Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Perpetual ❯ Perception ( Chapter 10 )

Tite Kubo owns Bleach and the characters and gets paid for it. I don't. I just write these to amuse myself. It's easier than plotting revolution.

 

Perception

 

The meeting with Grimmjow had proceeded as normal - threats, insubordination, anger, accusations. At first Tosen had taken his normal role, but then Aizen had shown the doctored film. Until now Tosen hadn't seen it, but the lies, the warping of reality twisted his ideas and made him look at the situation in a new light. For some reason, Aizen showed the flim twice and Tosen couldn't look away. The girl, her acceptance, the undulations of her body and cries of pleasure. Sickened but at the same time fascinated by the lies, he felt revulsion at participating in the rest of the stupid scenario set up by Aizen. For the remainder of this phase he was prepared only to watch, not perform as the puppet master directed.

 

But he could observe and watching Grimmjow trying to remain calm was interesting. He couldn't conceal his reactions, flinching and balling his hands into fists when challenged or when he felt he was being mocked. It was possible he believed that he could hide how he was feeling, but Tosen had been observing Grimmjow for some time, but not for the reasons Sosuke imagined. He'd been watching the Espada because he'd seen him as a possible threat to authority, when he'd cared about such things. There was no other reason he watched him so closely. No other reason, at all. On occasion he supposed that Sosuke thought differently, but that man had a distorted view of the motivations of people. On the few occurrences he delved into the matter it seemed obvious that the ability of his zanpakuto had shaped the way that his `friend' saw the world. Having the power to manipulate perception had obscured his own, and that was why Tosen preferred not to fight or use his zanpakuto. That way, his understanding was clear. Jaggerjacks was an impudent and defiant problem, nothing more.

 

Despite his protests and requests, Sosuke had only permitted him to discipline Jaggerjacks on one occasion. The latitude allowed the creature astounded him and indicated a preference for the thing, for he could not acknowledge that the Espada or Arrancar were men, or human. Hovering barely above the Hollows, in his estimation, he saw them as a means to an end; a method by which they could obtain the ultimate power with little effort on their part. The enmity between Shinigami and Hollow was longstanding and bitter with perceived injustices on both sides. In some respects the Hollows acted the way they did because their death and afterlife had created a hunger within them that only the souls of others could assuage. But eating souls was wrong which is why the Shinigami battled the Hollows. They were hungry in their turn for the praise and feeling of power as they defeated something weaker than themselves.

 

Yet the method was flawed. Why didn't Shinigami routinely go to the Human world and perform the soul burial on any ghosts or tormented souls that still existed there? Why permit them to remain as tender temptations for the Hollows, drawing them to the source of the reiatsu? If the Hollows were not fed with fresh souls they would only feed on each other which would eventually decrease the numbers, making it easier to destroy the creatures.

 

He'd heard the theories about balance, but when he examined the `facts' that had been presented to him, he found them flawed. The Seireitei was not what it pretended to be. The purpose of the society within Soul Society he hadn't yet discerned, but with the removal to Las Noches he hadn't bothered to pursue his enquiries. Where he existed didn't matter. All places were corrupt and he wanted to purge the tainted heart from existence making it pure once again. That had been his only aim.

 

Something startling had happened with the arrival of the gifted human girl. The heart he had consigned to the grave with his friend, his dear, defenceless friend who died at the hand of a spineless Shinigami, suddenly began to beat once more. Even though he had witnessed Sosuke's violation of Orihime, both from his salacious description and the secret transmission, he did not think the girl had been touched. Then he had vicariously experienced her rape by Ichimaru and the other sexual encounters she'd experienced, but underneath it all he knew she was still untainted. Her body may have been given to others but her mind and heart were still innocent. Nothing could touch her purity because it was not something she was only born with, it was an integral part of Orihime. Neither Ichimaru nor Sosuke would recognise purity even if they were blind. Both of them were missing an important capability. When he tried to show them what he meant, neither took him seriously or bothered to listen. Ulquiorra had something of the sense and then there was Jaggerjacks. The way the Espada acted it was almost like he knew, but denied it. Or maybe Tosen had been in Las Noches for too long.

 

The allure of Orihime drew him to her. Making excuses he'd tried to visit her but been prevented from entering her room. Each time something different had interfered, but he suspected Sosuke. Why the man had shared the girl with anyone he didn't understand, and the reason he kept her from him, he couldn't fathom. He'd permitted his body to respond in the expected manner and even taken some faint pleasure in being serviced by the Arrancar who were offered to him, but it had meant nothing. It was a transitory sensation.

 

Unnoticeably he sighed as Jaggerjacks and Aizen rounded on each other like territorial animals. If he could leave now while these two were busy and Ichimaru and Ulquiorra had other matters to occupy their time, he could spend some time with the girl; guard her against problems and talk to her. No one really talked to her, just pushed her or ordered her into the positions they wanted while they pumped away, seeking selfish gratification. Talking was a means of gaining trust and once that trust was gained she might become attuned to him; want him on more than a physical level. He might touch that part of her that remained unsullied and then she would be the prize that Aizen couldn't win.

 

If he wanted to do this, he would need to be unobserved. It would be the opposite of Aizen's plans for the girl as he was emphasising the longings of her body over every other thought and emotion. The breaking down of the character to yearn only for those earlier drives and ignoring the intellect was his plan. It was amusing that the Hyogyoku speeded up the process of growth from Arrancar to Espada and thus pulled them past the initial base longings of the Hollow and yet he was trying to achieve the opposite effect with a human female. Was it to prove that the creatures which he believed he was `creating' were superior to the substance from which they all were born? In many respects it had been wise to choose a teenager, one whose character wasn't completely formed. They, while being very opinionated and arrogant, on the whole, were more malleable and easily persuaded. All that was needed was to find the most basic urge that drove each one and then target the persuasion through that angle.

 

Though he would never have chosen to use sex as the tool with this girl, it had the appearance of working. Her body made it seem logical as a choice, but her reactions had indicated another method would have been more effective. He'd been wrong. Sosuke had realised that to first use it to break the girl, it could then be used as a consolation and a goad to force change. The puzzle what was the ultimate end Sosuke hoped to achieve? Tosen sensed something further behind the plans. It wasn't a simple breakdown and then re-establishment of identity on a new basis; there was a purpose that ran deeper. Could simple hatred be the driving force?

 

A movement made him turn and catch the shadowed form of Grimmjow raising an open palm to push aside Sosuke's clenched fist. The Espada must be pleased if he had finally made the former Shinigami react with physical violence rather than psychic force as he normally did.

 

“Size is not important,” Sosuke said, between lips that had thinned in rage. Tosen was stunned. Nothing in the past had caused his companion to lose his cool quite like this.

 

“I'm sure that's what all the girls told you, but they're lying. Women are kind, most of the time if you have money, power or something they want, they say what you want to hear.” The scoffing was more noticeable now. Had Jaggerjacks always been this confident?

 

Sosuke's lip twisted slightly, displaying his teeth on the left hand side of his mouth. “Maybe you would enjoy being treated the way I treated the girl,” he said to the Espada.

 

Jaggerjacks laughed in reply. “I already know what you are and it doesn't scare me. I've got nothing that hasn't already been taken by you. I'm not human. They're weak. I'm not.”

 

Tosen decided he wasn't interested in seeing where this particular fight would finish. With a few swift and surreptitious moves he disabled the monitors in the girl's room and snuck outside. It wouldn't be immediately obvious to any person looking at the cabling what he'd done but it would give him some time.

 

Within a short time he was inside Orihime's room, sitting on the side of the bed and smoothing his palm across the girl's forehead. She was perspiring slightly as she cried in her sleep, the tears sliding from under her closed eyelids. Her mouth barely formed words as she moved again. At first she juddered with shock at his touch but did not wake, muttering something about a brother. He removed a soft cloth from his sleeve and began to wipe the tears and moisture from her face, his touch as gentle as he could make it, but he must has moved too fast. A sudden jerk and Orihime sat up the sheet slid down, exposing her milky breasts to his gaze, but her eyes were still closed even though her breathing became more agitated. She lay down again, but was not still, her limbs twitching. Replacing the sheet he patted her shoulder to provide reassurance.

 

The patting made her lie there still, rigidly immobile and he cursed in his mind as he realised that the firm pats would have awoken her. Of course she was alert and worried. So far she had only seen him at a distance and didn't know if he was some new enemy sent to torment her.

 

 

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