Chapter 11: The start

"So let me get this right: he terrified the fuck outta you, sent you flying through the ceiling, chased you to the human world, somehow lured you back and then he said he wanted to recruit you?"

"In that exact order. First thing I told him was that he needed to work on his methods. And his face", Setsuzo answered.

"You insulted his face and still live? Shut up", Raiba said in disbelief.

"Dude, I was done, alright? I just got chased by an impossible amount of bloodlust and just when I had found some peace, a human with spiritual powers started to chase me again, all for me to accidentally get back to this lunatic and being forced into an army of his. I was this close", Setsuzo quinted the thumb and index finger of his left hand, "to yelling at him for what a dumbass motherfucker he was. Instead I just told him that nobody will believe that he's someone whose intentions are even remotely close to not harmful. Not with that face of his."

Raiba had to laugh a little at that last remark. He and Setsuzo had been carrying around material for a stronghold for hours. Bainne had positioned his Gillian in a whide circle around the two and given them a command to stay where they are and attack anything that moves outside the circle.

He himself had gone off to either gather new members, or hunt, according to his own words.

After he had almost crushed the two in his last skirmish, he had guided them to a few different locations that he believed where fit for a base of operations. It had taken them three attempts until they had found a suitable place. Now, Raiba and Setsuzo were busy trying to build something out of it. Day in and day out.

Towards the end of the day, they would go hunting themsleves. As an additional measure of safety, Bainne had somehow found a way to link Setsuzo and Raiba with a Gillian. They had a small thread of their Reiatsu connected to them and as long as that was the case, their minds (or what little was left of it) were suppressed and the two hollows had a little edge over others.

The place where they actually built their castle was just a huge rock and wasn't exactly built per se, but more scooped out. Bainne had had very specific notions about how he wanted it to look.

First he just wanted to lay some groundwork. Building some corridors and rooms was the main priority right now. Everything else could be built around the main compound with the spare material they took out and with new material that they would find in specific places that could technically be called mines.

Setsuzo put down the boulder he was carrying and took a look at the construct. It was basically just a boulder about a hundred meters high and fifty meters whide, but buried enough in the ground for it to make a solid fundament. Relatively small, but given the fact that several installations were still to be made around their "castle", it didn't matter much.

"So, tell me a little more about yourself", Raiba demanded.

"Why exactly?"

"From the looks of it, we'll be stuck with each other for quite a while and given the fact that we can't leave, have to get along enough for this whole army-thing to work and our general well-being is on the line if we don't, we might as well try."

"You first", Setsuzo responded. "I just told you the story of how I unfortunately wound up with our boss. Your turn."

"Fine", Raiba said. "What do you wanna know?"

"No idea, just start somewhere. Somewhere significant", he added before his opposite could make any vague, quibby remark.

"As you know, I became a hollow about 3 years ago", Raiba got straight to the point. "Before that a rather… coincidental occurrence caused my death. I was clinging to the place I died for a few weeks until my grudge ultimately got the best of me. Then I got here", he made a gesture and pointed to everything around him.

"After a few weeks I found my way to the ground and since it was much safer to hunt and survive downn here, I decided to stay. I started polishing my skills, killing other hollows, eating them and become stronger, you know, the usual. Not much happened, it was always the same, until you spotted me. Now that we're speaking of that topic, how did you do that? I was so sure that I suppressed my Reiatsu perfectly."

"It's… hard to explain. A few weeks ago, I improved my ability to sense the Spiritual pressure of an individual being. I then could not only perceive the size of a signature, but also get a little deeper than that and I started to make out a little difference. While normal Reiatsu feels rough, wild and natural, a suppressed one feels smooth and kind of pulls away from your perception if you don't pay attention. Yours was the only one to feel like that, so I kinda focused on you, since, well, everything else was just a blatant waste of time."

"You know, if any of the other hollows running around here woul be even remotely unique, I'd take that as a compliment."

"Coming to think of it, I do have one question. Why are you not like the others?"

"What do you mean?", Raiba responded puzzled.

"You're not like any normal hollow I've seen so far. You're not overly sadistic, violent or whatever else goes into that direction."

With a shrug of his shoulders he answered: "Same reason why you aren't either. I just don't feel like it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in for the fighting and devouring, since its kinda how we have fun and stay alive, but I'm not overly fond of unnecessary violence or cruelty. I tried, but for the love of god, I just can't befriend myself with the thought of letting others suffer just so I can get off on it."

Setsuzo smiled. Finally, someone he could relate to.

ooo

1942

He was crouching next to the wooden wall of the house. Slowly and carefuly, he moved forward, paying close attention to where he put his feet. He could not make a single sound, or they would hear him. They were on high alert this evening.

It had been awefully close, but he still got away. He always did. And this time, he even found what he was looking for. A spot on the wall that was easy enough to climb over, so that he could finally get out of this hideous place.

But for now, his only goal was to get back to his quarters, so that nobody would even realize he was gone. When he had done that, he would go over to the next part of his plan. All he had to do now was to focus, focus on the moment, like he always did.

Suddenly, he heard something around the corner of the building he was next to.

Oh shit, he thought.

He stopped moving and concentrated on listening. He heard the voices of a few men speaking, probably guards on a parol.

His quarters were two houses further away in a straight line. Should he dare to make a run for it? No, it was too risky. After all the hard work he had put in his plans, he couldn't throw it out the window. So he waited.

The voices came closer and closer and he started to panic.

No, no, no, no, no shit. SHIT. What now?

He stood up and moved a little closer to the wall, pressing himself against it. Then he looked around and searched the ground in the scarce light that was provided by the floodlights set up in the camp. He needed something he could throw, so that he could distact the guards and move forward.

Magnificent, he exclaimed internally when he found a stone. Now all he had to do was move to the other end of the housewall and throw the stone in a direction that would get the guards away from him. Which proved to be easier said than done.

One foot in front of the other, he slowly made his way to the corner. As he was about to stick his head out to watch where he should aim, a floodlight was moving towards him and almost lit him up. He had gotten out of sight just in time.

His heart was racing and he noticed that out of shock he forgot too breathe for a few moments. He caught his breath and collected himself before he started watching the floodlight and when it moved away from him, he turned around the corner again and aimed carefully. His time in this place had slimmed him down quite a bit, so he had to summon up all his strength to throw the stone as far as he could.

"What was that", one of the guards shouted. Then he signaled the man standing at the floodlight to move it towards the spot where the rock had fallen.

"Who is there?", he yelled. Nobody answered. Without words, the two started moving.

ooo

Bainne opened his eyes. Groaning, he got up from the place where he had lain down.

One of the dreams again. It had been almost 80 years, but sometimes he was still haunted by them. The dreams of his mortal life as a human, way back during a time when human cruelty had hit its peak, like it had not done for a very long time.

He would never forget the violence, abuse and suffering he and the others had to endure during that time.

But now was not the time to dwell in memories. He was on the hunt and as such had to be on alert around the clock. Especially now.

His hunt had not turned out how he wanted it to at all. What else was new.

His target should have been an easy kill, but it turned out to be quite the adept fighter.

He had taken a few Gillians with him and while he was traveling on the second layer, they were down in the forest of menos, ready to support him at any given moment once he gave the command. However, he had blown the element of surprise already and when he had used them, his enemy had reacted just fast enough to avoid any fatal damage.

Then he found out the hard way that this opponent was not to be taken lightly. He may have looked like he was not on par with Bainne, but that image deceived.

He looked normal at first, with a red upper body and a furry lower body, with animalistic legs ending in hoofs. With his horned mask, he looked almost exactly like a minotaur.

After Bainne had attacked with the Gillian from below, he had quickly detected the surge in Reiatsu below and moved out of the way. He then had turned around, right towards Bainne's position and used some strange strengthening technique. His body had suddenly started to beef up and gain a much stronger build.

During the whole transformation he never lost Bainne out of his eyes and when he was done, he charged right towards him.

The former had jumped high up in the air, but his opponent used a technique called Sonido, which was something similar to a teleport, to get on the same height.

While his opponent lost a little of his momentum, he still had pretty much full speed on display and had rammed Bainne in the right side of his body, around the rip section.

During that, Bainne had managed to dig his bladewings into his enemys back, but not deep enough to cause fatal harm. He had broken free from his the minotaurs attack and used Sonido himself to get back to the ground.

Then he had quickly retreated and soon found himself in the spot he was in now. His opposite had some problems as well with his wounds, because he had been nowhere to be seen, so he had probably found a spot to hide as well.

First it had been only seconds, while both of them had prepared for an attack from the other. Then minutes. Then hours. Eventually, Bainne had closed his eyes to rest a bit while still monitoring the enemy.

Bainne had developed some kind of sixth sence early in his life as an Adjuchas. It allowed him to rest and stay alert at the same time. It was a kind of trance-like state that while not giving him as much rest as real sleeping still got him some rest.

And there he was, still wary of the enemy lurking somewhere out there, certainly preparing his next attack.

Bainne had in fact been right, but not in the way he thought he was, because all of a sudden, his connection to the Gillian became distorted.

Motherfucking-

( Bleach OST 1 Track 9: Enemy unseen )

The bastard wanted to rip away his control of the hollows down below in the forest of Menos.

He wouldn't give up the control that easily though. He started pushing back, claiming his control again and ordered the Gillians to charge up another Cero. That's when his enemy took an unexpected route and shifted all his concentration on one of the Gillians.

Trying to take away all of them was impossible, not with Bainnes degree of control. But suddenly going from all to one was something else. It wasn't even the shift that surprised Bainne, but the quickness of it. He tried to cling on but ultimately lost and had to give up control.

But the other Adjuchas didn't stop there. He commanded the one hollow he had taken over to fire his Cero towards all the others and succeeded.

Bainne wasn't fast enough to command all the Menos still under his command to kill the new foe among them and that resulted in all of them getting killed.

Now the tables were turned and his enemy did not only come out on top of their internal battle, Bainne had also lost his entire support.

He tried to take back the last Gillian, but as soon as he attempted to break the control of his opposing Adjuchas, the latter suddenly commanded the last of the Menos to snap his own neck.

Now it was just the two of them.

Bainne slowly got up, started to cackle, clapped his hands and walked out in the open.

"Well played", he said out loud. "Well played indeed. Since it's just the two of us now, why don't we cut the whole 'hide-and-seek'-thing and get right down to it."

No answer.

"Come on, there's no need to hide anymore. I'm out and recovered, you're probably all healed up too so why not show yourself?"

He still got no answer. Slowly but surely he was getting impatient. So he started to look for his opponent's signature and after some time, found it.

He was about 30 meters to Bainne's right, hiding behind a dune.

Bainne stretched out his arm and started charging up a Cero.

"Come on out, come on out. It's not like I'm hiding something else. I'm fresh out of tricks."

Finally, a response came his way.

( Bleach Ost 3 Track 4: Clavar la Espada )

"Would you believe me if I told you I don't believe you?"; his enemy asked. His voice was deep and sonorous.

"And why would that be?", Bainne asked in return.

"You just turned up and attacked me from behind and you didn't even do it yourself, you commanded mindless lower hollows to do it for you. Doesn't make you look like a very believable or trustworthy person, all the offense by the way."

"None taken", Bainne said, but still clicked his tongue. "It's a harsh world we live in, you gotta take what you can get. Honor and pride are for the moronic and dense. If you win, you survive. And I really like to live."

"See, that I believe you."

"You wouldn't be the first."

"That I also believe you."

"…..you're just fucking with me."

"And you finally get it, but it wasn't just that. You see, I had to buy some time to prepare a little surprise for you. But you know, we do agree on one thing", he said and suddenly two Ceros were charging out of his hideout towards Bainne from the front and behind.

"Motherfucker!", Bainne yelled out loud and dodged to the left side, only to be surprised by the fact that the Ceros were actually homing in on him. Cursing, he fired his own Cero into the other two and managed to cancel out one but couldn't get the second, which still pursued him.

Still evading, he started to charge up another Cero in the palm of his hand, but the constant dodging distracted him too much, so it took way longer than he liked.

Finally, he finished it and didn't hesitate one second to fire. He canceled out the other Cero and stopped to take a quick breather, only to be surprised by his opponent who appeared behind him and uttered: "Pride and honor are for the moronic and dense."

A hand forcefully made its way through Bainne's chest right below his hole and rendered him incapacitated, unable to react, move or do anything at all.

Or at least, that's what would have happened, if Bainne was as naïve as his opponent believed him to be.

When he had realized that the two Ceros were following him, he knew that something like this would happen, so he had gotten into a position that would make it easy for him to get out of a situation like that.

He let himself fall down forwards, put both his hands on the ground, propping himself against it, pulled his legs and released them like a spring towards his enemys face. And hit it with full force.

His opponent was sent flying and hit the ground about 20 meters away from where he was standing. Bainne got up quickly, maxed his Reiatsu Output and started charging up another Cero.

Meanwhile, his opponent slowly got back up, groaning in pain, but Bainne didn't give him any chances to recover. He used his signature move and with a beat of his wings he released the hanging blades from them, impaling the other Adjuchas at several spots with them, causing major injuries.

He was thrown to the ground once more, but he still started to get back up again. However, by the time he was already standing again, Bainne had finished charging up his Cero and fired it. And the attack hit with no mercy.

Once again, his opponent was sent flying, way further this time. Bainne was getting ready to charge towards his position, but was stopped dead in his tracks by a pain in his right side.

Damn it, the wound from earlier.

He grit his teeth and got back up again. Now was not the time for weakness. He let out a war cry, maxed his Spiritual pressure once more and leaped towards his opponent. He readied himself for a counterattack, but when he arrived at the Minotaurs position, nothing awaited him. Nothing but a defeated hollow, taking his last breaths.

( Bleach OST Memories of Nobody Track 14: Nothing anymore )

"…how? How are you so-", he couldn't finish his sentence as he was coughing up blood, most likely from severe internal wounds.

As soon as he was finished, he made another attempt.

"How… are you so str- so strong?", he asked with a shaky voice.

"I have something to live for, something that goes beyond the simple instinct to devour and evolve. A conviction, that keeps pushing me forward", Bainne answered bluntly. "A cause that doesn't allow me to die, under absolutely no circumstances. And I will do whatever it takes to see that cause fulfilled."

With those words he fell to his knees, bent over his defeated opponent and started devouring him.

At first, he groaned in pain and put up a struggle, trying to push Bainne away but his attempts were too weak.

At first he got more tranquil.

He struggled less and less.

Then his breathing got quieter.

He stopped moving around, but still groaned a bit in pain with each bite.

Until he didn't fight anymore at all.

Author's notes:

Yes, yes, I know, my update rate is abysmal. I'm really sorry, but I've been held up a little with chapter 14 as I had to be careful how to write it, what to keep in, what to cut out and so on and forth. Long story short, it was very important for the start of a certain character arc that I got that one right, so instead of rushing it I decided to wait and think about it until I found the right way how to write it. I'm pretty proud of it actually.

Now, thoughts on this chapter. There's not much to say, excëpt that the ending is maybe a little bleak and that this is a rather quick read compared to other chapeters I've uploaded, but that's just my opinion. As you can see the fight scenes are still rather short, but there is actually a half solid reason for that, apart from the fact that I still ain't that great at writing them. The strongest individuals we've seen fighting so far were Adjuchas. Now, I don't need to remember you that Adjuchas aren't exactly the top tier of Hollows, so I imagine their fights wouldn't take that long either.

Additional random thoughts, but also advice for anyone out there who wants to become a writer or storyteller like me: PROOFREAD YOUR MATERIAL BEFORE YOU UPLOAD IT. Seriously, I'm still baffled by the mistakes I sometimes find in my works before publishing them and I'm pretty sure I still miss some mistakes.

And last but not least another big thank you to all the people who actually bother to read this in their free time. Gotta say, it's even more fun to write when you know that there are people out there who actually give enough of a damn to follow your story.

With that all being said:

If you`ve got your own opinion, PM me, or, better yet, review the Story. I`ll always welcome constructive criticism.