Szayelaporro Granz.
Peixue and Dondochaka exchanged a glance, their eyes bloodshot, voices rasping like rusted metal, carrying both terror and boundless hatred. Su Li remained silent, understanding well why their reaction was so fierce. Standing before them was Espada Number Eight, Szayelaporro Granz, the very man who had once joined hands with Nnoitra Gilga, the current Fifth Espada, to betray Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck.
First, Szayelaporro struck down her two fracción, Peixue and Dondochaka, tearing away their masks and forcing them back into the pitiful forms of Adjuchas. Then, when Nelliel rushed to aid them, the pair's ambush drove her into regression—her mask shattered, her power stripped, and her mind thrown into childish amnesia. The proud Third Espada, discarded like refuse from Las Noches, vanished from history with her two loyal followers at her side.
For Nelliel, memory loss allowed her to live innocently as a child. But for Peixue and Dondochaka, the wound never healed. Now, facing the one who had destroyed their master and themselves, their bodies trembled violently, fists clenched so hard their nails bit into flesh, eyes burning red with unforgotten rage.
When enemies meet, hatred sharpens to madness.
Yet Szayelaporro ignored their fury entirely. His eyes, mocking and narrow, lingered instead on the girl peeking from behind Su Li's sleeve.
"Well now, Nelliel… imagine my surprise." His lips curled into a predator's smile.
Nilu shrank back at the weight of his gaze, clutching Su Li's haori in both hands. Her voice was faint and broken. "M-my name is Nilu… I don't know you."
For a moment Szayelaporro blinked. Then he threw back his head in raucous laughter, hiding his face behind one pale hand. "Ah, so the damage really was severe… your brain's still broken, hahahaha!" His mirth spilled through the ruined chamber, sharp and arrogant. Nilu's lips trembled, tears brimming as she clung tighter to Su Li, shivering at the presence of this man who knew her yet filled her with nameless dread.
At last, Szayelaporro lowered his hand and studied them all with cruel amusement. "So, you've come crawling back into Las Noches alongside the invaders. How fortunate. But traitors and enemies alike… none of you will leave here. I'll preserve you as my specimens, polish you, and display you in glass for visitors to admire." His tongue flicked over his lips with serpentlike hunger.
Peixue and Dondochaka froze in grim despair. Without realizing it, they had stumbled into the domain of their mortal enemy. Against an Espada, escape was unthinkable. Once, they had sworn only to live quietly outside Las Noches with the amnesiac Nilu, avoiding this fate. But fate, cruel and mocking, had driven them onto the boy's ship and right back into Szayelaporro's grasp.
The Eighth Espada stepped forward with slow, deliberate pace, smile cutting like a blade, eyes dissecting Nilu and her guardians as though they were already catalogued and labeled. As for the Shinigami standing before him, he dismissed him with contempt. He had killed countless Shinigami—what was one more?
Seeing him advance, Peixue's hair bristled, his breath ragged. He and Dondochaka leapt instinctively in front of Su Li and Nilu. "Su Li! Take Nilu and run! This man is a true Espada, leagues beyond us! We'll hold him—just go!"
"What?" Su Li blinked, caught off guard.
"Peixue! Dondochaka!" Nilu cried, but her two guardians no longer looked back. Peixue vaulted onto Dondochaka's shoulders, both faces set with grim resolve. A twin light flared before them—yellow and violet spiraling together, raw power gathering into a single sphere.
"Fusion Cero!"
The air vibrated with their desperate technique, energy so dense it warped the walls. They knew full well that against Espada Number Eight, half-measures meant instant death.
Szayelaporro only smirked, raising his pale hands. Between his palms gathered a deep violet radiance, far darker, far more oppressive. A Cero of the King—Gran Rey Cero.
The two attacks clashed.
The chamber erupted with a deafening roar, air currents shredding stone and scattering debris like paper. For an instant, Fusion Cero strained against Gran Rey Cero, a fragile defiance against overwhelming force. Then, inevitably, it collapsed.
The violet torrent consumed their light, hurtling toward Peixue and Dondochaka with unstoppable momentum.
"Dodge!!" Nilu screamed.
The two fracción veered aside at the last instant, escaping annihilation but still caught in the blast. Their bodies slammed through the walls, vomiting blood, grievously wounded.
But the Cero's trajectory continued unchecked, its core screaming toward the boy and the trembling girl.
"No!" Peixue and Dondochaka's horrified cries split the air.
Nilu's body locked in terror, her knees buckling as the destructive wave bore down.
Su Li, however, raised one hand slowly, expression unchanged.
The guardians' eyes widened in shock. "He… he's going to take it head-on? That's suicide!"
But the violet Cero reached him before their warning could finish. Szayelaporro's lips stretched into a cruel smile, anticipation gleaming.
The blast struck—
—and stopped.
Against Su Li's outstretched palm, the roaring Gran Rey Cero froze as though seized by invisible chains. The energy writhed, detonated, yet failed to move him an inch. Then, with an effortless sweep of his fingers, the torrent shattered, breaking apart into scattered fragments that tore through the walls and ceiling, collapsing the laboratory in clouds of dust and debris.
Szayelaporro's triumphant grin faltered. Through the haze of destruction, his eyes finally adjusted to the boy's form—and recognition stabbed his mind.
"It's you!!" His voice cracked with disbelief, his heart clenching tight as he shouted, horror and fury mingling in his cry.
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