Chapter 14 | Hollow Obsession

Tik. Tok. Tik. Tok.

My clock rang as I stared blankly at the ceiling. I had been awake for a while now, even before sunrise. The clock kept ringing near me, yet it felt like the sound was coming from beneath a surface of water. Gradually my mind rose up to this proverbial surface until the ringing was enough of an irritant to make me slap the clock for it to stop.

The night had been restless. I kept waking up, afraid that something had gotten into my room. Dreams of black portals opening on my walls and a long, white nose coming out of them. I dragged myself up, feeling like my stomach was full of heavy stones. I clutched my shoulder, feeling like a needle was pushed through it. My heart beat hard enough that I swore it would jump out of my chest.

Yesterday's case was scary in its own right, but Tomoe's simple message, it was like suddenly becoming aware of a thousand spikes around my neck, just inches short of stabbing me. If what she said was true then it meant that the hollow—the former principal Matsubara Kinji was targeting me with two other hollows in tow no less.

I had failed to kill him, and now he was coming back to bite me in the ass.

Rationally I knew the hollows were responsible for the tragedy at the hospital, yet I couldn't escape the feeling that I was responsible.

A knock on the door made my heart jump to my throat. Great, now I'm antsy as hell on top of everything.

"Morning," Akane said as soon as I opened the door. "You know, I might be repeating myself here, but…"

"I look like shit. Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's get this day over with…"

She stared at me, her usual carefree demeanor gone and replaced with genuine concern. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here for you, so don't you worry." Akane helped me finish packing my bag and off to school we went.

Thankfully her company cheered me up while we commuted on the tram, so when we met up with Chie I was able to keep up a normal smile. I didn't want to worry her about all this, it was bad enough I dragged her into a world she didn't want to be part of. Chie had even made extra cute lunch boxes for us today. Slowly but surely I felt more relaxed.

Unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.

Alarm bells went off in my head in the middle of class. A hollow appeared above the school, a presence that was undoubtedly familiar. Anxiety gripped my heart. But it's the middle of the day, why-

'Hollows don't usually interact with the living, only those who were very wicked in life do.'

My eyes widened as realization spread throughout my body like lightning. Wait… I'm endangering everybody! I'm such an idiot!

I raised my hand, excusing myself as quickly as I could, stating I needed to see the school nurse. Thankfully the teacher didn't give me any trouble, being used to me and my condition. I gave Akane and Chie as serious a look as I could, hoping at least Akane would understand the gesture.

My mind was racing. The nurse's office wasn't far away, but I still ran. As soon as I saw the nurse I separated my soul, letting my physical body practically fall limp into her arms. The nurse gasped in surprise but quickly recovered and moved my body onto a bed. This wasn't the first time I had used this trick.

Free of my body, I used shunpo to get out of the building as quickly as I could. Once into the hallway and-

The building shook, panicking screams echoing in the halls. I managed to get out just in time, jumping out of a window and flinging myself far up using hohō. When I turned to look behind me, my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach.

Something had hit the school building based on the sizable hole on the roof and cracks spreading outwards from it. Bit by bit the roof was collapsing onto the top floor. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to displace actual, physical material.

"A-Akane, Chie!" I shouted instinctively, only to feel the need to dodge, really quickly. Despite being in the air, I managed to push myself towards the ground just in time as something flung right through where I had just been, causing a shockwave on the school field that it hit in my stead. I slammed against the earth, unable to cushion it at all. I could taste the ground as well as blood.

"There you are!" a familiar, distorted voice reverberated from the sky.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. The former principal turned hollow now had a much more muscular dark-blue body. His head was still covered by the familiar white mosquito-like mask, a needle-like nose protruding from it that stabbed me last time. I instinctively gripped my shoulder. There was something new though, as he was flying in the air, wings buzzing on his back.

"If it isn't the little witch herself," Kinji laughed like a maniac. "Oh how I feel ecstatic all of a sudden! Now be a good boy and let me enjoy this to the FULLEST!"

I only had a short moment to think through what to do while he was monologuing. The situation was dire and I couldn't sense Hisashi nearby. Worse yet I knew there were two more hollows somewhere, and with the school nearby I only had one real choice. I need to-

"And don't think about running, or else," he said as a dark red glob formed from his needle-nose. He grabbed it and flung it at the school, causing another shockwave and more windows to break. More screams escaped the building.

"Or else the school and all of your precious friends will be dead!"

I gritted my teeth, forcing my legs to stop trembling. S-Shit..! I dared to give a short glance towards the school, hoping for my life that they had started to evacuate. The school had no short supply of students and teachers, it would take quite a bit to get everyone out.

My alarm bells went off again and I flash stepped towards the school on instinct. A hollow had appeared behind where I had just been and now another one was appearing right underneath me from a black void.

I flung myself up into the air, landing on the roof of all places. S-Since when can they use tactics?! That's when Kisuke's warning really hit me.

'Hollows capable of strategy and deception; that alone makes them an order of magnitude more dangerous than their mindless compatriots.'

"Tsch, you buffoons," Kinji berated the two hollows as he lowered himself closer to the edge of the roof. His underlings jumped up onto it themselves, surrounding me. I struggled against the panic that threatened to take over, there was no way for me to survive against them. Even my last fight with Kinji came down to sheer luck, and now with two hollows more? Yet despite it all, it was as if something was soothing me on the inside, urging me to stay calm and collected.

I glanced at each hollow. There was Kinji and then there were two others, no doubt the same ones old man Sōken had encountered.

One clearly resembled some sort of monstrous frog or toad, a mask with similar motifs covering its head with a single horn jutting out of it. The other one was harder to describe. Like a hunched human or ape, but its skin had a rocky texture, almost like a living statue. Unlike the other two, its mask started from underneath its skin like a nail and was missing eyeholes.

"Go get him you shitheads!" Kinji shouted. The two hollows grumbled lowly but otherwise obeyed in silence. The next thing I knew they were flinging rocks and green mucus at me, which I dodged with the help of reikaku and shunpo. Unfortunately the rocks were further destabilizing the dented roof, while the mucus was seeping into it and corroding it. The more I dodged, the more traps were set for me to fall into.

The two hollows were surprisingly nimble on their feet and kept me almost exactly between them, while Kinji was content with watching for now. On top of that, he held another dark red glob in his hand. I knew full well what would happen if I left the roof.

"Stop destroying the school you bastards!" I shouted, taking flash steps left and right, making sure to avoid the cracks and corroded clumps. Rocks and mucus flew past me in tandem, sometimes even obliterating each other instead of hitting me. "Damn it, Matsubara! It's your own school! Don't you have any pride left?!"

"Pride?" he said in an amused tone and began to laugh like a total maniac. "For that plot of shit? No, my school has been long dead, ever since that useless idiot took my position. I'll be happy to erase this stain off the face of Osaka, and once I'm through with you, I'll hunt each and every last person attending this school, and after that everyone who ever attended it. I'll savor every bit of their blood until nothing more than dry husks remain!"

He's completely lost it!

"But I know none of that will be as pleasurable as you! I don't know why, but I just can't get you out of my head! Every moment, awake or not, I see your cute little face! And now I can finally ERASE IT!"

Kinji's reiatsu grew explosively, filled to the brim with bloodlust and pure madness. He was ready to join the fight, laughing like a maniac. I grit my teeth, realizing that I had only one available move here if I wanted to survive, so I pushed through my hesitation and resigned to using my trump card, the most effective tool I had against hollows.

I tapped deep into my negative emotions. Fear of dying. Fear of losing my friends. Desperation, frustration at my own weakness. The familiar black void opened up to me once more and I channeled this primal fear outwards, letting out a scream like a banshee.

The two subordinate hollows froze in place and so I seized the initiative. Closing the gap with shunpo, I delivered a hakuda-infused axe-kick to the toad hollow's head, sending it flying out of the school roof and into the sports field. Unfortunately its mask cracked only slightly.

Next I appeared in front of the rock hollow, but unfortunately it had managed to steel itself in anticipation of my attack. My kick dug into its rock skin, cracking a layer of it into pieces, but I still managed to send it sliding back enough that it was about to tip over the edge of the roof.

Now's my chance..!

I froze when I heard Kinji's ecstatic laugh. I turned towards him, seeing that creepy permanently etched grin on his mask.

"Amazing… This feeling, it's so… revolting!"

I barely dodged him as he launched himself at me. He was incredibly fast, faster than the last time I fought him. Panic threatened to spill over as I realized he was faster than me even, using something similar to hohō. Without reikaku warning me beforehand of his intentions embedded in his reiatsu, I would've likely already been dead.

Kinji unleashed a barrage of punches, kicks and occasional nose-stabs at me. I dodged what I could, especially his nose, but he was too agile and strong to avoid everything, so I shielded my body with my arms and legs. I felt my bones creak and my skin tearing despite protecting myself with reiatsu just like Urahara had taught me.

"What's wrong," he laughed, "can't keep up?!"

I yelped from the pain, struggling to remain conscious while being pummeled like this, barely registering the two subordinate hollows rushing back in. I sensed them sending their projectiles at me once more. A chance..!

Just before the projectiles would have hit me, I used hohō to simply fling myself backwards in an unrefined way, not having the capacity for a proper flash step. The projectiles collided right in front of Kinji's face, exploding and raining acid-covered pebbles onto him.

With this distraction I flash stepped behind him to deliver a kick to his head.

Kinji grabbed my leg and twisted it, before dragging me through the air above and slamming me against the roof. I screamed in pain, my lungs emptied of air as my back hit the concrete. My leg felt like it was set ablaze. I barely heard his heavy footsteps before he grabbed my head and lifted me up.

"Yes, scream for me! Show me despair on your cute little face as I tear you apart!

I watched in horror as his nose moved towards my chest, nearing my heart.

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"

A rope of crackling yellow energy appeared from behind Kinji, binding him just as his nose was about to dig into my skin, yanking him backwards before a blade sunk into him, while I fell back onto the ground.

I covered my eyes from an explosion that sprayed red mist all around his location. A familiar figure strode confidently out of it..

"Tch, I missed." Hisashi spat on the ground, approaching me with his sword leaning against his shoulder. I swore I could see blood droplets form on it from the mist and then disappear a second later.

"Took you long enough," I coughed and winced, my voice hoarse and strained. I struggled to get a grip on my trembling body.

"Sorry, I was ambushed." He looked at me, no doubt seeing the bruises and wounds all over me, focusing on my leg in particular. There was a ferocious look in his eyes that I had never seen before, something that snapped me out of my shock.

Hisashi glanced behind me. "Those are the ones that hurt you?"

I turned my head, seeing the three hollows now beside each other. I could hear Kinji berating the two hollows for not 'dealing with the Shinigami'.

"Hisashi-" I began, coughing again.

"No, you rest now Koharu-chan, you're hurt. Leave this to me."

"But-"

"I'm the Shinigami here, it's my job."

I gritted my teeth. Weak, pitiful, worthless. All this training and I was back to square one, back to being protected, back to being powerless, being a burden. Rage and self-loathing filled my chest.

I wasn't sure how it was possible, but despite my injured leg and everything else I suddenly had enough strength to get up and smack the back of Hisashi's head.

"OW! Hey, what the hell?!" His face betrayed confusion. "How-"

"We're in this together, dumbass! Now let's think how to fight together!" I clenched my fists tightly. This pain… it's nothing compared to what I've had to endure all these years with my body! Absolutely nothing..!

Hisashi looked like he was going to shout at me, but relented. "I need to draw blood, and plenty of it. Then this fight will be over quickly."

"Blood? So you need a decoy then?" It was hard to believe I was even suggesting such an idea.

"They hurt you in the head that badly?"

I wanted to hit him again, but that would have been dangerous, with the hollows turning their attention towards us once more. "Shut up. They are specifically after me, so let's use that to our advantage. You're strong enough to protect me, right?"

He shook his head, chuckling, before giving me a confident smirk. "Who do you think I am?"

With the odds evened out a little, me and Hisashi charged towards Kinji and his two underlings, the latter two in turn charging towards us. Kinji stayed on the sidelines again.

As we clashed, Hisashi executed a series of swift slashes and cuts, while I focused purely on dodging. Even though I had regained control and some energy I knew I wouldn't survive another hit with the injuries I had sustained so far.

Hisashi and I were back to back, with the hollows trying to claw away at me. This in turn gave Hisashi more openings to exploit and it took only one misstep on the hollows' part for them to crumble apart.

As the two monstrous ghosts thought they had managed to separate us and pin me down, I used shunpo to get out of their way at the very last second. Hisashi in turn unleashed a barrage of intense slashes with unmatched ferocity, leaving nasty gashes. Being hollows, their wounds sealed up quickly but it didn't seem to bother Hisashi, no, instead he began acting more and more feral, like a rabid dog that had tasted blood. His reiatsu rose up to a level I hadn't felt before.

"You're done for!" Hisashi shouted with wide eyes and a matching wide grin, preparing for a final strike. However, the mastermind wasn't going to let us dictate the pace.

"Damn it, you useless pieces of shit!" Kinji shouted, appearing between his hollow underlings and Hisashi, blocking his zanpakutō with his hand. The blade dug into it, but before it could cut through Kinji grabbed the two hollows and retreated towards the school field, flying in the air. "Looks like I have to do everything myself, again!"

Kinji impaled his nose into the exhausted toad hollow, who very quickly shriveled into a husk, its mask crumbling apart a mere second later. I watched in horror as he did the same with the rock hollow.

"Is he…"

"...Eating hollows?" Hisashi completed my thought, breathing heavily. A sudden, sharp spike in his reiatsu warned us of something more sinister, the pressure threatening to make me suffocate.

"""Shit!""" we cursed and Hisashi pulled me behind him, shielding me from what was to come.

Kinji's body expanded and deformed into a black ball, his mask remaining the same size, then a violent explosion of reiatsu shook the whole area. I shielded my eyes from the shockwave and the burst of light, while Hisashi grabbed me and flash stepped to safety.

The explosion left a small crater in the school field. In the middle of it stood a gargantuan, tall hollow with the same, familiar mosquito-like mask. Kinji's reiatsu felt like the personification of despair, smothering me with the stench of blood and trying to force me to the ground.

This huge hollow had a long, black cloak that obscured its body and a large hole adorning its center, the signature mark of a hollow. White spikes pierced outwards from beneath this cloak, presumably where the neck would be.

My body trembled, my mouth gaped and my mind screamed in terror as I looked at this monstrosity.

"Menos… Grande," Hisashi whispered, before pointing his sword at the gigantic hollow. "Koharu-chan, you can't help anymore. You need to get away from here, now!"

I swallowed hard and nodded. It would've been pure foolishness for somebody like me to remain here, there was nothing I could do in the face of such a calamity.

"Bathe in blood, Ryōkenjin!" Hisashi declared and suddenly his reiatsu spiked as well. A blood-red aura surrounded him and his zanpakutō transformed, leaving the traditional form of a katana behind and assuming the shape of a large two-handed kanabō. Mean spikes adorned the upper part of the club and white cloth wrapped around the hilt, the end of which was a thick metallic ring with a long red tassel hanging from it.

"You're going to pay for everything, asshole," Hisashi shouted as he closed the distance with a flash step and swung the heavy club with surprising finesse. The hollow that Hisashi called a menos raised its hand to block, but the kanabō hit it with enough force to make the gargantuan hollow do a half-spin around.

I shook my head, realizing I had stopped in my tracks to watch the fight unfold. Even though my body screamed at me to rest, I still needed to do something. The evacuation was still going on, which meant they still hadn't been able to get everyone out.

To my horror, Akane and Chie weren't outside.

I rushed in and found Akane very quickly as she was helping others evacuate, instructing with her loud voice and looking frantically around.

"Akane! You need to get out of here!" I shouted. "The building will collapse any minute!"

"No! What about your own body, you idiot?! I won't let you die damn it! And Chie-chan, I haven't found her yet either!"

My eyes widened in shock. Shit, I completely forgot about my body! I knew where to look for it, but if Chie was still unaccounted for, nobody else would likely be able to find her before it would be too late.

There was little time. I clenched my fists and violently shook my head, making the only decision that felt right. "Shit, Chie-chan comes first!"

I closed my eyes, focusing on the spiritual heartbeats around me, and reopened them to see white ribbons in front of me. Among them was a red ribbon that felt oddly dog-like, and a black ribbon that almost made my stomach empty itself.

Kisuke told me that this was a difficult technique to master, and to pick out the reiatsu of a specific spiritually weak person was extremely difficult. I trusted in my gut feeling and reached out to grab the ribbon that felt right. We're best friends not just for show! The reiatsu, as weak as it was, belonged to her alright.

"I found her, let's go!" I said and the two of us sprinted through the corridors and rubble. My worst fears came true as we found her in a corridor that had almost fully collapsed. She was barely conscious and her legs were trapped underneath rubble from the knees down.

"I'll push the rubble, you take Chie-chan!"

I gritted my teeth to stave off the pain and numbness. With a swift and careful hakuda kick of my better leg, I raised the broken piece of wall off of Chie for just enough time that Akane managed to grab her and throw her over her shoulder.

My head rang in alarm as I sensed a massive concentration of energy being conjured above. A cold shiver ran down my spine. "Akane, we have to get out, fast!"

"Idiot, what about your body?!"

"There's no time, if we don't go we'll all die!" I pleaded, tears flowing down my cheeks. Akane gritted her teeth, holding tightly onto Chie.

Hisashi pummeled the menos with his zanpakutō, drawing and absorbing a lot of blood, which in turn made him thirstier and thirstier for more.

Such was the ability of his zanpakutō. The more of the crimson fluid he drew, the stronger he became at the cost of becoming less rational. That's why he wanted me to leave the battlefield. To fight without needing to protect.

This hollow that the Gotei 13 had codenamed "Blood Embezzler," Hisashi wanted to destroy it. It was hard to believe that a hollow less than a week old could end up dangerous enough to be codenamed. Seeing how it had transformed into a Menos Grande proved his folly.

And this shithead had hurt someone he had come to care for.

"So you're supposed to be full of blood, huh? Perfect!" Hisashi laughed, swinging his kanabō at the large hollow, the spikes drawing plenty of blood. With every drop it gave him more strength, more energy, and put him in an even more intense frenzy.

Hisashi darted all over the gargantuan hollow, practically obliterating parts of the black mass that made up the monster, only for that mass to regenerate in the next few seconds. There was only one way to fully eliminate it.

Hisashi had now enough blood to work with to use his strongest move. Unfortunately for him though, the menos wasn't about to let him simply do that.

Kinji, with his newfound body and strength, began charging an insane amount of reiatsu at his mouth, forming a shining red orb of pure destruction.

Hisashi realized too late just what was behind him to simply dodge. He cursed and began chanting an incantation. Kidō was never his strong suit and his current state didn't make it any better. This better work..!

The crimson energy shot out violently as a ray of destruction, an advanced hollow technique he had only heard of till now.

Cero.

He put his zanpakutō in front of him in a blocking motion, generating dull yellow energy in the form of a large spinning disk. "Bakudō #39: Enkōsen!"

The barrier formed just in the nick of time as the ray hit him, blasting him with insane heat and force. Hisashi gritted his teeth, shouting in anger as his barrier was about to crack.

As we got out with Akane and Chie, I looked up to see Hisashi blocking a blinding crimson beam. My heart sank as the glowing barrier shattered, the beam scattering into smaller rays that pummeled the area around the school. The evacuated students and teachers screamed and panicked.

However, a part of the beam still shot through along with Hisashi and hit the school itself. The explosion forced the building to finally crumble, sending clouds of dust towards everybody outside. Screams turned into coughing as people choked.

"H-Hisashi..!" I barely got out the words.

"Damn you!" Kinji howled, his voice reverberateing in the twisted resonance that all hollows had. The sky behind him began to twist and tear itself apart like fabric. "I'll get you yet, you witch!"

Hisashi jumped out of the rubble to my relief, despite being badly bloodied and torn.

"Oh no you don't, I ain't done with you yet!" Hisashi shouted back, using shunpo to appear right in front of the menos who was now partially inside a black void. He raised his kanabō high above him, holding it firmly with his two hands. I swore I saw the blood on his body vanish.

"Ryūketsugeki!"

Hisashi smacked the hollow's head with his zanpakutō, followed by a red blast on contact. Kinji howled, the ear-splitting sound bleeding into the real world enough that everyone in addition to me had to cover their ears.

The hit sent the hollow tumbling backwards into the void, a large hand clutching to his face. Afterwards the fabric of space reconnected once more.

Kinji had escaped again.

The sirens of ambulances and fire trucks filled the area as they arrived to help. I was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. My right leg was swollen from the twist inflicted on it, but somehow it was still functional, feeling even slightly better now that I simply rested.

Most people had thankfully managed to evacuate unscathed or with minor injuries, but reikaku told me there were still people stuck within the collapsed building. Either unconscious or…

Hisashi stood beside me, his zanpakutō back in its katana form. He looked at the crowd, then at Akane in the distance who was putting Chie on a stretcher with paramedics, then at me. His tightly clenched fists, furrowed brows and grit teeth, I didn't need to ask to know what he felt, as I felt exactly the same.

I sighed and shook my head. What a mess.