Post by Vayle Cameo on May 28, 2019 9:17:58 GMT
Vayle sat down on a nearby rock, taking in deep breaths and concentrating. For someone who had spoken to her zanpakuto so very often, she had never really gone into her inner world yet and met her soul cutter face to face.
The Shinigami took a deep breath. She’d always sounded so sweet, but she wondered what she might look like. She chose not to imagine too much, but she was hoping it wasn’t, like, a black cat, or something. That’d be a little too cliche. Maybe something humanoid? Or something elemental, like a rainbow-coloured…
This was nonsense. This was total nonsense. And it was totally nonsensical too. Vayle closed her eyes and sighed-
And the moment she did, another world painted itself over the back of the eyelids. Vivid blues and greens passed by her in a dizzying flurry, slashing through her world and leaving her dazzled before her mind started to make sense of what she was seeing.
Vayle’s inner world was nothing like what she expected. Brilliant forest scenery abounded about her, covered in mushrooms and fungi, and the forest pathways were dark and foreboding. The nervous death god looked back to see shapes flitting from tree to tree, creatures with red eyes and a haunting hunger that she could somehow feel from here. Light seemed to go dimmer the further she could go into the forest from here, and even peering as hard as she could, she couldn’t really get a glimpse of color of the creatures.
She could clearly see fur and fangs, though. Was this really supposed to be the inner world Mahoutsukai lived in?
...Was that Mahoutsukai’s true form, lurking out there?
The thought was quickly cut off, as a sweet, lyrical voice Vayle was very familiar with sung from behind her.
“It took you nearly losing your mind, getting into a bunch of fights, nearly getting yourself killed, and then failing a mission to finally get you in here with me. Am I really that bad of company?”
Vayle turned and quickly saw that she was wonderfully wrong.
Blonde locks, messy hair worn by an incredibly cute, petite girl. She was pretty short, but radiated an immense presence, and looked up at shale with golden eyes and a cheeky grin.
“...Mahoutsukai!”
“In the flesh! Or, kind of. Really, it’s you in the dream! But anyways…”
Mahoutsukai would adjust her hat as she pointed towards the forest behind Vayle. “That is what we call dangerous territory. You stay near the house, ‘kay?”
Vayle looked back to the forest behind them. “...What’s beyond there?” She asked.
Mahoutsukai shook her head. “I’ll explain it inside. I just brewed the tea.” she grinned.
---
Mahoutsukai’s “house” was a small cottage filled with magic-looking odds and ends, with just enough room for a regular person to walk around and not much more than that. It took a little while for her to find her way to the table in the kitchen, and by the time she got there, her cup was already set on the table.
“It’s kinda nice to be together properly like this, isn’t it?” Mahoutsukai asked.
Vayle slowly nodded, looking around the shelves and doodads strewn about the counter, trying to figure out what half the odd containers really held. “It… is. So this is really.. My inner world?”
“Well, if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here, would I? It’s a bit of a weird place, but I can’t help but feel like that makes sense given who’s noggin I’m rollin’ around in.” She teased.
“Hey!”
“You’re weeeird!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
Mahoutsukai opened up her mouth to continue the conversation.. Before finally breaking and chuckling, the lyrical sound going past Vayle’s ears as she smiled brightly at the blonde witch.
For their first real meeting, staring at eachother’s true form in Marisa’s world, it still felt so very familiar….
Vayle laughed herself, and the two ended up in a slight fit for the next minute, before either could catch their breath, and Mahoutsukai at last sat at the table away from Vayle.
“...I know why you’re here, though.”
Vayle would slowly nod, and sigh. “...You knew Olive. You knew her in a way I didn’t. And you’ve been very… sure of what to do, every time I’ve had… a flash of memory, or an odd instinct I didn’t know I had, or something…”
Mahoutsukai would nod. “Do you trust me?”
Vayle would look up to her with a frown. “Of course I trust you! I trust you with my life! But…”
“But you think I’m keeping secrets from you.”
Vayle looked down in her cup. “You’re the closest friend I have in the world, Mahoutsukai. We’ve lived through battles together, fought off incredible odds, dealt with a bunch of different threats left and right…”
Mahoutsukai would lean back on her chair. “And every single time I have been by your side, supported you, and fought with you. That doesn’t mean you’re automatically owed everything I know.” She would shoot back.
Vayle’s face was one of hurt, as she looked at Mahoutsukai dead in the eye. “What’s worth keeping a secret from your wielder?”
Mahoutsukai took a few seconds to respond, sighing deeply. “...Vayle.”
“Mahoutsukai…”
The girl looked back up to her. “I might motivate you to become stronger. I might even do my best to make sure you do well at your career. And I certainly do my best to help you fight hollows… but you realize, I don’t personally care about any of that, right?”
Vayle would look up. “You care about Olive.”
“Olive is a special case. And that’ll also have to wait for another time, but I want to make this clear, Vayle. Anything, and everything, I do is about making sure you’re happy, and keeping you safe. That is what a zanpakuto does. Even if it’s me being tough on you. Even if I have to keep something from you.” Mahoutsukai would continue.
Vayle took a long sip of tea. “So you’re keeping secrets from me… to protect me? Even though it’s getting me in trouble?”
Mahoutsukai gave her a sharp glare. “Vayle, I just watched you drink hollow energy like Juice from a straw to save some girl you didn’t know, not even realizing what you were doing. If we’re going to talk about risky behavior, you do a great job all on your own.” Mahoutsukai would add with a growl.
Vayle kept her eyes peeled straight at Mahoutsukai. “Yeah, but you’re also supposed to be the smart one for us.” She added. After a few seconds, though, the Shinigami looked away. She couldn’t deny that every single time Mahoutsukai had tried to stop her from doing something stupid, she’d flat-out ignored her. And every single time so far, Mahoutsukai had been proven right, too.
“...So then, you’re worried I might do… more risky behavior?”
Mahoutsukai sucked in the air sharply, and the lights briefly flickered in the house. “...I’m worried that if you know things, you might do something stupid, and I won’t be able to stop you, or you’ll think something stupid and turn yourself into a wreck. And then the little outside problem will become a bigger problem.”
Vayle scratched behind the back of her head nervously. “So… what is the outside problem, then?”
Mahoutsukai leaned forward, taking a long drink of tea before she answered, the steam rising up as Vayle took in the sight of her zanpakuto. She was definitely cute, her golden eyes, her cute hat, her messy blonde hair that Vayle needed to brush all the rat tails out of my god..
“It’s uncertainty.” The zanpakuto said after a moment.
“Uncertainty?”
“Your power comes from resolve. That’s a big part of properly channeling spirit energy. Even if you’ve got good control, if you don’t have properly channeled emotions behind it…”
A holographic image of Vayle’s rampage against revenant showed between the two on a magical holographic screen, as Mahoutsukai twiddled her fingers and sparkling glitter fell from her fingertips.
“This is what caused me to have maybe a couple hundred feet of leg room unless I want to fight weird monsters in the forest.” Marisa would add.
“I-I’m sorry-”
“Don’t…”
Mahoutsukai stretched out a hand, and the hologram vanished, as she placed it atop vayle’s own.
“Don’t. I’m just happy you still came out okay.”
Vayle slowly nodded, only for a little more of the glitter to assault her nose. A couple seconds later, Vayle would give out a very small, squeaky “Chu!” As she sneezed to the side of the table.
“The heck was that?”
“I never got to see you sneeze in person before, I wanted to see how cute it was for myself.” Mahoutsukai responded. “I gotta make sure a face like that gets fixed before it sticks.”
Vayle looked up trying her best to look annoyed. Instead, she found she couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot. “...Why don’t I come here more often?”
“Beats me~”
The death god just decided to take another, slow sip of tea at this point.
“...So, you do want to know about your memories, right?” Mahoutsukai asked.
Vayle nodded slowly.
“Okay. We can do this. I’m willing to show you.”
Vayle’s eyes lit up. “Really?!”
“Hold on juuust a second, partner. I’m not finished.” Mahoutsukai added, before putting up a finger. “One thing. It’s a hard thing, but you need to do one thing for me.”
“...What?”
Mahoutsukai would spin her finger in the air a couple times, before poking Vayle right in the middle of the nose. “Bankai.”
Vayle instinctively moved her face away, covering her nose with her fingers. “Stooo-did you say Bankai?”
“Yep.”
“That’s a little bit of a high bar, isn’t it?”
“It requires you to get perfectly in tune with me and then some. And then you need to prove you’ve got the chutzpah to manage to actually master me. If you can’t handle this after reaching Bankai, I don’t know if you’d really ever be ready at that point.
“...Bankai.” Vayle would repeat slowly.
The second release of the zanpakuto. Some people believed that noble birth was a necessity, or at least that those who weren’t of noble birth had such good genetics as to be one.Others looked at it as an extension of becoming the best of the best, that only a few natural geniuses could happen in a generation. What was certain was not much less daunting.
Only the strongest and most skilled could ever obtain bankai.
The ultimate, most powerful expression of a zanpakuto’s abilities is their Bankai.
And every single person who has ever achieved bankai has shaped the soul society and it’s history for years to come.
“...Geez. This is a completely crazy thing to ask any shinigami… but still…”
“You’re on.”
Mahoutsukai gave Vayle a cheeky grin. “I’m looking forward to it. So… come here and train with me any time you want. Come here and talk with me any time you want. And most of all…”
The zanpakuto leaned in, putting her other hand over Vayle’s as she whispered her next words.
“Come here and enjoy my company… any time you want.”
The Shinigami took a deep breath. She’d always sounded so sweet, but she wondered what she might look like. She chose not to imagine too much, but she was hoping it wasn’t, like, a black cat, or something. That’d be a little too cliche. Maybe something humanoid? Or something elemental, like a rainbow-coloured…
This was nonsense. This was total nonsense. And it was totally nonsensical too. Vayle closed her eyes and sighed-
And the moment she did, another world painted itself over the back of the eyelids. Vivid blues and greens passed by her in a dizzying flurry, slashing through her world and leaving her dazzled before her mind started to make sense of what she was seeing.
Vayle’s inner world was nothing like what she expected. Brilliant forest scenery abounded about her, covered in mushrooms and fungi, and the forest pathways were dark and foreboding. The nervous death god looked back to see shapes flitting from tree to tree, creatures with red eyes and a haunting hunger that she could somehow feel from here. Light seemed to go dimmer the further she could go into the forest from here, and even peering as hard as she could, she couldn’t really get a glimpse of color of the creatures.
She could clearly see fur and fangs, though. Was this really supposed to be the inner world Mahoutsukai lived in?
...Was that Mahoutsukai’s true form, lurking out there?
The thought was quickly cut off, as a sweet, lyrical voice Vayle was very familiar with sung from behind her.
“It took you nearly losing your mind, getting into a bunch of fights, nearly getting yourself killed, and then failing a mission to finally get you in here with me. Am I really that bad of company?”
Vayle turned and quickly saw that she was wonderfully wrong.
Blonde locks, messy hair worn by an incredibly cute, petite girl. She was pretty short, but radiated an immense presence, and looked up at shale with golden eyes and a cheeky grin.
“...Mahoutsukai!”
“In the flesh! Or, kind of. Really, it’s you in the dream! But anyways…”
Mahoutsukai would adjust her hat as she pointed towards the forest behind Vayle. “That is what we call dangerous territory. You stay near the house, ‘kay?”
Vayle looked back to the forest behind them. “...What’s beyond there?” She asked.
Mahoutsukai shook her head. “I’ll explain it inside. I just brewed the tea.” she grinned.
---
Mahoutsukai’s “house” was a small cottage filled with magic-looking odds and ends, with just enough room for a regular person to walk around and not much more than that. It took a little while for her to find her way to the table in the kitchen, and by the time she got there, her cup was already set on the table.
“It’s kinda nice to be together properly like this, isn’t it?” Mahoutsukai asked.
Vayle slowly nodded, looking around the shelves and doodads strewn about the counter, trying to figure out what half the odd containers really held. “It… is. So this is really.. My inner world?”
“Well, if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here, would I? It’s a bit of a weird place, but I can’t help but feel like that makes sense given who’s noggin I’m rollin’ around in.” She teased.
“Hey!”
“You’re weeeird!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
Mahoutsukai opened up her mouth to continue the conversation.. Before finally breaking and chuckling, the lyrical sound going past Vayle’s ears as she smiled brightly at the blonde witch.
For their first real meeting, staring at eachother’s true form in Marisa’s world, it still felt so very familiar….
Vayle laughed herself, and the two ended up in a slight fit for the next minute, before either could catch their breath, and Mahoutsukai at last sat at the table away from Vayle.
“...I know why you’re here, though.”
Vayle would slowly nod, and sigh. “...You knew Olive. You knew her in a way I didn’t. And you’ve been very… sure of what to do, every time I’ve had… a flash of memory, or an odd instinct I didn’t know I had, or something…”
Mahoutsukai would nod. “Do you trust me?”
Vayle would look up to her with a frown. “Of course I trust you! I trust you with my life! But…”
“But you think I’m keeping secrets from you.”
Vayle looked down in her cup. “You’re the closest friend I have in the world, Mahoutsukai. We’ve lived through battles together, fought off incredible odds, dealt with a bunch of different threats left and right…”
Mahoutsukai would lean back on her chair. “And every single time I have been by your side, supported you, and fought with you. That doesn’t mean you’re automatically owed everything I know.” She would shoot back.
Vayle’s face was one of hurt, as she looked at Mahoutsukai dead in the eye. “What’s worth keeping a secret from your wielder?”
Mahoutsukai took a few seconds to respond, sighing deeply. “...Vayle.”
“Mahoutsukai…”
The girl looked back up to her. “I might motivate you to become stronger. I might even do my best to make sure you do well at your career. And I certainly do my best to help you fight hollows… but you realize, I don’t personally care about any of that, right?”
Vayle would look up. “You care about Olive.”
“Olive is a special case. And that’ll also have to wait for another time, but I want to make this clear, Vayle. Anything, and everything, I do is about making sure you’re happy, and keeping you safe. That is what a zanpakuto does. Even if it’s me being tough on you. Even if I have to keep something from you.” Mahoutsukai would continue.
Vayle took a long sip of tea. “So you’re keeping secrets from me… to protect me? Even though it’s getting me in trouble?”
Mahoutsukai gave her a sharp glare. “Vayle, I just watched you drink hollow energy like Juice from a straw to save some girl you didn’t know, not even realizing what you were doing. If we’re going to talk about risky behavior, you do a great job all on your own.” Mahoutsukai would add with a growl.
Vayle kept her eyes peeled straight at Mahoutsukai. “Yeah, but you’re also supposed to be the smart one for us.” She added. After a few seconds, though, the Shinigami looked away. She couldn’t deny that every single time Mahoutsukai had tried to stop her from doing something stupid, she’d flat-out ignored her. And every single time so far, Mahoutsukai had been proven right, too.
“...So then, you’re worried I might do… more risky behavior?”
Mahoutsukai sucked in the air sharply, and the lights briefly flickered in the house. “...I’m worried that if you know things, you might do something stupid, and I won’t be able to stop you, or you’ll think something stupid and turn yourself into a wreck. And then the little outside problem will become a bigger problem.”
Vayle scratched behind the back of her head nervously. “So… what is the outside problem, then?”
Mahoutsukai leaned forward, taking a long drink of tea before she answered, the steam rising up as Vayle took in the sight of her zanpakuto. She was definitely cute, her golden eyes, her cute hat, her messy blonde hair that Vayle needed to brush all the rat tails out of my god..
“It’s uncertainty.” The zanpakuto said after a moment.
“Uncertainty?”
“Your power comes from resolve. That’s a big part of properly channeling spirit energy. Even if you’ve got good control, if you don’t have properly channeled emotions behind it…”
A holographic image of Vayle’s rampage against revenant showed between the two on a magical holographic screen, as Mahoutsukai twiddled her fingers and sparkling glitter fell from her fingertips.
“This is what caused me to have maybe a couple hundred feet of leg room unless I want to fight weird monsters in the forest.” Marisa would add.
“I-I’m sorry-”
“Don’t…”
Mahoutsukai stretched out a hand, and the hologram vanished, as she placed it atop vayle’s own.
“Don’t. I’m just happy you still came out okay.”
Vayle slowly nodded, only for a little more of the glitter to assault her nose. A couple seconds later, Vayle would give out a very small, squeaky “Chu!” As she sneezed to the side of the table.
“The heck was that?”
“I never got to see you sneeze in person before, I wanted to see how cute it was for myself.” Mahoutsukai responded. “I gotta make sure a face like that gets fixed before it sticks.”
Vayle looked up trying her best to look annoyed. Instead, she found she couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot. “...Why don’t I come here more often?”
“Beats me~”
The death god just decided to take another, slow sip of tea at this point.
“...So, you do want to know about your memories, right?” Mahoutsukai asked.
Vayle nodded slowly.
“Okay. We can do this. I’m willing to show you.”
Vayle’s eyes lit up. “Really?!”
“Hold on juuust a second, partner. I’m not finished.” Mahoutsukai added, before putting up a finger. “One thing. It’s a hard thing, but you need to do one thing for me.”
“...What?”
Mahoutsukai would spin her finger in the air a couple times, before poking Vayle right in the middle of the nose. “Bankai.”
Vayle instinctively moved her face away, covering her nose with her fingers. “Stooo-did you say Bankai?”
“Yep.”
“That’s a little bit of a high bar, isn’t it?”
“It requires you to get perfectly in tune with me and then some. And then you need to prove you’ve got the chutzpah to manage to actually master me. If you can’t handle this after reaching Bankai, I don’t know if you’d really ever be ready at that point.
“...Bankai.” Vayle would repeat slowly.
The second release of the zanpakuto. Some people believed that noble birth was a necessity, or at least that those who weren’t of noble birth had such good genetics as to be one.Others looked at it as an extension of becoming the best of the best, that only a few natural geniuses could happen in a generation. What was certain was not much less daunting.
Only the strongest and most skilled could ever obtain bankai.
The ultimate, most powerful expression of a zanpakuto’s abilities is their Bankai.
And every single person who has ever achieved bankai has shaped the soul society and it’s history for years to come.
“...Geez. This is a completely crazy thing to ask any shinigami… but still…”
“You’re on.”
Mahoutsukai gave Vayle a cheeky grin. “I’m looking forward to it. So… come here and train with me any time you want. Come here and talk with me any time you want. And most of all…”
The zanpakuto leaned in, putting her other hand over Vayle’s as she whispered her next words.
“Come here and enjoy my company… any time you want.”
