Cast Away That Flesh Under Your Mask [Safira, Shishiyuki]

Ah, this didn't feel right. This woman weeping over me when there was so much she should be doing. Stopping these hollows, saving those that could still be saved. It's a guilty feeling this was but it was comforting to have her here as I died in the manner I feared the most. The feeling of burns I had lived my whole life in pain with, but now they were consuming me. At the very least the aftershock of her attack had sped up this process, dying slowly to the flames was humiliating, pathetic. It was an attack that made me envious I could not do it myself.

"I..."

What did I want to say, with my final breath. It felt wrong to repeat that statement back. There were others I had abandoned too. So I wanted to address them all with it.

"Sorry."

Sorry to Miki for abandoning our friendship in the pursuit of vengeance. Sorry to the boy I could've done more for. Sorry Shishiyuki for causing her this grief and being unable to stop it. Sorry to myself for being so weak now and all those years ago.

I reach up to place a hand on her crying face. I could not see her but I could hear her. This wasn't the Shishiyuki I knew, if I had the strength I might've slapped her instead to remind her of the situation but the nerves in my hand had burned away and I couldn't feel anything. This would just have to suffice as gratitude and encouragement.

She wouldn't dare to tell this woman that her apology was unnecessary, that there was nothing to apologize for. Shishiyuki knew, all too well, that to spend her last word on that meant it was the most important thing of all. Instead, she simply nodded.

"As am I."

She waited only briefly for the moment that she knew would come. Her friend's hand falling to the ground, nothing left of the boundless life that had so defined her. Now, she was only one more corpse of the countless that littered this place. Her steps carried her to one more figure in this scorched domain, to the one that she held perhaps more closely in her heart than any other-

"Makoto."

Her voice was soft. Low, uneven. Weak, one might even say. As she knelt down, hands glowing bright with all manner of kaido, she didn't even wait to see if it would have any meaningful effect. She would discern that afterward. But she hoped, beyond anything else in this world, that she did not have to say yet one more farewell.

This was unexpected but welcome. She had no answer to the hollows, ironic as one who pursued all fields of the Zankensoki and being a former vice-captain. She had wondered if everyone close to her was fated to be slaughtered again, the scene of carnage was like a reflection of that night. When she was rolled over, she was very cold and more ghastly than her already pale complexion could convey from the lost blood in the pool of black and red.

"Shishi... you're okay."

She was relieved and overjoyed for a moment until the situation set back in. What a failure she had been to not be able to protect the people close to the most important person in her life. She gave a strained cough and opened her eyes, the sclera of one of her eyes looked dark. Her own critical condition was not important to her though, the wellbeing of the one above her was much more important in her priorities.

"That's a relief."

Shishiyuki almost felt guilty, as she felt the faintest smile come to her lips. To hear Makoto's voice, at least, after all of this, was some small solace. Anyone's voice, at this moment, would have been so reassuring. She continued her work with kaido, redoubling her efforts as she more fully studied her beloved's wounds. They were grim, painfully grim.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be here sooner, Makoto."

She wouldn't accept one more loss that she could prevent with her own hands. No matter how strenuous it was on her own body, Shishiyuki would save Makoto, at the very least. Surely these wounds were not outside her own ability; she had not studied kido for a thousand years only for it to serve her so miserably.

"It's okay..."

She considered asking if she had won but the fact she was here made the question rhetorical in her head. A faint smile came to her lips while her body was scoured for wounds, this touch was pleasant and comforting even though it came from a place of urgency.

"I'm fine."

Makoto said with a cough, despite her body being in shock, she felt fine right now. There were burns, lacerations, and the coiling black mark on her shoulder from her brief fight but they meant very little to her right now. Shishiyuki was worried and knowing that she was a cause for that distress meant that she wanted to reassure her. She could also be strong.

Makoto had never been one to show weakness, and that was, even now, something Shishiyuki found profoundly commendable. It was one of the things she loved about her, but she wouldn't let that get in the way ofher efforts right now. Even if she seemed perfectly alright, Shishiyuki understood that the gravity of wounds inflicted wasn't something one would always register. She may have felt alright enough, but that didn't mean Shishiyuki's efforts could ever be lessened.

"I'm very glad. I'll bring you to the 2nd Division when I've finished this, alright?"

After all, they knew much more about medicine than she did. No matter how skilled she was in kaido, how much she exhausted herself in order to stabilize Makoto in the immediate, there was no doubt in Shishiyuki's mind that this was all only stopgap measures. Makoto would need proper medical attention, for any number of reasons.

And, despite how she might have wished to stay at Makoto's side, there was still far too much that Shishiyuki herself needed to do. There were still yet Hollows in the Seireitei. Still yet corpses that would need to be put to rest.