Episode 4: Journey West
Slick Deal’s Used Cars was what one might consider a less reputable dealership in Canterlot City, but that didn’t stop it from having the largest stock of vehicles in town. The overstuffed lot was just outside the downtown area, in that vague belt of city that wasn’t quite suburbs and wasn’t quite downtown.
The lot was quiet and near deserted, business being slow on a Sunday. Even if it had been incredibly busy, its not as if anyone would have seen the opening of the Garganta portal. It formed the way a mouth might open, with tears in the air like the separation of teeth into a cavernous maw. Beyond the portal’s entrance was pure darkness, a void between realms. The only method of crossing the voice was to create a bridge out of spirit particles, solid enough for even normal people to stand on. In this case, it was Di Roy making the bridge, allowing his two accomplices to cross with him and exit the portal into the used card lot.
“Should be around here somewhere,” Di Roy was saying, swiftly giving the lot of tightly parked cars a once over. His eyes lit up as soon as he spied his target, “There! That’s the beauty we’re after.”
X gave the vehicle in question a dubious look, but turned to Gigan and said, “Assessment?”
Gigan, more tech savvy than X by an order of magnitude, let his scanners rove over the indicated conveyance and gave a quick rundown as data streamed across his vision, “According to the readings it’s called a ‘Toyota Land Cruiser’. Tech is primitive by my standards, but the thing looks rugged enough. Not going to choke out on sand. We pack enough gas, and we’ll be fine.”
X trusted Gigan’s word and gave a nod, “Then let’s get this back through the portal before we’re spotted.”
Di Roy looked positively giddy as he cavorted over to the Land Cruiser, “Awesome! I’ve been bugging Adagio about getting one of these, but she’s all like ‘it doesn’t have any practical use for us’, as if I need practicality to be involved in my driving this baby over a few sand dunes.”
As Di Roy grabbed one end of the big, four door cruiser, X and Gigan got the other end, and the three of them literally lifted and began hauling the Land Cruiser towards the still open Garganta portal. To onlookers it would seem like the action required no more effort of the trio to move the multi-ton Land Cruiser than it take a group of normal people to move a couch.
“Strictly speaking your Espada has a point that this vehicle is frivolous if your species can just make portals to wherever you want to go,” pointed out X.
“Well, Garganta have limits. You have to already know more or less where you’re going, and they can be a bit too draining for trying to use them for long distance travel. For our purposes, something like this is just what the doctor ordered. Assuming your buddies can get the gas without blowing up the gas station.”
“I think Irys and Megalon can handle the complex task of putting gas in a can,” Gigan said flatly, “I’m more concerned whether that violent nutjob you sent with them isn’t going to cause trouble.”
“Gaw? Naaaaah, she’s fine. She might have a bit of a hair trigger in the temper department, but now that you guys are cool with Adagio, then you’re cool with the rest of us. I’m sure they’re doing just fine.”
----------
Half of the gas station was on fire, the other half being sprinkled with copious amounts of water from a broken fire hydrant. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the spectacle had certainly drawn a crowd, many of them armed with cell phones to take video or pictures of the chaos.
Despite the presence of both the fire department and police, no one was able to get a clear story from the witnesses as to what exactly had happened, or why an ice cream truck was totaled and flipped into one of the gas pumps. The convenience store clerk running the adjoining store attached to the gas station could only stammer about a ‘crazy albino lady’ and a ‘madman with drill hands’ and how they breezed into the store and hauled out enough junk food to kill an elephant, all of two minutes before a nearby parked ice cream truck (apparently the driver was using the convenience store restroom) floated up into the air on its own and proceeded to smash into the gas pump, leading to the fire.
Then, trying to put the fire out, the one with the ‘drill hands’ broke a fire hydrant and directed the water at the fire, and then quickly got hauled away by his companion until they vanished into thin air.
The police had no idea what to make of the incident, but it was generally agreed that this wasn’t the strangest thing to happen in Canterlot City of late.
Meanwhile, tired, wet, and disheveled, the trio of Irys, Megalon, an Gaw were crossing over the Garganta void back to Hueco Mundo. They carried a full haul of convenience store junk food and drinks, along with a full, plastic red can of gas apiece. Luckily they’d acquired the gas first before Irys had hit upon the idea of padding out their food supplies in the convenience store. It was only after she and Megalon had started grabbing what they could from inside the store that things had gone awry outside, with Gaw throwing the ice cream truck.
“You saw a lizard?” Irys confirmed, trying to grasp what the insane, short, red headed Arrancar was saying.
“Yes,” Gaw confirmed, as if it was a perfectly reasonable excuse for her reaction, “So I threw biggest thing I could at it.”
“...Why?”
Gaw just stared at Irys, “I don’t like lizards.”
“Makes sense to me,” said Megalon, digging into the bags of food he’d nabbed, “Oh, sweet, Funyuns!”
Irys just shook her head, “Does the phrase ‘impulse control’ mean anything to you, Gaw?”
“No.”
A resigned sigh escaped Irys, “I can tell this mission is just going to go so swimmingly.”
Gaw shuddered, “Don’t say ‘swim’. I don’t like water.”
“What do you like?” asked Irys, more out of exasperation than any real desire to know.
Gaw appeared to give the question serious consideration for a moment, using her fingers to count, one at a time, “Hunting... eating... sleeping... those things.”
“Oh hey, I like two of those!” Megalon piped in around a mouthful of Funyuns. Just how he was balancing eating those while still carrying everything else was a bit of a mystery, but where there was a will (or a Megalon), there was a way. He even offered the bag to Gaw with a sunny grin, “Want some?”
Gaw paused, sniffing at the bag experimentally. Her own experience with food consisting of devouring lesser Hollows, for the most part. Di Roy had an obsession with human food, but was generally too greedy to share. This strange brown one seemed quite oddly harmless to Gaw, despite her remembering quite clearly how hard he could hit, and how stoutly he could take a hit. They’d been enemies all of half a day ago, now he was offering food? Very odd.
As the human morsels didn’t smell bad, Gaw snatched a handful and munched on them, surprised at the flavor.
“Good, right?” Megalon said, still grinning.
Gaw gave a grunt of approval, then proceeded to resume leading the pair back across the bridge of spirit particles to the opposite side of the Garganta portal. Irys gave Megalon a sidelong look.
“Do you have any beef jerky in that bag?”
----------
A short time later the group was gathered together in a wide tunnel that ran underneath Las Noches, connected to the chambers that consisted of Adagio’s territory. X had had several questions for his compatriots upon Irys and Megalon’s return from their own supply run, given their somewhat soaked state, but upon hearing what had happened chalked it up to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. As long as none of the team was injured, a little mishap or two was acceptable. He was less pleased that this Gaw was so impulsive, which normally he wouldn’t care about only Adagio insisted Gaw and Di Roy both accompany him and his team on this ‘job’ she wanted them to do.
The acquisition of the vehicle and extra food supplies were in preparation for the task, which they were just about to head out on. As Gigan and Di Roy worked together to gas up the Land Cruiser and load the supplies into the back of it, Adagio was standing with X at the mouth of the tunnel. The tunnel turned up sharply here, leading to a small surface entrance to the desert. If one didn’t know where to look for it the entrance would be all but invisible at surface level.
“To confirm precisely what it is you expect of us, you want us to find the location of at least one or two of these ‘Privaron’ Espada,” X was saying, making sure he understood exactly what Adagio was asking of them. He didn’t want to leave any details of the task unclear, as the success of his team’s mission to their master was riding on them satisfying Adagio’s conditions.
“Even discovering where one is keeping themselves hidden would be of use to me,” Adagio confirmed, leaning casually on her trident, “The Privaron Espada were all once members of the Ten Espada, but at one time or another lost their positions, or simply chose to leave Las Noches in defiance of Lord Tirek’s rule.”
Tirek, from what X understood, was the true master of Las Noches and all of the Arrancar. Adagio had briefly described the man as a crimson skinned giant who wielded immense spiritual power. Apparently he’d tested her when she’d made her claim to the rank of Espada, and the ‘test’ had essentially simply been Adagio having to remain standing in his presence as he exuded his power in a crushing aura. Even if X hadn’t been good at reading others, it was easy enough to see that Adagio was disturbed by the memory of the experience.
“Of course, because they could be seen as threats to Lord Tirek’s rule, they keep their own territory’s far from Las Noches. This realm is as large as an entire world, so I hardly expect you to find more than one or two in the span of just one week, but discovering even a few hints as to where some may be hiding would be invaluable information.”
“You’re intentions are to overthrow this Tirek, then?” X asked in faint curiosity.
Adagio let out a small, chiming laugh, “Time will tell. He’s not the worst ruler I’ve seen, but I am not thrilled with the way he’s handling affairs with our rival factions, and quite frankly this dreary place could do with a lady’s touch. Suffice to say, whatever move I eventually make, I want as many allies as I can muster, and the Privaron Espada would already have reason to desire seeing a regime change around here.”
“I believe I understand. If we’re to return in time for us to make our own trip back to our world we’ll need every moment of time we can manage. As soon as the vehicle is ready, we’ll depart.”
“I look forward to hearing of what you find out there. I’ve instructed Gaw and Di Roy to follow your lead in this task, and to treat your instructions as if they come from me.”
X nodded his gratitude, “A clear chain of command is preferable, yes.”
Abruptly a quiet yet strong feminine voice spoke, “I hope, then, there is room for one more under that chain of command?”
X turned to see two figures approaching from deeper in the tunnel, his eyes narrowing slightly. One he didn’t recognize, although she was the speaker. She was clearly an Arrancar from the smooth skull mask that covered the right side of her face, her left features that of a plain yet kind and almost matronly young woman with short black hair and dark eyes. She wore sooty dark robes that gave little of her figure away, although there was an impression of a thin, reedy frame.
What caught X’s eye, however, was the other girl approaching alongside the other one. She wore the same dark robes, but had a fire orange complexion and distinctive red and orange striped hair, complemented by intense teal blue eyes. X had little knowledge of Sunset Shimmer besides the fact that Irys had befriended the version of the human girl that lived in his Aria’s reality. This Sunset Shimmer appeared human as well. He saw no features suggestion this girl was an Arrancar, at least.
The others had noticed the approach of these two as well, Gigan raising a slight eyebrow but otherwise offering no hint he recognized Sunset Shimmer, while Megalon briefly looked confused, then resumed snacking on a bag of chocolate pretzels while loading up the rest of the snacks into the cruiser. Irys on the other hand made a slight strangled noise as he eyes went wide, but X caught her eye and briefly shook his head at her. This wasn’t the Sunset that Irys knew, best not to complicate matters by saying anything.
Irys gulped and swallowed whatever exclamation she was going to make, but made a poor job of hiding the way she stared sidelong at this Sunset Shimmer as she walked by with her Arrancar companion.
The Sunset look alike paused, noticing Irys’ stare.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Irys said, clearly trying to look anywhere other than at the girl.
“She’s just curious that you’re human,” X provided as a quick and simple explanation, “Everyone else we’ve met here so far has been an Arrancar.”
“I get that a lot,” the girl replied, shrugging, “I’m basically the only human resident around here. And you guys are what, visitors from Dimension X?”
X blinked, then shook his head, voice deadpan, “Our home dimension has no name I’m aware of, and it’s not relevant at the moment. Why are you two here? For that matter, who are you two?”
Adagio cleared her throat, stepping forward to extend a hand towards the two girls, “Quick introductions. This is Roka, and her sister Fenice. They’re both the adopted daughters of the Fourth Espada, Lament, and also good friends of mine.” She turned a questioning eye towards the two in question, “And I admit I’m surprised to see you both here. I thought you’d returned to your father’s tower.”
Roka gave a polite nod to both Adagio and X, “Once I tended to Gaw’s injuries we did briefly return home. However I also heard from Di Roy before we left that he and Gaw would be departing with these newcomers on some potentially dangerous mission. Considering how much you’ve come to rely on my healing skills in the past, I thought it might be a good show of friendship and solidarity between yourself and my father if I volunteered my services for this mission. I cannot speak for these visitors from another realm, but Di Roy and Gaw have an unfortunate habit of getting themselves injured. Given the children are so fond of both of them I’d hate to allow anything untoward to occur to them out in the wilds of Heuco Mundo. So I asked Father to grant me permission to accompany them.”
A look of incredulity passed over Adagio’s face, “And Lament said yes?”
“...After some convincing,” Roka said cryptically, smiling softly.
Adagio glanced at Fenice, who sighed, “I wanted to go, but Father insisted at least one of us stay behind to watch the rugrats. So I’m just here to see my sis off.” She crossed her arms and fixed X with a solid look, “Not to mention warn you all that you’d better keep her safe out there, otherwise we’re having words.”
Roka quickly cleared her throat, “My sister worries, but I assure you I am quite capable of looking after myself. I won’t slow the team down or get in the way, and I will follow Mister X’s instructions in the field.”
“Just X,” he said, giving Roka a measuring gaze, “You’re a medical specialist?”
“Indeed. I make no boast when I say I am quite experienced in treating severe injuries. I am also a competent enough fighter to pull my own weight in a conflict.”
“She took on a Sternritter by herself,” Fenice said, and Roka let out a small laugh.
“I doubt X and his companions are aware of what a Sternritter is, and I hardly consider that my finest feat, given despite my best efforts I was still soundly defeated without doing more than slow the Sternritter down. I merely mean to say that I won’t be a liability in battle.”
X considered for a moment. As Roka said, he had no idea what a ‘Sternritter’ was, although by context he could infer it was some manner of elite enemy. Regardless, if Roka was at least competent in battle and followed orders, he saw no reason to complain. “A field medic would be useful. As long as you agree to follow my commands, then I have no objection to you accompanying us. Adagio?”
“I’m fine with it,” Adagio said, “Although I wish you’d run this by me before springing it like this. Your father might be allowing you to go along, but if you’re hurt out there, he’s going to take it out of my hide.”
“Father and I have an understanding on this matter. If he wants us to broaden our horizons and for me and Fenice to get out more, there will be risks involved. I’ve told him in no uncertain terms not to take it out on you on the off chance something does unfortunate does occur to me,” Roka assured Adagio, who in turn gave a grateful nod.
“Good. Last thing I need is Lament coming after my head. I’ve got enough troubles with Guto, which is a big part of why I can’t go along on this little soiree. I need to maintain my presence here, in case Guto or Gilda decide to make a move,” Adagio said, but her otherwise composed expression softened for a moment, “But do be careful out there, Roka.”
The other Arrancar provided a small smile, “Of course.”
“Hey, not to interrupt the exposition, but the car’s loaded up,” said Gigan, “We can get this party started whenever you’re all ready to hop in.”
“Oh, can I drive!?” Megalon asked, raising a hand.
Irys’, eyes wide, was quick to say, “Do we really have to drive at all?”
Di Roy piped in, “Of course we do! Driving is awesome, and I want to be the one behind the wheel!”
Gigan’s eyes were inscrutable behind his ruby sunglasses as he looked at all of them, his voice firm, “I’m driving. And yes, we have to, because I’m not trying to recon a seemingly endless desert on foot. Not at this size.”
“What I wouldn’t give to be able to fly right now,” grumbled Irys.
“You and me both, now get in the car, and remember to buckle up. I’ve read the manual on this thing, but I make no promises of a smooth ride.”
“Okay, but I call shotgun!” said Megalon, hopping in the front passenger seat, only a moment later saying, “Heeeey, there’s no shotgun in here at all! What a rip off.”
“I know right!?” said Di Roy, “What’s with humans and their false advertising?”
X coughed politely, ignoring the antics as he turned to Adagio, “I believe that’s our cue to depart. We’ll be back in six days.”
“Have fun out there,” Adagio replied with a coy smile lighting her face, “Don’t storm any castles you don’t have to.”
“Ideally no one will even know we’re there,” X said, and went to join his team inside the Land Cruiser, Roka following behind after giving Fenice a quick farewell hug.
While a large vehicle by human standards, the Land Cruiser was still rather cramped with seven occupants and enough food and water to last a six day journey. X sat in the back with Irys and Roka, Irys taking firm hold of the vehicle's roof handle and scrunching up into her seat after triple checking her seat belt. Roka gave Irys a kind smile and said, “Not fond of cars?”
“More like I’m not fond of being in anything going fast when I’m this small and squishy. I’m used to being... bigger,” Irys said with a gulp.
“Well I’m certain Mister Gigan will prove to be a competent driver,” Roka said.
In the middle seats, Gaw and Di Roy sat together, Di Roy trying and failing to get Gaw to put on a seat belt.
“Fine, be that way, but don’t complain to me when you go flying through the front windshield,” Di Roy said, and Irys cringed.
“Can we not have the crash imagery, please? Gigan, are you sure you can drive this thing?”
To this Gigan simply looked at her in the rearview mirror with a slightly raised eyebrow, then proceeded to extend an arm blade, which he used to turn the ignition without the need for a key. The Land Cruiser’s engine roared lustily to life, and Gigan popped it into gear and with very little preamble proceeded to peel out and send the vehicle leaping out of the tunnel at high speed.
As the cruiser hit the sands and charged off into the distance, Adagio and Fenice were left watching, and on the wind they could both hear Irys’ distant scream.
----------
They headed west, at Di Roy’s suggestion.
“Before I ran into Gaw in the Forest of Menos a while back, I wandered around a lot,” Di Roy was saying, leaning his arm against the open windowsill as the wind blew past them, the Land Cruiser eating up the desert miles with ease. “I remember that a few Hollow settlements are that way, and might even know a few guys from the old gang I used to run with that we can question.”
“They going to be cooperative?” asked Gigan, keeping one eye on the desert in front of them, avoiding any steep sand dunes, and the other eye on his internal compass. It wasn’t calibrated quite right for whatever magnetic polls Hueco Mundo was using, but Di Roy knew which way west was, which according to Gigan’s scanner was actually more a south easterly direction, but one stretch of desert looked much like another so he didn’t question the local on that front.
“They’re lesser Hollows,” Di Roy said, as if that explained everything, “Lowest fodder on the food chain around here. Some are just barely animal level smart, while plenty more are as smart as they were when alive. Either way, aside from a few exceptions, most are so weak they’d never dream of tangling with a trio of Arrancar, plus whatever you guys are. Only the dumbest or hungriest might try to pull something, and if we kick their asses, that’ll ensure the others are plenty cooperative. I mean, sure, there might be a few Gillian or Adjuchas-class Hollows out there too, including some the guys I know, but they shouldn’t be that much more trouble for badasses like us.”
“What reason do you have to think they would know anything about the Privaron Espada we’re looking for?” inquired X, absorbing any information he could on Hollows and their society to add to his report once the mission was finished.
“Direct info, I wouldn’t expect jack, but survival out here often doesn’t just go to the fastest or strongest, but the best informed,” said Di Roy, “Hollows eat each other by instinct, but also band together by similar instinct to stay safe via numbers. Hence you get tribes that form. Tribes compete, tribes trade, slaves or food mostly, and they make a point of knowing what territory to avoid. Privaron Espada are powerful enough that even if a local tribe doesn’t know for sure where one’s territory is, they’ll have a good sense of what areas to stay away from. We get info on that, we know which direction to search in.”
“Speaking of food,” Megalon said, his own head hanging out the passenger window, “We stopping for a break soon? We’ve been driving for hours.”
“Yes, stopping would be good,” Irys said, a huddled up white ball in her seat.
Gigan gave X a questioning look, to which he nodded, “A short break. Half an hour to stretch our limbs and eat.”
With that, Gigan took a turn towards one of the only visible terrain features besides more sand; a lone, dead tree standing silent sentinel near the base of a small, crescent shaped dune.
Irys nearly kissed the sand once she was out of the car, but restrained herself and just took a few moments to catch her breath and stretch. Roka, exiting behind her, looked at her with sympathy.
“Not used to human conveyances?”
“Not even a little. Prefer flight. I’ll take walking over being trapped in a metal box moving at high speed.”
“Your comrade at least appears to be a capable driver. I’m sure if you asked him he’d slow down a little.”
“Nah, I don’t want to hold up the mission. Just need to shake off the nerves,” Irys said, giving the ground a frowning look, “Feels like it wouldn’t be that bad, only there’s been something about this Hueco Mundo world that’s got me more on edge than normal.”
Megalon had opened up the back hatch of the cruiser and had pulled out some sodas and bags of chips, “Anybody want snacks? I’m passing ‘em out!”
Roka smiled at Irys, who’d perked up at the mention of food, “Well, I suggest you relax and get something to eat, and perhaps you could tell me more about what’s troubling you?”
Irys gave the Arrancar a slightly wary look, but Roka simply continued to return an open, non-pressuring expression. It had a pain, empathic quality that reminded Irys of Sunset Shimmer. She decided to extend a little trust, and returned the smile, “Okay.”
At Megalon’s call to snacks, Di Roy and Gaw were at him even faster than Irys was. For all her belligerent when she’d attacked them, Gaw seemed completely at ease now that the Dark Hunters were on the short list of allies to the ‘tribe’. She sniffed at the bags of chips in Megalon’s hands, and as he grinned and offered one, she snatched it up in her mouth and retreated several paces to crouch down and tear into it.
“Congrats on getting her to try human food,” Di Roy said, “I’ve been telling her for weeks now that it’s good stuff.”
“I felt like a new cyborg the day I discovered the beauty of junk food. I don’t know why they call it that, it’s always so good!”
Gigan walked by, turning a flat look towards the pair, “That’s because you don’t actually need it for sustenance. Humans eating that junk daily are basically doing the nutritional equivalent of huffing paint.”
“Thank the Soul Queen for cyborg and/or Arrancar superior metabolics then!” said Di Roy as he cracked a soda open and raised it in toast, Megalon doing the same as they bounced the cans off each other then proceeded to chug.
Gigan just stared at them a moment longer then said, “I’m going to go stand watch, just in case.”
“That’s probably for the best,” said X, “We’re still a bit too in the open for my liking.”
“This is Hueco Mundo, dude. Everywhere is in the open,” Di Roy said, sweeping a hand around at the surrounding landscape, “You’ve pretty much gotten the full grand-tour at this point. We’ve got an abundance of sand, anti-social Hollows, more sand, and if you’re super lucky we might find a stone mesas or two, just to break the monotony.”
Roka answered for Di Roy, her own voice solemn “We don’t choose it, Irys. This realm was made for us Hollows. Our souls are, in a sense, tied to it. We can leave, certainly, but Hueco Mundo always beckons, calling us home.”
“Kinda an over poetic way to put it,” Di Roy said, shrugging, “Fact is, even if we wanted to make the living world our permanent digs, the Quincy and Soul Reapers would have plenty to say about it. And by ‘say about it’, I mean ‘kill the crap out of us’.”
“Uhhh, ain’t you guys technically already dead?” asked Megalon, “How do you die twice?”
Di Roy smiled sardonically, “Tell me about it. Our afterlife is BS, man.”
“In essence, our ‘spirit bodies’ are no different than living ones,” explained Roka, “The only difference is in the particles making up their forms. Physical bodies are made up of atoms, and spirit bodies made up of reishi, or ‘spirit particles’. But in almost all other ways, the living and the dead are the same. That’s why we still bleed, can eat or drink, have children, all the things living people do.”
“That’s so weird,” Irys said, shaking her head as she tried to wrap her mind around it.
“Makes sense to me,” said Megalon, and Irys chuckled a bit at that.
Meanwhile X had a more contemplative look in his eyes, “You mentioned Quincy and Soul Reapers, and that they’re hostile towards Hollows. What are they, exactly, and why do they consider you enemies?”
The half of Roka’s face that wasn’t covered by an expressionless skull mask turned melancholy, lips drawn down in a sadly contemplative frown, “That has no short, or pleasant, answer to it, I’m afraid.”
“Really?” said Di Roy, “Because I can answer it real freakin’ quick! We Hollows eat souls, so the self-appointed guardians of the ‘balance’ or whatever, that’s the Soul Reapers by the way, get their jollies off hunting us. As for the Quincy, they’re a bunch of uppity humans who think because they figured out some weird spirit alchemy crap that they’ve got the stones to pull off a full-blown Hollow genocide. So far, after centuries of war, neither group has managed to wipe us out yet.”
Roka turned a heavy look towards Di Roy, “It’s hardly that simple. The Soul Reapers believe it is necessary to purify Hollows that run amok in the living world, but it's rare they attempt to strike us here in Hueco Mundo. I believe they still understand our existence is part of this world’s spiritual balance, and that’s part of why they fight the Quincy as much as we do. As for the Quincy, in a way I understand why they hate us. We can’t help our nature, and for the Quincy, it’s simply a matter of destroying what they consider to be monsters. Can you really say we’ve done much to alter that perception?”
Di Roy snorted, looking away with his arms crossed, having nothing to say to that.
Chewing on some beef jerky, Megalon said, “I have no clue what you guys are talking about, but the mood just went way south.”
Next to him, Gaw had grabbed her own stick of jerky and was making short work of it, grunting agreement between bites. “They just talk pointless stuff. No need to think about it.”
“Oh good,” said Megalon, “I was worried I was missing something important.”
“Just so we’re clear, you eat souls? As in, literally?” Irys asked, eyes showing a fair amount of stark disbelief and more than a little uneasiness. X couldn’t blame her. He found the concept disturbing as well, although he wasn’t inclined to say anything along those lines. He didn’t have to find everything about these Arrancar agreeable in order to work with them and get the mission accomplished.
Given Gigan, who was still easily able to hear the entire conversation even while standing watch up on the dune, hadn’t said a word or reacted at all, this suggested he had similar feelings to X. Weird soul-devouring ghost demons or not, these three were on the same job for now. Professionalism trumped any personal misgivings either of the two pragmatists might have felt.
Irys looked more bothered by what she was hearing, but Roka offered her a tired, sad smile, nodding slowly.
“I won’t deny the truth. Hollows are driven by an instinct to feed upon other souls, whether they be more Hollows like ourselves, or recently departed human souls. It’s the consumption of human souls that the Soul Reapers take umbrage with, but most newborn Hollows have no self control, and many roam the living world until strong enough to come to Hueco Mundo, or are slain by Soul Reapers or Quincy.”
“Unless I was missing it, I didn’t see any human souls being kept for food among your home in Las Noches,” X pointed out, “And you seem quite capable of consuming human food.”
“Arrancar are different,” Roka said, “We’ve evolved far enough that we no longer need to feed on souls. We can still hunger for it, and if we don’t eat, say, a lesser Hollow on occasion, that hunger can affect us. Weaken us. But not kill us. There’s usually enough lesser Hollows roaming Hueco Mundo that our desire to feed is easy to satiate, and since Arrancar retain their full wills and mental faculties, we aren’t driven by instinct as much as our lesser brethren. As for human food, our forms are now close enough to human that we can enjoy the things living humans can. The food just doesn’t act as nourishment, more that it’s just a luxury.”
“That still sounds... awful,” Irys said, a distinct note of shared pain and memory entering her voice, “To be driven to feed like that, even if you don’t necessarily want to. How do you cope with it?”
Di Roy flinched at her words, looking with a grumbling expression at the ground, “Not like we have a choice. Most of us just deal with it and get used to it.
Roka turned knowing eyes towards him before looking back at Irys, “It’s part of what we are. Some of us cope by embracing the inherent monstrousness of it. Others, like myself, choose to find things worth devoting ourselves to that make our bleak situation easier to bear. For me, it’s my family. For one such as Adagio, perhaps its her lofty ambitions. For Di Roy, his at times rude but ever enduring humor. For Gaw, loyalty to her tribe. These things help define us beyond our base instincts and hunger.”
“I think I get what you mean...” Irys said, looking off to someplace very distant in her mind’s eye, “Can’t say I’m that different, either.”
Di Roy made a rough, grunting noise, pacing about with clear agitation.
“Really wish I could hop aboard your optimism train, Roka, I really, honestly do. Just got a sinking suspicion that one day that train is going to meet a hard wall of reality, and I’m not looking forward to seeing the wreak,” he said, and she returned a troubled look, but Di Roy just shook his head and turned his attention to X.
“Anyway, enough of this morose angst. You’ve been asking a lot about us, but what about you four? C’mon, what’s your guys’ story? You spend all your time exploring other worlds for a mysterious benefactor, or is that just a hobby?”
X had been half expecting the conversation to turn in that direction, choosing an evasive answer, “I’m not at liberty to discuss details concerning me and my team’s work.”
“Okay, say that again, but this time really emphasis the bland ‘Agent Smith’ tone, because I think you’ve nearly nailed it,” Di Roy said, chuckling under his breath, “Seriously though, you can’t say anything? Favorite food? Preferred music? Astrological sign?”
“It can’t hurt to tell a little about ourselves, can it?” Irys asked, “We’re working together for now, so as long as we avoid anything sensitive about ‘work’ related stuff, there’s no harm in just talking.”
X considered the matter for a second, weighing the benefits of establishing a better teamwork relationship with their present Hollow companions as opposed to the risk of divulging any information their ‘master’ might consider confidential. Ultimately, as long as nothing concerning Zenith itself was discussed, or recent activities revolving around their missions, there likely wasn’t any harm in it. But X wasn’t exactly one for sharing personal information, either, so he simply said, “Whoever wishes to speak of themselves may do so, but I prefer to keep my silence. Do as you will, just don’t compromise anything.”
With that he leaned against the hook of the cruiser and remained quiet, signaling his intent to keep to himself for the rest of the conversation.
Di Roy laughed again, plopping himself down beside Megalon and Gaw, “He always so taciturn?”
“Oh, he’s way tactical,” Megalon said, “X knows a lot of stuff about fighting, and how to get a group to fight better. That’s why he’s the leader. Wish he’d call out for more combination moves, though. I got an idea for one where he uses his cool gravity stuff to pick up me and bro when we’re all super big like normal, then drop us on top of a bad guys with my drills all going ‘brrrrrrzzz!’ and bro’s chainsaws all like ‘wrrrrrzzzzz!’. I think I’d call it the Ultimate Friendship Bro Bomb, but I’m still workshoping it.”
There was a spark of admiration in Di Roy’s eyes as they lit up, “Combo attacks are how you know your teamwork is on the next level. Hey Gaw, we should develop a combo attack!”
“...No.”
“You see what I’m dealing with here, Megalong?”
“Megalon.”
“Huh, what did I just call you?”
“Megalong.”
“...Pfffthahahahah! You should totally save that for if you ever enter the porn industry!”
“What’s the porn industry?”
Gaw repeated Megalon’s question, tilting her head like a curious cat, “Yes, what is porn?”
Di Roy simply fell into more fits of laughter, while Roka and Irys looked on with equally bemused expressions, and X and Gigan both pointedly tried to ignore the silliness, with their own varying degrees of success.
“I’ll admit, like Di Roy, I’m curious about the four of you,” Roka said to Irys, “You each seem quite different from one another. It seems odd such a team would form from such varied individuals.”
“I guess so. It just sort of happened,” Irys said, sounding a shade wistful, “I’m really lucky it happened to me, at least. I... wasn’t in a good spot, not too long ago. I never thought I’d have people around me I could trust, or care about. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for these guys. Funny thing is, I still don’t really feel like I have control over my life, but as long as I’m with them, I’m not sure that bothers me.”
“But something is troubling you,” Roka said, and it wasn’t a question. Irys glanced at her with a guarded but curious look, and Roka added, “I’m sorry if I’m prying.”
“No, it’s fine. I haven’t really been trying to hide it,” Irys replied, and explained what she’d been feeling ever since she’d arrived in Hueco Mundo, ending with, “It’s like my whole body is having a low-key allergic reaction to this place. Not enough to hurt, but enough to leave me with a constant feeling of ‘I don’t belong here’.”
“Strange. I wonder why your companions aren’t having the same reaction,” Roka mused, and Irys hugged her knees tighter.
“Same here.”
“Has anything happened recently that would... make you different from them?”
Irys gave Roka a sidelong look, “How do you mean?”
Roka picked up some of the powdery white sand from the ground and let the pale grains slip through her fingers in a slow trickle, “Hueco Mundo is a spiritual realm. Everything, from the air to the sand, is made of spirit particles. The only way your body would be reacting to it is if something spiritual had occurred to you, changing your soul in some fundamental manner. Or at least bringing forth an energy that was always present. Unlike your companions, if you were somehow attuned to be sensitive to spiritual energy, then it would make sense you’d feel something while here. Especially if you were extra sensitive to the negative Hollow energy of this world.”
There was really one one possibility that Irys could think of that Roka might be talking about. Even she didn’t understand what had happened to her the day X had transformed into his ‘Kaiser’ personality, and the rest of the Dark Hunters had battled desperately and valiantly to save him from himself. Gigan had come within inches of death in that fight, and Irys, at a critical moment, had awakened to some manner of new power within herself. She didn’t know what it was. She wasn’t even sure she could tap into it again if needed. She just knew ever since that fight there was something different about her, something new that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe it had been, and it was only now awake and active, stimulated into turning on by the battle against Kaiser.
She explained as much to Roka, who looked thoughtfully at Irys with a medical eye, “I see. Whatever this energy is that’s woken up within you is likely reacting to Hueco Mundo’s ambient Hollow reishi. Every bit of sand is infused with at least a small faction of the many billions of Hollows that have dwelled here over the eons.”
“Okay, but is it... harmful? Is this feeling going to get worse?”
“Hmm, you fought Gaw without any noticeable ill-effect, correct?” At Irys’ confirming nod, Rokay continued, “Then it may be nothing to worry about. Gaw would have output quite a bit of Hollow spiritual pressure, or ‘reiatsu’, during your fight. If you felt no noticeable increase in your uneasy feelings during the battle, then its possible this is as intense as it will get.”
“I guess...” Irys said, thinking for a moment, “Although Gaw didn’t actually hit me with anything during the fight, and I was pretty hopped up on adrenaline the whole time. What happens if I do get hit by one of those energy beams you guys can fire off?”
“Cero? Well...” Roka coughed politely, smiling uneasily, “Let’s just try very hard not to find out, okay? I am a medical expert, true, but some wounds are easier to treat than others.”
“Don’t need to tell me twice. I’m all about dodging energy beams,” Irys said with a small half-smile, then frowned and muttered, “Stupid moth with her stupid rianbow-lasers.”
“Hm?”
“Oh, nothing.”
The group continued to enjoy a fairly amicable and peaceful break, but all too soon it was time to get moving again and the seven piled back into the Land Cruiser. The air between the all was noticeable less stiff, and even Irys seemed more at ease as Gigan started up the vehicle's engine and began to drive it across the vast sea of white sand and endlessly rolling dunes. Conversation was light as they traveled, but it was genuine and warm.
As the miles gradually rolled away behind them in a ever widening trail of dust, X mulled over what he’d gleaned from the brief break. After all, one of the reasons he’d readily authorized it was he’d hoped some conversation might reveal more about these new “allies”, and it certainly had.
For aforementioned reasons he discarded any concern over the Arrancar diet of souls. From what he understood, most had evolved to the point of no longer needing to feed in such a manner, a leftover from their earlier days as lesser Hollows. He was more interested in what he could glean about this world and its conflicts, and the personalities of the three Arrancar his team was working with.
He hadn’t missed a mention of some “Soul Queen”, and given how Di Roy had referred to her, if she was real, then she was an entity of likely vast power. No doubt his master would be interested in that. As for these Soul Reapers and Quincy, the information he had so far was limited, but if they were strong enough to rival the Hollow faction then they must have potent heavy hitters on par with the Arrancar Espada. Possibly problematic in the future, depending on how his master wished for them to interact with those factions, if at all, when the time came.
Finally, these three. Roka appeared calm minded and emphatic towards others. Made sense, given her medical focus. She and Irys appeared to be establishing trust rather quickly, which was good as far as X was concerned for the mission’s success. Di Roy was harder to judge. Somewhat practical, but with a sarcastic, cynical bent that could get tiresome. Still, for all his joking, X suspected Di Roy wasn’t as dumb as he might pretend to be, the way he steered the conversation back to the Dark Hunters. He was fishing for information, the same as X was. He was worth keeping an eye on. As for Gaw... she struck X as a simple sort, much like Megalon. None of the Dark Hunters would ever consider Megalon stupid, and only the truly foolish would underestimate him, but Megalon was a straightforward, simple soul. As far as X could tell, Gaw was much the same. More prone to violence and aggression, but equally simple in her thinking and actions. She was an enemy when she thought the Dark Hunters as nothing more than intruders, and now that Gaw’s leader had declared otherwise, there wasn’t a hint of aggression towards them from the short, feisty redhead. Just towards Di Roy. X still couldn’t figure what that was about, but as long as their bickering didn’t get in the way of the mission, he didn’t care.
Overall he gauged them as competent allies for the time being. Only time would tell if that assessment proved true.