Chapter 22: Tres Beastia vs. Cirucci
After the group had split up, Aizen had made his move towards Karakura Town. He already knew of the soul reaper's plan to switch the town out, but that mattered very little to the rogue. All that mattered was his ascension and the destruction of the Soul King. Everything else, everyone else didn't matter to him.
As he stood in front of his forces, he sighed a bit as he wished to have a few more involved in the invasion, but for now he would settle for a few of his Espada and their fraccion. Standing in front of him was Starrk along with Lilynette, Barragan and his fraccion, and Luppi since the rogue knew taking Grimmjow would only lead to headaches from the blue haired arrancar. The man so desperately wanted to kill the boy that it was borderline obsession at this point. Aizen figured he might as well have some of his forces remain to destroy his unwanted guest. It would make things so much simpler for the rogue.
He smirked as Gin and Kaname stood next to him. He opened the garganta's necessary for his forces. "It is time to end this all."
[With the Tres Beastia]
After splitting up, the three arrancar raced down their given pathway, hoping that they could make progress in saving Tatsuki. As they ran through the corridors and off-white walls of the halls, both Apache and Mila Rose were starting to get very irritated.
"Who the hell designs a fortress where everything looks the damn same?!" Mila Rose shouted out as it was getting very annoying to see the same white walls wherever they turned.
"I know right?!" Apache started. "Seriously, this place sucks!"
"I have to agree with you two." Sung-Sung spoke up.
"QUIET SUN-" The two stopped themselves once they realized Sung-Sung was actually agreeing with them for once.
They continued on for a few more minutes before finally reaching a large room with orange pillars everywhere.
"Bout damn time we saw something new." Apache started.
"Though I agree with you," Sung-Sung started, "something doesn't feel right about this place."
Yeah." Mila Rose started as she moved forward slowly, Apache and Sung-Sung behind her. "Let's keep sharp. No way are gonna disappoint Lady Halibel or Ichigo."
"Right." The two agreed with her before hearing a laugh not too far away from them.
The Tres Beastia turned and looked up as they saw an arrancar sitting atop one of the pillars. The arrancar was a woman with dark violet hair that stopped just at her shoulders and held in place with some sort of bone white hair tie on her left side. She wore an arrancar uniform though it was a styled like a dress of sorts with a black trills at the end of said dress. Her gloves went all the way up to the end of her biceps and stopped just short of the puffy white shoulder pads her dress had.
"So," she started as she began to twirl some sort of golden rope around. "I get to face three lower ranks pretending to be arrancar." She smirked as she saw the three glare at her. "How sad."
"Lady, don't know who you are or really care," Mila Rose started with a growl. "But it's best you leave or face all three of us."
"Your call, bitch!" Apache yelled out still angered at the fact that this woman was underestimating them.
The woman scoffed at the threat and even moreso at the insult as she stood up. "Then I guess we can skip all those pesky formalities and get straight into the killing, shall we." She pulled the golden rope towards her and all three Beastia went on high alert, jumping out of the way of a large, golden disc connected to the rope. "Tch."
Apache landed on a pillar and fired a cero towards the woman. The red beam was fast but not fast enough to hit her. The woman dodged using sonido, causing the cero to completely destroy several pillars behind her. The woman was surprised by just how strong that cero was.
"Just who the hell are you rejects anyway?" She asked, irritated at the fact that if that cero had hit her, it would have done serious damage.
"Like we need to introduce ourselves to someone who we're about to beat." Mila Rose spoke up, drawing her sword in the process.
The woman was about to retort about them being rude, until she noticed that one of them were missing. She searched frantically for a moment before hearing a hissing noise behind her. Turning quickly, she pulled the rope to bring the disc up to shield her from some another cero. Sun-Sun was smirking behind her sleeve as that little distraction worked in her favor. The woman took the hit and was knocked back through a pillar. That was when Apache had sonidoed below her and delivered a powerful kick to her side, sending her straight towards the last of their group. Mila Rose had been charging her blade with a cero, a technique she picked up from Halibel, and fired it as soon as the woman was close enough. The woman took the full blast as that cero was charged up and the resulting explosion rocked the room. The three sonidoed near each other, pleased that one of their tactics worked on this opponent. They turned to leave and continue their journey in search of Ichigo's friend Tatsuki, but then...
"Rip, Golondrina!"
The three turned around as the explosion of power shook the arena they were in. It seemed that the woman was a bit of a sore loser. After the dust settled, the three saw the woman in her resurreccion. Her arms had grown to a ridiculous length, longer than her body, and she had grown bone like wings with large black blades attached to them. She also now wore a head dress similar to a bird and had large billows of white fur all around her wings and head.
"I AM CIRUCCI SANDERWICCI!" She shouted in a fit of rage as that last attack did way more damage than she thought it would. "PRIVARON ESPADA TO LORD AIZEN, AND THE ONE THAT'S GOING TO END YOU THREE PEST!"
She launched herself forward at breakneck speeds, letting her wings cut the pillars in clean cuts in the process. The three leapt out of the way just in time to avoid her and a thought crossed their minds. It was odd that this fight beforehand was so easy and even moreso now that Cirucci has released her resurreccion now. Something just didn't feel right her.
"Hey!" Apache yelled out, gaining Cirucci's attention as she spun around and scowled.
"Don't even think about begging for your lives now!" Cirucci yelled out.
"Not even close." Apache continued as she landed on one of the clean cut pillars. "What the hell's a Privaron Espada!"
Cirucci scowled as she began to explain. "If you must know, a Privaron Espada is a former Espada that was demoted after losing their position as an Espada." She gritted her teeth and scowled in anger. "They are assigned a three digit number to mark their failure as an Espada, and while we are stronger than a simple Numeros, we still can never match an Espada anymore."
"Good to know." Mila Rose started from the side on another cut pillar.
Cirucci looked to her with a raised brow. "And do pray tell would be good to know?"
"Simple really." Sun-Sun spoke from another cut pillar off the other side of Cirucci. "Our master and her sister have been training us since we were adjuchas." Her right arm glowed red.
"And once we became arrancar, they did not relent in their training." Mila Rose continued as her right arm glowed red as well, causing Cirucci to raise a brow.
"What the hell are you talking about!?" She yelled out as she felt the build up of spirit energy coming from them.
"Easy," Apache finished with her arm glowing as well. "The two of them far outrank you."
Just as she finished saying that, the built up energy from the three fired into the air, colliding with one another much to Cirucci's confusion. If this was an attack, then they weren't aiming too well at her. That was her thought process, until a large hand nearly double the size of every pillar combined formed out of the beam and reached down for her. She had no time to react as this thing squashed her, forcing her all the way to the ground below. Dust flew everywhere from the sheer force of the attack as the Tres Beastia stood on their own pillars, unimpressed. It was odd that they would face a former Espada, one of the ten most powerful of the arrancar army, and not feel threatened by her. That training that Halibel and Neliel had put them through along with being near the group must've really given the three a massive boost in power.
After the dust finally settled, the three receded the energy back into their arms and saw down in the crater. Cirucci was back in her sealed state, heavily bruised and beaten, and barely able to move. The three leapt down to her to ensure she was alive. It would be hard to interrogate someone if they were dead now. Apache grabbed her by the back of her hair and turned her over to face her.
"The human girl." She started in a cold tone as she looked right into Cirucci's nearly lifeless eyes. "Where is she?"
Cirucci chuckled, albeit lowly due to her current state, and spoke in a weak tone. "How the hell should I know. Lord Aizen banished us to this building so we couldn't be in the way." She dropped her smirk as she continued. "We're just glorified guard dogs to him."
"Then why serve him?" Sun-Sun asked, genuinely curious as the rest of them were.
"What choice do we have?" She answered weakly, feeling her consciousness fading away. "The weak either serve the strong, or be crushed under their foot. That's the way things are in Hueco Mundo. You all should know that."
"No." Mila Rose spoke once more, a white ring appearing around her iris, same as the others now. "You serve that bastard out of fear and willful subjugation. We serve no one. We are a group, a unit, benefiting one another to continue getting stronger and reaching newer heights."
Cirucci looked at the three with slightly wide eyes before narrowing them. "Then why serve that kid? What does he offer any of you to follow him through this place for a human?"
Apache dropped her onto the ground. The three looked down at her, eyes focused as they all said in unison. "The chance to live freely."
With those words, the Tres Beastia sonidoed away from the crater and ran down another pathway, leaving Cirucci to ponder on their words. She laid there, broken and in pain, but also relieved for some reason. She kept on playing those words in her head over and over again, remembering just how Aizen treated her and the rest of the Privaron Espada when he had no more use for them.
"Freedom." Cirucci said to herself before attempting to pick herself up to leave. "Maybe this Ichigo Kurosaki is the one to free us."
"Oh I wouldn't think about that too hard, Cirucci Sanderwicci." A deep and cold voice spoke from above the crater, causing Cirucci to break out in a cold sweat. She looked up and saw the last person she wanted to see. "It seems that you have utterly failed in your mission, and you know how Lord Aizen deals with failure."
Alright. This is a good place to stop at. Will Cirucci survive her encounter with the Exequias? Well I'll leave that to all of you to decide since I always believed that the Privaron Espada could have been utilized much better than they were in cannon. That's just me though.
Next chapter will have Thomas, Wonderweiss and Hooleer facing off against another Privaron Espada. Either Dordoni or Gantenbainne. Haven't really decided yet.
Stay awesome, stay safe, and as always...
PEACE!