Opening his eyes, he was faced with a full moon against a starless, pitch black sky. Sitting up, he expected to see the clearing where he was attacked. Instead, he found himself lying in the grass in front of a small natural pool, whose water was a clear, almost glowing blue. Far towards the horizon, he saw trees, probably meaning that he was surrounded by a large forest. From where he stood, he saw that in that rather large grass clearing, ruins lay abandoned. Made out of white bricks, they did not have any discernable shape, and he could not guess what they used to be.
Looking back towards the pool, he now noticed a man standing in front of it, facing him. The man was clad in leather pants and a trench coat, tied together by large, square flaps, lined in silver. The collar of the coat came up high, hiding half the man's face. Long, jet-black hair was tied by silver ties. He had several earrings, all silver, on both ears and glowing, silver eyes.
Takeo guessed who the man was, but faced with the situation, he was at a loss for words. Fortunately, the man seemed to understand that, as he walked closer to the teen, keeping a steady stream of conversation. "You know who I am, Takeo, I know you do." He stopped in front of the teen, eyes staring intently, almost expecting an answering, but he continued speaking. "You're curious and ambitious, but you lack resolve. You want power, and we can give it to you."
Still dumbfounded at the whole situation, he only stuck on one part of the sentence. "We?" As in, more than one. As he spoke, he felt a warm breath hitting the back of his head. A shiver running up his spine, he slowly turned around, coming face to face with a wolf-like creature. Its fur was completely black, with wine red markings all over its body, extending to the bone-like mask over its head. The mask was white, ending with an extra set of menacing fangs, covering its jaw. Finally, two holes exposed a pair of glowing silver eyes, similar to the one of the man, except for the pupils that were slits, looking cat-like.
He swallowed hard, feeling an ominous aura coming from the second being. His attention was taken away as the man continued talking. "You need not fear us, we are a part of you." Turning around abruptly, he was startled to hear another voice. "Your fear only means weakness here, brat. Grow a spine. If you want our power, you better shape up." The wolf spoke with a distorted voice, horrifying to hear, but the boy steeled himself, now looking directly at the creature. Though it had no visible lips, he felt that it smiled, somewhat in approval, somewhat in dark excitement. "That's better. Now listen well, I'm not going to repeat myself. Our name is Hakanai no Yami."
The name seemed to resonate across his inner world. "Hakanai no Yami." He uttered under his breath, rolling the name on his lips and familiarizing himself with it. "Remember it, Takeo, and head towards the Shino Academy. You have nothing here."
"Yeah, and besides, you're so weak you may just get killed by one of these thugs while you're trying to train. Too much of a hassle. Just leave."
Nodding silently, he started planning his trip. His zanpaktou spirits simply looked on patiently, seemingly waiting for a response. Looking towards the man, Takeo simply nodded and, with a smile from the strange spirit, he was again engulfed in darkness as he exited his inner world.
Waking up, he almost wished he stayed in his inner world. The whole right side of his body was in so much pain, he cried out as he tried to sit up. Looking over, he noticed there was no blood, but that he could no longer move his arm. His ribs were also broken, and he had a hard time breathing. Shit! How the hell am I supposed to get anything done like this? And most importantly, is this going to heal properly?
Just as he was starting to panic, he heard his zanpaktou's voice. "Don't worry about your injuries, brat, I'm working on healing them. In the mean time, don't get yourself killed."
Sighing in relief, he gently got to his feet, and walked very slowly to cover. It would do him no good if he faced more trouble while he was in this state. Luckily, he was still in the deserted part of town and was able to find an old, run-down, abandoned shack. Limping to it, he hid there for the remainder of the day, feeling his wounds slowly healing and what was left of his spiritual energy being completely used up.
He fell asleep that night, completely spent, but with the hopes that his situation would be improved in the near future.
The next morning, he relieved to find that he no longer felt any pain in his body and that his reiatsu was almost, if not entirely, regenerated. Walking out of the shack, he concluded that his first order of affairs was to gather information about the Shino Academy. How to get there, and when he could apply.
Walking around town, he tried to question people, but most either completely ignored him or shoed him off, some rather violently. By mid-day, he was almost considering giving up and returning to his training, a much more enjoyable activity in his opinion, when he noticed a very old paper stuck on one of the older buildings. Walking closer to it in curiosity, he could make out the parts that weren't faded, and it read: Shino Academy recruitment office, directly north, recruiting twice a year during the months of September and January.
Grinning in triumph, he was happy at his small victory. Wait. He paused. What month are we? Sighing to himself, he again went looking for information, this time about the date. Damn! Why didn't I just keep track? After another hour, he was lucky enough to find someone who gave him the information, albeit rudely: "We're in April, ya damn bum, now fuck off!"
Chuckling to himself, he started to find the constant anger from the residents here quite entertaining. Shaking his head, he had the sudden thought that he might just be going insane.
Focusing back on more important manners, he counted down the months until the deadline of the Academy. If he wanted to play it safe, he had just over 4 months, leaving maybe 7 days for the trip. I don't really know how far it is, even with my shunpo. So better safe than sorry. Until then, he could still work on his shunpo and what little kido he knew, as well as work with his zanpaktou. Though he didn't have an asuchi, he could still train in his inner world.
It was early evening when he got back to the stream where he spent the last several months. However, this time, he wasn't alone. The thugs he had seen on his first day in the district where standing in the water, trying to catch fish, and laughing.
He felt his heart hammer against his chest. Though he had faced the hollows yesterday and was able to defeat them, the thought of taking on the people that he saw ruthlessly kill another human made him queasy. He had never been prone to violence and, while athletic, his friends and family knew him only as a slightly introverted, rather peaceful teen.
Making his decision quickly, he slowly started stepping backwards, hoping to get some distance between himself and the thugs before he started running. Unfortunately for him, he was so scared that he did not notice the rather large rock behind him, and tripped, landing hard on his behind. This seemed to attract the attention of the men, as they quieted down and looked directly at him.
"Oi! Who da hell are you?!" said one of them. He had messy, long brown hair, and an ugly grimace on his face. He was probably hoping to intimidate him and, looking down at his shaking knees, Takeo confirmed that it was working. The rest of them had similar appearances, one with a couple earring in his nose and mouth, and three other with ugly, jagged scars on their face and what showed of their chest. There were eight in total, and the sheer number was enough to make the teen shudder in fear.
Damn! What do I do?! Fight?! Looking over at the thugs and their rather large blades, he concluded that the fight would be a little more complex than fighting the hollows. In the mean time, the what appeared to be the leader started speaking. "Everyone here outta know that dis is our turf, and ya can't fish what ain't yours, now can ya?" he finished with an ominous grin, his friends chuckling darkly behind him. Shit! This isn't turning out good! Straightening up on his feet, he hesitantly spoke, trying not to stutter but still hearing a slight quiver in his tone.
"I didn't eat any fish, I just came here." "Liar! Our buddy saw ya two days ago filling yerself!" said one of them, the leader raising his hand to shut him up. "See brat, I hate liars, and yer a really bad one too! Tha least ya could do is try harder!" He seemed to get angry at that, lowering his sword that he had propped on his shoulder previously. Seeing this, his friends also seemed to ready themselves for a fight and Takeo felt as if his stomach had fallen between his legs. Shit! I made it worse! What do I do now?! In the middle of an internal panic attack, he was abruptly interrupted by his zanpaktou.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you cowardly piece of shit?! I'm not going to obey a master that runs at the first sign of danger! Keep fucking this up, and you'll never hear my voice again, understood?!" Startling at the rather violent and loud voice, he steeled himself. Gathering his energy, he remembered that his only way out of this situation, was through his zanpaktou, and that included getting his hands dirty. He couldn't back out now, he was dumped in the worst place in Rukongai, but he would make sure that he wouldn't die here.
He increased his reiatsu in increments, charging his limbs with power and readying himself for a confrontation. This earned him a smirk from the leader as he mocked him. "Hey look fellas, the kid thinks he can fight!" This earned him loud laughs and sneers, but Takeo paid them no mind. He was resolved, he would do what he had to survive.
The leader clicked his tongue, and ran straight at him, blade swinging in a wide arc, followed by his friends, each letting out coarse battle cries. The teen waited until they were within striking distance before he shunpoed out of the way, and struck the first back he saw full force, seeing blood fly at his face. He however could not focus on the man he had downed, as seven more were converging towards him. Shunpoing again, he reappeared very close to another thug, crouched down, and upper cut him, making him fly in the air, landing 20 meters away.
Three other tried to surround him, but he jumped high in the air and fired a byakurai at one of them, landing it in the man's shoulder, as he screamed in pain. Landing a couple of meters away, he got ready to face the rest, but he noticed they had paused, looking at him almost… fearfully? Looking at the man he had injured with his kido, he was clutching his bleeding shoulder and looking at him as if he had grown a second head and proclaimed himself kind of hell.
"W-W-What the hell are ya man?!" He said, voice quivering. Blinking in confusion, Takeo looked at the other two he had hit, only now noticing the state they were in, and it make his stomach flip. One had a huge hole in the center of his upper body, and the other's head had flown off, nowhere to be found. Both bodies were immobile.
The six other thugs took his stupor as a cue to hightail it, running away as fast as they could. It took a couple more minutes for the situation to finally sink in and, when it did, the teen doubled over and emptied his stomach content. Looking back up to the carnage he had left, he turned around and, with his fastest shunpo, left the scene. He would not be returning here again.