Hell Butterfly: Arc One: Hueco Mundo: The Abridged Series
aka The Dreaded Recap Episode
Ch01 - Overload
We set the scene with the rescue gang consisting of a strawberry, a geek and a Mexican stoic dithering in front of a wormhole and wondering whether they really want to go to Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime.
In said dimension a hyena-like Vasto Lorde pays Las Noches a visit. His reiatsu control is even more abysmal than Ichigo's and tends to blast craters in whatever he's standing on. Before allowing him access, the third Espada Tia Hallibel has to test his badassery levels. He passes.
Back at the Kurosaki Clinic we find Karin trying to convince Yuzu of several important notions:
a) Ichigo does not hate her cooking
b) Ichigo is in fact a monster-hunting zombie, and
c) Bostov is male.
As we can see she saved the worst revelation for last.
Returning to the depths of Las Noches, our new Vasto arrancar introduces himself as Perro Rabioso and spontaneously combusts about ten seconds later. His reiatsu levels were OVER NINE THOUSAND and he just couldn't hack it. His epic fail takes down half the castle with it. Our baddies look at the resulting mess and realise they're gonna need a bigger dustpan.
In Urahara's secret lair, Ichigo asks him to come up with a cover story for his family and friends (blissfully unaware that most of them know his secret and half of them are stalking him right now). Having finally worked up the courage, they dive into the Garganta.
-
Ch02 – Fall Out
We start off by skipping over the fights with Iceringer and Demoura, in which Ishida and Chad kick ass offscreen; then proceed to Aizen making cunning plots with Szayel Apollo, the geeky carnival reject Espada.
It seems that the Hougyoku has grown too powerful, so in the future Aizen will have to use it on weaklings and noobs. However for best results they need a flawed soul – one that has way too much reiatsu by nature and can therefore deal with the pressure of the Hougyoku. Ichigo and Starrk are good examples of this, but where can Aizen find fresh meat?
Yuzu is still in denial about Bostov/Kon's true gender.
Ichigo and co. are getting bored of the sand, so Lunuganga appears to spice it up for them. Cue tornadoes.
Karin gets one of her headaches, only today it is the Early Warning Migraine of Foreshadowing of Doom. Yuzu legs it. Karin searches Ichigo's room for zombie weapons, finding none. King Espada the Second (Barragan) materialises in their house and conveniently finds the flawed, weak soul with great potential that he was looking for right under his nose.
Barragan punches Karin out of her body, raising his sword…
We cut to Isshin, Ishida and Urahara having a powwow in a café. They argue over whether their sons are idiots or heroes, whilst Urahara prays they forget that most of the series' troubles are his fault. The bickering escalates until Ishida Sr. throws a tantrum and declares that he is the only Quincy with a conscience; because he neglects his powers in order to protect the Balance of Souls. Good for him!
-
Ch03 – King's Burial
Ichigo meets Nel in the tornado. There is a great deal of shouting. When it drags on too long Lunuganga drowns them all in quicksand just to get some peace.
Crying out for help when her father and brother are too distant to even notice her jeapordy, Karin is killed by Barragan. He then performs a Dark Konsou, carves a Hollow hole straight through her brain and lets her sink into the gap between the dimensions.
Isshin realises something is wrong and legs it back home, but too late. = (
Showing far better timing, Rukia rescues Ichigo and co. by trapping Lunuganga in an ice cube. There follows a touching reunion in which Ichigo gets punched several times. Just as they relax, the sand Hollow strikes back and drags them all into the Menos Forest beneath the desert.
Isshin and Yuzu grieve for Karin.
-
Ch04 – Potential for Disaster
Orihime monologues.
Ichigo's crew fights an ever-increasing horde of Hollows until, surrounded by hungry Gillians, Nel scares them all away with a single shout. Gosh, how mysterious.
BUT WAIT! Where has Rukia vanished to in all the chaos?!
Meanwhile a coroner has visited the Kurosaki clinic to determine the cause of Karin's death. Isshin feels guilt for not being there when she needed him, and Yuzu is dreaming of her twin being trapped in a dark nowhere.
Ashido finds Rukia in the forest. Ashido is a few sandwiches short of a picnic after five hundred years of loneliness and mass-murdering of Hollows after he got lost in Hueco Mundo. Once he believes she's really real; and they've bonded over an adjuchas killing or two, they search for and rejoin the main group. After he shows them all the way to the surface, rocks fall and he gets trapped under an avalanche. Shame.
Inoue has the Hougyoku waved under her nose, tantalisingly out of reach. Tousen summons a swarm of hell butterflies and plucks Karin out of the inter-dimension where they live. Aizen upgrades her from zero to Espada Zero, and we get our first glimpse of Tenebra Shirojos. Her mind is gone, her teeth are sharp, and her instinct to fight supreme. Yay!
-
Ch05 – Prayer vs Declaration
Once everyone reaches Las Noches, they find themselves halted by a very high wall. An Espada kindly blasts a hole in it for them. This guy is Nnoitra: he's out for blood, and he's never heard of feminism.
Neliel Tu Oderschvank godmodes and proceeds to teach him a lesson in girlpower. In the end she nukes him with a condensed triple Gran Rey Cero – because there is no such thing as overkill in Bleach!
-
Ch06 – Red Moon
We skip jauntily past the Privaron fights, whistling all the way.
Then it's Rukia vs Shiba Kaien, her former fukutaicho who got eaten by a Hollow. This quickly devolves into Rukia vs Espada Aaronieres, soul-munching Son of Cthulu and hands-down ugliest arrancar. No wonder he steals faces!
Nel returns to being Aizen's loyal soldier, for now…
When Rukia falters and is stabbed clean through, her zanpakuto Sode no Shirayuki makes an awesome entrance and teaches her the proper way to use her third dance Shirafune. Instead of waiting for her enemies to defrost with only minor skin damage, she can now use Shirafune to stab them whilst they're immobilized by ice!
Battle won, Rukia freezes her wounds and blacks out.
-
Ch07 - Saboteuse
Chad is quietly angsting over the fact that he may be turning into a Hollow.
Inoue is trying not to angst, which she's had a lot of practice at.
As the rescue team regroups, Renji comes pelting down the hall with a crowd of Exequias on his tail. Everybody runs for their lives.
Inoue breaks out of her comfy prison cell, hoping to find and heal Rukia. Instead she trips over the Hougyoku, allowing her to sabotage it as was her secret plan all along. But it's not until midway through the rejection that she discovers there was a Privaron guarding the Hougyoku! It's like being trapped within a shrinking inside-out hedgehog, so Inoue uses Tsubaki to upgrade her shield so it completely surrounds her.
Starrk and Lilynette find one of Chad's skull punches carved into the walls of Las Noches. They reminisce.
Unskewered, Orihime continues to unmake the Hougyoku until Aizen gatecrashes her rebellion. And he is hella pissed off.
He kills Needle Prisonn, smashes Inoue's shield, and beats her to within an inch of her life, Mr Burns style. Inoue then tries to resurrect the Privaron, because she just can't face the trauma anymore.
In the omake the Hougyoku conquers the three worlds no-handed and Urahara reveals it was his secret weapon all along! He has a kickass stripy crown. Woot!
-
Ch08 – Tenebra Shirojos
Suddenly Aizen is back in control – all the ryoka have been herded to a giant stadium filled with arrancars. Ichigo tries to grab everyone and run for it. This does not succeed.
Ichigo's scheduled opponent is Tenebra Shirojos, who is small, creepy, and can only count to three. They fight slowly, gauging each other's strength, until Inoue screams out to Ichigo that the girl he's fighting is Karin.
In the meantime, Byakuya has come to rescue his own little sister. She's barely alive, and he tells her to abandon all hope for her friends, before they scarper out of Hueco Mundo.
Back at the coliseum, Ichigo has realised that Karin's counting was actually calling out his name – "Ichi-nii-san". He has a small nervous breakdown.
In his soulscape, Zangetsu and Hichigo yell at him to get it together. So he does – CLIFFHANGER! =O
-
Ch09 – Pyrrhic Victory
Ichigo's strike lands, but Karin's regeneration is even faster than his own. It promises to be a tense battle. Or it would, if only the girl knew how to use her zanpakuto. Ulquiorra teaches her by transferring memories into her via a crushed eyeball. More on that later!
Deep within the tatters of Karin's soul, a demonic caterpillar is awakening. It has two faces, one for the inner Hollow and one for the zanpakuto spirit. However her conscious is nowhere to be found, so the caterpillar takes over the fight. It reveals its name to be Naraku (which means Hell) and its shikai command as Condemn. Creepy…
Just as Ichigo lashes out, Tenebra wakes up and releases her swords. She is an arrancar with a shikai instead of a Resurrección – is it due to the Hougyoku pushing the limits?
They have an epic battle of awesome.
Karin's swords slice straight through matter without resistance, as the blades are more like sharp-edged portals to that nowhere-dimension. She takes a massive chunk out of Ichigo, and his inner Hollow is forced to tag in.
The first job is to regenerate, and that means big things with TEETH. Hichigo is a savage psycho and it looks like Espada Zero is royally screwed.
But the next second, Hichigo has been shredded alive and is nothing more than a smear of blood on the floor. FML.
Karin falls back into a doll-state and forgets he was ever there. *sob*
-
Ch10 – Rain City
In Ichigo's inner world a ferocious storm is attacking the glass skyscrapers as he dies. His life got flipped-turned upside down, and gravity is freakier than ever. Black chains are crawling everywhere, a cracked moon is falling up out of the sky. Zangetsu leaps into it and abandons his wielder, travelling back to his own world. Traitor!
The chains are dragging Ichigo into the building, and his Hollow is crumbling away. Before they both vanish, it tells him that his soul is going to sleep and his memories are being locked away, ending on the mysterious jeer: "Didja think this city was empty, your Majesty?"
As the doors of the tower slam shut on Ichigo, there's a flash of golden light – and anyone who missed THAT piece of foreshadowing needs their eyes checked. xD But lots of people guessed it so well done.
-
Ch11 – Light Brigade
Unohana is pure awesome. Everyone knows this, and finally we see why. As she ninjas around Las Noches with perfectly disguised reiatsu, she uses her zanpakuto Minazuki to melt all enemies that have the bad luck to cross her path.
The invaders are all lounging around Inoue's prison cell, bemoaning their fate. Unohana rescues the rescuers, convincing them to climb into the mouth of Minazuki despite the fact he just vaporised a Fraccion with his bad breath.
Byakuya and Rukia try to save Ashido from the landslide, but he's already dug himself, spouting gibberish all the way. His shikai is whirl, Kajouhi, and it turns his zanpakuto into a Catherine wheel of fiery DOOM. Ashido and Byakuya fight.
Zaraki doesn't get to.
Everyone heads back to Seireitei.
-
Ch12 – Grave Tidings
Everyone is reunited and the tragic news about Ichigo is shared.
Ashido is dumped with Isane.
Yamamoto goes all Sherlock-taicho and demands that Inoue prove she's not part of an elaborate conspiracy and that Ichigo hasn't been working for Aizen all along.
He's convinced eventually, but reminds everyone that if people had only obeyed him, Unohana could still have rescued Inoue as easily as she did everyone; without a single casualty.
Oohhh, burn.
-
Ch13 - Lazarus
Inoue has the nerve to stay at the Kurosaki Clinic despite being the indirect cause of Ichigo's demise…and in the early morning hours, she revives him from oblivion.
Miraculously given a second chance, she kisses him as he sleeps…but Hichigo wakes up and is less than impressed, and more "I KILL YOU!". He buggers off again, but only once she threatens to leave him to die due to his incomplete recreation.
Dawn comes, job done. WOOHOO!
-
-
-
AN ENORMOUS GLOMP AND MANY THANK YOUS TO ALL REVIEWERS:
Thebleachdiary // MarshmellowDragon // ToastWeaselofDoom // KarinKurosakiHitsugaya913 // Mappadouji // Revolation // CompletelyFrazzled // fanficssuck // elizabeth // knuckz // Mel72000 // mauralucky7 // ThetaGraphics // bleach number 1 fan // IchigoKurosakiSotaicho // Dan-chan/Dan-Nal-Khali // Zira the insane one // Thousand Possibilities // Taeniaea // Reiuko // Dai Reth // Neko of death // Eduard Kassel // oct9010 // funkypineapples // darkness surrounds me // theblueturtle6 :O // Ironically Pessimistic // Obsidian Daydream // OBSERVER01 // animekingmike // Kotorigaro // oxygen deprived // derderxp // shloki // paperazzi // Nathan J Xaxson // BukkakeNoJutsu
DECLARATIONS OF LOVE AND DEDICATIONS AND STUPH TO MY BETAS:
Pippin's Socks! Fiercest! OhBreadsticks! And Dan-chan!
As of posting, THANKS for the 10,625 hits, the 130 reviews, 62 favs, 58 alerts; and please keep them coming for the next arc! = D