- Location
- Australia
I don't think Kubo is involved in the music side of the anime. As for the added scenes, nah, I missed them. What were they?
A Pure Sword, A Pure Soul (Bleach)
- Thread starter No Country
- Start date
-
- Tags
- bleach alternate universe
I think he mentioned choosing/having a hand in picking the OPs/EDs, but I could be wrong. As for the new scenes (just in case anyone doesn't want to be spoiler) Yhwach in Hueco Mundo and Uryu confronting Ryuken over Quincy attacking his friends.
Ch9. Balance Out the Slay
"Alright," you state with a sigh, having finished recounting your story so far to the Mod Soul, "I'm going to lay down a few ground rules now, okay?"
"Sure thing boss, you're giving me a body to use, so lay it on me," the Mod Soul says, clearly still processing all the information it had just learned.
"One: don't roam around without my permission, I'll tell you where you can go, and where you should go. You could get in trouble otherwise."
This gets you an eyeroll, or, you think it rolled its eyes at you, that's the energy you're getting. "Naturally, that's just common sense."
"Two: you don't get to spend my money."
"Whaaaat? Gimme an allowance at least, you gotta have some money!"
"Quiet down," you raise your foot, as if to punt it into the wall again, but don't actually do anything. "It's not like I have a job or anything, and hunting Hollows only gets me some kinda points, I've never been able to use them. I think they only work in Soul Society." The Mod Soul grumbles, but doesn't actually say anything. "Three: if you ever flirt while you're in my body I'm giving you back to Kori, no questions asked."
"Fine, whatever," the Mod Soul nods, seemingly not caring all that much about this point.
"Four: don't make promises while you're me, you don't know if I'll be able to keep them later." The Mod Soul nods again, less flippantly this time. "Five: don't be too rude to my friends or family. You can tease them a little, just try to use your judgment on how far you go. Oh, and if you make either of the twins cry, you're going back to Kori. Or Soul Society, whichever would be worse."
"Uh, alright, yeah, sure boss," the gravity of the last part of your statement seems to have shaken it up.
"Six: take notes in class, Hollows are pretty active during the day, so I'll probably have to leave class a lot."
"Oh come on boss, do I have to? You give me a body, then make me go to school?"
"I'm a student, deal with it."
"Fine," it crosses its arms- wings -and sits down. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, just one more thing," you hold up a silver bracelet, made of x-shaped links that your dad gave to you a few years ago. It used to belong to your mom. "You're going to wear this when you're in my body, that way, my friend Ryota will know you're in my body. He's the only one who knows about all this… Soul Reaper stuff."
"Alright, that's not too difficult, just keep it in the same pocket every day or something," the Mod Soul tells you.
"Oh yeah, back to my earlier question, do you have a name, or did you like, give yourself one?"
"Yeah I was thinking about that," the Mod Soul puts a hand on its chin (is that what you're supposed to call the bottom of a bird's beak?), attempting to look cool. "I thought 'Aizo' sounded pretty good, you know, from 'Kaizo Konpaku'?"
"I guess it works, if you use completely different characters," you respond with a shrug. You'll call it- her that, if that's what she says her name is. "Nice to meet you, Aizo."
With that, you shake the wingtip that passes for the plushie that Aizo's soul pill inhabits. "Nice to formally meet you too, Shou!"
You might have to go over some of the story again…
"Alright, I'll hunt the Hollow with you tomorrow, after school. I'll skip club, if you want to leave right after class is out," you accept the Quincy Twins' offer, but want to confirm something before you add your condition.
"We don't have duties every day," Eidou says, as if you should know that. "We'll make someone actually do their classroom duties for once."
"Sounds good. And one more thing," the Twins look at each other, but you stop them before they can say anything, "it's nothing serious or whatever, but I'll bring Koukin-sensei with me. She's the one who's actually from Soul Society."
This time, it's Tenko who speaks up, "You said she gave you her powers, right? She's just going to watch, isn't she?"
"She can still use kido, but she'll probably sit it out, yeah," you shrug with a nod.
Eidou cuts in before you can finalize the deal, "You should tell us about kido afterwards, or we can meet up some other time. We'll tell you about ginto in return, how does that sound?"
Ginto must be their magic, so you just nod. You don't know too much about kido, but if they use those ginto things, then they must not be able to use it. And you won't be able to use ginto.
"Yeah sure. So tomorrow, where should we meet?" At this point, you kind of just want to get out of here.
"There's a cafe a few blocks away from the front gate, it's kinda pricey, so other students don't go there a lot," Tenko tells you. "You've probably passed it before."
"Dutch Bean, right?" You've been by the place, but you don't really like cafes, so you've never actually been there.
"Yeah, meet us there ten minutes after the last bell, it's probably better if we don't all go together," Tenko tells you.
You could always just leave the Mod Soul with your body and follow them as a Soul Reaper, but going separately is probably a better idea, considering Mai will be going as well. "Sounds good."
"Let's call this a trial run," you sit the Mod Soul, Aizo, down after you get home that night. "I have to go out, but you're going to stay here, in my body."
"What's the catch?" The penguin asks, trying and failing to look skeptical without looking cute.
"You're going to stay in my room."
"Awwww come on boss! You can't do me like that!" Aizo flops onto your bed, looking as mad as a penguin plush possibly can.
You bat her off, bouncing her off your closet door with enough force for her to land back on the bed. "Quiet down!" You shut the mod soul up with a glare so you can finish what you were saying, "this is your first time in my body, there's no way Tousuke doesn't know something's up immediately. Understand?"
"Yeah yeah whatever," Aizo's arms- wings are crossed, but she's resigned to the confinement.
"Look, you can go wherever- almost wherever tomorrow after school," you let the mod soul know, "I have some important Soul Reaper business, so you'll have the afternoon to yourself."
"No way, thanks so much boss!"
"Just remember the rules," you remind her, kicking her off the bed as she attempts to wrap her wings around you in a hug.
"Hado Number Fifty: Kuuhaku Shin!" Ui intones the (what must be) high-level spell without an incantation. As she finishes casting, a translucent, amorphous bubble forms in the middle of Mirror Mirror's dusty front courtyard, which is walled off from the alleys which border it. The bubble pops with a thundercrack, almost throwing you off the streetlight you'd alighted on to scope out the specialty shop, since you didn't like the idea of just dropping in. A few of the nearest building's windows crack, and you can hear car alarms going off in the nearby streets.
"Fuck!" The tan redhead curses, stamping her foot. She's apparently in her Soul Reaper form, based on the hakama pants and (non-standard) sash. Also you suppose casting kido would be easier as a soul than in a gigai.
Somewhat surprisingly, Kori Kagami casually strolls from her store, rather than flash stepping, and makes her way to Ui's side. "You tried it without an incantation again, didn't you?"
"Why shouldn't I?" The younger woman's hair sticks to her head when she whips it around to snap at her boss, "you're able to do it, she was able to do it, and I've totally mastered twenty-five."
"Twenty-five is a long way from fifty," Kori's voice is calming, and she puts a hand on her employee's shoulder. "Even if the principles are the same, you still need to work your way up to it. You can perform Kuuhaku Shin with an incantation though, right?"
"Yeah," Ui nods, no longer facing Kori.
"Well then stick to practicing that, and maybe give some thirties a shot without incantation."
"Alright."
"Oh, and Ui? One more thing, before you go in and get some rest," Kori puts the normal cheeriness back into her voice.
"What's that?" You can hear the redhead's confusion.
"Don't practice mid-levels in my yard!" Kori playfully kicks the employee, who flees inside, grumbling.
Once the shop's front door closes again, you see the glint in Kori's glasses flash in your direction. Figuring that's your cue, you propel yourself into the courtyard, reappearing in front of the mysterious shop owner.
"It was nice of you to refrain from interrupting Ui," Kori says, flourishing her shut parasol so she can lean on it. "'Course, watching something so private from a hiding place is a bit creepy."
"Like you said, I didn't want to interrupt," you were curious about the spell she was casting though. "I'm just here to talk to Mai, should I go in or…?"
"She usually turns in early, I'll get her for you," Kori offers, not asking you why you need to see Mai. Maybe she wants you to think she already knows. Or maybe she actually already does know! Wait no, you can't start thinking there's some mysterious genius studying and planning out every aspect of your life, that would just make you paranoid.
Before Kori reaches the shop, you decide to ask her one question. "That spell Ui was using was number fifty, how many spells are there overall?"
"Just about two hundred, ninety-nine defensive and utility, and ninety-nine offensive, plus a few more. Now just give me a minute, no princess of Koukin likes being so rudely woken up," with that, the shopkeeper disappears back into the specialty store.
'T-two hundred?!' Your brain cries out in shock. You thought there were like… half that, maybe. 'Also… princess?' You'll have to put a pin in that one, at least until after you're done with this Quincy business.
"Chiyu?" Mai's sleepy tone, combined with her hair bunched up in a sleeping cap and especially her ghost-pattern pajamas, make her a hilarious sight. But you manage to keep your laughter in check. Just barely though, you can't help but grin at the image in front of you. "What do you need? My denreishinki hasn't gone off tonight." The phone is in her hand, but she barely lifts it instead of looking at it.
"I just need to talk to you," you glance around the dark yard in front of Mirror Mirror and make up your mind. "We should go somewhere else though, really quick."
"O-oh, um, sure, alright-" you turn to allow Mai to clamber onto your back. You're not that different in height, and you've thrown people heavier than her in your human body, so carrying her is actually pretty easy. It's also still the fastest way to get around, since she can barely use her Soul Reaper abilities in her gigai.
"What's wrong Chiyu?" Mai asks, slightly more awake, when you arrive at a nearby construction site.
"Nothing, I just didn't want to talk about this right in front of Mirror Mirror," you admit.
Mai eyes you nervously, "A-about what? Y-you're making me worry…"
"Sorry," you know how high-strung the Soul Reaper is, so you should've probably been more forward about it. "Tomorrow after school I'm going on a Hollow hunt with a couple of my classmates. You know them, the Iwaba twins. I want you there to observe."
"Wha-" Mai cuts in, but you preemptively cut her off.
"They're not like, humans or anything-" this time Mai doesn't even get the chance to speak "-no no no I mean, wait no, not like that! They're human, but they're spiritually aware, apparently they've been hunting Hollows even longer than me. Or, wait, I mean they're Quincies, so they hunt Hollows."
"Q- They- You-" Mai momentarily gets stuck in a feedback loop, so you decide to just continue explaining things to her.
"They want to prove that Soul Society and the Quincy can work together, so I think you should be there, since you're the one who's actually from Soul Society," you finish.
"I-I-I- you know I can't agree to that!" Mai exclaims, though she's still conscious enough of being in a gigai to keep her voice down.
"I don't know, actually," you stare her down, "I figured cooperation would be a good thing, especially if it's the Quincy asking for it. What's the problem anyway? You both fight Hollows, so they can't be that bad."
Mai exhales like she's been punched in the gut, "I-it, um…" You don't cut in this time, instead opting to look at the Soul Reaper expectantly. "Two hundred years ago, there were a lot more Quincy—" Mai pauses, "a lot more th-than today I-I mean," she fiddles with her hands, and can't meet your eyes. "W-when a Quincy kills a Hollow, the Hollow is gone. B-but when a Soul Reaper does it, the Hollow gets p-purified, l-like a Plus."
"Wait, 'like a Plus', what do you mean by that?" You feel like asking might've just raised more questions than it will answer.
"W-well, um, H-Hollows, see- when they eat Souls, after that, they have to b-be purified. A-also, th-they're earthb-b- they're earthbound as well, t-technically. They c-can't, well they d-don't, they don't really go into Soul Society." She catches, then corrects herself, "Wait I-I mean, th-they go when you purify them, th-they d-don't go on their own b-before that."
"Oh," is all you respond with. There wasn't a ton to make sense of in there. "So, what about the Quincy? You said there were a lot of them?"
"R-right, and they were, um, they- they were…" Mai really can't look at you now, "they were destroying too many Hollows, s-so…" she sucks in a deep breath, "S-Soul Society asked them to stop, a-a-a-a-and… a-and—"
"And what?" You say, after the pause has gone on uncomfortably long.
"And th-they said n-no, s-s-so… um, s-so…" she sucks in another deep breath, and her hands are fidgeting so fast you expect to see smoke coming off of them.
"Oh my god," you pinch your nose, you think you know where this is going. The last thing you wanted was to be put in the middle of some thousand year-long rivalry between ghost samurai and magic monks.
"Y-yes… um, so the Q-Quincy w-went to war with S-Soul Society. A-a-and-" Mai sucks in another breath, and actually physically turns away from you, "a-and th-they- I-I mean, I mean Soul Society… um- Soul Society," the Soul Reaper barely looks into your eyes, and flinches when she does. "Soul Society… wiped them out."
"Of course," you don't even know what to say. What else would Soul Society have done? You actually can't answer that one either, but the more you learn about this stuff, the less you actually want to know. "So what? They expect us to end like two-hundred years of hate? Or, just tell Soul Society that there are Quincy out there who don't hate them? I don't get it."
Mai shrugs, "Um, I uh, I-I d- I don't know," she answers honestly. "D-do you still want to go?"
You shake your head, "I said that I would, and besides, I can actually purify the Hollow for them, so we can get something out of it at least."
"A-alright," Mai nods, "I-I can go, but I d-don't think I can s-say anything about it to S-Soul Society, if th-that's okay?"
"It should be," you agree. "I don't know how much the Iwabas know, or how they'll react, but they seem pretty reasonable."
"Y-yeah," Mai says, "i-is that it?"
You nod, "I'll let you get back to sleep. Sorry for getting you up."
"I-it's alright, I'm g-glad you asked."
"I've never seen Koukin-sensei pay this much attention before," Mio whispers to you from behind her workbook.
You barely glance over before the thin book is folded in half by Rokougi-sensei's mach six eraser, leaving a red mark in the center of Mio's forehead.
She immediately shuts up, leaving the class silent aside from the sound of pencils scratching away at paper. You take the opportunity to look around your own workbook and see that the two teachers are whispering to each other up front. Mai has just lowered her finger, having pointed Mio out to Rokougi-sensei.
You can't help but scowl at her treachery, even knowing how stressed she must be today.
"I can't believe Koukin-sensei was actually like, mentally checked-in today," Ryo grumbles once you all sit down to lunch on the school's roof, he's nursing an eye from an earlier eraser precision-strike.
"Maybe if you two didn't talk in class so much," Naoto remarks to Mio and Ryo, digging into his onigiri.
Mio scoffs, "Come on, you and Shu don't know how fun it was to crack Rokougi-sensei's routine. Now that there's two sets of eyes it's practically impossible."
"It wasn't so hard when Koukin-sensei was checked out," Ryo adds. "Maybe we'll figure this out too."
Now you take the opportunity to pitch in, "Maybe the teachers wouldn't be so on edge if you guys didn't try to crack their routine so you could get away with fooling around in class."
Naoto nods, "It's a good point, the rest of the class wouldn't be so stressed out just sitting around if the teachers were able to relax."
"We've got to get some entertainment out of school," Mio insists.
After that, the conversation dies down a little, becoming more casual. Around halfway through lunch, you catch a glimpse of Tenko Iwaba peeking through the window in the roof access door. You give the Quincy a furtive thumbs up, and her head dips back down before any of your friends can notice.
Eventually, the lunch talk moves onto after-school plans. Not for today, but some time in the foreseeable future.
"There's a bunch of new movies out, we should see something next weekend. It's been like, forever," Ryo eventually throws out, desperately directing the conversation away from Naoto's run-off rambling about all the various arcades in and around Banmuro City. "Even superhero stuff, I know you like that kinda stuff Nao."
You're already trying to figure out if you'll have time for this in your head.
"Twelve minutes," Tenko says with some annoyance, "that's late, Makiyou." To punctuate her point, she sets her absurdly small coffee cup down on a similarly-small saucer.
"By two minutes!" You counter, sitting down. "I couldn't just run out of the classroom and come straight here. How'd you two even manage to get here if you had to force Iriyaki into staying after for duty?"
"During lunch, we actually know how to allot our time," Eidou remarks, not sounding like a middle schooler in the slightest. "Somehow Koukin-sensei got here first," he adds, grumbling.
Looking over your bespectacled classmate's shoulder, you can see the Soul Reaper's wavy brown hair sticking out from behind a magazine, as if she's trying not to be seen in the same coffee shop as her students. You just shake your head and put it out of your mind.
"I'm not really into coffee, and I don't feel like spending a thousand yen on a pastry, so let's go," you say, standing up just as quickly as you sat down.
The two Quincies look at one another, shrug, and finish their coffees.
After walking a few blocks from Dutch Bean, you duck into a deserted alley.
"Just keep an eye out, I'll be done in a second," you tell the Iwaba twins as you dig the mod soul pill out of your pocket. "And don't like, spy or anything. I have to give this instructions," you add, pointing at the pill. Both Quincy look at you like you've grown a second head. "You'll see."
The sensation of leaving your body via mod soul is less unpleasant than getting smacked in the face and falling out of it. You're still not sure if seeing your body walking around from a third person perspective is worse than seeing it catatonic and on the ground though.
Before Aizo can say anything, you place a finger over your own- her- your body's lips. "Quiet, you're in public. There's a list of places you can go on my phone, and directions home from them. You have three hours on your own. I expect you home by then."
"Tch, fine. That's fair," the mod soul says, managing a whisper. "What if I manage to get myself lost or something?"
"Mai's number is on there. Call her if you're lost or can't make it home in time. Do not call anyone else, and don't answer phone calls from," you hold out your fingers to list the people who would immediately sniff out that something was wrong. "Either of my brothers, or my sister. Dad is fine, he'll do most of the talking and you don't really have to remember anything he says, especially if he says it's important. Mio and especially Nao are also off-limits. Ryo knows, but you should still probably not answer unless he calls you twice. You aren't allowed to text yet."
"Whatever, I'll make my own fun. Don't need your lame-ass friends or whatever for that," that earns the mod soul a light smack. Or it would, if you hadn't realized that slapping your body while in your spiritual form would really hurt, and probably bruise.
"Just steer clear of people I know and you should be fine. I guess if there's an emergency you can call Mirror Mirror, but only if it's an emergency."
"I wouldn't call them if it wasn't."
"Those instructions weren't very good," Eidou quips as you and the Quincy twins leap from rooftop to rooftop. "If someone was running around in my body I'd be as clear as possible."
"Mhm," Tenko agrees, "though I don't think I would give up my body in the first place."
"Look," you grumble, "it's better than stuffing it behind a big pipe or in the corner of a rooftop or something. I'd rather have Aizo running around as me than have someone discover me passed out somewhere weird and have my body hauled to the hospital. It's actually easier to keep track of this way."
Eidou looks over his shoulder at you. It's easy for him, since he's seemingly better at their movement technique, which he calls hirenkyaku, than Tenko is, but she insists she's better with ginto than him. "That makes sense, I guess," he eventually concedes.
"How'd you track down a Hollow to one building anyway?" You ask after a few more minutes, now jumping between far taller buildings of Banmuro's business district, which straddles the city's eastern border. "I thought they didn't stay in the same place for too long, or like, that they didn't like staying in the human world at all?"
"Sometimes they stick around for a while, but this one is weird," Tenko replies. "It's got a really small territory, just one building, and we weren't able to sense it until we got super close."
You shrug, "that's not so weird, Hollows can suppress their presence to hunt ghosts and evade Soul Reapers and stuff. I've been surprised more than once."
"Quincy have better spiritual sense than Soul Reapers," Eidou cuts in, "but this one isn't even trying to conceal itself. It was just hard to find."
You almost roll your eyes at the spiritual sense-measuring contest before remembering why the Iwabas might have a bit of a complex when it comes to what they can and can't do better than Soul Reapers. "How do you know it's still there?"
"We left a Bellen there, it's a ginto that sends out a ping of spiritual particles every so often and then sends its findings back to a linked ginto," Tenko tells you, holding up a silver tube with the same star from their Quincy bracelets engraved on it. The tube is small enough to fit between her fingers and glows light blue, with the open end glowing slightly brighter.
"Wait, you need those little capsule things to do your magic?"
"Yes," Tenko answers, pocketing the tube. "They're full of concentrated spiritual particles, which get used up when we use a spell. The capsules are reusable though, and they aren't that hard to make."
"How does Soul Reaper magic work, Makiyou? If you can use it, that is," Eidou asks, clearly not intending to come off as condescending as he does.
"I can't really use it yet, but you have to visualize what you want to happen, then say a chant to cast the spell," after a moment you add, "oh, and it all comes from your own spiritual power, externalizing it is probably even more important than shaping it."
"Koukin-sensei, how'd you beat us here?" Eidou demands once everyone is inside the lobby of the abandoned high-rise the Quincy have tracked the Hollow to. "Is your shunpo that good? You'll have to teach me."
"Oh, um, i-it's n-not quite that, n-no," Mai, flustered, answers with a blush. "B-but i-it's good to be working with you, th-thank you for the opportunity."
"Right," is the only response Eidou can give her, one eyebrow raised above his glasses. "The Hollow is on one of the upper floors, but we haven't been all the way up yet."
"It's probably on the top floor, or near there. There were a couple of souls here when we first sensed the Hollow, but they're gone now. We think it lured them up," Tenko helpfully adds.
"And you didn't tell me, or like, find another Soul Reaper until yesterday?" You can't keep the exasperation out of your voice. Those souls might be dead, but getting them to pass on peacefully is your primary duty as a Soul Reaper, if a Hollow eats them, they don't get an afterlife. They're just gone.
"We weren't positive about you two until yesterday," Eidou answers, seemingly ignorant of why you're upset.
"Just let me finish the Hollow, alright? You guys can't purify it," you state, seeing Mai nod out of the corner of your eye. You're not entirely sure why the group is taking the stairs up this high-rise, but maybe it's so you can be as stealthy as possible.
Tenko looks at you like you've grown a second head. "Yeah, we know we can't purify Hollows, that's why we don't slay too many. We're careful with that."
"Oh… uh, good," you look back at Mai for support, and get nothing.
"Chiyu," Mai whispers, barely loud enough to hear, even as a Soul Reaper. "Chiyu," she hisses again, teeth clenched.
If you had to guess, she's trying to get your attention because of the rusted, dripping chains that pour from the walls and ceilings of the abandoned high-rise.
"You should see what she wants Makiyou," Tenko, who's walking ahead of you, tells you without looking back. You thought it was pretty obvious that if you could hear Mai whispering to you, the Quincy twins could.
"What is it?" You turn to the Soul Reaper as the two Quincy walk to the end of the hallway you're in, coming to a stop just far enough away they won't be able to hear you and Mai if you're quiet enough.
"Th-these chains, i-it means that the s-soul here i-it it is a P-Plus, o-or no," the teacher's assistant swallows, glances up at the chains, then looks back at you with more confidence. "I-it's not a Plus, a-actually," she sucks in a breath, "it's earthbound, l-like they are. B-but it's different, it's bound to this o-one spot."
Things are coming together in your head, but you don't want to jump to conclusions, "Okay, I'll purify it and we can hunt another Hollow with them, I don't see what's wrong."
"A-a spirit that's bound to one s-spot, it's c-called a Jibakurei, o-or a-a Demi-Hollow," Mai explains. "A soul th-that's been c-corrupted by i-its desire and a-attachment to the W-World of the Living. I-it will become a Hollow, if you d-don't purify it."
"What do you mean? It's gonna become a Hollow?!" You didn't want to respond with an outburst, but you really couldn't help yourself. It feels like you've been lied to the whole time you were hunting Hollows, "Does this mean that all of them were human? Every Hollow I fought for you?"
"Y-yes, w-well. Yes, e-every base Hollow was human, once," Mai finally tells you, flinching away. You can feel the eyes of the Iwabas on you, but you don't care.
"What? I- Why?" You finally settle on, "why wouldn't you tell me?!"
Mai shakes her head violently. You know how well she handles conflict, and for some reason she seems especially prone to folding to you. You hate that it seems like you're taking advantage of that fact, but you hate the feeling that you've been led on regarding something as big as the fact that Hollows were once Pluses.
"It's really not a Hollow yet?" Eidou asks, stepping over your justified outrage, "But this whole place reeks with Hollow spiritual pressure, and the Souls who were here are all gone."
"You could have done something about this too," you spin on your heel and snap at the Quincy. "One soul would have gotten destroyed but that's better than what? Four or five?" Your head drops into your hands, "What happens, what really happens," you begin, turning back to Mai, who flinches as if she expects you to punch her. "When I slay a Hollow?"
"I-it gets purified l-like a normal s-soul. E-except even m-more thoroughly," Mai tells you, nodding. She's backed up so far that she's almost brushing against the chains. "T-the Hollow becom- it turns into a n-normal soul, th-the k-kind that be- er I, it's th-the kind that l-lives in Soul Society."
"They don't remember being Hollows?" That gives you pause, because that means- "does every purified soul forget their lives?"
"Makiyou, now isn't the time for this-" Eidou interjects again, and as if to reinforce his point, a wracking scream shakes the entire building. It's a spiritual howl that sounds like a Hollow's roar, but with the voice of a man behind it.
"Why not?" You snarl, probably coming off angrier than you mean to. It's fine, you're still pretty angry. "You two were confident you could kill it, and it's a new Hollow, if it's even become a Hollow," you counter, the sound of blood rushing in your ears almost drowning out Mai's heavy breathing. "I'll take care of it, none of you have to worry about that." The urge to rip off Kori Kagami's bracelets and let your spiritual power run wild is there, but you resist it.
Instead, you simply push past the Iwaba twins, and lead the way to the next floor. You have no idea what you're going to do after you slay the Demi-Hollow, but your decision can come after you free the tortured spirit.
By the twentieth floor, the chains aren't nearly as rotten, but they do cover parts of the floor and completely cover the walls. Behind you, you can hear the Iwaba twins and Mai occasionally exchange a few words, with the Soul Reaper stumbling over replies to both Quincies' dogged questioning. Well, it's mostly Eidou's dogged questioning, Tenko is more reserved, though she does sometimes join her brother. When you're almost at the top floor, and the chains are even thicker, disaster strikes. Maybe it's because you're the only one who isn't in a physical body, or maybe it's because the Quincy behind you are relying on their ginto to illuminate their surroundings, which gives Mai enough light to see as well, but either way, the Soul Reaper steps directly into a chain-filled hole in the floor.
Everything falls apart in the next three seconds.
Mai yelps, stumbling forward and catching herself with a crash, as her wrists are quickly caught up by chains.
You turn, though not as quickly as you would have liked to, and draw your knife.
By then though, Tenko Iwaba has already materialized her bow, and leveled it at the length of chain which binds Mai to the rest of the web of metal.
At the same time as Mai, you cry out, "Wait no-" but the arrow is already in flight.
Your Quincy classmate is too close to the chains for you to do anything about it, even if your shunpo was as good as Kori's, you wouldn't be able to put yourself between the arrow and something in point-blank range like that.
You have no idea what's going to happen to the Demi-Hollow with an arrow capable of completely erasing a Hollow from existence, but from how Mai reacted to you suggesting that you cut a Plus' Chain of Fate, it's probably not a good thing.
Your worst suspicions are confirmed when the chains melt away in a halo of eye-searing blue light. It doesn't actually take long for the chains to disappear, with the links leading to the lower floors of the building burning up almost immediately, and the chains going upward rapidly disintegrating.
"Y-you should have l-let the ch-chains take m-me," Mai, now freed, says to Tenko. Her sock has been burnt through, and there are what look like painful chemical burns on her wrists. Despite this, she doesn't seem to be feeling it, either because of adrenaline (do gigai have that?) or because she's in a gigai. "Y-you could have found the Demi-Hollow b-before it t-t-turned."
"I-I was just trying to help," Tenko steps back, her back bumping up against the now clear, yet decayed, wall of the building.
Eidou steps between the Soul Reaper and his sister, holding up a hand over the latter, despite Mai not making any moves against them. Maybe it's to keep you from getting to her. Sure, you're upset at them, but it's not like you're that mad. And you would never hurt a human as a Soul Reaper. Never.
"Hold on," the bespectacled Quincy finally says, "we had no idea what breaking that would do, we just didn't want to see you hurt." He points at Mai's red wrists, "it looks like being brought all the way to the Hollow would've been pretty bad."
"I-it's just my g-gigai," Mai counters, obviously not believing it herself. You really, really hope that the Soul Reaper isn't putting herself in danger to make it up for lying to you. "A-and now, it—"
Mai, the Quincy twins, and even you flinch when the roar of a Hollow shakes the building to its foundations, filling the hallway you're in with the monster's vile spiritual pressure.
"I think it knows we're here," Eidou says through gritted teeth, and his bow materializes in his hands. His sister also rematerializes her bow, and Mai backs up against a wall. You turn back to the end of the hallway ahead of the group with your knife in your hand. Your eyes lock on the broken elevator doors, where you suspect the Hollow will come from after dropping down from a higher floor.
It turns out you're half right.
The Hollow smashes through the ceiling above the Iwabas, then crashes through the floor between them just as quickly. It moved so rapidly all you could make out were its size (it's slightly bigger than a grown man), and that it's a sort of pale yellow color.
Immediately once the Hollow disappears from view, the Quincies quickly move to one side of the new hole in the floor. Mai quickly joins them, and the twins stand shoulder to shoulder, with the Soul Reaper behind and to the right of Eidou.
Eidou's bowstring is already tense and he has an arrow nocked, while Tenko's bow is unnocked, instead, she's got three ginto clutched between the fingers of her right hand. Mai, for her part, looks ready to fight, light on her feet and with her hands raised; what little spiritual pressure she has feels tense. You also face the hole, ready for the Hollow to reemerge, but the sound of the elevator doors tearing open makes you spin as fast as you can.
The Hollow's head slams into your waiting knife, and you're forced back more than a meter. Whatever ratty carpet was left on the floor in that meter is bunched up behind your feet. Up close like this, you can actually see what the recently-turned Hollow looks like. It's smaller than most of the Hollows you've fought, and more humanoid in shape (maybe they get less humanoid over time?), with an X-shaped mask covering its head entirely. Where the four branches of the X come together, the Hollow has a sharp, dangerous-looking beak. Its eyes are beady and glowing a bright red, while its hunched, pale yellow body has three long tails flailing behind it in the hallway. Its arms and legs are roughly humanoid, though it has oversized, clawed hands and feet, and its chest and groin are covered in a darker yellow ribbed padding, almost like an umpire's gear.
The Hollow snarls at you and lashes out with its left hand as it pulls its head back. You meet the claws after disengaging with its head, before pulling your knife back and swiping it across the Hollow's bicep. The Hollow hisses at the injury, and swipes one of its tails at you. Its counterattack is so fast that you can barely snap your head out of the way before one of its tails can blind you.
Eidou fires an arrow straight at the center of the Hollow's head, but it rolls its body out of the way and smashes through a wall, disappearing again. You duck into the hole it made after it, but it's already gone. Instead of pursuing, you take a second to breathe, then get yourself into position closer to Mai and your Quincy companions.
"It—" the Soul Reaper starts to say, before a crash in the room to the group's right alerts you all to the presence of the Hollow. Before it can bull through another wall, Tenko intones a quick spell.
"Laufen neben der Kante des gefroren Bach, Sägen!" The taller twin calls out, and two of her ginto empty themselves of spiritual particles, which coalesce into a pair of wide, oscillating silver blades. The blades shoot through the wall and into the abandoned office on the other side of it, you even hear the windows shatter after a fraction of a second.
The spell seems to have worked better as a deterrent than an attack, as you hear the Hollow smash through the floor, and a second later, one of its tails shoots through the nearby hole in the hallway and wraps itself around Eidou's ankle. The archer shoots into the pit in an attempt to free himself, but it seems like the Hollow's tails can stretch a lot further than you expected, because he can't do any real damage, and is quickly pulled to the floor below.
"Eidou!" The other Quincy exclaims, and lunges for the hole.
She only stops when you put yourself in front of her. "Hold on, I'm the best at close quarters combat," you tell your classmate, looking over your shoulder at her, "I'll go after him."
Pushing your spiritual pressure through your feet, you dash down to the lower floor, appearing next to Eidou Iwaba. The Quincy is firing his bow into the darkness ahead of you, where the Hollow's thrashing tail disappears behind a cubicle wall.
"It just let you go?" You ask the Quincy as you fend off another of the Hollow's tails with your knife.
"No, I actually hit it in the uh, in the rump," he answers, somewhat embarrassed. "It's armored there though, so I think it was just the shock of being hit. I didn't actually injure it."
"Hn, that's not good," you frown, "the armor will definitely be weaker if we hit it head-on. But it shouldn't be this strong."
"You're right, since it was just born it should be weaker than the Hollows we've hunted before," Eidou agrees, sounding just as frustrated. You're not going to voice your annoyance at his choice of words yet since you need to strategize with him, but you still really don't like using the word 'born' when it comes to Hollows. Especially now that you know how they're actually created. "Maybe it was spiritually aware beforehand," he theorizes. "For now, we just have to get it into the open. If we can open up this room we can force the Hollow back upstairs."
"I'll take point," you agree to his plan with a nod, "cover me."
You bat the fist-sized club on the tip of one of the Hollow's tails aside with a backhand and follow up with a slash to the tail itself. You can hear the Hollow hiss in pain at the shallow cut, and you're able to grab its tail before it can disappear around the corner. Despite your yanking the Hollow's tail, you can't feel it lose any of its slack, confirming your theory that the Hollow can greatly extend its tails. Now that you're at the wall the Hollow is somewhere behind, in the darkened rooms not lit up by Eidou's bow, you give it a crescent kick. To your dismay, all the kick really does is snap the wall in half, revealing… the Hollow's extended tail disappearing into the darkness. You try extending your spiritual sense to see if you can find where the Hollow is, but it's far enough away and the whole building is mired in its spiritual pressure. Frustrated, you hack the tail in your hand off with your knife.
This gets results.
Screaming, the Hollow emerges from the darkness with all three of its remaining tails lashing out at you. Even with your speed decreased by Kori's bracelets, you're able to dance between the clubs and the whipping tails they're connected to, avoiding taking a single hit from the desperate onslaught. Before the Hollow's outstretched claws can make contact with your waiting blade, Eidou buries two arrows in its shoulder, directly under its armored carapace.
The pain causes the Hollow to turn, and you take that opportunity to slash between two of the ribs in its armor. Black blood seeps from the wound, but the monster is already charging at your classmate with blinding speed. You chase after the Hollow, but Eidou is already executing his plan to funnel the Hollow back onto the floor above.
"Offen das Tor der Wolken, Geknistern!" The Quincy hurriedly chants, before throwing a ginto at his feet. On contact with the ground, it explodes, putting a screen of dust between the Hollow and its prey. The Hollow seems not to realize that the explosion doesn't pose any real danger to it, and dodges to the left. You're at Eidou's side before the Hollow is, and you drive your knife into its body again, this time with a double-handed thrust.
Again, the Hollow screams and flees. This time, into the ceiling. Both you and Eidou follow it into the hole, where your quarry is squaring off with Tenko and Mai.
A single ginto is suspended in the air between the Quincy and Hollow.
"Ein Silberstab trifft das fünffingriger Steinbett," Tenko recites the spell, "Gritz!"
Almost instantaneously, the Hollow is enveloped by two mirrored Quincy crosses with a membrane connecting their branches together.
"Wow, th-the Quincy's spells are more im-impressive than I'd thought," Mai observes, though she's no less tense, and she doesn't get closer to the spell to get a better look at it.
"Hold on," Tenko says, businesslike, "we still have to put it down."
"Right," her brother says, drawing his bowstring taut. Tenko does the same.
The instant the Quincies' arrows are in the air, the Hollow's restraints shatter in a flash of red light and dense spiritual pressure. The wave of spiritual energy knocks the arrows from the air, sending them smashing through the walls behind the Hollow.
Almost instinctively, you and Mai move in unison.
"Red hound, put your nose to the ground and find the scent. Follow the sound of the voice and the smell of the unburnt, burst open and maul!" Mai runs through the kido's incantation even faster than Tenko did, despite it being more than twice as long as any of the ginto spells you heard. "Hado Number Twelve: Fushibi!"
You shoulder-check the Hollow into the path of Mai's spell, which looks like a web of fire that clings to the floor and walls. The flames erupt around its body while you take a careful hoho-enhanced step back.
The Hollow moves to attack the still out-of-position Quincies and Mai, who's crouched down so her palms can sit flat against the ground. So you dart back in, and pin your knife into its neck, right behind where all the branches of its mask come together.
"W-what," The Hollow chokes out through clenched teeth. "The little monster said you were weak. But I would be stronger when I ate you. Why do you resist? This is my domain." Its voice sounds like it's struggling to breath, but its chest isn't heaving and its mouth isn't open to gasp for air.
Once more, Eidou puts himself directly in front of the Hollow, bow drawn.
"Don't," you chastise, fixing him with a flat stare. "I have to be the one to finish it off. You can't purify it."
"Purify? You're a hunter, hmm? What have I done wrong? The little monster was the one feeding me," you can tell the Hollow would be looking back at you, if it could see the extreme edges of its peripherals through its mask. "If I took you to the little monster, you would let me go, wouldn't you?"
You can only sneer and shake your head. Mai, helpfully, addresses the question, "Th-that's not how it w-works. I-it couldn't work l-like that."
"Pity, then I just have to—" The Hollow's spiritual pressure spikes and it starts to open its mouth, but you knee it in the ribs. Hard.
Your knife moves to finish things.
[] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
[] Lodge your knife under the Hollow's mask and rip it off. You're going to see its face, to see the truth behind Souls and Hollows. The group you're with might not appreciate it, but you've been used, and you have a desire to see the truth with your own eyes.
[] Pretend to take the Hollow's offer to get a lead on the other Hollow, which has apparently been making this Hollow (and likely other nascent Hollows) stronger and more dangerous. After that, you'll purify it, though it's probably going to put up a fight.
[] Write-in (What? For a vote like this, you should probably have a good reason and explanation for your write-in.)
T/N: The spells in this chapter:
Kuuhaku Shin: Vacuum Quake
Sägen: Run along the edge of the frozen stream, Sawing!
Geknistern: Open the gate of the clouds, Crackle!
Gritz: A silver rod strikes the five-fingered stone bed, Gritz(?)! (This one is canon, I don't think it actually translates to German. The incantation's German translation is changed though.)
Fushibi: Ambush Flare (Canon)
A/N: I had no idea it had been so long. I don't really have an excuse besides things not really going right in general, but I would still like to apologize.
A/N1: This chapter also massively snowballed into what's by far the longest part of either of my quests, so there's that. Hopefully Chiyu's indignation isn't too out of character? It came to sort of spontaneously, but it seemed to work pretty well while writing and re-reading it. Is anyone else watching the anime? I think it's been pretty great so far.
"Sure thing boss, you're giving me a body to use, so lay it on me," the Mod Soul says, clearly still processing all the information it had just learned.
"One: don't roam around without my permission, I'll tell you where you can go, and where you should go. You could get in trouble otherwise."
This gets you an eyeroll, or, you think it rolled its eyes at you, that's the energy you're getting. "Naturally, that's just common sense."
"Two: you don't get to spend my money."
"Whaaaat? Gimme an allowance at least, you gotta have some money!"
"Quiet down," you raise your foot, as if to punt it into the wall again, but don't actually do anything. "It's not like I have a job or anything, and hunting Hollows only gets me some kinda points, I've never been able to use them. I think they only work in Soul Society." The Mod Soul grumbles, but doesn't actually say anything. "Three: if you ever flirt while you're in my body I'm giving you back to Kori, no questions asked."
"Fine, whatever," the Mod Soul nods, seemingly not caring all that much about this point.
"Four: don't make promises while you're me, you don't know if I'll be able to keep them later." The Mod Soul nods again, less flippantly this time. "Five: don't be too rude to my friends or family. You can tease them a little, just try to use your judgment on how far you go. Oh, and if you make either of the twins cry, you're going back to Kori. Or Soul Society, whichever would be worse."
"Uh, alright, yeah, sure boss," the gravity of the last part of your statement seems to have shaken it up.
"Six: take notes in class, Hollows are pretty active during the day, so I'll probably have to leave class a lot."
"Oh come on boss, do I have to? You give me a body, then make me go to school?"
"I'm a student, deal with it."
"Fine," it crosses its arms- wings -and sits down. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, just one more thing," you hold up a silver bracelet, made of x-shaped links that your dad gave to you a few years ago. It used to belong to your mom. "You're going to wear this when you're in my body, that way, my friend Ryota will know you're in my body. He's the only one who knows about all this… Soul Reaper stuff."
"Alright, that's not too difficult, just keep it in the same pocket every day or something," the Mod Soul tells you.
"Oh yeah, back to my earlier question, do you have a name, or did you like, give yourself one?"
"Yeah I was thinking about that," the Mod Soul puts a hand on its chin (is that what you're supposed to call the bottom of a bird's beak?), attempting to look cool. "I thought 'Aizo' sounded pretty good, you know, from 'Kaizo Konpaku'?"
"I guess it works, if you use completely different characters," you respond with a shrug. You'll call it- her that, if that's what she says her name is. "Nice to meet you, Aizo."
With that, you shake the wingtip that passes for the plushie that Aizo's soul pill inhabits. "Nice to formally meet you too, Shou!"
You might have to go over some of the story again…
~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright, I'll hunt the Hollow with you tomorrow, after school. I'll skip club, if you want to leave right after class is out," you accept the Quincy Twins' offer, but want to confirm something before you add your condition.
"We don't have duties every day," Eidou says, as if you should know that. "We'll make someone actually do their classroom duties for once."
"Sounds good. And one more thing," the Twins look at each other, but you stop them before they can say anything, "it's nothing serious or whatever, but I'll bring Koukin-sensei with me. She's the one who's actually from Soul Society."
This time, it's Tenko who speaks up, "You said she gave you her powers, right? She's just going to watch, isn't she?"
"She can still use kido, but she'll probably sit it out, yeah," you shrug with a nod.
Eidou cuts in before you can finalize the deal, "You should tell us about kido afterwards, or we can meet up some other time. We'll tell you about ginto in return, how does that sound?"
Ginto must be their magic, so you just nod. You don't know too much about kido, but if they use those ginto things, then they must not be able to use it. And you won't be able to use ginto.
"Yeah sure. So tomorrow, where should we meet?" At this point, you kind of just want to get out of here.
"There's a cafe a few blocks away from the front gate, it's kinda pricey, so other students don't go there a lot," Tenko tells you. "You've probably passed it before."
"Dutch Bean, right?" You've been by the place, but you don't really like cafes, so you've never actually been there.
"Yeah, meet us there ten minutes after the last bell, it's probably better if we don't all go together," Tenko tells you.
You could always just leave the Mod Soul with your body and follow them as a Soul Reaper, but going separately is probably a better idea, considering Mai will be going as well. "Sounds good."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Let's call this a trial run," you sit the Mod Soul, Aizo, down after you get home that night. "I have to go out, but you're going to stay here, in my body."
"What's the catch?" The penguin asks, trying and failing to look skeptical without looking cute.
"You're going to stay in my room."
"Awwww come on boss! You can't do me like that!" Aizo flops onto your bed, looking as mad as a penguin plush possibly can.
You bat her off, bouncing her off your closet door with enough force for her to land back on the bed. "Quiet down!" You shut the mod soul up with a glare so you can finish what you were saying, "this is your first time in my body, there's no way Tousuke doesn't know something's up immediately. Understand?"
"Yeah yeah whatever," Aizo's arms- wings are crossed, but she's resigned to the confinement.
"Look, you can go wherever- almost wherever tomorrow after school," you let the mod soul know, "I have some important Soul Reaper business, so you'll have the afternoon to yourself."
"No way, thanks so much boss!"
"Just remember the rules," you remind her, kicking her off the bed as she attempts to wrap her wings around you in a hug.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hado Number Fifty: Kuuhaku Shin!" Ui intones the (what must be) high-level spell without an incantation. As she finishes casting, a translucent, amorphous bubble forms in the middle of Mirror Mirror's dusty front courtyard, which is walled off from the alleys which border it. The bubble pops with a thundercrack, almost throwing you off the streetlight you'd alighted on to scope out the specialty shop, since you didn't like the idea of just dropping in. A few of the nearest building's windows crack, and you can hear car alarms going off in the nearby streets.
"Fuck!" The tan redhead curses, stamping her foot. She's apparently in her Soul Reaper form, based on the hakama pants and (non-standard) sash. Also you suppose casting kido would be easier as a soul than in a gigai.
Somewhat surprisingly, Kori Kagami casually strolls from her store, rather than flash stepping, and makes her way to Ui's side. "You tried it without an incantation again, didn't you?"
"Why shouldn't I?" The younger woman's hair sticks to her head when she whips it around to snap at her boss, "you're able to do it, she was able to do it, and I've totally mastered twenty-five."
"Twenty-five is a long way from fifty," Kori's voice is calming, and she puts a hand on her employee's shoulder. "Even if the principles are the same, you still need to work your way up to it. You can perform Kuuhaku Shin with an incantation though, right?"
"Yeah," Ui nods, no longer facing Kori.
"Well then stick to practicing that, and maybe give some thirties a shot without incantation."
"Alright."
"Oh, and Ui? One more thing, before you go in and get some rest," Kori puts the normal cheeriness back into her voice.
"What's that?" You can hear the redhead's confusion.
"Don't practice mid-levels in my yard!" Kori playfully kicks the employee, who flees inside, grumbling.
Once the shop's front door closes again, you see the glint in Kori's glasses flash in your direction. Figuring that's your cue, you propel yourself into the courtyard, reappearing in front of the mysterious shop owner.
"It was nice of you to refrain from interrupting Ui," Kori says, flourishing her shut parasol so she can lean on it. "'Course, watching something so private from a hiding place is a bit creepy."
"Like you said, I didn't want to interrupt," you were curious about the spell she was casting though. "I'm just here to talk to Mai, should I go in or…?"
"She usually turns in early, I'll get her for you," Kori offers, not asking you why you need to see Mai. Maybe she wants you to think she already knows. Or maybe she actually already does know! Wait no, you can't start thinking there's some mysterious genius studying and planning out every aspect of your life, that would just make you paranoid.
Before Kori reaches the shop, you decide to ask her one question. "That spell Ui was using was number fifty, how many spells are there overall?"
"Just about two hundred, ninety-nine defensive and utility, and ninety-nine offensive, plus a few more. Now just give me a minute, no princess of Koukin likes being so rudely woken up," with that, the shopkeeper disappears back into the specialty store.
'T-two hundred?!' Your brain cries out in shock. You thought there were like… half that, maybe. 'Also… princess?' You'll have to put a pin in that one, at least until after you're done with this Quincy business.
"Chiyu?" Mai's sleepy tone, combined with her hair bunched up in a sleeping cap and especially her ghost-pattern pajamas, make her a hilarious sight. But you manage to keep your laughter in check. Just barely though, you can't help but grin at the image in front of you. "What do you need? My denreishinki hasn't gone off tonight." The phone is in her hand, but she barely lifts it instead of looking at it.
"I just need to talk to you," you glance around the dark yard in front of Mirror Mirror and make up your mind. "We should go somewhere else though, really quick."
"O-oh, um, sure, alright-" you turn to allow Mai to clamber onto your back. You're not that different in height, and you've thrown people heavier than her in your human body, so carrying her is actually pretty easy. It's also still the fastest way to get around, since she can barely use her Soul Reaper abilities in her gigai.
~~~~~~~~~~
"What's wrong Chiyu?" Mai asks, slightly more awake, when you arrive at a nearby construction site.
"Nothing, I just didn't want to talk about this right in front of Mirror Mirror," you admit.
Mai eyes you nervously, "A-about what? Y-you're making me worry…"
"Sorry," you know how high-strung the Soul Reaper is, so you should've probably been more forward about it. "Tomorrow after school I'm going on a Hollow hunt with a couple of my classmates. You know them, the Iwaba twins. I want you there to observe."
"Wha-" Mai cuts in, but you preemptively cut her off.
"They're not like, humans or anything-" this time Mai doesn't even get the chance to speak "-no no no I mean, wait no, not like that! They're human, but they're spiritually aware, apparently they've been hunting Hollows even longer than me. Or, wait, I mean they're Quincies, so they hunt Hollows."
"Q- They- You-" Mai momentarily gets stuck in a feedback loop, so you decide to just continue explaining things to her.
"They want to prove that Soul Society and the Quincy can work together, so I think you should be there, since you're the one who's actually from Soul Society," you finish.
"I-I-I- you know I can't agree to that!" Mai exclaims, though she's still conscious enough of being in a gigai to keep her voice down.
"I don't know, actually," you stare her down, "I figured cooperation would be a good thing, especially if it's the Quincy asking for it. What's the problem anyway? You both fight Hollows, so they can't be that bad."
Mai exhales like she's been punched in the gut, "I-it, um…" You don't cut in this time, instead opting to look at the Soul Reaper expectantly. "Two hundred years ago, there were a lot more Quincy—" Mai pauses, "a lot more th-than today I-I mean," she fiddles with her hands, and can't meet your eyes. "W-when a Quincy kills a Hollow, the Hollow is gone. B-but when a Soul Reaper does it, the Hollow gets p-purified, l-like a Plus."
"Wait, 'like a Plus', what do you mean by that?" You feel like asking might've just raised more questions than it will answer.
"W-well, um, H-Hollows, see- when they eat Souls, after that, they have to b-be purified. A-also, th-they're earthb-b- they're earthbound as well, t-technically. They c-can't, well they d-don't, they don't really go into Soul Society." She catches, then corrects herself, "Wait I-I mean, th-they go when you purify them, th-they d-don't go on their own b-before that."
"Oh," is all you respond with. There wasn't a ton to make sense of in there. "So, what about the Quincy? You said there were a lot of them?"
"R-right, and they were, um, they- they were…" Mai really can't look at you now, "they were destroying too many Hollows, s-so…" she sucks in a deep breath, "S-Soul Society asked them to stop, a-a-a-a-and… a-and—"
"And what?" You say, after the pause has gone on uncomfortably long.
"And th-they said n-no, s-s-so… um, s-so…" she sucks in another deep breath, and her hands are fidgeting so fast you expect to see smoke coming off of them.
"Oh my god," you pinch your nose, you think you know where this is going. The last thing you wanted was to be put in the middle of some thousand year-long rivalry between ghost samurai and magic monks.
"Y-yes… um, so the Q-Quincy w-went to war with S-Soul Society. A-a-and-" Mai sucks in another breath, and actually physically turns away from you, "a-and th-they- I-I mean, I mean Soul Society… um- Soul Society," the Soul Reaper barely looks into your eyes, and flinches when she does. "Soul Society… wiped them out."
"Of course," you don't even know what to say. What else would Soul Society have done? You actually can't answer that one either, but the more you learn about this stuff, the less you actually want to know. "So what? They expect us to end like two-hundred years of hate? Or, just tell Soul Society that there are Quincy out there who don't hate them? I don't get it."
Mai shrugs, "Um, I uh, I-I d- I don't know," she answers honestly. "D-do you still want to go?"
You shake your head, "I said that I would, and besides, I can actually purify the Hollow for them, so we can get something out of it at least."
"A-alright," Mai nods, "I-I can go, but I d-don't think I can s-say anything about it to S-Soul Society, if th-that's okay?"
"It should be," you agree. "I don't know how much the Iwabas know, or how they'll react, but they seem pretty reasonable."
"Y-yeah," Mai says, "i-is that it?"
You nod, "I'll let you get back to sleep. Sorry for getting you up."
"I-it's alright, I'm g-glad you asked."
~~~~~~~~~~
"I've never seen Koukin-sensei pay this much attention before," Mio whispers to you from behind her workbook.
You barely glance over before the thin book is folded in half by Rokougi-sensei's mach six eraser, leaving a red mark in the center of Mio's forehead.
She immediately shuts up, leaving the class silent aside from the sound of pencils scratching away at paper. You take the opportunity to look around your own workbook and see that the two teachers are whispering to each other up front. Mai has just lowered her finger, having pointed Mio out to Rokougi-sensei.
You can't help but scowl at her treachery, even knowing how stressed she must be today.
~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't believe Koukin-sensei was actually like, mentally checked-in today," Ryo grumbles once you all sit down to lunch on the school's roof, he's nursing an eye from an earlier eraser precision-strike.
"Maybe if you two didn't talk in class so much," Naoto remarks to Mio and Ryo, digging into his onigiri.
Mio scoffs, "Come on, you and Shu don't know how fun it was to crack Rokougi-sensei's routine. Now that there's two sets of eyes it's practically impossible."
"It wasn't so hard when Koukin-sensei was checked out," Ryo adds. "Maybe we'll figure this out too."
Now you take the opportunity to pitch in, "Maybe the teachers wouldn't be so on edge if you guys didn't try to crack their routine so you could get away with fooling around in class."
Naoto nods, "It's a good point, the rest of the class wouldn't be so stressed out just sitting around if the teachers were able to relax."
"We've got to get some entertainment out of school," Mio insists.
After that, the conversation dies down a little, becoming more casual. Around halfway through lunch, you catch a glimpse of Tenko Iwaba peeking through the window in the roof access door. You give the Quincy a furtive thumbs up, and her head dips back down before any of your friends can notice.
Eventually, the lunch talk moves onto after-school plans. Not for today, but some time in the foreseeable future.
"There's a bunch of new movies out, we should see something next weekend. It's been like, forever," Ryo eventually throws out, desperately directing the conversation away from Naoto's run-off rambling about all the various arcades in and around Banmuro City. "Even superhero stuff, I know you like that kinda stuff Nao."
You're already trying to figure out if you'll have time for this in your head.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Twelve minutes," Tenko says with some annoyance, "that's late, Makiyou." To punctuate her point, she sets her absurdly small coffee cup down on a similarly-small saucer.
"By two minutes!" You counter, sitting down. "I couldn't just run out of the classroom and come straight here. How'd you two even manage to get here if you had to force Iriyaki into staying after for duty?"
"During lunch, we actually know how to allot our time," Eidou remarks, not sounding like a middle schooler in the slightest. "Somehow Koukin-sensei got here first," he adds, grumbling.
Looking over your bespectacled classmate's shoulder, you can see the Soul Reaper's wavy brown hair sticking out from behind a magazine, as if she's trying not to be seen in the same coffee shop as her students. You just shake your head and put it out of your mind.
"I'm not really into coffee, and I don't feel like spending a thousand yen on a pastry, so let's go," you say, standing up just as quickly as you sat down.
The two Quincies look at one another, shrug, and finish their coffees.
After walking a few blocks from Dutch Bean, you duck into a deserted alley.
"Just keep an eye out, I'll be done in a second," you tell the Iwaba twins as you dig the mod soul pill out of your pocket. "And don't like, spy or anything. I have to give this instructions," you add, pointing at the pill. Both Quincy look at you like you've grown a second head. "You'll see."
The sensation of leaving your body via mod soul is less unpleasant than getting smacked in the face and falling out of it. You're still not sure if seeing your body walking around from a third person perspective is worse than seeing it catatonic and on the ground though.
Before Aizo can say anything, you place a finger over your own- her- your body's lips. "Quiet, you're in public. There's a list of places you can go on my phone, and directions home from them. You have three hours on your own. I expect you home by then."
"Tch, fine. That's fair," the mod soul says, managing a whisper. "What if I manage to get myself lost or something?"
"Mai's number is on there. Call her if you're lost or can't make it home in time. Do not call anyone else, and don't answer phone calls from," you hold out your fingers to list the people who would immediately sniff out that something was wrong. "Either of my brothers, or my sister. Dad is fine, he'll do most of the talking and you don't really have to remember anything he says, especially if he says it's important. Mio and especially Nao are also off-limits. Ryo knows, but you should still probably not answer unless he calls you twice. You aren't allowed to text yet."
"Whatever, I'll make my own fun. Don't need your lame-ass friends or whatever for that," that earns the mod soul a light smack. Or it would, if you hadn't realized that slapping your body while in your spiritual form would really hurt, and probably bruise.
"Just steer clear of people I know and you should be fine. I guess if there's an emergency you can call Mirror Mirror, but only if it's an emergency."
"I wouldn't call them if it wasn't."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Those instructions weren't very good," Eidou quips as you and the Quincy twins leap from rooftop to rooftop. "If someone was running around in my body I'd be as clear as possible."
"Mhm," Tenko agrees, "though I don't think I would give up my body in the first place."
"Look," you grumble, "it's better than stuffing it behind a big pipe or in the corner of a rooftop or something. I'd rather have Aizo running around as me than have someone discover me passed out somewhere weird and have my body hauled to the hospital. It's actually easier to keep track of this way."
Eidou looks over his shoulder at you. It's easy for him, since he's seemingly better at their movement technique, which he calls hirenkyaku, than Tenko is, but she insists she's better with ginto than him. "That makes sense, I guess," he eventually concedes.
"How'd you track down a Hollow to one building anyway?" You ask after a few more minutes, now jumping between far taller buildings of Banmuro's business district, which straddles the city's eastern border. "I thought they didn't stay in the same place for too long, or like, that they didn't like staying in the human world at all?"
"Sometimes they stick around for a while, but this one is weird," Tenko replies. "It's got a really small territory, just one building, and we weren't able to sense it until we got super close."
You shrug, "that's not so weird, Hollows can suppress their presence to hunt ghosts and evade Soul Reapers and stuff. I've been surprised more than once."
"Quincy have better spiritual sense than Soul Reapers," Eidou cuts in, "but this one isn't even trying to conceal itself. It was just hard to find."
You almost roll your eyes at the spiritual sense-measuring contest before remembering why the Iwabas might have a bit of a complex when it comes to what they can and can't do better than Soul Reapers. "How do you know it's still there?"
"We left a Bellen there, it's a ginto that sends out a ping of spiritual particles every so often and then sends its findings back to a linked ginto," Tenko tells you, holding up a silver tube with the same star from their Quincy bracelets engraved on it. The tube is small enough to fit between her fingers and glows light blue, with the open end glowing slightly brighter.
"Wait, you need those little capsule things to do your magic?"
"Yes," Tenko answers, pocketing the tube. "They're full of concentrated spiritual particles, which get used up when we use a spell. The capsules are reusable though, and they aren't that hard to make."
"How does Soul Reaper magic work, Makiyou? If you can use it, that is," Eidou asks, clearly not intending to come off as condescending as he does.
"I can't really use it yet, but you have to visualize what you want to happen, then say a chant to cast the spell," after a moment you add, "oh, and it all comes from your own spiritual power, externalizing it is probably even more important than shaping it."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Koukin-sensei, how'd you beat us here?" Eidou demands once everyone is inside the lobby of the abandoned high-rise the Quincy have tracked the Hollow to. "Is your shunpo that good? You'll have to teach me."
"Oh, um, i-it's n-not quite that, n-no," Mai, flustered, answers with a blush. "B-but i-it's good to be working with you, th-thank you for the opportunity."
"Right," is the only response Eidou can give her, one eyebrow raised above his glasses. "The Hollow is on one of the upper floors, but we haven't been all the way up yet."
"It's probably on the top floor, or near there. There were a couple of souls here when we first sensed the Hollow, but they're gone now. We think it lured them up," Tenko helpfully adds.
"And you didn't tell me, or like, find another Soul Reaper until yesterday?" You can't keep the exasperation out of your voice. Those souls might be dead, but getting them to pass on peacefully is your primary duty as a Soul Reaper, if a Hollow eats them, they don't get an afterlife. They're just gone.
"We weren't positive about you two until yesterday," Eidou answers, seemingly ignorant of why you're upset.
"Just let me finish the Hollow, alright? You guys can't purify it," you state, seeing Mai nod out of the corner of your eye. You're not entirely sure why the group is taking the stairs up this high-rise, but maybe it's so you can be as stealthy as possible.
Tenko looks at you like you've grown a second head. "Yeah, we know we can't purify Hollows, that's why we don't slay too many. We're careful with that."
"Oh… uh, good," you look back at Mai for support, and get nothing.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Chiyu," Mai whispers, barely loud enough to hear, even as a Soul Reaper. "Chiyu," she hisses again, teeth clenched.
If you had to guess, she's trying to get your attention because of the rusted, dripping chains that pour from the walls and ceilings of the abandoned high-rise.
"You should see what she wants Makiyou," Tenko, who's walking ahead of you, tells you without looking back. You thought it was pretty obvious that if you could hear Mai whispering to you, the Quincy twins could.
"What is it?" You turn to the Soul Reaper as the two Quincy walk to the end of the hallway you're in, coming to a stop just far enough away they won't be able to hear you and Mai if you're quiet enough.
"Th-these chains, i-it means that the s-soul here i-it it is a P-Plus, o-or no," the teacher's assistant swallows, glances up at the chains, then looks back at you with more confidence. "I-it's not a Plus, a-actually," she sucks in a breath, "it's earthbound, l-like they are. B-but it's different, it's bound to this o-one spot."
Things are coming together in your head, but you don't want to jump to conclusions, "Okay, I'll purify it and we can hunt another Hollow with them, I don't see what's wrong."
"A-a spirit that's bound to one s-spot, it's c-called a Jibakurei, o-or a-a Demi-Hollow," Mai explains. "A soul th-that's been c-corrupted by i-its desire and a-attachment to the W-World of the Living. I-it will become a Hollow, if you d-don't purify it."
"What do you mean? It's gonna become a Hollow?!" You didn't want to respond with an outburst, but you really couldn't help yourself. It feels like you've been lied to the whole time you were hunting Hollows, "Does this mean that all of them were human? Every Hollow I fought for you?"
"Y-yes, w-well. Yes, e-every base Hollow was human, once," Mai finally tells you, flinching away. You can feel the eyes of the Iwabas on you, but you don't care.
"What? I- Why?" You finally settle on, "why wouldn't you tell me?!"
Mai shakes her head violently. You know how well she handles conflict, and for some reason she seems especially prone to folding to you. You hate that it seems like you're taking advantage of that fact, but you hate the feeling that you've been led on regarding something as big as the fact that Hollows were once Pluses.
"It's really not a Hollow yet?" Eidou asks, stepping over your justified outrage, "But this whole place reeks with Hollow spiritual pressure, and the Souls who were here are all gone."
"You could have done something about this too," you spin on your heel and snap at the Quincy. "One soul would have gotten destroyed but that's better than what? Four or five?" Your head drops into your hands, "What happens, what really happens," you begin, turning back to Mai, who flinches as if she expects you to punch her. "When I slay a Hollow?"
"I-it gets purified l-like a normal s-soul. E-except even m-more thoroughly," Mai tells you, nodding. She's backed up so far that she's almost brushing against the chains. "T-the Hollow becom- it turns into a n-normal soul, th-the k-kind that be- er I, it's th-the kind that l-lives in Soul Society."
"They don't remember being Hollows?" That gives you pause, because that means- "does every purified soul forget their lives?"
"Makiyou, now isn't the time for this-" Eidou interjects again, and as if to reinforce his point, a wracking scream shakes the entire building. It's a spiritual howl that sounds like a Hollow's roar, but with the voice of a man behind it.
"Why not?" You snarl, probably coming off angrier than you mean to. It's fine, you're still pretty angry. "You two were confident you could kill it, and it's a new Hollow, if it's even become a Hollow," you counter, the sound of blood rushing in your ears almost drowning out Mai's heavy breathing. "I'll take care of it, none of you have to worry about that." The urge to rip off Kori Kagami's bracelets and let your spiritual power run wild is there, but you resist it.
Instead, you simply push past the Iwaba twins, and lead the way to the next floor. You have no idea what you're going to do after you slay the Demi-Hollow, but your decision can come after you free the tortured spirit.
By the twentieth floor, the chains aren't nearly as rotten, but they do cover parts of the floor and completely cover the walls. Behind you, you can hear the Iwaba twins and Mai occasionally exchange a few words, with the Soul Reaper stumbling over replies to both Quincies' dogged questioning. Well, it's mostly Eidou's dogged questioning, Tenko is more reserved, though she does sometimes join her brother. When you're almost at the top floor, and the chains are even thicker, disaster strikes. Maybe it's because you're the only one who isn't in a physical body, or maybe it's because the Quincy behind you are relying on their ginto to illuminate their surroundings, which gives Mai enough light to see as well, but either way, the Soul Reaper steps directly into a chain-filled hole in the floor.
Everything falls apart in the next three seconds.
Mai yelps, stumbling forward and catching herself with a crash, as her wrists are quickly caught up by chains.
You turn, though not as quickly as you would have liked to, and draw your knife.
By then though, Tenko Iwaba has already materialized her bow, and leveled it at the length of chain which binds Mai to the rest of the web of metal.
At the same time as Mai, you cry out, "Wait no-" but the arrow is already in flight.
Your Quincy classmate is too close to the chains for you to do anything about it, even if your shunpo was as good as Kori's, you wouldn't be able to put yourself between the arrow and something in point-blank range like that.
You have no idea what's going to happen to the Demi-Hollow with an arrow capable of completely erasing a Hollow from existence, but from how Mai reacted to you suggesting that you cut a Plus' Chain of Fate, it's probably not a good thing.
Your worst suspicions are confirmed when the chains melt away in a halo of eye-searing blue light. It doesn't actually take long for the chains to disappear, with the links leading to the lower floors of the building burning up almost immediately, and the chains going upward rapidly disintegrating.
"Y-you should have l-let the ch-chains take m-me," Mai, now freed, says to Tenko. Her sock has been burnt through, and there are what look like painful chemical burns on her wrists. Despite this, she doesn't seem to be feeling it, either because of adrenaline (do gigai have that?) or because she's in a gigai. "Y-you could have found the Demi-Hollow b-before it t-t-turned."
"I-I was just trying to help," Tenko steps back, her back bumping up against the now clear, yet decayed, wall of the building.
Eidou steps between the Soul Reaper and his sister, holding up a hand over the latter, despite Mai not making any moves against them. Maybe it's to keep you from getting to her. Sure, you're upset at them, but it's not like you're that mad. And you would never hurt a human as a Soul Reaper. Never.
"Hold on," the bespectacled Quincy finally says, "we had no idea what breaking that would do, we just didn't want to see you hurt." He points at Mai's red wrists, "it looks like being brought all the way to the Hollow would've been pretty bad."
"I-it's just my g-gigai," Mai counters, obviously not believing it herself. You really, really hope that the Soul Reaper isn't putting herself in danger to make it up for lying to you. "A-and now, it—"
Mai, the Quincy twins, and even you flinch when the roar of a Hollow shakes the building to its foundations, filling the hallway you're in with the monster's vile spiritual pressure.
"I think it knows we're here," Eidou says through gritted teeth, and his bow materializes in his hands. His sister also rematerializes her bow, and Mai backs up against a wall. You turn back to the end of the hallway ahead of the group with your knife in your hand. Your eyes lock on the broken elevator doors, where you suspect the Hollow will come from after dropping down from a higher floor.
It turns out you're half right.
The Hollow smashes through the ceiling above the Iwabas, then crashes through the floor between them just as quickly. It moved so rapidly all you could make out were its size (it's slightly bigger than a grown man), and that it's a sort of pale yellow color.
Immediately once the Hollow disappears from view, the Quincies quickly move to one side of the new hole in the floor. Mai quickly joins them, and the twins stand shoulder to shoulder, with the Soul Reaper behind and to the right of Eidou.
Eidou's bowstring is already tense and he has an arrow nocked, while Tenko's bow is unnocked, instead, she's got three ginto clutched between the fingers of her right hand. Mai, for her part, looks ready to fight, light on her feet and with her hands raised; what little spiritual pressure she has feels tense. You also face the hole, ready for the Hollow to reemerge, but the sound of the elevator doors tearing open makes you spin as fast as you can.
The Hollow's head slams into your waiting knife, and you're forced back more than a meter. Whatever ratty carpet was left on the floor in that meter is bunched up behind your feet. Up close like this, you can actually see what the recently-turned Hollow looks like. It's smaller than most of the Hollows you've fought, and more humanoid in shape (maybe they get less humanoid over time?), with an X-shaped mask covering its head entirely. Where the four branches of the X come together, the Hollow has a sharp, dangerous-looking beak. Its eyes are beady and glowing a bright red, while its hunched, pale yellow body has three long tails flailing behind it in the hallway. Its arms and legs are roughly humanoid, though it has oversized, clawed hands and feet, and its chest and groin are covered in a darker yellow ribbed padding, almost like an umpire's gear.
The Hollow snarls at you and lashes out with its left hand as it pulls its head back. You meet the claws after disengaging with its head, before pulling your knife back and swiping it across the Hollow's bicep. The Hollow hisses at the injury, and swipes one of its tails at you. Its counterattack is so fast that you can barely snap your head out of the way before one of its tails can blind you.
Eidou fires an arrow straight at the center of the Hollow's head, but it rolls its body out of the way and smashes through a wall, disappearing again. You duck into the hole it made after it, but it's already gone. Instead of pursuing, you take a second to breathe, then get yourself into position closer to Mai and your Quincy companions.
"It—" the Soul Reaper starts to say, before a crash in the room to the group's right alerts you all to the presence of the Hollow. Before it can bull through another wall, Tenko intones a quick spell.
"Laufen neben der Kante des gefroren Bach, Sägen!" The taller twin calls out, and two of her ginto empty themselves of spiritual particles, which coalesce into a pair of wide, oscillating silver blades. The blades shoot through the wall and into the abandoned office on the other side of it, you even hear the windows shatter after a fraction of a second.
The spell seems to have worked better as a deterrent than an attack, as you hear the Hollow smash through the floor, and a second later, one of its tails shoots through the nearby hole in the hallway and wraps itself around Eidou's ankle. The archer shoots into the pit in an attempt to free himself, but it seems like the Hollow's tails can stretch a lot further than you expected, because he can't do any real damage, and is quickly pulled to the floor below.
"Eidou!" The other Quincy exclaims, and lunges for the hole.
She only stops when you put yourself in front of her. "Hold on, I'm the best at close quarters combat," you tell your classmate, looking over your shoulder at her, "I'll go after him."
Pushing your spiritual pressure through your feet, you dash down to the lower floor, appearing next to Eidou Iwaba. The Quincy is firing his bow into the darkness ahead of you, where the Hollow's thrashing tail disappears behind a cubicle wall.
"It just let you go?" You ask the Quincy as you fend off another of the Hollow's tails with your knife.
"No, I actually hit it in the uh, in the rump," he answers, somewhat embarrassed. "It's armored there though, so I think it was just the shock of being hit. I didn't actually injure it."
"Hn, that's not good," you frown, "the armor will definitely be weaker if we hit it head-on. But it shouldn't be this strong."
"You're right, since it was just born it should be weaker than the Hollows we've hunted before," Eidou agrees, sounding just as frustrated. You're not going to voice your annoyance at his choice of words yet since you need to strategize with him, but you still really don't like using the word 'born' when it comes to Hollows. Especially now that you know how they're actually created. "Maybe it was spiritually aware beforehand," he theorizes. "For now, we just have to get it into the open. If we can open up this room we can force the Hollow back upstairs."
"I'll take point," you agree to his plan with a nod, "cover me."
You bat the fist-sized club on the tip of one of the Hollow's tails aside with a backhand and follow up with a slash to the tail itself. You can hear the Hollow hiss in pain at the shallow cut, and you're able to grab its tail before it can disappear around the corner. Despite your yanking the Hollow's tail, you can't feel it lose any of its slack, confirming your theory that the Hollow can greatly extend its tails. Now that you're at the wall the Hollow is somewhere behind, in the darkened rooms not lit up by Eidou's bow, you give it a crescent kick. To your dismay, all the kick really does is snap the wall in half, revealing… the Hollow's extended tail disappearing into the darkness. You try extending your spiritual sense to see if you can find where the Hollow is, but it's far enough away and the whole building is mired in its spiritual pressure. Frustrated, you hack the tail in your hand off with your knife.
This gets results.
Screaming, the Hollow emerges from the darkness with all three of its remaining tails lashing out at you. Even with your speed decreased by Kori's bracelets, you're able to dance between the clubs and the whipping tails they're connected to, avoiding taking a single hit from the desperate onslaught. Before the Hollow's outstretched claws can make contact with your waiting blade, Eidou buries two arrows in its shoulder, directly under its armored carapace.
The pain causes the Hollow to turn, and you take that opportunity to slash between two of the ribs in its armor. Black blood seeps from the wound, but the monster is already charging at your classmate with blinding speed. You chase after the Hollow, but Eidou is already executing his plan to funnel the Hollow back onto the floor above.
"Offen das Tor der Wolken, Geknistern!" The Quincy hurriedly chants, before throwing a ginto at his feet. On contact with the ground, it explodes, putting a screen of dust between the Hollow and its prey. The Hollow seems not to realize that the explosion doesn't pose any real danger to it, and dodges to the left. You're at Eidou's side before the Hollow is, and you drive your knife into its body again, this time with a double-handed thrust.
Again, the Hollow screams and flees. This time, into the ceiling. Both you and Eidou follow it into the hole, where your quarry is squaring off with Tenko and Mai.
A single ginto is suspended in the air between the Quincy and Hollow.
"Ein Silberstab trifft das fünffingriger Steinbett," Tenko recites the spell, "Gritz!"
Almost instantaneously, the Hollow is enveloped by two mirrored Quincy crosses with a membrane connecting their branches together.
"Wow, th-the Quincy's spells are more im-impressive than I'd thought," Mai observes, though she's no less tense, and she doesn't get closer to the spell to get a better look at it.
"Hold on," Tenko says, businesslike, "we still have to put it down."
"Right," her brother says, drawing his bowstring taut. Tenko does the same.
The instant the Quincies' arrows are in the air, the Hollow's restraints shatter in a flash of red light and dense spiritual pressure. The wave of spiritual energy knocks the arrows from the air, sending them smashing through the walls behind the Hollow.
Almost instinctively, you and Mai move in unison.
"Red hound, put your nose to the ground and find the scent. Follow the sound of the voice and the smell of the unburnt, burst open and maul!" Mai runs through the kido's incantation even faster than Tenko did, despite it being more than twice as long as any of the ginto spells you heard. "Hado Number Twelve: Fushibi!"
You shoulder-check the Hollow into the path of Mai's spell, which looks like a web of fire that clings to the floor and walls. The flames erupt around its body while you take a careful hoho-enhanced step back.
The Hollow moves to attack the still out-of-position Quincies and Mai, who's crouched down so her palms can sit flat against the ground. So you dart back in, and pin your knife into its neck, right behind where all the branches of its mask come together.
"W-what," The Hollow chokes out through clenched teeth. "The little monster said you were weak. But I would be stronger when I ate you. Why do you resist? This is my domain." Its voice sounds like it's struggling to breath, but its chest isn't heaving and its mouth isn't open to gasp for air.
Once more, Eidou puts himself directly in front of the Hollow, bow drawn.
"Don't," you chastise, fixing him with a flat stare. "I have to be the one to finish it off. You can't purify it."
"Purify? You're a hunter, hmm? What have I done wrong? The little monster was the one feeding me," you can tell the Hollow would be looking back at you, if it could see the extreme edges of its peripherals through its mask. "If I took you to the little monster, you would let me go, wouldn't you?"
You can only sneer and shake your head. Mai, helpfully, addresses the question, "Th-that's not how it w-works. I-it couldn't work l-like that."
"Pity, then I just have to—" The Hollow's spiritual pressure spikes and it starts to open its mouth, but you knee it in the ribs. Hard.
Your knife moves to finish things.
[] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
[] Lodge your knife under the Hollow's mask and rip it off. You're going to see its face, to see the truth behind Souls and Hollows. The group you're with might not appreciate it, but you've been used, and you have a desire to see the truth with your own eyes.
[] Pretend to take the Hollow's offer to get a lead on the other Hollow, which has apparently been making this Hollow (and likely other nascent Hollows) stronger and more dangerous. After that, you'll purify it, though it's probably going to put up a fight.
[] Write-in (What? For a vote like this, you should probably have a good reason and explanation for your write-in.)
T/N: The spells in this chapter:
Kuuhaku Shin: Vacuum Quake
Sägen: Run along the edge of the frozen stream, Sawing!
Geknistern: Open the gate of the clouds, Crackle!
Gritz: A silver rod strikes the five-fingered stone bed, Gritz(?)! (This one is canon, I don't think it actually translates to German. The incantation's German translation is changed though.)
Fushibi: Ambush Flare (Canon)
A/N: I had no idea it had been so long. I don't really have an excuse besides things not really going right in general, but I would still like to apologize.
A/N1: This chapter also massively snowballed into what's by far the longest part of either of my quests, so there's that. Hopefully Chiyu's indignation isn't too out of character? It came to sort of spontaneously, but it seemed to work pretty well while writing and re-reading it. Is anyone else watching the anime? I think it's been pretty great so far.
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- Location
- PA
[X] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
Okay so this guy was getting prepped to be nasty. Also he had a power setting him up, so that's a problem.
The Quincy…Hrrm.
Kind of feel like they should have just shot this guy frankly. This close-quarters hide-and seek style kind of counters a ranged fighting style, and he seems like he had been fed an explanation of what Cero is to boot.
Okay so this guy was getting prepped to be nasty. Also he had a power setting him up, so that's a problem.
The Quincy…Hrrm.
Kind of feel like they should have just shot this guy frankly. This close-quarters hide-and seek style kind of counters a ranged fighting style, and he seems like he had been fed an explanation of what Cero is to boot.
[X] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
the other two have too high chances of going wrong, and quite frankly I see no reason why we'd tear off it's mask
the other two have too high chances of going wrong, and quite frankly I see no reason why we'd tear off it's mask
- Location
- Australia
Setting up the Xcution arc early looks like.
[X] Lodge your knife under the Hollow's mask and rip it off. You're going to see its face, to see the truth behind Souls and Hollows. The group you're with might not appreciate it, but you've been used, and you have a desire to see the truth with your own eyes.
This thing has an x-shaped mask in the same update that we've got a dead mum x-shaped bracelet. This looks like an interesting option for that reason.
It has been wonderful. Watched the first episode subbed but the rest only dubbed. Ichigo's dub voice is more fun than the sub one, more loveably sour. Quilge's VA is fantastic. The action is great and I was happy to hear the Cero sound effect again.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
Shapeless Phobos
Filthy Casual
[X] Lodge your knife under the Hollow's mask and rip it off. You're going to see its face, to see the truth behind Souls and Hollows. The group you're with might not appreciate it, but you've been used, and you have a desire to see the truth with your own eyes.
- Location
- France
[X] Lodge your knife under the Hollow's mask and rip it off. You're going to see its face, to see the truth behind Souls and Hollows. The group you're with might not appreciate it, but you've been used, and you have a desire to see the truth with your own eyes.
Looks like we have a tie right now, nice. The vote will stay open until 4:45pm EST tomorrow.
I don't really watch dubs anymore, but Bleach's was always solid. I think the only thing that's really disappointed me so far has been the OP the removal of a certain fruit didn't bother me that much tbh, even compared to Rapport Scar just feels pretty uninspired. Saihate is fantastic though.
Mai wouldn't appreciate that. Chiyu would have probably agreed, before learning what she did this chapter.
Ah, somebody took note of that, that's good. Not that this Hollow is or isn't the X that marks the spot though, or whether or not it has anything to do with any hypothetical Fullbringing.
I don't really watch dubs anymore, but Bleach's was always solid. I think the only thing that's really disappointed me so far has been the OP the removal of a certain fruit didn't bother me that much tbh, even compared to Rapport Scar just feels pretty uninspired. Saihate is fantastic though.
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MaHaL
Conductor of the Choir of Death
- Location
- Canada
[x] Put it through the back of the Hollow's head, killing it. You're ending this cleanly and simply, you don't want any loose ends or to traumatize the Iwabas or Mai, even if you're going to have a serious talk with both of them later.
I wouldn't mind ripping the mask off, but it feels like a new level of physical brutality that I don't quite think Chiyu would go for yet.
I wouldn't mind ripping the mask off, but it feels like a new level of physical brutality that I don't quite think Chiyu would go for yet.
Voting is now closed!
Perhaps "rip the mask off" was strong wording, but you actually would be ripping it off, and that is what arrancar means in Spanish (not that the Hollow would've been Arrancarized, it might be strong for a nascent Hollow but it's too early for that, it would be more like what happened with Sora Inoue), so actually it's probably accurate. Anyhow, the next chapter should be on the shorter side and will close out the volume, so there will be an EXP allocation vote after that.
Perhaps "rip the mask off" was strong wording, but you actually would be ripping it off, and that is what arrancar means in Spanish (not that the Hollow would've been Arrancarized, it might be strong for a nascent Hollow but it's too early for that, it would be more like what happened with Sora Inoue), so actually it's probably accurate. Anyhow, the next chapter should be on the shorter side and will close out the volume, so there will be an EXP allocation vote after that.
Ch10. The Empty Victory (Side /Blau\)
After a moment's hesitation, you carve through the back of the Hollow's head and its mask in a single motion. The latter shatters into a million shards when you do, thanks to the dense spiritual energy the Hollow was building up in its mouth. The rest of the monster's body doesn't stick around much longer, almost immediately dissolving into a thick cloud of black motes which quickly dissipates.
"I'm surprised," Eidou Iwaba breaks the silence left in the wake of the Hollow's slaying. "When you said that you would purify it, I thought that the end result would be different, but it looks the same as when we slay one."
Tenko nods, "it did disappear pretty fast, but that's never been consistent."
"I'm sure it's purified," you state with finality, looking to Mai for support.
The Soul Reaper nods, "R-right, Chiyu s-slew, er, because she has m- a zanpakuto, that means the H- the Hollow is purified. I- we know it works b-because sh- Chiyu can send Pluses t-to Soul Society."
"Really? I want to see that now too," Eidou states with an almost creepy amount of enthusiasm.
You just shake your head. "Let's just get out of here for now. You can find me after school or something but right now, we're done."
'I'm so screwed,' Aizo panicked internally as Chiyu's friends approached her on the street. She had been trying to be good, really, following those dumb rules Chiyu set out for her and not spending any of the money the middle schooler had in her pockets (well, she'd gone to a vending machine, but it wasn't her fault how thirsty these human bodies got). And she had done her best to pay attention to the whole overview of what she was supposed to do and not do and who was who and what was what and whatever else Chiyu had told her, but the last thing she wanted after being stuck as a pill for… however long she was stuck as a pill was to listen to some teenager's life story and a bunch of rules. So she knew what Chiyu's friends looked like, and how to act around them, she just didn't quite remember which was which. 'Is Nao the tan one or the nerdy one? Or is the nerdy one Ryo? Or is one of them glasses? Oh no here they come, I'll just-'
"Hey guys," the Mod Soul greeted, trying to act as natural as possible without actually addressing any of them individually. Maybe her body language could have been less tense, but it was totally their fault for sneaking up on her.
"Hey Chiyu," the shorter of the two guys greeted her by the body's name. He was the only one in long pants, which stuck out to Aizo for some reason. "We were gonna hit up the arcade, Mio's like, eleven hundred tickets short of the big prize."
"I can definitely hit it today," presumably Mio (glasses), said with a grin.
The third one, the taller, tanner one, was the only one who hadn't spoken up so far, but Aizo caught his eyes flicking back and forth between the silver links on her left wrist and her face.
"I dunno, I'm kinda tired," Aizo lied through her teeth. She wasn't that tired, but she was still bringing Chiyu's body back home. "You know, karate and stuff," she lamely offered.
"It's alright Chiyu," the tallest one, who the Mod Soul now suspected was Ryo, stepped in before either of the Soul Reaper's other friends could try to get her to come along, "you said you were pretty busy last time, right?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah that's right," Aizo had no idea how good she was at imitating Chiyu's body language, but she couldn't get herself to be any less tense.
Ryo (Aizo is pretty sure that he's Ryo, at least), just nodded. "Just get some rest, you can come with us next time, alright?"
"Yeah, thanks," Aizo agreed, almost too quickly.
Things weren't much better when the Mod Soul got to Chiyu's house.
"Oh, Shu-nee," the soft, youthful female voice almost made Aizo jump out of her skin, literally. "You're home early," it was Chiyu's little sister, who the Mod Soul could actually remember as Natsu.
"Y-yeah, I had a lot to do at school today. I was probably just gonna rest," Aizo desperately wanted to just run up to Chiyu's room and wait for the girl to get home. One close call was enough.
The Soul Reaper's sister, who had eagerly poked her head out of the kitchen to see who it was coming home so early in the afternoon, looked downcast at who she thought was her sister's response. "Oh, I guess if you want to just rest… I thought we might be able to do something together, since Tousuke is going to be late today. And I never know with So-nii or daddy…"
'Damn it…'
"Ch-Chiyu, I-I understand why y-you w-wou- why you are-" Mai stammers as the two of you make your way through the backstreets of Banmuro City, in the direction of both your house and Mirror Mirror. "W-why you're m-mad at me," the Soul Reaper has been on the verge of a complete breakdown ever since you split from the Iwaba twins. Your stonewalling has definitely made Mai's mental state worse. It's not like you like seeing her like this, you really don't, but you are still upset at her. "I-I won't even ask you t-to forgive me, b-but I a-am sorry, I want to a-apologize, so please i-is there anything—"
"I don't know, Mai," you finally say, unable to keep the exasperation out of your voice. "I don't know what you could possibly do to make it up to me. You lied, and it feels like I was used. It's not like I'm not grateful for my powers but," you look down at your hands, and down at the knife on your hip, "but I'm not happy you haven't been telling me the truth."
"D-do, if you need t-time to think, we could—" Mai sucks in a breath, aware she would be neglecting her duties, "we don't have to hunt Hollows together."
You take a deep breath, "I'll think about it."
You barely got out of the way of the kitchen window on your way to the front door when you caught a glimpse of Tousuke sitting at the table inside. Facing the door into the hall. The hall that you'd have to pass through to get upstairs. As a ghost. In a Soul Reaper outfit. So you decided to try and walk on air to get in through your bedroom window. After throwing yourself against your house's siding several times and failing to phase through walls, you just about managed to jump onto your windowsill, open your bedroom window, and flop down onto the bed.
"Shu-nee," you hear, muffled but clear, from elsewhere on the second floor. It's Natsu, and she sounds concerned.
Wait, why would Natsu be talking to you? And why is your room empty? You told Aizo to wait for you at- oh no. You shake your head, 'There's no way she's actually hanging out with Natsu… is there?' The question burns in your mind, and you know the answer when you see the empty spot on your shelf between the karate trophies where a stuffed penguin should be.
"I think I heard something in your room," you hear Natsu's voice again, this time accompanied by footsteps. Two sets of footsteps.
" 'S fine Natsu, something must've just fallen over, I'll go check it out," that would be your voice. Though, it doesn't actually sound like you at all. "Be right back."
Despite knowing that Natsu can't see ghosts, you hide yourself between your dresser and your closet. Aizo, at the very least, has the awareness to shut the door behind her.
"Holy sh- holy crap!" The Mod Soul freezes when she sees you. You know that you would never look that shocked and surprised, but you're more concerned with how she's acting in your body than what she looks like in it. Well, you do care what she looks like, but it's not like she changed your clothes or put on crazy makeup or anything. "B-Boss," at least she's whispering, "you're back!"
"Yeah, I'm back," you cross your arms, not willing to go through yet more drama after the whole production with the Demi-Hollow and the aftermath with Mai. "And I'd like my body."
"Uh, sure, sure, just lemme let Natsu down gently, alright?"
The only response you can offer is a confused nod.
"Yeah, I just left the window open. But I did remember that I got a ton of homework, so lemme give you a rain check on that tea party," you hear Aizo tell your sister. Your head drops into your hands.
"Oh, alright Shu-nee, well, um, it was fun! I should probably get dinner started, but thanks for playing with me," your sister doesn't really sound downcast, if anything, she sounds grateful.
"Anytime kiddo," the Mod Soul responds, in a way you would never, before re-entering your room.
You just stare her down before getting back into your body and roughly shoving the soul pill into the penguin plush she so graciously brought with her to your room.
"What the heck-" you bounce the plush off the floor and wait till it comes to a stop before you continue. "-were you thinking?" You finish the question, and lean down so you're in the Mod Soul's face.
"Hey!" The plush rises to her full (which isn't saying much) height, "What the hell's your problem? You got something else you're mad about, don't take it out on me!"
"It's not just that," you say with a sigh, crossing your arms, "but I told you not to do anything that I wouldn't do. At least tell me you behaved yourself before you got home."
"I did, promise! I even had a good excuse for not hangin' out with your friends. They seemed pretty disappointed though," she crosses her wings, looking at you with as much cheek as possible while being a stuffed penguin. "And what'dya mean, 'don't do anything I wouldn't do'? You wouldn't play with your little sister? That's messed up!"
"It-it's not like that," the annoyance is still in your voice, but you deflate a bit, "I've never really done that sort of thing with Natsu, but we still spend time together. It's like that with Tousuke too."
"Not lately, from what I heard."
Not wanting to argue with the Mod Soul any longer, you pick her up by the scruff of the neck and place her in your closet. After that, you flop down on your bed, cover your eyes, and do your best to ignore Aizo's faint voice on the other side of the closet door calling you melodramatic and immature. You just know this next week isn't going to be fun.
This is an Activity Vote, in these votes, you'll have to balance your studies, social life, and Soul Reaper duties. You have SEVEN (7) action slots, with School (2), and Clubs (1) each taking up a certain number of actions. You'll have to fill out the remaining balance of actions to a total of 7, with the number of action slots each action takes up shown next to the action. School and Clubs together take up a total of 3, giving you 4 points to spend.
[] Take Mai's denreishinki so you can perform Konso and go Hollow hunting on your own (2): You're going to be spending some time away from her and Kori, for a few days at least (incompatible with next option).
[] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1): You're not happy about being used, but Mai did give you the power to fight and save your family, so you should probably set things straight. You're pretty sure she's not actually capable of having malicious intentions (incompatible with previous option).
[] Put some time aside to study (1): You do have exams coming up in a few weeks, you need some time to study.
[] Take on extra duties in Karate Club (1): There are a few students in the dojo which runs the Club coming up for tests soon, and you'd like to give some of them a hand.
[] Put some time aside for your family (1): Considering what Aizo said, and how much you genuinely enjoyed the aquarium outing last time, spending more time with your family would be both beneficial and enjoyable for you.
[] Hang out with your friends this weekend (1): Aizo did say she ran into them, so they're probably expecting that you'll all hangout outside of school sooner rather than later.
[] Train your Soul Reaper powers (1): Mai's given you the basics, so even without her or Kori actively training you you can make some progress on your own, you're sure of it.
[] Take some time for yourself (1): Everything is just so… overwhelming. You just want to be alone, for a little while at least.
"Oh man," a golden-haired teen, clad in a white leather biker jacket trimmed in gold and a pair of dark sunglasses (in spite of the late hour), salivated over the motorcycle she was running her hand over. It had been weeks since she'd seen it, a product of dozens of hours of work with her old master back home. The cream bike with black leather seats was her most prized possession. "I can't believe Uncle 'Dou actually picked you up for me," her Japanese was imperfect, though she kept using it, even as she gushed to herself over the bike, "he could've just kept you at home for himself, heh, I don't know how I'm gonna thank him."
She slung her carry-on, all she had brought on the fifty-eight hundred mile flight, onto the back of her bike, and strapped it on. It was still sitting precariously, but she didn't particularly care, she was a good driver. Aware that she had to make a good impression on her first drive in Japan, she placed the helmet hanging from the handlebars atop her head and pulled the strap tight against her chin. It was going to mess her hair up, but she was going to bed right away anyway, so it didn't really matter.
"Alright," she cracked her knuckles, kicked her ride into gear, and rolled out of the airport's long term parking lot. "Time to see how bad the Hollow scene is in this Banmuro Town, Uncle did say the twins were having some trouble last time we talked," with that she licked her lips, revved her engine, and took off for the sleepy city on the metropolis' outskirts.
You can allocate your experience points however you want, though limiting yourself to multiples of 5 would be appreciated. Please refer to the Mechanics informational threadmark for skill upgrade costs. Sub-Skills will be offered once Chiyu is more used to her powers. Even if you want to dump all of your points into one skill, please still include the number in your vote.
Skills reposted here for your convenience:
[] Armed Combat (Novice/Unfavored)
(0/125)
[] Unarmed Combat (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Movement Arts (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Reiryoku Manipulation (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored)
(30/125)
A/N: Well, I did say it would be shorter. If possible, please vote in the plan format.
A/N2: The last Chiyu segment of this chapter has been changed, as published it wasn't very good and was very OOC, hope you enjoy.
"I'm surprised," Eidou Iwaba breaks the silence left in the wake of the Hollow's slaying. "When you said that you would purify it, I thought that the end result would be different, but it looks the same as when we slay one."
Tenko nods, "it did disappear pretty fast, but that's never been consistent."
"I'm sure it's purified," you state with finality, looking to Mai for support.
The Soul Reaper nods, "R-right, Chiyu s-slew, er, because she has m- a zanpakuto, that means the H- the Hollow is purified. I- we know it works b-because sh- Chiyu can send Pluses t-to Soul Society."
"Really? I want to see that now too," Eidou states with an almost creepy amount of enthusiasm.
You just shake your head. "Let's just get out of here for now. You can find me after school or something but right now, we're done."
~~~~~~~~~~
'I'm so screwed,' Aizo panicked internally as Chiyu's friends approached her on the street. She had been trying to be good, really, following those dumb rules Chiyu set out for her and not spending any of the money the middle schooler had in her pockets (well, she'd gone to a vending machine, but it wasn't her fault how thirsty these human bodies got). And she had done her best to pay attention to the whole overview of what she was supposed to do and not do and who was who and what was what and whatever else Chiyu had told her, but the last thing she wanted after being stuck as a pill for… however long she was stuck as a pill was to listen to some teenager's life story and a bunch of rules. So she knew what Chiyu's friends looked like, and how to act around them, she just didn't quite remember which was which. 'Is Nao the tan one or the nerdy one? Or is the nerdy one Ryo? Or is one of them glasses? Oh no here they come, I'll just-'
"Hey guys," the Mod Soul greeted, trying to act as natural as possible without actually addressing any of them individually. Maybe her body language could have been less tense, but it was totally their fault for sneaking up on her.
"Hey Chiyu," the shorter of the two guys greeted her by the body's name. He was the only one in long pants, which stuck out to Aizo for some reason. "We were gonna hit up the arcade, Mio's like, eleven hundred tickets short of the big prize."
"I can definitely hit it today," presumably Mio (glasses), said with a grin.
The third one, the taller, tanner one, was the only one who hadn't spoken up so far, but Aizo caught his eyes flicking back and forth between the silver links on her left wrist and her face.
"I dunno, I'm kinda tired," Aizo lied through her teeth. She wasn't that tired, but she was still bringing Chiyu's body back home. "You know, karate and stuff," she lamely offered.
"It's alright Chiyu," the tallest one, who the Mod Soul now suspected was Ryo, stepped in before either of the Soul Reaper's other friends could try to get her to come along, "you said you were pretty busy last time, right?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah that's right," Aizo had no idea how good she was at imitating Chiyu's body language, but she couldn't get herself to be any less tense.
Ryo (Aizo is pretty sure that he's Ryo, at least), just nodded. "Just get some rest, you can come with us next time, alright?"
"Yeah, thanks," Aizo agreed, almost too quickly.
Things weren't much better when the Mod Soul got to Chiyu's house.
"Oh, Shu-nee," the soft, youthful female voice almost made Aizo jump out of her skin, literally. "You're home early," it was Chiyu's little sister, who the Mod Soul could actually remember as Natsu.
"Y-yeah, I had a lot to do at school today. I was probably just gonna rest," Aizo desperately wanted to just run up to Chiyu's room and wait for the girl to get home. One close call was enough.
The Soul Reaper's sister, who had eagerly poked her head out of the kitchen to see who it was coming home so early in the afternoon, looked downcast at who she thought was her sister's response. "Oh, I guess if you want to just rest… I thought we might be able to do something together, since Tousuke is going to be late today. And I never know with So-nii or daddy…"
'Damn it…'
~~~~~~~~~~
"Ch-Chiyu, I-I understand why y-you w-wou- why you are-" Mai stammers as the two of you make your way through the backstreets of Banmuro City, in the direction of both your house and Mirror Mirror. "W-why you're m-mad at me," the Soul Reaper has been on the verge of a complete breakdown ever since you split from the Iwaba twins. Your stonewalling has definitely made Mai's mental state worse. It's not like you like seeing her like this, you really don't, but you are still upset at her. "I-I won't even ask you t-to forgive me, b-but I a-am sorry, I want to a-apologize, so please i-is there anything—"
"I don't know, Mai," you finally say, unable to keep the exasperation out of your voice. "I don't know what you could possibly do to make it up to me. You lied, and it feels like I was used. It's not like I'm not grateful for my powers but," you look down at your hands, and down at the knife on your hip, "but I'm not happy you haven't been telling me the truth."
"D-do, if you need t-time to think, we could—" Mai sucks in a breath, aware she would be neglecting her duties, "we don't have to hunt Hollows together."
You take a deep breath, "I'll think about it."
~~~~~~~~~~
You barely got out of the way of the kitchen window on your way to the front door when you caught a glimpse of Tousuke sitting at the table inside. Facing the door into the hall. The hall that you'd have to pass through to get upstairs. As a ghost. In a Soul Reaper outfit. So you decided to try and walk on air to get in through your bedroom window. After throwing yourself against your house's siding several times and failing to phase through walls, you just about managed to jump onto your windowsill, open your bedroom window, and flop down onto the bed.
"Shu-nee," you hear, muffled but clear, from elsewhere on the second floor. It's Natsu, and she sounds concerned.
Wait, why would Natsu be talking to you? And why is your room empty? You told Aizo to wait for you at- oh no. You shake your head, 'There's no way she's actually hanging out with Natsu… is there?' The question burns in your mind, and you know the answer when you see the empty spot on your shelf between the karate trophies where a stuffed penguin should be.
"I think I heard something in your room," you hear Natsu's voice again, this time accompanied by footsteps. Two sets of footsteps.
" 'S fine Natsu, something must've just fallen over, I'll go check it out," that would be your voice. Though, it doesn't actually sound like you at all. "Be right back."
Despite knowing that Natsu can't see ghosts, you hide yourself between your dresser and your closet. Aizo, at the very least, has the awareness to shut the door behind her.
"Holy sh- holy crap!" The Mod Soul freezes when she sees you. You know that you would never look that shocked and surprised, but you're more concerned with how she's acting in your body than what she looks like in it. Well, you do care what she looks like, but it's not like she changed your clothes or put on crazy makeup or anything. "B-Boss," at least she's whispering, "you're back!"
"Yeah, I'm back," you cross your arms, not willing to go through yet more drama after the whole production with the Demi-Hollow and the aftermath with Mai. "And I'd like my body."
"Uh, sure, sure, just lemme let Natsu down gently, alright?"
The only response you can offer is a confused nod.
"Yeah, I just left the window open. But I did remember that I got a ton of homework, so lemme give you a rain check on that tea party," you hear Aizo tell your sister. Your head drops into your hands.
"Oh, alright Shu-nee, well, um, it was fun! I should probably get dinner started, but thanks for playing with me," your sister doesn't really sound downcast, if anything, she sounds grateful.
"Anytime kiddo," the Mod Soul responds, in a way you would never, before re-entering your room.
You just stare her down before getting back into your body and roughly shoving the soul pill into the penguin plush she so graciously brought with her to your room.
"What the heck-" you bounce the plush off the floor and wait till it comes to a stop before you continue. "-were you thinking?" You finish the question, and lean down so you're in the Mod Soul's face.
"Hey!" The plush rises to her full (which isn't saying much) height, "What the hell's your problem? You got something else you're mad about, don't take it out on me!"
"It's not just that," you say with a sigh, crossing your arms, "but I told you not to do anything that I wouldn't do. At least tell me you behaved yourself before you got home."
"I did, promise! I even had a good excuse for not hangin' out with your friends. They seemed pretty disappointed though," she crosses her wings, looking at you with as much cheek as possible while being a stuffed penguin. "And what'dya mean, 'don't do anything I wouldn't do'? You wouldn't play with your little sister? That's messed up!"
"It-it's not like that," the annoyance is still in your voice, but you deflate a bit, "I've never really done that sort of thing with Natsu, but we still spend time together. It's like that with Tousuke too."
"Not lately, from what I heard."
Not wanting to argue with the Mod Soul any longer, you pick her up by the scruff of the neck and place her in your closet. After that, you flop down on your bed, cover your eyes, and do your best to ignore Aizo's faint voice on the other side of the closet door calling you melodramatic and immature. You just know this next week isn't going to be fun.
This is an Activity Vote, in these votes, you'll have to balance your studies, social life, and Soul Reaper duties. You have SEVEN (7) action slots, with School (2), and Clubs (1) each taking up a certain number of actions. You'll have to fill out the remaining balance of actions to a total of 7, with the number of action slots each action takes up shown next to the action. School and Clubs together take up a total of 3, giving you 4 points to spend.
[] Take Mai's denreishinki so you can perform Konso and go Hollow hunting on your own (2): You're going to be spending some time away from her and Kori, for a few days at least (incompatible with next option).
[] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1): You're not happy about being used, but Mai did give you the power to fight and save your family, so you should probably set things straight. You're pretty sure she's not actually capable of having malicious intentions (incompatible with previous option).
[] Put some time aside to study (1): You do have exams coming up in a few weeks, you need some time to study.
[] Take on extra duties in Karate Club (1): There are a few students in the dojo which runs the Club coming up for tests soon, and you'd like to give some of them a hand.
[] Put some time aside for your family (1): Considering what Aizo said, and how much you genuinely enjoyed the aquarium outing last time, spending more time with your family would be both beneficial and enjoyable for you.
[] Hang out with your friends this weekend (1): Aizo did say she ran into them, so they're probably expecting that you'll all hangout outside of school sooner rather than later.
[] Train your Soul Reaper powers (1): Mai's given you the basics, so even without her or Kori actively training you you can make some progress on your own, you're sure of it.
[] Take some time for yourself (1): Everything is just so… overwhelming. You just want to be alone, for a little while at least.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh man," a golden-haired teen, clad in a white leather biker jacket trimmed in gold and a pair of dark sunglasses (in spite of the late hour), salivated over the motorcycle she was running her hand over. It had been weeks since she'd seen it, a product of dozens of hours of work with her old master back home. The cream bike with black leather seats was her most prized possession. "I can't believe Uncle 'Dou actually picked you up for me," her Japanese was imperfect, though she kept using it, even as she gushed to herself over the bike, "he could've just kept you at home for himself, heh, I don't know how I'm gonna thank him."
She slung her carry-on, all she had brought on the fifty-eight hundred mile flight, onto the back of her bike, and strapped it on. It was still sitting precariously, but she didn't particularly care, she was a good driver. Aware that she had to make a good impression on her first drive in Japan, she placed the helmet hanging from the handlebars atop her head and pulled the strap tight against her chin. It was going to mess her hair up, but she was going to bed right away anyway, so it didn't really matter.
"Alright," she cracked her knuckles, kicked her ride into gear, and rolled out of the airport's long term parking lot. "Time to see how bad the Hollow scene is in this Banmuro Town, Uncle did say the twins were having some trouble last time we talked," with that she licked her lips, revved her engine, and took off for the sleepy city on the metropolis' outskirts.
~~~~~~~~~~
CONGRATULATIONS!
You've completed another volume of A Pure Sword, A Pure Soul! Because of this, and Chiyu's progress, you've earned 150 Experience Points!CONGRATULATIONS!
You can allocate your experience points however you want, though limiting yourself to multiples of 5 would be appreciated. Please refer to the Mechanics informational threadmark for skill upgrade costs. Sub-Skills will be offered once Chiyu is more used to her powers. Even if you want to dump all of your points into one skill, please still include the number in your vote.
Skills reposted here for your convenience:
[] Armed Combat (Novice/Unfavored)
(0/125)
[] Unarmed Combat (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Movement Arts (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Reiryoku Manipulation (Competent/Favored)
(0/300)
[] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored)
(30/125)
A/N: Well, I did say it would be shorter. If possible, please vote in the plan format.
A/N2: The last Chiyu segment of this chapter has been changed, as published it wasn't very good and was very OOC, hope you enjoy.
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Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
Now I feel bad for Aizo. I can understand that she had a really bad day, but she really should appreciate her stunt double more.
- Location
- Australia
Why's Chiyu so violent to her anyway? It feels really mean for no reason, even if she can't feel pain.
[X] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1)
[X] Train your Soul Reaper powers (4)
[X] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored) (95 xp)
[X] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1)
[X] Train your Soul Reaper powers (4)
[X] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored) (95 xp)
Seperate plans would be ideal.
Did I go too overboard with that? I wasn't sure if I did or not, if if was OOC or too harsh feel free to say so, I wrote it as Chiyu being pretty past her breaking point vis a vis Mai/Soul Reaper dealings and taking it out on an (mostly) innocent third party. With some of that willingness to beat up on the plush being that the first thing Aizo did when she met Chiyu was steal Chiyu's body, while the first thing Mai did was give Chiyu her powers.
- Location
- Australia
Honestly, kinda. Like, there's this:
Chiyu's obviously got empathy for Aizo's circumstances that give context to the body theft, but thereafter she keeps smacking Aizo around for what, yelling in an unfamiliar environment? To punctuate her sentences? Even before this last update, Aizo keeps being beaten despite not doing anything wrong, giving a bit of lip to Chiyu at worst. Even if she can't feel pain, it's still Chiyu grossly abusing her power over Aizo.
Rereading that last segment I really didn't like it, and you're right about her being OOC and OTT. It's been edited to be more in-character and reasonable on Chiyu's part, even if the end result is mostly the same (Chiyu's still tired and very stressed), I hope you all find it better now.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] Plan: Covering weakness.
-[X] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored) (30/125)
--[X] +95 XP.
-[X] Armed Combat (Novice/Unfavored) (0/125)
--[X] +55 XP.
[X] Balance between leisure and commitment.
- [X] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1): You're not happy about being used, but Mai did give you the power to fight and save your family, so you should probably set things straight. You're pretty sure she's not actually capable of having malicious intentions (incompatible with previous option).
- [X] Put some time aside for your family (1): Considering what Aizo said, and how much you genuinely enjoyed the aquarium outing last time, spending more time with your family would be both beneficial and enjoyable for you.
- [X] Hang out with your friends this weekend (1): Aizo did say she ran into them, so they're probably expecting that you'll all hangout outside of school sooner rather than later.
- [X] Train your Soul Reaper powers (1): Mai's given you the basics, so even without her or Kori actively training you can make some progress on your own, you're sure of it.
-[X] Physical Enhancement (Novice/Unfavored) (30/125)
--[X] +95 XP.
-[X] Armed Combat (Novice/Unfavored) (0/125)
--[X] +55 XP.
[X] Balance between leisure and commitment.
- [X] Set aside time to go to Mirror Mirror and sit down with Mai, and possibly Kori Kagami (1): You're not happy about being used, but Mai did give you the power to fight and save your family, so you should probably set things straight. You're pretty sure she's not actually capable of having malicious intentions (incompatible with previous option).
- [X] Put some time aside for your family (1): Considering what Aizo said, and how much you genuinely enjoyed the aquarium outing last time, spending more time with your family would be both beneficial and enjoyable for you.
- [X] Hang out with your friends this weekend (1): Aizo did say she ran into them, so they're probably expecting that you'll all hangout outside of school sooner rather than later.
- [X] Train your Soul Reaper powers (1): Mai's given you the basics, so even without her or Kori actively training you can make some progress on your own, you're sure of it.