IC CONTACT FOR THE BOX // TEXT | VOICE | VIDEO

[bladeisme]

"Yo, you've reached Kurosaki Ichigo. Leave a message and I'll try to get back to you."

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audio;

[fuorilegge]

Hey.

You.

[Guess who?]

[bladeisme]

[He can't quite help the rush of fear that runs up his spine when he hears the voice on the other end-since passing out due to the utter horror of his soul leaves a mark on you-but like this, it's much more manageable.]

...Yes?

[Did Claire tell him Ichigo's number or something?]

[fuorilegge]

I want an explanation about that thing you were screaming about the other day.

What do you mean, I have too many souls.

[bladeisme]

[Welp. There's a long pause on the other end of the line, before Ichigo decides to speak.]

You have...fragments of other souls in you. A lot of them.

[He doesn't know if that's enough to go on, but it's a start.]

They're all either afraid or full of hate, and there was this black one-

[He stops, remembering the slimy touch of that fragment on his soul and shuddering.]

...It...touched me when you tried to punch me.

[fuorilegge]

[Ewwww that sounds gross. And a familiar sick feeling settles in Firo's stomach again, just like when he got the hunch before Ichgo fainted.]

... I don't believe in religion. Or souls or whatnot. Never had reason for faith and all, but it's probably different for you.

I'm a human. It's a long story.

[bladeisme]

You don't have to believe in souls, but they definitely exist.

[Another pause, and then-]

...I've got time.

[Because he wants to know how anyone could possibly get that way.]

[fuorilegge]

There ain't a lot not to believe after all the shit I've seen to be honest.

You ever heard of immortals?

[bladeisme]

I heard a little about them from Claire, yeah.

...Are you one?

[fuorilegge]

Yeah, I am. Since about a year ago.

How it happened's not that big of a deal, but what happened at the end of it'll probably explain why you pissed your pants and fainted when you saw me.

[bladeisme]

[Wow, rude Firo. He gives a huff at that comment, but lets it go.]

What happened?

[fuorilegge]

[Sigh. A deep breath. He just has to be careful not to let this guy know there are other immortals here, in case he doesn't know already.]

We're called immortals 'cause we heal fast. And even if we die, we come back. You can cut off my head and throw my body in an ocean but it'll come back up and keep moving until it finds my head. We don't age, either. I'll be like this in a hundred years.

[A pause.] But there's one way, for an immortal to kill another one. We call it devouring. You devour another immortal, and everything about them becomes yours. Memories, knowledge, everything. Probably souls, too.

When I first got like this a year ago I had to stop one immortal from tryin' to kill my Family so I devoured him. Him and the twenty others he devoured before comin' to us.

[bladeisme]

[Well, when his sight kicks on? He's going to learn pretty damn fast. But for now, Firo is the only one he knows about-and he listens in silence, just...letting this all wash over him and sink in.

They could absorb the other? That was...he'd say crazy, but it reminded him of hollows more than he'd like to admit. And Hollows could live indefinitely, couldn't they? So long as they kept eating and weren't killed and eaten themselves...

But when he hears that Firo did it to protect his family...that changes his opinion of the other man quickly. ending another person's life to save those you care for...He knew about that pretty well.

...But wait-]

Just twenty?

[That wasn't right, not at all.]

There were way more fragments that I saw in you.

[fuorilegge]

... Yeah, about that.

Claire said you got killed by the other him, yeah? Well, see, here's this problem.

The geezer I devoured last year's been going at it for a couple hundred years trying to figure out how to make the stuff that made people immortal, and at one point he devoured a guy who knew. And since I've got 'em both inside me now, I know, too.

Which means, so did my double. So I had to take care of 'im and a few others he turned immortal. So now I got double the souls in me than I'm supposed to I s'ppose.

[bladeisme]

[...Well, that explained things. And said geezer must be the black soul he'd seen, trying to get the rest to join him and make a grab at Ichigo's own soul.]

...I see.

[...Kind of ironic to say, considering that he really did see. But, well...now he feels terrible for how he treated Firo.]

For what it's worth...I'm sorry for saying you weren't human. I just...panicked, I guess.

[fuorilegge]

You're lucky Claire came by 'cause I considered tossing you in the lake.

[He didn't. But he'd rather say that than admit to the panic he felt that night.]

... It's not like I like havin' him in my head.

[bladeisme]

Gee, thanks.

[RUDE AS HELL just throw him in there while he was unconscious????

But all the sarcasm in his voice drains away at that.]

...I can imagine. He....The soul fragment, I mean-it seemed so...greedy.

[It tried to take his own soul, for god's sake.]

And having all those memories must be hard, too.

[fuorilegge]

He's a no good piece of shit. And I'm sayin' it so that's even worse.

[He sounds disgruntled.]

He killed the brother of someone who's like a brother to me. I don't care -- so long as he's dead, I can deal with a few assholes' memories.

[bladeisme]

[So it was out of revenge, but to keep his family safe as well? He can't say he understands that particular feeling yet, but he can at least empathize with it.]

At least he can't hurt anyone else, right?

[Although the thing about memories suddenly jogs his own.]

You said you had to take care of some of the immortals your clone made, right? Was Claire's one of them?

[fuorilegge]

He better not. The world's had enough nasty three hundred year old croak to last forever with 'im.

And yeah, Claire's. We had to have the real Claire beat him up and hold him down. One of those is definitely enough.

[bladeisme]

Agreed.

[There's a lot of conviction in there-considering that he'd found out first hand how scary Claire could be.]

He's scary enough as is-two's overkill.

[fuorilegge]

Scary?

...

You think that's scary?

[bladeisme]

[...........]

Have you ever seen him when he's being an assassin? Because I have, and I sure as hell don't ever want to go through that again!

[FIRO REALLY UHHHH HE'S SCARY AS SHIT WHEN HE'S SERIOUS.]

[fuorilegge]

Well yeah.

He likes to make sure his targets are dead so he'll rip 'em apart until there's no doubt they ain't gonna live anymore. Kinda looks like he spilled a loada everywhere. They call 'em Vino where we're from, after that.

[nbd]

[bladeisme]

[That is more than he ever wanted to know omfg]

God... Are you telling me I actually got off easy when he decided to blow me up?!

[JESUS CHRIST why did he get involved with these people]

How is that not scary?!

[fuorilegge]

Blowing up?

That sounds new. Maybe he got bored. An' well, I grew up with him for a few years for one.

Besides, it's not like I've never killed a few. Sometimes it's kill or be killed where we're from.