With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
White on black rolling by quickly was all Seika was able to see. Dunes flying past her as she flew along the desert floor. Until the desert dropped off in a kinf of cliff of rocks. Offering one hell of a view of the White Desert and even Las Noches beyond. Here she finally stopped her flight and sat on one of the rocks. Her head bowing with a sigh as she let her legs twitching in protest to such a work out.
She'd ran. Plain and simple. Too many people asking questions she couldn't even begin to have the answers for. Drawing the zanpakutou from her obi and laying it, sheathed across her lap. Why did she still wear the Espada's uniform? Perhaps because at least Grimmjow had seemed to want her around, her Division didn't even offer that.
She felt like some weakling child, crying over something so stupid. One of the rocks was kicked over to reveal a bag and she hauled it up. Opening it and peering at the shihakuou within. She'd saved it for reasons she didn't know. Pulling out the hakama and quickly changing, though she kept the white sleeveless shirt because it better suited her. She left her sandals as well, though changed the obi. There...a mix of both worlds.
It made so much sense to her, apart of both world and wanted by neither. Zaraki wasn't coming and Toshiro had probably already filed her report as dead or whatever he'd planned on. Though she felt no desire to work with the Espada anymore either.
Her own thoughts twisted and rolled in her mind as she stared across the Desert, lost in her own world of tall trees. Wandering within her Inner WOrld and coming across the cave. "It's all you do, these days; cry. Why come to me...I'll only rip you apart from the inside out." Seika's head turned from the Inner World and the sight of Las Noches. Urufu was right.
Shinji wanted those answers. The questions were plaguing him, running through his skull. It was a rare trek, but one he decided was necessary in this situation, to help him settle his mind. Or maybe he just needed something to obsess over, and without Aizen, this was what he had left. Shaking his head as he used a quick burst of shunpo, jumping through the white desert, tracking her reiatsu. He would find her. Maybe she'd be less likely to flee if it was only him. She didn't seem like she was going to run off before, until everyone decided to show up. He shook his head, he could hide for weeks alone, but the second he talks to someone nobody else knows, it's a flood of attention.
He caught a fresh trail of her reiatsu, he could sense where she was now, now all he had to do was not scare her off. He hoped he could manage what was apparently a difficult feat. He was approaching her quickly, he could tell. He stopped just short of her, finding himself on a sheer drop, of a high cliff.
"Tch," He grunted, skidding to a halt. "Why'd ya run off, girlie? We was jus' gettin' ta tha get stuff, yeah?" He grinned, holding out a hand to her. "Why don't ya jus' calm down, an we can talk."
He looked at her even newer garb. "Ya obviously ain't quite sure where ya b'long, an' maybe I can help ya find a place where you enjoy yourself."
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Such reverie was dangerous in Hueco Mundo, but it was what it was. Her head snapped off to one side with wide pale eyes as she heard Shinji's voice. "Getting to the good stuff? You were practically having me surrounded." She growled out as she stood. Her hand rested on the hilt of her Zanpakuto. Watching the strange Vizard a long few moments as he offered to help her find her place. "Don't fool yourself...The Shinigami didn't even check to see if I'd been killed by him. He certainly isn't getting me back." Apparently still a bit in her own thoughts as she stood there. Back straight and facing Shinji with a stoic expression.
"I'm nothing to worry about...I'd only been wearing the uniform because I wouldn't wear my shihakushou any longer. My loyalties lie nowhere; neither to Shinigami nor Espada. I came here because I can't open a Senkai Gate." Her voice suddenly even, rather than snarling. "Does this sate your obvious curiosity?" Glancing side long at him before she sat again on the rock she'd turned over just moments ago.
"Wa'n't my idea ta assault ya," Shinji said, a slight twinge of annoyance on his face. "Ya think I'd come alone if it was?" Shinji shrugged, leaning against the air. Reiatsu was so solid here things like this were easy. "I jus' wanna know how you came about a situation where ya actually entered tha armies of Aizen. How'd tha' come 'bout?"
Shinji stared at her, his eyes narrowed. She had only piqued his curiosity more. She was an interesting person, no doubt, with an interesting past. He was more curious than he'd ever been about, well, anything he could remember. He was just... Intrigued.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Seika snarled softly at the memory as it crossed over her at his pointed question. "Because the Primera beat me within an inch of my life and drug me to Las Noches. Grimmjow ain't the kind of guy to give options, you know. I either was killed or became his Fraccion. As soon as the battle overlooked me in Karakura Town, I fled to the forest." Spoken with a brutal honesty as she sat on the rock. Ignoring the strands of white hair falling over her eyes.
Was that what this guy was curious about? She didn't exactly blame him. Not really. She'd be just as curious if their roles were reversed. She was a wild card in a situation that couldn't afford any wild cards because it was just too much of a risk. She doubted Grimmjow took her because of battle strategy, but she couldn't fault him for it in any event. "He became interested in 'keeping' me as his pet once I managed to draw his blood when my mask came to me. Was a hell of a one-sided fight even afterwards. The Wolf doesn't like to be beaten, which is when it came free." Said almost off handedly, there were still many questions she yet had answers to. Looking down at the hilt of her blade as if the answers would come from there. "I think...maybe the Wolf wasn't content just being a shadow in a cave...just being a sword. It came free and if it hadn't I'd have been dead on the forest floor. Back broken and at the business end of a cero."
"Int'restin'," Shinji said, "He didn' come across as the type ta want a pet. Maybe tha's jus' the drift I got, though." Shinji shrugged, rubbing the back of his head. "I don' think eh liked me very much, anyway."
Shinji stared at her, looking her over. So she was essentially a prisoner. "I knew I recognized ya from that fight. Ya really shoulda stuck 'round," Shinji said looking a bit sad. "I coulda helped ya get away from him. It ain't like ya have ta be 'lone."
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
She looked away from him as he spoke and only shrugged a shoulder. "Grimmjow only gives up what he wants to, nothing more or less. He's already given me up so it's hardly a matter worth lamenting. Not like my old Captain is coming for me...Seireitei left me to that freak just as easily as they pleased. I wasn't even worth the paper to report on." She snarled softly and stretched before standing and facing him directly. Watching him again closely with those cold blue eyes.
"I don't need the help. Aizen is dead and the only thing is is to wait for the next power-hungry monster to come along and try to claim up everything. Then I'll be able to wet my sword again." There's a glimmer of red in her eyes as she watched him, "I don't suppose it gets any easier...hearing that whisper." She looked down then, to the hilt of her sword. Considering it for a long moment. "It makes sense that my blade is blood thirsty...From what I learned so far...we Vizard are like two halves made whole. One half Shinigami and one half Vizard. Are the lines supposed to blur though? I mean...is your...Hollow the same creature as your blade?" She asked him pointedly. It was the one question she desperately needed the answer to. If it was normal then she could train to subdue the damn thing. She somehow doubted it was.
She walked over to the very edge of the cliff and sat. Legs hanging off the sheer rock and leaning back on her hands, Deciding to clarify and suddenly and apparently feeling chatty about the issue. "My Zanpakuto...The Hungry Wolf. For the longest time it was content to remain hidden within it's den. Until Grimmjow broke my back. Then for some reason it came out and my mask with it. Can a Zanpakuto be your blade and your Hollow? I'd once considered asking Aizen himself but it seems he went and got his ass handed to him. I'm thinking the Captain Commander won't tolerate my even taking another step in Seireitei. Even if to let me go to the 12th Division. Seeing as the report of my disappearance became nothing more than another page in a coloring book for a child."
Hot anger prickled down her back. Cast off by both sides, maybe she should throw her lot in with the Vizard, since that's what she now was. The Shinigami didn't want her and neither did the Espada. That whispered growl in her mind demanding blood from both sides for attempting to just toss her aside. It wouldn't definitely get it's blood. "You and yours should just stay away, what I plan on leaving in my wake will be a blood bath for both sides. Just need...time to train and strike when is best...when they're wounded deer limping."
"Ah, no," Shinji said, a little bewildered. The nature of her hollow was odd. Very odd. "My hollow is separate, there're three of us, in my world. Not two."
Shinji listened carefully to the rest of what she said, up to the last words, without speaking. "And I look after me 'n' mine," he said calmly, "An' I could care less what ya plan ta do to Seireitei 'n' this forsaken li'l place. Burn it to the ground, for what li'l difference it'd make now, anyways. Place is a wasteland anyways. Full of nothing."
Shinji looked at her a bit oddly for a second, before questioning again. "Do ya just wanna be alone? I mean, ya obviously got some abandonment issues, an' ya can't seem ta find solace in tha fact I'm willin' ta welcome ya. So maybe ya should find a way to control it, rather than jus' give in. I mean, I 'ardly met ya, an' I know ya ain't weak. So why give in so easily?"
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Seika scowled at his response. Damn, she was hoping it was normal but she'd had a feeling saying otherwise. "I think I would just go crazy if there was anything but the Wolf in my head." Said softly as she stood up and stretched, stuffing her hands into her pockets and looking sidelong at him.
"Maybe, I don't know. I need answers to all these questions buzzing around in my head. The Wolf doesn't exactly like being considered much either, so it ain't easy." Slipping a bit into less articulate more Rukongai speech. "I ain't giving in, just seems so damn overwhelming at times. Tell you what. I'll go with you...I just want you to try to help me either figure this out or control it. Cause the longer I keep going the louder the growl is in my head." Watching him for any reactions.
Shinji listened quietly, nodding at the end. He knew how the voices could get. Luckily, after many attempts, he learned to make his shut the hell up pretty well. His eyebrows raised, however, when she said she'd come with. He didn't expect it to be so easy. "I jus' gotta say one thing. Don' lose yourself to it. Don' let it decide things for ya. Don' let it win, 'specially not when yer gonna be stayin' with us. We won't hesitate to kill you," Shinji said, his eyebrows lowering and his eyes narrowing towards the end. "It ain't worth the risk ta let someone who can't control themselves run chaotically free."
"Jus' a warnin', is all, though," Shinji said, returning to his normal care-free demeanor. "Takin' things too seriously is jus' borin'." He grinned to her, "But sometimes, ya gotta." He shrugged, holding his hand out to her, for a handshake. He wasn't what her reaction would be, but he was sure it was gonna be worth it. Whether she scoffed or fell into this not-so-obvious trap.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!