7 Chapter 7

They called her 'Silent," for she couldn't speak, but she didn't really care. After all, the world around her and the residents in it were far more interesting, especially the hollow called King.

From what she had observed, his name really wasn't 'King,' but regardless, it was what everyone called him. Aside from Starrk, Lilynette, Harribel, and a few others she had observed, no one else called him Shirou.

So, was his name King, or Shirou? It didn't really matter.

She felt the eyes on her again, and she shivered. She didn't like being different, her form remarkably human-like with only the hole hidden beneath her clothes to show off her hollow heritage. Unlike Starrk and Lilynette, she didn't even have a mask fragment. Then what did that make her?

Isolated.

She sighed, picking up her pace to get away from all the stares. Despite her appearance, she was stronger and faster than the average hollow, roughly equivalent in strength to Mila Rose.

Therefore, it hadn't taken her long to reach her destination, an isolated plateau near, but not at Shirou's perch. She wouldn't dare go there, for fear of any repercussions.

Glancing around her, she released a breath before raising her hand and slashed open a garganta. The residents in Hueco Mundo were interesting, and so was Shirou, but there was some sort of allure on the other side of the garganta. A calling if she had anyway of putting it that was far more compelling than her curiosity. She needed to find out what it was, if only to put to rest the longing in her being.

Glancing around once again, the desire continued to emanate from her soul. She couldn't stand it any longer, not after the past six years of holding it back. She jumped in, allowing herself to drift through the hole in space.

Unknown to her, and from afar, a pair of eyes closed before directing their attention elsewhere.

Shirou looked apologetically to Brans who stood beside him from their location by his perch.

Brans nodded. He knew what his King wanted of him.

"Understood." Brans opened a garganta and disappeared to watch over the new born. Even with her differences, to Brans and every hollow in the King's domain, she was one of them. A follower of the King.

As Brans left, Shirou turned his head to the spires of quartz rock. "You can come out, I know you're there."

There was a pause before a centaur-like hollow stepped out from behind the rocks. Her head was adorned with an oval visored skull with two protruding horns, her face streaked with red war paint that ran horizontal to the bridge of her nose. Her upper half was slim, her naval exposed below her green top, and smooth brown fur covered her bottom horse half.

"You're different from what I imagined," she spoke, stabbing the lance in her hands into the ground and crossing her arms. "You sent him, that other hollow, to guard the one that just left earlier, didn't you?"

Shirou stared into her eyes, trying to gauge her intentions. She was doing the same. "And if I did?" He ventured. He had seen the way the other hollows had isolated Silent, choosing to simply observe her from afar. Granted, he should have expected it with her differences, but he had hoped that things would work out without his intervention. At this point, Lilynette, and occasionally Starrk, Harribel, and Brans were the only ones to keep her company. Therefore, he couldn't fault her for seeking refuge in the human world, but he also had a desire to keep her and everyone who sought his protection safe. He was the protector, the one who defends the weak hollows and nurtures them with an abundance of reishi. Which subsequently lead to an increase in single souled hollows.

The hollow stared at him deeply, mulling over his words. She pursed her lips. "You really are different from what I imagined," she spoke at least. "Why would you aid all these hollows and use up your own reishi to further their evolution?"

He remained silent. He had no answer to that aside from it wasn't all his Reishi: Over half belonged to Starrk and Lilynette combined. That aside, it was something his very existence was compelling him to do. Like a distant yearning that would forever remain in his soul.

Evidently, the other hollow saw something in his eyes and promptly shrugged before smiling. "You can call me Nel," she said. "Pesche, Dondochakka, it's safe to come out."

Shirou raised a brow, before the sand erupted beside Nel. He had sensed the hollows approaching through a smell entering his nose in much the same way as he had sensed Nel.

He wasn't expecting the ginormous worm that carried them to spit them out and bury itself back in the sand.

"You brought Bawabawa," Nel stated.

"Well," Pesche rubbed at his head, and walked around leisurely, forgetting entirely about Shirou's existence, standing with his back turned to him. "He wanted to come along, so, Dondochakka and I figured why not. Now where is this famed King of Hollows. Hiding is he? Of course, he would hide from us."

Nel raised a brow as Dondochakka motioned frantically behind him. "He's right behind you," Nel spoke instead.

Pesche froze. S-Such skill. He could hear the soft breathing behind him. To have gotten past my defences… He jumped back towards Nel. How frightening. "F-Forgive me!" He spoke with a bow as a twitch formed over Nel's brow.

"Idiot!" Donochakka smacked Pesche over the head.

"H-He snuck up on me!" Pesche argued. "Otherwi-"

"Enough you two." Nel patted Pesche and Dondochakka's shoulders. "You're being rude."

"Sorry lady Nel," they both spoke.

Shirou didn't know what to make of the situation. This was starting to get out of his depth, but for some reason, he was used to these sorts of situations. Still though, there was a question that was bugging him.

"How did you find this spot?" How did you find me? He asked. Although he realized he had become quite famous, he knew that his perch was hard to find for any new hollows. So, how did Nel and her group manage to move in his exact direction? They couldn't have asked the other hollows living near him; they would never readily give out his location to new hollows.

Nel frowned as Pesche and Dondochakka whispered amongst each other.

Shirou hummed in thought from the sudden shift in mood. How strange.

"Well," Nel began slowly, lips pursed. "We stumbled upon it from this shini-"

A violent burst of wind.

The soft flutter of flowing fabric.

And a smile plastered across a pale face.

"That would be because of me," a Shinigami spoke, appearing causally out of nowhere.

Shirou narrowed his eyes. For the Shinigami to have just appeared without alerting him, he must have travelled in one movement over several hundred kilometers to have stayed away from his line of sight and smell.

He stared curiously at the Shinigami in front of him, the first of its kind that he had ever seen. Aside for the base instinct ingrained in his being of what a Shinigami was, it was entirely different seeing one in person. But what would a Shinigami want with him?

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, King of hollows," the Shinigami spoke. "Perhaps you would indulge me in a little talk?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silent leapt from roof to roof on the western side of Karakura Town, watching in fascination as people walked by. Some were running, some were talking, others lounging on park benches, but it didn't matter to Silent. All that did, was that Silent enjoyed the freedom of the Human World.

Hueco Mundo was home, and she liked the company of Shirou, Starrk, LIlynette, and the others, but there was something about just watching humans go about their day that drew her to them.

Right now, she was staring at a black spikey haired human girl going up against some other humans in white uniforms as she was passing by.

Tatsuki.

The name popped into her mind and caused her to miss her next foot hold. She gasped as she crashed and cratered the ground beneath her, drawing a few odd stares, yet no one could actually see her. At best, it looked as if the ground just spontaneously exploded.

Brans shook his head in the distance.

Silent pushed herself off the ground and huffed.

What was that? Silent pondered. The name had come so suddenly that she didn't know what to make of it. It was familiar yes, but that was all it was.

Her eyes began to wander back in the direction she had seen the black-haired human, but quickly focused on something more interesting in the distance. A blue streak of Reishi running across the sky from a nearby forest.

What could it possibly be?

In Hueco Mundo, it was normal to see random blasts of Reishi shot across the sky, partly because of Starrk. She had heard that ever since he had shown off his abilities several centuries ago, more and more freshly evolved hollows have been pestering him to fight. After all, what better way for a freshly evolved hollow to test his prows than on a superior foe that wasn't intimidating. Starrk hated it, but Lilynette adored the new attention. Thus, it was common to see blasts of Reishi in Hueco Mundo, but in the Human World?

She jumped back onto the roofs and made her way to the forest.

Streak after streak of Reishi continued to flash across the sky the closer she travelled.

Over there.

She stopped upon the branch of a tree, peering down into a clearing by a small river.

You shouldn't be out practicing by yourself.

Her head began to hurt, a hand placing itself over her forehead. What was going on? Ever since she had entered this town, image after image continued to flood her mind. Some were irrelevant, others more compelling. Staring at the small training ground situated in the clearing, it was clear to her that it was the cause of her pain. However, staring down at the clearing's occupant, her breath hitched.

Ishida Ryūken

She nearly lost her footing as a phantom of a white-haired man overlapped with the image of the young man practicing in the clearing.

She blinked, and the phantom disappeared. That was impossible. Who was Ishida Ryūken? Every time the name played in her head, she felt the need to suddenly hide, but why? As if sensing her, the young man turned in her direction, his eyes narrowed behind the small frame of his glasses.

She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. She wanted to run, something about the young man drawing a reaction from her body. However, she couldn't run. Not when the boy made a bow out of Reishi.

We are purebloods.

She had stepped out before she had realized it, the young man tensing as she descended from the trees.

"Who are you?" Uryu Ishida asked. He could sense the presence of a hollow, but it didn't make any sense. The woman in front of him had no mask, nor did she have a hole in her body unless she was keeping it hidden beneath her clothes which, admittedly, were just rags that covered her top and bottom.

Ishida pushed up his glasses, he wasn't gonna go there. "Who are you?" He repeated.

She ignored his question, eyes set firm on the bow in his left hand. He stared at her warily.

Silent didn't know what to make of it. The Reishi in her body…

No, not even that. It was the way it moved to form over her left hand, the action foreign, yet familiar. She shouldn't be able to do this, her soul supplied. I-It was taken. Taken? She fumbled with her footing, drawing a slight look of concern from the young man before her. What was happening? S-She didn't know! W-Why didn't she know! Know what? Wincing, her right hand came to rest over her face.

"A-Are you alright?" Uryu asked, lowering his bow when he realized the woman wasn't out to attack him. It was more like she had just stumbled across his training ground because of some sort of attack? He glanced around the clearing and caught a glimpse of white in the distance. A hollow's mask. She was being pursued!?

Silent glanced up at the young bowman, confused with his sudden change in demeanour. More than that, she focused on the Reishi gathering within her left palm. She knew what she had to do, her body remembering the patterns.

Draw the Reishi from the world around you.

"Get behind me," Uryu spoke, eyes darting left and right in search of the distant hollow. It all made sense now, why he had sensed a hollow's Reiatsu. It was because of the hollow pursuing this woman.

Silent ignored the young man, and finally gave control of her body to muscle memory. Her arms moved with fluidity, drawing together and clasping. This was it. This familiar sensation. The Reishi gathered in her palm compressed and expanded, releasing a sudden wind as a shape took form.

She heard a startled gasp, but she paid it no mind, her gaze fixed on the bow of Reishi that appeared in her left hand.