Yuki darted forwards like a literal bullet, her gaze strong and determined like she was about to jump into the jaws of death itself... not a bad description of what she intended, all things considered. She had a firm resolution about what she was to do, and, as such, she did not hesitate as she faced the cero's blast that was even larger than herself.
To those watching it was like if a moth was throwing herself into the flames. Except-
"Cleave the wickedness in my path, Shiroi Shikiri (White Divider)."
As those words rang out Yuki's sword changed, briefly being bathed in a bright white light which died down in the following 2 seconds. Once it did, the sword's form looked to have been changed from its previous one. In this form, the sword showed itself as quite long, being 1.6 meters with the handle being able to work as a one-handed or a two-handed sword, its blade being double-edged like that of a knight's greatsword with both edges turned into a resplendent golden color.
Overall the sword looked extremely majestic and as the cero was about to hit Yuki she put said sword in front of herself.
"Rakan (Piece)." From the tip of her sword, a piercing light could be seen and the cero was split into several directions as all power that hit the tip of Yuki's sword was redirected away from her instantly.
She moved forward without losing any of her motion until the point she bypassed the hollow entirely, piercing right through its head and going straight through the back.
As she passed through she could see that the hole she made was already closing. Knitting her brows she kicked the air, using her magic control to create a platform for her to do such a thing, and jumped above the creature.
Her sword shining with arcs of light and electricity, the energy staggering as she looked down at the hollow.
"Hogeki (Pulverize)." A blast of power washed down the hollow, destroying him entirely with ease.
However, Yuki did not lower her guard as she knew that this was far too easy. Her eyes widened as she saw that the sand close to the fort began to shift and she darter towards it, her speed increasing as her determination increased.
To not allow for another disaster to happen, for that ideal she would not stop and would do all she possibly can to prevent that.
As Yuki hit the floor a huge explosion of sand could be seen in all directions from the impact.
The sand hollow emerged further away this time and moved both his arms, from his movements several tornadoes of sand came to be and moved towards the fort behind Yuki.
The blue knight did not hesitate, standing in the path of the tornadoes she waited until the last possible moment before swinging her sword.
"Full Counter."
As the sword and the dust tornado met the tornado was bounced back from where it came from with twice the speed and force it had previously.
For the hollows in the distance watching, this was like a clash of titans but they had absolute confidence in the hollow side winning since, in the end, all of Yuki's attacks were ultimately useless against it.
Being made out of sand it was hard for Yuki to defeat it. If it was somewhere else she could have defeated him with considerable ease but in the dunes of Hueco Mundo where there was an unlimited amount of sand to use there was little else she could do.
But, this did not stop Yuki. She concentrated and the hand that was holding the sword changed, now having multiple vein-like patterns covering it and her energy increasing once again as she looked at the hollow in front of her.
Inside her mind, a laugh could be heard as the patterns emerged and she shut down that voice before it could distract her from her objective.
Meanwhile, inside the candy fort, Zest was still not alright at all, and Ace was suffering under whatever was happening to him. The only ones fine were Orihime and her brother. Sora, being in Hueco Mundo and being a normal weak spirit, was having troubles of his own trying to fight off the corruption on his spirit chain unless he wanted to become a Hollow, as such he could not even afford the time or energy to talk anymore as he had to put his all into stopping it.
That meant only Orihime was left that could react to what was going on outside. She could see glimpses of the battle between Yuki and the giant sand hollow as well as the almost empty state that Zest was by now. "If only I was strong..." Orihime muttered as she saw herself being completely useless right now. Clenching her fists she looked at Zest who was still in a catatonic state and moved to in front of her. With no hesitation, Orihime raised her hand and sent out a loud slap to Zest's face, snapping her out of it.
As if she just returned to reality Zest looked around and when she saw Ace she was about to go back to that state only for Orihime to speak up."Stop that, there is more to do than worry for Ace-kun right now. He will survive this, I am sure he will, but we need to beat the big baddies outside and I can't do it. If you can then go there and actually protect Ace-kun, please." Orihime said and Zest looked up at the girl and her eyes sharpened.
Opening her wings Zest nodded to Orihime before moving out as well, she could see that Orihime was right and she still has a duty to fulfill. She must protect the one that gave her worth, no matter what she will not let him die.
Orihime stayed behind, being only able to watch as Zest flew up to the sky, and admiring another person that could do what she could not do. Someone that could protect that which she wanted to protect.
On a dune a distance away someone was watching the proceeding experiment and recording everything. The person in question was one of Aizen's most trusted subordinates, which isn't really saying much considering he doesn't really trust any of them, Espada 4, Ulchiora.
"It seems like something is happening with the man Lord Aizen wants to investigate. Perhaps there is a need to put more pressure to force the man to come out and showcase more of his abilities." Ulquiorra said in a monotone voice before thinking for a moment about what he could do to make this more intense.
After some deliberation, he decided and opened a pathway to the Hollow Forest before throwing Hollow Bait at the fortress a distance away.
For a moment nothing happened but soon the sounds of footsteps could be heard for miles as multiple Gilians came out of the opening Ulchiora made.
Nodding to himself Ulchiora moved to another vantage point to observe what would happen so he could show it back to Lord Aizen.
Back in the sky Zest could see Yuki facing the giant made from sand. The creature looked about as strong as a high-class devil on the strong side, but Yuki was dealing with it easily enough. Zest would like to help there but her magic was decidedly unsuitable to face someone made out of sand considering had magic is mostly centered on earth and stone.
She was about to go there when she saw the multiple giant hollows advancing towards the fort where Ace and Orihime were at. "I won't allow your monsters to get anywhere close to Ace-sama!" She shouted and dived down in front of them. Where she landed a magic circle was created and grew to a great size and, from it, the sand was collected and turned into stone. More and more stone surged as it started to grow bigger and bigger until She was standing on the shoulder of a giant golem made out of pure stone. The thing was easily 20 meters tall and several tons of pure stone.
With a shout Zest ordered her golem to move, fist swinging it crashed down at the first Gillian, breaking its mask and pushing its corpse to the other Gillians. Some of them went to Zest again but not all-seeing as some started to devour the killed Gillian then and there.
Normally, a devil wouldn't try something like what she was doing, creating a golem of this size and controlling it would put a constant strain into the body, but thanks to Zest being a Chimeric Devil it was simple enough for her to handle it.
One of the gillians opened its mouth and launched a Cero at the Golem, but Zest intercepted it by creating a magic shield in front of the blast and blocking it entirely. "You will need to do better than that!" Zest shouted as she moved her giant to face the multiple Gilians at once.
Yuki just sent a glance at Zest when she heard the commotion on that side but that was enough for the giant of sand to fire a Cero right at her.
With the subsequent explosion, Runaganga emerged fully from the ground and, thinking he had defeated the annoying pest that was troubling him, tried again to destroy the candy construct. However, before it could another blast of white energy was used and it sliced right through the arm of the hollow who pulled back.
It looked at the dust cloud from the Cero he just launched only to see Yuki standing there perfectly alright. "As long as I wield this sword, the stronger my will the stronger I am. Something of this level can't hope to injure me as long as I know what is behind me." Yuki said before moving to the giant again.
The battle raging on as time passed, becoming more and more extreme.
As the situation continued progressing it was another half an hour from when Zest entered the fight. Her Golem was almost destroyed multiple times but she kept making it right back together and had already killed at the very least 50 Gillians by herself now. Zest looked extremely tired, her body seemed about ready to fall apart and her to pass out, but she continued forward as she saw that while the Gillians had stopped surging other smaller hollows were coming to feast on the bodies of the defeated.
As for Yuki she too was exhausted from this enemy, but unlike Zest who was having trouble recovering her energy, she could recover at least spiritual energy fairly easily in Hueco Mundo. That was a good consolation prize seeing as magical energy was another story entirely when it comes to recovering and Yuki was having troubles due to the imbalance of the two energies. Nothing serious, the only truly serious matter was that her mind was getting tired.
Runaganga's body being so fast to regenerate and it's apparent ability to hide into the sand only made things all the worse and Yuki could only truly stop him from reaching the others. Her only hope was if either Ace or Zest came to help her, they could give her an actual opening, or at least make it unable to regenerate for a time then she was sure she could kill it easily.
All the while Orihime could only watch as these two fought bravely and her 'secret' crush (most likely only he didn't see it as he was too busy thinking of money to see the signs, or so Tatsuki would say) suffered under whatever it was that was happening to him. Frustration bubbled up inside her as all she could do was watch. All she ever could do was watch.
One couldn't really blame her for internally snapping at this very moment.
Orihime was, in every sense of the word, a gentle girl.
That was the consensus for everyone that ever talked with her before, and she tried to keep up being just that.
Having lost her parents at the age of 6 due to an accident, Orihime barely remembered either her father or mother's faces anymore, the only thing she had left of them had been stories of their time with her brother when he had been younger. Since that age and that accident, her only real family had been her older brother.
At the time he was about 14 years old, the responsibility of a guardian got pushed onto his shoulders when as he ended up pushed to take care of her despite his young age. Their uncles would send them money occasionally, but it was hardly enough for both Orihime and Sora to get by properly. Sometimes Orihime wondered if their uncles had some kind of grudge against them, but her brother had assured her that wasn't the case as best he could. Even so, she still had that doubt even at the back of her mind.
To compensate for their financial difficulties, her brother would work part-time in a construction site to get more money for their small family.
While Orihime can't remember her parents she could remember clearly how exhausted her brother would look whenever he got home. He was also little more than a child, but suddenly he had so much responsibility and weight on his shoulders that it was clearly crushing him. That was when Orihime found out a special secret, that if she was gentle and a good girl then her brother would be happy and get better fast.
As such that is what Orihime strove to become, a gentle and kind girl.
That, however, came with a cost.
Let no one say kids were naturally kind or good, because, from Orihime's own experience, that was decidedly not true.
In school, Orihime was bullied constantly. When there was a team project the other kids pushed everything for her to do, cleaning, homework, anything that they could push for her to do they would. Even her lunch was taken by the other kids.
She once tried to fight back when a kid took away a piece of cake she had for her lunch. That caused a commotion and soon the parents or responsible were called. Orihime could still remember seeing her brother having to apologize and bow to the bad father of the other kid, having her brother called out for raising such a bad child that would create such a ruckus for no good reason.
Obviously, the other kid lied about the reason but the rest of the kids in the class had agreed with him so she was made out to be the liar of the situation.
After that incident, Orihime had decided that she would be a truly good girl, someone that would not cause her brother to have to apologize on her behalf or suffer humiliation for her.
The years passed and being gentle and nice became second nature for her, it was simply natural for her to be gentle, kind, and not fight back.
Even when the other kids cut off her hair she always tried to keep pretty as her brother seemed to like it so much. Even when that happened she did not tell her brother, keeping it all to herself to let her brother not worry. She did not want to be a bigger burden for him.
It was soon after that, however, that her brother died in a car accident.
To say Orihime got devastated would be an understatement. Her only pillar of strength had suddenly gone and she felt completely alone. Her aunt that was to be the one responsible for her would only send her money depending on her grades in school, if she was not studying enough and failed then there was no point in feeding her that well, or so her aunt used to say. One could guess how her aunt and uncle truly felt about her as this happened, Orihime could only guess that her brother knew of this and had tried to shield her away from that truth.
Things were not looking good, or that was the case until her three shining lights appeared before her.
The first one was Tatsuki, her best friend. She would make the bullies, those who had only gotten worse (bolder too) since her brother died, go away and would talk with her about anything and everything breaking her out of her small shell. One time, she had even cut her hair to a short length to better fit in as a 'good girl' after people picked on her because of it, but once Tatsuki came along she had the courage to get her hair back to what it had once been, even improved on it.
The second light was the Kurosaki family, a family who had owned a small clinic in Karakura. She had met them due to Tatsuki being a friend of the family son, Ichigo Kurosaki, who was also described as being Tatsuki's rival. Tatsuki herself introduced Orihime to them and Orihime could remember crying later when she came back home from the visit and diner there, not because of sadness but because of what she had experienced, even if for just a moment: what it was like to have a family.
Sometimes Orihime thought about Ichigo and if she felt anything for him. She would admit that, at the time, she did a bit but she quickly avoided any such feeling as she knew her best friend obviously liked Ichigo and she didn't want to get in her friend's way.
Then, as if by a third miracle, another light came to her, one in the form of Ace. At first, it had started rather innocuous, them barely talking or interacting with one another seeing as Ace had gone to some fighting competition that Tatsuki and Ichigo had been competing in at the time. She could still remember watching the finals where Ace and Ichigo fought it out, Orihime would admit that she enjoyed seeing the fight immensely as the two clearly had given their all in it.
After that, Orihime was introduced to Ace and, before Orihime knew it, she was talking with Ace as if it was a natural thing. He was the first person she met that would play along with her nonsenses and would laugh at her jokes without an issue. At times, her aunt would want to hire people to clean the house that Orihime lived in (Orihime was never the most organized person out there) and Orihime would indicate Ace to do it as he was cheaper than most and did a good job.
When she had asked him one time about why he had done such a good job, he had responded that 'he did the work that he was paid to do'. Essentially, that had introduced her to his views about money, something he coveted like a Dragon and its hoard in the storybooks she'd been read to by her brother before his passing. This had actually made Orihime laugh a bit with how he would sometimes get in the weirdest situations because of his greed and tell her all about them later.
There were some ridiculous ones including once where he was paid to get a couple that was getting married their wedding rings but some schnenigans happened and, somehow, he ended up having to fight a group of large dogs and a mean cat for the rings. Orihime could still remember him complaining that the cat was the hardest to defeat and showing off the scratch marks as if they were marks of war, there were few times Orihime laughed more than that one. After a time and without any special or specific reason Ace to changed in her eyes, he had become another light for Orihime, just like Tatsuki that broke her out of her sadness and the Kurosaki family that gave her a semblance of family, Ace gave her a simple friend that could make her laugh.
Of course, regarding the whole cleaning stuff when her aunt called him over to help, Orihime would try and clean everything before Ace arrived and make some biscuits with whatever she had on hand for when he got there. The results were, let's just say they were mixed and not ideal.
But it was quite a nice time for Orihime, she enjoyed it a lot. For a time, that had been some of the best times of her life, she didn't have to worry too much about her bullies, and she had some strong role models in her life who she could look up to and strive to be like. It almost felt like she had co,e the closest to becoming a normal girl with friends and a family.
But then, one conversation that she once had with Ace blew this whole feeling of safety right out of the water:
"You know, Hime, you are cut out to be a good actress."
"Huh?"
"I mean, don't get me wrong, but you honestly nail the whole image of a 'nice and gentle girl that wouldn't hurt a fly' that you try to show for everyone."
"What? But I am a good girl."
"Hehe, sure, sure, I TOTALLY believe you... not."
After that, it all returned to the usual banter, but Ace calling her out on it stuck to her.
It had been so long since she started this act she barely even remembered what it was like to not do it anymore. She had been a 'good girl' this whole time, almost forgetting entirely how to not be this personality she showed for her brother's sake.
However, she had her moments where she was a bad girl.
There were various instances that she did naughty things, but the most recent was when she lied to Ace about letting her big brother go. He might have explained that it was for everyone's safety, but how could she just send him off after finally reuniting with him?
If you could do this, would you?
'And look at the results.' Orihime thought as she looked on as the battle continued and several Hollows started to advance to the place where she, her brother that she should have let go, and her friend (crush) that was suffering were located, unable to do anything like the helpless damsel she was.
It was at this point, however, that things took a turn for the worse.
While Yuki was facing one sand giant another emerged from the other side. It was similar to the one Yuki was facing, only that it's mask was of a different format.
The faces of everyone paled seeing this as neither Yuki nor Zest could deal with this new enemy that came out of nowhere. The hollow looked at everything and didn't bother speaking.
With one hand it blocked the fire from Nehan who tried to intercept him but failed due to the sheer size of the opposition, the other arm moved to crash down on the ground, to obliterate the fort and everyone inside it.
As Orihime observed the attack approaching she froze, fear gripping her heart as she then heard someone speaking into her ear.
'So, what will you do now? Will you fight or will you wait for someone to fight for you?'
As she heard this voice Orihime's eyes hardened, her expression completely unlike what she normally used as she was not showing any gentleness or kindness in her eyes right now. No, she was showing her determination.
"I will fight, I will not stand by this time. This is all my fault so I want to fight as well, I don't want to die!" Orihime said and, as she did so, seven lights emerged from her.
The giant fist of sand was stopped on its tracks as it hit a light shield that completely blocked the attack from reaching her. Orihime could only stare in shock as the shield completely blocked the attack that should have crushed her easily just now.
The giant pulled back its hand to strike again but it was cut in half by Yuki despite the distance. However, that made her stop for a moment which was promptly capitalized by Runaganga that smashed her with a fist of his own. Being sent flying she coughed up some blood but quickly readjusted herself. Her defense only worked as long as she was focused on fighting one person and the more divided her attention the weaker her defense would become.
Orihime saw this but she refocused on the seven figures flying around her. Six of them looked like little fairies but the odd one out was different. It actually looks like a nice swan and it turned its eyes to her.
'So you chose to fight? Good, now order me. My name is Freezing Archaeopteryx, I will fight.'
Orihime heard this and had no idea of what is going on here and what all these things were, but she understood one thing.
This was a chance to do something.
"Protect everyone, Free-chan."
'Your naming sense is terrible, master.' The bird said as it flew up, passing by Nehan on the way and reaching the Hollow's face.
Opening its beak, one could see a dense concentration of frost energy surging within it into a single point, and in the following second, it released it in the form of a blizzard that instantly froze the face of the hollow.
Yuki, even from where she stood, didn't let this chance slip by as she aimed her sword at the second sand hollow's head and released a Raikan, piercing and destroying the head with the rest of the body breaking apart in sand naturally.
Seeing her distraction while dealing with the second sand giant as an opening Runaganga tried to eat her up. His head surging right beneath her as it tried to do just that but, by now, Yuki got used to dealing with elemental body-type enemies.
"You, are far too predictable," Yuki said as she swung down her sword at just the right time where the enemy initiated the attack and was about to reach her, she swung down JUST at the right moment. "Banishing Shift." As her sword intercepted the attack, not only was the attack stopped but everything connected to it was also stopped and eliminated from this plane of existence.
This was Yuki's strongest attack, the ability to banish something to space where everything of the DXD Universe existed, banishing the attacks for the dimensional gap that exists between dimensions and letting it vanish there.
And finally, Zest had also finished her fight as she commanded what remained of her golem to explode and sending the multiple rocks towards the many, many Hollows present there and destroying several hundreds of them by herself.
In a corner underneath the sand, one could see a small black cat watching all that has happened, and a raised eyebrow.
'So, these are the types of people that the kid has around him? Not bad, they could be useful, both for the fighting and, most importantly, for the sake of teasing. Hehe, I didn't expect the kid had it in him to walk around with so many pretty girls, good for him. Better than Urahara who only seems to have a hard-on for science and maybe a raging boner for Aizen. Anyway, better to get moving, they don't seem able to keep fighting for much longer and the boy needs treatment to get better, that or at least getting out of this dimension since I doubt it is helping him, everything considered.' The cat mused internally before it set about planning its next move.
After all, right now she was the only one that could actively help the kids get out of here.
"And where do you think you are going?"
At these words, the cat stopped in its tracks as a person appeared not too far away ahead of her. Said person had deactivated an item Aizen had given her to be able to observe without being detected. The item was so potent that even Yoruichi Shihoin, one of the best spies and counter-spies in the entire world, could only shiver as she realized that she did not notice this person that was no more than 20 meters ahead of her at all. Not even her well-honed sixth sense noticed said person despite the proximity and Yoruichi being on high alert the entire time.
Sitting on a chair and observing the situation the person had a small book at hand and was observing what was happening with a dispassionate look. The person in question is an incredibly beautiful young woman, with short black hair which is longer on her left side. She wears a black business-style suit with a white scarf around her neck, and a golden, X-shaped lapel pin on the chest.
However, it was not her looks that made Yoruichi fearful. No, it was something else entirely. The woman was 100% human if Yoruichi had to guess and, from what she could tell, this person's spiritual power is completely off the charts.
Yoruichi could only stare and get ready, she could not go to help the kid now as she could not risk making this woman move. If this woman was to move than forget the kids, even Yoruichi was likely to die, this was just how great this woman's power was.
This was Aura Michibane, a subordinate of Aizen Sosuke, and the strongest human.
AN:
I will admit, I am not fully satisfied with the results.
So, I guess no one expected this, huh?
First, Orihime has a Sacred Gear AS WELL as her usual powers. Her Sacred Gear is a relatively normal gear but I intend to explore it in time.
Second, Yuki's Zampakutou is VERY strong, let no one doubt that. It basically combines the techniques of three characters, Dreyfus from Nanatsu no Taizai, Meliodas' Full Counter from Nanatsu no Taizai, and finally, Basara's Banishing Shift from Shinmai Maou.
It is not just Ace that is strong, everyone has their own advantages and weaknesses.
I do intend to give something else for Zest in the future, so no worries there.
And finally, Aura Michibane is a character from the novel 'Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World'. I have not read the novels as there is not yet a good translation out there but I have studied the Wiki page and I hope to do her some justice.
So, yeah. It is not only the good guys that are stronger than before, the bad guys are ALSO stronger. This is something of a complaint I have for some novels, the good guys get all sorts of power-ups and the bad guys don't get any, it becomes too easy. I don't intend for it to be like this here.
Anyway, thanks for reading and, with some hope and depending on the viewer's requests, we just might get ourselves a certain former Espada as a Familiar together with her plus 3 (wink, wink).
