This group was suspicious as hell.
"Mind telling us what exactly you've been doing?"
Gunjo and the others exchanged glances, but didn't seem fazed.
"Just doing our jobs. Didn't know the Soul Reapers were sticking their noses into everything these days."
"'Your job'?" Nanao frowned. "You mean wiping out souls and Hollows?"
"What do you mean, 'wiping out'?" Taikon snapped. "We're just doing what Shinigami already do."
"?"
Nanao blinked. That didn't make sense.
Rukia frowned too. "Doing what Shinigami do?"
Could they mean
"Konso (Soul Funeral)?" she asked, stunned.
"Ding ding. We have a winner," Shuren said, arms crossed, face calm. "No prizes though."
As far as Hell's higher-ups were concerned, there weren't any orders to keep their work under wraps.
Which meant Shuren had no need to be sneaky about it.
Now that he was officially part of Hell's workforce, he stood taller, spoke bolder.
He had backup nowwho cared about the Soul Society?
Rukia and Nanao exchanged a baffled look.
Wait he's serious?
You're doing Kons? That's our job!
So what the hell are the Shinigami supposed to do now?
And the missing souls and Hollowswhere the hell did you send them?!
Rukia stepped forward, ready to arguebut Nanao held her back.
"...?"
Rukia shot her a confused glance.
Nanao just shook her head. "We're here to investigate, not fight."
Besides, she had no guarantee she could handle someone like Shuren, who gave off clear captain-level energy.
She memorized their faces, then pulled Rukia away.
"?"
Shuren watched them leave, stunned.
They're just leaving?
Weren't Shinigami supposed to be their rivals?
He'd mentally prepared for an all-out brawl but this?
He narrowed his eyes, recalling how the glasses woman kept glancing his way.
"Ohhh~ someone smart in the group."
They sensed the power gap, got a read on the situation, and made a clean exit.
Smart move.
Beside him, Gunjo asked hesitantly, "Lord Shuren, should we chase them?"
Shuren paused, then frowned. "No. Let's report this to Hell first."
He still didn't know how the higher-ups wanted to handle Shinigami.
Better to send in a report and wait for orders.
—
On the other side
As they retreated, Rukia frowned. "Why?"
Nanao answered seriously, "That tall guy's strong. I don't think I could beat him."
"!!!"
Rukia's eyes went wide. "Stronger than you?!"
Nanao nodded grimly. "He's probably on par with a captain."
Rukia's pupils shrank in shock.
A captain-level threat?
Only now did she realize how serious this was.
In the shadowsByakuya Kuchiki stood silently.
"The living world has gotten dangerous."
He considered pulling Rukia off this mission.
So far only Shuren had shown his strength, but that alone hinted at a deeper, more powerful force lurking behind the scenes.
Byakuya had already scanned all of Karakura Town faster than Rukia and Nanao.
What he found was unexpected.
Lots of unusual people had shown up.
The strangest thing? None of them had detectable Reiatsu.
But his gut told himthey were dangerous.
And just like Shuren's group had said, they were working.
Doing something similar to Soul Funeral, their Konso.
But they weren't sending souls to the Soul Society.
Which meant one thingthis would disrupt the balance between the three realms.
Byakuya's eyes narrowed, focusing on a half-human, half-dog creature nearby.
The easiest way to get information was to just grab someone and ask.
But, that would spook the whole group. Besides, this wasn't even his mission.
As a noble, Byakuya couldn't interfere with another Division's assignment lightly.
Why was he even in the living world?
Meanwhile, in Soul Society
Kyoraku Shunsui lazily lifted a finger as a black butterfly fluttered down.
A second laterNanao's serious voice came through.
"Captain, initial investigation suggests captain-level individuals are involved in the living world!"
Kyoraku's laid-back expression twitched. He sighed.
"Captain-level, huh"
Yeah, this was going to be more trouble than he thought.
He scratched his messy hair, already regretting things.
Now he'd have to go in person.
And if cute little Nanao-chan was worried enough to say that. If he didn't go, he might be attending her funeral.
"Kinda wish I'd taken that Hell assignment when it came up."
Soifon came back from Hell overnight and even looked happy. The mission must've been a breeze.
Too bad he missed that chance.
Oh well!
Kyoraku grabbed his zanpakuto, stood up from the wooden floor, adjusted his hat, and said with a light grin: "Time to do some actual captain work for once."
Meanwhile, in Hell
Lynn leaned on his hand, flipping through the intel Enma Ai had just delivered.
"So they ran into the Shinigami, huh?"
He wasn't surprised.
If anything, it took the Shinigami way too long to react.
It's been days, and only now they realize something's wrong in the human world?
After skimming the report Lynn waved it off.
"Ai, have Yoruichi keep an eye on them. She knows how Shinigami tick."
—
"??"
Yoruichi blinked when she got the mission.
But heythat actually sounded like fun.
—
Back in Hueco Mundo
"Uwaaah! Lady Nel!!"
Pesche cried uncontrollably.
"I finally found you!!"
Nel blinked awkwardly.
She'd gotten way too into her little adventure and completely forgot about them.
After a good cry, Pesche glared at the others with righteous fury.
"You humans! How dare you kidnap Lady Nel?!"
"ROAARRR!"
A black glow gathered in his mouth, ready to fire a Cero blast!
"Wait!"
Nel's eyes went wide. She waved her arms frantically to stop him.
BAM!!
Before Pesche could fire, Midoriko smacked him into the ground like a ragdoll.
The dark energy fizzled out instantly.
Pesche: "???"
What just happened?
Midoriko stared at the weird-looking creature that had jumped in their way, then turned to Nel.
"This thing your friend?"
Nel nodded on reflex.
Midoriko nodded back and dropped the idea of killing it.
Still, they were both Hollows, right?
So why was Nel so cute and this thing so not?
Tch.
Might as well ship this guy off to Hell to work as free labor.
Then
Midoriko looked up at the sky and asked, "That guy up therehe your friend too?"
Nel: "Huh?"
Her gaze drifted away from Pesche, who was half-buried in the white sand.
She followed Midoriko's line of sight and looked up as well.
And thenShe saw him.
A man with short, messy, dirty blonde hair and a black eyepatch.
He was staring straight at Nel, unmoving. His lips slowly curled into a wide, exaggerated grin as he spoke in a low, eerie voice: "Found you"
"!!!"
.
.
.
The Experience Soul Orb
Hueco Mundo
Nelliel looked up at the sky, her big round eyes wide with alarm.
She instinctively grabbed onto Midoriko's leg and whispered with a trembling voice, "Midoriko-nee It's the bad guys!"
Midoriko raised an eyebrow at that, and her eyes narrowed slightly in realization.
No wonder that guy had been giving off a seriously unpleasant vibe from the start.
...
Pesche Guatiche pulled his face out of the sand, still a little dizzy and disoriented.
Clearly, Midoriko's slap earlier hadn't been just for showit rattled him good.
He shook his head hard, trying to snap out of it, and looked up.
What greeted him was a familiar figure with dirty blonde hair.
Damn it! It was him.
Nnoitra's loyal underling who'd been hunting down Lady Nel ever since she went missing.
As soon as Pesche recognized him, his pupils shrank, and he blurted out in shock, "Tesra Lindocruz!"
His whole body tensed up. He stared the guy down, voice filled with alarm.
"How the hell did you find us?!"
Tesra gave him a lazy side-glance with his single eye, then chuckled softly ."Find you? C'mon now You brought me here."
Pesche's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. "That's impossible!"
If Tesra had been tailing him, he definitely would've sensed his Reiatsu.
Butthis wasn't the time to panic over that.
If Tesra made it back and reported to Nnoitra?
Pesche shivered at the thought of that bloodthirsty freak getting his hands on Lady Nel again.
Absolutely not. He'd die before letting that happen.
Determined, Pesche turned to Nel. "Lady Nel! I'll hold him offgo find Dondochakka!"
Without waiting for an answer, he launched himself straight at Tesra!
Boom!
Tesra casually caught Pesche's punch. His expression didn't change, as if Pesche wasn't even worth taking seriously. His gaze remained fixed on Nel.
"A child? No wonder Lord Nnoitra couldn't find you"
His single eye glinted.
"Well, guess it's my turn to shine."
"Over my dead body!" Pesche roared. "You're not taking Lady Nel anywhere!"
Right after yelling, he did what he always didstarted with a Cero!
Tesra scoffed.
"You couldn't beat me before, and now that you've been away from Las Noches for so long, the gap between us has only grown wider."
Buzz
A brilliant purple light flared in Tesra's chest.
It was bigger, brighter, and way more powerful than Pesche's!
In an instant, their Ceros collided mid-air.
BOOM!!
The shockwave roared across the sands.
Tesra's purple Cero steadily overpowered Pesche's, forcing it back inch by inch.
Pesche clenched his teeth. He refused to back down.
He poured every ounce of Reiatsu he had into the beam, desperately trying to hold the line.
Because behind himwas Lady Nel.
Nel stared at Pesche's back, eyes trembling.
Suddenly, she groaned and swayed slightly, as if her mind had been struck.
Flashes of memories flickered in her mindtoo fast and too vague to catch clearly.
Midoriko noticed and gently rubbed Nel's head. Then her gaze shifted to Pesche, a little surprised.
"Huh didn't expect that. He's pretty loyal, isn't he?"
But then she muttered under her breath,
"Still, no need to go down in a blaze of glory."
She could tell from one glancePesche was ready to throw his life away for Nel.
"Leave this to me."
Kikyo stepped forward, drawing her bow and aiming straight at Tesra.
A holy glow surged along the arrow.
"Sacred Arrow!"
She called out softly, and in the blink of an eye, the arrow streaked through the air toward Tesra.
Shrrrkk
It sliced through the sky, its force even more intense than the Ceros.
The divine energy surged forward, weaving through Pesche's beam and closing in fast.
WHOOM
In a flash of radiant white light, Tesra's purple Cero was completely overpowered and erased.
His once-calm expression froze. His eye widened in alarm.
Ssssshh
A searing heat struck his face.
And thenSHUNK!
The arrow pierced straight through his chest.
"GRAAAHHH!!"
His body convulsed violently as purifying power exploded through him.
He twitched and trembled uncontrollably And then he collapsed backward onto the sand, his eyes glazed over, drool trailing from the corner of his mouth.
Silence.
Kikyo lowered her bow, expression calm. "Didn't seem all that strong."
He was, after all, the first humanoid Hollow they'd run into besides Nel.
She had expected more.
But really, he wasn't much different from the others.
Midoriko rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Probably around a high-class devil's strength."
Down by her leg, Nel blinked in confusion, staring at the fallen enemy.
The bad guy was defeated?
By Kikyo-nee?
Whoa! So strong!
Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at Kikyo, full of admiration.
"..."
Up above Pesche scratched his head.
Waitwhat just happened?
He'd been ready to sacrifice himself to buy time for Lady Nel.
But now? Did he not have to die?
That human womanwhat the hell did she just do?
One arrow. Just one.
Pesche stared at Kikyo in fear, thinking back to how he had fought with her and her friends earlier.
Damn
That was a meeting with death if there ever was one.
He shivered uncontrollably.
Thankfully, Lady Nel seemed to be on pretty good terms with them?
He looked nervous and unsure.
Meanwhile, Yotsuya Miko poked Tesra's body with a dry tree branch.
"He's still breathing. Should we turn him into a soul orb?"
A high-class devil like that would probably boost her stats pretty well.
She turned to Kikyo with an eager expression.
Kikyo smiled faintly. "Go ahead."
Miko happily extended her hand.
"Soul Devour."
Buzz
A vortex of energy formed in her palm.
A second later, Tesra's body began to twist unnaturally.
The pain jolted him back to consciousness.
"GYAAAHHH!"
He screamed, body writhing in agony.
"W-what are you doing?!"
His voice shook. He tried to resist, but that sacred arrow from Kikyo had drained him completely.
There was nothing he could do.
Miko's expression stayed blank, focused entirely on the devouring process.
She'd done this a few times by now.
At first it was weird but she'd gotten used to it.
Now? It was just routine.
Tesra's cries eventually faded.
Soon, a small purple soul orb sat quietly in Miko's palm.
She took a deep breath and swallowed it.
"Haaah"
After a moment, a flash of golden light flickered in her eyes.
Ever since they came to Hueco Mundo, there'd been fresh, tasty souls everywhere.
It'd only been a few days, but her growth must've been insane.
Maybe it was time to ask Lynn for a stat update?
Not far away, Pesche watched the whole thingwatched Tesra get turned into a literal orband then eaten.
What the hell?
...
Midoriko did a quick scan of the area, found no other threats, then turned to face Pesche.
He froze under her gaze, body tightening with anxiety.
"Alright," Midoriko said casually. "Start talking. About Nel."
.
.
.
And Another Loli
"Start talking. About Nel."
Midoriko narrowed her eyes slightly toward Pesche.
"...!!"
Pesche froze on the spot. After a short pause, he glanced at the still-confused Nel, his expression growing complicated.
A few seconds passed.
Pesche finally began to explainslowly, hesitantly.
By the time he finished, Midoriko was staring at Nel in surprise.
This little girl, she actually had that kind of background?
Hueco Mundo The Espada
Just hearing that, Midoriko's eyes gleamed with interest.
