Log; Complete

[thunderwitch.livejournal.com]

When; July 31st, early evening
Rating; PG-13/R for violence
Characters; Cirucci {thunderwitch}, Ishida Ryuuken {elquincypasado}, & Gil {andromedacanrot}
Summary; Cirucci just adores Quincy, and she feels a need to prove something to this one too, and, caught up in the game, and inadvertently the cause of its escalation to violence, we find dear innocent Gil. Pride clash ensues.
Log;

There was, Ryuuken thought - with a dawning, cold realization - nowhere for him to go. Karakura General was not here anymore, there was nothing for him to drown himself in, to use chasing the dollar as an excuse for the failure that his family - the tattered remains of it - had become.

His latest talk with Uryuu had been nothing more than a vicious cycle of masked hurt and apparent bitterness, each wanting to inflict further injuries on the other, to tear open wounds that had barely begun to close.

Normally, he would have walked away from it, returned to the hospital that he was Director of and block it out using paperwork, but here, now...

It was all so terribly frustrating.

Fishing out another cigarette from his pocket, he lit it expertly and took a long, slow drag, ignoring the people running around in the square.

>>>

Cirucci was terribly frustrated because of the man in front of her.

Honestly, she had no idea of her bad luck, that when she would be bored, idly dangling pale fingers in the fountain water, that she would be subjected to the sight of one Ishida Ryuuken.
Of all the-

“Why,” She couldn’t ignore him, no, that was out of the question, reminded herself that she had made a habit of suppressing her reiatsu when she went out these days, white uniform and bone spiked hair usually enough to identify her as something dangerous.

“If it isn’t Father Quincy.” Her nose wrinkled at the sight of smoke, not betraying how taut she’d become, how wary.

>>>

At the voice, Ryuuken lazily turned to look back at her, recognizing the Privaron from the one he'd spoken to earlier, the one who preened and boasted of her victory over his son. Ryuuken had already known that that was a lie; Quincy like Uryuu would give up their pride, even in death.

Foolish, stupid, and entirely unnecessary, but he supposed his son had never learned. Pride meant absolutely nothing when it came right down to losing the ones you loved more than life itself.

"Privaron." He responded evenly, his expression cold, neutral.

>>>

“Fancy seeing you here.” Cirucci sneered, leaning to prop her chin in one palm, still lazily trailing her fingers in the fountain, on her stomach on the cold marble fixture in the square, long legs kicking idly, small booted feet swinging.

“Why, and such nasty habits, too.” Her nose wrinkled again, waved her free hand as if to ward of the smoke, sneer turning to smirk.

“Hope Shiro Megane Kun doesn’t pick that up.”

>>>

"Indeed." The older Quincy responded, exhaling another long stream of smoke to show how much he truly cared about the ex-Espada's opinion. Shiro Megane Kun? How familiar Cirucci was with his son to give him such a nickname. How mocking, almost. Then again, his son's pride was his own business; he could handle something as simple as this on his own.

"If he does, that's his own problem. I hardly think that he'll end up dying of lung cancer."

>>>

“No, no, he won’t.” Cirucci nearly coughed, waved her hand faster in front of her face, breathed through her mouth lightly.

“I’ll be sure to kill him before he gets lung cancer.” She paused, looked him up and down. Honestly, they even stood the same. Made her want to break him, too, on principle. Glasses, hair, stance, pride, oooh, it was all the same. The only difference was this one’s cold apathy versus his son’s more easily excited senses.

“Shame no one did you the favor.” She made another face at the stench.

Disgusting.

>>>

How showy and boastful; Ryuuken didn't know whether to be disgusted or to pity his son for having an arrancar like that attached to him. He, of course, settled for a vague mix of the two and ignored her reaction. It was most likely false, considering the fact that their kind didn't need to breathe much.

"Hn." Refusing to rise to the Privaron's bait, he simply tapped on his cigarette, letting the ash flutter to the ground. "Are you offering, arrancar?"

>>>

Cirucci scoffed, a flick of her wrist and a bala fired quick and without warning at his cigarette.

“Put that out.” She snapped. “Rude.”

She didn’t fire to kill or maim, no, it was something of a measure, of his speed or his nature,of the difference of his reaction to Uryu. She knew the younger would turn about, have an arrow trained on her, alert. But she wondered about this one.

>>>

Ryuuken merely sidestepped, not even looking at her even as he took another drag of his cigarette. Peevish, was she? Ryuuken was nowhere near as excitable as his son, but it didn't mean that he was any less deadly. There was no change in his posture, nothing to betray the innermost coil of tension within outwardly relaxed muscles. Was she testing him, then? Probably.

Inhale. Exhale.

"I don't think you're in any position to tell me that."

>>>

“Ah, but with one difference.” She’d almost expected that. He was colder, more analytical, and calmer. Less likely to start or stutter, to react as wildly.

Shame, that. She found it endearing.

“I can get away with it because I’m pretty.” The Arrancar brushed thick hair back behind her ears, itched to reach for the whip coiled at her hip.

“You’re just rude, Father Quincy.”

>>>

Tch, the Privaron was just itching for a fight, wasn't she? It was quite amusing, the lengths she'd do go to rile him up. It would probably take less than one tenth of that time to send Uryuu stuttering, bow levelled at the arrancar woman while spewing out threats that he would most probably never carry out.

Ryuuken, for one, wasted no time on meaningless threats or warnings. One hand in his pocket, fingers brushing over the Quincy cross he had kept with him even through his disdain of the bloodline, he raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "And this is supposed to mean something to me because?"

>>>

“Oh, I don’t know.” Cirucci smirked, sat up and plied wet fingers across her leg, idly wiping them dry. “You’re much colder than Shiro-Megane-Kun.” She eyed him hungrily.
Tasty, he probably was. His soul, that is.

“Mortal little life embitter you? Shiro-Megane-Kun’s mother? Granfather?” She pried without shame, without true curiosity, either.

>>>

Ryuuken bit back the instinctive curl of his lip even as he thought about the old man. For all his intention to block out the Privaron's words, the mention of Uryuu's grandfather angered him. The old man had taken Uryuu under his wing, even though Ryuuken had expressly forbidden him to do so.

The only one Ryuuken had left to protect, the one Ryuuken would never have imparted Quincy powers to, to allow him to have a semblance of a normal life, with a normal family that would never have to suffer the losses Ryuuken himself suffered... Souken had taken Uryuu away from him, and gave him the means to ensure that Uryuu would never be a normal child.

The selfish bastard offered his son up to die by the hands of creatures such as this. He had long accepted that it would come to this, but...

"It's none of your business." His words were ice, harsh and biting.

>>>

A giggle escaped painted lips, a near childish wriggle as the Privaron squirmed excitedly.

“Ooooh, hit a nerve?” She teased, smirked viciously and leaned forward, pointing with one thin finger, more talon than anything, unable to stop the curving of her lips, wicked intent.
“Maybe that stupid shinigami woman he fancies can tell me? Or maybe he’ll tell me~” Cirucci laughed again, kicked.

“So defensive~”

>>>

He fought down the urge to draw his bow and to end it; her smugness was grating, overbearing, and it was only by virtue of the years of rigid self-control that he stared back at her flatly, his eyes devoid of any readable emotion. Shinigami woman? Uryuu had gotten better and better at rebelling, hadn't he?

"Pry it out from him all you want. I don't think he'll tell someone like you."

>>>

“He’s told me lots of things.” Cirucci baited. “It’s easy to find things out here.”

She didn’t think about what people had found out about her, what she’d been forced to divulge here.

“About how poor little baby Ishida cried when the Hollow died?” His memory, visual, on a curse day, as she examined the sharp point of one nail. “About his dear grandfather and how he died?” Her voice was tinting darker, eyes lidded by thick lashes, and smirk still curling wicked.

“About giving up his powers to fight that shinigami captain and save that pitiful shinigami bitch.”

>>>

How long had it been since he'd last seen his child cry? It had occurred to him once more that Ryuuken had missed everything there was to know about his son. He had watched Uryuu grow up, but only from a distance, only when he was sure that Uryuu wasn't looking.

When had Souken opened his little boy's eyes to the horrors of the world? Did he even want to know? The failure of not being able to protect Uryuu was glaringly obvious, as obvious as when his wife died knowing that she would always be alone.

Biting back a stinging retort, Ryuuken was cold, impassive. His pride dictated that no weakness was to be shown to this monster, and unlike Uryuu sometimes, he followed through on it. Flicking the cigarette ash, Ryuuken simply responded. "He chose this path on his own. I have no say in it, nor do I care."

>>>

“And they call Arrancar heartless.” Cirucci crooned, crept closer to the man on fountain’s edge and grinned, a near manic expression, thin fingers gravitating on instinct to whip hilt on her hip.

She wondered, how strong he was compared to Shiro-Megane-Kun. Wondered stronger, or weaker. More experienced, yes, but in raw strength?

And there was no pity, no mercy, to take advantage of here.

>>>

“Humans will surprise you." Ryuuken didn't miss the way she inched closer, her fingers moving to her weapon. He made no movement - she would move soon, and he would be waiting for her. His hand was still in his pocket even as he watched her. This one would be stronger than the imbeciles he'd dealt with when he saved Uryuu, but it didn't matter. If even Uryuu could defeat this one, it would be an easy enough task to make her taste defeat once more.
>>>

Humans.

Cirucci allowed herself to take her eyes off him for a moment, to survey the masses. Humans, scurrying about on their mindless little mortal lives. Her other hand pressed hard to her stomach, felt a hunger gnawing there, and then…

She saw one. She couldn’t have said what was special about him, he looked normal, for all appearances, but… the Privaron felt her anger spike and the urge to grip Golondrina rise substantially, even as a low noise rumbled in the back of her throat.

“… You don’t say?” Cirucci murmured, not taking her eyes from this other mortal, this boy, felt her rage, simmering, begin to boil for no specific reason at all, wondering if that was strange.

>>>

Ryuuken's gaze flickered to the boy the Privaron had her eye on, and while he normally wouldn't have bothered, he simply remarked, his tone carefully keeping out any and all signs that he cared. Observing her, sensing that something had the arrancar's hackles rising - although what was so threatening about that boy was beyond even him. Should he warn the boy, or provide a distraction? That probably was the question of the day. "Found food, I suppose?"

>>>

“Mmm, so sad…” Cirucci remarked, though while normally that statement would have been more a whine, it was a low, dark, tone. “Can’t devour souls here… but…” A wicked glint to her eye and she pried her gaze from him, turned back to look at the Quincy, legs tensing beneath her.

“Your job to protect, isn’t it?” She crooned, a bit of fun forming in her head, an idea, something… amusing.

>>>

Protect? His job was to save lives, but then again, it wasn't like he actually had a job in this accursed City anymore, and this kind of thing would probably fall into the whole, "saving the living" category. Which, more specifically, meant that Ryuuken had to keep the Privaron away from the boy.

How annoying.

Inhale, exhale. "I'm afraid you're speaking to the wrong person. You should address that to my son. I'm sure he'll respond to that very nicely."

>>>

“How cruel, Father Quincy.” Cirucci turned back to the boy, licked her lips leisurely. If only… if only she could pluck his soul out, but, oh, sacrifices. And… this could be fun as well.

“You mean to say, even if I meant to kill him, you’d just watch?” She teased, hopped onto the fountain’s edge into a crouch, one hand on whip and the other braced on marble edge, legs coiled and ready to spring.

>>>

"Actually, you'll be dead before you hit the ground if you tried that." Ryuuken responded evenly, his neutral expression unchanging even as he stared back squarely at the arrancar, who was clearly about to pounce. Was she baiting him, then? It looked like she was, but he saw no disadvantage in playing along this time. Ryuuken was, after all, not as inexperienced as his son was.

"Being pierced through with a Quincy arrow would not be pleasant the second time round, would it, Privaron?"

>>>

“Let’s play a game, Father Quincy.” Cirucci laughed, laughed to disguise the brief flash of fear through her tense nerves and muscles. Surely… surely she’d be fine. She’d avoided all of the younger’s arrows, it… it was only Seele Schneider, only that…

She hid it, his it well, and slapped her palm on the fountain edge with a vicious snarl belied by her delicate appearance.

“I’ll go first.” And with that, she broke from position and fell quickly into sonido, directly towards the human that had caught her eye.

>>>

Gil was... walking. He did that a lot. He lived on a park bench. It was very enamoring, in a kind of Artful Dodger sense.

He hadn’t been jumped yet.

Maybe it was because there were no haints here, in This City.

Maybe it was because his Andromeda-whatever needed a while to kick in.

Fuck, he hoped it was the first option.

Gil walked.

His heard something.

It was kinda like a whistling, but the kinda whistling noise something makes when it’s moving really, really fast, in your direction.

Fuck.

Gil looked up, snapped his head in the direction of the woman, clad in odd white, speeding in his direction.

“WHATTHEFU- AAAAHGH.”

Nothing good ever lasts for too long.

>>>

With a muttered curse at how annoyingly troublesome Cirucci was, Ryuuken instinctively launched into Hirenkyaku, the move coming to him exceedingly easily even as he managed to step between the advancing arrancar and the noisy boy. A brilliant flare of reiatsu, and Ryuuken's bow - a pure white and more solid than any other Quincy's - was leveled at Cirucci one-handedly. His other held his cigarette, and he barely spared the startled kid a cold, nonchalant glance.

"Get out of here."
>>>

Not that easy.

“No~” One light word and she’d simply vaulted over his head, too light, quick to push back into sonido and go for the unprotected human, baring her back, yes, but not for long, thin fingers reaching for his throat, latching on and digging in, a pause, before she was on the move again, the boy’s weight trifling in accordance with her strength belied in petite form, a smile on her lips.

She liked this game.

>>>

Get out of here? Pshhht. Like it was that easy. This chic could fly.

Her hands.

They where in his neck.

Adrenaline rushed through Gil, his heart pumped blood, and the blood spilled and splashed in his veins.

He could feel his neck cracking, his spine and shoulders popping—not breaking, just cracking like some crack their knuckles.

This lady—haint, demoness, whatever—was going fast enough to pull compressed air out of his joints.

How fast was that?

Really fucking fast.

>>>

His eyes widening slightly, Ryuuken whipped around, wasting no time in pursuing her as he sped up, outmaneuvering her and blocking her path, his expression one of pure ice. Damn it, what game was she playing at? "Release the boy, arrancar."

>>>

“Wrong again~!” A sudden stop, a jerking back before changing course abruptly, one hand freeing itself from the distressed mortal unaccustomed, not built for, the high speeds they moved, and the other reaching for the hilt of zanpakutou, the trip phrase on her lips.

“I like him!” Shrieks in the whipping air, coiled muscles bunched and burning at the speed in which she had to keep twisting and changing directions to avoid the older Quincy even as the reiatsu burst from her, the feathers beginning to cascade down bone headdress, tail taking shape and wings forming even as they began to trail out behind her, snapping in preparation to take to the skies.

>>>

Somehow, somehow, Gil’s neck failed to snap. It did do some kind of reverberating thing, though, which is extremely painful, Gil found.

He gave some kind of sorry grunt, from the back of his throat through clenched jaws and out of a now tearstained face.

Ow.
And now the lady was pulling out a sword.

Shit.

Gil was gonna die.

Right?

>>>

More annoyed than properly angered at the arrancar's audacity, Ryuuken took a brief moment to register the flare of her own reiatsu, and her released form even as he fired his own arrows in rapid succession. Hirenkyaku could only go so far, and it would be a bitch to destroy her if she decided to stay in the air.

>>>

Dodge, dodge, quick, quick, though it became hard to chose her motion as her form erupted around her, as the hand holding the boy elongated, turned to hard bone talons that clicked and tightened, tossed him and regripped around his chest instead of neck, a grit of teeth as she bunched and sprung, took to flight, concentrated on keeping her prey – anger, she was so angry at the human was som reason – so much so that she barely registered an arrow clip one wing until she felt it move in response, suddenly lilted far right and tried to over compensate and ended up flounding for the briefest moment.

But she didn’t care, wanted the human in her hands dead, dead, dead.

>>>

Gil was up in the air for a second, spinning as gravity beat him up, until the girl’s talon grabbed down on him, around the chest.

Because she had talons, now.

Fucking harpies.

“OHGUH-umphhf” He would’ve yelled to his own private deity, but the wind was knocked out of him by the bone-like material that was now the lady’s hand.

It was gonna bruise. Not that that mattered, because he was probably also gonna die- Jess wasn’t here. Fuck. He was gonna die.

And then they summersault flipped around. Gil got the wind knocked out of him again, fuckfuckfuck.

He was gonna get sick, soon, if this kept up.

After he died.

>>>

And there it was, the one vulnerable spot that was revealed to him. Through the mass of feathers and enormous wings, Ryuuken fired one arrow, rejecting the use of Seele Schneider, because, first of all, it would pierce clear through her and into the boy she was trying desperately to kill. And secondly, he really didn't appreciate wasting time to look for that weapon when an arrow would do just fine.

>>>

It occurred to her too late, clouded by a rage was unsure of whether to question, to realize that she’d exposed her back, floundered to get airborne, and she had just enough time to curse, to tense up and burst her energy through her wings in a violent downward thrust to try and clear the way, to move just enough, and-

There.

She felt the arrow pierce hierro, pierce between the ivory shoulders of her release and embed six inches way from the hole in her chest, six inches from her saketsu chain and that fear was enough to snap her out of her anger enough to keen, to screech some soundless noise of pain and spiral higher into the sky, wings beating powerfully in response to the stimulus of that memory, before she paused, looked down at the mortal, at the Quincy.

She smiled at him around a mouth that began to taste like copper.

And then, in one sudden movement, not dropped, flung the human in her hands hurtling towards the hard ground below.

>>>

“OHFUUUUUU-”

Gil thought about his mother, and his father, and how both of them were dead, probably because of him, and how they had been working on trying to make it worthwhile, their deaths, by not letting Gil die, by working on it.

Him and Jess.

Living.

“—ULGH!”

And Hermenegildo Phrixus Elliott died.

>>>

Ryuuken's eyes met hers for an impossible moment, and at that infernal smile that she wore on a face that most could claim as pretty. There was nothing pretty about a creature like her, and before the taste of victory was in his mouth at the sight of the pain that had been caused to the deceptively delicate body, he saw the boy being flung down from that height.

Eyes widening in surprise and the realization that at this height, it was impossible to catch him before he hit the ground, Ishida Ryuuken could only watch as another failure unfolded in front of him when the body slammed into the ground so hard that the concrete around it cracked.

Damn it.

>>>

Cirucci Thunderwitch was proud.

She surveyed her handiwork, hovering there above the square, the brilliant crimson that blossomed under a broken body. Her anger quelled as suddenly as it had arisen, and she suddenly wondered why. Why that one? Why so… but, no matter. Surely just a bit of excitement, and excitement was no match for the way she was having to grit her teeth, thrashed her tail until she dislodged the Quincy’s reiatsu arrow from her back, and bit back a low keen.

It hurt.

She spat, spat blood, and wiped her venomous lips with the back of an ivory talon, smearing crimson there, too. But she was still grinning, still triumphant, staring down at the older Quincy.

“I won, Ishida Ryuuken~” She called, laughter in it around the taste of blood, before she tucked her wings in and dove, dove back in a near fall before she pulled the wings out at the last second and glided from the square, glilded close to the mortals to make sure he wouldn’t risk more in firing at her now.

Ouch.

But… Cirucci laughed. It had been so long since she’d killed anyone, after all.

She’d deserved a treat, but she though the look on Ishida’s father’s face was sweetest.

Note; Since this occurs, ah, in the Square, it's quite visible, so, anyone can have seen, etcetera, if they wish.