"That's better," the Espada told her as his white scales scraped along the floor towards her prone frame. "When ever I'm in my Resurección I prefer to fight in confined spaces. All the better to use my wonderful tail to its fullest extent."
The spear zoomed towards Mizuhara. She rolled to avoid the point which buried itself into the floor. Yomi watched as concrete sprayed outward as the Espada readied the spear again.
"You are faster than you were before," the Espada's fangs glistened, "that'll make this much more entertaining."
"I'm not going to like this," Yomi pushed her glasses back up her nose, "I can tell that right away." She held her zanpakutō out, pointed towards the ground. "Hide from the hunter Keijō Shifutā!"
She vanished. The Espada merely laughed. "Are you at all familiar with what a snake is?" he chuckled, "we don't rely solely on our eyes to find our prey. Some of us can sense the body heat that an animal we are hunting gives off. I can do the same thing with your Spirit Energy. Even if I can't see you with my eyes, I will find you. It's only a matter of pointing myself in the right direction. And now," the Espada's tail coiled around an invisible object, "your luck has run out!" The spear swung down delivering a sickening splash.
"What the heck?" asked Kaorin, "where is everybody?" Being separated from everyone else was quite a pain, especially being separated from her idol Sakaki, not that she really made a big deal about it. "I just hope I find them all soon," said Kaorin, "it'll be kinda lonely without my friends nearby."
"Heh heh heh. You are a tricky little thing aren't you Soul Reaper?" The Espada's spear had pierced the heart, the heart of a mannequin. "I'm quite impressed by your little doll that was able to replicate your Spiritual Pressure enough to fool me. But since I blocked off the exit with part of my tail, there's little doubt that I will find you."
Dammit this guy, he's a crafty little Arrancar isn't he? Yomi tried to think of something to use against him. She'd brought a number of gadgets and devices with her to Hueco Mundo. She just didn't know which of those items would be helpful against the Espada in front of her. This thing can slither and crawl but, unfortunately, it's too fast for me to slip around. So maybe I should work on that first? I have just the thing. Yomi pulled a small vial out of her uniform.
"Why are you standing over there? Are you busy trying to think something up, Soul Reaper?" The Espada's tail twitched, dangerously. "I'm bored."
The long appendage shot its way towards her. Yomi let the bottle drip out a green fluid onto the floor. The tip of the Espada's tail grazed the mixture and became stuck.
"How annoying. You really think that a sticky mess can impede me?" The tip ripped away the floor that the liquid had attached itself to.
A glint of light made his eyes dart towards a sharp blade, hovering inches from his face. "Die." The blade shot towards his skull.
"Hmph." The Espada bit down on the tip of the sword, laughing heartily. "There is no way for a Soul Reaper of your caliber to have even a chance of cutting my skin."
The Espada slashed at Yomi. Red droplets fell from her body as she lay on the floor. The spearhead slammed down beside Yomi's glasses.
"You aren't all that powerful Soul Reaper, you never should have come to Hueco Mundo." The demon slashed Yomi with his claws. "Now how will this end?" the Espada asked. "How should I finish you?" He pulled the spearhead out of the ground, destroying a wall in an overzealous display of his strength. "I'm going to place my steel into your belly," he hissed, "and when I do that your organs will be slashed with vital fluids dripping out of them onto the floor. It'll be horribly painful for you and a pleasure for me to watch!" The spear came down.
Clang.
A spiked shield blocked the spearhead. Yomi shuddered, turning her head towards a figure blackened from the light outside. The shield shot back towards the figure as it stepped into the room.
"It's a good thing I showed up, you were on the end of your rope there Yomi."
The shield spun towards the Espada, buzzing like the blade of a reciprocating saw. He slashed it away with his spear. The doomg of flash step turned his head.
"You got cut up pretty bad," the new arrival helped Yomi to her feet, "what happened?"
"That Espada caught my zanpakutō in his teeth! The shock I felt gave him an opening to hit me with his bladed spearhead. It smarts."
"You really need to think things through more.
"Shut up Tomo."
"Oh go to hell, I just saved you!"
A spear slamming into the wall behind them ended their friendly reunion.
"You pest," the serpent hissed. The tail whipped around Yomi in an instant. "Now I'll crush you like the insect you are!" the Espada laughed.
"The hell you will!" Tomo pointed her palm at the demon's face. "Hadō 31, Shakkahō!"
A red explosion enveloped the Espada's face. "What did you do? That burned!"
"Bakudō 61, Rykujōkōrō!"
Golden light slammed into the Espada. His body twitched and his tail shook but he was unable to do anything else. "What do you think you're doing you midget?" the Espada yelled at Tomo, "what the hell did you do to me? When I get out of here I'll—!"
"Shut your damn trap you stupid Espada! You think I'm afraid of some wannabe snake?" Tomo began to spin the strange spiked shield in her right hand. "As long as my blade can cut your skin and my Kidō can burn your flesh, I don't see any reason to fear you!"
Tomo threw the weapon at the Espada again, the very sound slicing the air in two. The Espada let out a scream as his tail fell to the floor. Blood poured out of the stump as Yomi struggled out of the flailing coils that had been separated from its master.
"You stupid Soul Reaper!" Tomo saw cracks form along the rectangular lights of Rykujōkōrō as the room began to shake from the Espada's Spirit Pressure. The monster's stump of a tail shot out a final bloody cloud, leaving behind a new tail. The Espada's restrictive Bakudō shattered into dissolving shards.
"Now it's time for you two to die!"
The spear slashed at Tomo. She pulled her weapon back into her hand, blocking the Espada's blade.
"I'm getting sick of you!" she cried. She wrapped the blade of the spear in a chain before yanking the spear out of the Espada's hand.
"You annoying child! How can one Soul Reaper be such a nuisance?"
The Espada shut its mouth as Tomo threw her zanpakutō at it. He ducked as the bladed shield passed by, taking the tip off of his nose.
"You're about to die!" he screamed, grabbing the chain with one hand. Tomo smiled. "What the hell are you so happy about?"
"Think of it this way, Espada. If you're holding onto that chain," she yanked the steel back, "you're gonna get sliced up!"
What? The Espada saw the saw blade become bigger and bigger.
Slice.
Blood ran down the Espada's arms as he braced his hands against the slicing disc.
"Too bad Soul Reaper," the demon chuckled, "You couldn't cut me in half after all!"
"Don't you remember?" Tomo seemed unfazed by the fact that the Espada held her zanpakutō in its hands. She continued to mock him. "Don't you remember how many Soul Reapers you're fighting?"
Doomg.
The Espada felt something standing on his shoulders. A panic turned towards Yomi. She slammed her zanpakutō through its head, not wasting time with words.
"These guys are tougher than I expected," said Tomo, "how are we supposed to find everyone?"
"Don't worry," her friend told her, "I have a nifty little device for this."
Shapes began to emerge from Yomi's hair. Tomo shrank back.
"Wha-what are those things?"
"Tracker Beetles," said Yomi, "I developed them myself. They analyze reishi to find things."
"Ick! They're so gross! You had those things in your hair?" she asked, as the beetles' shiny bodies crawled about the room.
"Well I certainly wasn't going to put then inside my uniform, not enough space."
"But they're bugs, and huge!"
"Do you always have to be so loud? Sometimes you're the weirdest person I know Tomo."
"Well I have a way to find them, and it's not as nasty!" Tomo sat down. "Bakudō 58, Kakushitsuijaku." A blue orb hovered in front of Tomo. "Um," she turned towards Yomi, "how do you work this thing again?"
Kagura dragged her way out of the sand. The moon hung overhead as she shook sand off of Zangetsu. The only thing that she could sense was a small entity nearby. She saw what looked like a child sitting on a rock.
Are there supposed to be people here? "Uh hey, kid." She noticed that the boy had a strange mask on top of his head.
"D-don't kill me!" he shrieked, bawling as Kagura stood there in confusion. "You Soul Reapers kill hollows like me!"
"You mean 'like myself,'" said Kagura, "and relax, I'm not gonna kill you." She stared at the small creature as his sobbing slowly ebbed.
"T-then can I go with you?"
"Whoa what?"
"It's scary here! Arrancar are everywhere!"
"Settle down will you? You can't go with me."
"Then you're leaving me to die!"
"Please stop crying, you...can come with—"
"Really? Yeah! I'm Lucas!" he said, wrapping his arms around Kagura's left leg.
"I'm Kagura and do you have to do that?"
"Sorry," he let go. "Where are you headed anyways?"
"To find where Nguvu is keeping my friend, plus—"
"What? You're going against Lord Nguvu, are you insane?"
"No, where do I find him?"
"That giant castle," said Lucas pointing at the building, the shape of which was impossible to ignore, with a finger.
"Huh, how did I miss that? Oh well," said Kagura setting off towards it, Lucas timidly following, hidden within her shadow.