Home Sweet..Haunted House?!

There was a time to worry, and now seemed like a good time. Hayashi, stuck in his ten year old body, was pacing around the woods near Karakura Town, which he somehow sleepwalked to. The stone he once tried to shatter was completely intact as though nine years had no effect on it, but then again, it had survived eons before that night. "The big problem is, where will I be able to rest? Human kind will grow aware of me eventually, and I really don't want to leave behind countless beings every couple decades."

He rationalized that thanks to his powers, he was effectively immortal. The supposed draw-back restored the Hayflick limit in his cells, reverting him to a child in the process. During his pondering a wonderful thought crept into his mind, as worn as it was. "Eureka!" he exclaimed. "I'll just open a portal to Aunt Myst's house. I should still be able to cast the spell." he took a deep breath, his spell was invariably one of the longest. "I am the fallen and lost seeking refuge from this storm. I am a prince of Death's great hall wandering this land. I humbly kneel before the Gods and Devils of this land and ask entrance to their world."

As his incantation ended, the blood-red vortex opened before his eyes. The problem was, someone was stepping out. Long pink hair, mismatched eyes, it was the very person he needed to talk to. "I thought I was gonna end up in Hama Town. Why am I..?" she asked herself, surprised at the situation. Before she could finish the thought, her eyes rested on the child in front of her. "Well, what do we have here? A kid in the woods? Even better, a spiritually aware kid."

Hayashi's eyes widened a bit. He didn't expect this to happen at all. "Yeah. I'm just a kid. Nothing to see here. Well, actually I was kinda lost. Mind helping me out of here?" he asked, playing up his manipulative side.

Myst sighed. "Actually, I think I have a better idea. You follow me on a hunt, and I'll get you some food. You look famished. Do you like Burger King?" she asked him. Something about this kid seems familiar to me, wonder why?

Hayashi nodded. He WAS hungry beyond anything he's ever known before. Although the notion of a hunt was somehow sounding better than just food. The two of them took off in the direction of a prison, which Myst explained was her favorite place to feed on the blood of humans. "It's like, my sins are forgiven by taking their lives." As they arrived, she noticed Hayashi's ring. "Where'd you get that?"

"My Godmother gave it to me. It's something that means more to me than life or death." he replied. As he remembered her and Margin, his heartbeat sped up to the point where it seemed painful. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." he said as Myst looked at him funny, as she could hear his heart clear as day.

The pair walked calmly into the building and the staff paid them not a moment of their time. Myst was here often to clear out the scumbags. She was more or less their version of the Chair, a title not earned without good reason. Hayashi had always wanted to go on one of these hunts, but now, he could honestly feel the same level of control over people's lives. While walking to where their target was, he could feel something happening to his canine teeth. Once the feeling faded, he traced them with his tounge. They turned into fangs!

The guard calmy opened the door, fear of what the vampire was able to do to him etched on his face. He was surprised that she brought a kid along with her. The kid's eyes were as emotional as hers, which wasn't saying much. The vampiress never showed emotion before a kill.

Inside the room was a single human. He was obviously a member of one of the prison gangs, the Counts. He wore the Count's marks on his prison garb, strange tribal marks that to a normal person were no more than fancy script. He looked at the two newcomers as though he was expecting them. "Hell, they send a girl and her son to kill me? Pah. I'm the second in command of the gang I joined eight years into my first life sentence. That be right. I'm on my second, no normal humans can kill me."

Myst sighed again. "You ready to die or do you want to B.S. some more?" she asked him, bored with his banter. "They only hire me to kill spritual ones anyway."

Before she could react, the prisoner had her pinned to the ground. "Shut up bitch! I ain't goin down without a fight. You better watch close kid, cause I'm gonna do to you what I'm gonna, URK!" he said, as a wire lifted him into the air. Hayashi wasn't even trying as he constricted the man's windpipe.

"Yeah, try touching her while I got you a good four feet above her. You can't do jack crap now can ya? Now, your blood is mine!" he yelled as his wire pulled the dying man in. In the time it took for Myst to understand what Hayashi had just done, it was over. He draink the man's blood in true vampire fashion, leaving not a drop in his veins. Myst walked over to him just as he suffered a mental snap. "What have I done? Did I...kill him?"

Myst figured that even though he had just destroyed the prisoner without even trying, he was prone to obsene levels of regret, a trait she too had suffered from after her early kills. "You ok kid?" she asked, trying to calm him down.

Hayashi smiled weakly. "I think so. I just hate killing people." His eyes, although sad, also hid a great joy in what he just did. He killed for a reason. In fact, he recalled only killing maybe once or twice before, making this a rarity in and of itself. He felt a sense of justice in the process, having saved someone's life.

The pair walked out of the prison quietly, Hayashi too exhausted to speak, and Myst trying to piece together what was going on. She was amazed at how powerful the kid was, and his cynical attitude in combat seemed familiar to some degree, not to mention the wires. She decided to ask him about it, but he answered her before she could.

"Yeah, the wires aren't exactly mine, but I can control them at will. There is nothing that I cannot do with them. You already know who gave them to me, so I don't need to explain that do I?"

Myst was thrown off by how he deflected the need for more questions on that topic. There wheren't many people who could use wires like that, indeed she only knew of one or maybe two. The rest of their walk to Burger King was quiet and uneventful. When they entered, it was like the crew already knew what Myst wanted. Hayashi's simply said he'd have the same, he was too hungry to care about what it was, he just wanted food. Turns out that the typical meal for the vamprie was a chicken sandwich and a large fry. Myst finally had the urge to ask him something that she should have after the wires were discussed. "You knew Margin, didn't you?"

Hayashi didn't answer for what seemed like minutes. "Yeah. I guess you could say he was my favorite person in this world. He taught me everything I know about many situations. I wish I could talk to him again. I kinda miss him scolding me when I'd screw up during my lessons in combat. One time, I tried to break a rock, but only broke my wrist."

Myst finished her food. "Hard to believe it's been five years. He was my brother's best friend, and sometimes his worst enemey. Their spars were always a big deal with everyone. We'd actually watch them nearly kill each other like it were nothing. What was the worst that happened? My bro got his brains splattered by a Cero."

That got Hayashi to laugh a bit. "That was before my time." He yawned, the ordeal had him too tired to funtion. He all but passed out at that moment, which wasn't a good thing. Myst helped him outside and into a portal to her home. She pulled him into a spare bedroom and got him to lay down. Within moments, he was asleep, not a fitful rest but a total, complete R.E.M. sleep, the first in a long time for him.

Myst took to her usual habit of reading Stephen King after a hunt. This time, she had chosen the first book of the Dark Tower series, "The Gunslinger". Her fasination with Roland's story knew no limits, she already had the next book on pre-order. About halfway into the book itself, she was startled by a noise. Hayashi was somehow right beside her. He was smiling a strange smile. "Looks like I still have my unholy speed. That much is a blessing."

"Holy Amon! Don't sneak up on me like that kiddo." Myst said, shocked that he was able to slip into her range without setting off her senses in the process. "I just realized...I don't know your name. I'm Myst, the de facto leader of the Reikon Kyuuban, except for a few who have nothing to do with the rest of us."

Hayashi fought back the urge to reveal his secret, as painful as it was to keep quiet on that matter. "I am Hayashi. Not sure what I am to be honest. I used to be a Shinigami, but as you can see, I've become something like you, but on a different scale. I can't explain it, but the guy I killed earlier, I'm almost positive he was a Demon of some sort. His blood was painful to drink."

Myst wondered if that were true, she'd taken Demon blood in many a time before from her brother's arm or neck. She stiffled a laugh as she recalled the last day she needed his blood. It was disturbing enough to creep out Van and Atsuya. And then, she made them the offer. "It's kinda like that energy drink they used to sell, Cocaine. Stuff burns to all hell."

Hayashi flinched as he felt a migraine swarm his thoughts. Myst however, was focused more on his left eye, which was now a bright red, like a Demon's. "Hayashi, you ok? Your eye's kinda glowing."

He shook his head. "That's cause I used to be a Demon. I think drinking that guy's blood woke that side of me again. I'm not sure how, but I think this is just my body and soul trying to find a happy medium between my living in a timeline where I don't exist and me fading away from eternity. Man, Kara warned me not to use that...why didn't I listen?"

Myst was confused. "What are you talking about? A timeline where you don't exist?" She wanted to ask him more, but before she could, he screamed in agony. "Kid? What's wrong?"

Hayashi could feel it, the Essentiam Inferno. It wanted to kill him. It began pouring out of his mouth in some sort of gel format, thick with blood and organic tissue. ''No wonder Asuka was in so much pain...this crap is lethal. Feels like dying a billion times over.''

Myst knew what that black and red substance was, Shade told her enough about it to know how vile it was, even to a host body. ''Why didn't he ever tell me how to stop it? Or did he say that nothing could? Zen died from using it...No one could stop it. Damn this crap to Hell.''

Hayashi eventually would have passed out from blood loss if it weren't for him regaining control of the Inferno's power. Once the flow stopped, he started shaking. "Want some help cleaning this stuff up?" he asked, trying to smile.

"Actually, I've got this. You need to rest some more. Go back to bed. Don't worry about it. I know better than to touch that junk."

And Now, The Nightmare
No sooner had Hayashi fallen asleep, he was in his Inner World. The place was darker than last time. The jewled tiles on the ground were shattered in many places and the central stone was no more than a fine dust. "What happened here?" he called into the empty area.

That's when the oddest things began happening, one right after the previous. The ground began quaking, splintering the shattered stones even more, blackish liquid gushed from the cracks like oil and the sky began to darkened with thunder clouds, and the chaos had only just begun. From behind, the green-robed Zanpakto spirit made his presence known. "Kid...you did this! Your heart has destroyed your soul. You wanted to lose your demonic powers, you did. Now you hold the very lifeforce of Hell, once again tainting you. Now your very soul can't tell which way is up. You are going to die if this keeps up."

"You expect me to care, why? Death's embrace is something I still yearn for. Knowing that the grave is where the few people I love will one day stay, I too want to sleep for eons untold until we can see each other once more." Hayashi replied curtly. The black liquid had flowed like wine but now was as sticky as honey. "Looks like my own soul will be the death of me. Sweet irony."

"Not if you learn to control your mind. Seeing Asuka sparked your want to live again and now, knowing what you've become, you want to die. Damn, Margin's betraIyal really screwed you up. Pick one. Stick to it. If you want any prayer of seeing him on the other side of this life, you better start thinking things out a bit better. You know how he always told you to think."

Hayashi was stunned. He was the one to blame for this mess. His emotions were unchecked, leading to his self-destructive ways. He had a reason to live, to find a cure for the side effects of the Essentiam Inferno. If one didn't exist, he at least could say he tried. "I finally realize that. Thanks."

"No problem kid. Now, you need to wake up. If you stay here any longer, you're gonna die. Don't worry, this stuff'll go away on it's own."

A New Resolve
Myst finished cleaning up the remaining Essentiam just as Hayashi walked back into the room. "Sorry about that mess. My power kinda wants to kill me." he said quietly, like a child about to be punished for an act of foolishness.

"It's ok small fry. Trust me, I know about that crap. Killed Margin's dad from what I hear. It's not your fault, so stop saying sorry, ok?"

Hayashi smiled. "Done. Can I tell you something? It's something I gotta get off my chest. It'll just eat me up if I don't." He ran every possible outcome based on emotion that could result from his actions, and her reactions.

Myst looked intently at Hayashi. "Fire away. Although I can tell from the energy your giving off, you doubt I'm gonna believe you. Relax for a second, collect your thoughts and we'll see how twisted your story is."

"Alright. How do I start? I guess I should be blunt. I'm your nephew. Shade is my father, Loran my mother. The fun part is, no one on earth knows this. I deep fried the universe's records of my life, memories and events. Problem is, I still have these thoughts of my life. All nineteen years of it. Did I mention the fact I'm older than I appear? Yeah, side effect of my new powers. Somehow I'm effectively a living Fountain of Youth. Yeah, I know how crazy it sounds, but it gets better. Nineteen years ago, Dad screwed up. He severed his bonds with this world and did what Aizen had wanted to do, stand atop the world and look down on it from God's view. After he did that, he created me, a perfect half-Demon that would follow his commands and his alone. I'm lucky that Mom's DNA somewhat restored my free will, or else we'd all be dead right about now. But that's a tale for later. I can't explain the rest, not yet anyway. Too painful to think about those days."

Myst tried to make sense of what he was saying. The fact her brother stood atop all creation was, in short a shock. The fact he'd sever his bonds was beyond reckoning. "Yeah...How should I believe the word of some kid I just met. Your only redemption in this is your blue eye looks very much like hers, but that venomous red is indeed Shade's. Hell, your hair is as black as his. I guess we need to find a record of your existance in the Seireitei."

Hayashi facepalmed himself. "Are you paying attention? I just said my entire life is gone, except in...the Records. My God, if we can get into the main record, I can show you the truth of what I speak."

Myst nodded. "That's the plan. Just hope Van can let us in. I haven't seen him since Shiro...died. I know he will if we explain ourseves to him. He's always been there for me, just like if he ever needs me, all he gotta do is call me. Too bad he isn't one of my kind anymore. Sensing his emotions would be a snap for me."

"Wait, you turned Van? Don't tell me, Atsuya and Shiro too?"

"Well, yeah. The three of them. Atsuya's the only one who still has it though." Myst said before opening the portal back to the Human world. "Well, let's get going. We gotta move before the gates close."