Herald
The Seeker Shall Play
What did she want me to do?
I had been asking myself this question the entire time I had been in here. My zanpakuto hadn't bothered to tell me what I needed to do or how to get out of our inner world before she absconded with my hopes of figuring out this new power she'd given me. She had told me that using this power came with having a purpose. I didn't have any purpose in here outside of avoiding these stone soldiers.
After my zanpakuto had flitted away, the soldiers had all pulled swords from the air as they became animate. That gesture alone wasn't startling, but the way they moved was. I was stuck on this little island, but they could run across the water or through the air like it was the World of the Living. Sure, I could have done it too if I had wanted to spare the thoughts to create steps under my feet, but I didn't have the time for it. They came at me like wolves trying to snap at my flesh to steal a bite before dashing away and I could do little more than defend myself from their constant onslaught.
I swore as one of them came up behind me and called a wall of reishi between us just before parrying a blow from another that had come straight at me. I glared at the stone face before me, finding the blank, expressionless gaze to be infuriating. I saw with my mind's eye as a third prepared to come at me and quickly shoved away the one in front of me so I could turn my attention elsewhere. Finding the third with my eyes I pulled at the ground and shot a spike of rock up to catch the soldier mid motion. I speared him on the spike and watched with smug satisfaction as his body went limp, dropping his sword in a lifeless gesture.
Finally, I had gotten one. I just had to do that to the rest of them.
A strange sensation from behind me drew me to turn around, but I was stopped as a flash of metal caught my eye. I didn't even have a chance to react before a sword impaled the center of my forehead, stopping any movement that I had been preparing to make. I blinked at the stone face that looked at me from just beyond the wall I had created. His sword had pierced my wall… no, he had just gone through it. Even his hand as it held the hilt of the sword had gone through my wall like it wasn't there. How the hell…?
I was dying, wasn't I? I could feel the cold metal all the way through to the back of my skull. He must have broken something with his thrust because there was no pain despite the blood and other fluids that I could feel running down my face. Had my zanpakuto meant to kill me? I didn't know. My thoughts felt slow and reluctant and my vision was losing focus. Had she really brought me here just to kill me?
The sword retracted slowly from my head. It felt like it was pulling out for ages as the blade grinded against my skull before it finally slicked away, covered in my blood. I fell forward with the release, my body slamming down to my knees before falling the rest of the way to the ground. My head bounced on the dirt, but I barely felt it as everything seemed to drain away from me. There was no life flashing before my eyes or thoughts of the past as my vision became unfocused and distant, the body of the soldier I had skewered the only thing I could make out. At least I had gotten one of them…
Wait… What? I watched as the spike I had created seemed to shrink on its own, lowering the soldier's body until his feet hit the ground. He stood like a marionette being pulled by its strings and shook almost violently before he appeared to return to normal. He stooped and picked up his dropped sword before walking away from me and out, over the water.
What the fuck…
I felt my head… shift? I didn't know if it was the right word, but the hole that had been made by the soldier's sword pulled and the hot spill of blood and thicker fluids that had been running down my face was just gone. The fog that had been creeping over my mind abruptly vanished, leaving me blinking in surprise as I tried to figure out what was going on.
Pushing away from the ground I sat back on my heels and looked down to my hands. I wasn't shaking, but I felt like I should have been. I turned my gaze to the water's edge and hesitantly crawled forward until I could see myself in the surface's reflection. There was nothing there, like I had never been struck. I ran my hand down my skin, searching for the hole that I knew had been there. My skin was whole, like nothing had ever happened.
I wasn't going to die. I should have, but I didn't - wasn't - I didn't know, but I was alright somehow. How the hell did I not die?
Metal clinked behind me and I looking over my shoulder to see the soldier still standing on the island. My wall had vanished at some point in time, leaving nothing between him and I. I swallowed hard and only had enough time to shy away from his oncoming blow as he charged towards me.
Seeker
"They're coming tonight and you waited until now to prepare her?" Toshiro asked, his voice deceptively soft.
"I cannot even begin to predict her name because so much of her fate is missing from my sight. I cannot interfere in her future if I have seen it: it is a rule. I could not make her face her demons until today, when there is no future for me to interfere with," I explained.
"That's the same reason that you wouldn't tell me what happened in the arena. Your rules." He had to know he was pointing out the obvious. I knew all of this already.
"The rules are my law. I cannot break them unless someone breaks the rules first. Then, and only then, am I allowed to take action." I had explained this a dozen times, maybe more, over the course of time that I had been with him instead of my Herald. There were only a few people that I would let handle me like he did, but he had earned my confidence unlike the rest.
"Fuck your rules."
Ah, there was the hot anger that I had grown accustomed to seeing from him. He had never understood why I had rules and why I wouldn't change them for my Herald. He didn't want to understand what I had tried to explain to him, and though he wouldn't say it, he blamed me for all the unfortunate things that had happened to my Herald. His opinion of me didn't matter though. My Herald understood. Even as I beat her down in our inner world, she understood why I was doing it, why I was forcing her. For all his intuition and problem solving, he couldn't come to terms with the fact that I controlled our power and not her. I was just a zanpakuto who rebelled against her Master… pfft.
"The rules are everything," I stated in a flat tone.
"Your damned rules are what gave her these scars." He roughly took my wrist once more, but stopped himself before his grip could hurt. His hand shook with the effort he was exerting to not bruise me, to not bruise my Herald. His physical strength far exceeded my Herald's or even mine, but I wasn't using my own body. The only one he would hurt was her, and he knew it.
I thought about my response to his accusation. There were so many ways that I could turn his words on him. Part of me wanted to wound his pride for even suggesting that it was my fault that my Herald had been injured so many times. Fortunately, I didn't need to look into the future to know what sort of road that would lead this interaction down. He was already displeased with me for not expressing what I knew about the events that took place in the arena. There was no need to add to the fire if I wanted to have my way today.
"These scars hurt you more than they did her," I said softly. The corners of his eyes flinched, telling me that I had said the right thing. "She may have been physically wounded to earn these marks, but for my Herald they mean little more than the evidence of memories. She is not like the person who haunts your soul, she does not and never will blame you."
"If it hadn't been for your rules, she never would have been so badly injured in the first place." The grip he had around my wrist flexed with his words, shooting a burst of pain up my arm. I could have easily protected myself from his grip, but he was forgetting himself.
"You forget your own strength, Toshiro," I said smoothly. "You'll break her wrist if you don't control yourself."
He abruptly released his hold as he looked to his own hand, shock clear in his eyes. He was so careful around my Herald, but for just a moment he had allowed himself to forget I was in her body and not my own. I could see the realization in his eyes, and I needed to act now while he was caught in his own head. Using our mind's eye I levered myself higher, drawing his attention back to me as I stopped so close that our noses were almost touching. His breath was cool against my lips as he sucked in a sharp breath and let it out.
"If I didn't have rules, if I hadn't given her just a name, she never would have written that letter to you when she left for the world of the living. She never would have known she would die, and you never would have cared enough to save her."
"That doesn't account for every instance," he said, his voice having grown soft with proximity.
I turned my head slightly so I could find his hand with my gaze, humanizing myself for his benefit. I took hold of his palm in mine and brought it to my chest to rest over the scars that frightened him most. Returning my gaze to his I forced my kimono to disperse into flecks of reishi and held his hand to my skin, forcing him to feel the raised trails of flesh he called scars. He started to pull away from me, but I followed him and minimized the distance between us until my lips were hovering only a breath away from his. He went still with my advance, and I knew he was torn between the allure of my Herald's body and the knowledge that I was the one at the helm instead of her. I wouldn't actually close the distance. I had no interest in him like that, but while I was in my Herald's body I'm sure he was wondering if I would.
"When I look into the future, I can see every possible outcome for the next few days, months, years. It depends on how hard I look, but everything is there. I can consider my actions, how the names that I give my Herald effect her and the world around her." I turned my body to allow his palm to rest flat against my chest, guiding his hand to fully feel the length of the scars. I needed to make him understand why my rules were there, why I bothered to follow them, why they were so important.
"That day at the arena, I could have picked any name for her because she would have neglected to ask under any circumstance. She was paranoid, but she also trusted in the peace she had felt for weeks. So, her name was She Who is Vulnerable."
"This answers nothing," he said, his voice rumbling in his chest.
"It answers everything," I replied as I drew his hand towards my right, covering the very center of my sternum. "I considered telling her more, warning her away from further practice in a - ah - subtle manner. Something that would have sent her somewhere else at the time, but he was always there and she always ended up alone. So, I considered, what if I told Toshiro, her Captain and lover, of her impending injury? What if I broke my rules and told someone the true future?"
I paused my words as I let him think over what I had said. I would give him a chance to figure it out, but he wouldn't. He shouldn't…
"What would have happened?" He asked, not waiting long before speaking.
I pressed my finger between his and he spread his hand to allow me to touch my chest. I drew my nail along my skin and used my mind's eye to mimic a scar under my touch. When the scar was long I withdrew my hand from his and let him discover on his own what I had done. It only took him a moment to trace the line with his finger and to physically startle.
"In every scenario where I broke my rules, she was crippled or outright killed." I made sure my words had a bite when I said them. "This is the case in every scenario outside of her turning points. When I interfere, the outcome is ten times worse than fate intended. I will kill my Herald if I try to change her fate, try to save her from her injuries. Would you really ask that of me?"
His hand withdrew from my chest and slid up to caress my cheek. My Herald's body responded to the familiar touch as a delighted shiver tightened things low in her body. I felt it like it was my own response and tried my best to ignore it and focus on his words as he asked, "Why didn't you explain this before now?"
"I explained my rules to you, but you never asked why my rules existed," I said as I pulled back from him. He only let me remove myself enough so he could look at me before his grip around me stiffened, holding me in place. If I could have vanished like I did in my own body, I would have manifested outside of his reach. Her body liked the proximity to him far more than I was comfortable with.
"What about your other rules? Do they have a reason behind them?"
"Yes, but if you want to understand that much you will have to earn it," I said as I called my kimono back from the reishi that had been wafting in the air around us and wrapped myself in the slick fabric.
He let out a long sigh and released his hold around my body, allowing me to draw away from him. I used our mind's eye to help me rise to my feet in one fluid motion that never would have been capable by my Herald alone. I knew his eyes were on my back as I adjusted the kimono and my hair, sliding them back into their proper places and pulling the knots of the obi and accompanying parts tighter.
"You still haven't explained why you are in her body while she is in your inner world," Toshiro said, drawing my attention away from my appearance.
I turned to look at him to find he was sitting up, the yukata he had donned the night before barely hanging from his shoulders to leave his upper body rather exposed. His piercing aquamarine eyes were watching me as I turned, taking in my movements as I knelt to pick up my sword.
"I cannot travel very far from my sword as you know, and I cannot keep our shikai running if I am too far from my Herald. I need her presence in order to maintain this state while I travel." I ran my hand down the white sash that was tied to my sheath and forced the fabric to shift and change into black silk that would blend with the fabric of my kimono. "The Substitute Soul Reaper invited my Herald to observe his practice with the other Visored. Because of their unique spirit energy, this is most likely my only chance to figure out how their hollow halves are interfering with my sight and correct it."
"You believe this will fix your blindness?" He asked.
"Yes," I stated flatly, trying to hide the unsureness of my answer.
"Why don't I believe you?" He asked.
His question made me freeze mid motion as I had been moving to secure my sword to my hip. That intuition of his was a terrible beast…
"I cannot see my own fate, only my Herald's," I replied as vaguely as I could. I resumed placing my sword on my hip and tying the silken sash in place at the base of my obi to blend in with the extra fabric below my obi.
"You don't know if this will allow you to fix your sight," he stated.
"It must," I replied simply.
"And if it doesn't?"
Securing the bow I turned to fully face him and unleashed upon him the blank stare I had given my Herald for years. "At this moment, there is a future beyond today. That is my only indication that my Herald does not perish during the blank spaces in time."
"That doesn't answer my question," he murmured. He took a deep breath and let it out before he rolled forward in a motion that told me he was moving to stand. I turned away from him and moved to the dresser where my Herald's kanzashi was resting atop her folded hair ribbon. I picked up the delicate ornament and looked to the mirror that stood up from the back of the dresser. I didn't let myself watch the man moving behind me as I turned my head to watch as I slid the prongs of the kanzashi into my chignon.
Despite my best efforts to appear to ignore him, Toshiro came up behind me and stopped so close that I could almost feel his body heat, or maybe it was the chill of his spiritual pressure, radiating off of him. I couldn't tell with the layers of my kimono between us which it was, I just knew that he was too close. I continued to ignore him despite his looming presence as I adjusted the kanzashi, ensuring that the chains could freely dangle. Once I was satisfied I met my own gaze in the mirror, but couldn't help myself when my gaze flicked up to meet his own watchful eyes. I forced myself to focus on my appearance and thought about my eyes and just how different they were from my Herald's. I could alter my Herald's body with our mind's eye, but the pain of it would be more than enough to take me down to my knees. I needed something more… Temporary.
Contacts, perhaps.
With a simple thought a sheen of reishi formed over my eyes. It felt so odd that I was forced to blink, but it was only a moment later that I had adjusted and gazed at my Herald's milk chocolate eyes. I couldn't help but to look to Toshiro for his reaction, but there was nothing in his expression that hadn't been there before.
Like my shift in attention had drawn him to act, he leaned forward and down until his mouth was close enough to whisper in my ear, "what happens if you cannot correct your sight?"
"Today is not a turning point, yet I am interfering despite my rules. Why do you think I would risk this while knowing what the consequences could be?" I asked, remaining completely still as I held his aquamarine gaze in the mirror.
His hands came forward, resting on the dresser's edge on either side of my body to trap me where I was without actually touching me. He was being careful while at the same time pushing the limits by being so close to me. If I was myself, I never would have allowed it. He knew that I had only fallen into his embrace under the false image of my Herald, and that being like this was only allowed because I couldn't make myself vanish like my manifestation, yet he was still doing it. Infuriating man...
"Tankyu no Unmei, what aren't you telling me?" His voice wasn't more than a whisper, but I heard it for the plea that it was.
I dropped his gaze then, instead finding my Herald's hair ribbon to fixate my attention on as I peered back into our inner world. My Herald was struggling against the small army I had created, but she was learning. Every time she was smacked down and defeated, she let her precious control slip just a little more. In just a few hours I would have her fully capable of using the abilities I had given her and all that would be left was to pull her back into using her mind's eye.
But, my Herald wasn't the only thing I had trapped in our inner world.
Deep in the waters that surrounded my Herald was something I had been holding onto for some time. It was my safeguard against the unknown and the one reason that I had allowed the man behind me to know so much about us. It was the promise that no matter what sort of situation my Herald could get herself into, he would always find us. He knew… he knew and I trusted him enough to keep a piece of his spirit energy inside us. Doing so was like keeping the back door to our mind and body always open to him. It was why I needed to express this concern I had been harboring quietly ever since I had discovered my shortcomings.
"When a turning point happens, I can only see the very immediate future. If my sight is useless, I cannot step in to save my Herald from something I could prevent," I said softly in reply. I turned slowly until I could turn my gaze on him instead of looking at his reflection. "I won't let my Herald die if I can stop it, but how am I to know? If I cannot see what is coming-"
"You rely too heavily on your sight," he said, his eyes softening as he understood my concerns.
"It is what I am, the Seeker of Fate."
"And the Seeker is scared of what she cannot see," he added, saying aloud the thoughts I had been refraining from voicing.
"Yes, I am."
We stood like that for a long, silent moment as I churned over what I knew of the coming events. Kazui wouldn't be much longer with Captain Yadomaru in tow. I didn't know how long I had spent here with Toshiro, but I needed to get his blessing before I could leave.
"While I am in control, my Herald is practically invulnerable. Will you grant Ria Yamamoto your permission to observe the Visored's practice?" I asked, making sure that my request was clear.
"You need an escort to leave, or the stealth force will act as if you are a fugitive," he said, his body unmoving.
"Captain Yadomaru will be our escort, unless you wish to travel with us," I said, already knowing his answer.
"You said tonight is when the blank spaces in time start," he said as his thoughts aligned into an action. "If this is truly the case, we need to prepare. There are only so many ways that someone can enter the Seireitei uninvited."
"I cannot see them to even begin to suggest where to start," I said as I eyed his arms that were still trapping me in place.
"Considering your rules, I didn't expect a suggestion," he stated flatly. "Ria is safe until your vision is blank?"
"Yes," I said simply. When the look he gave me said he expected more to my answer, I continued, "I will give her control back before this evening. It will take her several hours to figure out how to use the part of myself that I have given her, and only a moment more to pull her back to a middle ground where she can use her mind's eye and intuition."
"If you cannot correct your vision, what will you do?" He asked.
"I don't know," I said, shrugging. I placed my hand on his forearm and pushed at him, silently telling him to move. He obliged and I stepped away in one quick movement until I finally felt comfortable with the distance between us. "Once I recede and my Herald takes her body back, she will be in control of our actions. I will be nothing more than what I was."
"Until the next time you decide you want control," he commented.
"My Herald willingly swapped places with me. I cannot force a switch like this without some part of her agreeing to it." I glanced back at him and give him the same look that I usually gave my Herald, blank and unassuming. "But yes, until next time."
He nodded and dropped his gaze to the floor. "I need to inform the Head Captain of what you have told me, so we can develop a course of action."
"I will not leave until the Squad 8 Captain arrives," I said as I moved towards the bedroom door, aiming to separate myself from his presence before he decided to change. My Herald enjoyed watching him do things like that far too much for my comfort level.
"Before you go," he called after me as I slid the bedroom door open. I paused to look back at him and met his aquamarine eyes. "Ria never suppresses her spiritual pressure, I don't believe she's even capable of it. If you really want to get away with pretending to be her, then you are going to want to relax your hold on your power."
I blinked slowly at him and did as he suggested, barely letting the fist I had around our spirit energy relax. "Does it bother you, not being able to feel us?"
"Not like it bothers her," he replied, "but others will notice as well, especially someone like Kazui."
I nodded in response and turned back to the door. "Duly noted."
Herald
How many times had I been defeated now? I had lost count sometime after ten, but it felt like that had been hours ago. My zanpakuto was relentless in her terra cotta onslaught. I should have died to her soldiers dozens of times, but every time I was struck the area reset and I was left clutching at a non-existent injury. It was cruel treatment, but effective. Every time she 'killed' me I had to give up more of my control. I was finally to the point where everything was reaction, reflex and had parried every blow several times, but when it came to attacking back, my need to think broke through and I lost it. It was frustrating and downright irritating.
I glanced up at the warrior that was coming at me. Its blank, expressionless face was watching me as it hefted a sword into the air was must have been longer than I was tall. This guy… this guy had cleaved me in half twice already. I wasn't going to let him do it again. I didn't feel the pain from the death blows I received in this world, but the sight of my body lying in two pieces for just a moment was more than startling enough to make me never want to have it happen again. I drew a wall between myself and the soldier, and without so much as a blink l slammed the wall into him hard enough that he went flying across the surface of the water until thirty feet away he slammed into it and sank. I knew he would be back, but it would take a minute.
This go around, I had managed to destroy four of the thirty or so soldiers without being defeated. I was pretty sure my zanpakuto intended for me to destroy every one of them without being hit before she would consider me done. So, twenty-six more to go. My record was eleven so far. I just had to keep my mind clear and not focus on any single soldier for more than a second.
I was so going to get her back for this.
I felt the distraction my thoughts had caused just before a blade slammed into my back, stealing my breath away with the force of the blow as it jerked me forward. Damn it…
My knees slammed down into the mud my island had become as I slid off the sword that had pierced me. There was no pain to the wound, but the sucking sound from my chest as I tried to breath told me that I had lost. Again. The only good thing was despite how long I had been running our shikai, I didn't seem to be growing tired.
I watched as the four bodies of the soldiers I had taken down pulled themselves together and stood, the mud slicking off of them like water. They shook with their apparent resurrection and shifted slightly, their armor and held weapons becoming more unique. They were becoming harder to kill every time I took them down. Mr. Long sword had been an easy kill several times until abruptly he became the monster that he was now.
My zanpakuto really didn't fight fair.
I felt my chest fix itself like it had already done so many times in the last few hours and my breathing became normal again. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that I was becoming accustomed to the sensation. The first time I had almost gone into shock, but now it was just another reset. Either way, I turned my gaze to the soldiers that waited around me. I knew they wouldn't attack until I took to my feet, so for just a moment I let my gaze wander up to look into the sky.
"Tankyu no Unmei," I called out to her despite knowing that she hadn't answered to me since this had all started. I waited for what felt like several minutes before I dropped my head. Of course she still wasn't listening. She was probably off drinking with Rangiku or something while I was in here getting murdered over and over again. At least she had the decency to make it painless.
Letting out a rough sigh I took to my feet and set myself up for the onslaught that was about come at me. I cleared my head from all thought as the soldiers shifted, raising their weapons in preparation. I would break them all even if it took me days to do. My zanpakuto had sent me here so I couldn't hurt someone like I had Amagi. I needed to figure out exactly how to use it so I would never repeat what I had done.
Never again…
Seeker
"Ria," the substitute Soul Reaper called out to me as I dropped from my flash step at his side. I turned to him, adjusting my geta as I looked up to him. He wasn't quite as tall as Toshiro, maybe just a few inches shorter, but compared to my Herald he still loomed over us even with the geta on.
"Is something wrong?" I asked him innocently. I hadn't done anything out of what could be considered normal, so why he was giving me a skeptical look I didn't know. We had entered some sort of underground training area that had required maneuvering down a seemingly endless shaft that had dropped us into an area that looked like it should have been outside of the Rukon districts rather under the Seireitei. Perhaps it was my flash stepping that had drawn his concern?
Captain Yadomaru stopped on my other side, drawing my mind's eye but not my gaze. The two people on either side of me felt different from one another. No doubt it was Kazui's lineage, but they both weren't the same. Close, but different enough that I knew I had misunderstood what a Visored actually felt like.
"I'm surprised the stealth force left us alone," she commented as she turned to face us. I let out a silent sigh and turned away from Kazui to give her the attention that her words demanded.
Captain Lisa Yadomaru was average looking in the way that Lieutenant Matsumoto was. In other words, not at all. She wore the typical Captain's haori that all the other captains did, but unlike them she looked like she was ready to tear it off at a moment's notice. She just didn't appear comfortable in the long garment. It made sense when you saw what she was hiding under it. Her shihakusho wasn't more than a skimpy outfit that the living seemed so fond of dressing their young women in. Her skirt couldn't have covered much more than her lean behind, and her sleeves exposed almost her entire arm. With her haori on no one could fully see her outfit, but with my mind's eye I had been exposed to far more of her body than was proper for a lady. Thankfully, her outfit was the only thing sinful about her appearance. She wore glasses that made her look more like a book worm than a prostitute and her hair was pulled back in a modest ponytail leaving only her straight, black bangs to cover her forehead and temples. It almost seemed like her head didn't belong on the body.
"I'm not considered to be breaking the rules so long as I'm with a Captain," I said with a small shrug.
"No duh," she said as she sent me a flat stare. "I wouldn't have wasted my time coming to escort you if you didn't need it, but I'm still surprised."
I did my best to mimic my Herald's nervous laughter before saying, "thank you again for this."
"You can blame Kazui. Poor kid feels bad for ya," she said as she waved us off before she turned and started walking towards the training area we had stopped just outside of.
I turned back to the mentioned man and gave him a questioning look. He shrugged sheepishly at my glance. "Toshiro asked me look after you that day, and I didn't do anything to help. If I had known what he was doing I would have, but he had you dead to rights before I could even think about getting between you two."
"It's alright, Kazui," I said, dropping my gaze. "It wasn't your fault, so you shouldn't feel that way."
"Did you even suspect him?" He asked.
How to answer such a question… "Yes and no. He had been vetted by Captain Kurotsuchi so I didn't want to believe what I was feeling."
"Do you think that's the end of it?"
I turned my gaze up to meet his kind orange eyes. Ugh, his cheery demeanor was unnerving. "Other than my sister, yes. She's the only one left that is still possessed by a soul candy."
"And you're positive of this?" His brow quirked with his question.
"Yes." I answered simply.
He watched me a long moment like he was waiting for me to say more. Finally he turned away and started to follow after the female Visored. Over his shoulder he said, "you're different today."
I frowned at his accusation. Toshiro had been right when he had said the orange haired boy would notice. My spiritual pressure was ever so slightly different from my Heralds, but most people wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. He probably didn't understand why, but he knew that my Herald appeared to be different. I would have to be more careful around him.
"It's the kimono," I said jokingly as I followed him. "I was raised in an environment far different from squad life. It makes me more comfortable outside of the uniform."
"I can understand that," he replied as he glanced down to me when I stepped up beside him. "I'm Human, part of the living, but I've spent so much of my life running around outside of it, that it's far more comfortable to be here or in Hueco Mundo than stuck in my body back in the world of the living."
"It's the energy," I said as we entered the large flat space that Squad 5 called a training area. It was more of a big, empty area that would have been better suited for holding a fair than a training area with how expansive and boring it was. Oh, the things I could have done with a space like this… "Reishi gives off a thrum of power, like the residual presence of the people who have lingered around it. The Seireitei practically hums with power no matter who you are around because of the people who have been around before."
"What do you mean?" he asked as he stopped walking to watch me.
I copied his movement and stopped so I could turn to look back at him. "The world of the living is made up of something besides reishi. Adams or whatever."
"Atoms, yes," he corrected me.
I dismissed his words with a wave and continued, "reishi isn't like your atoms. It is the same concept of an all encompassing material that our bodies and our world are made of, but it's different. We can manipulate reishi because it accepts our reiatsu, our influence, much like your zanpakuto accepts you. Atoms don't do that. It's why you feel more at ease here. The world welcomes our spirit energy and radiates with it everywhere you go."
"Your zanpakuto allows you to do that though, most of us can't manipulate reishi like that," he pointed out.
"You can't do it to the extent that we can, but you are still capable of it. How do you stand in the sky in the world of the living?" I prompted him.
"I don't know. No one ever taught me the mechanics behind a lot of what we do."
"You're standing on reishi," I said. "When you draw on the power, it's attracting reishi under your feet. It takes more energy to do it here, but it can be done if you want to waste the energy, but most people choose not to."
"I never knew you were so insightful," he commented as a lopsided grin upturned the corner of his mouth.
"I talk simple when I must," I quickly covered as I turned my gaze out across the grounds to find Captain Yadomaru and Captain Hirako moving slowly towards us as they exchanged words. Perhaps I wasn't as similar to my Herald as I thought. I needed to get out of personal conversation with this man before he asked any more troublesome questions. My knowledge far exceeded my Herald's when it came to how the world worked. I was making her sound smarter than she was.
"I'm detaining you from training. I apologize," I said as I glanced around the area. He had invited my Herald to observe when there really was no place to go to be out of the way. How asinine…
"Yeah," he said, laughing sheepishly. "There isn't really a seating area here like you have in the training arena at your Squad's grounds. Normally, someone sets a barrier for those not participating to take shelter in, but they aren't exactly the safest place to be. When I hollowfy things tend to get messy. It's not a question of control, it's just how my Kagetsu works. I figured with your shikai you can create your own barrier. With the way Rangiku described your power, how your barriers are stronger than just a kyomon would be, I figured you would be perfectly safe."
"You are that dangerous to be around?" I asked making sure my words expressed my skepticism.
"When I want to be," he said, shrugging. "I didn't go through all the trials that my Dad did with Aizen, the Fullbringers, and Yawatch. He had a reason to become who he is and the driving urge to protect those he felt needed to be protected. I haven't had that drive to be the strongest, but I've always been training to control my powers. It was always to ensure that I wouldn't accidentally misuse my abilities, but once I understood what it meant to my father to have the abilities that he does, I worked to become stronger. I want to be able to protect those I love, just like he did. So to answer your question: yes, I am that dangerous."
My Herald would have had something heartfelt to say to him, but I didn't. I didn't know his life story because it didn't matter to me. What did matter to me though… "Why do you feel different from the other Visored?"
"I feel different?" he asked, prompting me to nod at him. "I suppose it's because I'm Human."
"It's more than that." I shook my head and started to reach out to him, but stopped myself. "You left your Human - ah - presence behind in the world of the living."
"You're pretty sensitive to spiritual pressure, aren't you?" He asked, an amused grin quirking his lips.
"Yes," I replied simply.
"Tell you what," he said as he turned to start moving towards the two Captains who appeared to be waiting for him a short distance away. "Watch our sparring for a while, then see if you can tell me what I am. If you get close, I'll let you in on the family secret."
I watched his back as he left me, turning his cheery words towards the captains. He was such a strange man. Who would just offer up something like that? Clearly, it wasn't as much of a secret if all I had to do was figure out what he was. My Herald would surely have a good idea of what he was. She had paid attention when she was going through the academy, where as I had been focusing on her future. I could search through the past to discover what I had missed, but that would take time and would most likely drain my Herald's spirit energy to do so. We didn't have the luxury of wasting our energy today. She needed to be ready for what I could not see.
But, even if he did tell me, how would that help me to fix my vision? The Visored were close enough to Arrancar that I was positive they would be able to fix my vision. How did I do it though? How had I first noticed that my vision was incomplete?
My Herald had laid hands on the Numeros when I had first seen the discrepancy in her immediate future. No - she hadn't just laid hands on him, she had sought out what was inside of him and laid her mind's eye on his spirit energy. Was that how I needed to fix it? Did I need to look into one of them to discover what I couldn't see in our future? My Herald had only looked so deeply into three people. Two of them had been weaker than herself which allowed her to forcefully do it, but Toshiro had let her. There was no way that we could look into one of them without permission. They were too strong for that.
Kazui though, would he mind? I had been trying to impersonate my Herald this entire time, but if I told him, asked him and explained why… Was he the type of person that would just let me? Perhaps, but I needed to gain his trust before I asked him to rely on it.
Herald
The last of the terracotta soldiers fell into the lake, causing a wave of water to overtake my island in a rush that almost took my feet out from under me. I stumbled and easily caught myself by stabbing my zanpakuto into the ground as my senses spread through the area to search for any remaining threats. I had counted thirty, I was sure of it. But maybe I had missed one? There were several bodies lying around me on the ground, but the majority had fallen into the water. If I hadn't actually killed them, they could easily resurface.
I stayed perfectly still, allowing myself to really open myself to sense anything. I couldn't see into the water, I never had been very good with manipulating liquids, but what I could feel and see was still… calm… Dead. I'd done it. I had really done it… I almost couldn't believe it.
I left my zanpakuto when I had stabbed it into the ground and walked over to the shore where the mud wasn't as thick and took a seat. I had discovered through as many near death experiences I had today that in this place I didn't have to worry about maintaining contact with my zanpakuto. It was probably because she was maintaining it for me, but I didn't bother worrying about it. I was mentally blank from forcing myself to keep a clear head. Just staring out across the water at the far shore seemed like too much thinking after all that had happened since I entered this place.
"It is meant for defense," my zanpakuto said from behind me. I didn't bother turning to look at her when she spoke, instead favoring a spot in the trees that stood out. She must have been referring to this part of our shikai that she had given me.
"Yes," she confirmed my unvoiced thoughts. I felt her move until she was just behind me, but I kept ignoring her.
"It sure seems like it's meant for more than that," I grumbled absently.
"Here, where you have nothing to distract you, to keep your thoughts from running away, it would seem that way." She moved around me and I heard the sound of her moving through water as she shifted to interrupt my view. She knelt before me and reached out to rest her hand on my folded knee. In the bright light of our inner world, the metal that adorned her skin glowed like molten gold as she leaned close enough to me that if she hadn't been my zanpakuto, I would have shoved her away.
"Do you feel anything right now?" She asked.
"No," I replied dully. Experiencing my death so many times had robbed me of thoughts and feelings. I felt empty, almost light in the absence of anything, but so… blank. She had to have known that, so why she was asking was baffling.
"Where is our mind's eye?" She asked.
"I'm not using it," I grumbled at her as I shifted, pulling my knee away from her hand.
"And how are you using our shikai without our mind's eye to control it?"
I hesitated as I processed her question. I wasn't using our mind's eye and hadn't been for some time now. I had given up on trying to have control while fighting her soldiers. I hadn't been able to concentrate on so many targets at one time, which is why I had been killed so many times. I had given up control for defending myself, but it had taken me up until a short while ago to stop using it to attack.
"I don't know, I just am," I finally concluded.
"Can you bring your mind's eye back to the forefront?"
"Will you sick your soldiers on me again if I do?" I asked, my words sharp with spite.
"Not these soldiers," she said as she shook her head. Her hand found mine and raised it until her fingers could lace between my own. She brought our joined hands towards her until she could press the back of my hand to her chest.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"You have passed this trial. You've figured out how to react instead of using your hard won control to fight."
I scoffed at her and turned my gaze down and to the side so I was looking at the mud I was sitting in. "Great, I figured it out. It just took you killing me a hundred times before I figured it out. Fantastic."
"We're running out of time, Herald," she said softly as her other hand reached out and brushed along my cheek. "If there were another way to make you learn this quickly, I would have done it. But, you are stubborn and unwilling to change how your mind works. You listened to Toshiro when he guided you into your mind's eye, but can you honestly say that you would have allowed yourself to use this ability around him after killing Amagi?"
I frowned at her words and shook my head. "No, I wouldn't. I know he's stronger than me, but there's always the chance…"
I let out a harsh sigh and turned my head further away, parting my skin from her finger tips. "You said earlier that there were gaps in my future. You were referring to the Arrancar, weren't you?"
"Yes and no." Her response was hesitant, making me glance at her from the corner of my eye.
"That's not an answer."
Her teal gaze met mine as she said, "I am working to fix my sight, but while I am doing that, I need you to seek the full power of our shikai."
I narrowed my eyes at her and clasped my hand around hers to ensure she wouldn't go anywhere as I asked, "what have you been doing in my body?"
"You never did as I asked, so I did it for you," she said like it was obvious.
"What didn't I do? Sit and stare at the arrancars trapped in squad 12?" I asked with a flat tone, the anger I expected to flare with my words never coming to me.
"Yes," she said flatly. "If you had, I wouldn't have needed to go galavanting around in your body. We are fortunate that the substitute Soul Reaper pities your circumstances, or I never would have had the opportunity to remedy my sight."
"So you can see Arrancars now?" I asked, my tone doubtful.
"I am working to correct my sight, which is why I have come here to assist you."
"That makes absolutely no sense," I commented as I moved to pull my hand free from hers. She held on though, keeping my hand trapped in hers.
"I have never concerned myself with anything that will not affect you. Because of this oversight, I need to know what you know before the Substitute Soul Reaper completes his training."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I responded, "what could I possibly know that you don't? You're like the sphinx, always playing games with words and my names."
"What is the Substitute Soul Reaper?" She asked.
I blinked at her for a moment, showing my confusion at her question. "He's a Soul Reaper. What else would he be?"
"You know that there is more to him. I could look into your past for the answer, but it will take too much time. I need to know what he is so I can understand why he is different."
"Why does he matter?" I asked as I pulled on her hand again.
She moved toward me with the force of my movement, but instead of just returning to where she had been she lurched forward and her other hand pressed to my shoulder. She forced me back, riding me down as I slapped into the mud that my island had become. A shiver ran down my body at the feeling of the slimy wetness soaking into my clothing to coat my skin, but she didn't seem to notice as she loomed over me. Her free hand lifted from my shoulder and as I recoiled from her startling actions, she trust her palm down to catch me in the center of my forehead.
My mind's eye snapped into existence and the world enveloped my mind all at once, disorienting me as I forced the information to separate into categories.
"Under normal circumstances, I would play this game with you, but we have neither the time nor the patience to waste on word games. You know what he is, and I need to know now."
"Why?" I asked again as I lifted my head out of the mud so I could try and shake away the gunk that had splattered across my face. She wasn't having it though, and she slammed my head back down. This time she held me down by resting her hand on my collar bone and putting her body weight into it.
"To keep you from dying unexpectedly," she finally answered. "Your future is filled with holes, with Arrancars that I cannot see. I need to correct my mind's eye, and right now that means gaining the Substitute Soul Reaper's trust, and to do that I need to know what you know."
"You're intending to use him like you're using me," I stated as I finally put my head in order.
"He is too strong for me to use him. I need his permission, and I intend to gain it by asking for it," she said as she leaned further forward, pushing me further into the mud.
"Then just let me do it," I said as I wrapped my hand around her wrist and pushed back, relieving my chest of her weight.
"You aren't done here," she said as I felt her guide our power outwards. From the corner of my eye I saw one of those damn soldiers rise from the water, its broken body mending from the brushing blow I had dealt it earlier.
"I am not fighting these damn things if you are going to force me to use our mind's eye," I said, distracting myself from our conversation as more of them rose.
"You need to be able to use both your mind's eye and your reactive warding together. Together, these abilities encompass all that is your shikai, your Herald's Armor," she explained, her teal eyes still locked on me. "Tell me what you know about the substitute Soul Reaper and finish learning how to use your own power."
"God damn it," I growled. "You're not going to let me go until I do, are you?"
"No," she answered in a flat tone.
I let out a frustrated sigh and closed my eyes. Was I the only one with a zanpakuto that bossed me around? Probably not, but it was damn aggravating.
"Ichigo is half Quincy and half Soul Reaper who also possesses a Hollow inside of him. Kazui is supposed to be the same way, but with his mother being a Human with extremely high spiritual pressure and unique gifts, there's no telling what sort of other powers he has. He didn't even require a Soul Reaper to kick start his Soul Reaper side. He's the only one of his kind and probably more powerful than his father ever was."
My zanpakuto was silent for a moment and her weight on me seemed to have gone completely still. Her eyes slowly drew down my face and presumably rested on her own hand. "A Quincy? That was what I had felt?"
"Maybe?" I said, my word sharp. "How the hell would I know? I don't even know what you've been doing in my body."
A sly smile turned the corner of her mouth and her gaze flicked back to meet mine. "Thank you, Herald. Now, try not to die too many more times."
And she vanished. Of course she would vanish. Ugh.
Note from the Author: Finally! We are back on track for the old Chapter 7! Prepare for some fun in the next chapter as I introduce several of the Hueco Mundo head honchos!
On a side note, I will be removing chapter 2 and updating chapter 3 to reflect the events of 2. I find that chapter boring and rather unrelated to the new direction I am going, so its really pointless. That means the next update will be for Chapter 11... This chapter. Lol. Everything is shifting around! The good thing is I'm not even close to done with the next chapter and its long as hell. Already 13k words! If I had to guess, it will end up being almost 20k words, my longest chapter yet!