Aizen was looking at them, no, her, expectantly. Armin stepped forward, but Hinamori caught him before he could speak.
"Stand down, Armin. I'll go first."
"Hai." He backed off reluctantly. She could feel his worried dark blue eyes on her back as she stepped up before Aizen. She understood his reason for wanting to go first, he was probably the most observant fighter in the Division. He would have been able to tell them almost exactly what to expect. She knew, however, that she had to do this first for the sake of her followers. She had lead them here, and she couldn't just back down now that they were stepping off into the unknown. Or am I just being irrational?
Aizen smiled approvingly. "Very good, Hinamori-kun. Just step over here, please." Aizen pointed to his right, he seemed to want to put some space between the rebels and whatever was about to happen. She walked over, stiffly trying to hide her wrecked nerves. She turned on her heel when she reached the spot Aizen had indicated and stood stock-still. She could barely stop herself from shaking.
Aizen shook his head as she moved to grasp Tobiume's hilt. "You won't be needing her for this. At least, you won't be needing to draw her." She contented herself with clasping her hands together behind her back, anything to stop them from shaking. He extended the hand with the Hogyoku in his grasp and shattered the box with an impossibly clear sound of breaking glass. The orb pulsed black with a low hum, and a cube of silver lines appeared around her, boxing her in. The lines flashed, a strange warmth filled her, and her vision went black.
It returned a split-second later, in a scene she immediately recognized. It was a peaceful, breezy night, a full moon high in the sky with very bright stars around it which illuminated the area with a ghostly silver glow. She was in the middle of a huge field of tall grass and widely spaced plumb trees in full bloom: her inner world.
"Tobiume? Where are you?" Hinamori called anxiously. Tobiume was usually right in front of her when she came here.
"Sorry, but she's gonna sit this one out." a metallic, distorted voice called from behind her and grated like sandpaper on her ears.
She whirled around, a materialization of Tobiume's Shikai form appearing instantly in her hand. The person before her was a pure white version of herself: her face, her hair, her clothes, even her lips were white. Her eyes, however, were black with yellow irises. She had a pitch-black version of Tobiume in her right hand. Hinamori had never seen anything quite so disturbing in her life.
Fighting a mixture of revulsion and fear, she hardened her face and asked, "Who and what are you and what are you doing here?"
"I'm you, you idiot!" the white thing laughed manically and charged, sword held next to her face, pointing at Hinamori.
"I've only ever seen one person use that style, and it wasn't me." Hinamori said flatly as she dodged the obvious stab. "You're not doing it very well, anywa-"
"That depends on what I'm trying to do!" Hinamori was interrupted when her enemy slashed down, shooting an acid green version of Tobiume's fireball at suicidally close range. The hell? Hinamori barely managed to stop it in time with her own red fireball, but the collision produced a huge explosion which destroyed several nearby trees and sent her flying.
"Seeing as Tobiume has two edges, this style makes more sense than your precious Kendo." sneered the hollow, who wasn't bothering to pursue.
Hinamori quickly straightened out so that she was flying face-down, planted her feet on a tree, and pushed off, shooting toward her opponent, who wasn't even singed. She shot a fireball ahead of her, trying to judge her enemy's defenses. The hollow laughed darkly and smacked it away with her free left hand. What!
"The fuck was that? No wonder you're so uselessly weak! You think Tobiume's just some retarded 'fireball sword!' Let me show you how to use our Zanpakto!" The hollow was enraged, as though Hinamori had insulted her. It charged, its false Tobiume glowing with bright green flames, which were somehow staying on the sword. What now? Hinamori quickly raised her Tobiume to block it, but the hollow's sword smashed into her guard with incredible force. The leering hollow pushed Hinamori backward, forcing her to drag her feet through the tall grass. She tried desperately to find some kind of foothold to stop her backward slide.
"HA!" The hollow yelled as she broke their sword lock with a sharp downward slash. The green fireball came instantly, this time catching Hinamori directly on her chest. She totally lost control, flying backward and smashing through tree after tree. She finally lost enough momentum that the ninth tree she hit stopped her hard and knocked her to the ground. The searing pain in her chest made it difficult to even stagger to her feet..
The enemy chased her at full speed, shooting fireball after fireball, all much faster than anything she'd ever shot. How the hell is she doing that! She flash-stepped off to her right.
"Ha-Hado 33, Sokatsui!" Hinamori shot a blue fireball at the hollow, who whacked it away with her sword and snarled.
"Fucking Kido? That's all you ever do! Kido this, Kido that, it makes me crazy!" the hollow charged again, raising her Tobiume above her head. "BLEED, BITCH! BLEED!"
The white girl slashed down, and Hinamori managed to flash-step out of the way again. She shot around behind her enemy and got ready to fire her spell again.
"Hado 63, Raikoho!" She fired a huge blast of golden lightning down at her foe, who disappeared. A split-second later, she felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
Hinamori pulled away, barely missing being chopped in half. The green glow on the hollow's sword, however, discharged in a fireball three times the normal size and hit her on the back. She screamed in pain as she shot downward and hit the ground so hard she left a small crater.
"That really is all you have, isn't it?" asked the hollow as she glided down. "I can't believe that I'm actually part of you. Tobiume deserves a better master, our Division deserves a better leader, and Aizen-sama," she smirked, "deserves a far better Lieutenant than you could ever hope to be." Hinamori's froze in sudden rage as the hollow continued. "Stupid bitch. You stopped trying to learn anything but Kido the minute you got Lieutenant's rank."
Bitch! Hinamori pushed herself up, coughing up blood.
"Go to hell!" She suddenly snapped and whipped around with a snarl, shooting Tobiume's fireball again. Several odd things happened at once. As her fear turned to fury, the thing she was aiming at seemed to fade slightly, becoming semi-transparent. She felt something cool and hard start to form on her face. Her fireball seemed much stronger than it had a moment ago. Her rage gave into confusion at the strange events, and they all reverted to normal in that instant.
"Oh, you stupid WHORE! You were so damn close!" the hollow seemed furious beyond all reason now as it charged. "Enough of this shit, I'm gonna rip out your throat!" The hollow charged a fireball, but released it with a stab. Another new technique? I really have been neglecting Tobiume... Three fireballs leaped out of it, one from the tip and one from each prong on the side of the sword. The two from the prongs flew off to the side, then homed on Hinamori, trying to flank her. I can't fix the problem if I die here, and I'm sure as hell not letting HER anywhere near the Division!
"No, you aren't. I'm going to kill you!" Hinamori's fury returned full force as she charged forward, shooting her own fireball. Her forward motion had thrown the other two off target, only the straight-shooting one was a threat. This time, however, the red fireball blew the green one into bits and kept going. The hollow's black eyes widened in shock as she raised her black sword to try to block the fire. A crazed Hinamori, however, slashed her own attack in half as she overtook it. The hollow backed up, fading again. Hinamori finally realized what had been happening this whole time as she felt the cool particles coalescing on her face.
So, she's everything undesirable in my own personality? Everything I keep under control, given physical form? When I take those things back, she loses her form! As I let it back out of myself... She shuddered at the terrifying truth. ...I don't become a hollow, the hollow becomes me! I can't do this! Maybe something else will happen if I hold her off long enough... Hinamori clutched at her last hope: that she wouldn't have to become this thing she was fighting. The particles disappeared.
In Las Noches, Hinamori rolled around inside Aizen's box, groaning. White liquid suddenly spilled out of her mouth and grasped at her face. As the rebels gasped and muttered to each other in shock, Aizen raised a calming hand.
"Don't be worried, this is a normal part of the process." he lied smoothly. She was doing much better a moment ago. Wait a minute, he detected another change in her reiatsu, she's trying to reverse the process now! What's she thinking? I've never seen anyone try this before, not even Hirako. At this rate, the little fool will kill herself. Well, he reflected coldly, at least she brought the others. If she fails, one of them might prove a more productive use of my time.
Hinamori backpedaled in a blind panic, trying desperately to fend off her attacker. No matter how much she attacks me, I can't afford to get like that again! I can't lose myself! She jumped up and pointed her finger at her enemy. "Hado 4, Byakurai!"
"Bakudo 39, Enkosen." the hollow responded dryly as she blocked the attack.
For the fourth time in the past five minutes of their fight, the hollow disappeared completely. Hinamori suddenly screamed as a black blade erupted from the front her left shoulder, dripping in blood. Her enemy stood behind her, grinning wildly.
"Tobiume!" the hollow cried, and her black sword glowed green and released its fiery energy into her wound.
Hinamori blacked out for a few seconds, and came to when she hit the ground. She tried to push herself up, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes and nearly blacked out again. Her left arm was on the ground, ten feet away. She yelled in horror, and heard the hollow laughing.
Aizen's eyebrow went up in confusion as Hinamori's entire left arm went hollow-white. All at once? Did she just lose her arm?
"Don't try to tell me that's normal!" Arata called out in near-panic.
"No, it isn't." Aizen decided to tell them the truth. It looked like Hinamori really was going to die. If he wanted them to do any better, they needed to know what was coming. "She seems to be losing her inner battle, and badly. Don't bother moving, there's nothing we can do." He looked down at her. "If her will isn't strong enough, she'll lose the ability to maintain her physical form and die. While even small children can technically do it with the Hogyoku, hollowfication is not a task for the weak of heart."
Hinamori staggered up and grasped her stump of a shoulder, panting in agony and exhaustion. She glared at her foe in mingled terror and rage. The hollow grinned gleefully as she pointed her sword at her.
"Your turn to play horse, Queen. I'm going to take over now. Hope you got the Division ready for me, things are gonna be pretty different around here now! Time to die!" She charged, sword at her cheek again.
"NO!" Hinamori shrieked as she raised her sword and charged. Better even that I absorb her than let her anywhere NEAR everyone else! I've got to end this now! 'Time to die...' I'll make you choke on those words, bitch!
"Oh? What the fuck are you gonna do with one ar-" the hollow stopped her charge in shock as she started to fade. Hinamori felt that whatever-it-was forming on her face again, but she wasn't worried anymore. She only cared about one thing, kill. She had to kill this abomination in front of her, whatever happened to her because of it. The only thing that mattered was that she get rid of this thing.
Hinamori felt something warm on her left side, but ignored it. She brought her sword down, striking at her opponent's left shoulder. The hollow blocked it easily, but couldn't block Hinamori's instinctive left hook to the jaw. My left arm is back? High-speed regeneration! Hinamori spun and followed up with a back kick to the gut.
The hollow coughed up blood, staining her shirt red. Hinamori laughed triumphantly.
"So you do bleed red!" She charged again, switching her sword to her newly regenerated left hand. She could feel the thing on her face growing, and her strength growing with it. "Ya wanna know something? Red looks good on you!" Hinamori lunged forward, charging a fireball. She held it in, her sword leaving a comet-like trail of flame as she charged. She release the energy as she slashed down with all the force she could muster.
As her sword passed through the monster's shoulder, it disappeared completely and whatever she had felt forming on her face suddenly took full form. I just had to let it all out? So breaking your psychological barriers is the essence of hollowfication. Releasing yourself, a perfect counterpart to releasing your Zanpakto. She abruptly took off from the ground and shot up into the sky, out of her inner world and back to consciousness.
When she came to, she was lying on her back inside of Aizen's silver-lined cube. She stood up as the cube shattered and looked back at her rebels. Their faces were mixtures of terror, worry, and awe. She noticed that the cool-feeling thing was on her physical face, just as it had been in her inner world. She looked down, saw her reflection on the floor, and smiled fiercely at what she saw.
The top half of her face, her nose and above, was covered by a white mask, her mouth and jaw were left uncovered. Her eyes, those of her hollow now, shone out through two slits. The part above her eyes was detailed with a small yellow circle, which radiated two thin yellow lines toward each of her hears. She could feel that the mask extended both above and below her ears, but stopped there.
She suddenly released her vastly increased reiatsu, finding it an effort to keep it all contained. Everyone in the hall, except Aizen, winced at the sudden onrush of force. Several of the weaker non-officers actually fell to their knees. Armin was awestruck. Is that really her reiatsu? She's increased her power by an exponent of at least four! Just hollowfying increases it that much?
"Well, what do you all think?" she asked playfully as she passed her hand in front of her face, dissipating the mask and returning her reiatsu to normal levels. She smiled reassuringly, trying to make up for scaring them all senseless by mistake. She'd had no idea she'd gotten so much more powerful that her reiatsu alone could knock some of them over.
"That... That was amazing, Hinamori-san! Kakaya moshch'!" cried Sasha, slipping into Russian in his astonishment.
Amazing, indeed... Aizen thought to himself. His guess had been correct, hollowfication needed to be undertaken willingly in order to have its full effect. Hirako Shinji and the other Vaizard were only half-hollowfied, and that was why they were unable to achieve Resurrección. What truly intrigued him, though, was the fact that Hinamori appeared to be only half-masked. I'll have to watch the others and confirm, but maybe the half-mask is a sign of full hollowfication. The full mask could indicate a deficiency of some kind. Then again, the half version could also be a side-effect of the fact that she very nearly lost her battle.
"Thanks, Sasha." Hinamori replied happily. "Everyone, I have some things to tell you that should make everything go more smoothly down there. Trust me, you'll want all the help you can get!" Everyone perked up to listen, especially Aizen. He'd never heard hollowfication described by someone who had actually undergone it.
"Once Aizen-sama gets you with the Hogyoku, you'll go right to your inner world. Your zanpakto won't be there, but a hollow version of yourself will be. Mine appeared right behind me. You'll have to fight it, but the point of the battle is to break your psychological barriers. When you hollowfy, you release yourself in much the same way you release your zanpakto." Hinamori could tell she was rambling slightly and sighed. "I'm probably not making any damn sense at all. Let's just say, it's a very personal battle. In some ways, it's probably harder than any other fight you'll ever have. Once you win, though, you'll feel better than you ever have in your life, and I'm not exaggerating. It's like you're truly whole for the first time."
They looked at her blankly, probably not understanding at all. Armin, however, nodded thoughtfully.
"I think I get the idea, Hinamori-dono, but I'll have to confirm my guess. Permission to go next, Aizen-sama?" He asked as Hinamori walked back to the crowd.
"Of course, Hidaka-kun. Over here, please." Aizen gestured to the spot where Hinamori had just been as she was welcomed by the rebels, who were patting her on the back and congratulating her as though she had just won them a gold medal.