Rose reminds Kensei a lot of sweetbread and milk for some reason — but of course, this isn’t just ordinary sweetbread. It has to be very fancy, so it is filled with various spices and bean jam, the composition of which depends on Rose’s mood. His inner hollow adds a bitter flavor that’s almost like rum in nature.
There’s silence this time, and Kensei has to turn and see if Rose is paying attention. He is. Rose blinks at him owlishly. “What? You say I talk too much.”
Kensei fumes outwardly. The anger helps. The anger helps keep the other emotions at bay. It’s easier to pretend that he has a grand total of two emotions than deal with all the others. “You can’t just stop talking!”
Rose sighs longingly, going back to staring out over the roofs. “I didn’t know you adored my voice so much, dearest.”
Kensei doesn’t gratify that one with a response.
The not-Seireitei is too quiet. Whatever this place is, it appeared noisily and suddenly, swallowing up the Seireitei like a flood. And then– nothing. Silence, apart from the occasional noises of fighting. Even the air tastes pristine, like untouched snow.
Kensei hates it. He hates it all.
“Don’t you think,” Rose says softly, sliding into the silence, “we ought to find the one...?”
He grunts again. “If you know who it was, I’ll be the first one to bust his gut.”
“Oh, au contraire, my friend. My subordinate, so I get the first shot.”
"You better give me a chance to cave in his head.”
Kensei knows the gleam in Rose’s eye is the same one ze used to get, thinking mischievous thoughts. The look that meant Kensei wasn’t going to be able to move for several hours. “I’ll give you the final blow, even.”
It’s wishful thinking. There was no body, no chance to taste at the reiatsu left behind by an enemy cruel enough to kill like that, to slaughter an entire Division with bare hands. Moreover, someone stupid enough to take zem away, away from them, two captains...!
No matter. Kensei’s already resolved that he’ll just treat each and every enemy as if they’re the ones responsible.
His eyes dart. There’s movement — subtle, but there. Movement in the sky, movement on the ground. Plus, he finds Hisagi amongst the mess of the Quincy city, making his way toward–
Uh-oh.
“We’re moving,” he tells Rose, who glances at him questioningly. “It’s Hisagi.”
“He found an enemy?” The other Captain runs a hand over Kensei’s chest and draws him in. “Don’t you trust him to win? He has bankai, you said.”
“–an incomplete bankai, that he’s afraid to use,” says Kensei, and it doesn’t matter how much strength he’s accumulated, he feels fragile before this man. “It’s not him I don’t trust, it’s...”
Too many enemies, too powerful. His eyes see into nothingness and it’s a century before, and his blood is mixing with soil and grass, and his hands are clawing their way across the ground in spite of the pain it takes to move his body. All for her, the lieutenant he can’t afford to lose. The lieutenant who was going to die if he couldn’t get to her, couldn’t stop Tousen in time.
It’s happening again, Muguruma-taicho. You’re too weak. You were too weak to save Mashiro, you were too weak to save Izuru, and now you won’t be in time to save Hisagi.
They’re bloody, they Hurt-- Everything hurts! Hurts hurts hurts!!! They’re screaming again in the mind space, filling it with high shrieks as another chunk of their flesh was ripped away from Kinshara’s floral claw. Two could play at that game... Oh yes, the Shinkai’s silver handle was gripped in their own hand, flinging it at the creature that kept them trapped in here. Trapped, stifling, it HURT. they were starving, needed tog et out, get out!!! Plus... Rose’s blood looked so much prettier, the only color they could see in their monochrome world. Red, so beautiful and pure in hue. It eased them, if for a moment, eyes wide and wild as they stared at the shinigami they shared a vessel with.
Rose is his name, Rose... They didn’t have a name, just had hunger, and hate. So when they were able to get in close, those needle sharp teeth were sinking into the flesh of the Captain’s arm, jerking their head to rip flesh from tendon and bone. Something to taste, something metallic and wonderful, it slid down their throat with ease and excess bled from the hollow hole in their chest. Divine, so wonderful. Seraphim wings encased them both as claws gripped and SHREDDED at the other.
“Ahhh, Otoribashi-taichou! You wanted to speak with me?” She really wish she wasn’t so nervous, but the previous encounter was rather fresh in her mind.