The True Origins of Tartarus Chapter 04: Terrifying Power Reveals A Shocking Truth!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Bleach or Persona 3 Portable. I also do not own any song/lyrics I may use. Thank you.
*Author's Note* I have stopped putting my Author's Notes in Italics because whenever I upload them to my account here, it gets pushed into one reallllllllly long word =,=. Thank you for understanding the difference in style for the AN. This chapter is in Toshiro Hitsugaya's point of view. Please enjoy! ~JVH~
After witnessing Aragaki getting swiped by Anya, I turned her around to get a look at her. It's not like her to attack her own friend. What I saw of Anya wasn't good. Her eyes were black, and her pupils were yellow, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. I know these eyes. They were the eyes of a Hollow. The lock on Anya's Hollow soul had been broken. I saw tears suddenly solidified into what looked like fangs of bone, the start of a Hollow Mask.
"Captain! What's wrong with her?" Rangiku asked me, her expression one of serious concern. Now that things were serious, Rangiku was focused. "Rangiku, check on Sanada. Make sure he's alright. I think Anya is freaking out about his injury. She may think he's dead. Her Hollow is going out of control. We need to bring her out of it!" Rangiku's expression soured in worry. "Yes Captain!" She complied with my order and rushed over to Sanada to check the severity of his injuries. I still can sense his Spiritual Pressure, so even I know he's not dead. But Anya's heart can clearly not tell the same. Her love for him is stronger then her logical mind. She is assuming his condition based on physical appearance, not Spiritual Pressure.
As more of her mask appeared, I heard Aragaki call to me. "What the hell is going on with her? She would never attack any of us." I saw Anya's mask develop more, taking a scaly appearance, slowly forming into a dragon's head. "She is technically a Visord, she is a Soul Reaper with Hollow powers. Her Hollow has been in check due to a lock on her heart. Sanada's condition has tricked her heart into undoing that lock, releasing her Hollow. Her Hollow half cannot tell the difference between friend and foe. When you approached Sanada, her Hollow instincts told her you were going to hurt him even more, and maybe kill him if he wasn't dead already."
"What the hell? Hurt Aki? She knows better then that!" Aragaki snapped. "Normally, yes. But this is her Hollow, not the Anya you know. Her Hollow has a much…simpler mind. When it has a thought, it sticks to it. Only Sanada's well being can keep her in check."
"Wait, what? Why? That doesn't make any sense." Iori asked me. "Her Hollow is tied to her heart. If her heart is upset, the Hollow will go out of control. And her Hollow's only instinct is to protect Sanada, and keep everyone else away from him. Her love for him is strong enough so that he has a strong influence on her heart. One small injury can trick her mind and heart into releasing her Hollow, which is what has just happened. If he really dies…Her Hollow will make her fight until she runs down herself to the point of her own death."
"In other words, she can't live without him, literally." Kirijo asked. "That is correct." Came the voice of Kisuke Urahara as he came up behind me. "Basically, you want to hope your friend here doesn't die, the best way to prevent Anya-chan from losing control is to put your friend here in a padded room at all times with pillows on the floor. No sharp objects allowed!" He said annoyingly as he held his fan up to his face.
The fifth Espada, Nnoitora, took this chance to attack us while we were distracted. "What a party we have here! More weaklings to kill! What fun! I already knew that stupid Halfling girl was weak, but this just further proves women are weak and are beneath men!" I saw Sanada slowly come to, Anya's grip on him never loosening. I heard him ask groggily, "What's…going on? What happened? Anya…? Where are you?"
Sanada's voice brought a reaction to Anya, but not one I had expected. His voice seemed to suddenly put her in a fight for control, both Anya, and her Hollow wanting control over her body. Sanada looked in my direction, wondering what was going on. When I looked at Anya again, I saw her mask cracking, and one eye had returned to normal, showing the conflict of control.
Kisuke took this opportunity to explain to the confused Sanada. "You are being held by Anya, she was very worried about your condition. I knew the connection between you was strong, but it is stronger then I thought it was. She is a Visord who hasn't mastered control over her Hollow. You hold the key to her power. With you, anything is possible for her, both good and bad. The form you see before you is created from her hope and her Hollow's rage. When you are hurt, the lock on her Hollow form is broken. Should you die, she will soon follow by lack of control. Her Hollow will destroy her from the inside out. In other words, her Hollow is unique. Unlike other Hollows, she cannot master its power due to the fact that it is tied to her heart, not her power itself. You are her heart in this case. Be careful on how you care for yourself. Losing you would in essence kill her by extension."
The look on Sanada's face was a mix of shock, love, and even some self loathing. "She loves me that much? But I'm only one person." I heard him reply. "As they say: 'To the world, you are but one person, to one person, you are the world.' And you are her world." Urahara said with an annoying smirk.
Nnoitora began to lose his patience at the lack of fighting. "Stop ignoring me you idiots, and fight me unless you're all that weak!" He screamed, gripping his Zanpakuto, Santa Teresa, and pulling it out of its sheath. He turned towards Anya, whom had her back to him, and decided on her as his first target. He darted right in for an attack, which was deflected by…Sanada! He pushed away the Zanpakuto with a gun, which he then surprisingly turned on his own head. His eyes seemed to glow with anger as he pulled the trigger. After a loud shot, he shouted "Polydeuces!" Suddenly what appeared to be a young blonde man appeared above Sanada. "Ziodyne!" He shouted again. This new figure released a lightning attack similar to a Kido spell.
However, the lightning didn't vanish immediately like it should have. Even Urahara looked perplexed at this attack. "That is Ziodyne." Kirijo suddenly said. "It is an electric attack that Persona users can use. However, this attack is unusual. It should have dissipated immediately. Do you think this has something to do with that guy's underhanded assault on Anya?" "Most likely." Urahara replied. "Emotions can have an effect on even the simplest attacks." He finished. When I looked back at Sanada, said lightning had created a barrier of some sort. We will need to look into his past and these…Personas.
The moment I made that little note to myself, I heard Yoruichi commenting to my right. "Now now, I can't have you killing my precious daughter, or my future son-in-law! Shunkou!" Yoruichi's right arm extended horizontally as a bolt of lightning sparked from her fist. She pressurized her Kido into a physical form around her as her orange shirt disintegrated from the pressure given from her arms and back, showing a black sleeveless and backless top designed specifically for using this technique. With a flash, she caught up to the Espada, throwing a punch at his own incoming attack, equalizing the power and rendering his attack useless. With another strike, she sent him back.
Nnoitora growled as he glared at Yoruichi. "No way…No way can a bitch beat me! No woman can be stronger then a man! I swear I will kill you, and show you how superior men are, I'll remember your face, woman!" He shouted in anger as his ego was blown to bits with Yoruichi's triumphant grin. He opened a Garganta and fled back to Hueco Mundo.
The others sighed in relief that the immediate danger was over, and the only trouble left was Anya's transformation. Urahara looked at Anya and Sanada and spoke. "Sanada-kun, only you can bring Anya-chan back to her senses." Sanada looked at him with a confused look. "How? How do I do it?" "That, you will have to figure out. You are the one in control of her Hollow. Figure out how to lock away the Hollow." Urahara replied calmly. "If it's you, you can do it."
Sanada just looked at Anya in utter confusion, and worry. He has obviously never seen a Hollow, or a Hollow's mask before, and now his beloved was stuck in a mental war with a darker side. He clearly didn't fully know what he was doing, but I saw he had turned the tables and had been the one holding Anya tightly. "I'm sorry Anya, this happened because of me. Let me make things right again…" He said softly to her. "You don't have to worry anymore. I'm alright, and so are you…" He slowly closed the gap between them as their lips connected in a kiss.
Anya blinked a couple times as the cracks in her mask grew, and soon fell apart. Her remaining black Hollow eye gave way to white showing that she had regained her senses and saw that while Sanada was mildly injured, otherwise, he was very much alive. After fully coming around, Anya tightly hugged Sanada back while crying harder then before. She returned his kiss, making sure Sanada really was alive in front of her, before the energy spent on the transformation, and the stress took its toll on her and she passed out.
"Not exactly what I had in mind, but that worked just as well, maybe more so!" Urahara said while grinning and fanning himself.
-36 Hours Later -
I was watching over Anya as she was still resting from the ordeal just over a day ago. Urahara was sitting in a chair also near the bed, the two of us quiet. A soft moan broke us out of our thoughts as Anya's eyes slowly started to open. "Aki…hiko…?" She asked softly. "He should be back any time now." I told her. "School ended an hour ago." "I hope you're feeling better, Anya-chan!" Urahara said with a smile.
"Uncle? What are you doing here?" Anya asked, suddenly seeing Urahara there. "I came over to help out!" Urahara said happily. "Oh yeah, your mother said something the other day while you were…busy." Anya looked at Urahara and dreaded what he had to say. She knew what kind of personality he had, and his tone wasn't helping. "What…? What did my mom say…?" She asked slowly. "She called Sanada-kun her 'Son-in-law'!" I saw Anya's face turn a bright shade of red, knowing what Yoruichi had implied. "MOTHER!"
*Author's Note* Tigress_Luna here! If you are wondering where Jaguara is…hehehe…you mean that red-faced girl in the corner there? –points to corner- The ending to this chapter, which was my doing, has got her a bit flustered, lol. Romantic…and sappy XD. This was fun! Anyways, keep an eye out for the next chapter! Maybe I'll have Jag pulled out of that corner by then! Next chapter is "The Mirror Reflects! The Two Sides of Anya Clash!" Read and Review! Thank you!