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Chapter 57: Hueco Mundo II
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The First District of Rukongai shimmered in the late morning light, its markets buzzing with life.
Lanterns swayed gently in the breeze, and vendors shouted their wares with practiced rhythm.
Yet amidst the color and clamor, two figures commanded every glance, as though the world itself leaned subtly toward them.
Akashi, imposing and tall, walked with the slow confidence of someone who had outgrown fear.
His obsidian hair cascaded in smooth silken strands past his shoulders, every motion of it catching and distilling the light into darkness.
His skin was pale, almost ivory in tone, in stark contrast to his long black robes.
And those eyes; inky voids that drank the world in; held a quiet madness and gravity, like someone who had seen the abyss and convinced it to kneel.
Beside him walked Rangiku Matsumoto, radiant as a summer storm. Her strawberry-blonde hair, voluminous and wild, gleamed in loose waves.
Her uniform, always slightly undone in that deliberate way, drew eyes wherever she turned.
But her beauty was more than surface; it was in the way she carried herself: proud, amused, and completely unconcerned with the stares.
The click of her sandals and the swing of her hips were less a strut than a rhythm she shared with the world.
They strolled in easy synchrony, drawing attention like a living painting. Men turned to look. Women whispered. Children paused. If not for beauty, it's because they're Shinigami.
To most, they looked like lovers; beautiful, dangerous, and too perfectly matched not to be together. But the truth was more elusive.
Rangiku stopped at a small stand and picked up a delicate frosty blue pin shaped like a phoenix, "Oooh, this would go so well with my eyes tonight. Don't you think?"
"It's beautiful," Akashi shrugged as he flicked a few coins to the vendor and, with an absent gesture, tossed the pin into his shadow.
The air darkened slightly.
A ripple passed across the ground. From the black shape beneath his feet emerged something utterly unnatural; black bones, jagged and malformed, clicked up through the surface.
A rib cage split open like a gaping jaw, and the object vanished into it.
Gluttony.
A creation of horror pulled from Akashi's imagination and made manifest; a shadowy demon whose form was barely visible but whose essence lingered like a stain on reality.
Gluttony's true body was a mass of black fog and sinew, flickered through with hints of jaundiced yellow.
Its rib cage always open, as though eternally mid-meal. Its mouth stretched impossibly wide, distorting its face beyond recognition.
Inside that gaping maw was no throat, no stomach; only endless dark.
Anything tossed into the shadow was devoured, drawn into an internal false dimension: a void filled with the detritus of Gluttony's meals. Weapons, scrolls, corpses; entire Hollow carcasses piled in silence inside the thing's unholy belly.
He drew inspiration from Gluttony in Fullmetal Alchemist with a few twists to make the perfect moving, limitless storage.
"Still so creepy no matter how many times I see it." Rangiku said, eyeing the shadow with a mix of amusement and oddness, "At least, most of the time, your power is cool instead of creepy."
"It's amazingly efficient though," Akashi replied, as though discussing a filing cabinet.
She snorted, "Well, it's also horrifying. But whatever works."
They walked on, the hush around them resuming. After a moment of quiet, Rangiku sighed dramatically.
"That bastard Isshin left his work for me again. Said his handwriting was so bad! He'd feel ashamed to do the writing himself.'
"I said, 'But Captain, my handwriting is that of a frozen chicken's claw,' and he had that look again of someone about to do the most shameless thing that's ever been done!"
"Oh, what did he do?" Akashi was curious.
"He started a handwriting competition with the entire division as a witness, the competition was for who writes the worst! And he won? I wrote the worst I ever did, but still useless..."
"That bastard lazy Captain... He's a master in shamelessness, anything to force me to do paperwork, aghh," Rangiku complained endlessly.
"That does sound impressive," Akashi commented.
"I know, righ... Wait what? No, it's not! It's exploitation!" Rangiku cutely puffed her cheeks.
"Don't mind the details, just remember to deliver my questions to Captain Isshin, especially the ones about Hakuda," Akashi reminded her.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember!" She laughed, amused by his limitless curiosity, then elbowed him gently. "Meanwhile, you've been off training with Captain Unohana. Has the queen of healing been kind to you?"
Akashi smiled, "Intense. Usually quite bloody, but it's a very calming time."
"Oooh?" Rangiku leaned in with exaggerated suspicion, "Bloody? Calming? Akashi, are you sure you're in the right state of mind?"
"Huh? I guess that does sound weird," Akashi raised a brow.
"It's weird, but it must've been fun. Intimate training, tea with a beautiful Captain, bloodletting sessions…"
She was acting, dramatic, teasing, her tone exaggerated. Like usual, acting like a jealous girlfriend.
"Indeed, Captain Unohana is truly the best," Akashi nodded, much too used to her teasing.
"That's not the response I wanted," Rangiku pouted, her tone more dramatic, but there was something else under it. Akashi noticed.
He stopped walking and looked at her, "Sometimes I wonder whether you're in love with me... Are you?"
The question fell like a stone in water.
She blinked, lips parting slightly. Then, just as quickly, turning into amusement, "Oh, maybe, maybe not." She said with a smirk, "Keep guessing."
He narrowed his eyes, sizing her up, "You know I can see through lies."
"Exactly," She purred, brushing a finger across his chest, "That's why I didn't lie."
Yeah, that's the issue; she didn't lie.
He stared at her a moment longer, something stirring behind those ink-black eyes, "Yes or no?"
She leaned in, closer than usual, her breath warm against his cheek, "Not telling."
He didn't move, but merely frowned, "It's annoying. I hate to be in doubt, and I hate unresolved issues, so stop acting like you are."
"Make me," She whispered, half-teasing, half-challenge.
Before she could step back, he moved. Swift and more direct than she could've ever imagined.
His hand caught her waist, the other cradled her jaw, and he kissed her; deeply, aggressively.
Rangiku stiffened, then melted into him with a low sound in her throat. Her hands gripped the fabric of his uniform, pulling him closer.
Her lips parted for him, and what began as surprise became hunger. For a moment, it was only the two of them; heat and pressure and every unsaid word spoken through touch.
Rangiku may not have been surprised that Akashi would be so aggressive, for she knows him.
Nothing stops him from getting what he wants. He knows no shame. No limits. No such thing as embrassement.
Only a few years and he'd already become friends with many Captains. That's a rarity achieved through forcefully injecting himself into situations where he shouldn't.
If he had doubts, he'd ask, but love was a bit difficult because the only thing he'd ever loved was himself and Kurayami.
Rangiku must've understood his nature, yet she still pressed further, and now her response was enough of an answer as she melted into his embrace.
But reality intervened.
A tremor split the air behind her.
Akashi's eyes opened just as he felt the pull; like gravity had twisted sideways.
A fracture in space had formed behind Rangiku, thin and jagged like a tear in silk.
A suction emerged from it, pulling the air and light inward.
Rangiku noticed the shift half a breath later. Her eyes widened. She tried to push Akashi back instinctively, yelling, "Get away!"
'Trying to steal my opportunity?' Akashi was surprised. That should be Aizen's arrangement, but why did it appear behind her instead of behind him?
He raised his foot slightly; and from his shadow burst a creature of myth and nightmare.
The Nuckelavee.
Its grotesque form sprawled onto the ground; bottom half a horse, top half a vaguely humanoid monster, skinless and dripping with steaming black ichor.
Long claws sank into the stone, anchoring it as the spatial rift roared.
Rangiku grabbed onto it, using it to brace herself, even as the fracture's pull intensified.
The Nuckelavee screeched, planting itself between her and the void.
But the anomaly grew stronger, more demanding.
"Go," Akashi said calmly, as the Nuckelavee hoisted Rangiku and flung her away.
"No!" she shouted, reaching out; but it was too late.
The fracture pulsed.
Akashi was pulled into it, followed by the Nuckelavee, and then the tear sealed shut as if it had never been.
Silence returned.
Rangiku stood frozen, chest heaving, hair tangled from the wind. Her fingers trembled. The market buzzed in the distance again, but she heard none of it.
Her heart screamed, but her face remained still. "He's gone… W... What happened? Why?" She was confused.
Then she drew in a long breath, forcing her mind to work through the shock.
That fracture; she had seen it before, in battles. Some hollows are powerful enough to use it.
Hueco Mundo.
"I... I must stay calm," She whispered to herself, then clenched her fists, "Akashi. I'll come for you. Please wait for me and stay safe..."
And somewhere far away, in a land of white sand and eternal night, Akashi stood in silence. The air was still.
He smiled.
"Phew," He muttered, dusting himself off, "Almost lost the opportunity."
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