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Chapter 58: Hueco Mundo III
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And somewhere far away, in a land of white sand and eternal night, Akashi stood in silence. The air was still.
He smiled.
"Phew," He muttered, dusting himself off, "Almost lost the opportunity."
The desert was unnervingly still.
Akashi stood beneath a sky of eternal twilight, the pale crescent moon hanging immobile in the heavens like the eye of a dead god.
His sandals sank slightly into the fine, powder-white sands of Hueco Mundo, each grain bone-dry and eerily quiet.
There was no wind, and yet the air shimmered with oppressive heat radiating from the ground itself as if the sun had once baked this place raw and then left it behind.
His robes clung to his tall frame with the slightest sheen of sweat, and even his long black hair, tied at the base of his neck, seemed heavier than usual in this climate.
The silence was alive. Not a single cry, no distant roars of Hollows, no movements of life.
Only the crunch of his steps and the hiss of heat rising against his pale skin.
Far in the distance, just visible through the rising waves of heat, Akashi could make out a jagged black line splitting the horizon. A shadow... no, a forest. Trees, or what passed for them in this realm.
Their shapes reached up unnaturally, unnerving in their stillness and irregularity. Akashi's eyes flickered.
But he didn't get the chance to dwell on it.
Behind him, the air shifted.
Akashi turned swiftly; Kurayami responding in tandem; and found himself facing a man with silver hair and a fox-like grin that never quite reached his eyes.
Narrow slits stared at him with unreadable emotion.
'Ichimaru Gin,' Akashi narrowed his eyes.
He'd seen no spiritual pressure before the man appeared, no sign of movement. Just like a snake, slithering through the cracks.
Gin tilted his head, "Funny, right? We've been colleagues for a while, but we never had a proper chat."
"You mean, you've avoided me," Akashi replied. "I tried. You were the one who started vanishing every time I showed up."
Gin's grin didn't waver, but his mouth twitched, ever so slightly. "You tried to make friends by suckin' me dry of everything I knew. Can't say I was too fond of that."
"I thought it was subtle," Akashi said.
"It wasn't."
"That was a joke."
"My sense of humour is dry."
They stood in silence for a moment, the dry air thickening with tension. Akashi stared at him with an unreadable expression.
From the freshness of the hollows' corpses around them, it would appear that he was here awaiting his arrival for a while.
That means that he hadn't seen what happened between him and Rangiku.
Akashi wasn't sure what Gin would do if he knew of his latest intimate moment with Rangiku.
The twisted mind that he is, he may not do much because his obsession now with killing Aizen is far far above any emotion within him... It was eerie.
That's the reason why Gin can not afford to show his care for Rangiku. He must act like nothing had happened.
At least, Aizen mustn't notice, yet he was here before him.
'But why did Aizen do that?' Akashi had to wonder. He doesn't believe in coincidences when someone like Aizen is involved.
The fracture appearing behind Rangiku instead of him was an anomaly on its own, but what's stranger is the timing.
He was waiting for Aizen's arrangement for a couple of days, urgently, but it only came amidst his kiss with Rangiku.
And the way things happened... It almost looked as if Aizen was acting as his wingman, the ultimate wingman, creating a 'Hero saves the beauty' scenario.
At least, in Rangiku's view, that's what it would seem like. The fracture was gonna take her, but Akashi flung her away, and it instead took him.
'Could it be that Aizen knows Gin has joined him only to kill him?' Akashi was unsure, unable to remember which was the case.
Whatever it was, Akashi couldn't dwell on the issue much further as Gin's voice woke him up from his daze.
"I hear you like to spar," Said Gin, "That you'll fight anyone who'll swing a sword. Even if it hurts."
"That's not untrue."
"Well, I came all this way to give you a chance to spar with a Captain. Ain't that kind?"
The malice hit him then.
It wasn't just bloodlust. It was concentrated and calculating, like a knife with a smile.
"That would've been very kind, yes," Akashi said slowly, "If I couldn't sense your overwhelming malice... Have you forgotten my abilities?"
Gin blinked, "You can feel that, huh?"
He didn't wait for a response.
"Shoot to kill, Shinsō."
The blade in Gin's hand snapped forward like a gunshot, elongating in a split second.
Akashi barely moved in time, Kurayami whipping up from its scabbard to deflect the strike, though the sheer momentum nearly cracked his forearm.
He stumbled back, breathing out.
"Today isn't the day," Akashi said, his voice measured despite the strain, "I'd normally be happy to spar; suffer even; but not now. When I return, I promise you, Gin, we'll spar as often as you like."
But Gin didn't respond. He was already launching his next strike, Shinsō flashing forward like a lance of silver death.
Akashi's body moved on instinct, blocking again; his wrist bending the wrong way under the force, but Kaidō began knitting it back together even as it cracked.
Gin's technique was relentless. Shinsō retracted and extended in a heartbeat, thrust after thrust aimed with uncanny precision, forcing Akashi to give ground.
He twisted, parried, slid away, but never once attacked. Kurayami didn't lash out.
It only shielded, curved around his arms and shoulders, turning blow after blow with dark steel.
The Zanpakuto only formed into a shield when needed, and it was very much needed, even though Gin wasn't truly trying to kill him.
A diagonal thrust nearly took Akashi's eye. He ducked, pivoted, and pressed his palm to his side, sealing a bleeding gash with a thin veil of healing light.
"Have you let out your frustration enough?" Akashi said quietly, "Can we stop now?"
"It's just a spar," Gin replied, stepping forward with a grin too wide, "Ain't that what you wanted?"
The next strike was faster than the last. Akashi felt something twist in his knee as he took the brunt of it again. His healing Kidō pulsed once more, so effective that even Gin couldn't help but be surprised.
Blades rang out against each other like the cries of dying bells.
And then Akashi whispered, "Rangiku."
The name hung in the air like a bell tolling in the dead of night.
Gin stopped.
Shinsō did not strike. For the first time, the tension in his shoulders shifted.
His grin faltered.
Akashi straightened slowly, bruised and bleeding, but defiant, "You think I haven't noticed? The way your darkness flares every time I'm with her. Do you not know what my Shikai does? I feel it. I see the malice. The jealousy."
Gin's lips parted. The grin was gone.
"I don't know why you feel so strongly, but I can tell it's tied to her. You came here to teach me a lesson, didn't you? Some twisted warning to stay away."
The wind had gone still again, the air suffocating.
"I won't pry into it. But the more you fight me, the more I'll understand you. That's what my Zanpakutō does. It sees. It devours darkness. So I ask again..."
He stepped forward, dragging Kurayami through the sand. Its edge hummed with restrained darkness.
"Are you sure you want to continue?"
Gin's eyes, normally thin slits, opened a little wider. And in that fleeting instant, the look in them wasn't mockery or menace. It was a frown, a struggle.
Gin doesn't want someone working with Aizen to be close to Rangiku, but he doesn't know how to stop it.
In this regard, Akashi is even more annoying than Aizen. He wanted to teach him a lesson, but he now realized that he couldn't.
He has a bigger secret than Rangiku... What if Akashi saw through his annoying darkness his true intentions? That he wants to kill Aizen.
He can not allow that, so he turned.
Without a word, Gin vanished into the dark horizon, spiritual pressure flickering away like a candle snuffed by wind.
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