"I'm…I'm free? I'm actually…free?" The woman asked with an excited smile at the chance of escaping this world and I smiled and nodded as I felt the spiritual energy that's been keeping her here be absorbed by my body instead of the Hollow orb.
"You are indeed. Go be free from this hell and rest in peace. Namu Amida Butsu." With those words, I watched as the woman faded away before taking a deep breath to process what just happened.
The first one had given his energy to the Hollow orb and when I had let it stay in there, I was disappointed to feel the corrosive Hollow energy erase it entirely.
Therefore, I found a new of siphoning the energy directly to my body, resulting in all of the spiritual energy from all hundred souls being redirected to my body instead and thus also boosting my own energy.
'Those…were all Pluses.' I thought as I felt the spiritual power finally calming down as it mixed with my own, grinning at the tremendous boost to my own Reiryoku levels while still concerned at why the Pluses looked like that.
As far as I could feel, there was this slight field of aura around them, but the moment they touched me, the aura field vanished entirely and I could actively feel their memories flashing in my mind right before they vanished.
'All of them had different deaths at different times and different places, but the one thing they had in common…is that they all travelled into the Dangai and got lost here. Wait, the Dangai is used for reincarnation and transmigration, isn't it? So…were all of them souls that escaped the cycle of reincarnation from their world?' I thought in shock as I realized just how I was able to drain their spiritual energies.
After all, I myself am a soul that escaped the cycle of reincarnation from my old world when I touched the ticket and was transmigrated instead to the body of Don Kanonji.
'Is it because of the time I spent in that room in the void or because of the ticket itself? I don't even know how much time I did spend in that room so it could have been years or millennia before I woke up or perhaps…perhaps it's an accumulation of both? Perhaps I had to sleep that time away to make sure my soul became stable and not like theirs and perhaps all that time sleeping to stabilize my soul is also the reason why I was able to safely use the ticket to jump from one reality to the next?'
"Or all of that is wrong and it was just by pure luck? Urgh~! I hate my brain!" I groaned as I started my path towards the large pole that still stuck out like a sore thumb, hoping that it at least has answers or a way out of here.
After all, I still have a group of kids to go help and a Hogyoku to steal.
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"Okay~ This is wayy too damn big." I muttered with a frown as I stood with my arms crossed in front of the gigantic pole that was far larger up close than I expected.
Spanning the radius of an entire football field in girth, the entire thing was probably the size of the Burj Khalifa or even taller as it was high up enough to where the clouds only reached the halfway point.
"Wait, would that be bigger than those two skyscrapers?" I asked one of the blank body souls besides me only to shake my head as they just continued to stare at me.
They were also not the only one as I was surrounded by nearly hundreds to thousands of them as far as I could see, all of them giving me just enough room to walk and move about while still crowding around me like I'm a superstar.
"I mean, I kind of am, but is my spiritual energy that alluring to you all?" I muttered softly as I decided to just walk up to the giant pole to see if I couldn't climb it.
However, before I could get near, my eyes widened as a Blank grabbed me and threw me back right as a rocket exploded in the spot where I previously stood.
"…Thanks for that." I thanked the two Blanks that caught me and put me down, looking up with a frown only to be confused by the sight of five men and the one rather attractive woman all floating in the air.
All of them were dressed in dark green variants of the Shinigami shihakusho, beret caps of the same colour and an assortment of weapons for each of them, with the men also wearing dark green breastplates with different coloured linings running across it that were held up by a red rope while the woman left her shihakusho open to reveal almost Rangiku-levels of cleavage.
Well, all except for one guy who seemed to be the boss as he had the signature red-eyes and silver hair that almost every high level anime villain from the 2000s anime era had and a dark green cloak with a red underside thrown over his shoulder.
"Oi, how the hell did you miss?!" The burly one carrying twin maces asked with a frown as he looked at the guy who shot, who appeared to be carrying a pack full of rockets on his back as he frowned while looking at me.
"I don't know, okay?! That damn Blank was supposed to be holding him still, but he threw him away instead." That made me remember the one that threw me away and I looked over only to sigh as I saw the soul lying on the floor with half of its body gone.
Walking over to it while ignoring the group arguing above, I knelt next to what I now know to be called a Blank while placing a hand on its chest, sighing as I saw the energy fading away to reveal the spirit letting out gargled gasp while tightly grabbing my free hand.
"Ah…I-I…I-ugh…."
"Do not resist, dear spirit. With this, you shall be reborn as a new human soul. Let go and go live out your new life. Namu Amida Butsu." I chanted with a soft smile and caught the soul's slight smile before their body disintegrated into motes of golden light.
Making sure they get reincarnated, I boosted their spiritual energy with a bit of my own and watched as the light orbs' glow increased drastically before they all faded away, hoping that the spirit found a way to the living world.
Raising my hand up, a sheet of golden light appeared above myself and many of the Blanks, protecting us all from the bombardment of rockets that rained down with powerful explosions.
"Riyan, stop." I saw the silver-haired man say and dismissed the shield above my head only after all six of them landed, the rest of them looking both disgruntled and cautious as the leader and I looked at each other.
"Apologies for our…barbarous behaviour. We simply do not have many visitors to this place that are not trying to take us out."
'Keep him talking, but prepare for battle.'
"Oh, my apologies then. I was in this long corridor and fell out to the sky above so I thought that this spot here perhaps had a way out?" I asked while analysing all six of them, the leader looking a bit surprised at my words before frowning and nodding.
"There is. If we show you where, will you leave peacefully?"
"Oh, yeah. I really just want to go." I answered with a shrug and smiled as the man nodded and began walking up to the pole.
Taking a glance at the others, I followed him as the Blanks made a pathway for us to follow, the other five leaping into the air and staying afloat there to follow us.
"So, may I ask your name?" I began and the man glanced at me before looking back to the front.
"I am Gonryu and these are my partners. May I know yours?"
"Don. Pleased to meet you."
"Just Don?" The dark-skinned guy asked as he floated above us and I smiled and nodded.
"Just Don. Family had too many expectations for me to take over the business so I left."
"Ah, I see. Well, all you need to do is place a hand on the pole a-!" Before Gonryu could finish explaining what to do, I quickly created a golden bubble around his head and made it explode.
However, I frowned as I saw his head being covered by a dense layer of spiritual energy, the man quickly leaping away and I quickly created two shields above me in a layer right as a mace slammed down upon them.
Quickly creating a shield in front of me as the large man swung his other mace into me, I quickly leapt back as both maces unleashed a moderate explosion that shattered both shields.
Light gathered below my feet as I used it to skate across the ground, ducking and weaving through the spirits as six chakram kept track of me throughout the chaos.
'Apologies, souls.' I apologized to the souls that got caught in the crossfire as I spun around while gathering Reiryoku at my fingertips, unleashing a quick burst of Kan'onballs that exploded against the rockets and cancelled them out.
Coming to a sliding stop, I flipped over one of the other men as he tried to attack me from behind with an obscenely thick blade before landing back on the platform with a roll.
However, I wasn't even given a moment to stand up as the dark-skinned man appeared in front of me and a gargled gasp escaped my lips as the man grabbed me by the throat.
Quickly firing a Kan'onball at his chest, my eyes widened as the blast was just enough to make him stumble right before the woman landed behind me and wrapped a chain with a dagger at both ends around my neck.
Bringing the chain around and locking my arms to my neck as well, I strained to get free only to wheeze as the burly man of the group dropped one of his maces onto my chest.
"Damn, he got you good, huh boss?" I heard the guy with the rockets say as the rest of them landed around me, but I was too busy trying to breathe when the large guy took off his mace from my chest.
"Yes, it appears we have underestimated the Shinenju, but no matter. Victory was ours just as I foresaw."
"S-Shinenju? Dude…my name…is Don."
"It appears our friend here is uninformed. Riyan, explain to the poor soul what is about to happen to him while I set up the ritual." The leader spoke and I frowned at that as I went to sit up only to be freeze at the various blades held against my neck.
"I'm cool. No need for the weapons."
"We thought that too, but then you attacked Ganryu!" The man with the rockets growled and I was ready to try my escape plan only to stop as the dark-skinned guy with the chakram held up a hand to stop his friend.
"Riyan, you're supposed to be explaining the Shinenju to him, not try and kill him."
"Also you can't kill him because we need him alive for the ritual." The woman added as she let the chains around my neck drop before sheathing the dagger ends of it at her side.
Seeing the rest of them doing the same, Rocket-man Riyan had no choice but to stop his attack and I stood up with a slight stumble before dusting off my pants.
"So, anyone wanna explain what this ritual is before I get sacrificed?"
"You're fairly calm for a man that's about to die." The one with the thick sword spoke and I shrugged as I crossed my arms.
"Whining, crying and complaining will do nothing and fighting against you guys would just be a waste of energy and time."
"Rather death than defeat." The one with the clubs spoke with a growl and I raise an eyebrow at him before nodding with a wince as I saw the rather grotesque hidden under the veil covering his face.
"Ah, is it because of that thought process that your face looks like thaahhhh~! Help! Save your sacrificial lamb!" I shouted as I took off the moment the man tried to crush my body with his mace.
Hiding behind the guy with the large blade while the dark-skinned guy with the chakram and the one with the rockets kept Mace-guy from crushing my skulls, I gave a sheepish and apologetic smile as all of them glared at me.
"Sorry about that. You have a lovely face."
"You truly know how to irritate someone, don't you?" The woman asked with a frown before snorting as I smirked and shrugged while leaning on the shoulder of the man I was hiding behind.
"Yeah, I have the unfortunate ability to do so. You in a relationship?"
"Do not flirt with me or else I will cut off what makes you a man and feed it to you."
"She means that." The man with the thick sword spoke and I nodded at that before looking back at the others as they finally managed to calm the big guy down.
"Hey man. I wanna apologize for my abrupt words. It was wrong and I feel bad for doing so. Can you forgive me?" I asked with a smile as I walked over and held a hand out, the other two men looking wary as Mace-guy was breathing heavily before slowly shaking my hand.
"I…forgive."
"Great! So, what is this Shinenju thing you guys were supposed to tell me about?" I asked as I looked at the others, gingerly taking my hand out of the big guy's grip as I felt him wanting to tighten his hand while the dark-skinned guy was the one who answered.
"This is called a Valley of Screams and the souls around you are Blanks, souls that have been ejected from the cycle of reanimation and transmigration. These souls are then left to wander the Dangai aimlessly until they join up with dozens of other Blanks and form what is known to be a Valley of Screams, a dimension separate from any of the other dimensions.
However, as time goes on, the energy of the Valley of Screams latch onto and drain the memories of every soul inside it, turning them into the faceless beings you see before you while condensing and forming the memories of the souls into a being known as the Shinenju. Basically, you are the culmination of the memories of every single Blank around us. That is why they are so attracted to your presence and why they become normal souls when you absorb their excess spiritual energy and give them back their memories."
'…That would not be true considering I don't have a jumble of excess memories in my mind, but it does line up with the whole theory I had about being asleep inside the void. Wait…was the room I woke up in…a far smaller Valley of Screams and was I the Shinenju of that dimension?'
"I…see. So…what do you plan with this ritual?" I asked as I pushed my thoughts back and wasn't surprised as they all smirked while Riyan spoke up.
"As you can see when they gather around you, Blanks want to meet with the Shinenju to get their memories back so we're going to string you up to that pole and then the Blanks are going to swirl around you to try and get their memories back. When this happens, they are going to pull the Valley of Screams towards the centre and with it, both the Human World and the Soul Society."
"Ah, and since these are two separate dimensions that can't co-exist, the dimensions are going to collide and wipe each other out, right?" I asked before nodding as they all nodded.
"I see. So, when you say 'string up', do you mean kill me and then put me up there or am I still going to be alive during this process?"
"Unfortunately, you need to be alive to make all the Blanks gather around so we have to keep you alive."
"Well, that's an upside. How long is this going to take?" I asked as I watched the man making a large red sun sigil on the front of the pole while numerous purple spheres floated in a circle around the leader.
"You that desperate to see the world ending?" The woman asked and I shrugged as I stopped leaning on the guy with the thick blade when I saw him going to unsheathe it.
"Kind of. I don't have any attachment to anything with how many memories I have swimming in my head and the Soul Society has not done anything for me so I don't mind the destruction."
"…You are one messed-up guy in the head." The dark-skinned guy spoke and I grinned before nodding.
"And don't you forget it! Oi, you done up yet?!" I shouted up to the guy, amused at Riyan wanting to shoot me with rockets as the leader just floated down and landed in front of us.
"Yes, now all you need to do is stand on this orb and float up to the centre of that sigil." The man spoke as he gestured towards the large pole and I shrugged before stepping onto the orb as he dropped off.
'Lots of lies, but the plan is almost coming to fruition.' I thought with a deep breath as I floated up to the centre of the orbs, feeling the potent energy flowing from each of them before my eyes widened as I saw the Blanks latching onto each other and crawling up the pole.
'Damn, it's like World War Z.' I thought with a slightly anxious smirk as I watched them all crawling up towards me, gripping the first couple of threads that came up to me and letting them wrap around my arms.
The moment they did, I nearly wanted to just rip my arms free and jump off as I felt the tremendous and very painful influx of energy that flooded my veins.
With every second, the pain flew through me as even more threads of Blanks began to wrap around my entire body, the wind picking up and wrapping around me like a tornado as I looked down to see the leader chanting with a sword held above his head while even more hundreds of Blanks ran in from all directions.
'K-Keep…your wits…Kanonji. The plan…Remember the plan…' I thought as I forced myself to take the pain with gritted teeth, taking deep breaths and focusing entirely on keeping myself from not blowing up.
"Namu Amida Butsu…Namu Amida Butsu…Namu Amida Butsu…" I don't know why I was chanting the prayer, but it seemed to work as I saw spirits beginning to appear from the threads and fade to motes of golden light.
With each prayer, another five or so souls returned to the afterlife and I don't know how long I was standing there, but when the pain finally began to subside, the threads around me crumbled away while I fell to a knee.
Looking around, I frowned as I saw that the dimension was beginning to warp, looking back at the cane to see it crumbling and breaking down before being surprised by the rough shape of a broken-down gate appearing from its destroyed form.
'That's the way out.' There was no other reason for there to be a gate inside of a long pole other than that so I didn't waste any time as I gathered all the energy of the Blanks that were pushed into me and fuelled it into the gate itself.
Within moments, the gate itself began to twist and warp, the damage to it crumbing away as the familiar dark purple void that was in Kisuke's gate appeared inside of it.
"W-What?! What is happening?!" I heard someone shouting from behind me and turned to see the leader along with his group looking both confused, shocked and angered at what was happening before smirking as I leapt onto the edge of the gate.
"Oh, I did tell you, did I not? I'm not the Shinenju. I'm just simple Don, an exorcist extraordinaire."
"B-But…the Blanks…"
"Seem to just be fans of my work. I do thank you for the power boost, though. Really couldn't have done it better myself."
"You get ba-!" I didn't hear anything else as I leapt into the portal and felt myself being pulled away, gathering the rest of the energy the Blanks had given me to my hands before unleashing a giant Golden Kan'onballthat flew back out the gate right as I fell through another.
"Uorgh~! Y-Yeah, I'm going to feel that one…in the morning."
"Wait, how the hell did you get here?"
"Not so loud, firstly~ I just got done figh-!" I stopped in my tracks as I heard who was speaking, looking up to see both Ichigo and the new face that is Ganju Shiba looking surprised to see me.
Looking around, I saw that we were in a room of tatami mats, Japanese-esque sliding doors made out of paper and wood as well as Ichigo holding some kind of black orb in his grasp.
"…I fucking hate that place."
A/N: Sorry for the late upload. Had some personal stuff to deal with, but this chapter is done~!
Now, I would have loved to let the Don fight against the Dark Ones and Ganryu, but there was no way he was winning against guys that kept up with Ichigo and the Soul Society AFTER they rescued Rukia.
Therefore, it was a simple matter of using his brains.
Also, I misspelled Ganryu's name on purpose because he was cautious of Don since the man wasn't supposed to be there just like how the Don lied about everything related to him.
Anyway, next chapter, we're getting fired out of a cannon and also…tell me which character would be a good match for the Don as he is now?
For reference, he's about as strong as Chad is now in terms of pure spiritual energy, who has High levels of Spiritual Power I believe.
You've got to love when you can cheat to win.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next chapter,
Ba-Bye~!