The Hole In My Chest [Pvt/Trial]

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There appeared to be some sort of ruckus in the street behind her; most likely one of the market stalls getting over or something similar. She didn't bother to stop and look, and merely continued down the alleyway, her face coated in shadow as the buildings around her obscured the sun. As the darkness slid up her body, she felt almost like... There was someone before her. She shivered, and prepared to take another step, wondering internally what she would make for supper that day with all of her newly acquired yummy vegetables. However, it was sadly not to be.

She stepped forward and felt a hand pressing on her back. She swivelled around to see who it was that was touching her out of the blue, however she had the strange feeling of simultaneously falling. Her body dropped to the ground, as she turned around to face Moeru. However, as soon as her body hit the ground, it was apparent that it was not her body. It was a Gigai. A... Gigai? Ness looked at Moeru, confused for a moment. He looked... Familiar. She felt her body begin to grow incredibly hot and flushed, as if she had instantly developed a seizure. She dropped her bag of things, and fell to her knees, her vision wobbling, her whole body erupting in pain.

What was happening!? What was that thing that had fallen out of her. She looked up at the person before her, who looked no more than a child. Why had she not been able to see him before? Then she remembered. His name was Moeru. He was a brat. And he had removed her from her body. Expressly against the orders Blodeuwen had given Nessa. She shuddered, the pain reaching her extremities. It felt like every cell in her body was eating itself.

"Moeru! You little shit! What have you done!?" she asked, in a panicked sob. More was coming back to her now, she had been hollowfied. Hollows. That meant... Oh no. She was about to turn into a monster. "Moeru you've doomed us all, I'm go-" but Nessa wasn't able to finish her sentence. At that moment she collapsed on the floor, vomiting a pool of rancid white liquid. It was thick and viscous, and wriggled as though it had a life of its own. It began to coagulate, and move towards Nessa's face, wriggling awfully. She had passed out, falling into a deep trance, retreating into herself.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

YEONG-HUI GANGJEON

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As the world faded away for Nessa, the white liquid began to coagulate upon her face. Her body growled and snarled as the mask began to form, and she placed her hands upon the ground, pushing herself up. As she stood, however, she was hit by Moeru's kido. The three beams of light smashed right into her, sending her flying back into the wall behind her. She snarled and howled, tugging and struggling at the bonds from the end of the alley, the mask forming more and more. She strained against them but to no avail. Her reiatsu lashed out, enormous but with no refinement or contol. Her gauntleted fists tugged against the bonds, desperate to grab for Moeru, and grind him into a fine paste.

The mask then formed. The street filled with hollow reiatsu. Nessa's body shuddered, and suddenly stopped struggling. The mask was heart shaped, with an intricate black design upon it. The eyes were bright yellow and bloodshot, with small green irises and tiny pupils. The eyes were horrific, ugly and staring with a huge gaze, totally unblinking. After several moments of staring at Moeru, the hollow began to struggle. With nothing but sheer force of will, it strained against the binds holding it to the wall until, with a huge roar, she ripped herself free, shattering the bakudo. She dropped to her feet, and roared once more, before charging at Moeru at speed.

---

Ness awoke, her head throbbing. Where was she? She appeared to be in a corridor. The walls all appeared to be made of some kind of strange blue stone. The passageway twisted around corners at both ends, some ten meters before and behind her. A maze? There was a silvery mist at calf height, that appeared to be the only source of light.  She wasn't sure why she was here... Last she remembered, she had been walking through town with her shopping, and she had stumbled.

It made no sense! Had she been drugged? Kidnapped perhaps? That seemed likely. But who would want to? Maybe it was that strange Korean girl, maybe she was  a criminal. Or maybe this was something to do with Hidane, that strange guy she'd met last month. She was getting the same weird vibes right now as she'd got from the baker and him that day. Either way, the place she was in right now reminded her of some creepy castle or dungeon from a book or film or something, and she didn't like it. Suddenly, a sound began to echo softly from somewhere else in the labyrinth.

It was a creepy chuckle, and it seemed to be getting closer...

heavy is the Hole in my heart

Just one normal day. Just one normal day was all the Visored asked for. Really, though, how was it that he’d gone two decades in a drunken stupor and nothing interesting happened around him, and now out of nowhere he couldn’t get a full day to himself. Just a normal day at the market, that was what he’d told himself when he’d left the warehouse today. Pick up a few things for dinner tonight, see what’s going on in the town, maybe stop by some favorite spots in town. That was the plan. However, he’d barely even gotten to the market when things went downhill. Quickly. He’d been in his gigai, suppressing his Reiatsu more than enough to not be noticed by most anyone, when the Hollow… or, was that what it was?... came crashing through market stalls, including the one he was currently looking at some apples at. He stared down the path of destruction as the Hollow left it.

“Tch.”

He popped a Soul Pill and just like that he was off. It seemed the… whatever it was… was chasing a small Shinigami. Just as the Shinigami appeared on a rooftop, ready to fire a Kido off at the Hollow, it appeared in an alley below, beginning to charge a Cero.

“Enough of that.” With incredible speed the Visored appeared on top of the next building over from the Shinigami with a loud crack and dropped, quickly, landing heavily on the Hollow’s back if successful; at best, pinning her down. At worst, breaking some bones in the process. Either way, the Cero would either dissipate or the force of the collision would cause it to be fired straight up into the air, away from anyone or anything else. Unfortunately, the Shinigami’s Kido had already been cast; but the Visored simply held up his hand, and a circular barrier of energy appeared before him, the Okasen clashing against it and dissipating into the air. The barrier disappeared and Hidane breathed a sigh of relief, taking in the situation, and finally realizing that this Hollow’s Reiatsu was familiar. “You’re…”

He looked up at the Shinigami on the rooftop. A rather young one at that, now that he got a better look.

“Hey, kid. Sorry, but I’m gonna have to take this one from here.”

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The hollow was nearly able to unleash it cero, before a presence came and dropped down upon its back. Its body spinning as it fell, it blasted the cero up into the sky, where the red beam of energy would generate a circle of clouds around it as it headed off into space. Nessa clawd at Hidane, with hands that had now become razor sharp white gauntlets, the continuation of her hollow form manifesting. He was incredibly strong however, and she couldn't quite flip him off of her, or remove him, merely scrabble and claw at him in the hopes that he would let her go, letting out several roars of anger at being unable to escape.

---

The strange twisted corridor made a sharp turn and suddenly there she was again, the white Nessa, starings straight at her. What did she mean that this was her world!? Everything was so confusing. She took several steps backwards, but found herself backed up against a wall, the only avenues of escape either up the sheer side behind her or past hollow!Nessa. The woman called her weak. She was... Weak? The thought rang out in her head. No. She wasn't weak. Ness was strong; she'd had the courage to move East after everything that had happened. That was not the action of a weak person.

But then the woman started saying something a little strange. Her... And Ness? They looked the same, eerie whiteness and horrific black eyes aside. She shuddered, convulsing as the hollow traced a hand up her torso, paralyzed by fear. The white gauntlet then began to crush Ness's throat, and she started choking, griping at the gauntlet to try and get it away. Why was she talking as though Ness wasn't human? What on earth else could she be?? She was confused and frightened, and tears streamed down her face as the grip got ever tighter.

And suddenly hollow!Nessa began talking about the people she knew. Ness struggled, pawing at the gauntlet to no avail. A revelation that came to her, as her mind began to go fuzzy and white. Clearly this was her evil other half or something. Maybe this was all a bad nightmare, made by something she had eaten at the market. Take what she deserved? She was barely conscious enough to realize that hollow!Nessa was referring to raping an injured girl. That was all kinds of fucked up. She began to lose consciousness as she was slammed into the wall, her hands beginning to go limp at her sides.

It was then that the hollow said something that would trigger her ire. Ignoring the bizarre comment about taking care of Nessa's body, she threatened to kill Kyuri. A deep rage bubbled in Ness. It wasn't even a personal rage; she was too broken and scared and powerless to feel that. But a righteous rage, fuelled by a fundamental hatred of evil. Her eyes sparked suddenly to life, and without warning, a fist would fly at hollow!Nessa's face, in an attempt to get her to dislodge her grip. She would also kick out at her stomach.

If she was dropped, she would fall to the ground for a moment, coughing and spluttering as she got her breath bath, trying not to retch. What... Was that? Ness had no idea that she knew how to punch like that. It was as if some instinct had begun to awaken in her body. Maybe it was the karate lessons she had taken as a kid. Had she taken them? She couldn't quite recall.

"What... What the fuck are you?" she panted after a few moments. "And why are you doing this. I don't understand." she said.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

Even as he stood upon the Hollowfied Nessa’s back, the Hollow continued to try to claw up towards him. As it reached, he reached out himself and grabbed her arms by the wrists, keeping them away from his skin and clothes as she tried to claw desperately at him. “Well, aren’t you a feisty one? Lucky I recognized you… and know what’s going on now.” Black Reiryoku seeped from his hands, and suddenly soared out in the form of black bandages extending from between his hands and Nessa’s wrists, quickly moving to circle around Nessa and tighten until she would be tightly bound from the neck down. “Hey, kid, I~” he began to say, looking up at the Shinigami, but the kid had already said his piece while he wasn’t paying attention and had already left. Great, the Visored thought. Shinigami are so useful.

“Well, at least now I don’t have to worry about opening a Garganta in front of the kid.” With a snap of his fingers a Garganta tore open at the end of the alleyway; the Visored lifted Nessa’s bound Hollow form over his shoulder and entered the Garganta.

In the endless wasteland that is the basement of the Visoreds’ warehouse hideout, a similar Garganta tore open, and out flew the bound Hollow form, followed shortly after by Hidane, walking calmly through the gaping maw just before it snapped shut behind him. Moving to sit on a nearby rock and watch over the Hollowfied Shinigami for some time, Hidane let out a sigh, wondering how long she would take. He knew nothing about her, or her powers, or her will. But hopefully she would pull through, and he wouldn’t have to put down another monster.

Well, soon enough the bindings would break anyway. Maybe the Hollow form would put up a better fight then.

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Ness barely managed to raise a hand to deflect the punch aimed at her. How the hell had this ghost woman taken a punch to the head from this big gauntlet like that and seemingly only been scratched!? It was Ness's muscles that seemed to react more than her mind, as if she had combat built into her. After deflecting the punch, Nessa was able to duck under the extended arm, but she still took a knee solidly to the gut, which winded her, potentially fracturing her bottom rib. Shikai? That name... It sounded familiar. Hollow!Nessa began smashing her against the wall, causing stars to appear in front of her eyes. Before she could slam Ness into the wall again however, Ness kicked her straight in the stomach.

The shikai, she realized, were the pair of gauntlets that she wore. And the same gauntlets that this woman wore also. Yousei. That was its name. Ness wasn't entirely sure how she knew that but she suddenly began to recall what Hidane, the creepy guy, had said to her. Suddenly it seemed entirely relevant. He had asked... What was it? It was creepy, like the musings of a kid trapped in a world of myths and monsters.

Which was exactly now Ness felt right now. He had asked... If she were a hollow. He had spoken the word with recitience, she recalled. As if it were an animal. He had asked Ness if she were... A shinigami. She was a shinigami. She didn't know why, but that much made sense to her. And this woman, she was a hollow. She didn't know that in her brain, as much as she felt it. In her bones? In her heart? In her soul. Somehow Ness... No, her name was Nessa. Somehow, Nessa knew what these things were. The old her. She wondered where Yousei was and her heart skipped a beat. Had the hollow done something to her? Her panic rose. She had forgotten everything. Had her zanpakuto spirit been destroyed when she had been sealed away?

Had she spent this whole time repressing her memories? And now as a result of that she hadn't been careful. And she was battling her inner hollow. Things began to piece together to her. Somehow, knowing what was happening made Nessa more afraid, not less. Her entire body felt as though it was made of ice, her very skin aching with fear. How had it come to this? Had Blodeuwen's safeguard fallen in some way? She couldn't remember. And yet... Simple, human Ness didn't want to fight. She didn't want to be violent and battle others. How could she not!? Nessa was appalled at herself, and yet oddly... She understood. Human!Ness was terrified. This was a nightmare. It felt like a nightmare to Nessa too. Could she really just wake up from this and go back to working in a supermarket? Drinking cocoa and going on dates with burly American men? No. Come on! At the very least, Nessa was a being of power. That was something she agreed with the hollow on. However, she felt herself momentarily disarmed by a single question.

"Were you happy though?" the question rang out in her mind like a chiming bell.

She had stopped to think for too long however, and didn't press the advantage her kick might have afforded her, and found herself repeatedly smashed into the wall, a cut on the back of her head spraying blood everywhere. She felt one or two ribs crack under the repeated pressure. Tears of pain streamed down Nessa's face.

The conflict in Nessa's soul grew tumultuous, her reiatsu flaring uncontrollably as the two sets of memories, and experiences conflicted. In the end, Nessa felt herself winning dominance, and there was a pulse of reiatsu. It would hopefully distract the hollow at least long enough for her to smash her gauntlet down on the hollow's elbow, enabling her to be dropped to the floor. Get up? Sure as hell she would get up. She flash stepped to roughly twenty meters behind the hollow such that the hollow was now the one cornered, reiatsu pouring out of her in massive torrents. She felt her body fill with strength. Although Yousei was nowhere to be seen, the zanpakuto spirit's power filled her up in a way hollow!Nessa would never experience.

"Weak? I'll show you weak! Bakudo number 7, Ashigarami Himo!" She yelled and at blinding speed, ropes of thick reiatsu would spring from the ground, wrapping themselves around the hollow's legs, binding her in place.
Incapacitating Attack
"Dipolar tension, strike out! Burning streams fall from the maw of the great winged serpent, decimating all with thunderous potential! Hado number eighty eight: Hiryugekizokushintenraiho!" she shouted. As she did so, there was an almighty surge of reiatsu, shaking the whole labyrinth, causing cracks to appear in the walls. A huge torrent of crackling blue electricity ripped through the air towards the hollow, blindingly bright. When it arrived at its destination it would explode in a shower of sparks and crackling plasma, hopefully completely incapacitating her opponent, blasting the hollow into the wall and inflicting extreme damage.

Nessa tensed, her breath heaving. Her mind was completely overwhelmed by a screaming cacophony of emotions, and her whole body was aching from the gruelling punishment she had been put through. "Please let it be dead, please let it be dead." she begged, as she waited for the storm of crackling smoke to clear. She wasn't sure how many of those she had left in her.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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There was a fierce crackling noise. The hollow had performed a sonido to follow her, the binding kido only just barely holding her at bay. Nessa's incanting increased in speed, desperate to fire off the Hado before it was too late. Sadly, this was not possible. Just as she launched Hiryugekizokushintenraiho, the hollow reached for her face, and slashes across her left eye. Nessa let out an animalistic howl of pain as the gauntlet savaged her face, blood pouring everywhere as her eye was destroyed. However it did nothing but strengthen her resolve and her hado fired to enormous effect. She felt the bind snap; it was only weak but that didn't matter. The hollow was bathed in electricity and as the crackling faded away, Nessa's remaining eye saw the charred body of the hollow. She sobbed horribly, stumbling forward. She had gone into shock slightly, the adrenaline fuelling her pain to be numbed. She cursed internally, wondering how she was going to deal with this afterwards. She realized with horror that she had most likely been rampaging as a hollow the entire time.

"Fuck you. Fuck you and everything you are and everything you stand for. There is no power in the world that is worth this. That is worth you." she spat, spitefully. She was going to kill the hollow and end this, right now. "Shredding mounds of ivory bones, golden casket of rotting corpses, tread upon the grave of the fallen king and end his long forgotten reign. Hado number 71, Tsuchibune." she said, her reiatsu building. She didn't have the strength to boost the kido with her shikai but she wouldn't need to. At point blank range, the metal shards exploded towards hollow!Nessa. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Nessa screamed in a combination of triumph and anguish. They would completely decimate and shred the hollow's head, where they were aimed at, leaving nothing but a gruesome puddle of blood, the remains of the top end of a spine, and a fine pink mist.

"Vanessa?" a voice called out to her, feeble and weak. She blinked. Yosei! So she was here.

"Where are you?" she shouted, and slowly but surely, the mist around Nessa began to coagulate. Her eyes went wide as it clumped closer and closer together, hissing softly as it did so. The form of a girl with chin-length hair, lighter than Nessa's, which completely covered her eyes began to come together. After several moments, she became solidifed. "Yosei?" Nessa asked, her lip trembling.

"Nessa..." Yosei murmured in her husky voice. Nessa stepped forward and hugged her zanpakuto spirit. The two embraced, once again re-united after so long apart. "Nessa, Nessa I'm so sorry. It was... It was terrifying. There was nothing I could do." she didn't cry or react in any greater way than that, but Nessa knew that coming from her Zanpakuto Spirit that said far more than anything else ever could.

"It's over now." Nessa said, crying from one eye, blood oozing from the mess left behind in the socket of the other. Yosei nodded. All of a sudden there was a rapid motion. The two looked down at the body of the hollow, which had appeared to sublimate. Yosei pushed Nessa back, standing in the way of the rising cloud of acrid black smoke. Despite hollow!Nessa's white skin, hollows possessed an inner blackness, and the broken, charred remains of the hollow was emanating that blackness. The body was rapidly disappearing and the black smoke climbed above the mist, hanging in the air lazily.

"What the..." Nessa began and then, there was a sudden, rapid, frenzied movement. She moved forward to shield Yosei but it was impossible, with unbelievable speed, the black smoke pierced her body and began entering it. There was a shockwave that blasted Nessa back as Yosei's body began glowing, lifted into the air.

"Nessa!" she cried.

"Yosei!" Nessa sobbed in return.

"Nessa... My true name... I'm sorry for," she groaned as the smoke continued to enter her, "I'm sorry for withholding your power from you. If only... If only I hadn't this wouldn't be happening." the smoke had completely entered her body now, and her sclera had turned black. Nessa's heart sank deep down in her chest. "My name... Is 淡い白い蓮妖精." [Awai Shiroi Hasu Yōsei] she said and there was another explosion accompanied by a resonating boom. Nessa shielded herself as all of the mist around them was blasted down the corridors of the labyrinth. Eventually she opened her eyes, and gazed upon the figure before her.

She looked remarkably similar to Yosei. She had the flicks of blue hair, the same jagged grin. She had a petite frame, very much unlike Vanessa's. She wore a strange outfit; a combination of the blue robe that Nessa herself wore, with a fur-lined outfit that reminded her almost of typical arrancar garb. It was very asymmetrical and stylish, but somehow it looked like a blend of two things completely different to one another. What had changed most about her, however, was the glowing of eyes underneath the bangs. The upper left portion of her face seemed to have fused with a portion of a horrific looking mask. It had a bulbous, bright yellow eye, with a piercing green iris. A horn poked its way through the bangs and three more protruded from the left cheek. The other eye on her face was completely black, sclera and all, with the exception of a piercing yellow iris.

"How is it that you managed to completely destroy me... Well, half of me, and yet remain so pitiful and pathetic?" the being asked. Its voice was eerie; the sound of the hollow's voice and Yosei's voice spoken at exactly the same time, for a weird effect. "You've already gotten strong enough on our backs. Go out now, and make sure they don't kill you." she commanded. Nessa stared blankly with her remaining eye, not entirely sure she believed what had happened.

"Wait! What's your name?" she asked. There was a whooshing noise, and suddenly the strange being was standing before where Nessa was sat, leaning against the bloodied wall the shockwave had thrown her up against.

"Are you completely retarded? I told you that less than 2 minutes ago. If you're gonna be this stupid we're both gonna kick the bucket. Now fuck off." she said before turning around and flash stepping away. Nessa blinked and could feel herself exiting her inner world.

---

In the room underneath the warehouse, Hidane would see the hollow struggling against the bind. At various points, there would be eruptions of whiteness, on the ribs, on the back, on the head, where the Hollow's high speed regeneration repaired the damage that was being done to Nessa's soul on the inside. In fact, the left eye of the mask itself would erupt outwards gorily, exposing Nessa's torn face underneath. The mask quickly reformed. The transformation did not progress much further than this, however. All in all, the process of Nessa dominating her inner hollow was remarkably short.

Just as Hidane's bind began to wear off there would be a an enormous spike of reiatsu, destroying it completely. When the dust cleared, hollow!Nessa stood, merely looking at him. After a few moments, the few bits of her body that had hollowfied began to crack and crumble off, falling to the floor and dissipating as a fine dust, which faded to nothing. All that remained was that heart shaped mask, which its creepy, unrelenting stare. Nessa didn't move for several moments. Her mask then dislodged itself, and tumbled to the ground. It fell, before revolving several times on the point of its chin on the dirt floor, and dropping down face-up, and crumbling away.

Nessa's left eye was completely missing, the socket and skin around it were smooth and scarred but sealed over by scar tissue; the hollow's regeneration had ensured she did not have a totally empty eye socket but it did not fix her eye either. A wicked single scar ran down from her left temple, through the eye, and ended just above her upper lip. With her one remaining alabaster eye, she took a single look at Hidane, before passing out onto the floor, completely exhausted from her exertion.

heavy is the Hole in my heart