"It's difficult not to feel elated when a plan starts to come together," Aaroniero was rushing across the dunes of Hueco Mundo, feeling an irresistible sense of satisfaction. Extending her senses as far outward as she could, the Shinigamified Arrancar could feel the chaos ensuing far away from her on the battlefield where her Calaveras did battle alongside Ichigo and his comrades.
"Hueco Mundo is being covered in such a thick reiatsu from the ensuing chaos...it's almost too easy to move through unnoticed." She noted, analyzing the situation. "And yet, as strong as that cloud is...he might have woken up from it before I can get to him." She frowned, her new, lavender eyes narrowing with irritation. She hadn't quite anticipated that.
Whether he had woken up, however, was quickly shown to be the least of Aaroniero's problems. What met her eyes wasn't the towering majesty of the White Night Palace, Las Noches. Instead, she was confronted by a pile of marble stone ruin; the tower that had been constructed for their Lord Aizen was entirely demolished in the wake of the ensuing calamity. "As symbolic as this is, it does pose a bit of a problem," She continued her inner dialogue even as an embittered expression crossed her face. Bending down, she picked up one of the pieces of marble that had been used to build the tower. "I'm probably going to have to dig for the body. I didn't intend for this kind of grunt work, though I suppose there's a certain bit of merit when you put some backbone into it."
Kneeling down, Aaroniero placed a lithe hand to the rubble, and closed her eyes. Focusing on the aspect of Angelle Cooney within her soul, she activated her new Pesquisa;Vista de la Bruja. Her senses spread beyond the rubble that laid in front of her, delving deep into the depths of the ruins, and a figure caught her 'eye'. Not only could she feel a substantial Reiryoku building, but she shivered with a mixture of excitement and even a twinge of trepidation at the sheer rage she could feel.
"He's a stubborn one after all." She thought, opening her eyes as she realized she wasn't going to have to do any work at all; he was going to come right to her.
There was a giant tremble, the ruins beneath her quaking, and Aaroniero braced herself. A gargantuan explosion followed, sending the debris hurtling upwards in an eruption of dirt, dust, and sand. "Going up!" Aaroniero gripped onto a larger piece of marble as the gust sent her hurtling upwards, her light weight playing against her. As the smoke cleared, Aaroniero couldn't suppress her shock at what she witnessed.
Yammy stood in a massive crater, formed most likely during the release of Reiatsu she'd just experienced. His form was domineering, several stories tall, and he had undergone a massive transformation. Aaroniero's eyes widened large as saucers as she took in the full sight of Yammy. He had become massive, his body towering over the former Arrancar girl. As high up as she was, she could still see his head within her line of sight, and as she began to descend with the rest of the rubble, more of his body came into view. While his torso remained largely the same, she noticed eight large elephant-like legs jutting out on each side of his lower body, extending back like a horrific centipede. They were connected, segmented, to his body, and led out to a long tail that ended in a bony club. Jutting out from his elbows and back were purplish-gray cylindrical tubes; similar nodules appeared alongside his arm. Even his mask had changed, merging with his jawbone.
As Aaroniero landed back down onto the sand, she could feel a drop of sweat slipping down her skull, the whole of Yammy's Reiatsu could be felt, only adding to the intimidating form he now possessed. "I might have to put some work into this after all."
Chapter 10
The Shattered Moon
Center of Las Noches' Ruined Desert Wastes
It was like Grimmjow all over again.
Ichigo felt the intensity and weight of every action he implemented at accelerated momentum across the desert air and grained earth. Twirling around his midnight hued form streaked across like a wraith while the stark white armored form of Rana came after him with lustful vigor. He lost count how many times they exchanged weapon strikes, each parry feeling a surge of adrenaline that flowed up his muscles and projected Reiatsu through his arms across his weapon.
His enemy didn't skip a beat either. Despite her impressive size and set of armor, even her choice of weapon, she managed to move at a velocity around his own. A cleaver of white bone swung around her head to meet his elegantly obsidian colored blade. Scarlet and white Reiatsu blossomed around her powerful limbs while a thick gout of red outlined black thrummed around his. The pair of warriors mirrored each other with expressions but were as opposite as night and day.
But the poetry was lost on the Substitute as he kept fighting for his life.
"Aren't ya lovin' this, Shinigami?!" Rana howled with unabated bloodlust in her voice. Swinging her claymore in a horizontal line it was only thanks to Ichigo's timing that he could bend his upper body below the cutting fissure tearing through the air. The wind itself carried the space distorting Reishi, cutting across the tops of sand dunes and blowing back the grains around him. "I've never felt so alive in the last fifty years! Keep entertaining me until the bitter end!"
"You sure like to talk, don't you?" Ichigo muttered lowly with his body twirling to the left, avoiding a downward cleaving strike, upheaving a hundred meters distance of sand behind him. Clawing at the sand to make a Shunpo platform beneath his palm the Visored propelled himself swiftly past Rana's guard, swinging his sword in a rising arc. He'd barely see through the periphery of his masked gaze flecks of bone armor and droplets of blood flying off the edge of his sword when he properly righted himself.
By that time, he found Rana's spiked pauldron covering her right shoulder ramming into his face from a well timed Sonido. Behind the alabaster coating of Hollow Reiryoku, Ichigo coughed as his nose was nearly broken from the impact. A snap kick by talon-affixed digits dug into his chest, launching him a meter into the air while he spat out blood through his faux teeth. With a single arm she slashed a curtain of Reishi surrounding her sword at Ichigo, barely blocked by his own Zanpakutō braced by his arm crossing it from behind.
Launched high up into the air, Ichigo could only get a glance of the rapidly shrinking figure of his enemy. Her weapon, finished swinging to be held at her right side, thrummed with a resonating glow of bright white that enveloped the weapon. Grasping both hands together she jettisoned herself from the sand up towards her nemesis, closing the distance with three well placed Sonido.
"Espada Cero!" She snarled with a two-handed lash of her Zanpakutō, coating her horizon's vista in a piercing white that shimmered with scarlet along its precipices. It was only to her chagrin that a visceral red orb of Reishi tore through her wide Cero to bore into her. With only a moment of decision to make, she shouldered into the wave of super heated energy before swiping her arm to the left to send it off course. Her scaled arm came out scalded and steaming but none worse for wear unlike if she took the Cero that exploded mightily in the distance.
"What's the matter?" Ichigo sneered across the vapor of Reiatsu separating the airborne pair. "Does the has-been Primera like making half-assed attacks or were you all talk this whole time?"
"Shut your damned mouth," Rana hissed, ending in a full blown howl that complemented the charging thrust aimed at Ichigo's chest. "SHINIGAMI!"
Seeing the Arrancar take the bait, Ichigo read the telegraphed movement with ease. Vaulting over her weapon and shoulders, lancing Tensa Zangetsu into the armored right shoulder. In a split instant of Getsuga iginition across its tip, the pauldron was ripped off in an explosion of plating drawing more small drops of blood from her skin. Forward flipping he kicked off a platform of Reiatsu to thrust again, scraping the plating covering her scaled back as she turned to meet him.
Palming the air he flipped perpendicular to her to avoid a downward slash, disappearing in another blur to thrust repeatedly around the edges of her guard. Bit by bit he was chipping away at her defenses, making quick work to take advantage of his Getsuga coated stabs made. Armor, scales and blood began to spin around the infuriated Quatro Espada, desperate to meet his attack head-on.
Through her Pesquisa in combination with her periphery vision she saw him come at her from her back left. Aiming for a spot one would assumed to be vulnerable he corkscrewed his Getsuga covered sword at her left shoulder blade. When her left elbow crashed into the flat of his sword he found his attack to scuff the plating of her upper back plating, dispersing its Reiatsu force empowering it. Still stumbling forward he was unable to stop the flat of Rana's cleaver from hitting him across the left flank of his cranium.
Feeling his vision exploded into a field of coalescing colors that faded briefly to black, his eyes regained its clarity once he felt his body hit the sandy earth below with a thunderous impact to his covered face and upper body. Buried in pale grains he coughed as he struggled to rise up, still hearing a defining ringing in his ears. An exposed left eye that showed an open wound spill blood close to his dark sclera yellow iris turned to look over his shoulder at the heavens, seeing the crescent moon at her back.
"Get ready to be crushed, masked freak!" Rana howled through her own bone helm, her hair flailing in the wind as her Reiatsu spiked around her visibly. A scarlet fissure of Reiatsu born Reishi left the guard of her sword, expanding astronomically in length across the sky, crackling with ribbons of white light as it continued to swell. When the one meter thick by three meter wide weapon finished forming, a vibrantly lit scarlet blade of one hundred meters in full length.
"Holy shit!" Ichigo exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet to look up at the weapon Rana had forged. "That thing could cut my school half! Just how much compensation does she need?!"
"Disyuntor Mundial," Rana declared gutturally as the blade was raised over her head to point at the nightly heavens. "This is your end, Shinigami Shit. Accept your death as I cut you into oblivion!"
Descending down, the newly anointed Espada rushed to her enemy, weapon still held above her head as she gained proximity to the Substitute. She could see him raise sword in preparation, a coating of Getsuga Reiatsu alight across the metal frame. A bare dozen meters before her feet could touch the ground she swung the weapon downward. The result was a complete bisection of the desert that lied in front of her, plummeting her target while sweeping through the thick floor of loose grains.
As a wide open trench was forged she continued to dive with her prey close at hand. Her precariously large weapon cut swathes through what looked like a white barked forest hidden from sight and massive in scope as Hueco Mundo's sandy plains. It was only known by one name and was the birthplace of many Hollows; sentient and mindless alike.
The Menos Forest.
The place from which she had summoned Gillian up to fight on her behest now was bathed in the flames of felled trees the height of skyscrapers. Timber and kindling smoldered down, blown back by the falling former Privaron. Seeing an impact crater below with the silhouette of her target deep in uneven soil, she grinned manically with hunger for blood.
Landing feet first a mere dozen meters she heaved her weapon with all her strength to annihilate her foe. Limbs and towering tree tops were misshapen, torn apart with her aim in a straight line. A wafting blaze of orange and gold tongues flew in either direction when the blade of Reishi crashed into the earth, creating an even deeper trench while discharging a shockwave that blew back more of the wooden glade. If it wasn't for that spasm of alarm her vibration based Pesquisa felt she would have rejoiced.
Amidst the tide of flames from her own attack's onslaught was Ichigo's fully masked visage, snarling with viscerally inhuman eyes glaring at her. Drawing closer in a span of time she couldn't turn to swing her weapon, she primed a Bala around her right hand and thrust it as a knife hand jab at his sword's tip. An explosion of pressure was created, revealing Ichigo's incinerated sleeves and burnt arms from parrying the attack. What also was shown was that he used one hand for the thrust, allowing his left arm to swing around in a Reiatsu red glow aimed towards her helm protected face.
A crunching sound was heard as a splitting sound of compressed Reiatsu was released at point blank of her protected skull. The face plate was instantaneously shattered, faux teeth crumbling like dissolving glass and the bone material dissipating into dust like deteriorating molars. Vehemently crimson eyes dipped in a sea of black blinked and cringed at the shock throttling her skull.
Unsteadily she stumbled back, her projected weapon of Reishi dissipated into a rising field of sparks. Blood dripped down from the open gashes from where her mask was covering it, down each cheek and across the forehead. Even her nostrils and lips bled of it, with only a minor circlet remaining to keep her hair in a ponytail that fluttered behind her bowed head. It matched the various cuts made across her beautifully scaled body, marred by burnt lacerations peppered across her sides to bare shoulders and backside. Only her bipedal saurian legs seemed relatively untouched from the majority of the battle.
"You're finished, Rana!" Ichigo declared, walking slowly towards her with an even measured pace. "Give up and I may let you walk away. Killing someone who hates Aizen seems pointless and I got bigger problems to deal with than you."
"Fuckin idiot," She hissed out with her bangs hiding her eyes. Her lattice covered fingers tightened around her cleaver as she took one solid step forward. With another, she throttled herself bodily forward till her already split forehead rammed into Ichigo's masked face. Startling him long enough to gain an initiative, she swung her sword with a powerful arc that sent the guarded Visored flying a good dozen meters away. Seeing him land with a grinding halt on his heels, she pointed her weapon towards him across the expanse, shouting venomously. "This is Hueco Mundo! I don't give a damn if you are Shinigami, Arrancar, Hollow or Human. Once you start a fight with me, it ends with death! Bloodshed is the purest mutual emotion that all beings possess. We all have it in common and I intend to reciprocate you for all the pain you've brought upon me!"
"This is insane! You'd rather kill me or die in a stupid fight that doesn't even involve Aizen?!" Ichigo shouted with scathing bewilderment, swinging his own free hand aside with heavy emphasis.
"This next attack is my strongest. Even with your great speed, you can't evade it and I hell sure don't plan on you living through it!" She cried out. Holding her weapon as straight as she could while guard of the weapon began projecting spirals of Reishi that oscillated in a clockwise fashion. When it became a near indiscernible blur of scarlet, the sound a rocket being propelled followed the bone cleaver launching at a sonic boom from the hilt. Such force was exerted that it caused Rana to skid back several meters just as the weapon flowed forward, bathed in a large veil of scarlet ebbed white Reiatsu.
Just like before, Ichigo's hyper perception kicked in and he saw the world slow before his sight. He could see a double-edged sword of bone, covered with an enormous amount of Reiatsu while thrust forward at far faster velocity than he could simply dodge. With his Zanpakutō already alight with Getsuga energy, he swung it upward in a deep blackening arc, crashing straight into the weapon.
A brief clash of two opposing pressures could be seen, one weapon's integrity challenging another. The earth buckled, broke and deepened into a recessed pit while a whirlwind of contrasting colored energies fought for dominance. A loud hollowed shout and the sword of midnight bifurcated Rana's discharged weapon. The look on her face told him that not only was she shocked from what he could see, but she was livid.
"You just won't die-!"
"Getsuga," He murmured through his Hollowfied Reiryoku covering, pulling back his sword at a diagonal angle over his right shoulder upon finishing his destruction of Rana's weapon. Seeing Rana leap forward in a single Sonido, the seemingly blade less weapon ejected a hidden sword of steel from the hollow point of the scabbard. Moving in for the kill, Ichigo slashed a final time as he unleashed his strongest attack. "TENSHŌ!"
It was like staring death in the eye for Rana.
Thrusting her sword into the tidal wave of Reishi that towered over her more than her own Disyuntor Mundial, she saw the fabric of energy contort and bend as her own body was engulfed by her maximum output of Reiatsu. It felt like her innards were on fire, eyes alight with a gleam of vengeful malice and anger as her throat shrieked out. Her feet dug into the rapidly disintegrating earth, the Getsuga bending and contorting to a wider wave rather than tall.
Seething hisses escaped her teeth as she took a step forward, pushing the Getsuga back. Another came as her infernal mantle of light kept burning brightly around her. A hateful roar escaped her bleeding mouth that spat out ichor and spittle alike as she pushed back against the attack, "I am...Primera Espada...Rana Zolinder! Queen of Hueco Mundo! I will not lose to a Shinigami punk like you!"
Shoving her body against the burning wave of Reishi till her shoulders were embedded into it, searing her scaled skin as her eyes almost penetrated the gout of darkness making up the technique. Another step forward and she could feel the Visored's presence from beyond. Just one more step and she'd achieve victory, vengeance and dominance once more.
Another step was made and the sound of a deafening crack was heard. Looking horrified over her shoulder, she saw the blade that was pushing back the Getsuga fly away, crumbling to ashes once it hit the earth. Her edge-less Zanpakutō was soon overwhelmed and her face was struck full force along with her upper body. Yet, she didn't give up.
"NO!" Rana screamed, shoving her body against the wave that drove her back meters every second. Blood ebbed around her palms that was in the center of the maelstrom of infinite black. A bristle of scarlet was seen, buried deep within its core, crackling and warping within the immense wave that was already tearing apart the Menos Forest around her as it continued to push her back at a swift pace.
When the energy was full primed, she fired it within her desperation and broken sanity, shouting out loud, "GRAN REY CERO!"
There was an instantaneous reaction that occurred within the wall of darkness that had dragged on for nearly half a kilometer in the forest of white. A large swelling of bright red ballooned the black, wrapping it all around it like a cyclone. Then a fissure of golden tendrils cracked through the Reiatsu infused Reishi of black with a rupture in space. An indomitable explosion with the force pulled all the forestry around it inward before jettisoning outward to be a spherical release of cerulean light.
Flowing outward the increasing mass of the Gran Rey Cero's blast quickly overtook even the likes of Ichigo. Forced to shield himself by using a collaboration of Reiatsu and a second Getsuga, the flames wrapped around him, burning at his kosode or eating at his mask's integrity as the blast demolished the forest farther than he could comprehend. Pushing against the shockwave that jettisoned him along the path of the flames that devoured the underbelly of Hueco Mundo, the swelling giant Reishi bomb towered higher than the towers that remained in Las Noches' ruins.
Finally released from the clutches of the blast, Ichigo jettisoned himself upward with a few blind Shunpo. Landing tentatively on a platform, he gasped for breath, watching the rest of his mask become brittle and fall into pieces that dissipated into dark wisps of Reishi. Despite his badly scalded skin that ripped almost the entirety of his kosode away, along with his burnt gash along the side of his head, he was in far better shape than what he assumed of the defeated Rana.
Looking down he gasped at the sight of what was created by the Cero meeting his Getsuga. Not only did it wipe out his attack but it detonated in a way that leveled nearly several kilometers of white forestry and its sandy tops. Space from his point of view seem to warp and twist, like an elaborate mirage was taking place.
"She fired that fuckin' thing into my Getsuga Tenshō? I don't know whether to call her insane or brave," He rasped out to himself. Feeling beads of sweat trickle down, he lowered himself gently as he could but felt incredibly deprived of energy. He could only assume between sustaining his Hollowfied state, the Getsuga he fired and then enduring the Cero explosion that he was taxed to his limit.
Feeling himself let go, the rush of inertia hit him as the wind lapped at his wounds and aching body. He had no way to pull up if he was going to land on the sandy wastes that was Las Noches soil. Closing his eyes he braced for a painful impact.
Instead he got glomped into something soft and buoyant.
Blinking, he found himself in the arms of Nelliel, having leaped up to catch him before crashing painfully below. A tight hug made him reconsider his choice saviors, causing him to muffle distressingly within her exposed cleavage.
"Oh, Ichigo! I was so worried you'd die in that explosion!" Nel cried out with ecstatic glee, almost entirely ignorant of Ichigo's arms clapping her sides to relent.
"Uh, Miss Nel," Orihime mentioned, having taken the liberty to levitate the injured Chad while the other Shinigami trailed behind using their own Shunpo to levitate in the sky. "You're hurting him right now!"
Blinking with childish realization, she released Ichigo from her door to bosom heaven and saw the blue-faced Substitute inhale desperately for air. Blabbering out her apologies the other Shinigami could only look on with their own mixed reactions of wonder, annoyance and confusion.
Only the eyes of Aaron-Chad looked into the distance of a particular vista that lied just beyond their horizon near the farthest corner of what was Las Noches. It didn't take two guesses to feel what the original was going through, having relinquished most parallel thinking to the Calavera until she was finished with business elsewhere. Until then, the copy could do nothing but wait and hope nothing goes wrong on this end.
White Palace, Shortly Before Rana's Gran Rey Cero Explosion
Aaroniero felt the ground tremble as Yammy took a massive step forward; this was followed by a strong gust of wind. She saw him thrust his arm forward, releasing a giant blast of energy from his fist which went hurtling off into the distance, creating a gargantuan explosion of red Reishi.
"That was a Bala!" She noted, shocked. The explosion had kicked up a massive amount of dust, created a virtual sandstorm to hurl in all directions. It appeared Yammy's powers were now vastly increased in accordance with his new stature.
"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" The enraged Arrancar shouted, and Aaroniero briefly thought that he had taken notice of her. "I TURN MY ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE ACTION FOR A FEW MOMENTS AND I WIND UP COVERED IN DEBRIS, LOOKING LIKE A FOOL! WHOEVER DESTROYED LAS NOCHES AND DISRUPTED MY MEAL...IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"
"H-His voice! It's like thunder!" The girl covered her ears, eyes wincing. She didn't need her Pesquisa at this point to feel him. He was as obvious as an act of nature; a walking storm. Regardless, she had a mission and she needed to see it done. And for that, she needed his attention.
"You really don't change, do you?!" She called up, magnifying her voice as loudly as it could go.
"WHAT THE HELL...!?" The gargantuan Arrancar grunted, and even his grunt was as loud as a bellowing beast. His large head began to survey the surroundings, looking beneath his feet, he saw a figure his eyes could barely make out. Bending his torso down, Aaroniero came into the focus on Yammy's eyes, and the Arrancar squinted. "YOU LOOK FAMILIAR...WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"
"I'll give it time to click in your head, I'm honestly in no hurry," Aaroniero replied casually, and she could see a vein throb in Yammy's forehead. "I'm sure every Espada in Hueco Mundo recognizes this face."
"YOU..." Yammy growled. the gears in his head were turning, and after a solid minute, the realization hit him. He remembered this girl's face, her impassive expression, from Aaroniero's Cognition Synchronization, the broadcast that the entire Espada had been forced to witness a few hours ago. "Was it four...six...forget it, time is way too hard to keep track of in this place!" Rather than try and figure out the time, he jabbed a thumb towards Aaroniero, who looked back unflinchingly.
"YOU...YOU'RE THAT ANT WHO KILLED AARONIERO!" His thunderous voice boomed around her. "ALL OF THAT TALK, AND THAT PIECE OF TRASH GOES AND DIES SUCH A PATHETIC DEATH! I'LL NEVER FORGET THAT BASTARD, LORDING HIS RANK OVER MINE. HE NEVER COULD SHUT UP!"
A vein throbbed in Aaroniero's head, and her lips tightened in irritation. "A piece of trash, am I?"
"SO WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE, YOU LITTLE RUNT!?" Yammy thundered, standing back up to his full height — which would have intimidated someone other than Aaroniero from sheer size alone — and gesturing to the ruins of Las Noches. "LAS NOCHES IS IN RUINS, AND YET YOU'RE SCAMPERING AROUND IN ONE PIECE! DID YOU DO THIS!?"
"I think I'll let your brain catch up to the situation yourself," Aaroniero replied calmly. "It's fitting to see that this your released state; the body of a beast to match the mental faculties of one."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Yammy snarled in a rage. "FORGET IT; I DON'T NEED TO GET ANSWERS OUT OF A PIECE OF TRASH LIKE YOU! INSTEAD, I'LL SIMPLY KILL YOU NOW!" Raising an arm, Yammy swung it down towards Aaroniero, the resulting collision kicking up a giant cloud of sand. "HM!?" Yammy couldn't feel anything under his palm; the Shinigami had vanished.
Detectable only by the pitter-patter of feet running along a surface, Aaroniero was racing on the top of Yammy's arm, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Yammy could feel her, however, and violently pulled his arm back, upsetting Aaroniero's footing and causing her to fall from her perch towards the sand below. She flipped herself over in the middle of the air, skidding to a violent stop along the sand as Yammy wound around towards her.
"He's poised to attack again!" She thought, her attentiveness raising as she saw him raise his left arm and thrust it forward. Aaroniero reacted instantly, leaping above the gigantic arm, spiraling in mid-air in an elegant flip, and landing side the fist as it collided with the ground. As she looked up, her eyes glanced over Yammy's figure, and she saw it; on his left shoulder, instead of the 10 which she'd been so familiar with during her time as one of Aizen's Espada, she saw a black '0' etched across his shoulder.
"Your mark...a 0?" She pointed at his new tattoo for emphasis. "What it this? An Arrancar...no, an Espada, with the rank of 0? That's got to be some sort of joke."
"THIS!?" Yammy jabbed a thick thumb towards his tattoo, a guttural laugh escaping his throat. "WHO EVER TOLD YOU THE ESPADA WERE NUMBERED FROM ONE THROUGH TEN!? THE NUMBERS GO FROM ZERO TO NINE! I'M THE ONLY ESPADA WHO'S NUMBER CHANGES WHEN I FULLY RELEASE! I AM YAMMY LLARGO, THE CERO ESPADA!"
"The Cero Espada?" Aaroniero tried to suppress the laughter in her voice, looking up at her opponent. "You're serious? Are you sure Aizen took you seriously when he gave you that rank?" Aaroniero placed a hand on the hilt of her blade, drawing it from its scabbard with a flourish. "Though you do bring about a point; I suppose if you've bothered to release your sword, I should do the same."
The temperature around them began to fall, catching even Yammy's attention with the sudden change. While Hueco Mundo didn't experience what Humans and Shinigami would consider 'hot' weather, he could never quite remember it being so cold either. As he eyed Aaroniero's blade, he witnessed a stunning transformation; the entire blade had become a glowing white, like crystal, and a dense, cold fog was settling over the area.
"My Zanpakutō's name is Sode no Shirayuki. Remember it, if nothing else."
"LIKE HELL I NEED TO REMEMBER THAT!" Yammy cocked his fist back, and it began to glow red.
Aaroniero wasn't a fool; she knew precisely what Yammy was going to do. Quickly, she raised her hands in front of her body, just as Yammy thrust his arm forward, releasing a massive sphere of red from his fist that completely covered Aaroniero's field of vision. There was a large explosion, followed by an equally huge tremor as a dome of red colored energy manifested where the attack had collided with Aaroniero.
"HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT!?" Yammy gloated. "AND THAT WASN'T EVEN A CERO; THAT WAS A BALA!" His gloating, however, didn't last long; when the explosion subsided, Aaroniero was no longer there. Standing in her place was a rectangular barrier, upright, and severely cracked. It finally gave way in its totality, crumbling like shards of glass. Whatever it was, it had allowed her to survive his Bala unharmed.
"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO!?" The Espada roared in anger, looking around frantically for some kind of movement. "STAY STILL, YOU LITTLE BUG!" Out of the corner of Yammy's eye, he saw a lone figure standing, as if waiting for him to make his move. "SO YOU'RE THERE, ARE YOU!?" In a blind rage, Yammy moved forward, as much as his large body would allow, thrusting his fist forward with enough force to do far more than shatter bone. When his fist came into contact with the target, it shattered entirely, revealing grains of sand, frozen in ice shards, stunning the Arrancar.
"Ice!?"
"You're strong, befitting that large size of yours, I'll give you that." Aaroniero walked towards Yammy's arm slowly, twirling her sword with a certain elegance to it, the ribbon dancing behind her. "But if size is all you have, you're not going to be able to keep up with my speed." She placed her sword to the tip of Yammy's arm before vanishing with a burst of Shunpo, appearing now on Yammy's shoulder.
"WHAT THE...!?" Yammy, as if to glare at her, but he didn't have time to complete the action. The near instant Aaroniero had moved, Yammy's arm had frozen through, appearing as if encased in a glass-coating. "YOU BASTARD! MY ARM! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY ARM!?"
"You won't need it," Aaroniero replied simply, extending a hand. A sphere of red light began to form, but it was enveloped and eclipsed by a sphere of vibrant blue light. The colors melded, forming a vibrant sphere, purple in color, floating in front of Aaroniero's hand. "So I think I'll be taking it from you. Hadō #33. Sōkatsui!" With a bellow, she leapt from his shoulder, and the sphere elongated into a power beam that shattered Yammy's frozen arm on contact, the whole ice figure being reduced to nothing but shattered frost.
Yammy let out a massive roar of pain, screaming in rage and indignation. "DAMN YOU!" He snarled, clutching at his new stub, the wound frozen over entirely. "YOU...PUNY...INSIGNIFICANT...!"
Aaroniero skidded back, forming a bridge of ice beneath her feet. Glancing at her body, she noticed frost was creeping up on her as well, and could feel ice beginning to cling to her face. Even her breath was visible before her body. "So this is the extent of Rukia's power. No...there's still more I've yet to fully master...more than even she had time to master..." The former Arrancar couldn't help but grin as she looked down at Yammy from her new perch. "What's wrong. big boy? Do you need a hand?"
"WHAT ARE YOU...!?" He panted, the rage thick in his cracking voice. "THAT ATTACK OF YOURS WAS LACED WITH A CERO! THAT WAS NO SHINIGAMI TECHNIQUE!"
Aaroniero placed a thin finger to her chin. It seemed he wasn't as slow as she figured. "For the sake of conversation, you can call me Rukia. Rukia Kuchiki. I've already forgotten your name, but that's no matter; I don't think I'll need to remember it any longer than you're going to need to remember mine."
"YOU SMART MOUTHED LITTLE SHIT...! YOU KEEP MAKING ME ANGRIER!" Yammy opened his mouth, and thin rays of light began to extend from it as a black sphere, outlined in a dull burgundy colored glow, formed in front of his mouth.
At this moment, even Aaroniero's eyes widened. She recognized this technique, and knew it well. All Espada were well versed in this unique skill. "That's...that's our Cero! The Cero of a released Espada! The Cero Oscuras!" She gripped Sode no Shirayuki; had it been possible to sweat with her body temperature as low as it was, she was sure she would have been. A Cero Oscuras wasn't a child's toy; such a technique was forbidden by Aizen to be released under the canopy of Los Noches. Out here, however, under the night sky of Hueco Mundo, Yammy wasn't constrained by her former lord's wishes.
"As gigantic as he's become, the blast radius is going to be enormous!" Aaroniero's mind was already processing the potential damage from Yammy's attack. "I won't get away from an attack of that magnitude unscathed...and I don't eve think my Danku is going to be enough to block it." She eyed her sword briefly, but refused her own idea before she'd had a chance to properly propose it. "With such a large blast radius, at my current level, I can't freeze the entirety of that blast...I'm going to have to redirect it!"
"YOU'RE FIN-!" Yammy's voice bellowed thickly, but he was interrupted seconds later by a rope of thick golden chains surrounding his neck. His Cero still charged in his mouth, the Espada gripped at the chains, trying to rip them from his body but they wouldn't come apart. "WHATH ITH THIS!?"
"Bakudō #63. Sajō Sabaku."
Aaroniero appeared on Yammy's shoulders, her voice as cold as her body. Under her feet, Yammy's shoulder beginning to freeze. "It's time to take you down a peg!" She gripped the golden chains tied to her hands, and pulled. Much to Yammy's own surprise, the frail-looking girl was able to force him back a considerable degree, head and neck bending backwards. The shock of the movement upset the Cero, causing the blast to jettison upward from Yammy's mouth, manifesting as a large pillar of black and burgundy light that shot into the sky. The sheer size of the technique made it visible well into the distance.
Simultaneously, made slightly aware to Aaroniero, there was a larger more bombastic explosion that occurred in the horizon. It was blue in color and spread a vast distance, overlapping what she could guess was a sizable amount of Las Noches center landscape. Putting speculation aside as to what happened, she heard the sudden groans of grained sand begin to part as the Cero continued to pour out of Yammy's strangled mouth.
Underneath his long body, the sand began to give way, Yammy's weight and the sheer force of a blast fired into the sky began to force him down, deeper into the sand. Aaroniero released her chains, and allowed herself to fall at her own pace while the gigantic figure of Yammy tumbled into the darkness below the sand. There was a resounding crash, followed by the crunching of mineral, as Yammy tried to straighten himself in the new environment he found himself in.
"WHAT...WHAT IS THIS!?" Yammy growled, as the Kidō spell fell from his neck and Aaroniero landed on a soft sheet of ice. "YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BUG, WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
"You've been asking that a lot, I've noticed," The girl replied, shaking sand and dust off her body. It had already frozen, however, and fell away like glittering crystals. "This is the Bosque de los Menos. I've actually been here once before. It's where the general Hollow population hide from you Espada." Correction: Rukia had been to this forest once before, but Aaroniero was more than aware of the memories stored away in her body.
"HOW!?" Was the only word Yammy could let escape his throat as he tried to re-position himself, still recovering from that crashing fall.
"It's pretty simple, honestly. Even you could figure it out, if you bothered to sit back and look at it objectively," Aaroniero replied, raising a finger to illustrate how simple it all was. "There wasn't any way I could block the entirety of your Cero, that much was true; Kidō would be pointless against a blast that large, and my Sode no Shirayuki is unable to fully freeze your Cero, not with my current experience level. The only other option was to turn your abilities against you."
"AGAINST...ME...!?"
"That's right, you're keeping up." Aaroniero smiled. "You're not a small guy; all I needed was to get your Cero angled upwards, and the resulting force of that blast, combined with your mass...well, the sand beneath your feet just couldn't handle it. It gave way, crumbled, and here we are. And now..." She raised Sode no Shirayuki to her side. "I'm going to finish the job."
"HEH...HEH...HAH...HAH...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" A thundering laugh escaped Yammy's throat, stunning Aaroniero, causing her to slacken for a moment. "I SEE...THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING ME SUCH VALUABLE INFORMATION...AND GIVING ME THE TIME I NEEDED TO REGAIN CONTROL OF MYSELF, YOU LITTLE RAT!"
"Regain...control!?" Aaroniero's eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raising in surprise. But her questions were answered by steam that began to lift upward from Yammy's body, quickly followed by a burst of Reiatsu, an explosion that shook the forest. Burgundy energy began to rise into the air, covering the entirety of Yammy's gargantuan figure. This display, however, wasn't just for show. Aaroniero could feel it.
His Reiatsu was increasing.
The energy pillar began to shrink, condensing inward until it reached a manageable size. Once the energy had subsided, the giant that had been Yammy was gone. He had shrunk, his body was now only towering over Aaroniero by only a few additional feet. His eyes were entirely blanked out, no irises being visible, with only the white sclera. His Hollow mask had adjusted itself slightly, fusing the upper lip of his mouth with his lower jaw, and two additional attachments were connected by the cheeks. The dark protrusions had not changed slightly atop his head, however, they were now perched above a white skull. Yammy's arms, however, had grown, becoming colossal in proportion to his body, the muscles bulging, his hands massive; they resembled the arms of apes without the fur, and reached down to his knees. The purplish-gray cylindrical tubes that were previously jutting from his back had changed position, altering; instead they were now attached to his chest, stomach, and neck. The nodules in his elbows increased in size, and now sported chains. As opposed to traditional pants, bandages wrapped around his waist and legs; similar bandages could be found on his biceps. The '0' that was his tattoo had also vanished from his shoulder.
"What...is this?" Aaroniero gasped. She could feel it, his Reiatsu had increase to an insane degree; had she not contained such a large reservoir herself, she would be choking from the sheer pressure.
"This...?" Yammy held his arms to either side of his body. "This is the second stage of my Zanpakutō, Ira. My power is anger; rage gives me strength. The angrier I become, the stronger I am. And you did a good job of pissing me off in this battle, girly. But...when I get my anger under control, when I can channel it into my strength properly, I evolve, and am granted this form. This is a state of tranquil fury. I want to crush your bones so badly I can almost taste it...so...shall we resume our little scuffle?"
She paused for a handful of seconds, weighing her options. By using her Pesquisa she could tell that the cold rush flowing up and down her spine wasn't just her Zanpakutō. His strength could easily rival somewhere of Ulquiorra's released state she wagered. Though it was purely hypothetical at this point she had little to go off of when bench marking her own level of Reiryoku stored within her that her body could handle at the moment.
"Yes," She finally answered, causing Yammy's deformed grin to widen and arms raise with readiness. "Let's...end this facade, Yammy."
It was within a heartbeat echoing the sound of a brush flinging through the air that Aaroniero made her move. Scarcely employing Zommari's Aspect to assist her move at maximum speed, she plunged the edge of her Sode no Shirayuki deep into Yammy's left eye socket. Without him even realizing he was in pain or that the sword was embedded into his skull, the whole of his brain and skull without was frozen solid within a second. With a dispassionate gaze cast at the lifeless, stupidly grinning face of her former comrade she pulled back in time for the skull to shatter like fragile glass. The whole of Yammy's body fell forward lifelessly and lay inert over the now frost covered earth below.
"Fighting you was a nice exercise to test the limits of my Shinigami powers and the amount of Reiryoku I could tap into without relying on my other Aspects heavily. I could have killed you any time I want using any number of methods but this felt the most suitable. Avoiding a particularly bad play on words, you were always empty headed and your lack of intelligence was going to be your downfall. Not using your head made you lose it, I guess," Aaroniero spoke to herself as she busied herself dropping to the earth and beginning the devouring process. She had to be thankful that, of the potential sub-forms an Arrancar's Sword Release could possess, he got smaller in the end. He could have turned into a larger, hairy beast that would have taken ages to finish devouring.
Taking nearly a solid minute to devour and a little longer to cope with the rush of power she felt, there was a distinct crash not far beyond her hearing range. Cleaning herself up she warily leaped across the hauntingly silent glad devoid of the surface's light. The dim layout eventually gave way to a line of snapped trees of a high speeding projectile or individual had crashed into. Turning to look where it ended she nearly felt herself leap with joy. She had faintly suspected that the plummeting signature meant she had disappeared but it was simply a brief erasing blip in her radar.
Rana Zolinder, the Privaron Primera Espada.
"What's left of her," She thought morosely, seeing that both of the Arrancar's arms were gone from the upper arm down. Gauging from the severity of the burns and bleeding that only worsened with the flight she took across the moonless forest. Faint signs of breath could be seen but soon wouldn't be a factor any longer. Hungrily staring down at her former compatriot she remembered her time spent in the first formed Espada, having watched her endure her fate of betrayal and imprisoned isolation. She felt no pity for someone so volatile and untrustworthy.
But now, she was going to serve a higher purpose. Detaching the mouth-shaped tendril that her left arm embodied she watched with rapt attention as the Arrancar's broken body was chewed up and ingested into her, taking in every detail she desired. When her own Aspect joined the host of others, along with her Reiryoku, she felt herself practically throb with continuous life. She was so enjoying the feeling of rapidly growing strength she nurtured with every devouring of enemies she had faced one after another.
To handle it, she knew there was something that had to be done.
Sheathing her Zanpakutō to the point of sealing it, she raised her left arm in a presenting manner towards the dark canopy of the Menos Forest. Inhaling deeply, she exhaled in a low hiss her initiative, "Devour, Glotonería."
By that point, a large surge of flesh and Reiatsu rushed to the surface, threatening to completely erupt from the underdark she currently presided in. Using all of her willpower she controlled the output to a small radius, containing it as the sea of dark colored flesh flowed beneath her hakama skirt. The formerly invertebrate form had turned into a grinding bud that was full of untapped Aspects never before utilized. Sighing she felt her body submerge into the viscous pool of Aspects and Reiryoku she had gathered. With petals of a purple petaled rose she became entombed in her own projected essence. Tendrils probed and wrapped around her, diligently working on evolving her into the next state of her higher state of being.
It was only as she was drifting into a rapturous slumber as her mind swam through the memories of her own and those she assembled that something was amiss on high. Low, where there was a crescent moon beaming its white rays down on all exposed entities there was a spider webbed fissure in its hollow space. Spreading outward, the rupture in space grew until a few pale digits grasped on the "glass". Crushing it into a clenching fist, a figure emerged from a dispersing doorway, draped in white with a partial horned kabuto resting on his raven locks. Emerald eyes glanced around and black lips parted in surprise at what he saw.
When that expression turned into one of solemn, contained fury, one could see if they paid attention to a rippling current of lime tinted Reiatsu flowing around him passively. Like an impending hurricane it howled to the devastated sandy earth below. Only a single name brushed the tongue across his lips, one he knew would be at the height of this chaos that had been unleashed in his absence.
"Ichigo Kurosaki," Ulquiorra Schiffer sneered coldly as his body propelled from the air towards where he saw his presence. "I'll have you answer for this mess. Then, you will wish you stayed dead at my hands."
A/N: And here it is, the long awaited update for A Predator Among Us. We finally get to the 10th Chapter and this is where it all comes to a head. With the Vanguard wiped out, Szayel bested and Yammy devoured the anticipated showdown between Ulquiorra Schiffer and Ichigo Kurosaki is about to take place. How much different will this encounter go? Will Ichigo be able to recover in time to fight the nihilist or will he be kicked down before the fight even begins? Well, we'll find out next update, won't we?
Before I go, let me go over a few things.
First off, you may wonder if there was a shift in writing technique or style at the beginning and end of this Chapter. That was because a dear friend and supporter of my stories lent his hand at writing the scenes involving Aaroniero combating Yammy Llargo. This is due to a Literary Trade where we both took a stab at writing a part or a scene in each other's stories. While he got to write a good portion of my story involving Aaroniero and Yammy, my portion was done in his Dragon Ball Z series, The Erased Chronicles. For those of you wanting to see a genuinely good romantic story with a little action laced into it, I highly recommend it. It is one of the few stories where Gohan is paired up with Erasa and this pairing needs more love than has been given by the Fandom.
Secondly, I'd like to go over how in the official Manga/Anime Cero Oscuras was never said to be forbidden unlike the Sword Releases of Cuatro or higher and Gran Rey Cero. I felt that my friend's suggestion that it should have been banned raised a good point given this is a Cero with a much higher yield of explosive force compared to an ordinary Cero, much like the devastating Gran Rey Cero but in a focused form. So in case you saw something that didn't mesh right with Canon, that was why I allowed that change to happen.
Lastly, for those of you who are only in here to read Aaroniero kicking all kinds of ass and not the REST of the Cast making up BLEACH I'll make sure to make a notice anytime Aaroniero may be largely absent or entirely not given time in a chapter that requires me to show you what's going on elsewhere. Some of you may know what I'm hinting at but I digress, it won't be for a long period of time as this IS Aaroniero's story. I'm the kind of author who doesn't like to push characters to the side or shove opportunities aside for the sake of plot progression. So when the time comes I WILL let you all know when Aaroniero will take a backseat to the story if only to sweeten the outcome that follows.
Now, I take my leave. I hope you all take the time to consider what was written and post your thoughts/comments into the Review Section below. Every Review helps strengthen my Resolve to write another update sooner rather than later. With that in mind, I'll see you guys next time on A Predator Among Us!