Fangs Beneath the Moon
First Hall Renji vs. Taze
Dust hung thick in the fractured chamber.
Abarai Renji stood breathing heavily, Zabimaru coiled loosely in his grasp.
"You're strong," Renji admitted. "My Shikai can't break through you… but you haven't taken me down either."
They had clashed continuously for several minutes. Each time Renji adjusted his attack pattern, Taze responded by shifting attributes. speed, density, muscle output. It was not brute force alone. It was controlled modulation of Reiatsu.
Taze tilted his head slightly.
"I could injure you," he replied calmly. "I am simply conserving force."
His toes pressed against the floor
He vanished.
Renji's pupils tightened.
Taze reappeared behind him, arm already swinging.
"Reinforcement."
His forearm expanded mid-strike, muscle fibers thickening unnaturally.
Renji barely raised his guard in time.
BOOM.
He was driven backward, sliding across shattered stone.
Before he could recover
Taze was behind him again.
Another strike.
Renji twisted, raising Zabimaru to intercept.
The impact reverberated through the segmented blade, forcing him two more steps back.
"How are you maintaining that speed while increasing mass?" Renji muttered.
Taze's voice remained even.
"Balance."
Renji's left arm trembled slightly.
Enough.
Reiatsu surged violently around him.
"Bankai."
The hall trembled.
"Hihiō Zabimaru."
His Zanpakutō expanded into its massive segmented form, skeletal serpent structure crashing into the ceiling.
The colossal blade lunged forward with crushing momentum.
Taze's body expanded instantly his frame stretching into a hulking form over three meters tall, muscles swelling beneath armored skin.
He clenched his fist and struck.
CRASH.
The serpent's skull collided with his punch.
For a moment
Silence.
Then Taze was launched backward, smashing through the wall in a storm of debris.
Renji exhaled sharply.
"Bankai isn't something you overpower with tricks."
Hihiō Zabimaru recoiled protectively around him.
From the dust beyond the wall came a low rumble.
"…Is that so?"
The outer wall collapsed entirely.
Emerging from the smoke
Was no longer a humanoid figure.
A massive reptilian Hollow form crouched there
four meters long, scaled green hide reinforced by white bone armor. A single black ocular marking cut across one eye.
This was not artificial empowerment.
This was Resurrección.
Taze's true form.
"This power was granted to me by Kurotsuki Renya," the creature growled. "Not as charity. As evolution."
He lunged.
Renji swung Hihiō Zabimaru downward.
The serpent's skull slammed into the reptilian head
CRACK.
The skull fractured.
Renji's eyes widened.
The creature leapt upward, maw opening.
Reiatsu condensed within its throat.
"Cero."
A beam of green destruction erupted point-blank.
Hihiō Zabimaru wrapped around Renji defensively
but the Cero tore through the skeletal segments, shattering them mid-blast.
The explosion engulfed Renji entirely.
When the light faded
He lay motionless in the cratered floor, Bankai dissolving into spiritual particles.
Taze returned to his sealed Arrancar form, breathing evenly. He lifted Renji over his shoulder.
"Capture complete."
Rukia vs. Tristan
Across the chamber, Kuchiki Rukia struggled to maintain distance.
Tristan's Sonído carved afterimages through the air. Even with Sode no Shirayuki's freezing aura extending from the blade tip, the gap in raw acceleration was narrowing.
Rukia's breathing steadied.
I can lower my own body temperature further…
Her Shikai did not simply generate ice, it reduced temperature to absolute lethal thresholds. If she synchronized her core temperature drop
She might surpass Tristan's speed by freezing the environment itself.
But that method was dangerous. A miscalculation would halt her own cellular function.
Before she could decide
Tristan spoke.
"It ends."
Her body erupted in white light.
Feathers burst outward.
A towering crane-shaped Resurrección form materialized sleek, long-limbed, bone-plated wings edged in sharpened ridges.
Rukia's eyes widened
The crane vanished.
A blur of white.
A wing struck Rukia's neck with surgical precision.
Her vision went dark instantly.
She collapsed before even striking the ground.
Tristan returned to humanoid form, lifting Rukia gently.
"Capture complete."
Second Hall Kira, Ichigo, and Grimmjow
In the adjacent chamber, Kira Izuru faced a youthful Arrancar known as Perez.
"You're my opponent?" Kira asked quietly.
Perez nodded.
"By Renya-sama's order."
Kira sighed faintly.
"Then forgive me."
He drew Wabisuke.
Before he could release
A flash of Sonído cut through the air.
Blood sprayed.
Perez had already passed him.
A shallow but decisive slash opened across Kira's back. The lieutenant collapsed instantly.
Perez wiped his blade.
"Capture without fatal injury. As instructed."
Grimmjow clicked his tongue in irritation.
"You're boring."
His wild blue eyes shifted toward Kurosaki Ichigo.
"Now this is interesting."
In an instant, Grimmjow appeared behind Ichigo and slashed.
Ichigo spun, raising his blade
The impact shattered his current form of Zangetsu, sending fragments scattering.
Ichigo flipped backward, landing hard.
Grimmjow smirked.
"That all you've got?"
Ichigo's Reiatsu shifted.
Black spiritual pressure surged violently around him.
The shattered blade reformed
Sleeker.
Denser.
Compressed.
True Shinigami power resonated outward.
Grimmjow's grin widened.
"There it is."
He licked blood from his lip.
"That's the pressure I remember."
Both vanished simultaneously
Their blades collided midair with explosive force.
Shockwaves ripped through Las Noches.
For the first time since entering Hueco Mundo
A battle worthy of Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez had begun.
Deep within the palace, seated alone in silence
Kurotsuki Renya felt each surge of Reiatsu.
Renji's Bankai collapsing.
Rukia's temperature drop.
Ichigo's true spiritual signature.
He closed his eyes.
The war he had tried to prevent was now unfolding exactly as calculated.
And it was only beginning.