Day 4 ☀ Digging through my own muscles for a clue

[savior_n_black]

Who: Ichigo ( savior_n_black ), Shiro ( holeheart ), Rukia snowwhitesoul ) AND POSSIBLY MORE LATER?
What: Ichigo, and Shiro's powers finally force them to merge back into a single soul.
When: Day 4, early
Where: Middle of the city
Warnings: Language, violence, minor body horror?

Comments

[holeheart]

I'm going as fast as I can!

The Hollow is feeling the effects, even if he's not showing them. Ichigo's soul, calling out to him, begging him to come home. Through his gorging, and their synchronization, Shiro could easily maintain his larger Hollow form, and he was running on all fours after Ichigo. It probably also spoke volumes that Shiro was conscious, and capable of rational thought while still in this form. Normally, instinct was his only driving force. But thanks to that chain, slowly becoming more and more solid, he found that his human mind was closer than it should have been. Or was it Ichigo's human mind? It was getting hard to tell. His appearance also reflecting their drawing together; his long white mane had streaks of tangerine, and the fur ruffs around his neck, ankles, wrists and on his back were no longer solid black. No indeed, each hair was now crimson red, fading to black at the end of the shaft. But neither commented on the physical changes in the other. It was up for debate if they even noticed.

Yer goin' the

[snowwhitesoul]

The past few days had been a long, hellish slog through nightmares and blood and pain. It seemed that for as many that were saved, so many more perished. They would be back, they would all come back, but it didn't diminish the horror, the acute, instinctual, gut-deep reaction of seeing sentient lives snuffed out as easily as candleflame. The ones that could fight, could resist? Even they were falling, one by one, to the nightmares.

They were cattle in this place. Only capable of resisting the immediate threat, but not stopping it. How long would this last? Till they were all dead?

Shirafune!The spider gave out a horrific skree of pain and began to trash and twist on its web as the tip of Sode no Shirayuki reformed right in the lobe of its brain and sprouted upwards, homing back towards the fractured white blade and rejoining it to make the sword whole again. The fangs, as long as her forearm and better, twitch and stab out, fat drops of venom splashing uselessly on the spindly spider silk around them. The predator turned victim

[savior_n_black]

Ichigo caught sight of that shimmering ice-web first. He could sense Rukia; her reiatsu was taxed, but not too badly, just worn out. And as he used another jump of shunpo to make it to a street lamp festooned with spider web only a few yards away, he didn't even have time to call out to Rukia before another of those massive arachnids was using the gap between the buildings to creep it's way in on Rukia from above.

With a wordless yell, Ichigo was rushing through the air at the stalking spider, sword igniting...and chain igniting. The chain from his chest to Shiro's suddenly flared to being fully visible. The spider shrieked at him, and used the front pair of it's legs to bat at him, and strike swiftly to stall his sword's headlong dive for it's face. Baring his teeth, Ichigo countered with a swipe of sword, once again unconsciously calling his hollow mask into place just as the spider dove to try and sink venomous fangs into Ichigo's chest.

[holeheart]

Shiro helps Ichigo get closer, throwing him into his Shunpo with a toss of his head.

RUKIA!

Eerily enough, the cry came in both voices, at once. Shiro could feel himself disappearing, vanishing into nothingness. No... not nothingness. Back to his real home, back to being one with Ichigo. If he weren't mid-panic, he'd probably be resisting this as much as possible. But no. This felt right. It was what their bodies had been crying out for. The large Hollow vanishes completely into energy, pouring into the chain and burning it up like a fuse until it reaches Ichigo's chest.

Then there's an explosion of energy, like the chain really was the fuse on a bomb. As if it were a typical Hollowfication, Shiro's reintegration causes white, thick goo to pour from his mouth and eyes, but it's not painful. Not this time. The mask formed when Ichigo called for it, but it was a different mask. More like a helmet, with two long horns. Claws on each finger, and red fur bursting from around his collarbone and wrists like flames. And where there were

Late Day 4 / Early Day 5

[savior_n_black]

Without the cycles of day, and night to go by, it's difficult to tell exactly how long he'd been out. Ichigo had some fuzzy recollections of a tiny white lizard-thing, and chocolate, but beyond that? Nothing

[holeheart]

Of course, that more reishi-rich thing had been Rukia's blood, but Ichigo didn't need to know that right now. Shiro can't even take his fully Hollowfied form thanks to his low energy levels, so he's in Shikai, with his tail and claws out. He can't afford to let any creature go on uneaten, to let any reishi escape.

The creatures with hearts have then torn out and eaten. Those without, like the insects, have their reishi sucked out through their juices. Shiro is an absolute mess, and still relying a good bit on Ichigo to cover him while he eats. Shiro huffs as he catches up to Ichigo, covered in blood that's not his own. At the point, the monsters are thinner than they were before, which was both a good and bad thing. Lots of bugs, not as many vertebrates.... which meant his reishi pickings were more slim.

He catches up to Ichigo, with what looks like a human arm in his mouth, though its state of decomposure ensures that it is from a reanimati and no living creature.

Tch... I'm so hungry...

[notglitching]

Shiro's not the only figure covered in blood. And neither of them are alone in being tired. Rinzler's been running over a week without recharge, gone from combat (failure) to dissection to a nightmare. While the armored user had stopped his derezz, milicycles on milicycles of more battle, with creatures he couldn't even begin to classify, had hardly left him undamaged. But that isn't his main concern.

Error. Mistake. Malfunction. The program doesn't know what to call it, but it's splitting him apart. He can't think. Can't process, can't understand-Rinzler has to fight, and for once, he didn't know why. There was a reason. Used to be.

Keep moving. Keep going (trying), keep looking for something to battle (protect). His systems are a mess, constant wrecking crackle of failure, reprimand, wrongness-but none of it made a difference anymore. He couldn't-didn't know-

Movement. The black helmet raises, dim circuits flickering an edge brighter in their glitchy patterns of uneven color. He has to be ready, has to-

No.Rinzler's hands clench

[savior_n_black]

I know you are. I'm sorry, but I gotta use bankai a little bit longer, okay?

Ichigo is aware using his powers were putting a harder strain on Shiro, but he needed the speed, and stamina just to be able to keep Shiro covered while he ate.

Which is what he was in the midst of when it seemed like a shadow detached itself from the night, and came closer. Well, almost a shadow.
Frowning, Ichigo tightened his hold on Tensa Zangetsu, and turned to face Rinzler head on.

...You look like hell.

And though Ichigo is pissed off, Rukia told him what happened. This was not the time, and place to get into figuring out how to disarm Rinzler.