Awakening [solo]

Note : This is meant as a follow up to my character's history introduction

When Guillermo heard what the hollow said, he tried to speak, and wanted answers. What what going on, how come one moment he was dead, and the other one, he was alive. What were the weird bones on his hands, and most importantly, what were the creatures standing in front of him. And most importantly, what was an arrancar. Dozens of questions were filling his brain, yet, he felt he would only get answers to so few of them. He tried to get a good look around, and see the numbers around him, because he didn’t feel like this was the good welcome committee that he wanted to get. A quick glance showed that there were at least 12 creatures around him, he might’ve missed a smaller one at some point, yet, 12 on 1 wasn’t his idea of a warm welcome.

The arrancar started thinking of what he would ask first. There were so many things he wanted to ask, and when he finally had made up his mind, and was about to ask, he felt an immense pain in his mouth as he tried to do so. It was like his mouth was sealed, and he wasn’t able to say anything, in fact, he was lucky he was able to breathe from his nose, because when he went to touch his mouth with his right hand, he realized that it had a piece of that same bone-like substance that was covering it.


“Can’t say much now huh Arrancar?” One of the creatures told him, the same one that had told him what he was. That one seemed to be the leader of the bunch, he had been the one talking so far, and the other creatures were nodding in approval, whether because they were too scared to oppose, or simply because they agreed with him. Granted, he was about twice the size of most of them, which might have made some of them back out and decide to follow him through and through. His mask was covering his whole face, and had a cross drawn on it, with two holes on the upper half for his eyes to be visible.

“When we found you, you were crying like a little girl in front of house in which kiddies and an old lady were crying like babies too...And now, you’re a freaking arrancar who can’t speak, let alone make a sound. Don’t say that your mask is in the way, you see, I don’t need to tear off my mask to be able to speak, you hear me quite well, and so do my fellow gillians here.” The Gillian said, while Guillermo saw that as just another new word in the dictionary whose existence he didn’t know of, starting to wonder in what crazy universe he had ended up, and how would he get out of that mess. To him, one thing was sure, and that was that his chances of getting out without having to fight were standing between slim and inexistent.

“Where am I...What has happened to me, what am I now, what’s an arrancar, what’s a Gillian....Why do they know about my family, are they safe? There’s so many things I want to ask, and not a single word will come out of my mouth...What is going on...How can I stop this.” He thought, wondering how he would fare if he had to fight. He had never really fought in his life, he was more the target than anything else. He tried to speak to ask something to the group in front of him, but the only thing that would get out were sounds, that had no coherence, that made him more looked like he was mentally challenged than anything else.

“It seems that this one is much less mature than the arrancar we’ve run to in the past...This is our lucky day, maybe this food will finally get us to the level we have been trying to reach for years now” The leader said while laughing in a sadistic air, seeing as the arrancar in front of him looked confused and lost. He looked at the members of his party, signalling two of them with a nod, Guillermo turning around to see what was going on. He quickly got to his feet, and tried to take a stance, he knew only the basics of fighting, his friends while he was still living being great boxing fans, and he had seen a few matches here and there, nothing more. He took a standard peekaboo boxing stance, perhaps the only technical detail that he remembered despite watching so much with his friends.

“Guys, earn your keep” The leader said, before both gillians went to punch him in the gut, Guillermo having no time to really get prepared, and being in no way an experienced fighter, took both hits through his tight, but very loose guard. One of the hits struck Guillermo’s abdominal section while the other one struck the left side of his chest, the arrancar’s ribcage feeling that one. He smirked in pain, although he seemed to be somehow overreacting, not knowing of his body’s slightly increased defensive capabilities, expecting fighting to actually hurt a whole lot more than that.

“Hmm...And I thought that I’d get hurt...Is there something else about this body I’d need to know?” He asked himself, as he saw the two attackers’ reactions after hitting him. They seemed somewhat surprised, and from the looks of it, Guillermo’s body was rougher than what it looked like. The newly-made arrancar looked at his hands, and touched his abs, realizing that he wasn’t in pain, unlike the times when he would get beaten up in the world of the living, with him just curling up on a ball, hoping that the bullies would stop hitting him. He hit himself lightly a few times on the abs, and realized that his new body seemed to provide a much better endurance to pain than the past one.

“Well, I won’t let such a nice gift get away” Guillermo thought, as he ran towards one of his assailants, attempting to throw a powerful punch at the hollow’s ribs, missing very wide, having no clue that he was way too predictable. His complete lack of experience made him very easy to read, and the hollows would most likely try to take advantage of that. “I need to make sure I can get them to me, and fight on the inside. If this body is as tough as it looks, I can afford taking a few hits to deal double damage afterwards. Just let them get to me” He thought, taking a defensive stance.

“It’s okay guys, the little dog can’t fight, let’s enjoy ourselves and make him pay for his arrogance, go mess up that face of his.” The leader ordered as an additional hollow joined the fray. Guillermo was lying in wait, wanting to see how his plan would go, as none of them seemed to be really intelligent, more like followers than anything, henchman in some cases maybe. The three gillians dashed towards the arrancar, who quickly stepped several feet to his left, to expose one of the gillians more than the two others. As his foes were getting near him, Guillermo ran towards the closest gillian, stepping in with a shoulder tackle, before punching him in the liver with a powerful left hook that made the hollow back off. Guillermo didn’t let go however, and finished him off with a right handed uppercut. The hollow disappeared, making the two other assailants backed off a bit, seeing how the arrancar had made quick work of their partner.

“Interesting, those bones protect my hands. It seems that my body might be favoring a boxing based fighting style. Let’s see what other surprises this has in store” He thought, as he looked around, only to realize that he was still surrounded by nine hollows, with the two others standing in the circle with him. He didn’t know if he’d be able to beat them all. For now, he only wanted to kill a few of them, hopefully making the rest of them flee. He still had many questions on his body, and fighting wouldn’t get him anywhere. For now, getting out of this mess safely was his only objective.

“Guys, don’t mind our lost comrade, the arrancar just got lucky, let’s all feast on him, we’ll finally be able to become menos that way” The leader screamed, his subordinates letting out a loud screech as they all dashed towards Guillermo, who dived to his side to avoid most of them, headbutting one of the gillians in the process. While he was finally not surrounded anymore, Guillermo was standing in front of the eleven remaining attackers. He took a few seconds to think about his next move, before dashing towards the crowd, attempting to kick the organs out of the first hollow, although he failed to notice until then the hole in all of their chests, which is exactly where his foot landed. His shin still caught the hollow and made it fly away, although it wasn’t nearly the intention in Guillermo’s attack.

“Tch, what the hell’s up with that hole...” Guillermo thought as he looked at his body, only to realize that he had a similar one, when his heart was standing. At this point, he would have normally fainted, but seeing how everything that had happened since he had awakened was something that was normally impossible, he thought he’d question himself on that later, concentrating on his current mess.

The hollows once again spread out in an attempt to circle him. Before they could trap Guillermo, the arrancar had already dashed at the gillian in front of him, and punched him several times on the body, before finishing him off with a back handed slap to the mask, which shattered, and made the hollow disintegrate in front of him. By that time, Guillermo figured that the mask was most likely their weak point. He attempted to dash at one of the remaining 9 hollows after him, before realizing that he went surprisingly faster, colliding head to head with the hollow in his path, killing it, as he crash landed several feet away.

“What was that...How the heck can I go that fast” He thought while he was getting up, seeing the hollow dash at him, before he heard a scream, and the herd came to a stop

“Hierro, Sonido, even as a group, we’re no match for that guy, get the hell out of here, we’ll get back to him some other time.” Their leader screamed, as he started running away, the herd of hollows doing the same, Guillermo wondering if that had anything to do with the excessive speed he had just showcased, without any idea of how he did that. He put a hand on his mouth, realizing that the bone covering it had been partly broken in the struggle, his mouth once again being free. Guillermo tried to scream his lungs out, but the only thing that got out was a bestial roar, as if he had lost all humanity inside him, his voice being sealed in someplace, without him having any clue of how to live in this new universe, or if anyone would come near him for a reason other than to kill the arrancar...

[I]”There is so much that I need to find, yet so few things to help me see the light through the darkness in my mind...How the hell will I survive in here...” He asked himself, as he got up, and started following the group’s footsteps, the sky having not changed for a second, even if a few hours had seemed to pass. One thing was sure, Guillermo was stuck in a world he didn’t know anything about, nor anyone that could help him understand what he had become. This would be a lonely, and painful road towards whatever goal was in his sights.