Where There's A Hole... [Private]

Mura couldn’t spend too much time back in the City of Lights – his parents still required his aid, and he was happy to help them. Truth be told, after those strange 10 years in Tibet, he… felt like a child again. Stubbornly trying to cling to the proximity of his parents and the safety they brought to his shaken heart.

They tended the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Even today, it was a frequently visited tourist attraction, and the line of red torii gates seemed to make one’s spirits rise with each passing. Today was just going to be cleaning duty, a simple endeavor for the swordsman who, in the very beginning of his 30s, was starting to reminisce of the feeling of being worn out… as if he was old again. Medeia’s powers had been revoked, and his life force was poured back into him again…

But being old, even for a brief time, really put a new perspective on things… his heart felt tired. The peace of hearing the leaves gather as he swooped them into a pile underneath the crimson gates, basically clearing way for the peaceful souls making their way through to the afterlife… it brought him such a strong sense of peace that he’d do everything in his power to withhold. Maintain.

“You’re wasting your time with these tasks! You’re a swordsman, aren’t you?” Kyūken decided to continue his bickering, recently kicking back into gear after having been so quiet for so long. Guess Sabriel’s words alone weren’t enough to put him in his place. “You think you’re going to become the strongest by swooping up some leaves for Mommy and Daddy? I suggested you stay back in the City of Lights, but I can’t take your insolence! Coming all the way back after making it so far – what were you even planning to do back there?!”

“… Shut up.”

Mura had it. He wished he never had to listen to Kyūken’s bickering again. The ghost was visibly bewildered by his short response, but even that didn’t stop him. What would? “… What do you even want to do now? Just waste your precious life, youth and strength away serving people who’ll never thank you for it?! Is that it, Mura?!”

As if a spark hit the torii gates, Mura’s teeth grinded against each other. He made a point by tugging on the sheathed Harukami with sheer might, yanking Kyūken closer to him in a forceful manner. The ghost’s chain was still wrapped around his precious Harukami, and Kyūken expressed visible… pain from the act. As if holding him by the collar, Mura hissed out: “10 years, you piece of shit… I abandoned my mum and dad for 10 fucking years. It might not mean much to ghosts like you, but those were the best 10 years of my life that just went down the drain. I’m finally back… and you have no right to boss me around! So shut up and leave me alone! Your precious, worthless sword is with me, and I damn well became a criminal for all of that, so how about you show me some GODDAMN GRATITUDE AND SHUT UP?!”

His fuse had gone up. Mura had so much animosity towards this all-talk-no-substance spirit. Kyūken, too, was pushed to the brink, no longer able to even pretend to like the guy. “Who do you think taught you Niten Muryū? Whose arms do you think saved your skin from Tibet?! I’ve taught you everything you know-”

“YOU HAVEN’T TAUGHT ME SHIT!!! Everything went to hell the moment I met you there! I could’ve walked away, ignored you like a prick, but… I helped you… and look where that led me!”

At this rate, Mura threw his broom down, his face reddening with fury. “I never asked to be mauled alive by a Hollow… and I never asked to endure your shitty attempts at guiding me! I-I… I should’ve never picked up this fucking sword!”

Mura felt like just throwing Harukami down, but that damn ghost was attached to it still. Besides… he’d been through a lot to get it – why discard it here and now? China probably still wanted it back, so he’d hold onto it until he could travel there again, but… Kyūken had other ideas. “Then give me my sword, and may I never see you again…”

“The sword stays with me, asshole. Get your dumb chain off of it.”

“It’s my sword, and if I could, I’d slice your throat right now. Give. It. Back.”

"You wouldn't do shit. I reckon you weren't as almighty as you make yourself out to be."

… Tugging… shaking, tugging, shaking… Mura’s brain sort of just let out its fury as a sort of tug-of-war occurred underneath the torii gates. Kyūken’s sole physical attachment to this world was that damn sword, and Mura was equally as stubborn to hold onto it. He’d sacrificed a lot to bring it to Kyūken, but a ghost had no need of it. He wanted to bring it back to China, somehow… but in the midst of their tug-of-war, the chain suddenly broke off of Kyūken’s chest.

A natural occurrence when you pull on a chain long enough. Although, chains were usually tougher than that – Mura, however, had some sort of distant memory come to the forefront of his mind, a memory so strong that it briefly deafened the event occurring. A memory of pulling at Kyūken’s chain, and the screams of pain that shocked him…

Oh no… only then did Mura realize that he’d done something he shouldn’t have done. It started as groaning, growling, then hysterical screeching, squealing, and haunting bellows echoing through all the gates in the shrine. Even the torii gates ahead couldn’t suppress this unholiness.

There was a lot of black just blasting in all directions like raging winds, increasing the howling, haunting sounds from the center. Kyūken could be heard in the center, faintly spotted clawing at his chest as if the pain increased from where the chain used to be attached to. Mura couldn’t see much else, it was just a silhouette… growing in size, cracking sounds of bones crushing, and-

*WHIP!*

A tail whipped in a circle around the figure, and Mura had only a brief instance to duck in spite of his initial shock and fright over the entire incident. He pulled the chain off, and it turned Kyūken all black and… non-him. It was hard to explain with all the black energy around, but the appendage that whipped at him sliced through several torii gates, crashing them down around them. The old, sacred road was desecrated by the attack as the figure leapt up on one of the remaining torii gates, the black aura lingering as some sort of mist…

Densifying… with pressure rising in his ear. Mura could feel it in its entirety now – the sheer spiritual power from this being. The mist fell off like sand, revealing no damn samurai ghost remaining – only a growling, demonic beast with a repulsive appearance, and a white face with mandibles spreading out as it roared. The white skull, the mandibles… and the gaping hole in the center of its chest…

It finally dawned on him. Kyūken had turned into a Hollow… because of the chain. Because of him. Because of Mura.

“…” The beast wiggled animalistically atop the torii gate, surrounded by desecrated debris, damaged trees, and bewildered wildlife fleeing the area. Was Kyūken still in there? Mura knew from Veralia that Hollows acted fully instinctually, abandoning their former selves, but… this was too sudden. He didn’t mean to turn him into one. “Kyū… Kyūke-“

*SCREECH*

Almost as if the very voice of Mura’s ignited its mask-covered skull and the contents of its black brain, the beast leapt from the top of the torii gate with claws aimed at Mura’s position. A loud, hissing howl followed its descent towards him, and Mura was in no circumstance to be able to counter-attack that move. All he could do was evade… and escape. This was too much, his mind felt scattered, confused, afraid, and unable to deal with any of this right now…

So he fled. Down the stony stairs of the shrine’s long path, gritting his teeth in dread at the sound of gates crashing down behind him from Kyūken’s approach. The beast was fast – even at full speed, it was able to keep its eyes on him, and Mura was unable to make more distance from it. But… he couldn’t bring it back to the entrance – just now did it dawn on him that other people could be nearby the more populated area. He had to stop this beast here and now!

Turning around, Mura steeled his nerves and drew Harukami, fully intent on fixing his mistake. He must’ve turned Kyūken into this, so he had to put him down. He didn’t know what to expect from this kind of Hollow, but nonetheless did he swing his sword at the creature. The arc of cutting wind passed by without hitting anything, for the beast had merely dashed to the side as it moved on all four like a rabid dog.

Mura turned to the side to release another swing, but his leg felt the crushing force of the beast’s tail wrapping around it. The Hollow grabbed, lifted, and swung him around, launching the swordsman across the woods away from the stair road as he went through a couple trees.

Mura was stunned by the impact, his head spinning… but the sharp sound of a bladed tail cutting into the log supporting his back woke him up enough to sharpen his pained nerves again, turning his face to notice how close the tail was from piercing his skull. His eyes widened with fear, Mura’s blood pressure rose, and… memories of the last Hollow he fought rose to the surface again. What limb was he going to lose in this fight? His other arm? A leg? Both? Or his life?

The chase prolonged as Mura prioritized not engaging in combat, but running deeper into the woods and further away from where people could possibly be. Kyūken… or whatever remained of him now seemed deadset on him alone, locked onto Mura’s Spiritual Pressure above all else. The chase led Mura to a lake, and debris flew in all directions by Mura’s attempts to beat the beast back with his Niten Muryū. Wind scythes and wind blades were released from Harukami’s sharp edge, but this Hollow was fast – and Mura’s mental state didn’t allow him to focus. Guilt kept bubbling up…

Above all else, his guilt was mixed with fear. This beast was so furious, so excessively hostile. It felt… personal. As if Kyūken was still in there, blaming him for turning into this. Even as the Hollow managed to pin him down with its claws, threatening to puncture his lungs or skull with its sharp, spear-like tail, Mura tried to look at the white mask, seeing no eyes looking back.

Only unbridled tenacity.

What the fuck was even happening now? Hadn’t he died yet? Mura saw his death coming at him with such indiscriminate, uncaring fury, and yet… some sort of invisible thing stopped Kyūken’s fist from crushing Mura’s skull. Mura wasn’t all there when it happened, though – it was kind of hard to stay cool when your life had just passed before your very eyes…

But Kyūken was pushed back by said invisible force, though only now did Mura pick up that someone else had come to his aid. The blast had even severed the Hollow’s arm with the impact. Seriously, what the hell was going on?

Mura had no words to say to her. Rather, he just didn’t really know what to say, especially when his eyes were still fixated on the Hollow and its arm… growing out again. Visibly, it hurt to lose it, but Kyūken sneered and growled at them in an attempt to keep them at bay while his… its arm… was growing back out. “… What the hell did I turn you into…?”

Mura clawed at the lump where his left arm was supposed to be – currently, a mere scar of an injury from long ago. He couldn’t regenerate shit, unlike the abomination further ahead. “That chain… did I turn you into a Hollow? After everything we’ve been through?! Kyūken! Can’t you hear me?!”

The Hollow’s maw opened, its mask-face mesh spreading its jaws to gather a terrifying pulse of Reiatsu at the center, deep-red and filled to the brim with ill intent. Mura tried to get back up on his feet, too distraught to know where he was supposed to go. His legs gathered their strength, and he felt like just leaping straight up in the air – all that ran through his mind was escape. Run away from this… him. Run away from Kyūken…

The one he turned into a monster.

But Kyūken, apparently, had other plans, since he appeared to swallow his own energy. The orb of densified Reiatsu was munched on like a jawbreaker, and Kyūken instead charged forward with a burst of renewed energy, his fibers tightening as the Cero he just ate began awakening his Hollow prowess.

Kyūken’s body flared up deep inside. It looked like a rave party was taking place under his skin, expanding his musculature and hasting his every step towards the shaken swordsman and the strange woman. As if by some intervention, the beast changed its direction mid-leap, its claws extending and its tail blade shoved forward to act as a spear as it sought to-

Its side bent towards itself, and it flew to the side, crashing through a bit of debris and forming a pavement on the dirt. A burst of wind had escaped Mura’s drawn blade, his tsurugi still whistling with razor-sharp winds running up its length. “… Sorry, I don’t think we’ve met,” he finally managed to say something to the strange blondie, “You… can you kill him? I did this to him…”

The beast rose its head from the debris, a new sensation running across its back. The strange appendages on its head bristled, and is hand clawed into the air. Recognizable blocks of black space opened up for it, causing Mura to alert: “Is that a Garganta…?!”

It was… strange. The beast looked back at them from beyond the Garganta, growling angrily as if the act of fleeing hurt it more than the bolt that came its way. The Garganta closed the moment Hannah’s bolt entered, and everything went quiet for a bit.

Mura was… pained. Kyūken was gone. That annoying, pretentious ghost was finally gone – by his hand. That chain… why was he so possessive of the sheathed, double-edged blade? It belonged to Kyūken in the end! Why did he hold onto it as if his life depended on it? Why didn’t he just give Kyūken his sword and go on with his day? He could’ve just let Kyūken disappear somewhere else entirely, instead of… doing this.

The blonde knew more than her simply dainty appearance betrayed, telling about the inevitability of such an event taking place. He was a Plus… the term for those ghosts were Pluses. And one who’d stayed in this world as long as Kyūken was bound to Hollowfy. She made it sound like it wasn’t his fault at all… but Mura couldn’t believe that. Not after how shocking the experience was to him.

“I’m… just a bit shaken up. I’m alright,” Mura replied with a raspy, low voice, cracking his right shoulder a bit, “The cycle… why… I did this, though. He’s lasted centuries all by himself – I just had to drop the last straw… all because of this stupid sword!”

It didn’t make any sense to Mura, blaming the events on inevitability. It didn’t make sense at all…