Chapter 26: Within Me, My Blood Starts to Boil
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Zanpakutō"
"Hollows/Vizard"
"[Reading/listening to a message/letter]"
"{Speaking a different language}"
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With his branches destroyed, Rudbornn knew he was doomed. Dordonni's cyclones had proven capable of destroying his Calaveras faster than he could create them. It served as an unpleasant reminder that the Hōgyoku might be the superior method of creating Arrancar, but it did not guarantee superior results. Indeed, as the Privaron's cero roared towards him, Rudbornn cursed that a traitor like him was once an Espada while he himself was not. "Aizen-sama will end-"
The final blast cut off the final words of the sole member of the Exequias. Staring down at the other Arrancar's corpse, Dordonni nodded in acknowledgement. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. If the other intruders are like that niña, who knows what will happen." And therein laid the rub for the original Third Espada. He owed a great deal to Aizen, but he owed his life to Inoue. Did he try to fight the intruders again as a loyal soldier of Aizen's army? Or did he continue to aid the intruders against his former comrades? Arguably, he had already repaid his debt to both factions, but that didn't sit quite right with him. Regardless, before he chose, there was one thing that had to be done. Whatever his history with Rudbornn, Dordonni did not hate the other Arrancar enough to disrespect his strength. And so, picking up the remains of his opponent, he began to eat.
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Staring down at the approaching human, the Ninth Espada considered how they wanted to play things. Were the woman below a Shinigami, they could have used Shiba Kaien's memories to deceive her. Given she was wearing some kind of black shorts and yellow top, he rather doubted she was. Still, perhaps that plan could be salvaged anyway, though it'd require more work. Presumably, the Shinigami knew Aizen performed all kinds of experiments, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince this one that they were just an unfortunate specimen. As such, Aaroniero waited until the woman spotted them on the bridge leading towards their palace before (rather slowly) running off into the tower, seeking to lure her into darkness where they could transform into Shiba Kaien.
That plan failed almost as soon as it got started. While the human did follow them into their palace, she did so by leaping through one wall and tackling them out the opposite wall, sending both of them sprawling onto the sands below. They attempted to punch her off, but the girl had claws now and they were embedded deep in their waist. Worse, she transformed further, growing horns and causing one punch to end with Aaroniero accidentally impaling themselves on one such horn. "Gah, dammit!" They shouted in pain. The Espada angrily activated one of their myriad powers, splitting off their legs to slip away before promptly utilizing regeneration to grow new limbs while the girl was distracted. "Shoot first and ask questions never, huh?" They growled at their assailant as they rolled to their newly formed legs.
"Screw questions!" She snarled. With her scalier appearance, Aaroniero now recognized her as Tatsuki from Ulquiorra's report. "You work for Aizen, you gotta go. Simple." Maybe not the best policy, she'd admit, but given how invading Soul Society had gone, she wasn't willing to take chances on how harmless someone might be. She'd have thrown hands with Nel if the child had proven hostile.
"You're welcome to try, human," They boasted. "I am the Ninth Espada. I will devour you whole! Rage through the seas and heavens, Nejibana!" They twirled their Zanpakutō in one hand as it transformed, releasing its Shikai in the form of a crystalline fusion of a trident and a Ji, water pouring from both ends.
Sticking to her halfway transformation rather than her fully draconic form, Tatsuki couldn't help but wonder, "How in the world do you have a Shikai?" She didn't know as much about spiritual matters as a formally trained Shinigami, or probably even as much as Ichigo, but she was pretty sure that was a Shinigami only thing. Shinigami transformed their weapons; Arrancar transformed themselves.
Unable to resist the urge to boast, Aaroniero replied, "I'm not like other Hollows, for I have limitless evolutionary potential! I don't just grow stronger when I eat another; I also gain any special abilities they had! And I've eaten over 33,650 Hollows!" With a great sweep of their trident, the masked Arrancar conjured up a tidal wave to rush towards his enemy. "Can you fight an entire army of Hollows at once, human?!"
In lieu of a reply, Tatsuki somersaulted over the wave. As she crested the top, she kicked above her, forming a solid platform of Reishi at the same time and sending herself rocketing towards Aaroniero. The Arrancar swiftly brought up their trident, aiming to impale the impudent brat. To their surprise, the weapon struck her in the face only to glance off her cheek. If not for the lack of telltale sparks, they'd have almost thought it was hierro. The subsequent wave broke upon her form, leaving her wet but otherwise unhindered. Regardless, rather than simply let her attack through, they turned their thrust into a swipe, knocking the girl sideways. The dragon girl landed on her feet even as Aaroniero spun their stolen Zanpakutō in a series of wide sweeps, sending wave after wave flying towards her.
A golden glow momentarily appeared within Tatsuki's throat before she roared a blast of golden lightning, not a full Dragon's Roar, but strong enough to break through the crashing waves. She charged once again, this time randomly zigging and zagging to dodge any counter attacks. She couldn't help but notice this Arrancar was oddly stationary as a fighter, nothing like Ikkaku and Yachiru who jumped around seemingly at random. And certainly nothing like Yoruichi's speed blitzes. Sure enough, her enemy didn't back up or use Sonido to gain some distance. Instead it was just more and more water. 'At this rate, this place won't be a desert for long.' Once she was finally close enough, she speared forward, one hand held out in a classic knife strike and made all the more dangerous by the claws adorning her fingers.
Her attack found purchase in their shoulder and cleaved clean through, removing Aaroniero's right arm. At same time, her tail wrapped around their Zanpakutō as she zoomed past, yanking it from their loosened one-handed grip. "You bitch!" Aaroniero cried in pain and anger. Even as she moved past him, they dropped the aspect that let them use Shiba Kaien's powers and switched to another, a scorpion tail sprouting from their back and spraying a viscous caustic orange liquid at their enemy. She attempted to dodge, but a spurt of it landed on her lower back, causing her to collapse and roll on the ground in an effort to get it off. Though Aaroniero wanted to keep up the attack, they felt it prudent to swap out aspects once again, quickly regenerating their missing limb. Once they were whole once more, they changed back to Kaien's aspect, even as they removed their left glove, revealing a deformed tentacle with a gaping maw in the center. "I'm going to show you what it means to face an Espada. Devour, Glotonería!"
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"It seems your luck ran out, human. You might have had a chance against the others, but I, Luppi Antenor, am the Tenth Espada!" The speaker was a young but very effeminate man (or possibly an androgynous woman, she couldn't tell) with a mask fragment like a stylized hair clip and whose sleeves were so long they covered his (her?) hands entirely. Across from him stood Bambietta, who had ditched her usual white Quincy clothing for what looked like a black and red sailor fuku of sorts. Of course, no school would allow a skirt as short as hers, nor a shirt that showed off her belly button. But damned if she cared, though she was wearing black tights underneath her skirt. She might flaunt her body but she wasn't giving free shows just because of a stray breeze. The pair of them were inside a large tower, the room they were in wide open except for two rows of pillars near the middle that flanked the stairs out of the room.
Bambi however, was not impressed by the Espada's boasting. "So, you're the new Tenth Espada. The replacement for that Yaggi guy," She asked.
"That's right." Luppi didn't bother correcting her on Yammy's name. He honestly didn't give a shit about the deceased Arrancar, or any of the current ones for that matter.
Manifesting a sword made of Reishi that resembled a forked dao, she commented, "So that means you're weaker than he was."
That didn't so much press Luppi's buttons as smash them with a hammer. "I'll show you weaker, you tramp!" Drawing his Zanpakutō, a kodachi, he swung it from a distance. From the arc of his swing came a pink cero that fired at her in the same motion it was created.
Bringing her sword up, Bambietta sliced straight through the beam, sending the two halves to explode against the wall behind her. "Well, you certainly showed me 'weaker'. Mission accomplished," She smugly taunted. "Here, lemme show you a real attack!" Her sword suddenly glowed blue as she threw it at him. Not being a complete fool, he dodged to the side, only to be surprised as the sword exploded before it reached him. The shockwave blasted him backwards a few meters as several shots of condensed Reishi flew through the resulting dust cloud. He used Sonido to move away but the shots merely increased in volume, what had previously been several attacks quickly became several dozen that filled the air. "C'mon Espada! Where's all that bravado from earlier!"
"Strangle, Trepadora!" There was a bright flash of pink light that briefly blinded Bambietta. When it faded, Luppi's kodachi had turned into an X made of bone across his chest with some kind of pack on his back and a cowl framing his face. From within the pack, a thick white tentacle surged outwards towards Bambietta.
The German woman simply fired a quick three round burst, impacting the tentacle and blowing it aside. "I gotta say, I consider myself a pretty open-minded woman, but I'm not into traps and I'm definitely not into tentacles. So far, you've completely failed to impress me with your alleged power. So why don't you pack your octopus ass up and bring me someone worth my goddamn time?"
"Why don't you shut your whore mouth before I do it for you?!" Luppi screamed in rage as seven more tentacles joined the first. Each one sprouted numerous thin spikes from the tip before they surged forth, each one attacking from a different angle.
Seeing herself quickly become boxed in, Bambietta cried out, "Oh no, whatever shall I do?" The tentacles were mere centimeters away when she smirked, "Just kidding." An explosive dome of energy radiated outward from her body, blasting back all eight limbs at once. When the explosion died down, the rows of pillars were gone, consumed by the blast, and Luppi fought through the pain enough to see that the ends of all his tentacles had been burnt off. "Seriously, why do you idiots keep trying to melee me?" The Quincy smugly asked. "I touch you, you explode. You touch me, you still explode. It's not a hard concept to grasp." Glancing at the effeminate man's ruined limbs, she added, "Well, it might be for some. But really, I expected that one prick to actually tell the minions how to avoid spending the rest of their lives cosplaying as a pirate."
As she boasted, Luppi wiped some of his blood on his hands and charged his Reiryoku into them. 'To hell with the rules! This bitch will beg for death before I'm done with her!' "If melee doesn't work, then I'll blow you to bits!" As the twin azure orbs grew power, Luppi fired both attacks at once. The two spheres spun like buzzsaws as they roared towards her and destroyed everything in the vicinity with their passing. "AHAHAHAHAHA!"
"You first," his opponent whispered from directly behind him. Though he couldn't see it, a small orb of blue Reishi formed on the tip of her finger. Even as his attacks exploded, obliterating the entire side of the tower they fought in, her finger touched the small of his back. A moment later, his midsection exploded in a fountain of gore, blowing his legs right off just as the structure began collapsing from the damage done to it. "Have fun digging yourself out~" Bambietta taunted him as she flew off and left him to be buried beneath a few million kilos of stone.
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"Hraaaah!" Loly Aivirrne's attempted sneak attack failed rather quickly when she let out a battle cry. Her opponent's Shikai simply formed a barrier and blocked her dagger. As it was struck, the crystalline barrier folded in on itself, seeking to ensnare her Zanpakutō. The ravenette quickly leapt backwards before the jade shield could entrap her, cursing lowly. At the same time, Isane blocked a punch from her other opponent with one of her own. While the blonde Menoly wore a pair of silver knuckledusters, Isane had used a pair of her crystals to form gauntlets over her own hands. The two blows met and the smaller Menoly was sent skidding backwards.
Having a moment to breathe, Isane asked the pair, "I don't suppose I could convince you two to just surrender so we can stop all this before someone gets really hurt?" A portion of her mind that wasn't focused on the battle noted that once again, she towered over both her opponents, both of whom roughly reached her shoulders. One had black hair in pigtails and wore what Isane would call a sexy schoolgirl outfit if not for how it exposed most of her front besides a portion of her breasts. The other had short slicked-back blonde hair and wore a short-sleeved high-collar dress. Though the part she found most unusual was that both had matching mask fragments, making the lieutenant wonder if they were related in some way. Regardless, she didn't hold out much hope of them backing down given this whole fight had started with an ambush attack in this shadowy room. On the plus side, they definitely weren't Espada. With their strength, she was pretty sure they wouldn't be any trouble individually. Time would tell if they'd be trouble collectively.
Sure enough, the black haired one shouted in outrage, "Never! We happily give our lives for Aizen-sama!" Though Menoly didn't mimic her enthusiasm, she nonetheless kept a fighting stance, ready for round two.
"Thought not," Isane sighed. In an instant, she reaffirmed her stance and shot ten of her crystals outwards, leaving only the two on her fists.
Loly dodged the ones coming her way with a quick use of Sonido, moving her a few meters to the side. For her part, Menoly instead punched away the only crystal that would have struck her. "What kind of weak attack was that?" She demanded, but then she noticed something. "Wait, why are they just floating there?"
"Hadō #4, Byakurai." The thin bolt of lightning leapt from her finger and shot directly into one of the hovering crystals. A fraction of a second later, it fired from that crystal at an angle and into a different one. Over and over, the Kidō bounced between pieces of Isane's Shikai, forcing the two Arrancar to keep moving as the crystals repeatedly shifted and fired at unpredictable angles. Of course, Isane didn't stand around twiddling her thumbs; she appeared in a flash of Shunpo behind Loly and punched her in the temple with her gauntleted fist.
"Goddamnit!" Menoly growled. Dodging that damnable Kidō once more, she punched her fists together and snarled, "Pierce, Escorpión!" Her knuckledusters shone white and seemed to flow up her arms and over her chest before forming a new appendage above her backside. At the same time, her mask fragment glowed and shifted as well. When the light dimmed, the blonde's arms were covered in segmented armor that ended in a pair of serrated scorpion pincers. Her chest was now protected by a gothic cuirass and her mask fragment had essentially twinned itself, now covering both of her eyes. Finally, a scorpion tail grew from her back. From her claws she fired a pair of bala. The first impacted the still bouncing around Byakurai, detonating it and ending its threat. The other rammed into Isane's side while she was preoccupied with Loly, the impact sending her crashing into a wall.
Once the lieutenant was knocked away from her, Loly shook her head in an attempt to clear it. She growled as she gripped her dagger, "Poison, Escolopendra!" In a burst of smoke, she transformed. The ravenette's arms now resembled giant headless centipedes while her shirt was destroyed, leaving her topless but for some carefully placed pieces of armor like centipede legs. "I'm going to melt you, Shinigami!"
"Of course you will." Vanishing and reappearing above the duo via Shunpo, Isane reformed her gauntlets into a naginata which she pointed downwards. "Hadō #44, Gaki Rekkō!" Vibrant green lasers rained down upon Loly and Menoly while any that struck one of her crystals were refracted, meaning the pair had to watch out for attacks from the sides as well as above.
The two Arrancar dodged as quickly as possible, utilizing Sonido to stay ahead, but their lack of expertise quickly became evident. With her much larger form, Loly was the first to be tagged, a third of her left arm was blasted off when one of the lasers struck. As her partner shrieked in pain from the violent amputation, Menoly took a shot to her armored stomach, too busy dodging the overhead attacks to pay attention to the ones coming from the lieutenant's Shikai. Luckily, her carapace was more heavily armored than Loly's arms. While extremely painful, she at least didn't have a new hole in her body. Her Kidō petering out, Isane charged forward with her naginata, dodging as Loly blindly lashed out with her arms. Her instincts proved correct when said arms connected with the surroundings which began melting from a dark purple liquid that dripped from the ends of the centipede-like legs.
Carefully making sure to stay away from Loly's swinging arms, Menoly charged her triple cero, an orb of condensed Reiryoku forming between each of her pincers and from the end of her stinger tail. As they charged, bits of energy streamed from each to connect all three together. Just as she fired, Isane appeared behind Loly and sliced her across the back before kicking her into the path of the incoming cero. But Menoly hastily changed her aim at the last second, her attack going wide and demolishing a wall rather than hitting her comrade. In doing so, however, she took her attention off Loly. One of the other Arrancar's arms scraped across her lower back and ass. The blonde became aware of her mistake as she was struck by the searing agony of her midsection melting. "Menoly!" Loly cried out in shock.
Before she could avenge the other Arrancar, Isane made her move. In a flash, she sliced off both of Loly's arms at the shoulder then stabbed her naginata through the girl's heart from behind. As Loly stared down at the crystalline blade protruding from her chest, the taller woman muttered, "I'm sorry. But you gave me no choice." As she spoke, one of her remaining crystals formed a spike and drove itself straight through Menoly's skull, killing her instantly and putting her out of her misery.
Isane quietly resealed her Zanpakutō and offered a short prayer to her slain enemies. Hopefully, they'd live peacefully in Soul Society.
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While Aaroniero was transforming, Tatsuki had been forced to tear off her melting shirt then roll on the sand to remove the goop burning her. Now that she was no longer being eaten by that weird chemical, she blinked in confusion at her opponent's new form. Their upper half was still the same but their legs had been replaced with a giant purple blob covered in stubby tentacles along with a pair of red eyes and large toothy mouths. The whole thing was roughly the size of her parent's house. Even as her opponent cackled above her, she yelled up, "How exactly is making yourself an immobile target supposed to help? I'm pretty sure I could attack you blindfolded and still not worry about missing."
"That you fail to understand my power will be your undoing!" The Arrancar shouted irately. "My resurreccion allows me to use all of my powers at once rather than merely one at a time! Behold!" The scorpion tail manifested once again, this time from one of the tentacles, and started firing its caustic slime everywhere. Even as Tatsuki dodged, she transformed further, entering her more draconic form. But this time, Aaroniero wasn't just spewing that corrosive liquid. A head like a demonic rooster formed from their body and started belching flames, some of which caught the spray of the scorpion tail and proved the liquid to be highly flammable. Lastly, another tentacle rose and split into a couple dozen smaller tentacles, all shooting towards the draconic teen and forcing her dodging to become even more desperate.
As she was busy dodging the burning chemical, one tentacle managed to snag her wrist. It only took a moment to free herself but another shot straight towards her face, only for Tatsuki to open wide and furiously bite down on it. Around the mouthful of flesh, she growled, "Didn't like my first tentacle monster, don't like you." She punctuated her statement with a Dragon's Roar, shooting electricity directly into the offending appendage and up into her enemy's body. The electric attack caused Aaroniero's body to start spasming, knocking their mask off and revealing their true face. Or rather, their true faces. Inside a tank filled with red fluid floated a pair of spherical skull-like heads, each tattooed with the number nine. "You gotta be kidding me." She muttered flatly.
"Intimidated by our true form?" Both heads gloated in unison. Activating yet another power, they released a pale green cloud of noxious fumes.
Tatsuki snorted derisively. "Who would be intimidated by talking baseballs?" Once the gas reached her, she started hacking and coughing, her eyes watering. "Holy shit! It's like you marinated roadkill in raw sewage!"
The Espada cackled and prepared to ignite the gas, seeking to blow the frustrating human to pieces. But there was a movement within the cloud and faster than Aaroniero could react, Tatsuki shot out and struck the tank containing their heads with her open palm. They only had a moment to realize their doom before the glass shattered. Clawed fingers curled inwards and each head found themselves impaled on black talons. One of the heads screamed a horrified denial while the other growled defiantly, "Yoouuuu biiii…"
The Espada's body first reverted its resurreccion then began dissolving with the death of the two heads. Landing on the ground, Tatsuki finally gave into the urge to vomit and stained the ground with everything she'd eaten recently.
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All of Los Noches felt Aaroniero's death as they used their Synchronized Awareness to inform all of the Espada. In doing so, they hoped to call reinforcements to kill the human who killed them. Each Espada reacted in their own way. Baraggan scornfully ignored it, viewing the Ninth as an irrelevant weakling, while Starrk didn't see the point in bothering. Ulquiorra paid his comrades' death no mind, recognizing their opponent as one of the weaker humans. Szayel made a note to examine the information he received and see if it was worth anything. While Halibel mourned in her own way, neither Grimmjow nor Nnoitra even bothered acknowledging it at all. And while Zommari usually would have been willing to finish off Aaroniero's opponent, he was rather preoccupied himself.
His adversary let out a tsk of annoyance as she shed her ruined jacket, white like the rest of her suit. Her entire form crackled with electricity. "You know, a good suit like this isn't cheap, asshole," Candice jeered as she wiped some blood from her forehead. "I'm going to take its cost out of your hide."
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AN: New year, new chapter. And I see Bleach is going the AoT route by spreading the final season across four years so they can keep milking that fucking cow (The cash cow, not Kirio or Rangiku). As for Unohana's Bankai, hopefully someone picks up that phone BECAUSE I FUCKING CALLED IT!
On the topic of this story, I paused and realized that Uryū doesn't seem important to this arc, or future arcs. So I spent some time figuring out what I'm gonna do with him. Anywho, Dordonni ate Rudbornn to claim his strength. While partially based off some old beliefs (not that I could pinpoint which exactly), I also felt that since Hollows explicitly grow stronger from eating each other, refusing to eat a Hollow you killed is just MASSIVE disrespect. Basically saying that they're so weak that they can't contribute to your own power.
Also AAA and Luppi don't make for good fights even when I buff the fuck outta the former because they just honestly suck. AAA uses they/them pronouns since, going by canon, each head seems to have its own personality. Yes, I'm aware that "Trap" is considered a slur by some. However, 1) It wasn't back in 2004, when this story takes place. 2) I don't feel like Bambietta cares about that when she's insulting an enemy. While writing this, I got reminded that Menoly's Zanpakutō did make an appearance in canon (for 2 frames) and was an ordinary katana, but I like leaning into the how often Arrancar don't have katana-based Zanpakutō so I gave her knuckledusters. Not gonna lie, her death was a coin flip. If it'd landed on heads, Loly would've died first and Menoly would've surrendered out of pure terror.
Oh and I did a minor rewrite in Chapter 9 since I got reminded of it. For those who don't wanna bother checking, Tosen's subordinates arrived before Yoruichi so she grabbed the girls and left. Figured it better explained why she didn't punt his head from his shoulders beyond "I have plans for him".
God I'm bad at clothes. Irl, I'm the type to prefer either jeans and a t-shirt or a tailored suit. I have nothing else for "wearing out" nor do I pay any real attention to clothing most of the time. So it's hardly a surprise that I'm three chapters into this arc and only just now realizing "Oh shit, I haven't described what any of the non-Shinigami are wearing!" Tatsuki's outfit is taken from her "Future Me" project where she seems to be wearing black spandex shorts and a yellow wife beater. Bambietta's is based heavily off Ryuko Matoi, though without Senketsu's eye since it's ordinary clothing and not an alien. As for Candice, not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for a woman in a nice suit.
Next time on "Vow of the King": I'm not a physician, but I don't think you're supposed to stick it there during a medical exam.