"Tell me your name..." Yasutora Sado looked stunned. "Do you want me to help you put up a gravestone?"
The red-haired Edrad was taken aback too. "Would you?"
"I..." Yasutora Sado answered honestly. "Not really."
"Hmph... Hahahahahaha! Interesting! This is too interesting!" Edrad roared with laughter as he drew the Zanpakutō at his waist. "Tell me your name, human! In return, I'll let you witness my true form!"
"Yasutora Sado."
"I'll remember it. I'll raise a gravestone for you in Hueco Mundo." Edrad let out a low growl. "Erupt, Volcánica!"
A violent burst of Reiatsu exploded outward as the Zanpakutō vanished. Edrad's severed arm regenerated, then began growing wildly again.
Bone-white armor covered both his arms and shoulders. His thick, massive arms hung all the way to the ground, while his shoulder plates jutted up like volcanic craters, with black Hollow markings on the outer sides.
The Volcánica Beast raised its arms, and flames ignited across the spread fingers of its hands. "Do you see it? This is the true power of Volcánica."
With a slight lift of its arms, surging flames crashed toward Yasutora Sado like a waterfall, swallowing up his huge body.
The scorching fire licked across his body. Yasutora Sado raised his arms in front of himself and gathered spiritual energy to block it.
But the Volcánica Beast used that opening to rush in and slammed a punch into Yasutora Sado. The terrifying flames burst again, searing his body at point-blank range.
"Ohahahahahaha!" Volcánica chased after the Yasutora Sado who had been sent flying. "How is it?! Once a Zanpakutō is released, an Arrancar's combat strength multiplies several times over! With your current power, there's no way you can resist me!"
Yasutora Sado's eyes widened as he flew through the air. A strange light flashed beneath his feet, and in an instant he adjusted his posture and drove his fist forward to meet the Volcánica Beast's attack.
The two fists, vastly different in size, collided and sent a violent shockwave rolling out.
Spiritual energy wrapped around his arm, forming the outline of an even larger fist. Yasutora Sado actually forced himself to withstand Volcánica's blow.
"Useless!" Flames gushed from Volcánica's shoulders, driving the giant fist forward and crushing through, forcibly burning away the spiritual energy Yasutora Sado had gathered.
Wrapped in flames, Yasutora Sado fell helplessly to the ground.
"It's over." The Volcánica Beast landed beside Yasutora Sado. "Hueco Mundo will have a gravestone with your name on it."
A gravestone... huh?
Yasutora Sado climbed out of the crater and raised the fist encased in armor.
Back in middle school, he had said goodbye at his grandfather's grave and come here.
He met Ichigo Kurosaki after Yasutora Sado had been beaten up.
["Why didn't you fight back then, Chad?"]
Bruised and battered all over, Yasutora Sado reacted a beat late before realizing the orange-haired boy in front of him was talking to him. ["It's Sado."] That was how he corrected him.
["What kind of difference is that supposed to make?!"] The middle school Ichigo Kurosaki complained irritably. ["Good thing I happened to be nearby this time, or you would've died looking real pathetic!"] Ichigo Kurosaki couldn't understand it. ["Aren't you supposed to be strong? Why did you just let them push you around without fighting back?"]
["...I decided a long time ago that I would never throw a punch for my own sake. That's a promise I made with Abuelo."]
["Abue... what was it again?"]
["Abuelo. My grandfather."] Yasutora Sado explained patiently. ["His name is Oscar Joaquín De la Rosa. He's a Mexican Mestizo."]
Ichigo Kurosaki thought about it for a moment, but nothing came to mind, so he changed the subject. ["By the way, that thing... the one you always wear around your neck. Is it important?"]
["Yeah... that's right."] Yasutora Sado touched the coin hanging from his neck. ["It's important. Maybe more important than my own life."]
It was something left behind by his grandfather.
But even though Yasutora Sado refused to throw a punch for himself, there were still people who couldn't stand him.
There were too many reasons. People like that could always find an excuse to bully someone.
Yasutora Sado was tied to a chair with electrical wire and beaten as much as they pleased.
It's fine... This much pain is nothing.
Yasutora Sado had always been confident in his body.
But it was exactly because of that attitude that they changed their methods.
If they couldn't beat him into submission, they tore up his books, cut apart his schoolbag, ripped his clothes, and...destroyed the keepsake his grandfather had left him.
The one who appeared at that moment was Ichigo Kurosaki.
["Let's do it like this. You stick to your principles and don't throw a punch for yourself."] While beating those guys down, Ichigo Kurosaki came up with an idea. ["But you can throw a punch for me, and I'll throw a punch for you."]
["If it's something you want to protect no matter what, then I'll protect it with everything I've got too."] Ichigo Kurosaki knocked those guys down and held the coin out to Chad. ["That's our promise, Chad."]
["My name is... Sado."]
By the time he came back to his senses, Yasutora Sado had already become a well-known delinquent alongside Ichigo Kurosaki.
From middle school to high school, from the World of the Living... to Soul Society.
Maybe too much time had passed.
Yasutora Sado suddenly realized that somewhere along the way, he had actually started to forget.
He never raised his fists to defeat others.
He raised them... to protect others.
Boom!
Flames shot into the sky, and the surging heat distorted the air.
"Hm?" The Volcánica Beast sensed at once that something was wrong and looked down at Yasutora Sado beneath his fist. "You..."
"I heard them say that my power is different from that of Quincy and Shinigami. It's closer to that of a Hollow," Yasutora Sado said in a low voice. "I never understood the difference before, but... after fighting you, especially after your Resurrección, I finally understand."
The Volcánica Beast blasted Yasutora Sado away with a punch, then used Sonído to close in and continue the attack.
But the instant he threw another punch, a terrifying force came crashing at him head-on, forcing him to dodge.
"It feels like returning home from far away. As the scenery around me becomes more and more familiar, my original self is slowly awakening as well." Yasutora Sado swept a hand out and tore apart the flames wrapped around his body. "With every attack you threw at me, I became more familiar with your power, and at the same time, I came to understand my own true power more clearly."
The armor that had originally covered his right arm like skin now had the heavy solidity of real plate armor. A broad shield had formed along his forearm, black with red markings, shaped like an arrowhead and stretching all the way to his shoulder. The red patterns resembled a Hollow mask, taking the form of exposed fangs.
"This is my true power..." Dense spiritual energy erupted from the end of the shield. With a single swing of his arm, it became a howling storm. "Brazo Derecho del Gigante!"
The flames on Volcánica Beast's arms were snuffed out in an instant. What followed was a fist that rapidly grew larger and larger.
It was no illusion. It was a genuine fist of spiritual energy expanding in midair, breaking away from Yasutora Sado's arm and smashing toward Volcánica.
A strange sound echoed through the air as the Volcánica Beast used Sonído and appeared at Yasutora Sado's side, throwing a punch at him.
Yasutora Sado raised his arm and blocked the attack with ease. "Have you gotten slower?"
With a powerful swing, he flung the Volcánica Beast away.
"Hmph!" Flames flared again from the Volcánica Beast's shoulders. It was not that he had slowed down. Yasutora Sado had simply become even faster.
Using the air under his feet for leverage, Volcánica dove down once more.
Light flashed beneath Yasutora Sado's feet. Though he moved later, he arrived first, appearing beside Volcánica Beast. After gathering strength for a brief moment, he threw a punch.
The Volcánica Beast failed to evade in time. He only felt a series of cracking sounds run through his arm before his whole body was sent hurtling uncontrollably into the sky.
The air burst around him. the Volcánica Beast kept gathering footholds of Reishi one after another, yet he still could not steady himself.
And then Yasutora Sado appeared at his side again, his fist clenched tight.
Then... come on!
With a roar, the Volcánica Beast gave up trying to regain his balance altogether. Using flames, he blew apart his already shattered arm, and with the force of the explosion, gathered all the power in his body into his other fist to meet Yasutora Sado's attack head-on!
The raging flames surged up, only to be swallowed by spiritual energy in the next moment.
Blood sprayed from the Volcánica Beast's mouth. "What monstrous strength... just like a giant."
A full third of his body was blown away by that terrifying force. The Volcánica Beast's ruined body crashed to the ground and fell completely still.
Yasutora Sado swayed, blood spilling from his mouth and nose.
Volcánica's final attack had left him badly wounded as well.
But this was not the time to rest...
Yasutora Sado forced himself upright and looked toward the direction he could sense.
Ichigo...
In Ichigo Kurosaki's wide-open eyes was the reflection of the Zanpakutō rushing toward him in the man's hand.
A cold flash gleamed, and the ground shattered.
"Oh?" The man tilted his head to the side. "That kind of speed? Was that Shunpo?"
"It's Hirenkyaku." The wound on Ichigo Kurosaki's shoulder had already stopped bleeding. He looked at the shattered ground with lingering fear. "Though someone really hates it when I call it that."
Uryū Ishida had always considered Ichigo Kurosaki an anomaly.
And when that anomaly started improving at a terrifying rate, he liked him even less.
"A Quincy... that really is an ancient existence." The man vanished from Ichigo Kurosaki's sight and reappeared behind him. "So this is what you've become now? I remember your kind used bows and arrows."
Reishi flashed beneath his feet as Ichigo Kurosaki dodged the man's slash, then swung Zangetsu backhanded to unleash Getsuga Tenshō. "I don't know anything about that. Anyway... this is how I use it!"
"It seems you know very little about Quincy." The man avoided the Getsuga with ease. "A very, very long time ago, I once witnessed Quincy in battle. That was how I learned there was a very important reason they used bows and arrows."
Ichigo Kurosaki kept swinging Zangetsu, sending crescent after crescent flying.
The man used Sonído, his figure flickering in and out, shifting between blur and clarity as he strolled through the barrage of Getsuga and gradually closed the distance.
Good...
Ichigo Kurosaki raised his left hand. He had already released enough Getsuga. As long as he gathered them together again, he could unleash a terrifying attack far beyond his usual power in a single instant.
A deep blue light bloomed in the palm of his left hand, and the Reishi Getsuga he had released began to gather once more.
"So you really were not listening to a word I said..." The man stopped directly in front of Ichigo Kurosaki. "The reason Quincy use bows and arrows is not because they are good at them. It is because bows are ranged weapons. Only by using bows can they make sure they are not injured by Hollows."
Ichigo Kurosaki needed time to prepare, so he followed the man's lead and asked, "What are you talking about?"
"If a Quincy is wounded by a Hollow, Hollow Reiatsu remains on their body." The man ignored the increasingly intense concentration of Reishi in Ichigo Kurosaki's hand. "And Hollow Reiatsu, which is constantly collapsing, severely disrupts a Quincy's ability to gather Reishi, and then..."
Blood suddenly burst from the wound on Ichigo Kurosaki's shoulder that had already stopped bleeding. The Reishi Getsuga gathered in his palm was stained with blood, instantly losing all its previous stability and erupting wildly out of control.
With a tremendous blast, Ichigo Kurosaki's entire left arm was torn into a bloody mess, the wound so deep that bone could be seen.
Watching Ichigo Kurosaki collapse to the ground, the man raised his Zanpakutō. "And this is what happens."
Ichigo Kurosaki's vision blurred. Blood covered his eyes, dyeing everything he saw crimson.
Muten...
Ichigo Kurosaki instinctively called that name, but what he heard was another voice instead.
Sharp, mocking, eerie, and echoing.
["This is no time to place your hopes on someone else!"]
Who are you...
["I am... Zangetsu!"]
Bone-white matter gushed out from the wound on his shoulder, covering his mangled left arm like some kind of slime before solidifying into the shape of an arm.
But compared to his original arm, this new one looked far more vicious.
It was bone-white all over, with bulging muscles and razor-sharp nails. Savage spikes even jutted from the shoulder.
The bone-white substance crawled from his shoulder up across his cheek, covering half of Ichigo Kurosaki's face and forming a bone-white mask with exposed teeth, decorated with grotesque patterns the color of blood.
The whites of his eyes were swallowed by blackness, and his pupils shone with an ominous dim yellow.
Ichigo Kurosaki's monstrous left hand seized the man's Zanpakutō. Laughing wildly, he swung Zangetsu and tore open the man's chest.
"Wh. What?!" The man had none of his earlier elegance left. "What kind of monster are you?!"
"How rude!" Half his face covered by the mask, Ichigo Kurosaki grinned savagely, the corners of his mouth almost split to his ears. "Aren't you one too?"
"..." The tall, thin man let out a low roar. "Snip, Tijereta!"
His Reiatsu surged violently. The wounds on his body healed completely, and his form changed with them. An insect-like bone-white exoskeleton covered his upper body, a scissor insect tail emerged from his braid, the mask on his face spread from the left half of his face down to his chin, and both his arms and hands lengthened into bone-like blades.
Tijereta flashed forward, bursting with speed far beyond anything from before, and carved five wounds into Ichigo Kurosaki's body.
But bone-white matter gushed out at once, instantly sealing the wounds.
"Watch closely..." Ichigo Kurosaki violently swung the great blade Zangetsu in his right hand. "This is how Zangetsu is supposed to be used!"