The noble warrior riding the sands of eternity…the beast of the winds…the friend turned traitor and back…the moon's chosen emissary…and their enemy, the one who bathes in the blood of his foes. Their origins have been told…now we must move on. There is one that this enemy fears…one who will rise from the ashes of hell and claim victory…
The door of the hall opened. Columns of black onyx lined the walls, leading the way to the pale throne at the far end. A figure in a white cloak strode across the floor, approaching the figure in the chair.
"My Lord," said the figure in white. "I hope I find you well?"
"Dispense with the pleasantries, Rojo, I want to know how our search is going," the enthroned person said. His face was shrouded in darkness; all that could be seen was a pair of glowing white eyes. The man, if man he was, was garbed in a skintight white coat with black stripes extending out from a small hole in the center of his chest. His arms were clad in a pair of black, jagged, multi-faceted gauntlets. Lying across his knees was a pair of long knives each with two serrated edges on their sable blades.
"Very well," spoke the man in white. He raised his head to reveal a harsh smile, his eyes hidden from view by a white mask with six red keyhole shaped symbols adorning the lower edge. "We have garrisoned several of the old Togabito lairs with our soldiers. We unfortunately don't know where she is yet."
"I want her found, Rojo!" growled his superior. "You are our strongest weapon in this war. I don't want any of your weaknesses standing in our way."
"Yes, sir," said Rojo, clearly dismayed at being called a weapon. "She will be in our grasp, at last, and then I will end her."
"Good."
Unbeknownst to the Hollow and his leader, in the shadows, a Shinigami lurked. She had gotten what she came for.
Soul Society, just below Sokyoku Hill…
Two Shinigami walked together toward the base of the cliff. They were a young man and woman, the man with long, spiky brown hair and blue eyes, and the woman with vivid green eyes and short black hair falling over her right eye.
They were both captains, as evidenced by their white haori coats. The man's coat had the kanji for three on the back and the woman's coat a nine.
Kujo Shihoin, for it was him, pulled up a trap door cleverly obscured in the rock. "I learned my Bankai in this place. How appropriate I should also conquer my Hollow in the same cave."
"As long as I don't have to worry about you dying because of it," the woman said.
Kujo looked back at her, smiling fondly. "Thanks, Kazetora. I'll make sure of it." Kujo really wasn't sure of it; in fact he was quite nervous. The two of them jumped into the hole now opened in the cliff face, descending into the shadows.
When they reached the bottom, they walked between a pair of stalagmites, where they found Rose Otoribashi. The former captain now wore the standard shihakusho and a haori with four stars in a cross on the back, circled by the logo of the Gotei Thirteen.
"What's with the funky symbol?" asked Kazetora.
"Kensei, Shinji and I have all been appointed to the senior membership of the Zero Division." He paused, and then added, "It's not funky at all."
"Whatever you say," Kujo said. "What must be done?"
"Follow me," Rose told him. "Then you will see."
A little suspicious, Kujo and Kazetora trailed behind Rose as he strode deeper into the cavern.
They emerged into the widest section, and Rose led them over to a rock in the center. Upon the rock sat a young woman with black hair in a braid and sea-green eyes wearing purple oval shaped glasses, a white sailor's jacket and a navy blue pleated miniskirt.
"Lisa and I are the only Visoreds who are still here," explained Rose. "I wanted to stay so I could help you."
The woman named Lisa had gotten off of her rock. Kujo swore he could see her shove a magazine into her pocket as she stood up. "I've got a bone to pick with that Arrancar for killing my former captain." Seeing Kujo's confused look, she added, "Kyoraku was my captain one hundred-twenty years ago. If you are the one who's going to stop that murderer, I want you at your best."
Kujo nodded. "I can do that. Don't you worry about a thing."
"Then let's get started."
Kujo stood in the center of a square cut into the dirt. Rose, Lisa, and Kazetora were lined up along an edge of the square.
Rose looked concerned. "If only we had Hachi, this would be less…destructive…and dangerous."
"Why? Who is this 'Hachi'?" asked Kujo.
"He was lieutenant of the Kido Corps when I was first a captain, over a century ago," said Rose. "Sosuke Aizen transformed us into Hollows. We had no choice but to become Visoreds." He sighed. "Then we went into hiding, and Hachi went to work developing new Kido techniques. His specialty is barriers…they would really come in handy here."
"That was how we did it with Ichigo Kurosaki," added Lisa.
"My lieutenant? He's a Visored?" asked Kujo.
"Not anymore," Rose said. "He uses only his Shinigami powers now. It turns out he was duped by his so called 'Zanpakuto', Zangetsu. You know, of course, about the Quincy War?"
"Yeah. The Quincy king was called Yhwach, right?"
"Indeed. Yhwach planted a piece of his soul in Ichigo which masqueraded as Zangetsu. Ichigo took his true power away from Yhwach. It was what he originally thought was his inner Hollow."
"We are sure what you have is the real thing, though," said Lisa. "We are evidence enough that inner Hollows really do exist."
"Enough talk, it's time to finish this!" said Kujo forcefully.
"Agreed!" said Rose. "Bakudo no Nanajugo: Gochuutekkan (Way of Binding #75: Five-Pillared Iron Weights)!" He clasped his hands and slammed them into the ground. With a loud boom five huge metal rods smashed Kujo to the ground.
"What are you doing!?" shouted Kazetora.
"It's a rough process, and often a scary one, so we must restrain him before we begin." Rose told her. "Be prepared to fight if necessary."
"Very well," she said firmly.
It was a little bit of a wait. Then it came. Suddenly Kujo began to twitch on the ground, and Rose drew his sword, stepping forward.
CRACK! CRUNCH! The pillars creaked and began to break up. And then a roiling torrent of blue-black reiatsu blazed out of Kujo, who shattered the pillars and got to his feet.
Kazetora reeled back in horror. The thing that Kujo had become…it was already terrifying.
His eyes were wide and dark blue with black sclera, and already a few strips of dark gray linen were winding their way around his torso. But worst of all was the screeching, maniacal laughter rising from his throat.
"Let's do this, you monster!" yelled Rose and he charged.
Cackling, the not-Kujo drew his sword and ran toward his opponent. Their weapons met with a momentous clang and the earth around them shattered.
"Smash, Hagurotonbo (Iron Drink Dragonfly)!" shouted Lisa as she connected her sword to its sheath and swung it around. She struck at the creature with a massive polearm that had a monk's spade on one end and a round weight on the other. It was blocked by a cloud of Hollow energy which manifested behind the creature, the energy and the blade sparking against each other. This'll be hard, she thought.
Kujo was lying face down in a sand dune. He got to his knees, wiping the sand off of his face, and looked around. He stood in an endless desert, raging sandstorms crawling their way across the far-off horizon. Kujo turned around. About ten feet further on began the slopes of a huge pyramid stretching toward the heavens, a pyramid whose golden capstone was engraved with an Egyptian ankh symbol on every side. A memory entered Kujo's brain…He stood at the zenith of this very structure, and before him floated a figure in brown robes, the black voids in the eyeholes of its gold death mask swirling...the figure spoke to him…"Boy,"it said. "Do you want to wield my power?" Kujo had firmly answered yes. "Then tell me…my name!" Kujo looked up into the shifting sunlight…he saw the answer…he gazed back at the figure's face, so obscured by its false golden one, and shouted in his mind and heart…"Sunaarashi!" Kujo shouted up the slopes of the monument, now in the present. "Sunaarashi! Where are you?!"
"I would not go looking for him in vain," spoke a high, rippling voice. Kujo whipped around. Nothing there.
"He's not here. I'm all you've got to face," said the voice.
"Then face me, you coward," Kujo said to thin air. He turned slowly. Stood upon the tenth step of the pyramid was…Kujo, but not Kujo at the same time. He wore a white shihakusho and a black haori coat with white markings, black boots and gauntlets with navy blue markings, a silver chain supporting a silver Shihoin crest, lime green ribbons cascading down his back, and by his side a katana with a silver tsuba shaped like a rhombus, a dark red tsuka with black hilt metal and a silver pommel cap with a dark red tassel attached. Kujo looked into his Hollow's face, with its pale complexion, dark blue and black eyes and spiky gray hair.
"I'm here to end this. You're not going to corrupt my soul any longer," Kujo told him.
"Your soul is already mine, Kujo," said the Hollow. "As you can see, I am dominant. Sunaarashi is a part of me now."
"And why should I allow that?" asked Kujo.
"You were unable to wield my power without tiring yourself out. Those Hollow soldiers you faced would have killed you if that little girlfriend of yours wasn't there to protect you. I will not sit and watch you burn, for if you do so do I. So let me ask you: Why should I allow that?"
Kujo drew his sword. So did the Hollow.
"Engulf, Sunaarashi!" they yelled as one.
Spiraling around the pyramid, the two matched warriors traded an intricate set of blows, their Shikai whirling around them, slashing against each other relentlessly. Kujo brought his Shikai sands together into a blade and struck at his opponent's shoulder. Hollow Kujo blocked it with the exact same technique, and retaliated to the opposite location. Kujo flash stepped behind him, and swung at his head. Hollow Kujo appeared even behind Kujo, and kicked him into the rolling dunes surrounding the pyramid. The Hollow raised his sword and lunged into the fray again, bringing it down for the final blow. Kujo stopped it with his sword and attacked. Hollow Kujo grabbed the sword by the blade and flung Kujo into the side of the pyramid.
Kujo stood up shakily. "You think this will finish me?" He raised his sword point down, and stabbed it into the rock. "Bankai!" he shouted. "Sunaarashi Isoireppu!"
Hollow Kujo grinned. And then he did the same thing.
"When did you…" stuttered Kujo.
"When you did, if it wasn't obvious enough, dimwit." The Hollow was clearly annoyed now. "Come at me, and we'll see who's better at Bankai!"
Kazetora slashed at the Hollow creature's neck. The same energy shield kept blocking all of her attacks, and the three were starting to get fed up. She jumped back and stopped to assess the situation. Kujo's entire chest and left arm were now clad in dark gray bandages, and they were working towards his head. As she watched, she noticed something change in the world. With a sudden jerk, the Hollow stopped. Suddenly its sword dissolved and black steel three-pronged pikes grew out of the earth at its sides. They exploded into a sandstorm of glowing cobalt blue dust and formed into a single blue energy sword, the sandstorm still trailing off of it.
"Sunaarashi Isoireppu," came that horrible voice. "Namiutsu Kawa no Shikensu, Sanban: Mizutaki (Crushing Waterfall)!" Suddenly black-blue energy whirled around not-Kujo's figure, entwining its entire head in dark gray bandages and affixing dark bronze armor to its shoulders and arms and a spiked skull-like mask to its face.
"He's fully Hollowfied!" shouted Rose. "Lisa, what's our time!?"
"Eighty-three minutes!" she told him. "He'd better finish up soon!"
Kujo swung up Mizutaki and brought it down on the Hollow's Yama no Kao no Shikensu. Hollow Kujo activated Nadare and blew Kujo back. The two raced around the pyramid, trading earth shaking blows. I've got to finish this now, Kujo said to himself. "Senkei (Slaughterscape), Mizutaki!" he shouted. The trail of sands solidified into a chain of pikes and Kujo whipped them at the Hollow.
"I don't think I'll play this game anymore," Hollow Kujo said. He grabbed the first pike out of the air, and it turned cobalt blue. All of them did, and the Hollow gathered them up, bringing them into sword form again. "This is over!" he shouted at Kujo. And he shattered the sword into nothingness, and charged in, stabbing his own sword right through Kujo's chest.
Kujo knelt dismally in the sand. He eyed the pyramid above him, its capstone now shining with the light of the setting sun, a seemingly cold light for such a sad time. The sword in his chest froze him like a sliver of ice. And Kujo saw a face in his mind…a face whose eyes were covered by a pale mask, a sibilant smirk frozen on its lips. He saw the figure blast a beam of red energy, blowing away an unseen person, who Kujo somehow knew was himself…and he realized.
"You allowed that simple, worthless Mod Arrancar to walk all over you…you just sat there and let him. You're weak," said Hollow Kujo. "You did nothing…I would kill him with a stronger power than himself…you cannot." He grinned. "That's why I should be in control. Not you. You are worthless as well."
He started to pull his sword out of Kujo. As it left his chest, Kujo's downcast eyes noticed something…a trail of blue sand rolling off the tip of the blade…like one more lifeline, a last chance for redemption. Shuddering, he reached out and let it fall on his palm. "Come b-" he started. And the fine dust turned orange. "Come back here!" Kujo shouted.
The Hollow turned and looked at Kujo in shock. Kujo stood up to his full height, the full form of his Bankai roiling around him once more…and he started forward. He leapt into the air, descending rapidly upon the one he had to defeat, thrust out his hand, and stabbed through the Hollow's chest with the sandstorm clinging to his arm.
"I guess you had that killer instinct somewhere in you after all." Hollow Kujo said grudgingly, "Feel it coursing through your brain, and never let go of that feeling." His body was beginning to dissolve; Kujo knew he had seconds to drive home his point.
"I don't want to be a monster like you who loves battle, but I must be ready for it." Kujo told him sternly. "I am king here; I will never let you lord over me again."
"You'd better not. But if you do, I will do what I promised: I will consume you, and obliterate you. If you don't want that to happen, just don't die. Be careful with my power. I'll have you know, it's not what your Visored friends think it is."
The not-Kujo raised his hand and slashed down towards Lisa with the wave of energy he wielded, and Lisa dodged, flash stepping above him and swinging Hagurotonbo toward his head. He stopped her blade with a hand and slashed again.
Lisa jumped back, skidding in the dirt. Then the Hollow charged up white energy in his hand and blasted it at Lisa. Rose suddenly stepped in front of her and slashed away the beam, then pointed his sword forward. "Play, Kinshara," he said. "Kinshara Sokyoku Dai Jusanban: Fuun no Kikoeru (Golden Sal Tree Symphony the Thirteenth: Cacophony of Misfortune)!"
The creature quickly threw out its arms in defense as Rose's golden whip encircled it and began to bombard it with deafening sound waves. The Hollow's Bankai blasted out in retaliation, and blew Rose's Shikai away from it. Rose manipulated the whip expertly to lash out repeatedly at the creature, which repelled it with bursts of sand. It then blasted Rose with another Cero, and he effortlessly dodged around to the Hollow's other side.
Kazetora descended on the Hollow from above, now using Bankai to full effect. "Kitakaze Zangeki: Hyôsosai!" she shouted, and encased the Hollow in twenty feet of ice. She landed hard next to Rose, and Lisa appeared next to her. There appeared to be no movement from the Hollow within the glacier; then it rumbled, as if in anticipation of a momentous event. The ice crackled, then fractures appeared in its depths. It suddenly exploded outward, and the three combatants raised their weapons, ready to fight again.
Amid the mist remaining after the ice's decimation there appeared a dark figure. As they watched, the Hollow's gray linen wrappings began to rip and crack. Suddenly all of the bandages below the shoulders fell away, and the armor on the right shoulder broke apart, leaving Kujo's usual attire underneath. Only the mask and bandages on his left arm remained. Kujo's sealed Zanpakuto reformed in his hand, and suddenly their friend fell towards the ground. Kazetora ran forward and caught him as he fell, and he was limp in her arms.
"Please don't be dead." Kazetora pleaded.
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then Kujo coughed and sputtered like an old engine starting for the first time in years.
"Why would you think that?" he gasped. "I made you a promise."
Tears forming in her eyes, Kazetora embraced her friend. "I'm glad you're okay. I won't ask why your voice sounds like that."
"It's an unfortunate side effect of this particular power." Rose explained. "Don't let it unnerve you."
Kujo allowed his mask to dissipate. "I think I've had enough weird stuff happen for a while."
"Unfortunately it can't end here." Rose told them. "You're strong. We'll have to see how long you can maintain that mask in heavy combat, but-"
"Here's the thing, though," Kujo interrupted. "When I was in my inner world, and I defeated my Hollow, he told me about this power. It isn't used the way other Visoreds use their power."
"Well." Rose continued, looking troubled. "Our training methods probably won't have any effect."
"It seems like I can't actually summon that mask again, until the opportune moment." Kujo explained.
"It pains me to say it," Rose told him, "But it may be that you will have to figure it out yourself."
"This worries you." Kujo pointed out.
"Yes. A solo training in the field for an unknown form of Visored power could be dangerous."
"But it's all we've got." Kujo said.
"Exactly. That's why I'm not protesting. I think you can do it."
"Thanks. I can't tell you-" BOOOOOMMMM!
The entrance to the cave had just exploded open, and Ichigo Kurosaki dropped down out of the smoke, landing next to them.
"Quite a dramatic entrance, Kurosaki-fukutaichou (lieutenant)." Rose said.
"It's- It's urgent." Ichigo panted. "One of Stealth Force's agents in Hueco Mundo (Hollow Kingdom) just returned with vital information on the Hollow army. She says she found their hideout, and was able to listen in on their conversation. Apparently our friend Rojo was one participant."
"Take us to her. Let's go!" said Rose.
"This is something big. I can feel it!" shouted Kujo.
They sprinted together toward the hole in the ceiling.
The group of Hollow soldiers trooped across a plain of coal black dirt, pockmarked with craters bubbling with molten rock. At their head strode Rojo, his white cape fluttering in the harsh, smoky wind. They approached an imposing, jagged black rock thrust out of the plateau like a knife in flesh. Rojo and two warriors scaled the fang of stone and walked towards a vertical wall of rock. Rojo examined the surface and found a mark scratched into the stone: 水, the kanji for water. Rojo triumphantly caressed the stone with one hand. "At last, I have found you, my old…friend." He laughed, high and cold. My time, he thought to himself, is here now.
