#ainara

The scent of fresh blood permeated the air of the assembly hall, within which all forty members and six judges of the Central 46 lay lifeless and unmoving.

Never in her life did Inara think that she’d see this place with her own eyes, let alone see the day when its caucus would cease to exist.

As she stepped inside, Inara recalled the days of her youth when she was uncertain if they ever did exist. The Central 46 was merely an authority that she'd only heard stories of—like those of gods—though the laws they upheld were very much real. The 46 tolerated no deviation from said laws, unless they were deviated by one of nobility, a harsh truth that she learned years ago at the expense of her innocence.

Looking upon the dead, she felt nothing but a fleeting sense of relief, knowing that even if a new Central 46 formed, the old were met with a fate well deserved.

The contempt in her eyes washed itself away when Sousuke Aizen appeared before her, a warm and familiar smile on his face.

"You came."

"Of course." Inara smiled before rolling her shoulders back. "Forgive me, but I thought this was an undertaking that you wanted to see to alone?"

"So it was."

Sousuke glanced behind him at the brutal display of his blade's work. An ensemble of the Soul Society's wisest and most powerful, basking in their own blood. Inara could hardly contain the pride she felt for her lover.

"You did it. No one else but you could have."

"Thank you."

They stood across from each other with love and elation in their eyes, only for a moment before Sousuke approached her.

"I want to show you something. Come," he insisted, holding his hand out to her.

Inara smiled and obliged, taking his hand and walking with him alongside the dead. They paced themselves slowly enough for her to study the bloodied faces beneath them, realizing very quickly that, with the exception of Sousuke, she was the first to see the faces behind the numbered plaques that decided the fate of countless Shinigami.

Part of her felt it was eerie to walk so leisurely beside them. The other part of her wanted to spit on every corpse she passed.

"What could you possibly want to show me here? They're gone," she asked. By now, they had ascended the stairs housed behind the assembly walls and approached the bench where the six judges sat, a body still filling each seat.

Sousuke looked back at Inara and offered her a gentle smile. "This," he said, walking her over to one of the six judges.

It was rather dark in the assembly hall, with only some light blooming over the bench. This judge in particular lay slumped over, his neck sliced open, his lips and chin garishly stained with blood. His eyes, while completely lifeless, remained open and it was immediately obvious to Inara that his wounds from Kyokasuigetsu were plentiful compared to the rest of the 46. It was a brutal site, but one that she relished.

Sousuke released Inara from his arm to allow her a closer look. "Do you remember what I said to you years ago after these men refused Jushiro Ukitake the justice he sought on your behalf?"

Inara nodded, not taking her eyes off this judge. She knew there was something about him that Sousuke thought she would find interesting. "Of course. I'll remember it for as long as I live."

Sousuke hummed. "That man there was the first to deny him. Not only the first, but the loudest. He insisted that it was treasonous of Ukitake to throw such unfounded accusations at a man of Tokinada Tsunayashiro's standing."

The late judge was an older man, indistinguishable at first glance. After another moment of studying him, it was the color of his eyes that caught Inara's attention. They were the same shade of yellow as her own. His skin tone the same as her own. His hair almost as dark as hers, too.

She saw much of herself in this man. Her expression dropped in tandem with her heart sinking to the pits of her stomach.

Sousuke stood behind Inara with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Before I took his life, I forced him to recount everything about that hearing to me. I told him to recite the name of the little girl that he threw to the Rukongai to starve all those years ago. The same name of the girl that he dismissed with contempt when a man better than him stood before this bench and pleaded for her assailant to be tried. And when that name finally came from his lips and echoed through this hall, I tore his throat open."

Inara's shoulders tensed as she tried to hold herself together. She remained as silent as she could while tears stung her eyes. There was grief that came to her in waves to soften the shock that stiffened her body. It was the same grief she felt when she realized years ago that she could never win a losing game.

Then she remembered that she could feel no love or grief for a man that she never knew, and one that never cared to know her. She only grieved the life she could have lived, had the one person she shared blood with in this world cared enough to help her. Or cared enough to love her.

That person was gone now, and she was glad for it. She wanted to reject all of her ties to him. If she could pull the blood that she shared with this man from her veins and return it to him, she would. There was none of him that she wanted any part of.

Her tears were past a point of containment and Sousuke pulled her against him with care, his lips brushing against her temple. "You say you'll remember for as long as you live, but my words bear repeating now; the Soul Society's vessel of power only serves those it deems worthy, and your cries for a just world will fall on deaf ears for as long as it lives."

With a kiss to her temple, Sousuke pulled away and descended to the center of the hall. Inara looked down at him, and then back at the dead man who she never knew but dealt her nothing but misery. There was no desire within her to take anything off his person, no desire to carry any memento of her lineage with her. Instead, she spit on the man’s corpse and walked off to join Sousuke.

When she arrived at his side, she took a moment to admire his work once more, thanked him, shared a kiss with him, and took her leave from the assembly hall.