Chapter 8: Horns
Bleach ff ch 8
Ch 8
===
"Hey, did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"The convoy sent by the Nobunaga clan to the Daimyo's estate was intercepted. Everyone within the estate was killed or went missing. The Daimyo has declared war on the Toyotomi loyalists. The wandering merchants say that he's declared that the Toyotomi clan intercepted the convoy because they didn't want the two clans to be allies."
"I see."
"Yeah. But I don't like war you know."
"Why?"
"Well, once there's a war, there's going to be a lot of deaths. Many people will lose their family members, sigh."
"Indeed."
Seimei, who was eating some dango which he'd been obsessed with lately, heard the words of the porters.
'War means more deaths… And more deaths mean there's going to be more hollows that could have the chance to be made… sigh.'
Seimei thought as he took a bite of the dango.
"Are you enjoying the dango, sir?" A middle-aged man exited the building and asked Seimei.
He'd seen Seimei come to his dango shop every day, eating his dango. It seemed that this would be a regular customer of his, so he decided to talk to him.
"Oh, definitely. Your dango is absolutely delicious!"
Seimei smiled at the man as he replied positively. He wasn't lying. He'd enjoyed the dango the man made and would come to visit ever so often, almost every day.
"Thank you." The man bowed to Seimei.
Suddenly, Seimei asked, "What do you think about the daimyo's decision?"
The man paused, as he sat down next to Seimei and brought out a kiseru. He stuffed some tobacco into it and lit it on fire.
The man put the kiseru to his lips and took a puff, slowly exhaling out.
The smoke flew around the lantern, the dark a certain atmosphere.
"This war wasn't supposed to happen." As he spoke, the simple man seemed much more complex than could be previously seen.
"If the convoy wasn't intercepted then the daimyo wouldn't have made that decision."
Seimei nodded.
"But someone did, someone intercepted the convoy and everyone in the convoy is either dead or missing." He replied.
"Indeed. Someone did. Now that has led to 2nd Battle of Sekigahara to happen. The daimyo has already started to recruit samurai and mercenaries. He's been buying weapons. This battle will happen. And it will happen soon."
The man took a deep puff, coughing a few times. He exhaled the smoke, creating silence within the area.
"You seem to know a lot." Seimei replied.
The man laughed. "You hear a lot when you open a shop like this."
Seimei laughed alongside him.
Just then, he heard a familiar beep. After pulling out the denreishinki, he saw a hollow on the map.
The population wasn't very high 250 years before the modern period. While hollows still exist, the number of hollows overall was a lot less. After all, less population means less souls leading less hollows to be born.
The Shinigami who had confronted Seimei when he'd arrived at the modern world had already left. His shift was over. As such, Seimei was the official Shinigami assigned for his current location, the city of Edo.
"It seems I'll have to go."
Seimei smiled as he spoke. He walked away from the dango shop and slowly disappeared into the darkness.
Cling!
Just as the dango owner moved back into the shop, a metal 5 pointed cross connected to a silver chain fell out from the hand of the owner.
"Seems you fell out. That isn't good, I've already ended that life after the extermination."
The owner shook his head as he pulled the cross back into his sleeve, changing back into the friendly dango shop owner.
"Mr Ishida, could I have a cup of tea?" A porter sitting down on the bench outside the shop spoke."
"Of course." Ishida smiled and spoke.
***
"Hadō #1, Byakurai."
A whitish-blue lightning bolt struck towards, the hollow. It pierced the hollow's shoulder as it fell on the ground after losing its balance.
The hollow was a bull shaped hollow, with a similarly shaped mask around its face.
The bull hollow had 6 legs as it rampaged throughout the rice fields, creating giant craters with its large body.
It roared towards Seimei, a small shockwave being created after its roar.
Seimei was pushed away by its roar, as he spun and landed on the ground.
"Geez, what an annoying hollow." He spoke.
Any time he tried to get near its mask, it'd roar at him, creating a shockwave that would promptly propel him backwards, not letting him get near the hollow.
Just then, Seimei had an idea.
He took the position of his fake "Shikai", deciding to try something.
Mushashi had told him that once he decided to "cut" something, no matter what stood in his way, he could "cut" the thing he wanted to cut.
Since he couldn't attack the bull in close range, Seimei decided to cut it from afar.
He looked at the bull who decided to charge towards him, its hind muscles bulging as reishi accumulated in its hooves.
It had been enraged after that Byakurai, so the bull decided to charge the puny Shinigami to death.
'You made my job a whole lot easier.' Seimei smirked as the bull ran towards him, its eyes gleaming the familiar devilish gleam that a hollow's eyes had.
The hollow charged at Seimei, ruining the rice fields near it.
"ROAR!"
It roared at Seimei, undisguised rage within its voice.
As the bull came closer to Seimei, his eyes turned daze, a sign that he was "cutting" something.
The concept of cutting was etched into his very soul, and as the sword fell lower, the concept was strengthened, slowly moving downwards.
The hollow was 2 meters away from Seimei when it felt something.
It was as though a part of "itself" was split in half.
The part was being separated from itself. The very essence of its soul was being separated from itself as it felt the edge of Seimei's sword getting closer and closer, even though it was neither extending, nor was it getting larger.
The mask of the hollow slowly started splitting in half from the top. The cut started slowly, being almost unnoticeable at the start. Then it grew larger. As Seimei's sword drew closer and closer to the ground, the mask of the hollow started splitting apart. Blood splashed from the mask of the hollow onto Seimei's shihakusho, dying it red.
"Thump."
As the edge of his sword touched the ground, the hollow split apart from the middle, turning into 2 equal halves, being evenly split.
Yet as soon as the hollow started disintegrating, Seimei felt all the energy in his body leaving.
His skin started slowly drying up, wrinkles forming as he collapsed.
Slight strands of white could be seen in his hair, signaling that his lifeforce was drying up.
'Sigh.'
Mushashi's shadow appeared next to Seimei's collapsed body.
'I told you it wasn't the right time yet, but you had to use the power. Now, you suffer through the consequences.'
Mushashi looked coldly at Seimei.
He didn't feel sad or worried even though he was Seimei's Zanpakuto soul.
Seimei didn't heed his warning and was suffering the consequences.
'You had already felt that your body would be exhausted after using the ability, didn't you? But you had to overexert it and tried to cut something from far away. A mere low-level Shinigami tried to cut space itself.'
Mushashi shook his head as he decided to go back into the inner world.
Just then, a pitch-black shadow rose from the ground.
It drilled into Seimei's heart as it was slowly absorbed into his body.
'How dare you? It was decided among us that until he fell into a life-threatening injury you wouldn't appear?!"
Mushashi scowled at the black vapor as he decided to cut it away.
'Since you broke our agreement, then don't expect me to be merciful.'
He swung his sword downwards, intent on cutting the black vapor away.
Swing!
Screech!
But just as he swung his sword down, Mushashi's swing was blocked.
It was a giant sword, almost comically giant. It was less like a sword and more like a giant hunk of iron. It blocked the cut of Mushashi as he watched the vapor slowly get absorbed into Seimei's body.
'You. How dare you appear after breaking our agreement?'
Mushashi scowled at the new figure who had appeared as he spoke.
'What do you mean by breaking our agreement?'
The new figure grinned ferociously.
He was an extremely tall man, standing at almost 6'8. He had short, spiked black hair with a white patch which he had cut into a crew cut. He seemed to have a missing right eye and a left forearm. Darkness and despair seemed to ooze out of him, as the atmosphere took a dark turn.
'The agreement was simple, whenever Seimei suffered a life-threatening injury, only then would you appear. Yet why is the essence of hell already here?' Mushashi shouted at the new figure.
He smiled even more, as he slung his sword upwards, throwing Mushashi's katana away.
'The boy is experiencing a life-threatening injury right now. His life force was taken away by your idiotic ability and he grew so old. Can't you see? If having a part of your life force consumed isn't such an injury then what is? Completely dying?'
The figure grinned even more ferociously. His black armor shining under the moonlight.
Mushashi had no words to say. The man was right, Seimei had indeed suffered a life-threatening injury in the eyes of others.
'Therefore, I came. How is that breaking our agreement?'
The man's smirk was cynical and his words venomous.
Mushashi looked into the eyes of the man and he looked back, no fear or nervousness present in his eyes.
Mushashi sighed in exasperation, as his body slowly faded away, returning to the inner world.
'I'll only allow this once.'
'Allow? I don't need your permission, [][][][][]'
As Mushashi completely disappeared, the man looked at Seimei.
His skin had already started returning to the same state as it was before. The loss of life force seemingly being replaced by the black vapor.
'Let's have some fun, kid.'
The man slowly grinned as he too disappeared, only leaving Seimei in the rice fields.
Slowly, Seimei opened his eyes. His body was as it was previously, except; he felt a lack of reishi in his body.
'Seems that attack consumed almost all the reishi in my body, long range attacks aren't possible for me right now it seems.'
Seimei scratched his forehead, feeling slightly itchy.
But just as his fingers reached for his forehead, he felt 2 small bumps on them.
They were small, but they were hard and sharp, as though small crystals had grown on his forehead.
He moved to a nearby pond, trying to use the water as a mirror.
Just then he saw it.
2 small horns had formed on his head.
***
"Those bastards destroyed our rice fields?!"
The daimyo shouted at the messenger who had brought the message that the rice fields that would be the main source of food for them were destroyed, with giant craters formed around the fields.
"Those loyalists really want us to suffer huh?!"
He scowled as he spoke.
Then the daimyo faced the messenger.
"Watanabe! Hire some mercenaries! Send them to burn the food storage of the loyalists!"
"Yes sir!"
***
"Oh my. Seems a large storm is going to occur."
A tall lean man, with almost pale blond hair stood on air, his black shihakusho slowly flowing with the air.
He had a clean shaved face and was wearing geta. He looked down on the Toyotomi loyalists camp, who were also preparing for war.
Suddenly, a black cat appeared next to him, surprising him.
"Yoruichi, you shouldn't surprise me like that." He smilingly spoke.
The cat only meow'd not giving an answer in return as the two looked down upon the humans.
A war was about to happen, and their job as Shinigami would be a lot harder.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone