𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 [MINOR EDITING]

³⁷ ᴄʀᴀᴢʏ ᴡᴏᴍᴀɴ

It's been two weeks already since I've come to the World of the Living. As my father warned, the Hollows wouldn't come just in ones or twos. With Karakura having been named the current spiritually-enriched spirit zone, I could expect groups of Hollows coming in droves of fives and sixes; the most I've had so far has been nine. Thankfully, they were among the lesser Hollows-- completely manageable.

I worry though-- their patterns have changed. They no longer arrive and attack at random. It's... almost calculated. They will come and attack those with higher concentrations of spiritual energy. Humans and souls, alike.

As I've requested of my father, the other Quincy have done their best not to interfere with my work. Of course, when they become the target, it becomes unavoidable unless I can make it in time. Oftentimes, I don't, and they're forced to take action. This takes away from my kills. I've exorcised a good sixty Hollows this week. I'm exhausted.

Before now, I've yet to take my father up on his offer, to rest at the manor. I feel like my pride has been holding me back for doing so. I'd been sleeping at shrines and by the river's edge since my first night here. It's going to be nice to sleep in a proper bed again.

The familiar cold chill I'd been dreading to sense sweeps across my back. But this one... this one is different. Nevertheless; I groan, and it echoes through the night sky, me being over a hundred feet above the ground. I don't particularly feel like taking care of Hollows down inside the village. So I take the fight to them as they arrive.

Racing across my platform of reishi to the opposite end of the village from the compound, the sensation I'd received minutes prior brings me to the outskirts of the village and above a thick, dark forest with tall pine trees. Hesitantly, I slowly lower myself into it, avoiding the sharp branches that stick out around me. In this darkness, a man's scream is what scares me into losing focus. I go plummeting through the wood, my robe and skin catching on the same branches I'd meant to avoid, my body being yanked and caught on from all sorts of angles. Eventually, all I feel around me is air, until I hit solidity again, this time in the form of another being. I have no time to see who or what I hit, as the next thing I know, I'm sinking further into a source of water, a lake, my shihakushõ and Zanpakutõ weighing me down on my descent through the dark liquid.

The moment I touch the bottom, I flip myself around and kick off from the lake bed with my feet, straightening my body on my return to the surface. I take in a gracious amount of air once I do, as it had been knocked out of me the moment of impact. I had realized it, but my body aches in many places.

"Shit," a deep voice groans. From my place in the water, which is only a few inches under my chin, I turn to face the person I'd fallen on. Tall, dark hair and positively piercing eyes, he is the embodiment of both beauty and stone-cold intimidation-- a dangerous combination. Instinctively, I'm about to apologize. But then I remember that he's a normal human. He won't be able to see me. However...