"Useless, huh? Damn straigh' ya are-- look a' ya jus' sittin' there like a damn lump!" Reko flinched at the harsh, gravely voice. The boy curled more in on himself back pressing hard against a rock outcrop of his inner world, wishing to disappear in the mass. Over head, clouds churned, dark and saddened, rumbling in threat and only making him feel worse as he trembled with their roar. Even in his world, he was not safe from storms.
"Wha' am I suppose tah do a-abou' it?" A mutter into his arms, still not looking up. He just wished for it to go away, the feeling, this void that settled inward, taking away any warmth he had, any at all. It all slipped through his fingers-- Even looking at Renji or Izuru only causing pain. They should not suffer him, they do so much, for him and each other. They can protect people, what has he done?
"BOY! Why do ya cry?" Beak clicked in irritation, the creature stepping from his perch to approach, talons clicking on the hard rock and the sound of feathers shifting, ruffling, and the irritate grumbles. "I-I can' do nothin'! I wanna protect them too! N' I can'... I can' protect no one--" He didn't get to finish as something hard collided with his side, flinging him from his spot and sent skidding across the ground with a broken yell. A sob broke from his shaking body, a fist hitting the ground dully as he looked up with betrayed, ember eyes to the enormous hybrid as rain began to hit the ground with hard slaps, getting heavier and heavier.
"Why ya do tha'? Why?!" Another hit to the ground, another and another until it began to bleed, blood smearing the dirt, the single word becoming his mantra "WHY CAN'T I DO ANYTHIN'?!" His voice echoed through the canyon, the great valleys, speaking back to him as if his entire spiritual world was asking the same question. On the inside he was a storm, churning, thundering in his heart-- He was the coward that could do nothing.
"Because you have no conviction! Sometimes you have to hurt, to KILL to protect the things you love! That is the life of a shinigami in these times! You cannot even lift a sword to someone who threatens them! How do you expect yourself to do anything?" A snarl as the lumbering creature stepped forth, raging fire in the red eyes.
"No' all monstahs have the face of one, boy. The worst of them have human visages." Reko turned his head away, having heard the words before. He didn't want to hurt anyone like that though. He didn't! He became a shinigami to protect his family and loved ones from monsters, from the hollows. He was not banking on this, he had been hiding from it, running from it-- "Ya've seen it before... Ya 'ave, why have you not realized wha' I'm tellin' ya-- Or do you not remember?" Primary feathers were out stretched, the very tip of it touching the boy's face in a caress, over the scar upon his face... Until it was wrenched away with bared teeth, a hand slapping over his lips as if to conceal the blemish, tears dripping over his fingers.
The worst monsters had human faces.
"Don' touch me!" He snarled, smacking the wing away, and the spirit laughed. "Or wha' will you do? Ya can' do nothin'!" The boy gripped the mudding dirt, rage filling the void as a bloodied hand went for the hilt of the long blade upon his back-- A broad grin began to spread, looking eerie with the beak and talons scratched at the ground as the sheath was tugged from the back and flung from the blade with terrible force. The fire began to roar in the child's eyes, and with it, the wind in the area picked up, whipping at them both, rain hitting their faces harshly, dampening hair and feathers as lightning stuck across the sky.
Words bubbled in his throat, his mind racing as fire fueled his soul, words screamed into the wind as both hands grasped the handle of the long nodachi. Instinct. Dual voices bellowed over the storm think thunder.
"SCREAM THROUGH THE SKY! MOKINARASHI!!"
