NOVEL WEB 5 – Visiting
'I guess I'll carefully explore the neighbourhood and check out my old house. Maybe my family is still there.' he thought to himself.
It didn't take long to get to his house as it was well within walking distance even when he was a human. On the way came across some pluses that hurriedly hid from him some even just cowering in a corner at the sight of him, but he left them alone. Something just felt wrong about eating them. From eating the animal should he knew it wouldn't really taste like anything and it would just taste like spirit power and the more of it the tastier it was, but something about eating something that had a human mind and form was still very disturbing to him. So he just left them alone for now leaving some very confused pluses in his wake. It was a little awkward to navigate through the city without disturbing anything, though his newly enhanced dexterity helped a lot.
When he got to the house it still looked very much like he remembered it. The paint had faded a little, but beyond that everything looked no different. The car parked out front was different though.
'I guess it has been 10 years after all. I wonder if they still live here. Not that I would blame them. Though I didn't last long after the attack I'm pretty sure the scene was as gruesome as you can imagine for your average Japanese citizen. Though I doubt it was better than my first death. I'm pretty sure the bear kept mauling me unlike White.' he didn't want to get his hopes up as he neared the window to the living room.
When he stared into the living room he was at once both glad and extremely saddened as the most noticeable thing there was a new black shrine with a picture of his former self and some incense burning in his honour. Well it was new to him, it was quite obvious that the shrine was showing its age as the black varnish had faded here and there. It was quite surreal. It was still early in the morning so it must have only just been lit.
'At least they didn't move.' he sighed to himself. He hadn't seen any of his family members yet though. It wasn't until a little later that a girl slightly older than he had been when he died walked up to the shrine and stared at his picture for a while with a strained look offering a prayer. She had changed a lot, she was just a little girl the last time he saw her. Her hair had grown, her face matured she was a young woman now. She must be 18 now. He wanted to reach out to her so badly, but all he had were these damned blades and even if he had hands his touch as a hollow would just be poison to her. He wanted to cry, but this form wouldn't even grant him this little reprieve as his eyes lacked the ability to cry so the only thing that could cry was his very soul as he watched her knowing she couldn't even see him and if she could all she would see was a monster to recoil from.
A little after his parents came downstairs, his mother started preparing breakfast while his sister set the table. His parents also looked significantly older. Time had not been kind. His loss probably hadn't been kind either he was sure. He noticed his mother still frequently glanced at his picture in the shrine. There was nothing he could do though, no matter how much he wanted to tell them he was still ok. Well sort of ok. His father was rather restrained, but he had always been that way so it was kind of hard to tell, but before he left for work he kneeled in front of the shrine offering a sincere prayer too despite showing little emotion on the surface.
Shortly after his father left, his sister picked up a bag and headed to what he could only guess was either high school or college. He didn't know since he hadn't been there for her. He slumped down lifelessly on the ground in a catatonic state as he just couldn't handle it for a moment.
The only thing that kept repeating in his mind over and over and over again was simply 'Why?!'
Everything had been on track, planned everything was going well. Why couldn't he just catch a break this time around. Thankfully barely anyone would even be able to see him so he didn't really need to care about others seeing him.
After watching his mother cleaning up the house for a bit and do laundry he finally got up and left.
'If I can get at least to adjuchas I might not be as terrifying, if not Vasto Lorde definitely unlocks a much more human form. I have to get there as soon as possible without getting on Aizen's radar. System do I need Aizen and the Hōgyoku if I want to become a Arrancar after becoming a Vasto Lorde?' he asked.
[Answer: Negative, as long as host becomes a Vasto Lorde and as long as host manages to level up and gather enough spirit power after then the system is able to use these to protect the host as they remove their mask and transform into the Arrancar form.]
'Good then I have my goal and I need to do it fast. I can't leave them waiting.' he though to himself firming his determination.
'How much XP to level up?' he asked.
[XP: 0/30]
'Good I should be able to level up at least one or two more times just by finishing the current mission.' he nodded to himself and felt a little better now that he had set a clear goal and at least had a path for the next step.
