Young And Yet Old. { Haru / Closed }

Seriously, what the hell was wrong with that city? Haru had lived in Japan for seventeen years before he'd moved out to Italy to marry Emilia, and during those seventeen years he'd had nowhere near this amount of spirits in his city. Sure, there were occasional spirits that got in his way, but mainly those were people who'd been corrupted in the local area who the Shinigami who had failed to turn over to the other side properly. Compared to that peace, this... this was insane.

Every single day, ungodly amounts of spirits seemed to come and go through here like it was some sort of inter-dimensional bus-station; Fullbringers, Quincy, mutants, shinigami, hollows and even occasionally captains. He'd not had the fortune (or perhaps misfortune) to run into a captain or an espada, but he'd heard plenty of stories from local people about the damage they'd done to the city and what with the amount of spiritual interaction with the city, he had to admit that he was finding himself believing them.

The stories seemed realistic, they were hardly the usual type of talltale that liars tended to come up with, and what would the point of saying that they met a captain or an espada be? It wasn't like they were special because they'd seen someone, hundreds of people had seen them during the incursion... or, at least, they'd seen the espadas. The captains, as usual, stayed caught up in their ivory tower.

Unfortunately, there were many more hollows than Reapers within the city limits, and although he'd not come across a hostile arrancar so far, it was only a matter of time until he met a more unpleasant member of hat community. It was that reason why he was glad to have found a lead towards one of the Quincy King's inner circle in a city around a hundred miles outside of tokyo. Maybe he'd have some sort of peace here, not having to interrupt his work to go make sure that the newest visitor to the city wasn't going to do anything dangerous.

That was what he'd thought before he'd pulled up into a nearby car-park, slipping his legs off of his motorbike's frame and fiddling with the lock to make sure that no thieves would get in his way. Unfortunately, he'd barely taken a step out of the garage before he'd found someone that he had to deal with. Judging from the type of pressure that he could feel, it seemed like a hollow. Haru laughed slightly, not a usual reaction for someone who's hopes had been stomped on like that.

This seemed to be one of those situations where Haru was laughing simply to avoid getting angry or upset - this had been one of his few chances to actually get a peaceful day, a day where he wouldn't keep getting interrupted unnecessarily to deal with some annoying spirit who couldn't just stay home, and this bastard had thrown that hope on the floor and kicked dirt into its eyes.

The weird thing was that, despite the fact that there were some people going about their daily lives, the general populace seemed... surprisingly small. He remembered Japan having a much denser population than this, was this just a smaller than average city or was something else at play here?

Either way, it made it all the more convenient for him to get up to that spiritual pressure without being noticed by other people. Whoever this person was, they were apparently perched on the top of a nearby building, looking down on the people below like an owl flitting from tree to tree looking at mice. He really hoped that that simile had no basis in the guy's actual reasons for being up there.

Slipping into a back alley, Haru made sure that nobody was looking in his direction before bringing himself into the air through the sheer power of his reiatsu. It had actually been kind of hard to learn, but he'd long since mastered the ability to fly like Shinigami and hollow did. Well, it looked like flying, but it was more like creating a platform of sheer energy around their body and using that to walk through the air the same way someone would walk across a pavement.

This particular air pavement wound up leading Haru to a much higher altitude than he expected. Looking up at the pressure from his earlier location had just led him to a tower, but now that he was actually closing in on it, it was at the very top of the tower, so high that the people below were barely noticeable unless you had really sharp eyes.

The hollow in question seemed to have sharp eyes, although that was mainly in comparison to those weird hollows who's faceplate covered their eyes like some sort of permanent blindfold. The person in question had long, blonde hair and had a very small spiritual signature. It was around half the strength of Haru's own, and that gave Haru's cockiness a certain level of gravitas.

"Afternoon, Vuoto." From the other man's point of view, he would have suddenly felt a spike of spiritual energy before hearing a voice with an Italian accent that was very hard to ignore. There was no aggression to it, none of the usual human hatred against hollows, just confidence and an almost catty playfulness. Feet landing on the rooftop behind the blonde, Haru didn't even bother moving to his weapon, just walking towards him and standing next to him as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"You know, this is a very ugly view. All concrete and pseudo-artful architecture. Your garganta could have taken you to Ayers rock at sunrise, or any of the million of spots of beauty across the world. The pyramids, the colossus of Rhodes, or even let you see the supposed-infinity of the wide open mediterranean sea. Instead, you come here and look at people like some sort of voyeur. Something catch your eye, Vuoto, or do you get off on this?"

So it has begun, Sobek was officially being insulted by quite possible a human who had some weird as hell taste in trying to go out to places. Why the fuck would Sobek head to a place thats not full of people? Idiot. Sobek merely sighed gently before turning to the man, honestly he was plain, but something had caught Sobeks interest. His hollow eye was bouncing around, but it was confused. Haru had all the right parts for a young but fit human Japanese male, yet something was wrong. Sobek just did not know what yet, all he knew, was his eye was reading up something strange, something unnatural.

"...Good evening to you too. If i may ask you look like a normal human, yet there is something off. I just cant put on the tip of my tongue."

Sobek shrugged, he figured he will find out eventually, but for now he was gonna need to chat with this human. He was another Quincy, honestly not shocking as not even special humans can normally reach him where he was. But this had a nice little gift to it, the Quincy did not attack on sight, so he must not be one of those rumored Quincy who do kill on sight. This meant that Sobek could get some useful information out of him, well hopefully he could.

"Honestly, if i was here on a random whim then yes, i would be at one of those empty location. But i am here to study human nature through observation. Humans are my newest obsession, but i only really want to observe them. Their insides are already known seeing as i was using your... television? is that correct? ah no matter."

Sobek sighed gently before continuing his latest thought. Was this man possibly immortal? no no thats not right, hes a Quincy not a special human. Is he genetically altered? Possibly. Is he using drugs or some form of chemical to appear young? Possible, all and all Sobek thought of dozens of different ways that the man in front of him could be odd, unnatural yet still human. Oh well, this train of thought of gonna lead Sobek jack shit no where if he cant find out direction.

" if i may, i have two questions. One, Why are you calling me Vuoto? Second, just why do you appear as a... unnatural being? its quite interesting when i meet creatures who have been, altered in some form of way."

Word Count: 412
GP earned: 8
GP total: 14

There was something distinctly weird about the guy that Haru was talking to. It wasn't so much that he looked weird, cos quite frankly all Vuoto did. They were, after all, ancient spirits of discontent that came back to the human world for their own, usually destructive, purposes. There were plenty of good arrancar, weird as that might sound coming from a quincy, and this guy certainly seemed peaceable but there was something weird about his manneirsms.

The man spoke in a weirdly formal way. That being said, it might not have been so weird when he considered the fact that this guy was probably ancient compared to Haru. Not only was he a fellow immortal so it was impossible to tell how old he actually was without seeing his original birth certificate, but arrancars had to evolve from hollows, who often went through several levels of hollowdom before becoming an arrancar by removing their mask. This could take anywhere from decades to centuries, and if this guy was from before the eighteenth century then his way of speaking was almost to be expected.

Still, not like it mattered how the man spoke, it was what he was saying that took his interest. The first thing that he noticed was that the guy had noticed the fact that his body seemed wrong, even unnatural. He wasn't going to explain it to someone who might very well be an enemy, but he found it interesting that the guy had noticed it so quickly, and even more interested that the guy had had no qualm about pointing out that he was weird. It was nice to see honesty even if said honesty could be considered rude. Were he so easily offended, he would have been a bad representative of the council.

However, he was fascinated by the concept of this guy looking at humans like he was on some sort of nature documentary. "Okay, first thing first, it might not be the most intelligent decision to mention that you know about human's insides to other humans. I think I understand what you're talking about, but I'm also used to people from the spirit world being a little bit weird. People much younger than myself would have attacked you on sight for saying that you knew about human's insides. People nowadays are so very quick to anger and quick to act, don't you agree?"

The playful smile seemed to make it clear that Haru was differentiating himself from the people that would have attacked Sobek for such a simple comment. It was true, there were plenty of people out there in the world who would purposefully misunderstand what he had just said to have an excuse to attack the man. Though, that being said, the smile didn't last long as he began to wonder something else.

"Though, even with that, I don't get your purpose in taking a look at humans. You vuoto aren't like Soul Reapers who can be born as Soul Reapers instead of ever being human. You vuoto are born from a human who fell into depravity, either through sadness, curiosity or something else entirely different. That means that you, like me, are a human. Are you trying to understand modern day culture, or what? I have to admit that I don't understand the draw, but whatever makes you happy, you know?"

He said that, but what made this guy happy made Haru distinctly nervous. It wasn't polite to mention that, but it was true; the guy had a nature about him that made it very, very difficult to talk to him. He was too direct, too to the point. It was like he didn't understand human conversation, and whenever he mentioned things that had been around for almost a full century he seemed almost confused.

Televisions had been around since 1927, that was 87 years ago. How did someone, even a hollow, not understand about something that long ago? Was this hollow really that young? It would make sense - his spiritual presence was much weaker than almost everyone else that he had ever met. He seemed to be half as strong as Haru himself, the violet energy that Haru's body gave out dwarfing the other man's to the point he wasn't even sure of the colour.

Did he even have a resurreccion?

Maybe if he paid a bit of information to the man, he'd be able to give some information back. What was the worst that could happen if he told him at least half a truth? He didn't need to let him know everything, just enough to motivate him to give information back. 

"Well, it's rude of you to demand answers to your questions without being willing to give me the same benefit. I'll tell you the answer to both of your questions, Vuoto, but in return answer me this; Why don't you understand what a television is? How old, exactly, are you? You seem very young and weak for one of your people, are you a bambino? You certainly look fresh faced enough to be one, I must say."

Even if the man didn't speak italian, Haru couldn't help but chuckle internally at the little comment that he'd made. If this guy knew exactly what he had just said, he'd probably get annoyed. This was the wonderful thing about speaking multiple languages; those who didn't never knew when you were insulting them, and that meant that they were all the easier to play with. Still, to give the impression of good faith, he'd answer first.

"To your first question, biondo, it's cos you are a vuoto. It's italian for... what do you people like to call yourselves? Hollows? It's what everyone used to call you where I come from. That or "parassita". Second of all... well, let's just say that my power makes me immortal just like you spirits. Not unkillable, but certainly immortal. I'm actually in my mid forties. Look good for an old man, don't I?" 

Sobek could not help but nod to the words Haru spoke about the comment he made on human organs and the rest of their insides. So he made a mental note to reframe from telling that story to any other human being that he may find or encounter later on. But as the man spoke he spoke clearly of a little boy, or well in a way that Sobek had yet to really adapt himself to. A small speech on how easily people are to anger one another, boy was he right. Not only were humans easy to irritate now-a-days seeing as the rumor of Karakura being completely destroyed, but slowly being rebuilt. Hollows were sadly just like humans in a way, easy to anger and even easier to piss them off to the point of them wanting to kill you.

"Agreed"

The second thing the man started saying was something about how Hollows and Humans are practically the same thing. They were minus a few things, Hollows had to follow a Aspect of Death a singular thing, a emotion or symbolic meaning to their death that dictated their personalities and actions. Humans were like joker cards or better known as wild cards, no real specific meaning, no real specific duty, no real specific role in life. Humans did what humans thought they could do, nothing more and nothing else. Humans were beings that were, yes just as greedy as Hollows, but had a emotion that most hollows lack.

Compassion.

" Why do i study humans when im practically a spiritual human that fell in a bad emotion? Simple, i dont remember my human life. I only want to study their desires, emotions, needs, wants and their nature.... They are so interesting, so different from Hollow kind that they stick out. Shinigami's are boring... Humans are interesting, all these new things from as i watched them grow... a interesting race"

The man spoke as if he questioned how old Sobek was, clearly he was old if he did not know what the hell a tv was for christs sake. But the man had insulted him, insulting his ability to know Italian, a Bambino being the Italian word for Little boy. It would be insulting but Sobek found it humorous seeing as the man did not know how old Sobek was, he was actually finding this to be quite funny. But no matter Sobek quickly died his laughter down as soon as it started, he owed the man some answers for the payment questions.

" I am not a Bambino.. i have only been to Italy for three hours and yet iv already learned the basic speech and language behind it. But to answer your question, i am 909 years old, iv only spent three hours per trip to this world during my visits so i am vastly behind on certain parts of human technology. "

The man gave him the answers he had asked for, Vuoto being the word for Hollows in Italian, a weird word to use for that seeing as they also used Parasite in Spanish for the hollow word, it was weird and partly insulting. Yet Sobek could not get mad at them, for they were right in their reason to call Hollows parasites in a way, their entire race does depend on dead human souls to feed on in order to help spread their race. For the second answer, the human had said that his power was to make him immortal to aging, not death itself, but just to time. It was a interesting power, one that ignores Time's very existence. He was a interesting man indeed, something to watch for later on.

"I see, a power that ignores time itself, interesting. You are a interesting being. But where are my manners? My name is Sobek, Sobek Septicemia, what is yours?"


Word Count: 638
GP earned: 12
GP total: 26

Amnesia was a common disease that people who were in the afterlife suffered from - death was a very traumatic experience for anyone to have to go through, so you could imagine why they'd wind up getting stuck in a fugue state and forgetting all their memories. Yet, it was still weirdly common even considering that. He'd heard several times that the konso actively wiped some people's memories to make sure that they don't become a threat in the future, but that couldn't be true.

Even with his rare meetings with friendly spiritualists, he'd met Soul Reapers who remembered their entire life, and even were it to be true then that wouldn't explain the over-abundance of hollows who suffered through the same thing. Not that it particularly mattered why it happened, Haru thought somewhat bluntly, it only really mattered to the spiritual being in question anyway. 

"Whilst I can understand you wanting to understand the human race, you're just watching them from the rooftops. You're not going to learn anything if you just watch people, to truly understand how human interaction works, you have to go out there and experience them. So, why just sit back and watch? If you want information so much, you're going the worst possible way around getting it."

There was no rudeness to Haru's voice. No, rather, there was simple blunt honesty. He could try and be diplomatic with this man, but there was no point. What was the worst that he could do if he got angry? This man had lived his entire life god knows how long ago, and yet he was still so weak. There was nothing to be afraid from in terms of this man.

He also didn't seem to have any interest in starting a fight, which was actually somewhat rare when it came to the more evolved arrancars. For every nice one there were twenty sadistic ones, it was just Haru's luck that one of the ones that could be considered a "nice" one was so weak. That being said, Haru was surprised to hear that the man was over nine hundred years old.

"How do you know?" he said, not even stopping to think about what the man's age would mean or how the man was still so weak after nine hundred years of life. "You say you don't remember your human life, and I very much doubt your hollow form kept a calendar lying around. If it's not maths and it's not something that you can know for yourself, how do you know that you're nine hundred years old, let alone down to the exact year? Tell me - did you just pick the number because you thought it'd make you sound cool, being able to say that you were almost a thousand years old, or did you just randomly try to guess?"

As before, there was no obvious malice in the way that Haru talked - he wasn't being cruel, or aggressive, he was just trying to point out his fellow man's flaws. For someone who seemed so interested in logic and seeing how people worked, he certainly had no concept of social norms. He did, however, have some basic knowledge about Italian. Which was, honestly, really weird.

Italy was a beautiful country, one of those places where it seemed like the sun was giving you its blessing every single day and he truly loved the country that had become his home,  but he knew that it was one of the worst places in the world for a hollow to be. Sure, there was a high concentration of spiritually powered beings, but due to the rarity of spirit invasion they were able to grow up properly and  become fully trained quicker, thus posing more of a threat than an opportunity to those human eaters.

Furthermore, his "adopted" family led the country in such a way that killed any threat to the country. They were hardly neo-nazis like the current spirit king, but they weren't the type to give second chances either. Haru was happy to continue that trend even if he was only married into that family, but even he knew that only hollows who wanted a quick and painful death would go to Italy. There were very few opportunities for them to make an easy score, and there was death waiting in every corner of that great land.

Why would someone like Sobek know the Italian language then? It certainly wasn't something he picked up in his last life considering the fact that he didn't remember it. Had he learned it from some other spiritual being? He couldn't imagine why someone would actively go out of their way to learn it - unlike Spanish or English which were spoken the world over, Italian was only spoken in Italy even if it was very close to other European languages. He would have questioned it if it was not for the man continuing to speak, now finally giving his name.

Sobek? that was a really weird name, if he remembered his world history lessons as a kid properly it was an ancient Egyptian god, right? "You named yourself after a god?" Haru asked, actually laughing slightly. First this guy proved to be weirdly interested in human beings, next he started giving out random dates and claiming that that was his age, and now he showed his true colours? What kind of narcissist did ya have to be to want to compare yourself to a god?

"Well, that's a psychologist's field day and no mistake. Can't claim to a fancy name like that myself, my name's much simpler; Haru Agostino, at your service. Pleasure to meet ya, dio del narcisismo." Even with the obvious insult added in there, Haru still proffered his hand in a handshake. Even if this guy had an ego the size of Rome there was no excuse for him to be rude to someone who wasn't being rude in the first place. You had to respect other people, that was one of the few lessons from his childhood he still willingly listened to. 

It was proven, Haru had a sense of humor that Sobek was all too used to. One who would like to point out flaws, much like himself, while at the same time trying to be as kind as possible. Honestly, it was something Sobek felt weird about, it was almost like he was looking at himself. But no matter, he had figured that he needed to give this human a little more information about himself before he were to be able to give out anything that could possibly help him ascertain some rumors flowing around in Hueco Mundo about Quincy. Specifically the ones he had heard from a certain man all that time ago, Ichiro.. the kind quincy male that he had met during that time of raids. Who knows maybe this quincy knew about Ichiro and could answer a few questions. But first, it was time to get some things about himself set straight.

" I remember my age because after i evolved into Vasto Lorde, i was able to remember my first and last name, my age, how much knowledge i had. I recovered all the things i found to be useful to me. Now for why i just observe the human race while i study them is like this. I don't want to harm them, scare them or kill any of them while they are still alive, Plus's run away before i can get to them to ask them questions. But living humans.... they give me plenty of information by just doing what they are doing. "

Haru, that was the mans name, funny another Japanese name for someone who so strongly speaks Italian. Now this was getting good, maybe Haru here and Ichiro were connected in some way? I mean both of them were quincy born with Japanese names. Well, at least their first names were both Japanese, Agostino being Italian and Makase being Japanese in origin. Now it was time to get to the more interesting questions that were on Sobek's mind at the time.

"Tell me... Haru, a long time ago during the Quincy invasion on my home realm.. i had met a quincy by the name of Ichiro. Does this name, as the humans say now-a-days, ring a bell? "

He had decided that this chat was going to go on for quite a while, well hopefully it would. Sobek found that having a chat with a living being gave him more information than trying to ask a running away plus spirit. Course he had decided to put the two names together, Haru and Ichiro. Both of Japanese origin, yet one of them has a italian last name, could that mean that Haru here had the chance to do a ' holy ' vow and use that useless appendage Sobek had between his legs in order to be with a woman? More importantly, a Italian woman?

" You say your full name is Haru Agostino correct? Would that mean you did that ritual of bonding with a woman? If i may ask if its not too... precious to your heart and mind. What does that feel like? What is it like doing that ritual?"

But what was Sobek doing? Haru had his hand out the entire time he had sat there and yapped away about things that found him interested and did not return the kindness. So like any gentleman, Sobek rose from his spot where he previously sat down and shook Haru's hand with a form of roughness yet gentleness that would give off the impression that he was at least sorry for not shaking his hand sooner.


Word Count: 601
GP earned: 12
GP Total: 38

Oh, how wonderfully convenient for him. If the man was to be totally believed (which, frankly, he wasn't - there was something about him that made Haru instinctively not want to trust him, though that could very well just be after-effects of the conditioning that his grandfather had given him all throughout his childhood) then he somehow got to know all the really important things like his age, his name, and really anything useful but didn't get any of the unpleasant memories such as how he'd died or any of the misery that he had lived through throughout his life.It seemed a little bit too perfect, like it was something out of a science fiction novella - the ability to only retain things that actually mattered and have everything else fall away like flour through a sieve.

In fact, it was so bizarrely convenient that for a few moments Haru wound up actually ignoring the obvious in favor of this weird convenience. When it finally clicked, he wondered why he hadn't thought about it before - Sobek had just claimed to be one of the most powerful beings in the universe, despite his near impotence.

There was a very strange evolutionary chain when it came to hollows. They started off as spirits that were tied to a certain location, object or person that they were obsessed with in their lifetime and when enough time had elapsed since they had died without a Soul Reaper coming in and performing the Soul Burial, they evolved onto the next state - the feral hollow.

This level of hollow was no better than a dumb animal - no higher conscious thoughts on the level of a human, they weren't even able to speak outside of basic growls and grunts like the beast that they were; they were literally just animals, and acted as such. What happened next greatly depended on... well, something, though he had no idea what the actual key factor in deciding their evolution was.

They evolved to one of two beings; either evolved into a more intelligent, almost animal-looking beast that was finally capable of speech called the adjuchas. These were dangerous, but they were able to be killed relatively easily. Thankfully, these types rarely went to the human world, instead forming their own subculture somewhere in the desert of Hueco Mundo.

If they didn't evolve into an adjuchas, they turned into a towering monstrosity called a Menos Grande - the "less big", they roared around the world in a blind rage just blowing things apart with the high-powered ceros that came from their mouths. Just like their feral brothers, they were mindless, but this time it was because there were too many voices in their head, rather than only one overpowering one. However, in the end, they all came to the same form.

Either their mask was broken and they were turned into humanoid creatures like what he had first assumed Sobek was - an arrancar - or they became the most powerful form of pure hollow; the Vasto Lorde, or the Great Lord. These were much stronger than the average arrancar, and were considered on the tier of captains of the Soul Society generally. His cohorts in the council had often believed that if ten or more Vasto Lorde were ever to come together, they could actually wipe humanity off the face of the planet.

For Sobek to claim to be one... it would have been terrifying if he wasn't so damned sure that the man was lying. After all, what was the likelihood of someone that weak being one of the most supernaturally powerful beings on the planet? Were this the case, it would be his duty as a Quincy to wipe this man off the face of the earth before he could pose a serious threat. Luckily for him he didn't believe it.

"You know, it's not good to lie," he said, his voice clearly full of doubt towards the man's claims. ", I understand that among your people the Vasto Lorde are hailed as the second coming of Jesus, but it's still a sin. You're lucky I'm not as obsessed as my fellow Italians or I might have blasted you for telling such lies. I'm stronger than you are, and I'm only forty. There is no way that someone like me is stronger than a Vasto Lorde, no matter how much time and effort I have put into it. So, how about you stop pretending - I'm not going to judge you harshly just for being an arrancar."

It was at this point that the man asked his second question, and yet again it sent Haru's mind reeling; this guy knew Ichiro? A few years ago, he might have shot him in the face for daring to mention that bastard in front of him, but considering that they were currently living together it was fair to say that they had put their differences aside until they'd managed to deal with the threat of the abused Kingmoot. Still, when he spoke again, the tone was somewhat defensive.

"Yeah, I know the idiot. He's my older brother - what does it matter to you? Given how much of a coward he is, I doubt he hurt a friend of yours so I'm left to wonder what he could have done that would have left such an impression on an arrancar like yourself. Did he piss on your shoe? Steal your favorite coat, perhaps?"

Mocking to be able to relieve the tension that he felt - this was something that he had been doing for many years now; it was the easiest source of relief. His grandfather would have told him just to crush anyone who managed to make him feel uncomfortable, but were he to strike Sobek even once then that would be letting that fascistic old lunatic win, and that was something that Haru was not willing to do.

This man was a very chatty person, he'd met a fair few hollows in his time but very few of them were so eager to talk about random things as this guy was. It seemed that none of his questions had any proper direction to them, they were probably just an extension of his desire to be able to find out about human beings. Were he a Soul Reaper, he figured, the man would have had a lot less interest in him. Then again, were he a soul reaper he'd not have spoken to him in the first place unless you counted "speaking with your sword" as some people did.

Honestly, it was a little bit uncomfortable being asked all these questions. It reminded him of all those comedy skits about people trying to get jobs. He'd never had to personally, his occupation was "Quincy" and he'd always been approached for jobs rather than having to scrounge one up, but he'd seen jokes about it enough to recognize the trope. What made it even more uncomfortable was the personal nature of these questions, and how they seemed to come from someone who didn't understand human emotions.

"I believe the question you're trying to ask me is if I'm married, and the answer is "yes". I was married, I was married for twenty years to another one of my people. But... she died." He said, his eyes shying away from the face of the other man, obviously the other man's ability to have no emotions wasn't shared by Haru. It still hurt to talk about it.

"But, if you're asking me to describe the sensation of loving and being loved, I'm afraid I don't think I can answer that question - judging by the way that you've been speaking, it'd be like describing color to the blind or the smell of roses to someone who was born without a nose. You're uniquely inhuman, even for a hollow, and that means that any explanation I give is not going to be up to your standards." 

Haru had a look of doubt on his face, which was not the most uncommon thing to when Sobek tried to explain on what he was to most people. Honestly it was like they have never heard of losing your power after the transformation from Vasto Lorde to Arrancar before. Sure it was a rare thing that did not happen to a lot of people, but Sobek had the feeling that he was not the only Vasto Lorde who had suffered from this small draw back. Course he could not prove that he was a Vasto Lorde as he just cant seem to remember his own resureccion's name yet. Honestly, out of all the things he would remember and his own resureccion was not one of them.

" I see you are doubting my claim. Sadly i do not have the proof you need, but if you have a piece of paper and something to use to write, i can draw you on what i remember on my last Hollow form before my transformation into a Arrancar. But don't feel like im insulted, i honestly understand your thoughts on this. So allow me to explain, during the arrancarification process a very rare event happened. I lost all of my power, but always had the ability to get it back. Sadly i never desired to get my power back seeing as having that much power tends to draw in bad company, no?"

Now the true fun stuff was starting to come out, Haru had just explained that he and Ichiro were siblings. This had settled Sobeks theory on the two which pleased him. Now it was time to be a nice man and apologize for potentially insulting him by saying his name, as the man had given off a angry vibe the moment he said Ichiro's name. This was good and bad which made it easy to start nit picking on the information he wanted on Ichiro. Ichiro was always a mysterious Quincy, never a aggressive man and yet patient with him during that time of war. It made Sobek, Curious.

" I see, so you two are siblings. Apologize if i had brought up bad memories, i did not want to start a grudge against the two of us. You ask on how i got interested in Ichiro? Well its simple, he introduced me to your kind, told me about how your weapons work. I might add, they are very interesting and im honestly impressed with how they work. But i figured that he was holding back some information and was in a hurry, which was acceptable seeing as it was a time of war."

Now the deep stuff was being told about Haru's love life, honestly this stuff was semi important on what Sobek thought about the human emotion of love. Yet he did not care at all that Haru got married or found a woman that they would bond in that kind of manner. Haru spoke of which that even though he has felt love and marriage and all the fluffy shit that Sobek did not know about. That he himself did not know about it, which was odd and strange and put a confused face on Sobeks mug.

"I see... Im truly sorry about what happened to your wife or spouse or whatever you humans call it. That kind of tragedy tends to have a negative effect on a person. If i may, im confused on how you could not feel or be able to express love or any joyous emotion seeing as you were married. Again, im sorry if these are getting too personal, I often have a hard time holding back questions. Oh and before i forget, you have nothing to worry about me when it comes to humans as my Aspect is Curiosity, a rather neutral one aint it?"

Sobek was not a man to hurt others. Yet when you give off the reiatsu of a sleeping monster thats so terrifyingly powerful that everyone wants you dead. You tend to to be as kind and understanding as well as peaceful as possible.


Word count: 682
GP earned: 13
GP total: 51

It seemed like the man understood nothing - why would him drawing "his" vasto lorde form prove anything more than the fact that he had a very good idea of what Vasto Lorde looked like? If Haru drew himself as a Shinigami, it didn't mean that he was a Reaper - it was like saying that Shinigami were truly human when they wore a gigai. Just because you pretend to be something or you draw something on the wall to try and trick people into thinking that you actually are something it means little more than you are a dishonest person.

"You are telling me you have the potential to have the power of a demi-god and you just ignore that potential because you don't wanna have to deal with a bad crowd?"

The way that Haru spoke... it was obvious that he felt that the man was lying to him over an over again, and that he seriously disliked it when other people lied to him. Why did the man continue to insist on something that was clearly impossible. There was no way someone could lose all that power in a single instant! It was like him clicking his fingers and suddenly becoming a homo erectus or a Shinigami suddenly becoming a normal human again for no apparent reason.

When a hollow's mask was shattered, their power was supposed to grow exponentially. That was why Arrancars were so much more powerful than normal hollows. The power that was contained within their mask became absorbed into the rest of their body and they were able to manipulate it at will. For it not only to not deliver a huge power boost but to actually almost cripple someone... it was a ridiculous fabrication.

Haru was going to actually force this guy to stop lying to him if he continued with this attempt at winning approval through lies. Besides, if this man had that much power, it was Haru's duty to kill the brat before he "got his powers back" and could pose a threat to the human world again. For someone to be able to kill a Vasto Lorde without even the slightest struggle... it was something that many shinigami dreamed of, and it was something that Quincy would be telling stories about for years to come.

The man was irritating, but Haru didn't fight people just because they were annoying. He would only attack him if he continued to claim to be a Vasto Lorde. A promise that he regretted the moment that the strange blonde man made him regret as he spoke about how Ichiro and he knew each other. Why, in the name of god, would Ichiro explain how the Quincy population worked to the enemy? It was like giving important American Missile Plans to North Korea - it was flat out treason. He would have to have very strong words with his brother tonight, though it was good to know that he had at least held a few things back.

Still... to actually stop in the middle of a battlefield situation to explain how their powers worked to a member of the enemy's forces... why? What could have caused him to want to do that? That being said, his brother was a pacifist, so he could totally understand him doing something that dumb in the middle of a huge battle. He would definitely, definitely have have words with him.

"... Don't worry about it. I'm sure that absolutely nothing I have to be worried about happened. After all, my brother might be an idiot but he's no traitor." Oh yes he was, he was a huge traitor. He would need to remember in the future never to tell the boy anything just in case he told it to random people in the middle of a war-zone.

Now they came to the more difficult areas to talk about; they were back onto the topic of his wife and about the fact that Sobek didn't understand human sensations. He actually spoke as if he thought that Haru was unable to feel things about his wife or about the way that things had happened. That was an insult, and one that he would not suffer lightly.

"Sobek, you seem to be a good man so I really don't want to fight you, but let me make something entirely clear. Never, ever even imply that I can't feel anything when it comes to my wife. I would not even be here were I not trying to get revenge for my wife's death. The very fact that I am here talking to you would not be the case were I not still torn up about the murder of my beloved. So if you imply for a second that I can't feel a thing for or about her or our children, I will fill you with so many holes that your hollow hole will look small by comparison. Are we completely and utterly clear, monstro."

There is something that comes with most threats that makes them unbelievable, almost as if you instinctively know that people aren't going to follow through with them. In this case, that was completely absent. It was obvious that Haru woud follow through with that threat... no, promise if Sobek let his tongue wag like that ever again. His wife was a sorespot that people seemed to keep hitting, and it was very clear that it was a sensitive issue.