“Agghhhh.. Dammm, it burns, you mother fucker, you’ll pay for that.” The hollow cries in pain as it turns towards it’s assailant.

In front of the spider hollow is an old man with a muscular build. He has sharp features with bluish black chin length hair with a few grey hairs and blue eyes.

In his hands is a sword made entirely out of blue energy.

“You’re the one who’s going to pay, you murdered enough people monster.” The old man states in a cold voice.

As I lay there on the ground, I immediately set my eyes on the old man.

Subconsciously I mutter, “Quincy.”

 The old man instantly turns to look at me and focuses his eyes, after staring at me for a few seconds he loses interest and looks back at the hollow.

“Normally, I have mercy even on a hollow and end them quickly, but considering all the damage I see and all the corpses here I doubt you deserve.” The old man coldly states.

“You puny human, do you think I care about that, you don’t scare me, I’ll make sure to eat you slowly for hurting me.”

As they both prepare to attack, the old man’s sword quickly becomes a blue energy bow and shoots at the hollows other legs.

The spider hollow jumps into the air to avoid the arrows but the old man suddenly appear behind it and slashes at its legs again.

“Aghh.. dam you, bastard.” The spider hollow roars.

The spider hollow then spews his spider web towards the old man, but he slices through it like butter and proceeds to throw the sword like a javelin to the spider hollow, hitting his eye.

“Aghhhhh..”

“What’s wrong, trash? Does it hurt?” the old man mocks.

The spider hollow, using its four remaining legs runs to tackle the old man.

The old man proceeds to make another sword and gets on a stance and does a quick-draw technique, chopping the rest of the hollows legs.

As the hollow crashes into the ground, it doesn’t even get to scream in pain as he crashes into an empty house, and it breaks down.

“I think that’s enough, time to end you.” The old man calmly states.

“W-wait we can talk about this.” The hollow starts panicking.

“I have nothing to talk about with you.” The old man immediately denies him.

“I won’t come here again, you’ll never see m-.“ As the hollow tries begging to be let go, the sword slices through his neck, ending his life.

The hollow’s corpse then proceeds to disintegrate slowly as the soul has been destroyed, unlike a shinigami’s zanpakto.

Afterward, the old man walks towards me and proceeds to flip me over and take out the impaled wooden parts in my back.

I grunt in pain as I try not to scream so as to not possibly offend the old man.

Maybe it’s because he saved me, but I don’t have as much fear with him, even though I should have. It’s a logical argument as just because he’s human and a Quincy does not mean he’s an ally.

As I am still grunting in pain the old man speaks up.

“Hello, brat, what’s your name, mine is Uito Ishida.” He states in a calm tone.

“A-ah.. yes, my name is-“ as I pause for a second I then give him my previous life’s name, “Alan Whitlock.”

There’s no real meaning, I just like my previous name better and there’s no more reason to keep the one from this life.

“Alan Whitlock, hmm… an unusual name, are you perhaps a foreigner, that’s rare.” The old man then adds, “No, you don’t look like a foreigner, so I guess you’re only half foreigner.”

I quickly notice my mistake and recall the time period is still the 1800s and Japan hadn’t been in contact with the western powers yet.

“Well then, Alan Whitlock, would you like to be my apprentice?” the old man state in a calm voice.

It might be because of his sharp features, but I really couldn’t imagine a man like that being a good person, he seems more like a strict uptight guy.

I just nodded my head and was about to ask him a question, but then I got hit with dizziness and faint.

“hmm? Oh I see it seems he’s exhausted.” The last thing I heard was the old man muttering to himself.

(The next day)

When I woke up I realized I was all bandaged up and in a different house, which unlike the poor houses I saw before, this was a Minka(a traditional Japanese house).

Looking around the room, I see a tray of clothes, food, and water and proceed to eat all the food first.

After putting on some of the clothes I open the sliding door and walk around until I reach the backyard with the old man sitting in the center.

“Finally awake I see.” Old man Uito states.

Before I could even reply he states, “Don’t bother with formalities I don’t care about them, anyways, with that out of the way, tell me about yourself, and what is your ability, I can sense you’re not normal because of that hollow-like spiritual energy.”

"Although I accepted you as an apprentice, that does not mean you aren't cleared of suspicions."