Really Not The Best Idea

Aoi laid on sticks and roots, staring blankly up at the limbs of a large tree that hung over her head. Her blue eyes were dead to the world, the stare that of a corpse almost. However a spark of life remained, buried deep in the dark depths for now.

The screams inside, the heat from the burning building wasn't as unbearable from those screams. She had had to though. It had to stop, it had to end... The ones in the basement would be the worst off, the ones who tried jumping from the second story were caught and tossed back into the inferno.

It roared around her, many people staring in shock. Most weren't dressed, many weren't entirely awake even as the flames reflected in their sleepy eyes. No one came near her blood soaked body, her face as unreadable as always.

However inside was turmoil and anger. Rage. The cold was losing, it was fighting a battle it couldn't win against heat. Cold was merely a lessening of heat or a lack of it... And heat was now being added in at an alarming pace. It was flowing from somewhere, somewhere deep inside she had never thought to have. Was it a heart? Was this what others felt? If so it wasn't what she wanted, when she had craved heat. She wanted her skills, the thrill of death. Those small moments from sex that barely even touched her. She didn't want this painful burning that even the heat outside could not compare to.

Would she still be herself once this was done? Whatever was happening wasn't being stopped... But she would fight to her core to keep herself like this. She didn't want... She didn't want...

That memory was like a wave from the frigid ocean she had died in.

'Mommy... you forgot... I fell...overboard I can't swim'

Her hands went to her throat as a soundless scream hit her at that thought. She had frozen before she drowned. That was what that was...

Whispers, she heard them. She was someone who kept to herself, though she tried to smile. Sometimes though she showed signs of her instability and it kept others away. Some shinigami were like that... they said. The Rukon could do bad things to those who came form its depths they said. She had been a killer for a long time, let her adjust... they kept saying.

She could teach others to survive in fights though, even if at first she sometimes was too harsh. It took her a while to get the hang of it, the blank looks she sometimes got when she got too focused slowly disappearing. With time she even became open and friendly... Though her skills never faded.

Those skills that took many many lives.

Staring at her hands just as blankly, she wondered why no one else could see the blood seeped into them. How could they not see its drip?

"She's dealing with a lot of feelings and new experiences and its making it hard to piece things back in right. What she wants to be and what she's done are entirely different things, and she's not...stable enough to handle first hand knowledge."

This one shocked her. Her eyes blinked. She was seeing something...that park. That day? What was that her voice?

"I am weak...and I suppose I don't entirely see what she finds to like about me so much either." A bitter laugh. "Even I don't like me much, if I were to be completely honest with myself. If it weren't for the fact some girl had come in the hospital that day...claiming she was my sister...I can't honestly say I wouldn't have fallen out and taken my own life..."

They'd never had this conversation. She knew it. She knew that with all her being. Then who...?

"She could do better, a thousand times better than me I won't disagree...but as long as it's me she wants, I'll stay. If she chooses to leave one day, of course it will hurt, but I won't blame her at all. I'm weak, I lack experience, and I may even loath myself at times but despite all of those faults she still wants me, still cares, is still patient with me even though she might not want to be...If I weren't so weak, perhaps I could actually show her how much that actually means to me but who am I kidding? I doubt I could ever get that across properly."

More, there was more. It was like watching from a window, she hadn't been there but she had. She had been behind a wall of glass in her head. Asleep.

"It has only been a week. There is still time for her to change her mind. Maybe being stuck in the Seireitei, with all those other shinigami will allow her time to rethink things. She'll be around her captain and others like him a bunch more. And that lovely ball, maybe some handsome, powerful shinigami will take an..intimate interest in her.

No! That wasn't true! Who was this!? Why had she used her mouth like this!?

"You stupid dumbass. You shouldn't have pushed!"

That voice shocked her from whatever this had been. The same voice... The same as...

"She will never be in danger from me."

"She gave me a home here in her soul, and I helped her heal and become what she could have been. I protect her, my other half."

"You. The one...in here. Always. You put it all... behind a wall."

"Yes. And now that wall is gone. Do you know who I am?"

"Me. But not... You... Are something else."

A figure stepped up to the tree, the cloak familiar and yet not as the hood fell down. Bending down, a blue haired and red eyed version of herself stepped forward, lifting her body as if it weighed nothing.

The voice was much softer than the memories had shown her, the eyes filled with some sort of warm emotion... Love? "I prefer to be called Aoi, but I am also Hypoxis."

Aoi looked around, she was in the meadow in her inner world... The being carrying her carefully to the pool that always showed the moon. Slipping Aoi into the inky depth, she floated while the cloak fell off. Her body wouldn't respond now that she was in this not water...what was this?

"If you want... I can return those memories under the wall now. Your mind still isn't healthy, but it has improved dramatically. You can handle things...barely. I've done enough without telling you, would you like to know?"

"Yes." Her eyes determined, she looked up at the person who was her and not.

"As you wish... Promise not to be too mad?"

Having no idea what the woman could mean by that, Aoi was about to ask but it felt like... something tugging her down. Letting out a shriek, her arm raised out of the water towards the blue haired woman as she yanked into the abyssal depths.

She sunk so far down that there was no light. There was nothing, just the inky blackness that surrounded her. She didn't...understand. What did she need to see?

The cold was seeping into her, it hurt as it burned her. Cold burns... Leeching away her thoughts and feelings.

Leaving only the urge to test herself and her skills, to do what she was told. To be that person again. To leave them all behind and let herself fall again. She could do it, make a living here in the human world. She would just have to destroy all evidence of her existence once more. Destroy the human and his sister... That girl and her lover. That doctor and the young man under his power.

It would be simple and smart. The Seireitei didn't make good use of her skills.

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In the human world, her limiter shattered apart, the pulsing hollowfied power bursting from her in the woods where she had fallen against a tree. Her full, uninhibited power for once just bursting in pulsing waves. A white substance slowly formed over her features, draining from her eyes and ears, the sclera of her eyes black while her pupils had become yellow. A hand went to her face, the hollow inside fighting against the cold by taking over the body completely. Aoi needed to be strong and face this... or her old self may burst out with all the powers she had at her disposal.

Hypoxis didn't know if the much stronger willed Aoi...if she reverted...could the hollow hold her back and destroy her again? Restart from scratch.

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Cold and frigid, Aoi was being leeched away, her feelings and thoughts picked off and sliced away. Color grew in this darkness. A coldly smiling Aoi appearing through ripples in the liquid darkness.

A memory followed, rippling through the darkness as it brightened. It was out of focus, slowly shifting into view as Aoi screamed inside of her head.

That...lab. She knew it. It had been in the deepest pits of that stupid building. It had been a job root out this nest of stupid rats, kill them but one and just maim him a bit. They wanted a message, this area, even the far flung and hidden spots, were theirs alone.

As the man crawled, crying from the building, Aoi bent down and swirled the blood pooling on the floor with her hands. Still warm... Reaching up to her face she smiled, laughing lightly as she traced more blood onto the already covered face. This was what she had wanted, this was why they sent her. 5 men, even waiting in ambush for her, was nothing. She was radiating spiritual energy strongly and thus was kept from working in all but the highest paid when she was specially requested... or to keep her pleased.

As the blood soaked the floor...it started draining. With a squelch, she stood up, glancing around. The floor... It shouldn't be falling anywhere. It should be staying right here.

Her frown spoke volumes, rarely seen and yet terrifying in the blood soaked woman. Moving to the spot, it seemed like an outline was there of some sort in the floor. Bending down, she found a latch and the floor... It slid away to reveal stairs built into some sort of stone material, the dust and dirt of many years falling down and creating a cloud as she moved down those slowly soaking with blood stairs.

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Anyone with powers could sense the stupid pulsing, or least that was how the hollow felt. She didn't want this... Her kind were avoiding this section for now, the power too strong for them to want to bother, as she stumbled against a tree after a root tripped her up. One yellow and black eye was still visible as the mask slowly built itself for the first time, the rest of her face covered.

She was covered in scrapes that were swiftly healing even as she got them, but all she could think was...Get away...from the city. If that lover of hers...or even her Captain... The stupid limiter was broken, a sheer sign of something wrong. If they caught her like this it could be bad... They could end up dead, or she could. That pair didn't live in the woods anymore, so she wouldn't have to worry about them...

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What...was this? There was light with no lamps? There were...papers, no dust to be found anywhere and rooms. So many rooms. She couldn't get into the doors, her bloody footprints lessening as time went on. Her pants had dried by now, her body flaking dried blood now instead of the soaking she had been splattering all over.

This information she could provide would maybe allow her another kill as recompense. Moving towards a door, it slid open to reveal...glass? Something. Small ones... all shattered but for one. Inside a white liquid sat. Thinking that might be worth more, this was a fairly off and scary place that others may understand more of...

She reached for it, picking up the sealed and yet perfectly done glass container. As she turned to head back out, the white liquid rippled and vibrated hard enough to startle her. Aoi dropped the glass, the liquid bursting as the glass shattered.

Screaming, it invaded her mouth and head, settling over her face and soaking into her body. It burned and hurt, so badly. She couldn't, she couldn't stop its invasion of her soul, her screams of pain echoing down the halls for hours before her voice finally gave out and she passed out.

She was back in the darkness, the leeching cold darkness.

Aoi remembered. She remembered it all. She had fought as best she could against the invader, but the invader... she hadn't wanted it. Aoi's thoughts were never stable and the fight for control between the two had damaged it.

Her own brain... her own soul. The hollow... in a way it had been the better person. It...broke them to put it back together right. Or at least thats what Aoi assumed. She had no idea what its thoughts or feelings were.

Hideki knew. Rin knew... It had let them in on it. It had threatened them both yes... But its words had been honest.

Thinking this, accepting this... Aoi finally got it all. All her shattered memories. The cold couldn't bother her like this. It couldn't take this away. As she thought this, the black cleared up as a light shined from above. Floating to the surface, it felt like chains that had pulled her down loosened.

Bursting to the surface, she realized it was empty here. "Hey! Come out Hypoxis, we need to talk."

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Surprise, the mask was halfway over her eye as Hypoxis heard the call. Aoi's body fell over as the hollow too fled into the mind. Her mask slid very slowly from her face, melting off.

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"...You didn't break."

In a flurry of light, Hypoxis reappeared. As she did Aoi threw a punch, landing on the woman's jaw. The spirit flew several feet, landing on her back as she groaned.

"I...deserved that yes."

The spirit was shocked though, as she felt Aoi's around her. Aoi herself was shocked, crying and sobbing like she hadn't in a while.

"Thank you... Thank you. Thank you... Thank you..." Burying her face in the chest of the hollow spirit, she sobbed and held her. Hypoxis just smiled and patted her head awkwardly. How...this was not what she expected. Not at all.

"Thank you too. I've had fun seeing things from you and experiencing life."

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They spent quite a bit of time talking, sharing things that they both knew...mostly Hypoxis and Aoi learning more. Whatever Aoi was, she'd need to know her own powers.

Which included something rather interesting... A bankai.

Aoi was shocked, staring at Hypoxis. A squeak sounded. "M-Me?"

"Really you." Exasperation tinged her voice as she waved her arms. "You know it. Command it."

Holding out her hands, they formed into the shikai she knew and loved. The glow strengthened as Aoi realized she did know it. It was like breathing, there and natural. Speaking softly, she uttered the command. "Unfurl our blossoming wings, my Ephemeral Hypoxis Flower!"

"I'll see you another time." Smiling, the spirit shimmered as she turned to dust and Aoi fell from the spirit world that disappeared around her.

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She was standing, not laying. Her body was being covered in a shimmering light, colors swirling and leaching from her daggers and covering her in a light. She felt...the utter power fill her body. This was her bankai, forming for the first time utterly. Her clothes faded away leaving behind a white shimmering metal that was clinging to her. Bright lines of blue and red hot through it, her hands covered in it as well. She could still feel the wind though, the ground beneath her...

Aoi's own power filled her skin, something floating behind her and catching her attention. She spun in a circle, catching the tail with a laugh. It was easy! Her speed almost impossible to follow... She radiated unchecked energy, her bankai having for all intents and purposes powering HER up instead of forming a new power. Moving her arms and hands, she noticed there was no restrictions. It was as if she was naked...

Laughing, she flipped and bent. Not realizing it, she had a mask on her face that was hollow like, slowly fading away to reveal a red eye while her hair was the dark blue of her hair. She was too excited to remember she was in human world for the moment and didn't even notice that her energy had been radiating in a hollow like manner for a while that was slowly fading.

"Gagh-phh!" Rin winced slightly after having well...taken a trip, he'd felt the pressure exertion easily, and had been able to clearly tell...that was Aoi.

So of course he'd gone running, even if there was a high chance he couldn't do anything, and in the mid panic of his run that damn Bringer's Light ability had kicked in and sent him flying. He still didn't have complete control over it yet, so whenever it came to using it...stopping was a problem...

He sat up, shaking his head to rid himself of the dirt and grass he might of unearthed before wiping his face. His clothes were different from his usual blue and yellow attire, this time being a a pale brown top covered by a black coat, though in place of where a tie would usually be, of course he had his scarf, having bought some new clothes to temporarily wear due to his hair accident.

Rin brought himself to his feet, not even bothering to dust himself off before he kept running.

She...could form weapons. Concentrating formed two large daggers, shaped oddly but also perfectly for slicing and destroying. Her speed was much more, it seemed though that her body immediately adapted to it almost immediately.

Holding the daggers out together, they shifted into an entirely different form. It seemed as long as she could keep these two bladed weapons she could shift them. They seemed made of the suit's material. Unable to unbankai for the moment, she was spending her time moving into the woods a bit more, hopping from tree to tree.

She wasn't moving too quickly other than in spurts and she realized another power she had, her mind telling her this. Taking the dagger, she forced the metallic armor back with her mind and then stabbed herself deeply with a yelp. Yanking it back, blood ran down her arm and ended up spraying all over... But as she stopped to watch, it started closing slowly. Blinking, she reached up to her face, having not felt the blood spatter as she had seen it spray...

Mask. She had her mask on. Her hand felt around it, smooth other than raised ridges and the place where her eye wasn't covered for now. What did she look like with this on? Looking down at the wound, she frowned. Even her scars were disappearing from her arm as she watched.

This needed testing.

Aoi had no idea she was being chased after, her focus solely on this for the moment.

From what he could sense, Aoi was moving farther away, deeper into the woods. With a grimace, Rin attempted to speed himself up, though really, at a human's running pace he was getting nowhere in comparison, and he was quickly draining his stamina in the process.

"Gh..." Focusing his energy, he purposely activated Bringer's Light again; he didn't stop this time, but he'd activated it on his own, so it was different from a random burst somewhat.

Again though...stopping wasn't his strong point at the time being, and when he was finally much closer to where he could feel Aoi was, he tried to slow himself again, but alas...he stumbled, running straight into tree limbs, leaves and bushes before finally hitting the ground with a hard 'oomph.'

"Grg..." He gave a low groan, slightly in pain from that particular tumble; he needed to get up. Find Aoi. Figure out what the hell was going on. He pushed himself to sit at least, his hand moving to his head and rubbing it.

Damn Bringer's Light...

With another pained cry, Aoi pulled the dagger from her thigh. The many scars that lined her legs were almost all faded entirely, the wounds in her arms and legs that she had recently inflicted to test the limit of the healing either closing entirely or the bleeding had slowed.

She didn't seem to feel blood loss yet, maybe she was also hardier?

It was as she sliced her leg and winced that she heard a rather loud crashing sound nearby. Eyes wide, her senses went out in a burst to see who it could be. It shocked her utterly, she stood there for a moment before moving at a limping run.

The glow from her lines were odd as she moved through the trees, finding Rin on the ground rubbing his head. Her voice was hollow sounding and almost tinny as she spoke. "R-Rin?! What in the hell are you doing out here!?"

Blood dripped to the ground from the injuries that were healing while the metallic suit waited at the edges to seal up, while she stared at the man in shock. Not that he could see her shockedness was from the one red eyes showing other than the mask that covered her face.

While still in the midst of recovering, he heard someone approach, and before he even had the chance to look up he heard her voice. Aoi? That...that wasn't her usual tone towards him...

"Ah, I-I felt something going on and when I sensed you I got worried so I-ah-!?" Just as he'd spoken he'd looked up, and the sight he saw before him was...well, more than a little surprising, and he felt back a little, his hands firm on the ground as a support.

"A...Aoi?"

That voice was...Aoi but...but...her appearance and...and the blood...and...that...that mask...

"Y-You chased me out here this whole time!? W-What were you thinking that was dangerous! You could have been hurt or... even...killed..." Aoi stared down at Rin, just...amused and worried and also trying not to laugh, while part of her was terrified. He had followed her out here, what if cold her had succeeded...? Wait. Had he used bringer's light? As the last of the wounds sealed up, her metallic suit moved to cover them.

As it did so, the mask on her face evaporated, revealing a hollowfied eye that slowly slipped back from he black and yellow to white and red. Aoi knelt down in front of Rin as her weapons joined her body suit of metal, reaching out and brushing a twig or two from his hair. She was smiling softly. "You're an idiot. A stupid unthinking idiot."

Obviously, Rin was in no state right now to give a proper response to Aoi's words...concerns, about the fact he could have gotten himself killed or something. "A-...Aoi-"

Just as he'd tried to speak again, that mask of hers began to evaporate and...that eye. Black and yellow...At the sight of it his eyes widened further by just a fraction, but the black and yellow disappeared, replaced by a more normal looking appearance, despite the red iris'.

His eyes followed her as she leaned down to him; her wounds had healed up just like that too...

On instinct, his eyes clamped shut when she reached out to remove some twigs that'd gotten stuck in his hair, but when he cracked them open she was smiling. "A...Are you...alright?"

Rin was just shocked, unable to form words or say anything but her name. She was amused by this, utterly amused but she couldn't help it! She noticed how his eyes had widened from her mask disappearing, so he too knew what that meant? No doubt the hollow eye lay underneath it...

As he closed his eyes, she finished removing things from his hair and then moved onto dusting off his clothes. He was so picky about things, he was covered in dirt right now though. How many times had he tripped? He must have been so worried... And these were new clothes, he really... He really was very stupid.

"...Yes. Yes I am. I am the most all right I've ever been actually." Aoi sighed and stifled her smile, she knew that look and shock. Rin was utterly baffled, unsure of what had happened to her... With her finger, she reached up and flicked his nose. Not hard, but not entirely gentle either. In true Aoi manner, she puffed up a cheek and looked away. "Yooou kept something important from me. My hollow. You knew that whole time and didn't say anything. Shirousa..."

He could be confused for a bit longer, she felt.

She was alright? She was..

"Gah!" A noise escaped him when she flicked his nose, not having expected it after she'd gone through and dusted him off some before she began speaking again. He looked at her, confusion in his still concerned as she brought up the subject of him having kept something...

She...She knew about that now, it seemed. She was pouting though, so was she really that upset with him?

"I...I couldn't tell you." He replied, "If I did...something bad could of happened...I didn't want that, so of course I kept it a secret."

That surprise and reaction was good, Aoi felt pleased with it even if it had hurt him slightly. She turned to look at him, glaring as her bankai evaporated around her. Her hair and eyes returned to their usual colors as her eyes closed, letting out a relieved sigh. It left her with two daggers in her hands that she set together, forming her staff as it too faded. Her power sealed back up utterly, the energy she was emanating became her usual low tone.

Letting the staff fall to the ground, she stood up and crossed her arms. Looking up and away from him, her voice was still utterly grumpy and upset."...You still should have told me! Its my body and soul. I had...I had that right Rin. Never, never keep something like that from me again. You are lucky I just flicked you and didn't punch you across a field like I did her."

"B-But..." Rin attempted to argue, but stopped when Aoi started to look like...well, Aoi again. Taking on the appearance of the Aoi he was used to seeing anyway. "I-I couldn't...You could have...I didn't want to take that chance..."

Under normal, less serious circumstances, maybe he'd be apologizing, but, in this case...any apology he gave would have been a lie. He couldn't of told her, it could of hurt her beyond repair and he wasn't going to take that chance, not at all.

"I don't care! It was my right to know! It...was inside of me. That whole time. She was. Not an it..." Aoi shook slightly and wiped away a few tears angrily, not looking at Rin. Letting out a grumble, she grabbed her zanpakuto and hopped into a tree.

Sitting on a branch out of Rin's reach, she stared down at him and frowned as she kicked her legs "Go back home Rin. I'm fine. I'm just gonna go back and explain to Captain why my limiter broke."

"A-Aoi..." Before he could say anything further she'd hopped into the trees, telling him to go home. He stood there for a few moments, just staring up with slightly widened eyes before averting them downward at the ground.

"..." He didn't leave immediately, but eventually he took a step back, his eyes remaining downward. "...Fine."

There...wasn't any fight in him at her words, and it hurt to realize that, but at the same time...

He didn't rush back, instead he walked at a normal pace, stopping when he reached the bushes for a short moment, almost as if he wanted to say something further, but after a silent moment of debate he kept walking.

Staring down at him, she wondered what...he would or wanted to say. Rin...even if he meant well, had kept something vital to her from her. It could have turned out badly...but it also might have been fine. She didn't...feel it was right of him to have never told her. As he looked down, she finally let herself cry.

Aoi wiped her eyes as Rin looked down, silently shedding tears but unable to let him know. He wouldn't fight her... or say anything would he?

As he paused at the bushes, she thought he might...finally say something. Instead he kept going... Her butterfly floated out not a second after he moved out of the small space they had been in, a portal to the seireitei opening. She stared at it, then at Rin's retreating figure... What...what should she do? She didn't know. She was still upset and angry. Still hurting but...she obviously hurt him too... Hopping from the branch she wrapped her arms around herself.

So everything was fine then, well, for Aoi. She was alright now, the hollow thing had been solved...

That was good...good for her, he'd been worried...

She was angry at him though, and he supposed...he could understand, but...

"Gh..." His fists clenched within his pockets, and as he walked he clamped his eyes shut for a good few moments. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of self-loathing return to him; before he'd left he'd...he'd almost made things worse, he'd almost let his emotions, his anger take control and give a "I'm sorry I worried then." before leaving.

No, no...He would have regretted saying such a thing. It would of just hurt her, and while he was upset he had no right to push that on her and make her feel bad. Even though he hadn't said it, he couldn't help but feel a little hatred towards himself for even thinking it.

A bit farther ahead, he stopped; he...didn't want to go home right now. He didn't want Ruka questioning his behavior if she were home. So instead he leaned back, removing a hand from his pocket to run through his hair as a hard sigh escaped him.

He had gone. Aoi waited too long to decide... And now he was gone. She could sense him, he hadn't gone far but... No.

Aoi sighed and stepped into the portal, intending to tell Masaru of the events in the human world and be reprimanded for losing control like that. That was important right now, more important than this... whatever it was.

Why...couldn't she just speak to him about this? Aoi felt miserable as she walked the path back to her home in the afterlife. She hadn't even complimented his new clothes... or anything...