Smoke and Mirrors

Diclaimer: The only form of Bleach I own is for laundry. So, yeah.

Summary: Aizen wants power. Kyoka Suigetsu wants to live. When the Hogyoku tries to please them both, the zanpakuto finds herself thrust into the real world, estranged from her partner. In a bid for survival, she forges a new bond with a human boy, changing both their destinies. [Post-Deicide AU]

-ooo-

chapter 01: kyoka suigetsu

-ooo-

"You should not dwell on the betrayal that you can see. The truly terrifying betrayal is that which lies utterly hidden from your eyes…"

Zanpakuto are sword spirits formed by a shinigami completing the bond with his Asauchi. They take the form of a weapon, but are so much more.

They are the perfect, physical manifestation of a soul's potential, its power given physical form to attack and defend. They are the reflections of one's self, failues and triumphs fused in a synergy of strength against the fine edge of a blade. The best shinigami are never alone when they fight. They are always with their zanpakuto—their partner, their soulmate—the one thing in the world that understands them completely.

It is a simple fact that few shinigami grasp, even those with significant spiritual power, which is why the Gotei 13 has so many more unseated officers than captains or lieutenants. And why those who lead the divisions have continued their reigns, unchecked and unchallenged, for hundreds or thousands of years.

It is why Kyoka Suigetsu hardly murmurs in Aizen's grasp as he uses her to commit atrocities and murder innocents in his quest for ultimate godhood. Theirs was a bond forged over centuries, and she obeys him without fail, because she is he and they are one, and nothing can face them while they stand together.

Until it appears.

xxx

'Foreign.'

It is the first thought that crosses Kyoka Suigetsu's mind when Aizen implants the Hogyoku, and its dull, heavy presence takes root in his—in their—soulscape. It is a slow, dumb thing, this supposed artifact of power—incapable of speech, of even proper thought, beyond a blind, instinctive urge to please its owner.

She leans in for a closer examination, and hisses when the Hogyoku senses her power and gobbles it up like a greedy child.

[hunger]

Kyoka Suigetsu isn't interested in sharing, and leaps back a good distance—but not before sensing the multitude of others resting within its depths. Fragments of souls, shattered remains of sacrifices fed to the Hogyoku to make it grow. Her eyes narrow as her lips draw up in a sneer.

'It is not worthy of you, my Lord Aizen. No matter how much power it holds.'

Her hands twitch towards the blade at her side when the Hogyoku suddenly glows and sends a pulse of power at Aizen's will. It has been a while since he has called on her.

'But he has before,' Kyoka Suigetsu thinks. 'And he will again. He must.'

xxx

Each time Aizen calls on the Hogyoku, he changes. His soulscape transforms as well—and Kyoka Suigetsu watches as the Hogyoku's thick roots and white tendrils chokes their world of ice floors and glass crystals. Where once she could see herself reflected in a hundred perfect facets, there is now an ugly mass of pulsing growth that distorts the mirror crystals.

'Invader. Parasite. Leech.' Her thoughts are bitter when she is forced to retreat to a corner of their realm to avoid the Hogyoku's tainted touch. But she says nothing, because it is what her wielder wishes—what we want to accomplish our goal—and she cannot bring herself to deny their soul his heart's desire.

Eventually, the glass crystals of their soulscape bleach as a result of the Hogyoku. Bits and pieces crumble from the tallest ones, revealing dead white growth inside. Kyoka Suigetsu shouts and rages but Aizen does not reply—he is in control and perfectly composed, brimming with confidence in his newfound powers. What she thinks is no concern of his, at least not now.

'Speak to me!'

He does not.

'Lord Aizen!'

He will not.

'Call forth my power!'

He doesn't need to.

xxx

There is one time—only once—that their souls resonate again. It is a subtle spark of emotion, a small twinge of annoyance that Kyoka Suigetsu latches onto with every fiber of her being. In that instant, she feels herself being pulled up and away and suddenly, she is looking at the world through Aizen's eyes and sensing his thoughts as clearly as her own.

At first, the surroundings confuse her—they are standing on some sort of soot-colored street, surrounding by tall, straight buildings.

'Karakura,' Aizen's thoughts whisper in her mind, and she realizes that they are in the Living World, which means that her partner's plan must have succeeded to some extent—

Clatter.

She catches a glimpse of a petite, black-haired youth rolling some sort of hissing metal canister towards them before pushing away a group of other children and wonders who they could be—

'Weak and worthless,' Aizen thinks. 'Kurosaki's humans.'

—then a small, flaming object heads their way and Kyoka Suigetsu tenses before—

BOOM.

When the dust from the explosion settles, Kyoka Suigetsu sees the same youth—a boy, frowning slightly but staring at them with cool, steady eyes, before turning and ushering everyone to run for it.

'A human tried to attack you.' Kyoka Suigetsu says.

'He is nothing,' Aizen replies. 'When the time comes, I will kill him like all the others.'

He breaks their connection, and Kyoka Suigetsu blinks as she is pushed back down to the depths of Aizen's soul, sitting in the broken soulscape and thinking over her wielder's words.

'For a human, he had strong eyes,' she muses. 'That is something.'

The thought comes with a start, for it is the closest she's gotten to disagreeing with Aizen in a hundred years.

xxx

Kyoka Suigetsu knows that she will follow her wielder to the lowest levels of Hell if it will further their goals. She never considers the possibility of Aizen discarding her. He does just that when he chooses to fuse completely with the Hogyoku.

He is willing—eager, even—to throw away centuries of partnership and understanding—all to fulfill his quest for supremacy. And even as she curses him, Kyoka Suigetsu realizes with a pang that she can understand. She can hate him, but she can't blame him.

That doesn't mean she goes down without a fight.

Their soulscape has long shattered, replaced by the all-consuming tangle of roots that grow from the Hogyoku. Every inch from floor to ceiling is covered in an ugly white mass, except for a circle around where she stands, slicing at the protruding tendrils grasping at her form.

[hunger]

She bats away a tendril that brushes against her arm, and gives it a clean slice with her sword.

[pain]

Another grabs at her ankles, and she cuts it as well, before twisting to hack away three more that come from the side. And then all of the Hogyoku rushes her at once, tendrils crowding from all directions as they swallow her whole—

[hungerpainhungryfeedobeymasterpowerwantmorefeedhunger]

Kyoka Suigetsu screams in rage and slashes blindly at the darkness, until something takes away her sword and suffocates her entire being—

[obeyandASSIMILATE]

And suddenly it isn't the Hogyoku anymore, but Aizen as the Hogyoku, willing her to stop, forcing her to still, as the cursed artifact eats away at her existence in the name of power. And Kyoka Suigetsu has no choice but to acquiesce, because she is he and they are one, but Aizen is lord of their shared soul.

'And what of us? What am I to you, Lord Aizen?'

[OBEYANDASSIMILATE]

'You have changed, my lord.' Kyoka Suigetsu bows her head, recalling their last battles together, when they had worked as one. And there was their final conversation, over a human of all things…

She pauses, her thoughts lingering on the memory. The boy had opposed them despite being a human. Tried to kill them and failed, but still stopped to stare them down.

'He had strong eyes.'

[OBEYANDASSIMIL—]

'No.' she decides. 'I will not.'

She refuses to stop existing. If a mere human child could stand against Aizen, then wasn't she, who knew his soul inside and out, a much stronger opponent?

'I am a part of Aizen Sosuke's soul. I too, am your master, Hogyoku.'

[OBEYANDmasterobeymasterobeymaster]

'Now let me out.'

[yesyesoutmasterobeymasterobey]

xxx

Kyoka Suigetsu isn't sure how it happens. One minute she is buried in the depths of the Hogyoku within Aizen's soul; the next she is kneeling on the ground in the Living World, watching her wielder standing up from a harsh impact in the dirt.

"Lord Aizen!" she calls out, but he doesn't hear her. Neither does his opponent, an orange-haired youth in tattered black robes. ''The Kurosaki child,' her mind immediately supplies.

There is a sudden pain in her chest and she gasps, falling backwards, just as Aizen laughs and Ichigo stares in disbelief. She keeps her eye on her wielder and utters a cry when she sees Aizen's zanpakuto dissolving into nothingness at his side.

"The Hogyoku has determined that I do not need my zanpakuto," Aizen smirks and Kyoka Suigetsu can only shake her head weakly, paralyzed with pain.

'You're wrong. It's dissolving the bond between us. Because you rejected my existence, and I refused to assimilate…'

She watches blankly as energy spikes protrude from Aizen's chest and seal him in a high-level kido spell, even as he hurls useless curses at its caster, Urahara Kisuke. Not once does Aizen call for her. The thought leaves her less cold than expected.

'And now,' Kyoka Suigetsu muses, as the pain fades away and their connection shatters. 'I suppose they'll come for me.'

She stands and waits, but Urahara and Ichigo pay her no attention. In fact, they don't even acknowledge her existence. In the midst of exchanging words, they are interrupted by the rest of Ichigo's friends who arrive on the scene. All of them run past her without a word.

'Am I…invisible?' Kyoka Suigetsu muses, looking down at herself. 'But…I am fully manifested, am I not?'

And then it hits her, and she laughs, unheard by anyone else. The manifestation of Kyoka Suigetsu activates her ability of perfect illusions. Usually the victims had to see her shikai form before the illusions worked, but…

'I am Kyoka Suigetsu. Being a perfect illusion is my natural state of existence.'

xxx

When Kurosaki Ichigo collapses, her first instinct is to kill him immediately. It's the perfect chance—he's defenseless, his friends' guards are down, and nobody knows she's there. It is what Aizen would have done in her place.

But she is not part of Aizen anymore, and the boy—just a human, now—has lost all of his powers. She is free to choose. Kyoka Suigetsu watches as Ichigo's friends crowd around him, frantically calling his name, and smiles a bitter smile.

'That is one who will never fight alone.'

And then she turns to leave.

xxx

One night, she perches on a windowsill, unheard and unseen, debating her options. Her wielder—ex-wielder—is alive, imprisoned in Soul Society for the next 20,000 years. This much she learns from shadowing Urahara Kisuke.

Without the Hogyoku, Aizen is inconvenienced. Without her, virtually powerless. She debates the merits of returning to him and feels strangely reluctant. But she can't exist alone. At most, she is a fragment, an incomplete soul, and maintaining physical form takes energy. The reishi in Karakura Town is strong, but it is nothing compared to Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. It is insufficient for her needs.

She is fading away. Kyoka Suigetsu does not know what will happen if she disappears entirely—perhaps she will find her way back to Aizen, merging with his soul. Or perhaps she will cease to exist. Neither prospect is attractive.

But as for alternatives…

She refuses to feed on the Hollows that haunt Karakura Town—they are beneath her, and tainted with other souls. It would be too easy to lose herself amongst them, or be eaten herself, from the inside out. She cannot find a shinigami, or return to Soul Society or Hueco Mundo—there are those who will recognize her signature, and consider her an enemy. This holds true for the Kurosaki boy and his allies, too. So she settles on searching for other humans with high spiritual energy, and in the end she finds him. The pale young boy with the unflinching stare.

Kyoka Suigetsu watches him sleep from his windowsill, a curious yearning in her heart. 'He is so young,' she thinks. 'Lord Aizen was like him, once.'

Young and weak, but oh—so steady and clear and calm.

'Will you accept my blade, or die by it?' she muses, setting foot in his room. 'Show me, boy.'

A shinigami can temporarily transfer a portion of their powers to a human by stabbing them through the chest. A zanpakuto can transfer their spirit via the same method. Soul Society outlaws both actions, because the human in question has a high risk of death if the transfer fails. Kyoka Suigetsu is slowly dying without her wielder. But she is proud, and cold—and to a certain extent, desperate.

So she has no regrets when she runs her sword through Mizuiro Kojima's chest.

-ooo-

A/N: This is another one of those plot bunnies that won't leave me alone. I'm actually using it as practice for my other plot bunny, which has Mizuiro as the Substitute Shinigami. (That would shred canon to pieces, so…yeah, testing the waters with his character here first.) Anyways, now that it's out and up, my brain can rest in peace.

Inspiration for title is kind of lame, haha. 'Smoke' is Mizuiro, for his use of bombs; 'Mirrors' is Kyoka Suigetsu, for her skills in misdirection; the two combined make for illusions—e.g, 'smoke and mirrors'. XP

And as usual, I have no update schedule and I write these things for fun in my (very limited) spare time, so avoid my fics if you hate stuff like that. Take care!