Grimmjow ripped apart the ink blocking him with a single claw, then grabbed Myōki as it broke free. Using his Hierro to take the Ink Fortress flash head on, he clenched Myōki's blade, yanked Muten Natsu in front of him, and drove his knee up hard.
A sharp crackle rang out as electricity surged across Myōki. Lightning Flash went off at point blank range. Even with Hierro protecting him, Grimmjow's body still stiffened for an instant.
Water Flow Flash came right after. Reiatsu turned into rushing water and forced Grimmjow's fingers apart. Freed from his grip, Myōki vanished back into Muten Natsu's left arm.
The numbness from the current slowed Grimmjow's knee for the briefest moment, and Muten Natsu used that opening to flash backward, slipping out of its range.
"Boring..." Grimmjow growled, his voice low and rough. He twisted in midair and slammed a kick into Muten Natsu's chest, knocking him out of the sky. "Tricks!"
Muten Natsu crashed onto the road and disappeared into a deep crater.
The dust had not even settled before Grimmjow dove after him.
Muten Natsu did not even have time to get up before claws tore through the air and came shrieking down at him.
"Found it..." Spiritual ink spilled from the Bokukō in his hand and sank into the ground. Along the route Muten Natsu had taken before, traces left by the Bokukō Gigai were already there. As the spiritual ink flowed into them, those footprints linked together at once, forming a passage that stretched far into the distance.
Muten Natsu's figure blurred and slipped into the spiritual ink, shooting away at a terrifying speed.
"Hmph! Trying to run?" Grimmjow ripped through the ground with one claw. His savage sky blue eyes instantly locked onto the direction Muten Natsu was fleeing, and with a flare of his nostrils, he caught the distinctive scent of spiritual ink.
Where is he going...?
Grimmjow had been too absorbed in the fight to notice anything around him.
But the moment Muten Natsu suddenly fled, Grimmjow instinctively opened his sensory circuits and immediately realized something was wrong.
It was not just the weakest one, Di Roy. Even the taciturn Nakeem had died at some point without him noticing.
And Edrad Liones, who was always laughing. And Shawlong Koufang, who always stood behind him with his hands behind his back.
They were all dead.
"Damn it..." Grimmjow dropped low and chased after Muten Natsu racing through the ink, like a cheetah on the hunt. "Damn it!!!"
…
Back then, Shawlong had asked him, ["What is your name?"]
["Grimmjow."]
When he answered, Grimmjow was still chewing on Di Roy's flesh.
["My name is Shawlong. Join forces with us, Grimmjow."]
Grimmjow had not wanted to work with them.
There was no reason to.
Shawlong gave him one.
["You won't lose out."]
Five Intermediate Menos knelt beside Grimmjow.
["We... are not satisfied with being nothing more than Lower or Intermediate Menos."]
["We have to become... the Highest-Ranking Menos."]
["For that, we need power. We need a great power to lead us."]
["You can be that power. Come with us."]
["You will become... our king."]
Grimmjow did not care about being a king.
If these guys wanted to follow him, then fine, they could follow.
They were just a pack of useless trash, not even worth destroying.
And yet it was that same trash...
["What did you say?"]
["I said... I've given up."]
Gone was all the resolve they once had. After following Grimmjow for so long, they said those words.
["Because I understand now... we can never become the Highest-Ranking Menos."]
["We... stopped feeling any increase in our power after devouring a thousand Hollows."]
["Today, we've already preyed on three thousand."]
["I know very well that there is no point in going on."]
["How boring. If you want to give up, go find somewhere and end yourselves!"]
Grimmjow did not care whether they followed him, so of course he did not care whether they gave up.
["I'm leaving."]
["Yeah, this is boring..."]
It was Shawlong again, the talkative Shawlong.
["But... if you're going, then devour us before you leave."]
Grimmjow stopped.
Once part of a Hollow's body was eaten by another Hollow of the same type, its evolution would stop.
That was the curse of Hollows. They were broken souls to begin with, and beneath their great power lay a core so fragile it could not be any frailer.
Shawlong knew that. Di Roy, whose body Grimmjow had already eaten in part, was living proof.
["Di Roy can no longer become one of the Highest-Ranking Menos. We all know that... our evolution ends here."]
Grimmjow started finding them hard to look at. He had always been moving forward, and what he hated most were fools who quit halfway.
["You useless trash..."]
["I told you, I understand now. Whether someone can become a Vasto Lorde was probably decided back when they were still a Common Hollow, maybe even earlier. I understand that now."]
Shawlong spoke with calm certainty.
["From the moment we became Hollows, it was decided that we would only be Intermediate Hollows. You are the one who will keep moving forward. Devour us, Grimmjow."]
Five Mid-Rank Menos knelt beside Grimmjow. The last time, they had acknowledged him as their king. This time, for the sake of that king, they offered up everything they had.
How disgusting...
Grimmjow opened his mouth.
Fine, then.
I'll devour you.
Since you can't move forward with me, then become my flesh and blood and witness my future.
The king's future.
Grimmjow ran across the empty desert of Hueco Mundo, with five great Hollows that had regressed into Gillians trailing behind him.
Trash was still trash.
A lone beast set out on the king's road.
But with the trash gone from behind him, what was a king standing alone supposed to lead?
Until... that man appeared.
Sōsuke Aizen.
Using the power of the Hōgyoku, he awakened reason in a group of worthless fools.
He turned those fools, who had regressed into Gillians, into Arrancar.
The weakest, Di Roy. The taciturn Nakeem. Edrad Liones, always laughing. Shawlong Koufang, always standing behind him with his hands behind his back. And Yylfordt Granz, always putting on airs.
They were no longer the muddled, mindless Gillians of before. Just as they had in the past, they followed behind Grimmjow once more.
The beast walked the king's road.
And behind him came the same worthless fools.
If these guys wanted to follow him, then fine, they could follow.
They were just a pack of useless trash, not even worth destroying.
..
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