Chapter 9: Nightmares

Chapter 9: Nightmares

Sometime earlier.

A gray snake with a white underbelly slithered across the white dunes of Hueco Mundo. The three pink dots on either side of her head and the three pearls hanging from her white oyster-like mask all but confirmed her gender.

Walking by this snake was a fierce lioness with pieces of white armor on her four legs. What set this lioness apart was a golden mask and a golden mane extending beyond it.

Both Adjuchas females followed the lead of a golden-haired woman relatively small compared to her companions.

A light blue layer of skin-tight suit covered her from neck to bottom, nearly merging with her healthy olive skin. A white, bone-like armor covered most of her body, with gills on her limbs and ribs. Sharp protrusions rose from her shoulders like pauldrons to an armor. A long tail extended from the back of her head; the tail had a shark-like fin in the middle and two joint fins at its end.

A giant white broadsword, like an elongated shark fang, was fused with her arm.

She was a powerful Vasto Lorde.

“Ara, Mila Rose, walk in front of us. We might lose sight of you in this darkness.”

“Gah, this snake bitch. Why is she so damn tall?”

The snake and the lioness yelled at each other. The snake reared up, her white scales shimmering in the dark, and hissed a warning. The lioness crouched low, eyes blazing, and roared her challenge. They faced each other like they were arch-rivals.

Tier Harribel shook her head. Sitting in a cave wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, so Harribel and her two comrades went for strolls in the white ashes desert enveloping Hueco Mundo. Sometimes she stumbled upon ruins from the ancient era inhabited by Hollows. Sometimes she found empty chambers. Sometimes she met people they could trust.

The sense of a discovery on the horizon kept Harribel pushing every day.

Today too, they came out for a stroll, but her companions wouldn’t stop fighting.

Cyan Sung-Sun, the snake Hollow, turned to her leader. Harribel had a habit of calmly observing the situation and then speaking her mind. Harribel’s sudden grim look spoke of hidden dangers.

“Harribel-sama?”

Hearing Sung-Sun’s serious voice, Franceska Mila Rose lowered her growl. “Hah! Harribel-sama, what is the matter?”

“I sense a strong Reiatsu.” Harribel stopped in her path and blocked her comrades with her sword-like arm. Her golden brows knitted in a concerned frown. “A battle, perhaps.”

“It doesn’t concern us,” said the lioness. “Leave it be, no?”

Mila Rose’s tone embodied her matter-of-course, indifference to other lives. Harribel had brought her and Sung-Sun together to protect each other from other Hollows, even if Harribel did most of the heavy work. Intervening in others’ battles didn’t sit well with Mila Rose.

“We’ll observe from a distance,” Harribel addressed Mila Rose. “Follow me.”

The cool and composed Vasto Lorde made a quick decision and sprinted ahead without her comrades’ response.

Sung-Sun hissed. “Harribel-sama has more compassion for lives than both of us. It’s about time we accept it.”

Harribel always forgave the Hollows who tried to attack them, even admitting that she despised killing. She still killed the most pesky one every once in a while to let Sung-Sun and Mila Rose maintain their current Adjuchas status.

But she didn’t help them devour Hollows to evolve further.

Sung-Sun and Mila Rose respected Harribel since she had the power to act on her whims. She had the power to roam Hueco Mundo with confidence. Well, except for King Barragan’s court.

Mila Rose scratched the ground with her paw and leaped a great distance. “Don’t talk to me like I’m ignorant. I know Harribel-sama’s contempt for sacrificing others.”

“But you are impulsive, like a child.” Sung-Sun giggled. “Harribel-sama, wait for us!”

The fabricated phantasms could also be called an artificial dream.

In her false dreams, Harribel regularly bore witness to a blurry white room, where metal screeched and sparked, blinding lights flickering everywhere.

Figures with white heads incited panic in their hypnotizing whispers.

Then an innocent cry rumbled through, shattering the reality itself until a void remained.

Waves and waves of an infant’s sobs chipped away at Harribel’s soul, carving out her innards and crushing her heart. A pair of white eyes welled up with moisture and oozed a trail of crimson tears until the chilling red painted her vision.

Harribel could instinctively feel the suffering behind each tear.

...

Harribel opened her eyes on a slope, with her hand on her left knee and her right knee folded. She showed no signs of discomfort, as though she forgot every experience inside her false dream.

That was precisely the case. Her oozing sympathy and regret had receded back into her soul after she woke up. She could never truly recall the experience of her past life — the experience she once had as a mother.

Harribel suddenly raised her head. Shrill screams echoed through the dreadful vistas of Hueco Mundo. It echoed as though it came from far away, bouncing off of the nearby hills.

Grains of ash-white sands moved in waves as Mila Rose and Sung-Sun woke up from their brief slumber.

“Sung Bitch, did you hear that?”

“Ara, don’t be vulgar. And yes, I did. Someone probably ticked off a pack of Menos Grande.”

“Could it be that male Hollow?” Mila Rose’s mind immediately went to the terrifying Hollow they encountered. “S-Should we leave?”

“Why would he disturb Menos Grande? The world doesn’t revolve around him.” Sung-Sun squinted her eyes. “Why do you keep bringing him up? Did you, by any chance, get a crush on him?”

Mila Rose was always a worshiper of strength, her past playing a big role to make her envy the strong. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think Mila Rose would get feelings for a much stronger Hollow.

“Stop talking gibberish.” Mila Rose turned her head with a harrumph. “I just thought he would be linked to this incident. He seemed like the troublesome type.”

“You certainly know him more than us.”

Harribel closed her eyes. Her companions hearing the howls revealed a glaring detail — the conflict was closer this time around. She also sensed Apacci’s Reiatsu flaring up alongside her winged companion’s Reiatsu.

‘They can take care of each other.’

She ignored the howls and hung her head for another session of light sleep, as if her subconscious yearned to relive the nightmare again and again.

-x-x-x-

Just a few minutes later, Harribel got up with a jolt. A spine-chilling wail reverberated as an intense Reiatsu declared its position, rising with each moment.

The pressure was so thick it nearly choked her Adjuchas comrades. Then the pressure disappeared entirely, leaving her party in a state of confusion.

Harribel glanced at her friends. “Head back to the base. I’ll go check it out.”

Before Sung-Sun and Mila said a word, Harribel leaped into the air and dashed. A boom resounded as Harribel reappeared several feet away. A series of successive sonic bursts rumbled as she made a quick dash for the origin of excruciating howls.

Another shriek came and died before she reached her destination. What she saw left her petrified.

A giant bird-like Hollow screeched as he tried to cover his face with his wings. Dark Reiatsu overflowed from his entire being and pushed the ash sand around him. His Reiatsu surpassed the limits of an Adjuchas, faintly touching upon the realm of Vasto Lorde.

His Reiatsu rampaged more before slowly receding into his soul. Vasto Lorde... Adjuchas... Gillian. His Reiatsu sank rapidly then disappeared entirely. The Hollow collapsed to his knees and a gust of wind scattered his husk of a body into ashes.

***

A/N: Since most of their backstories are unknown, I have taken the liberty to change some things. One of them is Harribel being a mother who died during childbirth, essentially going through childbirth despite knowing the risks to her own life. The story meshes too well with her Aspect of Death Sacrifice and her Hollow hole positioned in her womb.