Capítulo 232: Psychopomp (Bleach SI) by Pangolin
Hoot Hoot!!!!! Praise The Wise and Insane Owl Hollow 😉
Words: 150k+
Link: -https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/psychopomp-bleach-si.747151/
(Yammy honestly hadn't expected to wake up and take in fresh air ever again.
But even then... )
Yammy honestly hadn't expected to wake up and take in fresh air ever again.
But even then, maybe fresh was a bit of a stretch. Stagnant and a bit dank, more like, but it was air.
A damn shame. Defeat aside, he was curious about what came after life as a Hollow. Rebirth or nothingness, heaven or hell -- he didn't really care which.
But as it turned out that death was a cave in Hueco Mundo.
Great.
Opening his eyes, the colossal Adjuchas noticed the warm glow of a fire off to his side, and the fact he was somehow placed down beside it. The cave could barely contain him, so how he got inside was an entirely different matter.
He moved to sit, only to be hit with the wombo combo of his injury opening up and the ceiling being too short. Double pain. He slumped back down with a rumble of the earth following.
"Man, fuck this…" the crimson furred giant muttered, his words still loud enough to boom through the cave.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! No moving, you utter goon! Look at what you've done now!" another loud voice said from the other end of the cave. He glanced out of the corner of his masked face to spot another hollow slithering out of a hole in the cave's wall, frustration evident in its lanky posture.
It was a Gillian. Not the tallest one Yammy had ever seen, but they were distinct things even when they were at their most aberrant.
He then looked down at his body, the gouge running along his gut and side bleeding. Tightly bound threads barely retained their shape against his huge body, doing their best to cover the injuries. That was different.
But more importantly --
"Eh?! Who the hell are you, you little rat?!" Scurrying tiny thing. All other Hollows were. "Where the hell is this?!"
The comparatively small Gillian stopped before Yammy, looking up at him with void-like eyes… which suddenly ignited into glowing golden limbal rings. "Shut the hell up, is where! Took me hours to get your fatass in here, and longer still to clean up your injuries! Fuck you, fatass!"
The hollow then punched Yammy in the side with a bony fist. Right into the injury left by his opponents blade.
Yammy screamed for the first time in his life and slammed his head into the ceiling, falling right back down immediately. "You sonuva…!"
"Shut the hell up! Don't move! You'll bleed out and flood my goddamn cave! This is my town, my rules! If you move, I stuff enough herbal paste in there that you feel the sting for ten centuries!" The smaller Hollow raged, jabbing an armored white finger in Yammy's direction, the sharp gesture threatening to poke him again.
A Gillian with personality and enormous nuts to go along with it. Now Yammy had seen everything.
He held himself back from barking back at the Gillian, clearly the only reason he was alive after his confrontation with the Rey Dorado. In his then drained state, the Gillian also held the power to end him if it so felt the need.
The Gillian lowered its finger, hand vanishing beneath the black mass of a robe which consisted of its elongated body. The jittering posture calmed into the eerie stillness Yammy associated with the Menos Grande class of Hollow. "My name is Sabado Cruzar. And you are, I assume, Yammy… Large? Largo?"
"Llargo, for fucks sake."
"Did you pick that name yourself?" The Gillian -- Sabado -- asked.
"Yeah. What of it?" Yammy returned dangerously, his crimson eye beginning to glow.
"...You called yourself 'Big'," Sabado surmised. There was something about how he paused to look at Yammy that made him bristle.
"No, I didn't! It's just what felt right, you little twirp!"
"Llargo is too close to Largo for that to not be true, Yammy Llargo. But that is not important," The Gillian waved off the track of the conversation, leaving Yammy a little bit fuming at him. Sabado's tone had transitioned from an enraged indignation at Yammy into a much calmer, professional tone. "You're in my home. I brought you back after you collapsed some few miles out in the dunes. Not an easy task, given your considerable amount of fat."
"It's muscle and spiritual power, you fucking Gillian. You should be able to tell."
"I can, it's quite oppressive. But honestly, Yammy?" He reached out, and pinched some of Yammy's fuzzy side, squishing it. "Let us just call it muscle, spiritual power and a bit of healthy, completely normal body fat."
Yammy squinted at the lanky waste of space. "I'm gonna kill you."
"Roll over and you probably will. Anyway -- I've done what I can for your injuries, the rest is to you. Stay still, don't make a fuss and in say… two weeks, you'll be good to go again."
The giant beast snorted. "I'll starve before then, little man."
"Don't you worry. Let me handle the food situation. As I've been telling you, focus on recovery."
"You plannin' on poisoning me or something?" Yammy asked reasonably, concern beginning to crawl its way up his spine, an unwelcome feeling. The Adjuchas Hollow, as powerful as he was, was at too much of a disadvantage to be truly comfortable with letting some menos grande buzz about him.
Killing him was on option, but then he was trapped in a cave and close to bleeding out.
"I could just shoot a Cero into the deepest part your injury, if I wanted to kill you. It'd be messy, but I'm fairly certain it'd work, even with the ocean of power between us," Sabado reasoned, with a wag of a finger. He moved to check on the bindings, gliding over the earth in that strange, wavy manner Gillians were prone to.
Yammy had the distinct feeling that Sabado was just putting it on, playing the 'role' of a Gillian in that regard. He seemed too in-tact to truly retain that mindless lumber of theirs.
But the little thing had a good point. Gillians were dirt, but they could still make use of the Cero. With the range and his temporary... weakness, he could probably do something to Yammy with that. What a shitty day he was having.
He went quiet, seeing no need to continue talking with the smaller Hollow. He let it work, lanky arms poking out from the all-encompassing black surrounding its body in order to check on the bindings it had put together for Yammy's injury. Sabado informed Yammy of the severity of it, about how even with the speed of a Hollow's healing, it would take a long time for him to get over it. Something about the Rey Dorado's energy.
He didn't really care. He picked up the useful bullet points, but nothing more.
Once Sabado was done tightening and readjusting the bindings and -- painfully -- applying some salve, there was little else to be done between them. He simply slinked off deeper into his cave, put more dry fuel into the fire at the center of it, and then went about looking at his selection of books, preening over them carefully.
What kind of Hollow keeps books? Not much help to them, and the trouble of going to the human world to get them was also too much.
The Gillian picked out a book from a stack which came up to his midsection, a veritable tower of paper and words, and settled down in a 'sit' which brought the 'knees' of its distended body up.
Yammy huffed and closed his eyes.
Weird fucker.
~~~
"Food's here, Llargo."
"Thank every possible god, I thought I was gonna starve again."
"I literally fed you no less than thirty hours ago."
"Big body like this takes fuel."
"Fatass."
Sabado hucked one half of a feral Hollow up at Yammy, and the giant furred monster caught the thing whole in his giant mouth, the off-blue flesh of the thing sawed apart by the ferocious teeth of his mask. Sabado dragged the other half off for himself, looking like half a scorpion of some such.
Going halfsies with a Gillian. Didn't exactly fill the belly, but it kept his healing going. For the week and some change he'd been there, he could feel himself beginning to store energy again.
He was ready to get out there again. Back into the sands, where he could eat properly and beat the crap out of anyone who got in his way. Such was the only life Yammy cared for, after all the years he had wandered. It was the only life he was good for.
Sabado's Gillian mask was clearly avian in nature, an owl if the wider-than usual eye holes were anything to go but that only applied to upper parts of it. The rest was closer to the usual monstrous maw of their kind, the only difference being that it had an elegant looking upper-half to contrast it.
Given how Sabado ate like a savage, just like the rest of them, it fit.
But that didn't change the fact he acted strange. A strange collector of human things, a Gillian with more brains than most Adjuchas and the wherewithal to mend Yammy back to health, but not the awareness to know why that was a terrible idea. Lanky idiot.
Again, the concern returned. What was this thing up to?
"What's your game, Sabado Cruzaz? You looking to piggyback off my power or something?"
Yammy was about as tactful as a punch to the face.
Sabado paused in his meal, mid-bite into the cracked shell of the scorpion Hollow. The golden limbal rings returned, gazing at Yammy out of the corner of their vision.
"You've got enough weight to carry around with that block of a head," he shot back, getting another indignant huff from Yammy. He always had something to snipe. "Nothing of the sort. I just saw someone who was hurt, and could use some help. Don't think too much of it, Yammy," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, disregarding the very implication of his words.
Yammy's mouth opened, and remained so for a good minute. It was in fact not that obvious.
"You're fucking insane," the giant finally managed to muster. "Insane and stupid. We're Hollows, you dumbass."
"That doesn't mean anything. I've been in Hueco Mundo long enough, Yammy. I know what a Hollow is, and what we're like. That doesn't mean I have to like it, or even abide by that nature. When someone's hurt, I like to help."
Yammy snorted. "Look, even if I just nod along to that, you still kill the living hell out of those Hollow we've been eating--"
"Feral, mindless things. They're animals more-so than Hollow. They could transcend that, but not before becoming a Gillian. I have no qualms."
"You're a Gillian!"
"A talking, highly intelligent one. I'm allowed to regard myself differently."
A fair point, Yammy conceded mentally. But that didn't change much to his general point -- the hypocrisy of it was still present, and even a self-admitted blockhead like Yammy could see it. He moved on, realizing that he was dealing with a complete and utter loon. "What'd ya mean, 'long enough'? You're a still a class beneath me, couldn't be around that long."
Sabado sighed, turning to face Yammy completely. "Believe it or not, I'm only eating because I had to feed you. I rarely eat as it is. And you're only as powerful as you are at such a young age because you've got eyes to match your considerable stomach."
"Stop calling me fat!" Yammy roared, shaking the very cave with the volume of his thunderous voice.
"Stop being fat," Sabado replied calmly, the general coolness of them cutting deep.
"You sonuva--"
"Anyway, your weight is besides the point. The point is that there are Hollows who help each other -- it's not terribly uncommon. We form social groups, packs, villages, whatever you want to call them. Why would there not be a Hollow willing to help another one in passing?" Sabado reasoned towards Yammy's prior objection.
"They do that because they're weak. They need those things. Real Hollows don't need them."
"Tell that to the Lord Louisenbarn?" Sabado pointed out with very little effort, getting a visible flinch from Yammy.
Barragan had something of a 'group', if 'the largest contingent of Hollowkind in Hueco Mundo' counted as just a group. More like a hive that buzzed around the mane of a lion, but it was a group.
"Because he's scared. He knows there's bigger fish out there. Other Vasto Lorde, and one in particular could crush even him. We've all felt it, when wandering about. There's a part of Hueco Mundo you just don't go, because of it. It'll kill you with pressure alone. Baraggan doesn't have that."
Sabado hummed, chewing on the flesh of his prey. "... Then, because he is not the absolute strongest, he gathers an army to compensate, you say?"
"Yeah, fuck it, why not. I just think he's a big pussy. A strong one, but a pussy either way."
"Then the one who stands at the summit is the only one who should walk alone?"
"No," Yammy said with no short measure of resolve, brow furrowing. "We all should. That way we can find out who truly is the strongest. Getting help… removes from that."
Sabado went quiet, still even.
"... Hum. An experience shaped that perspective of yours, but I won't pry too deeply. I merely thought you a musclehead, but you are more of a musclehead with a history."
"...Thanks?" Yammy asked/said, feeling that Sabado had complimented him in his own way, yet still managed to snipe him. Baffling.
"Think nothing of it. But know that I disagree. The strength of many can easily become the strength of one… as I believe we are to find out, in the coming years," the Gillian mutter ominously, staring off into the fire.
"Hell does that mean?" Yammy pressed, narrowing his eyes at Sabado.
"I had a… trait, much like your own ability to retain power. It made me distinct from other Hollows. It's quite a shameful one, as it only matters in particular circumstances."
"Like a counter, or something?"
"Something like that, yes. Consider me something of an oracle, although a fairly limited one. The details I shall retain to myself."
Yammy snorted, rolling his eyes and scratching his itchy bandage. "Then did ya know we'd meet?"
"Actually, no. But don't think too hard about what I have and have not seen. You'll hurt your brain. Anyway, that's besides the point --" he deflected again before Yammy could call him out on it, "Come tomorrow, you're leaving. Free, out of my cave to wander the sands and do what you want."
"Shit, two weeks gone already? Feels like a day."
"Comes with the territory of living as long as we have. Blink, and you will miss it."
~~~
"... I think I fucking blinked, because I coulda swore you were just telling me I'd be going tomorrow."
"It is tomorrow. I keep track."
Sabado finally removed the last of Yammy's bandages, exposing the scarred flesh beneath it, the crimson fur of his ape-like body not quite regrowing into the way it used to be. A reminder that he had someone to beat the life out of.
"Now, to get out you're going to have to crawl."
Yammy blinked. "... Really?"
"Really. Chop chop."
The giant grumbled indignantly, and began his crawl out of the cave, dragging himself out by his forearms. His lower end got stuck on the entrance.
"You're going to have to really push!" came the cry of Sabado from inside. "If you don't, I'm trapped in here!"
A pretty entertaining prospect, all things considered. The Gillian was a fucker who deserved that more so than he deserved death.
But even still, Yammy pushed until he was finally freed with a 'pop', sliding out onto sands once more.
Fresh air, dry sand and the eternal moon. He had missed it.
He looked back to the cave entrance, spotting Sabado standing at it, tall enough to have to hunch to do so, but nothing more.
"How do you feel?" he asked Yammy.
His answer was getting kicked back into his fucking cave.
~~~
Sabado coughed, rubbing where the giant's blow had impacted him the most. The Gillian rose up, waving away the dust and dirt kicked up by his flight from the entrance of the cave to the other end of it.
The books were scattered, he grudgingly noticed.
"What a mess," Sabado muttered, getting to his pale feet, drifting about and kneeling down to pick the books back up, reordering them.
Order.
It was the smallest slice of it, in the world of Hueco Mundo. Keeping his abode clean was one of the few forms of organizing he could truly engage in. Thinking of new ways to structure his collection of paraphernalia from Earth was another. Given the relative time on Earth, he did not quite have things which he could truly call 'homey', but it was still better than the nothing offered by the vast majority of Hueco Mundo.
He glanced out of the cave, spotting the outline of his once-guest wandering off into the dunes.
Yammy had been more compliant than he had originally expected. Given what he recalled of the man, he had the image of something a lot simpler. But from the brief bits of conversation, Yammy was a creature formed by an event as opposed to inherently a beast of rage. He was angry at something, not just because he was angry.
It was a curious thing, but not something he could afford to overly focus on.
He knew the future. It was not one he intended to dabble in too much. The story had its beginning, and it would have its end. The actual cost of said story was not one he even truly recalled -- how many died in the coming conflict? How many truly suffered meaningfully?
Such were the thoughts that were allowed to a creature as long-lived as a Hollow. He had certainly grown more thoughtful in his years as a conscious entity.
Sabado brought a pale palm to his 'head', bashing away at it for a moment, jostling his thoughts. The host of voices and bestial screams that contested his own thoughts quietened down.
Picking up a book, the Gillian hunkered down next to the fire once more, and began to read. Gulliver's Travels had just been released, and he had made sure to acquire a fresh copy from the world of the living.
It had been an interesting two weeks, but he did enjoy his alone time.
The future came closer, ever so slowly. But for all his time in thought, he had been merely procrastinating.
Was it right to step into the course of history? What right did he have to change a story that was going to progress to a conclusion? Rather, could he create a better one with his presence?
Questions that had remained unanswered. Many-a wise man and woman had he visited on Earth under the guise of a spirit of enquiry or messenger of one God or another, but none had provided him with the satisfaction of knowledge and certainty.
If the future was already there, should it not remain so?
After meeting a familiar name in person, the answers were no closer to him than ever before. Rather, they were further. He had stepped in to help Yammy, but what would have happened in his absence? Well, he would never truly know by just thinking about it.
All he could do was wait for the next day, and hope for an answer.
~~~
Psychopomp
A Bleach (Sorta) Self-Insert
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