004 ☓ anon text

[envy_the_sinners]

[Scar's been lying low in Olivine ever since the hurricane, and he's starting to go a little stir-crazy. Being left bored with his thoughts can only end in one thing. Anon questions.]

In my time here, I have come to find that there are a great many "worlds" that are home to people who wouldn't be considered human, but experience the same depth of thought and range of emotion.

[Even he can make that conclusion, now.]

In that case, what is humanity? A measure of physical traits? A state of mind? Something into which one must be born?

Comments

[envy_the_sinners]

[Creatures who were once human? Well, Scar has more experience than he would like, with those.]

How did they lose their humanity?

[Because... Uh, yeah, this is hitting pretty close to what prompted him to post this to begin with.]

[bookslap]

{OH BOY. Scar, you're going to love this.}

When they died - if they had been a murderer, rapist, an unrepentent criminal - their soul was transmuted into what we called a Hollow. To be a Hollow is to have lost your heart - your humanity - utterly.

They are driven by this lack of humanity to consume other souls in order to try and reinstate it. It is impossible for them to succeed, but to not do so - for them - is suicide.

Or so we have learned, over millennia of fighting and cleansing them.

[envy_the_sinners]

[...That is so wrong on so many levels and he doesn't know what to say to any of this. Scar's answer comes a little bit later.]

You are saying that it is your job to fight these human remnants?

[Okay, Hollows, but whatever. This is just freaky. Souls that deserve it are brought back with their humanity stripped away?]

Is this a simple truth of your universe? Or does someone DO this? Strip them of their humanity, I mean.

[bookslap]

{That sure is an ominous pause. During it, she keeps checking her 'gear every so often - the rules that bind her world can seem cruel to others (humans), but it's all she's known for a very long time.}

To prevent them from hurting others and to cleanse them, yes.

It is a core part of our world - when a soul dies, if it was an unrepentant person, it degenerates into a Hollow. If they were not, they remain a Plus, and passed onto Soul Society without difficulty.

Hollows can be cleansed of their sins, and their humanity gifted back to them - but it is not a guarenteed process.

{She's going to try to avoid mentioning the facts that there are multiple dimensions layered over the Living World, because that's probably not going to help.}

[envy_the_sinners]

Like a process of repentance?

[bookslap]

...sort of.

We purify them with our zanpakutou - our swords. Break the mask, and the Hollow is cleansed of the actions they committed while they were a Hollow.

[envy_the_sinners]

That hardly sounds like a just system.

[Leave it to Scar to be contrary and disagree with everything.]

A literal carrying out of the innocent being forced to suffer the sins of others by 'cleansing' them once they have become a danger.

[bookslap]

If we did not carry out this duty, then more innocent souls would be damaged and eaten. As I see it, it is simply a case of the greater good being more important than the life of the one.

It may not be a just system, but it is - in my eyes - a just cause.

[envy_the_sinners]

Your cause is just, there is no arguing that.

But the burdens of the sinful always have a way of falling onto the shoulders of the righteous.

[bookslap]

I would not consider my duty a burden. I have lived far longer as a Shinigami than I would as a human, and I have seen the world change in ways I would not have even contemplated when I was but flesh and blood.

But I would not consider myself righteous.

[envy_the_sinners]

And why is that?

[bookslap]

There are things I have done, things I have participated in which would render me unworthy of such a status.

[envy_the_sinners]

I see.

And yet you continue this mission of cleansing these lost souls.

[bookslap]

It's my job to do so. It would be treason for me to not perform this duty.

[envy_the_sinners]

Treason? Then it is a governmental obligation?

[bookslap]

Military duty. All Shinigami are part of the Gotei 13. Our duty is to cleanse Hollows and protect all souls. To refuse this after we have been chosen... is unthinkable.

{wow nanao way to make this sound super dramatic}

[envy_the_sinners]

That does not sound like the kind of obligation to be left to the military.

[Military forces just kill people, duuuhhh]

[bookslap]

If we were an ordinary military force, perhaps I too would be skeptical of this. As we are not, I see no problem with this.

{Human militaries can kill each other. Shinigami militaries merely kill what has already died.}

[envy_the_sinners]

I suppose you are right.

I have never known a military to be good for anything but slaughter.

[bookslap]

...then I am sorry for your past negative experiences.

{nanao wat r u doing}