Chapter 28: The Strongest Espada! Yammy's Resurreccion Unleashed!

"You're a hard guy to kill." Ulquiorra said, getting everyone's attention.

"Ulquiorra…" Ichigo said, looking the espada. Ulquiorra appeared in front of Uryu, pulled Ichigo's sword out of his stomach and tossed it near the feet of its owner.

"Pick it up and let's finish this battle now." Ulquiorra said.

"The entity that fought you earlier was a hollowified being with no consciousness." Ichigo stated. "It was not really me. If we're going to settle this fight, I have to be in the same condition as you or we won't be evenly matched."

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes and turned towards Ichigo. "I'm fine with it." He said. "If that's what you want, that's what you will get." Before he took a step, he saw one of his wings beginning to dissolve.

"What the…" Luffy said surprised as everyone.

Ulquiorra looked at the dissolving wing and said, "So this is how it ends." He looked at Ichigo. "Kill me Ichigo."

"I can't do it." Ichigo said.

"What are you saying?"

"I don't want to…not like this." Ichigo said, making Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes. "It's wrong! This is not the way I want to defeat you!"

Ulquiorra widen his eyes as his body continues to fade away. He closed his eyes and said, "To the very end, you just won't do what I want." Then he looked over at Orihime, who just stood back up. "And just when I was finally becoming…a bit interested with the way that you people behave." Orihime looked at the espada with sadden eyes.

"So let me ask you again, girl." Ulquiorra said to Orihime, sticking his hand out towards her. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No, I'm not afraid." Orihime answered.

Ulquiorra looked at her one final time and said, "I understand." Orihime tried to grab Ulquiorra's hand but it dissolved into ashes as well. 'I see now.' Ulquiorra thought as the rest of his body is dissolved into ashes and blown away. 'In the palm of my hand…is a heart.'

Yammy widen his eyes as he felt something off and looked at the ceiling. Renji, Chad, and Rukia felt the same the thing and copied the espada's movement.

"Hey, did you guys feel that?" Chad asked. "That spiritual pressure is gone."

"So does that mean Ichigo won?" Rukia asked.

Inside the fifth tower, Chopper, Nami, and Sanji continue to run towards the exit and find the others. Then Chopper felt something and stopped, catching his friends' attention.

"Hey Chopper, why did you stop?" Sanji asked the doctor as he and Nami stopped running.

"Did you guys feel that just now?" Chopper asked.

"Now that you mentioned it, that large amount of energy from before disappeared." Nami said. "I guess that means Luffy and the guy with black sword won."

Back outside, Yammy's fist collided with the wall next to him. Yammy growled annoyed and said, "Oh man, right after I got done killing all of these guys, I been planning to go help Ulquiorra." He narrows his eyes. "And then he goes and dies on me." He took his fist out of the wall and turned towards Chad, Renji, and Rukia. "You three won't be enough to satisfy me. So I've wasted all of this time eating, sleeping, and storing up all of my spirit energy for a real fight, all to kill you leftover punks." Then his muscles ripped off the rest of the top half of his clothes. "I won't even come close to using all of my energy!"

"It's looks like he got bigger again." Chad said. "What the hell is going on with him? He differently changed since I fought him in the world of the living."

"Do you see that?" Renji asked, getting Chad's attention. "Take a look at his shoulder." Chad looked at Yammy's shoulder and the number 10 tattooed on it. "He's number 10. So before this, did you experience going up against an espada?"

Rukia looked at Renji, remembering her battle Espada number 9, Aaoroniero. "We did." She answered.

"I won't ask how it ended for you." Renji said. "I didn't exactly do so well either." Then Chad looked at Renji, remembering his fight with Nnoitra. Renji remembered his and Uryu's battle with Szayel Aporro before Sanji interfered. "I'm sure your fights were equally as tough. Nevertheless, however we did it, we've overcomes all of the espada we faced. And at number 10, this guy is the weakest of them all. There's no reason to be intimidated by his size." He prepared his zanpakuto for battle. "Let's take him out. Then we'll go and pick up Ichigo."

"What was that?!" Yammy questioned. "What are you three mumbling about down there?! You really think I can be taken out by a bunch of insects like you?!"

"That's right." Renji said. "I certainly hope you're ready for this."

"Don't make me laugh!" Yammy said as he grabbed the hilt of his zanpakuto. "Enrage…Ira!" Smoke surrounds Yammy from his sheath. Renji and the others looked up with widen eyes as Yammy's shadow started to get bigger and bigger.

"Damn!" Renji cursed. "He just grew 10 times bigger!" As Yammy continues to grow, the 1 tattooed on him started to fade away, leaving the 0.

"What's happening?" Chad asked as the 1 disappeared.

"The number's changing!"

The smoke cleared and Yammy's appearance has changed. He grew to a monstrous size, grew eight elephant like legs, a tail, and his mask has fused with his face. And his tattoo had changed as well, from 10 to 0.

"There's no way." Rukia said with widen eyes.

"What now?" Chad said.

"How could this be?" Renji said shocked. "What happened to his number? It's a zero?"

"Did someone tell you that the ten espadas were numbered for their strength from 1 through 10?" Yammy asked.

"They're not?!"

"The espadas are actually numbered from 0 to 9. I'm the only espada capable of changing the number by accumulating power and going into a released state. I'm espada 0, Yammy Llargo!" Yammy balled his giant fist and brought it down on the three.

"Look out!" Renji shouted as everyone avoided the attack. Renji jumped in the air "Roar, Zabimaru!" He stretched his zanpakuto at Yammy's arm but it was repelled.

"Shut up!" Yammy shouted, aiming his fist towards Renji.

"Renji!" Rukia shouted, drawing her zanpakuto. "Dance, Sode no Shikaryuki!" Her sword turned white with a white ribbon coming out of the hilt. "Some no Mai…Tsukishiro!" Slashing the air with her sword, a circle appeared below Rukia. She jumped out of the way as an ice pillar of ice appeared and froze Yammy's wrist.

Yammy easily broke free and brought his fist down on them. Chad ran in front of Rukia and Renji, changing his arm into Brazo Dercho del Gigante. The two fists collided with each other. "You stupid human!" Yammy shouted as he pushed Chad back, creating a cloud of dust and sand. The smoke cleared, revealing Chad's Brazo Izquierda del Diablo.

"La Muerte!" Chad jumped in the air and punched Yammy in the head, creating an explosion.

"You got him?!" Renji shouted as Chad landed next to him and Rukia.

Rukia's eyes widen as the smoke started to clear. "Not good." The smoke clears completely and revealed that Chad's attack did no damage.

"Let's face it, you guys are garbage." Yammy taunted.

"He's a monster." Rukia said with widen eyes.

"What's the problem?" Yammy asked. "Is that all you got?"

"Save it!" Renji shouted as he jumped in the air. "The real battle starts now! Bankai!" Smoke surrounds Renji and his zanpakuto transformed into a huge whip shaped like a snake's skeleton. "Hihio Zabimaru!" Renji lashed his weapon towards the espada.

"No matter how hard you try, it's useless!" Yammy punched the snake-like weapon and destroyed it. Then a red beam appeared out of both sides of the segments, connecting to the others and forming a chain around the espada. "What's that?!"

"Chad! Rukia! Now!" Renji shouted. Rukia and Chad nodded and prepare to attack.

"Dance, Sode No Shirayuki!" Rukia stabbed the ground in front of her four times and pointed the tip of her sword at Yammy. "Tsugi no Mai…Hakuren!" A powerful wave of snow appeared from her sword and headed towards Yammy.

"Brazo Derecho del Gigante!" Chad fired a huge blast from his black arm towards the espada.

"You shouldn't be so confident!" Yammy shouted as a red aura surrounds him, cancelling out Chad and Rukia's attacks. The aura caused an explosion, blowing Renji away and burying Rukia and Chad in the sand. The three popped out of the sand and looked at the espada. Their eyes widen when they saw that their attacks did nothing on him.

"How could he be completely unharmed?!" Rukia said shocked.

"Your pathetic efforts to hurt me will never work." Yammy said as he charged up a cero.

"108 Caliber Phoenix!" A projectile was fired towards the espada, disabling the cero and creating an explosion.

"Hmm?" Yammy said, looking at the direction that the attack came from.

"What the hell?" Renji whispered as he and the others looked the same direction Yammy was looking at and saw Zoro, Robin, Usopp, Brook, and Franky.

To be continued…

Next Chapter: A Deadly Fight in Las Noches! The Straw Hats vs. Espada Zero!