Chapter 5: The Lust.
'Good gods of hell this hurt,' The hollow thought to itself as Grimmjow slipped around his guard yet again and punched him in the chest. The pain was down to a dull ache by now, but it was still there, and the hollow was certain that this was from a general loss of feeling. Still he reacted quickly enough and paid his teacher back for the blow. He still wasn't sure why all of this pain was worth it; he didn't really know why he hadn't bolted yet or escaped to the living world. But he knew it was. Somehow, this constant fighting was right; he knew that the pain was making him stronger. He knew that the pain would eventually help him complete his goal. He rather hated that knowledge.
He hated Grimmjow too. He hated that constant smug grin, that wild laugh he released whenever the hollow got a good hit in. He really hated just how much his teacher was enjoying his suffering. Yet he was also strangely grateful.
It was all that voice's fault. It was the oldest and the strongest voice inside of him, and there were dozens of voices in him now, but it was also the most insane. The voice had no instincts, and what it had instead of instincts really annoyed the hollow. The voice had direction, it had a goal, it had a purpose. The voice saw that this pain served that purpose and was hell bent on enduring the pain to attain that purpose. It made no bloody sense at all. Yet the hollow rather enjoyed it. Not the pain, the hollow had sworn that the moment it was strong enough it would kill Grimmjow, but it loved having a purpose, even if it still wasn't certain what that purpose was.
Grimmjow kicked him down into the sand with a quick painful crack to accompany it. The hollow struggled to get up, but most of his body forbid him from doing so. Grimmjow looked down on him, his grin vanishing for the first time in hours. He spit with a sigh and a curse and then landed next to the hollow.
"That was good enough for now. Take a break." Grimmjow said as he sonidoed away. The hollow collapsed to the ground and gather his energy around his ribs, after a short time the pain subsided. He didn't know how that worked, he knew it was one of his hollow powers but it was strange. He knew how all of his other powers worked, he often had to think about how to do them and use them, but this one came so naturally to him it took no effort at all.
A few moments later, Grimmjow returned holding the broken body of a lesser hollow that he threw it at his students feet. The hollow didn't have to be told; he straightened up and bit into it. Grimmjow allowed him to actually eat his prey between 'sessions,' any other time the hollow had to break its prey with his energy and absorb them. Grimmjow leaned up against a nearby tree and watched his student eat.
"You know," He said, "You are one fast little bugger aren't you? I mean: I am a lot faster than you, and to be honest so are most Gillian, but you learn really quickly. All hollows learn about themselves quickly, because their instincts already understand everything there is to know about themselves; but you actually learn things. You've been studying my style, copying some moves and adjusting others to better resist me. A normal hollow shouldn't be able to do that. But you almost do it naturally. Makes me wonder."
The hollow remained silent as he listened to Grimmjow rant away. It didn't really matter to him, most of the time. But this seemed important, the hollow paused while it ate to consider what he had heard.
"Do you have any memories?" Grimmjow asked, as he saw the hollow thinking, something none but the oldest hollow could actually do.
"Too… Many…." The hollow responded in a deep raspy voice.
"I don't, too many to chose from I guess."
"Were you going…. To be a Gillian?"
"Probably, I must've gained dominance in that body accidently."
"Will I…. Forget then?"
"Depends, some hollows don't even become Gillian, the go through a proto-Menos stage with all the power of a Gillian but none of numerous minds vying for dominance. Then they become Adjuchas, I thinks that the path that you're on. Once you get there, I'll get a friend of mine to make you into an Arrancar, and then we'll be in business."
"Our great….Fight?"
"It will be awesome." Grimmjow concluded, his smile returning along with that perpetual look of lust in his eyes. The hollow quickly crushed and absorbed the remainder of its meal and took up a defensive stance, just in time from Grimmjow to sock him in the gut.
Skip
In the real world the desert landscape underneath Urahara's shop shuddered. The dust cleared just long enough for Urahara to burst away from it with Inoue and Chad hot on his tail. His sword was drawn and his hand was holding tight to his head as they closed in. Chad's right arm was covered in a bright red armor with black and white streaks running down it. On his shoulder what looked like a wide arrow head opened up and revealed bright blue fire glowing in it. Inoue didn't look any different at all, but six golden lights danced circles around her. One of them rushed forward at Urahara forcing him to slice at it with his sword. He caught it, but just barely, it twisted around him and came back at him from behind. He turned to face it and defended himself again, this time with red light bleeding off of his sword mixing with the golden light exploding from the attacker. Meanwhile two other lights rushed towards him, taking place above and below Urahara who cursed at the sight of them. Light poured from one to the other, and soon he was encapsulated in the light. He struck at the light with his sword but it held him in place while Chad rushed forward. White fire ran down his arm and into his fist, before he took another step it looked like he was holding a comet in his right hand. He punched at Urahara while the golden light around him vanished and there was a massive explosion.
Ishida looked on in awe as the dust settled. Chad and Inoue were using their powers to perfectly cooperate with each other. It was quite a sight to behold. Urahara hadn't been struck down by the blow, but the red shield he summoned to block the strike was cracking around the edges and his hat was nowhere to be seen. Ishida doubted the hat still existed in this world.
"Very impressive." Urahara complimented Chad and Inoue, "Chad provides massive but unwieldy and slightly clumsy power that Inoue protects and balances with swift moving flexible techniques. I wouldn't expect anything less from Yoruichi's students."
"Thank you." The black cat answered; a fact which continued to creep Ishida out.
"It's too bad Ichigo couldn't be here to see it." Inoue lamented as Chad nodded.
"He'll appreciate the help when you join him in Soul Society tomorrow." Urahara responded without an instant of hesitation. Ishida was rather suspicious of this story about Ichigo, that he had already made the trip; Ishida was probably just being paranoid though.
"Why aren't we joining him today again?" Ishida asked in a skeptical voice.
"I need another day to gather then energy needed. Don't worry Ishida; there will still be plenty of time to fight Death Gods. For now, this is all we can do to prepare. Go home; enjoy yourself for the next day. Allay any suspicion or fear the Kurosaki's might have about their son, then come back here. Get plenty of rest, tomorrow you will all be involved in the greatest battle of your lives."
Skip
"You know, sometimes I wonder why I even bother." Ikkaku said to his partner as the rain poured down on them on the side of the building.
"Sometime I wonder why you do as well." His partner responded while trying to take shelter from the rain underneath them. "I told you that we should've gone back to Soul Society days ago. But you were so damn certain that this hollow would show up and the two of you would have an amazing battle."
"We will have an amazing battle, when he gets here." Ikkaku said strengthening his resolve.
"When exactly will that be? I don't intend to spend the rest of my career sitting here in the rain."
"I'll give him another day or so. After that, I will never forgive him."
"Poor him."
Skip
"Sometimes I wonder why you even bother." Grimmjow declared as he held the hollow in a headlock and pressed him into the sand beneath them.
"For moments like this!" The hollow declared in a much higher, more erratic voice than what he normally used when speaking. Grimmjow noted how the hollow seemed completely different when fighting. While he noted that, the hollow wrapped its tail around Grimmjow's leg and pulled down trying to dislocate it. Realizing what was happening, Grimmjow leapt up and backwards. The hollow launched right after him.
The hollow gathered all the energy and rage he could into his claws and drove his fist right into Grimmjow's gut. Just as the blow connected, the hollow released the energy destroying the spiritual particle around his target allowing him to hit Grimmjow flesh directly. Grimmjow doubled over under the blow, lost his wind and began to fall to the ground. Normally this would kill him, because the other hollow would follow up on the attack with all its might, but the hollow hesitated.
"Again!" He ordered from the air while Grimmjow regained his breath. When he had he smiled like a Cheshire Cat and sonidoed in behind him with a punch in motion. The hollow turned and caught the blow and threw one of his own. Grimmjow blocked it, turned his momentum and swung a kick. The hollow caught the kick with his clawed feet, stood up on that leg and kicked at Grimmjow's head. Grimmjow snapped his head to the side, grabbed the leg passing by him and twisted his body to send his free leg at his enemies chest, who caught it with his hands. The two struggled for a moment and then sonidoed away from one another. An instant later they returned to the exchange of blows.
The exchange continued for an hour or two, both warriors supported by their demonic stamina. Neither could really gain an advantage over the other. The hollow knew that this wasn't the absolute truth, he sensed that Grimmjow was holding back. Even then the hollow was taking a few more hits than his teacher was, but he was improving. He could feel new strength growing in him, and he was getting a few hits in himself. He also knew that Grimmjow was slowly stepping up the pressure, given enough time he would be fighting Grimmjow on equal terms. Long before them they stopped to take a break. This time the hollow was told to find his own food while Grimmjow did the same.
Killing another hollow was unbelievably easy. Far easier than it had been when he hunted them in the living world, or when the Fisher's elite came after him. He appeared in front of a hollow that caught his eye, ripped off one of its arms, grabbed by the throat and carried it back. Grimmjow had caught a meal of his own and they both settled down to enjoy the meal.
"So," Grimmjow said after a while, "What exactly are you fighting for? I mean, any other hollow would've either died, run away, or tried to provoke me into killing it dozens of hours ago. You've just kept at me, quietly working all this time. I know there's some purpose driving you, so what the hell is it?"
"Well…. there's this….girl." The hollow said; its slower deliberate style of speech returning.
"Must be one hell of a broad. Is it your sister? Wife then?"
"No….Savior."
"Well she sure screwed up somewhere along the line if you ended up here."
"She's going….to die."
"Don't tell me that you're feeling guilty? That would really make you an unique hollow."
"No…I…I want her." The hollow said, choking on the words as they left his mouth. He went silent for some time as if pondering the words carefully.
"I need her." He said, his voice accelerating and raising in pitch.
"I will have her!" He cried, his voice more erratic, insane even.
"They have no right to take her!" He screamed, at least a dozen lesser voices joining him as echoes and shadows.
"I WILL HAVE HER BACK COME HELL OR HEAVEN TO STOP ME!" He roared, his power surging and the sand shaking beneath them, as if to prove his challenge to the world.
"!" He thundered for an even minute; cracking trees, setting all hollows with in miles to their heels, turning the heads of the menos and making the entire living world hold its breath.
Grimmjow smiled. In the living world Ikkaku broke out in a cold sweat and almost fell off the building. Inoue turned over in her sleep and began to shake as nightmare invaded her dream. Chad felt it, he was already awake. He gazed into the night sky and prayed that he was feeling it from Soul Society, despite how it felt. Urahara also smiled as the hair stood up on Yoruichi's back.
"Feel that my little kitty." Urahara teased as Yoruichi glared at him. "Even I couldn't have made Mr. Kurosaki that powerful. This will all work out in the end."
"Hopefully the cure isn't work than the ailment." Yoruichi warned.
End.