Chapter 172 - The Flames of Retaliation

"Why don't you quit playing these hide-and-seek games and come out? I much prefer talking face-to-face." — Sawatari.

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[Hueco Mundo] 

The air in the Forest of Menos was supercharged with sinister glee and dark anticipation that it felt tangible and heavy. The Hollows that called this place their home were drawn to the pool of malice that subsumed the forest, with only the ones with more developed intellect wisely keeping away from the eye of the negative storm. 

Those too rabid to care or got too drunk on the negativity and approached carelessly were either wiped away just from the pressure or got so drunk that they started feasting on the nearest Hollow. 

Crazy or not, no Hollow dared step closer to the titular eye of the storm, not because they were afraid of death but because there was something more terrifying than death in the depths of the forest. 

The despair of the strong. 

The beings that had taken residence in the Forest of Menos were both the ambition and dread of all Hollows. 

Vasto Lordes. 

... 

"Let's do this already!" Yammy roared in anticipation, earning him a few reproachful stares which he ignored. 

"Can you remain quiet for more than a minute? Some of us will actually like to hear something other than your aggravating voice." Szayelaporro scoffed in disgust. 

The other Hollows stared at Aizen, waiting expectantly for his reply. Seeing this, Aizen couldn't help but smile a little. 

"Answering Yammy's question; yes, we'll be leaving soon. In a few minutes in fact." 

His Espada were out for blood, and he had no one but Itachi to thank for that. If anything, Itachi's arrogant actions lit up a flame of desire in the empty holes they all carried. 

At this point, he didn't have to control them with power or ambition or desire. All they wanted to do at this moment was kill. They wanted to devour. 

No matter how human they looked, they remained Hollow underneath. And every newborn Hollow's first instinct is to kill and devour. 

And yet these powerful Hollows were willing to satisfy their basest instinct in the most primal way possible. 

"If I may ask something, Lord Aizen." Zommari addressed Aizen deferentially and bowed in gratitude after getting an approving nod. 

"How did you draw the Shinigami's attention away from the World of the Living?"

Aizen allowed himself to chuckle because the irony was genuinely sincere. "I gave them the one thing they have in spades: an enemy."

Though none of them knew the specifics of his words, they didn't question it either. Their faith in his words showing. 

"With that out of the way, let us go and meet my former comrades."

Ulquiorra stepped forward and tore open a Garganta with a casual wave of his hand and stepped through it, prompting the others to follow. 

….. 

[Soul Society, Seireitei] 

Itachi eyed the two men's movements and patiently waited for them to make the first move. His eyes were dead set on them, micro-analyzing and psychoanalyzing every move they made. 

The short fused man was more than happy to oblige Itachi's silent beckoning, but did so in a peculiar way. 

"Let's kill him, Ritz!" A weird flower grew up from the ground and drew its stem and roots into its body, leaving only a tiny flying rodent's head with the petals wrapped around its body like a cloak. 

The strange creature multiplied itself and flew towards the body's of downed Shinigami who still had a gust of breath left in their lungs, rooting itself into their chest and controlling their bodies. 

Seeing the display the man was putting up, Itachi no longer hesitated and attacked – because apart from the abundance of energy their body contained, he didn't feel any strong sense of danger from them, only the strangeness of their being. 

Itachi disappeared from their sight, much to the shock of both men who weren't expecting such speed, and appeared behind Mabashi, his Zanpakutō wreathed in blackest flames, his precision staying through. 

Amaterasu's flames engulfed Mabashi as he was cut in two. His life ended without a sound. Quick. Painless. Effortless. 

With Mabashi's death, Fritz, his strange creature, let out a strangled cry as its life ended along with its master's. 

Seeing that the creature's clones disappeared just like it did, Itachi turned towards the last man, Utagawa if he heard correctly, his red eyes boring into the man's terrified one. 

"Fried!" A long golden snake coiled around the man protectively and hissed threateningly at Itachi whose eyes currently had the snake in its gaze. 

"I am not fond of snakes." Itachi dryly commented. 

The man's Reiatsu skyrocketed astronomically, baring openly to Itachi's eyes his act of indiscriminately absorbing all the Reishi particles around him. 

'Such rate of absorbing Reishi. Is he a Quincy?' Itachi looked at the ground filled with snakes, a new one being created from every surface the golden snake touched. 

"End him, Fried!" A writhing mass of snake rushed towards Itachi who remained standing unfazed, simply uttering:

"Honshin."

Not knowing what Itachi was doing, Utagawa hurried his snakes to kill the man. "Don't let him move, Fried!"

The snakes formed a cocoon around Itachi, causing Utagawa to sigh in relief and a reassuring smile blooming back into his face. 

"Riddle him with poison before crushing him to death, Fri–" 

"I dislike snakes a lot."

Utagawa took a subconscious step back when the cocoon of snakes started hissing in pain before combusting into black flames. 

"W-what are you?" Even through the haze of burning black, Utagawa could feel those red eyes staring straight into him. 

That gaze of his was like a harvesting scythe curving around his neck unforgivingly. 

"A Shinigami."

...

Shunsui held in a sigh as he stood atop of the buildings near the northern gate, using his senses to paint a general map of what was currently happening in the Seireitei. 

Unfortunately he couldn't make it look like he was slacking even a little bit as he could feel Nanao's nervous gaze travelling to him every now and then. 

It was her first time witnessing something of this scale. A bit of nerves was understandable. As such he couldn't allow himself don on any image other than one that was infallible. 

If those Shinigami down below couldn't feel protected in his presence then he has already failed as a Captain. 

'Still, I guess Central 46 couldn't risk the possibility of losing multiple of their precious objects. How typical.' 

If not for the genuine fear of losing those things, the Gotei 13 would never have been put in such a state of panic. They had made it seem as if a great enemy with multiple Captain-level Shinigami was coming to conquer the Seireitei, pushing the ignorant Shinigami to become more desperate and lethal. 

'Bount huh. Similar to both Quincy and Shinigami.' Just another of the Gotei 13's dark past being unearthed in the face of the newer generation. 

Mayuri had quickly figured out the identity of their new attackers. All that remained now was to kill them to put an end to this episode. 

Shunsui tipped down his hat. It was a heartless sentiment some might say but right and wrong rarely mattered when fighting for one's life. 

"Oh it looks like Itachi isn't pleased. I wonder why that is." He joked to himself. 

BOOOOOM! 

"Phew! That was a close one." Shunsui sweatdropped at how close he was to being swallowed up. 

"Why do I always end up with the annoying ones?" He lamented before jumping away from the building right on time as a giant fish mouth opened and swallowed half of the building before sinking into the floor. 

"Hey, Nanao. Be a dear and get the others away from here, okay?" His ever diligent Lieutenant nodded but her worries for him were practically beaming on her face. Bless her heart. 

"Sorry, but a cute girl is looking at this old man with googly eyes. I'll have to use you to look good."

'Itachi mentioned a fish that moved with some type of spatial technique. Which means I can only attack when it resurfaces itself.'

If there was anyone else here then he might have complained about fighting stressful opponents, but he couldn't go and complain to Nanao now could he?

"One, two, annnnd jump." He avoided the troublesome fish's upward lunge, leaving the fish's underside open to him as it was currently in freefall. 

"Sorry, but this might hurt."

"Hadō #54: Haien."

An eradicating purple flame appeared in front of him which he then slashed with his sword, reshaping it into a slash arc that sailed at the exposed underside. 

However to Shunsui's surprise and slight embarrassment, the fish simply used his tails to smack the Kidō spell and causing it to explode against its tail.

"At least it did something." He clearly had heard a pained cry from the overgrown fish before it sank into the ground. 

"Well, here goes nothing."

"Flower Wind Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer."

"Katen Kyōkotsu."

His twin slender blades turned into two black heavily curved scimitars. 

He looked at the creature who was eyeing him warily while being half submerged in the ground, seemingly swimming in an alternate space. Seeing the old man sitting on an encased chair-like shell, he smiled heartily. 

"Say old man, how about we don't fight or do anything too stressful and do something light and fun instead?"

The old man narrowed his eyes at Kyōraku who just nodded good-naturedly, his eyes turning into crescents to match the smile on his lips. 

"How about we play some children's games instead?"

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