Bleach: Of Fate and Phoenix 60

Chapter Sixty:
Rhythm of Death

Swang down
fingers against the page
Chop down
destroying a guilded age


The moment was muted; Karin's mouth tightly shud her navy irises floating in wide white saucers. The muscles in her arms wouldn't even dare to twitch as she watched the Vasto Lorde Queen dig her long blade-like fingernails into the chest of the Vasto Lorde Sonido.

The claws pinned Sonido the dusty ground with a heavy thud. He made no cry of pain, but rather flopped almost pitifully to the dirt, as if resisting any type of movement.

Karin, still in shock, backed up and into the cloak surrounding the Elder. She flinched and twisted her head to glance for a second at the Vasto Lorde, who was silent. She had no idea what it was thinking.

"Ahh," The Queen, Elsa, hissed angrily. Or rather, the puppet attached to her other hand hissed.

"Why'd he go do that?" Gulo slobbered, his head tilted toward Leviathon, who remained silent. He was staring intently down at Sonido; seeming clearly displeased with the scene.

The moment after Elsa stabbed Sonido seemed to last an eternity to the frozen Shinigami, before finally Leviathon sighed, his breath rattling inside his hollow skull.

"Elsa, the traitor has finally seemed to show his face."

********

The Seventh Division Third Seat, Leta Kamaguchi, looked as if she had seen better days. Her strawberry blonde hair was matted to the side of her sweat-covered face and her body was soaked with a grisly combination of dirt, sweat, and blood. Still, she forced herself to stand her petite frame straight.

Kamisori kaze no akumahaundo, Leta pleaded silently to her sword, Fight alongside me a little longer.

Virvi Medusa, her eyes wide and furious, was several feet away, hunched slightly over; the gnarled mask covering her face having even more marks and scrapes across it.

She must use that mask as a face shield, Leta observed with a heavy sigh. It was going to be harder than she thought, landing the killing blow.

"That sword is powerful," The Vasto Lorde said slowly, her eyes narrowing at Leta, "Too powerful to belong to you."

"Now, now," Leta laughed darkly, her trademark grin surfacing, "You don't seem like someone who should judge others on appearance alone," And with her last word she lunged forward, and her bankai followed suit with an enormous funnel of wind.

********

Karin's eyes, still wide with shock as she stared at Sonido lying on the sand bathed in moonlight, slightly glanced away and toward Leviathon.

Traitor?

"Please, Elder," The would-be Great King gestured with a flick of his wrist and suddenly the Elder's arms were wrapped tightly around Karin.

"Wait--Let go!" Karin struggled against the Elder's grip when she suddenly felt something cold as metal nudge her palm. The rounded end was smooth as--My sword! Karin thought with slight and desperate relief. She glanced up at the Elder, who was glaring at her with a watchful, cautious eye that clearly said, "Not. Yet."


Karin struggled a little more to make the Elder's grasp look convincing, but all the while she knew that at the right moment, she would release Yakyuu on these Vasto Lordes. It was all a matter of 'when.'

"My, my," Leviathon yawned, his skeleton hand scratching the underside of his bony chin, "I would have expected something rash from her," the word came out as a sneer, "...but not from you, Sonido."

The Vasto Lorde said nothing, only gasped for air in short, small breaths. Elsa, her non-puppeted hand dripping thick crimson, slowly inched toward the fallen hollow, the puppet raising up to speak,

"The ceremony will continue after we deal with this traitor," its high-pitched voice sent a wave of chills down Karin's spine. "We must ask him...the Question."

Karin leaned back so the Elder was the only one that could hear her whisper, "What's this "Question?"

The Elder did not seem to enjoy explaining to Karin, "Watch. You shall see," it replied grimly.

Gulo slobbered and tilted his head in confusion, but Leviathon flicked his wrists flippantly, "Get on with it, I suppose. Just make it quick, please."

Elsa nodded, the puppet in unison, and she towered over Sonido, an embodiment of the guillotine that would surely deliver his final breath.

"You can join us again, you know," The high-pitched puppet lowered down to Sonido's face, its squeeky voice surprisingly comforting, "We shall forget the entire incident if you agree to the terms of the council."

For a moment, Sonido seemed to be considering this offer, his breathing slowing to a consistent but hasty pace. Finally, he asked in a whisper,

"Terms?"

"Yes," The puppet nodded its head, "Only one. You must kill the Shinigami girl."

Karin straightened reflexively, her eyes wide with confusion and slight terror. She glanced from Sonido to the Elder, who seemed to sigh as if knowing this would come, and then back to the fallen Vasto Lorde, who was silent.

"Kill the Shinigami you threw yourself in front of and we will welcome you back with open arms," The puppet offered gleefully. "Refuse though, and the alternative is death."

Some options, Karin gritted her teeth, struggling to keep her hands at her side and not lean toward Yakyuu. It's still too soon...if I reach for my zanpakuto now, I won't have the advantage needed to strike...and will surely be killed. But..." She wasn't sure if she was too safe either way.

Elsa's puppet-like translator leaned closer to Sonido, only inches from his face. The silence that hung over the entire colliseum was thick, stifling, and heavy. Finally, the puppet asked with a rasp,

"Your choice?"

Sonido lifted his head in a jerking, tense manner. His neck strained, he looked straight up at Elsa and stated in a heavy breath:

"Escojo la muerte."

Elsa and her puppet were in a stunned silence. Gulo emitted a low rattling growl, as Leviathon hissed a Tsk, tsk under his breath. The Elder seemed to inhale and forget to exhale as it held a confused Karin against its chest.

"What did he say?" Karin whispered, half to herself.

The Elder, glancing down with a chilling crane of its bony neck, answered plainly,
"He chose death."

The young shinigami spun her head with a jolt to look up at the Elder; Karin's eyes widening in shock. He WHAT?! She swirled her head back toward Sonido, who was panting loudly on the ground, attempting to rise from the dusty floor.

Elsa's blade-like fingers dug into his chest, pinning him to the earth.

The Vasto Lorde howled in pain, a squirt of blood jutting from beneath the skull-like mask. Karin reflexively moved forward toward him, but the Elder instantly jerked her back.

"If this is what you choose," Elsa's puppet said in an eerily sing-song voice, "Then there is no further use of you, is there? Traitor!"

The nails of her fingers drove into Sonido, harder this time. The Vasto Lorde's muscles tensed and his back arched slightly off the ground from the pain of the stab.

Sonido, Karin thought in despair, unable to look away.

Elsa's puppet squealed as the blades struck again, this time below his ribcage. With a loud THUNK they sliced into his abdomen.

Thunk. The blades sank into his right side, through the arm and bone with a chopping slap. Sonido winced, blood seeping through cracks in the mouth of the mask.

Thunk. The blades dug lower, deeper; through the hip and pelvis.
Thunk. The fingers sliced into his pale flesh like butter; the chest and then the ribcage.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Thunk.


The slicing and piercing became a rhythm; a disgusting pattern that made Karin's heart race faster and faster with each beat. She was pressed against the Elder and desperately wanted to do nothing more but grab her zanpakuto and rush forward. She was outnumbered terribly...but....

"Stop it," Karin felt the words escape her lips, her eyes on Sonido's body. He was slowly starting to wince less and less with each strike of Elsa's arm. "Stop it."

The Vasto Lorde paid her no mind, and continued on with another loud thunk into his side.

"Stop it," Karin's voice grew louder, growing more and more emotional. She couldn't explain it, but a lump was rising from the pit of her stomach, crawling up her throat and nestling in the back of her mouth, making her eyes start to water and her voice crack, "Stop it!"

But the Vasto Lorde refused, and continued her assault on Sonido. Tiny streams of red were growing thicker and thicker around his collapsed body.

Karin, the hair sticking to her sweat-covered face as she rocked against the Elder's arms, wailed, "Stop it! He's already a corpse! Stop!"

She felt a hand on her shoulder tighten as the Elder gripped one of her hands and she suddenly felt cool metal against the inside of her palm.

With one glance, Karin knew the Elder was wanting the same as she; to rescue Sonido from his fate at the hands of the Northern Queen Elsa.

Karin leaned back against the Elder, her body falling against what she assumed was a hollowed-out ribcage.

"When?" She whispered, attempting to make it seem like a murmur to herself.

"What is she mumbling about?" Leviathon sighed, glancing from Elsa and Sonido haphhazardly.

"Well," The Elder spoke slowly, as its bony hand placed the hilt of her sword into Karin's, "Now, now, now."

"Surrender!" Karin pulled the sword from behind the Elder's robes with a long swing. "Yakyuu!"