sirenspull_logs | Some things should remain locked within yourself

Entry tags:

Some things should remain locked within yourself

Who: Frau, Hitsugaya, and Hinamori
When: Starts the night of the 18th, may also include blurbs from days after until Sins plot is over
Where: Around Sector Four, then Hitsugaya's place?
Summary: Frau's been fighting off the rather large combination of deadly sins that lead to the scythe gaining control
Warnings: Violence, almost soul consuming, maniacal laughter, simply out of your mind behavior

At first Frau had been able to control it. The thoughts pulsing from the scythe were always there and always would be. Usually it was easy enough to ignore them, shove them back down. Sometimes they were stronger and required a little more force to fix, like his arm being slammed into the wall. That had always shown the scythe who was boss once again. While the scythe continued to eat at him from the inside and pulled on his desires to consume souls, good souls and not that disgusting ones he allowed himself, Frau rarely had an issue controlling it. The only times it flared so much stronger was when a specifically good soul was around or right after he'd fed and allowed himself to slip up a little.

The last few days had been different though. The urges to ignore the corrupted souls and focus only on the pure ones had grown to the point that Frau could barely control them.

Why would you want to control them?

Because it wasn't who he was. He hadn't lost his human soul yet. He would not become him.

It's who you are.

No. He isn't.

You were made from a piece of him. You can't avoid what you are. Forget your human soul. You know you will never be able to hold on forever. There is nothing wrong with this. It's who you are.

The laughter that had echoed in Frau's head after that also slipped from his lips, filling the night sky. A dark, maniacal laughter that was far from sane. Frau's brilliant blue eyes now flickered with a gleaming red light and a lust that shone clearly within them. Nails black and lengthened, teeth viciously pointed in a wide, dangerous smile proved something was off. This wasn't Frau. The scythe was in control, Frau's consciousness pushed so far down that he had no idea what was going on anymore.

One quick bound and Frau had pounced onto an unsuspecting passerby. His gloves were off in a second, Zehel's tattoo on the back of his hand looking corrupted by thick veins that nearly obscured it and trailed under Frau's sleeve where they spiraled unseen up his arm. Without hesitation, Frau caught the man by the neck and slammed his teeth closed over his shoulder. When the dark smoke that had erupted from the man's body cleared, he was gone. Frau was once again standing at his full height, blood running in a single line down his chin.

"Ahhhh~ Disgusting. Alwaysss disgusting. They taste the way they are. Corrupted. Vile. I want a more delicious soul. A purer soul. Yessss. Kehehehe. Hahahahahha!"

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That scream. It was the part of fighting that always got to Hinamori. She could try to block it out, focus, keep her mind sharp and body tight, but it hurt, deep inside her. To see a soul consumed by its own darkness, blinded by rage, pain, loneliness, fear—it wrenched her heart and made her chest burn. She had watched so many times as a Hollow's own emptiness drove it to seek the wholeness of other souls, only to find that it was never enough.

It was unbearable. She wanted to stop it, to save them, to end it all. It was her duty and honor as a shinigami to release them from their torment. She hoped she brought at least some of them to peace.

She shunpoed a touch nearer to the fight now, still far enough away to give her time to pull away if needed but close enough to allow her to strengthen her Hōrin. By the looks of it, their target wasn't going anywhere fast now. Good.

The impact of the next spell was what did it, shook the scythe's control just a little bit. One of the beams of light had impacted Frau's right forearm directly as it pinned it to his body. Frau had always used that impact to make the scythe behave. When he was this far gone that never happened simply because he wasn't there enough to consider doing it. Hitsugaya had handled that for him.

For just an instant there was a flicker in Frau's eyes. It wasn't the dark eagerness to consume a soul. Instead, it was the light usually there in Frau. Humor and teasing amusement hiding away the deep pain and sadness he never allowed to be seen. This time the humor wasn't there though. Instead his eyes were touched by shock and fear. He'd slipped up. Badly.

No.

It might have only lasted for an instant, but Hitsugaya saw it. Some part of Frau was still in there, but hell if he knew how to get it back. The scythe was still very much in control, and it was thirsting after something he could never allow it to have.

This couldn't go on; it had to be stopped.

He lifted his blade again, not really relishing the thought. But what had to be done had to be done.

Hinamori saw it, too. In that instant, she recognized who it was they'd been fighting. Frau. It wasn't as though they'd known each other long, but the recognition of it still shocked her. His normally smirking, even laughing, face had been contorted into dark hunger, but he was there.

And he was afraid. Whatever this was, he hadn't chosen to do it. This wasn't some savage side of him he'd hidden; this was something beyond his control. She had to save him.

She saw Hitsugaya raise his blade and knew what he was about to do. She couldn't. She couldn't let him. It wasn't right. "Hitsugaya-kun!" It was a scream. A plea, her face frozen in horror. What should she do? Should she jump in front of him, place herself between Frau and Hitsugaya's blade? Hitsugaya wouldn't strike her. She knew this. But it was dangerous there, too, that close to Frau, even bound by ice and kidou. Would Hitsugaya-kun listen to her? Would he kill Frau? She couldn't move. Someone, please, someone help me... What should she do?

Frau grit his teeth and fought harder. There was no way in hell he was going to let the scythe win. No yet. He still had his human soul.

Knock it off! I haven't forgotten my human soul yet. I will not let you touch them!

The scythe simply growled in response, the growl audible even to those standing near Frau. It twined tighter around Frau's arm, sending fire shooting through it.

NO!

He pressed his arm harder against the binding, trying to force the scythe to comply. It wasn't over yet. He wasn't going to give up!

It was Hinamori's scream that made him stop short, the sheer horror in her voice. He could never bear to hear such a thing.

To strike hadn't been a decision he'd made lightly. Hitsugaya would rather not kill him, in all truth. But from his standpoint, there seemed to be little else to do. How else were they supposed to stop this? How were they supposed to get him back to normal and keep him from devouring souls? Killing him was the most practical option.

But the way Hinamori screamed . . .

He faltered a little, hesitated. This was . . . different than when she'd begged him to save Aizen, right? The man she'd been pleading for then hadn't existed. It was different here; he'd seen the fear on Frau's face over what he'd been doing. He was real.

Hitsugaya didn't lower his sword, but nor did he swing it, suddenly unsure of what was the best move.

That hesitation was all she needed. She shunpoed in closer, not to stand in the way, but to speak. "You can't, Hitsugaya-kun! It's Frau. We know him. And this... isn't him."

"He's fighting it; I just know it." She looked at Frau, listening to the growl of the scythe. "You hear it too, right? Please, we—we can't." She struggled for the words, to convince herself and Hitsugaya-kun that this was the right thing to do. "Gi-give him a chance to fight it. He deserves that much, doesn't he? Whatever this is, doesn't he at least deserve the chance to try? He's not a threat anymore—we can keep him safe, locked up. If—if we kill him, then... then... whatever it is that's eating at him wins."

Well, technically if they killed him then Frau won, not the scythe. He would die with his human soul still intact. That was how Frau would prefer to go, but it wasn't his time yet. He wouldn't allow himself to give up. The only one he'd really be okay with ending his life was Teito. Until he got back to the kid, he would fight tooth and nail against the scythe. Not that he wouldn't continue doing it when he got back.

Frau gathered all of his strength and shoved the scythe down. He wouldn't be able to hold it for long, but it should be good enough for a short time.

"Can you seal it? Really strong?"

He winced and was visibly fighting to stay in control, but there was no doubt this was Frau. The real Frau and not the scythe possessed one.

He finally lowered his sword, but he didn't sheathe it; there was still a struggle for control going on and he didn't want to be caught unarmed if it took a bad turn.

"Possibly. Though I can't be certain how long it would hold."

If they'd been from the same world, he could have given a more definitive answer. As a captain, he was able to produce strong seals, but the abilities of one world had the potential to react strangely to the abilities of another. There were no certainties here.

Hinamori looked at Frau, concern mixed with happiness that he seemed to have emerged intact and aware. "We have to try. What's the worst that could happen?" Asking that question showed just how little Hinamori had actually thought about the answer, but she continued on.

"Between the two of us, there has to be something we can do. Don't worry, Frau, we'll fix this." I'll fix this, she resolved quietly. Hinamori was still operating under the assumption that this was something bizarre and out of the ordinary, something caused by the Core or the Darkness perhaps. (Enough weird things had happened in the short time she was here that it almost didn't faze her anymore.) She didn't know that the scythe was something Frau had brought from home.

"A few days should be fine."

He grimaced and nearly lost control again, but once more fought the scythe back down. The last time this had happened it hadn't been his fault. Something here had destroyed his control and given the scythe full access. Thanks to Fai it hadn't destroyed Frau, and within a few days he was relatively back to normal. Hopefully the same thing would happen now. But if not...

Frau locked his eyes on Hitsugaya, tuning Hinamori out of the conversation. From the little he'd seen of her, she wouldn't approve of what he was about to ask, but it had to be done.

"If it feels like they'd break or I don't come back after a week... end it."

"Should be manageable."

He didn't even flinch at the request. It wasn't even the first of those he'd gotten while he'd been here. That one had been over a year ago, when Maya had wound up with an Espada's powers and hadn't known how to control her hunger for souls. He'd have done it -- reluctantly -- because that was what shinigami did. But it hadn't been necessary in the end, much to his relief.

His response to the request was a single, firm nod. He'd do what he had to, should it come to that.

"Hinamori." He wanted her attention on this, and not the possibility of a grim outcome. She would be able to help here. "We should combine seals to lower the failure risk."

He wasn't completey certain how to combine seals, but Hinamori should be able to figure something like that out. She was creative with her kidou.

Hinamori nodded. He knew her well. With a task in mind, she turned her thoughts away from the gruesome possibilities and into the world of her art. She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing.

When they reopened, there was firmness in her voice. "Not here. We won't be able to move him once the seals are complete, and we can't leave him out in the open like this."

She looked at Frau. "Forgive me," she whispered softly, raising her arm above her head and stepping up onto the air to place her hand in front of his face. She recited the incantation for Inemuri.

Frau simply gave her the brief flickering of a smile to show her he understood and accepted this. He was the one that had asked for it after all. Sleep wouldn't hold the scythe forever though.

Hitsugaya dismissed his bankai and sheathed his sword at last as Hinamori recited the spell, catching Frau partially when he collapsed. He could use some help carrying him; the weight wasn't much of an issue, but the height difference made things awkward. Plus, he was a bit injured himself, blood dripping from where the claws had managed to strike him.

"We can't take him back to the house. Not with the way Kuchiki has been acting lately; that's a disaster waiting to happen."

He wasn't sure what precisely was wrong with Kuchiki, and it was more than just the excessive amount of time spent in front of the mirror. There seemed to be this barely contained rage in him, and he'd had to get him to back off of Ella of all people. That had been trying enough. Attempting convince him not to kill someone exhibiting Hollow tendencies? That wouldn't go well.

"We need to find someplace else. Abandoned."

Hinamori hopped down and hurried to help bear the weight. "We're not that far from Sector 9; I think there's... a lot of broken and abandoned houses there." A slight twitch in her face betrayed her dislike of thinking about those sort of sad things, but honestly, it was much closer than their house anyway. Frau was taller and heavier than both of them, and she didn't relish the thought of carrying him across the city like that any more than Hitsugaya did.

She glanced back at the boy laying on the ground. "He'll be fine until we get back; it's a good barrier. And he shouldn't wake up for several more hours."

"There are. We'll have to put up barriers around the place we use in addition to the seals on him, to compensate for the lack of Darkness-proofing."

Because keeping him sealed would do little good if the monsters could just keep breaking in at night. This could evidently take up to a few days; they needed the precautions.

And yes, the kid would be fine for a bit on his own. Run-of-the-mill Darkness creatures wouldn't be able to break through that spell.

"Let's get this done, then."

It was a little awkward—scratch that, very awkward—trying to shunpo in tandem while carrying a person. But let it not be said that members of the Gotei 13 don't give things their all.

They reached a small neighborhood that looked rather like some disease had worked its way through—small cottages and homes stood empty, "For Sale" signs mildewing in the brown, dry lawns. Who knew why this particular area had been vacated; perhaps its vicinity to the nearby SERO chemical factory, perhaps some new neighbor with a dangerous ability.

The important thing, though, was it didn't look like anyone would be coming by anytime soon to stumble upon their project.

Co-ordinating the shunpo was a tricky thing, but they were able to match their pace without either of them losing their grip and either getting too far forward or left behind. And fortunately, the trip wasn't a long one.

His eyes swept over the area, critically examining the buildings nearby. They needed one that didn't look outright condemned like half the structure in this area did. He nodded at a house a short distance ahead of their current location.

"That one looks serviceable."

Not ideal, but serviceable. Nothing about this situation was ideal.

Nothing indeed. Hinamori pondered as they went. She might have been a kidou expert, but she was still just a lieutenant. Even with Hitsugaya's help, she doubted she would be able to maintain some of the highest level barrier spells. As he had suggested, combining several lower level spells would be their best bet—strengthen all of them, and simultaneously provide failsafes in case one or another of the seals broke.

She looked up at the house Hitsugaya indicated, and nodded. With Frau asleep, the first priority would be securing the house; once the inside was safe, they could work on securing him.

The door creaked open when he pushed on it, and he angled himself so that Hinamori and Frau could get inside. An inside that didn't look much better than the exterior -- cracked furniture, ripped carpeting, peeling wallpaper.

It had seen better days. Or he hoped it had. Otherwise, that was just depressing.

He shoved the broken coffee table out of the way with his foot, indicating for Hinamori to help him set Frau down here. There was decent enough space to erect the seals in this room.

"You can come up with a seal combination? I'll take care of putting a barrier around the house."

"I'll do it. Don't worry." She had the knowledge of kidou to make this work; the delicate intertwining of patterns of spiritual energy into a cohesive whole. Spells were partly about intention, partly about focus, partly about method, and partly about the deeper system within the laws of reishi that Hinamori grasped intuitively, but never understood.

She wanted to bind Frau in place, keep his arms and legs from moving—specifically one arm in particular. But she also wanted to bind him in place, to this room. "The simplest spell executed well is far greater than the highest one executed poorly," she recited quietly to herself. Start simple, then. She began with the incantation for Sai. It was a beginner's spell, taught as one of the basic tests for entering the Academy; the incantation was unnecessary, but allowed her the control to begin incorporating her other barriers. Gochūtekkan was next. "Walls of iron sand, a priestly pagoda..." Together with Sajō Sabaku. Hinamori let her reiryoku flow through the spells, reciting the words she had practiced so many times.

Lights rose from her fingers. Pillars descended from the ceiling to the floor. Ropes of energy entwined themselves around Frau's body as his arms were pulled behind him; then the whole barrier crashed into solidity as Hinamori let her energy go.

He wasn't leaving anything to chance. A Kyoumon would be the wrong choice of barrier when they had to be as concerned with someone getting out as they did with something getting in. But there were other high-level barriers that he knew.

Hitsugaya stepped onto the porch, closed his eyes momentarily to help call the spell to mind. The casting was complex, and he didn't want to mess it up. Kidou had a nasty backfire when you failed to perform it properly.

Most kidou didn't require hand seals. This one did, and required them at critical junctures in the incantation. He punctuated these points in the spell with the proper hand gestures, feeling the beginnings of the barrier form with each action.

Incantation. Hand seals. More incantation. More hand seals.

He reached the end of the spell, and the sky flared brightly for an instant before fading into a muted rainbow of colours around the perimeter of the house. Strong on both sides, it should be enough to serve their needs.

Hinamori felt the flash of reiatsu as Hitsugaya cast his barrier. Good. Now they were protected from the outside, and Frau was sealed on the inside.

She thought, though, that there should be some middle ground as well— to protect the two of them, should Frau come loose again. Raising a second barrier, this one a standard spell taught as a means of containment and observation, she wrapped it in a cylinder around her first set of seals. If nothing else, it might give them a few more seconds of reaction time.

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Some things should remain locked within yourself

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hope this is okay; if it's not, i'll change it

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