"Things have been going pretty smoothly."
Aboard the Rose Hunter, Starrk lounged bonelessly in a chair woven from vines, holding an enormous glass of fruit juice.
After taking a long drink, he let out a deeply satisfied sigh.
What kind of miserable life had he been living before this?
After becoming an Arrancar, he no longer needed ordinary food to survive.
Simply absorbing the Reishi in the environment was enough to sustain him.
But once a being possessed self-awareness, the desire to eat for pleasure was difficult to avoid.
Even someone as lazy and indifferent as Coyote Starrk was reluctant to put down his juice.
Nelliel and Harribel were even more obvious.
Nelliel held her glass in both hands and drank in tiny sips, her eyes happily narrowing every time she tasted it.
Harribel wasn't nearly as expressive, but it was clear she liked the drink as well.
"Things are going smoothly, but there are too many Hollows gathering here."
Seeing how unconcerned Cyrus looked, Starrk decided he should probably mention the problem.
"Some of them are pretty dangerous. Even I'm not sure I could handle every one of them."
Only then did Cyrus lift his face from where he had been comfortably resting against Robin and look over.
"Try putting in a little effort for once. Keep them from causing trouble. If you can't handle them, I'll do it myself."
He smiled casually.
"But if I step in, there won't be anything left afterward."
Starrk immediately remembered the Menos that Cyrus had burned so completely that not even their spiritual particles remained.
"I'll do my best."
That was about as much enthusiasm as he could promise.
"What about Baraggan?" Cyrus asked.
"He went back to Las Noches. Said he was going to rebuild it."
Starrk paused.
"But that guy isn't exactly famous for keeping his word."
After being dragged back in a half-dead state, Baraggan had recovered enough to regain consciousness.
Nearly being killed had done wonders for the old king's attitude, and once he met Cyrus, he had submitted with surprisingly little resistance.
Starrk had assumed Cyrus would keep Baraggan nearby and put him to work.
Instead, Cyrus had simply let him leave.
"I know."
Cyrus nodded, completely unconcerned.
Letting Baraggan go hadn't cost him anything.
For now, at least, the former ruler of Hueco Mundo could technically be considered one of Cyrus's subordinates.
If Aizen returned later and decided to defeat Baraggan as part of his original plan to seize Las Noches, then Cyrus would have every reason to interfere.
At that point, both strength and justification would be on Cyrus's side.
If Aizen wanted something from someone under Cyrus's protection, he would have to offer something worthwhile in exchange.
"There's something else."
Nelliel, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke.
"There are people moving around the outskirts all the time. They're definitely going to notice what's happening here."
"People?"
Cyrus smiled.
"You mean Shinigami?"
"Yeah."
Nelliel nodded.
She had clearly encountered Shinigami before, though judging from her expression, she had no interest in discussing those experiences in detail.
"They sometimes come here and kill Hollows," Harribel added. "Sung-Sun ran into some of them before. I drove them away."
"So the other Shinigami already know something is happening here."
Cyrus nodded thoughtfully.
"Makes sense. Hollows and Shinigami have always been enemies. There's no way they'd ignore major changes in Hueco Mundo, and Aizen certainly isn't the only person keeping an eye on this place."
He rubbed his chin, considered the situation for a moment, then suddenly looked in one direction.
"Well, speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives."
A grin spread across his face, amusement reaching his eyes.
"Who's Cao Cao?"
Robin asked curiously.
"A man with a particular appreciation for mature women."
Cyrus answered without missing a beat.
Starrk, Nelliel, and Harribel all stared at him with identical confusion.
"The Shinigami are here," Cyrus added. "And they brought quite a few people."
He stood and stretched lazily.
"Normally, I'd have you deal with them yourselves, but forget it. We're short on time."
The moment he finished speaking, his body burst apart into flames and disappeared.
A trace of surprise flashed through Starrk's eyes.
As far as his Pesquisa could tell, Cyrus had simply ceased to exist.
That wasn't Sonído, where movement relied on manipulating Reishi.
He had genuinely vanished from one location and appeared somewhere else.
While Starrk was still processing that, a thunderous explosion came from deep within the forest.
Boom!
Then another.
And another.
A chain of violent impacts echoed throughout the enormous forest, drawing the attention of numerous Menos wandering among the trees.
A crushing pressure descended immediately afterward, resembling an overwhelming burst of Reiatsu.
Then, just as suddenly, it disappeared.
Before Starrk and the others could figure out what was happening, a streak of fire crossed the entire forest and returned to the ship.
Several bodies were thrown onto the deck.
They were all Menos.
Judging from the pressure radiating from them, every one was either a Vasto Lorde or an advanced Hollow standing just below that level.
"You?"
The moment Nelliel saw one of them—a panther-like Hollow—she shot to her feet and instinctively assumed a guarded stance.
"Submit or die."
Cyrus had already sat back down.
He didn't bother with introductions.
"You bastard—"
One of the Hollows had apparently just recovered enough to understand what was happening.
It never finished the sentence.
Flames appeared around it without warning.
In less than an instant, the Hollow that had nearly reached Vasto Lorde level vanished completely.
Even its Reishi was burned away.
Every Hollow on the deck went rigid.
Another one that had been preparing to threaten Cyrus quietly swallowed whatever it had been about to say.
"Starrk."
Cyrus pointed in a particular direction.
"Take them with you. Go welcome our guests."
"Right."
Starrk nodded.
He glanced at the stunned Hollows, then toward Nelliel and Harribel before jumping down from the ship.
"Let's go."
Harribel followed immediately.
Nelliel looked back at the Hollows still standing motionless on the deck.
"You should probably move."
That finally snapped them out of it.
Without another word, they turned and followed.
Hueco Mundo had always operated under a brutally simple law.
The strong ruled the weak.
If someone could kill you effortlessly, you either submitted or died.
Your only other option was to gamble your life on the possibility that your enemy might show mercy.
And in Hueco Mundo, mercy was rarer than almost anything else.
Perhaps it barely existed at all.
"Those were the Shinigami?" Robin asked once the Hollows had left.
"Want to go see them for yourself?" Cyrus replied.
Robin was visibly tempted for a moment, but eventually shook her head.
"I think I'll pass. If they're really as strong as you've described, I probably wouldn't be a match for some of them."
"That's true."
Cyrus nodded.
"There are people among the Shinigami that even I'd have to take seriously."
His expression became slightly more interested.
"Actually, some of my techniques were based on the abilities of someone from this world. I'm rather looking forward to meeting him."
Robin immediately understood who he meant.
"The one with Ryūjin Jakka?"
She tilted her head.
"Jōkaku Enjō… and Tenchi Kaijin?"
Robin knew Cyrus's abilities well enough to recognize the reference.
She also knew that he had once developed several techniques inspired by those names.
It was simply that, as Cyrus became stronger and stronger, fewer opponents had been capable of forcing him to use them.
Eventually, he had stopped needing such techniques altogether.