Log; Complete

[winged-hubris.livejournal.com]

When; June 11th, evening [backdated]
Rating; 14A (violence)
Characters; Alturo (winged_hubris), Luppi (true_sexta)
Summary; The sexta Espada is selected to be an example of the first Arrancar's power.
Log;

The underground had been harder to find than the Espada that Alturo sought out with but a name to identify. The Arrancar named Luppi had fans aplenty that had no trouble pointing out his direction or giving hints to his appearance to ensure that no mistakes of identity could be made.

Alturo watched with growing surety the slight figure he identified as Luppi, the one Aizen had told him he could be made to serve if his allegiance had been changed. He hung back and suppressed himself to the extent of his ability, observing and following the other, who seemed to be searching out something himself.

Three minutes was what he took to ensure he was correct, at the end of which Alturo moved, quickening his pace to close the distance, easing the seal on his reiatsu with a near relief, any restriction an echo he disliked of his time in the Soukyoku.

Not here, not there. Frankly, even though Luppi was more than happy to have a fraccion at his beck and call at last, having one didn't do him much good if Luppi could never find him. His hands clasped behind his back, despite his overlong sleeves covering both delicate limbs.

He frowned, turning to peer into another room, his pesquisa on the alert when another reiatsu, far stronger than Di Roy's could ever be. It set him on edge. He could feel the other approaching. It wasn't like the Espada he knew, or even the shinigami.

Slowly turning on his heel, he turned curious eyes to the on-coming presence, his lips widening at the sight before curling into a grin. Bright wings, just as Cirucci had said they were. There was no question who this was.

"Come to test your strength against an Espada, Al~tu~ro~?" Luppi laughed.

Alturo stopped when his quarry turned to face him, head held high and arms crossed over his chest to make use of their height difference, despite the distance between them. "Come to offer the Espada a chance to discard the number of his false lord and assume the pride of true Arrancar," he countered.

Nothing kept him from a fight, but he held off; the blow would be best to take Arrancar form Aizen. And the injuries from his encounter with Aizen still bothered him and might slow him. They were an insult to be sustained, but no worse than the idea that he would serve this Luppi. Who stood with short stature, sleeves too long to be of effect in battle, rendering any grip upon his zanpakutou hilt weak compared to the bare handed grip.

These were not the words Luppi had expected to hear from Alturo's mouth, but it certainly fit the same tone that Alturo had kept throughout their brief little conversations over the network. The taller arrancar was as self-assured as ever, with little bite coming to match the bark he'd been barking since he'd stepped through the city gates.

He rested a hand against his hip, letting it jut sideways just enough so that the fabric would slip to let show a few lines of the gothic six that marked his place at the table Alturo so seemed to despise and the one Luppi had fought so hard to have the chance to sit at.

"A pity, you know. You've come all the way down here just to be rejected again. It's almost cutely pathetic," Luppi sauntered forward, eyes sweeping over Alturo's form, "You've shown Luppi nothing to prove you're worth his loyalty."


Alturo leaned his head back, pale eyes not roving from the steps and glimpse that Luppi gave in his approach of the mark that separated him from the others. He could recall a scarred stretch of skin on Cirucci that had felt similar to a number, some label placed upon Arrancar as though possessed and catalogued.

"Eager to be bitten, Luppi?" he stated, calm and cool with his words. The sharp edge of his teeth bared in a smile, one which stretched to a grin of sadism. Arrancar were creatures of hollow emotion, adrenaline filled the abyss when it ran strong, instincts craved to fight, perhaps more primal than those who had been touched by the hougyoku.

The first move was not of speed or strength, but of his arm reaching towards Luppi, with intend to lay upon his shoulder and dig his fingers in, a mockery of camaraderie. "You wish to see what flesh my teeth can tear?"

Luppi's expression twitched slightly at the grip, but he wasn't to be deterred that easily. He reached up, fingers curling around Alturo's wrist to push it away. He didn't like being touched without his express permission or encouragement and Alturo certainly did not have that quite yet.

"Only Luppi's favourites get to bite, Alturo," he sniffed derisively, though his eyes spoke of a challenge neither sexual nor playful. "Is this all your show really is? The precious Privaron must've been blind to see anything in you."

Alturo met the gaze and languished in the challenge a moment, one that he intended to meet and prove the Espada wrong to hold delusions of anything but his defeat. But his eyes narrowed at the comment and he drew a step back from Luppi. "The lady Privaron saw the truth to which you are the one blind," he replied stiffly.

"Your eyes will open, Espada," he continued. "If I must hold you still and tear your eyelids off myself." Alturo moved his arm, this time with a reach intended to catch the other's throat and close tight upon it.

Luppi might not have truly been strong enough to take the rank of sixth on his own, but he was certainly on par with many of his Espada brethren and he knew when a situation was best one to keep on his toes in.

Alturo's fingers slipped against his neck as Luppi drew back with a sonido, carefully avoiding a touch that promised more pain than pleasure. He smiled, that cruel, anticipatory smile that almost all fights inspired.

"Thunderwitch might like your words. After all, she doesn't have that five on her breast like she used to," Luppi sneered, lifting his hand to gather his reiatsu for a bala. He enjoyed her company, but he knew the desperation he had felt so many times before in watching the Espada, waiting for that little taste of power. Cirucci might have been fooled by that, but he wasn't. "You think you're the first whose raised his head? They all get beaten down eventually."

Alturo tilted his head forward that little bit to acknowledge the speed of the Espada, a mark to his worth, but only on one trait and nothing further. He smiled, the look of confidence and, like Luppi, anticipation for the cruelties that would befall those in battle. His hand, left with empty air, lowered back to his side.

He felt the stirring in the air, an attack that felt instinctual, but it did not come from his hand. Luppi had fired a burst of power at him, faster than a cero, nothing he had used for all its familiarity to his power. Alturo might have watched it, observed it for his notice, but it moved too fast and he was forced to jerk his arms up. They provided a defence when it struck, forcing him back a few inches, hierro and a pulsing of his reiatsu protecting him from damage. Pale eyes glared at Luppi over the smoke of its finished and he straightened again.

"You presume me to follow the path of others?" he scoffed, punctuating his statement with a sharp laugh. Alturo crossed his arms again and narrowed his eyes upon Luppi's form, distant but not out of range with sonido at his call as well. "And you denounce the words of one whose eyes are not tainted by the blind loyalty to some creator? Poor choices, Espada."

Hmph. Alturo was a bit better than he his confidence might have spoken for. In fact, Luppi was starting to think Alturo might just be a bit more than a Numeros with too much attitude for his hakama and tall tales to fit.

"A creator without fear," Luppi smiled. He felt no shame in following Aizen, although he certainly wasn't thrilled with the fact that he hadn't gotten his number back. He began to gather his reiatsu again for a more powerful shot, "Who gave us all the power to become arrancar."

The second time would not leave Alturo the fool, his step quick and aided with sonido to draw him closer to Luppi, but to the side. The Espada would have to move his arm further to unleash the offensive, it would give him warning enough to close their last distance and silence it.

"Borrowed power, paid for by broken pride?" Alturo laughed and raised his arm, a sparking of black dancing between his fingers before he swung his arm wide to release it, an intended prison to hold Luppi for a moment, and hurt him he sought to leave.

"And if you saw that his power could not exceed mine? Is it still fine to bow your head to a shinigami?"

Luppi jerked back, but the circles of the prison tightened against him, forcing the hand that flickered with the hungry potential of a cero to stay at his side as he fought against the bounds of reiatsu that held him tight, powerful and painful.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his purple-toned eyes darkening with agitation at the move that kept him from countering, "That you actually think you could? We brought him back to life since you fought him. He's stronger now."

Alturo laughed and approached the Espada, tension held in his steps for the wary moment when the prison would fail, a moment he had no insight into and would have no true warning of. "He was alive when we fought, his chest moved with as much breath as a shinigami needs. And still it was pathetic!"

The small Espada drew in a long breath, flexing his fingers against the restraints. They couldn't last forever and, when they did break, he'd have a cero ready to give Alturo a truly proper greeting.

"And he stills stands. He's still got the loyalty of most of us," Luppi breathed, working his shoulders against the weakening bonds of the dark prison.

"Most is not all, Espada," Alturo replied. Amber eyes roved over the peeking glimpse of the number that marked Luppi and he lowered his hand to match its height. "Those without this are open to sense," he continued, reiatsu growing at is palm as it had with Luppi, the building moments of a cero. He looked up to purple eyes, his intent clear.

The prison broke the instant later, but Alturo did not move, to see whether Luppi would stand and fight, or risk a scar similar to his Privaron kin in Cirucci.

A cold tinge of fear traced down Luppi's spine at the thought. His six, no matter how little it meant to his brothers or Aizen, was his life, his purpose. He'd fought long and hard to have that proud curve emblazoned on his hip and he didn't want to lose it.

Slowly he turned his hand, not wishing to inspire Alturo to any undue actions as the prison's walls fell about him. A sonido would work, but it might also trigger the blast from the other. They were too close for it not to do some damage either way.

"Those without it, want it. Those who have it, earned it," Luppi murmured, words soft and even to prevent the fear of losing it from leaking into his voice, "Destroying it would lose you more friends than gain them."

"Its absence did not turn Cirucci from me," Alturo replied, hand held steady. The cero neither fired nor dissipated, its glow steady as the other's. His confidence grew with his smile, cocky as he tilted his head back to look down upon Luppi. "If you faced the same loss, then you may be similarly endeared to an ideal other than Aizen's," he reasoned with a laugh.

Alturo chose to leave the mark, his preying upon its absence valid more when it was not his hand that removed it. He lowered his hand, in aim and not power, firing the cero still towards the Espada. The tactic would show how the other fought, it would tell him what he may expect.

Luppi jerked back. It was too close range to avoid the full effects, but he could still sonido away from most of the force that ripped at his uniform and his skin. Fear he couldn't quite shake rose at the memory of the other cero, the one that had robbed him of his number, his life, and his pride.

"I lost it once before," Luppi breathed, repositioning himself on his injured leg as he fired his own cero blast in return, the backlash putting him more off balance than he'd have liked. He grit his teeth as the first pricks of pain from the blast began to set in underneath the adrenaline, "I won't lose it again."

The cero came too fast to counter with his own, too close to slip away with sonido. Not without injury, or being the coward, two things he did not intend to allow. Alturo raised his hand, fingers splayed wide as he threw a heavy wave of reiatsu against the cero. Teeth gritted together and he dug his feet against the ground to keep from giving any, the power of the blast eating away at his protections, until he could feel it burn against his palm.

Defence did him no credit, but Alturo still jerked his arm back and braced against what remained of the cero, thrusting reiatsu forth again to break it around him in a corridor that narrowed enough to singe his shoulders before the final trace faded.

Pain heightened his awareness, eyes narrowing as the dust faded and a few heavy breaths caught his. Alturo shook his hand to the side, dismissing the effect of the cero as nothing, no matter that it had seared an agonising line across his palm.

"Lost it?" Alturo laughed and moved with sonido, to approach Luppi and twist his body to aim his knee to his stomach. "How callous the number is treated to be given and taken!"

Luppi opened his mouth to gloat, fingers reaching for Trepadora's hilt. He'd finish this off nice and quickly. If only Alturo would stop moving. The knee impacted his gut with enough force to draw a sickeningly strangled choke from Luppi.

"Wouldn't have if stupid Grimmjow hadn't..." Luppi wheezed, eyes narrowed in anger, half at Alturo, half at himself for getting caught so off-guard, "Hadn't taken it back." He jerked Trepadora free from her hilt in a slightly less dramatic way that he had been hoping for. "But, this time, I'll keep it."

"Another exchange to lessen the worth of it," he spat. The sick way in which Luppi gasped satisfied him, but did not still him when his leg lowered and his foot touched the ground. Alturo caught the sound of metal freeing itself from a sheath, warning that he heeded to jerk back from immediate range.

The Espada chose to get serious? Alturo smirked and crossed his arms before him, red lines of reiatsu crossing above him in reflection, cutting towards Luppi as he drew his arms down sharp towards the ground.

"It's still worth something," Luppi countered, tone full of disgust for the flippancy with which Alturo treated the number he had given everything for. He didn't bother to dodge the next attack, instead going for the release that was on his lips already. His release would protect him from most of the bite. And the rest? Luppi would take the blows and give them back eight-fold.

"Kubire, Trepadora!" he exclaimed, the sword releasing in the form of armour that slipped around his tiny form and a set of tentacles that swirled behind him in a tangle.

Release was not new to Alturo; he had seen the shinigami form, he knew of the form that Fenniche lent to him, but the power that flowed from Luppi, the form that extended from him, was a first for his eyes. Arrancar here had their release, but neither had he seen nor fought it before, making it an unknown that he judged quickly.

The speed at which it formed, the reach that it could possess; both prompted the first Arrancar to pull back with the swift step of sonido, amber eyes narrowing as he searched for a weakness, for the style that Luppi would apply it with.

Alturo did this with a careful eye, but a veiled and crude smile as he straightened, hands held to his side, palms away from Luppi as the faint sparks of cero began to form within his grasp. "Worth that lessens the longer that you let him play with it."

Luppi leaned forward, touching the ground as Trepadora's tentacle-esque vines curled and crawled towards Alturo with an amazingly swift speed. Childishly, once again, Luppi smiled that self-confident smile. Alturo was a fool if he didn't release soon. Trepadora wasn't fond of giving her targets time to fight back.

"It's not like I can just take it back. Grimmjow's gone," Luppi snapped, his good mood breaking a bit at the mention. And Aizen-sama wasn't giving him it back, no matter how hard he tried.

Alturo jerked away from the first far-stretching arm, then twisted his body to avoid the second. The motions made it difficult to hold the cero and nigh impossible to increase the reiatsu contained in it. His hand lashed out, reaching for a tentacle with intent to either catch or impale it with the force of his motion, while Alturo dug his heel into the ground and turned sharp.

"Then what keeps you from taking what should be yours? You let him lord it over you, disrespect your power." Alturo let the emotion fade from his expression and brought the hand with the half-formed cero up, releasing the power in an unpolished imitation of the bala Luppi had unleashed before.

The smaller arrancar jerked back, the tentacles slipping from Alturo as he felt the first taste of his own blood in his mouth. Stupid. He hadn't even seen that bit of retaliation in his anger.

And, even though he did have the upper hand in his opinion, the anger was still there, an irritation at Alturo that was starting to leak onto an older frustration. He hated that disrespect. It had followed him ever since he was a Numeros, even after he got the lusted after six on his hip.

Most of all, he hated the fact that he couldn't get it back. That no one even took him or his tries seriously enough to let him call that number his own once again.

"Shut up."

Alturo tried to close the distance between himself and the Espada, his advantage sensed and sought to be taken, but even the flailing tentacles found a pattern to defend against him, one shooting up from each angle he tried, sweeping at him until sonido bore him away and to another opening. He scowled and drew back again, flexing his fingers as black energy danced across his knuckles.

"What keeps him from stringing you along with false promise, until he finds one he prefers for the rank? One that is not you!" he taunted, harsh words to wound pride held for the creature that lorded over the Arrancar, but also cold and frustrated need to know why so many would be so loyal. And desire to take those away from Aizen.

The defence he faced was instinctive, near perfect, and the times the tentacles did connect, they had force to bruise, elasticity enough to snap forward and break. Alturo did not let it do that, jerking back again, then forward, this time thrusting his arm forward, reiatsu forming an extension of himself, one blackened and sharp to impale all that it could.

The tentacles stopped their swaying as the black reiatsu penetrated to their core, sending Luppi falling back. Luppi stumbled, stopped by the pain and hold of the reiatsu, and the even more painful words striking his pride.

"Or do what?" Luppi hissed, reaching up to brush his fingers awkwardly against the reiatsu to stop it, "It's not like I can leave. He's all we have. And the only way to the top is through the Espada."

Alturo let the black reiatsu dissipate, simple to summon if he needed it again. Relentless beatings made their lessons ingrained, but he allowed the slight Arrancar an instance to breathe, but not without his senses still alert and ready should that mistakenly inspire attack.

"He has you believe that to suits his means," Alturo countered. Reiatsu danced over his arms, the foundation of a cero considered, to wipe away this example of brainwashing, but it was not his intent to kill Arrancar. "The top of what he offers is limited, proclaimed to be without option to keep your eyes from straying, but it is no dominance but his over you."

Alturo smirked, hunger fed by power, the same that Cirucci had recognised and Aizen had been stalled by. "Leave it and you will find that there is more than the false number on your hip. Power greater than his limited definitions."

Luppi brushed the bloodied mark on his chest as he rose, the tentacles retreating to a more manageable size around him as he drew in a slow, deep breath. He knew freedom from Las Noches looked tantalizing, when all hope of getting his number and the respect it gave him back.

"Leave and get killed," Luppi finished for Alturo, although it was anything but the other had been intending to say, "He's stronger than me and those who follow him are just as strong."

"Leave and follow me, that will keep you from death," clarified Alturo, pale eyes one the arms of Trepadora, a protective embrace that would be difficult to penetrate if he needed, but he would do so if Luppi rejected the sane options presented to him. "He could not defeat me, his soldiers will fail the same."

Alturo needed the loyalties of the Arrancar to thoroughly defeat their pseudo God. Great power still needed the reinforcement against hordes, his aim the Espada first to dismantle or defeat. It was a bitter tactic, but he would not fail in destroying Aizen and to do that, a regrettable amount of thought and preparation were necessary.

An answer rested on Luppi's tongue before he swallowed it, letting his armour dissolve around him and lifting dark purple eyes to meet Alturo's. Part of him wanted what Alturo offered. It was an attractive choice. He could have a real place again and he'd have protection.

However, another part recognized that this could be nothing more than the pipe dream of an overconfident arrancar, doomed to failure. He had seen so many rise against Aizen and just as many bow their heads, defeated.

"Give me a few days," Luppi finally said, Trepadora, unreleased once again, rested in his hand. "I'll give you my answer."