Layne stood watching Yoruichi by the cairn which Moll and Urahara had just vacated, curious as to what she had in store for him, and simultaneously hoping she wouldn't just tease him anymore, though she was looking at him with looked like a curious expression on her face
"How did you do that before Layne?" she asked, twirling a fork between her fingers, Layne recognized it as the one he'd replaced on the table after Moll had pegged it at him
"Do what?" Layne replied confused "With the fork? I just kind of...caught it? I guess? I don't really know what you're asking, is it not normal to catch things that are being thrown at you?"
"That's okay for now Layne" she said with a smile "It was an interesting thing to see"
"You're welcome I guess" Layne said cautiously as he observed her pulling on a crimson glove with the crest of a skull engulfed in blue flames with a large grin on her face
"What's that going to do?"
"You'll see"
Yoruichi flashstepped behind Layne and knocked his spirit out of his body with a flat palm strike to the center of his back; His spirit rolled out cursing, coughing and sputtering as his body fell limp to the ground.
Yoruichi couldn't help but giggle at the sight of him but the laughing quickly stopped as she noticed the difference in his reiatsu feeling and his physical appearance
Instead of mirroring the appearance of Layne's body which now lay sprawled on the ground unmoving and uninhabited; Layne's spirit form had the beginnings of a hollow mask growing on the corner of his face, it currently was covering around an eighth of his face around his right eye slightly restricting his ability to see.
As well as the mask there was a claw instead of his right hand and solid white hollow armor encasing his wrist and around a third of his forearm except for a dark green symbol that Layne recognized as the lowercase Greek letter Alpha seemingly tattooed on the back of his hand.
Layne looked down at his new attachment and sighed in exasperation and confusion
"I knew that stupid spike would continue to cause problems"
"It's ok Layne, Kisuke thought something like this might happen and I have an idea of how to fix it"
Layne raised an eyebrow and looked away from the hand and at Yoruichi "Does it involve hitting me again?"
Yoruichi looked blankly at him, which answered his question more than anything else would have and Layne placed his head in his unadorned left hand
"Well let's get it over with then" he said, resigned to his fate
Without warning Yoruichi flashstepped in front of him and shattered the mask fragment with a heavy punch that also sent Layne flying backwards, As he was in midair she flashstepped closer to him, grabbed his arm and used his claws to sever the Chain of Fate that still shackled him to his body.
Layne landed on the ground and lay there for a few seconds, his breaths coming in ragged gasps as he attempted to stand up
Yoruichi walked over to him and picked him up, propping him up against a nearby cairn "I'm sorry for doing this Layne; but since your mask was starting to form there's really no gentler way to do this, You either become a Shinigami and live, or a full hollow and Kisuke and I kill you"
With those words she roundhouse kicked the barely standing Layne straight into unconsciousness, and sat down crosslegged, patiently awaiting Layne's answer
While Layne was getting his ass handed to him by Yoruichi; Moll was going through something similar
She was now stuck at the bottom of a very, very deep hole with that goddamned obnoxious shopkeeper looking down on her explaining exactly why this was going to help her
"The fastest way to unlock hidden Shinigami powers is under threat to ones very soul itself" Urahara was saying
"And how is my soul threatened by being down at the bottom of this hole?"
"Like this"
Urahara muttered a few more words under his breath and a bolt of lightning shot out of his fingers and incinerated most of the Chain of Fate that was linking Moll to her body
Moll had her jaw drop open, unlike Layne she hadn't been listening for most of Urahara's explanation about souls and hollows but even she could grasp that something bad had happened
"You bastard" she growled "That was really important wasn't it?"
"Without the chain of fate the soul will turn into a hollow over a long period of time; at the bottom of the Shattered Shaft the most amount of time it will take is 72 hours; with the amount of chain I incinerated I would estimate that you have perhaps 4 hours to become a Shinigami before you completely turn into a hollow and I am forced to kill you"
"What the fuck was that?!" Moll spat, feeling betrayed "I didn't agree to this!"
"If you don't focus all your will into becoming a Shinigami you will turn into a hollow"
"And why in hell should I focus all my will into it, I didn't ask for this, you pulled us here! And fucking Layne was retarded enough to agree to this stupid training and I don't even know why, I just want to get us all home!"
Moll continued her rant seemingly oblivious to the fact that the chain was degrading link by link while she cursed and shouted at the world
"Layne has suffered more than enough shit from you world, I don't understand how that jerk manages to take his next step half the time, Both his parents are gone and his family is fucked up and all he does is smile and sleep. And what about Joel we can't even find him we don't know if he's dead or alive and he's the best guy to be with"
Urahara smiled behind his fan; she was going to pass the threshold for Shinigami powers very soon
Moll took a deep breath readying for one last final scream "WHY DON'T YOU GO FUCK WITH SOME OTHER PEOPLE!"
Urahara looked down at her, saying nothing and betraying no expression behind his fan, which only served to further piss her off as she took a deep breath, winding up for another round
"Wow" Moll heard a male voice say behind her, taking the steam out of her buildup "You sure know how to wake a guy up from his nap"
Moll whirled around to see a hazy figure standing behind her
"Guess you can't fully materialize me yet; No biggie, I'll just take you inside for a chat since you won't chill out and come by yourself"
The hazy figure waved a hand over Moll's face and she collapsed.
Urahara clicked the stopwatch in his hand to a stop and looked at it frowning "She'd better move fast, not that much time before the chain will corrode"
"Man it feels good to be out of that hospital" Joel exclaimed loudly between chewing on a stick of some energy compound that Captain Unohana had given him before he left "I hate, hate hospitals, ever since I met Layne"
"Forgive me Joel-san, but I do not understand what you mean" Nemu said softly, as she followed along behind him, having been assigned as his guide to the Seireitei
"Hospitals are a necessary institution in society, the sick and injured may receive treatment that would otherwise not be available to them... I do not understand why you hate them"
"Ah...i'm sorry" Joel was still cottoning on to the fact that he had to speak directly when Nemu was around as she tended to miss a lot of nuance "I don't hate that hospitals exist, I hate how much time I've had to spend in them, me and my mate Layne"
"I hope he's doing okay, he wasn't in a great way the last time I saw him" Joel said darkly, a frown crossing his face as he recalled the incident, He'd requested a search be undertaken in the area near where he'd been found in the hopes of turning up a clue to Moll and Layne's fates, but nothing had appeared while he'd been in the care of the 4th division
Joel glanced at Nemu, apart from the awkwardness of their initial meeting, He'd grown quite fond of the quiet woman, who'd come to see him every day that he'd been laid up until Captain Unohana gave him a clean bill of health, she was always ready and willing to explain anything he didn't understand about the Soul Society and had kept him entertained while he'd been bored out of his wits
"Don't worry about it Nemu, I'm just thinking out loud"
"Very well Joel-san"
"And stop calling me Joel-san, just Joel; when you make it sound like I'm some person deserving of respect I feel uneasy"
Nemu simply nodded easily at him; it wasn't every day that you got told to address someone intimately because they hated the sound of honorifics
"Now what was up with that weird procession over there being led by the red-head?"
Joel indicated with his head behind him, where they'd passed Renji and the 6th division walking a short woman with a collar around her neck
"The red-head you describe would be Lieutenant Renji Abarai, and since he is the one leading I would assume it's the transfer of the prisoner Rukia Kuchiki-sama from the Sixth Division Holding Cells to the Senzaikyuu"
"Seems odd to refer to a prisoner with such respect Nemu?" Joel asked, looking questioningly at Nemu
"She is a member of the noble Kuchiki house and a sister to Captain Byakuya Kuchiki-sama and as such even though she is incarcerated for crimes she should still be referred to as such."
"This place is very weird..."
Joel trailed off as he considered the oppurtunity to learn a little more about the laws of this "Soul Society"
"...What did she do? If you can answer that question"
"She is incarcerated and to be executed for a high crime... that of providing access to Shinigami powers to a human"
"I guess i'll find out exactly why that's a high crime eventually... but at the risk of getting myself executed I should really tell you... a couple of days ago i was still a hu-"
Nemu slammed her hand over his mouth and him into the wall
"You're an anomaly, no Shinigami provided you with your powers and we have no idea as their origin...please allow me to satisfy my own scientific curiosity naturally"
Joel nodded, for the first time in his life understanding the implicity point and Nemu removed her hand
They continued walking away from the Rukia procession and Joel was looking around in interest at the surrounding alleyways,
"This place is built like a maze, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find my way around from… Where are we going again Nemu?"
Nemu tilted her head sideways to look up at him "We are going to the 13th division, to meet your future captain and begin your training"
"Oh, Ok...guess that makes sense"
"Dammit" Layne rolled over off a rock that had poked him in the back and woke him up
"Goddammit Moll, if you've chucked gravel on my bed i'm actually going to get mad!" he shouted out
"I don't know where in hell you think you are, but it's not there" a voice chuckled
Layne frowned mentally, he felt like he knew the voice but he couldn't identify it, He strained his ears and his memory slowly came back to him, Under Urahara's store rocks on the ground were normal; but Layne could hear, rushing water?
"What the..? Where am I?" Layne said groggily as he sat up
"It's pretty rude of you to forget about this place so quickly"
Layne turned towards the direction of the voice intending to come up with a retort but what he saw left the retort dead on his tongue, in the direction of the voice there was a solitary tree on a rocky plain overlooking a lake, a lake that was emptying and turning into a giant whirlpool.
"Shit" Layne said uneasily and he moved closer to the tree and stood next to the figure under it
"What's going on here?"
"You got to actually know where you are before I can explain that" The figure replied "its part of the rules"
Layne thought for a few seconds before replying
"I'm in my head aren't I, I had a dream about this..." and he held up his hollowfied hand "and then again... when this happened"
The figure smiled
"That's a good start... you pass for now"
"Now that's out of the way I can explain what's happening. You see that water draining? Think of it as a metaphor for you becoming a hollow. All your feelings, memories and experiences are draining away. When that lake empties your soul will shatter and be reformed as a hollow, nothing but a pile of instincts"
Layne blanched at the thought of that, from Urahara's earlier description and what the figure in front of him had just said, not becoming a hollow had established itself at the very top of Layne's priorities
"Not in love with that concept...so what can I do to stop it?"
"You can stop asking dumb questions and learn what I am"
"I know what you are, Urahara and Yoruichi-san explained it to me; you're my zanpakuto spirit… So you can help me out with this?"
The spirit waved their left hand and a katana appeared in it with a flash of white light
"I could, but around here... we help ourselves"
"Please don't do what i think you're about to"
The spirit turned around and the katana vanished, and then reappeared in the distance, floating above the lake
"So go help yourself, Layne"
Before she finished her sentence Layne had already sprinted off in pursuit of the katana, but by the time he reached it, it had already fallen into the rapidly draining lake, but Layne didn't even stop to curse and dove in after it
He felt the hilt brush just past his hand and he thrashed wildly in the raging vortex until finally, he grasped it...
Layne blinked, and he was back on the shore of the now still lake, standing next to the girl from his dream a couple of nights ago, completely dry and holding the grey katana in his left hand
"That was pretty good, Layne" she said calmly as she turned to smile at him, her piercing green eyes seemingly staring straight through him "Remember that feeling when the times ahead get rough... now get out of here"
Layne turned to look at her, his face a mixture of annoyance and confusion
"Wait... you haven't even told me your name!"
"You already know it"
"The hell…?" Layne shouted as he sat up where he had fallen after Yoruichi kicked him
"Oh, you're awake Layne, and you seemed to have succeeded" said woman pointed out
Layne looked down and sure enough, instead of mirroring his bodies' clothes he was now wearing a black shikahakusho and had a zanpakuto sealed at his right side.
As he stood up he realized quickly that he could move easier, his five senses were on edge and he was hyperaware of his surrounding, his body seemed to be moving at peak efficiency and it all just seemed to flow from when he bent his knees to when he turned his head; it wasn't until he unsheathed his zanpakuto with his left hand that he realized the condition of his hollowfied right hand.
"Let me see that hand Layne" Yoruichi commanded
When Layne held his hand out to be inspected by Yoruichi he mentally compared it to his other hand, they were the same shape again, shaped like hands rather than a palm with five knives sticking out of it and the marking was different. From the three lines in the circle had changed to four, and there was now a filled in green circle in the centre which the lines all touched.
"Well there's not much I can do for that, we'll see what Kisuke thinks, but at least we can make it so it doesn't appear when you're in your body but when you're in Shinigami form that hand will be white. It probably has some advantages to it though"
"How's Moll doing?"
"Not as good as you, she's still in the bottom of that shaft"
"Can we go see her?"
"You're not done here yet"
"I'm not? But I've unlocked the powers now"
"You see that sword"
Layne looked at the katana held in his right hand. It looked like any other katana that he had ever seen, with a silver blade, circular tsuba and grey hilt wrapping.
"What's wrong with it?"
"It's called asauchi, a nameless zanpakuto. It's what unseated Shinigami carry; those that don't know the name of their zanpakuto"
"The woman... the zanpakuto, she said I already knew her name... "
"Oh...so i get to do this the fun way?"
Layne ignored her brought the katana up to his eye-level and looked at it side on
He wracked his brain for anything, any possible hint as to what the name of his sword was, but he just had no idea
Instinctively, Layne brought his right hand up just in time to block a flykick from Yoruichi but she twisted in mid-air and swept his legs out from under him.
He hit the ground; Hard.
"What the hell are you doing?" he sputtered as he rolled over and picked himself up
"Wow, your reflexes have gotten even better, and your guard was great" Yoruichi grinned as she moved in for another attack "But you're going to have to do way better than that to defend yourself against me Layne"
Layne dived out of the way and threw his zanpakuto to the side, yelling the first thing that came to his head
"Drift! XAELIS!"
The katana vanished in a flash of white light and Layne mentally cursed his shitty luck
"What the hell was that?
"Your Shikai vanishes does it Layne? Well at least I don't have to worry about being cut up here"
As she aimed a roundhouse kick at Layne's face time seemed to slow down
"This isn't any different from any of the fights i've been in before, I know how to fight... I can see her movements, I can win without a sword
He leant backwards, out of the arc her foot was travelling and clenched both his fists
"Are you going to get serious Layne or just dodge all my attacks?" Yoruichi asked, sounding bored
"What are you talking about? I barely dodged that one"
Yoruichi smirked, "Well you'd better hurry up and get your Shikai out, because soon you're not going to be able to dodge anymore
Layne raised an eyebrow at that but soon lowered it as she flashstepped behind him and sent him rolling forwards.
"I told you"
"Dammit" Layne growled after spitting out a fair amount of dirt; attempting to sit up, he grunted as a foot was planted on his chest
"I wasn't kidding Layne" Yoruichi said slyly "Show me what you've got"
"What are you doing Layne?" Xaelis questioned inside his head "You know everything you need to know"
Yoruichi brought her foot up, intending to bring it down a crack a couple of ribs, but on the downswing her kick was stopped by a weapon of some sorts.
Layne was grinning with far more levity than any other man in his situation should be, holding up a pure white keyblade with green edgings, the handle had guards that looked like wings and the blade part was split into two rail like sections which attached to the head, where the green edgings came out on the teeth, It looked fragile, but Layne recognized that was deceiving, given that it had just prevented Yoruichi from seriously injuring him
"Xaelis was right" Layne breathed as he pushed Yoruichi off him with the flat of his his zanpakuto "It does improve my speed and power"
"Good thing you pulled that out, I really was going to crack a rib or two that time"
Yoruichi reached down and offered a hand to Layne, which he accepted, pulling himself up with her aid
"So can we go see how Moll's doing now?"
Yoruichi smiled at his one track mind
"Soon, now that we've released it you should learn how to seal your zanpakuto"
"Seal?"
"Just lower your reiatsu levels and focus Oathkeeper into Katana form, since it's your first release you can pick what the sealed form will look like too"
Layne did as she said and pretty soon he was holding a brand new sealed Oathkeeper. The sealed form had undergone some cosmetic changes, namely the blade was now pure white, the handle wrapping was yellow, the scabbard was blue and the tsuba was now the same shape as the star that hung off the chain.
Layne sheathed it and stuck it at his side, "Let's go see Moll"
"Lieutenant Kurotsuchi" Renji greeted her as she approached him with Joel in tow, at the 13th division training grounds, Joel having met Ukitake and been assigned a uniform and a sword was now wearing both, the sword sheathed at his left side
"And who is this?" Renji asked, crossing his arms and scrutinizing Joel carefully, taking in his appearance and measuring him up as he would a potential opponent, before concluding that as he was now, Joel was no threat to anybody
"Joel Bluzer" Joel answered for himself before Nemu could
"The new Lieutenant to be?"
"So they tell me"
"You don't look like much"
Joel flared his reiatsu a little bit, having received some instruction from Nemu while he had been hospitalised
Renji didn't look impressed
"I was asked to train you in zanjutsu, while Lieutenant Kurotsuchi is going to teach you about hakuda, flashsteps and kido… between us we're going to train you how to fight"
"Mate, I'm pretty good in a fight"
Renji glanced at Nemu, who had assumed a stance that indicated she was prepared to fight
"Okay, let's see what you've got then" Renji said with a smirk, nodding at Nemu, who launched at the completely unprepared Joel, who barely managed to roll out of the way and went to withdraw his sword
"Bare fists only... first you have to be able to fight without a sword before you can fight with one" Renji shouted at him
"Fine by me...it's been a while since i've had to use this properly" Joel said, dropping into a rough resemblence of a karate stance
Nemu charged at him yet again, but this time Joel was ready for her, and blocked each one of her blows successfully, although his limbs felt like they were going to break off, Just how much power was hiding in those tiny arms?
Nemu was relentless, but Joel was used to fighting multiple opponents, and waited for his opening, which came when he sidestepped one of her punches and she overbalanced and he drove a clenched fist into her gut, which felt just as hard as the strikes she'd been giving him and sent her backwards
"How's that" Joel asked, panting heavily from his exertions, he felt really bad for having to hurt Nemu, but if he hadn't hit her away she was going to break through his guard fairly soon
Joel looked up to see that Nemu had effortlessly blocked his blow with crossed arms, though the force had pushed her back a decent way and suddenly felt less bad.
"Yeah you pass i guess" Renji said, looking to Nemu for confirmation, who nodded her head
"Thank fuck" Joel panted
"You pass Level 0... which is the test we give academy applicants to see if we'll even bother training them... Nemu, let's try Level One now
Joel looked at Nemu, the fear and pleading in his eyes completely ignored as she launched herself at him yet again
After a series of humiliating thrashings from Nemu and Renji, a bruised and battered Joel conceded that he should probably just shut up and listen