Today was… complicated.
I sat cross-legged in the Bone Circle's meeting grounds — if you could even call it a room since Baraggan's so-called palace didn't even have a ceiling. Just broken walls, scattered bones, and the endless night sky above. The air was thick with tension and… something worse.
Aizen was chained up in the corner again.
Thick black restraints locked around his limbs and neck, secured to a massive slab of rock. His eyes gleamed as he softly growled and occasionally tugged at his bindings, a drooling grin on his face. Mating season had arrived once more.
I kept a careful distance.
"Listen here, you overgrown dumbass," Baraggan snarled, his heavy steps echoing against the cracked stone floor. He paced in front of me, a heavy cloak trailing behind him. "The whole damn place stinks. Every corner, every hall — piss. And it's because of him."
He gestured sharply toward the howling figure bound by chains.
"GRUOOOH," I muttered in frustration.
[Baraggan translated: "I don't know how to fix this, old man."]
"Of course you don't!" Baraggan snapped. "You couldn't fix a cracked pebble. And it gets worse — you sent Grimmjow away for hunting, didn't you? Told him not to come back for months."
I gave a small nod. It was the only plan I had. Get the panther Hollow out of here before Aizen started sniffing around for him again.
"That was the only smart thing you've done this week," Baraggan grumbled. "But it won't stop him from howling after him."
Aizen let out another sickeningly lovesick moan, rattling the chains.
Baraggan scowled.
"Problem is, Aizen doesn't even get what gender is. All he knows is he wants to mate with a hollow animal type that's 'beautiful and handsome.' That's his whole criteria. Nothing else. He barely even recognizes male and female."
"GRURRGH…"
[Baraggan translated: "I still don't know how to stop him."]
"You can't," Baraggan grunted. "And I can't either. I've been trying to translate whatever unholy canine dialect he's speaking now, but I barely understand a fraction of it. Caught a few words: 'mate,' 'pretty fur,' 'handsome teeth.' Nothing useful."
I groaned, slumping forward, the stench of piss-stained rocks making my nose twitch.
"Your job, you brainless tree trunk, is to keep him restrained and out of everyone's way. Or else the floors'll start warping again from the smell. It's already getting into the stone."
I gave a weak thumbs-up.
+1000 EP
"GRUAAH."
[Baraggan translated: 'Okay, okay.']
The Bone Circle's other members were nowhere to be found. Yammy and Nakeem had run off after the last incident, while Di Roy and Edrad probably fled to Hueco Mundo's outskirts to wait out the season.
Only me and Baraggan remained here with the miserable, snarling mess of chains.
Baraggan sighed, rubbing his temples.
"And don't even think about racing through the halls again. Or rebuilding anything. Focus, you brainless bastard."
Another howl echoed into the night sky.
I shuddered. There was no ceiling to muffle it.
No Grimmjow for months.
No easy fix.
Only piss-soaked rocks, ancient bone, and a lovesick, chained-up Aizen.
I had no idea how I was going to survive this mating season.