The bloated monster of a Hollow known as Hooler waddled forward as its flesh jiggled, making its entire appearance disgusting. Hooler opened its mouth, intaking a large breath before blowing away Yamamoto's Jokako Enju, freeing the three rogue Captains who have been trapped for some time now. It was now their turn to act.
Gin, however, didn't seem all that excited as he coughed while waving his hand. "This is definitively a very foul smell." He coughed, feeling like he would turn sick. "Is this what they call the Stench of Death? Thank goodness you took away that brat's sense of smell..."
Due to his other senses being more acute than that of a normal Soul Reaper, Tousen also felt like he was gonna pass out. "I am inclined to agree with you for once."
Aizen simply shook his head as he walked forward. If someone were to look closely to his face they would see he already prepared himself by stuffing his nose with cotton swabs. "Hm, I must say that The Stench of Death is a fitting name..." the former Captain spoke as he looked towards the city of Karakura.
The Captains of the likes of Soi-Fon were shocked to say the least. Yamamoto, however, simply looked over to the rooftop that the blonde girl laid at, Halibel was her name as he recalled. While she knew fighting him was nothing more than suicide, the reason for why she would even do such a thing was at the very least understandable. After all she blurted out she would fight him despite their power gap in order to try to avenge her underlings — No — it was very clear to him that those girls were something along the lines of a pack for the lack of better term.
The old Head Captain could see her glaring at him from where she was at, struggling to lift herself from the floor. The water from the tower fell onto her head, removing some of the scuffle marks of the fire along with cleaning away the blood stains from her face. He could see that she was willing to get back up just to fight him again, and at this point it was meaningless to continue.
"No." He firmly said, and as if she could read his mouth movement, Halibel simply widened her eyes, not understanding what he meant. "You can no longer fight me, girl. Trying to battle me any longer would make the sacrifices of your companions in vain. They have not even lost their lives, and yet you're so foolishly wasting yours." Yamamoto stated as he Flash Stepped close to the rooftop that the Espada was at, as she managed to get to a sitting position by backing up against one of the metal legs of the tower.
Halibel let out an uncharacteristic growl. The old man could tell much that she wasn't the type to lose her temper often. "Y-You..." Halibel weakly stood up using her shark tooth sword as a crutch, but her body was shaking as if moving was becoming an intense strain. As she tried to get back up, her Resurección fell apart as she reverted back to her normal form, alongside her sword, and as such she crashed face first, although the collar was zipped down at the level of her collarbone, still revealing her beautiful but bloodied face. "Can't… move—" She muttered before her eyes lost their shine, losing her consciousness in the process.
The old Commander of the Court Guard Squads turned around as he Flash Stepped towards Aizen, stopping by only a few dozens of meters in distance between them. Their gazes met as they engaged a stare-down contest. It seems he would have to finish this himself after all.
"Not so fast!" A voice rang out, attracting everyone's attention to the owner of the voice.
Along with the other Vizards stood Shinji in the center, his piano-like teeth in full display as he smiled, taking out his beret and spinning it. The other Vizards were practically posing for some cool cover art for a rock band album. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Sosuke..." The blonde called out, and Aizen simply looked to be disappointed.
"Shinji Hirako..." Yamamoto spoke as he recalled back the events of over 100 years ago.
Rukia had been caught by Nelliel, who jumped into the air but the momentum caused both of them to continue spiraling. Both girls crashed against the massive wall with a booming noise as a massive spider crack implemented itself on the wall. Their aggressor was standing a few 30 meters of distance from them, as the massive oaf known as Yammy yawned as his Bala enhanced punch threw the Teenage Reaper to a crash that would have immediately put her out of commission if not for the Green haired beauty's assistance.
As Nelliel let her on the floor, Rukia breathed heavily as she gripped the handle of Shirayuki tightly. She, Renji and Chad have been stuck with this asshole for a lot of time, practically showing up out of nowhere and killing his allies without any regard. They thought that since he was only the 10th Espada they would have had an easier time. But it turns out they were wrong, this brute was strong but at least he was stupid, which should at least give them a tactical advantage to outsmart him.
Yammy laughed as he held up his fist. "You weaklings can't beat me! HAHAHAHA!" The giant boasted as red energy blazed around his fist, preparing another Bala to fire.
Rukia held up Shirayuki in defense, as ice formed at the edge of the blade, however Nelliel placed a hand in front of her, and the black haired girl looked at her in slight confusion before the green haired woman nodded. Rukia lowered her blade understanding what she was being told as Nelliel unsheathed her blade from its scabbard. The former Espada joined up earlier and mostly just stood on the sidelines, having come to collect her thoughts on making her kill against Nnoitra.
'Even then, Rukia, this opponent is far stronger than anyone any of us have fought or seen, even that melancholic looking Arrancar doesn't compare to this guy from what we had felt last time.' The ever so thoughtful words of her Zanpakutou rang through her head, and Rukia was inclined to agree. This guy was way too strong and he didn't even release yet...
"It's weird, last time he wasn't this huge..." Came a comment from Chad. And it was true, before Yammy was only about 8 feet tall, but now he looks like he grew at about 9-10 feet tall and became a huge tower of muscles. "Nor this powerful either..."
Just as Nelliel fully unleashed her sword, she then thought of something and immediately sheathed the sword back in. It was a gamble but she had to take it, raising one of her arms as she made the 'Come on' gesture. Needless to say, that did its trick as Yammy seemed to release steam from his nose as he roared, releasing a Cero from his mouth in her direction. The doom blast was massive, easily dwarfing even the already huge owner and came in faster than what they even expected from it. The wave was only a yard away from her before she raised both of her arms forward and tried to stop the blast head on. The whiplash effect was felt as Rukia, who was right behind her, ended up being thrown right through the wall they were close by.
Sweat poured from Nelliel's forehead as she tried to hold the attack in place. 'This is gonna hurt…' She told herself before opening her mouth wide, preparing to utilize her specialty, the Cero Double.
The giant beam of destruction was quickly sucked in, however as she tried to take in more, Nelliel had something that she never really had before, she was gagging and coughing. It was like trying to drink in a literal gallon of water. Before she could end up losing control, she used her strength and redirected the blast upwards. Having taken at least 3/4th of the attack she quickly added her own Cero before blasting it right back at Yammy, who was caught off guard to notice what just happened in front of him.
The blast hit him full force, making the giant scream out in pain as a large explosion took place, covering a large area in smoke. Nelliel panted, putting her hands on her knees for support as she managed to smirk. Even if she didn't kill him she at least hurt him which would more than likely pissed him off.
She would come to learn that was a bad idea.
From within the smoking sand, a roar erupted with an explosive red aura. Yammy yelled as if he had a spare set of lungs on the side just to replace the ones that were about to burst, his power skyrocketed as his Spiritual Pressure weighed down upon everyone. Nelliel actually took a step back as a shockwave emerged from him. The pulse of power that came from Yammy shook the entirety of Las Noches, reaching all the way to the top.
The Quincy almost lost his balance as the earthquake took no time to reach the top. "This is...Yammy?" Uryu wondered in shock as he never expected the buffoon he made a mockery out of a few minutes ago to suddenly grow this powerful.
Ulquiorra only nodded, already knowing what was happening down below. "Indeed… It won't take long for him to surpass all the Espada." he stated. He was hoping that Ichigo Kurosaki came in quickly to finish him off.
Back with Nelliel, sweat dripped from her forehead as the shaking suddenly stopped and Yammy stopped yelling his lungs, having grown another 5 inches taller. 'He grew bigger? No...It's not just that, he grew in power even more now. He's at least 3 times stronger than he was right before powering up.' The former Espada was now considering the usage of her Resurreción, however the loss of mobility was just too much of a risk, and Yammy obviously also had a Resurreción of his own too.
Steam poured out of Yammy's massive body as a demented grin took place in his features. "I outta murder you, bitch!" his hand quickly gripped the handle of his sword as he unsheathed his blade, yelling the release command. "Get Pissed! I-"
But before he could finish his sentence, he vanished from his spot in thin air, and in his place stood Ichigo looking back at Nelliel, who only blinked right as Yammy disappeared and Ichigo took his place. Nelliel was confused as she observed Ichigo's state. His Shihakusho was in complete tatters, a large portion of his left leg was shown, with most of his upper body also left uncovered making Nelliel get a bit red as she saw how well built Ichigo was, considering that she didn't really get to see all of him before.
He only had a third of his Shihakusho left, with the tiny portion of the jacket blowing at the wind, he took a few steps forward as she realized he also didn't have his sandals anymore. Their positions were practically switched from when they met, with the orange haired youth now in tattered clothing, and her wearing a mostly in perfect condition uniform. It took her some time to properly adjust to the change. "I-Ichigo… W-what even happened to y-you?" She stuttered a bit, still taken aback.
The Substitute simply gave her a confused glance. "It's a bit complicated, and well, I guess you could say convoluted to explain. All you need to know is that Ulquiorra is still alive, but I managed to get him to stand down." he informed her.
The Ex-Espada nodded in understanding, although now that was taken care of… "Uhm… Ichigo, would you mind telling me what happened to Yammy?" Nelliel asked, as she pointed to the spot Yammy had been in just a few seconds ago.
Ichigo blinked in confusion he looked back at where she was pointing. "Oh, that." now he understood what she meant. ''Well the answer should be very clear in the next few minutes or so." Nelliel just looked more confused, and with that Ichigo just pointed upwards. Neliel focused her senses, her eyes widened as she realized what happened.
As Yammy gripped the handle of his sword he yelled. "Get Pissed—" And then, just as he was about to initiate the release of his Zanpakuto, something extremely fast made its way toward him.
The perception of time slowed down significantly to almost over thousands of times the regular speed in which everything looked pretty much motionless, but if one were to look closely small trembles would happen every three seconds in this slown time, a black blur landed next to Nelliel, only for it to immediately makes its way in front of Yammy, who seemed to be starting to motion his jaw to finish his released state.
Ichigo moved behind him, leaping from the ground as he grabbed the massive Arrancar by the collar of his jacket, and just as Yammy uttered the letter I, Ichigo already broke through the canopy again. "I'll deal with you later, but right now I gotta make sure the others are ok..." He then flung Yammy away far into the horizon, beyond what a normal person could see from where one could be standing there. The orange haired reaper then dived down from the roof back to the sands as he backflipped in landing.
"Y-You… threw him away like a pebble at a river?" The green haired Arrancar stammered as she finally realized what he meant.
Ichigo noded his head. "Pretty much, all I gotta do now is defeat him. I should be able to do that without a problem, since no-one would be around in case things get dangerous"
"Ichigo!" The teen blinked as he saw Rukia coming out of the wreckage that used to be a big wall. "You're here?! What happened?" The black haired girl asked as she approached. "Is Orihime ok?!"
Ichigo simply put his hands on his hips, which looked a bit awkward since he was still holding a sword. "Well, Orihime is fine but she's just tired, Uryu is there too, so there's not much to worry about."
"Very Well, I'll report to the Captains. I overheard you saying you were gonna deal with Yammy, right?" Rukia asked.
"Yeah pretty much." He said as he began to float.
Reverting her Shikai back to its sealed state, Rukia sheathed her blade. "Then I'll ask my brother to see if he can go there to finish him off, while you are stronger than that guy, he is definitely hard to kill and we can't be wasting time now that Aizen is in Karakura. So if possible, Ichigo please, finish him off as fast as you can!" She loudly claims with her fist clenched.
The Orange haired Substitute simply gave her a thumbs up as they exchanged smiles to each other before Ichigo Flash Steps away to Yammy's location.
In the actual Karakura Town that had been placed far away from the Rukongai, the inhabitants of the city were all out cold as they were put into a deep sleep… Which of course meant that the machinery and people that work practically 24/7 have been left without any control.
Like an uber driver that had been working over time that day who simply slumped over his face against the steering wheel of the car and drove off on the highway.
Just as the car was about to crash against the light post, it was redirected out of the way before being lifted into the air. Yoruichi sighed as she walked over to the sidewalk and laid down the car. Unlike her usual clothing, she wore a black backless leotard instead of her usual unitard with a beige scarf around her neck. Due to the nature of her Shunko, she had to wear a strapless white black underneath the leotard. She wore black fingerless arm warmers and black thigh highs.
"This is the 10th car I had to stop… Better go see if the train is going off its rails..." Yoruichi jumped from the ground to the rooftop of nearby buildings as she moved towards the train station jumping from building to building. "What were they thinking? Most of these people work past midnight, the idea of simply knocking out everyone just doesn't work!" she exclaimed as she made a scowl.
When dividing the plan to swap the real Karakura Town with a replica of it, the Soul Society thought it was a good idea to simply knock out the Karakura Town residents into a deep sleep. While that idea may have worked 200 years ago, times have changed, and as such the humans advanced their technology as well.
As she arrived in the train station, she saw that there were people still waiting in line for the train to come in, and one of them actually fell in between the rails. Her acute sense of hearing told her that a train would probably come by, so knowing that would not be a good sight to wake up to, the purple haired beauty hopped off the bridge and took the sleeping woman from it, laying her down on the nearby bench as the train passed by which Yoruichi narrowed her eyes at the sight of it. The bullet train had nobody operating it, and as such there was nobody to stop it aside from her. Sighing for what it seemed like the 3rd time in the morning she ran off in a chase, easily keeping up with it. While bullet trains are impressive to normal people, even someone like the guy with the weird afro should be able to do this.
… At least she thought he could, what was his name again? Speaking of which, as she was running with her hands behind her back, she actually spotted the guy by one of the streets just like everyone else. Was he affected as well? Was the standards for the Soul Reapers dispatched to areas so low that they can't even resist a low level Kido like this?
She shook her head before getting back to focus, she had a train to catch after all. Looking to her right she realized the train wasn't there, and looking back she realized she accidentally outran the damn thing. Ugh, no matter, this made it easier.
Flipping to the side rail she faced the opposite direction and held her hands out just before the train crashed against her grip, forcing her to go forward. 'No good! If I put in too much force, I'll destroy the train! But if I don't put any strength in, I'll just be getting pushed...' The former Captain grit her teeth as she tightly kept her grip on the sides on the train. "What can I even use… Wait..." She looked down seeing the passing rails and looked back at the train with a idea forming on her mind. 'Here goes nothing!'
She breathed in as she felt the rapidly passing wind against her and the metallic feel of the train. This could either fry the people inside, not work, blow up or just blow herself away, but it was a bet she was gonna go through with it. "SHUNKO!" Lightning crackles around her body before a torrent of electric discharge bursts from her back and shoulders. Shunko, a technique she invented to drastically improve her physical capabilities through Kido. When first creating and showing it to her family she was surprised at the manifestation of Lightning on herself, the idea of the element of the gods Indra or Raijin had for years baffled her. But upon seeing Soi-Fon using it, she realized the elements could just be tied to the person, which she was thankful for otherwise she would have rolled with the first name she came up with for it
Lightning itself was a very interesting phenomenon, electricity while very powerful and fast for the humans had many peculiar properties, but the one that she quite liked… was the magnetic effect. The electric jolt travelled through It, as most of the chassis' material was conductive the lightning freely took over. With focus she was able to activate the breaks and pull down the massive machine. Of course it didn't stop right away as a sudden stop would throw the passengers forward and most likely injure them.
Once it fully halted, Yoruichi briefly exhaled as she slowly toned down her electric current. Shunko was used for fighting and in most cases, killing, using killing techniques to save multiple lives at once required a lot of finesse with the ability one would possess. Nodding to herself she jumped up the cart and peeked in on each wagon for the people inside, and to her relief, all of the people in the train were fine. Smiling, she stood up as she made her way over to the city downtown in order to group up with Kisuke.
In the middle of the people within the train, only one person was awake, and it was a red haired lass who saw everything that happened. "That lightning… who… who was that woman?" The red haired teen muttered to herself as she laid down on the floor between all the people who were asleep.
The cat woman narrowed her eyes as she moved swiftly through the air, bouncing off ledges and jumping off posts. She managed to make a variety of moves while airborne before landing on the street and speeding off towards the city center.
Moments were all it took as she closed in, landing as she saw the familiar bucket hat and green clothes, and next to Urahara were Isshin and surprisingly Ryuken. Tessai was also a few meters away with the Mod Souls. As she walked up to them, she just yawned as she stretched up her arms, feeling the numbness go away. Isshin was the first to notice her and just came in with the stupid grin as always, at least it wasn't as weird as Shinji's.
He held up his arm as a welcome which she took in as response. "So, Yoruichi, I take it you took care of the East side already, huh?" He asked with the smile still present, due to how simple it was, Yoruichi couldn't help but answer it back with a small smirk of her own.
"Yeah, although when it came to the train it was a bit more complicated, though I was able to fix things up. It should be enough for now. Maybe now we can go and see if we can help the others?" Yoruichi landed her sights on the elder Quincy. "I guess us three, except you right? After all, you told your son he can't be involved with Soul Reapers and he's with Ichigo now."
The white haired man simply pushed up his glasses in the same fashion his son does. "I told Uryu to not involve himself with Soul Reapers, yes… But Masaki's son is not a Soul Reaper, that much I can attest by." He then held a small glare at Urahara and Isshin, who ended up avoiding the glare. "After all, my sister didn't raise him in either of the ways. He simply discovered everything by himself and I believe he will continue to do so."
Urahara hid his face with his fan but instead with the usual mirth and boisterous smile, he held a serious face with most of his face obscured by the hat and his own shaggy hair. "You seem to be carrying more baggage than usual, Ryuken. What's the matter now?"
With a dark chuckle Ryuken simply pulled out his cigar and lit it up with his lighter. "Replacing an entire town during the 21st century..." Blowing out the smoke he continued. "On paper it's not exactly a bad idea, but in practice you idiots have managed to attract the exact attention the spiritual realm didn't need."
Yoruichi's eyes widened in realization at what he meant as Urahara's lone visible eye stared back at Ryuken's cold blue. Isshin on the other hand seemed confused as he scratched his head, looking back and forth between the three. "What do you mean by that, Ryuken?" Isshin asked, not understanding a thing as to what his old friend was talking about.
Yoruichi looked up to the sky, the clear blue of the high noon bright as the sun gleamed. "Isshin… it was only a replica that was made, we didn't create an actual town with people in it. We even put a barrier too..." The Mod Souls and the leader of the Kido division began to listen in as Yoruichi continued. "To the average schmuck waltzing around, nothing is wrong. But anyone who wants to come in or any bloody satellite would realize that a city is completely cut off from the world and it is bare of any living thing!" She then looked at him dead in the eye. "Don't you understand?! The public will question while no civilian will understand what the bloody hell happened. The government would notice that a city disappeared and reappeared, what do you think will happen?"
The realization slowly set in for the Kurosaki. "Holy fuck… "
The large Arrancar bounced off from the sand as he crashed, his body all contorted itself rolling down the dune. The Espada groaned as he laid on his back, wondering why everything was spinning, only for him to be answered by the Orange haired teen Flash Stepping over him, his cloak blowing as the wind dragged the sand. The distance that was put between him and Las Noches was worth 3 days of walking just to get back again.
The bald giant grunted as he cracked his neck, lifting himself off the ground on his knees, snorting as he saw Ichigo. "What the hell was that you chump!?" Yammy got up as he stood to his full height, imposing to some, but no effect on the Substitute who simply crooked an eyebrow in question. "Were you the one who hit me or what?!" he demanded to know, but Ichigo simply gazed at him while putting his sword over his shoulder.
"You sure you wanna go at this again?" The orange haired teen questioned Yammy's decision. ''If my memory recalls, you didn't really fair so well the last time we fought back in the World of the Living. And I'll warn you, I've gotten a lot stronger since then. So if you really wanna go through this again—"
The large oaf yelled as he came in right in front of Ichigo and gave him a swift punch to the face, making Ichigo somewhat stumble back from the blow. Yammy smirked over this, seeing that he hit the small bug that pissed him off, but to his confusion he saw the teen wiping off a small trickle of blood that came from his lower lip. "That punch was for free…" Ichigo blurted out as he held his blade.
Yammy stared at it in confusion. "What are you holding up that for — AHHHHHHH!" A scream tore itself from his throat as his arm flew off from its shoulder. Ichigo had appeared again behind the Espada, holding his sword to the side, blood dripping from the edge as a geyser of blood erupted from Yammy's wound. "MY ARM! MY FUCKING ARM!" Yammy turned around, staring at the Soul Reaper in rage, his hand shot out reaching for the handle as he ripped it from the sheath. "GET PISSED, IRA!"
A torrent of Spiritual Pressure bursted from within Yammy, wrapping him in a tornado of red energy. Ichigo turned around to face the whirlwind head-on impassively, a loud thunder rang in his ear as he looked up, the already night sky of Hueco Mundo darkened more as the clouds gathered into a storm that extended itself for miles away past the horizon.
Uryu widened his eyes in shock, as he and Orihime looked over at a tornado of red energy shooting upwards at the sky, feeling the intensity of the Spiritual Pressure that was being released from the 10th Espada. "No way…" the Quincy murmured, not believing what he was sensing. "How is it possible that he has this amount of power?"
"So it would appear that he's released his Resurección at last." Ulquiorra commented as he also looked over the enormous tower of Spirit Energy being released. "Let's hope that your friend is still strong enough to take out Yammy before it's too late. The more anger that Yammy releases, the bigger his power increases exponentially. If he's let loose like this for too long, then no-one in this entire area will be able to stop him."
As the tornado of red energy dissipated, the 10th Espada was seen clearly in his now Released form, his form having become far larger unlike anything before, his size becoming monstrous, being reminiscent to that of a kaiju. His skull ridges became more pronounced, taking on the appearance of two large purplish-gray head coverings, extending to the back of his head. His white mask fragments fused to his face, becoming his actual lower jaw. His red markings extended back from his face into two long flame tattoos. The majority of his body was tan in color, with his thin ponytail becoming longer. His body transformed drastically as well, with his torso remaining largely the same, but grew eight large elephant-like legs on each side of his lower body, which extended back from his torso. The legs were connected to his body by white carapace-covered joints, leading up to the base of a bony tail club, similar to those of an Ankylosaurus. On each leg, he had three large toes, which extend backwards from the front to the back of the leg. Large purplish-gray cylindrical tubes form on his elbows, which can be used as piston-like rams. He gained five large, black cylindrical tubes on his back about half of the length of the tubes on his elbows. He has six black rounded nodules along the length of his forearms. A noticeable detail was that the number from Yammy went from 10 to 0.
Ichigo put his arms away as the debris of smoke stopped flying past him when Yammy was still transforming, and now that the Substitute teen had a clear look on Yammy's new form, he was more taken by surprise by the appearance rather than the increase in power. "Wow…" he made a whistle. "You really packed a few pounds right now. I'm impressed." he then noticed that the number on Yammy's shoulder completely changed. He was confused. Why did it turn to 0 all of a sudden? "Hey, hold on a second, how come your number just went down?!"
"You moron! Did you really think the Espadas went from 10 to 1?!" Yammy yelled as he looked down on Ichigo with a smug grin that was evident on his face. "Whoever told you that must have been lying! The Espadas go from 9 to 0!"
Ichigo blinked in confusion. "Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I don't think Aizen would be lying when I talked to him about the—"
"DIE!" Yammy hurled his fist down at Ichigo, who proceeded to dodge by Flash Stepping away, and instead of hitting him the oaf only hit the ground.
"You might wanna work on your aim." Ichigo spoke as he appeared right in front of the Released Yammy's face. "Either that or improve your speed a little bit. If you're gonna attack me like that, then your chances of beating me are rather slim." he saw Yammy throwing another punch at him, and the teen Reaper used Flash Step to get out of the way.
"Quit dodging away you gutless loser!" Yammy yelled in outrage, looking around to see where the annoying pest was at. His body then reacted on instinct as Ichigo appeared from behind, getting ready to strike an attack of his own, and as such Yammy went for a counter before Ichigo could by throwing a backhand. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed before making contact against Ichigo, but to his surprise his backhand got blocked as Ichigo barely even budged in his place.
"Damn, you really are loud…" Ichigo had both of his hands stopping Yammy's backhanded fist while gripping onto his sword. "Although your punch isn't half bad…" He let one of his hands go as he gazed back at Yammy. "Now, how about we see which one of our attacks is stronger?" his left hand gripped onto his face, making a familiar hand motion. "Just so this way, I can get to crush you…" he then donned his mask, and in doing so gave a menacing glare at the hulking giant. "BY FORCE!"
Ichigo's blade was wrapped in a fiery flame of black energy, signaturing his familiar attack. Before Yammy even realized what happened, he was hit dead-on by an enhanced Black Getsuga. "GAAAH!" Yammy roared from the power of the attack, his hand having been chopped off, and with his neck showing a large cut as well, his upper body spraying a pool of his blood as he got thrown back and crashed on the ground.
Ichigo used Flash Step to set some distance, turning his back on his opponent as his hand moved to the mask he just donned. Unknown to him, the markings on the Hollow mask changed once more. Where his mask once had a series of thick red stripes which covered almost the entire left half of his mask, there are now only two thick vertical black stripes, each on one half of the mask, which are interrupted by the widened eye-holes and the jaw. Even though Ichigo remained oblivious to the markings of the mask, he knew that there was something different, having already worn it in battle several times to know the output of his power. 'What was that sensation just now? My mask… it feels much heavier for some reason.' he ran his hand over the mask. 'It didn't feel like that before. Could it be because of… that form I was in when I fought Ulquiorra?' he thought, thinking back to his Vasto Lorde form. 'Did that form somehow affect my Hollowfication? Actually, now that I think about it… didn't the same thing happen when I fought Grimmjow? It didn't just feel heavier, it felt far more powerful…'
He was somewhat concerned by this. Something was happening to his Hollowfication, and he didn't know how to react to this accordingly. He never questioned it during his fight with Grimmjow as he was taken over by his impulses to think properly, nor did he bother questioning it against Nnoitra and Ulquiorra, as it didn't bother him and became too busy fighting. But now he couldn't just ignore it.
His eyes widened as he turned his head to see the monstrous form of the fallen Espada rising back up. "Aaaagh…" Yammy groaned as he held onto his chest that profusely bled.
"Surprised you're already back on your feet after that blow I gave you." Ichigo said, looking up at the giant as he fully stood up. "And after that Black Getsuga Tenshou I threw at you, no less. You're tougher than I gave you credit for, that's for sure."
"You asshole…" Yammy grit his teeth as he glared down at the small pest beneath him. If looks could kill, that would certainly describe the expression held onto the Espada's face, now wanting nothing more then to crush Ichigo. "That hurt! THAT REALLY FUCKING HURT! YOU ROTTEN PIECE OF SHIT!" he opened up his mouth and began to charge a Black Cero.
"Is that the—" Ichigo remembered back to when Ulquiorra fired that same Black Cero at him, and the amount of destructive power it held. "—Shit!" he cursed, and he decided to keep the Hollow mask as he was still low in power. He grit his teeth as he charged up a Cero of his own with his left hand, while also forming the black lightning around the bright orb of energy.
"NOW DIE!" Yammy fired off the Black Cero down at Ichigo's path, ready to end him once and for all. However, Ichigo fired back a unique Cero of his own and clashed against Yammy's.
The clash between the two Ceros caused powerful shock waves to occur, reaching all the way onto the fortress of Las Noches. Unlike last time, the Cero from Ichigo was far more stable and controllable, this due to being that unlike before Ichigo's energy was far too large, but now that his power had been cut to merely 1/3rd of what he could do, it made the combined blast of Cero and Kido much easier to use. He would have to come up with a name for this later.
The clash between Yammy's Black Cero and Ichigo's combined variation struggled to overpower one another, as the blasts of energy came to a relative stalemate. The sandy ground beneath them shook from the beam clash that was taking place. 'Shit… we're getting nowhere like this!' Ichigo thought to himself as he struggled to stay on his ground. 'If we go at this any longer, I might lose my energy faster than he does! And I can't let him hit the ground, otherwise who knows how much damage he's gonna make!' he grit his teeth, trying to push in more power behind his blast, but it was clear that Yammy was trying to do the same. 'Wait... I think I might have just the idea how to get over this!' Ichigo raised his sword to add a more powerful attack in his favor. "Here goes... Getsuga Tenshou!"
The orange haired youth threw a Getsuga to mix it in with his Cero Kido attack, and the results changed almost immediately as a massive torrent of an energy blast broke through Yammy's Black Cero and became engulfed within said blast. "WHAT—" the bufon of a giant barely had the time to gasp before he got thrown back. "AAAAAAUGH!" Yammy roared as if the set of organs he had were being torn apart, being thrown in the air before crashing down on the ground.
Ichigo discarded the mask before floating above in the air to check Yammy's condition and to see if he did take him down. 'Did that finish him off?' he thought, checking to make sure if any signs of life remained in Yammy. To his annoyance, he saw his hand twitching. 'Damn, Rukia wasn't kidding when she said he's hard to kill. I'll have to put more power now… but I'm already fighting with everything I can dish out.'
Yammy could only open one of his eyes and saw Ichigo standing in the air above him. This greatly annoyed the fallen giant as he slowly began to get up, but it was clear the damage he sustained injured him greatly. "You bastard…" There was already blood oozing on the ground. "You're going to pay for this…"
"Hado #33: Sokatsui."
An enormous wave of energy blast came forth and blasted Yammy even further down away from Ichigo. The young teen turned around to look in surprise to see both Byakuya and Kenpachi, having seamlessly arrived at the same time.
"Why did you attack him before I did?!" Kenpachi demanded to know, as he and Byakuya gave each other a piercing staredown. "Stay out of this!"
"Such nonsense. I was merely the first to arrive, it is you who should learn their place." Byakuya simply replied back, keeping his usual stoic manner in place. But the air around him and Kenpachi was surrounded by their killing intent over the other.
"Fine then! Just don't blame me if you get sliced to pieces along with this guy!" Kenpachi begrudgingly exclaimed.
"So you did arrive after all." Ichigo commented as he Flash Stepped over to Byakuya and Kenpachi. "Good thing you did, cause let me tell ya, this guy is really tough to take care of."
"At least this time you didn't get beaten half to death when I came over." Kenpachi remarked as he stepped over to Ichigo. "Otherwise it would have been embarrassing to see. Now move over, your job is done."
"Huh?!" Ichigo was confused by this. "Hold on a minute, shouldn't all three of us stick together to fight this guy? All of us combined should be able to finish off Yammy in no time."
"There is no need for your concern, Ichigo Kurosaki." Byakuya stepped over to Ichigo as well. "Didn't Zaraki already tell you? You have accomplished your mission on rescuing Orihime Inoue, that is the reason you chose to come to Hueco Mundo in the first place, is it not?" the Captain of Squad 6 looked over at the young man. "There is no need for you to stay here any longer. Do not forget what your other duty was, to protect Karakura Town, and you of all people should know what's coming for you next…"
Ichigo stopped to think about Byakuya's words. The man did have a point, as of now Aizen and his men were still fighting in his town, or at least a replica of it. And he wasn't sure just how much longer the Soul Reapers could last. "I see then... I guess I'll leave it up to you two." The Substitute Soul Reaper turned his back. "Oh, and Byakuya… sorry about what I said back in the Living World." he told the Captain before leaving his spot, moving like a blur with how fast he was moving.
The Espada that previously laid on the ground formed enough strength within himself to get back up. The giant of a monster looked down to see Byakuya and Kenpachi down at the ground. He was confused as to where Ichigo Kurosaki went off to, and became greatly annoyed that he couldn't see him anywhere. ''Damn you… it's just one pest after the other!" he struck a menacing pose as he glared down at the Soul Reapers beneath him. "You think you're better than me?! I AM THE ESPADA ZERO! YAMMY LLARGO!"
"What a coincidence." Byakuya was not the least bit threatened by the former 10th Espada's power. "Zero just so happens to be your odds of winning this battle."
Ichigo went through the same hole he threw Yammy through, having travelled back in just a few seconds before landing on the ground. He saw Nelliel running towards him. "Did you actually manage to finish him off that quickly?!" Nelliel asked with a surprised look on her face.
"Not exactly…" Ichigo replied back as he looked over his shoulder, more so at the hole he threw the Espada through. Nelliel became confused by the vague response given to her. "Byakuya and Kenpachi took over the fight when they showed up."
"And you're sure they can handle it?"
"From what I could tell by sensing them, they've gotten way stronger than the last time I saw them. Although I'm not sure how Kenpachi thinks he can take on Yammy when he was equal to Nnoitra…" Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. ''Oh well, not that I have time to wonder about that. Kenpachi himself is a freak of nature in his own right."
"So… What are you gonna do now?" Nelliel asked. "You saved your friend. What else is there to do?"
"I'm only halfway done with my goal here. Now my next step is to take down Aizen and end this war before it goes on for too long." Ichigo replied.
"How are you gonna do that though? As far as I'm concerned you don't have a Garganta to travel through. But maybe I can help you open up one and—"
"That won't be necessary." The orange haired youth responded as he held his palm up. "I already know how to travel through one my own."
"... Come again?" Nelliel seemed to be baffled by this. "When did you possibly have the time to learn the—"
"Ulquiorra showed it to me after I beated him." Ichigo answered before his Arrancar companion could finish her sentence. "Here, I'll show you." he went ahead to tear the fabric of space with a hand motion, and opened up the Descarror in doing so.
Nelliel slumped her shoulders as she hung her mouth open. 'Just what the hell is this guy?!' she thought as she looked back and forth between the young teen and the Descarror. 'I take my eyes off him for minutes, and he's already learning new stuff!'
"So... I guess this is where we part ways for now?" Ichigo scratched his head as he awkwardly looked away. "I do appreciate all the help you gave me on rescuing Orihime."
"Wait!" Nelliel stopped him before he could get into the Garganta. "Are you really going to be leaving with the way you are now?! You haven't even rested yet!"
"What other choice do I have? I don't have any more time, the 13 Court Guard Squads are fighting for their life against Aizen, and I don't know how long they can last either." Ichigo answered.
"Then at least take me with you!" Nelliel persisted. "If the situation is that bad like you say, you're gonna need all the help you can get! I still have more than enough fight left in me!"
"Look, I do appreciate your concern, but maybe you can go to the upper canyon and stay with Orihime for a while—"
"You have Ulquiorra staying with her, and if you did beat him like you said you did, he should be more than strong enough to watch over, and earlier on I sensed your Quincy friend heading over as well while you were dueling it out with Ulquiorra. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to do. Yammy is the only last enemy in this area and those two Soul Reapers are taking care of him, I'm not going to just stand around and do nothing!" Nelliel rebuked.
"In that case, why don't I just accompany both of you?" Ichigo and Nelliel looked over to see Unohana standing above them on a large rock.
"Captain Unohana?!" Ichigo was surprised to see her as the Captain of the 4th division landed down on the ground, holding a large bag in her hand. "Uh… what exactly are you holding in your hand?"
"It's just the tray of food I gathered for you and all your friends that came here." Unohana replied. "After all, it's been about 4 days since you left to rescue Orihime. Surely you must be starving by now."
Before they could retort, their growling noise made itself known to them. The pair blushed from embarrassment as their stomachs clearly announced that they were empty. They've been so caught up with the fighting that they forgot to find the kitchen to get something to eat.
"Well…" Ichigo held his stomach. "I guess you're not wrong…"
"Isane!" Unohana called out to her Lieutenant, and she saw Isane coming up to her, carrying her sheathed Zanpakuto. "You are to remain here and assist the others in need." Isane nodded her head in understatement, and the Captain of Squad 4 looked back at the Substitute and the Ex-Espada. "Now then, let us depart, shall we?"
"Right…" Ichigo nodded his head, and with that said all three of them jumped into the Garganta, in doing so caused the Descorrer to close up.
The Substitute teen ran ahead of the others and formed a path of a straight line behind him, letting Nelliel and Unohana keep up with him so as not to let them fall off.
"Ichigo... I've been meaning to ask you something." Unohana spoke as she ran behind Nelliel, and she saw the young man turn his head over his shoulder to look at her. "You fought Sosuke Aizen once before at the Soukyoku Hill, right? How did it turn out?"
"Wait, you fought Aizen before?!" Nelliel was surprised to hear of this news. It may have been some time since she last saw her former leader, but she still remembered the overwhelming presence Aizen held over all the Espadas. To hear that Ichigo not only fought him, but survived as well was impressive. "And you survived?!"
"Tch." Ichigo scoffed, looking away from both of them as memories of his first encounter with Aizen sprang into his mind. He still remembered the excruciating pain of being nearly cut in half, and the humiliation he felt that his Bankai was only stopped by one finger, although he was still badly injured from his fight with Byakuya, he still felt that even if he were at his best condition he still wouldn't have made a difference. "I would hardly call that a fight to begin with. The guy had monstrous strength, and I was completely helpless to do anything about it. Hell, I was so weak to him that he didn't bother using his Shikai on me, and I got slaughtered."
The last sentence that Ichigo spoke of intrigued Unohana and Nelliel. "Wait… did I hear you correctly? Are you absolutely certain that you didn't see his Shikai?" Unohana asked in interest.
Ichigo nodded his head. "Yeah… otherwise his sword would have taken some shape to take me out back then." he answered with honesty.
"That's actually really good." Ichigo looked at her with a perplexed look on his face. "The fact that you seemed so weak that he didn't even use his Shikai may be your biggest advantage in this battle, more than you could possibly realize."
"Huh?" Ichigo became confused, what was such a big deal about Aizen not using his Shikai on him? He still knew that Aizen could have finished him off here and there, but he was told there were reasons why Aizen didn't do it.
"Ichigo… you might not be aware of this, but Aizen's abilities are just something vastly different, unlike anything that was ever seen. Well, to be more specific, it's his Zanpakuto that's rather… terrifying to say the least." Nelliel remarked, feeling a chill running down her spine.
"What's so special about it?" Ichigo asked.
"There are some things that I need to fill you in on. Ichigo, you may not know this, but as of right now, you may be the only person in all of the World of the Living, the Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo that can fight Sosuke Aizen and even defeat him." Unohana stated, and she saw Ichigo widen his eyes in shock. "I am going to tell you about the power of his Zanpakuto, which is called Kyoka Suigetsu, and the conditions for its activation. But first…" Unohana stopped running ahead, and in turn it made the Soul Reaper and the Arrancar stop running as well. "It would be better for both of you to start eating now, after all you can't go out fighting if your stomachs are empty." the Captain of Squad 4 curled up a gentle smile as she held her large bag of food contained inside.
The Soul Reaper and Arrancar's stomach growled again, being reminded to fill their stomachs up, otherwise they'd die of starvation before they could fight Aizen. With that said, Unohana set the bag onto the path of Reishi and began to unwrap it, revealing many layers of food for both of them to dig in.
"Wait, so that's what Aizen's Zanpakuto is really capable of?" Ichigo asked as he finished the last meal that he had in his hand, having heard everything that Unohana explained of what Kyoka Suigetsu was truly capable of. And he had to say, it truly was a scary ability.
"That's right." Unohana nodded her head in confirmation. "The condition for the activation of Kyoka Suigetsu is showing the moment of its release to your opponent. A lot of the Captains who might have been able to defeat Aizen are under Kyoka Suigetsu, and the ones who aren't, do not have anywhere near the power needed to defeat him."
"And it doesn't just stop there, even Arrancars and Espadas that served Aizen are under his hypnosis, despite the fact they hold no power to oppose him whatsoever." Nelliel added on, finishing the last of her meal as well. "Which includes me as well…"
"Ichigo… you possess Spiritual Pressure comparable to that of almost every Captain in the 13 Court Guard Squads, not just that but you haven't even seen Kyoka Suigetsu's release, this may give you just the advantage you need in your confrontation with Sosuke." Unohana stated.
"Right…" Ichigo got up on the path he made, and along with the women they began to start running again. "But… that's easier said than done. This is Aizen I'm gonna face up against, for all I know I could get caught up in his Shikai the moment I head into Karakura Town without realizing it. It would be more helpful if I had others backing me up along the fight, cause no offense, but me fighting Aizen without looking at his Shikai sounds a bit overwhelming…" the teen turned his head over his shoulder to look at the female Captain. "Say, Miss Unohana, you're a Captain as well, right? Can you help me fight as well?"
For the briefest of moments, Unohana's eyes widened in shock from the question she was given, but she quickly kept herself composed. "Oh, I don't think you'll find me not very suitable in fighting. You have met Hanatarou before, haven't you? If you looked at my Haori, you would have known that I'm from the 4th division that specializes in healing."
"Come on, it's not like you never had a fight before, right?" Ichigo began to persist.
"Believe me, I had my own fair share of battles… and you might not like what you would see if I were to fight." This made both Ichigo and Nelliel confused on what she meant. "On top of that, I am a medic. Don't forget that it's highly possible there would be many of those that are injured for me to heal, I may not even be able to fight at all."
"Oh... I guess you got a point there." Ichigo remarked as he looked back at the path in front of him.
"However, I have noticed that your injuries have been healed, there would be no need for me to heal any of you when we head over to fight Sosuke Aizen, correct?" Unohana wanted to make sure that her companions were at full strength before they were to engage in battle again.
"Uh… I wouldn't really say that I'm at full strength myself… " Ichigo spoke up. "I wish I was though…"
"What do you mean?" Nelliel asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You seem perfectly fine to me. My body still feels sore from the fight I had against Yammy."
"There's nothing from me that needs to be healed physically, I'm talking about my Spirit Energy in itself." Ichigo pointed to whatever was left of his cloak with his left finger. "Take a look at this. Whenever I use my Bankai, my shihakusho changes up the clothes I wear, and at first I thought it was just for show, but recently I realized that wasn't the case at all. It turns out this cloak I wear is a part of my Bankai, whenever it gets torn apart I lose more of my Spirit Energy. I realized this when Orihime got to heal me before I fought Grimmjow in our last battle, my physical injuries were already healed, but what I noticed was that I could use my Bankai again at full power, when earlier on my power was cut down so much when Ulquiorra used his Gran Rey Cero on me and Nel."
"Wait… Why didn't you just heal up fully?" Nelliel asked this while she slowly started to realize the amount of power that was held in Ichigo.
"I couldn't, you and the others were getting taken out by Yammy, and I didn't have any time to wait. So I left without my Spirit Energy being healed whatsoever, and if I were to count how much energy I have left in me…" Ichigo hummed to himself for a bit. "I-I'd say I only have about ⅓ of my full strength in me right now."
Unohana widened her eyes in disbelief, as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'This is impossible… His outfit is nowhere half of what it's usually like in his Bankai. And his Spirit Energy is this low? And I misjudged it to be comparable to almost all the Captains combined, including me…' she thought to herself, and it was then she stopped running in her tracks. Nelliel and Ichigo also stopped running as they turned around to face the 4th division Captain. "Nelliel, was it?" Unohana looked at the Arrancar. "I want you to take over the lead for now. I'm going to restore both of your energies at their maximum."
"Uh… What?!" Nelliel blushed madly when she heard what the Captain said. "You don't really mean by transferring your energy to ours, do you?!" When she said this, Ichigo gained a blush of his own when he realized what Nelliel meant.
"Huh?" This made the Captain become confused as to what the Ex-Espada just spoke of. That was not a reply she was expecting. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's just…" Nelliel looked down at the path of Reishi, both her index fingers tapping against one another. "With us Arrancars, we don't really have much healing methods to go off with when we get injured or drained. When we're injured we either have to wait for our regeneration to kick in, or in a worse scenario have our own medic to restore a limb or two. But when it comes to restoring our power when we're drained, we either have to rest or we… just trade our own energy by using… bodily fluids." It didn't help that her mind drifted off to some other places of some potential threesome to happen.
Unohana widened her eyes again, realizing what the woman was talking about. Ichigo nervously scratched his hair as he looked down at the path beneath him. "Y-Yeah… she told me something like this when we were running off together after we split up with our group, but I didn't exactly fully get what she was saying. So… Are we gonna have to…" Ichigo hesitated to fully finish his sentence, letting the Captain figure out what they said.
The Soul Reaper let the information sink into her head, and when it did she made a small chuckle, something that confused both of her companions. "Forgive me, but…" she made a giggle. "I think both of you misunderstood what I was saying. I didn't mean to go with that method of restoring your Spirit Energies. As amusing as that method sounds, that would be unnecessary to go through, and it would take a bit too long to heal both of you like that."
"Wait, so what even is the point of going through some tantric ritual method to restore your energy?" Ichigo asked out of confusion. "I know Nelliel tried to explain it to me, but I didn't really fully get what that was about."
"Then it would seem I would have to explain it better." Unohana sighed. "Basically, , Spirit Energy courses through one's entire body, even a blood sample would be carrying a certain amount of Spirit Energy. Someone like yourself, who has Spiritual power around the level of Senior Captains, would have their bodily fluids rich with innate Spirit Energy and potential. How else do Nobles, who are born with such potential power like Byakuya Kuchiki or Yoruichi Shihouin have so much of it? After all, those who are born Noble have their Spiritual power run much higher than that of the average Soul Reaper."
"Ohhh!" Ichigo began to understand just what the older woman was talking about. "I think I get it now."
"And what I originally meant to say was that I am going to restore both of your energies while we're still running in motion." Ichigo and Nelliel seemed rather surprised to hear that the Captain was capable of doing that. "In the majority of cases when we start healing with Kido, you perform fixing the user's Spirit Energy. By doing so, you can attempt to recover the physical body using the patient's restored Spirit Energy and combining it with the healer's external Spirit Energy. In other words, restoring Spirit Energy when the physical body is in a fully healed state is no trouble at all. I've done this more times than I counted."
"So I guess I'll take the lead then." Nelliel remarked before she stepped in front of Ichigo and began to run, forming a path of Reishi on her own.
'If his current level of power really is ⅓ of what he has…' Unohana thought to herself as she ran behind Ichigo. 'And if I restore him back to his full power… then there may be a good chance that he may be just the trump card that we need to stop this war!'
Well it's good that I managed to get this done a lot quicker than I thought I could. We're getting one step closer to finish the Arrancar arc for good. Now to go on and explain some things…
Alright, the timing of the fights in Fake Karakura in this story should be getting closer to more so… End, per say, until Ichigo does arrive and takes things over from there on. As of right now, Stark and Barragan should still be out and fighting since the Vizards just arrived, and Halibel is down, but she's not out of this yet. She'll be used later on again really soon.
Ichigo just blatantly gets to overpower Yammy more than what he did in Canon, since keeping in mind he should be at his best state of mind and not deal with the whole Vasto Lorde crap on him. I kinda got to take the Yammy fight outside Las Noches since… It's really weird that fight was taken inside when Yammy used his Resurrección, because here's the thing, someone like Ulquiorra made very sure to transform into his Resurrección on top of the Las Noches canopy and gave the statement that the Top 4 Espadas were banned from using Resurrección inside Las Noches, and in doing so it would be destroyed. We literally saw Yammy become Espada 0 and release a fuck ton Spiritual Pressure and Las Noches was perfectly intact.
Also… I really wanna address the whole Half Power from Ichigo's Bankai thing… and I just wanna say that thing is complete bullshit. It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense that the series tried to establish it as half, and even go as far as to hype it that Ichigo is only just twice as weak… that is honestly kinda dumb. I can get the whole thing with the Bankai cloak, but the entire outfit on the Bankai IS all the parts of Ichigo's Spirit Energy. Bloody hell, he doesn't even have half the coat like it's made out to be. Ichigo only had the right sleeve, that was it, he didn't even half of the shirt thing.
Also almost no-one ever brought this up but… the outfit and the damage between Vasto Lorde Ichigo and Post Resurrection Ichigo (or Post Ulquiorra fight) are actually different when you just really pay close enough attention. Because when Ichigo was Vasto he had a 5th (Barely one sleeve, barefoot, left leg exposed and no bandages). And against Yammy (Sleeve with leftover coat tail, still barefoot, bandage on his left arm and lower abdomen). The Post Resurrection Ichigo had LESS power/clothing than the VL, since he has bandages on him. Hell, Post Resurrection Ichigo was casually capable of stopping Yammy from using Cero Oscuras (for those who don't know in the Manga, Yammy's Cero he tried to fire at Ichigo was black, but in the Anime adaptation it changed it to red color), and even able to tank and overpower through some of his attacks, all while keeping in mind he was in a shitty state of mind.
Also about the whole thing of Karakura Town being a little out of control… recently my Co-Author pointed out an issue because the people in Karakura would be asleep there and no-one could stop what could have been happening in the town, like the examples that were shown and what Yoruichi was trying to stop. How Kubo did not think of all the bad things that could have happened if he suddenly knocked out everyone is… yeah, it's kind of an issue if you look deep into it.
Also it's kinda weird to think there are more Espadas alive in this fic than the Canon versions. So far the Espadas who are still alive would be Nelliel, Ulquiorra, Starrk, Grimmjow, Halibel, Dordonni, and Gantenbainne. I know some of what I mentioned are still alive in Canon, but they're either never used, poorly used, or have weird circumstances that let them live somehow, and some are permanently dead.
I think that's about all I wanted to say, until then see you all next time.