Chapter 5: Tragedy of the Blue Sea! The Terror of the Hollows!
Franky continues to avoid Zomarri's amore as much as he could. "You're starting to get on my nerves." Franky opened his left hand and aimed it at the espada. "Weapons Left!" Franky fired at cannonball at the espada, who used his amore and took control the cannonball and fired it back at Franky. Franky couldn't dodge it and the cannonball hit him, causing an explosion. Then Brook came out of the smoke and ran past the espada.
"What?"
"Three Verse Humming…" Brook said, sheathing his sword. "Yahazu Giri!" Then Zommari was slashed across his chest and blood was dripping out of it. Franky came out of the smoke and charged up the air pressure in his arm.
"This is for our friend. Coup de…Vent!" Franky released a large amount of air pressure from his arms and send the espada through the wall, crashing onto the sand of Las Noches defeated.
"Diable Jambe…" Sanji lanced his foot toward the espada.
"You fool! You can't defeat me!" Szyael Aporro send his 'wings' at Sanji and they connected with his foot but were pushed back. "What?!"
"…Premiere Hache!" Sanji fired a barrage of flaming kick at Syzael Aporro's stomach and a one kick on the espada's head, causing floor beneath Szyael Aporro to collapse and making the espada fell several feet. Renji and Uryu watched with widen eyes as the pirate landed on the ground on his feet. "Perfection, huh? Sorry, you weren't even close."
"My, my, what do we have here?" a new voice said, surprising Sanji, Uryu, and Renji. Renji and Uryu looked the owner of the voice of widen eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" Sanji asked the figure. The figure was a man wearing captain coat over a black kimono. He has blue hair that styled into horns, two small, slatted portcullises with earings where his ears should be, and golden piece under his chin that looks a pharaoh's beard (Squad 12 Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi).
"Such a rude gesture, you should introduce yourself before the identity of someone you just met." Mayuri said making Sanji grow a tick mark.
"C…Captain Kurotsuchi!" Renji identified the man.
"Wait, you know this guy?" Sanji questioned. "And did you call him 'captain'?!"
"Of course he called 'captain' because I am a captain." Mayuri said. "Clean the wax out of your ears boy."
"What was that?!" Mayuri ignored Sanji making the cook even more ticked off. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Mayuri looked down the hole Sanji made and saw defeated Szyael Aporro at the bottom. 'How interesting, a mere human was able to defeat an espada.' He thought as he looked at Sanji and grinned. 'I see so he's from the world of Gol D. Roger. I never thought a pirate would end up here in Las Noches. What a lucky day this turned out to be.'
Inside the halls of Las Noches, Nami stopped her running and decide to catch her breath. "That guy is crazy." She said to herself. "I hope Zoro knows what he's doing. Nah, I shouldn't be worried. Zoro can take him down. Now the question is where the heck am I?" As Nami was about to investigate, she felt something hit her and she fell to the ground along with the thing that her. It was Luffy.
"Ow, what did I hit?" Luffy said rubbing his head then he saw Nami.
"Huh, Luffy?" Nami looked her captain as she got back on her feet.
"Oh, hey Nami." Then Nami hit Luffy over the head. "Ow, what was that for?"
"Would you watch where you're going next time, you idiot?!" Nami shouted. "You ran into me!"
"Sorry, I was looking for Chopper."
"Don't worry, Chopper is with Zoro. So he should be safe."
"Really? In that case, I'm going to find that Aizen guy. I'm going to make him pay for taking our friend!" Luffy started to run to down the halls of Las Noches again.
"Wha…Hey Luffy, wait!" Nami started to follow Luffy and hopefully catch up with him.
Meanwhile, Zoro continues his battle with Nnoitra as their sword clashed again and they pushed each other back. Nnoitra quickly rebounded and charged towards Zoro. "You're wide open!" he shouted as he swung ax down and Zoro quickly blocked it his swords but the force of the attack pushed the swordsman back a few feet. Nnoitra charged toward Zoro again and the swordsman blocked the espada's attack again. "Blow away." Then Zoro felt a large amount of air pressure hitting his chest and was blown towards a nearby wall and crashed through it.
"Zoro!" Chopper shouted.
Elsewhere, Robin and Usopp heard the explosion from where they were as Unohara and Isane were healing Chad and Gantenbaine.
"What's going on over there?" Usopp said scared. "I hope those guys are okay."
"I'm sure that they're fine." Robin said with calm face.
Usopp looked Robin and said, "How come in most situations like this you're always clam? I don't get that."
"That is a good way to deal with in times like these." Unohana said. "You can't stay in a panic state all of the time. The best way to get through these situations is to stay calm and wish for the best." Usopp nodded but was still unsure.
With Franky and Brook…
"What's this?" A new voice said, surprising Franky and Brook. They turned around and saw a man with black hair down to his shoulders with strange hair pieces and wore a green scarf around his neck (Soul Reaper Squad 6 Captain, Byakuya Kuchiki).
"Who the hell are you?!" Franky said getting in a defensive position. Byakuya didn't respond as he looks at the fallen Rukia.
"Were you the ones who fought this woman?" Byakuya asked the pirates.
"What?" Franky questioned.
"I've asked did you fight that woman." Byakuya stated firmly, grabbing the hilt of his zanpakuto.
"No, we didn't fight her." Brook said. "But she's okay, she's just asleep." Then Byakuya scanned the area and saw a huge hole in the wall near the pirates. The captain flash stepped toward the hole and saw Zommari defeated.
"I see so you were the ones who defeated this espada."
"Yeah that's right!" Franky said. "What of it?"
"If that's the truth, then you must be from that world."
"What are you…You're saying that you know about us?" Then Franky and Brook held some footsteps sounding like someone running and the sound got louder as it got closer to them.
"Captain Kuchiki…" a young boy with black hair wearing a black kimono (Squad 4's 7th seat, Hanataro Yamada) ran towards Byakuya and clumsily tripped over a pebble fell to the floor face first. "Ow, that really hurt." Hanataro looked up and saw the two Straw Hats and back away. "Who...who are you two?" He then he looked over them and an unconscious Rukia. "Oh no, Rukia. What did you do to her?"
"Who is this squirt?" Franky asked.
"Hanataro Yamada." Byakuya called the boy.
"Yes sir." Hanataro responded.
"Tend to their injuries."
Hanataro looked at the captain then looked back at the pirates and Rukia with nervously and said, "Yes sir."
Back to Robin and Usopp…
"By the way Ms. Unohana, I've been meaning to ask you something." Robin said to the Squad 4 captain.
"Yes, what is it?" Unohana asked.
"I know you said that you were informed about our arrival and why we're here. But there's something else you know about where we came from. Would you mind explaining?" Isane looked her captain and Unohana gave her a nod.
"I'm sure the both of you know about the death Gol D. Roger, correct?" The two pirates nodded yes. "It was on that day, we've dissolved the world of pirates. Just like Karakura Town, your world has been spirit-enriched zone ever since."
(Flashback)
Twenty two years ago, on the day of Gol D. Roger's death, the captains of the 13 court guard squads. The only one missing was the captain of Squad 10, which was vacant at the time.
"Recently, another world of the living has just discovered." The head captain said.
"Another world of the living?" Aizen questioned. "Is that even possible?"
"I guess it is possible if it caught old man Yama's attention." Kyoraku said. "So is it like the world of the living we already know about?"
"Not exactly." Mayuri said. "The living world we know is more modern than the one recently discovered. This world of the living is a world where pirates roam the seas. Also some of the inhabitants in that world also have abilities that exceed that of a normal human from what they call a devil fruit."
"That seems hard to believe." Soi Fon said. "Are you sure you're not making this up as you go along?"
"What was that?!" Then a hell butterfly entered the meeting room.
"Attention, all court guard squads!" A voice said in the hell butterfly. "Menos have spotted in the blue sea world!"
"Menos?" Ukitake questioned.
In the Grand Line, a garganta opened in the sky above getting the attention of a fleet of marines chasing a band of notorious pirates with some high bounties. Even the pirates' attention was caught by the rip in the sky. "What the…The sky opened up!" one of the marines said. Then a group of menos appeared in the rip and descended to the ocean floor.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS?!" A marine solider yelled.
"WHO CARES WHAT THEY ARE?!" The marine captain shouted. "READY THE CANNONS!" The soldiers did exactly what was ordered. The pirate saw what was going on and decide to take that to escape.
"Sir, the pirates are getting away!" another marine said.
"Don't worry about them now." The captain said. "We have to get through these first."
"Sir, all cannons are ready." Another solider said.
"Take aim and fire!" The cannons on the ships aimed at the menos and cannonballs were fired but it had no effect of the hollows. All it did was anger them.
"It didn't work!" Then the menos let out a loud cry as it charged up a cero and fired it at the marine ship, destroying it and killing the marines aboard. The other ships saw one of the ships destroyed with wide and terrified looks in their eyes.
"Turn the ships around!" one of the captains ordered. "Retreat or we'll end up like them!" The solider didn't waste time trying to turn their ship around but they weren't fast as the menos fired their cero at the ships and destroying them.
"I see the menos up head." One soul reaper said as a team of soul reapers lead by a seated officer headed towards the hollows.
"Remember our mission, eliminate the menos no matter the cost!" the seated officer as the team of soul reapers attack the menos. After a long, hard fought battle, the menos were destroyed and the soul reapers, injured and all return to the seireitei.
Back in the seireitei, a member of the punishment force kneeled before of the head captain and said, "Sir, the team that you've sent to the blue sea world has returned to the soul society. The menos have all been exterminated although the team was unable to find any survivors from the attack."
"I see." Yamamoto said. "We must prevent another catastrophe like one that the blue sea experienced. So for this day forward, the blue sea world will be under the watchful eye of the 13 court guard squads."
(End of Flashback)
"So you knew about our world for that long?" Usopp asked.
"Yes, but since then there were very few incidents like what happened back then were recorded in your world have recorded until today." Unohana said. "Most done there was to bring the souls of those who lost their lives to the soul society. Also since then a very few people had the ability to see spirits like you have."
"I see." Robin said.
Meanwhile, Zoro slowly started to get back to his feet to face Nnoitra. The espada turned around and smirked at the swordsman. "Oh, you can still move." He said.
"Yeah, I won't lose to you." Zoro said, putting his bandana on his head and putting Wado in his mouth. "No matter what, I will defeat you."
To be continued…
Next Chapter: Bursting Slash! Zoro vs. Nnoitra!