deaddragonrises02: breathing icicles

Hearing was odd for Sasuga now. His ears no longer worked, so his soul had mutated to overcome that. It had taken many days to learn to manipulate his aura to intake sound waves. But the result was astonishing. He heard everything Akira and Carmen said and did. The patter of feet as the lesser shinigami left was as loud as a jet plane, but with no functional nerves it did little to distract or harm him. Every word Carmen said was as clear as the silence that had not absorbed him more than a week prior. 

“As smoothly as can be expected,” Sasuga spoke. His voice was a whisper so soft that Carmen was like to have to strain to hear him. 

It felt weird to move his lips and jaw. It wasn’t an action done through muscle memory but through sheer spiritual control. Originally his words had been skewed and awkward, but he was slowly returning to his original ability to speak. “Though I won’t be fully functional for a while, I think.” 

As the gauze was peeled from his head and face, Carmen would find that even his physical appearance had changed. The blue-spliced black hair common to the Seiryuu was now as whiter than fresh snow. The hair was thin at the touch, and it framed the face only a corpse could have. The skin was pale and nearly translucent, allowing the blue veins underneath to stand out. Both of Sasuga’s eyes, once beautiful sapphires, were now dead and lifeless. Just as everything else, they did not function. 

“I still can’t see properly, nor can I turn my neck or really move at all. Moving using reiryoku and not my physical body is . . . difficult.” 

Sasuga paused then. His sense of touch and feeling was still spotty. Carmen’s warm fingers felt like fire when his soul reached out to them, but it didn’t hurt. 

“What has happened in my absence, Fukutaichou?” 

Sasuga did not feel his arms move properly. When Carmen lifted them he extended a portion of his spiritual energy there, allowing a bit of life to return to him the feeling of pain when she put it down. He killed it and attuned his ears to her, listening as she stepped away and asked her question.

“Like I asked, what’s happened in my absence? I assume it’s because something bad happened, to awaken me early.”

If Sasuga could have frozen or taken a sharp breath, he would have. 

Everything Carmen said to him was akin to a brick, and his mind was the window they were smashing through. A flicker of life returned to his body, born from the emotions roiling in his soul, and as a result his faced turned towards where he guessed the scientist was. Though Carmen could not read any emotion from his dead eyes, Sasuga’s reiatsu was an open book ready to be read. 

“Father is . . .,” Sasuga whispered, and his voice trailed off. “. . . Juken-Soutaichou is . . .” 

Sasuga lowered his head. For a long time he sat there silent, brooding and thinking. With his father defeated by an arrancar, that meant that the pact was broken. And with Seiryuu Itada down and out, the noble guard was also likely to be shattered. Now that Juken Hinaai had been overthrown for some nonsensical reason as well, civil war could break out any day. There were now too many warfronts and not enough people to direct the forces. 

“Alvaro-Fukutaichou, forgive me for asking more of you, but I must request that you bear the burden of my body a little longer. I underwent this ritual to grow strong enough to defend the Seireitei. I think I . . . will need help mastering these powers.” 

“In my current state, I can’t even lift a sword, let alone walk. I . . .,” Sasuga’s whispers trailed off. If he could still blush, he would have. “I simply don’t have the skill needed to manipulate my reishi. I’m not sure if this is possible, but could the Junibantai create a method for me to move? Something to ease the flow of energy?” 

Sasuga paused again and pursed his lips. Then, “I’d pay for it, of course. I would also need a chance to use the dangai.” 

For most shinigami, the request was ludicrous. Sasuga needed a vast amount of real world time in the dangai, which would equate to years if not decades. No normal soul could handle the time change upon exiting; however, Sasuga was no longer a normal soul. With father defeated, his image with the clan is weakened. I need to grow stronger. I need . . . 

You need my power, Sasuga.

An ancient and inhuman voice cut through Sasuga’s mind like a blade. His zanpakutou had been resting at his feet this entire time, silent as the Young Dragon fought his own inner demons. Yeah, Kotouryuu. More than ever. 

When Carmen finished removing the gauze, she’d find that Sasuga’s body had been nearly perfectly preserved. Had he been alive still, she could have even found him handsome. But with no color to his skin and his blue veins slowly turning black, Sasuga knew that thought could not be further from the truth. Until he could return life to his body and straddle that thin line that kept him from being truly dead, his appearance a necessary sacrifice.