Bleach Hereafter RPG

It was not too long ago that he had visited the Realm of the Living. Just a few weeks in fact, before his appointment as Captain of the 13th Division. To be honest, he no longer wished to go back here for a good long time.

The sight of unsuspecting humans only continued stinging his heart; reminding him of a cut-short romance between him and a fullbringer because he was not by her side to protect her.

Yet, he also had this urging feeling that he could not resist. He had to at least safeguard his lover’s home. True, Earth was out of his jurisdiction as protector of Soul Society. Even then, there was a weight upon his shoulders he could not dismiss.

So here he was, laying down on the stone-cold rooftop floor in a familiar city, blanketed by a sea of stars, he used to gaze at in wonder. The diamonds of light below could not be compared with the beauty of those above, yet, the shinigami seemed rather apathetic for such a view.

His gaze was blank, and almost lifeless. Far from the eyes filled with colours once.

Slowly, the clouds were moving in, covering most of the visible constellations his eyes could see.

Yet, the heaviness, the darkness creeping in, was not only caused by the immediate change in the weather. The cold air damping his cheeks somewhat carried a scent of nasty, disgusting hollows flocking somewhere nearby.

The Captain stood up with a heavy sigh. Normally, he would let the lower ranking shinigami to deal with them, then again, he was not someone who would stand idly when there are things needed to be done.

A light buzz he heard from the inside pocket of his coat. Hyakuji reached in and took out the bronze plate given by Cole to track the arrancar named Nezuel. Apparently, he was in the same direction as the pile of hollows flocking together. Thus, hitting two birds with one stone.

The shinigami drew out his katana, flashing out of sight and then reappearing within the vicinity of the mass of hollows; a strong gust of wind clearing out the tainted creatures.

The brief attack would not reveal his presence yet. As the hollows slowly de-materialise, and clouds continued to hover from the skies above, the arrancar would notice the man’s silhouette resting atop an electric post.

His long raven hair gracefully danced with the wind, as well as the overcoat. One would mistake him for a super human, if not for the reiatsu of a shinigami he was purposely giving off.

He did not say anything however. There was not even a look of intimidation, merely of observation as he waited for the ambitious arrancar’s next move.

[461]

Perhaps what Cole said to him was true. If this guy was bloodthirsty like the hollows, he would have attacked the shinigami. He only let out just enough spiritual pressure to appear weak in disguised human form, but the arrancar he still found sweating cold. It seems this Nezuel had already figured out his true nature. No need to prolong his agony then.

In a swift but graceful leap, he’d lunge forth at the arrancar, his short sword still held by his left hand and was not seen drawn even after he passed by the arrancar.

There only seemed to appear a strong breeze out of nowhere, with it came along a heavy spiritual pressure if only for a moment and was cut short right after his feet touched the ground. His long raven hair followed smoothly as he landed to the arrancar’s side.

“Seems someone wanted to make you their snack,” the Captain remarked as he turned to the arrancar again.

If the arrancar would want to make sense of what happened, he’d notice an adjucha unconscious, laying at his feet, and most likely dead.

“This is the first time I’ve seen an arrancar being chased down by hollows.”

Given the hollows’ beastly nature, it was quite hard to pinpoint the reason for being hunted down. The masked arrancar he encountered a few times was the one chasing after the hollows... for whatever reason; even Rao was hunting the swapping hollow when he first met him.

Nezuel pointed to an underground lair behind him. While Hyakuji always tried to find good in people, it wouldn’t hurt to be wary of strangers in the first meeting. Who knows what was going on in this arrancar’s mind. He could probably take this guy down, but it would also be foolish to become too confident of his power. He had seen many of his comrades become arrogant of their abilities and ended up beaten harshly by their enemies. Besides, who knows what kind of trap lying in wait inside.

Hyakuji had nothing to fear, but he found it best to be careful especially while testing the waters.

“How about we eat somewhere else? There’s a ramen shop on the corner of this street. Then you can tell me more about yourself…”

“...Nezuel.”

[387]

While Hyakuji’s offer was genuine, it seemed that the arrancar was still on edge with him. Earlier, he greeted courteously and now he was threatening the death god with a fight? This guy was definitely sending mixed signals for someone who had taken interest in joining their ranks.

Maybe it was all bluff? And he actually wanted to invade Soul Society for whatever selfish reasons…

He didn’t seem keen enough, not being able to tell when the adjucha was dead or not. However, the Captain would not react to that. The arrancar should notice by now that the hollow was thoroughly purified. None among the tainted souls comprising it remained. Not even a bit.

“...A fight?” Hyakuji scoffed.

“I am not here to fight. If I were, I would’ve taken advantage of the time while you’re dealing with the hollows. I wouldn’t have saved you from the adjucha who was about to eat you.”

The Captain turned, walking towards the ramen shop, “I just want to ask a few questions, is all…”

Recalling Cole’s and Koshou’s experiences, he took note that this arrancar might indeed be power hungry. There’s a possibility that he might attack, but that, he would leave to him.

As always, Hyakuji was not one to start a skirmish, unless it’s spar training within the grounds of Soul Society. He was hard-pressed when Diana, Valentina and Yukari asked for it, and he didn’t have any choice in those instances except to fight back.


“... Well?”

The choice is his.

[261]

---

OOC NOTE: If you want to battle, you are free to take the first initiative. Otherwise, we can continue this as an adventure.

“That’s understandable,” Hyakuji answered in response to the arrancar’s explanation, as they continued walking towards the ramen shop. He had the same experience as the arrancar while he was still a plus. Due to his spiritual pressure, the hollows kept hunting him as a prey. It was only when a noble shinigami by the name of Kanemi Yuna, adopted him into their house that he managed to get out of this situation.

It was also the beginning of his journey in becoming a shinigami. Yuna’s offer to become stronger, in order to protect the most important people in his life seemed irresistible that time; though there was really no one except his family to which he never really felt belonged. Not that they didn’t love him, or he wasn’t cared for. He just couldn’t feel it.

“You are being tracked by your Queen?”

That was new information. The only thing he knew about the arrancar was that they were satient, and had some form of rank or leadership. How many troops or squads there are, and whether they operate systematically like the shinigami or quincy, he did not know yet. There were more pressing threats than the arrancar recently, and if this one here was actually serious in joining their ranks, he’d most likely consider it given their present situation.

At once, they turned to a corner, then greeted immediately by the ramen shop. The aroma was already filling their noses, yet it was not enough to satiate the cravings of the Japanese native.

“How I managed to track you down, is not important. I mean no harm,” the raven-haired man sat by the counter, grabbing one of the menu cards to choose his order.

“A big bowl of shoyu ramen, please.”

“No worries, it’s fine. I’m used to hostility… You’re not the first one to feel somewhat on edge around me…” Hyakuji confessed with a light chuckle; remembering the first encounters with Diana, Yukari and Valentina.

Either that, or many ladies acted rather wild around him. In fact, he had to hide or teleport most of the time to get around Soul Society. Come to think of it, only Irisa and Maria were among the few ladies who acted pretty normal whenever interacting with him. Although even the brusque Maria had fallen for his charm. At least she could still act rationally, or at least she seemed to.

“Anyway… I’ll get straight to the point. Why would you like to join us?”

[424]

To Hyakuji’s surprise, the arrancar took out some pennies to pay for his meal; and yet, he even offered to treat the shinigami with what little was left in his pockets. Perhaps Nezuel had no idea how money works in the realm of the living? Was this his actual first interaction as a human being?

“Uh…Nezuel-san. It’s alright. Tonight’s my treat.”

“Ojii-san, please give him a big bowl of shoyu ramen too. Thank you,”

The old man bowed to the shinigami, taking note of the request for another order of the said meal.

The Captain turned to the raven-haired arrancar, listening intently as he told Hyakuji his circumstance.

Nezuel made mention of the queen again, which was something the shinigami had not heard of yet. His encounters with arrancars were pretty limited. None had this heartfelt talk with him, even the black-haired masked guy, who he met several times had not spoken to him once. Perhaps he could definitely learn more about them, understand it was possible for them to keep their sanity despite being or rather, coming from hollows… as he has heard.

Aside from the shinigami, he had only hung out with fullbringers during the first few days of his investigation on them, and even became friends with some of them. He had only been in one skirmish with a quincy, who seemed to have a distorted perspective about shinigami.

An alliance with arrancars against the demons might surely be possible, yet the rest of the Goteijusantai would also be certainly against the idea. Regardless, he was not as arrogant nor as stiff as most of them. And even though Irisa had particularly told him to look for silver eyes, it would not hurt to add some other people who would join in his crusade against the demons, surely?

Hyakuji re-focused his attention to Nezuel. The arrancar stated it was purely selfish reasons at first, aside from some form of isolation from his group, he wanted to find out more about shinigami, citing that it seemed he was more and more becoming like them as he grew stronger.

Again, an information quite new and bizarre to him. He had only known of the visored, but that was a topic he was trying to avoid for quite a while now.

“I see…”

“Honestly, I don’t know how to feel about you actually joining the shinigami. Firstly, I admit many are still hostile to different races. Only a few are beginning to warm up to them, or to the idea that every race can be allies and peace could be established between realms,” the death god said as a matter-of-factly.

“However, I am not entirely against the idea…”

At the back of his mind, Hyakuji wanted to inform the arrancar of the looming threat. Yet, there was also a slight hint of conceit welling up his heart, perhaps, as a shinigami Captain… that his race could not do anything about the invasion of demons… which had already brought significant damage both to Soul Society and the Realm of the Living.

Regardless of the thousand thoughts swimming in his head, the only thing the arrancar would notice if ever he was looking at the death god, was a stoic, almost blank expression on his face.

“You are welcome to become an ally… I think,” the Captain turned, “... though not yet as close as to living in Soul Society as of the moment… consider this as my protection to you.”

[583]