Chapter 23
"How about the polearm?" Grimmjow's voice interrupted her as she dug through her bags. He was in good spirits, she decided, clearly excited for the mayhem to come. She was already armoured up, it was just time to decide on a weapon. She wasn't sure she wanted to use the twin swords; the last time she had fought with them it had seemed like they spent more time out of her hands than in them.
"I don't really like it. Its main advantage is range, and that is less of an issue since you taught me sonido." Vellena said. "It's good when facing more than one opponent, though."
"The mace?"
"Possibly. It's a real nice bone crusher." She grinned.
"What about the big red sword? I've never seen you use that." She froze. She hadn't realized that he'd seen Sanguiferrous.
"Not that one." She replied flatly.
"Why not?"
"… I'll tell you later. There could be some bad effects."
"Will you two women just shut up and get ready? I don't care what weapon the bitch uses, as long as she kills some shinigami!" A voice snapped. Grimmjow and Vellena's heads both whipped around in unison to glare at 'Magical Princess Luppi', as Grimmjow had started to refer to him when the new Sexta wasn't around.
"No one asked you, fruitcake," sneered Grimmjow.
"You better watch it, former Sexto Espada." Luppi snarled back. "You're nothing now."
"Still more than you'll ever be." Grimmjow retorted. Luppi stiffened, looking like he was getting ready to attack.
"Ugh, will you two shut up?" Yammi grumped, wheeling on his two brothers-in-arms. He drew in a deep breath, no doubt ready to add his opinion to the mix. Vellena was unsurprised by the whole exchange – she'd witnessed pre-battle bickering many times before back in Azeroth. Everyone's nerves were always wound a little tight at the prospect of a good brawl.
"Boys, boys… quiet down. Save your aggression for the real world, why don't ya?" Gin's eternally cheerful voice halted the two. "Have you decided on a weapon yet, Vellena-chan?" the silver-haired commander grinned. But then, he was always grinning.
Vellena strapped the huge mace across her back, giving Gin a quick, business-like nod before settling her helmet on her head.
"Ahh, the mace. Someone's gonna feel the pain of a lotta broken bones before they die." Gin chirped. Vellena smiled, even though she knew no one could see it behind her full face-mask. All that was visible of her face were her glowing eyes, and her pointed ears sticking out of two special slits cut for just that purpose.
"Are you coming too?" Grimmjow demanded, not bothering to address Gin at all, let alone correctly.
"Naw, I'm staying here. But I brought ya Wonderweiss."
"Auuuuuuu…"
"Oh great," growled Grimmjow on seeing the vacant-eyed arrancar that made the newest addition to Aizen's ranks.
"Have fun in Karakura town, darlings!" Gin beamed, opening a garganta. "Bye bye!"
"Well what are you waiting for? Get going, you worthless waste of space!" Luppi snapped at Grimmjow when the former Sexto didn't immediately sonido into the garganta. It seemed Luppi was impatient with anything that wasn't instantaneous, or maybe he was just looking for reasons to bait Grimmjow. Vellena suspected the latter.
"Shut up, flower-girl, and get out of my way!" Grimmjow replied, stepping into the yawning maw. Vellena gave her armour one last jingling check and followed after Yammi and Wonderweiss. Gin's portal closed behind them.
Luppi, Yammi and Grimmjow continued sniping at each other the entire way through the passageway. Vellena just ran in silence, noting once more that it seemed to take a lot longer to reach the living world than to reach a destination within Hueco Mundo. Finally, a light appeared ahead of them and the garganta gaped open, revealing a brilliant, sunlit sky.
This time, she had no compunctions about stepping into thin air. Calling reiatsu to her feet to support her was as automatic as breathing.
"Oh, looks like we found a good place. They have lots of reiatsu." Yammi grinned, noting the stunned shinigami below them.
"These are the reinforcements that Mister Six was talking about?" Luppi sneered. "Oh, I'm sorry, former Mister Six, isn't it?"
"The bastard I want to kill isn't in that group." Snarled Grimmjow, tearing away with his fastest sonido. Yammi called after him to wait, and Luppi cut him off with another verbal dig at Grimmjow's abilities. Vellena shifted, observing the shinigami and momentarily tuning out her companions. Let Grimmjow have his fight; there was more than enough here for all of them.
A sudden movement from below had her reacting just in time. An icy sword shuddered against the haft of her mace as she raised it to block, sonidoing in front of the distracted Yammi. She was slightly surprised that her opponent seemed no more than a boy – strikingly coloured and wearing a slightly different uniform from the other shinigami.
"Hitsugaya Tōshirō, Captain of the 10th." The boy said. His voice was lower than she expected, and dead serious. Captain, huh? That meant Bankai.
"Vellena Nightwind, Death Knight of the Ebon Blade." She replied in the same tone, ignoring Yammi's protest that he wanted to fight. She'd seen the boy first, dammit. He was her opponent now. There were plenty of shinigami here to choose from.
"You're the one Renji fought. He was right. You aren't an arrancar." The boy narrowed his vivid turquoise eyes.
"You have other things to think about." Warned Vellena, shifting her mace. A rune winked out instantly, glow dimming to nearly nothing as she called upon its power to send a freezing rebuke at the boy. He stared at her for a moment, brushing a little hoar-frost from his cheek.
"Ice? You clearly do not know your opponent." He said, and then he attacked.
With sonido, avoiding the sweeping strike was child's play. She reappeared a short distance to the side.
"I see. Shunpo will not help you." He vanished. Shunpo – it must be what the shinigami called their version of sonido. Theirs was quieter, she reflected, as she once again raised her mace to block. This time, she noticed the ice on his blade, and realized why he had made the comment about not knowing her opponent – he was clearly an ice user. Frost was out. What a pity. Oh well, she still had any number of painful tricks up her sleeve.
She pushed against his blade suddenly with the long metal handle of the mace. When he returned with automatic pressure back, she sidestepped, letting his weapon slide down the handle of hers. He took two automatic steps forward at the sudden lack of resistance and she grabbed his blade with one hand and swung her mace down at him with the other.
He caught on to the attack before it landed, unfortunately. He was quick. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get entirely out of the way. Her mace came down on the left arm he raised to block, and she heard the meaty thump and his grunt of pain. No cracking of bones, but that had to sting a bit. He vanished, showing up a short distance away. His left arm hung loosely at his side, obviously damaged, even though she saw no blood. The point of a mace was not to draw blood, the point of a mace was to fucking crush things.
"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyōrinmaru!" the boy shouted.
That would be the shikai, thought Vellena. Flashing towards her far quicker than she would have thought possible was what appeared to be a wingless dragon made of ice. With a buzzing sound, she used sonido to split right before it hit. It followed, looping around as if guessing where she would jump. But she was a little more ready this time, and she swung her mace right at the icy face.
Ice shattered and shards went spraying in all directions. The shockwave of the impact travelled part of the way down the 'neck' of the thing, continuing to shatter as it went. She saw the white haired shinigami flinch, as though she'd slapped him. Then he flicked his wrist and the coiling ribbon of ice reformed, the head returning with a roar. This might be problematic, she thought.