Chapter 24: Let's Go To Mexico
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Zanpakutō"
"Hollows/Vizard"
"[Reading/listening to a message/letter]"
"{Speaking a different language}"
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The black void swirled around the group as they ran onward, Unohana guiding their way with a wide white path of Reishi that she formed seemingly without effort. As they ran, Bambietta called out, "Just to be clear, we don't have to worry about that sludge train from hell this time?"
Beside her, Hanatarō answered, "No ma'am. The Kōtotsu only exists within the Dangai. As Urahara-san said, our worry here is becoming separated." With an awkward chuckle, he remarked, "Of course, if we were traveling in the Dangai, we would merely use Hell Butterflies to avoid the Kōtotsu altogether."
The German's eyebrow twitched. "I'm sorry, did you just tell me we could have avoided the sludge train from hell completely?" She had not been happy about having to flee that thing when they'd left Soul Society. Almost dying to a glorified street sweeper after successfully storming heaven itself was beyond ridiculous.
Hanatarō looked at her in confusion, but before he could ask what the problem was, Retsu called back, "We're about to exit the Garganta, be ready!" Sure enough, up ahead was an end to the nothingness around them; a tear much like the one they had entered through formed in the air.
Moments later, they all ran through, exiting the portal in midair above the sand covered ground. Fortunately, they were less than half a meter off the ground, unlike their foray into Soul Society. Once everyone got their bearings, they started looking around. All that met their eyes were endless sand dunes and the occasional lifeless tree beneath a blank void of a sky with only a waning gibbous moon for light. With a tilt of her head, Candice remarked, "You know, I always pictured the world Hollows came from to be more Castlevania than Arabian Nights."
Nearby, Nemu offered, "Hueco Mundo is a completely lifeless wasteland except for the Hollows that inhabit it." Moving towards what appeared to be a small barren sapling growing out of the ground, she bent over and snapped it, heedless of both Ichigo and Candice leaning over to watch. Straightening back up, the violette held it up for inspection and noted, "Even this tree is actually merely a crystal formation." Indeed, looking closer, it was clear the 'tree' was not wood at all. She gave it a smart tap and listened for a moment, "Quartz. Or something extremely similar."
"No wonder they want to enter the Living World if this is their home," Orihime murmured. Her face was downcast, no doubt she was thinking about her late brother and his brief time as a Hollow. Next to her, Tatsuki put a hand on her shoulder.
"Does anyone know where we're supposed to be going?" Uryū asked, interrupting the moment.
Pointing towards something in the distance, Bambietta offered, "Shot in the dark, maybe the giant fortress?" Following her finger, the group saw a massive structure, a large domed building surrounded by towers on the horizon.
Unohana nodded in agreement, "Indeed. That is most likely our destination." Surveying the party, she asked, "Does everyone have some form of speed technique they can utilize?"
Everyone nodded, except for Hanatarō, who raised his hand awkwardly. "Um, Captain Unohana…"
"Of course. Sado-kun, would you mind carrying Yamada-kun?" The giant teen nodded, casually scooping the much smaller Shinigami into his arms even as his right transformed. At the same time, the three Quincy created small platforms of Reishi under their feet, Orihime's Santen Kesshun appeared beneath her, and Tatsuki's transformed into her more draconic form. "Very well. Let us head out." In an instant, all of them vanished in a burst of speed, minus Orihime who sailed along at high speeds, carried by her glowing shield.
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After a couple hours of movement, Tatsuki piped up, "Is it me, or does that place not seem to be getting closer?" She had a point. Despite the vast amount of distance covered, the palace barely seemed any closer than when they had started. "Maybe it's a mirage?"
"Unlikely," Nemu offered. "Mirages are formed from light being distorted as it passes through air of a varying temperature." The scientist looked up into the sky and blinked three times in quick succession. "The air here has a constant temperature from ground level up to at least 63 meters. Such conditions would not allow for mirages to form." Repeating the rapid blinking, she focused once more on her surroundings. Long since used to his girlfriend having an entire electronics store of gadgets built into her body, Ichigo simply shrugged at the idea she could get accurate temperature readings at a glance.
Others weren't quite as accepting. "Do you have thermal imaging in your eyes?" Uryū asked incredulously.
"And up to fifty times magnification, which is useful for more delicate work," was the perfunctory answer.
From where she sat upon her Santen Kesshun, Orihime inquired, "Um, why do you have a microscope in your eyes?"
The look she received suggested the answer was obvious. "Mayuri believed such an upgrade to be useful. Though I wouldn't call it a microscope; I am unable to even see bacteria without aid." Most of the group shared a look at that statement, unsure how exactly to take someone deprecating having fifty times magnification built into their eyes. "Also, there seems to be a commotion heading this way," Nemu calmly stated while pointing towards her two o'clock.
Only just visible to those with natural eyes, a large dust cloud was rapidly approaching them from the indicated direction. The entire group came to a halt by unspoken agreement. "Can you see what it is?" Isane asked her fellow lieutenant. Hopefully, it wasn't Aizen's forces, already aware of them and leading a counterattack so soon.
Nemu frowned as she stared at the dust cloud, tilting her head this way and that as though trying to puzzle out what she was seeing. "I… there must be something wrong with the magnification function. It looks like a trio of Hollows… chasing a kindergartner." Her description caused everyone to turn and look at her, to which she shrugged. "I did say my magnification must be malfunctioning."
Before Unohana could issue any orders, Hanatarō fell to the ground as Ichigo, Sado, and Candice vanished in an instant. In mere moments, they reappeared standing directly between the small child and the Hollows chasing her. The three Hollows all reared back in shock at their appearance as the child fell onto her butt in the sand. The largest of the trio was a massive black worm-like Hollow with an eyeless face but remarkably large lips and teeth. Another was humanoid and very lanky. He had purple skin and wore a white armored vest along with a pale loincloth, his face hidden behind an insectoid mask. The final Hollow was taller than even Sado and wore a yellow bodysuit covered in black polka dots. His body was much stockier and more heavyset than his comrades. And his head was enormous, nearly half his total height with a mask like a typical tiki mask. All three trembled in fear of the powerful interlopers standing before them. "Waah! We're sorry, don'tcha know!" The taller one shouted, tears in his eyes.
"Hey! Why're you being mean to Nel'th brothers!" Turning enough to glance behind them, the three humans saw the small child glaring up at them. She looked like a little girl around four or five years old, with a crimson line across her face and a large scar that went from one side of her nose, up between her eyes, and disappeared into her hairline. She was also in a green hooded gown of some sort. Most notably, when her hood fell down and revealed her indignant glare, it also revealed the cartoonish skull mask sitting atop her short green hair.
"An Arrancar?" Sado questioned, confused as the other two. Indeed, now that they were closer, the trio could tell that the girl's Reiatsu was just like the Arrancar they'd faced before, albeit far weaker. Heck, she seemed to have less power than Hanatarō.
Ichigo frowned thoughtfully, "But she seems complete. Why would Aizen make a child Arrancar?" From what he remembered, natural Arrancar looked more like Hollows with partially broken masks. This Arrancar looked more like a human child with a Halloween mask on her head.
"Don't ignore Nel!" The child, apparently named Nel, shouted at them as she waved her fists angrily.
All three teens stood down, realizing that clearly, Nel wasn't in trouble like they thought. Candice shared an awkward glance with the other two before offering, "We thought you were in trouble. Since you were being chased and crying?"
Nel's anger immediately evaporated as a bright smile appeared on her face. "Oh. That'th okay then. We're playing Eternal Tag. Nel cried because Nel'th a masochist and it'th no fun if Nel doesn't at least cry a little."
"Excuse me, what the fuck?" Candice asked dumbfoundedly as the rest of the group arrived.
At the same time, Ichigo turned towards the three Hollows. Having just started to relax, they all reared back once more in the face of Ichigo's outrage. "What the hell have you been teaching this little girl?!"
Before he could do anything, Isane piped up, "Excuse me, who are they exactly?" Like the others, she was staring at the quartet in confusion, having not caught their conversation.
The Hollows and Nel all smiled before leaping away from the group. While the worm Hollow rose up and opened its mouth wide, the other three all struck dramatic poses right out of a sentai series. "We are the Night Desert Bandits/Nel-Pes-Don Trio/Hyakujuu Lords!" All three shouted a different name at the same time, possibly including the worm given how it made loud noises along with them. The trio then immediately started arguing over what their group's name was supposed to be. The yellow one was crying as he argued while Nel was jumping up and down, waving her arms.
Uryū pinched his glasses in frustration, though Orihime clearly enjoyed their introduction, her eyes sparkling. Unless Ichigo missed his guess, she was going to try to convince them (or at least Tatsuki) to do something similar. Bambietta clearly shared Uryū's frustration however and eventually demanded, "Look, this is nice and all but what the fuck are your names?!" Ichigo and Retsu both gave her a quick glare for her language around a little girl.
None of the Hollows seemed to notice, however. The purple one spoke up, "I am Pesche Guatiche. These are my companions, Dondochakka Birstanne, Nel Tu, and Bawabawa." As he introduced them, he gestured to the yellow Hollow, the small child, and the worm respectively. "Now, might I ask who you-"
"You're Thinigami!" Nel suddenly shouted, pointing at Ichigo or more specifically, his Zanpakutō. All four Hollows suddenly reared back in fear at realizing that not only Ichigo, but roughly half the group were all Shinigami. "Thinigami kill Hollow'th!"
"Technically, Shinigami purify Homph," Nemu's attempted explanation was cut off by Ichigo's hand. She looked at him in askance, but Ichigo simply shook his head.
Turning back to the freaked-out quartet, Ichigo removed Eien-ō from his hip and handed her to Nemu before crouching down in the sand. "Hey," he said softly, a friendly smile on his face, "Yes, we're Shinigami. But we're not going to hurt you. We're just here to fight Aizen." Nel peeked out from where she'd hidden behind Dondochakka's leg to stare at him with her big hazel eyes. "We don't want to fight anyone else and we won't attack anyone who doesn't attack us first." Pesche cleared his throat meaningfully, causing Ichigo to look up at him. "In our defense, we thought you were trying to eat a five-year-old." The purple Hollow tilted his head slightly and nodded in acceptance. Looking back to Nel, Ichigo continued, "C'mon, nothing says we can't be friends, right?" Focused as he was on Nel, he didn't notice the speculative looks some of the women around him were giving as he calmed down the young girl.
"Well, I thuppoth that…" Nel slowly stated. Then suddenly, in a burst of speed, she was by Nemu's side and grabbed Eien-ō before running off. "You're it!" She shouted as she gleefully ran off into the dunes.
The 180 took Ichigo by such surprise that it took the young captain a couple seconds to realize what just happened. Once he did, the teen growled in annoyance, "Oh for the love of-" He took off in a flash of Shunpo after Nel as Bambietta and Candice openly guffawed at his misfortune. Orihime and Isane both giggled while Tatsuki teasingly mocked him for falling for such a simple trick.
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While everyone sat around the makeshift "camp" (really just the spot they decided to hunker down, given the lack of tents, bed rolls, or even a fire), Candice decided to approach their group's eldest member. Fortunately, Unohana was a distance away from the others, seemingly enjoying the night sky. Though Candice couldn't understand why given it was the exact same sky they'd been traveling under for hours now. Even the moon didn't seem to have moved. Sure, the sight was kinda nice, but it got boring after a while. After a moment, Candice realized there weren't even any stars in the sky. Just the moon and the occasional thin wispy cloud. 'That means there's water somewhere, right?'
"Did you need something, Catnipp-san?" The older woman asked without turning around, making Candice realize how long she'd been standing there, delaying.
Awkwardly scratching the back of her head, the Irishwoman replied, "Um yeah. This is a bit… okay, I-" While Unohana couldn't say she knew Candice well, she still had spent enough time around her to know the Quincy was acting uncharacteristically hesitant. "Fuck it! Look, I need some relationship advice."
Her declaration made the ravenette relax as she turned around to address her. This was hardly the first time one of her juniors came to her with such a problem, though she couldn't help but ask, "Why not ask Basterbine-san?" Nodding towards where the German was sharing a story. Given how she held up her hands, either she was telling them about a fish she'd caught… or something considerably lewder. Probably the latter. She seemed rather brash for the kind of patience fishing required in Unohana's experience. That Ichigo clapped his hands over young Nel's ears and seemed to be scolding the Quincy merely confirmed it.
Candice snorted in response. "Same reason you don't ask a fish for flying lessons. But seriously, I'm in unfamiliar territory right now." And the nervousness was back. "I've only ever been with guys. I mean, I've had a couple threesomes, but those were more 'Two of us fucking the same guy' than all three of us together, minus putting on a show, you know? Bambi thinks I've fucked women too, so I really can't go to her. Not to mention her advice would be shite like 'Stick a finger in her ass when you're eating her' or 'Play with her nipples while you sit on her face'. Which is absolutely not what I need." And worse, now she was rambling. Slapping herself across the face, she took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyway, I don't know if I just never met the right kind of women before or what, but I'm noticing them a lot more now. And two of the ones I'm noticing most are… complicated for their own reasons."
"Since you're asking me, should I assume I'm not one of them?" Unohana gently teased, a light smile on her face, before patting the sand next to her, clearly inviting her to sit down.
"Yeah, no. No offense, but you don't really do it for me." The young woman stepped forward and sat down next to her companion, close but not quite in her personal space. "Well, first is Yoruichi. I assume you know her?" A quick glance showed Unohana nodding. "Right. She's a total babe for starters. Even if I didn't like women, ten out of ten anyway. And she's this weird combination of cool big sis and shameless flirt. When she isn't being a total slavedriver in training, she'll explain what we're doing and why or just give advice on how to do better. Then in Soul Society, during our downtime, she was just so- ungh! Always flaunting her body like she knew everyone would pay for her to sit on their face. I probably saw her pussy more times than I saw my own. It's like a porn star come to life."
Seeing Candice's face redden at her memories, Unohana lightly prompted her, "And the other woman that's caught your eye?"
That made the verdette heave a sigh. "Nemu if you'd believe it. Most of the time she seems less like a person and more like a doll or a robot. But sometimes, she gets this spark and it's like watching Pinocchio come to life." Unohana assumed that was a reference of some sort, even if it was one she didn't understand. "She stops being a marionette going through the motions and becomes a real person. And it makes her gorgeous." Staring up at the moon, Candice took off her cap and ran a hand through her hair. "But this is where it gets stupid: I don't know how to approach her about it. She's fucking Ichigo; I'm fucking Ichigo. And I know she wants me fucking Ichigo, but I don't know if she'd fuck me. Or date me for that matter. Girl's pretty Ichigo-sexual. That's not even getting into the fact that I'm thirsty for Yoruichi and no one in this complicated mess of a relationship is involved with her. Do I try dating her? Should I get permission first? If so, am I asking Ichigo or is it a majority vote?"
Reaching over, the ravenette gently pulled Candice down until her head laid in her lap and started brushing a hand gently over her hair. Initially, the Quincy stiffened in outrage at someone touching her pride and joy, but the action was so soothing that she found herself relaxing regardless. "Relationships are always confusing when you're just starting out. It doesn't matter how many or how few you've been in before; the next one will always be something new and different you've never had to deal with." Chuckling, Unohana told her, "I once had a lover who despised any sort of schedule and did everything spontaneously. It was fun and romantic at first, but imagine Ichigo showing up to take you on a date when you're elbow deep in a cadaver." Candice snorted in laughter even as her face turned green at the mental image. "Exactly. I've never been involved in a relationship with more than two other people at once, but for Nemu, the best solution would be to simply talk to her and invite her on a date. Either she'll accept and you'll have a new lover. Or she'll refuse and you'll stop spending all your time wondering 'What if?'. As for Yoruichi, while I'm not certain she's interested in a relationship with anyone, I would recommend first talking to the others to make sure they're comfortable opening up our odd little group to more people. Communication is paramount in any relationship, especially one as complicated as ours. So if you're ever troubled, know that you can come to us with anything."
Her minor relationship/sexuality crisis solved, Candice felt lighter than she had in some time. It took more mental effort than she'd admit, but she pulled herself out of the older woman's lap and stood up, brushing sand off her butt as she went. Before returning to the group, she looked back at Retsu and gave a genuine, "Thanks, mom." The older woman's smile became a little more real at her words. After a second, the verdette realized what exactly she'd said. Blood rushed to her face, painting her cheeks scarlet as the smile widened in amusement. Without another word, Candice fled back to the others, noticeably not taking back her words.
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Once everyone had rested, they were off once again, this time riding atop Bawabawa. The worm-like Hollow was surprisingly fast, even with over a dozen passengers sitting on his back. Nel kept trying to take Eien-ō from Ichigo's hip, something his Zanpakutō seemed to find rather amusing. Eventually, he put a stop to it by simply picking the childish Arrancar up and setting her in his lap, something that made Isane coo in delight. "So how long until we reach Los Noches?" Sado asked their native companions.
"Shouldn't be more than another hour or so, don'tcha know," came Dondochakka's reply. "So how come you guys are going after Aizen-sama?"
Tatsuki replied from where she was laying down upon Bawabawa's back. "He's a traitor; he's tried to kill us; he's planning to murder an entire city to become a god. Take your pick. The guy's got a lot of reasons why people want him dead."
"And we're being paid. Don't forget that," Bambietta offered cheekily.
"I feel like that'd be at the bottom of the list of reasons," The martial artist frowned.
The German woman shrugged, "Maybe for you. I've got bills to pay. And since I'm not gonna fuck my landlord to make rent, I need cash." That comment made the humans, minus Candice, blink. They had almost forgotten that Bambietta was a grown woman who had to deal with things like rent and food bills. Though her callousness was a bit off-putting; even if she didn't really know anyone in Karakura besides them, they were still talking about a hundred thousand deaths.
As the group lapsed back into silence, Retsu played with Nel, the young Arrancar enjoying the attention. At least she did until Retsu touched her mask fragment. That resulted in the verdette smacking her hand away and giving her an adorable glare. "Don't touch!" And yet, much like a puppy that had its tail stepped on, she seemingly forgave and forgot mere seconds later, once more happily playing with the matronly woman.
Naturally, that's when the universe decided things were a little too pleasant and homey and decided to throw a wrench into things. Bawabawa suddenly stopped just as the ground began to shake. The tremors started small but quickly grew into a serious earthquake as the landscape heaved before them. The dunes rose up and fused together. "Intruders! You shall not enter Los Noches!" A deafening voice boomed. The sand formed the upper body of a colossal Hollow, humanoid in shape and with a head shaped like a sandcastle. Even just one arm dwarfed Bawabawa entirely. "None shall pass!"
"It'th the Guardian! Runuganga!" Nel cried in terror, clinging to Ichigo as she buried her face in his robe.
Before the others could move, Tatsuki leapt up onto Bawabawa's head. "Yeah, no. We're on a deadline here, so I'm gonna need you to piss off!" Between one word and the next, she transformed, becoming a humanoid dragon even taller than Sado. The giant sand Hollow swung at her with a titanic fist but he was far too slow. She took a deep breath and blasted his entire body with a massive beam of lightning. Runuganga screamed in pain and disbelief as a cloud of sand hid him from view. When Tatsuki finally stopped and the sand slowly dispersed, all that was left of the guardian was a crude statue of semi-molten glass, his face frozen in agony. "Hmf. Showed him," She grunted as she changed back.
Half the group gaped in astonishment at her feat, none more than the trio of Hollows who had previously quaked in fear at the thought of facing Los Noches' mighty guardian. Even as they watched, the glass cooled and began to crack. Its extended arm was the first to give way, breaking off near the shoulder when it could no longer bear its own weight. The dramatic moment was somewhat ruined when Orihime glomped her girlfriend. "That was so cool, Tatsuki-chan!" She gushed. "He was all 'I'll destroy you all' and you were all 'Rawr' then the lightning went 'whoosh'!"
"Um, excuse me," Hanatarō timidly spoke, his hand raised as though they were in class, "Shouldn't we keep going before they send more after us?" Even as he spoke, he looked around nervously, as though expecting more enemies to leap out of the dunes. In his defense, the last enemy was the dunes, so his disquiet wasn't completely unwarranted.
"Quite so. Bawabawa-san, if you would?" Retsu requested of their ride. The Hollow gave a noise of acquiescence and continued onwards, carefully navigating around the still collapsing glass statue. Once they were moving again, it wasn't long before they reached Los Noches itself. The walls of the palace were reminiscent of those around the Seireitei in their sheer scale. "I don't suppose you three know where the closest entrance is?"
"Hm. If memory serves, it's only about a three day walk in that direction," Pesche explained as he pointed off to his right.
"Is that so? Unfortunate." Rapping her knuckles on the wall, she realized, "It doesn't contain Sekkiseki to any significant degree. In that case, Hadō #63, Raikōhō." From her palm shot a yellow blast of electricity straight into the wall. With a thunderous crash, a hole large enough for four people to walk side by side was bored out of the wall. "That's better."
While the others moved to follow, Ichigo paused to address their unlikely helpers. "You guys should head back to the desert. It'll be too dangerous for you in there."
"No way! You can't just abandon Nel, Itsygo!" Nel wailed. "We're friend'th!"
"He's got a point though," Isane offered. "If they spot you with us, Aizen's forces will target you as traitors."
However, Nel refused to accept this argument. "They already know we're traitor'th after Runuganga! Maybe even before that!" She loudly protested, unshed tears in her eyes. Her words caused her brothers to start. They'd initially agreed with Ichigo's logic, not wanting to get involved in the coming conflict. Not only would it put Nel in danger, but it might cause her memories to return and force her to fight against her will once more. But if they were going to be in danger anyway…
"Alright fine," Ichigo relented, "You can come with us. Just stay behind us and make sure you don't get caught up in the fighting, okay?" All three eagerly nodded in agreement. As they all entered the tunnel, Pesche and Dondochakka shared a look; it wasn't an ideal solution but it could certainly be worse. Hopefully, their training and their new companions would be enough to protect Nel.
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As the group worked their way through the unnecessarily large half of the even more exorbitantly massive palace, two individuals in two different rooms observed them. Though both were sociopaths and both sought to separate the invaders, each had extremely different motivations for doing so. One was a scientist seeking new experimental data. The other was a traitor looking for some entertainment. Thus, Szayelapporo Granz within his laboratory and Ichimaru Gin inside a monitoring room both activated similar devices to allow them to manipulate the hallways of Los Noches. With just the push of a button, they could reroute hallways, collapse ceilings, and open trapdoors. Each got to work, shifting Los Noches' structure to shuffle the group around. Of course, with two different people with two different goals trying to do the same thing at once, their conflicting orders led to some unintentional detours.
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As they walked through the corridor, the floor suddenly opened below Nemu before closing again the moment she was through. Due to both her stoic nature and positioning at the back of the group, no one even noticed as she disappeared. However, they definitely noticed when the ceiling came crashing down, splitting the remaining group in two. "What the hell?!" Bambietta demanded, right as another trapdoor opened up underneath Hanatarō right next to her. "Oi! The bitch boy just disappeared!"
Unfortunately, the situation spooked Nel, causing her to run off. "Of for- Nel, get back here!" Ichigo shouted as he ran after the child. Sado quickly broke down the wall separating the group, yet by then, half of them had vanished. And even as they regrouped, the halls continued to change around them. Though none were injured despite how rapidly parts shifted about, their instinctive maneuvers as they dodged eventually led to them becoming separated from the others anyway. Ironically, the only two who didn't end up completely separated from the others were the fairly dim Pesche and Dondochakka, each of whom ran after one of the others.
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Separated from the others, Orihime tried to find her way back, but the corridors were endlessly winding. If she didn't know better, she'd say they were changing as well as her attempts to backtrack all failed, leaving her more lost than ever. Now she was in an entirely new area, a hallway that wasn't as wide as the others but had archways every couple meters overhead. As she was looking around, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. A blur passed by overhead. For just a moment, the teenager forgot she was in enemy territory and called out, "Wait! Wait for me!" The figure ignored her however and kept moving forwards, forcing her to give chase.
Fortunately, the chase didn't last long. After less than a minute, the figure misstepped, their foot missing the wooden beam they were aiming for entirely. As a result, they came crashing down to the floor some ten meters below them. The impact kicked up a significant dust cloud and caused the unfortunate person to start coughing uncontrollably. Worried, Orihime asked them, "Are you okay?"
The figure stood up suddenly, dispersing the dust and revealing themselves to be an Arrancar. He was tall, towering over her by at least thirty centimeters. His black hair was mostly swept back, though two tufts stood up in a way that resembled devil horns. He had a van-dyke style beard and mustache, while his mask fragment consisted of a horned bone plate on his forehead. The man wore the same white clothing as the other Arrancar, though his jacket had an unusually high collar along with tassels on his sleeves; he also had a red sash tied around his waist. Noticing Orihime's attention, he struck a dramatic pose and declared, "Never mind that! I am Arrancar 103, Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio. And I will be your opponent, Niña." The last part was said with a grin that bordered on sinister as Orihime's hands flew to her hairpins, ready to do battle against this new enemy.
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AN: So first, I did a minor rewrite of chapter 20, specifically, improving Ichigo's showing against Grimmjow so that the Sexta used his resurreccion to beat Ichigo. Anyway, after posting last chapter, I realized I needed to sit down and realize who's fighting whom. See, my old plans had Orihime still get kidnapped, everyone still willingly splits up, even Ichigo still fighting all the same people. How fucking boring is that?! Instead I've altered the deal, pray I alter it further. At any rate, there's a grand total of two canon fights happening this arc. More if I decide Fake Karakura and Hueco Mundo are one arc (and even that's going to only be the fights against Aizen being canon fights, everything else is getting swapped around).
In other news, I got halfway through Candice's scene with Unohana before remembering that it's already been implied that she's no stranger to having sex/relationships with women. So thinking on it, I decided to have Candice admit she was lying before, possibly to make herself look more experienced to Bambietta, who is experienced with both, even if she heavily prefers men to women.
Anywho, I skipped the Menos Forest for two reasons, 1) I honestly forget it even happened back when I was making plans. 2) It doesn't really add anything and is just padding/filler. Also, Nel's lisp is annoyingly hard to write. I don't imagine she'll get a lot of dialogue before puberty hits her like Truck-kun and she returns to being a big titty goat.