Young Writers Society

Ch 4 – Death’s Not Like I Thought it Would Be

In the end, we didn’t get any fine, upper class food as we had hoped; instead we had to stick with barley. And let me tell you. If I thought the stuff was bad when I was alive, then the barley that we ate seemed to be about twice as worse. Or maybe it was because of the awkward silence that hung between us like a heavy food as we forced the foods down out throats. The last thing I remembered was him picking me up. I guess I passed out after that. Finished, I placed down my bowl and softly whispered, “Sorry.” “What?” He said, plastering on a fake grin and trying to laugh it off. “What are you talking about? Sorry for what?” I hugged my knees to my chest. “You know why.” He stopped smiling and placed down his food, knowing that this was going to take a while.

“I’m the reason we’re dead.” His head jerked up. He hadn’t been expecting that. But, before he could protest, she continued. “I’m the one that edged the samurais on. That’s the reason your dead. That’s the reason we are both dead. It’s all my fault.” He reached out a comforting hand, but she shrugged it off. “We didn’t get to eat good food because I lost control. I promised that I would never lose control again.” This time, he just stared down at his hands, where he had placed them in his lap.

Then he spoke up softly, “No it’s not.” She looked at him in surprise. “It not your fault, it not my fault, and it’s not even those samurais’ fault. What happens happens, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. So stop looking so helpless. Stop being so scared, and if you never want to lose control again, then beat down your impulse. At least one of us didn’t die alone. We still have each other; make the best of it, not the worst.” He looked at her and was relieved to see a faint smile pulling at her lips. She looked up at him, as he had stood up in the ecstasy of his speech, with tears brimming in her eyes. “Thanks, brother.” “Oh, for the love of- Come here.” Then he hugged her and let her cry into his shoulder.

830 AD – Heian Period

Well, we’ve been dead for five years now and our time was almost up. The chains on our chests were almost gone, and, if my prediction from five years ago was correct, then we would be sent to the after life soon. I hope the place was relatively nice. Though we should have aged five years, we hadn’t aged at all and maintained our nine year old bodies. We may have aged a little, a month or so, but we couldn’t tell. I also hoped it was quick and painless. But, I guess we get what we get.

What we didn’t expect, though, was for us to die while trying to rob a house. (Old habits never die, I guess. Pun not intended.) We were doing what we do best, which was shoving every expensive looking item into our seemingly endless pockets. That’s when I felt a intense pain in my chest, like I was being impaled again. I looked down just in time to see the chain on my chest completely disintegrate into the air. I opened my mouth to scream, but then I disappeared too.

When I came back to reality, I had an overwhelming taste for humans. I needed to eat their spirits and I needed to eat it now. The hunger was overwhelmingly blood-thirsty. I looked to the side, another creature like me stood there, staring me down. He looked like a dragon, with bone plating instead of scales. He smiled, his large fangs glistened menacingly. “Hello, Izanami. What do you say we give up robbing people of their goods, and, instead, rob them of their souls?”

His voice was odd, out of this world. It reminded me of stick grating against stone. But, when I replied, I sounded the same, only more feminine, “Sounds good.” And then we stretched out our wings and ripped through the ceiling, our instinct overwhelming our new bodies, our dragon-like bodies. We were no longer even remotely human; we had turned into blood-thirsty creatures and I was a bit sad that it was covering up my intelligence, but then my sadness was forgotten, not to be remembered for a long time, as I dived towards an unsuspecting woman walking along the road. Time for dinner! We salivated at the thought.

2008 – Modern Japan

We had risen through the ranks. Slowly, but surely, we had gotten to the top. We were now Vasto Lordes, the highest rank of hollows. I was glad to have a somewhat human form again, I must say, as it was quite annoying when I had combined with all those other stupid hollows to form a Gillian. Then, as an Adjucha, I found great relief that Ookami and I no longer had to work together as a team, we were strong, independent hollows then. But now that I was a Vasto Lorde, you could defiantly tell that I used to be human, because I was shaped as one.

I’m also sure that if you looked past my now silvery, white hair, my fifteen year old body, protruding fangs, small horns on my head, bone-like wings, pointy ears, black nails and bone plating, you could tell that I was just a stronger human… who was dead. Ah, who am I kidding? There was no way you could tell that I used to be a human except for the fact that I had opposable thumbs and stood on my legs. But, even then, I could have once been a monkey. That was another thing I was glad about. After becoming a Vasto Lorde, I had gotten my sense of humor back and tested it at least ten times a day by throwing sarcastic comments at Ookami.

Ookami and I still hung out, even though it was no longer necessary. We were the stongest and oldest hollows in Hueco Mundo, at only age 15. Ironic isn’t it? That we were almost invincible? Even the shinigami captains couldn’t stand a fight against us independently. I smiled. Life was good. That is, until the egotistic shinigami captain, Sosuke Aizen, and his little puppy dog followers, Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tousen, showed up, leaving Soul Society after their little revolt. Suffice to say, I hated them. It didn’t help that he placed me as number 1 in his army and Ookami as number 2. We even had the tattoos to show it. But this just signified to me that it looked like we were his biggest followers, when, in reality, all I wanted to do was rip his heart out of his chest and eat it while it was still beating.

The only thing I appreciate that he did for me was turn me into an Arrancar. By doing this, he made me even more powerful then I already was. And we both had our own swords now. I remembered what Ookami told me so long ago. That he didn’t want a sword that had a part in killing him. He wanted a sword he could call his own. Well, we could now. We practiced daily, rising even more in power in doing so. We were the strongest hollows in Aizen’s army, and nobody dared to say otherwise. I was actually beginning to appreciate Aizen, until he decided that I wasn’t as strong as he wanted, so he promptly knocked me out and experimented on me with the help of Szayel Aporro Granz. When I came to, I was indeed stronger. My right eye was now red and it let me take in information on others, it also made me about three times stronger. But it came with a price. It made me soft. It gave me emotions that the other hollow had long forgotten. I remembered how to laugh with sincerity, not just manically. I remembered sadness, what it felt to lose a loved one. I also learned to love others, not just myself and Ookami. Ookami was furious at what they did to me, he argued that they must experiment on him, or we would leave the army. And so, they experimented on him. He came out being able to shape shift into any animal possible, even animals that never existed. But he had the same side affects as me. We were both more humane now, and more shinigami like then hollow. Though I do have a maniac moment every once in a while, but they pass after time. But I find how funny the irony of this is. For, because they experimented on both of us, we left Aizen’s army, hoping to get a place in Soul Society. Boy, were we in for a bumpy ride.