done. It had been hard.
But it had worked. He’d been the first to try it, going into the depths of his own soul and beating and crushing down the hollow within while the others took turns fighting his transformed body in the confines of their shielded warehouse home. And after a grueling half hour or so, he’d come out victorious, mask resting against his face for a moment before it had crumbled away and he’d fallen, exhausted.
The others had done it as well, one at a time until only one was left. Hiyori. Despite the fact that she’d railed against it, he’d insisted that she be the last one to go through the process. And though he’d given her some flimsy excuse - and been sandal-beaten for it - he knew perfectly well what the real reason was. He wanted her to succeed more than any of them. And despite the fact that he knew perfectly well it was as much about her resolve as it was anything else, the fact that she was reaping the benefits of all of their experience didn’t hurt either.
But she was taking too long. They’d all taken different amounts of time, and had different results - hell, Mashiro had been able to simply put a mask on and keep it on, she hadn’t even had to subjugate it - but none of them had taken this long. Nodding to Rose as he stepped back, watching the other man take his rotation in the fight against Hiyori’s transformed self, he set his jaw as Risa caught his eye. She didn’t have to say anything, he knew what she was silently communicating. That if Hiyori couldn’t do this… couldn’t tame and master the beast within her soul, there would be only one option.
Shinji knew that, and yet it was the last thing he wanted to think about. He knew what that one final option was, they’d all discussed it before anyone - even him - had tried this. The option that would become reality should one of them fail and transform completely into an uncontrollable hollow. But he wasn’t willing to accept that, he couldn’t accept that. Hiyori was strong, she would make it through this.
But even as he assured himself of that, watching Hachi cast high-level binding kidou onto her small form made him grit his teeth against the urge to shout out, to say something, anything to try and break through to her. As if it would help - he knew perfectly well it wouldn’t - but it might have made him feel better as he felt his hand tighten involuntarily around the hilt of his zanpakutou.
Come on, Hiyori… You’re stronger than this, don’t let it beat you.
It was his turn again, leaping in to tag out Kensei as the seconds ticked by, seeming like hours as he parried a blow from her claws, ducking the cero she hurled his way. This wasn’t Hiyori, he couldn’t let himself think this way. It was the thing inside her, just as that monster he had become wasn’t him. But… it was Hiyori, all the same. Her body, her mind that fought him tooth and nail while her soul hung in the balance, waged in a desperate war with the darkness threatening to consume it from within.
The designated time was almost up, the time when they would be too exhausted to keep battling it and would be forced to concede that the hollow had won, that Hiyori had lost her own fight as they had lost theirs. Closer and closer as the seconds crept by agonizingly slow and it became harder and harder to fight down the panic rising in the back of his mind, the panic that begged the question of what he would do if she lost, how he could get through the centuries ahead if he didn’t have her there beside him.
Fingers tightening around his sword’s hilt again, he prepared to start yet a third circuit, ignoring Risa’s protests that they’d reached the limit, that they couldn’t keep pushing onward. But he couldn’t stop, couldn’t give up so easily, screaming in his mind as though she could somehow hear him.
Fight it Hiyori!
And then, as though his words had somehow made it through, there was a pulse of reiatsu and she stopped dead in her tracks, the hollow’s body beginning to crack and slough away into fading bits of bone leaving only Hiyori standing there, horned mask covering her face for a moment before she collapsed.
He was there to catch her as she fell, his relief almost palpable as he gave into the urge to cradle her to his chest, thankful that the others were also gathering around, their own sighs of relief mingling with his own. Because regardless of what Hiyori may have meant to him, she was also a comrade. A friend. She was one of them.