XVII
Shaking his head, Grimmjow threw away the guilt he felt and put his sadistic grin back on. It had already been done, and there was no time for him to regret his action. After all, a Caja Negación only had enough power to hold someone of Ulquiorra's caliber for a couple of hours, so he needed to settle the matter with Kurosaki Ichigo as soon as possible.
Since he had fought that Substitute Shinigami twice before, he didn't have any problem tracking down the man's spiritual presence. Just as Ulquiorra predicted, Kurosaki Ichigo was already halfway to the woman's cell, though it appeared the Shinigami was intercepted by one of those Privaron Espadas.
Grimmjow sighed and decided to head there to save some time. After all, it wasn't as though the Privaron Espada would be any match against that Substitute Shinigami.
The Sexta Espada was only halfway to where Kurosaki Ichigo was when a level of spirit energy of Kurosaki Ichigo's opponent had suddenly dropped and the orange-haired Shinigami seemed to be on his move once again. Therefore, Grimmjow decided to stop in a corner of a dark hallway, waiting for the Shinigami to run his way.
He didn't have to wait long for the Deathberry to show up. He noticed that there was something different in said Shinigami's spiritual energy, but he didn't have time to pay attention to all the little details, so he simply unsheathed his sword and leaped towards the teen.
Though caught by surprised, Ichigo's instinct was still sharp, which allowed him to draw Zangetsu and block the attack just before it could hit him.
"Yo, Kurosaki Ichigo!" Grimmjow uttered with a sadistic grin after their zanpakutō clashed. "Long time no see."
Ichigo pushed Grimmjow back with his sword, while he too bounced back, away from the sword range.
"I see you got your left arm back," Ichigo replied.
"That's cuz I've no time to play around today," Grimmjow stated, "so let's pick up where we left off, shall we?"
Not only did Grimmjow suggested so, the Sexta Espada also put his hand above his blade and made a short, quick stroke as he commanded, "Grind, Pantera!"
Grimmjow's level of spiritual pressure suddenly increased with the release command, crushing a part of the building and blowing off a certain part of the roof he was standing under. Ichigo needed to use his zanpakutō to shield himself from some debris, but even then, the Shinigami remained calm in the most part.
All the dust and debris soon faded to reveal Grimmjow standing in his full Resurrección form. Ichigo noted how Grimmjow's hair suddenly grew into a long mullet. The remnant of the Espada's Hollow mask changed its shape and location into something that looked like a headband on his forehead. The man's ears turned somewhat cat-like. Whereas the man's hold uniform turned into some sort of body armor. And to make the Espada looked even more feline like, he also grew a tail and had sharp claws on his hands and feet.
Normally Grimmjow would enjoy taunting and trying to bring the best out of his prey, just so he would enjoy killing them more. However, his intention for fighting Ichigo had already shifted and at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to get the boy out of the picture as soon as possible, so Grimmjow decided against playing around. Thus, he leaped towards Ichigo and struck him with his claws, aiming for the man's throat.
Ichigo managed to block the attack with Zangetsu, so Grimmjow swirled around to kick the Visored in the unguarded back, sending the teen flying through the nearest wall as a result. Then the Sexta Espada used Sonído to fly past Ichigo in order to launch another hit.
Once again, the Shinigami parried the Arrancar's strike with his sword. He was also able to break the momentum and stopped himself from flying into a nearby tower. Not planning to give his opponent enough time to fight back, Grimmjow delivered a set of high-speed punches, which Ichigo blocked, though with some difficulty.
"What's with you, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Grimmjow asked as he continued coming at Ichigo with a series of punches. "Aren't you even gonna pull out that lame bankai of yours and fight back? Don't tell me you've given up already."
Grimmjow's word somehow got under Ichigo's skin, since the boy shouted, "Don't call my bankai lame when you're looking like a fucking cat! Getsuga Tenshō!"
Grimmjow deflected the blast with his arm, sending the energy towards one random pillar and blowing a huge hole in it as a result. If he hadn't already planned to kill Ichigo before, he swore he would do so then.
While he didn't expect the Shinigami to be amazed or afraid when he saw Grimmjow's true form, at least Ichigo should show some respect to the power that could easily have them kill. He never could understand why anyone would call him a cat when he was clearly a panther. His Resurrección's name was clearly Pantera and not Gato. He might have got used to hearing such a comment from Ulquiorra that it had practically become their inside joke, but it didn't mean that he needed to hear that same kind of comment from an enemy.
Well, of course, Grimmjow had conveniently forgotten that he was the one who showed disrespect to Ichigo first when he called his bankai lame.
"That's it, Kurosaki Ichigo! You're so dead!"
With that, Grimmjow darted towards Ichigo once again. He spun mid air to deliver a roundhouse kick to the Shinigami's face, and then followed the kick through with a whip of his tail when Ichigo managed to dodge the first assault.
The Shinigami found it hard to dodge that round house kick from the panther, especially when Grimmjow also whipped his tail to his position after that kick. Seeing that his enemy was struggling, the Espada didn't hesitate to use the opportunity to throw in another series of quick punches.
Ichigo managed to block most of those punches with either the back of his forearm or with his zanpakutō before he called out a few more shots of Getsuga Tenshō.
"Give that up already," Grimmjow said with a scornful laugh. "You know it won't do me any damage no matter how many times you try."
Ichigo gritted his teeth and jumped backward to gain some distance from his opponent.
"I guess there's really no helping it, then," Ichigo said before he put his hand in front of his face in a gesture that he was about to call out his Hollow mask.
Grimmjow grinned. It was getting a little more interesting, though he had to say it was a little unexpected to see that Ichigo would choose to call for his mask before he would his bankai, since the Shinigami had a bad habit of spamming his bankai whether it was necessary or not, while keeping that Hollow mask as the last resort since he didn't seem to have a complete control of it yet.
Once the mask formed itself above Ichigo's face, Grimmjow had to widen his eyes in surprise. That mask was completely different from the way he remembered. Not only did the red markings on it changed their position, the mask itself had grown into a full skull shape, and also had two sharp horns growing out of it. And to add to that effect, the man's orange hair also grew significantly longer while his reiatsu had become dramatically dark. If the man had a hole in his chest and no longer held a zanpakutō, Grimmjow would believe that was an Arrancar's Resurrección.
The Sexta Espada's sadistic grin went wide as he saw that form from the Shinigami. It seemed to him Ichigo had really improved from the last time they fought, which made it much more exciting to beat the Shinigami down.
Grimmjow lunged himself at Ichigo again, only for the Visored to disappear from the spot in a flash and then reappear behind him before he swung that huge blade down towards Grimmjow's back.
Although his instinct told him to get away, his body didn't react fast enough, so Ichigo's blade managed to cut his back and opened a long wound.
Grimmjow hissed. The blood that was gushing out did not pain him as much as the fact that he was the first to have his blood drawn out in a battle. Ignoring the wound, Grimmjow spun around and struck his claw down toward Ichigo who parried it with his zanpakutō. Although Ichigo seemed to have been significantly stronger after he put on that mask, Grimmjow still believed that Ichigo wouldn't be able to block or dodge every single punch should he deliver them at full speed. Thus, he threw his quickest punches in.
Not only did the human proved him wrong by parring off all the punches, Ichigo also brought the fight to the next level when he suddenly summoned a red Cero between the two long horns, aiming it towards Grimmjow's head.
Realizing what his enemy was doing, Grimmjow leaped backward and charged up a blue Gran Rey Cero for counter attack although he didn't have enough time to fully charge it as he needed to fire it out soon after Ichigo shot his weird looking crimson Cero.
The clash of the two Cero set up a huge explosion that sent both parties flying back into different directions.
Grimmjow would have fallen flat on his back on the ground if he hadn't swerved in the air and landed there on his feet by instinct. Although he suffered from some minor burns from the explosion, the Sexta Espada still jumped back up in the sky to find his enemy.
He didn't believe that Ichigo would be able to escape from that blast unscathed, but no harm seemed to have been done to the Shinigami except for the fact that there were some tears in the man's shihakushō.
"So he has instant regeneration?" Grimmjow muttered to himself. "What a pain in the ass!"
Taking the chance Ichigo probably hadn't spotted him there yet, Grimmjow turned his elbow and shot five green darts out of there. Ichigo quickly tried to reflect them with his sword, only to have them blown up at the point of contact.
Grimmjow chuckled.
"Yeah, eat that, sucker," said the Sexta Espada. Even with high-speed regeneration, Grimmjow doubted it would be easy to heal from being blown up in the face by his Garra de la Pantera. After all, just one of those darts could easily bring down the whole building, and Ichigo had taken five. "See if you can heal from that."
However, Grimmjow was in for a big surprise when Ichigo suddenly dashed out of the smoke, completely unscathed, and then came at him with his huge sword.
"What the hell are you?" Grimmjow yelled as he blocked the sword with the back of his forearm. "There's no way you can heal that fast."
Instead of giving his opponent any explanation, Ichigo simply suggested, "Let's stop this now, Grimmjow."
Although his voice was tweaked and twisted under that gruesome mask, it was still easy to tell that he had regained the cool he had lost when Grimmjow called his bankai lame earlier.
"You've already seen that your technique can't harm me," he continued, "and I really don't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily."
Grimmjow's anger rose after he heard Ichigo's comment. It was as if the boy had intended to insult him, saying that there was no way he would win that battle even though the fight hadn't been taking place for all that long. It was true that Grimmjow had already been severely injured while Ichigo himself remained unharmed, but that didn't mean that he would lose.
With that thought, Grimmjow kicked Ichigo in the stomach in order to break away. Then he gritted his teeth and snarled, "Don't fucking look down on me too much, Kurosaki Ichigo. Just because Garra de la Pantera didn't work on you doesn't mean that I don't have other techniques to use."
With that Grimmjow brought both of his hands together in front of him and formed spirit energy beams out of his sharp fingers.
"But I'll agree and end this quickly, just coz you're pissing me off. Now get ready to die by my Desgarrón."
With that, Grimmjow claws one hand into the air, sending five beams directly towards Ichigo.
Meanwhile, in another part of Las Noches, Inoue dragged a chair from her writing table and placed it under the window before she climbed up and tried to look out of the small window, hoping to see what was happening on the outside. Having also received Aizen's broadcast, she was somewhat relieved to find out that her friends had made it safely to Las Noches. However, she couldn't help being afraid for their future now that they were in Las Noches and had to face much tougher enemies.
While she should be able to track all of her friends by their spiritual presence, it was almost impossible for her to concentrate her thought with the amount of spiritual pressures that were surging up from different places at the same moment.
Although she had focused her attention to the outside, she still heard a soft crack on the wall right beside her, so she turned to see what had caused such a sound. Inoue squealed and jumped away as a pale hand with black fingernails suddenly reached out from the wall, causing her to fall haplessly from the chair to land on the floor with a nice thud.
"Oww!" Inoue rubbed her behind before she widened her eyes as she remembered what gave her the spook in the first place. Quickly she looked to the direction of that mysterious hand and saw the man who was her warden standing there with a deep frown, looking somewhat disorientated. "Ulquiorra-san?"
Ulquiorra said nothing when he glared at her. Although she had already been used to the Cuarta Espada's glare, Inoue still cringed and backed away from him since unlike all other time when the man was mostly emotionless, that time there was a full-scale rage behind those emerald eyes.
The woman sighed when Ulquiorra looked away from her and then closed his eyes as if trying to concentrate on something.
"That arrogant fool," he grumbled before he suddenly flicked his arm into the wall, causing it to collapse within a second. He then turned his eyes to Inoue who was still on the floor, looking at him with a mixture of fear and surprise. "Get to your feet, woman. I need you to come with me."
The woman didn't have time to react to the order when Ulquiorra quickly approached to her, grabbed her by the upper arm and then dragged her off with him, using Sonído.
Ichigo used Zangetsu to block all those beams that were directed towards him. While the techniques didn't manage to break through Zangetsu's blade, it was still strong enough to push the Substitute Shinigami backward toward one pillar.
Ichigo gritted his teeth, before he swung his sword, cutting through one of the beams then flash-stepping his way to Grimmjow, whose eyes were widened in disbelief.
"Why can't you just die?" Grimmjow shouted in anger as he kept shooting more beams at Ichigo.
"Because I have a lot of people I need to protect," Ichigo shouted back as he broke through all of Grimmjow's powerful beams with his oversized blade. "So I can't afford to lose to you. Or to Aizen."
By the end of his sentence, Ichigo already closed in on Grimmjow and then slash his sword down diagonally across the Espada's shoulder.
There was not much Grimmjow could do to defend himself from the assault at that point. Desgarrón might have been his killing move, but every killing move had its weakness – and its was that it required a lot of spiritual energy to create the technique, and could only be used for a certain number of times before it would tax him completely. And his limit was already reached.
When Ichigo pulled Zangetsu back out, blood spurted out of the wound along with that blade. Grimmjow's head spun by the sudden loss of blood while his body returned to its unreleased stage with his zanpakutō broken.
It was due to his sheer stubbornness that Grimmjow had yet to spiral down to the desert below him, and he used his last strength to thrust his broken zanpakutō at Ichigo in retaliation.
Ichigo easily dodged and caught Grimmjow's blade with his bare hand.
"Why do you keep doing this, Grimmjow?" Ichigo wondered. "This isn't any different from casting your own life away? Is Aizen's cause really worth sacrificing your life over?"
Grimmjow chuckled sardonically even though doing so made more blood come out of the wound.
"Who said this has anything to do with Aizen?" Grimmjow replied as he suddenly pulled his sword back out of Ichigo's clutch. "I just can't lose this fight, and that's all there is to it."
Grimmjow used his last strength to try to strike Ichigo's once again while Ichigo mostly just dodged them, making Grimmjow even more angry – at himself for not having more strength and at Ichigo for not taking him seriously.
"Seriously, Grimmjow, stop now or I'll really have to kill you," Ichigo said as he effortlessly dodged all attacks from the gradually weakening Espada.
"Then fucking do it," Grimmjow spit. "I don't want a pity from a fucking enemy. Besides, even if you let me live, Ulquiorra will still kill me when he comes back and sees that I lost."
Although he didn't understand what Grimmjow was rambling on about, Ichigo could still tell that Grimmjow wasn't going to give up until either one of them died. Thus the Substitute Shinigami closed his eyes and sighed. Reminding himself once again what he was doing there and that they were enemies, Ichigo stabbed through Grimmjow's torso.
Once the blade was pulled off, Grimmjow began to free fell from the sky.
Why couldn't he beat Kurosaki Ichigo? That boy was merely human who pretended to be a Shinigami who pretended to be a Hollow, so what made him that strong? Was it really as the man claimed, and he kept getting stronger and stronger because he had many people he needed to protect so he couldn't afford to die? If that was really the case, Grimmjow also had someone he wanted to protect – someone he was willing to fight, kill or die for – then why was he defeated?
Feeling that he would lose conscious in a matter of second, Grimmjow decided that it no longer mattered. He wouldn't mind hitting the ground and losing his life. After all, it was the nature of a war. It was either kill or be killed. He had one regret, however, and it was the way he parted with Ulquiorra. But there was nothing he could do about that then. He only hoped that the Caja Negación would be able to keep Ulquiorra locked up until everything was over, and that when the man came back, he wouldn't be too angry or too sad that Grimmjow had died.
Although he had previously made up his mind that it was inevitable to kill Grimmjow, Ichigo still couldn't bring himself to watch coldly as the Arrancar descended toward the ground. Therefore, he sprinted after Grimmjow in order to catch the Espada before he hit the ground.
Before Ichigo could reach for Grimmjow's wrist and catch the Espada, the Shinigami's hand was slapped off by one slender Espada who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and broke Grimmjow's fall. He had only seen that Espada twice and vaguely recalled that the man's name was Ulquiorra.
"Don't touch him," said Ulquiorra.
Ichigo pulled off his Hollow mask and though he doubted Ulquiorra would attack when he also had to support the unconscious Grimmjow, he still made some distance from the Arrancar and kept his sword drawn just in case.
Ulquiorra glanced at Grimmjow's unconscious form for a brief moment. Although he was still angry with Grimmjow's uncalled for actions, his rage had automatically transferred to the Substitute Shinigami when he saw his lover's condition. Now he had one more reason to kill Kurosaki Ichigo aside from the fact that the orange-haired Visored had become a threat to Las Noches. Even so, he wouldn't be able to fight in his full ability while trying to protect Grimmjow as well.
Running from an enemy might not be the most honorable option, but it was the only thing he could do at that moment. Therefore, he shot a cero at Ichigo to distract the human before he turned around and dashed off with Grimmjow in his arm, heading towards a certain pillar where he had left Inoue earlier so he could rush to Grimmjow's rescue.
Inoue Orihime stood nervously alone, not knowing what to do as she was simply left there on the top of that enormous round red stone pillar by Ulquiorra. She couldn't fathom why the Cuarta Espada took her out of her cell and then just left her there just to rush somewhere else when it would be much easier if he never brought her out from the start. After all, it wasn't as if Ulquiorra did so to give her an opportunity to escape because of that was the case, he should have at least left her on the ground where she could find her way out of Las Noches, not on top of some random very high pillar where the only mean to get away was to jump down to her death.
She could tell that a battle was going on in a distance, but it was too far away that all her eyes could see were small figures dashing across the sky and some lights that might have been deflected from their blades. She could, however, sensed a reiatsu that resembled Grimmjow's, and another strong reiatsu that was similar to Ichigo's yet with a distinct difference in it.
Suddenly, Grimmjow's spiritual pressure dropped, and before Inoue could begin to wonder what was going on, Ulquiorra reappeared before her in a flash. Much to her astonishment, Ulquiorra was carrying someone on his shoulder, and a number 6 tattoo on that person's back identify him as Grimmjow Jaegerjaques.
Inoue didn't have time to voice any question when Ulquiorra lay the unconscious Sexta Espada down on the floor and ordered, "Make sure he stays alive."
Noticing how the man's spiritual energy was dropping rapidly, she didn't need Ulquiorra to tell her twice and simply chanted, "Sōten Kisshun!"
After two petals flew from her blue flower-shape hair clips to form an energy shield over Grimmjow's body and began healing the man's wound, Orihime felt relieved enough to ask, "Who did this?"
Ulquiorra ignored the woman's question and went back towards the direction of Ichigo, using Sonído.
Should the Substitute Shinigami decide not to track him and Grimmjow down, he would still come to rescue the woman. And should the woman know that it was her friend who inflicted the wounds on Grimmjow; she would, without any doubt, stop the treatment. After all, it wasn't difficult for Ulquiorra to see that her heart lay with that man, and she would choose him as her first priority – just like Grimmjow was his.
Just as Ulquiorra had expected, Ichigo was on his way to the place where he sensed Inoue's presence. However, he had to stop moving when his path was blocked by the Cuarta Espada. Ichigo blinked for a couple of times, since he didn't really think he would see Ulquiorra again soon after the man came to take Grimmjow out of the battlefield. After all, Ulquiorra impressed him as a pacifist type, since in the Arrancar never drew his sword out to fight anyone at all during the two times they met in Karakura Town, and seemed to have acted as a voice of reason for his fellow Arrancars namely Yammy and Grimmjow during those times.
No matter how Ichigo looked at it, there was really no need for Ulquiorra to stand there and face him with his zanpakutō drawn, but then he almost killed one of the man's comrades. Though, didn't Grimmjow say that Ulquiorra would kill Grimmjow if he saw that he lost? Or did he ball it up again and match the wrong name to the wrong face? That was highly possible, considering how he still failed to remember half of his classmates' names.
"You are Ulquiorra, right?" Ichigo asked just to make sure. Once he saw a curt nod from Ulquiorra, he decided to continue, "Can't we just skip this fight? I mean, we never had any quarrel, and as far as your duty to guard Inoue goes, didn't Aizen say it himself that he no longer needs her? So why don't you just let me take her back and we can both be on our ways."
"Never had any quarrel?" Ulquiorra repeated, raising an eyebrow. "It's funny you should say that, Kurosaki Ichigo, when that man you just almost killed is my lover. Perhaps, I should get to your woman and kill her to see if you'd still say the same then? After all, she's no longer of any use to Aizen-sama."
If Ichigo were to spend a moment to think about it, he would have been able to call his bluff; since Inoue was probably the only chance for Grimmjow to survive, so Ulquiorra wouldn't simply kill the girl just to get even with Ichigo. However, Ichigo was always the type to rush in and take action as soon as he learned that his friends were in danger, so he completely missed that bluff. Not to mention how he missed how Ulquiorra implied that Inoue was his woman when normally he would quickly deny such a claim, or how he failed to show any surprise that those two Espadas were an item.
"I'm the one who hurt Grimmjow, so if you want to take your revenge, take it out on me!" Ichigo said as he pulled his Hollow mask back on. "I'm not gonna let you hurt Inoue."
"I see we now have an understanding."
Ichigo still hadn't pulled out the whole mask when Ulquiorra suddenly darted towards him and struck down his sword in a way that made Ichigo wondered if he was trying to cut him down in the same places that he had hurt Grimmjow.
Somehow Ichigo believed it was the first time he ever had to fight someone whose reason for fighting was the same as his own – to protect their loved ones. It was a shame that they had to stand on a different side in the war, since the man couldn't be all that evil. Still, there were no other options. Perhaps that was where the saying hate the war but not the soldiers came in.
Ichigo had been mostly on defensive, blocking all of Ulquiorra's attacks, but he knew he would have to fight back if he wanted to win. With the thought, Ichigo shot Getsuga Tenshō to buy himself a little time to don the mask so he could match with Ulquiorra's incredibly high speed movement.
After the mask was on, Ichigo fired another shot of Getsuga Tenshō that became significantly stronger. Ulquiorra dodged the energy shots before he flew straight up into the sky. Although he couldn't tell what the Cuarta Espada was planning, Ichigo still followed suit as he couldn't afford to let Ulquiorra get away and carry out his earlier threat.
The Cuarta Espada cut the sky with his zanpakutō, creating a black hole big enough for the man to move past. Ichigo blinked in surprise as he saw the real night sky over the fake blue sky of Las Noches, but he ignored it once he spotted Ulquiorra standing on a white pillar above what appeared to be Las Noches's dome roof.
Without further ado, Ulquiorra pointed his blade at Ichigo before he said, "Enclose, Murciélago."
Green rain was falling on Ichigo's body at the moment of Ulquiorra's release. Ulquiorra's mask grew into a full helmet in a different shape. His hair and fingernails also grew longer. However, the most prominent change was how he attained that big pair of bat wings, and how his Arrancar's uniform changed to look more like a robe. From the look in those green eyes, the Shinigami could easily tell that his opponent wouldn't hold anything back in order to finish him off as soon as possible.
Ulquiorra didn't disappoint when he quickly called forth a green javelin and Sonído right in front of him before he struck down, aiming at Ichigo's neck. It was purely his instinct that allowed Ichigo to dodge that fatal blow.
Ichigo fired Getsuga Tenshō at Ulquiorra to retaliate, but Ulquiorra caught the shot with his bare hand before he returned Ichigo's favor with a black Cero that seemed to be even more powerful than the green Cero he shot at Ichigo previously when he came to Grimmjow's rescue.
Knowing that his best attack when he had his Hollow mask on was using his cero, Ichigo charged one up between his two horns and then fired it at Ulquiorra, who fired another black Cero to counter it.
The collision of the blast brought down the pillar that Ulquiorra had stood on earlier, while both parties remained mostly on their grounds.
Having witnessed Ichigo's level of power, Ulquiorra could see why the human managed to defeat Grimmjow earlier. Since Ichigo's level of reiatsu clearly exceeded Ulquiorra's own, or at least the Cero was.
The Substitute Shinigami had become much stronger during those few months, but Ulquiorra wouldn't simply allow him to have a victory so easily.
"I see you've become rather strong," Ulquiorra commented. "However, you still need to be stronger if you plan to defeat me. Resurrección Segunda Etapa!"
Ichigo's eyes widened under the Hollow mask. He never knew an Arrancar could have a second release stage, but the crazy level of reiatsu that rose with such a command, and the way the Espada's changed his form once again. This time his Hollow mask turned from a helmet into a pair of bat ears. While his wings were still there, his Arrancar attire was replaced with black fur on the forearms and lower body. Without the attire to cover it, his long black tail could be seen along with the Hollow hole in Ulquiorra's bare chest, which became larger and had a mark that looked as though some black blood was gushing out of it. His irises turned from green to yellow while the sclera turned green instead, while the green tear marks he always had on his face became larger in size and changed their colors to black.
He then flies at Ichigo in full force, but Ichigo stood his ground while he reflected Ulquiorra's attack with his blade. Ulquiorra whipped his tail at Ichigo but Ichigo was still able to dodge it somehow. Frustrated, the Cuarta Espada called forth a spear-like green energy into his hand before he jumped back and then launched it at Ichigo.
Not going to stand there and being a sitting duck, Ichigo dodged so that the spear landed somewhere behind him and caused some huge explosion.
"Shit! That's dangerous," Ichigo exclaimed.
"Indeed it is," Ulquiorra agreed, yet he summoned yet another spear, "which is why I prefer not to use my Lanza del Relámpago in close range, but if you're going to keep dodging, then so be it!"
With that said, Ulquiorra reappeared right in front of Grimmjow using his Sonído and then attempted to stab Ichigo with the spear. However, Ichigo caught it with his bare hand.
"Are you out of your mind?" Ichigo asked. The level of the Visored's spiritual increased once again for no apparent reason. However, before he could get any response from the Espada, the energy spear he was holding suddenly exploded between the two of them.
The explosion blew off Ulquiorra's right arm and shattered a part of Ichigo's mask. Ulquiorra winced slightly at the loss of his organ, but he quickly generated it back with his power. Meanwhile Ichigo touched his broken mask and summoned a new one to replace it.
It always taxed his energy whenever he needed to regenerate any organ, so Ulquiorra knew he only had a limited time left to try to finish the battle. Therefore, he summoned yet another black Cero and fired it at Ichigo who still appeared to be at his top form despite everything.
Ichigo shot his own crimson Cero in return, and it was strong enough to blow through Ulquiorra's Cero and reached to the Espada. The blast was strong enough to send Ulquiorra flying backward into one pillar, breaking it down as a result. However, Ulquiorra got back to his feet and formed another Lanza del Relámpago in his hand before he flew over to Ichigo. If his observation was correct, Ichigo's weakness lay in his mask, so should he be able to break it, he might gain some advantage in the battle.
Once he was right in front of Ichigo, he threw the green energy-made lance at the Visored. As he already expected, Ichigo caught the lance before it could hit, so he used the moment that Ichigo had his attention on that lance to charge up another black Cero and shot it at the man's face in a point blank range.
Another blast went off between the two of them, and Ulquiorra barely flew away from the explosion range in time. He landed down on top of one pillar and took a deep breath as his body began to heal itself from the severe burn on his arm that was caused by the earlier blast.
Ichigo's spiritual presence could no longer be sensed, but the Cuarta Espada still kept his eyes on the cloud of dust that was caused by the explosive. Although he doubted anyone would be able to survive the blast from a point-blank range, he wouldn't be sure until the dust faded and he saw his enemy's lifeless body on the ground.
Everything had gone completely quiet for exactly two seconds, before the dust was blown off by a black spiritual energy to reveal Ichigo standing tall in a long black coat. His mask had either been shattered or removed, while his zanpakutō had transformed into a long black blade while the chain at the end of the sword wrapped up around Ichigo's arm, making it looked as though the zanpakutō had become an extension of his arm.
The transformation surprised Ulquiorra to a certain degree, but what was more shocking was possibly the fact that he still couldn't detect any trace of Ichigo's spiritual pressure even when they were standing that close to each other.
"Tensa Zangetsu," Ichigo finished calmly. "Originally, I don't plan to use this form on anyone but Aizen, but it looks like it can't be helped after all. Anyway, this ends now, Ulquiorra. Getsuga Tenshō!"
With that said, Ichigo shot out a black energy from his blade. Although Ulquiorra still failed to detect the level of spiritual energy that was coming towards him, he could still feel it deep down that it would be much stronger than any other blast that he had faced.
Ulquiorra summoned yet another black Cero to counter it; however, the Cero was consumed into that dark energy once they collided and the wave of black energy was still coming towards him.
The blast sent Ulquiorra flying into a pillar behind him, making it crack with the impact. Blood splashed out of the Cuarta Espada's chest as his body landed on the ground. Ulquiorra felt as if all of the bones in his bodies had been broken by the blast and then the crash, and it was probably what really happened, since his own spiritual power had dropped dramatically to the point that he had turned back into his sealed Arrancar form.
At that rate, he might not be able to regenerate.
A couple of footsteps were heard before the Substitute Shinigami appeared at the ruin. He had already been back to his shikai form in which his orange hair went back to its original length and his zanpakutō was no longer a part of his arm.
Although he was lying in a pool of his own blood, Ulquiorra still refused to admit defeat, since he couldn't take that fact that he lost to a mere human who pretended to be a Shinigami and copied a power of a Hollow. It made him feel very degraded. Besides, if he lost then, Kurosaki Ichigo would get back down to that pillar and found Grimmjow with the woman.
Even though it was hard for him to even breathe without hurting himself, Ulquiorra lifted his finger and pointed it to Ichigo's direction. Using the last brink of spiritual energy he still possessed, he charged up a green Cero. It took much longer than normal to summon that power, but it appeared he was still able to do so, even though it might be at the expense of his life.
Ichigo's eyes widened once he realized what Ulquiorra was doing. Whether Ichigo understood the cost of that last Cero and decided to honor it by taking it head on or simply didn't have enough time to react and had to take the hit was unclear to Ulquiorra. However, even after a direct hit from the cero, Ichigo still stood there without any damage aside from a burn on his arm since he instinctively raised it up to block the cero.
Ichigo would have asked Ulquiorra why the man would throw his life away when the battle had already been as good as over, but he believed he had already known why.
Bowing his head slightly at the Espada, Ichigo said, "I'm sorry, Ulquiorra, but I can't afford to lose either."
However, instead of delivering a final blow to finish Ulquiorra off, Ichigo turned around, walked two steps then flash-stepped away, possibly back down the roof to find the woman he came to rescue, leaving Ulquiorra alone in the dark.
Coughing up blood while he tried to breathe, Ulquiorra only hoped the woman would have enough sense not to heal Grimmjow to his full health, or it meant that the man would try to have another fight with Kurosaki Ichigo, and everything he had done so far would be all for nothing.
He wasn't afraid to die. After all, he had always believed that dying would be better than to continue living without any purposes. Moreover, ever since he joined Aizen's army, he always wondered what it would be after Arrancars were killed. Would they simply fade into nothingness? Will they be sent to hell? Or will their souls be given another chance in Soul Society?
He supposed he would find out in just a moment.
The desert had somehow become tremendously cold as Ulquiorra lay there on the roof, feeling that the sky was getting darker and darker and the moon was also fading from his sight. Was that what it was like to die? He didn't really know. He simply knew that when his conscious was fading, Grimmjow's face flashed into his mind along with other pictures of the memories they had shared. Somehow he felt warm even though everything was getting colder around him.
"Thank you, Grimmjow," Ulquiorra mouthed. "Now I think I know what a heart is."
And then everything went completely black.
End of Chapter XVII
To Be Concluded