Forty years have passed since his arrival in Soul Society and Yamaru is unsure of how to spend his afterlife. He spent most of his time traveling the various districts in the Rukongai helping people do chores or tasks in exchange for food, clothes and other things.
Today he is helping some souls fix the roof on one of the houses for a family. The family has offered him food in exchange for his work and the workers offered to buy him some drinks.
"Ya-kun, can you pass these boards up to Taru for me." A short haired man called to Yamaru from the ground, a couple of long boards poking up over the roof.
"Sure thing Kusonotsu-san." Yamaru replied, resting his tools on the roof and walking over to the edge of the roof. The house had two levels to it, with the first floor being wider than the top, so as Yamaru grabbed the boards from Kusonotsu, a man appeared on the edge of the second tier ready to take the lumber.
"Thanks, Ya-kun." Kusonotsu said, before walking off to get more boards.
"You got it, Tau-san?" Yamaru asked as he handed the lumber up the man on the second tier.
"Yeah, I got it; you go take a break Yamaru-kun you've been working for hours." Taru replied, resting the lumber on the roof.
"I'm alright, Taru-san. I got plenty of energy from that delicious meal last night." He replied, wetting his lips and rubbing his stomach.
"You eat the every scrap of food we had, it's no wonder you have the energy." The older man joked, chuckling as he turned back to work. "Don't worry about it though, we don't eat much anyways. You're saving us more money helping fix this roof anyways." He finished, realizing Yamaru felt ashamed to have eaten so much food the previous night.
"Still, I shouldn't have-" Yamaru was cut off as a monstrous roar ripped through the air, followed by screams of terror and declarations of a hollow. Yamaru looked up to see a great four-armed beast with a white bone-like mask covering its face land on the roof. It stood at least as tall as the house was and stood on two legs. Spikes grew out of its knees, and a pair of its hands had growths from the wrists that looked like they could act as shields, while the other pair huge long claws. It looked at and grabbed Taru. "Taru-san!" He yelled, unable to do anything as the hollow grabbed the defenseless man with one of its hands and jump down to ground level and grabbing another worker. "Kuro-san! Put them down you beast!" He yelled in rage, picking up a hammer and throwing it at the hollow.
The hammer hit the hollow right in one of its glowing red eyes, causing it to lash out violently, one of its arms came crashing down on a house, demolishing the wall. From under the rubble, a woman's legs poked out, followed by a pool of blood. The hollow, gaining its senses again opened its huge mouth, and toss Kuro in, immediately shutting it and consuming the soul. The hollow turn to Yamaru, its eye now healed as it began to squeeze the life out of Taru. Taru yelled out in pain, as the creature grabbed his legs and arms with all four of it limbs as Yamaru watched in horror.
"Yamaru-kun." Taru said weakly, blood dripping from his mouth. "Run-" He was cut short as the hollow bit his torso for his limbs, and then tossing the limbs in with the remains of the torso, finishing consuming the soul.
"Taru-san." Yamaru whispered, falling to his knees. Though he didn't have a deep connection to the man, to die in such a way is just unnecessary. Tears filled his eyes as anger filled his heart, his body moving even though his mind was blank. Grabbing a couple nails from the tool box Yamaru jumped down from the roof onto the hollow, which was looking for some more souls to consume.
Yamaru sank two nails deep into the hollows back, causing it to arch back in pain, throwing him off. He landed on his feet, and charged the hollow quickly, sinking two more nails into the back of its knees as he dove through its legs. He rolled along the ground, avoiding a swing from one of the clawed hands and turned to the beast throwing another nail at it. It raised one of its shield arms to block the nail, swinging at Yamaru with both the clawed hands. Yamaru managed to sink a nail into one of the hollows hands, both wasn't able to fully dodge the other as one claw sunk into his flesh and sent him flying up against the wall of a house, sending all of nails he had flying over the ground. The menacing hollow towered over him, reaching each of its arms to the spots Yamaru previously stabbed with nails and pulled them out, letting out another head splitting roar. It thrust a clawed hand forward, hoping to impale the soul, but he ducked under it just in time and rolled away, trying to distance himself from the soul eating beast.
"I can't believe those things use to human souls." He thought to himself, running to the edge of the district. "It got Taru-san, and Kuro-san. I'll make it pay." His thoughts were then interrupted as his feet were swept out from under him, as the hollow grabbed his legs and dangled him in front of it. Yamaru furiously punched at the creature's mask, managing to make a small crack before being flung to a tree. The creature stomped slowly towards him, twigs and leaves cracking and snapping with each step, its heavy breathing mixed with a low growl. A crack appeared a few inches below its eyes and spread horizontally across the mask splitting it in two. The creature opened its mouth wide, its tongue protruding out and licking its mask in anticipation of its meal. Yamaru didn't have the strength to move anymore.
"I'm going to die now… again, well I'm not going down easy." He thought was the hollow lunged at him, the massive maw now upon him. He reached into his sleeve and produced a nail, jabbing it into the roof of the hollow's mouth as it tried to chomp down on him. He grabbed its teeth quickly, as it stood up straight, and kicked the nail in further. The huge creature roared again, reaching into its mouth, pass Yamaru and to the nail, and then froze as its arms fell to its side. The hollow evaporated away into a fog of nothing as all the spirits and souls were freed.
Yamaru fell to the ground, in front of a confused man dressed in a Shihakusho as he sheathed his katana.
"You okay?" The man asked, scratching his head. "That hollow looked a little wounded, but I never thought a soul was still alive in there." He offered a hand to help Yamaru to his feet.
"That thing killed some nice souls that were helping me out." Yamaru explain, accepting the hand. "A couple ten inch nails to the back, knees and roof of his mouth merely mad him mad though." He finished, jokingly.
"So they died fighting it with you?" The man asked.
"No, they were eaten without a chance to fight." He said solemnly. "I flew into a rage and attacked the hollow alone." He chuckled slightly, but broke into a cough and held his ribs. "What's the expression? 'Bravery without thought is foolish bravado' or something like that?"
"It was foolish." The man replied Yamaru lowered his stare to the ground. "But more brave than foolish." The man followed up, a smile on his face. "Have you ever thought of becoming a Shinigami?
"Me, a Shinigami?" Yamaru asked, looking up and pointing to himself in disbelief.
"You just went toe-to-toe with a hollow with no training." The Shinigami said. "You'd make a hell of a Shinigami one day, but I have to get back to Seireitei now." He turned to walk away. "See ya around some day." And with that the man disappeared from sight, leaving Yamaru standing in at the edge of the forest.
NRawk's Notes:
Okay, so this one is a bit longer, thankfully. Still not sure whether I'm doing anything right, but rather slow down and think, just barrel head long through XD Hope to have the next chapter a little longer and up soon. Thanks for reading.