Start: 1.29.07

End: 3.02.07

She despises him, yet is intrigued by him at the same time. It is one of those morbid fascinations, those all consuming curiosity for that which can potentially harm oneself.

From time to time, she watches him from the edges of her own realm. She stands still beneath the never-ending deluge of sakura petals. He calls to her sometimes, his voice light and musical, carrying across the gap between his forest of ice and her eternal garden. She turns away, for his name is not for hers to hear, and her heart lies only in the steel blade of her earthly form and the bloodstained earth of the battleground.

They were complete opposites. He was brash, excitable, prone to outburst of rage and wonderment, gesturing wildly with hands and body. He spoke rapidly, words tripping over one another to escape the confines of his mind. He lived for emotion, died for expression, and achieved nirvana without serenity. He mourned when his wielder mourned, cried when she cried, and laughed like there was no tomorrow. On the other hand, she is expressionless in her words and smooth in her speech. Never faltering in her pace, movements controlled, exuding a silent sovereignty that was almost suffocating. To show weakness was to rescind victory, and to express it is to show one has been overcome, and control had been wrenched away.

Her skin was warm beneath her cold exterior, tinted with the blood of fallen hollows and men, their dying gift an enhancement to her beauty. His skin would be eternally frozen to the touch regardless of the warmth radiating from his smile.

She was beauty and power forced into something tangible, and by the way she acted, she knew it. She was a lady, fit for a lord, and she expected nothing less. He was of a lesser breed, power drawn from a mongrel lineage, and to compare him to her was to compare mud to marble.

He disgusted her.

They meet again on battlefield, and for once, he is solemn. He looks at her coolly, his steely determination mirroring the look on his Shinigami, their honor, their lives on the line. She watches amusedly at the futility of their situation.

You think you can defeat us?

With me at his side?

I am the might of an army of warriors.

Her power surges, channeling through her wielder, aimed directly at him. He is jerked back and forth, swung to and fro to parry her frenzied attacks.