Replies to my Reviews
You're right on that. It's my personal canon that time travels a lot faster in Hueco Mundo compared to other dimensions. While a week has passed by since Keigo's death in the Human World, for Keigo himself, it's been months.
Chapter 03: Recruitment
Sōsuke Aizen smiled as the giant bird Hollow smashed into the ground, especially intrigued at how it had managed to dodge at the last moment before Gin's sword struck it. 'And it's already an Adjuchas. If it's senses and Reiatsu levels are this high at it's current state, how about when it becomes an Arrancar?'
"Sorry, Aizen-taichō." Gin Ichimaru replied as his sword retracted back. "I missed."
"It's alright, Gin." Aizen replied. "It's actually a good thing that you missed. They wouldn't be worth recruiting if they died so quickly."
"Ain't that the truth..." Gin agreed, watching as the male Vasto Lorde Arrancar suddenly appeared before them. Just as Gin brought up his sword to defend, the natural Arrancar's boot slammed into it, sending the Shinigami flying off into a nearby dune.
"[Shatter, Kyoka Suigetsu.]"
"Fascinating." Still having the mind to draw out his Zanpakutō and activate Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis, Aizen blinked at the high speed movement which seemed incredibly similar to Flash Step. "What do you call that quick movement?"
"Sonido." The man (And wasn't it just magnificent that a Hollow evolved so far completely on it's own to achieve that appearance) then pointed a finger at him. A finger which had what could be reasonably mistaken for a miniature blue star at the tip. "And this is Cero."
Aizen had seen Cero of various levels before. The most powerful had been powerful enough create a deep chasm into the depths of some land in the Human World, which the residents now called the Grand Canyon.
The Cero that fired at him was probably a weak version due to the millisecond that had taken to form it.
That same Cero still easily obliterated his illusionary clone... along with the massive, rocky mountain that been behind him.
This requires clarification. The mountain hadn't exactly been destroyed, as in broken apart into rubble. It had been liquefied from the sheer energy thrown at it, leaving 80% of it vaporized while the remainder 20% was just rapidly cooling magma at the edges of where the Hollow Flash hadn't directly hit.
And Aizen only had one thought to simplify his reaction to this. 'Marvelous.'
There had been near little technique in that shot. Simply raw power directed at a target. And now, the Arrancar was looking at him, eyes roving across the area he stood rather than basking in his 'victory'.
"Where are you?"
Coyote Starrk frowned at the devastation left in the wake of his attack.
He's not dead.
Starrk wasn't aware of how he knew that, despite seeing the Shinigami himself vaporized from his blast. Despite what his eyes saw, his instincts screamed otherwise.
And there's no such thing as a Hollow who disregards their instincts.
"Where are you?"
Starrk's answer came in the form of water that swirled into existence a bit to his right. The splashing vortex soon faded away, revealing the Shinigami completely unharmed.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Coyote Starrk." The bespectacled Shinigami greeted. "I am Aizen Sōsuke."
Any other day, Starrk might've been interested in how he wasn't dying from him actively exerting his Reiatsu, but this one's companion had attacked Lilynette and Keigo. One was his other half. The other was their first companion.
"I don't care. Die."
The skies of Hueco Mundo glowed a brilliant blue.
Lilynette ran as fast as she could towards her target, reaching the silver haired Shinigami's side just as he recovered from Starrk's kick. "Hey."
"Hallo~" The Shinigami replied, still having his creepy grin on. "Name's Gin. You are?"
"Lilynette." Lilynette replied, already pointing her hand and prepping a light green Cero. "Remember that after you die."
"No thanks." Gin dodged it, already slashing at her with his sword elongating to decapitate her. When Lilynette would later find out about the existence of a camera, she would regret being unable to capture the open-eyed shock of her opponent as his sword screeched uselessly against her neck.
"Did you really think that you could cut me?" Lilynette sneered as she grabbed at the blade, uncaring of the sparks it made against her Hierro when it was retracted from her grip. "You're too weak to deal with me."
"Nah. Not really." Gin replied with a wider smirk. "If anything, I'm a bit relieved that you're that strong despite being a brat."
Grr.
"Excuse me?" Lilynette growled.
"Oh?" Gin actually raised a hand to hide his smirk. "Sorry, but what else am I supposed to think when fightin' someone of your... stature."
She was gonna kill him. Lilynette knew she was going to kill him before. But now?
The sands of Hueco Mundo blew away from Lilynette as a pillar of green Reiatsu erupted around her. "I'm gonna rip your fucking teeth out, you smiling freak!"
Even as a similar but more controlled aura of violet Reiatsu burst of Gin's form, he was still smiling. "I'll have you know that there's a really good looking lady back home who likes my smile. Of course, she's a lot more... stacked compared to you."
Lilynette rushed forward, blowing up several tons of sand from just how hard she punched the ground. However...
"Too slow!" Having dodged upwards, Gin swung down his blade from above, not losing his smirk even as it clanged uselessly against her shoulder. As he landed, Gin taunted even further. "I ain't disregarding your power, but ain't it useless if you can't hit your target?"
"I can't hit my target? Who decided that?" Lilynette boast was followed by her punching forward with visible effort. Gin must've noticed the threat in her actions because he dodged again, narrowly missing the shockwave that wreaked apart the entire area before her.
"Behind ya."
Lilynette turned around, only to recoil as her jaw as hit from below Gin's kick.
"Let me be clear, brat." Gin hummed as he dodged her retaliatory hits, humming even as the dodged hits continuously blew up rubble and sand. "There's no way I'd ever lose to you. You may have power but you're too slow to deal with the likes of little ol' me."
Gin backflipped and thrusted out his left arm. "Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six!"
"[Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!]"
A spark of yellow energy sparked from Gin's pointed finger, summoning six thin and wide beams of light that slammed into Lilynette's waist from all sides and paralyzed her, making her unable to so much as twitch a finger.
"[Pierce her through, Shinsō!]"
Unlike the other times when it simply elongated according to it's owner's wishes, this time, like the very act of a verbal order making all the difference, the wakizashi glowed before nearly breaking the sound barrier as it's blade glowed and shot towards her, causing her immense pain as it blew a hole through her side.
It hadn't been fatal, but it was still significant in the way that Gin had finally landed an injury on her. "Ara? Looks like you can bleed after all, brat."
"Fuc-?!" Lilynette wanted to snarl something, only to be surprised as Gin suddenly dodged away just as Keigo divebombed him. Before the dust even had the chance to clear away, Keigo burst through it, attacking Gin wildly in a electrical flurry of sparking feathers and sharp talons and beak.
Gin himself seemed to be on the defensive, undoubtedly confused on how uncoordinated the attacks were. While it would normally be a disadvantage, Keigo had the fortune of being significantly faster than his opponent, easily moving his limbs with two-thirds of the necessary speed that would've qualified for a Sonido.
Plus, the electricity pouring off Keigo at the moment had the added effect of causing some discomfort to the Shinigami. He was undoubtedly throwing off the electrical paralysis as swiftly as it affected him but if Keigo kept at it, soon enough...
*shuuk!*
"Hngrk?!" Gin grimaced as Keigo's right forearm finally pierced his shoulder with his talons. It was only there for a second before the entire limb was sliced off, causing Keigo to scream and recoil, causing a brief lull as the fight temporarily stopped.
Before Lilynette could shoot another Cero, Starrk appeared before her along with another Shinigami who walked towards his companion. "Calm down, Lilynette. It's over."
"What the hell do you mean it's over?!" Lilynette roared at her other half. "They attacked us! And Keigo's missing a wing!"
Gin snapped a finger, releasing the Bakudō that held Lilynette in place. "So I assume you're done, Aizen-taichō?"
"Indeed." Aizen replied with a smile. "Although Starrk was rather upset with us starting our interaction with an attack on his comrade, he's agreed to my proposal."
"What fucking proposal?" Lilynette demanded as she fretted over the trembling Keigo, who was softly shaking from the pain as his arm slowly regenerated. He'd need to eat as quickly as he could in order to heal faster.
"He's been gathering powerful Hollows like us." Starrk answered, a tinge of hope coloring his apathetic tone. "If he's right, we'll meet more people like Keigo who won't die just from getting close to us. Like them."
He finished as he gestured to the two Shinigami waiting patiently. Lilynette grudgingly agreed to that point. Maybe it was her instinctual hatred of Shinigami, but she couldn't deny that she had relished a battle in which her life was actually threatened.
A battle which always ended before you could actively do anything about it could never called one.
"...how strong is he?" Lilynette finally asked.
Starrk fingered a small cut on his cheek that was almost faded away. Lilynette could only imagine how severe it must have initially been if it was still present by now. "Very. If he and this man are any comparison, we may not have to suffer loneliness anymore."
Lilynette frowned as she squashed down the elation that welled up within her. "Fine. But we're taking Keigo along too. He hurt your friend so you can't call him weak."
Aizen blinked and turned to Gin, who shrugged without a care. "He's got real speed. Ain't sure whether it's Shunpo or something, but he can use it on his limbs with no problems. You ever tried blocking a kick nearin' the speed of sound?"
"I've once blocked a kick surpassing that from Yoruichi Shihōin before." Aizen replied as he turned an interested look at Keigo. "I agree that fighting someone like that... would certainly be troublesome."
Tatsuki Arisawa hummed as she waited for the others at Kisuke Urahara's shop. It had been a rather eventful couple of weeks, since Keigo's death.
Apparently, Rukia Kuchiki had been a Shinigami, the deity-like spirit who was supposed to be responsible for whisking away the souls of the dead, usually dressed in black, having skull-like appearances and being exemplary users of scythes as a weapon.
Urahara, a guy who smiled just as much as Keigo used to, cheerfully corrected that while they did dress in black and whisk away the souls of the dead, scythe users were actually rare to manifest (the explanation for Zanpakutō had raised a rather strong debate between Ichigo and Urahara, especially as Ichigo had pointed out that Orihime and Mizuiro's abilities were suspiciously similar to that of a Zanpakutō 'without the sword aspect', which even the shop owner's assistant and brats nodded in agreement to) and skull masks... Well, Urahara had obviously redirected the conversation from that topic so many times that Tatsuki gave up on asking.
Where was she heading with this? Right. Rukia's 'execution'.
Apparently, the reason for Rukia's sudden appearance and disappearance in their lives was because of she had gotten injured and transferred her abilities to Ichigo to have as a substitute until she could recover.
Given that the only other option would've to let Ichigo's family get killed by a Hollow (Tatsuki finally had a name for the invisible monsters), Tatsuki found it reasonable, especially as Ichigo had taken over her duties until she recovered, which explained what had happened that night she'd seen both of them in Orihime's home.
(Both Orihime and Ichigo had refused to tell her the real details of what had happened that night. She finally acquiesced when Ichigo snapped and told her it was an extremely private affair involving Orihime.
Given that she now knew Hollows to be former people driven to extreme madness and hunger and the constant somber looks Orihime would send to her deceased brother's shrine, Tatsuki soon connected the dots and knew she'd heard enough.)
Anyways, Rukia giving away her powers appeared to be a huge no-no for the group she worked with. According to Ishida, who'd been present for the actual Shinigami-napping along with Ichigo, her own brother had done the deed, which had pissed her off severely.
Due to that, Urahara and Yoruichi (a talking cat, which was actually the easiest thing to wrap her head around. She had no idea what part about it freaked out Ichigo, Chad, Mizuiro and Ishida. What the fuck did Ichigo mean by 'hazard of being the mentally closest person to Inoue'? She was very much still sane thank you very much) had aided them in developing and training their powers as swiftly as they could.
Thankfully, Kojima had been the one person other than her who'd been suspicious at how helpful they'd been in. Unfortunately, they'd both reluctantly accepted that this was the best way to save Rukia along with their friends (other than flat out asking why only Yoruichi would be following them).
And now... It was time.
"Ah." Mizuiro halted just as Urahara introduced the Senkaimon. "I should Add you guys just in case something happens and we're separated."
After fiddling with his phone, Tatsuki and the others blinked in surprise at the floating screen that had appeared before her.
[Do you wish to join Master Mizuiro's Friend List? Y/N]
"The hell?" Ichigo questioned, only to get a shrug from Chad. "Eh, whatever. It's not like we're bringing our phones along like you."
"I actually need it for my own superpowers!" Mizuiro complained. "If I didn't, I'd have left it back home, too!"
Raising an eyebrow, Tatsuki huffed and thumbed yes.
[Ichigo has joined the Party]
[Orihime has joined the Party]
[Tatsuki has joined the Party]
[Chad has joined the Party]
[Uryū has joined the Party]
[Yoruichi has joined the Party]
After that was done, Urahara continued where he was cut off. "As stated before, the Senkaimon can only be maintained kept active for a maximum of four minutes. Normally, this would be far more than enough time as travel between Soul Society and Gaia is almost instant with the aid of a Jigokuchō. As we lack those little butterflies, you lot will be traveling through a dimension known as the Dangai. So long as you don't touch the gooey walls, I'm sure you'll all be fine."
Urahara then paused to stress the importance of what came next. "However, the walls of that tunnel dimension are composed of Kōryū, a constantly flowing current designed to ensnare anything that touches it. So if you do come in contact with it, you will be instantly and irrevocably trapped. At which point, the only way for everyone else to possibly survive would be to abandon you to your doom."
After his grim words, the blonde recovered his typical carefree grin in place, tempting Tatsuki and Ichigo to wipe it off. Preferably with their fists. "Since I'm sure none of you want that, just don't touch anything. Oh, and if you see anything that looks like a train? RUN."
With that ominous last word, Urahara moved towards the artificial Senkaimon to start it up. "Okay, Tessai. Let's do the thing."
Everyone shared nervous but resolute looks as they got ready. As Urahara and the big guy Tessai knelt and did the thing, the gate lit open with a near blinding white glow.
"Now!" Yoruichi shouted. All six of them promptly ran through the gate and into the unknown.
As Tatsuki leapt through, she resisted the urge to shiver from the sensation of her body becoming literally spiritual in essence. 'I know that with this Shinigami stuff, there's probably still a lot of stuff a human like me isn't supposed to know. But you guys... You guys who would execute one of your own just because she did her job of protecting human souls in a way you didn't like... be prepared... 'cause the ones she saved are coming... for you.'
"And now, he's left."
"Oi, Aizen! What number is Keigo going to be?!"
"You'll have to wait and see, Lilynette. I am almost finished."
Rousing awake from the voices he could hear, Keigo was unable to animate himself. He could not breathe. He could not move his limbs.
At this very moment, Keigo did not exist. There was just a nameless, formless shape in Hueco Mundo.
What is your wish?
K*g** didn't know who spoke that question.
It felt... beyond. This was something … worldly and otherworldly. This was something innate, something imprinted and woven in the strands of Everything That Is. He could feel it in his bones, in every inch of his Nameless soul. It was More and Beyond anything any person could wield or imagine.
What is your wish?
He could feel bits and pieces of him unravelling and whirling into an Orderly Chaos.
What is your wish?
He... He...
I want to remember. Everything.
The answer came out naturally. He did not speak but he knew he'd been answered.
Understood.
The sensation of everything becoming right in the universe hit him like a bullet train as life unbirthed him and birthed him and unbirthed him again, everything falling to their right place like the most wonderful orchestra, chaos and order intertwining in its arrhythmical rhythmic dance, in a strand in time he looked into everything and everything looked into him—
Keigo gasped, feeling very naked as he fell to his knees in the middle of a dark room.
"Welcome, Arrancar #70."
Keigo Asano wasn't sure he liked the surprised look on the creepy handsome guy in glasses. Then he was really sure he didn't like the smile that came afterwards.
"May we have your name, new comrade of ours?"
"Keigo... Keigo Asano."
The smile grew wider.
KingVessel: Sorry I took so long! So for people who wanna ask how Lilynette's so strong, it really doesn't make sense that as Starrk's other half, she's so weak in Canon. Also, Tatsuki and Mizuiro are now in the Karakura Squad! Yay! Please review!