One thousand year story:
Chapter two
The hollow now called Zero picked a random direction and started walking through the forest at an even pace, his footsteps heavy and giving a loud crash with each step. He headed away from the now empty bandit camp, wanting to get as far away from his sins as possible. He could no longer member why he consumed them. Only that he was very angry. Only the morning after had he regained any sense of himself. He knew he couldn't justify killing them. But oddly, he didn't feel any remorse. Shouldn't he have felt something?
It was around noon now. Zero had realized that there was someone was following him. He didn't need to guess. It was that other creature from before. She was the one who apparently witnessed his rampage before. She obviously wasn't making any attempts to hide herself. He didn't even have to look back to know she was there.
"Why are you following me?" he asked. His tone was dull and dark, cracked with something unnatural.
"Hm? Why else? Because you're interesting," she replied. Her tone was lighter, but still cracked with that unnatural sound.
He decided not to ask any further questions until he found a spot to rest a bit. They soon came upon a lake. The water was clear and sparkling in the sun. He came up to the water and stopped, looking down into it. He turned his head to one side, then the other. What met his eyes was not pretty. There was a white mask with a plastered grin covering his face. It had six triangular protrusions leading beyond his head, creating spikes. The rest of his body wasn't much to note. He had a hulking figure that was not quite muscular. It was certainly not human, but humanoid. Five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot. Both were too large to be human. His body had darkened in color since the night before, it seemed. It was almost all black except for a pair of red lines running down each arm to wrists, where they circled and met on the bottom side. He turned to face the woman, who stopped similarly, away from the water.
"If you so insist on following me, then you can at least answer some questions," he said.
"If you say so," she replied, shrugging. She sat down on a large rock, making herself comfortable in what way she could. A long tail wrapped around the rock and came to rest on the ground. It was only now that Zero realized she had one.
He decided to take full note of her features now. Her body was smaller than his, sinuous in form. She was slender, but looked strong, with a set of powerful looking legs. The white armor was smooth, and it seemed to meld into her form as if it was just an off color part of her body. It covered much of her shoulders, and two thick lines of armor ran parallel down her back in an upside down teardrop shape. The tail was the same color as her body, and the end was tipped with a white claw. And then, of course, the white mask. It covered much of her head, and looked as feminine as her body. It had smooth curves, a plastered wide grin, and at the back of the head it split into seven thick, stiff wires that led down her neck. Most notable, however, was a gaping hole in the middle of her chest. Such a thing could not be natural. His note complete, he asked his question.
"Who and what are you?" he asked.
"Straight to the point I see," she said, almost seeming to smile, "I'm just like you. A hollow, they call us. Myself in particular they have named 'Red Banshee'. Just the same, I don't remember having a name before, so call me Red."
"Alright, Red," he said, "but… who exactly are 'they'?"
"Shinigami, of course," she replied, pointing her finger in the air.
"Shinigami?" he asked.
"Oh, that's right. You haven't seen one yet, have you?" she said, "death gods, if they can be called that. Their job is to hunt down hollows like us and kill them. If you value your life, I suggest you avoid them, for now."
Zero couldn't say he quite followed, but he accepted that. It seemed that was the best explanation he would get for now. It still left him somewhere in the dark. He turned back to the water and looked into it. He dipped his hand into it. He could feel it cooling his hand. It didn't pass through. Was he a spirit or not? Those bandits… they couldn't see him, but he could still touch them, and hurt them. He could even rip their souls from the flesh. Tangibility seemed optional. He found he wasn't thirsty, and just let the water trickle back into the lake.
It was time they moved on. She suggested that they head to the next town over. Zero, as he was called now, was against the idea. But she assured him that only one in a million humans could actually see them, and she insisted that she needed to go there anyways. He didn't know what for, but he obliged. He remembered where it was, somehow. He had some of his memories left, it seemed. A lot of memories were still there. Though his name still escaped him. Just the same, he felt he probably wouldn't deserve it, now. It took them a few hours to arrive.
They stood upon a tall cliff overlooking the town. Zero's black and yellow eyes scanned the small place, looking down at the people bustling about. Towns around these parts never got very large. But this one was one of the larger ones. He felt a rumbling in his stomach. He suddenly felt… hungry. He didn't think he would be after all that "eating" he did the night prior. He looked up as he realized Red was getting ahead of him. She was descending into the village already. He followed, wondering what business she had. And what he could do to sate his hunger. He didn't really think about it, but on the inside, he knew. There was only one way.
They walked through the town, as suspected, unseen and unheard by the people. Their footsteps didn't seem to make a sound to them, yet they were loud and clear to him. Just how could they miss such heavy footfalls?
Then, Red signaled for him to stop. Had she found what she was looking for? Probably. She didn't say anything, yet. Just then, a pair of children ran out around the corner. They were laughing, and having fun, it seemed. None of the humans seemed to notice them as they ran out into the dirt street. Red was staring at them. Were they what she was looking for? Then Zero caught on. He looked closely at the children and saw it. Each of them was sporting chains attached to their chests. Dead souls, just as he was. He knew what she was thinking now.
"Red," he said, "they're just children, leave them alone." He stepped forwards, reaching for her shoulder to stop her. He didn't want the kids to be hurt.
"Quiet down, fool," she retorted, "I'm not interested in them. You can have them later if you want."
Zero was taken aback. It appeared he had guessed wrong. Then what did she intend? The way he acted last night, he had gotten the impression that consuming souls was what creatures like them did. Indeed, as he looked at the children, it was all he could do to stop himself from jumping out and consuming them himself. When he did think about doing just that, he received a distorted image of a child covered in blood.
"Just wait," she reminded him.
He looked at her through the hollow eye sockets of his mask, still wondering. He contented himself to wait for not. The children continued to play, heedless of the people around them, and of the hollows nearby. Even they seemed not to notice them, and they were just hiding around another corner. Passing a glance to the other people, he realized that they weren't much bigger than normal humans were. Zero was only a few feet taller, possibly ten or twelve feet total, and red was only one or two. Just then, he heard a rumbling. Footsteps, big ones, much like their own, but bigger still. They suddenly stopped, and Zero looked around. There was a sudden crash down the street in front of them, kicking up dust and dirt of the road, near the children that immediately ceased to play. The dust started to clear, and a looming figure appeared. It was another hollow, much bigger than Zero was. It raised its mighty left arm and struck out at the nearest child, a boy.
Red seemed to smile and made to move, but then stopped, looking up at Zero who moved first. The hollows hand, met with Zero's own. The hollow looked surprised, not expecting to be blocked. Zero saw that it was a few feet taller than him, and it was hunched over, much like he was. Its body was yellow, mostly, with patches of red patterns covering it's front, and blue dots covering it's back. It's masked was crowned with spikes, and had bulbous red cheeks, covered by blue and red swirls. Looked kind of like candy.
"What!?" it bellowed, "Who are you, whelp!? How dare you bar me from my meal!" It pushed against Zero, obviously much stronger than him. Zero's feet slid in the dirt and sand a little. But Zero pushed back, and managed to stop him from pushing him all the way down.
"Doesn't matter who I am," Zero spat back, "you leave them alone." He glared at the hollow through those yellow and black eyes, staring only into black sockets of the other masks.
"Out of my way!" it bellowed back, obviously male.
"Zero, he's much stronger than you! Get out of there!" Red shouted from where she was.
Her warning was a bit late, as the hollows free hand was raised and slammed into zeros right side, forcing him to the right to slam into a wall. Zero shouted in pain, and moved to get up and pursue in blocking him again. The yellow hollow moved on the children again, both frozen with fear. He ignored Red close by, and just went for those two. That would prove to be a big mistake. Zero didn't even see it coming. Just then, the hollow was impaled through the back by a white spike. It cried out in pain, a low shivering hollow scream in that ghostly way. Blood spattered out the wound in front and it slumped over. It turned its head to face Red. She was on the other end of the spike. The spike was actually the end of a skeletal appendage. It had three segments and appeared to be coming from the female hollows back.
"Who… are you?" the hollow demanded weakly.
Without answering, Red pulled the spike from it's back. It fell to the ground in a heap, and it appeared to be dead. The spike retreated and lowered itself before her mouth. A long tongue slid from between the teeth of the mask wrapped around the bloodied appendage, licking it clean as she walked towards the hollow.
"Weakling," she spat, seeming almost disappointed.
The appendage raised and then folded at her back. The appendage lowered in and settled. It turned out that the white reverse teardrop shaped armor he saw on her back before was actually that claw at rest. Zero wondered what other secrets she held. She moved over to the body of the hollow and stood over it.
"This one's mine, you can have the two over there," she said.
Zero looked over at the two children, still petrified by fear. The one moved over to the little girl and both huddled together. Zero looked back at Red.
"I don't want them," he said. He then looked back at the two. "Get out of here," he said angrily. Both were happy to oblige and got up and ran away from the two remaining hollows there. Zero watched them go before looking back at Red.
"Suit yourself," she said. She then picked up the arm of the fallen hollow and bit it off at the shoulder. Zero was shocked as she began to cannibalize the hollow right there in the street. She began consuming the rest of the arm, and Zero stood there, staring.
"What are you doing?" Zero said, clearly appalled.
"What's it look like?" she replied, "eating."
"But… don't you eat human souls?" he asked, though he was somewhat afraid to touch on the subject.
"Fool," She retorted, "don't you remember? Every hollow was once a human soul. This is no different than consuming one of them."
Zero looked back down at the dead hollow. She was starting to make sense. He remembered now. He was once a human soul, too. And so was whoever this hollow used to be. This hollow was something that lost its humanity a long time ago. As if that made him feel any better about her eating it.
"One day," she said, in between bites, "you find that normal human souls don't satisfy anymore." She paused for another bite before continuing. "Hollows are much denser in spiritual energy," she explained, "so you get them, plus every soul they've consumed before."
Zero finally pried his eyes away from the disgusting display. Was this going to be his life as a hollow from now on? He didn't even want to think about it. There was no use thinking he was any better than her. As he looked at the body he felt the hunger pangs in his stomach. He knew he wouldn't last without eating. Something poked at his back, and he turned around, looking down. It was Red, and she was holding the hollows other fore arm.
"Eat something," she said, "or you'll end up like him."
Zero hesitated, and then he grudgingly accepted it. What choice did he have? He didn't want to die. Even though he was already dead.