Chapter 41
"Nelliel, it's been a long time."
"I really didn't expect you to fall this low. How hilarious, to be clinging to a Shinigami."
Nnoitra licked his lips, his eyes locked on the little green-haired girl hiding behind Shinji:
"And that stench of yours, it disgusts me even from a distance!"
"Weak, why are you still alive?"
"Just die already, you useless woman!"
Upon hearing this,
Pesche shouted in rage:
"Damn you, Nnoitra! Why won't you just leave Lady Nilu alone?!"
"She's already lost all her memories, and was forced by you to fall back to the Adjuchas level. Isn't that enough?!"
Nnoitra tilted his head slightly, face cold:
"Stop joking, trash. No matter what Nelliel has become, she's still my enemy."
He sneered and easily knocked back the charging Pesche and Dondochakka:
"This woman who always pitied others… only by killing her can I be satisfied!"
Boom!
Golden spiritual pressure surged into the sky.
Nnoitra took a step forward, pointing his scythe at Shinji with a mocking grin: "So, Abarai Renji. Our last battle got interrupted."
"Now, let's finish it."
"Only one of us is walking away alive."
"And that one… will be me, Nnoitra!"
"The strongest, Nnoitra!"
Shinji tilted his head: "Abarai Renji… who's that?"
Nnoitra: "???"
What the hell?
Aren't you Abarai Renji?
His face twisted in confusion.
"If you're looking for Abarai Renji, go to Soul Society. What's he got to do with me, Kuchiki Shinji?"
Shinji's expression was puzzled.
"You bastard! You're playing me?!"
Nnoitra's pupils shrank, instantly exploding in rage.
He'd been played for a fool by Nelliel and this Shinigami brat!
Boom!
In a blur, Nnoitra vanished from sight, a shockwave blasting from where he stood, scattering the desert sand.
The clash began in a flash.
Even with their enhanced Adjuchas senses, Pesche and Dondochakka could barely track their movements.
Bang!
"One Sword Style: Thunderclap!"
A white surge of lightning cracked through the air toward Nnoitra.
"You think that little trick will work?!"
Nnoitra twisted in the air, dodging the bolt and slashing downward from above Shinji.
But,
"Wait… I missed something!"
Just as his scythe cut through Shinji, Nnoitra realized,
It wasn't the real Shinji.
Just an afterimage!
Suddenly, CRACK!
A massive force smashed into his skull, slamming his head into the ground.
BOOM!
A massive crater formed in the sand, debris and dust raining down.
"So strong…"
Pesche stared in disbelief.
So this was the strength of the man Lady Nilu chose to follow?
To dominate Nnoitra, the fifth Espada, with one blow?
"Lady Nilu really did choose someone extraordinary," Dondochakka murmured.
Nilu didn't like to fight.
Pesche and Dondochakka had always tried to protect that peaceful world for her.
But now, if Nilu had chosen to follow Shinji and fight again,
Then as her subordinates, they would never fall behind!
At that moment,
Thud!
An arm burst from the sand, and Nnoitra crawled out with a dark expression.
This guy, this brat is faster than me!?
This Shinigami's here to destroy him!
"There's no place for someone stronger than me!!"
"Come on, fight me!!"
"That's why I want to be strong!"
Nnoitra charged again.
But the next moment,
A flash of steel slashed him, sending him stumbling.
He couldn't even catch Shinji's blade!
"This power, damn it!!"
Nnoitra ignored the arm that had been ripped apart.
Slash.
Slash.
Slash again!
If an arm breaks, tear it off and regrow it!
Broken bones? Who cares, they'll heal!
As the two kept clashing, sand and wind howled through the sky.
The desert turned black with debris.
Nnoitra began fighting with wild abandon, making the battle fiercer by the second.
Each blow splashed blood.
Severed limbs fell on the sands, soon buried again.
"Guys like us… we can't be redeemed once we're at Espada level."
Bleeding, panting, Nnoitra grinned through his wounds:
"Shinigami, Nelliel, none of that matters!"
"The only thing I owe is to that man, the one who gave me this strength!"
"I am the strongest, Nnoitra!"
"No one else can be stronger than me!"
With a crazed look, he ripped off his broken arm and glared at Shinji:
"You Shinigami brat!"
"Maybe I'll die one day… but not today!"
"I only need to win!"
"To win, win, and win again!"
"I alone am the strongest!"
"Resurrección!"
"Pray, Santa Teresa!!"
With that roar,
A deafening boom erupted.
A terrifying surge of Reiatsu exploded outward, shaking the entire area!
In an instant, Nnoitra's spiritual pressure reached a whole new level.
"This is… Resurrección?!"
Pesche staggered, overwhelmed by the spiritual pressure, nearly collapsing.
Barely holding on, he shouted:
"Master Shinji, be careful!"
"Resurrección is like a Shinigami's Bankai, it unleashes the true form of an Arrancar and heals all injuries!"
"This Nnoitra is dozens of times stronger than before!"
BOOM!
A sonic boom cracked the air.
Nnoitra now looked vastly different.
A crescent-shaped horn rose from his head, yellow cross patterns stretched over his face, and a tooth-like eyepatch masked his hollow hole.
Six arms, each wielding a double-edged scythe.
And above all, his monstrous, unchecked Reiatsu!
"Too noisy, bug."
With a grin, Nnoitra slashed at the paralyzed Pesche!
Clang!
Shinji appeared instantly, blocking the strike with one hand.
Rumble!!
Amidst the deafening clash of power, the sands sank deeper into the desert.
"You think you can cut down my subordinates right in front of me? Don't you think that's a bit disrespectful?"
Nnoitra scoffed, spinning his blade and bursting into loud laughter.
"But hey, haven't you realized it yet?"
"You and I… we're no longer in the same league, brat."
"It turns out, you're just that, nothing much."
With a flex of his fingers, golden Reiatsu sparked around Nnoitra like crackling lightning.
The moment Shinji was slashed, Nnoitra had used Pesche to analyze his spiritual pressure, measuring the depth of Shinji's Reiatsu through his own unique method.
And sure enough, what he sensed, Shinji's Reiatsu was just slightly above average.
But his current self, after his Resurrección, had Reiatsu that was dozens of times stronger than before!
The thrill of domination surged through him.
With all six scythes, Nnoitra launched a storm of slashes, each one faster than the last.
In just seconds, thousands of blows had been delivered.
"Go to hell!"
"DIE!"
"I'm the strongest! You're nothing! You'll be crushed here and now!"
Amidst manic laughter, Nnoitra delivered a final slash, overflowing with golden spiritual pressure.
The air trembled violently, space itself seemed to tear apart under the weight of his power.
A gaping black tear was sliced across the sky.
Then,
BOOM!
The earth quaked as the slash struck.
A monstrous sandstorm erupted, devouring everything in its path. The world turned dark under a rising mountain of dust.
And in that final thunderous blow, the last golden slash landed with crushing force.
Holding his scythe proudly, Nnoitra sneered.
"Finally dead, Shinigami brat."
...
He laughed.
The Shinigami's spiritual pressure had vanished from his senses.
And that could only mean one thing: death.
That damned kid was dead!
But then,
Crack!
An arm burst from the dust, effortlessly shattering the golden slash into fragments.
Nnoitra's laughter died in his throat.
Shinji slowly stepped out, Zanpakutō in hand.
"My Reiatsu disappearing from your senses… made you think I died?"
"Don't you get it? You can't feel my Reiatsu…"
"…because you and I aren't even in the same dimension."
With those words, blue-violet spiritual pressure exploded from Shinji like a raging storm, climbing into the sky like fire laced with lightning.
The sky tore open.
"Th-this… this is Lord Shinji's Reiatsu?"
"So powerful… like a monster…"
Pesche and Dondochakka were stunned.
Their senses couldn't even grasp the limit of Shinji's power.
In that moment…
They felt as if they were witnessing the birth of a god.
No wonder Lady Nilu chose to follow him.
Crack! Crack!
Nnoitra, drenched in sweat, staggered backward under the oppressive force of Shinji's Reiatsu.
Even after unleashing his Resurrección, unlocking the full potential of his strength, he was still utterly overpowered.
All those thousands of strikes?
Not even a scratch on Shinji.
"No… this is impossible…"
"This can't be real!"
"How can there be such a strong Shinigami in this world?! I'm the strongest! I'M THE STRONGEST!"
Despite his crushed bones, broken limbs, and fading soul, Nnoitra pressed forward.
Blood pouring, body collapsing, he still walked toward Shinji.
"You… who only sees despair… sometimes it's better to look up at the stars."
"Nnoitra. It's over."
"Can you hear it?"
"Reki's Whisper."
Shinji stepped forward.
Zanpakutō sheathed.
In the next moment,
Countless deep slashes suddenly appeared all over Nnoitra's body, blood spraying like a fountain.
The devastating aftermath swept out for thousands of meters, a massive shockwave engulfing the night.
BOOM!
The wind howled, nearly blowing Nilu away.
She cried out and leapt onto Shinji's back with lightning speed, her eyes locked on the quickly fading figure of Nnoitra, now buried in the sand.
His spiritual pressure collapsed entirely, his body beyond repair, High-Speed Regeneration rendered useless.
This… was death.
"Kuchiki Shinji… so that's your name…"
As his face began to be buried in sand, Nnoitra gazed up at the starlit sky.
"…Heh. You're one tricky bastard, Shinigami brat…"
"In this fight… I, Nnoitra… lost."
"I admit it… you're stronger than me."
"…That was a damn good fight."
"If possible… I'd want to fight you again, brat…"
His voice faded.
The yellow sand buried him.
Nnoitra's Reiatsu vanished completely.
Silence.
With a thud, Pesche collapsed to the ground.
It's over.
Nnoitra's pressure had been suffocating.
So strong, even the weight of his Reiatsu nearly made Pesche faint.
Next to him, Dondochakka lay drenched in sweat, like he'd just survived a flood.
But they'd really won.
Even someone as powerful as Nnoitra, Espada No.5, a high-level Adjuchas-class Arrancar…
…was defeated by Kuchiki Shinji.
Pesche glanced at Shinji in awe, then noticed Nilu smiling joyfully on his shoulder.
And finally, a smile broke on his own face.
"Looks like we'll have a good life ahead, Dondochakka."
Dondochakka, still flat on the sand, nodded with a faint smile.
"Yeah… as long as we can stay with Lady Nilu, that's enough."
Death was terrifying.
But for Nilu's sake, they'd give everything.
Then,
A light, mocking voice suddenly broke the silence:
"Oi, looks like I got here at the perfect time."
"That idiot Nnoitra… and you actually managed to kill him?"