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Don't forget to check the auxiliary chapter about Adam. It's like an info chapter.
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I dread.
In the dream, I have my Zanpakuto in my hands.
I'm not even sure what I'm doing, or where I am.
All I know is that the scenery in front of is changing at a frightening speed.
I feel uncertain.
I feel doubt.
And then, the dream stops.
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[Adam POV - Inner World.]
The mont my dream stopped a strange sense of awareness ca over , the kind of awareness anyone would subconsciously connect to being awake.
Though, I wasn't sure being awake was the right term right now.
I wasn't in the guild, in the room Makarov had given until I could get sothing of my own.
No, I find myself in a completely white world.
I rembered my inner world being similar to Ichigo's.
Perhaps it had changed?
But that wasn't normal, was it?
"I wonder wh--" I stopped mid-sentence, realizing sothing. My voice, it was deeper, and it sounded just like it had before I had reincarnated.
Taken back by this revelation, I looked down at my body, revealing that not only my voice had changed, but my body as well.
I looked exactly how I used to look before I died.
"It's one of those dreams, is it?" I muttered out loud, suddenly realizing I wasn't alone anymore.
My Zanpakuto had appeared in the middle of this world of white nothingness.
"Depressing, isn't it?" Zanryuzuki's lips pulled into a thin line as she gazed out at the white sky. She turned to and her eyes seed to ask a question.
I didn't know what to answer.
I didn't even expect her to see like this like I used to be.
Zanryuzuki turned her head up to look at the sky, her long dark hair falling over her back like a curtain. Her voice was soft but heavy with emotion. "I already knew about your past life."
I suppose that is to be expected. Zanpakutos are supposed to know their masters better than they know themselves.
Zanryuzuki paused and slowly turned her head to look at . Her eyes were intense, almost piercing. "Did you know that a Zanpakuto is actually stronger before it gains its na?"
I... that can't be, can it?
A blade without a na is just that, a blade.
Zanryuzuki's eyes softened, and a faint smile ford on her lips as she noticed my confusion. She gestured slowly with her hands as if to emphasize her point. "Asauchi are actually the ultimate Zanpakutō, for they have the potential to beco anything. Whether that anything is sothing powerful or not depends on the Shinigami. That is the reason why Shinigami in training must spend their every waking mont with their own Asauchi, so they slowly and thodically imprint the essence of their soul into their Asauchi. This is how they guide and mold their own unique Zanpakutō"
"I never had you as an Asauchi," I replied, wondering how she had ford if that was the case.
Zanryuzuki slowly moved her head and gazed up at the white sky. "You did, but not in a traditional way. I was always within you, from the mont your soul entered this world, I was with you. It wasn't until the Tower that my na started to form."
"Why am I here? What happened to my inner world?" I asked, trying to figure out what was happening.
"This is your inner world," Was Zanryuzuki's reply.
"I know that, but what happened to it? There used to be buildings around, but now... now there's nothing," I replied.
Zanryuzuki's dark eyes locked onto mine and she said, "You happened," her voice laden with aning. She gestured with a slender arm around the room. "This world looks how it looks because of you."
Is it my fault?
What had I done then?
"Like a Zanpakuto, the world within a soul is given form by the Shinigami," Zanryuzuki said calmly. "And like a Zanpakuto each world is drastically different from one another, making them unique."
I looked around, and there was nothing. Just a white void as far as the eye could see.
"Why is my world empty then?" I asked, wondering what had I done to erase everything there was before.
"You're full of doubt," Zanryuzuki turned to , her gaze was hard yet soft as she stared into my eyes. "Not only on but in everything."
That couldn't be right.
I don't recall a mont I was drowning in self-doubt or a mont I didn't trust in my Zanpakuto.
"But... I don't doubt myself," I replied, a small frown on my face. "Or you. Not even when I was at the Tower."
Zanryuzuki remained silent for a mont. "There's more than one face to the feeling that is doubt, Adam. This world and its instability is a representation of that."
I was doubting myself in a different way...?
"This world has had many different shapes," The corners of Zanryuzuki's mouth slowly curved upwards, but her eyes remained sorrowful as her lips twitched in a tender, almost imperceptible smile. "The one you saw, a world full of buildings similar to a tropolitan city, and the ones you didn't see. There was one subrged in the sea, one of a forest brimming with life, and there was the one that was on the moon."
My inner world had changed that much in so little ti?
Zanryuzuki's heavy gaze seed to pierce through for a mont and her lips curved down into a somber frown. "Your soul is in conflict," she murmured, the words barely audible in the stillness of the room.
"How can I fix it?" I asked, hoping she would know how. I didn't know much about the exact workings behind an inner world but even I could tell that these many changes weren't sothing good.
Zanryuzuki's features softened. "You have to accept yourself as you are now. Not as the man you used to be," She said in a gentle, understanding voice. "The one you used to be is and will always be a part of you, but that isn't who you are anymore. You cling to that perception of you because you feel it will comfort your pains because you feel that who you are now, is not capable of dealing with the circumstances around you."
I wasn't accepting myself?
I didn't doubt Zanryuzuki was telling the truth, but I just couldn't see or rember an occasion that I rejected who I was now.
Zanryuzuki stared at intently, her eyes narrowing. Her voice seed to echo off the walls of the room as she spoke. "Who are you?" she asked, her gaze fixed on . "Are you Adam? Or are you the man that died and reincarnated in his body? That's the question you and only you can answer."
I looked at her for a mont and before I could give her an answer, I felt a strong pull.
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[Adam POV]
I slowly opened my eyes, adjusting to the soft illumination of the sun shining through the window of my room. I took in my surroundings as I lay in my bed, feeling the smooth sheets against my skin as I stared at the ceiling.
I guess Zanryuzuki had said what she wanted to say and had kicked out.
"Who am I?" I muttered.
That was quite a philosophical question.
I sighed.
Was Zanryuzuki right? Was I rejecting myself? And if so in what manner?
It wasn't like I could just stop seeing myself as I have for most of my life.
As I pondered over this dilemma, the sounds of shouting and clanging could be heard from down in the guild hall. The voices and noises beca increasingly louder as the seconds passed and their friendly squabble intensified.
I might as well eat sothing before I start asking myself the questions that have haunted many philosophers throughout the ages.
Pushing the covers of my bed aside, I jumped out of the bed and walked to the door.
The mont I opened the door a wave of noise filled my ears. Downstairs the guildhall was alive with people clashing most of them laughing as they did so, while others shouted encouragent to their partners.
Amidst the chaos, the only one that wasn't smiling was, who I could see was about to lose his patience.
It was only a matter of ti before he went full Giant on them to scold them for their behavior.
Mapping the best path to avoid getting hit by soone in an accident, I descended through the staircase of the guildhall and approached the bar where a woman, the barmaid, was cleaning the glasses.
Waving at her, I took a seat and asked her if she had anything available for breakfast, and if she was allowed to give so.
She smiled at nodding before opening a small wooden window in the wall, where she pulled out a platter of oatal with diced fruit sprinkled on top.
"A healthy breakfast for a growing mage." The woman said, reaching for my face with her hands with a motherly smile, her eyes twinkling with affection, before going back to work, but not without giving both of my cheeks a pinch before releasing .
I wonder why adults always do that to kids.
I never felt the need to do that.
A few ters away, I could as Makarov's face turned beet red with fury and his voice bood through the room. He pounded one of his fists against the wooden table as he shouted, his body growing in size, "ENOUGH!"
The fight ca to a complete stop, I guess they know when to stop.
"Hey don't be mad Master. It's bad for your age."
That voice, Gildarts.
I blinked, that didn't compute at all. If Gildarts were to have been in that fight I would've woken up covered in debris, or dead.
The guy is so destructive that Magnolia decided it was best to completely rebuild and make a chanical system so that when he arrives they can minimize how much he destroys.
Confused, I turned around only to find Gildarts setting a table behind .
When in the fuck did he get there?
"Morning kiddo," Gildarts waved at , noticing I was looking at him.
"You were there all this ti?" I asked.
"No, the chair summoned from the depths abyss," Gildarts replied with a grin. "You tell brat, was I here or not? Maybe your magic is not seeing things, like the price of things."
Oh, I see, so that's how we're going to play this. Okay, two can play that ga.
"Maybe," I smiled, turning on the innocent charm up to a thousand. "But that's water under the bridge? So tell ? Did you sleep well, dad?"
Gildarts reaction to this was a full-body twitch. "You said I wasn't your dad yesterday, brat."
I looked down as sad as I could. "Because I knew you didn't want , you left mom, and you left . But that's okay."
Gildarts twitched once again, and now the entire guild was muttering under their breath how bad of a father he was, that they never expected Gildarts of all people to be so rotten.
"Who said that?!" Gildarts barked, looking around the crowd. "I dare you to say it in my face!"
"I can't believe… Have I taught you nothing? You never abandon your children, son," Makarov said, his eyes looking down in sadness and disappointnt.
Though I could see the mischievousness shining through the old wizard.
He was playing along with .
Seeing Gildarts panic, I grinned before going back to my oatal.
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