What Am I? [Solo Training]

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

Fuck.

It was so exhausting, having to trudge like this. She was so worn out, staring at the rest of her squad as they went. It had been two days since they had been stuck here. They had been attacked in the world of the living, and a hollow had snagged one of their own. The CO at the time had been....furious. He had led a charge after the hollows, even when that charge took them into (for the rest of her squad) unfamiliar territory. Since then, it had been awful. She hated shinigami stupidity sometimes. It disgusted her, and it made her all the happier when she was able to eat them. And at that very moment, she wanted to eat her superior officer so very very badly.

They had chased the captors for the better half of half a day. Ducking behind dunes whenever the hollows they were pursuing fired Cero and bala over their shoulders at them, and of course having those near moments when they had almost gotten them. Mizu herself was angry. So many close calls, so many moments when her CO had ALMOST made a mistake she could capitalize on, almost made himself so very easy to backstab and end this stupid chase. Until at long last, over one last hill...they found it. The body of the comrade that had been captured. Not even eaten, simply killed and discarded. Apparently the hollow had decided the meal wasn't worth their neck.

The CO had broken down.

Mizu stood there with the others. A day later, their 'Leader' still kneeling beside where they had buried the body in the sands. The notion of bringing her back was not in the cards. They didn't even know how to get back to Soul Society. Let alone bring the girl back with all of the hollow attacks. Mizu herself was worn out. Having to use her "Kido" to fend off hollows. She even managed to kill a few of them. But alas, with her stupid fucking comrades around, she hadn't been able to feed. It ate at her. So much food....so close. And yet she couldn't blow her cover.

She looked down at her Zanpaku'to and couldn't help but narrow her eyes in disgust as she could HEAR that Spirit sneering at her. Fucking Shinkai. She'd made a mistake every making him so much like a real Zan spirit. Er....her? It was so confusing. But all the same, she stood up, grunting as she shook her leg, sand spilling from the wrinkles of her hakama as she took a moment to look around. Toru and Nase were both keeping watch. The Hollows had gone rather silent for a while. She assumed they (at least if she were them....) were waiting for some of them to fall asleep so they could attack. The others: Sarada and Yoshigame, the other two ladies in their group, were resting/worrying over their leader Saso. Saso (The Commanding officer), could not stop staring at Kitsane's grave.

They had even moved away from the spot, dragging Saso along, trying to get him to move on. The man had been pretty well-teased about liking the girl. He was her superior, so he had always been very professional, but several of the squad were aware of the big sigh of relief he would always give when she left a room, as if finally releasing some inner tension. It had been a little joke for some of them to pretend that Kitsane had just entered a room, just to see him tense up. But now that sigh never came. He was just staring at the direction he knew she was in. No matter how far away they moved, he always looked to her.

Mizu was getting sicxk of it. But she still hae her cover to consider. so she did the 'Mizu' thing to do. She decided to learn. To inspect. To probe and figure out what it was all about. She made her way over, sitting down beside the young man as he stared off into space. She glared on the inside. Wishing so much that she could just push his face under the sand and hold him there until he stopped breathing. But instead, she offered a soft, forlorn look of concern. "You know....Yoshigame is starting to limp. I think she hurt her leg a little ways back." She observed softly, even as Saso continued to stare off. The silence hung in the air, for a good few seconds longer than Mizu cared for, until she finally spoke up again.

"she's getting really worried about you, you know? We all miss Kitsane. But I think seeing you like this. It's even worse than actually losing her.I know that.....you're going through a lot Saso. But....you're our leader. Ths isn't the time for this kind of thing." She noted softly. As that big stupid man just continued to stare off into space. The silence hung again, and Mizu was about to take more drastic measures when Saso finally spoke up of his own accord, actually surprising her a bit when he did so. "What is wrong with me....?" He asked so very very softly, almost a whisper. Mizu paused, and smiled sheepishly, gently putting her hand on his shoulder, resisting the urge to shove a spine into him.

"There's nothing wrong with you. This ....thing. This pain you're feeling. It's what makes you a shinigami. There's nothing to be ashamed about." She attempted to console him, until those eyes fixed on her and he shook his head. "Why did I care so much? I was her superior. But.....she liked me. I think. And I liked her. Why.....why couldn't I have just put my titles aside?" She paused, admittedly a little shocked. THAT was what he was all bent out of shape about? She tilted her head, a gesture which almost always seemed to draw out a bit more, it came to be something of a fallback when she didn't know what to say.

"It's not like....it would have even been a problem. I'm not even that high up. I'm just a thirteenth seat..." He whispered, aghast at his own past decisions. This was wandering into unfamiliar territory. It was unclear to her why he was so fixated on this. The man stood up on both feet, st artling all of the others as he suddenly drew his sword. his eyes wide and out of focus, staring past everything infront of him. "Kitsane....Kit.....Kitsane I'm so sorry.... I was a coward...I'M STILL A COWARD!@" He suddenly shouted, his eyes shut tight, angry shame in his eyes as he clutched his weapon so hard that his palms began to bleed. Mizu perked just a little. The others moved in, concern on all of their faces as the emotion of their leader swept up the lot of them, and soon they were trying to calm him down.

However, before they could talk him down, he vanished. Mizu immediately recognized it as a shunpo, he blurred past them, her eyes not even able to catch his motion completely as he sped off, and his scream of rage was heard off in the distance. A group of hollows that had been camping near by suddenly startled by his attack! Immediately the entire group was up on their feet! "WHATS HE DOING! Go after him!" They began bolting toward their CO, Mizu herself promptly using a shunpo to get a head start! FFFFFUCK! No! He couldn't die like this! She couldn't let the other hollows eat him! How could she savor that6 fucking idiot herself if they ate him?! When she actually closed in, the man was blocked in, a dead hollow at his feat, the poor beast having been caught completely off guard, and another hollow severely wounded, it's left side of it's body charred and dropping bloody chunks of burnt flesh, the remnants of a shakkaho attack as Saso roared out and hacked into the Hollows that were crowding in around him!

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

Mizu cursed herself as she struggled to make it to the idiot! She felt a sudden rage, a resentment in her heart as the man threw himself so recklessly into danger! This fucking idiot, she hated him so much. Why couldn't he just die a normal death?! The very thoughts hit her like anvils as she broke through a pair of hollows trying to bar her way. The first of the pair was cleaved into, her zanpaku'to slicing clean through him, but the second proved a bit more obstructive. The hollow hissed into her face as it's tough, solid body refused to allow her sword to cut cleanly through.

She fixed her grip, the cero disguised as a kido burned it's way along her blade, a serpent of powerful reiatsu slithering up her blade before roaring into the creature's body and burning it's way in, that tough skin bloating as the innards were cooked by the powerful attack. The corpse, charred on the inside, collapsed. She dragged her blade out, panting and gritting her teeth as a set of barbs flew toward her. HEr reflexes had been getting better, her brain, usually so hesitant to snag the danger of incoming attacks, was able to actually react, her eyes darting toward the projectiles as she spun, those barbs slicing across her skin, but failing to perforate her body as they had intended, even if those slashes were considerably deep, and did slightly puncture through the muscle in her shoulder.

She gasped out an grunted. DAMMIT! She felt a rush of reiatsu, her 'zanpaku'to' howling out as Water rippled from her sword. "Gaze below! Shinkai!" She called out as her weapon bloomed, the sword blossoming into a beautiful trident as water exploded outward, slamming into the nearby hollows and shoving them away. In that next moment, the air around them suddenly went black as water suddenly filled the empty space around her in every direction, a massive globe of water suddenly bursting into existence! That dome was dark for everyone but her. She could even see the hollows struggling, the entire battle disrupted. For them.

Alas as it were, her shinigami comrades were actually familiar with the technique. And rather than panic, they knew that they were perfectly capable of breathing. In the meantime, the water produced by her trident snuck out, mingling effortlessly with the water of the globe dome and promptly choking out several of the hollows on the spot, drowning them as those beasts struggled. One of them had the bright idea to begin charging a cero. However a blade soon struck them, Saso's own weapon slicing through the water, filling it with blood as he executed the hapless hollow. OF course, Mizu herself focused, raising her weapon and then thrusting.

A blade of water lanced out, and went right for not only the two hollows, but intending to slash her comrade clean through the shoulder. She had every intention of disabling him. She couldn't allow that fucking idiot to just die on his own terms. She wanted this fucker dead. She wanted him to suffer, to slow down. And once she was ready, she was going to fucking eat him. She stabbed into the nearby corpses, teeth spilling into existence for just an instant as the upper half ot the hollow was promptly chomped by a set of jaws, mulching that disgusting monster up and swallowing them. It was the same hollow whose body she had cut so easily into earlier. Both it, and the charred hollow from before were mulched up and swallowed. But.... as she turned her attention back to her CO.....

You......fucking....

She could see Saso beginning to dissolve. His flesh floating away from his body. One of the hollows near him, one of the ones she had beheaded with her water lance. It had some kind of acid for blood! She could not fully express the sheer rage and frustration as she watched the man with that stupid fucking peaceful look in his eyes. Even as most of his body was already eaten through by that caustic mess, he looked in her direction, in a cloud of acid, unreachable by her as her water failed to neutralize it fast enough. She watched as the last traces of that asshole vanished amid the viscera of the slain hollow.

NNNNOOOOOOOOO!

In an instant, that dome of water was gone, various hollow who had tried to begin swimming upward in hopes of getting to the surface suddenly collapsed onto the ground as the water vanished, and that mess of acidic blood splashed onto the ground, a few bits and pieces of Saso still visible, several other shinigami gasped at the sight as Mizu herself felt an unrbidled fury, able to confirm, and now with that blood no longer acting like a cloud of protection, she twinged. In a flash of sonido, she spiked that fucking hollow with her trident, fury in her eyes as she shook throughout her entire body!

"BAN! KAI!" The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. Fuchi No Bamyuda released, her triden t bursting with reiatsu, unleashing a tremendous wave of energy as that whale of a monster suddenly spawned into the open air. That beast opened it's mouth and water RIPPED out, slicing down, slamming the stabbed hollow into the sand with a torrential geyser. Even as another hollow stabbed her from behind, a horn slicing into Mizu's hip, she didn't stop, ignoring her wounds with that pure rage. Her eyes shifted for just an instant. She glared hatefully at the intruder into her vengeance and a lance of water hit the hollow with such force that it's skull exploded, blowing it away from her as she hit the skewered hollow again.

The hollow, still alive, struggled, gurgling, raising it's head as a cero formed in it's mouth. Desperate. However, her Leviathan dropped like a bomb, water shoving that cero into the beast's mouth right before the monster slammed into it, teeth ripping into it's body and tearing it's arm and most of it's torso away from the rest of it, little razors of water flying around it as well as Mizu as the other hollows were kept away from her decimation of the hollow, and with one final WHUMP, the hollows was chowed down.

Even as a bala fired, glancing off the side of that massive monster of a Leviathan, Mizu felt her hateful stare turn back to the body of her CO, even as the monsters screams as it batted and beat at her Leviathan were muffled as it consumed that hollow doen to it's little bits, she had to turn and look at Saso's head, that stupid fucking peaceful look on his face even as she decimated his hapless killer. Robbed of her plans to eat him herself. She heard the startled noises of her comrades. The other hollows already retreating, unwilling to deal with this new threat, at least the ones that weren't crippled or drowned by her Bankai, several of them having been drawn into that big maw and consumed. The only consumption she didn't actually have to hide.

Mizu stared at Saso's remains. The entire reason they were even in this place. Gone. With the hollow retreating, and her False Bankai returning to it's dormant state with a chunk of her stamina going with it, she sat down hard, staring at that stupid smiling face of his, disbelief on her features as the others rushed in, but didn't get too close. IT wasn't as if any hope of revival was there. He was just a head. She heard the girls start to cry, and she didn't even feel mad at them. She felt.....empty. Cheated.

When Toru got the others to get up and Nase suggested they make some distance to try and find shelter, she didn't even argue. Nase was the official CO at this point. Even as a Seventeenth seat, he was more than adequate. He led them to some sort of outcrop. A quartz forest that they had been sortof ignoring previously due to Saso's condition. Mizu just went along. By the time she was paying attention to her surroundings again, they had found a sort of cove in the twisted branches, a shelter for the night. OR whatever counted as night in this place. It was shelter, and a place to rest, at least.

And she......even with the voice of her Zanpaku'to sneering at her. She faltered. She had never cared for her comrades. But that aside, this was the first time she realized she had cared about them. This feeling. She had wanted him dead. But not like this. It was supposed to just all be part of the act. She hated them. She hated them so much. She wanted them all to suffer. HE HAD suffered. She should have been happy that his last moments had been so agonizing. Eroded by acid!

But she wasn't. Of all things.....she wished that stupid fuck......was still alive.

2 class 5 Hollow consumed
3 class 4 Hollows Consumed

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

Mizu didn't know what to think. Or rather, what she should think. The plain and simple of it was that she had wanted to personally kill that piece of trash herself. That was the face value of it. And that wasn't something that she should be so upset about. He was an idiot, he was repulsive, disgusting, so emotional and hopeless. So Weak. THAT was why she wanted him to be alive, so he could be punished. And yet that in and of itself felt so very very wrong to feel, to think, to desire.

She didn't even notice Toru until he was already sitting beside her. The brush of cloth around her shoulders as a cloak was slipped around her shoulders. She had staunched her own bleeding not that long ago before Sarada had healed her up. Thank goodness someone in Squad ten actually had healing expertise. But more than that, Toru had been looking at her a lot more, especially since what had happened to Saso. She paused, gently reaching up and running her fingers over the cloth. "Thank you." She murmured softly, her voice gentle despite her tumultuous thoughts.

HE nodded gently, unable to even muster up the will to smile. "Yea.... I think I'm going to try and scout the area. I'll stick to the forest, and get an idea of any other landmarks we can find. Maybe we can find some sort of way out of here. Other races must come here now and then. And worst case scenario, we can try to catch an arrancar or hollow." He reasoned. She found that......ironic. But she smiled and nodded, watching as he left.

The gentle nature came automatically at this point, in actuality her thoughts were still so very internal, trying to justify herself. As Toru left, she couldn't help but look to the others. Sarada was patching up Nase and Yoshigame, the former of whom was the far more injured. Not only that but he seemed just as effected by Saso's death as she was. They all looked tired, exhausted. In all honesty, all it would take was maybe one sneaky hollow and they would probably liose one or two of them. She frowned, sighing and glancing to the door for a moment.

Wait....

She paused, staring at the wall. One stray hollow. No doubt.....it would be almost expected if something were to happen.... Mizu gently rose up to her feet, staring at the others as her eyes slowly began to turn yellow. She watched them. So tired. So exhausted. And not only that, but they weren't like her. She was the strongest among them. As Sarada tended to Yoshigame, Mizu made her way over to Nase, noticing the look of pain on his face, clearly his healing would still take a while, but he put on a brave face when she approached. He even opened his mouth, trying to speak.

Funny. She knew exactly what he was going to say. Even as her zanpaku'to slid between his ribs. He had been about to ask how she was, maybe joke about how she looked pretty worn out, to divert away from his own state. The breath caught in his chest and for just one moment, his hand gripped at that blade, fingers digging in, even as the edge sliced into his muscle and ligaments. Brows knitting together as he looked in absolute terror at her. For just an instant, she pulled....and tensed. He was stronger than her. For just a moment, she thought she would have a fight.

For just one moment. She saw his finger raise. The reiatsu ofa binding spell almost coming to light. For a moment, she almost felt doomed. If he managed to restrain her. Then that was the end. Then the others would become suspicious, or at the very least think she'd gone insane. Funny, she wondered if t hey would try to help her at first. But she had no intention of finding out. Even as she could almost FEEL the incantation forming in his mind. He always thought it was a neat trick, unleashing full power kido with a mental incantation. He could even do them pretty fast in his head. Just not fast enough.

She PUSHED at the last moment, having been pulling before that, the blade sank in so easily with help from his own arm that had been trying to keep her in place. He gasped out, as blood filled his lungs, and his eyes began to cloud over. It was in that moment that Mizu heard something else. Yoshigame had suddenly gasped, and reopened her wounds. Even glancing from where she was, she saw the wide look in the girl's eyes. She struggled, trying to reach for her zanpaku'to. Her eyes fixated on Mizu as Nase's body went limp. She was way too injured, her injury had been in her chest, and eevn though she had been better off than Nase, she had still been in pretty terrible shape, and now with this panic setting in, her lungs were filling with blood.

It took everything Sarada had just to keep her still. "NONONONO! Mizu get your Zan! Yoshigame sensed a hollow! Just keep them away! Yishigame PLEASE! You need to calm down! You're opening up all of your wounds PLEASE! Mizu can take care of them!" She besought her friend, tearing up, trying her best to focus on the delicate healing she was trying to do, to try and seal up the bleeding wounds in Yoshigame's lungs as the girl struggled. Mizu couldn't help but smile gently.

She came up behind Sarada, even as Yoshigame's eyes fixed so fearfully on her. This.....this was delicious. The look of absolute terror on Yoshigame's face. Knowing that Mizu was insane or something. A danger. A threat. And refusing to calm down. Refusing to die. Her will to live was so damn strong that she was trying to draw her zanpaku'to even as her lungs filled with blood and that red vitality dribbled down her chin as Sarada held her down. Funny.....if the woman's will to live had been weaker. If she had just tearfully told Sarada to look, or even said Mizu's name. She could have done something. Done something more to survive. Instead of slowly going still in Sarada's arms.

The healer suddenly stopped, realizing that it was all useless. "N....no....Yoshigame...." That soft, tearful whisper left the woman. Mourning not only the death of Saso, but now her other friend. Her shoulders slumped and she sobbed softly, bitter tears running down her cheek. Mizu gently knelt behind the woman and reached forward. Her arms slipping comfortingly around the girl as she hugged them from behind. Sarada was so swept up in her emotions that she didn't even ask why Mizu hadn't gone to check for hollows.

The girl simply turned, eyes closed, sobbing, and pushing her face into Mizu's shoulder as their arms collected around them. Clinging to the few remaining friends she had. That she thought she had. Mizu gently pushed, sliding that blade up and into Sarada's side. A confused little gasp escaping the girl as they felt that weapon sliding up through her abdomen to pierce her lung on her left side. The sudden tension, followed by a flailing SHAKE as the girl suddenly tried to pull back!

Mizu let her.

The girl collapsed onto her back, clutching her wound with wide eyes as she coughed up blood, shock on her face, until she saw Nase's dead body as well, and suddenly fear hit her like a wall. Suddenly scrambling back and away from Mizu as the soft-featured aquette smiled and let out a slow, gratuitous sigh of relish. "This is so much better. I wanted to kill Saso myself but this is.... a very very close second." She murmured as she saw a green glow. Ah....that's right.

She watched as Sarada healed herself, coughing up blood and gritting her teeth before finding her voice, their zanpaku'to drawn as she shook her head. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Mizu..wh-...Nase.....Yoshigame...Wh...Why?!?! What...We're your teammates!" She cried out, weakly. Not even all that loudly. Mizu couldn't help but roll her eyes just a little, "Does it even matter at this point? You're going t-" HEr eyes went wide. The sight of that huge talon surging toward her. It punched clean through her bicep on the right side, even clipping into her ribs as that big bird foot lashed out.

Fuck.

She forgot that Sarada actually had a decent Zanpaku'to. And a fast one at that. In the span of that eyeroll the bitch had gotten the drop on her. She stumbled back and collapsed to the floor, gritting her teeth as she raised her hand. A cero Anima formed into her hand, a dragon, blazing with a shinigami's reiatsu before it roared forward, burning clean through the area and obliterating the canopy of quartz trees above them. The branches that weren't obliterated came crashing down, and when the dust finally settled, Mizu sat up, panting a little as she looked around.

She smiled when she spotted Sarada. Several branches pincushioning her chest and legs to the ground. Even the arm with her zanpaku'to was bloody, crushed, and pinned by those huge slabs of sharp quartz. Mizu sighed in relief and shook her head, the stitches in her chest that materialized opening up so that she could swim out and into the open, catching the last light in Sarada's eyes. Even as those teeth crashed down and she began chewing up her former comrades and eating them, she wondered what their final thoughts were.

And once she was back in her body, she couldn't help but hiss and sigh. Damn that Sarada. The one woman who could have healed her up, managed to hurt her before going down. all the same, with food in her belly, her body was repairing. Slowly as it were. Looking around, she even saw a hollow that had been crushed. Huh, talk about irony. Guess there actually WAS a hollow that had been trying to sneak up on them. However her thoughts were distracted when she heard the footsteps, as Toru arrived, shock on his face, and absolute grief as he saw Mizu injured, and a dead hollow, and the messy remains of what was once the rest of her group.

"Toru...." How to explain this. But that didn't seem to be an issue. Suddenly, his arms were around her. She paused, her brows lifting, surprise on her face as he held her, and shook his head slowly. Suddenly, she felt hot tears against her neck. His grip tightened, and he again surprised her. "Thank you....thank.....Mizu. Our friends.....but.....I'm so glad you're okay...." Huh, he was more fond of her than she had thought. She smiled sheepishly, gently placing a hand onhis back before she felt a shift, and suddenly he was kissing her.

It was strange. She got excited. But not in the way he might have imagined. She felt nothing. No affection. No attachment. No enjoyment of those lips meeting her own. But something else made her salivate. Made her lean in and....allow it. The memory of the look on Sarada's face. That look of absolute betrayal. The taste of that poor girl's flesh. She had long long long aspired to the notion of it. The enjoyment she got from that betrayed look was not new. She had always loved it. And she had always wondered how good it would taste from some idiot who fell for her.

She should have killed him right there. After all, that was the safer option. But the idea of llowing this. This man whose heart was suddenly open. He had lost so much. And now he was afraid of losing her. Of losing Mizu. She wondered. He might let her become his everything. More or less, in this moment, she WAS his everything. And she thought.....about feeding it. Coaxing it to grow. She could get this man to love her. To adore her. No, he already did that. But there was so much more. And all the more....she imagined the day that she could kill him. torture him. Make him realize how fake it all was. How the woman he loved never really existed.

That thought alone made her empty heart flutter. Made her gently squeeze the hand that took a hold of hers, even until she winced from the pain. And she watched as he bashfully pulled away, and then immediately eased her down, and began dressing her wound as best he could. The determination in his eyes palpable. He REFUSED the idea of letting her die as well. And as he worked on her, she couldn't help but smile fondly, adoringly. When he looked up, he turned red, smiling sheepishly as he saw what he thought was the budding realization of love. That insipidly, perhaps she was realizing her own feelings for him.

And technically, she was.

If only he knew just what those feelings truly were.

1 class 7 Shinigami consumed
2 class 5 Shinigami consumed

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

It was surprisingly easy. He did almost everything by himself. Once that little kiss had ended, he had tended to her wound as best he could. Honestly she was recovering very well, he muttered under his breath about how it was some sort of miracle. She was intrigued to see just how willing he was to believe that. Her recent meals had sped up the process, and with her wound addressed, they started their little hunt.

The others....well they were dead now. There was no point in...burial. Or anything of the sort. He took a bit of convincing, but eventually Toru was willing to just try and get out of there while they were both still alive. They would hunt down a hollow, and force it to take them to the world of the living. He kept squeezing her hand, trying to sit as close to her as possible. It was so very strange. It felt familiar. How long ago had it been that she had been alive again? It was such a strong feeling of deja vu... a familiarity that was...detached.

But all the same, when he finally left. She waited for quite a while. The better part of a day at that. She didn't try to hunt. Rather, when he finally returned, she was surprised to see the condition that the hollow was in. Most of it's body was badly burned. Bits of it were messing, especially from its hands and fingers. She immediately recognized the signs. He'd tortured it. And she was...surprised. Toru was not the kind of man to do such a thing. For a moment she wondered if she was misreading.

But the look on his face, that shame. But not quite regret. Seeing the way his eyes darted, and then dcame back to lock onto her, endearing and earnest? It was an odd look. Remorse....and yet resolve. Was....had....had he done this for her? Admittedly she figured it was for them both but.. still. She was a bitl...intrigued as to what he was actually capable of. Was his attachment to her pushing him to more extreme actions? She made a mental note perhaps to bring it up later. It might be worth looking into. Especially for future referencr when he was ripe to be killed and eaten.

But once the dying hollow made that garganta, and Mizu made sure they stayed on course, navigating the valley of screams. To her surprise, her familiarity with the place was enough that they were ACTUALLY heading to the soul society! She had to adsmit, she thought that the hollow would put them in the world of the living, or maybe fuck them over and dump them in the silbern. She let her eyes rest on Toru, thoughtful now. He must have scared this hollow quite a bit.

When at last that maw opened up, she could smell the air of the soul society once again. And befor eshe could even turn, Toru beheaded the hollow, and then let it drop to the ground. And again she was...astonished. Amazed at how....ruthless he was. And once it was done, she was almost knocked over when he grasped her hands, and then pulled her into another hug. She could sense shinigami rushing in their direction. No doubt they would be wisked off toward Squad four. But for that moment, it was just her and her new surprisingly pragmatic.....companion:? toy? No she wasn't quite sure. She had every intention of eventually killing and eating him.

But....

This was...fascinating. She had not imagined that this.... affection would twist the man so much. She had heard stories of how love forged incredible protective bonds. But those were in more...conventional environments. Perhasp love was not exactly a.....purifier, or a forger of shields specifically. Perhaps love was just.....a catalyst? Something that facilitated change in general. And it was the situation and her that determined what sort of change that was. If this was true then....perhaps there was more to this than she thought. And it warranted examination and exploration.

But when those squad four finally arrived, ands the both of them were carted off, Toru practically collapsed. Stress, injuries, it all came down on the lad. They had to pry his grip off of her hand. Gentle, but unyielding. Romantic, she supposed. But once she was laying on one of the squad 4 beds, she stared up at the ceiling, thinking. But of course...the nurses kept insisting she needed rest. And eventually....rest found her. It had been an...arduous journey. But ultimately, fruitful. Now she just needed to tend to it, and wait for it to pay off in full.

She should..take her time....right? The thought was almost foreign at first. IT had nothing to do with ACTUAL attachment. It was scientific. It was learning. Like so many other things she did, it was driven by fear, curiosity, and a desire to better know how to manipulate her peers. She thought nothing of the fact that as she slowly drifted off into that dreamless abyss, her mind so very briefly began to wander, and in the depths as the light of consciousness faded to it's last final rays, she found herself thinking about how tightly he had been holding her.

Hm...

[Zeich Yajuu]

53 Paragraphs = 265 TP. Note if you convert to CTP, the amount is halved.

Consumption:
2 Class 5 Hollow = 100 TP
3 Class 4 Hollow = 300 TP
1 Class 7 Shinigami = 100 TP
2 Class 5 Shinigami = 200 TP
Total: 700 TP. This can be spent normally.