...
"Admiration is the furthest from understanding."
The gradually darkening sky cast shadows around the small room, illuminating only a few choice areas with the last remaining rays of light. Towards the center of the room was a small bed, set up neatly on the floor. A man with gray hair and ear piercings pushed himself up right, the covers falling off of his upper half as he did so, revealing a tattoo which read '69' on his chest.
"It's getting late, you know," he said softly as he nudged someone next to him. A groan was heard from his other side, and a sleepy looking girl peered over her shoulder where she lay, her expression clearly indicating that she did not appreciate being woken up.
"It's none of your business." she said flatly before rolling over to face him. She kept the sheets drawn up as far as possible, the only part of her body visible being her head and bare shoulders. The man frowned.
"You're saying you'd be fine with loosing your Vice Captain position?" he asked, and the girl muttered something incoherent in her throat. "If you actually tried, you could succeed Kuchiki Genrei as Captain of the Sixth Division."
"I try just fine, Kensei, get off my back." Kensei was silent for a moment, watching as the sangria haired girl by his side began to doze off once again. He reached down, tracing her shoulder blades with the tip of his finger. A few strands of hair fell over his hand, and he brushed them away; He did so slowly, cautiously, as if afraid he would scare her off if he did anything too quickly.
"... Why do you act like this, Hiori?" he muttered darkly, and the girl beside of him suddenly drew away from his touch.
"I don't act any sort of way." she snapped harshly. "This is just me, you stupid bastard."
"You're saying that killing your entire squad is just 'being you'?" Hiori flinched slightly, but the movement was not big enough to go noticed by the silver haired man on her left.
"Those fuckheads had it coming," she replied angrily, rolling over on her stomach and peering up at Kensei. "They weren't going to let me live it down... It wasn't my fault, I got distracted." She paused for a moment, gauging Kensei's reaction to her words carefully before continuing. "Besides, they were going to laugh at me for losing."
"They weren't laughing when you killed them."
"Damn straight." Hiori said sourly. "That shut them up good." Kensei shut his eyes for a moment, a pained expression crossing his face for a moment. When he reopened them, he was met with the gaze of Hiori, curiosity filling her cloudy gray eyes as she watched him closely.
"... You're a good person under all that hate, aren't you?" he whispered. Hiori flared instantly, a feral look coming to her eyes more quickly than Kensei had anticipated; He barreled on nonetheless. "You're just... Hiori, you don't have to be this way."
"Be what way, Kensei?" she spat, baring her teeth, almost snarling at the man beside of her. "I don't want anything like that from you, okay? I don't need your help."
"Hiori, you know I know that there's more to you than this-"
"Shut up!" she screamed, sitting bolt right up in the bed. Despite the cool gray color of her eyes, they seemed to be on fire, rage and hatred flowing through them freely. "This thing of ours, I don't need it. I don't need you to 'save' me, Kensei!" The man narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I'm not sorry that I killed those people, and I'm not sorry if you don't like that. I don't need you; I don't need anyone!"
"What about your broth-"
"I said shut up, Kensei!" Hiori bellowed. "I chose you because I thought you'd be the least likely to go putting your nose in my business- I made a mistake. Get out." The two locked eyes for several minutes, Hiori breathing heavily from her outburst. "I don't need this. I don't need you." In one fluid motion Kensei stood up, slipping on his hakama and Captain's jacket quickly before heading for the door.
Hiori curled up, resting her chin on her knees as she waited for him to leave. At the door he paused, his hand resting on the side of the sliding doors that lead to the balcony outside of Hiori's room.
"You are so broken."
The red haired girl simply stared, unable to form words as Kensei slid the door closed behind him. Hiori waited, straining her ears to hear his footsteps until he rounded the corner. She bit her lip angrily, reaching for the black shirt beside her bed and slipping it over her bare body. Clenching her fists in an attempt to quell her anger, she glanced at the clock. It was six in the afternoon... She'd have time to sleep. Captain Kuchiki could wait. She sighed heavily, gripping fist-fulls of her carmine locks as she touched her forehead to her knees.
"... Shit."
-:-
Hiori's eyes snapped open. Glancing around, she found that she was no longer within the room that she had been in in her dream, but was instead inside a small shack similar to the one she and Yoruichi had taken refuge in on their first day in Soul Society. She rubbed her eyes, attempting to force out the afterimage of the gray haired man, which seemed to be burned into her sockets.
"... Kensei..." she muttered softly, mulling the name over in her mind for several seconds. He had been mentioned to her only once before, and she herself possessed no real memories of him. But this brief recollection, along with one of her memory-flashes from when she first came into Soul Society, told her that he had probably played some important roll in her life before.
"Morning, sunshine." said a voice, and Hiori snapped her head around so quickly that she nearly got whiplash. The person who had spoken was, obviously, Yoruichi, but somehow Hiori had almost thought that the man called Kensei was still with her. It was an odd, finding out how close you had been to somebody you had no memories of... Though, when she thought about it, Hiori figured that you could hardly call what they had had 'closeness'. Perhaps it had been that way for Kensei... But not for Hitsugaya-Hentai.
"Hey, you. Stop spacing." Yoruichi commanded loudly, ripping Hiori from her thoughts rather forcefully. "Now isn't the time to be daydreaming." Hiori smiled apologetically.
"Sorry, Yoruichi." she muttered, standing up and stretching. She could barely remember falling asleep, and her feet were still sore from all of the running she had done the day before. She carefully tied Amaterasu around her hips, sinching the blood red sash as close to her hips as she could. "You wouldn't happen to have a plan, would you?"
"Not particularly." Yoruichi replied stiffly, padding closer to Hiori while still in cat form. "You ruined my last one; I figured having any sort of plan was going to be useless with you." Hiori rolled her eyes. Despite Yoruichi's usually calm demeanor, Hiori had to marvel at the cat-woman's ability to hold a grudge. "We should definitely try to find the others, though."
"They could be anywhere- It seems almost impossible." Hiori carefully cracked the door open, peering out and looking around the pathways of Soul Society. "And I'm not too good at sensing Reiatsu, as you well know."
"You're getting better... It's odd, we haven't done much training with that." she said, saying the last part mostly to herself. "I don't understand how you're managing to improve..." Hiori shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant about it, but in truth she had been wondering that very thing. Ever since Hollow Hiori had began making regular appearances in her Inner world, Hiori could feel strength growing within her; And it scared her.
"Stop daydreaming, Yoruichi," Hiori taunted, smirking down at the black cat as she pulled the door all the way open. "We've got stuff to take care of."
"Don't test me, Hiori." Yoruichi warned, though she still followed her through the open door. The crisp morning air washed over Hiori's skin, which welcomed the cooling moisture, soaking it up eagerly. Hiori took a deep breath, temporarily forgetting that she was in the middle of Soul Society, which had turned out to be much more dangerous than she had previously anticipated. "Let's not get distracted... We need to find Ichigo."
Navigating through Soul Society was nerve wrecking at best, and even though Hiori never found herself panicking, she couldn't help it when her heart nearly jumped out of her chest every time that she heard footsteps. Any person that she ran into here could hold a grudge against her, any person here could want her dead. After hours of slinking through back alleys and dodging squads of unseated Shinigami, it was all beginning to become too much for Hiori.
"Screw this," she muttered, darting in front of Yoruichi and rounding the corner.
"Hiori!" Yoruichi hissed, sprinting after her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hiori didn't answer for a moment, instead climbing onto the roof of one of the buildings. Yoruichi followed her, a sour look marring her face, the fur on her back standing on end. "Hey, Hiori, don't ignore me! We don't have time for this."
"Yoruichi, where d'you think Captains would be?" she asked suddenly, gray eyes meeting yellow. Yoruichi stiffened for a moment, eyeing the red head suspiciously before answering.
"... Captains stay with their divisions, though they have their own private quarters." she replied finally, watching Hiori's expression carefully. "Why do you ask?"
"I want to see my brother." she answered, not sounding nervous about it at all. Yoruichi spluttered, and she had half a mind to smack the sangria haired girl across the face. For someone who was a good thousand years old, minimum, she was surprisingly childish, she thought. "What?"
"... You have got to be one of the stupidest people I have ever met." she snapped, her ears pressed flat against her head in annoyance. "We can't just go watzing into Captains' quarters, and even if we could, we don't have time." Hiori glared down at the angry feline, a look that almost resembled a pout decorating her face. "Haven't you been listening to anything I've been saying?"
"Not really, no." she retorted. "What's the big deal? We sneak in, we sneak out, we kick the asses of anyone who gets in our way!"
"You nearly lost to Hisagi Shuuhei yesterday. If it wasn't for that Hollow of yours, you'd be dead." Hiori's breath caught in her throat, and Yoruichi nodded solemnly. "Yes. I know about Hollow Hiori... I also know that you can't control her, yet." Yoruichi's voice was level, but her eyes were shaking with anticipation, as if she were half expecting for Hollow Hiori to take over that very moment. "I'm not going to risk that Hollow going ape shit in the middle of a Captain's barracks and attracting attention. I won't allow it."
Hiori stayed silent for a long time, her eyes locked with the yellow orbs of the cat standing in front of her. As much as she wanted to agree with Yoruichi, she didn't want to give up that easily. She had a brother, family, a blood relative here who she had yet to meet... To remember. She knew that what Yoruichi said was true, but she at least wanted to see her brother. What he looked like. Who he was.
'Reach out for him.'
Amaterasu's voice filled her mind, echoing through her consciousness. Hiori took a deep breath, allowing her eyes to roll into the back of her head; Yoruichi was asking her something, but she couldn't hear her. She could feel hundreds of different Reiatsu all around her. She could even feel her own... Then, out of the seemingly millions of unimportant Reiatsu, no matter how strong they were, she found it. She couldn't remember ever feeling it before, and she couldn't explain how she knew that it was his, but as soon as she felt it she knew. Her eyes snapped open, her head now turned in the direction in which she had sensed the Reiatsu, and a small smile tugged at her lips.
"I- Hiori... Hiori, I said no!" Yoruichi called, leaping forward in an attempt to keep Hiori from jumping to the next roof; But she was too late. "Damn." she muttered, watching with narrowed eyes as Hiori skillfully utilized Shunpo to get from one rooftop to another. She sighed heavily with defeat, and the next moment she, too, was jumping from roof to roof, following closely in Hiori's footsteps.
"... Hiori, how did you know this was where he would be?" Yoruichi whispered. She was perched precariously on the red head's shoulder, her whiskers tickling her ear with every move her mouth made.
"I felt his Reiatsu."
"You don't know what his Reiatsu feels like." Yoruichi reminded her, staring up at the sign for the tenth division on the outside of the building. "You don't even know this boy's name."
"Oh... Right, yeah, what is his name?" she asked, meeting Yoruichi's eyes momentarily. The cat rolled her eyes, digging her claws into Hiori's shoulder despite herself. Hiori was being much too carefree.
"Make this quick, Hiori."
"But you didn't answer-"
"I said, make it quick."
Hiori finally subsided, glancing down from her perch on the roof of one of the buildings that made up the compound of the Tenth Division. It all seemed so quiet... Too quiet. No unseated Shinigami running around, no frantic calls, no nothing. Hiori bit her lip nervously, pondering the troubling situation at hand. If she could sense her brother, it wasn't out of the question that he also already knew that she was here. Had he set up a trap of some sort? Did he plan on catching her? She hesitated, deliberating on whether or not she could really risk jumping into the middle of a Divison compound with absolutely no back up.
"Ryoka?" Hiori jumped, though the voice itself sounded almost calm. Her bones seemed to be frozen in place, and even as she watched she could see her hands shaking. Yoruichi hissed loudly, jumping off of Hiori's shoulder too swiftly for her eyes to follow.
"What... What is this...?" she choked out, wide gray eyes meeting yellow.
"Hiori, run!"
"No use now, Ryoka. I couldn't allow myself to let you get away so easily." said the voice. Slowly, as slow as possible, Hiori peered over her shoulder. The face that she met in no way dignified the intense fear that she was feeling; A kind, smiling face, framed by brown hair and accented with thick-rimmed black glasses. Nothing about this man screamed 'I'm a monster. Run.' But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself not to be afraid of this man, she could not quell the fear rising within her; It was like bile, rising up her throat and threatening to force its way out. She couldn't speak, and she couldn't breath.
"Ah... A familiar face." said the man. He was keeping his hands resting inside of the sleeves of his hakama, much like the way that Urahara did. "This is quite an unexpected turn of events."
Hiori pushed herself up from the roof, struggling to keep her face as blank as possible while reaching for her Zanpakuto. No sooner had her palm made contact with the hilt, however, she realized that keeping a straight face was completely meaningless; The sad melody that Amaterasu was now humming seemed to say 'Please, just let me live'. The man chuckled softly.
"Afraid? That's quite pitiful, you know." Despite herself, Hiori glowered. She had never been able to take teasing from others very well.
"Wh... Who are you?" she whispered. She spoke slowly, keeping her voice from stuttering as much as she possibly could.
"What's this?" he said, astonishment making its way across his face. "You've forgotten me so quickly, Hitsugaya-chan. I'm rather hurt." Hiori gritted her teeth, clenching her hands tighter around the handle of her Zanpakuto. This man was taking things far too slowly... It was wreaking havoc on her nerves. Perhaps that was his goal. "It seems that you've also forgotten how to fight properly."
Gray eyes widened, and Hiori heard a sickening snap as something ripped its way through her ribcage. Glancing down, she touched the tip of the katana with the fingertips of her free hand, tracing the bloodied point carefully. She looked back up, blinking her eyes as they began to go hazy. If she was being stabbed, how was the man still in front of her? It just didn't add up.
"It's not as if you will manage to survive this. I can use 'Perfect Hypnosis' on you." he said softly while taking a few steps closer. "You won't tell anyone, will you, Hitsugaya-chan? You see, it's troubling to have you here... Are the others here as well?"
Hiori couldn't think clearly at all. Her mind was going foggy from the pain in her right side, and no matter what she did she couldn't think of a way out of the situation. She was going to die. She struggled to focus on his question... Them... She parted her lips, saying the first thing that popped into her head.
"... Kensei...?" she whispered, and the man arched an eyebrow carefully.
"Muguruma-kun is here, as well?" he questioned, but Hiori no longer had the power to focus on any one word that he was saying. They were all running together, her cloudy mind unable to process words, letters, or sentences. A strangled groan escaped her throat, and she could feel the blood bubbling between her lips... A small sound, like a bell, filled her mind. A single chime.
She opened her eyes. Her own stared back at her. Those same cloudy gray eyes, like stormy weather, regarding her in a way that was oddly kind. The girl was dressed all in white, but her complexion was not like Hollow Hiori's. She looked human.
"You have to wake up, Hiori-chan." she said softled, touching the palm of her hand to Hiori's cheek. Hiori wanted to flinch away, afraid of what sort of demon this girl might be. She glanced around her inner world, but she saw no signs of Hollow Hiori or Amaterasu. "Who am I, right?" she asked, and Hiori's eyes snapped back to meet hers. She smiled again, withdrawing her hand before continuing. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?"
"... Am I dead?" Hiori asked, patting her side where her wound had been. It was still tingling. Other Hiori shook her head slowly, her long red locks draping over her shoulders neatly. Hiori could feel no evil aura, no anger, no hate. Not like when she was faced with Hollow Hiori. "Then why am I here?"
"You think you come here when you die?" Other Hiori asked, laughing softly at the thought. "How bleak... You're here because you are weak." Hiori frowned. She knew that. She didn't need some weird Alternate Self telling her; Someone saying such a thing so blatantly only succeeded in making her angry. "Don't be angry with me, Hiori-chan. It isn't entirely your fault."
"Who else would be at fault?" Hiori asked sourly, folding her arms across her chest. Another pang shot through her body from where her wound had been.
"Me, of course." she replied. "And Hollow, too, I suppose. Though she is more like the one responsible than the one at fault." Hiori groaned tiredly.
"Another one... Great, just great." she muttered, exasperated. "Just how many other me's are there? Just go ahead and tell me, it'd be nice to be prepared." The girl laughed, and Hiori couldn't help but glare at her.
"No more." she said in a reassuring voice. "But the one who's really in the way is you, Hiori-chan." Hiori raised her eyebrows, taken aback by this.
"What?"
"Haven't you ever wondered, Hiori-chan, why it is that you can't properly wield or control you Zanpakuto?"
"You mean Amaterasu?"
"... Yes, I suppose we could call him that for now." she replied cryptically. Hiori's scowl deepened, wondering just what 'for now' was supposed to entail. "Well, haven't you?" Hiori shrugged, figuring that Other Hiori would continue explaining whether she replied or not. "It's because you're empty."
"Excuse me?" Hiori snapped, and Other Hiori hummed a tune deep within her throat.
"Well, no, not empty. One can hardly be empty with two souls, I suppose..." she muttered, and Hiori got the feeling that she was talking more to herself than to her. "But you, Hiori-chan, are merely a shade. A vessel, let's call you... Yes, that seems like the right word."
"... Can I just say... What the actual fuck?" Hiori felt her temper rise dangerously. This was her inner world, and now some Alternate version of her was just prancing in here and saying whatever she damn well pleased. The girl pressed her mouth in a firm line.
"Such a short temper, and we're not even fighting... It's my fault, I didn't wake up early enough." she murmured thoughtfully. "I've let Hollow get a grip on you."
"Stop saying cryptic stuff if you aren't going to explain." Hiori snapped as Other Hiori continued to ramble on quietly about Hollow Hiori. Her large innocent eyes met Hiori's, holding her gaze with her own almost effortlessly. Hiori could feel herself being drawn to her, even though she didn't have any reason to be.
"You're like an empty glass, Hiori-chan." she said finally. "You're useless if you aren't filled with something, you know. What's the use of a glass if it can't hold water, after all."
"I'm guessing you're the water in the scenario?" Hiori replied, gesturing in Other Hiori's direction lazily.
"It's not entirely up to me. It's up to you, too... And Hollow, of course, but even though she talks big, she's not really one to follow through."
"You talk about her as if she's actually got a personality." Hiori said, remembering the pure rage and bloodlust that had filled her body and mind while her Hollow had been in control.
"Well, of course she does." Other Hiori replied. "She doesn't simply exist for the sake of existing."
Hiori glanced around her inner world once more. Her eyes came to rest on a dark haired boy, who sat leaning against the wall farthest from her. His bright blue eyes regarded her coolly, completely unfazed by the fact that there were, currently, two of her within her inner world. She also noticed that, unlike her other visits to her inner world, it was completely stable. No shaking, no breaking, and no demonic ooze seeping through the cracks. She slowly shifted her eyes back towards her Alternate, looking her over apprehensively. Did the stability of her inner world have something to do with this girl.
"Who is 'Hollow'?"
For a moment, the girl was silent, and the pain within Hiori's side suddenly increased. She reached for her ribcage, and when she drew her hand away, she saw that it was covered in blood. Her eyes widened, and she gazed back down to where her wound was. It was slowly opening, and Hiori watched, horrified, as the skin seemed to break apart on its very own. She was waking up.
"She's the 'Hiori-chan' who got eaten during your Hollowfication." she replied finally, smiling sadly. Hiori coughed wildly, trying her best to clear her throat of blood, desperately wanting to ask more questions.
"W-wait! Hollowfication- What- That... What is..." She could feel her lungs closing up, and she could no longer see clearly. Other Hiori smiled again, and she reached out to stroke the top of Hiori's head.
"Don't worry... For now, I'll be your water..."
...
Bright morning sun scorched Hiori's eyes as she opened them, the sickening pain in her right side sending a shock through her nervous system. Beside her, she could still feel the presence of the man who had attacked her, and she bit her lip as she felt his sword slip out of her side.
"Interesting... Somehow, I remember you being stronger."
Hiori's eyes widened, and she suddenly felt the air rushing by her. When she next blinked, she was behind the brown haired man, the pain in her side suddenly going numb. Amaterasu's fearful melody had ended, and in its place there was a calm, eerie call- Almost like white noise static. The man peered over his shoulder, still smiling, though in his eyes Hiori could somehow tell that he was worried.
"Yet another sound I have never heard from that Zanpakuto of yours." he murmured, gripping his katana tighter. "This is quite troubling, I did not intend for you to survive that..."
Hiori smiled, and with another Shunpo she found herself on the man's right side, the metallic clang of sword on sword filling her ears. She felt calm, in control... She felt great. The man continued to smile kindly as Hiori pushed him away roughly, sending him flying backwards down the rooftop. The next second he was gone, and Hiori swiftly swivveled on her toes, meeting his sword with hers just in time. He grunted in the back of his throat with effort, but Hiori narrowed her eyes all the same; He was holding back. Holding back a lot. He was humoring her.
Blood sprayed through the air, and the man's kind smile was once again in place as Hiori's blood splattered his white Captain's jacket. Hiori's wide eyes were locked with his as he continued to smile, withdrawing his blade from within her body and whipping it through the air to remove the excess blood.
"It's too bad. You used to be a stunning Shinigami."
"Was I?"
The man's eyes widened, still locked on the dying girl in front of him. It had not been her lips that had moved. Slowly, he peered over his shoulder, his brown eyes coming to rest on a tall figure on the opposite end of the rooftop. Her long red hair fluttered in the breeze, the enormous silhoutte of her Shikai catching the light. A moment later, the bleeding Hiori shone bright blue with Reiatsu, condesning into a ball of light and racing back into the jagged split down the center of Amaterasu's blade.
"Ah... I'd forgotten about that move." the man said thoughtfully, his expression changing as if regarding Hiori in a new way. "It seems that I have underestimated you, Hitsugaya-chan..."
"Maybe." Hiori mused as her sword returned to its sealed state. The padding of paw told her that Yoruichi was approaching, and she crouched to the ground to allow the large cat to clamber onto her shoulders. "But I really can't win against you..." Hiori searched her mind, and quicker than she had expected, her consciousness supplied her with the name she was searching for. "Aizen Soskue."
Wind whipped around her, and she felt Yoruichi digging her claws into her flesh as she used Shunpo, leaving behind Aizen Soskue and the Tenth Division barracks. She could no longer sense her brother's Reiatsu there. A sudden flare of Reiatsu far in the distance caused her to pause on top of another roof, and she gazed out in the direction from which it had come.
"Yoruichi," she murmured, glancing over at the black cat. "I found Ichigo."
Second fight in Soul Society! If any of you have noticed, I've used quotes at the top of each chapter of the person that she will end up fighting in that chapter. Last chapter had a quote from Shuuhei at the top, this one is Aizen's.
In this chapter, Hiori discovers yet another side of her that is also residing within her inner world/subconscious. Other Hiori, as opposed to Hollow Hiori, is calm and peaceful. Even though she wears all white, she does not bear the same appearance as Hollow Hiori. She also mentions that Hollow Hiori is what remains of the original 'Hiori-chan', who was consumed during Hollowfication, something that Hiori has yet to remember or understand. I tried to explain it as best I could while still being cryptic- Sorry if it's confusing!
I finally introduced Hiori's first full-fledged memory of what she was like during her time in Soul Society, this particular one occuring an hour or so before the very first chapter of this story occured. It also kind of explains what Shuuhei was saying about Kensei and Hiori's relationship in the last chapter, and shows what Hiori's personality was like before she was 'eaten' by her Hollow.
I also wanted her to come across as being a little bit stronger in this chapter, so I let her manage to hold her own for a few moments against Aizen. Also, I'd like to make it clear that I did not make Aizen go all out (using Perfect Hypnosis) because he thinks Hiori is stronger or something, because she definitely isn't. Pretty sure Aizen is like one of the strongest people ever. He did it so he could finish her off quickly, and also because she was one of the victims of his conspiracy involving the Hollowfications 110 years ago.
Thanks for all of the reviews last chapter, they're much appreciated! And again, I have a picture of Hiori on my tumblr, which is posted on my profile! Read and Review, please!