tampered | Log; complete

Log; complete

When; Today, inner fears day.
Rating; PG-13 for fighting and Cirucci being Cirucci.
Characters; Hinamori

hajikemomo and Cirucci

thunderwitch
Summary; Angry and a little bit unstable, Cirucci runs into Hinamori.
Log;

Stupid, stupid, what had she said, what had she done? Hinamori had no idea, but whatever it was, Grimmjow was being strange. Were her fears that unreasonable? She had no idea, but just knew she needed to talk about it. With him. Because that was the problem. She was always failing to explain herself to him, in some way.

And that was why she was moving as carefully and quickly as she could across the square, trying hard to ignore the lingering fears she could see every time her gaze wandered to the people near her. But she was getting nowhere at all and with a stubborn sigh the small shinigami kicked off, shunpyo guiding her feet to the rooftops. Quicker, and more space. Better for thinking, too, and she paused on the roof of the eighth building, wondering what she would say to him.

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There was blood. So much blood.

The bird-like Arrancar was hunched over the corner of the roof of the eighth building, chosen by circumstance, it was closest to where she had fought. Her fight with Ulquiorra that morning... she'd known she would lose. It was him, after all. One of their strongest, one of the Espada. Her replacements. But she'd gone, not only because he was an Espada, and therefore above her, but because she had wanted to curry favor. ... She'd held out as long as she was able, but in the end it hadn't even been a fair contest, not after he released his zanpakutou.

Cirucci was still in her released form, though it drained her already wavering reiatsu even more. The bony wings were sagging against the rooftop, long metal feathers scraping the ground with metallic grating noises. Sword wounds on her body, cero burns... and blood. But she couldn't go back to Aizen-sama like this, no... not yet. Not yet. ... Needed to do something, do someting, prove herself. ... Had to kill her. No, not her, her. ... One, the other, it didn't matter, she had to, she had to...

And then she felt the reiatsu. Her own was so drained she didn't even know if anyone could trace it, body covered in sweat and blood, the tears of pain she'd shed not differentiable from the rest of her. Cirruci tried to wipe blood from an eye that abruptly widened at the sudden sight. ... Hinamori Momo, vice captain of the 5th...

"You..." Cirucci croaked, her voice creaking along with the heavy wings she bore, struggling to get to her feet. "You..."

Not what she wanted, the faintest flickers of reiatsu reaching her. Hinamori turned, slowly, watching the wounded arrancar like a deer ready to run. Her hand, however, betrayed that instinct, reaching to the familiar coolness of Tobiume's hilt, shaking hands, but still there anyway.

There, like the fears the Privaron had. Hinamori frowned, moving to back away, not at all liking the tone of voice the arrancar used. There was a truce, a truce, she shouldn't want to fight.

And she was already wounded. Badly. The small shinigami relaxed her grip but kept her hands in place as she assessed the Privaron. "Who did that to you?"

"Ulquiorra, Ulquiorra." She answered automatically, not quite aware. But that didn't matter, it didn't, it didn't. Not now. She was vaguely sure that she could see something, see fears, when she looked at the vice captain. Knew she could see her own as well, since Ulquiorra had had them too, and commented quite smoothly about Cirucci's, which was what had sent her into a rage in the first place.

But now... she was here, she was right here, the Privaron's chance to prove. Aizen had stopped her fight with Rangiku, stopped her, before she could prove herself.

"I'll kill you." Cirucci had finally gotten to her feet, advancing slowly.

Shock, the smallest amount of horror, and Tobiume flew into her hands without a word, without a sound. Ready, prepared, the blade cut through the air to hang between Privaron and shinigami, a pointed guard.

Hinamori didn't dare fathom the reasoning behind Cirucci's words, instead backing up slowly, defensively. "Did you forget the truce, ex-Espada?" No waver in her voice, calm. What she needed to be, but not here. Hinamori kept her eyes on the arrancar, aware that one wrong move would leave her open to attack, even though the Priveron looked in no shape to be standing, let alone issuing death threats.

"I don't care." Cirucci snarled, her eyes hazy, probably, it was evident from the wounds that were leaking blood still, disturbed by her movements, from bloodloss. Her wings, large and weighed down by the metal feathers, still scraped the ground, she lacked the strength to raise them, driven now only by the force of her will and the fear. That she was useless, the Privaron were useless, and that any moment, maybe even now, Aizen Sousuke would discard her.

"I'll kill you." She repeated, a bit of a gurgle in her words as blood leaked from the corners of her lips. How she planned this, it was evident, as her arms, elongated by the hollow powers she'd released, swung, talon tipped hands trying to bat the sword aside and reach for the vice captain, though her movements were sluggish with fatigue.

She shifted her weight to the side immediatly, pulling the blade out of her way. The dark haired girl hissed slightly as talons found flesh, her arm not out of range quick enough, her side too open. But shallow wounds, nothing to worry about.

"You're wounded, you need to rest." It was pointless trying to reason with her but Hinamori tried anyway. Even if she was an enemy, she was wounded. Needed a healer.

"I don't-" Cirucci was bewildered, and stopped suddently, bringing hand close to her face and looking at it, as if it were foreign to her. Blood. Hinamori Momo's blood. She managed to smile. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? This was... this was proving herself, this was proving she could, she had a use, she did, she did. With a great heave of effort, one hand flying to a particuraly nasty stab wound as blood seeped between her fingers, the Privaron managed to lift her wings from the ground, sweat pouring down her face, her neck, her back, the long tail of the body sluggishly thrashing back and forth.

Obviously not in her right mind, the Thunderwitch grit her teeth for a spring, leaping forward to try and grab at the vice, thinking only to get her in her taloned grip. To squeeze, squeeze, squeeze the life from her body.

"You do!" She kicked back, but too slow, the Privaron catching her left arm, claws scraping against flesh, making her wince, whimper. Tobiume came up, swinging toward the arrancar, not intending to wound but to force back, the sprite humming in assention, a need to protect the small shinigami.

"Don't do this."

Cirucci withdrew her arm, dulled senses noting the movement of the sharp steel. ... Avoid it? She landed heavily from the spring, a loud metal clang announcing her wings slam into the hard roof, bringing a whimper to her lips. But she held something clasped in her clawed hand, something small and wooden, marked with the sigil of the 5th. An adjutant's badge. But that barely registered. Not important. Not... not important.

"I have to." The former Espada bit out, more blood in her mouth with each word, eyes craned around the feathers in her boned headress. "If I kill you it will prove-" She stopped, doubling over, pain flashing clearly on her face. "... my worth." The thick tail began to snap open the mouth on the end, her entire body beginning to shudder as a light formed at the split, a cero. Charging.

She snarled in response, warily watching the arrancar. "Hurting me will do nothing for you." Hinamori knew what she was doing, what would happen if she was given a chance to fire that off. "You're only damaging yourself further."

Running the options through her mind, fleeing was the only one that would work. Although she could incapacitate the other, it would violate the truce, and she did not want that. But if she simply left, the other would follow. Bringing her hands forward, she prepared a binding kidou, hoping to complete it before the cero was fired.

"It will and I don't care." Cirucci snapped back, unable to move, her entire body trembling with the effort of forming the pitiful reiatsu she had left into a cero blast. If she had been at full strength, been able to control her energy, herself, Hinamori would have been able to complete the binding spell before she'd completed the destructive art of her own. But with her body already ripped, torn, bleeding, she only could hold on so far before the mouth at the end of the tail let out a keen, a half formed cero, sloppy, wide, and only at half the strength it should be, though still a danger, released.

The kidou was released at the same time, and Hinamori barely managed to dodge out of the way, cero searing against her side, burning lightly even as Tobiume moved to absorb the blast, prevent it from hurting her. She whimpered, the blade unable to fully defend her but it was enough.

"That should hold you for a few minutes. I suggest you find a healer, Privaron." Sheathed, the blade tried to comfort her, and Hinamori ignored the various cuts as she glanced at the arrancar one more time before kicking off, shunpyo taking over and masking her reiatsu out of habit, making it hard for anyone to follow her, let alone the weakened Privaron.

Cirucci could only snarl unintelligably, thrashing wildly, her wings fluttereing weakly and tail wiping across the roof.

"Get back here!" She finally managed to yell, though her voice died half way through. The kidou held, however, against her weak reiatsu pushes. Finally, she settled, eyes trying to focus on the small figure in the distance, hand gripping the badge tightly, almost to the point of breaking.

"Aizen-sama..." The Privaron mouthed, tears, real tears, in her eyes. Her fears still haunted her, her uselessness. And now it seemed even more apparant. ... Her demise. He would strip her of the pitiful rank she'd barely clung to. Privaron Espada. Former Espada. Disgraced Espada. Natural Espada. Weaker Espada.

Cirucci had the mind to try and seal her form, the wings, talons, armor, and tail disappearing as her sword reformed in her free hand, Golondrina.

By the time the binding spell released Cirucci Thunderwitch simply slumped to the ground, eyes long having rolled into the back of her head, consciousness gone as she silently lay broken on the roof.

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