"Goodbye…" Shuuichi turned without another word and walked toward the double doors.
But he wasn't going to run. And he'd be damned if he would let Rukia die. He came all the way to Hueco Mundo to save her, and he wouldn't give up until her heart stopped beating. He would destroy the Espada that was coming toward him. He would destroy the Espada, and return to Rukia to take her home.
There was no way that he would lose.
He burst out the double doors and strode steadily down the walkway. He was hardly halfway to the exit when the Espada suddenly appeared before him.
The Arrancar was incredibly tall, at least seven feet. He had long black hair, one narrow eye—the other was covered by a white eyepatch—and a wide smile. But there were two more striking attributes. The hat on his head was very large: a wide, circular, flat hat that extended almost a foot in front of him. And the weapon slung across his back was two blades shaped like crescent moons attached back-to-back. The pole with which the Espada held it extended out of the middle of one of those crescents.
"Hello," sneered Noitora, "Vizard."
"So you know who I am," said Shuuichi with the most firm voice he could muster. "That will save time with the introductions."
Noitora swung his weapon over and pointed it at Shuuichi lazily. "I've been searching for a worthy opponent to fight ever since taking down that large human boy, but most of them are already dead. You caused me a lot of trouble to finally catch up to you."
Shuuichi spun his zanpakutou before him, and it released without him having to speak the command phrase. Noitora raised his visible eyebrow, and didn't raise his own weapon.
"Suuiki o Wakareru!" Shuuichi launched the blue wave, but Noitora still didn't move. It connected, but nothing happened. No bruises, not even any ripped clothing.
"Is that it?" said Noitora, having not moved a muscle. "Maybe I should have just taken a nap. That would have energized me more."
"You…" started Shuuichi shakily. "What are you…?"
"Surprised?" sneered Noitora. "When six people suddenly appear in Hueco Mundo and break into Las Noches, they are bound to attract attention. By now, you are the only one left alive of this 'rescue party.' I suppose I should be proud that I'm the one to finish dispatching the party. But seeing the difference between my power and yours, I can't really feel that way."
Shuuichi held his breath. "What is your number?"
"Number?" said Noitora, looking up at the sky. "Do you need to know the number of every Arrancar you fight against? Give me a break… Shuuichi, remember this… I'm Noitora, and I'm the strongest Espada."
Shuuichi's heart was racing again. "So since the Espada are the strongest Arrancar, that would make you the strongest Arrancar in all of Hueco Mundo."
"That's right."
Everything seemed to get distant to the Vizard, as if his body was preparing for the coming disaster. He looked down at the zanpakutou in his hand, and gripped it hard.
"Bankai! Mugoi Kaiyou no Kirunami!!"
The sword in his hand instantly burst into the large blue dragon which flew off the bridge and around to Noitora's left. The Espada watched it as Shuuichi held a hand up to his face and quickly formed his dragon mask.
The dragon circled around behind Noitora to bite him, and Shuuichi leapt at the Arrancar while his back was turned, charging up spirit power around his hand and stabbing forward with it.
Without even looking, Noitora reached backward and caught Shuuichi's fist. He then held up his weapon as the dragon came on, each end of the crescent going into its top and bottom jaws.
The dragon roared and pulled back, blood spurting out of its mouth, and Noitora spun around and swung once with his crescent weapon.
At first, Shuuichi didn't feel anything at all. He just saw his own blood spray in front of his face and soak Noitora's white robes. He saw something moving out of the corner of his eye, and he looked down at it. It was an arm in the sleeve of a Shinigami kimono, and it spun away and over the bridge, out of sight.
Then he looked down at where his left arm was, only to see a bloody stump. He tried to move his arm, but only watched in horror as the stump wiggled about, causing more blood to spill out.
The pain and the horror hit him all at once, and he gave a bloodcurdling scream, backing away from Noitora. His butt hit the wall of the bridge, and he leaned backward. So wracked with excruciating pain and dazed at the loss of his arm, he couldn't stop himself from tumbling over the edge.
The world spun over and over as he fell through the air, the false sun above making circuits in and out of his field of vision. There was nothing he could to stop himself, but he soon saw a blue blur coming closer in his field of vision as he spun.
The dragon descended and caught Shuuichi with the top of its head just before he hit, and when the dragon slammed into the ground, it softened the damage the Vizard took, although he tumbled off Mugoi Kaiyou no Kirunami onto the sandy ground anyway.
Shuuichi managed to plant his remaining hand on the ground and come up on his knees, but there was already a small pool of blood under him. He looked up, dazed, to see that blood was seeping out from Kirunami's mouth as well, its teeth red.
"Sh-Shit!!" cried Shuuichi, grasping his stump. The feel of holding it shook his very soul.
Noitora soared down and landed squarely in front of Shuuichi and the dragon, looking bored.
"If that really was your full power, then maybe I will go take a nap. I have no interest in taking on someone so amateur. Though maybe I shouldn't complain… Becoming the strongest Arrancar would mean that there isn't anyone else worthy enough to stand up to me. That's too bad."
Noitora turned and began to walk away.
"BASTARD!!" screamed Shuuichi, unable to contain his rage, and the dragon dove forward. But instead of biting, it opened its bloody maw and shot a large black energy beam from within. Noitora gasped and turned back, but the beam completely enveloped him. It then curved upward and slammed into the cieling, sending rock and dust flying in every direction, and leaving an opening in the false sky that showed the stars shining through.
But Shuuichi's heart sank even further. Noitora was still standing there, holding his weapon up before him, which was only slightly steaming.
"Well, well," he sighed, lowering his polearm. "You still did have a little fight left in you."
Noitora disappeared and reappeared instantly next to the dragon, which also looked stunned. With a single swipe, Noitora decapitated the dragon, coating himself in blood again. The head had hardly hit the ground when its entire body vanished. Kirunami reappeared in shikai in Shuuichi's hand.
"If you still intend on fighting me, allow me to put an end to your pitiful existence."
Shuuichi didn't even realize Noitora had gone into a Sonido until he felt the weapon slicing into his chest. His body was frozen, and blood spilled from his mouth. He managed to look down and see the giant gash in his chest, blood bubbling out of it and dripping down his robes. His hand was shaking, but still he did not let go of his zanpakutou.
This wasn't right… It just wasn't right. He had gotten stronger. He had come to the pinnacle of his power, as strong as he could possibly be, even going as far as controlling the Hollow within and launching a new attack with his bankai. Yet now he saw his own life dripping away onto the ground.
He thought that by gaining strength, he would be able to protect the ones he loved. But now Rukia was dead, and he was shortly following. He couldn't even protect himself after all.
"I… don't… understand…" gasped Shuuichi through the blood, and he fell to his knees.
"What?" said Noitora, raising his eyebrow and leaning forward. "What don't you understand? You don't understand how I beat you? Or simply why all of this is happening anyway. Listen to me, Vizard. It doesn't matter who's good or bad, all that matters is who is the most powerful. It just happens to be the bad this time because we were willing to do whatever was necessary to gain that power, no matter how twisted it was."
The Vizard's vision was fading, and he couldn't even clearly make out Noitora anymore.
"You can become as strong as you want, but in the end I will be better than you. You can try to rescue your love, or whatever. But the true power to decide who lives and who dies is in our hands. We have deemed you not worthy."
Shuuichi fell face forward in the sand, lying still.
Noitora sighed and straightened back up. "Well, that's rather rude. He's gone already… If he had just let me go take a nap, maybe he wouldn't be laying there now. Oh well, I guess it can't be helped…"
The Espada turned and began to walk away, sighing in lament that there was nobody left that was worthy enough to fight.
Shuuichi's body slammed into him from behind, and the Vizard's remaining arm wrapped around his abdomen.
"What?!" shouted Noitora looking down over his hip. Shuuichi's eyes were already clouded, but his mouth was still moving to form words.
"Kouri no Mai…" said Shuuichi in a slur. The blade of the zanpakutou in his hand burst into shards of ice that rocketed out to surround them in a sphere. Shuuichi gripped Noitora tightly with the very last of his strength.
The shards stabbed inward, hitting both Noitora and Shuuichi. The Vizard didn't even scream as the shards drove into his body, his eyes only widening slightly. Noitora was surprised, but the shards only shattered upon hitting his steel skin. When the attack faded, Shuuichi was only holding the hilt; the blade did not reform.
Shuuichi's grip loosened and he slid to the ground. He lay there with his eyes wide open, staring into something only he could see.
Shuuichi couldn't really feel anything anymore. His wounds had stopped hurting; he didn't even feel the blood on his body anymore. He couldn't see anything, or hear anything, or even feel any spirit power. The last thing he felt was something pulling on his soul. He didn't know what it was, but it sounded almost inviting. As he tried to focus on it, another force pushed his soul in the same direction. He could only oblige.
A little more blood trickled from his mouth before the bleeding finally stopped. The spirit force that Noitora had felt fading for the entire last part of the battle began to quickly wither. He noticed that the boy's hand was still clutching the hilt of the zanpakutou, as if holding onto hope.
Finally, when the very last of Shuuichi's spirit force was snuffed out, his hand suddenly opened, and the hilt of the sword rolled away.
"Tch…" Noitora stared down at him with a frown. "In a situation like this, I should say something like 'You had so much potential.' But you didn't, Shuuichi. And you never really understood that, did you?"
Noitora hoisted his weapon over his shoulder and walked away.
Shuuichi's body was left laying there, not even any wind to stir up the dust around him. Whatever ice shards were left from the last attack lay around him, and the hilt of Kirunami off to the side. His skin was pale, no more blood being pumped into his face, or any other part of his body.
Far up above, the false sun in the false sky suddenly reached the hole that had been blown by Shuuichi's bankai. For the first time inside that giant dome, it became completely dark as the sun winked out of existence.
And in Shuuichi's body, a pulse of spirit force suddenly reappeared. It began very weak, even lower than the pulse of a normal human, but then it steadily grew. Shuuichi's heart suddenly started pumping again.
The growing spirit force was something totally different one. No one would have been able to recognize it as belonging to this boy. He started bleeding again too, slowly dribbling out of his mouth and his wound. Even his eyes flitted a little bit.
There was a distant roar, and a figure suddenly dove in through the hole in the dome of Las Noches. It swooped down and landed next to the body of Shuuichi Ito.
It was just a Hollow, but its yellow eyes stared out of its mask down to the body below it as the spirit force continued to increase. As it calmly stared down, more Hollows flitted silently into the dark dome, flying down and encircling the body of the Vizard.
A bone-white fluid began leaking from Shuuichi's eyes and slowly spreading over his face. The first Hollow that alighted there slowly reached out a clawed hand and set it gently on Shuuichi's back.
"Our brother…"