Chapter 6

Into the Sands and Forest

I emerge out of the underground and look around, only to find the vast nothingness of Hueco Mundo. Nothing but a gray dessert for miles on end.

"So nothing has changed environmentally, but I've never seen that uniform on a Hollow before, or a uniform at all for that matter. Something's defiantly wrong." I say to myself, knowing the answer would most likely be in Las Noches.

When I look to my right I notice something odd, a palace of some sort. From where I stood it looked like there were six circular towers going around one large building with a huge dome in the middle.

"That must be Las Noches!" I say to myself and begin running toward the large palace. When did the Hollows build such a place? How? It looks like a military base in the world of the living. This is getting stranger by the minute.

I continue to run when I feel the sand rumbling beneath my feet. I then fall on my back and start to fall in a sink hole but manage to climb out quickly and fall down, I then roll over on my back. When I look up I see a giant sand Hollow. It must be at least ten stories tall! When I finally come to my senses I stand up.

I whistle and sarcastically say "You like to make quite an entrance buddy, you could have suffocated me under all of that sand."

He then says "I am Runuganga, Guardian of the White Sands. Who are you human?"

"I am Akihiro, and I am a Quincy" I say with pride.

Knowing this wouldn't be easy, I quickly think of a way to fight him. I could pelt him with a barrage of arrows, but that would most likely fail, I don't think my arrows are powerful enough to combat his quick regeneration, and besides, he can basically re-animate himself if he is destroyed, so that would buy me time, even if it's not a killing blow. But I do have a technique I've wanted to try. Hee hee.

"A Quin-" Just as he was about to finish his sentence I quickly used Hirenkyaku to get in the air and fire my Seele Schneider's off in four directions before I land.

"You're a terrible shot Quincy. How do you expect to win if you can't hit a target as large as I?" I chuckle a little as he finishes his sentence.

"And what makes you think I tried to hit you Guardian of the White Sands? I was curious about the technique I'm going to use on you." Before he has time to react to what I implied I stick my last Seele Schneider in the sand and open my Ginto tube and a drop of my Reiryoku drops out of it.

As soon as the drop hits the back end of the Seele Schneider, a rush of reishi accelerates in the shape of a Quincy pentagon, and there is a rush of reishi toward Runuganga, who looking around himself in shock realizing he can't move. The reishi rushes to the middle of the pentagon, resulting in a light blue explosion, soon enveloping him. He cries out in agony, before long the explosion reaches the edge of the pentagon were it stops expanding any further. Within the explosion there is a huge column of blue light.

"Beautiful, the first time I've seen this in over a thousand years."

Soon after the light dies down, Runuganga disintegrates.

"So that's Sprenger… that's what Soken was talking about…I think I have a new favorite move." I was amazed at its power, I then quickly grabbed my Seele Schneider's, but when I went to grab my last one, a large sink hole started to envelope me from where Runuganga had been only moments earlier. I couldn't keep my balance and I fell into it.

It seemed like I was falling for an eternity before I gathered my thoughts and analyzed the situation and figured out what to do. I quickly use Hirenyaku and soon landed on the limb of a tree, "So…this must be the Forest of Menos, not much has changed here. It still looks like Hell. Though I suppose all of Hueco Mundo is like Hell and the Soul Society is like Heaven in comparison, though if I go there someday I doubt it will be like Heaven" I say out loud. As soon as I finish my sentence I hear the howls of the Gillian's are all around me, "You've got to be kidding me! I just got here!" I thought "I never catch a break." Just when one Gillian started to charge up its cero I shot a single arrow through its large mask, it leaned back slightly and turned to dust. As soon as it had died, two more show up, "You never learn" I say to myself "Bye, bye!" I fire two more arrows at once. But it was futile; they started pouring in by the dozens now.

Damn, they keep coming no matter what. At this rate, I'm going to tire myself out before I even see an Espada! I've got to find a way out of this place! Without hesitation I use Hirenyaku and weave myself through the Gillian's, just barely avoiding them, and while still using Hirenyaku I turn around and lean back and get my Genrei Kojaku and fire a barrage of arrows, decimating them that tried to peruse me, but soon more come to take their place.

"Err! Why do you keep following me! This is so annoying!" I yell and my spiritual pressure begins to rise with my anger. When I do that, I only attract more of them. Damn you Gillian's! I land on another tree branch high up and fire a constant barrage of arrows, decimating them, relieving my stress, I knew they would be back again soon, but in this short period of bliss I began to wonder if someone else was here. This wouldn't be the first time anyone has been to Hueco Mundo by any extent, I'm proof of that. So if my father and the other Quincy's could open a way to Hueco Mundo then, and Kisuke could open it now, then people could obviously open a way in-between these periods. But the odds of long term survival in here are very unlikely, but maybe I might run across someone. I must be optimistic, especially if I wish to survive.

Just as I finish my thought I hear the howl of more Gillian's closing in on my position, "You've got to be joking!" I shout with rage, the Gillian's then slowly start to emerge from the tree line. I hold out my left arm to prepare my Genrei Kojaku when I notice a few of them stop moving. That's when I realize that there is now only half the number of Gillian's that there were just mere seconds earlier. How could that happen? Did an Adjucha or Vasto Lorde turn on them and kill them? No that can't be, from what I remember Adjuchas lead the Gillian's. It's impossible that it could have been a Vasto Lorde, they are way too rare. And besides, why would one even be down here in the Forest of Menos? If it wasn't Vasto Lorde or Adjuchas, then who or what killed them?

I quickly take care of the rest of the Gillian's. A few moments later I notice spiritual pressure similar to that of a Soul Reaper standing on the same tree limb I am on. I turn around and sure enough there was a Soul Reaper, but this one looked different than the rest. He was in a Soul Reaper's Kimono and had a Zanpakuto, but he also wore a pelt cape with skulls adorning the back of it. His face was obscured by the Hollow mask that he was wearing; the mask reminded me of a gazelle skull. Who was this Soul Reaper?

"Who are you Soul Reaper? How long have you been following me?" He says nothing. A few seconds later he signals me to follow him. As we jump from branch to branch, he mutters to me "We're close."

"Close to what?" I reply

"My hideout" He says

"You're hideout? How long have you been here?" I say, only to be answered by silence.

Eventually we come across a cave. "We're here" he says. The cave is no different from an ordinary cave oddly enough, since it's his home, I would expect a few decorations or something. I have no idea who this guy is, other than he is clearly a Soul Reaper, but I intend to find out. He knows this place well, and he has shown that he has skill, which suggests that he has been here for a while now.

"So it appears. Who are you anyway Soul Reaper? And what's with the disguise? Well what's up the mask at least." I ask. He pauses for a few moments.

"My name is Ashido Kano."

"I'm Akihiro Bach." I was debating on whether or not to use my real name, but decided to go ahead. He stares at me, as if looking into my soul, I can't tell what he is thinking, or how he reacted to discovering who I am.

"You probably know you're in the Forest of Menos don't you?" He says.

"Yeah, I've known that ever since I fell into this Hell hole." I say in a sad voice.

Without any warning he takes his Zanpakuto and slashes it at me, I counter it by leaning back and grabbing a Seele Schneider off the back of my belt and swing it at Ashido, only to be blocked. I then use Hirenyaku and appear a few feet behind him. He study's me for a few seconds before he uses flash step. He appears right in front of me; we both swing and lock blades.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You come and save me and then you attack me!?" I shout with anger. There was clearly something I missed. There had to be a reason he was doing this. Why save me in the first place; there had to be something behind this? But what was it?

I start to collect the reishi with my Seele Schneider and Ashido notices it as I collected more and more. It was hard to tell, but I noticed how he looked around at the blue particles flowing to Seele Schneider.

I quickly use Hirenyaku and appear right in front of him and swing Seele Schneider knocking off his Hollow mask revealing his face. He had long spiky brownish-red hair, his hair started to cover part of his face as he swung his Zanpakuto. His eyes were a grayish color, like they have seen battle many times. There was an expression of shock on his face and I had to assume it was the first time anyone had been able to do that to him.

I quickly swing my leg behind his knee and bring him to the ground, holding the tip of Seele Schneider to his throat. He stares back at me with a look of disbelief. He remained silent. I couldn't tell if he knew I was a Quincy or not. But the odds are he had figured it out a while ago. I slowly pull back my Seele Schneider and ask "Why did you attack me Ashido?" I was determined to get an answer.

He slowly starts to rise, "I wanted to test your ability, only the strong survive in the Forest of Menos, You are clearly stronger than you look"

I can't hide my anger. "I'm older than I look too!"

He looks back at me curiously. "How old are you anyway? You couldn't be more than 16 years old."

I hesitated whether or not to tell him but decide to tell him the truth since we are no longer fighting. "Let's just say I'm a little older than…1,000 years old."

He looks back gawking at me. "You're older than me? You look like a teenager."

"Yeah I was put in a sleeping state for a while after my father lost a fight to the head captain of the 13 Court Guard. They didn't want to risk losing me since I'm important to the Quincy. I'm the legacy of my father; I was awakened no more than a month ago." I say scratching the back of my head.

"Wait your father lost to Head Captain Yamamoto 1,000 years ago? Than that would mean he is-"

Before he could finish I cut in. "Yeah my father is Yhwach. No one knew I existed for a long time and at the moment I would like to keep it that way. There are so few Quincy in the world I can't risk exposing myself, I have to keep them safe. Now can you please show me the way out?" I ask remembering my mission.

"Right. Follow me,I know a way out, there's a passageway not too far from here." He explains.

"You'd better be telling the truth Ashido. After you tried to test my strength without asking gaining my permission…let's just say I'm not in the best of moods".

"You certainly act as old as you look." He says.

"Thanks for the compliment." I say happily as I walk out of the cave.

"I'm following you, show me the way Ashido!" I say sarcastically.

We waste no time in hurrying to get to the passage way. In a few minutes we arrived to the passageway.

"Here we are Akihiro. This will take you out of here."

"You're not coming Ashido? You don't want to leave this place?"

"No, my place is here. My mission is to keep as many Hollows from entering the World of the Living as possible." Ashido says.

"That's a noble goal. I hope one day you can leave this place, I can't imagine what it must be like for you to live here alone with those things everywhere."

"Me too, but for now I have a job to do. Before you go, can I ask what you're doing in Hueco Mundo?"

I hesitate.

"…I'm trying to learn more about the Espada, I feel it is important for me to do this. I promised the family looking after me I would find one, and figure out what they're like. This mission will also help me to grow, and get more combat experience. You're the second person I've fought here. The first was some arrancar."

"The Espada eh? You have got to have a death wish. As for combat experience you'll find plenty of that here."

"I know you must think I have a death wish, but that's just the risk of a mission. If completing it will help me protect my new family, then I'll gladly risk my life to complete this mission."

"You must care for this family dearly. Are they also Quincy?" Ashido ask.

"Yes, and to my knowledge, the only ones left. Most of us were wiped out 200 years ago by Soul Reapers. The first time I awakened from my sleep was when the family looking after me then was killed. I killed those Soul Reapers before setting out to find out what was going on. I found the Ishida family who were a well-known Quincy family. They told me what happened and why the Soul Reapers were fighting us. Then they put me back in my sleep state. 200 years later they woke me up and since then two more of us died. Know there are only four of us left including me. You can do the math. I won't allow the Quincy to vanish from this earth! I will see to it that the Quincy will once again rise from the ashes. That is my war, and this is my first mission in the war Ashido."

Ashido pauses, understanding that I have taken the near annihilation of the Quincy's hard.

"Just be careful Akihiro, you don't want to die too early in your war."

"Tsh, I won't die. But I wish you well too Ashido." I say as I walk down the dark corridor alone.