Author's Comment:I got this out just before New Years. By the way, Happy New Years! Anyways, this is the last update for a while. If you don't know, I have other stories on my profile and, despite this being my passion, I have a pole up for people that want certain stories updated. If you feel this story should be updated as one of three a month, then make sure to vote for it. Have a good day and enjoy!
Bleached
by
Jullian J. Rangel
Chapter 7
"To be or Not to be"
The Dunes of Hueco Mundo
Ichigo was walking through a seemingly endless dessert, his motive behind doing such were tragic. Five days ago, he had been traveling with his recently evolved friend. Nelliel was their name. Apparently he had been a she the whole time, much to Ichigo's embarrassment. Nelliel had, no longer needing to eat fellow hollows, allowed Ichigo to finish the meal by his lonesome. After the deed was done, the two shared an almost awkward moment of silence before addressing the elephant in the room. The Vasto Lorde gave Ichigo a good beating due to his insensitivity before explaining that she was always a female and that he was just too dense to notice. Ichigo's defense was her voice was the deepest he'd ever heard, and she acted like a guy plenty of time before. Eventually the two decided to cease arguing and continue with the plan, achieving Ichigo's Vasto Lorde state was all that mattered now that Nelliel had ascended.
The two traveled for some time before reaching the closest adjuchas. This one was a large dragon like adjuchas. It had a body similar to Ichigo's; however, its head was that of a western dragon with wings at its back. Its own tail was had a spiked mace at the end and its eyes were a glowing blue color. After conversing for some time, it showed its true colors. They three fought, but with Nelliel's new found powers, they easily overwhelmed it. With the monster slain, Ichigo ate what he could before moving on with Nelliel. It went on like this for some time, but they soon drew attention to themselves.
In The Dunes of Hueco Mundo, one hollow has founded a kingdom so large, it was almost incomprehensible to understand the magnitude of it. Every kingdom needs a king and this kingdom was ruled by Lord Barragan. In a world were only the strongest survived, Barragan was the standard for hollows everywhere. He was the strongest of any known Vasto Lorde and he proved this time and time again when he had to cut down fellow Vasto Lorde trying to dethrone him. Where he came from was unknown, he predated the majority of adjuchas and Vasto Lorde. Because of this, he claimed to be the oldest hollow. He believed he was death incarnate and carried out his rule under such pretenses. Any hollow who would not kneel to Barragan would be put to death. His word was law and no one dared to defy him.
Some time into his rule, he decided that sentencing them to death when they stumbled into his palace wasn't enough. He decided to actively hunt hollows that resisted his rule by forming hunting parties. In return for hunting down potential rebels in the kingdom, they were allowed to keep their masks intact with the possibility of evolving to Vasto Lorde. Unfortunately for Barragan, the majority of these hunting parties were weak. To compensate, he'd send them in packs of twenty or so hollows. Any adjuchas that lost the possibility to evolve, but proved themselves in battle were inducted into his royal guard. With the preparations in place, the terrible rule of Barragan began. He had countless adjuchas slaughtered in the following years. He was the reason the majority of adjuchas remained under ground in the Forest of Menos. Only a select few were powerful enough to resist his rule and defeat the overwhelming numbers of the hunting parties.
Those that weren't strong enough, banded together with more powerful adjuchas in order to survive. Sometimes they flat out refused Barragan's rule and actively tried to thwart his goals. In these cases, Barragan would have a specific hunting party put together to hun them down, after which he would challenge and slay them brutally. Recently, he had taken note of a powerful pair of hollows in his kingdom. He knew one to be of Vasto Lorde level and the other near a mid level adjuchas just from sensing their power. He had done with them as he had with many others. The hollow hunting party tracked them down quickly; however, the meeting went bad and a fight ensued.
The hunting party had explained where they were, Barragan's Kingdom, prompting Ichigo to comment on it not being much of a kingdom. The Hunting Party immediately took offense; however, Nelliel quickly flared her power. With tension low, the hunting party told of Barragan's orders to bring them back to his palace. When questioned what they'd do, they told of them kneeling before Barragan and swearing allegiance to him. Of course, Ichigo denied the demand for he was much more inclined to achieve Vasto Lorde status. The hunting party insisted until the two completely refused, having tired of their pushy attitude. During their departure, the hunting party attack them with what they called a combined cero. Much like the attacks Ichigo and many other aduchas had before. The two managed to deflect the combined cero, but the hunting party closed in quickly and attacked them.
Together, Ichigo and Nelliel managed to kill three before being split by the overwhelming numbers. Nelliel managed to kill three more before being forced on defensive. Ichigo managed to slay two; however, a combined assault from four forced him to retreat or he would risk damaging his mask and/or being consumed. As he retreated into the distance, the last he saw of Nelliel was her charging a bright pink attack in her mouth before detonating it. The shockwave allowed him to gain some much needed distance from the chasing hollows. For the following three days, not that they could tell time, he hid and did what he could to evade the adjuchas until they eventually gave up, much to his relief. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of no where. There were no other hollows for miles around that he could sense. "I have to evolve... I won't let Nelliel's sacrifice be in vain." Ichigo thought before setting out in one direction.
Ever since then, he had been walking aimlessly. Currently, he was on his second day of being alone. The solitude was starting to get to his psyche because he was beginning to see things. Hear things in his sleep, things he knew couldn't possibly happen. He would flare his energy at when resting to see if anyone was near him, but no one every was. As time progressed, he began falling deeper into a pit of paranoia. He had never actually been alone as an adjuchas, literally. Up until five days ago, Nelliel was always with him where ever he went. Being alone in a quiet, depressing environment, was getting to him. He was beginning to come undone, beginning to go insane. Despite this, he pressed on, for some part of him was determined to see this through, determined to evolve. It became painfully obvious what was beginning to happen to Ichigo as time pressed on into the second week. Ichigo was starting to regress and, because of his depression, couldn't even see it. He still search desperately for any adjuchas he would be able to devour and cease his hunger, thus warding off regression. He found none, he was completely alone.
It was nearing the end of the third week when he felt a massive power that drowned all of his senses. It was speeding towards him with so much speed that he didn't even have time to react. When he turned his head, he was picked up by something and carried at speeds he would think are close to Mach 1. The two eventually arrived over a small forest in the dessert, where the creature dropped him. He kept falling despite already going through the canopy of the forest. As Ichigo fell he saw the forest floor, much to his surprise. "What?! No way I reached the forest floor so quickly. I still shouldn't be able to see it!" Ichigo quickly dug his claws into the nearest tree trunk when, much to his shock, splinters of wood tore of instead of sand. "W-What the? This isn't the Forest of Menos!" Ichigo mentally screamed as he continued his rapid descent. The slowed down just before hitting the ground on the forest floor, easing his fall. Never the less, he had plenty of broken bones, thankfully instant regeneration healed them.
He got up from his spot and examined his surroundings. It looked nothing like the Forest of Menos aside from the similar fact that they have trees of some sort. The trees here were dark brown and made of wood, where as the Forest of Menos' had massive white trees made of compact sand. The ground here was made of some sort of tough, yet soft brown stuff. The ground in the Forest of Menos was made of sand. The biggest difference was the fact that he could barely see twenty feet in front of himself. He looked around his surroundings before feeling that power source again. When Ichigo's head snapped to it, all he saw was a near death adjuchas. "How the hell does that thing have that much power?" Ichigo felt a shiver roll up his spine before flipping around. The same thing happened, another near death adjuchas appeared. Every time a shiver found his spine, another appeared and it was beginning to freak Ichigo out. He slowly backed up until his back was against the tree he used to slow his descent.
A soft thud drew his attention before his body tensed as he looked upward to the sounds origins. Above him was a strange, but terrifying hollow. It's mask was rather plain, it covered the entirety of their face, with the exception of their eyes. Green streaks came down from they eye sockets before disappearing beneath the thing's chin. At the top of its head were two very long horns that curved up like that of a gazelles. At the base of their skull, black hair jutted out from beneath the mask that completely encompassed the head. The eyes seemed, more or less, monotone. Black wings were wrapped around the majority of the body, hiding it from Ichigo's view, with the exception of the pasty white arms holding onto the tree. The appearance wasn't what was terrifying though, it was the fact that this was in fact a Vasto Lorde. The two waited for minutes as they stared at one another before the Vasto Lorde motioned towards the injured hollows. It took Ichigo a minute, possibly more, to realize what he meant.
"You want me to eat them?" The Vasto Lorde's only response was a nod before it resumed its silent stare. Ichigo looked the hollows up and down, he wasn't one for attacking them while they were down, but he also wasn't one for regression. He quickly, yet cautiously, approached them and, once he was sure they wouldn't spring up and attack him, dug in. It didn't take long to feel the effects of the healthy meal. His energy soared back to normal, possibly higher, he also lost all the strange ailments that afflicted him during his solitude. He swallowed the last chunk of his food before turning back to where he last saw the Vasto Lorde. It was gone, literally, it had disappeared, he couldn't even sense the thing. "Strange..." He growled in his own head. Ichigo did a complete one-eighty and, much to the other's surprise, found the Vasto Lorde. Their eyes were visibly wide underneath the mask as they stood where Ichigo had just finished the meal.
The two stared at each other for a moment before Ichigo broke the silence. "Who are you?" He didn't know whether the hollow could respond or not. His mask never moved when he talked, so he saw no reason why no mouth hole would hinder their speech. The hollow did nothing as it looked at him. "Damn I guess the mask fused their mouth shut." Ichigo took a step forward and, much to his dismay, the Vasto Lorde stepped back. "Why did you save me?" Once again, the hollow didn't speak; however, it pointed straight to Ichigo's chest before gesturing to its own. It was at this moment Ichigo noticed the similarities between the two of them. Their hollow holes were in the same spot and, much to his shock, their energy felt alike; although, this new hollow's was considerably darker and more dense than his. "Is it because we're similar?" The Vasto Lorde nodded, confirming his suspicions. "Are you alone?" Ichigo extended his power outwards to sense anyone else; however, the being in front of him had a signature so large that it was like an ocean was on top of them. The Vasto Lorde nodded at him, but he was still suspicious. "What's his angle? No hollow ever helps another, especially not ones that are alone..." Ichigo was about to leave when an image of his friend flashed in his mind. "Nelliel..."
Ichigo's shoulders slumped down some as his eyes became half lidded. The memory of his long time friend made him visibly sad at the thought of her being dead. He wasn't allowed to fall into a pit of despair because a hand on his shoulder pulled him back to his senses. The owner was none other than the Vasto Lorde in front of him. It stared into his eyes, transmitting a feeling of understanding between the two. It was at this moment Ichigo decided he wouldn't let another friend down. He would start by repaying this stranger's kindness, somehow. "You know what it feels like to be alone don't you?" With a single nod, Ichigo decided what to do while trying to achieve Vasto Lorde. "Since you're alone, and I'm alone, do you wanna travel together?"
The hollow's eyes widened at the question before it began looking around. Its body language suggested it was unsure of what to do. Ichigo, despite being dense, realized why. "This is your home, isn't it?" The hollow nodded before looking into the darkness. Doing so too, Ichigo was surprised when he created a small ball of green and white light before throwing it into the darkness. As it passed away, Ichigo caught glimpses of strange hollows in the woods surrounding them. Most of them didn't have eyes; however, all of them were either completely white or completely black. "I guess there's no sense in having pigments when all you do is scurry around in the dark." When he looked back to the Vasto Lorde, Ichigo saw him looking down. "What is it?" The hollow pointed to him, then himself, before pointing them. "What? You think we're all the same?" The idea appalled him to his core. He was not a freak living in the shadows like a coward. The nod answered his question, to which he narrowed his eyes. "No..." Their eyes widened at his statement. "I am nothing like them, I don't hide away, afraid every time something powerful comes my way." The hollow tilted its head to the side, confused by his answer. They all looked alike, what did he mean? "You and me aren't the same, but we're sure as the hell closer than those things." He pointed towards the shadows.
"We are different, these things are weak and have little desire to evolve. But you and me, we are strong. You wanted to evolve and you did, much like I'm going too. We're determined, we are people. We have..." Ichigo looked down to the hole in his chest before narrowing his eyes. "We have a heart." The two had a stare down before the Vasto Lorde closed their eyes. Ichigo waited for a response, which took hours, but eventually they acted. They lifted and arm and pointed it towards Ichigo were a bright white and green attack began forming. Ichigo was frozen; however, he made to dodge the attack anyways. It wasn't huge, instead it was a pin point style of attack. The beam short past his head, causing a screech to be heard. Ichigo swirled around and found a snake like hollow behind him. It's mask was split in half, but didn't fall. It quickly began evaporating into thin air. Hisses echoed from their surroundings and the sound of scuttling could be heard from nearby. "I think it's time for us to go." With a nod from his companion, Ichigo began looking for a way out. Unfortunately, there was nothing as darkness surrounded them. "I don't suppose you have a way out... Do you?"
Ichigo looked back to find his new friend, but found nothing he was expecting. His friend was gone, but so was the forest. In face, all he could see was a sea of black next to the endless night sky of Hueco Mundo. It turned his head forward and found he was flying, actually he was being carried by the very same Vasto Lorde that saved his life a moment ago. "I take it I owe you then?" The Vasto Lorde continued to fly off in one direction like it never even heard the question in the first place.
"Wow, I get a friend that can never shut up and then I get a friend can never talk... Oh, the irony..." The two soared off into the sky at tremendous speeds on their way back to The Dunes of Hueco Mundo, never to be seen in that dark forest ever again...
