"Hey, hey! You two haven't been honest!" Two tornadoes spun at Dordoni's sides, growing new bird-beak-shaped bone plates. The bone plates split away from the tornadoes, writhing through the air like two twisted, bird-beaked serpents. "You said you couldn't use Bankai, but both of you were hiding something. I can understand the one who stole something, but what's going on with your Reiatsu?"
Uryū Ishida snapped back, "Who stole anything?!"
"The fact that you're reacting so strongly means you think it counts as stealing too!" Dordoni hit the nail on the head. "You just gave yourself away!"
"I told you, I only borrowed it!" Uryū Ishida's face flushed red. "Borrowed... something that wasn't even being used in the warehouse. How can that count as stealing?"
Dordoni refused to let it go. "Then don't look away! Look me in the eye and say that again!"
"Compared to Shinigami or Quincy, my power is closer to a Hollow's." Yasutora Sado looked down at his left hand, now covered in white armor with red patterns. "My power first awakened because I encountered a Hollow. Later, my fights with the Arrancar gave me a clearer understanding of my own power. I kept trying to master it, but I never made any progress."
"So this is what companions are for..." Dordoni glanced at Uryū Ishida. "You're actually willing to change the subject in such a clumsy way."
Uryū Ishida: "...What do you think companions are?!"
Yasutora Sado's voice was low. "Until today. After coming to Hueco Mundo, when you attacked me, I finally felt a power inside me unlike anything before."
His right hand held his grandfather's soul. Back then, his grandfather had taught him to use his strength to protect others.
That was why the power manifested in his right hand was the power of defense.
And because of that promise to his grandfather, he had unconsciously kept another kind of power suppressed all this time.
That was... the power of attack.
Defense could only keep his companions from being hurt. Attack was what put an end to an enemy's wrongdoing.
Compared to the Soul Society and the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo's environment was far more suited to Hollows.
Under that influence, the power he had suppressed for so long erupted under his enemy's attack, turning into armor that wrapped around his arm.
Its name was...
"Brazo Izquierda del Diablo," Yasutora Sado murmured. "It looks a lot like yours, doesn't it?"
"I get it..." Dordoni snapped his fingers. "You're a Fullbringer!"
"Hm?" Uryū Ishida genuinely did not know about that.
"You're a Quincy, and you don't know what a Fullbringer is?" Dordoni sneered. "When someone inherits Hollow power from a mother who was attacked by a Hollow, the ability that awakens from it is Fullbring. Those who use that power are Fullbringers."
Uryū Ishida pressed him. "Why do you think I should know that?"
"Because you're in the same boat. There used to be quite a few Fullbringers. They even formed their own unique organization, and then... they were wiped out by the Shinigami." Dordoni's tone was playful. "So, a Quincy whose people were exterminated by the Shinigami and a Fullbringer hunted by the Shinigami came to Hueco Mundo to stop the Arrancar opposing the Shinigami? You two really are interesting."
The tornadoes at Dordoni's sides swelled, and the Bird-Beak Wind Serpents flew toward them.
Uryū Ishida swung his Reishi blade and cut through a beak-shaped bone plate. "I told you, I'm not here to help the Shinigami!"
"That's tsundere behavior!" Dordoni shouted. "You can't fool me!"
"Tsundere? Who's tsundere?!" Seeing new beak-shaped bone plates forming inside the tornadoes, Uryū Ishida immediately rushed in to close the distance. "Who are you calling tsundere?!"
"La Muerte!"
Reiatsu burst from between the fingers of Yasutora Sado's left hand and linked together. His fist, wrapped in white armor with blood-red markings, clenched tight and smashed hard into the beak-shaped bone plate.
The bone plate shattered. The wind column behind it was caught up in Yasutora Sado's Reiatsu as well and hurled toward Dordoni.
Dordoni dodged to the side. The violent Reiatsu struck the wall behind him, leaving a fierce skull-shaped imprint in it.
Uryū Ishida used Hirenkyaku and appeared in front of Dordoni.
Dordoni swept his leg out, and a tornado extending from his ankle lashed toward Uryū Ishida.
Uryū Ishida did not dodge. Instead, he swung his blade to meet it head-on.
"You think you can cut wind with that?" Dordoni smiled smugly. "What a foolish, pathetic thing to-Huh?!"
The smile on his face froze. The spinning tornado had actually been cut apart by a single slash from Uryū Ishida.
"The blade of the soul-slicing weapon is formed from Reishi, and the Reishi on its surface moves back and forth at a frequency of three hundred thousand times per second." Reishi flashed beneath Uryū Ishida's feet, and his speed rose another level. "It's perfect for cutting through Reiatsu."
Seeing Uryū Ishida and Yasutora Sado coming at him from the front and rear, Dordoni took a deep breath. "Looks like I can't keep fooling around."
He stomped down hard with both feet. The two tornadoes at his sides extended wildly, releasing ten Bird-Beak Wind Serpents at once. They twisted and tangled in the air, attacking from different angles.
A change in quantity had become a change in quality. The numerous Bird-Beak Wind Serpents filled his entire field of vision.
"Sado!" Uryū Ishida gripped Ginrei Kojaku, which he had dispersed earlier, once more. "I need..."
"Mm!"
Before Uryū Ishida could finish, Yasutora Sado had already stepped in front of him. With one punch, he smashed a beak-shaped bone plate apart, and the flying fragments shattered two more Bird-Beak Wind Serpents.
Yasutora Sado raised his right fist. The shield pattern on his forearm shifted, forming a shape like a tornado.
"El Directo!"
Surging spiritual energy rushed forward, turning into an unrestrained tornado that collided with the Bird-Beak Wind Serpents and knocked them away.
"You're using the power of wind in front of me? Naive!" Dordoni controlled the wind serpents and made them wheel back around. "That attack was nowhere near as strong as the last one!"
"I think it was just right." Uryū Ishida drew his bowstring. The Reishi blade he had been holding was now nocked on Ginrei Kojaku. "Both the angle and the force were perfect."
"That blade...?" Dordoni sensed something wrong.
"It's a blade-shaped weapon," Uryū Ishida corrected. "Quincy... do not use any weapons other than bows and arrows."
So the soul-slicing weapon was not a blade. It was shaped like a blade, but it was...
An arrow.
Uryū Ishida's finger moved slightly, and the soul-slicing weapon left the bowstring, passing straight through the center of the spiritual tornado created by Yasutora Sado's El Directo.
With the path opened by Yasutora Sado's previous strike, Uryū Ishida could ignore the tornadoes controlled by Dordoni and ensure that the arrow he fired struck its target precisely.
Pfft!
The deep-blue Reishi blade pierced through Dordoni's chest. His body stiffened, and the tornadoes on either side of him gradually weakened before disappearing completely along with the Bird-Beak Wind Serpents.
"I didn't come here for the Shinigami. I came here for my friend," Yasutora Sado answered the earlier question. "My friend just happens to be a Shinigami."
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