lostcarnival | I cannot guess what we'll discover [closed]

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I cannot guess what we'll discover [closed]

Who: A boy and his sword
When: S2:D4
Where: Carnival training grounds
What: Ichigo is significantly more useful when his spirit is disconnected from his body. Unfortunately, none of the usual methods to knock him out of his meatsuit are available. Zangetsu has to get creative.
Warnings: Shenanigans

Zangetsu waits until the Nightrunners and whoever else have cleared out of the training yard for the day — or at least until there aren’t a million people around — to meet with Ichigo. It’s the first time they’d have really... interacted, since the shit with the Prince. Ichigo had needed time and space to recover from the whole incident. And besides, Zangetsu had been busy as well, bonding with his new pet.

Kaguya is there, too; it’s rare to see the sword spirit without his little winged ragdoll cat. Zangetsu has one of her many toys, in this case a bouquet of feathers on the end of a string, and is it swinging it through the air to train her aerial skills.

Well the training yard was just for the sapient members of the carnival?

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There is the brief impression of a dry chuckle and little more; the old man isn't about to interfere in this. There's no reason to, so it's all on them. As it should have been from the beginning. Unless of course things turn suddenly and unexpectedly lethal. Accidents could happen...

Power though, it seems, is perfectly willing to live in human flesh or just reishi, and while it's familiar, it's also .. not getting him anywhere. "Would be good enough for fighting I think," he mutters as the mask wisps away into black and then nothingness. "It felt about right." But with annoying human meatsuit issues like not being able to stand on the air.

Ichigo had not really ever dealt with the full hollow. Other people did, and he'd seen the side effects. The suggestion alone draws a sharp shake of his head. That seems like a really bad idea. "And who's going to be able to stop you when you go off on a rampage?"

When. Not if. Because that's how it worked in that form, nobody was safe, even friends. Maybe especially friends, as they tended to draw attention. He knew he wouldn't be able to. Not like this. Not ...when he felt so much weaker than he should be. Zangetsu wasn't known for his calculated thoughtful actions and calm rational decisions on the best of times, when instinct was in full control even less so.

I can prevent any harm from being too dangerous.

The murmur is familiar enough, and that the old man seems fine with all of it is seriously irritating. "Yeah that's great but what about everyone else?"

"I'll keep it in mind for emergencies."

If, for some reason, they couldn't find out a way to get Ichigo out of his body... well, a masked human would do well enough in a pinch. Zangetsu isn't sure how well he can heal his master's physical form, though. Or if he can at all! Since Quincies were humans, technically, perhaps the Old Man could at least stop him from bleeding out.

"Ichigo," he says calmly. "A Hollow's instincts. You remember what they're based around. If you take away that emptiness, that nidus of suffering, do you really think a Hollow is so dangerous and wild? That little candy has done an amazing and impossible thing. Besides..." he grins, wryly. "You underestimate how much I can control myself when I want to."

He just. Doesn't really ever want to.

That's what blut is for. While Ichigo had no control at all over his quincy heritage, one of his two embodiments of power had absolutely no issue doing the same. It just required being worthwhile doing so, as opposed to leaving it up to Zangetsu.

This might not qualify as leaving it up to Zangetsu, but there is still the sense of unflappable certainty from the third part of their odd triad.

"Yeah as I recall it ain't always hunger, especially for the bigger ones. Obsession and crazy seem to do just as well." Ichigo frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. He really doubted some fairy was going to be able to stop and contain the thing that caused the devastation he remembered after Ulquiorra, and he'd rather not find out he's right. "Since you've never wanted to before that's not exactly a glowing reason to think now is gonna be a good first time."

The old man could offer advice. Frequently he does. But his silence this time is deliberate. While he could heal the harm done, it's up to them to trust each other enough to try it out. It was a good learning opportunity. Certainly he knew Zangetsu wasn't about to destroy the entire carnival in a sudden rampage.

But butting in wouldn't help build the bridge they so desperately needed.

As much as the white Zangetsu disliked the Quincies, he had to admit that Blut had saved Ichigo's life on more than one occasion. He couldn't hate anything that kept Ichigo safe.

"This Hollow is pretty base. Strong, but basic," Zangetsu tries to reassure. Actually, now that he thinks about it, he's not sure Ichigo is even aware of this particular iteration of their power. He had shown him the more powerful, upgraded humanoid version when Ichigo came to them for Mugetsu. But... there weren't exactly any mirrors down there in the Visored's basement.

"... Ichigo..." he says, holding out a hand. "I know ya don't have any reason to trust me. But I'm asking you anyway. Let me prove it to you."

He's going to refuse. It's a given, he had no reason to trust and plenty of reasons not to. It's written in the tightness of his shoulders and the way his eyes narrow, only silence and a critical gaze meeting the outstretched hand.

Of course Ichigo isn't going to compromise that easily, there was nothing from either Zangetsu that he hadn't had to steal or have to win - and with this one it always came with violence, the risk of possession and worse, risk to his friends. There is no trusting a Hollow that was still held sway by its instincts. Some maybe could be - like Coyote Starrk, who in dim recollection seemed mostly motivated by the incredible powers of apathy and laziness.

But not Zangetsu. He draws himself up a little, expression dark, lips pressed in a thin line; if mistrust could be any clearer it would be written out.

"Alright."

That's not refusal. Not exactly. The suspicion is still painfully clear, but ... just this once. Trust is earned, but also needed an opportunity TO be earned.

If it went badly, it would be confirmation of what he was already certain of and would rather think is a thing of the past. Wanted to believe, in the face of bitter and painful experience.

But if it didn't go wrong, if it didn't, and such an easy, effortless opportunity to claim the goals Zangetsu's said he'd had for years simply wasn't taken even with the opening right there... maybe he'd finally be able to put aside that bit of Vizored training that demanded he control and subdue his other-self.

Maybe. Maybe it could be a better idea of what normal shinigami have with their zanpakutos.

"Just try not to break anything." And it's certain he doesn't mean himself. The entire rest of the carnival was more of a concern.

What a face. Of course the answer was no. It was always no and it was always going to BE no. But how could Zangetsu ever prove himself if Ichigo never gives him the chance?

Which is why he seems quite surprised when, despite all the body language, Ichigo actually says “alright.” He’s getting a chance? But he quickly replaces his surprise with the same controlled, serene and smug smile as before.

“Don’t break anything? What fun is that?” He says jokingly, then takes a few steps back. “I can be a good boy~”

He takes a deep breath, in and out, before surrounding himself in a pillar of black and red energy. It kicks up a breeze, but he tightly controls it to prevent any collateral damage from the release of power.

With a “fwoosh” the energy dissipates and Zangetsu stands in his changed form. The reptilian creature bears a mask in perfectly inverted colors from the one Zangetsu handed to Ichigo before — slick obsidian with pale white bars. The yellow eyes behind the mask are pupiless, but intelligent and focused. The creature looks sort of ridiculous with those rabbit ears and feathery legs, until one sees the vicious claws on the end of toes. There’s also the matter of the long, thick tail.

Definitely not the Hollow that Ichigo thought it was.

Zangetsu looks at his hand and flexes his claws. His mind is amazingly clear with hunger only a distant thought. Then he turns his attention on Ichigo, and he approaches, slowly.

He doesn't want to. He's seen the side effects before.

Either Zangetsu was capable of far more control than Ichigo's ever seen from him or ... hopefully someone else in this carnival would be able to stop him. He'd try to interfere himself of course but he held no illusions of being capable of it while wearing living flesh and blood.

All else that remained was.. waiting. And finding out just how big of a fool he is for even agreeing to it. The lack of anything at all from the old man was NOT helping. The blast of black and red reiatsu isn't unexpected.

The shape left behind on the other hand, absolutely is. He'd never seen it, there weren't mirrors or photographs or anything of the sort in Shinji's House O Headaches, and it certainly isn't the form he's expecting. This one is ... rather lizardy.

Except without a lizardy snout. The rabbit legs seem to work just fine with it, though the ears.. are still... utterly ridiculous.

It's a little too serious to snrk, but he almost does anyway. "Where did that form come from?" There's a twitch of shoulders, an immediate coiling tenseness he could no more repress than he could suddenly sprout a second head when it comes to hollows, but anything further he does manage to keep ahold of.

For now. It's a struggle with anything even remotely like faith or trust, and he's not having an easy time of it at all. Ichigo is, at least, trying.

Well, it was a bit of both. There were several in the carnival strong enough to stop Zangetsu in this form, or at least distract him. The Ringmaster herself could put an end to it immediately. But -- he was also much more able to control himself than he had displayed previously. A controlled fight was never what Ichigo needed. Unpredictability, real danger; these were what he needed to train, to get good enough to do what had to be done.

The ears are sort of ridiculous, aren't they? Out of place on such a fearsome looking thing. At least they sort of... blend in to his hair, if he holds them flat, or down.

When Zangetsu speaks, it is with a thick hiss and even thicker distortion. Hell, if Ichigo wasn't his master, he'd probably be impossible to understand. It's questionable if the noises he actually makes are even words. And yet Ichigo, and Ichigo alone, could parse them as such.

"Firsssst..... form. Basssssss-iicck. No hornssss. Lesss... White... infflu-entssss. Jussst 'me'," he is close enough to Ichigo now to touch him, he lays his palm on Ichigo's chest. Standing up straight, he's a full head and a half taller than his master. "Jussssssssszzt-- 'you'." He removes his hand and slouches back, back to Ichigo's eye level.

If he could break the association of rabbit, it wouldn't be so bad. Plenty of animals had long ears.

Unfortunately he knows they're the ears of a bunny. But laughing about it is a little harder when faced with a Hollow, and not one of the more human ones or even the recognizably part human resurrection forms. He knows exactly who he's dealing with, the reiatsu's the same.

But 'little' hollows tend to be more dangerously unpredictable. The humanlike ones could at least be talked to. It's difficult to set aside. Difficult to not twitch away when touched, a part of him still expecting claws to dig in and that ear-searing scream to start up. It doesn't, of course. He still expects it a little.

Understanding those distorted words isn't really a matter of hearing, and that perhaps cements things a little more than not being attacked does. "'White'." The word is echoed blankly; although he did get a rundown of a certain precious backstory it was.. lacking in things like what Aizen had called that thing. Isshin hadn't known. It doesn't connect to anything, Zangetsu had always been him even if he hadn't wanted to acknowledge it.

And apparently it seems, should he grow too attached to the world to move on his fate was to be a big ugly lizard. Not even something cool like a dragon.

But there's no connection to 'White', no sense that the form he had seen was closer related to it than to what was his true nature. Whatever his 'true nature' should have been; hadn't that been robbed of him before he was even conceived? Whatever could have been, should have been was long lost. Zangetsu had been meant to be something different, once upon a time. Perhaps closer to Engetsu, whatever it was. Perhaps that too was inherited, link upon link down the chain.

"Anyway that's frickin creepy, let's get on with it."

A possible future. What happened to zanpakuto, if their shinigami did become full hollows?

What happened to the Zanpakutou of Shinigami that succumbed to Hollowfication completely? Well.

You'd probably have to ask Nejibana that.

Ichigo mouths the name "White", and Zangetsu has the presence of mind (thanks to that candy) to realize he doesn't know who he's referring to. He quirks one ear, curiously. It makes sense... Isshin told Ichigo the story of how he had met their mother, and White's name had not been something he knew. Zangetsu only knew it because the thing was as much a part of him as he was of Ichigo.

Well, for the time being, it didn't matter. It seemed his answer was satisfactory. Good, because "talking", or whatever passed for talking in this form, was a chore. Robbing of true forms... well, you couldn't be robbed of something you never had in the first place.

He'd be nothing like Engetsu anyway. Engetsu was a being of hellfire and heat, light as brilliant as the sun. He was the moon, after all.

He snorts at being called "creepy", letting out a puff of dark energy that looks similar to a jet of black flame. Get on with it? Fine. He'll get on with it.

Without warning, the ungainly looking beast turns on a dime and slaps Ichigo, hard, across his chest with that thick, muscular tail. There's a lot of power behind it, and it'd be enough to send any Shinigami flying. Hopefully, it'd be enough to knock him free. If his theory is correct, this form will preferentially connect with the soul inside the body, rather than the body itself.

There might not be a lot of warning, or really any, but Ichigo's already expecting an attack. It's sort of required for what they're planning on, it's just a matter of degree. Whether he'd be left with bruises or stitches.

The matter of 'White' will have to wait. Now's not the time, and Zangetsu doesn't excel at communication on a normal day, never mind when he's a hideous lizard thing.

At least, he thinks as the blur of white tail swings at him, it's not the claws.

He's taken far harder blows before, many, many times but the point isn't to cause harm .. much ... so much as it is to hit the part that is actually TANGIBLE to the spirit world. Living bodies are not, and the tail passes cleanly right through, not even ruffling his new teeshirt as he buckles like a puppet with his strings cut.

Well part of him anyway.

The rest of him is kicked head over heels in a brief tumble of dust and black cloth.

Ha!! Success! Finally. Zangetsu turns back in time to catch Ichigo’s soulless body in his arms, easy enough to do when he focuses on touching the physical matter instead of the spiritual. He ensures that the body lies in a comfortable position so Ichigo doesn’t come back to a stiff neck or some other garbage like that.

The he stands upright, and begins walking over to where Ichigo rolled off to. As he walks, the reptilian form cracks and begins sloughing like old bits of porcelain. By the time he’s reached Ichigo, he’s back to normal. He crouches by his master and offers a hand.

“Knocked the wind outta ya, huh? Hehehehhe!”

Though it seems Ichigo’s fears about having to learn to use a bow were unfounded; both swords popped out with him, including the normal black version of the sword Zangetsu himself wields. It was separation— not severance.

Moving around limp meat is easy enough, hopefully nobody would turn up and see bodies all over the place and begin wondering what the hell it was they were up to.

Clearly this is just cloning practice or something.

Well. On one hand it worked. On the other if that's what he had to rely on each time things were going to get troublesome very, very quickly, especially if Zangetsu simply wasn't around. He was loathe to go into further debt with the Ringmaster, but there might not eventually be another option.

The weight of two blades is not yet familiar, he hadn't had them both long enough TO develop a familiarity, but it was nice to not be unarmed. Or have to rely on a bow. It didn't ... mean to him that Zangetsu still wanted to be around. That he might not be carrying around an empty blade.

Don't think about it for now. He sits up, a glance cast at the debris Zangetsu's leaving in his wake. It'll disappear eventually, like discarded masks inevitably did, but it was still strange and uncomfortable to see. Reminded him of the half-skin he'd seen in Shinji's Funhouse. Maybe he really should have asked them what his inner hollow looked like. .. Should he have asked what theirs seemed like? Is this the relationship they had with their own zanpakuto? Too late to ask now, and not too many of them seemed likely to be the sorts to even answer to begin with.

Hachi maybe.

The offered hand is eyed before being accepted. Ichigo's still clearly not exactly pleased with all of this but he'd also ... not rejected any of it. Sometimes steps are hard to take, and he didn't have to LIKE it to do it anyway.

"Nah. Just some other stuff. Never thought I'd actually miss Kon." He was useful!

Now that you are properly equipped for battle, make use of it.

The old man's prompt is only delayed long enough to allow Ichigo to regain his feet. It wasn't Zangetsu that really struggled with fighting alongside others if he had to, truthfully..

Ha! Cloning projects. Yeah, that's what it would look like to the casual Carnival-contracted observer. Two dead bodies and their living clones in different clothing. Kind of a mess, actually.

But... it wasn't the most quick and intuitive way to get Ichigo in soul form. If Zangetsu had to transform and whap him every time, it wouldn't work in a fight situation where time was of the essence. Perhaps they'd have to ask the Ringmaster for a Gokon Tekko...

Zangetsu jerks Ichigo to his feet, kicking away one of the shed pieces of skin idly once he does so. As expected, that piece, and the others, flake away into nothingness. "Or Rukia's glove. I wonder if the Ringmaster can get us one."

There's a small knowing smile, and Zangetsu tilts his head to one side.

"The old man wants us to do some training, doesn't he," a question, technically, but phrased as a statement. He knows good and well what the Old Man's thoughts about the matter are.

Something would likely be done with the corpses! .. Except they're not corpses and are going to be needed again later. That too was rather inconvenient.

"Probably. Not interested in getting even more into debt with these people though." One year. A lot could happen in one year. At the end of it, he'd have what he wanted.. and Yhwach wouldn't be an issue anymore and ... Zangetsu's freedom comes to a sudden end.

Once on his feet he spends a moment rearranging his clothing, he wouldn't usually bother but they're not launching immediately into a fight and he's a bit uncomfortable with how certain things are riding.

There's an acknowledging grunt at the technical-question-that-isn't. "He seems to think we need to work together." Instead of fighting each other. "Can you hear him out there?"

Definitely not just corpses. Much more important and useful than corpses. Corpses that could be possessed and used!

"She probably wouldn't charge a whole year fer it, but whatever you think. I'll figure somethin' out. I always do."

His freedom. His freedom was just a weird sort of bonus. It wasn't anything he ever really wanted, not really. Sure, it was interesting, and it was an opportunity he enjoyed having. But would he be happy to go back to how things were, free of the pain of being a free Hollow? He was looking forward to it. But hey, all life experiences were worthwhile!

"Mmm... kind of? As long as he ain't bein' private to just you. But he's right, you know." Like always.

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I cannot guess what we'll discover [closed]

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