Bleach Hereafter RPG

"Foolish girl, there are no sides. There is that thing and then there is everything else."

His hands were shaking.

"I'm smart enough to know wh--"

His words were cut off as the Vasto Lorde appeared next to him and slammed it's backhand across Asura's face. The impact took less than a second and it sent him flying across the air and into the buildings down the road. The thing didn't even look in the pink haired Hollow's direction. It just stared ahead, at the girl in the red cape. It's teeth clicked and chattered, like the sound a swarm of cicadas make. It's head titled unnaturally to the side.

"H-Hungry..."

The wings on it's mask fluttered back and forth. It chuckled eerily and was about to lunge forward at the girl when Asura suddenly appeared in front of it. His arm cocked back about to strike. One second his face was full of determination and fierceness, the next his eyes went wide and blood shot out from his shoulder where his arm used to be. The Vasto Lorde held the severed limb in his hand for a moment before tossing it away.

Before Asura could escape, it grabbed him by the shoulders and leaned in close. A sphere of green and black energy swirled over it's head. The wings extended to almost look like spikes. It was going incinerate him with a Cero blast at point blank range.

The possessed Shinigami did not enjoy Val's comment much - but before his lashing out could devolve into a petty argument, the Vasto Lorde lunged at them both. With a single swing, it swatted the man aside and turned to Val - on instinct, the Fullbringer gritted her teeth and smirked, all of the energy pent up within her immediately starting to release. A small trail of Reishi burned around the woman's eyes as a sign of the transformation.

In spite of being severely outmatched, the Hollow lunged again, and once again suffered the same result - limb severed, body pinned down, and a Cero charged above the Vasto Lorde's head to blow his victim to smithereens.

Val did not jump to save the Hollow from danger immediately. She let him squirm a little bit, and briefly even considered just watching until the Cero disintegrates him, but she stepped in at the very last moment.

A powered up Fullbringer, moving faster than the eye could see with a powerful Reiatsu aura swirling around her, suddenly grabbed the Vasto Lorde's neck from behind, redirecting the green energy blast just enough to have it whizz above the man's head, only touching the hair.

Even though she had released all of the power of her Fullbring, her power could only barely match the Vasto Lorde. A... terrifying prospect, but Val kept up her confidence regardless.

"Don't play with your food. I'm right here, you are after me."

The Vasto Lorde screeched loudly as it's head was tilted back and the Cero was fired off into the distance barely singeing Asura's pink hair. The hybrid Hollow couldn't believe that the girl had helped him. She could have just watched as he was incinerated completely. If he were the honorable sort it would be he owed her a great debt, a life debt. But was he the honorable type?

Suddenly the creature shrugged off the girl on his back and snapped his head forward, crashing it into Asura's forehead. A CRUNCH sound could be heard as blood shot out of Asura's nose simultaneously. His vision blurred with red, Asura pressed the soles of his feet against the Vasto Lorde's chest and pushed off, breaking free of the creature's grip. It turned away from him to face the girl, the bigger meal and the bigger threat.

Asura crashed into the roof of one of the buildings below and laid there, watching the two of them clash above him. His arm grew back quickly thanks to Hollow's natural regeneration abilities. It took a good amount of Reishi though. He sat up and wiped the blood away from his face with the sleeve of his robe. His nose was busted inward and the area around his eyes was black and blue.

He managed to get to his feet and called out to the girl.

"CRACK HIS MASK OPEN!"

All he needed was an opening. His host's Shikai ability, Cleave, would allowed him to make an instantaneous cut to whatever he targeted even if it was out of melee range. The distance couldn't be too great, but at their current range it should be possible. She just had to trust in him, but that was asking a lot for two people of opposing ideals and backgrounds who just met minutes earlier.

But if she could break the mask, he could finish the job.

The Vasto Lorde eventually turned towards her, though it had to crack the possessed Shinigami's skull with its forehead a bit beforehand. Val did not mind that, though the Hollow forcing itself out of her grip was a rather rude gesture - as it turned to face her, she raised her hand to the side, summoning her Fullbring in the form of a massive red-coated gun-scythe, taller than her.

Claws and muscle clashed with a whirlwind of pure metal, sending shockwaves across the sky and threatening to blow away anyone stepping close. With a grin, Val would suddenly toss her Fullbring to the ground and see it take different shapes as the battle evolved - a mechanical raptor, tackling the Hollow in the midst of a Cero blast charge, or several metallic chains, entangling its limbs and allowing the Fullbring's wielder to smash at the creature with her fists. Never, however, was she able to just kill the Vasto Lorde. In spite of Val's supremacy of technique compared to the brutish force of the Hollow, it could only make up for so much difference in power.

Here, the possessed Shinigami yelled to Val again, calling for her to crack open the Vasto Lorde's mask.

"You-"

What, does he still have something under his sleeve after getting so thoroughly slapped around?

Val would have been fine with just fighting the Vasto Lorde herself, no matter the outcome, but she figured she could give a small favor to the little Hollow. So, on the fly, she changed her strategy.

Instead of dodging a yet another claw slash, Val suddenly met the Vasto Lorde's hand with one of her own, ramming the palms one against another. In her free right hand, she summoned her scythe again, briefly spun it and rammed the top end of the weapon against the Hollow's chin. It was not just a scythe, you see. It's also a gun.

High caliber. Enough to fire off a powerful, point-blank explosion, which now resounded across the city skyline.

The explosion from the girl's gun-scythe was incredible and beautiful in a way, almost like watching fireworks. The sound of it rang across the night sky. The retreating Quincy all looked back, seeing the big explosion of light some distance away. They marveled at the blast but it struck a cord within each of them, making them realize just how far they still had to go.

The same could be said for Asura. He did not have the time to gaze at the blast in wonder. The second it went off, he trained his eyes on the Vasto Lorde. It dashed out of the explosion's area, smoke trailing off of it's body as it moved across the sky. Asura narrowed his eyes. The chin of the mask was blown wide open and there were several small cracks that ran up the length of the mask, but one large one that looked to split it up the middle. He aimed for that crack.

Asura snapped his fingers. For a second it didn't look like anything happened, then suddenly a geyser of blood sprayed out from the open seam of the Vasto Lorde's mask. The Hollow finally used his Shinigami's Shikai ability, Cleave. It allowed him to make an instantaneous slash or cut to his opponent even from a distance away as long as he had line of sight. There was no travel time or distance. The ability did not start at his hand and move toward his foe. It happened at the same time as he snapped his fingers. It was as if there was an invisible blade that slashed his opponent right when he snapped. This made it incredibly hard to block or dodge.

There was one downside to it and that was that he could not use it in quick succession. It took time to prepare and required a good bit of Reishi.

The Vasto Lorde screamed in a distorted animalistic kind of screech. Asura smirked. The thing wailed and clawed at it's mask. Suddenly Asura's smirk vanished. Why wasn't it fading away? Did his cut not go deep enough? The creature howled and blood poured down it's face and dripped from it's chin.

Then it stopped yelling and turned it's head to look directly at Asura. The deep gash in its face was already starting to patch itself back together.

"Oh shi-"

The Hollow-Shinigami implicitly promised to deal with the Vasto Lorde as soon as Val was able to crack the creature's mask - and what he brought to the table was certainly impressive from afar. A technique which slashed his opponent at the snap of his finger, with no blade sent, thrown, or created with his energy - and right after the man's snap, the Vasto Lorde's face collapsed in flesh, blood and screams.

However, the end result was left wanting. The mask did not fade away, and after briefly glancing towards the possessed Shinigami, Val realized that the man expected a lot more than just a slash and a scream.

It was regenerating, and it was pissed.

Shows me for trusting a Hollow to do a job right...

Val considered her options as she charged forth, stopping in between of the Vasto Lorde and her "ally" right as they locked eyes to one another. She could warp the creature somewhere else on the planet, but that wouldn't remove the problem, just leave it terrorizing some other part of the world. Meanwhile, all of her creations were only as powerful as she was herself, and-

"Huh?!"

Right as Val went for a swing, the Vasto Lorde vanished into smoke. It was not targeting the possessed Shinigami - no, it appeared right behind the Fullbringer, backs faced to one another. Then, suddenly, two spikes grew out of the Vasto Lorde's spine, impaling Val in the chest.

"GAH!"

With a squirt of blood, the spikes protruded out of the front of her chest, Val's scythe fell from her hands and the woman clasped her chest in desperation, gasping for breath with lungs increasingly filling up and failing.

This was exactly what he needed, something to distract the Vasto Lorde so he could flee. The moment was there. It had impaled the girl on it's spikes and she had the thing's full attention. This was his moment to run, to bolt away as quickly as he could. Everything inside him was screaming for him to flee. Every survival instinct he had was dialed up to 11 and shouting to him to leave her.

So why wasn't he moving?

Why was he thinking about helping her?

"GAH! FUCK IT!"

Asura disappeared from where he stood, leaving just a wisp of dust in his wake. He reappeared in front of the creature, his arm already cocked back and his fingers straightened like a blade. Knowing he had little time to work with, he plunged his hand right into the Vasto Lorde's head, between the cracks in it's mask The thing immediately grabbed hold of him and tried to rip him away from his head, but Asura held on as tightly as he could, driving his arm deeper and deeper in.

Eventually though, the creature howled right as he went to grab the Shinigami/Hollow hybrid, Asura ripped his own arm off at the elbow to leave it lodged into the creature's face. He somehow managed to escape the wild pawing of the monster as it tried to grab him. He moved to it's back, grabbed the girl with his good arm and kicked off, dislodging her from the spikes.

While the creature was somewhat distracted, he used Shunpo to quickly take the two of them some distance away. He landed on top of a building and skid down the slanted roof until he was out of sight. He laid her down on a balcony, glanced at the thing to make sure it was still back there and then looked back at her.

He mumbled an incantation under his breath and held his good hand out in front of the girl's wounds. His palm glowed green with energy from the kido spell and the wound started to stitch itself back together. He was breathing heavy, sweat pouring down the sides of his face. His elbow had already sealed itself shut and would soon start regenerating but he was using a lot of what little Reishi he had left to do it. He could hear the howls of the creature still fighting to dislodge the arm.

A smirk came to his face, but he still had no idea of how to defeat the thing.

"Don't get the wrong idea."

His eyes caught hers.

"I just need you alive if I stand a chance of surviving."

Strength sapping away with each ounce of blood spilled on the demonic Hollow's spikes. Lungs failing, punctured by the attack and letting loose any of the air Val was trying to breathe in. Consciousness failing, vision fading, eyes starting to close... To the very last moment, however, Val refused to believe that she was dying. She refused to allow herself to think about any regrets, anything she may miss, or let fear of death overtake her mind...

Convinced of her destiny to save all, she could not allow herself to fail so far away from the finish. And whatever gods still existed responded to her prayers.

Suddenly, the woman was pulled off the Vasto Lorde's spikes and carried away - here, her fading body received an unexpected boost, healing Reishi flooding her body and mending the nigh-lethal wounds. A few seconds later, Val gasped in shock, as if she had just risen to the surface after being submerged under water, and pulled herself onto her knees while clutching onto her chest. Here, her regeneration, a part of her Fullbringer abilities, took the baton from the Hollow's healing, mending the rest of the wounds.

The Hollow, meanwhile, profusely defended his actions, stating that he only did this to stand a chance against the Vasto Lorde. Val brutishly spat at the side, over her shoulder, and answered:

"I know, you fuckin' idiot."

Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself back to her feet, staring at the Vasto Lorde as it was pulling out the arm embedded in its face.

"I'm going to kill that thing. Right fucking now. You're the distraction this time."

"I know, you fuckin' idiot."

He sighed and moved to stand again, using the balcony railing to heft himself up.

"I'm going to kill that thing. Right fucking now. You're the distraction this time."

Asura raised a brow and shot her a questioning look. She couldn't be serious. He didn't have anything left in the tank after the fight, losing his arm, patching her and himself up. He'd be lucky if he could get one more Clea---

His eyes widened as a thought came to him. Well, more like smacked him across the face really. Asura turned to look over his shoulder at the Tokyo Tower in the distance.



He suddenly recalled a previous fight he had with a crafty Shinigami (Yoshinori Okamoto ) and his mind worked out a plan that might just suffice. Maybe.

Asura pointed to the tower, lit up but also surrounded by the ambient lighting of the city.

"Get to the top of that and wait for my signal. I'll bring him to you."

He gave her a wink and disappeared.

The creature finally yanked the arm out and hurled it away. The two halves of its face were already trying to sew themselves back together again. The Vasto Lorde's mask was still in tact, only part of it had been destroyed. If only they had severed it completely...

Asura appeared in front of the powerful Hollow, holding the discarded arm. He lifted the severed end and pushed it up against the stub of his elbow. His skin opened and attached itself to the arm. It quickly stitched itself together and eventually he was able to move his fingers again. He smirked at the Vasto Lorde who was almost completely healed again.

"Let's play a game."

He disappeared just as the last word left his lips and reappeared right in front of the Hollow. His arm cocked back just like the two times before. The Vasto Lorde, expecting this, went to grab him but Asura opened his other palm to reveal a concealed kido spell. The aura was blue and burned like fire. He unleashed it and point blank range but he knew it would do nothing to wound the Vasto Lorde. It would just make him angry.

"TAG!"

He stuck his tongue out and took off towards the tower.

"Come get me you big sack of crap!"

The creature roared, bursting out of the smoke after him. Asura didn't look back, he knew the creature was chasing. He could hear him. He didn't need to see it. Maybe he didn't want to. This was nuts. Absolutely insane. Regardless there we was, running across the air as the thing gained on him.

He looked at the tower as it got closer and closer and picked his spot. Once it was in range, he lifted his hand and gestured toward it with two fingers like a gun.

"Bang."

Two of the four support legs were sliced clean through. The structure groaned and shifted, but it didn't fall. That's what he'd need the girl for. The Vasto Lorde grabbed Asura by the head, swung him around, and the hurled him into one of the remaining unhindered support legs. He hit the thing and it sent a resounding BOOM across the steel beams. The whole structure shuddered and groaned once more. Metal scrapping against metal.

Asura coughed up blood, his vision hazy as the Vasto Lorde charged at him, about to cross the middle of the tower, right under the central pylon. All the pink haired Hollow could do is smirk. The last bit was up to her.

Getting to the top of the Tokyo Tower was nothing difficult. As a part of her rapidly growing and developing power, Val figured out a way how to rapidly transport herself across even massive distances - and so, right as the Hollow leapt off to pick a fight with the Vasto Lorde, the Fullbringer cleaved through the air with her scythe and opened a Rift Gate which dropped her off at the top.

Here, surrounded by a vast panorama, spectating the duel in the distance, Val clutched onto her still pained chest, feeling the rapid heartbeat. Images of the scene a mere minute ago still flashed in her mind. As much as she refused to die, she came to realize more and more that she was extremely close to dying that moment.

Dying to prey. Not to an equal opponent in a battle of wits and morals, not just strength. To a Hollow, the food of the superior races.

And that infuriated her.

A trail of Reishi bubbled and burned around Val's eyes, and right as the possessed Shinigami blew off two of the tower's four legs, she lunged forward, flying across the sky. It was a better signal than ever. Right as the Vasto Lorde slammed Asura into one of the remaining supports and then preyed forward to finish him off, a streak of pure white slammed into it from the side.

It pressed the Vasto Lorde from both sides. Behind it, the air froze into a transparent wall, in the front, a furious Fullbringer was forcing the pole of her weapon at its throat, struggling against the Hollow's arms and neck.

"You... disgusting... pitiful... excuse of a being... scourge on mankind... how dare you?!"

Val suddenly twisted the scythe in her arms to slam across the Hollow's face with the butt end of her weapon - then kick slammed it forward, crashing it into a few metal pillars. The power disparity had turned to the Fullbringer's side this time.

"You are prey! You are a disease! You are a tool to bring down reality! How dare you try to put an end to my dreams!"

The Hollow had charged forward to swing at her again, but her speed was now past the Vasto Lorde's charts - and she vanished in a flash, reappearing at a distance and taking a deep breath before yelling again:

"I was sent down to this world aimless, but I have found a mission. It is my destiny to bring an end to this world and let a new one come forth - a dream where nightmares like you do not belong. And a cretin like you does not deserve to cut my destiny short."

A final charge, one at another, with weapons and claws bared for a swing.



Val's scythe slashed forward with the power of thousands of Hollows added together, engulfing the entire battlefield in a flash of blinding, pure white Reishi.

Asura's body slowly slid down the rigid metal beam until he plopped down onto the concrete. His vision was blurry and red. Blood ran down the front of his face, covering the entirety of his left side. His eye was fused shut and swollen. His skin was bruised so much that it was hard to tell where the bruise started and his tattoos ended. His muscles ached as if he had run a marathon three times over. He couldn't lift his arms if he tried. All he could do was smirk. His lips curled into a devilish grin, his sharp teeth gleaming in the lights that decorated the tower.

But then he raised a brow.

He didn't hear or feel the tower come crumbling down atop the two of them. The girl must've found another way that didn't require crashing the structure down on the Vasto Lorde. Then he felt the surge in Reiatsu. He groaned. The pressure ramped up suddenly and he winced as he was pushed down to the cold cement. Her power was staggering. It was surprising that she would be able to take on the thing, but he assumed she was winning as he didn't hear her scream and he didn't hear any angry growls. Just what he could only assume were the sounds of her beating the snot out of the Hollow.

It was hard to make out what she was saying, but he understood the motivation behind it. He didn't really need to hear it all. The burning energy of rage and fury in the air was palpable.

Finally the two charged at each other and she finished the thing off in a blinding flash of white light.

It was then that the tower finally buckled and fell. The two legs that had been sliced completely collapsed and allowed the length of the tower to crash down in one fell swoop. It landed atop several buildings off to the side of the base of the tower. There was a huge dust cloud and some sparks of electricity but otherwise no fires or explosions thankfully. No one was hurt somehow.

Asura coughed up some blood as he laid on his stomach, his face half in a pool of the warm red substance. His body was struggling to repair itself and he didn't have the energy to even move at this point.