MEMORIES OF AN ALLEYWAY, OF AIZEN'S DOWNED CORPSE FACING TOWARDS THE SKY, EYES WIDE OPEN, THE LAST UTTERANCE OF THAT MOUTH BEING HIS NAME... came rushing through him, a terrifying thing that also carried forth the accompanying dread of the moments after that. Of death. How they both died that day, only that Aizen's revival was unmatched. Gin lingered now, Shinso readied, honed, awaiting that reanimation, and yet... too, he felt the urge to restrain himself. This was wrong. Something was wrong, something was wrong, something was wrong, something was----
---- wrong, the way that Aizen's reiatsu blipped out of focus, like a blurry image moving too far away to be properly seen in full clarity. How it seemed to falter and fade, only to go silent for a length of three breaths. Three breaths Gin didn't take, because he needn't breathe, but he remembered them. He remembered breathing, once. Something was wrong --
Gigi's command emptied Gin's mind, and he shifted to point Shinso at the downed beast again. The extension of his Bankai went unseen, as it had with the two previous shots, but this time Gin didn't retract the blade instantly. Rather, he let the sword shoot forward, plunging itself into the mess of Aizen ---- his chest, his heart, before Gin moved to slash the blade in a ripping stroke that sought to tear Aizen in two. Gigi commanded he obeyed.
Gin could do little else.
The snapping crack of lightning punching through the air was delayed enough as Gin drew Shinso's blade through Aizen's dead body. The subsequent recall of it back to its wakizashi length was a blip unseen, a splattering of blood spraying from the dripping blade due to the momentum and depth of its previous plunging wound it inflicted upon Aizen Sousuke. Gin stepped forward, as though curious perhaps, or reluctant to fire again. Reluctant because... ----
---- ... because? Because... --
❝ He's dead. ❞ A half-lie. Not a whole lie, technically -- Gin spoke truths here; Aizen Sousuke was dead. Now, whether or not he'd stay dead was another issue entirely. Gigi seemed aware of that. Aware enough of how Aizen could heal himself, yet unaware of Gin's restraint -- of how the undead Shinigami refused to employ the strength and power, the lethality, of his true Bankai's ace: Kamishini No Yari's poison. Gin, even in his trance state, knew better than to unlock that vault. He refused.
Aizen could survive that ultimately anyways, couldn't he? It'd just make him a little more vulnerable. And even that smallest hint of vulnerability, Gin knew somewhere inside of himself where Gigi's voice didn't echo so loudly... he knew -- he shouldn't want this, even in all of his unresolved tension and hurt and anger, he knew that Aizen needed to live.
@keikakudori & @zombiigrl continued from here.
