Zoran Zazaravitch awoke in a daze, the shadowed events that had recently past lingering in the depths of his mind. His vision was obscured, seeing only blurs of his abide as a result of only recently awakening from a long resting period. Looking at the ceiling, he opened his jaws, a loud yawn coming from his mouth as his senses slowly started to regain efficiency. His sight was restored, the blur of the room was gone, now only a clear image of the bland ceiling in his view. Rising from his laid-back stance on his bed, he slowly got up, sitting up-right in the bed. He kicked his legs over to the side, stepping upon the wooden floor of his room and pushing himself back to his feet. Standing ta his full height of six feet and four inches, the taicho of squad nine sluggishly walked over to his attire, the black leather jacket hanging on the side of a coat rack near the Japanese-style door of his abode. Zoran Zazaravitch grabbed the edge of the jacket, throwing it over his back and sliding his arms into it. With another brief yawn, he suddenly was stricken with a form of surprise and unexpected shock as there was a loud banging at the door of his abode.

The loud knocking grew louder and at a more rapid pace as a female voice echoed out from the other side. “Taicho, I have urgent news, It is of great importance that you wake up and listen!” Zoran Zazaravitch exhaled with a sigh, having another scenario to deal with. He hoped that he didn’t have to deal with something like those Demons again. They were such a pain to deal with before. He didn’t want to do even more work. Just after fighting the Demons, he had also spent a large amount of time facing Tazuma’s full-hollow state. That form was quite a hassle to deal with. The instant regeneration, the infinitely expanding power, and the constant flow of attacks that seemed to have no end. It had taken quite a sum of energy to face, which is why he had been sleeping longer than usual this afternoon. Zoran Zazaravitch casually opened the door with his right-hand, having not changed his bandages yet, so the blood from the last set was nearly leaking out. As the door opened, the short female figure that had spoken earlier was standing with a expression that would be had after unfortunate events.

Zoran Zazaravitch spoke to the girl, his voice tired and fatigued as always. “ What is it?” It was then that the female messenger started to explain the scenarios that had recently happened, her voice on a low-pitch and her words being spoken quickly. More so than a person would speak in casual conversation. “ Taicho, we have had a recent attack in the Soul Society. A collection of Espada and Arrancar have attacked and captured not one, but two of our Captains. Taicho of squad five, Hollis, and taicho of squad two, Amaya. This leaves the Soul Society much more vulnerable than it already was. There also was an odd spiritual being there who claimed to be the Zero Espada……Though, their reiatsu did not feel like that of an Espada..It was too corrupt..Even for them. Zoran Zazaravitch listened in as the tale was told, a look of annoyance crossing his face at this news….Great.. Those assholes were on the move again. Retorting to the messenger, the captain of squad nine asked- “ I see.; That is unfortunate news…What are the others doing in response?” The messenger replied, answering the question bys yaing, “ Nothing as of yet, sir.”

This was rather unfortunate news. Not only were those wretched arrancar on the move again, but from the sound of it, those Demons were in on this too. Two captains captured so easily.. He didn’t know whether to be impressed by the ability of the new Espada, or be depressed in the weakness of the other Captains. Zoran was only recently enlisted in the seat of captain, though he felt had was already superior in ability to those that had been taicho since his time as a lieutenant. Either way, this meant he had to actually put forth the effort of dealing with someone else’s problem again. Parting his lips, he dismissed the messenger, telling the girl that the information was useful and that could return to her post. The girl vanished in an instant as she was dismissed, the flash of a shunpo leaving behind a small cloud of dust in the ninth squad barracks. With his zanpakto at his side, he casually walked out toward the door of the building. Things were quiet around the area, as always. Though, the silence today was much odder than what it normally had been. It had a more forced and fearful trait to it. Not that he cared. Silence was silence.

Zoran Zazaravitch walked outside, his crimson hues looking skyward. He could definitely feel lingeing spiritual energy that had been used in the scrimmage between Captains and Espada..Though, in that mix of hollow and shinigami reishi, he could feel the sinful corruption of the Demons..Yes, they were definitely here. This means that they were siding with the Espada. If one were to pose as a false Zero…Could that have been the same one he met during his time on Earth? The Cubix fellow? ..No, the man didn’t seem like the deceptive type. They seemed more like the kind of person who would bluntly take on an army on their own. It had to have been someone else..Blade was too weak to pull off the claim of Zero Espada,..It had to have been a third Demon he had yet to meet. Regardless, given this new data, Zoran needed to begin his training once more. No longer for the same purpose as earlier. He didn’t intend on using such a twisted art this early, but he didn’t have much choice. He had to master the art of Hollow Blood Transfusion..Not here though..He couldn’t in the Soul Society.

Zoran Zazaravitch looked around him, not seeing or sensing anyone awake around him. He needed to leave for a bit, and he couldn’t have people wondering where he had gone off to. Wrapping his fingers around the golden guard of his zanpakto, the taicho of squad nine pulled it from its tattered red sheath, the dull and bitter blade coming in to view. He spoke in a whisper, his reiatsu still suppressed to the kevel of a novice Captain , like he wanted people to think. “ Divide to thousands, Akuma.”

With that said, the former dull blade began to turn into a form of red energy, as did the tattered sheath it clung to. The blade took a new shape, getting ten inches shorter, but becoming sharper with several spikes protruding from the edges of the blade. It became more vibrant, the tattered sheath gaining a new form as well. It was no longer looking like a piece of trash a person would normally throw away, but a bit of artwork. The sheath was a smooth blackened color, the texture and form perfectly in sink with the new sword. The black leather was laced in silver metals, the insignia of his bloodline traced in the silver crest at the top of the sheath.
Zoran Zazaravitch took the blade in his hand, sliding the sharpened edge against the edge of his bandages and cutting a small incision inside it. All of the blood in the bandages leaked out on to the blade, covering it in the crimson liquid from the tip to the guard, Just as quickly as the blood poured over the weapon, it evaporated due to a massive amount of heat generated by the blade’s spiritual power. This blood took the form of a red cloud of steam that expanded as time passed, growing larger and exponentially more dense until every drop of blood on the sword had been merged in to these steam clouds. Just then, the cloud started to condense, becoming compact and forming a liquid pool of blood that suspended itself in the air. Finally, the blood shifted its form, gaining texture and composition while mimicking the shape of Zoran’s physical features, even having its own zanpakto and sheath It started to solidify, gaining the same attire and color as Zoran, in term, creating a perfect clone. He would leave that here at his post for now. Since they had the same mind, he had no need to tell the clone what to do, for it already knew everything he knew.

Zoran Zazaravitch turned away, leaving the clone there as his double while he left for more important issues. He raised his hand toward the sky, calling forth a hell butterfly to come to his location. After a few seconds, the small insect-like creature phased in to view, its blackened wings passing through the air and A red glow coming from its eyes. A few foot before him, the dimensional gate of the senkaimon was forged, rays of white light casting over him and his barracks as he stepped inside, the hell butterfly following behind him. The gate closed, allowing him to travel to his desired destination unhindered by others. He had a good twenty four hours he could work to try and master this, so he had to work fast, which he hated. Though, it needed to be done. After all, no one wanted the Soul Society over urn by a bunch of idiotic hollows.

As soon as the senkaimon appeared on the plains of the Human World, he allowed the hell butterfly to exit, the creature flying high in to the sky and leaving the area for now. He had commanded it to return in exactly twenty-four hours. By that time, it would be four in the afternoon on Sunday. Tapping in to his hollow powers for a brief moment, Zoran Zazaravitch tapped his fingers against the air, a dimensional rift forming from his hollow energy known as the garganta. Stepping inside the rift as the senkaimon vanished behind him, the taicho of squad nine began his travel back to Hueco Mundo. More specifically, the Menos Forest. The amount of hollow reishi there was massive enough to hide his presence, and he could use any powerful technique he wanted without having to worry about killing any one or causing too much destruction. They were just mindless hollows down there. Animals ready for the slaughter. In the deppest depths of the Menos Forest, the garganta opened back up, the shadowed form of Zoran Zazaravitch stepping upon the solid grounds of the forest. He was ready to begin.
He relaxed himself, looking around at the hundreds and hundreds of quarts trees that ascended through the sky of the Menos Forest to the white desert of Hueco Mundo.He heard the sounds of hollows killing and devouring one another in the distance, the loud roar of a Menos Grande screeching through the airwaves. The taicho put hks jagged zanpakto back in to its new blackened hue, the guard meeting with the silver metals that made up the edges of the sheath. Raising his hand toward his face, the vizard allowed his hollow power to surface in the confines of the forest. A black reiatsu shot around his body, encasing him in a sea of raw power. The mask fragments began to form on his face, the bits of bone-like structure slowly coming together with the hollow reiatsu he had unlocked. It formed the jagged edges of the mask, the arrow-head at the top of the mask going above his head. Rigged teeth were shown in the mouth of the mask, the amount of power Zoran was using being raised substantially. The pulse of hollow reishi caused other hollows to be attracted toward his location, their hunger wanting to feast upon such a power. They would make good test subjects for his powers and abilities.
Zoran Zazaravitch stood still, waiting for the hollows to move as he continued to slide his hand over the edge of his face. The final fragments of the mask became attached, allowing the full power of the mask to be tapped in to for the time in order to aid in training for his Hollow Blood Transfusion technique. He needed to start with something simple. For example, the trial by lightning combination hado spell he had developed. It was then that a Gillian-class hollow made its move. The creature was roughly ten feet tall, its spiritual energy on par with that of a sixth seated officer in the gotei quart guard squads. Its skin was of a neon-green color, and the instinctive angry nature of it was shown in its yellow eyes. Zoran Zazaravitch extended his right-hand toward the beast, his pointer-finger extended outward and aimed at the creature’s skull where the mask was positioned. Speaking in a low tone of voice as the hollow charged, the man said the words- “ Hado number four, Byakurai.” As he said this, he focused trace amounts of hollow energy into the kido, fusing together the destructive nature of kido with the hollowfied energy of his mask and vizard nature. A extremely fast bolt of lightning shot from that focal point speeding toward the hollow at a speed that would appear like a blur to the majority of them. As itw as fired off, Zoran Zazaravitch moved his finger downward, as if a vertical slashing motion. What this did is sent the lightning out in a shape matching that of his movement. Upon contact, the byakurai sliced clean through the hollow’s body, slicing it in half clear down the skull to the legs. Its body split in half, the soul being purified by the attack and sent to the Soul Society like all hollows were after their death.

Zoran Zazaravitch heard the sounds of several hollows coming from behind him now. It was estimated to be roughly a group of three, each smaller and weaker than the former hollow, but coordinated into a group attack. Turning toward the group of hollows, his finger shot forth another bolt of lightning, this time moving in a horizontal motion from the side of the first hollow to the side of the last. The electric chain struck all three, slicing them in half and sending their fragmented corpses toward the ground. The hollow’s blood spilled over the floor, covering it in acidic green materials. This was just too easy. Though, this was the most simple spell in his arsenal of combined techniques, so of course it the least effort. It was also only Gillian hollows as of the moment. No Menos Grande or Adjuhas had made their showing on the scene yet. After the death of those three, the remainder of the horde around him attacked all at once, their lust for food and power driving them to their deaths. Inhaling deeply, Zoran Zazaravitch pressed his feet off of the ground, using his high amount of strength to jump twenty feet above the horde of hollows that had now been brought together in to one spot.
Zoran Zazaravitch looked down at the horde, a smirk forming behind his mask as he extended his right-arm forward with the palm open wise. He spoke in the same distorted tone as before, the mask causing a form of static in his voice. “ Hado thirty three, sokatsui.” From his hand, a massive amount of dark-red fire was projected outward from the palm, crashing down toward the group of hollows gathered. The gargantuan torrent of fire struck every last one of them, burning the hollows laive and causing their masks to be burned to ash under the explosive blasts. Falling in to the clearing near the smoke, the lingering flames of the blast were still burning a few of the stronger Gillian to death and destroying a few quarts trees near by. The amount of spiritual energy being unleashed would draw stronger hollows soon. It was only a matter of time.-

Zoran Zazaravitch could sense the stronger hollows starting to emerge from their slumber. He could see the massive Menos Grande slowly getting closer, their massive size dwarfing all in their path as they got closer and closer,. The ground shook under the weight of their movement. Looking at the group of Menos grande, the shinigami captain got ready for the next show. It wasn’t a surprise what had occurred next. The first Menos Grande to get in combat rage opened its jaws, a crimson energy forming between its teeth. There was no mistaking that the attack was a cero. The blast was fairly large as well, but lacked potentcy and any real power. Aiming two fingers at the center if the hollow’s mouth as the cero was being charged, Zoran Zazaravitch spoke out the name “Byakurai” once more. A bolt of lightning instantly burst forth toward the sphere of hollow reishi. Before the cero was fired off, the byakurai hit it dead in the center. This caused the cero to become unstable and explode while still in the hollow’s mouth, exploding and causing the creature’s head to explode by its own attack.

The other Menos quickly followed suit, arrays of the same cero energy lightning the dark forest in light. As there were ceros being charged at every direction around him, Zoran Zazaravitch began to focus for a moment, mixing together his shunpo technique with the sonido ability granted by his hollow mask The ceros all fired simultaneously, and just before contact, the vizard moved skyward at speeds untrackable by any of the hollows near him,. The cero all collided against one another, a massive explosion knocking the Menos back a few feet from their own destructive power. Using the technique again, he appeared directly beside the first menos, using the speed and momentum gathered by his technique to send a bone-shattered kick at the Menos grande’s mask. Upon contact, the mask was broke apart, showing the deformed skin of the hollow under its mask. Its body began to dematerialize from the kick, showing that it had been killed by that and that alone. Moving on to the next hollow, Zoran Zazaravitch proceeded to mix his hakudo with this shunpo.sonido mixed skill to land powerful strikes at each f the giants, crushing them under the raw strength contained by the mask over his head.

Zoran Zazaravitch sent the last strike at the remaining Menos, the strike causing it to be smashed straight through one of the giant quartz trees and impaled by the sharp edges of the tree. Its blood soaked the plant entirely, the screams of pain coming from the hollow reaching for miles. It wouldn’t be long until an Adjuhas or two showed their face and he could test out some of his stronger techniques, After all, Adjuhas were on par with the strongest of Lieutenants or the weakest of Captains. As anticipated, they did come, but not alone. Two adjuhas appeared on both sides of him, both of them roughly on par with a senior lieutenant. With them was a horde of Gillian and even a few menos-level hollows. There was an army of the damn things. Maybe he got a bit over his head here trying to take on an army of these things using only his mask? The damn thing was running low on power. After he took these guys down, it might run out of time.

The hordes of Gillian attacked first as always, charging at speeds expected from such low-level hollows.Striking one directly in front of him right off of the bat, Zoraj’s fist impaled the hollow instantly, its blood covering his hadn as he kicked the corpse off of his appendage using the boot on his foot.. He quickly dashed forward through the rest of the horde, pushing them aside and breaking off a few masks by smashing them with his shoulder as he ran forward. Presisng of fof the ground, he jumped in to the air and near a Menos grande. Speaking the words- “ Hado four, Byakurai”, Zoran Zazaravitch sent a vertical slash of lightning with a hado spell at the Menos Grande’s hollow hole. This caused the creature to be slice clean in half, falling over some Gillian and pinning them to the ground. This was when he made his way toward the first of the two adjuhas. Aiming his hand toward the creature, he uttered phrase, “ Bakudo sixty-one, six rods of light.” His hollow energy fused together with the kido, causing a change in its form. A black light encased his hand, and suddenly over a hundred small black bars of energy appeared around the target. Crushing his hand into a fist, Zoran sent the bars of light toward the target. They struck the target in all parts of the body. Fifteen aimed and stabbed into each appendage. Fifteen laced across the target’s back and chest, and ten additional bars of light marking them in the neck and fully ceasing their movement. Opening its eyes in surprise to such odd kido, the Adjuhas did note xpect things of such a different nature from the others. Appearing behind the hollow in an instant, he aimed to kick the hollow in the back, using his strength to push it into the hordes of Gillian that followed ut.

Zoran Zazaravitch [ut both hands forward, relaxing and concentrating his power to use a double-uped version of Hellfire Sokatsui., Pulling forth his power into his arms and hands, the shinigami waited for a moment, massive amounts of crimson reishi pouring around his body and causing the ground to quake under the amount of pressure being generated by his power. Alowing this energy to be unleashed upon the enemy’s army, he sent a rather giant wave of red flames toward the army. The fire engulfed the majority of them, burning them to ash instantly, the adjuhas included. The ground itself was scorched in to super-heated rock and a portion of the other Adjuhas’s army had been decimated by the blast as well. Panting from the power exerction of usings o many kido at oncem, he ceased his offensive for a moment, waiting for the hollows to charge toward him again and close the gap in distance. As they attacked, Zoran had a brief window of time to rest before the next sequence of combat continued. Inhaling deeply, he prepared himself for the upcoming match. Though, unlike the former Adjuhasm this one was leading the charge themselves, a giant battle axe in its hand covered in trace amounts of hollow reishi. The vizard extended his hand toward the Adjuhas in the front lines, aiming to hit it with another of his countless technique patterns. A cero quickly formed in his palm, shining brightly in the blood-drenched shadows of the Menos Forest. In a flash, the cero was shot off, speeding toward the adjuhas with a destructive power far beyond any cero these hollows could produce. Though, as the adjuhas raised its axe and swung it down to try and intercept the cero, it seemed to pass directly around the weapon, wrapping around the hollow’s body instead and leaving it binded and paralyzed.

Zoran Zazaravitch used this as a chance to use the Adjuhas like a living bomb. As the groups of hollows crowded around their leader and a few passed by to attack the vizard in their territory, he quickly dealt with the one statcking him, using simple hakudo strikes to drill holes in to their bodies. Then, as the hollow started to slowly break the binds, the cero exploded, burning the adjuhas to ash and killing off a large selection of hollows around the beast. That was when a monsterous energy decsneded upon the entire area. It was not as high as his own, but it was easily on par with an advanced captain..Was it an Espada? ..No, they didn’t show up down here..That means that the only thing of that caliber that could be down here was a Vasto Lordes. His thoughts were confirmed when the remainder of the hollows fled the scene in a hurry, moving east and away from Zoran. That meant the creature was coming from the west. Ready to test out the strongest skills in his arsenal, he waited for the Vasto Lordes to appear. Unfortunately, his mask shattered to bits that instant. The time had run out on it..He wouldn’t be able to use the mask for a while now. It was lucky that the techniques didn’t fully require the mask to be used., It was just exceedingly difficult to do without the mask’s aid. Inhaling and exhaling at a more relaxed rate during the small window of time between fights, Zoran waited for the Vasto Lordes. It was getting closer, but it sure as hell wasn’t in any rish. It was like it was slowly walking, nothing more. Just then, a massive cero crashed through the sky, instantly burning the quartz trees around him to ash and making the ash rain over him. That cero definitely was powerful, but nothing monstrous to be afraid of. At least not by his standards. He would still need to be careful though. It would be a shame if he got himself killed in some training exercise. Then the Soul Society would really have been fucked over.
The Vasto Lordes came in to view, its human-esque form covered from head to toe in an armor of that hollow-mask material. A single spot around the eye was left untouched, the blue iris of the hollow showing a humanoid trait. The creature was clearly hostile, shown by that cero cast own earlier, nor did it appear that smart due to not even speaking a word. It was odd. Zoran Zazaravitch stayed stationary for the time, waiting for the hollow to attack.. Before he could react properly due to fatigue, the beast had already appeared behind him, slamming its clawed hand against the base of his head and throwing him in to the remains of a quartz tree nearby. His body crashed against it, causing the remains to snap in half. Quickly getting up from that knocked back position, Zoran Zazaravitch extended his right-hand toward the hollow, speaking in a more serious tone than earlier. “ Hado sixty-three, soren sokatsui.” From his hand, two massive sokatsui blasts imbedded with hollow energy were fired toward the Vasto Lordes. The crimson flames devoured everything in their path, ,leaving nothing but ash in their path.
The Vasto Lordes vanished instantly albeit a sonido, avoding the twin sokatsui blasts entirely as they caused massive damage to the area. From the sky, it cast another cero toward the shinigami, this one charged with twice the power as the former. Looking up at the incoming cero, Zoran quickly spoke the incantation for bakudo 81, danku. Setting his hands on the scorched earth, his hollow energy cause a giant door way to come up from the ground, It tore the earth asunder as it grew to its full height of thirty feet and maximum width of ten feet. The doors instantly closed as the cero got near, blocking it with ease and absorbing the excess energy into the seals placed along the center of the doorway. As the cero finally dissipated, the remaining energy from the cero was cast back at the Vatso Lordes shooting force in a kinetic burst of energy that pushed the hollow into a pile of ash its own cero had forged.;

Zoran Zazaravitch wasted no time. He needed to end this quickly. He was going to use his strongest hollow-oriented technique as of yet. The chamber of crimson shadows. In an instant, red energy began to surround the hollow, covering it and coming upward in a massive coffin of red energy. The reishi forming it was extremely potent, only gathering more power with each passing moment. The vizard began to speak the chant of hado 90, black coffin. As this chant was uttered, the coffin formed. Finally closing around the hollow, it was encased in darkness. The dark-red reishi that manifested the chamber kept the hollow still in place, unable to escape the dome of energy that was forged. Closing his hand, the inside of the coffin was lit in light. Over five hundred spears shot out inside the coffin, lacerating the Vasto Lordes from head to toe and drilling into their body, specifically the joints and focal points. Approximately thirty-two spears were lodged in the hollow, three in each appendage, fifteen in the chest, one in the neck, two in the waist, one in the head, and one in the heart. These spears were made of highly concentrated cero energy, causing their body to be evolved beyond the basic shadow spears of hado 90. With a flick of the finger, the spears exploded inside the targets body, the ceros ripping the Vasto Lordes asunder under the power of the technique. The coffin was torn asunder by the explosion generated by the spears, the Vasto Lordes having been killed off by the truly death ensuing attack. The fires of the explosion stretched a few feet around the coffin, the ash that composed the remains quickly fading in to spirit particles. Leaning back against the tree behind him, he panted heavily, the combined technique having drained a vast amount of his power. The main threat was dealt with, so the other hollows would leave him be for now. Tapping his hand against the air, a passageway similar to a senkaimon was generated. Black doors opened before him, black light being cascaded inside the passage. Slowly walking inside the darkness, the doors closed behind him, his hollow reiatsu being sealed off again and his power lowered back down to the level of a novice captain while still inside the dimensional rift. This training would have to be enough for now. Neither the Soul Society nor the Espada had generated attacks of such unique caliber before, so this was definitely an advantage for him in combat.


( 6088 word count)