Don't Get Xcuted [DP, R]

[Santa Ajora]

Thread Title: Don't Get Xcuted
Participants: Ranth Amanite and Santa Ajora
World: Human World
Death Setting: Permanent Injuries Enabled
Rating: R
Location: In the ruins of what was once a very lovely little town in southern Japan, far away from the hotspot that is Karakura.

The arena itself is a ruined and desolate town. Small buildings each only about 2 to 3 stories tall at most, most of which with structural damage and bits of Santa all over the place in the actual house structures, though the streets are fairly clean.
Special Conditions:
Circumstances: Santa took a job to 'deal' with this particular village. After some shinigami have been performing small miracles, the village has had a rash of religiousness. This does not bode well for a local bount coven, who hire Santa through Xcution to take the village out without any trail to the bounts themselves. Needless to say, when Ranth comes to visit, he is met with a bit of a gristly scene, resulting in the two duking it out.

[Santa Ajora]

What a strange sort of hubris, that even in Xcution she still came to take these sort of jobs. As she listened to the people inside of the building in their panic, whimpering, sobbing, crying as they huddled up in their church. Funny... she was more used to her prey being in their homes. But it spoke to why she had been hired to come here. Apparently a group of bounts that lived nearby had noticed shinigami putting a LOT of interest into the area. Enough that some small miracles had gone and taken place, leading to an alarming increase in religiousness.

She had been told that in addition to the fact that the village was bringing shinigami to their door, but the fact that the village had grown increasingly bold whenever the bounts themselves had come in to visit. The bounts hadn't been feeding from the locals, they knew better and had been feeding off of animals and hollows. But all the same, their paranoia had come to a peak, and so to avoid them being wiped out by shinigami, they had hired a scapegoat. Santa.

She walked along the roof of the church and hummed to herself, her voice rasping, and echoed as flesh, black blood, and bones spilled from her body in an almost endless cascade. And that humming could be heard coming from it, as mouths, eyes, ears, and other bits of bodyparts were all mixed in, oozing along the roof and dripping into the actual church itself as the inhabitants inside screamed. This was business after all, she had to be quick about this. She used that viscera to scout the inside of the building, those eyes swiveling around.

She caught sight of a gun just before it was fired into the mess, the bullet popping the eyeball in question and causing Santa to halt her walking. She took only a moment to think before she reached into her own belly, claws sliding into her own 'flesh' before she pulled out a weapon, and then dropped it through one of the holes in the roof. Before it even hit the ground, a disembodied arm snatched it out of the air, pointed it at the shooter, and promptly fired. A slug of bone fired directly into the man's skull as those inside promptly screamed.

And yet....instead of running. They fought.

She was fascinated what a few miracles and belief did to these people. They didn't scream, or cry, or cower. They showed bravery even beyond some shinigami as they grabbed various implements and began hacking and swinging at the viscera dripping from above. It was almost entirely ineffectual, mostly just the sensory organs were being dispatched by the people inside as they roared out a triuphant battlecry, believeing that they were winning as the viscera came to a stop.

No wonder these Bounts wanted the town gone. The power of belief was a strong thing, and if the village ever caught wind of the bount coven, they might make a decent attempt and kill some of them in their sleep. "It's a shame that this is the price you have to pay, in exchange for the fleeting blessings that shinigami gave you. It is out of kindness. And Sadness, that I will eradicate every one of you." She rasped through that mess, and then FLEXED her reiatsu, concentrating in this one spot.

Sadly, she couldn't focus it like she might have liked, but all the same, the flexing of reiatsu caused a sudden increase in the spiritual saturation in the area. There was a BURST as her spiritual energy flickered and crackles around her, all but enveloping the entirety of the church as suddenly, her flesh began to grow from every surface. And the screaming truly started as the floor, the walls, and even the very implements they had picked up in order to strike at her, began to grow flesh.

Several more loud pops as guns fired, feebly trying to rid themselves of the viscera as it began to grow RAPIDLY. A surge of flesh that soon was up to their ankles. They struggled. Fought. Tooth and nail they bit, scratched, flailed, and screamed even as her flesh promptly bent them, twisted them. Snapping their necks, spines, breaking their bones and snapping their limbs in the wrong direction as the small group inside of that church were balled up. After all, they were small miniscule meals.

Hardly enough to eat individually.

Instead they were packed together, twisted, bent, broken, and then rolled up into tangled balls of limbs and broken spines as that church rapidly filled up with her flesh. A shame that her target wasn't in the rukongai, or this would have been so much easier. the last few stragglers were still whimpering, trying to free themselves, as best as their broken, paralyzed bodies could.

But in the end, they were dragged up to the roof, and a massive maw opened up along the underbelly of Santa's deer half, and promptly consumed them, one big human meatball at a time. It was just as the last one was being munched up inside of her 'belly' that she sensed reiatsu off in the distance. Promptly she dropped her spiritual pressure, hiding her presence as she sensed a senkaimon opening up. She slipped away from the church, which by now was just one enormous chunk of black flesh and oozing blood, the evidence of her murderous act entombed within, as she slipped between the houses in order to watch.

Her own scattered flesh around the town would serve as a scout of types. Eyes, ears, mouths all littered about in little piles of black viscera, watching in the direction of that senkaimon gate. Inwardly, she hoped that the shinigami was just here to mop up some hollows nearby. It might be a bit complicated if they actually came to check in on the village. so for the time being, she went low-profile. Thank goodness this wasn't the soul society. Otherwise her presence would be all but impossible to really hide. If she was lucky, the shinigami either wouldn't notice, or assume she had moved on.

7 Class 8 humans consumed

SPOILER: Click to show

{Santa's Stats}
Strength:100 points
Speed: 300 points
Sppr: 250 points x2 (500 points)
Rei strength: 350 points x2 (700 points)

La: 45
Da:55

Instinct: 250 points x 0.5 (125 Points)
Senses: 150 points x.5 (75 points)
ES: 100 points x0.33 (33 points)
Healing Efficiency: 0 points

Weapon:Firearms 3
Crafting- Firearms and Munitions: 2
Crafting-Traps: 2
Biochemistry: 3
Battle Analysis: 1
Anti-Stealth: 2
Stealth: 1
Disguise: 2

4800/5000 Reiatsu (-200 deducted for Passive)

[Ranth]

OOC: Sorry for the wait, it's been quite a week

---

Ranth could feel that that something was wrong long before he reached the village.

For several weeks now, several of Ranth's subordinates had taken to visiting a small village in the Southernmost reaches of Japan. Although the Kido Corps was outside the jurisdiction of the core 13 squads and thus were not assigned to guarding human realm locations like many of their comrades were, there were no rules forbidding them from taking an interest and 'volunteering' so to speak. As it happened, one of Ranth's seated officers had vague memories of his time on earth and had grown up in this village- albeit centuries ago- and had requested special permission to spend some time there. Unwilling to deny such a simple request, Ranth had given his stamp of approval after having visited the village in secret.

It was a modest affair, lacking anything even remotely close to the hustle and bustle of more populated towns and cities. Yet its people were no less content even when taking into account their comparative lack of conveniences and technology. They were a simple people that grew their own crops and herded their own livestock and generally just kept to themselves. It was a good honest living that by Ranth's estimation wouldn't survive long beyond the current generation as the rate of technological expansion grew across the world. Little did he know how right he was... but for all the wrong reasons.

The Senkaimon deposited him within a kilometer of the village several hundred feet above the ground and as he stepped through the gate a platform of reishi materialised beneath his feet as simply as breathing and he shivered as a sensation that was as wrong as it was foreign swept over him. Ranth's senses had been extraordinarily heightened in the wake of his adventure to the darkest timeline and back and it still caught him by surprise at times when he'd pick up on little things that he simply hadn't been aware of before. He'd developed the uncanny ability to not only detect reiatsu with extraordinary precision, but he'd also found that it went deeper than that. He had... gut feeling at times which over the last few weeks he'd come to realise were absurdly accurate and tied directly to his newfound sensitivity.

He could differentiate between Shinigami based on their reiatsu signature alone over incredible distances and even ascertain a vague measure of their mood and temperament. He could also differentiate between other races along with... would visions be the right word for the things he sometimes saw when he reached out with his senses? They were like... impressions that sometimes gave a certain level of insight into the personality and intent of those around him. Yet now Ranth was sensing something new and it took all of his will power not to withdraw his senses from the wrongness that radiated from the village he'd only been checking in on at a whim.

Under the light of the mid-afternoon sun it didn't take long for Ranth to reach the village via air ground and stopped dead in his tracks as he his eyes confirmed what his senses had already told him... the village had been devastated, but nothing could have prepared him for the reddish black substance that occupied the space that Ranth was fairly sure used to be their place of worship and he grit his teeth as both his eyes and his senses swept the area for survivors... and found none. What he did find however was the telltale reiatsu signature of a Hollow. The trouble was... the signature seemed to permeate the entire town and it was incredibly difficult to identify where - or even if- the 'owner' of the signature was still here.

Ranth hesitated at this point, torn between his duty to investigate and his senses screaming of danger emanating from the town. In the end, his sense of duty won out. Duty not only to the people who had once lived here, but also to the member of his squad who had held this place so dearly. Whatever lay in store for him here was surely not as bad as the prospect of informing his officer of this village's fate. Thus, Ranth descended swiftly into the center of the town, which was where the village common could be found- a roughly 50 x 50 meter area paved courtyard that housed the entrance to the once church and now fleshy monstrosity on one side and the homes of the common folk on the others three sides with a modest thoroughfare running off in all four cardinal directions and Ranth decided that keeping one eye on the church seemed like a sensible thing to do, so he faced himself towards it.

Within mere seconds of landing, Ranth concentrated his senses as far as he'd dared to push them since their development and called out to the emptiness around him. "I know you're out there, Hollow. Come on out and make this easy for both of us". Ranth may have sounded confident, but truth be told he was nervous. The substance that covered the church and permeated the town was truly grotesque and he for some reason he couldn't pinpoint whether the Hollow he was calling out to was even here. It was, in no uncertain terms, a bluff and if it didn't work then he didn't even want to think about what his Plan B would be... because his officer would likely never forgive him.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Ranth's Stats]
STATS

Type: GENIUS

Strength - 300
Speed- 230 (160)
RS- 400 (1000)
Sppr- 300 (700)
Sense- 100
Instinct- 100
ES- 270 (575)
HE- 100 (70)


Light: 70
Dark: 30

SKILLS

Kido: 4
Battle Analysis: 2
Mental Incantation: 2
Strength of Will: 2
Hakuda: 3
Pain Tolerance: 2

[Santa Ajora]

Get in. Kill everyone. That was the full extent of her mission. And of course, to leave plenty of evidence. Her stinking, filthy hollow reiatsu should have been plenty for that. So technically speaking: Her job was already done when Ranth showed up. The man wasn't sneaking around. And he had a STRONG spiritual presence. Both by sheer reiatsu strength, and class. He was above Santa in that regard, and every inch of her, and her garden, tingled in reply. This...... this was a Captain-level shinigami. And ALMOST as potent as the only captain she had properly fought before. The only one she counted at least.

She sensed, and watched as the man headed for the center of the town square. And he didn't even seem to notice the eyes strewn throughout that mess followed him. Watching him. Tracking him as he went there and then called out: His focus being on the church. And for just a moment, she considered... she mused..... and then grinned to herself with an Idea. It had been oh such a long time since she had used her doll, hadn't it?

All it took was a little molding. She was very good at crafting her flesh. Her Garden. And she had done this disguise before. Numerous times in fact. So when the doors of that church popped open, and a rush of black blood and viscera gushed out, Ranth would find another source of Santa's reiatsu spill out with it. It wasn't a combat doll of course, she wasn't going to amke it fighting-effective, that would be a waste of energy. No, this was just a mouthpiece and something to talk to the shinigami with for now. The figure was...small. Incredibly small. Humanoid. But still wearing a very hollow mask (Easily constructed out of bone).

The female figure closed in on Ranth, walking calmly until she got to the town square, and then reached up, peeling that mask off, and then smiling calmly at the man. She (Link) Was probably nothing like what he would expect from the perpetrator. She was naked, except for the black blood which stained her skin from the clavicle down. The same doll that she had tricked Angel with. The Same Doll she had used to speak with Val and Shizuka. The doll regarded Ranth and then that smile softened as she let that mask rest on her hip.

It would be quite confusing. The woman clearly wasn't a hollow, but she felt like one. She was an extension of Santa, much as any other bit of her garden. Her mind, her feelings, her spiritual pressure exuded as much through this doll, and the viscera scattered through the town, as did her own body. The woman gave Ranth a coy, amused look before she spoke. "I'm flattered that you think I don't have plenty of time to waste. After all. Don't you shinigami just consider my kind to be thoughtless, simple animals?" She asked, her voice smooth and playful.

"So..... Shinigami...." She sheer ammount of contempt with which she identified his race alone would tell him just what her feelings on him and his kind were. "I was about to take a break. But if you want. Why don't you join me? It's been so long since anyone's humored me with company." That smile widened as she began walking towards him, looking over her shoulder as flesh and filth gushed out of that church door, crawling, slithering away as it was emptied out. Those bright, molten eyes fixed on Ranth as she spoke. "Take me to church. I'll worship like a dog, at the shrine of your lies~" She crooned, now about ten feet away from him, that grin widening.

"I'll tell you my sins. You can sharpen your knife~" That calm smile shifted, her eyes drifting to his Zanpaku'to. "Offer me that deathless death, dear god~" Her tone was sultry at this point, and she was closing in on just a foot or so away from him. "Let me give you my life~" She cooed in both Quoth to Hozier, and a haunting reminder of what he even had to offer her: A deathless death. Even if he were to slay her, she would be given salvation. A life as a plus. Cleansed of all her wrongdoings.

That smile was all too knowing. As if playfully asking, with a look alone, just what he thought he was going to do about her. With his lies of peace and a good life. Passing spirits on with the false belief of a better afterlife. Cleansing their sins while he just sharpened himself, building himself up to be something more. A generally aimless endeavor of training for a battle that may never come. In a small way, she was trying to enrage him. Or rather, she accepted that as a potential consequence. That in her ....playful intent on initiating with some banter with the man, that he may very well simply just release and start to go wild.

Like so many other shinigami had before she snuffed the life out of them. In many cases literally.

[Ranth]

Ranth's eyes snapped to the door of the church opened... if the way the hideous mass of oozing flesh receding could be described as such. More of the sickening fleshy substance oozed down the steps like a slow motion waterfall, but Ranth's attention was more focused on the figure that emerged along with the surge if viscera and his eyes narrowed as he reached out towards the thing that wore the appearance of a woman and probed for whatever answers he could glean. Going by appearance alone, one would have been forgiven for thinking that the woman before him was an Arrancar based on the humanoid appearance... but what Ranth saw, or rather felt... was no different to what he felt from the rest of the viscera that littered the town.

There was a level of intention within the woman who slowly made her way down the stairs, removing the mask to reveal her face as she moved, but there was something wrong with it... like it was muffled or muted somehow. Either this Hollow was simply so lacking in intelligence that it barely registered to his senses, or it was lacking in some other fashion... and Ranth suspected that it had something to do with the viscera that engulfed the town and radiated the same sickening reiatsu that he could sense from both it and the woman. Of course, when the woman began to speak it certainly put paid to the idea that there was a lack of intelligence... which meant that there was something else going on and he needed to be especially on guard.

At this point, Ranth was leaning towards one of two theories. The first was that the Hollow he was dealing with her possesses the ability to break up its body and spread its intelligence through it- making it difficult or perhaps even impossible to locate its 'core'. The second theory was that somehow none of what he'd seen so far was an accurate reflection of the Hollow's true form. Both cases were far from ideal, it was always easier to simply face off against an enemy in a straight up confrontation... but it was rare that such a straightforward encounter took place.

But putting aside his thoughts on the true nature of his opponent, this Hollow certainly seemed to be talkative and perhaps he could learn more about them if they proved to be loose of tongue. But there was something odd about the Hollows choice of words and after a few moments, he placed why the phrase was so familiar and he smiled incredulously. "I have to say, I've never heard of a Hollow that quotes human world music. I thought that kind of thing was reserved for teenagers", Ranth remarked thoughtfully. Whilst the words could certainly be taken as a straight up put down, from Ranth's tone it actually came across as more of an observation. He completely ignored the woman's initial comment about how Shinigami and Hollow's regarded each other.

"I'm sure that the people who lived here before you arrived could attest to your hospitality if they were still with us... but if it's all the same to you then I'd prefer it if you didn't come any closer", Ranth replied amiably as he leisurely took a few steps to more or less match the distance that the woman covered in her approach. With so little information he wasn't about to let her anywhere near him regardless of whether she just wanted to wax lyrical at him or try to kill him. For the time being, it felt like distance and time was his ally as he sought to understand what he was dealing with here.

"Somehow I doubt that you did all of this only to turn yourself in, but if I slay you here it won't be for your sake", he stated with a shrug. He wasn't offended by the thought of someone- or something- so vile being given a second chance without ding anything to 'earn' it. He also wasn't enthralled by the notion of taking a damned spirit and setting it free. When it came to Hollow's, his stance was incredibly simple. If they were a threat to those who couldn't protect themselves then they needed to be eliminated. It was simple math that one slain Hollow could easily save dozens or even hundreds of lies and if that Hollow went on to lead a better life somewhere else, that was none of Ranth's business.

"You seem like the type that would laugh if I asked you 'why', but I'm curious so I'll ask anyway. These people were not spiritually aware, nor is this place particularly rich in reishi. Yet you came all the way out here and slaughtered everyone here down to the last. My question is why. What drove you to go to such lengths when as far as I can see, you lost more energy in the effort than you could have possibly hoped to gain in terms of nourishment". As Ranth spoke, he continued to explore with his senses, partly towards the woman who was now standing at the base of the stairs to the courtyard with approximately 20 meters between them, but also on their surroundings for signs of danger... and what he noticed was that the oozing flesh was slowly by steadily growing to cover more and more of the town. Although he didn't yet understand the true nature of function of the substance, it was beyond clear that he needed to be wary of it if- or rather, when- things escalated beyond a mere exchange of words.

[Santa Ajora]

"Well well....it seems like somebody was home-schooled..." She mused thoughtfully in response to him talking about energy and her killing everyone in the village. Clearly he either was feigning, or suffering from an ignorance of how hollow's cannibalism work. "As for why I am here. I'm here on a job. Which, bye the bye, is also why I am familiar with your music. My human brings me all sorts of things to listen to~" She noted with a warm grin, practically gushing (Metaphorically) at the mention of Shizuka. No doubt he would be as surprised that she had a job as he was for the fact that she had a human associate. but of course, no doubt he would be incredulous, confused even.

To which she would smile, and then that doll would adjust her hair, baring her shoulder to him. A Black X on her clavicle. Not that he may or may not even know what it meant. For all he knew, it was just some gang sign. Or, possibly he could know that not only dsid this tattoo mean she was part of Xcution, but a Gun's Shadow. The equivalent of a shinigami Lieutenant. "I was hired. Not necessarily to kill these people. Actually I was sent here to retrieve something my employer was forced to leave here after being caught in the crossfire between you shinigami and some arrancar. They made it clear that anything who saw, or came into contact with it, was to be .....ah.....deadified." A slow grin.

She was making jokes.

However, she did smile just a bit wider. Continuing to walk towards him. Backing him up. Towards the piles of viscera littering the area behind him. She seemed to have no issue with continuing to press him. Either he;d be close to her, or he'd be close to those bits of flesh. either was fine by her. There was only so much room for him to keep backing up~ Especially after having put himself in the VERY center of town~

As for the lie....well that was more or less as easy as breathing. She actually HAD had one such job a few weeks back, but that had been on the other side of the world. Of course he didn't actually have any reason to believe her. For was it not in the nature of shinigami to assume and act as quickly as possible? Accidentally make a moral misstep with mod souls? Quick kill them. Accidentally create a race of vampires? Quick kill them! It was the general rule for the supposed balancers.

"But, I think the question is what is a shinigami of your caliber doing here? As you said: This is a small place. there's no reason a hollow should be showing up here, and I cerrtainly haven't been here long enough for you to have tracked me~ So I do wonder.... was something important to you in this village?" She asked, tilting her head a little as she continued to try and close in. Thankfully, Ajora wasn't even in his line of backing up. She was off to his left, a good ways away. She definitely didn't need him finding out where she was.

No.... this game of chess on HER board was what she wanted. "You know, you're rather cute." She knew damn well it would make him uncomfortable. She WANTED him to be. She needed him distracted. confused. Unfocused. Uncertain. "You....must have a girlfriend~ Several girlfriends? You have that 'good boy' look to you. The kind that makes good girls feel safe, and bad girls want to call you 'Daddy'." that small smile only widened a bit more, almost a full grin at this point.

"Was she here? Hmmm no. You're not quite THAT desperate. You seem too cautious for one of your squeezes to have been around here. But then...what IS bringing you here?" She continued to ponder. Picking at his brain. Gauging his reactions. Looking for weak points in his psyche. "What was your name again? Maybe I'll start asking around. That way, next time we meet up, I'll have a present for you~ Alive, of course. I'm not a monster. Ahah, I can't imagine how angry you'd be if I tried handing you one of your mistresses back without her head. Or some other integral part of her missing. Makes me wonder if you shinigami are more shallow than you let on."

she closed her eyes, as if in deep thought. "Are you at that point yet? IF you have a...what do they call it...bottom bitch? Have you discussed things like that? If she would rather live without certain bits of herself, or if she'd rather die~ What about you, shinigami? Is there any part of you that I should put you down upon losing it? I know you males quite enjoy that one thing. But honestly that seems like too easy an answer." Step Step Step. More and more she chewed up that distance as quickly as he could try and make it.

[Ranth]

It didn't take more than a few seconds for Ranth to realise that he was in something of a tight spot. The woman clearly had no intention of ending her approach and if he kept moving then he'd have his back against the wall- literally- in less than a minute. In some circumstances, he might have felt relief at a solid surface to his back, but not when almost every single visible surface around the perimeter of the courtyard felt like the Hollow before him. Even in places that he couldn't actively see the oozing substance, he could still feel it... were all of the buildings in the same state as the church on the inside? It was a disgusting thought, but also an ominous one as he of all people was more than familiar with the concept of a home ground advantage.

Thus he had three choices available to him. The first was that he held his ground and took his chances with the Hollow before him. He would have no choice but to attack if she entered a certain range as he had absolutely no inclination of letting her close enough to try anything funny. His second option would be to essentially flee, since backing up to the wall wasn't a viable option in any way shape or form. From there he could attempt to lure her away from the village, but if she was half as clever as she seemed to be, she definitely wouldn't leaver her territory and could simply abscond at her whim and Ranth would have lost his chance to stop her from doing this to anyone else. The third option and the one he'd considered as he approached the town was to simply level the whole area. He was fairly confident in his Reiatsu Stength and since there was nobody left to be considered collateral damage... well, it was actually the most sensible choice available to him.

While he considered his choices, Ranth was indeed more than a little surprised to hear the Hollow claim that she'd been sent here by someone else. Whether it was called a job or an errand didn't particularly matter, the crux of the matter was that this Hollow claimed to have been acting on orders. Common sense would have dictated that whatever entity had given the Hollow its task was likely an Espada, but given that this Hollow didn't feel like an Arrancar, logically that made it unlikely that she was a Fraccion. Luckily, he didn't need to spend much time thinking on that mystery before the Hollow revealed the truth of her own volition. Ranth did indeed recognise the mark on her neck- not from previous first hand experience but rather because he'd paid attention in class at the Academy and was familiar with the various major factions that existed and knowledge of their perceived motivations, hierarchy and alignments.

When he was roughly ten meters from the nearest building behind him, Ranth stopped his casual retreat and answered the Hollows question in short order. "This place has no value to me personally, you can just think of this as an unfortunate coincidence". It didn't fully answer the question, but Ranth wasn't going to lose any sleep over being vague with a Hollow. Besides, they'd often been told not to converse with the enemy during their earliest lessons at the Academy... technically Ranth had already failed in that aspect though. No lesson could have prepared him for the awkwardness of being flirted with by a Hollow though and Ranth couldn't suppress an involuntary shudder when the thing called him cute. As on offhand remark, it certainly did catch him off guard but as it went on to describe in great detail a universe in which Ranth was swimming in women he found himself quickly desensitised to the Hollows words.

"I'm surprised you'd want to know the name of a Shinigami when you seem to loathe us so much. Could you even trust me to tell you the truth if I did give you a name?" Ranth had recently finished a fantasy novel by a human author in which the premise for that worlds magic system was based on commands using the true names of things. Whilst Ranth thought that the system was fundamentally unfair, he couldn't help but feel a little superstitious about giving an enemy his name so soon after reading the series. "Besides, doesn't good manners dictate that you should introduce yourself before asking for someone elses name?"

If the Hollow continued her approach, the moment she came within 5 meters of him a sudden explosion of force would erupt from Ranth's position. Moving out in a dome that tore up the brickwork and tore into the buildings behind him like a hammer through wet tissue paper, Ranth would find himself standing in the center of a large circle of clean-swept destruction once things calmed down measuring roughly 100 meters from center to edge. Most of the town, including the entire courtyard and the first twp rows of infrastructure beyond it had been pushed over and piled up at the edge of the blast zone as though done by a giant with a rake. Unfortunately, this hadn't served to destroy any of the ooze that had been polluting the town, but it did at least keep it at bay for now.

Reiatsu: 6,850/7000
Consecutive Combat Posts: 1/6 & 1/12

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hado#53 Area Thrust (-150 Reiatsu)}
Class 4

Technique Name: [Hado #53: Surasorutoiera (Area Thrust)]

Class: 4

Technique Type: Kido

Technique Element: None

Technique Description and Effects:

Surasutoeria is much like an advanced form of Hado # 1, Sho. However, instead of being a directional thrust in the direction indicated, it is an area thrust, pushing away from all directions out from the user. When learned, this Hado pushes objects away at a speed equal to the user’s reiatsu strength. When it is mastered, the speed is double that of the user’s reiatsu strength.

[Santa Ajora]

Santa was, if anything, amused. "I'm afraid my racism doesn't QUITE match you shinigami. not that you're actually a race to begin with, seeing as you're actually all plusses. But no, I don't hate you specifically. I hate the Gotei. The Thirteen court Guard Squads. Perhaps in the earlier stages of my evolution I would have hated every single one of you. But not presently. The fact that I intend on eating more of your Captains is merely a consequence of how much faith you all put in them. But that's all a story for another time I think~" The doll explained. Before that smile widened, and he heard a response not from just her, but from everything. Every little scrap of flesh around him rasped in unison.

"As for my name well. I don't suppose you've ever heard of Santa?~" She inquired from every node at once, as little half-formed mouths spoke up. Very Spooky to say the least. And it was around that time that she would reach near that five meter mark. Normally Santa had a hard time quite pinpointing Reitsu. But given how MASSIVE Ranth's own reiatsu strength was, she paused when she felt him charging it up in that split second. A brief shock. "You stupid f-" WHOOM! That spell would go off as Ranth promptly exploded a good portion of his surroundings.

Indeed, he was quite successful. That blast leveled everything in that rather large radius. Thankfully Santa had been on the edge and quite a ways away, running and getting swept with some debris with the blast. Thankfully it was just a push and not an actual explosion, so she was fairly fine at that. But of course, her mutter right before his blast wasn't too off base. As in addition to leveling the structures all around him, he had also practically SLATHERED the area in his reiatsu.

And there wasn't even an effect that was immediate. Because his little push had actually shunted Santa out of his range. But once she came back in, well he would hardly notice. He would see it creeping in from afar. A WAVE of black and flesh. there wasn't even a hint of red, as Santa's very blood was black. So the only change was the pale white of bone as a WAVE swept across the entire ruins that he had left. In that next instant. He would see it for just a moment in the distance, and then the next instant, it was suddenly all around him. every single inch of the square around him began SURGING with flesh, blood, viscera.

It wasn't a slow creep. What he had seen before was simply her flesh settling on the ground. Her Ability required that reiatsu be present. And most of the flesh in the village had just been what had dropped off of herself. And as much as she dropped, her flesh itself could not count as a seed for her ability. But he had blissfully remedied that. In almost an instant, he would feel it rushing up his body. Surging, sliding up the legs of his hakama as mouths, eyeballs, tongues, and disembodied hands would creep up his body, the growth of the stuff easily exceeding his height in the wake of his attack.

"You done fucked up~ But that's alright~" The viscera rasped to him in unison. HE would feel her EVERYWHERE. As if she were up against him in every direction. Adn before his very eyes, out of thin air, the doll creeped in, a splinter of wood having gone right through her neck. She emerged from an ulcera just as he would be having the flesh slide and grow up his chest. That smile still just as relaxed, completely unbothered by her apparent injury. "Don't worry. Just hold still~ Take a rest on Santa's lap." She giggled.

Even attempting to shunpo up into the air would do him no good. Not only would the shunpo's reiatsu offer a means of her growth, but a reishi platform ws just as good a food for her power. If he somehow did manage to break his way from that creeping garden, once he finally arrived and made that stepping platform, her flesh would slush it's way up from where he was standing and begin growing just as virulently from the panel he was trying to stand on. She had to admit, she loved Shinigami overkill~ Hollows often fired a cero, which had a wide range, but still left a lot of room to move OUT of it. But Shinigami solely were the ones to unleash such widespread devastation~ Only they fucked themselves THIS hard~

"Don't worry, shinigami. As I said, I don't hate you. I have no intention of killing you. Not unless you fight back. But if you're a good boy. I promise you'll make it back to your sweethearts in soul society~"

-75 Reiatsu to Ulcera the doll back to Ranth
-75 Reiatsu to Ulcera Santa back in after the push

4650/5000 reiatsu remaining

Cannibal's Delight details:
Range: 80 meters
Growth Rate: 8 feet per post

[Ranth]

Ranth felt a fleeting moment of satisfaction as his surroundings were blasted away with tremendous force. If there had been any survivors of Santa's massacre then there would have been no way he could have taken such measures, but a small village like this completely robbed of inhabitants in this day and age... it would have been left to rot regardless. In truth, his only immediate cause for hesitation and small measure of regret was that he was wiping away the last traces of his human memories. Unfortunately though, his satisfaction was short lived as events began to unfold that were entirely outside of his calculations.

The good news was that as he witnessed the veritable tide of blackness, his senses gave him a thorough understanding of what he was seeing. The substance seemed to have a special interaction with spiritual energy that allowed it to move and propagate at an alarming rate. Like a virus that had been dormant, Ranth's little display of force had left behind enough residual reishi to emulate the environment in either Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. The bad news was that his newfound understanding of this aspect of his opponents power only served to reinforce how fucked he was. Not only had he created an environment in which every inch of space within a hundred meters was primed to facilitate the ooze's progress, but his attack hadn't destroyed any of it and there had been an incredible amount of the stuff accumulated within the town.

He barely had time to finish processing his analysis of the mess he'd made before he found himself at the center of a sea of black ooze that seemed to come alive is it reached up and seized him a wet yet ironclad embrace that saw him rooted to the spot. Ranth's skin crawled with disgust at the sensation of the ooze and it was all he could do to focus on breathing - deep and slow- in order to stave off succumbing to fear and he grit his teeth as he struggled to corral his panicked thoughts. He was in a tough situation, but he still had options, right? His mistake had been acting without enough information and as long as he was still alive then he could still make use of what he'd learned.

It was at this point that the rasping voice he'd heard earlier came again, but this time from the dozens of mouths that opened and closed amidst the ooze that currently covered most of his body and rooted him in place. Ranth felt another surge of panic and disgust at this juncture that nearly led him to throw up and that wasn't even mentioning the smell that dominated his physical senses. He needed to focus on the problem and work through a solution. If he focused on that then he could distract himself from how dire this situation had become. Logic and analysis was his ally... but it was hard to utilise either when the woman he'd seen blown away earlier appeared before him, along with an injury that by rights should have seen her dead and yet instead she didn't even seem to be aware of the gigantic splinter that had pierced her flesh.

Swallowing hard as he heard the woman's words, Ranth could feel nervous sweat breaking out all over his body, even beneath the slick ooze that imprisoned him. "At first I wasn't sure... but now I'm fairly certain. You're just a proxy aren't you?" Ranth said in a shuddering voice. Somehow, giving voice to his suspicion gave him a tiny measure of relief but ultimately it changed nothing in the immediate term and he watched the woman warily before asking the question she seemed to be waiting for him to ask. "If you're not going to kill me... then what do you want from me?" In truth, he almost didn't want to know the answer, but he knew he needed to play along with whatever game this Hollow... had it called itself Santa? He needed to play along with Santa's game if he wanted any chance to escape.

[Santa Ajora]

It was not at all surprising that the man didn't know how to react to the sudden tidal wave of flesh that suddenly had him in it's grips. She and her doll both grinned slowly at that, chuckling lightly as she watched him in his revulsion. Though deep deep down, it did sadden her. As it always did. But none of that showed for the moment as she waved it off. "Disgusting isn't it? You shinigami have it lucky. If you have an unsightly power, you can just hide it away in your zanpaku'to. But this.... This is my life. My everything. every moment is this." She noted and then narrowed her eyes for a moment.

She saw his mind racing, trying to think of something, to understand what was going on. And she couldn't help but chuckle a little when he actually asked that rare question. Perhaps because so few actually got to talk to her, or they had more pressing things to say. Like Death threats and vows of vengeance, and demands of why she had killed so and so, that pure and sinless whatever. But no, Ranth had a much more pragmatic question. One that made her smile widen. In that very next instant, he'd feel something SINK into his lower back, just below his ribs before pulling open, that barb splitting open like a flower as something thick and bulbous slithered into his body from the wound. the barest ripple of spiritual energy as a bala channeled along the tip, enough mages had caused nasty cutback that she was never too careful, not even firing, just channeling the energy along that needle. Admittedly she had never...ACTUALLY had cutback through her garden before....but well, she wasn't going to risk finding out now.

Just as Ranth felt something slithering into his insides, Santa's doll Leaned, in, grinning from ear to ear as she whispered softly. "You're going to carry my young." She whispered menacingly, letting that sink in for just a second before she burst out chuckling, wiping her eye and shaking her head. "AHah! Ohhh~ Just kidding dear. nothing like that. No Ero-ending for the young lad." She chuckled, clearly amused at her own cruel little joke as she patted him atop his head as that thick slug slithered up between his lungs behind his ribs, nestling into place.

"No, that little painful prick was just some....insurance. A little organic bomb." She noted as she lifted him up and out of that disgusting sea of flesh, even as it continued to rise. But a bone platform had formed beneath them, lifting them up into the air as she looked around. "A right mess you made. Main reason why I don't spend much time in soul society." She mused as that little raft of bone began to slide to the north, as the mess began to spread out a little. She could, when she wanted, keep forcing it to grow straight up by making it grow as mostly bone structures, but there was no need for that currently.

She peeled back at his robes, baring his flesh as she took out a slick, black-blooded needle. A smirk on her features as she found that wound under all the black slime and promptly began to sew it shut. On one hand, it would seem like a very strange kindness to go sewing his wound shut. But then again, it just meant that it would be much harder for him to go pulling that little bomb out of his guts. "But I believe you asked what I wanted, yes? The plain and simple of it is that I want notoriety. I've attacked the soul society before. Twice actually." She hummed as she worked. Of course he had a lot more free reign to move about and do things. but then again, would he really want to with that little slug nestled inside him?

Those burning amber eyes then locked onto his, a slow grin creeping across her lips. "And yes. This is a proxy. Sortof. I won't go into details. I don't need your Squad twelve preparing anything nasty for me. Breaking out of that shithole was bad enough once. But suffice to say. I've attacked Soul Society twice. The second time, I even broke through your little wall. Sad to say I never hurt anyone particularly noteworthy. One Captain, but truth be told, I caught him off guard. That Lieutenant though... the dark-skinned one? I left her with a very different present." She explained, that smile widening.

"She was one of those fighters. A brawler really. Real physical type. So when I finally had her bound up. Pretty thing bye the way. Not that you aren't on the feminine whiles list yourself if you grew your hair out. But in any case, she seemed very fit. Athletic~ A woman proud of her body. So I had some of my little worms drill through her skin, to eat all of that juicy muscle right out from under her flesh. When I was done with her, she looked as if she had been starving for months~" The hollow sighed, fondly at the memory, before her eyes locked onto Ranth, and then narrowed.

"For as long as I remember. You shinigami have slain my kind. Humans left abandoned. Suffering. Because of YOUR inability to pass us on. to protect us from more malevolent races..." Her tone was dark, threatening. "You call yourselves the thirteen court guard squads...don't you? Just HOW many squads are dedicated to searching the world of the living for pluses? I'm willing to bet less than half." She was sneering a little at this point. "You call yourselves balancers. But you LET us hollows become this. You could have so few problems if you nipped plusses in the bud. But you don't. You hide away in soul society. And then when we get in your way. you carve us up." She growled. And TUGGED on that thread, well assuming he LET her sew up his skin.

"You are the reason we're like this. And you consider us nothing but an annoyance. I kidnapped one of your numbers. A woman named Angel. Quite some time ago. I TOLD her that I intended to attack Sereitei. And I lied to her. I said that because I was just a hollow. Nobody would care. And you Shinigami made an honest hollow out of me." She hissed, that slug inside him twisted, not painfully, but certainly uncomfortably. "Which is why I'm going to tell you my plans. You are going to be my messenger. Once I am strong enough. I will break into soul society. Suicidal? Perhaps. But I am going to kill, maul, and cripple, as MANY of your Captains and Lieutenants as I possibly can. I will leave a scar on your precious home, and will do everything in my power to MAKE you remember the mistake of allowing me to become what I am." She then smiled.

She knew he would be reeling. He probably would think she was crazy. Honestly she probably was. And of course she didn't tell him EVERYTHING. She didn't tell him that Soul Society was so unpopular, that she even had gotten a human to agree to help her break back in and tear them down. A monster like her was able to not only grow strong, but gain followers. ALLIES outside of her own cursed race. All in the common interest of making shinigami pay. "Feel free to be honest. I won't set that little one off over an insult or something. When you're as disgusting as me, you hear it all. So feel free to loosen your tongue~ When I'm done with you, you probably wont' be in the mood to do much other than scream. You don't exactly have a buff physique for me to Lipo out of you after all. I may have to get creative . To make the message...stick~" She smiled unpleasantly. Eyeing him over thoughtfully.

-50 reiatsu for Corpse Bandit: Trapper (White Phosphorous Bomb)
-50 reiatsu for Bala
4550/5000 reiatsu remaining

[Ranth]

It would have ordinarily been difficult to concentrate on the Hollow's words as she spoke to him about her disgust for Shinigami and it seemed that some of that disgust stemmed from what could have either been envy or jealousy... or perhaps both. No sooner had he relaxed a fraction though than he felt a sharp pain in his lower back that made him gasp and he groaned in pain through gritted teeth as tried not to scream as the wound that Santa had made was pried open and he felt something squeeze through the gap in his flesh and his eyes widened with a mixture of unbridled fear and anxiety as she threatened him with such a horrible fate and he felt his entire body stiffen and he almost just unleashed every bit of his reiatsu right there and then in a desperate bid for escape without thought of consequence or even effectiveness. In that instant, all he wanted was to be free and far away from this Hollow and its black ooze.

Thankfully... if such a word could even be used in such a scenario as this, she reassured him that she had been jesting almost as quickly as she'd voiced the threat, though that threat still felt like a millstone around his neck as he felt whatever piece of her that she'd slipped between his ribs writhe inside him before settling in like an animal that had finished preparing its nest and his stomach heaved at what this might mean for him and he began to shiver uncontrollably as Santa slowly and painfully stitched the wound back together using a piece of bone and god only knew what as the thread. There was no dignity to be had here, tears of pain ran down Ranth's cheeks as he choked back screams until it was finally done.

Through the pain and the tears, he could only listen as Santa shared her story with him. Whether any of it was true or not he honestly couldn't say but for as awful and disgusting as everything that surrounded him was, her voice at least could distract him from the nightmare and so he clenched his eyes shut and tried with all his might to focus on her soft feminine tone to distract himself from... well... everything else. He was shocked to hear that she'd claimed to have invaded Soul Society not once, but twice and yet still be alive to tell him about it. He might have discarded the story as a flight of fancy if not for the things that she seemed to know. Things that she couldn't have or shouldn't have known unless she really had been there.

For one, she seemed to know the exact function of Squad 12 and if she had been an Espada or even an Arrancar then he could have understood them knowing by proxy of their enemies factions, but for a Hollow? That just wasn't how they operated. most of them, at any rate. If he truly did live through this then he would have to pay them a visit to try and confirm that they'd ever held such a Hollow as Santa prisoner. Unfortunately, being as new to the Gotei as he was, the events that Santa was describing were simply before his time and he wasn't familiar enough with the Captains and Lieutenants who had been in office before him, although the mention of a melee inclined dark skinned vice captain did make him wonder whether she was talking about Kimiko... although granted she was a Captain now. Yet if that was indeed who she meant then that gave him a timeline on how long ago this invasion had happened.

He'd never heard of anyone going through the kind of torture that Santa was describing in vivid detail and once again he felt sick to his stomach and his brow was dripping with sweat from both the pain and the exertion of dealing with it. In fact, his whole body was beginning to feel alarmingly hot and the niggling fear that he'd been poisoned or infected played at the back of his mind. Santa had sounded pleased with herself, perhaps even amused up until this point, but that tone took a dark tone as she began to describe the reason for her hatred towards Shinigami- towards him- and her once soft voice became an angry hiss.

Reakising that she wanted him to respond, to defend himself, or perhaps just to deny it all and that his life may well hinge on his doing so, Ranth took several shaky breaths before opening his eyes and lifting his head to look her in the eye, his honey gold eyes against her burning amber ones. "At first, I thought I had an inkling of what drove you. I thought you hated us because we slayed your brethren, or perhaps you simply wanted to mock us for not being omnipotent in the role that the Gotei took on who knows how long ago. But now I think I understand..." He grunted, a sharp intake of breath as Santa tugged none to gently on the needle. You hate us because of what you are... of what you've become". He words were barely more than a whisper, but Santa was close enough to hear then clearly regardless.

It wasn't the biggest or most impressive deduction, but under the circumstances and with his mind clouded by pain, anxiety and fear it wasn't a half bad effort, even if only in his own opinion. "You want notoriety, but that's not an end goal. Do you want us to sit up and take notice, to come down upon all of Hollow kind like a biblical flood that washes them all away?" Maybe the pain and shock was giving him hysteria, but he actually chuckled as he finished speaking and he shook his head. "Hollows and Shinigami have been around since the beginning, each a part of a greater ecosystem. Even if it were possible to slay every Hollow, have you seen what it's like on Earth these days? Hollow's breed on negativity and are born from suffering and loss... and there is more of that now than in any other time in human history. The only difference is that they've become too accustomed to the way things are to realise how screwed they are". Humanities had always been one of his best subjects at the Academy.

Realising that he'd strayed from his point, Ranth took another deep shuddering breath as he realised that he was out of breath and his heart was hammering in his chest. "If you really wanted notoriety, then why haven't you taken off your mask?" Although he asked this question while looking at the woman, his words were meant for the true body, wherever it may have been hiding for he knew without a doubt that the reiatsu that he'd felt hadn't belonged to an Arrancar. "You'd become stronger and probably even have a shot at being an Espada and then you'd have more notoriety than you'd know what to do with". He paused for a moment before adding, "so why haven't you?"

[Santa Ajora]

She couldn't help but smile and be pleased. This was MUCH better than when she had captured Angel. The girl honestly was not very gritty. She had been....a bit weak. At least mentally. Then again that had been over the course of a few weeks. Perhaps she was misremembering? All the same, the man seemed to be delightfully resilient, gritting through the pain and focusing on what was being said to him. She chuckled a litte and gently smoothed his hair back. "That's a good lad. Keep that brave face on. I have to say, this is a might more impressive and less annoying than the last shinigami I captured." She hummed.

But Ranth....perhaps got a bit too perceptive for his very own good. You hate us because of what you are... of what you've become.. Her grip on his limbs TIGHTENED, so much that she had to restrain herself not to break his arms and legs right there in the pure anger that boiled out of her from hearing that. If she had still been a lower adjuchas or Gillian, she would have killed him on the spot. But her growing sanity was her downfall, and she painfully cringed at his words. At the thought that they might be true.

She wanted to believe she was being noble. It wasn't about her. It was about soul society as a whole. Everything. Their almost lack of interest in cleansing pluses and hollows! And for a moment, she did wonder, if this was selfish. But she immediately doubled down in her mind. And she gripped him, grabbing him by the throat, but not squeezing, allowing him to still speak. She had to keep from just killing him. THE MESSAGE, THE MESSAGE. THIS IS WHAT THIS WAS ALL FOR SANTA! HE HAS TO LIVE! FOR NOW! She shouted at herself as he spoke.

Truth be told, she didn't agree with him in the slightest. Humans had suffered for millenia. Just like any other animal on the planet. For all of the atrocities she herself endured, she had seen beasts in the wild, watching. She had even seen them scavenging in the wake of hollow attacks. As cruel as hollowfication was, it honestly was mostly just a regression, back into being a dumb, simple animal. humans lived immeasurably comfortable lives, so much so that life as a hollow, a mere reversion into what being an animal truly is again, is a torture more than most can handle. But no, before she could even speak up. He spoke about something else.

Her Mask.

He would, very soon after, feel a DISGUSTING grip on the back of his neck as a hand reached out of an ulcera and then DRAGGED him up and into the air by his neck and shoulders as Santa stepped out and into the open. That slug in his body TENSED, twisting, and locking itself in place as Ranth was forced to turn around and see Santa in all of her glory. Over nine feet tall, she was a monster. A cervitaur. From that white crown of her mask and white antlers above her head, down her humanoid skinless body, all the way down to that deer half, hooves stomping onto the bone floor beneath them as a long tail, just as long as she was toll, whipped out behind her. As every single inch of her, other than her mask, molted. Flesh. Blood. Bone. All of it just fell off her body, as if she was regenerating and rotting so fast that she was just a meat waterfountain.

"DON'T YOU THINK I'VE THOUGHT OF THAT?!" She hissed in his face as she dragged him in, but not within arm's reach of her mask, her own paranoia still strong enough to be careful. "Do you think I'd be here talking to you, with that white phpsphorous bomb in your gut, if I hadn't THOUGHT THIS THROUGH?! Disgusting, WRECHED, ARRRRRGH!" She screamed out from every mouth in the area as she glared at him. "I cannot tell you the times I've been tempted. To just TEAR this fucking thing off. To get ME back. To look NORMAL. To BE normal. .To FEEL normal! But I would achieve NOTHING. The Espada are a joke. I broke into their very headquarters, ro see what they were like. And the only one who showed up was a coward beyond my wildest dreams, claiming to be the primera and then running with his tail between his legs." She seethed hatefully.

"I....I can't. I WON'T become one of them. I won't ACCEPT that I'm a monster! I WON'T be a monster! I want my fucking LIFE BACK! But I'm NOT gonna get it! I won't EVER get it back! BEcause if I do......" Those eyes narrowed, and then....slowly, she went quiet, her voice low and insidious now. "You fucking shinigami won't learn anything. And more little girls will live the rest of their existence as twisted abominations..... eating their family....and then everything they can get their claws on... I have to do this as I am. Soul Society needs to SEE that. It doesn't matter if you can't cure the problem. You should be working harder to make it better than it is!" She dug her claws into his neck, barely keeping herself from breaking the skin. Temper. Temper Ajora. Patience. This is it. your chance to let soul society know exactly what it's reaping. HEr body was heaving at this point, wheezing through those many mouths. She was more worked up than she'd been in a long time.

She was even exposed. And she cursed herself. She reached out, and tore the spear from her doll, which was seemingly just hugging itself off to the side. Odd...she hadn't told it to do that. But she tore that spike of wood from their throat, and then slowly dragged it along her own, staring Ranth dead in the face as it just slid through that mess of flowing flesh. Making it indeed seem as if she was jsut constantly under a very awful form of high speed regeneration. "I can't even cut my own throat. Because of the Gotei's laziness. And as much as I want to be normal..... if I just remove my mask, you learn nothing. You'll just be some FUCKING hero, who talked down a hollow." And he'd see those worms slithering in. Though they were long like snakes. Dozens of them slithering into view, long lines of muscle and tendon, with bone needle points as they began to almost seem to eye over Ranth;s body.

"It's your lucky day. You've proven smart enough that I think you'll be able to express the gravity of my intentions to soul society. Maybe I'll actually get a decent reception the next time I show up. then again. They ignored what I did to that lieutenant. And what I did to that shinigami I kidnapped before. Who knows? Maybe....even you will be ignored. Which is why that I can't just give up after throwing you back to the sereitei. I still have to fight, and make sure you all remember. Make sure you all pay." She hissed and narrowed her eyes. "And now I have to eat. The sad part is that I'm still not strong enough. It doesn't matter how right you are, you can still just be too weak. And you'll just die in some church. But you're a smart man. I just need about...half of you. Maybe more maybe less. All of the muscle seemed enough for that girl. so tell me, shinigami. What parts of yourself would you like to keep?" she hissed as that ulcera swallowed her back up, her arm peeling away, her entire body splitting, the flesh she just sloughed off took a form, and she seemed to practically WALK out of a copy of herself, walking away into an ulcera, and leaving behind a fleshy horror cervitaur still holding him by the throat. Only this one wasn't constantly gushing viscera. showing him the ease with which she was able to mold her garden.

"Tick tock. I have a job these days. So time is money, dear. Pick."

-150 reiatsu for Ulcera x2
4400/5000 reiatsu remaining

[Ranth]

For the second time in this encounter, Ranth recognised the mistake he'd made too late as Santa's grip tightened on his arm to the point that it hurt and the ooze around the doll seemed to boil and seethe for several moments as though to serve as a manifestation of her rage. But then the grip loosened as suddenly as it had tightened and the ooze settled back into its usual rhythm and Ranth let out a shuddering breath of relief as he continued to regard the Hollow warily. Just as he thought that she'd calmed down however, Ranth suddenly found her fingers seizing his throat and jerking him forwards so that they were eye to eye... and then something wet and warm seized him by the back of the neck and lifted him into the air and he grimaced as he felt the thing inside him squirm and a hot flush ran through his body followed immediately by a cold shiver as he finally came face to face with Santa's true form.

As the monster... as Santa screamed at him from every single one of the little orifices that formed amidst the ooze that poured from her like a slow motion waterfall of black gore and in the midst of everything that was going on and the alternating hot and cold flushes that were coursing through him every few seconds he couldn't muster the energy to wretch at the sight of the nine foot tall cervitaur that now held him aloft in its grip and berated him with a chorus of screaming voices. "Be... the change... you wish... to see... in the... world", Ranth murmured dazedly once Santa's entire tirade was done. He was having trouble concentrating now and in the back of his mind, he knew that something was terribly wrong with him.

Working his mouth to try and wet his oddly parched throat, it took all of Ranth's concentration to form words through the fever that was taking hold within him. "it sounds to me... like you're afraid.... that nothing would change... without the mask", he rasped due to a combination of his parched throat and Santa's trembling grip on his throat. "Are you sure... it's me... who needs to... learn something", he pressed on with slurred speech as he found his vision becoming unfocused and no amount of blinking could bring that focus back. In his near delirious state, his tight leash on his own senses had slipped and it was giving him a small measure of insight into what she was feeling... what she had felt... and in an ironic twist of fate, only his own delerium allowed him to keep his sanity as he simply couldn't process most of what he was being exposed to.

Instead, he picked up on her deep seated desperation and despair and it brought tears to his eyes as his whole body trembled with vicarious emotion. "It's not your responsibility...", he sobbed weakly, "to bear such a burden". Santa might have responded to him, but Ranth's delerium had claimed his sense of hearing and her form had become little more than a hazy blur before his eyes. All he felt was Santa's unbridled anger, her disgust and a dozen other emotions besides and he felt something else stirring within him... but it wasn't the living bomb that Santa had placed within him. This was something else, something deeper... and far darker and as Ranth's consciousness wavered like a candle in the wind, the consciousness of something... other began to stir from its deep slumber.

"To be beautiful... means to be yourself... You don't... need... others to accept you... You only need... to accept... yourself" were the last words he uttered before the flame of consciousness that was Ranth Amanite winked out and his entire body went limp for a moment. Then the consciousness of something else... something that was at once ancient and infantile opened its eyes and Ranth's body stiffened unnaturally and his eyes snapped open to reveal pitch black orbs that gazed sightlessly into Santa's own before a pair of vivid yellow pupils rolled down and locked onto Santa's.

"Thhhhssssssssssss", a low, bestial hiss emanated from Ranth's throat as he raised his right hand and regarded it curiously for a moment before suddenly plunging it into his own chest and howled as he seemed to fish around for a moment before withdrawing the hand triumphantly with the living bomb clutched in his grip and a wicked grin split his lips as not blood, but rather a cascade of white liquid burst from the wound and mixed with Santa's black ooze. "Kyaaaaaaaaaa" Then with a feral cry, Ranth thrust the bomb towards Santa and squeezed, causing it to explode with sufficient force to catch them both in the ensuing blast and throwing Ranth to the ground in a splash of black and white ooze that leaked from him like oil from a barrel where the explosion had broken his skin.

But after only a few seconds of stillness, Ranth's back arched and he rose jerkily to his feet in a jumble of hisses and cries... as though he was fascinated by his own ability to make sounds. He didn't seem to be paying any heed at all to what had become of Santa or her doll as he staggered to and fro like a drunkard. "Graaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwr", he screamed as he tilted his head back and let out a cry that was at once triumphant and tortured. This cry rose to an unnaturally high pitch that was something between a shriek and a rasp and echoed far and long in the otherwise silent landscape.

[Santa Ajora]

He was faltering. She paused, realizing that he wasn't even fully cognizant at this point. He wasn't processing anything. He was using the last bit of energy to speak, and she felt his words. Her brows furrowing behind her mask. Be the change you wish to be in the world. She was going to be. Once she was strong enough. She would be that change. That was all she ever wanted. All she still wanted. No, that wasn't right. She couldn't deny she had other desires. But it was the important one.

He questioned why she kept the mask on. It was important. It represented something. IF she became an arrancar. Then the shinigai would stop thinking about hollows. They would treat her like the arrancar problem, not the hollow problem. They thought that a hollow was only dangerous if it gained higher power through shinigamification. But she had to stop that. She had to let them know how weak they were. Not only that. But she had to prove them wrong. That Hollows, could be so much stronger than arrancar.

And of course. He spouted about Beauty. And that was something that actually made her glare. Even as he passed out, as she was about to leave, as she was about to drop him. She watched him as he suddenly roused himself. What was with those eyes? She watched as he dug into his chest. She should have been alarmed. She should have been worried. But she wasn't. As he dug around inside of his chest, the leech was simply faster. After all, it was as fast as she was. And as he dug around inside himself, she grabbed himby the throat (Or tightened her grip, if all this was happening before she had managed to let him go.

Of course, eventually he would grab a hold of it, after rooting around his insides, and then tear it clean out of him. However, when he squeezed that gland, it squished..... but refused to pop. He qould be dissappointed. For all of his physical strength. Even augmented by this hollowfication. He wasn't QUITE strong enough to force it to burst. The flesh simply balooned between his fingers, and she narrowed her eyes. "Not very bright. Do you think I would risk your life by having it be triggered by being squished? Let me help you."

She detonated it by remote. And of course, he no doubt would be largely dissappointed. It wasn't an explosion of liquid. White Phosphorous didn't work like that. There was no bang, no shockwave. IT simply popped, and gushed, a sudden PLUME as insanely bright light filled the entirety of Ranth's vision. Smoke billowing up into the air, straight up, but not relly making a huge cloud or anything. And those bright chunks of phosphorous, would burn. Not like real fire, but like road flares, hissing, sizzling.

Ranth wouldn't be thrown back, he would simply be covered in dozens on dozends of these nuggets that burned into his skin. They burrowed in, melting his flesh as thes ebads of burning phosphorous ate into him, burning. Wether he smothered them. Or even grabbed some of her flesh and tried to get her blood to smother it out. It would just keep burning. Without need for oxygen, or fuel, even as the stuff would burn its way deeper and deeper int his body, even if his flesh healed over it. IT would stil just keep burning inside of him.

And of course. It failed to do so to her. When she had designed these things, she had made very sure that it could kill things. Her enemies. Shinigami. Humans. Other hollows. But on hr own flesh. It burned...but did nothing to her or her garden. She watched with a calmness as it sloughed off with the flesh that constantly fell from her. Her left eye socket glowing as a chunk had bee lodged in there. An arm burst out of her back, aroud her shoulder, a completely new arm simply reached around, and plucked it casually out of her eye, the socket not even smoking, as if it hadn't even been hot to her, as she continued to grip the hollowfied man, who would no doubt, probably be in tremendous pain. And ebven if they werent, they would still be in an incredibly comrpomised position.

"How stupid. How unfortunately unfortunately stupid you are. But I confess. You're still very fascinating. The woman I am under this mask doesn't matter. I'm patient. Every time I thought about removing my mask.... I thought. and I planned. And I waited. A notion I think is lost on your....current self." She hissed at that inner hollow that was shrieking up and into the sky, though at this point she had no idea if it was roaring or just screaming from that burning phosphorous, which would still contiue to refuse to go out. It had formed a burning layer beneath the both of them, floating over her garden as it slowly spread like little candles floating over her garden of mush and viscera.

Who knew. Maybe the shinigami would think she was fireproof. It didn't matter. "But... I suppose that at this point. It seems that I won't be getting any preference from you." Her front BURST open, opening up into a massive maw which lunged, and promptly aimed to rip off Ranth's arms, legs, and rip a section of his guts, chest, and lower pelvis out. Intent on ripping that flehs, blood, and bone away from him, to munch it up and consume it. Before it got any funky ideas about attacking her again.

"It may not be my burden to bear. But I'll bear it anyway. Because that's what it takes to be a hero. And its why.... you shinigami.... are the villains." She rasped at him. Knowing he probably couldn't understand a word of it. But all the same, she spoke it, because it was important to hear herself say it. It was stupid, probably very stupid to think of herself in this way. But that was just the human in her talking. Deep down, she was still just that little girl who woke up to everyone she knew being dead.

"In another life. I might have called you friend. But in this life....you're my enemy. So all I'll say is Goodbye."

[Ranth]

Ranth continued to howl like a wild animal, his reiatsu fluctuating wildly as he tossed his head back and forth and gnashed his teeth. One moment, his reiatsu signature would plummet lower than that of an unseated officer and the next it would pulse to a level that could put even Captain's to shame, but it never stayed in one place for more than a moment and it was clear that he'd lost all sense of reason as the smoldering remnants of the phosphorous bomb ate through his skin an cause more of that white liquid to well up around it and engulf the embers one by one, seeming to absorb them rather than extinguish them.

Despite still being in the grasp of Santa, the creature that Ranth had seemingly became seemed to be oblivious to everything Santa said, though his eyes were drawn to the noise of her speaking and his head tilted slightly to one side as he regarded the Cervitaur almost like a child would regard something novel that it was seeing for the first time. Then Santa's maw opened wide and mercilessly clamped down upon Ranth's body. The first thing that Santa would notice was the taste. She'd no doubt be familiar with the taste of both Hollow's and Shinigami, but Ranth would taste like neither... and it was disgusting on a level that would rival her disgust for her own appearance and the disgust that she felt for all Shinigami as a whole.

Ranth didn't cry out or make any sound at all for that matter even as Santa's jagged teeth rent his flesh, creating fresh explosions of white ooze from the wounds that served to further heighten the truly awful taste that Santa would be lucky if she could ever wash away, much less forget. Whatever Ranth was, he was unlike anything Santa had ever tried to consume before and would likely be far from eager to try to again as Ranth's torn body fell to the ground with a wet and meaty splat as a veritable torrent of white liquid flowed from his wounds as he lay there, unmoving and unblinking... save for his mouth which was repeating one word soundlessly over and over again. Enemy... enemy.... enemy.... enemyenemyenemyenemy.... ennnnemmmmmy.... enemeyyyyy

Ranth... or rather the thing inside him liked that word. It didn't understand it, but it liked it nonetheless. It had been asleep for such a long time, dormant in a state of unending stasis and as such it had regressed to a point of primal bestiality. But slowly it was beginning to grow and evolve and such growth made it tired. Thus, it was content to simply lie there and relish all of the sights, sensations and sounds around it as it curled back up within Ranth's mind and settled in at the back of Ranth's mind like a cat. But this time, there would be no stasis... it would not be long before it awakened once again and when it did... there would be hell to pay.

By the time Santa approached Ranth's prone form, she would not only find that he was still alive- albeit unconscious- but that everywhere that the white ooze had emerged from had hardened over his body not unlike a carapace and if Santa was to touch it, then it would crumble away to reveal undamaged skin where by all rights there should have been jagged, life threatening wounds based on what she'd done to him... and even what he'd done to himself. Yet other than the state of his tattered attire, there was no outward sign that he'd been injured in any way. Truly an anomaly which Santa may or may not have had reason or motivation to guess at. But the question now was... what was she to do with him if she wanted her 'message' to be delivered safely?