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zarinthelwrites · 7 years

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Blooming from the Mud Pt. 5 (Bleach/DGM)

Kanda draws his sword. This won’t take long.

It doesn’t.

Kanda enters through the gate alone, ignoring the groans and whimpers behind them. They’re alive, he doesn’t know why they’re complaining. Well. As alive as anyone is, in this strange place beyond the living world.

The first thing he sees are the dogs. They run up to him, lick the blood off his skin. Someone has fed them, brushed them, bathed them. They smell better than he does.

Beyond the dogs are four people, arrayed around the dusty courtyard.

Yumichika stands with his weapon sheathed, hair moving in an invisible breeze generated by his own core of power.

Beside him, Ikkaku has his sword leaned over his shoulder. He is watching Kanda with a slight smirk. His power is heavier than Yumichika’s, weighting down the swirling dust so that he stands in an inverted spotlight of his own making.

To his left stands a little girl, who looks younger than Kanda. Her hair is pale pink, cheeks stained in permanent blush. She is pouting, arms crossed against her chest. A pink katana hangs from her belt, longer than her legs so that it drags on the ground behind her. The bloodlust pours out of her in palpable waves, so much that it makes Kanda feel as if she is the closest thing to an Akuma he has yet found, or a Noah like Tyki Mikk, content to wear the vestige of human skin.

“Ken-chan!” She chirps, tugging on Kenpachi Zaraki’s sleeve. “He looks like fun~”

Kenpachi Zaraki is wearing a ragged white overcoat over the normal shinigami uniform, with white bandages wrapped around his midriff. His hair stands in stiff peaks all over his skull, with each peak capped by a tiny bell that all jingle in the breeze. An eyepatch covers his right eye, edged in gold. Three straps hold it in place, two running through his hair and one connecting to the collar he wears around his throat. His sword is completely covered in bandages. If Kanda felt the force of his soul all at once he would have been driven to his knees, but Kanda had been sensing him since he entered through the gate into the Seireitei, each step of his feet drawing him closer to this man soaked in death.

Kanda looks at them and smiles.

“Who’s first?”

“Me!” Says the girl, bouncing up and down on her toes. “Pick me, pick me!”

Kenpachi tilts his head back and laughs, harsh and grating.

“No, Yachiru,” He says, “I like him. We’ll do this... the proper way.” He laughs again as Yachiru giggles.

Then he steps forward so that he stands directly in front of Kanda. This close he towers above Kanda, six and a half feet tall at the very least. Kanda grimaces. He doesn’t hate tall people as much as he hates being short.

“What is your name,” says Kenpachi.

“Kanda.”

“Only that?”

Kanda hesitates. No one knows him here. He could lose that name forever, never hear it again.

“I have another name,” he says. “I’ll tell you after I defeat you.”

“That’s the spirit,” says Kenpachi, face still split in an eerie grin. “So. The challenge.”

He flings open his hands, baring his naked chest.

“Prove to me that your soul longs for blood,” he declares. “Show me your will, Kanda!”

“Only that?” echoes Kanda, unsheathing his sword. If this is the challenge, then it’s likely that Kenpachi’s skin will be far harder than flesh and blood could hope to be. It’s only natural, here in this place where flesh is but a memory of the soul. For something of this magnitude, the bare bones of his Second Illusion are nowhere near strong enough to bother with. No, Kenpachi asked for his soul.

Kanda closes his eyes. He can hear his heart beat more easily this way.

Ba-dum

He has no curse of burning life to draw upon

Ba-dum

No foreign Innocence to drive him onward

Ba-dum

He has nothing but the lotus flowers

Ba-dum

And Allen

Ba-dum

What had he said, when Allen had granted him his dearest wish?

Kanda opens his eyes. This sword may be new but his soul...he has been listing to those whispers far before his final death. Has he not died, over and over again?

“Breathe easily, Kurayami,” he whispers. “First Dream; Rising Towards the Heavens.”

He only realizes he’s moved once Kenpachi’s blood spurts in his face. He licks his lips, tasting it.

“Welcome to the 11th Division, Kanda,” says Kenpachi. “We’ll fight once you’re healed back up.”

“Wait,” says Kanda. He’s swaying on his feet, his ankle screaming while his single slash has reopened the wounds in his arm and chest. He sheathes his sword and flings his arms out, showing his papery skin and caved in stomach.

“It’s only fair,” he says. He is no longer condemned to the life of an Exorcist, irreplaceable and fighting against inescapable odds. He can fight the way he only dreamed of. “Blood for blood.”

“Blood for blood,” Kenpachi echoes, and smiles. Then he draws his blade. It grates against the sheathe on its way out, the metal screaming and shaking. The edge itself is ragged, old blood still remaining along its edge. That is not a blade that cuts once, it is a blade that will cut a thousand times.

“Are you prepared?” Kenpachi asks.

Kanda nods. Behind Kenpachi, Ikkaku is holding the dogs back as they growl, trying to run to him.

It slides through him like a jittering bonesaw.

He doesn’t know if it’s the pain or the blood loss that sends him to oblivion.

Kanda wakes up to Fishbone licking his face.

“Get off of me, you dumb dog,” He grumbles, trying to bat at the dog.

“Eeek!” A voice shrieks close to him. “Please don’t move, sir officer! You’re still not completely recovered!”

“I’m fine,” says Kanda. He shoves himself into an upright position in the bed, looking down at himself. His chest is completely swathed in bandages, and so is his left arm. His ankle has been splinted, and then wrapped to the point where it looked more like a ball than a part of his body.

“Oh?” A different feminine voice interrupts his mental catalogue of his wounds. “Yamada, didn’t I ask you to bring me here the moment the patient woke up?”

“Captain Unohana!” The voice shrieked, reaching an even higher pitch. “I swear, he just woke up as you arrived! You have miraculous timing, Captain!”

Another Captain?

Kanda turns to face the door, still petting Fishbone and Lizard. The woman has a peaceful smile framed by her dark hair, which is parted into two but twined together below her chin.

“Trying to leave so soon?” She asks him, smiling. Kanda is immediately pinned down by the force of her power, which feels like all his terrors and shadowy nightmares given weight and presence.

“..no,” Kanda forces out, trying to talk through the sudden onslaught. “I was simply looking at my injuries.”

“An infected chest would, three deep slashes down your back, one long gash down your left arm, a slice across your face, a broken ankle, and the massive hole in your lower abdomen where Captain Zaraki struck you.” She summarizes his injuries with that serene smile still firmly pasted on her face. “Traces of starvation and malnutrition inhibiting proper reiatsu growth and development. Severe dehydration. Need I go on?”

It sounded much worse than it was when she said it like that.

“Where am I?” Kanda asks instead of answering her.

“This is the headquarters of the 4th Division,” Unohana answers. She beams. “We are neighbors with the 11th Division, which is likely the only reason you survived.”

“You were only unconscious for three days!” The pipsqueak pipes up. “We thought that you’d be unconscious for weeks!”

“The 11th Division always recruits...hardy members,” says Unohana, lips curling upward in what should be a smile. “You seem to have earned your seat, at least. However, you being awake merely means that the timetable until your release back into the 11th division will happen sooner than was anticipated. I will be...most displeased if you engage in strenuous activities while under my roof.”

Kanda leans back against the pillows, annoyed but largely resigned. The main issue he had with being on bedrest was that it reminded him of being old and dying from his stupid body betraying him piece by piece, but the circumstances-- and the expectation of a full recovery-- were enough for him to be more willing to wait for approval before wandering off. Come to think of it, he hadn’t died from his own body after all! Since beansprout had burned the house down.

“Yamada,” the Captain continues. “Keep a close eye on him, hmm?”

“Me? I mean, Yes Captain!” The pipsqueak drops into a bow so low his head hits the floor. “I’ll do my best!”

Captain Unohana flows out of the room as quietly as she appeared.

Kanda waits an extra five minutes before making eye contact with the pipsqueak.

“I’m bored,” he informs him.

The pipsqueak jumped a solid three feet in the air, his chin length hair standing straight up. Then he hit his fist against his palm as his mouth dropped open in a particularly vacant expression. “Ah.” He says. “The scary guy said that would happen. He left you something!” He bolts out of the room.

Kanda stares after the pipsqueak blankly. This guy is way too much fun to mess with.

Yamada ran back after just a couple seconds, his hands over flowing with carefully bundled stacks.. Of paper.

“Is that...” Kanda trails off. He could already read the first one. Barely.

Mission Report: Hollow Extermination in Sector 8 of District 25, East

I KiLleD AlL oF tHEm! WitH mY ManLy Hands of StEel! I Feasted on.....

“I am going to kill him--”

#bleach #dgm #I got! fanart! its beautiful and lovely and amazing!

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