Chapter 113 - Being

Itsuki was deep in thought as he looked within his soul. The landscape of the soul was the same, two mountains representing his zanpakuto but this time there was a sun. Calling it a sun wasn't correct, it was more like a floating orb that was a quarter filled with something similar to golden liquid. That was his reimagined version of the Hogyoku, but this was more of a container that he was filling up with the souls of the Kushanada. Hell was a realm that predated the creation of soul society, so he knew that this place held secrets that were yet to be unveiled.

Walking forward, Itsuki saw two figures appear and dive straight to him. He didn't evade them and his two zanpakuto landed on top of him, throwing him back. Hugging him like koala's Itsuki just started patting their head when Ryurai's voice was heard,

"Don't let go. You don't know how long it will be when he comes back."

"Un."

Byakko nodded in acknowledgement as Itsuki continued patting their heads as he didn't feel the hugs loosen. The only feeling within his heart was like looking at family, he knew that he had wronged them, but he never lost faith in them, giving their all despite their lack of interaction.

The three didn't know how long had passed when Itsuki got up, and they let him go. The two zanpakuto knew that they couldn't hold him for long and he had to go. So, they just looked at him and gave him a kiss on his cheeks before returning to their mountains with reluctant eyes.

Itsuki watched them leave, before leaving his soul and opening his eyes outside, within the hell realm. It hadn't been too long and the Kushanada were still making their way towards him.

"They're slow."

"Indeed."

Aizen agreed with his words and wanted to continue talking when Itsuki had already disappeared. Aizen's eyebrow slightly twitched,

"Following someone else's whims is rather… unique…"

The rest of the group ignored his ramblings, but they saw Kushanada disappearing one by one in the distance. It wasn't until all the Kushanada were slaughtered did Itsuki appear in front of them, nonchalantly, as if returning from a walk in the park.

"It seems we need to go deeper."

Looking at the sphere that was two-thirds filled he started feeling a resonance, a resonance that was originating from the lower depths of hell. Slightly attracted to it, he started leading the Shinigami and arrancars towards the source. A small smile crept on Aizen's face as he muttered under his breath as he deeply looked at Itsuki,

"It seems there are some surprises in store for us…"

In the second level of hell, Itsuki and co came across a large body of water. Large stone water lilies resided on the surface that had a pierced skeleton of a Kushanada resting there. There was nothing much to see here so the group navigated their way to the thirds level. Here is where they found a rocky landscape littered with craters filled with golden lava. Itsuki hovered above a lava pool and watched a Kushanada slowly rise from the pool. It seemed this was where the Kushanada's were produced as Itsuki shot downwards into the pool, straight through the newborn Kushanada.

With a splash he disappeared into the pool as the rest of his group watched from a far.

"Umm, so… what happens to us?"

"Nothing, then only reason we are here as this place will be our new base."

Aizen replied as the whole group looked at him,

"Hmmm…"

"If there is a soul king, why couldn't there be a hell king?"

The group still looked confused. Aizen realised that they never knew the importance and mysteriousness of hell. Sighing to himself, he continued,

"Hell is the most mysterious, it is also independent from the three realms, not needing the existence of the soul king to survive. So, what keeps this realm together?"

Aizen looked at everyone before continuing,

"It could sustain itself, however what's even more interesting is the way the realms have been positioned. Naturally, soul society is at the top, beneath it is the Living world and next to the living world is Hueco Mundo. Hell, is positioned directly beneath the living world."

Aizen's smile deepened,

"That's not the interesting part though, the living world acts as a 'lid' for hell, a sort of seal…"

The group's eyes widened,

"Only small amounts of energy is allowed to leak through the keep balance but majority of its energy is sealed or, in other words, blocked off. Still the energy released even reaches soul society."

While Aizen was giving his lecture, Itsuki was slowly going deeper as he felt the energy within the sphere slowly build up. The sphere was rapidly filled in moments and was threatening to burst out when Itsuki quickly sealed it.

As soon as the sphere was sealed, Itsuki came to himself and realised that he was standing in a hall. The hall was bȧrė but extremely large, red walls and tiles, everything as red, even the monstrosity in front of it.

The being opened his eyes revealing a pure red sclera with no irises. The being grunted but did not move, it was as if it had fallen and couldn't get up. However, in Itsuki's eyes it was an entirely different story. The number of lines and dots of death seemed to have converged and create the illusion of one gigantic human shaped dot of death.

'This being is close to death'

Itsuki scrutinized the being as his eyes flashed with a rainbow colour. It looked to be humanoid in shape but was easily more than a hundred feet tall. It had no nose and no mouth, just like the soul king, but with hands, feet, and red. It seemed to be leaning on a wall while sitting down with its arms and legs chained. Itsuki could feel the rich soul power within those chains, dangerous enough to chain even him.

A sigh left the being's 'mouth', a sigh directed felt in Itsuki's head yet also heard by his ears.

"It seems my time has come."

A broken yet ancient voice was heard by Itsuki, a voice laced by vicissitudes of time from a being that probably hadn't spoken in years. Itsuki didn't say anything and waited for the being to continue. Yet the being had different ideas, waiting for Itsuki to question him. This resulted in a short yet also long, awkward silence.

The being looked up as he felt his eyes twitch, he was sure if he had those lines on top the visitor's eyes, one of them would stick up. (Basically, a raised eyebrow)

The awkwardness seemed to have only be felt by him as the other party looked unconcerned.

Clearing his throat, the being continued,

"It seems my time has come."

The same broken yet ancient voice was heard but this time with a bit more life. This time though, Itsuki realised what the being wanted and complied,

"Who are you?"

"Me, hehe…"

The being gave a laugh of self-ridicule, before continuing,

"I am what you souls call Yama, or the king of the underworld…"

It seemed that the being, or rather Yama hadn't talked for a long time so Itsuki realised that this would take long.

"…before the creation of those realms above there were only two realms, the underworld and the overworld. The overworld ruled by the soul king while the underworld ruled by me…"

Although Itsuki and Aizen had uncovered a good amount of knowledge for the time before Soul Society, the rest were just mere speculation, Itsuki realised that this may be the full history.

"…It was all normal for us, a simple yet steady cycle, what we didn't expect was a rebellion. A rebellion that changed the shape of the realm we live in, quite literally. By the time I realised, long were the soul king's limb ripped apart and the overworld started splitting due to the combined power of numerous souls and relics they made from the two legs of the soul king."

Itsuki knew that the left arm and heart of the soul king would appear with Yhwach, as for the right arm, it was within Ukitake. As far as he could remember was that the right arm of the soul king governed stagnation and stillness, preventing anything that tried to either change or grow. This trait could be seen when it fused with Ukitake, stunting the growth of the latter's illness.

As for the left arm, it governed the opposite, instead of stagnation and stillness, it governed progression and advancement, the ability to enhance oneself or another through accelerated evolution. The heart, on the other hand, governed miracles, giving form to thoughts, feelings and dėsɨrės of the user and those around them.

Itsuki didn't know the abilities of the legs, but the being answered his thoughts,

"I tried to stop them, but it was all too late, I don't know how long they planned it but they transformed the legs into chains and chained me down into depths of what you souls call hell."