Author's Note: My apologies for the longest wait as possible. I understand that a year has past by and I plan to make up time for that but I had a lot of things to do. With family issues, College, Work, Ect. Everything has been against me that I haven't had time to make a Disclaimer and tell you all but I Never had that time what's so ever. If you all don't understand that and think that's a pathetic excuse then so be it, I don't blame you but to me, family comes first and so do my friends and I'm only 18 so I still have ways before I can actually get my own life. Now That i'm back I plan to make up that Lost time. So here's chapter 20 which has about...OVER 9000, words so I here's you go my dear Readers and I plan to continue and finish Raven of Agony and give you the greatest Bleach Story that you'll all love. ^-^
Chapter 20: Hueco Mundo
Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu emerged out of the Garaganta and landed on the floor of the passageway though they looked around and Ichigo was confused.
"Huh, What?" Ichigo said. "This building's pretty solid-looking. I always figured Hueco Mundo would be a pigsty. It's wierd"
"Keep your voice down, Kurosaki," Uryu said. "I'm sure they have some sort of invader-detection system and already know we're here. If not then we should use this to our advantage and not give ourselves away."
Though Ichigo ignored Uryu and said, "Is this place really Hueco Mundo?"
"Are you listening Kurosaki?" Uryu said, seeing as Ichigo ignored him.
"I heard you, think I'm death? You're making more noise then I would." Ichigo retorted.
"Oh...yes...good point." Uryu said as he thought about it.
"Anyway, I'd figure it would be best to let them know where here! Then we grab the first guy we see and force him to tell us where Orihime is." Ichigo said with a smirk and continued on while shouting. "HEY, IS ANYBODY HERE! COME OUT!"
"Ichigo!" Uryu said in shock.
"Well, are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna help me find someone?" Ichigo asked as he continued on calling out while Chad had to agree and followed along, leaving Uryu dumbstruck a little but he too gave in and followed the two. Unaware to Ichigo and the crew their was a camera watching them walking down the hall and they did trip a alarm, a silent one at that which was only heard in a specific room in the Underground passage way. In this room was a computer Security system with monitors looking over the underground passage though entering the room with Sonido was an all too familiar clawed Raven Arrancar who heard this alarm. He looked at one of the monitors to see the trio walking down the hall and his eyes slightly narrowed seeing the intruders and he would make sure that they would be dealt with.
Back with trio, Uryu looked behind a corner to see if there was anyone to be worried about since he as using stealth.
"Good, the coast is clear" He said before Ichigo and Chad turn at he corner and the orange hair young man started shouting.
"Hey, where is everyone!" He shouted.
"Ichigo!" Uryu said in fury.
"What's wrong? You already said the coast was clear, so there's nothing to worry about." Ichigo said to him,
"Of course you need to be worried, you can't just walk in here without a sense of caution!" Uryu said with a rising tone.
"Just Shut up will you." Ichigo said.
"I agree, you need to calm down Uryu." Chad said.
"What calm down!? I'm the calmest one here!" Uryu growled as he slammed his fist into the wall and as he slammed his fist on the wall, it seemed to set off a pressure plate as it slowly pushed inside. All three of them looked at what Uryu did and they were silent for a moment. Then the trio started to hear noise and turned to the hall in front of them to see the ground rumbling and without warning started collapsing to a bottomless put. Uryu and Ichigo gasped in terror while Chad seemed calm and suggested that they'd get out of there and without a second though the group started running for their lives.
"Look what you've done! Is that what you call being careful!" Ichigo said angrily.
"If you were to keep your mouth shut we wouldn't be in this mess!" Uryu retorted.
"Hey, don't blame this one on me!" Ichigo said.
"Now may not be the best time to settle this argument!" Chad suggested.
"Tell him that!" Ichigo and Uryu said in unison.
As they still ran Uryu's eyes widen to see a hallway calming up that would get them out of this mess.
"A hallway is up ahead, should we take that?" He asked.
"Anythings gotta be better then this!" Ichgo said.
Without hesitation and with little time, the three darted down the hall and continued running though Chad's foot sunk into the ground and he fell into the deep fissure which caught Ichigo, and Uryu's attention.
"Chad! Uryu shouted as he hurried and grabbed his friends arm before he fell in.
Chad was surprised seeing that Uryu made it on time and he tried pulling his friend back up but the, after loosing his footing, Uryu started slipping but reluctantly, Ichigo was able to grab onto him before he fell. With all of his might he heaved both of his friends out of the Ravine and once they were safe the trio started taking a breather.
"Thank's guys, that was close." Chad said as he thanked his two friends.
"What idiots. Who uses old fashion traps like that?" Uryu said.
"Shut up because you were the one that fell for that old fashion trap!" Ichigo retorted.
"But...I...-Sigh- sorry. I wasn't paying attention." Uryu said in apology.
"Well, at least we know who's fault it was." Ichigo said and then he heard Uryu growl in response.
After their recuperation the three continued on with their mission as they walked down the hallway but cautiously this time as to not spring anymore traps but they were relieved to not be in any danger.
"Well, at least this part doesn't have any traps." Uryu said.
"Well that's fine but where does it lead to?" Ichigo asked. "Where the hell are we even going?"
"How am I suppose to know?" Uryu replied.
"We've been walking for quite a while. We'll have to run into something sooner or later." Chad said.
"I'm not so sure about that, we haven't even come across any sign of life. Knowing our luck this would a one way trip to no where." Ichigo said with some uncertainty in his voice.
"Just keep your guard up, you'll never know." Uryu said.
"Don't worry about me. I'm ready for anything." Ichigo replied before he stepped on a pressure plate and everyone looked with a rather shocked face. "Oh...um...uh oh."
"It looks like same kind of trap just like the last one." Uryu said as he looked at the pressure pad.
The three were taken aback a first but then they heard rumbling and looked towards the direction of where it was coming from since it seemed to be heading their way.
"What is that noise?" Uryu wondered.
"I hope it isn't what I think it is." Ichgo said with dread.
Then out of the corner came a massive, rounded boulder which started rolling towads them.
"We're screwed." Ichigo said.
"I can't believe this, all of their traps are so simplistic. What a shame." Uryu said.
"I'm glad that you find them so impressive" Ichigo said with rising anger in his voice.
"I never said I was impressed!" Uryu said as the two were gonna have another argument but then they stopped as Chad stepped forward.
The two looked at their friend wondered what he was doing and watched as he met he boulder head on. They watched as he raised his right hand and tried stopping it as it collided with his bare hand which shocked both Ichigo and Uryu since they were a little worried but watched as he was able to stop it, and then with one mighty blow from his hand, he was able to smash it into pieces.
"Hah, nice work Chad!" Ichigo said with a smile while Chad gave him the thumbs up but Uryu thought otherwise.
"Hmph, nice work Chad? I told you to keep your guard up but you wouldn't listen!" Uryu shouted.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. It was all my fault, you happy?" Ichigo said rather dully.
"Hey, don't ignore m, I'm not just gonna let it go this time!" Uryu said though the three were interrupted by a loud slam that came from behind them. They turned to see massive shadowy form appear and place it's hand on the ceiling while saying in it's booming voice, "Who are you?"
Uryu and Chad were rather shocked but Ichigo had a smug look at his face as if he was ready for a fight but was stopped when Uryu grabbed him by the collar of his cloak and started making a break for it along with Chad.
"wh-whoa! Wait! Why are we running! We tried flushing one out and we did so we gotta beat him up to get some answers from him!" Ichigo shouted angrily.
"Are you insane! What if we fight in this corridor around us and the walls collapse on us, then what?" Uryu retorted angrily seeing how Ichigo was thinking.
"Who cares if the wall collapse, it's not gonna make any damn difference!" Ichigo growled.
"You must have worked really hard to be this dumb!" Didn't you notice anything while we were walking around? We haven't passed a single window this entire time" Uryu retorted.
Ichigo took note to that and seemed rather shocked at this and began to understand now.
"So think, why do you think there aren't any windows? Because this corridor is underground you dummy!" Uryu shouted while unaware to them Chad zipped past them rather fast.
"Who cares if the corridor is underground!?" Ichigo said which in retrospect, sounded really stupid.
"Fighting in this space is not a good idea. We need to find an area with more open space." Uryu said.
"Uryu, look!" Chad spoke up as the three looked forward to see light as they were coming up to another area. Soon they exited the small corridor and came to a large, nicely lit area which was rather huge, almost like a coliseum in a way. "It's some kind of hall."
"Alright, you don't have any problems with his place do you?" Ichigo asked while Uryu started taking note of the surrounding of the area for a moment and then across from them was a staircase leading up.
"A staircase. If we're lucky it could connect to the outside." He said as he started heading towards it. "I'll go check."
"H-Hey!" Ichigo said as he and Chad turned to Uryu but he was forced to come to a stop when someone Sonido'd in front of him and started the Quincy. Appearing in front of him was another Arrancar that appeared all too familiar with his Raven-like mask remain covering most of his face except for the upper portion of his left eye. He looked at the intruders with a calm gaze despite his narrowed eyes and said, "Where do you think you're going Intruder?"
"Another one, though I shouldn't be surprised if we stirred up more in a place this big." Uryu thought before being interrupted by a loud thundering noise. He kept his eyes on the Arrancar before him but Ichigo and Chad turned to see a massive disfigured humanoid giant behind them, the same one that's been chasing them down the hallway.
"It's another trap, looks like they got us sandwiched." Uryu said to him companions.
"Hey, just shut up will ya?" Ichigo said with a tick mark on his head showing how irritated he was as he turned his attention back to the two Arrancars who stared menacingly at the intruders. "Are these things Arrancars too? Cause they sure look a lot more like Hollows then the ones that we fought in the World of the Living. Eh, it doesn't matter to me, you two just stand back and w-ACK!"
Ichigo's words were cut off as he was elbowed in the back of the head by Chad who decided to shut him up since he was acting overconfident and that everyone should rely on him. He tumbled onto he ground and made noises before crashing into a wall with Chad and Uryu staring at him, and reluctantly so did the two Arrancars who watched that display.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Ichigo shouted in anger.
"You're the one who needs to stand back and watch." Chad said which shocked Ichigo a little when he heard that.
"This time-" Uryu said.
"We're gonna handle it." Chad finished.
"What's with you guys!" Ichigo said rather dumbstruck but Uryu simply replied to him calmly.
"Take it easy. You're gonna have to save your strength for when we find Orihime. Besides, I've spent some time with Kisike(Urahara) and he has been informing me about the Arrancars. Apparently the ones that Grimmjow brought with him were a mixture of Gillian, and Adjuchas class arrancars. When a Menos Grande becomes an Arrancar, it doesn't always take on a humanoid form, but only the Vasto Lorde's take on one as they appear 100% of the time. And as for the other two classes, even if they do become Arrancars many of them wont take on a humanoid form." Uryu said as he took a step forward. "Also, the lower their intelligence, the more they look like Hollows in appearance."
Without warning the larger Arrancar smashed where Uryu was but the Quincy boy dodged it and the massive fist simply collided onto the ground with hard force. Ichigo and Chad were shocked seeing their friend get attacked so Chad started heading towards him but was stopped by orange energy projectiles which forced him to stop and turned to see two large arms appear out of the Raven Arrancars cloak.
"That is unforgivable, Demoura may be one thing but you're implying that I, Aisslinger has low intelligence? Absolutely unforgivable!" The Raven Arrancar, known as Aisslinger said with rising anger.
"Aisslinger, shut your face! Stop acting like you're all high and mighty and smarter than me!" The disfigured humanoid, known as Demoura growled towards his comrade.
As he was preoccupied Uryu appeared at his side and summonded up his Reishi made bow and aimed it at the behemoth but Demoura caught the Quincy in his gaze which shocked him. Without hesitation he raised his massive hand and tried crushing Uryu but he immediately back stepped to evade the attack which smashed the ground. Yet despite that it sent debris towards Uryu who blocked it. Chad on the other hand summoned his Brazo Derecha de Gigante(Right Arm of the Giant) and tried attacking Aisslinger with a spiritual energy blast but it proved useless when he evaded the attack by using Sonido.
"What would we want our human forms? We abandoned our human forms long ago so that we can become even more powerful." Aisslinger said as he appeared behind Chad and prepared his attack. He fired four of the orange energy projectiles at Chad but the young man was able to block the attack with his right arm though Aisslinger wasn't quite impressed and scoffed as he said, "Don't underestimate me, Human."
Demoura prepared another attack as he slammed both of his hands on the ground but Uryu evaded the attack and landed on the ground safely but he blocked his body from debris that was sent towards him.
"This is crazy! Let me help!" Ichigo said with concern in his voice for both of his friends.
"Stay right there, Chad and I got this handled!" Uryu yelled back so that Ichigo won't waist energy before dodging another one of Demoura's attacks. As he did so Demoura sent his hand towards Uryu in a swipping motion and with little effort to dodge the Quincy was sent towards the floor but using his momentum he started rolling out of the way from the rest of Demoura's attacks as he simply had to keep on dodging. Of course Ichigo didn't allow this an started heading towards Demoura who was ready for him and sent a fist his way but Uryu elbowed Ichigo out of the way before evading the attack himself.
"Uryu! What was that for?" Ichigo growled in shock.
"I told you to stay out of the way!" Uryu said calmly as he dodge another attack.
Ichigo looked at Uryu with a dumbstruck look on his face but then got elbowed by Chad and skid on his back with a yelp in his voice. He soon recovered from it and looked at Chad as he yelled out, "What the hell is with you guys!?"
"Just stay out of the way, got it?" Chad said as he started running, evading Aisslingers attacks.
"I wouldn't waist time worrying about your friends if I were you!" Aisslinger said as he went on the offensive and tried to strike down Chad with his energy attacks. Trying to find an opening Chad moved to the side to evade the Aislingers attacks and fired a spiritual energy from his right fist but it proved to be useless as Aisslinger simply Sonido'd away from the attack and appeared behind him as he continued firing at the unsuspecting man which caused him to run again.
"Chad look out!" Ichigo yelled out with a worried face.
"Just stay back Ichigo!" Chad said as he was showing Ichigo that everything didn't need to be put on him.
"We'll handle this ourselves!" Uryu replied as well as he continued evading Demoura's fists.
Ichigo simply watched with a concerned face and simply had no choice but to watch his friends, but it proved harder then one would think since he wasn't one to just sit back and watch. With Uryu he evaded another one of Demoura's attacks but as he evaded him he's also been analyzing his opponent as well.
"Damn, he isn't using an ordinary attack. But instead, he's summoning his spiritual energy around the palm of his hand. That attack is a lot more dangerous than it looks." Uryu thought as he evaded another attack from the behemoth. "I can't construct my weapon when he's disrupting the spiritual pressure like this. I I can get a little distance between us, then maybe I can figure way to bring him down."
As Uryu thought and evaded Demoura's attacks he looked over to Chad as he had his battle with Aisslinger and saw him firing his energy projectiles at his opponent who quickly Sonido'd away from the attack. After watching this Uryu got an idea and called out to his friend getting his attention. Chad turned to see Uryu looking at him and did a motion with his left hand and Chad seemed to understand what he meant and nodded.
Aisslinger quickly sonido'd so that he could get a closer range to continue his onslaught of energy projectiles on Chad but as he did so he started thinking to himself about his opponent.
"His attack his too slow, he could never keep up with my Sonido. Their fighting ability is easy to measure. The one I'm fighting right now has power but lacks speed and agility, while the other one is fast, but lacks the power to do any real damage." Aisslinger thought before shouting in confidence, "I'll finish this!"
"Now!" Uryu shouted as he stepped in front of Chad who continued running. This move caught Aisslinger by surprise as he stopped and took note on this.
"What's he doing? Why is he just standing there?" Aisslinger thought though he heard Demoura rushing towards Uryu which caught the Raven Arrancars attention.
"So you finally given up, Human Fool!" Demoura roared out as he charged at Uryu.
"Demoura wait!" Aissinger shouted but it was soon too late as his comrade punched directly in his face. The blow was so hard at the left side of his mask remain broke off of him and sent him over Aisslinger as he crashed onto the ground behind him.
"My, my, compatibility has been so important. I became so absorbed in fighting the same opponent all this time, that I completely forgot about the basics." Uryu said as Aisslinger turned his attention towards him while Demoura groaned and held his head. "You see I forgot that we were fighting two on two. If either one of us is having trouble we can simply swap our opponents that go well with our compatibility. Pit power against power, and of course speed against speed."
As Uryu said this he was unbuttoning one of the cup links on his sleeve. Once done he outstretched is arm and a medallion appeared from the sleeve and he looked at the two Arrancar with a serious gaze.
"Now then..." Uryu said as he summoned his spiritual weapon which took the form of a bow of some sort as it spun around his hand for a moment and he grabbed hold of it and said, "Time to step up in this battle."
"Wh-what the hell is that? Uryu, um...is that a bow?" Ichigo asked with a rather shocked and yet confused voice.
"You he to ask? Interesting, what else could it be Ichigo. Have you ever seen me go into battle with any other weapon?" Uryu replied in response. He then aimed the bow and the spiritual pressure started forming around the spiritual weapon which shocked Aisslinger quite a bit as he saw his.
"This is my new weapon, Ginrei Kojaku." Uryu said as he aimed at Aisslinger and fired at the arrancar, causing many spiritual arrows to fire forth from the bow and they all headed towards Aisslinger.
Demoura roared out and then crashed into the wall on the side of his face. He was breathing heavily and sweating a little bit but heard walking and averted his eyes to see Chad walking up to him.
"I'm lucky that I didn't destroy your entire mask." Chad said. "Half of your face is bad enough, I'd hate to see the rest."
Hearing that seemed to piss Demoura off as he glared at Chad with an irritated and hateful look. He roared out and sent his fist straight at Chad who countered it with his own right fist and both fighters collided but Chad seemed to have overpowered Demoura who was shocked since he believed his size and strength gave him a better advantage then Chad.
"That's all you got? Too bad." Chad said calmly as Demoura tried putting all his strength into the attack but it didn't seem to work at all then Chad said, "I was hoping that you'd be stronger"
This shocked Demoura greatly when he heard this as Chad grabbed his fist with both of his hands, and with all his might he lifted the larger Arrancar off of his feet an tossed him over his shoulder, sending him on the ground rather hard. Of course Demoura wasn't the only one having a hard time. Aisslinger Sonido'd away from Uryu but also had a wound on his left shoulder and seemed a little worried.
"Dammit, Disgusting human!" Aisslinger growled as he tried making some distance from Uryu.
"So that's a Sonido isn't it?" Uryu said from behind which shocked Aisslinger as he turned to see the young man right on his tail. "You were right, you are fast."
"Impossible! He's just a human, so there I no way that he can keep up with the speed of my Sonido!" Aisslinger thought with shock.
"Oh wait, that's right. I didn't tell you that I wasn't an ordinary human." Uryu said with a smirk on his face. "I am a Quincy. This is Hirenkyaku, A Quincy's high-speed maneuvering technique. I happen to think that's its better then a Soul Reapers Flash Step technique but that's my opinion."
"A Quincy. So you're some sort of higher level Human! I never knew something like that existed!" Aisslinger said as he narrowed his eyes at Uryu.
"You didn't know? That's too bad. I guess you really are ignorant." Uryu said as he smiled at Aisslingers ignorance.
Aisslinger simply growled at Uryu and came to a stop as h aimed all four of his clawed hands at Uryu.
"Even if you can keep up with my Sonido, that's not going to change anything!" Aisslinger said as each of his fingers started preparing a attack. "The only weapon you have is that bow, and there is no way it can defend you against my Una Tirotear!"
As he said that Aisslinger started firing the orange energy at Uryu who countered it with his own arrows. Both attacks collided and seemed to hold their own as neither attack seemed to penetrate and hit the opposing person though Aisslinger was confident and said, "Oh...you really think you can shoot down all of my Terotear? What a childish tactic. You'll have to think of something better than that! Go ahead, give it your best shot Quincy, but I think you should know that my Una Terotear can fire 108 shots per minute! Let's see how long you can stand up against that!"
"Oh, I see." Uryu said making Aisslinger look athim with a curious a confused look at his face. "108 shots all t once is very impressive. Although my Ginrei Kojaku fires slightly more. Like 1,200"
Hearing that made Aisslinger extremely shocked and worried as he heard that and watched as his Una Terotear was easily taken down and he was hit by the mass barrage of the Arrows that Uryu fired and had no way of countering it what's so ever as he yelled out as he received each blow which pierced his body.
With Demoura, he found his head stuck inside the wall and tried pulling himself out. Once he did he started breathing heavily as he found himself being pushed to his limit which both shocked and worried him as he was being beaten by a mere human. He then heard the footsteps of his opponent and turned to see Chad walking towards him.
"Dammit, you'll pay for that!" Demoura said angrily as he turned to face him. "I won't loose to a weakling like you! You hear me! I WON'T LOOSE!"
Without hesitation he got on his hands and knee's and shot out his tongue as he used his Lengua Tronco and it headed straight towards Chad. He looked at the attack and didn't seem worried at all as he raised his right arm and grabbed the tongue. The force of the tongue sent him back a little bit as he skid on the ground trying to stop it but it soon started bending up on itself from the force of Chad stopping it and fell onto the ground.
"N-No! He couldn't! No way!" Demoua said in shock seeing his powerful attack get stopped with ease.
"Are you done?" Chad asked as Demoura looked at him nervously. "Since you waited to use that attack just now, I'm guessing that it was resort and you had nothing left. So I think it's time I show you my final attack."
Chad started making his way towards Demoura who only watched his opponent approach him. He didn't have any more energy left nor could he even more just a bit to escape Chad at all and watched as his end was approaching.
"I rather not end it this way. You see, I don't enjoy ending an enemies life if they don't have the will to fight anymore. It just doesn't sit right with me. But in this situation..." Chad said as he looked at Demoura. Then the purple outlines on his shoulder opened up and a blue spiritual pressure could be seen flowing through it. "I just can't allow myself to see any pity for your kind."
With that Chad aimed his fist at Demoura and said, "El Directo(The Direct)"
Chad started moving rather fast as if he was a pro boxer as he got into a boxing stance and without hesitation, he punched Demoura right in the stomach making him yell out in pain. When his attack ended he pulled away and wached as Demoura was shocked and then groaned as he fell face first to the ground.
"Rest in peace." Chad said as he started walking away. Athough he attacked Demoura with his most powerful attack, Demoura was able to pull what little spiritual energy he had left, and used it on the spot where Chad punched him at, he was alive but barely with lots of internal damage after the attack and laid unconscious.
With Aisslinger, he was groaning on the ground a he received a lot of damage and most, or maybe all of his energy has been drained from him yet he had a tiny amount left still inside of him. His body was littered with puncture wounds as h was pierced by some of the arrows and grazed by most and his beak had also shattred and broke off.
"Damn you." Aisslinger wheezed as he glared a Uryu. "You cursed humans!"
Aisslinger tried aiming his one good arm at Uryu and tried blasting him with an attack but his finger was shot off which shocked and scared Aisslinger as he was defenseless.
"I already told you Arrancar, I'm a Quincy!" Uryu said. "That's why I spared your life. I want you to give Aizen a full report. Go tell him that it's not the Soul Reapers he should be afraid of, It's the Quincys'!"
As he said that the rood above them started cracking which caught Uryu's, Ichigo's, and Chad's attention as they looked up in shock and wondered what was going on.
"Oh great, What the hell is going on?" Ichigo asked as the three regrouped.
"The rooms collapsing." Chad said.
"Yeah, that's because you two weakened it with all of the fighting!" Ichigo retorted. "We're in the basement of a building! How are we suppose to get out of here!?"
"You don't!" Aisslinger said which caught all of their attention. "No one will be leaving now. That's how the room was designed. We're the guardians of the portal and our orders are very clear! Anyone who tries to get to Las Noches without our permission, has to be eliminated! If we fail that mission then our sentence is Death! Pure and Simple! We will all be crushed as the room collapses! This is the type of enemy you face, the war without end, there will be no victory for you!"
The area around them started rumbling around them which shocked the trio and they saw the exit.
"Forget him! Let's get out of here, quick!" Ichigo said as they all started running but Uryu stopped when Aisslinger spoke to him.
"You think you should be feared Quincy?" Aisslinger said which made Uryu look at him. "You got things all wrong. Your arrogance will lead to your death. Lord Aizen fears nothing, that's why we bow before him. Of creatures like us, born from fear, a man afraid of nothing shines like the moon against the blackness of night." Aisslinger growled.
Uryu simply scoffed and left as he followed the others and Aisslinger watched him run while he sighed and closed his eyes.
"Lord Skullak, please forgive me...I...we have failed you." Aisslinger muttered, awaiting his end.
...
Five minutes or so had passed as Aisslinger had said that and he expected to stop breathing, maybe even dead but he didn't. He slowly opened his eyes slightly and saw him being carried over someones shoulder while dragging Demoura behind him which slightly shocked him. He found himself in a secret passageway that led to the underground passage and this shocked him slightly and he looked down at the figure to see that it was Skullak.
"L-Lord...Skullak..." Aisslinger said with a weakened voice.
Skullak turned his head slightly when he heard his voice and smiled at the wounded Arrancar and heard him say, "Rest Aisslinger, you need it after your battle."
Aisslinger didn't know what to say but imply nodded as he fell unconscious on his Masters shoulder but one word escaped his thought, "Thank you...Lord Skullak."
There was a massive explosion showing that the underground Passageway has collapsed and the explosion sent sand everywhere. Of course...under that sand came the likely trio as they bursted out of it and started gagging and spitting out buckets of the bleached sand.
"Ugh...I-Cough-can't believe we all made it out of there." Ichigo coughed while emptying the sand out of his body. "Aw...man do I feel gross."
Once they started looking around at their surroundings as they gazed at the night sky and the vast desert around them.
"So...this is Hueco Mundo." Ichigo said as they all gazed around. "Seems like a lonely place doesn't it? There's nothing here and it looks completely desolate."
"There are some plants around, but they seemed to be withered." Chad said as he saw the numerous amounts of stuff on the ground which he believed were plants.
"Their not exactly plants." Uryu said as he inspected one of them and snapped one of the branches off of one. "They're made out of some sort of quarts-like crystals."
"Hey...look!" Chad said as Ichigo and Uryu turned around.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked as he looked at what Chad was looking.
"What is that thing?" Uryu said as he too saw what they were looking at.
Soon the three caught eyes on what they were staring at and it appeared as a massive structure in he desert land and they stared at it with shock and awe.
"It looks like some sort of palace, or fortress." Uryu said. "It must be that Las Noches place that those guy talked about."
"That thing is enormous." Ichigo said in some shock.
"I'm not actually sure how far away that is." Chad said with an astonished look.
"Well...at least seeing it from a distance actually gives us a look at its size." Uryu said.
"But that doesn't really change anything." Ichigo said to the Quincy.
"In any case, it's better than going in there blind." Chad said.
"Exactly." Uryu said in agreement.
"Well I don't really care. We're here to find Orihime and at this point I assume that's where their keeping her." Ichigo said with confidence.
"You're probably right, there isn't any other place where they can hide her." Uryu said.
"Yeah." Chad said.
"Well then let's run for it. The way how this place works we'll get dragged into another fight so let's move!" Ichigo suggested as the two nodded and they started running off as they headed for Las Noches.
Inside Las Noches the Espada were called for a meeting and of course all ten of them were already heading there. Once at the meeting room one of them opened the door and each one started filing in one by one.
"Looks like we have intruders." Szayel said with a smile.
"How do you know that?" Baraggan asked with a bored face.
"The 22nd passage way has just collapsed." Zommari said calmly.
"The 22nd? That's not much of a threat." Baraggan replied. "It's pretty far from here. A full days run if I can recall."
"It's too bad. really It would have been interesting if they had broken into the throne room instead." Szayel said with a slight bored tone to his voice as he took his seat.
"HEH HAHAHAAAAA, That would have been cool." Nnoitra laughed loudly as he too took his seat with his hands wrapped around his head.
"-Sigh- Shut up, I'm tired as hell right now so let's have some peace and quite." Starrk said as he took his seat with a tired look on his face.
Soon the rest of the Espada started taking their seat one by one. The order went from left to right. Starting on the left was Ulquiorra who was calm and emotionless, next was Starrk who was rather tired and leaned on his hands for support, then there was Nnoitra who was resting on the chair with his hands behind his head, next to him was Harribel who was sitting calmly with her arms folded under her breasts, then next to her was Aaroniero who was silent but bubbles could be heard under him, after him was Yammy who rested on one hand with a bored look on his face, after him was Baraggan who had both of his arms folded and waited for the meeting to commence, after him was Szayel who was tapping his finger on the table and waited, then there was Zommari who looked calm and waited patiently, and lastly was Grimmjow who looked bored and just waited calmly for the meeting to begin and end.
Soon they all heard walking and coming into the room was none other then Aizen, Tosen, and Gin as they came in rather calmly.
"Good morning, my dear Espada." Aizen said calmly as they all turned their attention towards Aizen. "It seems we're under attack. Before we talk about that, let's have some tea first."
Back with Ichigo and the others they were running through he desert rather fast as they headed straight for Las Noches without stop at all.
"It's a good thing we have a clear view on where we're going!" He told them. "But man is it far away!"
"Yeah, I know!" Uryu said in agreement since it was rather far.
"Be patient, we'll get there soon." Chad said as he tried keeping the two calm for now.
"I guess." Ichigo said as the three continued on running through the vast desert to get to their objective.
The three ran as fast as they can, gasping and panting for air as if they were running for the Olympics but as the ran and looked at Las Noches, it hardly seemed to get closer despite how much they've been running.
"Sure doesn't look like we're getting closer to it." Ichigo said.
"We must have been farther away from it then we thought." Uryu suggested. "Isn't that what you said a little while ago?"
"Yeah but it still looks like it's right there!" Ichigo said as he seemed rather confused.
The three continued their running but as much as they ran, they definitely didn't seem to make any sort of progress at all.
"Aw man." Ichigo groaned.
"What's your problem?" Uryu wondered.
"It's nothing. It's just that this castle feels like it's light years away dammit!" Ichigo complained. "You don't have to get so angry."
"Just deal with it and run! We don't know when the enemy will attack so try and stay focus will you?" Uryu retorted to Ichigo to try and keep him focus.
"You've been acting pretty high and mighty since we got here!" Ichigo said as he turned to Uryu.
"That's not try, I'm just trying to keep us alive for a few more minute!"Uryu said though it seemed like a lie.
"Well excuse me." Ichigo mocked.
As the three continued running Chad seemed to stop where he was and both Ichigo and Uryu stopped running and walked back to their friend.
"What's up? You tired Chad?" Ichigo asked as he and Uryu looked around and saw the wind blowing. "What's wrong? It's just a little wind."
"I'm afraid that it's not." Chad said as the three watched as the wind started picking up around them which shocked the trio.
"What the hell is happening?" Ichigo asked in shock.
"It looks like a sandstorm!" Uryu suggested.
"More like a sand tornado!" Chad corrected.
"I don't care what it is, run for it!" Ichigo yelled as the three started running away from the large sand tornado that started heading towards them. They couldn't outrun the tornado at all so they immediately clung onto the closest thing and that was the quart branches.
"Dammit! Is this one of their traps?!" Ichigo yelled.
"I don't know but it could be a natural phenomenon." Uryu suggested. "Whatever It is, don't let go!"
Though Uryu spoke to soon as the branch he held onto snapped and he was sucked into the tornado while yelling in fear though he was soon followed by Chad, and then Ichigo.
"Everyone just hold on tight!" Ichigo yelled as he and Chad still held onto their broken branches but then he stopped and looked around. "Hey wait a second. Is it really suppose to be this calm in a tornado?"
"I don't think so." Chad said.
"Then what in the world is going on?" Ichigo asked which made Chad curious and he hit something with his branch which appeared to be a wall of some sort.
"I thought so, it's a spiritual patician." Chad said.
Then Ichigo remembered that time when they were trying to save Rukia and they were in a bubble like this. He began to wonder why they ended up inside one of these but then Uryu appeared chuckling a little which startled Ichigo.
"I knew something like this would happen so I kept this spirit orb in case we needed it." Uryu said with a grin.
"You mean you just took one? What the hell is wrong with you?" Ichigo said with a glare on his face.
"Shut up Ichigo! You should be grateful that I saved your ass. So you should thank me so zip it!" Uryu retorted.
"Stop changing the subject! Where did you get the spirit orb! Answer the question." Ichigo asked but then got a shocked look and said, "Don't tell me you swiped it from Kukaku's place."
"You moron, Kukaku gave it to me!" Uryu yelled.
"Don't get bent out of shape. I was only kidding." Ichigo said as he calmed down but Uryu didn't.
"I'm not laughing! If you got issues with it then you can leave whenever you want." Uryu shouted.
As the two continued arguing, Chad seemed to be looking at something and was slightly shocked yet also calm about this and said, "Ichigo, I believe now is not the best time to be arguing like this."
This made both of them turn to see the orb begin to crack and this startled Ichigo and Uryu.
"Oh great it's cracking! You gotta do something quick!" Ichigo said.
"Do what? I haven't used that orb since the time with Rukia. I should have studied up better because I have no way to repair the patrician." Uryu asked in confusion.
As Uryu said that Ichigo started fighting with him again as he wanted Uryu to give him the orb but that didn't seem to happen though the two stopped when Chad summoned his Brazo Derecha de Gigante. This scared the two of them thinking that Chad has gone mad and they didn't want him to break the barrier but it was too late as he did so and they were sucked up again but the tornado but instead of staying inside of it, they were thrown out and landed safely on the sandy ground below them.
"Well..I guess we're safe for now." Ichigo said with a nervous expression.
"Yeah, by the skin of our teeth." Uryu replied in shock as he held his head. "Hey, thanks a lot Chad."
"Don't mention it." Chad said but then a shadow appeared over the three and they looked up.
"Uh...what the hell is that?" Ichigo asked as they saw a ton of sand falling from the sky and the drop ontop of all three of them which made them yell out.
Back at Las Noches, Skullak was walking down the halls of the structure with his hands in his pocket. He was heading back to the Tres Cifras again to just relax after saving both Demoura and Aisslinger. Both of them were in critical condition but the Medical Arrancar assured him that they would have the best care. As he continue on through the halls he made it to a corridor which had three way, he turned his head slightly to the right, only to see the Privaron's standing near the door, or some of them to be precise. By the door he saw Cirucci, Dordoni, and Nelliel leaning beside it with their ears resting on the door, Gantenbainne was resting on the wall but stayed close to the door as well and the same went with Luppi who, despite being severely wounded and should be bed ridden after his fight with Hitsugaya, wanted to know what the meeting was about and he was sitting close to the wall so he could listen, and Kiiro, being the last person, was sitting cross-legged on a wall opposite from the door as if he wasn't listening like everyone else and even had his eyes closed.
"What's going on here?" Skullak asked with a deadpan look as he approached them but Nelliel motioned her hand and shushed him which shocked the Privaron leader.
"Sorry Skullak but be extremely quite, Aizen called a meeting for the Espada and well...we...sorta just wanted to know what's going on." Cirucci said with a slight blush on her face.
"Yeah, I'm quite curious as to what everyone is talking about." Dordoni said.
"Plus, I heard that the 22nd passageway was destroyed." Gantenbainne said.
"Yeah, I was just there, Aisslinger and Demoura were badly wounded when I got there." Skullak said.
As he said that Cirucci, Dordoni, Gantenbainne, Nelliel, and Luppi turned to him in shock when he said that.
"Wh-what? No way. What happened to the two guarding it?" Luppi asked.
"Aisslinger and Demoura were defeated, they were barely alive when I got there. Both of them are lucky to be alive after the beating they took but right now I was able to get them to the infirmary." Skullak said.
"Ah, so that must be why Aizen has called for a meeting for the Espada, we're being invaded." Nelliel said with a calm look.
"Indeed, and I'm guessing that's why you're all here." Skullak said as he sat near Cirucci so he could hear.
"Yeah, we don't want anyone to know that we're listening to the meeting so we're trying to stay quite." Gantenbainne said.
"Right, that questions but, Why is Kiiro on the opposite side?" Skullak asked.
"We don't know. Kiiro-Nino just sat over there and closed his eyes and hasn't said a thing." Dordoni said.
"Shh...it's about to start!" Kiro whispered to them. They were startled to hear him talk but saw that his eyes were still closed. They wondered how he knew the meeting would start even though he's not close to hear it but shrugged as they all listened to what the meeting was about.
Inside the meeting room, each of the Espada were given tea by a servant that Aizen had called upon. He gave each of them their own cup of tea and some seemed to appreciate it and had some while others didn't seem to care and didn't drink it. As the meeting was starting up, no one seemed to be aware of a black Raven that rested on Harribel's shoulder. Although despite that she seemed to be the only one aware of it but didn't seem to bother with it at all.
"So does everybody have a cup of tea now?" Aizen asked as he saw that everyone did. "Good, now please listen carefully to what I have to say. Begin the presentation Kaname."
"Sir." Tosen said with a slight bow as he reached over to a lever and pulled it to the side. Once he had done that a hole on the middle of the table opened up and began to show the Espada a Hologram of three individuals running across Hueco Mundo towards Las Noches.
"There are three intruders trying to break into Las Noches. Uryu Ishda, Yasutora Sado, and Ichigo Kurosaki." Aizen said. Grimmjow looked at the Hologram in complete shock seeing Ichigo again while Ulquiorra simply turned his head and closed his eyes as if not caring.
"You mean these, are our enemies?" Aaroniero said.
"Ridiculous. When you said we were under attack I though it was some sort of army!" Baraggan stated as he looked at Aizen with a disapproved look. "These are just a bunch of kids!"
"I don't see where the fuss is about. Where's the danger?" Szayel said with a smile seeing this as nothing.
"I would not underestimate these so called, kids." Aizen stated to the Espada as he placed his cup on a platter. "Others had made the same mistake as they were humans once labeled Ryoku. Some time ago, four of them had managed to successfully break into the Soul Society and managed to take on the 13 Court Guard squad.
"Is that so, that means one of them is missing." Zommari said. "Where's the fourth warrior?"
"That would be Orihime Inoue." Ulquiorra stated calmly.
"Aw...so they've come to save their friend have they? Why not let them try, they look weak as hell!" Nnoitra scoffed with a grin.
"Have you've been listening at all?" Harribel said while Nnoitra turned to her with a bored look. "Lord Aizen just told us not to underestimate them."
"If I didn't know better, I would think that you are scared of these little brats, are you scared?" Nnoitra said while Harrbel glared at him but so did the Raven on her shoulder as well.
"What's that?" Harribel said with rising anger but then everyone was interrupted with the sound of someone slamming their hand down on the table. They then turned to see Grimmjow get out of his seat and started striding towards the exit but Tosen thought otherwise as he began to question him.
"Where are you going Grimmjow?" Tosen asked.
"I'm going to exterminate those pest before they get into your home." Grimmjow said as he narrowed his eyes.
"Lord Aizen hasn't given such an order yet. So sit back down." Tosen said with a semi-threatning voice.
"Hey! It's perfectly clear what he wants done. I'm going to remove these intruders." Grimmjow said as he didn't listen to Tosen.
The Soul Reaper simply furrowed his eyes at Grimmjow even though they were behind a piece of cloth that covered them though Aizen spoke up.
"Grimmjow." Aizen said calmly.
"Yes my lord?" Grimmjow replied.
"I appreciate your intension and your enthusiasm, but I'm not done speaking yet. Could you return to your seat for now?" Aizen asked rather calmly despite what happened. After Aizen had said that everyone was completely silent and didn't seem to say a thing, neither did Grimmjow who seemed rather defiant just a little bit. "Well, I cant make out your answer, Gimmjow Jaegerjaquez."
Without warning Aizen raised his spiritual pressure and forced the Espada on the ground as he was breathing eavily after being forced to experienced something like this. Most of the Arrancars looked at him and simply turned away as they turned their attention to Aizen again.
"Good, I see that you understand." Aizen said as he turned away from Grimmjow. "Members of the Espada, as I have pointed out to you we have three intruders. It is unwise to underestimate them, but there is no need for all of you to be worried either. All of you return to your quarters and act as if everything is normal. Don't be impatient, just sit and wait for the enemy to come to us and don't be concerned at all. Regardless of the situation and how it looks, just remain calm and stay with me. They are no match f us, because we, are unstoppable."
With that Aizen dismissed everyone and they began walking for the exit. As they done so he Privaron took this time to immediately depart from the area without a trace as the Espada opened the doors and started walking down the corridor, heading back to their Palace's with their own thoughts. Of as Harribel walked with her own thoughts she turned to the Raven on her shoulder and scratched its chin with her finger and watched as it purred slightly in enjoyment and flew off towards the direction of the Tres Cifras. Once the Espada were gone Aizen was still sitting on his chair before getting up with the same old smile on his face though Gin spoke to him.
"You do realize that the Privaron were eavesdropping on the meeting don't you Aizen? Are you going to allow them to do that?" Gin said with his casual smile.
"Oh Gin, I knew they were listening to the conversation. Besides, I have planned for this anyway. As I said, let's just wait for our three intruders to come to Las Noches, besides...they aren't the only ones coming anyway. For now, let's continue watching as our little game begins." Aizen said with a smile on his face.
Back outside in Hueco Mundo, Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu were taking a breather as they rested on the sandy ground after their experience with the sand tornado, and their major running.
"Dammit! It's like we've been running across this desert for hours and no matter what we aren't even closer to that structure!" Ichigo said.
"Hmm. It's all perspective. The crystal trees in front of it look as small as needles. For the trees to look that small in this distance and the palace itself to look so big in contrast, we have to assume that it's unbelievably huge." Chad insisted as he inspected it.
"You sure that it isn't some kind of mirage?" Ichigo asked.
"Well it's not a mirage." Uryu insisted. "There's no way we would be able to see a mirage here. Should I explain a concept of a mirage to you, Ichigo?"
"Don't start with me!" Ichigo growled with frustration but stopped when he looked down to see a little Lizard Hollow stare up at him. It was only for an instant really as it got scared and went under the sand and then he said, "You know, when we first got here and discovered that this world has nothing to live in it. But surprisingly there are little animals here. Even though their all Hollows. Now that I think about it don't Hollows have to constantly eat human souls just to survive? I wonder what these little guys end up eating just to survive?"
"Well...here in Hueco Mundo, Rieshi is highly concentrated on the air so it's good for the Smaller Hollows. I'm sure that they can absorbed enough energy by simply breathing." Uryu said.
"So wait a minute. Your saying that there is Rieshi in the air? C'mon how could you even know that!?" Ichigo said.
"Quincies make use of the ambient Rieshi when they fight. The higher the density Rieshi is, the stronger we are." Uryu said as he adjusted his glasses with a smirk. "I confirmed that in the last battle we had. Once I get the hang of it. I'll be able to fight better in the world of the living or even in the Soul Society."
"Oh well that's interesting. So you're saying that you can function better when there is a lot of Rieshi around. It sure sounds like a Hollow to me." Ichigo scoffed.
"Well excuse me! Soul Reapers are practically the same!" Uryu said.
"No we're not. I'm different." Ichigo said.
"Well Rukia had to go back to the Soul Society so she can regain her powers." Uryu insisted.
"Rukia's just weird like that." Ichigo said.
As the two continued arguing Chad looked at his hands for a moment and motioned them to the ground. as he did that the sand around his hands started moving around slightly which shocked him and he could tell that he was absorbing the Rieshi in the air and was slowly getting stronger. Though Even if they were taking a breather they weren't even safe. Without warning the ground started rumbling which shocked them and then without warning a large giant Hollow bursted out of the sand which shocked the three. They looked up to see a massive Hollow that towered over them. The Hollow had a large grey colored, sand made body, very long arms that reached the ground with it's forearms being much thicker, his upper head resembled that of a sand castle, a Hollow hole was placed on the center of his chest, and he wore a low-slung cloth around his waist and he also had decorated bracelets on his wrists.
"What the hell is that!" Ichigo shouted in shock as he and his friends stared at the giant Hollow.
"I am Runuganga, The Guardian of The White Sand." The Hollow, Runuganga boomed in his loud voice. "I was informed by Las Noches that there were three intruders, but I didn't think that the intruders were merely weak ants who dared to invade Las Noches."
Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo shouted as he unsheathed his sword and fired his attack at the giant. Once it made contact with him Runuganga was sliced in half and both halfs of his body started falling towards the ground while Ichigo rusted is weapon on his shoulder. "There, he's finished off. That was way too quick if I do say so myself."
"Uh...Ichigo!" Uryu shouted.
"He's not dead." Chad said.
"He's what?" Ichigo said as he turned around to see Runuganga heal as his two halfs came together as if nothing had happened and he stared down at the three before him.
"You won't even confess in attempting a sneak attack! For this, you intruders must be punished." Runuganga said as he summoned three tornadoes with ease. Uryu, Ichigo, and Chad saw this but then combined attacks as Ichigo used Getsuga Tensho, Chad used El Directo, and Uryu used Ginrei Kojaku and all the attacks combined hit Runuganga dead on and he fell into the sand as his body was torn apart. They wondered if he was done for but then an Ant Lion pit formed around them which shocked the three and they tried escaping but it proved useless as they started sinking deeper inside and soon got stuck.
"Now, I SHALL DEVOUR YOU!" He roared out as he formed again and opened his mouth downwards and rushed towards them, ready to finish them off but then as he was close to them a familiar Ice move engulfed his entire body which shocked everyone, including himself and the Great White Sand Spirit fell backwards and shattered into pieces signifying his defeat. This shocked the three and they looked around wondering who did that before their gaze met Renji and Rukia.
"Rukia, Renji. You guys are here!" Ichigo said as he approached him, but only to get punched right in the face by Rukia who tagged Renji in and then he punched Ichigo in the face.
After that Rukia started yelling at Ichigo wondering why he couldn't wait for them to come back to assist him but Ichigo simply said that he didn't know if they were but Rukia yelled at him saying that they were friends and would have came back to help out anyway. Ichigo was surprised by this and smiled hearing that from Rukia and the group seemed to have calmed down afterwards and Ichigo decided to speak up.
"Alright everyone, let's move out!" Ichigo said as he started running.
"Wait a minute." Rukia said which made him stop and turn to her. "Have you guys been running this entire time?"
"Well yeah, why do you ask that." Ichigo said which made Rukia facepalm.
"You do realize that you could have just used Flash Step to get there faster right?" Rukia said which made Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu look stupid.
"Ummm...Uryu why didn't you bring up that idea!" Ichigo said as he started blaming Uryu for this.
"Hey don't blame me. I was going to but I forgot all about it. That and because of your stupidity." Uryu said as he adjusted his glasses.
"What did you say!" Ichigo growled as Renji started laughing.
After the little argument the grouped calmed down soon after and without any time to spare they all used their high speed movement to get to Las Noches faster. Though even with their combined strengths they didn't know what awaits them once they get inside the massive fortress.