Shinigami
Administrator
Arashi stands on the roof of the Kuchiki manor, watching the unfolding of the scene below him. Even with his newfound power, he contributes nothing to the fight below. Knowing well that he is nothing but a liability, regardless of the fact that he now possesses his zanpakuto. His only true action is to avoid the incoming threat of the much more powerful Lieutenant Yasu’s Bankai. Afterwards, he does nothing but observe helplessly as Captain Oda’s Kido destroys the treacherous Shirogane from the inside out, as the self-made Vizard descends into the depths of the black ooze of Lieutenant Yugure’s Bankai.
”You don’t belong here.”
A voice cries out from the darkest depths of Arashi’s subconscious.
”You’re pathetic, and you don’t belong. Look at you, scared, useless. Did you really think you could ever be strong? HAHAHA don’t tell me you thought you actually improved, that you seriously thought you can contribute to anything.”
Suddenly, Arashi finds himself not within the confines of the Kuchiki Manor, but floating breathlessly in the void of endless space. His inner world. Yet something wasn’t right. Not a single star shines, causing the Third Seat to see nothing but darkness, robbed of his own vision. Without regulating his spiritual pressure, he would find himself unable to breath, and find his body beginning to freeze in the cold vacuum of space.
“The only thing you’re good for is being saved by those with real strength. You ought to go back to bullying fourth and fifth seats, that's the only chance you’ll ever get to feel anything but incomptent.”
Suddenly, he sees a single speck of white. A distant star? No...it appears to be moving. Squinting his devilish eyes, Arashi can make out the slightest blur of a figure, a person. Could it be Hoshizora? No, where Hoshizora emitted a divine and glamorous golden glow, this entity was cold, lifeless. Hoshizora is the life giving warmth of a star and this....stranger, within Arashi’s innermost world, is a desolate and barren moon.
“Really, what you ought to do...”
The figure, unburdened, walks casually across the nothingness, where Arashi can only float, suspended in black without foot or hand hold. Then, the figure disappears from sight, seemingly fading into the void around them. Where are the stars, where is Hoshizora?
A voice whispers into Arashi’s ear, the coldness of his breath more chilling than the vacuum of space.
”...Is let me take over from here.”
The figure reappears now, standing before Arashi within the void of his inner world. In his hand, the stranger clutches a dormant and submissive Hoshizora, blade drawn and ready to strike. The blade begins to glow, casting light on the otherwise shrouded and obscure figure as he approaches the suspended Arashi. His clothes reflect Arashis, though their colors seem to have been inverted. Is this an arrancar? Some foreign invader terrorizing the confines of Arashi’s mind? No….as his final step towards the suspended Shinigami reveals, the stranger’s face is….why its that of Arashi's himself.
“I think it’s someone else's turn, don’t you?”
Upon the rooftop of Kuchiki Manor, Arashi Suta falls to his knees. He begins to cough violently, hacking up blood from the mouth of his mask, which splatters a blackened dark red across the fine tiles. From his mouth, a white foam starts to pour out, seeping through the crevices of his mask. This cloud of foam seems to have a life of its own. Rather than fall harmlessly to the floor, it coagulates into tendrils, then spreads to engulf the entirety of Arashi’s body. His skin begins to pale and harden, his hair begins to grow down to his shoulders, his joints pop and his bones ache as his arms start to elongate. It feels as if the entirety of his body is being torn apart, like every cell of his being is melted and reformed. Yet, as with every situation he has found himself in to date, he remains helpless to stop it. Unable to control his own body, unable to even perceive the world around him. He remains trapped in his inner world, a victim to the power he has come to embrace.
Claustrophobic, that is the only way to describe Yasu’s current state of mind. She finds herself, submerged deep within the black lagoon of her inner world. Only her head remains above the black tar, enough to note the trees of the surrounding swamp and recognize where she is, but not enough to comfortably breath. The massive moss-ridden swamp feels as though it is growing, encroaching upon Yasu. The denseness of the surrounding trees reflecting those of her own bankai, as they blot out any source of light.
What is most troubling however, is the figure before her, standing unimpeded upon the marshy black water as though it were solid ground.
“Now that was fucking fun!”
Another Yasu, similar to the true Yasu and yet slightly different in appearance. This familiar woman also appears to be made of inverted colors, and her hair is much longer than Yasu’s current style.
“Don’t you think so, loser?”
She walks towards Yasu, cracking her neck from side to side with an audible and vicious crunch. Stretching her arms as she does so, as though warming up for some violent encounter.
“Ya’ know….no one takes you seriously.”
This Hollow-like figure approaches the submerged Yasu, grabbing her by the head. She clutches a handful of pink in her cold, marble-like grasp, yanking Yasu from the water by her hair, until the Lieutenant hangs limp at eye level.
A sinister smile creeps across the figure’s face, her golden eyes staring, hungry, into Yugure’s soul.
”You really want to be a Captain, loser? That’s a fucking JOKE! YOU’RE A FUCKING JOKE!”
In a powerful explosion of movement, the Hollow would slam Yasu face first into the trunk of the nearest tree. Not releasing her grip, she pulls back and does it again, then again, and again. Splinters, fragments, and chunks of wood fly through the air, as Yugure’s head forms a crater in the base of the tree. The Hollow never seems to rellent, laughing maniacally as she does so, until the tree trunk cracks, no longer able to support itself, and plummets down into the marsh below. Blood and black ooze splatter across the Hollow’s vicious smile, and it is only then that she drops Yugure’s limp body.
”Do you hear me you little shit?! YOU’LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING! WITHOUT ME, ALL YOU ARE IS SOMETHING FOR THE TRULY STRONG TO POINT AND LAUGH AT! A LOSER, A JOKE, A WEAKLING, WHO WILL NEVER ESCAPE HER CAPTAIN’S SHADOW!”
No longer laughing, the Hollow screams in anger, her wicked smile turning into a sinister grimace. She places a foot upon Yasu’s skull, and uses her heel to grind the Lieutenant's face into the thick tar-like liquid, suffocating her. Drowning the Lieutenant, the Hollow’s anger persists as another smile cracks across her face.
”But don’t worry loser, ‘cus I’m here now.”
Immersed in the darkness of her Bankai, Yasu’s physical body begins its metamorphosis. Losing all function, all cognitive thought, the Lieutenant pays the price for her boost in power. From the pores of her skin, white tendrils of bone begin to twist and turn. They slither from her flesh, encasing her body. She begins to convulse, her back violently contorting. Her fingers rapidly expand, growing to a sharp point, as each of her ten digits transforms into a vicious blade. A tail of white sprouts from behind her, composed of bone, it swirls in the air. Low gutteral sounds escape her mask, sounding deeper and more beautiful than anything Yugure could previously emit. Her spiritual pressure spikes, and the tar around her begins to boil.
"WOOOOOOO! Now we’re TALKING! AHAHAHAHA That felt GREAT didn’t it?! We just fucking OBLITERATED that treacherous piece of shit!”
Tenzen finds himself sitting harmlessly on the surface of a calm and peaceful lake. His legs crossed, his eyes shut, as though in a meditative state. Yet, his reflection across the surface of the water tells a different story. Where the sky above Tenzen is sunny and clear, the sky reflected in the water is stormy and dark. What’s worse, reflected where Tenzen’s visage should be, is instead an inverted image of the Captain. This inner-Hollow twirls, excitedly clapping his hands together to pump himself up, before he howls, ecstatic. Still, the Hollow’s pleased expression immediately changes when he realizes he is being ignored by the Captain.
"Ya know, it’s rude to ignore people! WHY ARE YOU SUCH AN AWKWARD BASTARD?!”
At first he is enraged, his pure unadulterated anger fueled by his spiritual pressure, causing the calm surface of the water to ripple violently. Then, catching himself, the Hollow runs a hand through his hair, slicking it back, as he forms a malicious grin.
"It’s cool, yeah, it’s cool. You’ll get it…I’ll just have to beat it into you, and that’s FINE BY ME!”
The Hollow reaches out, his pale hand rapidly breaching the surface of the water to clutch Tenzen’s foot. His grip tears into Tenzen’s flesh like a bear trap, before violently yanking him below the water. The force of his pull is enough to send Tenzen plummeting down into the deepest depths of the lake with the speed of a torpedo, until he crashes, breathless, against the bottom. It is only now that the Captain may notice that the lakebed is not composed of simple dirt and muck, but of hundreds of decomposing bodies. The corpses of his victims, every soul he has ever extinguished throughout the course of his violent life.
”Come on. COME ON. Admit it. You love it. You love this. You fucking loooooove this.”
Before Tenzen can muster the power to start swimming to the surface, he feels another cold hand clutch at his ankle. Recovering from the assault, Tenzen turns to face his attacker, and finds himself face to face with the rotting remains of Shirogane Kuchiki. He is not alone, as the hundreds of corpses spring to life, they swim rapidly with what little of their bodies remain, flocking to swarm Tenzen. They surround the Captain and tug at his clothes, grabbing what flesh they can they tear at his arms and legs, hoping to rip him apart.
The Captain isn’t the only one to face such a swarm. As these reanimated victims flock to the Hollow Tenzen as well. However, the inner-Hollow only laughs, Kokūzō in hand, he gleefully swipes at and swats away any oncoming corpse, mercilessly tearing through them. He grabs one by the head, flinging it at the mob that surrounds Tenzen, before laughing as he kicks another’s head completely off.
“It can be like this forever ya know. You want it. I want it. SO LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN! What are you even doing, playing Captain? Do you even KNOW what you’re doing? Does anyone even like you? Of course not, look at you, pathetic.”
The previously clear water now diffuses to a cloudy red, the blood of Hollow Tenzen’s victims limiting visibility as he hacks and tears through the mob gripping true Tenzen. This bloody brackish does not seem to stop the pale figure, just as the water doesn’t seem to hinder his ability to move or speak. Yet, all Tenzen can see are the dead hands of the victims that swarm him, and the red of their blood. That is, until a flash of white crosses his eyes, just as a sharp pain would connect with his jaw. The Hollow Tenzen delivers a fearsome uppercut to the Captain’s head, sending him flying once more like a torpedo, up and out of the water.
Just as Tenzen breaches the water and soars into the air, Hollow Tenzen fizzles into sight, his arm thrusting out to catch the Captain by his face, not unlike how he had been trapped by Shirogane. Only this time, there was no kido that could save him.
“Now…”
Hollow Tenzen parts his fingers, allowing the Captain to see out of only one eye. His inner world no longer composed of peaceful waters and calm skies, but of a corpse-filled lake of blood overcasted by a storm cloud of pure black. It did not matter however, as all Tenzen would be able to focus on is the smiling face of his doppelganger, glaring eagerly into the Captain’s eyes.
“...look at ME.”
Captain Tenzen Oda, the last to resist his transformation. His balanced mind and peaceful soul thrust into turmoil, no longer conscience. His spiritual pressure bubbles and boils, lighting aflame with a black and gold light. He throws his body back violently, twisting at an angle that would break any normal soul’s spine. Screaming in pain, several clawed hands composed of white bone grow from his rib cage. They extend, developing into fully functional limbs as they bend and make contact with the ooze-covered ground. Then, these clusters of limbs lift, to suspend Tenzen’s body into the air, each moving on their own to form the twisted likeness of a centipede. His head jerks back suddenly, the skull-like jaw opening, to emit an ear shattering Vagido.
“ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!”
The very foundations of the Kuchiki Manor shake, as the walls of the structure crack under such pressure. This beastly roar’s power is enough to cause the black ooze of Yasu’s bankai to ripple, forcing back the substance for six feet around Tenzen, until his roar ends and the ooze comes flooding back.
Each of these Shinigami heroes find themselves locked in an internal conflict with their inner demons. They had thought this fight already won with Shirogane's defeat. However, they had come to rely on a power far beyond their understanding, and infinitely beyond their ability to control. Now, each of them paid the price for power, their bodies transformed to monsters, their very souls battling for dominance. In defeating the Pride of the Kuchiki, they had lost the Aku Hachi Hakkō, and in the process, lost themselves. What would they do now, with no true enemy to defeat, no plan to thwart, no one to save but themselves? Would their metamorphosis reach its completion, irreversibly transforming them to Hollows? As each of them gives in to their monstrous urges, they would need to feed, and as there was nothing but corpses and ooze around to consume, they would undoubtedly resort to devouring one another. The barrier which once protected Soul society, now serves as a cage confining the animals that these shinigami have become. In this way Shirogane was fortunate to meet his end.
At least his fate was certain.
