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This article, Ghosts of the Past: Fiendish Encounter, is the co-property of both Firegod00 and Razeluxe91. |
Alone, so alone[]
Shade Kagekyo, once more free from Hell's grasp, sat alone in a cheap hotel room. God, if You're there, a bit of help would really be a boon about now. I know I've been wrong about alot, but still. Help me remember You care, just like before. Save me from this pit of darkness. Show me if I can redeem myself to be with my family again.
He thought about returning home, but knowing what he did by dying once again he chose otherwise. In his mind, he saw how happy they could be without him. He then walked out of the room, and walked down the hallway, glad to be on the bottom floor. When he was outside, he made a beeline for the store. When he walked in, he felt a strange spiritual pressure, but thought nothing of it at the time. Need smokes..badly.
Watching the man enter the store, a black haired teen approached from the shadows. "Hmm...you seem...different from most. Ha! How rude of me, I'm just a friendly stranger. I noticed you look distraught and couldn't help but to see what was pestering you."
Shade jumped a bit. "Don't worry about being rude. I'm the worst of the worst. And I do not wish to bore you with my tale. I thank you for your concern, but what I've got going on will upset many but the hardest of hearts. Ah, screw it! I need to vent. Please, I ask you stay for a moment. I want to go home to my family, but they're dying inside from my mere existance. So, I was going to regain my former Shinigami powers to try and find redemption."
Smirking at the man's words, the teen developed a twisted look on his face partially hidden by the shadows. "Oh? Well if you want, I could help you with that task. But only if you're brave enough might I add."
"You really have to ask if I can deal with it? If it helps me find forgiveness, I'm game for it. Ah, I'm a moron. My name's Shade Kagekyo. If you've heard my name, I suggest you run. The rumors about me, true one and all." Shade laughed a bit.
"I heard the rumors. And I must say, they intrigue me all the while. The name is Asutoraru Kaigan but you can just call me Tora for short, and I must warn you this process is dangerous and may push you to the brink of death."
Shade grinned. "Death? You talk to God about death? Well, ex-God anyway. Tora, Death himself, or herself if it would turn out as such, can't touch me. Bael would vouch for that, if he were alive. But anywho, I understand the risks. I'll face whatever Hell you can dish out."
A large grin appeared on his face as he walked toward the door. "Very well, come with me. Let us go to my base of operations and there we will begin to pull out your powers once more...Shade." Tora laughed as he placed his hand on the door causing it to slowly melt away.
"Cool trick." Shade said, walking forward. "Alright, so what do we need to do first? Although, if you kill me, I'd Hollowfy in nano-seconds. I have no Chain of Fate anymore. Girlfriend cut it once already."
"Kill you? No...there isn't a need for that. I'm just gonna bring out your dormant abilities. And maybe after that, you just do a slight favor for me." Tora laughed before conitnuing up the road.
Shade ran to catch up to Tora. "Nothing in life is free, even our own lives. So, what would you require of me? If it would be within my power to do so, I'll fulfil any task."
"Its simple, once I help you with this. I want you to join a group I'm a part of. While the others may not have the same goal, I want to take over the World of the Living, finding as many Fullbringers as possible and then take over the Sereitei." Tora smiled cheerfully "But before we get into that, let's be sure that your power will be good enough to even allow me to acheive this goal, or for that matter allow me to let you live."
Shade glared at Tora. "So, that's why you need me? I'll join you just because I still want to blow the Sereitei wide open. There are questions without answers, and I think the clue resides in the blood of the Shinigami who act so big and bad."
"Perfect response. Now..." Drawing a sharp dagger from his pocket, Tora turned at lunged at Shade's neck. "Let's see if we can't draw some blood."
"Blood?!" Shade leaned back and left, letting the knife wizz past his neck. "I'm not a Shinigami anymore. Shit, calling me Quincy is far-out there too. So, why my blood exactly?"
"Haha. I want to see if this could possibly stimulate some kind of emotion inside of you." Tora laughed as he lunged once more at Shade this time drawing a second knife.
This time, Shade blocked with his jacket, letting the sleeve suffer the brunt of the attack. For some reason, emotional pain tore through his heart. "This jacket has served me well over the years. I wore it the day we killed Bael, the days I spent thereafter, until I became God. Until now, I thought it was nothing more than a bad choice of clothes on my part, but now I see...Knowing what I did with it, makes me kinda proud of who I've become over the years. Bael came back, I suffered death in this thing. Meh, not my proudest moment, but still."
"Hm? Your jacket? Is that something you truly care about? So what if I were to burn it all away? Would you become angry? Would you despise me? What if I said I knew all about you and your family?" Tora smiled as he took a step back. "Shade Kagekyo, Husband to Loran, father to Hayashi. What would do if they were to die?"
"If you even touch one hair on their heads, I swear to Echo I will fucking kill you! I will end your life faster than I could move with Kogeru. I never lie about such things, so if you have a goon squad headin' for them, call them off, or heads will roll." Shade's face flushed with anger and heartbreak. "No one will ever hurt them while I live. Do you understand that? Can you fathom how much I care for them? Loran gave me this jacket when I proposed to her. That is why I care so much about it."
"So what if I were to tell you that they already dead?! You want to kill me now? Do you want to save them!? Its too late! Their little heads are probably nicely wrapped up as gifts right about now." Tora began laughing with a crazed smile lacing his face as he placed his hands in his pockets
"You worthless son of a bitch! They never did anything to anyone. I said I was gonna kill you, and I never lie." Shade smiled as Reshi poured from his body, covering his jacket in pitch-black energy. What power is this? I've never been able to do this before, even as a Quincy. he thought quickly. "Tora, I'm, giving you a three second head start. I suggest you run."
"Run? No....I think you should come at me with everything you've got if you want to survive. You want to kill me? Please, I've killed weaker fighters in my sleep. Your family? I handled them with relative ease." Smiling, Tora removed his hands from his pockets placing the knives back.
Shade's new power began reacting to his anguish and became thicker. To test his limits, he punched the air, aiming for Tora. Out of his hand shot a black and silver energy ball, almost like a Bala. "This new power won't be hard to figure out it seems." he said quietly to himself.
Spinning the energy ball shot from Shade into a new ball of light, Tora smiled. "Hm, nger, sorrow, anguish. All very good but make you completely powerless against me." Tora held the ball in his hand before shooting it back at Shade. "Your emotions fuel that bomb there. So thank you for empowering me."
This feels like my Demonic power, but not quite dark enough. Shade thought as he made an uppercut motion with his hand, creating a dark energy wall. The two forces collided, causing an explosion that would have sent Shade flying backwards, but his body seemed to deny physics. Have I become the darkness in my heart? Or is this Kami's way of saving my ass after all this time? More questions flew around his mind, but anger drowned them out. "You asked me for help, and you kill my family. What the Hell did they do to you, you sick freak?"
"Sick? No...I just wanted to take away any possible impediments to your growth Shade. It seems you're tapping into your strength finally. Hahahah! You impress me to end." Tora laughed as he began to stumble toward Shade laughing the entire time.
"Then I guess my powers won't advance anymore. I have nothing to live for now. This will be the last attack you will ever feel. I swear it." he said, extending his hand outward, foucusing all of his Reishi into one massive blast. "Goodbye Tora. It was fun while it lasted." and then he fired a large black ball, full of all his emotions and power.
"HAHAHAHA! Yes Shade! Show me your anger! Your sadnes! All of it!" A large spectre formed behind Tora as the emotions behind Shade's attack poured out into a ball of energy that he then manipulated into a large throwing star. Pulling the Spectre in front of him, Tora protected himself from the brunt of Shade's attack as he himself launched his own.
Shade's Quincy powers kicked in and restored his Reishi levels enough for him to block Tora's assult. "Coward! You killed them and now you hide from me. If you were truly a man who hated the Shinigami's foolishness, you wouldn't mimic them. They once killed my family and now my heart yearns for vengence. What makes you any different?! You killed my family just like they did! Now that I've got this chance to take vengence, you run and hide like them! What makes you any better?!" Shade screamed like never before, not caring about the damage he was causing his vocal chords.
"Hiding? No. I just love knowing that you didn't get the chance to see the look of agony on their faces." Tora smiled as he knew the stronger the emotion Shade felt the strong he himself would become. "Come Shade, can you picture it? The look of consuion and helplessness as they wondered why you wouldn't save them? The woman cried out in such pain that I almost lost it myself, I had to control my urge to mutilate her even more. Haha"
Shade's anger was seemingly without limit at that point. His unstable Reiatsu flared up crazily for but a moment and surrounded his hand, forming a crude sword, about seven feet long. "God damn us both then. Me for not being there, you for doing such a horrid thing. This is the true form of my anger, a blade that will shatter your measly existance. I will ensure that even in Hell, not a single part of you can find the rest. In fact, I'll just send you to the core world, where the worst shits God spat onto this earth reside, Don't worry, I'll join you soon after. But do remember, I'm not Jesus. I will never forgive you. Now, die." without a moment to think, Shade's hand moved of it's own accord, or at least that would be what Tora saw. Shade's new power allowed him to bend light waves to confound his opponents, and this was it's final form. He was actually behind Tora, aiming for the empty pit where the man's heart would be.
Tora simply smiled as the spectre appeared behind him grasping Shade's blade in the process causing the spirit's hand to begin crumbling. "I may not be able to see you or know where you may appear, but Kamina here always will. HE forever watches my blind spot, not to mention that he manifests himself without any ay from myself aswell as being stronger the more anger and killing intent the opponent has toward me. But the blade of yours mangae to break his hand." Tora sneered as he jumped away from Shade's location. "Could it be that you loved your family greatly and that's what made you manifest your powers? Hmm....I can't really fight against that. Heh."
Shade's power vanished, returning him to normal. "Seems that way, doesn't it? At least now I know how you killed them. Your power protects you from attacks. Cowardly actions deserve a cowardly defense." Wait, I'm sure I was holding a sword a second ago. Crap. I'm stuck without a weapon. Before Tora could mount a counterattack, Shade jumped away from the spectre, trying to keep an eye on both targets at once.
"Cowardly? No. I just don't want any dirty shinigami touching me. I know about your past as one of them. And no matter what you do you forever be one of them. Your famiily just happened to be in the way when I was walking and the little one looked at me as I was thinking to myself so I shaved their faces off. HAHAHAHA. It was magnificent."
Shade felt drained after the last attack. What the Hell did I use, Mugetsu? I can't feel that awesome power anymore...I better think how to attack again. he thought about using his old standby attack, the Quincy arrows fed by his strange dagger. Around his hand, his Spirit Bow formed and it already had Dargon loaded for him. He cocked his aim and let the now airborn dagger fuel the arrow and enhance the impact. "Wanna call me a Shinigami again? As you can see, I'm a Quincy, who carries a dagger that eats spiritual energy and feeds my arrows." No longer showing his anger at losing his family, all Shade wanted was justice.
"A quincy? Hmmm. Not quite. Not with that weapon. Though I have to say that I'm quite surprised to see one not a part of Inai's crew to be out here. I thought most of them were killed. Hmm...I'm quite curious about you Shade. But you know a deal is a deal. Since I helped you pull out even a hint of your powers, you have to be there for me when I call for you."
"Be grateful I'm a man of my word." Shade growled, still seething. "And what do you mean, 'not a quincy'? I've never seen this Inai person you speak of." his anger had changed to confusion at Tora's words.
"Hahaha don't worry about that. Just know that you're little dagger there makes you a very unique individual." Tora laughed with a very obvious vagueness in his voice.
Now Shade was sure something was fishy. "Unique doesn't even begin to describe me. I have been most every race you can imagine. Traces of my Demonic and Godly forms linger within. After I help you, I'll kill you, just like I promised." He smiled as he threatened Tora.
"Kill me? With what your hatred? Haha that'll only make me stronger. Unless you planning on loving me, I don't think you really have a choice in the matter at this point." Tora laughed as he began flexing his wrists as he sat on a nearby bench.
"Love thy enemies. Now, judging from what I know about you, you never killed anyone in your life, correct? You smile to easy, and hide only what is unneeded at the time. A true killer never speaks of his crimes. Unless you're like me, and you love to brag about beating Bael's goons like sock-puppets." Shade mellowed out, his demeanor relaxed.
"Never killed anyone? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WOW! That's HILARIOUS!" Tora began clutching his face as he turned to face Shade. "I've killed plenty. I have the means to defend myself so I ADORE talking about my crimes as it allows me to make others feel pain"
"Well, now that I can see your eyes, you betray a fatal flaw. A man who had killed my family could never look at me, unless you're just that good of a liar. Although, I'm no slouch in the lying department myself, so it's fruitless to attempt to pull the wool over my eyes, as the saying goes." Shade kept his mind focused on twitches of doubt in Tora's eyes, his body language and speech patterns.
"You're truly funny. You know that?" Tora's eyes narrowed as he looked at Shade. "I've killed plenty, if you want I could take you to ruins of the ophanage where I grew up. I killed everyone there, my so called friends as well. They all annoyed me to no end and after I learned that I wouldn't be able to receive my parents for participating in their experiments, I decided that I wanted to make them all suffer. But heh...of course I could be making all of this up."
Shade stared blankly at Tora before speaking. "I'm just as dangerous. I killed people who wronged me, or that I thought they did. Hell, I betrayed my friends for endless power. I'll never forget the hurt on their faces. Sadow, Van, Atsuya, Loran, and even more wept for me. I nearly killed them. It took a little boy to save me. My own son saved me ten years after I fell. And now, you claim he's dead? You think you can kill him so easy? If you did, he's in Hell right about now, living it up with Fuki."
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! What are we on a date? What's with all this deep discussion? We have to help you master your fullbring. Now that you have it, we have to learn how it works. And we need a name for it" Tora laughed as he picked up a few rocks.
"First, I want you to tell me, who is Inai?" Shade asked, still gathering reishi via his necklace.
"Inai? Haha. You want to know who is Inai? Well the thing is, I never actually met her. I only heard about her myself. But I do know that she leads a group of those weilding daggers like the one you have there." Tora sighed as he pointed to Shade's dagger.