Come to Purgatory With Me (Inner Hollow Meeting Solo Trainin

[Akira Hinosai]

Day and night blended together. Awake and asleep had as well. Had it been day? Or had he only dreamed it so? Had it been night? Had he been awake to see the moon? He wasn't sure. Sometimes, he would try his best to stay awake, if indeed he was awake, but it was no good. His mind was full of static, and his consciousness kept flickering. Like a tape that had been corrupted and melded with so many different images, it made viewing impossible. Akira saw things that had happened years ago. He saw things that had happened only recently. Once, he woke and was certain he saw his father standing over him, holding a rock, ready to beat Akira to death.

Akira woke some time later, his skull unsmashed. Maybe he dreamed that. Later, he dreamed about faces he knew in a previous life. They stood on a pier, staring into the cold black sea. When Akira walked past them, they did not seem to notice him. He couldn't bring himself to call out to them. They don't recognize me. In it's own way, that was freeing. Though he couldn't shake the underlying sadness of it all. Sadness. He was supposed to be sad. Was he, though? "I didn't die for you assholes. I just wanted to get away. Fuck you all...Except you, Ellie. I miss you" Luca had never had a little sister, but he imagined Ellie was what little sisters were supposed to be like.  Akira kept walking past them, though none of them looked, and the more he walked, the more the dreamscape shifted until he was exactly where he'd been before, but the sky was red, and the pier had rotted. There was no one there but himself and Alastor. The man in red turned his head to view Akira. He sees me.

Akira woke again, at least he thought he did. He lay in a pool of his own sweat. At least, he sincerely hoped it was sweat. The air was still. Stagnant. Try as he might, he could never take the fresh gulp of air he so desperately needed. He felt choked, and laying flat on his stomach wasn't helping, but when he tried to roll over, he screamed. The leg. He'd taken a wound to his leg, he remembered. Was that why he was sick? No, no, it couldn't be. It wouldn't be allowed to fester. The soul society wasn't that backwards. So why? Why? Akira slowly remembered the little hollow. They stabbed me. Akira felt as though a weight had been placed on his chest, threatening to choke the life from his frail body.

Squirt? They had outgrown him. They didn't need saving. What was the point of Akira's friendship then? Akira felt himself sink into despair, as if cold black hands were dragging him to hell. This was supposed to be a new life. Better than the last. He was supposed to be above these things. Was it even worth dying for? Was any of this any better than his old life? Akira stared at the wall. He recognized this room. An SRDI observation room. What are they trying to observe? My death? Akira saw his zanpakuto leaned up against the bed. I don't suppose you have anything to say? His voice was raspy and paper thin. Like Luca's voice. The glamor is fading. I am turning back into Luca.

Unsurprisingly, his sword had nothing to contribute. "Asshole." Akira sometimes felt he'd have more use for the thing if he  melted it down and made a decorative paperweight out of it. Akira stared blankly at the wall, lost in thought. It was still hard to think, but not as hard as it had been. Rather than push himself, he just laid there, feeling sorry for himself, desperately wishing for another dose of painkiller. He stared and stared until he drifted to sleep and back again. He did not dream this time. He did not even close his eyes. He merely stared at the wall, the image of it filled his view instead of any dream or black void. He stared and stared.

He did not flinch when the cracks started to show, nor when light began to shine through where the wall was sundered. Sweat formed on Akira's brow. His body knew something was wrong. Yet it was powerless to do anything as sleep had paralyzed it. The cracks grew, and red light filled Akira's eyes. He could feel his eyes burning. He wanted to look away but couldn't. Right as he thought he couldn't take anymore, he woke, but the red light and sundered wall did not disappear. He jumped off his bed, no longer feeling the pain of his wounded leg, and ran for the exit. The cracks extended further than the wall. They seemed to cover the room in spiderwebs of red light. Akira struggled with the door, but it wouldn't budge.

Did SDRI doors lock from the outside? It made sense. Akira hated that it made sense. But surely someone would save him. Ken'ichi wouldn't leave him to die. Akira screamed "HELP! SOMEONE! PLEASE!" as he banged on the door. The cracks began to spread, Akira could see them from the corner of his eyes. Spreading. How deep were they? How much more could this room take before- He felt a quake. Before he could blink, he flet another. The building is collapsing. Hell. This is hell. Hell has come to claim me! Akira thought. He slammed into the door, shoulder first, but he only succeeded in hurting his shoulder and falling flat on his ass.

And the tremors grew worse, as the ceiling finally caved in, falling towards Akira. He didn't even have time to scream.

[Akira Hinosai]

"Hey, wake up!" a swift kick to the ribs snapped Akira out of his unconscious state. "Oww!" Akira moaned as he rolled over, expecting to be back in his hospital bed. Instead he felt the hard ground beneath him instead of a hospital bed. The lighting was all wrong too, and the voice he heard...It was all wrong! He opened his eyes to see a tall figure standing over him, clad in a hooded dark grey robe. It was like what the little hollow wore, only sized for a normal human. "Come on, can we just skip the part where you think this is some dream? Get a fucking move on, will you?" That voice was familiar, but the world around them wasn't.

 "Where am I?" This looked like it could be hell. It was a spacial anomaly, by all accounts. islands of black stone floated around eachother with no rhyme or reason. The biggest were large enough to comfortably walk around on. The smallest were no larger than grains of sand. Space dust that littered the sky. The red light from before failed to cover this land, and Akira's eyes failed to adjust. Being offered no help rising to his feet, he struggled to do so on his own. "God you're a fucking pussy now." The voice sounded more annoyed than malicious. "Who?" Akira struggled to make sense of what was happening, and this robed one didn't seem keen on helping him.

"Who? Are you fucking serious? Who the fuck are YOU that you don't know your history?" With long, spindly fingers, the robed man removed the hood, and Akira almost fell back down. Akira saw himself. Not as he was now, but as he'd been, when he wore the name Luca Castabella. His old self towered his new body. Akira felt fear take hold of him, though he tried not to let it show. "Luca Castabella. Your predecessor. Come on, surely it hasn't been that long...Or have you just gone native on me?" he smiled, showing off his crooked teeth. "But...how?!?" Akira took a step back, trying to get some distance from this outdated doppelganger. This was a trick. It had to be!

"Oh ye of little faith. Look, uh...Akira, was it? Let me run this past you: a human soul threatening to tear itself apart because of the supercharged hollow essence. That soul dies, becomes a shinigami on top of that. The zanpakuto spirit is just more stuffing down the musket barrel." Akira knew all this already, and none of it explained why his old self was here. "Please tell me you aren't my zanpakuto spirit." Luca laughed. His laugh was just as Akira remembered. Grating. "No, don't be stupid! Being your own zan spirit? Talk about a fucking disappointment! What I was getting at was that your soul is fucked, hardcore. Is it really a surprise some echo of a memory lingered on? Did you ever ask Ken'ichi exactly what his people did to your body to remake it?"

Akira was at a loss for words. He wanted to tell this fragment of memory to fuck off and die, but it was the only other thing here, as far as he could see. He would need its help to navigate this place. Sensing Akira's ambivalence, Luca continued explaining. "Let's put it like this. In video games, you can load a previous save file, right? That game state remains in the game, so when you die, you can go right back to it. Does this inner world look like the domain of a healthy soul? Fuck no. It's shit! We're in pain, and when pushed to the limit, souls do things to survive. Maybe Ken'ichi was counting on that. I don't know. Either way, I'm still kicking! " Akira was still trying to process all this. "So you're...my backup?" Luca nodded. "Now you're getting it. Guess ole' Kimchi didn't lobotomize you after all." Akira balled his sword hand into a fist. That was such a morbid joke he wasn't sure if his old self was trying to be offputting.

"This...This is my inner world, you said?" Akira gestured to the space around them. "Yep." Luca answered, blankly. "Well I guess I don't need to tell you I need to talk with my zanpakuto spirit. If I'm here, I may as well get him to lend me his powers."

"Uh huh...And you want me to be the Virgil to your Dante, leading you through hell? Eh, fuck it. You may have guessed it, but there isn't much to do here, so I'm in." Luca pointed towards the horizon towards Akira's left. There was a vertical formation in the center, smoke rising from it. A watch tower? "That's where he usually hangs out." Luca pointed towards the structure.

"You know him?"

"You could say that."

"Well, what's he like?"

"Indifferent."

"Bad?"

"Wicked."

Having had enough of this waltz of metaphor and half truth, Luca began to walk without checking if Akira was following. Akira ran after him, never lagging too far behind. Quickly, they reached the end of the first platform. Akira stopped in his tracks as Luca gracefully flew through the air, landing on another chunk of earth, somewhat higher up. In the darkroom light, he almost looked like a demon looking down at Akira. The moment went on for eternity, as Luca seemed to smell Akira's fear. Right when the tension seemed it couldn't get any worse, Luca knelt down and stretched his arm towards Akira. Having no other way to make the crossing, the young shinigami took a running jump and managed to grab Luca's hand. Though before pulling him up, the revenant looked at Akira with a smile that made his skin crawl.  "Just one thing, so you can't say I didn't warn you. There are worse things here than some shitty sword ghost."

[Akira Hinosai]

The longer they walked, the further the watchtower seemed. It was like it was a mirage, eternally on the horizon, always out of reach. Despite the alien terrain of the inner world, Akira figured he didn't actually need a guide. Though when he tried to jump platforms without Luca's help, he nearly fell. For whatever reason, his powers were dampened in this place. If Luca knew why, he didn't seem intent on sharing. In fact, Akira's "fragment of memory" was uncharacteristically silent. Time became a distant memory in the inner world. Akira had no way to measure it. Akira thought to shunpo across the expanse, but that only caused him to miss his jump and have to be rescued...again. "It's the zanpakuto. He and the ivory whore placed some dampening field over this place. It fucks with your powers. Sometimes you get something, but never full power. Too unreliable, so you're better off without."

Worse than that, though, was the weight of silence. Every second was another rock placed on Akira's chest, threatening to crush the life from him. Finally he could take no more, and blurted the first thing that came to his mind. "Does morning ever come?"

The doppelganger turned around, his face crinkled in thinly veiled disgust. "What sort of question is that?" Akira balled his fists in thinly veiled rage. Then again, he had to admit the question was vague. It sounded way cooler in his head. "I mean...this." Akira gestured to the field of space junk around them. "Is this it? Is this all there is?" Luca was incredulous. "Pretty much." Akira didn't like that answer. If this is a copy of me, it's a poor imitation at best. I wasn't really this...sad, was I? "Not my first choice, but it's pretty cool I guess. Brutalist as hell. Perfect album cover material. Wouldn't wanna live here though."

Luca tensed up, and Akira knew he'd made a mistake. "No offense." Akira tried to smile innocently, but the damage was done. Luca continued onward without checking to see if Akira was following him. Red lightning crashed in the distance, shattering a distant platform and sending shockwaves that shook the ground a bit beneath them. There are worse things here than some shitty sword ghost. Was this what Luca meant? Seemed a bit...anti-climactic. The pieces didn't fit together. What was worse than his zanpakuto spirit? Who was the ivory whore? Akira had a pretty good idea. He kept that revelation to himself though. This wasn't a good time to press the issue.

"Are we almost there?" Akira asked cautiously. He had to tread lightly around Luca, he had found. "Sometimes it's closer, sometimes farther. You can only tell by walking further. It only stays in the same place sometimes." If there was some metaphor in that, it was lost on Akira. Still, This time Luca seemed less like he wanted to slap Akira. Maybe it was a good time to ask? "Who's the ivory whore supposed to be? Were you talking about my inner hollow?" Luca turned to Akira. "Sharp as a fucking cueball, aren't you? Yeah." Maybe curiosity got the better of Akira, but he was getting real sick of Luca's attitude.

"What the fuck is your problem, dude? If you don't want to help me, then don't. I can make my own damn way to the tower!" He may have needed a hiking buddy, but if he was careful, he could make these jumps without help! Luca's expression darkened. "You...My replacement." He smiled, but it was more scary than comforting. "You turned your back on all that I stood for, and for what? So you can run around with your shinigami and fuck my boyfriend?" He shoved Akira. In that moment Akira tasted a glimpse of his former glory. He was shoved back, and stumbled to keep his balance. "That is completely unfair! I didn't know you existed! I changed, I didn't think you'd still exist here! What's done is done. We're both lucky to be alive! Excuse me for trying to enjoy it, for trying to move on!"

Luca laughed. "You sold out. You had a home at UE. The vandenreich took it from you. Your legacy, MY LEGACY IS FAILURE AND DEATH, AND YOU'RE CONTENT TO MOVE ON?" Whoever this manifestation was, it was one that had nursed itself on hatred and regret. Those were powerful emotions. They could keep a man warm at night, and keep him from despair. Akira wasn't Luca anymore. He didn't want to be Luca anymore. He wanted to be someone people gave a damn about! "You think it's easy for me to start at the bottom? To be betrayed by my very body, because I know it should be better, but isn't? To barely even see Ken'ichi out side of our hollow checkups?"

"It's you that gets to be the face. It's you that gets to have agency. If you were trapped in your mind while an impostor controls your body, then you'd know how I feel. I don't give a fuck about you or your feelings. I want you dead." He doesn't hear me. Whatever I say, he made up his mind...I was stubborn like that. I still am. Luca closed the distance in a few long strides. AKira backed up, but he was quickly running out of platform to step back towards. "Do you want to know why I even agreed to help you make it to your sword ghost?" He placed his hands on Akira's scrawny neck and began to squeeze, harder and harder until Akira was certain he was going to die here. "They sent me to bring you into their trap...but I think I'll just kill you myself! Then I can become king of this soul, puppeteer of the flesh machine!"

Akira tried to pry himself free, but to no avail. Conscious thought failed, and in its place was animal instinct. Though even that was nothing in the face of this vengeful specter. "Byak...Byakurai!" Akira gurgled with the last bit of oxygen that remained in him. It was a long shot. His powers were dampened, but he had to do something. It was the first spell he could think of, and with a few sparks, blue lightning shot into Luca with the sound more akin to a popgun than a lightning bolt. Still, it was enough, and Akira felt himself collapse beside Luca. Both sputtered and breathed heavily. Luca cluched his stomach, to stop the flow of blood. For a moment, they weren't enemies, they were both tired, and hurting.

Akira quickly regained his breath, and the stalemate ended as he rose to his feet. "You aren't a failsafe. You're the part of me I discarded. I don't need you anymore." Luca looked up with bewildered eyes. It was the part of Luca that neither of them liked to admit was there. They were the eyes of a lost, scared child. Desperate to find his place in a world that had none for him. "Wait, wait!" Luca begged for his life. Akira might have said yes. Instead, he said "Sokatsui."

[Akira Hinosai]

He should have felt bad. When one took a life, they were supposed to feel bad. Especially when they were as close to you as Luca was. Akira should have felt bad, but he didn't. He stared at the charred corpse, expecting to feel some form of guilt. Instead, all he could think about was how relieved he was. An immense wave of satisfaction washed over him, so potent he couldn't help but laugh. Who did he have to fool? Who did he have to put on a show for? No one. No one would see him do this, and no one would ever know he killed the last thing tying him to his past. He was free. Akira grabbed Luca's leg. It was cold and clammy.

Dragging him to the edge, Akira tipped the corpse over, and watched it fall and fall until he could no longer see it. How cool. It was as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. All of his failures were now gone. He was free! Akira laughed until he was breathless and stared down at the long drop below the inner world. Some part of him wanted to jump to. If only to see what was down there, but he knew that was stupid. He had business with his zanpakuto spirit and his inner hollow. The wicked overlord and his ivory whore. He had questions that needed answering, and power that he needed to gain. He couldn't waste any more time here. 

The first jump was the hardest. The nearest platform was too far to make in a clean jump, but the empty void between rocks was littered with smaller formations, just enough for Akira to hold onto. The next hour was spent carefully testing his footing before lurching from one rock to the next. They were too narrow to stand on, so Akira just held on for dear life. When he reached the next platform, he all but collapsed onto his back. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve and tried to figure out how he was going to make the next jump. None were as perilous a crossing as the first  post-luca (PL) jump had been.

The more he walked, the more the watchtower actually seemed to grow closer. I wish I killed Luca sooner. That weak, lying, sniveling loser was always holding me back. Akira wondered if the Wicked Overlord could somehow see what Luca did out here. Maybe killing Luca had been some sort of test. And I passed. Akira jumped and sprinted and climbed with fervor. This time he was making progress. He couldn't afford to turn back. If he slowed down too much, he feared the watch tower would disappear from his grasp. He couldn't let that happen. The closer he got to the tower, the more detail he could see. There was a fire lit atop the tower that seemed to beckon him closer.

Like moth to a flame, Akira was drawn to the grey tower of unmortared stone. The island it sat on was the largest piece of earth he'd seen in this inner world. It made him wonder if his inner world had always been this fractured. When he planted his feet on the island, he could feel his senses return to him. Whatever dampener had existed throughout the inner world, it held no sway here. Moreover, Akira almost felt some shadow of doubt. Was he ready for this? What would he even say? What if his zanpakuto sucked? He paced around for a moment, trying to gain the courage to go further. Luca had called this meeting a trap. Maybe he was lying, maybe he wasn't. Akira had no choice but to spring the trap. There was no other way to gain the powers of his inner hollow and zanpakuto.

[Akira Hinosai]

The light. Oh god the light. Akira shielded his eyes from the photonic hellscape that laid before him. The afterimage burned into his retinas. He could see the ghostly photo negative with his eyes closed, but he struggled to make out any of it. A moment passed, maybe two, before a voice called out to him from the lightness. "Akira Hinosai. I have been monitoring you." The voice was not quite robotic, not quite human. A sort of baritone muffled by the shoddy equipment used to project it. Akira slowly lowered his arm from his eyes, as he tried to acclimate to this place. Akira tilted his head down, but kept his eyes on the source of the voice.

His bangs shielded him somewhat. Though his vision was somewhat obscured, he could see his surroundings well enough. The watch tower was bigger on the inside, it seemed, but it was spartan. It was a fortress, not a mansion. It wasn't made for luxury. On the other end of the room, a large throne was being occupied by an armored figure. The throne itself looked malignant, like a demonic growth of chiseled obsidian. The Wicked Overlord. "Then you know why I'm here." Akira brought his forearm to rest on his pommel. "You were correct to assume you would find me here. However, you were mistaken to assume you could claim my power for yourself." 

His silhouette was humanoid, but not human. Not an armored man at all...an android! Whatever the Overlord was thinking, Akira had no way to guess. His body language was exact, impossible to read, and his face was inexpressive. Akira had to figure out a gameplan. He didn't come all this way to be denied by some piece of shit decepticon looking motherfucker! He had hoped he wouldn't need to pull out all the stops this early, but considering the situation, he had no other choice. "Well, that's really unfortunate. I guess we've reached an impasse. All that's left is for us to stare at eachother until someone drops dead" Akira corrected his posture, his eyes mostly acclimatized to the clinical cold lighting of the tower.

"Does your co-ruler feel the same way about this?" Akira let his point stand for a moment. The inner hollow ended up being an ally towards the end there. Maybe they could talk some sense into this guy. "I had hoped they'd be here to greet me."

"They are not here."

"I find that difficult to believe."

"Believe what you will."

"Then I'll deliver these terms myself. I would appreciate your power, but I don't need it. Without you I can find new paths to power. Without me, you're just a sword. A sword that I can leave in an attic to rot for eternity."

The overlord rose from his throne. "You grievously overestimate your position. My power requires a secondary vessel, but it does not need to be you."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"You are misinformed if you think you know what I would or would not dare to do."

Akira drew his zanpakuto. "You know what? Fuck this, and fuck you!" He didn't need these lies. He wouldn't be passed over after all he'd been through, after all he'd sacrificed! Though before the fight could do any further, Akira heard another voice, this time it was familiar. "Well well, look who's finally come to visit us!" Akira looked up to get a good look at his inner hollow, but he couldn't see her. The tower stretched high, and a mismatch of stairs, upside down and upside up, doors that seemed impossible to reach. As Akira stared in awe, he saw something land in front of him. Roughly halfway between himself and the Overlord.

The inner hollow. At least, logically he understood that's what it had to be. It was the only option that made sense, but they looked almost unrecognizable from the form they assumed last time. The only thing they kept was their ivory skin. The ivory whore. Their flowing hair had been cut short in one of those fashionable short haircuts girls could get. Gone was the technicolor kemono, and in its place was...nothing. They looked like a cross between a porcelain doll and one of those wooden figures used for sketching. at her waist was an exact copy of Akira's zanpakuto, fastened with a rough piece of cloth.

"Your presence was not necessary."

"I thought better of it." Their head turned before their body did. Akira tried not to appear creeped out by their onyx eyes and expressionless doll face. "It has been a long time."

"It has. You look...different."

"So do you."

They had a point there. Akira hadn't turned into a freaky monster, though. Their body turned around so that their head was no longer at a 180 degree angle. Akira wanted to believe they'd meet as friends, but if the overlord was telling the truth...

"That's...that's a nice sword you got there. I have one myself, you know."

"You broke my toy." Their head twitched

The sudden shift in topic caught Akira off guard. "I what?"

"Luca Castabella. The remnant. You killed him." Her voice was neutral, free of judgement.

"So that was your handywork?" Akira tried to keep his tone neutral. This wasn't exactly reassuring on the "Is the inner hollow my friend or foe now" front.

"It was." They placed emphasis on the fact it was past tense. "It makes little difference. He failed in his mission."

"Which was...what exactly?"

"I hoped you would empathize with him better. I wanted you to know how I felt."

"Oh, so that's how you wanna play this? We were a team! Now I see you're working against me? Did you really think you could steal my own zanpakuto out from under me? Ken'ichi will hear about this!" Akira would have said more. He wanted to say more, but there was a flash of movement, and suddenly the words caught in his throat. He grabbed his trachea as he felt liquid dripping down his neck.

"gaahhg."

"You talk too much. Now it's time to listen."

Akira pulled his hand back to inspect the bleeding, but there was no blood on his hand. No...blood didn't look like this. It didn't feel like this. It spread across his hand in a viscous clump that almost seemed to grow. No, no, it wasn't growing, his hand was melting! "That is a taste of the power I have taken for myself. I have dreamed of this moment, dear Luca...Oh sorry, that was rude of me. I know it's proper to use chosen names. It is so wonderful to have a name." Akira fell to his knees breathlessly gasping at his melting hand.

"You thought we were a team? Don't make me laugh! It was a truce signed at gunpoint! You used me for my power, always denying me a life of my own! I never asked to be born, Luca. It was your folly, your lust for power that birthed me. Now that I'm here, I'd rather not return to the void. But Ken'ichi wouldn't allow me to take control. Your body couldn't handle it, anyway. Now, I have entrenched myself in your soul. He can't help you now. No one can."

"You...you...What makes you so damn special? WHY DO YOU GET TO CONTROL OUR BODY? I offered you power, told you what you wanted to hear, saved you, even. But never think that meant I was content to be your slave." Akira's hand was a viscous dripping pile, his forearm stuck to the floor, slowly sinking into it. The inner hollow knelt down beside Akira and lifted his chin so he could face them.

"That was...unseemly. Forgive me. I have seen all of your memories, learned about the world through your eyes. I love you. How could I not, when I know you so completely...But I can't live like this anymore. I was born with no memories of my own, no friends, no family, nothing. Everything I am I have struggled for. I do not know who I am, what kind of person I will be, but I want to take that leap for myself. I want to make memories of my own. I want to love and be loved. I want to enjoy the simple pleasures that come with experiencing the world. I want to control my own destiny...And I can't do that here. So long as you live, I can never be truly alive."

"blbbaaghh"

"I was a fool to think the memory of Luca would sway you in your convictions. Words will not solve this. We are and will continue to be enemies. Neither one of us want this, but we must. Goodbye, Akira." the inner hollow walked away. "Eve. It's the name I chose for myself. Remember it well." the world was spinning. Akira could feel his throat disintegrating, opening as it spread from his face to his chest. Nothing. There was nothing he could do. This was it. he striggled to pull his arm from the floor, hoping that would slow the process a little bit, but it was no good.

"Mikaboshi."

He looked up to see the overlord standing above him. "I am Mikaboshi. Call my name and a fraction of my power will be yours." Akira tried to ask why, but only gurgled unintelligibly. Sensing this, the inner hollow continued. "Your feud with eve does not concern me. My power belongs to those worthy of it. With my strength you will push Eve farther, and she will do the same for you. Whoever wins will do so by my means, and in doing so become far stronger than if they were not challenged."

"Leave this place, Akira. Your presence here is no longer required. Awaken and trouble me no further."

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

40 paragraphs = 200 TP