Well, that wasn't too long of a wait. Luckily for everyone, summer, also known as FanFiction Updating Season, is coming up quickly. Now, you might think this chapter will follow either Ikkaku or Trick, but guess again! Ikkaku won't be mentioned for a while, and do you really want a chapter dedicated to Trick's backstory? Wait, yes? Okay then, but it won't be here. We're too close to the climax to randomly cut to filler (that's right Tite Kubo, some people don't like to randomly go to backstory/filler in the middle of a climactic battle in Hueco Mundo!)
(Here be spoilers!) If you're reading this in the far future, I should explain that Bleach is going through some giant, unexplained filler in the anime (they literally cut out of Hueco Mundo and go off into an unexplained adventure.) The manga also did a random jump, but at least it's backstory instead of filler. Still, they go from an incredibly awesome scene where the Captains all went to either help Ichigo's group or defend Karakura Town in Soul Society from the awesome forces of Aizen. Ichigo literally flies off to fight a bad-ass Ulquiorra, who just received complete reign of Las Noches and almost literally says "Bring it, Kurosaki Ichigo!" Immediately, they cut to the "Turn back the Pendulum" mini-series, which started at -108: Turn Back The Pendulum and is currently at -99: Turn Back The Pendulum 10 (yeah, the decided to change the official manga release numbers for some reason: the last normal one was 315: March Of The Death; so this technically should be 325: Turn Back The Pendulum). The series reveals a lot of backstory and explains how the Vizards and Kisuke came to exist, but I feel that it could have come in before or after this incredible climax. (Arr! The spoilers be dead now!)
Okay, that's enough from me: off to the chapter!
Gaijuta Revealed
Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Everything belongs to the FBI and the JNPA, but Tite Kubo claims to own Bleach.
No time to stop. They just had to keep on moving. Ikkaku was fine. He had to be. They just kept on moving. But something was strange. Several times when they stopped to rest, Chad noticed that Uryu was staring at the sand around them, as though he knew something the others didn't. After a while, he decided to say something.
"You know something. Something we don't."
The group all stared at the giant. Was he serious? The Quincy boy hadn't said anything. Yet the one to break the silence was Uryu himself.
"Yes. I'm pretty sure why we don't feel a massive spiritual pressure. I know why we can't find-"
In an instant, Ichigo was on him, fist in the air, ready to pummel him into the sand. But the others held him back, allowing Uryu to explain.
"The hideout is made of soul-synthesized glass. I've been seeing bits of it scattered around here, and it can't be a coincidence."
You probably don't know how soul-synthesized glass is created, so now would be a good time to explain. You see, the sand in Hueco Mundo is really comprised of reishi, spiritual energy, just like Soul Society. This sand is, as you can imagine, chock full of power. But only incredibly powerful things, like Quincy Final Form or certain bankai have the power to disintegrate spiritual matter. However, that doesn't mean that the sand is useless to humans. You see, spiritual sand behaves like normal sand. Heat it up enough, and you get glass. A while back, certain Germanic pagans had figured out the method to trap souls in the human realm without their becoming Hollows. Although I don't want others copying them, I will say that it involved capturing the soul in water and pouring the water into a jar of sand. Well, even though glassblowing is ancient and adding reishi is just as ancient, the advent of Christianity and forges made the pagan soul jars nothing more than jars of high-quality sand. When the sand was melted, the combination of souls and accumulated spirit particles made it as workable as steel. And so, soul-synthesized glass was created. Of course, sand from Hueco Mundo results in much better glass, and modern forges put the old ones to shame. But using souls like that is unethical, and it's obviously never done nowadays.
That was essentially what Uryu told the group, although it was much longer. It killed a lot of time while they walked towards their destination (now they actually knew where to go: they went in the direction that the Menos came from). Finally, he finished and Renji had only one question.
"That was interesting, but why didn't you tell us that a long time ago?"
I didn't know whether it was natural or not. Besides, I assumed that you Soul Reapers knew about it."
Renji was about to press the boy further, but realized why Uryu had held out on them. Soul-synthesized glass was a Quincy invention, evidence of why Quincies had to be destroyed. It was obvious that the last Quincy would use it, and that wasn't good. He was barely off the "kill with extreme prejudice" list, and that would put him right back on. For his sake, everyone stopped questioning him.
But now they knew how to find the source. Expending reishi every few steps to sense the bits of glass, they soon felt the presence of a giant construct seemingly without spiritual energy. Usually, that was normal. But here in Hueco Mundo, where everything, even the inhabitants, were comprised of spiritual energy or souls, it seemed fishy.
The group ran up a mound of sand not unlike the one they had crash-landed on and looked down. Opening a trapdoor, Ichigo led everyone inside a hidden passage, walking down a spiraling staircase inside the hill. Reaching the bottom, they walked into a large antechamber lit by some form of artificial lighting.
"Which way do we go?", Kenpachi asked. He turned to the weight on his shoulder, but it wasn't Yachiru. It was Nel, because Zaraki had volunteered to carry her up the hill. He missed Yachiru. But, as he was about to learn, it was probably better that she had stayed behind.
"Go? Nowhere really. Not until you've been disposed of, at least."
The group turned to see who had spoken. Opening one of the glass doors was a man in his mid-30s. Or at least that's what he looked like: Renji placed a guess at around 116, not including time on Earth. The man was clad in the standard Soul Reaper shihakusho, withthe character for "death" slashed on the back of his black kimono. His dark red hair was worn as a mullet with the back grown to waist length. His face looked similar to Byakuya's, but older and hardened rather than royal. He also lacked a zanpakuto, and had a rather thin frame for a reaper.
"My name is Gaijuta Nakano, former second seat of the 4th division. Do you want to fight, or shall I tell you my life story first?"
Ichigo chose the latter option, yelling "Bankai" and leaping at Gaijuta. The rogue smirked and, in a scene straight out of Dragonball Z, fired a cero from his palm at Ichigo. Our deputy Soul Reaper rushed right at the attack and let it hit him as he went to kill his target. As he slashed with Zangetsu, Gaijuta blinked, and a barrier was formed between them.
"What the-", Ichigo thought as his attack slid harmlessly off the barrier.
"Hmmm, maybe you should have asked for my life story. You would have at the very least learned what I could do" said the man. As he spoke, a few hollows ranging from 5 to 9 feet tall stepped out of the door behind Gaijuta.
"That one" he said, pointing to one of the hollows, "releases cero energy into the air around another hollow. That hollow can then generate ceros using the energy like a Quincy would. I may not be a hollow, but it works fairly well for me." He gestured to another, saying "And that one makes barriers. I like keeping a few unique hollows around to help me out. Of course, I also like having cannon fodder around." He waved his hand, and most of the hollows attacked, a select few staying with Gaijuta. While Ichigo rushed through the now-lowered barrier, the remaining 4 fighters got ready.
The fight was on.
A few kilometers away, a garganta opened. Two Soul Reapers stepped out, although they didn't look like your average psychopomps. One looked strangely like a ninja wearing shades, while the other looked like he really didn't want to be there. The latter one seemed like a new recruit, a very shy and easily-embarrassed guy. The other one was the complete opposite. He wouldn't be embarrassed if he walked into a women's restroom completely naked and pictures were taken. He might kill everyone in the room, but it wouldn't be from embarrassment. He seemed bored, while the inexperienced one looked around nervously.
"Um, Mister Trick" the boy asked nervously, "I think we came a bit too close to Hollow territory." Surely enough, a hollow was coming to attack them, with several others following. The one called Trick, however, didn't seem to be frightened. On the contrary, he looked like there wasn't a thing in sight. He irritatedly spoke to the hollows:
"What the hell are all of you looking at?" When they didn't respond, he gripped the hilt of his concealed zanpakuto and whispered "Tsuriai, Tsuin Akuma." The hidden blade warped and split, becoming a pair of tonfas. One was jet black with a smiling white demon face and the other pure white with a frowning black demon face. This was strange in itself, as only 2 separate-weapon zanpakuto were known to currently exist, and Trick's wasn't one of those. As the hollows closed on the pair, he raised the white one and, in the voice of a straightforward businessman, said "Genwaku Segna!"
The reapers and the hollows were bathed in blinding light. Well, blinding for everyone except Trick. Suddenly, wearing sunglasses at night didn't seem weird, as the second reaper noted. As the light dissipated, it seemed as though nothing had happened. But the hollows started collapsing, one by one, as they succumbed to the slash wounds they didn't even know they had. As the wayward souls disappeared and went off to Soul Society, the pair was surrounded witha sort of reverse spiritual rain, glowing with the leftover light from Tsuin Akuma's attack. As the meek reaper looked at the spectacle in amazement, the other one called out to him.
"Hanataro, hurry up, or I'll leave you behind."
Hanataro rushed to Trick and put a hand on him. The man crossed his tonfas and the zanpakuto pair concealed the two from sight. They then completely disappeared, rushing with flash steps towards the battle where they were needed.
Arrgh, the last 4 paragraphs aren't working out the way I want them to. Maybe I'm just being hypocritical. If you're wondering why Uryu is being called the last Quincy, no, it's not advertisement for the similar "The Last Mimzy." It's because that's the title he uses when introducing himself to Soul Reapers. They don't know about his father, who also calls himself the last Quincy, so they think Uryu is one-of-a-kind.
Well, I used some Romanji in this chapter, so I'll just put the translations down here. That way, it doesn't break up the flow of the story.
Tsuin Akuma: Twin Demon. Name courtesy of Trick.
Tsurai: Balance. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Genwaku Segna: Blinding Justice. Not related to Shining Finger. The attack encompasses the user and his/her opponents and strikes them with some kind of slashing force. There aren't many survivors, so the nature of the damage is unknown.
Shihakusho: Dead Soul Garment. I think Viz translated it as "Soul Reaper Uniform", and that's pretty much what it is. A kimono, an undershirt, a hakama and an obi sash. Nothing special, but the Arrancar and Ichigo's inner hollow wear inverted shihakusho, so Dead Soul Garment's a better translation in my eyes.
Gaijuta Nakano: Wouldn't you like to know? I'll give a few cameos to the first person to tell me the true meaning of his name (hint: those characters aren't supposed to be used in names, but they might be added to the allowed kanji list in the near future.) The contest ends when I post Chapter 5.
If you're wondering where the heck Rangiku is (I only mentioned her once in the first chapter), she's masquerading as a relative of Orihime's. Because the real Orihime is hidden in Tessai's closet, they're using a gigai with Ririn in it (an "unidentified modsoul" if you consider this as part of the manga) to draw out Aizen. I was going to make that a side-story but I needed to cut out the filler or I would've stopped writing this by chapter 2.
Yes, I was supposed to put this up on Friday. I just forgot to describe Gaijuta, so there! Well, I'm a day behind schedule, so I had better start on that promised climax.
