I walk tall, proud, even after all this time. This is my domain, the Muenos bow and shy away from my each footstep. They know it and I know it. Instant death awaits them should they impede me in this place. They were once persistent, aggressive animals towards me. Training is important to animals. They must learn, through the course of nature, who is the master. I am undoubtedly the master. But it wasn't always like this. These things were on me from the moment I arrived. Now look at them, cowering in the dark. I give my grey and black surroundings a sweeping glance and sigh as my fingers tease the hilt of my blade. Hueco Mundo. How, when, did you become my home? I look up to the high, bleak cliffs and spot my home, no more than a random black hole in the side of a grey cliff to any curious Hollow. I don't have the energy to jump up there; it's been a tiring day. I'll just take the stairs. I stomp up the worn stone and stop suddenly. Not for the first time in this place, a tear pricks my eye and rolls down my cheek.
I take a seat high above the ground and watch the silent, still landscape. I carved these steps after I had been here for one month. It was so rough and jagged I could barely step on it without tearing up my clothes. Now look at them, they're nearly a slope, the ridges no more than periodic bumps. I shake myself and stand, angrily brushing the tears from my eyes, but they just keep falling. I reach the cave mouth and feel a tug at my heart. I didn't make a cave to squat in; I made a palace that befitted my rule over this desolate domain. It was finished after a year. I walk slowly through my entrance hall, the walls decorated with the scratches of falling stone that I smashed from the ceiling. I left nothing undone, not even the huge stone doors that would take an age to break down. Boredom and madness will do that to you. I feel a little shock and realise something; this was the first time in a long, long time that I had ever outwardly expressed my emotion. It's been so long since I had felt anything. I slip through the huge doors and let them clunk closed quietly, lounging in my throne. I manage a cynical laugh as I look up the cushioned back that is made of rock. What drove me to this?
"Not much happened today, Len." I say to my friend. He sits on his pedestal, as he always did. He didn't answer. "Not talking to me today? You still sore about the whole beheading thing?" The skull in the bone helmet gave no reply, but a little dust did fall from the left eye socket. At least that was something.
"Hey, now that I think about it, there was something different today." Even if Len was giving me the silent treatment, I'd still talk. It was partially what kept me together, despite it making you insane in the real world. "Something's wrong with the Muenos. I think they were watching me. Not just glancing as I walked though, I mean actually scouting me. When I got back, they all just ran off in the same direction." I turn the skull and pick it up, jolting my arm to make his jaw move.
"Maybe they were going to ask if they could have me back but got a little shy." I laugh at my own joke. Maybe I had fallen harder from sanity than I thought.
"Oh, of course you have." Mocked the skull. "You're insane, but you're sane enough to know it. Having fun?" My lips purse as I get bored, once again.
"I think they betrayed you, Len, back when you called for help and they ran away. Betrayal hurts, doesn't it?" I nod sadly, remembering their promise. Their broken promise.
"We're in that boat together, my friend. It hurts."
Just as I start to sink into a pit of loathing, fate decides to mock me a little more, taking sick pleasure in teasing me as a gateway tore itself open before me, showing the sunset over a city that was far in the future since I had last walked it. The escape is right in front of me, but I don't move. There isn't any point. Yes, the world of the living floats not ten feet away from me, but nothing I ever did would get me through it. My body, my spirit, not even my bankai could shatter that invisible wall that bars me from my freedom. In the past, I had even reigned in multiple Muenos' and beat them into my service. I had used my shikai and bankai to make them open multiple gateways into the world of the living for me. It never worked. So why would this one be different? I look through the strange tear in space and my anger returns. How dare these people have such happy lives whilst I sit in this desolate place and rot?
"It wasn't my fault!" I bellow at the tear, voicing my anger so my voice resounds through my stone prison. "They betrayed me!" I grab the skull beside me and hurl it at the portal. It hit the ground with a clunk and a crack on the other side. I don't register at first, just stare in disbelief. It went through. Something that wasn't a Hollow went through. I stand slowly, a disbelieving smile slowly growing on my face as my heart begins to thunder in my chest. I stand at the entrance to what could be my freedom, when a single warm gust graces my skin. My hand shakes as I reach out for the dirty brick wall. I close my eyes... And I feel. I open my eyes and my hand is there, in the human world. For the first time in centuries, I laugh, I truly laugh. I slowly wade my way through and I hear sounds, smell scents.
"It's real! I'm free!" I embrace the world, and collapse. My body starts to slow and I fall hard. I'm dying. But at least I'll die free.
No. No, I'm not going to die now. I didn't come this far to fail now, I've spent centuries in that hell hole, why should I just accept death. I'm still intact, for now at least. Feeling my kimono weighing me down, I slump on the floor and concentrate. I'm so weak and I can barely see, but I can still attract some attention. I tense my body and shake the earth, my spiritual pressure booming like a beacon. I can only wish that someone will find me.