La Sombrero de Paja Chpt 3

In memorium: Lacey the Border Collie (~1995-March 16, 2012)

By the time I've written this, my dog for more than 15 years died the night before St. Patrick's Day. We miss her very much and regret that we couldn't spend more time with her.

Luffy adjusted his hat and uttered a single word, "Swing", which was then followed by a single syllable of "Og-" before he was cut off by a Senkaimon opening right next to him. Confused, Luffy halted his resurreccion and stared into the gate as it opened to reveal an eruption of blue energy. Luffy used his sonido ability to evade the attack.

"What was that?" Luffy asked.

"Did I get him?" a deep voice asked. A man stepped out of the Senkaimon, one that was tall, tan, and had a black arm with a strange red pattern on and a horn on his shoulder. "I sensed the spiritual pressure of an arrancar but I don't think I got him."

"Hey! Don't go interrupting my fight!" Zaraki yelled.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked.

"My name is Sado Yasutora," said the man, "but you can also call me Chad."

Accompanying Chad was another shinigami with red hair. "And I'm Renji Abarai, lieutenant of the 6th division."

"Hey Renji," Ikkaku began, "where's Ichigo? I thought you were sent to retrieve him."

"Rukia thought it best to split up, as the intruders have, in order to find them all and detain them," Renji spoke. "Ichigo is with Rukia while Uryu and Orihime were brought here by Yoruichi."

Luffy appeared before Renji, "So that Ichigo guy's here? Where is he?" startling Renji with his speed.

"Who wants TO KNOW!" Renji screamed as he unleashed his zanpakto, Zabimaru, on instinct. But Luffy was able to get out of the way.

"I wanna know," Luffy stated, "Sort of the reason I came here in the first place."

"So what? You're not satisfied with me?" Renji yelled as he continued his attacked.

Luffy was attacked by Renji's barrage of attacks again and again with Luffy evading them every time. At one point he used a Cero to block an oncoming attack. At the same time, Kurotsuchi was steamed at the fact that Renji cut into his fight. "Damn it, Renji! Who said you could fight him. At this rate, with your powers, you'll just reduce the specimen to a useless pulp!" Captain Kurotsuchi yelled. The two shinigamis started fighting the Espada with Kurotsuchi holding no regard for Renji. Ashisogi Jizo let out a huge cloud of poison in the area, to which Renji moved as far away as he could.

"Again with the poison cloud?" Luffy said, "Okay, I'm already bored with you."

Rewind time a little bit…

A duo of Ussop and Robin were fighting what appeared to be a kid with white hair and a woman with the biggest "assets" you've ever seen. Ussop had his zanpakto, which was a regular sized, western broad-sword with strange, prong-like protrusion as the guard, at the ready while Robin hand her short-sword zanpakto drawn.

"Hey Robin, you take the woman," Ussop stated, "I'll take the little kid."

"And why do I have to take the woman?" Robin asked, even though she partially knew the answer.

"Well, you can't expect a warrior like myself to fight a woman, can you?" Ussop retorted with a puffed chest. "It's not that I want to fight a child or anything it's just out of the two I would feel less shame with the child."

At this, the "kid" with the white hair became irritated. "Just who do you think you're calling a kid?" he retorted as he charged at Ussop and pushed him back with his sword. "I am the captain of the 10th division, Toshiro Hitsugaya."

"WAIT, YOU'RE A CAPTAIN!" Ussop screamed. "Change of plans Robin, I suddenly feel like I would be more shamed if I were to fight a young child instead."

"I'M NOT A KID!" Hitsugaya screamed.

"Sorry, no take-backs," Robin responded, she then turned her head to address the woman, "So, what's your name?"

"Rangiku Matsumoto, lieutenant of the 10th division," the woman responded. "And I have to say, if that is what we're to expect from you arrancars, you are in serious trouble."

"HA! Don't take me lightly lady!" Ussop suddenly said while trying to make himself look bigger again. "Tremble in fear cuz' you're in the presence of the Espada, the dreaded Ussop!"

"And what number Espada are you?" Captain Hitsugaya decided to ask.

"U-Uh… Please, what does my rank matter to you," Ussop shouted, "All you need to know is that the power I wield is enough to make Aizen tremble in fear."

Hitsugaya and Rangiku were obviously skeptical about that statement. This prompted Hitsugaya to say sarcastically "Interesting, then you must be high up among the Espada. Please do enlighten us on what rank you are."

Ussop began to panic as Hitsugaya was calling his bluff. "N-No I think I'll… um… spare you the mind-blowing realization of just how screwed you are."

"So can you at least tell us why you're trembling?" Rangiku asked.

At this Ussop panicked, he started shouting and desperately charging a Cero in his hand. "GRAAH, SHUT UP!" The Cero Ussop fired was a dark beige type of Cero and had a wide range.

Hitsugaya and Rangiku were barely able to dodge with elbow room to spare. But this caused them to split off. While Toshiro headed towards Ussop for a head-on attack, Rangiku was confronted by Robin.

Captain Hitsugaya's and Ussop's sword clashed, startling Ussop but he was able to retain enough composure to charge another Cero to fire. Only this one was different, it was weaker but faster, not unlike the Cero derived Bala, only it was even faster than that. The close range Cero fired from the tip of Ussop's finger causing Toshiro to back away. Unfortunately it was too fast and the captain had to put up his guard for impact.

"Was that a Bala?" Toshiro asked, Toshiro backed away far enough but was still scathed by the strange Cero. "No, it seemed too weak even by that technique's standards."

"Actually, it's more like—" Ussop was cut off by the feeling of an immense burst of spiritual pressure. "WHO IS THAT! THAT'S GOTTA BE ONE OF THE SCARIEST PRESSURES I'VE EVER FELT!"

"Oh that's just Captain Komamura," Hitsugaya responded. "In all the weirdness of dealing with you I guess I didn't notice it until now." Hitsugaya continued to survey the battle with Komamura and noticed what this spike meant. "He must have activated his bankai. Whoever his opponent is must be very overwhelming in order to push him that far."

"Yeah who could— !" Ussop was cut off as a new spike in spiritual pressure made him realize who Komamura was fighting. "Let me ask you something. This bankai thing, we've heard about it but only some of us have ever really seen one. What is it exactly?"

Hitsugaya grew confused at Ussop's sudden composure but indulged in his opponent's curiosities. "Well, simply put, the first form of our zanpakto is the shikai and is the initial manifestation of our spiritual pressure. But the bankai is the uninhibited release of our spiritual power in full force. It's much different from you arrancars sealing your original forms in your swords."

Ussop listened while curiously he felt another spike of energy from another direction, though this one was much more erratic and didn't last as long. "Ah great, Chopper's down. I wonder what happened to him."

"Chopper? Is that the name of the arrancar fighting Komamura?" Hitsugaya asked.

"No, Chopper is someone else entirely, but nevermind that. This Komamura guy, is he strong?"

"He definitely is, he'd have to be in order to achieve the rank of Captain of the 7th division," Hitsugaya continued. "As captain it is a requirement to achieve bankai in order to qualify, and that means both Komamura and I can use bankai."

"If this is the extent of this Komamura guy's power, than he's doomed," Ussop said.

"What do you-" as the young captain was about to ask, he suddenly felt Capt. Komamura's pressure drop.

"As a captain, maybe you'll appreciate this bit of info. I sort of lied about being an Espada." Ussop blatantly said.

Capt. Hitsugaya just had a blank expression on his face. "Really, what a shock," Hitsugaya said in a monotone fashion.

"I know, I'm sure you were already trembling in awe of my power and skill, but the strongest ones are actually three of our members," Ussop continued. "Our boss, Monkey D. Luffy, is the Espada of our group, but there are two members of our group that were offered the rank of an Espada only to decline."

At this, Capt. Hitsugaya widened his eyes at this information. "You mean to tell me that we're dealing with three Arrancars with power at least on par with an Espada?" To Capt. Hitsugaya, this meant that these three were at least high level adjuchas, possibly even vasto lordes.

Ussop stared at the direction of Komamura and Sanji's battle. "Including our boss Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, those three make up the strongest members of our team."

At the same time…

Random soul reapers of the 7th division looked in awe at what they saw. The area was in complete chaos as everything around them was rubble and Capt. Sajin Komamura was flat on the ground in a tattered uniform and bruises. Sanji, meanwhile was re-sealing his ressureccion form after he was done. He re-lit his cigarette and used sonido to go elsewhere in search of more girls.

Back to Ussop and Robin

A portal opened letting through Uryuu Ishida and Orihime Inoue leapt out onto a nearby rooftop. "Who're you guys?" Ussop asked.

"Uryuu Ishida," Uryuu answered. "A Quincy." Immediately afterwards he conjured a bow and fired with every arrow pointed at Ussop.

Uryuu's bow was firing a frenzy of arrows as if it were rain but Ussop's running and dodging abilities were saving him from obliteration as he ran madly trying his best not to get hit. Ussop, now tired of running away, charged a Cero and fired toward the Quincy only the Cero wasn't a huge beam. The resulting Cero was more like a shotgun that spread and canceled out some of the arrows. Uryuu stopped as some of the Cero's shotgun blast was heading to his position.

"What was that?" Uryuu asked. "It seemed like a Cero, but it was unlike any I've ever seen. Is that the Bala technique I heard about from Urahara?"

Ussop smiled at the fact that he stumped Uryuu. "Not exactly, let demonstrate something," he then pointed his finger at Uryuu and charged another Cero and fired. Only this one fired in a thin stream.

Orihime figured something was coming and went to guard Uryuu. "Uryuu watch out!" her Santen Keshuun shield was put up in front of her and Uryuu, preparing for the worst. However the Cero stream punctured right through her shield, forcing Uryuu to grab Orihime and step away before it could do more damage.

"It's based on the same principle as Bala, but I am able to do more complex things with my Cero," Ussop began charging a Cero but did not fire it, instead he shaped it and molded it to his will to demonstrate his ability to freely manipulate the energy. "You see, I'm the only arrancar who can so freely manipulate a Cero to this degree. The one I used before to counter your arrows was a Cero Escopeta (zero shotgun) and the one I just used is what I call a Cero Perforador (zero piercer, as in armor piercer). SO TREMBLE BEFORE MY AWESOME POWER THAT CAN EVEN MAKE AIZEN TREMBLE IN HIS BOOTS! HAHAHAHA AHAHAH!"

A little ways away, Robin and Rangiku were fighting. Both were evenly matched and couldn't get any attack through. "You're really good," Rangiku said, "but you should really stop holding back."

"I will if you stop holding back," Robin responded.

"Was it that obvious?"

"Your captain said that a requirement for his position is to master bankai. With those standards in mind I doubt they would give someone the position of lieutenant without the ability to use shikai."

"Funny you should mention that," Rangiku said as she positioned her sword. "Growl, Haineko!" at this Rangiku's sword dissolved into dust and floated around her for a little bit. With a swipe of her hand the dust particles went towards Robin who put her guard up as the dust cloud pushed her into a building. At this point Rangiku made a slashing gesture with what remained of her sword and the dust cloud exploded.

Back at the fight between Ussop, Capt. Hitsugaya, and Uryuu, Ussop was firing multiple, tiny bullets of Ceros through both hands at his two opponents. To which Ussop called this technique Cero Gatling (yes it's the same in both Spanish and English), all the while laughing boastfully. His celebration was cut short as he noticed that Capt. Hitsugaya was able to get close enough to make a strike. On instinct, Ussop charged the same close range Cero as before through the tip of his finger and it made Capt. Hitsugaya jump back.

"Cero Pistola Paralizante (zero stun gun)" Ussop said.

"Damn," Capt. Hitsugaya said. The young captain landed next to Uryuu and was able to dodge that cero this time. "Watch out Uryuu, he's not that powerful, but what really makes him troublesome is his diverse array of attacks. He's covered in long range and short range combat."

"Yes but I noticed that he prefers to distance himself," Uryuu said. "So he must primarily be a long range specialist."

"I think that's more because he's a coward."

Back with Robin and Rangiku

Rangiku kept her guard up because she knew that last attack couldn't have killed her. And right on cue she felt a hand on her back and she instantly backed away. When she looked behind her there was nothing there and she felt the hand again and she jumped away again and the same process happened another time. Rangiku was completely on edge and she didn't know what was going on. And then she heard Robin's voice, "Getting kind of jumpy, aren't we?"

Rangiku turned around and there was Robin with very small bruises and cut. Much smaller then what Rangiku expect her attack to do. "What's going on here?"

To this, Robin responded by sprouting a third arm from the joint of her elbow and another arm from Rangiku's stomach that playfully waved to her. "You mean this?" Robin inquired.

Rangiku was startled and tried to cut the arm off which then just disintegrated into petals. "I've never seen an arrancar with this power."

"It's a power only I have," Robin said. "Not only do I have the best regeneration skills of the team, or Hueco Mundo for that matter, as you may have noticed, but I can also "regenerate" limbs on other things. Making them sprout like a tree."

"But how, you can't possibly just sprout limbs anywhere you please."

"Very perceptive. With the exception of my own body, I have to spread spores on anything I want to sprout my limbs on."

"I don't remember you doing any cultivating." Rangiku said.

"My body constantly releases microscopic spores constantly. So essentially, anywhere I go, so long as it's within my range, I can sprout my limbs. Which means…"

At this, hands started grabbing Rangiku and putting her into submission. "…Power, speed, they all mean nothing to me."

To be continued…

Author's notes

Sorry for the big psyche out about almost revealing Luffy's ressureccion. I know how much of a middle finger that is to the audience who have been waiting patiently for me, but I figured it was too early to reveal it.

I will definitely reveal more ressurecciones in the next chapter.