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You joined the academy mid semester with an impressive show of hakuda and shunpo. At the academy you befriended Yamaji Emika and Aohira Izumi, your ‘besties from the afterlife’ with whom you studied, trained, and hung out. You also gained a self-appointed rival there, Shiraka Yukiko, who would cause trouble for you in various manners for years to come.

Not long after being given an asauchi, the blank zanpakutō upon which shinigami are to imprint (with most never being able to), you were able to properly enter your inner world and meet face to face with Celaris the Stag (representing your desire for freedom), and Zilya the Spider (representing your desire for control). Another big surprise was that Zilya was originally a hollow, explaining why her power affects them the most.

These two powers are fundamentally opposed to each other, creating a divide within you. You decided to put neither of them into the asauchi, and after some time, it instead took after your desire to change the world. Thus, you gained one of your most important tools yet: Naimen no Daiza, with the power to mediate practically anything.

It was during the awakening of your zanpakutō that Captain Aizen made his move, and approached you. He only introduced himself and offered his help for the future, which you would end up taking in the end. The culmination of your academy life was when the field trip to the living realm went sour, when the hollow born out of the school principal’s soul came looking specifically for you, and caused absolute devastation. You were able to destroy the hollow with the help of Asato Junichi, a friend of Hisashi, and the bearer of hollow taint upon his soul. This even earned you the attention of the Central 46, the rulers of Soul Society, and such attention is never good.

You joined the 5th Division, under Captain Aizen, who became your prime suspect for being the leader of the conspiracy. He helped you train, challenged your mental skills, and in the end, started showing you things that the higher ups didn’t want you to see. Together you even found out you could use your zanpakutō to mediate hollows, and create arrancars: hollows that gained back their humanity. The first person you arrancarified was Lahela, who would become one of your trusted allies and friends in the Wailing Forest near the Nakashiri district.

Under the tutelage of Aizen, you dug deeper into the repository of knowledge held deep within the Central 46 complex, learning of powerful, special zanpakutō and history related to your inner spirits, even the events leading to Urahara’s exile. What more lurks in that archive of theirs, just waiting for you to uncover?

>2/4

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Your journey as a shinigami was not without burden, as the Shiraka family tried to blackmail you by threatening the kids in the Rukongai. Despite the fact that you removed any threat to the kids, you decided to play along, leaving the Shiraka to believe that they have you in their pocket. This however meant that you had to start babysitting your self-appointed rival, for whom it seemed to be as much of a punishment as for you. It did allow you to finally get through that thick skull of hers.

Aizen, partially at your request, arranged for you an assignment at Osaka, but also a secret mission to enter Hueco Mundo, to help him raise more arrancar from suitable hollow candidates. For this, you asked Lahela to accompany you.

Now, after a few years, you’re back in Osaka, your home. What was supposed to be a sweet and nostalgic return, turned out to be sorrowful, once you found the ashes of your body in an urn, situated at the Tamaki crypt in Nara. You were found there by Kameko-miko, your caretaker since birth standing in for your late mother. You confronted her, her hurtful means of raising you, and accused her of intentionally dispatching your body, which she critically denied. Nevertheless, you left the shrine with gritted teeth.

Not all was sad: You were happy to get to meet up with your besties Akane and Chie again. Akane had gained powers of her own, born out of her memories of you and an item that you gifted her before your departure to the afterlife. Together with them and Lahela, you ended up dealing with a rather nasty hollow at an amusement park while trying to celebrate your birthday. After a straining battle, you met the weirdest character in this silly story of yours yet: the Jester. A being that even Zilya, a powerful hollow in her existence before sealing, fears. Despite her screaming at the back of your head, you accepted a bonkers deal with him, in return for healing both you and Lahela. Now you have a stack of papers to read, apparently the terms and conditions of your newly formed bond.

And that’s how we get to the current time, where you’re standing again in Urahara’s shop, and the shopkeeper himself is facing you, with a rather absurd situation on your hands.

3/4

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“So let me get this straight, you want ME, a THIRD SEAT, to rescue a former CAPTAIN?”

Urahara spreads his arms to the sides and opens up his fan. “Bingo!”

“Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?” you ask and pinch your nose.

“I’m sure if anyone, it’s you who can do it,” Kisuke says and brings his fan back to cover his mouth. “Surely you won’t be unprotected there!”

True enough, Aizen did mention that he arranged some guards for you on the other side.

“I’ll do my best to find him, but I REALLY doubt I can find him. Don’t hold your breath and don’t be disappointed when I come back empty-handed.”

“Oh I doubt you’ll come back completely empty-handed, Koharu,” he says with a smug smile and stands up with a cheerful demeanor. “Besides, I know you to be the preparing sort. You’re still biding time, aren’t you? Perhaps time for some.. training?”

“If you’re referring to that bankai training of yours, I can’t give you an answer yet. I… I need to sleep on it.”

“Suit yourself,” he nods and pulls his hat over his eyes. “I’ll be here for when you make a decision.”

And so you find yourself in a familiar room, resting against the wall. You still have some hours to sleep before proper night falls, and when hollows are the most active, and when your protection duties usually commence. Not like this place needs it, with Akane going full exterminatus on hollows nowadays. Lahela meanwhile, is soundly asleep beside you, quietly dreaming of something.

“Now then, what to do about that offer..”

>4/4

>Take Urahara’s training offer for bankai
>Ask him for other training instead
>Refuse any training from him altogether
>Other?

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Welcome to a new thread of Advent Soul Quest, fresh from a break! I’ll be trying out a daily updating schedule instead of the session format that I used to do. Hopefully I’ll be able to put out content more consistently and give you more time to vote and discuss!

I also would like to thank all of you who have stuck with the quest. I truly appreciate it.

>What is this?
A quest based on the setting of Bleach. Deviation from canon depends on the MC’s influence, and some other additions are to be expected as well.
>Who are we?
Nakashiri Koharu, a former 10th grade (high schooler) trap, now a 3rd seat officer in Aizen’s 5th Division, under a spy mission from Urahara.
>When are we?
Currently it is Spring 1985, ~16 years prior to the events of canon.
>Dice? Challenge?
Prompted after deciding on an action. Usually 3d10, best of 3 (Bo3), against a set DC and sometimes a crit-DC. Write-ins may affect the DC as well. If a character stat (in the char sheet) is directly related to the action, it will substitute the lowest die in rolls if it is higher (will be always explained when prompted to roll).
>Updates?
Daily updates, with long voting period times. I will strive to update in my evening, leave voting on for overnight, and prompt rolls in the morning. Sometimes if I have the proper time, I may do an extra update in the morning. Let’s see how it works out! My timezone is UTC+3 (summer time).
>I have questions!
Ask away and I’ll do my best to answer! You can also address questions to characters, which I’ll answer in-character!
>What do?
Have fun, vote on what feels the best, roll some dice and chill.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/QmTrippy
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=advent+soul+quest
Char Sheets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DQUOuJbOgzrjIKQLjMFxdmsQh3WIKMMFJQ8fO5-biYM/edit?usp=sharing
Social Links: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HXWo1bA7rplcTIJSkE850qzEE55b-W36tuL_qtT0b00/edit?usp=sharing
Character Questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S1RrQ6icjeWSV2MIb6EUwuZjzGx0QvuFjoxB1bN_tlU/edit?usp=sharing

Good to have you back, Trippy. Can you also put the google docs up again?
>>4845034
>Ask him for other training instead

>>4845043
Thanks fren! It's good to be back and with a fresh mind!
>Can you also put the google docs up again?
Do the links not work anymore in >>4845037 ? At the bottom?

>>4845034
>Ask him for other training instead
Welcome back

>>4845034
>>Take Urahara’s training offer for bankai

>>4845080
why not get bankai?

>>4845034
>Ask him for other training instead

>>4845081
Well, I said it at the end of the last thread, but his training method for Bankai manifests our Zanpakuto spirit, and since we've told both him and Aizen that it's a combination of Zilya and Celaris, any individual manifestation of them, or the fountain, would immediately reveal our lying.

>>4845051
>>4845051
That was my bad I read your post and having forgotten you include the docs at the end of the introduction each thread and not bothering to update before posting I assumed you had forgotten them

>>4845034
>Ask him for other training instead

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>>4845043
>>4845065
>>4845080
>>4845087
>>4845197
Avoiding bankai... for now.
>Writing

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The night passes quietly, and even the hollows don’t give you much trouble. The pair that do are quite weak and frankly had no sense of self-preservation. It even at times feels like hollows pop out, only to retreat, as if they’re being deterred by something.

“I just can’t have a normal assignment, can I?”

The next morning, you find Kisuke and have him lead you and Lahela downstairs into the massive training room that he has dug out somehow. How it doesn’t pretty much fuck up the city’s sewage, power grid and other stuff, you’ll never know.

“Behold! My creation! My pride! The Tenshintai!” Kisuke exclaims as he shows… a cardboard cutout.

“This… is…?” you raise an eyebrow, while Lahela just blinks and pokes at it.

“The marvelous tool to help you attain bankai! But you must know, you need to do it withi-”

“Not interested.”

You can just see how Urahara’s expression first changes to confusion, and then his whole body sloops down and deflates. “H-How can this be!”

“While I appreciate it, I decided to decline your offer. I want to do bankai training on my own, and as I guessed, your method involves some very shady inventions. So no thanks.”

“S-Shady? You wound me!” Urahara weeps.

“But, you could help me with some other training.”

“Ohhh?” Urahara stops sulking, and straightens his back, once more being taller than you. “I’ll admit, it’s damn fascinating. No shinigami ever would’ve opted out of special bankai training, a shortcut even, for something else. Makes me very curious, what is it that you need help with?”

You swallow hard as you feel his gaze, his mind trying to piece together things under that goofy hat of his.

>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”
>”I want you to help me figure out how my zanpakutō works in general.”
>”Just show me more stuff I can do without a zanpakutō. I want to have options.”
>Other?

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I'll check the votes tomorrow morning. Should I also post on twitter each time I update, or is it fine as it is?

I'm not sure when I'll be able to put out the update tomorrow as uh, I've been asked out on a date, and I have no idea how that will go or how long it'll take. But I should manage by around the same time as now.

>>4845624
>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”

>>4845624
>>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”
Figured I'd check in just to see if this was running, and lo and behold it is!

I forget what spells we learned about in our trip. I do remember one was teleportation, and I think the other was time manipulation? Personally, I think teleportation would be better for us. It lets us get in close for that all-important hit with our shikais, and probably costs less to use as well. Thoough if Urahara/others have better ideas, I'm all for them.

>>4845624
>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”
Learning more about our zanpaktu is tempting but carries the same risk as training Bankai

>>4845624
>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”

>>4845624
>>”You and Tessai are kidō geniuses, and I know you know forbidden spells.”
Aww yeah time for gay ghost adventures.
Let's learn new kido we can chain to our reishi lock on

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>>4846278
>>4846402
>>4846935
>>4846940
>>4847546
Unanimous decision. Forbidden kido it is.
>Writing

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You meet his eyes with your own, with a knowing look in them. He’s not the only one who knows how to play this game.

“You and Tessai are kidō geniuses.”

“There are many such in the Gotei 13.”

“Except that you know kidō that they don’t.”

“Oh they most likely know just as many if not more,” Urahara smiles.

“You’re right. But unlike them, you don’t have to heed the rules anymore.”

“Not like I obeyed them before,” Urahara mumbles, “but I digress. You’ve got my full attention.”

“I do need help with regular kidō, especially if I can make more things work with Kaishigome’s ability. But, I am interested in the forbidden ones. I know you know them.”

Kisuke spins his cane in his hand for a moment and slams it into the ground. “That’s all fine and dandy, Koharu-san, but suppose I just magically give you the knowledge and skill. How are you going to cast them?”

“E-Excuse me?” you blink.

“Kidō draws on your reserves of reiryoku. The stronger the kidō, the more it draws. You do know what happens when you’re out of reiryoku, don’t you?”

You clench your fists. “Yeah. I die. I see your point. So what do I do then?”

Urahara’s grin just widens and widens. You swear, if he somehow planned for this and he has something ready just for you and specifically for this situation…

“I’m glad you asked! You see, I just happen to have this very handy tool just for you and specifically for this situation!”

>1/2

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You facepalm. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Lahela just shrugs and puts a hand on your shoulder for some consolation.

“I most definitely am not! You see, imagine you were inflating a balloon,” he says, and despite your greatest wishes, he actually takes out a black balloon. “Your lungs only have a limited amount of room to blow air into the balloon, so you take turns. So what happens if you push the air from the balloon back into you?”

“Lungs explode. You die.”

“Exactly!”

You kick Kisuke in his stomach and pinch your nose. “I REALLY hope you have a point to all of this.

Kisuke, gasping for air, barely gets his voice out as he gets back up. “U-Unlike lungs, your reiryoku potential, it can actually be expanded. Like finding extra room in your lungs that you just haven’t been using all this time.”

“It still sounds super dangerous.”

“Part of the package! But if you do survive, I estimate your maximum reiryoku will double at the minimum if you succeed.”

“And what does success depend on?”

Urahara lowers his head just enough for the hat’s shadow to again go over his eyes. “Your willpower, Koharu.”

That does sound very tempting. And as you know, reiryoku is useful absolutely everywhere, not just kidō. But is it worth the risk? Just what will happen if your soul can’t handle it?

>2/2

>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”
>”No, absolutely not.”
>Other?

>>4847809
>>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”
>pic
lewd

>>4847809
>>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”
I completely forgot this was coming back yesterday, welcome back Trippy

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>>4847824
Thanks! It does feel good to be back. This kind of pace really makes things much easier for me, and I really like that it makes it easier for you all to participate as well. Can't miss it like with sessions.

I'm also incredibly glad I took that break. May was one hell of a rollercoaster for me in every imaginable way and I have no idea how I would've run the quest at the same time.

>>4847809
>>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”
>Other: “Preparation recommendations? I’ll establish a will with Akane and Labela about kicking your ass, but I’m open to measures that actually help me survive.”

Depending on what is involved we may be able to get assistance from Celaris or Zilya.

>>4847922
Glad to see you back Trippy, and I finally have free time to participate properly. My only regret is missing the last session when we reunited with Hat n' Clogs. I would've loved to see his reaction if [spolier]we'd sat down opposite him and told him with a serious voice that we've been sent by Captain Aizen to assassinate him.[/spoiler]

>>4847809
>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”

>>4847809
>"Alright. If that’s what it takes.”
We will need to increase out Reiryoku eventually, especially if we ever run into people who're strong enough to KO you with just their pressure

>>4847809
>”Alright. If that’s what it takes.”

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Phew. What a long day, finally got the groceries in as well. Time for an update!

>>4847820
>>4847824
>>4848045
>>4848080
>>4848247
>>4849038
It's a unanimous vote once more.
>Writing

>>4848070
Kek. That would have been pretty hilarious.

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After deep contemplation, you do decide to go with this asinine idea.

“Alright. If that’s what it takes, I’ll do it,” you nod. “I’ll establish a will first with Akane and Lahela about digging a grave for you just in case, but if you have any other preparation recommendations that’ll actually help me survive, I’m all ears.”

“S-Scary,” Kisuke raises his hands up. “You should be fine as you are. You just need to focus your mind like a blade, it’s that simple!”

“Right. Simple. Got it. Lahela…”

You find a piece of paper and start writing down your instructions on what exactly to do to this man in case you don’t return in one piece. Kisuke does his best to try to persuade you that it’s unnecessary, to no avail.

“It’ll take a few days to charge it up with your reiryoku, I assume you don’t want to squeeze every ounce of it while on duty, hmm?”

“True enough. So how do we start?”

Kisuke, as if drawing from hammer-space, brings out something like an actual balloon. Though upon closer inspection, it’s a black sphere, with three lines going across it and connecting to black circular shapes. He hands it over to you nonchalantly, and you find it to be much heavier than it looks.

“The procedure is simple! Push reiryoku into the device, just like you draw onto it to form kidō. You’ll have to brake a bit at the start, the device will try to equalize with you, that is, try to take half of your reiryoku. But after that threshold, you’ll be going up against a cliff. The more you put in there, the more it’ll resist.”

“Got it. How much do I put in?” you ask.

“As much as you can without caving in,” Kisuke explains in a more serious tone now. “If you let it all rush back into you after charging it, it’ll… well, I’m sure that won’t happen, haha!”

“Kisuke…”

“Anyway! Charging it up with half your reiryoku should be a good pace, don’t you think?”

You sigh and look at the spherical device. You could do as he says, but technically… it’s in your hands, right?

>Half is good. That should be enough to go through each day.
>Put less. If something happens, you won’t be as weakened.
>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.
>Other?

Also
>Roll 3d10, Bo3, Mental (8) may replace lowest die.
The DC depends on the option chosen, which I have written down in advance, but I will only show afterwards. If an other option is chosen, I’ll do my best to make a fair DC for it.

Rolled 5, 8, 10 = 23 (3d10)

>>4850152
>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.
Monster energy trap

Rolled 9, 10, 6 = 25 (3d10)

>>4850152
>Half is good. That should be enough to go through each day.
So it's also going to be pushing reiryoku back at us?

Rolled 3, 8, 2 = 13 (3d10)

>>4850152
>>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.

Rolled 3, 10, 3 = 16 (3d10)

>>4850152
>>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.
Going all in baby

>>4850152
>>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.
Why not?

I'm not sure where the balloon comparison really comes from yet. Is the end goal going to be that we do try to absorb all of this again (like Kisuke suggests would be bad right now), or is this the equivalent of a training weight for reiryoku?

>>4850152
>Put more. The faster you charge it, the less time you’re vulnerable.

>>4850152
>Half is good. That should be enough to go through each day.

Rolled 7, 6, 9 = 22 (3d10)

>>4850152
>>4851153

>>4850164
>23(26)
>>4850201
>25(27)
>>4850223
>13(19)

The DC's were 17/21/25 for less/half/more. Jesus christ you passed the highest one twice.

I will start writing, but the update will likely come tomorrow midday or so. I can practically feel my eyes going cross and me falling asleep any minute now, so just a headsup!

>>4850263
Another analogue would be a pump attached to a balloon. You pump it, and the balloon expands. If you push all the air in the balloon back into the pump...

>>4851853
>disgusting qm writing trap inflation on qst

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“Half, huh?” you think out loud and furrow your brows. No, that won’t do at all. This is your chance to get properly stronger, to get the raw energy that separates you from the bigger players right now. If you can get that, then with your existing skills you can go far beyond the limits you’re shackled to right now.

>https://audius.co/qmtrippy/18-battle-ignition-93787

You start drawing on your reiryoku reserves, and the sphere partially expands, with the three lines lighting up in a white color. Your aura flares and a gust of wind passes over Hat’n’Clogs. That’s when you feel like you’re sitting in a tram that suddenly accelerates, as you feel the sphere suck in your reiryoku. You resist it enough that it doesn’t become painful, but after it equalizes, you start pushing in more. At that point it’s a game of you resisting push instead of pull.

“My, he’s going beyond,” Kisuke half-grins behind his fan, while Lahela watches you intently.

“Koharu’ss going to be alrightss, right?”

“Oh I have a feeling he’s going to be more than alright, with a resolution as sharp as that.”

Lahela blinks as she glances at Kisuke, then back at you.

“You must admire Koharu a lot.”

“Yess,” Lahela admits without any problem.

“A hollow admiring a shinigami, now that’s not something you see every day.”

“Koharu iss Koharu. Koharu iss important to me. That’ss all that matterss.”

Kisuke’s eyebrow raises for a split second, before he focuses on you again. “Once you’re done, stop all the reiryoku flow in you!”

The resistance from putting more reiryoku into the sphere than what is at balance increases surprisingly fast, but you do put about two thirds in it, before stopping the flow. The sphere’s three sections nudge inwards slightly again, until the light barely escapes from the lines, and instead glow in the circles on each side of the device.

“That gotta do it”

>1/4

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Over the next few days, you push in more and more reiryoku into the sphere, despite the strain and pain you experience. The more you add, the more it feels like you would be in the presence of a captain exerting his full reiatsu, forcing you to your knees. But each time you persevere, you do not give in, and push back. Kisuke even explains that this will in the long run help you resist the effects of reiatsu of stronger opponents.

Akane joins in as well on the second day, looking both messy and suspiciously relaxed. She refuses to elaborate further on that, but you can see the obvious blush she’s hiding. Akane doesn’t even let you pry the info out as she grabs Lahela and drags her off for sparring. How nice that they’re getting along despite a rough first impression. She does later confront you with anger about this insane reiryoku increase project and your will, but you do manage to calm her down. You do get her vow to fulfill it in case things do go wrong.

You eat a lot. Depleting your reiryoku by two thirds each time makes you really hungry, and the food helps you regenerate what you’ve lost faster. Bowls keep piling up and poor Jun has to wash them all the time. You do offer to help a few times, but he insists that you just focus on your own thing.

Beside working with the device, you learn more about the intricacies of kidō, and especially how its power is allocated into each spell. Fighting against the pull and mostly push of the device helps you figure out how to upscale the spells better, turning low-level kidō into stronger versions much like what you’ve seen Aizen do.

The city is quiet and calm, and the occasional hollow is nothing you can’t handle. It’s actually kind of boring now, you imagined more action based on the reports you’ve read and how the academy taught about assignments. Maybe it was all a ruse, a way to get fresh shinigami excited.

What a wicked thing to do.

>2/4

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On the third day, you hit the limit where you can’t push any more into the device, the resistance being too much on both parts. You stop the connection, and drop on your knees, with heavy breathing and coughing.

“My, aren’t you in a rush,” Kisuke says as he twirls his cane and fixes his hat. “I’m impressed!”

“This better be worth it,” you lie down onto the ground.

“Considering you’ve put six thirds in that thing, you’re looking at a 200% increase in reiryoku! We’re looking at triple the amount you’ve had before here.”

“Triple, huh? That’s nice.”

“Well, theoretically triple,” Kisuke leans onto his cane as he looks down at you. “Some of it might leak and go to waste. This also depends on how well you will handle the process.”

“Lahela and Akane have my will. Hope you can handle it,” you shrug.

“Y-You’re still serious about that?” Kisuke slumps down a bit.

But your mind already drifts away, time passes by again, and you’re on the fourth and final day of this ridiculous plan.

>3/4

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With the heavy device on the floor in front of your legs, you make your final mental preparations. Within your inner world, Celaris and Zilya both approach you at the same time, showing their support in their own weird manners. Then you realize what it really is about.

“So what’cha gonna do with all that power, Koharu? It’s gonna be real hard to handle all of that alone,” Zilya speaks in that seductive but also aggressive way. “Channel a part of it to me, my power is your power afterall, I will be able to give you so much more.”

“Don’t be too tempted by the spider whore,” Celaris sighs. “Giving either of us power like that is dangerous, you’d be specifically giving the part of you that is us more power, at our command. But… she is right. We can help you take it in.”

“I should’ve known you didn’t call me here just to support me,” you pinch your nose. “I sincerely hope other shinigami don’t have to bargain with their inner spirits.”

“We ain’t no zanpakutō spirits, Koharu, tough luck. So, what’s it gonna be?”

>4/4

>Do it alone. It’s your power and yours alone.
>Let Zilya help with it.
>Let Celaris help with it.
>Let both help with it.
>Other?

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Yeah I pretty much fell asleep right after I posted yesterday, and got out of bed way past midday. At least hopefully my brain has recharged.

>>4851928
Shit, I've been exposed!

>>4853339
>Let Zilya, Celaris, and Naimen No Daiza help with it.
Shouldn't all our aspects get an equal division?

>>4853349
Supporting

>>4853349
>>Let both help with it.
Supporting

>>4853339
Supporting >>4853349

>>4853349
>>4853369
>>4853373
>>4853401
This can be done, but you'll need to figure out a way how to do it. Celaris and Zilya have sentience and can help you out with this, but how will you fit Naimen no Daiza into this picture? How will you get part of the reiryoku into it?

>>4853405
I was envisioning Koharu holding Celaris and Zilya's hands while they held onto Naimen no Daiza, so the reiryoku would flow from us through them into it.
Is this unfeasible?

>>4853405
Hmmm Naimen no Daiza is a water fountain right? Can we “fill” it with our Reiryoku and have the others take a drink?

>>4853590
+1

>>4853405
Either >>4853590
or try and fill the “chamber” that Zilya and Celaris go into when we use them as shikai releases. If we really want to get spicy, we could see if Naimen no Daiza could accept both of them into our shikai release by using some of the extra power? It may be able to use some reiryoku to accomplish that.

Maybe even phrase it as a challenge for them: I’m going to lock power in Naimen no Daiza and keep you two out of it while it absorbs the reiryoku. If you want any power, you’ll need to work together to force your way in since I’m going to fight to keep you out using some power I keep for myself. Have fun being creative, numbers are the only advantage you’ll have.

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>>4853455
>>4853590
>>4853664
>>4853767

These are all good ideas that can be integrated to some degree. The main thing here is that you have a huge amount of energy to channel, and it requires mental capacity to do that. Divvying it between Zil and Cel already alleviates it. Technically Naimen no Daiza is a zanpakuto spirit, meaning its power is closely tied to your power, but putting a chunk of it specifically for it might do something interesting. Right now that would mean you'd be trying to focus on two tasks instead of one, which will make things harder, unless you figure out a way around that.

In any case, it's time to roll, it's the same regardless of the choice, but the tallying up and some extra effects will depend on it.

>Roll 3d10, six instances, Mental (8) may replace lowest die.
>DC ramps up: 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
>The lowest matching roll will be used for each DC
>Passes measure how many thirds you successfully absorb
>Any leftover power (failed DC's) will cause something wonky
>Consensus is that Celaris and Zilya get to help, they will grant a +3 bonus to help one roll pass each in a way that maximizes passes. This also means that the power will be specifically attached to them, and only usable through them.
>Depending what you decide with Naimen no Daiza, it may give you a penalty or a bonus. I won't reveal this until you have a consensus on what you wish to do.

Rolled 1, 9, 7 = 17 (3d10)

>>4853938
Time to die.

Also welcome back trippy.

Rolled 6, 5, 1 = 12 (3d10)

>>4853938
I'm terrified now

Rolled 7, 3, 4 = 14 (3d10)

>>4853938
Well this looks rather complicated now. I'll just roll and see what happens

Rolled 2, 2, 2 = 6 (3d10)

>>4853938

Rolled 3, 7, 1 = 11 (3d10)

>>4853938
Need to remember how to do dice again...

Maybe have Zilya and Celaris do some lifting for Naimen no Daiza by having them in the released state? It'd mean they'd be taking in the reiryoku through NoD, so it should drink some in along the way.

Not sure if they can handle the switch between shikai states themselves or if we *need* to call them specifically. It'd probably cut the amount they benefit, but it may also flavor NoD with some of their abilities, giving an incentive for both to participate that way. Neither would like the idea of NoD being tilted to favor the other when it's meant to be the impartial mediator.

>>4854018
Scratch that. Leave Zilya and Celaris out of NoD, use it as another buffer for holding energy by itself. It's meant to contain and channel the energy of Zilya and Celaris as-is, it should be able to withstand the pressure while we focus on absorbing the rest. If it happens to pick up some additional effects, great. If not, it'll at least hold the reiryoku and give us time to absorb the rest.

Rolled 3, 10, 2 = 15 (3d10)

>>4853938

>>4853942
>>4853955
>>4853972
>>4854015
>>4854018
>>4854038
Looks like NoD matters. Zilya and Celaris can cover the two highest DCs and we exceed most of the others naturally, but we're two short of the 21 with a 19.

So, thoughts on NoD? It'll be the difference between 0-2 failures depending on if it helps or hinders our concentration and on which roll. Or maybe penalizes one roll for benefiting another.

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>>4853942
>17(24)
>>4853955
>12(19)
>>4853972
>14(19)
>>4854015
>6(12)
>>4854018
>11(18)
>>4854038
>15(21)

So we're reading (in ascending order) an array of:
>12, 18, 19, 19, 21, 24
These are pretty damn good rolls. Even lucky that the lowest just gets to 12. Adding Cel's and Zil's bonuses, you're looking at:
>12 (DC 12)
>18 (DC 15)
>19 (DC 18)
>22 (DC 21) (Upped)
>24 (DC 24) (Upped)
>24 (DC 27)
Which will give you a pass on 5 out of 6.

So what can happen from here depends on what you do with Naimen no Daiza. You will get the necessary +3 if the idea will benefit the overall process. If it makes it harder instead, you'll take an extra fail. In both cases, you'll be able to upgrade Naimen no Daiza in some way.

Or you can just take the five outta six.

I'll check tomorrow for a consensus!

>>4854106
I'll put my vote towards supporting the idea

>>4854018
>>4854033
Perhaps we go with the initial idea of channeling through NoD but towards the end of the energy Zilya and Celaris stop the energy from entering themselves, acting as stoppers while we fill. It would be like clogging a pipe.

>>4854106
>I don't have any ideas so my vote is to take the five successes

>>4854106
>>4854285
+1

>>4854285
Also yes I am aware I'm suggesting we triple team our sword to fill it with our essence

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Rolled 81 (1d100)

So if I'm reading correctly, the loose consensus is to channel some of the reiryoku into Naimen no Daiza, with the help of Cel and Zil once they've had heir fill. This is good enough that you won't take an extra fail, but unfortunately does divide the focus of all three minds that it won't give you the bonus you need.

But you do get the extra NoD upgrade!

>Writing
>Also rolling for the one failed bit

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“You’ll both help. And you’ll do so equally,” you stay sternly. “If I feel either of you trying to overpower each other, I’ll just stop resisting and kill us all. Got it?”

For the first time, you genuinely see both of them kind of shocked, but they recover semi quickly. Zilya just turns her head away in that stuck up bitch style, while Celaris just closes his eyes and nods. “Then that’s how it is.”

“I want to try and put a part of it into Naimen no Daiza as well,” you explain, “since it can’t exactly do anything on its own.”

“You’re just asking for a fuckup like that,” Zilya sighs very audibly. “It’s better if you focus on just one thing.”

“I know, but hear me out: Once we’ve taken enough, I’ll switch to pushing it into Naimen no Daiza, and so will both of you. The whole point of that zanpakutō is to store reiryoku, right? Before I thought it just attuned to reiatsu, but no, it actually does take power in. So we push it to the brim.”

“You might break it,” Celaris states calmly.

“Then it’s our job to make sure it doesn’t,” you cross your arms.

Once all three of you are on the same page on what to do, you open your eyes and nod to Urahara. “I’m ready.”

Both Akane and Lahela decide to watch you and in that way to support you in your endeavor, even Jun comes down to take a look.

Kisuke walks over and stands in front of you while you pick up the device quite carefully, feeling the stored power inside. It’s quite interesting, as technically what’s inside is ‘you’ but still just raw power.

“The start is going to be the most painful,” Kisuke explains, “when the reiryoku pushes the most against you. After that, I will apply my own reiryoku to push. While the flow will be slower, you’ll be treading along your breaking point. The moment you feel your limit, disengage immediately.”

You swallow hard and nod. “Well, let’s go.”

>1/2

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>https://audius.co/qmtrippy/21-number-onevocal-ver.-93790

You form that connection with the device and brace yourself with all your mind and capacity, and you can feel both Celaris and Zilya at the back of your head, readying to work with you. The device expands just slightly again, and the bright light coming from the slightly exposed core almost catches you off guard. This could have been very unfortunate, as the rush of reiryoku hits you like an electric shock, setting your nervous system on fire.

You focus your breath to be steady, and you along with Cel and Zil start to take in your very own reiryoku. Absurdly, now you understand why Urahara uses the balloon metaphor for this: it feels like your insides are trying to expand and explode out of your body, and the pain is intense.

The surroundings start to break and collapse under the reiatsu you begin exerting, and the air begins flowing in a vortex around you. While the color of your aura is translucent and white at first, green and purple seeps in, flowing counter to each other around you.

Lahela begins trembling as she feels this, remembering Zilya’s presence extremely well.

“Y-You alright there?” Akane asks as she puts a hand on Lahela’s shoulder. She doesn’t respond, and instead grabs hold onto that hand, but does not stop looking in your direction.

Kisuke meanwhile nods approvingly, and puts a finger on the opposite end of the sphere, and pushes his own reiryoku. As he does so, his own reiatsu flares wildly behind him.

But you do not see nor sense this, as all of your focus is set on the task of keeping yourself from exploding. As the pain almost becomes unbearable, you switch to channeling the reiryoku into Naimen no Daiza, and so do your two spiritual tenants. Naimen no Daiza releases on its own and its chamber begins filling up, until it starts overflowing. You try to stop it, and for a moment succeed, but then… you feel your back rupture and explode.

A bright flash of white light evelops you, starting from Naimen no Daiza, and reiryoku shoots out like jets of steam out of long cracks on your back. Both Akane and Lahela scream your name, and Kisuke immediately kicks the sphere into the air, where it promptly explodes.

Distant screams of your name are the last thing you remember. Akane, Lahela, Cel and Zil… some other voice too? You don’t know.

>2/2

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And that’s it for this part folks. On Monday we’ll start with part b, but you’ll get an extra omake of what happens between now and when you wake up. I’ll just say that Urahara, Akane and Lahela all will have to try and contain you.

If you got any other omakes ideas or questions to me (or characters) now is a good time. Character sheet and social link updates I think I’ll do after the next part, once you get to experience the changes in character.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it, I certainly did, and the daily update pace really works well for me. I feel like it also allows you guys to feel out write-ins quite well too.

>>4854832
Oh dear, this is not how I was expecting our back to be blown out but here we are.
So a question for you and our friends back in the Spiritual World. First, how do you feel with your switch to daily updates vs the old session style? As for our friends, how do they feel Koharu has changed them over the year(s?)?
And can I please get an Omake or even just a simple confirmation that we didn't blow Lizzy up during this whole ordeal?

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>>4854918
You can thank that 80+ on the roll. Any lower, and it wouldn't have been THAT bad, but you do get to see something interesting because of it! It'll leave a mark though.

>How do you feel with your switch to daily updates vs the old session style?
To be honest, I feel quite relieved. While I do love sessions and the intensity that comes with it, it did leave me somewhat exhausted and feeling bad whenever I didn't reach the amount of updates I wanted. This way I can pace myself much better and give me time to think and write. One thing with sessions is that the in-between time is hard to use (at least for me), I constantly found myself unable to focus on anything else, so that time usually went without proper use. This way I can make an update, sleep, make another update or call for a roll, go about my day, and then make the update.

>As for our friends, how do they feel Koharu has changed them over the year(s)?
Chie-chan: "He's become more... serious. Back in high school, he moved only when he had to, and mostly read various manga or talked with us. Now Koharu is out doing all kind of strange stuff I don't even understand! It's also kinda creepy how it feels like he knows everything that I'm doing when I'm near him."
Akane: "A fuck-ton more stronger, that's how he's changed. The Koharu I knew would have still relied on me for muscle, but now he handles most problems himself. Makes me just a bit bitter, y'know? But, I guess I'll have to find new ways to support him! He's definitely grown cheekier, and dare I say mature?"

>Lizzy
The omake I have in mind will feature Lizzy, no worries! Fuck, why do I keep forgetting to write parts for her, I need a bloody checklist

>>4855015
Do I even want to know what a theoretical 100 would have done to us?

>>4855015
>It'll leave a mark though.

OUR SMOOTH TRAP SKIN HAS BEEN MARRED.

>>4855208
We can make up a story for the horrible back scars.

We have to really, "being a dumbass" isnt gonna get Koharu any pussy. Probably wont hurt his dick chances though.

>>4855240
"Oh, this scar? I got it while trying to triple my reiryoku over the span of a couple minutes."
"Yeah, it'd work again."
"Look, if this is what it could do to me when I was that weak, I'd probably kill you and anyone else who happened to be watching the second time."
"No, I'd just have another bitching ass scar. Now quit pestering me."

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>>4855035
Oh dear. A theoretical 100 would've fried your nervous system and made it hard to control reiryoku and thus kido. Healable, but it'd put a thorn to that skillset.

>>4855208
>>4855240
>>4855333
Kek. Perhaps it can be covered by a tattoo if you wish, or kept as it is. If you find anything interesting I can try and photoshop it onto this pic somehow. Or if you wanna have a go at it, go ahead!

>>4856583
Whlle my google-fu has always been weak related to images (and most things I'm seeing aren't easily shopped), a tattoo representing a dual male/female god would go swimmingly with our lie that our spirit is both male and female. It'd also represent our trapness.

It appears that Inari Okami is of ambiguous gender, so if someone can find something cool related to them then we're set.

>>4856583
Ah shit should we get a Yak tat?
What would it even be?

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OMAKE: Losing Control

“KOHARU!”
“KOHARU!”

Akane and Lahela both shout as they start to rush towards you, but Kisuke swiftly gets in front of them, his zanpakutō drawn.

“What are you doing?!” Akane demands.

“Keeping you safe,” he says, and that’s when the bright white light subsides, and instead, green and purple ooze starts to flow out of your back, and your form begins to shift radically.

“W-What’ss happening?” Lahela says as her body begins to tremble. This reiatsu, she knows it very well, despite there being another one mixed in.

Urahara doesn’t answer, and instead conjures up some protection. “Bakudō #81: Dankū”

And in good time, as a violent explosion erupts from you, and shatters it a second after the group’s surroundings incinerate. As dust settles down, they hear a loud shriek that threatens to destroy the girls’ ears.

Calling what they see before them terrifying is quite an understatement.

>1/6

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Monstrous limbs and body, white as bone but covered with blackened fur.

Four long, purple-tipped black spider limbs growing out of the back, with a large spider abdomen extending from where the spine would end.

The head is hidden behind a crown-helm with large stag horns and eight spider eyes: two large green, and six smaller purple. A monstrous jaw extends from the head, with an amalgamation of animal teeth and insectuous mandibles. Long, wild black hair extends from the back, flowing in the air.

And at the center of the chest, embedded into it, a block of wood with a kanji Kisuke knows very well.

封. Seal.

The horns of the beast erupt in green fire at the tips, and the sudden burst of reiatsu is more than enough to force Akane and Lahela to their knees and choke on the air.

“Fascinating. It’s full of conflict… just what kind of being are you, truly?” Kisuke whispers, as he extends his blade now forwards. “Awaken, Benihime.”

In a simple, quick transformation in red light, his cane turns into a beautiful, sleek sword. For a moment, there’s a standstill, with nothing happening, but then the beast screams once more. At its maw, a huge amount of reiryoku is channeled into a dense, purple light.

“Cero, huh,” Kisuke curses. “Jun, keep the girls safe!”

“G-Gotcha, owner!” he says with fake confidence, and grabs the two. He shudders very badly for a moment as he feels something crawl up his arm, and screams loudly. “L-LIZARD! HOLLOW!”

Unfortunately, this loud noise is enough to have the beast focus on him, and a huge beam of destruction is unleashed in his general direction. Fortunately, Jun manages to escape, and Kisuke is already on his way to move closer to this monstrosity. A few sweat droplets form on Kisuke’s forehead as he quickly glances at the damage done: A deep crevice now extends through the underground training area.

>2/6

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“Good thing I closed that portal to Hueco Mundo, huh! Kamisori, Benihime!” Urahara declares, and swings his zanpakutō in an arc just as he reaches almost point-blank range. The arc of red energy connects with the beast’s chest, and it starts bleeding… but quickly stops as liquid bone-stuff clogs it and hardens.

“Extreme hollow regeneration too?” Kisuke raises his eyebrow while he avoids an onslaught of the spider limbs attacking from behind the beast. One hit however he has to block instead of dodge, sending him tumbling across the ground. It’s at that moment that he realizes he messed up.

The beast howls again, and from the tips of each spider limb, more of those ceros start shooting out. Weaker, but much faster, and despite Kisuke trying his best to dodge them, they home in on him. Even those that pass by at last-millisecond dodges, come around from behind, forcing him to block them with kidō, or force them to collide with the ground. Quite a few however, do end up hitting and bloodying him.

“Sheesh, okay, I’ll pull out the big guns too then! Bakudō #81: Dankū, Bakudō #63: Sajō Sabaku!”

The same shield once again forms, strong enough to tank quite a few of those smaller ceros before shattering, but giving enough time form the intense, yellow energy rope and wrap it around the beast’s torso and back limbs. The beast resists it with formidable physical power alone, ripping it apart rather quickly. It however gives Kisuke once again, the time to fulfill his plan.

>3/6

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“Chikasumi no Tate!” Kisuke plunges his sword into the ground once he finishes flash stepping away from the remaining homing ceros, and brings about hexagonal shields around him, before clasping his hands together, with the fingers intertwined intricately.

“Bakudō #99, Part 1: Kin!”

Just as the yellow energy rope snaps and disperses, the beast’s monstrous arms bind to its back, and black fabric envelops them with iron shafts pinning it tight. This continues even onto the ground, forcing the beast on its belly, as the fabric continues to extend in a cross shape, with more and more iron shafts pinning it to the ground. Kisuke proceeds to put his hands onto the ground.

“Bakudō #99, Part 2: Bankin! Prologue - Halting Wraps!”

White fabric erupts from in front of his position and wraps tightly all around the beast’s body, in an attempt to suffocate it.

“Refrain - Serial Hundred Bolts!”

A thousand metal bolts form and impale the beast from all sides, provoking another intense, ear-splitting shriek.

“Finale - Fully Prohibited Great Seal!”

A large block of metal with the kanji “卍” engraved on it solidifies in the air and drops heavily onto the beast, and makes the beast release a yelp this time.

“D-Did you get it?” Jun asks as he appears beside Kisuke with the girls, who have now somewhat recovered from the shock and intense reiatsu. Kisuke’s gaze however looks VERY murderous at that question, and right after, every one of them feels a painful headache.

>4/6

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Multiple garganta rip open right in the training area itself, and hollows begin flooding in, with small purple fires in their eye sockets of the masks.

“Akane, Lahela, go to Koharu!” Kisuke shouts as he fires multiple arcs of red energy from his blade, and keeps shielding the group from the hollows with those hexagonal barriers. “Jun, keep these at bay!”

“W-What are we supposed to do?!”

“Reach out to him. He’s your friend, only you can calm him down. Me and Jun will keep you safe!”

Swallowing hard, Akane, Lahela and Lizzy, safe in the hair bunker on Lahela, rush towards the humongous monstrous body, in which Koharu is supposed to be.

Little did the two girls know what struggle Lizzy is going through as well, with the beast’s Hanran urging her to kill.

They reach the beast’s head. Akane and Lahela put their hands on the head through the partially ripped white fabric, and Lizzy crawls up onto the head.

“Koharu! Calm down!” Akane shouts, flaring her own reiatsu, and tears forming in her eyes.

“Koharu! You’re ssafe!” Lahela shouts as well, trying her best too with reiatsu.

“PLEASE COME BACK!”
“PLEASE COME BACK!”

>5/6

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Abyss. Complete lack of any stimulation. No… there’s some feelings about.

Did you die? Are you now in the proper afterlife? No, something’s not right.

You feel two presences. Both afraid and angry, both hurting each other and… the outside world?

Slowly, you float towards them, as a simple presence, and the fighting ceases.

“Koharu..?!” you hear Zilya’s voice.

“Koharu..!” you hear Celaris’ voice.

“KOHARU!”
“KOHARU!” you hear… Akane and Lahela?

You still have a hard time forming proper thoughts… maybe you should just go back to sleep. Maybe it’s for the best… but then you do decide to find whatever energy you have and answer.

“Zilya…?” you say, and you feel her presence light up, forming a connection. “Celaris?” you continue, and his presence joins you as well, and the darkness starts to slowly turn into a mix of dark and stale colors.

“Akane, Lahela!” and you can feel their presence as well, and you can start making out the sky, the water below, and the shape of your body. But there’s one that in the end brings you back, when you feel like something is licking your face.

“L-Lizzy!”

A bright white light, and you feel yourself waking up...

>6/6

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Koharu can turn into a chimera abomination? Yikes.

>Koharu turned into a Hollow/whatever Celaris actually is hybrid and started summoning an army of Hanran'd Hollows
This NnD upgrade better be spicy. Also >>4854831
>Distant screams of your name are the last thing you remember. Akane, Lahela, Cel and Zil… some other voice too? You don’t know.
I wonder who this other voice is

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>Koharu can actually be described as the monster energy trap in-universe now
Wild

>>4857003
Maybe it was Lizzy

>>4857003
Perhaps our sword?

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The white light blinds you, but slowly you start discerning details of your surroundings. The ceiling. Two faces. The smell of wood and tea. The feeling of a blanket over your body.

And then darkness, as something crawls on your face and starts licking it.

“L-Lizzy?” you whisper, and the two people beside you instantly turn their attention to you.

“KOHARU!”
“KOHARU!” they both shout at the same time.

“O-Ow, not.. so loud,” you say as you move your head, in an attempt to get Lizzy just enough off of your face to not inconvenience looking around and breathing.

“S-Sorry. Jeez, you had us scared there..!” Akane says with an extreme sigh of relief.

“Koharu sscary when like that, glad to ssee you back!” Lahela tells you energetically. You twitch your fingers, and find both of your hands occupied. They’re gently held by these two.

“I feel like I got hit by a truck,” you groan.

“Well.... you could say that,” Akane says and scratches the back of her head awkwardly. Meanwhile, Jun brings you a cup of green tea, and helps you drink it. “Good to see you’re all in one piece. You had us worried!”

“Yeah, about that,” you say as you try to shift yourself a bit upright. Sure you feel sore, but you’re not THAT bad. That is, until you move yourself up and lean against the pillow, and feel a LOT of pain coming from your back. The girls and Jun of course help you as soon as they see you wince.

“S-Shit, that doesn’t feel good,” you sigh. “So I guess I didn’t manage to contain it properly afterall. I assume I fainted, you healed me, and now I’m here after a good night’s sleep?”

Akane, Lahela, and Jun all awkwardly look at each other.

“...Right?” you ask hopefully, but slowly comprehend the situation.

“Koharu, it’s… you were out cold for eight days,” Akane explains.

You tilt your head, one can almost hear the cogs turn inside.

“WHAT?!”

>1/2

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The three of them retell you the events that happened right after your back ruptured, and of the monstrosity that you became. Of the devastation that you brought upon the underground training area, of the controlled hollows you summoned, and how you forced Urahara’s hand.

“He wass incredible,” Lahela nods. “Like no sshinigami I’ve ever sseen.”

You’re still trying to understand what you’ve been just told, and feel as if something was lodged in your throat.

“Did.. did I hurt you?” you ask, your eyes close. “Don’t lie.”

“You didn’t. Kisuke repelled the big beam of destruction that you sent our way,” Akane reassures you.

“That means I tried to hurt you,” you reopen your eyes, and grip your hands together. For the first time in very long, you go through strong feelings of anger, regret, and even shame. You had gotten carried away. Why didn’t you think of their safety? Hell, what if you had managed to actually hurt them?

You stop your train of thought there, just as Akane snaps her fingers in front of you.

“Hey, stop that. That doesn’t fit you at all, Koharu,” she says with a frown. “Look, we’re fine, now you’re fine, everything’s fine. So stop worrying about the past, okay?”

“R-Right,” you sigh. “Where’s Urahara?”

“He left for business in Naruki,” Jun responds. “He told me to relay you a message too, once you’re awake.”

Left, huh? So much for that training.

“Once you return with Shinji-san from Hueco Mundo, he’ll teach you the kidō you asked him about,” Jun nods.

“Jeez, that guy,” you sigh, but then notice a change in Akane’s expression.

“You’re going… to THAT place?! And you didn’t tell me?!” Akane raises her voice.

You lean back against the wall and sigh. “Look, I didn’t have the time, nor did I want to bother you with it.”

“Nonsense, we’re besties,” she says and gives you a light flick on your forehead. “That means I’m coming with you.”

...What?

>2/2

>”Absolutely NOT. Besides, I need you here to deal with the safety of Osaka while I’m away.”
>”Not like I can dissuade you now. Just figure out how that’d work, since you still have a human body.”
>”We’re not having this conversation right now, not right after I returned from a near-death experience and almost hurting you.”
>Other?

>>4858491
>”Absolutely NOT. Besides, I need you here to deal with the safety of Osaka while I’m away.”
Besides if she goes too Chie will be all alone, and we can't have that.

>>4858491
>>”Absolutely NOT. Besides, I need you here to deal with the safety of Osaka while I’m away.”

If the quincies are still around couldn't we ask them to double the guard while we're "dealing with a missing persons case"
>>4858491
>Other?
>We can't leave the town totally unguarded. Kisuke isn't around anymore (for what good he might have been in the first place), so we'd need to find someone reliable to keep watch while we're gone. Since you've been here have you encountered a friendly old fellow in a white uniform who uses a bow to fight hollows [or however Koharu would remember him it's been a while since I read that part]? He's what's called a quincy and if we can have him or his friends in the loop it might just work to take you with us.
Maybe we can trade information or do Soken a favor while we're at it.

>>4858491
>>”Absolutely NOT. Besides, I need you here to deal with the safety of Osaka while I’m away.”

>>4858491
I’ll back >>4858569 as a more diplomatic way of handling this for now.

Maybe also mention that we do have some concerns to discuss with her later concerning our trip. She’ll need to know we’re not going there to bust skulls in.

>>4858491
> Supporting >>4858569

>>4858497
>>4858505
>>4858569
>>4858679
>>4858865
>>4859537
It's a tie, but I think I can make them work together / blend in a certain way. Let's see how well she will listen.
>Roll 3d10, Bo3, DC 18, crit 24, Social (7) may replace lowest die
She's a good friend and does listen, but she's also stubborn to the boot and doesn't want you to get killed... again.

Rolled 1, 3, 9 = 13 (3d10)

>>4859848
rolling!

Rolled 5, 5, 7 = 17 (3d10)

>>4859848

Rolled 2, 1, 4 = 7 (3d10)

>>4859848

>>4859853
>13(19)
>>4859866
>17(19)
>>4859885
>7(13)

Convinced her enough!
I'll try and write an update today, but I'm feeling pretty shit right now, so that might fall out of the picture. Tomorrow I'm out of the house since morning till semi-late, but I should be able to make an update then.

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“Absolutely not,” you declare outright.

“Excuse me?” Akane looks directly at you, the most shocked that you’ve ever seen her. “What did you just say?”

“I said no. I need you here, to deal with the safety of Osaka while I’m away.”

“FUCK that! You’re going to a realm full of murderous hollow pieces of shit - no offense, Lahela.”

“None takenss.”

“You’re going THERE and you expect ME to stay HERE?” Akane fumes, while Jun is slowly just sinking into the ground.

You groan and pinch your nose bridge. “We can’t leave the town totally unguarded, especially now that Urahara is away again. I don’t suppose you have any recommendations?”

Akane clenches her fists. “No. But I won’t leave your side this time. I won’t let you die again.”

You try to say something against that, but you feel something stick to your throat. That sentence just stopped you right in your tracks.

“L-Look, I… I really appreciate it,” you say, “but we need to figure out something to protect this place while we’re gone. I don’t want anything similar to our high school to happen.”

Akane sighs and crosses her arms, as she looks elsewhere.

“How about that old man, what did he call himself… quincy? Blue energy bow? Is he still around?”

“Old man Ishida?” Akane turns to look at you. “He was around, but he left a year or so ago I think, for Naruki, along with his protegé.”

“Protegé?” you blink.

“Yeah, some girl. Blonde.”

Now that’s interesting.

>1/2

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You decide to push this conversation for later as it’s not going anywhere you’d like it to go. Instead, you opted out to sleep, but performed jinzen instead to dive deep into the familiar mindscape of yours…

“H-Holy shit!”

You open your eyes to see the familiar pavilion structure having expanded into a large pagoda, and the fountain basin has grown more intricate. The basin itself remains otherwise the same, but it’s a bit larger, with an overflow catcher now surrounding it. Looking to the left and right you find the same torii gates standing atop the lake, but past them you feel like there's something new to be found.

“You’re back,” you hear the familiar voice of Celaris, who approaches from behind you. “You made us quite worried.

“About that… since when is it even possible that I can turn into a chimeric monstrosity?”

“Since you were born,” you now hear Zilya’s voice creeping up right behind your ear. “It’s what happens when the host fails.”

“Zilya is eager to assert dominance and control in such cases,” Celaris sighs. “A beast does as a beast is. Of course, I’m there to stop her.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s not pretend that you wouldn’t want a body completely for yourself again, she-stag.”

“I’m not pretending I wouldn’t. But I wouldn’t actively try to take over a vulnerable being,” Celaris says sternly.

“Right, enough! What’s done is done, now I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Hmph. You know very well how.”

You nod. “Keep strong enough to keep you in check, that’s how.”

>2/2

>”You talked as if such a thing had happened before. Has it?”
>”You got a chunk of power now. Feel any different?”
>”Naimen no Daiza seems to have changed too. Any thoughts?”
>Other?

>>4861930
>”Naimen no Daiza seems to have changed too. Any thoughts?”
>Want to take a look inside the new pagoda?

>>4861930
>>”You talked as if such a thing had happened before. Has it?”

>>4861930
>Other?
>Any new voices you’ve been hearing? I could have sworn I heard someone else call for me one right after the pain hit.

>>4861930
>”Naimen no Daiza seems to have changed too. Any thoughts?”
>Any new voices you’ve been hearing? I could have sworn I heard someone else call for me one right after the pain hit.

>>4861930
>>4862164
Supporting

>>4861930
>”You talked as if such a thing had happened before. Has it?”
>”Naimen no Daiza seems to have changed too. Any thoughts?”

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>>4861999
>>4862061
>>4862164
>>4862188
>>4862440
>>4863014

A bit of a mix of things, with a focus on the new voice.
>Writing

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”You talked as if such a thing had happened before. Has it?”

Zilya and Celaris exchange looks and Cel sigh, beginning to explain. “There was a case when one of your ancestors was out of their body, like you used to do. Almost got killed by a hollow. Whore-spider tried to take advantage of that.”

“You make it sound like I was in the wrong.”

“Nevertheless, I too, stepped in, to keep her from taking power and control. It resulted in the.. thing you turned into as well.”

“How was it dealt with last time?” you ask.

“She-stag’s loverboy came to save the day. Poor guy was so confused,” Zilya laughs in a way that you’d describe as an evil villainess way.

“Regardless,” Cel continues and you can swear you see, very faintly, a vein bulge on his forehead, “the situation was contained, and Takemikazuchi-sama stabilized her soul, and put her back into her body.”

“Sounds like a rough ride,” you sigh and scratch your hair. “Divine intervention saved you last time, huh? Not that easy to come across nowadays.”

“Unlike your ancestor, you are much, much stronger,” Cel reminds you.

You give him a light smile. “Yeah. Though if I understand it correctly, if I get beaten and be on the brink of death, this will happen again regardless of my power.”

“That’s right,” Zil grins. “If you die, we die. And I won’t stand for that.”

“Then you better make sure I don’t die,” you retort, with a stern gaze. “Like it or not, we’re still on the same boat.”

>1/4

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You walk over to Naimen no Daiza’s new basin fountain, and watch the calm water surface, as well as its silent, unperturbed flow along the edges onto the overflow catcher.

“If we forget about that near-death experience for now, looks like Kisuke’s device worked. Things are different here.”

“Agreed. I feel more whole, like I regained a big missing chunk of myself,” Celaris agrees.

“I won’t lie, it feels fucking great. I even got a proper cave now, all to myself.”

“Your sides of this place changed? Naimen no Daiza changed too,” you say, as you look upwards. The pagoda structure doesn’t exactly have floors, instead having windows and some sort of stone tablets spaced between them. Wooden ledges go around them offering just enough footing to be able to stand and look around.

“I could have sworn I heard someone else call for me one right after the pain hit,” you whisper as you adore the structure, and then turn to face Cel and Zil again. “Did you hear anything? A different voice?”

“I hope you’re not going crazy, hearing voices and all!”

“Oh hush it, whore spider, he hears our voices already.”

“Please, just answer the question..”

“I’m afraid not, Koharu. The only voices I know are yours, and unfortunately, hers.”

“Oh you love me, stop pretending you don’t,” Zil laughs. “Yeah, ain’t nothing but you and unfortunately him.”

You frown. You could’ve sworn you heard it, but the more you try to remember it, the more the voice eludes you. What did it sound like? You can’t tell.

“Nevermind then. Once I’m back in condition, we’ll try out our changes. I bet you’d like to test out the limits of your new strength.”

“You goddamn right!” Zil grins menacingly. “Oh the things I remember now from my youth.”

“You were never young,” Cel shrugs, which prompts Zil to snap and shout incoherently.

>2/4

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You take some time alone here in your mindscape. Jumping up to the ledges, you take a look at the tablets between the windows, and your eyes widen.

“Tamaki.. Natsuko… mother?”

Walking clockwise, you find more and more names, which you believe to be your ancestor’s names. Those of the Tamaki line, those that died not long after birth, those whose souls never departed to the afterlife, being instead assimilated into their child. Along with Celaris and Zilya.

“I’m the end of the line, huh,” you whisper as you return to your mother’s tablet, and touch it. “At least I won’t die in my twenties.”

What’s the point to all of this? What was the intention? Why keep Cel and Zil imprisoned for centuries? Why condemn a line of women to die and sacrifice their souls?

There’s an ominous feeling that resides in the pagoda, that you can’t place exactly. You shrug it off for now, and return back into the outside world.

>3/4

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Fortunately, your recovery is quite quick, though your back continues to ache. From the mirror you see that there’s long scars along your whole back, ruining your otherwise soft and dreamy skin. Worst of all, it doesn’t look like it’ll go away anytime soon, if ever.

Akane and Lahela manage to keep the city very much safe together, so you don't have to even concern yourself with your official job. Chie-chan visits you once as well, and you slip into your gigai, doing your best to hide the pain or disguising it as regular back pain.

A letter is sent to Ishida Sōken, asking for his help. You’d just shunpo to Naruki and find him yourself, but both Akane and Lahela sternly forbid you from going off on your own.

That leaves you with a lot of thoughts to handle. How are Emika and Izumi doing? Hell, how is Yukiko? How’s Junichi, and… how’s Hisashi?

“...No, let’s not remember his love confession now, brain please,” you mumble and hit your head against the wall, a cup of tea in your hands.

“When are you going to charm that boy and make him your slave?”

“T-the fu-” you almost spill your tea. “Zil?”

“Yeah, it’s me, bitch. I can finally get through this damned fog.”

“Cel too?” you ask.

“Yes. You don’t have to talk out loud, you know. Just thinking suffices.”

“R-Right,” you put the cup to your mouth and focus your thoughts. “I was thinking about ways to get to Hueco Mundo.”

“Liar,” Zil giggles.

“Shut it. Kisuke’s one way, but he’s away now again, but I could always go to Naruki. Lahela’s also a possibility, but she’s never really traveled in the Garganta if I understand it right.”

“I could open it for you, you know.”

“You- what? SINCE WHEN?”

“Relax. Since I got the juicy reiryoku. I can properly remember it now. Just give me control, and I’ll lead you there all nice and good~”

You got a bad feeling about this. Last time you gave her control, she almost killed Lahela and destroyed a part of Drianni’s forest.

>4/4

>”No thanks, we’ll go with Kisuke. He’s at the very least reliable.”
>”No, I’ll pass. Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”
>”I can’t believe myself, but that’s probably the best option of bad ones.”
>Other?

>>4863866
>>”No thanks, we’ll go with Kisuke. He’s at the very least reliable.”

>>4863866
>>”No, I’ll pass. Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”

>>4863866
>”No thanks, we’ll go with Kisuke. He’s at the very least reliable.”
Also I wonder if when we get back if we can get Unohana to at least help us with the back pain.

>>4863866
>>”No, I’ll pass. Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”

Just because of how much Zil wants it, lets see if Celaris can help instead. His abilities allow us to home in on things. If we drink in some of Lahrla’s reiatsu, can we help guide her to Hueco Mundo since hollows are there?

I suggest this idea mostly so we can laugh at Zilya. She can only grumble so much, it’s her influence that makes us follow our emotions more than our brain.

>>4863866
>”I can’t believe myself, but that’s probably the best option of bad ones.”

>>4863866
>”No thanks, we’ll go with Kisuke. He’s at the very least reliable.”

>>4863866
>>”No, I’ll pass. Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”

>>4863869
>>4863890
>>4864060
>>4864214
>>4864377
>>4864603
>>4864773
Okay, time to write an upda-
>It's a tie
Guess I'll wait until after sauna. If it's still a tie, I'll flip a coin.

>>4863866
>>”No, I’ll pass. Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”

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>>4865056
Righto, and with that
>Writing

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”No, I’ll pass,” you shake your head as you answer Zil. “Lahela’s inexperienced, but her heart is in the right place.”

“Ha! Suit yourself. Don’t blame me when she leads you who knows where.”

“You sound amused,” you narrow your eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I be? There’s so many interesting places you can drop in. Unless you know how to go about in the garganta, it’s easy to get lost,” she says and laughs in your mind. Shit, she really has a way of making you worried for things out of your control.

“Yeah, right. Besides, even if I did let you take the wheel, you’d freak Lahela out. I still haven’t forgotten what you did to her.”

“I made her stronger, I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”

“You- we’ve had this conversation already, let’s move on.”

While recovering, you decide to go through the stack of papers that the weird persona by the title of ‘Jester’ gave you, as part of the deal. To say the least, you don’t manage to get far.

“W-What the hell is this?” you groan, as you go through the list of terms.

“Signee may not wear white socks on the 4th Tuesday of each month. Signee may not break the time-space continuum intentionally. Today I saw a toad on the roadside, it was very fat and grumpy. Oh fuck! Right, this is a contract! Silly me for writing this in, haha!"

You’d expect somebody with the power that you assume this being has, to actually mastermind something, much like you’ve seen Aizen and Urahara do. But this… this is just pure madness.

“Signee may not lick his own elbow. Signee may not stick a hollow through another hollow's hollow hole. Signee may not restore the Soul King’s limbs until the moon is fixed.”

...What? Just… what the hell?

At some point, you just give up and leave it for another day. That wasn’t even one page of a full stack of them.

>1/2

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Akane and Lahela eventually relent and let you out of the bed. Although you show them the confident and strong side of you, you can’t deny that your back is sore pretty much all the time. It’s like you feel the cracks that are now etched in your soul. You hope that it’ll fade with time, but for now, you have to focus on the task at hand.

Sōken returns a letter addressed to you, in which he details his surprise both at the fact that you are a shinigami now, and that you decided to ask him for help of all people. He mentions that he’ll be able to arrive in two days. Tomoe-chan too sends you a hello, which brings a genuine smile to your face. How that little girl remembered you through all this time is a mystery. But you’re glad she’s all fine.

This still leaves the question of Akane open. She insisted last time you talked about it to come with you, but for that to be even possible, you need to figure out how to deal with her chain of fate. On the other hand, you could use this as a good excuse why she can’t come, with Urahara not around to offer any solutions. Then again, you could ask Jun to see if he can find anything in the shop.

>2/2

>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.
>Try and figure something out with Jun and the shop. Surely there’s something.
>Other?

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A bit of an update on things on my side:

I am leaving to work at a youth camp on Monday for a week. It's mostly night watch duty with some small stuff during the day and a few lessons, but I'll be able to write updates while there. It just means the times will be a bit weird, most likely late at night on my end.

>>4865212
>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.

>>4865212
>>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.

>>4865212
>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.

f for our trap qm, sent to the concentration camp

>>4865212
>>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.
We have good points to reference, namely the fact that our back exploded when we tried out one of Kisuke’s devices. Jun would no doubt be using one of them to get her out, and we don’t need to be dealing with her soul being unable to rejoin her body or possessing hollows or anything like that. Kisuke’s stuff is always weird and always dangerous.

Besides, another anon brought up Chie as another excuse. Having her one remaining friend from high school pass on to go into a dangerous place with her *already dead* friend is just going to give her more advanced PTSD, and she will have literally no one she can talk about it with unless she’s close to Jun as well.

If she wants to be proactive, she can partner up with Soken. Soken and Tomoe can help her cover territory if she’s out, and they wouldn’t be bad to pair up with if something like that hollow we fought in the tunnels comes up again. That kicked our asses and Lahela’s and she knows we’re no slouches in combat. But that requires trust and coordination, something that has to be earned over time.

If she really, really wants to help us still… maybe tell her to find a good place for hollows like Lahela. That’s not something we can exactly trust a lot of people with, since almost everyone we know would sooner kill her. She could use a person to look out for her that isn’t just us, and we’d feel better if she could get out of the SS if things get hot there for whatever reason since it’s dangerous territory for her in the long run.

>>4865212
>>Tell Akane that it’s a no-go, no way to do it without big problems.
>>4865266
F, sent to one in Mordor no less

>>4865212
>>Try and figure something out with Jun and the shop. Surely there’s something.

>>4865216
Enjoy camp! May you have many "camp experiences".

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>>4865232
>>4865244
>>4865266
>>4865312
>>4865320
>>4865822
Making Akane stay wins. And because of that long write-in with very good points, you won't have to roll. Those are exactly the stuff that will push her to stay.
>Writing

>>4865266
>>4865320
>>4865822
Kek, thanks. Fortunately it ain't my first rodeo, I think I've done about 15 camps total up to this point. There's gonna be two more camps after this one this summer, so yay. Most of the youth behave well though and listen to either me or my plushie.

>"camp experiences"
whatdidhemeanbythis.jpg

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“Akane-san.”

The two of you stand on top of one of the tall buildings of Osaka, as it is just about to begin raining, with some distant rumbling of thunder.

“I really can’t take you with me to Hueco Mundo.”

“I already told you, you don’t have a choice.”

You shake your head. “If it were that simple, I would’ve considered it. But as it stands, you are still a human, with a physical body to which your soul is attached.”

“Urahara’s shop has these gikongan things. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t work on me,” Akane says and crosses her arms, turning to face you completely.

“Yes, but what then? What happens to your chain of fate? Do your powers work outside your physical body? If so, how are they different? You have a huge advantage here over souls because of your body, an advantage you will lose anywhere else.”

Akane grits her teeth and clenches her fists. “Damned if I care. I have to become stronger anyway, and I won’t without going out of my comfort zone.”

You sigh. “I understand your feelings, but think about Chie-chan.”

Akane’s expression immediately softens and perhaps even saddens, as she shifts her gaze towards the rooftop on which you stand.

“It’s already hard enough on her that I am dead, despite being able to visit like this. How do you think she’ll feel, once she realizes you’re gone? And what if you don’t come back?”

Akane grips tightly on her sleeves. “She’d be devastated. Enough to really go through with..”

There’s a lingering pause there, which you don’t like at all.

“Go through with what?” you ask, now turning to look at Akane, with some concern.

“Nevermind. You’re right, I’ll stick here, keep Chie-chan and the city safe. You… you do what you do,” she says and looks out towards the horizon, to the North, where the University of Osaka lies. Raindrops begin to fall, slowly soaking Akane, and passing through you, leaving their reishi counterparts behind on your skin and clothes.

You are about to pressure her, but decide to relent in the end, and enjoy the somber, yet strangely calming scenery.

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I actually think this is a good spot to end part B, we can start the next one with the journey to Hueco Mundo! Hope you enjoyed this bit.

Comments, questions, omake ideas are welcome. I’ll update the character sheet and social links this time, but you still need to find out the new things on your own first.

Next part is gonna be posted on Monday! Either in the morning, or very late at night, or even both even.

>>4866065
>>4866031
Just thought of an omake, a normal day with Koharu and Lizzy
Also two questions
>Koharu
Was this how you imagined being back in the living world would turn out? You concerned with how your galpals have turned out since you died? Also what’s made you most worried so far?
>Trippy
Plushie?

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>>4867402
>Just thought of an omake, a normal day with Koharu and Lizzy
Sounds like a good idea. I was in general thinking of starting maybe a series of omakes which give glimpses of Koharu's more daily/normal life in the Seireitei.

>Was this how you imagined being back in the living world would turn out? You concerned with how your galpals have turned out since you died? Also what’s made you most worried so far?
Koharu: Definitely not how I imagined it. I mean, I know it's been three-ish years, but.. I still kind of hoped my physical body would still be waiting for me. As for Akane and Chie, I'm.. slightly concerned. Maybe more for Chie-chan. Akane is strong, both with her stubbornness and spiritual powers. But Chie-chan... she is still not over my 'death'. As for the most worried, I could say the time I saw Lahela hurt when we fought that hollow, or when I felt my back explode. However even those pale in comparison to what Akane just said about Chie-chan.

>Plushie?
Pic related. I always take this one or another plushie to camps. For some reason it works like magic, helps break the ice, bring out their empathy, and they like it when I come to wish them good night with her from door to door.

Also, about what I said:
>you still need to find out the new things on your own first.
The more I thought about it the more I realized it's retarded, Koharu & headpals would've at some point at least tested some stuff out, so what I'm going to do, is that when you get to use the new features, there'll be a short flashback a lá shonen style of when you trained it / checked it out.

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Hokay! I've finished updating the social links and character sheet, poke me if I missed anything. You will find a particular treat there for your efforts with Naimen no Daiza, something you would've not gotten with Urahara's other training option. Cel and Zil have also gotten some new abilities for you to use in their Nikai states.

Links are at the start of the thread!

>>4868111
You need to update the part about our body since we're physically dead

>>4868111
>I think we should keep our bankai from other shinigami for as long as possible, even if it doesn't offer any info on Naimen no Daiza's true form. Growing too powerful too fast might put us back on the Gosei 13's radar.

>>4866031
Yay for emotional manipulation by using friendships to make people do what we want! Aizen would be proud, and then subtley remind us Drianni and Lahela are in danger as long as the Gotei 13 are in charge.

>>4868111
Interesting updates. It seems that Celaris’ ability may be able to counter Aizen’s if we’re nearby. He could fool our senses, but he can’t fool his own. More generally, seems like the sort of thing to use when spying, either to watch over someone who is infiltrating to know if they need an evac, or to turn someone into an unwitting spy.

For bankai, given the name it seems reasonable it’ll involve both Celaris and Zilua going into NnD. How they interact with NnD once inside is a bit of a guess (will NnD fuse with them and mediate actively between them, or is it more passive than that?), but we can safely assume that at the minimum they’ll be doing more than just sharing a room together during bankai. They will absolutely hate it, so the sooner we can test it the better. Though fair warning to them before we do that.

General question to Trippy, did Celaris/Zilya absotb the souls of our lineage when they died, or did they pass on to the afterlife? I had thought it was the latter until now, but the NnD description suggests otherwise. If the former, maaaaybe there’s some lingering resentment towards C and Z that we picked up from the “ominous” feel the place gave. Would make bankai even more exciting, where we have to mediate the mediator.

>>4868141
To me it sounds more like it might allow one or both of them to manifest fully in the real world in some way

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You are Nakashiri Koharu, a shinigami assigned to watch over Osaka. Yet, you’re about to travel to Hueco Mundo, the home realm of hollows. Originally Kisuke was supposed to open the rift for you, but due to you being bedridden for eight days, he managed to slip away somewhere else in that time. Zilya offered you her skills with traveling through the garganta, if you gave her control, but you don’t trust her enough.

And so the task falls onto Lahela, who although true at heart, is inexperienced with traversing the dark void.

“Are you ready, Lahela?”

“N-No,” she replies.

“KEKEKEE!” squeaks Lizzy.

“Right,” you sigh. “Just relax. I’ve got your back.”

With a nod, Lahela extends her hand, and then a finger, her eyes closed. The fabric of reality begins to crack open from that point and extends horizontally, beyond which lies only darkness. Your skin grows cold, and your sixth sense confuses you. Beyond there is an ambient, swirling reiatsu that feels depthless.

“Shit, I haven’t even stepped in and I’m already getting disoriented.. Lahela?”

You look at her and see her jaw trembling. You put a hand on her shoulder and give her a semi-confident smile. She nods to it, and takes the first step in.

Once the rift collapses, you struggle to keep yourself balanced. It feels like you’re stuck in a room that is being slowly turned in various directions; occasionally lifted and dropped.

“Still feel like being stubborn?” Zilya laughs at the back of your mind, taunting you. “It’d be a lot easier if you’d just let me lead you.”

“No,” you shake your head and respond to her in your internal conversation.

“Koharu,” Lahela suddenly speaks up, “I feels ssomething. A pull.”

“Then let it pull you. If I understand right, you need that instinct to get there.”

Zilya seems strangely quiet afterwards.

>1/2

File: Ep149HuecoMundo.png (280 KB, 738x540)

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When you do get out of the garganta, you have no idea how much time has gone by. You don’t get the luxury of figuring that out, as a mix of stronger and much more ominous reiatsu wash over you. The wastes under the eternal night lie before you. the white sand scraping against your skin as a light but sharp wind blows them into the air. Above everything, there rests the only source of light in this realm: a crescent moon… no, an eclipsed moon?

“We made it Lahela! I knew you could do it!” you try to cheer her up despite the bad feeling you get from this place. “L-Lahela?”

As you turn to look at her, you see her eyes looking around frantically, as if she were a cornered animal. “Lahela, snap out of it! You’re safe!”

Only after a bit of shaking does she finally come back to herself.

“Ssorry. This place, it’ss intense…”

You nod. “I understand, but we have to get moving. We need to find our escort first.”

It’s hard for you to go for any lead, especially with your sixth sense, since it is being overwhelmed currently by massive signals, and a million smaller ones. One of them feels like a slowly but surely creeping death, another one like a million voices screaming from torture, and a third one that feels like a mountain is resting on top of you.

If you forget those for a moment, you can see in one direction, beyond just white sand dunes, crop up sharp black mountains, almost indistinguishable from the night sky were it not for some white edges and details.

You recall somebody, either Aizen, Drianni or ZIlya mentioning that there are extensive caves underneath the wastes as well, which often offer more safety from the great calamities that walk the surface.

Tough to choose when you don’t know where to look. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like there are any hollows in the immediate vicinity.

>2/2

>Explore the desert overworld
>Go check out the black mountains
>Search for a way down into the caves
>Other?

>>4868112
>You need to update the part about our body since we're physically dead
Good catch, fixed!

>>4869695
>did Celaris/Zilya absorb the souls of our lineage when they died, or did they pass on to the afterlife?
They did, that's how I tried to write it at least. For Cel and Zil to pass onto the next soul, they always had to drag with them the soul of the mother, hence their deaths not long after birth. They never got a chance at afterlife, instead all of their souls were doomed to keep Cel and Zil contained.

>>4869847
>Search for a way down into the caves
We don’t need light *as much* to find danger given our reiatsu-sensing abilities.

If we can find any weak hollows here, we could ise Zilya to dominate them, then Celaris to hijack their senses to scout for us. Keeps us from blundering into traps as much.

Only other thing we might be able to do is see if we can go Senzen and pick out other arrancars. Two problems are a) I forget if our escort is already an arrancar and b) this area seems to be trying to kill us through sheer pressure even without enhanced senses. If we can withstand it long enough, maybe we could use it to sense if we’re over a cave network and follow it to an entrance? Or blast our way in if it’s close enough to the surface.

>>4869848
Huh. Guessing that means our zanpakuto could become one of the masterless most ones that can be picked up by a shinigami later then? Seems like it could seal Zilya and Celaris until someone else comes along.

>>4869847
>>Search for a way down into the caves

>>4869847
>>Search for a way down into the caves

Rolled 87 (1d100)

>>4869865
>>4870019
>>4870113
Caves it is
>Writing
>Rolling for... things

And so the night watch begins. Let's see if it's peaceful enough for me to write the update in one go

File: greenbeam.jpg (15 KB, 250x450)

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“We need to get below ground,” you tell Lahela, whose eyes snap back to you after a while of scanning the horizon. “Lahela!”

“Y-Yess, Koharu!” she nods.

“Now just to figure out how to get there…”

“Just dig,” you hear Zilya’s voice in your head.

“Excuse me?”

“Dig. Most of the overworld wastes are held up by brittle stone and clumped sand.”

“Y-Yes?” Lahela responds to you, blinking.

“Oh, sorry. I’ll have to get used to this… my zanpakutō talks to me now. So don’t mind if I seem to talk to myself from time to time.”

Lahela just blinks. “R-Right.”

“Apparently the way there is by digging straight down.”

“Leave thatss to me!” she says, and jumps up alongside with you, and extends both of her hands towards the ground, palms open. “Cero!”

Lahela charges up green energy into a tiny sphere, which violently then expands, and finally bursts into a beam aimed straight at the ground. True to Zilya’s tips, the sand gets incinerated and eventually it starts pouring downwards. You hear the crack and breaking of stone as well, and find yourself looking at a whirlpool of sand.

“That’s.. one way of doing it,” you laugh a bit awkwardly and pat Lahela’s shoulder. “Good job!”

The sweet moment however is cut short, as you feel a distant reiatsu closing in quite fast.

“Come on Lahela, quick!”

>1/3

File: ForestOfGillians.png (187 KB, 407x298)

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“I-I hate ssand!”

You shush her as the two of you lie inside the pile of sand that fell down into the cavern below, with a weak kidō barrier to keep you two an air pocket. You feel the hollow presence standing on top of you. A violent, angry beyond simple rage, presence.

“Huh… Podría jurar que escuché algo…”

It’s… spanish? Oh right, it’s called Hueco Mundo for a reason. Then you feel the building up of energy: a cero.

“S-Shit!” you curse, thinking what to do, but fortunately, the hollow fires them into a distance, the shock of which threatens to literally blow your cover. Then, in a rapid movement, the hollow disappears. Both you and Lahela almost hold your breath for a moment before you burst out of the pile of sand, and you dispel Kyokkō.

“Sscary… my sskin iss sso itchy. Why iss thiss sstuff sso coarse and rough? WHY ISS IT EVERYWHERE?”

“KEKEKE!”

“Agreed Lizzy. I don’t know Lahela, but down here there shouldn’t be much sand. Let’s hope we find our guides quick enough though… or that they find us.”

You finally get a chance to look at this place. The weird light distortion is gone here that seemed to smudge your vision on the surface, and despite very little light coming here from the few holes that dot the ceiling, you see pretty well. Almost as if there’s a dim ambient, greyish-blue light permeating this realm.

Large quartz pillars rise from the ground and up towards the ceiling far above, holding it in place, like trees. It seems extremely durable, as they look very pristine and undamaged, and you assume that hollows duke it out here a lot, with cero fireworks everywhere.

“I never knew I’d ever say this about Hueco Mundo of all places, but.. it’s beautiful.”

“It’ss better here than above,” Lahela nods. “I feel more at easse.”

“Welcome to the Forest of Menos, the shallowest caves you can find here.”

“Thanks, Zil, I guess. I’ve got a question though: Why spanish?”

“What, you think it should be nipponese here, just for you? Why do you think it’s spanish?”

You shrug. “They uh… are spanish?”

“Duh. Somewhere between two thousand and one and a half thousand years ago a lot of spaniards arrived. They kept trickling in quite fast anyway, but that was exceptional. A lot of them were strong too, and it kinda became the de facto language of half of this realm. Doesn’t help that the Defiler is a bloody spaniard.”

“And the other half?”

“Chinese. You can thank the Sadist for that. Oh and some russian, courtesy of yours truly.”

>2/3

File: quartztrees.jpg (6 KB, 300x168)

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As you and Lahela continue walking for now, you continue your internal discussion. Along the way you see groups of Menos, Gillian class just roaming like wild cattle. It’s incredibly weird and unsettling seeing these monstrosities of destructive capability just behaving like domesticated farm animals.

“You’re awfully talkative today, Zil.”

“Got a problem? Too fucking bad. It’s been a while since I’ve seen MY realm. I’ll talk as much as I want.”

“Jeez, relax, I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I’m just surprised that even you sometimes show human qualities.”

“Ew. I fucking hope I don’t. There’s some weak ass hollow groups down here by the way that like to settle in one place. The weakest what this place has to offer, in fact.”

“So the surface is the big boys playground?”

“Correct.”

“But you settled in deeper.”

“Also correct. Though I did make some tunnels to the surface as well. I wonder if my web is still working,” she laughs.

“Web?”

“You’ll find out in time, dear.” You can’t see her, but you just know she has that vicious grin of hers.

You notice that there’s quite a lot of broken pieces of hollow bone, both from masks and apparently proper bones too, littering the place, almost like a graveyard. It’s peculiar as you remember those parts disintegrating into reishi in the living realm and Soul Society.

In the distance you can sense this kind of hollow colony that Zil described. It’s hard to make out their reiatsu against the backdrop of this realm’s reiatsu, but there’s a lot of them.

On the other hand, there are these wandering herds of Gillians. Their docility might mean you have a rare chance to examine them up close.

Or you could just avoid all of that as much as you can.

>3/3

>Check the hollow colony out. A colony means society, and that’s something you want to see for yourself.
>Check out a herd of Gillians. There’s a variety of uses that you can think of for them.
>Continue your journey, avoid as much as you can.
>Other?

>>4872347
Ugh. I want to be safe, but we should take the chance to explore.

>Check the hollow colony out. A colony means society, and that’s something you want to see for yourself.

This is better for Lahela's education than the other option. We'll learn either way.

>>4872347
>Check the hollow colony out. A colony means society, and that’s something you want to see for yourself.

>>4872347
>>Check out a herd of Gillians. There’s a variety of uses that you can think of for them.

>>4872347
>Check the hollow colony out. A colony means society, and that’s something you want to see for yourself.

>>4872347
>>Check the hollow colony out. A colony means society, and that’s something you want to see for yourself.
Gotta get our hollow kids properly socialized

>>4872386
>>4872395
>>4872451
>>4873019
>>4873173
Colony it is!
>Writing

File: idunfruit.jpg (238 KB, 774x1024)

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“Lahela, wanna go see a hollow society?”

“Issn’t that dangerouss?”

“I mean, if I understand right, they’re the weakest of the weak. What’s the worst that can happen?” you shrug. “Not the first time I’d be in the middle of hollows. I also have you to protect me, don’t I?”

A final wink is all it takes to get a light blush on her face and for her to avert her gaze. It’s kinda cute.

You make sure to cast Kyokkō again, to hide your and Lahela’s presence for now, just like Aizen has taught you. Apparently, it’s one of his favorite kidō spells.

The colony itself is quite… shabby. It’s based around one of those quartz pillars, and some white stone has been clumped together like mud into huts. Probably with the use of natural abilities.

Much like when Aizen took you to see hollows up close in China, this place has a lot of brawling and various games using hollow bone, but to your surprise there’s also a small market.

Selling fruit.

Selling.

Fruit.

“I-Is that? How?” you gasp. The fruit is blue-turquoise in color, a little bit like a pear. On top of that, there’s crushed blue leaves, water containers, and various things made of hollow bone. As you’re busy trying to make sense of things, Lahela speaks up.

“They’re like Drianni’ss fruitss.”

“They.. kinda are, not exactly though,” you say as you rub your chin. You see hollows come and go from the trader’s stall. Some get their stuff, others are violently thrown away with angry-sounding spanish. You do hear some german though.

“Shit, I knew I should’ve paid more attention to the language classes,” you mutter. You can understand a little spanish, some german and most of english, with them being the main languages of the Western afterlife, but it takes a bit of strain. You do understand the gist of what the trader is saying:

“Come get your Idun once you’re finished with your damn tasks, fresh from Azulwald!”

“Must be something new,” Zilya shrugs somewhere deep in your head, as she senses your question beforehand. “Never heard of it.”

You look at Lahela and you can see that she really would like to interact with these hollows. You’re not sure if it’s wise though.

>Break the spell, reveal yourself to the colony
>Go away and approach the place more naturally
>Stay hidden, see if anything more interesting happens
>Keep going forward
>Other?

File: astolfohumph.jpg (7 KB, 223x226)

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So I realized that dealing with languages is more trouble than it's worth, so I kinda retroactively gave Koharu an understanding of some of them to a degree that won't be a big obstacle. But I think that the more time you spend around here the quicker you'll learn to understand things.

Fuck me and my autistic need for things to make sense.

>>4873281
>>Go away and approach the place more naturally

>>4873281
>>Go away and approach the place more naturally
Probably a bad idea, but I’m curious if they’ll toss us out. If not, it may be alright to approach this (or another) settlement in the future for experimentation (like forbidden kido) or to recover. We need to learn what approach works best though.

>>4873281
>>Stay hidden, see if anything more interesting happens

>>4873287
Such is the burden of interactive world building

>>4873281
>Go back, break the spell and cast ia again on yourself before reentering so that Lahela can interact with the hollows while you stay hidden

>>4874593
>>4873400
>>4873287
Know what, I’ll switch to backing this. We can use Celaris’ new ability to go with Lahela into the village while keeping a distance. She could broach the topic of us coming in if needed, and she won’t need to communicate back to us so the hollows realize how close we are.

>>4873281
>>4874593
I'll support this.

Rolled 7, 1, 7, 8 + 2 = 25 (4d10 + 2)

>>4873376
>>4873400
>>4873624
>>4873638
>>4874593
>>4875557
>>4875606
Looks like letting Lahela socialize on her own wins.
>Writing
>Lahela attempting a social roll
>Drianni made her learn some spanish just in case

>>4875771
Update will come tomorrow I'm afraid, I got half written but now I need sleep. Fortunately these teens are super easy

File: Lahela 3.jpg (11 KB, 180x280)

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“Maybe we should approach them,” you mumble as you observe the denizens of this hollow colony.

“I never knew hollowss could be this talkative,” she says, as you see her eyes slightly gleaming in this dim light. “Most that I met talked about killingss, but thesse talk about buildingss and tradingss.”

“Wait… you can understand them?”

“Yess. Drianni sspoke this language to me until I undersstood it. Alsso made me dodge her rootss at the ssame time.”

“Well, that’s one way to learn a language, I guess. So how about you go talk to them then?”

“W-What?”

“Come on, I can see it on your face. You’re itching to meet them. It’s okay, I’ll be watching from behind this spell.”

“B-But-”

“No buts! You’re a big girl already, it’s time you meet the other kids!” you grin. “Let’s just go back just a little bit so you don’t just appear out of thin air and startle them. Oh and take Lizzy with you.”

And so you backpedal somewhat, letting Lahela leave the concealment kidō.

You can’t help but feel a bit proud of her. Is this what motherhood feels like? Seeing a child you raised go out into the world? Well, technically you forced a soul-eating monster to take human form, but you kinda still see the parallels.

>1/2

File: questioningmunch.gif (27 KB, 370x300)

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The hollows of the colony tense up quite a lot as Lahela approaches the colony. Half of them completely hide, while another half bundles up to make themselves look larger. Lahela’s of course taken by surprise and stops, before again, slowly approaching until she’s at the colony.

“S-Stop right there!” one of them shouts. “I-I am VERY powerful! Yeah! I am the mighty FEAR EATER!”

Lahela just tilts her head., trying to figure out how to even respond. You also realize that she doesn’t know who the Fear Eater is, so that threat doesn’t even work on her.

And clearly that can’t be THE Fear Eater, right?

“N-nisse to meet you, Fear Eater?” Lahela offers, prompting all of the clumped hollows to drop their jaws and fall apart.

They mumble something between themselves, and then slowly creep up closer to Lahela. You overhear some mumbling of ‘arrancar’ and ‘Espada.’

“Okay. Who are you then?”

“Lahela,” she responds and bows her head lightly. From her hair emerges Lizzy herself. “And thiss iss Lizzy.”

More mumbling and conversation happens between the hollows, and even those that had retreated into the makeshift houses peek out to look.

“A-And who do you serve?”

“Sserve?” Lahela blinks. “Ssometimess I sserve food to Koharu..?”

Their collective jaws drop once again. “F-Food? YOU ARE FROM AZULWALD?!”

And that’s when pretty much all of the hollows surround Lahela with lots of questions.

“What’s the food like?!”

“Is it true it’s blue?!”

“Please make me an arrancar!”

“What’s the thick amazonian goddess feel like?!”

The poor girl is bombarded by so many questions that she’s overwhelmed. Only the trader hollow keeps to his stalls, shaking his head. Well, at least it looks like these hollows aren’t going to tear her apart anytime soon.

>2/2

>Reveal yourself as well, help Lahela out
>Keep hidden, watch what happens
>Other?

>>4876759
>>Keep hidden, watch what happens
Our girl is making headway, no need to interfere yet

>>4876759
>Keep hidden, watch what happens

>>4876759
>Keep hidden, watch what happens

>>4876759
>>Keep hidden, watch what happens

>>4876759
>>Other?
>See if we can get some food and study it for a bit before putting it back.

>>4876875
>>4876934
>>4877187
>>4877531
>>4877858
Phew, what a day.
>Writing

File: alchemystuff.jpg (117 KB, 900x692)

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Well, if anything happens, you can always come out of hiding, right? Why spoil her moment?

And so you let her be on her own, watching from above, standing on reishi pads and inside the Kyokkō concealment spell.

>...

You are Lahela, Koharu’s protector, an arrancar who was made so by him, and you’re getting way too much social interaction since… well, ever. This hollow colony became extremely interested in you after they figured out you weren’t a threat, and you have no idea what to do.

After enough bothering by the weaker hollows, the trader shouts out and tells everyone to get back to their business, before leading you closer to the stalls. You take a closer look at him, and you see that he has multiple arms, with which he operates his stall. He keeps powdering things, mixing, and making all kinds of concoctions. You don’t exactly recognize an animal in his mask, but it’s sort of insectuous, as are these arms of his.

“Lahela, huh. Been a while since I’ve heard a non-spanish name around these parts,” he speaks in a sure but calm voice, keeping his focus on his work. “You aren’t part of her troupe, otherwise you’d be torturing us by now. Neither are you screaming about us belonging to that fool, so clearly you’re not with him either. You’re not a spider, so that excludes the pits. That leaves el Salvaje, yet that’s not right either, despite you being an arrancar.”

He finally turns to watch you up and down. “Not that often you see one in a shinigami uniform either.”

“I come from Ssoul Ssossiety,” you eagerly nod. The trader stops what he’s doing as he considers what you just said.

“As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s maybe the most plausible theory. Very well. I’m Trader. Yes, just Trader.”

“Nisse to meet you,” you nod, and look over the various items in his stall. “What are thesse?”

“Never seen these before? So you haven’t been to Hueco Mundo much either. These are various things you can find in this realm, you see. Hollow bone powder, Idun seeds and fruit, as well as blaublatt from Azulwald; orange algae from the abyss; ground quartz. Just to name the important ones.”

“I thoughtss there would only be ssand here,” you blink and scratch your head.

“It would’ve been so, were it not for el Salvaje and his forest of blue.”

>1/2

File: 120Espada_silhouettes.png (571 KB, 1286x522)

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He tells you about this axolotl-masked hollow, and according to legend, he sat on a spot for seven days and seven nights, after which a blue plant popped out of it. And from that, grew into a whole forest which makes up Azulwald.

“While the waters still have some plantlife, they also house the worst horrors of Hueco Mundo. So when the blue miracle happened, some thirty or so years ago, it shook the realm.

If there’s a forest here, you’re sure Drianni would love it! She always told you about the glorious jungles she reigned over!

“Wooow! That ssounds amazing! I wanna ssee it!”

“Not so hasty. I can take you there sometime, sure, but I’m still curious about you. An arrancar isn’t something you see that often here, outside the Espada.”

“...Outsside the ssword?”

“It’s.. the name of a group. Don’t ask. So what I wanna know is, who took your mask off? No offense, but I don’t see you as one to have been able to do it yourself.”

You are about to tell him, when you remember what Koharu told you.

‘Think for a moment, don’t be as honest with strangers.’

But this fellow seems so nice!

>2/2

>”Koharu did, yup!”
>”Errr, I did it mysself, yess!”
>Other?

(Note: You can vote to intervene as Koharu whenever you wish)

>>4879629
>>Other?
>H-hey, don't be mean! I'm plenty strong, I can fire Cero beams, I've fought some shinigami and a kinda-shinigami but they didn't have a sword they had some amulet that turned into red wings and-

When you aren't comfortable with lying, deflect! Trader seems to be okay with Lahela, he'll know we're deflecting but probably won't want to make her (more) uncomfortable by pushing.

>>4879629
>>”Errr, I did it mysself, yess!”

>>4879629
>>4879676
This

>>4879629
>>”Errr, I did it mysself, yess!”

>>4879676
Support, this is funny

>>4879676
Will back

>>4879629
>>4879676
+1

>>4879676
>>4879803
>>4879814
>>4880094
>>4880216
>>4880519
>>4880648
Looks like that's one thing Lahela learnt from Koharu. Deflect so you don't have to lie.
>Writing

File: Kagura.(Azumanga.Daioh).f(...).jpg (304 KB, 2000x1600)

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You blink a few times. Man, thinking this much is hard. But you know what to do! Koharu’s done it enough times for you to copy: Deflect!

“H-hey, don'tss be mean! I'm plenty sstrong, I can fire ssero beams, I've fought ssome sshinigami and a kinda-sshinigami but they didn't have a ssword they had some amulet that turned into red wingss and-”

“Woah, slow down there, girl,” Trader says. “I ain’t judging you on sheer power itself. From what I’ve seen that process can outright kill hollows if they don’t have an enormous reserve of willpower. You just… don’t strike me as having it.”

He rubs the bottom of his mask, kind of like one would a chin, but his monstrous body doesn’t exactly have one.

“On the other hand, if you really can fire a cero… yeah, maybe you do fit the bill. That means you must’ve been an adjuchas prior to becoming an arrancar.”

“Nope!” you gleefully nod.

“...What?”

“I wass a regular hollow. Couldn’t really move y’knowss! Being a plant andss all.”

“That… just… questions… nevermind. Keep your secrets. As long as you don’t harm these people, I don’t really care that much.”

“You care for them? Like family?”

“Not really,” he shrugs. “But they give me purpose, and I guess hope. That our kind is good for something other than mindless gore.”

You recall back to your early days, the days before Koharu found you. It’s hard to even remember them, as you really had no purpose, no way of doing anything about it, and you just barely survived on scraps of food, as well as Drianni’s fruit, despite resisting them. You remember how much your life changed after you were given your humanity back. But not just that, but given purpose by both Koharu and Drianni filled you with… happiness.

“I understandss,” you nod and calmly say. Trader stops his work to take a glance at you, and is about to say something, when his head jerks into the direction where you too now feel something approaching.

Three strong presences.

>1/2

File: dordoniciruccigantenbainne.jpg (122 KB, 1280x720)

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The colony once again panics and splits into two: those who hide in their homes, and those who clump up together to try and make themselves look like a larger hollow. Trader however just keeps working on things, though he’s clearly alert.

You just stand there as you are, unsure of what you should even do. So long as Koharu is safe, everything is good.

The trio of hollows arrive on scene with a swift step of sonido, the hollow shunpo equivalent. Your eyes widen as you realize that these are in fact arrancar!

“There is no need for panic, la gente,” the one at the front says. He’s got black spiky hair, thin twirly hairs for a moustache and a short goatee. His mask fragment is a long strip along his forehead, it looks kinda weird.

“The fuck there’s not, of course there’s a need for panic,” the woman behind him curses. She looks much weirder with purple hair and long tear-shaped makeup on her face. You wonder what’s up with that.

“Ah shit, here we go again…” sighs the third member of this trio, the most colorful one, with a large orange afro.

“Come on Cirucci, there’s no need for that. We’re just here to look for somebody, nothing else!”

“Tch,” the foul-mouthed girl spits.

Their eyes all focus on you now, as they finally recognize you, and more specifically, what you are.

“Why hello there niña. You’re not somebody I’ve ever met before.”

You blink, then shake your head, and then wave your arm gleefully in a wide arc as a hello.

“Nope! But I’m pleassed to meet you!”

For some reason, the trio looks very confused, and kinda a bit scared too.

>2/2

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And that’s where we’ll end things for this session, next one starting right tomorrow. The camp ends tomorrow too, and I’ll be able to finally get back home. It's at least one and a half weeks till the next camp, so I won't be writing and posting at inhumane times and return more or less to normal for a while.

Time to wrap up the last night watch and go to sleep, so good night!

>>4881727
Good night, Trippy! You might be writing at inhuman hours over there, but it's only 8:11 PM here.

I have no idea who the three arrancar are, I didn't make it past the Bount arc. But I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about a crossover with Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, so I don't *think*we need to watch the nose hairs on the afro guy.

More seriously, are these three going to be a threat to Lahela?

>>4881811
>More seriously, are these three going to be a threat to Lahela?
They're no joke, and the three of them together would probably flatten her. Even if Koharu jumped in it would be a very hard fight. Hopefully it won't come to blows.

>>4881811
If memory serves they were 3 lower tier Espada that Chad, Uryu, Ichigo in the main universe. The two dudes had some honorable traits to them while the girl was a bit crueler.

>>4881727
Thanks for the run Trippy, can’t wait to see how Koharu will deal with Kaizar and the gang
>>4881811
>>4881821
>>4881833
If I’m remembering German Hollow Quest right, these three by now shouldn’t be Espada anymore

Okay, I would of liked to start the next part today, but this ungodly heat is killing me. I'll try again tomorrow when my brain isn't all mush mush. How can people survive in over 30C?!

>>4881811
>>4881821
>>4881833
>>4881845
This trio is quite competent actually. Alone (if memory serves me right) they are about as strong as a good lieutenant. Together they could very well take on captains, if they'd have proper teamwork.

>>4882898
So if we do fight them, mock the cruel one so she loses her temper and doesn’t coordinate with the others. Got it!

Should be avoiding a fight, of course. 3v2 may necessitate bankai, and they could be allies.

Guess if they offer anything Lahela even slightly suspects, she could try bringing them to us. She could even be blunt in admitting her friend (Koharu) would be more suspicious of any offers than Lahela and it’d be better to bring him in.

May as well start building a rep in Hueco Mundo, not like the SS will see.

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You are Lahela, an arrancar owing your current existence to Nakashiri Koharu, a shinigami of all possible beings, but one that doesn’t seem to mind the fact that you are a hollow.

>https://audius.co/qmtrippy/06-fiesta-de-guerra.-93855

In front of you stands a trio of arrancars like yourself, but in a white uniform, in contrast to your own black shihakusho. The trio recovers from your abruptly cheerful handwave and statement. The black-haired guy at the front especially tries to present him in a very proper and orderly manner.

“Well, then. I am Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio!” the man states, expanding his arms wide to the side. You only now notice the white strips of cloth hanging from there. What a weird fashion. “The great, the magnificent, the-”

His speech is abruptly stopped as he trips, landing face down onto the ground.

“Oi, Cirucci, what’s the big deal?!” he shouts as a vein bulges on his cheek.

“Quit yapping and get to the point. Ugh. The faster we get this shit done the faster I’ll get back to my toy horse.”

The orange afro-man just shakes his head, while Dordoni is just trying to salvage the situation however he can.

“W-Well, the taste of the sands of Hueco Mundo always brings out feelings of home and joy-”

“I hatess it,” you just shrug, adding another blow to this guy’s chest. He coughs a few times.

“Right. We detected a new entry into the realm. We are expecting somebody, a… shinigami in fact. And despite looking like one, you are clearly one of us.”

Koharu did say that an escort would be sent to find him…

>”Yup, that’s us!”
>”Errr, what kind of sshinigami?”
>(Intervene as Koharu)
>Other?

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Not a big update, but! I'll be spending at least 6-ish hours in a car tomorrow, so I'll be able to write an update or two plus an omake, also to make up for bailing yesterday.

>>4884904
>>Other?
>Oh, are you looking to hunt one? I can find some for you if you can tell me more about Hueco Mundo. I’ll even let you keep them!

Shows her inexperience on her sleeve, but we can use it to check if they’re the escort or if they’ve been sent to stop us. We can pretend to do some sensing trick and lead them back to our starting point while we ask questions until they lose patience or Koharu has to step in.

>>4884904
>”Errr, what kind of sshinigami?”

>>4884904
>Other?
As a player I've thought about things and decided I don't want to put words in Lahela's mouth.
I'd rather have her make another social roll and act based on that.

>>4884904
>>”Errr, what kind of sshinigami?”

>>4884904
>>”Errr, what kind of sshinigami?”

Rolled 5, 8, 9, 5 + 2 = 29 (4d10 + 2)

>>4884945
>>4885045
>>4885239
>>4885462
>>4886153
Deflection wins again
>Writing

>>4885239
I considered just letting you stay as Koharu, but at the same time I wanted to give you guys at least some agency here while Koharu is watching behind the scenes. I try to tailor the options to what would be in character for Lahela anyway, but I do understand you.
>Lahela makes a social roll anyway for this, DC 20

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“Err…” you say as you make an awkward face, looking left and right. “W-What kind of sshinigami?”

Dordoni narrows his eyes and takes a few steps closer. “Black hair. Grey eyes. Cute face I hear. Goes by the name Koharu, that niña.”

They are after Koharu! Wait… no, that can’t be..

“I don’t knowss that person,” you shrug. Ah how wonderful, they’re looking for somebody else. What a relief! If they were looking for your Koharu, they would be saying they’re looking for a boy!

“Hmm, that’s a shame,” Dordoni answers, his eyes narrowing, but ultimately him sighing. He groans and extends his arms to the sides, complaining more or less to his companions.

“Damn it, I swear… if I don’t find her, I don’t even know what Lord Aizen will do to me! Certainly nothing gracious or magnificent!”

“I hope he’ll skin you alive,” Cirucci giggles.

“Oi, you do realize he’ll have all of our heads, right? I swear, this is all such a hassle.”

“W-We still got time, Gantenbainne! It’s only been a week!” Dordoni turns around and tries to gather motivation for his little group.

“Oh, you know Aizen?” you smile.

All three of them freeze and turn to look at you, now extremely weary.

“You know our Lord, yet you did not refer to him as your master,” Dordoni says, and sharpens his gaze on you. “Who are you, and what exactly is your relationship with him?”

You feel a little nervous as you can sense all three of them tensing up, as if readying for something… possibly bad.

“I-I’m Lahela! And…”

>”...he’ss the captain of my dearss friend!”
>”...he’ss a pretty sscary sshinigami!”
>”...he keeps vissiting my home ands mother!”
>(Intervene as Koharu)
>Other?