Chapter Eight: Trials

Seireitei

Deep inside the 12th Division Barracks a tall man with short, spiky brown hair stood before a panel of flickering computer monitors. His eyes were focused on the screens as he took in multiple streams of fast-moving data without difficulty. The light of the monitors lit his pale face. A trio of horns jutted from his forehead, remnants of past experimentation on his body.

When a single delicate finger ran down the back of his neck, he jumped in surprise. In the unbroken quiet of the room he had heard no one approach, nor had the door opened. Turning around, he blinked when he saw no one. Then the light from the monitors faded slightly, and he saw a slender shadow projected onto the far wall by their light.

Akon, 3rd Seat of the 12th Division, sighed and turned to the room's other inhabitant. Sitting on top of his console with her feet swinging idly over the edge was a skinny, coltish girl with orange hair cut as short and unruly as his own, dressed simply in white clothes.

"Chinatsu, how many times have I asked you to knock and come in like a normal visitor?" Akon asked with exasperation, though he couldn't keep a note of fondness from his voice. The Captain-Commander's daughter was allowed free run of virtually every area of Seireitei including the Division barracks, but for some reason Akon and a few other shinigami had been profiled by the coltish girl years ago as "funny when startled". She'd been sneaking up on him since she was seven, and she only got better at it with age.

"Umm… twenty-two? No, I guess it must be twenty-three now, since you kind of just asked again." Chinatsu gave him a cheeky grin that should have looked out of place on her delicate face, but didn't. Akon didn't know many girls Chinatsu's age who would be smiling with a black eye and a nasty bruise around her left temple, but Chinatsu was far from normal. Few shinigami liked the Captain-Commander, but most disliked him for the people he had killed or the heavy-handedness with which he ruled the Gotei 13. The latter was certainly Captain Kurotsuchi's chief complaint.

Akon, and the few other shinigami around whom Chinatsu let down her guard, hated the Gatekeeper for a far more personal reason: they hated him for the way he mistreated his daughter. Akon marveled that Chinatsu could smile at all after everything she'd been through. He suspected she had inherited her mother's unusual strength of spirit. "What can I do for you this evening, my dear?" Akon asked with a faint smile. She usually came to him for the same thing when she visited, but ever since he'd observed years ago that her father never asked her anything but just threw orders at her, he'd made the effort to talk to Chinatsu rather than at her.

Chinatsu patted the short-bladed zanpakuto tied to her sash. Akon avoided looking directly at it; he knew enough about that blade to be wary. He knew without looking that its wooden scabbard, metal blade and leather-wrapped hilt were all plain, utilitarian and colored a matte black that seemed to swallow the light. It was always a stark contrast with the white clothes that Chinatsu wore.

"My partner's hungry," Chinatsu said lightly. "Do you know where I can go to find him some dinner?"

Akon nodded mechanically, pulling up monitoring reports from the living world to distract himself and keep his anger off of his face and out of his reiatsu. Chinatsu would sense either, and think it was directed at her, rather than her monster of a father. Most shinigami didn't know how Chinatsu had gotten her zanpakuto, but Akon had found the truth in Captain Kurotsuchi's notes years ago, and even if he'd known nothing else about the abuse the Gatekeeper had heaped upon Chinatsu since she was a toddler, knowing that Captain-Commander had bonded that zanpakuto to the soul of his own daughter when she was four years old would have been enough to make Akon hate the man. The saddest part was, Chinatsu didn't even understand how twisted what had been done to her was. She had never known life without that zanpakuto.

One report in particular from news feeds in the living world that the 12th Division tapped into caught Akon's eye. "I think you'll have luck finding what you're looking for here," Akon said, pulling up a map of the living world, which zoomed in from a world view down to a continent and then a region within the continent. Pulling up the coordinates of the nearest senkai gate in the area, Akon raised one open hand and absently formed a hell butterfly, sending it wafting on its way. "The Kido Corps should have the main gate ready by the time you get there." The Kido Corps didn't move for many people, especially this late at night, but for one of Chinatsu's excursions, they'd have it ready for her. Her father authorized her expeditions, and he was the only person the Kido Corps reacted quickly for anymore.

"Thank you, Akon!" Chinatsu said brightly, hugging Akon and kissing him lightly on the cheek. "See you later!"

"Why don't you use the door this ti- never mind," Akon said as she scampered up into the ceiling duct she'd used to sneak into the room and was gone. Shaking his head, he got back to his work. "I hope I'm there to see it when someone kills him," Akon murmured under his breath, thinking of the Captain-Commander.

The Living World, Southern Sudan

The senkai gate deposited Chinatsu on a wide plain. Flat, sparsely forested grassland extended in every direction. It was nighttime, and dark. The moon was barely a sliver, and only stars provided light.

Chinatsu focused, and a faint glow of yellow light surrounded her body. Turning her power inward, she altered the alignment of the particles making up her body. Reishi flipped over and became kishi, transforming her from a spiritual being into a full, physical human teenage girl. The ability to shift from spirit to flesh at will had been hers as long as she'd been alive, and she had never thought much of it. She was just glad she never had to mess around with soul pills or gigai.

Chinatsu turned in a slow circle, getting her bearings. There were no strong sources of reiatsu other than her own nearby, but as she turned around; she spotted yellow and orange flames climbing towards the sky. She set off at a run, pushing reiatsu into her feet to speed her progress, her zanpakuto's spirit egging her on. The sword didn't want their prey to get away, and Chinatsu wasn't eager to have to deal with her zanpakuto's irritation if dinner was not forthcoming.

As Chinatsu got closer, she could see that the flames were actually burning buildings. The primitive houses were made of grass and mud brick, and with the land around them dry and parched in the warm season before the rains, the structures burned like torches. Chinatsu also heard loud pops of gunfire echo across the plain, and frowned. Akon had steered her right, as usual.

Slowing down when she reached the village outskirts, Chinatsu stuck to the shadows, avoiding the light of the fires and circling around, looking for the people who had to be here. She spotted bodies, mostly men, scattered here and there. She guessed them to be villagers rather than whoever was attacking. As she drew nearer to the village's far edge, she saw a much larger building with sturdier walls and a solid roof by the edge of a dry, winding streambed that looked to only bear water when the rains came. She crept into the shallow streambed just moment before the thunder of hoof beats approached. Several men on horseback rode by as Chinatsu hid in the shadows. They wore dark flowing clothes and checkered scarves to hide their faces. They all carried rifles, some bolt-action, others battered AK-47s. They carried torches that blinded them to the night, and shouted to each other harshly in a language Chinatsu did not understand.

Once they were past, Chinatsu followed them to the foot of the large building. All of the village paths lead to it, and Chinatsu assumed it was some sort of communal gathering place. She could hear a number of voices from inside. They seemed to be mostly women and children, and frightened.

Seeing the one large door of the building shut, Chinatsu wondered if they were under attack, but then she saw that the bars and chains were on the outside of the door, and realized the attack was already over. Her eyes narrowed in disgust as she understood what was about to happen. The horsemen she'd followed had joined a larger group, making perhaps two dozen in all, all similarly garbed and armed.

Two of the horsemen dismounted, and took sloshing plastic containers full of liquid from their saddlebags. Approaching the walls of the building, they began pouring the stuff on and around the structure, laughing at the pleas from the people trapped inside. The wind brought the harsh scent of gasoline to Chinatsu's nose. Most shinigami wouldn't have recognized it, but Chinatsu had spent plenty of time in the living world and in the flesh, and she understood what the stuff was. It was used to power machines, and to set fires.

It was the latter that this merry band of butchers was using it for. When they were done, the pair of dousers retreated, and other horsemen threw their torches into the wet patches. Immediately flames roared to life, racing up the sides of the building. The pleas from the people inside turned to screams.

Chinatsu's zanpakuto hummed with hunger and anticipation, and her anger rose to match it. "Humans are disgusting," Chinatsu murmured to herself. "They have this whole beautiful world and all they do is ravage it and each other." Stepping from the shadows, she gathered her reiatsu. "Hado No. 38: Kazehiya!" [Cold Wind]

A swirling blast of frigid air laden with snow and ice exploded from Chinatsu's outstretched hands. Concentrated on a single target the kido could freeze an opponent solid, but Chinatsu let it take a wider path, washing over the burning building. The flames guttered and died down, the building trembling from the force of the arctic gust. Chinatsu turned as the kido tapered off, letting the tail end of it wash over the horsemen. Most of their torches flickered out.

The attackers were shouting now, confused but also upset. A few of them pointed at Chinatsu, and she saw gun barrels being pointed in her direction. They may not understand what had just happened, but they understood a stranger on foot, and their instinct was violence. Allowing herself a sniff of disdain, Chinatsu slipped into a shunpo and vanished as bullets tore through the spot she had been standing. Her zanpakuto was almost vibrating from eagerness as she drew it from its sheath and leapt up to meet its first meal.

The mounted gunman never even saw Chinatsu coming, night-blind and without his torch. Her blade bit deep into his neck, and he was already dying when she snatched his AK-47 from his grasp and disappeared back into the shadows. She used the rifle to spray a few more horsemen with bullets, dropping the gun and vanishing with another burst of speed as their compatriots returned fire. She cut down a few more of them from the shadows, and saw the rest start to panic. They wheeled their horses, a number of them moving close together, back to back for protection. Big mistake, Chinatsu thought, flashing up onto the roof of the building they'd tried to burn. "Hado No. 33: Sokatsui!" she yelled, sending a wide blast of searing blue fire tearing into the thickest knot of horsemen. Mounts and riders alike burst into flame, scattering in all directions. Chinatsu decided it was a fitting end for the band of arsonists, and her zanpakuto's agreement hummed in her mind.

The few gunmen left saw her and returned fire. Chinatsu dodged most of the shots, but a few hit her in the chest and legs, making her grunt in discomfort before flashing away. Rifle bullets weren't really dangerous to her even in physical form; her reiatsu-enforced body was far more durable than that of an ordinary human, but she'd still have some bruises where they hit her.

The last few horsemen turned their mounts and tried to run. Chinatsu chased them down on foot, cutting them all down before they even managed to escape the village. With the last spray of blood as her black blade decapitated the last horseman, quiet descended on the ravaged village, broken only by the crackle of flames and the occasional whinny of a frightened horse. Chinatsu made her way back to the meeting hall, where most of the blood-soaked or charred corpses had fallen. Her zanpakuto vibrated in anticipation, almost jumping out of her hand. Reaching the center of the wide square in front of the large building, she nodded in agreement and plunged the short blade halfway into the ground, releasing her grip on the weapon's hilt and backing away from it.

A pulse of reiatsu rippled through the air, spreading through the village. All around Chinatsu the bodies of the fallen began twitching and stirring. The blood pooled around them rippled, and then began flowing in straight lines towards the zanpakuto rooted in the ground. The bodies too began moving, sliding and rolling across the ground towards the sword. When the flowing blood reached it, ebony gouts of energy swirled around the zanpakuto as it absorbed the blood. The bodies that were dragged to the blade sank into it as well, vanishing without a trace. As more blood and bodies tumbled into the sword, the swirling tempest of black reiatsu drew stronger. The vortex's pull on the dead didn't stop until it had absorbed every rider and drop of blood, and the whirlwind around it howled with malice and power.

Chinatsu advanced on the buried blade, and the vortex bent around her, shrinking back into the zanpakuto and becoming more contained. By the time she got close to the blade the swirling torrent had shrunken to a sphere of pure blackness that surrounded the weapon. She reached into it, and with a pop, all of the energy was drawn into the sword. Chinatsu wrapped her hand around the zanpakuto's hilt and lifted it from the ground. "There you go; plenty of sinners to eat in a place like this. Feel better?" Chinatsu could feel the weapons wordless contentment, and the ache that had been growing in her soul for days vanished. The blade was part of her, and when it was hungry, she wasn't spared its discomfort.

Making her way over to the door of the meeting house, Chinatsu sliced through the chains and boards sealing the door with a single swipe, then willed herself back into spirit form. Her transformation reversed itself, kishi returning to reishi. She was gone from mortal sight by the time the building's doors swung open. The people inside seemed almost too afraid to leave at first, but then they came pouring out, women children and the elderly looking around in shock. Chinatsu watched as they fanned out through the smoldering wreckage of their village, sad for their homes and grieving for their loved ones, whose bodies remained where they had fallen. Chinatsu's zanpakuto only ate sinners, and only those who fell by her hand.

The people were alive at least, and would have a chance to survive and rebuild. Chinatsu couldn't do any more for them; her place was by her father's side. Sheathing her zanpakuto, she made her way back to the waiting senkai gate.

Hueco Mundo

Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck's hazel eyes snapped open, and she saw up in bed. "Pesche!"

With a burst of static, the Fraccion entered the room, kneeling. "Milady?"

Nel climbed out of bed, opening her closet and donning the white uniform of the Espada. "Something's coming. I can feel it. Find Gantenbainne and tell him to follow me." The busty Espada brushed back her long green hair, making her way out onto the balcony outside her bedroom at the top of the simple white tower that was her home. She glanced at the other three towers along with hers that formed corners of a square rising out of the sands of Hueco Mundo. Between then was a wide, paved area of white stone. Then Nel's gaze turned south, out into the desert. There was something out there. Something that felt new and familiar at the same time. Buckling on her zanpakuto, she hopped up onto the ledge.

"The Nuevo Espada have been testing our borders recently," Pesche said quietly. The tall man had a ridge of bone running back along his head on the left side where his straight blond hair parted, still cracked and healing from his wounding at Nnoitra's hands decades ago. "Whatever's out there, you shouldn't go alone, Nel."

The hazel-eyed woman with a ram skull mask on top of her head smiled over her shoulder. "Then go get Gantenbainne so I won't be alone. I'll be fine, Pesche." Then she vanished toward the south in a buzz of static.

Kaze no Megami screamed, and the pressure wave hit half a dozen Hollow, shredding them into drifting motes of corrupted reishi. The Hollow surrounding Hisana attacked from other directions, and as she had before Hisana fled in the direction she had just cleared to give herself some breathing room before rounding on the rest of the Hollows attacking her, slicing through a mask, batting away a spiked tail, blocking a clawed strike with her shikai and feeling Kaze no Megami's hair absorb more energy, starting to charge up for another scream. But even as she thinned out the herd around her a bit she could see more Hollow clawing their way up out of the sand to replace the fallen, and she resisted the urge to cry from pure frustration.

The Hollow had barely given Hisana a chance to get on her feet before attacking. Individually they weren't a threat; these were weak, common Hollow, but they attacked in waves and there seemed to be no end to them. While she was faster and stronger than them, Hisana had quickly discovered that there was no escaping the endless desert and there seemed to be limitless numbers of Hollow under the sands. Their endless attacks gave her plenty of ammunition for Kaze no Megami's screams, but every time she used a sound blast to thin out the herd the noise just attracted even more Hollow!

That had been her sixth scream since the fight started and Hisana knew she couldn't keep going much longer. The entire left side of her body was on fire and each movement aggravated the pain of her broken rib. Worse, her arms and legs were growing heavy and she knew she was approaching a dangerous level of exhaustion. If she slowed down eventually one of the Hollow would get in a lucky hit and they'd swarm over her. She'd already sustained a few minor injuries, added to the unhealed wounds from her fight with the Secret Mobile Unit.

Breaking away from the mob of Hollow, Hisana moved towards Las Noches as far as she could before more Hollow loomed up ahead of her and she had to stop and fight again. With all directions equally unappealing she'd decided to head for Aizen's old seat of power. She might be able to hide there or lose her pursuers, and while the place might still house arrancar, those at least could be reasoned with. The common Hollow out in the sands didn't want to lose their prize, though, and they kept ambushing her.

Cutting down a few more Hollow, Hisana was hit from behind by a punch that threw her to the ground. She barely avoided follow up blows by rolling through the sand, kicking a Hollow that loomed over her and jumping to her feet. Spotting a ruin of white stone nearby, Hisana sprinted for it. Maybe if I can hide and get airborne I can outrun these bastards.

The ruins turned out to be the remains of a tower. Most of it had crumbled and sunk into the sand, but the lower levels remained relatively intact. Running inside, Hisana found a few Hollow waiting, but dispatched them easily and dashed up the stairs. The sounds of pursuit faded and Hisana started to hope that maybe she'd escape.

Emerging onto the highest remaining level Hisana glanced around, wary. The ceiling had crumbled but most of the walls were partially intact, creating a sort of open-air room with a decent view of the surrounding area through the empty window frames that circled the tower room.

Panting and gingerly pressing a hand to the burning pain in her side, Hisana almost didn't notice the room's other occupant. Sitting cross-legged in the exact center of the room with his back to her was a tall, broad-shouldered man with straight gray hair that fell to his shoulders. She hadn't spotted him at first because he wore a long white coat, his garb making him blend in with the pale stone of the tower.

As Hisana's eyes fell on him, though, she heard the man breathe sharply in surprise and rise to his feet. He had a sword at his side, a broad scimitar with no sheath. The grip was wrapped in red leather with a blue tassel hanging from the guard, as colorful as his clothes were not. Then he turned to her. His face was lined and swarthy, dark eyes glittering in the moonlight. He looked old, his weathered skin betraying advanced age. His bushy mustache was the same gray as his hair. His skin tone and features reminded her of a Persian. His coat was open in the front, and he wore no undershirt, revealing scarred skin stretched over hard muscle, the body almost seeming to belong to a younger man than the face. Baggy white trousers and white boots adorned his legs and feet.

Hisana's mind processed his appearance in a moment, but her eyes didn't leave the one feature that pronounced him to be other than human. In the center of his forehead was an oval of smooth bone jutting from his skin; coming to a point at the edges, it almost resembled a third eye socket. But it held no eye, only an empty black hole that appeared to pass all the way through his skull. Hisana's breath froze in her throat. An arrancar!

"Huh. A shinigami…" the old arrancar said in a gravelly voice, sounding slightly surprised. "You're a long way from home."

He took a few steps toward Hisana and then paused as the Hollow pursuing her chose that moment to pour forth from the stairway into the room. A look of irritation crossed the old arrancar's face and his body began to shimmer slightly. The ruined tower was filled with the most powerful, oppressive reiatsu Hisana had ever felt in her life. It was far stronger than her aunt or the captain she had fought, and more sinister than either. She could see the air distort under the strength of the arrancar's aura. It was like a ton of weight on her shoulders, and it forced Hisana to her knees. She couldn't stand, could barely keep from falling flat on her face by bracing her arms on the floor. The reiatsu was pervasive, battering at her mind, her very sense of self. In an instant she felt like she was six years old again, being scolded for breaking one of her father's things. The power pressing at her carried an aura of stately disdain. You are a disappointment, it whispered. You will never be anything of value. You are a waste of effort. Useless. Worst of all, it was her stepfather's voice she heard in her head, stern and unforgiving.

Helpless, Hisana expected the arrancar or the Hollows to finish her off, but when the reiatsu faded she was still in one piece. Looking up, she saw that most of the Hollow had been disintegrated entirely and the survivors were fleeing, some even jumping out of windows to get away. The arrancar looked somewhat disappointed to see Hisana on her knees, gasping for breath. "A weak shinigami," he added to his earlier statement.

Hisana didn't get the chance to make a retort because the arrancar vanished in a quiet burst of static, appearing right in front of Hisana. His hands reached for her, and Hisana gasped in alarm, bringing up her zanpakuto to defend herself. Without changing expression his hand closed around Kaze no Megami and squeezed. The blades and mask shattered like cheap porcelain and his grip tightened around her wrist before she could pull away.

Hisana struggled to pull her hand out of his grip, but it was like fighting a steel vise. Forcing what reiatsu she had left into her free hand she punched him under the ribs as hard as she could. It was like striking a wall. She tried a knee to the groin like she had with Yumichika, only to hit something unyielding enough that her leg went numb for a moment.

"Are you done yet?" the old arrancar rumbled. Hisana felt growing anger at the amused expression on his face.

Yeah, laugh it up you geezer, she thought as she extended an index finger at his face. "Byakurai!" she yelled, firing the white bolt of energy right into his left eye. It didn't seem to do any damage, but he did growl something in a language Hisana didn't understand and release his grip on her arm to cover his eye. She didn't waste any time; she turned and ran, jumping out a window and into the open air.

Hisana felt the arrancar's foul reiatsu surge behind her, but she was far enough away that it didn't incapacitate her. It flooded her spiritual senses to the point that she almost didn't sense the new arrivals. With a burst of static, two more arrancar materialized in front of her.

"Razul! Fatima! Catch her!" came the voice of the old arrancar behind her.

Fatima was a curvaceous, dusky-skinned woman with a full head of long, wavy brown hair, wide, glittering brown eyes and a wicked smile partially obscured by a near-transparent veil that fell from her mask fragment, which started in front of each ear and curved down to meet at the back of her neck. Her hollow hole went straight through the center of her neck. Fatima was wearing a garment of diaphanous white silk only marginally more opaque than the veil that whispered over her skin and covered her from neck to ankle but left little to the imagination. The white cloth sash that held her sword was the only piece of cloth on her body that couldn't be seen through. Hisana found herself blushing just looking at the outfit.

Razul was taller than the old man, and incredibly muscular. His short, curly hair and eyes were ebony, and his skin was a darker brown than the other two. There was a cruel twist to his lips as he looked at Hisana. His Hollow hole was in the usual place through the chest. Razul wore nothing from the waist up save for his mask fragment, a plate that covered the right side of his forehead and disappeared into his hairline. All he wore were boots, baggy white trousers and a black belt that held his sword, a scimitar even bigger than the old man's.

"At once, King Cyrus!" both said, lunging at Hisana.

"Oh, hell," Hisana muttered, ducking under the big guy's open arms and kicking the woman in the face, darting past them and fleeing. She could feel the arrancar chasing her. When they didn't catch up quickly, Hisana glanced back. "King" Cyrus, the old guy, had apparently decided not to join the chase, but the other two were keeping pace with her.

Since Razul and Fatima had arrived from the direction of Las Noches, Hisana abandoned the idea of seeking refuge there. Instead she struck out away from the ruins and Las Noches.

I hope I find something soon, Hisana thought grimly, exhaustion weighing on her. I'm tired and hurt, and these two are neither. If I can't lose them, they'll catch me.

Less than an hour later, mind numb with fatigue, Hisana missed a step, and Fatima caught up with her. Hisana's back exploded with pain as the female arrancar's blade sliced her from shoulder to waist. She fell, landing hard on the sand below. With a pained groan Hisana rolled over in time to see the tip of Fatima's blade plunging toward her Saketsu, the arrancar's eyes glittering with malice as she aimed to cripple Hisana, an attack she was too hurt and wasted to dodge. This is it…

In another burst of static, a blur of white and green interposed itself between Fatima and Hisana. The teenage shinigami got a glance of a busty woman with green hair and a kind face, sword in hand. Then she passed out, utterly spent from all the fighting and running without any rest.

After sparing a curious glance at the wounded young shinigami Cyrus' Fraccion had been chasing, Nel held her blade in front of her horizontally, her hazel eyes regarding the wary pair of Fatima and Razul with cold detachment. "Go home," she said simply.

"Not happening," Fatima growled. "The shinigami is ours. King Cyrus' orders."

"Two of us, one of you, Nelliel," Razul grated. "You're in no position to threaten us."

Nel shook her head. Something about the shinigami girl was familiar, and in any case, anything Cyrus wanted badly enough to let his dogs chase this close to her home was something she wanted to deny him. "Last chance to walk away," Nel warned.

"Sink deep, Serpiente Latigo!" [Serpent Whip] Razul yelled. Poison green reiatsu exploded around him, and his mask fragment dissolved, reforming as a frame around his face, resembling the open mouth of a snake about to strike, complete with a pair of long fangs curving down above his forehead. His forearms were sheathed in white bracers, and from the top of each bracer two long, segmented tendrils emerged, glowing green and lashing angrily.

"Blur, Titiritero," [Puppet Master] Fatima called. Her mask fragment and veil vanished entirely, and her whole body became as gauzy and transparent as her veil had been. Her hands twisted and distorted, each finger growing to a bladed talon half a meter in length.

Nel sighed. She was far stronger than either of them, and on her own she could have simply released her Resurreccion and wiped the floor with them, but judging by the low level of reiatsu Nel could sense in the wounded shinigami behind her, going full power this close to her would probably kill the poor thing.

Razul came at her, tendrils swinging. Nel dodged them and fired a cero from her fingertip, only to see it pass right through Razul and blow up an unoffending sand dune behind him. Fatima's hand was on Razul's shoulder, and she smirked at Nel as she let go. Razul's tendrils snaked towards Nel, and she was forced to retreat. Razul's poison was dangerous even to an arrancar of her power, and Fatima's Resurreccion ability to make herself and anything she touched intangible at will made fighting the pair of Fraccion hazardous.

While Razul kept Nel on the defensive, Fatima went for the shinigami. Nel just jumped over Razul's tendrils and kicked him in the face, using the beefy Fraccion's body as a springboard, propelling herself towards Fatima. The other woman sensed Nel coming and went intangible as Nel's blade passed through her chest, but that meant she couldn't grab Hisana either, her hands passing through the girl's arms and chest. Fatima growled in frustration and jumped away.

Nel couldn't get a killing blow in on Razul or Fatima, but she could frustrate their efforts to incapacitate her and take the shinigami girl. It came down to a stalemate, which suited her just fine. Her reinforcements were closer than theirs.

Sure enough, a minute later Nel felt a new arrival burst onto the scene, dropping out of sonido in front of Razul and punching him in the face before Fatima could save him. Razul went flying, and his assailant flexed. His appearance was ridiculous on the surface, a muscular male arrancar who looked like an arrival from the age of disco. His white uniform had puffy lining at shoulder and hip, and a pair of punch daggers adorned his wrists. He had a huge orange afro, a brown soul patch on his chin and hard gray eyes that looked out from under a mask fragment resembling a visor resting on his forehead, a blue star in the middle and four teeth above each eye. "Is this it, Nelliel?" Gantenbainne Mosqueda asked with some disappointment in his voice. "Cyrus' punk Fraccion? I was hoping I'd get to fight one of his idiot Nuevo Espada at least." Fatima and Razul backed off a bit, looking wary at facing two Espada instead of just one.

"You may still get the chance, Ganty," Nel replied. "Besides, these two morons were chasing something interesting."

"Man, how many times I gotta ask you not to call me that Nelliel? It sounds silly," Gantenbainne complained before he glanced over his shoulder. His eyes widened when he saw Hisana lying on the sand. "A shinigami? What the heck is a shinigami doing here?"

"I'd love to find out, Ganty, but first we need to chase off Cyrus' dogs," Nel said sweetly.

That proved to be unnecessary. Fatima and Razul decided that discretion was the better part of valor and disappeared in a burst of static. "I'll follow them; make sure they leave our territory. You take the shinigami home," Gantenbainne offered. Nel nodded. The afro arrancar took off after the fleeing Fraccion with a grin.

Nel carefully scooped up the shinigami girl in her arms, sighing sadly as she got a better look at the teen's injuries. She was hurt all over, and the most recent wound on her back was still bleeding. Moving quickly and gently, Nel took off towards her tower. "Hold on just a bit more, little shinigami," she murmured kindly. Hisana stirred softly in her arms.