Chapter 2: On the Run.
Elaina still wasn't sure what had happened to her. She now doubted that she ever would. The last thing she knew for certain was that that truck had come awful close to hitting her. But she was certain that it had somehow avoided her. She was certain that she was alright. But now everyone around her was ignoring her. No matter what she did she couldn't gain anyone's attention. They seemed to look straight through her, like she wasn't even there. She had seen her husband sit there and cry, she had heard her daughter asking strange question while choking back her tears to her brother. She had her suspicions, but she would never allow herself to believe it.
She couldn't stay at home anymore, she couldn't live that way, with her own family ignoring her existence. The powerlessness that she felt around them, she couldn't stand any of it. So she left, not that it was any better now. She hadn't a friend in the world, and no one would, or could notice her. At least that strange chain around her chest was getting lighter, but her heart felt heavier and heavier. She broke down completely one afternoon and screamed into the air for someone, anyone to pay attention to her. No one changed at all. She fell to the ground, shaking as she cried. She wished it could all just end.
She stopped suddenly. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't certain what, there were thousands of people running around her, but she caught some movement. Her heart raced away. Her breathing became ragged. She was so excited, could there really be someone else out here?
She leapt over the dull grey world around her, she felt lighter than a feather and gazed into the shadows of an alley that had caught her eye. She saw something there. It was tall, at least 6'5", but it seemed slender. Her heart leapt inside of her, but she didn't realize that it was leaping away from that thing. Then she saw its eyes. They were golden, shining bright in the shadows. She thought just for a moment that she could see herself in them even at this distance. Then it moved.
She saw those eyes lean forward just an inch or so, then they were right in front of her face, consuming her entire world. Her neck began to ache but by then she was bathed in shadows, she was in an alley. This thing had moved at least a hundred feet while carrying her in less time then she could blink in. She tried to scream, but her throat was sealed such, she could only guess that it was grabbing her by the neck because she couldn't take her eyes off of its eyes.
Its eyes were the size of dinner plates but more harsh and angular. They were ringed with darkness. Not black colors or darker shades, but darkness itself. She could feel light being pulled into the area around those eyes. They themselves seemed to emit light, and this close she couldn't see herself in them, but she could feel herself being pulled into those eyes. She was a feast for its eyes.
She heard it growl in a high raspy voice and it opened its mouth. It bit down on her collar bone with a snap and crunch. She could feel her bones break beneath its jaw and she could feel her blood run out into its mouth. The pain was unimaginable. Her mind couldn't take it. She looked for anything else to distract her from the pain. She saw the hair of the beast: it was bright orange, almost unnaturally so. That is, she felt it looked strangely human, out of place on a creature that was eating her. It was wild hair, spiky in some places, straight or curled in others. It looked like hair that couldn't make up its mind. It was fascinating, she all but forgot about the pain, till she felt herself diminish. She felt strange, like a great deal of herself was suddenly pulled out of her. She felt smaller, and disoriented. She couldn't quite remember how she had gotten here. She couldn't even remember her own name or where these strange feelings were coming from.
The creature lifted its jaws from her side and looked down on her. And it was looking down on her, for it seemed so much larger now than it had before. She remembered what was happening as blood dripped down from its mouth. She wasn't frightened of it now, she wasn't even resisting it. It seemed that she had realized the inevitable and had calmly accepted it. She was going to become part of this thing and there was nothing she could do about it.
It opened its mouth and she could feel herself being pulled towards it. Its jaws fitted over her head effortlessly and she found its mouth to be oddly spacious. She didn't have long to admire it before she pushed further back into the esophagus which wrapped tightly around her. Her shoulders were now inside of its mouth and she could feels it tongue probing her body getting a thorough taste of her. She was still bleeding from where it had bitten her and she could still feel the blood pouring out of her over her body and over its mouth. It tilted its head back and gravity joined the muscles around her pulling her further and further down. After a few passing moments she could feel her legs passing over its tongue and everything around her faded to black.
Skip
He closed her mouth as the last of her passed away. For just a moment as her soul joined with his he could feel every memory she ever had pass over and through him. Everything that she had ever been or ever could be was laid bare before him. He ignored it all. He beat the memories down like they were just a stubborn morsel that needed swallowing. Just like he had done to all the others. And then he left.
He hadn't been alive all that long by then. No more than four of five hours at the most yet he was already quite certain of one thing above all others, he hated his memory. Memory confounded him. It shifted his attention away from the present to things that had already happened. Things that weren't happening now and could never happen again. He couldn't even effect any of these past things. What was worse is that the past also made him thing about the future, and that really confused him. All the things he could do, but wouldn't, all the things he isn't doing, but could. Plus it was so hard to keep track of it all. He had tried thinking about the future, he had foreseen every move he would make up to jumping off of a building, he had gone to jump only to realize he was still on the ground. It didn't help that had a very week sense of time to begin with. He didn't know for certain how long he had been alive or how fast time was passing. All he knew is that it wasn't passing fast enough.
If too much time passed he would start remembering things that hadn't happened to him at all. Things that had happened to someone else who would laugh with strangers, cry over some woman, comfort some girls. There were a few where he would fight some old man, and those were entertaining, but they never lasted. They always came back to that same black haired girl. That small, annoying, aggressive black haired girl who was always dragging him about, making him fight and risk his life for friends and strangers. There weren't many of her, but it always came back to her and she confused him more than anything else.
She made him angry. She made him sad. She made him happy, almost joyous even. Most of all, she made him restless. He felt that there was something more to her that just these emotions. Something he had to do to her, or perhaps with her. He couldn't guess. All he knew was that when he thought of her he got jittery, energetic, and anxious. All he knew was that he needed to hunt again, as soon as possible.
So he ran. He ran across the void that separated the hunting grounds from where he went to rest. He ran across the sandy floor of his home. He ran so fast the sand all but exploded around his feet. Then he leapt up into the stone trees that covered the desert and held it in their shadows. He ran from branch to branch. He ran through the air. He ran through the darkness. He ran until, he felt hungry again. Then he stopped.
He knew that the others were watching him. He knew what they thought of him, because he knew what he would think of himself. They were thinking that he was in motion, that he was changing, and that change is dangerous. He knew that they thought that he was dangerous, he knew that they would try to kill him. He also knew that they would fail. He didn't think about this, because he already knew it. Then he caught the scent and was off.
The scent was sweet and yet stale. It was intoxicating, yet strangely repulsive. It was what he lived for now. Now that he had caught it he could follow it to another meal. He could enjoy the sweet taste of another soul. He could enjoy the strength of another being added to his own. He could enjoy another conquest. And for the duration of the hunt he could forget about her.
He burst back into the hunting ground and held his place for just a second or two to get his bearings. The scent was quite far away, far more so than any of the others. A longer hunt might be nice, but it could also be dangerous. Part of him was ready to leap away; the other part stood still and sniffed the air. He could smell them too; they were always there when he hunted like a heavy, foul order clinging to the back of his throat and nose. The smelled filled him with boundless rage, and a curious hesitation. He looked for a closer prey.
He spotted a pair of children not far from where he entered clinging to each other and bound in chains. Their chains were wrapped around each other holding them tightly in an eternal embrace. He knew what they were, they were doomed. They were children who had died at the same time. Because they were young and innocent there shouldn't have been anything that could hold their souls to this world. But they were young and frightened of the world around them, and of the thought of leaving each other to make the trip over. They had grabbed hold of each other seeking comfort and now they were trapped. Eventually one of them would devolve into a hollow and eat the other.
He approached them swiftly, unwilling to spend unnecessary time in this world. As he drew near to them he got a full whiff of their scent and was all but knocked back by it. He realized that their situation wasn't quite as simple as he had first thought. These children, so young and innocent, hadn't been entangled in their own chains, they had been tied up there. Another hollow, a smart hollow who knew the benefit of a subordinate over a meal, had found them clinging to one another and had bound them up in their own chains. That hollow had placed his energy inside of them and was accelerating their transformation. When they did devolve, they would serve him, fight for him, feed him and die for the very hollow who had so cursed them. But the creature didn't truly care for such things.
He didn't need subordinates, he needed sustenance, and he needed it now. He swung his hands at the chains and tore them to pieces, had he left then, the children would've only had minutes of humanity left to them. But he didn't leave. He grabbed them both and bit down one of them swiftly. He tore away a bite filling the air with crimson blood and spiritual energy the was being drawn into his body. He bit down again and swallowed the remains of the child, while it looked up at him. He turned to the other child, a young black haired girl full of tears yet smiling at her murderer.
"Thank you." She whispered, "I…I… wanted to eat him myself. I didn't know how much longer I could've controlled myself. Thank you for saving him from me."
The creature paused, for just an instant and met her gaze. In that instant the memories of the boys soul fused with his own. He beat down most of them as normal but he lingered of his last few. He realized that the boy had been much closer to transforming than she had. He realized that the boy hadn't been fighting as hard to resist as she must have. He realized that the boy didn't deserve such a sister, or such tears. He realized that she deserved better than this. He couldn't believe it.
Why did he care about that? He was the hunter she was his prey! She was weaker than him, and he could get stronger by taking what little she had! Left to herself she would've become a hollow anyway, she should be grateful that she got to become part of such a powerful one as himself! She should!….. He should!…. Yet, she deserved better that this.
All the while the scent of the other was drawing closer to him. If he lingered to make a decision he would have to fight for it. He shouldn't have had to make a decision like this. Every fiber of his being demanded, screamed even to consume her and leave her with nothing. Yet there was something deeper than that. A voice stronger than that, and that voice forbid it. His body raged against such an idea, and his instincts swirled in indecision. He cried out and screamed at the top of his lungs desperate to do something. He almost didn't notice the other scent land behind him.
He did notice it though, and survival instincts kicked in. Action was necessary, if that bastard voice wasn't going to let them eat the girl, fine but he's not sticking around here to fight that thing. The impulse to harm the girl consented to survival, the voice went silent and consensus was reached, all in a fraction of an instant. The creature turned, and threw the girl at the approaching Death God.
The Death God hesitated to catch the girl and ended his charge. The moment it did the creature retreated into the void. The Death God froze in place. He was a young looking man, but in truth he had graduated from the academy almost fifty years ago. He had fought hundred of hollows in that time. And he had never seen any of them do anything like this.
"Why didn't he eat my like brother?" The girl asked him a way that almost suggested that she wished that the hollow had. But the Death God was distracted by this by the girl nature itself. She was tainted by a hollows energy and her souls chain was on the verge of collapsing. He set her down and preformed a Soul's Burial on her before responding.
"I don't know." He said to the back butterfly floating away on the breeze up towards Soul Society. "What's important is that he didn't. And that my superiors are never going to believe any of this.
Skip
"You let him transform into a hollow?" Yoruichi screamed in her low raspy cat voice as she swiped at Urahara's head with a clawed paw.
"You make it sound like I didn't even try to stop him. Give me some credit." Urahara pleaded as ducked and weaved around her swipes.
"You didn't try to stop him. You stood by and watched him transform at the bottom of that damn hole of yours. And when he did you let him escape! What the hell kind of training is 'become a Death God or a demon and die' anyway!"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time. He had been making such excellent progress with Rukia's powers that I was certain the couldn't help but make a break through on his own. I still don't know what went wrong."
"What went wrong is that instead of telling him anything that could've been useful or helpful in gaining his own powers, like how to make contact with his inner soul slayer, how to meditate, how to resist hollowification and buy a few precious seconds, you just threw him in a holw and said make progress or die. You didn't even follow up on your threat!"
"What would you have wanted me to do, kill him?"
"Well than at least his soul would be wandering around Soul Society somewhere. I could've gone there and brought him back for some real training."
"You know we don't have time for that."
"Time!" Yoruichi cried as she swiped at his face again. "Our best, our only chance of stopping this and saving Rukia is running about the Hueco Mundo eating humans and slaying Death Gods and you are worried about time."
"Of course I am still worried about time, we only have 25 days left to prepare Sado, Inoue and Ishida, for their journey and the battles ahead of them."
"You don't honestly intend to still send them do you?"
"Why not?"
"Inoue and Sado use Full-Bringers which while powerful are nowhere near a Captain's level of power. Ishida as a quincy could fight on par with a captain, but I doubt he could beat one without using forbidden techniques, and he can only beat a single captain at the most using them."
"But if they work together with you and choose their battles carefully, there might still be hope correct?"
"But they never would work together without Ichigo. Ishida, Sado and Inoue were all vague acquaintances at the most; Ichigo is the only commonality between them. None of them were friends with Rukia, none of them have a reason to risk their lives with Ichigo being there to give them one."
"Are you so certain that he won't be there?"
"You mean am I certain that a long hollow will attack a place the no hollow has dared to set foot in since the days when the Captain Commander went on patrols on the earth? Yes I am pretty certain he won't be there. His instincts would never allow him to behave so suicidal. Nor would they have any reason to be drawn there in the first place."
"If all that is true than why did hollows attack Soul Society in those long lost days?"
"What do you mean?"
"Events are not singular in nature. If it happened once, it can, and probably will happen again. Hollows were drawn to Soul Society, in the face of impossible power, by their instincts once before, so they can be drawn there again. We Death Gods tend to look down on hollows for being instinct driven, yet we forget the all Death Gods work long and hard to build the very instincts that are so natural to hollows. We also forget the true scope of instincts.
"We always focus on the destructive aspects of a hollow's instincts, their anger and desire to kill and consume. We ignore that fear, concern, the desire to possess and love are all natural instincts and thus part of a hollow's most basic thought processes. We always remember that hollows murder and consume strangers and we assume that is all motivated by blind anger. But a hollow's first victims are always its spouse, children, brothers, sisters and parents in that order. A hollow's first instinct is to join with, possess and protect those that it loves the most for all eternity. A hollow's most powerful motivator is most certainly that of love."
"You think that Ichigo is going to travel to Soul Society to rescue Rukia because he loves her?"
"I know that when Ichigo left here he was releasing a tremendous amount of power. In order to replenish that power he must've gone hunting by now. Yet I also know that in that time no hollows have appeared with a several miles of here, and nothing has attack the Kurosaki house hold. This means that Ichigo is hunting some other relation in that list I mention, and he knows that he must become stronger if he wants to reach her."
"So what do you want me to tell the kids?"
"Only what they need to know. That Ichigo is training to reach Rukia and will join them in Soul Society when they are ready."
"I hope you know what you're doing Urahara."
"So do I."
Skip
When he returned to his home he had already calmed down considerably. That strange voice had gone silent and all was right in the world again. He was furious at his pointless hesitation, but also curious about the source. He never imagined that he might have let the girl go because he was feeling merciful. He had no idea what mercy was and if someone ever tried to explain it to him it would confuse him to no end. He instead believed that there must be some other instinct guiding his action, something that wasn't key to his survival, but was key to his being. These thoughts confused him and he returned to his running. He ran for only a short while before his was hungry again, the boy hadn't been much sustenance after all. He caught a new scent and was off. All memory of this one abnormality was forgotten as he returned to the thrill of the present.
As he departed for another kill he was watched by another pair of cruel eyes. These were red and harsh, full of calculation, cold and brutal. The eyes were set in a very large mask defined by a wide smile and small feather on the top. He wore a long thick brown coat of hair and was supported by four grasping, three toed, hand like feet. He thought quietly to himself.
'So we have a runner eh? How unusual, he probably won't last though. Still, he wasn't in that world for very long. Even a runner like him shouldn't be able to find and consume prey that quickly unless.'
"Hey you!" He called out to a nearby subordinate hollow.
"Yes Grand Fisher?" The hollow asked crawling along the ground to avoid direct contact.
"Go to the living world and check up on those two kids I was making into subordinates and make sure they are okay."
"Yes Master!" The hollow cried and scurried off.
"Do you think that the runner killed your prey?" a larger bird like hollow inquired.
"He may have."
"Will you deal with him if he did?"
"Of course."
"That may be rather difficult. Runner grow very quickly, if you're not careful he may surpass you before to long. You should kill him the moment he returns."
"You think I runt like that poses any danger to a beast like me? Don't forget, I have entrusted with a power far greater than that of any other hollows by our master."
"Perhaps you would like to explain that to the Gillian?" The bird hollow challenged as a handful of the great black giants lumbered about nearby. The towered over any of the hollows in all of the forest, they towered over most towers in the human world for that matter. They were all virtually mindless yet full of incredible power. The Grand Fisher almost shuddered at the thought.
"They are servants of the master as well, to waste them would be a crime. Besides runners are an opportunity that should not be wasted casually. If I wait just a few hours: he will consume dozens of souls and makes his own soul all the more sweet to eat."
Skip
Shiba was out on his first solo patrol. He had been preparing for this night all his life. He had suffered six grueling years in the academy, worked his butt off trying to get as strong as he could. When he graduated he thought that he was as powerful as he could ever become, then he had joined the seventh squad and realized that there was so much left for him to learn. He had fought long and hard in the squad, been embarrassed and badly bruised countless times in the sparing ring by more experienced enemies. He had studied his captain carefully. He had studied his vice captain even harder. He was ready to for this. He knew he was.
He had entered the world of the living earlier that morning and got right to work. He had carefully patrolled the area. He had mapped out all the places where a hollow could hide itself. He had sharpened his sword by meditating on it in a secluded place and had done everything else he could think of to get ready.
His patient work was well rewarded. No more than six hours into his first patrol an enemy, a hollow a little larger than a bus, came to meet him. He tracked with a hell butterfly and struck it from behind as quickly as possible. It was over before he had even realized it had started. He had saved a life, and it hadn't been that difficult at all. He was even excited when he was warned that another one was coming.
Shiba had always been extremely perceptive when it came to spiritual energy so he got his warning a bit sooner than other Death Gods would've. So he got to the area where the hollow would appear before it came through. He braced himself in a hidden area that gave him a good view and waited for a moment or two. The creature burst through the void at break neck speeds he could barely follow its movement or get a good look at it. He leapt and slashed at it on instinct.
The hollow noticed him at the last possible moment and spun away from him. Shiba got back up as quickly as possible and took up a defensive stance. The hollow was very small, barely taller than a human. His white body was almost devoid of any marks save for a few red lines above his right eye and a red section of his tail. He shoulders had spikes on them but it honestly looked like they were still growing, like the hollow wasn't finished growing quite yet.
The creature back up slightly, it seemed hesitant. Shiba smiled and leapt at it, with his sword drawn back over his shoulder. He lunged at the creature and drove his sword forward, it sidestepped him almost effortlessly. He turned as slashed at its throat. The creature backed up but was still nicked on the throat. It then further leapt back far out of his reach and grabbed its throat.
"Feeling pain for the first time kid?" Shiba asked it feeling rather confident, "It's not so nice to be on the receiving end is it?"
The hollow held its throat and smelled its own blood. He caught a scent off of it. It remembered something, it remembered the smell of blood and steel mixing together. It was a smell that it had experienced dozens of times in its past life. Perhaps for the first time the creature realized that these things threatening it were carrying soul slayers. Then it roared.
It was deep. It was powerful. It reached into Shiba's mind and awakened his most primal fears. It was a roar echoed by every predator throughout all of history. It was a roar that announced to the world that something was going to die very soon. It was a roar that told Shiba that he might be in over his head. Then it moved.
Shiba held his sword right in front of him but he could barely see the creature move at all much less hope to block it. The hollow ignored his sword and grabbed his head with in its massive hands and threw its weight to one side and slammed Shiba into a nearby wall. As he rebounded off it, the hollow continued to twist around and grabbed Shiba's head with its clawed foot and smashed his face into the concrete. Shiba blacked out for a moment but held it together. He was seeing stars and was bleeding through his nose and teeth. His ears were ringing and his body felt numb, yet his still clung to his sword.
He drove the tip of the sword into the ground and tried to hoist himself back upright. The hollow stared at his sword. It couldn't take its eyes off of it. It forgot about the life almost smothered by its foot. Memories arose of the last time he had seen a soul slayer. Thoughts about such a sword rose in its mind. He discovered a strange objective hidden down in the depths of his sword. He hated such a sword. He wanted to destroy that sword. He wanted to destroy every sword like that in all reality. He wanted to take on the very best that such swords had to offer and crush them all and grind them up into dust so that they all would be forgotten. He wanted this so much that he had forgotten the hunt.
"NAME IT" The hollow screamed at the warrior held under his foot. Shiba could barely breath much less speak. "NAME IT!" The hollow ordered again. Shiba could do nothing. Before long the hollow seemed to sniff the air, realize that he was helpless and left him.
Several hours later Shiba awoke in the Fourth Squad hospital back in the Court of Pure Souls. He was hooked up to a breathing aperatus and could barely speak or move. His head felt fuzzy and his body felt numb. He looked over the room and quickly wished that he hadn't. He saw captain Unohanna commander of the fourth squad looking over him with her motherly but strangely distant and uncaring eyes. Next to her was the old mountain of a man that was the Captain Commander himself with his vice captain next to him. There was also another man wearing the white uniform of the science division with a pair of nub like horns on his head.
"The patient has regained conciseness. Akon please ask your question quickly before he slips back under." Unohanna said
"Do you recognize this hollow?" The scientist, Akon, asked while holding up a sketch of the hollow that had almost killed Shiba. Summoning all of his strength he just managed nod.
"This confirms it Commander. The Reiatsu we detected on this warrior is the same that we have detected in almost thirteen different missing hollow incidents in the last 11 hours alone. It also matches the description given to us by the only two Death Gods from those incidents who spotted their quarry before it crossed the void."
"Has the science department concluded its analysis of this Reiatsu?" The Commander asked.
"We have. This hollow is releasing a great amount of spiritual energy drawn from all of the souls that it has consumed. This constant consumption of power would make this hollow extremely powerful despite the few number of souls it has consumed, it also would give it a tremendous appetite. We have a runner on our hands."
"Is there any sign of this hollow calming down in the near future?"
"No sir. It will continue to hunt and consume at an accelerated rate. The longer we wait the more powerful it will become."
"Can you predict where it will attack next?"
"It seems to be following a standard Heisenberg-Oleic hunting pattern. If we can gather absolutely accurate data on its next few entrances and exits we should be able to predict down to the second and inch were it will strike."
"Very well. Inform and equip the Death Gods in the areas where it will most likely appear next, order them not to engage the target. When you have gathered enough data turn your finding over to the Eleventh Squad and dispatch their Third Seat to deal with this renegade."
"Yes sir."
End.