Testing testing, one, two (pri)

Was it dark or was he truly dead? Aien couldn't tell as he went under a dreamless sleep. It felt like one second he was in the school spray painting one of his best art pieces to date. The next he can only remember the feeling of something entering his system that made him paralyze. The young human tried to open his eyes, but all he saw through the dark cloth was a small glimmer of light. Aien felt cold and oddly sore like he spent a whole day running around the track nonstop. Testing a few limited things of how he's breathing. It was a bit raspy and dry, but otherwise he just needs to drink some liquid to fix that. Hunger might be an issue as he hasn't eaten since lunch of the day of his kidnapping.

It wasn't long before he registered a voice, a male voice, speaking up to where Aien could hear it. "Hello? Are you awake?" The boy licked his dry lips and took the moment to keep his mouth from tasting like he just ate iron. "Where am..." Aien began to ask as Gage shoved a ball of cloth into his mouth. Aien tried to resist, but he found himself bound from head to toe. So whatever words Aien wanted to ask could no longer be heard in an audible dialogue. "Don't worry, I'm not some maniac that kidnaps and kills people; but what's going to happen could be considered torture in some states... countries... well everywhere. It's going to hurt, but when you come out the other side you will be a new man. You will see." Fear wrapped its cruel fingers around Aien's mind, increasing his heart rate by a small margin as the cold table seeped into his skin. Robbing him of his warmth for a brief period of time, but with his heart rate increasing also increases his body temperature so he's actually warming up the table a little bit now. As far as Aien is aware, he is going on a long, painful ride whether he wants to or not. Realizing the situation he was in, Aien closed his eyes and just pictured being in a dark place with dazzling white fossilized trees that more or less is a forest as far as the mind's eye can see. It was dark of course, but Aien focused on this mental world of his to keep himself calm. Imagining the sounds of water flowing along the mind soothes his worry as he begins entering a state of meditation. It is his way of steeling himself for what's about to come to the human.

Honestly it was a good thing Aien had steeled himself when he did for that needle puncturing his sternum and straight into his heart was a very... weird experience that Aien felt. Yes it hurt a lot to Aien, and yes he was finding it a hard time to breathe properly for a few seconds. However he instead took note of how weird it felt having a needle in his heart. Aien clenched his hands tightly into a pair of fists while baring his teeth to keep himself from screaming bloody murder. Well, he couldn't scream anyways as he was biting down hard onto that ball of cloth in his mouth. It was hard enough where if anyone was trying to test his jaw strength at that point would be enough to fracture bone.

The weird and painful experience of both his blood and the spiritual pressure being drawn out from an external source as Gage drew only a small dose of the blood out. Aien thought that was the hard part, but no what was really excruciating to Aien was when Gage accelerated the human's regeneration rate to seal up the wounds both externally and internally. It was like all of the sores on his body took a semi truck at full throttle while his muscles were burning in agony from the stress. To be honest Aien truly wished he could just turn his power on and break out of here. That's what he truly hoped, but then again Aien thought that if he is possibly going to be down here for at least a few days. He shivers on the thought of how Aien would be able to endure it, but he mustered whatever leftover pieces of his mind to form his poorly constructed meditation. Trying to ignore the pain and how tired his body really is now. But the torment was too much to concentrate on meditating for long.

This information being practically shoved into his mind was something that Aien couldn't really comprehend. He blinked away the tears forming in his eyes as the teen tried to keep his consciousness together. For it felt like his mind just wanted to give up and scramble to just forget about this whole thing. However Aien's willpower kept him awake and refused to break as he wanted to keep his mind in check. Giving up is what kills people, as that's been something he's lived by. But never in his wildest dreams would he dreamed of actually putting those words to the test.

'Random Hollow? Fullbringer? What is that exactly?' Aien wondered in his mind as he wasn't sure to either feel flattered for being a human or to feel afraid. It was something that the teen is mixed with emotions to where he's not certain what to feel. Eventually he just gave up on that thought and like pieces of a huge puzzle Aien began piecing his mentality back together. He literally pictures himself in a complete black room with a huge twenty by ten feet white square shaped in front of him. On the 'floor' at his feet were the thousands upon thousands of small puzzle pieces that contained a piece of an image. To pass time, and actually to make it easier for Aien to sleep better. His mental self began picking up the pieces and started to put them in place. Since it is his mentality, Aien was free to be lifted up in the air to reach the taller part of the image. Even in his sleep, Aien would be doing this as to him it was no different than meditating. In fact he didn't even seem to budge or really put much of an expression when Gage inserted the needle in his arm and placed the strap over his mouth.

During his meditating state, Aien began to wonder how his family is doing. Honestly the teen can't recall how long he's been down here, but it feels like its been a while by now. Hopefully his younger sister has gotten her homework done, but then again she's a sneaky middle school student so their parents probably overlooked the homework. Kind of typical of them as it has happened several occasions and during those occasions Aien caught her hiding her homework or just discreetly seem like she is doing it. So Aien would have to be in the same room and go over the problems with her to make sure his younger sister gets her homework done. That's when Aien realized that he did give his parents a call stating that he'll be home a little later than usual. So they probably won't pick up on the kidnapping until later in the morning when he's not in his room or in the house for that matter.

Aien, mentally, was picking up the 74th piece of the giant puzzle when he heard a door opening and picks up on a set of footsteps that sound close. How far Aien can't tell without seeing it for himself, but still Gage began explaining what he is doing in thorough detail. During the explanation while yes Aien is listening he was trying to use his 'third eye' to more or less sense this person. With his mind calm and having a few hours to rest Aien had time to concentrate on his spiritual awareness for a little bit. Granted he can tell that Gage was close, but that was only because like a super sonic sound of a ping the spiritual particles seeped from his mind in an attempt to scout out Gage and also get a sense of the room. It kind of worked, but there was like a bubble of repelling energy that wrapped around Gage and since Aien couldn't detect any other person in the room the human can only assume that is Gage. Normally he wouldn't be able to do such a thing considering that he's a human, but with his most recent experience of encountering a Hollow and Misato giving him the basics of how to see spiritual beings Aien's awareness only grew. However even so there's a limit of how much Aien can sense and currently he has to refrain from the sense before he exhausted himself.

Basically, while Gage is going to be sending small doses of his own blood into Aien, the teen either comes out on top of rejecting the blood or be defeated. Currently there was no plan B on if Aien lost to this test, as Aien is just focused on making it through to the end. An end that Aien decides for himself, and is summoning his mental prowess to steel his mind. For he is certain that this is going to hurt a lot. 'You are not going to survive the night if you keep up what you're doing.' A voice spoke Aien's head, and it was a voice he knew all too well. It belonged to himself, but it was more disembodied like the voice is there in his head yet sounded distant. 'What else can I do? The only thing I can do is to steel myself and endure it.' That's where Aien felt a hidden amusement while Gage was setting up the needles. 'Enduring it is just like giving up. While yes you can endure it as much as you want, but the goal here is to fight for survival.'

---

Stepping out of this large white square is another Aien, except this one possessed stark white hair with a pair of piercing red eyes that seem to glow. Of course this is back into his mental world, and before Aien could really react this other Aien quickly lashed out at the teen and grabbed Aien by the collar. The next thing he knew Aien was tossed through the giant puzzle and found himself rolling on the hard ground. The other Aien steps back into the same area as Aien realized he's back in the pitch black area with glow white, lifeless trees stretching out as far as the eye can see. "Here in just a few seconds, this mental state of yours is going to break. It is going shatter, and you're going to want to die. Normally I keep my mouth shut about this, but given the fact that I hate for you to be killed without realizing your full potential I'm going to try to help you. Starting with this." Just like that the other Aien drew back his leg and landed a solid and heavy kick that launches Aien far away for about 50 meters.

---

At the same time of this kick is when the fluids were injected into Aien and almost immediately he started to groan in pain through the cloth. At first nothing seem to be changing as Aien's body felt like it was pulsing rather hard that made it harder to catch his breath. For the moment Aien drew fresh air the pulse knocked it out of his lungs. Which would translate why mentally Aien had the air knocked out of his lungs upon feeling the 'kick' as the rushing sounds of wind drowns out everything else. Aien's spiritual body begins to take shape as an wispy, dark crimson aura seeps from Aien's body. It seems like the aura as if Aien has just activated his release, but nothing special happens as it is just his Reiatsu signature. Still for a human the aura appeared to be menacing and rather dark that by sensing at first notice could be mistaken as a Hollow because of how dark it is. This is just a sign that Aien's spiritual body is starting to manifest itself as an reaction to the foreign blood in his system.

'See? Now was that so hard?' The other Aien questioned the prone Aien as he felt like he was quite literally on fire. "What the hell... First off why are you in my head like this? That shouldn't even have hurt either." The white haired teen grinned in a wicked manner before responding. "Bingo. How can you be hurt in your own mind. In your own happy little world no less. It is quite simple and I'm sure you are aware of it as well. It didn't actually hurt you, that was just an illusion of your own mind registering imaginary pain. What really hurt is the hell that guy is putting you through." Gesturing to the black sky with his thumb before he crouched down to make Aien look up at this strange person in the eye. "Your spiritual pressure is going out of control for once, and you need to gain control over it or else you're going to be consumed by its weight. Naturally the main source is myself, and what I need you to do is to give me a run for my money."

"Spiritual pressure? What is that exactly entailing?" Aien had to ask and it made the once grinning mirror image frowned in response before the white haired Aien does a seemingly harmless flick on the forehead. Only to witness Aien being forced back another 50 meters plus some tumbling and rolling. It wasn't until after Aien had stopped rolling and was on his back. "You're really unbelievable. Spiritual pressure is something every living being emits from their bodies. Most spiritual pressure amongst the humans are roughly the same and are usually hard to tell them apart based on spiritual pressure alone. You don't even realize how much of gift that you have right now that most other humans lack." It was only an instant, but Aien suddenly had a sixth sense that he was in danger while seeing the blurring motions of physical energy above him. Time seemed to have slowed down to Aien as the adrenaline pumped in his veins and with the pain he was physically feeling Aien quickly rolled over to the side before there was a loud crash right next to Aien.

"And I'm pretty sure that friend of yours is going to realize the same thing as well. While technically yes you possess some energies of Hollow your body has changed it to where you molded it into your own power. Normally when one is infected with Hollow they automatically transform into a Hollow themselves which is forced upon them. So... now do you see why I'm making sure you stay alive? I want to see what kind of human would do with your gift." The stark white haired Aien spoke much closer than just moments before and it was actually from the other Aien's attempt to kick at the original. The power behind that attack was similar to how Aien feels when he is in the release, still the other Aien gets a nice surprise as the original raises his legs up towards his body. Using his arms, Aien would push himself up to deliver a spring kick by slamming both feet to the other Aien's mid section. The attack was a bit unexpected and he certainly didn't expect Aien to retaliate while listening. The stark white teen staggers back a bit and out rage he starts advance towards the rising Aien only to meet another surprise. The original Aien followed up on the rise to flip his body backwards while aiming both feet to slam onto the other Aien's face which would be enough to knock him down.

---

This turn of events in Aien's mind as he was practically screaming in agony even with the cloth in his mouth and the leather strap combined. It was like one hell of a nightmare as despite Aien's basic awareness of the spiritual world his Spiritual Potency was pretty high for a human especially at his age. Though his training in the Seven Leaves might have helped controlling it, but nothing could have prepared this human for the torment he is having to endure for hours. Aien doesn't even need to physically see the aura he is physically emitting from his skin to know that it visible. Just feeling the intent of dark hatred and the woes of sorrow mixed together was enough to alarm Aien of its presence. But there was nothing he could do about it; and whether Aien hates to admit it or not it was helping him reject the foreign substance that was Gage's blood. Of course with the oxygen being on low to 60% made it feel harder to breathe and not to mention the air flowing into his body from the vials. It was getting to the point where Aien was internally bleeding from the nose as his mouth has a strong taste of iron despite the cloth. His covered eyes felt like they were on fire and the tears felt like they were stinging his eyes.

"Why in the hell did you do that for?!" The other Aien exclaimed as he was rubbing his face with his hands while still laying on the ground with Aien now standing about five meters away. Aien would shrug his shoulders before answering in a casual tone. "Well you've never really shown up in my head like this before. Now all of the sudden you tell me to control this spiritual pressure of mine the very first time you showed up and coincidentally is also the first time my power went out of control? To be fair I have my suspicion that you can help me on that matter. For if you are truly Aurora's essence then there's no one else other than myself that can help me." The other Aien grew quiet before grinning with a chuckle escaping from his lips. "Touché indeed. I technically was helping you, but it seems you find this easier to wrench control over your power."

Then the stark white teen rose up to his feet with the grin still visible on his face. "But as much as I want to leave things to your capable hands. I am afraid of what might happen later. I don't know what this guy is planning and i'm sure neither do you. But whatever it is, he's wanting your spiritual pressure for some reason. If I were you I would be on the alert from here on out. More so than ever. If we ever do make it out of here alive, I want you to practice your power and get better at it. Then maybe one day it'll evolve into its next stage." Kind of odd that the other Aien is now giving the original a pep talk after Aien kicked him in the face quite literally.

---

Back over at Karakura Town, Aien's family has been searching through the streets for Aien and even called up the school. It was roughly the next day after Aien had been kidnapped when they discovered his half finished art piece still in the computer room. Even the Student Council has been putting most of their work on hold to search for Aien. Eventually by evening after it had been officially a little over 24 hours, both the Student Council, law enforcement, and the family joined hands and began searching all over Karakura. Even in areas where Aien normally would have no business at, but alas their efforts proved fruitless. But they didn't give up just at as the following morning they resumed their search by going over their progress with each other first. Piecing together of where Aien could possibly be located at, but none had turn up valid. Kurumi then suggested that he was kidnapped, and while at first everyone was against the idea, it slowly became an option that might be the only one left. So they began interrogating citizens of Karakura. Meanwhile, Aien was drifting off into a silent, much appreciated sleep.

With the body systems calming down and while the pain was still in his body. It wasn't as excruciating as before and it gradually declined to where it was a lesser version. At long last it was over, or so Aien had originally thought. Due to the computers being shut off and no more pain was being introduced into his body. Aien could spiritually tell that his aura had died down as well to where it seeped back into his exposed flesh.

A shaky exhale of relief flows from the young teen's lips as his body was thoroughly exhausted from all of the pain that he had just gone through. For only a moment, Aien found himself slightly wishing that he could die already, but he immediately frowned at the thought and brushed it aside. He's come through up until this point so far, and Aien is determined to fight through it until the end as much as he can. However that test was very painful, and if he didn't know any less Aien was certain that would've been fatal. His nose was bleeding and his eyes were still feeling like smoldering embers. But the tears had stopped and no longer sting his eyes so that is a plus on Aien's end. He didn't realize this before, but Aien felt sharp pains on both of his palms. That's when he noticed that during the painful extraction Aien had accidentally cut into his palms with his nails. With all of the pain he was feeling before, this minor wound is nothing compared to that and Aien didn't have to wonder how he didn't feel it before.

Not knowing what is transpiring beyond these walls, Aien thought he was done for a while. That is until maybe several minutes later Aien begins to hear the familiar sounds of heavy machinery powering up. 'Wait... why is the system turning back on so soon?' Aien thought to himself before the other Aien's previous words rang true in his mind. It seems those vile words happened to be holding some merit of the truth. As much as Aien hates to admit, that other Aien was correct on that note. Just what is it exactly? What else does this mastermind has in store for Aien?

Just for the sake of it, Aien mustered what little he can focus on to concentrate on his forehead like opening a third eye. Where he'll send another invisible ping of reiatsu and like a bat get a feeling of the layout. Granted he can't 'see' past the walls and such since it reverberates like sound off the walls. Still he was certain that no one else is in the room at least, and after he confirmed this and witnessed how much he can push this sensing. Aien just relaxed and reluctantly took a deep breath to brace himself. Honestly he wasn't sure if he could endure anymore pain like that, but he wasn't going to give up just yet.

However what really surprised him is that he heard the familiar sounds of a door opening. Or more like sliding open, but still he was so set that there was still torment to endure that he didn't expect this. "Hey, how are you feeling?" It was actually the same robotic voice Aien found rather familiar. He would've put some more thought into it, but Aien was just too tired to really think that deep. When Gage pulled the blinds off and allowed Aien to actually view the light for once since the operation. The teen immediately closed his eyes before blinking away from the brightness. Having to adjust his eyes to the different lighting now, Gage can see that Aien's eyes are a bit red. Not an unnaturally red like Aien is with his release, but the irritation kind of red. As well as stains of moist on the blind fold from both sweating and the tears as well. Then the process of removing the strap and the ball of cloth and man did Aien forget how sweet air tasted in his mouth.

Taking a deep breath and licking his dried lips for a moment while giving his eyes to adjust. "Well I am thinking of taking a nice trip to an herbal tea and actually savor those lemon flavored hot tea. If that counts for anything." Aien responded as he, so far, seems to have some sort of comedian where he makes light of situation despite how dire it might be. "Is that a sword though? Seems rather unique than most of the weaponry I've seen. Are you a tachi wielder or something?" Probably not how one would expect to react after they had endured hours of torment, but Aien is just too tired to begin complaining about the hospitality.

"Nah, i'm just too tired to really start bombarding you with complaints and questions." Aien admitted as he took several breaths in a steady pace as he truly missed being able to breathe. Plus his jaw is kind of stiff from the pressure he was putting into the cloth and not really being able to move until now. One truly doesn't know how to be grateful of something so simple until you realize you can't use it for a while. "No, I don't personally use swords anymore. Maybe once upon a time, but right now I am more of a builder than a fighter."

"Hm... So I take it you're going through this whole thing because you need something right?" Aien had to pose the question while he was able to speak. Though he's never seen, read, or heard of anyone who is willing to go through with this for just sport and amusement. For Aien doubts that this level of torment would be enough to entertain a psychotic individual. "I have met quite a few people in my time that are all spiritually active, but you seem to be the most receptive of your current circumstances. Tell me. What do you know about the spiritual world?" Aien guess he should be feeling like it was a compliment, or appraise. Though whether it is a good thing or a bad thing Aien can't really tell by reading in between the lines. "So far I only know of two different kinds. There's the monster looking things with the strange masks and then there's these people that always seem to carry swords on them. Kind of odd to be carrying those things in public though, considering that while there are tournaments in Karakura they certainly don't allow actual weapons. Especially the ones that seem to have special powers."

Aien can hear the multiple clicks and twisting sounds of metal in the room as there was nothing, or at least should be nothing, preventing from the human to hear it. Not that it would do him any good, but he's not unaware of what is happening least to say. Especially after he can make out the details of a machine hovering above Aien's chest and immediately Aien has the expression on his face that silently would say 'oh for the love of God I thought we were done man. I thought we were going to be buddies and drink or something for a change.' Also he was silently mouthing that out so if Gage can read lips that's pretty much what Aien is saying.

"I know, the pain is an inconvenience, but you have to see past the pain to the bigger picture. Soul Society is falling. Their little... government failing at their job. Its up to us, me more than you, to make sure that there are defenses in place to defend humans." Instantly Aien is remembered of how that Hollow devoured that human right in front of Aien's eyes and how the teen had to haul ass with his power active just to escape from its clutches. Pretty sure that thing is still running around as there were times Aien mistakenly heard that particular howl in the distance. But no it would be just his imagination. So he can relate to what Gage was saying to say the least. "After this, when you say that it would make me a new man... Would I be able to deal with those things in due time?" It has been on his mind for a while, for judging from Gage's words there are a lot more dangers out there in the spiritual world than Aien originally thought.

Then the process of the Shinigamifing began as Gage pressed the lovely button and almost immediately Aien gasped as it took him a moment to register what had happened. The teen was expecting something like this to happen, but he actually purposely made himself lose focus of that machine so that at least the starter process won't hurt as much. It was just a mental thing as pain tends to be more potent if they're expecting pain, so the less they're expecting the damage the lesser the pain becomes. Well, mentally at least as this kind of pain is like when Gage ran that syringe straight into his heart to get that spiritual pressure sands. It was a weird experience, but still painful and instead of draining Aien felt like something was being inserted in his chest. That warped and twisted in his spiritual body that actually starts to make that wispy dark crimson aura to appear again. Only it is not as potent and visible as last time. It seems the process of Shinigamifing is disrupting the Reiatsu in his human power which is to be expected. Aien bared his teeth hard as he stifled a scream of agony from the process and closed his eyes once again. Still, he does appear to hold onto his life strongly and has probably exceeded his pain threshold by now.