It always starts with innocence.
Peace—blusterous, effortless, unshakable.
There was laughter, happiness, joy. Wonder.
A time when everything seemed perfect, untouched... By Cruelty
A time when the hearts of men were light, and the weight of tomorrow was but a distant thought.
The man in the black hood stood silently. His posture,Upright and unbutored. he had witnessed this Thousands of times before.
"Wouldn't you agree, Nelliel?" His voice was calm—too calm. He didn't need to raise it to command attention.
Kneeling on the cold ground, Nelliel said nothing. Her green hair hung low, veiling her face, though the tear-streaks on her cheeks betrayed her silence. The Zanpakutō in her grasp felt no warmth, only the hollow ache of the void within her.
She did not move. Her cold, light eyes were distant—empty, as though even sorrow had abandoned her.
"Look," the man said again.
Still, no answer.
"I said… look."
Black, grid-like patterns ignited beneath her skin, spreading like cracks in glass. They pulsed with a searing blue light, glowing like fire trapped in her veins. The power forced her body to rise, her head tilting upward as her eyes snapped open once more. Pain surged—foreign, invasive—dragging her consciousness into the vision she could not escape.
And there it was. Again.
Her people.
Her brothers and sisters.
Her family.
Arrancars of every kind, from every tongue and background—slaughtered mercilessly. Again. And again.
By the Shinigami.
"Everything begin in perfection and then suddenly, it all falls apart."
Tensa Zangetsu's calm voice cut through the horror, colder than rage, heavier than grief. Around them, shadows of the Shinigami flickered in and out of the darkness, like ghosts of an inevitable fate.
"Do you see it now?"
Why are you showing me this?" Nelliel asked softly, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"To show you the truth…" he answered, his tone deep and cold, each word like a blade cutting through the silence. "To see the truth… and to embrace it."
She tried to turn away, but could not. Black tendrils—like chains woven from shadow and steel—held her head in place, forcing her eyes wide open. She was made to witness what she had buried long ago.
The screams tore at her. The cries of slaughter filled her ears. The sound of steel cleaving flesh, of lives extinguished, of brothers and sisters she could not protect.
"Stop…" she whispered. Her body trembled, weak and fragile against the torrent of memory. "Stop, please… stop!"
The vision would not cease.
Her voice broke, and at last, she burst into tears, her whole body shaking with the weight of it. "No more… I can't—no more!"
But the pain pressed deeper. The hole in her chest widened, consuming her from within. Regret seeped in, bitter and corrosive. Grief turned into Rage which seared like fire. And bitterness—black and unrelenting—coiled around her soul.
Her powerlessness screamed back at her with every image.
"That is the truth, Nelliel," Tensa Zangetsu said, as though reading her mind. His voice was not cruel, nor mocking. It was worse—it was unshakably certain.
The man in the black hood said nothing. He only watched her... A lost Soul,foolish and young,just like his master. He thought with frown as a orange hair teenager popped into his head...
Nelliel's sobs broke into shallow gasps as her hands clawed at her chest, desperate to tear away the void inside her.
"Why…" she wept. "Why do you make me suffer this again?"
"To teach you," Tensa Zangetsu said, his voice unyielding. "To strip away the illusions you cling to."
" I will Kill you!!!!" She screamed and trashed as she dispratly tried to move.. blood came out of her mouth from grinding her teeth so much... vain appeared on her head.. But her body betrayed her,all she could do was scream...
The tendrils tightened, forcing her eyes wide, dragging the depths of her soul into the open. Memories burst forth like a dam breaking. Her whole life as an Arrancar rushed before her eyes—each moment striking harder than the last.
Her days of battle in Hueco Mundo. Her rise as the Tercera Espada, standing tall in The desert sands stretching endlessly under the sky of eternal night.
Then Azien's hand upon her destiny, his schemes tearing apart everything she had sworn to protect. Her fall from power, cast aside, her body broken and her spirit fractured.living on, powerless to do anything.
She saw the moments she tried to bury—the fleeting happiness she once found with her squad. All of it drowned beneath ocean of their blood and her failure.
The screams echoed in her ears, louder than her own cries.
"You are weak," Zangetsu's voice pierced through the torrent. "That is the truth. You failed to protect your family. You failed to protect your squad. You failed to protect yourself from Aizen. You failed, failed, and failed again."
The words hammered against her heart, each one undeniable, each one merciless.
"All you are is a failure," he said, his calm sharper than any blade. "in the End You could not even protect yourself… but you don't have to be."
Her body shuddered. Her nails dug into the ground, as though clinging to it could hold her together.
"Use this pain as fuel," Zangetsu commanded, stepping closer, his shadow swallowing her broken form. "That is truth. And only when you accept the truth will you have the power… the power to never feel like this again, and the power to protect what truly matters to you."
The battlefield dissolved, fading into endless blackness. The cries silenced. The blood washed away. Time itself seemed to hold its breath. She sank deeper into the void, suspended in silence, her tears still trailing down her face—but her sobs quiet now, stilled by something greater.
Above her, Zangetsu floated, a figure of cold fire, his blue eyes meeting the ember of her own.
"It is your teacher. Grief. Rage. Powerlessness—these are truths carved into your soul. Do not flee from them. Do not drown in them. Embrace them."
Nelliel trembled, her fists clenching until blood ran down her knuckles.
"And if I do…" her voice cracked, trembling, yet she forced the words out, "what then?"
"Then," Zangetsu said, his calm more dreadful than thunder, "you will no longer be ruled by your chains."
Her body shook—not with despair this time, but with something new. Something raw. Something alive.
The black sword impaled in her chest flared, its dark edge glowing with radiant blue. Flames erupted around her body, not of fire, but of spirit—burning away the void, igniting the darkness.
And for the first time, Nelliel did not deny it.
She lifted her tear-streaked face, her eyes blazing— with
resolve.
(those eyes... ) Tensa Zangetsu thought. Those Eyes that no longer look weak but they carry the same fierce clarity Ichigo had.
Tensa Zangetsu smiled faintly, his expression unreadable, yet satisfied