"Mm..."
Unohana's face was flushed as she pushed herself upright, her pale legs trembling slightly.
If Cole hadn't reached out to steady her, she probably would've toppled right back over.
Even so, she still shot him a shy, angry glare.
"You brat, if you dare make me say that kind of thing again next time, I definitely won't let you off."
She might love pain and battle, but in this area she was surprisingly much more of a small fry.
Every time she lost herself, Cole would coax her into saying all sorts of utterly shameful things.
When she remembered them afterward, it was enough to make her want to bury her head in the sand.
Cole, looking full of energy, raised an eyebrow and poked her lightly with a finger.
The mature, beautiful onee-san let out a soft sound and immediately went limp against his chest.
Cole couldn't help laughing.
"For someone this much of a small fry who can't handle even a little touch, you sure act fierce."
Unohana was furious, her teary eyes glaring at him.
"Cole, if you dare mess around again, I'll... mm..."
Before she could finish the threat, another involuntary sound escaped her, and this time her strength completely gave out.
All she could do was look up at Cole with watery eyes, her voice barely above a whisper as she begged,
"I'm sorry, I get it now... please, let me off for a bit. Let me rest first, then you can bully me again in a couple of days, okay?"
Saying it out loud made her feel like her whole face was on fire.
She had once been a battle-crazed Shinigami.
And it wasn't just her personality.
She was more than a thousand years older than Cole's mother.
By all rights, she should have been the calm, reliable senior others could lean on.
But after spending time around Cole, she'd practically been teased into acting like a little girl.
It was only because they were in a place like Hueco Mundo, which was basically a no-man's-land.
If this had happened in Soul Society instead—
Just saying those words would've been enough to make her faint from embarrassment.
But even with Unohana this flustered, Cole still wasn't satisfied.
"Hana-nee, if you're going to beg for mercy, at least do it properly. Didn't I teach you last night how you're supposed to ask?"
Unohana's face turned even redder, and she glared at him in mortification.
"It's daytime right now, don't push your luck."
Cole blinked and looked up at the sky with an odd expression.
"There's still such a thing as 'daytime' here?"
In Hueco Mundo, the sky was in eternal night.
There was no sun, only the moonlight pouring down from above.
When he said "last night," he was using Human World time as a reference.
Unohana's "daytime," on the other hand, was clearly meant in the literal sense.
"So..."
Cole licked his lips.
Without giving Unohana any chance to recover, he pressed her back down onto the white sand once more.
"If you're going to be disobedient, I'll just have to give you another proper lesson."
Unohana's face grew even hotter as she stretched her neck unconsciously.
Time didn't exist in Hueco Mundo.
No one knew how long had passed.
By the time it was over, Unohana was completely limp, like a puddle of water, lying in Cole's arms with unfocused eyes.
Seeing that, Cole finally let her go, chuckling softly.
He hugged her close, stepped forward, and shot off across the desert toward Las Noches at full speed.
Endless white sand flowed backward beneath his feet.
No one knew how long he ran.
At last, the ruined silhouette of Las Noches appeared in Cole's field of vision.
At the same time, the Arrancar within Las Noches also sensed his spiritual pressure, and their expressions all turned complicated.
"It's that human..."
Tier Harribel couldn't help clenching her teeth, balling her hand into a fist as she glared toward the southwest of Las Noches.
"He really dared to come."
Her three Fracción—Apacci, Mila Rose, and Sung-Sun—looked at each other, all of them uncertain.
In the end, it was the white-snake-like Sung-Sun who quietly spoke up to Harribel:
"Tier, I still think that human isn't bad. Back in the Human World, he was the one who sent us back to Hueco Mundo."
Mila Rose nodded.
"Yeah. He said we hadn't killed anyone and that our personalities weren't bad, so he let us go."
Apacci quickly added, "I think he's pretty decent too. At least he's better than Lord Aizen. He wouldn't force us to kill."
"I know. That's not why I'm angry."
Harribel cut them off, grinding her teeth.
"It's because he's human, and he's way too lustful. He'll definitely do something indecent to us. The way he was looking at me before was all wrong."
The three Fracción looked at each other, totally failing to follow her train of thought.
"Lust"?
What was that?
As Hollows, they had no reproductive instinct at all. Even if they had female bodies now, they didn't understand that kind of thing in the slightest.
Harribel, for once, had a faint blush on her face. She wanted to explain, but in the end she gave up, coughed heavily, picked up her blade, and walked out.
"Let's go see what he wants first."
"Isn't that the guy who was with Kurosaki Ichigo? I heard he's even more..."
Inside Las Noches, Grimmjow's eyes were burning with excitement.
His spiritual pressure flared wildly, and in the next instant he entered his Resurrección, taking on his blue wolf form.
"..."
"That human..."
The giant Yammy looked toward the southwest as well, a rare hint of fear flashing in his eyes.
"He's back again!?"
"...You've got to be kidding me."
"That spiritual pressure..."
Cold sweat trickled down Nnoitra's forehead as he swallowed hard.
When the Shinigami had invaded Hueco Mundo previously, he had been as good as dead, only barely managing to survive.
He had never expected to feel that spiritual pressure again.
And this time, it was hundreds of times stronger.
"Ahh... what a pain. Looks like our peaceful days are about to be ruined again..."
Starrk rubbed his temples in annoyance.
By nature he was extremely lazy. If nothing out of the ordinary happened, he practically had no desire to fight at all.
"What do we do then? Go see him?"
Lilynette asked nervously, staring toward Cole's direction.
Unlike Starrk, she wasn't lazy—she was just utterly terrified of Cole.
The scale of his battles before had been so overwhelming that she'd felt nothing but despair. She didn't dare act up in front of him at all.
"We should at least go take a look..."
Starrk sighed, grabbing at his hair as he walked out.
"We finally don't have to wander around Hueco Mundo anymore, and we've made all these companions. I really don't want to start from scratch again."
His "aspect of death" as an Espada was solitude, but he was actually the one who hated being alone the most.
He'd even been willing to weaken his own power, splitting his soul and creating Lilynette, just so he wouldn't be alone.
...
Very soon, the gathered Arrancar all converged once more.
This time, instead of bickering, they quietly stood shoulder to shoulder, all turning their eyes toward the source of that spiritual pressure.
Under their gazes, Cole walked over, carrying a woman whose face was still faintly flushed.
On the way, that woman was constantly swinging her blade and chopping him on the head, sparks flying every time the blade struck.
All the Arrancar stared, question marks popping up over their heads.
What was this supposed to be?
Some kind of human-style massage?
Looking at all the familiar faces assembled at the gate of Las Noches, Cole curled his lips in a smile and waved cheerfully.
"Yo. Long time no see, everyone."
Grimmjow's eyes flared with battle lust.
He stomped hard on the ground and charged like a blue wolf, shouting,
"Shinigami, this isn't a place for you to run wild! Get the hell back where you came from!"
As he roared, his two-meter-long panther claw extended, sharp enough to slice the air itself as he slashed straight toward Cole's face.
Starrk sighed, looking at him helplessly.
"Grimmjow, you're way too reckless."
Of all the Arrancar present, only he had a truly clear idea of how strong Cole really was.
Even if Cole just stood there and didn't fight back at all, Grimmjow wouldn't be able to so much as scratch his spiritual-pressure barrier.
Of course, Cole had no intention of just standing there.
He raised an eyebrow.
Instead of counterattacking, he simply released his spiritual pressure.
Blue spiritual power surged forward like a tidal wave.
Charging in front, Grimmjow's expression changed instantly. He could barely control his body as he stared in shock at the azure flood.
"No way... what level of spiritual pressure is this!?"
The spiritual pressure in front of him had become a literal ocean, crashing down over him from every direction.
This was a scale of reiatsu he had never seen before.
Not even Barraggan, not even Aizen, had ever given him this kind of suffocating despair.
There was no time to think.
Grimmjow roared with all his might, but he still couldn't hold out.
His legs sank into the white sand, and it felt like a mountain had been dropped onto his shoulders.
As for the ordinary Arrancar present, they fared even worse.
Cold sweat poured down their faces as they collapsed one after another onto their knees.
They, too, could feel it—
That ocean-like, sky-crushing spiritual pressure.
This was no longer the same dimension of power.
Harribel was the only one still barely able to stand.
She gritted her teeth and stared at Cole.
"Human, what did you come here for?"
Cole looked at her and smiled faintly.
"Tier Harribel, right? Didn't I already tell you what I was coming here to do?"
Maintaining his output of spiritual pressure, he walked forward step by step and said calmly,
"I think this place is far too barbaric, so I kindly came over to remodel this so-called Las Noches."
"So from now on, all of you are my subordinates. You'll act according to my orders."
"I'd imagine..."
"You don't have any objections, do you?"
Cole stopped walking.
He was already standing right in front of the Arrancar, calmly watching their faces.
Under the crushing weight of his spiritual pressure, the ordinary Arrancar couldn't even form words.
They had no ability to object to anything he said.
Even the stronger Espada were shaken to the core by Cole's power, not daring to voice the slightest protest.
This was Hueco Mundo.
Here, death was the cheapest thing in existence.
And none of them wanted to die just yet.
Cole was very satisfied with their reaction.
If this were Seireitei, even if the Shinigami there knew they were no match for him, they would never submit.
But Hueco Mundo was different.
This was pure survival of the fittest.
The strong ruled everything.
As long as you could demonstrate overwhelming strength—
You could do as you pleased here.
Just like that Shinigami who had once ruled over Hueco Mundo for hundreds of years: Aizen.
With that in mind, Cole glanced up at the still-ruined, half-collapsed Las Noches, the fortress that had never been repaired since the great battle.
He gave his first order.
"From now on, all of you are going to rebuild this place."
(End of Chapter)
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