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(( Here's to vacuum-portals! ))


Through the feeling of floating, and slight weightlessness, Nirami felt something shift around his body. He slowly became aware that he was partially conscious- but only enough to feel. He was in pain, his form was a bit stiff as if he'd been frozen. He was even cold, and he shivered slightly. There was also something else there... The feeling of Hans' form benieth him, and he could vaguely hear someone panting near him, as if there was a third person there.

And then he felt the tug.

Nir tried opening his eyes, but nothing worked right then. He was numb again, save for the feeling of being pulled... some invisible force was tugging at his form, and all he could do was wait and see what happened. Somehow, his hand had gripped onto the cloth under Hans' head, and with the position of how he'd been shielding her, she was being dragged along with him. He tried making a noise, letting go, as he felt a certain panic rise in him as their forms moved across the ground.

The portal that had sucked up his Reiatsu was now taking his body, and Hans, and he began to grow unable to observe, anymore, again. The Hollows weren't even attacking, and it struck him as odd, before he was entirely unconscious again. Homura had been put back in his sheath when he tore off his last sleeve, and now it hummed with warning before going silent. Nirami was lost to whatever was going to happen- fate, the future, and the unknown.

Time . . . such a fickle thing. Over all our lives, it is as if we are given our time in a multitude of small boxes, each being opened when needed. Yet, when you need them, the boxes seem to disappear. When they are not needed, we drown amongst them.

When the Hollow deluge began dread, fear, uncertainty, and doom caused the boxes to each seem large enough to swallow the world. Fighting against the endless hordes of a monsterous death, each box threatened to engulf their owner in a moment of terror. Then, the boxes seem to suddenly almost disappear. Charles, a neophyte in the ranks, was forced to hold his own against a task that even Kuichiki-Taicho could not fight. One by one, his comerades fall either to the feral hunger of a tsunami of death, or a vortex of blackness that even by exsisting threatens to devour them.

He tried, he tried so very hard. Siding with the best chance of survival in his eyes, working with his best friend in his hands. Each breath a victory, each slice of hollow flesh a triumph. The boxes, however, began to disappear. A friendly face appears, and then is cruelly stolen, her inspiring presence ripped from his side. Another goes to protect her, and something breaks within him. Charles cannot stop himself from going to help her, too.

This all plays before his eyes in an instant as he lies in wait for one last strike against what seems inevitable. His plan is to go down fighting for his comerades- but he forgot something in that moment of valliance. His noble act did not factor in just how strong the pull of that vortex really is. Not only of reiatsu, but of matter as well. Even the hollows dare not approach. Now, his reason for exposing himself cannot resist the pull, and is dragged into the air.

Charles gives up on an attack, and leaps foreward to catch the two of them. Another box opens. Stretching out as far as his leap can go, his hand searches for a shred of cloth, a hand to hold, a weapon to grasp . . . and fails by an inch. Anguish plain on his face, Charles closes his eyes against the failure, and the demise of what could have been friends to him. The box closes.

It is too late now. Airborne, Charles feels the irresistable pull of the vortex. Velvet blackness numbs his mind, and his weary body has little left to fight it with. The pull is simply too great, his will too weak. In his mind, the only attachment manages a call. Another box opens.

Aitourensa, haggard and bruised, waits in Charles' mind. Falling to his knees, the man simply leans foreward, and holds his best friend close. The equally sized spider simply rolls back, taking the man with it. Wrapping it's legs about him in the closes thing his body can give to an embrace, the two mentally say goodbye as the void takes them.

In the physical world, the last of his strength follows his mind. As the vortex takes him, the last act he makes in this world is to hold his sword to his chest, the edge outward and blade facing down his belly. Holding it close like a security blanket for a small child, the void takes them in at last.

What is assumed to be the last box is empty, and closes.

((I'm assuming everyone's inside Black Mes-I mean, Apertur-no, Hueco Mundo.))

The black portal soon began to grow and consume more and more of the surrounding area. Hollows, Shinigami, students and buildings alike were drawn in with by the humongous dark hole. In her mind, Tsubame felt like she was speeding up towards an unknown place. Where it would take her, no one knew. Her arm reached outwards and felt nothing. Her eyes opened slightly and all she could see was darkness, nothing was there in the abyss but floating debris and bodies that were either still alive or already dead. A white light suddenly blinded her; it seemed that this was their destination.

In Hueco Mundo, near the boundary of the forest of Menos and the vast desert that spanned the world, a black portal opened. The land grumbled and shook as it seemed to regurgitate something. Another close look clearly showed that the vortex was about to implode. It shrank rapidly, then the next second, expanded to gigantic proportions. It threw back out anything that it had sucked in.

Tsubame woke up in a daze several minutes later; she sat up, feeling the sand around her. Her head felt like a ball of spikes was inside her brain with a 20-pound weight tied to it. All around her, some people were stirring as well. In the near distance, a very familiar sight was blurred beyond the horizon.

"Is that . . . the Academy . . .?", she murmured, as she struggled to clear her vision by rubbing her eyes. Tsubame blinked a few times and tried to stand up, her balance was wobbly still and needed to stabilize herself with her hands. Frantically, she searched around her for her zanpakuto and found that Yumiharizuki was safely back in its sheath.

She turned her head around to gaze at the surroundings. A few faculty members, several students and a few shinigami were either still laying down or coming to around her. Turning to look over at the horizon once again, the main building of the Academy came into view, though it was slightly askew and leaning towards the right side a tiny bit, at least from where she was standing.

Tsubame's face went from surprise and curiosity to fear and nervousness. She knew that they were not in the Spirit World anymore, and nor were they in the real world. The only possible location they could be made her spine shiver.

Traveling . . . without moving. Charles knew that he had been swallowed by an emptyness that promised only oblivion. Closing his eyes, holding his dear companion to his chest, the would-be warrior let himself go. Consigning his spirit to the abyss, he once again faces death.

Another box opens.

'From the shards of tattered dreams, I rose - unwilling.
Tossed upon tides of pain that flowed and ebbed and left me searingly awake. And more revoltingly - alive.' Those words float through his mind as he slowly becomes aware of his surroundings and situation. Laying on his left side, the searing heat of the ground baking his side, and a brutal sun doing the same to his right. The sheer brilliance of the world about him makes his eyes squint against the onslaught. 'Is this what it is like to be born? In a hostile world and not knowing anything of the new world?'

Then he recieves something that makes his heart leap, and mind jump. Though it is very faint, there is a touch of familiarity in his mind. It is a bare moment, but there. Becoming instantly more aware of his world, Charles tightens his grip, and the comforting resistance of a sword handle meets his grip. Aitourensa is both in his mind, and his hands. A wave of gratitude washed over him, and gave the training Shimigami the strength to rise. Carefully sheathing his companion, he takes a look around.

All that were taken are here . . . buildings, people, weapons, everything. Not that it matters where they are, he immediately seeks out Nirami and Hans. They came to help him- and they are the first to come to his mind now that he is alive.

Nirami had felt the motionless drifting- it was almost like dry water, the only way he might've been able to describe it, if he had to- and then he felt it disappear. Along with it came the disappearance of being unconscious. Without the constant pull of the portal, he could sense Homura near... He could feel tinges of Reiatsu, and a small flare of his own. He was still alive. That much, he could tell.

And then there was the heat, and the feeling of something solid beneath him again. He felt like there was something missing, but he couldn't figure it out in his current state of mind. He had no state of mind, at the moment. His thoughts drifted much like the moon did during the night- varying degrees each night with a promise of a full circle. Yet, he couldn't grasp any of it. Nothing but the fact that he felt gravitied again, and there was some sort of feeling along the arm he was laying on, and in various other parts of his body that was starting to distract him from any thought.

And then Nirami heard Homura's gravelly voice in his mind demanding that he get up. He needed to get up and figure out where they were, and what was wrong with his body. The shimigami-in-training almost rebelled, but soon found himself coming to, regardless. The light made him snap his eyes shut again the moment he opened them. It was too bright. And hot. Where were they? He couldn't think of anything as he slowly woke up further.

The next thing he noted was two- Pain, and the feeling of Numbness. It was enough to make him gasp aloud and shift a bit to roll onto his back and off the arm he was laying on. He'd been on his stomach, which was a weird place to feel pain in his arm, and then he vaguely remembered that his arm was tucked in the front of his top. And then he remembered why, and gave a groan as things reeled. The Hollows... the Academy... Fighting... Hans... His last thought made him force his eyes open and squint in the bright light. He'd been protecting Hans, and then something happened... and then everything was dark again.

Nirami tried sitting up, failed, and flopped back into the sand with a heavy groan of pain and frustration.

This void swallowed Yuki's all as absolutely nothing was visible to him while floating through the dark passage. Though only partially concious, the bright light ahead told him that there might actually be an end to this vacuum. This flare then became a clear picture of the wormhole's exit. He flailed for only a moment as the feeling of falling came and went with a pronounced thud and minor pain. The first thought in his mind was that of Maru. Hearing several other thuds as other objects and people slammed into the ground from several feet in the air, he noted the whispers of a few swords hitting the coarse ground. He opened his eyes, now fully concious from the adrenaline coarsing through his system. All he could see was miles of sand, the dull excuse for a sky, and a harsh sun. Slowly rising to his knees, he scanned the area for Maru. Where is it? His pupils skimming across the bodies and debris, he strained to see his sword here. I remember that I dropped him just before the wave of hollows was destroyed. I don't think I picked him up again. He drew his hand to his side but found only an empty sheath. As other students awoke and got their bearings, Yuki stood completely. Finally he caught sight of a hilt up from the sand. With relief he walked over to it. He neared the buried zan and lifted it from the beige particles. Nope, not Maru. Making a wider sweep with his eyes and turning to get a full view of his surroundings, he viewed the disfigured school building.

Kiyoshi's awkward steps had finally become more solid, and his vision had cleared.You know...you fought better than i expected back there Sairensa said in the back of his mind.
Why's that?
Your zanpakuto is designed for one on one battles. though multiple enemies can be fought, the more enemies to fight the weaker i am. My abilities are relatively useless in large-scale battles. I can't do much more than keep my eyes peeled and watch your back.Though the battle might have done just as well without you, you did a fairly well job.
Kiyoshi released a mental growl. Where you there? I only took out four or five! Throughout the battle Kiyoshi largely worked on the larger, slower hollow. He would drag them a fair distance away and defeat them.
So why have you been working so hard to keep me awake since we got here? He asked his ally. Throughout all this time, he had been using shikai to keep the conversation going. This way, neither of them had to put any effort into conversing. On the downside, it was beginning to drain him, and he knew the conversation was nearing an end.
Did you notice your mask is cracked? you took a nasty blow to the head back there, if you went to sleep you likely would have gone into a coma. Not even I can help you if that happens. You should be clear to rest in about an hour.
Panicked he reached for his mask on his head. cracked? Indeed, there was a large crack down the middle, caked with his own blood.
"Hollow!!" Someone behind him screamed and charged with their sword. Damnit! I cannot deal with stupid first years today!

((Just to clarify he is not a hollow in any sense of the word. The mask was his girlfriends (who became a hollow and was responsible for his death.) He killed her, and keeps the mask in her memory))