T

Every day is the same. I scurry between the crumbling buildings looking for scraps, doing my best to avoid falling into the blackness. I am not the only one who does this; this place was once practically covered in tiny bodies searching for food. Every day there are less and less of us; either they got too close to the edge and fell with the crumbling rubble, or there is something not content with mere scraps. I dash forward and swallow a mote of light before realizing my folly.

There's something above me other than the blackened sky and the puny white sun, and for a moment I am paralyzed. The next moment, I desperately jump backward, narrowly dodging a claw that slices through the skin of my snout. A white fluid trickles down my face, but I ignore it as I search desperately for shelter.

A building, a fence, or even a pile of bones would do.

-There has to be something.

A sharp pain travels through my spine, and as I look behind me, I see the better half of my tail lying on the ground. The beast steps forward and slurps it up like a noodle, and for the first time I get a clear look at this monster. It's a winged creature dripping black fluid from its eyes and mouth.

I step back in terror, only to slam into the building I had so desperately been searching for. There are no holes nor cracks for me to crawl into, and as I look around, I see I am literally cornered. The beast pecks down towards my face, but I dodge to the side, narrowly avoiding it. A black fluid drips onto my skin, and it feels... cold.

-Is this... where it ends?

Suddenly, something runs through my mind. A voice or a memory of the words

"get stronger"

I lunge forward with all of my might and bite the exposed throat of the monster. It tastes disgusting, but I continue to chew. A black fluid gushes out like a fountain, covering my body. I chew and I chew until eventually everything is still. The beast's body sags before collapsing entirely into a black mush, and from the center pokes out a tiny shard of white. Before I can even realize what is happening, It's already inside my mouth, and I can taste the flavor. It's neither particularly good nor particularly bad, but it fills me with nostalgia.

Suddenly I remember something else: the air used to be filled with countless smells, but now as I sniff the air, it's practically empty. There are more smells than there were before my fight, but far fewer than my memory would suggest.

-My comrades... were they comrades? I had never thought of it before. I had never thought of many things before, but more importantly, I'm worried.

-Where did my comrades go? Did they sense this creature coming?

I try to sniff the air, and two scents strongly permeate the air. One smell burns my nose, and the other smells familiar. I try to track the familiar scent down, but whenever I follow it, it seems to move alongside me.

It takes me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the scent is mine.

-Embarrassment?

-Had I ever felt that before?

I get up from the blackened sludge, not minding it as it dribbles down into the void below. I scamper around looking for more beings like me, but the crumbling streets are empty.

Suddenly, I hear a sound.

*Clang*

The sound rings through the air, and with it comes a scent.

The scent is something that I personally find repulsive. The smell of that creature was bad, but this smell is just wrong. It's a blend of my smell and the smell of the creature, mixed with something that I can't quite identify.

*Crash*

Something slams into the building above me and falls to the ground. It's a strange creature with two legs on the ground and two legs just sort of hanging there in the air. Its body is mostly covered in a black cloak, but its flesh seems to be white, just like mine. Its face is flat, with some sort of mask painted in black. A white fluid is dripping onto the ground.

-Somehow that strange form seems... familiar.

Its vision passes by me, completely ignoring my objectively superior body plan, but the next moment its eyes widen.

I am scooped up off of the ground and held at arms' length in the air.

I struggle, but with no ground to push off of and with its body too far away to scratch or bite, I am helpless.

"Those eyes are not something a node should have."

-A node?

Suddenly, my blood runs cold as I realize something.

That horrible smell...

It wasn't coming from this creature.

It was coming from...

-Above m-

*Clang*

I am roughly tossed to the ground as the very air around me trembles.

The beast, having spent its momentum, lands on the ground next to me. For a moment it seems to want to turn to face me, but in the next instant it lets out a sharp cry.

Two fluids run down the face of the creature, one black and one white. For the first time, I get a good look at the monstrosity.

It has eight flailing limbs, half of them black and half of them white. The white limbs on the bottom are similar to mine, but the black ones on the top are more like tentacles than legs. As I watch, the black is slowly encroaching on the white, and before I can even think, I charge forward and bite into the blackened flesh. With a sharp cry, the creature shakes its tentacle and sends me flying.

I tumble onto the ground, but as I look up, I see the creature fighting with the person who had held me.

The tentacles fly towards him in unison, but he slices at them with a piece of glass embedded in a piece of metal longer than my body. The creature coils back in pain and prepares to charge, but before it can move, I latch onto its underside and claw at its chest. From this angle, I see another face, peaceful as if asleep. I bite its nose, and the creature screams.

The black parts of its body begin to tremble, and it detaches from the white form that had been hanging beneath it.

The white body falls onto the ground, crushing me. It's nearly impossible to breathe, but I can tell that something is flowing into me.

A memory of a man named Kentaro...

-I miss him.

-Who am I?

Before I can spiral further into self doubt and depression, I hear a

"Heya"

"Do you really have the time to be spacing out?"

I push off of the ground and crane my tiny neck trying to find the beast. It's gone, and the only evidence it had even existed is the black stains everywhere. I look and I notice cracks beginning to spread from around the sludge.

"Just kidding, that Hole ran away ages ago. More importantly, you're odd."

"Nodes don't need to eat; they get their energy from the spiritual particles that fill this place."

What is he implying?

"Nodes don't fight." "Even if their lives are in danger, they won't struggle."

If I'm not a node, then what am I?

"But most importantly, the eyes of a node are empty. "You on the other hand... You're different."

-So what?

"Come with me, and I'll show you something interesting."

-.. Wait. if he dies, I can eat him guilt-free. I mean, it's not like I have something better to do.

"Never thought I'd see a node smiling. Alright, that settles it. From now on, we're friends. My name is T."

-Friends? Did I ever have friends?

T jumps to the top of the nearest building before it crumbles to the ground with a

*Crash*

A plume of dust rises up in the air, obscuring my vision, but from the dust I can smell T. His smell isn't unpleasant; it's just sort of there.

I wonder if he's dead.

"Heh, guess I did more damage to that building than I thought." "I guess I'll stick to the streets for now."

I try to follow after him, but his longer legs give him a massive advantage in speed.

Not that having short legs is a bad thing; there's good air down low.

T pauses for a moment, then turns around and picks me up. I swing my legs around, trying to break free, but his grip is too strong. I try to maintain my balance with my tail, but most of it is gone.

I guess my climbing days are over.

He tosses me over his shoulder and proceeds to walk to wherever he was headed. I feel something wet, and I can see white fluid dripping down from underneath his mask.

"This way I won't drop you; isn't it better to have something to cling to?"

I consider cutting him with my claws, but I reconsider after remembering his fight with that disgusting creature.

-It will take more than a few scratches to take him down.

The street passes underneath me, and for some reason the sensation of being carried makes me feel nostalgic.

Suddenly the sun is blocked out, and I see a rough wooden floor beneath me.

Before I can question this, I find myself gently placed back on the ground.

"Here we are, home sweet home."

It's odd; normally the insides of the buildings that litter this world are empty, but this one seems to be filled with trash.

"This here is my collection."

-Garbage does tend to collect. Wait, why would it?

He flops down onto a "chair" made out of stitched-up plastic bags and filled with what I can only assume is more garbage.

-I'm not that impressed, to be honest.

"Oh don't look at me like that; do you have any idea how hard it is to find a home that won't crumble into dust by the end of the week?"

-I remember now. When I was surrounded by my kin, the buildings here were different. They were broken, but they weren't falling apart like they are now. What changed?

"You know, I was kind of hoping you could talk. It's been a long time since I've met something that doesn't want to eat me."

-I can't look him in the eyes.

He rests his weapon on the ground. Now that I'm at the same level as it, I can see it far more clearly. It's a piece of glass embedded in a long piece of metal. There is a black fluid seeping out from where the two connect, and the edge of the glass is tinted white.

-It looks... tasty.

Suddenly, a disturbing smell fills the air, and it is quickly followed by a loud screech.

"Shit, I thought for sure I had masked the smell."

"Alright little buddy, you stay here, and I'll deal with this." Maybe if I'm lucky, my little weapon here will get an upgrade.

He climbs through a hole in the wall and disappears from my line of sight.

Logically, I shouldn't follow him, but I'm curious.

I run towards the exit, but the hole is too high for me to reach. I try to climb up, but the wall is too smooth for me to get a grip.

*Crash*

That's not a good sound. If I don't hurry, there won't be a body left for me to eat.

I look around the room, trying to find something to help me up, when I see the "chair."

I bite into the plastic and pull it towards the wall. I left a few holes in it, but I'm sure T won't mind. With my makeshift ramp completed, I back off and get a running start. I clamber up the side of the "chair" and jump off of it at full speed. I barely manage to hook my claws onto the ledge of the exit and start to pull myself up.

*SCREECH*

Yeah, that doesn't sound like they're having fun.

I pull myself up and jump down to the street below.

The street here is more cracked than the last time I saw it, and as I look at the buildings around me, I see that a few have imprints that look suspiciously like T. A thick black sludge is flowing into the void below, and drops of a white substance are scattered everywhere.

*Clang*

I race towards the sound of the noise, and finally I see it. A thick black line winds between the buildings, crushing them. There are hundreds of little legs sticking out, and as I look down, I see they are the same as mine. That thing....

"Is that where they went?"

*Roar*

I see T slicing into the creature, moving as if he were dancing. A black fluid sprays through the air, but not a single drop lands on him. The creature doubles back on itself, and I can finally see its head. Rather than eyes, it simply has holes, and rather than a mouth, it has more of a slip of black—a black darker than even the fluid leaking out of it. In the center of what I assume is its head, a piece of glass is sticking out. The edge of it is tinted white, but as I watch, a darkness is slowly corroding it.

I jump off the ledge I was bravely observing from and charge towards the creature. I don't know what it is; I don't know a lot of things, but what I do know is that if I want to get stronger, that shard is something I can't let slip by. I fall to the ground with a soft thud, and I feel a sharp pain in my knees. I ignore it and push myself up and towards the monstrosity. As I get closer, I notice that the creature is bigger than I thought. As I get closer, the creature grows bigger and bigger until eventually it blocks out the puny sun.

I leap with all of my might and sink my claws into the mountain in front of me. The moment my claws touch the blackened flesh, they are sucked in.

That was a poor decision, wasn't it?

....

-Being a hollow is rough. You constantly have to consume souls, and you have to worry about soul reapers trying to "purify" you. I could stay in Hueco Mundo, but the hollows there are really not my kind of crowd.

I slip through the void and fall to the ground. I try to sense the spiritual pressure around me, but for some reason it's thin.

thinner than it should be...

I wander through the city streets trying desperately to sense a meal, but the souls here are weak.

-Too weak.

Suddenly I hear a baby's cry, and as I follow the sound, I see him. An infant, completely ordinary in every way not even a drop of spiritual pressure.

-Does that baby even have a soul?

-Heh, that's absurd.

"Well, at least I can have a meal, a two for one if you will."

I calmly stroll toward the baby when I notice something.

-His eyes... they're staring right at me. Can he see me?

The baby stops crying, and as I step to the side, his eyes continue to follow me. I try to shake him off, but he laughs almost as if he were playing a game.

-Alright, that's enough of that.

"Sorry, kid, nothing personal."

I charge towards the kid with my mouth open, but the moment my teeth touch him, I notice something is wrong. My body, it's being...

It's being consumed.

I try to pull back, but the force coming from him isn't something I can resist. I can feel myself slipping further and further into darkness.

Is this it? Dying to a kid?

*Sigh*

For a moment everything goes to black. The next, I see something within the darkness.

A tiny little light guiding my soul

The next time I awake, I find myself in a little park. For a brief moment, the kid appears, and he seems to be confused. I charge at him, flailing my arms, and he vanishes with a poof. I'm not sure how, but I can tell he's still scared.

Heheheheh, guess I can have some fun with this.

....

Those memories... they weren't mine.

I open my eyes and find myself submerged in complete blackness. I reach out and grab it—a fragment of something that used to be. Suddenly the blackness falls away, and I find myself lying on the floor. I look down, and I see my hands clasped around a shard of glass.

-Wait hands?

'Oh god, I have hands; why do I have hands?'

"Huh. I knew you were different, but this is something else."

T stares down at me, and I can't help but notice that he's not looking as far down as he used to.

Did I get taller?

Hah, suck it past-B; new-B is taller.

-Ah, the air is truly fresher up here.

"I don't know how, but I can sense that you're thinking of something incredibly stupid right now."

'You wouldn't understand.'

"You're right; I don't understand." "I don't understand any of this."

I look at the shard of glass in my hands, and I see a reflection.

-I look... strange.

I look similar to T, but as I touch my face, I feel soft flesh rather than a mask. I stick my tongue out, and the reflection copies me.

"I guess you're a fragment now."

'A fragment?'

"A piece of something bigger." "If this world were a pond, we'd be the smallest little baby fish you could find."

"Then what are the nodes?"

"Nodes? They aren't even fish. They're more like plankton. Tiny little life forms that take in the tiniest motes of energy and are in turn consumed by larger and much cooler fish."

'Am I a cool fish now?'

"It's a metaphor, and no, you aren't cool."

*Sigh*

"I was hoping that I could steal that thing's shard and use it to make my weapon stronger, but I don't really have the heart to steal from a child."

'I'm not a child..... probably'

"Do you want me to take it?"

'Now that I think about it, I am definitely a child.'

"I just realized something."

'And that is?'

"Now that I have someone to talk to, I can tell you something crazy, and you'll be able to tell me that I'm not."

'Why would I-'

"I want the sun."

'You want... the sun? What, are you going to use it as a decoration?'

"If we are the little fish, then the shark must be that thing in the sky. With its power, I'll be able to drive back the holes."

'You're insane.'

"That's not the script."

I stick my tongue out at him.

"What are you, a chil-

"oh. Oh, well played, little man."

'So how are you going to get up there?'

"Have you ever tried to pull on the world?"

'Pull on the world?'

"I have memories of that. Bending the world to your will. With it, he was able to fly, but I'm far too weak for that."

'He?'

"It's just a feeling."

I sniff the air, trying to see if there are any more of those "Hole" hanging around, but the only thing I can smell is myself, and T. T.'s smell is different. I look at his mask, and the black streaks have grown a bit larger.

I don't want to think about what will happen if that gets worse.

"Alright, let's go back home."