Demonic Halo [Momo, Ranma]

Upon closer look, the Rukongai… actually looked a bit less buttfucked than the Seireitei! Glorious! That meant Erica’s family was safe… but was it her? Had she defended the masses? Definitely! He already saw her as a sort of vigilante, so this made perfect sense! Good lord, she must’ve covered a lot of ground…

Ranma made a beeline towards her house the moment he slipped off of Shura’s grasp, making any acceptable excuses he could make to keep this drive of his an absolute secret from the previous 11th Zaraki goon. Yeah, sure, Shura was all in for training Kidō- by bashing your head against the wall over and over again until something clicked. That wasn’t how true Kidō developed. He knew that, clear as day.

Were the dummies still intact? Was her garden safe? Had any invading Hollows mauled at her flowers?! Erica still needed to see those- wait, she was still in active duty. The 2nd Division were far busier than expected… FUCK!!!

“H-Hinamori-sensei?! Hinamori-senseeeeeeeeeeeei!” Ranma called out from outside her house, panicking, “Please tell me you’re alright! Hinamori-senseeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiii! You there?! I sense your Spiritual Pressure! I’ve gotten better at it, recently! Hinamori-senseeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiii!”

His eyes were teary with worry, and he found himself hugging the door to her home. “I’m still alive, Hinamori-senseeeeeeeiiiii! I did pretty well, but the fuckers fled! I… I…”

Dude slid down the door, fell on his knees, and spotted his own tears falling down. “Your advice helped a lot… but I don’t know if it’s enough. I need to protect Erica, and I need to protect the Soul Society… and it’s breaking my shoulders, man!”

The door opened rather sharply with the dark haired woman standing there with her zanpakuto in hand. Her face looked rather ragged, as though she’d had a few rough nights but as soon as she saw who her guest was, a small smile would cross Momo’s face. It’s been hell over the past few days for the ex lieutenant, pushing herself to the limit as she’d done everything she could to defend her district. Had she been successful? Yes.

“Come here.” She replied gently to her forlorn student, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “I’m fine, just a little tired after all of the ruckus that’s been going on. I haven’t had to fight for a long time and I guess that it’s taken a bit of a toll on me but I’m still here and the first district is standing strong.”

Her smile widening, she’d soon continue. “I’m so glad that you’re safe and that my guidance has helped you but I suppose we know now that we’ve both got to get to work, right? We can’t afford to sit back on our laurels now and every Shinigami left standing is going to have to get stronger, Gotei or not.”

Leading him inside, the petite woman would encourage him to take a seat, while she placed Tobiume back in her rightful place, her work done for now.

Damn, she looked a bit ragged herself – but she was still whole and safe and not burnt to a crisp. Ranma’s skin had made a nice recovery thanks to Igen and Erica, so he didn’t rush over here looking like a zombie. He simply melted into her hug with fountains springing out from his tear channels, a rather comedic effect to convey his relief to see his favorite sensei safe and sound.

But she was right. He didn’t have much time – or rather, it felt… tense. In the air. The invaders would likely return, given that Ranma didn’t even know why they invaded in the first place. Revenge? Fucking around? Who knew? All he was certain of was that he didn’t want to die before he’d given Erica a very pretty ring. The thoughts of protecting the Gotei and Soul Society melted into his desire to protect Erica and his future with her. In a way… Erica became his Soul Society. Its purest form.

And thus, he was here. In Hinamori-sensei’s enduring abode, taking a seat and noticing her Zanpakutō, reminding him of her… well, she never went into detail, but Hinamori-sensei was once a member of the Gotei too. With things tensing in the air, Ranma couldn’t help but wonder what exactly made Hinamori-sensei leave…

“The Gotei… took a lot of losses,” the lad admitted, “Captain Rose hasn't recovered yet. Komugi almost spat out her own intestines in front of me… Noharu… Ranny… worst part is, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT’S HAPPENING.” His eyes, bloodshot red with unbridled panic, almost bulged out of their sockets. “Like… like… I only felt it for a moment, but it was in the distance – something big and black.”

A wave of pitch-black energy. Subsequently, there was a similar, bright-white arc of energy shooting through the landscape. There was something… specific about those two blasts. It just didn’t feel like Kidō. “I couldn’t even… urgh, no, never mind. I’m here! I’m right here, and I gotta up my arsenal! I’m ready to take whatever you throw at me, Hinamori-sensei! Lemme sponge!”

… Okay, what? Wait, sponge as in soak in the knowledge- Ranma had a lot of these moments, man.

A sigh escaped the ex lieutenant as she took a seat opposite him, his words bringing back memories of not only the invasion that had just occurred but from her experiences in the past. She could well remember when she’d been in the exact same situation as him, confused, frightened, unsure as to what was going on. Combat could shake the soul of anyone with its pure chaos and Momo had seen her fair share of it.

“It’s as you said. All that matters is that you and those closest to you survived and all you can do now is look towards the future. I’m the last person who should be telling anyone to not dwell on the past but it’s in your best interest to try. It’ll only eat away at you if you don’t.” Momo answered, her brown eyes briefly showing a level of understanding that few probably could. “So let’s focus on getting you ready for the next encounter, where you’ll no doubt shine again.”

Trying to turn the conversation towards something more constructive, she’d ask curiously, eager to hear about his exploits. “So, you spoke about having improved since we last met. What have you been getting up to Kido wise? Have you been keeping up with your incantation skipping and spell manipulation skills?”

The future… he was very afraid of it. He wanted to admit it, just as Yuuto called him out back then (more like friendlily suggested it might’ve been the case). The future under these circumstances looked grimmer and bloodier than ever – what if the Arrancars returned? Right now, when the Gotei was at its weakest? What were they after? What if the destruction of Gotei would lead to the instability of all three realms?!

Then… he and Erica would… no… no no no…!

Once again, the scariest part of the future was the chance that he and Erica wouldn’t be together. That one or both of them would disappear. His mind kept blinking to that possibility, causing his heartrate to increase. The future was just so terrifying, and he never felt like he got better, and even when he felt like he’d gotten over a milestone or learned a new trick, he got thrown into a mud pit where none of his skills or strength could do the job. Or was that just recently, ‘cause holy hell, it felt like every day in these recent weeks.

And yet, that wouldn’t bother him as much. Just turn his brain off, just bite in the pain – if it didn’t kill him, he’d only get stronger. And yet…

“It’ll only eat away at you if you don’t.”

What… did she mean by that? The last person who should be telling him this? “…” Damn, Hinamori-sensei was so strong. He couldn’t just sit here and show weakness to her like this. He couldn’t just drown in his own fears when she was looking at him in confidence. Shut the hell up, brain… and let me cook.

He had improved. Fuck if it wasn't enough – he’d witnessed progress. There was motion in his strength and skill. He kept rising, even if only a little bit. Even if he felt like it was slow and insignificant, he merely deluded himself with his losses to blind himself… from the significant spike. Hinamori-sensei could easily sense it. His Spiritual Pressure was denser than before, and his Reishi was burning like oil lit aflame.

“Mhm… honestly, it’s all I do now. I barely bother with incantations now,” Ranma spoke up after clearing his mind with his hands slapping his face in unison, “Uh… I think I learned a new trick. Against the Arrancar who attacked the Seireitei, I tried to hit her with a Raikōhō, but she was too damn fast. So I tried to… like… bend it around my Zanpakutō.”

He did a wavy hand gesture to illustrate how the energy rode along his Zanpakutō as he held it up for her to see. “Like a lightning pole… and I cut her pretty hard. Too bad the coward fled right after.”

Listening as he spoke about his latest adventures, a smile would briefly cross the tired woman’s face. It appeared that he was making great progress and the technique he spoke of was rather similar to one that Momo had used in the past with her zanpakuto. If he was combining his zanpakuto and kido together then he was most definitely on his way to becoming a powerful individual in the art and the dark haired woman knew that she’d have to increase the difficulty of their lessons.

“If you’re capable of such feats now then I believe we can take things to the next level. I’d be willing to say that you’re an advanced user of Kido at this stage, a level that not that many Shinigami tend to reach. You should take pride in how far you’ve come in such a short space of time and I’m more than happy to teach you some new abilities. I should be careful and keep training myself before you catch up with me.” She answered with a chuckle.

“From now on, I’ll expect you to always skip incantations as quite honestly you won’t lose much power considering how strong you are. The training wheels can come off completely now and every spell you learn from this point onwards will be taught without a chant. As a teaser for what’s to come, I’ll just say that you’ll be able to tap into types of kido that you've never had access to before. I’ll teach you how to create powerful seals and barriers, as well as a special way of casting spells in order to take your enemies by surprise.”

Speaking about kido was always able to ease her worries, no matter how deep they were. “If you can learn all of that then you’ll be on the road to making your own spells.”

Next level… despite all his internal struggles, those few words lit a small flame in his heart. Hinamori-sensei could see improvement within him, just like the rest of the 8th could… sometimes, he dearly wished she was still in the Gotei. He could’ve learned so much from her – hell, he might’ve even joined the 2nd Division if she was in it. It’d also mean he’d get to work alongside the love of his life on a daily basis – who wouldn’t want that?!

But despite Hinamori-sensei’s enthusiasm to teach him Kidō shenanigans, the fact mattered that she wasn’t a member of the Gotei anymore. If he was a guessing man, she must’ve been a member back when it was called the Gotei 13 – comprised of the original 13 Court Guard Squads. And if she had always been such a huge fan of Kidō, then-

Huh? Wait, what Squad would she have been in, then?

…

…

… Argh, who knew? Guess that Raikōhō-sword-combo I did was quite advanced… damn, boy! I did it on a whim! I’m really underestimating myself, eh?

“No funny, long chants – got it,” Ranma agreed wholeheartedly, without hesitation, with a big, fat thumb up in the air. “Maybe I can try that Raikōhō-Hōkamaru-combo again like before… wait, speaking of- you still got your Asauchi, right? Hey, Hōkamaru, say hello!”

Ranma held up his Sealed Zanpakutō and… well… gestured for the sword to greet hers. Nothing happened. “… Aww, don’t be shy, she won’t bite~! I, uh, I assume she won’t- your Zanpakutō’s not a hotheaded one, is it? ‘Cause I don’t know, something tells me you kicked butt back in the days…”

It seemed that he was more interested in her past than kido at that point and Momo had to ponder for a bit as to how much she wanted to say. Her past wasn’t one that she tended to speak about much, even though so much time had passed since those unhappy days. Yet, she knew that she just couldn’t sit there and fret forever. Wasn’t that what she’d just told him, after all? What good would it do to simply try to bury what had happened? Sooner or later, she’d have to lay it all out to someone, otherwise it would end up destroying her.

“I was in the 5th Division when I was in the Gotei.” She eventually answered, her smile fading a touch. “The organisation was rather different back then and I confess that I was pretty naive then. I thought that everyone got along and my Captain was like the centre of my world. Little did I know who he truly was, I don’t think anyone did back then. The truth was that I was serving a monster, an individual who wanted nothing more than to destroy the world and everything in it.”

Standing up, she’d fetch her zanpakuto from its rightful place, before returning to Ranma and sitting opposite again. “He had me so screwed up mentally that I actually attacked a fellow Lieutenant and a close friend of mine with Tobiume.”

5th, 5th, 5th… that was… uhhhhh… fuck, okay, before Captain Hisakawa’s Squad 5… uh… what on earth? Was it actually the Kidō Corps back then? Just an educated guess – based on Hinamori-sensei’s skills and capabilities, she must’ve at least desired to work on Kidō even within the old Gotei 13. Then again, trying to remember if that was the case did make him tilt his head slowly, trying to balance the weight of his brain cells on that particular spot…

…

…

Okay, holy shit- it was unclear how much Hinamori-sensei expected him to know about this certain Captain, but the truth was- nil. Ranma wasn’t a gossiper, so it never reached his ears… hence, hearing it from her first-hand came as a shock. She was serving… an evil Captain? In the Gotei? Who wanted to destroy the world rather than maintain the balance?

What the fuck? How’d they become Captain???

“…” His eyes said it all – it was shocking. Just kind of fucking baffling. “… Fuck… uh… I don’t exactly know what cuss words can do for all of that… there really was such a Captain in the Gotei back then?” he asked, now suddenly a little bit paranoid. If she fell victim to them, who said it couldn’t be replicated? What if he was already in that trap and he just didn’t know yet?! “…”

Like, the story itself kind of made him feel a heavy unease on his hips and shoulders. Guess the Gotei had been through a lot of shit – he knew about the two world wars in the World of the Living, but beyond that, some info wasn’t publicly taught. Likely why he reacted so strongly to this. “How long ago was this? Was it during the World War…?”

He didn’t know if it’d even help… but he gently bumped Tobiume with Hōkamaru’s hilt. “They’re friends now.”

“Mmm. Not only was he a Captain but he was able to manoeuvre everyone around him like pawns on a chessboard. It was all simply a game to him in some respects I feel and looking back now, I don’t believe he honestly ever cared about anyone other than himself. He exploited whoever and whatever he wished, for the sole purpose of achieving whatever his twisted mind desired.” Momo answered after some thought. “I’m not sure how long he spent planning but it must have been a long time, as he took two other Captains with him when he defected.”

In answer to his question regarding time, she’d tilt her head and respond. “It was shortly before the World War I believe although I confess I might not have the timings down right anymore. Anyway, it was before the encounters with the demons although that was an encounter that I myself was not involved in. I’d already made my choice at that point about what I was going to do and…I had to take care of the new life that had blessed me.”

Appreciating the gesture as his blade touched hers, Momo would faintly smile. “Tobiume is a kind and gentle blade, even though she has quite the temper when the moment calls for it.”