The healing camp was still boiling frantically as they walked along the several improvised tents. Tremors and howls coming from afar mingled in the air, along with the wounded Shinigami's painful moans and the healers' persistent incantations. Those relentless medics did not stop or vacillate before the most horrific wounds Tristo was able to see through the breeches left by the tattered canvas.
The Fourth surely is the Gotei's backbone. I wonder if there are any healers South, in Las Noches…
Miyagi, for his turn, was 'kidnapping' the terribly trembling Raphael to some dark place under a special motive still unknown. It was rather weird the flowered fop's interest on someone as useless as Raphael, but, still… Would it have anything to do with Tristo's rescue? The teal eyed shinigami wondered, while looking at them with suspicion. Still he followed.
What did Miyagi see in him…? Which part of this puzzle am I missing?
Occasional 'bangs and booms' shook the ground but, seemingly, the camp was already used to that racket. On the back of his mind, Tristo tried to avoid the idea of the fragile camp being raided by the enemy. So far, he wasn't able to sense the presence of the Captains nearby. They were most likely engaging their own fights. As far as he saw, only Miyagi would inspire some confidence as a protector, but even he wouldn't be able to keep up with the voracious wrath from the enemy's horde.
If there's a God up there, He might be taking good care of us… For in the middle of this holocaust, we're still here.
Running his hand over the recently recovered amputation on his torso, Tristo felt the bitter bite of powerlessness, devouring his ego like a furtive plague. His strength was still withered and he doubted he would be able to return to the skirmish's heat anytime soon. Even if he did, what would he face? Seemingly, that war was completely beyond his league. The quick way he went down was a good reminder of it.
How worthy is my pride as a member of the Twelfth? I'm the fuckin' Sixth Seat and still I didn't last for one freakin' hour inside Las Noches… What a disgrace...
Like a corrosive ghost, Tristo's shame continued to haunt his mind. When a violent explosion growled from afar, he was the one to tremble instead. Every time the feral reiatsu signatures fustigated his senses, his internal organs yelled in pain. What was left of him?
Am I still worthy of my title? Am I still worthy to serve under her?
As Tristo walked, his mind evaded to the grotesque chamber where he firstly received the Mark's poison, administrated by Captain Kaiho herself. Rin Logan was there too and even she, that was so helpless and weak in their first mission together, was now his Vice-Captain. Tristo never was as strong as he wanted to. What would his Captain think of him? He almost died in the process of poisoning, when the virulence took over his body and mind. Somehow, he survived, but for what? By luck, he escaped Death's embrace for a second time. For what? What was the grinning picture hidden in that jigsaw?
Live as a leftover of myself is up to me, Hanabi said. But what does she know? An assassin that cannot kill, is already dead.
He trusted a rapid punch in the cold air and a surge of furious pain clutched his muscles and tendons.
"Tsh…! Shit…" he moaned as cold drips of sweat slid all over his skin.
An uninvited dizziness made the ground under Tristo's feet vacillate, forcing him to hold support on a tent's pole. The cold sweat cascaded from his forehead and his gastric content seemed to be about to erupt through his oesophagus. An internal agony inside his abdomen made his legs tremble. He mouth was dry and his vision darkened. His body felt empty and numb once again. His own self was vanishing…
"Vega-san!"He heard from afar before tumbling into the white sand.
Then it was dark.
.
.
.
"Twenty, twenty one, twenty two. The shinigami was on the loose~"The voice echoed in Tristo's ears for a while before he gained consciousness of where he was. A stark room, tiny, old.
Oh, dear… Here we go…
The atmosphere as inked in crimson red. That monochromatic decay was already a well known scenario; so was the fetid smell of rot. Yet, this time, the metallic scent of blood engulfed the air with special incidence; indentifying the warm liquid that flowed through the small room's flowered wall and pooled on the floor, where he was laid. His body almost half submerged. He was not able to move.
Shit.
The blood red camellias that bizarrely bloomed in that decayed wall seemed to cry the red fluid.
"Show up already!" he demanded to his host, the perfidious inhabitant of that grotesque place, Tsubaki.
"Fu, fu, fu…"
A disdainful giggle echoed from nearby, as the sound of feet splashing on the blood pool got nearer. As the presence approached, crimson petals descended from the unseen ceiling, incognito by the dense blackness above.
"Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. The shinigami was on the floor~" the coarse voice hummed sardonically.
Red robbed like always, with her hanya mask put on her face, held by a hand, Tsubaki looked upon the fallen shinigami. It was impossible to see her expression, but Tristo knew it wouldn’t be too different from the grinning masquerade she was wearing.
"Why can't I move?" he asked bitterly. His limbs seemed to be bound to the crimson liquid that didn't stop to flow.
"Who knows~" Tsubaki replied, mordantly, as she swung and danced around his laid body. "You should be the one to tell me that, joujin~ Are you that broken to even move?"
She was talking about this pride as a warrior. Tristo knew that. Tsubaki dwelled deep within the crimson part of his soul, along with his violent instinct and selfish arrogance. Pain, pain, pain. That was the base of their twisted bond. If his side of that balance was weak, she would take over him, as the dominator.
"Twenty four minutes, was how far you lasted in the eye of the storm," Tsubaki continued, mellifluously. Removing her mask, Tristo was able to see the sparkle within her blood red irises. "I wonder how long it will take before you can rise on your feet again."
"You're not the one to talk," he replied, still immobile. "You weren't a big help in there. Boycotting our connection like you always do will only end in our mutual disgrace. Don't you know that… you bitch?""Oh, joujin… Did I spoil you that much?"
Tsubaki sighed, in scornful manners as she leaned over Tristo's body.
"I'll repeat what I've said a million times what I've already told you. It's up to you to be strong enough to conquer my respect and unconditional love. Otherwise, you'll end like this~"
She pointed his paralyzed state with a smirk looming over her lips. Tristo felt the blood pool submerging his ears.
"Well, let's make a deal. Another one!" she continued. "Since you were lucky enough to survive, let's try to do this thingy again. Nail back our power and bid yourself to this fight again. I want some notoriety amongst those other idiots. I promise I'll be good girl this time~"
"Whatever…" Tristo replied, looking away.
"Deal then. Bye, joujin~"
Without previous warning, Tsubaki shoved Tristo's face down the blood pool, submerging it completely. Large amounts of the metallic tasting liquid flooded his mouth, throat and nostrils to a point the shinigami believed he would drown. Suffocation took over him. His head was light and quickly he abandoned his conscience.
There was a warm sensation on his face, at first. Then, a strong scent took over his nostrils. As he opened his eyes, the first thing that Tristo saw was a pair of green irises, too close from his face. In an instinctive gesture, he smacked it away.
"Ouch!" a familiar voice grumped. Raphael? "It's me, Vega-san… Ouchie.."
"You're such a pussy, Vega…" Miyagi grumped from nearby.
As his vision focused, Vega saw Raphael kneeled on the sand, rubbing his reddened cheek. On his lap, a battered metal bowl exhaled a strong scent of curry. A thin cloud of vapour ascended from it. Tristo realised how hungry he was. During that entire time he was unconscious, Vega doubted that he would have eaten anything consistent.
"What is that…?" he inquired with an exhausted voice.
"It's the uber-super-duper soup I've been talking about!" Raphael cheerfully replied shoving a well loaded spoon into Tristo's mouth. "It's curry flavoured!"
It was actually good. Could be more curried, though. A warm sensation spread by Tristo's mouth, then his face, then his entire head. It felt like something full of life was slowly taking over his circulation, bidding his blood to run. He wondered which special ingredient would that moisture have. Maybe it was spiritually enriched. The cold sweat stopped, giving place to a sudden heat and voracious hunger.
Without ceremony, Tristo snatched the bowl from Raphael's hand and started to drink the soup directly from the bowl.
"C-calm down, Vega-san…" Raphael stuttered, with his frivolous hands shaking around Tristo's bowl. "This soup is very spicy and…"
"What're you talking about?" Tristo replied with a burp and tossed the bowl away. His mouth was on fire and it felt nice. "Go get me some more."
"Er… O-kay…" the livid Raphael said flabbily, looking at Miyagi's threatening frown like asking for permission. "I'll… go..."
"The soup can wait!" Miyagi announced with demanding authority. Agile like a predator feline, the grey haired shinigami entangled his long arm around Raphael's shoulder with a malicious smirk.
Tristo still didn't figure why he has doing such a pressure over Raphael's already wrecked nerves. The teal eyed officer could feel Miyagi's reiatsu pressure clawing Raphael's like a vicious cat, playing over the defenceless mouse, just before devouring it.
"What's up, Miyagi?" Tristo inquired with tedious interest, looking at Raphael's colourless visage. "Is there something I need to know?"
"Of course there is~ Something we both want to know…" Miyagi replied, smiling with plastic cheerfulness, holding Raphael even tighter. "I think our friend here wants to tell us something, but an evil cat seems to have eaten his tongue… Ain't that right, Raphael-chan?"
"Erm… I..er… I dunno, M-Miyagi-san…" Raphael stuttered in response, trembling from head to toe.
"Yare, yare~ Then let me refresh your memory," Miyagi said, with sadistic patience. "You…" he started pinching his index finger in Raphael's chest, "were found unconscious beside him," he pointed the same pointy finger towards Tristo, "who, by his turn, was fatally wounded, deadbeat, fucked up. Remember it? Yeah."
Miyagi made a little pause to allow the blond boy to clear his thoughts, before starting the second assault.
"I-I don't… know… how I…" the silly head muttered.
"Raphael-chan~ Raphael-chaaan~ Will you talk to us or what?" the flowered fop inquired mellifluously. His normally pale face was reddened and his jaw rigid like a Hollow's maw. That was Miyagi pissed. "I'll simply ask for the thousandth time… How the fuck were you fuckin' able to fuckin' travel all the fuckin' way here so fuckin' fast?"
Sputum dribbles showered over a utterly terrified Raphael as the fiendishly enraged Miyagi screamed his lungs out. His grey reiatsu flared along with his patience, shocking the atmosphere around them. Tristo never saw him that bad and he secretly hoped that rage didn't turn on him. He wasn't in the mood to tank with Miyagi's fits. Still, it was rather funny to see how stubbornly Raphael was jerking the grey haired fiend around. Tristo now somewhat understood what Miyagi was trying to snatch from Raphael's clumsy silence. But why was he so aggravated?
There had to be something positive in this disgrace of mine.
The idea of being rescued by Nouvel-san didn't figure to be so dreadful anymore. Well, he owed Tristo a lot so, the teal eyed officer could still hold himself in a higher place. But, with wounds like those, for how long would that be?
"Nouvel-san," Tristo finally stepped in the scene with calm authority, while Miyagi was violently shaking Raphael by the garment, as trying to make him spill information or simply break his neck, "please tell us how did both you and me get in here. I know you're hiding something, because, from Las Noches, it would have been a rather long travel and we both know I wouldn't resist for that long with the wounds I had. To not mention the hordes of Hollows around that would surely smell my blood and come after us. So?"
Raphael lowered his eyes, trying to avoid Tristo's. The officer even gave him a moment of silence for him to reply, but the stubborn blond head was not cooperative. Why? It was not like he would be beaten or something. It was rather heroic what he did… Miyagi lost his temper and raised Raphael from the ground by his kosode's collar and looked furiously at him.
"You… You little shit…" Miyagi hissed.
"Miyagi…" Tristo asked, holding the grey haired man's shoulder. "There's no need…"
"We kinda… skipped our way here!" Raphael finally spit out, still shaking his feet in the air. "There you have it!"
What…?
Tristo's dumbstruck eyes met Miyagi's, also stunned, like he just heard something obscene, even for him.
"Are you freakin' jerking me around, you brat?" Miyagi snapped, shaking the poor shinigami in the air like a rag puppet. "I want to get back to Las Noches! Tell me how you got here so fast, you shit! Another joke and I'll give those freakin' medics a hell of a trouble to mend your pieces back to place! SPILL IT OUT!!"
Hah! So that's what he wants. Go back to the battlefield without having to spend a long journey through blockades of hungry Hollows and the only hope he has of doing so lies in how me and Raphael got here so quick. Frustrated, all he can do is yell until he finds out. Oh, Miyagi... You're getting an old fart. Good job, Raphael.
"I'm not joking," Raphael replied, rather serious this time. It was not like him. "That is my zanpakutou's power. It's something like a time-space stuff..."
Excuse me?!
Both Miyagi and Tristo now looked at Raphael with an incredulous frown. It was incredible, if not shocking, that someone so clumsy and weak like Raphael would have ever achieved his zanpakutou's initial release. Within the Twelfth, that fact was a private joke. 'The day Nouvel learns his zanpakutou's name' they usually said, when something absurd would never happen. Looking at each other with suspicion, they nodded. It seemed that something needed to be dug out.
"Okay, let's consider you're serious, Nouvel-san," Tristo said, while walking around Raphael, whose leg was shaking, slightly. "I never thought I would say it but, can you show your zanpakutou's erm... teleport power to us?"
"Yes, we want to see it," Miyagi added, walking around the blond shinigami, as well. "We want you to use it again. We want you to take us back to Las Noches. I heard it has been a blast in there!"
Oh, now it’s a 'us'?
Raphael didn't reply, looking to his own feet.
"Can you do that?" the teal eyed inquisitor kept inquiring. "Please, tell us, before we have to force you to."
"Maybe, I can… Maybe I cannot…" Raphael replied, almost mutely, still looking down. "It doesn't work like that…"
"Is that so~?" Miyagi snarled. "How's that?"Raphael took sighed deeply, stretching his shoulders. He was cornered, yes. Tristo's curiosity salivated.
"Okay, I'll tell you guys everything, but please don't tell anyone," the boy asked with a worried face.
"'Kay, 'kay…" Miyagi replied with indifference, rolling his eyes up. That bastard would surely use that information as blackmail in the future. "Spill it."
"Well…" Raphael started. "Firstly, I learnt my zanpakutou's name when…"
"To the point, Nouvel!" Tristo snapped, glaring at him. Raphael wouldn't start his babble, would he?
"O-Okay, sorry…" he stuttered. "I can only use its power to escape when I'm in danger, or when something is threatening my life… or someone else's."
"Oh, is that so?" Miyagi grinned maliciously. "I can threaten your life, allright…"
"Hm, I see…" Tristo said, thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. That made sense. "So, you were able to use this teleport-skip-whatever because you needed to save my life… And yours, of course."
"Yes! That's right," Raphael replied, with a little bit more of enthusiasm. "But it's not really a teleport... It more like skipping distances… The more the threat, the further I can skip in a single shot. It's not very accurate, though… I've only used it couple times. I also never travelled so far as I did here."
"Well, if I cut you an arm or a leg, do you think you can take us to Las Noches in one shot?" Miyagi asked, without reserves. Raphael looked at him in panic, hiding behind Tristo's back.The officer frowned at Miyagi.
"Well, Nouvel-san, it is quite interesting," Tristo said, still looking at Nouvel with some suspicion. "What the name of your zanpa…"
"Someone… Help here!"
Tristo's face turned into the voice like a accurate sparrow. A nameless voice screamed from not too far. It was a woman; a young one. She was not alone. There were two reiatsu signatures. For the pulse, there were two severely wounded Shinigami. Ruckus rose from within the camp like an incoming wave. In no time, many diligent healers were running towards the ones in need.
"I know this voice…" Raphael said vaguely, looking towards the ruckus' focus.
"Heeelp…!"
The war thundered in the air even louder. It seemed to be nearer. A bad feeling flooded within Tristo's mind. Something horrible...
-BANG!-
Both sand and heaven shook violently. The camp yelled. Before they noticed, Raphael was already running through the flapping tents towards the epicentre of the black robed cluster.
