Truth to be ReVealed [Solo]

Giselle sat on the very edge, looking out onto the city that bustled below, closing her eyes now and then when the cool, groaning whistle of the wind blew through the area and picked up in steady crescendo as if taunting her with the notion of throwing her off that very roof onto the streets below. It was a nice, subtle reminder of mortality that wasn't her own. And she could only wonder how most people would feel on this ledge.

How would Reida feel on this edge? Probably like jumping.

How would Helle feel on this edge? Probably like pushing Gigi off.

How would Vee feel on this edge? Probably how she wished she could fly.

There was so much that worked it's way through her head. Thoughts that almost felt foreign. But then again, she'd been going through a lot of ...mental stuff lately. Her mind drifting toward the blonde that had given her quite a lot to think about. Her own recklessness mostly. But there were other things on her mind as well. She had promised to help the Recruit. Naturally she'd probably have to be careful. She couldn't just go taking the girl off to wherever. No, that would probably cause her to get Reida bothering her. She'd probably have to find a spot in the City of Lights. But all the same...what should she do to help her?

She looked up at the sky, and suddenly felt the faintest bit of Vertigo, the feeling of nothing beneath her feet, and nothing but sky up above them. Her. She closed her eyes and thought back. Hm. There WAS something that she remembered. Something she hadn't done in a very long time.
Yes.
Slowly, she scooted back from the edge and turned her back on the edge of the building, making her way to the very center, to a small rise on the roof itself, a bench near the entrance down into the rest of the building. Ignoring the seats on either side, she scooted up onto the table itself and sat with her legs folded up beneath her. IT was only a moment before she straightened her back. Making....small adjustments as she straightened her back and closed her eyes.

The concept was simple enough. It was a technique used by Shinigami in order to visit their Zanpakuto. You emptied your mind and through meditation you visualized your inner self. Self-actualization. With shinigami, this was enhanced by communion with the Zanpaku'to. But with Quincy, they had expecially sharp spiritual senses. In most instances this was used to sense the world around them in great detail. However.... this particular meditation was practiving on turning one's Reikaku inside out. And instead of scanning the world outside, you would sense your own soul, and with visualization....

Death.
The smell of death was almost immediate as she felt herself fall almost instantly into that old rhythm. Turning that special third eye inward, and focusing on her inside. Her core. Her soul. And when she opened her 'eyes', she was standing on the bottom of a hill, looking out onto a massive plane. A familiar one. A Marsh. Just like the one she'd grown up near. The vast plains intermittent with wet land and pits of collected water. And of course... she could smell the bodies in the water. She looked down and stared at the pale white bones that littered the place. And the hill that she stood on, dry as could be, was not a dry spot of land. It was....in fact: A pile of corpses that rose up out of the wet earth, offering a dry spot from the dreary scene down below.

She always wondered what exactly this was. Was this REALLY her inner world? Or just some sort of meditative state? Or was it just her forming a sort of reishi construct inside of herself that she formed to mirror how she THOUGHT she was inside? Either way it was fuckin depressing. And she couldn't help but give a tired sigh. "Welcome Home Giselle..." She murmured in soft sarcasm.

"There's no need to be rude. You're not the only one who calls this place that."
The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up. No.
She spun around and stared as she saw a look she hadn't seen in such a VERY long time. Tall and dark, with a cape that bled shadows into the corpses below. Even having not heard anything, she had had that feeling. The SENSATION that she was being addressed, and she turned to give a rueful grin in the man's direction.
"Hallucination it is. You're looking particularly Ghostly. And here I'd hoped that you vanished with the real you." She murmured. It made sense, she hadn't done this shit in ages, leave it to a thousand years to make her forget why she didn't like doing this.

"Do you feel like you're hallucinating? Go ahead and look. Rather detailed for a fever dream, isn't it?" His mouth moved but she couldn't hear a thing he was saying, thank the stars for small gifts which made sense.... it had been so long she probably forgot what his voice sounded like. But she could still see him gesture, pointing to the bodies beneath them, and she let her gaze fall to look at where they were standing. And she felt her heart catch in her throat.

Ah. So they weren't just random corpses. Looking down to the ground, she could see them. It was hard to see with chunks of their faces missing or distorted, but there was no mistaking some of those features. Quincy. From the Original Vandenreich. Underlings she had gotten bored of. Allies that had fallen in battle, only for her to drag them back up from their rest. To fight until they fell apart. She could even see enemies down there.

Shinigami mostly. Humans. Hollows. Even if the zombification process was temporary, they just went back to being corpses after the fact. Well...the ones she attempted to turn while they weren't alive. She relaxed, shoulders slowly slumping before she looked back up. The smell had gotten weaker. Maybe because she'd been distracted from it? Maybe because the bodies looked fresher now. They almost looked like they were alive but moments ago. Maybe she was just remembering them now that her mind was thinking back to those memories. Maybe if she thought hard enough this place wouldn't smell like a morgue.
"If only it were that easy. But this is much more than just your memory. You're the reason for the smell."
Her eyes flicked back up to him and she smirked. "Still can't hear you Chief. But right, so these are my ghosts of christmas past. Minus the living dead part. I was hoping to not really go on reliving old grievances though. Got some young minds to mold. So if you could fuck off, I think that would help." She murmured to the fake. And the man simply....
Smiled.
Oh how she disliked that. smile.

She watched as he gently raised his hand, the fingers reaching up toward the sky, as he stared directly at her, eyes so incredibly intent. And she felt a chill run it's way up her spine and through her chest, eyes darting down as if she expected those corpses to suddenly stand up. And......nothing happened. She paused.... staring into the open space for a moment. She supposed at this point it didn't really matter what this was. Whatever it was, if it was a hallucination, a meditative state, or her actual soul, the result was still the same: This place was probably some sort of representation. And for just a moment, she felt her face twist into disdain as she realized that little gesture from the man had given her an idea.
He smiled. "You Don't need to hear my Voice to know my Guidance."
Whatever it was he was saying, she knew she fucking hated it. Ugh. "Shut up." She murmured as she held her hand out, feeling a little ridiculous. Couldn't she just do this with her mind if this was her subconscious or her soul or whatever? All the same, she followed the motion of his and raised her hand up into the air. And the 'ground' beneath her shifted. Slowly at first. Until bit by bit... she saw those dead faces shift. Twitch. Slowly being roused from the depths beneath her, and beginning to squirm and raise up in slow lumbering shapes. Even beneath her very feet, she found herself suddenly wobbling as the dead raised themselves up. But then those hands grasped at her legs and feet. Steadying her as they slowly began to drag themselves from the muck and the wet. She FELT the peel of skin and flesh moving around as if they struggled to stay solid.

And they all looked to her. And deep in her heart of hearts, she suddenly felt cold to see them looking at her after so much time. Allies. Enemies. Even some she might have called friends. What were they even doing here? She hadn't THOUGHT about these people in ages. And more or less every single one of them was one that she had seen waste away, or dissolve into a useless mush at one point or another. Her eyes snapping back up to the man in black, seemingly unbothered by the bodies beneath him.
"So what is this? Guilt? Is my soul polluted by the people I've wronged or something?" She asked, sweeping her hands out and then smirking at the man. "Cuz guess what asshole: Most of these people deserved it. I've never been like You or some of the psychos who went around just doing whatever they want! I give people a shot. I tell them not to hurt me. I TELL them to fight someone else. And they just HAD to swing anyway! You aughta know what getting stabbed to death is luck, Fuckboy! Ya got plenty of that when you decided to fuck with the soul reapers! So if this is you hijacking my meditation to try and teach me a lesson you're doing a piss poor job." She huffed, folding her arms as she leered at him.
"This isn't your guilt. If you felt guilty, then it would be raining. This is something so much more important." He slowly knelt down and placed his hands upon one of the dead, and a small glimmer of ....warmth and light poured into the body. Her brows knitting together for a moment as she peered at the corpse in question.
The name escaped her.
Well....his real name. She knew who this was, even if she didn't remember their name. She had always called him Fresh Meat. He'd been a soldat underneath her. She stared at the face as it seemed to grow lively. And slowly, that flesh pulled itself together, and she watched as blood began bubbling up from the ground, from the pile of bodies, to slowly begin filling in what was lost in him. And she saw more and more of that familiar face. This didn't make any sense. She only vaguely remembered him. She didn't even remember how he died. Why was he here? She hadn't even killed him, he'd died in a combat mission. She'd turned him into a zombie to stab the enemy from behind when they were distracted by the rest of the unit. He wasn't significant. She hadn't even been responsible for his death.

So why was he here? Why was he being pointed out. She looked up and narrowed her eyes at the smiling man.
"I have been at your side every step of the way. Since the day you failed to be born, I was there to lift you up. But you never understood my gift. I did not give you your power just so that you could keep yourself alive. I gave you the power to do what I did for you. You simply never realized it."

"No..."
The word came out of her without her bidding, staring for just a moment as she HEARD his fucking voice. Faintly. Almost like it was caught on the wind, but so very suddenly she did not like it. She spun around and turned her back to him, staring off into that endless expanse of corpses. Refusing to look in his direction and instead out into the vast wastes of the dead. Their bodies turning with her. Looking her in the eyes as she tried to ignore what he said. And in that very same breath..... thought about what he had just fucking told her.

What was that supposed to mean? She let her eyes dart around to the corpses and faces. Remembering them. Their faces. Their deaths. Their voices. And she saw them slowly start to open their mouths. And their dry rasps filled the air like a swam of buzzing insects. Slowly becoming more distinct. What the fuck was this supposed to mean?!

CRUNCH

The sound of her own bones breaking was not news. It was old....familiar....just like the feeling of a sword puncturing through her chest. But the blade in particular caused her to stare down at the center of her chest where that blade punched through her. A shape so incredibly distinct that she found herself briefly panicked. LURCHING forwar and spinning as she vanished with a sudden blur of reishi, a crackle as she used hirenkyaku to zip a short distance away, clutching at her chest and staring pointedly at the man that had stabbed her. That stern look on his face as he held that blade which dropped into the waters and bodies below. And even now spilled and spurted freely from her own chest onto the ground.

She smirked. "I've been getting a lot of threats lately from my new bosses. I really don't need you doing it to-"
No blur. He was just suddenly infront of her. His hand helf out to the side, his blade turned out as suddenly her throat erupted in blood! Her eyes suddenly wide. Had he just slit her throat?! That hand flashed again and she felt her face splitting open, JERKING back as she felt a sudden MESS in her mouth. Lips. Flesh. Gums. Teeth, fell onto her tongue and then spilled out onto the floor as she felt that sword cleave into a portion of her face! Her blood SPRAYING out but vanishing before it could even touch the man infront of her. It was nothing. She could literally already feel it growing back, but that sudden violence....seeing that familiar look on his face. She coulnd't help but move instinctively. She raised her hand, blood-red Reishi collecting at her hands as a Katar formed and then sparked as his blade clashed against it and knocked her onto her back! A chip flying free from the blade before she simply filled it back in and zipped back another dozen meters, staring at the man as he slowly began striding toward her.

"I thought you weren't going to listen to me? IF you aren't going to listen, then there's no point in continuing to talk. And if I'm not going to talk. There's no reason for you to." He smiled, limbs and skulls snapping as he stepped carelessly through that sea of bodies. HER bodies. This wasn't real, this was insane, and yet something inside her did NOT want him chopping her up, even as she felt her teeth and lips slowly slithering back into place as they regrew, she formed her second Katar and held them up in a guard. And she felt....
Fear.
"That's it Giselle. Start thinking. Stop ignoring what's right in front of you. And just like you always loved to hear me say: Let us continue, for the sake of Peace."
He Grinned.

He was too fast. At each and every turn he was just Suddenly there beside her. Her katars streaking as she struck at him with frenzied vigor as more and more, with every dip into her body, she felt like that Sword was becoming more and more dangerous. The skim of their feet across the bodies, breakingbones and ripping flesh as they moved through the crowds of zombies down below. It was exhausting. Every rug, every maneuver was tiring, dragging her body through the muck, weakening the muscle, even if the burn of fatigue could so easily be ignored. For some reason.... it began to grow more and more pronounced, even when she intentionally tried severing the nerves in her thighs and healing everything but the nerve connections, so she could puppet them with her blood instead.

But that burning sensation kept up.

Another flash of the blade, and she felt the vision in her right eye fade as the blade lanced across her face in a Z, cutting clean through the soft jelly of her eye and then ripping across her nose. She slashed, knocking the blade to the side before she slashed with her own weapon, that spray of brilliant red reishi following through as she slashed him across his chest, but in the very next instant that blade was gone, the tip vanished, and a soft PINK was heard as the blade bounced off the buttons on a shirt beneath them. And she shuddered as that blade craved through her middle and shoved her back at arm-s length, lifting her clean off the ground. The blood and red reishi on his body simply dissolving into nothing as she tried to peel herself off his blade.

""This isn't you Giselle. You've been outmatched before. Is this how you fought soul reapers? How you fought the Kenpachi?" He asked her with that wicked smile of his, the blade flicking as she herself was thrown into a pile of bodies, the zombies shifting, turning, reacting as they seemed to look her way, opening their mouths and making that hiss. What the FUCK?! She didn't understand what this was supposed to be! She had more or less been instantly downed by Kenpachi, he wasn't making any sense. She hadn't FOUGHT at him at all! She could barely even remember that fight. Being reduced to almost nothing. She bled all over the place, even as her body rapidly filled back in. " If this is supposed to be a lesson then it's not a very good one. My ability doesn't work like a fucking muscle or an energy sword! I can't just BRUTE FORCE my way into new things! And I'm NOT cut out for this melee shit!" She insisted!

That blade SUNK down through her chest, and she was once again jarred by how he just seemed to teleport onto her! A GRUNT escaping her as she clutched at her leg! Pinning her to the bodies below as he towered over her. "Are you telling me how my own gift works?" He asked calmly, a comment that caused her to shut up so very suddenly, blinking owlishly as she ....glared up at him.

"You have no idea how special you are Giselle. To be one of my children. My daughter left behind. Nozomi was a wise teacher, but she left so much to chance. She could only teach so many, and then that meant that the lessons would be distilled as time went on. Lessons spoken can be misheard. And that chain of rot runs all the way to the roots." He slowly reached down and she winced as she felt him grab her by the hair and peel her off of the ground, A soft grunt of pain escaping her as she was raised up, that sword sliding through her body until the guard pressed into her chest, making her tense as she winced up at him. "You have no idea how fortunate you are. And how you've ignored the chance to be so much more. Simply because you've all the time in the world. But the world around you does not. Your PEOPLE, do not."
SHINK!

In the span of a single second, that blade was peeled from her chest, his knee slammed into her before she could even start to fall, and she was once again sent crashing into the corpses, her own body bent at odd angles as he stared at her from a distance now, looking down his nose at her. "I hate conflict. And I know you hate it too."
And he was right. She could feel that screaming, crawling fear worming it's way through her very core. That frantic panic that xseized up her limbs and seemed to make her slow. Every time his blood touched her, she felt like she could die, and as she slumped up into a sitting position, her face finally finished regrowing, she pulled her arm back onto her shoulder as her body meshed itself back together. Was this what it was like to be mortal? To be afraid every instant? He must have seen the look on her face, because a faint smile formed on his lip.

"Not once have you appreciated the gift I gave you Giselle. That tiny dead thing, what point was there in bringing you back only for you to suffer a human life? I gave you a life without fear. And what have you done with it?"

She felt a twist in her gut. Being lectured by this old man. The notion of her own past twisting it's way through her head. She knew that he had been in here. Deep inside. She had done her best to ignore him and even try to forget he was there. The tiny piece of Yhwacht that came with the powers she'd been granted. But she didn't understand, the way he was talking....it was like he had some sort of grander design for her. But the fact of the matter was: She had no goddamn idea what it was he'd ever wanted.

He spoke of Peace, and he had started a whole fucking war.
He spoke of a Future without fear, and yet the Quincy had known nothing BUT.

What did he see at the end of all that darkness?! What had he EVER strove for?!

"Look who's talking! You did plenty with your powers and what did that accomplish? Jack SHIT! You always talked like you knew what was going to happen, but now you're DEAD! Just alike all of these people!" She called out to him, gesturing around her at the countless dead, as she rose up to her feet. And of anything she expected, she didn't think he would smile so menacingly.

"Are they?" He asked, gesturing around himself.

The words caught her by surprise, and her eyes darted to the corpses around her. Those mouths opening as if to speak, that rasping hiss from their mouths. She had been so caught up that she hadn't even recognized that gesture. That familiar thing, their mouths hanging open. Begging for blood. Her eyes snapped back to Ywacht for a moment and she narrowed her eyes. She didn't understand what he was getting at. They were zombies. Dead. Gone. But... She spread her arms, and let the blood drip from her body onto the corpses below her. And they were at it like crows to bread, drinking whatever they could get their hands on, and she fought the urge to shove them off as they began climbing her, hands reaching up to drag themselves out of the dirt.

Right. How she'd fought the Kenpachi. SHE hadn't. The instant that monster got to her, she'd been zombie bait. But before that, she'd had her zombies fight them. And as they drained her blood, she could hear those rasps slowly turning into groans, and finally into full voices. Voices that sent a chill up her spine. voices she had forgotten hundreds of years ago, and suddenly reminding her. Right....she wasn't a great fighter, but that's why she used her zombies. Once again he was suddenly upon her, his blade raised, moving so much faster than her that she could barely even see the transition. But there was a loud CLANG as that sword slashed down and she found another sword blocking it. From one of her Zombies. Invigorated by drinking her blood, even if it was so damn exhausting to give.

She was a little surprised by how well they countered the attack. IT was almost like when they were still alive. Or was it exactly like they were? Her mind was racing....clutching at straws, as the zombie promptly BULLED the man back, and he stabbed his blade into the ground, and reishi suddenly glowed from above. Her eyes darted up and she felt her heart sink when she saw that massive bow in the sky. There was a sound like thunder, and this time the Zombies weren't strong enough to block it completely. That massive arrow shot down from above, cleaving clean through the limbs that rose to protect her, and then clean down the side of her body, shearing through her shoulder and her hip, dropping her on the spot and making her slump onto the ground as her blood sprayed in earnest, tensing as she could feel her blood vessels trying to suck blood from a heart that wasn't even there, though one was rapidly reforming.

"Am I a corpse as well Giselle? How embarassing that you would lose to the dead." He murmured flatly, peeling the arrow that had almost ripped her clean in half from the ground and promptly resting the point next to her head.
" Allow me to change the question: Are You a corpse?"

She slowly narrowed her eyes, staring into the blade beside her. And she .... was a bit offput. It was so natural for her to use the power. Not only that, but she was the one in control. However....just because she was the one in control, now that she thought of it: It wasn't any different. She was still a corpse made living. But what did that mean? Her eyes shifted to the bodies around her. So many of them torn apart, and yet already they too were reforming from the blood pooled at the very bottom of the pile, and from the blood that seeped out from her wrecked body. Refusing to Vanish.

Was she any different from them?

She raised a finger.
And the corpses around that man SURGED! Hands suddenly latching onto him and puling him downward, forcing him to twist, that brilliant blade of reishi shearing through them as if nothing were in it's path. In that same moment, Giselle rose to her feet and lunged forward herself, her Katar forming in hand from a burst of red Reishi to stab forward. But that hand reached up and snapped the blade, stopping it before it could even touch his cape. In the very same moment that the air suddenly glowed red, as the Zombies around the Emperor were filled with their own bleeding red Reishi, matching Katars to the ones that Giselle wielded, the man's eyes widening as he was suddenly stabbed from all sides, tensing as blades dipped into his flesh.

"I didn't hear an answer." His own blood screamed outward, dark surges that shot out and lanced, mixing into Giselle's as it promptly ripped the zombies to pieces. Completely dissolving them in a brilliant sphere of acid, reducing them to nothing in that sudden outward burst, Giselle only barely using hirenkyaku to speed back and avoid that sudden surge of Blut, the last of her wounds closing up as Yhwacht stood in a a clearing, knee-deep in blood.

"Well if that isn't a trick question. I can't exactly say that I'm different from them. But hey, I guess if I'm not a corpse, then neither are they." She grinned, as limbs would slowly grow into the water. Those obliterated zombies slowly rising up, reforming out of the blood itself as they stood tall. No longer shambling and hunched. But tall, pristine, and just as deadly as when they were alive. And Giselle couldn't help but feel .....conflicted. With the implications of what she was doing. She knew she was able to reform herself, but that was because she herself was fused and manifested through her Blood. She WAS the blood. And it was through her blood that she took over people's bodies. Right? But...

Her mind raced back to the war with Soul Society. Even without physical bodies, she was still able to take them over. And now, this .....reforming her zombies from just blood. Her eyes refocused and she locked eyes with the tall figure standing before her. And understanding slowly seeped in.

She may be in charge.... but that didn't make her different. She was able to reform from blood, then why not they? If that was because her soul was bound to her blood.... then that also meant that the Zombies....

"You command them for so long. Thinking them puppets and toys. I'll ask you again Giselle. What are they? The man asked, towering over her. that piercing stare making her feel as if he KNEW what she was thinking. And honestly with where they were, why WOULDN'T he? He knew the answer well before she had, and she felt a sense of distaste and disgust in her chest as she gave him a rueful smile. Annoyed that this fucking GHOST was managing to teach her anything. She knew the answer.

"Souls."

"No. No that's not what it is in the slightest."

Giselle balked, EXCUSE HIM?!
"WELL ALRIGHT THEN BIG SHOT WHAT ARE THEY THEN?!" She all but shouted at him! Her usual composure eroded by the intensity of what she's been experiencing, but a calm hand rose and silenced her as he stepped closer and stopped a short distance away. He held his hands to the side and let his palms open toward the sky. And the mounds around them suddenly grew still. Those zombies stopping in their tracks, as he closed his eyes and let out a slow and steady sigh. One that somehow made Giselle feel stupid.

She didn't understand, what did he mean?

"You aren't wrong. But that doesn't mean you're right. If you held onto their souls, then you wouldn't be able to conjure their physical bodies. If you simply held their bodies you would not be able to conjure their spirit. There is so much more that you have. Those you connect to your blood are made a part of you. The boundary between 'Self' and 'Them' is eroded. IN some ways, your power is similar to mine in that respect. But different as well. You cannot simply absorb your Zombies and make them into your own strength. You cannot separate them from their power. Just as you cannot separate them from their souls or their minds, at even if you can seal them. You take everything indiscriminately." He raised his hand to hold it just over her head, and promptly wrote into the air above her head. A sweeping stroke that spelled her Schrift.

Zombie.

"You are my Daughter. My Knight called 'Z'. These are not their bodies." His voice was clearer than ever, as he gestured around them both, toward the corpses that lay frozen on the ground. "These are not their souls. This is their Everything. Lives. Memories. Experience. The gift I give to you is Undeath: That you may never fear it, and that you may free others from it as well.

Death, after all, was never meant to be feared."




Her eyes snapped open, and she almost fell off of the bench she had been sitting on, her skin drenched with sweat, and she swallowed audibly, blinking a few times before she slowly rose up... and almost slipped. A pause as she looked down and spotted the sheer mass of blood that was all over the spot she'd been sitting, her eyes wide.

Had....she actually been injured during all that? She stared for several long moments.... her mind racing. Thinking about what that old piece of shit had told her. Everything huh? Gently, she raised her fingers toward the sky as she raised one hand in the direction of the puddle of blood, just as that old geezer had done.

"Alright then Fresh Meat. Let's see if I really DO have your Everything."