Chapter 02: We All Fall Down
'It's so sunny.' Rukia Kuchiki idly noted as she watched Keigo Asano's body get lowered into the earth. 'Well, from what I know- No, knew about him, I think he would've hated it to rain.'
Asano-kun...
Even as Rukia mused upon her brief (briefer if one considered her long-lived life as a Soul Reaper) friendship with him, it still hurt to lose a comrade as usual. Still, it hadn't been the first time since she'd lost someone dear to a Hollow and it wouldn't be the last, marking Rukia as one of the few composed ones present.
Next to her, Orihime openly and quietly sobbed, bemoaning her classmate's death. Even though they hadn't been close, she was still quite the emphatic person. Even though he did perv on her a bit too much, it wasn't like he was worse than Chizuru. Still, she hoped that he would soon be purified like Kurosaki-kun did with her brother.
Tatsuki Arisawa didn't cry as much. From what Ichigo's little sister had told her, he'd spent his final moments saving her from an 'invisible monster'. Hearing those words from Yuzu not only reignited her missing memories from that strange night at Orihime's house, but had also caused her to remember Ichigo's words from years ago. How he had raged and cried about an 'invisible monster' tearing through his mother that fateful day. Considering what had attacked Orihime and her again the same day of his death... terrified her that such monsters had always existed without her knowledge.
Ichigo... did not know how he hadn't broken down yet. Keigo was dead. A Hollow had killed Keigo. Once again, a Hollow had taken someone dear to him. He was torn between crying, raging and laughing.
Crying because the Hollow had attacked Keigo and Mizuiro, aimed for the former and had chased him down, and would've killed Yuzu had Keigo not saved her along the way.
Raging because once again, a Hollow had taken away someone precious to him. Just like his mother, Keigo had been like a constant in his life. The Sun always rises, water is always wet and Keigo would be there to pester him on sight as always. Nobody could quite match his manic energy. Even their teacher had felt it, judging by the numerous times she paused her lectures to habitually scold what had usually been a slacking Keigo only to be suckerpunched by the sight of flowers on his empty desk.
Laughing because out of all of his friends that had been attacked, it was the weakest who hadn't spontaneously gained superpowers out of nowhere. Orihime and Tatsuki at least had some martial arts training, Chad didn't even need to be mentioned and both of his sisters' spiritual sights had actually become a bit stronger from the experience.
Ichigo sorely wished he could've blamed Uryū more but... that felt difficult when he clearly saw how much the 'proud' Quincy was beating himself up.
Uryū Ishida sat silently before Keigo's grave, uncaring of the occasional painful throbbing in his chest. Even if he had held back at the last moment and sorely regretted his actions, Ichigo Kurosaki had been well within his right to have slashed him with his sword.
While he could've healed himself completely, Uryū deliberately left a scar to form on his chest. It would serve as a permanent reminder that his pride didn't matter if the ones he had sworn to save died as a result of his own actions.
"You brought them here! Did you think calling down a huge amount of Hollows all over this city was a good idea?! Especially when as far as I knew, there were a maximum of two people capable of fighting them off besides us?! Our classmates don't count, considering that today was a literal 'do-or-die' situation! Well, guess what?! People died! Apart from Keigo, Hat 'n' Clogs said that two more people died today! And all the ghosts who usually hang about the city got devoured, too! So tell me, Ishida. Are you proud? You were going on about pride of the Quincy, weren't you?! Tell me if you got something good from today's fiasco! You said that you hated me, right? Well, guess what? I hate you, too. Now, if you excuse me, I need to call Mizuiro and tell him the bad news."
Kurosaki's words hurt.
It hurt worse than his father's silent but solemn admonition.
It hurt worse than the sound of Yuzu Kurosaki's loud sobs.
He didn't think anything could've hurt worse.
Then he laid eyes on Keigo's best friend.
Mizuiro Kojima stayed unresponsive as the proceedings passed, easily coming close to a walking corpse with how dead he looked. His normally clean appearance was ragged, his usually distant eyes were now dangerously apathetic and even his girlfriend he lived with had been worried about how it had taken her threatening to call Ichigo and Chad to get him to even just eat.
[Hello?]
[Hello?]
[Me calling the World.]
[Come in.]
[Are our cords connected correctly?]
[Communication: Failure.]
[All systems black.]
Surrounded by nothing but black skies and white sands, Coyote Starrk did nothing but lay still, uncaring as his other half idly kicked against him.
"...aaaaaaaaaaaahhh..."
"Do you hear that?" Lilynette Gingerbuck tilted her head, confused as she saw no Hollow around them.
"-aaaaaaaAAAAAAAA-"
Even Starrk, as lazy as he usually was, looked around in curiosity until his gaze was drawn upwards.
"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHURK!"
Waves of white sand erupted as a large figure crashed down ten feet from them from straight up.
"uuurgh... Still alive!"
The large figure burst out from it's half buried position, shaking off the sand until he was almost free of the sand. It was a 5m, muscular mix between avian and humanoid. It had a particular prominent pair of jaws like a beak with serrated edges and also possessed talons at his fingers and toes. Finally, it possessed a large pair of wings, a tail and a fully feathered body.
Finally understanding how it had fallen from straight above, Starrk finally raised a hand and gave the laziest greeting ever. "...sup."
"WHAT KIND OF RESPONSE IS THAT?!" Lilynette roundhouse kicked Starrk in the face, knocking him down. "Somebody finally came close and isn't dropping dead from our power, and this is as excited as you can get?!"
"...so violent." Starrk grunted as he rubbed his nose even though he hadn't gotten so much as a bruise. "So, I'm Coyote Starrk and this violent chick here is Lilynette Gingerbuck. You are?"
"Keigo!" The Adjuchas cheerily replied before drooping into slight depression. "Or at least, that's what I think my name is. I can't really remember anything else."
Starrk nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. It's actually lucky if you can remember as much as your original name. Most Hollows just create brand new ones for ourselves."
"Aha!" Keigo dramatically pointed a finger at the duo. "No wonder all of your names sounded so weird!"
"Hah? From our perspective, you're the weirdo for remembering your original name, birdy!" Lilynette snarked as she suddenly leapt unto his back, her smile going wider as Keigo showed little discomfort from her bare hands touching his feathers. "You're even better than I thought! Starrk, let's keep him!"
"What a bother." Starrk yawned. "So what were you so high in the sky?"
"I was trying to fly up to the moon!" Keigo spread his arms out, letting his massive wings spread out. "I mean, I was born with wings and beyond just eating and surviving, there was literally nothing else to do in here!"
'...he's got a point.' Starrk and Lilynette thought as one.
"You guys want to come with me?" Keigo offered. "The fact that neither of you have actually tried to kill or eat me easily bumps you up to Important People #2 and #3."
"Eh?!" Lilynette reacted in shock. "Who's #1 then?!"
"Nel-chan!" Keigo flapped his wings excitedly. "I met her just some days ago. She saved me from some Mantis Adjuchas, made a point of not eating me and just sent me to safety and had such a spectacular rack!"
Watching Keigo make groping motions with his hands, Lilynette groaned as she rolled her one visible eye while Starrk just shrugged. Even with his apathy, he could understand the fellow male's desire to admire an attractive female's appearance.
Too bad he had very little interest in such things himself.
So with a shrug, Starrk climbed onto Keigo's back as well and sat down behind Lilynette, very pleased to find that his own close proximity didn't do more than lightly push against Keigo's Reiatsu. Like a magnet weakly repelling another, Starrk had to put a little effort into getting a solid grip.
'Not even a tiny bit of deterioration.' Starrk appraised. 'It's not that he's particularly strong. It feel like he was already exposed to a much stronger Reiatsu than his at a constant rate while he was still alive, which then upped his resilience after his Hollowfication.'
With a huff, Keigo gave an immense flap, instantly soaring high into the dark skies with his new friends.
~Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars.~
"What is that?" Starrk shouted over the rushing wind and Lilynette excited squeals. "What's with that song?"
"I don't know. It popped into my head for some reason." Keigo shouted back, unknowing of the little electrical sparks that trailed after his flying form and illuminated him to several others below them. "Oh, another one just popped in."
~Look up at the light of the stars in the night sky...~
~Look up at the light of the stars in the night sky...~
~Once, twice, the bell toll echoes far and wide in the heart.~
A white, scaled panther Adjuchas idly looked up at the singing figure in the sky before scoffing.
~Like in a story, stellar droplets fall and inside, narrow paths are built.~
~In time, the times will quietly move, drifting along with the stars.~
A humanoid shark Vasto Lorde with visible blonde hair and tanned skin looked upwards with some curiosity at the Hollow which sang as it crossed the empty skies.
"What a strange tune." A snake Adjuchas commented as she nodded along with the beat while walking behind the Vasto Lorde. "Quite enjoyable, though."
"Hah?" A deer Adjuchas scoffed from behind the Vasto Lorde as well. "I'd say that you need to get your ears checked but you don't have any to be hearing that anyways, you freak."
The Vasto Lorde sighed as the bickering eventually drew in the Lion Adjuchas as well.
~Close your eyes, listen closely... "G-O-O-D-Bye?"~
~Now that the light is released, surely it can't fail.~
Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck tilted her head curiously as the song reached her ears, before slowly humming along with the beat.
Behind her, her followers Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Birstanne looked at each other in confusion before shrugging and cheerily humming along with their Lady.
~Across time, it's got to reach someone.~
~The light of Glory is right across the way,~
"A singing Hollow?" A Soul Reaper in a white haori and possessing brown scholarly hair and opaque glasses observed as he looked up at where he could feel the Reiatsu he'd been looking for. "As usual, Hueco Mundo is filled to the brim with unusual characters."
"So what are we going to do, Aizen-taicho?" A young Soul Reaper with silvery hair, perpetually closed eyes and a serpent-like grin asked. "How do we bring them down?"
"My, my, Gin." Aizen spoke softly, not releasing the slightest bit of malice as he eyed the brown haired natural Arrancar so far from him. "What does a hunter do when a target they desire is out of reach?"
"Ah." Gin bopped his head with his spare hand as the other slowly drew out the sword at his side. "They shoot it down."
~It's the story I'm about to weave with you a-~
"[Shoot to kill, Shinsō.]"
At that invocation, a white lance ripped through the black night and cut the music.
[Hello?]
[Hello?]
[Me calling the World.]
[Come in.]
[Are our cords connected correctly?]
[Communication: Pending.]
[Hello.]
[Communication: Success.]
[I ask of you: Are you my Master?]
[...Yes. Mizuiro Kojima is your Master.]
[Mizuiro Kojima is now acknowledged as Master.]
[Please input command.]
KingVessel: Done! Sorry being gone so long. Real life business, updating my other Fanfics, hashing out new ideas, the usual. Please review!