I cannot guess what we'll discover [closed]

[moonfang]

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?

Comments

[moonfang]

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.

[eclipsingblade]

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.

[moonfang]

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.

[eclipsingblade]

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?

[moonfang]

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.

[eclipsingblade]

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.

[moonfang]

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.

[eclipsingblade]

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..

[moonfang]

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.

[eclipsingblade]

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?"

[moonfang]

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.