paixaorpg | Nightmarish Recollections. [Solo/Completed]

Character(s): Ise Nanao
Content: Nanao sleeps the sleep of the dead (no pun intended, I swear!) before snapping awake from a ~~nightmare~~ dream, after which she manages to go back to sleep.
Setting: Actua Are (N9)
Time: Late Friday night
Warnings: Um...blood and corpses?

Every breath she inhaled seared her lungs, but she forced herself to push onwards, fearful that she would be left behind. That was the last thing she wanted to happen, because if there was anything she feared - anything at all - it was being left alone.

Somewhere up ahead, she heard someone yell at her: "Ise! Keep up!"

"Yes sir!" she responded to her commanding officer, Ikage Ryuji - Third Seat of the First Division, the division to which she belonged as a Fourth Seated Officer. She gritted her teeth together, and forced herself to keep up. Her shunpo wasn't perfect yet, having only recently learned the skill, but she vowed to herself that she would not allow that to get in the way of the current mission: to rid the countryside of Soul Society of what was turning out to be a particularly violent and particularly powerful Hollow.

The truth of the matter was, Nanao was rather nervous about this encounter. Although she had participated in her own fair share of battles while she was in the lower ranks of the Third Division, that had only been for a short while, since she was quickly transferred out as a Seated Officer into the First Division, where administrative work took priority, and hence it was rare when any of them were ever sent out to fight. Although she still did train herself - it was practically a requirement, lest they lose their edge in a fight - it was also true that they were nothing like that band of rough, yet skilled, members of the Eleventh Division.

She and her commanding officer slowed slightly the moment they caught sight of a familiar figure: that of Sasakibe Choujirou, Vice-Captain of the First Division.

Perhaps he had sensed their reiatsu, because they hadn't even gotten anywhere near three feet of him when he turned around, eyes blazing and his zanpakutou already in its shikai state. "Flank it!" he yelled as they drew closer. "Hurry up and flank it!"

"Yes sir!" Her response mingled with that of Ikage's, and the two of them moved in opposite directions, circling around to better carry out their orders.

The Hollow was not one that Nanao recognized. Although it wore the characteristic white mask and had the large, gaping hole from which the name of all its kind had been derived, this Hollow had taken on the shape of a massive blob. It stood in the middle of a ring of bloodied bodies: the bodies of shinigami. Nanao recognized a few of the faces that were lying on the ground, their eyes blank and their blood fertilizing the grass, and she felt anger threaten to overcome her better judgment.

No, she would not allow that to happen. She reached into her robes, and drew Sennyo no Hisuidake. She looked across the glade at Ikage and Vice-Captain Sasakibe, and noted that they, too, were ready. She knew the plan: they would flank the Hollow, and attack from all sides at the same time.

She felt a sense of reassurance emanate from Sennyo no Hisuidake, and she mentally thanked her zanpakutou before crying out the command that would transform it from a mere dagger to a weapon worthy of reckoning: "Agaru! [Rise!]"

With a crackle of reiatsu the dagger changed form in her hand, the hilt lengthening and expanding until it was almost as long as she. The blade lengthened and expanded as well, until she held not a dagger, but a naginata.

Her now far more formidable weapon in hand, she charged the Hollow at the same time that Ikage and the Vice-Captain did, the blade of her naginata screaming a path in front of her. In a few moments, she knew, she would feel her blade connect with that unholy flesh, and then-

Ikage's scream sent a shiver through her as it chilled her spine. When she looked up, she realized that the Hollow had formed a spike out of its blob-like body, and had used that to run Ikage through the chest.

Before she could even react, the spike suddenly turned into a tentacle, and with a sharp snap, sent Ikage's body hurtling in her direction.

The collision knocked the wind out of Nanao, throwing her back and onto the ground. The impact made pain explode as red fireworks in front of her vision, a counterpoint to the blackness that was already beginning to creep out from the edges of her eyes. She tried to push Ikage's body off her, but she found that she could not move her limbs.

The impact had paralyzed her - and overhead, the tentacle turned into a spike once again, heading straight for the space between her eyes.

There was nothing she could do. There was no way that she could escape. Nanao closed her eyes, and braced herself for the impact.

It never came. Instead, it was a hand that touched her forehead: large and rough with calluses, but infinitely gentle. She opened her eyes, but saw nothing but a silhouette.

"You're safe now," the shadow said, and Nanao relaxed, allowing herself to slip into the welcoming arms of oblivion.

She awoke with a sharp inhalation of breath, her eyes wide as she stared at the ceiling of the hotel room. It took her ten seconds before she rememebered where she was: in a room at the Actua Are hotel, resting after having fallen asleep.

She wondered what time it was, and when she checked the clock in her electronic journal, she was shocked to see that it was already Friday, and that she had slept more than twenty-four hours.

"Well, that would explain why I have this awful backacke," she muttered as she rubbed her lower back in an attempt to ease the pain. She was not used to sleeping in, and she was surprised that she had. Even in Soul Society, when she fell asleep near-dead from exhaustion, she hadn't slept the whole day through.

What surprised her even more was that she still felt tired, because her eyelids were already closing, and before she knew it, she had settled back into sleep, her dream already forgotten.