The Crimson Precipice [Solo/ Maybe Private]

A ruined world, under a ruined sky. That was Magnolia’s impression as she looked upon the decimated world of hell's first layer. Her eyes roved over the dilapidated structures that had long crumbled, as if raked over in some kind of titanic realm-war. Her melancholy gaze looked out over the blood that dripped from the bricks and mortar. She could taste the tang of iron in the air, and smell it’s repugnant scent in her nose. It brought her back to a far darker place, and caused the doubt and indecision to bleed from her veins. Only the darkness and the pain, the killing and retribution remained.

Yet, that was why she had come here. The wriggling doubt that had been borne in her mind starting with that day she slayed Bid’daum. She hadn’t understood then, why he had been so defiant, even under the guise of death. She couldn’t understand it and that was what had driven her here, when the indecision and the doubt borne from the dissonance between this reality and her own, had grown nearly too much to bear. Some part of her, deep within had told her maybe if she came to this place, she might understand. Or at the very least she felt she would be able to shed the burdens that lay within her chest.

But she was as much an invader here as she was an outsider. Just her presence upon this layer had caused the denizens of this layer to slowly crawl forth from the woodwork. Their misshapen shapes rushing towards the woman who pulled out her zanpakuto without a shred of hesitation.

For so long she had tried to understand, to sympathize with the weak. To understand why it was wrong to completely annihilate enemies to stop problems later down the line. To understand why it was wrong to look at the greater good of the group, rather than the values of the individual. To understand why this world was so unnecessarily idealistic. To understand why, to truly know. Yet even now she couldn’t comprehend.

So now, for this moment, she would stop trying to comprehend. She left scimitar scything out to behead a monster that came forwards towards her. Demonic Ichor splashing upon her face as her body moved forward in a deadly dance, her scimitars flashes of silver in the bloodied realm around her. Against these mindless beasts, she felt no sympathy. So that’s what she would do, lose herself in the chaos for a little while. To do what liberated herself, pointing her blade towards an enemy. An easy, simple solution.

The song of blade and flesh was balm to her confused and indecisive soul. Why wasn’t everything else this simple and easy? Magnolia wondered to herself faintly as her right scimitar slid down horizontally to bisect a monster from crotch to groin, the spray of blood showering her from head to toe. For a moment she stilled, and then despite herself a grin blossomed faintly upon her lips. The familiar sensation of combat was something she was able to lull herself into, lose herself in so completely.

Honestly, it was perplexing to her. After all, did it really matter that she didn’t fit into this world? She had a purpose, and she had a goal. She would protect the soul society, and their soul cycle. So did it honestly matter if she was a little different? Did it matter if she thought many of the rules of this world were backwards?

”Magpie, Understanding something, and conforming yourself to it are two entirely separate things.” Raijin spoke to Magnolia as she continued carving her path of destruction through the first layer of hell. While he spoke Magnolia’s blades continued to rent paths of destruction. Flashes of silver and gusts of wind were the only indication of the woman as she weaved unimpeded through what looked to be essentially a limitless horde. Relying solely on her swords, and no other form of super power the woman exhaled softly.

” Still, if I don’t change, won’t I be unable to truly be a part of them?” Magnolia’s response was full of confusion as her left sword jabbed straight forward, going through the neck of another enemy, cutting off the screech that died in a gurgle in its throat.


” You’re already a part of them. All you’re doing is making yourself weak.” Raijin said matter o factly. It was what he had wanted to say to Magnolia for so long now, but hadn’t.

Magnolia snorted at that thought. At the moment the woman had cleared out a space around her, right in time for her to feel the first few droplets of liquid raining down from the sky above. The red droplets of blood that spattered down from the broken and shattered sky above felt fitting to her. It felt like the nightmares that she had woken up to recently, the broken bodies around her, and the blood that fell from the heavens. Closing her eyes she’d take a deep breath, allowing herself to take in the chaos and the destruction, and the desolation and doubt that lay within herself. Much like the desolation that surrounded her.

“Weakness huh?” Magnolia found the words her zanpakuto had spoken to her unbiddenly spilling forward from her lips. Maybe that had been what she had been doing to herself. Allowing the indecision and the doubt at her own morality cloud her judgement and her own personal sense of right and wrong. Perhaps there was some truth in that, in her need to look like less of a monster. In her need to find some redeemable quality in herself she had actually been straying away from the truth that had glaringly been in front of her face the entire time-- that she was a monster. That she had been one for far, far too long to try to pretend she was anything other than that.

She thought back to what she had told Iota and Mat when she had visited the capital of the demon world, she was not a hero. Maybe it was because everyone had started calling her such that she had felt she had to change. That in some way she needed to rise to meet the expectation that everyone else had thrust upon her. That if she tried hard enough, if she wished for it enough, and if she struggled enough, she could somehow fit herself in that unbefitting role.

No, i’ve killed far to many to be fitting of that role. Magnolia mused to herself as her eyes looked over the broken, bloody landscape. As she looked at the corpses, at the skeletons, and the puddles of blood that littered every last broken bit of this ruined realm. She could smell it in the air, a miasma of death and decay so absolute that it overrode most other sensory features of the world around her.

Everywhere she looked it was desolation, destruction and death. It was inescapable, and maybe it was that fact in of itself that Magnolia was able to identify so strongly with. Maybe it was that fact that compelled her to look inward, to reflect and understand the truth. Like raijin had said, she had been trying too hard to be something she was not. She was not Abalia, who was capable of looking at things from a wider perspective. Her first inclination when faced with the threat of demons on earth had been to wipe them out, and she had done that with devastating efficiency. She was not a hero, nor was she a saint. She was a killer, a judicator of vengeance. She had never been anything but and trying to pretend to be anything more now would be.. Foolish.

Magnolia let out a wry chuckle as she stabbed her swords into the ground in front of her, her eyes moving to look up at the sky above as she thought about that fact a little more. Leaving her thoughts to continue to sift, and churn within.

”Why is this so hard.” Magnolia exhaled as she growled to herself faintly. The thought that the thing she had been trying to seek so ardently had ended up being the thing that was causing her the most trouble was a frustrating fact in itself. She had been trying so hard to be different that she forgot that she was proud of who she was. She had never been the type of person to try to seek an amicable solution, it just wasn’t the way of the world she had been brought up in.

”But would she reject me?” Magnolia said to the desolation as she found herself craving alcohol. Shuten had been the biggest reason she had continued to stay in this world. It had been for her that she had tried changing for the most. She had wanted to be worthy of the affection given to her, but wasn’t that dishonest? Wasn’t it dishonest for her to try to be anything but who she was, especially towards the person she loved so wholeheartedly?

When had it changed from being about understanding right and wrong in this world, to caring about the opinion of the individuals around her?

”See magpie? You’ve been so fixated on being something that you’re not that you almost allowed yourself to forget your own values.” Raijin’s voice interrupted her self-monologue, driving the woman to her feet as she pulled her zanpakuto from the ground.

”Shut up old man” Magnolia growled as she flicked her swords, causing the blood and grime to slide from them as she sheathed them in their scabbards. Magnolia’s eyes looked inward, towards the second layer as she sighed softly. How daft had she been? She wasn’t a hero, she was a killer. She was good at it, and every one of her movements were meant to take lives.

Why would she pretend she was anything but? She knew she was no better than the enemies she killed, and yet she was idolized for the bloodshed. How naive she had been, thinking that idolization somehow absolved herself of the karma she had accrued. She knew better than most that if she looked inward her soul would be stained an irredeemable black. So that left the question, what would she do if she knew that change wasn’t something that she could do? How would she proceed now that she knew she would always be drawn to fighting, and bloodshed? That she would always be warlike?

” I just need to be myself, and be willing to live with the consequences of that.” Magnolia said to herself as the blood filled rain above turned from a light sprinkle to a deluge of ichor. The blood that fell from the heavens above spattering the woman from head to toe. Yet that blood also washed off the bits of gore and innards that had stuck to the robes she wore. How ironic, that blood would wash off the byproduct of bloodshed.

”Raijin, there’s still someone i need to face.” Magnolia said to her inner spirit, the expression in her eyes was one that was filled with trepidation. After all, she would rather face the world alone, than confront the insecurities that lay within her heart.

”Yes, you need to talk to Shuten, she deserves to know Raijin’s response was kind and to the point. He knew this wasn’t something easy for the woman who would rather face a problem of emotion with strength than her softer inclinations.

”I’m afraid she will give up on me” Magnolia responded as she exhaled softly, turning away from the path deeper into hell. The woman tousseled her own hair in distress.

”Even so, you’re being disrespectful to her and yourself if you allow this to go on further. “Raijin chastised his Queen, the rebuking tone of his voice firm and unbending.

Magnolia didn’t give that response another answer as she started walking towards the exit of hell. While it wasn’t the conversation she wished to have, it was one she needed to have, to help quell the demons inside her heart. She had after all left behind everything she ever knew for this chance of something new and better. She wouldn’t allow herself to wallow in her reservations and insecurities any longer.