I don't own any of the characters or ideas used in this story, Bleach isn't mine.
This chapter assumes basic knowledge about the anime and manga: Bleach.
Sorry about the double alert...someone forgot to put all this B.S. at the top in the first version.
A Hollowed Existence
"A what?!" Apache yelled as she stuck her face in Ichigo's, her eyes burning angrily.
"A duel," he repeated.
"You set up a duel for us and didn't tell me about it! And why don't you two seem surprised?!" she said hotly as she faced Sun-Sun and Mila-Rose.
Mila-Rose shrugged while Sun-sun smirked. "Because he told us about it yesterday."
Apache whirled on Ichigo, who, for his part, looked rather unaffected despite being the focus of the blue haired arrancar's anger.
"You told them yesterday but waited to tell me until five minutes before the damn thing started?!"
"Yeah," the Primera stated plainly. "That's pretty much the gist of it."
"You – you ass hole!" Apache spluttered as Barragan approached the group, three of his fraccion walking behind him. They were all either glaring at Ichigo and the three female arrancar around him or, in Barragan's case, smirking arrogantly with a supreme air about him.
"These are the fraccion I have chosen," the stout Espada said once he had stopped in front of Ichigo.
The Tercera's choices, he had to admit, were well thought out.
Redder Avirama, a man that wore no shirt and had red tattoos decorating his torso. He was an arrancar that was infamous in Hueco Mundo for having little to no restraint at all in battle, he would doubtlessly release his zanpakutō immediately. In short, he was a mindless brute.
Vega Ggio was standing next to Redder, smirking in a manner that Ichigo didn't like. The smallest of Barragan's fraccion was much more calm and collected than his fellow tattooed arrancar and was said to taunt his opponents in battle. He was likely there to get his fraccion riled up and reckless.
The last of the opponents for his fraccion was a blond arrancar by the name of Carias Findor. He was calm, extremely so for an arrancar, and was always collected. His role was likely that of the strategist.
All in all, the Primera was impressed by Barragan's choices.
"I hope," the short Espada continued, breaking Ichigo from his thoughts, "that your fraccion are prepared to lose, horribly."
He turned without another word and walked to the center of the clearing that had been formed by eager spectators. The majority of them were likely there to see the duel that followed after the one between the fraccion, but they still chattered excitedly nonetheless.
"Well," Ichigo said as he turned to his fraccion, studiously ignoring Apache's glare. "Don't rise to any taunts they throw at you, obviously. Redder is known to have very little restraint in battle, Vega will probably be trying to get a rise out of you. Carias is supposedly calm and collected no matter what, what out for that one." He smirked. "Barragan took no chances."
His three fraccion nodded and, after he'd wished them luck, Ichigo left to observe the fight alongside his fellow Espada.
"Carias first then?" Mila-Rose said as soon as Ichigo had left.
Apache grunted, a scowl on her face, and Sun-Sun nodded before muttering: "Ideally, I have a feeling he won't be the easiest to get rid of though."
"Ichigo-sama said Carias was calm and collected, if we get that fucker out of the way they'll fall apart," Apache muttered somewhat absentmindedly, half-preocupied with trying to glare a hole through the Primera's head. "I'll bet he's told his partners not to get separated err some shit."
Sun-Sun smiled as she watched Barragan's fraccion with an observant eye. "They aren't used to fighting together. Carias is trying to control Redder and Vega looks like he wants nothing to do with either of them."
Any further planning and discussion was cut short as Aizen appeared between the two parties.
He had that eerie smile on his face as he addressed the fraccion. "Killing fellow arrancar is allowed in duels, but I ask you to try and avoid it. There is no time limit. A winning side will be determined when all members of a party are either incapacitated or dead."
He paused to let the tension that had settled over the area stretch on. "Begin!"
"Tsukiagero, Cierva!" shouted Apache.
"Kuichirase, Leona," stated Mila-Rose.
"Shimekorose, Anaconda!"
Sun-Sun's body immediately lengthened and developed scales down her front, taking on a form vaguely similar to a snake. Her hair clip-like mask fragments grew and formed a helm of sorts that covered the right side of her head. Once her transformation was complete she wasted no time in burrowing straight into the sands of Hueco Mundo.
"Oh?" Ichigo muttered as he looked on. "I didn't know she could do that..."
"Doesn't matter what they do," Barragan grunted from nearby. "They'll be beaten in the end. I've chosen a team that cannot lose; three hollows from the third pit will be child's play."
The Primera didn't respond, instead watching as Mila-Rose, now more amazon-like than ever in her released state, and Apache, who had taken on the appearance of a deer that could stand on two feet with a human face and hands, charged at their opponents.
Redder had, just as Ichigo predicted, released his zanpakutō immediately and started firing feather-like projectiles from the red wings he'd grown at Apache and Mila-Rose. He was a good distance from his teammates as well, probably completely unaware or simply uncaring of that fact.
"Oi! Dumb fuck!" Apache yelled at the irrational fraccion that was currently trying to pelt them with razor-sharp feathers as strong as steel. "Is this all you can do? I'm disappointed!"
"I'll kill you! You're gonna be like swiss cheese when I'm through with you! Swiss cheese!"
Apache ignored the insult and instead started to work on getting him to turn away from Mila-Rose. Vega and Carias had given up trying to get Redder to retreat so they could plan and were now rushing to aid their fellow fraccion.
"Too late!" she yelled victoriously as she quickly charged and released a cero from the center of her mask fragments, turning just in time to side step Vega's zanpakutō when he reached her.
Mila-Rose, who was now behind Redder, watched as the hotheaded arrancar avoided the cero shot at him fairly easily. By the time he saw her though, she was already behind him, having used his lapse in concentration to her advantage.
She swung her zanpakutō out at the arrancar's right wing, slicing about half the thing to bloody shreds before being forced to avoid retaliatory bala fire from Carias as he arrived to help his ignorant partner.
The damage was done though, Redder yelled angrily as he momentarily lost altitude. He was close enough to the ground now. It'd be over for him before he knew what happened.
Indeed, just as the man was splitting his wings into four separate parts, his back was hit by a cero that appeared to have blasted out of the ground itself.
"Fool!" Carias spat from where he was fighting off Mila-Rose. He was just barely managing to keep her at bay, due to the fact that she'd released.
"The one in the ground you imbecile!"
Redder turned just in time to see Sun-Sun burst out of the ground and launch two hissing snakes from her sleeves, poised to strike at the bird-like arrancar.
He didn't stand a chance in his wounded condition, especially against projectiles that could move with his attempts to evade.
The snakes latched onto him, one coiled tightly around his upper body, completely destroying any agility and speed his wings gave him, while the other lunged at his neck.
Redder yelled angrily and, in a large burst of red reiatsu shaped like feathers, abruptly destroyed the snake that had wrapped around his middle. His delicate wings were broken and battered, but he managed to knock away the snake that was heading for his neck regardless.
"I'll kill you bitch!" he spat at Sun-Sun as she drew near him. He quickly fired a cero at her, watching with annoyance as she smoothly flowed around the attack and returned fire with a pink cero of her own.
He beat his wings to avoid it as best he could and managed to side step it at the last moment, by the time he'd turned back to Sun-Sun though, she was in his face with another cero charged and fully ready to be fired.
Redder screeched in rage and lashed out with his talons, ignoring the cero in his face. It proved to be his last mistake.
Avirama Redder's entire torso was engulfed in the volatile reiatsu produced by Sun-Sun's attack. She herself received only two slash marks across the scales covering her chest, but compared to her opponent's condition, she looked completely untouched.
"Redder's done for," she stated loudly enough for both Apache and Mila-Rose to hear, not even flinching when the two of them used sonido to appear on either side of her, disengaging from their opponents for the time being.
"The hell are you running for," Vega called out as soon as he'd relocated Apache. "His majesty isn't here to watch cowards!"
"Vega," Carias said flatly. "Release your zanpakutō."
Without bothering to wait for any response, the blond spoke his release command.
"Minamo ni Kizame, Pinza Aguda."
He immediately grew a large pincer-like claw in place of his right arm and his body transformed into the rough shape of a crustacean. A fragile looking mask covered most of his face, leaving only the lower half uncovered.
"Whatever" Vega scoffed as he held his own zanpakutō out in front of him.
"Kuichiguire, Tigre Estoque!"
The smallest of Barragan's fraccion grew square blades that protruded from the backs of his wrists. A hollow bone helm shaped like the skull of a saber tooth tiger appeared over his head and a long tail sprouted out the back of it, another square blade at the tip.
"Hah!" Vega chortled once his transformation was complete. "You should've taken us out when you had the chance. Now that we've released you won't last three seconds, third pit scum!"
The tiger-like Espada immediately charged the fraccion of the Primera, ignoring Carias' call to stop.
He went after Mila-Rose first, jabbing the blades on his wrists at her with a level of speed and strength that quickly had her on the defensive.
Apache moved to help, but she was stopped by a short chain of bala.
"Well," Carias said, "I suppose I'll have to make the best of the situation, since my fellow servants of his majesty are acting as though they are not capable of rational thought."
"Fuck you, Carias!" Vega spat as he glanced back at the blond.
Carias sneered at him as he reached up and began chipping away at his mask. He was forced to stop though when Sun-Sun and Apache fired their cero at him simultaneously.
A quick sonido later and he was suddenly behind Apache, swinging out at her head with his massive claw-like arm.
The blue haired fraccion leaned to the side, avoiding the blow entirely, and swung her leg out at his torso. He jumped backwards, out of her range, only to find Sun-Sun behind him, two snakes bursting forth from her sleeves.
Carias grunted in annoyance when his attempt to side step the attack was foiled, the snakes just turned with his motion, and the reptiles latched onto his smaller arm. Before he could do anything else, Apache was at his side, fist cocked for a devastating blow to his head.
The blond roughly tore his arm away from the snakes and used sonido to move away. Upon doing so, his opponents turned to Vega and began pushing him back, offering Mila-Rose a much appreciated break.
"We need to separate them," he muttered as he started charging a cero on the tip of his pincer. He fired it toward his opponents as they pushed Vega back farther and watched, with no small amount of annoyance, as they all moved to dodge his cero at the last second and quickly grouped together again after the threat had passed.
Carias grit his teeth together, reaching up to remove the majority of his mask. A burst of reiatsu pulsed outward from his body, but it did nothing to distract Apache, Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun from beating back Vega.
His fellow fraccion was currently being overwhelmed by the combined assault of all his adversaries, he was almost always off balance. His face was set into a permanent scowl, likely due to the fact that three fraccion from the third pit were beating three of Barragan's own, rather easily too. It was utterly embarassing, that arrancar transformed from hollow with as much reiatsu as a normal human being were beating them.
Carias grit his teeth and used sonido, the static sound instantly alerting his opponents of his presence behind them.
Immediately, Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun broke off their assault and turned to face him, cero already charged and firing from their mouth and sleeve respectively.
"Gotta take care of him quickly," Mila-Rose muttered, only slightly winded despite weathering Vega's initial assault for nearly two minutes straight.
"Get him to land," Sun-Sun said as she maneuvered herself into a position above Carias and went about assaulting him with a barrage of physical blows. He deflected or dodged them without too much trouble, counter attacking when he could, but as soon as Mila-Rose starting darting in whenever his back was turned, he quickly found himself on the defensive.
They attacked in tandem. When one would falter and he would attempt to use the opening to take them out of the fight, the other one would suddenly be in his way, smoothly keeping his attack from being successful and then joining back in on their double team effort against him.
Slowly, he was forced closer and closer to the desert surface. He was desperate for assistance at this point, but he knew Vega would require much more time to dispose of his opponent than what he had. If only they'd falter for just a moment... then sonido would be possible for him; as it was though, they were attacking too consistently, too quickly for him to even concentrate enough to use it.
Carias cursed when his feet hit the ground and he saw the snake-like arrancar dive underground again. He immediately jumped up into the air, but was forced to land again when Mila-Rose fired a cero just above where his head was.
Two snake heads burst from the sand and started to wrap around his legs.
Mila-Rose went unnoticed as she rose to a higher altitude and started hovering in the direction where Apache and Vega were fighting.
Carias spit out another curse under his breath as he tried to beat the snake off of him using his giant pincer. If only that idiot Redder hadn't gone and gotten taken out so easily!
Abruptly, the snakes withdrew back under the sand.
The blond wasted no time in using sonido to move away from the surface, turning around just in time to watch as Sun-Sun's tail erupted from the sand and lanced through the spot he'd just stood in.
Carias sighed in relief; but suddenly his tunnel vision, which had been increasing in severity ever since he'd been trapped by the snakes, faded away.
He twisted around just in time to take Apache's cero directly to his face.
She'd been fighting Vega! Did that bastard die already?
Carias glanced over, half blinded, to find that he was still alive, he was just fighting Mila-Rose now.
Apache abruptly appeared in front of him with a violent burst of static. She landed a powerful kick to his midsection before he'd recovered from the cero that sent him rocketing toward the sands below.
He impacted them with a dull thud and lay there dazed for a moment. The lapse in combat didn't last long for him though, two familiar snakes suddenly burst out of the sand and quickly wrapped him up tightly within their coils
Carias tensed, expecting an attack from above, but he quickly realized that Apache had moved to help Mila-Rose in fighting off Vega. He jerked his pincer-like arm about to see if he could loosen the snakes any.
No such luck.
The thought suddenly registered in his head that Sun-Sun was still in the ground, likely below him now.
The other two were fighting Vega...
Then that meant...
His eyes widened.
Below!
A pink cero suddenly burst out of the sand in a blazing wave of violent reiatsu, reducing Carias' body to nothing more than a thoroughly burnt husk of what it once was.
Ichigo grinned from where he was watching his fraccion take down three of Barragan's while hardly even breaking a sweat. Individually, they would obviously lose, but when they worked together, they could probably keep a lower ranked Espada preoccupied for a short amount of time.
The Tercera's choice in fraccion had been formidable, that was true. But he hadn't expected the Primera's to actually work together; not at the level they were capable of, anyway.
If Sun-Sun, Mila-Rose and Apache hadn't attacked and defended in tandem then they would likely be the ones lying defeated in the sand, lured into attacking by Vega and Redder while Carias kept them under control as best he could. As it was though, they had proven themselves to be more than capable of handling the Tercera's fraccion.
Speaking of Barragan, he was now staring coldly at the beaten bodies of Redder and Carias.
"Aizen-sama, if these arrancar of mine survive this battle, they will no longer be considered my fraccion."
The brown haired shinigami nodded, sending a distracted glance toward the elderly-looked Espada. "If that is what you wish, Barragan. You have the authority to dispose of your fraccion, after all."
The Tercera nodded. "They have insulted me for the first and last time."
Ichigo decided to stay quiet, his observations on Barragan's choice would only cause him trouble, after all. The idea that arrancar could truly work together as a team, in something more than an alliance, was an idea that didn't register with Barragan. For that, the Primera was grateful.
If it did, then his fraccion would've been defeated.
Vega Ggio leaned away from the kick Apache had sent at him and moved to attack her with impressive speed once it had passed. It would have landed well before she recovered enough to block or dodge, but a snake's head lunging at his arm stopped his attack and forced him away from the now recovered Apache.
Mila-Rose was waiting behind him, already swinging her zanpakutō at him when he turned around.
Vega jumped away from his opponents, his speed and agility easily superior, but quickly found that they wouldn't allow him any time to gather himself. The trio each fired a cero that combined into one in mid-air, singing his hair as he ducked down to avoid it.
He yelled in frustration, even as Apache and Mila-Rose engaged him again while Sun-Sun appeared above him, her snakes closing in on him swiftly.
"Fuck this shit!" he spat as he used sonido, immediately firing the teeth on his mask at his closest opponent, Apache, which forced her back temporarily. He then thrust the blade on his right hand up to the sky.
"Tigre Estoque El Sable!"
His muscles bulged grotesquely and the blades on his hands grew to overtake his forearms up to the elbow. His clothing turned from its white and black state to a brown and black state and blond fur grew around his neck and the places where the blades meant his arms. He ended up being nearly twice, maybe three times his original size.
The reiatsu levels in the area flared as Vega finished his transformation, increasing to that of a lower leveled Espada.
Mila-Rose glanced warily at her opponent, Apache and Sun-Sun blurring into existence on either side of her.
"This could be bad. His reiatsu levels just went insane," Apache muttered.
"His body is huge..." Sun-Sun muttered, a disgusted grimace on her face. "Almost to the point where he can barely move his arms at all due to all the muscle.
Suddenly, Vega disappeared with a burst of static.
Sun-Sun, Mila-Rose and Apache scattered when he appeared behind them and swung one of his blades down at them, quickly forming up again a good distance away from him.
They took a moment to compose themselves and charged at him as one, Apache, being the most agile of the three, led the attack in the middle while Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun each took up positions on her sides.
Apache reached him first and flowed smoothly around his attempt to cut her in half, landing a solid punch straight to the thing's gut, only to find the bones in her hand crack upon the impact.
"Shit," she muttered as she pulled back. Suddenly, Vega's knee was in her stomach, dealing her a crushing blow and forcing the air out of her lungs.
She gasped and spat out the blood that had gathered in her mouth when she bit into her tongue. Before Apache could move though, Vega slammed one of his elbows down on her back with a howl of rage – his other arm had just been cut off cleanly at the elbow by Mila-Rose's zanpakutō – effectively sandwiching her between the rock hard muscle of his knee and his arm.
He let her fall to the sands below as he turned to deal with the other two fraccion but immediately found that Sun-Sun had fired a cero at him. It hit him squarely on the vulnerable flesh of his face.
Vega screamed blindly, barely noticing when his other arm got hacked off by Mila-Rose, and started thrashing about recklessly. His existence was abruptly brought to an end though, when Sun-Sun used one of her snakes to latch onto his throat and viciously tear out any material it could get its fangs around.
"The fight is over," Ichigo stated. Aizen nodded silently in agreement, a gesture that was all the confirmation the Primera needed to go and tend to his fraccion.
He appeared next to where Apache had fallen after being brutally demolished by Vega when he was nothing more than a mindless berserker.
She looked battered and her midsection had certainly seen better days. Consciousness hadn't left her though, so Ichigo was sure to be more gentle than usual when he picked her up. He hooked one of his arms under her knees and supported as much of her back as he could with the other.
She moaned softly as soon as she felt herself being moved and unconsciously fisted one of her hands in his vest. Her midsection fucking hurt.
Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun, back in their unreleased forms, landed next to him as he turned to walk steadily, carefully back toward the gathered arrancar.
"Is she gonna be alright," his amazon-like fraccion asked immediately.
Ichigo nodded. "She'll be fine, should be back to normal by tomorrow morning, just in time for more training," he finished softly, a grin pulling at the edge of his mouth.
Apache managed a groan out of her bloodied mouth. "Fucking sadist," she muttered weakly.
"Quit whining," Ichigo shot back as he walked over to where the healers were waiting. There would be no saving Barragan's three fraccion, so they had been left with absolutely nothing to do.
The Primera set Apache down on one of the makeshift cots the healers had set up and fully intended to wait by her side until she was well again, but Barragan's voice addressed him not thirty seconds later.
"Primera," the Espada spat as he roughly took his zanpakutō from his remaining fraccion. "We have a duel to fight, stop wasting your time on that lowly bitch and prepare yourself."
Ichigo shook his head. "No. I'll wait until I know she's going to be fine."
Murmuring broke out amongst the gathered arrancar. Not only had the Primera outright denied the Tercera in front of over half of all Aizen's army, but he did so out of worry over his fraccion. The impression they had gotten yesterday was that he didn't care whether or not his fraccion died, if his training method was any indication, but after having seen him carry Apache so delicately and then refuse to move from her side until he knew she'd be fine...
It was unheard of.
Barragan grit his teeth, viciously beating down the urge he had to use a cero on the Primera and his fraccion regardless of who it killed, so long as it would get him to fight!
"Ichigo-sama," one of the healers said quietly. "Your fraccion will be fully healed and capable of fighting in just a few minutes. We have healed her injuries and are now replenishing her stores of reiatsu."
He nodded and bowed to them, causing the murmuring to escalate to increasingly higher levels.
"Thank you," the Primera said before he turned to Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun.
"You've made me proud," he said simply before he turned to go face Barragan a safe distance from the rest of the arrancar.
Barragan was stewing silently when Ichigo landed across from him, his massive axe-like zanpakutō slung casually over his shoulder. He didn't say anything, too busy fuming in rage at what the Primera had put him through.
Ichigo smirked in satisfaction. Today he would put to rest any doubts the arrancar held over his position as the strongest Espada in Aizen's army. He would show them why he was able to keep pace with captains without even drawing his zanpakutō, he would show them just what he was capable of.
He would show them just how much of a gap between his powers and their own there was.
"Are the two of you ready?" Aizen asked pleasantly, as if he wasn't about to start a duel between two of the most powerful beings in his army.
Barragan nodded rigidly.
"Yup, let's get this started, Aizen-sama," Ichigo drawled around his girn, nonchalant.
"Very well," the shinigami said before pausing a brief moment.
"Begin!"
Barragan charged the instant the shinigami shunpo'd away, kicking up sand in his wake and roaring out a battle cry as he heaved his massive axe at the Primera.
Ichigo, for his part, stood perfectly still and started channeling reiatsu to his hand. He was here to prove a point, not win the fight.
He braced himself as the axe bore down upon his head and raised a hand to block it.
The weapon impacted his skin heavily, disturbing the reiatsu in the air around the two fighters. He grunted in discomfort, but kept his footing solid.
The zanpakutō was stopped cleanly and completely.
The Primera then quickly moved towards Barragan and swung his leg out at the shorter Espada, catching him squarely on the jaw and sending him tumbling away.
"Hah! Barragan's in way over his head, the idiot," Grimmjow chortled from where he was observing the fight alongside Aizen, Ichimaru, Tōsen, Starrk, Harribel, Ulquiorra, Szayel and Yammy.
"His majesty hasn't gotten serious yet! You'll see," one of the Tercera's remaining fraccion responded hotly.
Grimmjow waved off his comments, a patronizing smile on his face as he made to respond, but he was beat to it.
"Ichigo-sama won't lose," Sun-Sun stated plainly. "He isn't even paying attention right now, he's glancing at Apache to make sure she's alright."
Any retort to the Primera's fraccion was cut off when Aizen spoke up, his voice soft. "He does seem to care for the three of you quite a bit, doesn't he?"
Sun-Sun looked down as a show of submission. "Yes, Aizen-sama."
"You'll see," Parduoc Nirgge said quietly as he watched Barragan slowly stand up. "His majesty will beat the Primera. Those who show such an amount of caring for his subordinates are destined to die a pathetic death!"
Apache, newly healed, bristled visibly at the insult. "You wanna say that about Ichigo-sama again lard ass?! He'll wipe the floor with 'his majesty'."
Choe Neng Poww, another one of Barragan's subordinates, snarled at Apache. "Barragan-sama is nothing short of a god, foolish low life! He is power incarnate, the Primera doesn't stand a chance in hell."
Sun-Sun and Mila-Rose made no move to stop Apache as she turned on the newest of her targets. They respected Ichigo a great deal and, while they weren't quite as mad as their fellow blue haired fraccion, witnessing the Tercera's fraccion get verbally beaten to a pulp was something they weren't opposed to seeing happen.
"Talk all the shit about that old fuck you want! The only thing god-like about him is his over-fucking-sized ego!"
Poww growled low in his throat and approached Apache until he was standing right in front of her, towering well over six feet above her head. "Your Ichigo is trash unfit-"
He grunted and suddenly lurched forward, courtesy of the foot Apache had just rammed between his legs.
"Barragan doesn't stand a motherfucking chance!" she fumed, her voice growing louder as her anger increased. Unfortunately for her, it was loud enough that the Tercera himself managed to hear her.
Ichigo sighed interally upon seeing his fraccion get into a fight with Barragan's.
"This won't end well... Apache still has shit for control over her emotions and Sun-Sun and Mila-Rose aren't doing anything to stop her."
At that point the Primera noticed Barragan moving in the corner of his eye. He turned to where the stout Espada had landed after being kicked to find the man making deliberately slow movements to pick himself up off the ground.
"You've disgraced the Espada long enough, Kurosaki," the elderly looking arrancar said under his breath.
"Kindness and compassion have no place amongst hollows, no matter how human they look. Such emotions lead to bonds, and bonds are prime targets for the enemy to use against you. It is why hollows will never die out, we do not care for emotions."
"If you say so, Barragan," Ichigo idly replied as he watched Apache spit out more insults, if the look on her face was any indication.
The Tercera snarled and continued his slow walk back to his opponent. Around half way there though, the Espada's eyes narrowed dangerously and his reiatsu fluctuated wildly for a moment.
Ichigo tensed, but as soon as he saw Barragan turn in the direction of his fraccion before disappearing with a static sound, he knew what was happening.
"Barragan!" he roared, anger and fear for his fraccion evident in his voice. He quickly reached up and grasped the hilt of Zangetsu, releasing the reiatsu that came with it even as his figure blurred out of existence with a sharp sound of static. The considerable amount of reiatsu he couldn't store in his blade augmented his expertise with sonido to levels that allowed him to appear in front his fraccion well before Barragan's sonido even reached them.
The air he displaced upon arriving crackled angrily at having been disturbed so abruptly, but Ichigo ignored it. He held Zangetsu out in front of him, blocking the strike from Barragan's axe that came not even a split second later.
The Primera grunted and, with a heave of Zangetsu, broke the Tercera's guard. He wasted no time in hurling himself forward and thrusting his knee into the elderly arrancar's stomach, sending him sprawling across the desert for the second time in the duel.
Ichigo growled deep in his throat. This was no longer just a fight to prove his superiority over the other Espada. This was an execution.
"I apologize, Aizen-sama. You'll have to find a new Espada when this duel is finished," he stated flatly, his voice carrying the intent behind his statement clearly to the surrounding arrancar.
Without waiting for a response, Ichigo reached up behind him and grabbed the hilt of his second zanpakutō, which was still unnamed.
He turned and offered it to Apache.
"Hold on to this for me, it will be troublesome to carry it around in the form I'm going to take."
The blue haired arrancar accepted the weapon silently, an awed look on her face. He figured it was likely a combination of seeing the skill he'd displayed to save her from Barragan and the fact that he actually allowed her to hold one of his zanpakutō.
Of course, the fact that it was actually almost as tall as she was didn't seem to register with Apache.
Ichigo unintentionally drew all the observers eyes back to him when he held Zangetsu out in front of him, pointing straight ahead. The bandages wrapped around his arm tightened visibly and the reiatsu-thick air started reacting to something, something that the Primera was standing at the center of.
The wind picked up abruptly, tossing sand about to the point where most arrancar held their hands to the sides of their heads to block the annoying particles while trying to keep an eye on what was causing the disturbance. Debris from destroyed pillars shifted and tumbled across the ground, throwing up large amounts of sand, and dust started to coat everything in the immediate area.
Aizen, for his part, remained silent as he watched, his smile just a bit larger than normal.
"This, Gin," he said upon seeing the white haired man frown. "Is the Primera."
The wind suddenly started howling and picked up speed as the reiatsu in the air was disturbed more, mimicking the energy's motion and rocketing toward Ichigo. It grew in intensity and actually started to swirl around him, forming a small tornado, at the center of which the Primera stood undisturbed.
And then, it stopped. The pressure that used to be an oppressive weight on the spectators' shoulders vanished completely.
The wind died down, allowing the sand to fall back to the desert floor and the reiatsu stopped churning in the area surrounding the arrancar. The air was dead, utterly and completely devoid of reiatsu and any movement whatsoever.
It was certainly a disturbing feeling, dead air.
And at the center of it all stood the Primera Espada.
His figure was audibly humming with all the reiatsu he had taken in, stored up to immense levels, titanic levels. All of it was moving about restlessly, awaiting any action that would use their strength.
Ichigo slowly released a breath, focusing intently on the energy built up within Zangetsu.
"Bankai!"
The reactions amongst the spectators were quite mixed upon hearing the Primera's exclamation.
Many of them reacted with shock, followed by alarmed mutterings of 'shinigami' and 'betrayer'. Others reacted with amazement, gaping openly at the power displayed before them.
Aizen's smile grew into a vicious smirk and Ichimaru Gin's usual grin returned to his face twice as strong as it had ever been before. Tōsen frowned initially, but upon seeing that Aizen hadn't become concerned, allowed his frown to give way to a neutral expression.
For the most part, the Espada expressed blatant interest in the fight, though Grimmjow was clearly eager to see what the Primera was capable of as well.
"His shinigami side," Apache muttered absentmindedly as the dust around Ichigo started to clear. She was now supporting herself on his other zanpakutō due to the fact that the reiatsu discharge had been too much, too powerful for her to stand on her own, especially at such close proximity.
Sun-Sun pushed herself back up to her feet, mouth behind her sleeve again, eyes focused on the figure that she knew was Ichigo in the remaining sand that was falling to the ground.
Mila-Rose opted to stay on her knees, unwilling to possibly miss even a half second of what was occuring before her should she try to stand up.
A pulse of reiatsu was released from inside the cloud.
Ichigo breathed in deeply, reveling in the feeling of power that Zangetsu's recently discovered Bankai provided him with. The blade was humming contentedly with condensed reiatsu at the moment, reiatsu that would constantly be released throughout the fight to augment his agility and his strength.
His Bankai surely didn't look intimidating, but those that could sense the reiatsu radiating off the blade knew how dangerous the fight had just become.
He allowed a fraction of the reiatsu contained inside Zangetsu to escape, stilling the air around him instantly. The reiatsu that he'd been releasing unconsciously throughout the fight wasn't even there anymore, all of it was packed tightly into his blade and not a sliver of it would escape unless he willed it.
"Tensa Zangetsu," he stated, holding the rather normal looking black blade in front of him just as he'd been doing before he used his Bankai. His clothes were also exact replicas of what the typical shinigami wore, the only differences being that the outfit was less bulky and more form fitting, as well as the fact that the top extended down into a half-cloak, half-cape of sorts.
Half hearted chortling was heard from somewhere in the crowd of spectators, but Ichigo ignored it, focused solely on Barragan, who was staring at him with something akin to respect in his eyes.
It didn't matter now though, not even if it turned to admiration.
The Tercera's fate was sealed.
Ichigo moved.
A cloud of sand burst up from the ground where his after image was located, courtesy of the reiatsu that had been released from his legs to make his charge even faster.
The Primera himself was suddenly in front of Barragan, blade cocked and ready to deal a devastating blow. His opponent hurriedly brought up his axe to block, but such a large weapon could only be moved so fast.
Ichigo gouged a cut across the Tercera's chest, straight through his hierro, and was gone just as quickly as he appeared.
The only thing left behind for Barragan to slice in half was a mere after image.
More sand was kicked up.
Then, Ichigo was behind him, swinging out with Tensa Zangetsu.
Barragan growled low in his throat when he felt another blow land on his back, followed instantly by another to his chest and one more to his thigh. The Primera was fast, too fast for him in this form.
He used sonido to put some space between him and his opponent, but he only had a split second's time to breathe before Ichigo was upon him again, attacking faster than he could block. His hierro was too strong, especially in Hueco Mundo, to land a fatal blow on in one hit, but at this rate...
He caught a flash of orange to his left and focused intently on it.
Suddenly, the flash he'd seen before became Ichigo in the process of attacking him, except this time the attack was slower, much slower.
Barragan heaved his axe at a Primera's head, but he used sonido to instantaneously move himself out of its impressive reach.
The Tercera grumbled under his breath. It had always been an annoying aspect to his powers over time, the fact that he couldn't effect sonido or shunpo with it. They didn't have a timed duration to slow down, they happened instantly.
Ichigo disappeared again, reappearing this time behind the shorter Espada. He swung Tensa Zangetsu as Barragan was turning around and managed to land a glancing blow before his attack got slowed down, forcing him to sonido away.
"Time," he said as he landed on the sand again. "Such an impressive power, to control how fast something moves or acts, how quickly something ages."
His figure blurred again and scored another glancing blow before Barragan could react. The speed at which the Primera moved in his Bankai form was simply astounding.
"Time itself would surely be something that I would never want to face," Ichigo continued before attacking again. This time he appeared on Barragan's side, but used sonido to move himself to his opponent's opposite side when he started to turn.
"But luckily for me," the Primera said around his smirk as he reappeared some distance from the Tercera. "You aren't time, only an imitation. A conduit for its awesome power."
"You'll learn your place boy. You spit out insults and degradations as if you have the experience to back it up! You're a mere child in my eyes."
Ichigo grinned and held up his hands in a mocking attempt at trying to placate his opponent. "You're right, you are older than me. You're likely thousands of years old while I've only had a mere sixteen years to experience life and all of its hardships."
Barragan chortled heartily alongside his fraccion. "Sixteen! Sixteen years of age he says! When I said you were a mere child, I expected you to be at least one hundred years old, but sixteen!"
He grinned a cruel grin as he brought his axe up in front of him. "You're nothing more than an infant to me!
Kuchiro, Arrogante,"
An overwhelming reiatsu overcame the nearby area, bringing no small amount of arrancar to their knees. Barragan's skin was immediately covered in a dark reiatsu and, when it slunk away, revealed not skin, but bone. Most of his figure was obscured by an extravagant robe with a golden chain hanging from the two sides in the middle. His mask fragment had changed into the likeness of a real crown, complete with jewels, and his body was that of a skeleton's, completely made out of bones.
"So this is it huh?" the Primera said airily. "This is the extent of your abilities in controlling time."
Barragan chuckled under his breath. "I do not control time. I am time, Primera."
Ichigo smirked a superior smirk. "We'll see, conduit, we'll see."
Before the Tercera could spit out a retort, his opponent disappeared, again faster than he could track.
He laughed. "Hah! You'll find your speed does nothing against me in this form boy!"
Indeed, as soon as Ichigo came within ten feet of Barragan, his movements slowed down to a level that the Tercera could react to.
He sonido'd away.
"You don't need to actively control your ability to slow my attacks now," Ichigo stated a safe distance from his opponent.
"You say that as if you still hold onto the false hope that I am not time itself!" Barragan spat as he held his hand out toward the orange haired Espada.
"Respira!"
Sun-Sun's eyes narrowed as she saw a dark mist-like substance burst out of the Tercera's sleeve and shoot toward Ichigo at an impressive speed. Her superior didn't seem concerned though, almost like he already knew what the mist did.
He either obviously knew or saw something she didn't or he was just extremely adept at keeping a calm front up in the heat of battle.
The green haired fraccion, now a good distance away from the rest of the arrancar spectators alongside her fellow fraccion, watched as Ichigo danced away from the pursuing mist, using the speed his Bankai was quickly making him renown for to the best of its abilities.
"Well," Mila-Rose said as she watched the battle gradually turn in favor of Barragan. "I don't know what he's going to do, but he won't lose."
Apache grunted from where she was leaning against the Primera's other zanpakutō. "He'll find a way around that time shit. That old fuck won't beat him."
They watched as the Tercera released another cloud of mist from his other arm, doubling his efforts to catch his opponent in it grasp. Ichigo continued to avoid it though, once coming close to one of the massive pillars that dotted the desert surface. The mist brushed against it as it chased after him.
Mila-Rose's mouth dropped open when she saw the structure of the pillar simply dissolve. "It's aging the structure so much that it's collapsing in on itself!"
Sun-Sun nodded, her brow furrowed while she hid her mouth behind her sleeve.
"He'll still win," Apache said resolutely. "He didn't even blink when the pillar collapsed. He knows what he's doing."
The idea of teasing the blue haired fraccion for her loyalty briefly passed through Mila-Rose's mind, but she decided to hold off until later. Now wasn't the time.
Suddenly Barragan howled in frustration and held out his right arm, dispelling half of the mist in the process. Out of his sleeve burst a massive double headed axe, completely black in color, with four chains attached to the centerpiece that trailed up into the sleeve of the Tercera's robe until they disappeared in the folds.
"Gran Caida!"
"Those robes are bigger than I thought, to be able to hide a weapon that large," Ichigo muttered amusedly, an eyebrow arched as he stared at Barragan.
The Tercera waved his other hand, allowing his mist to dissolve completely, and thrust the hand that held his axe forward. The chains suddenly shot toward Ichigo, so fast that even he couldn't avoid them, regardless of the fact that he was unprepared.
Each one of the four chains wrapped around a limb, holding him in place.
"Finally," Barragan growled. "Finally, I've caught you like the annoying insect that you are." He used sonido to appear in front of Ichigo, his massive axe raised over his head.
"Any last words, boy?"
The Primera grinned. "You're a fool. My curiosity is the only thing that's keeping you alive right now."
The Tercera roared. "I'll take your spot as Primera, even if it means prying it from your cold, dead fingers!"
He swung his axe down, fully intent on cleaving Ichigo in two with the thing.
Suddenly, reiatsu erupted from Ichigo with a force that made Barragan's ears ring and his vision blur out of focus. His axe stopped short of hitting the Primera, held back only by the furious assault of pure reiatsu that was rushing out of his body in waves.
Barragan sonido'd away, desperate to get as far away from the colossal force of the reiatsu as he could and recover. Even at a safe distance, the pressure on his shoulders was making any movement three times as hard as it should've been. The spectators themselves were being pushed to their hands and knees under the intensity, even some of the Espada couldn't stand it.
And then, it stopped.
Barragan looked back toward the Primera, finding that his chains had been shaken off simply due to the vibrations that the reiatsu had induced in them.
Ichigo himself appeared completely unharmed and even bored.
An eerie silence claimed the immediate area. Not a sound was heard outside the heavy breathing of the Tercera.
The Primera had just managed to shake off an extremely powerful attack through the simple act of releasing reiatsu. Releasing reiatsu. It was something even the weakest hollow could do, something that arrancar did unconsciously.
It was a hard idea for the spectators to wrap their minds around; that the Primera had defeated the Tercera's attack without even the slightest hint of any effort whatsoever.
"This form isn't like the released states that most shinigami and arrancar possess," the orange haired Espada said quietly, startling the majority of the arrancar in the area. "I don't continuously emit reiatsu, instead, I hold it all inside of me until I need to release it."
He paused.
"That was only a fraction of the energy I still have."
Barragan growled. "It doesn't matter! No matter how much reiatsu you possess and how intense the pressure is, you cannot get near me without being slowed to a crawl!"
"That is correct," Ichigo said. "But I don't need to get anywhere near you to end this fight."
He held up Tensa Zangetsu in front of him.
"My aspect was not chosen because of the powers I have when I release my 'hollow' zanpakutō. I am the Aspect of Gluttony because of the changes my shinigami powers experienced when I became an arrancar."
Black reiatsu tinted blood red started to appear on his blade, crackling and hissing excitedly.
"I am not arrogant enough to claim that I myself am Gluttony personified," he continued. "I am only the sword that it uses to strike down those who oppose it; namely you, Barragan."
He swung Tensa Zangetsu in an arch in front of him.
"Kuroi Getsuga!"
A crescent shape of black-red reiatsu erupted from the blade, quickly closing the distance between Ichigo and Barragan. As expected, it slowed down when it reached the time-distortion field that the Tercera constantly kept up around him.
Barragan scoffed. "Time is the ultimate harbinger of death! Everything and anything that faces it withers and dies eventually, including your attacks!"
He focused on the angry crescent and it slowly started dissolving. Seconds later, after the attack had only moved forward a foot or two, it was nothing more than flimsy black mist in front of the stout Espada.
The Tercera let out a barking laugh. "Your attack can only last as long as the reiatsu powering does," he said as he swiped a hand through the mist, dispelling it instantly.
"Now," he said as he turned back to Ichigo, who was still standing in the same spot he was in when he attacked. "Do you see now why you cannot win? Any attack you use against me is bound to fail!"
The Primera smirked. "There are things that time is unable to touch-"
"Hah! Foolish boy, your lack of experience proves just how much of a child you are!"
"Look at your hand, Barragan."
The Tercera glanced down at his free hand, but did a double take upon seeing it. He held it up in front of him, his gaze focused solely on the black mist that was currently eating away at it.
"What- What trickery is this!?"
"Gluttony," Ichigo said. "Gluttony is something that cannot be touched by time. It is timeless. You can always kill one who commits the sin, but the sin itself is untouchable."
Barragan focused his power over time on the hand that was already half eaten, but found he could only slow the mist's progress, it didn't expire!
"It will continue to devour you, Barragan, until you are gone completely or until I will it to stop. Your time may be able to slow its progress, but you will never be able to rid yourself of it."
The Tercera growled and held up his free hand, willing the mist to come forth and kill Ichigo before he himself died. As it left his sleeve to pursue the Primera though, it was devoured by the black substance currently eating away at his hand.
"Kuroi Getsuga!"
Barragan avoided the attack completely this time and used sonido to place himself behind Ichigo, fully intending to end him with his massive axe. Before he knew what was happening though, the Primera was at his side, unleashing another deadly black crescent of energy.
The Tercera quickly used sonido again, this time landing on the desert sands. His hand was completely devoured now and the foul mist was currently progressing up his forearm.
"I'm done playing with you, Barragan."
"You insolent brat!" the Aspect of Time spat. "You think this is over!"
Ichigo smirked. "Your fate has been sealed since the moment you tried to attack my fraccion."
Barragan's eyes widened briefly then narrowed in the way that Ichigo didn't like. The short Espada abruptly used sonido and appeared where Apache, Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun used to be standing with the rest of the arrancar.
As predicted, he wasn't happy when he found they'd moved.
The now one-armed skeleton turned rigidly at the sound of clapping.
Ichigo, now positioned directly in front of his fraccion, stopped the mocking applause. There was a look in his eye now, a glint that looked positively sinister and malevolent, murderous.
He narrowed his eyes. "Congratulations, Tercera, you've sunk to a whole new level of desperation."
Barragan glanced behind him, toward where his fraccion were looking on with awe at the fight, likely due to the fact that their superior was actually losing.
"Kill him," he hissed out viciously.
The three arrancar looked surprised, even hesitant, at the order.
"Go you fools! Kill that blasted boy!"
Choe Neng Poww, Cuuhlhourne Charlotte and Parduoc Nirgge glanced at each other, then at Ichigo.
"Yes, your majesty," Poww replied for the group.
"Fumitsubuse, Mamut," Nirgge stated. He took on the form of a large mammoth that walked on its hind legs. Green fur covered his body and he grew a large trunk from the center of his helm-like mask. Tusks similar to those a real mammoth grew from his mask fragment as well.
"Kirameke, Reina de Rosasu!" Cuuhlhourne exclaimed as he was covered in a burst of violet reiatsu. It quickly cleared to give way to his released form. He wore a crop top with wings at the shoulders and a pink mini skirt-like piece of clothing, heeled shoes and a tiara made of his mask fragments completed his transformation into his self-dubbed 'princess' form.
"Ibuke, Calderon," Poww said. He grew in size, nearly reaching the height and width of one of the massive pillars on the desert sands. His figure became more rounded, much like a whale. His arms grew to a massive size and his throat took on the likeness of a whale's, in both size and appearance.
They charged Ichigo as one while Barragan disappeared in a burst of static, the dark mist having eaten well into his shoulder now.
He reappeared behind Apache, Mila-Rose and Sun-Sun, only to find a trio of Kuroi Getsuga's flying directly at him. He grimaced and avoided the three attacks with an ease only made possible by his power over time.
By then, Ichigo had already taken down two of his fraccion, only Poww was left. Cuuhlhourne was on the ground, wildly thrashing about as reiatsu literally ate away at him from where he'd been hit on his left leg and arm.
Nirgge had already dissolved into the atmosphere completely.
"Apache, Mila-Rose, Sun-Sun," Ichigo said as he turned toward where Barragan had ended up after the stout Espada dodged his attacks. "Take care of the last one for me."
They nodded as one to his command and, after Apache had securely stuck the Primera's other zanpakutō in the ground, wasted no time in going about killing their target. His massive size tired him out quickly and being such small targets, it was less than easy for him to land a blow on any of them. He would be killed within minutes.
Ichigo turned away from his fraccion, confident that they would have little to no trouble in their task. His cannibalistic reiatsu was just now starting to work its way into Barragan's chest, he noted, far too slow for his liking. But, he figured, he couldn't do much about how fast his opponent was defeated, not unless he wanted to start consciously expelling his reiatsu... but that'd be showing far too much.
"Look, Barragan. You're going to die, there's no denying that...so how 'bout you save us the trouble of waiting and let my reiatsu consume you at its normal rate?"
"I'm not leaving this world until you're dead, Kurosaki."
Ichigo sighed. "It's pointless to continue. You're wasting our time, Barragan. You are a waste of time."
That snapped the fragile rope that was keeping the Tercera's temper in check.
The skeletal Espada lunged forward with a howl of rage and started to wildly swing his massive zanpakutō at the Primera.
Ichigo grinned and held up Tensa Zangetsu to block, watching as the axe drew closer and closer to his zanpakutō.
"Kuroi Getsuga," he drawled as soon as the blades collided. The reiatsu burst forth in a malevolent storm of black-red reiatsu, immediately clinging to the closest object.
Namely, Barragan's axe.
The reiatsu spread rapidly at first, but the Tercera slowed its progress by the time it had gotten to the centerpiece. Of course, the chains connected to the center of the axe started to get devoured as well, chains that led back into the extravagant robe Barragan was wearing.
Ichigo watched silently as his opponent struggled to maintain focus on six different parts of his body or weapon that were being devoured, one of which was well into his torso. The skeletal face could show no emotion, but it was clear that Barragan was panicking.
He knew how the duel would end.
"Well," the Primera muttered after having grown bored of watching his opponent struggle to slow the progress of his reiatsu. "I'd say it's been fun, Barragan, but I don't like lying. This ends now."
Ichigo disappeared before anything else could be said, appearing just a few feet outside the Tercera's time field. He immediately started circling the skeleton, moving so fast that his figure produced after images whenever it had been. Eventually, it looked like a small army of black-clothed arrancar were whirling around Barragan in a furious show of speed in the sky.
Then, the attacks started raining down with a fury unlike anything the arrancar spectators had seen before.
"Kuroi Getsuga!"
Black crescents of reiatsu rushed toward Barragan from no less than six different spots in the time it took to blink an eye. By the time they had traveled just a few feet to enter the time field, over two dozen more attacks had appeared.
The Tercera lost focus on the reiatsu already eating away at him, the sight of being completely surrounded by deadly black crescents causing him to panic for a brief moment.
That moment was all Ichigo needed.
He used shunpo to abruptly appear without a whisper of sound behind Barragan and made to thrust Tensa Zangetsu through his chest.
The Tercera, preoccupied by the storm of reiatsu bearing down upon him from every conceivable angle and the pain of having his flesh eaten away, didn't think to use sonido to get away. He didn't even notice that the Primera was behind him until he felt a blade plunge into back.
"Kuroi Getsuga."
Barragan howled in rage as he felt the cannibalistic reiatsu latch onto his form from the center of his chest. His time field collapsed as Ichigo moved away and, with one last infuriated curse at the Primera, he was engulfed in a storm of black reiatsu, tinted with a blood red hue.
The impact kicked up sand and disturbed the atmosphere enough to make the wind howl in irritation.
In the midst of it all, Ichigo stood calmly, observing the chaos he'd created.
A/N: Well, there's the secret to Ichigo's aspect and the duels. Hope you all enjoyed them and I hope they were up to standards, given how long I managed to take getting this out...
But anyway, I'd like to explain my line of thought with regards to sonido/shunpo vs. pure speed.
First off, sonido and shunpo are skills. Because of that, I believe that they can be wielded with varying levels of expertise (depending on the user). By that I mean Ichigo's sonido is bound to be more efficient in combat and come more naturally to him than say, Carias' might. That is why he was able to beat Barragan to his fraccion, he was more skilled in using sonido.
Now for why Ichigo was able to use it to get out of Barragan's time field. Personally I believe that all sonido and shunpo happen instantly, so there isn't really a duration of any kind that Barragan could've slowed down. No matter who is using it, they are transported instantly from one place to another.
Hope that came out as coherently as I wanted it too. My mind isn't the most reliable thing at one in the morning...
Anyway, as for the 0-9 or 1-10 Espada numbers. They'll be 0-9 in my story, but don't assume that automatically means Yammy is top dog. The guy is a tank, pure and simple, and I certainly wouldn't want to face him in a fight, but being a mindless berserker with an ass ton of power will only get you so far...
Some ending notes: I know how many of you want this to be a foursome, but I've said it's Apache/Ichigo so that's what it'll stay. I know some of my readers aren't fond of harems, and I know some are. I wrote this story planning for it to be only Ichigo/Apache and that's what all of you came into this story thinking. Sorry, but the pairing won't change.
On Ichigo becoming a softie and all around emotional wreck. Ichigo will experience turmoil/confusion over his actions (as we saw last chapter) but that will start to lessen as gets used to having emotions and a conscious again. I think the scene between him and Zangetsu in the last chapter pretty much explained what his thought process will be like: he'll do whatever it takes to get the job done, regardless of the consequences, but at the same time he'll have to be at peace with whatever decision he made. Confusing? Yeah. Just think of what was going through my head as I tried to put my thoughts into words at this time at night.
That said, I appreciate all the feedback I'm getting on this story and I hope you all continue to enjoy my writing. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Finally, I've got finals coming up in about two weeks, so the next chapter probably won't be up until after those have passed.
Till next time.