I'm late yet again, bad personal stuff happened and I had to stop writing or it would turn into too dark fic. But now it should be fine so you can enjoy yet another chapter.
Things will slowly pick up from here. Next chapter will probably be last in this Hueco Mundo arc and I'll finally be able to deliver a story about the origins of the Bleach-verse from my point of view.
btw: no, grimmjow is not getting any from nel :D
Without further ado... chapter 10.
Chapter 10 – Hueco Mundo pt. 3 (Counterattack)
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
"Normal speech"
'Inner speech/thoughts'
'Inner hollow/Zanpaktou speech'
xxx
"How reliable is this information, Grimmjow?" Ichigo asked the blue haired Arrancar, as they were speeding through the vast sands of Hueco Mundo along with the two remaining former Espada.
Grimmjow growled in answer and shot him a dirty look.
"Are you questioning my abilities, Kurosaki?"
Ichigo snorted in response and focused his eyes on their path.
"No, I'm just being cautious. What if we're being lured there on purpose? Isn't it too easy to find out about their hideout after just two days of searching? Something doesn't add up and I don't want to see someone get hurt because we were too hasty."
Gimmjow frowned a little but gave no reply to that.
After Harribel informed Ichigo about Grimmjow's findings, he rushed to meet them in the tea-room, where they briefly discussed about their roles in this counterattack. Wasting no time, they immediately left the Las Noches, with Harribel informing her Fracción about their departure.
They have been running towards the location Grimmjow provided for almost an hour, yet they met nobody.
"We have no other choice but to trust our skills. We already talked about this, the clash between us and those unknown forces would happen sooner or later and I'd prefer to do it when I'm ready." Harribel stated from his left.
"I know... but you do realize that the Menos forest could easily be our graveyard." Ichigo replied in a slightly concerned sigh.
"Quit your whining already, Kurosaki. Their hideout should be on the outer edge of the Menos forest, that's where only Gillians or maybe few Adjuchas live. I doubt we'll come across someone stronger... well, at least till we'll meet that Master." Grimmjow yelled at him and licked his mouth hungrily.
"Even if we do meet someone strong... I've been wanting to get revenge for that strike at Las Noches." He chuckled darkly and cracked his knuckles.
Ichigo begrudgingly admitted that even he was in the mood for a decent fight.
Those two days that they have been waiting for Grimmjow, he began training Lilynette and while it was a nice workout it wasn't enough for him. He was getting the hang of his flame of darkness and could use it more versatile than before. But using it against an enemy was the only way of learning how to control them perfectly, without giving in to his own darkness.
"Easy Grimmjow, don't forget that we're not her for your sadistic pleasure or revenge. We are here simply because it is inevitable. I don't prefer violence, but if they want to hurt my friends, I'll get them before it can happen." Nel said in serious voice, not even using her nickname for Grimmjow, showing just how grave the situation was.
"Tsch." Was the only thing that the battle-hungry Arrancar said.
They stopped after five more minutes, just before they entered the Menos forest.
"From now on no more talking, be prepared for anything. They may throw some sneaky attacks at us, so don't lose your concentration." Harribel warned them and waited for each of them to nod.
When they did, she nodded herself and they cautiously entered the place in Hueco Mundo, where the most of the screams came from.
Deep in the Menos Forest, tall bodies of Gillians made their way towards the group of invaders, with a menacing eyes looking at them from behind using. Surge of reiatsu from the hidden figure forced them to obey its commands and their pace increased.
These huge Gillians, that consisted of hundreds of hollows piled together, creating a single entity, had no unique identity nor they had any coherent thoughts. They managed using only their instincts. Most of the time, their instincts were telling them to devour more hollows in order to silence the voices inside their head.
Right now, their instincts were screaming fear from the one behind their backs.
The one with the menacing eyes and a skull-like mask gave them one more glance and grinned deviously.
It was time to start the show.
'Weird, even if they are scared, there should have been some hollows around us, yet I can't feel anybody.' Ichigo thought as they ran deeper into the forest.
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed Harribel raising her hand in front of them, preventing them from going further.
"What is it, Harribel?" Nel landed next to her with raised eyebrow.
Harribel turned her head to the group and they saw her worried face.
"I don't know... I can't feel any presence around us, yet I'm sure I can hear some movements some distance in front of ..." She went silent as all of them widened their eyes after great numbers of glowing eyes pierced the darkness around them, hovering in the air.
"Gillians. Dozens of them." Nel stated in surprise.
"Damnit, how could they have surrounded us without us noticing?" Harribel cursed and prepared for fight.
Ichigo looked around himself and saw that the huge hollows were decreasing the distance between them and the group.
"Weird, only when we finally saw them I could sense them at last. Not even a moment before." Ichigo commented and took out his zanpaktou, measuring the enemy.
"Doesn't matter, we can finally fight, think about it later." Grimmjow yelled and jumped in the air, landing on the nearest Gillian, kicking it to the head and sending it stumbling to others.
That was apparently the signal to start the fight, as the other Gillians opened their mouths, red energy forming at the edge.
'Cero.' Ichigo cursed under his breath and all of them had to jump and separate otherwise they would have gotten struck by a dozens of cero, which weren't that strong when hit by one. Nevertheless, combined force of a dozens similar cero could hurt even them.
"Everyone, take your side and get rid of them!" Harribel exclaimed and turned to the hollows in front of her.
"Right." Nel nodded and did the same, leaving Ichigo standing before quite a number of enemies.
"Well, let's get it over with." He muttered and charged forward.
With Grimmjow
The Gillian that was send stumbling created an open space for Grimmjow to release his barrage of destructive kicks, that managed to even tear the Gillians masks with the sheer force of them, killing them instantly.
"Pf, I don't even need to use my zanpaktou for the likes of you." He smirked and reflexively, he dodged an incoming Cero from behind, rotating in mid air and ripping another Gillian with his claws in the process.
He jumped on the falling enemy, bouncing from him to the next one, throwing a drop kick on his head, making it explode from the impact, splashing his blood on Grimmjow's attire and a few droplets of blood landed on his face.
He slowly licked them and hungrily grinned at the remaining Gillians, whose instincts realized the difference in strength and made them back away from him a little.
"No fucking chance, you all pussies are going down." He flashed to the nearest one, while charging his own Cero in right hand.
He plowed it right through the hollow's skull and released the Cero on the ones standing in the back, killing them at the contact with his attack.
His instincts screaming at him, he sidestepped another Cero, but got hit directly with the second one, that was sent his way.
Rest of the Gillians froze when the smoke from the explosion cleared, revealing unharmed, but slightly pissed Grimmjow.
He was sending off waves of angry reiatsu, making the tall hollows slowly turn, trying to escape his wrath.
"Shouldn't have done that..." Grimmjow growled and jumped at the last Gillians, biting off a chunk of its head and spitting it on the one on his left, confusing the hollow with the blood.
"Time to end this." He landed in front of the four remaining Gillians, charging a Cero in his both hands.
"Sayonara, suckers!" He yelled and released his attacks.
With Nel
She was speeding off to the other side, graciously dodging any Cero that came into her path, leaving only light footprints on the sands of Hueco Mundo. Her face showed no longer any emotion, as she abandoned them in the moment they were surrounded.
Nel was an odd hollow in her own league. Every hollow acted based on instincts of survival and being strong, most of the time it meant the instinct of the killer. Survival of the fittest. There was no place in Hueco Mundo for the weak.
That was the exact reason, why Nel could have been considered odd. She never enjoyed the killing, always preferring to solve her problems with negotiations and using the violence was the last resort for her.
But even she was realizing that in this moment, there was no way out of this other than fighting. It became clear to her the moment she agreed with the plan to counterattack. The only way to ensure that her companions... her friends, could ever be safe, was to show the attackers, who is stronger, and thus... violence. If this was about humans or other races, there may have been other solutions, but most of the hollows responded to a bloodbath, to strength.
With this in her mind, her face lost its usual soft expression, becoming neutral.
She dodged another Cero and jumped, high enough for her kick to reach the head of the nearest Gillian, tearing its head off, spraying the blood on the others next to it.
With a fluent and swift turn, her knee found the another victim of her raw strength.
Kicking from the falling body, she jumped into trajectory of the Gillian Cero. Without missing a beat, she swallowed it whole, grimacing at the horrible taste of the energy and adding her own reiryoku to it.
"Cero Doble!"
Her special Cero easily dispatched the row of Gillians that were unlucky and couldn't evade it.
Landing softly on the sand, she quickly charged her hands with energy and side-stepped the Cero from the remaining Gillians.
In a quick motion, she punched the air in front of her, releasing the energy stored in her arms.
"Bala!"
The attack blew a huge hole in the belly of her enemies, making them collapse on each other.
As their bodies started to disappear, she felt waves of Grimmjow's angry reiatsu and shook her head in exasperation.
'Hot-headed animal... '
With Harribel
The strongest of the remaining former Espada was calmly analyzing the situation she was in, all the while casually dodging or deflecting Gillian's Cero with her sword.
'Hmm, eight, nine...no, ten Gillians in front of me. Threat level, small... but if we are already facing off enemies, I should preserve my energy as much as I can. One Cero should dispose the most of them.'
Harribel was probably the most analytic member of the counter-attack force and she realized immediately that fighting like Grimmjow, with unnecessary movements and risk would probably came around and bite her in the ass later, when they'll most likely encounter Vasto Lorde.
With that thought, she flashed from her previous area and landed behind her opponents, who were too slow to realize her disappearance, therefore, they couldn't even see the attack, that killed most of them.
"Cero." Harribel calmly said and from the tip of her sword, a massive torrent of yellow energy emerged, tearing through the enormous bodies of the Gillians, instantly killing three of them.
Seeing that, she slashed with her sword, making her Cero to cover larger area and catching another Gillians with it.
She raised an eyebrow, when she realized that the shape of her attack was somewhat familiar to her.
'Oh...right, it looked like Kurosaki's Getsuga, or what is it called... interesting.'
Feeling a danger, she spun around, deflecting another Cero with her sword.
'So one of them managed to escape my Cero.' She thought in surprise as the last Gillian came into her view.
With a burst of speed, she closed the distance between them and with a quick slash, she cut him to two pieces.
Satisfied with herself, she turned to the side, where Ichigo should have been.
The sight in front of her fascinated her as the only thing she saw was a mixture of black and red reiryoku erupting all over the place.
'Such a thick and hard reiatsu... I'm starting to think that I'm fine leaving him to be an enigma...'
With Ichigo
Ichigo stood before the slowly moving Gillians, deciding on the course of his actions. With his hand on his zanpaktou, Shirosaki's voice stopped him.
'No, don't use the blade. I think it's time for the review of the usage of your hollow powers.'
'Say what?' Ichigo thought in surprise.
'Well, I trained you in how to use your hollow powers in efficient way, but you haven't tried it against an enemy yet. Since these fuckers are only a lowly Gillians, I think that even you could fuck their asses without zanpaktou. Look at that blue-haired pussy, he's refusing to use his sword against someone this weak and nor should you.'
Ichigo let go of his zanpaktou and shrugged.
His hollow was right... again. It was becoming a habit, that his inner spirits were right more often than he was.
It was pissing him off a little.
Without noticing he unconsciously raised his reiatsu a bit, covering himself in black steam, created by his darkness element.
He did it just as the Gillians finished charging their Cero and released them at him.
Since Ichigo was talking to his hollow, he didn't even notice the attacks coming at him, making them strike him with full force, raising the sand around him, obstructing the Gillians from seeing him for a while.
When the sand calmed down, basic instincts in Gillians started to make them back away from the weird shinigami, in the way they did when the other ones were fighting Grimmjow.
Ichigo was still in thoughts and looked like he didn't even notice being attacked.
His reiatsu, that was swirling around him in the shape of black steam, was so thick that even the combined Gillian's Cero couldn't penetrate it.
Ichigo was unharmed and it looked like his train of thoughts finally stopped when he looked up at his enemies.
"Hmm? Why are they backing off?" Ichigo asked himself confused.
Inside him mind, his hollow and old man clad in black facepalmed each other.
"Oh well, guess I'll try my hollow powers." Ichigo said and flashed through the Gillians, stopping when he was in the center.
"First lesson, Cero."
He focused and pushed his hollow reiryoku into the palm of his right hand.
Noticing an incoming Cero, he straightened his back and used his left hand to deflect it. Immediately after that, his right hand shot out.
"Cero." Red energy that flew out tore the Gillians in front of him but unlike the Cero of the others, it didn't stop there and continued to the roof of the Menos Forest, finally stopping in an explosion.
'Nice for a shithead.'
Ichigo scoffed, as he started to translate some of his hollow's insults into compliments.
"Second lesson, Bala."
Jumping high, so that he was on the level other Gillians had their heads, one again he pushed the hollow energy into his arms, letting it enter his palms.
He spun himself while punching the air in front of him with a quick thrusts.
"Bala."
Gillians didn't stand a chance as their heads were being blown off by the violent red energy coming at them in rapid rate.
When he was certain that all of his opponents were down, Ichigo landed on the sand with the air around him full of his black reiatsu, now mixed with his potent red hollow energy.
'Fuck yeah... well, we didn't get to the last lesson with High-speed regeneration but I think I'd be insulted if a mere Gillian managed to injure you. So, good job, my padawan.' Shirosaki laughed and went silent after a moment.
"Yeah, I'd be insulted myself." Ichigo muttered.
Looking around, he saw that his companions finished their fights too, with none of them injured.
He joined them after dusting himself.
With everyone
"Took you long enough, Kurosaki." Grimmjow said immediately after Ichigo flashed to them.
"What's the matter Grimmy, didn't get your share of blood?" Ichigo replied mockingly.
A single vein bulged on Grimmjow's forehead and he growled angrily.
"Enough you two. Don't drop your guard yet. Since we encountered Gillians, it means we're about to face somebody stronger soon enough." Harribel scolded them.
"You thought about that too, huh?" Nel asked as they started to move again, towards their goal.
"What do you mean?" Grimmjow asked in a little calmer voice.
"Think about it. Ever since you became an Espada, one of the strongest beings in Hueco Mundo, have you been attacked by a mere Gillian?" Harribel asked him.
Grimmjow frowned and thought about it, shaking his head after a minute.
"Exactly. Gillians are maybe not bright, but even they can feel the difference in power. They would never attack us willingly. It was the equivalent of a suicide, no matter in what numbers they would attack us, they would end up dead." Harribel muttered.
Grimmjow's face showed enlightenment.
"You're saying that somebody, a lot stronger then them somehow threatened them into attacking us. Probably the same person who made those Adjuchas attack us at Las Noches... that unknown Master?"
Harribel just nodded.
"I get the feeling that he's testing and the next enemies we'll face, will be Adjuchas. Nothing we can't handle, but it'll just tire us." Nel frowned.
"And I get the feeling that he wants us tired." Ichigo finished darkly.
"Well, he can go fuck himself. This time I'm prepared and I'm not about to let some lowly Adjuchas defeat me. They were lucky last time as they surprised us. I'm the King, and I shall prove it to them." Grimmjow growled again in anger.
Ichigo almost wanted to say something but Harribel's face stopped him with an expression that was almost saying "Don't even bother...", so he held his tongue and together, they entered the deeper into Menos Forest, not even realizing that they should have already been at the enemy camp...
Soul Society (Central Great Underground Prison)
'So this is where it all ends?'
The traitor of the Soul Society, a man, whose betrayal affected many, whose action cost lives of even more, a shinigami with unclear intentions, a former Captain of the 5th Division... Sosuke Aizen.
His punishment being imprisonment for twenty thousand years, without contact with any person, began the day of his defeat at the hands of Kurosaki Ichigo.
His residence as of today?
The deepest level of the Central Great Underground Prison.
In other name, Muken.
The level, reserved for the greatest criminals of Soul Society, which actions were so severe, they caused unprecedented disturbance in the whole dimension.
This was where Aizen Sosuke contemplated his fate.
'Where did I go wrong? Did I underestimate Kurosaki Ichigo? I can't believe that he could surpass the power of the Hogyoku, which is basically... I see, so that's it, huh.'
Under the heavy bandage he was strapped with, Aizen Sosuke wanted to laugh at his own stupidity.
'I was under the impression that it haven't manifested, but it must have been somehow influencing his soul... yes... that is the only logical explanation as I, myself regretfully don't posses it. I refuse to believe that it could be something else...'
'Father... I failed you...'
Aizen's head fell on his shoulders in sadness.
It was in that moment when he felt a pain in his limbs and felt some sticky fluid running on his skin.
With surprise, he noticed that the bandages, that were restricting his face, fell off.
"I don't know who you are, but I'll let you know that I cannot be killed as I'm immortal." Was the first sentence that Aizen Sosuke muttered after a few days of involuntary silence.
...
At first, he saw nothing, he could only hear footsteps from afar and feel a light powerful enough that it resonated with his soul, but so weak, it couldn't penetrate the eternal and endless darkness of the Muken.
"Show yourself." Aizen said calmly. He wasn't afraid, with Hogyoku inside of him, there was nothing that could kill him. Even Kurosaki Ichigo couldn't do it himself.
...
"Who said anything about killing you, Aizen Sosuke."
Aizen's eyes widened and threatened to fell off.
"You... how? There should have been another year before-" He was interrupted when the man in front of him raised his hand.
"Feel it for yourself, I'm not the man you think I am. We were just hoping that seeing this face would make you remember your roots."
With a frown, Aizen tried to feel the man's reiatsu, realizing his mistake.
"I see, so what is it that you want... how the hell did you even manage to get here?"
The man came closer.
"You are behaving differently from your usual calm demeanor. Is it from seeing this face?"
Aizen sneered at him.
"Just answer."
Man grinned smugly.
"Let's just say this darkness, the eternal shadow, is our... domain. You should now what happened."
"So this...the Muken is ... ?"
Man nodded.
"Yes, and you were right, there is still one year left, but with your help, we can speed up the process greatly. What do you say, Aizen Sosuke, will you help us?" He walked to Aizen, stopping just a few inches before him, letting him see the outline of his black robe and his long black hair.
Aizen shuddered at the small distance between them and his thoughts aimed at one person.
'I will not fail again.'
"Yes, take me to him."
Soul Society (Captain's meeting – 1st Division Barracks)
"What?!" Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, Yamamoto Genryuusai gaped at the rude messenger, who interrupted the Captain's meeting in the 1st Division Barracks.
It was only the third time in his life that he gaped at someone.
But he wasn't the only one.
Every Captain present was staring at the messenger in shock.
Even the indifferent Captains, like Kurotsuchi Mayuri and Kenpachi Zaraki, were in utter surprise at the news.
'Maaan, what did I deserve for this.' The messenger thought in panic as the different reiatsu from every Captain flared wildly around the room, enough for him to be lying completely on the floor, unable to move. From his eyes, he could see that even the building itself looked like its walls were being pushed back with reiatsu.
Yamamoto realized that the messenger couldn't speak and with few deep breaths, he withdrew his reiatsu from the room, allowing the messenger to at least kneel before him and talk.
"Repeat what you just said and are you positive about it? Absolutely, one-hundred percent positive?"
The messenger gulped and nodded.
"Yes, it was checked personally immediately after the alarms went off...
... Aizen Sousuke has escaped."
Hueco Mundo (Menos Forest)
"We've been running for quite some time without anyone showing up, it's unsettling." Nel commented as they were dashing through the forest.
"Yeah, it is." Ichigo agreed and shuddered.
"What is it?" Harribel asked him.
"I don't know... I get the feeling that something happened in Soul Society..." Ichigo replied with a frown.
"Heads up, I can feel reiatsu signatures ahead of us." Grimmjow yelled at them from the front.
"I told him to be quiet..." Harribel shook her head with a sigh.
"Yeah well, it is Grimmjow we're talking about." Ichigo replied and sped up to catch up with the blue-haired Arrancar.
He found him standing still, already in a fight stance.
"How many?" Ichigo asked him.
"I'm not sure, around twenty, maybe more."
"Seems like it." Harribel agreed next to him.
"That Master must be someone very powerful or very important. I don't remember that many Adjuchas being under someone's rule aside from Barragan and even he didn't rule that many Adjuchas only normal hollows." Nel showed up last.
"Got that right, bitch!"
Large Adjuchas that resembled a polar bear yelled as he came from behind a tree.
Grimmjow stared at him and turned to others.
"Okay, that one's definitely mine."
Said Adjuchas growled in response, but didn't attack and waited as his allies slowly surrounded Ichigo, Nel, Harribel and Grimmjow.
"Always trying to surround you... boring." Grimmjow said and released some of his reiatsu as a warning.
"Impressive reiatsu, but you are outnumbered." Another Adjuchas stated, licking his mouth.
"That doesn't mean we're outgunned." Harribel replied and took out her sword, along with Ichigo and Nel.
"I see you're getting serious. Oi, Ursiu, I'm taking the orange-haired cutie." Female cat-llike Adjuchas yelled at the polar-bear like Adjuchas, called Ursiu and readied her claws.
Ursiu grunted in response.
"Attack!" He exclaimed and the fight began.
'What is the point of stating who you're taking if there will be at least five others that'll do the same.' Ichigo sweatdropped and sidestepped the claws of the female Adjuchas, while kicking the tiger one in the face, sending him crashing into the lizard one, who couldn't evade him in time.
Ichigo spun around and blocked the incoming Cero with his sword.
'So that's the difference in Gillian's Cero and the one from Adjuchas. Interesting.' He thought while trying to analyze the result.
He stabbed behind him, catching the ostrich-like Adjuchas in surprise and drawing first blood.
'It seems that the difference between a normal hollow and a Gillian, and between a Gillian and Adjuchas increases exponentially... if that's the case, than Toshiro was right. Fighting capability of Vasto Lorde can be above the Captain of Gotei 13... not that it should surprise me, I already fought almost half of the Espada... but still, it's interesting.'
The fact that Ichigo looked like he was thinking about something else and still able to fight off multiple Adjuchas effectively, already killing the second one seemed to enrage the other ones as they started to attack more viciously, gaining his attention back to the fight.
Meanwhile Grimmjow was in his element as he was releasing barrage of brutal reiatsu-empowered kicks and punches all around him, tearing through the Adjuchas, wounding or even killing them.
In his battle-intoxicated state, he didn't notice a Cero coming at his back.
In the last moment his instincts overrode his delirium and made him widen his eyes as he realized the strength of the Cero.
He was in the process of turning when a green haired person flashed in front of him and swallowed the whole Cero and sending back a strengthened one, getting rid of two Adjuchas in an instant.
"Don't lower your guard, this was a combined Cero and even you could have been injured." Nel scolded Grimmjow with a frown.
He grunted and sent his own Cero backwards, beheading a small Adjuchas behind him.
"Pff, it'd be only a small burn at most. And it's none of your business, Neliel. I'd fine without your interference."
Nel smirked at him.
"I know, but right now we're fighting together and we need to be in our best possible condition if we are to fight multiple Vasto Lorde, no matter how unlikely that is... besides, I wanted to piss you off a little." She shot her tongue at him childishly and flashed away.
He widened his eyes and a vein bulged on his forehead, the second time in a same day.
"Damn woman!" He turned and released his anger at the nearest Adjuchas.
'What are those idiots doing?' Harribel thought mildly irritated as she bifurcated a dolphin like Adjuchas with her blade.
'Time to speed thing up.' She thought and started to charge her Cero, when she had to dodge an unexpectedly fast strike.
What shocked her more was the fact that she received a shallow cut above her elbow.
'It's just like the fight at Las Noches. It should be impossible for a mere Adjuchas to penetrate our Hierro, yet they can somehow do it. I wonder, is it because of their Master? Did he do something to them?'
She threw a cold gaze at the mantis like Adjuchas who cut her and too fast for him to notice, she flashed in front of him and let her Cero blew its upper body off.
Back with Ichigo, he already dispatched two more Adjuchas, making the number of Adjuchas that were attacking him, drop to three.
'And I haven't even used my full Shikai. Am I still getting stronger?' He wondered.
"Set the darkness ablaze, Zangetsu!"
'But I have to fight in it to be able to control my darkness even further.'
"W-what is this! Ursiu, what is with this ones reiatsu!" The cat Adjuchas yelled as dark energy surrounded Ichigo.
At her scream, other Adjuchas stopped attacking and looked at Ichigo with a fear evident in their eyes.
"You idiot, I thought you listened to the report, he's the one with the strange ability. Don't let those flames touch you, or else-" His speech was interrupted when Grimmjow's fist made contact with his jaw, sending him flying.
"Kurosaki, I don't know what that is, but it's giving me goosebumps, we'll definitely have to have a rematch!" Grimmjow called out to him with a slightly excited voice.
Ichigo looked at him incredulously and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah..."
"...crazy bastard." He finished quietly.
His eyes landing on the cat Adjuchas he readied his zanpaktou.
"You were the one who said you'll take on me. Where's your bravado now, Adjuchas?" Ichigo tried to tempt her into attacking and when he noticed her angry sneer, he knew he succeeded.
"What did you say?! Die!" She flashed to him, aiming a jab at his head.
Ichigo slowly and carefully dodged, while silently forcing the dark flames to catch her hand.
The cat Adjuchas widened her eyes when she felt something grab her and and with a stinging sensation she fell unconscious.
'What is that?' Harribel wondered when black energy erupted around Ichigo. She tried to get a feel of it but when her senses came into contact with it, she recoiled and a cold sweat appeared on her skin.
'... okay, I don't wanna know what that is, I'm just sure I don't to come into contact with it.' She dodged a slash aimed at her leg by jumping over the Adjuchas claws. With a quick jab, she made a hole in his head, killing the hollow.
She looked around herself.
'Seem like without a Vasto Lorde commanding them, they don't have the necessary ability to remain focused. That's why that group that attacked us at Los Noches was so dangerous. That Vasto Lorde was pushing them past their limits and he even attacked us when we tried to focus completely on Adjuchas.'
She tilted backwards, avoiding being impaled with a thin claw and kicked the hand up, creating an opening for an attack.
Seeing as the remaining Adjuchas, that fought her were in one line, she readied her sword.
"Ola Azul!" She exclaimed as her yellow spiritual energy within the hollow portion of the blade launched towards her opponents in the form of an energy blade projectile, tearing them in half.
'Icchi, was that always your spiritual energy? It feels terrifying.' Nel thought and shivered when she felt the nature of Ichigo's shikai.
Almost forgetting about her own fight, she cursed silently when she felt one cut on her leg and one on her arm.
"Yeah, your blood tastes good. Let me have some more, bitch." Bat Adjuchas licked his bloody claw, grinning widely.
Nel gritted her teeth and flashed to the rude hollow, kicking him in head so hard, she tore it off, spraying the blood all over the place.
She flashed back to her original position, trying to avoid his blood.
Small drop of it landed on her cheek and she wiped it off with her finger.
"Gross." She muttered and kicking the ground she jumped high, avoiding a Cero and landing on the remaining Adjuchas's shoulders, stamping him to the ground.
Not giving him a chance to recover, she plunged her sword into his skull, stopping his existence.
It took only few seconds for cat Adjuchas to return from being unconscious but when she did, every hollow on the scene froze from her sudden screaming.
Even Nel, Grimmjow and Harribel stopped in their tracks and stared at the hollow in pain.
It was their first time witnessing true power of Ichigo's zanpaktou, of his darkness element.
He never told them about it, as he completely forgot to inform them since they all had more important things on their minds.
"Gaaaaah! Stop it!" The Adjuchas screamed, trashing violently on the ground.
"Fucking idiot, I told her not to-" Ursiu cursed at her fate but when he got a closer look, he paled from the sight.
'This is... this is worse than reports...' He thought when another bloodcurling scream cut through the forest.
The Adjuchas affected with the dark flame was already scratching her head with her claws, creating deep wound all around her face.
Grimmjow was the only one who had no problem looking at the scene, but when a spasm went through the victims body and her arms lowered, even his face showed disgust and small amount of horror at her next actions.
Ichigo was already considering withdrawing his flames, he was sure that the hollow wouldn't be able to fight anymore, but in the next second he had to turn away and emptied the contents of his stomach.
She must have seen horrible visions when she suddenly aimed her claws at her lower body and plunged her hand into her genitals, violently ripping them out of her body with a sick sound.
She held them up in her hand for an instant and laughed crazily.
"See, now I can't do it anymore, ha-ha..." She whispered in deranged voice and fell on the ground, dead.
...
"That was sick Kurosaki... I don't know what you did to her, but it was sick..." Grimmjow stated with an obvious disgust in his voice and finished off the hollow in front of him that just stood there, unmoving.
"I didn't do anything, it was her own ... darkness, that ... did that to her." Ichigo said after wiping his mouth from the vomit, holding his stomach as another wave came to him.
'Darkness?' Harribel thought in surprise. She too, was rather stupefied and had to look away from the slowly disappearing body.
Nel didn't make a sound, but as a pacifist, she wanted to vomit herself.
"Y-you... monster!" Ursiu shouted and jumped at Ichigo, who winced at that and with a sad face dodged the incoming attack, letting the Adjuchas crash into the tree behind him.
With that the remaining Adjuchas renewed their attacks, this time solely focusing on Ichigo, which proved to be their mistake, as they haven't noticed that the other three survivors from Las Noches flashed to him for help.
Now that the hollows were in a small shock from the events that took place just a moments ago, they became an easy prey for the vastly superior opponents.
Their attacks being chaotic and slowed down, they proved to be no match against the brute power of Grimmjow's punches, Nel's kicks or Harribel's slashes.
It however, provided Ichigo with enough time to get his stomach under control.
'The more I use this power, the more I sick I become of myself. They say that the zanpaktou comes from within your soul... is my soul like that?' Ichigo wondered.
'Of course not Ichigo, it's exactly the opposite. That's why you are the best candidate to bear this power. Only you can use it responsibly. As I told you before, this is still just a small price to pay for being able to protect... although fear not, when your power will become complete, you will see not just the darkness but also the light.' Deep voice in his mind answered him, calming him dow a little.
'In that case I cannot wait for my power to become complete...' thought and shot a quick Bala at his opponents.
The chaotic fight was at the end soon enough, with only the Ursiu remaining alive, although badly wounded.
Ichigo cautiously came closer to him.
"Tell me, who is your so-called Master?"
The hollow laughed rasply.
"You'll see soon enough... but only for a short time, as you're no match for him, no matter how strong you are..." His laughter died as he blew his final breath.
"Well, that was fucking helpful." Grimmjow commented sarcastically and cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah... is anyone injured? I think we should rest for a minute, there's no point in rushing too much." Ichigo stated and looked at his companions.
They were mostly unharmed but he didn't miss a few scratches on their legs, arms and faces.
"Good idea." Harribel nodded and sat down, leaning backwards to the nearest tree.
"Right here?" Ichigo asked in surprise.
"Sure, since we just proved our strength there shouldn't be anyone who'd try to disrupt our rest." Nel answered and sat next to Harribel, further from Ichigo than she used to, what he noticed instantly.
"I guess my ability scared you?" He muttered sadly.
Nel looked at Harribel tentatively and sighed.
"Well, not scared per say, just... well, it wasn't a pleasant sight. What did you do exactly to her?" She asked quietly.
Harribel also glanced at him with a small amount of interest and caution.
"Well, that was the ability of my zanpaktou, the darkness element. Specifically, the dark flames that makes you relive your inner darkness and shows you your darkest desires and sins."
"Inter-fucking-esting, but why did she...you know... did ... that?" Grimmjow asked with disgust.
"Well, those visions are supposed to be quite vivid and real. I don't and can't know what she saw but it must have been something really bad. When I used it last time, at the Las Noches, the guy plucked out his own eyes and crushed his own skull with his bare hands." Ichigo replied, covering his mouth when he remembered that particular scene.
Nel wasn't faring better and swallowed heavily.
"I can control the flames somewhat so I won't let them touch you, but even if they did, I don't think the effects would be so severe. It works mostly on bad guys who's souls are extremely tainted with darkness, pure beings shouldn't be affected..." Ichigo glanced at Grimmjow.
"...but on some of you it could actually be quite bad." He finished.
"Oi!" Grimmjow looked at him, deciding if he should have taken that last comment as an insult or a compliment.
"But you didn't have that power previously?" Harribel asked confused.
Ichigo grimaced and scratched his head.
"Yeah well, it was like this..."
Soul Society (Captain's meeting – 1st Division Barracks)
"What is your report, Captain Kurotsuchi?" Captain Commander asked tiredly.
After the shocking news that Aizen Sosuke managed to escape, Captain of all squads were on high alert, trying to find some clue about the traitor's new whereabouts but without any luck.
Captain of the 12th Division came forward with a grim expression.
"I have little to none new information about this matter. As we all know, Muken serves as a sub-dimension of the Soul Society and was created even before your birth, Captain Commander, so there are almost no data concerning it. Until this day, we, the Gotei 13, used this place for punishing the worst criminals in history of Soul Society. Not one of them ever saw the light of the day after they got sentenced into that place. There is also almost no way of monitoring the area, we can only monitor the criminals. That way we found out about Aizen Sosuke's getaway, since the device just stopped working all of a sudden. It's almost as if that person vanished into thin air. We cannot be even sure if he's alive at this point."
Yamamoto listened to him warily.
"Is that all?"
Mayuri looked insulted for a moment but managed to mask it with a cough.
"Of course not. We determined that moments before his disappearance, Aizen Sosuke came into contact with another person."
After that statement, a shocked murmur appeared among Captains.
"What are you talking about, Captain Mayuri, it should be impossible for anyone to enter Muken other was than through the 1st Division compound." Kyoraku objected.
"Yes, I am aware of that, Captain Kyoraku." Mayuri sneered at him and looked at his papers.
"That unknown person is also peculiar in a sense that he, or she, somehow possessed more than one reiatsu signature. One signature was completely unfamiliar to us but the second one..." He turned to Yamamoto and stared at him with a strange expression, as if trying to accuse him of something mixed with a bit of fear.
"The second one is very much similar to the reiatsu signature that could have been felt all across the Seiretei almost 1000 years ago."
...
Most of the Captains looked at each other in confusion, but their eyes widened when a weak sound of something hitting the floor was heard.
The cane that Captain Commander of the Gotei 13 always had with him, the cane that masked his zanpaktou fell on the floor and the Commander itself visibly shook.
"Yama-ji?" Kyoraku momentarily forgot about honorifics and looked at his teacher in surprise.
"Impossible..." Yamamoto gasped and clenched his fist.
"What's going on?" Sui-Feng asked with her eyes firmly set on the Captain Commander.
Said shinigami gulped and grabbed his cane back.
"From now on, the escape of Aizen Sosuke and the existence of that unknown person shall be treated as a top secret information. All Captains, not even your Lieutenants can know about this for now. Captain Sui-Feng, what are the whereabouts of Kurosaki Ichigo?"
"What?!" Most of the Captain looked at him in a shock.
'Well, I wouldn't tell that to Momo either way...' Toshiro thought immediately, but he was too baffled with the sudden interest about the whereabouts of Ichigo.
"I-I heard that the group of Arrancars that he helped after Aizen's defeat were being attacked by someone so he rushed to Hueco Mundo to help them. That was few days ago and he's yet to come back." Sui-Feng quickly replied.
"Goddamnit that foolish boy!" Yamamoto cursed, surprising the rest of the Captains further.
"What's with the interest with the Ichi-chan?" Gin asked quietly, for once not sneering or smiling. In fact, the news about Aizen's escape hit him hard and he was trying to hold himself from going berserk.
"Captain Sui-Feng, how far have you come with the research about Kurosaki Ichigo's roots? I assume not very far." Captain Commander ignored the question and focused on the Captain of the 2nd Squad who started to sweat as she felt the intense pressure on her shoulders.
"Yes, uhm, I managed to find out that his two sisters are both spiritually aware, one posses weak reiatsu while the other one's reiatsu is quite strong for a human. Not on Kurosaki Ichigo's level but it's still very interesting. I couldn't find out anything about his father, it's almost as if he's been hiding. I only found out two things. First one is his name, Kurosaki Isshin and the second one is that he shares some connection or friendship with the last known Quincy, Ishida Ryuuken."
Yamamoto's eyes widened further.
'Isshin... can it be? Ishida Ryuuken? No... this can't be all a coincidence can it? If Kurosaki Ichigo is his son and... ' His eyes almost bulged out.
"Goddamnit that foolish boy twice!" He cursed loudly again.
"What is it?" Ukitake asked nervously. He never saw his old mentor curse. That must have meant, things were extremely serious.
"I have a theory concerning the Kurosaki boy and if I'm right, the boy is even more important person that we thought he is... on a whole another scale. All Captains, make preparation. We need to retrieve the boy as soon as we can..."
He gripped his cane and gritted his teeth.
"... I'll notify the Zero Squad."
Hueco Mundo (Deep in the Menos Forest)
"So you managed to come this far, huh?" A creepy voice taunted them.
'Fuck this...' Nel, Grimmjow, Harribel and Ichigo cursed mentally when they looked around.
After their little rest, they further followed the path, trying to finally reach the enemy camp.
They have reached it all right.
But the enemy was prepared and was awaiting them.
"I told you something was fishy about this..." Ichigo muttered to Harribel.
"Who knew that he would have a small army prepared for us." She replied with a hint of fear in her voice.
At the moment, things weren't looking good for the quartet.
They were being surrounded again.
But this time...
... their opponents were ten Vasto Lorde, which combined reiatsu made Harribel sweat quite a lot.
"What do we do? We didn't consider the possibility of them having this much Vasto Lorde." Nel asked worriedly.
"We fight, we have no other choice." Grimmjow stated with a small bead of sweat falling from his forehead.
Ichigo gritted his teeth.
'I was right, Grimmjow obtained that information too easily. It was a trap all along, but what the question is why...'
"I hate to agree with him, but Grimmjow is right. We have no other choice but fight them. If you three can take on six of them, I can try to fight the remaining four myself." Ichigo whispered.
"What? Are you insane? Even Aizen would have trouble with four of them and as you said, you can't even use your bankai!" Nel protested vigorously.
"I agree with Nel, that's a suicide... take three, if we all release our Resurrección from the beginning, maybe we can take them by surprise and somehow take seven of them." Harribel nodded at Nel.
"Fine, we won't know until we'll try, right?" Ichigo snapped and stood straight.
"Oh? Not scared?" A tall Vasto Lorde asked.
They only frowned and raised their swords.
"Set the darkness ablaze, Zangetsu!"
"Grind, Pantera!"
"Declare, Gamuza!"
"Destroy, Tiburón!"
As the four of them released their power, the sudden surge of reiatsu cleared the area from the sand, surprising the Vasto Lorde with the amount of it.
But the quartet widened their eyes, when another person suddenly appeared behind the Vasto Lorde, releasing even bigger amount of reiatsu then all of them combined, forcing all of them, save for Ichigo, who however had to lower himself a bit too, on their knees from the sheer raw power.
'The fuck is that, it feels like Aizen after few of his transformations, but yet it's different... chaotic, almost as if the reiatsu alone emitted an emotion... pain.' Ichigo thought in shock.
"Ah... you have quite the nice reiatsu, especially you... Kurosaki Ichigo... I have been expecting you."
Ichigo widened his eyes at the sudden realisation.
"You are the Master, aren't you?"
Said person came forward, further shocking them with his appearance.
'It's just like Kurosaki's mask!' Harribel thought alarmed.
'What is going on?' Ichigo gripped his zanpaktou.
"Who are you!" He yelled.
The Master came even closer, further showing his shockingly similar appearance to Ichigo's Resurrección.
He chuckled.
"Hmm...who am I? That's an interesting question, young one. I don't have a name. Even if I did in my past, after so many millenia I don't remember it... "
He leveled his gaze with Ichigo.
"... but since I am the first hollow that came into existence, you can call me... The Ancient."
End of Chapter 10.
I don't have anything written from the next chapter, but it'll be called Chapter 11 - Hueco Mundo pt.4 (The Ancient).