Human Entertainment

He had once again returned to his default state of existence. Bored beyond comprehension. Though his current state of mental stimulation was severely low, he conceded being here was leagues better than wandering aimlessly in Hueco mundo. Rolling off the roof, he slid through the window with the intent of annoying his recently appointed human sidekick. Looking around, he swore after realising the boy he often referred to as a brat was still at school.

'what's the point? He just sits around for hours doing jack shit.' Grimmjow thought, flopping on the boys bed. Sitting up, he spied some boxes stacked in the corner of his room. Disregarding his privacy, he rifled through them. Unsurprisingly, found shoes. Very flashy yet undeniably cool looking trainers. Eyeing his own rather bare footwear, he considered the thought.

Standing above a busy street with his new creps, Grimmjow tried to find something even mildly interesting. Yawning, he landed on a nearby roof, leaning his arm on his bent knee. What he wouldn't give to fight a Shinigami in their bankai right now. Peeking up, he detected a familiar reiatsu. His blue eyes Immediately scanned the swathes of people. There he was, his human acolyte. He wasn't going in the direction of the house which peaked the ex-espadas curiosity. He was a gone in a flash.

Stuffing his coins in the token machine, Akito bought ten; roughly enough for an hour or two of fun in the arcade. He started off with Wacca, picking a hard song as he felt like a challenge. He managed to get an okay score, not as high as he'd like but satisfying enough. Next, he went to Taiko which was always a blast. His excitement built up when he got to the part of the song where he had to drum as fast as he could. Preparing himself, he gripped the sticks and raised them-

"Oi, what are you doing?"

Shrieking, he jolted away, dropping the sticks as well as missing every single note in the level. Other patrons looked at him with annoyed expressions. Fuming, the boy clenched his fists, aggressively whispering.

"What are you doing here!?"

Ignoring the question, Grimmjow knocked on the drum with his knuckle. Leaning forward, he inspected it like a curious dog.

"I've never seen this sort of tech before." He Mumbled before looking around at the rest of the machines. "This place is so fucking obnoxious."

Rolling his eyes, Akito began walking to the DDR machine. He was annoyed he'd caused him to waste a token but didn't mind too much. As expected, Grimmjow followed him, pestering him to no end with questions. Feeling his annoyance bubble up, he answered.

"This is an arcade. People come here to play games and have FUN. Which I'm trying to do but someone's making it hard." He ended with a glare in the man's direction.

"Who?"

Pressing his lips together, Aki shook his head whilst stepping up onto the machine. A thud coming from his left made him sputter. Grimmjow was stood on the other machine, looking at the large screen.

"uh, what are you doing?" Aki asked, looking around in case someone caught him talking to the air.

"Fuck if I know."

As he had learned after playing mortal Kombat with him: Grimmjow was a fast learner. After telling him how the game worked, Akito was almost jealous at how easily he seemed to hit the notes.

"Okay, that was an easy song. Let's do a harder one." He said, putting two more tokens in the machine. Smirking, he picked Hatsune Miku's head exercises. Predictably, Grimmjow tilted his head with an expression of incredulity.

"The fuck is this? It's easy as shit." He snarked, hitting the notes with minimum effort.

Saying nothing, Akito simply prepared himself. At the minute mark, the songs tempo went from zero to one hundred and he could see the moment Grimmjow realized how fucked he was. Akito's face quickly morphed from amusement to horror as Grimmjow suddenly started hitting most of the notes out of sheer willpower and anger. Pretty soon, the two males were smiling as they pushed their legs to the limit to complete the god forsaken curse of a song.

Leaving the arcade feeling exhausted yet happy, Aki stretched his arms.

"hah~ that was a good work out."

A harsh shove to his back had him stumbling forward, thankfully, he didn't fall down.

"Don't call that a work out. I've taken shits more strenuous than that."

Snickering, the teen held his hands behind his head as they made their way back home. As usual, he jogged over to the public vending machine to buy himself a Sprite. Grabbing his drink from the hatch, he cracked it open and took a swig. Scrunching up his face for a moment due to the sheer power of the drink, he let out a breathy "crispy."

Yanking the can from his hand, Grimmjow peered inside the whole.

"What is this? Smells like poison."

"It pretty much is." Aki answered, standing back up.

Without asking permission, Grimmjow raised the can, pouring some of the drink into his awaiting mouth. In a split second, he spat out the liquid, holding his throat like someone had tried to slit it.

"THE FUCK WAS THAT! ACK!"

Taking his can back, the teen snickered as he watched his peculiar friend suffer from a mere drink.

"You should try the sprite from McDonald's. That will actually kill you."

"You humans are fucking weird."

Running ahead a bit, Akito turned to face Grimmjow with a hopeful smile. The other simply raised his chin in mild interest at his odd behaviour.

"I want you to teach me more about Zanpakutous!"

"Fuck off."

His pleading for Grimmjow to teach him more about his weapon was declined again and again, leaving the boy dejected. The bluenette disappeared while he was half way through a sentence, something he found very rude yet endlessly cool. Sulking back in his room, he tried to figure out why Grimmjow continued to hang around if he was truly as powerful and important as he claimed he was. Could it be he actually liked Akito's companionship? The thought alone stirred up feelings of gratitude and warmth. Even though he had never shared it verbally, he also appreciated Grimmjow's abrupt presence in his life. Rolling onto his front, he wandered where the menace had vanished to. Averting his train of thought, he decided to get on with some homework instead.

_._._._

He stood atop a tall lamp post in the dark of the night, staring up at the full moon that looked large enough to consume him.

'The fuck am I doing.' He thought, clenching his fist. 'I came here to kill that mother fucker but now I'm...' He didn't know what he was doing.

That was a lie.

He knew but just didn't want to admit it. He didn't dare to say the dreaded "A" word aloud. Attached. Just thinking about it made him shudder. He was a lone wolf. An alpha without a pack and he was perfectly fine that way. He didn't need- Suddenly, flashes of them smiling appeared in his head, clouding his vision for a moment. They were positively beaming at him, radiating a warmth he couldn't remember feeling since awakening in Hueco Mundo. An espada who's entire being reeked of death and destruction had no right to be looked at in such a way.

He scowled at his right hand like it had betrayed him, remembering how he had clasped it with Himari's.

"Tch. This place is getting on my nerves."

Opening a garganta, he left.

_._._._

Akito sat out on the rooftop waiting for Grimmjow to show up for their routine hollow hunt. After twenty minutes and not sensing his oppressive presence, he decided to go on without him. Just because he wasn't here didn't mean he couldn't take initiative. Plus, with all his training, he figured he could probably take on a hollow by now.

A spike of reiatsu caught his attention, almost making him stumble as he stood up. Swiftly making his way off the roof, he sprinted towards the hollow's location. Skidding around a corner, he continued to sprint, not summoning his asauchi just yet.

Rounding a final corner, he was met with by far the scariest hollow he had seen this far. It was big, at least 3 stories tall with a dark purple, humanoid body. Its mask was long and stretched out with three red lines paint horizontally across its face, going across its narrow eye holes. The strangest thing about it was its hands or lack of them. Out of its wrists poured a black mist that spread out like tendrils, evil snakes winding through the streets of the town. It hadn't noticed him yet so he took the time to duck being a trashcan and formulate a plan.

"Aah! Someone please help me, please!"

It was the blood curdling screams of a spirit. Peeking around, he saw a young woman ghost being dragged by her legs by two nightmares. Their eyes were black, maniacal grins set on their face. Once they were close enough; they tossed the girl before the hollow. She tried to scramble away but was lifted painfully by her ankle.

Embarrassment and terror shook her insides as she fought to keep her skirt from falling whilst screaming for help.

Having had enough, Akito leapt over the trash can. Impulsively, he slung his sword at the nightmare on the left as hard he could, jamming the blade right through his chest. With that part a success, he jumped on the hilt of the weapon and launched himself in the air. Swiftly grabbing the girl, he landed with a roll only to push her away and sprint up to the other nightmare. Sliding between it's legs, he grabbed his sword from the man's back, making him fall over and return to normal. With his sword now in hand, he spun into the kneeling position whilst slicing at the other nightmare who also fell. Hand on the ground, Akito slowly looked up at the hollow who emanated annoyance.

"A soul reaper? No... They wouldn't care enough to patrol this area. There are hardly any strong souls but you are an exception." It rumbled, pivoting its body to face him head on.

"Yeah well, this place has got me and you're not getting away."

At this moment, he felt more courage than fear, something that shocked even him. This hollow had been stalking these streets for over a year like a vengeful spirit  and he was finally prepared to stand up against it. Gripping the handle of his sword with both hands, he took a deep breath in whilst expanding his spiritual pressure.

The hollow held out its arm, sending the dark tendrils shooting towards Akito like ghastly bullets. He tried slicing at them, but as it was just mist, his blade sunk right through. It enveloped his body, wasting no time finding it's way into his air ways. Stumbling, Akito grasped at his neck as he coughed and sputtered. Terror shook him for a moment as he feared turning into a nightmare, the very things he had been saving spirits from.

His vision got hazy and his head felt heavy lethargy had him stumbling to the ground like a drunkard. It was a horrible feeling. His sword clattered uselessly against the ground but he still gripped it tight. Fighting with everything he had, he poured as much energy as he could into the asauchi, pleading to whatever gods could hear him to assist him.

Yoruno Nakani!

"H-huh?"

A disembodied voice? No. It definitely had a body. Looking at his right hand, he saw his sword glint in the moon's light, signalling to him.

If you can hear my voice, you can call my name. Yoruno Nakani!

Mustering what strength he could under the weight of the disorienting mist, he called out the name.

"Yoruno Nakani!"

A flash of white. A surge of energy. Heat emanated from his sword as it changed and morphed along with his outlook of the situation. The asauchi's blade transformed and stretched into an axe, the handle stretching out until it formed an elegant halberd with a blue tassel dangling from the top. Standing, Akito's sudden burst of reiatsu caused the hollows mist to scatter. Taken aback, the monster retreated some, taking in what he had just seen.

"So, you are a soul reaper, though clearly inexperienced." It drawled, gathering it's mist once again.

Akito swiftly spun the weapon around, unable to keep the smile off his face at the weightlessness of it. Getting serious, he pointed it at the hollow with determination burning in his eyes.

"I'm gonna put you down, no matter what! I'm gonna- I'm gonna make him proud!"

With that short yet compelling speech, Akito sprinted towards him with his halberd ready to strike. He wasn't prepared for when two nightmares ran around from behind the hollow. They lunged for him but his reflexes were fast enough to evade their sporadic attacks. Leaping up over them, he raised his halberd in the position to slam it down on the monster's head but it shielded itself with its arm. The blade made quite the connection, digging into its flesh a few inches, ripping a garbled cry from its masked face. Akito landed with a quick roll to break his fall, ducking under the sudden swipe of a nightmare's fist. Kicking them away, he refocused on the hollow that was currently about to stomp him into a pancake.

Evading the attack, he noted how he hadn't done much damage to it, not to mention he was starting to get a little tired. Gripping his weapon, he tried pouring more of his reiryoku into it in hopes it would trigger that voice again. When his desperate attempt at Spiritual communication failed, he instinctively lifted the halberd into the air. The moon was full and bright, casting its ivory light indiscriminately across the quaint town. The silver blade of the axe glinted in the light, the reflection spreading across the metal until the entire length of it was flowing white. With a resounding war cry, Akito brought the weapon down in a harsh strike, sending a blade of white energy careening towards the hollow.

Its damage was far more potent, slashing its abdomen so hard it fell backwards with a pained yell. Taking this as his chance, Akito rushed towards him. He kept his momentum up while kicking a few affected away before launching himself in the air. With a final yell, he brought his weapon down, cracking the monsters mask in two. It shrieked as its body disintegrated, withering into nothingness and filling the triumphant boy with a sense of pride. Hearing a groan, he turned to see the group of affected people coming back to their senses. He smiled.

"Who's a weak roommate now."