It is that time of year once again. Winter coats the desolate and empty streets of Naruki City, families, taking shelter from the cold, gather and hide before their fires. They shiver, huddled next to one another, in anticipation, anxiously awaiting the coming entity of their judgement. Some, rightfully, wait in fear, for the sound of a creature’s footsteps above their dwelling. Tapping, ominously, across their roofs, signalling the coming of their reckoning. Three hundred and sixty four days have passed. Each tormenting day chipping away at the bonds of time. With every sunset brought more ice, more snow, until the world froze over. Now, with the streets of Naruki at their coldest, those bonds have finally splintered.
It starts with a snowflake. One of millions that find themselves descending upon the Human World. This snowflake, a meager and mere speck of white, is visibly indistinguishable from any other from a distance. However, like all snowflakes, this one holds a unique shape. Its symmetric structures, which form a weblike pattern, are not naturally formed. Their microscopic pillars of ice take the shape of dozens of little symbols and kanji, as though the entire snowflake was comprised of written letters of ice. Read aloud, these symbols reveal themselves to be none other than a kido incantation.
Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow,
hang a shining star upon the highest place.
What could this mean? Such a small flake truly was incapable of being read aloud, and hidden within the storm of its brothers there would be no way to even locate such a thing. Why create a kido, if it is so difficult to discover? Or perhaps...that was the point.
LISTEN WHILE READING
The flake descends from the sky, spiralling through the air. It catches a gust of wind, and is thrown about sporadically. Miles into the sky, it soars above the towers of Naruki City. Finally, the wind settles, and it lightly glides down to the earth below. Then, softly, it touches the cold barren asphalt of the frozen Naruki street.
The Snowflake, melts. The world carries on. Then, a crack forms across the surface of the ice-covered street. This crack, spreads, growing further and further, larger and larger. The thousands of cracks which jaggedly jut out from the center, begin to form a familiar pattern. The same series of symbols, the same symmetrical incantation, the same shape of the snowflake, now laid out for ten feet across the ground.
The crack begins to glow, a dazzling blue light, which lifts itself into the air. Now, a glowing blue, ethereal snowflake, hovers a foot in the air, twirling slowly. The sounds of bells begin to play, growing louder and louder from some unknown source, until the entire city is encroached in a cacophony of noise. They ring like church bells, like mourning bells, tolling for the lives of those who were so unfortunate as to experience this day once before. Tolling for the lives of those who are about to experience it now. The glowing snowflake, hovering and twirling in the air, grows brighter and brighter as the bells toll louder and louder. Until finally, it grows too bright for any mortal eyes to look upon, and in an explosive flash, it disappears.
It is a silent and holy night. All in Naruki city is calm, and bright.
Out from the steam, steps one large black boot.
Nicolas Klaus. The Saint. Free at last. Free from the curse placed upon him by Captain Kuchiki so long ago, confining him, binding him, into a snowflake. Each year, he struggles and fights against his seal, until the moment when, for one night only, he is able to walk the World of the Living. Tonight, it seems. Will be that night.
“Hohoho, let the merriment begin!
Standing ten feet tall, the titanic figure of the man, clad in blood red crimson, begins to move. He takes a single step, shattering the remainder of the ice, and causing their fragments to fly like shrapnel into the buildings surrounding him. Then, bracing himself, he heaves his massive leather bag over his shoulder, crashing it into the asphalt below. Upon thunderous impact, the asphalt crumbles, forming a crater. With that, he lets out a bellowing chuckle, before unlacing its seal, and opening it.
WOOOOOOOOOOSH
A whirlwind of force erupts from the bag. Carrying with this gust of wind is a storm of ice and snow. It spreads like a plague across the skies of Naruki City, filling its night skies with one massive black cloud. As though a medusa, or midas, of ice, everything the wind touches is now completely frozen. Buildings completely seal shut, cars frozen to the street. The entire city is encased in ice, appearing like the relic of a civilization long thought lost, and this is just the beginning.
Just as the whirlwind was released, so too was it withdrawn. As though a lung of some great frost giant, the bag inhales. With this, a hurricane of force, a vacuum-like whirlpool of suction, ignites around the bag. This gust however is no ordinary wind, but more akin to an arrancar’s
Gonzui. Any poor living creature in the immediate area, finds their soul being sucked from their very bodies, ripped from their physical forms, and inhaled into the bag.
As every living creature within the vicinity falls victim to the vicious behemoth of a man, Nicolas Klaus himself shows no signs of stopping. Safe within the blizzard he has created, all he does is laugh. It is after all, the season to be jolly.
