As Starrk continued to walk, he was starting to get exhaustedwith the absurd length of this stupid chain.
"Oh, screw this!" he muttered.
Starrk stopped moving, and a second later, he blurred out of existence. A moment later, he reappeared on the next chain link.
This was the Sonido, a high-speed movement technique used by the Hollows, and thus, the Arrancar by extension. Similar to the "Flash Step" Skill of the Vampires.
Starrk then took a look behind him.
"Damn, even the distance I can travel with my Sonido has been diminished,' he muttered in annoyance.
He then turned back towards the large landmass that was stillmiles away.
'This is going to take forever,' he thought.
He stared at the length of the chain behind him. The mountain looked noticeably smaller than before, indicating that he had made significant progress across the long chain.
However, as he looked ahead, he saw that he still had a far distance to go to reach the large landmass.
***
Back in his office on Military Base 2, Paul was still doing paperwork, when he heard a franticknocking on his door.
Paul looked up and stared at the door.
"Come in," he replied.
Instantly, his door flung open, and Shizuka was seen in the doorway.
She stood in the doorway, panting in and out. She looked as though she had just finished a marathon.
Paul raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Yes, Sergeant Shizuka?" he asked.
"With…everything that happened…with the Salvage Team…I forgot to…report back about Tsu-Tsu," she said, as she continued to take deep breaths.
Instantly, realization dawned on Paul's face.
'Oh, right,' Paul thought, just now remembering the task he had given Shizuka. 'Hihiko Tsukuru's new Skill,'
Paul motioned to the front of his desk.
Seeing it, Shizuka approached the desk. When she reached it, she stomped the ground. A moment later, earth and rock rose out of the floor, forming a rudimentary chair.
She then collapsed into the chair.
Paul continued to stare at Shizuka as she took a few more moments to catch her breath.
Then, Shizuka looked up at Paul.
With Shizuka now composed, Paul took out a blank piece of paper from his desk, as well as a pen.
"Report," he replied, leaning over the paper with the pen in hand in preparation to record whatever Shizuka said.
Shizuka's eyes narrowed.
"He can bring fictional characters to life," she replied bluntly.
Instantly, Paul's arm froze. He then looked up at her.
"Excuse me?" he asked, confident that he had heard her wrong.
"You heard me," she replied. "Tsu-Tsu can bring…fictional characters…to life."
She purposely spoke slowly to ensure that Paul had heard her clearly.
Although, to be honest, she didn't blame him for not believing her. Hell, if she hadn't seen it herself, she probably wouldn't believe it herself.
There was a pause. Then Paul spoke.
"What do you mean, 'he can bring fictional characters to life'?!" Paul shouted.
Shizuka groaned and palmed her forehead.
"Just…bring up the security feed from the empty conference room," she replied. "See for yourself."
Paul continued to stare at Shizuka for another moment before he then looked down at his desk.
He tapped it once, causing a large square to appear in front of him on the desk. The square was light-blue and produced artificial light that illuminated Paul's front.
"Bring up the security feed from conference room 3 on the west wing," Paul replied. "Start recording at 18:45."
Seeing as how Tsukuru had called Paul at around five-thirty, this gave a generous fifteen minutes for Shizuka to make it down to the Collection Area to pick up Tsukuru and escort him to the conference room.
Static appeared on the square, and soon, an image began to appear. It showed the interior of the empty room.
A moment on the screen, the door to the conference room opened, and Tsukuru and Shizuka walked in.
Paul saw Tsukuru walk up to where the large monitor was placed. He stood there for a moment and then turned to Shizuka.
"Shizuka, I need to touch the screen to activate the Skill," Tsukuru's voice was heard in the recording. "Can you…lower it?"
On the screen, Paul could see Shizuka develop an amused smirk.
"Sure thing," Shizuka's voice replied, as she approached the far wall. "Little Tsu-Tsu."
Tsukuru let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like an annoyed huff.
Paul watched as the Shizuka on the screen pressed the button on the monitor's black frame. A moment later, the middle part of the frame began to lower, taking the monitor with it. The sound of an electric motor was heard.
Once the TV screen was level with Tsukuru, it stopped.
Tsukuru was then heard letting out a sigh.
"Here we go," he replied in the recording.
Paul watched as Tsukuru placed his hand on the screen, and Shizuka sat down in one of the chairs at the table.
'Great,' Paul thought in slight annoyance. 'Now, I gotta assign somebody to clean fingerprints off of the screen.'
Tsukuru seemed to just be standing there, his hand on the screen,
However, a minute later, something began to happen.
Instantly, the TV screen crackled to life without Tsukuru even touching the "on" button.
Seeing this, Paul's eyes widened in surprise.
Shizuka's body in the video tensed slightly, and her hand instinctively went down to her rapier.
Soon, an image appeared on the TV screen. The screen was a faded, light-blue color, with a faded dark-blue being used to contrast the light-blue. Together, the two colors formed the image. It showed an intricate magic circle.
The magic circle consisted of two overlaid, five-pointed trapezoids. The two trapezoids were reversed, with the top one right side-up and the one belowitupside-down. Doing so, they formed a ten-point star. While the five points of the bottom trapezoid all had circles depicting an eye inside, the five points of the top trapezoid each contained a smaller, but no less intricate, magic circle. At the very center of the magic circle, there was an eight-pointed octogram.
And at the dead-center of this octogram, there was another circle. Contained in this circle was a triangle with an eye in the center. Finally, the magical circle had a set of runes lining its border.
In the video, Shizuka's face scrunched up in confusion as she saw the image.
And, in the real world, Pauldid as well.
'What is that?' he thought.
However, a moment later, the screen began to change.
The fingers of a white glove began to emerge from the screen around Tsukuru's hand.
The TV screen glitched at the point where the fingers were emerging, forming three rows of glitching colors. Going in order, the colors were light-blue, purple, and yellow.
As the fingers emerged, they wrapped around Tsukuru's hand.
Slowly, Tsukuru began to step back. As he did, the fingers came with him. The fingers became a gloved hand, then a white sleeve with a black trim, then a torso began to emerge.
Paul's jaw dropped as he saw the currently unfolding scene.
Soon, the form of Starrk had completely emerged from the screen.
A moment later, the TV went out again.
Paul tapped the square, freezing the screen. A translucent left-facing sideways triangle in a circle appeared in the center of the screen.
Paul then looked up at Shizuka.
"How the hell was that guy?!" he asked.
Shizuka glanced over and saw an unused tablet resting on Paul's desk.
"May I?" she asked, gesturing towards it.
Paul handed her the tablet.
Just like Tsukuru had done, Shizuka accessed the Green Family's "Black Box" archive and inputted Starrk's namein the search bar.
She pressed on one of the images showing Starrk in his current attire, enlarging it so it took up the screen.
"Apparently, his name is 'Coyote Starrk'," Shizuka replied, handing Paul the tablet. "He's a character from a fictional TV show from the early 2000's."
***
Meanwhile, back with Starrk, he had finally made two-thirds along the length of the chain. The large landmass was now significantly closer, thus making it appear much larger.
Starrk put on a weary smile.
"I'm…almost…there," he replied in a labored voice. However, Starrk had now come across a problem.
Due to how loosely the chains were connected to the landmass, it lagged downward in a loop, rather than being in a straight line. And now, Starrk had reached the point where the chair went upwards. Meaning that he now had to go up an incline.
'Curse it all,' Starrk thought in annoyance. It appeared that the last part of his traveling this chain was going to be significantly harder.