Chapter 15: The Hollow that Hunts Swords
"Split up and break through, then call for reinforcements!"
"Yes!"
There was no time to carefully craft a strategy. Omaeda barked the order and everyone scattered at once, sprinting in different directions.
Omaeda deliberately chose a route completely opposite from Seireitei.
As he ran, he risked a glance over his shoulder. Sure enough, the white form of the Menos Grande tore through the night sky behind him, pursuing him like a bat locked onto its prey.
Which meant his judgment had been right.
Higher ranking Shinigami were more tempting prey.
So he would simply use that, drawing its attention to himself and giving his subordinates a chance to escape.
Those who survived by his "sacrifice" would never betray him. They would definitely use their Soul Pagers at the first opportunity to call for help from Seireitei.
Runrinan was very close to Seireitei.
If he used his Shunpo to its limit, trading space and time against the enemy's power, he should be able to stall until reinforcements arrived.
However, running away from Seireitei at the start had been to lure the enemy into a full chase. It would not let him link up with any backup that came from the opposite direction. So at some point, he had to turn.
The moment Omaeda began to change course, the Menos Grande suddenly fired a Cero.
Its intent was not to kill, but to cut him off.
The sudden explosion and shockwave ripped through the ground, violently disrupting his Shunpo and throwing off his rhythm.
The Menos Grande seized that opening and closed in at terrifying speed.
"Gegetsuburi!"
Omaeda hurled his massive iron ball with everything he had. Against normal enemies, this move was overwhelming.
But this Menos Grande was clearly anything but normal.
With seasoned combat instincts, it slid past the iron ball with a simple sidestep, the chain whistling past its body.
Then it flowed along the chain, following it straight back to Omaeda, and, like kicking a ball, snapped a brutal kick into his face.
He flew more than a hundred meters, crashing through the trees and carving a bloody path through the forest.
"Damn it, he got my face!"
Omaeda wiped the blood from his nose, cursing through gritted teeth as a heavy unease settled in his chest.
He is too strong.
Aside from being a little slow earlier, I have not found a single weakness.
The chance of turning this around is very low. The chance of dying is very high.
When you meet an opponent like that, the best answer is to retreat.
He was just about to run again when the Menos Grande suddenly surged forward, its speed doubling in an instant.
"What?!"
Omaeda's pupils shrank.
In the next heartbeat, the Menos Grande was already in front of him.
Who would call this "a little slow"? It was unbelievably fast.
"You want to stall for time," the Menos said, its three voices overlapping. "And I want to get farther from Seireitei, so you will not discover my secret."
It caught Omaeda's wrist as he instinctively tried to swing his Zanpakuto, seizing his arm and freezing the weapon mid air.
Secret? What secret?
Omaeda did not understand, but he knew he had been outplayed.
The creature had realized the Onmitsukido members were hard to catch and did not want to miss anyone, in case something slipped out later and drew the special attention of the Gotei 13.
That would mean trouble and a loss of advantage for it.
So it had deliberately let the others go, then forced him away from the main group, creating a private, one on one situation where it could do as it pleased.
"You bastard…"
Omaeda suddenly caught that strange look in the Hollow's eyes again.
This time, at such close range, he understood what it meant.
The curses on his lips turned into a sharp intake of breath.
"Your goal, you bastard… is my Zanpakuto?"
The creature's gaze was fixed on his released Zanpakuto with a twisted, hungry light.
"You see? Too easy to notice. Instinct is very hard to control," the Menos said. "So I must be cautious. If you Shinigami figure out what I am doing, that would not go well for me."
It grinned.
Seeing three heads smile at once was horrifying.
Realizing its true objective was even worse.
"What good does this do for you?!"
Panic bubbled in Omaeda's chest.
This was the first time he had ever seen a Hollow covet a Shinigami's weapon. Could it be that…
"Is it not obvious?"
The Menos extended its three tongues and slowly licked its teeth, its cruel, greedy gaze lingering on the Zanpakuto.
"It is to eat."
"I was surprised too, at first. That as a Hollow, I could evolve by devouring the weapons of Shinigami. But it is tied to my ability to consume metal, and to the fact that your swords appear to be made of metal."
"Zanpakuto taste much better than ordinary metal, especially those held by powerful Shinigami."
"It is just a shame I only realized this a few years ago. If I had discovered it a thousand or even two thousand years earlier, I would already be the King of Hueco Mundo."
"So the missing students and the administrator were all captured by you, had their swords stolen, and were then brutally killed?!"
Omaeda's pupils dilated.
"My original plan was to capture them and use them to lure stronger Shinigami," the Menos said. "But I did not expect those seemingly easy to bully brats to be so stubborn. Even when they were at odds with each other, they never gave up. Very uncooperative."
"By comparison, that older Shinigami was much better than those brats. His attitude was softer, so I confined him in the cave and planned to slowly persuade him."
Its tone carried a strange hint of regret.
"Then you showed up. To be honest, I am both angry and pleased. My plan was interrupted, but my objective seems to have been achieved."
"So, will you cooperate with me?"
It narrowed its three sets of eyes in expectation.
"You are much stronger than the one who might already be buried under those rocks. You should be more reasonable. Far more suitable as my partner."
"I, the future King of Hueco Mundo, Ckes Kucabara."
Omaeda was stunned for a moment. Then he understood why the Hollow had been talking so much.
"So that is why you are telling me all this," he muttered.
"So, your answer is…?"
Ckes's expectant expression was laced with killing intent.
Being crushed under that ominous, overwhelming spiritual pressure at such close range was sickening.
Having a blade at his throat would have felt more comfortable.
Even so, Omaeda showed no fear. In fact, he almost felt like laughing. His rough voice came out thick with disdain.
"Hey, Menos Grande."
"It is Ckes Kucabara."
"I do not care what your name is. In my eyes, you are just another brutal Hollow."
"I do not know what choice that poor guy who got buried made, but if you start looking down on Shinigami, especially high ranking Shinigami, because of me, my Captain will definitely kill me."
"So you refuse?"
"If I have to put it into words, then I have made the same choice as those two stubborn brats."
"I see. Then all of you will die."
Ckes fell silent for a moment.
Then the left and right heads began to gather blinding crimson light in their mouths.
"Well, I guessed you would react like that."
Omaeda drew in a deep breath and forced his spiritual pressure to its peak.
No matter what, he could not just sit there and wait for death.
"To think a brainless Hollow like you actually wants to recruit Shinigami," he shouted. "It is time you learned what kind of backbone the Second Division has!"
A sharp blade suddenly thrust through Ckes's chest from behind.
Blood droplets sprayed across Omaeda's face.
He was so shocked he could not make a sound, and the spiritual pressure he had been forcing out stuttered and faltered.
"What?"
This time it was Ckes's turn to roar in fury and shock.
He flung Omaeda aside without thinking.
The attacker had already anticipated this reaction. He drew his blade free and dropped into a low crouch, neatly slipping past the flailing arm.
From that stance alone, it was obvious who it was.
Shimiya Takeru.
"Waaah!"
Omaeda, turned into a human cannonball, screamed as he sailed through the air, his earlier defiance nowhere to be seen.
Takeru's pupils glowed a bright blue as his spiritual pressure surged to its maximum.
From his crouched position, his body exploded upward like a leopard pouncing, his blade flashing in an arc.
A cold gleam cut past and vanished, beautiful and deadly, slicing across the inside of Ckes's wrist.
The wound was deep enough to expose bone. Dark red blood sprayed through the air.
Ckes howled in pain and reflexively released Omaeda, sending him flying out of control.
Fortunately, Hachihara reached out from a tree branch at just the right moment, snatched him by the collar, and then swung away into the forest like Tarzan.
"You little brat, you are asking for death!"
The enraged Menos Grande was about to strike back at Takeru when stone erupted from the ground and clamped around its feet.
It shattered Rindo Yu's full power, unnamed Bakudo in less than two seconds.
But in that brief interval, a thick, golden bolt of lightning crashed down from afar, roaring toward Ckes like a thunder beast.
Blinding sparks exploded everywhere. The air filled with the stench of charred flesh.
The heavily wounded Ckes followed the same trajectory Omaeda had taken earlier, flying through the air like a kite with a cut string.
And that still was not the end.
In the direction he was sent flying, Ichigo had been waiting.
He sprang from the bushes without hesitation, body flashing forward.
His blade swept out in a clean horizontal slash, cutting straight through Ckes's shattered form and cleaving the Adjuchas neatly into two halves.
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