Chapter 35: Segunda Etapa

There was a distinctly nervous sort of energy hanging over the basement training room. It was like a constant buzzing in the back of one's mind; an instinctive, bodily reaction to the innate knowledge that something was about to go horribly wrong.

While it could be compared to the sense of anticipation a soldier might feel before going into battle, it was probably more accurate to liken it to the impotent, barely-restrained fear of a bystander watching someone dismantle a nuclear bomb from less than five feet away.

That was how Tessai, Urahara, Katsumi and Renji were currently regarding a distinctly anxious-looking Grimmjow, and standing directly opposite him: Ichigo, in all of his Resurrección's terrifying glory.

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, it was not the pale white, armor-clad youth with the massive horns jutting out of his head who was putting everyone present on edge.

Grimmjow swallowed thickly, his sword lightly trembling in his hand as he looked down at his own reflection on the flat of the blade. He took several slow, deep breaths that were clearly intended to ease his nerves, but didn't quite achieve the intended result.

Nevertheless, he must have been getting fed up with his own hesitance, if the angry frown now marring his brow was anything to go by, and so Grimmjow shakily placed the fingertips of his free hand upon the surface of the blade. Then, after one last, quick inhalation, he made to rake his nails along the length of the sword, and release the forbidden power held within.

"Wait!"

Everyone watching flinched when Ichigo called out and shattered the tense atmosphere. Grimmjow even came close to dropping his sword altogether, and fumbled to catch it in time.

"What?!" he snapped out, looking about one more scare like that removed from an outright heart attack. "What could possibly be so goddamned important that you had to interrupt me at the last possible second?!"

"I wanna check something," Ichigo replied, and calmly drove the tip of his sword into the ground so he would have both hands free. He then brought said hands up to chest-level and closed his eyes for a moment, focusing intently.

The next thing they knew, the gathered onlookers were watching glowing blue lines trail down Ichigo's arms, and five sets of jaws dropped.

"Oh, good," Ichigo said in a deceptively light tone as he opened his eyes again, "I was worried that wouldn't work in Resurrección for a second." He looked around at the five people openly gaping at him. "What?"

"Kurosaki-san," Urahara began hesitantly, "Is that… Blut, you're using?"

"Yeah. Zangetsu taught me how to use it earlier; figured I might as well get some practice in with it." That explanation did nothing to make everyone stop gaping at him. "Okay seriously, what?"

"…Thirty minutes, Kurosaki," Grimmjow eventually hissed out in frustrated disbelief. His nervous eye-twitch, after having been absent for the last several days, now made its glorious reappearance. "I leave you alone for just thirty. Minutes. And somehow, you manage to pull some new bullshit power-up out of your ass."

"Oi!" Ichigo growled out. "I already told you I was part-Quincy. Don't go getting surprised when I finally learn how to use a Quincy ability."

"Thirty. Freaking. Minutes."

"Yeah, I know! I heard you the first time!" Ichigo complained. "You've seriously gotta stop repeating yourself."

"Are they always like this?" Katsumi whispered to Renji from the corner of his mouth, watching as the pair's argument devolved into a full-on shouting match.

"Rukia says it's a recent thing," Renji whispered back. "Well, maybe not the yelling, but the whole married couple-routine at least," he amended.

"This is how married people act nowadays?" Katsumi asked disbelievingly. "Damn. A lot sure changes in a hundred years' time."

"Just the crazy ones, really."

"HEY!" Ichigo suddenly yelled at the pair. "I heard that! Are you assholes even trying to be subtle?!"

"Not really, no," Katsumi and Renji answered in unison, grinning sardonically at him.

Ichigo was about to respond to that, yet got drawn back into his ongoing argument with Grimmjow before he could, and promptly forgot the both of them even existed.

"Seriously though," Katsumi said quietly to Renji. "Kid's too damn nice for his own good."

"How do you mean?" Renji asked, frowning. He would never argue against Ichigo being a genuinely good guy at heart, but nice? Ichigo's sisters, and Orihime to a slightly lesser extent, were the only ones who got 'nice'. Everyone else got… whatever this was, Renji thought, as he watched Grimmjow and Ichigo argue back and forth.

"Kurosaki's the one who's about to voluntarily walk into a meat grinder," Katsumi scoffed. "Yet rather than worry about himself, like he damn well should, he saw how nervous Jaegerjaquez was getting and decided to start up this positively delightful little routine to calm him down with."

"…He did this to calm him down?" Renji blurted out in disbelief. He looked back at the pair in question, whose ongoing argument appeared to be mere seconds away from devolving into an outright brawl at this point.

"I know—the really scary part is that it actually worked."

"Fine!" Grimmjow suddenly snapped as he roughly shoved Ichigo away from him. "Let's just fucking do this already!"

"About damn time!" Ichigo yelled back, stomping back over to where he'd left his sword before roughly yanking it out of the ground.

Grimmjow held his fingernails to his blade once again, and the pair glared at each other as their breathing gradually slowed to a regular pace. "…You ready?" Grimmjow asked in a low tone of voice, with no trace of his earlier anger to be found.

"Yeah," Ichigo replied, equally calm and serious. "It'll be fine, Grimm. Do it."

Grimmjow breathed in deep.

"Grind, Pantera!"

Ichigo tightened his grip on Tensa Zangetsu's hilt. In front of him, Grimmjow's body had been hidden from view by a churning, electric blue cyclone, and Ichigo would be lying if he said he wasn't a little bit nervous to find out what would emerge from it.

He may not have seen Grimmjow's Segunda Etapa for himself just yet, but considering how agitated Orihime had gotten when asked about it, Ichigo figured he had better prepare for the worst. If Grimmjow's was anything like Ulquiorra's had been…

The cyclone slowly darkened until it was all but black, and the Reiatsu Grimmjow emitted became heavier and more ominous to match.

With a sharp intake of breath, Ichigo whipped his head around to look behind him, his well-honed instincts warning him of approaching danger. He was more than a little confused to see that nothing was actually there, and he quickly refocused his attention on Grimmjow.

As soon as he did so however, the prickling at the edge of his senses immediately returned, and despite knowing better, he could have sworn there was… something, breathing down his neck.

"What the hell…?" Ichigo muttered under his breath, feeling himself get increasingly set on edge. Logically, he knew that he was being paranoid, that there was nothing there, that he was surrounded by allies on all sides… and yet, he still couldn't shake off the feeling.

He chanced taking a quick glance at Urahara, and saw the man looking uncharacteristically tense and pale-faced. Tessai even had beads of sweat dripping down his brow, and the two men kept alternating between looking nervously at each other, and at Grimmjow.

Renji kept looking over his shoulder, at one point even attempting to whirl around with his hand flying to his sword hilt, only to be stopped by Katsumi.

"Be careful, Ichigo!" Katsumi's voice was the only sound Ichigo could hear aside from the keening of the cyclone. "Whatever you do, don't take your eyes off Jaegerjaquez for even a second!"

Ichigo barely had time to process his warning before the cyclone suddenly lost coherence, and Ichigo was buffeted by razor winds and a tidal wave of dark blue Reiatsu. "Holy shit…" he muttered under his breath, when he saw what had become of Grimmjow.

He may have only become a little taller than usual, since he was now standing on his toes rather than the soles of his feet, but he had certainly gotten a hell of a lot bigger.

The musculature Grimmjow currently sported made even Kenpachi look almost lean and wiry by comparison. White fur now covered most of his bulky upper body, and his blue hair had grown into a literal lion's mane. Even in this form however, the handprint Angra had left on his throat remained, and even caused a noticeable bald spot within the mane.

Ichigo supposed the two of them matched, now.

Grimmjow's left forearm had been covered in pitch-black, bony plate armor, which started at his elbow, and ended in the sharpened tips of his claws. His right arm on the other hand, was covered by the familiar, blue-and-silver gauntlet that made up his Shikai.

"…Grimm? You in there?" Ichigo asked hesitantly, searching for any sign of recognition in Grimmjow's eyes. He tried to ignore the twinge of disappointment he felt when he saw none. Hell, he didn't see anything in Grimmjow's eyes—they had become featureless, glowing blue orbs, with no clear division between sclera, iris, and pupil.

Ichigo steeled himself—there was no point in just standing there, after all. "I'm gonna come closer. Don't freak out, okay?" He hadn't expected to get a verbal response in the first place, but he had hoped for a little more than just a blank stare and a faint twitch of Grimmjow's blue-furred ears.

"Here goes…" Ichigo muttered to himself, and took a single step forward. Some gravel crunched underneath his foot when he put it down again, and instantly Grimmjow's head snapped up, those eerie blue eyes locking onto him.

"Grimm?" Ichigo tried again, and while Grimmjow kept his attention firmly focused on him, he gave no indication of having understood.

Ichigo took another step forward, and a heavy, warning growl emerged from the back Grimmjow's throat.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san?" Urahara nervously piped up, "I'm not certain it would be wise to approach further…"

"He asked us to help him, Urahara," Ichigo stubbornly shot back. "You know how he is—that couldn't have been easy for him. And I can't do that by running away from him."

He took his third step.

Grimmjow bared a mouthful of massive, razor-sharp teeth, and extended Byakko's Claw.

"…Oh dear," Ichigo heard Urahara say, right before the sight of a murderous, berserk Arrancar thundering towards him claimed his full attention.

"Well I'll be damned. That loudmouth really is a King," Takahashi idly commented to Renji, as they watched Ichigo and Grimmjow exchange an entire barrage of blows in the blink of an eye, each of which would have been enough individually to send even the average Captain reeling.

"How are you staying so calm?!" Renji bit out, wound up tight like a little bundle of nerves himself. He was continuously tempted to look behind him and fend off some nonexistent danger, but did his best to stave off the urge. Takahashi had taken to punching him in the shoulder every time he did, and his entire upper arm was basically one giant bruise by this point. "And what the hell is going on, anyway?!"

"I'm calm because it's not actually real, Abarai," Takahashi breezily explained, which did exactly nothing to make Renji feel better. "Still, this is a rather nasty ability to have to deal with. Let's hope Ichigo doesn't let it get to him—those claws hurt, believe me."

"Let what get to him?" Renji asked again, feeling his frustration steadily mount the longer the fight went on. "I don't even get what's happening! Is Jaegerjaquez doing this? 'Cause his Reiatsu feels like… shit, it feels like yours!" Renji exclaimed, finally realizing what is was that had been bothering him.

"I dunno, mine tends to just makes people shit themselves," Takahashi pointed out. "This seems more like… paranoia? Does that sound about right?"

The fact that Renji jumped two feet up into the air when Takahashi experimentally snapped his fingers right by his ear was probably answer enough.

"What do you mean, 'seems like'?" Renji grumbled, after he had retaliated by elbowing Takahashi in the gut, so as to assuage his wounded pride. "You don't feel it?"

"Not as strongly as you do, I'm sure. So tell me Renji," Takahashi asked, in his best therapist voice, "how does it make you feel?"

"I, uh… Kinda scared, I guess? Like something's about to walk up behind me and bite my head off?" Renji automatically replied, only to freeze up when he noticed Takahashi's smirk. "Wait, were you just messing with—you dick!"

"Well, I was messing with you, but I really did want to know, so thank you for answering that. You're a very honest person," he remarked, fending off Renji's attempts to smack him without ever looking away from the fight.

Renji eventually gave up with an irritated huff, and refocused his attention on Ichigo. So far, he was holding his own well enough, Renji thought, but Jaegerjaquez was being downright relentless. All it would take was one lucky slash with ridiculously sharp blade of his, and Ichigo would be dead.

They had Orihime on hand, safely behind the barrier with Nel in case the worst should happen, but Renji honestly wasn't sure if anyone present could hold Jaegerjaquez down long enough in his current state for her to have the time to heal Ichigo.

"Do you know what a Hollow's most fundamental ability is, Abarai-kun?"

Renji startled when Takahashi suddenly spoke again. "Uh... Shooting a Cero, I guess?" he stammered out, thrown off-guard by the abruptness of the question.

"No. It's something even more basic than that. The very thing that makes a Hollow, a Hollow in the first place: the power to draw out what lies deep inside their hearts, and use what they find there to transform their bodies into the masked, soul-devouring monstrosities we all know and love."

"Why are you bringing that up now?" Renji absently asked, wincing in sympathy when Ichigo successfully deflected Jaegerjaquez's blade, only for the scythe-like protrusion on the man's tail to lash out and tear a gash across his lower leg.

"Because what Jaegerjaquez is subconsciously doing now is simply a higher application of that same power: he's using his Reiatsu to project what's in his own heart onto his surroundings. In a very limited sense, he's overwriting reality itself." Takahashi looked away from the fight for just a moment, so that he could fix Renji with a weighty stare. "That, is what Reishuken is."

Grimmjow was confused.

The Hollow he was fighting was strong. Stronger than he was, even, albeit barely. So why wasn't it trying to kill him? He didn't understand.

He had warned it to stay back, yet it had kept on coming anyway. Clearly, that meant it intended to consume him, didn't it? So why did it seem so hesitant to hurt him, now?

"Grimm! Snap out of it already!"

Was it referring to him with that name?

Grimmjow broke their stalemate by pushing upwards with his Fang, a shower of sparks flying from where their blades scraped loudly against each other, and then they separated with a final, echoing ring.

Not wasting so much as an instant, Grimmjow lifted one of his feet off the ground, and kicked the horned Hollow in the stomach as hard as he could, before it could bring its sword back down to block.

It cried out and went flying backwards at high speed, soon slamming into the wall on the far side of the large, cavernous room, where he created a large crater and a shower of green sparks when the defensive magic inscribed onto the wall gave out.

"My wards!"

"My basement!"

Grimmjow looked to the side, seeing the two Soul Reapers who had cried out staring forlornly at the newly-made hole in the wall.

"Who the hell cares?!" a third, red-headed Soul Reaper angrily yelled at the first two. "Worry about Ichigo first, you assholes!"

There was a fourth Shinigami, too: a tall, muscular man wearing glasses. That one remained quiet while the other three argued, and simply watched Grimmjow with intense, unnerving focus.

None of this made sense. He was fighting a stronger Hollow who didn't want to consume him, and was surrounded by Soul Reapers who weren't trying to slay him. Perhaps they were simply waiting until either Grimmjow or his opponent were dead, so that they would only have to finish off the victor.

Grimmjow wasn't going to let that happen.

The orange-haired Hollow fell to its knees, and spat up blood. "Damn, that hurt," it muttered to itself as it held a clawed hand over its stomach. Its breathing was rapidly returning to normal, Grimmjow noted with alarm. For it to recover from its wounds so quickly had to mean that it could regenerate.

He'd have to destroy its heart or brain, then.

-no-

Looking distinctly wary now, the Hollow slowly got back to its feet. "This isn't working," it grumbled out. "Looks like I'm gonna have to knock some sense into you, after all."

It stood tall, and flared its overwhelming Reiatsu in a clear display of aggression. It whipped its blade out to the side, a haze of shadow running down its length, even as glowing blue lines appeared on its arms, and a primal fear shot through Grimmjow at the sight of them.

He recognized that blue light, any Hollow would—that was the power of a Quincy.

This Hollow wasn't intending to consume him, Grimmjow realized.

It was going to destroy him.

He had to kill it before it could.

-stop-

"Sorry Grimm, but you asked for it!" The Hollow charged at him, moving at speeds Grimmjow could only dream of, and brought its blade down with such tremendous force it actually made his knees buckle when he blocked it with his Fang.

He would only have one chance.

The Hollow continued to press its attack, emanating wisps of shadow from its blade that streaked past Grimmjow's body and eroded away some of his fur as he was pushed downward harder and harder, to the point where his feet were slowly sinking into the ground as the stone was pulverized underneath his weight.

He had to do it now.

-STOP-

He leaned in closer to the Hollow's face, close enough to see its yellow eyes widen behind its Mask, and opened his mouth wide, charging a Cero between his teeth before firing it point-blank.

-DON'T DO IT-

The Hollow abruptly backed off, cursing under its breath. "What the hell?!" it complained, shaking its head and screwing its damaged eyes shut. "I didn't even know you could shoot a Cero from your mou-Ah!"

It cut itself off with a sharp intake of breath, and looked almost disbelievingly at Grimmjow.

"Grimm…"

-no…-

After a long moment, it broke eye-contact with him, and ever-so-slowly lowered its gaze, until it saw for itself how Grimmjow's metal-clad knuckles rested against the skin of his lower abdomen.

How Byakko's Fang had been driven deep into his innards and emerged out his back, blood steadily trickling down onto the ground as it leaked from the tip.

-no…no, no, NONONONO-

As if in a daze, the Hollow stumbled backwards, and Grimmjow's blade slid free of its body with a squelch. Instantly, a veritable flood of red came gushing out of the wound once the blade was no longer there to act as a plug, and large globs of it splattered onto the ground at their feet.

They stared into each other's eyes, with only the sound of dripping blood disturbing the silence.

"Kaizō Bakudō 63: Sudatsu Sabaku [Burrowing Chains]!"

"Bakudō 75: Gochūtekkan!"

The ground beneath Grimmjow's feet rumbled, and suddenly a dozen ethereal, golden chains burst out and shot up into the air, surrounding Grimmjow on all sides. They dove back down like a nest of vipers snapping at him from every direction, and coiled around his limbs, torso and neck before drawing painfully tight.

Grimmjow could have dodged them, he knew he could have, yet found himself unable to move, and simply sank to his knees when the chains pulled him down to the ground. Five linked, heavy metal pillars rained down from above immediately after and pinned him in place, essentially forming a tiny prison consisting of five thick, metal bars.

He couldn't look away. He saw the fear, the pain, the betrayal in the Hollow's eyes, and his heart clenched almost painfully.

The Hollow sank to its knees, its blade clattering to the ground, and only then did Grimmjow start to struggle against his bindings.

He saw the Hollow's blood—no—saw Ichigo's blood covering the length of his weapon, felt it seep through the gaps in his gauntlet and how warm it still was when it dripped onto his skin, and the fog in his head cleared all at once.

His Resurrección fell apart around him, and Grimmjow cried out in pain as all the dark and heavy Reiatsu escaped his body, feeling his body twist and deform as he shrank back down to his normal size. The already-damaged tissue of his throat did not take kindly to his screaming, yet he didn't let up until he was once more looking down at his own, human hands, rather than wicked black claws.

"Ichigo… Ichigo!" he gasped out, easily slipping free of the chains and prison bars now that his Segunda Etapa's bulk had disappeared. He rushed straight towards the fallen teen, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste, yet didn't let that slow him down.

"Stay back!" Ichigo frantically yelled out, and it was as if a block of lead had dropped into his stomach when Ichigo pushed him away, when Ichigo of all people looked at him with fear in his eyes.

"Something's wrong!" Ichigo went on, clutching at his wound as steam began to pour from it, and cracks appeared in his armor. "I can't… hold it back! Grimm, watch out!"

An entirely different sort of terror took over him at Ichigo's words, and Grimmjow wanted nothing more than to keep running, to help him, to fix this, but that was when Urahara suddenly appeared next to him in a flicker of Shunpo.

Faster than Grimmjow's eyes could follow, the shopkeeper threw him to the ground, using a martial arts style Grimmjow had never seen before and wouldn't even know how to begin defending against. Urahara then kept him there by pressing his knee to Grimmjow's throat before leaning on it with his full weight, and threw up a Blood Mist Shield to protect them both from the shockwave and burst of searing heat Ichigo released when his armor came apart.

When the steam cleared up, Ichigo was left sitting on the ground with a dazed expression, his Mask and armor gone without a trace.

The shopkeeper released Grimmjow once it was clear the danger had passed, and he quickly scrambled to his feet and closed the remaining distance to Ichigo.

"Where the hell is the Princess?!" he snapped, putting his hands on Ichigo's bare shoulders and feeling disproportionately relieved when the teen didn't shy away from his touch.

"I'm here!" Orihime came rushing over with Nelliel in tow, hands already flying to her hairpins, yet Ichigo held up a hand of his own to hold her off.

"It's okay," he told her. "I'm…I'm fine." He actually sounded surprised himself.

"Like hell you are!" Grimmjow snarled, yet cut his rant short when Ichigo removed his hand from his abdomen, and revealed smooth, undamaged skin underneath. Aside from some minor redness, there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest Ichigo had been run through by Byakko's Fang not even a minute earlier.

"How the hell…" Grimmjow muttered under his breath. "Even Ulquiorra couldn't fix that kinda damage. How did you-?"

"It's happened before," Orihime brought in, frowning thoughtfully. "After Ichigo defeated Ulquiorra. His armor broke apart, and it was as if… as if he used the excess energy that was released to close the hole in his chest."

"I see," Urahara uttered thoughtfully as he walked up to them as well. "In exchange for giving up your Resurrección, you are able to recover from even a fatal wound," he said to Ichigo. "Though I assume you can only do so once. Am I correct in saying that you cannot activate Resurrección again, Kurosaki-san?"

"I… No, I can't," Ichigo stuttered, still looking overwhelmed by what just happened. Grimmjow didn't blame him. "I didn't drop out of Bankai at least, but my Hollow powers feel really weak right now."

He turned to look at Grimmjow, and he had to stop himself from flinching. Something disturbingly like shame welled up inside of him, and Grimmjow was unsure of how to deal with that—how he could even begin to make up for almost fucking killing Ichigo.

"You okay?"

That… was not the reaction Grimmjow had been expecting.

"What the hell, Kurosaki?" he asked quietly, "you're the one who just got fucking stabbed in the gut. Why are you asking me?"

"You look kind of shaken up." He shrugged. "And it was my fault it happened in the first place—I shouldn't have let my guard down. You warned me plenty of times that you wouldn't be yourself while in Segunda Etapa, but I just… kept thinking that it was still you, and you wouldn't really hurt me."

"…Why the hell do you trust me so much?" Grimmjow couldn't help but ask. This wasn't even the first time he'd tried to kill Ichigo. It was just the first time he hadn't done so on purpose.

"I just do," Ichigo answered simply, with a crooked smile. "Aren't you mad at me though?"

"Why the hell would I be mad at you?"

"For 'pulling another bullshit power-up out of my ass'?" Ichigo joked, repeating Grimmjow's own words from earlier, and it forced a bark of unbidden laughter out of Grimmjow.

"…Nah," he admitted, shaking his head in fond exasperation. "For once, I'm glad you're such a goddamn freak of nature."

"Oi," Ichigo snapped back in mock-offense, and halfheartedly punched Grimmjow's shoulder. He was grinning though, and that pretty thoroughly ruined whatever admonishing effect he'd intended his words to have.

"Jaegerjaquez-san," Urahara spoke up, drawing his attention. "Despite this ah… mishap, have you made any progress towards gaining control?"

"…No," he admitted uneasily. "I tried to fight back a couple times, but look how well that turned out." He gestured at the faint red spot on Ichigo's abdomen. "I'm not gonna risk killing Kurosaki over this," he decided in a firm tone that left no room for arguments. "I'll try again on my own."

"Grimm-!" Ichigo began to protest, but quickly stopped when Urahara held up his hand in a bid for silence.

"You once said that you found it easier to control your Hollow instincts upon gaining Shikai, did you not?" Urahara asked Grimmjow while scratching the stubble on his chin.

"…I did," he eventually agreed, with a non-insignificant amount of suspicion. The shopkeeper might have earned a certain degree of trust from Grimmjow by this point, but the look Urahara had in his eyes right now was setting off all kinds of warning bells.

"Well, in that case!" Urahara said, in a tone that was far too cheerful and energetic for Grimmjow's liking. The goofy smile he had plastered on also contrasted rather heavily with the sharpness in his gaze.

"Allow me to offer up a suggestion…"