iii. gods & monsters

Trauma: a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.

I'll never know what it was about this girl but chaos always followed after her. Some would say pretty girls were always chaotic, but they were wrong, this dame, Ilyiana Gadot, was being haunted by her past. The amber gaze of the moon shined down on the world, providing a subtle glow to the background terrain, almost as if the moon gave a small insight to the creatures that hide in the darkness. Over the vast of Naruki City was nothing but trees clumped together in a forest, free for the world's scariest of demons to hide in, demons that not even scientists had discovered. The summer's cool breeze trickled along her skin and rustled through the woods, causing birds to sing and crickets chirp.  Amid it all, she stood there in that same old gray crop top tucked into her dark blue bellbottoms with her gray peep toe pumps to round the 70's era look together.

Trauma. The thing about trauma was that it had a way of rearing its ugly head when you least expect it, and then came the after effects. Triggers. And the thing about triggers was, you could never seem to pinpoint when and where they would come from. Currently, her most common trigger was blood and gore. They gave her pleasant little flashbacks of watching her mother being devoured by a large beast in a white mask. For a while though, the common Hollow was enough to send her on a journey to the past. There was no need to fear Hollows anymore, the fear had subsided as she had grown stronger. Somewhere buried within the paradox of her mind she knew Hollows were still triggers.

Trigger warning!

It was a new dawn, a new day and a new night. The witching hour was growing still and, at this very moment, the air was growing thin with each passing second. There was a chill in the air and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand stiff. Ilyiana found herself mindlessly walking towards the source with a glazed look in her eyes and a sluggish, almost robotic, walk towards the source. From the outside looking it, an outside force was manipulating her, her joints yanking forward as if being pulled on by a string. As for that look in her eyes? Well, it was as if her soul had left her form and she was just a hollow shell of a girl.

Rational as she was, you can imagine how baffling of a thought it was that she was willing walking into, what could be, a danger zone. Trigger warning!! Turn around kid! She wasn't listening, hell I don't even think the broad was fully conscious in that thick skull of hers. She was running on fear and ignorance. And so, there she went moseying along until she was frozen again. It was in the middle of the vast expanse of land that she saw it. A Hollow unlike any other. A Hollow as tall as the sky with a white mask and an elongated nose with menacing white spikes around its neck. When their eyes met she could feel the wave of fear wash over her, sending her stumbling backward as she desperately tried to take a gasp of air but to no avail. The little dame was drowning.

The power of her Fullbring that normally felt like second nature to her no longer existed. It was pushed so far in the background she barely sensed its presence. In short? Her powers were temporarily unavailable and she couldn't have felt more lost. What made it worse was that as the beast moved closer to her, all she could think about was James. Damn. That's what she was worried about? James? Not survival but James' ass? Pathetic. But that's what love was, wasn't it? Even in the face of evil, all you could think about was your loved ones and how'd they get that tired 'they'll always be with you,' speech. Too bad she was too busy bracing herself for the pain to prevent it.

Petrified. She could the feel the color fade from his face as the beast opened its massive maw. The hairs on her neck stood up, and all she could do was stand there, her body shaking like a leaf riding on the breeze. The projector in her started to roll as the memories of her mother's death flashed through her brain. Garden. Flowers stained in blood. A scream. Her mother's body in the jaws of a monster. Another scream. 'Ilyiana ... i ... l-love ...' Lifeless. Blood ... so much blood. Back, in reality, the tears danced down the side of her face. A shame too, as it wasn't until it leaned in closer and the heat of its breath crawled down her skin did tears well up in her eyes did she snap back to reality.

"Come on girl ... you've gotta move ..." Nothing. "Okay, let's start with the fingers." The digits on her hands twitched, one after the other did they spark back to life. Her arms were next, moving almost instantly once she saw the beast was drooling over her, before letting out a low roar. From there it was her torso and before she knew it ... "MOVE!!!" The beast dove in for the kill and Ilyiana was able to dive and avoid being swept up in its massive jaws. The Hollow craned its neck to face her a red orb now shining in its mouth. It's massive maw opened and the orb created a red flash that was headed in our heroine's direction. Thankfully, Ilyiana moved just in the nick of time and avoiding the blast. She ran past the Hollow and dove into the woods and hide behind a large cluster of trees. It wasn't until she stopped to catch her breath did she noticed something was leaking from her skin. It was some kind of ... energy. Lifting itself into the air and forming softball-sized cloud like orbs that floated around her. What was happening? And why in the hell were they pink?

The source of this had to have stemmed from his Fullbring; another ability perhaps? No ... this was something different ... something more. The power she was feeling right now didn't seem to coincide with her Fullbring abilities, it was something more natural. As if a part of her rooted deep in her soul was finally starting to spread its roots and flourish from its underground prison. She came from around the thicket of trees and stared the Hollow down. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. The Hollow opened its maw and dove towards her, and by sheer instinct, she sparked the energy in the orbs and they exploded. The explosions spread out around the Hollow's upper body, keeping little Ilyiana out of the line of fire, but managing to stop the Hollow in its tracks.

She watched with wide eyes as the explosion created a large smoke cloud in its assault, and listened as the beast howled in pain, her eyes shifting lazily to the fallen mask fragments that fell to the ground. When the smoke subsided her eyes grew larger. Parts of the Hollow's body had been dislocated and/or destroyed in the explosion. Just as quick did the smoke disappear did its body collapsed, and like all the Hollows before and those that would come after, it dissipated into spirit particles leaving Ilyiana as the reigning champion.

Taking a deep inhale her entire body collapsed to the ground, landing on her back she spread out her arms and legs forming a star shape as she breathed heavily.

" Fuck ... that was scary ..."

[ NOTES ] unlocking reiryoku techs.
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