Chapter 12: Going for a walk
Raiba and Setsuzo had been carrying around boulders for days now. It wasn't that this kind of work was difficult, it just got extremely repetitive at some point.
Raiba was almost hoping for something to happen to get them out of their misery, if even just for a little bit. Either that, or he would finally provoke Setsuzo enough so that he'd start a fight.
Their last and sadly only battle ended rather unstatisfying and he was curious to see just how strong Setsuzo really was.
"Come on", he nagged once again, like he did everyday. "Bainne's gone, we're save and nothing can happen, we heal anyway."
"How exactly are those arguments different from the ones you listed yesterday? And the day before that? And the day before that one? And the day before- actually everyday?"
"This time I'm more… optimistic?", Raiba thought out loud.
"You really shouldn't be. You should be the absolute opposite right about now."
"Well, as you can clearly see, I'm not. I'm more motivated than ever-"
"Yeah, it worries me. And it's fucking annoying."
"You know I'll do it as long as I have to." He twisted his face to an uncompromising grimace and hoped Setsuzo could see it, even if his mask was over his face.
"I'm so glad that we have masks over our heads as Hollows, because I bet you're making a face right now that I luckily can't see because of that."
Raiba raised his eyerow and said: "You are just hellbent on making this difficult aren't you."
"As long as you're hellbent on nagging like a child. Face it, you'll never push me over the edge."
"Wouldn't be so sure about that. I bet you I'll find your weak spot one day."
"You'll die trying", Setsuzo mocked.
"Who will die trying?", Bainne's voice suddenly resounded from behind them.
Both jumped back startled and looked at him before calming down again. "No one", they answered at the same time.
Bainne looked at them critically before turning around to check the progress they've made over the past couple days.
"We are never going to get anywhere with you two if you continue at this pace."
The two of them looked at eachother before Raiba said: "Well what do you suggest then?"
"Go out and make new friends", Bainne stated bluntly. "Search the woods for hollows similar to you two, though preferably some who talk less. Take your Gillians as an insurance in case things go wrong."
"As you command mylord", Raiba responded in a sarcastic tone. Setsuzo snickered a little, but both of them quickly caught themselves when they heard him grunt and went on their way before they invoked the wrath of their boss. As it stood, they were pretty close to pushing him over the edge, so they'd rather get out of there fast before the air got any thicker.
"You think he's mad?", Raiba asked Setsuzo 15 minutes after they left.
"When is he ever not mad is the better question here. Honestly, in the beginning he thought you were pretty funny, but the longer he spends time with you, the more you get on his nerves."
"Oh, really?", Raiba asked with an exaggeratingly shocked gesture. "Whatever gave you that impression?", he continued in the same tone.
"You see, that?", Setsuzo answered and pointed towards Raiba. "That is exactly what I'm talking about. That part about you drives him up the wall so hard it's almost not funny anymore."
"Almost?", Raiba stressed out.
"Almost", Setsuzo answered and Raiba could practically smell the smile on his face.
"First you mock me for my special way of social interaction, but then you comment on how you still find it funny? You're a pretentious bastard, you know that?"
"Hey, you know the backstory he and I have. The way you drive him crazy now is about as agonizing for him as he was for me in that first week that I was alone with him. Alone with him, Raiba. Can you imagine?"
"No I can't and I don't want to."
"Oh, you got that one right."
Raiba had nothing further to add to that, so both of them just kept walking forwards. That was, until Raiba suddenly came up with a question.
"Dude, where the fuck are we walking?"
"I don't know, I followed your lead."
Both of them looked at each other and simultaneously sighed while also chuckling a little. They closed their eyes and started to search for signatures.
Raiba immediately found a few, but they were way beyond their level, so he passed them up and kept looking. Then he remembered what Setsuzo had told him about signatures and how they differed from eachother when suppressed. So he started to linger more on the Spiritual pressures he found and tried to not only grasp their size, but also how they felt.
At first there was nothing. He found a few more insignificant hollows, all with rough and wild Reiatsu, so he kept looking further and further until-
"I think I found one", he said.
"Yeah, me too", Setsuzo responded. "I actually found two. One in this direction", he pointed to their left, "and one in that direction", he pointed towards their right. "I'd say we choose one of them and defeat it together to be on the safe side."
"Are you serious?", Raiba asked incredulous. "We both have one Gillian and we both have special abilitys. We go two on one, it's not even a real fight, it's straight up overkill. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for fighting and that that stuff, but I'm also all for living. And I'm kinda moreinto that last one to be honest. The objective right now is not to risk something in a fight where we could possibly gain nothing at all, but to bring back help so we can work faster on the castle. Remember how we "recruited" you?"
"Yeah, you fought me somewhat on even grounds and then we were interrupted and I was pretty much overpowered so I had no other choice..." The Revelation dawned upon him and nodded understandingly.
"Also, always remember that Bainne is a very practical person. He doesn't care much about the methods, as long as we deliver statisfying results", Setsuzo continued.
Raiba wanted to reply with a counterargument, but he had to admit that Setsuzo was right.
"Alright fine, we'll do it your way. But I get to choose", he said quickly, took a step forward and searched for the two signatures, or rather the one to his left that he didn't sense before. It didn' take him long and he found it.
Before Setsuzo could interject, he turned left and said: "And we will take-"
"That one", Setsuzo interrupted and pointed to their left.
"Hey, I thought I get to choose."
"Yeah, see, you said that, but we never actually agreed", Setsuzo said with a smirk.
Raiba sighed, knowing that it wouldn't do him any good to argue with his partner. Technically he was still his higher up in terms of rank.
He was about to start walking towards the stated direction, as an idea suddenly struck his mind. He stopped and thought a bit about it, until he realized Setsuzo was still Walking.
"Wait."
"Oh god, what now?"
"I just got an idea and hear me out on this one. We need more 'comrades' that help us build Bainnes castle right? So what if we don't actually look for people like us who are unique, but instead we just take every random hollow we can find."
"Did you listen to what I said earlier?"
"Yeah I did, or else I wouldn't be making this proposal. If we keep searching like this, we'll never get anywhere. How long did we search until we found those two Hollows that might possess some individuality, ten minutes? How many insignificant Hollows did you find on your search? I bet you it was at least a hundred."
"Again, did you listen to what I said earlier?"
"Again, yes I did. Remember how you just told me that Bainne only cares for results? What he wants most right now is a castle. Even if we find more Hollows like ourselves, it'll be four or five at best and that doesn't include us actually convincing all of them to join that maniac in a cause that he won't tell us about. If we're done with the fortress, we can still go looking for more unique Hollows. We'll even have some helpers whose company doesn't wanna make us gut the first thing that comes our way out of pure boredom", Setsuzo explained and glanced back at the two Gillians following them.
"What I meant with 'were you listening' was did you read between the lines? Bainne cares for results, yes, but he is also a person that doesn't like to be disobeyed."
"I kinda got that already. Still, if he wants to get shit done, this is how he gets it done. Faster than with the method he had in mind anyway."
"What if he doesn't like it?"
"The probability is high that he will."
"Yes but what if he doesn't? How do you wanna get all those hollows over to the Castle anyway?"
Raiba didn't answer and instead turned around and pointed at the Gillians, to which the one he controlled took out his big hand from under his mantle.
"Fair enough", Setsuzo said.
ooo
"Tell me again, and try to be specific, what was my order to the two of you?"
Raiba swallowed. Not off to a good start, but that was to be expected. "You said 'Go out and make new friends, preferably some who don't talk as much as you do'. We tried to do that, but then it occurred to us that building your castle would be much faster if we had many helping hands instead of a few strong ones."
If Raibas opinion actually would have counted anything, then he would said that they did a damn fine job. All in all, they had gathered and brought back about 50 lower hollows that were now running around like worker bees, most likely because they were absolutely terrified by their new master. That and the 50 or so Gillians that were staring at them, still standing in a circle around their "construction site".
Bainne said nothing, he just stood in front of Raiba and Setsuzo and stared at them. Raiba wondered what was going on in his head. Either he was trying to think of the most painful way to punish the two, or he was thinking of a way of saying how their thinking outside the box was not bad, while he still stood in the dominant position.
Luckily, it was the latter. "I will give you a pass this time, since that wasn't actually a bad idea. But, I'm going to send you out again and this time, you will follow my orders. Now go, before I change my mind."
Both of them turned around immediately and took off. After they ran for about 5 minutes straight, they started to slow down a little and allowed themselves to loosen up.
""Oh gee, what if he doesn't like us not doing what he told us?" "Ah come on, there's no way he'd be mad about that", Setsuzos recited with a mocking voice.
"Ok, first off, I don't sound anything like that, that's a terrible impression. Second off, I admit I was a little too optimistic", Raiba said. "On the bright side it worked like we imagined", Raiba tried to highlight.
"Yeah, I imagined being this close to being torn to pieces", Setsuzo said and squinted his thumb and index finger. "Let's just be happy that it actually worked and do what the tyrant wants this time. The one we wanted to chase first is actually in front of us now, so I'd say we start with that."
"How did you find him so fast again?"
"I never actually lost track of him. Come on, let's go."
Baffled, Raiba followed his lead. Never loosing track of ones spiritual signature wasn't impossible per se, but it was difficult, especially when one was doing something else entirely. Yet Setsuzo just did it like it was nothing.
Raiba had thought about it a few times since he had met Setsuzo and Bainne and now he was going back to that thought again. No matter how he looked at it, Setsuzo was just… strange.
He had rather unique skills, but he wasn't boasting about them. When he fought, he demonstrated more tenacity and persistence than most Hollows that Raiba had seen in the three years since he had become one himself. And yet, Setsuzo never showed the other stereotypical behaviors of a Hollow.
Raiba had always thought he was the only "different" hollow who retained some of his humanity, but he knew he had been wrong the first time he and Setsuzo talked.
Better focus instead of dwelling in thoughts.
He reached out to get a read on the signature in front of them. They kept walking towards the general direction of the Hollow they were homing in on, but not directly towards him so they wouldn't tip him off.
Unfortunately, their target knew he was about to encounter them. About 20 meters before they reached him, he made a break for it.
Neither of the two had to say a word, both simultaneously maxed their Spirtual pressure and started the chase. They split up so that they could narrow in on their target from both sides.
The chase proved to be harder than anticipated though. Everytime they came close to their target, he changed course. One time he even stopped while they were running with full speed, flipped over them and ran in the opposite direction.
Finally, they caught up to him and Raiba had some time to catch his breath.
His head and mask had some resemblance with a lion, he was taller than both Setsuzo or Raiba and his body was covered in dark yellow fur. The fur was thin, and his muscular body had bones growing out of the limbs inplaces such as the elbows. the knees shoulders and the spine. They kind of looked like armor plates.
"Don't you… dare… to run… any further."
"Tell me what you wish to request of me and I shall decide on your demand accordingly", the Hollow answered with a very suave and calming voice.
"Oh great, an aristocrat. Just what we needed in our ranks."
"I beg your pardon? I must say, I take great offense to your little comment about my manner of speaking, I suggest you apologize immediatley, lest you want me to take action on your insullt", the aristocrat said with a sulky tone.
"I- I mean he, uh, 'begs your pardon' as well, I'm sure he didn't mean what he said", Setsuzo spoke in Raiba's stead.
"No, I meant exactly what I said."
"Oh great", Setsuzo sighed and facepalmed.
"Excuse you, you little twat, but I have lived down here for decades, survived the onslaught of Aizen Sousuke and the leader of the quincy Yhwach and I am not letting an insolent youngling such as yourself look down upon me."
"Oh, well then excuse you, you old fart, but I'm not one for paying respect to the elderly much, not in this world."
"Yes, so I have noticed. You also seem to lack quite the necessary portion of general etiquette, if you don't mind me saying that, young one."
"Hey, watch it, or you'll find out in just how may ways I lack some etiquette, old fart."
"People can we please", Setsuzo intervened, before the pissing contest between the two picked up any more momentum. "First of all, Raiba, rememeber why we're here and let me do the talking. We don't want this to end in a bloodbath."
"Oh, I don't know, I'm feeling pretty tempted right now", Raiba retorted.
"No, you don't", Setsuzo said determined. "Second of all, I'm very sorry, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. My name is Setsuzo and this is my partner Raiba. What's your name, uhm, sir?"
"Finally, someone with decency. All one crosses paths with down here is either a complete savage or a tactless brute", with the last two words he shortly glanced in Raiba's direction. "My name is Leòn Girona. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance Setsuzo, though I must ask again, what is it that you wish to ask of me?"
"Yeah, about that. See, we work for a man that has a lot of ambitions, demands and ideas. But to utilize all those things for him, we need to be higher in numbers. Which is why my partner and I have started a search for potential recruits to help us out and you just so happened to be around."
"What will you two attempt in case I should refuse your offer?"
"Ah, you know how these things go. First we kill you, then we eat you, simple as that. On the bright side, if you do come with us, you will have the possibility to evolve and become stronger. Adding to that is the bonus that you will be among like-minded hollows, so your future survival is almost guaranteed, since you won't be alone anymore."
"And what if I told you that I do not wish to do all those things?"
"Then you'd be lying. Every Hollow has the same instincts."
Leòn chuckled a little at that comment. "Is that so? Well, allow me to indulge you in some knowledge, young one. Not all Hollows possess them. Not every one of us is driven by evolutionary need or the urge to consume, but I'll humor you. There have not been any interesting occurences what so ever in the last few years, so I shall accompany you and this mystery man you speak of for a while."
Raiba sighed. Damn, he had hoped that it would come to a fight, but it seemed like he would have to wait before he got a swing at the old geezer.
Raiba closed his eyes and focused on the other signature that he had located earlier. Their chasing around of Leòn didn't actually take them that much further away from it, since they had been pretty much running in circles.
"Oi, Setsuzo. The other one we felt is not far from from where we are now. Looks like ol' McHigh-and-Noble here gets to prove his worth rather soon", he said with a provocative tone.
"We'll work on that", was the only thing said ol' McHigh-and-Noble had to say.
"What's that supposed to mean?", Raiba asked a little offended, but Leòn gave him no answer. "Hey, what do you mean with 'we'll work on that'?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"Fucking prick", Raiba muttered under is breath.
"I heard that", said prick remarked.
"Good!", Raiba yelled back.
Setsuzo just let out a heavy sigh. "This is gonna be all day long with you two, innit?"
ooo
"Like hell I'm just gonna follow you an' some crazy dude I dunno", was the answer of the next Hollow they tracked down.
Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly as compliant as Leòn had been.
"Why not? We just told you all the benefits you'd get if you would join us", Setsuzo tried to convince his opposite.
"I can do that just fine on my own, thanks a bunch. I don't need no lil' sugardaddy holdin' my hand the entire way and gives me a lollipop for never loosin' sight of the bedazzlin' jewelry between his legs, which he'd probably swing around in front of my face the entire time anyway. Don't know it, don't need it, and don't care about it, so fuck off."
"Leòn?", Raiba asked with a contrived over-the-top voice. "I think before you attempt to teach me anything, I believe this young fellow in front of us is in dire need of some education."
"The first true words to leave your mouth today", Leòn chuckled amused.
"You could count the entire week", Setsuzo muttered under his breath.
"Hey, I heard that", Raiba complained.
"Good!", Setsuzo shot back.
"Regardless of whether it is an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to demonstrate a small selection of my skills to you. I must ask you to stay back."
"Done deal. Rip him a new one", Raiba said with a fake cheery tone immediately.
"Quite", Leòn responded in a calm and collected manner.
He started to move towards the other Hollow slowly and with caution. Said Hollow just chuckled, spread his arms with an inviting gesture and said: "I ain't afraid of you. Do your worst, I'll prove why I don't have to follow some kind of cult to get strong."
Leòn didn't take the bait. Nothing about the stance or tension in his body changed. He just kept moving slowly towards his enemy. The latter still stood where he was, arms wide open and completely relaxed.
Does he- is he actually thinking so highly of himself?
Leòn continued his careful approach, until he was about one meter away from walking into his enemy. In one swift motion he wound up and hit his opponent's neck from the side, actually taking the head clean off the body. The head was thrown several meters away, until it landed on the floor and came to a stop.
Both Setsuzo and Raiba watched in disbelief, as they tried to grasp what just had occured. "Did that just happen?", Raiba asked first.
"Some people are just too full of themselves", Setsuzo spoke next with an equally baffled tone.
Leòn turned around and even he seemed a little surprised. "I honestly thought he would attempt something. Oh well, I guess that would conclude this matter. Do you have any other… genius targets that you wish to inspect and or recruit?", he said, while the body behind him collapsed and started to leak out blood.
"Not right now, let me check", Setsuzo answered. While he started searching for more potential candidates, Raiba couldn't take his eyes off the head that was still lying on the ground.
He was finally snapped out of it when he heard a crunching noise and looked around, only to see that Leòn was eating the corpse. "I thought not every hollow is driven by the same needs?", he asked.
"That may be, but even when you don't have those desires, one does get hungry and thus needs to take in food, through which he can keep on living. Survival and desire are two different things, young one."
Before Raiba could say anything Setsuzo tugged his arm, pointed in a direction on their left side and said: "Reach out that way and tell me what you feel."
Raiba gave him a questioning look, but Setsuzo returned that look with an expression that said just do it.
Raiba closed his eyes and reached out. At first slowly, but the longer he searched the faster he went. He took quite some time, much longer than Setsuzo (jeez how good was the guy with energy-sensory?). That was until he reached a massive pool of energy.
He opened his eyes and turned around towards Leòn. "What's in that direction?"
"Which direction are you referring to?", he asked while he looked up from his meal. Raiba pointed towards it. "Ah yes, that. You could say it is a gathering of people like us. Instead of being a gathering though, you could better describe it as a slaughterfest."
"What, is something raging around there that kills all the Hollows?"
"No, nothing major really. Just average Hollows with the certain something like you and me and young Setsuzo here. They are concocting something that is almost akin to a ritual one might say."
"What kinda ritual, what are they doing there besides slaughtering each other?"
"They are ascending. To the next stage to be exact. In our case, that would be a Gillian."
"Would it be wise to go there and lay bare our proposal?", Setsuzo asked while still looking towards the massive pool of Spiritual pressure.
"I think you already know the answer to that, young one."
ooo
Bainne had not exactly been thrilled about their accomplishments, but appearantly it was enough for them not to be ripped appart.
The castle had made a significant progress. It could still not register as a real building, but the gigantic rock was starting to take a recognizable form. Raiba didn't care about that though. He laid down somewhere abandoned in a collection of rocks between the Gillians that were standing guard and the rock that the other hollows were working on.
He just wanted to get some rest for a change.
Author's notes:
Ok, first off, for the people who actually read these notes, remember what I wrote in the last one, that bit about "proofread your own material"? As if to demonstarte in a very embarrasing fashion that I'm right, I didn't proofread my author's notes and well, you saw how that turned out. To my defense, I was pretty tired.
Moving on, we got this chapter to talk about. Some comedy, which I think I'm getting better at, a fun, new character (at least in my opinion. It is pretty fun to write him, more specifically his dialogue). Otherwise not much else, except maybe that there was pretty close to no fighting in this chapter. Well, that's because fights don't always have to happen with every encounter. We are talking about unique Hollows here, so I thought not all of them would want to start a fight to solve problems.
I've got other news for you though. Both good and bad. First the bad, as I always like to save desert for last.
Bad News is, that I'm gonna update at least one, maybe two and possibly a third one if things go well and I don't hit another block where I don't know how write certain important things and have to spend hours and hours of sitting in front of my laptop to stare at the words that are not writing themselves.
Basically, in three to four weeks, I'm going on a vacation with my dad for four weeks. In that time I won't have Internet, so no updates for that time period, but that gets me to the good News.
Good news is, that I'll still be writing material during that vacation and when I get back I'll have a couple chapters to update at once.
Another big thank you for all you people out there who keep reading my stuff. Now that all of that is out of the way:
If you`ve got your own opinion or ideas, PM me, or, better yet, review the Story. I`ll always welcome constructive criticism.