Silence reigned Deep within the cold halls of Las Noches.
Baraggan Louisenbairn sat heavily upon his throne, his eyes closed as a low, rumbling snore echoed through the empty dome.
Suddenly, the chaotic, rapid patter of footsteps shattered the tranquility.
One of the Picaro—a member of the hive-mind swarm of Arrancar children—sprinted into the throne room, its voice shrill with anxiety.
"My King! I've detected Neliel's Spiritual Pressure rapidly approaching Las Noches!"
Baraggan lazily cracked open an eye, seemingly annoyed at being woken from his nap.
"Neliel? Is the girl foolish enough to come here alone?" his tone dripped with dismissive arrogance.
"No... no, Your Majesty," the Picaro child stammered, pointing frantically toward the gates.
"Beside her, we sense another Spiritual Pressure no weaker than hers, but the signature is completely unfamiliar to us!"
"Hmph! Just two of them dare to march on my fortress?" A cold, mocking sneer tugged at the corner of Baraggan's mouth.
"A bit too overconfident, I'd say."
At that moment, one of his subbordinates stepped forward from the shadows, her eyes firm and resolute beneath her mask.
"Your Majesty, allow me to go and deal with them," she volunteered herself.
Baraggan waved a heavy, bone-clad hand, signaling her to stand down.
"Forget it. You are no match for Neliel on your best day, let alone with whoever she's brought along as a helper. I will crush this rebellion myself." He stood up, an incredibly suffocating, ancient aura erupting from his body.
With slow, deliberate steps, Baraggan descended from his throne and marched toward the main gates of Las Noches.
His footfalls were steady and booming, each one carrying the immense, undisputed authority of a king.
Behind him, Harribel and a swarm of the Picaro followed in absolute silence.
Stepping out past the colossal white pillars of the palace entrance, Baraggan gazed out over the dunes.
He crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing with contempt as he watched three figures slowly approach through the shimmering desert heat.
"Neliel, you really never learn your lesson, do you? What, did you come crawling back to beg for mercy this time?"
But just as the words left his mouth, Baraggan froze. Something was horribly wrong.
There were two people walking beside Neliel, and by their attire, they were unmistakably Shinigami.
Yet, the man wearing the white Captain's haori emitted zero Spiritual Pressure.
Baraggan's pupils contracted to pinpricks.
'That Shinigami has either used some flawless, unheard-of method to completely mask his Reiatsu... or he is a monster operating on a dimension of power so high that even I cannot sense him.'
The self-proclaimed King of Hueco Mundo knew better than to assume the man was just an ordinary human.
'A powerless human strolling into Hueco Mundo dressed as a Gotei 13 Captain? Impossible! Whoever that man is, he's dangerous.'
"Baraggan, cut the crap!" Neliel roared, drawing her blade. "I'm here to take your head today!"
Beside her, Batsu'unsai drew her Zanpakutō, unleashing a massive, blinding column of Spiritual Pressure that cracked the quartz sand beneath her feet.
Kazuma yawned, stretching his arms above his head.
"You don't need me to step in just yet, go ahead and test his strength, you two."
While Batsu'unsai and Neliel charged toward the King of Hueco Mundo with blinding speed, Kazuma casually pulled a small bag of dried snacks from his robes.
Dropping down onto a nearby rock without a single care for his image, he popped a snack into his mouth and settled in to watch the show.
Sensing the combined, lethal Spiritual Pressure of the two women bearing down on him, Baraggan's lips curled into a vicious snarl.
"You truly think you can defeat me with just the two of you? You must be dreaming!"
Before his words even faded, Baraggan struck.
He raised a hand, and a massive, terrifyingly dense Cero blasted forward, hurtling toward Neliel and Batsu'unsai like a meteor.
Seeing the incoming destruction, the two women perfectly synchronized their movements, separating to dodge the blast.
In the same breath, they raised their hands, their voices echoing across the desert in perfect unison.
"O Lord, Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams but slightly press the claws of justice!"
"Hadō #33: Sōkatsui!"
Two fully-incanted, blinding torrents of blue fire erupted from their palms, crashing directly into Baraggan's defenses.
The explosions rocked the desert, sending plumes of smoke and crushed quartz into the sky.
For a moment, the battlefield was entirely locked in a ferocious, evenly-matched stalemate.
Baraggan quickly lost his patience. Insulted that he was being pushed back by an exile and a Shinigami, he decided to use his true power and end this farce immediately.
He brought his hands together, his Reiatsu turning dark.
The surrounding space began to physically distort and rot as a suffocating pillar of black, aging energy descended from the sky, expanding outward to engulf Neliel and Batsu'unsai.
Sitting comfortably on his rock, Kazuma casually tossed another snack into his mouth.
'Batsu'unsai and Neliel really have fantastic chemistry, casting matching Kidō in perfect sync like that. I wonder how devastating it would be if they combined their attacks into a Twin Sōkatsui?'
His eyes sparkled with genuine curiosity and anticipation, thoroughly enjoying the spectacular light show his wife and friend were putting on.
However, his peaceful snacking was abruptly interrupted by a sharp, grating voice.
"Hey! You, the Shinigami sitting on the rock! Have you had enough of watching the show yet? I'm here to cut you to pieces! Listen up, I am the great Pica—"
Kazuma frowned, thoroughly annoyed, and turned his head.
One of the bratty Picaro children, wearing a strange helmet that looked like headphones, was marching toward him with a drawn Zanpakutō, a sadistic glint in its eyes.
"You're too noisy, and you're interrupting my snack time," Kazuma sighed, slowly standing up.
He let his hand rest casually on the hilt of his sealed blade.
His tone was laced with heavy, exhausted disdain. "I don't care if you're a Picaro or a pest, you're just annoying."
"Die!" the Picaro roared, lunging forward and bringing its blade down toward Kazuma's head.
However, in Kazuma's eyes, the Arrancar's movements were laughably, pitifully slow.
A cold smile ghosted across Kazuma's lips.
He simply tilted his body an inch to the left, letting the blade strike empty air.
In the same fluid, unbroken motion, he drew his Zanpakutō, delivered a devastating horizontal slash, and clicked the blade back into its sheath.
The bratty Picaro froze, its eyes widening in absolute, uncomprehending shock.
It looked down at its own torso, which was now slowly sliding off its waist.
It hadn't even had the time to register the pain before its bisected body collapsed into the sand, dead before it hit the ground.
"You couldn't just let me eat my snacks in peace, could you? You just had to come looking for trouble," Kazuma said coldly, looking down at the dissipating corpse. "Look at you now—dead, and you missed a perfectly good show."
He turned his back on the corpse and sat right back down on his rock.
The rest of the Picaro swarm, who had been lurking nearby to ambush him, froze in absolute terror.
Seeing their sibling effortlessly bisected by a man with no Reiatsu instantly shattered their bloodlust, and they scrambled backward, terrified to take another step.
From the corner of his eye, Baraggan witnessed the effortless, instantaneous execution.
The King of Hueco Mundo felt a genuine chill run down his spine.
Even as Kazuma killed the Arrancar, Baraggan still couldn't sense a single drop of Spiritual Pressure from him.
'Just who the hell is that Shinigami?' Baraggan marveled internally, cold sweat prickling his brow.
The three-way battle against the two women was already dragging into a dangerous stalemate, and with the looming threat of that monstrous Captain sitting on the sidelines, Baraggan's survival instincts kicked in.
He began fighting defensively, backing slowly toward the gates of Las Noches, desperately searching for an opportunity to retreat.
"Neliel, where is your pride as a Hollow?!" Baraggan roared, trying a desperate psychological tactic.
"To think you would stoop so low as to team up with Shinigami against your own kind! Aren't you afraid of being spat upon by every resident of Hueco Mundo?!"
He hoped to provoke Neliel into stepping away from Batsu'unsai, giving him a chance to isolate and crush them one by one.
However, Neliel was completely unmoved.
Her eyes remained locked on him with unwavering, lethal resolve as she continued her relentless assault alongside Batsu'unsai.
Suddenly, Kazuma raised a hand from his rock, speaking loudly enough to echo across the battlefield.
"Uh, excuse me for interrupting, but it's just the two of them fighting you. I haven't laid a single finger on you, Baraggan. That idiot Hollow that just died brought it upon himself for bothering me while I was eating. I'm done now, you three may continue."
Hearing Kazuma's casual dismissal, Baraggan's dead heart skipped a beat.
He had fully expected the terrifying Shinigami to jump into the fray and flank him.
The fact that the man had zero intention of participating left Baraggan puzzled, but overwhelmingly relieved.
After all, if that monster actually drew his blade against him, Baraggan knew he wouldn't survive to see the moon set.
'If that Shinigami insists on just watching, then I can still win this,' Baraggan thought rapidly.
He turned to the surviving swarm.
'Send Cirucci to flank Neliel and this female Shinigami. As long as nobody attacks the man on the rock, we'll be fine. Send the rest of the Picaro to summon Dordoni, Gantenbainne, and Szayelaporro immediately! If we make it a five-on-two fight, the advantage is mine!'
Making his decision, the King of Hueco Mundo barked orders to the trembling Arrancar, determined to crush the rebellion before the man on the rock finished his snacks.
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