Ride 740: Sugimoto driven in a corner
Pag 1
3: Pinch and crush him, Danchiku!! Crush Sugimoto-san!!
Pag 2
1: As easy as crushing dry leaves!!
Yeah, Issaa!!
Pag 4
3: You're slow
Pag 5
1: You're slow, Sugimoto-san – Bamboo Hop Shot!!
2: He's fast!!
4: He got even faster.... than the second day...
But
5: But!!
Pag 6
1: It's not so easy to crush my heart, Danchiku!!
Kuaaaaagh
Pag 7
2: The battle between those two has started!!
3: The last battle of the training camp's fourth day!! The rule is simple, whoever crosses the sensor line first wins!!
4: The serious battle between Danchiku and Sugimoto, betting the spot in the Inter High!!
5: Sugimoto....!!
6: Danchiku!!
7: But.... this battle....
Pag 8
1: That's right, Onoda
4: He.... Sugimoto understands everything
And he's fighting upon understanding that
6: He's running with that resolution
And he has no intention whatsoever of stepping aside!!
Pag 9
2: What....
I really settled this with one attack
3: It was easy
5: Kuaaagh
8: Kuaaaagh
9: …. no
Pag 10
1: Kuaaaaagh
He's still chasing after me!!
Pag 11
1: Sugimoto-san
2: Dan.... chikuu!!
3: I wonder what's this feeling
I was thinking I could win against you, and it's true that I said I could defeat you with one attack
4: But, I don't know why, but my heart is beating fast
And for some reason the corners of my mouth are pulling up
5: Maybe it's because I know we've practiced and desperately ran together until now, but when earlier I turned back and I didn't see you, I though “ah of course”, but there was also another feeling....
Pag 12
1: I thought- there's no way that that Sugimoto-san was beaten by just one attack!!
Pag 13
1: Ha
2: Kuaaagh
3: He chased me and kept going until he passed me!!
5: Dammit, even though I couldn't defeat him in one blow, right now I feel so good!!
6: I'm thinking that this is the spirit!!
Pag 14
1: Sugimoto-san!!
2: It's so hard....!!
Danchiku really got stronger than on the second day
3: But this is the basis of road racing: don't let your opponent understand how it is for you!!
4: Looks like you're having a hard time, Sugimoto-san
Pag 15
1: He noticed!!
2: But there's no way I'm giving up the lead position
Until my breath calms down, I'll keep just the right pace....
3: He jumped ahead!!
4: Can you follow!?
6: Mh
7: Easily!!
Pag 16
2: Well you're so reliable!!
Danchiku used his “Hop Shot” again
Pag 17
1: Garuaah!!
2: He left me behind!!
3: Kuaaaaagh
Keep up, Sugimoto Terufumi!!
4: Sugimoto-san, you followed!! I'm happy that we're clashing seriously now
5: Issa told me not to tell you
But I'll tell you, Sugimoto-san
6: There's another secret to my special technique “Panda Shout”
Panda Shout is....
Pag 18
1: A breathing technique
2: When humans breathe, oxygen weaves into their lungs
3: And when they work out, they need a lot of fresh oxygen
And they become conscious of their “inhaling”
4: But if they do it too much, their breathing becomes uneven and shallow, and they inhale the oxygen around their mouth that it's not “fresh air”
5: Exhaling is more important than inhaling!!
“Actively pushing out the air in your lungs”!!
6: That way, you can naturally take in a lot of “fresh air”!!
Panda Shout uses the abdominal pressure to squeeze out all the air from my lungs
Pag 19
1: It's the ultimate technique to intake oxygen!!
3: Technique to intake....!!
4: If he can accelerate even more....!!
5: I'll use it right away
Ah, and there's one more thing
Huh
6: When I use this
Pag 20
1: My acceleration with Hop Shot becomes twice as fast!!
2: Two.... ice
Please hold on tight and follow me, Sugimoto-san!!
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gin spent the last century deceiving you, getting closer to you only to find your weakness so he could kill you. how do you still love him?
A haunting question, that; how do you still love him?
How could he ever articulate what a hundred years and more of nearness meant to him? In what way could Aizen Sousuke ever find himself capable of speaking the words into life? To share hundreds of memories, thousands of moments, millions of smiles and flirtations between the two of them? In what medium was he to paint the pictures of how entangled they had become, of his awareness of a string dyed the shade of blood that extended from him towards that other soul? What language would ever permit him the chance to ever explain it to the point of comprehension?
Words were not enough. Art fell short. Song, dance, carvings, sculpture --- none of them would ever be enough for him to articulate what it felt like to find one's own soul enmeshed with another's. How could anyone who had not spent an entire human lifetime with a partner so dedicated ever hope to understand it? It was too much to encapsulate into words. It was too vast, too nuanced; to verbalize it would only do it a grave disservice.
They didn't understand, this poor lost soul; they simply did not understand or comprehend it.
In what way could he ever speak of the fact that Gin's presence filled that void in his chest, leaving it warm, as if he'd sipped upon the light of the sun? It radiated in him, a blooming thing, flower blossoms that were all golds and pinks and reds, stamen of silver in evidence; silver had become a predominant factor in his life. It felt as if silver scales gilt his bones, as if argent coils snaked through the slotted emptiness in his ribcage and twined around that beating heart.
A hundred and ten years was a lifetime for a mortal creature.
Years of laughing when Gin became a puddle in the summer heat, miserable and moaning about how he was dying. Decades of yelping in the winters when cold hands and feet would find their way beneath his clothing or tuck up against the heat of his form. Months of sharing food, clothing, warmth, touches and kisses and caresses. Nights of velvet heat, their hunger manifesting itself physically, hours of touching at bruises with tender hands after such bouts of intimacy. Aizen had never neglected to tend to the younger man, be it a session with leathers and chains, one consisting of ropes and the beauty of seeing bands of color wrapping upon those limbs, an hour with toys, or simply spanking until that backside turned warm pinks and reds; even in those nights when he had been angry, he'd never neglected it. Not even then.
A simple touch to his face could help defuse that anger, leave him leaning into that hand, apologies spilling out between them.
How could he explain how his heart had lurched in his chest the first time that Gin had taken his hand on that warm late summer evening at that festival when he'd jerked his own touch away, old training whispering in his ears in a kansai-ben accent ( don't leave marks, Sousuke--- don't leave marks don't leave marks don't leave marks-- ) and the understanding that was sure to be there, that the younger man would recoil away from him, disgusted that he'd done so, that he'd look at his face and see that same subtle contempt and distaste that'd been there on the thin features of the man he'd once loved as he loved the sun? That when Gin had reached out for him, it'd brought him to sudden and swift tears, forcing him to step out of view with Gin at his side while he'd had to wipe at his eyes? Never had he been mocked for it. It had been gentle and unafraid and so poignant that it'd been that moment when he suspected he'd fallen in love with him. And how the man he named his lieutenant joked, saying it was a date and making him laugh despite the tears, because of the tears.
Threads of gold had faded away, becoming a scar. Silver had been what he swam in, what he dreamed of; a sickle moon high in a glorious expanse of blue. A full moon shining bright in the waters of his inner world, brilliant and large and ethereal, turning the oceanic expanse bright blue. A shade that was seen any time whenever he saw those depths of turquoise rest on him for a moment.
That Gin had reached for him on that day ---...
A joke; a stupid, stupid joke that'd dropped from Gin's mouth had done him in, making Aizen laugh despite himself and the smell of sewage and stink from ruptured bowels, a man who'd known too much, a command that'd fallen from Aizen's own mouth--- and then the joke. A joke that'd made him glance at Gin with the fondness that'd grown in Aizen and in those seconds, he'd understood. He loved Gin. More, he was in love with Gin.
The boy who'd seethed murder at him for decades and who had won Aizen's trust to the point where he'd placed a piece of his own soul upon those palms, trusting him with that.
Trusting Gin with his soul - his heart.
How could one ever hope to explain an entire lifetime of those nights when Gin would settle at his right side in the futon they shared, Aizen's fingers in his hair, upon the nape of his neck, while he read aloud to him, translating from English to Japanese without a second's hesitation and helping to convey the nuance and meaning while he did so? In what fashion could he explain the questions which had spilled out of a one-time youth that had trotted after him, his own new shadow that felt more natural to him than whatever was made by other light sources? In what fashion could Aizen begin to speak of the bond that had formed with his excitement over Gin's questions, of teaching him chess, of guiding him through those initial years and watching him grow in power? To what degree could Aizen mention the pride that had been inspired in him the first time that he'd beheld Gin's Bankai? How did this lost little soul ever hope to comprehend eleven decades of their nearness?
How did they think that one thing could wipe all of that away?
The warmth that filled him overflowed and more than once, Aizen had almost wished to spill that emotion out, like heart's blood, exsanguinating himself of it but in the form of confession, of knowing his own unworthiness?
Trust, though -- there had been trust. Trust in Gin's power. Trust in his presence. Trust in what he said whenever he pointed out those moments and flaws that would be met with Aizen correcting himself without thinking. He was still but a man and a man held flaws. Trust in the blade which could so easily have been aimed at himself instead of others, too fast for Aizen to counter, to stop. Trust in Gin to watch his back and flanks when times came for them to take to killing floors and cutting those that would seek to make him cease. That trust had been there for years upon years. His trust was not easily given, but Gin had proven worthy of it a hundred times and more.
Such trust had extended into other arenas as well, nights when he would surrender control and give it to the young man, trusting him in those moments, a gesture of true significance beween them.
A myriad of days together, weeks, months, years turning into decades that had become a century and then ten years more.
That was what this question asked him to answer.
It was a question he had no easy answer for, no way of knowing what was sought after, a lack of understanding as to why it should seem so strange to hear hat one could still care for the man who had been one's own murderer.
Pride in Gin's strength had ever been there, excitement at seeing his mind grow and unfold. It had been so quickly done, when Gin had learned chess from him, their games ranging from quick, fast bouts to slower and more methodical exchanges. That had translated in other aspects of their lives together. He had been pleased the first time that Gin had defeated him in a game of chess, taking him out for dinner that night; a youth growing taller, making Aizen start to notice that he had grown up, that he was a man, that he was attracted to him. Pride in Gin's accomplishments, things won on his own merit, in his becoming a captain and a well-loved one. Of going to the Third to steal persimmons for himself when the time came, presenting him later with jars of them neatly dried and perserved for enjoyment when their season was over and done with so the younger man could still delight in them during the spring and summer months.
Simple things. Little things.
Of how, on that very first time they'd met, he'd seen a flash of blue and that had sent a shock through him to his very soul; that Gin had seen him.
So many others had not, never had seen him before then, and so many else never would in the future. But Gin had done so. Gin had reached out and captured him from that first moment. Later years had seen his mouth curl with a faint moue of distaste when he'd spoken of others, of the simple adoration he amassed. They had not seen him; not even she, she who worked so hard to impress him, had ever seen or understood his heart or motives. A frail little flower, beautiful, useful, but nothing more than someone that he had been able to manipulate with kind words, warm smiles, a simple embrace and her kissing his cheek, his mouth. How unsatisfying it had been, empty of anything but base motions.
Where there was nothing fulfilling about Hinamori Momo, where Hirako Shinji had treated him like a secret to be hidden away lest he be judged for it, being with Gin made him feel glorious and alive.
He had seen the intrigue in him, those questions, had been free to teach him and care for him in those ways which meant something only to Aizen. Gin had chosen to learn him, to know him, and that had begun to ease the aching in that chest. A slow thawing, something that made the interior of his chest start to heat up, something that had slowly and casually begun to unmask the brunet more and more as time went by. Gin, who would listen to his fury over the Seireitei, of the inadequacies of the Central 46, who had made his own suggestions on what improvements needed to be made. They had all meant something to him. A boy grown into a man who had set out to become his equal. But it had not been easily won; the viper had had to earn that from Aizen. He had earned it with his own careful work, his own observations.
He had won Aizen's concern on that day when Aizen and Gin had both discovered how his Kanzen Saimin could be undone; with touch.
Loneliness had not become companion to him during those initial years in the Academy and while it had lessened in the time he'd served as lieutenant to the captain of the Fifth, it had never seemed to vanish. Gin's arrival in his life had begun to slowly, gently, evaporate it away little by little over their years together until that night when he'd realized it. He had realized what he felt, what he wanted; he had been ever determined he would not do to Gin what had been done to him. It had been a struggle, those last few years between his realizing of things (and his attraction to the younger man) and the haori finally coming to adorn those shoulders. And all the while, the loneliness had been brushed aside gently, vanishing, fading like fog under the heat of the sun for those eyes saw him. They saw him and Aizen knew only that he desired to lean into that sensation again and again.
He had found what he wanted with Gin; an equal but not someone who would fold their spine in half in bowing to him, the way that Kaname could do. For all that his left hand had idolized him, worshiped him, treated him as if he were already divinity incarnate, it had not been that which he had wanted. It had been enjoyable, but never had his ego been allowed to grow too much, not when those cutting remarks that could fly from Gin's mouth were sure to cut it down to size. And while his ego would not be allowed to become too much for his own good --... Gin made him feel as if he was not too much for him.
Gin could make him feel human.
WIth him, the isolation was reduced to nothingness. The power that he could flex and flare with the same ease as a maestro conducting an orchestra and with as much panache and skill was not something that would make those thin shoulders bow beneath its weight. It could make others fall to their knees, heads bowed as if in supplication, could choke the air in one's lungs or crush them into groveling, but never with Gin. Never with him. Every motion had been answered by an equal and opposite fashion; the first rule of physics made law, it seemed, between them.
An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.
More than that was the fact that Aizen had never seen anything akin to fear in Ichimaru Gin in all their time together. He had never beheld anything like a shying back from the power which could so easily blanket an area, forcing even Espada to remember their place. No, the response was for that silver moaning roar to fill the air as he was met step for step, stride for stride. He challenged Gin and Gin would challenge him in return, making strange bouts of pleasure flutter in his stomach and his chest to be so openly challenged. Fearful looks from others had made Aizen learn how to withhold himself, to hunch his shoulders and walk through the world bowed in on himself simply because it was far more convenient to do so. Yet he had never seen, never sensed, such a quivering emotion within the younger man who had swiftly become his right hand, there to move and flow as Aizen directed his steps and strikes.
What he could not tolerate in others was viewed with indulgent fondness and affection from Aizen. Gin didn't respect him because of his power, his strength; Aizen had had to earn it just as Gin had had to earn his trust in turn. But never had there been any sign of respect given to him for his power. It was given to him as a person. Strange, to think how much that little notion could drive Aizen's actions, how it could influence him. Yet it had. Not out of desperation for approval but because Gin's opinions truly did mean something to him.
It had not been a whim, where they were concerned. It was insulting to name it indulgence for how they had intertwined with each other.
Anyone could say that they would die for someone else. But it was not merely that Aizen would gladly die for Gin; it was that Gin made him want to live. That simple emotion that inspired so many stories of loss and lust and revenge and anger and gentleness and more, more more more, ever more, of tragedy and comedy and much more, was something that filled him whenever he was near Gin, whenever their hands touched. Gin made him feel human. He made him feel as if he was but a man. A man with his own flaws, his own hopes, his own dreams; Aizen knew he could do anything if the viper remained at his side. They were bound together in ways that he knew he could never explain to another person so he did not try here. Not when he was sure that his answer would not be what they wanted to hear.
❝ --- you think that one thing is enough to unwind the ties that I share with Gin? That it is enough to separate us wholly from one another in our entirety? Easier for you to stop the sun from rising tomorrow. Easier to no longer make water feel wet. You ask me ---... how do I still love him? It would be easier for me to stop breathing than to stop that. I don't expect you to understand what kind of ties can grow between those who have spent so much of their lives together. That'd be asking too much of you. ❞
A non-answer but then ... Aizen was always good at those.
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