Looking at the gigantic building halfway buried in the sand, Aura realized that she had collapsed on top of the soft and cool sands herself.
It was likely somewhere in Hueco Mundo.
Why was she in Hueco Mundo? As she wondered that, Aura confirmed that she was still conscious. She had no memories from after she drove the castle in the sky into the garganta. She had thought she would simply continue to wander within the endless expanse of the garganta and that her reishi itself would simply rot away, but for some reason she was stretched out on this sand.
However, she had done what she needed. She realized that this time, she had lost everything. She might have developed an attachment. But she didn’t regret that.
It was more likely that Hikone’s world would expand if they were raised by those Soul Reapers, rather than by her. Regardless, she didn’t have the strength to stand up. If her blood and reishi continued to flow out of her, she would probably become one with the sand.
Even as Aura thought that, she realized that the pain had disappeared. When she slowly raised her face, she realized her wounds had closed.
Though she was bewildered, a young woman right next to her spoke. “Oh…so you’ve woken, then?”
An Arrancar woman was standing there with unbelievably kind eyes. There was a thin thread extending from the woman’s hand sewing together the wound in Aura’s side, all the way down to the delicate blood vessels and nerves.
She heard another voice from a spot slightly further away. “Oh, can you get up already? You’re amazing, Roka. I thought she was a goner…”
“You’re the one…who was in the Kyogoku…”
“Yes, I’m Nelliel. And she’s Halibel, over there.”
When Aura looked over, she met eyes with an Arrancar who was leaning on the rubble a slight distance away. Though the woman looked at Aura for a while, as though the Arrancar had lost interest, she turned her eyes to the partially destroyed castle.
“She’s just being bashful. Halibel is instinctively kind to children and people who like children.”
When Aura looked, the Arrancar called Halibel was looking at a crowd of children—or to be more accurate, Arrancars in the shape of children. The children were playing hide-and-seek in the ruins of the floating castle, jumping around all over the place and releasing Ceros and Baras at each other.
“It seems that the castle you brought here has become the playground for Picaro’s child. Though it does not quite match Hueco Mundo, I believe it will become covered in dust and fit in very soon.”
“Why am I…here?”
“I brought you here. It wasn’t as though I could have left you in the garganta like that, right?”
When Nelliel said that, Aura’s eyes widened.
“You…saved me?”
“Ahh…half saved.”
“Half?”
“You might not have noticed…but you can’t exist as a human in the world of the living anymore…”
When she heard that, Aura understood what it meant.
As a human, she had died in the garganta.
“Since your konpaku was pretty beat up, I called Roka and had her treat you as soon as possible. The air here is concentrated with reishi, so your recovery is going pretty quickly because of her powers, right?”
“Why would you do so much for me?”
“Huh? Well, if we left you, even your konpaku probably would have disappeared.”
As though she were an entirely different person from when she had been battling Ikomikidomoe, Nelliel spoke in a mellow tone.
When Aura heard the woman’s words, her eyes opened wide again. She was bewildered when faced with the Arrancar’s honest goodwill.
Looking at her, Nelliel made a mistaken assumption and asked, “Are you hungry?” and pulled Aura into a building to the side.
“Pesche! Dondochakka! Let’s have our meal! And since they’re already here, how about we call Halibel and Roka over too?”
When the Arrancars in front of her began to prepare a meal before she had a chance to protest, Aura lost her opportunity to turn them down and was forced to sit.
“Umm, and this is…”
“It’s a meal made from Hueco Mundo’s lizards and characteristic snow herbs. Don’t worry, it’s not a person’s konpaku or anything.”
A meal.
When she saw the unfamiliar ingredients, a memory from Aura’s youth revived in her head.
She recalled the rotten foods she had eaten when she first left the glass case and had to steel herself as she brought the food to her mouth. Then, against her expectations, the taste was rich and colorful.
“…It’s…very good.”
Aura expressed her sensation with wonder, and Nelliel broke into an innocent smile, almost like a child’s.
As they continued with their meal, Nelliel asked Aura what she would do now.
“What do you want to do next? If you want to move on properly, I can introduce you to Ichigo.”
“No…I have no place to go. I’m not sure if I have the right to go through konso.”
“Really? Then do you want to rest here until you figure out what you want to do? Right. I’ve been interested in learning more about the palate and cuisine of humans in the world of the living! So why don’t you help out with our meals here?”
Nelliel spoke as though she had come upon a truly good idea, and Aura felt a swelling sensation.
I thought I wouldn’t be able to see Hikone, but…
I wonder what I should do.
Since she had lost her kishi body, there was no point in going back to the world of the living in order to continue serving as the leader of her religious group. She had left the rest to Yukio and would just cause confusion by going back.
As Aura pondered what to do, Nelliel asked her, “Hey, what about you? Do you like cooking? I do. I’d like Ichigo and his friends in the world of the living to eventually try out these meals!”
She would have the humans from the world of the living eat the cuisine of this land. Though it sounded absurd, it made Aura pursue a very specific line of thought.
Someday, after Hisagi and the rest spread out across the world of the Soul Society in front of them…
…eventually, Hikone might once again come to this land.
If that happened, wasn’t it likely that Hikone would try the food here as well?
If she were allowed to, she might even develop the courage to visit them in the Soul Society from here.
If she just had a reason—one little reason that would give her a slight push…
I’ll see Hikone again.
As she savored the food Nelliel and the others treated her to, Aura realized she had started to cry.
“What’s wrong? Were you so hungry that you’re crying?”
“No, Lady Nelliel. She must just be grateful for the delicious dessert I made!”
“Or she might’ve just burst out crying because of how horrible it tasted!”
“No…it’s very good.” While savoring the meal, Aura answered the earlier question. “I love…food.”
There was just one thought that had been conjured in her mind. It was a simple wish to someday feed Hikone this meal herself. In just the same way that her father had fed her when she was young.
“I love eating it… And I’m sure in the future…I’ll love making these meals too.”
As she cried, she realized she was smiling.
Then, after her modest exchange with Nelliel, she decided in her heart that she would live alone in a corner of Hueco Mundo.
She dreamed of Hikone at some future time breaking out into such a smile.
“What? It wasn’t an enemy? Lame.”
When Grimmjow saw Aura and Nelliel becoming acquainted with each other, he looked bored and stared out over the desert from on top of the rubble.
Halibel, who had finished her meal with Nelliel and the others, came to stand behind Grimmjow and said, “You’re not going to show your face in there?”
“I’ve got no interest in making friends.”
When he answered, somewhere in his lost soul—in his Hollow hole—something burned and seethed.
Though he had finally gotten to fight an opponent that was a true challenge for him, the fact that he had done it with others and that he had been beaten by Tokinada right after was a hard pill to swallow.
“I’ve got to settle things with the blockhead Luppi too.”
In order to make sure he never fell behind a second time, Grimmjow imagined his foe and smiled boldly. He didn’t think only of Luppi, but also recalled the face of the orange-haired boy he had appraised as an enemy.
“But he didn’t come out even after we made that huge commotion…”
“That Kurosaki better not’ve gone soft because of the peace.”
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