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“He’s already quite injured. It seems that this is going to be quite an easy job,” Quilge remarked as he stepped up beside Bazz-B at the edge of the shadow. They were looking through the opening — visible only to them — into Hueco Mundo and watched Kurosaki Ichigo fight one of Aizen Sosuke’s Espada.
“Capture and bring back Ishida Uryu and Kurosaki Ichigo alive. Kill everyone else.”
Bazz-B’s eyes narrowed as he remembered Yhwach’s command. “That’s number 5, right? Looks weak for someone who’s supposedly middle of the road in terms of power. I don’t know why His Majesty sent both of us just to kill him.”
I wonder if the one Ishida Uryu is battling is more powerful. He didn’t even know which number it was. Capturing Ishida Uryu had been assigned to Cang Du and Askin. And Yhwach hadn’t even given them the option of getting to choose to actually fight the strong ones and not have to babysit a kid.
“I think he was more concerned about Kurosaki Ichigo,” said Quilge, even though he didn’t sound totally convinced himself. He tilted his head to the side, and pushed up his glasses. “Though I am quite curious as to what His Majesty wants from a Shinigami — not even that. Just a human who happened to gain powers through circumstance.”
“One that’s going to die soon if we don’t do something,” Bazz-B drawled as the Espada grabbed the kid’s sword with his bare hands and pulled him closer to headbutt him with enough force to send him flying into a nearby piece of rubble. “Let me handle this. I’ve been itching for a fight for a while now.”
Bazz-B didn’t wait around to hear the disapproval that was sure to come. He reached out and wrenched the reishi between the dimensions apart and shot forward. The almost curtain-like drapiness of the shadow washed off him as he emerged on the other side. His booted feet landed on the sandy floor of Las Noches, sending up a cloud of sand.
Immediately, all attention snapped to him. There was also another Arrancar and a human girl he was holding captive. And a… toddler? Bazz-B decided it was probably best to ignore that for now. He focused his attention on the Espada, a tall, lanky guy with weird teeth that might give NaNaNa some competition.
“Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from?” the Espada immediately questioned, readying his even weirder crescent moon axe weapon in front of him. “You don’t feel like a Shinigami.”
“The lack of a Shihakusho wasn’t indicative enough of that?” Bazz-B mocked. “But you bet I’m not!”
He stretched his arm in front of him, a single finger pointed straight at the Espada. “Burner Finger 1!”
Ichigo watched with wide eyes as a narrow yet high-speed beam of searing flames pierced straight through Nnoitra’s chest, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
“Nnoitra-sama!” Tesla, if Ichigo remembered correctly, yelled out, his horror and disbelief clear in his voice. Thankfully, he just shoved Inoue to the side instead of harming her in any way, and ran towards Nnoitra who had crumpled to the ground.
Ichigo pushed off the piece of rubble he was leaning against for support as he had struggled to stand with all the injuries he had incurred. He didn’t know who these people were. They said they weren’t Shinigami, and they didn’t feel or look like Hollows either. So what were they?
But it honestly didn’t matter either. As long as they left them alone and let them get out of here, he wasn’t going to try and fight them. He used Shunpo, aiming for in front of Inoue, when another blur appeared, blocking his path.
Ichigo skidded to a stop. It was the stranger who had just easily destroyed the Espada Ichigo had been struggling against. He loomed above him, intimidating even with the ridiculous pink mohawk he sported.
“Don’t make my work any more annoying than it already is. Just come quietly with me, and I won’t have to hurt you any further,” he said, eyes boring into him, daring him to say otherwise.
Come with them?
A plethora of questions streaked through his mind, yet Ichigo only managed to croak out one, heart beating so loud he was sure everyone could hear. "Why?"
The man snorted. "Hell if I know. I just got orders to capture you and kill everyone else."
Kill… everyone else?
His arm reached out for Ichigo who tensed and took a step back, raising his sword in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Orihime start and silently begged her to not draw attention to herself. If they really were going to kill everyone else, that would include her.
"We're not done yet, you bastard!"
Tesla went soaring past them and slammed into a nearby piece of rubble with a sharp crack, sending more sand everywhere.
Ichigo turned to look at the place where Nnoitra had fallen, and he was still there, except now he was standing, even as blood dripped down his torso in rivers, looking absolutely enraged.
"Tch." The man let his arm drop and turned around to face the Espada. "You survived that?"
A wide grin suddenly erupted on his face. "At least this isn't too boring now. Maybe you'll give me the fight I'm craving, Arrancar."
"What a coincidence. I'm looking a good fight too," said Nnoitra as he swung his massive sword around and held it above himself. "Now, let's tear into each other! Pray, Santa Teresa!"
Reiatsu erupted and coalesced around Nnoitra before scattering to reveal his Resurreccion. He has four arms now, Ichigo noted, and his wounds are also healing. He was paying attention to the fight even as he slowly backed away from the man, who wasn't even looking at him anymore.
The two rushed at each other, each with massively gleeful grins and violence burning in their eyes.
But it was clear which one was superior. Even with his full power released, Nnoitra couldn't block any of the man's flame attacks, or even keep up with his casual strength and speed.
One of Nnoitra's scythes came crashing down onto the ground where the man had stood just a minute ago. He just jumped over it, used the handle of the scythe to propel himself further before bringing his foot down on Nnoitra's head. "Burning Stomp."
Nnoitra let out a pained tell as he collapsed to the floor again.
At that moment, a movement at the edge of his vision caught Ichigo's attention. Tesla was struggling up, but more importantly, he had drawn his weapon.
Should I help the Arrancar beat this new enemy? Ichigo wondered as he kept his main focus on the man who was now mocking Nnoitra about his weakness again. At least they're not allowed to kill Inoue. They're also weaker, so there's a higher chance of me somehow being able to defeat them. And then there's what that man said about someone ordering him to capture me…
It's worth a shot. Now, for an opening…
Another one of his attacks tore right through two of Nnoitra's spindly arms and completely blew them off. The man kicked him in the face when he yelled out in pain this time. "Or not. You were still pretty boring."
He pinned his other two hands to the ground with his foot and cocked his finger, trained directly on Nnoitra's skull. "I've wasted enough time. I'll fini—"
He got cut off mid-sentence by a sudden fifth arm sprouting from Nnoitra's torso that scored a slash across his chest.
What the fuck? Bazz-B cursed as his blood splattered on the sand as he instantly jumped back from the Espada — Nnoitra, as Bazz-B had heard the minion call him. I let my guard down.
"Gore them, Verruga!"
Bazz-B turned his gaze to see the minion release his sword and transform into a large, hulking creature with tusks coming out from its mask. He roared before throwing a massive punch in his direction.
"Compensating for something?" Bazz-B asked sarcastically as he swept his arm in an arc, two fingers outstretched. "Burner Finger 2!"
The trails of fire flowing off his fingers collided with his skin before detonating in an explosion that ravaged most of his gigantic body.
Just then, Bazz-B sensed another reiatsu spiking behind him. He whirled around to see Kurosaki Ichigo — or his signature orange hair and Shinigami clothing. A bone white mask with dark red markings on side covered his face. So those are the Hollow powers the daten mentioned?
"Getsuga…" Reiatsu as black as the darkest night coalesced around his equally pitch black sword. He swung it towards Bazz-B, launching the reiatsu off the blade towards him. "...Tensho!"
Bazz-B charged up another Burning Finger 2, and launched his own long range attack, bright and fiery. The two contrasting energies collided and pushed agaist each other. But his easily overpowered Kurosaki's attack and continued straight towards him.
For a second, Bazz-B panicked. Shit, I'm supposed to keep him alive!
Before the attack could actually hit Kurosaki, an orangish-gold shield formed in front of him, and while it cracked, it managed to completely block his attack.
Where did that come from? His eyes scanned the surroundings and came to land on the human girl, whose arms were outstretched in the direction where the shield appeared. Her?
For the umpteenth time today, he was interrupted from actually doing anything by another pest. Nnoitra rose with a vengeance, lunging at him with six arms this time.
Bazz-B was about to laugh at the futility of doing that again, when he found himself flanked by Kurosaki charging up another Getsuga Tensho.
"Burning Stomp!"
A torrent of fire spread outwards from him, more of them focused on Nnoitra than Kurosaki.
"Santen Kesshun!"
Yet again, the shield goes up, protecting even Nnoitra, even though they had been enemies just a few minutes ago. At least the Espada looked absolutely enraged about being saved, which somewhat made up for it.
Kurosaki used the shield as footing to jump even higher and instead of launching the black reiatsu as he had previously, he brought down his blade with the energy still coating it.
Bazz-B formed a quick, unspoken Burner Finger 4 and was about to use the flaming sword to counter his slash, when a familiar blue arrow pierces Kurosaki's shoulder out of nowhere and sends him crashing into the ground below.
"Kurosaki-kun!" the girl screamed and started running towards him when another arrow, a blunt edged one this time, shot towards the girl.
"Inoue!" The boy yelled out despite his own injuries, and desperately tried to get up and to reach her, but it was too late. The arrow split apart at the last second and encased her in Quilge's signature jail.
"It looks like you're facing some trouble, Bazz-B." His fellow Sternritter smirked smugly at him as he pushed his glasses up.
Bazz-B ground his teeth together. "Trouble? Stay the fuck out of this, Quilge. I could've handed it myself."
"Is that so?" Quilge drawled as he raised a pointed eyebrow at the Espada that was panting heavily and dripping blood everywhere, yet still had a leery expression on his face, as if challenging him.
This guy was starting to seriously piss of Bazz-B. He felt something heavier coat his tongue as he stared down at Nnoitra. "Yeah. Just making sure he won't forget this easily, even through rebirth!"
"Ha! I'm not going to di—"
Bazz-B used the already charged Burner Finger 4 to slash through the rest of Nnoitra's arms. He screamed in pain, denial and rage as he collapsed onto his knees. Bazz-B walked over to him, and placed three fingers on his head.
"Burner Finger 3."
Nnoitra's mouth opened in one final silent scream, as the sheer heat melted his skin in a matter of seconds, leaving behind nothing but bones and shards of glass formed from overheating of the sand.
"That enough for you, Quilge?" he snarked at him. Quilge just gave him a condescendingly amused look that did nothing to improve Bazz-B's mood.
He stalked over to where Kurosaki lay, struggling to even sit up with an arrow still sticking out of his shoulder. He looked up at Bazz-B with the mix of fear and hate, exactly the way it should be.
Bazz-B grabbed him by the neck and slammed him on the ground again, causing the girl to cry out in protest.
Flares of reiatsu shot up in the distance, signalling their victory. Yhwach's voice boomed throughout Las Noches.
Taking in the sound of the girl's screams and staring into at the burning eyes of Kurosaki glaring up at him, Bazz-B muttered,
"Mission accomplished."