Trial of Fire

Chapter 19
Underground

The caves were damp and cold. Hurón was in the lead with Rata on his shoulder, directing the path.

Kinomi had to admit she was surprised when Rata had actually led them away from the direction of the lake to find the cave entrance and then took them every which way until they were hopelessly lost.

Rata had warned them it would take a good three days of walking to get to where they were going as it was not a straight path. As much as it pained Kinomi to leave Grimmjow where he was for another three days, the time was appreciated for her to regain her reiatsu and recover from her injuries.

Only Taka would compare war wounds with her at a time like this and the debate was up as to who had thus far suffered the worse injury; Reina when her entire wing had been sliced off by Akutsuchi’s scythe, Zan when Monban had nearly fried him alive in a blast of blue fire, or Kinomi for being impaled through the chest.

“Oh right. Speaking of Reina.” Taka fell back a bit and Kinomi followed her lead so the others were walking ahead of them.

“What is it?” Kinomi asked worried.

“This Akusesshou guy figured out Reina’s true Resurrección ability.” Taka whispered.

Kinomi frowned.

“Turning back time can be pretty powerful, but she can only do the last five minutes. Still it has helped us out a lot in healing and redoing healed damage. But it hardly seems like something someone as powerful as this Akusesshou seems to be would be interested in.” Taka explained.

“For now anyway.” Kinomi frowned. “Who knows how long she will be able to do it for fifty years from now. One hundred. One thousand.” Kinomi pointed out.

“I never thought about it that way.” Taka admitted.

“Does everyone know?” She asked.

“All of us anyway. I am glad Hurón-san rescued you and all, but he is still a hollow and I am not sure he should be aware of her abilities.”

Kinomi nodded in agreement. She trusted Hurón as much as she trusted Nel-chan. The Vasto Lorde had many chances to eat her and assimilate her reiatsu while she was recovering, but had not.

She honestly wondered about that. She knew hollows were mostly mindless beast until they evolved into as Adjucas, ruled by their hatred that turned them into hollows in the first place.

But Hurón, he was like Nel, clearly different. Frowning in thought, she moved back up until she was walking beside the ferret like Vasto Lorde. He turned his head to acknowledge her with a small nod before looking ahead again. They walked in silence for several moments.

“You want to know why I am helping you.” He commented into the silence.

She nodded her head in the affirmative.

“What you are fighting for goes beyond basic instinct. It is what separates one from mindless beasts.”

So he was a lot like Nel, who abhorred pointless fighting, which made it strange that she was such a masochist.

“If it isn’t prying, do you remember why you became a Hollow?” She asked hesitantly.

“Grief.” Was his simple, straight answer.

She could feel the pain in his voice and didn’t press the matter further. They continued on in silence and she briefly wondered how long they had been down here for as time seemed to have no meaning and her phone got no reception, which was rather odd seeing as how it wasn’t like the signal was bouncing off of relay towers that needed to worry about line of sight.

“I will admit I was rather surprised Grimmjow-sama had a pet shinigami. Your friends heritage brings much into light.”

“How come Aizen didn’t make you an arrancar?” She asked in honest curiosity.

“I kept myself hidden. I had no desire to fight someone else’s war, nor did I desire more then what I have.”

“No kidding.” Rata snorted from Huróns shoulder. “Still think we should have ate her.” He grumbled.

Kinomi chuckled, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a slice of cheese. Rata eyed it with clear interest and Kinomi made as if to eat it, holding back a smile when Rata whimpered a bit.

“Would you like to try some?” She asked innocently, holding the piece out.

Rata snatched it and began to eat it almost at once.

“Well, she isn’t all that bad I guess.” Rata declared about a minute after he was done eating.

Kinomi and Hurón shared a soft chuckle. Kinomi fell back to walk next to Taka.

“Kinomi, I been thinking.”

“Scary thought.” Galgo muttered from behind them.

Taka shot her twin brother a glare before turning her attention back to Kinomi.

“About what?” Kinomi asked, prompting her to continue.

“This Akusesshou and the creatures he has made, what if they get into soul society? Or sends them to the living world? And how the hell are we going to report this threat without revealing what we have been doing?”

Kinomi frowned. The threat of the creatures she was sure the Gotei 13 could handle, but they could do a lot of damage before they were taken down. It was the other point that had her frowning, how were they going to report this?

“I mean one of us coming across these things maybe, but all of us when we are suppose to be on separate missions. Oh, and Shinji said your Otousan’s been looking for you and looking into your mission.”

“What?” Kinomi demanded.

“You know how much he worries about you.” Taka pointed out. “I mean, he didn’t even know about you until you were six. He is sort of overprotective.”

“Sort of?” Kinomi grumbled. “He nearly skinned Grimm-ji alive when he helped me achieve Bankai.”

“Well, I am sure one day you will understand when you have kids.”

“I hate to say it Taka, but at the rate things are going the only one of us going to ever be having a relationship, let alone kids, are those two.” Kinomi jerked a thumb over her shoulder to point to Reina and Barbo.

“You know, the thought of those two actually doing anything in bed just can’t seem to work its way into my brain.” Taka commented.

“Indeed. But let’s face it Taka, there are no boys anywhere in soul society interested in us, and any human would die off in a flash of our extended existence.”

Taka sighed but nodded in agreement. They always ended up going with one of the fukutaichou to the annual dance they could never get out of, some how the tradition of pulling names never did die down.

“And some how for the last several years, which I swear is somehow rigged, I ALWAYS get Hisagi-fukutaichou.” She grumbled to herself in good humor, hearing Kyattsuai chuckle in her mind. “At least Taka-chan and Yachiru-chan get to switch it up a bit.”

They walked on in relative silence again, occasionally broken by the odd conversation. Kinomi brushed against ‘tera’s reatisu, finding it easier and easier to do each time and she worried about what that might mean slightly less then about the fact that thread of reiatsu that use to lead to Grimmjow was still gone, as if it had been severed.

She hadn’t told anyone about that, not wanting the others to worry, especially Zan. They rested twice but didn’t get much sleep due to the wet and rocky ground as much as nerves.

The tunnels started to go from being flat to more hill like and Rata informed them they were getting close. They stopped to make a plan before proceeding any further. The plan was rather simple, find Grimmjow and Nel if she was there, grab them, and get out. If the getting out was cut off then Leon would open a Garganta to Shinji’s shop.

Hurón and Rata left them once the last fork had been passed. The trail had been marked so they would be able to find their way back alone. It wasn’t their fight and they had already done more by helping them then they could have asked.

The tunnels became more dry and the radar went off as they approached the fortress, the dots indicating the former espada flashing onto the screen. None where near them however and that was a relief.

“Get Grimm-ji out, and then teach those things what happens when you mess with the 11th and the HMKs.” Kinomi thought.

The rock suddenly became corridor and they finally hit a door. Kinomi listened intently for any noise, drawing Kyattsuai and letting her spirit sit at the forefront of her mind so she would have two sets of senses watching for threats.

She took the lead with Taka by her side. For now she left ‘tera sheathed. If all went well they wouldn’t have to fight. They came up in what appeared to be a large cell block. Glancing through the small bared windows they saw what appeared to be hollows, most of them long since dead and in various states of decay being eaten by rats. A few were still alive, but it probably wouldn’t be for much longer.

The place reeked of decaying flesh and Reina had her cloth over her mouth again, looking slightly pale. They came to a cross roads. Checking the radar one last time they determined none of the Aku’s were anywhere near them.

They split up into four groups. Leon and Zan went left. Barbo and Reina went right. Taka and Azucena went straight while Kinomi and Galgo took the stairs to the next floor. The next level had less rooms, but theses ones were bigger and appeared to be individual torture chambers.

Kinomi took the left side rooms while Galgo took the right. It took all of her will power not to be sick as each room was painted black with old blood. She almost missed him, thinking it to be just another corpse covered in rats, but a small portion of his hair was not stained violet with his own blood and was still a shock of blue.

Opening the door, Kinomi took a step into the room. Then another. One more. She was running by the time she reached him, Kyattsuai and ‘tera slicing the rats who had been chewing on him into pieces, the rest scattering angrily.

“Grimm-ji?” She sobbed.

She dropped both Zanpakuto's and held her hand hovering just over him, as if afraid that if she touched him he would shatter.

He was soaked in so much blood and not a single shred of skin was unmarred. Even his mask fragment had spider web cracks in it. Sobbing, she suddenly latched onto him, softly calling his name over and over, but he didn’t stir.

She stilled her sobs long enough to catch the very, very faint sound of his breathing, so he was still alive, if only barely. Her mind seemed to snap out of its daze. They had to get him out of here.

Even if he had been conscious Kinomi could tell there was no way in hell he would be able to walk, not when his feet looked like that and his legs appeared to either be broken, or had been recently.

“Kinomi.” Galgo called softly.

“Give me a blanket.” She commanded. “And don’t let Zan know just how bad he is.” She added.

She retained enough sense to send out a quick text while she waited for Galgo to get her a blanket. Zan did not need to see his father like this. Hell no one should have to see anyone looking like this, and the small amount of hate she felt for Akusesshou grew into a full blown cold hatred that made the deepest depths of space feel like the hottest part of a sun.

Galgo handed her a blanket from his supply bag and she quickly wrapped Grimmjow up in it, covering his naked and abused frame. She sheathed the two Zanpakuto’s and then picked him up, shocked at how light he was.

“God how much weight has he lost.” She wondered. “Any sign of Nel-chan?” She asked, her voice devoid of emotion.

“No. There is a long stair case, but I didn’t go too far up it as it seemed to bring us closer to the Aku’s.

“Let’s get out of here then. Our mission is complete.”

Galgo nodded and covered her six as she carried her bundle back down to the lower floor where the others had finished their sweeps to no avail, but all eyes settled on Kinomi when they noticed her bundle.

“Leon, Hime-chans place now.” Kinomi snapped.

“The alarms.” Barbo tried to warn her.

“Now.” She snapped.

No one else argued as Leon opened the Garganta. At once a shrill alarm rang out around them and they bolted through the gate before waiting to see what that alarm was going to summon.

They came out above Orihime’s house, Kinomi racing ahead with Taka by her side. She had enough sense to order the others to set up a perimeter incase anything followed them through or was attracted by the garganta.

Taka pounded on the door until a bewildered looking Orihime answered it, judging by the sky it was rather late at night.

“Kinomi-chan, what are…” Kinomi didn’t let her finish as she barged into the house.

“Please, Hime-chan, he needs help bad.” Kinomi cried as she headed to where she knew Orihime’s room was upstairs, storming past a bewildered Ishida in his night shirt to place her bundle on the bed.

“Kinomi-chan. What… Oh my god.” Orihime gasped as Kinomi pulled the blanket aside to reveal her cargo.

“Please.” There were tears in her eyes for the first time ever. “Please heal him.” Kinomi begged as a broken sobbed was ripped from her.

Taka took her in her arms and Kinomi finally collapsed in grief, falling to the ground and sobbing her heart out. For the first time ever in Kurosaki Pantera Kinomi’s life, she cried like a little girl.

Orihime stuttered as she called out the necessary words to get her healing shield around what was left of Grimmjow. Tears were falling down the young woman’s face as well as she gazed upon the tortured body of the former espada.

“Taka, what happened?” Ishida asked calmly.

“Pantera-chan found him like that.” Taka answered. “We can’t let Zan see his Otousan like this. Can you distract the others while I help Pantera?” Taka asked Ishida.

“Of course. I’ll go put on a pot of tea.”

“Thank you.” Taka sighed.

Kinomi felt everything just give as she sobbed, not even paying attention to the conversation. In her mind Kyattsuai was alternating from being furious for what had been done to Grimmjow and trying to sooth Kinomi at the same time.

She was always the leader, always the strong one, and she felt ashamed at this break down. What would Grimm-ji or Kenpachi-taichou say if they saw her like this? She was the 4th seat of the 11th for god sake.

Wiping away her tears she reigned her emotions in.

“Taka-chan.”

“Yeah?”

“Akusesshou is a walking corpse.”

“Yeah.” Taka agreed softly.

As hard as it was to do so, Kinomi forced herself to her feet and walked up to the bed, pausing outside the barrier to stare at Grimmjow. Orihime dropped the barrier long enough for Kinomi to enter it before summoning it up again.

Taka left the room to assure the others that Grimmjow would be fine, that Orihime was taking care of him and he should be back to his cranky self in no time.

Kinomi sat on the bed beside him and took one mangled hand into hers. It was as if every one of his bones in his hand had been broken. His nails were very lose and purple and it looked like 2nd or 3rd degree burns covered it.

“Grimm-ji, if you can hear me, you are safe now. Hime-chan is going to put you back together again and then we can go back and destroy Akusesshou.” She promised. “I have ‘tera here with me. She’s been helping me find you.” She drew the blade and put it down beside him.

He didn’t stir. Not even a flickering of his eyes to indicate he heard her or was aware of her presence. She fought back another sob, instead telling him all about what had happened over the last three years; how she was the 4th seat of the 11th because she liked the number 4 so gave third seat to Taka. How proud he should be of Zan with how far her younger brother had progressed since he last saw him.

Orihime remained silent and eventually slipped out of the room to give the two of them some privacy. She didn’t need to remain in the room to heal him after all. Her monologue was interrupted by the phone buzzing in her pocket.

She paused to flip the screen and read the message.


Next time more warning would be appreciated, Kurosaki-san.


She flipped it closed and went back to her monologue, her throat going sore and exhaustion claiming her until she was kneeling beside the bad, an hour latter she was passed out.


Kinomi woke to the sun streaming into the room past a crack in the drapes and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She noticed the shield was down and while Grimmjow was no where near fully healed, the worse of the visible damage was gone.

“Orihime needed to rest and tend to her own children.” Came Galgo’s voice from behind her.

“I don’t blame her.”

She stood up and stretched stiff muscles before turning to face him.

“How is Zan doing?” She asked nervously.

“Distressed, but otherwise fine. Should I send him up?” Galgo asked.

“Yes.” Kinomi answered. “He has been denied long enough and Grimm-ji at least looks like he only had a few good rounds with Otousan rather then a half eaten corpse.”

Nodding in agreement, Galgo left. Zan arrived a moment later, charging into the room but pausing at the last second and approaching the bed slowly.

“How bad was it?” Zan asked after several long moments of silence.

“Pretty bad.” She answered honestly.

“He’s been tortured, hasn’t he?”

Kinomi nodded, feeling that knot in her throat again. She could never bring herself to lie to her brother, no matter what the situation was.

“Neesan… Thanks… I think. For not letting me see how bad he had been.”

Kinomi nodded.

“It wasn’t easy.” She admitted, forcing back more tears as the image of him covered in rats and being eaten alive jumped into her head before she forced it aside.

“Do you… Do you think he’s alright.” Zan asked worriedly.

“It would take more then that to break him.” She assured him.

God, would it though? There was almost nothing left of him when she had found him. The rats were even eating him and not causing him to stir in the least and his ribs were showing badly.

“We are going to make them pay, right?” Zan asked.

“Yeah.” She agreed. “But smartly.” She added. “No charging in half cocked, that is what almost got us killed the first time.”

Zan nodded in agreement, his hands clenching and unclenching as he wrestled with his emotions. There was a frantic knock on the front door that took them all by surprise. Kinomi and Zan went to the window and looked down to see who could be banging on Orihime’s door so frantically.

“Otousan?” Kinomi questioned.

It was indeed Ichigo banging on the door, scowl on his face and in full Shinigami garb.

“I’ll go down, you stay with Otousan.” Zan offered as he left the room.

Kinomi let him go, instead returning to Grimmjow’s side and sheathing ‘tera once again on her back. She took his hand in both of hers and gave it a soft squeeze with a whispered promise to be right back.

Kinomi wasn’t even half way down the hall before she could hear Ichigo’s voice raised as he argued with Taka, Orihime trying to calm him down, Ishida rocking their youngest child to keep her calm while Zan had a miserable look on his face. The others were scattered about the small living room listening in but not contributing.

Kinomi stopped at the top of the stairs and stared down at her father, a variety of emotions swirling around her. Happy that he was so worried about them, annoyed that he was making a big fuss of things when they were clearly fine (they wont mention anything about the being impaled and nearly killed part), and angry that he didn’t trust that they could do things on their own without him hovering over them.

After the whirl wind of emotions she had suffered through in the last two days, the roulette landed on anger, cold anger.

“Do you have so little faith in me Otousan?” She asked coldly, bringing everyone’s attention onto her. “Are we so weak we can not do things for ourselves?”

“Kinomi.” There was a look of relief at seeing her safe and sound that crossed quickly over his face before it settled back into his famous scowl. “Do you have any idea what you have done?” He demanded.

“Not much more then you at the same age. Oh wait, I am older then you were.” Kinomi answered.

Ichigo spluttered at that comment and she swore Ishida was smirking.

“Soul Society could have you all branded as traitors for this.” He declared.

“Then they can go to hell.” She snapped. “What we did was no less then what you did for Hime-chan, only unlike you we didn’t go off half cocked with no plan whatsoever. Unlike you we had escape routs planned and went in fully prepared.” She snapped back, her voice slowly rising in volume until she was shouting.

“This is different.” He shouted back.

“In what way?” She demanded.

He spluttered.

“I was stronger for starters, and there was no one else to go.”

“No, you were a lucky idiot.” She snapped.

He looked up at her in shock and a few loud laughs sneaked out of Ishida.

“Have you even thought about the repercussions of what you have done. You could be tried for treason and, gods above, executed.” He shouted.

“Leaving Grimm-ji to be tortured to death is treason to myself and my family.” She barked back in rage. “If I had to chose between the two my family would always come first, and that is something I got from you.”

“The Sotaichou…”

“Has long since lost any respect we might have had for him when he had me publicly whipped when some fucking Noble tried to kill me.” She roared in rage. “We were ‘this’ fucking close to leaving. This close. The only reason we didn’t was because it would be unfair to our parents.” Kinomi screamed.

Ichigo spluttered.

“You would have done the same thing.” She whispered. “He’s…” She felt tears threatening to spill, her eyes starting to mist. “God damn it when you rescued okaasan you knew she was safe. Yes she was going to be executed but you know until that moment she would not be harmed. And Hime-chan was safe to.

“But Grimm-ji…” She shook her head, tears making there way slowly down her face. “Three years.” She shouted. “We haven’t heard from them in three years and no one bothered to go looking. For crying out loud this is Zan’s Otousan we are talking about. This is the man who kept Okaasan safe. Who kept me safe. Who got us out of there.

“If it had been you, or Okaasan, or Yachiru-chan or any other Shinigami,” She sneered the name, “you all would have gone looking a week later. For god sakes they tortured him.” She sobbed, tears falling freely now and she couldn’t bring herself to care. “When I found him,” she forced out, “god I didn’t even recognize him. And Nel-chan is still missing.”

“Kinomi.” Ichigo’s expression changed to one of suppressed pain. “We did look.”

“Like hell.” She whispered.

“Pantera-chan.” Taka spoke up softly. “The only reason we even found where he was being held was because of ‘tera.” Taka pointed out.

“So what? You just searched the place, saw it in runes with blood all over the joint and wrote everyone off?” She demanded.

“No. We have been looking, but getting to and from Hueco Mundo is not easy and the Gotei 13 have more important duties then looking for two missing former Espada.” Ichigo pointed out softly.

“Now you are starting to sound like Byakuya-ji.” She growled.

He looked highly affronted at that.

“Otousan, come see him.” She walked back to the room, listening as she heard her fathers footsteps climbing the stairs and feeling his presence as he joined her. “Hime-chan healed the worse of the damage over the night. I honestly don’t even know how he is still alive.

“Suppress your reiatsu and don’t get too close. When he wakes up he wont know where he is nor do we know what his reaction will be. He looks starved and there is no telling if he might attack the closest thing with reiatsu.”

Ichigo looked at her in surprise, but nodded his head. She opened the door slowly and approached the bed from the head.

“Grimm-ji, it’s just me again.” She spoke softly, approaching the bed at an even pace that was not threatening in anyway.
Ichigo had stopped at the door. Even after the healing Orihime had done he was still a bloody wreak and they hadn’t had a chance to clean the blood off of him yet either.

There was silence for a while as they stared at him. If it wasn’t for the very slight rise and fall of his chest he might as well have been dead. Ichigo left silently, but Kinomi didn’t move from her spot beside him.

He returned a moment later with a large bowl of warm water and several wash cloths.

“This is going to be one hell of a mess to clean up.” He grunted.

Kinomi merely nodded her head, understanding the double meaning in her fathers words. She took the cloth from the bowl, wrung it out, and then started to clean the blood and dirt off.

“I will be down stairs, contemplating on what to tell your Okaasan so I don’t end up dead.”

Kinomi had enough strength to smile softly at the joke as he left. And then it was back to cleaning the blood off. The water went red quickly and she was dimly aware of Orihime coming to change it.

Someone brought her some soup at once point. She ate it quickly, not even tasting it before returning to her task of cleaning him up. The hair was the worse part and in the end she held his head over the side of the bed with a bowl under it while Zan ran water through it. It took almost an entire bottle of shampoo and four buckets of water to get all the blood out.

Through it all Grimmjow didn’t stir once, and that left them all deeply worried. What was worse was that they were due back and would need to return before arousing suspicion.

Barbo and Reina were the first to leave, returning by the normal method in the morning to their division to report in on their ‘mission.’ Galgo left later that afternoon. Another day passed and Leon and Zan were expected back.

“You should go if we don’t want to be discovered.” Kinomi said quietly, not wanting to disturb the still coma toast arrancar.

“I can’t leave him like this.” Zan argued.

“I know,” She pulled her brother into a hug, “but you know how punctual Soi Fon-taichou is. If you and Leon-kun are late it will trigger alarms. You two are never late.”

Zan nodded after a moment and gave Kinomi a big squeeze before going downstairs to join Leon while the two of them returned.

Now only Kinomi, Taka and Azucena remained. Kenpachi wasn’t the type to worry if they were late, to him it just meant they found a good fight. They stayed another day before Taka and Azucena returned more for Azucena’s parents and division then their own.

Ichigo had also remained and Taka was directed to tell Kenpachi the two of them were going to stick to the human world for a bit for some family time. The last two left leaving Kinomi alone.

Stay Tuned for Chapter 20: Deceleration of War

Where we finally find Nel and they return to even the score.

In the world of good news I am back to work, hence the late update. They will be in the afternoon now because I am currently starting off with morning shift. It's been just over a year since I went off for my surgery so it feels great to get back to work.

As usual /love the reviews and see you all next chapter.