LadyAnnaLee

Bleach - Resonant Souls

Sara kept the Kido up until she literally couldn’t. She didn’t end it. The spell didn’t petter out with any grace. It simply ended and Sara had just a second to see that she had merely cracked the Hollow’s mask before she collapsed, her reserves exhausted, and her strength depleted. She had failed. In the end it didn’t manage if she tried her best or not. The Hollow was going to eat her and then proceed to the rest of the town. Sara’s grip on her Zanpakutō was loose and she tried desperately to press herself up. She didn’t want to die here, a passive pawn of fate. If she was going to die she sure as hell wanted to be an active participant.

She managed to get to one knee and hold her blade straight out as the Hollow advance. It took more than she had to give, and she couldn’t help the tears of pain that blurred her vision. It hurt. All of it hurt. Her skull, her legs, her eyes, her heart, all of her hurt. Most of all her grip on her Zanpakutō hurt. Sara knew she didn’t have a chance, but she still forced herself through the pain, though the shaking in her limbs, though it all. She was not a passive pawn. Not tonight. Her death belonged to her and her alone. The Hollow may take her life, but Sara refused to hand it over.

Then Hayasegawa’s voice filled the air. Sara forced herself to keep absolutely still as she was surrounded by black and red flames. Sara didn’t know this Kido and wasn’t inclined to touch it. Who knew what it would do? Hayasegawa chased the Hollow away and came to stand by the young human. Sara noted the change in the elegant woman’s parasol. Was that part of the Kido? Could Sara learn that one? How long would it take? How long until she was no longer completely useless? How long until she could actually kill Hollows instead of running and luring them into traps that wouldn’t work? How long …

Sara’s thoughts came to a screeching halt as Hayasegawa spoke, telling her that she had done well. Sara suddenly burst into tears. She reached up to press her hands to her eyes. She still hadn’t let go off her Zanpakutō, still unwilling to do so, so she wound up with one eye pressing into the ball of her hand and the other pressed into her fingers curled around the hilt. The blade stuck straight out, thankfully away from Sara. Sara couldn’t process that she was holding her blade in a way that could easily injure her. She had almost died. It had never been a game. Sara wasn’t stupid enough to think that fighting Hollows was a game, but it still hadn’t been … real, for a lack of better words. She had almost died. It was painfully real, and she had failed so spectacularly that she wasn’t sure she could ever get better. Sara cried and cried and cried. She shouldn’t have taken Hayasegawa’s offer all those weeks ago. What good would she be in a real fight? After all, her companions needed her help and all she could do was cry.

Bleach - Resonant Souls

Sara was stunned for a moment and partially blinded by the cascade of electricity and sparks that came from the electrical wire and lamp post actually making contact. She hadn’t expected that it would actually work, but work it had. She didn’t even wanted to imagine what it looked like to people without any spiritual sense, and had a feeling she was going to get in trouble for it. Unfortunately, the actual goal of doing damage to the Hollow was unsuccessful. Sara watched as only the strange tendrils suffered and pulled back to the main body. It was a chance, she was running out of Reiryoku, so it was her last chance, but it was a chance.

With one hand on her Zanpakutō’s hilt, and the other extended like a child playing make-believe guns, she said with as much determination as possible, “Bakudo Hainawa!”

It would be easier to control and direct the course of spiritual energy if Sara used both hands, but for some reason she wanted contact with her Zanpakutō. She didn’t know why. Maybe, it was so she could draw it more quickly if the Hollow came rushing at her. Maybe it was the strange feeling that she could see more clearly despite the sparking electricity with the contact being made. Either way Sara aimed her extremely low-level spell right at the glowing third eye of the Hollow. Sara was going to keep this up until her Reiryoku completely ran out or the Hollow charged at her. Either way, Sara realized, she was out of time, out of options, and out of luck. She was dying here and now. At least she had tried, right? She had tried to do the right thing, to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves, to fight back against the inevitable. That may not count for much, but it had to have counted for something.

If, by some miracle, she survived this, Sara was going to find out if there was a way to increase Reiryoku and then she was going to increase hers. She wanted to last longer. She needed to last longer. If only she had lasted longer, she might have been able to do actually damage. Speaking of damage, if she survived this, she was going to figure out what actually hurt Hollows. Because clearly, she had no idea, and she needed to fix that fact and quickly. She was starting to realize that she had picked the wrong things to focus on. She couldn’t use a sword, but now she knew the basics. It was time to focus on what she did know and how she could use her own skills to fight this threat. If she survived this fight, which was extremely unlikely.

Bleach - Resonant Souls

As Sara ran, she came to some realizations. The first was that she was indeed going in circles. The second was that if the Hollow was somehow sending her into circles there was no way she was winning the fight. Sara didn’t know much about fighting or this strange world that she had only been a part of for about two months, but she did know that Reiryoku, or spiritual power, was what decided a lot of things. If this Hollow had enough Reiryoku to change the physical world Sara didn’t have enough to keep up. So, that led her to the third realization. If she couldn’t win and couldn’t call for help, she would have to do her best to take this creature with her. She wasn’t going down without a fight, but she wasn’t going to just let this Hollow run loose to prey on people who didn’t even know Hollows existed.

With that in mind Sara paused and cast Bakudo Hainawa twice, Casting one around a lamp post and another around a powerline. If she was lucky, if she was very lucky, she would catch the Hollow in the electricity that would come from the line and in contact with the metal of the lamp post when she yanked them both loose. That depended on a lot of factors. She needed to have the strength to pull the wire down. She needed to have grabbed a live wire, and she wasn’t sure how to tell if she had. She needed to aim properly. She needed to be fast enough to do it before the Hollow ran from the trap. Too many things left up to chance, but it was all Sara’s adrenaline-fueled brain could think of. It was the only chance she had and if it all went well Sara would be caught in the trap too. If it didn’t go well the Hollow would get her. At least she tried, right?

Sara froze when she sense something coming at her, but only for a moment. She didn’t lose track of what she was attempting to do and try to run away. Instead, after that one moment that seemed like it took forever Sara channeled all of her remaining Reiryoku into her Kido and pulled, bringing her arms from her outstretched pose and into her hands coming together with a desperate shout. She tried to focus on aiming the powerline towards the lamp post, but she wasn’t even sure she had the power to snap the line. Her heart was racing at a million miles forever, but she didn’t stop to worry about what she could and could not do. She had to try. She had to try! She might be dead after this, but hopefully, if she was very, very lucky she would take the Hollow with her. That meant her life would be worth something. Right? Right? Right? Please let this work! Please!

@Sho Minazuki

Bleach - Resonant Souls

Sara paused when she realized she was going in circles. Her grip on her Zanpakutō tightened as her thumb almost but not quite hit the emergency call button. How was she going in circles? It didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t that new to Sagamiyama and she had been to Sakuhana Park a few times. She shouldn’t have gotten lost. Had she been so focused on not getting jumped that she had gotten lost? Except she didn’t even know where she was. She recognized the subtle signs she had been going in circles, but she didn’t know exactly where she was. Yes, she was going to be late, because she needed to find out how to get to the park. Just how mad would the Shinigami … actually … be?

Sara’s thoughts slowly trailed off as the familiar song started. She barely heard it, but its temptations were strangely alluring. Wasn’t she just thinking that she had only delayed her death, that this war would kill her? Wouldn’t it just be easy to give in to the sweetness of oblivion? No one would miss her. Slowly Sara walked towards the song and its promises. The Soul Pager slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground as she staggered forwards. Her grip on her Zanpakutō loosened as she gotten closer and closer. She was unaware of her heartbeat slowing and her breathing spacing out. The song was so beautiful, its words nothing but truth. Nothing else mattered.

“Sara! Sara! Sara move! Sara! Please!”

The second voice snapped Sara out of the hypnotic trance and thankfully her instincts were strong enough to send her into a series of backflips to get her further away from the trap. She used just a touch of Reiatsu to and smoothness and speed to her flips to get even further away. She returned to a standing position with her grip on her Zanpakutō’s hilt tightened enough to make her knuckles white, but she didn’t draw the blade just yet. She looked to see the threat and her already skyrocketing heartbeat got faster as she saw the Hollow standing in front of her. Suddenly she realized why the song had been familiar. It was the Hollow that Hayasegawa had saved her from the night she had died. Her memories of that night were fuzzy, but somehow Sara knew that this was the same creature come to finish the job.

Sara had no illusions. She had no idea where she was. She couldn’t see the person belonging to the voice that had saved her. It wasn’t Hayasegawa or Tatsuha. She didn’t recognize it … except that she had. She didn’t know how, because she was entirely convinced that she had never heard it before. No! That wasn’t important right now. Right now, she needed to figure out a way away from the Hollow. She wasn’t beating it. She didn’t think she was strong enough. And getting way wasn’t likely either. Sara was starting to think that the world was just a little bit … fuzzy. She couldn’t claim to know Sagamiyama that well, but she had done a lot of wandering. Given how long it had been she couldn’t be that far from the places she knew, and this looked nothing like them. Was the Hollow doing something? If that was the case, Sara could cross getting away off the list, because the Hollow would be able to just circle her back around. She glanced at the Soul Pager on the ground. Yeah no, she had already proven she couldn’t scoop things off the ground while running, so calling for help wasn’t an option. She had no options. Maybe the song was right maybe she should just …

“Sara!”

The same voice, but fainter, it still sounded desperate. Sara couldn’t give up. Not tonight at least. She was already late and didn’t need Hayasegawa and Tatsuha even angrier at her for giving Hollows more power. She needed a plan, and she needed a plan now. She did not have one. The best she thought she could do was distract the creature long enough to get away and hide. Maybe not distract. Maybe just blind. She had no way to blind. Wait! Hayasegawa could make Kido do some interesting things. Maybe she could try that. No guarantee that it would work, but it was a chance, and a chance was better than nothing.

Sara was surprised at how cold her voice sounded, “If you want me, you’ll have to come and get me.” She threw her hand out and called out, “Hado Shakkaho!”

Sara was hoping to create more of a bright light than a blast with any kind of power. She probably put more Reiatsu into the spell than she should have, but she did aim it at the Hollow. If she couldn’t create the blinding light and instead did a normal blast maybe it would do something. Sara didn’t stay to find out. She simply turned and used Graceful Slide to run off. She was definitely using too much Reiatsu, but she didn’t have any other plan. Maybe if she found a place to hide, she could lay a trap for the Hollow. The one thing she knew for sure was that she was alone with no way to call for help. She thought she was alone, there was still that strange voice she could barely hear and now could almost not remember. No! Investigation later. Hiding and trap now.

@Sho Minazuki

Bleach - Resonant Souls

As soon as the meeting was over and they were dismissed Sara was out, out, out! Her anxiety and momentum carried her all the way to the park near her home where she collapsed on a bench and struggled to remember how to breathe. War, Mikisuki had called it a war. Was it a war? Would Darius, who Sara had vague notions of being a soldier at one point and sent to war, be offended if she asked? Did she have the courage to ask? Did she even want to ask? Did it even really matter? Whether it mattered or not, Sara was a part of it now. That was what she had agreed to when Hayasegawa had saved her life. Whether she knew it or not. Not for the first time, she wondered if she made the right choice, both the first one and the second. Too late now, she supposed, for regrets she couldn’t change.

Eventually, she finally leveled out her breathing, but not her mind, and returned home. Himari was in the kitchen, which made it easy to sneak past her and up the hall. Sneaking past the twins’ room was a little more challenging since they left the door open all the time. Still, even that was doable. It would worry her stepmother, it always did, but it wasn’t out of character, that Sara had gone straight up to her room without eating or saying anything. And Sara tried, she really did try, not to worry her stepmother, but it was so difficult and it was just easier not to worry about it. Sara felt horrible, but couldn’t seem to change.

Waiting away the hours until it was time to head out to battle was long. Sara tried to be productive, she really did, but when she sat down at her desk she just stared at the math homework. It was like she couldn’t engage. Maybe that was for the best. The modsoul who helped her with her body graded her papers, leaving red marks all over them, and then Sara had to redo them again. The modsoul would eventually get hungry and venture out to the kitchen to eat, which they seemed to enjoy doing. If they accidently ran into her family they would be unfailingly polite and maybe ease some of Himari’s worry. Sara had to admit that she had gotten lucky with the modsoul she had been assigned. At least they didn’t try and cause trouble.

Finally, the time came to go, which Sara had set a timer for, so she wouldn’t miss it, and Sara ate the modsoul candy and popped out of her body. She greeted the modsoul, they wished her good luck, and they both said their farewells. Sara left through the window. She headed to Sukuhana Park slowly. She didn’t feel like she was delaying, but maybe she was, just a little. She was keeping her thumb on the emergency notice button of her Soul Pager and the other on the hilt of her Zanpakutō as she slowly walked down the street, keeping her eyes on every nook, every cranny, every dark spot where a Hollow might hide. At this rate she was going to be very late and both Hayasegawa and Tatsuha, would be very mad at her. She couldn’t seem to speed up though. She didn’t want to be jumped most patrols nights, and especially not tonight.

Bleach - Resonant Souls

Sara listened to Hayasegawa explanation and reason why she had gathered everyone together. It made sense. Sara wouldn’t have wanted to tell this new multiple times, and now Hayasegawa and Tatsuha could make sure that their recruits didn’t play a game of telephone, making something already bad worse. Then there was the question and answer portion of the meeting and Sara had to admit that that was a good idea, and that the questions, for the most part, were excellent. Tony’s question about what Hueco Mundo was, was a good question that Sara wanted an answer too. Darius question about Hollows being basically animals was also a good question and raised other concerns about what else Hayasegawa and Tatsuha had bent the truth about. Mikazuki’s question was good, but Sara didn’t think a history lesson would solve the problem right now. Bakuto apparently agreed because he was already trying to leave. Sara had a question of her own, but she wasn’t going to ask it out loud. She wasn’t that stupid.

What the hell did Hayasegawa and Tatsuha think a bunch of brand-new Substitute Shinigami were going to do about this so call Hollow Warlord?

Sara herself knew that She could barely swing a sword. After Mikazuki had healed her concussion, which had taken longer than it would have if Hayasegawa had done it, much longer, but Sara was more than willing to be Mikazuki’s practice dummy, Tatsuha had lectured her about ways to improve, and while Sara honestly had tried to pay attention, she couldn’t remember all of it, and she hated herself felt bad about that. She was barely any good at fighting regular Hollows. Up until this point her general strategy was to just distract them until someone who liked fighting and was good at it came to finish the job. Somehow, she didn’t think that a Hollow Warlord, whatever that meant, would be so kind as to not kill her until some like Bakuto showed up.

THoughout the meeting Sara had been hunching her shoulders and slouching in her chair, desperately trying to make herself seem smaller and smaller. She wasn’t a fool enough to think that meant she could get out of the meeting in the park tonight, but hopefully the boys would distract Hayasegawa and Tatsuha enough that she wouldn’t be given any real work. Maybe she could just shadow Darius or Bakuto for an hour or two. Maybe … maybe … maybe. Ah, hell, who was she kidding. Not for the first time Sara realized that by taking Hayasegawa offer she hadn’t changed anything. She had just delayed her death. The space just above her knees, and the secrets they carried, burned. Suddenly, the room seemed too small, and like Bakuto, Sara wanted out, out, out!

What the hell did Hayasegawa and Tatsuha think Sara was going to do about this so call Hollow Warlord?

Bleach - Resonant Souls

Sara saw Hayasegawa show up as she was watching the spars. She shrank down on herself trying to hide, pointlessly, she knew. But that didn’t stop her from trying. She had no idea why the Shinigami took an interest in her, and it wasn’t like Sara disliked Hayasegawa. She actually thought Hayasegawa was super pretty and elegant, but for some reason she was significantly less cool with Sara. Sara had no idea what to do with that. She just wanted to fade into the background. How was that so hard.

She did nod in response to the elegant woman’s greeting, "Hello Hayasegawa-san. Yes, I’ve been alright. It’s good to see you too."

(Start of collaboration with @McNephelim Thank you so much!)

Sara started as Tony asked her for a spar. She couldn't think of a reason to say no, and she did need to practice, so she tucked her phone away.

Standing she nodded, "I suppose." She left her body and nervously held her blade, unsure if she was holding it correctly, "Do you mind making the first move?"

Tony must have agreed to taking the first move because he lunged at her with a downward slash, apparently deliberately slow so, Sara easily saw the blow coming and instinctively fell backwards into a smooth back flip. She had just enough sense to land on the hand not holding her Zanpakutō. Coming up, and without really thinking about aiming she fired off, "Bakudo Hainawa." She didn't expect the glowing rope of yellow Reshi to do much to bind Tony. He did have more Reiryoku than her after all.

Sara finally managed to get to a point where she could look around, and paused in shock. She had actually got him! With out even hesitating she fired off, "Hado Shakkahō!" this time making sure to aim properly. Was that the smartest move? No, not really it wasn't like she had much Reiryoku after all. She watched as Tony finally managed to get loose of the Hainawa and raise his blade up to block the blow. Maybe her spell would be just a touch faster.

Nope, that wasn't good. Sara hit Tony straight on, but the older boy managed to be faster and block it with his sword. This caused the blast to veer off path. Knowing she couldn't afford to send blast after blast of Kido off, she decided to try some she had seen in one of the videos she had watched. Sara took the hilt of her Zanpakutō in both hands and rushed at Tony. When she was almost there, she used a touch of Hoho to leap just high enough into the air to land on top of him. Sara didn't think she was doing the move right, but also knew she would never get it right of she didn't practice. She wasn’t surprised by Tony managing to block the blow.

Tony was the better swordman. Sara knew this. So, why had she thought it was a good idea to attack him head on? Something about practice. Right. That was still difficult to think about as she clumsily landed on her feet and immediately had to dodge a flurry of Tony’s attacks with his Zanpakutō. She dodged most of them but missed one and it went sliding past her side. Sara wasn't sure how injured she was, but she felt the pain radiating from the point of contact as she let out a hiss. Instinctively, she reached for the skill she was still working on perfecting, the one called Graceful Slide. With that she managed to put some distance between her and her opponent. She hadn't really wanted this fight in the first place but had wanted to claim she was being social. One hand came off the hilt to hold her aching side. The other held the blade in a diagonal slash across her chest. Sara eyed Tony warily, waiting for his next blow. She wouldn't yield quite yet, but damn she hurt.

Tony had paused, falling into a defensive stance, “ Y'know I can stop if you're hurt,” It sounded like there was uncharacteristic concern in his voice, “I don't really want to damage you so much, I wanted to spar with someone, not hurt them."

Sara risked a glance at her hand while Tony talked about ending the fight. There was no blood, so she was probably just bruised. She gritted her teeth as she took hold of her Zanpakutō with both hands again. She didn't want to lose, she realized, she might not want to win, but she certainly didn't want to just let Tony win. If he was going to win, then she wanted to make him work for it. She was going to make him work for it. But what to do? She wasn't betting him with Zanjutsu, and she didn't have the energy to just dart around the playing field with Hoho flinging Kido at him. Actually, maybe if she got smart. With a plan in mind she moved as quick as she could, not giving herself time to second guess or Tony time to react she jumped into another Graceful Glide. Halfway through she dropped her Zanpakutō. Keeping her eyes on Tony she fired off another “Bakudo Hainawa." This time she made sure to do her best to catch him. She was hoping to circle around him using Graceful Slide, looping the Kido spell around him. If that worked the next time, she passed her Zanpaktuo she would grab it and rush him. This series of techniques would exhaust her, so she wouldn't be able to keep going for too long after that. But she wasn't letting Tony off easy. That was for sure.

She got him! She even got a few loops of Hainawa around him! Sara honestly hadn't expected that. She quickly moved to grab her Zanpaktuo. Too bad she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing and had next to no practice scooping swords off the ground in the middle of the fight. She fumbled getting a grip, failed, and couldn't recover. She was still in a direct line with Tony and couldn't change course. She went toppling into him, knocking them both to the ground. At one point Sara hit her head and let out a yelp. With her concentration broken, her Kido failed. Sara hissed as she slowly sat up, fight forgotten. She hurt all over and she gingerly touched where she hit her head. She spoke softly, probably in shock, "Oh, that's not good." She was bleeding and had like nine fingers, or maybe it was eight. So, she was seeing some type of double which meant a concussion, at the least. Slowly she evaluated the rest of how she felt. Her side hurt even worse. Her shoulder had probably made contact with the ground because now that hurt. She felt like one big bruise and was fighting to keep her eyes open. Suddenly she remembered the fight and tried to use Graceful Slide to get some distance. She must have miscalculated something because she went crashing into a wall. Yeah, she was done. She hurt too much to keep going. She was just going to sit here for a while and try not to fall asleep with a concussion.

She did look up as she heard Tony come over, “Sorry... I'm a idiot...

He looked guilty, which was stupid because she had agreed to the spar, and she told him so, “Don’t be stupid. I agreed to the fight. I’m the one that didn’t calculate my last move right. This isn’t your fault." She sighed, “But if you feel like you have to do something, can you find my Zanpakutō. I may not know how to use it right, but I still feel uneasy without it."

Bleach - Resonant Souls

@Sho Minazuki

I have made my fair share of Bleach OCs. I'm ws just thinking since Sara’s first language is English the spirt that lives inside her brain would be along those lines. Japanese is fine. I just had to know for sure.

Bleach - Resonant Souls

@Sho Minazuki

Do the names have to be in Japanese?

Word association Game!

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