The White Devil

Chapter one Grey Dust

Hello, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki, or well, it used to be. A lot has happened since the time when I was called that. A lot has changed.

I sit now in hueco mundo the hollow world, on a hill of grey sand. The sky is pitch black and it forever stays that way, with a curved moon that so often makes an appearance, that is about the only light you get. But my hollow eyes adjusted very quickly. It's do or die in this place. You either evolve or you become a corpse. I chose to live.

My claws played with the sand digging wells and letting the hard grains flush into my palm. The contrast of the two colours was rather striking. My white hard skin made everything close to me look duller. But this place is pretty dull anyway. There's not much colour at all apart from the moon. Even the trees that I don't think ever lived are a shade of grey.

Clouds roll by now and again but even they are dark and distressing. Everything about this place screams death and decay, and yet I choose to live here. I can't remember why I chose that, I only know that at that time it was my best option.

I sat and thought back to the time when everything had changed so dramatically.

I was once a boy, a teenage boy, with hair short and spiky, not long like it is now, hair orange the very colour of the setting sun.

I remember that day, not fully but bits come back to me. It's getting harder to remember them though, as if that whole part of me will one day disappear for good.

It had been a normal day I recall, but the beast inside of me had wanted to be free. It had started every few days, but on that particular day for reasons unknown the beast had wanted out and Ichigo had fled with worry of hurting others. The shinigami had ordered him to be executed. He was a danger to all life after all, and if I am remembering correctly, that's why I came here, to hide and to wait.

But for the life of me I cannot tell you how long ago that was, only that it's all a distant memory to me now. I am no longer that boy so eager to live. I am no longer a human at all. A hole sits in my chest showing my missing heart, but yet I think more than other hollows do. I have real thoughts and real dreams, but sometimes I worry that I will also lose them someday, after all a hollow doesn't need such things.

I heard a slithering noise and looked down to find a small hollow snake, its body was a dull purple and its head was a white mask. I snatched it up before it knew what was coming and bit into the mask crushing its head into tiny pieces.

This is the only food. Hollow. You eat other hollow to survive, usually the little hollows but now and again I get lucky and feast on larger creatures. It didn't exactly taste good, it was dry, like chewing on bone. But it filled a gap in my stomach and my soul so I swallowed the rest of it down anyway.

In a place like this you have to be quick and fast if you want to eat. And if you don't eat you become the dull grey sand that is this earth.

Pitiful I thought as I stood up and watched a breeze catch the smaller grains of sand, they swirled making patterns before being dropped into their new resting places. I was bored and hungry. I wanted a fight or at least to feel something again. Anything, any kind of rush would do.

I started to walk. My legs were stiff from lack of movement but i pushed them forward knowing full well that I was stronger than this. I have become rusty and dull, just like everything in this hell hole of a world.

I walked and walked. I walked till my feet and legs became numb and I felt nothing, not even the sand under my claws, not how cold they felt, nor how rough.

There wasn't much left of my uniform. Only a small amount of black shorts remained. It was the sand that did it, it corroded everything away even clothing, even skin.

Seeing the scraps of uniform I thought about my old life and what I was.

Human. The word seems almost like a joke I had never been in on. Human, what does human even mean.?

Ichigo…hmm what a silly name I hissed which seemed to be my form of laughing. What must it be like to feel human? To have one life, and to be able to die so easily. What pity what despair.

I passed a group of trees that were dry dead and twisted. I wasn't even sure if they were trees, they were almost like crystal or more rock. I sensed something in the branches and I stopped to look.

There was another hollow there. Only a small one. This one had wings and the body of a bird. Its feathers were green and its feet were a very deep orange. Its mask was bright white and I could see red eyes within its dark sockets.

As soon as it sensed me it left flying off into the air. I watched as it dived and soared and it reminded me of something but I couldn't quite figure out what. I shook myself and carried on walking. I wasn't heading in any particular direction I just wanted to be somewhere. Anywhere.

I thought about what the real world looked like, but it was hard to picture it while in this world. Hard to think about what sunlight looked like, or how the sky became starry at night. Not like this place. There is never any sun, and the sky is as bleak as everything else. The only company is that moon but even that seems fed up, the way it curls makes me wonder if it's shrivelling up like the trees.

I sort of remember what a town looks like. Loads and buildings and cars, people everywhere too busy to take notice of much around them. What must it be like to live that way? To communicate with others of your own kind and to even enjoy it.

A twig snapped and I stopped and turned, behind a tree came another hollow. This one the size of a small bear, it looked rather wolf like. Its body was long with fur and it had four legs. Its tail was different then a normal wolf though, it was longer and skinnier. Its claws were sharer, and its mask was long and pointed in the shape of a snout. Its white bone ears stuck out like triangles on top of its head.

I growled at the thing warning it. And the thing growled back.

It wasn't common to pass so many hollow in one place but today must be my lucky day.

The wolf ran at me showing rows of sharp pointed teeth. This wasn't even a challenge. I moved out of its way at the last second turning back on it as it rushed passed me. I drove my claws along its side creating four grooves in its flesh like train tracks.

The creature howled and fell to the floor in a heap. It tried to move but its legs were weakened so I put it out of its misery. I took the sword that always remained in one hand and plunged it into its side. It died instantly.

I don't know why I kept the sword. I often heard whispers coming from its blade now and again. Whispers I could never make out. It's as if it wanted me to notice it more. But I barely ever did. It was just something that came along with me, like my uniform that had little meaning now.

I bent near the corpse and started to eat. Again there wasn't much taste at all but it filled my soul some and so I feasted. I was rather lucky, this was a big meal, and having a snack also in the same day was very unheard of. Sometimes I end up not eating for weeks on end. Hollows may live in this world, and it may be there world but that doesn't mean there are many of them. They space themselves out some choosing to be alone, and some finding shelter in groups. Either way I hunted them all.

I finished the last of the strange flesh and used a bone as a tooth pick. My teeth weren't pointed but designed for crushing instead which sometimes was a disadvantage.

I decided to stop walking as my stomach felt slightly full but even so no matter how much I eat I will always have this empty feeling sitting there. It's never been full, and I doubt it ever will be. I have no idea what fills it, if something can.

I put my back to the floor and stare at the sky though there is very little to stare it.

I think about the real world and what the sky must look like back there. If the stars make shapes and twinkle like how I remember. But my memory serves them no justice, they have no shine, just a dull haze that doesn't fully reach me.

I realise I miss it. That place with so much commotion and yet so much life. I miss being a part of it yet I know that will never be my life again, and I don't exactly want it to be either.

I crave excitement most of all I guess. I crave doing something that makes my blood boil and my rage surge.

A sudden image flashes into my head, one that I really should be able to remember except I don't. I didn't even know it was a part of my own memory, maybe it isn't.

I see a boy, tall and slim with bright orange hair that spikes naturally into all different directions. There are a few strands that lay near his eyes, they don't cover them but they almost frame them perfectly, making the brown stand out even more. There like pools of melting light chocolate. And there's someone next to him. A girl with hair that looks orange too but darker and deeper. The hair is long and flows down her back delicately. I want to touch that hair, to trace my fingers through it as if dipping my fingers into water.

She has a kind face. A face that looks like she should never see any hardships because it just wouldn't be right. And cool grey eyes, that turn on when she looks at the boy.

I know this boy is what I use to be, I knew straight away but I find it strange to look at myself like this. It's not me now and it never will be.

The girl smiles at him and he sort of smiles back, his smile is genuine though but restricted like he's not sure he should be smiling, As if he has better things to do like going off and saving the world.

But the woman understands this, I can see it by the way she seems so at ease looking at him. Like she can read him like a book. Better then he knows himself. And like that the image ends and I'm left staring at the blank sky.

Who is she? I wonder and why did she appear like that? And why was I looking at an image of myself like an out of body experience?

I'm not sure, but I've heard rumours from other hollow that some of us get memories of our human lives, some go crazy after seeing them how ever faint they affect the way you feel, and for a hollow to feel, it isn't very natural. We just have hunger, greed hate, and lust. We don't need feelings like worry or happiness, or any of the other emotions that stick to humans like parasites.

I closed my sight and welcomed the darkness that washed over me. It was cold and creeping and I loved the feeling.

But the warm glow that woman and boy left behind stayed within my sight for some time.