“It seems that Hikone and Ikomikidomoe are using their true power. Lord Tokinada has spoken his zanpaku-to’s true name.”
“Your spiritual pressure perception is really on cheater level.”
“I’m not omnipotent. I have simply ‘scattered’ pieces of myself here and there throughout the Kyogoku.”
“You can turn yourself into a gas and make offshoots of your sensory organs. That’s cheating if I ever saw it.”
They were in a subspace Yukio had created using his powers. Ginjo and the others had gone elsewhere, leaving only Aura and Yukio in that place.
“So what are you going to do now?” Yukio asked in a cool tone while fiddling with his game.
“If I attempt to assist them at the wrong time, I’ll get dragged into it. I think it would be best to wait for a good opportunity.”
“What about Kisuke Urahara?”
“Well… I apologize. Let’s put that discussion on the back burner.”
“What’s wrong?”
He’d noticed that Aura’s complexion had changed. When Yukio paused from his game to inquire about it, Aura smiled thinly and said, “It seems that our guest who arrived in the ‘throne’ has awakened. Let us head over there.”
She narrowed her eyes at the thought of the invader who was not present as she said with some admiration, “It is surprising he would show up there right from the start… What an interesting individual you are.”
≡
✦ ✦ ✦
“Your spiritual pressure has shot up in less than half a day.”
Grimmjow stated that as though seeking confirmation, and Hikone smiled and answered while fighting the Quincies high in the air, “Yes, sir! It’s because all of you were kind enough to fight Ikomikidomoe! Thank you so much for doing that!”
Hikone’s personality itself hadn’t changed, but their spiritual pressure had risen in strength by several degrees. Though Grimmjow had voiced his incredulity, he wasn’t especially surprised. When they had confronted one another in the Rukongai, he observed that the Soul Reaper Hikone had become strong enough to be mistaken for someone else just weeks after they had fought in Hueco Mundo. In which case, Grimmjow was not surprised that Hikone had progressed further in this short amount of time.
That was because he knew.
He knew a type of Soul Reaper who had made an explosive amount of progress in a short time, in just the same way, and who had continued to show striking progress even while battling.
“So you’re the same as Kurosaki,” Grimmjow muttered to himself as he dodged Ikomikidomoe’s attacks. He asked Hikone, “You said you’d become the king, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir!” Hikone answered with an invigorated smile.
Grimmjow put on a wicked grin.
“I see…and you still believe that?”
Grimmjow was not addressing his question to Hikone, but rather to Ikomikidomoe. The zanpaku-to that had transformed into a beast cackled in a way that reverberated as he answered, “You may rest easy, young Arrancar.”
The voice, which seemed to resound from deep within the ground, also seemed to have gained power compared to earlier.
“I will eventually consume that brat. I will make Hueco Mundo mine to rule.”
“Knew it. That’s what it felt like. I don’t know why you turned into a zanpaku-to, but you’re the same as us.”
“You claim I am the same as you? Do not be conceited. Your ilk are a far cry from those such as Barragan and me. You are nothing more than a starved beast that crawls in the desert.”
At these words from the monstrosity who clearly disdained him, Grimmjow bared his teeth in a smile.
“Looks like I made the right decision coming here after all.”
Grimmjow honed his boiling spiritual pressure and started to walk right toward Ikomikidomoe.
The reason Grimmjow had come all the way out of Hueco Mundo to search for Hikone in the first place was because the boy—or girl—had piped up with words the Arrancar could not ignore.
“I don’t care what the hell you are. If you’re standing in my way, I’ll keep going until I kill you and eat you.”
His instincts were driven by a memory from the past.
“Let’s walk together. You will become our king.”
When he took a step closer, his flesh would rankle. The monster that stood before his eyes and the one who controlled it in the shape of a Soul Reaper child were clearly dangerous beings. The appearance of the Soul Reaper and the childishness he sensed from their tone was nothing more than a papier-mâché façade. The Adjuchas-like appearance of the monstrosity was also nothing more than a front.
He understood that.
The Soul Reaper named Hikone had a spiritual pressure with qualities similar to Ichigo Kurosaki’s, but the child wasn’t like a living creature so much as a pocket of nothingness that had popped up in the world. If the world itself had a konpaku, it was as though a hole were carved into it the moment that konpaku Hollowified.
The monstrosity called Ikomikidomoe was the opposite of that. The being struck that hole with everything it had, like the incarnation of avarice itself. Ikomikidomoe was perhaps a monster with an equal, if not greater, spiritual pressure than the former king of Hueco Mundo, Barragan.
“We are aware of that now.”
“We were destined to be Adjuchas. But you were meant for something greater.”
Regardless, he took another step.
Thoughts of losing didn’t cross his mind. But these were not easy opponents to defeat. If things went sideways, he understood they could send his head flying with one hit.
However, Grimmjow did not stop walking.
He had no need to fight. After all, this was an internal conflict among the Soul Reapers, and he had no reason to be used by them.
However, Grimmjow had come here. No one had told him to come, and his reason for coming to the Soul Society from Hueco Mundo hadn’t changed.
Grimmjow did not smile at Tokinada’s words. He didn’t doubt them either. Tokinada only destroyed the world because he wanted to see it happen. While Grimmjow had understood that was an abnormal idea and though he had recognized that Tokinada was an enemy to hate, he didn’t think the thoughts themselves were entirely foreign.
That was because Grimmjow knew—no matter how trivial a reason it was, if it was one’s own path, then that was enough of a reason to make an enemy out of the world.
He had only one reason to fight Hikone.
“…become the king…”
Hikone and the monster that stood before him had each declared that. Had they been normal beings, he could have brushed it aside as foolish nonsense. Had he been the person he was when Aizen controlled him with overwhelming power, he definitely would have ignored them. However, after fighting against Ichigo Kurosaki and remembering the poignant appeals from his friends, those were words he would never turn a deaf ear to.
Because if he did brush it off, in that moment he would be denying his very own flesh and his very own blood.
“Eat us, Grimmjow.”
For what this declaration had called to his mind were the voices of his fellow Hollows deciding to give up their paths of their own volition and turning to Grimmjow as their king.
He was not doing this for the sake of his friends.
However, the part of them that had become his own flesh and his own blood stirred Grimmjow’s instincts as a beast.
It was because she knew his nature that Halibel, who was the true ruler of Hueco Mundo, did not call herself its king. No matter how those around them viewed it, the moment she took that name, she knew she would begin a fight to the death against Grimmjow.
Grimmjow as he was now, with his instinct back, would likely bare his fangs even knowing he would lose to the likes of Aizen or Barragan.
“I won’t let anyone deny me this.”
Grimmjow condensed his spiritual pressure into the claws of his hands as he leapt right at the gigantic monster in front of him. He moved like a heroic predator, ready to annihilate even a natural disaster.
“I’m the king.”