The chaotic darkness was thrown into turmoil by a violent Reiatsu, and a raging torrent of Reishi rushed straight at them.
"They're here already?" Kenpachi Zaraki raised his Zanpakutō in excitement. "Good!"
"Bakudō #81..." Byakuya Kuchiki's calm voice rang out. "Dankū."
An invisible barrier formed before Kenpachi Zaraki could swing his blade, completely blocking the blinding red light in front of everyone.
Ichigo Kurosaki muttered, "We've been found?"
"Are you questioning my technology?" Mayuri Kurotsuchi's expression darkened. "My shielding device cannot possibly malfunction. If we've been ambushed, there is only one explanation..."
He twisted the golden spiral device near his ear, and a wrinkled worm crawled out. Its eyes had been sewn shut with thread. The worm opened its mouth, and a hole that looked like a nose expanded and contracted. Its twisted face turned toward Ichigo Kurosaki and Yasutora Sado, letting out a short, sharp shriek.
"You two..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi's golden eyes gleamed. "You've had contact with Arrancar, haven't you?"
Yasutora Sado and Ichigo Kurosaki looked at each other.
"We all have," Muten Natsu said. "Is something wrong?"
"The target and method of contact were different, weren't they..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi took out some strange device from who knew where and pressed it with one finger. Light shone over Yasutora Sado and Ichigo Kurosaki, and abnormal markings appeared on different parts of their bodies. "You two have been tampered with. You're providing the Arrancar with your locations, ne."
Mayuri Kurotsuchi looked into the darkness ahead. "Interesting... Hueco Mundo really does know how to surprise me."
Ichigo Kurosaki touched the marked areas on his body. "I didn't notice anything at all... What do we do now?"
"Inside the Garganta, all we can do is defend passively," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said, glancing at Kenpachi Zaraki. "If someone rashly starts cutting at things, it will disturb the Reishi and accelerate the formation of turbulence and whirlpools..."
As he spoke, several more red lights approached from the darkness.
Byakuya Kuchiki had only just raised his hand when an invisible barrier unfolded first.
"Bakudō #81..." Retsu Unohana's clear voice rang out. While maintaining the broad Reishi path beneath everyone's feet, she used chant abandonment to shorten the casting time, at the same time pouring her Reiatsu through a complex method into the already difficult-to-control Eighties-level Kidō, making it take effect as though it had been chanted six times.
Invisible barriers formed a cube, enclosing everyone inside and completely blocking every approaching red light.
Byakuya Kuchiki silently lowered his hand. Even his usually emotionless gaze now showed a trace of surprise.
Isane Kotetsu's eyes, meanwhile, were filled with open admiration.
She was skilled in Kidō herself, so she understood better than anyone how difficult that had been.
With Captain Unohana here, there should be no...
"Brace for impact." Mayuri Kurotsuchi's expression turned grim. "It's coming!"
The interwoven red lights bypassed the barriers formed by Dankū and crashed chaotically around them. The already unstable Reishi turbulence instantly turned violent.
A strange black storm gathered at a speed no one could react to. This was not the power of a Hollow or an Arrancar, but energy drifting through the rift between worlds.
The barriers formed by Dankū collapsed rapidly, and a distorted whirlpool swept in.
Damn it!
Muten Natsu immediately reached out and grabbed Orihime Inoue and Rukia Kuchiki, moving closer to Retsu Unohana.
Retsu Unohana noticed what he was doing and gently shook her head. She raised a hand to push Isane Kotetsu away, then released her Reiatsu to meet the chaotic black storm.
BOOM!
The violent explosion sent everyone flying. Muten Natsu heard something like glass shattering, and then the chaotic darkness dispersed. What came into view was a dense mass of twisted tree trunks, their texture almost like stone, stretching upward into the darkness.
A vein bulged on Muten Natsu's forehead as the Hell's Eye snapped open. His gaze followed Retsu Unohana's Reiatsu across a great distance and locked onto a figure in the white sand.
Retsu Unohana was completely unharmed. Only her hair was slightly disheveled.
She raised a hand and tucked the loose strands behind her ear. As if sensing Muten Natsu's gaze, she turned and gave him a gentle smile, mouthing the words, "Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Muten..." Rukia Kuchiki asked anxiously, "Captain Unohana, is she..."
"I found her." Muten Natsu's suspended heart finally settled. "She's fine."
Rukia Kuchiki let out a long breath.
"This place..." Orihime Inoue looked around. "Where are we?"
"This is the Forest of Menos we were just talking about." Rukia Kuchiki recognized the familiar scene. "It's the Hollows' nest and the place where Menos live, located beneath the white sands of Hueco Mundo."
"Let me check on the others." The turbulence just now had scattered everyone, so Muten Natsu began locating their Reiatsu and checking their conditions.
Kenpachi Zaraki's Reiatsu was the easiest to find. Yachiru Kusajishi was still clinging to his shoulder. The moment Muten Natsu saw them, they seemed to sense something too, and both stared back with the same beastlike gaze.
Yachiru Kusajishi patted Kenpachi Zaraki on the head. Judging by the shape of her mouth, she was probably saying, "Mu-chan."
Isane Kotetsu was not far away. By the time Muten Natsu found her, she had already sensed Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru Kusajishi's location and was moving toward them.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Nemu Kurotsuchi were together, currently adjusting some unidentified instrument.
Byakuya Kuchiki was protecting Hanatarō Yamada, and the two of them were moving in one direction.
Muten Natsu shifted his gaze and saw their destination.
It was a simple yet enormous structure, something like a vast palace complex. Even from a great distance, its sheer size felt almost hopelessly overwhelming.
Rather than a building, it looked more like an entire city had been encased in concrete and shaped into a volcano.
From far away, its surface looked extremely smooth.
Only up close could one see the countless holes packed across it. Openings at least five meters tall looked even smaller than pores on human skin against the surface of that structure.
It stood silently in the white sand, like an enormous tomb.
It seemed there was no need to worry about regrouping. No matter how far away they were, everyone could see that structure, and they would all head toward it.
After a brief exchange, Ichigo Kurosaki and Renji Abarai headed straight in that direction.
Closer to it than they were, Uryū Ishida and Yasutora Sado were currently in a white corridor... running for their lives.
Yasutora Sado followed behind Uryū Ishida in confusion. "Why... are we running?"
"A corridor this long without a single window is clearly underground. If we fight here and the building collapses, we'll be in trouble." Uryū Ishida sensed the flow of Reishi. "We need to find somewhere more open..."