The Beginning of the End [i]

It’s not like the loud thud and splatter behind her actually scared the GREAT Zephyria; nearly jumping out of her skin was simply a natural physical reaction, and that’s that. The yelp was for effect. She got a few weird looks from other people walking nearby, more so than her outfit awarded her in the first place, before she turned around and saw the bloody mess on the ground. For a moment she was simply caught off-guard, then she focused. The fact that nobody else had reacted to it, and that people were moving around and through it without paying it any mind, caused her to look closer. When she did, she felt the Reiatsu seeping from the corpse, getting weaker with each passing second as it began to fade into nothing. The Reiatsu matched the description she’d received from the Gotei for Arrancar, a relatively new breed of Hollow with more humanoid forms.

But that left the question of why there was a dead Arrancar on the sidewalk in town. She looked up, the building next to her fairly tall. She could feel a presence at the top, and it seemed vaguely familiar. It took her a few moments, but she soon realized it was familiar from that day, the day that had turned this intersection into a battleground. Was it him…?

Her stepping would carry her to the rooftop night instantly, where she began her entrance and introduction without confirming the identity of the newcomer.

“BEHOLD, FOUL NAKED TITAN! You have acquired the wrath of Zephyria Ioelena the Third, Illusionist Extraordinaire!” She struck a pose, one arm extended toward the presence with fingers outstretched, the other drawn back, legs spread slightly. “Now prepare to die for your… uh…” On closer inspection, she realized that this was definitely not the naked giant. In fact, she didn’t even recognize him. But this particular presence… it was definitely there. Had there been more people there than she’d realized. “…aaaaaand who are you exactly?”

Zephyria’s disappointment and annoyance only grew when this old man claimed that she hadn’t gotten to the point fast enough. Did he understand nothing about PERFORMANCE!?!? What was the point in killing your target if they weren’t going… to… remember… well, ANYWAY, what was life without a little flair, right!? Flashy entrances and sparkly, fantastic attack names were what being a hero was ABOUT! And she was nothing if not a hero… at least when cameras were rolling. Which they never were, in this line of business. Really, why had she accepted this job, anyway?

Oh yeah, something about being kidnapped and strapped to some creepy mad scientist’s operation table. Weird, scary stuff. To most. Not to the great Zephyria of course.

And then the old guy said all that about her, and just called himself ‘nobody’!? YOU CAN’T JUST STEAL THE SHOW LIKE THAT! What are you, a main character!? There’s only room enough for one main character in this town, old guy! But as he went on, he kinda… had… a point… that was a lot of swords and stuff… and she still couldn’t remember him from the fight. Had he not been fighting them directly? Zephyria and all of her Crisis Core buddies had all been fighting the naked giant, so if he hadn’t been fighting him, the only other person there to have been occupying his time would have been…

Oh. OOOOOH. Suddenly she felt drastically less confident in her chances of getting out of this encounter alive. What had she gotten herself into, anyway?

“O-oh, right! Yeah, that! Y-you know, you’ve got a point there. Maybe I should just be on my way and…” She began to turn to try to casually leave the situation when suddenly the last thing he’d said clicked, and she stopped, looking back at him with a mix of shock that he’d said it and annoyance that he would suggest that she needed anybody’s HELP to become the strongest to ever exist. She pointed at herself, somewhat unenthusiastically. “Wait… are you… saying you want to train me?”

She hadn’t realized this before, but suddenly it became apparent that Zephyria was… talking… to a Hollow. Was this a Hollow? Wait, no, she’d heard about this, Hollows whom had reclaimed some sort of humanity. What were they called Appalachians or something? Didn’t matter. It was the first time she’d managed to have an actual conversation with one of these freaks so she supposed it was interesting if nothing else. The fact that he was equipped like a champion of an ancient colosseum or some nonsense like that and was having what seemed like could end up being a simple, civil conversation with her was enough to keep her interest. The better half of her brain was telling her to run, as far and fast as she could, but if this guy was the only lead on her path to revenge, then she couldn’t just leave now.

“I think I already introduced myself, kinda,” she said confidently, as she began to lay out answers to the questions the guy asked. Usually she wouldn’t give in so easily, letting him dictate the terms of the encounter, but… let’s be real here, if he had been facing off with Mama Blod one-on-one, then he could probably break her like a twig. “I ‘seek conflict’ to get some revenge for the arm that guy bit off of me.” Her arm ached again at the thought of it; she would probably have some kind of trauma over it, if it hadn’t been healed so quickly by the Shinigami, and if she wasn’t so overly confident in herself. “I’m more of a ‘my own boss’ kind of girl, but learning new tricks is always fun, and useful, so sure, I could go for some training.” Yes, because the last training session went so well.

“I mean, I’ve been kidnapped and tortured for power before, so I guess I’m pretty open to things?” She would still get that ugly freak back for that some day. “As for what I would do with power… uhm… well, first, obviously, I would find that naked giant guy and teach him a lesson for disrespecting MY personal space, then… I don’t know, go back to business as usual?” She’d never been a fan of the whole Substitute Shinigami gig, nor much of any of that heroism nonsense. She just wanted to live her life and be the star of the show. Terrifying combat power… while it would help her be top dog, it wasn’t necessarily high on her list of desires.

If this guy didn’t want to teach or train her himself… then what did he have in mind? Did he have friends? Did Hollows have friends? She’d gotten a brief run-down of recent events in Shinigami history when she’d been inducted to the fold, but had slept through most of it. But she’d been pretty sure she’d heard that the Shinigami had dismantled the organization and factions the Hollows had recently. So had new ones formed? What kinds of friends did this guy have?


“Hey… who are you, exactly, anyway? One of those, uhm… human… Hollow… things?” Ever tactful, Zephyria was.