Karin falls hard and fast. Sakura is having trouble seeing what's right in front of her. Naruto is patient. Sasuke sees red, in more ways than one. High school AU. SasuKarin/NaruSaku

Karin could not have been more wrong when she said his need for her was simple necessity – it had always been desire. He had not understood that until this moment; it had been buried under layers of obsessive self-righteousness and raw malcontent.

Even then, he was variable as the moon, though she didn't know it. A light shines in Las Noches, and it is not the moon, it is brighter than that. It is her.

In the smoking ruins of a village in the Land of Grass, a young girl wanders, mad with grief. But there is yet living a boy who knows her, and needs her.

In Las Noches, Orihime ponders her insuperable paralysis in battle and fears for the fate of her friends. Ulquiorra observes her and protects her on the periphery, for Aizen-sama. Unconsciously, he also does so for himself.