Chapter 15: An Insomniac Night

[Wilfora]

Time: Unbeknownst

Place: Hueco Mundo -- Turning Grounds

Another blur of blue and white swept past. Eyes moved rapidly, searching for the movement or, better yet, the thing that had moved in the first place.

A finger traced an exposed spine and shudders could be felt.

The figure turned around to find an empty hall. It raged and stomped an angered foot on the ground, throwing its hands to the ceiling.

Fingers danced up the exposed torso, making the figure shiver; it tickled.

It turned and snatched at the other figure, clenching a wrist tightly. Slowly, the head looked up and found who it was.

“Jake…” a growl of annoyance followed the snarled name.

“Hello Stray. Seems you just can’t keep me out—”

Stray woke, startled. She slipped a hand over her mouth and bit down hard. Stupid dream, Stray thought, letting go of her hand. Why does he plague me and not let me rest?! She sighed and turned to look towards the Turning grounds.

Below, activity was present and ceros flickered in and out of view every once and a while.

Stray sprang from her tree, landing upright on her feet. She strode forward, winding up on an outcrop. Everything below was visible. She peered around looking for the adjucha that had followed her.

She found him easily. He was hiding in a corner of the Turning Grounds. The very place Stray had lay when Shira had fought grandfather; scared, weak and powerless to help. She was no longer that weak little helpless hollow. Stray hoped soon the adjucha, that was in her old place, would grow strong.

From the end of the valley, other Gillian and adjuchas poured into the grounds.

More of them? Stray snickered, before turning back to the fights. Must like the spiritual effects of this gathering. She relaxed a bit but could not get the memory to flow again. The activities far below were beginning to pique her interest.

A small band of adjuchas kept launching cero at a much larger in size and mass adjucha. The cero’s would damage that larger one but its regeneration kept the hollow looking healthy. It was discouraging to the smaller ones.

The small ones were arranged in a triangle. One in the back, two in the front. The two up front fired another round of rapid ceros at the creature before them. They hit the beast and took a chunk of hollow away with each cero bite. When they were done and the sand had cleared, the hollow was only fully of tiny holes though. It laughed. A slurred voice told them it tickled.

The third hollow was scrawny. But that meant nothing to him with his power. The little one slipped a hand through each hollow before him, not breaking the skin. No blood flowed out. Just two hands plunged deep within the ones who had guarded him. It pulled its hands out, bright shimmers of orange and teal energy dancing on his palms. Both of the hollows turned slightly to look at him, before their bodies withered finally into sand. More for the desert floor.
The third hollow opened his mouth and swallowed the spheres. His body erupted.

The pieces of the hollow changed then. Water droplets with little swirls of darkness in them, formed from the hollow. A small powerful wind blew through the water droplets and smaller portions of water.

The water then followed behind, as it was entranced by the wind’s call. It spiraled upward, a small tornado of water formed. Miniature ones branched off but detached from the main rotation. Orange and teal flashed brightly off and on, while within the creature was restructured.

Hierro was white over the new flesh. There were bands of orange water swirls around its wrists that traveled up his arms. Part way up, the color tints fading from an orange to a teal of blue waters. The swirls also turned for water ones, to tornado or air swirls. The water swirls looking like water beads falling off the skin, though they were permanently inked in. A face formed, and hair fell down to its shoulders. The hair was in dread locks, pieces of orange and blue hierro beads decorating it.

Hierro formed around the lower legs and around the hands. The thumbs were left bare. The rest of the fingers were hooked and claw like in form.

The new arrancar opened its eyes quickly, as it felt a massive reiatsu coming at it. A cero was aimed directly at the new creature. The new arrancar thrust its hand forward and the cero met with it. In the palm, the cero turned to a static sphere, When all of the cero had been turned to reiatsu, the arrancar brought it to its mouth, and ate.

The dread locks that fell from his head turned a deathly red, not matching the rest of the colors of the arrancar’s body. The locks lifted, radiating off the arrancar’s head. Energy lifted off the hair a bit at a time and a ball of energy formed. An orange edge formed around it and the cero was complete. The arrancar fired.

But the same arrancar didn’t wait around to find out if the hollow was another part of the desert yet or not. It moved forward, quick since the air of tornadoes had become its stride. The new arrancar found the big one easily, as the dust seemed to blow away from wherever it placed its being. Again its hair rose, turning read; this time quickly. A cero fired shortly there after.

Once more the hollow rushed the weaker on of its kind. It had to be sure.

A tail slammed into the exposed fleshy torso of the arrancar. It was sent tumbling in summersaults away from the beast he was after. Small diamond holes began to heal, as the shocked arrancar stood. It’s anger rose above normal levels and, having had enough of it, the little one grabbed at the tops of his arms. The tattoos gleamed brightly as he slide his hands down the arms, activating the dormant power just below the skin.
Its hands shimmered as well, and as the last of the tattoos came alive, reiatsu soared.

The tattoos peeled off his skin eagerly, elongating and twisting into whips. They writhered in its grim, snapping at the ground to be free and wreak havoc.

The arrancar surged forward at the larger but weaker adjucha, the whips read to slash away the flesh of the beast that wouldn’t give up on life. The ink whips snaked across the sand elongating and dancing, to find its first kill; its Primera Muete. The whips latched onto something and he moved to the prize, quickly as was the time for the death of it.

The whips hardened and the swirls became thorns of barbed wire. The creature screeched as the wires and thorns entered its body, tearing it from the outside in, apart. Mister arrancar launched another cero at the menace, then threw itself at the weakening hollow. Whips were buried deep within the hollow by now and the arrancar sunk its jaw down on exposed heirio.

In a fluid motion the dread locks lifted and changed green. The whips began to draw in energy from the dying creature, recharging the arrancar. As the beast below him swindled to dust, the tattoos crawled back onto his skin, happy with their fill of power.

The arrancar grinned wildly and surged forward content to kill more; to feel more of this unnatural pulsing that ran through him. It became lost within the heard of hollows.