Chapter 35: Hollows I
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Chapter 35: Hollows I
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'So... What the hell is the point of Hell in this godforsaken realm?' Akashi had to wonder, 'Even the Voices are confused.'
Akashi flashed forward with a clear goal in mind, the rooftops of Karakura Town sweeping by under him in a blur of color and motion.
From the moment he stepped into Karakura town, he perceived multiple sources of darkness.
Kurayami granted Akashi the ability to sense negative or dark emotions, provided that the emotions are intense enough.
Yet throughout all of his years in soul society, he had never once sensed such clusters of pure unbridled darkness.
And Darkness was what he needed most.
The source of the darkness was indeed hollows, and there were a few, treading the streets of Karakura Town looking for delicious souls to feed upon.
The first Hollow he encountered had the shape of a bloated ape, its limbs overgrown and dragging against the pavement.
Its mask was cracked at the jaw, not enough to signify near death but enough to show past battles.
The beast skulked around a public park, invisible to human eyes, its grotesque tongue dragging along the grass like a worm tasting its next meal.
Akashi didn't draw his blade at first. He watched.
It almost seemed as if it was using its tongue to track something, making grotesque sounds from time to time, yet the humans passing by it were none the wiser.
It's truly lucky for them that hollows are picky eaters. Hollows, after all, don't go on rampages through downtown every day.
They're more like supernatural predators, stalking spiritually "loud" targets in quieter areas.
That's why the hollow lunged for a Plus; a young boy who had likely died in a car accident.
His chain was short and fractured, the last few links ticking down like the hands of a clock.
Akashi appeared behind the Hollow before it could finish its lunge, landing with a faint tap of his sandal against the concrete.
"I wanted to watch a bit more... Unfortunate," Akashi murmured, not only had his voice attracted the hollow, but so did his Reiatsu, far more attractive to it than the Plus by the side.
The Hollow turned and roared, but he had already stepped forward. He unsheathed Kurayami with a single, clean motion.
The air dropped in temperature. Kurayami stretched unnaturally long, longer than it previously was as if its size is under Akashi's control.
The blade struck the Hollow's forearm first, and if he continued, it would've slashed through the creature's entire being.
However, Akashi pulled back at the very last moment. Huge hollows are a pain to deal with for inexperienced Shinigami, such as the students of Shin'ō Academy, but otherwise, they're easy to deal with.
Their size is what makes them a difficult opponent as the average shinigami blade can not fully slice through them.
What may be a fatal attack for a human would be just a slightly deep wound to such massive hollows.
Kurayami, however, is very long, and Akashi can make it longer by using more darkness. Still, he didn't want to kill such an interesting creature so quickly as he observed it.
The creature howled, but what truly intrigued Akashi wasn't the pain; it was the reaction.
Upon contact, the Hollow's flesh didn't simply bleed; it dissolved. Black liquid, like ink, seeped into Kurayami's edge as if the blade was thirsting for something only this monster could offer.
Darkness, so so much darkness.
Kurayami's true appetite revealed itself: the spiritual corruption and emotional torment that birthed Hollows in the first place.
It drank that despair greedily, transferring it into Akashi's inner world, where the ocean of ink awaited.
Within seconds, the Hollow was paralyzed, as if its body recognized the devourer inside Kurayami and recoiled in primordial fear.
In the end, however, its instinct prevailed as it bellowed ever louder, lunging at Akashi.
"That..." Akashi raised a brow in doubt as he raised the blade one final time. A swift vertical slash ended it. The mask cracked. The darkness was drawn in.
The Plus watched silently, trembling.
Akashi turned. "You'll be fine."
He performed the Konsō, and the boy's soul vanished in a cascade of blue light.
Akashi wasn't truly certain whether the boy would be fine. Ending up in the farthest districts of soul society is no good, but it will at least be better than being hunted by hollows.
The second Hollow came faster. Akashi had already sensed it from far away; a presence flaring with hatred and starvation.
This one was quadrupedal, like a skeletal lizard with a serpentine tail and a narrow, elongated mask.
It crawled along the side of a building, clutching to the wall like a gecko, sniffing the air for fresh souls.
This time, Akashi wasted no words.
He used Shunpo, reappearing directly behind the Hollow, silently, he believed, yet the creature was still able to sense him as it instantly turned around and lunged; lightning fast; but so was he.
The Hollow's claws scraped his uniform, but only just. Akashi spun mid-air and kicked it down from the wall. Concrete cracked as it crashed.
He landed a moment later atop the dazed beast, his blade falling upon it and diving straight through the hollow's stomach, making sure not to instantly kill it.
'Devour!' Kurayami obeyed. She only needs contact with a target to absorb their darkness, and that's what the blade did, if only for a few seconds.
That was enough for Akashi to understand something, his eyes lighting up as he jumped back, avoiding the claws of the hollow which had started resisting.
When a Shinigami slays a Hollow with their Zanpakutō, they purify the corrupted soul.
This is the intended outcome of a Hollow slaying. The purified soul is then sent to the Soul Society.
The idea is that the Hollow was originally a human soul that became twisted.
The purification allows that soul to return to the cycle of reincarnation.
When Akashi killed the previous hollow, however, he didn't feel like he merely purified it.
It was as if his Zanpakuto's; as all Zanpakuto; Inherent purification power was fighting Kurayami's devouring prowess.
The end result is that half of the hollow's darkness was purified while the rest was devoured by Kurayami.
However, when he nailed this hollow to the ground with his blade, he felt like he could devour all of its darkness.
That made sense to him because the purification power only happens when the hollow is killed.
What confused him though was what would happen if he devoured all of the hollow's darkness while it still lives.
Would it be sent to soul society the same as the purification process or would it revert back to its original form, a Plus?
Akashi was unsure, but he didn't dare verify his thoughts in public just in case he was being watched, which is very likely in Karakura town.
So he lifted his palm. "Hadō #33: Sōkatsui."
A blast of searing blue fire engulfed the Hollow's torso. It screeched, writhing in pain, but surprisingly didn't die.
"Not enough output, huh?" Akashi frowned, but what could he do, his spiritual reserve was poor, and he couldn't squander it all on a single spell.
Whereas someone of Aizen's stature could cast the same spell but capable of easily destroying a Menos Grande, Akashi's spell struggled to kill a huge hollow.
It's not only the difference in quantity of Reiatsu but also quality.
Both people have the same spellbook and say the same incantation. But one's casting it with a garden hose and the other with a fire hose connected to a volcano.
Therefore, he started using the most cost-effective method, using Bakudo to hinder before attacking with his blade.
He leaped back, evading its claw, before dashing in and slashing once across the mask. Kurayami again drank eagerly, the dark fluids seeping into the blade.
This time, Akashi verified another idea.
At that exact moment, the Voices in his head got louder, clear as if the screams of the hollow before him.
Not real words, but thoughts; regret, fury, pain; moments of the creature's life before it became this twisted form.
'I see… So the darkness I devour carries memory.' Memories would be pushing it as they were more like annoying whispers and images that provided him with little value.
They were merely fragments of the Hollow's former humanity as they flickered across Akashi's mind: an image of a woman crying, and a hospital bed.
Nothing of value yet, 'But the ability has potential.' Akashi realized. Maybe with Kurayami's growth, he would be able to see more.
Akashi finished the Hollow with a downward cleave.
Another drop in the ocean.
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