Never Trust Them [Lerna, Open]

Mirai made a mistake.

The instant Lerna was skidded to a halt, the needle would be strained as Lerna's own sheer physical strength would test that weapon, prying it from the ground slowly. But at least she wasn't plowed into. But Mirai had miscalculated the nature of the venom. After all, Lerna had already shown she could manipulate it, and so that sharp spray that Mirai expected to simply fly around her curved inward and promptly pummeled her with sharp lances of venom ripping into her dress and her frame.

But at the very least, Lerna was halted, and that look of worry furrowed as Mirai echoed her concern, and she tensed a bit as the area nearby promptly burst and grew heavy as several nearby spiritual pressures bore down on the area. Ichigo's, Komamura's. Hakuyou's. Kanae's. Four Bankai-level releases that made the very air tremble as Lerna's eyes then shifted back to Mirai. who had crouched near her in order to hold the needle in place. The venom dripping from her body shifting into the form of large snakes. Circling the woman's body to try and drench the woman in the stuff, and if Mirai didn't peel free, those venom serpents would begin slowly constricting her.

"You're not gonna have to worry about that. Because I'm going to eat you. But look at the bright side. At least it's me. And not your captain who wound up showing you his true nature." She murmured ominously. An eerie... knowing tone in her voice as she spoke. The red creeping back into her vision.

The desperate jolt away from her certainly caused her to tilt her head as she watched the woman slip mid motion and wind up slamming into the wall. Lerna's pupils narrowed slightly and she followed at a leisurely pace. Taking her time as she slowly closed in on the downed woman now that she had her attention. "It's so funny that you shinigami can't even sense them. Given that a hollow is something you should always be on the lookout for. Or haven't you noticed?" She ventured, stopping just infront of Mirai, she leered down at the woman and her face twitched slightly, slowly crouching down and sinking her blade into the ground as she stared her down.

"You never noticed the smell of hollow around your Captain? It's faint. But it's not impossible to notice. For a creature like me made from a hollow. Smelling one of my own kind is something I'm gifted with. What do you think it'd take, for him to start eating people?" She ventured, her brows knitting as she gently gripped her hand into a fist, memories of Magnolia in her head. As well as Murasaki. Not just the admiration she'd felt for them. But also the saobering reality when she'd realized they weren't quite as perfect as she'd once thought. Again that worry interrupted the red glow and those serpents slithered in, attempting to sneak in on Mirai as Lerna continued to manipulate the fluid flowing from her.

"Would you try to kill HIM too?"

Lerna raised her brows. Much more spry than she thought, and they were getting more coordinated. Enough at least to not fuck up the spells. She could feel that dull glow coursing around her, and she did nothing to move out of the way, her head canting a bit to the side as she watched that bakudo layer around her, and then that needle stabbed into her shadow again. Her eyes narrowed slightly as her venom coiled around her.

"And what if he threatens you, hm?." She quipped with a placid smile. HEr eyes distant as she seemed to no longer be looking at Mirai. But simply staring off into the distance, the faintest hint of violet in her eyes as her fingers slowly curled into fists, straining against the spell as she forced them to move. "You're so young. You'd be surprised how often even shinigami can turn on eachother. Tell me. Have you noticed?"

Those eyes narrowed to a glare as she tensed, her muscles along her shoulders flexing as she tested the strength of her bindings.

"The minute the invaders got here. The senkaimon was destroyed." Her neck twitched slightly as she raised her head to look at Mirai properly. "You think they managed all of this on their own?"

Lerna's eyes narrowed slightly. And that burning red in her eyes glowed a bit more fiercely. At the thought itself. "It doesn't matter. She'll be back." She stated simply enough, her arms slowly tensing up as her body started to flex, and slowly, the spell was pried open, and the needle that held her shadow in place tinked and shifted as she wrenched herself free.

"She'll be back. And all of this... filth that made its way in. Will be dealt with." She hissed, her pupils slitting vertically as a clear sense of disgust coursed over her lips. The arrancar were whatever. But those that had taken up the banner of gotei and ..... done such unspeakable things.

Like her.

She tensed a bit, and she felt revulsion course through her. Fighting with her hunger as violet crept back into the light in her eyes. Her breathing a bit more laboured as she twitched. The whispers in her head, the egging on of her appetite. She was struggling now as she felt that slow, biting shame. The blood caked on her lips.

She was part of that fucking filth now. If Murasaki ... saw her like this. She....

She was mostly in her own head at that moment, but she could still hear them.

The meal that she was playing with. One she was, at present, too caught up in her own head to further pursue. But something else Mirai stated snagged in her head. And her spiritual pressure suddenly roared to life. Her eyes wide, as the ground beneath her suddenly cracked and broke from the sudden surge of her spiritual energy. A dark, heavy spiuritual energy that cast a purple glow around Lerna and her immediate surroundings. The shadow she'd previously cast suddenly vanishing as the red glow that had surrounded her promptly crumbled as she slowly pried her arms from her sides.

"What....did you Call me?"

Lerna's pupils narrowed as she gritted her teeth, but she wasn't glaring at Mirai, but she was still staring straight ahead. That was stupid. That was INSIPID! Her? Betraying Murasaki? The very IDEA was tripe! And yet the taste of blood in her mouth made her falter and in that moment, the roiling energy inside of her slowly spilled out. Not just of the woman that stood in front of Mirai. But the creature that was contained within. The energy coursing through her venom darkened, and in just a brief moment, it was as if Mirai was briefly staring down that ancient beast. As that spiritual energy slowly shifted from Shinigami, to a hollow's.

A few people knew she was a mod soul.

But almost nobody knew what she really was. What she was MADE of. How could she tell anyone? Even when she had confided in Asami, the woman had simply laughed off such a ridiculous thing.

There was but one woman, who might believe her.

And more than that. Might yet still look at her with confidence and trust.
She still remembered the words that had been in her head for so long. That had, perhaps, clouded her perception of her new captain.


Such words spoken with confidence. Before she had ever been the captain commander. She had made Lerna feel... safe.



"GRRRRRHAAAAAAAAH!"

Lerna's scream sounded as her hands reached up and clutched at either side of her head. Those black talons cracking as she hissed through her nostrils and felt a mix of emotions boiling up in her head.

Fear. Panic.

What had she done? What the FUCK had she done?! They were DEAD! She killed them. She ATE them! Clarity finally burned through in her head, and even as those soft, sultry serpentine whispers attempted to push her back down, her willpower pushed her through it. and her claws DUG into her face and her skull. Cutting into that hard black carapace as chunks fell off, revealing her soft, pale face underneath. As tears ran down the sides of her face.

This couldn't be real. After everything Murasaki had done for her.

The bright red glow in her eyes burned slowlt away, until there was nothing but the soft glow of her own normal eyes staring down at the ground as she slowly pulled her hands away from her face. Panting as she slowly regained herself. Her eyes finally flicking up, to stare at Mirai. The woman's body littered with cuts from their exchange.

She reached up, the dark carapace peeling away from her hands, as she ran her fingers over her mouth, and then pulled away, to stare at the dark smear of coagulated blood. Her Squadmate's blood.

"I....I didn't mean it. That arrancar. He . stabbed me with something." Her voice came shaky and faint as she struggled with her situation. What should she do?

Should she allow herself to be arrested? Turn herself in and allow Third Division to work out what had been done to her?


But what if they just decided to dispose of her? Not only that, but she couldn't sense Murasaki. Where had she gone? Without her...who would protect her?

She took a step back from Mirai.