Chapter 110: Domineering? Seeking Death!
Hueco Mundo.
A white palace, unimaginably vast by Human World standards, stood in silence on the desert like something eternal, as steadfast as the crescent moon hanging above. Its presence alone made it feel like the center of the world.
And within that palace, Las Noches, there was an even more sacred core.
The Espada's domain.
Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck didn't know what the other Espada thought of this place, but for her, walking these halls was as easy as breathing. She lived here. She belonged here.
Hueco Mundo was dull, though. Monotonous to the point of numbness. An endless stretch of white walls and pale sand.
Yet for a Hollow, a creature tormented by instinct, a being whose inner void could never be filled and who drifted through life like a beast, evolving into an Arrancar was salvation. Regaining reason, suppressing hunger, and living each day like a normal person was bliss beyond words.
At least, that's what Nelliel believed.
"Pesche? Dondochakka?"
Every afternoon and evening, Nelliel searched for her two Fracción, Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Birstanne, to eat together. More accurately, to enjoy the meals they prepared with absolute devotion for their queen.
But today was different.
She wandered for a long time and still found no one.
Just as unease began to creep into her chest, a figure appeared at the corner of the corridor ahead.
"Yo."
The greeting carried pure malice.
The man was tall and thin like a bamboo pole, yet his frame radiated stubborn, unyielding strength. Resting on his shoulder was a long weapon shaped like an oversized crescent scythe, its design flamboyant to the point of provocation.
"Nnoitra," Nelliel said, her voice turning cold the instant she saw him. "What do you want?"
"Stop pretending." Nnoitra grinned. His words were as openly vicious as the Zanpakutō on his shoulder, as oppressive as the killing intent pouring off his Reiatsu. "You know exactly why I'm here. Or are you going to show off those noble manners of yours again, the ones that make you look so human?"
"You're wrong." Nelliel's gaze remained flat, with not a ripple of emotion, as if Nnoitra didn't even exist. "I asked because I hoped you'd answer differently this time. That would mean you've improved. But if you're still going to declare war like you always do, the outcome will be the same as always. Defeat."
That indifference stung Nnoitra worse than any insult.
"Even as an Arrancar, you can keep growing stronger." His grin sharpened. "We're both Espada. Who's to say I won't surpass you one day?"
"I won't deny the possibility," Nelliel replied calmly, turning her back on him. "But you'd have to evolve into an upper level Hollow first, then surpass the Espada ranked above you, before you're qualified to say that. Otherwise, it's empty talk."
She took a step away.
"Go back and build your strength properly. I'm not in the mood to play with you right now. Not that it would take long."
"Tch."
Nnoitra clicked his tongue, then sneered as if he had just remembered something amusing.
"Fine. Since you say so, I'll go back obediently."
He tilted his head, voice dripping with satisfaction.
"After all, it wasn't a wasted trip. I caught two prey. Even if they're trash, they're still Arrancar. Eating them should boost my reishi a little, right?"
…
Nelliel froze.
Slowly, she turned. Her eyes were cold enough to cut.
"The Arrancar you mentioned… who are they?"
"Do I really have to spell it out?" Nnoitra's body tightened under that gaze, and his grin twisted into something that mixed excitement with fear. "The two Fracción you're looking for are in my hands right now."
He lifted his scythe slightly, like he was presenting an offer.
"If you want them safe, trade your life for theirs."
"What did you say…?"
Nelliel's pupils shrank.
The demand was insane.
And in the instant her mind stalled, Nnoitra moved.
A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he replaced the reishi in his body with something else, bypassing an Arrancar's Pesquisa as if crossing space itself. He flickered directly in front of her.
His giant scythe crashed down.
Clang!
Nelliel drew the Zanpakutō at her waist and caught the blow head on, perfectly steady. There was no pressure, no struggle, no thrill. Only rising anxiety, and anger that burned sharp enough to sting her throat.
"Wait, Nnoitra!" she snapped. "The Shinigami army is coming soon. They could appear outside Las Noches at any moment!"
"Even if you hate me and want my life, there's no reason to do this now!"
"Who cares?" Nnoitra leaned harder into the clash, glaring down at her blade like her resistance offended him. "All I know is you don't seem to care much about the lives of those two pieces of trash at your side."
The mockery hit its mark.
Nelliel's grip faltered for an instant.
"You…" Nnoitra's voice dropped, cold and contemptuous. "You really aren't suited for this position."
He stuck out the tip of his tongue.
A golden Cero erupted.
Nelliel's eyes widened.
The blast swallowed her like a flood. The corridor buckled under the torrent of spiritual pressure, then vanished beneath the light. Walls shattered one after another, chunks of the palace launching into the night above the endless desert.
"Is it over?"
A strange figure appeared beside Nnoitra.
His head was a glass jar, filled with an unknown liquid. Inside floated two small masked heads.
"Can't you sense Reiatsu yourself? Idiot," Nnoitra said with disgust.
"I'm asking because I sensed it," one of the heads replied.
As they spoke, the dust above the half ruined wall cleared.
Nelliel stood there, almost unhurt.
"I wanted to ask you," the other head continued in a gloomy tone, "whether you've actually broken her will to resist."
"…I already told you, use your eyes!" Nnoitra's expression darkened.
Nelliel's gaze shifted to the new presence, her voice solemn.
"You are… Aaroniero Arruruerie. The former Espada who was eliminated." Her eyes narrowed. "Did you instigate Nnoitra to do this?"
"You've wronged me." Aaroniero spread his hands. "Nnoitra came to me on his own. We simply happened to want the same thing."
Hearing that, Nnoitra crouched down atop the rubble, looking down at Nelliel below.
"Didn't you just warn me the Shinigami are coming and told me not to strike now?" He smiled thinly. "I think it's the perfect time."
"Killing you would cost us a combat asset and upset certain people, sure. I thought of that."
He gestured lazily.
"That's why I brought Aaroniero. He's a former Espada with a special ability. He devours and evolves. If he eats you, he can replace you."
He let the words sink in, savoring them.
"No, his strength will surpass yours anyway, so we don't lose combat power."
"So you should hand your number and your power to someone who's actually suited for battle."
"Espada Number Five, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck."
The words were malicious enough to chill bone. Nelliel's anger surged, but confusion gnawed at her too.
"Why?" she demanded. "Why go this far? Even if you kick me out of the Espada, you're still Number Seven. My rank won't become yours!"
"You'd rather bring Aaroniero back, let an eliminated Espada take my power and step over you, just to kill me?"
"Why!"
"Because I can't stand you," Nnoitra answered instantly.
His eyes burned with something ugly.
"Remember? Number Five symbolizes death by despair. Every duel, you refused to finish me. You never gave the final blow."
He spat the words like poison.
"Combat is by any means necessary. The battlefield is reasonless slaughter without limits. You don't understand that."
"When someone like you steps onto the battlefield, you'll face despair, and you'll spread despair to others."
His Reiatsu swelled, sharp and hateful.
"And in the end, females shouldn't stand on the battlefield. Especially not while preaching naive theories from above. Your existence disgusts me, Nelliel. It's the greatest insult to me. Only when it's you will I feel no shame no matter how underhanded I am."
Nnoitra tilted his scythe toward her like a verdict.
"Go, Aaroniero. Eat her."
His grin sharpened.
"And if you dare to resist, I guarantee those two pieces of trash will suffer a fate worse than yours."
Nelliel looked at Nnoitra's stubborn cruelty, then at Aaroniero's greedy stare.
Her heart sank.
"Pesche… Dondochakka…"
Worry for them wrapped around her chest like iron. She didn't know what to do.
Maybe they were already dead.
Maybe even if she surrendered, they would still die, and nothing would change.
For the first time in a long time, Nelliel felt despair close around her like thick fog, making it hard to breathe.
Then a cold voice cut through it.
"Honestly, I admire Nelliel's ideals."
The words landed with terrifying weight, followed by an oppressive Reiatsu that crashed down like a waterfall, forcing all three of them to sink under its pressure.
"And I'm also one of those high and mighty females you hate so much." The voice grew colder. "So will I be your next target?"
"This voice…?!"
Nnoitra whipped around, but before he could even see her face, a kick slammed into his.
He shot away like a cannonball and smashed straight into Aaroniero. Both were driven through the ruins and down into the open space below.
?
Nelliel blinked, dazed, staring at the hole in the ground. Then she looked up to where Nnoitra had been.
Four figures stood there.
At the front was a blonde, dark skinned beauty.
Beside her were three Fracción: a snake woman, a lion woman, and a deer woman.
"Ha, Harribel?!" Nelliel's eyes widened as she recognized the leader. "Why are you here?!"
Before Harribel could answer, the deer woman, Apache, snapped with open disdain.
"We didn't come to save you. We came to notify you about a meeting. We couldn't contact you, so we were going to send someone to find you. If Lady Harribel hadn't decided to come personally out of kindness, you'd be done for!"
She scowled harder.
"You're supposed to be a pillar of the Espada, yet you got ambushed by someone weaker than you. Pathetic."
"Ugh…"
Nelliel lowered her head, unable to refute it.
"Quiet, Apache." Harribel's voice was calm, but it carried absolute authority. "It is forbidden to be disrespectful to a member of the Espada."
Apache stiffened and fell silent.
Harribel's gaze shifted to Nelliel.
"Your two Fracción have been rescued by me. They're injured, but it's nothing serious." Her tone didn't change. "There's still time before the meeting. Do what you want."
"…Thank you, Harribel." Nelliel exhaled, relief flooding her so hard her knees almost weakened. Then her eyes hardened, fierce and bright. "Wait for me. Just a moment."
She vanished into the gap in the ground with a Sonído.
A moment later, a violent commotion erupted from below.
Like an earthquake.
Reiatsu vibrations rolled through the buried corridors like shifting tectonic plates.
Whether she was startled by the pressure or thrown off balance by the shaking, Apache fell to the ground. She stared at the gap, swallowed, and muttered, "I didn't realize… that girl is terrifying when she's angry…"
"She is Number Five," Sung Sun said elegantly, covering her mouth with her sleeve. "Only one rank below Lady Harribel, who is Number Three. Fighting Number Seven and a former Number Nine is no pressure at all."
"Exactly," the lion woman Mila Rose added with a sigh. "From Number Five upward, it's a completely different world."
Apache snorted with a crooked smile. "Then what do the Shinigami have to fight us with? Unless they level Las Noches, we can just hold the home field. With the palace structure and traps, we can grind them down."
"…Let's go." Harribel listened quietly until she sensed the underground Reiatsu receding. Then she spoke, ending the farce. "It's over."
An hour later.
Harribel and a refreshed Nelliel arrived at the meeting place, Las Noches' Throne Room, and took their seats around the long table with the other Espada.
One chair was empty.
It stayed empty even when Ichimaru Gin and Tōsen Kaname arrived together.
"Where is Nnoitra?" Tōsen asked. He didn't need sight to know who was missing. He simply didn't know where the other had gone.
Neither did the Espada.
Starrk: "Yawn… don't know."
Baraggan: "A minor character. It doesn't matter whether he comes."
Harribel: "…"
Ulquiorra: "Unknown. Someone may be sent to deliver a message."
Nelliel: "Maybe he got lost."
"Lost in Las Noches?" Grimmjow scoffed. "Is he really that stupid?"
The empty chair stayed silent.
Zommari spoke smoothly. "I sensed Nnoitra's Reiatsu vibrations at Route 20 in the southeast. He seemed to be fighting someone."
Szayelaporro smiled. "Shall I pull up the video data from the Spirit Recording Bugs over there?"
Yammy yawned, then asked casually, "Route 20 in the southeast? That's where I passed last time I went out. Who lives over there?"
It was an innocent question.
But in the next instant, Ichimaru, Tōsen, and six Espada all turned their heads toward Nelliel.
Harribel remained expressionless, staring straight ahead like she knew nothing at all.
Nelliel, however, was not calm. She sat too stiffly. Her eyes wandered. Her face looked unnatural.
Guilty conscience might as well have been written across her forehead.
"Miss Nelliel?" Ichimaru tilted his head, smiling.
"I don't know anything!" Nelliel blurted out immediately.
"…I haven't even asked," Ichimaru said lightly, "but I can guess. Let me ask just one thing. Is our seventh Espada gentleman still alive?"
"…Probably."
Nelliel glanced around at the strange looks and hurried to explain.
"He brought Aaroniero to cause trouble for me. I was forced to kill Aaroniero. Then I broke Nnoitra's four limbs, crushed his spine, and threw him into the gag order."
She lifted her chin, trying to sound rational.
"I've beaten Nnoitra many times. I know the limits of his Super Regeneration. Injuries like that won't kill him."
…
Ichimaru quietly shifted his steps, moving a little farther from Nelliel. Then he sighed.
"Normally, he won't die."
His smile stayed, but the words were flat.
"But the gag order is a tool specifically meant to punish Arrancar by sealing them in another dimension for reflection. The environment inside isn't friendly, especially to a heavily injured loser."
He shrugged.
"But it doesn't matter. He invaded someone else's territory and attacked a colleague. If he dies, he has no right to complain."
Ichimaru's tone turned casual again.
"Now then, let's talk business. As usual, our General Overseer will preside. Everyone, please give a warm welcome."
…
Silence.
"It seems Mr. Tōsen isn't very popular," Ichimaru added cheerfully.
"Stop playing around, Ichimaru." Tōsen walked to the far end of the long table, to the throne that should have belonged to the ruler. He didn't sit. He stood and spoke in the King's place.
"Everyone, the war has begun."
"The Soul Society's army entered Hueco Mundo a short while ago."
"Barring any surprises, they will assault Las Noches by tomorrow at the latest."
Three short sentences erased the room's earlier looseness.
Expressions shifted across the table.
Baraggan spoke like a king questioning a subject. "How many? Where?"
Tōsen placed a hand on the table. A three dimensional light screen projected above it.
The image showed a familiar desert.
And an unfamiliar sight.
A group that clearly weren't Hollows were busy constructing a camp.
"These people are Shinigami…" Nelliel murmured. "Our enemies?"
The others watched intently.
Hueco Mundo was vast, and most Hollows had never seen Shinigami. Even with reports, nothing was as real as seeing them.
"The current number is about two hundred," Tōsen said. "They are twenty kilometers due east of Las Noches."
He paused, then added, voice precise.
"However, I must correct one point. Those you see now are wearing black, but strictly speaking, they are Kidō Corps. Their job is to open and maintain the senkaimon. What they are doing now is likely the same thing."
"In other words," Grimmjow's smile turned savage, "once the main force arrives, we can cut off their retreat by killing these guys, right?"
"It would affect the passage," Tōsen replied, "but only minimally. The enemy will not flee. What we should consider is not their retreat, but how to annihilate them head on."
His hand lifted, pointing at the light screen.
"The ones we must kill are them."
The image shifted.
Now it was a bird's eye view of the camp.
In its center yawned a massive Garganta, dozens of meters long, like a pitch black eye. People poured out endlessly.
Their uniforms were different from the Kidō Corps.
These were shinigami uniforms.
Real Shinigami.
And a significant number wore white haori over them.
Captains of the Gotei 13.
Those without haori were Lieutenants.
Twenty people scattered into Hueco Mundo could vanish without a trace for years, but even through the light screen, the presence of so many powerful enemies created an indescribable pressure. An instinctive throb, the body's warning when faced with danger.
Only this time, the throb struck like a blow because the danger was everywhere.
"The ones we need to kill are them?" Grimmjow sneered. "What a load of nonsense. Anyone can see they aren't ordinary. I don't need you to tell me."
He leaned forward, feet on the table, studying the shinigami like prey.
"Instead of this boring talk, tell me which one is the strongest so I can go slaughter him."
Tōsen hadn't answered yet.
Suddenly, one of the black haired youths in a white haori stepped out of the Garganta and snapped his head upward.
Even from that distance, his eyes were terrifyingly bright.
He stared straight ahead, as if he could see through the light screen, see into the Throne Room, see the people sitting there, and even glimpse the thoughts behind their eyes.
It wasn't exaggeration.
That gaze that seemed to see through everything was genuinely eerie.
The youth raised a hand and pointed, as if tapping each of them on the forehead. Several Espada felt their eyelids twitch.
Then he withdrew his gaze as if the surveillance didn't matter in the slightest, and took a step forward with calm, vigorous confidence.
The light screen instantly blurred.
It looked crushed, like something had smashed it from the other side.
How he did it didn't matter.
What mattered was the contempt in that gesture, displayed openly for everyone to see.
Szayelaporro adjusted his glasses, curiosity flashing. "Who is that?"
"The Captain of the Ninth Division," Ichimaru answered as if chatting about the weather, "Mr. Tōsen's successor, and also the disciple the lord everyone follows is most proud of."
"Oh." Szayelaporro sighed dramatically. "No wonder my Spirit Recording Bug failed. That overbearing attitude is exactly the same."
Thump.
A fist slammed onto the table, not too loud, not too soft.
Every gaze turned.
Baraggan's hand was clenched hard against the surface. His aged face was dark as deep water, veins bulging at his forehead like he'd been dragged back into a memory he despised.
"Overbearing?" Baraggan's voice was venomous. "He's seeking death."
His fist tightened.
"Don't argue. Let me kill him. I must kill him!"
.....
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