READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 19: Retorta chapter 13
Shinji has had his capacity for weird stretched a lot in the past week. Like, a lot . Aizen is dead. Okay, all right, good riddance. Soul Society wants him dead? Probably not even that big of a difference than usual. He's got a Hollow inside him? Okay, that's...gonna take a little adjustment, but it's mostly just him, but kinda wilder, like he used to be, yeah? It's an Arrancar, which is apparently not a myth, and it makes him a lot stronger. He's got a bunch of new Kido under his belt. He's got that part down well enough. Fighting is fighting, no matter what level it's at, once you're past Captain-class.
Soul Society is preparing for war against them. That's not good. Shinji was around for the Quincy extermination, and some of those old fuckers had powers that could not be believed--and they're still all dead, regardless of how strong they all were. He knows Ichigo is strong, stronger than the Soutaicho even, but he's not sure that means anything when it comes to the type of warfare Soul Society tends to engage in.
And now Arrancar are dropping into the heart of Seireitei to challenge Ichigo to a friendly spar , of all things.
Yeah, Shinji is having some trouble wrapping his head around that one.
Ichigo is still talking, something about knowing most of Aizen's Arrancar--the Espada--during the last war, and that they weren't really evil so much as misguided , but Shinji has had about all he can take of that madness, and he finds his attention wandering. It stops on Urahara's face, where the man has his eyes fixed on Ichigo, tugging on that ridiculous forelock like he's trying to hide his eyes without actually covering them.
Shinji isn't really a romantic, he leaves the poetry for Rose and Love and Lisa, but he looks at Kisuke looking at Ichigo and thinks, he has the universe in his eyes, and he doesn't even know it .
Grimmjow tumbles back through the Garganta, throws his head back, and laughs . Laughs until he can't stand anymore, until he's on his knees howling his mirth at the endless night sky. Eventually he calms down and catches his breath and wipes his eyes and sets off to see Barragan. He's not even slightly surprised to see that most of the population of Las Noches is there, waiting more out less anxiously to hear the news. Grimmjow isn't one to disappoint, of course. He turns, facing the audience at large, and announces grandly,
"Aizen is dead!"
A ripple of shock blasts through the crowd, and shrieks arise from several of the more dramatic Hollows. Questions fly immediately, utter chaos ensuing rapidly, at least until Barragan straightens in his throne and roars for silence.
Grimmjow, indulging in the theatrics of the moment, thanks him with a regal nod and turns back towards the gathered Hollows.
"Aizen is dead, as is Tousen. Apparently, one of the captains discovered him and killed him on the spot. Put a blade right through his brain, and strung Tousen up with his own entrails." He grins, savagely. "Guess they weren't as ready for him to be King as they thought, huh?"
Barragan shifts, leaning forward, but Grimmjow isn't anywhere near done.
"And just think. That wasn't even the most exciting thing I learned today."
The audience obligingly gives him the requisite expectant pause.
"There's a guy there, fucker with orange hair and a Hollow mask . He's got a dozen others with him, but I fought him, briefly, and let me tell you, he could pin Starrk without lifting a finger."
He could have heard a pin drop. Behind him, one of Barragan's squadron mutters, Impossible.
Grimm snickers.
"Hey, Ulquiorra, get your rat bastard arse over here!"
It says something to the gravity of the situation that Ulquiorra appears before him without a single word of protest.
"You think you can do that Thing to my eye?"
The monotone gains a hint of exasperation.
" That thing, as you call it, is an advanced remote viewing technique using the nerves of the eye to rewind and play out what it recorded, using your own memories to--"
"Yes, but can you do it or not."
Ulquiorra honest-to-god snarls , which means that Grimmjow wins this one, except then the green-eyed fucker reaches up, faster than he can react, and rips his eyeball out.
He probably should have expected that, actually.
Regardless, while he hunches over and focuses on regenerating that , Ulquiorra is turning towards the crowd, and with more of a sense of showmanship than Grimmjow would have expected from him, crushes the eye he holds and scatters it upwards, spreading the dust into a rather large viewing screen.
The lesser Hollows are clearly awed by the masses of Shinigami and his own speed and skill in tracking, but when he tracks the scent to the cave-hideout, when the group turns toward him with surprise and determination, when the leader waves them off and brings his own reiatsu slamming down--
Everyone sits up and takes notice, because Grimmjow is among their strongest, and nothing's made him stagger like that, not even Starrk. Not even Aizen, who'd had to beat him into the ground a few times in order to get him to fall in; everyone knew that.
He counters with his own reiatsu, and they're off, a sword appearing out of nowhere , and then it's strike for strike, Cero for Cero, kido and hierro and Resurreccion all flowing into a battle that lasts less than a minute. Grimmjow watches right along the rest of them, fascinated with rewatching his own memory. Even when the orange-and-hollow pinned him, he thinks he did a damn good job, holding out against that .
The vision dissipates as his past self climbs into a Garganta, and all heads swivel to pin him directly.
He chuckles.
"I told you."
Harribel, off to the side, scoffs.
"You're a madman. You walked in, saw the group that beat Aizen, and challenged their leader . You're lucky he let you go at all. Shinigami aren't like Hollows."
Grimmjow rolls his shoulders and gives her a cheerful grin.
"Helluva fight though, don't'cha think?"