"Tatsuki!"
"Tatsuki!"
Cole and Ichigo looked at Tatsuki Arisawa at the same time.
Rage flashed in both their eyes. Two torrents of black-crimson, feral spiritual pressure surged like a hellish blood-sea. Under that double weight, Mashiro Kuna couldn't even stand—she dropped to her knees with a thud, lifted her head with difficulty, and stared at them in disbelief.
"Th-this… reiatsu…"
The nearby human souls fared even worse. Bodies flattened to the ground, trembling uncontrollably, teetering on the brink of scattering.
Seeing this, Cole hurriedly drew back his feral pressure and kicked Ichigo with a grimace. "Ichigo, rein it in. If you don't, we'll kill thousands before we even start rescuing people."
Only then did Ichigo snap out of it and rein in his own raging pressure, letting the human souls finally draw breath.
Right now, both of them felt the situation was… tricky.
Not because the enemies were troublesome, but because the battlefield was. This was one of Karakura Town's main streets, jam-packed with people. Fight here, and who knew how many humans would die. If more civilians rushed in, it would be even worse.
In fact, panic had already broken out. People in the distance saw others collapsing and fled in a stampede, screams and cries for help echoing everywhere.
Even the police arriving only made things worse.
Over the shriek of sirens, Ichigo used sonido (Sound Step) to appear at Cole's side and whispered, "Cole, can we save Tatsuki?"
Cole narrowed his eyes at Ulquiorra. He knew this was only the first Resurrección (Resurrection)—Ulquiorra still had a second stage.
Even so, Cole was confident he could sever Ulquiorra's arm.
But…
He glanced at Yammy. The brute was still in a released form, twelve dinosaur-thick legs pounding the asphalt. Cole had blasted four to chunks with a cero earlier, yet Yammy could still move fine.
And the two women in his belly… were a problem.
Rumbling closer to Ulquiorra, Yammy shot Cole a wary look and patted his distended gut with his remaining arm, as if to remind them: "Don't forget, those two Shinigami are still inside me. And first of all, I ain't saying they're actually in my stomach."
Cole tilted his head and said to Ichigo, "Hey, Ichigo, think you can cut off Ulquiorra's arm?"
If Ichigo handled Ulquiorra, Cole needed only three seconds to pin this big lug down. Then, whether Hiyori Sarugaki and Lisa Yadomaru were in the belly or elsewhere, they could be found slowly. Worst case, disassemble Yammy piece by piece.
"Sever that guy's arm without hurting Tatsuki?" Ichigo eyed Ulquiorra, unsure. This one wasn't going to be easy.
Ulquiorra saw the hesitation and said, voice cold:
"Murciélago—Segunda Etapa (Black-Winged Demon—Second Stage)."
With the words spoken, Ulquiorra's green reiatsu detonated, deepening from emerald to abyssal. His form warped: the upper garments vanished; black tears ran from his eyes, the trails doubling beneath; the whites of his eyes turned green, pupils like a Hollow mask's. Black feathers cloaked his torso, arms, back, and down to the legs. The back of his robe split, wings spread fully, bat-talons bared. The horned helm's spikes lengthened and sharpened. A long, whip-like tail sprouted, the tip ending in a blade-like bone. His feet tipped into raptor talons. The Hollow hole widened; a black sigil unfurled from it across his abdomen.
In that state, Ulquiorra's feral pressure smothered the sky, drowning thousands of meters in pitch black.
On the street, human souls once more buckled, screams peeling out like the wails of the damned.
Cole frowned slightly. He willed the golden staff planted in the ground to life; it flared, a spear of brilliant sunlight punching through the gloom overhead. Warm light poured back down, and the tyrannical pressure was suppressed beneath the staff's golden weight. Only then did the human souls ease.
Ulquiorra didn't seem to care. He'd awakened Segunda Etapa during the last incursion into the Soul Society. The power wasn't about warping heavens and earth—it was a second liberation of the body itself.
Even Yammy, an ally, gaped at the black-winged demon. "You can go into a second Resurrección in that form!?"
After Aizen's experiments, Yammy had gained a release akin to a Shinigami's—Resurrección to free a Hollow's power. He'd thought that was the limit.
He hadn't imagined a second release was possible.
Ichigo also startled. Ulquiorra, wings blotting out the sun, hovered in the air like a fallen archdemon. The sight alone could squeeze a man's heart.
"Cole, this…"
Cole narrowed his eyes. "Treat this state like a Shinigami's bankai, but don't get cocky."
A second-stage Resurrección in an Adjuchas form—something seen only once in the anime. Yet that one time carved itself into countless minds.
"So Hollows… aren't as simple as I thought," Cole mused.
In Bleach, three mighty races take the stage: Shinigami, who govern souls; Quincy, the human exorcists; and Hollows, souls that have fallen.
Of those three, Shinigami and Quincy dazzled—power enough to shatter heavens and earth. Hollows, by contrast, seemed capped—Coyote Starrk, Primera Espada, was the peak, and he was a lazy uncle who'd rather not fight. In the Karakura War, he practically bowed out on his own, death tinged with self-sacrifice.
Cole had long figured Hollows simply had a lower ceiling, far beneath Shinigami and Quincy. In the Thousand-Year Blood War, Arrancar looked like background extras.
But thinking now… maybe not.
After all, Hollows can self-evolve into Arrancar—Starrk himself did. If he could achieve a second Resurrección, his power would spike; he might even test hands with old man Yamamoto.
And beyond a second stage—who's to say there isn't a third, a fourth?
In truth, Hollows looked weak in the late game not because they're weak, but because they lack any organization or discipline. Shinigami and Quincy both have structured hierarchies that raise power steadily. Hollows are born from malice; even after untold ages in Hueco Mundo, there's no unified order. Las Noches? Less an organization than a lawless zone.
If Hueco Mundo had something like Seireitei, their war power might rival the Wandenreich.
All those thoughts flashed through Cole's mind in an instant.
He looked to Ichigo. "Well? Can you take a claw off him in one strike?"
Ichigo's mouth twitched. "I can cut off a claw—but not without risking Tatsuki."
"Tsk, tsk… useless, huh?" Cole clicked his tongue. "Guess the old truism holds: a redemption arc shaves off thirty percent of your bite. What a waste of that bull-horn Hollow form."
In the original, Ichigo's bull-horn Hollow form could hoist Segunda Etapa Ulquiorra and beat him like a rag doll. But once Ichigo learned to wield that form, it lost that absolute edge.
"How about this—I'll handle Ulquiorra; you restrain the big dinosaur."
Cole pointed at Yammy. Half those twelve legs were already stumps, and one arm had been torn off; he was big-time crippled.
"Restrain…?" Ichigo eyed Yammy with a headache. The body was huge; who knew where those two women had been swallowed to? One swing in the wrong place and he might cut them too. As for kido—he hadn't learned any.
Under their unfriendly stares, sweat broke on Yammy's brow. He was an Adjuchas-class Hollow; he hunted others. Now he was being hunted.
Frantically churning the eight legs he had left, he finally scampered under Ulquiorra's shadow. "Ulquiorra, let's go, let's go…"
He at last understood why Aizen told them not to make a big scene. Karakura Town had… monsters.
"I'm already preparing it," Ulquiorra said calmly.
He was using Garganta (Black Cavity) repeatedly, slicing space to open a passage to Las Noches. But with Yammy's current size, an ordinary slit wouldn't do; he had to tear it wider.
Yammy almost hated his own body. Already massive, it had swollen toward fifteen meters in his rage, nearing a Gillian's bulk. Yet he didn't dare seal his Resurrección—these two would cleave him in one stroke.
As the deadlock stretched, Chad, Orihime, and Uryu finally reached the center of the battlefield.
One look, and all three gasped cold air.
It was hell. Thousands of human souls lay unconscious; coupled with their bodies, the scene looked like a field of corpses. Farther ahead stood four terrifying figures: two humanoid, bleeding black-crimson pressure that prickled the scalp like needles; opposite them, two who'd left humanity behind—one a hulking demon like a dinosaur, the other a black-winged devil blotting out the sky.
All four radiated power befitting high-tier Menos—look once and you felt yourself tumble into a bottomless abyss.
It really felt like walking into hell.
Uryu's legs went weak. "Is… Hueco Mundo invading?"
Orihime trembled and clutched a nearby utility pole. Only Chad stood steady—his right arm a giant's, his left an oni's—eyes locked on the four figures.
"Is that… Cole and Ichigo?"
Hearing him, Uryu's heart skipped; he snapped, "Chad, don't be ridiculous. Those are four upper-tier Hollows. How could that have anything to do with Cole and Kurosaki Ichigo?"
"Say that again and I'll slug you," Cole said, turning with a glare.
Calling Ichigo a monster was whatever—he did look like a bull-horn Hollow now, barely human. But Cole hadn't changed that much.
Uryu met Cole's feral, abyss-dark eyes and felt himself drop into an ice cellar. His body stopped obeying; he toppled over with a thud, mind blanking out as if scared senseless.
Realizing the effect, Cole quickly looked away and scratched his head, embarrassed. "Sorry—forgot I'm in a Vasto Lorde form."
Hollows are fallen souls; darkness is baked into them. Eye contact alone can induce terror. A Vasto Lorde at the apex is even worse. If he wanted to kill a normal human now, he wouldn't need to move—one glare could stop a heart.
Uryu still wasn't responding. Cole didn't know what else to do, so he turned to Orihime. "Orihime, I'm counting on you."
"Me?" Orihime blinked.
"Of course." Cole's lips curved. He licked his lips and shifted his gaze to Ulquiorra and Yammy. "Ichigo, get ready. I'll drop the black-winged demon; you kill the big dinosaur. You've got one second."
Ichigo went pale. "What if my swing hits Hiyori and Lisa?"
"As long as they don't die, it's fine."
With that offhand answer, Cole stamped his foot and flashed a hundred meters forward. With Orihime's Sōten Kisshun (Twin-God Reflection Shield), even if the women were nicked, so long as they weren't dead she could bring them back—an ability that trespassed on the realm of gods.
Cold sweat ran down Ichigo's back. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and follow.
"No—they're coming!" Yammy's pupils shrank. He roared, "Shinigami, don't you care about your comrades!?"
Cole didn't even deign to answer. He simply lifted his index finger toward Ulquiorra.
"Bala (Hollow Bullet)."
Unlike a cero (Hollow Flash), bala traveled two hundred times faster—though with much less force.
A black-crimson spark flashed.
Ulquiorra, in his black-winged form, had no time to react. The blast sheared his left wrist clean off; Tatsuki fell from his grasp.
Cole moved to catch her—but Yammy roared, maw yawning, "Stop! Shinigami, if you kill me, those two women die too!"
Ichigo's eyes blew wide. In that razor-thin instant, he unchained Tensa Zangetsu—bankai—because nestled across those rows of giant teeth lay Hiyori and Lisa.
One Getsuga Tenshō (Moon-Fang Heaven-Piercer) would split Yammy, and them along with him.
Ichigo halted. Cole did not.
Cole's index finger turned toward the giant.
"Gran Rey Cero (Royal Hollow Flash)."
(End of Chapter)
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