Why... do you always have to deny me?
The wound across his chest regenerated rapidly, and Nnoitra's teeth ground together with a creak.
Why... are you always the one who's right?
The inward-curved arm blade collided with the inward-curved Myōki, and the brilliant sparks that burst between them reflected in Nnoitra's eyes, making Nell's figure behind Muten Natsu seem wrapped in a hazy glow.
["We were once humans who became Hollows, then became Arrancar and regained our reason."]
["People with reason need a reason to fight, but you have none."]
["You're just a beast. I've never considered you a warrior."]
But Nnoitra had never wanted to be a warrior.
A human who became a Hollow, then an Arrancar who regained reason, was still only a beast with reason.
Why do you make it sound like... you aren't a beast yourself?
In Nnoitra's eyes, the Espada, himself included, and every Hollow in Hueco Mundo, had been hopeless from the very beginning.
Whether Sōsuke Aizen existed or not made no difference.
If there was anything Nnoitra could thank Sōsuke Aizen for, it was that he had given him power.
Because he had greater power, Nnoitra could enjoy battle on an even higher level.
A battle that let him lose himself even more completely.
Forget his past, forget his existence, forget his reason.
Forget that he was a heartless beast.
But the beings around him, creatures no different from himself, constantly reminded Nnoitra that he was just like every other Hollow, with a hateful face and a vile nature.
Like every other Hollow, he was a worm crawling beneath a starless moonlit night.
He could have lived in ignorance like the other worms and died in ignorance like them.
He could have brought his meaningless life to an ignorant end.
But he had regained his reason.
He could no longer crawl on the ground with the other worms as he once had, yet he could not change the fact that he was still a worm.
So he fought. He became obsessed with battle, intoxicated by battle.
He killed the worms around him, trampled over their remains, lifted his head, and climbed upward.
He crawled closer to the crescent moon hanging high in the night sky, climbing toward a place where those swarms of worms could no longer see him, and where he could no longer see them.
He knew perfectly well that he could never touch that moon.
Worms had never belonged to the moon.
But that was fine.
As long as he climbed high enough, he could die somewhere different from all the other worms.
Even if he fell, he would die before he ever touched them again.
But just as he was desperately clawing his way upward, he saw Nell flying.
She beat her wings lightly and effortlessly surpassed the height Nnoitra had reached, her bright radiance illuminating the companions at her side.
It also exposed Nnoitra's ugliness completely.
It made everything he had done meaningless.
As long as Nell existed, he could not hide his own wretchedness.
As long as he saw Nell, he could not forget that he was still a worm at his core.
Why...
We're both worms, so why don't you live like one?
Nnoitra challenged Nell again and again. In the outcome he hoped for, either Nell would lose her reason in the frenzy of battle and return to her nature as a beast, or Nnoitra would die in battle and never have to see Nell's light again.
But Nell never wavered. She did not lose her reason, and she did not kill Nnoitra.
Everything about him was denied and destroyed by Nell.
So he would destroy everything about Nell.
That was why Nnoitra tore off Pesche and Dondochakka's masks and slashed Nell's mask.
With the eyesore that was Nell gone, he could finally keep climbing upward, just as he had before.
From his original No. 8, he rose all the way to No. 5.
He had reached the limit a mid-tier Menos Hollow, an Adjuchas, could reach.
But Nell appeared again and shattered everything he had worked so hard to gain with a single shot.
Then he would simply do what he had done before and destroy everything Nell had regained!
The flame-formed appendages behind Nnoitra vanished in an instant. The next moment, burning appendages appeared in four positions around Muten Natsu, their sharp tips violently converging on Muten Natsu's body as they stabbed down.
Spirit Ink flowed. Muten Natsu left his original position, avoiding Nnoitra's attack, then flashed behind him and raised Myōki.
"If you dodge..." Nnoitra's smile was cold and sinister. "Then she dies."
The appendages that had struck empty air twisted together into a burning wheel and shot straight toward Nell.
Muten Natsu stood in front of Nell. Spreading ink canceled out Nnoitra's attack, then dissipated and sank into the arm armor on his left arm, leaving an ink-stained mark across the stark-white armor.
"So this is what you call defeating someone..." Muten Natsu's gaze was icy. "With dirty tricks like this?"
"This is battle. A monster born from inequality and intolerance." The burning appendages reappeared behind Nnoitra. "I hate the sight of you. I can't forgive you. I have to beat you. You make enemies for any reason you can find, and from the moment you do, even every breath you take is part of the fight. You're inside the monster, breathing the monster's blood. Did you really think there was anything noble about it?"
"I see. Then I understand." Muten Natsu stroked Nell's head, signaling that she did not need to worry. "You never defeated Nell, and you won't defeat me either."
Nnoitra's face darkened at once. "What did you say?"
"Fighting is a way to solve problems, not a reason to create them. The moment you started creating problems for the sake of fighting, you lost the ability to solve anything through battle." Muten Natsu tilted his head. "You only won one fight. You never defeated Nell."
"Heh..." Nnoitra sneered. "Are you saying that even if I win, you still won't admit defeat?"
"I'm saying that when the battle began the way you wanted, you had already achieved your goal and won." Black energy spread through Muten Natsu's eyes. "But the instant the battle ended, you lost completely."
"You think you can deny me!?" Nnoitra spread his arms, and the burning appendages behind him overlapped with his arm blades. "I am the strongest! You're the one who's going to lose!"
The burning arm blade slashed down. Its pitch-black inner flame churned, and its yellow outer flame surged. Nnoitra brought his blade down in a single strike, layering three stages of power together.
The first was blocked by Ink Fortress. The second shattered Ink Fortress. The third was stopped by Myōki.
The scattered ink sank into the arm armor, and a second ink-stained mark appeared.
Before the burst of sparks had gone out, the second strike was already closing in on Muten Natsu.
With a metallic clang, Muten Natsu swung his blade to block it. Three ink-stained marks now stood out clearly on the arm armor.
Nnoitra bit through his tongue, opened his mouth, and the gathered black and yellow light suddenly burst forth, mixed with flesh and blood.