Chapter 10: Dead Inside
Dead inside
My heart and soul flatlines
Put your mouth on mine
And bring me back to life
Dead inside
No other satisfies
My blood runs dry
Take my life
Save me from this death inside
-Dead Inside, Skillet
I always wear combat boots. I don't know what inspired me to do so, but it's helped out in the past.
See most Arrancar and Shinigami wear sandals. One would think that it would have occurred to them to wear something that offers a bit more protection?
I've lost count how many Arrancars I have either stomped on the foot on or just plain kicked them with my steel toed boots.
There are times I see myself in the Living World travelling over rough terrain, in my boots.
There are two things that confuse me whenever this happens.
One, I'm not wearing my Shinigami uniform, but I could be in a gigai.
The second confuses me even more; in these visions I appear to be fourteen.
My appearance is that of a nineteen year old.
Last time:
An army of Gillians and Adjuchas were firing upon the Seireitei. On the ground a Shinigami lay dead, the spirit pressure was so suffocating that he had died because he couldn't breathe properly. The source of the energy was a small humanoid figure standing in the air far enough away that we could still hear him.
"I am Devas" the hollow said, "die."
Seireitei, outside First Division
Silence,
Silence only broken by the continuous bombardment from the hollows, and the screams of the Shinigami as they were hit, maimed, or killed by said hollows.
It's like the Winter War all over again. Hollows who follow a leader that doesn't give a damn about them. The only thing they care about is overwhelming us. Well there's only one solution to that.
Around me I could hear the other captains and lieutenants conversing and strategizing. I slipped the katana hilt I had up my sleeve down into the palm of my right hand. If my plan is going to work I have to move fast. (1)
Pushing energy into my legs, I catapulted myself into the oncoming mass of hollows. 'What was that phrase? It was named after a character in some video-game…oh yeah! Leeeeerrrrrooooy Jeeeennnkkkiinnss!'
"Lieutenant!" I could hear someone screech behind me. I ignored them, as a thought occurred to me. 'Hmm... I'm facing off against multiple enemies, just charged off by myself, possibly ruining any plans that the captains managed to come up with…..oh god I'm doing a Zaraki! …I think I'm gonna need to look in to getting a heavier dosage of my medicine…'
An intrepid low level hollow managed to reach me first. slamming the hilt into my left palm, I pulled. As I pulled my zanpakutou out of the seal on my left hand, the blade glowed blue. I sliced the hollow in half, when a few higher level hollows passed me.
The captains and lieutenants weren't prepared at all. 'Why are they still standing there? ok who's bright idea was it to say that it was okay to have an effin' discussion when under attack? If I ever find out, I will kill him, that and the guy who invented paperwork.' Then I remembered something, none of the captains or lieutenants knew how to use seals, which meant none of them, had their zanpakutous.
'Bloody brilliant.'
As another hollow approached me attempting to decapitate me I ducked, planted my feet on his chest with my knees bent and shunpoed off him in the direction of the superior officers. The hollow I used as a trampoline went barreling into the hollows that couldn't get out of the way fast enough, creating a domino effect, buying me a few minutes.
Placing my sword in front of me, I cried out, "Dissolve! Shūen No Mizu!" (2)
Karakura Town, outside Team Headquarters
Headquarters was in chaos.
All on-duty members had been sent to intercept the incoming hollows. Those on reserve were being called in, if they hadn't already come in of their own volition. The exorcists had been commanded to stay inside, for the simple reason of that they couldn't see the hollows. Instead they were forced to watch the rapid preparations of the Team for the incoming injured and dead.
It was slightly disturbing to see the members, some only a few years older than Allen waiting for the influx of dead with such cold efficiency.
"Sad isn't it?" a voice to the side of them asked. The exorcists' heads whipped around to see a young boy with short and spiky hair. His hair color was split down the middle. The right half of his hair was black and the left was white. His eyes were orange and he had red stripes stretching diagonally across his cheeks from the corner of his eyes to the sides of his jaw.
He smiled, "Sorry for startling you, I'm so used to my captain not reacting at all when I appear suddenly. He considers it training for unexpected appearances on the battlefield. I guess it became a habit for me to just pop up. Oh, I didn't introduce myself; I'm Kurotsuki Yuki, second in-command of the Monitor division."(3)
Komui nodded toward the young boy, "what exactly do you do?"
Yuki responded, "We separate Earth into sections, then assign teams of two to observe those sections for any abnormal energy."
Seeing the blank expressions on most of their faces, Yuki elaborated. "Spirit energy is something that all you humans have, though for normal humans it is very low and difficult to sense. Those with higher spirit energy, otherwise known as reiatsu, are the ones we keep an eye out for. They are targets for hollows, who will eat them if they don't control their energy, or if we don't reach them in time."
A look of comprehension appeared on most of the exorcists' faces, although Noise and Komui both wore frowns.
Seeing this Yuki inquired, "Is something the matter?"
"You speak as if you aren't human, you said 'you humans', why?" Komui asked.
"You are an Arrancar," Noise said a statement not a question.
Yuki said nothing but simply grinned revealing elongated canines, fangs. Allen, Lavi and Krory recoiled from the slightly demonic look in Yuki's eyes.
"An Arrancar?" Kanda asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting with Urahara.
"A Hollow and Soul Reaper hybrid, in other words a hollow that has soul reaper abilities." Noise said.
"You're certainly well informed" Yuki said raising a questioning brow.
"I have met and had conversations with an Arrancar, who lived in the living world, along with the rest of us" the last part Noise murmured.
"Who was this Arrancar?" Yuki inquired. It was unheard of for an Arrancar to exist in the Living World without the Soul Society knowing.
Noise was saved from replying by an explosion. A part of the wall gave way and in stepped an Adjuchas. Yuki immediately pulled the sword from his back and leapt forward engaging the hollow.
All the exorcists could see was Yuki fighting a shimmering figure, with two gold flashes around where the eyes should be. (4)
Unknown Location
A group of people dressed in cloaks and armor, wearing devilish helmets sat in a circle. In the center of the circle was a large circular dip that was filled with water. The Demon Lord observed the water with keen interest.
"It seems Devas has gone ahead with his assault upon the vermin." General Kusakabe stated. (5)
The water showed fires beginning to spread, as a small humanoid hollow with ruffs of fire burning on his forearms, threw fireballs at the ground. The Vasto Lorde wore a white cloth draped over one shoulder and going down to his knees with a cloth belt tied around his waist. His horns which protruded from his mask had flaming tips and he had red markings over his body.
The scene changed to show a young looking Shinigami taking on multiple hollows solo. Each time he killed a hollow, and also while fighting a hollow, his blade would shatter and reform as a different weapon.
"That boy," began Clovis, "he reminds me of Yutaka Takahashi, and the boy's zanpakutou is very similar to his." (6)
A murmur of agreement went around the room at the Colonel's words.
"Whatever happened to old Yutaka anyway?" one Lieutenant Colonel asked.
"Didn't Nihil kill him, his wife, along with two other Guards?" asked a Brigadier General. (8)
There was a stunned silence in the war room. The assembled military personnel looked up at the Demon Lord in apprehension.
"So it appears that Yutaka had a son who survived, and that son is in Seireitei," was all he said.
"General Kusakabe, what is the probability of the boy being a Potential?" asked the figure in black and green.
"Considering his parents? High, very high, in fact I'd be surprised if he wasn't, Master Kenji." The General answered.
"Then he must be dealt with, tell Devas to eliminate him." The Demon Lord commanded, leaning back with a faint smirk on his face. This could prove to be very interesting.
Karakura Town
Yuki slammed into the wall and slowly crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The Adjuchas stepped over him and turned toward the exorcists. Allen shifted nervously, it was hard to fight something you couldn't see. It was times like this that he felt like all the other exorcists who didn't have a cursed eye like he did.
Allen squinted at the shimmering air below the floating eyes, trying to see if he could get any hint as to where the hollow would attack. There! There was a thin strip of shimmering air!
Suddenly the shimmer moved forward, Allen barely dodged the attack, falling to the ground in his attempt to get out of the way.
"Allen!" Lenalee cried from somewhere behind the rubble, alarmed.
Allen rolled to the right as the pincer attempted to skewer him. 'Wait… pincer?' was the thought that ran through Allen's mind as his eyes widened at the creature in front of him. Standing up, Allen got a good look at the Adjuchas.
It looked like a giant scorpion with human-like arms. Its pincer was hopefully its only weapon. Allen gripped his left hand with his right and pulled. His arm shifted into a large sword.
Allen charged the scorpion-hollow with a battle cry. Not once did he wonder about the significance of that moment.
Unknown Location
The girl sat dejected on the bench, the man was feeding the birds again. The man sighed, "Ok, I'll bite, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong! A Vasto Lorde is attacking the Soul Society. A Potential is fighting for his life, death, whatever, and the other two second generations are under attack in the Living World and you are asking me what's wrong!" during her tirade the violet eyed, red haired girl had begun to pace.
Getting up the man placed his hands on the girl's shoulders, "you mean you haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what?"
The black haired, blue eyed man smiled. "The Potential in Soul Society felt your rather vocal attempts to get him to leave, he has been having visions of his past, he sometimes knows what people are going to say before they say it, and he can see the plates."
"He can see the plates?" the girl asked stunned. The man nodded.
"Then that means—"
"He will return soon, it is only a matter of time"
Seireitei
I dodged the giant foot that almost squashed me. This stupid Gillian had appeared out of nowhere and almost squashed me! How dare it!
I jumped up to the level of the Gillian's head and changed my zanpakutou's shape to a neck cleaver. (9) whirling in midair I through it at the Gillian's head where it imbedded itself in its mask. Before it could react I launched myself at it. Twisting around in midair, I landed on the hilt of my blade, pushing it in deeper. The force of my impact was enough to completely crack the mask and caused the Gillian to fall backward.
I gripped my sword and launched myself off of the Gillian, slicing the low level hollow that tried to hit me.
A hollow with what looked like a missile launcher for an arm fired said missiles at me. I twisted to the right, hunkered down, did a move similar to leap frog, summersaulted got on one knee and sliced off the hollows legs with my short sword. Standing up I stabbed my blade into its head.
Gasping for breath, I caught a whiff of something, ash. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. 'DUCK!' my mind screamed. I complied and narrowly missed having my head separated from my body. I happen to like my head where it is thank you very much.
Spinning around I came face to face with the Vasto Lorde, Devas. (10)
'Well shit, this isn't good'
"You are a Potential, therefore you must be…eliminated." The hollow said, as he swiped his 3 finge—clawed hand at me.
I twisted to the right again. I leap-frogged over Devas as he attempted to skewer me with his arm, luckily I missed his flaming horns.
'Wait a minute…flaming horns…he's gay!'
"you know I sensed you coming" I ducked, "I guess," I kicked him in the shin, he hit me in the stomach, I gripped his arm and pulled him to the ground as I planted my leg in his stomach kicking him into the wall behind us. "I guess I have something like a spider-sense…a hollow sense!" I grinned, and then frowned, "does that mean I have a theme song?"
"You are irritating" devas said brushing off the dust as the wounds I had inflicted healed.
"Hey that's not fair! No healing, I worked hard to give you those lacerations!" I complained. I was rewarded with a bala. I dodged by standing on my tiptoes as it passed within a hairs breadth of me.
"Shut up, you insufferable pest!" Devas shouted, throwing bala after bala at me.
Even with my variation of Suiken I couldn't dodge all of them. When I stumbled, Devas was all over me. For every punch I managed to land, he would hit me ten times harder. For every cut I managed to make he threw me into a wall.
I attempted to stab him, but misjudged the distance and started to fall forward. Devas's fist was introduced painfully to my face. I felt my nose and goggles break as I went flying into another wall.
I could barely stay awake. Everything was spinning and blurry. Vaguely I realized how lucky I was that the cartilage in my nose hadn't hit my brain.
'Great a slow death as opposed to a quick one and relatively painless one…crap'
"You fight well for a Soul Reaper, but in the end it was al—"Devas was beginning a monologue. Thankfully I was slowly losing consciousness so I wouldn't have to listen to him monologue which would only add to my agony…wait a minute that means I'm—I'm dying.
"Don't you dare die!"
My eyes widened. Desperately I mentally gripped the voice and followed it to its source. Instantly I was hit with a barrage of images.
A long haired teen with a glowing sword
A girl's voice, the same as before, "welcome home"
A mad scientist "no one hurts my sister!"
Cold.
Warm.
Dark.
Light.
Understanding.
I remember.
I could feel the cartilage in my nose resetting in self. I could feel energy coursing through my veins. I smirked.
"-and now your pitiful life will end" Devas was still monolouguing.
"Shut. Up."
"What was that? You're still alive?" Devas inquired. "That's too bad and here I was actually going to kill you quic—"
"I am having an epiphany, shut the hell up!" I yelled the rubble around me exploding as my spirit energy soared. Devas went flying but managed to right himself by dragging his claws into the ground.
"w-what are you?" he managed to ask while taking a step back as my energy continued to climb, managing to match his.
"I am neither Shinigami nor Hollow; I am neither Vaizard nor Arrancar.
I stand with one foot in each world,
I hold Soul Society in my right hand and Hueco Mundo in my left.
I am that which binds them together.
I. Am. A. Hybrid!"
Gripping my sword, I lifted it so that it was perpendicular to the ground. I raised my head, my gold eyes meeting Devas's red ones.
"BANKAI!"
AN:
1) Naruto style seal, I couldn't resist
2) Shūen No Mizu- Waters of demise, please note I used Google translate to get this translation so if it isn't correct I did the best I could considering I don't know anyone who is Japanese
3) Just wanted to mention that Yuki is my character. He is a character that is important in my own story that isn't a fanfiction. The funny thing is he is actually fulfilling the role he originally had when I created him. (I had this comic I was working on in 2006 and Yuki appeared in it, I never did finish that comic hmm…possible fic for later)
4) Exorcists can only see the eyes of a hollow, thought it would be better than just seeing an outline of the hollow, for reasons that will be explained later.
5) Yep I took the name from Code Geass, can't remember it was the general who took Euphy hostage.
6)aah Clovis, also from Code Geass appeared for a whopping 2 episodes… ok I admit I was writing this scene on impulse and those were the only names I could come up with… eh it's a fanfic, maybe I'll put inside jokes in there…
7) Just so people are aware; I'm going off a website for military ranks as I have no idea which rank is higher. That being said I am going by the American Army ranks not navy or air force etc.
8) Pronounced Nye-hill.
9) Zabuza's sword to be specific
10) If it weren't for the fact that this chapter has been begging to be written since around the time when this story was created, I could have ended it there. Alas the place I really wanted/ planned to end it happens a little later.
Please note that this chapter has not been betaed, I have gone over this chapter a few times but if there are any mistakes please tell me!
Ok question, who/what do you think the Demon Lord is? And what is his goal?
Please Review.
Reviews will be used to feed Allen Walker's insatiable appetite.
