Rapture: The Hollow World
Going to try out this as an experiment, if this story gets positive reviews/good amount of views, I'll continue it, If not, you'll never see it again but anyway, here…we…go
Takes place within Bioshock 2 storyline and Just after the fullbring arc
Chapter one: A dead soul, A living hell
(Evening, Kuchiki family mansion within the Seireitei)
Ichigo spent the last few hours, looking at the lowering sun, golden streams of light, bending over the buildings of the Seireitei as he mulled over his final battle with Ginjō.
As the sun set below the arisen, he closed the door and took off Zangetsu from his back and laid it against the wall before taking up a crossed leg position, reaching out for Zangetsu, grabbing its bandaged hilt and laid it across his legs before closing his eyes.
"Where…am I?" Ichigo thought, he could see only darkness, his inner world seemingly missing until a suddenly burst of pain hit his temples, causing him to scream in pain as the intensity of the pain made him pass out.
When he awoke, he was faceplanted into a low depth pool; he slowly got up, using his arms to push himself up. He looked around, seeing a place that looked like it got drained from the bottom of the sea, with clumps of glowing, pink coral, sticking to parts of the walls, floor and railings, there was a staircase around the pond, as Ichigo realised, on the landing where the staircase that would have split off in two different directions, except the left side was blocked by rubble and where the central staircase finished, was a stone carving with a city with a tower in the middle, a bright light was carved into it, but, the carving had graffiti that covered most of it, which read: "Fallen, Fallen is Babylon" with a underlining mark with pictures of people underneath it.
Ichigo walked up the stairs and looked at the pictures; he recognised four of the people in the pictures, he tore them off, a look of utter disbelief on his face as he scanned each one in turn.
"Rukia…Chad… Uryū… Orihime" Ichigo said traumatically, when he had calmed down, he then noticed some slight differences with certain things: with Uryū, he was wearing the uniform of an old-fashion scientist, Rukia was wearing a petite 1960's dress and Orihime was wear a similar-period dress, but one from a higher class, as she wore a white-and-black three-piece, with a top that looked like the one she wore when she was imprisoned in Las Noches, with a similarly designed skirt and a short overcoat. Only chad looked like he normally does, with a simple plain green shirt and jeans.
Ichigo folded the pictures and put them inside a pocket inside his Shihakushō before walking up the worn-away staircase to the first floor, taking care as the staircase didn't look too stable, especially since some of it had been eroded by water.
As he walked up the stairs, when the staircase turned 90° degrees upwards to the first floor, he came across a brass vent, in a shape similar to a sun flower, with the vent hole the flower head and vines, coming down the from the flower head, down to the base of the vent where was an elevated base, which Ichigo presumed would be if someone needed to check the vent and needed something to reach the vent if needed.
Ichigo then notice two eyes peering from the darkness of the vent, glowing gold, Ichigo moved towards the glowing eyes, but then, they started to move away.
"Wait! Who are you?!" Ichigo cried out but the eyes had disappeared from sight, he knew he was too large to fit inside the small vent, so he left it and finally got the first floor, where more of the glowing, pink coral was blocking his path into the structure, he unsheathed Zangetsu and sliced through the coral like a knife through butter and pushed on.
Ichigo found himself walking into what was a large pool area, which, from looking at the ruin marble statues and once, fine furnishings, that the place used to be something grand before whatever happen to it destroyed the place.
He suddenly heard voices, coming from a corridor out of sight on the other side of the pool; he walked over to an open doorway, a sign that read: "Plasmid Treatments" above the door in glowing neon.
Ichigo walked in, there were two path ways, but the commotion was coming from the left side, he hid behind a wall so not to be seen, he saw a women running his way, she was wearing tired old clothing, with a black top and tweed dress, but the worse thing was that she was horribly deformed, with large tumours and a growth on her foot resembling a high heel, her face was missing her nose, her scalp was balding and her eyes and cheeks were shaped asymmetrically. She was running away, terror in her eyes before a pistol shot rang out, her brains were blown out her head as she fell to the floor, the right side of her face missing, a slimily, disfigured doctor walked up to the corpse, the pistol he used to shot her had small amounts of smoke, coming from the barrel.
"Nurse! Come and clean this up and then we'll call it a day, it's filthy" The doctor spoke as he leaned over the body, Ichigo expected someone else to come when he mentioned a nurse, but no one did.
"This guy's out his goddamn mind, I need to get past him though, so…" Ichigo thought as he moved into the light from his hiding spot from the wall, the doctor spun round as he looked at Ichigo.
"You know that killing women isn't something someone like you should do…" Ichigo said, easily dodging a bullet from the crazed doctor.
"I'm the goddamn doctor!" The doctor shouted at him, firing more bullets into thin air as Ichigo effortlessly dodged his attacks until he ran out of ammo, to which the doctor cursed himself before Ichigo used his Shunpo to appear in front of him, knocking him out with Zangetsu's hilt and continuing on his way.
Ichigo walked through the corridor that the doctor had come from, finding a reception area, he noticed as he went passed the counter of an old dispenser on the wall with the word: "Eve" on the top of it, the sliver of glass in the centre showed syringes with a blue apple logo, filled with a blue liquid, which had a slight glow to it, he walked around the counter to the dispenser, touching it and it dispensed a syringe with the blue liquid inside, he grabbed it, observing the liquid inside before putting away inside his Shihakushō before returning to the object of interest that had caught his attention before; A vending machine, which a dark pink-and-silver design, which a large sign, connected to the top which read, "Gatherer's Garden: Genetic modifications" in pink neon, with a funnel near the top, which had a dispenser underneath and a glass tube along the left side, which had about four wide bottles, which a bloody-red liquid, that bubbled, the cap had a design of a face with red glass eyes, properly due to the red liquid in the top.
Ichigo then noticed that a bottle was in the mouth of the dispenser, with a faded, yellow ribbon around the top, Ichigo grabbed it, there were two labels; the first was on the bottle itself, which read: "Raikōhō", the other was a gift tag around the ribbon, written in a little girl's handwriting, which read, "Hurry, Father from…" Ichigo stared at the name at the end.
"R-Rukia?" Ichigo muttered under his breath, hardly able to believe it, there was an empty needle sitting in the dispenser, lying down since Ichigo had removed the bottle, making it fall over onto its side, he grabbed the needle with his right, stabbing the lid, the bottle hissed as the air pressure seal was broken, he then used the needle to draw out the red liquid before casting the bottle away, he was shaking slightly, not sure if this was a great idea, but decided against his better judgement and injected it into his left wrist.
The red liquid had only just entered his bloodstream when an immense pain hit his temples, his left hand started sparking with yellow lightning, the pain in his head was like someone going down glass with a nail, and he fell to the ground on his knees, his hands on the ground.
The pain then stopped as soon as it came, his vision was split up, his head pounding and his breathing heavy, sweat dripping of his forehead. He looked up slowly, reacting to someone approaching, but found only a little girl, holding a mismatched plushie of some sort of robot-like thing in her arms, she had brown hair, tied at the back in a ponytail with a blue bow, with a blue period dress that matched the one Rukia was wearing in the picture, but she wore no shoes, her skin was pale, with scratch marks over her legs and arms and her eyes were glowing gold.
"Daddy was gone… for such a long time and Rukia has missed you, find her and you'll be all better" The little girl said slowly and calmly, coming up to Ichigo's face, a hopefully and happy look on her face, but she then got grabbed by a slender-look thing, so fast that Ichigo didn't have time to see it properly before it escaped.
"Daddy!" the little one screamed before the thing went through the door, breaking the switch as she passed.
He got up off the floor, his left hand sparking with gold lightning, by an instinctive drive; he raised his left hand towards the door the thing had gone through, where a shorted-out switch was, blue sparks flying off it.
"Raikōhō!" Ichigo called out, his left hand fired a stream of gold lightning at the switch, forcing it to life, making the door open with a girding of gears.
"This stuff is a pain in the ass but it may still be useful" Ichigo thought as he walked through the now open door, back into the pool area, were another deformed man was standing on a diving board, he was wearing some sort of security uniform, which covered most of the deformities, only his ruined face told him anything, although the man hadn't noticed him yet, he snuck up on him, Zangetsu drawn off his back, he then carved his head in, splitting it in two like a watermelon, he then fell into what was left of the pool water, his brains leaking out into the water.
A scream then echo out and another version of the women he saw dead, charged him with a pipe, which was laughable considering Ichigo's zanpakutō, he instead lifted his left hand again, towards her.
"Raikōhō!" Ichigo called out, unleashing a gold lightning blast on her, stopping her in her tracks, giving Ichigo enough time to slash her head off, blood spurting out her neck she fell and continued to flow onto the marble floor.
"What the hell is this place? And more to the point…" Ichigo looked at the headless corpse of the deformed women, "…What the hell happened to the people?" Ichigo finished his thought, seeing a broken generator on the side of the pool that the women must have been hiding, he looked at his left hand, curiously, he raised his arm, pointing it at the panel under a sign that read: "Warning! High Voltage Point".
"Raikōhō!" Ichigo called out, blasting the panel with the gold lightning, the generator roared into life, the lights came on, although a few burst from not having power for so long, so they had shorted out, then the electricity flowed along wires that hung from an antenna on the generator to a door across from it on the opposite side of the room, which opened with a groan, the center of the door, which had the equivalent to a steam train's running gear, moved around inside the door before it raised into the ceiling, Ichigo used his Shunpo to travel over the pool, ending up on the raised area of the room with the now open door, to which he walked through to the changing room block, the first sight he saw was the window, which was the first proper indication that the place hadn't been drained on dry land, but still underwater, a large person, wearing an old-fashion orange diving suit, with an iron helmet with three, lit portholes, indicating a yellow colour and it carried an old rivet gun, using it to seal the leak in the window's steel supports, before slowly moving away.
Ichigo turned the corner, another door opened at his presence; he saw an open room, with a large pond in it, large enough that a small bridge ran across it, in the water were two deformed people, one a lady like before and a doctor, with same deformities, they were too busy looking around in the water to notice Ichigo approach them.
"We've been looking through this water for the past hour and not bit of ADAM to be seen" The women complained to her cohort, the Doctor replied harshly.
"Shut up, you filth, you constant complaining is what forced us here in the first place" he barked back, wangling his finger at her.
"ADAM? Is that the stuff from before…?" Ichigo thought, remembering the bottle of red liquid and the effects of it he could feel working inside his body as it pumped round his system, he shook his head, turning his attention to the two in the water, he then got an idea, he pointed his left hand at the water the two people were standing in.
"Raikōhō!" he called out, sending the blast of golden lightning into the water, the two people were electrified, slowly falling into the water until their lifeless bodies were floating in the water, he then walked around the pond and used the bridge to get to the other side, entering another hallway, with a dead diver like the one from before and his rivet gun stuck in a door, the door mechanism was jammed on it, stopping it from closing properly, Ichigo moved the rivet gun out the way, the door slammed shut, resetting itself before opening itself again, into another small outlet, with a clinic on one side, another door in front and two sets of stairs that lead downwards, somewhere Ichigo thought he defiantly didn't want to go, since more of the deformed people could be lying in wait in the dark, making him an easy target.
He check the small open clinic, but the only thing he found was another syringe with the glowing, blue liquid and a first aid kit, both he took, just in case he found a use for either of them since he didn't know what to expect from this hell hole of a place as he was just realising from the fanfare he got from entering the place.
Ichigo walked up to the main door, which slid into the ceiling and found a little girl, like the one before, only with two ponytails and a yellow period dress, she was stabbing the corpse on the floor with a syringe-like device, with a large but thin needle, a trigger and a storage device at the back of the syringe, that had the look of a baby bottle, filled with the red liquid from before, his stomach growled at it, like it wanted more of it, but Ichigo quickly hushed it.
The little girl noticed him and walked up to him, a gleeful smile her face, but then the room erupted with a high-pitched scream, the wires going berserk, powering some of the electrical signs and devices, although some sent a few sparks out as they powered up, the little girl shuddered in fear.
"Big sister doesn't like me playing with daddy" The little girl said, when a figure, moving fast then he thought was normally possible for a human, stick to one of the pillars on the above floor before slamming right into Ichigo, he could see it more clearly now as he was face-to-face with it, it wore a white, cotton bodysuit, with a large sphere helmet with two portholes, one at the front and one to the side and an iron collar, it had an oxygen tank on the right side and a brass basket, decorated with purple ribbons as well as having light body support around the arms and legs.
What was concerning Ichigo though was the needle-like weapon that was attached to a wrist-mounted device, a more versatile version of what the little one was using, which was pointed directly at his face, the porthole in front of him, glowing a bright red, illuminating the scene, making it just as creepy as any death stare.
The big sister cocked her head from side-to-side before leaping off him to lead near a destroyed staircase, that would have gone up to the first floor, Ichigo got up, readying Zangetsu as the little one rushed to a vent and got inside before they started fighting.
"Getsuga Tenshō!" Ichigo called out as he swung his sword, generating a curved blue wave of energy at the big sister, the big sister used her hands to levitate and pull stuff from around the room to try and take some of the impact, even with lifting up the sculpture in the middle of the room and several chairs and a few tables, she still got sent into a wall, cracking it as well as leaving her body outlined in the stonework.
The big sister got down, screeching at Ichigo before two fireballs appeared in her hands, she then fire them rapidly at them in a barrage of flames, Ichigo brought up Zangetsu to block the fireballs that were aimed at his face, the flames parting pass the blade and went around him, the intense heat flowing with the flames, creating a heat wave around him when they died down.
Ichigo and the big sister charged each other, the big sister with her wrist-mounted needle and Ichigo with Zangetsu; they clashed, send out a small-shockwave from the impact of the blades, sparks flying from the clash, Ichigo then focused his reiatsu through Zangetsu, The blade glowing blue in the progress.
"Getsuga…Tenshō!" Ichigo cried out, firing the Getsuga Tenshō at point-blank range, slamming into the big sister, breaking her needle as well as creating a large slash wound on her chest, the big sister let out a high-pitched scream before she ran out the grand hall, crashing through a wooden barrier and disappeared into the corridor.
"Wait! We're not done!" Ichigo yell, chasing after her, through the door with the sign that read: "Demeter's Banquet Hall" he saw the shadow of the big sister on the far wall, which disappeared down another hallway, he saw writing on the wall which read: "We will be reborn in the womb of the ocean" underlined, a dead corpse underneath it.
"The guy must have written that before he died" Ichigo thought solemnly as he walked passed him and turn, facing a large, open plan room that may have once been a fancy dining room, but the grand staircase that would have lead down was destroyed, the tables and chairs stacked against either side of the room and a large glass window with stone frame and had two statues in front of it of what Ichigo presumed to be Demeter, the statues bending at the hips towards each other, their arms spread wide at the sides.
The big sister, who Ichigo managed to injure earlier, suddenly dashed from the shadows, using what was left of her needle to send a large slice through the large glass widow, which start leaking and burst before Ichigo could even tell what was going on, he then got slammed in the face with what feel like a ton of sea water.
Ichigo looked round first for the big sister, but she had disappeared before the window broke, he opened his mouth, bubbles leaked and held his mouth at first, before opening again and realising that he could still breath fine, he then swam out the now, ruined window and went to walk on the sea floor until he came across a large open abyss, but as he came closer to it, he eyes wide as he come see what looked like a large city, one that looked American to him, with large tall buildings and the American styling, he was fairly sure of that, although he was shocked at how such a place could even exist down below the ocean.
He finished staring and walked passed a corridor, where another type of the diver men was busy fighting some deformed people, his helmet and body suit were different though, it had a wider helmet with six portholes, two at the front and four, two on each side and a shoulder-mounted weapon, that fired rockets at the deformed people, sending them flying all over the place, Ichigo could also see a little one, stabbing her needle into a corpse the diver man was protecting, but he decided not to stay and watch the bloodbath so he continued down the slope until he came to a small room, with fans and a door, an electronic sign above the door repeated a message: "Airlock to Atlantic Express" Ichigo walked in, a lever on the left side, which was connected to a pointer which two options: Drain/flood, Ichigo pulled the lever backwards so the pointer was on the "Drain" option, the door behind Ichigo slid shut, the fan started up, filling the room with air, draining the water until compartment was rid of the water, Ichigo heard a tinging sound, properly to indicate that it was finished, the door slid down and Ichigo step out, not knowing of the dangers that lay ahead.
That's all for now, If you like this story, give it a review doing so or something that lets me know if you like this story, if so, I'll write another chapter for this but if no one is interested, then I'll let it as it stands.
Anyway…
Next time:
The Hollows of Lamb! The return of The regretful soul!