A Helping Hand [Closed]

Kisho drew breath more softly, felt his strength return little by little. His body hurt, narrowly avoiding death by yet a thousand cuts would have that effect. He felt tired, his body trembled with each heartbeat. After the experience he went through, the despair, the near-death and everything that elapsed in the last ten minutes or so that he lacked the vocabulary to properly categorize, all he wanted was a long sleep in a warm bed or flat ground. But he wasn't out of the woods yet.

With a tremendous herculean effort, he pulled himself upright and lifted his blade just so off the ground. He didn't level it towards Anatoly nor did he put it away. As the man spoke a little chill ran down his spine but another part of himself said it was okay. The price was unexpected but it was worthy was it not? After all, it was but a little piece of his soul and he'd have lost the whole damn thing without him. The name Ms. Nao didn't ring any bells but he suspected it wouldn't. He logged it away for later reference. Something told him he had contributed to something awful, and something even louder told him that what was done was done. The shape his body was in he had no choice but to watch.

Anatoly had always seemed a bit off, but now he seemed all but maniacal. The reaper would have his due and the price for his life was steep. He'd have to stomach the consequences of his survival, but he lived yet and he could make amends because it was so. The sense of clarity was electric. He shifted back towards the edge of the roof not in fear or trepidation but with a sense of resignation. Circumstances had forced him into this, his own weakness and uncertainties and all that was left to do were collect the lesson and trudge on. There were mistakes to make right in his home, across the Seireitei and now, here in the world of the living.

"I'll take my leave, but know this. I'll be back again," he promised. No keen threat, no bloody shout, just the air of his word given and a promise intended to be kept. He couldn't find it in him to hate the mad human, he had, even with ill intent given him a precious opportunity.

Still, the fading glimpse of what he had helped create as he took his last and fateful step towards the ledge was haunting. The visage of the twisted creation of a part of him, another and that twisted hollow burned into his memory. A final test to his resolve he passed but only just.

Mistakes were made.

But at least now he knew the path forward. The rushing wind greeted him as he dropped off the side and vanished, falling towards the streets below. He'd make his way away from that nightmare, find his way home. Bloodied, but alive and more than he had felt in ages.

exit

The words spoken by the Shinigami would barely reach Anatoly, he was far too busy admiring his creation to completely notice what the other man was doing. However, the same could not be said for the creation itself. The crimson orb would suddenly start to glow as it would spread it's wing wide, ready to initiate in combat. Only then would the shaman turn around to acknowledge the other man. However, turning around and giving him one last glance was all that he would do. He was done with him, there was no need to do anything else at this point, even if it meant letting him go free so that he may one day attempt to get his revenge.

That did not sit well with the giant creature behind him as it did not feel like standing still and letting someone who it saw as an enemy get away. But, it knew that it could not go against the orders of it's master who apparently did not want to do anything. Every essence of it's body was yelling to go after that man, to catch him, to kill him, to make him silent. It did not know why, it wanted to know why. And then it happened, words would flow into the shaman's mind, dark and sinister but somehow familiar. Why not kill, was what he would hear as a voice spoke to him in a somehow unclear and distorted voice, almost like a noise coming from the back of his head.

It would not take Anatoly long to realize from who those words came and as soon as he did, he would quickly turn around to face his creation once more. He would be met with a gazing orb directed in his direction. At this point it was clear to him that what he created as his spirit guardian had actual sentience and apparently quite an interesting ability. However, he did wonder as to how far it went and there was only one way to find out, he needed to talk to it. "How did you do that? Can you understand me?" Still a bit hesitant about the whole thing, Anatoly would hold himself a bit back with questions and ask something simple speaking as slowly as he could so that his guardian could better understand what he wanted to know. He did not want to immediately barrage the poor thing with questions.

There would be no wait, the answers would come almost as soon as the questions were asked. In the same fashion as with  the prior message, the words would just appear as thoughts. Yes. You is how, you gave us this, this is your power. Mumbled and weirdly formed thoughts but with enough coherence for Anatoly to understand them. He was correct, this creature could understand him and speak to him. Not only that, apparently he was the one who gave it this power as it called it? This time without any hesitation or holding back, Anatoly would ask it what was on his mind after hearing all of that: "I did? Was this something that happened because of the contract? How did I give this to you?"

This time the reply would not come as fast as the last time. In fact, the creature would tilt his head to the side as if it was a bit confused with what it was asked. It did not quite understand what this man it called master was asking it. No contract, your power. We stole from what made us. The tone was a bit different this time, a bit condescending, as if it did not understand why it was even being asked this. How did it's master not know this? Didn't he made it?

However, despite the fact that it knew that, Anatoly did not. In fact even after getting that message it would take him a moment to process it all. This ability to communicate like this was not something that came from the contract they formed but it was a product of his ow power? Up until this point he was not aware of even possessing such power. The second clue added some additional information about it but even then Anatoly did need to think about it for a moment before coming to a conclusion. It was quite the conclusion, not something he had expected and yet it most certainly made this day far better, especially after having his favorite shirt destroyed.

If what this creature was telling was the truth, as it probably was, that would mean that it gained this ability to communicate from the multiple pieces of the crow Hollow that he had used to construct it. Which would mean that it wasn't the contract that he had formed with all those Shinigami that allowed Anatoly to gain and use those soul fragments. Instead, it was something that was apart of him all along. He just needed a way to trigger it and those contracts did the trick. The moment those spirits reverted was the moment of their biggest weakness and that is what allowed him to gather what he needed.

This was definitely not something Anatoly had knew about, he was completely unaware of the fact that he possessed such power to begin with. But, he most certainly was glad that he had found out about it. This meant that he had a lot more work to do, he needed to test out what he knew and see how exactly all of this worked. And with that realization it was time to leave this rooftop.


End