❝ I’d hurry if I were you... ❞ the tired traitor spoke softly now, sinister air diluted in a dreary attempt to seem more sincere; lackluster, of course, but the effort was there. She was determined to be no threat---for now, and so the hissing of his aura ceased in one fell swoop. There was no need for that here...to her, she hadn’t prompted such behavior. His routines were riddled with error, with a lack of resolve. Perhaps isolation had softened him from his biting ways.
A crane of his pale neck, the tip of his chin, and the squint of his eyes all veered to the side, off---distant---to better grasp the situation unfolding elsewhere. Kyouraku was indeed vanishing, wounded severely by the Quincy invaders that Gin had clashed with briefly on his way to seek out a certain lieutenant of the Tenth Division. Unfortunate-----the loss that the Gotei 13 was undertaking on this day. It seemed that they’d soon lose two commanders within a month’s time.
Silence encompassed Gin, and the conflict of emoting or to remain unreadable grazed his features for a swift second, and his slumped demeanor shifted with uncertainty. The mood changed now that awareness of the gravity of this war was finally flushing through his fatigued form. By his side, Shinso whispered of dangers, of retreat for now----until his master’s body wasn’t as battered-----until these enemies vanished or at least reduced in number or strength.
But the desire to do good, for once in his life, was a seed of self-destructiveness that was planted by Ichigo, planted by Rangiku, planted by Izuru, planted by the wishes of those he had hurt and betrayed-----for him to be better than what he became. Whilst he wore no captain’s haori on his sloped spine, his sense of duty and connection to the Gotei remained (albeit weak) He did not know where Kyouraku was, or his true state, but he knew by the faintest flickering of his reiatsu that he wasn’t in the best condition. He was fading.
❝ ...He’ll die soon. And the girl with him, too. ❞