Blessed Celephaïs (Xio)

Angarya was quite pleased with its decision to enter the portal. All around it, there was peace and quiet, the calm sort of life that nurtured a peaceful rested soul. Never before had it tasted a soul from a place so idyllic. The only worry it had was that the other Hollow who came through with it might seek to spoil its hunt.

As they left, it issued a simple command in its weird buzzing voice. ”Return if unsafe,” it had told them. If they didn’t return, Angarya didn’t particularly care. If they did, however, that would give it the warning it needed to get back to safety. Content with its cleverness, the lump worked its way away from where the others had gone.

It would stay close to the entry point for a time in case they came back, but it couldn’t resist the urge to feed any more than they could. Angarya’s pursuits were soon rewarded as it came across a small wooden building nestled in the trees. On its porch, a man sat, poking at a fire with a stick. He was old, fat, and almost as disgusting looking as the Hollow. Though other Hollow might pass him up based purely on appearance if there were a tastier looking meal nearby, Angarya sensed strength in this soul that could not be denied.

More important than any of that, though, was that this old man had fallen asleep in his rocking chair. Inching his way up through the brush cover, the Hollow snuck up on the man until they were within a few feet of each other. With the speed of a whip, the blob shot the lamprey mouth attached to its backside out.

The mouth latched onto the man silently, planting itself in his lower back. A pus-filled boil popped at the contact and he shifted slightly in his seat, but the large empty bottle of sake sitting next to the man did more than enough to explain why he didn’t react any more to the bite. Slowly, the Hollow began to extract the man’s essence, savoring every bite as if it were a thick cheesecake.

”What?!” Nao shouted, frantically looking over the emergency report that had just been delivered by the monitoring team in Fourth Division. Messengers had been sent out to the seated leadership in each Division alerting them to a recent massive breach in the outer Rukongai. Multiple Hollow had been reported, and squads had begun to move out.

She would need to coordinate the efforts in First Division. She knew that either the Lieutenant or Captain Commander would send for her if she were actually needed, so she had to stay in her office. The thing which alarmed her more than anything was the proximity of the breach to the cabin the previous holder of her office, Kanichi Mimasaka, was recuperating in. The man had requested some time off to heal his wounds and replenish his mind after she scorched him to the brink of death in their battle, and she had gladly given it.

The fingers he had severed still bore a ring where the axe had met her flesh in the duel. He might have been lazy and incompetent, but the man was a skilled warrior. There was no telling how many Hollow were making their way through the breach, though.

Hastily, she drew up a map to his hideaway as well as a quick letter explaining what had happened, passing both off to the messenger after stamping the letter sealed shut with the insignia of the Captain Commander. ”Find Hatayama Xio and tell her to deliver this missive to Mimasaka-san immediately. If you can’t find her, select another courier. Go, hurry!”

The door shut on the messenger as Nao sat back down at her desk in thought. Zenji had spoken well of his relative’s capabilities and, when she thought of someone to handle such an important task, her mind had immediately jumped to him. He would no doubt be busy with his own matching efforts in Third Division, but there was no reason to lock Xio out of this. She was going to alert a great warrior. She would certainly be safe by his side.

Why was it that Nao’s healed fingers itched so much as she thought about it, then?

Snip.

Snip.

The sheers blurred as Xio hummed along as she trimmed a half-done bush that had the face of a lion-like dragon head.  The garden shinigami was quite happy to be among the plants in the estate. One would wonder how she got through the Academy and into First Squad with such a lackadaisical attitude with most of the subjects but she had persisted with Zenji’s constant droning. She lightly ran her hand along the top of the bush as if petting her own child as she smiled, she didn’t care about the looks she got from the other maidens who thought her odd.

Xio moved to a patch of dirt ready to be planted and was greeted by a messenger who seemed exhausted in his run from looking all over for her. She tilted her head and approached the man who handed her a letter and uttered its importance to her.  Xio clenched the letter in her hand and nodded before taking off. Each step away from the gardens stung her heart, she hated having to leave behind the plants that needed her care. She forgot to leave behind her sheers in the hasten delivery.

It didn’t take her long to find something out of place. There had been a fat old man sitting in a rocking chair though something was attached to him that looked like a lamprey mouth. The shinigami skidded to a halt and slowly crept her way closer while trying not to kick up any more dirt and sound. The closer she approached the more the little parasite had been revealed. It certainly was a disgusting thing. She cringed as she peered over to look at the hollow who was sipping away on the lifeforce of the man and let out a yelp of fright.

“W-what the?!” she exclaimed, dropping her sheers as her hands shook. Eyes widened as she never saw a real-life Hollow before in her sheltered existence.  Slowly she reached down to pick back up her sheers and waved them around as if it would scare it away like a gnat, little did she know that probably would not work on the bulbous disgusting looking thing. WHERE WAS ITS HEAD?!

Its lamprey mouth continued to chew at the man, the ridges of teeth on the inside extending beyond the suction cup mouth to feast on him internally. As it sucked, a trickle of blood escaped from the seal Angarya had with his back, prompting a probing tendril of a tongue to slide out and slurp it back in with a disgusting wheeze.

This was a delicious meal. Not only was it resting perfectly, but it was also full of power. A delicious wagyu rib eye, medium rare, marbled to perfection. Angarya was almost so taken up in the savory flavor that it didn’t notice the entry of another.

Almost.

The grunt came simultaneously from the creature’s head and the cones running along its bulk. It wouldn’t pull the lamprey mouth away from the delicious meal, but it would see what this thing making all the noise was. Perhaps it could serve as a delicious side dish. Was it the tasty, creamy mashed potato with chopped bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and a thick dollop of both butter and gravy to compliment this delicious steak?

Angarya’s neck flab rustled as it turned to face the newcomer, the normally plain Noh mask slightly contorted by the process of feeding on a meal so flavorful. Crimson eyes met Amethyst as it gurgled out a simple request, its cones resonating with a buzzing hum that mirrored the speech. ”Calm. Feeding.”

The lamprey mouth caught on something from the inside, causing the body of the man to jostle in the chair slightly in reflex as a clearly visible lump moved its way down the long cylindrical tube into the creature’s body. It shuddered and let out a high pitched squeal as the item passed into its massive flabby bulk. ”Kidney,” it resonated in an elated bliss as the lights that made up its eyes rolled up into their sockets.

Disgusting.

The more time Xio’s eyes laid on the hollow the more she felt a shiver go up to her spine. She had heard Hollows were monstrous BUT this thing was beyond nightmare fuel. Its little teeth extended beyond the suction from its lamprey mouth as it “sucked” on the man and the way its tongue extended was just nasty. Then the creature's true head? Turned her and spoke calmly in letting it feed in peace.

Xio had to think fast, this man’s life was slowly ebbing away and the creature would not easily detach itself from its meal. The sheers did not even phase the lump either. Xio tucked the letter she had been holding in her other hand and slowly stepped closer, gathering her wits, to the Hollow.

“Let him go, Hollow,” Xio demanded. HAH, what a joke, deep down she was shivering like a scary cat there was no way her voice would be that intimidating. Her shaky hand reached out to grab the lamprey mouth to try and rip it away from its feeding. Her sheers posed ready to strike down on its mask in close range and hopefully get the thing to either attack her or detach off the poor old man.

“Hyaaah!” she shouted out, most Shinigami would have used a kido spell but she didn’t want to harm the man if she accidentally misfired. By the Soul King, she didn’t want to be in this predicament and let someone else handle it, she could have just ignored it and got an earful of her lack of duty as a Shinigami. She just wanted to tend to the gardens and get this over with, being away from bloodshed and organ bits ruining her psych.

This new robed one was much too loud and much too fearful. She would not make a pleasant meal, not as she currently was. The droning hum from Angarya’s body picked up in intensity, small waves of sound visibly warping reality as they came from its back as the Shinigami continued to progress forward. It should attack this new foe. Pacify it, save it for a dessert, but the main course was simply too flavorful.

”No,” the ball of fat grunted as the girl’s hand grabbed around its long secondary feeding tube. It attempted to latch on, but its teeth had just managed to find the second delicious kidney and were starting to wrench it free when her hand closed around its sticky appendage. A high pitched wail blasted from the mouth as it was detached, the concentrated wave connecting straight with the sleeping drunk and blasting him onto the ground as a splatter of succulent juices spilled forth from the hole in his back.

”You stop. Eating you next!” Angarya shouted from the Noh mask as the lamprey tail continued blasting its focused waves at the large man. Even if he was as drunk as the empty bottle implied, crashing face first into the porch with a giant wound sticking out of his back would have been enough to wake the former Third Seat up were it not for Angarya directing its will down upon the man.

The creature was so focused on keeping its meal pacified that it could not direct the same attack at the Shinigami, though. After rolling over on its side to dodge the shears and better face the girl while it kept its sonic assault up, the jiggling jaw of fat moved to accommodate it taking a sloppy bite with the Noh masked face. The girl’s energy was much too fired up. She would likely not taste good, not yet. If Angarya could knock her down, though, it could hurry through his original meal and set to work preparing this sweet treat.

Step one, a nice testing sample of some thigh meat. Thighs always had some of the densest flavor in a meal, and though it could not see this robed creature’s thighs, Angarya imagined they must be well toned and succulent to have made a journey out to a location this remote.

The wailing creature made her eye twitch. The fact the fat lump could speak in a limited way was unsetting too. There were stronger and steel minded Shinigami than her to handle creatures such as this, why she was dealing with this she had no clue perhaps it was just instinctively seeing a poor man’s life being drained away that triggered her response.

“Eek!” she shrieked upon seeing the man’s juices spray out and some of it splattering on her feet. “Stop moving you lump of fat!”

At least step one was accomplished in getting the Hollow off the drunk. This thing wiggled too much and oh gods this thing had a second face!? First the annoying sonic blasts and now this creepy-ass Noh like head going to get a bite of her.

Think fast!

The man was bleeding and the hollow was doing something strange with its sonic wave. If she could just keep it distracted enough maybe it would give up but that didn’t seem the case. Xio dropped the shears, held both hands around the hollow’s icky body, and did the only thing she could think next: throw herself and it into the porch. She wasn’t much of seeing guts but maybe she could body slam this thing enough to daze it or dumb enough to miss entirely. It was a silly gamble even if it meant hurting herself.

Angarya was right about one thing. The thigh meat it felt colliding with its mask did have the right levels of supple tightness to it. It only wished that the leg hadn’t been driven forward before it could get its mouth fully wrapped around it. Even the best coat of blubber doesn’t help against being kicked in the goddamn teeth.

A high pitched wailing screech spewed forth from the cones and lamprey mouth as it drove back, the mirrored tone from its primary mouth being absorbed by the woman’s leg as she pressed it back. Jaws tried in vain to clamp down, getting caught up in the fabric of the woman’s uniform so that all it could do was drool and spew spittle everywhere.

Together, the two rolled around on the porch, Angarya getting a thin coating of the bits of its meal that had slipped out plastered to its back. The fat lump tried to pin the girl down, pressing its prodigious weight over top of her, but she was deceptively strong. Again and again it flipped over her and tried to slam down, but each time the flabby mess of a Hollow was rebuffed.

It wasn’t going to get anywhere like this and, worst of all, its earlier meal was going to spoil if she made it wait any longer. Flipping over onto its back and spinning around to face her, it pleaded with the woman. ”Stop! Angarya only want sleepy food.” As it begged for understanding, the lamprey tail mouth moved up behind the woman slowly. Though it was still angled at the main course, it was ready to switch its focus at a moment’s notice.

The two tumbled about, Xio whimpering while this fat thing got juices all over her. She already hated herself having to deal with this Hollow. Words could not describe the utter nasty of this being. At least it had a new source of meat to try to chew into, even if Xio was the bait even if that piece was cloth.

Flap flap.

The flappy mass tried to slam her down but she pushed it away. It seemed they were getting nowhere and looked like a scene of wrestling with a Hollow and Shinigami of all things. After a while the Hollow changed its tactics, now pleading to her, it would have been adorable if its appearance was a thing of horror and disgust. Well it did have a name.

“There’s no good food here, go back to where you came from or…” Xio began to trail off, yeah she had no clue what would be threatening to this Hollow. She looked around, found her shears, and quickly reached out for them. “Look, just go away and you won’t get harmed!” she pleaded back trying to grab her “weapon” before the Hollow could reach for its host. She tried to hold it down hoping to delay it further even though its Noh mask could potentially bite her in the process.

”Yes food! Sleepy food!” it squealed, the cones resonating the word food throughout the clearing the house sat in, causing birds and small animals that hadn’t been disturbed from their hiding places by the scuffle to collapse from their trees as a sedating pulse hit them. It wouldn’t be enough to knock out either of the two Shinigami for good, but Angarya had not been forced to face an opponent so deadset on resistance before, leading to clumsy control and imprecise targeting.

Scavengers and cowards like Angarya were seldom truly fought. It had lived for years preying on the dying and weak, and yet this woman who ought to have been an easily subdued morsel kept fighting back. Worse still, she seemed to be preparing to launch her own proper counter attack. It would have to gamble if it wanted to stop her from hitting it with the sharp thing her fingers now closed in upon.

Angarya hated gambling.

No sooner had she readied the weapon than it started its feint, lunging forward with its mouth outstretched. Perhaps it was the essence that it had taken from the large man that caused the glint of cunning to shine so brightly in the fat blob’s eye when, at the last second, it dipped its Noh mask down into the folds of fat in anticipation of a strike and instead lashed out with the lamprey mouth, sliding it around the woman and aiming the sucker for her backside, a high pitched whine accompanying the surging strike.

The screeching of the blob Hollow was quite disorienting. Xio squinted one eye as she resisted the effects, this thing was stubborn as hell but she wouldn’t stop now in what she got herself in even though she’d rather be at the gardens. It was peaceful tranquility at the estate until life flipped her over and soon she was working hard at the Academy and was promised she’d only have to deal with paperwork when joining up with the First Division. Boy was she wrong. She began to realize at this moment her shears were not going to save her now, she cursed herself for leaving her Zanpakutō at the Estate - she hoped no one would rat her out on that flaw when running into this Hollow.


“No. More. Food. For. You!” she shouted back at the Hollow even as she shook in fear, trying to steady the shears while holding down the screeching blob was a struggle.

The creature then made for its strike. The shinigami made the mistake of clenching her eyes shut as the Noh mask opened its mouth wide thinking it was going to bite her face off, she quickly used her free hand to try and block her face as she laid there helplessly. Instead, she felt the lamprey mouth attach itself to her backside. “Oh, you little bitch!” she shrieked, she quickly got up to her feet and tried stabbing at the hollow attached to her. Hopefully, her aim could strike at its Noh mask while it tried to take a bite of her.

“I’m so going to take a bath after this!” she thought to herself. Just thinking about the warm waters on her skin after this nasty fight gave her determination to give it her all, even if that included getting dirty. The Hollow wasn’t like those towering Gillian’s she once heard about, but it sure did have some intelligence and shouldn’t be taken lightly even at this stage. “Look! Bigger food over there!” she tried distracting the thing enough to rip it off her backside. It was a gamble herself she tried to play up her sleeve even if the blob did not take the same bait.

Angarya normally wouldn’t be fooled by such a blatant ruse, but it somehow knew that the robed woman ought not to be in a state to think clearly. Sudden waves of realization hit it as the lamprey mouth chewed on her and began to send the same exhausting vibrations through her body. She should be falling asleep. Hollow fell asleep when Angarya did this to them. The large man had fallen asleep. What was so different about this woman?

”What food?” it asked, the buzzing heightening in intensity and forming a dissonant cohesion instead of the previous cacophony of mismatched voices it had given off before. As it looked up, its eyes fell on the big man who, somehow, was also managing to drag himself to his feet and overcome Angarya’s sedative abilities.

”No! Waking food! Stay sleeping!” it cried out, the cones matching it in a newfound purpose and intensity. The sucker mouth detached itself from the woman’s backside, a thin dripping of foul smelling mucus lingering around the edges of the fanged hole as it wiggled out from underneath her.

”Angarya stop eating new food. Will new food let me eat old food?” it asked from the Noh mask, pointing its disgusting tail-mouth at the former Third Seat and blasting him with focus wave after increasingly focused wave of the intense buzzing noises.

A strange wave coursed through her body where the lamprey mouth had chewed on. Whatever relaxation Xio tried to override her was boosted by the adrenaline that ran through her veins and complete anxiety to not become this things food, and a slight wonder what this Hollow’s next evolution would be; would it be something more horrific or something more tangible to whatever that wasn’t disgusting if she could just purify it. Why live this miserable life having to constantly have to eat unless Hollow were into that sorta thing.

There was no one else around as a food source, the occasional panic bird flying off, but it was just the three of them as chaos brewed elsewhere. Perhaps she could offer to be a bait as she noticed the stirring old man finally come to his senses. Would it be a good gamble, though? If only she remained conscious through the sedative effect she was willing to take that sacrifice. Her thoughts were interrupted by the foul smell coming where the mouth had detached from her back and her face started turning green and resisting the urge to keel over.

“No, don’t! Have me!” Xio pleaded out in an attempt to dissuade. “I’m much tastier!”

Think fast.

Her mind raced to try to come up with a solution. None seem to have a direct success; she could try and heal the man with her limited kaido resource - but that took too long to form a connection to restore his reiatsu then the body. There was only one that came up that could delay the Hollow as it pleaded for food.

“Bakudo twenty-six, Kyokko!” as she uttered out, light bends around the third seat causing him to distort and disappear from view. Now hopefully the Hollow would only go after one source. She stood erect and held her head up high as she stared down the Hollow in a standoff. She wondered what its next move would be.

”First meal calmer. Softer meat,” Angarya explained, deeply confused both as to why the woman across from it was so insistent upon being eaten as well as why it was capable of internalizing this confusion. For as long as the fat little lump could remember, it had been a simple creature. It was more cautious than most Hollow and much more refined in its hunting tastes, but the cascade of newfound thoughts and emotions surfacing in Angarya’s bestial mind were alarming to say the least.

”Will eat you later. You have Angarya’s promise. The succulent one, he-” it started, taking an uncertain step forward as the Shinigami as she invoked her magic. The quivering folds stopped as the incantation took hold and the tasty prey vanished from sight before Angarya’s eyes. Its spiritual signature lingered, but it was like the proverbial grease left in the wrapper of a thick, juicy cheeseburger.

The creature screeched in outrage, the cones sending out a visible shockwave of distorted space as it witnessed the horrifying loss of its meal. ”You! You took Angarya’s food! Bring it back!” it demanded, turning fully to face the woman and continuing to close in on her. ”Bakudo twenty-six is bad words. Use good words to bring food to Angarya or Angarya will have to do bad things to make good words come out.”

This sadism was new, too, but the lump liked how it felt. Previously, it would have tucked tail and run off, but something had changed inside the Hollow after sampling the delicacies of this world. It knew, especially after tasting her, that it could handle this woman. It wouldn’t kill her, not if she brought the food back, but Angarya do it if it needed to. She was tastier than has been expected and, once properly relaxed, she might even have a better taste than the main course it had been enjoying, but Angarya needed to finish that meal.

The tail mouth, unable to spot its target any more, curved around over the fat body like an antennae and focused its sound waves at the Shinigami as Angarya walked closer, a menacing growl-like emanation accompanying the constant drone coming from the cones on its back. ”Bring the meal back. Use the good words,” it demanded, continuing its menacing walk, completely unaware of the imperceptible man waking up behind it.

Xio winced as the creature began its tantrum screeches and distorting shockwaves again. At least the third seat was safe for now and the Hollow too wrapped up in being upset its “meal” poofed. “Bring it little blob,” Xio beckoned the Hollow to attack her. “Are you too chicken to fight for your food?” she slashed at the air with her shears in a fluid motion leaving trails of her verdant green reiatsu zig-zagging in a Z fashion.

Deep down she was still shivering like a poor sheep among a threatening wolf that was all bark and no bite. As the Hollow approached her; she remained locked in place, weapon posed as if she was going to strike but made no indication. Hopefully the third was still alive after getting the life drained out of him and almost became a quick meal. Regardless, she still felt bad for not acting quicker and let fear overtake her and she wouldn’t hear the end of it from Zenji as he thought highly of her skills, little did he know she hated fighting even with all her sass.

“By the Soul Kings hairy ass, this is going to look bad in my report.” she thought to herself. Beads of sweat began to drip off her forehead and as the disgusting little lob made its way towards her, she thrust out her free hand, making the symbols of the spell in the air, then chanted again. “You want more words, huh? Then eat this! Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!" she began prepping and red energy began to engulf around her body. “Bakudō #9. Geki!” the spell then moves out towards the Hollow to wrap around it to try and keep it in place.

Angarya sat still when she promised the good words, eagerly anticipating the promised eating. It had taken some effort, but finally the robed creature had been able to understand what Angarya had been trying to explain. It was hard finding good wait staff, but it looked as though she had finally understood the order. It was unfortunate that Angarya had needed to send the plate back so many times, but those worries were surely to prove unfounded.

Excitedly, it opened its mouth to take a big chomp out of where the third seat had been just as a wracking pain hit it, causing the cones and dual-mouths to release an ear-splitting screech. Muscles contorted in on each other, and a horrendously painful pinching sensation welled up at the top of Angarya’s spine, working its way down with an electric pulse until it came to hit the prehensile lamprey-mouthed tail.

With the creature frozen, the tail flopped around angrily, howling out of tone with the cones as it splattered slobber on the ground. ”Bad words! Bad words! The lying woman used the bad words instead!” it called out to the sky, just in time for a shimmering axe head to materialize in the air as Xio’s concealing Bakudo gave way to the surging might of the injured former Third Seat.

Blade connected with connective flesh and, with the body unable to move remotely fast enough, found purchase in Angarya’s tail-mouth. A horrid full-body scream escaped from the fat lump as the appendage fell to the ground between it and Xio, crawling toward her in futile hatred as it dissolved. Despite being removed from Angarya’s main body, the tail felt the same sudden panicked will to live, instinctively searching for whatever nourishment it could find to hasten its repair.

With a final surge of energy, it bounced at her like a spring, the swirling vortex of a mouth spiraling as it launched through the air. Mere seconds before connecting with her nose, the tail’s lips and teeth finally dissolved, leaving behind only a foul stench and the buzzing drone of Angarya’s spiritual signature.

Losing its favorite limb was enough to startle the creature, and it quickly used its Sonido to blast away from its bindings, the lingering painful effect dissolving in on itself as the body left the area where Shinigami had held Angarya in place. The lump reappeared to the side of the house, its Noh mask glaring daggers at the woman.

She had lied! There was nothing for Angarya to eat! If anything, Angarya’s eating would be slower until it could regrow its extra mouth. Worse still, the food from before was now standing, albeit with some difficulty.

”Bad food!” it called back in anger, pointing a sticky webbed digit at Xio, ”Angarya is not the fool!” It didn’t know why, but something about this pained the fat blob more than it ought to. The tail hurt like hell, but somehow, the fact that Angarya had been outsmarted and outplayed so easily hurt a hundred times worse than any physical agony could.