The endless white sands of Hueco Mundo felt familiar to Higashino Shuuichi—and a little strange.
Ever since he'd started working for the Kasumiooji clan and Tōsen Kaname took his old post, he'd rarely come here—only slipping into the lab inside Las Noches a few times to ask Szayelaporro a thing or two.
It was still as barren as his memory held.
He cut down a few unlucky lesser Hollows as they wandered close. Before the black-rimmed Garganta (Black Rift) above sealed, Unohana Retsu stepped through after him.
"Looks like you've gotten rather comfortable with Hollow abilities."
Landing lightly, Unohana didn't rush her attack.
"You could say… I'm passable. 'Mature' would be a stretch."
Shuuichi kept his Hollowfication active as he spoke.
He hadn't yet mastered Resurrección; in his own book, that was far from "mature" control.
But in Unohana's, that was needless modesty.
"Is that so?"
Her brow lifted. Sometime, somehow, the two bound braids before her chest had loosened and fallen.
The fight was one heartbeat away.
This time she didn't observe the polite "you strike first." She moved.
A sudden step and a clean upward cut.
Parry.
Shuuichi had clearly braced for a sudden lunge; his face didn't twitch.
Her off hand followed—an暗剑 hidden in her palm darting in.
He braced a circular shield before him—
"Bakudō #39: Enkōsen (Circular Shield)!"
Unohana's unique "pseudo dual-wield" was a trick Shuuichi had long coveted, yet never quite grasped.
Blades flashed.
In a breath they traded dozens of cuts, neither finding a finish.
They walked the same path. Most of Shuuichi's kenjutsu and close-in zanjutsu came from Unohana. The small share from Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni and Kuryashiki Kenpachi sat right there in Unohana's mental library, raising no threat to her.
Of course, the reverse held too.
Steel met steel again. Shockwaves kicked dunes into whirling walls.
He lacked Unohana's talent for ambidexterity, but he could still cast the simpler Kidō with his free hand.
Of all Kidō, none was simpler—and more efficient—than Hadō #4.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai (White Lightning)!"
Ants can bite down an elephant, they said.
Let alone a stream of Byakurai fired under Hollowfication and high Reiatsu.
A bolt finally slipped through her guard, nicking flesh—numbness followed.
"Cero (Hollow Flash)!"
Shuuichi seized the window; condensed Reishi gathered at his tip and lanced out—
—swallowing Unohana whole.
"Did it land?!"
The delighted gasp wasn't his; it was one of the two Arrancar drawn by their unmasked clash—an Espada, Cirucci Sanderwicci.
"No way, Cirucci. That Shinigami captain's Reiatsu hasn't faded at all."
The follow-up came from the newly arrived Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio.
In their sightline, a cavity gaped open in the sky behind Unohana where the Cero hit—but her body showed nothing that looked like a wound.
High above, Shuuichi knew his shot hadn't "done nothing." The small gouge had simply been erased in an instant by her overwhelming Kaidō (Healing Arts), leaving the illusion of untouched flesh.
Even so, Unohana—the gap between us isn't the old, impossible gulf anymore.
His silhouette vanished.
Unohana's brow creased.
No step. No footfall. That wasn't Shinigami Shunpo (Flash Step); it was—
Sonído (Sound Step).
A space-shifted burst no step-technique could match.
By the time she reacquired him—
—the brilliant blade was already falling.
"Nadegiri (Caress Cut)!"
He'd honed the old technique until it split clouds and cracked daylight.
"Tsk, tsk. Since when did Hueco Mundo get a Hollow like that? How have I never seen him?
Is he Lord Aizen's new toy?"
Far off, Cirucci licked her lips at the sight of that chilling cut; flush rose in her cheeks.
"Toy or not, Cirucci, I know this much: you aren't his match."
Dordoni's eyes stayed on the fight.
He was stunned that Unohana, in such a tiny reaction window, still slipped that Nadegiri by a hair—dropping from the sky in the same motion to counter him.
As expected of a taichō bold enough to chase Shuuichi into Hueco Mundo.
Dordoni remembered. When he was still a newborn Adjuchas, Higashino Shuuichi was already captain-class—and brash enough to trade barbs with Baraggan, today's Espada No.2.
They'd traded blows more than once, and Shuuichi had lost less each time.
Later, Shuuichi fought off five captain-class in Soul Society and walked away.
Dordoni knew then: this man who'd followed Aizen so early—his strength outstripped ordinary Espada.
Dordoni himself wouldn't claim he could slip a five-captain encirclement.
But he couldn't tell Cirucci any of that. Shuuichi's past under Aizen's banner was now a taboo in Hueco Mundo.
Outside of Dordoni—tight-lipped, and strong enough to survive Aizen's purge and sit today as No.3—the only ones left who knew were Baraggan, Starrk—along with Starrk's fracción Lilynette—and Szayelaporro as No.0 in this era's reshuffle.
Far away, the duel raged on.
Both had felt the two Arrancar watching, but neither Shuuichi nor Unohana spared them a thought.
"Heihō Sogen (Tracing the Origins of Warfare), Bankai—Warai ni Hisomu Katana (Blade Hidden in a Smile)!"
In the end, Shuuichi dropped Hollowfication and opened his Bankai.
Hollowfication spiked his Reiatsu, yes—but just raw pressure wasn't enough. Unohana felt like a bottomless sponge; squeeze her and she always answered with about what he could put out.
Worse, he hadn't even forced her Shikai.
In the end, the absolute numbers still differed. Centuries of accumulation and talent weren't a wall he could hop at will.
"Finally taking this seriously, Shuuichi?"
Seeing him shed the mask and bare his Zanpakutō, Unohana smiled.
About time.
Her blade drew a line into the sun—like a dragon swallowing daylight.
"Holy—he's not a Hollow, he's a Shinigami! A Shinigami! And they're fighting each other! Dordoni!"
Cirucci pointed at the unmasked, released Shuuichi.
"I see it, Cirucci! Stop shrieking!"
Dordoni snapped back—
—and then gaped as she bolted head-long for that terrible storm without another word.
"I can't help it, Dordoni! I'm going in, too!"
She threw the words over her shoulder.
Cirucci, have you no sense of your own level?
He hadn't planned to bail her out—then thought twice.
Wait. Shuuichi's one of ours. If it's me, Cirucci, and Shuuichi… isn't this the perfect chance to dogpile that Shinigami captain?
Hn. Very reasonable!
He dove after her.
"Cero (Hollow Flash)!"
A sudden beam cut between Shuuichi and Unohana; both frowned and split left and right, hanging in the air.
"Hello, Shinigami! A self-intro, before I kill you: standing before you is Espada No.7—Cirucci Sanderwicci!"
From above, Cirucci reveled in the way her Cero had forced them apart.
"Cirucci. Do you know how rude it is to interrupt another's duel?"
Unohana's voice was flat.
Her empty eyes fell on Cirucci; a cold ran down the Arrancar's spine.
But—
"Perfect—perfect! That's the feeling!"
Cirucci's excitement soaked through her. She only had eyes for Unohana now; Shuuichi vanished from her mind.
This Shinigami… is mine.
"Grind him to pieces—Resurrección: Golondrina (Swallow)!"
Cheeks flushed, she released.
Great moth-wings spread behind her; a pair of antennae curled up from her brow.
"Danyoku (Severed Wings)!"
Her wings beat; countless steel-feathered blades poured out like drifting snow, blotting the sky.
"Showy."
Unohana's gaze stayed cool. She answered Cirucci's storm with three cuts.
In a breath, the "steel snow" became true snow—chopped, drifting, harmless.
"You fell for it, Shinigami! Hahahaha!"
Cirucci's laugh rang, as if she already saw Unohana kneeling.
"Danyoku—San (Scatter)!"
At her word, every feather she'd shredded became a new blade and shot in again.
"Surprised? No matter how many pieces you cut my feathers into, I control them all! It's the perfect counter to you reckless Shinigami!"
Watching her "feather-sea" swallow Unohana, Cirucci laughed and turned to the Shinigami who'd stood frozen in awe—
"Don't be scared, Shinigami. You're next."
Shuuichi only looked back with the calm that said: if you don't court death, you won't die.
What a joke. A small-timer like Cirucci, take down Unohana Retsu?
Unohana could pin her to the sand with a single hand.
Sometimes Shuuichi wondered how Arrancar survived at all. If "balance across three worlds" weren't a thing, Aizen could have made ten times as many and they'd still be free kills with brains like these.
Hadn't she watched long enough? He'd already been forced to Bankai. Unohana hadn't even Shikai'd.
If she knew Shuuichi's true identity, maybe he'd understand this bravado. But looking at her, it was obvious she didn't.
So Shuuichi only thought, quietly:
"Cirucci, you have chosen the path of death."
He didn't have to wait long.
Before she could move on him, her whole body began to tremble. Warm liquid ran down her thigh.
Death pressed so close she couldn't even turn.
She saw it—hills of corpses, seas of blood—and the maker of it all, a lone woman standing in the middle.
"Cirucci!"
Dordoni arrived late, shouting—then realized he was too late.
One cut. Unohana split Cirucci in half, her Hollow core shattering with her.
Did the fight begin?
No—it had already ended.
Cirucci had swaggered in—and left without a sound.
"One more… is there?"
Wiping the blade clean of a trivial stain, Unohana's killing intent locked onto Dordoni.
Death descended. Dordoni could barely breathe.
He knew he could not defeat this woman.
Locked, he had no way to flee. There was only one road to life.
"Shinigami. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Shall we join hands?"
He looked to Shuuichi and—for once—used honorifics.
"What was that? I don't understand."
Shuuichi cocked his head.
"Shinigami, she's our comm—"
Before he could finish, Shuuichi's eyes flicked—his fingers snapped.
"Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin)!"
A black coffin blossomed and snapped shut around the stunned Dordoni.
He was about to finish the loudmouth then and there when light burned in the sky—the telltale mark of a Senkaimon (World-Piercing Gate).
Once Shuuichi had opened a Garganta inside Soul Society, it hadn't taken long. Captain Kyōraku Shunsui of the Eighth, the new Third Division Captain Ichimaru Gin, and the Eleventh's Zaraki Kenpachi had come through to Hueco Mundo as reinforcements.
"Knew it. Opening a Garganta in Soul Society was gonna be a headache."
Below, watching the three white haori in the light, Shuuichi let his hand fall and sighed.
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